Tag: Deaths

The Loss Of A Pet

For my last post of this week I thought I would write something that does not involve Donny or is sick supporters.

There are things in our lives that bring on grief and one that hits some the hardest is the loss of a beloved pet.

For some it is a heartbreak that is hard to overcome.

But why is this?

Losing a pet cuts deeper than most people expect. The silence in the house is heavy, every corner reminds you of what’s gone, and even the smallest habits feel undone. Anyone who has lived with an animal knows the absence is not just about them—it’s about a part of you no longer there. The constant presence, the steadiness you leaned on, disappears in an instant.

So, how long does that absence stay sharp? There isn’t a fixed answer. Grief doesn’t move by the calendar. It rises and falls, sometimes gently, sometimes suddenly, and it looks different for everyone. What we do know is that grief has a shape, and there are ways to carry memory forward while leaving room for healing to take hold.

When a pet is gone, the loss shows up in the smallest parts of the day. The morning walk doesn’t happen. The food bowl stays in the corner. The greeting at the door never comes. What you lose isn’t just the animal but the rhythm of living alongside them.

For people who spent most of their day with a pet—especially those at home—the silence can feel endless. Older adults and anyone living alone often feel it even more, because that companionship gave shape and purpose to their days. And for many children, saying goodbye to a pet is the first time they face what loss really means.

Grief doesn’t disappear overnight, but small steps can ease the weight. Some people write out their thoughts or address letters to the pet they’ve lost, finding relief in putting feelings on paper. Others set up a corner of the home with a framed photo, a planted tree, or an object that keeps the memory close.

What often helps most is talking with people who understand. Friends might not know what to say, and you may hear “it was just a pet,” which cuts deep. That’s where support groups, online communities, or even a good therapist come in. And if other pets are still in the house, keeping their routines steady can steady you, too.

In time, the sharpest edges of grief fade, but the bond doesn’t vanish. Living with the loss often means finding ways to keep your pet present in daily life. Some people foster or volunteer, channeling their love into helping other animals. Others keep smaller rituals, like greeting a photo in the morning or holding onto a favorite toy, as a way to stay connected.

At some point, you may think about bringing another pet home. That choice is personal and comes on its own timeline. A new animal doesn’t replace the one you lost, but it begins its own story alongside the memory that never leaves.

(alwayspets.com)

My dogs have helped me through some rough times in the past and their loss put a hole in my soul.

Coping with the loss is a personal thing similar to the loss of a family member (which the pet is in my mind).

Time really does not heal the wound of a loss….at least it has not for me.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scrbo”

08 June 1967

Today is Sunday and my usual ‘Last Week At The Sh*t Show’ is put on hold because there is something that I remember that happened on this day in 1967.

It always amazes me how little the American people care about this….if it had happened off the coast of Somalia the USA military would have punished those for the attack and yet Israel gets a free fucking ride.  This post will not be a popular one…. 34 Americans were murdered and about 170 maimed and NO one gives a crap one….but IT IS DISGUSTING!

While most of the country (that remembers WW2) is talking about the Allies and their invasion of Fortress Europe on 06 June 1944…..there is another date they should be focused on and never forget….08 June 1967.

The date when one of our staunchest allies attacked an unarmed US Naval vessel….killing 34 American sailors and wounding 170…..and that ally is still one of our staunchest allies….Israel.

For more than thirty years now, the US has repeatedly committed American troops and American treasure to carry out the bidding of Tel Aviv with no advantage gained for ordinary American people. The Iraq War—with its thousands of American casualties—the endless drone wars, the potential war in Iran, and the American alliance with jihadists in Syria, are all at the service of the Israeli state. Trillions have now been sent to fund various war efforts for the Israeli state, a foreign parasite state that continually calls upon Americans to toil and die for its benefit.

Israeli propaganda and lobbying efforts have been so successful, in fact, that pro-Israel Americans often refer to Israel as “our greatest ally.” Yet, the State of Israel is a cautionary tale about the dangers of committing American lives and treasure to the service of a foreign state that offers nothing when it comes to the actual defense of the American homeland.

As merely one example of the treachery of this supposed ally, it is always helpful to remember that the State of Israel is the only ally to have willfully attacked a ship of the US Navy, and to have suffered no repercussions for the attack whatsoever. I speak, of course, of the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty in 1967, an attack that most scholars now agree was deliberate, and which may have been intended as a false flag to get the US to declare war against Egypt. Then, as now, Tel Aviv was doing what it does: victimizing ordinary Americans and raiding the US Treasury.

