Mike Eddings

Getting oil from the ground is more complex than we realize!

You know what? I truly believe with all my heart that America has the coolest flag on Planet Earth. Don't you? 🇺🇸 #HappyBirthdayAmerica 🇺🇸

NEW: Arnold Schwarzenegger goes off script on The View—tells migrants to stop committing crimes and “respect America.” RARE W for Schwarzenegger. The ultra-liberal panel on The View was left distressed after Arnold was asked about the violent LA riots. That’s when he dropped the hammer: “The key thing at the same time, we got to do things legal. That is the most important thing.” “You got to do things legal, and those people that are doing illegal things in America and they’re the foreigners, they are not smart, because, when you come to America, you’re a guest and you have to behave like a guest.” “Like when I go to someone’s house and I’m a guest, then I will do everything I can to keep things clean and to make my bed and to do everything that is the right thing to do rather than committing a crime of being abusive or something like that, so that doesn’t really work in this country.” Sunny Hostin panicked as she was herd interjecting, before literally placing her hand on Arnold to cut him off. But he kept preaching: “So I think the important thing is when you become an immigrant, you think about, okay, I go to America because I’m going to use America for the great opportunities America has in education, in jobs, creating a family, all of those kind of things.” “Then you have to think about, okay, if I get all of those things from America, then I have to give something back.” “You have a responsibility as an immigrant to give back to America and to pay back to America and go and do something for your community for no money whatsoever.” “Give something back to after school programs, Special Olympics, or whatever it is, make this country a better place.” [Audience erupts into applause] The hosts were stunned. And for once, Schwarzenegger got it exactly right.

the ottomans banned coffee because it made people too hard to control ben franklin drank 30+ cups a day and helped ignite a revolution before the 1600s, europeans had beer for breakfast...then coffee arrived and sparked the enlightenment & greatest rise in wealth the world has ever seen voltaire drank 50 cups daily and called it “the elixir of mental agility” we owe everything to coffee

Please -- oh, please -- read this review of Saint Thomas and the Forbidden Birds in the latest issue of Presence Journal. jamesmatthewwilson.com/latest-news/re…

This is mind blowing: 800 years ago, this man introduced a sequence that appears — from flowers to galaxies and even in human DNA. Once you see it, you can't unsee it. Here's how universe's secret pattern reveals itself: 🧵

May we be humble enough to listen to the Jonah to our Nineveh.

Everyone is for the Rule of Law. Except, apparently, when the Democrats are in power. Then, Presidential Executive Orders, sanctuary cities, lawless downtown cities, corporate H1B abuse, and an open southern border are A-Okay. What I just said might be viewed as either a political opinion or for many simply as a statement of facts. As an individual citizen, I am entitled to say it either way. It's an exercise of the 1st Amendment and I need no permission to do so. But when the leaders of a voluntary association of attorneys wish to make a political statement disguised as statement of fact: “ We support the Rule of Law and Separation of Powers” it should ask its members before doing so. It's actually probably not appropriate to be acting politically, if that's not part of the stated mission when members are signing up. This is especially true when it failed to level similar criticism at previous presidents - including when the last one, President Biden, openly defied the U.S. Supreme Court on the issue of student loans. Silence was the response when Senator Chuck Schumer threatened Supreme Court Justices in front of the Supreme Court building. And there was silence when a would-be killer tried to find Justice Kavanaugh at his home. What institution comprised of thousands of attorney members spoke up publicly at that time to declare the Rule of Law had been trespassed upon, on behalf of its members? Leaders ought to act without prejudice. This article in today's Crain’s Chicago Business discusses what the leaders of a number of well-known attorney associations did when they got together to publicly criticize President Trump. They called his actions unconstitutional, without bothering to wait until the only institution in the country authorized by the U.S. Constitution to make that judgement had actually made such a determination - the Supreme Court. While not mentioning President Trump's name, its obvious from the timing that its TDS all the way down. Numerous attorneys have thanked me for voicing my concerns, which they likewise share. My comments made in the private ISBA listserve were not meant for publication. Yet, here they are. I think it’s fair for citizens to voice their concerns and opinions if they don’t like what President Trump is doing, or Elon Musks role in DOGE. But actions of elected leaders lately have been highly inappropriate, and demonstrated not grace but a lack of civility. Leaders like the ones in Congress that acted shamefully this week during Trump's Presidential Address before a joint session of Congress, as well as in the private attorney organizations mentioned in this article Lady Justice wears a blindfold because opinions on the law should be made without regard to identity of the person being judged. And this should be the case, too, when deciding to declare that a Presidential action is constitutional or not.

