If The Shoe Fits...

🎵If you wanna know how he screws up so, it’s in the shoes.🎵  

Everything about Trump, his hires, and the chaotic misrule that followed, his failures, his cabinet’s incompetence, is manifested in Little Marco clomping around in oversize shoes. 

Wise readers who spend less time than I obsessively following the news and olds of Trump, might be unaware of this seemingly trivial but encapsulating fact: Trump, whose tastes run to grandiose gold and titular temples, is fond of cheap, shiny, wingtip shoes. So, either drawing on the billions he’s made during his “presidency” from unconstitutional grifts or, perhaps, from donations by gullible MAGAs, he bought some for his cabinet-makers. It’s reported he first asked their sizes, in which case the ill-fitting was a test of how much scaturient groveling he could elicit.

So there’s the Secretary of State of exceptional America wearing shoes three sizes too big, afraid to have said anything, submissively gluteosculating. Did he feel humiliated or, as it piled up, has he become inured? Either way, it explains how Trump got his war-not-war. No one pushed back, even those who undoubtedly apprehended the consequences. Trump chose lackeys, not people of competence and spine. Like Clark Clifford. 

So he got his war, about which he and perhaps his most unqualified appointee, Pete Hegseth, haven’t stopped bragging in the most vainglorious, tough-guy terms; war as video game, deaths as trophies. Who could observe the infantile, stupid preening of that tumescent pair and conclude they were ever capable of thinking past their emission of rockets and bombs? How stupid? Minesweeper stupid.

Trump expressed surprise at Iran’s response. No one told me, he claimed. Which, as usual, is a lie; in terms of repercussions, maybe his biggest. The Commander-in-Chief -- except for stupidity, Earth’s “most powerful” person -- didn’t expect attacks on other countries. Didn’t expect the Strait of Hormuz to be closed. Now that it happened, Trump is begging other nations for help. The same nations to whom he’s been giving the middle finger for years. As of this writing, other nations have gestured in kind. The grovelee became the groveler.

If this were a movie script, it’d have been hidden like the Epstein files. (Remember them?) While Iran blocks ours, Trump is letting their oil tankers through. Ukraine, abandoned by Trump, fighting for its life against Russia, is nevertheless helping the US and other countries with drone technology. Worried about the electoral impact of oil prices, Trump removed sanctions on Putin’s oil, gifting him billions of petrodollars to finance his war against Ukraine. While Ukraine helps us. And while Putin helps Iran target US resources. It’s inexplicable.

Or is it?

Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) recently gave a speech in the well of the Senate. It’s long, so only the pathologically obsessed, like me, will watch it. So here’s the TL;DR: He detailed connections between Jeffrey Epstein, Vladimir Putin, and Trump. Epstein, he said, installed hidden cameras in every room of his home, where he provided powerful men with underage girls and young women. The infusions of money he obtained from Russian sources, the senator implied, were in exchange for supplying videos of those encounters to Putin.

As the E-files make clear, Trump was a frequent visitor. Unsaid, but a defensible conclusion regarding why Trump, a bully to everyone else while obsequiing himself to Putin: It ain’t “pee tapes.” We may never know, because Epstein hung himself. He did, right?

As much as Trump would like to declare victory, Iran keeps getting in the way, by continuing to strike neighboring countries and turning ships in or near the Strait into fireballs. People who understand these things, which doesn’t include Trump and Hegseth but probably does the admirals and generals they fired and some of those who remain but are silent or ignored, say the only way to prevent those attacks is by controlling Iran’s shoreline on the Gulf. Which can’t be done from the air. So “no boots on the ground” Trump is sending a Marine Expeditionary Force to the region, complete with landing craft and 2,500 Marines. So far.

Trump’s bones will tell him when to quit. That’s what he said: he’ll end the war when he feels it in his bones. If that doesn’t give you confidence in his Chiefly Commanderness, this will: Bragging about destroying Iran’s main oil facility, he said he might do more “for the fun of it.” While people suffer everywhere, and while Iran might hand the world to China, Trump is having fun.

To our infinite shame, America elected a shallow, thoughtless man whose deplorable choices for cabinet secretaries were approved by cowardly Republican senators, some of whom surely knew better. Whatever in Trump’s impoverished mind justified leading us into his illegal war-not-war, his conduct proves his dangerous incompetence. And Congressional Republicans continue to three-monkey our path to doom.

And now, this: Due to non-political circumstances, my focus will be elsewhere for the foreseeable future.

