Where I live, the city government recently decided to eliminate curbside recycling. Like many people, I’ve just come to expect that recycling is a normal part of life. I’ve had the small bins into which we sorted the recycling—paper in one, glass in another, metal cans in a third. Most recently, we had the large bins—the same size as garbage cans—which accepted all recyclables. We faithfully tried to make sure that what went into the recycling bin was bona fide recyclable.

I remember being at Disney World years ago and being told that the park benches were made of recycled milk bottles. A while back, we were told that the cardboard that we put into the bin was sent to China and would return to the USA in 6-8 weeks later as boxes containing Chinese made televisions, computers, or other products. I took both these as encouraging statements.

Today, however, there are news stories reporting that most plastics have actually never been recyclable. The oil industry, which provides the raw materials for plastics, apparently has been lying for decades to increase their profits. Our recycler announced a while back that the Chinese needed us to be more careful with our paper recycling—too many pizza boxes covered with cheese and such. This, coming from the same people who sold us contaminated baby formula, children’s toys painted with lead paint, and laptop computers with built-in hardware hacks.

So, everything is going to the landfill. Add to that the clothing that is headed there as well. This is a significant amount because as people chase fashion, the lifespan of an article of clothing gets shorter as we make room for the latest style. There are so many discarded items of clothing that second-hand stores can’t accept them all, so they go to the dump.

The packaging for products is a major contributor. Marketing experts occasionally admit that “New and Improved” often refers to the package, not the actual product. I remember when milk and soda arrived in glass bottles with a deposit. Many times in grade school, I’d find enough bottles to buy a box of pumpkin seeds or even a candy bar.

I don’t know the real numbers, but my SWAG* is that around 10 percent is real recycling and 90 percent is smoke and mirrors. Oh, well.

Now, if I could only convince Louis De Joy to have all the junk mail I find in my mailbox delivered directly to the dump and leave me out of the process.

* SWAG – Scientific Wild Assed Guess

What a strange sounding name.

It’s a contraction of June and nineteenth—the day that Major General Gordon Granger was given command of the District of Texas. The Civil War was now over as of 9 May 1865.  His first action was to read to the people of Texas his General Order Number Three which began with:

The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection therefore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired laborer.

Surprisingly [Satire warning] the slaveholders had either forgotten or had not yet gotten around to letting their slaves know they were—and had been—free for the previous five weeks. Ooops!

General Granger’s reading of his order fixed that.

The so-called “peculiar institution” of slavery was no more. The previously free labor from the slaves was gone, even though they could still be kept down through sharecropping and other means. Likewise, the use of slaves as breeding stock and the sale of their offspring was also gone.

For years the Jim Crow laws were intended to keep Black Americans subservient and it has taken the better part of two centuries to make any substantial progress. Nevertheless, for Black Americans, Juneteenth is seen as their independence day, and rightly so.

Author’s Note: With the current political efforts to turn the United States into a banana republic, it is more difficult to write. I make no promises as to how I will do in the future.

As I’ve said many times, history does not repeat itself, but it certainly rhymes.

As the Soviets approached Berlin near the end of the Second World War, much of the defense was expected to be from the Hitler Youth, the very young—early to mid-teens. The Soviets had no competition from the Americans, British, etc. because to do so had a great chance of placing allies in each other’s crossfires.

The Nazis, not the Wehrmacht, created the Volkssturm (Peoples Storm) by conscripting those from 16-60 who were not already in a combat unit. With teenagers in the Hitler Youth, this left the old men. The Soviets slaughtered many while Hitler was committing suicide in the Fuhrerbunker.

Today, in similar fashion, Vladimir Putin removed the upper age limit for military service. In the meantime, a number of reserve units have apparently refused to go to Ukraine. This is not surprising for a variety of reasons, including the fact that many of those already deployed to Ukraine were not told where they were going or why.

In the meantime, Russia is sending T-62 tanks, first introduced in 1962, to fight in Ukraine. These were a modest improvement of the T-60 tanks used in World War II.

