- FY2003 Supplemental: Operation Iraqi Freedom: Passed April 2003; Total $78.5 billion, $54.4 billion Iraq War
- FY2004 Supplemental: Iraq and Afghanistan Ongoing Operations/Reconstruction: Passed November 2003; Total $87.5 billion, $70.6 billion Iraq War
- FY2004 DoD Budget Amendment: $25 billion Emergency Reserve Fund (Iraq Freedom Fund): Passed July 2004, Total $25 billion, $21.5 billion (estimated) Iraq War
- FY2005 Emergency Supplemental: Operations in the War on Terror; Activities in Afghanistan; Tsunami Relief: Passed April 2005, Total $82 billion, $58 billion (estimated) Iraq War
- FY2006 Department of Defense appropriations: Total $50 billion, $40 billion (estimated) Iraq War.
- FY2006 Emergency Supplemental: Operations Global War on Terror; Activities in Iraq & Afghanistan: Passed February 2006, Total $72.4 billion, $60 billion (estimated) Iraq War
- FY2007 Department of Defense appropriations: $70 billion(estimated) for Iraq War-related costs
Despite not posting nearly as much as I used to on Facebook, I find myself endlessly scrolling through it, looking for new posts to share or comment on. I got to do more to hold myself back on that. The thing is the Facebook Lite app uses so little data, and my phone now has such a generous data plan, it’s so easy to just open it up and keep scrolling.
On January 21, 2010 Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton addressed a crowd at the Newseum in Washington, DC. She was there to proclaim the power and importance of “internet freedom.” In the previous few years, she said, online tools had enabled people all around the world to organize blood drives, plan demonstrations, and even mobilize in mass demonstrations for democracy. “A connection to global information networks is like an on-ramp to modernity,” she declared, and the US would do its part to help promote “a planet with one internet, one global community, and a common body of knowledge that benefits us all.”
Clinton’s speech acknowledged that the internet could also be a darker instrument—that its power might be hacked to evil ends, used for spewing hatred or the crushing of dissent. But her thesis rested on the clear beliefs of techno-fundamentalism: that digital technologies necessarily tend toward freedom of association and speech, and that the US-based companies behind the platforms would promote American values. Democracy would spread. Borders would open. Minds would open.
Wouldn’t that have been nice? Ten years later, Clinton is a private citizen, denied the highest office she would seek by a political amateur who leveraged Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to drive enthusiasm for his nativist, protectionist, and racist agenda. Oh, and the Newseum is closing down as well. Back in 2010, Clinton had called that institution “a monument to some of our most precious freedoms.” Now it too appears to be a relic of a bygone optimism.
I like the Elizabeth Warren and dysfunction(IMPEACH HER!) for president …. 🏛
Of all the leading Democratic candidates for President, I think Elizabeth Warren is my favorite. Not because I agree with everything she says — she has a plan for it — and some of them are idiotic, but others are quite smart. I really like the idea of having a women for President and somebody whose not been around Washington for life and is somewhat younger then the current incumbent. ✊🏼 I voted for Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein in 2016, and I think it’s time for a change from our current incumbent.👴🏼
I think she could be a strong representative, a voice for the people against the wealthy special interests, especially those who abuse people financially. She also strikes me as independent from the far left, 🤛🏼 willing to push back and push our country towards a more moderate and populist path forward. I think she could be a modestly honest broker, something that can’t be said about the current incumbent who has built his whole career on scams and reckless gambling. 🎰
We really need an honest broker, for the challenges of the presidency and country in the 2020s will be real. At some point soon, there will be a recession, and a steady hand will be needed to lift the country out. 💸 Climate change, while mostly a political football 🏈 used to bash the other party and give partisans something to masturbate about, at some point will come real, probably within the next decade. Expert warnings can be ignored for only so long before the damage sets in. 🚭 Who do you want to be running the country when a hundred billion dollar natural disaster occurs in multiple parts of country? When climate change comes to roost, it’s going to require a war-like response this late in the game. 🌎 Climate change is going to be bad, and it’s coming soon. A war leader facing a major crisis shouldn’t be a professional con-artist like the incumbent.
But we also need an accountable president. It’s congress’ job to act like a brake to the overreach of the presidency, and keep the president an honest broker — regardless of party. I sure hope the next Congress that serves with Elizabeth Warren aggressively investigates her and keeps her accountable. 🤹 Just because something is green energy, doesn’t mean it should be a way for the president and friends to enrich themselves personally. The madam president’s initiatives should be scrutinized and bad ones rejected. Congress should not be afraid to reject radical plans to lock up public lands as wilderness 🔒🌲 or infringe on our second amendment rights.🐇🦌🔫 Diversity is a strength, and grid lock is away to protect it.
