Category: Guest Contributors

Guest Contributor – Ed Brault – 25AUG2026 – Bureaucracy of the Military Flavor

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I had a similar situation with my Disability pay when I retired from the Army. Due to a snafu about a separation check when I was RIFed in 1986, I could not get my retirement pay until it was paid back. Basically 2 years’ retirement pay. Meanwhile, I was approved for a 70% VA Disability. I figured that would cover most of the delayed retirement. However, the checks did not show up. When I enquired, I was told that the Disability would be withheld until the separation pay was repaid. After careful examination of the paperwork they sent me, and finding that both checks were being put towards the settlement, the math said that the repayment had been completed six months earlier. When I contacted the VA I got the bureaucratic run around until I demanded to talk to a supervisor. You can’t, the drone said. Why not? I asked. “Its POLICY!”

So, I let them have their policy, and filed a Congressional complaint. Neither Bernie nor Lehey did any good, but amazingly, then-Congressman Welch lit a fire under someone’s ass and six weeks later I got not only my retirement and disability, but $36,000 in Disability backpay!
Keep fighting,
Illegitimi non carborundum!

Tom’s World – 22AUG2026 – Money Matters

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Tom | Flickr

TomD

Though I hate to admit it, I seen nothing in Trump’s temperament or previous governance to indicate that he is the man to do it. In his 1st term, there was nothing accomplished or even proposed that would indicate debt reduction was an even a low level priority. Remember the early covid days and the multi-trillion dollar public buyoffs sent as $2000 checks per family?

Reality is that the issue won’t be dealt with until reality shows that it ultimately WILL be dealt with. At some point, a tripwire will occur and hyperinflation will start. If you have a good memory and track retail prices, you will have to conclude that inflation has been significantly larger than officially stated. Especially since the covid era.

There is nothing on the political horizon from any political entity that indicates a willingness to take on budget and reduction.

Debt reduction will occur via inflation, whether severe or hyper remains to be seen.

The average US house is climbing toward $500,000, average car $50,000, hamburger over $7/lb, good ribeye $18+/lb, etc, etc, ad nauseam. “Tom’s Official Inflation Monitor Based On the Price of Cat Food” tells us that a 5.5 oz can of Friskies cat food which sold for $.38/can in 2020 now costs $.87/can. Everything else is on the same slope.

Solve for X ( 1+X%)^5= 2.3 Hint, around 18% per year.

And this curve will not prove to be linear.

What do you think is behind the historically meteoric increase in the price of gold and silver? I bought gold 20 years ago for $600/oz and silver for around $7-$8, an increase by a factor of around 8-10. A lot of the increase has happened since covid. Do I sense a commality here?

I suspect that most of the sorta recent increase has been as people and institutions see something coming and are looking for something more stable than the US dollar.

Australian-group

Picture by TomD BTW, part of a series I was commissioned to do for an Australian coin dealer.

Guest Contributor – Tregonsee – 20AUG2026 – A Primer on New England Politics

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One thing to remember is a historical perspective. In the 40’s and 50’s New England was Republican, somewhere in the late 50’s to early 60’s a swing happened. Part of it I think was due to a shift in economy; much of manufacturing got up and left mostly for the South. Also, colleges shifted from very conservative to very liberal as the 60’s and 70’s went on. The Universities are a source of much of our growth through the 60’s as tech started to replace manufacturing.
The general character of the Old Line New Englander was fiscally conservative and relatively socially liberal (old meaning). In the cities, a far more liberal (modern meaning) variant (with a hint of that puritanism blended in) runs strong. And the populations of the cities and their near suburbs overwhelm the votes in the more old line/townie parts of the states.

