How I Got My Analog Computer In 1962 - And Why Even Its Shortcomings Proved Educational

 

          Catalog image of the Analog Computer I ordered in July, 1962.

            Advertising blurb accompanying the image - with basics of operations.

In 1962, at the age of 16, one of the biggest, most rewarding finds I'd made was the Edmund Scientific Co. Catalog - sent from its headquarters in Barrington, NJ.:

I was already into astronomy, having received a Tasco 2.4" refractor for Christmas two years earlier. Now, I was looking to expand my knowledge and the Edmund catalog provided the perfect resource, especially in the wide variety of books:

I was snagged just looking at the offerings and immediately ordered the Edmund Star Finder which you could rotate to any date of the year to see what was visible at what time. As for the books, the Norton Star Atlas and 'Astronomy Made Simple' proved immensely valuable. Of course with all the offerings - including biology, I also ended up getting the Edmund microscope (with which I observed amoeba and paramecium) as well as purchasing a "Visible Woman" assembly kit, for 4.98:

It was only sometime later, I noticed the Edmund Analog computer in the same catalog and figured why not buy that? After all, I had enough allowance money saved up - and it wasn't like I was going out on dates every week. (More like once a month).  So I ordered it then after it arrived proceeded to assemble this beauty:

Now, by the time I made this order I was also into model rocketry. Remember this was 1962 and John Glenn had not long become the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth. So heck, I wanted to emulate - in a micro way- those early NASA flight. Major difference is Estes provided solid fuel rocket cartridges complete with thrusts etc.

 So I ordered several kits (and engines) from Estes Industries in Estes Park, Colorado, and proceeded to also buy solid fuel cartridges, fuses and launching platforms. These rockets were carefully assembled from the assorted plans that accompanied the kits:

The rocket launches became so successful they soon became a regular feature on special days at my high school, Mgsr. Edward Pace in Miami, FL.  Now, with the computer, I wondered how I might apply it to the rockets in some way. Alas, it turned out the applications were extremely limited given the analog computer only worked by analog comparisons, i.e. of two electric voltages. So basically, you set the potentiometer to say 3.0 v on one, then 2.0 v on the other then turned the 3rd until a reading of zero appeared and 6.0 v appeared as the answer.  Given the limits I found that the analog computer could be used to say, figure out whether a solid fuel (ZnS) cartridge could fit into the tubing of a BOCTOK Russian -insignia model, but not much more.

For doing the complex trig calculations, say to figure out the altitude and range I had to return to my old standby - my Mannheim slide rule:

The computer definitely was not a bust, as I could use it to learn basic computer assembly and applications as well as teach my younger siblings how a basic computer worked.  And hell, just assembling this gizmo was fun, and this was something like 24 years before I got my first actual digital computer, a Commodore 64.

Thanks to Edmund Scientific Co. I got a lot out of what many would regard as an elaborate toy today, just as I got a lot out of Edmund's other assorted products. Sure there were shortcomings with the analog computer in terms of what it could do, but the assembly and working assorted problems Edmund provided (in an accompanying booklet) were educational.

What Deep Analysis Of The Lower Plasmasphere Reveals About Its Variable 'Hissing'

 What is the source of the hiss detected in the plasmasphere?  Recall the plasmasphere is the toroidal region around the Earth, replete with low energy plasma that we already saw when considering the source of magnetosonic waves, i.e. the green donut-shaped region shown below:

The pinkish region is the outer Van Allen radiation belt. In the context, all plasma waves are distinguished by their phase velocities, viz. w / k  where w  is the plasma frequency and k the wave number vector. In the case of the standard magnetosonic wave we have:

w² / k ²    =   c ²  (v _A ²   +  v _s ² ) /  (v _A ²   +  c ² )

Where v _A  is the Alfven velocity, v _s  is the ion sound speed and c the velocity of light. In the limit of low magnetic fields, for which  v _A  è 0  the wave becomes an ordinary ion acoustic wave.  Basically the waves under review get their energy by interacting with protons trapped in Earth's magnetic field spiraling around magnetic field lines.
 
