Category: Thinking, thinking

WTF, America

In another bit of WTF, America, some new DOGE bullshit springs into the spotlight.

Military to Remove ‘Enola Gay’ Photos for Violating DEI Rules

Images of “Enola Gay,” the aircraft that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima in Japan are among those targeted by the U.S. military in an initiative to eliminate content related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

They are among a number of photos unrelated to DEI that have been mistakenly flagged, including those from an Army Corps of Engineers dredging project in California, seemingly because an engineer in the image had the last name “Gay.”

I mean, how, how, how amazingly ignorant is the Trusk Regime? How stupid is DOGE?

Beyond the fundamental stupidity of making a decision based on a single word, they are demonstrating amazing ignorance about our heritage. Our history.

Does that history matter to them? No, apparently not.

And that really brings the Trusk Regime’s crock of shit about ‘gay’, DEI, woke into an electron microscope level of insights. Our history is being denied based on some shallow, closed minds? They’ll deny the role of an aircraft in our history because of a single word, literally one of the most critical moments in modern human history, the one and only damn time when one nation used atomic or nuclear weapons on another nation? What are they going to do, rewrite the textbooks so that Colonel Paul Tibbets and his crew flew an unnamed aircraft on that historic mission? How much of a disservice is it to not just the crew that flew that machine but the enemy killed on the ground?

That’s just the damn bottom of the barrel, though. The Trusk Regime and the GOTP is trying to deny the role of anyone who does not fit their narrow, bigoted views. Gay, trans, lesbian military members who fought for the United States are being washed out of history by this pathetic group, most of whom never served in a military capacity.

Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. But those who deliberately wipe it out are bent on creating a new circle of ignorance.

But, I mean, come on. Seriously. What did we expect of ol’ Bone Spurs Trump? His grip on history and logic is pathetically weak.

He who cited the use of aircraft and airfields in the American Revolutionary War.

He who referred to Senator McCain, a navy aviator who was captured and held as a prisoner of war, as a loser.

He who warns of the threats of cancer from windmills, a claim without any merit.

He who used a marker to try to change the projected course of a hurricane.

He who had his staff saying that he suggested nuking a hurricane.

He who was documented to lie over 30,000 times in his first administration.

A man who still lies as much as he breathes.

That individual is a fucking idiot.

And you know what that makes his supporters and enablers.

6

Frieda’s Wandering Political Thoughts

The Great Deflector blames ‘globalists’ for the market drops.

Later in the same press event, Trump again blamed globalists for the market downturn. “I think it’s globalists that see how rich our country’s going to be, and they don’t like it.“

What an absolute crock. Couldn’t be the old standard of people and institutions who invest in the stock market were protecting their profits and selling stocks, could it? Oh, no, he has to pull up some bullshit bogey man.

Then again, PINO Trusk isn’t a deep thinker. Not a sharp guy. Doesn’t understand the global network of finance, manufacturing, and supply chains at all. Nope. He prefers a stone-age ‘isolationist’ approach. Thinks that will ‘make America great again’.

Meanwhile, treating your friends like shit ends up with them getting pissed at you and treating you like shit.

Ontario cancels Starlink deal over US tariffs — Italy may follow due to US pullback from Europe

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said that he would cancel the $100 million deal the Canadian province signed with Starlink in response to Trump’s 25% tariff on Canadian goods. He’s also imposing a 25% tax on electricity exports, with New York, Michigan, and Minnesota being the most affected. CBC also reports that U.S.-based companies are banned from procurement contracts with the province.

X Threatens Our Democracy. Canada Should Ban It

Last year, as the U.S. government debated and then followed through on banning TikTok, Republican lawmakers advanced numerous arguments against allowing a hostile foreign power to control a significant medium of public discourse.

They said a social media application owned by someone who is close to an autocratic leader might be used as propaganda.

They said the amount of data harvested by the app from users’ phones could pose enormous security risks, providing information to the security services of a hostile power.

Of course, I might be in the minority in my concerns about PINO Trusk.

What Big-Business Leaders, Including Democrats, Say Privately About Trump

One Wall Street executive told me that Mr. Trump remains better than any of the alternatives. Another — citing Elon Musk’s government shake-up — said he likes what he sees so much, he now regrets voting for Ms. Harris.

It wasn’t just that this group resented Mr. Biden’s intrusive regulatory policies. They didn’t like diversity, equity and inclusion policies either — or anything they derisively described to me as “woke stuff.” Now executives and bankers alike (my circles tilt a bit toward Wall Street) are celebrating early signs of a reversal.

