Tomorrow as we remember the tragic events of 9-11 twenty-five years ago which happened in Lower Manhattan, New York, American Airlines Flight 11 flew into the North Tower at 8:46am and United Airlines Flight 175 into the South Tower at 9:03am of the World Trade Center Twin Towers. A bit later American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon, Washington D.C. at 9:37am, this was followed by another cockpit-hijacked jumbo jet, United Airlines Flight 93. Passengers had managed to get wind via phone calls with family of the crashes at the WTC towers and the Pentagon. As a result, those passengers rushed the cockpit to stop the hijackers. Sadly, the hijackers flew the jumbo jet straight down and it plowed into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania at 10:02am. Its target was not certain, but it was most likely the White House or the US Capitol building.
After those first 76-minutes of September 11, 2001, 265 people were instantly killed (not including the 19 Jihadist hijackers) aboard those four planes, including eight small children younger than 12-years old. Approximately 125-130 people inside the Pentagon perished immediately when Flight 77 impacted the the outer three rings and a portion of the inner fourth ring. The exact number of people killed instantly by the jumbo jets crashing into the North and South Towers cannot be determined due to the eventual collapses of both towers. However, Wikipedia does offer a good idea of approximately how many were instantly killed by the plane crashes at the WTC.
The point of this blog-post is to remind all Americans that the horrifying attacks of September 11th could have and should have been stopped if it weren’t for too many personal sensitive government egos, arrogance, and them losing complete sight of who it is they really work for and serve: the safety and well-being of American citizens! The American people pay their salaries! Ultimately, the People of the United States are their financier, their payroll paychecks! Why was there so much internal power struggles inside our federal government? Why did those top government officials let their own hurt feelings and personal egos get in the way of saving American lives?
Yesterday I rewatched an excellent investigative PBS program by Frontline called The Man Who Knew. Here is a trailer of the documentary:
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Six of those “lost” hurt government officials inside the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), an ambassador in Yemen, East Africa, and the Office of the U.S. Attorney General during the time of at least 1992 to September 11, 2001, could have and should have protected and saved American lives, both domestically and abroad, instead of only concerning themselves with their hurt, damaged childish feelings and pride when told repeatedly about how highly organized globally and growing the terrorist group Al-Qaeda was becoming with Osama bin-Laden as the mastermind and money-funder. The first attack by Al-Qaeda at the Gold Mohur Hotel in Aden, Yemen, in December 1992, then the first attack on the WTC in February 1993, the attack in November 1995 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, followed by the attacks in August 1998 in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Finally, the attack on the USS Cole in January 2000 and once again in Yemen’s Aden harbor all should have been massive red flags to U.S. leading, top officials inside the FBI and the federal Attorney General’s office. But too much prideful lack of collaboration and open communication between federal departments failed miserably to protect and save American lives between 1992 and 2001. Period, no ifs ands or buts. Who are the five American officials that absolutely failed the American people and were appallingly derelict of their sworn duties as federal employees? They are…
James Woolsey – CIA Director 1993–1995. Though Woolsey was not a primary icon in the earliest Al-Qaeda attacks during his two years at the CIA, he could have amplified more persistently to his upper superiors what they were learning and had learned so far about Al-Qaeda’s plans. Sound the alarm bells louder and longer about the Bojinka Plot.
Robert “Bear” Bryant – FBI Deputy Director 1997–1999. Like Woolsey above Bryant could have done more, such as going to the news media to allow the alarm bells to be heard because Bryant believed in John O’Neill, the top go-to Guru of Al-Qaeda and Osama bin-Laden. Unfortunately, that would not have been FBI protocol and the repercussions from one’s FBI superiors and their superiors above them in the Department of Justice and the White House would or could ruin one’s entire career for going to the public behind their back. Ironically, it is in fact THE PUBLIC the federal government works for and serves and protects!
Louis J. Freeh – FBI Director 1993-2001. Freeh was good friends with Tom Pickard and both of them did not care for (hated?) John O’Neill’s personality, methods, or expertise on terrorism. After Ruby Ridge, Waco & the Branch Davidians, the Khobar Towers bombing Saudi Arabia, the TWA Flight 800 crash, and a long list of other American tragedies, by December 2001 Freeh was heavily criticized as one of the worst FBI Directors to hold the office, Freeh’s biggest criticism came from former Attorney General Janet Reno who also had unpleasant things to say about then acting Attorney General John Ashcroft.
Thomas J. Pickard – FBI Interim Assistant Director in 1996–1998, then Deputy Director in 1999, and FBI Director in June 2001–Sept 2001. Pickard was implicated as a direct opponent to John O’Neill and eventually had the top Guru of Osama bin-Laden/Al-Qaeda expended and terminated by a minor FBI offense. Pickard is most likely the leak to the New York Times about O’Neill’s insubstantial offense. Pickard never liked John O’Neill as a person or FBI agent/supervisor on Al-Qaeda and bin-Laden and his personal vendetta to O’Neill cost thousands and thousands of American lives.
John D. Ashcroft – U.S. Attorney General 2001–2005. Ashcroft was often criticized for doing far too little too late about terrorist threats on American soil and at foreign locations around the world, particularly in Africa and the Middle East. Perhaps his largest blunder was not having any clue about the sophisticated build-up of Al-Qaeda cells around the world and inside the United States due to internal strife and egos in the FBI and poor collaboration between his office and the FBI. Ashcroft is not exempt from his part of complacency and ignorance to and about 9/11. In fact, sworn testimony of two FBI agents later interviewed by the 9/11 Commission stated “he had ignored warnings of an imminent al-Qaida attack.”
Barbara K. Bodine – U.S. Ambassador to Yemen 1997–2001. There were many conflicts between Bodine and John O’Neill during the aftermath of the USS Cole bombing there. The most controversial and colossal blunder by Bodine to O’Neill was denying him visa re-entry into Yemen after a trip back to the New York for Thanksgiving. Because of her ego, pride, and lack of investigative protocol, she hindered further investigation into the Cole bombing which would have or could have led O’Neill and the FBI to bin-Laden and the already present Al-Qaeda cells in the United States and the 19 Jihadist terrorist-hijackers training to fly American jumbo jets. This could have likely foiled and stopped bin-Laden’s ultimate plan for September 11th.
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With the current horrid detrimental shape and direction of this United States of America are going through today under the President’s administration, co-led by his MAGA officials in Congress (Supreme Court included), and his public base, I really recommend (urge you?) watching the full hour and twenty-five minute PBS FRONTLINE® documentary, The Man Who Knew. Had so many FBI and Attorney General’s office personnel and deputy directors and directors under President George W. Bush’s watch not had their toes stepped on, feelings hurt, egos and pride dented, and minor protocol debates and rules of etiquette arguments—something that is happening here right now in Washington D.C. …this country would not have to suffer through and remember every year the terrible events of September 11, 2001, and perhaps again now until 2028. Think about it. This country badly needs, requires our federal and state government employees to serve and work for the American people, not for themselves or for more money and campaign donations. Elect those candidates who live that Constitutional principle (for us) this October and November.
