Posted inDonald Trump International issues

Trump is tolling the Strait of Hormuz to prevent Iran from tolling the Strait of Hormuz

I just checked. Sadly, The Onion satirical news site doesn't seem to have a story yet about Trump announcing today that he plans to charge ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz a 20% toll after the United States takes control of the Strait, because Trump is upset that Iran has been seeking to charge ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz a smaller toll when they had control of the Strait. This absurdity would be funny if it wasn't so deadly serious. After all, Trump's Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said just a few weeks ago: No country is…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues

Trump screws up World Cup soccer by interfering in red card decision

I should have known. Not to say to people, "I'm enjoying the World Cup, in part because soccer is one place where Trump isn't mentioned." Except now he is, having interfered in FIFA's, the soccer (football to the rest of the world) federation's, decision to issue a red card to a star American player that disqualified him from the United States team's match in the round of 16 against Belgium tomorrow. Trump screws up everything. So I guess it isn't surprising that he has screwed up the World Cup. It's just another reason for the rest of the world to…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

Patriotism means seeing the United States as it is — both flawed and fabulous

I don't have an American flag. I'll stand for the Pledge of Allegiance but I don't say the words. For me the Fourth of July means our dog is going to be scared by fireworks, nothing more. I'm proud to have never served in the military, having gotten a high lottery number in Vietnam War days. Yet I consider myself patriotic. Not because I think the United States is the best country in the world. Because I love our country in spite of its many flaws. Which I'm confident is how non-Americans view their own countries: they love India, Brazil,…
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Posted in2028 election Donald Trump National politics

Supreme Court just gave Trump more power. Also the next Democratic president.

No one ever could accuse Trump of being a genius at predicting the long term outcome of his actions. Trump acts, or rather reacts, emotionally in the heat of the moment on the basis of gut feelings, not on any sort of deep analytical understanding. So it isn't surprising that Trump is glorying in a victory given to him by the Supreme Court today, as described in a BBC story. Nearly 100 years ago, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Democratic President Franklin Delano Roosevelt did not have unchecked power to replace commissioners on regulatory agencies set up by Congress…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

UFC bouts at White House were entertaining, even as setting was beyond disturbing

Yesterday I belatedly realized that the highly controversial UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) bouts at the White House were being shown on Paramount+ at no extra cost, and we had a Paramount+ subscription. So I fired up our Apple TV at 5 pm Oregon time, 8 pm Washington DC time, because I was curious to see the spectacle that had caused so much justified uproar among progressives like me. It did seem outrageous that the UFC folks could basically rent the White House grounds for MMA (mixed martial arts) fights in an especially built octagon that was plastered with ads for…
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Posted inDonald Trump

Trump’s bizarre lie-filled end of his interview with Kristen Welker is astoundingly disgusting

I'm not easily shocked by Trump's utterances. But today Brian Stelter, the chief media analyst at CNN, shared on X a transcript of the final minutes of Kristen Welker's recent interview of Trump at a Wisconsin farm. Welker is the host of NBC's Meet the Press, and is a well-respected journalist. When I read it, I was struck by how this breaks new ground even for Trump in his authoritarian Hall of Shame. Naturally it is beyond embarrassing that the United States has s president who cares so little about truth and facts -- not exactly a good quality for…
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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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Posted inDonald Trump

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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