The (Daily) Vent 2

Heroes (just for one day) Most should remember David Bowie's anthem. "We could be Heroes, just for one day." A hero in this context would be one who might find stability in the age of chaos. That will not be President Trump as he is the chief chaos agent himself. An alternative to perhaps inject some normalcy rests with the House of Representatives and its slim GOP hold. Tuesday they could pass a Budget and prevent a government shut down.  Speaker Johnson has seemed confident in recent days that the Republican Conference could pass the Legislation and be in position to advance to the more critical piece of the tax reforms. As the tariff effect is becoming pronounced, and talk of contraction is no longer being dismissed, President Trump is calling the situation one of transition and Commerce Secretary Luttnick, is dismissing he idea altogether, it would fall to the House GOP to finally coalace and, in part, add some certainty that is so required at this time. If there is n...

(Losing Sleep ?) On the night of March 9-10, 1945, Tokyo was subjected to one of the most intense fire raids of the War, rivaling even the atomic missions of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The City was razed and millions were left homeless. In any event, this morning is the time where one loses an hour of slumber as the "Spring Ahead" goes into effect. For all those who are necessarily up early, this lost hour could be telling. One has to also say that some degree of anxiety that would go beyond a loss of sleep. In the Near East, what is the dis-position of Hamas ? Or Iran ? The President did send a letter to the Islamic Republic where Trump re-iterated the U.S. demand that Iran never become a nuclear power but Trump did offer alternatives. Which the Ayatollah has outright rejected. The destruction of Tokyo was total, but Hamas and Iran could perhaps avoid such a fate. Like the requirement that Iran never become nuclear capable so Hamas will need to surrender control of Gaza. Pres...

(Wilderness Campaign) Two days in May, 1864, the Union Army of the Potomac under General Ulysses S. Grant faced off against the Rebel Army of Northern Virginia with General Robert E. Lee in command. The action was indecisive but some 29,000 casualties were incurred by both sides. Since then, the term "wilderness" has come to mean some kind of exile or political banishment. That was President Trump, 1.0, when he had been discarded.  Democrats ran the tables that year and had a couple of moderate Senators not played ball, the plan had been to nationalize voting, eliminate the Senate filibuster, make Puerto Rico and D.C, new states with four new reliably Democrat legislators where the Biden Agenda could be passed by simple Majority. No body would ever vote for a Republican again. Now, just four years later, it is the Democrat Party that is entering the wilderness. Joe Biden, as President, was to be a figurehead only as the Senate with its acquired powers would make the Executive...

(Over The Bridge ?) In the Allied advance across Europe during the Second World War, the Rhine River would prove the most difficult physical barrier that would have to be negotiated any drive into Germany. In the north British General Montgomery and his meticulous Operation PLUNDER was designed to put the British on the far side of the river. Further south, on March 7th, 1945, the U.S. 9th Armored entered the town of Remagen and saw that there was an intact Ludendorff Railway Bridge that spanned the Rhine. With expectation at Eisenhower's Headquarters that the crossing would not be practical for some weeks or until Montgomery was ready, a bridge would considerably accelerate the Campaign. On this March 7th, the Remagen there are two span ends. On the west bank is what is left of the Biden Administration. The Friday jobs report while not stellar did come in below expectations. The reason President Trump is so aggressive with tariffs is that the offending countries had free rides un...

(Prelude & Prologue) When Ferris Bueller took his "day off," the history teacher, Ben Stein, was giving a lecture on the Smoot Hawley Tariff. It was imposed in 1930, causing the collapse of the international trading system and possibly accelerated the Great Depression. The American economy at the time was contracting as the Roaring 20's came to a crash in the 1929 Wall Street sell-off. The addition of the Tariff only exacerbated the situation and all but guaranteed the election of Franklin Roosevelt. He of course instituted the New Deal that in the end proved less affective in its assigned role. It was only after the American entry into the Second World War that economic growth recovered. President Trump has been initiated tariffs of his own that as this stage could prove as problematic as Smoot-Hawley. The economy today is still the Biden economy and while Biden-omics is persisting, inflation is still elevated, the trade deficit is at $150 billion and with new Trump ...

(Talk & Tariff) True to his word, President Trump announced the imposition of 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, and 10% on China. Reciprocal retaliation is being promised. As policy, imposing levies runs the risk that the longer the stoppage persists, conditions invariably worsen. Unless some accommodation is discovered, a change in behavior is elicited. The main complaint President Trump has with the two North American neighbors has been immigration and fentanyl. However., there have been immediate, and indeed negative, results by the adding of these tariffs. Wall Street has sold off across all Indexes for the past two days and prices have increased in some sectors. The Trump theory has been that the American economy is so much larger than its competitors that any levy against any other nation and its diminished GDP, terms will be rapidly arrived. Therefore, in what could be called a form of extortion, in the end, Trump's terms will be met. And, truth be told, despite in place...

(Political Officers) This entry will be composed in English. A constant component in the Red and then Soviet Army was the presence of a Commissar, a political officer in other words. They were the eyes and ears and mouthpiece of the Communist Party. These officers are the equivalent of Internal Affairs in most municipal police departments, not even a necessary evil. Elon Musk is employing DOGE "representatives" across the government. Like political officers and they will answer to Musk and by extension President Trump. The "what have you done lately and name five items." That is meant to identify those who are still on the payroll and those that might be no-shows.  This measure is deemed necessary because government employees is such a monolithic edifice and who is who and who gets paid and who shouldn't. As it happens, Russian President Vladimir Putin, previously a KGB case officer, would be familiar with political officers. The 5th Directorate of the agency sp...

(Hands Dealt) On March 1st, 1942, in the Battle of the Sunda Strait, the cruiser USS Houston was sunk along with Australian destroyer, the HMAS  Perth . This action effectively ended Allied attempts to prevent Japan from seizing the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). There were numerous factors involved, not the least of which was Japanese control of the air but beyond that, the Japanese at the time has superior doctrines, equipment and tactics. The Japanese march through the Indies were like the tentacles of an octopus. It had been bad strategy that hindered the efforts of the initial Allied confrontation with the Japanese. But it was a strategy imposed by Japan and all the American, British, Dutch. and Australian navies could do was suffer defeat. In other words. the Allies were dealt a bad hand. In the heated conversation President Trump had with Ukrainian President Zelenski, Trump that the Ukrainian leader had no cards. Which was true. Ukraine was never going to prevail over Russi...