Is it time to stop listening to the talking heads?

One of the reasons I stopped listening to talking heads of either side is the last thing I need is to be told what to think.

Back in 2016, I remember all the talking heads telling us Trump was going to get flattened in the election against Hillary.

99% of the talking heads were wrong about that.

Months before the election, I had concluded Trump would win.

So, on election night, I'm sitting there, watching TV coverage as they were proven wrong and I asked myself: why do I listen to any of these people since I obviously knew more than any of them?

I don't care what The View thinks. I don't care what Sean Hannity thinks. I don't care what CNN says. I don't care what FOXNews says. I don't watch any of them.

And I certainly don't care what Tucker Carlson says.

Maybe.... just maybe... it's time to throw off the yoke of programming... being told what to think, when and how to think it, and what to do about it.

Stop being lazy. Do the heavy lifting.

Think for yourselves.

Try it sometimes. I know it can be hard. I know, particularly in this AI era that you don't know what to believe, that even your own eyes can betray you.

But being told what to think/believe by others who are only concerned about their own agenda has led to the most divided country since 1865.

It is time to stop the insanity. And for those who understandably claim some version of dislike for politics, let me leave you with this somewhat modified axiom:

"You may not be interested in politics.... But politics is most definitely interested in you."

I oppose the expansion of VA benefits bill, HR 6047: the devil is in the details.

Weeellll…. I knew this was going to happen.

I am steadfastly opposed to the latest expansion of veteran’s benefits, aka HR 6047.

Even though it’s a Republican bill, I agree with the democrats who voted in opposition to it in committee.

Why?

Because the devil is in the details.

A lot of veterans were excited over expansion of the VA bill to include personnel who had not set foot in Vietnam to become eligible for Agent Orange benefits if they had, for example, come into contact with it as a part of their job outside Vietnam proper, this is typically called expanding the Agent Orange coverage and benefits to the “Blue Water Navy”

For example, personnel on aircraft carriers where missions were flown over Vietnam.

When aircraft returned, they’d frequently be covered in Agent Orange dust… dust the deck crews would clean off the planes.

The contact would be the same. The cancers would be the same. The birth defects would be the same. Even though they may have never physically set foot in-country.

As a retired Veterans Service Officer who worked to get vets connected to VA benefits, I knew that expansion was necessary. And I was for it, until…

Then, a few years later, along came the Elizabeth Dole 21st Century Veterans Healthcare and Benefits Improvement Act of 2025

This act was mainly aimed at increasing, improving educational opportunities and scope of educational opportunities for veterans and their families in areas of assistance, housing benefits, inclusion of trade schools like CDL schools and the like, again a worthwhile expansion which I again supported, until…

And now, we’re confronted with yet ANOTHER expansion of VA benefits, H.R.6047, officially named the Sharri Briley and Eric Edmundson Veterans Benefits Expansion Act, Which expands benefits for “catastrophically” disabled veterans their families and survivors. The bill increases in financial support for benefits that have not been increased “significantly” in decades, including a $10,000 per year increase for those receiving “special military compensation,” again a laudable goal, well deserved and one I could support until…

All three of these efforts, which the sponsors and supporters, including, naturally, the major veteran’s organizations such as the VFW, the Vietnam Veterans of America and the like all support, will set about to brag about their lobbying efforts to make this bill happen.

On the surface, these bills are easy to support. But when the Representatives go home and start bragging about these efforts, there’s one element you can bet they won't be bragging about:

How it’s paid for.

What all THREE of these bills have in common is that these increases will be paid for by veterans and veterans alone.

HR 6047 is funded by eliminating the VA home loan funding fee exemption for disabled veterans with ratings of 70% or below when they use their VA loan benefit for a second or subsequent home purchase. This change is intended to cover the estimated $10 billion cost of increasing benefits for severely disabled veterans and their survivors over the next decade.

The same veterans groups that sold us out on the expansion of Agent Orange benefits bill and The Dole VA Improvement Act are also selling us out on this bill.

