Category Archives: International news

International news

Ceasefire? Uhhh, where?

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I am acutely aware that at times I can be painfully slow on the uptake, that things happen long before I realize it.

However, I know a ceasefire when I hear about one. Two sides are exchanging fire, killing each other, then they say “Stop the shooting!” Then it stops, giving the sides time to talk to each other to settle the issues that resulted in the shooting and bombing in the first place.

Some weeks ago, they declared a ceasefire in the Iran war, launched by Donald Trump for reasons that remain a mystery. It’s a three-way battle. The United States has teamed with Israel to bomb the daylights out of Iran. The ceasefire seems to involve only American and Iranian forces, or at least it did.

Israel has started firing missiles at Iran, which has returned fire to Israel. So has the United States returned to the bombing campaign. But wait! The media keep referring to the “ceasefire” which they report is still in effect.

C’mon, man! The ceasefire has vanished under the hail of missiles launched by both sides!

Those of us watching from a distance are growing increasingly frustrated by the messages being conveyed from Washington, Jerusalem and Tehran. Israel keeps talking tough. U.S. rhetoric is tough, but is laced with hopeful language from the POTUS that the end of fighting is in sight. Iranians keep blustering about their intense anger at the United States, which started this war.

I want an end to this damn war!

International news

Weak POTUS feigns strength

Donald J. Trump’s gallery of demonstrations of weakness keeps growing, as it did this week at the end of a two-day summit with Chinese strongman Xi Jing Pin.

Honest to goodness, I couldn’t believe I was hearing what poured out of the U.S. president’s trap describing China’s leader. He called him a “strong leader.” He said he was charismatic. He praised Xi’s height. His looks. His demeanor.

He didn’t say a word in public about the millions of civilians who have died under Xi’s rule. Or about the fact that Xi’s re-election victory margins are all but mandated by the government he runs.

Good ever-lovin’ grief. Yumpin’ yiminy, man.

He came back from Beijing with nothing to show for his two-day demonstration of bluster, brvado and boorishness.

I’ll explore very briefly the other matter that’s getting considerable play: Trump’s physical condition. Dude appears to be losing a step with each public appearance. Now, I don’t fault him in any way for that. He is nearly 80 years of age. He’s the oldest man ever to sit in the Oval Office. Hell, I’m losing a step or two myself, as time is creeping on me as well, as it does for every human being on Earth.

No one close to Trump appears prepared to tell him that he’s looking like he’s been rode hard and put up wet.

Then again, such candor wouldn’t work on a man who lives in a world of fake grandeur and delusion.

God help us the rest of the way through this dips***’s presidency.

Donald Trump, International news

Who gets the next insult?

Do you remember a time when you cast your eyes on the president of the United States? You felt good about whom you were seeing … is that right?

I want that feeling to return to me. Honest. I do!

I also remember expecting the president to be better than the people he leads. These days? We’re getting much worse. It comes in the form of an insult to the person asking the question. He or she is not a messenger for the “worst people” of the media world.

These are just a few of the qualities I want in the next POTUS.

I used to believe we produced the best among us at election time. I have been profoundly disappointed and saddened by the results of two of the past three election cycles. In 2016, we elected a guy through a fluke in our system that enables a candidate to win with fewer votes than his opponent. We fired that candidate in 2020 … only to bring him back four years later after swallowing a gut full of lies and promises he made.

And it has gotten worse the second time.

Don’t label me a “snowflake.” I have seen my share of scoundrels over many years covering these events.

The current POTUS, I have to concede, is the worst among them.

International news

Avoiding comparison to Hitler

Readers of this blog will not find a direct comparison between the man who runs the U.S.A. to the worst despot ever to darken the world’s history.

I just won’t go there. You see, as much as I despise Donald Trump and his effort to turn the United States into some kind of tinhorn dictatorship, i simply cannot make the leap to compare him to Hitler, the father of the “thousand-year-old Third Reich” of Nazi Germany … tha lasted in fact from 1933 until 1945.

I’ve already taken one big leap by suggesting that Trump has gone mad, reversing an earlier vow to avoid diagnosing the imbecile in chief from afar. I am safe in suggesting it, given what the whole world is witnessing.

