Pouring kibble in the dogs’ bowls this morning, I looked down and counted only two hungry dachshunds, Lulu and Fritzi. Mister B was MIA. I did a quick sweep of his likely haunts and found him in his doggie bed on the floor by the patio door, awake but uninterested in breakfast. This is not like him, not at all. He hasn’t missed a meal since he had valley fever a few years back.
After days of recording only dogs pissing in the grass out back, our bird feeder cam captured a visit by a pair of Mexican house finches, almost certainly husband and wife. Meet the Lockhorns.
Donna and I are heading to the air base soon, me to pick up prescriptions at the BX pharmacy, Donna to get a few items at the commissary. One of the benefits of a military career is Tricare for Life prescription coverage: at military base pharmacies there’s no co-pay, and that makes the 16-mile drive to Davis-Monthan AFB worthwhile. Commissary food prices? Eh, not the deal they once were, not with a nearby Costco, but still far cheaper than they are at regular grocery chains. And there’s this: we always feel at home when we’re on base, so we don’t mind the drive.
A note from Polly, left in an empty plastic container by the sink: “Where’s the split pea soup? There was a WHOLE CONTAINER!” Sorry, kiddo, I cooked it and I polished off the leftovers.
My recipe, pretty much my own creation and refined over the years, bears a strong resemblance to Dutch erwtensoep. Not a coincidence; we were stationed in the Netherlands for three years and loved their version of split pea soup. We’re paying off a couple of contractors, the guy who reshingled our roof and the guy who put in a new pool pump, so we’re cutting back on groceries. Which translates to more beans … there’s a bag of Cajun-spiced dried beans in the larder, along with plenty of dried pintos, and I’ll be getting into some of the other bean recipes on my cooking blog soon.
My focus, when it comes to Qatar’s “gift” of a VIP-configured Boeing 747 to Trump, is not on constitutionality, emoluments, or right and wrong. I’ll leave those concerns to those who think some judge somewhere is going to stop Trump in his corrupt tracks (as if).
My focus is on the Air Force and how it’s going to react to the new toy being forced upon it. I suppose it’s possible the USAF could incorporate the new plane into the presidential fleet … but only after taking it apart to look for hidden microphones and cameras, reassembling it, and adding secure military-grade comm and self-defense equipment as installed on existing presidential aircraft (and even then the new jet will not be air refuelable like the older Air Force Ones). The new plane may be “free,” but the work and equipment to bring it up to Air Force One standards will come at great expense, not foreseen in the current budget, and impact all manner of programs the USAF plans to spend its money on.
And who will maintain and fly it? I’m guessing Qatar contracted all that out to Boeing, but the USAF would almost certainly want to perform its own maintenance to ensure quality control, and there will be training expenses associated with that. Aircrews will need to be trained as well, and to some degree the stewards who serve aboard it.
I’m really hoping the USAF will balk at incorporating Qatar’s bribe into the existing presidential airlift fleet, especially since it’s only meant to be in government service for three years (after which it’ll go to the Trump Library and become Trump’s personal property, if you can believe anything as brazen and corrupt as that).
There are hundreds of good reasons why the USAF should put its foot down and say no, and not one why it shouldn’t. But the military has pretty much caved to our wanna-be king’s every demand to date, and I’m not going to predict what it’ll do with this latest one.