Until now, if you had a service-connected disability or any kind, you were exempt from a substantial amount of the VA loan fees. For those veterans without disabilities, those fees were increased to cover the cost of the Agent Orange Expansion Bill, with a sunset clause of 2031.

When the Dole Bill passed, the sunset was extended to 2034.

And now, with this bill, even if you have substantial disabilities equal to 70%, you get no discount at all.

I’m not the brightest bulb on the tree but I am detecting a pattern here.

Now, at the outset, these bills do not impact me in the least.

Yet.

But they WILL impact millions of new veterans trying to get home loans in an increasingly out of control housing market cost, making it even LESS affordable for the veterans we have now and those following along behind us.

If these bills have merit, and it would seem that they do… then why are ONLY VETERANS PAYING FOR IT???

Why are we sending billions to foreign countries like Ukraine and Israel for their militaries… but we have to nickel and dime our veterans here?

As merited as these bills are, I did not support the first two and will not support this one if veterans are forced to bear the burden of the costs of these expansions.

Veterans are veterans. And now, this is becoming a dual class of veteran (until they eliminate any veteran housing benefit altogether to pay for some other bright idea fairy debacle) where there are the haves and have nots.

This is not fair. It is not just. It is not right.

Veterans should not be forced to pay for benefits that should be the responsibility of the entire taxpaying public we died or were injured defending.

I knew after the Agent Orange expansion that they would keep coming back to this convenient well to rip off veterans for benefits the general fund should be paying for. And it saddens me I was right.

BOTH sides of the aisle should know better, not just the democrats who opposed this bill in committee.

Find some other way to pay for it or don’t do it at all, because eventually, you’ll run out of benefits to take away to pay for these new programs.

Newspapers believe we have to give them taxpayer money. Conflict of interest, anyione?

The Seattle Times, which is to political fairness what concrete is to cottage cheese, is demanding a bail out of state taxpayer dollars... of $24 million.... to start... but we all know, of course, that number will climb higher and faster as long as they continue to play ball with those in the legislature cutting the checks. .

How could it not?

Such a bill would cement the obvious fringe-left bias of most every newspaper in the state.

How is it REMOTELY possible to continue the charade of impartiality the media is SUPPOSED to have (but which we all know, have long since given up even the APPEARENCE of in either their articles or their editorials) when those they cover are cutting 8 figure checks to buy their cooperative coverage?

Wasn't it democrat Lyndon Johnson who once famously said that, "...down in Texas, once we buy a politician, he stays bought?"

And these news outlets supposed to benefit from this corruption would be any different?

It isn't. This is nothing but progressive advertising, paid for by OUR money, cash on the barrel head, under the guise of news.

Leftist bias in this state's major media is both well-known and undeniable. This is a guarantee it will stay this way.
How can any media outlet accept taxpayer money without supporting those who gave them the cash?

These scum want taxpayer money to continue to pump out leftist propaganda at taxpayer expense!

And this Seattle Times article expects us to go along with it?

What other business get taxpayer money to stay in business in this state? Bakeries? Car washes? Grocery stores? What?

Why is it OK for leftist propaganda organs but no one else?

We don't need biased local news in this state. We have enough of this garbage as is, and the costs to buy their products are OBSCENE.

Keep an eye on SB5400, the buy local media with taxpayer money bill.

If you can't compete with other news sources, then close down. If you have to shut down because you can't steal our money to run your "for profit" democrat PR arm?

You won't be missed. And proof of that is how have we survived without the Seattle Post Intelligencer, which went under several years ago, save for a website? Not only NO, but HELL no. Not a penny. This is NOT why we pay taxes to the Washington Soviet, and they waste enough of our money as is.

Washington schools continue to fail us.

I despise public schooling controlled by leftists who are working, deliberately or inadvertently, to destroy our country. 

