Today it was announced that the remains of a third soldier have been found at the U.S. military base in Jordan that was struck by an Iranian missile on Friday. That brings the total of U.S. dead to sixteen.

The Pentagon immediately announced that U.S. forces would strike targets in Iran “in retaliation” for the three deaths in Jordan. That is where we are today. We’re not bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities. We’re not attempting to knock out Iran’s ability to shut down the Strait of Hormuz. We’re “retaliating” because Iran killed three members of our armed forces.

You hit me, so I’m going to hit you back is not a war. Nations go to war to achieve objectives that cannot be reached by other means. Trump said in a video, or he mumbled on his way walking across the lawn to Marine One, or he posted on Truth Social – I can’t remember which, and it really doesn’t matter – that we were going to war so that Iran will never achieve possession of a nuclear weapon. That’s an objective, and a legitimate one, but then what happened?

Well, when we bombed Iran, they started firing missiles and drones at our bases along the Persian Gulf and elsewhere in the Middle East such as Jordan, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. Plus, Iran fired missiles and drones at our allies in the Gulf, hitting some of their oil production sites, their airports, and even some civilian targets such as hotels and apartment buildings.

Iran also decided to shut down shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which they control because geography, not international law, has given them that control. Reopening the Strait of Hormuz became the object of our war.

Then the market spoke. Trump doesn’t listen to even one human being, but he hears the market. The market moves money, and he likes money. The market sent oil and gas prices up very quickly, and then the market sent the price of everything else up, because it’s all connected.

So, when the market had caused more pain that he could stand, Trump sent his son-in-law and one of his New York real estate buddies over to the Gulf to “make a deal” with Iran that would bring prices down. They produced an agreement called a “memo of understanding” that accomplished exactly zero of the goals Trump had said we were fighting a war for. The agreement did accomplish two of Iran’s goals, however. It acknowledged Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz, and it gave them a ceasefire, during which they could repair all the military stuff we had damaged with bombs and missiles, and it let them restart their production lines and rearm.

It has become startlingly apparent that no one running things in the White House or the Pentagon has had even a cursory look at Carl von Clausewitz’ elemental tome, “On War.” Right at the beginning of page one, Clausewitz warns that the idea you can defeat an enemy without the use of maximum force is a “fallacy.” On page two, Clausewitz says simply that “The aim of war is to disarm the enemy.” “If the enemy is to be coerced you must put him in a situation that is even more unpleasant than the sacrifice you call on him to make… Otherwise the enemy would not give in but would wait for things to improve.”

While Witkoff and Kushner dicked around in Geneva and Oman and wherever else their alleged “negotiations” took place, Iran just waited, and things improved for them in multiple ways. The world economy began to slide. The U.S. economy was badly stung. Trump’s poll numbers crashed. His political party panicked. Trump was driven to invoke the Defense Production Act to force defense manufacturers to build more weapons – very, very expensive weapons -- because we were running out of them.

On page three of “On War,” Clausewitz discusses “the maximum exertion of strength.” He says this is necessary if you want to damage the enemy’s means of making war and “the strength of his will.”

In fighting an air war against Iran, we have not employed anywhere near the maximum strength of our military, and we have not broken the will of Iran, which was sent sky-high on the first day of the war when U.S. and Israeli bombs killed Iran’s supreme leader and his immediate family and most of the country’s top military and political leadership.

The first three pages of one of the two most important books ever written about war, and the White House and Pentagon have fucked up everything Clausewitz taught about war and warned against if you’re going to wage one.

It is undeniably tragic every time one of our soldiers is killed in a war. But the death of soldiers is not a reason to fight a war. You don’t retaliate against the enemy because he killed our soldiers. You fight a war to bend the enemy to your will by killing his soldiers and defending the lives of our soldiers. If you kill more enemy soldiers than a country can afford to lose, and if you knock out enough of his weapons that the enemy becomes effectively disarmed, then you break the enemy’s will. If your enemy is Iran, and your break his will, he will do things like stop trying to build a nuclear weapon and go back to allowing unfettered shipping through the body of water that because of his geography he controls.

