Being an Obnoxious Blowhard Doesn't Win Wars

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Today I could write about how I wasted an entire afternoon yesterday on the phone with two insurance companies and made two trips to a local pharmacy in an hours'-long effort that netted me a savings of just over four dollars - but I won't write about that because I am tired of listening to myself bitch, and other people have plenty to be pissed off about in their own lives without wallowing in my misfortunes.

So I am going another direction, with a focus on internet humor.  I came across three "memes"yesterday on Blue Sky. which I thought were hilarious.  None are my personal intellectual property, and I honestly do not know who the original creators were.

The first internet funny involves the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) which is sometimes referred to as the World Cup Soccer Association.  The good folks at FIFA, as you no doubt recall, made news for sucking up to Nobel Peace Prize loser Donald Trump by giving him their new FIFA Peace Prize Award.  Such an honor!

Yesterday someone posted a Blue Sky meme which claimed FIFA has given an award for the best documentary film of 2025 to . . . . . "Melania!"   And while the award is almost certainly fictitious, if it were offered, Melania, a Trump by marriage, would no doubt rush down the red carpet to accept it, especially if it came with a cash component.

The other two memes that caught my attention dealt with Trump and Netanyahu's war on Iran.  Trump rushed us into war apparently feeling that he was some sort of Generalissimo Grande after the quick military intervention into Venezuela.  He dragged us into Iran without consulting any of our allies, except Israel, the country that engineered the maneuver, along with hawkish exuberance from US Senator Lindsey Graham.  Neither Trump nor Graham have family members who will be called up to serve in the war that the two old men engineered along with fellow septuagenarian Bibi Netanyahu in Israel.

Trump never told America why we were going to war with Iran, at least not in a clear and coherent manner, and he never told us what our goals in the war were and how we would know when and if we had won.    In fact, he said our victory would be very decisive and that it would end quickly.   That was more than three weeks ago.  I thought the following meme summed up Trump's take on the war extremely well:

Week 1:  We won!

Week 2:  We're winning!

Week 3:  Send help!

 Donald Trump prosecuted a war without consulting our allies, seemingly based primarily on his "instincts."  Before it started he also expended countless amounts of energy criticizing and ridiculing countries that had been our strongest allies since the years preceding World War II, with tariffs, threats of tariffs, and threats to seize territory such as his noise about trying to take Greenland from our NATO ally Denmark.  Trump's closeness with Russian dictator Putin was, in fact, seen as a threat to the sovereignty of Ukraine and to the very existence of NATO itself.   Today Russia is aiding Iran in the new war, and Trump is still carrying water for Putin by lifting oil sanctions that had been in place against Russia.

When Trump committed American blood and treasure to aid Israel in a preemptive strike against Iran, he seemed to think it would be an easy in-and-out process like Venezuela had been, but Iran is not Venezuela.  One of Iran's first acts of retaliaton was to strike the many US targets and forces scattered throughout the Middle East, thus involving several more countries in the conflict, and now Iran is blocking the Strait of Hormuz which controls a good portion (20%) of the world's oil traffic.  The whole world knew those two things would happen.  Everyone knew except Trump, and neither Netanyahu nor Lindsey Graham bothered to tell him.

Now Trump is in a snit because he has invited other nations to come an help escort oil tankers through the Strain of Hormuz, something our own country has yet to do, and no other countries have accepted his invitation to get involved.  Trump is whining about our NATO partners and again making noises about withdrawing the United States from that important alliance, something that would make Putin and Russia very happy, BUT NATO is a defensive alliance which is supposed to spring into action when a member nation is threatened or attacked.  Its purpose is not to help member nations prosecute wars that they started.

So Trump still says we are winning the war in Iran, but his schedule for getting out seems to be slipping badly.  Iran was not supposed to be fighting back - didn't they know that?

Here is the third humorous meme from Blue Sky which sums up Trump's predicament of being stuck in his own war rather well:

"When you kick a hornet's nest, it's the hornets who decide when it's over."

Successfully conducting a war takes intelligence and cunning and a willingness to stay the course and fight it out.  Donald Trump has none of those qualities.

Being an obnoxious blowhard doesn't strengthen alliances, and it doesn't win wars.

Pentagon Pizza Index and Gay Bar Traffic

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

When governments, like the notorious Trump administration, try to operate in darkness, it's up to the press to be vigilant and shine a light on what is happening in our nation's illusive and closed-off corridors of power.  The Pentagon, under the control of former Fox News entertainer, Pete Heggseth, in particular, is averse to sharing anything that does not tell the story Pete wants told in exactly the manner that he wants it told.  Pete recently decreed that members of the Pentagon press corps sign an agreement to only report stories about the military that are expressly approved by his office.  Most respectable news gathering organizations declined and surrendered their Pentagon press credentials, Fox News included.

But good reporters are a wily sort, and stories from deep inside the bowels of the Pentagon, the world's second largest office building, continue to gush forth like water spurting from fountains along the Las Vegas Strip.  As I was collecting information for yesterday's post about the Pentagon's spending orgasm on high-value speciality food items and other luxuries at the close of FY25, a spree that ate up over $93 billion during the month of September 2025 alone, I came across a related story that explained how some savvy reporters in the Washington, DC, area were being alerted to sudden activity at the Pentagon.

The first story involved something called the Pentagon Pizza Index and was based on a principle that would have been obvious to most junior high students.  On nights when there were spikes in deliveries of pizza to the Pentagon by area pizzerias, big things were about to happen.  Even though the Pentagon denies the "Index" claiming no actual correlation between pizza orders and big military events - and the availability of many food sources within the Pentagon itself, anecedotal information seems to indicate otherwise.  On the night of January 15, 1991, just prior to the start of the first Gulf War - Operation Desert Storm, 101 pizzas were delivered to the Pentagon.  Months earlier, on August 1, 1990, the night before the invasion of Kuwait, the CIA brought in 21 pizzas.  Those figures were provided by the owner of a large chain of Domino's Pizza franchises in the Washinton, DC, area.

CNN Pentagon correspondent Wolf Blitzer later advised:  "Bottom line for journalists:  Always monitor the pizzas."

(Apparently now is is not difficult to surveil businesses digitally with a feature called "Popular Times" on Google Maps that shows live customer traffic - and Pentagon Pete has no control over that piece of free enterprise - yet.)

But "more activity" at certain commercial enterprisess isn't the only conceivable indicator that something big is about the happen with our nation's military, there is also an inverse indicator where businesses serve as bellweathers because they are experiencing less activity.  The gay publication, Queerty, reported that observers  at an iconic gay club near the Pentagon noted correlations in quiet nights at the club and subsequent military activities in the Middle East.  Observers also appear to be tracking activity at a gay club near the White House which has shown the same correlation.

Pete Hegseth may be lord and master of the Pentagon, but when  it comes to ferreting out information, most good journalists know there is more than one way to skin a possum, especially in the digital age!  

Shopping with Other People's Money

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The US federal government runs its financial books on what is called a "fiscal year" basis for budgeting and accounting purposes.  The federal fiscal year begins each year on October 1st and runs twelve months through September 30th.  As an example:  fiscal year 2026 (FY26) began October 1, 2025 and will end on September 30, 2026.  Toward the end of each fiscal year federal government agencies go into what is called "use it or lose it" mode where they rush to spend all of their budgeted money before the end of the fiscal year out of a fear that if they don't use it, their need for funds will be perceived as less in future budgets - and cut.

Last week a government watchdog group called "Open the Books" issued a report that revealed the the US Defense Department went on a wild "use it or lose it" spending spree early last September and managed to use $93.4 billion by the end of the month - most of which seems to have gone not for missiles and munitions, but rather was spent on obscenely expensive luxury items, little of which seems likely to make its way down to the level of the troops who carry the weapons and defend our country in uniform.