Incidentally Ukrainian military have examined many downed Russian weapons and have found common purpose (not military specific) US computer chips. With current sanctions, these are no longer available, so allegedly, they are scavenging computer chips from washing machines and other appliances.

I hope and pray that, like in the Second World War, the end of this war is near.

Trump is calling for civil war. He says that Pence should have been hanged.

In the face of the latest elementary school shooting, no one seems to want to take the issue seriously. If such shootings occur as often as they have so far this year, the next mass shooting would happen tomorrow.

The Supreme Court is systematically eliminating civil rights.

The Republican Party—Forget it, it’s too painful to talk about the Republican Party.

Canada’s National Security Task Force is preparing for the collapse of the United States. Can you blame them?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/canadian-national-security-task-force-is-preparing-for-the-collapse-of-the-united-states/ar-AAXFOgj

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

                                                                                      United States Declaration of Independence

This is the last sentence, the very last words in the Declaration of Independence, the last words before the founding fathers’ signatures. This group of imperfect men risked everything for our independence. If the revolution had failed, they would have been hanged at best, but punishment for treason against the English king included being drawn and quartered. Their lives were very much at risk and they knew it. Nine died due to the war, while five were captured by the British, tortured and then died.

As to their fortunes, twelve had their homes ransacked and burned, eight had their homes looted, others were hunted by the British. A number who lived through the war died penniless.

But their honor they upheld—that’s how important it was to them.

In America, far too many of today’s leaders see honor as just a word. They unashamedly display their lack of honor on a daily basis.

Many of us have more faith in the words of Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy than the words of half the members of Congress and justices of the Supreme Court.

It is both sad and terrifying.

The doorbell rang.

“I’ll get it,” Mrs. Saunders told her husband. When she got to the door, there was a police officer waiting.

“Good morning, Mrs. Saunders,” he began. “Is your husband home?”

“Do you mind telling me what this is about?” she asked.

“Just purely routine,” the officer replied. “Ah, there he is!” as Mr. Saunders came up behind his wife.

“Mr. Saunders, may I come in?”

“Do you have a warrant?” Saunders countered.

“As a matter of fact, I do, but it’s a sealed warrant. In any case, I am coming in.” He more or less herded the Saunders from the door into the living room. The officer sat in the overstuffed chair across from the couch, making it obvious as to where he expected the Saunders to sit.

“I’m Inspector Hodges from the Supreme Court,” he explained.

“The Supreme Court has police?” Mrs. Saunders asked, causing the inspector to frown.

“The Supreme Court Police were created in 1935,” he explained, “until recently it included about 200 sworn officers, but we’ve had to ramp that up a bit in light of current issues.”

The Saunders looked at one another, puzzled.

“You see,” the Inspector continued, “Setting aside the prior decision of Roe v Wade has made abortions difficult—if not impossible-for many people, especially those who are financially challenged. They have no way to provide for the children that otherwise would have . . . let’s just say not be born.

“In cases of rape, especially incest, the trauma is just too great for the mothers, so . . . .” the doorbell rang.

“I’ll get it,” the inspector said, “I’m expecting another officer.” He opened the door and another uniformed officer entered, this one carrying a small baby.

“You see,” the Inspector continued, “Congress has addressed this issue in a most effective manner. If you remember back to the mid-twentieth century, people were conscripted into the military. The draft was an attempt to randomly pick those who were to be inducted. We use a similar system.

“All citizens who filed their income tax as ‘married’ who meet certain criteria are deemed eligible.”

“What criteria?” Mr. Saunders asked.

“Income at least twice the current poverty line with no criminal history. It’s quite simple, you see. Therefore, you two were selected to parent this beautiful little . . . .” he glanced back at the officer holding the baby who silently mouthed girl. “beautiful little girl.”

“Wait a minute,” Mr. Saunders injected. “First off, I’m 65 years old and getting ready to retire.”

“Isn’t it funny how life always interferes with the best plans of mice and men?”

“Everybody with two times the income as the poverty level? What about Trump, Bill Gates, Elon Musk?”