I’m not really astonished by claims that business leaders ‘favor’ PINO Trusk’s trash and burn approach. Stories are rising across the political spectrum about people who first cheer the Trusk Regime’s behavior. Then they’re personally affected, and the song they’re singing goes from praises to complaints. So, as PINO Trusk burns supply chains, declares tariffs (and reverses them), and alienates markets and customers outside of the US, we’ll see how they’re feeling in a few months. Sure, they’re wealthier; their wealth cradles their asses as we go through chaos and inflation.

Or, as Paul Krugman stated it, One thing that really struck me from Rattner’s piece — something I’ve heard from other sources — is that big businessmen think Elon Musk is doing a good job. I guess this is one of those cases where power and privilege make you blind to things that are obvious to everyone else.

After all this fucking around, I’m waiting to find out.

0

Frieda’s Wandering Thoughts

It seems to me that it’s strange to go to a coffee shop, plug in a game, and sit there, playing a few hours. I mean, I can see sitting there reading a book. That makes complete sense, as does doing homework and studying. I’m puzzled by those who come in, plug in, and watch movies or videos for hours. Of course, I also know what an energy suck that games, movies, and videos can be.

Then again, others probably find it strange for me to go to a coffee shop less than two miles from home, set up a computer and then spend hours there in pursuit of writing. I know from riding others’ blogs that some people find it pretentious.

I defend my writing with extenuating circumstances. Bet the rest can make the same defense. Bottom line, it’s all just as legitimate, normal, and natural in today’s tech world, so just get over it, boomer.

7

Frieda’s Theme Music

Howdy men and women, boys and girls, and all others regardless of your name, gender, or orientation. Welcome to another installment of Frieda.

Today is March 7, 2025. Blue sky and sunshine are stamping Ashlandia’s scene. Although it’s 38 F now, warming sun will carry us into the upper 50s. I can dig it.

So the Jobs Report came out, and I think I smell a con.

The US economy added 151,000 jobs in February in first full jobs report under Trump’s second term It’s like, what? How? Given all that I’d read about job losses throughout the month of Feburary, suddenly it’s good news? Call me old-fashioned but if I step in a pile of shit and it smells like shit, I call it shit. Additionally, given how the Trusk Regime has infiltrated every Federal computer system, and PINO Trusk’s propensity of lying, cheating, and being generally untrustworthy, I think there’s every reason to believe that we’re being gaslighted. That economists believed 160000 new jobs would be added blew my mind.

This is an interesting piece of the article:

In recent weeks, the Trump administration has made monumental policy shifts — including large-scale federal layoffs, funding cutbacks, a back-and-forth on tariffs and mass deportations — that have spilled into the broader economy, shaking business and consumer confidence, and resulting in several data points flashing warning signals.

However, the Department of Government Efficiency-driven employment cuts weren’t expected to make a big splash in February’s jobs report. That’s partly because of timing of the two surveys that feed in to the monthly employment snapshot and also due to the structure of employment separation agreements.

Still, Friday’s report gave a hint of what could come: The federal government posted a loss of 10,000 jobs for the month, with 3,500 of those losses coming from the US Postal Service.

So, they’re saying this is all timing? I remain incredulous.

This being the anniversary of one of America’s version of Bloody Sunday, reading about it triggered The Neurons to fold U2’s song, “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, into the morning mental music stream. It’s the 60th Anniversary of the violence in Selma, Alabama, in 1965.

The U2 song is about another government killing citizens. “One of U2’s most overtly political songs, its lyrics describe the horror felt by an observer of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, mainly focusing on the 1972 Bloody Sunday incident in Derry where British troops shot and killed unarmed civil rights protesters.” h/t to Wikipedia.org

Little changes, it sometimes feels. Governments kill their protesting citizens. Reminds me of PINO Trusk’s first term. Remember when he wanted to have the military shoot protestors?

Coffee has rescued me again. Hope you have a solid day. Cheers

0

Playin’ Favorites

Daily writing prompt
What is one question you hate to be asked? Explain.
View all responses

I so dislike questions about my favorite. I don’t care about the object: book, pie, food, beer, wine, music, movie…you get it. I don’t declare absolute favorites. I can’t speak for others but IMO, my favorites often slide along a spectrum that’s driven by mood and, or, circumstances. Sometimes memories float up and a song comes on, such as Tom Petty, “Running Down A Dream”, and I think, yes, this is my favorite song. But in another place and time, another song, such as “Us and Them” by Pink Floyd, or “Zombie” by The Cranberries or “Get It On”, is played and it strikes the note for the moment, finding a bit of sympatico with my soul.

