Editor's note: This column was submitted for editing before the news broke that the Senate voted to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security. You can read about that here.
Welcome to Friday, March 27, 2026, and TGIF. I'm glad you're here.
I caught wind last night that UP 4014, the largest operating steam engine in the world, is supposed to be running right by me here soon. There's been months of chatter that it was supposed to be running the East Coast on a promotional tour, but until yesterday, I wasn't aware it would be running on a track that's only about 15 miles from me here. Here's a look at 4014 in action:
For a life-long rail fan like me, this is a huge deal, pardon the pun. As this is written, 4014 is in its home base of Cheyenne, Wyo. You can track its progress here. They plan to have display days in:
- Omaha, Neb,
- Chicago
- Buffalo, N.Y.
- Scranton, Penn.
- Philadelphia
I'll keep you posted as the schedule firms up.
196 BC: The Rosetta Stone and others like it are inscribed with the Decree of Memphis proclaiming the rule of the King of Ptolemaic Egypt, Ptolemy V.
1513: Spaniard Juan Ponce de León and his expedition first sighted Florida.
1625: Charles I, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland ascends the English throne.
1790: The modern shoelace with an aglet patented in England by Harvey Kennedy.
1794: Naval Act of 1794 is signed by President George Washington, authorizing the building of six frigates and establishing a permanent U.S. Navy.
1855: Canadian geologist Abraham Gesner patents kerosene.
1860: Wine lovers rejoice: M. L. Byrn patents a "covered gimlet screw with a 'T' handle," more popularly known as a corkscrew.
1884: First long-distance telephone call, Boston to New York.
1912: First Lady Helen Herron Taft and the Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese Ambassador, plant two Yoshino cherry trees on the bank of the Tidal Basin, Washington, D.C.
1948: Just 11 days after being released from prison, jazz singer Billie Holiday plays in front of a sold-out crowd at Carnegie Hall.
1952: Sun Records of Memphis begins releasing records.
1958: CBS Labs announces new stereophonic records.
1980: Mount St. Helens becomes active after 123 years.
1990: U.S. begins broadcasting TV Martí to Cuba in an effort to bridge the information blackout imposed by the Castro regime.
Birthdays today include: Henry Royce, British industrialist and automobile founder (Rolls-Royce); Cyrus Vance, American lawyer and Cabinet secretary; Anne Ramsey, American actress; NASCAR's Cale Yarborough; Tony Banks, keyboardist for Genesis; Quentin Tarantino; and Mariah Carey.
Is today your birthday too? Have a happy one.
* * *
If you spend any amount of time on social media, you’ve likely seen something like this in passing. This is called “Democrats’ gaslighting,” and I’m calling them on it.
Democrats introduced bills to end the TSA shutdown on:
— Democrats (@TheDemocrats) March 26, 2026
March 5
March 11
March 12
March 18
March 19 (x2)
March 21
March 23
March 25
Republicans blocked TSA funding. Every. Single. Time.
The truth is this, America: The Democrats are lying to your face.
Republicans passed clean full DHS funding, not once but twice. Dems blocked it. Not once, but twice.
Now they cry, “Republicans blocked TSA!”
And yes, Democrats introduced seven bills to “fund TSA.” The thing is that each one was laced with "defund ICE" riders and border sabotage requirements. They know that's not going to happen, and here's why: Remember the "Big Beautiful Bill"? That package contained funding for ICE until 2029. So they knew even last month, when they started with this temper tantrum, that they had no leverage. Now, you do as well.
The fact is that this entire standoff, indeed, the entire point of yet another Schumer Shutdown, is that the Democrats would rather see American citizens suffer than give up illegal aliens and the votes they bring to Democrats. They have been showing us their true colors for some time now, and in this particular instance, for over a month now. Somehow, they've come to the conclusion that they can get away with blaming the GOP for this mess.
The constant and vehement denials notwithstanding, Democrats know that illegals are voting. They know that illegals will vote for them. Indeed, in the majority, they also know that they’re the only way Democrats will win elections. That's why they're grabbing onto protecting illegals like a drowning man to anything that looks like it'll float. This is, and always has been, about the very survival of the Democrat party, this shutdown being merely the latest example.