“Oh,” explained the Inspector, “they don’t make any income. Everything they have is retained wealth or capital gains.” He motioned to the other officer, who carried the baby over to Mrs. Saunders and set her on Mrs. Saunders’s lap. Another officer walked in with a cardboard box.

“Some disposable diapers, formula, handiwipes—you know. The rest you’ll need to buy tomorrow.” The inspector stood up, but before he and his coworkers headed to the door he turned around.

“A word to the wise,” he said. “I shouldn’t tell you this, but you might as well adjust to everything all at once. The Justices are looking for a case so they can rule that wives are subservient to their husbands, so you just might want to adjust your behavior,” he said looking directly at Mrs. Saunders. Mrs. Saunders opened her mouth to speak, but the Inspector interrupted. “You should let your husband do the talking. In good Christian families, he’s the boss.”

Thanks to Mitch McConnell and Trump, the Supreme Court has indeed become an assembly of political hacks. The leaking of a draft opinion overturning Roe v Wade has resulted in a firestorm of (un)righteous indignation.

For the record, I am not a fan of abortion, but I am a realist. It is not my place to impose my will over another person’s God given free will.

• God gave us free will, but the Supreme Court does not.
• Murder has been illegal for centuries, but people still kill one another.
• Stealing has been illegal for centuries, but we still have burglaries, robberies, embezzling, etc.
• From 1920 until 1933, drinking alcoholic beverages was illegal. Prohibition’s main legacy was to make organized crime rich and powerful, but people still drank.
• Lying to government agents, to a court, or to Congress is illegal, but seems to be ignored.

The Trump appointees were questioned about respecting precedent—the previous rulings of the Supreme Court—and nominees Gorsuch and Kavanaugh outright lied under oath. By rights, they should be held liable for perjury.

Barrett fudged her answer by saying it was not a super precedent. A decision is either a precedent or not—it’s like death. A person is either dead or not dead; there is no such thing as super-dead. By her logic, are some laws lesser than others and breaking them means nothing?

Unfortunately, the Supreme Court neither has standards of conduct nor a moral compass as seen by Justice Thomas’s lack of ethics. It has been my experience that every government employee—civilian or military—is required to take annual ethics training. One of the key concepts is that federal employees must avoid EVEN THE APPEARANCE OF UNETHICAL BEHAVIOR.

The Supreme Court sees itself as above the law. The last few years have seen a loss of faith in the legislative branch. Trump trashed the executive branch. I guess it was inevitable that the judicial branch would follow suit.

Finally, there are those who claim that the Constitution does not specifically authorize the right to certain things, including abortion. While that is true, our basic underlying concept is that the government receives its power from the will of the governed. A similar issue is reiterated in the bill of rights:

Ninth Amendment

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Tenth Amendment

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

When asked what kind of government the founding fathers had devised, Benjamin Franklin replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.”

I guess we can’t keep it.

Tory MP Neil Parish got kicked out of the British Parliament for watching porn on his telephone while attending Parliament. However, in my mind, that is not all of the story.

The House of Commons is rather like the House of Representatives in the United States; the House of Lords was once somewhat like the US Senate, but the US Senate is now an embarrassment unlike anything anywhere. In any case, the decorum that the British practice is somewhat laissez faire. Clapping is not allowed, but shouting is, although it often includes high and lofty terms like vainglorious. However, this does not change the fact that the House of Commons is sometimes reminiscent of a barroom brawl.

The video in the link below isn’t the most outrageous example, but you get the idea.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PVkR8jUSVM

If you ever watch C-SPAN, you are aware of the US Congress’s style, or lack thereof. I especially laugh when I catch C-SPAN while channel surfing. You can see politicians making speeches in the late afternoon to an almost empty chamber. I guess it proves that politicians talk to just hear themselves speak.

In any case, I would guess that many members of parliament are looking at their phones, playing games, or whatever. Parish got caught looking at porn. However, given the choice between watching the antics of his fellow politicians or watching porn, some may consider it a tough choice. Parish just forgot the 11th commandment-“Thou shalt not get caught.”

