Something Is Happening Here

“There’s something happening here; what it is ain’t exactly clear.”—Buffalo Springfield

The United States is arguably the richest country in the world, both in economic output and overall net wealth. Our annual GDP exceeds $32 trillion, and we spend more on our military than the next six countries combined—more than $950 billion a year.

President Donald Trump is the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. military, and Pete Hegseth serves as Secretary of Defense. That raises an obvious question: How did the world’s most expensive military become so strained in its confrontation with Iran, whose military ranks 16th in the world? The United States spends roughly 120 to 130 times more on its military than Iran does.

Mismanagement is one possible explanation.

Here we are, reportedly running short of air-defense interceptors and long-range precision-guided missiles because we are, in effect, swatting drone mosquitoes with howitzers. We have depleted nearly 80% of our THAAD interceptors and 65% of our Patriot missiles at a cost of $26 billion in a conflict that was characterized not as a war, but as an emergency. U.S. policy reportedly calls for firing two missiles at each drone to ensure a successful interception. If so, we are spending roughly $10 million in missiles to destroy a drone that costs about $35,000.

We also moved the USS Abraham Lincoln from California in November 2025 to indefinitely block Iranian ports. Its 5,000-member crew has reportedly spent more than 250 days at sea without a single port visit to rest or recuperate. During that time, the Lincoln launched more than 10,000 combat flights while facing continuous drone and missile threats from Iran.

Meanwhile, conditions aboard the ship reportedly deteriorated. The crew dealt with broken toilets, malfunctioning air conditioning, food rationing, and contaminated water. More than 600 sailors lost their sleeping quarters for months following a laundry-room fire. Reports of suicidal thoughts and depression among crew members were reportedly ignored. On August 3, 2026, one sailor attempted suicide by jumping overboard.

That sailor now reportedly faces punishment at captain’s mast for malingering.

Perhaps he simply missed Secretary Hegseth’s policy memorandum regarding testosterone replacement therapy. That policy was directed at troops over the age of 30, with the stated goal of maximizing their “lethality” and combating the physical and mental fatigue associated with military service. The sailor who attempted suicide was only 19 years old, a married new father, and therefore might not have been eligible under the policy as described.

There has always been room for improvement in the operation of our military. Nevertheless, I would argue that we have the best military that money can buy. The problem is that we have also spent enormous sums on expensive military hardware without always demonstrating that those expenditures translate into effective battlefield outcomes.

Certainly, a $350 million Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor looks “cooler” than a $30,000 drone. But looking impressive is not the same thing as being cost-effective.

Operational mismanagement at the highest levels has reportedly cost the nation more than $37.5 billion in Pentagon losses, while the Pentagon is now seeking a supplemental budget of another $67 billion. By some estimates, the overall cost to taxpayers has already exceeded $113 billion.

As Tennessee Ernie Ford sang in his coal-mining classic Sixteen Tons, we are “another day older and deeper in debt.”

Yet, in the estimation of President Donald Trump and his sycophantic associates, apparently we can afford endless war, ever-expanding military budgets, reckless tariffs, the alienation of our allies, a gold ballroom, and tax cuts for the wealthy.

What we apparently cannot afford are affordable health care, housing, groceries, child care, and education; investments in our fragile power grid, water security, and renewable energy; or reasonable care for our elderly.

Something is happening here. The United States has more wealth, more military spending, and more advanced weaponry than any nation on Earth. If we are nevertheless exhausting our defenses, degrading the readiness of our troops, and piling additional costs onto an already staggering national debt, perhaps the problem is not how much we spend—but how poorly we spend it.

For What It's Worth

I'm not sure who wrote this. The thoughts. however. clearly express my own sentiments. It reiterates my feelings about not trying to force ideologies into a box, place a label on that box, and then use that label to brand everyone without regard to key differences. In most cases, ideologies get distorted by the opposition to make the competition seem hateful and out of touch. Here it is as Buffalo Springfield would say, For What It's Worth:

“I'm a liberal, but that doesn't mean what a lot of you apparently think it does. Let's break it down, shall we? Because quite frankly, I'm getting a little tired of being told what I believe and what I stand for. Spoiler alert: not every liberal is the same, though the majority of liberals I know think along roughly these same lines:

1. I believe a country should take care of its weakest members. A country cannot call itself civilized when its children, disabled, sick, and elderly are neglected. PERIOD.

2. I believe healthcare is a right, not a privilege. Somehow that's interpreted as "I believe Obamacare is the end-all, be-all." This is not the case. I'm fully aware that the ACA has problems, that a national healthcare system would require everyone to chip in, and that it's impossible to create one that is devoid of flaws, but I have yet to hear an argument against it that makes "let people die because they can't afford healthcare" a better alternative. I believe healthcare should be far cheaper than it is, and that everyone should have access to it. And no, I'm not opposed to paying higher taxes in the name of making that happen.

