Posted inDonald Trump International issues

Chernobyl is a HBO miniseries with a lot to say about truth in these Trumpian times

On the advice of a friend, I just finished watched Chernobyl, a five-episode HBO miniseries about the 1986 nuclear plant disaster in what is now Ukraine, but at that time was part of the Soviet Union. This historical drama aired in 2019 during the first Trump administration. Which is fitting, because a central theme in Chernobyl is how far Soviet authorities were willing to go to keep the truth about the disaster from becoming known. To the people who lived near the nuclear plant. To the workers charged with dealing with the meltdown. To the world at large. Authoritarian regimes…
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Posted inDonald Trump

Trump gets $1.776 billion to reward the January 6 rioters, insurrectionists, and police attackers

Today I heard James Comey, the former director of the FBI, say that when he first learned of the $1.776 billion settlement agreement reached between Trump and the Justice Department, he thought it was a satirical piece from The Onion. Which, it wasn't. Pleasingly, today The Onion does have such a piece -- though, sadly, the settlement agreement is utterly real. First, the satire. WASHINGTON—Declaring the financial allocation a matter of utmost urgency, President Donald Trump on Monday requested $1.2 trillion to have. “I’m calling upon Congress today to immediately provide me with $1.2 trillion in funding that I currently…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

Gavin Newsom must be the 2028 Democratic presidential candidate. I’m a big fan.

Every time I see Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, I get excited about him running for president in 2028 as the Democratic nominee. There's no other potential Democratic candidate who makes me feel that way. Kamala Harris? Been there and done that. Gretchen Whitmer? She's vanished in the Michigan wilderness. Josh Shapiro? Too calculating and unnatural. Cory Booker? Holier than thou attitude that turns me off. Mark Kelly? Nice guy who lacks charisma. By contrast, Gavin Newsom is appealingly real. He comes across as genuine, a rare quality in a politician of his stature. I just watched a recording…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

I have no sympathy for Trump, given his vicious threats against his political enemies

When I heard that a gunman had been subdued at the White House Correspondents Dinner last night, I hoped that no one had been killed or seriously injured. After I learned that everybody attending the dinner was fine, I didn't seek out any more news about the attack, largely because I couldn't care less about how Trump or other administration officials were reacting to it. Predictably, today I heard pleas to "turn down the political rhetoric." Fine, good advice. If Donald Trump would only take it. Trump has done more to create a climate for political violence than anyone else…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues

Trump’s incessant lying is making it difficult to end the Iran war

If you've been in a coma for the past ten years and have just returned to everyday consciousness, here's something important for you to know: Donald Trump is the president of the United States and he's an incessant liar. A world-class liar, in fact. Trump also is a sociopath, since he couldn't care less how his lies affect other people and, indeed, the entire world. For the rest of us, what I've just said is what we've been suffering with for over a decade. Trumpian lie after lie after lie. Many times a day, every day, virtually nonstop. This was…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues Uncategorized

Trump wanted a fellow authoritarian to continue ruling Hungary. Hungarians voted differently today. Yay!

Thank you, Hungarian voters. You brought a big smile to my face when I learned that Viktor Orban, the authoritarian who has ruled Hungary for 16 years, had conceded to Peter Magyar -- the leader of a party that is expected to win 138 of the 199 seats in Hungary's parliament, which gives Magyar's party a 2/3 supermajority that will allow them to revise the Hungarian constitution that Orban had meddled with to keep himself and his cronies in power. It was a sweet victory for those of us here in the United States who detest Trump and J.D. Vance.…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues

Trump is poised to order attacks on Iran that would be war crimes

Unless Trump reaches a deal with Iran's leaders, he says that tomorrow, at 5 pm on April 7, Pacific time, he will order our military to destroy every power plant and bridge in Iran within four hours. That destruction, Trump says, will take Iran 100 years to repair, sending the country "back to the Stone Age." This horrific act would be a war crime. No doubt about it. I only hope that our military leaders have more sense than Trump and refuse to carry out his illegal orders. Unfortunately, that seems unlikely, since Pete Hegseth, the Defense Department Secretary, has…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues

Trump’s Iran speech was just as useless as I thought it would be

If you didn't see the 20 minute speech Trump gave yesterday in prime time, depriving Americans in several time zones of some actual quality television watching, congratulations. You saved yourself from 1/3 of an hour of what amounted to Trump reading from his recent Truth Social posts. I listened to the speech as I was driving home from my Tai Chi class, so I didn't waste any time on the speech. In short, Trump said nothing new, intelligent, or useful. He lied about all kinds of things (no big surprise). He didn't articulate a clear reason for why he started…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics Uncategorized

Photos and videos of 2026 Salem No Kings rally

Yesterday I attended the first No Kings rally of 2026 at the capitol mall here in Salem. Per usual, the signs were music to my Trump-hating ears. My wife got there before me, but I ran into Laurel and her sign before entering the crowd of attendees, who totaled about 5,000. Salem Mayor Julie Hoy got called out for her Trumpian MAGA love. This sign laid out the situation clearly. There was a No Kings dinosaur. And the iconic blow-up frog. Nice blend of Iran war and Epstein files. This woman was on crutches. "I run better than the government."…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues Uncategorized

“Iran’s Long Game” in Foreign Affairs shows how Iran can win the war while losing militarily

Whether or not you favor Trump's war against Iran, I highly recommend that you read a terrific March 26 article by Narges Bajoghli in Foreign Affairs, "Iran's Long Game." I liked it so much, after being able to read it as a guest, I just subscribed to Foreign Affairs -- so that gift link should enable you to read it also. In case the link doesn't work, here's a PDF link of the article. Iran’s Long Game | Foreign Affairs Bajoghli has some solid credentials. She is an anthropologist and Associate Professor of Middle East Studies at the Johns Hopkins…
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Trump ruins everything. He’s the biggest threat to the American people.