If you’d like to see a brief explanation of the British Parliament click this link. It’s only about 10 minutes, but very interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PVkR8jUSVM

Truth is stranger than fiction. (Click for video) Monty Python foresaw this in 1971.

Many presidents actively served in wartime and were exposed to bullets, shrapnel, poison gas, or other genuinely dangerous things. George Washington commanded the Army. Abraham Lincoln not only served in the militia during the Black Hawk War, but during the Civil War, while president, he crossed the front line into confederate territory. Presidents Grant, Teddy Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Carter, Ford, Reagan, and George H.W. Bush all served in wartime. In all, 33 presidents served in the military.

On the other hand, Donald Trump did not, being exempted because of alleged heel spurs. In my opinion, if he had served it might have better prepared him for life.

“Donald Trump worried that “dangerous” fruits could be flung at him by protesters, according to newly-released excerpts from his sworn deposition for an upcoming trial in New York.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/donald-trump-worried-dangerous-fruits-could-be-thrown-at-him-by-protesters-a-new-deposition-reveals/ar-AAWEPFf?cvid=e7b0eaff5d15449b8e681c3ff0237ae9

Thank goodness he wasn’t threatened with a pointed stick.

The line between reality and satire is becoming harder to define.

The Founding Fathers never saw this coming.

Decisions regarding how to effectively deal with public heath crises have been transferred from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention to the federal judiciary. For some reason it ended up in a court in Florida. Allegedly, this was suggested by Ginni Thomas, a conservative activist, to her husband Associate Justice Clarence Thomas.

Meanwhile in Florida, Federal Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle ruled that mask mandates were not legal. Judge Mizelle is not a qualified Public Health expert nor is she an epidemiologist nor learned in any other medical field. Even in her own field of law, the American Bar Association rated her as “NOT QUALIFIED” to be appointed a federal judge. She may not know anything about public health, but she knows what she likes.

Recently, Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett denied judges were political hacks. Since most people saw no reason for her to say this, as Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet; “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” Mitch McConnell, whose wife was Secretary of Transportation during the Trump Administration is alleged to have said, “It’s about time!”

In the meantime, Florida politicians are carefully combing arithmetic textbooks for kindergarten through third grade to ensure that there are no references to American History—especially concerning the enslavement of black people. The politicians don’t quite understand the actual math itself, but that’s why they have staff members to handle such things. Also banned are any books with references to sex, drugs, rock and roll, biology, or logic.

Now that the judiciary has assumed the role of writing new laws in addition to misinterpreting existing ones, the additional authority for public health, is not surprising. With the judiciary handling these responsibilities, it gives Congress more time to fundraise and make derogatory comments about just about everything.

You’ll see a number of quotations in today’s blog. As a species, we’ve been over this same ground before and others have said it better than I ever could.

“Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” – Winston Churchill

Churchill’s statement was never more true than today in Ukraine.

Russia is already the world’s largest country, spanning two continents—Europe and Asia—and 11 time zones. Its history has seen great wealth and power, although not equally shared. Prior to the Russian Revolution, the leader was the “Tsar,” which is derived from the ancient title of Caesar (as is the German title “Kaiser”).

After the revolution, the Csar was dead and could no longer skim the financial cream from the economy. Theoretically, given that they were committed to the communist system, with its egalitarian focus, there should have been a more equitable distribution. After all, communism’s credo is “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!” – Karl Marx.

Instead, of sharing, certain Russians stepped in to claim the largest and tastiest pieces of the pie. Then World War II came, and Stalin, Russia’s ruler at the time, grabbed as much territory as he could and made some part of the Union of Soviet Socialists Republic and others satellite states. Eventually, in 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed and many nations gained their freedom.

Skipping ahead to today, Vladimir Putin, current ruler of Russia and Tsar wannabe, has initiated efforts to rebuild the Soviet Union, starting with the conquest of Ukraine. It looked like low-hanging fruit since unlike most its neighbors Ukraine did not belong to NATO. Its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy is not a professional politician—in fact he was a television comic actor.

