The Financial Cost Of War

Dwight Eisenhower: 'Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter with a half-million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. . . . This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron'.

In a congressional hearing, appearing alongside US defence secretary Pete Hegseth, Jules Hurst, under secretary of war and chief financial officer, said the total cost of the Iran War is currently $29bn. So Google states that:

Average cost of elementary and middle school construction - $25-$30m
Average cost of electric power plant in USA -$2 billion
Average cost of fully equipped hospital in USA - $200m
Average cost of concrete poavement in USA - $352 per mile
Average cost of a bushel of Wheat in USA - $6
Average cost of building a new home in USA - $450,000

So to put it another way, the Iran War so far has cost Americans 1,160 new schools, 14 electric power plants, 145 new fully equipped hospitals, 89,230,769 miles of concrete pavement, 4,833,333,333 bushels of wheat or 64,444 new homes and from what I can see, all you have to show for missing out on all this is...paying more for your petrol. 

LucyP For Prime Minister

With Keir Starmer barely holding on to power with his fingertips, someone stamping on his fingers and sending him off the cliff is inevitably coming so as we have had a few duffers over the last few years, I am throwing my hat in the ring to be the next Prime Minister of the UK so i am polishing off my previous manifesto and present it here for your perusal and so you know that if you vote for me, you can't say you wasn't warned.

First up is scrap the Nuclear Weapons: We don't need them, they are ridiculously expensive and if we did use them it would be because someone else did so the world would be ended anyway.
Next is reverse the madness that was Brexit and rejoin the Single Market and Customs Union by posting a letter to the EU pleading temporary insanity and we are very, very sorry.
A Windfall tax on banks and utilities making obscene profits.
The Royals are worth hundreds of millions so why are we still shoveling cash towards them? Sorry your Highness but pay for your own bloody upkeep and do you really need all those palaces and Castles?
With the money from above now sloshing about in the Government coffers i would actually build the 40 new hospitals we were promised but never arrived.
I would tell the Middle East to poke their oil and gas where the Sun doesn't shine which is mostly the UK which may be a drawback for our Solar Plants but with currently 43% of our power coming from renewable sources, I would double the solar, wind and tidal resources and we would never have to
worry about the next time America decides it needs a war to hide some files which show the President to be a nonce.   
Then there is the 'Enjoy the rest of your Day' thing which seems to have become prevalent amongst shop assistants . While it is perfectly polite, it's just so fake and anyway if I wanted to have a crap day, a woman in Boots isn't going to stop me.  
If you were in one of those jobs who got a mention when we were all outside clapping you during the Covid Pandemic (Nurse, Police, Bus and Train drivers etc) then you get a 10% payrise. If you were in a job which was furloughed and it had no effect whatsoever on the nation (Estate Agent, Insurance Salesman, Double Glazing Cold Caller) then suck it up.
A new tax system will be introduced, if you are a global conglomerate and do not pay your fair share in Corporation Tax then pack up your stuff and sod off elsewhere because you aren't welcome here, there will be plenty of coffee houses and search engines who will take your place.
There will also be a new Tax Return where you tick what you don't want your taxes to go towards such as the Royals.
I would tell America to come and pack up their military bases and missiles on British land and while your at it take back home all those Yanks who complain about the weather, our taps and our food. If you can't work out how two taps and a basin works then you shouldn't be allowed to leave your own country.  
The BBC can keep the licence fee but you MUST make a programme with that delightful Brian Cox in it every 3 months to replace all those dreadful cooking and antique shows, put The Sky A Night on at a decent time and promise to never, ever, EVER employ Piers Morgan in anything. 
Finally, a £100 fine sentence for anyone who leaves the teabag in the cup in shops which you don't discover until you have almost drank it 

That's my manifesto United Kingdom so vote for me and never be told to enjoy the rest of your day ever again. You know it makes sense.

Disclaimer: LucyP bears no responsibility if you vote her into office and her math's turns out to be a bit iffy.

