Tag Archives: Donald Trump

International news, military news

Settle down, Donald!

Donald Trump simply must learn — even at his advanced age of 79 — to settle down when plans don’t go quite as he envisioned or as he boasted after the fact.

Trump ordered the Air Force to strike at Iran’s military complex. He sent the B-2 stealth bombers thousands of miles to the target, where they dropped about a dozen bunker-buster bombs aimed at destroying Iranian nuclear installations.

After the mission, which was completed with no U.S. casualties — thank God! — Trump announced the installations had been “obliterated.”

Wait! Not so fast, according to U.S. intelligence analysts. They tell us the sites weren’t destroyed. They suffered heavy damage and work on the weapons likely was set back several months.

Trump’s response was to dismiss the findings. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also stands by the obliterated declaration.

All of this has me scratching my noggin. Maybe the bunker busters’ lethality is overrated? Maybe the Iranians knew about their presence in our arsenal and ensured their installations would be heavily protected?

Trump is still able to claim a success. The mission went off without a hitch. The bombers and their fighter escorts all got home safely. At the very least, the Iranians know that the leader of the Great Satan is unafraid to deploy massive military might, never mind the cost politically at home and around the world.

As for the assessments on the damage done … we have plenty of intelligence eyes and ears on the ground to get to the whole truth. No need for the commander in chief to peddle overheated falsehoods about whether our bombers obliterated the Iranian nuclear capacity.

military news, national news

One and done? Hah … !

Donald J. Trump no doubt is hoping for a “one and done” bombing mission against Iran’s nuclear weapons project.

He likely won’t get it. Instead, Iran is vowing to strike back at U.S. interests and most certainly against Israel. The question for Trump then becomes: What shall this country’s follow-up entail? More air strikes? Boots on the ground?

I am suspicious of Trump’s decision to send the B-2 bombers over Iran. I join him in praising the skill and precision exhibited by the aviators who carried out the mission. They dropped about a dozen bunker buster bombs weighing about 30,000 pounds apiece. Submarines launched Tomahawk missiles at the nuclear targets once the aircraft had completed their mission.

I do not want the United States to go to war against Iran. Under no circumstances should we commit our forces to fighting an enemy dedicated to our destruction, not to mention the destruction of Israel … which began this conflict some days ago with missile and drone attacks against the Iranian nuclear sites.

The political consequences of this event are staggering. Democrats in Congress say Trump has committed an impeachable offense by acting without prior consultation with Congress, which they say is spelled out in the Constitution. They are joined by the MAGA mob that says Trump campaigned for election on the promise to end “endless wars.” Spoiler alert: Don’t wait for the MAGA morons to join an impeachment movement against Trump.

These are dangerous times, ladies and gentlemen. We’ve been through them before. I could blow this off as a one-and-done deal, except that with the current POTUS, one never — not ever! — can predict what he’ll do.

military news

Hegseth: a disgrace to the military

Pete Hegseth’s smirking responses to serious questions from members of Congress only serve to remind many millions of us what a horrifying choice Donald Trump made in selecting him as our secretary of defense.

Trump plucked Hegseth from the weekend TV talk show ranks to put him in charge of managing the most lethal military force in human history. Hegseth entered his new job with myriad issues: questions over how he treats women; alleged drug and alcohol abuse on the job; his blatant politicization of every issue that comes across his radar; his lack of experience running an agency of any size, let alone one as massive as the Department of Defense.

Yet there he is. He lectures members of Congress on how they should conduct themselves while questioning his policy decisions. Hegseth actually has smirked and snarked his way through answers from the likes of U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat who lost both legs while flying for the U.S. Army in combat in the Middle East.

I get that Hegseth earned his spurs as a weekend co-host on “Fox and Friends,” where he made a handsome living poking fun at politicians’ policies. As I watch him answer questions from House members and senators, I am struck by the perception that he still sees himself in that former role.

The dude needs to take his new gig far more seriously than he does at the moment. He fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the chief of Naval Operations. He has yet to hire a new top sailor. When asked if an appointment is coming, all he can offer is a bland “I’ll make that decision due course.” What the hell … ?

We are in the midst of a potentially deadly crisis in the Middle East and Trump’s version of the “best people” in the Pentagon doesn’t have a clue as to what he must do to keep us all safe.

Trump keeps vowing to surround himself with “the best people.” He wants us to believe Pete Hegseth is the best person he could find to run the Pentagon?

national news

Our system will hold up!