Things are not exactly going to plan. Ukraine has not been a pushover—its professional military has been trained by NATO. Many/most other males—and many females—have taken up arms and been trained to be an effective extension of the regular military.

Russia’s military philosophy has been, don’t worry about being accurate or doing it right. Instead, it has been, “If you shoot enough artillery shells and rockets, you’re bound to hit something important!” In a way, this is true. Russia’s attack has decimated children’s schools, hospitals, and other places the entire rest of the world would never see as dangerous.

Russia loves flashy missiles, fighter aircraft, and other things that look great in the May day parade. Unfortunately, these are not the keys to winning.

A few quotes that sum things up better than I could:

“I don’t know what the hell this ‘logistics’ is that Marshall is always talking about, but I want some of it.” – Admiral E. J. King

“Amateurs discuss tactics. Professionals discuss logistics.” – Napoleon Bonaparte

Russia does not have reliable trucks to transport the “B’s”—Beans, Bullets, Bandages, and Black Boxes. To add to the negative situation, conscripts who serve for a year don’t have time to learn how to conduct maintenance properly on the vehicles, and they’re too busy counting down days until they are released to give a shit.

Mr. Putin, I’m not a world leader, but I have experience with logistics. All I can say is that I hope that the hole you’re digging for yourself is deep enough.

With all the infighting, hate, discontent, and incivility in Washington, DC, I thought it might be useful to review what our first president advised regarding political parties. Bluntly put, he opposed them. 

Washington remained above the fray; he wanted to be a president of all the American citizens. The most important reason was he believed unity, not division, was necessary for a democratic republic to survive. Washington believed that political parties would divide and destroy the young United States. 

His thought, in what became known as the Farewell Address in 1796, is clear: “the spirit of party” serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. 

Throughout his political life, and until his death in 1799, George Washington was confident that the country could and should function without the existence of political parties. Maybe we should have heeded his advice. 

https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/the-first-president/political-parties/ 

Newsweek published an interesting article written by Hannah Osborne entitled “Fungi Appear to Talk in a Language Similar to Humans” (link below). This is along the same lines as last year’s news in Nature magazine that slime mold, which is a large yet single-celled organism, without a brain, can learn to navigate a maze (second link below).

Pretty amazing, don’t you think?

I wonder if they lie and scream at one another the way our elected officials do.

It would be sad (but not surprising) to find out that mold and fungus are more civilized than Congress.

https://www.newsweek.com/fungi-language-communication-talk-similar-humans-1695146

https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2012.11811

Those of us who have served in the US Military know that we are committed to never leaving a fellow service member behind, whether alive or not. It’s a sign of respect among those who are committed to the safety of our nation.

The Russian soldiers who invaded Ukraine are not afforded such respect. Many of them were lied to—being told they were going on a training exercise. Instead, they found themselves in a war. Thousands of Russian solldiers have died.

It is reported that Russia has sent in portable crematoria to dispose of the bodies of Russian soldiers. This allows Putin’s propagandists to claim that individual soldiers are missing in action or captured, not killed.

Apparently, the number of Russian soldiers killed is exceeding the capacity of the crematoria. Putin must believe that Russian soldiers are like trash. If they can’t be burned, like litter, just let them lie where they fall.

Ukraine is talking about putting the bodies in refrigerated trucks and returning them to Russia. This would involve digging up the mass graves as well as collecting the bodies left above ground. I suspect that if they tried that, Putin would destroy the trucks to keep the Russian people from seeing the thousands who had been killed. Truth is not Putin’s friend.

More detail is available at https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/23/europe/ukraine-war-russian-soldiers-deaths-cmd-intl/index.html.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, nominated to become an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court is undergoing Senate hearings consistent with the Constitution’s provision that the Senate will advise and consent to certain presidential actions.

Based on yesterdays hearings, I can only conclude that advise and consent is like truth and beauty–a wonderful concept that is neither clearly defined nor understood and that’s just fine with the upper house in Congress.