In the 19-20 school years, Washington state reached a high of 1,103,173 students enrolled.  According to the latest OSPI figures, even though our population has increased from 7,546,400 in 2019 to 8,159,900, that number has dropped significantly to 1,096,285.

So, while the state has gained over 600,000 residents, the number of students over that same time period has decreased instead of increasing to reflect our population growth.

Here, for example, is the statistical summary of Washington State Public Schools, according to the state, leftist controlled Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, before his new grading system to cook the books in an effort to literally slather lipstick on an absolutely unacceptable pig known as the public school system in the state of Washington:

Note the "highlights," or the lowlights, as it were, of this report that the fringe-left OSPI generated, just before the school year started in September of 2022..

48% are at grade level in English.

30% in math. 46% in science.

17% drop-out rate

16 student average classroom size.

20% don't bother to show up at all.

Now, after OSPI changed the reporting criteria to make school academic outcomes LOOK better, here are the results OSPI wants us to believe:

3 school years later, the number of children showing up for class has collapsed, from a despicable 80% to a horrific 73%.

That means that we have a typical rate of 27% of children in this state blowing off school.

How is it possible for 27% of kids to skip school, but still have an 83% graduation rate?

And yet, somehow, even though the number of kids actually bothering to show up for school has almost ended the need for schooling that children obviously see as worthless, somehow, in the face, of kids NOT SHOWING UP?

The GRADUATION RATE INCREASED?

How is that even possible?

What's missing from the OSPI report card?

THESE numbers, provided by an OSPI report summary but missing from the actual report card itself.

Why aren't these numbers included on the Report Card?

Even with the obvious subterfuge OSPI is trying to sell us, these numbers are still horrific.

In fact, It was recently reported that Mississippi just passed Washington in 4th grade reading levels... 

Even though their expenditures per student are over $6000 LESS than Washington State, proving once again that money DOES NOT equate to academic outcomes.

Meanwhile, the actual Superintendent rails against districts implementing the President's Executive Order to keep boys out of both girl's locker rooms/bathrooms and sports.

All while we're punching out semi-literate cretins and academics continue to suffer at absolutely unacceptable outcomes.

Unfortunately, I can't just blame OSPI for this obvious systemic educational incompetence.

PARENTS have a role to play in this nightmare.

That parents either don't seem to know... or care... that political inculcation far exceeds academics in importance in Washington schools as shown by recent school/district-sponsored fringe-left progressive school organized walkouts/riots over ICE enforcement in this country. These outcomes are to be expected when both school boards and teachers are not held accountable for the horrific jobs their doing.

But parents... who drive change... are failing their children by accepting mediocre-at-best outcomes from overpaid prima donna brain-washing leftists masquerading as teachers... and our kids suffer as a result.

Mr. President, the time has come to get off your ass and ACT on Iran.

WHAT THE FUCK IS THE HOLD UP???

Jesus, haven't you learned anything from past failures to follow through on your threats, be it domestically or in foreign policy?

THOUSANDS have been slaughtered in Iran. YOU claimed if they kept killing protestors YOU WOULD ACT.

WHAT THE FUCK IS THE HOLD UP?

They have and are slaughtering thousands.

WHERE ARE YOU?

They went out and protested in part because YOU PLEDGED TO STRIKE IF THE IRGC SLAUGHTERED THEM.

For GOD'S SAKE, do you not get that if you allow the scum running Iran to ignore you with impunity, your threats to ANYONE will be meaningless in the future?

WHAT THE FUCK IS THE HOLD UP?

THE biggest fault you have is promising and not delivering, second only to you allowing American cities to spiral out of control while you don't DO anything to put a stop to it.

I've never hidden my support of you over all, but when you SAY you're going to do X, whatever X may be, YOU HAVE TO DO IT.

EVERYTHING YOU NEED IS IN PLACE.

The only thing you seem to lack is the will.

Ultimately, there's little difference between you, Biden and Obama on this issue.

WHY???

STOP TALKING.

START DOING!!!!

And in the future, consider doing the world a favor: act first.

Talk later.