Of particular interest in plasma physics research is what occurs -when we convert some of the plasma waves surrounding the Earth into sound  (acoustic) waves. It's been found that when such conversion occurs the space around Earth sounds like a "jungle" with different species of particles all emitting distinct "calls".  These are illustrated in the graph below, with the 'calls' in the form of plasma waves of different frequency (w) - some left (L) circularly polarized, others right (R) circularly polarized:

One of the mysterious sounds isolated resembles what can best be called a plasmaspheric hiss: an ever present sibilance in the inner regions of Earth's magnetic field. To be more specific, it sounds like pure static spanning 100 Hz to several kilohertz. This is a frequency range roughly equivalent to that produced by the middle third of a piano. We already know, for reference, that this hiss plays a crucial role in shaping the structure of the Earth's radiation belts, in particular disrupting them by knocking their energetic particles out into the atmosphere.

The source of the higher density plasmasphere hiss remained largely unknown until work in the 1980s by LC. Lee at the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska- Fairbanks.  Lee started with the presumption that increased solar wind dynamic pressure can compress the magnetosphere, potentially discarding energetic electrons and leading to a decrease in both the amplitude and occurrence rate of a hiss.

Lee focused attention on the phenomenon of the bow shock in the magnetosheath, e.g.

Noting the magnetosheath is an entirely open system with a large influx of energy from the solar wind. This is the basic cause of the turbulence in the magnetosheath. Thus the turbulence is mainly indicative of the multiple ways that the plasma (at the bow shock and in the magnetosheath) dissipates the energy which is carried into the system by the solar wind. Lee found various aspects of this turbulence can be traced to kinetic and two-fluid (electrostatic and electromagnetic ) plasma waves close to bow shock caused by downstream plasma conditions. Thus we expect:

·       Whistler

·       Lower-Hybrid

·       Ion-Acoustic

·       Non-MHD waves 

            In the magnetosheath.

        Together, high-resolution satellite data has revealed that the plasmaspheric hiss, certainly in the higher density magnetosheath, often contains a complex fine structure of coherent rising and falling tones. These include H or chorus waves that originate in the lower density magnetosphere outside the plasmasphere, then leak into the high-density plasmasphere.  There they devolve into incoherence, propagating multiple times across the equator finally developing into the incoherent band of hiss.(Roughly 200 Hz to 2 kHz). 

        Lee also found the propagation of hiss is guided and sometimes blocked by magnetic field variations. For instance, magnetic dips (localized reductions in the magnetic field) can reflect hiss waves, causing them to suddenly disappear from certain regions.   Lee traced the whistlers to a species of wave for which the high speed components of the wave packet travel faster than its low frequency components.  Thus the hypothetical observers at some distance from the source (say a lighting strike) would detect a whistle starting at high frequencies and descending to low ones.  

      The graph below is instructive in separating out the whistlers from other waves, e.g electron cyclotron: 

       

      The latter were found to be associated with the electron-cyclotron instability, where unstable distributions of energetic (substorm-injected) electrons transfer energy to the waves.  These could account for localized, low frequency hiss (below 100 Hz), generated locally within the plasmasphere. 

      From the graph we see the electron-cyclotron wave has a portion for which V_g = d w/ dk (group velocity) increases as w  decreases. This is the whistler wave.  Lee traced the whistlers to a species of wave for which the high speed components of the wave packet travel faster than its low frequency components.  Thus the hypothetical observers at some distance from the source (say a lighting strike) would detect a whistle starting at high frequencies and descending to low ones. Note the critical slope in particular, defined by: c = w/ k.

       Meanwhile, the R-waves of which the whistler forms the lower edge are called right circularly polarized. they have a higher phase speed than the L-wave.  We now know if a plane wave is incident on a plasma along the B-field its two normal components R and L travel at different speeds and the plane of polarization of the wave rotates as it travels. (Circular polarization).  

       Lastly, I note that Lee found that a largely perpendicular shock leads to a more pronounced pressure anisotropy with larger perpendicular pressure. The pressure anisotropy can be further enhanced as plasma travels from the bow shock toward   the magnetopause because field aligned flow cools the parallel pressure component This has particular   importance for the presence of mirror waves in the magnetosheath.

See Also:

• Rising Tone Magnetosonic Waves Detected By THEMIS ...

