Our Alleged “Stable Genius”

Posted: April 29, 2026 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Truth Social meme posted, when most of us were asleep, by the President. Of the United States. When I first saw it I thought it was a joke put up by a fake account. Sadly, it is real.

With all of the talk about ballrooms and sea shells on North Carolina beaches and the continued stonewalling about the Epstein files, one may forget that we are still at war with Iran. The Strait of Hormuz remains closed, gas is now averaging $4.23 a gallon nationally, farmers are having trouble finding fertilizer for the planting season and our Commander-in-Chief knows only how to use AI to try and make himself look tough. Emphasis on “try.” Trump thinks that he can bully Iran into giving up its “nuclear dust” (as he calls it, and I’m not really sure what he means but probably he means enriched uranium). This is the very same guy that claimed it was “obliterated” last summer. I could fill several pages in this space recounting all of the lies that he and his administration have told about this war of choice, but since most of them are preposterous and easily debunked, I won’t waste your time. Simply ask yourself if you, and indeed the world, are better off, safer and more financially secure as a result of this war than you were two months ago.

We still do not know what the reason for the attacks on Iran are all about. Our service men and women have performed professionally and with skill. They are tremendous. But what are they risking their lives to do? Tactical brilliance does not translate to strategic success without a well thought out rationale for war with clear goals set at the beginning. Trump and his man servant Hegseth continue to change their story with each passing day and cannot articulate any strategic goals, only tactical successes. Military planning is based on, and in this order, delineating the ends (strategic goal — when do you know you won?), ways (the operational use of force — attack from the air, the sea, direct assault, hit command and control?) and the means (tactical application of force — what armaments and forces are available?). All three must be in alignment.

Currently, we are in a stalemate with Iran. Both the Iranians and the Trump Administration think that they can wait out the other side and that they can force the other guy to give up. Among the many factors that this administration overlooked or underestimated is the steadfast will of the Iranian culture. Couple that with a government that does not answer to the population but is only interested in its own survival, and it gives the Iranians an advantage. They are suffering, without a doubt, but most regional experts assess that they can hold out much longer than expected. The rest of the world is already beginning to suffer and will be experiencing real economic and quality of life hardships in the very near future. It is unclear whether or not our friends and allies (a different topic as Trump works overtime to alienate every single one of them — except his best buddy Putin) can bring pressure to bear for Trump to settle with the Iranians.

As it stands now, and Trump could change it all in the next five minutes with a Truth Social post, the Iranians have offered to reopen the Strait and then come to the negotiating table to discuss other issues, such as what to do about their enriched uranium. In exchange, the U.S. must lift its blockade of Iran. Trump refuses to discuss it and is increasing the strength of the blockade and ordering the seizure of Iranian ships worldwide.

In recent days it became clear that the U.S. and our regional supporters suffered more damage than previously understood. It is estimated that the U.S. suffered about five billion dollars in damages to equipment such as missile defense radars in Qatar, Jordan and UAE, the Navy’s Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain, air bases in Jordan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and numerous high end aircraft and drones, to name a few. All of the Gulf state countries plus Jordan suffered damage to their infrastructure and some oil and natural gas facilities. Of course most importantly, human beings were killed and injured including thirteen U.S. service members killed and around three hundred and fifty wounded.

Trump is in a bind. He has lost interest in the war but cannot look weak. If he withdraws U.S. forces without some concessions from the Iranians the world will consider it a defeat. If he stays indefinitely he looks weak because Iran gets stronger everyday and will have survived our best shot and lived to fight another day. Continuing direct combat operations weakens our ability to defend our interests in other hotspots around the world. The U.S. has already used up thousands of cruise missiles and air defense missiles that could take three to five years to replenish. According to the Department of Defense, the war cost us 25 billion dollars to date. Most analysts put the total costs at a much higher level, as much as 65 billion dollars. Today Hegseth testified before Congress that the DOD requested budget for the next fiscal year is 1.5 trillion dollars, a forty-four percent increase over the current budget.

