Today's Executive Orders

President Trump signed a number of EO's today. Here's some of the highlights:

- President Trump signs an EO mandating one day voting for citizens with ID's only. Reminder: Some of the countries that requite ID's to vote. 

- An EO to modernize the payment systems at the Treasury. Should have been done 20-25 years ago.

- A pardon for Devon Archer. Look for Archer to tell all soon on a podcast now that he has a pardon in hand that wasn't signed by autopen.

- An EO for the immediate release of the "Crossfire Hurricane" files (Russia Hoax) from the FBI. I hope all the names of elected officials or officials from the FBI or CIA are unredacted. We need to know who was responsible for the hoax.

None of these EO's are for Trump's benefit either - they are for the benefit of the American people.

More Linky Links

More stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Interesting review of two books on spies and the Cold War. This conclusion was worth noting, "both authors agree that cuts to intelligence budgets end up costing more than they save."

- Good reminder from time to time.

- Is this the US putting Britain's commitment to free speech to the test?

- Center for Immigration Studies with an explainer of Trump's immigration/border Executive Orders.

Some Memes You May Enjoy

Many a truth is said in jest.

- The IRS in a nutshell.

- AG Pam Bondi has scheduled the release of the Epstein client list on Friday at noon.

- EO's in a nutshell.

- Funny because its true!

Linky Links

Stuff I found Interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Did a private equity roll-up worsen the LA fires? Wasn't aware of this aspect but agree its time for State AG's to take action.

- A list of Trump's initial Executive Actions. It's 6-pages long right now!

- Noah Smith on reshoring American manufacturing is possible. Think the combination of robots, AI combined with import tariffs trump cheap oversea labor. See what I did there?

- Was unaware of Captain Cromwell. Where do we find such men?

If I Were President for a Day

If I were President for a day I'd sign an Executive Order saying that if any digital asset or identity theft is caused by someone shown to be in a foreign nation then the victim(s) of the crime would be compensated from any Federal Foreign Aid going to that nation with that Aid package reduced accordingly. Once the aid package reaches zero that's when tariffs on any imports from that country would kick in.

Women's Sports

There's a perfect storm brewing for major changes in women's college (and perhaps high school) sports. First you have the pandemic which has literally decimated university budgets and enrollments. Then you had President Biden's ill-advised Executive Order allowing biological males to compete with females. Two independent events like runaway trains heading for an inevitable collision.

First many a truth is said in jest. College coaches are mainly judged on their win-lost records. What's to stop a coach feeling the pressure to "win now" from actively recruiting biological males who identify as women for their teams? Can you imagine what a couple of biological males who can play could do for the record of a women's basketball coach? They say that Serena Williams would have trouble beating the 200th ranked men's tennis player so why wouldn't a college tennis coach get a 200th ranked men's player to identify as female to win a bunch of matches for Whatsamater U?  

Biological females would be the losers since it would be unfair competition and suddenly there would be fewer scholarships available for women who were born with a vagina. But that's a small price to pay for being woke - right? 

But what about that Athletic Director who is feeling the budget crunch? This past July Stanford University, a school with a $27 BILLION endowment, cut 11 of its 36 varsity sports mainly due COVID related budget issues. Don't you think that most other schools aren't also feeling the budget pinch?

A simple solution that could cut the athletic budget in almost half would be to eliminate the distinction between men and women's sports completely. Instead of having a men's basketball team and a women's basketball team - just have a basketball team. All students no matter what gender they were born as or how they self-identify now are open to play. But there's only so many roster spots so...

In an instant budget crisis averted and that Athletic Director can claim to be the "wokest of the woke" since they eliminated any chance of mis-gendering a student athlete. All it would take would be for one desperate AD to take this path and if they were allowed to get away with it others would follow suit. Then you'd see high school athletic directors following the same blueprint. Once again biological female student-athletes would be the big losers.

Seem far-fetched?  If I told you a year ago that one of Joe Biden's first acts as President would be to sign an Executive Order allowing biological males to compete against females in high school and college sports and that he'd feel the issue was so compelling that he'd make sure to do it his first day in office - would you called that far-fetched too?

The WWE and the Executive Order

President Joe Biden's Executive Order allowing biological males to compete against females should be taken to absurd lengths to show how misguided it is. And by absurd lengths - I am of course talking about professional wrestling.

At one time I was a wrestling fan but that was back in the day of Rowdy Roddy Piper, Andre the Giant and a young Hulk Hogan. I have no idea of who the wrestling stars are today but I am aware that women's wrestling has become somewhat of a big thing.

