The 1st Amendment ...

Damon Winter/The New York Times

Let's talk freedom of speech and the 1st Amendment, the most important civil rights document in the Constitution as this gives the right of free speech to every citizen in the US. Now, what about the military? Particularly guys like me, a former officer who did his bit. Am I entitled? Of course but Pentagon Pete says this is not the case because, according to him, this is not in concert with how retired vets "should" voice their views in public, something most disquieting to say the least.

This week, I heard something that shocked me. In a federal appeals court, lawyers for Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, argued that military retirees were subject to freedom of speech restrictions because of their connection to the military, and that if they didn’t like those restrictions, retirees could forfeit their pension and benefits. Let that sink in. The Trump administration expects the people who have put their lives on the line for America to cede one of their basic rights, or forfeit the retirement pay and benefits they have earned over decades of service.

I’m a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, and I was in that courthouse with dozens of other retired veterans. We were there to support and defend every veteran whose right to speak freely was being challenged by the government we had served.

How did we get here? In November, Senator Mark Kelly, Democrat of Arizona, a retired Navy captain, released a video with several other legislators reminding service members that they have a duty to disobey unlawful orders. “We know you are under enormous stress and pressure right now,” they said. “This administration is pitting our uniform military and intelligence community against American citizens.”

The duty to disobey unlawful orders is well established, but the president and secretary of defense immediately called the video outrageous. President Trump wrote that Mr. Kelly should face the death penalty and be hanged as a traitor. Subsequently, Mr. Hegseth censured Mr. Kelly and instructed the secretary of the Navy to investigate him and potentially reduce his retirement rank and pay. Mr. Kelly went to court and won, but the government appealed. Based on the reaction from the three-judge panel in the D.C. Court of Appeals on Thursday, it seems likely that Mr. Hegseth will lose in this court, too, but he has already indicated that he may appeal the case to the Supreme Court. This isn’t over, and it has implications far beyond Mr. Kelly.

First Amendment

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Image by Leslie Haines

The Gyro Gearloose method ...

2 of 5 |  President Donald Trump, accompanied by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

The blur says it all as the TA is a blur of lies, incompetency and a Gyro Gearloose way of doing business as they don't know their ass from a hole in the ground when it comes to governance.

Gyro is Duckburg's ingenious inventor, even though his inventions sometimes do not work the way he wants them to. His outrageous productivity is presented as a factor in the quality of his inventions. Because Gyro is always coming up with new ideas, the fact that his inventions often lack an important feature will often cause trouble for both Scrooge and Donald, who are known to have frequently bought his inventions. He is known for being good-natured towards others.

The TA is anything but good-natured but I digress yet again ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration’s approach to the Iran war over the past 24 hours has pinballed from declarations that a tenuous ceasefire was holding and military operations were over to new threats of bombing the Islamic Republic.

Tuesday started with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth explaining how the U.S. military was protecting stranded ships so they could traverse the Strait of Hormuz. He insisted it was a defensive operation and the truce was still in place even though Iran had launched missiles and drones at U.S. forces, which sank Tehran’s small attack boats.

That afternoon, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters at the White House that the military operation was “concluded” and that the U.S. achieved its objectives. But in almost the same breath, he said President Donald Trump was still seeking a “path of peace” that required Iran to agree to a deal to reopen the vital oil shipping corridor.

By Tuesday evening, Trump announced that the effort to protect ships was paused to see if an agreement could be reached. Then on Wednesday morning, he again warned that bombing would resume if Tehran didn’t agree to U.S. terms.

In six days, The Donald is to meet Xi in China, the most ruthless and competent head of state who happens to be in charge of a successful superpower as we speak. In context, this meeting centers on selling soybeans to China as the US desperately needs this deal to go down to prop up a sagging economy while at the same time, he and his minions continue to chase the invisible hole in the ground with the distinct possibility the deal goes south even before the plane leaves the ground. 

 As always, ready, fire, aim applies.

Iran won

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photos: Kyle Mazza/Anadolu and Majid Saeedi via Getty Images

Iran won

The White House believes it's getting close to an agreement with Iran on a one-page memorandum of understanding to end the war and set a framework for more detailed nuclear negotiations, according to two U.S. officials and two other sources briefed on the issue.

• The big picture: The U.S. expects Iranian responses on several key points in the next 48 hours. Nothing has been agreed yet, but the sources said this was the closest the parties had been to an agreement since the war began.
• Among other provisions, the deal would involve Iran committing to a moratorium on nuclear enrichment, the U.S. agreeing to lift its sanctions and release billions in frozen Iranian funds, and both sides lifting restrictions around transit through the Strait of Hormuz.

Many of the terms laid out in the memo would be contingent on a final agreement being reached, leaving the possibility of renewed war or an extended limbo in which the hot war has stopped but nothing is truly resolved.

The reality ...