To settle his war of choice, Trump must get serious about the negotiations. Sending two real estate tycoons to negotiate a meaningful settlement is ridiculous, not to mention that the last two times the Iranians met with these same individuals — thinking that they were making meaningful progress — their country was attacked. There can be no “take it or leave it” agreement forced on the Iranians. Bullying will not work — it only makes them more determined. It will take a team of experts and seasoned negotiators to spend a lot of time with great patience to reach a negotiated settlement. Trump should set the process in motion, shut up, and see what happens over time. Pakistan showed that it can be a helpful and effective mediator. Let them try.

In the end, Trump is likely to end up with an agreement that is barely as good as the one that the U.S. negotiated during the Obama Administration that Trump tore up. The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between Iran and the “P-5+1” (the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council US, UK, France, China, Russia, plus Germany along with the EU) limited Iran’s capability to enrich uranium. The agreement limited the number of Iranian centrifuges, the level of enrichment and the size of their stockpiles. As part of the agreement, intrusive monitoring was conducted by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). In exchange, Iran got some sanctions relief, some frozen assets were released and a timetable for other future provisions. Sanctions remained in place for Iran’s missile program, support for terrorist groups and efforts to improve Iran’s human rights record. It was not perfect but it was working, it was building trust for future agreements, and it kept Iran in relative check. Israel opposed the deal. It took twenty months of detailed negotiations using technical experts as well as diplomatic experts. The negotiations were slow going with ups and downs as each side sounded out the other and built trust. No such expertise accompanied Trump’s recent negotiating teams. I suppose that as a very stable genius he did not need any other experts working on the issues.

Trump is likely to declare victory once the Strait of Hormuz is reopened. The very Strait that was open to free flowing ship traffic before the war. He will continue to make noises about the Iranian nuclear program but will not seriously negotiate a settlement. The wild card in ending the war is Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. He is determined to turn southern Lebanon into another Gaza strip by destroying it in his fight with Hezbollah. He is also not satisfied with the status quo in Iran. The next step may not be Trump’s to take. Remember that initially Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that the U.S. attacked Iran because Israel was about to do so and since Iran would retaliate, the U.S. decided to strike first. One wonders who has their hand on the wheel driving us to who knows where.

No Limits? No Constitution.

Posted: September 29, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

I have been away for awhile. If I thought we were on the path to authoritarianism a month ago, I have dropped the Pollyanna wishful thinking and now know that we are under a very real authoritarian regime. That regime no longer pretends to be doing the people’s business or even trying to couch their activities in some dressed up guise of justification. Now, they take the most blatant un-Constitutional actions and do not even try to hide it.

A quick look at what has happened over the past few weeks gives a giant red flashing light that we are in authoritarian territory. A few examples:

  • The president wanted a comedian off the air and he was subsequently suspended from his late night show. A clear violation of the First Amendment. Stations he does not like should lose their broadcasting licenses. In Trump’s own words, “the stories are 97 percent bad. They’ll take a great story and they’ll make it bad. See, I think that’s really illegal, personally.” “George Slopadopolous [sic] had to pay $16 million to me because of what he said, and that’s ABC… I think that reporting has to be at least accurate to an extent. Again, when somebody is given, 97 percent of the stories are bad about a person, that’s no longer free speech… that’s just cheating, and they cheat. And they become really members of the Democratic National Committee is what they are, the networks, in my opinion. They’re offshoots of the Democratic National Committee.”
  • Further attacking the First Amendment, officials in the Department of Defense (DOD) announced that reporters can no longer report on issues, classified or unclassified, that have not been officially released by DOD. “DoW [sic] information must be approved for public release by an appropriate authorizing official before it is released, even if it is unclassified.” (DOW stands for Department of War, more cosplay by Secretary of Defense (SECDEF) Pete Hegseth. Only Congress can change the department’s name.) This new requirement seriously hinders the public’s right to know what is happening in the Pentagon.
  • Representative Mikie Sherill (D-NJ) who is running for governor of the state discovered that her opponent received a nearly completely unredacted copy of her complete military file, including much personal information such as her Social Security Number, home address, insurance information, performance evaluations and other highly sensitive information in an attempt to dig up damaging information to hurt her run for governor. The information was provided by the Trump Administration through the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) headed by interim administrator Secretary of State Marco Rubio. To do so is illegal.
  • The U.S. claims it has now destroyed three small boats from Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea that the administration claims were operated by narco-terrorists smuggling fentanyl into the U.S. There is no legal basis for such action and the administration has provided no information to substantiate their claims. Those sized boats cannot reach the U.S. from Venezuela. (Most fentanyl in the U.S. comes from Mexico and China and is smuggled in vehicles at the U.S. – Mexico border).
  • Trump broke our justice system by ordering the Department of Justice (DOJ) to prosecute his “enemies” starting with former FBI Director James Comey. Trump’s hand picked prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia refused to do so because of a lack of evidence. He was replaced by Trump’s personal lawyer (who also happens to be in charge of “cleaning up” the Smithsonian museum system). She has no prosecutorial experience. No career attorneys in the office would sign the paper work needed to bring an indictment. He has several more former and current officials that he is directing be prosecuted, including his own appointed FBI Director Christopher Wray.
  • The FBI and DOJ dropped an investigation into “Border Tsar” Tom Homan who last year took $50,000 in cash in a paper bag, captured on tape, from FBI agents posing as businessmen looking for favors from a new Trump administration. To date, no one, including Mr. Homan disputes he took the cash, only that there is no evidence it was a crime. (Maybe because $50,000 is chump change in this administration’s many grift and graft schemes?)
  • The most troubling of all developments to me in recent weeks is that Trump signed an Executive Order making “Antifa” a domestic terrorist organization. There are two problems with this. One, there are no laws in the U.S. that pertain to domestic terrorist organizations. Second, Antifa is not an organization. It is short hand for anti-fascist or opposition to fascism. It has no organizational attributes. There are no designated leaders. It is a loose coalition of individuals that protest decisions that they believe contributes to our government being run like a fascist dictatorship. There are no bank funds or identifiable assets or sources of income. Essentially it is just a protest movement and an ideology. So, in essence, Trump is trying to get the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to crack down on political dissent. Anyone, any organization, anything at all that Trump declares is part of, or contributes to, Antifa is a terrorist. Put plainly, if you do not support Trump or MAGA you are susceptible to being investigated, arrested and prosecuted at Trump’s direction. This runs counter to our Constitution in too many ways to enumerate.

The week to come is a potential historic breaking point. A few examples:

  • In a very dangerous development, Trump is shopping a Congressional bill that would allow him as president to declare any individual, organization or country in the world a narco-terrorist. It would allow him to use the U.S. military to eliminate those so designated. It does not define what exactly is a narco-terrorist and it does not geographically limit where force could be used. It gives Trump carte blanche to do as he sees fit. Scary powers for any president. In this president’s hands it is essentially a license to use the military where ever and how ever he desires.
  • SECDEF Hegseth ordered every general and flag officer (Generals and Admirals) in the world to come to the Marine Corps Base in Quantico Virginia tomorrow. Note that the DOD has the most secure video-conference capability in the world and that there is active conflict in some of the areas from which these officers were summoned. No one is sure about the purpose of the meeting. Originally it was just SECDEF that was going to be there. Now Trump has inserted himself into the proceedings. I am very worried about what this means. The possibilities range from forcing some sort of loyalty to Trump, to Hegseth lecturing seasoned combat veterans on what the “warrior ethos” means. That phrase is the Fox News personality’s go-to catch-all to justify whatever harebrained scheme he is promoting at the moment. I am most concerned that this is some kind of propaganda stunt to make it look like the senior military officers are in Hegseth’s and Trump’s camps on all of their un-Constitutional schemes. This has bad vibes all over it. I have no doubt that the officers will uphold their non-political professional demeanor. They will not applaud as Trump brags about his alleged macho accomplishments. They will resist every attempt to politicize the moment. However, AI, spliced video and other devious and unethical methods can be manipulated to make it look like they have pledged allegiance to Trump. Otherwise, why make them show up in person for a “lecture”?
  • The government runs out of money tomorrow night. Trump has directed that if that happens, he wants thousands of people fired from their jobs. Not furloughed as in other shutdowns. Fired. How will that be used to his advantage to strengthen his regime?
  • Trump is ordering the military to Portland Oregon to “save” the “war ravaged” city under siege from Antifa. A totally made up excuse justified by doctored video from years ago. He wants them to use “Full Force, if necessary” [sic]. There is nothing in any military Rules of Engagement (ROE) called “Full Force.” Nobody knows what that means but I suppose he thinks the military should shoot American citizens if he declares them to be Antifa. (Do you see a pattern building here?) The military does not enforce the law in the U.S. and they certainly do not shoot fellow citizens. This tenant is perhaps the most ingrained value in our current military. The Constitution comes first. Not a demented politician.
  • Trump is sending 50 billion dollars to Argentina to save their economy. America First my…. Argentina is going into economic ruin for the umpteenth time but Trump needs to save a fellow right wing wannabe dictator. Of course, thanks to tariffs, U.S. farmers cannot sell their crops to China and are going bankrupt. So, what countries are taking up the slack to sell to China? Brazil and, wait for it, Argentina. So Trump is bailing out an economy that is using his tariffs to save their own farmers while Americans are left holding the bag. America!

There is more. Too much more. This will be an important week. The onslaught on our rights and values continues. There is hope. Jimmy Kimmel got back on the air when most Americans, left leaning or right leaning, pushed back on the limits to free speech. That is the lesson of our time. Congress appears helpless, district and appeals courts push back on Trump only to be over ruled by the Supreme Court in unexplained “emergency” rulings, but the people still have impact.

Don’t accept the lies. Don’t ignore what is happening. Keep pushing.

The Threat To Our Military

Posted: September 5, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Last Tuesday, video was released showing an attack by a U.S. military asset on a small boat reportedly sunk with the loss of all onboard. The location of the attack was not disclosed, but it was claimed that the boat was in international waters after leaving the mainland of Venezuela. Facts surrounding the incident are scarce. There are assertions from the President Bone Spurs Administration that it was an identified narco-terrorist boat filled with illegal drugs headed “eventually” to the U.S. In my career as on officer in the U.S. Navy, I participated in numerous drug operations in the Caribbean Sea.

For decades, the U.S. Navy (USN) and the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) have conducted anti-drug operations. They have always been considered law enforcement actions. The USN ships participating would carry USCG detachments onboard because the U.S. military does not do law enforcement. The USCG is part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and does have law enforcement capability and authorization. I have seen a lot of boats similar to the one sunk on Tuesday during my days on these operations. Some were carrying drugs. Some were legitimate fishermen. I did not see any, but others are known to carry undocumented migrants trying to sneak into the U.S. Some are innocent civilians traveling about the Caribbean Sea. How do we know that the administration is legitimate in its claims that these were narco-terrorists without positive identification? Normally, the USN ship would stop the vessel — most stopped when asked, or if not, they did when we trained guns on them, but if they did not, accurate gunfire would disable their engines — and the heavily armed USCG detachment would go onboard and search the vessel. If drugs were found, the crew was arrested, the cargo seized and the boat taken over by U.S. military personnel or towed to port. Not every boat we stopped and searched was a drug runner. Most were innocent people undertaking innocent business of their own. It worked.