Why wouldn't Vince McMahon use this Executive Order as an almost ready made story-line? You could have a disgruntled, not talented enough, not strong enough wrestler who can't compete with the top tier of male wrestlers and who is simply just a nameless opponent to be beaten by his peers night after night. This not good-enough to compete against other biological males uses the Executive Order to fight against and beat biological females. He could even carry a copy of the Executive Order and shove it in the face of any critic or person who tries to bar his path.

This "gal" could wear a sports bra and make-up and become one of the biggest "heels" in wrestling history. Insert preferred pronoun here would pummel women in the ring while the male and female wrestlers (and audience) seethe. It would make great TV. You could have male wrestlers work as managers for female wrestlers and while the female in the ring distracts the referee - the male manager could choke out this latest reincarnation of Gorgeous George. 

Of course the Social Justice Warriors would have a fit about the whole thing but what exactly would be the problem? This would just be a dramatization of what female high school and college athletes would be facing in real life.

The whole thing could build week after week until it culminates with the biological male getting a shot at the Women's Championship Belt at Wrestlemania! Tell me that wouldn't sell tickets. Vince McMahon make it happen!

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

My big fear regarding the Reddit / GameStop situation is that it just could give China and Russia ideas on how to fuck with us...Just a reminder that the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) said up to 14 million Americans could go without heath insurance if the Individual Mandate was removed from Obamacare. It was removed and the actual number of uninsured Americans was closer to 2.5 million with the majority of that number young people who did not want to pay for health insurance... President Biden to sign Executive Order forcing professional sports leagues to cease using something called the "Disabled List" and instead change to something called the "Differently Abled List"... I have to wonder how many of those 2.5 million uninsured were young people who used the money they would have paid for health insurance plans and instead bought Bitcoin or GameStop stock?... Evidence of society getting lazier: in the 1950's it was called "pornographic movies," in the 70's it was shortened to "porno's" and today simply "porn." In 20 years it will just be "P".... Meaty Appendages would be a good name for fake meat chicken wings (or a gay gym)...   

A Modest Proposal

President Biden signed an Executive Order Wednesday which was supposed to be a protection for the transgendered (as an aside my spell-check doesn't even recognize this as a valid word - someone should cancel Microsoft for this transgression). However, the EO explicitly gives legal protection to biological males who wish to compete in women's sports. As they say, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." And Joe Biden just signed a hell of a paving stone.

Everyone with eyes to see knows that whether it be basketball, track, swimming, tennis, weightlifting, etc. that a biological male has a huge advantage over a biological female. The only sport I can think of where the gap is closing is perhaps marathon running (and maybe dodgeball). 

I think we can all agree that there is no place as "woke" as a college campus. We can also agree that COVID-19 has decimated university finances. Now we add this last straw to the camel's back and I can foresee some desperate (or enterprising) university Athletic Director making this perhaps logical drastic next step.

If gender is just a social construct as some argue, if biological males can now compete with females, and females can play on male sports teams - why have separate men's and women's athletics at all?  Why have male athletes and female athletes when you can just have athletes? Why have the expense of separate teams at a time when school budgets are in crisis? The Athletic Director can simply say, "All are welcome to compete. We don't discriminate. But we do have a limited number of roster spots - so..." 

With a stroke of a pen (just like the signing of an Executive Order) - the Athletic Director can basically slash the sports budget in half while also eliminating most non-revenue sports. Don't get me wrong - I'm not advocating for this and it would be a vastly unpopular move eliminating not just women's sports but also the associated scholarships or financial aid to the women athletes. But because of the COVID-19 related budget crunch there may be one or more Athletic Directors out there who may be backed into a corner and feel this would be the only move possible. Even worse there may be some Athletic Director who thinks this is the right thing to do (either because excessive misogyny or excessive "wokeness"). And if one Athletic Director does it - others may feel free to follow. 

Thanks to President Biden - this may be the future of college sports. 

EDIT: Changed the photo because of broken link. Also wanted to mention that I don't think this issue will be an epidemic but it will be significant enough. That is if it is reported in the "news." 

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

The judge in the Nassar case should be made the new President of Michigan State University and Aly Raisman should be named the new head of USA Gymnastics... Winston Churchill died 50-years ago today. Here are 10 of his best quotes... I self-identify as a sober man stuck in the body of a hungover man (though this doesn't seem to matter to my headache)... Interesting language tidbit... It is possible that when parents started to tell their children not to be "fresh" (i.e. talking back) is when America started having an obesity problem (that and processed sugary food stuffs). Do you want some fresh fruits or vegetables? No - my parents told me not to be fresh... If I were the President I would sign an Executive Order saying that USA Gymnastics could no longer use the letters "USA" until every single person who had supervisory control over Dr. Nassar is fired or resigned in disgrace.