Category Archives: Military

Trump’s Folly.

Posted on by

Let’s call the bombing of Iran and the ensuing blockage of the Strait of Hormuz what it really is: Trump’s Folly. He has a confusing and troubling history with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

In 2017, he withdrew the U.S. from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, an agreement negotiated with Iran and other world powers to carefully watch over Iran’s nuclear program to ensure that it did not develop nuclear weapons. In the first months of his second occupation of the Oval Office, without provocation, he ordered the bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites claiming to have completely obliterated them. Then in February of this year, Trump ordered a second round of attacks, which claimed the life of Iran’s supreme leader, as well as the lives of more than 180 elementary school girls. Again, the Felon claimed the strikes to be a great success.

What followed is something the geographically challenged Felon did not anticipate. Iran struck back at U.S. bases and our Middle Eastern allies. More important, they shut down all shipping traffic past the Strait of Hormuz.

Now this is a conundrum that neither the Felon nor his sidekicks had anticipated. It doesn’t take a world power to close the Strait. All it takes is a few determined individuals equipped with drones, small missiles and enough explosives to damage a few oil tankers and container ships. That is enough for shipping companies to lose their insurance coverage and abandon further attempts.

Currently, there are more than 2,000 ships stranded in the Persian Gulf unwilling to attempt passage. These are ships that move approximately 20 percent of the world’s oil, in addition to a wide variety of other goods, including fertilizer needed for crops in the U.S. and elsewhere.

The astonishing thing about this situation is that any middle schooler with an understanding of geography could see the potential problem of starting a war of choice with Iran. But the Felon and his Secretary of War couldn’t. They obviously committed to the attacks without a goal and without a plan. And now they’re stuck.

They claim the war has already been won. That Iran has no ships, no aircraft, no weapons. Yet the Strait is still closed, and the military says that we are also running out of advanced weapons. They claim that there is a ceasefire. But the U.S. and Israel continue to strike Iran, and Iran continues to strike back. In response, the Felon threatens war crimes and nuclear obliteration.

So far, the war has cost U.S. taxpayers somewhere between $42 billion and $84 billion. And that doesn’t include the $11 billion in additional weapons sent to Israel. Neither does it include the approximately $50 billion in damage to U.S. bases in the Middle East. Nor does it include the $500 billion that the Felon wants to add to our already bloated military budget.

Moreover, it doesn’t include the additional costs for goods and services as a result of rising fuel costs and disrupted supply chains – a total likely far larger than the cost of military weapons and bases. And, of course, it doesn’t include the human costs in lives lost, disrupted or forever changed.

Nevertheless, the Felon continues to claim that he’s winning this “excursion.” He’s not just at war with Iran. He’s at war with reality.

Feeding The Felon’s Ego.

Posted on by

I believe Trump’s vision of a White House ballroom encapsulates the entire Trump presidency, indeed his entire life. First, he decides to build a grandiose ballroom in his name. He and his friends will pay for it, and it will be attached to the East Wing. But don’t worry, the East Wing will not be touched. Instead, it was demolished. Then we were assured that the new East Wing and the ballroom would be even better. And they would be funded by private donors. No taxpayer funds needed. Now…now we are told that building the ballroom is a matter of national security, and it will cost taxpayers a billion dollars!

None of this should come as a surprise. In the Trump regime, EVERYTHING IS A LIE! A lie to feed the insatiable ego of a deeply flawed individual.

Though he has done nothing to advance the lives of others (in fact, the lives of most Americans are demonstrably worse for his malignant narcissism), the Felon-in-Chief has a grandiose vision of himself as some sort of savior. A leader so revered that the entire capital city and all of America’s symbols should pay tribute to him.

Like Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, and other despots before him, he wants his image and his name plastered everywhere. Not satisfied with seeing his name in cartoonishly large letters atop hotels, on golf courses, on airplanes and the like, he wants to see it on theaters, government buildings, and airports. And, of course on his grandiose ballroom and an even more self-aggrandizing “Arch d’ Trump.”

