Flowers and the Administration - Updated

What am I pissed about today?  Many things.  But first, here are flowers in the back yard.  This is known as a Fairy Duster.  I'm sure it has a Latin name, but I don't know what it is.

This is a Salvia I got to replace the plant that died over the summer.  It's blooming a little.

During the Biden administration Admiral Rachel Levine was assistant Secretary of Health.  The admiral is a transgendered person.  After she left her post, due to 47 winning the election, someone took her photo out of the frame in the hallway on the seventh floor of the Humphrey Building and typed her dead name below her portrait and returned the portrait to the frame.  This is so petty and despicable.  Article here.

If you are planning to come to the US, there are new rules to be followed.   This does not affect the UK (it does, I was wrong) or Canada.  The list of affected countries is in the article.  Anyway, this is what will be required.  In addition to five years of social media histories, Customs and Border Protection has added other new data collection fields, including email addresses and telephone numbers used in the last five years, as well as the addresses and names of family members.  This is bullshit.  One wonders who is going to go through all of this collected data.  Article is here. If you've said mean things about the orange fat man, I guess you don't get a visa.  This will be yet another hit on tourism.

Orla Joelson posted this tweet.  The United States is now included in the threat assessment issued by Denmark’s Defence Intelligence Service regarding risks to Denmark. “The United States no longer excludes the possibility of using military force, even against its allies,” according to the latest assessment published by the Forsvarets Efterretningstjeneste (FE), Denmark’s military intelligence agency responsible for foreign and security-related threats. How about that, we're part of their threat assessments.

The "peace" negotiations for Russia and Ukraine are going nowhere.  Ukraine will not cede territory and Russia insists they must.  The House of Representatives passed the National Defense Authorization Act today which contains $400M for Ukraine in 2026, and another $400M in 2027.  It still has to make it through the Senate.  

Also included in the NDAA is a paragraph that will allow unfettered access by the military to the airspace over the District of Columbia, Ronald Reagan airport.  There was a crash between a military helicopter and a regional jet that killed 67 people in January of this year.  The helicopter was broadcasting its location at the time, but was higher that it was supposed to be.  Regulatory changes recommended by the National Transportation Safety Board were ordered by Transportation Secretary Duffy to make flying safer.  The language in the NDAA undoes those changes and makes it very dangerous to fly there.  We suspect the Secretary of War had something to do with this.

DHS has purchased 6 737 aircraft to increase how quickly they can deport people.  This is stupid, really stupid.  Now they have to hire mechanics to keep the planes in the air, pilots, someone to do logistics, and a whole host of support personnel.  It would be cheaper to lease planes on demand.  There are many businesses that lease planes.  But nooo, Puppy Killer had to have her own air force in addition to the two business jets she bought.

Republicans in Congress have decided that no further investigation into the murder of the two mariners in distress off the coast of Venezuela is required.  Nothing to see here.  Democrats are still trying to get the footage, but thus far they are not having any luck. 

47 had a rally in Pennsylvania last night.  The purpose of the event was for him to convince the citizens that prices have not gone up.  He ended up going on for 90 minutes in front of the 200 people who attended.  At one point he was again calling Somalia a shit hole country and calling for the deportation of Ilhan  Omar, who is a congress person and a citizen.  Ninety minutes!

So that's it, my spleen is sufficiently vented.  These are amusing.
 

 

Bombing and National Security Strategy

Well, where to start.  

It has been revealed that the administration was lying about shooting the boats in the Caribbean Sea.  The one boat that received the "double tap" to kill the two survivors was simple murder.  Vice Admiral Bradley, who ordered the second strike alleged that the two men were trying to right their boat and be on their way.  Think about it, boat hit by Hellfire missiles and split down the middle.  I am so sure two men in the water can roll it over, especially with 3 large engines on it, restart it and drive away.  This is just a stupid lie.  Secondly, these boats are not capable of reaching the US mainland with their cargo.  A US intelligence report released in 2025 stated that these boats are on their way to Suriname, where their individual cargoes are bundled and flown to Europe.  No US lives were saved by the deaths of 80 some odd people who were bombed by the US.  This is still a war crime, but it's doubtful anyone will receive consequences.  So, I guess we're back to trying to force Maduro out and seize their oil.

In case you're wondering, Suriname is just to the left of French Guiana.  Their official language is Dutch.

The 2025 National Security Strategy has been published and released.  There is a table of contents, with links to various parts of the world.  

Who remembers the Monroe Doctrine released in 1823?  Basically it defined the Western Hemisphere as the US Sphere of Interest.  No more puppet monarchs would be allowed in South American, and any foreign interference  from other countries would not be tolerated.  There's more, but the emphasis on the Western Hemisphere is important.  Canada and Greenland are included in this as well as South America.  The NSS references the Monroe Doctrine and says stuff like this.

The United States must be preeminent in the Western Hemisphere as a condition of
our security and prosperity—a condition that allows us to assert ourselves
confidently where and when we need to in the region. The terms of our alliances,
and the terms upon which we provide any kind of aid, must be contingent on
winding down adversarial outside influence—from control of military installations,
ports, and key infrastructure to the purchase of strategic assets broadly defined.

How does Canada feel about this?  In case 47 hasn't noticed, Canada become the first non-European nation to participate in SAFE — Europe’s $244B defense-industrial umbrella.  They're now aligned strongly with Europe, and less with the the US.  

I wonder if indiscriminate bombing of small water craft off the shores of South America will continue as part of the US assertion of will. 

This paragraph in the European section is being interpreted as US support for the far-right parties in Europe that want to change or leave the EU.  Italy and Hungary come to mind.  