3. I believe education should be affordable. It doesn't necessarily have to be free (though it works in other countries so I'm mystified as to why it can't work in the US), but at the end of the day, there is no excuse for students graduating college saddled with five- or six-figure debt.

4. I don't believe your money should be taken from you and given to people who don't want to work. I have literally never encountered anyone who believes this. Ever. I just have a massive moral problem with a society where a handful of people can possess the majority of the wealth while there are people literally starving to death, freezing to death, or dying because they can't afford to go to the doctor. Fair wages, lower housing costs, universal healthcare, affordable education, and the wealthy actually paying their share would go a long way toward alleviating this. Somehow believing that makes me a communist.

5. I don't throw around "I'm willing to pay higher taxes" lightly. If I'm suggesting something that involves paying more, well, it's because I'm fine with paying my share as long as it's actually going to something besides lining corporate pockets or bombing other countries while Americans die without healthcare.

6. I believe companies should be required to pay their employees a decent, livable wage. Somehow this is always interpreted as me wanting burger flippers to be able to afford a penthouse apartment and a Mercedes. What it actually means is that no one should have to work three full-time jobs just to keep their head above water. Restaurant servers should not have to rely on tips, multibillion-dollar companies should not have employees on food stamps, workers shouldn't have to work themselves into the ground just to barely make ends meet, and minimum wage should be enough for someone to work 40 hours and live.

7. I am not anti-Christian. I have no desire to stop Christians from being Christians, to close churches, to ban the Bible, to forbid prayer in school, etc. (BTW, prayer in school is NOT illegal; *compulsory* prayer in school is - and should be - illegal). All I ask is that Christians recognize *my* right to live according to *my* beliefs. When I get pissed off that a politician is trying to legislate Scripture into law, I'm not "offended by Christianity" -- I'm offended that you're trying to force me to live by your religion's rules. You know how you get really upset at the thought of Muslims imposing Sharia law on you? That's how I feel about Christians trying to impose biblical law on me. Be a Christian. Do your thing. Just don't force it on me or mine.

8. I don't believe LGBT people should have more rights than you. I just believe they should have the *same* rights as you.

9. I don't believe illegal immigrants should come to America and have the world at their feet, especially since THIS ISN'T WHAT THEY DO (spoiler: undocumented immigrants are ineligible for all those programs they're supposed to be abusing, and if they're "stealing" your job it's because your employer is hiring illegally). I believe there are far more humane ways to handle undocumented immigration than our current practices (i.e., detaining children, splitting up families, ending DACA, etc).

10. I don't believe the government should regulate everything, but since greed is such a driving force in our country, we NEED regulations to prevent cut corners, environmental destruction, tainted food/water, unsafe materials in consumable goods or medical equipment, etc. It's not that I want the government's hands in everything -- I just don't trust people trying to make money to ensure that their products/practices/etc. are actually SAFE. Is the government devoid of shadiness? Of course not. But with those regulations in place, consumers have recourse if they're harmed and companies are liable for medical bills, environmental cleanup, etc. Just kind of seems like common sense when the alternative to government regulation is letting companies bring their bottom line into the equation.

11. I believe our current administration is fascist. Not because I dislike them or because I can’t get over an election, but because I've spent too many years reading and learning about the Third Reich to miss the similarities. Not because any administration I dislike must be Nazis, but because things are actually mirroring authoritarian and fascist regimes of the past.

12. I believe the systemic racism and misogyny in our society is much worse than many people think, and desperately needs to be addressed. Which means those with privilege -- white, straight, male, economic, etc. -- need to start listening, even if you don't like what you're hearing, so we can start dismantling everything that's causing people to be marginalized.

13. I am not interested in coming after your blessed guns, nor is anyone serving in government. What I am interested in is the enforcement of present laws and enacting new, common sense gun regulations. Got another opinion? Put it on your page, not mine.

14. I believe in so-called political correctness. I prefer to think it’s social politeness. If I call you Chuck and you say you prefer to be called Charles I’ll call you Charles. It’s the polite thing to do. Not because everyone is a delicate snowflake, but because as Maya Angelou put it, when we know better, we do better. When someone tells you that a term or phrase is more accurate/less hurtful than the one you're using, you now know better. So why not do better? How does it hurt you to NOT hurt another person?

15. I believe in funding sustainable energy, including offering education to people currently working in coal or oil so they can change jobs. There are too many sustainable options available for us to continue with coal and oil. Sorry, billionaires. Maybe try investing in something else.

16. I believe that women should not be treated as a separate class of human. They should be paid the same as men who do the same work, should have the same rights as men and should be free from abuse. Why on earth shouldn’t they be?