“An army of sheep led by a shrewd lion is better than an army of lions led by a reckless sheep.”
—Attributed to Alexander the Great, c. 324 BCE, modified
The history of warfare disasters by command blunders in the present day, in the modern era, and as far back as the Roman and Macedonian Empires, too often imparts the painful reality that if supreme leaders of those belligerent nations fail to take heed or ignore lessons from past colossal warfare tragedies, then they are doomed to repeat them; most often at a higher cost of lives, civilian and/or military lives, and worse still accumulate more national debt or bankruptcy. Military history and its political governance is replete with foolish supreme leaders at the top, down to his commanders, and his consulting politicians (cabinet) most of whom are too afraid to speak up.
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In the annals of military warfare since the beginning of recorded history there are multitudes of catastrophes by aggressors, belligerents, and their arrogant supreme commanders. Example after example after example of these tactical, strategic, economic, political blunders can either be observed, comprehended, and applied to warfare or foolishly ignored. Yet, beware, the final butcher’s bill from those monumental tragedies by clumsy, impulsive leadership often led those combatants, their loyal ranks, and back home their civilian population to suffer the losses and drive distrust, low morale, and often lead to ruin. Ignorance and hubris become a graveyard for the incompetent leaders, commanders, political proponents, and in some historical conflicts the fall of a once great nation or empire. Repeating history proves time and time again these cruel lessons to the demise of those foolish enough to ignore it.
For the sake of time this blog-post will concentrate on the modern era, specifically in the early part of World War II in Europe (1940 thru 1943) and how blunder after blunder, disaster after disaster plagued the two supreme leaders of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. While reading, I would like for all of you to find eerily similar (identical?) blunders that happened recently and are happening presently in the U.S. and the world. The similarities are remarkably telling.
Führer conference at HQ Army Group South, 1 June 1942. Left to right: Generalleutnant Adolf Ernst Heusinger, General der Infanterie Georg von Sodenstern, Generaloberst Max Freiherr von Weichs, Adolf Hitler, General der Panzertruppe Friedrich Paulus, Generaloberst Eberhard von Mackensen, and Generalfeldmarschall Fedor von Bock. Image: Wikimedia Commons.
Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain
After Hitler’s and Goering’s failed Operation Alderangriff (Eagle Attack) and Operation Sea Lion in 1940 against Great Britain, Adolf Hitler made his second major blunder of the Second World War just after his first one at Dunkirk, off the northern coast of France. There Hitler stopped his Army Group A of tanks and soldiers just a few miles outside of the French town of Dunkirk. This halt was an enormous mistake by Hitler because he allowed the British Expeditionary Force of nearly 340,000 Allied soldiers, who were completely surrounded by the German Wehrmacht pushed literally into the sea, to escape by sea to fight Hitler’s Third Reich another day. This blunder would soon come back to haunt him and inflict losses on his Western Front he could ill afford to recoup.
The British Expeditionary Force and French forces are pushed into the English Channel and onto anything floating at Dunkirk, June 1940
The Battle of Britain in the skies over England, Sept. 15, 1940 – Art by Gary Eason
These two botched operations were the beginning of Hitler’s false idea of himself as a gifted supreme commander. Though Hitler was a veteran of World War I, achieving only the rank of Lance Corporal (Gefreiter), at minimum he had combat experience when he became German Chancellor and later Führer. Many “supreme commanders” around the world have no military or combat experience whatsoever. This puts them in a position of either listening to their expert military commanders, political staff and national GDP economists and heeding their opinions, or ignoring the hard facts and bumble through by trail and error—unfortunately at the cost of valuable, irreplaceable lives and material resources.
Despite Hitler having WW I combat experience, actual reality of wars and battlefields mattered little to Hitler and his self-deluded truth or to his lack of military prowess. Eventually it was a brutal lesson he was forced to accept, but accepted far too late to avoid the total destruction and defeat of his 1,000-year Reich. Making matters worse it came at the unfathomable expense of 7.8-million German soldiers and civilians dead by May 1945.
How did fuck-up after fuck-up chase Hitler after the victories over Poland, Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium, and France in April and May 1940, just over a mere two months? Why was the defeat by Great Britain in October 1940 the beginning of the end for Hitler?
Hitler versus Stalin– 1942 and 1943
Despite Hitler’s significant blunders and loss to Great Britain in October 1940, his ego and oversized self-esteem as the supreme leader of Nazi Germany he never waned in the following military operations from July 1942 through February 1943. The one operation that would seal the fate of Hitler and Nazi Germany’s hemorrhaging military machine, along with Germany’s resources and GDP to outlast Allied victory was a belief, a hope based on exaggerated reports of hyped propaganda, poor intelligence, actual smaller German production output, and scared subordinates to inform him unequivocally the real condition of his Reich. With each passing month his inner circle of generals, politicians, and economists grew increasingly distrustful (privately) of Hitler’s capabilities to lead. Those that were brave, candid with him were either fired and fired, then replaced by equally scared field marshals, generals, politicians, and economists. Those who showed backbone to him were often executed by firing squad or hung.
While still fighting an ever growing and draining war in Western Europe against the British and its Commonwealth countries, the giant producing United States, along with Free French, Belgian, Polish, Dutch, Danish, and Norwegian armies and pilots, as well as the French Resistance, and in Belgium, Holland, Poland, Denmark, and Norway Resistances inside their conquered occupied countries—all of which were immensely strong and very worthy enemies against Nazi Germany—Hitler makes one his most infamous, asinine, doomed decisions for himself and Germany’s entire Second World War campaign: Operation Barbarossa. In fact, most World War II military historians today assert Hitler’s choice to open a second front against the Soviets while still fighting on his Western Front, marked the real incompetence of Hitler and the start of the Third Reich’s collapse.
In June 1941 Hitler’s Axis forces consisted of 3.8-million men, armor, artillery, and planes to attack the Soviet Union that in contrast consisted of 5.5-million men, armor, artillery, and planes defending approximately 3.3-million square kilometers, or 1.3-million square miles from Leningrad to the north, to the outskirts of Moscow in central Russia, to Stalingrad and Krasnodar in the Soviet south. The German Eastern front stretched about 3,000 km (almost 1,900 miles) making supplies and replacements near impossible. The sheer size of the Eastern Front gave the Soviets a better 2-to-1 advantage for Joseph Stalin and the USSR. More over Stalin was seemingly replenishing his losses while Hitler could not. Factor in the Russian winters between December and March, sometimes lingering into April, Hitler drastically overestimated his Wehrmacht’s abilities, their mobility, a smaller German production rate compared to Stalin’s, then Hitler had created a recipe for failure.
Hitler grossly underestimated Soviet production, Soviet resilience, and arrogantly misjudged a realistic time-frame for total victory. On top of those blunders the Russian winters essentially made Stalin’s defense forces two to five times more lethal in comparison to Hitler’s colossal miscalculations. Over a century earlier Napoleon Bonaparte learned the exact same disastrous mistake. Apparently Hitler and his military top brass never learned from Napoleon and Russia’s arctic winters. Why not? Couple that with Nazi Germany’s appointed generals reporting false, exaggerated propaganda back to their temperamental Führer, made Operation Barbarossa doomed before it began. By the start of 1943 with the German Wehrmacht losing Russian land once conquered, Hitler was increasingly angry and only wanted to listen to German victories, not honest reports about the true condition of his failing Eastern campaign and many setbacks.
