Month: May 2025

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”

Is This A ‘Lebensborn’ Type Of Program?

First this post ought to solicit some interesting comments.

I recently posted on the trend of US running out of white people…..

Is US Running Out Of White People?

Little Donny has this idea for a program that would increase the population by offering an incentive to pregnant women/families….who will benefit?

But first a little history….

To me this sounded like a take of a program from Germany in the 1930s and 40s…Lebensborn.

History time….

The Lebensborn program was created by the SS in late 1935 in order to promote the growth of Germany’s healthy “Aryan” population. The term Lebensborn itself means “Fount of Life.” The program was designed to be the wellspring of future generations descended from those whom Nazi authorities deemed “racially valuable.”

In 1933, the year Hitler and the Nazis came to power, the birth rate in Germany was 14.7 per 1,000 people. This was less than half what it had been at the turn of the century. Additionally, there were hundreds of thousands of abortions performed in Germany every year. These two practices alarmed the Nazi regime. The Nazis needed children if they were to accomplish the two goals of Nazi ideology: conquer territory in the East and establish Aryan supremacy over Europe. Healthy young boys were needed to grow up to be soldiers in the German Army. Healthy young girls were needed to grow up and give birth to the next generation of super soldiers.

Heinrich Himmler, the leader of the SS, founded the Lebensborn Program on December 12, 1935. Lebensborn means “the fountain of life.” The program actually provided three services: it gave pregnant women, either married or unmarried, a place to give birth to their babies and receive the best medical care; a meeting place for men and women of true Aryan stock to create babies for Adolf Hitler; and a place to raise children who had Aryan features after they had been kidnapped from their parents from foreign countries.

Children for Hitler

I shall explain myself for my assertion….

Donny’s plan would be to give money for births…

A $5,000 “baby bonus” is one of several proposals the White House is considering amid declining birth rates in the U.S., according to multiple outlets, as it looks to incentivize Americans to have more children.

Trump and Vance encouraged voters to have more children during the election cycle, with Trump telling supporters in 2023, “We will support baby booms and we will support baby bonuses for a new baby boom,” the Times reported. Trump has largely positioned himself against abortion and sought to lower the cost of in vitro fertilization, or IVF. Musk, one of the president’s most senior advisers, has also encouraged Americans to have more children. Musk, a father of at least 14 children, has claimed civilization at large will collapse without an increase in children. The U.S. fertility rate dropped to a historic low in 2023, with 3,591,328 births recorded that year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Birth rates specifically declined for women ages 20 to 39 as rising health costs, economic concerns and child-bearing postponements have impacted the fertility rate, according to Time, which cited research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

(forbes.com)

Granted this NOT the same as Lebensborn but it does smack of a bit of the ideas of making more supporters.

Plus most of those that would be open to this ‘bonus’ would be the less intelligent in the Red States…people that get government assistance any way.

Why would anyone with half a brain think this is a good idea?

The clear-cutting across the federal government under President Donald Trump has been dramatic, with mass terminations, the suspension of decades-old programs and the neutering of entire agencies. But this spectacle has obscured a series of moves by the administration that could profoundly harm some of the most vulnerable people in the U.S.: children.

Consider: The staff of a program that helps millions of poor families keep the electricity on, in part so that babies don’t die from extreme heat or cold, have all been fired. The federal office that oversees the enforcement of child support payments has been hollowed out. Head Start preschools, which teach toddlers their ABCs and feed them healthy meals, will likely be forced to shut down en masse, some as soon as May 1. And funding for investigating child sexual abuse and internet crimes against children; responding to reports of missing children; and preventing youth violence has been withdrawn indefinitely.

…

The impact of these cuts will be felt far beyond Washington, rippling out to thousands of state and local agencies serving children nationwide.

https://www.propublica.org/article/how-trump-budget-cuts-harm-kids-child-care-education-abuse

Why would anyone trust a government who has proven itself to anti-child?

Anyone accepting the cash is more interested in the money than the future of their children.

To me this smacks of racism….why?  I believe that there will be certain portions that will preclude people that are not white from participating in this program if and when it becomes a done deal.

I Reade, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

More Moronic By The Day

I admit it….this group in DC continually prove to me that they are not serious about anything but pleasing his Lord High Donny….and it gets more moronic by the day.

Just when the tariffs are starting to cause problems many thought that Greenland would be furthest from Donny’s mind…..well Bubba you be mistaken.

Yesterday was another on of those days….