Fox News, a media outlet traditionally friendly to the Trump administration, was not amused at this latest revelation about Pentagon spending and chose to refer to it as "Lobstergate."  Members of Congress are vowing to investigate - as they damned well should!

At a time when basic government services are being cut across the board, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was on the record supporting the activities of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) which lead the way in many of those cuts, that same government official (tattooed Pete) thought it was acceptable to go on a frenzied spending orgy in September to use up the $93 billion remaining in the Defense Department budget.  US military veterans were losing heath care providers, access to care, and even housing, but Pete stepped into his new green room, powdered his tats, and emerged to go shopping.

Some of the Pentagon's "use it or lose it" purchases for the month of September included:

• $6.9 million for lobster tails;
• $2 million for Alaskan king crab;
• $15.1 million for ribeye steak;
• $140,000 for doughnuts;
• $124,000 for ice cream machines;
• $12,540 for fruit basket stands;   and,
• $98,329 for a Steinway and Sons Grand Piano (for an Air Force residence).

In addition to that September orgasm of spending, from March to June of 2025 the Pentagon spent over $7.4 million monthly for lobster tails.  No one in my part of the woods lives that well.  Hell, my community doesn't even have a Red Lobster!

(This pissed-off taxpayer wants to see the recipient of that pie-annie - and Pete Hegseth - jailed, or fired,  or both!)

It goes without saying that $93.4 billion would have bought a helluva lot of healthcare, or filled hundreds of food pantries, or put thousands of homeless veterans in warm and secure housing, or gotten the base pay of America's teachers up closer to a living wage.

Trump has proposed a record-breaking $1.5 trillion for the FY27 Defense Department Budget.  That's $1,500,000,000,000!  A big portion of Trump's outrageous spending will be tacked onto the national debt where it will accumulate interest and be passed on to our grandchildren and their grandchildren to worry about.   And - bureaucrats like Pentagon Pete will ensure that every damned penny of that budget gets spent - they love to shop with other people's money!

What a shame the oligarchs, billionaires, an Epstein class don't pay taxes!

People, this is why we can't have nice things!

A Weather Mess Meets a Government Mess

 

by Pa Rock

Observer

Today's weather forecast for the Ozarks seems to be offering the proverbial "something for everyone."   As I type this it is 9:30 a.m. CST.  The temperature is currently 62 degrees at my little home in West Plains, Missouri, with a high of 64 degrees expected soon and a low of 22 degrees predicted for this evening.   The sky is overcast and there is a slight breeze.  Our area is under a high wind advisory from 10:00 a.m. today until 7:00 a.m. tomorrow.

The forecast calls for rain today with a chance of severe thunderstorms this afternoon as well as the possibility of "isolated" tornadoes - and snow tonight!  The high tomorrow is supposed to be in the low 30's, with highs near 80 degrees by Thursday and Friday!

How's that for a weather mess!

There was a news article this week stating that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), had let its tornado-tracking contract expire, and as of early last week it had still not been renewed.   FEMA is under the operational control of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the screw-ups who are totally focused on finding and arresting immigrants of color.   Hey, Buttwipes, we're in tornado season now!   It would be nice to know where they are headed.  Surely Trump can give up one weekend of golf in order to fund tornado trackers!  Or maybe the Pentagon could forgo a lobster brunch in the Flag Officers' Mess once a month or so.

FEMA currently has a balance of $9.6 billion in its Disaster Relief Fund, an amount which sounds like a lot but is considerably less than the $11.3 billion that the United States spent on the first six days of its War on Iran.   FEMA's overlord agency, the Department of Homeland Security, is also in a financial squeeze due to Congress's  current DHS funding freeze -  a freeze which hits everything except Immigration and Custom's Enforcement (ICE).  Nice.

How's that for a government mess!

But hey, priorities - right?   I have a basement and don't live in a mobile home, so I should be alright - but some of my friends are not as fortunate.

Pete Pines for Patriotic Press to Push Pentagon Propaganda

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Pete Hegseth, the United States highly decorated (tattooed) and totally unqualified Secretary of Defense, came to his current political position from a background in journalism (of sorts) as a news contributor and weekend co-host of Fox and Friends on Fox News.    His specialty there was stories related to the military and veterans, with a big focus on opposing "woke" initiatives in the military - all of which brought Pete to Donald Trump's attention, and the rest is (an unfortunate) history.

Since assuming civilian control of our nation's military early last year, Pentagon Pete has fought a running battle with the same American press of which he was once a part.  Last September he issued a 21-page edict mandating that members of thee Pentagon press corps not publish or gather any military information not explicitly authorized for release.   Journalists were forbidden from developing their own stories, and instead were limited to whatever pablum the Pentagon chose to feed them.  They had to sign a pledge to follow Pete's rules.  Those who refused to sign Pete's pledge lost access to the Pentagon.  Most major news organizations refused to sign the pledge, including Hegseth's former employer, Fox News, and a new Pentagon press emerged from right-wing, on-line "journalists" who had no problems following the new rules.  A 1st Amendment lawsuit on the matter from the New York Times is currently working its way through the courts.

But Pete is worried about more that just what the press says about him, his department, and the military, he is also worried about appearances - and especially his own personal appearance.  The Pentagon had a "green room" where officials went to primp before going before press cameeras even before Pete became the Big Kahuna there, but that room was not up to Pete's primping standards, and not long after assuming his new job Pete had the existing Pentagon "green room" updated to a full-fledged make-up studio with a director's chair, new lighting, and a full mirror.  The cost has been reported in the news as "several thousand dollars" -  a mere pittance when your annual budget is over a trillion dollars.

So, Pete had rid himself of problem journalists, and he had a new, Hollywood-worthy make-up studio to insure that he looked great on television, on-line, and in news publications.  He had the news under control, or at least he thought he did until earlier this week when some photos of Pete that he regarded as "unflattering" showed up in the press.    The vainglorious Defense Secretary responded by quickly denying press photographers access to Pentagon press briefings.  That'll learn 'em!

Pentagon Pete has worked for over a year to strengthen his stranglehold over America's once-free press, but he still has not completely squelched it.  Today there was a story in the press having to do with Pentagon Pete's unhappiness over some of the more accurate, yet unflattering, reportage of the War on Iran.  He responded with complaints that the press needed to be more "patriotic" and not focus on US mistakes or failures.

Pete, the press, like the military, has a mission - and the mission of the press is to report the truth, not to carry water for American politicians like yourself and Donald Trump.   This taxpayer wants to know how his money is being spent and the true impact it is having on people's lives and futures - and this human being wants to know that his country is behaving honorably.  A free and unfettered press is what provides me with that information.

It Could Have Been Adult Diapers

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Instead of pissing on subordinates to mark the most servile members of the pack, Donald Trump is buying them shoes like the ones he wears.   When Trump came back into the Oval Office last year, he was suffering ankle issues and looking for comfortable footwear that wouldn't detract from his stately, businessman image.    He eventually came across a shoe brand and style that suited him perfectly:  an Oxford style dress shoe by Florsheim which sold for a modest $145 a pair.  Trump was so pleased with his footwear discovery that he decided to award each of the men in his inner circle a pair of their own.

Donald Trump has some rich dudes in his inner circle.   Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is a billionaire, as are some of the government agency heads and other prominent individuals appointed by Trump like NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff.   Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent are second tier rich guys in Trump World with individual wealth somewhere in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and then there's the relatively impoverished Secretary of State Marco Rubio whose wealth tallies only about a million-and-a-half dollars.    None of the people in that group, except possibly for Rubio, were likely to have had Florsheims in their closets - but some of them do now.