The Persian Gulf is not a playground, and war is not a spat. War is serious business. We do not have serious people in charge of the war we are waging against Iran. We have people presenting cage fights on the White House lawn, people who cannot fill a reflecting pool with water without turning it lime green. That is why we are nowhere close to achieving even one goal Trump claimed we had when we began bombing Iran.

We have lost only 16 soldiers in this war. We have lost only one fighter jet shot down by the enemy, and one AWACS aircraft destroyed on the ground. We have lost no Navy surface ships or submarines.

Iran, on the other hand, has achieved multiple goals in a war they did not choose but was forced upon them.

Trump is losing this war bigly.

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… to CT reader and commenter Dr Memory, who has cleaned up our database, eliminating many of the badly rendered quotation marks and similar problems. Those problems reflect the fact that the blog is now more than 20 years old, and has gone through multiple formatting systems.

An unexpected side benefit is that commenters can now use emojis, which weren’t even available in Unicode when CT started out.

I enjoy reading over our old posts and discussions, and will enjoy it more now that they are properly readable.

Thanks again, Dr M.

Living in a rural community offers plenty of advantages, from a slower pace of life to stronger community connections; however, accessing healthcare can be more challenging for older adults who live far from hospitals, specialists, and large medical centers. 

As healthcare continues to evolve, there are more options than ever to help bridge these gaps. Understanding available resources, including preventative care appointments such as the Welcome to Medicare visit , can help rural seniors take a more active role in managing their health and accessing the care they need, even from a greater distance.

What are the Challenges of Rural Healthcare?

Many rural areas face shortages of healthcare providers. Rural residents often travel longer distances to see doctors, specialists, and diagnostic facilities. This can create obstacles for older adults who may no longer drive or who have mobility limitations. 

In addition to travel concerns, some rural communities have fewer healthcare facilities overall. Hospital closures in rural regions have increased over the past decade, leaving many residents with fewer local options for emergency care and specialty treatment. These challenges can make it difficult to receive timely medical attention, particularly for chronic conditions that require ongoing monitoring. 

Despite these hurdles, several healthcare solutions are helping improve access for rural populations.

Taking Advantage of Telehealth Services

One of the biggest improvements in rural healthcare access has been the expansion of telehealth. Virtual appointments allow patients to meet with healthcare providers through video calls or telephone consultations without leaving home.

Telehealth can be especially valuable for routine follow-up visits, medication reviews, mental health counseling, and consultations with specialists located hundreds of miles away. For many rural seniors, a virtual appointment can eliminate hours of travel while still providing access to quality care. 

Even individuals who are not particularly tech-savvy can often participate with the assistance of family members, caregivers, or local community organizations. The good news for rural residents is that Medicare telehealth coverage  has been extended through December 31 st , 2027. 

Building and Maintaining a Relationship With a Primary Care Provider

Having a trusted primary care provider remains one of the most important steps in maintaining good health.

For rural seniors, establishing a strong relationship with a local provider can help reduce unnecessary emergency room visits and improve long-term health outcomes. Regular checkups allow physicians to identify potential health concerns before they become serious health problems.

Preventative care appointments are particularly important because they help monitor conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and osteoporosis. Early detection often leads to more effective treatment and better quality of life.

Exploring Community Health Resources

Many rural communities offer healthcare support through local organizations, public health departments, and nonprofit programs. These resources can provide services that complement traditional medical care.

Community health clinics often offer affordable preventative services, screenings, vaccinations, and wellness programs. Senior centers, faith-based organizations, and local volunteer groups may also help connect residents with healthcare information and support services.

Some organizations also provide transportation assistance for medical appointments, which can be an especially valuable resource for older adults who have limited transportation options. 

