Month: March 2026

Last Week At The Sh*t Show–15Mar26

The war still rages with Iran…..American deaths and 100+ wounded Americans….and for what?

With most of the air sucked out of other reporting it is up to me to keep my readers abreast of the antics by the cabinet of incompetents.

Most of us know that Donny thinks of himself as a ‘stable genius’ an d now we know why he thinks this…..

“He went to a good college, but I know a lot of stupid people that went to a good college.”

“My uncle was the longest serving professor…at MIT…41 years… That means I have much better blood,” Trump added. “But I went to the hardest college of all to get into, the Wharton School of Finance. That means I’m real smart.”

This moron thinks that proximity is what makes a genius…..but what can we expect from an idiot?

Let’s start with the FCC…..the desire is to have all reporting ‘pro-America’…..whatever that means to these fools.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr is urging TV and radio stations to sign on to a new “Pledge America Campaign” that promotes what he calls patriotic, pro-US programming ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary. In a statement on Friday, Carr said the semiquincentennial is a chance to highlight the country’s founding principles and future, asking broadcasters to commit to shows and segments that boost civic knowledge, national pride, and US history, per Politico. Suggested options include public service announcements on civics, historical specials, adding more historical context to news programs, daily recitations of the Pledge of Allegiance, playing the national anthem, or airing music by American composers such as John Philip Sousa, Duke Ellington, and George Gershwin.

Carr, who’s already begun opening the FCC’s monthly meetings with the Pledge of Allegiance, argued that civic education is waning, pointing to the nostalgia-status of the Schoolhouse Rock! series as an example. The initiative is billed as voluntary, but Carr said his urging comes because he thinks broadcasters should act in the “public interest,” language he’s used before to criticize news coverage and analysis, per the Hill. Carr’s message is tied to a broader White House push to mark the 250th anniversary, including reviews of Smithsonian exhibits to ensure they emphasize American achievements.

But it arrives as the FCC faces criticism over what some see as an expanding role in influencing media content, with detractors arguing the agency is trying to curry favor with President Trump and raising alarms about potential First Amendment concerns.

The Ministry of Propaganda.

While Donny wages a horrific war on Iran he takes time out to mess with sports….

President Trump says he’s about to jump into the chaos surrounding college sports—and he’s promising a fix that covers everything, ESPN reports. At a White House “Saving College Sports” roundtable Friday, the president said he plans to issue an executive order within a week aimed at reshaping the college athletics landscape, particularly around name, image and likeness (NIL) money and whether players are considered employees. “I will have an executive order within one week, and it will be very all-encompassing,” he told the room, adding that he fully expects it to be challenged in court. But, he promised, it “will solve every problem in this room, every conceivable problem, within one week, and we’ll put it forward. We will get sued. That’s the only thing I know for sure.”

Roughly 50 attendees—including conference commissioners, university leaders, media executives, former star coaches, politicians, and more—pressed for federal action, saying the current NIL system and escalating economics are unsustainable. NCAA president Charlie Baker, SEC’s Greg Sankey, ACC’s Jim Phillips, Big Ten’s Tony Petitti and others argued for national rules and warned the sport could “fracture” without swift intervention. Former Alabama coach Nick Saban said the current setup makes it “impossible” to focus on education and player development, while former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer called for eliminating booster-funded NIL “collectives,” describing them as thinly veiled pay-for-play.

Republican lawmakers promoted the SCORE Act, their main proposal to create a national NIL and regulatory framework, though Sen. Ted Cruz said no Democrats have signed on and 60 Senate votes would be needed. Texas Tech booster Cody Campbell cautioned that any final deal will leave all sides “equally unhappy.” Olympic and Paralympic Committee CEO Sarah Hirshland warned that cuts or instability in college sports could undercut Team USA’s talent pipeline as other countries invest heavily in centralized training systems. At one point, Trump said the situation with Iran was “an easy problem compared to what we’re doing here,” the AP reports, though he later seemed to backtrack on that. But he did justify what he was doing there, when seemingly more pressing world issues also beckoned, CNN reports: “The whole educational system is going to go out of business because of this,” he warned.

Do you really want these fools screwing with sports?

Our Little Pastey Donny is trying to capitalize on our 250th birthday….

President Donald Trump’s organization has reportedly filed several trademark applications to attach his name to the upcoming celebrations of America’s 250th birthday

President Donald Trump’s organization has reportedly filed several trademark applications to attach his name to the upcoming celebrations of America’s 250th birthday.