Elite University Obsession Is At The Root Of Economic and Political Polarization - And Loss Of Specialized Talent

 

             The Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska -Fairbanks. Most likely you will not find UAF in U.S. News Top College Listings

A somewhat depressing recent TIME article (The Future of College, March 9, p. 32) continued the obsession with getting into the top universities (Ivies, or 'Ivy-Plus') to secure "great jobs" and join the top 1 percent. As we read:

"Fewer than 1% of Americans attend the 12 'Ivy-Plus' colleges (the eight Ivy League schools plus Stanford, MIT, Duke, and the University of Chicago).  Yet they account for over 13 percent of the top earners, half of all Rhodes scholars, and three fourths of the Supreme Court Justices appointed in the last half century."

This thinking totally places the 'cart before the horse' and is even more shortsighted when one considers 62 percent of Americans (more than 3 out of 5) have no college degree. So what are they, chopped liver? Rather than obsessing about how many more we can 'squeeze' into the Ivies we ought to be thinking how many more we just get into college, period. It is college that provides the ticket to higher earning power over a lifetime, not Ivy or Ivy-plus education.

This educational polarization is also at the root of much of the division and political polarization afflicting the country. It also explains why so many younger voters - lacking the critical thinking afforded by a sound college education - were unable to see through Trump's barrage of lies in the 2024 election. See e.g.

Young voters helped elect Trump, but some have regrets over the Iran war - The Washington Post

  Wherein we read in the first paragraph:

Joshua Byers was hopeful when he voted for Donald Trump in 2024. The 26-year-old document clerk believed the former and future president when he said he would lower prices and improve the lives of the working class.

Bearing this out, a later paragraph wherein we read:

Young people who supported Trump are also notably less enthusiastic about voting in the midterms, with 51 percent of 18- to 39-year-olds who voted for Trump stating they’re certain to vote this fall, compared with 77 percent of Kamala Harris voters in that age group.

The difference is glaring given most Harris voters had the benefit of college education. The young Trump voters, on the other hand, lacked the foundation and benefit of critical thinking. Hence, no surprise they blame the voting system itself rather than their own inability to properly parse the candidates. (Another young female Trump voter is quoted as saying she found Kamala Harris "too chaotic". Too chaotic how? It was Trump who barked in their only debate, "They're eating the cats and dogs!")

 Byers, like to many of his peers, fell for Trump's claptrap and lies. Mainly because they were unable to do 'deep dive' reading on his political background in actual newspapers, websites - as opposed to Tik Tok and influencer, podcast codswallop. So no surprise we read later:

“I don’t really want to vote anymore. I’m really starting to just think it just won’t matter. … I don’t want to feel responsible for taking a vote and feeling misled, or misjudged, or making a wrong move.”

But that's the damned problem when you vote on a lark, or on hunches or feelings from podcasts, as opposed to doing your homework! Had Byers (or his female friend) enough college critical thinking background I doubt they'd have fallen for Trump's bollocks.

Contradicting this focus and emphasis on the  argument for more and more elite education (to make more $)  - as opposed to more higher education -  is the essay: 

 'The Myth of Higher Education' 

By Dr. Steven B. Mason in the Oct. 2010 issue of Integra:

As Mason so aptly put it:

"The bottom line regarding a well -rounded college education is that it has nothing to do with any kind of bottom line. Its value (non-monetary) is to be found in the quality it adds to one's life. It allows one to better appreciate music, art, history and literature. It contributes to a better understanding of language and culture, nature and philosophy. It expands rather than limits horizons and replaces faith and belief with reason and logic"

Mason adds that it "teaches a person to live - not to earn a living" - and that "living encompasses an incentive for learning for its own sake".

Bolstering this from a slightly different angle was Frank Bruni's 2016 NY Times' Review Op-Ed 'Why College Rankings Are A Joke' . His essay merits commendations for exposing the annual college rankings marketing racket.  From numerous points of view Bruni skewers the commonplace trope that a media listing of colleges, universities can provide a seminal insight into quality. And, of course, which schools always end up at the top? Well, the Ivies because they peddle their brand most ardently and invest the time in advertising, and marketing that brand to too many gullible parents- who then join battle with tens of thousands of other parents. All intent on getting Junior or Missy into the "best" school. 

But most of this effort is doomed to end up merely with outstanding college debts, and the graduates will leave without having received the specific education they expected. Whereas, if they hadn't been blinded by the brand they might have made a more judicious pick.  As Bruni puts it:

"The rankings nourish the myth that the richest, most selective colleges have some corner on superior education."

Reinforcing this take was the May 2011 issue of MONEY magazine piece:

 "Don't assume an Ivy League education is better than one from a public or state university."