Using Mobile Health Services

Mobile healthcare units are becoming more popular in rural areas. These clinics on wheels travel to underserved communities and provide services such as health screenings, vaccinations, laboratory testing, and routine medical care.

Mobile clinics help bring healthcare directly to residents who may otherwise face significant travel barriers. For seniors living in remote areas, these services can offer a convenient way to receive essential care closer to home.

Stay Proactive About Preventive Care

Preventive care remains one of the most effective tools for maintaining health as we age. 

Seniors in rural areas may sometimes postpone care because of travel challenges or scheduling difficulties. However, delaying preventive services can often lead to more serious health complications later down the road. 

Making healthcare a priority, even when access requires extra planning, can significantly improve long-term outcomes.

Looking Ahead

As we established, accessing healthcare in rural areas presents its unique challenges, but today’s healthcare landscape offers more answers than ever before. Thanks to these solutions, rural seniors can receive the care they need while remaining in the communities they love.

Remember, take advantage of all of the available resources your area has to offer, and prioritize preventive care. Rural older adults can overcome many of the barriers that have traditionally limited healthcare access. With the right support and planning, quality healthcare can be within reach no matter where someone calls home.

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The post How Rural Seniors Can Access Better Healthcare Services appeared first on DCReport.org.

Retirement brings the promise of finally slowing down, but for many seniors, navigating healthcare expenses feels like signing up for another full-time job. There is a dangerous myth that turning 65 and enrolling in Medicare means your medical bills simply disappear and your healthcare is now 100% free. The reality is far from that, and much more complex.

Whether you are researching supplemental policies or reading opinion pieces about why medicare advantage plans are bad , you quickly realize that federal health insurance is not a comprehensive, zero-cost safety net. It is merely a foundation. If you enter retirement assuming your coverage is absolute, you risk draining your carefully accumulated nest egg faster than it took to grow.

To protect your financial security, you must understand exactly what your coverage provides and leaves behind.

The Reality of Ongoing Premiums

Many people assume Medicare is entirely free because they paid Medicare taxes throughout their working years. While that is generally true for Medicare Part A, it is not true for the rest of your coverage.

Part B Premiums: 

Medicare Part B requires a standard monthly premium. This premium is automatically deducted from your Social Security check.

Part D Costs: 

To have prescription drug coverage, you must purchase a standalone Part D plan or find a bundled Advantage plan. These can come with their own monthly premiums and cost-sharing.

IRMAA: 

If you were a high earner during your working years, or if you take large distributions from your retirement accounts, the federal government imposes an Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount (IRMAA).  This surcharge can increase your baseline Part B and Part D premiums.

Supplemental Coverage:

Since Medicare Parts A and B do not cover 100% of your healthcare costs, many beneficiaries opt for additional coverage to help with cost-sharing. Depending on the exact plan type you choose, you can expect to pay an additional premium or at least still some cost-sharing as you go along with the services done.

Uncapped Out-of-Pocket Exposure

Original Medicare does not have a hard cap on how much you can spend in a single year. If you face a catastrophic medical event, the math can become terrifying and seem never-ending.

For standard Medicare Part B, after you meet your annual deductible, the federal healthcare program typically covers 80% of approved Part B services. You are responsible for the remaining 20% coinsurance. While 20% might not sound intimidating for a routine blood test, it becomes a massive financial liability if you need expensive outpatient surgery or costly chemotherapy treatments. Unless you purchase a private Medigap (Medicare Supplement) policy to help cover that remaining 20%, your financial exposure is technically unlimited.

If you opt for a Medicare Advantage plan (which is required by law to have an out-of-pocket maximum) the 2026 limits can still exceed $9,250 for in-network care. For a senior on a fixed income, hitting that limit in a single year can be a major financial blow, but it still beats what 20% uncapped could amount to if you needed something major done like open heart surgery.

What’s on the Exclusion List?