I think that about covers it. Bottom line is that I'm a liberal because I think we should take care of each other. That doesn't mean you should work 80 hours a week so your lazy neighbor can get all your money. It just means I don't believe there is any scenario in which preventable suffering is an acceptable outcome as long as money is saved.”

The Two Faces of Donald Trump: Where’s the Beef?

Our AMERICA FIRST president has shown us once again that he is not above placing politics above campaign rhetoric. His disastrous tariffs, war in Iran, and draconian immigration policies have raised beef prices making Americans angry. While he is not up for reelection, he has realized that without a congressional majority after the midterm elections, his remaining term might not be so easy.

Accordingly, he has waived all tariffs on over 300,000 metric tons (660 million pounds) of ground beef for a 90-day period. He claims that, at least for a 90-day pre-midterm period, ground beef prices may drop by as much as 25%. This represents a loss of $4.56 billion dollars in revenue to U.S. cattlemen just so the president can look good for 90 days.

This loss to domestic producers hits them when they are down. They are currently facing a multi-year drought and skyrocketing feed costs with herds now to the lowest levels in over 60 years. This short-term political fix will cost them dearly as they are trying to decide whether to reinvest in rebuilding their herds.

Fast food giants like McDonald’s get a massive injection of cheap tariff-free foreign meat that serves as critical margin relief from skyrocketing meat costs. I guess the senior Trump will get free Big Macs for life now.

The identity of the foreign nation(s) that is/are to benefit from this tariff break is a closely guarded secret. If you see either of the Trump boys wearing cowboy hats you will know that they might be in on that action. It was never about AMERICA FIRST, it was always TRUMP FIRST.

Our Legacy

It is common to hear older generations look back on the past and criticize “the youth today.” I take a different view. I feel some sympathy for the generations coming after me, because they will inherit the world my generation leaves behind.

The World We Are Leaving Behind

Climate change—also known as global warming—is already forcing people to adapt to more frequent water shortages, wildfires, air pollution, crop failures, flooding, and extreme weather.

Economic inequality has widened into a chasm. Unions have been marginalized, global trade has moved jobs to lower-cost countries, essential education has become long-term debt, and tax laws have increasingly favored corporate profits over wages.

For many Americans, the dream of home ownership has moved out of reach. Low wages, heavy student debt, high rents, rising home prices, delayed marriage, and an unstable job market have pushed many younger people toward becoming permanent renters. Home ownership without the ability to save for a down payment makes that goal impossible without generational inherited wealth.

At the same time, an aging federal government has too often prioritized short-term political success over long-term stability. The consequences include depleted natural resources, renewed reliance on fossil fuels, less emphasis on renewable energy, skyrocketing national debt, and an erosion of democratic freedoms.

A Path Forward

Perhaps a youth-led movement will recognize these mistakes and work to repair this leaky ship. My advice may go unheeded, but the next generation might consider reforms such as:

• Eliminate the Electoral College.

• Make both trade education and college affordable for all.

• Advance renewable energy over fossil fuels, using nuclear power as a transitional bridge where necessary.

• Restructure the tax code so all forms of income and wealth are taxed fairly, and so the wealthiest individuals cannot avoid contributing their share.

• Rebuild ties with democratic nations and form economic partnerships that discourage authoritarian rule.

• Restructure the military with a stronger emphasis on defense and less emphasis on foreign intervention, redirecting savings toward debt reduction, affordable health care, and efforts to ensure no American is unhoused or hungry.

Modernizing the Constitution

While we are at it, perhaps this 250-year-old Constitution should be brought up to date with a few revisions. I am open to ideas as radical as changing the structure of the Senate while preserving equal representation for smaller states: all states would still have two senators, but one would be elected from each major party. The House of Representatives would still allow for party majorities.

As noted above, presidential elections could rely on the national popular vote rather than the Electoral College. I would also add term limits for all federal judges and for anyone holding national public office.

The Supreme Court could also be restructured. In this model, appointments would be made by a newly balanced Senate regardless of which party controls the government. Those appointments would remain tentative until the next presidential election, when voters would confirm them through the popular vote.

Finally, I can now see the need for a constitutional amendment stating explicitly that final federal court orders are binding on all branches of government. Such an amendment should define automatic penalties or triggers for noncompliance. It would close the loophole that allows a president to ignore court rulings under the banner of separation of powers. Reliance on institutional prestige and voluntary executive compliance is no longer enough.

RFK Jr. Teaches America How to Cook; MAHA

I read recently that RFK Jr. was hosting a cooking show on YouTube called, The Real Food Show. The announced goal was to promote MAHA, or Make America Healthy Again to teach families how to cook with whole ingredients. I had only heard of RFK Jr’s expertise in the kitchen with roadkill. I also knew that his beloved father’s last visit to a kitchen ended tragically.