Recently Trump decided that since he is so pleased with his new Florsheim dress shoes, others would be, too.  He began guessing the shoe sizes of the male sycopants who were closest to him and ordering them shoes like his.   The shoes were being delivered to the White House and gifted on the premises.  Some recipients reportedly took their old shoes off while in the Oval Office and put the new shoes on.

One female staffer remarked to The Wall Street Journal, "All the boys have them."   Another elaborated to the same reporter, "It's hysterical because everybody's afraid not to wear them."

Secretary of State Marco Rubio received a pair that were too big, but wears them anyway.  A photo posted prominently on-line shows about a half-inch gap between the back of his heel and the shoe leather.  Unfortunately for the diminutive Floridian with the the big shoes, Ringling Brothers has ceased operation.

The cult marches on - in new shoes!

Count your blessings, boys.  It could have been adult diapers!

It's Time to End the Excursion and the Corruption

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Yesterday independent journalist Ken Klippenstein, a reporter who grew tired of the constraints that his corporate overlords were placing on the dissemination of news in America and struck out on his own to provide a non-corporate-filtered presentation of top news stories, published a list of the eighteen countries which have been directly impacted so far by Trump and Netanyahu's war on Iran.  His list and commentary show the impact of what Trump refers to as an "excursion" is having on the world, and Klippenstein makes the point that it is beginning to resemble a world war - perhaps World War 3.

What follows is Ken Klippenstien's atlas of the current situation involving the war with Iran:

1. Azerbaijan:  Iranian drones struck the country's international airport and neighboring infrastructure, injuring four civilians.
2. Bahrain:   Iran and its proxies hit a hotel and residential buildings in Manama with drones and missiles.   Some were intercepted by US Naval forces.
3. Cyprus:  Hezbollah-linked drones struck an RAF (British) air base, damaging runways.  Klippstein notes that the United Kigdom (Brits) responded, though curiously he did not place that country on his list.
4. Greece:  deployed frigates and fighter jets to defend the airbase on Cyprus that Hezbollah attacked, and it is also hosting US forces on the Greek portion of Cyprus.
5. Iran:  A central belligerent in the war.  It has been steadily attacked since February 28th, and has launched attacks on several other countries.
6. Iraq:  Iranian missiles and drones have hit US positions in the Kurdish portion of the country.  Iran-aligned militias have attempted to  storm the US Embassy Green Zone in Baghdad.
7. Israel:  A central belligerant in the war.  It has launched numerous attacks on Iran as well as Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.
8. Jordan:  Iranian missiles and drones have struck US radar bases in Jordan.  Jordan defense forces have intercepted some of the in-coming missiles and drones.
9. Kuwait:  Iranian missiles and drones have hit fuel tanks at the country's international airport.  Kuwait is also where the first six US deaths occurred at a makeshift base..
10. Lebanon:  Hezbollah fighters based in Lebanon have fired rockets, missiles, and drones into Lebanon, and Israel has responded with airstrikes nationwide and a ground incursion in the southern part of the country.
11. Oman:  Iran has stuck a port with missiles and drones as well as a shadow tanker in the Gulf of Oman.
12. Qatar:   Iranian drones struck major Liquid Natural Gas facilities in Qatar, stopping production.  Qatari jets have intercepted Iranian aircraft.
13. Saudi Arabia:  the country's defense forces intercepted Iranian missiles and drones that were targeting the Riyadh diploatic quarter.
14. Sri Lanka:  A US submarine torpedoed an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri-Lanka in the Indian Ocean killing 87.
15. Syria:  Israel has conducted airstrikes on Iranian and militia assets in Syria, such as fuel supplies headed to Lebanon.
16. Turkey:  Turkey has tried to block its airspace from Iranian missiles and drones.  It sent fighter jets to Cyprus to try to contain Hezbollah activity there.  Turkey is employing diplomacy to try and deescalate the conflict.
17. United Arab Emirates:  Dubai has been hit with Iranian missiles and drones, with damage to hotels and data centers.
18. United States:  A central belligerent in the war that has targeted and bombed Iranian assets both in-country and at sea, with one high-profile bombing of a girls' elementary school where 175 people, mostly children, were  killed.  Seven US troops have been reported as killed and another 140 wounded it he first thirteen days of the "excursion."

Add to that mix the fact that Cyprus and Greece are both members of the European Union, and the United Kingdom, Greece, Turkey, and the United States are mmbers of NATO, and the potential for expansion widens dramatically.

Donald Trump. Benjamin Netanyahu, and their good friend Lindsey Graham have suckered us into something far more serious than a weekend war game.    The war they have created is very real, very deadly, and very expensive.  Accoring to figures released by the Pentagon to Congress, the first six days alone cast the United States $11.3 billion.

$11,300.000.000!  In six damn days!  

It is already impacting people on the remote country lane where I live.  The gas at my loal station is up more than 40 cents a gallon since the start of the war - that's real money!   Every US dollar that is spent to kill people on the other side of the world is a dollar that won't be spent here to lower the cost of health care, food, housing, energy, or repair our crumbling infrastructure, or clean our environment, or secure our borders.

Real lives, real money, and real opportunities are all being squandered because a dottering old man in a golf cart fancies himself to be a modern day Julius Caesar - while his two oldest sons invest in a company to build and sell drones to the US government.

It's time to end the excursion and the corruption.

Auto-Correct, the Kitty Mafia, and Mr. Kitten

 

by Pa Rock

Struggling Typist

Ranger Bob and I had a (mostly) off-line discussion this past Sunday afternoon regarding something I had said in a blog about the old television show, "Welcome Back, Kotter."    Bob thought that a line I had used was out of place and was probably the result of "auto-correct" trying to be helpful.    It turned out "auto-correct"was not involved, the original words were mine, and I was just trying to sound smarter than I actually am.

At about that same time my son, Tim, was stranded out on a tarmac at the Kansas City International Airport (KCI) during an emergency evacuation of the building.  Tim sent an email telling me of his situation, and he mentioned that the delay in his flight had given him time to catch up on my blog.  He also commented on the posting about "Welcome Back, Kotter."  Tim said that he thought he had read somewhere that the actor who played the high school teacher, Mr. Kotter (Gabe Kaplan) is now a professional poker player.  But in Tim's email, "auto-correct" did not like "Mr. Kotter" and decided to change it to "Mr. Kitten."

The following day (Monday) I wrote a posting about all of the commotion that had occurred the day before at KCI, and positied a couple of personal theories as to what might have caused a police canine unit response and the evacuation of the airport.  Late that evening my friend Rose, who lives in Kansas City, emailed saying that Kansas City television stations were saying the evacuation was likely the result of a "swatting" incident by a radical group calling itself the "Kitty Mafia."

That worried me for a bit, especially because I had received an email referring to a "Mr. Kitten" during the evacuation, but so far Stephen Miller hasn't shown up at the door to seize my laptop and ship me off to El Salvador.  I couldn't find anything on-line regarding the "Kitty Mafia" except a couple of Kansas City stories which suggsted that group might have been tied to a bomb alert at the KCI airport.  There was, however, information on a tax-exempt cat rescue organization in Las Vegas, Nevada, that calls itself the "Kitty Mafia."    Homeland Security storming a cat rescue - or a cat house:  either would probably make a great YouTube video!

Now back to "auto-correct."  Here is one of my favorite jokes:

  

A minister, a priest, and a rabbit walk into a bar, and the bartender comes over and says, "Hey Rabbit, what'll you have?"  The startled rabbit replies, "Don't ask me, I'm only here because of auto-correct!"

That's probably why I'm here, too!

Russia is Aiding Iran; Ukraine is Helping Us

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

One of the many bald-faced lies that Donald Trump told while he was running for President in 2024 was that he could end the Russia-Ukraine War within 24 hours of becoming President.  It turned out that his only plan was to knock the US supports out from under President Zelenskyy in Ukraine and force him to surrender to Russia on Russia's terms, something the heroic Zelenskyy and the Unranian people would not do.  