Let’s be real about Hitler. He killed 7 million Jews in effort to eradicate them from Earth. The Nazi army stormed across Europe from 1939 to 1945 and killed an estimated 20 million people along its murderous rampage.

At the end of the Third Reich, Hitler married his longtime mistress, Eva Braun, and then on his wedding night watched her kill herself before he blew his brains out in the subterranean Berlin bunker where he hid from the advancing Red Army.

Donald Trump is a lot of things. He is evil. He has malice in his heart. He lacks any semblance of human compassion.

Adolf Hitler, though, wallows alone in history’s cesspool.

International news

‘Chaos, confusion’ take on new ID

You might recall how, during Donald Trump’s first term in office, how his critics feared an administration run by the twin theories of “chaos and confusion.” I believe it was former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush who encapsulated the theories into a package.

Jebbie was right. Events of the past few weeks have forced the twin-pack of principles to the front of our attention. The war in Iran has been a textbook study in chaos and confusion. Trump launched the war in a fit of chaos. Now he appears ready to end it in a state of confusion.

Reports are out that Trump might be willing to stop the fighting without regaining control of the Hormuz Strait, through which about 20% of the world’s oil flows its way to the global economy.

I want to be clear. I want the fighting to stop. I don’t want to sacrifice the lives of young Americans in a war that has no expressed purpose, goal or exit strategy. However, Trump’s reported consideration of ending the war without a Hormuz agreement also is troubling. The cost of gasoline is a premier cause of inflation. It affects the cost of jet fuel, of fuel to power our trucks and rail locomotives, of the processing of food and virtually all the goods and services we consume.

I believe that Iran could declare victory if we stop the bombing with the strait still in Iranian hands. Does anyone really want that to happen? We are watching a demonstration in real time of what happens when you start a war without a long-term strategy to end it.

It’s what happens in a government run under the twin principles of chaos and confusion.

International news

Clown show has gotten serious

Well, kids … the Donald John Trump clown show has crossed a key threshold that separates the ridiculous from the tragic.

American service personnel have died because the commander in chief decided to launch a war seemingly for no apparent reason. Families have been wounded permanently with a hole in their hearts that cannot be repaired and yet the POTUS still calls their mission an “excursion” that he’s conducting “for the fun of it.”

Iran has hit back hard against the U.S. and Israeli airstrikes aimed at military targets. The Iranians are firing rockets and drones at U.S. bases and Israeli neighborhoods. Trump says he’ll know when to stop bombing when he feels it “in my bones.” What the hell … ?

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth continues to demonstrate an appalling lack of sobriety when talking to us about the war. He keeps yapping and yammering as if he’s still a weekend right-wing TV talk show host, which is what he was doing when Trump tapped him to lead the world’s premier military force.

The two of them, Trump and Hegseth, keep bellowing about the success of our military operation. Make no mistake, our warriors have performed magnificently. I join the POTUS and the defense boss in praising their work. However, the cost of success is becoming more grave every day. Men and women are dying. Families are grieving. The public has no stomach for this war, which Trump vowed he never would pursue were he elected POTUS in 2024.

Joe Kent once led the nation’s counterterrorism effort until he quit this week, citing the absence of any “imminent treat” from Iran. Trump’s response was to dismiss Kent as an afterthought. Good grief! Trump appointed this fellow to the critical office.

Here we are: We’ve gone to war against a sworn enemy of the United States; we have no stated reason for it; we have heard of no exit strategy; we don’t know what will happen when we stop the bombardment; and men and women have died while carrying out a mission with no end in sight.

Do you feel safer today than we were before we started this war? Neither do I.

International news, military news

Chaos reigns at DHS

All righty, kids, here is what I understand has happened in the war with Iran … and make no mistake, we are at war with a nation of 90-plus million individuals who are governed by a group who made “Death to America” a household phrase in the Middle East nation.

Donald Trump sends in air power off the deck of two nuclear-powered air craft carriers. U.S. and Israeli pilots bomb the crap out of Iranian command and control centers. Iran strikes back and already we have service personnel listed as killed in action.