• The Iran Side: They receive billions in liquidity and the unblocking of the Strait of Hormuz—the literal backbone of their economy.
• The U.S. Side: They receive a "Note"—a promise of a moratorium that can be undone the moment the "Timed" political cycle shifts.

The losers 

The US and Israel. Israel is the pariah of the world. A phase shift of historical proportions await as giving everything Israel wants is over and ... with luck, Bibi goes to jail. As for the US, depletion of expensive ordinance, loss of connects to allies and an ongoing question of ... what to do about the bases in the Gulf States looms as Iran got what it wanted. THE RIGHT TO BE LEFT ALONE.

Soybeans ...

Trump with Steve Witkoff on Air Force One in March. Photo: Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images

Dazed and confused along with shell shock applies to Witkoff while Trump blathers on but I digress.
Seems Armageddon has been postponed for at least 3 weeks thanks to the May 14/15 seance
the orange menace is going to have with Xi in China. 

President Trump said Tuesday he's suspending the new U.S. military operation

in the Strait of Hormuz due to progress in the negotiations with Iran

on an agreement to end the war.

Why it matters: The operation to "guide" ships through the Strait of Hormuz, which was launched on Monday, led to an exchange of fire between the U.S. and Iran and to Iranian missile attacks on the United Arab Emirates for the first time since the ceasefire was announced a month ago.

What he's saying: "Based on the request of Pakistan and other Countries...and, additionally, the fact that Great Progress has been made toward a Complete and Final Agreement with Representatives of Iran, we have mutually agreed that, while the Blockade will remain in full force and effect, Project Freedom will be paused for a short period of time to see whether or not the Agreement can be finalized and signed," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Because we can't believe a word Trump says, the betting pool on the pause centers on Russia and Xi as they vetoed the Project Freedom backed initiative in the UN and ... selling soybeans to China is a better alternative to crashing the world's economy to meet the demands of Israel wanting to end Iran. 

UN Photo/Manuel Elías A wide view of the UN Security Council chamber
as members meet on the situation in the Middle East.

The UN Security Council has failed to adopt a resolution aiming to boost security in the Strait of Hormuz as the critical shipping corridor remains largely closed to global trade and the transport of humanitarian aid, with war continuing to rage across the region.

Explaining Russia’s vote, Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said that the resolution presented Iranian actions as the sole source of regional tensions while illegal attacks by the United States and Israel were “not mentioned at all”.   

Chinese Ambassador Fu Cong said the draft “failed to capture the root causes and the full picture of the conflict in a comprehensive and balanced manner.”  

He expressed hope that peace and stability would be restored and affirmed China’s commitment to addressing the situation properly by tackling the root causes. 

Iran’s Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani said the draft sought “to punish the victim for defending its sovereignty and vital national interests in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, while providing political and legal cover for further unlawful acts by the aggressors.” 

Selling soybeans triumphs all.

Yet another meander ...

 

"Live Again Right Here" - Iowa 1977

Yours truly took a long trip in '77 to the Aspen Design Conference starting from CT. After the conference ended, a long drive ensued covering the Four Corners, Wyoming/Yellowstone and a slow return east through South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota and Iowa, along with Michigan, to eventually rendezvous with the wife before checking out Montreal at the height of the Quebec Sovereignty Movement, an experience most amazing to behold. 

Four Corners

The weapon of choice, the '72 VW Camper bus, the best way to see America IMHO.

The trip lasted over two months.

The Badlands ...

49 years ago ... question, would yours truly do this again given the state of America today?

Not a chance.

Sadness says it all. 

Stillness

 

Stillness

This pix, to yours truly, is a brief respite from the insanity overtaking the world.

The Horror, the Horror

Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

Another threat to annihilate Iran as Trump is warning that Iran will be “blown off the face of the earth.” WTF applies here as all this demented individual has to do is end the blockade but, instead, thanks to the urging of Bibi along with rampant self aggrandizement, he's doubling down and declared yet again he has the sole right to destroy a sovereign nation. How can he possibly do it? You guessed it, nukes. Conventional ordinance can't do it. Iran is simply too big a country. Words cannot describe the horror of this possible initiative promoted by a know nothing who runs nothing as Miller and Hegseth do, along with Bibi whispering sweet nothings into Trump's ear that Iran must go.
Time to to end this insanity now before the unthinkable happens.

The war on Iran is very much back on, and President Trump is making more genocidal threats.

Iran on Monday bombed a South Korean ship and civilian sites in the United Arab Emirates, in the wake of President Trump’s announcement that the United States would be using its Navy to force ships through Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz as part of “Project Freedom.” The U.S. military also stated that it sank six Iranian small boats and that Iran has fired missiles and drones at other vessels in the strait.

This has sent the president into a rage.

If the Iranians try to target U.S. ships in this area, they will be “blown off the face of the earth,”
 Trump told Fox News’s Trey Yingst on Monday afternoon.

“We have more weapons and ammunition at a much higher grade than we had before,” he warned.