He even has expectations of seeing his highly punchable face on Mt. Rushmore. Who knows? Before he can be dragged out of the now gold encrusted Oval Office, he may try to rename the White House after himself, or the District of Columbia, or the entire nation.

“Welcome to Trumplandia, formerly known as the United States of America.”

And what has the Felon done to earn this greater than George Washington legacy? He pushed his way into office with help from Russia and its highly dangerous leader. He embraced bullies, racists, thugs, and terrorists of every kind. He weakened our international standing and alienated our most reliable allies. He destroyed our democracy’s most valuable institutions and traditions and turned Americans against one another as never before. He reshaped the Supreme Court and is in the midst of politicizing the entire judicial system.

His national police force has terrorized cities. His “War Department” has committed war crimes. He has set back race and gender relations by more than 50 years. He has rolled back regulations and compromised our environment. His failed response to the pandemic killed more than a million Americans and tanked our economy. He cut off food and medical aid to impoverished people around the world leading to millions more deaths. He has imprisoned and deported thousands of law-abiding immigrants who had become necessary parts of our communities. With the help of RFK, jr., he has made the world even more vulnerable to the next pandemic.

He started a war of choice that has destabilized the Middle East and crippled world economies. He has overseen a regime of unparalleled corruption. In just the first year of his second term, he has used his title to enrich his family with more than $4 billion. And by the time he’s done, he will likely have doubled the national debt.

Given all this, I submit there is only one fitting monument to bear his name: A prison. Who else is for renaming Gitmo?

The Coming Reckoning.

Posted on by

In the 1930s and late 1960s, the U.S. experienced unparalleled social progress under Democratic leadership that made life better for the vast majority of Americans. In the 1930s, we saw the official end of the Gilded Age along with the economic rescue of millions of Americans after the Great Depression thanks to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. FDR also created Social Security which meant that after a lifetime of work most Americans could finally experience a comfortable retirement.

Though he is most known for a war he did not start, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968. He also created Medicare and Medicaid as part of his war on poverty.

Though he never served as president, Ralph Nader had an enormous impact on our quality of life in the 1970s. As a result of his efforts, the Freedom of Information Act, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Clean Water Act, the Consumer Product Safety Act, and the Whistleblower Protection Act were born. He also influenced the creation of the EPA to help clean up our environment and OSHA to improve the safety of workers.

In 1998, 1999, 2000 and part of 2001, after digging us out of a recession, President Bill Clinton oversaw federal budget surpluses for the first time in decades. This despite the fact that he invested heavily in education and technology, in additional police to lower crime, and in health initiatives such as the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Earned Income Tax Credit to help low-income families.

President Barack Obama continued the tradition of Democratic presidents repairing the economy after Republican shortcomings by digging us out of the Great Recession. He also created the Affordable Care Act to give tens of millions of Americans access to affordable health insurance. In addition, he pushed for initiatives to mitigate climate change.

And, like Democratic presidents before him, President Joe Biden rescued the economy following the botched pandemic response. He succeeded in getting an infrastructure bill passed after many before him had failed. And he oversaw historic investments in clean energy.

For their part, Republicans have almost universally fought all of these accomplishments along the way. Beginning with President Nixon, we have seen increased attacks on voting rights. And beginning with President Reagan, we have experienced the growth of corporate consolidation and wealth disparity until, in 2014, the U.S. was officially recognized as an oligarchy, which Wikipedia defines as “a type of political system in which the wealthiest citizens deploy unique and concentrated power to defend their unique minority interests.”

In other words, for decades politicians and their benefactors have rigged our government for their personal gain to the point that a significant percentage of our population feels so helpless they want to tear it all down. We’ve watched politics become a profession. We’ve witnessed unparalleled corruption by politicians and corporate leaders as they mortgage our nation’s future.