The Russian heavy fall rains leading up to the deadly Russian winter on the same route Napoleon took in his offensive to Moscow against the TsarAlexander’s forces, October 1812
Meanwhile, though Stalin had absolutely no combat experience as a soldier or general in the field, by January 1942 after rescuing Moscow from the jaws of defeat, Stalin abandoned his earlier war strategy of reckless, aggressive, ruthless bloody attacks, counter-attacks with enormous Russian casualties—often ordering his army to attack without any weapons. Stalin learned quickly that listening to and following much better tactics from his experienced military commanders such as Zhukov and Timoshenko. With win after win Stalin placed greater trust in his expert military commanders rather than what his Nazi counter-part, Adolf Hitler was doing. With Hitler increasingly raged on his generals, firing them and firing them, or expecting them to literally commit suicide by fighting to the death when all was lost. Retreat or surrender was not tolerated by Hitler, ever. He only craved attacking, conquering, and then repeat it all again; no stopping, no retreating.
Consequently, the supreme Nazi leader, perhaps in distraught mania, unstable mental health, and drug addiction, and failing to capture Moscow, Hitler made his next colossal blunder: Battle of Kharkiv, then Operation Fredericus, then Operation Star, and finally Operation General Rumyantsev. If Operation Barbarossa wasn’t a gigantic, wasteful emptying of Nazi’s Third Reich armies and Panzer tank divisions, and urgently needed resupplying and refitting, then the above four operations for the southern regions of the USSR and the envied, rich oil fields, then the tangent campaigns southward Hitler planned would certainly spell the close end of Hitler’s Nazi Germany. And yet again, the German Führer craved more.
Operation Blue and the Battle of Stalingrad
In the summer of 1942 Hitler launched another reckless offensive campaign codenamed Operation Blue. By launching this campaign, despite being turned back outside of Moscow with heavy losses, due to the extremely outstretched Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe supply-lines longer than 1,200 km (or about 746 miles) from the Polish border to Moscow, Adolf Hitler gambled and risked far more than he could pay and replace. How much did Germany lose?
Operation Barbarossa cost the Nazi Wehrmacht and Panzer tank divisions men, whole divisions, mechanized armor/vehicles, munitions, and material for which German industry or military recruitment could never quickly replace, much less the valuable experience lost by so many dead soldiers and pilots. And yet, those horrific facts, those appalling losses, lower morale, didn’t seem to matter to Hitler. Instead, he would push forward with his next hair-brained campaigns: Fall Blau and the Battle for Stalingrad.
German Wehrmact clearing the streets in Stalingrad
The conflict for Stalingrad and Voronezh, Rostov, Kuban, the Caucasus, and southern Russia (Operation Blue) would last for 6-months, 2-weeks, and 2-days along with losses of over 300,000 German soldiers, over 400,000 of the 4th Panzer Army, 900 aircraft destroyed, 1,500 tanks destroyed, 6,000 guns/artillery, and 744 aircraft 1,666 tanks, 1,652 guns captured/lost. To put this catastrophe in another perspective, those are losses Hitler and Nazi Germany could not recoup. Worst still it put German workers, conscripted workers, and the German war industry in an impossible predicament that would not be nor could be reversed despite Adolf Hitler’s continued delusional demands and visions of victory on his people and war-machine.
Furthermore, most all of Hitler’s great Field Marshalls and Generals knew by this point in 1942 and certainly by the end of 1943 that once the Western Allies of Great Britain and the United States along with their supporting cast of nations, would indeed open up a third front against a weakening Nazi Germany. The second front was opened in Sicily then Italy 1943 and moving north to Rome, southern France and Austria. The first front was Hitler’s colossal blunder of invading the Soviet Union in 1941 soon after he started the initial front in the West against France and Britain, who he was fighting for two years plus. These combined four fronts bled and drained Germany’s ability to wage war successfully. In fact, once he attacked Stalin and the USSR Hitler’s annihilation was certain. But right up until May of 1945, living deep underground in his Führerbunker a meager pathetic existence before he committed suicide with his mistress Eva Braun, Hitler believed fervently (psychotically?) the war could still be saved for Nazi Germany with Ghost Divisions and Battalions he was unaware did not exist. Adolf Hitler refused to accept his colossal foolishness as a civil or military leader right up to the second he pulled the trigger of his Walther PPK pistol. He was the ultimate symbol and definition of a Cult Mad Man that directed an estimated 18–20 million human deaths, civilian and military. A quick jump to the present…
How would such a U.S. budget compare to military spending by both partners and potential adversaries today?
A shocking comparison in light of the constant rhetoric from Trump and Pete Hegseth.
How would this level of U.S. spending, if sustained, impact our federal debt? Rhetorical question; this present administration is spending and wasting enormous amounts of money, taxpayer dollars, interest charges, etc., as if it all just grows on trees blooming weekly or monthly. Insanity.
Shocking for a political party that historically has been hardline staunch on reducing the U.S. National Debt!What has happened to normal, often sane, moderate Republicans in this country?
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Endless Screw Ups and Ludicrous Obsessions
Not only was Adolf Hitler a horrible, mentally depraved military leader as we’ve learned so far, but he was also a monumental screw-up politically, socially, and economically for the German people from 1938–1946, pre-, during, and post-war posthumously. It would take Germany and its surviving people several more decades to fully recover and while continuing Second World War reparation payments—surprisingly something they are still doing today.
Instead of typing all of Hitler’s many, many enormous mistakes and colossal bad decisions after decision, I will just present below this side-by-side comparison of Hitler’s fuck-ups next to today’s U.S. president Donald J. Trump’s equally dumb fuck-ups.
Strange Controversial “Nation-Partners”
ADOLF HITLER
Italy – Benito Mussolini. Mussolini headed many war crimes and crimes against humanity, primarily use of poison gas, brutal civilian massacres, and the persecution of Jews. Mussolini dragged Hitler into wasteful conflicts.
Japan – Emperor Hirohito and Prime Minister Hideki Tojo. During World War II, the Empire of Japan committed massive war crimes, including the Nanjing Massacre, human experimentation by Unit 731, and the abuse of prisoners of war.
Several Minor Nations – Several of these countries and their leaders committed war and civilian atrocities such as illegal arrests, torture, and execution.
DONALD TRUMP
Israel – Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu has not yet been legally found guilty of war crimes, but the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for him on November 21, 2024, accusing him of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Hungary – Viktor Orbán. Orbán openly suppresses democratic norms & drafted a new constitution to his liking.
Russia – Vladimir Putin. Putin has become a dictator over Russia the last21-years rigging elections, imprisoning or killing political opponents, and illegally attacked or conquered neighboring countries.