I am running out of ways to say what I believe in my heart about the strength of the governmental system our nation’s founders devised in the late 18th century.

We had a spirited discussion in a worship study this week in the church I attend. It turned to the events in D.C. and whether Donald Trump was going to destroy the republic and create a dictatorship. I sought to remind my friends, many of whom have that concern, that the founders created an imperfect governing document, but imbued in it the ability to withstand crises such as what many of us believe is unfolding.

I reminded my friends of Gerald Ford’s wisdom spoken minutes after he became president in August 1974, that “the Constitution works.” I said that it worked in that moment. I believe it will withstand the tumult being stirred at this very moment.

My faith in our founders’ wisdom is about all I have left on which to rely. I reminded them that we endured a Great Depression, engaged in two world wars, killed 600,000 of our own citizens in our Civil War, slogged through four presidential impeachment trials and watched our government fumble, bumble and bamboozle its way through various and sundry crises of various sizes and importance.

What has remained intact through all of that? The Constitution of the United States of America.

I want this foolishness to stop as much as the next guy. I am using this blog to seek to wield some influence toward that end. We have an election coming up in a little more than a year from now. Another one will follow two years after that. We have the power to enact fundamental change … just as the Constitution grants it to us.

military news

The MAGA morons are right! Who knew?

Never in a zillion years would I have imagined saying what I am about to say … which is that the MAGA cabal that powered Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency are correct to object to any direct American involvement in the dispute between Israel and Iran.

This dispute inside the Republican Party is an amazing thing to witness. Trump campaigned for the presidency vowing to end our involvement in wars seemingly without end. Yet now he is pondering whether to launch air strikes against Iran with the aim of destroying the country’s capability to develop nuclear weapons.

Which is the reason why Israel hit them hard in the first place!

Some Republicans are lobbying Trump to launch the strikes. The MAGA crowd says Trump would break a key campaign promise by doing so. The MAGA goons are right! Can you believe I just said that? Neither can I.

Israel already has plenty of military capability to defend itself against Iran. It also has the know-how to strike military targets. The mission that began this exchange was years in the planning and the Israeli Defense Force decided the time is right now to hit the Iranians hard. So, it did.

Not only did the Israeli air force strike hardened targets, it managed to kill key Iranian military leaders it had identified.

Trump said he will decide within two weeks whether to launch strikes that could include huge bunker-buster bombs that only the United States can deploy.

Where does it end? How do we get out of such an engagement? And how many young American lives might we lose in this effort?

Listen to your political base, Donald Trump. They are correct!

military news, national news

When these men speak …

When men of the caliber of several general-grade military officers speak with one voice about the conduct of the commander in chief, it is time to take heed.

They all say essentially the same thing about Donald Trump. That he doesn’t honor the office he occupies and is embarking on a dangerous path toward a dictatorship.

Former Marine Gens. John Kelly and James Mattis, former Navy Admiral Mike Mullen, former Army Gen. Martin Dempsey all speak with a single voice. Mattis said Trump is purposely seeking to divide the nation. Kelly said we need to gauge who we elect as president on the basis of his character. Mullen said he has been reluctant to speak out but we have reached a “transformative point.” Dempsey said U.S. citizens are not “the enemy.”

I will follow the wisdom of these patriots at any time before I would believe a single statement that flies out of Trump’s mouth. These men all have fought for their nation. One of them — Gen. Kelly — lost a son who died in combat. They know better than most of us the value of public service and the price one can pay in service to the nation we all love.

I have stated before that Donald Trump has spent his entire adult life in pursuit of self-enrichment. That is continuing to this very moment. To think Americans elected someone with zero regard for the democratic principles he pledged to protect and defend is an affront to anyone who calls themselves a patriot.

media news

ABC acted correctly in firing journalist

ABC News had no choice but to take the action it took in firing veteran journalist Terry Moran who let his bias get in the way of his doing his job.

The network had suspended Moran over a social media message he posted declaring that Donald Trump and chief White House aide Stephen Miller were conveyers of hate. He said they both drew their “nourishment” from the hate they spew regularly.

That was a seriously bad call. On Moran’s part!

ABC’s decision to not review Moran’s contract became quite obvious immediately after the network suspended him. Moran had been with the network for 28 years and had drawn high praise for the work he did in covering politics, government and public policy. For him to reveal his contempt for Trump and for Miller betrayed every single tenet of fair-minded journalism imaginable. He took the message down immediately, but the damage was done. As a former colleague of mine used to observe: You cannot unhonk a horn.