I'm concerned that many people do not understand the historical and institutional context in which the DOGE labor reforms are unfolding. They look at this as if these are some random, chaotic, arbitrary, strange, and even cruel measures to impose on a devoted civil service. The reality is very different, and I'm not even sure that Elon entirely understands this. For more than a century, even dating back to 1883, the civil service has grown and grown without check from the elected branch, either the presidency or the legislature . The bureaucracies have ballooned from a few to 450 or so. The bloat and absurdities have grown too. Get this: no one has ever known what to do about it. Not Coolidge, not Hoover, not Nixon, not Reagan, not Clinton, no one. No president has been able to crack this nut. The only reforms ever to have made it through are those that make the administrative state bigger, never smaller. Countless cabinet secretaries have come and gone, always with the intention of making a change but leaving saddened, demoralized, outwitted, outgunned, and ultimately devoured. No president has seriously taken on this problem because they simply did not know how. The unions are powerful, the intimidation from the deep institutional knowledge is overwhelming, the fear of the media as been powerful, and every single president comes to power vaguely feeling threatened by the intelligence agencies. The industries that have captured every single agency were also far too powerful to unseat or control. This combination of institutional inertia has blocked serious reform for a full century. No one has dared. No one has even had a theory or strategy about what to do about this problem. It had become so terrible that most people in politics have simply surrendered, like homeowners who know there are rats in the basement and bats in the attic but long ago gave up trying to fix the issue. All this time, the American people have felt themselves ever more oppressed, weighed upon, taxed and regulated, spied upon, brow beaten, and otherwise overwhelmed. Voting never made any difference because the politicians no longer controlled the system. The bureaucracies ruled all. The Biden years underscored the point. We didn't even need a conscious and present executive. We only needed a figurehead to pretend to be president, just like the Soviet premiers in the old days. The institutions ran everything and the people controlled nothing. How to deal with this? Trump alone figured it out in his last term: he simply took charge of the agencies in a limited way. There were screams of horror and plots galore. They performed a long stream of clever schemes to destroy him and show him who is boss, which is not the democratically elected president but the forces behind the scenes. The job of the president, goes the message from all the insiders, is to PRETEND to be in charge but not actually do anything meaningful. Shut up, mug up, obey, and disturb nothing, let the administrative state do its thing without oversight or disruption, and then you will get your honorary library and bestselling autobiography and go down in history as great. Trump refused the deal and look what happened. Four years have gone by and Trump is back again, this time with a determination to slay this beast, one that he knows all-to-well. The efforts of DOGE and MAHA and MAGA are epic in scope, breaking a century of pathetic acquiescence toward the deep, middle, and shallow states, at last using moral courage to confront the problem head on, come what may. They are profoundly aware that they MUST act fast and with some degree of ferocity, even recklessness, else we will default back to the status quo of leaders who pretend to be in charge while the embedded system runs things behind the scenes. It has been this way for TOO LONG. The voters this time have demanded change, and mustered the faith to believe that change is possible. This is precisely what DOGE is attempting, to make good on a promise, a promise that for once the voters actually believed was credible. They simply must succeed. There might never be another chance. The way of failure is the path everyone knows the US was on, toward economic stagnation, political scolerosis, and eventual irrelevance in the unfolding of the next stage of social evolution.

@Babygravy9 Hot Take

I think we can all agree, the 2020 election being stolen was a blessing in disguise.

@Jimmywonton2 Faith, Hope, Charity

Sean is a good man for doing this

@MelGibsonQ @SheilaG2024 Yes

Dr. King once said, "Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve." True greatness lies in lifting others, making a difference, and serving with purpose. Let’s honor his legacy by finding ways to serve and create a better world together. #MLKDay

Jayden Daniels made VR training a condition for any team drafting him. Now he's NFL Rookie of the Year and 1 game away from the Super Bowl. His edge? Training his brain at 1.75x speed. The story of the first QB 2.0:🧵

@CaliRefugee2017 @elonmusk Heartbreaking

@elonmusk My friend lost her home on that street. 😢

A friend in LA just took this video

Wise words from a true genius

Incredibly well said

Night routines work better than morning routines: 1. Review your day 2. Prepare the work for tomorrow 3. Go to bed on time

This has to be one of the greatest film scores.