Observations on week two of Trump’s war in Iran. Humiliating failure looms. Perhaps as symbolically damaging to US global standing and national self-esteem as Afghanistan or Iraq. Body bags are coming home. And the war’s financial cost is running at more than $11B.
Donald J Trump: making America lose wars again.
His failure is moral and legal, too. Trump’s lying efforts to shift blame for the killing of more than 100 schoolgirls in a US Tomahawk missile strike are contemptible. Deliberate or not, it was a war crime. And those responsible must be held accountable.
US and Israeli leaders should face prosecution for war crimes and crimes against humanity in national and international courts.
Britain and other adversely affected states should demand the US pay compensation.
Lebanon should receive reparations.
And Trump should be impeached in Congress for his many gross abuses of power.
While we wait for all that to pass (ha), the Trump is turning to assaulting our First Amendment to try and control the mess.
Anyone who tries to tell us what is actually going on in Iran, as the administration tries to hide the reality, is being slandered and called unpatriotic.
This is just more projecting. As George Orwell said “If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."
The idea that Trump views the news, factual reporting by the press, as ‘bad publicity’ pretty much says it all. It captures so much of what is wrong. This isn’t 1984, and Trump is not Big Brother, entitled to acclaim from all.
Seems a no-brainer. If you don’t want bad press, don’t do bad things.
Meanwhile…Shoegate in DC.
And a lesson from history. When Joseph Stalin took the stage, applause wasn’t just standard.
As the crowd thundered with cheers, no one dared to break first. Not after two minutes. Not after four. Not after six. As Solzhenitsyn wrote in “The Gulag Archipelago,” “It was becoming insufferably silly even to those who adored Stalin.”
Finally, after 11 minutes, one man — the director of a paper factory — broke the spell. And was arrested that evening.
On his interrogation document, a written lesson to others: “Don’t ever be the first to stop applauding!”
But now in Trumpworld, the question is different: “Who will be the first to take off the shoes?”
Across DC a new fashion trend: embarrassingly oversized clown shoes.
More specifically, a pair of $145 Florsheim oxfords. The prez has been handing them out to Cabinet members, advisors and WH VIPs.
He even makes it a game: guessing people’s shoe size, placing an order and then signing the box.
Forget policy and matters of government. At Cabinet meetings, Trump jumps in to ask, “Did you get the shoes?” As one female staffer noted, “All the boys have them.”
Another female White House staffer joked, “It’s hysterical because everybody’s afraid not to wear them.”
Like Stalin, Trump is paying attention to see who stops clapping first.
Just another humiliation ritual. They appear much too big on most of the recipients, and with their pants hemmed to match the president’s absurdly short length, it’s comical. It’s obvious that Trump purchases the incorrect sizes on purpose.
So far, confirmed shoe victims include Vance, Rubio (we’ve seen the pics) , Hegseth, Lutnick, Hannity and Lindsey Graham.
This perfectly captures the psychology of MAGA. In this government circus, the clowns are the men surrounding Trump, and he is their bullying ringmaster.
He knows he can treat them as he wishes. They are too afraid to disobey. If they take off the shoes, they WILL suffer.
Just add this current spineless capitulation to the others. Loss of morals. Values. Independent thought.
The list is practically endless. If the GOP can’t stand up to Trump on the shoes they choose to wear, what can they stand up to the president on?
Easy answer. Nothing.
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