The New Air Force One

In the first administration of the orange one, it was decided that two new Air Force One planes for the president were required.  Boeing quoted the price, and 47 went ballistic at the cost.  They're complicated airplanes, they have inflight refueling, electronic war counter measures, chaff and flares, secure encrypted communications and like that.  Boeing's normal process was to build the air frames and turn them over to the company that does that kind of work.  Because it's an empty air frame it's a lot easier to install the specialized mission equipment.  But no, 47 went for a deal with Russia and bought two used, fully stuffed, passenger 747s.  Cheap!  These things have been a nightmare to customize; and yes, they're late.  Zero money over all has been saved due to the complexity of retrofitting the planes.  Boeing would have been better off sending 47 to Airbus.

So, enter Qatar, they're going to "gift" the US Air Force with a flying palace, a 12 yr old 747-800, business jet.  It, too, will have to have extensive modifications, paid for by tax payers, to the point the 47 will probably not fly on it as president.  It will take some time to remove the listening devices installed in the walls.  Then, when he leaves office, ownership will transfer to the Presidential library, which is controlled by the National Archives and Records Administration.  47 sees this as "he gets a free airplane."  The rest of us see this as a blatant violation of the Emoluments Act and just plain corrupt. 

This was said today.

President Donald Trump on Monday defended Qatar’s offer of a Boeing 747 aircraft for him to use, dismissing concerns about the ethics and constitutionality of such an arrangement.

“We’re very disappointed that it’s taking Boeing so long to build a new Air Force One,” Trump said, complaining that the current presidential plane is not in the same “ballgame” as those used by leaders of other countries.

Trump claimed Qatar offered to donate a 747 to the U.S. Defense Department for Trump to use temporarily while Boeing completes the two Air Force One planes it has a contract to build.

It's a beautiful airplane, who wouldn't want one?  However, this is wrong.

So, this is what we're outraged about today.

A Ride and More Chaos

Today we rode, it was the last good day for awhile.  Warm, breezy, overcast.

Spring is taking its own sweet time this year.  It did the same last year, it was cold into June.  Then it went straight into the 100s.  

Yesterday we went to Lowe's to buy new blades for the reciprocating saw.  There are two dead Roses of Sharon, one we're going to dig out with the help of our neighbor, the other we're just going to cut down.  It's been there for 20 years, I know there is a huge root system, and there are pressurized sprinkler lines somewhere in the area.  Now the vent from the gas fireplace will be visible from the street, but I guess I just will not look there.  They had a really pretty peony in the garden department.  It's a huge plant, the label was covered, so I'm not sure what it is.

Google lens is of no help, there are hundreds of similar plants returned by search.  It's a peony.

In no particular order, I have these topics.

The Catholics have a new pope.  He has dual citizenship, Peru and the US.  Some of the magats are already suggesting he could be arrested and deported to Peru if he comes here.  Good luck with that. Louisiana State Archives records also show the pope's maternal grandmother identified as being from New Orleans and his grandfather identified as being a native of Haiti. The pontif's maternal grandfather, Joseph Martinez, was later listed as being from the Dominican Republic.  Some people are pretty excited about his multi-cultural background.  The magats are not. Already he has come out strongly against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  That's refreshing.

As you no doubt know, RFK Jr wants to start a database of autistic people.  Why does that need to be done?  Who will collect the data, who will safe guard it.  Currently DOGE wants to merge HHS, Social Security, and IRS data into one database.   This is a terrible idea.  Currently they're separated for additional security.  Making one giant file opens it up to hacking.  Once that's combined, they know everything about everybody.  I really hate this.

Dr. Oz has said repeatedly that “It’s patriotic duty of Americans to take care of themselves. It’s important for serving in the military & healthy people don’t consume healthcare resources”  as well as "70% of the money we spend is on chronic illness and we are not getting our money's worth."  So, what does he want the chronically ill to do?  Go die?  He's verging on Nazi ideology.  Google on "useless eaters." 

