military news

Trump will have hell to pay

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Why in the name of public discourse would your friendly blogger want to revisit an issue he has covered until he turns blue in the face?

Because I believe it demonstrates precisely how we have gotten to this point in Donald Trump’s term in public office.

I have said repeatedly since before Trump became a serious candidate for the only public office he has sought that a candidate for the presidency needs to have some public service experience to understand what “public service” means.

Trump’s entire adult life has been geared toward self-enrichment, self-aggrandizement and fattening his personal wealth. He has earned billions of dollars since being elected POTUS. He has funneled business toward the companies he once ran.

He doesn’t use gentile language when speaking to us as president of the U.S.A. For a POTUS to speak as he did this past Easter tells me in graphic language that this man is a phony Christian, that he doesn’t comprehend what this holiday means to actual Christians. Easter is the holiest, most joyful holiday on our calendar of faith. Yet it fell to Trump to drop an f-bomb when referencing the war against Iran … which he started!

His unfitness for the office he holds tells me everything I need to know about this profoundly immoral POTUS.

medical news

Gotta ask, finally: Has Trump lost it?

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My commitment to avoid offering armchair diagnoses of Donald Trump’s mental condition remains fairly strong … although I am going to acknowledge some kinks in the armor.

A lot of men and women, some with medical degrees, are saying the same voice about Trump: They believe the boy’s mental acuity is on a serious glide path toward the ash heap. I now shall acknowledge the obvious, which is that if enough medical experts detect cognitive decline in the head of state and commander in chief of the strongest military in world history … that’s time to engage in a serious discussion.

The question? Is it time to invoke the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the one that empowers the removal of a president from the awesome power at his disposal? We well might be entering that phase.

Trump is increasingly addled. He is changing policy stances literally every hour, or so it seems. He is angering out political allies. He started a war with Iran and has yet to tell us why he has subjected our young warriors to the prospect of war with a nation of 91 million citizens.

I don’t know if it’s time to invoke the 25th. I am leaving that call to others. A growing number of them are saying, “Hell yes, it’s time!”

I’m getting close to joining that amen chorus.

science news

Looking fondly at moon … again!

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I woke up this morning, stepped outside and caught myself looking with renewed fondness at the moon.

Imagine that. Earth’s lone moon once more has become the subject of scientists’ curiosity. NASA has sent a spaceship hurtling toward the moon. It will get there in a day or so, circle the celestial body, take lots of pictures of its dark side and then come back to Earth.

Artemis II will make the farthest journey from Earth in space travel history as it sling-shots around the moon. I am acutely aware that the three Americans and one Canadian aboard the ship are prepping for a much grander mission: establishing a moon settlement and then prepare for a much longer journey to Mars.

This initial return to the moon in 54 years is good enough for me. It thrills me greatly to see NASA back in the business of sending Americans into deep space.

As of the past few days, the moon doesn’t look so far away.

crime news

Bondi is now a ‘former U.S. attorney general’

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Allow me to join the millions of Americans who today are cheering the news that Donald Trump has fired Pam Bondi from her post as U.S. attorney general.

I would say that “Pam, we hardly knew ye,” but that wouldn’t be true. We got to know a lot about Bondi during her year-long stint as AG. None of it good, from my perspective.

She proved to be every bit the sycophant that Trump sought when he plucked her from the ranks of Florida elected officials. She was so good at it that she should have embarrassed Trump with her hideous performances testifying — if you want to call it such — before congressional committees on matters involving Jeffrey Epstein and Trump’s pardon of the Jan. 6 traitors who sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

My favorite moment came when she lied under oath to a House committee, was called on that lie by Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., and then bellowed “Don’t you ever accuse me of committing a crime!” Wait a sec, Mme. AG. The nation just heard you commit perjury when you said the record contains “no evidence” accusing Trump of committing a crime.

It damn sure does! Lieu brought it out for public display.

If the POTUS had an ounce of shame, he would be embarrassed by Bondi’s performance as AG.

Hit the road, Pam. Me? I’m going to watch the Artemis II mission head for the moon and cheer on those four brave astronauts as they continue to bring smiles to our faces.

science news

Fly, Artemis, fly!

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Allow me this brief admission, which is that today for the first time in decades my eyes filled with tears of joy as I watched the Artemis II rocket fly into space en route to the moon.

Watching the rocket blast off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., reminded me of the many mornings I would watch and wait for Mercury, Gemini and Apollo astronauts fly into history. Mom and I would do so together and we cried together too.

When was the most recent time I cried at the launch of a spaceship? I believe it was the 1998 launch of the shuttle Discovery as it contained, in the words of NASA’s announcement upon launch, a crew featuring “six astronaut heroes and one American legend.” The legend happened to be John Glenn, who was making his second flight into space 36 years after orbiting three times aboard his Mercury capsule.

We have once more seen American ingenuity score a huge triumph with the successful launch of the Artemis II rocket. We have returned to the effort of putting astronauts on a deep space target. The moon awaits. The Artemis II crew will visit the moon up close, orbiting the celestial body and coming home. Eventually, we’ll head for Mars … what happens next remains anyone’s guess.