The premiere show featured crispy wild Alaskan salmon cakes with a salad. The show claimed the meal would cost $5 per serving or $20 to feed a family of four. The author of the article went out to the grocery store and bought all the needed items and it set him back just under $100.

I understand that for his next featured meal he will be preparing Crunchy Southwest Beef & Egg Taco Salad. It is made using diarrhea lettuce, salmonella eggs, salmonella jalapenos, salmonella granola, flesh-eating screwworm beef, and an entre of listeria tomato soup. This meal has the added benefit of meeting their MAHA goal, Making Americia Heave Again. It is guaranteed to have you losing a few pounds. Some may find that they never need to grocery shop again.

I created a special graphic to accompany this post. Here RFK JR is wearing the black costume credited to French physician Charles de Lorme in 1619, The costume was designed to block "miasma" (bad air), which people then incorrectly believed spread the disease. He is preparing rat with vegtables.

The Man is an Idiot

No, this is not about Trump, at least not directly. This is about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. This is a person who has been sounding an alarm for decades based on faulty information. Specifically, the link between autism and vaccinations. This “link” doesn’t exist. It was based on a discredited 1998 report linking vaccinations to autism. That report was authored by Andrew Wakefield and 12 co-authors, and published in the medical journal, The Lancet. The study was later proven to be an outright medical fraud.

Andrew Wakefield falsified the medical histories of patients, fabricated timelines, faked diagnoses, and used unethical practices trying to get data. He went so far as to pay kids at his son's birthday party to provide blood samples for the study they were not part of. It turns out that he had been paid over a half a million dollars by a lawyer trying to build a lawsuit against vaccine manufacturers. Wakefield was also trying to promote his own rival single-measles vaccine after secretly filing for his patent.

Since the publication of the report in 1998, ten of the co-authors have signed a retraction, The Lancet fully retracted the paper, and Wakefield’s medical license has been revoked. Global studies on over 95,000 children have since confirmed there is no link between vaccines and autism.

Even in the face of this easily available information, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has never acknowledged that the vaccine-autism connection was proven to be a fraud. Instead, he has continued to promote the discredited claim, cite flawed or retracted papers, and question the scientific consensus. This is known as Belief Perseverance and Confirmation Bias. There is also the Backfire Effect where you double down on your original idea when shown facts that don’t match your old ideas. This latter tactic is a favorite of his boss, DJT.

RFK Jr. has no medical background or scientific training. His education is entirely in law, history, and environmental litigation.

So, who better to head the governance of the nation’s healthcare than a person with no medical training (beyond his self-medicating with heroin) and who bases much of his ideology on a proven fraud. Who better to appoint him but a man who sees nothing wrong with fraud.

What’s the harm? According to the NIH, we have seen a resurgence in 2024 pertussis (whooping cough) cases due to a steady decline in DTaP vaccinations. In 2024, the U.S. saw over 35,000 cases. While the 2025 death rate was only 16 people, the majority were infants under one year old. At the half-year mark of 2026, we have already had 16 deaths.

The recent whooping cough deaths are overwhelmingly concentrated among the non-vaccinated, specifically infants who are too young to be fully vaccinated themselves and whose mothers did not receive the vaccine during pregnancy. While infants under two months can’t be vaccinated, their mothers must get a Tdap booster to pass immunity to their infants.

During his 2015 campaign launch and subsequent presidential run, Donald Trump frequently boasted that he would surround himself with and hire only "the best people", claiming, "I know the best people. I know the best managers. I know the best dealmakers. I know people that will make us so strong.” If RFK Jr. is an example, I would have to say it takes an idiot to recognize that “quality” in another. Sadly, RFK Jr. is one among many.

Wealth and Free Market Capitalism

In the late 50s, Michael Anthony, the executive secretary for John Beresford Tipton, gave an unsuspecting person one million dollars. The taxes were pre-paid. There was but one restriction, they couldn’t tell anyone the source of their new wealth. This was television of course, and that fantasy kept audiences entertained for five years. The show was called, The Millionaire.

Given a cumulative inflation rate of 1,146%, that 1955 gift would be worth over $12 million today. For most of us, that would be an influential sum. The television recipients of that largess dealt with the dilemmas of greed vs. generosity, and justice vs. revenge.

This brings us to real world wealth, that rarified atmosphere where money is not a major consideration in decision making, but may be an objective. I write this as a sometime observer of the truly wealthy. I define the “truly wealthy” as anyone for whom a doubling of their wealth or a halving of their wealth would not require any lifestyle adjustment.

I have, during my eight decades of life, had occasional contact with true wealth. My one observation is that, beyond a certain point, there is no point. There is no need for more, but it is still a driving force in their lives. The truly wealthy take great pleasure in the acquisition process, even when it no longer has any impact on their lives.

