Toasty, Stupid and Corrupt

It's 85F today, it was fairly toasty towards the end of the ride.  We're going to have to stop reading the horrible news of the day in the morning, and get up and get out of the house earlier.  It's a terrible habit that we've fallen into.  

I have written before about the beauty of a straw bale wall.  One has recently perished, more than likely due to water intrusion.  This is what they look like on the inside.

Once water gets in there, they start to rot and lose structural integrity.  The owner of this house is replacing it with cinder blocks.  It will be much more durable, but less pretty.  You don't get the surface irregularity.

Here is one that has been redone, and is currently standing. 

Other than that, we've taken out two bougainvilleas, and have not too much to say for ourselves. 

Today there was a runway incursion on the part of a small jet and a South West airlines plane.  No one was hit.  Play this youtube, in the first 15 seconds you can see the small jet ignore an order to "hold short' and move from the left to the right across the active runway, into the path of the landing South West jet.  The SW jet does a go around, it's amazing how much power these planes have to get back in the air.  One wonders what the pilot on the tiny jet saw looking out the right window.

Other than this, I have nothing interesting to say, that doesn't include the current administration.

The first two paragraphs are plagiarized from the internet.  For some reason, I did not go back and get the names associated with the text.  It's good text, so I'm going with it and asking for forgiveness.

After Monday's U.N. General Assembly vote, the United States has officially aligned itself with Russia, Belarus, Burundi, Eritrea, Mali, and Sudan. Yeah, you read that right—America just put itself in the same category as some of the world’s worst authoritarian regimes. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, Israel also joined the ranks of dictatorships by voting alongside them. This is a historic disgrace. The U.S. just threw away its last shred of credibility on the global stage and cemented its place as a declining, rogue state. Welcome to the Third World Order.
The UN has adopted Ukraine’s resolution condemning Russian aggression and demanding the immediate withdrawal of Putin’s forces, marking the war’s third anniversary. The U.S. joined Russia, North Korea, Belarus, and Hungary in opposing the resolution.

U.S. President Donald Trump has reportedly ordered the shutdown of the U.S. military base in Alexandroupoli, Greece, according to Greek newspaper Dimokratia. According to Greek media, Trump’s decision to dismantle the military presence in Alexandroupoli came after a joint request from Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The base in Alexandroupoli has been a key logistical hub for U.S. and NATO operations in southeastern Europe. Its presence had been a point of contention, particularly with Turkey, which has long opposed U.S. military operations in the region. 

Trump's obedient Treasury servant Scott Bessent has published an op ed in FT, calling for US seizure of Ukrainian mineral assets without offering Ukraine anything whatsoever. These ruthless predators have no shame & no morals.

Apparently there is now a Memorandum of Understanding that gives the US 50% of Ukraine's mineral wealth, but with not security agreements on the part of the US.  Much of the minerals are in Donansk, which is currently controlled by Russia. 

After firing the Chief of Staff, Hegseth fired three senior JAG officers.  There is a dark reason for this, the ending of "posse comitatus."  That's the law that forbids the use of the military against US citizens.  JAG officers would be the ones who tell the military if an order is legal or not.  Clearly 47 is looking ahead, to when he wants to unleash the military on all of us.  Can't wait.  More is here.

So, that's all I have to say about things.