Unless you ask Secretary of State Marco Rubio. While in Mexico he said “the United States has long, for many, many years, established intelligence that allow us to interdict and stop drug boats. We did that. And it doesn’t work.”  He went on to say “what will stop them is when you blow them up, when you get rid of them.” Therefore, “instead of interdicting it, on the president’s orders, we blew it up. And it’ll happen again. Maybe it’s happening right now.”  Maybe they killed innocent civilians without regard to international law. This is a frightening development if we really delve into it. It contradicts precedent, American values and the law. A secret document signed by the president does not change the law. If a criminal act is discovered, it is handled by law enforcement officials. Not the military. For this administration the words “national security” and “emergency” seem to be thought of as some kind of magic words that allow them to do whatever they want, be it tariffs, immigration, health care or the use of our military in domestic circumstances.

Trump likes to act like the tough guy but really he is quite weak. Just ask XI, Putin and Kim. Whether you believe him to be strong or weak does not matter, he is still expected to follow the law. Trump is consistently creeping ever closer to using the military for his own personal purposes. Under international law he cannot order a bombing attack on a non-threatening vessel in international waters just because he wants to look tough.

Do I sympathize with drug runners or want to see them succeed as Trump and his minions claim of anyone that questions their unlawful actions? No. Of course not. I do, however, believe in the rule of law and the president cannot just make it up as he goes along. Indiscriminately killing people in international waters does not enhance our liberty or the pursuit of happiness.

The Posse Comitatus Act (18 U.S.C — 1385) from 1878 bans the use of the military for law enforcement “except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress.” So far, none of his actions with active duty forces or the National Guard meet those criteria. While it is a little more complicated for the National Guard — depending on whether they have been nationalized as federal forces by the president or whether they are under the control of the state’s governor — the way that they have been used is not legal. Do not take my word for it, take the word of federal District Judge Charles Breyer who recently ruled that the Trump Administration’s federalization of the National Guard and the use of U.S. Marines in Los Angeles to assist ICE and other federal agencies in arresting undocumented immigrants violated the Act in multiple ways. His decision carefully debunks the three main arguments that the Trump attorneys asserted was within presidential power. Each of their three assertions basically say that the president cannot be held criminally liable because only the Executive Branch can prosecute violations through the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the president controls DOJ therefore the president can act in his own best interests.

I have oversimplified what is considered an elegant and air tight decision, but given that the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) said that presidents are immune from prosecution when acting in an official capacity, none of us should rest easy. If the SCOTUS overrules the lower courts, Katie bar the door. It is open season on all of us.

The military has a proud tradition of pledging loyalty to the Constitution and not to any individual, including the president acting as Commander-in-Chief. They are bound to obey lawful orders from their superiors, but Trump is coming right up to the line. We will see if he crosses over.

There is no one in his administration that will pull him back. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is incompetent. He only does what he is told. And now he and the president want to rename the Department of Defense (DOD) the Department of War. There is a long history behind it — the Department of War was the Army until post World War II reforms. It and the Department of the Navy were cabinet positions, there was no Air Force. The National Security act of 1947 realigned the Defense Establishment. An act of Congress in 1949 created the title Department of Defense. They want to rename it because that is what it was during World Wars I and II. Ahhh. The good ol’ days. It would take an act of Congress to officially change it, but like everything else, Trump plans to issue an Executive Order (E.O.) allowing the use of the name, even if he is not officially changing it. In other words, a rebranding effort.

We have already seen that Trump will do whatever he wants. I think we are only beginning to understand how lawless his behavior already is and how much further he is ready, willing and able to go if he wants it. Remember that he fired the leaders of the Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard as well as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and multiple other senior officers including the Judge Advocate General (JAG) in each of the services. Recently, Hegseth reassigned six hundred (!) other military lawyers to assist DOJ as immigration judges. (Recall that this administration fired or forced into early retirement over 100 immigration judges when they took over.) Who is left to advise leaders as to the legality of the military decisions that are being made?

Already our due process rights are in danger as masked, unidentified men are disappearing people off the streets of our country as I type. They are sent on their way to who knows where. What should we expect if the president can indiscriminately use the military for law enforcement purposes? Why not drone strikes inside the U.S.? Why not use the military to take care of criminal gangs? When that happens we are finished as a democracy. Stick a fork in it, we’re done.