Wealth is at the center of their universe and often dominates conversations. When the wealthy gather, discussions are regularly about how their money has made them happy. They talk about the opulence of their travels and acquisitions. Name dropping of people and luxury brands is common. For some, thankfully not all, wealth is about power and how that power may be wielded either to gather more wealth or to have an impact on others. It is that latter concept where good versus evil comes in.

To quote from the movie Wall Street’s Gordon Gekko, “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works.” In traditional Catholic theology, greed or avarice is ranked as the second of the seven deadly sins. Pride holds the number one slot. In Dante’s Inferno, greed is in the Fourth Circle of Hell.

However you view greed as a trait, it is essential to understanding free market capitalism. This powerful and essential engine for economic growth allows supply and demand to dictate prices and allocate resources. It rewards initiative and promotes efficiency. However, left unchecked or unregulated, greed will “put pedal to the metal” and the whole economy can overheat and run off the road to the detriment of all.

Left unregulated, successful firms seek to eliminate competition and form monopolies that drive up prices, stifle innovation, and exploit consumers. Without some government regulation, secondary costs like pollution are borne by society and not the producer. There is no financial incentive to protect the public health or shared natural resources.

There is also a tendency toward risk taking when some of that risk may be forced on others. We all remember the “too big to fail” mentality where a company is so large that its failure will have a ripple effect risking financial disaster for the economy. The 2008 financial crisis featured a collapse of the U.S. housing market and the failure of several major financial institutions.

Key to this crisis were policies initiated two decades earlier during the Ronald Reagan administration. It was his aggressive philosophy that less government intervention would spur growth, that set the stage. In 1982, he signed into law the Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act that established ARMs, or Adjustable-Rate Mortgages and removed caps on loan-to-value ratios. He also signed the Alternative Mortgage Transaction Parity Act establishing non-federally chartered creditors who could write interest-only loans with balloon payments.

The deregulation stage was set, so let the high-risk gambling begin. Because, on the S&L corporate side, deposits were federally insured, the high-profit junk bond market became too attractive. It took until 2008 for that bubble to burst. Both corporate and consumer greed reared their ugly heads, and everybody paid. I watched a friend and neighbor who had taken out one of these risky loans, buy a new car, a new boat, and make expensive alterations to his home. He went bankrupt, was forced out of his home, and he moved in with in-laws.

Today, the Trump administration has once again targeted post-2008 financial oversight, to scale back agency enforcement, cut regulatory staffing, roll back bank merger scrutiny, and order a relaxation on mortgage and lending compliance. He has cut key elements of the Dodd-Frank Act and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

These rollbacks and changes are now fueling the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence. While the banking changes are playing a minor role in all of this, the further deregulation of the tech-sector, relaxation of environmental rules, and a wild-west attitude toward digital financial oversight are now fueling the AI bubble. The Trump AI Action Plan is shifting the industry toward self-regulation.

This is what happens when capitalism is allowed to run through the candy shop like a toddler on a sugar binge. Greed is the motivator. Some government regulations of capitalism is not communism. Don’t let the far-right tell you otherwise. Good regulation of corporate greed is necessary for a healthy economy. When we let the uber-wealthy make all the rules without oversight, we risk financial ruin.

To quote my favorite Greek philosopher, Anonymous, "History repeats itself, because no one was listening the first time."

Why Not Gold Plating

Donald Trump thinks that he is not only a great interior decorator but that he knows how to design and build aircraft carriers. He is serious about the concept, prompting the U.S. Navy to conduct an internal review to evaluate moving the command tower (the "island") toward the middle of future Ford-class carriers to mimic World War II-era warships.

Relocating the island forward would reduce vital flight-deck parking space, slow down aircraft launch and recovery rates, and increase turbulence during landings. Trump should know about turbulence. Just tell him its like when the Marine One helicopter blows his hairpiece all around and makes him look funny.

He also wants to get rid of the latest launch catapults, the electromagnetic launch systems (EMALS), to replace them with the steam-powered catapults type from WWII. To this end he signed a national security memo directing the Pentagon to transition future carriers to steam. It doesn’t concern him that this will delay current construction of several ships and add an estimated $22 billion per ship. Money is no object when it comes to design. War is all about who has the most stylish stuff.

A current catapult contract with General Atomics is for $1.2 billion on systems that are 50% complete. Going back to steam will eliminate an estimated $100 million per ship in savings. The steam systems require added manpower and have higher maintenance costs. Production lines for steam systems have been dormant for 20 years.

Our "Commander in Chief" thinks his one-year 1964 Army ROTC training makes him a naval architect and marine engineer.