For example, the national debt now exceeds our GDP as a result of too many wars of choice which have led to uncontrolled military spending. Adding to the problem is the loss of revenue from continuous tax cuts for the wealthy and large corporations. Former high-paying jobs have been shipped overseas so corporations can avoid paying worker benefits in their never-ending quest for increased corporate profits. Most industries have been captured by a few corporations that too often collude with one another to fix prices and flex their lobbying muscle for special treatment. This corporate consolidation has led to the collapse of many communities, especially in rural areas. Meanwhile multinationals and foreign corporations have set about controlling agriculture by swallowing up farmland and groundwater sources.

Americans’ overall health and lifespan have been diminished as a result of food scarcity, poor nutrition and lack of access to healthcare. Despite overpowering evidence of the causes and consequences of climate change, the oligarchs and many politicians have buried their heads in the sand refusing to acknowledge that it will devastate our planet with mass extinctions of species (maybe our own) along with extreme weather events, increased wildfires, sea level rise and weakening ocean currents. In addition, climate change is leading to mass migration which places stress on host nations often ending with human rights violations as we’ve seen in the U.S.

The extraction of commodities such as lumber, fossil fuels and minerals is given priority over our more important natural resources such as clean air and water, healthy forests, the diversity of wildlife and even human lives.

Moreover, our Constitution is under attack as never before. Billionaire oligarchs have taken control of our media turning long-standing news organizations into propaganda outlets that ignore reality and spew misinformation to advance their interests. Religion, race, gender and sexual preference are again being used as weapons to distract and divide us.

We are finally reaching the point where our democracy and our corrupted economy can no longer coexist. It is time for a reckoning.

It is time for congressional term limits and accountability for corruption. It is time for an effective FEC, election transparency, and limits on campaign financing. It is time to eliminate all forms of voter suppression and to make Election Day a national holiday. It is time for a strong FCC and the restoration of the Fairness Doctrine. It is time for a truly independent judiciary and Department of Justice. It is time for a wealth tax and real tax fairness. It is time for the application of antitrust laws, the reversal of Buckley v Valeo and the overturning of Citizens United.

It is time for universal healthcare and effective gun laws. It is time to fully fund and restore our public education system that was once the envy of the world. It is time to restore our international standing and strengthen relationships with allies.

And perhaps most important of all, it is time to address climate change with the urgency it requires as if the future of our planet depends on it. Because it does.

The Surest Way To Make America Great Again.

Posted on by

For 2025-2026, the U.S. military budget is $921 billion, 35.5 percent of all global military spending and 63 percent more than China’s and Russia’s military budgets combined (our largest global adversaries). And 11 of the remaining top 15 are U.S. allies!

Given the fearsomeness of our military power, U.S. citizens have a greater likelihood of starving to death or dying for lack of access to healthcare than being killed by a military attack on our homeland. And a far greater chance of being gunned down in a church, theater, school, nightclub or shopping mall by a Second Amendment nutjob!

Yet the Trump regime is planning to ask Congress to increase our already bloated military budget to $1.5 trillion for next year.

That started me thinking: What if we cut our military spending to a more reasonable amount? Let’s say that we cut it to $502.6 billion – double that of China, the next largest spender and our greatest perceived global rival. That would save U.S. taxpayers a whopping $669.7 billion. Or, when compared to the regime’s planned 2027 military budget, nearly $1 trillion!

Assuming the Trump regime hasn’t completely alienated all of our longtime allies, we would still have a combined military budget of $1.14 trillion.

So, what if our government really did come to its senses? What could we do with that $669.7 billion or $1 trillion in annual savings? And what if we made U.S. billionaires pay a tax rate of 13 percent, the same as the average U.S. taxpayer? We would gain an estimated $224 billion annually in additional tax revenues. In addition, we would gain billions more if we closed tax shelters and forced multinational corporations to pay a tax burden equal to that of other advanced economies.

