Tag Archives: inflation

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Jumping the Stimulus Turnstile

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Another very informative article from my good friend and strong contributor to the blog, Greg Maresca. To add to his great discussion, let me remind everyone that consumer spending makes up 70% of our country’s GDP. There many other ways to stimulate the economy and increase consumer spending at the same time i.e., tax cuts, which do not increase the deficit, but always bring in more revenue. Remember Reagan and his “Trickle Down Economics”?

 

 

 

By: G. Maresca

The COVID stimulus train has added another $1.9 trillion to its ever-growing caboose. Uncle Sam is running the nation’s treasury like a Parker Brothers’ board game. Through continuous stimulus spending, Congress, who controls the nation’s purse strings, has dismissed the burgeoning federal deficit outright.

The numbers throughout this COVID cash craze are astonishing: In just 16 months, the Federal Reserve has pumped over $9 trillion into the economy. According to Forbes, last June the U.S. accumulated more debt than in the 200-plus years from America’s founding in 1776 through 1979.

The stimulus bills have provided temporary relief but are toxic over the long-term. Nearly half of the unemployed will be paid more to stay home, while keeping unemployment artificially higher which will result in calls for more stimulus.

Economic incentives matter but handouts?

History will look back on this COVID era with disbelief that so many were bamboozled into believing that freebees were a good idea or even sustainable.

There is no real stimulus. Such semantics masks (pun intended) what is happening to the economy that resembles a Bowery wino. Government giveaways and money-printing have their inevitable effects. Stimulus checks will not grow the economy, but it will stimulate the federal debt and cause inflation.

Chetan Ahya, chief economist at Morgan Stanley, “The driving forces of inflation are already aligned, and a regime shift is underway.” Perhaps forgotten is that inflation is the most universal tax of all.

Bestowing money on those who work is scandalous because it steals from their children and grandchildren. Such fiscal policy only grows government and restricts liberty, while handcuffing small businesses – the economy’s driving force. Future generations will face burdensome taxation and cut services thanks to this intergenerational redistribution of wealth.

Stimulus spending has resulted in a higher national debt percentage of GDP than at the end of WWII and both political parties are to blame. They seem to believe that zero interest rates will last forever.

Politicians have not missed a paycheck, nor have they read the 5,600 pages of latest bill that is the handiwork of an army of aides acting on behalf of lobbyists and interest groups.

Some highlights have $750 million for border walls in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Oman and Tunisia. Apparently, the only country that Congress feels should have open orders is our own. Other pork chops include $1.3 billion for the Egyptian military, $130 million for Nepal; $135 million for Burma, $34 million and $85 million for Cambodia, and $231 million to pay down the national debt of Sudan, where apparently Sudan’s debt matters more than our own.

Ten million has been allocated for gender programs in Pakistan. Rather than cash, we should send the Pakistanis the annual army of leftist gender studies graduates. Don’t forget $600 to non-American citizens and the $40 million to the closed Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. In an insult to fiscally responsible states, $350 billion is allotted to bail out states like New York and Illinois, who run yearly deficits.

For all their self-aggrandizing rhetoric about helping those in need with additional stimulus spending, the reality is that both parties are helping themselves to excess at the expense of future Americans.

Considering what has taken place over the course of less than a year, it begs the question: Will there ever be a time when politicians won’t be “stimulating” the economy? Tax, spend, regulate, then “stimulate,” which is just another synonym for more spending.

You cannot spend yourself into prosperity.

If history tells us anything the forgotten 1920-21 economic crisis taught that sometimes the best stimulus is none at all.

Rather than expanding government, a true fiscal “stimulus” initiative would promote and support the private sector. One of the best ways of doing that would be to reduce the regulatory and tax burden on U.S. corporations and small businesses.

Paying customers are the best stimulus for any enterprise, while allowing them to keep more of the money they earn would also underscore that it is their money, not Uncle Sam’s.