Apparently wars are not won on the battlefield but with aesthetics. Perhaps we should consider gold plating the handrails and bringing back mermaids on the bow. How about a return to coal and steam engines for propulsion? The man is a genius in a world of his own. When will the MAGA Republican fever dream break and his sicophant enablers realize there are things more important than kissing that over-sized derrière? I created an image of a Trump-inspired carrier.

A Great American

When speaking of people deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize, few would consider a soldier of war. I will give you General George C. Marshall. I bring up his moral character at a time when that term has lost so much of its meaning. Marshall won the 1953 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to rebuild Western Europe after World War II. His Marshall Plan provided massive economic aid for both our allies and Germany and Italy. George C. Marshall is the only career soldier honored for his lifelong military and diplomatic contributions to peace. He, unlike another American figure who can’t understand why he hasn’t been likewise honored, actually made the world a better place.

It was Gen. Marshall who engineered the expansion of our pre-war American military from fewer than 200,000 men to over 8 million soldiers. He was also the chief architect of Operation Overlord, the Allied strategy that made D-Day possible. He recommended Dwight D. Eisenhower to be Allied Supreme Commander while he managed the global allocation of resources that ensured troops and landing craft went to Europe and not secondary theatres.

Not many alive today remember that Teheran was the site of the clandestine meeting between Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin in November of 1943. Teheran was chosen because Stalin refused to travel by air. They had wanted to commit to the invasion of Western Europe, select a date, and it was assumed that Gen. George Marshall would be the Supreme Allied Commander.

Marshall refused to lobby for his appointment and told Roosevelt that he must decide. Roosevelt decided that Marshall was irreplaceable in Washington and was needed to manage the global war effort, so the job went to Eisenhower. It was Marshall who telegrammed Stalin to inform him of the Eisenhower decision.

It was George Marshall who, in his capacity as the current Secretary of State, proposed the European Recovery Program that would later be called the Marshall Plan. He made the announcement on June 5, 1947. The United States committed $13 billion ($140 billion in today’s dollars). He unveiled the conceptual framework for the aid package during a Harvard commencement speech when he said, "Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine, but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos."

Marshall understood what desperation could produce. After World War I, the Treaty of Versailles burdened Germany with punitive reparations, and from that economic collapse the Third Reich emerged. He was determined not to let history repeat itself. This is the type of understanding and compassion that wins Nobel Peace prizes. Someone might want to pass this tidbit along to that certain someone who thinks just telling people you deserved the Nobel Peace Prize for ending seven or eight “unendable” wars. He might also want to end a particular war that he personally started.

A Failed Republican Party

The Republican Party has collectively failed the American people. By design, and with malice aforethought, it has advanced the rights, benefits, and wealth of corporate America and the wealthy at the expense of the rest of the country. Under the slogan of “Making America Great Again,” its leader has forgotten that America includes a great number of individuals who are not like him. He has prioritized his own personal wealth and financial well-being above all others. In doing so, he has made America great only for a narrow group of wealthy people and businesses.

Tariffs and the Cost to Workers

Tariffs have been imposed, mostly through illegal acts, under the misguided idea that they will bring back manufacturing jobs. Instead, manufacturing job numbers are plunging, down 75,000 to 100,000, as raw materials and components necessary for existing manufacturing have become more expensive and made American goods less competitive. Companies have been forced to freeze hiring, raise consumer prices, defer construction, and push damage downstream onto other blue-collar jobs in transportation and warehousing.

Foreign Policy and Economic Fallout

The war in Iran was foolishly started against the advice of presidential experts, as the president listened only to himself and to advisors whose jobs depend on agreeing with his whims. The result has been a weakening of the American military, an assault on the national debt, a depletion of defense supplies, a shattering of global reputation, the loss of many allies, and a 20% reduction in world oil supplies. That last consequence has raised gas prices, creating a ripple effect across consumer prices. Once again, the American consumer takes it on the chin.

Homeland Security Expansion and Waste

We now have a poorly trained federal force entering our cities and towns to enforce the will of the president. While this agency has a Homeland Security mandate beyond ERO, or Enforcement and Removal Operations, its recent 120% expansion was justified for that purpose. Its pre-2025 budget was less than $10 billion, but the president’s Big Beautiful Bill Act increased that budget to almost $30 billion.

Much of that ICE budget has been corrupted and wasted on real estate, facilities, and equipment that may never be used. Much of this spending occurred through emergency no-bid contracts. In one instance alone, $464 million was spent on an emergency no-bid contract to purchase a fleet of 10 used aircraft. Seven Boeing 737 jets were purchased and parked on a tarmac in Louisiana. The same emergency no-bid deal also included three luxury business Gulfstream-type jets incapable of transporting immigrants.

It should also be noted that Dr. William Walters, chairman of Daedalus Aviation and recipient of the no-bid contracts, was a campaign donor to Kristi Noem, who initiated the purchase. In a separate no-bid deal with another Walters company, nearly $700 million was spent.