The nominee, Casey Means, for Surgeon General does not have a medical degree.  She dropped out during residency, and started a company that convinces people who do not have diabetes to buy glucose monitors.  Here is part of a Slate article about her.  I think it covers the bulk of her awfulness.  She's a wellness grifter.  Par for the course for this administration.  She's been chosen because RFK Jr likes her.

47 continues to be a nutbag.  What we're seeing as a result of 47's tariff policies is traffic in the US ports is dropping off to nothing.  Currently there are no Chinese ships on the way to here.  Thousands of dockworkers and truck drivers are worried about their jobs.  47's response to this slow down of trade, "That means we lose less money ... when you say it slowed down, that's a good thing, not a bad thing."

There was also a digression into the country of Mattel.  He threatened the "country" of Mattel Toys with a 100% tariff if they counter his policies. "Mattel— they’re the only country I’ve heard saying they’re going to go some place else. That’s okay. Let them go and we’ll put a 100% tariff on his toys. He won’t sell one toy in the US."

So, he doesn't understand trade imbalances, he thinks it's good that we won't be getting anything from China, businesses that resell stuff from China will go under, people will lose their jobs, it's all fine.

Earlier today, European leaders issued a 30 day ceasefire ULTIMATUM to Putin. Either he negotiates an end to the war, or Europe will unleash “massive” sanctions against Russia and supply Ukraine devastating weapons. Putin has 36 hours to respond.  He responded, nyet.  He's countering with direct talks between Ukraine and Russia on May 15.  However, this is also happening: "The US embassy in Kyiv put out a public warning late on Friday night that it had received intelligence of a “potentially significant air attack that may occur at any time over the next several days”. It did not give further details, but it later emerged that Russia will close its airspace over the Kapustin Yar missile testing range on Monday and Tuesday, which could indicate the potential launch of ballistic missiles."  This is bad.  It's unfortunate that mass shipments of arms were not made at the beginning instead of being doled out with restrictions on what could be targeted.  I had hope earlier today, so much for that.  Good coverage here.

This is from twitter.

Here is a good thing.  "People who receive the shingles vaccine have a 23% lower risk of health problems like stroke, heart failure and heart disease."

Also good.  If you have a pacemaker, you can put it in your Will to have your pacemaker donated to a dog in need after you pass. Pacemakers cannot be donated to another human, but they can be donated to dogs with cardiac issues who would depend on it to stay alive.

If you would like to see Senator Chris Murphy take Kristi Noem to the wood shed, go here and play the video.

Spring and That Administration

Life at home has been ... shall we say, uninteresting.  We walk, we ride, we do laundry.  It's difficult to think of anything scintillating to say.  I'm having difficulty with the horror that is the current administration and their lawlessness and cruelty.

There are a few photos.  This is a Mugo pine.  They're slow growers, I think this one is probably 20 years old.  It's making yellow things, which I am assuming are part of the reproductive cycle. 

The red maple.  Someone ruthlessly pruned it a long time ago.  I'm going to have to take a little off of it because it's touching the house.  Look at that grass.  Last winter was mild, so we did not come home to patches of dead grass and some sort of fungus the neighbors call smut.  So, we have not had to plant grass seed and beg it to grow.  Once it gets hot, the grass will look bad, it always does.  PNW grass is weak.

It amuses me that I'm commenting on the beauty of the grass, since it is a stupid mono culture with few redeeming values, that wastes water and puts fertilizer run off into the environment.  The rabbits like it, they'll sit out there for hours eating.

The neighbors up the street have their usual display of blooming things.  Their yard looks very cheerful.

Moving on.  47's use of the Alien Enemies Act has been ruled unlawful, and they've been told to stop kidnapping people.  Jim heard a piece on NPR radio about how no one on that first flight to El Salvador was a terrorist or cartel member.  Their crime was one of skin color.  Despite being told to stop it, 47 turned to Libya to put people in their terrible prisons.  Libya, however, declined.  Good for them.

Nearly all of the remaining staff at the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health were laid off Friday (5/3/25), multiple officials and laid-off employees told CBS News, gutting programs ranging from approvals of new safety equipment to firefighter health, to curbing the spread of measles.  NIOSH  was also responsible for testing and certifying respirators like N95s; ensuring they could provide adequate protection from smoke, hazardous debris and viral threats. Gruesome details can be found here.