Mohammed bin Salman – Saudi Crown Prince. Salman was close friends with Jeffrey Epstein and ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Kim Jong Un – N. Korea. Kim is well-known to purge government officials and order imprisonments or executions on any perceived threats to his total power.
Delusional Obsession with Self Monuments
HITLER
Nazi Party Rally Grounds (Nuremberg) Built between 1933 and 1937, the site featured the massive Zeppelinfield grandstand, modeled after the ancient Pergamon Altar, designed to stage colossal propaganda spectacles.
New Reich Chancellery (Berlin) Completed in 1939, this vast complex featured a 146-meter Marble Gallery and an immense office for Hitler designed to intimidate visiting diplomats.
Berlin Olympic Stadium (Berlin) Built for the 1936 Olympic Games, it was used to project an image of Aryan national strength, racism, anti-Semitic international legitimacy.
Planned Monuments:
The Triumphal Arch (Berlin) Designed to dwarf Paris’s Arc de Triomphe, standing nearly 120-meters high as a monument to German military dominance.
The Volkshalle (Berlin) A monstrous, domed “People’s Hall” sketched by Hitler himself, intended to be the spiritual centerpiece of a rebuilt Berlin (Welthauptstadt Germania) that could hold 180,000 people.
The Führermuseum (Linz) Planned for his hometown in Austria, this massive cultural center and museum was meant to house the looted art treasures of Europe.
TRUMP
East Wing Gold Ballroom a 90,000-square-foot ballroom, with costs estimated between $400 million and $600 million, alongside planned underground bunker and drone port security integrations.
White House Interior Renovations Gilded and re-decorated portions of the Oval Office, Palm Room, and Lincoln Bedroom.
Rose Garden and Colonnades Paved over the historic grass lawn with a white stone patio (“Rose Garden Club”); replaced the West Wing colonnade’s Tennessee flagstone walkway with black granite.
Planned Monuments:
National Garden of American Heroes A budgeted $40-million (likely higher) project planned for West Potomac Park featuring sculptures of 250 notable Americans and himself.
Triumphal Arch ala Greek/Roman Emperors Proposed 250-foot monument on federal parkland near Arlington National Cemetery to celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence.
Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool A $16-million resurfacing and renovation project featuring non-competitive contracts and added water filtration systems.
East Potomac Golf Links Overhaul plans underway for the public golf course along the Potomac River.
Kennedy Center Underwent extensive stage, seating, and marble refurbishments alongside a short-lived board vote to rename the venue with his name.
Mount Rushmore Continued attempts to have his face on the sculptured memorial.
Unprecedented Resources & Spending for Military Marvels
HITLER
Nazi Germany spent an estimated $3–$4 billion (1940s U.S. Dollars), the equivalent of roughly $40–$50 billion today, on its Wunderwaffen programs, primarily the V-1 Flying Bomb and the V-2 Rocket.
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Jet Aviation Marvels – The Me-262 and Arado Ar 234 aircraft cost enormous hundreds of millions in German Reichsmarks that included building massive underground factories like the Weingut I complex to shield production from day & night Allied bombing raids.
Super-Heavy Super-Big Tanks & Artillery – Millions more in Reichsmarks were spent on impractical engineering projects championed by Hitler, including the 188-ton Panzer VIII Maus tank and the Schwerer Gustav, a massive 80cm railway gun that required its own dedicated rail lines.
TRUMP
In Trump’s 2nd term U.S. taxpayers have spent a historic $1-trillion++ in late 2025 and Trump has requested another $1.5 trillion for fiscal year 2027. This increased spending targets major force modernization, naval expansion, and enhanced troop compensation. This spending has been for minor “enemy” nations such as Iran, Venezuela, and Iraq, not directly against major superpowers.
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Drones, Missiles, Battleships, & Paychecks – Drones – The proposed budget, which triples current spending on drones to more than $74 billion, would mark the largest investment in the technology “ever,” as those weapons reshape the modern battlefield. Missiles – During the war in Iran, the U.S. has been firing off missiles at an “extraordinarily” fast pace, analysts say. To replenish those, the current budget requests a massive $53 billion for “critical munitions.” The single-largest line item, at nearly $18 billion, is the Golden Dome missile shield, a “system of systems” Manhattan Project-scale effort that combines ground-, sea-, and space-based interceptors. Battleships – The proposed budget includes more than $65 billion for 18 more battleships and 16 other support ships as part of the “Golden Fleet” initiative. That’s a nearly 140% increase over the budget last year, when the Navy was allocated $27 billion to build 17 ships. The budget also includes some $427 million for unmanned naval vessels and testing of their weapons systems. Troops – The budget includes a 7% pay raise for junior enlisted corps, and a 6% boost for mid-career military personnel. Some of the money, $57 billion, will go toward addressing ”failing” base facilities, including family housing, and fixing barracks that have long been deemed poor or failing. None of this includes repairs to the installations that have been struck in the Middle East during the U.S. war with Iran.
As Donald Trump has shown for many years, Adolf Hitler was also ruthless. Anything or anyone that gets in Trump’s way meant they/it were worth getting rid of or firing. However, as long as the selected, appointed high officials, the High Command is/was loyal to the death and obeyed everything the Supreme Leader directed, demanded or repeated verbally, they were in favorable graces and awarded lucrative benefits from Hitler/Trump. True democracy? No, far from it. Let me set the stage of these Hitler-Trump comparisons with a July 2026 speech to reporters by Tom Homan, White House Border czar and law-enforcement officer:
It is worth noting that Tom Homan was investigated for an accepted bribe of $50,000 cash in Sept. 2024 to secure government contracts during a potential second Trump administration. The case was dropped, closed in 2025 by President Trump citing insufficient evidence and the audio recordings of Homan accepting the bribe are now classified and sealed by the Trump administration.
Does the “Nazi Gestapo” shoe fit Mr. Homan, not just on your I.C.E. agents, but several other Trump-appointed agency directors and chiefs in his inner circles of loyalists?
An Appointed Inner Clique of Loyal Sycophants
HITLER
Hermann Göring – a German politician, aviator, military commander, and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party. Göring and Himmler also worked together to set up early concentration camps for Jews and other Nazi opponents.
Joseph Goebbels – a German politician, the chief propagandist of the Nazi Party, and the Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 1945. He was one of Adolf Hitler’s closest and most devoted sycophants, known for his fierce antisemitism and strict control over German media, arts, and information.
Heinrich Himmler – commander of the German Schutzstaffel (Protective Squadron), abbreviated SS, he created and controlled Nazi concentration camps and was responsible for the murder of more than 12-million people who were considered enemies by the Nazis.
Martin Bormann – one of Hitler’s closest figures, he was known for his bureaucratic acumen he served as Chief of Staff to Rudolf Hess and later as Hitler’s official secretary, where he exerted significant influence over party matters and military appointments. Bormann played a key role in enforcing anti-Semitic policies, including the Nuremberg Laws and the bureaucratic processes that facilitated the Holocaust.
Albert Speer – Chief architect and later Minister of Armaments, managing wartime industrial production. As General Building Inspector for Berlin he was responsible for the Central Department for Resettlement that evicted Jewish tenants from their homes in Germany.