Trump began his second term in office by showing absolute contempt for President Zelenskyy.   Who can forget the horrible show that Trump and Vice President Vance put on as they demeaned Zelensky at the White House in front of the press corps, the meeting where they criticized how he dressed and disparaged him for not saying "thank you" enough?  That was the day it became clear that Trump was envisioning a new world order with Russia and the United States as the super powers and Europe being consigned somewhere in the peanut gallery.

When Zelenskyy failed to capitulate to Trump's plan for Ukraine to surrender, Trump extended his 24-hour boast to 100 days.  That deadline has come and gone as well.  Now, in fact, more than fifteen months has passed since Donald Trump slithered back into office, and Ukraine still stands strong, alongside much of Europe, in its quest to remain free of Russian domination - and Trump's tilt toward Russia remains unmistakable.  

But Trump has been active on several international fronts - Greenland, Venezuela, Iran, and potentially Cuba - and he should be developing some sense of which countries have traditionally been allies to the United States, and why - and Russia has clearly never made that list despite Trump's ovbvious man-crush on Putin.

This week, during our current military foray into Iran (along with Israel), a conflict that Trump says will only last a few weeks, it was revealed that Russia has been providing Iran with intelligence on US military targets.  Russia is giving Iran information about the location and movements of American troops, ships, and aircraft.   That Russian assistance to Iran jeopardizes American safety and lives - and Trump's war plans.

Ukraine, on the other hand, the country that the Trump administration has spent more than a year trying to coax into surrendering to Russia, has come down on our side in the War on Iran.  It has offered to send drone specialists and interceptor technologies to counter the Iranian made Shahed Drones.

Russia is still our enemy - and Ukraine is our ally.   Wake up and smell the borscht, Donald!

Slava Ukraini!

KCI Airport Evacuated Yesterday, Flights Disrupted

 

by Pa Rock

Infrequent Flyer

I was in town grocery shopping early yesterday afternoon and not checking my phone every two minutes like sad people do - and by the time I got home I found two emails from my youngest son who lives in the Kansas City area.  He seldom emails, so that had my attention.

Tim's first email informed me that he was at his local airport, Kansas City International (KCI), awaiting a flight to New York for several days of work-related (writing) activity in the Big Apple.  The second email, which had arrived thirty or so minutes later, said that he was still at the airport but no longer inside.  The entire place had been evacuated and he was now with hundreds of other stuck travelers standing outside on the tarmacs.  Eventually, a couple of hours after that I got a third email saying that he was finally airborne and headed to NYC.

During the afternoon I sifted through various internet sites collecting what information was available on the situation at the Kansas City airport.  Good, independent news is a rare commodity these days, but I finally focused of coverage from the Associated Press (AP).  That service reported that the evacuation started around 11:15 in the morning when police canine units began arriving in the airport and people were suddenly informed to evacuate the building immediately.  Airports, and that airport in particular, are zoos on their best days, but throw in a complete evacuation and you undoubtedly have enough drama and comic opera to create a television movie of the week, or maybe a whole series!

During the melee, which lasted around three hours, some flights into KCI were diverted to other airports, the planes that were allowed to land had to remain on the tarmacs with their passengers staying on board, and the people who were trying to leave Kansas City stood around on the tarmacs checking their phones and watching YouTube videos.  Eventually, not long after 2:00 p.m., FBI Director Kash Patel announced that the threat had been "reviewed and deemed not to be credible."  But whether the threat was credible to Kash or not, the airport's multi-level parking garage was shuttered for a couple of additional hours.  Local vehicle traffic was also impacted by the situation at the airport.

As of this morning there still appears to be no news regarding what the actual threat entailed or how it was delivered.  Two obvious possibilities spring to mind, at least to my old gray mind.  One is that the threat was engineered by some disgruntled TSA employee who is pissed because he hasn't been paid in weeks (thanks to our useless GOP  Congress), and the other would be a protest of some sort related to the new war in the Middle East, the one the United States helped to initiate.  Either way, the buck should stop on Trump's desk, but it was Sunday and he was undoubtedly out playing golf in Florida or somewhere exotic on our dime.  Trump's flights are never interrupted.

One other item of note, AP used a file photo for their story - a picture of one of the smaller terminals at the old Kansas City airport, the one that was bulldozed a few years ago to make way for the five-story shopping center with runways.  The airport shops probably didn't sell many eight dollar sodas yesterday!

Flying America's friendly skies has long been a nerve-wracking and humiliating experience.   Now, thanks to the ineptitude of the Trump administration, it looks as though this spring and summer will be much worse that usual.  Also, as the price of oil keeps going through the roof thanks to Trump and Bibi's war on Iran, the price of airline tickets will soar higher than the planes themselves.   This would certainly be a good time to renew the national conversation about upgrading the nation's passenger rail service and incorporating high-speed rail across the country like other modern nation have done.

But while we can afford endless war, we cannot afford nice things for the people who live here and pay the taxes, things likes adequate health care, food security, livable and affordable housing, and a national transportation system that would meet the needs of all Americans.

The Other Epstein (was a Sweathog)

 

by Pa Rock

TV Junkie

Today when the name "Epstein" surfaces in the news it is almost always in a negative story about a self-made billionaire who was a rampaging pedophile and pimp with legions of loyal and extremely rich sycophants who were eager to be in his circle of friends and to join in his sexual depravity with underage girls.  That Epstein,  Jeffrey, was a scumbag of the first water - and so were many of his rich and powerful associates.  Today he is dead, and his friends are cockroaches desperately struggling to stay hidden in darkness.

But for those of us of a certain age, the name "Epstein" evokes an earlier image, one of a high school student of Jewish and Hispanic descent in a popular television series back from the late 1970's.   That was about the same time when the yet-to-be notorious Jeffrey Epstein was a physics teacher at the prestigious Dalton School in Manhattan, a highly exclusive private institution.  

The television series that featured the other Epstein was a comedy called "Welcome Back, Kotter," a tale about another teacher in New York City, but at a struggling public high school whose students were much less well connected and wealthy as those Jeffrey Epstein was teaching at Dalton.  Kotter's school was a fictional setting called James Buchanan High School in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, New York.  It was a rough and tumble, poor urban setting, with the central character, Gabe Kotter (played by comedian Gabe Kaplan), having just returned to his old high school as a teacher.  By teaching the young toughs he found there, the new teacher was, in effect, paying for his own misadventures in high school.

Gabe Kaplan, the star of the television series which ran from 1975 through 1979 (95 episodes), was also a creator of the series and he based the school on the Brooklyn high school which he had actually attended, a move which heightened the realism of the show.

In addition to Kaplan, the show had six other main characters:  Marsha Strassman as Kotter's wife, Julie;  John Sylvester White as Mr. Woodman, the principal;  and four male students who were known collectively in the show as "the Sweathogs" and included Ron Palillo (as Arnold Horshack);  Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs (as Freddie 'Boom Boom' Washington);  Robert Hegyes (as Juan Epstein); and John Travolta (as Vinnie Barbarino).  Each of the seven main characters (including Gabe Kaplan) appeared in all 95 episodes of the show except for John Travolta whose star was on the rise by the end of the series - and Travolta only appeared in 82 episodes.

Robert Hegyes who portrayed Juan Epstein, the skinny young kid with the big smile who stood beneath an immense Afro, went on to do a few other bits in television, and had one addtional recurring role of note: he played Detective Manny Esposito on the television crime drama, "Cagney and Lacey" for 41 episodes during the mid-to-late 1980's.

Of the Sweathogs, Robert Hegyes and Ron Palillo (Epstein and Horshack) both passed away in 2012,  and Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs and John Travolta both survive and are each 72-years-old.  Gabe Kaplan is 80 now and also still living.