Amid the Trump administration’s ongoing rhetoric regarding a possible takeover of Greenland, two sources tell the Wall Street Journal the US is ordering its intelligence agencies to increase spying in the semiautonomous Arctic territory. Specifically, the administration wants information on Greenland’s independence movement as well as how residents feel about US objectives on the island, including resource extraction, the sources say. By intercepting communications, using surveillance satellites, and gaining intel via actual spies on the ground, the agencies are tasked with identifying people in Greenland and Denmark who are friendly to those objectives, the sources say.

The Journal calls it “one of the first concrete steps Trump’s administration has taken toward fulfilling the president’s often-stated desire to acquire Greenland,” and it comes days after the president’s interview with NBC News in which he wouldn’t rule out the use of military force to seize the island. Most agencies declined to comment on the Journal‘s report, but Trump’s director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, issued a statement saying the paper “should be ashamed of aiding deep state actors who seek to undermine the President by politicizing and leaking classified information. They are breaking the law and undermining our nation’s security and democracy.” See the full story at the Journal.

Someone please share with my readers what is it about seal hunting Inuits that would make them a ‘national security threat’?

Donny did not stop there….after renaming the Gulf of Mexico he now has his eyes set on another body of water for a name change….

President Trump is planning to rename another gulf, insiders say. The president is set to announce during his upcoming visit to Saudi Arabia that the United States will begin calling the Persian Gulf either the Arabian Gulf or the Gulf of Arabia, according to two US officials who spoke to the AP on Tuesday on condition of anonymity. Arab nations, which already call it the Arabian Gulf, have advocated for the name change, while Iran, formerly Persia, unsurprisingly prefers Persian Gulf, the name that has been used for centuries.

The US military has been calling the body of water, which sits between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula, the Arabian Gulf for years, the AP notes. Iran threatened to sue Google over a Google Maps change in 2012. In 2017, Iranian officials criticized Trump for calling it the Arabian Gulf. “Everyone knew Trump’s friendship was for sale to the highest bidder. We now know that his geography is, too,” said Javad Zarif, then the country’s foreign minister. As with Trump’s renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America, other countries aren’t obliged to go along with whatever the US decides to call the body of water.

What does Donny want from KSA in return?

Glad to see that Donny spends his time thinking up useless crap….what about the hardships he is foisting unto the American people with his damn ignorant tariffs?

What about those trade negotiations that he has said are taking place, hundreds of them, according to his count?

President Donald Trump claimed Tuesday that the U.S. doesn’t “have to sign” any trade deals, inadvertently admitting that his administration hasn’t made any progress during the 90-day pause on his disastrous tariffs.

During a tense meeting to discuss tariffs with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, the president attempted to move the goal posts on actually completing any agreements with foreign countries.

“Everyone says, ‘When, when, when, are you going to sign deals?’ We don’t have to sign deals!” Trump said.

“We don’t have to sign deals. They have to sign deals with us. They want a piece of our market, we don’t want a piece of their market. We don’t care about their market. They want a piece of our market,” Trump rambled.

The president’s unwieldy statements downplaying the importance of the trade deals seemed to be cushioning the likelihood that negotiations would ultimately fail. Trump’s remarks also revealed that his administration has yet to complete a single trade deal.

https://newrepublic.com/post/194920/donald-trump-admits-no-trade-deals

There you have it.

This tool had rather spend his time playing golf and thinking of stupid sh*t that does nothing to help Americans as they struggle through his stupidity.

Those tariffs that are suppose to make us rich….not even the tool that came up with the damn stupid idea has anything positive to say….

President Trump is changing his tune on the economy, suggesting Americans should buy less and will probably pay more and bear the brunt of an uncertain economic landscape as his wide-ranging tariff policy takes effect.

Trump and his economic team have for weeks said the tariffs would result in only short-term pain and that the tumult in the stock market would eventually level out.

But the White House’s messaging has evolved from Trump on the campaign trail promising to lower prices and make America “wealthy” again to Trump suggesting the U.S. needs a cultural shift on consumer spending while accepting that his tariff plan will raise prices.

Trump was asked Sunday by NBC’s Kristen Welker if he would acknowledge that his tariff plan will result in higher prices.

At first, the president suggested tariffs will “make us rich” — similar to sentiments he’s expressed when touting his economic policy. But in the next turn, he suggested that American children, for example, do not need as many toys and that Americans do not need to spend as much money on “junk we don’t need.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5283974-trump-tariffs-economy/

His solution is that we to spend less…..(think about that)….in case you missed something thanks to these goddamn tariffs spending less for us is not an option.