TRUMP
Pete Hegseth – Secretary of War Hegsethhas faced accusations from lawmakers, military survivors, and media critics of misleading the public regarding the scope, progress, and impacts of the U.S. conflict with Iran. In three primary areas Hegseth has fudged the reality of casualties, U.S. base attacks, and distorted the progress & claims of the Iran War. Hitler’s war cabinet did the same thing.
Pam Bondi & Todd Blanche – both Bondi & Blanche have been legitimately accused by critics and lawmakers that former U.S. AG Pam Bondi & current AG Blanche made false statements and mislead the public regarding the handling of federal investigations, legal limits on judicial authority, and transparency surrounding high-profile records. Hitler often did not wish to know details or his cabinet often didn’t divulge them.
Kash Patel – FBI Director Kash Patel has faced intense scrutiny and congressional investigations regarding allegations of professional misconduct, excessive luxury travel on taxpayer funds, and inappropriate personal behavior. Hermann Göring did the exact same things.
Brendan Carr – Critics and legal groups accuse FCC Chairman Brendan Carr of legal and ethical impropriety, specifically highlighting political pressure on broadcasters, First Amendment violations, i.e. late night TV hosts, and alleged abuse of regulatory authority. Goebbels & Heinrich Müller (Chief of Gestapo) both directed near identical orders and arrests for Hitler.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. – Secretary of Health & Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has faced public scrutiny and reports regarding historical allegations of sexual misconduct, non-disclosure agreements, and contested administrative decisions & health policies for public safety.Hitler’s personal doctor Theodor Morell & Karl Brandt along with Himmler all were tried & sentenced at the 1945-46 Nuremberg Trials for near identical conduct.
Kristi Noem & Markwayne Mullin – Kristi Noem faced key ethics inquiries and controversies involving family licensure intervention, travel habits, and federal department oversights including a state-level ethics board finding potential misconduct and federal scrutiny over agency actions. Markwayne Mullin’s political career has involved several high-profile episodes of aggressive behavior, behavioral inappropriateness, and fiery committee confrontations.
Tom Homan – White House border czar Tom Homan faced public scrutiny regarding a closed FBI bribery investigation, tax omission concerns, and oversight of aggressive immigration enforcement actions. Heinrich Himmler and his subordinates committed these crimes as well as arrested, tortured and executed “Undesirables” for Hitler & the Nazi Third Reich.
The Biggest Military Blunders of Them All
HITLER
Operation Barbarossa – the unprovoked attack on Stalin’s Soviet Union. Hitler’s operation against the USSR in June 1941 through January 1945 cost the Third Reich 5.1-million German soldiers dead and 4.5-million captured. The costs… Military Equipment – Hitler lost over 2,500 tanks and nearly 3,000 aircraft during the initial months of the campaign. Triple that amount for the following years in defending Germany against the Soviet push to Berlin in 1943-1945. Supplies & Materials – Vast untold amounts of the German army’s fuel and ammunition stockpiles were depleted with no quick victory to replace them or liquid reichsmarks in the treasury to build and rebuild German industry due to Allied air raids and continued army advancements in the South & West.
Total Strategic Failure – This cannot be overstated, Hitler bit off more than Germany could chew when he attacked the Soviet Union while still fighting in the West against the great powers of Britain & its Commonwealth & the United States. Hitler’s micro-managing, avarice, and hubris ultimately resulted in Germany’s collapse followed by its long recovery and reparations to this day.
TRUMP
Operation Epic Fury – the unprovoked attack on Iran. Though the cost in human life is lower than Hitler’s Eastern Front, in modern warfare today the costs are just as significant in many other categories, not just in human lives.
Uncounted Base and Assets Lost – Military experts and independent think tanks note that the official $37.5 billion figure is a significant undercount because it excludes long-term maintenance and regional repair costs. The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) estimates that repairing the more than 20 U.S. military installations damaged by retaliatory strikes will add between $5 billion and $9.4 billion to the final bill. At least 42 U.S. aircraft have been damaged or destroyed. High-tech naval assets like the USS Gerald R. Ford require extended, multi-million dollar overhauls.Beyond taxpayer-funded defense spending, the conflict has twice driven up oil prices past $100 a barrel following disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz. These disruptions have filtered directly to American households: According to the Brown University Iran War Energy Cost Tracker, Americans have paid more than $68 billion to $74.7 billion in extra costs for gas and diesel. National averages spiked approximately 30% to 40% over pre-war rates, frequently pushing pump prices over $4/gallon. Per-Household Impact: A comprehensive analysis by Moody’s Analytics indicates that when adding up defense spending, higher borrowing interest, elevated airfares, and basic groceries, the conflict has cost the average American household roughly $1,100.
The Broader Conflict: The war in Iran has cost the United States 18 to 20 military service members killed and 624 personnel wounded. One U.S. civilian contractor has also been killed. While U.S. casualties have remained relatively low compared to previous prolonged conflicts, the overall death toll across all factions is estimated between 8,975 and 18,309 total deaths. This includes thousands of Iranian military personnel and regional proxy fighters, alongside significant civilian casualties in Iran, including between 120 and 123 school children were killed in the February 28, 2026 U.S. missile strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab, Iran. In nearby Lebanon more than 4,300 people have been killed as a result of the regional conflict and fighting with Hezbollah triggered by the U.S. and Israeli war with Iran, and more than 12,200 people wounded and maimed. And for what? Being an immediate imminent threat to the U.S. homeland?
As long as Iran feels they cannot trust anything said from Trump and his military hubris—a legitimate concern given his history of falsifying, flipping back-and-forth daily, and what his administration press releases contain and entail day to day as well as his “War Cabinet” states or not states led by Pete Hegseth—this conflict will continue indefinitely along with the soaring costs to average Americans.
What was all this waste for anyway? Was it because Iran was close to having nuclear weapons in 2026? No, that was disproven and debunked several months ago [citation]. And to add insult to injury for the U.S., now Iran will likely maintain control or significant influence via threats over the Strait of Hormuz, a consequence that Trump, his administration, and his “war cabinet” CLEARLY never considered or planned for. The lack of foresight and all that has followed from the reckless folly has been a colossal screw-up that even the idiot numbskull Adolf Hitler would envy. What a pity America that you have been shamed and repeatedly lied to by this current president and his administration. So now the question is upcoming this October-November during the primaries… Will you be gullible again or complacent again for a third or fourth time, and repeat history again?
Addendum5:55pm CST (UTC/GMT -5 hrs) —
I forgot to include American deaths caused by the 2019–2023 COVID-19, and remarkably still continuing in 2026, in my post here. Why? Because COVID-19 was a biological war or should have been declared as a serious biological war and enemy by the then sitting U.S. President Donald J. Trump. Astonishingly, absurdly, and callously Trump did nothing to prepare in 2019, then did very, very little from 2020 to January 20, 2021, (when Biden replaced him) to protect Americans from the invisible viral pandemic. Why? The lethargy showed by Trump and his administration to confront and combat COVID-19 with everything possible in order to save American lives was near identical to Adolf Hitler’s deep denial and complacency after the devastating loss of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad, USSR in February 1943 and thereafter. Just like Trump, Hitler turned into a recluse as if nothing had really happened. Of course, that was the furthest thing from the truth and the worst reaction to take.