Gonna Need A Bigger Coat Europeans

 
With everyone looking at the Strait of Hormuz, it is the one in the Bering Sea between Russia and Alaska which scientists are looking at because that's where the  Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) resides and it's possibly weakening and set to collapse which will have nasty effects if you are reading this in Northern Europe and you thought this Winter was a bit chilly.
The AMOC is a key Atlantic current which moves warm, salty water from the tropics northward, where it cools and sinks, and shifts cold water south which in turn regulates the climate across Europe which gives us the relatively mild climate we enjoy but turn that off and...brrrrr.
Numerous studies have suggested that the AMOC is weakening and may collapse or slow down and may be closer to collapse than previously thought  according to researchers at the Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research at Utrecht University in the Netherlands who blame our good old friend Climate Change.
The Dutch point out that global warming could stop the AMOC by the warmer North Atlantic waters preventing the warm, salty water it is carrying from cooling and sinking or the melting ice sheets in the North could add more fresh water to the mix, thereby diluting the saltiness of the arriving water and stopping it from sinking but either way ends with us North Europeans needing our big coats as temperatures dip by as much as 15°C.
As the World is run by dingbats, actually doing something about the devastating Climate Change is too much for them but it has been suggested that as the AMOC was stronger in the mid-Pliocene, some 3 million years ago, when there was a land bridge closing off the 51 mile Bering Strait so if we could build a giant dam between Russia and Alaska, it might might save us from running up a heating bill the length of a telephone number although they do temper that by saying that it might do nothing at all and they will have to do more research to see if it would actually work.
'It isn't a straightforward solution' poo poohed the U.K. Met Office who explained that Bering Strait is one of the world's most dangerous and turbulent bodies of water, known for extreme storms, rapid weather shifts, and shallow, steep waves that often exceed 40 feet so good luck building anything there but the Dutch are not put off so easily by 40 foot waves threatening to carry them off to Sea and they deem it technically feasible to build two 25 mile dams.
The longer parts wouldn't be much longer than the Afsluitdijk dam in the Netherlands, which covers 20 miles long and a Bering Strait dam would have a maximum depth of 194 feet which isn't much deeper than the deepest part of the Saemangeum Seawall, which goes down to 177 feet but they werent built in storm force winds while the Sea tries it best to drown you so maybe the best solution is to cut greenhouse gas emissions , we just need to clear the Government decks of the moronic climate change deniers first. 

Special Guest Blogger: Miss Major Griffin-Gracy

A life so crammed full of chaos, charity, and the odd cup of over-steeped Earl Grey that it's not easy to know where to begin.
I came into this world with the punch of a protest and the grace of a catwalk but, alas, not the wardrobe to match. Growing up, I quickly learned that life’s greatest thrill is not in the what but the how. How do you make a stand when society’s handing out parking tickets for existing? Why, with a wink, a wig, and a willingness to laugh in the face of absurdity, of course.
My early years were a masterclass in self-deprecation. I once tried to pass as a man by borrowing my brother’s socks, and let’s just say, fashion was not my strong suit. But here’s the kicker: even when life handed me lemons I squeezed them into something tangy and extraordinary. That, my darlings, is the heart of the trans rights fight, turning lemons into lemonade, then into a bloody big posh wedding cake.
When i came out as Trans in my teens, my parents enrolled me in for psychiatric treatment and took me to church because this was the 1950's and being anything other than white and male was the work of the devil.
The art of turning I told you I’m a woman into a rallying cry loud enough to shake the foundations of power means if you’re not being misgendered at least three times a day, you’re not living your truth.
I was expelled from college for wearing feminine clothes and my parents refused to let me live with them but one of my proudest moments was founding the Transgender Gender Variant Intersex Justice Project and we were a band of misfits and marvels, fighting for dignity with the tenacity of a terrier with a bone and twice the drool. It’s not all glitter and glamour, but hey, where’s the fun in that?
Whether it was demanding equal rights or perfecting my eyeliner I always went full drama queen. And really, what’s life without a bit of drama?
There was the time I got arrested while protesting outside City Hall but underneath the bling and bravado is the simple truth that we’re fighting for the right to live authentically. To walk down the street without fear, to love who we want, and to finally stop explaining our existence to bemused strangers.  
I lived a grand life and when the curtain fell, sepsis and a blood clot,  I'd like to think that I carved a space where future trans folks won’t have to fight quite so hard.