We are told that we need to accept the idea we will be poorer….by some of Donny’s hatchet men…

… another case of Trump saying the quiet part out loud. If anything, Trump was merely underlining a sentiment that’s gained traction on the political right in recent years: that Americans should be forced to pay higher prices for basic goods and household items.

Don’t believe me? Here are four other recent incidents in which national conservatives in Trump’s orbit admitted as much.

https://reason.com/2025/05/02/5-times-the-trump-team-told-americans-to-accept-being-poorer/

Seriously people….what is it about this idiot that you support?

At what point do the idiots pause and watch the moths depart their wallets?

Waiting……

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Ready! Set! War!

Oh crap!  Here we go again….two nuke power countries in a struggle for whatever it is they are actually after.

A Region that has been in conflict for decades and few people pay attention because it does not involve the US and its propensity for war.

The so-called ‘war’ between India and Pakistan over the region of Kashmir has been off and on since 1947 when India and Pakistan was liberated from the heel of England….and it has been off and on since that day.

The reason I am offering up this analysis is because the region has become hot yet again.

India has fired missiles into Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, marking a major escalation between the two nuclear-armed powers.

The attack came amid tensions over the April 22 terrorist attack near the Pahalgam area of Indian-administered Kashmir, which killed 26 people. All but one of the victims were Indian tourists.

India blamed the massacre on a group called The Resistance Front (TRF) and accused Pakistan of supporting the attack, which Islamabad has strongly denied.

Early Wednesday morning, New Delhi time, India announced that its forces had struck nine locations in Pakistan and the Pakistan side of the disputed Kashmir region. Islamabad confirmed attacks on five locations: two in Pakistan’s Punjab province and three in Kashmir, including Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

Pakistan officials have said at least eight people were killed by the Indian strikes. According to AP, one official said a missile struck a Mosque in the city of Bahawalpur in Punjab and killed a child.

India claimed that it only struck “known terror camps” and that the attack had been “measured, responsible, and designed to be nonescalatory in nature.” But the missile strikes are the most significant Indian attacks on Pakistani territory in decades. In 2019, India launched airstrikes on an alleged training camp in Balakot, Pakistan, but that attack only targeted one location.

Islamabad is vowing it will respond and has claimed that its forces shot down five Indian fighter jets. “We were fully prepared, which is why India received an immediate and firm response,” said Information Minister Attaullah Tarar.

Pakistani officials also said India has not provided any evidence for its allegations that Islamabad was involved in the Pahalgam terrorist attack.

In response to the news of the Indian attack, President Trump said the violence was a “shame” and that he hoped it would end quickly. “I guess people knew something was going to happen based on a little bit of the past. They’ve been fighting for a long time,” he said. “I hope it ends very quickly.”

Indian officials have said they “briefed” Secretary of State Marco Rubio about the attack. Pakistani sources also reported that Rubio spoke with Pakistan’s national security advisor.

Any conflict between India and Pakistan always risks nuclear escalation since both sides have a nuclear arsenal. According to the Arms Control Association, Pakistan is believed to have about 170 nuclear warheads, and India has an estimated arsenal of 164 warheads.

(antiwar.com)

This may mean nothing to the average American but the key words are ‘nuclear escalation’….in case those words do not mean much it is when two countries exchange nuke attacks….got it now?

The missiles early Wednesday struck locations in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and in the country’s eastern Punjab province, according to Pakistani security officials. One of them struck a mosque in the city of Bahawalpur in Punjab, where a child was killed and a woman and man were injured, one official said. The officials, speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity, said Pakistan had launched retaliatory strikes, without providing any details.

  • The Pakistani army spokesman, Lt. Gen. Ahmad Sharif, told ARY News that the missiles were launched from within Indian territory and that no Indian aircraft had entered Pakistani airspace. “This was a cowardly attack targeting innocent civilians under the cover of darkness,” Sharif told the broadcaster.
  • “Let me say it unequivocally: Pakistan will respond to this at a time and place of its own choosing. This heinous provocation will not go unanswered,” Sharif said, per the Telegraph. “This temporary happiness that India has achieved with this cowardly attack will be replaced with enduring grief.”
  • India’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that at least nine sites were targeted “where terrorist attacks against India have been planned.” “Our actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature. No Pakistan military facilities have been targeted,” the statement said, adding that “India has demonstrated considerable restraint in selection of targets and method of execution.” The military said the strikes were part of Operation Sindoor

Right now it is a minor mash-up and as usual there is the inevitable war of words and threats.