Russia. China. Iran. North Korea. Cuba. Drug smugglers. Illegal immigrants. National debt. Global pandemic. Inflation. Recession. Global warming. Rising energy prices. There's a lot out there to worry about these days. But nothing I've listed, or anything else, makes me more concerned than the President of the United States, Donald Trump. He's the biggest threat both to Americans and the world at large. Because Trump ruins everything. Like a cesspool King Midas, everything he touches turns to crap. I mean, everything. In his first term, there were a few exceptions. Well, actually I can only think of one: Operation Warp…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues

Iran war was started on a lie, say two of Trump’s top intelligence officials

Trump lies incessantly. Always has. Always will. He'll never stop lying until his last falsehood gasping breath. All of Trump's lies are despicable. But the lies Trump told about why he started a war with Iran are beyond despicable, because they've cost the lives of thousands of people so far, including thirteen American service members. Trump has thrown out a variety of reasons for the Iran war. None of them make much sense. However, his favorite reason, because it is the scariest, is that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States because Iran was close to having a…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues

Three disgusting things U.S. has done in Iran war

I'm no fan of Iran. I don't know anyone who is. For sure, Iran had to be prevented from building a nuclear weapon. But they were nowhere close to being able to do this. And eight months ago Trump said that the Iranian nuclear program had been obliterated by U.S. strikes, leaving them years away from being able to fashion a nuclear weapon, and about a decade away from having a ICBM capable of striking our country with a nuclear bomb. So clearly there was no imminent threat to the United States from Iran. But Trump attacked anyway, for reasons…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues

In the Iran war, let’s not ignore the suffering of innocent Iranians

After three days of intense bombing of Iran by the Israeli and American military, I'm becoming increasingly worried that Iran is going to become the new Gaza: lots of civilian deaths even though those people had nothing to do with the purported reason for going to war, and large swaths of the country reduced to rubble even though destroyed areas had no military significance. I'm going to let tweets shared today by some of the people that I follow on X, formerly known as Twitter, do most of the speaking for me. The beauty of X, as with Blue Sky,…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues

Trump is at war with Iran. It’ll probably end badly, like everything Trump does.

Last night I was enjoying a hot bath, about to read more of an entertaining thriller novel, when I noticed that a real-life "thriller" message had appeared on my iPhone. The New York Times was reporting that Israel had attacked Iran. Soon that was followed by additional news. The United States also was attacking Iran. My wife and I weren't about to trade watching more of the new season of Bridgerton for CNN or MSNBC, but by chance Trump's address to the nation about the Iran attack was on just before we headed off to bed. We wondered why Trump…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues

Eight months ago Trump said the Iran nuclear program was obliterated. So how can Iran be a week away from a bomb?

Since I'm a big fan of Apple TV's terrific spy thriller, Tehran, from watching the third season of this Israeli production I know that the fanatical clerics who control Iran have been seeking a nuclear weapon. That's obvious from both the fictional plot of Tehran, and the reality of Iran's nuclear ambitions. Virtually nobody in the world wants to see the wacko Islamist fundamentalist rulers of Iran get a nuclear bomb. Back when Obama was president, a treaty was reached with Iran that prevented Iran from enriching uranium to the level needed for a bomb. Since the treaty was working…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

I just watched Trump give the longest State of the Union speech ever. I deserve a freaking medal.

It took a lot of strength and determination. I wanted to give up numerous times. But I persevered -- watching every damn minute of what turned out to be the longest State of the Union speech in our nation's history, 1 hour and 47 minutes. That broke the previous record, also set by Trump, which I think was 1 hour and 39 minutes. So I deserve a medal, especially since I was forced to sit through countless (almost) lies by Trump, along with his usual insults directed at Democrats like me. Commentators had been wondering which Trump would show up…
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Posted in2026 election Donald Trump National politics

Tariff decision by Supreme Court could have helped GOP in midterms, but Trump is doubling down on tariff tax

When I checked my iPhone for the latest news upon waking this morning, my mood instantly brightened. Yay! The Supreme Court has ruled that most of Trump's tariffs were illegal. And not by a narrow 5-4 margin, by a 6-3 margin, so three Trump-appointed justices ruled against him. Up until now the Supreme Court has mostly been allowing Trump to pursue his authoritarian dreams with minimal pushback. But this was a big rejection of unfettered presidential power. Even three conservative Supreme Court justices realized that the Constitution gives Congress the power of taxation, and tariffs are a tax paid by…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

Trump administration is blatantly lying about the murder of Alex Pretti by federal agents

Lies, lies, and more lies. We're all accustomed to being subjected to this by Trump and his cronies. They hate truth. They love lies. But when they lie about the murder of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis by federal agents, this is especially despicable, because those lies attack the honor of a wonderful man who did absolutely nothing to deserve being shot ten times. Pretti's parents are appropriately outraged. In "The Trump Administration is Lying to Our Faces. Congress Must Act," the New York Times editorial board describes some of the lies being spread by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues

Trump wants to own Greenland for amazingly stupid reasons

When it comes to Trump demanding that the United States own Greenland, trying to figure out why our Authoritarian-in-Chief is so obsessed with this reminds me of Carrie's evidence wall in Homeland -- where Claire Danes' bipolar CIA agent character would pin oodles of photos, clippings, post-it notes, and such, sometimes connected with strings, in an attempt to figure out who lay behind a terrorist plot. Fortunately, Trump isn't nearly as sophisticated as the evildoers in Homeland. While it can be really tough to figure out what Trump will do, because he changes his mind so often he doesn't even…
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