The lack of understanding the center of gravity is now complete and ... add Pentagon Pete to the mix and one sees dementia and malignant narcissism on the part of Trump and incompetence and fanaticism on the part of Hegseth, both with connects to incredibly powerful weapons able to unravel civilization in a nanosecond, something akin to the feeling one gets when reading Conrad's Heart of Darkness with Kurtz ending the story by saying
The Horror, The Horror.

To whit.

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Trump Blurts Out Damning Admission of Iran Blunder as GOP Panic Grows

As the president reveals too much about his handling of Iran, a writer tracking Trump’s bungling
explains how his megalomania won’t allow for any good way out of this fiasco.

Donald Trump has declared the war “terminated,” but he’s still rejecting Iran’s peace proposals while again threatening it with massive war crimes. And in an interview, Trump declared that he would never have approved an offer that was made to Iran by his negotiator, Steve Witkoff. This is a damning admission: He seemed to blurt out that he has no idea what his own representatives are offering—showing deep disengagement from the details of the talks—while demonstrating that anything his negotiators do offer should not be believed. 

Read both TNR pieces to see why referring to The Horror applies.

The Roi des Belges ('King of the Belgians'—French),
the Belgian riverboat Conrad commanded on the upper Congo, 1889

The Center of Gravity/Rev II

Not AI, just a prof who understands asymmetrical warfare at deep level. Cites sources, shows why asymmetrical warfare and deep understanding of how to implement same shows why the US is not winning and cannot win under any circumstances. The Strait is closed and the US can do nothing to change that scenario unless it agrees to Iran's terms. The Center of Gravity applies. 

As per COG, in Dune, it's the spice, in the Middle East, it's oil and fertilizer.

The deal ...

Al Jazeera

The tally seems fairly accurate save for the number of Israeli and US casualties as Israel and the US,
showing the world Iran's capabilities to respond with precision and power, is not face saving but
this blurb is not about body counts but rather ... is a deal possible to avoid catastrophe?

According to Iranian media reports, Tehran’s new proposal came in response to a Washington-backed nine-point peace proposal, which primarily sought a two-month ceasefire.

However, in its latest peace proposal, Iran said it wants to focus on ending the war instead of extending the truce and wants all issues resolved within 30 days.

The new proposal calls for guarantees against future attacks, a withdrawal of US forces from around Iran, the release of frozen Iranian assets worth billions of dollars and the lifting of sanctions, war reparations, ending all hostilities, including in Lebanon, and “a new mechanism for the Strait of Hormuz”.

Iran, which was also attacked by the US and Israel last June, wants a guarantee against future aggression. Israel has previously targeted Iranian nuclear scientists and run campaigns to sabotage its nuclear sites.

Tehran also wants its right to uranium enrichment guaranteed as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), (which Israel is not) but Trump has made the nuclear issue a “red line”. Iran wants decades of sanctions, which have devastated its economy, to be lifted as part of any deal. The navigation through the strait and demands for war reparations are other sticking points in the talks.

According to a report by Iranian state broadcaster IRIB, after delivering the proposal, Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said, “Now the ball is in the United States’ court to choose the path of diplomacy or the continuation of a confrontational approach.”

Paul Musgrave, an associate professor of government at Georgetown University in Qatar,

said Iran has “slightly softened” its proposal.

“The news reports on it indicate that there is a slight softening in the proposal, or rather a run-up to discussing the proposal, namely that the Iranian side may have given up its precondition that the US
 cease its distant blockade of Iranian traffic [in the Strait of Hormuz],” he told Al Jazeera.

“Beyond that, though, a lot of the things that are reportedly in the proposal include maintaining Iran’s sovereign ability to enrich uranium, its nuclear programme and, of course, what it delicately refers to as a ‘control mechanism’ over shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.”

Musgrave said on the two biggest issues – enrichment of uranium and transferring its highly enriched uranium – the US and Iran remain “far apart”.

“President Trump has been unyielding that Iran must surrender its nuclear capability,” he said.

Iran will not give up it's nuclear capability as this leaves the country vulnerable to US and Israeli attacks. This will not happen. 

So the question to ask it, will Trump restart this fiasco yet again?

The world is waiting.

The Handmaid's Tale/Rev II

The Supreme Court will now decide whether to overrule an appeals court
that found in Louisiana's favor. | AFP via Getty Images

Supreme Court asked to pause ruling blocking telehealth and mail access to abortion pills

The emergency appeal comes a day after a federal appeals court granted Louisiana's request to require that mifepristone be dispensed in person.

I know, lets resurrect the Salem witch trials to control women's right to choose yet again.

The Handmaid's Tale looms.

How much longer must we tolerate this incredible intrusion into women's lives based on religion and the right to life as George Carlin's right. "They're all in favor of the unborn. They will do anything for the unborn, but once you're born, you're on your own."

Betting pool with this supreme court, 90% backing the appeals court in Louisiana. 

"The witch no. 1" lithograph