We have an idiot in DC and seems to have a taste for conflict…..who will the US side with?

Keep in mind the India is a member of the international bloc known as BRICS….and because of that alliance do you think if a wider war starts will Russia and China come to the aid of India?

If they do jump in on the side of India what will Little Donny and the MAGAt douches do in response?

This could get ugly if calmer heads do not prevail.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The ‘Traditional Values’ Con

How many times have you heard some pompous politician use the term ‘traditional values’?  The term is a dog whistle for the ignorant.

“Traditional values” is code for valuing whites above non-whites, men above women and children, and Christians above non-Christians. It goes still further, assuming that some people are inherently “better” or most deserving of privilege and the right even to dominate. It actually asserts that this way of being is mandated by God.

It appears that most people who adhere to “traditional values” also support an authoritarian style of governance, both in the family and in politics, business, and other spheres of life. People who have this worldview are considerably more likely to support Republican candidates than Democratic ones. It’s interesting to note that white male Christians are not the only people who support these “traditional” values.

(medium.com)

Does any of that sound familiar?

It is an policy to obfuscate ‘values’ to equate them with what politicians want this country’s people to believe….they usually have nothing to do with ‘making this country great’.

‘Traditional values’ is for those weak-minded and the ignorant…..it is easier than fleshing out policies and explaining them…..much easier to find a term and stick with it…..even if it is nonsensical.

It is a snake oil that the GOP pushes the more they talk the less coherent they become.

Let’s be honest with ourselves….the whole scam of ‘traditional values’ is nothing more than bigotry.

“Traditional values” is code for valuing whites above non-whites, men above women and children, and Christians above non-Christians. It goes still further, assuming that some people are inherently “better” or most deserving of privilege and the right even to dominate. It actually asserts that this way of being is mandated by God.

It appears that most people who adhere to “traditional values” also support an authoritarian style of governance, both in the family and in politics, business, and other spheres of life. People who have this worldview are considerably more likely to support Republican candidates than Democratic ones. It’s interesting to note that white male Christians are not the only people who support these “traditional” values.

Supporting “traditional values” means, by definition, upholding the status quo. It means attaching a higher value to “leaving things as they are and have been for a long time” than “trying something new” even when “the way things are” is bad. It means also believing that we can’t do better than what we’ve done before, even if that is more an unintended side effect than an explicit intention.

View at Medium.com

The whole ‘traditional values’ con fits perfectly with the issues and policies of Donny and his band of mental midgets.

It is time for Americans to start looking at the ‘human value’ of policies and issues and leave this cursed bullshit of ‘traditional values’ in a toilet where it belongs.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Trump’s First #2 Speaks

Donny’s first time at bat he had Mike Pence as his #2 now he has come out of the closet to voice his opinion on the policies plaguing the nation.

In the interview he covered 6 January riot, tariffs among other issues and situations.

Former Vice President Mike Pence criticized President Donald Trump’s across-the-board tariffs on Monday, arguing that a looming “price shock” to the economy and potential shortages will lead Americans to “demand a different approach” from the White House.

In an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Pence rebuffed Trump’s recent comments that children in the United States will have to make do with fewer toys.

Trump’s first-term vice president also said he sees some of Trump’s actions as sharp breaks from what he said were the successes of their administration. That includes “wavering support for Ukraine” in its war with Russia and the “marginalizing the right to life” that Pence said followed Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s selection as health and human services secretary.

Now watching Trump’s return to power from the sidelines, Pence said he plans to make a public case on those issues — in part so that Trump might hear arguments those in his White House aren’t making.

“Whatever the future holds for me, I’m going to try and be a consistent voice for those conservative values that I think are not only the right policy for the Republican Party, but I think they’re the best way forward for a boundless future for the American people,” Pence said.

The former vice president’s comments came the day after he received the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage award for his actions on January 6, 2021, the day Trump supporters attacked the Capitol. Pence faced pressure from Trump to use his constitutional role presiding over the counting of electoral college votes to seek to overturn the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

In the interview, which took place at the JFK Presidential Library in Boston, Pence said Trump “sent the wrong message” by pardoning or commuting the sentences of more than 1,000 supporters who rioted at the Capitol.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/05/politics/january-6-pence-trump-tariffs-russia

I was never a fan of Pence but I will give him his props for not being one of the ass kissing slugs surrounding Little Donny.