Instead of forcing businesses and schools to close, while restricting our civil liberties and bribing the masses through federal handouts, open up the economy, tax less and invest our taxes into America.

Watch inflation, it’s like Murphy, always waiting for a misstep, which Trader Joe will certainly provide..

 

 

Originally posted 2021-01-30 10:50:45.

Current Events

SOTU – Nothing but a Pack of Lies

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Before I introduce this post I need to update you on my battle with USAA. The inevitable finally happened; all these years, 49 as of this month to be exact, I bragged about not hearing this from my bank, insurer, brokerage firm, mortgagor, and all around favorite organization in the U.S. But, it has happened. I called last week to discuss something with them and this is what I heard, “Welcome to USAA, press one for English.” That did it for me for I do not do business with a company that  doesn’t understand where they are and what language we speak. I am not trying to disparage those who speak Spanish, I am merely saying, if you want to live in the U.S. learn our language. If I would happen to move to some South American country would I expect them to speak my language? Hell no I wouldn’t; it would be my responsibility to learn their language.

So, starting this week I re-joined and began moving everything to NFCU to which I belonged starting in 1967 when I returned from RVN. I stayed with them until I moved to USAA in February 1974. Needless to say, I am really impressed with what they offer and am sure I will be happy with them. 

Okay, now to the post. Another good one from my friend and fellow Marine Greg, I did not watch the SOTU address as I knew it would be nothing but one lie after another and sure enough that appears to be exactly what it was. I have convinced myself that his election was, in fact, fraudulent in every aspect. I mean, do we really have that many stupid idiots in America that thought he was the best choice. I don’t think so, the problem is Trump just pisses everyone off all the time. He has certainly ruffled my feathers of late by his disparaging remarks against my Governor. I don’t think he knows DeSantis very well as he is not one he wants to spar with. And now that Haley has thrown her hat in the ring, he is even attacking her.  What does he think he is going to gain by doing that? I remember my favorite president of all times, Ron Reagan saying, “A Republican should never speak ill of another Republican. ” Trump had best shut his mouth. If the primary were held today, I would not be voting for Trump as I personally believe he hasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell of becoming president again. Shut the hell up Trump!!

Smoke, Mirrors, and Balloons                                                                                  By: G. Maresca
Since the Biden Administration took office, their billowing nonstop smokescreens are asphyxiating. Consider the humiliating withdraw from Afghanistan to the proxy war with Russia in Ukraine to record inflation claiming food, energy, and a stagnant stock market.

The mirrors are as plentiful as a carnival funhouse with the daily flood of illegals pouring across our Southern border as Biden toasts “President Harris,” while calling out to dead congresswomen and confusing Cambodia with Colombia. Biden’s response: blame Donald Trump.

Then there was the manifestation of a series of flying objects – the first one identified as a Chinese spy balloon. Four more objects appeared within days. Coincidental or is the logical conclusion too overwhelming? If Biden doesn’t know what these are, we should know.  For half a century, Washington claimed Biden doesn’t know anything, but when he admits he didn’t know anything, nobody believes him.

With layer upon layer of bureaucratic red tape that holds Washington hostage, we were fortunate that when Biden finally gave the order he didn’t shoot down the Goodyear blimp at the Super Bowl.  Popping China’s spy balloon was the first thing Biden did to reduce inflation since taking office. With Biden at the helm, it is like watching a kindergartener juggling hand grenades.

It took some cowboys in Montana to call attention to the first balloon. Then Biden claimed it posed no threat, only to shoot it down.  One more downed balloon and Biden gets the top prize at the funhouse.  The balloon didn’t penetrate Washington airspace because the Chinese knew there was no intelligence there to collect.

Being a national security issue, this is the bipartisan concern the nation has been searching for as China is testing American resolve. The communist Chinese must exit from our universities, research facilities, corporations, and from any land acquisitions.