On June 8, 1967 – three days after Israel initiated the Six-Day War by attacking Egypt – Israeli forces launched a combined aerial and naval assault on the Liberty. Lasting over an hour, the unprovoked attack killed 34 Americans and wounded more than 170 others. The Israeli government would claim that the attack was the result of mistaken identity. More than 57 years after the attack, the FOIA lawsuit revealed new details and, more importantly, it made it clear that the US government is still refusing to release hundreds of pages of documents concerning the assault.

If the reader would like to learn more about this cowardly attack then my past post can help for there are a wealth of sources for a better comprehension.

Remember The USS Liberty!

Nowadays, the incident is generally ignored, and since Tel Aviv’s unprovoked attack, the US regime has handed over to Israel more than a quarter of a trillion dollars of the US taxpayers’ money. Indeed, by 1974, Israel had become the number one recipient of US military and economic aid, all without any tangible benefit to ordinary Americans who foot the bill. Such is the nature of America’s greatest “ally.”

The fact that 34 sailors died in that attack and about 170 were wounded it should never be ignored or forgotten….and yet many Americans just do not seem to care.

Americans need to know who did this and why it is a ‘secret’ that no one wants the public to know.

There is a twist around the USS Liberty….

On Monday, April 7, 2025, the opening brief in Kinnucan v. NSA et al. (no. 24-7642) was filed in the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals. The appeal seeks to reverse a US District Court decision that a 57-year-old report in the possession of the National Security Agency (NSA) is a Congressional record not subject to release under the Freedom of Information Act. The report was prepared by the US House Appropriations Committee (HAC Report) and pertains to the 1967 Israeli attack on the USS Liberty (AGTR-5).

The USS Liberty, a WW II-era, Victory-class cargo ship converted to serve as a signals intelligence collector or “spy ship,” was commissioned in 1964 at the naval shipyard in Bremerton, Washington. On June 8, 1967, a combined aerial and naval assault on the Liberty, lasting over an hour, by Israeli forces killed 34 Americans and wounded more than 170 others. Following the attack, the US Navy undertook a hasty and incomplete Naval Court of Inquiry (NCOI) that found: “Available evidence combines to indicate the attack on LIBERTY on 8 June was in fact a case of mistaken identity.” However, the June 28, 1967 Defense Department public summary of proceedings of the NCOI stated: “It was not the responsibility of the Court to rule on the culpability of the attackers and no evidence was heard from the attacking nation.” According to the US Navy, “The Court of Inquiry was the only United States Government investigation into the attack.”

https://original.antiwar.com/Michelle_Kinnucan/2025/05/11/new-appeals-briefs-filed-in-uss-liberty-foia-lawsuit/

FYI…..

The ship’s commanding officer Captain William McGonagle was awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroic role in keeping the ship afloat, though President Lyndon Baines Johnson broke with tradition and refused to hold the medal ceremony in the White House, also declining to award it personally, delegating that task to the Secretary of the Navy in an unpublicized presentation made at the Washington Navy Yard. The additional medals given to other crew members in the aftermath of the attack made the USS Liberty the most decorated ship in the history of the United States Navy.

The Liberty crew was sworn to secrecy over the incident and a hastily convened and conducted court of inquiry headed by Admiral John McCain acted under orders from Washington to declare the attack a case of mistaken identity. The inquiry’s senior legal counsel Captain Ward Boston, who subsequently declared the attack to be a “deliberate effort to sink an American ship and murder its entire crew,” also described how “President Lyndon Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara ordered him to conclude that the attack was a case of ‘mistaken identity’ despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.”

“Mistaken identity” my ass!

Were the Israeli pilots that stupid that they did not recognize the American flag?

This was a deliberate attack and the goddamn bastards need to pay and be held responsible.

Yes I do not support the state of Israel and this is why….as a serviceman I detest anyone who kills Americans and gets away with it….especially an unarmed sigint ship.

I will remember the Liberty…..will you?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

For The ‘Scum’

Yesterday was Memorial Day and as usual Donny had lots to say……on the day we are suppose to remember our fallen heroes Donny went off the rails about Biden and other stuff that had little to do with our dead.

“Happy Memorial Day!” President Trump wrote on Monday morning. A bit later came the fiery elaboration, reports USA Today: “Happy Memorial Day to all, including the scum that spent the last four years trying to destroy our country through warped radical left minds,” Trump wrote in an all-caps post. He also blasted former President Biden as “incompetent” because of his border policies, which he says continue to be helped by “USA hating judges that is sick, and very dangerous for our country.”