With the many billions in savings and the additional tax revenue, we could all but eliminate our annual $1.78 trillion federal deficit. That would save even more money that would otherwise be spent on additional interest for our national debt. Or we could take part of the savings and do some real good for our citizens.

For example, we could feed every hungry American for $33.1 billion a year – just 3 percent of our current military budget. And for an estimated $19.9 billion – roughly 2 percent of our military budget – we could house all of our homeless, many of them military veterans.

We could further cut costs and save lives by committing to some form of universal healthcare. Some estimates show that by replacing private insurance with Medicare for All we could cut our total annual healthcare expenditure by up to $313.5 billion per year.

Reimagining our federal budget would certainly be better than following our military-industrial complex further down the rabbit hole, especially when you consider that the Department of Defense has never passed an audit. Indeed, between 1998 and 2015, the DoD can’t account for $21 trillion in spending! $21 trillion – nearly 54 percent of our national debt!!!

Moreover, by cutting our military budget to a more sensible level, the politicians in Washington might feel more constrained in committing to a war of choice.

The Oppressed Become The Oppressors.

Posted on by

The bullied become the bullies.

At the risk of being labeled antisemitic (I most certainly am not!!!), I believe it’s time to hold the Israeli Zionist leadership accountable for its role in the ongoing violence and hatred in the Middle East. To begin, we must recognize that Israel has a right to exist. But we also must understand that Americans have been fed a one-sided account of the situation by religious institutions, the government, and Israeli lobbyists, as well as the media and entertainment industries.

To understand the current situation, a little history is in order.

The problems began in the late 1800s and early 1900s with the founding of the World Zionist Organization and the resettlement into Palestine of tens of thousands of Jews escaping persecution in Europe and Russia. (I think we can all agree that all humans have a right to live in peace free from persecution, including Jews and Palestinians.)

When, following WWI, the League of Nations authored the British Mandate recognizing British rule over Palestine and Transjordan, hundreds of thousands more Jews arrived in the area. At first, they purchased land and lived in concert with ethnic Palestinians who had occupied the area for generations. But, as millions more Jews immigrated during the build-up to WWII, conflicts began. In response, the British attempted to limit further immigration and recommended that an independent Palestine, governed jointly by Palestinians and Jews, be established within 10 years.

After the horrors of the Holocaust (the Nazi genocide of European Jews and other ethnic groups), illegal immigration into Palestine soared, resulting in Jews comprising 33 percent of the population. When Britain asked the United Nations for help, the UN recommended that the land be divided into a Jewish state and a Palestinian state, and that Jerusalem be placed under an international trusteeship.

When the British Mandate was terminated in 1948, Britain withdrew from the area, and a civil war broke out as Jews tried to claim more land. When Jews declared independence and created the nation of Israel, the war expanded into a regional conflict with war crimes committed by both sides and ending in the Nakba with Jews taking 55 percent of the land and violently displacing more than 700,000 Palestinian residents who were forced into refugee camps in Gaza and Jordan.

Not surprisingly, that spawned an enduring hatred amongst the Palestinians who were determined to return to their homes. Those who continued to fight were, of course, labeled terrorists (a convenient label that can be applied by those on either side of a fight). The war also angered Israel’s Arab neighbors who were forced to accept Palestinian refugees. Then, in 1967, Israel initiated a pre-emptive strike against its Arab neighbors, capturing the Sinai, Gaza, the West Bank and the Golan Heights.

In reality, the wars have never ended.

Israel has controlled all movement in and out of Palestinian lands for decades limiting weapons, even food and medical supplies. When frustrated Palestinians threw rocks at Israeli soldiers, the soldiers were ordered to shoot at their legs. In addition, Israel began imprisoning Palestinians indefinitely without charges and without trial. (3,329 by the end of 2025.)