President Obama’s East Asia Strategy afforded the Chinese plenty of intelligence correlated electronics, hardware, and software. Recall the 2009 hack of F-35 fighter-jet blueprints to the continuing theft across the board of intellectual property through clandestine cyberattacks. China’s thievery of American data and technology continues to be met with little to no consequences.  How much American technology was attached to that balloon?

The Rutherford Institute reports foreign entities owned 40.8 million acres of American agricultural land with China owning nearly 192,000 acres that were all near military bases. Customs and Border Protection reported a 700% increase in Chinese migrants at the Southern border as we witness the consequences of open borders and air space.

China is on a ceaseless campaign to embarrass and humiliate America while becoming the world’s dominant military. The obvious seems lost on those shining a seat with their groove thing in the Oval Office and throughout the Pentagon. How long have these flights been going on without a response and why? Sadly, the military is too consumed with reducing their carbon footprint and pushing their diversity inclusion and equity (DIE) agenda.

Biden appears compromised, yet Congress does nothing.

Since this is the Chinese “year of the balloon” and for better protection of their fleet of spy balloons in the future, the Chinese will be changing from white balloons to rainbow-colored ones stenciled with the letters: BLM.

From all these classified documents and balloons floating around and Hunter Biden’s foreign business deals, and the “big guy’s” stake in them, where are the straight answers? The nation’s media, its fourth estate, does not have the slightest intention of pursuing any of this.

American companies that deal in technology should not be doing business in and with communist nations. This did not occur during the Cold War with the Soviet Union, so why is today any different. Let China have the NBA. They deserve each other.

If anything, a Chinese balloon has brought to the forefront our military vulnerabilities that must be addressed. As a nation, we are not isolated from foreign military threats, and our pathetic response begs many questions about our military preparedness.

Meanwhile, at the southern border ….

We are trying to solve a spiritual problem through political means. Until we realize this, the situation and all the hot air surrounding it will only continue to inflate, and those Chinese spy balloons will be the least of our concerns.

Current Events

Here’s Greg

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In case you haven’t noticed, I have been absent, UA, AWOL, or simply MIA. LOL. Sorry gang, but am still on vacation traveling in the RV visiting relatives. Am currently in MD to celebrate my daughter’s 60th this Saturday. For the first time on the trip, I have a solid Wifi connection so I thought I would peak at what is in my laptop. WOW. For those of you who do not know what minimize means, let me say again. NO EMAIL TRAFFIC. There are a few exceptions and Greg is one of them and he has sent me a good one. With that, here’s Greg.

Clearing the ledger

By: G. Maresca

There is plenty to say about brevity, but that would defeat the purpose.  Neither time nor space affords me the opportunity to opine on the many headlines, stories, and political twists that comprise an average news day – let alone an entire week.  With that in mind, let’s clear the ledger.

The Federal Reserve has yet to learn the hard lessons of the 1970s inflation that when growth of the money supply slows, so does the increase in prices.

Considering the rapid increase in inflation, it should lead to a major reform in the capital gains tax but it won’t considering Congress is home to so many fiscal illiterates.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed a bill into law that allows all teachers to conceal carry a handgun – with librarians allowed to use silencers.

German leaders of the anti-immigration party called Angela Merkel the worst Chancellor in Germany’s history – now that is saying something.

Why can’t the left comprehend that Title IX was never meant to allow male athletes to compete against female athletes?

How fortunate the nation is that Merrick Garland is not on the Supreme Court.

With unstable financial markets, and increasing crime, Democrats want you to turn in your weapons.

 The tithe at the Church of Green Energy is well over 10% and it is anything but voluntary.

Leftist fanatics find their way to university faculties, journalists, and district attorneys, while those on the right are ostracized, threatened, and fired.

The issue of Nazism was settled in 1945 when the notion of white supremacy was soundly defeated by the forces of white privilege.

Every school board in the country needs to make the U.S. Citizenship Test, administered to naturalizing immigrants, a high-school graduation requirement.