HITLER’S INACTION CONSEQUENCES
An estimated 150,000–200,000 German soldiers died during the Battle of Stalingrad itself, and an additional 35,000 to 40,000 of the roughly 91,000 captured German troops died soon after in Soviet prisoner-of-war camps. Approximately 2.5 to 3-million German soldiers died on the Eastern Front after the Battle of Stalingrad ended in February 1943 due primarily to the flawed micro-managing supremacy of Hitler’s incompetence and lethargy to reverse the front or quickly rescue those prisoners.
TRUMP’S INACTION CONSEQUENCES
Well over 1.1-million Americans did and have died from COVID-19, according to tracking data from federal health agencies and institutions like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other independent organizations. In the Peak Years: The highest annual death tolls occurred in 2020 and 2021 before widespread vaccine and treatment adoption were finally pushed, developed, and distributed by the Biden Administration.
Those death statistics are more than all Americans who lost their lives in all of America’s wars combined in the country’s entire existence! 😲
This past week and weekend I’ve been dealing with a seemingly politically motivated, deceitfully maneuvering, redirecting Christian Apologist. His name on WordPress? ColorStorm, or CS as most of us address him. He is the epitome of an avoider, a skirter, a dodger of simple questions directed to him. This is very, very well known by my circle of WordPress friends. He always—and I don’t mean sometimes—but he always avoids simple direct questions to him. You can set your watch by his never-ending slipperiness to hard questions. He will never answer them. I kid you not. I have many WordPress friends that will vouch for this about ColorStorm and his incessant dodging and redirecting. Oh! And by the way he vehemently believes that Earth is flat, not spherical, and he also believes in the YEC, or Young Earth Creationism—that means he is convinced that the Earth is only between 6,000 to 10,000 years old as “implied” by the Holy Bible of Christendom. Again, I kid you not. That’s some brief background.
Back to my post here. When I’ve challenged him with specific questions he apparently doesn’t have any clue about 1 Peter 3:15 and what it means and what it commissions Christian “believers” to do, always. Or he ignores it all together. But he disobeys this Christian commission every single time, except with his few like-minded friends who are merely an echo-chamber for him and he for them. Talking to ColorStorm, if he keeps it civil, is like a never-ending game of Whack-a-Mole and he is always moving the goal-posts. Perhaps he likes to be super annoying to any non-believers. It’s quite Christ-like, isn’t it? 🙄
This past week and weekend I asked ColorStorm a very simple yes or no question about his personal belief-system. Here was my easy, simple question to him:
“Are you working from a (Mishnaic) Hebrew original source (Yeshua’s native tongue) when you falsely claim [the above about Stephen a disciple], or are you strictly working from a half-century to three centuries later GREEK source?”
If any of you are not familiar with the three primary spoken languages in 1st-century CE Palestine and Judea, part of the then Roman Empire under emperor Tiberius, they were first speaking, writing, and reading Mishnaic Hebrew in their Jewish synagogues because the Homeland Jews (as opposed to the Jewish Diaspora) spoke and wrote in Mishnaic Hebrew and public Hebrew (watered down) to each other when around Gentiles/Romans. Mishnaic Hebrew was Jesus’/Yeshua’s primary language. His second language was Aramaic or Syro-Aramaic to be exact. All Hebrews, Persians, Arabs of that vast region spoke fluent Syro-Aramaic. Finally, living under the rule of Rome and the vast Hellenic culture, i.e. Greco-Roman, Jesus/Yeshua and all Jews knew and spoke thirdly adequate Greek, or more specifically Koine Greek—the common language of the Roman Empire. However, Greek was never used among Homeland Jews in or around Jewish synagogues or the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. That was forbidden.
Therefore, again the simple question put to ColorStorm was ‘When he is constantly referring to his holy scriptures while speaking to us non-Christians, does he draw from A) original Mishnaic Hebrew sources from the 1st-century CE, or is he B) strictly drawing from half-century to three centuries later Koine Greek sources?‘ A or B? Simple.
But not with this guy. He refuses to obey the 1 Peter 3:15 commission given him by his Lord and Savior(?) until he dies it seems. It’s quite astonishing really.
As a result of ColorStorm’s belligerence to the/his Holy Scriptures and his God, I was already prepared for his antics and circus dance of avoid, avoid, avoid. This is what I explained to him because for whatever reason he refused to answer:
[Following]… “is a large, large chapter of Jewish/Roman history that is NEVER TAUGHT in Protestant seminaries, ecclesiastical seminaries (in Catholicism), private under-grad or post-grad Christian universities or colleges, and much less so in churches or parishes/chapels. Why is that? It most definitely involves apologetics in any Christian denomination, but why is it ignored? That’s an easy answer.
“Dr. Graham Davies and Robert Gordon, along with J.A. Emerton’s extensive work in Studies on the Language and Literature of the Bible, cover the many problems of vernacular Hebrew and Aramaic in 1st-century CE Palestine being later copied and/or translated into Koine Greek, the language of today’s Septuagint and Codex Sinaiticus, and subsequent later copies of the Greek New Testament. They and many other biblical Jewish and Roman historians indicate just how difficult Greek-speaking, Greek-reading copyists and translators of 2nd — 4th century CE Roman-Hellenist culture, would have had significant problems and errors going from Mishnaic Hebrew and Aramaic word-of-mouth sources or (non-existent) text-sources… into their Koine Greek.”
Problematic questions also increasingly apply to the Yeshua/Jesus “stories” better known as the canonical Gospels of Mark, Luke, Matthew, and John, in that order:
“The text of the Hebrew Bible that is read today and that is at the basis of all modern translations is called the Masoretic Text. It is called this because the Jewish scholars who devised the rules for copying scripture are known as the Masoretes. The term “masorete” comes from the Hebrew word masorah, which means “tradition.” The Masoretes were the scholars who worked out ways to preserve the traditions of the Hebrew Bible. They were active between 500-1000 CE.
To understand what the Masoretes accomplished, you need to remember that ancient written Hebrew was a language that used only consonants, not vowels. Any language that is written only in consonants is open, obviously, to serious problems of interpretation. Imagine if you were to write English that way. Apart from context, you would have no way of knowing whether the word “npt” was “inept” or “input” or whether “mnr” was “minor,” “manor,” “moaner,” or “manure.””
Let me emphatically reiterate the active timeline of the Masoretes and their standardized copied texts: 500 — 1,000 CE. That is more than four and a half centuries after Yeshua’s/Jesus’ death; c. 467 years to be more exact! Think about that for a moment. This poses many more suspicions about what was done with the Hebrew Bible stories prior to 500 CE? It gets worse…
“The not so good news is that [precise verbatim] is not the case with all of the books of the Hebrew Bible. Scholars had long noted, for example, that the Septuagint (Greek) text of the book of Jeremiah was about 15% shorter than the Masoretic text (i.e., it had that many fewer verses/words), and scholars had suspected that it was because the Hebrew version of Jeremiah known to the ancient Greek translators was significantly different from the Masoretic Text. As it turns out, one of the scrolls discovered at Qumran has a Hebrew text of Jeremiah that is closer to that lying behind the Septuagint version than the Masoretic text. 15% is a big difference. Other books of the Septuagint are also strikingly different from the Masoretic text, for example, in the books of Samuel and Kings. It is possible that the Hebrew texts of all these books were in serious flux before the text came to be standardized by the end of the first century.”