Clowns In Charge

 

Five-star General Omar Bradley, hero of WWII, first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote, “Wars can be prevented just as surely as they can be provoked, and we who fail to prevent them, must share the guilt for the dead.”

When it was learned that 168 Iranian schoolgirls and 14 teachers were killed in the initial bombing attacks in Iran, Trump and Hegseth lied. They kept lying until video revealed a Tomahawk missile, used there only by the US, hitting adjacent buildings, pieces of it found in the schoolyard. “I didn’t know enough about it,” explained the Commander-in-Chief. John Kennedy, MAGA senator from Louisiana whose questioning of Kristi Noem may have led to her firing, didn’t lie, saying “We made a mistake.” Good for him. He’s self-importantly smug, but “blind squirrels” and all that.

Trump and Hegseth don’t guilt. They gloat. Said Hegseth: “We are punching them while they’re down, which is exactly how it should be.” And: “The only ones that need to be worried right now are Iranians that think they’re going to live.” When Trump finished announcing his war, unpresidential in a white “USA” baseball cap, he went golfing. Since then he’s made manly remarks like, “It’s fun to sink ships.” And, about casualties, “Before it ends, that’s the way it is.”

The human costs of war mean nothing to them; it’s all about flaunting power. As proof, Trump ended a Pentagon program studying ways to prevent civilian casualties. His wars don’t accept accountability. Nothing in his administration does.

He wore that disrespectful hat again at Dover AFB when receiving coffins of his war dead. That was too much even for Fox “news,” which showed footage not of that event but of one where he wasn’t standing under the hat. It’s me, it’s me, he’d said. Not this time, they said, later apologizing for their deception.

I spent a year in a combat zone, dodging rockets (all but one), caring for troops injured physically and mentally. War is horrible, righteous or not. It reveals humankind’s most damnable imperfections, its worst failures. Innocents die, survivors are ruined, combatants, too. In a democracy, we should demand that leaders who take our country to war reflect that seriousness and care about the consequences. For Trump and Hegseth to do so, they’d have to lie. If Congressional Republicans feel it, they conceal it convincingly.

Instead, having handed control to a lifelong liar, a psychically-wounded malignant narcissist who makes everything only about himself, who craves praise and manufactures it when he doesn’t get it, who made leader of our Department of Don’t-Say-War a third-string propagandist talk show host, we must watch their unseemly braggadocio, embarrassed and worried. Plus their despicable posting on social media of video promoting their war with scenes from macho movies and martial video games. Titled “Justice The American Way.” This is their thinking, sending America to war.

When Bush the Second invaded Iraq, a brother-in-law, a Marine and fellow Vietnam veteran who’d been in it much deeper than me, called to share feelings about war. Anyone who’s been there in person would think about Trump’s, even if supporting it, sad for everyone involved, remembering. Five-time-deferred, bone-spur-fabricating Trump can’t even fake it. He’s besotted with power. “People are loving what’s happening,” he said. “Cuba’s going to fall, too.” And “Khamenei’s son is a lightweight. I have to be involved in the appointment, like with Delcy in Venezuela.” King of the world. In response, Iran chose Khamenei’s son.

Ever-changing reasons for the war Trump and his henchfolk have offered might also include the riches his sons will collect from their investments in a drone-making company, to which their daddy just awarded a multi-million dollar contract. (But, but, Hunter Biden!!) At the very least, Americans who support the war for any reason ought to want more from their leaders than their frat-boy, chest-bumping, high-fivin’ white-guy (historic reference) behavior. The financial and security effects are worse, but those displays are loathsome.

It’s increasingly obvious how poorly the Trump administration thought through the aftermath of their initial strike. They expected immediate capitulation by the Iranians, and made no plans – hadn’t even considered the need – for evacuating Americans from the region. (Jody Allen sent the Seahawks plane.) Had they imagined – which would have required thinking beyond Trump’s signature shallowness – that Iran might respond by closing the Strait of Hormuz, they would have taken steps to prevent it and its subsequent worldwide havoc. That’s the price of electing a walking psych textbook who chooses advisers based not on qualification but on unquestioning genuflection.

Finally, a housekeeping note. Many readers find my tinyurls annoying. Their use derives from my blogging, where I can hot-link words to sources, non-disruptively. So, fighting temptation, I’ve provided none here. If asked for verification, I’ll happily comply. I don’t make stuff up. Except for the occasional word. 

Also finally: I’ll miss Jon Bauer, the Herald’s moving-on editorial page editor. The community will, too. He’s been great to work with. Happy trails to him. And to the Herald.