I am thrilled to watch this effort unfold. Today, we took a relative baby step as Artemis II roared off the launch pad as it writes another chapter in our nation’s rich scientific history.

Godspeed, Artemis II crew!

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.

entertainment news, local news

‘Puppy Tales’ has returned!

It’s time for me to admit that I have been a neglectful puppy parent … but it has nothing to do with the care I give the pups who enjoy a special place in my family.

You might recall that when I had Toby the Puppy I routinely chronicled the things he would do to make my wife and me laugh out loud. Then came 2023, the worst year of my life. I lost my bride to brain cancer near the beginning of the year. Then I said goodbye to Toby near the end of that horrible year, also to cancer.

I put Puppy Tales on indefinite hold. Then in 2024, Sabol joined my family. She has been an absolute scream. In 2025, my family added Endo, who became BFF with Sabol immediately on joining us in our Princeton home.

Today, I made a command decision. I am dusting off Puppy Tales and will resume telling you stories about the joy of returning to the world of puppy parenthood.

I have a quick story to tell, so here goes.

I took Endo to the veterinarian’s office this morning. My intention was to determine her age. The doctor told me she could give me a pretty good guess, based on the condition of Endo’s teeth. We walked in, got our place in the exam room.

Endo’s doctor took a look at her teeth and said she is “between 3 1/2 and 4 years old.” So, there you go. The doc estimated Sabol’s age to be between 6 and 7.

Then I made another command decision. I declared that today, March 31, is Endo’s birthday. I declared also that she turns 4 on this day. “She’s still a young dog,” Endo’s doc told me. The doctor also assured me that she appears to be in excellent health. We had fought off a yeast infection and some skin allergies. Endo weighed about 37 pounds when she first joined me. Today she tipped the beam at 46 pounds, earning her the affectionate nickname of Fatty. She’s not fat, but she clearly has gained weight, which she wears nicely.

Sabol and Endo are still besties. I am grateful they love each other. I had a little fear that Sabol might assert herself as the queen of the house. She didn’t do that, although I do consider her to be the Alpha female around here.

I am looking forward once more to sharing their lives with you. My hope is that you enjoy reading about them, too.

economic news, Joe Biden

Trying to un-boggle my mind

My mind is in a constant state of bogglement as I watch Donald J. Trump try to blunder his way through the maelstrom he keeps creating.

I am left with a question that has no obvious answer: How does this individual look himself in the mirror and pass all this chaos, confusion and catastrophe off as someone else’s problems that he inherited upon being elected to a second term as POTUS?

The economy was rocking along under President Biden’s firm hand. Now it’s on its heels, thanks to Trump.

The nation was at peace (more or less) with the rest of the world. Then Trump goes to war with Iran.

Fuel prices were inching down under Biden. Now they’re spiraling into deep space.

Inflation was in check under Biden. Today, well … enough said about that.

And still, Trump’s delusion continues to dictate what flies forth from his yammering puss. Ah, but good news can be found if we look for it. It rests with a public that is seeing through the lies, the deception, the hypocrisy.

Donald Trump, to quote former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — and one-time Trumpkin — is committing political suicide. Christie’s advice to the rest of us? Leave the POTUS the hell alone!

science news

Yes, let’s go back to the moon!

President Kennedy had a rare talent for putting current events into context, for making us ponder the value of what we were about to undertake.

“We don’t seek to land on the moon because it is easy,” JFK said in a speech at Rice University in Houston. “We do it because it is hard.” Yes, the task of meeting Kennedy’s end-of-the 1960s goal of landing a man on the moon and “returning him safely to the Earth” was arguably the most challenging assignment ever handed to Americans.

We succeeded on July 20, 1969 when Neil Armstrong took “one giant leap for mankind” on the lunar surface.

Eleven more men would walk on the moon before we ended that program in 1972. But … we’re about to return to the one deep-space body that contains human footprints.

I am one American who relishes the idea of watching the next generation of astronauts continue our journey into the unknown of our world’s creation. Artemis II is set to take off soon. It will carry four astronauts to the moon. It will carry the first Black astronaut, the first female astronaut and the first astronaut from another country.

The question persists: Why do this again? I believe we should do it because we have a lot more to learn about the moon. The final Apollo mission, Apollo 17, brought back a trove of info on the moon. Did it close the book? Did it answer every question we ever will ask about Earth’s sole orbiting body? Hah!

I am delighted to see American ingenuity being put to work once again. Artemis II’s task will be to ferry space travelers 250,000 miles from Earth and bring them home safely. What’s more, as with the Apollo program, we have a race to win. This one is with China, which is planning a lunar landing of its own. NASA’s plans call for Artemis to land a crew in 2028.

Bruce McCandless, who’s written extensively about space travel, writes in an op-ed published Sunday in the Dallas Morning News, “You don’t get to be good at space travel by thinking about it. You get there by going.”

And so, we’ll be “going” there once more to fulfill humankind’s quest for knowledge.

Commentary on politics, current events and life experience