According to the applications obtained by the Irish Star, Trump’s name is featured as the centerpiece of the upcoming festivities. Over the last several days, several applications were filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office by DTTM Operations LLC, which is used by the president and his businesses.

https://www.irishstar.com/news/politics/trump-organization-files-copyright-application-36836331

Any thing for a buck.

At the War Department Pistol Pete pissed away billions…..

Pete Hegseth‘s Defense Department reportedly blew through tens of billions in one month … including huge splurges on steak, lobster, crab, fruit baskets, and furniture according to recent analysis by the government watchdog Open the Books.

The Pentagon went on an epic spending spree in September 2025 by burning through $93 billion … the most at the end of a fiscal year since 2008 … all part of the federal government’s use-it-or-lose-it budget.

Hegseth’s DOD needed to spend the money to keep their current funding moving forward … and he signed off on $6.9 million for lobster tail, $2 million for Alaskan king crab, $15.1 million for ribeye steak, $1 million for salmon, almost $140K for donuts, and $124K for ice cream machines.

https://www.tmz.com/2026/03/10/pete-hegseth-spent-billions-pentagon-budget/

This is total crap!  None of this is essential for the defense of the homeland so it should have been returned to the Treasury.   PERIOD!

That does it for me on this Sunday…..it all makes me feel dirty….to lighten up the day I have some freak outs by pets over optical illusions.

Hopefully that gave you a chuckle or two.

I hope everyone has a wonderful day and as always….Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

IST Saturday News Dump–14Mar26

Just another Saturday that needs to be filled….

Local–St. Patrick Day parades all weekend….traffic will be horrendous.

Finally some rain and cooler temps after 2 months of near early Summer weather.

Personal–nothing to report

The beginning of the Big Dance to decide who will compete for the national title in B/ball….not really my cup of tea but there is one thing that fascinates me…..all those squeaky sounds…..

As he watched the Boston Celtics play at TD Garden, one noise kept catching Adel Djellouli’s ear. “This squeaking sound when players are sliding on the floor is omnipresent,” he said. Returning home from the game, Djellouli wondered how that sound was produced—and as a materials scientist at Harvard, he had a way to find out. Djellouli and colleagues slid a sneaker against a smooth glass plate over and over, recording the squeaks with a mic and filming with a high-speed camera to see what was happening under the shoe. In a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature, they described what they found.

  • Science behind the squeak: As the shoe works hard to keep its grip, tiny sections of the sole change shape as they momentarily lose, then regain, contact with the floor thousands of times per second—at a frequency that matches the pitch of the loud squeak we hear, per the AP. “That squeaking is basically your shoe rippling, or creating wrinkles that travel super fast,” Djellouli said. “They repeat at a high frequency, and this is why you get that squeaky noise.”
  • Sole situation: The grip patterns on the soles may also play a role. When researchers slid blocks of flat, featureless rubber against the glass, they saw a series of chaotic, disorganized ripples but didn’t hear squeaks. The ridgelike designs on the bottom of your shoes may organize the bursts to produce a clear, high-pitched sound.
  • Deep dive into friction: Other researchers have studied these kinds of bursts before, but this sneaker study examines friction happening at much faster speeds. And for the first time, it links the speedy pulses with the squeaking sound they produce. “Friction is one of the oldest and most intricate problems in physics,” wrote physicist Bart Weber in an editorial accompanying the research. Yet, despite its practical importance, he wrote, “it is difficult to predict and control.”
  • Other applications: Understanding friction better could help scientists better understand how the Earth’s tectonic plates slide and grind during earthquakes, for example, or save energy by reducing friction and wear. It could also help eliminate moments off the court when squeaky shoes can be a little awkward or embarrassing, such as in a quiet office hallway.
  • Quiet future shoes? Some of the insights from the study could help to design squeak-free shoes in the future, perhaps even designing our shoes to squeak in a pitch so high we can’t even hear it. “We can now start designing for it,” said Weber.

And n ow you know…..

WE have seen news of lab grown meat and now they are aiming for chocolate….

Compared to just about every other trade in the books, the chocolate industry has changed remarkably little since the 1800s. The entire supply chain still relies on the exploitation of West African labor, colonial trade routes, and a few powerful monopolies acting as middle-men.