MONEY found that key data measures or  'bang for the buck' included college graduation rates and post-college success rates - which compared favorably to - or exceeded  - what one obtained from the hallowed Ivies. Alas, this has still not trickled down into the mainstream media (like TIME)  where the elite education obsession still seems to be just getting into an Ivy or Ivy-Plus to make life bearable.

 So no wonder students and their parents are neurotically driven to believe the Ivies are the only route to success. Or in the case of the recent TIME essay, having a chance to reach the upper 1 percent.  But just getting into an Ivy or Ivy -plus with no thought of the context, or the student's particular aspirations or skills can have devastating consequences down the line. 

What should most motivate people is the import of just getting into a good university but making the most of the opportunity there.  That means taking courses that include enhancing and developing critical thinking, not just how to make more money. We who attended college in the 60s, 70s had that benefit but I am not sure how many have it now.  And make no mistake that the selective media emphasis on aspiring to get into elite schools turns away many kids who might otherwise have wanted to attend college.

From Bruni's piece, it is highly instructive to see the assorted factors - all highly subjective- that are used to arrive at the elite rankings.  For example, one is how highly officials at peer institutions rank said school. But as Bruni observes, if they know little or nothing about it (especially for the specific field) why would you expect anything other than a low to mediocre rank?  In such a case it is more plausible they'd go by the "reputation" - but where does that originate? Well, usually from earlier US News rankings! So it's a case of subjective brand incest piled atop more perception incest.

To quote Bruni's still timely piece again:

"Intentionally or not, these rankings fuel a frenzy to get into the most selective schools. But they can't adjust for how well certain colleges serve certain ambitions."

And they lead to abominations and misfires like the Varsity Blues scandal, e.g.

College Admissions Scandal - The New York Times

So the parents who so feverishly paid to open elite college doors, ended up serving time. What if instead they had cultivated their sons' or daughters' interests in particular fields they wanted to enter, as opposed to a specific high end university? Well, things might have been much different.

Maybe a kid saw images of the aurora firing up the Arctic sky in a PBS documentary, and now wants to study the physical mechanisms driving it in detail. Will he be able to do this at Harvard, or even MIT? Not very likely. At least to the same extent as actually being in the Arctic and having access to resources such as provided by the Poker Flat rockets, or HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program). 

My point, and I believe Bruni's, is that it would be a crime to dispatch this student to some elite university which would not be able to fully satisfy his intellectual talents and curiosity, and provide him a future trajectory for productive work and research. But if his parents only go by selective US News rankings, that negative outcome is very likely.

One of the worst travesties of the annual rankings racket exposed by Bruni is that "many college presidents, provosts and deans of admissions express disdain for the rankings...but participate in them nevertheless."

Thus, the college provosts, presidents,  admissions staff etc. know the 'best college' rankings are just media branding bunkum but nevertheless kowtow to them because they believe their peers will look askance at any opposition, perhaps question their credibility.

Perceptive citizens, especially parents, shouldn't be so hamstrung because they have nothing to prove to anyone else. If they are truly dedicated to the welfare of their charges they will do what is best for them- and that means securing the best college for their particular talents.  And once they get there, maximizing the benefits outlined earlier by Dr. Steve Mason - especially critical thinking.

See Also:

 Collapse Of The Humanities Isn't Merely For Dept. Of Art History At Yale

And:

Fewer Americans Value A College Degree? A Possible Explanation

And:

• Is College Really the "Worst Decision" a Young Person Xan Make?...

Former Gore SC Lawyer David Boies Insists Trump Merits Support For His Illegal War - He Doesn't

 "Why of course the people don’t want war...But after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it’s always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship ... Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they’re being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger.”   -   Nazi leader  Hermann Goering, Nuremberg, 1946

"Everything about this war has been poorly planned, badly thought out. Apart from which it is illegal. It is unlawful for the United States to enter into a war without an authorization for use of military force or permission from Congress."