More violent Palestinian attacks on Israel have been met with mass killings and destruction, the latest following the Hamas terrorist attack of October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,100 Israelis. In response, Israel committed what Amnesty International, and others have called a genocide and on-going humanitarian crisis by turning most of Gaza into rubble. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have killed more than 75,000 Palestinians, wounding an additional 171,000 and displacing more than 75,000. Since then, the IDF have also killed more than 560 humanitarian aid workers, along with more than 1,700 healthcare workers, and roughly 300 journalists. During the obliteration of Gaza, medical volunteers from the U.S. also reported dozens of cases of young children, including toddlers, being shot in the head by Israeli snipers.

Palestinian blood scarcely had time to dry in Gaza before Israel turned its attention to the West Bank, Lebanon and Iran.

In the West Bank, Israeli settlers and soldiers continue to brutally attack and kill Palestinians at will. They have razed Palestinian homes and olive groves in clear attempts to ethnically cleanse the land.

In Lebanon, the goal seems the same. Israel has set about creating a “buffer zone” for Israeli safety. That’s code for carpet bombing a swath of Lebanon, including Beirut, killing any Lebanese civilians who either refuse or are unable to leave. Those attacks have resulted in many thousands of Lebanese killed or wounded.

And to eliminate the threat of Iran as a regional power, Israel’s war criminal Netanyahu talked our own war criminal in the White House into launching a pre-emptive war on Iran. So far, that has led to the death of Iran’s supreme leader, in addition to the bombing of government buildings, military sites, at least one elementary school, universities, and residential buildings. In all, the U.S. has claimed to have flown more than 12,000 combat sorties over Iran and fired more than 850 Tomahawk missiles. And, within the first three weeks of the war, Israel had dropped more than 12,000 bombs – more than 3,600 on the city of Tehran. All to prevent potential Iranian-sponsored attacks from Hezbollah.

Is it any wonder that Israel has asked American taxpayers to pay for tens of billions in more weaponry?

Certainly, terrorist groups from Iran, Lebanon and other Middle Eastern nations have sporadically attacked Israelis since the 1948 Nakba resulting in more than 5,000 Israeli deaths. But over that same time span, Israel has killed more than 130,000 Palestinians – mostly civilians. Indeed, the stated belief of at least one Israeli military leader is that for each Israeli death, 50 Palestinians must die.

As long as that mentality exists, the war will never end as each death radicalizes family members and friends.

Perhaps even more worrisome is the belief held by many Zionists that they cannot stop their expansionist wars until the “Promised Land” is reunited – a view shared by Christian evangelicals who believe that will lead to the return of their Messiah and the rapture of all true believers. Of course, that would mean that the state of Israel would include parts of modern-day Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria and Iraq. Such an expansion would only further broaden the conflict, creating endless deaths and destruction

It’s long past time for this cycle of violence to stop! A good place to start would be ending all arms shipments to the bullies at the center of it.

The Astonishing Costs Of Trump’s War.

Posted on by

So far, 13 U.S. military members have been killed and more than 380 wounded in the Trump war on Iran. And it’s estimated that at least 2,000 Iranians have been killed – most of them civilians. As of April 9, the U.S. has struck more than 13,000 targets in Iran – 9,000 in the first 24 days and an average of 300 to 500 every day since. And that doesn’t include the military strikes carried out by the Israelis.

The targets have included missile launch sites, Iranian naval ships, Iranian nuclear enrichment sites, military and government facilities, refineries, and oil depots, as well as at least one elementary school, numerous universities, and residential areas. So, the number of fatalities in Iran are likely much higher. And there are undoubtedly thousands of wounded.

That is the horrific human cost of this ill-conceived and unnecessary war. And the monetary costs, though replaceable, are simply astonishing.

It has been estimated that the build-up prior to the war cost $370 million and that it is costing $18 million per day to operate our two carrier groups in the Middle East. Additionally, the U.S. and Israel have each dropped 18,000 bombs on Iran at a cost to the U.S. of at least $5.8 billion in just the first two weeks. And, without congressional approval, the Trump regime gave $11 billion in military aid to Israel to replenish the munitions it used. (Of course, that’s in addition to the $21.7 billion in military aid sent to Israel since October 7, 2023.)