Consumers are starting to notice. Outrage over additives — from titanium dioxide still used in some white chocolates to the heavy metals like cadmium and lead in dark chocolate — has resulted in a torrent of complaints about the waxy, artificial flavor of modern candy bars.

In other words, there’s a business opportunity for anyone that can figure out how to provide a more authentic chocolate taste at Hershey prices. The problem is that cocoa can only be grown in a narrow band of the world near the equator — and now a pair of food companies think they can culture it in a lab instead.

One promising collaboration is between Belgian food ingredients giant Puratos and a West Sacramento foodtech startup called California Cultured, which recently announced a partnership to create a commercially viable, lab-cultured chocolate by the end of 2026.

https://futurism.com/future-society/chocolate-lab-grown-cocoa

Continuing with the food meme….are bugs what’s for dinner?

Investors once bet billions that dinner plates and feed troughs would be crawling with bugs; that future is now looking very bleak. At Vox, Kenny Torrella charts how insect agriculture—touted in TED Talks, backed by a major UN report, and showered with roughly $2 billion in public and private money—has stumbled on two basic problems: people in rich countries won’t really eat insects, and raising them at scale is too pricey to compete with soy and fishmeal for livestock feed. To boot, bugs may hold the capacity to feel pain. “Evidence is building that there’s a form of sentience there in insects,” says Jonathan Birch, a London School of Economics philosopher who runs the Foundations of Animal Sentience project.

Of about 20 major insect-farming startups, nearly a quarter have already folded, including French giant Ÿnsect, which alone had attracted more than $600 million. Tyson Foods has quietly put a flagship Nebraska insect plant with Dutch firm Protix “on hold indefinitely,” and big projects in partnership with agribusiness heavyweight ADM have stalled, too. High energy costs, expensive feed, tight regulations on using food waste, and uncertain environmental benefits have all undercut the “bugs will save the planet” pitch. Torrella concludes the sector is shrinking into niche roles—pet food, specialty snacks, feed additives—far from its promise to transform meat. Read the full piece at Vox to see how a hyped climate fix unraveled.

Cancer and veggies…..

Of all the lifestyle factors that are known to influence health, diet is probably one of the most talked about – and argued about! Many believe that a more plant-based diet – whether vegetarian or vegan – is better for general health, but what about cancer risk specifically? The largest-ever study on this question has just been completed, and some of the results might just surprise you.

Five different diet types were included: meat eaters, poultry eaters (who did not consume red or processed meat), pescatarians, vegetarians, and vegans. Previous studies have lacked sufficient representation of vegetarians, so these researchers pooled data from over 1.8 million people from across three continents.

Among each diet type, the risks of 17 different cancers were compared.

For some, no difference was found between vegetarians and meat eaters, including: colorectal cancer, stomach cancer, lung cancer (in people who had never smoked), bladder cancer, and leukemia.

https://www.iflscience.com/veggie-and-vegan-diets-lower-risk-of-several-cancers-but-new-biggest-ever-study-raises-a-few-surprises-82759

A return of the giant insects?  Something to think about or have nightmares at the thought.

When we think of giant insects, our minds often conjure images from science fiction or prehistoric times—massive dragonflies with wingspans like eagles, or millipedes as long as cars. While today’s insects are relatively modest in size, Earth once hosted arthropods of truly staggering proportions. The question of whether giant insects could ever make a comeback isn’t just a fascinating thought experiment; it intersects with our understanding of evolution, atmospheric science, and the future of our planet. As climate change reshapes Earth’s ecosystems and oxygen levels fluctuate, some scientists wonder if conditions might someday favor the return of mega-bugs. This article explores the fascinating history of giant insects, the factors that enabled their existence, and whether modern conditions could ever support their return.

Could Giant Insects Make a Comeback?

How does one lose 10 million tons of crap?

Factory farms in California routinely avoid pollution regulations intended to protect the state’s water, finds a new white paper out of Stanford.

Ten million tons of animal manure in the Golden State are unaccounted for, the report finds, thanks to a combination of non-compliance, non-enforcement and opaque disclosure rules. It is not known from public information where the manure went, says Zoe Robertson, JD candidate at Stanford Law and an author of the white paper, but some may well have ended up directly or indirectly in lakes, streams and other public waters.

Lax regulation of factory farm pollution in the United States isn’t unique to California. Factory farms, also known as concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), produce enormous amounts of pollution, yet federal laws to reduce it are limited in scope and riddled with loopholes. Even in states with ostensibly stricter regulatory regimes, like California, CAFO pollution frequently goes unchecked and unregulated.