Iran War Backfires For Trump

Two months into the war in Iran and with the awful Trump administration claiming victory after the first few days, the reasons the US gave for launching this conflict (Regime change and no Iranian nuclear weapon amongst some others) can be looked at and, oh dear, it doesn't make good reading for the  invaders.
What the final ceasefire deal looks like we can pore over when we find out what it is but it is safe to assume it wont be better than what they had under the JCPOA or what the Iranians were offering during meetings at the start of the war but we will see, but it is highly unlikely.  
It is hard to think of a more damning indictment that the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, told reporters last week that the main goal now was to get the Strait of Hormuz 'Back to the way it was so anyone can use it and there are no mines in the water and nobody paying tolls' which is ignoring that this was only necessary because of the very war he was simultaneously presenting as already won.
As with anything Donald Trump touches, Operation Project Freedom turned into a disaster almost straight away when Saudi Arabia refused America the rights to fly over its land and use its bases so the announcement came that they were suspending his plan for the US Navy to escort tankers out of the strait, after just one day and cited 'great progress toward an agreement with Iran' which is to say that the Iranians were merely considering a 14-point proposal for 30 days of negotiations aimed at finding an end to the war, so slightly oversold but it hid the embarrassment of his almighty cock-up not even his allies supported.
As for the regime change, admittedly there are different people in charge, just that is is exactly the same regime, just a younger and more hardcore version of it so you could argue it has changed, but in the way that the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was replaced by Liz Truss so the same Party in charge, just now there is an even worse version of it now in control.
As for the Nuclear Bomb justification, Iran said continually they were not seeking a nuclear missile and the now dead Ayatollah even passed a Fatwa in 2003 on nuclear weapons which prohibited the production and use of them as religiously forbidden but that Fatwa died with the former guy running the country and if Iran has learnt one thing, it is that nations with nuclear weapons don't get invaded although they probably don't need one, they also learnt that they can shut the Strait of Hormuz on their doorstop to bring the West to its knees.
The shifting aims for the war and desperate scramble for an exit underscore that this entire enterprise has been a colossal strategic failure and shattered confidence and alienated US allies who were blamed for failing to solve a problem they neither created.
So in short, Trump have further entrenched a new but more brutal regime and given it a reason to develop nuclear weapons in the future although it may have given it a much easier option so why get backs up developing nuclear weapons when it can hold the World to ransom with some underwater mines and cheap drones.   
Now back to the details of his (probable) pedophile behaviour in the Trumpstein Files which haven't gone away, no wonder he can't sleep at night and falls asleep during meetings. 

Don't Beam Me Up Scotty

There was a piece in one of the newspaper recently about teleportation being possible and a story of a guy somewhere who teleported to a Waffle House and a restaurant before stating that he had been taking heavy medication for at the time which sort of derails his story somewhat.
Thinking that one day soon i could give up my weekly 600 mile round trip for work i asked a scientist with an alphabet after his name if teleportation is going to be available soon like Captain Kirk beaming down to strange new worlds on the Enterprise and to be fair, even after telling me, i'm still not sure but i think it is a no.
From what i could grasp, what science CAN do is teleport one subatomic particle to another in a different location, in essence making copies of that particle elsewhere and they have managed to do this over a distance of 60 feet which kinda puts the skids under my plan, although it may be handy when the lift is not working in our block and i cant be arsed to walk down a few flights of stairs.
So as the Science geeks are on it, could it be a thing future generations can look forward to?
That's still a no he reckons as reproducing a single particle is a far cry from reproducing an entire human who is made up of billions and billions of  atoms and even if that was possible, which it isn't, the other you would be a copy and not the actual you which would be a replica walking around in your  place.
Instantaneous travel then it appears, is not something we can look forward to anytime soon unfortunately.