I swing the same way with food and beverages. While I have regulars I turn to, they’re not necessarily the favorite. Same with movies — “Unforgiven”, “Bladerunner”, “This Is Spinal Tap”, “Men In Black” — and books — “Catch 22”, “Catcher In the Rye”, “Lincoln in the Bardo”, or series like the Murder Bots or Chronicles of Amber. Novels…authors…genres…

If I have an absolute favorite in anything, it’s

0

Thirtsda’s Wandering Political Thoughts

My wife and I remain surprised by how many friends and families are acting as though events under PINO Trusk is business as usual and no big deal. Pretty astonishing to me and downright demoralizing to the household’s female ruler. While one friend scowls and proclaims there won’t be 2026 elections — or they’ll be a sham — many others speculate that life will go on as usual; we just won’t have a useful Federal government.

Head-shaking to us, it’s head-in-the-ground thinking IMO. “Let’s just not pay attention and and pretend nothing is going to change and we’ll be fine.” These are self-professed Democratic lifers and progressives, retired professionals such as doctors, accountants, teachers, college professors, and nurses. I wonder, are my wife and I too deep into Doom Scrolling to make objective and intelligent assessments of WTF is going on? I don’t think so.

  • Hard to plan things now as His Idiocy is perfecting the skill of being unpredictable. PINO Trusk is quite the dancer, two-stepping around truth, logic, and consistency. Gotta love that shit show he put on the other night. Pulled in a juvenile saved from cancer as a prop after cutting funding to NIH and medical research at colleges and universities. No shame in the PINO, not at all.

Now we’re seeing His Slickness reversing the tariffs. No, puttin’ ’em on hold. How’s that make sense? He’s all bold speech about how great tariffs are and then jumps back when he installs them and they have the immediate expected negative impact which anyone with common sense predicted.

“And you listen to some of our stupid people, and some of the very stupid people in Washington, DC, “We don’t want to charge tariffs. That’s not… It’s going to increase inflation.” China paid us hundreds of billions of dollars and we had almost no inflation. This group that came in, they had the highest inflation in the history of our country. We took in billions and billions of dollars from foreign countries in the form of tariffs that I hadn’t even gotten started yet. We’ll be a rich nation again. We’ll be able to do what we want to do. We have to do the tariffs. We have been treated so badly mostly by allies. If you want to know the truth, our allies treat us actually worse than our so-called enemies. But we have been treated so badly on trade and other things on military. We protect them, and then they screw us on trade. We’re not going to let it happen anymore. We’re going to be a tariff nation. It’s not going to be a cost to you. It’s going to be a cost to another country.”

That was Donald J. Trump in Wisconsin last year. Seems like stupid is as stupid does and DJT is cornering the market on stupid.

The Trump administration’s massive federal cuts and swelling feelings of economic uncertainty helped fuel a recession-level spike in layoff plans last month, new data showed Thursday.

US-based employers last month announced plans to slash 172,017 jobs, a 103% increase from a year ago and the highest February total since 2009, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas’s latest monthly job cuts report released Thursday.

It’s the 12th highest monthly total in the 32 years Challenger has been tracking job cuts. The 11 others (four came during the Covid-19 pandemic) all occurred when the US was in a recession, Challenger data shows.

The largest share of job cut announcements came in the government sector, where the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency has axed jobs, slashed federal spending and scrapped contracts.

By Challenger’s count, there were 62,242 announced cuts across 17 federal agencies. That’s a 41,311% increase from the 151 cuts announced through February 2024, Challenger noted.

The DOGE effect was not limited to the public sector: Downstream impacts, such as the loss of funding for private nonprofits, led to another 894 cuts, according to the report.

Outside of the government, the next largest cuts were in retail (38,956), technology (14,554) and consumer products (10,625).

I fully expect PINO Trusk and his MAGAzens to proclaim this to be former President Biden’s fault. Cos we know that story well, how PINO Trusk tries to take responsibility when things go well and blames every other biped when it doesn’t.

The firings of over 5,000 probationary employees at the Agriculture Department may have been unlawful, and the workers should be reinstated for at least the next 45 days, a federal civil service board ruled Wednesday.

U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board Chair Cathy Harris issued the order after the Office of Special Counsel alleged that the Agriculture Department had “engaged in prohibited personnel practices” to carry out the mass firings.

The question for me is, seriously, if you’d treated me like crap, firing me in the manner that you did, and then brought me back because it was probably illegal, how would I respond? Sadly, I’d prefer to act like a professional and do a good job because the nation depends on it and I swore that I would. But it would be evilly tempting to be spiteful and sabotage PINO Trusk’s government, basically treating him and his kind as assholes because that’s how they treated me.

Guess it’s a good thing that I’m not part of that workforce.

3

Thirstda’s Theme Music

Someone kicked the bucket. Grays splashed across the sky. White highlights relieve the gray’s relentless hold and the sunshine skips in through whatever cracks it can find. Still, better than it was at 7:30 AM. I was on the road, northbound to a medical appointment then. Rain drizzled the traffic and motorways. 39 F then, we’ve jumped to 43 F now and may spring up to 50 F. Lot of the horizons were mystified as well, plying us with a wuthering heights vibe.