At this point, any abduction by aliens, is not an abduction, but a rescue.

The ability of children to read has become secondary to what they are allowed to read – for fear they may learn to read between the lines.

At the rate U.S. drug laws are being repealed, Hunter Biden could get indicted for not bringing enough drugs for everyone.

Perhaps the U.S. needs to expand the census to South America so that they can register in advance of arriving.

Many Democrat policy proposals are not only radical, but scientifically, economically, and numerically illiterate: Medicare for All and the Green New Deal violate the laws of economics, physics, and mathematics.

Socialism is contrary to human nature, while capitalism is the only proven economic system.

Wise decisions about how to utilize deficits start with understanding the factors that actually play into it and sadly many of our politicians don’t have a clue. Congress does not want the responsibility of governing, just the perks.

Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat no less, has doomed humankind by not supporting Biden’s green agenda.  And here I thought Donald Trump was humanity’s greatest villain. You need a scorecard to keep track of who the Democrats blame as the greatest nemesis of humanity each week.

Arguably, the nation’s two most existential threats are China and our national debt and Republicans need to start selling it that way.

Arizona executed its first prisoner in nearly eight years and for his last meal he requested some Kentucky Fried Chicken before kicking the bucket.

Dr. Seuss’s latest: There is Disorder at the Border by Executive Order.

A cargo plane arrived in Philadelphia from Australia with three million cans of baby formula on board.  Apparently, each can is labeled: Foster’s. Relax, it is a joke albeit a weak one. But any mother reading this can at some level certainly relate.

Have you noticed that when any leftist threaten to leave the U.S., they only mention white enclaves like Canada, Australia, and New Zealand?

Heinz Field was renamed by the Pittsburgh Steelers to Acrisure Stadium as the insurance and real-estate company acquired the naming rights for next 15 years. Granted, a good number of Steeler fans may not be able to spell or even pronounce the new name; but they will certainly ketchup sooner than later.

A recession is when your neighbor loses their job, a depression is when you lose your job and a recovery when Joe Biden and Congressional Democrats lose their jobs.

Current Events

A Crime Scene Where the Victims Wore Masks

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We, as normal Americans, are too stupid to have any opinions or to think for ourselves — so believe our elected officials, especially those from the entire administration, even some of our GOP RINOS. But I sincerely believe their day is coming with each passing month until doomsday in November. God, help us to be able to sustain sanity until then. A very well written piece from the WSJ

From the Wall Street Journal

FREE EXPRESSION

By Gerard Baker

A Crime Scene Where the Victims Wore Masks

As terrified passengers stumbled from the train at the 36th Street station in Brooklyn last week, it was noticeable how many of them were complying with the mandate that to enjoy the privilege of venturing into the underground abyss known as the New York City Subway system, you must be wearing a face covering.

There they were, desperately fleeing a gunman or bravely helping rescue injured passengers, but still dutifully playing their part in the absurdist theatre of pandemic regulations scripted and directed for us by our little overlords.

Those flimsy pieces of fabric might have offered some minimal protection from the noxious fumes of the smoke bombs that Frank James allegedly set off in that subway car. But they were never going to be a match for the bullets fired from the 9mm semiautomatic handgun recovered at the scene. Many innocents were wounded, and it is something of an Easter miracle that no one was killed. For the millions of people who have dared to ride the city’s subway this year, the greatest danger to life isn’t some escaped molecule of a virus of rapidly diminishing potency. That exiguous risk is dwarfed by the combined threat of being pushed in front of an oncoming train, stabbed, hit in the head by a psycho with a hammer, robbed at gunpoint or being sexually assaulted. The number of robberies on the subway so far in 2022 is up 72% from the same period in 2021. There is no easily discover-able record of how many maskless riders have been struck down this year by Covid.

It’s hard to think of a tableau that better captures the disordered priorities of our governing classes than that scene in Brooklyn.