Original Medicare is strictly designed to treat acute medical conditions. It notoriously excludes several critical areas of senior health, meaning you must pay 100% of these costs out of pocket unless you have specialized supplemental coverage.

The most glaring omissions include routine dental, vision, and hearing care. To put it more frankly, yes, that means Medicare does not provide coverage for services and treatments such as routine eye exams, glasses or contact fittings, hearings aids, tooth extractions, dentures, root canals, and routine teeth cleanings. You are expected to pay completely out of pocket unless you have additional coverage of your own to help with these costs.

The Long-Term Care Void

This is one of the largest financial blind spots for aging Americans. Medicare covers skilled nursing care (such as rehab after a stroke or a broken hip) but only for a very limited number of days.

It explicitly excludes “custodial care.” If you or your spouse eventually need daily, non-medical assistance with bathing, dressing, eating, or safely navigating your home, Medicare pays zero dollars. Many aging adults will need some type of long-term care in their remaining years.

If that care eventually requires a private room in a nursing facility, know that those costs will be steep. If you do not have long-term care insurance or a dedicated, savings strategy, these out-of-pocket expenses can erode your portfolio at an alarming rate.

Securing Your Financial Defense

Medicare is not a magical shield against all medical expenses. If you can prepare and avoid these hidden costs now, you can pivot your financial planning into active defense mode. If you haven’t already, start funding your Health Savings Account (HSA) aggressively while you still can, budget for supplemental plan costs, and come up with a long-term care strategy you’re comfortable with. The best way to enjoy a stress-free retirement is to ensure your healthcare liabilities are fully fleshed out long before you need the care.

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The post The Hidden Costs Seniors Face Even After ‘Full’ Medicare Coverage appeared first on DCReport.org.

He didn’t even treat it like it was a big deal national address from the White House, the kind when presidents traditionally sit behind the desk in the Oval Office and look into the camera with deep concern, faked or not. He just stood in front of some gold curtains with the American flag on one side and the presidential flag on the other, and he rushed through it like he wanted to get it over with, as if he had someplace he wanted to go. His tone was affectless, except when he made a big pronouncement like nobody has ever seen before. He’s worn that one out. It doesn’t work anymore. Everybody has seen it all before. They’re heard it all before.

It was just rehashed conspiracy nonsense that has been around for years. He should have brought Sidney “Kraken” Powell in to give the speech, or the My Pillow guy, or the Cyber Ninja guy. Any of them could have done a better job, because they would have had the advantage of believing the bullshit he spewed. Trump didn’t believe a word of it. He even slipped up and attributed one of the lies he told to “statements made by great patriots of our country.” You remember “statements,” don’t you? In the 61 lawsuits Trump filed in 2020 to overturn the votes in states and counties he lost, affidavits were filed to support the allegations in the lawsuits. There is another word for affidavit: statement. It’s not evidence. It’s not a citation from the law. It’s not even analysis from previous cases that might help the court in its decision. Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani and the rest of the half-baked half-wits who filed lawsuits challenging the election results in 2020, all they had were statements. Somebody saw an election worker in Georgia hand a flash drive to another worker. That was a statement. It turned out that one worker handed another a breath mint, but man, it was fucking alive when it was a statement about a conspiracy to steal the Georgia election from Donald Trump!

Trump spent most of his remarks attempting to explain all the long-hidden secrets about the 2020 election he has ordered to be declassified. There was stuff that happened in 2018 that was secret for too long, but now he’s going to let it out! Stuff happened in 2019, and that’s coming out in the declassified files or documents or whatever they are! And God only knows he is declassifying everything that has been kept secret from the American public about 2020!

Trump said the CIA kept secrets! The FBI kept secrets! The Department of Homeland Security kept secrets about hacking! They even kept secrets from him, from the president! There was a conspiracy to “wash” his daily brief, which he claimed to have received every once in a while, so he would not learn the truth of what China and North Korea and Iran were doing to ensure he was not reelected.