For the same reason, Democrats are also desperate to keep the SAVE Act, which requires proof of citizenship for voting, from passing, and they are equally desperate to keep ICE from doing their job, which is enforcing immigration laws that these same Democrats helped to write and pass into law. Democrats know the vast majority of Americans want the SAVE Act passed, even including many voters who ostensibly vote Democrat, and also support ICE deporting illegals, but Democrats know the game is over if the SAVE Act is passed into law and illegals are deported. The numbers simply are not there for them to win elections any other way.
One example of this desire by Democrats to protect illegals, one of far too many to list here, is one 18-year-old Sheridan Gorman, who tragically, will never reach 19. She was an 18 year old Freshman at Loyola University in Chicago. Jose Medina-Medina, a Venezuelan illegal immigrant who has a rather extensive criminal record in Chicago, allegedly killed her. According to the police there, Medina-Medina allegedly approached Gorman and her friends and shot her in the head. This is a story, a tragedy, that we’ve been exposed to all too often of late.
How do Democrats react? Well, initially, they didn't. Silencio.
It took days for Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (a real heavyweight in Democrat circles) to even acknowledge the young woman’s death. When he finally did, his angle was all too typical: He blamed Donald Trump, saying that Trump broke his promise to go after, as Pritzker put it, “The worst of the worst.”
But here's what they're not telling you. That long criminal record? Any one of the offenses on it would have resulted in Medina’s deportation, absent what they called in Illinois, the “Trust Act,” which is the bit of legal nonsense that makes Illinois a "sanctuary state" and prevents local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration officials. Absent that misbegotten law, Gorman would be alive today. In this case, as with so many others (there is no kind way to put this), the Democrats have blood on their hands.
The response from the victim's parents to Pritzker’s belated and lame response is noteworthy:
We acknowledge Governor Pritzker’s recent comments regarding Sheridan’s murder and his statement that there were “real failures.” We appreciate that he has now, five days after our daughter, Sheridan’s murder that he has finally spoken publicly about Sheridan.
But Sheridan’s death cannot be reduced to a general “tragedy,” nor can it be explained away by broad references to failures somewhere else. Sheridan was a daughter, a sister, and a young woman whose life was taken in a way that should never have been possible.
This was not abstract. It was preventable.
We are not interested in political arguments or in watching responsibility shift from one place to another. If there were failures—as the Governor himself has acknowledged—then every one of them must be identified, examined, and addressed directly. The location of those failures matters less than the willingness to confront them honestly.
Our daughter is not a policy debate. She is a life that was taken, and that demands accountability.
The accountability lies directly in the lap of the people pushing "sanctuary" domains. Immigration laws exist for a reason, and now, sadly, Gorman is one more reason added to the list. This is what Democrats are defending? They have apparently learned nothing at all from the LAST Schumer shutdown, which lasted, I think, some 43 days, the longest on record, as far as I can recall.
Democrats didn’t get what they wanted then, either, which was continued subsidies, ostensibly for Obamacare. They knew full well, as did the voters, that the money wasn’t going for healthcare, but was instead feeding the illegal immigration driven fraud that was exposed during that time and continues to be so today. (All eyes are on California at the moment. Thank you, Nick Shirley!) The whole mess didn’t work to their advantage. The Democrats took it on the chin, if you trust the CBS-YouGov polling taken at the time, where over 60% of respondents blamed the Democrats for the mess.
What makes the Democrats believe that this time is going to work any differently, I have no idea, because voter sentiments are decidedly not in their favor, this time, either. The four-hour airport lines being created by all of this are killing the Democrats as a party.
Observe: A Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll found that 71% support the SAVE America Act overall — including 69% of independents and half of rank-and-file Democrats. The same poll found that 81% favor requiring voter ID, 80% want states to purge non-citizens from voter rolls, and 75% support proof of citizenship to vote. According to Newsweek, Pew Research found 83% of Americans support requiring government-issued IDs to vote, and a YouGov poll found 59% support requiring proof of citizenship to register, with 29% opposed. Gallup says pretty much the same, with 84% supporting voter ID, and 85% of Americans agreeing that only U.S. citizens should vote.
The logical conclusion to draw is that, as the headline in The Federalist said last February, Democrats Want To Stop Illegal Alien Deportations By Shutting Down DHS. It’s That Simple.
The question now is: Will the people react in sufficient numbers to overturn this nonsense in the midterms?
Thought for the day: “It's Friday. Do you know where your margarita is?” ―Amy Neftzger
Take care. I'll see you here tomorrow.
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