What are we giving Ukraine that costs $40 billion??

 Biden is asking for $37 billion or perhaps $40 billion in military aide to Ukraine.  The TV has mentioned both numbers today.  Take your pick. 

Question: what are we giving Ukraine that costs $37 or $40 billion dollars?  They could buy a new US aircraft carrier for $13 and a skosh billion.  They could buy F35 fighters, the most expensive fighter ever made, for $100 million apiece.  A billion gets you 10 F35s.  $40 billion gets you 400 F35’s.  I don’t know what tanks and armored personnel carriers cost put I’ll bet $40 billion would buy a lot of them.  I suppose Patriot SAM systems, missiles, tracked launcher with a radar on board could be pricey, but I don’t know just how pricey. 

Anyhow, I would like a list of what we are giving Ukraine, and the list price of each item.

American weapons are very expensive what with the services gold plating the specifications, and the Pentagon bureaucrats drowning the contractors in paperwork.  I used to work for a defense contractor, Raytheon.  They had a big two story building out in Wayland Massachusetts.  On the ground floor they had engineering, stockrooms, labs, and shops, all stuff that actually made the product.  Upstairs, just as big as downstairs, were all paper pushers who kept the bureaucrats off Raytheon’s case by filing all the paperwork on time.    

Trump is running.

 As expected, Trump declared he is running for President yesterday. A lot of people like Trump and will vote for him. Trump can fill up a sports stadium with supporters for a campaign speech. While president last time Trump got GNP growth up to 3+ % from Obama's miserable 1%. He built the border fence. He got Kim Jong what's-his-face to stop launching missiles. He got the stock markets up.
On the other hand, there are a lot of people who detest Trump. Democrats, bureaucrats, newsies, are leading anti Trump voices. I have no idea how Trump's candidacy will worth this time. Certainly DeSantos from Florida looks good.

 It snowed up in the notch last night.  First snow of the winter.  Not much, only 1/4 inch.  Enough to turn the grass and the cars white, not enough to make the roads white.

Thor: Love and Thunder.

It's a new 2022 Marvel super hero movie. It does have Chris Hemsworth as Thor, and Natalie Portman but that is about all that's familiar to me. Thor enters the flick wearing a bathrobe. There is a weirdo old man trying to kill every one. It ain't what I think of as a Marvel Thor movie. It is only mildly interesting. I got it from Netflix.

Polls Not Very Helpful

 Political polls, beloved of TV news commentators, were not very useful this time.  Most of them showed a 1 or 2 percent difference between candidates.  That is a dead heat in my book; either candidate is equally likely to win.  Not much prediction to be had here.  And, despite a lot of talk about a red wave, the election was pretty even Steven.  Which is a pity, Biden gets another two years to drive the country deeper into the ground.  

  Two things that make telephone polls hard to do and all the polls are telephone polls.  Nowadays people won’t talk to pollsters.  Ten or fifteen years ago we count do telephone polling before elections.  People were sort of flattered that the party cared enough to call them.  They were cordial, they would chat.  Not anymore.  Last time I did telephone calling, they just hung up.  Tired of robocallers I guess.

   And then we have smart phones.  My three children don’t have landline phones, they all use smart phones.  They don’t have a phone book for smart phones, so you have trouble dialing voters and not winding up talking to a business receptionist. 

Silence gives assent.

When they smear you, have to say something.  Otherwise people begin to think the smear is true.  You must say something, say the smear is false, say there is some other reason, turn the smear around and lay it on them.  Say something.

Republicans need to work on this.  During last election Democrats accused Republicans of wanting to end, (or reduce) social security benefits.  Totally untrue.  Nobody wants to end or reduce social security because of the furor it would create.  A huge number of people live on social security and any reduction would cause them severe hardship.  Every Republican knows this, and would never touch social security.  Yet Democrats were able to accuse Republicans of this, and the Republicans let them get away with it.  Republicans never came out and said we have no intention of reducing social security because we know how much people depend on it.

Something ought to be done.  Maybe the Republican National Committee needs to work up a “Smear of the Week that needs answering” list and pass it out to candidates and state committees. 

Mid terms disappoint.

 Yesterday's mid term elections were disappointing. New Hampshire voters decided to keep their worthless congressional delegation. I had hoped New Hampshire voters would have been smartest than that. They were not. With democrat Biden administration running us out of gasoline and fuel oil, I had hoped for a Republican Congress to fix it. They are still counting but it does not look good. Looks like the democrats will be left to finish wrecking the country.