Whether one agrees with Moran’s assessment of these two men is absolutely not the issue. The issue is that Moran can never be trusted to tell news viewers the objective, unvarnished truth about what he is reporting on issues involving the Trump administration.

I applaud ABC News for the decision it made regading Terry Moran. His job was to keep his personal feelings about the people he covers to himself. He failed miserably to uphold that commitment.

Uncategorized

Trump makes startling admission

The Donald Trump-Elon Musk bromance is a goner, but left virtually untouched has been a startling admission that Trump made while denigrating the character of the world’s richest human being.

Musk has called Trump’s “big beautiful bill” an “abomination” and said Trump should be impeached. Trump’s response? He called Musk a man with a serious drug problem. I forget the exact words he used, but he said that Musk has been battling drug addiction.

OK. Here’s what is so remarkable. Trump hired a drug addict to remake the federal government, allegedly. He hired a guy he said couldn’t be trusted to remain sober long enough to make intelligent decisions about the future of government programs upon which millions of Americans depend.

What the f***?

Of course, Trump didn’t offer a single shred of proof of the allegation he has made about Musk’s alleged drug habit. The point, though, is that Trump has said time and again how he relies on hiring the “best people” to do the work on his behalf.

Which is it, dude?

Moreover, where is the media on all this? No one has explored the substance of what Trump has alleged about Mr. Tesla/SpaceX and the things he says drives this world’s richest human.

This idiot, the president, needs to be held accountable for the recklessness of his rhetoric.

national news

Populism has been perverted

Let’s revisit a political philosophy that in this current age of perversion has been twisted and shaped into something that bears zero resemblance to what many of us have understood it to mean.

Populism! It has become a mantra repeated by the MAGA morons who now dominate the Republican Party. I decided to check what my dog-eared American Heritage Dictionary has to say about the term.

It states: “Populism: A political philosophy opposing the concentration of power in the hands of corporations, the government and the rich.”

I have to ask: Does that sound like what we’re getting from Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and the MAGA numbskulls these days? Not to me.

Nope. Trump has done quite the opposite. He has scarfed up tremendous amounts of power for himself. He and Musk have summarily fired thousands of individuals from government service. He wants to bestow tax breaks for zillionaires, while slashing Medicare and Medicaid benefits from ordinary slobs like you and me. Trump has sicced the Justice Department on media outlets and anyone who has dared speak out against what he intends to do; he has taken DOJ “weaponization” to a level never before contemplated.

I don’t recall Trump ever saying a single word about any of this while campaigning twice for the presidency. Do you? I didn’t think so. He said he would look out for the little guy. He campaigned as a populist. You remember that, right?

Except that Trump doesn’t know the meaning of the term. I have just laid it out there for all of you. Maybe someone who reads this blog can let Trump know what one man’s dictionary says about the philosophy he has perverted into something unrecognizable.

Now, though, comes the big question: When in the name of fighting back against the deceit and lies will Republicans in power rise up to seize the power that this tinhorn dictator seeks for himself?

Is there any courage left in the halls of power? Populism … my ass!

Donald Trump

What would Mom and Dad think?

2 Comments

My late parents departed this Earth long before Donald J. Trump burst onto the nation’s political scene.

Dad was gone in 1980; Mom died four years later. Neither of them had the displeasure of suffering from the whims and machinations of this truly bizarre individual. Still, I think about them every day even without having to attach their names to what they might be thinking about what the current president is doing to our economy and to our standing in the world.

I’ll be candid on assessing their analytical skills. Dad wasn’t much of a critical thinker. He relied on his gut. A side of me actually thinks he might have been impressed by Trump’s phony bravado. Dad was a proud World War II veteran, though, and my hope is that he would be repulsed by Trump’s blatant disrespect for those of us who did don the uniform of our country.

Mom, however, was a much deeper thinker than Dad. I will presume that she would be aghast at Trump’s homophobia, his racism, lack of empathy and compassion, his boasting of business skills when he’s run every endeavor he’s ever touched into the ground.

Therefore, on these matters, I am much more my mother’s son than I am a part of Dad.

They’re no longer around and I shudder to think how they would respond to what is unfolding during this second Donald Trump turn as POTUS.

I shudder, indeed, at how Dad might be cheering the charlatan on as he lies through his teeth. More importantly, though, I shudder at how Mom would respond to this individual’s overall unfitness for the nation’s highest and most honored public office.