WHO Say's Dont Panic!

When i first heard about the Hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship i wasn't that concerned but when the World Health Organisation got involved and told everyone not to panic, i thought nobody was until you spoke up.
Hantavirus, so the Health Organisation went to pains to explain, is a rare occurrence and although it has emerged aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship, resulting in three deaths and seven confirmed cases amongst the 147 passengers, strict quarantine procedures will prevent it spreading and this is not another outbreak like the Covid 19 which swept around the World.
It's usually transmitted by coming into contact with infected rodent feces, saliva, or urine and an investigation is still ongoing with regards to if the affected did come into contact with the same source or it was transmitted human to human which would much more concerning as that is extremely rare.
In a news conference, WHO director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, Maria Van Kerkhove, said: 'We do believe that there may be some human-to-human transmission that's happening among the really close contacts, the husband and wife, people who've shared cabins' although she did then go on to state that it was possible that spouses may well have been in contact with the same source and therefore did not pass it to each other rather than contract it at the same time.
The ship is now in Tenerife and the unlucky victims are well quarantined away from people so it seems it is being contained but the last word must go to the WHO who assure us that the Hantavirus is NOT: 'A pandemic kind of virus' but as the Covid began by someone eating an affected bat, it might be safer to lay off the Rat Stew for a few months.

WTF G20???

According to their website, the G20 are the premier intergovernmental forum for international economic cooperation, representing around 85% of global GDP with a core mission of: 'Driving economic growth, unleashing innovation, and strengthening partnerships that benefit workers and businesses.'
As they are the premier economic bigwigs we really should listen to what they have to say. Countries like USA who have a national debt of £38.3 trillion or 120% of GDP. Hmm, maybe USA was not the best example so what about you China, debt of £18 trillion or 68% of GDP you say, okay, moving on quickly to Mexico. Debt at 61% of GDP or £11 trillion. Is it worth looking at you Japan, £10.3 trillion debt or 120% of GDP, so that's a no then.
United Kingdom, what about you? £4.1 trillion in debt which is 93% of GDP and India, have you managed to get yourself out of debt? Oh, £3 trillion or 85% GDP.  Canada, your sensible, is it worth...oh, £2.5trillion or 110% of GDP...sit back down.  
Now you are probably imagining if the 20 are so awful at running their own economies, what the bloody hell are they doing making the big economic decisions and you would have a fair point, it's a bit like asking Homer Simpson to run a MENSA club.  
Experts are saying that after America and Israel's disastrous war with Iran, another recession could be coming so you wouldn't take spiritual advice from an atheist or go to an arsonist for information on fire prevention but we allow our economies to be dictated by people with combined debts of tens of trillions.
So, as i understand it, we have leaders of the 20 leading economies who are all deep in debt, giving advice to other countries how to get out of debt.
Nope, can't see how that can possibly go wrong.
Next week, Donald Trump gives his tips on how to get that toned beach ready body.

