Quick Takes from the Past 24-48 Hours

The following is an installment of Trump-Vance team accomplishments (each article is linked for further info):

1. SecDef Hegseth Calls for Dumping 20% Four Star Generals

The United States military, like every institution, has become top heavy with useless people. We have a lot of Chiefs, not as many Indians, and the Chiefs do not do very much except push their agendas and plan their future careers as defense industry lobbyists or consultants for foreign companies

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is doing something about it.

The memo, titled General/Flag Officer Reductions, called for an overall reduction of 20 percent of four-star flag and general officers in the active force and 10 percent in the flag and general officer corps, reads the memo. Additionally, the memo calls for a 20 percent reduction of general officers in the Army and Air National Guard.

More generals and admirals does not equal more success. Now this is not a slash and burn exercise meant to punish high-ranking officers,” Hegseth said in a video posted on X. “This has been a deliberative process, working with the Joint Chiefs of Staff with one goal, maximizing strategic readiness and operational effectiveness by making prudent reductions in the general and flag officer ranks.

In the video message, Hegseth outlined two phases of the effort that he called “less generals, more G.I.s.” The first is a look at the current structure of the military services and the second is an evaluation of the Unified Command Plan.

Phase two will produce a minimum of an additional 10 percent reduction of overall general and flag officers throughout the DoD in conjunction with a realignment of the Unified Command Plan.

Expect a judge to step in however and declare that she knows better than the Secretary of Defense and that changes to the number of four star generals violates the Administrative Procedures Act.

2. Trump Asks Moslem Leaders ‘Do You Want to Die?’ and ‘What About the 38 Virgins?’

For the umpteenth time, President Trump has said something “bizarre” which, upon closer examination, turns out to be entirely reasonable, and actually profound.

The National Day of Prayer was covered by the propaganda media as if they were writing a paper for anthropology class. Trump spoke about an earlier meeting with moslem leaders in Michigan who supported him during the 2024 presidential campaign: “I love them. They were great. They said, ‘We don’t want to die.’ I said, ‘You want to die?’ They said, ‘We don’t want to die.’ I said, ‘What about the 38 virgins?’ They said, ‘That’s nonsense.’

The Times of India stated: The line triggered predictable mockery online. ‘It’s 72 virgins, not 38,’ one X user deadpanned. ‘Trump’s math works in mysterious ways.’ Another joked that the number downgrade was the latest example of the president’s famed deal-making abilities—‘negotiating paradise down by 47%.’

Overlooked amid all the banter and media chatter about the strangeness of the event was any consideration of what Trump actually said. Trump’s remarks were not “bizarre” at all. He is too smart for bizarre.

When he asked the imams in Michigan if they wanted to die, he certainly had in mind the Islamic jihadists’ oft-repeated desire for death: “Oh Zionists, we love death for the sake of Allah, just as much as you love life for the sake of Satan.” Or aimed at the United States: “The Americans love Pepsi-Cola, we love death.” And when jihad mass murderer Mohamed Merah said he “loved death more than they loved life.” Or the late Nigerian jihadist Abubakar Shekau who said: “I’m even longing for death, you vagabond.”

And as for the virgins, he likely had in mind the Qur’an’s promise of paradise to those who “kill and are killed” for Allah (9:111). Whether purposely or no, he got the number wrong, but his intention was to determine whether the moslems with whom he was speaking were moderates or jihadis.

3. Trump Goes After the Corrupt Communist/Globalist Money Machine

The Left has been Hoovering up money from anywhere, no matter how shady, and the Trump administration is now investigating where they get their money, and it has them very, very nervous.

A Politico story on the subject opened:

Democrats on Thursday were bracing for a sustained attack on their fundraising operation by Republicans, as President Donald Trump targets ActBlue.

Ignorance is cash! Money from overseas flowed into ActBlue for a long time because Leftists did not care about the source(s).

The idea of untraceable, likely corrupt campaign cash is nothing new to the Left. In 2008, Barack Obama’s campaign was happily accepting donations from untraceable Visa gift cards, the kind hanging around the checkout at your local grocery store. Anyone can buy a Visa gift card, with money from anywhere. It is untraceable. And the only reason to donate this way is to obscure corruption.

There are limits to how much anyone can give to a politician or party, but if you find yourself having maxed out those limits and still want to give more, just buy a pile of Visa gift cards and you’re in business. This can be done from anywhere in the world, by anyone in the world willing to pony up the cash.

And there is no way to check it.

But this was exposed in the media. The Washington Post reported in October of 2008:

Faced with a huge influx of donations over the Internet, the campaign has also chosen not to use basic security measures to prevent potentially illegal or anonymous contributions from flowing into its accounts, aides acknowledged.

They did not care, there was too much money in it for them to worry about the sources.

In January of 2013, the 2008 Obama campaign was fined $375,000 for this corruption. Who cared? They had won already.

And the 2012 Obama campaign had them doing a slightly refined version of the same thin. Stick with what works.

The Obama campaign, which kept the money for themselves, has been replaced by ActBlue, but the impact is the same. “Donors” give untraceable money and use real people’s names and addresses to do it. But those people did not give anything, they do not have the money to give anything.

We the People will hear a lot of complaining from the Left about this investigation, but what we will not hear is any evidence to the contrary to the allegations of their corruption. Disproving the truth is damn-near impossible.

4. Newt Gingrich Calls on Trump to ‘Eliminate’ Activist Judges to End ‘Dictatorship’

On Sunday’s broadcast of Fox News’s Life, Liberty & Levin, Republican former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called on President Trump and GOP lawmakers to “eliminate a number of district courts” to end the “dictatorship by judge.”

Gingrich suggested Trump revisit former President Thomas Jefferson’s efforts to “eliminate” courts by repealing the Judiciary Act of 1801.

Gingrich stated:

[Y]ou have a whole generation growing up, which saw the government lie to it about Covid, and saw the government lie to it about Russia, Russia, Russia; saw the FBI being corrupted, and saw the lies about Afghanistan, etc.

Further:

So, over in a poll we do at America’s New Majority Project, over 80% of the American people believe the government is corrupt.

And:

And of course, if you’re on the side that’s been making money by being corrupt, you’re not happy.

So a lot of the people that are so-called observers, in fact, are opponents.

Their goal is to defeat Trump.

Gingrich added:

The district judges may be the worst, because I think there is no constitutional basis for a district court judge to think that they can become an alternative president, and a lot of these decisions are absurd.

Further:

And the Founding Fathers, you know, Jefferson, eliminated 14 judgeships.

He didn’t impeach him.

He just eliminated the judgeships, and they went home.