One of President Trump’s earliest outrages was renaming things from mountains to army bases. Maybe the un-re-naming of them is a better way to say it. The virtue-signalers that preceded this administration (following in the footsteps of a previous “previous” administration) burnished its paper-thin resume by renaming things like Mt McKinley. That 2015 change turned a historic landmark into Denali, which Trump changed back.
Mr. Trump also declared that the Gulf of Mexico will henceforth be referred to in all official instances as the Gulf of America. This wasn’t an aside or a poke in the eye; he did it. And then he declared Feb 9, Gulf of America Day.
Today, I am making my first visit to the Gulf of America since its renaming. As my Administration restores American pride in the history of American greatness, it is fitting and appropriate for our great Nation to come together and commemorate this momentous occasion and the renaming of the Gulf of America.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim February 9, 2025, as Gulf of America Day. I call upon public officials and all the people of the United States to observe this day with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.
I read the press piece a day too late, and here I am two days after that, but I was looking for something different to explore, so here it is. All hail the Gulf of America, other countries can call it what they like, but even Google has renamed it.
In a separate statement, adding further outrage to those with thin skin, the Presdient banned paper straws in the federal government. In an Executive Order titled “Ending the procurement and forced use of paper straws,” the commander and chief observed that,
An irrational campaign against plastic straws has resulted in major cities, States, and businesses banning the use or automatic inclusion of plastic straws with beverages. Plastic straws are often replaced by paper straws, which are nonfunctional, use chemicals that may carry risks to human health, are more expensive to produce than plastic straws, and often force users to use multiple straws. Additionally, paper straws sometimes come individually wrapped in plastic, undermining the environmental argument for their use. t is therefore the policy of the United States to end the use of paper straws.
If you dine in Portsmouth, NH, for example, you can expect to get a paper straw individually wrapped in plastic. To their credit, all the ones I used lasted long enough to get the job done. Still, even Green activists know their manufacture has a higher carbon footprint because it takes more material and energy to make one, even before you sheath it in plastic to keep it “sanitary.” Its waste stream profile isn’t that friendly either, but they excuse these contradictions by insisting that plastic is still worse.
Not true (some paper straws have PFAS in them – gasp!), but if you’ve bought into all the other lies (like plastic recycling, solar, EVs, or Wind), it can be difficult to let any of them go, especially when the virtue signal is a foundation of the self you want others to see.
I see idiots who offshore billions of tons of carbon emissions and land, air, and water pollution so they can claim to be saving the planet. Duped zombies are making me pay more for everything when the bulk of any problem – if you think there is one – is in Africa, India, and Southeast Asia. Paper straws are just a sliver of the idiocy but one to which you are entitled. You are not, however, entitled to spend my money on your fantasy.
The paper straw ban is as much symbolic as an act of economy. Plastic straws wrapped in paper cost a lot less and are more durable, and you can reuse them if that’s how you roll, and, as with thin-film plastic bags even one reuse significantly improves its profile over the non-plastic alternatives.
Finally, Mr. Trump announced he would shutter unnecessary executive agencies like the Federal Executive Institute. The what? That’s what I said. Lyndon B. Johnson created it all those years ago to provide leadership training to bureaucrats. We’ve all seen how well that worked out.
In particular, the Federal Executive Institute, which was created by the Administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson more than 50 years ago, is a Government program purportedly designed to provide leadership training to bureaucrats. But bureaucratic leadership over the past half-century has led to Federal policies that enlarge and entrench the Washington, D.C., managerial class, a development that has not benefited the American family. The Federal Executive Institute should therefore be eliminated to refocus Government on serving taxpayers, competence, and dedication to our Constitution, rather than serving the Federal bureaucracy.
…
All prior Presidential or other executive branch documents establishing or requiring the existence of the Federal Executive Institute, including the Presidential Memorandum of May 9, 1968, regarding the Federal Executive Institute, and any applicable provisions of Executive Order 11348 of April 20, 1967 (Providing for the Further Training of Government Employees), are hereby revoked.
The president undid another presidential creation to save American taxpayers money.
I can’t imagine who is going to step up and bitch about that. Still, as we’ve seen since the discorporation of USAID from 14000 employees to 246 – and the freeing up of an entire building we no longer have to heat, cool, or otherwise operate and maintain, certain factions inside the Beltway will say or do anything to protect the waste, fraud, and abuse.
And now they’ll have to bring their own paper straws.