The administration has shut down CDC's infection control committee HICPAC, which issued guidance about preventing the spread of infections in health care facilities.  The Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) crafted national standards for hand-washing, mask-wearing and isolating sick patients that most U.S. hospitals follow. The committee is now dead; long live hospital infections.  More is here.

If you're eligible for a covid vaccine, go get it now.  Vinay Prasad has been appointed the next director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, after Peter Marks was forced out.  It will not surprise me if we never see another covid update because of him.  This is from wikipedia.

In October 2021, Prasad prompted social media controversy when he published a blog post comparing the U.S. COVID-19 pandemic response to the beginnings of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich. Bioethicist Arthur L. Caplan said that Prasad's arguments were specious and ignorant, and science historian Robert N. Proctor said that Prasad was "overplaying the dangers of vaccination mandates and trivializing the genuine harms to liberty posed by 1930s fascism".^[26]

In November 2021, Prasad expressed his opinion that pediatricians should warn parents about risks of COVID immunization such as a mild form of myocarditis.^[27] However, physician Jonathan Howard noted that Prasad was selectively omitting the risks of COVID disease^[28] which would not be consistent with the tenets of medical informed consent. 

Prasad is famous on twitter for blocking doctors, and there are many, who disagree with him.  From what I have read, my opinion is that he's a wing nut.  So, of course, he's in charge of vaccines, gene therapies and the blood supply.  The fact that he's closely aligned with RFK Jr should be disqualifying.  More is here.

There is a new nominee for Surgeon General.  "Casey Means has written about how, after attending Stanford Medical School and training to become a surgeon, she opted to leave "traditional medicine" to devote her life to "tackling the root cause of why Americans are sick." She co-founded Levels, a health app that can connect to glucose monitors, and built a large following as a health and wellness influencer." She's also aligned with RFK Jr.  The CBS article is here.

More and more of the health care system in this country is now aligned with RFK Jr.  We're all going to die.

As for the future of work, what with on shoring and all, there is this.  Go to the article, watch Lutnick celebrate the future of work.  He is so excited, saying "It's time to train people not to do the jobs of the past, but to do the great jobs of the future. This is the new model where you work in these kinds of plants for the rest of your life and your kids work here and your grandkids work here. We let the auto plants go overseas."  Yep, we're all going to be working in factories for the rest of their lives.  The republicans really need some help with their messaging.

This is what's happening in Memphis.  Elon built a new AI training center or something, and is powering it with 35 methane powered generators.  There are no air pollution controls on the generators.  This is in a primarily Black area, their health is already compromised from other industries, now this.  EPA does not care.  It's fine, they're doing away with regulations and unleashing the power of capitalism.  Meanwhile, these people are suffocating.  It's a long and depressing read.

 I will end with a cool thing from Ukraine.  This is a drone that has been used to ram ships, explode, and sink the ship.  The Ukrainians have now reworked it by putting SideWinder missiles on it, and shooting down MIGs from the water's surface.  Well done.

Riding and That Man

It made it into the 80's today.  We may or may not have hit a new record high for this day.  Yesterday and today we rode.  We've cobbled together an acceptable alternative to the trail closures that has a paved parking lot (baby heads are hard on the feet), time at the lake, the two switch backs we like and a trip down a residential street that doesn't feel like we'll be killed.  It's a dead end, so there is not much traffic.  We don't have the terrible hill up to the gate, because that is behind the crime scene tape.

It's really annoying, their project plan says they're closing the trails because they occasionally have to move equipment.  How about if they put flags in the logging crews hands and make safe passage when it's needed, instead of 2.5 months of closures.   

The lake was pleasant to look at.   There is a new camp host.  He's a big, imposing looking guy, and he's very nice.  His wife is a retired police officer, so the two of them are ideal to run a boat ramp. 

Look up the hill in the distance.  They appear to be cutting a road down the hill to put houses on the waterfront.  One wonders how they will stabilize that hill, once the vegetation is off.

 

There is a quince growing on the camp host's site, it's an impressive shrub.