Other costs of the war include:

  • $270 million for the three F-15s lost
  • $200 million for the two C-130s lost
  • $19 million for the A-10 Warthog shot down
  • $300-500 million for the AWACs jet destroyed by Iran
  • $237 million for the three KC-135 refueling jets lost
  • $600-$900 million for the 12,000 combat sorties flown at a cost $50,000 per hour
  • $195,000-$220,000 for each precision-guided bomb dropped
  • $4,000 for each standard un-guided bomb dropped
  • $100,000 for each JDAM missile fired
  • $2.9 billion for the 850 Tomahawk missiles fired
  • $3.5 million for each JASSM missile fired
  • $3.5 million for each GBU-57 bunker buster bomb dropped
  • $200,000-500,000 for each GBU-58 bunker buster bomb dropped

All of that is in addition to the billions that will be spent on rebuilding our military installations in the Middle East that were destroyed by Iran, or the untold millions in damages to our allies in the region. Of course, there is also the $500 billion the Trump regime hopes to add to our bloated $1 trillion military budget for next year. And, on top of all that is the unknown billions being spent on goods and services as a result of inflation caused by the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz limiting the shipment of 20 percent of the world’s oil.

There’s also the disastrous effect on the environment from the carbon clouds billowing from the oil and refining facilities that have been struck.

But perhaps the biggest casualty of all is the damage to the U.S. reputation as a reliable ally and peacemaker – a champion for dignity and the rights of all our planet’s residents. That damage will last for a generation or more.

Paying For An Ill-Conceived War.

Posted on by

After starting an unnecessary and likely unwinnable war costing more than a billion dollars a day, the Trump regime is planning to increase the already bloated military budget by half a trillion dollars – raising it to an astonishing $1.5 trillion, which would make it approximately $350 billion more than the military budgets of the next 14 nations combined!

To pay for it, the regime plans to cut programs that impact the environment, education, healthcare, small business, infrastructure, and much more. Things that impact the lives of most Americans – except, of course, Trump’s family and the host of oligarchs who helped finance his election campaign, his inauguration, his corruption, his grotesque ballroom, and his planned Arch de Trump.

Following is the full list of the proposed cuts*:

