Day: May 8, 2025

Today Is VE Day

Victory In Europe Day.

The president has decreed that today, 8 May, will be deemed “Victory Day For World War II….we can celebrate but there will be no recognition as a federal holiday…..so free money on your payroll.

He didn’t leave much time for planning, but President Trump has issued a proclamation designating Thursday as a day for the US to celebrate victory in World War II as countries in Europe already do. Cities from London to Moscow are holding parades, flyovers, and memorials this week as the world observes Thursday’s 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, when Nazi Germany surrendered to Allied forces including the US. Trump had complained in recent social media posts that the US doesn’t spend enough time celebrating its military victories like the rest of the world does. He said he was renaming May 8 as Victory Day for World War II and Nov. 11 as Victory Day for World War I, the AP reports.

“We did more than any other Country, by far, in producing a victorious result on World War II,” he posted last week, adding: “We won both Wars, nobody was close to us in terms of strength, bravery, or military brilliance, but we never celebrate anything—That’s because we don’t have leaders anymore, that know how to do so!” World War I ended on Nov. 11, 1918, with an armistice between Germany and the Allies, though fighting continued elsewhere. Nov. 11 is the Veterans Day federal holiday in the US, and only Congress has the authority to create or rename holidays. Trump backtracked this week, saying he’d declare national holidays instead, and press secretary Karoline Leavitt clarified that Nov. 11 will still be Veterans Day with an added element. The war against Japan went on past V-E Day.

The proclamation Trump signed Wednesday says: “As we commemorate Victory Day for World War II, we offer our unending thanks to every patriot from the Greatest Generation who left behind his home and family to fight for our freedom in distant lands. We honor the memories of all those who perished. Above all, we renew our commitment to keeping America and the entire world safe, secure, prosperous, and free.” He said the country would not be shutting down for the new holidays, per the Hill, because “we already have too many Holidays in America—There are not enough days left in the year.”

I do not have a problem with this recognition….I do have a problem with stating that the USA did more than any other country to win that war.

Try to remember that the US was well compensated for our participation….I think millions of Englishmen, Poles, French, etc would disagree that we did more….yes we contributed but only after Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941, and the war had been raging across Europe and Asia for 2 years or more.

So yes recognize even celebrate the end of WW2….but do not pretend that the US was the sole reason for the Nazi defeat.

Whatcha thinking?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

India/Pakistan: Why Now?

This is not a recent animosity they have been at each other’s throats since 1947/8.

But the question has been why the escalation now?

India and Pakistan have so far managed “to avoid a descent into full-blown conflict,” but the nuclear-armed countries who both lay claim to the region of Kashmir were tip-toeing around it Wednesday, per the Wall Street Journal, following what Pakistan’s president said was “an act of war.” The latest:

  • Operation Sindoor: India on Wednesday said it had carried out “non-escalatory” retaliatory strikes on nine “terrorist infrastructure” sites, including training camps, in Pakistan and the Pakistan-controlled area of Kashmir. The country said it chose to act based on intelligence that additional attacks, like the one that killed 26 people in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir last month, were on the horizon.
  • Killing the killers? India claims Pakistan was behind the April 22 attack, which Islamabad denies. “We killed only those who killed our innocents,” said India’s defense minister, Rajnath Singh, per the Guardian. “We have shown sensitivity by ensuring that no civilian population was affected in the slightest,” he added, per Reuters.
  • Pakistan counters: The country’s National Security Committee described the terrorist camps as “imaginary,” while claiming deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure, including mosques, per the Guardian. Reuters notes a mosque-seminary in the heart of Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir, was “badly damaged.”
  • ‘Act of war’: The office of Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said it was an unprovoked and unlawful “act of war” and that Pakistan’s army had been authorized to undertake “corresponding actions,” per the Guardian. The message from India was that “if Pakistan responds, India will respond,” the outlet notes. But “we are prepared for an all-out war,” Pakistan’s defense minister, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, tells CNN.
  • Trump comments: The escalation came after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called for the two sides to ease tensions in phone calls with Sharif and India’s foreign minister last week, per the Journal. It’s “a shame,” President Trump said Wednesday of the fighting, adding he hoped it would end “very very quickly.”
  • The significance of the name: The New York Times explains that sindoor, or vermilion powder, is used to designate the marital status of Hindu women: “Married women wear it either in the parting of their hair or on their foreheads, and they wipe it off if they become widowed.” The operation’s name is therefore a nod to the women who lost their husbands in the April 22 attack.