It will be interesting how His Majesty handles the ‘disrespect’ he will surely claim.

Do you any thoughts on this?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Congrats! You Now Have A Trillion!

For ages I and others have been bitching about the money that is blindly thrown at the Pentagon all in the name of ‘national defense’…..it has always been high and we have got nothing in return….we have a fighter plane that spends more time grounded than flying, we have a tank that no one wants and we have a fleet of Naval vessels that are already in mothballs waiting to become a fishing reef….wasted money and yet the money just keeps rolling in with little to no oversight.

The money in the budget for the War Department has continually gone higher and higher with every new budget and sometimes it gets billions it did not request because….well just because.

And the new administration is not different only this time around the amount cracks the trillion dollar barrier.

The White House released a budget plan on Friday proposing $1.01 trillion in military spending for 2026, a 13% increase from this year.

The proposal fulfills President Trump’s vow to bring the official US military budget to over $1 trillion for the first time. The increase in US military spending will include funding for President Trump’s plans for a major missile defense system for the US, which he has dubbed the “Iron Dome for America, which will likely kick off a new global arms race.

Despite the massive increase, Trump is facing pushback from some Republican hawks, who are complaining that the White House is relying on a reconciliation bill for some of the funds.

According to Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, the White House is asking Congress for $892.6 billion in military spending for fiscal year 2026, which is about the same as the 2025 budget. The remaining $119 will be authorized under a budget bill that Congress is currently working on.

The budget bill will include $150 billion in military spending that can be spent over the next four years, but under the White House proposal, it will mostly be spent for the 2026 fiscal year. Sen. Mitch McConnell complained in a statement that the administration wasn’t asking Congress to appropriate the entire $1.01 trillion.

“It is peculiar how much time the President’s advisors spend talking about restoring peace through strength, given how apparently unwilling they’ve been to invest accordingly in the national defense or in other critical instruments of national power,” McConnell said. “Make no mistake: a one-time influx reconciliation spending is not a substitute for full-year appropriations.”

The pushback from leading Senate Republicans suggests that Congress may draft a higher military budget than Trump requested. “Fortunately, Presidential budget requests are just that: requests. Congress will soon have an opportunity to ensure that American power – and the credibility of our commitments – are appropriately resourced,” McConnell said.

The US has never officially had a $1 trillion military budget, but the actual cost of US military spending has exceeded $1 trillion for years. According to veteran defense analyst Winslow Wheeler, based on the $895 billion NDAA, US national security spending for 2025 was expected to reach about $1.77 trillion.

(antiwar.com)

Is there any doubt that the War Department will not get their desire?

Maybe this was the reason for DOGE to help expand the spending by the most wasteful part of the government.

Do not fret over higher prices or education for your children or the poor’s plight we may get a new plane that cannot fly….rejoice….rejoice.

Wait a colossal waste of taxpayer money!

This does NOTHING to make America great again……but rather padding the pockets of the defense industry and the Congress they buy.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

The Pirate And Guacamole

Welcome to ‘cinco de Mayo’.

What is life without a little whimsy?

And of course a short history lesson.

Before I start my little food history post I want to rant for a moment……we can properly pronounce enchilada, quesadilla, fajitas and so on but few can properly pronounce guacamole….it is NOT pronounced ‘gwak-camole’ but rather ‘wok-camole’….whew I feel better.

Do you know where the first English recipe for guacamole came from?

For all the perceived glamour of piracy, its practitioners lived poorly and ate worse. Skirting death, mutiny, and capture left little room for comfort or transformative culinary experience. The greatest names in piracy, wealthy by the day’s standards, ate as one today might on a poorly provisioned camping trip: dried beef, bread, and warm beer. Those of lesser fame were subject to cannibalism and scurvy. The seas were no place for an adventurous appetite.

But when one gifted pirate permitted himself a curiosity for food, he played a pioneering role in spreading ingredients and cuisines. He gave us the words “tortilla,” “soy sauce,” and “breadfruit,” while unknowingly recording the first ever recipe for guacamole. And who better to expose the Western world to the far corners of our planet’s culinary bounty than someone who by necessity made them his hiding places?