Ten Million Tons of Manure In California Are Unaccounted for, New Report Shows

That is enough knowledge for one Saturday…..if weather permits go out and enjoy yourself…..and as always…..Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You KNow

“lego ergo scribo”

Goodwill Hunting

My daughter and I use to enjoy a day of hitting the retro places especially those that were non-profits trying to find the amazing ‘old’ stuff….one of our favorites was Goodwill that had some amazing stuff and at reasonable prices.

All that has changed last visit to a Goodwill store found there were few bargains and the feel of the store was that of a corporate profit chasing entity.

Then I read an article that I want to share….especially if you think you are doing good work by supporting this business.

Donating used items to Goodwill is a common practice for those looking to declutter while helping others. However, there are several reasons to reconsider this donation choice. Here are ten reasons why you might want to stop giving your used items to Goodwill and explore other options instead.

1. Questionable Business Practices

Goodwill is often perceived as a charity dedicated to helping those in need, but its business practices have come under scrutiny. Despite its nonprofit status, Goodwill operates more like a for-profit business. Executives at some Goodwill organizations earn very high six-figure salaries. For example in 2024, the Chief Executive Officers of the 12 largest Goodwill organizations were compensated between $405,215 – $960,943 annually.  The average was $670,000.

There have been reports of the organization historically paying workers with disabilities significantly less than minimum wage under the special exemption of the Fair Labor Standards Act (per CNBC).  While many states are phasing out this loophole, understanding where your donations go can prompt you to consider alternatives that better align with your values.

2. Low Direct Impact on Local Communities

While Goodwill does provide job training and employment opportunities, the direct impact on local communities can be limited. According to the Seattle Times, donations to Goodwill are often sold in bulk or shipped overseas, where they may not benefit your local area.

Donating to smaller, community-focused organizations or shelters can ensure your items directly support those in need within your neighborhood.

2. Low Direct Impact on Local Communities

While Goodwill does provide job training and employment opportunities, the direct impact on local communities can be limited. According to the Seattle Times, donations to Goodwill are often sold in bulk or shipped overseas, where they may not benefit your local area.

Donating to smaller, community-focused organizations or shelters can ensure your items directly support those in need within your neighborhood.

Please read on….especially if you visit Goodwill stores)

https://www.savingadvice.com/articles/2026/03/07/10139410_rethinking-donations-to-goodwill.html

Another ‘charity’ has fallen to the profit god.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Kurds To The Rescue?

The war with Iran is going well if you believe the words of Little Donny and there has been a bit of hinting going on that ground forces will be needed in the near future if we are to end this ill-conceived war is to end.

This is where the Israelis come in…..their air force has been softening up the western portions of Iran in advance of the possibilities of the Kurdish forces advance into the country.

To the rescue how?

The Kurds have been used in several of our  conflicts in the Middle East…..Iraq and Syria readily come to mind….and now into Iran they may go.

Each time they have ‘come to the rescue’ they have been betrayed by the US and its allies…promises were not kept and the calls keep coming…..

With this conflict we are now in the midst of will the Kurds take it on the chin again?

The Trump administration has enlisted the support of Kurdish activists in Syria, Iraq, and Iran to join the U.S.-led war to unseat Iran’s clerical regime.  CNN reports that the Central Intelligence Agency is already arming Iranian Kurds. CNN and other outlets also report that President Trump spoke with Kurdish leaders in Iraq on March 8, 2026, about having their forces join the fight.

Washington’s motives for this move are easy to discern. The Kurdish minority concentrated along Iran’s western border has long sought to break away from Tehran’s control.  U.S. and Israeli leaders understand that such disruptive secessionist efforts could further damage the incumbent government’s already weakened position.

There is a major problem with that strategy, however.  Secessionist-minded Iranian Kurds do not merely want to undermine their oppressors in Tehran; many of them want to join their equally restless ethnic brethren in Iraq, Syria, and Turkey to establish a new, independent Kurdish homeland.  The incumbent governments in those volatile countries feud about a wide array of issues.  One objective all these governments have in common, though, is a determination to prevent the emergence of an independent Kurdish nation state, since that development would threaten the internal unity – and perhaps the continued viability–of multiple neighbors.