The POTUS trots out his incompetent homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, to lie to us about motives for going to war. Noem spends more time fighting with reporters than answering their questions. Noem is supposedly our go-to Cabinet official, correct?

Then Trump fires Noem. He brings in Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin to lead the Department of Homeland Security. Mullen’s got to go from zero to 150 in an instant.

We have witnessed a prescription for chaos … at precisely the worst time, while we have launched a war with a regional power such as Iran.

I support the removal of Kristi Noem as DHS secretary. She doesn’t know what she’s doing. The brutal truth, though, is this: There could no “good time” to cut her loose. Trump started this war with no clear goal in mind, no exit strategy if we ever achieve that unknown goal, and little support from Americans who are sending their young treasure into battle.

God help us … please!

International news

Restore US-EU relations? Try this

Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that he wants the United States and the European Union to seek a fresh start to the relationship that has been damaged in recent months.

Here’s an idea, Mr. Secretary: How about advising your boss — the POTUS — to dial back his criticism of the nations that comprise the EU, which I am certain will help solve the bitterness that is growing in European capitals throughout the continent.

Donald Trump seems bent on pissing off our allies and near as I can tell from my distant perch, he’s doing a great job at it. No head of state or government in the EU has endorsed Trump’s efforts at claiming Greenland. Nor have they embraced his solidarity with Vladimir Putin in his illegal, immoral war against Ukraine.

Restart and restore relations, Marco Rubio? Start with some fundamental policy changes in the West Wing.

International news

Delusion is getting dangerous

Donald the Delusional continues to sound and act like someone intent on taking over an 800,000-square mile island that is an exclusive piece of property belonging to an ally of the United States.

Allow me to clear the air. There is no way, not a chance in hell, that Donald Trump will succeed in his effort to annex Greenland. He dare not try to take it by force, for doing so will spell the end of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Yeah, yeah. I know that Trump has expressed little regard for NATO. His lack of regard is based on stupid ignorance. He seems to have little understanding of NATO’s importance as a hedge against aggression from — hmm, let’s see — oh yes, Russia!

Denmark owns Greenland. It also is a valuable member of NATO. For the president of the U.S.A. to say out loud that he might put boots on Greenland’s icy ground to secure the island’s annexation raises the temperature to intolerable levels.

None of this is silencing the blowhard in chief. He keeps talking in a voice loud enough for the whole world to hear that he well might send in troops to annex another sovereign nation’s legally owned territory.

It makes me wonder … what the hell is driving this clown?

He declares the United States is revered around the world. It isn’t. He keeps saying the economy was the worst shape in U.S. history when he took office a year ago. Uhh, no … it wasn’t.

Trump also says Russia and China have their eyes on Greenland and he wants to annex the island to keep Russia away from the United States. Earth to Donald: Look at a map and take a gander at Alaska’s proximity to Russia, which is my way of reminding the numbskull in chief that Russia already is in the neigbhorhood!

International news

Words are failing me

Allow me this brief admission, which is that my meager command of English is failing me as I search for expressions to condemn the actions of the charlatan who sits in the Oval Office.

I am running out of ways to knee-cap Donald Trump’s efforts to disobey international law, to ignore the federal courts and to seize control of a sovereign government because its leader follows policies that Trump abhors.

Get this, kids. Now Trump appears to be ratcheting up the chatter associated with a possible takeover of Greenland, an Arctic island that exists as a territory of Denmark.

Greenland is no speck in the Arctic Ocean. It covers about 836,000 square miles, or about three times as much land mass as Texas. Someone will have to explain to me — in language I can understand — precisely why Trump would want Greenland. It’s covered in ice most of the year. Almost no human being lives there. But Trump seems to suggest he wants it. What the ever-lovin’ hell has POTUS been swilling?

The Danes aren’t going to surrender Greenland. Denmark, just like Venezuela, is a sovereign nation and it has held Greenland for several hundred years.

I cannot grasp whatever reason is rattling around Trump’s vacuous skull about why he wants Greenland. I am going to have to settle on a conclusion that Trump’s delusions of godhood and grandeur need to be reined in … right now!