Can we dig out of this? I’m not sanguine about that. MA, CT and RI and so overwhelmingly super liberal democrat in their legislatures that no reason reigns. On top of that RI and MA (and likely CT but I am less connected to that anymore) are rife with corrupt deals which feed back into the various Democrat politicians. VT and ME are overrun with hippy types that moved in and keep folks like Bernie and the other VT “Independent” senator in office. NH gets whipsawed back and forth as the balance swings, it is the most purple of the New England states, but it has voting laws (same day registration in particular) that let havoc happen at the towns containing UNH and Dartmouth. Maine is oddly split: the interior North is clearly Old Line New England and is actually one of its remaining bastions. But the coast (Portland and south) is VERY much indistinguishable from Boston suburbs in political bent. Just taking statewide offices from time to time is NOT sufficient. The state houses MUST be changed as that is where the power really lies. Without that, the feedback loop of Graft-> seats-> graft (repeat) can not easily be broken. If I had a guess, NH has the best chance to break the cycle. Its oddly large house means power doesn’t focus quite like it does in the other 5 states, so graft is less profitable. That combined with volatility in the seats weakens the loop. Unfortunately, when NH succeeds in starting to break away, it gets an influx of MA, VT, and ME folks who want the advantages but don’t buy into the politics, and we see that familiar seesaw effect as NH swings back to the Blue. I fear things will have to get MUCH worse for the head in their lower colon liberals to actually pop out and view the real world. Boston is Bad, but Not yet Detroit. Chicago or San Francisco bad, although Mayor Wu is trying REAL hard.

Tom’s World – 10AUG2026 – Photo Cleanup Software

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Tom | Flickr

TomD

Not trying to hijack your thread (he says while in the process of hijacking your thread) but I just added another part to a software suite that I have that unlocks some real and usable capabilities in synthesis with the other parts.

Below, I’ll attach a photo of my Grandmother and Father taken in 1924 +/- 1. I found it years ago in an old suitcase and have since made various and some fairly significant efforts at restoration. But the latest software, Topaz Gigapixel, made a 102 year old heavily degraded B&W portrait look like is just came out of a modern studio.

Since the original, I’ve run it through 2 other Topaz filters that function as a plug-in Photoshop. The programs will function as standalone programs too. The Topaz filters are Denoise AI, Sharpen AI and Gigapixel. Currently Topaz has gone to a subscription basis and they would want $200/month. The devil with that. If you hunt, you can buy them standalone for $30-$40 each and they plug into PS to function integrally.

I would describe the specific process but the result would remind me of when, while in engineering school, a professor had me stand up in class and demanded that I describe in detail my critical path analysis of a multi-hundred item sequence. The description did/could not make sense on an element by element verbal description, and was an obvious waste of everyone’s time.

I’ll attach the finished shot first, you can tell it was the 1924 equivalent of a studio portrait. Whenever I look at this shot, what pops (no pun intended) into my mind is a very short 20 years later, my Dad, as a West Point grad, was a Platoon Commander in the 101st Airborne was in a desperate and murderous fight with the Germans in Normandy. It’s hard to look at the little fat faced cherub and equate that immanent reality.

dad-and-baby-colormod-sized
dad-and-baby-colormod-sized
Baby-and-Dad
Baby-and-Dad

Guest Contributor – Tregonsee – 01AUG2026 – The Pastramification of Life

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I worked at a Deli/Sandwich shop for two summers in college. We sold a variety of Sandwiches. Our mainstay was Pastrami on Rye (with Mustard). We also had Corned beef . Both were kept in a steam table so they were cut and served hot. I don’t imagine modern health laws would allow it, thogh I’m pretty certain the meats were above the safe serve temperature. We also would make ruebens (side note: DO NOT try to get a reuben at an actual kosher delicatessen, The presence of beef and cheese makes it instantly unkosher) using the corned beef, swiss and some sauerkraut on the grill. We stopped making them as almost no one ordered them even in the early ’80s and keeping decent sauerkraut on hand was a pain (once opened it has a tendency to get REALLY nasty after sitting a week in a fridge even in glass). We also made subs of various sorts (Grinders in CT talk, perhaps in deference to actual subs in Groton CT?) with fresh cut deli meats ( Mostly Italians made with Genoa, Capicolla and Bolgna the actual Mortadella being rather pricey). I could of course produce grilled cheese or grilled ham and cheese.