This is Thirstda, March 6, 2025. Remember, the holiday season begins less than nine months from now. Better get planning.

Coming back from ‘up north’…okay, ‘up north’ is actually almost due west northwest and just fourteen miles up the Innerstate. But it’s north and south on the maps, so, what am I going to do, just declare it differently because I think myself king of the world?

But coming back, heading east, snow topped the low northern mountains. The snow level looked like 2500 feet in elevation. The ridges on I-5’s southern side were snow free. That changed a bit as the valley pinched closed. Turning off the highway and climbing a surface street toward home, snow glazed the evergreens around 3000 feet in elevation. Nothing around our house, though. Typical of the period when seasons change, it all gets a little edgier, swirlier, and more unpredictable.

As far as medical updates from my appointments, my limbs are doing great and show no swelling. But appointments are necessary until the right side’s sock arrives. It seems lost in Truskland.

Didn’t have any sense of what today’s theme music should be. Like The Neurons in charge of that activity went on strike. Maybe they were fired. Terminated for poor performance. Who knows? Lot of that seems to be going around.

Fortunately, Dame Fortune stepped in and guided me to Rock n’ Roll HOF performance from 2008. Joan Jett, Billy Joel, John Mellencamp, John Fogerty and others were doing a cover of a Dave Clark 5 1963 teenbeat, “Glad All Over”. It’s a fun presentation, an excellent example of the thumping and rocking that attracted many to pop and rock. Hope you get a kick out of it, too.

Sunshine has made a breakthrough. Clouds are scurrying clear and blue sky is bowling in. I’m downing some coffee and hitting the writing circuit. Hope the day works out in good ways for you and yours. Cheers

3

Wenzda’s Wandering Political Thoughts

I didn’t watch PINO Trusk’s speech. Several media outlets highlighted some lowlights that provoked some thinking in me.

Look how he’s asking for patience and claiming to be working hard to lower the prices. Why, PINO Trusk sounds just like President Biden, but somehow, we’re supposed to be more patient and tolerant of Trump when he shows none for others.

Egg prices have risen since Trusk took office, for the same reasons they were rising under President Biden. Now, the Times reminds us that last week, ‘Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced $1 billion in efforts to contain the bird flu outbreak and “make eggs affordable again.”’

But, DOGE fired Dept. of Agriculture workers, including the agencies who would administer this program. I give PINO Trusk’s efforts Zero points on the logic scale and Ten points on the bullshit scale.

Remember, zero is the least amount of points rewarded — well, none are — while ten points on the BS scale is the most which can be rewarded. A BS of ten means that it’ll go over great with the unthinking right wing minions while the rest of us respond, “WTF?” This specific promise gets zero on the logic scale because he fired the people who can actually help do what he claims to be trying to do. If it follows that ‘actions speak louder than words’, his actions of firing the people who can help way outweigh Secretary Rollins words.

But what’s new with PINO Trusk? That isn’t. He’s always making promises, claiming what he’s going to do. Remember some of his previous claims and promises:

  • He would reveal his taxes if elected president. No, he would release them if President Obama released his birth certificate, which was part of the Trump birther scam. President Obama released his birth certificate a week after Trump made this claim; Trump took years before they were released.
  • He would build a new wall and Mexico would pay for it. Didn’t happen.
  • He would be ‘too busy’ as President to golf. He ended up playing more golf than any POTUS in history, and scammed the Federal government along the way to make money from it. He’s already spent a quarter of his time in office this year golfing.
  • As early as 2015, Trump promised to replace ‘Obamacare’ — ACA — with ‘something terrific’. Ten years later, he has yet to reveal anything material to do anything of the sort.
  • Donald Trump said COVID-10 would disappear. “…when you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that’s a pretty good job we’ve done.” He said that just over 5 years ago, on Feb. 26, 2020. COVID-19 remains a threat to this day and has killed millions of Americans.

Remember, he’s a failed businessman. Here’s some of that history:

  • The Trump Taj Mahal
  • Trump Shuttle Inc.
  • Trump Mortgage, LLC
  • Trump University (also known as the Trump Wealth Institute and Trump Entrepreneur Initiative LLC)
  • The Plaza Hotel in Manhatten
  • ‘Trump Steaks’
  • Trump Vodka
  • Trump: The Game
  • Trump Magazine
  • GoTrump.com

We have PINO Trusk’s documented track record. We have his documented lies. The bottom line: he promises everything and can’t be trusted.

Only a fool — or a Republican — would.

2

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