Special Guest Blogger: Gregg Allman

You’re likely wondering what it’s all like. The other side. Is it all clouds and harps? I can tell you now, if I hear one more bloody harp, I’m going to set it on fire. It’s all a bit too polite for my liking. No whiskey, for starters. They offered me something called Nectar of the Gods which tasted like watered-down tea so I told them where they could stick their nectar.
When i died all i left was a half-empty bottle of Jack Daniel’s, a collection of songs that people still insist on playing far too loud in their cars, and a liver that officially resigned in protest.
My voice may have been a bit gravelly, a bit sweet, like sucking on a peach that’s been rolling down a dusty road and I spent a good thirty years trying to kill it with smoke and spirits but after a few bands, and the unfortunate accident where I avoided being drafted into the Vietnam War by shooting myself in the foot, we became the Allman Joys and then the Allman Brothers Band and made the album Fillmore East which made us so rich and famous that we could now afford to get high on a much better class of drugs.
Crikey, we were on fire on that album and I’m still rather proud of it. My brother Duane… well, Duane was untouchable. The rest of us were just trying to keep up with the bloke. Being an Allman Brother was like being in the world’s most brilliant, most chaotic and most likely to explode at any moment family. We loved each other dearly, which was a good thing, because we frequently wanted to kill each other but Duane got in first and was killed in a motorcycle accident not long after we hit the big time.
As for the hard-living, tortured soul bit, it's a bit over the top, i had a great time and it was more  of a profound and sustained lack of common sense.  Debauchery for us, it was just… Tuesday. You’d wake up, nudge the tattooed stranger sleeping alongside you and think, Right, seems the day is underway.
As for my tragic descent. It wasn’t tragic! It was absurd. Was I vain? Of course I was bloody vain. I had cheekbones that could cut glass and a fabulous wardrobe, my only regret was not taking more pictures and i got to marry Cher, yes that Cher!
Everyone seems so terribly solemn about my grand exit. They said i died surrounded by love and i did but  I also died because my internal organs decided to form a union and go on permanent strike with my liver the ringleader.
It wasn’t some painful, dramatic scene. It was more of a gentle winding down. One minute I’m on the bus, wondering if we have any pickled eggs, the next I’m being greeted by a chap who looks suspiciously like my old tour manager, handing me a clipboard and a white robe. A bit of a letdown, to be honest. I was rather hoping for a hazy, psychedelic light show and the opening chords of Dreams. Instead, it felt more like arriving at a rather dull spa where you’re not allowed to smoke.
I was just a man who loved music, and women, and alcohol and occasionally, in the quiet moments, loved himself just a little too much. I made some beautiful noise, caused a spot of bother, and looked damn good doing it.

Poor Showing By Labour

I am getting too old for these all nighter's but unfortunately the Polls don't have the decency to shut at a decent time and the counters are not fast enough to let us get home at a decent hour.
What the Local Elections did show was that the Labour Party are in trouble, losing almost 1,500 seats on English Councils but more worryingly, Reform adding almost the same number to their payroll so will have to see how handing the Councils to a bunch of racists works out. As one commentator said, the Council is all about bin collections and getting the street lights fixed so its not easy to blame Immigrants for any of those, although as that is the only solution they have for everything, i'm sure they will give it as go.
For the first time in a century the Welsh decided Labour suck and voted for Plaid Cymru which means with Nationalist parties in Scotland, Northern Ireland and now Wales who have all whispered leaving at some point, the United Kingdom could soon br a thing of the past.
Keir Starmer has come out and said that he isn't going to just walk away and the right thing to do is rebuild but he may not get the chance because although no cabinet minister has mooted a bid to replace him, Labour MPs are furious with dozens calling for him to either resign immediately or set out a timetable for his departure.
The problem with Keir, as i see it, was that he was far too catious and instead of coming in with a Labour Party Socialist agenda to wipe away the stain of the right wing politics the Conservatives disastrously foisted upon us, he tried to keep everyone happy and just managed to annoy everyone and then the Peter Mandelson affair, that was just an outright catastrophe.
I can't see how he can survive after be so comprehensively rejected by the British public but as usual with Prime Ministers, he will try but if we dont have a new face peering out of the 10 Downing Street door within the next few months, Labour are sunk and we face the uncomfortable situation of possibly having Nigel Farage and his bunch of deplorable's making the  rules, and you only have to look across the Atlantic to see what happens when a bunch of racist dimwits take the steering wheel.