Previous U.S. administrations have encouraged and even actively supported Kurdish clients when it advanced Washington’s short-term goals.  Such initiatives invariably have been followed by cynical betrayals of those clients when the U.S. government concluded that support for parochial Kurdish objectives endangered higher priority U.S. regional objectives.

This cycle of support and betrayal has occurred repeatedly.  Most recently, the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations used Syrian Kurds as armed proxies in a long campaign to seize oil-rich territory in northern Syria and help unseat Syria’s dictator, Bashar al-Assad.  A small contingent of U.S. ground troops deployed in northern Syria aided that effort. The Kurdish fighters were remarkably successful despite strong opposition from both Assad and Turkey.

https://original.antiwar.com/ted_galen_carpenter/2026/03/11/will-washington-betray-the-kurds-yet-again/

Knowing that betrayal is on the table why would the Kurds do our bidding?

My guess is money and inventory.

They have been fighting for a homeland for generations and have gotten no closer than when they started the movement…..then why continue to allow the betrayals?

Plus they can come to the rescue by invading and saving American lives in doing so plus would keep Donny’s hands clean…..at least for now……his disapproval rating cannot stand too many hits.

Will the Kurds forget past betrayals and play along?

I Read, I Write, You KNow

“lego ergo scribo”

Taking A Day For Sue

I am taking the day off!

Today is one year since I lost my beloved Sue….this is the post I wrote on the day….

A Hard Post

I am still having a hard time realizing that she is gone…..I will take today and do nothing but remember my beloved Sue.

After a year it still is not any easier…..she was a rock in our lives and her presence is being missed every day.

We miss you terribly.

Cuba Is Next!

I was wondering when the idiots would get around to this…..it started with Lindsey Graham making the statement earlier this month….

“Cuba’s next. They’re gonna fall,” Graham said of the revolutionary government in Havana that’s outlasted a dozen American presidents, despite decades of US-led assassination attempts, sabotage, and subversion. “This communist dictatorship in Cuba, their days are numbered.”

The remarks by Graham – who previously berated Trump as a “jackass,” “nut job,” and “loser” unfit to be commander-in-chief – come amid reporting that Trump is feeling buoyed by what he views as successful attacks on Iran and Venezuela.

“The president is feeling like, ‘I’m on a roll,’ like, ‘This is working,’” one unnamed Trump administration official told the Atlantic‘s Vivian Salama over the weekend.

This, from a president who said he deplored regime change and vowed “no new wars” while running for reelection.

(antiwar.com)

Now Donny has made it official by stating that Cuba would be next on his hit list….

The remarks by Graham – who previously berated Trump as a “jackass,” “nut job,” and “loser” unfit to be commander-in-chief – come amid reporting that Trump is feeling buoyed by what he views as successful attacks on Iran and Venezuela.

“The president is feeling like, ‘I’m on a roll,’ like, ‘This is working,’” one unnamed Trump administration official told the Atlantic‘s Vivian Salama over the weekend.

This, from a president who said he deplored regime change and vowed “no new wars” while running for reelection.

“What’s happening with Cuba is amazing. And we think that, we want to finish this one [Iran] first,” Trump said. “But that will be just a question of time.”

Trump and his allies have frequently threatened Havana, ratcheting up economic pressure with the aim of overthrowing the country’s communist government.

After the US abducted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January, Trump stated that the country’s supply of oil to Cuba, an essential economic lifeline for the island that has been under heavy US sanctions for years, would be totally cut off.

Trump has embraced the threat of overwhelming military force to advance his priorities around the world, including in Latin America, where he has previously said that Cuba looks “ready to fall” in the near future.

(aje.com)

Apparently Donny just cannot help himself.

Seems we are always looking for the low hanging fruit….it is safer that way.

Well Cuba would make a great haven for all the billionaires to hide the ill gotten profits.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Regime Change From 30,000 Feet

For a week the US and the Israelis have been plummeting Iran with airstrikes…..and the idea of this is not something Americans think is a good idea.

Americans are mostly lukewarm—or outright opposed—to Washington’s latest show of force against Iran. A new Reuters/Ipsos poll finds just 27% back the US strikes that killed Iran’s leader, while 43% disapprove and 29% aren’t sure. The survey, conducted as US and Israeli strikes were underway and before US casualties were announced, also shows 56% of Americans think President Trump is too quick to use military force, a view held by 87% of Democrats, 60% of independents, and 23% of Republicans.