Robert Hegyes was the first Epstein to garner my attention, and he was certainly a much better human being than the one on whom the world is currently focused.  Juan Epstein was an authentic and gritty public school kid, both on-screen and in real life, while Jeffrey Epstein, a vain, manicured, and evil predator with roots in the very exclusive world of private schools, was at the other end of the social spectrum.

Juan Epstein made the world a happier place;  Jeffrey Epstein defiled it.

The Storm and the Cruise

 

by Pa Rock

Curmudgeon in Spring

I'm taking a break today from writing about Piggy and his poorly planned war, but will undoubtedly return to that distressing and disgusting topic in a day or so.   That blood-soaked tragedy is just too all-pervasive to be ignored for long.  This posting looks at things closer to home.

First, the weather.  

The forecast for the Missouri Ozarks has been for thunderstorms over the past several days, but those did not occur, at least in my patch of the Ozarks, until last night.  The heavy and steady rains hit sometime around midnight, and they were soon joined by thunder and lightning.  The symphony of sound and flashing light continued through the night, and now, at midmorning, the rain is still continuing but without the sound and the fury.

It was absolutely perfect sleeping weather!  This morning the pond is full and so is the large depression down by the road,  Water everywhere with more every minute.  I haven't been to town yet, but this is flooding weather and the creeks are sure to be beyond their banks.   Seasons change according to calendars devised by politicians, but those of us smart enough to sit out on the porch and observe for awhile know that seasons change on their own and calendars be damned.  This morning has the feel of spring, even without the sun showing itself.  In my worldview, spring arrived last night along with the thurnder, lightning, and rain.

Politicians also determine the time of day, and tonight most of us will set our household clocks ahead one hour and begin to readjust our internal clocks as well.

Humanity operated for eons with neither calendars nor clocks, but now that we have them, we feel compelled to keep adjusting them.  What would Henry David Thoreau have tweeted about Daylight Savings Time?

Yesterday while standing in line at one of my town's Casey's convenience stores, I listened to a woman expound to the lady operating the cash register about the vacation where was preparing to take.   In fact, everyone who was in the line waiting to pay got to hear the details of her upcoming cruise.   And it was an interesting tale, almost heart-warming.

The woman, who appeared to be nearing retirement age, was telling her friend, the cashier, that her son had purchased an all-expense paid cruise for her in the Western Caribbean.  We heard the itinerary:  a couple of stops in Mexico, one in Honduras, and one in Belize, as well as some of the amenities that the ship had to offer.  The core of her story, though, was that she had spent the last twenty-five years taking care of other people, and now somebody (her son) was finally doing something for her.  The lady's story got somewhat emotional, and I fully expected to hear applause as she finished,  There was no applause, but most of the customers were smiling as they paid for their items and left.

The moral of that story is that even while the world is unraveling due to the war machinations of two hoary old criminals, here locally a son has done something exeptionally nice for his mother.  While goodness may not manifest itself across the headlines, it still exists, like the flowers of spring, scattered across our local communities.  

Bon voyage, stranger.  Enjoy your adventure!

Grand Potentates are Expensive

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Donald Trump has no shame when it comes to coveting our money.  A little over a month ago he and his two oldest sons and the "Trump Organization" filed suit against the Internal Revenue Service and the US Treasury Department for $10 billion over an alleged leak of some of his tax returns, a process routinely performed by Presidential candidates, but not by Trump.  He is suing the government that he heads over releasing documents that he should have released himself.  But Donald Trump is not like other political candidates, he is entitled beyond all  expectations.  Things work differently for him.  He is special.

Here is another example:

Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump's personal country club in south Florida, has been in the news this week.  There were stories involving the special "Situation Room" or "War Room" that has been installed by taxpayers on the property to allow top secret discussions to be held where the presidential entourage is ensconced most weekends.  Presumably, with Trump being at Mar-a-Lago when the decision was made to go to war with Iran, there were top level discussions and phone calls that demanded the utmost security.  The need for all of the security upgrades is understandable, even to an old progressive like me, but, as happened with Nixon's estate in San Clemente, once the President leaves office, all of those expensive property enhancements and upgrades remain behind.

So in addition to taxpayer-funded trips to his own country club to play golf most weekends, and taxpayer-funded rooms for his security detail and flunkies, all of which goes into the pockets of the Trump family, we, the American taxpayers, are also footing the bill for permanent improvements to the property.  Sweet!

And, bccause club membership at Mar-a-Lago allows much easier access to the President of the United States, Trump has been able to raise the membership "initiation fee" from $100,000 in 2016, to a reported $1 million currently.  Sweeter yet!

But even with a "War Room," Mar-a-Lago is more-or-less a public and private entity that invites a rich clientele from diverse backgrounds as well as a staff of vendors and servants drawn from the local community.  It's not nearly as sealed off as the White House, and when strategists leave the "War Room," they are immediately in the swim with the 500 rich members of the club and their families, as well as all manner of people from the local personal services and mercantile classes.

Keeping secrets at Mar-a-Lago is no doubt far more complicated and expensive than it would be at a large home on a country estate, or a completely secluded retreat like Camp David, for instance.

But we have to do it because Donald Trump is special - and he happens to own a country club that calls him home almost weekly.

Special rules, lawsuits, free property enhancements, fully-funded golf weekends . . . Grand Potentates do not come cheaply.

US Military: Iran War to Hasten Return of Jesus

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The United States and Israel launched their massive assault on Iran just this past Saturday, less than a week ago, and already that war (and it is a "war") has generated more than one hundred complaints from US servicemen and women that commanders are depicting it as an event that will bring about armageddon and the return to earth of Jesus Christ - presumably so the former Prince of Peace can stand with the aggressors and smite the infidels of Mohammad.

It would be hard to get more Christian Nationalist than that.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a watchdog group that actively seeks to keep religion a matter of personal choice within the military, reports that since the war began it has received 110 reports from thirty bases and installations and across all branches of US military service stating that commanders are describing the war as some sort of "end of times" scenario in which the fighting will speed up Jesus's return.

The military mission, whatever it is, would seem to include infusing the attacks on Iran with a strong element of religious passion. 

There is a wall between church and state, or at least there used to be, and it was there for a reason.   The number of Americans who identify as some sort of Christian has been on a steady decline over the past several years, slipping from roughly three-quarters of the population to now less than two-thirds, and of those who profess Christianity, specific beliefs vary widely.   It is not the government's role nor the military's to impose religion on the American people, nor to use our nation's wealth and resources in pursuit of a religious belief or goal.

If there is an all-powerful deity sitting on a cloud somewhere patiently waiting to come home, let him make his own damned travel arrangements.  If he is reliant on taxpayer dollars and bloodshed, he should just stay where he is because we have plenty of those gods down here already.

Red Rover, Red Rover

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

We are now in Day 5 of Trump and Bibi Netanyahu's war on Iran, with the US body count standing at six with reports of another five to eighteen having been seriously wounded.  One news report this morning disclosed that the entire Iranian Navy has been sunk and that the US and Israel have complete control of the skies over Iran.  All of that winning, yet we are still being told that the war will drag on for weeks - or longer.

In a world now controlled by social media, those opposed to the war are no longer marginalized to peace protests and marches in major cities or on college campuses, and many isolated protestors have begun to feel quite at home painting their rage across the social media landscape.  I saw a post on Blue Sky a day or two ago that was not only funny, but left me with a sense of nostalgia for my days in elementary school back in the 1950's - and especially the best parts of those days - recess!