- Ali Velshi, MSNOW, Yesterday

"The only reason Trump ran was to live jail free for the rest of his life. He got that. Now it’s fun time for him - use the military toys to bomb countries he hates, push friends to the edge by tariffing them, send love letters to Putin, binge on Cheese burgers as he enjoys the sight of bombs creating mayhem, insult anybody he wants. That’s always been his idea of fun -" - WaPo Comment

"Pete Hegseth is a mentally challenged alcoholic, whose incompetence is on display in his pose of scowling ferocity and snarling responses to reporters' normal questions. Doing push-ups bare-chested with his worm-eaten (brain-damaged?) colleague RFK, Jr. isn't a substitute for grey matter. Trump is neither a man nor a president in reality, only the public face of an international criminal gang which includes Netanyahu, bin Salman, and various U.S. billionaires."- Financial Times comment

The recent WSJ op-ed ('Partisanship on Iran is Dangerous', Mar. 13, p. A13) by former Gore lawyer David Boies (in the Supreme Court case Bush v. Gore) at first had me looking at the byline for yet another pro-Trump Reepo troll. I mean the hallmarks of foolishness were there to see, from asserting;

'No sensible person wants a war, a president least of all."  

Failing to grasp that the five-time draft dodger and felon occupying the White House is no normal president. Indeed he's deranged and the first felon to land in the Oval thanks to stupid, hoodwinked voters.  This is a depraved character whose incompetence, recklessness and bestiality know no bounds. Indeed, we only learned Friday night in the WSJ lead story ('Trump Knew The Risk Of Iran Blocking The Strait of Hormuz- He Still Went To War)  that:

"Before the U.S. went to war, Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told President Trump that an American attack could prompt Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz.  But Trump shrugged it off. He knew the risks but didn't care.

Caine said in several later briefings that U.S. officials had long believed Iran would deploy mines, drones and missiles to close the world’s most vital shipping lane, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. But again Trump wasn't moved to reconsider his yen for conflict."

Trump's fecklessness, disloyalty and irresponsibility extend to giving aid and comfort to Putin- including removing sanctions on access to Russian oil, especially after we learned Russia was giving Iran intelligence to target U.S. military sites, e.g.

Russia is giving Iran intelligence to target U.S. forces, officials say - The Washington Post

So he's helping an enemy already involved in targeting our own troops.   Sorry, Boies, you cannot be both a traitor and a respected wartime president. And no sentient citizen or party can back such a person who plays both sides of the fence, as well as spewing lies out of his piehole like he breathes, e.g.

Trump Administration

The Most Dangerous Weapon Ever Aimed at America Isn't a Missile

by Thom Hartmann | March 11, 2026 - 5:02am | permalink

— from The Hartmann Report

We got more lies this morning from the Pentagon press briefing. They’re now up to 17 different rationalizations for the attack on Iran, none of which makes sense.

To paraphrase Rod Serling, consider what happened in Minab, Iran.

A Tomahawk cruise missile, an American weapon, a weapon that Iran doesn’t own and can’t fire, struck a girls’ elementary school. One hundred and seventy-five people are dead, most of them little girls who showed up that morning to learn to read.

And Donald Trump stood in front of cameras and said Iran did it. He lied. About dead children. Without blinking. And his crew backed him up, even knowing it was a lie.

» article continues...

Indeed, so after the Trumper warmongers hurled a Tomahawk cruise missile at a school, slaughtering 175 school children (mostly girls 6 and 7), the orange pig wouldn't even own up to it or apologize.  Simply lying and claiming it was "Iran's Tomahawk"!  The evidence is now indisputable that nothing Trump or his regime claims can be trusted. For reference, the latest whopper from the orange fungus is that he has "taken out all the military assets on Kharg Island". No way in hell, Bozo.

 So why back these fuckers in a war that is totally illegal besides being a 'wag the dog' distraction? And for which American taxpayers can't expect a scintilla of truth?  See e.g. any or all of the following videos which get outside the media propaganda:

US COLONEL’S DIRE WARNING: TRUMP IS ‘LIKE HITLER’ & BIBI ‘MAY USE NUKES’ | The Kyle Kulinski Show

Daniel Davis Explains The Disaster We're In

Total IDIOTS Are Leading America’s War In Iran

America Can't Pay Its Debt — So It's Going to War Instead | Prof. Jiang Xueqin

US Has No Strategy, Trump Is Delusional: Jeffrey Sachs | West Asia Conflict | N18V

Iran Doesn't Need a Single Missile to Collapse the American Empire | Prof. Jiang Xueqin

IRAN IS HOLDING BACK — And That’s Terrifying | Col. Douglas Macgregor

So given  the tsunami of Trump's lies and evidence of his insanity and incompetence why should any sentient person support this traitor and felon? Why believe a goddamned word he or any lackey in his criminal administration spouts lies like they breathe? Which lies,  let us recall, began with their bloody rampage of blowing fisherman's boats out of the waters off Venezuela. No evidence they were 'drug runners' or intended to transport anything to the U.S.