British-born William Dampier began a life of piracy in 1679 in Mexico’s Bay of Campeche. Orphaned in his late teens, Dampier set sail for the Caribbean and fell into a twentysomething job scramble. Seeing no future in logging or sugar plantations, he was sucked into the burgeoning realm of New World raiding, beginning what would be the first of his record-breaking three circumnavigations. A prolific diarist, Dampier kept a journal wrapped in a wax-sealed bamboo tube throughout his journeys. During a year-long prison sentence in Spain in 1694, Dampier would convert these notes into a novel that became a bestseller and seminal travelogue.

Parts of A New Voyage Around the World read like a 17th-century episode of No Reservations, with Dampier playing a high-stakes version of Anthony Bourdain. Aside from writing groundbreaking observations on previously un-researched subjects in meteorology, maritime navigation, and zoology, food was a constant throughout his work. He ate with the locals, observing and employing their practices not only to feed himself and his crew but to amass a body of knowledge that would expand European understanding of non-Western cuisine. In Panama, Dampier traveled with men of the Miskito tribe, hunting and eating manatee. “Their flesh is … [extraordinarily] sweet, wholesome meat,” he wrote. “The tail of a young cow is most esteemed. A calf that sucks is the most delicate meat.” His crew took to roasting filleted bellies over open flames.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-pirate-who-penned-the-first-english-language-guacamole-recipe

Now when you enjoy a cinco de Mayo bowl of guacamole and you can thank a pirate for the introduction.

Please if you are partying then do it responsibly…..

Enjoy your celebration …..Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

WTF? No Veterans Day?

The 11th of November is the day set aside for the country to honor those brave souls that gave their all in service to their country.

It is a holiday for a reason….to show respect.

It could possibly become a thing of the past if Little Donny gets his way….

President Trump says he is renaming Veterans Day to celebrate victory—and he’s giving Victory in Europe Day a new name as well. “Many of our allies and friends are celebrating May 8th as Victory Day, but we did more than any other Country, by far, in producing a victorious result on World War II,” he said in a Truth Social post. “I am hereby renaming May 8th as Victory Day for World War II and November 11th as Victory Day for World War I again!”

  • Politico calls the push to rename Veterans Day “surprising.” It was originally Armistice Day, marking the last day of WWI, but was broadened in the 1950s to include American veterans of other wars, including WWII.
  • CNN reports that, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs, Congress passed a law in 1938 declaring November 11 a day to be dedicated to WWI veterans and “the cause of world peace.”

  • “We won both Wars, nobody was close to us in terms of strength, bravery, or military brilliance, but we never celebrate anything,” Trump wrote. “That’s because we don’t have leaders anymore, that know how to do so! We are going to start celebrating our victories again!” The BBC reports that Trump’s remarks are likely to anger Russia, which marks its victory in World War II, which it calls the Great Patriotic War, on May 9. When Germany surrendered unconditionally on May 8, 1945, the date marked as V-E Day elsewhere, it was already May 9 on Moscow time. The Soviet Union lost around 27 million people, including almost 9 million troops, in the war.

    Unlike Veterans Day, May 8 isn’t a federal holiday and Trump didn’t say whether he plans to make it one, which would require an act of Congress. Critics were quick to point out that despite Trump’s proposed name change, the date doesn’t mark American victory in WWII, which came months later, when Japan surrendered after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. “We won World War II on August 15, 1945 when the Japanese surrendered,” Keith Olbermann said in a post on X. “Trump is a complete moron.” That date is marked as V-J Day in countries including the UK and Australia, though historians say the official end of the war was September 2, 1945, when Japan signed surrender documents aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, CNN reports

This idiot is a history MORON!

But what can you expect from this ‘person’?  After all he could not tear himself away from the golf course to go to Dover Air Base to honor fallen American soldiers when their bodies were returned to the nation.

Not only is this tool disrespecting Americans he also made some glowing moronic statements about WW2…

“We won both wars, nobody was close to us in terms of strength, bravery or military brilliance, but we never celebrate anything,” he said.

“Many of our allies and friends are celebrating May 8th as Victory Day, but we did more than any other Country, by far, in producing a victorious result on World War II,” Trump said online.

This man is an idiot to discount the contribution of the UK and France and the rest of Europe in the victory over the Nazis  (Is that his intention?)

+++Please forgive my next statement….if harsh words offend you then by all means bypass this one+++

This is to some of my fellow veterans….why id god’s name would semi-literate asshole support his disrespectful son-of-a-bitch?

I am offended as so should would any veterans that served his country in the military.

This is not a done deal so hopefully Congress will not let this travesty become law….but I have my doubts.

Anything to say?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”