Just How Stupid Do They Think We Are?
27/03/25 10:39
March 27, 2025 (Vol. 19 No. 15) - Just how stupid does Trump and his band of thugs think the American people are? Based on their behavior this week, I'd guess they think the people are dolts and dim-witted slugs. And an argument can be made that a core percentage of the electorate - the people who blindly support Felon 47 - believe everything the Administration and Fox News tells them. However, in light of this Administration's behavior during the past week, it appears that the folks making up the White House's national security team are the dolts and dim-wits. Against all national security protocols, they used a public messaging app, Signal, to chat up operational plans for an attack on Houthi terrorists in Yemen. It is bad enough that Signal is easily hacked by foreign operatives, but one of this little chatty group was actually in Russia at the time the chat took place. (Hell, for all we know, he was allowing Vladimir Putin to read over this shoulder.) If that is not enough, the Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight accidentally included a reporter, the editor of The Atlantic, into the chat, Make no mistake: A premature release of these war plans could have resulted in American deaths. Fortunately, the reporter was ethical and wasn't willing to disclose these operational plans until after the attack had been completed. Frankly, at first, he didn't think anyone was as stupid as to allow reporter to listen in on a classified operation. Yet, they were. The White House's response to the justified outrage among Republicans, Democrats, the military and the American public has been to lie. They looked square into the camera and said they did not discuss specifics of the operation. Trump and his chatty minions were basically using the Wizard of Oz defense: "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain." Faced with those claims, The Atlantic published the entire chat, including specific details regard what weapons would be used and the timing of the attacks. Still, as late as the time of this writing, President Bone Spur is calling the whole controversy "a hoax." Read that chat yourself. Make your own judgment as to whether this ill-considered dialogue among officials at the highest levels of the U.S. government could have put our service men and women in harm's way. Which takes us back to the core question: Just how stupid do they think we are? Perhaps the better question is: Just how doltish are the people running the country and shouldn't someone or several people be fired for what is, metaphorically and really, criminal stupidity? That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.Safeguarding Bridges
23/03/25 10:16
March 22, 2025 (Vol. 19 No. 14) - I have had a lifelong obsession with the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. My first memory of it is in Fall 1955 when as a two-year-old I sat in the front seat of the family car between my mother and father as the family moved from Baltimore County to the Eastern Shore. It also made a strong impression on me when I attended a church camp just south of the Bay Bridge in 1962. I spent a lot of the week gazing at the bridge, watching the traffic flow to and fro, and wondering about where all those people were going. My "love affair" with the bridge was cemented in spring 1973, when I was permitted to photograph construction of a parallel span for a college television production class project (picture above). This passion eventually resulted in the publication of my first self-authored book Bridging the Chesapeake - A 'Fool Idea' That Unified Maryland. (By the way, it makes a great gift!) Recently, the bridge - officially the William Preston Lane Jr. Memorial Bridge - has been on my mind for a very serious reason. Ever since a gigantic cargo ship destroyed the Francis Scott Key bridge across the opening of Baltimore harbor last year, one cannot help but wonder if the same fate confronts the Bay Bridge. I didn't really give the question of bridge vulnerability much thought when I wrote the book more than a decade ago. However, I did report that the bay ferry John M. Dennis lost its steering on July 6, 1952, and crashed into one of the bridge's main piers. This was three weeks before the bridge opened. No one was hurt and the bridge received minimal damage (page 269). One should note that loss of steering was the same issue that led to the destruction of the Key Bridge. It is also noteworthy that a bay ferry is minuscule compared to the humongous container ships that traverse bay waters today. Last week, the National Transportation Safety Board identified 68 bridges - including the twin spans of the Bay Bridge and the Chesapeake City Bridge that crosses the Chesapeake and Delaware canal - that should be evaluated for the risk of collapse from vessel strike. The NTSB was critical of Maryland officials for not proactively conducting these reviews, suggesting that this tragic situation could have been avoided. For its part, the Maryland Transportation Authority pushed back at the critical report, saying the Key Bridge collapse was solely the responsibility of the ship owners. They have also noted that a bridge risk assessment has been underway since last fall. In yesterday's edition of The Baltimore Sun, Johns Hopkins civil and systems engineering professor Michael Shields said, "Hindsight is 20/20. The important thing is that we acknowledge the risk now." Former President Joe Biden knew of importance of repairing and upgrading the nation's infrastructure by successfully passing his $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, something his predecessor promised to do but failed, and his successor now criticizes as extravagant spending. As the current administration in Washington continues its slash and burn approach to the nation's budget, let's hope that common sense will prevail and this and other infrastructure projects will be allowed to continue. Failing to do so would result in a false economy and result in real consequences in the future. That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.Sunshine Week Sheds Light on "Doc" Marshall
18/03/25 07:36
March 15, 2025 (Vol. 19 No. 13) - This week is being observed as Sunshine Week, a nonpartisan effort to shed light on the importance of open records. This is nothing new: Sunshine Week has been observed annually for several decades. However, never has the need for governmental transparency been greater than now. We have an unelected oligarch given free range over government agencies and a President predisposed to defy the courts. In the spirit of Sunshine Week, I choose to shed some light upon the junior senator from the state of Kansas, Roger "Doc" Marshall. There is some question whether Marshall actually lives in Kansas. He has a so-called "ranch cabin" in western Kansas and an expansive (and expensive) $1.2 million home in Florida. While it is not unusual for our elected congressional officials to have a big home in Washington, a place where they are supposed to be. But having a primary residence outside their election district is not only unusual, but illegal. (So far, the senator has Dodge Citied the question of where he calls home.) I'll let you judge where you think the junior senator from Kansas lives. Of