The politicians and bureaucrats who run almost all major cities, many states and the federal executive branch seem to care more about preserving the symbol of their authority that mask mandates represent than about the actual physical safety of citizens. In their warped ideology, crime is the result of material deprivation, prejudice and wicked police officers. The real need for enforcement is shown by those tempted to show their faces in public.

Masks are only an example. It’s hard to recall a time in recent American history when there has been such a monumental mismatch between the priorities of the people who govern us and the needs of the people. On issue after issue—crime, inflation, immigration— we have leaders so entrenched in their ideological priors that they seem incapable of, even uninterested in, addressing the actual challenges faced by hard-pressed Americans. Joe Biden was at it again last week with inflation. It has been clear for a long time that the return of this old horror is the largest threat to living standards and economic stability. But acknowledging that would have required the Democrats to abandon their ideological goals of ever-higher spending and forced them to reorder their governing priorities. So they didn’t.

Now, unable to dismiss it anymore, they have offered not a serious set of policies to relieve inflationary stresses, but a series of public-relations gimmicks that will have virtually no alleviating impact. Lifting the summertime ban on blended ethanol fuel will be about as effective in addressing higher energy costs as publicly shaming greedy corporations or blaming Vladimir Putin.

On immigration, the administration instinctively reflects a progressive mindset that regards border control as racist. It spent the better part of a year undoing the immigration restrictions imposed by its predecessor. As the inevitable border surge swelled, it feigned some concern. Now, as apprehensions of aliens in border areas reach their highest level in 22 years, what is its response? The repeal of Title 42, a measure that had been effective in curbing illegal crossings.

Interestingly, as the pandemic rationale for that measure is no longer deemed operative, the administration insists elsewhere that the emergency continues when it suits it. So, even as the nation yearns to return to normality, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week announced another extension, for 15 days, of the federal mask mandate on airplanes and public transportation. It had been scheduled to end this Monday at long last. (And on Monday a judge in Tampa, Fla., held that the mandate exceeded the CDC’s statutory authority.)

On it goes. from needless bailouts for student loans to a fixation on sacrificing energy capacity in pursuit of long-term climate goals, Democrats display an unerring focus on aims Americans don’t see as pressing—or even necessary.

Obdurate insistence in the face of evidence of both rising unpopularity and accumulating failure is a common political flaw. No leader willingly acknowledges the irrelevancy of his policies. but it seems to be especially embedded in the modern progressive philosophy that the rulers know best; that they, by dint of their scientific expertise and moral superiority better understand our true needs.

Like all such authoritarian conceits, it doesn’t survive long in a democratic environment. That helps explain why leftists are so panicked at the thought of losing control over information, why they feel so threatened at the thought that a communications channel such as Twitter might fall out of their hands. Anything that challenges their right to go on pursuing their priorities is “disinformation.”

But it won’t take the intervention of a rogue billionaire to restore democratic equilibrium. A popular reckoning is coming.

November 8th 2022 is the Democrat’s  D-day. Get ready Americans!

 

Current Events, Recent Posts

Strength Respects Strength

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And as Greg points out, power has always respected power. Its been that way since Adam and Eve. Putin is no different than anyone who has a left and right brain that are somehow connected, which rules out Biden and his gang of idiots.

 

A Putinized disaster

By: G. Maresca

 

Vladimir Putin never accepted defeat in the Cold War. The former KGB agent stated how the dissolution of the Soviet Union was one of the greatest tragedies in world history.

Given their strategic location, rich natural resources and fertile farmland, an old Russian proverb says there is no Russian Empire without Ukraine. Since the 1772 Partitions of Poland Agreement, Ukraine had been part of Russia until 1991.

For over 30-years, Ukrainians have realized greater economic freedom and opportunities that they never experienced as a satellite of the former Soviet Union. Such successes intimidate Putin. Economically, Russia has been stagnant fueled by a declining population. To offset any further demographic and economic slide, Putin hopes to return those old Soviet republics to the Russian fold.