If you like pastrami, there is a little trick I learned from a local Bagel Shop. Take a good-quality pastrami (E.g. Boar’s Head Point Cut, Do you have Stop & Shop in Dunwich, they usually carry it, though the price will make your wallet scream) sliced medium to thin. Place about 1/4 lb per sandwich in a microwave safe bowl sort of scattered so there is some space inbetween slices (just pile it, don’t leave it flat like it comes from the deli). Sprinkle with water (just a bit) and cover with plastic wrap. Microwave for 60-90 seconds (more for more sandwiches). Remove bowl from microwave and remove plastic wrap (CAUTION!! the steam coming up from the pastrami WILL burn you, and you’ll want tongs to handle the meat). Place the meat on your bread of choice with condiments (Preferred is Pumpernickel Rye with a little splash of Dijon style mustard), Cheese placed on the meat will likely melt, I’m not a fan of cheese (and cheese is not a fan of me in most cases). Corned beef will work too, making a Reuben is straightforward with the heated corned beef and is left as an exercise to the reader.

Very good approximation to a decent deli sandwich with meat taken from a steam table (trust me I know 🙂 ). Tends to be a bit drier but still better than pastrami cold, which is, well, kind of bleagh,

Guest Contributor – ArthurinCali – 07JUL2026 – PlatnerGate

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My theory on PlatnerGate.

>Allegations 5+ years old.
>Recollection of events make no sense.
>Let him sleep it off on her couch and doesn’t call police or go to hospital because she didn’t want him driving drunk.
>No police report or SA kit evidence collected.
>She reliably “tells” next partner about assault and an unnamed therapist.
>Campaign drop out date one week away.

“Racicot said she was torn over coming forward in part because she agrees with Platner politically. “One of the reasons I didn’t come forward sooner was, the huge moral conflict that I had between supporting his politics, but not supporting him as a person,” she said.

Huh?

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Two things can be true at once: 1. This isn’t a defense for Platner’s political positions, online history, nor his multiple personal issues. He is a walking dumpster fire of a candidate that I would never support but Mainers picked him as their choice. Being convicted in the eyes of the online and media public is not a conviction in court. 2. This was a political Samson Option by the DNC that undermines any semblance of their precious devotion to the democratic process. My theory is the calls from donors kept coming in saying get Platner off the ballot by any means necessary, thus the MeToo tactic was revived with smelling salts to be used. Anyone with eyes and critical thinking skills can see a political hatchet job in action. Platner being shown the door does more for the Dems than for the GOP. If that happens, they get to pull the old Biden/Kamala trick and install who they want to run, voters be damned.

—————————————-

“But they’ll lose the race.”

—————————————-

So what? Susan Collins is a reliable Democrat ringer in the GOP. They do not care if she wins another term. What happens if she does? More voting with Dems against RW domestic issues? More mass immigration from Somalia to Maine? Look up her record and you’ll see another Democrat who ran as a Republican simply to get the office. A RINO.

_____________________________

Honestly, this is bigger than Platner. Sure, he’s a walking disaster all by himself, but the big picture view should show normies of all political stripes how “managed” this entire idea of Democracy really is. From Bernie to Kamala, the illusion of choice by the voters is mostly a farce. The same-day orchestra of a pre-taped CNN interview dropping, multiple rescinded endorsements and ready-made statements from various DNC outlets show how planned the rollout of PlatnerGate was designed for full effect. Making Platner drop out and installing another candidate is a seldom glimpsed example of how the political sausage is made in the backroom. The tattoo and past online comments didn’t sway Maine voters, so the donors got too nervous and demanded the DNC get him off the ballot. Why? Because if he did happen to actually win this November, he’d be a pariah too radioactive as a Senator for public records of donor contributions, or get involved in a political patronage system in the Northeast region. A distraction and cudgel that would be used repeatedly against the Democrats. Pushing him aside also gives the added bonus of Democrats strutting around with the mantle of morality after he is vanquished, pretending that they actually cared. The idea of the Democrat party becoming the moral voice in the room is laughable. This is the party of Ted Kennedy and Scott Weiner. Of drag queen story hour for children. A party that shrugged off Clinton’s “The Bimbo Brigade” as a Right-wing conspiracy.