course, Marshall's affinity for things not-Kansas doesn't stop there. Of the nearly $8.7 million Marshall raised from 2019-2024, a majority came from out-of-state. More than a quarter of those donations were $5,400 or higher - suggesting that Roger likes his rich friends. In fact, more than half of the senator's campaign donations come from the largest donors - suggesting that he is not the "man of the people" he'd like you to think he is. Not surprising, 72.6 percent of those campaign donations came from men - which explains a lot about his anti-women voting record. While the Kansas City metro area contributed the most to Marshall's war chest ($121,427), the Washington, D.C. area was second ($96,069) and New York was fourth ($70,750). The largest chuck of the senator's $852,566 in Political Action Committee donations during that period came from, ideological/single issue PACs ($295,516), followed by Healthcare PACS ($161,300) and agribusiness PACs ($72,250). For the record, Marshall serves on the Senate agriculture; health education, labor and pensions; homeland security; small business and budget committees. I'll leave it for you to decide whether there is any conflict of interest there. His largest donors were Nuterra Capital ($49,400), the National Republican Senatorial Committee ($44,600), McKee Foods ($28,900) and Goldman Sachs ($26,400). Again, I will leave it to you to decide whether any conflict of interest exists. And what else do we know about the junior senator from Kansas? We know he recently walked out of a western Kansas town meeting when the audience had the audacity to challenge him on Trump's and Musk's dismantling of government. We also know he has a temper and used personal influence to erase his arrest record. What about the man's voting record? You can check it out here. Needless to say, Marshall is one of Trump's MAGA minions. And, oh yes, he is coming up for reelection next year. I just thought my fellow Kansans might like to know more about their state's junior senator before casting a ballot. After all, those of us in a democracy should make our decisions in the bright light of government transparency. Happy Sunshine Week! That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.They Are Coming After You
11/03/25 08:15
March 11, 2025 (Vol. 19 No. 12) - There's an old saying that you should be careful what you ask for because you may get it. The 77.3 million Americans (49.8 percent) who voted last November for Donald Trump indicated that they wanted someone to shake things up in Washington. Well, they have certainly gotten their wish. The first seven weeks of the Trump administration has shaken the federal government to its very core. However, only now the people who wanted this to happen have begun to realize how these disruptions will affect them personally. The Office of Personnel Management, following an edict from Department of Government Efficiency guru Elon Musk, has advised agencies to terminate 200,000 workers hired within the past year who are still on probation. Do you like to fly? The Federal Aviation Administration has laid off 400 employees, including maintenance mechanics and aviation safety assistants essential for passenger safety. If you are a veteran, you will feel the impact of the 10,000 Veterans Administration employees laid off and the additional 70,000 they plan to cut by June. Additionally, it has been reported that 175,000 fewer vets held jobs in February, partially attributed DOGE. That's because veterans make up a substantial portion of the federal workforce. If you receive Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid benefits, look out. DOGE's twenty-something trolls are rummaging through your private data. Musk and his minions justify this unwarranted interference on the basis of unsubstantiated claims of fraud in the Social Security Administration. Tiffany Flick, former chief of staff at SSA, says these actions, along with substantial layoffs within the agency, could result in the late delivery of Social Security benefit checks for the first time in their 80-year history. By the way, if you haven't heard, Elon Musk says Social Security is a "Ponzi scheme" and wants to do away with it. Trump and DOGE have committed so many reckless acts they are too numerous to mention here. But they affect the health, safety and general wellbeing of every American - including the 77.3 misguided Americans who voted for this dumpster fire. And don't get me started on the economy and the looming "Trumpcession." Bloomberg says Joe Biden left Felon 47 with the strongest economy in the world. In less than two months, Trump has made a mess of it. Foreign policy? Forget it. Trump has embraced America's enemies and shunned our friends. If you wondered who Trump and his Clown Cabinet would be coming after in their misguided effort to "Make America Great Again" - ignoring the fact that it was already great — now you know. Regardless of who you voted for, they are coming after you. That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.Satan's Little Helper
04/03/25 22:14
March 4, 2025 (Vol. 19 No. 11) - Donald Trump spoke for 107 minutes tonight, full of sound and furry, signifying nothing. If he was trying to lay out his vision for the country, it was rendered indecipherable by his constant barrage of insults, arrogance, half-truths and outright lies. The man who has sewn little more than chaos during his first 43 days in office tried to convince us that somewhere in that pile of crap he has heaped upon us is a Christmas pony. Remember when he said he would solve inflation during his first day in office? That hasn't happened. In fact, the unjustified tariffs he imposed today on the nation's three-largest trading partners — and more coming next month to the rest of the world — virtually assure that prices will rise across-the-board. It may surprise you to know that Fearless Leader spoke longer tonight about trans-gender issues than he did on the economy. He claimed his immigration crackdown will stem the tidal wave of violent crime in America. Of course, he lied on both counts: Violent crime in America is at the lowest level it has been in years and his administration's illegal immigrant deportations are at pretty much the same level as under the previous administration. To summarize his approach to foreign policy: Threaten our friends and cow-tow to our enemies. (Look out, Greenland!) There was nothing of substance tonight. President Pinocchio wants us to confuse process with real action. Many of the executive orders and presidential proclamations he has "flooded the zone" with in recent weeks lack legislative authority or are unconstitutional. Truth be told — and there was very little truth being told this evening — this address to the joint session of Congress was more a campaign rally than a serious discussion of President Bone Spur's vision for America. It's Demented Donny's idea of governing by temper tantrum. (Just ask President Zelenskyy.) The boy who would be king boldly said this evening that God saved him from assassination last summer so he can make America great again. I actually believe his survival was the work of Satan, who wanted to make certain that America will have hell to pay over the next four years. That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.