This is what we see driving home. 

47 has been busy.  I'm short on time, so I will give us the Cliff's notes on some of the awfulness.

The president's executive order instructs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and other federal agencies “to cease Federal funding for NPR and PBS” and further requires that they work to root out indirect sources of public financing for the news organizations. Article is here.

 

The Trump administration has discussed transferring migrants with criminal records held in the United States to two African countries, Libya and Rwanda, multiple sources familiar with the talks told CNN.  The Wall Street Journal previously reported this month that several countries, including Libya and Rwanda, were considered as potential partners to receive migrants deported from the U.S.  An article is here.

Trump just shut down all the school mental health programs and neighborhood anti-violence programs funded by the 2022 gun bill. Millions of kids just lost their mental health worker or after school program.

This is one of the most egregious things yet.  60 minutes did a story awhile back on people in Alabama, mainly Black people, who do not have functioning sewer systems.  Raw sewage pools up in their yards, ditches, and sometimes into their homes.  Money was appropriated to fix this and put in either septic tanks or a sewer system.  47 has cancelled that project because it's DEI.  Article is here.  The Alabama health department doesn't feel like they need to address this, now no one does.

The government under President Donald Trump is bending the arc of US history in a new direction, away from the civil rights focus of the past 60 plus years.  Addressing or even acknowledging racial injustice toward people of color is out.  Separating church and state is out, according to Trump.  Exposing anti-Christian bias and being ‘anti-woke’ is in.  The Department of Justice division created by the landmark 1957 Civil Rights Act to defend American’s rights has a new mission: rooting out anti-Christian bias, antisemitism and “woke ideology,” the head of the division, Harmeet Dhillon, recently told conservative commentator Glenn Beck.  The CNN article I borrowed this from is here.

There is much much more, but I think I will stop here. 

OK, one more thing.  Judge Ketanji Brown spoke at a legal meeting and had things to say.  Go here, and read what she said.

 

Disgraceful Behavior

It's been 100 days, just feels like a century.  Since I have nothing interesting to say, I will share with you some of the stupidity found in the current administration.

Marco Rubio supported this when he was in the senate.  None of these people can remember anything, apparently.

Last time I checked 119 million is greater than 22 million.  So I'm not sure how removing 22 million pills from distribution saved 119 million people's lives.  Later, in the cabinet meeting, she upped the number to 258 million lives saved.  Math is hard!

That would be the cabinet meeting during which Marco Rubio said the following.

RubIo: "We are actively searching for other countries to take people from third countries. Not just El Salvador. We are working with other countries to say, 'We want to send some of the most despicable to your countries. Will you do that as a favor to us?' And the further from the US the better."

47 did an interview with ABC this morning.  Terry Moran interviewed him and pushed back on several things 47 said.  47 is convinced that Mr. Garcia is a gang member because "he has MS13 tattooed on his knuckles."  Please.  Later in the interview 47 asserted that Canadians and Europeans are still coming here for vacation.  Numbers have dropped significantly after ICE started arresting tourists.

But here is a good thing.  One of the few, as of late.  ICE used to enjoy boarding busses and pulling off anyone with brown skin.  That started in 47's first administration. 

Other than this, I have nothing much to share.  Oh, the good news is the Bradford pear is losing its petals. 

The Embargo Has Begun

Today we went to Costco to start hoarding some things. Things like lubricating eye drops because my left cornea is bad, Tylenol for the headaches the administration is giving me, and like that.  Oh yes, toilet paper, even though it's produced in the US.

All of Spain and Portugal, and part of France had a major power and WIFI outage today.  No cause has been determined yet. 

This is from twitter.

Here is what's happening at the Port of Vancouver in Canada.

My opinion, unencumbered by facts and data, is that 47 is going to have to fall on his sword and publicly apologize to China for his tactics. 

Additionally, the DOJ elections department is being told to drop cases and stand down from the effort to protect voter rights.  Article is here.  Also this week, funding for Meals on Wheels has been pulled, as well as money for naloxone for first responders.  

That's it!  That's all the doom and gloom I have for today.