 And the propaganda one of the worst aspects, including - in the case of the attacks on the fishing boats - claiming they even carried fentanyl and cocaine, even when not a scintilla of evidence was offered. (And after Trump himself pardoned a former Honduran cocaine kingpin who shipped 400 tons into the U.S.)

Much of this was recently summed up by Lawrence O'Donnell on Last Word:

Lawrence: Trump's Iran war propaganda videos show the depths of his depravity

And this is just the tip of the iceberg of the lies dedicated to bamboozling millions of citizens into supporting Trump. which now includes David Boies.

The latest trope spieled out is that the U.S. may send ground troops to seize Kharg Island - an equally terrible idea that promises even more hellacious costs and unintended consequences in this god-awful illegal war. E.g

Seyed M. Marandi: Threat of Seizing Kharg Island & the Use of Nuclear Weapons

As many others have also noted, Trump raced into this conflict with zero preparation or thought, believing it would be a cakewalk like Venezuela.  Indeed, Atlantic journalist David Frum has argued this war is based on Trump's "whim" - no serious, higher purpose like getting rid of Iran nuclear weapon capability, i.e.

David Frum: Iran War Is Based on Trump’s Whim | Amanpour and Company(

What will it take then to get purblind flakes like David Boies and more recently Mark Penn - a former Clinton advisor - to stop pushing this support for Trump's war? I don't know, short of a session of ECT.  

Consider this next Boies take:

"What is harder to understand and particularly troubling for our country is opposition rooted simply in antipathy to Trump himself. We used to say that politics stops at the water's edge.  That was never completely true: the willingness to bludgeon a president over foreign policy is as old as Thomas Jefferson when Vice-President. Yet for most of our history we have given the president the benefit of the doubt"

Yeah, Boies. But NOT Traitors or Felons!  A traitor who tried to overthrow the 2020 elections and actually incited a crowd to insurrection. A convicted felon who's already broken more laws since his bastardized inauguration - when he made sure not to place his hand on the bible. Probably aware already how many times he planned to violate his oath to defend the Constitution.  

Sorry, but he gets NO "benefit of the doubt".  Because there is no doubt he is a liar and criminal first and foremost.

Let's also recall this swine once referred to soldiers killed in war as "losers" and "suckers"  See:

Trump: Americans Who Died in War Are 'Losers ... - The Atlantic

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/09/trump-americans-who-died-at-war-are-losers-and-suckers/615997/

According to the piece:

"When President Donald Trump canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris in 2018, he blamed rain for the last-minute decision, saying that “the helicopter couldn’t fly” .....In a conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the scheduled visit, Trump said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as “suckers” for getting killed."

Yeah, Boies, read it! And then riddle me why I ought to support this Turd in a war he would never have fought in himself? (And likely would prevent his son Barron from entering - say as part of ground forces to invade Kharg island.) Of course, Trump lied and denied he ever said those things, but we have eye witnesses who were there and insisted he did - like Gen. John Kelly - who I believe any day before believing a word out of Trump's piehole. Especially after Kelly commented on Trump's praise of Hitler,

'Hitler did some good things': Trump praised Hitler multiple times, Kelly confirms

So no, Boies. do not ask Dems to support this lying felon, traitor and Hitler lover.  The Dems' main patriotic role now is to pull the plug on all further Pentagon funding for this fiasco, and that means a filibuster. (And woe betide Sen. Thune or his Trump cult 'party' if they try the nuclear option to prevent it.)  This is needed after the reckless criminal regime has already blown over  $11 billion in the last twelve days.

At the end of his sorry op-ed Boies offers this chestnut:

"America's national security is too important to hold hostage to partisanship. We Democrats need to begin by asking what our position would be if the action had been taken by Mr. Clinton. Mr. Obama or Mr. Biden."

First of all, none of them are traitors. None tried to stop an election or encouraged an insurrection based on lies.  None of those three either was a convicted felon so we would expect them to abide y the Constitution and the body of law as opposed to flouting it.  Including slaughtering hundreds in small fishing boats - even in one case when there were survivors seeking help.  We would also expect, certainly I would, that all would have gone to congress before launching a war freighted with disaster and global consequences such as this Iran war.