Ironic how Russia did not invade Ukraine when they had a “Russian asset” in the White House. According to Biden, the borders of Ukraine are sacrosanct and must be protected. The American border not so much.

Rewind to 2014, when Ukraine lost the Crimean Peninsula after President Obama’s chemical weapons “red line” in Syria disappeared and Hillary Clinton’s “re-set” was outright dismissed prompting Putin to make his move. Fast forward eight years, and Obama’s vice president has the top job and tells Putin at their initial meeting that “the adults are back in charge.”

Those adults alongside Biden are Harris, Pelosi, Kerry, Trudeau, and Macron. Kerry’s response to Putin’s invasion would be comical if it wasn’t so pathetic: “I hope President Putin will help us to stay on track with respect to what we need to do for the climate.” Watching our Woke powder puff team of generals grossly mismanage our withdrawal from Afghanistan was no help.

The West’s superlative six are nothing but appeasement, global elitists more concerned about wokeness, gender pronouns, defunding the police, open borders, and handcuffing America’s gas and oil resources.

Since assuming office, Biden went to war with American energy production by canceling the Keystone Pipeline that would have prolonged our energy independence. It would have kept world oil and gas prices in check and limit a major source of Russian revenue, while easing American inflation. Moreover, sustaining sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline under the Baltic Sea would have denied Putin additional income and political leverage.

Barring new Alaskan production and exploration in the lower 48 states only handcuffs American energy independence and potential. This not only hurts Americans at the pump, but our allies, too, while the high price of oil pays for Russia’s invasion.

Biden’s irrational energy policy underscores another Vlad, this one named Lenin and his infamous wisecrack about how the “capitalists will sell us the rope by which we hang them.”

How pathetic is it when a Canadian waitress who donated $50 to the freedom truckers suffered more financially than Putin when Trudeau locked down her bank account?

The Russian invasion of Ukraine highlights just how fundamentally inept the UN is.

During the 2012 presidential campaign, Mitt Romney was spot-on saying how Russia was foe number one but was mocked by Obama and Biden who believed Putin to be an equitable geopolitical partner.

Like all despots, Putin understands, and values strength and he certainly empathizes with the legacy of the Romanov Tsars and their successors in the Kremlin. Negotiating with Putin, China, and the ayatollahs of Iran only comprehends dynamism, defiance, and dominion. The results are playing out in real time in Ukraine with the Baltic states lying in the balance.

Don’t dismiss the Chinese desire to reunify Taiwan with the mainland, and who could forget our favorite ayatollahs in Tehran finally obtaining their nuclear warhead and those North Koreans forever aiming south. Power only respects power. It has been that way since the dawn of civilization, yet the West fails to comprehend its lesson.

Civilians throughout Ukraine are battling back in what the New York Times calls, “a massive grass-roots movement” that must be giving Democrats heartburn. The next time you hear leftists threatening to take away your guns and ammo think about our friends in Ukraine fighting to keep their freedom.

May God bless, guide and protect the Ukrainian people whose courageous resolve reminds us how precious freedom is that many take for granted.

So where does the U.S. fall in this power and strength struggle for respect? Well, let’s look at the current status of the foundation of  our power and strength – the military establishment.

From the Free Beacon

 • March 1, 2022 5:00 am

As Russia Wages War, US Army Trains Officers on Gender Identity. Mandatory military training program pushes soldiers to undergo gender reassignment surgery

While Russia wages a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. Army is putting its soldiers through training on gender pronouns and coaching officers on when to offer soldiers gender transition surgery, according to an official military presentation on the subject obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

The mandatory presentation, “Policy on the Military Service of Transgender Persons and Persons with Gender Dysphoria,” was given to officers earlier this month along with instructions for them to train their subordinates on the material. Portions of the presentation were provided to the Free Beacon by a whistleblower who was ordered to undergo the training as a high-ranking officer in the Army Special Forces.