In 2020 there was a draft E.O. ordering the military to seize all voting machines. Ultimately Trump backed down and did not sign it — mainly because senior military and civilian leaders told him it was illegal. Now there is no one in place that would stop him. It may happen in the future because he already says results from voting machines are not valid. What if he declares voting machines to be counter to U.S. national security interests because he thinks that they can be manipulated by foreign powers? (They cannot be manipulated.) Does he execute his E.O. and have the military seize the machines or does he just declare the results invalid?

I fear for our men and women in uniform and the pressure that will increasingly come their way in Trump’s endless pursuit of his own interests. Where are the senior uniformed military leaders? Are they okay with this? Afraid of being fired? If so, I am ashamed for them.

We Don’t Need Another Hero

Posted: March 19, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

(With apologies to Tina Turner and the theme from Thunderdome.)

We have many, many worries that concern many of us right now about the direction our country is headed and for some of us, the direction our own lives may be heading. So, in case you missed it in all the smoke and flames surrounding our current presidential administration, let’s pause and take a moment to consider this.

According to the Washington Post and other news sources, the Department of Defense (DOD) has purged all references to prominent Black, Hispanic, female and other minority service members as well as any references to the Civil War from its website for the Arlington National Cemetery and most any other military website because they are considered to be DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) entries. In his zeal to please the president, the Secretary of Defense (SECDEF) has decreed that all DOD websites shall be examined and any references to minorities, women, LBGTQ or any other individual who is not white, heterosexual and male shall be deleted.

This includes World War II aviators with the Tuskegee Airmen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and Secretary of State Colin Powell, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (buried next to her husband who was a veteran) and Medal of Honor winners. The indication is that throughout DOD, thousands of pages of historical records have been removed from public access. The Arlington Cemetery Website was a useful tool for students and others that were trying to research our American history and to study those that played a prominent role in it. But, not anymore.

But wait! There’s more!

The DOD also directed the removal of a link to PFC Ira Hayes, immortalized in the iconic photo and national monument depicting the raising of the American flag on Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima during World War II. He was one of the six Marines involved. His crime? He is a Native American as a member of the Pima nation. It gets better. During World War II the Navajo code talkers were instrumental to the U.S. success in the Pacific Theater of war. The Japanese never broke the code (their native language) and critical information was securely passed from unit to unit leading to tactical and operational success. Where are the stories celebrating their contribution to our history? Gone. Deleted. I might point out that PFC Hayes, the Navajo code talkers, and many of those whose stories are now gone had never heard of the term DEI. They were not inducted into the military to meet some quota. They volunteered as Americans and their unique talents — such as the code talkers — were a bi-product of their involvement in fighting for American values. It was integral to the task at hand — not some contrived theater of the absurd to demonstrate Native American inclusion.

There are an estimated 26,000 pictures and articles (some reports indicate that it may end being as much as 100,000) that have been deleted from DOD websites, including the ludicrous removal of references to the Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. We cannot have any reference to “gay” of course. Enola Gay was the name of the pilot’s mother. Reason and sanity do not prevail when one is rooting out evil influences within our military.

And it gets better still.

Should one search for the links to these Americans on DOD websites you will be disappointed but also find that they indicate they have been deleted because they are “DEI” related.

Many members of the public have protested the removal of specific entries. Some have just been restored — but extremely few compared to the tens of thousands that have been deleted.

So, let me get this clear in my head. There is no reason to celebrate Black History month or Women’s History month or any other similar event because we are all Americans and it is only American History. And yet, we eliminate references to many brave Americans. This administration is working as hard as it can, literally night and day, to re-write history as they wish it to be. The truth be damned.

Sadly, I guess Tina Turner is correct in her song. We don’t need heroes. Unless of course they are straight white men.

“So, what do we do with our lives
We leave only a mark
Will our story shine like a light or end in the dark?
Give it all or nothing”

Some lyrics from the song “We Don’t Need Another Hero”