That’s Fritzi, jonesing for attention. Of our three dachshunds, she’s the most human … if you know what I mean (and I’m not sure I do). Mister B, our senior citizen, is increasingly incontinent, but Donna says he’s put on a little weight, and apart from one morning about a week ago, acts as if he’s enjoying life at feeding time. Our little Lulu? Boy can she bark. I’m embarrassed to take her out for walks, she’s so bad. Good thing we love them all.
What’s up with Hulu? We watch streaming shows on Hulu most every day, but yesterday we found we’d been signed out and needed to sign in again. No probs, except apparently Hulu is a Disney property now and the sign-in process requires entering a six-digit code sent by Disney to my email address. But no. No matter how many times I click “resend” no email comes, and no, it’s not in the Spam or Trash folder either because I checked. Angry note to Hulu submitted; no response yet.
CNN headline, yesterday: “Pentagon announces it has accepted jet from Qatar that will be used by Trump once it is modified.” There were dozens of other articles with similar headlines, some naming the Department of Defense as the accepting authority, some the Pentagon, a few the Air Force, one or two brave outlets singling out Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
So Hegseth, a Trump sycophant installed to do Trump’s bidding, has “officially” (because he’s the “official,” you see) accepted the white elephant Boeing 747 from Qatar. What will the Air Force do with it now? Strip it for spare parts for the existing presidential fleet? Who knows? I sure don’t. What if the USAF is Team Trump these days? God, I hope not.
My pen pal, like me a retired military officer, says he’s ready to quit reading and watching the news altogether, because everything’s political and both sides and so on. By “both sides” I think he means “equally bad.” I get where he’s coming from, and honestly these days who wouldn’t, but I’m not sold on the “equally” part. Here’s some of what I wrote back, and keep in mind I wrote this several days ago, before it was revealed that Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill contained $500 billion in cuts to Medicare (on top of the Medicaid cuts we did know about):
Medicare, the primary program Donna and I rely on as age dictates increased care, was developed over decades by politicians of both parties, Democrat and Republican. One party could undo it, and it sure seems like they mean to. Which party has, since Reagan, shifted to the right and started threatening programs Americans depend on? Not the Democrats, I’m pretty certain. So “both sides”? They’re both tiresome, but I still see a difference. Republicans once shared with Democrats a set of moral, civic, and social values. Since John McCain died, do they still?
Of course there are still normal Republicans. There have to be. But they’re not running things in DC or in most red states. And Democrats have been a huge letdown, at least to me, since the election. I’m ready to start voting third party, even though I know under our system that’ll be throwing my vote away.
Just hours ago I learned Joe Biden has prostate cancer that’s spread to his bones. The Grim Reaper can’t be far behind. I’m also following that horrible accident in New York Harbor with the Mexican tall ship, a goodwill visit turned tragic, with MAGA bigots all over social media using it as an excuse to disparage Mexico and Mexicans. Didn’t look like poor sailing to me, more some sort of malfunction with the rudder and propulsion system and not enough time to stop the machinery before striking the bridge. And now they’ll also be crowing over Biden’s cancer. Ah, well yes, if Donald Trump were to fall through an open manhole cover I might not shed a tear, so if that’s what you mean by both sides, I guess I’m guilty.
Have expressed my thoughts, re the removal of books from military academy libraries and courses, and also Qatar’s bribe 747, on my blog, where I try hard to be reasonable and even-handed (and mostly fail). But speaking of both sides, I mentioned to my fellow book club members my conviction that the assassination attempt on Trump was staged, the death of an innocent rally-goer a simple fuckup on Trump’s team’s part, and they all now think I’m a conspiracy theorist, no different from any QAnon loon. So guilty again!
On that last point, I think it’s self-evident the assassination attempt was staged. I have wondered, here on the blog and elsewhere, why a respectable media outlet hasn’t dug into it. I think now some journalists have but that they’re waiting until Trump is out of office before publishing their blockbusters, witness Jake Tapper and his hit piece on Biden, who no matter how frail was an effective and competent president.
The giant Martin Mars seaplane recently towed, in a dissembled state, from a lake north of Phoenix to the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, is now on wheels.
As a seaplane or flying boat, of course, it has no wheels of its own. It can only take off and land on water. Back in the seaplane days, harbors and waterfronts with seaplane bases had paved ramps extending from the shore down into the water. Aircraft handlers could back a wheeled cradle into the water and the seaplane pilots would taxi onto it, not that different from motoring a boat onto a submerged trailer at a marina. With a big beast like the Martin Mars, though, swimmers or divers would have to go into the water and bolt sets of wheels, called beaching gear, to the bottom of the seaplane so it could taxi up onto land. They used beaching gear to get the plane out of the water at the lake north of Phoenix, trucked the beaching gear down to Tucson along with the disassembled plane, and now it’s back on wheels at the museum, its new home.
Whether or not this indicates the museum will prioritize getting the Mars reassembled and on display is a question. The fuselage, the main section of the plane you see in the inset photo, has until now been sitting on the specialized tow trailer used during the move from Phoenix to Tucson, and I’m certain the towing company needed it back for other jobs. I’ll try to keep track of things and post updates … it’ll help take my mind off the daily drumbeat of Trump Trump Trump.
Speaking of which, after Zelenskyy, and now Ramaphosa, I don’t know why any head of state would accept an invitation to the Oval Office. Trump ambushing allies is nothing new; it goes back to his first term — remember him screaming insults at the prime minister of Australia in a 2017 phone call? I do.