Political Accountability

The Republican Party has stood idly by while this president ignored policies and procedures designed to protect the public trust and public treasure. It has allowed gross extravagance to flourish while services are cut, medical care becomes more expensive, grocery prices rise, gas prices climb, and the people who brought him to the dance are crushed by the consequences. The Republican Party must accept blame for his actions because it has enabled them.

That's my opinion, your mileage may vary, and objects in the mirror are closer than they appear.

He Is Us

In 1813, U.S. Navy Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry said, “We have met the enemy and they are ours.” In 1970, Pogo said, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” I couldn’t swear to this, but I think Pogo may have been a Democrat. His comment on human hypocrisy, where we are the source of our own worst problems, is wholly appropriate today.

With a sitting Republican president who is widely unpopular, the Democrats have an almost clear road to flipping both the House and Senate. But, if anyone can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, look no further than the Democratic Party. Being left of center wasn’t good enough, so they (33%) decided to identify with democratic socialism. Did they sleep through marketing 101 and not know that branding is everything? Do they not know that the mere mention of socialism sets off flashing lights and raises red flags? Do they not realize that once that word is uttered nothing is heard?

It really doesn’t matter that we already practice socialism through Social Security and Medicare and other mutually beneficial programs. It doesn’t even matter that the Trump administration has used government money to buy an interest in corporate portfolios. He added six companies in July bringing the total U.S. corporate investment portfolio to 30. That’s not just socialism, but a major factor in the dreaded C-word with its public ownership of the means of production.

Most Americans don’t understand the nuanced differences between major political ideologies. This is the buzzword generation with short attention spans. These are people who barely look up from their screens long enough to avoid walking into walls and has to wait for someone to honk a horn to let them know that the light has changed. Say socialism and they hear communism. Democratic socialism may sell in a few niche areas of the country, but it won’t fly in most of the “fly-over” states.

As we saw with the radical right takeover of the former Republican Party, radical isn’t really working out for anyone. Democrats should learn that radical anything is a recipe for disaster. They should find common ground in the middle and address problems shared by all. Fight for affordable housing, sane border control and sound immigration management. Fight for education and healthcare. Support our police and law enforcement agencies with reasonable reform measures. Most important of all, be electable.

I think AOC and Bernie Sanders are nice people with good intentions who will never be elected to any office at a national level. It’s time to stop knee-jerk reactions to what’s wrong with this country and it’s time to begin working to make life better for working Americans. It will be a tough fight because, as they say in poker, “money talks and bullshit walks.” Wealthy America and big corporations have money and the courts on their side, but the people have the numbers and we can still vote. If we don’t act fast, even that last freedom, the right to vote, will be in jeopardy.

These next few election cycles may be all important. The right is already threatening military intervention in the election process. They have made key personnel placements in election management. The stage is set with unsubstantiated claims of massive voter fraud to warrant federal interference in upcoming elections. Democrats don’t need the added handicap of misunderstood socialism to add to their woes. It will be difficult enough as it is.

Money Is No Object

Donald Trump has been spending money like a trust fund baby on spring break with daddy’s credit card*. This fits him because he WAS a trust fund baby who “earned” his first million by age eight. While he promised to “completely eliminate the national debt” back in 2016, he instead added $7.8 trillion. So far during his second term he has added $3.1 trillion to that figure. At this rate he will bring our debt to $45 trillion before leaving office.

He, without support from Congress, started a war in Iran that will now directly cost taxpayers as much as $1 trillion over the next decade. Before the war the federal government was already on track to run a $1.853 trillion deficit for 2026. As of July, the war has cost us $37.5 billion, Hegseth wants another $70 billion, and our bases in UAE and Qatar have suffered an estimated $5 to $30 billion in unbudgeted damages. Trump is asking for $1.5 trillion defense budget for 2027 (spike of $440 billion). The war has also forever changed the flow of oil and gas in the region with billions being spent to bypass the Strait of Hormuz. Those expenses will be passed on to consumers.

The U.S. is now weaker with the loss of much of our missile capability (80%), poorer financially, and shamed by defeat at the hands of a small but tough opponent. Trump will try to spin this as “one for the win column” but we can all see that for what it is, TBS.

His DOGE boys ran helter skelter through the government, cutting programs that shifted financial burdens to unwitting lower classes with the promise of a tax cut. The end result was higher costs for average consumers and more money for corporations and the wealthy. Those same DOGE cuts also did wholesale damage to the nation.

As a dealmaker in the political arena he has not fared much better than he did in the private sector. While he often benefited from his deals, somebody ended up paying. Trump calls those who pay, losers. In the political arena that ends up being the average wage-earning taxpayer. He, on the other hand, is making more money than at any other time in his life.