American diplomacy should continue to stand up for genuine democracy, freedom
of expression, and unapologetic celebrations of European nations’ individual
character and history. America encourages its political allies in Europe to promote
this revival of spirit, and the growing influence of patriotic European parties indeed
gives cause for great optimism.

I have a hard time reading documents like this, many words that don't clearly say anything.  Here is one person's take on the Europe section.

In other channels, 47 has announced that the US will largely be out of NATO by 2027.  

Oh wait, maybe we're already out.

But hey, FIFA gave 47 the inaugural FIFA peace price.  It's being characterized as a participation award like kids get in grade school.  Here he is, receiving his award.

Other than this, I have not too much to say.  We need to ride/hike somewhere else so I will have photos you haven't seen before.

 

 

Clouds and the Government

It was windy and cold today, then a wall of clouds started moving in.  We decided to bail on riding, too windy, and hike.  The light was pretty good.  Towards the end, heading back to the house, the temperature dropped and it started to smell like rain.  Fortunately, we were home when it got here, about 15 minutes after.  It's good to hike, we need weight bearing.  We're both having dexascans soon to find out how bad things are.  I've had osteopenia for years, but it's been stable.  I am hoping for that.

So, out in the desert....  This is a happy prickly pear.  Most of them look like death, but this guy is hanging on.

The mountains looked lovely with the clouds.

Yesterday Dear Leader had a North Korean style cabinet meeting, where each member discussed what their department was working on, and then discussed the wonderfulness of 47.  I believe it was Puppy Killer Noem who congratulated him on keeping the hurricanes at bay this past season.  Rubio was in the midst of praising 47 for his peace efforts, sitting right next to 47, who went to sleep.  He slept a lot through the meeting.  He's got another giant bandage on his hand and makeup to cover up what's there.  The current theory is that he's receiving Leqembi (lecanemab) which is a medication for early Alzheimer's disease that works by lowering beta-amyloid in the brain to reduce cognitive and functional decline.  It's an intravenous infusion or subcutaneous injection, so that could be what's up with the hand.  I think they should give him more.

At the end of the love fest, 47 declared that all Somalians, and Ilhan Omar in particular, are garbage and he wants them out of the country.  Unfortunately for him, most of the Somali population in Minnesota are citizens.  Since when does a president call people garbage?  Must be projection.

Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau is in the NATO meeting, winning hearts and minds  Today he slammed European NATO allies for prioritizing their own defense industry over American arms suppliers, according to three NATO diplomats.  It's the first time in 20 years that the SecState did not attend. 

CEO of War Hegseth had a bad day.  The Inspector General reported that his use of Signal to discuss an upcoming raid did put soldiers' lives at risk.  Hegseth is still maintaining that it was a perfect call.  He has also thrown Rear Admiral Bradley who ordered the second strike on the burning boat, killing two men, under the bus.  Hegseth is maintaining he never gave the order to kill them all, contradicting earlier statements.  Hopefully, this will encourage people in the military to not accept illegal orders, no one will have their backs.

So, the wheels continue to come off this country.  We were great once, and now we're not. 

However, here is the raccoon who broke into a Virginia liquor store, broke a bunch of bottles of booze, got drunk and passed out in the restroom.

 

Sunset in the USA

We had another good sunset last night.  We were a little late getting out the door with the cell phone cameras, but it was still impressive.

I don't know how many of you are following the Ukraine/Witkoff/Putin/47 saga, but it's finally making its way out of the shadows.  PhilipsObrien has an excellent synopsis of much of the whole sordid tale.  Even better, he included a gift link to the Wall Street Journal article that brought the corruption out into the open.  Basically, it boils down to 47 is throwing Ukraine under the bus so that he and Putin can do deals and make money and screw the rest of the planet.  It's all on Europe now, no one else is coming to save them.

That's it, that's all I have to say.

 

One Holiday Over and High Crimes

Thanksgiving was successful.  The chicken was perfectly cooked, keeping the temperature a little bit lower on the grill was good.  We did forget to open the can of cranberry jelly, maybe next year.

This is our new tray to transport the chicken to the grill and back.  We got it at Home Goods, it's nice, heavy melamine.  It was funny, it wouldn't fit in the refrigerator sideways, we had to empty a shelf on the door and slide it in long ways.  It's very festive.

 Last night there was a pretty good sunset.

Today we did Christmas prep.  It was short and sweet.  The tiny Christmas tree is up, and we put wreaths on the security door.  They are also festive. 

This was on the front of the Washington Post today.  This, right here, is a war crime.  Our Secretary of Defense is a war criminal.  So is his chain of command that carried out the order.   There were two survivors in the water, and he ordered another strike to kill them.

I strongly suspect that this is why Admiral Holsey resigned. The law of the sea says anyone who has been sunk/shipwrecked is entitled to assistance. Once the boat was sunk, the Geneva convention says they have no capacity to fight. The killing of the two men holding onto flaming wreckage is a war crime, straight up murder.

Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is currently being held at the ICC in The Hague on charges of crimes against humanity for doing the EXACT SAME THING that Trump/Hegseth are doing now: Summarily executing alleged drug traffickers without due process.  

This must be why they're so upset about the Seditious Six reminding the military that they should not follow illegal orders. 

Today 47 made it clear that he is ready and willing to give Putin Crimea and all the current Russian occupied land in Ukraine.   Europe and Ukraine have not signed on for this.

Here is a tip for fractious family gatherings.

 

Other than this, I have nothing else to say.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope you have an excellent day, however you choose to spend it.  We, boring couple that we are, will be riding the bikes and later spatchcocking a chicken to cook on the grill.  Braver people than we also spatchcock turkeys.  They must have big scissors to get the back bone out, and a huge cooking surface.