Republicans are more supportive of the strikes overall, with 55% in favor and 13% opposed, but that backing appears conditional. About 42% in the party say they’d be less likely to support the campaign if American troops are killed or injured. Another 45% of all respondents—including roughly a third of Republicans—say rising gas or oil prices would erode their support. The poll of 1,282 adults, with a margin of error of about three points, comes as crude oil prices surged more than 8% and Trump’s approval rating dipped to 39%.

With all the rockets, missiles, drones and bombs who will become the ‘new’ leader of Iran?

President Trump reportedly is weighing a limited deployment of ground troops to Iran, with the installation of a postwar government a potential goal. But US intelligence analysts have warned that even a broad military offensive is unlikely to dislodge Iran’s ruling system, according to a classified assessment described to the Washington Post. The National Intelligence Council report, completed about a week before the US and Israel began their strikes on Feb. 28, concludes that Iran’s clerical and security institutions are structured to survive the loss of top leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, three people familiar with the findings said.

The document examines possible outcomes of both limited strikes focused on senior figures and more extensive attacks on government and military infrastructure. In each case, the report says, Iran’s leadership would turn to established succession mechanisms aimed at preserving continuity of rule. The likelihood that Iran’s fractured opposition could take over was deemed unlikely, per the Post. “There’s no other force within Iran that can confront the remaining power that the regime has,” said Suzanne Maloney of the Brookings Institution. The NIC report, according to those familiar with it, does not view the Iranian system’s grip on power as fragile. Outside experts said there is little evidence so far of large-scale unrest or serious fractures within Iran’s security apparatus.

One expert who has studied air power for three decades said airstrikes alone aren’t likely to remove Iran’s government, either, per CBS News. “The fact of the matter is, for over a century, states have been trying to topple regimes with air power alone and—I’m choosing my words carefully— it has never worked,” said Robert Pape, a University of Chicago professor. The White House did not say whether Trump has been briefed on the intelligence assessment.

In other words to effect a complete regime change it will take boots on the ground and all the downside that comes with troops actively taking part in this war.

What will Donny do?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Does Donny Want A Full Blown Invasion?

The initial strikes of the war have begun and this will continue until a sufficient amount of damage has been inflicted and then the second phase will be instigated.

Second phase?  Ground troops…..how long will this last?

The US military is preparing for the possibility that the US-Israeli war against Iran lasts until September of this year, according to a report from POLITICO, far beyond President Trump’s initial four-week timeline.

The report said that US Central Command is asking the Pentagon to send more intelligence officers to its headquarters in Tampa, Florida, to support operations against Iran for at least 100 days, but likely through September.

The news of the Pentagon preparing for a long war comes as US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has said that the US is sending more forces to the Middle East and will be escalating its bombing campaign.

(antiwar.com)

But what about the ground troops?

Senate Democrats said after receiving a classified briefing from the Trump administration on Tuesday that they’re increasingly concerned about the US-Israeli war on Iran dragging on “forever”—and involving American troops in a ground invasion.

“I am more fearful than ever, after this briefing, that we may be putting boots on the ground,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) told reporters, criticizing the Trump administration for not providing the American public with information that was given to senators behind closed doors.

(commondreams.org)

But what about the prez….what does he want?

President Trump has been talking privately about putting a limited number of US troops on the ground in Iran, multiple current and former US officials tell NBC News. According to those sources, Trump has floated deploying a small, targeted contingent rather than launching a large-scale ground invasion. The discussions, said to have been held with aides and Republican allies outside the White House, reportedly have centered on scenarios such as securing Iran’s uranium stockpiles and helping to set up a post-war government friendly to US interests, including cooperation on oil production similar to the US-Venezuela relationship after Nicolas Maduro’s capture.

NBC’s sources say no decisions have been made and no orders issued. Publicly, Trump has kept the option open without endorsing it. “I don’t have the yips with respect to boots on the ground,” he told the New York Post earlier this week, saying he “probably” wouldn’t need them but could use them “if they were necessary.” The White House also said on Wednesday that ground troops in Iran are “not part of the plan … at this time,” per PBS. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told NBC its report was based on “assumptions from anonymous sources” outside the president’s national security team and insisted that Trump “always, wisely keeps all options open.”

Is that a good sign?  No it is not…..