These problems beg many further suspicions about the Catholic or Protestant GREEK bibles. However, due to time constraints and ColorStorm’s childish temper and lack of intelligent vocabulary, I will not go into all of them here.
Be this as it may, why on Earth do modern evangelical, fundamentalist, Christian congregationalists, theologians, ministers, pastors, and many Christian biblical historians and amateurs like ColorStorm give the Septuagint and an incomplete 4th-century CE Codex Sinaiticus so much infallible authority? There’s very insufficient evidence, corroboration, or reasoning to support such a (ridiculous) “divine” conclusion regarding the Gospel “stories” much less about the purpose and nature of Yeshua/Jesus—again, due in large part with the many problematic transliterations from Mishnaic Hebrew and Aramaic… into Koine Greek.
The most glaring colossal problems Greek-following Christians make—because they don’t know better nor do they care about factual, verifiable history—are the many, many intentionally hidden Hebrew idioms or Hebraisms within the Synoptic Gospels. In the ancient shops, forums, and streets of Athens, Rome, or Alexandria the vast majority of Greek Athenians and Romans could not comprehend the Septuagint. To them the Septuagint was disjointed and perplexing, ironically foreign. Foreign? Well DUH!
There is an obvious distinction on this ‘alien dynamic’ between the Homeland Jews and the Hellenistic world around them and in the Roman Empire. As one example and a footnote to this explanation of bad Hebrew-to-Greek transliteration of Yeshua’s “The Way Movement,”
“…in the Septuagint see LXX 1 Samuel 3:10 (compare LXX Numbers 24:1). Some interesting examples in the Greek Matthew are discussed by Grintz pp. 36-39. As one grammar of New Testament Greek puts it, “Major Semitisms… are not only bad Greek but are apt to cause difficulty in translation…”” (Whittaker p. 150).
— Gordon, Nehemia. “The Hebrew Yeshua vs. the Greek Jesus” (p. 97). Makor Hebrew Foundation. Kindle Edition.
These types of translation and transliteration Greek mishaps are frequently found throughout the Septuagint, and by descending default, found as well in the current canonical Synoptic Gospels today. This is also verifiable.
And finally, to further emphatically reiterate the corrupted, maligned, wrongly edited, wrongly translated New Testament from Mishnaic Hebrew to Aramaic then to Koine Greek—an impossible task—it is very much worth noting that a less known early Roman Church Father realized, even in about 90–95 CE, that some of the Gospel translations were quite inaccurate and very problematic. This was Papias of Hierapolis, as quoted by Eusebius, stated this:
“Matthew collected the oracles [literally: “words”] in the Hebrew language, and each interpreted them as best he could.”
— Eusebius. “Ecclesiastical history” 3.39.14–17
“Each interpreted them as best he could!” Wow. So not only was it known by Roman Church Fathers that the gospels Mark and Matthew, sometimes referred to as the most Jewish of gospels, but also widely recognized among the earliest 1st– and 2nd-generation Fathers that the Greeks and other non-Hebrews—i.e. Gentiles, Roman pagans, Greeks—notably had very difficult times understanding, translating Mishnaic Hebrew and Hebraisms through Aramaic and then into Greek and other languages. That is a smoking gun if not a serious red-flag for the Septuagint and the descendant Codex Sinaiticus and later renditions of “Jesus Christos” we have in the modern Christian bible.
Therefore ColorStorm, my simple question still stands unanswered by you, but you are too afraid to honestly answer. THAT is a weak and wrong as well as hypocritical testimony from you. Period.”
At this point, and most likely from this time forward, ColorStorm has yet to answer any part of my simple question and explanation behind my simple question. I am not surprised by his disingenuity and fear. As I have learned the last 35-years, this is typical for most fly-by-night lazy Christian Nationalists and Evangelical Fundamentalist Christians in the U.S. It is sad… they know not what they claim to be or what they proclaim as truth. 😔 That is precisely the definition of hypocrite.
Every year I like to keep track of how the United States’ levels of education obtained from all fifty states are ranked by comparison to other states in the Union. Why? Because it is an indicator of just how well (or poorly) the Stars and Stripes are performing with the rest of the world. I feel this is important not just from an competitive academic stand point, but critically important when compared to our foreign adversaries like China, Russia, and some Middle Eastern countries. I’d like to think readers and my followers feel the same way.
Some Americans consider an Associate degree or a Bachelor’s degree to be worthless, a waste of time, or at best far too expensive for the end result in career opportunities. However, despite that false thinking and perspective the numbers, simply put, don’t lie. Decade after decade after decade Americans 21–25 or older who have an under-grad degree, and more so a post-grad degree, land higher paying wages and a slew of further career paths beyond in the highly competitive U.S. job market. This is an indisputable fact.
Furthermore, there is another highly valuable ‘advantage’ to young Americans and 30-something Americans that are more subtle and beneficial for life: recognizing more quickly the covert motives and actions of the corrupt and powerful. Considering that often the upper most corrupt and powerful in the U.S. are typically highly educated, experienced, and spoiled brats because of their parents wealth, their circle of acquaintances, family inheritance, or gifted access/ownership to valuable mineral-rights or geological resources such as oil, natural gas, diamonds, or gold, to name only four, if you are not considered one of the aforementioned lucky ones but instead more disadvantaged due to your birth. Like it or not an under-grad or post-grad degree greatly levels the playing field in the U.S. job market.
By the way, another huge gain is in character: having come from a humble background at birth up to your latter teens typically makes a person broader minded and respectful of equality; that is, equality for all Americans without prejudice. Better character, better integrity, selflessness, and compassion for America’s disadvantaged at birth. Usually, not always, but usually these factors turn into better ethical and moral decisions as an adult. Why? For the simple reason that with a broader, higher education, above an associate’s degree, better equips one to avoid the many complex economic trappings of the country’s upper advantaged 1%–10% who did not come from humble beginnings. The stats and numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau bear this out.
BusinessInsider.com took the data from the U.S. Census Bureau and analyzed it for the percentage of 25-years and older who attained a Bachelor’s degree or higher in all 50 states and ranked them according to those percentages from least educated states to the most educated states. Here is that 2025 ranking below. If you’re interested in a detailed explanation for the ranking, click the above link to Business Insider.