$510 million – Grants for farmers and agricultural research
$82 million – Loans for rural small businesses (Fully eliminated)
$61 million – Support for farmers and food markets (Fully eliminated)
$240 million – School meals and food education for children abroad (Fully eliminated)
$659 million – Community building grants
$47 million – Support for minority-owned businesses (Fully eliminated)
$449 million – Economic development grants for communities
$1.6 billion – Weather forecasting, fisheries, and coastal protection (NOAA)
$993 million – Scientific research and technology standards
$150 million – Support for American exports and trade
$2.2 billion – Broadband and internet access programs
$8.5 billion – Funding for public schools
$1.5 billion – Vocational training and adult education (Fully eliminated)
$2.7 billion – College access and higher education support
$15.2 billion – Roads, bridges, and infrastructure projects
$1.1 billion – Home energy efficiency and clean energy programs (Fully eliminated)
$1.1 billion – Scientific research funding
$386 million – Environmental cleanup programs
$150 million – Cutting-edge clean energy research
$4 billion – Help paying home heating and cooling bills for low-income families (Fully eliminated)
$768 million – Refugee resettlement assistance
$819 million – Care and shelter for migrant children
$775 million – Local anti-poverty programs (Fully eliminated)
$5 billion – Public health programs, mental health services, and disease prevention
$5 billion – Medical research (NIH)
$129 million – Healthcare quality and safety research
$356 million – Emergency preparedness and disaster response
$1.3 billion – FEMA community disaster preparedness grants
$707 million – Cybersecurity protection for critical infrastructure
$52 million – Airport and transportation security
$40 million – Protection against chemical and biological weapons threats
$53 million – Funding for homeland security operations
$3.3 billion – Community development block grants (Fully eliminated)
$1.3 billion – Affordable housing construction grants (Fully eliminated)
$393 million – Programs to reduce homelessness
$529 million – Housing assistance for people living with HIV/AIDS (Fully eliminated)
$489 million – Housing and services for Native American communities
$50 million – Grants to help communities build more housing (Fully eliminated)
$60 million – Enforcement of fair housing laws
$58 million – Homebuyer and renter counseling (Fully eliminated)
$45 million – Renewable energy development (Fully eliminated)
$1.7 billion – Local law enforcement and public safety grants
$20 million – Civil rights mediation and legal access (Fully eliminated)
$1.6 billion – Job training for at-risk youth (Fully eliminated)
$395 million – Jobs for low-income seniors (Fully eliminated)
$234 million – Worker safety programs
$101 million – Equal pay and workplace protections
$46 million – Anti-child labor programs abroad
$2 billion – International humanitarian aid
$1.2 billion – Food aid abroad (Fully eliminated)
$4.3 billion – Global health programs
$2.7 billion – United Nations and international partnerships
$642 million – International economic programs
$315 million – Democracy and anti-corruption programs
$486 million – Public transit grants
$4.2 billion – EV charging infrastructure
$372 million – Rural airline service
$145 million – Sustainable infrastructure grants
$204 million – Investment for underserved communities
$1.4 billion – IRS taxpayer services
$100 million – Air pollution programs (Fully eliminated)
$1 billion – EPA environmental grants
$2.5 billion – Clean water infrastructure
$90 million – Diesel pollution reduction (Fully eliminated)
$3.4 billion – NASA science programs
$297 million – NASA innovation
$1.1 billion – International Space Station
$143 million – STEM education
$309 million – Small business development
$170 million – SBA operations
$158 million – Small business loans

This isn’t making America great. It’s not improving American lives. It’s not making America safer. It’s making America unrecognizable.

(*Source: MeidasTouch)

The Political Division That’s Most Concerning.

Posted on by

It’s not left versus right. It’s left versus left. Those who believe in democracy, human rights and a safe environment versus those who believe in democracy, human rights and a safe environment.

What do I mean by that?

By now it should be abundantly clear that the Felon-in-Chief and his MAGA followers are leading our nation down a path toward oligarchy and dictatorship. They’re succeeding in great part because the resistance has been fragmented and largely rudderless.

For many years, involved and caring voters have been split amongst a wide variety of single-issue organizations focused on guns, homelessness, hunger, wildlife, animal rights, air and water quality, climate change, sustainable energy, racial and gender equity, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, indigenous rights, immigrant rights, organized labor, religious freedom, Palestinian rights, Ukraine, healthcare, public education, reining in military spending, tax fairness, voting rights, breaking up corporate monopolies, etc., etc.

All of these issues are important, and I have personally supported most of them. But we are now facing an ideological movement that vehemently opposes progress toward each of these goals. Indeed, those in control of MAGA have pushed policies that are directly counter to them. And they now control all three branches of government, as well as much of the media.

If patriotic and caring people are to interrupt our nation’s slide into tyranny, we must set aside any inclination to base our votes on single or self-serving issues. We must come together and focus on what really matters. That doesn’t mean we have to abandon the goals we care about most. It means we have to ensure that we have a government that will allow us to pursue those goals.

There is only one issue that is important now: Saving our democracy. Period.

Trump Regime Prioritizing War Over Families.

Posted on by

The Trump regime has stated that the cost of its attacks on Iran cost $5.6 billion in advanced munitions for just the first two days. And it has been estimated that the ongoing war has cost our military more than $1 billion per day since. Given that the war is now in its eleventh day, that means we will have already spent roughly $14.6 billion. And that doesn’t include the $300 million cost of the three F-15s that were mistakenly shot down by Kuwait or the billions needed to rebuild or replace military installations in Bahrain, UAE, and Kuwait.