The Army just yanked the headquarters staff of elite paratrooper unit out of a major training drill, and it’s setting off alarms about what might come next in the widening conflict with Iran. The 82nd Airborne Division’s headquarters, which oversees rapid deployments of its 4,000- to 5,000-strong Immediate Response Force, was told to remain at Fort Bragg instead of heading to a planned exercise in Louisiana, officials tell the Washington Post reports. No orders have been issued, and the Pentagon insists it won’t discuss potential movements, but one official summed up the mood as “preparing for something—just in case.”

Analysts say any land operation could include seizing Kharg Island, a key oil hub. Michael Rubin at the conservative American Enterprise Institute tells the Post that securing the Persian Gulf island would be a “no-brainer.” Rubin says it appears that the administration is “coming around to the idea that Iran is a much greater problem set than perhaps they went in thinking.” Any such operation, however, would expose US forces and deepen political risks for Trump, who faces broad public opposition to a ground war.

Donny has seen that this is unpopular now that war dead are returning home and he has to have an out to prevent as mass opposition to this war…..and what would that be?

Donny and his band of idiots are trying to con the Kurds into being the spear tip on the ground…..

President Trump is leaning on the Kurds as he weighs whether to send US troops into Iran. Trump has phoned key Kurdish leaders in Iran and Iraq in recent days, offering “extensive US aircover” and other assistance if Iranian Kurdish opposition groups move to seize territory in western Iran, the Washington Post reports, citing US and Kurdish sources. Sources tell CNN that the CIA has been working to arm Kurdish groups in an effort that began months before the war.

  • In a Sunday call, Trump told Patriotic Union of Kurdistan leader Bafel Talabani that the Kurds must pick a side—”either with America and Israel or with Iran,” a senior PUK official said. Masoud Barzani of the Kurdish Democratic Party received a similar pitch, with US officials described as seeking Iraqi Kurds’ permission and logistical help, not their direct participation.
  • Trump also spoke with Mustafa Hijri, head of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, part of a new coalition of six Iranian Kurdish parties that has urged Iranian troops, especially in Kurdish regions, to stop backing Tehran’s security forces, the Post reports.
  • The outreach comes as Israel has been targeting police and Revolutionary Guard facilities in Iran’s Kurdish areas, in what analysts describe as a deliberate effort to weaken Tehran’s grip there while US strikes focus on military assets in other parts of the country.
  • The gambit carries substantial risks. Iraqi Kurds have long hosted Iranian Kurdish groups on the condition they do not launch attacks into Iran and have pledged not to let their territory be used as a staging ground. Kurdish leaders, wary of past US reversals and fearing Iranian retaliation if any uprising falters, are signaling caution. Ankara could also balk if Washington moves to arm Iranian Kurdish factions linked to the PKK, which is in a fragile peace process with Turkey.
  • “We are in a very delicate position,” a PUK official tells the Post. If a Kurdish offensive fails, “we do not know what Iran’s reaction against the Kurdistan region of Iraq would be,” the official says. “At the same time, we cannot simply reject Trump’s request—especially when he personally calls and asks for it.”
  • Asked Wednesday about reports of plans to arm Kurdish groups, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, “None of our objectives are premised on the support or the arming of any particular force. So, what other entities may be doing, we’re aware of, but our objectives aren’t centered on that.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump spoke to Kurdish leaders “with respect to our base that we have in northern Iraq,” but denied that any specific plan was agreed to, the AP reports.

Will the Kurds fall for this con job?

My guess is yes they will.

I hope that if and when the ground forces start that the killed in action will get more respect from Donny than he showed those that just returned over the weekend.

But that is too much to ask I fear.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

It Will Be All Over Soon

So Donny tells us in his usual lying way.

Just recently Donny has stated that this operation is pretty much complete….a highest magnitude lie.

President Trump suggested Monday that the war in Iran could be nearing the finish line. “I think the war is very complete, pretty much,” he told CBS News correspondent Weijia Jiang. “They have no navy, no communications, they’ve got no air force. Their missiles are down to a scatter. Their drones are being blown up all over the place, including their manufacturing of drones. If you look, they have nothing left. There’s nothing left in a military sense.” Trump previously said the war, now in its second week, could last four to five weeks. He said Monday, however, that it is “very far ahead of schedule.”