The posting on Blue Sky was a barb directed at the Trump family, and Barron Trump, the President's youngest son, in particular.  Barron, a college freshman at New York University who lives at home with his highly protective mother, Melania, will be 19 in a couple of weeks, a prime age for service in the military.  The message read, "Red Rover, Red Rover, send Barron right over."  Its purpose was to highlight the historic truth that the children of the rich and powerful rarely fight in our nation's wars.   The rich start wars and profit from them, while the poor do the actual fighting and dodge the bullets.

There have been notable exceptions to that.  One of Sam (Walmart) Walton's sons was a medic in Vietnam, one of Joe Biden's served in the Middle East during the Bush Wars, and two of John McCain's sons served in combat, Jimmy as a Marine in Iraq and Douglas as a Navy pilot.   But for the most part, the rich kids sit safely at home nursing their bone spurs and partying.

Members of Donald Trump's family have never served their country in uniform, that is historical fact.  Barron was singled out in that particular Blue Sky post because of his age - being just perfect for military service - but it is his older siblings who have already taken so much from America, who should be spotlighted for their disinclination to serve.  

But the basics remain:  the rich start wars and profit from them while the poor carry the rucksacks and rifles as they trudge through the rain and mud of time eternal.

There was considerable clamor over the Internet about the suggestion of Barron serving his country in uniform, and the White House felt compelled to quickly point out that at 6' 9", Barron is too tall for military service.   It turns out that all of the branches of service have a height limit of 6' 8".   He could probably still get in if he was insistent and his Daddy used his commander-in-chief authority to bend the rules, but let's not hold our breath waiting on something like that to happen.  (The maximum height requirement is to accommodate existing uniforms, gear, and military equipment which was not designed for potential NBA stars - and it is a more respectable deferment reason than "bone spurs.")

War continues, but I don't know whether Red Rover does or not.    Red Rover was a playground game where a large group of kids divided into two smaller groups and each group formed a line with arms linked and stood facing the other.  Then the kids in one line would should to the other line - "Red Rover, Red Rover, send Billie (or Joe, or Susie) right over.  The kid who was singled out had to run at the opposing line and try to crash his (or her) way through a set of linked arms.  If the runner was successful, he (or she) would take the people whose arms he (or she) had gotten through back to his (or her) original line, but if that person was unsuccessful, he (or she) would stay in the line that he (or she) had failed to penetrate.  At least that's how I think we played it at the Noel School.

Ding ding, ding!  That's the bell.  Recess is over!

Drapes, a New Ballroom, and, Oh Yes, War with Iran

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

More than three full days after taking the United States into war with Iran, something he calls an "operation" because he did not get the constitutionally-mandated war declaration from Congress, our draft-dodger-in-chief is now scurrying around trying to come up with reasons for going to war as well as a list of what he hopes to accomplish through this military misadventure, a.k.a. "objectives."

Generally leaders clearly enunciate reasons and objectives BEFORE pumping lives and treasure into an overseas meat grinder, but our leader is just stumbling along rattling his sabres, patting himself on the back, and discussing White House drapes and his new ballroom - and talking about the war when it flits across his mind.  There is nothing quite as reassuring as having a leader with less than a "laser focus" while he conducts war from a golf cart.

He does know that he is putting his FIFA Peace Prize at risk with this vainglorious production of lethal theatre, doesn't he?

Donald, oh Donald, think how much better off you and our country would be if you had actually served in the military and had some inkling of the horrendous mess into which you are dragging us.  Perhaps then you would have put some thought into our reasons for attacking Iran, as well as a list of things we hoped to achieve through our efforts.  

Reasons and objectives are good, Donald, for everyone.  American taxpayers need some accountability as to how their taxes are being spent, and why.  And the parents of those little girls who were crushed beneath falling slabs of concrete when their school was struck by our missiles over the weekend would undoubtedly like to know why their precious children had to lose their lives - and in such a grotesque, painful, and inhumane manner.  Do you have any empathy, Donald, or even know what it is?

Do you even know what day it is?

War Update: 165 Killed at Girls' Elementary School, 91 Injured

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

At least 165 people, many of them young girls, perished yesterday when their school in Minab, Iran, was struck by missiles fired by the invading US and Israeli forces.      Many of the girls were in the school gymnasium practicing team sports when the missiles struck, and they were crushed to death as the school's concrete roof caved in.  The first people to arrive at the scene reported being overwhelmed by smoke and children screaming.

Malala Yousafzai, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and an advocate for girl's education, had this to say regarding the killing of the Iranian girls at their school:

"They were girls who went to school to learn, with hopes and dreams for their future.   Today their lives were brutally cut short.  Justice and accountability must follow.  All states and parties must uphold their obligations under international law to protect civilians and safeguard schools."

Children have enough to worry about with school shooters and sexual predators.  They should not be targets of war!

Donald Trump, who took the US into war with Iran without a mandate from Congress - as required by the US Constitution - said he  believes the "Iran operations" are likely to last four to five weeks, but that he is prepared to "go far longer."  Notably, Trump declined to go at all when the Vietnam War was raging.

But back to Iran . . .

News reports indicate that at least four American military personnel have been killed during the invasion of Iran, and at least 18 others have been "seriously wounded."  Kuwait mistakenly shot down three US fighter jets, but all six pilots were able to eject safely.  Israel seems to have a focus on targeting Lebanon.  The fires of war appear to be very hot and spreading.

None of the Trumps have been called up to fight - as per usual.   Praise White Jesus!

Sunday Morning Kansas Style

  

by Pa Rock

Road Warrior

Rosie and I are in Roeland Park, Kansas, for a weekend of catching up with some of the grandkids.  We drove up yesterday, a beautiful day to be out.  Today the skies are still clear, at least for now, but it is much chillier than yesterday.  The forecast is for possible wintry weather this evening.

The Macys who live here are all still sleeping, but Rosie and I have been up for a couple of hours.   We have gone to the local Casey's and brought home two bags of breakfast.  Now we are waiting for the family who lives here to wake - and for my 18-year-old grandson who lives on the Missouri side of the line to arrive for a visit.  Later today we have some errands to run, and tomorrow morning, if the roads are clear, we will head home.

Trump has us in a war with Iran, one that seems to be spreading across the Middle East.  From the reports I'm hearing, he can't even articulate a reason for going to war, but is fired up about it anyway.    Three US troops have already reported killed and five wounded.    This is definitely a time where some adult leadership would be of value, but instead we are saddled with reality TV bozos, Fox News personalities, and world class kooks.

Update:  the family members are all up and getting around, the 18-year-old grandson is here and seems to be doing fine, and we are about to head out to Winstead's in KC, MO, for lunch.

More from the road later.

UPDATE:  Early Sunday afternoon:  Sleet, lightning, and thunder.  I blame Trump!

Epstein Files: Released and Investigated Selectively

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Two prominent Brits have been arrested over their involvement with the late sex-trafficker of children, Jeffrey Epstein.   Important people.   The former British Ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson, and King Charles' younger brother, Andrew Mountbatten Windsor.   None so far have been arrested in the US apparently other than the pedophile ringleader, Epstein himself (an American), and his partner in crime, Ghislaine Maxwell, a native of France who was raised in Great Britain.

Important people on both sides of the Atlantic are resigning their positions of prominence out of shame and embarrassment over their revealed associations with the international pedophile, but from a governmental point of view, Epstein's crimes are being taken more seriously by British authorities than those in the United States.

Our Republican Congress and Department of Justice seem to have two gears when it comes to the Epstein crimes:  use the records and scandal for political gain when possible by implicating Democrats, and bury any connections between the scandal and Donald John Trump.

The DOJ actively looked for material in the files related to former President, Bill Clinton, undoubtedly as a way of distracting from the current President's long and close association with Epstein.  Clinton and his wife Hillary, both prominent Democratic politicians, were subpoenaed to appear this week before the House Oversight Committee to testify on their involvement with Epstein, although there was apparently nothing in the files implicating Hillary.  The Clinton's did testify, even though their request to testify in public was denied by the House committee.  Hillary, who had no information about Epstein, did prove to be problematic for the committee with her public complaints about Trump NOT being called to testify, highlighting the hypocrisy of the Congressional committee that is so obvious to most of America.