Trump did not explain to the Fox News viewers who had tuned in that all those agencies in 2018 and 2019 and 2020 worked for him. The people who lead them had been appointed by him. A lot of the secrets that his own people kept from him were about China, which was trying to undermine him. “They focused on undermining confidence in the U.S. president. They wanted to just want you sound like your president wasn’t so hot, when actually your president has done a great job.”[sic]

It was a massive conspiracy to keep Trump from being elected, and the secrets about how it was carried out, and who was responsible, and how it was destroying our election security in the process were kept from him.

Trump has been telling us again and again that he would give us the evidence of how the election of 2020 was stolen from him. And now we know. It was the voting machines! It was the mail-in ballots! It was the Chinese! China paid journalists “large sums of money” to write bad stuff about Trump! China “manufactured illegal ballots for Joe Biden!” Americans were blatantly lied to about voting machines and ballot counts! “Even when fraud was detected, it was covered up.”

I’ve been doing this for a while. Let’s see if I can figure out who covered up the fraud that occurred in 2020. Hmmmm…let me see. The Trump administration had something called The Election Assistance Commission that helped states and local officials prevent election fraud. There was a division of Homeland Security devoted to cyber-attacks on government departments, civilian corporations, and elections. It was called the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. There was the FBI. They had a division that did nothing but investigate fraud of all kinds, including election fraud. The CIA investigated foreign countries that engaged in election interference and fraud against the United States.

I’ve got it now! Trump told us what happened! His own governmental agencies conspired against him! They’re the ones who watered down his daily brief! They’re the ones who lied to him!

Or maybe there weren’t any lies at all. Trump’s own Department of Homeland Security announced after the election of 2020 that it was “the most secure election in U.S. history.” Every state that Trump filed lawsuits against produced evidence in court that their election security had not been penetrated or altered in any way by any entity, domestic or foreign. Georgia carried out three recounts. Arizona conducted three recounts and then the Republican-controlled Senate hired a “security” firm that had never worked on a single election in its history to examine every ballot cast in Maricopa County, which Trump lost. They spent months in an unused college gym going through the ballots, more than two million of them, famously looking for the ones with “bamboo fibers” from China. When they issued their final report, they found no faults in voting machines. None of them had been hacked. They examined every mail-in ballot and compared signatures on the ballots to voter registration rolls. They even examined the mail-in ballot envelopes to ensure they had been properly filled out and signed.

They found no faults, other than the fact that after they had examined every single ballot, Joe Biden received 360 more votes than he had been allocated on official tallies after the election.

Trump didn’t look good tonight. He was whiny and out of sorts and he sped through the script like he just wanted to get to the end of it and take the elevator upstairs so he could start posting on Truth Social about what a great speech he had given and how he had had the largest television audience in American history.

It was a joke. His MAGA 30 percent, those who watched it or will hear about it on Fox News or right-wing podcasts, they’ll believe what he said. But not the rest of the American electorate. They’re tired of him. They didn’t tune in. They don’t believe his lies.

It didn’t work. He’s tired. He’s worn out. He fell asleep at a big military security conference he went to at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania yesterday. Tomorrow and Sunday he will play golf. He’s going to hold rallies. They’ll have to get the FBI to arrest people and haul them to the rallies in cuffs to fill the seats.

People are tired of his act. He didn’t light a fire under anyone tonight. He put people to sleep. Even your trusted correspondent fought to keep his eyes open, and he’s a pro.

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As I observed last year, the statement that “The cemeteries are full of indispensable people.” is just as true of nations, and in particular the US. That was a little controversial at the time, but now it’s become sufficiently conventional wisdom to be restated in the New York Times. I’ve been working on an update. and that seems like a signal to get it out

As far as military dependence is concerned, the “indispendable nation” has already been dispensed with. The US no longer has either the willingness or the capacity to defend Europe against Russia, its only significant enemy. Conversely, Europe (including Ukraine) has developed the necessary willingness and capacity. In some areas, such as artillery and drone technology, Europe has surpassed the US. In others, including intelligence, the US remains helpful but not essential. In still others, such as missiles and anti-missile defence, the US is neither willing to help nor, thanks to the Iran war, capable of doing so.