They don’t believe all women, just particular ones that can be politically useful to them. Progressives only care about power and control, and this is another example of tactics to that end.

Tom’s World – 07JUL2026 – Atlanta Road Rage – Part 2

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Tom | Flickr

TomD

Below from Google AI in response to a search. You can see elements of prejudice in the framing of the intended traffic mitigation efforts in terms of “sprawl” and civil rights.

Did it ever come to light who was spearheadding the successful opposition by federal lawsuit to Atlanta metro traffic inittiaves circa 2002?

The prominent federal lawsuits that successfully disrupted and reshaped Atlanta metro traffic and highway initiatives circa 1999–2002 were spearheaded by a coalition of environmental and civil rights organizations, most notably led by the Sierra Club, Georgians for Transportation Alternatives (GTA), and the Southern Organizing Committee for Economic and Social Justice. [1, 2]
The primary public figures and legal minds anchoring this push included:

Context of the Legal Battle
The litigation (most notably Georgians for Transportation Alternatives v. Shackelford and Sierra Club v. Atlanta Regional Commission) alleged that Atlanta’s multi-billion dollar, highway-expanding Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) violated the federal Clean Air Act. Because metro Atlanta chronically failed to meet federal ground-level ozone and smog safety deadlines, the lawsuits successfully froze federal funding and forced a historic out-of-court settlement. [1, 2, 4]

The Outcome
Rather than stopping transit outright, the opposition successfully weaponized federal law to force a massive pivot away from sprawl. The settlement required state and regional planners to scrap dozens of major road-widening projects, reallocate roughly 40% of regional funding directly into mass transit, and heavily analyze the civil rights impact of traffic planning on low-income and minority neighborhoods. [1, 3]

Tom’s World – 04JUL2026 – Atlanta Road Rage

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Tom | Flickr

TomD

 

My knowledge from both a personal and professional level indicate that the Georgia DOT is well funded, efficient and competent. Lord only knows the crisis level if that were not the case. Pure traffic density is the issue.

The density problem was significantly purposefully created by supposed “environmental” groups. The effects of the rapidly developing increasing traffic density has been easily extrapolated for decades. In the late 1990’s and early 2000’s a number of projects were proposed to head it off to a significant degree. But, each project was sued into non-existence in Federal court , one by one. Every suit was brought and financed by non-regional environmental groups ultimately financed by, nobody knows. The Sierra Club was the front group for several suits. Whatever the ultimate purpose of the suits was it did not include the well being of the citizens

The biggest hit was an outer perimeter to route non-local traffic, both E-W and N-S entirely bypassing metro Atlanta. I75, I85, & I20 all intersect in the middle of Atlanta constituting a large portion of the total. But noooo. Several other major projects were killed.

You would not believe the competency the GDOT call on to plan and execute MAJOR infrastructure projects. This bunch in FDOT District 3, not so much. They make what would be a 4-5 month project in Atlanta Metro last for literally years. And in the face of rapidly increasing traffic density, the local FDOT’s traffic light timing and coordination is absurdly bad.

I was “involved” with the industry for some time and before I retired couldn’t open my mouth publically.

Picture below: Ga 400 entering Buckhead area of the city on a Sunday morning. Buckhead was the area in the news a couple of years ago that tried to secede from Atlanta due to non-protection from the APD from the hoards of inner city predators.

<a data-flickr-embed=”true” href=”https://www.flickr.com/photos/tomd77/21935250858/in/datetaken/” title=”Into the belly of the beast”><img src=”” width=”2048″ height=”1477″ alt=”Into the belly of the beast”/></a><script async src=”//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>