Wag, Doggie, Wag

 

                      Chat GPT, per me

“News that the Epstein files contain testimony about Trump raping a 13-year-old girl came at a bad time for the people of Iran.”

The quote is from a friend of a friend. Since Trump’s reasons for the war have changed every day, its implication is as compelling as any. After all, he predicted it. Was it to free the Iranian people, or because in this, the tenth year of Iran being two weeks away from building a nuclear bomb and missiles that can deliver them to U.S. soil, there was imminent danger? Even Trump’s Pentagon has denied that one. So Trump called reporters, trying out various justifications. It could also be God’s plan to hasten the Second Coming. Hegseth thinks so. Dismissing God, as usual, Trump blames Presidents Obama and Biden. Also, he "had a feeling." God help us.

The outcome of Trump’s illegal war won’t be known for months. Years, maybe. What we do know is that, because the Constitution gives the power to declare war only to Congress, what he did was unquestionably unconstitutional, and in violation of the War Powers Act. Interviewed by ABC’s Jonathan Karl, Trump puffed, “Nobody could have done this but me.” He’s right. No other president has been or would be so willing to violate the Constitution for personal aggrandizement.

Even if it turns out well and peace blooms like the Rose Garden he destroyed, is this how America should do war? Started unilaterally by a pathological liar and malignant narcissist who sees everything through the lens of self? It’s suboptimal. From the reaction of Congressional Republicans, though, you’d never know it. To their list of avertebral acquiescence to Trump’s usurpations, add starting wars.

“Peace president” Trump expended little effort to make his case for war. Given his history of monumental lies, there’s no reason to believe anything he says about it now. The war has cost lives of Americans, Iranian schoolgirls, and who-knows-how-many other Iranians and residents of neighboring countries. Three warplanes, so far, countless drones and missiles, and we still don’t know why. “Freedom isn’t free,” was the callous response of Trump’s UN Ambassador to the loss of American lives. Whose freedom, he didn’t specify. Pentagon Pete clarified, saying, “We didn’t start this war.” Not only is the statement from a non-parallel universe, but by using the word, as has Trump, he exploded the argument by MAGA and Foxian state media that it isn’t war. Expecting to convince the credulous that Trump isn’t violating the Constitution. Another Big Lie. Like stolen elections.

It’s reported that urging from Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman is what convinced Trump to go ahead, and to imply, contrary to US intelligence findings, that America was under grave threat. World leaders have come to recognize and exploit Trump’s vulnerability to flattery, so we can imagine what was whispered in his ear by those two, for their own purposes: “Sir, you’ll be remembered as a hero for all eternity. Golden likenesses will be built, their height commensurate with your towering stature. Cities and byways will bear your name. Do it, your excellency. Just do it.” China’s Xi’s whispering is likely to himself. “Deplete your weaponry while we increase ours, massively. Do it, Dupable Donald.” Putin thinks: “Keep it up, my pretty. Let Ukraine die. Do it for me.”

Would I suggest that Trump is hoping for pro-Iranian terrorist attacks here, so he can declare a national emergency and cancel the November elections? Nope. Not my style. For one thing, there’s never been a less four-dimensional thinker than one-dimensional (me, only me) Trump. But I reserve the right to be wrong. It could be the plans they’re hatching to claim China stole the 2024 election.

Trump’s success in kidnapping Venezuela’s Maduro fed his hunger to appear powerful. He’s smelled blood and likes it. We’re at war for reasons hidden within the mind of an observably disturbed man. That’s why the Founders gave declaring war to Congress; i.e., the people.

But for now, let’s watch events unfold before speculating further. There’s else to address. Like Undersight Committee Chairman Comer subpoenaing the Clintons to testify about Jeffry Epstein, hoping to shift attention from Trump’s role and embarrass them. He failed hillaryously. Wisely, Secretary Clinton pre-released her scathing opening statement to the public, in which she thoroughly dinged Comer’s hum.

Kash Patel is firing FBI agents involved in executing the judicial warrant to search Mar-a-Lago for the classified documents Trump stole, hid, and lied about. Those agents also worked on assessing threats from Iran, among others. Smart move. Great timing.

Finally, before I run out of room, there’s DHS lying about agents who left a blind man to freeze to death in Buffalo.

The worst of our worst are in charge, intentionally cruel and dangerously inept, at home and overseas. What it means is that Trump’s planned election sabotage MUST be overcome. Massive turnout might be the only way.