Claims that Europe cannot dispense with the US in defence typically rely on two claims, first that Europe lacks the capacity to project power globally and second that it is too disunited to act effectively. Both come down to the same misconception: that Europe needs to become another version of the US. But the object of European defence policy should be defense (contrast Trump’s designation of Hegseth as Secretary for War). And, as the Ukraine war has shown, successful defence does not require a unified command capable of instant action (again, the contrast with Trump’s wars is instructive).

Turning to finance and economics, most of the pieces are in place to permit a disengagement from US financial institutions and from the global financial architecture constructed by the US and with the US playing the central role. The combination of a central bank digital currency and the emergence of payment systems like Wero will provide a capacity to break with reliance on the payment systems of Visa and Mastercard. As with military dependence, Trump’s eagerness to weaponise Visa and Mastercard against enemies like the International Criminal Court will accelerate this process.

Other parts of the US-centric architecture, such as ratings agencies and the Big Four auditing/consulting firms have done a great job in discrediting themselves. Again, the object should not be to produce European replicas, but to accelerate the process of returning the financial system to its pre-1970s role as a provider of a relatively limited set of services to the real economy.

Similarly, Trump’s chaotic tariffs, along with China’s economic nationalism, have necessitated the restructuring of the world trading system, with Europe taking the place of the US at the centre. Neither the failed globalist dream of the WTO nor Trump’s attempts to extort surplus through bilateral bullying offers has any real future. This is a particularly bitter pill for Brexiteers who imagined they could escape the pull of Europe and join a bigger world, instead finding themselves utterly isolated.

The last parts of US hegemony in this respect are the dominant US role in the IMF and World Bank and, most importantly, the role of the $US as a reserve currency. I’ll leave those for later.

The most intractable area of dependence is that of information technology. Efforts to build a “European stack” have started, but as the term suggests, dependence is multilayered. At the software level, for example, it’s necessary both to promote Linux as an alternative to US-owned operating systems and to break with reliance on Microsoft for office software. And that’s one of the easy parts of the story.

The biggest questions relate to AI. If the US hyperscalers are right, their huge spending with produce a monopoly or oligopoly with entry barriers too high for any rival, including any European rival. My optimistic view is that this is a race that will be won by low-energy tortoises rather than hyper-active hares. Second movers like Deepseek and, more recently the French Mistral, running maybe a year behind the US leaders, can replicate their capabilities at.a fraction of the cost, and without reliance on massive data centres.If that continues to be true, the benefits of massive US investment will not be reaped by the current leaders but by followers.

The really big unknown here is the fate of the Trump regime. If Trump can cement his own power, and pass it on to someone more competent (Xi to Trump’s Mao), and other would be dictators like Modi establish themselves, Europe and its democratic allies will become an island (or maybe an archipelago including places like Canada and Taiwan) in a world of rival autocracies. Maintaining that will be costly in all sorts of way.

On the other hand, if Trump is defeated, the US cannot return to the status quo ante. It will take decades to rebuild a new and sustainable political order on the wreckage left by Trump. The two-party system, the Supreme Court, billionaire controlled media and much more will require either replacement or radical restructuring. That will leave its former allies no alternative to disengagement while the US sorts out its own problems.

Europeans and their allies are in an unenviable position. But still better than that of Americans for whom precarious and unequally distributed material prosperity has come at the price of freedom.

Meanwhile Australia, or at least the Australian political class, remains in denial. We are spending hundreds of billions of dollars on submarines to be used (if at all) in America’s wars. The assumed trade-off is that the US will defend us if necessary. No one really believes this any more, but speaking the truth puts you outside the class of serious people.