An Army spokesman confirmed to the Free Beacon that the slides in question are part of “mandatory training” and come from an official program “used to train Army personnel on the recent changes to the DoD and Army transgender service policy.” All Army personnel, from soldiers to commanders and supervisors, are required to participate in the training by Sept. 30, 2022, according to the spokesman.

The transgender presentation follows on a June 2021 announcement by the Army altering its policies so that transgender soldiers can openly serve. The shift in policy is part of a larger push by the Biden administration to make the military more welcoming to transgender people. These efforts have prompted pushback from Republicans in Congress and some within the military who view the policy changes as an effort to promote “woke” propaganda within the service. As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatens to spark a larger conflict, military experts and insiders say they are concerned America’s fighting force is prioritizing woke culture over protecting the American people.

“The Army allows transgender soldiers to serve openly,” states the presentation, which is tailored for Army commanders and leaders. “An otherwise qualified soldier shall not be involuntarily separated, discharged, or denied reenlistment or continuation of service on the basis of gender identity.”

The presentation offers several hypothetical scenarios for how soldiers should be treated if they are transgender or in some stage of transitioning to another gender.

In one situation, a “soldier who was assigned male at birth says he identifies as a female,” “lives as a female in his off-duty hours,” and “is not requesting to be treated as a female while on duty.” In that case, the soldier should be treated with dignity and respect and no further action is required.

If the transgender soldier, however, “later requests to be identified as a female during duty hours and/or experiences increased distress relating to his gender identity,” the officer in charge must “inform [the] soldier of the Army’s transgender policy and recommend that he sees a military medical provider.”

“Gender transition in the Army,” the presentation states, “begins when a soldier receives a diagnosis from a military medical provider indicating that gender transition is medically necessary.”

In another scenario included in the presentation, a “soldier is assigned female at birth. She tells her first sergeant that she identifies as male and would like to be treated as a male. She has not yet seen a military medical provider.”

In this situation, Army leaders are ordered to “inform [the] soldier that the Army recognizes a soldier’s gender by the soldier’s gender marking in DEERs,” or the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System, a massive database that tracks military members. The soldier, according to the presentation, will be expected to meet the uniform, grooming, and physical readiness standards associated with their recognized gender.

The soldier will then be sent to a military medical provider who can determine whether “gender transition is medically necessary.”

Damn, don’t those kind of reports make you feel warm and fuzzy? I suspect reports like this  has Putin shaking in his KGB boots, ya think? I’ve made no secret on here that I am somewhat of a Putin fan. I shall pray for the people of Ukraine, but that’s as far as I will go. I have tired of us being the caretaker of the world only to lose men and women to useless political wars where we have no interests whatsoever. How dare we lose one American soldier, Marine, sailor, or airman fighting in Ukraine while our own country is going to the dogs and fast becoming a Third World Shithole. I’ve discussed Putin with some of my peers about how bad Putin is and what he’s doing. I make no apologies, while I may not agree with what he is doing, I do respect the man’s fortitude and determination to do what he considers necessary for the good of his country.  That’s a lot more than I can say about our nation’s leader.

Meanwhile, thanks to that person in our oval office, WTI crude opened this a.m. at $111.37/bbl and Brent crude opened at $114.43/bbl. And to think that on Trump’s last day in office WTI was $52.87/bbl, and before COVID hit Trump had it down to $3.32/bbl, and we were paying less for gas than we had paid in 30 years. Two years ago we were an oil exporter and  energy independent. Putin’s getting rich; we are paying for his actions in Ukraine at the gas pump.

Guys, we have major problems right here within our own borders e.g., CPI at 7.1% in January, literally 1,000s storming our borders every month, spending out of control, rising prices for everything especially the necessities for life, a military training to become warm and fuzzy powder puffs, Marines changing their entire force structure, and the list goes on. We are no longer the powerful nation to be respected like we were two years ago. We need to stay out of Ukraine , and let Europe stand on their own two feet for a change.