So, in fact our national security is being held hostage by the criminal in the White H0use, and his gang of lackeys including the Pentagon's pom-pom boy and dry drunk Pete Hegseth.  Remove Trump, either under the 25th amendment or impeachment and we can talk  America's national security, Boies. 

Trump, aka Dotard, is now so damned delirious with power he believes he can cajole European allies into sending "warships" to help him break the Iranian chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz. But why would they risk their own ships and forces to solve a problem they didn't create?  And as the FT's Gideon Rachman notes he was  of the danger.  As Rachman also observes, it is simply not in Trump's power to simply declare victory and sashay away.  The Iranians now know this fight is existential - a fight to the death - and they will use every weapon at their disposal to prevent it.  That includes limpet mines dropped from small boats, Shahed drones and targeting desalination plants.

 Let's also recall these are the same allies who were the recipients of tariffs, threats and insults from the orange crapper. To me, they know which side their 'bread is buttered ' on and it's the side minus Trump.  Anyone siding with Boies or similar clueless buffoons ought to read this:

Read Joe Kent’s Resignation Letter - The New York Times

Joe Kent, one of the United States’ top counterterrorism officials, announced his resignation on Tuesday, citing his opposition to the Iran war and what he said was Israel’s influence over the Trump administration’s policies. Here is his resignation letter in full.

See Also:

How Trump Destroyed the Aura of the Wartime President - The New York Times

Excerpt:

Donald Trump must envy George W. Bush for the cultural compliance he got while dragging America to war in Iraq.

If you didn’t live through it, it’s hard to convey the atmosphere of stifling conformity that choked the country in the run-up to that disaster. Much of the Democratic Party fell in line; authorization for military force against Iraq passed the Senate 77 to 23. Phil Donahue was fired by MSNBC for giving voice to the antiwar movement. Artists were canceled for expressing their opposition.

When, on the eve of the invasion in March 2003, Natalie Maines, the lead singer of the Dixie Chicks, denounced Bush from a London stage, the fallout nearly buried the band. Radio stations boycotted their music and two Colorado D.J.s who played their songs were suspended. Once one of the most popular country acts in America, the band fell out of the Billboard Top 40.

The same month, when the documentarian Michael Moore gave an antiwar speech at the Oscars, he was met by loud boos in addition to applause. “One pundit after another was saying, ‘Well, that’s the end of Michael Moore,’” he told The New York Times.

Trump has received no such deference for his adventurism in Iran, so he’s trying to force it. On Sunday night, during a tirade on his Truth Social website, the president attacked The Wall Street Journal for reporting on an Iranian military strike against American planes in Saudi Arabia, and called on other news outlets to be charged with “TREASON.” 

Rarely in modern history has an American administration made such blatantly authoritarian efforts to subdue its critics. Such naked coercion is a screaming sign of democratic breakdown. But we shouldn’t lose sight of how Trump is failing to bend the country to his will. 

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Trump Administration | Donald Trump | Iran

Ex-Pentagon Official Warns US ‘Blood Lust’ Comes Straight From the Top

by Sarah K. Burris | March 13, 2026 - 5:34am | permalink

— from Alternet

A former top Pentagon employee is blaming American "blood lust" that he says comes from "the top" as a key reason the U.S. is not only at war, but also bombed a girls' school that killed 168 people, primarily children.

Retired Master Sgt. Wes J. Bryant previously conducted a kind of war-risk assessment for the military, serving as the Pentagon Civilian Harm Policy Adviser and Analyst. On Thursday, CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked how the Iran school bombing could have been avoided.

Under the previous administration, there were about 200 people on the team that extended beyond the Pentagon to the entire national security apparatus. At the Pentagon specifically, there were about 30-35 on the team.

They were deemed "woke" and cut under President Donald Trump's administration. For Bryant, the cut was likely made because the first two words in the department's name included "civilian protection."

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Trump Administration | Donald Trump

Trump Team ‘Frantically’ Trying To Avoid Admitting They’re ‘A Bunch of Morons’: Expert

by Adam Lynch | March 11, 2026 - 5:23am | permalink

— from Alternet

An international policy expert says it’s no longer a matter of which direction President Donald Trump plans to take his self-started Middle Eastern war — it’s about a president desperately trying to hide the truth of his stupidity.