Trump has always been a big spender, but he has wisely used OPM, Other Peoples Money. His gift for staying personally solvent, as with most successful business types, is to always use OPM and never risk your own capital. Now, in the public sector, the “OPM” means it is taxpayers at risk and not unwitting investors. Before he was 45 or 47, he had burned most domestic financial bridges and son Eric bragged in 2014, "We don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia." So, it is no wonder that he favors Russia in our international policy decisions.

According to Forbes, “Donald Trump is not just on track, but has already shattered all historical records for earning money while in office. Financial disclosures from his second term show he brought in upwards of $2.2 billion to $2.4 billion in a single recent year—dwarfed largely by unprecedented cryptocurrency ventures, foreign real estate, and licensing deals—an amount completely unrivaled in American presidential history.”

*In previous writings I have compared Trump’s spending to a sailor on a “vampire liberty.” That rather obscure reference is from a different time when it was common practice for sailors to sell their blood for cash so they could afford to buy alcohol. The lower blood levels meant faster intoxication, more spending. As Trump doesn’t drink, I think the trust fund baby on spring break analogy is closer to home.

Can CAn at Jazzfest with the Commanders

I just took a group shot picture of the group of guys I used to travel to Jazzfest in New Orleans and ran it through Ai with a simple instruction. I asked it to make the guys dance like can can dancers. This is the result...

The Jazzfest Commanders Can Can

What is A.I. and Do We Really Want to Know

I have a vague understanding of A.I. from using various products based on that foundation, but my experience in computers ended with my retirement and was limited to the more rigid databases of that time. I kept hearing of LLMs or Large Language Models and hoped some understanding of what they were would help me understand more about A.I. Who better to ask than A.I. itself. So here is my prompt and the response (assuming you have any interest). I will admit I was a bit concerned when, as part of the explanation, it stated that LLMs can hallucinate.

My query: Describe Large Language Models and their role differentiating A.I. from structured databases.

AI Overview

Large language models (LLMs) are advanced artificial intelligence systems trained on vast amounts of text to understand, summarize, and generate human-like language. Unlike rigid structured databases that store exact data points in tables, LLMs use probability and context to interpret meaning, reason through prompts, and create entirely new content.

What is a Large Language Model?

• Neural networks: Built on deep learning architectures called transformers that process words in relation to each other.

• Massive scale: Trained on billions or trillions of parameters from books, websites, and articles.

• Generative power: Capable of writing code, drafting essays, translating languages, and holding realistic conversations.

How LLMs Differ from Structured Databases

• Data Storage vs. Understanding: Databases store exact rows and columns of data. LLMs store encoded patterns of human knowledge and language.

• Exact Retrieval vs. Generation: Databases give precise, pre-defined answers using queries like SQL. LLMs generate fluid, contextual responses to open-ended questions.

• Handling Uncertainty: Databases fail or return empty if data is missing or queried incorrectly. LLMs can infer, approximate, and reason through ambiguous or incomplete inputs.

• Adaptability: Databases require rigid schemas to accept new data formats. LLMs adapt instantly to new topics and conversational styles without changing code.

How do LLMs and databases work together?

Large language models (LLMs) and databases work together by combining the fluid reasoning of AI with the pinpoint accuracy of structured data. This partnership bridges the gap between text-based understanding and factual reliability.

Key Ways LLMs and Databases Integrate

1. Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)

• The Problem: LLMs can hallucinate or lack access to your private, up-to-date data.

• The Process: A database stores your files, articles, or customer logs.

• The Action: When a user asks a question, the database pulls the exact relevant text.

• The Output: The database feeds that text to the LLM, which writes a perfectly accurate summary.

2. Vector Databases for Semantic Search

• Traditional Search: Traditional databases search for exact keyword matches.

• LLM Role: LLMs convert text, images, or audio into long strings of numbers called vectors.

• Vector Database Role: Specialized databases store these numbers to find conceptual matches.

• The Result: You can search for "feline care" and instantly find articles about "feeding kittens."

3. Natural Language to SQL (NL2SQL)

• The Barrier: Non-technical users cannot write complex database queries like SQL.

• The Solution: A user types a plain question: "Who were our top three clients last month?"

• The LLM Bridge: The LLM translates that question into perfect database code instantly.

• The Final Step: The database executes the code and hands the clean data back to the user.

4. Automated Data Cleaning and Structuring

• Unstructured Chaos: Businesses are flooded with messy, unstructured emails, reviews, and PDFs.

• LLM Extraction: The LLM reads the messy text and extracts key points like names, sentiments, or dates.

• Database Storage: The extracted pieces are cleanly saved into a standard, structured database table.

If you got this far without drifting off or remembering that you forgot to feed the cat when you read about feline care, hopefully you are as confused as I am. Time for coffee.