The Clintons have testified, and the door for Congress to subpoena Presidents has been kicked open.  Now, when the Democrats take over Congress next January, who will they subpoena?

The other big Epstein news this week has been the fact that some news sources, including National Public Radio (NPR), have determined while studying evidence logs of the files, that at least fifty-three pages of investigative notes regarding an accusation against Donald Trump were not included in the document release.  The missing pages reportedly relate to an accusation from a woman who claims Trump forced her into a sexual encounter when she was a child of thirteen.  Her claim was supposedly investigated according to entries in the evidence logs, but the notes from those investigations are missing.  Imagine that!  

Does the US Department of Justice work for Americans - and their children - or is it just there to serve one very self-important individual, the one whose face is on the large banner affixed to the front of their building?  The answer is becoming painfully obvious.

We are talking about horrendous crimes against children, and those children deserve justice.  If British royalty can be held to account, then, damnit, ours should also be held to account!   Sleazebag Americans are no better than sleazebag Brits.  Lock 'em up!

Courageous Cubans Struggle for Survival

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

A raging economic and humanitarian crisis is enveloping the island nation of Cuba which lies a mere 90 miles south of the United States.   The people of that small country are suffering from high inflation, low tourism, a lack of foreign currency to buy imports, and a US oil embargo.  Food, gas, and other necessities aren't available, and when they are, they are not affordable.

Two good North American neighbors have stepped in to help fill the breach, though their efforts are still woefully short of meeting the needs of the Cuban people.  Two Mexican naval vessels left Veracruz on Tuesday carrying nearly 1,200 tons of food and aid.  They are expected to reach Cuba tomorrow.  And Canada has announced that it is providing an immediate cash donation of $8 million to the World Food Program and UNICEF for humanitarian food assistance to the island nation of Cuba.

The United States, for its part, is working diligently to make matters worse for the Cubans.  The US had placed an energy embargo of the island, and our country is threatening to raise tariffs on countries that break the US embargo.

The US animosity toward Cuba is rooted in the people's revolution of the 1950's which overthrew the authoritarian government of Fulgencio Batista on January 1, 1959.  Many comfortable and wealthy Cubans who fled the island ahead of Castro's victory settled in the United States, particularly south Florida, where they harbored dreams of one day returning to their homes, regaining the properties that they abandoned. and once again being part of the island's ruling class.  Today those original refugees who are still living almost seventy years later, and their descendants, form a hardcore Republican voting block that has an outsized influence on American politics.  That group, which includes US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, is putting pressure on the Trump administration to increase the power of the embargo and squeeze the life out of Cuba.

The Trump administration is open about wanting to topple the socialist government of Cuba, presumably to bring back the casinos and crime that made Havana a playground for rich, hedonistic Americans in the years preceding the Revolution, and in much the same style and grandeur as its plans for glitzy seacoast resorts in Gaza.  Neither plan takes into account the real life struggles of the working classes, the people whose toil and sweat would be commandeered to make those gilded spectacles possible.

Cuba and Gaza both need the basics of survival - things like housing, food, fuel, energy, and health care - not casinos and resorts.

As I mentioned a couple of days ago in this space, the Cubans that I have known personally, and they number in the dozens, are kind, caring and helpful.  How sad that our own country can't promote those Christian values.

Stand strong, Cuba, you are not alone.

Viva Cuba libre!

Going Home to Mountain View

 

by Pa Rock

Aging Scribe

Most of us, through necessity, establish several homes during our lifetimes.   We grow up in one, or sometimes more, strike out on our own to begin eperiencing life, move around for marriage, family and work-related reasons, and then, if fortune smiles, find a place that suits our elder selves in which to retire and live out our remaining days.   Each of the places we inhabit on the rush through life imprints itself on who we ultimately become, and, to an extent, each of those locations maintain places in our psyches as our "homes."

One of those places which feels like "home" to me is Mountain View, Missouri, where my wife and I had our first professional jobs in the field of education.  It was 1977, and times for teachers were (and always are) lean.  We signed teaching contracts for $7,200 per annum and were pleased when the school board found funding over the summer before we began work to increase that salary to a hefty $7,600.

We arrived in town and moved into a large, rented house in July shortly before school started in August with two young children in tow, a boy who was ready to start kindergarten and a girl who was two years younger than her brother.  By the time we left six years later we were the parents of a third child, a boy who was born in the local hospital, and we were living in a small home which we had been able to purchase through help from my parents.  We had made many friends while we were there and the community had made an impact on our lives.  It was imprinted on my mind as one of the "homes" that I experienced in life.

Now, almost fifty years later, I have had several homes, with two being overseas, and each of those still lingers as a part of who I am today.  Most of them I have probably seen for the last time, but I did make a trip early this week to Mountain View where I relived several memories.   I drove past both of the houses that once were our homes, the vacant lot where the old church that we attended once stood, up and down the main drag of Front Street, past the dozens of businesses, many of which are in buildings that had been repurposed since the 1970's and '80's, and most of which were coated with more vibrant colors of paint that they had been back in the day.

One of the parks still had the old railroad caboose on display, but I didn't stop and walk through it as I did with the kids multiple times when they were little.  Another of the parks still had the outdoor amphitheatre with bench seating leading down to a performance stage and a sign advertising "Music in the Park" on Saturday evenings just as it had five decades earlier.

I drove by the elementary school where two of our kids began their education and the hospital where the third was born.  Our family physician, a young man who had just begun his medical practice, had his office in the rear of that building.  Now he is a much revered retired doctor who takes occasional groups of volunteers to do free medical clinics in Haiti.

Today I am living back in the same county after being away decades and residing in a variety of places, but I am in twenty-five miles or so south of Mountain View and seldom manage to get up there.  The last time I remember being there was in 2021 when several family members and I drove through and stopped for gas as we headed out on a drive toward the East Coast.  That was a hurried drive through - this time I was in more of a lingering and remembering mode.  

It felt good to be home one more time.

Three Tales from Pete's Pentagon

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Our nation's highly decorated (tattooed) Secretary of Defense, former Fox News entertainer Pete Hegseth, clearly needs to be spending less time primping in his new Green Room and more time working in his office.  What follows are three noteworthy tales that were generated in his political domain just this week.

Pentagon Tale #1:

Pentagon and White House officials are struggling to come up with a plan for spending an additional $500 billion that Trump wants to give our military in the next fiscal year.  A normal budgeting routine would require a federal agency, such as the Pentagon, to come up with a list of needs and wants along with estimated costs, and then put that in a budget request, but the Trump administraation doesn't do "normal."  There ass-backwards approach has the President picking an arbitrary sum, much larger than they have ever received before, and the having the Pentagon come up with a plan for spending it.    

A half-trillion dollars just handed to the Pentagon without so much as even a simple request.  This, at a time when Americans are losing healthcare by the thousands, safety net programs - like school lunches and food stamps - are being cut willy-nilly, the cost of everything, and especially food, is on a steady rise thanks primarily to Trump's insane tariffs which are being paid by American consumers, and masked gestapo on the government payroll are in the streets threatening the safety and security of Americans.  It certainly sounds like a good time to give the military more money than it knows how to spend!

Pentagon Tale #2:

On the evening of January 29th, 2025, just nine days after the Trump administration came back into power, an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with a passenger airliner over the Potomac River near Reagan Airport in Washington, DC, killing all 67 people aboard both aircraft.  This year, with that particular air disaster as their focus, the United States Senate unanimousuly passed the "Rotorcraft Operations Transparency and Oversight Reform (ROTOR) Act, an air safety measure that would require almost all aircraft to use a technology that would transmit that aircraft's location.  Use of that technology would have prevented the mid-air disaster over the Potomac last January.