The senators talked (and talked and talked) instead of asking questions. It reminded me of the old joke about a blind date:

“Hi, are you Sally?”
“Yes,” she replied.
“Well, enough about you. Let’s talk about me.”

Today, a refrigerator size asteroid struck the earth two hours after it was first discovered. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/fridge-sized-asteroid-hit-earth-2-hours-after-it-was-first-spotted-nasa-says/ar-AAVcVU8?li=BBnb7Kz. On March 11, astronomer Krisztian Sarneczky noticed an asteroid at the Piszkéstető Observatory in Hungary. No meteorite pieces that survived re-entry have been found so far.

Given that a Hungarian observatory first spotted it and that any debris that didn’t burn up in the atmosphere is believed to have ended up in Norway, Vladimir Putin blamed Ukraine. Volodymyr Zelenskyy had no comment; apparently, he figured it was good for Putin to believe Ukraine had extraterrestrial military capability.

In the meantime, Louis DeJoy, United States Postmaster General declared the speed of the asteroid/meteor as wasteful. “If I had been in charge, it would have taken weeks for it to arrive AND I would have raised the rates while it was on the way.”

Lying doesn’t work.
It especially doesn’t work if you are lying to yourself.

Politicians are noted for their ability to lie (“How can you tell if a politician is lying? Their lips are moving). Right now, one of the prime candidates for Best Politician (aka Biggest Liar) is Vladimir Putin.

Vlad repeatedly promised that he had no intention of invading Ukraine.

Vlad vehemently denied sending conscripts into battle, until some were taken prisoner and expressed their dismay.

Many conscripts were blindsided when they found themselves in a war. Apparently Russian leadership told them they would be participating in a training exercise.

Russia has cut all foreign news sources possible so that only Russian broadcasters could present the party line. People in Ukraine who have family in Russia are being told they cannot be in a war, because if there were a war, it would be on the Russian news.

It appears that Vlad is lying to himself about how things are going in Ukraine.

Vlad’s lips have been moving, but it might be hard to tell since he’s at the other end of his 13-foot table.

I wonder if Putin was lying to Trump when they met.

Russia has always had a tendency to value quantity over quality–at least in war. While other countries, including the United States use smart bombs and precision cruise missiles, it seems that the Russian philosophy has been–and still is–to use large quantities of explosives. Fire enough artillery shells, drop enough dumb bombs, etc.., and sooner or later you’re bound to hit something. Not necessarily a military target, but something.

In the meantime, Ukrainians are fighting back, but while Russia is lobbing shells into Ukraine, if Ukraine fired back into Russia, Putin has implied he would use nuclear weapons. The West has emphasized economic warfare, cutting off trade and access to foreign currency.

Many companies have chosen to support the economic sanctions, but some apparently place profit above all else. I understand that some are franchises and the parent corporation doesn’t have as much control. However, many appear to be just plain greedy.

I would think that the least that they could do is send a cease and desist letter that would say, “Effective immediately, you can no longer use our name, sell our products, or in any way involve us in your business until Russia stops killing Ukrainian women and children.”

Here’s an article that you may find interesting https://www.aol.com/finance/companies-still-doing-business-russia-204129691.html

Yale University also has a list as to which companies are involved with Russia at this time.

https://yale.app.box.com/s/11lqy1d3yn1kf9xa3r96k9sb6w5m4qea

Just a few random thoughts, today:

I’ve been seeing inexpensive items that merely have a small sticker that says, “Made in China,” rather than a permanent mark on the product itself. Most labels quickly fall off—at least the side with printing on it. This could mean one of two things:

1. China, like the United States, is now having their manufacturing outsourced to small countries to reduce costs.
2. They may be back to using questionable ingredients, such as melamine, and need to establish plausible deniability.

The federal government’s efforts to curb spam calls is not going well. I have to wonder; how many members of Congress (or their spouses) have a financial interest in such activities?

I recently retired from federal civil service, after a career in the military. It was a painful experience, with a last minute screwup that delayed my retirement by four months. However, as I watch our elected officials in action, I’m grateful that ANYTHING gets done, no matter how poorly.