Of course, there’s also the $370 million cost of the military build-up prior to the war, including the operating costs of two carrier groups. Plus, the $11 billion for replenishing Israeli munitions sent to Israel without congressional approval and the proposed $50 billion bill being sought for replenishing our own munitions. All of which adds to our $1.8 trillion deficit and could have been far better used to provide affordable healthcare access and food for hungry Americans.

In addition, there’s the economic costs of the war – the lost oil production, the hikes in oil prices, and the increased costs you pay at the gasoline pump, all of which contribute to inflation.

And don’t forget the human costs of the war: The 170 schoolgirls killed by a U.S. Tomahawk missile, the likely thousands of Iranian civilians killed or displaced by U.S. and Israeli strikes, the seven U.S. soldiers killed by Iran, and the nearly 1 million Lebanese displaced by the Israeli bombing of Beirut.

And what has the war accomplished?

The Trump and Israeli regimes have killed the 86-year-old supreme leader along with much of Iran’s leadership only to see him replaced by a younger, more violent supreme leader. We likely haven’t seriously ended Iran’s desire to build nuclear weapons. (In fact, we probably have made them more committed to that goal than ever before.) We have further destabilized the region. We have caused serious damage to the environment. We have caused a large portion of Iran’s 90 million population to hate us. And we have almost certainly inspired more Iranians to commit acts of terrorism against us.

On the other hand, it did create a significant distraction from the Epstein files, it provided cover for the continued takeover of Palestinian lands in the West Bank, and it promises to keep Israel’s cabinet of genocidal war criminals in power for years to come.

How Bad Is The Minnesota Fraud?

Posted on by

The Trump regime would have you believe that Somali immigrants in Minnesota committed $19 billion in fraud, which was the alleged reason behind Operation Metro Surge (the ICE invasion that brutalized both citizens and noncitizens and left two people dead). But according to an exhaustive study by the Minnesota StarTribune, the figure is actually $217.7 million.

That, of course, is deplorable, but it pales in comparison to the regime’s raids on taxpayer funds. Indeed, it falls short of the expected $300 million taxpayer cost of Trump’s golf outings for his second term. And it’s dwarfed by the $1 billion cost of retrofitting Trump’s mansion in the air that was illegally gifted to him by Qatar.

Trump’s pardons of white-collar criminals have resulted in the forgiveness of more than $1.5 billion in criminal debt owed to victims and the federal government.

Add to that ICE Barbie’s $225 million ad scam and her $270 DHS purchase of luxury jets used for personal travel. There’s also Patel’s personal use of FBI jets for a trip to the Milan Olympics and outings with his girlfriend. There’s the DHS penchant for grossly overpaying for warehouses intended to be used as immigrant concentration camps. And there’s the $660 billion in Trump’s unconstitutional tariffs paid by American consumers.

Even worse is Trump’s illegal and unnecessary war on Iran that’s costing roughly $1 billion per day and could very well drag on for years.

Moreover, it’s estimated that Medicare and Medicaid lose roughly $100 billion annually to fraud, largely because MAGA refuses to hire enough federal auditors to ferret out the abuses. The same is true for the IRS, which is estimated to lose as much as $1 trillion in revenue each year to tax fraud. (Ordinary people are often audited. But billionaires and multinational corporations escape audits because their tax filings are so complex.)

Of course, all of that is a mere fraction of the more than $21 trillion in funding from 1998 to 2015 that the Department of Defense couldn’t account for. The Pentagon has not passed a single audit in its entire history! And despite its $1 trillion budget for this fiscal year, the regime is asking for a $50 billion supplemental budget to replace the munitions expended in just one week of Trump’s assault on Iran, his incursion into Venezuela, and his targeting of alleged drug trafficking boats in international waters.

None of this should come as a surprise. After all, what else should we expect from a regime run by a felon convicted on 34 counts of fraud?