Providing some context to the criticism, the Hill notes that a federal judge on Friday demanded that the White House facilitate the return of a third deported man—after complaining that the deportation “lacked any semblance of due process.” In his Memorial Day post, Trump described such judges as “monsters who want our country to go to hell.” He ended by promising that “America will soon be safe and great again!” Trump will speak later Monday at Arlington.

I worry that Memorial Day is personal to a smaller and smaller number of Americans. As a national community, Americans may no longer have the ability to collectively remember and honor shared sacrifice, because the sacrifice is not shared. The all-volunteer force created a military that is self-selecting. The wars of 9/11 created many veterans who are self-regarding and condescending to those who haven’t served in the military. A 2020 National Opinion Research Center survey found that a full 60 percent of post-9/11 veterans “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that the eligible Americans who did not volunteer to serve during wartime should feel guilty, compared to just 43 percent of older veterans and 22 percent of civilians. That is dangerous for the country.

At times, it is as though Americans compete to see who can be the most bombastically patriotic in remembering their war dead. Remembrance should be a solemn acknowledgment of the tragedy of war and the nobility in serving one’s country in its armed forces.

The day is not the time to air some idiotic political bullshit….but that never stopped the moron in the WH.

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”

“They Don’t Love Our Country”

That is the statement made by the Orange Man over the flags flying at half mast…..(I have no problem with it)….

Here’s the report of his thinking….

President-elect Donald Trump is not happy that American flags will fly at half-mast to honor the late President Jimmy Carter during his inauguration.

In a post to Truth Social on Friday afternoon, Trump expressed his frustration with the symbol of mourning during his second inauguration on January 20 and accused Democrats of being gleeful about the optics of the coinciding commemoration.

“Democrats are all ‘giddy’ about our magnificent American Flag potentially being at ‘half mast’ during my Inauguration. They think it’s so great, and are so happy about it because, in actuality, they don’t love our Country,” Trump wrote. “Because of the death of President Jimmy Carter, the Flag may, for the first time ever during an Inauguration of a future President, be at half-mast.”

https://www.salon.com/2025/01/03/hints-he-will-see-about-half-mast-flags-for-carter-during-inauguration/

What a petty and infantile douche!

While he pouts that the flag is at half mast what can he do?

President-elect Trump has expressed frustration that flags will be flying at half-staff when he takes office later this month. President Biden issued the order to honor President Jimmy Carter, who died Sunday at 100. It’s not a timeline that Trump can do anything about—until he takes office, the AP reports.

  • The order: Biden issued the order, in effect for 30 days, on Sunday. Flags are lowered to indicate that the country or a state is in mourning.
  • The rules: The US flag code lays out parameters for lowering the US flag to half-staff, including a 30-day period for current or former presidents covering flags at federal government buildings and their grounds, as well as at US embassies and other sites abroad. Flags also can be ordered lowered in the event of a national tragedy or on Memorial Day. Since the code says that no flag should fly higher than the American flag on the same pole or nearby, state flags are lowered during those periods, too.
  • Who receives the honor: Flags can be lowered at the deaths of others, including the vice president, Supreme Court justices, and members of Congress, though for shorter periods.
  • The deciders: According to the General Services Administration, the president, a governor, and the mayor of the District of Columbia can order US flags to be flown at half-staff.
  • Trump’s reaction: On Friday, the president-elect posted on social media that “Democrats are all ‘giddy'” about the notion that flags will be lowered when he takes office. “Nobody wants to see this,” he wrote.
  • Trump can raise the flags: The code’s 30-day rule isn’t mandatory, so once he becomes president, Trump could override it.
  • He’s done that before: After Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain died in 2018, during Trump’s first term, the Stars and Stripes were briefly lowered but went back up, while flags at the US Capitol and elsewhere stayed at half-staff. The flag was lowered again after complaints from Republicans and Democrats.
  • Precedent: Flags were at half-staff when President Nixon was sworn in for his second term in January 1973. Nixon had issued the order after the death of former President Harry Truman.

Personally I think the flag at half mast is indicative of what is happening in this country with his second term at destroying what is left of our system.

This dullard does not deserve any quarter for he has NO respect for this country or its history.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Least We Forget

Apologies this should have been posted much earlier.

We Americans spend a lot of time remember those that have died in service to this nation…..and yet we totally ignore deaths that came at the hands of our staunchest ally.

I apologize I usually post on this subject on the day it happened but this year with Sue’s chemo and doctors it slipped by without me noticing.

June of 1967 the US Naval ship, the USS Liberty, was attacked by Israel planes and boats killing 34 American sailors….but here is the post that I usually give to my readers…..there is a lot of info there but take the time and see what happened on that day and then explain why you refuse to acknowledge their deaths.