The ROTOR air safety bill provided exemptions for classified and high level military missions.

The Pentagon initially supported this important air safety regulation, but changed its mind after the bill went to the House.  The House took it up in a process that required a 2/3 majority in order to pass, and despite support from consumer safety groups and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), it still failed by two votes - with Speaker Johnson's entire leadership team voting against the measure.  Part of the Pentagon's logic in pulling its support from the bill was that it would create "significant unresolved budgetary burdens,"  (See Pentagon Tale #1)

The House is rushing to get an alternative bill to the floor, but it is not as widely supported at the original bill which was backed by families of air crash victims, safety advocates, air traffic controllers, pilots, flight attendants, airports, and regional airlines - but not a super majority in the US House of Representatives and the decision-makers at the Pentagon.

Pentagon Tale #3:

The Pentagon is currently in a feud with Anthropic, an artificial intelligence provider that, until recently, was the only AI model to have access to the Pentagon's classified networks.  Anthropic is apparently a company with a social conscience, something that does not fold well into the current administration's military strategies, both at home and abroad.  

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Last month Anthropic stirred concern in the Pentagon when it began asking questions about how its services had been used in Trump's takeover of Venezuela.  The company apparently has safeguards in place to prevent its AI model from being used to target weapons autonomously or to conduct US domestic surveillance.   Pentagon sources are calling such safeguards "Woke AI."

In summary: 

The Pentagon is about to receive more money than it knows how to spend, it has come out in opposition to commonsense air safety reforms, and it wants an AI system with no guardrails and one which will do the total bidding of whoever happens to be at the keyboard - including domestic surveillance!

Our tax dollars in action!

Mike Huckabee: The Soul of Diplomacy

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, a former Baptist minister and governor of Arkansas, seemed to have fallen in over his head last week in an interview with rightwing podcaster Tucker Carlson.  Carlson asked the ambassador, a Trump appointee, about a biblical verse in which God promised Abraham and his descendants land "from the wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates - the land of the Kinites, Kenizzites,  Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.

The formidable patch of real estate, according to Tucker Carlson, would include (in addition to Israel),  Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and big parts of Saudi Arabia and Iraq.  

Ambassador Huckabee's initial response was that the Jewish state had a "biblical right" to that land.   He agreed that God had given it to Abraham and his descendants, and added:  "It would be fine if they took it all."

The governments of several Middle Eastern countries (primarily US allies) were not amused at the ambassador's careless remarks, and promptly condemned what he had said.   Huckabee, for his part, began backpedaling.  

Perhaps the preacher/diplomat had misread his scripture.

There was absolutely no point in jeopardizing future Trump/Kushner real estate deals in the region over one man's intrepretation of a Bible verse.

Big Ugly Ballroom Seems to be in Limbo

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

When Donald Trump had the East Wing of the White House torn down during the third week of October last year with no warning, reviews, requests for public comment, or authority to do so, he immediately began releasing statements about the ballroom that he intended to have built to replace it.  A poll immediately after that destruction (conducted by the Washington Post, ABC, and Ipsos) found that Americans disapprove of the project by 56% to 28% - or a two-to-one ratio.  That same poll showed 88% of Democrats and 61% of Independents are opposed to the new structure, while 62% of Republicans support it.

Trump released several plans and cost estimates for this monument to himself, and his latest announced estimates are that it will cost $300 million, seat 1,350, and have a footprint of approximately 90.000 square feet.  He says the costs won't be paid by taxpayers but instead will be covered by donations from his supporters (oligarch billionaires who are purchasing his favor).

On December 12, 2025, the National Trust for Historic Preservation filed suit in Federal Court to prevent construction of Trump's new vanity ballroom until proper legal reviews can be completed.  The President, the National Park Service, and the US Department of the Interior have each been named as defendants in the case.

The Trust is arguing that the new structure will violate the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and that Congress has not authorized the construction.  A decision in the case is expected soon, and whichever side loses is certain to appeal.

One other development:  To no one's surprise, this month the Commission of Fine Arts, a group whose members have all been appointed by Donald Trump, approved the project.  That still does not get them past the pending federal court case.

It will be interesting to see what position the next Democratic nominee for President takes on the future of the ballroom project:  keep it and use it for big parties, keep it and repurpose the structure for the common good, or just bulldoze the sucker down.

Fools and Lapdogs

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The US Supreme Court issued a ruling on Friday saying that Donald Trump does not have the authority to impose tariffs by personal whim.  Under most circumstances that is a power which the Constitution clearly gives to Congress.   The vote was six to three with the dissenters being Kavanaugh, Alito, and, of course, Clarence Thomas.  Three other conservative justices - Chief Justice Roberts, Amy Coney Barrett, and Neil Gorsuch - joined with the three liberals - Sotomayer, Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson - to uphold the Constitution's mandate.

Trump, for his part, was quick with the name-calling and labeled the justices who opposed him "lapdogs and fools."  He also said they were "disloyal to our nation" and "very unpatriotic and disloyal to the Constitution."  (Piggy's social development got stuck in the "schoolyard bully" phase when he was ten.)

That ruling would have been a perfect opportunity for Trump to pull himself free of the very unpopular tariffs, but the man who can't accept a loss on anything, chose instead to double down and impose new tariffs - 10% on every nation - under the authority of the Trade Act of 1974,  another shaky basis for a President to be able to impose tariffs that will take at least another year in court to justify or throw out.  The following day he raised that new rate to 15 percent.

So attention Walmart shoppers, Trump is still reaching into your pockets despite the US Supreme Court telling him to leave you the hell alone.

Donald Trump realizes that it is actually us, the American people, who pay his tariffs every time we buy imported goods - and almost all goods seem to be imported these days.  Trump knows we are the ones paying -  he is not that stupid.   Revenue already collected from the Trump tariffs is into the billions of dollars, and Treasury Secretary Bessent says it could reach a trillion dollars by this June.  Most of that is money from American pockets and savings accounts, not those of people from other nations or from the pockets of the oligarchs who own and control most of the planet's resources and commerce.  

The US Supreme Court relieved us of that unfair tax burden - and the very same damned day Donald Trump foisted new tariffs on us from by a different act.  Piggy must be fed.  He plans to take $10 billion from our treasury and put it into his pseudo government agency, the Board of Peace, a slush fund that he, and he alone, will control - for life.  He is also talking about plans for suing OUR government for $10 billion because the Treasury Department released some of his tax records - something other politicians who run for President routinely do.  Piggy must be fed.

Piggy is doing very well for himself.  Whatever became of those $2,000 tariff rebates that he promised us?  Perhaps that money will be used to gold plate his new ballroom.

The US Supreme Court in its Friday ruling failed to address what to do about the tariffs which have already been collected from American consumers.  Some companies are preparing lawsuits in order to reclaim the money that they paid into tariffs (most of which was later incorporated into the price of their goods).  Here are three scenarios of how tariff refunds could play out:

1.  The courts could ultimately rule against the idea of refunding the tariffs, and Piggy would keep would keep his ill-gotten loot.   Or,  

2.  The courts could rule that the tariff money must be refunded, and the money would go back to the entities that actually handed it over to the US government in the first place - and many of those companies have already recouped their tariff money through sales to consumers.  The companies would therefore have a big case of "windfall" profits.   Or,  

3.  The corporate giants and oligarchs who own them could figure out a way to make cheerful refunds to their consumers, the people who actually paid the tariffs.   (Don't hold your breath for option number three.)

Maybe it's us, the American public, who are the "fools and lapdogs" to corporate criminals and sleazebag. politicians.  Just sayin' . . .