Tensions are high and since both countries have nuclear capabilities this could become dangerous for the nations in the surrounding area.

These are the capabilities of each country….https://www.aa.com.tr/en/info/infographic/45910

If we had a reliable diplomatic corps now would be the time for some intervention on the diplomacy front….but since we do not looks like there will be no attempts to curb the violence by the US.

I will be watching and writing….like I always do…..

Stay tuned….more to come….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

This Is Trumpism

For well over a decade there has been a wealth of articles and studies trying to explain Trump and all his biases and hatred…..I have posted most of them for I would like to make sense of this modern day phenom.

Right on cue there is yet another ‘explanation’….

It’s high time commentators stopped trying to shoehorn the American polity into a paradigm that doesn’t fit. Donald Trump’s brand of government is as new and unique as it is volatile and disturbing. Sometimes, history neither repeats nor rhymes. Sometimes, a whole new species bursts onto the scene.

What we’re seeing today with Trump isn’t dictatorship. Dictators control their countries. They don’t rely on the opposition party to pass budgets; they dictate where money is spent. They don’t get bludgeoned every hour in the press; they dominate the media. And they don’t have their key initiatives stymied in the courts; they control the judiciary.

Nor is this Nazism. Nazis don’t make Nazi salutes at rallies and then try (with mixed success) to downsize the government. Nazis make Nazi salutes at rallies and then go kill a bunch of innocent people. Nazis, moreover, don’t just slap tariffs on their neighbors. Nazis invade their neighbors.

This isn’t fascism, either. Fascists enforce a coherent vision of government through a murderous, totalitarian regime. They don’t flail around pursuing incoherent and contradictory policies that get blocked as frequently as they get implemented.

Sure, there are similarities between Trump’s presidency and these historical forms of government. Trump’s rhetoric, for example, is often lifted from the lips of history’s worst tyrants. His abuses of executive power, moreover, often resemble certain dictatorial techniques. But, overall, these political pegs don’t fit into the American hole. Having similarities with something is different from being the same thing. Both the mouse and the elephant have four legs and a tail.

No, what we have in America today is different. It’s new. It’s unprecedented. What we have in America today is Trumpism.

https://thefulcrum.us/donald-trump-leadership-style

I disagree that this a form of leadership….to me his government is a rudderless ship that is precariously close to the rocks of disaster.

On another hand….I personally think that Little Donny is not all there with his decision making capabilities…..the country is slow simmering on collapse and he spends too much time worrying about his golf game….but that aside this a meme going around about dementia.

Donald Trump is dealing with dementia during his second term as president, at least according to psychotherapist and author Dr. John Gartner.

Dr. Gartner has noted numerous symptoms Trump may be suffering from including his inability to “even finishing a sentence,” RadarOnline.com can reveal.

After previously claiming “there is absolutely no doubt” Trump has dementia, Dr. Gartner explained his reasoning to MindSite News in a new interview.

He said: “When we’re diagnosing dementia, what we need to see is a deterioration of someone’s own baseline of functioning. What we see that a lot of people don’t appreciate is that when Donald Trump was younger in the 1980s, he was actually quite articulate. He spoke in polished paragraphs; now he has difficulty even finishing a sentence.

“His thoughts were logical and related: now they’re tangential. He goes off on these ramblings where he is confabulating things – weird things in which he’ll talk about Venezuelans and mental hospitals, and then he’ll talk about sharks and batteries or the late, great Hannibal Lector and Silence of the Lambs.”

https://radaronline.com/p/trump-dementia-obvious-signs-suffering-from-alzheimers/

***Please understand that I am not claiming this is the definitive explanation only that it is being passed around….and I include it as an FYI for my visitors.***

Then we have some of his supporters….I know some that are claiming that they were duped for their vote….all I can do for these people is bust out in raucous laughter…they we told over and over and they chose to disregard the facts and vote for a person that lied to them on ever level.

I guess the old saying ‘Can’t Fix Stupid” is accurate to the nth degree.

Any thoughts you would like to share?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”