Remember The USS Liberty!

This incident deserves closure but so far there has been NONE.

This is why I have NO use for the state of Israel….they murdered 34 Americans and got away with it…..why?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–27May24

I hope everyone is enjoying their Memorial Day (observed) holiday.

It is a bit hot down here predicted to be 108 today….hope you day is better and cooler than ours.

This is a draft that I forgot about….sorry for the timing.

Remember the days when Putin’s critics were falling out windows at an alarming rate?

Well it seems that we have similar problem here in the US…..they are not Putin critics but rather Boeing whistleblowers.

If you will recall the original Boeing whistleblower about the shoddy safety died suddenly when he was due to testify….looks like lightening has struck twice….

Another whistleblower who had testified about Boeing’s safety protocols has died.

As the Seattle Times reports, Joshua Dean, a former quality auditor with Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems who raised concerns about its manufacturing process and allegedly substandard parts, has died after a two-week-long battle with a fast-acting infection at the age of 45.

The former auditor was said to be in good health before he got sick and began having significant trouble breathing. Soon after entering the hospital, he developed both pneumonia and the rapidly-spreading staph infection MRSA, and ultimately succumbed to the latter.

Based in Wichita, Kansas, Dean had been fired by Spirit — which was spun out from Boeing nearly 20 years ago in an outsourcing push and shouldn’t be confused with the discount flight company Spirit Airlines — in April 2023 after he repeatedly tried to sound alarm bells about the manufacturing processes for parts that went into Boeing’s 737 jets, as the Seattle Times previously reported.

After it was discovered that he’d missed a separate manufacturing flaw in the 737 parts, Spirit sacked Dean. He then filed a complaint with the Federal Aviation Administration and a whistleblower complaint with the Department of Labor, alleging that managers ignored safety concerns and mistakes and that he’d been fired wrongfully.

https://futurism.com/the-byte/another-boeing-whistleblower-died

This is strange that this ‘mysterious ailment’ seems to prefer Boeing whistleblowers….how do you treat that?

This has all the earmarks of an up and coming made for TV movie.

I will be watching for the next attack of that ‘mysterious ailment’.

Please take a few moments to remember those that gave their lives in service of this country.

Happy Memorial Day (observed)!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

500,000 Dead And Maimed

Now that Ukraine has taken a backseat to the other ‘war’ across the pond the news seems to glaze over much of the reports coming out of that conflict.

Of course we in the West get the news when it is something dire that could push more money to start flowing again into Ukraine.

Like this recent report….

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned allies on Saturday that an “artificial deficit” of arms for his country risks giving Russia breathing space, highlighting the need for artillery and long-range weapons after his military chief said he was withdrawing troops from the eastern city of Avdiivka, “the first major gain Russian forces have achieved since May of last year,” reports the New York Times. Zelensky spoke to the Munich Security Conference, an annual gathering of security and foreign policy officials, per the AP. Ukraine is back on the defensive against Russia in the nearly two-year-old war, hindered by low ammunition supplies and a shortage of personnel. “Ukrainians have proven that we can force Russia to retreat,” Zelensky said. “We can get our land back, and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin can lose, and this has already happened more than once on the battlefield.”

See a report for the spending of more US dollars.

But let’s think about what has happened as a result of 2 years to basically total war in Ukraine.

As we approach the second anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, it’s worth reflecting on who bears the main responsibility for the subsequent “inter-imperialist US-Russia proxy war,” an epic slaughter that produced 500,000 deaths and injuries so far and more than 300,000 fatalities (exact figures are hard to come by).

As we approach the anniversary could all this death and destruction could have been avoided?

Yes it could have been.

The Ukraine War could have been averted if Ukraine’s Western tool of a president Volodymyr Zelensky had said just five words after being elected in 2019:  “Ukraine will not join NATO.”

Five words versus 500,000 casualties.

Think about that.

As Benjamin Abelow pointed out in his short, expertly crafted, and Noam Chomsky-endorsed 2022 bookHow the West Brought War to Ukraine, the standard Western narrative claiming that Putin is “an insatiable, Hitler-like expansionist who invaded Ukraine in an unprovoked land grab” is complete nonsense. The real cause of the February 2022 invasion that led to the war was the misguided and reckless policy direction taken by Washington and its imperial tool NATO over the last three decades.

500,000 Dead and Maimed in Ukraine, Enough Already

Sorry but it is time for peace….or there will be nothing left of Ukraine for Zelenskyy to rule….