West Virginia — Share of adults 25+ with a bachelor’s degree or higher:24.4%
Mississippi — Share of adults 25+ with a bachelor’s degree or higher:27.0%
Arkansas — Share of adults 25+ with a bachelor’s degree or higher:27.1%
Louisiana — Share of adults 25+ with a bachelor’s degree or higher: 27.8%
Kentucky — 27.9%
Nevada — 28.5%
Oklahoma — 29.3%
Alabama — 29.9%
Indiana — 30.7%
New Mexico — 31.8%
Iowa — 32.1%
Wyoming — 32.3%
(tie @ 37th) Ohio — 32.4%
(tie @ 37th) Tennessee — 32.4%
Alaska — 32.8%
Idaho — 33.0%
(tie @ 33rd) South Carolina — 33.3%
(tie @ 33rd) Michigan — 33.3%
Missouri — 33.5%
North Dakota — 34.0%
South Dakota — 34.2%
Wisconsin — 34.6%
Arizona — 34.7%
Texas — 35.2% (my home state, bottom half for over 35-yrs)
Nebraska — 35.4%
Florida — 35.8%
(tie @ 23rd) Delaware — 36.0%
(tie @ 23rd) Kansas — 36.0%
(tie @ 21st) Montana — 36.3%
(tie @ 21st) Georgia — 36.3%
Pennsylvania — 36.4%
(tie @ 18th) Maine — 37.1%
(tie @ 18th) North Carolina — 37.1%
(tie @ 16th) Oregon — 37.8%
(tie @ 16th) Hawaii — 37.8%
California — 38.1%
Rhode Island — 39.0%
Utah — 39.1%
Illinois — 39.2%
Minnesota — 40.0%
Washington — 41.0%
New York — 41.2%
New Hampshire — 41.5%
Connecticut — 42.6%
Virginia — 43.3%
New Jersey — 44.5%
Maryland — 44.7%
Vermont — 45.1%
Colorado — 47.8%
Massachusetts — 48.3%
The national average percentage of all Americans with a Bachelor’s or higher degree is 36% to 40%. Compared to nations in Europe, Asia, and parts of the Near and Middle East, this percentage is noticeably lower for U.S. citizens than those foreign countries. Good or bad?
Of course there are other minor factors involved in these percentages such as population density, land-mass of the state, and the number of large metropolitan cities in a state; example New York, California, and Illinois. For less densely populated states the percentage will reflect the low number of people, e.g. New Mexico and the Dakotas. These factors also indicate other components involved, such as state history and background. Examples? The former Confederate states of the American Civil War have had from their past large numbers of slaves as well as segregation and Jim Crowe Laws that made it extremely difficult for non-whites to obtain under-grad degrees. That also explains in part why several lower educated states are located in the South and Deep South.
What other factors are you able to deduce that contribute to your home state and other states in the Union? In the comments below briefly explain (or not) why the low or higher ranking exists. What are those state’s modern history, i.e. 1800’s to the present, that contribute to the state’s ranking?
Addendum — June 2, 2026: A good blog-friend I follow, Steve Ruis, broke down all the above 50-states according to their political dominance. Red = Hard Republican, Blue = Democratic, and Purple = in flux between Red and Blue. Here is a 2026 map of just Red or Blue states:
Live Well – Love Much – Laugh Often – Learn Always
As this once great nation called the United States of America celebrates its upcoming 250th birthday, over the last decade our country has been struggling and fighting within itself to hold fast to its core values as engineered by its famed 18th-century Core Founding Fathers and its treasured Charters of Freedom were spelled out on parchment.
But this weekend with Monday, May 25th, 2026, bookends the Memorial Weekend, we remember all of our fallen soldiers since 1776 to the present-day who made the ultimate sacrifice for this land, its citizens, their families, and everything this country is supposed to stand for… we face an uncertain, tumultuous next two years and beyond. We Americans are not only memorializing our fallen heroes this weekend and Monday, but we are also literally fighting for this democracy’s survival against an unprecedented, tyrannical King and his regime of sycophants!
The proposed Arch de Trump on Columbia Island off the Potomac River will stand 250-feet tall and 165-feet wide
During Memorial Day weekend up until July 4th, Independence Day, ironically celebrating the break-away 250-years ago from another King and empire abusing its power and authority without representation from its colonists in the “New World,” we should also be remembering today the sacrifices so many soldiers, men then women, their families and closest friends as well as their fellow soldiers gave when it counted most. But very soon this will all be diminished, tainted, and obscured by a gross and gaudy monstrosity blocking the view of Arlington Memorial Cemetery as seen from the Lincoln Memorial and all other war memorials surrounding the National Mall. This construction of a self-imposed triumphal arch known as Arch de Trump will be a classless eye-sore and slap in the face for all veterans living and deceased by nothing less than a sitting President.
A rendering of the planned arch as seen from Arlington National Cemetery toward Lincoln Memorial, the National Mall, and Washington Monument
Does this hideous, self-aggrandizing, Caesar-esque waste of taxpayer dollars demonstrate any level of reverence, patriotism, gratitude, and symbolism of a people’s democracy protected and won by our nation’s soldiers in blood? No, not even close. It is pure and simple one man’s deluded self-perception of unproven, empty greatness. Nothing more. It demonstrates the exact same arrogance all dictators, emperors, and kings throughout history built in their own image and a man’s disregard for his subjects, his people, and the enormous, selfless sacrifices made in their own lives and those to follow. Nothing about this repulsive arch speaks to any of those core values this nation has stood for and fought for in blood. This current mentally-ill president is and has been a shameful disgrace to us, to our foreign allies, and to true American history.
Therefore, let us remember what this Memorial Day weekend is really about: the true heroes who gave the highest price for our freedom, liberty, equality for one and all (E Pluribus Unum) and generations to follow, and who didn’t need or want Roman statues of gold, large glittering pools, flashy currency and coins, an Apian Way, museums and coliseums named after them, massive gold ballrooms, or worse, their face carved into Mount Rushmore. No, all these past, ordinary American men and women wanted was to be remembered for their sacrifice. That’s it.
Today, May 24th on CNN.com and again May 25th at 8pm EST/7pm CST, on normal CNN they are airing a special documentary called Why We Dream. It will be a vivid and intimate reflection by living WWII veterans exploring the power of memory and the quiet persistence of trauma and hope experienced in combat. It blends in rare wartime footage, 16mm home movies, cinematic portraiture, and classic film excerpts all directed by Meredith Danluck who created this emotionally driven examination of war’s lasting imprint. Here is a short trailer:
That is what celebrating 250-years means, or should mean. That is what a spectacular, sobering, unobstructed view of Arlington National Cemetery from the National Mall means to all this country’s veterans, living and passed, and their descendants. Let us not forget them and how humble, willing, and honored they fought and died to win, and then protect what it means to be one of many. I repeat, one of many. As the famous U.S. Army Major Richard “Dick” Winters of E Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Regiment, of the 101st Airborne Division Screaming Eagles told his grandson who had asked him if he was a hero in the war, Winters answered:
“No… but I served in a company of heroes.”
That answer is what most great Commander-in-Chiefs leaders give. They do not take all the credit and glory for themselves. They fully realize that in order to lead a platoon, a company, a regiment, a division… a nation, a true leader takes little to no credit for himself and humbly gives praise to those around him and the people he serves.
The Professor's Convatorium 