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Category Archives: Politics
Pedicure
We are going to a wedding this weekend. So, Anne got her toes painted. Aren’t they lovely? Earlier, back in Monterey she also found a new to her dress at Nice Women’s Consignment Boutique. It looks like the weather will even cooperate this weekend with her wardrobe selection.
Here is a little link to a throwback video game, Epic Furious. You can die in it and since you’re playing the President maybe that’s a victory after all. Try it!
Not NICE
In an attempt to rebrand the murderous ICE organization, Trump has relabeled them NICE, but nice people do not murder other people. Still unfunded, DHS is managing to pay this little Gestapo army somehow, probably illegally, but when have they ever let the law stand in their way. All this cruelty is just part of Trump’s quest to distract us from demanding the full release of the Epstein files.
Death & Taxes
On this Tax Day, I cannot think of a better time to rail against the government. So, let’s go. “Nothing is certain in this world, except death and taxes.” This quote is attributed to Benjamin Franklin. I frequently find that it’s accrual world, where a fine is a tax for doing wrong, while a tax is a fine for doing well. I have often been asked, what’s the best way to teach your children about taxes? Eating a third of their ice cream ought to do it. And in conclusion, people who cheat on their taxes disgust me. This is not the world I want to raise my 27 dependents in.
The Madman Doctrine
He is acting like a cornered animal now. Yesterday’s four-letter word outburst is only the latest and clearest example of this fact. He is trapped and he knows it. No matter how much he blusters there is no way that he can bomb himself out of this war. He has started something that he cannot finish. He is left to threaten and flail. Maybe he will resort to committing war crimes. Who knows what the mad king will do next? I’m hoping that he tacos and chickens out again.
War Prints¹
Today, the Pentagon released its budget request for next year, $1.5T. In addition, to being the largest US military budget request ever, it also represents a 40% increase year-to-year from this year’s military budget. In addition to this request there is in a $200B supplemental budget request that was made last month to cover initial Iran war expenses. The Whitehouse announced that it would seek a 10% cut in non-Defense spending to balance these budget increases. Read major cuts to “daycare, Medicaid, Medicare”. All to pay for a war that no one wanted.
Today, we went to the botanical gardens. The weather was warm and the garden was crowded. Afterwards, we went looking for some late lunch on South Grand. The odd hour and quite a few closings left little to choose from. We settled on the Taste of Persia. We decided to share an entree, but each added a beverage, mango lassi, plus we added lamb flavored rice. Muhammad, our server, comped us with their normal white rice, so that we could taste that too. When he came back to ask us how our food was, Anne asked him if he had any relatives in Iran.
He said that he had two daughters, but one of them died when the US bombed the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ elementary school in Minab, at the beginning of the war. She didn’t attend the school but lived in an adjoining home. We felt awful and awkwardly offered him our condolences. But what can you say to assuage such grief? At the end of our meal, we asked for a to-go box for all the rice. He brought the box and also a topping sauce that we added to the box. We apologized again for our country. He absolved us with, “What can you do?”
- The print with this post shows how the news was reported in Japan back then. The graphics look cartoonish, by today’s standards. But in a country where most people were illiterate, this is how people got the news then.