The mass slaughter on both sides in this long battle was a measure of the strategic value of the city to both sides, but it is also emblematic of the shocking human cost of this war, which has degenerated into a brutal and bloody war of attrition along a nearly static front line. Neither side made significant territorial gains in the entire 2023 year of fighting, with a net gain to Russia of a mere 188 square miles, or 0.1% of Ukraine.

And while it is the Ukrainians and Russians fighting and dying in this war of attrition with over half a million casualties, it is the United States, with some its Western allies, that has stood in the way of peace talks. This was true of talks between Russia and Ukraine that took place in March 2022, one month after the Russian invasion, and it is true of talks that Russia tried to initiate with the United States as recently as January 2024.

https://original.antiwar.com/mbenjamin/2024/02/21/after-two-years-of-war-in-ukraine-its-time-for-peace/

Nobody cares about who has died or why just that Putin is being confronted and the US has a permanent bad guy to blame everything on.  Most people cannot see past their chest thumping bullsh*t.

At what point is enough enough?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–18Jan24

This is a horrifying report out of the state of Alabama…..

The bodies of two men who died while incarcerated in Alabama’s prison system were missing their hearts or other organs when returned to their families, a federal lawsuit alleges. The family of Brandon Clay Dotson, who died in a state prison in November, filed a federal lawsuit last month against the Alabama Department of Corrections and others, saying his body was decomposing and his heart was missing when his remains were returned to his family, the AP reports. In a court filing in the case last week, the daughter of Charles Edward Singleton, another deceased inmate, said her father’s body was missing all of his internal organs when it was returned in 2021.

Lauren Faraino, an attorney representing Dotson’s family, said Wednesday that the experience of multiple families shows this is “absolutely part of a pattern.” Dotson, 43, was found dead on Nov. 16 at Ventress Correctional Facility. His family, suspecting foul play was involved in his death, hired a pathologist to do a second autopsy and discovered his heart was missing, according to the lawsuit. His family filed a lawsuit seeking to find out why his heart was removed and to have it returned to them.

“Defendants’ outrageous and inexcusable mishandling of the deceased’s body amounts to a reprehensible violation of human dignity and common decency,” the lawsuit states, adding that “their appalling misconduct is nothing short of grave robbery and mutilation.” Dotson’s family, while seeking information about what happened to his heart, discovered that other families had similar experiences, Faraino said. The situation involving Singleton’s body is mentioned in court documents filed by Dotson’s family last week. In the documents, the inmate’s daughter Charlene Drake writes that a funeral home told her that her father’s body was brought to it “with no internal organs” after his death while incarcerated in 2021.

Is the state harvesting human organs for profit?  Or is it that some ghoul in the prison system is getting rich desecrating bodies for profit?

This is just sick and more attention should be paid by everyone.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–28Nov23

If you live in the UK do not die without a will!

I seems that if you die without a will then the King can reap some benefits….

The deaths of thousands of people in parts of England have increased the personal wealth of King Charles III, according to a Guardian investigation that might persuade many people—especially those opposed to the monarchy—to write wills. In most of England and Wales, the assets of people who die with no will and no known next of kin go directly to the government. But under a system that dates to feudal times, those assets go to the king’s Duchy of Lancaster property estate if the person dies in a former dukedom that covers a large area of northwest England that includes Liverpool and Manchester. In Cornwall, the assets go to the Duchy of Cornwall, now controlled by Prince William.

The duchies have long claimed that the funds, known as “bona vacancia”—Latin for “vacant goods”—are donated to charities. But documents seen by the Guardian show that only a small proportion of the funds go to charities and duchy officials have been granted permission to use bona vacancia funds to upgrade properties that are rented out for profit. One source says duchy officials consider the revenue “free money” and a “slush fund” to renovate properties including town houses and vacation homes. Charles inherited the Duchy of Lancaster when his mother died last year. Earlier this year, he received almost $33 million in his first annual payout from the property estate.

The Guardian notes that many of those who died without wills or next of kin lived in homes far more humble than the ones their assets are being used to renovate. Friends of people whose assets were claimed by the duchy say they’re dismayed that the funds are being used to increase the king’s wealth. “It’s shocking and it shouldn’t be happening,” says Charlie Briggs, a friend of retired nursery manager Val Taylor, whose assets were transferred to the king’s estate after she died last year at age 72. “It would be OK if the money was going to people who deserve it but not if it is going to an organization that has plenty,” he says. (Read more King Charles III

Please any UK readers could let my readers know if this is true and why is it so.

All I can do is shake my head….I am in no way in awe of the monarch….I think it is a free ride for giving nothing back.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”