Asked about Iran’s new leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, Trump said, “I have no message for him. None, whatsoever.” He said he had a person in mind to replace him, but declined to elaborate In a post on X, Jiang said Trump told her he was thinking about “taking over the Strait of Hormuz. She said he told her, “They’ve shot everything they have to shoot, and they better not try anything cute or it’s going to be the end of that country.” Trump, who is scheduled to hold a press conference in Miami at 5:30pm Eastern, said wrapping up the war “is all in my mind, nobody else’s,” per the BBC.

It is all in his mind?  Perfect.

Everybody is looking for a good excuse for why this war has started…..of course mental midget Donny has a good one…..from his Monday press conference….

At a news conference Monday, President Trump was asked about his comments earlier in the day in which he told a reporter that the war was “very complete,” while the Pentagon said on social media: “We Have Only Just Begun to Fight.” Trump was asked whether it was the end or the beginning and said, “It’s the beginning of building a new country,” a comment that seemed to suggest the US might be engaged in the building of a new Iran, the AP reports. Trump suggested that the war was for the benefit of other nations, especially those dependent on oil that’s shipped through the Strait of Hormuz. “I mean, we’re doing this for the other parts of the world, including countries like China,” Trump said.

  • War over “pretty soon.” Trump said the war would be over “pretty soon,” but added: “We’ve already won in many ways, but we haven’t won enough.” He said the US was saving some of the “most important” targets, including Iran’s electrical grid, for later strikes, if necessary, France24 reports.
  • New nuclear site. Trump told reporters that the war with Iran began because that country was starting work on a new site for developing material for nuclear weapons. Trump said the new site was meant to replace facilities bombed last year by the US. “But they were starting work at another site, a different site, different kind of a site—and that was protected by granite,” Trump said. The president added that Iran wanted to use the “exponentially growing ballistic missile threat to make it virtually impossible to prevent them from obtaining a nuclear weapon,” claiming that Iran would have otherwise been able to take over the Middle East.
  • Iran would have attacked “within a week.” The president dismissed criticism from some Democratic officials that there was no reason for the US and Israel to strike Iran. “Well, I’ll give you the best reason of all. Within a week they were going to attack us, 100%. They were ready,” Trump said. He did not offer any information to support that statement but said Iran had “all these missiles, far more than anyone thought.” However, Trump administration officials told congressional staff in private briefings that US intelligence did not suggest Iran was preparing to launch a preemptive strike against the US, the AP reports.

We wait to see what Donny will do as soon as he can pull himself away from worrying about NCAA sports.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Joe McDonald–R.I.P.

The name may not mean much to the younger readers but I one served in Vietnam then Country Joe and the Fish was the anti-war song that meant the most.

The anti-war icon has died….

A voice that helped soundtrack the Vietnam era has gone quiet, USA Today reports. “Country Joe” McDonald, the frontman of Country Joe and the Fish and a defining figure of 1960s protest music, died Saturday in Berkeley, Calif., at 84 from complications of Parkinson’s disease, his band announced. He was “surrounded by his family,” according to the statement; no public memorial is planned.

Born Joseph Allen McDonald in Washington, DC, and raised in California, he served in the Navy before emerging in Berkeley’s folk and protest scene and co-founding Country Joe and the Fish in the mid-1960s. Their 1967 debut, Electric Music for the Mind and Body, helped cement San Francisco’s psychedelic rock sound, but McDonald became best known for his biting anti-Vietnam War song “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag” (a “talking blues” song done in the “deadpan” style of Woody Guthrie, the Guardian reports) and his expletive-laced cheer at Woodstock—moments he later said “changed everything in America.” NPR calls the song “a signature anthem of the 1960s counterculture,” and the Woodstock performance “one of the defining scenes of the festival.” The cheer, however, did once get McDonald arrested and fined after he used it at a Massachusetts show.

After his band broke up, McDonald continued to perform and release solo work for decades, often focusing on civil rights, environmental causes, and humanitarian issues, before retiring to focus on his family. He also expressed consistent support for the troops, and was involved with veterans’ issues throughout his life. He is survived by his wife of 43 years, five children, and four grandchildren; the family suggests donations to Swords to Ploughshares or the Michael J. Fox Foundation in his memory.

For me his voice and conscience will be missed for he help us antiwar protesters get through all the torment….

Thank you for your help and your voice in protest to a dumb ass war…..you and your morals will be missed.

Plus old farts like me will not forget what you did in our name.

His most famous antiwar song in remembrance of a great musician for the cause.

Thank you Country Joe and may you rest in peace.

chuq