“… [E]ven the war supporters are realizing that this was a horrible idea,” Duss told Wajahat Ali on Ali’s “Left Hook” podcast. “And I think this is a particularly dangerous moment because now they're frantically trying to find ways not to have to admit that they're a bunch of morons, which means that they're going to argue for escalation. There's no other option.”

“I mean, the other option is admitting that they were wrong. And as we know, that is something that does not happen when you're a Washington war hawk who loves war. The only answer is more war. If the war didn't work, it's because we didn't war hard enough,” said Duss, who served as president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace and later as foreign policy advisor to Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) before becoming executive vice president of the Center for International Policy.

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Donald Trump | Iran

Trump Telling on Himself That His ‘Strategy Is Not Under Control’: Marine Corps Veteran

by Elizabeth Preza | March 15, 2026 - 5:25am | permalink

— from Alternet

President Donald Trump keeps calling the U.S. operation in Iran “a little excursion,” that will keep the United States out of war. But one Marine Corps veteran says it’s clear Trump has no strategy beyond his chaotic messaging as the war in Iran enters its third week.

As the Guardian reported Saturday, the Iran war’s “timelines and goals are also continually shifting.”

Trump Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth “has said it is up to the president ‘whether it’s the beginning, the middle or the end’ of the war,” the Guardian notes. “But Trump has been all over the map on this question.”

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Donald Trump | Iran

Trump’s Attempt at Wagging the Dog Has a Real Body Count

by Elliott Negin | March 13, 2026 - 5:08am | permalink

On Christmas Day in 1997, Wag the Dog, a dark political satire directed by Barry Levinson and co-written by David Mamet, opened in theaters across the country. Hardly typical Christmas fare, the movie centered on crisis-management expert Conrad Brean, played by Robert De Niro, and Hollywood producer Stanley Motss, played by Dustin Hoffman, who fabricate a war to distract public attention from a presidential sex scandal.

Sound familiar?

In the film’s opening scene, presidential adviser Winifred Ames (Anne Heche) and other administration staff summon Brean to the White House to help clean up a mess. The president had just met with a group of teenage Firefly Girls from Santa Fe, they explain, and one of them expressed an interest in seeing a Frederick Remington sculpture in the Oval Office. The president escorted her there and sexually assaulted her.

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Iran

Why the War in Iran Defies a Quick End

by Jianlu Bi | March 18, 2026 - 5:03am | permalink

— from Foreign Policy In Focus

Since the initiation of the joint U.S.-Israeli campaign on February 28, 2026—known as Operations “Epic Fury” and “Roaring Lion”—the world has watched a display of military kineticism unparalleled in the twenty-first century. High-altitude precision strikes have severely damaged nuclear facilities, and “decapitation” missions have claimed the lives of the Supreme Leader and the upper echelons of the IRGC.

However, a haunting question looms over the global community: Can this war end quickly?

The answer is a sobering “no.” The conflict is not racing toward a conclusion. Rather, it is descending into a protracted, grinding stalemate of social and civilizational endurance. To understand why, it is necessary to look beyond the inventory of cruise missiles and into the deep socio-economic frameworks described by economist Zhiwu Chen in The Logic of Civilization. This war is not merely a clash of armies. It is a collision of two fundamentally different systems of risk-management and societal resilience.

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Donald Trump

Does Trump Have a KGB Card?

by Thom Hartmann | March 12, 2026 - 5:18am | permalink

— from The Hartmann Report

Eight of our American service members are dead and over 140 wounded because Iran’s military has suddenly gotten really good at targeting our soldiers, Airmen, and Marines. News reports say they’ve been able to hit us with such precision because Russia is using their extraordinary spy satellite, spy plane, and advanced radar capabilities to help Iran’s military.

The Washington Post, which first reported on this, quoted a Russian military expert as saying that Iran is now “making very precise hits on early-warning radars or over-the-horizon radars,” seeming to validate the concern. The article added:

“Iran possesses only a handful of military-grade satellites, and no satellite constellation of its own, which would make imagery provided by Russia’s much more advanced space capabilities highly valuable — particularly as the Kremlin has honed its own targeting after years of war in Ukraine…”

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And:

The Insidious Danger Of Propaganda And How It Has Infected Brains And Threatened Our Democracy