Yesterday, President Donald Trump unilaterally chose to bomb Iran, a decision that defies the War Powers Act and is in direct opposition to his campaign promises last year to keep the United States out of foreign wars!
As I watched news coverage on the major U.S. networks last night, and read far more balanced coverage on the Al Jazeera news site, it was crystal clear to me that this attack is but the latest form of political theater by a two bit reality TV figure trying desperately to drive up his approval ratings in the wake of consistent polling that reflects that even among vast segments of his once rabid MAGA followers, folks are pissed off that six months into the second Trump administration, most of the president’s campaign promises have not yet come to fruition.
Indeed, the president who promised to focus on "America First" just bombed Iran based upon specious allegations from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Iran is "only weeks away" from having nuclear bombs. Netanyahu has been running this same rhetorical game for years, and Iran is no closer to having nukes now than it was nearly a decade ago when then President Barack Obama negotiated a treaty with the country—one that Trump foolishly ripped up during his first administration for no legitimate reasons at all!
The president who promised to negotiate an end to the Ukraine-Russia War and the conflict between Hamas and Israel "within 24 hours of taking office," has accomplished neither—with offensives between the former growing more intense in Eastern Europe, and the genocidal murders of Palestinian civilians by the Israeli military growing more intense each day in Gaza!
The president who promised to lower the price of eggs and other food items and essential goods "on day one" has done no such thing, as prices continue to soar in grocery stores across the U.S. and drain the pockets of Trump foes and Trump fans alike!
The president who swore an oath to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution" has made a mockery of that document as he ignores the co-equal Judicial Branch to snatch powers reserved to the co-equal Legislative Branch, like the power to tax (tariffs) and wage war (Iran), in his singular desire to be a strongman dictator like Vladimir Putin, his puppet master who has accomplished what no Soviet Communist Premier ever could—which is to dictate U.S. policy to Russia’s benefit!
It would be a massive understatement to say that President Trump has been a predictable failure in office, with his only "successes" regrettably being his attacks on DEI that have run racial minorities out of the federal government and the military—while scrubbing evidence of African American achievement and history from federal websites! That, and his unleashing ICE to round up hard working immigrants from construction sites, farms, hotels, and their homes—all under the guise of "deporting criminals." Those deliberately race conscious efforts, as veteran journalist Kurt Eichenwald notes below, thrill his hate filled base of supporters who despise people who don't look, sound, or pray to their blond haired, blue eyed, warrior version of Jesus that Trump comically invoked while patting himself on the back for last night's "successful" attack on Iran.
And I put successful in quotation marks because reports from Iran suggest that the nuclear facilities were already evacuated prior to the bombings—and the enriched uranium and other tools to make nukes were moved to other sites! Meaning, Trump dropped a whole lot of expensive American ordinance on nothing for NOTHING but to assuage his insecure and fragile little ego, one that talks tough and demands military parades on his birthday, all because deep down inside, he knows that he was a cowardly young punk when he had the chance to serve his country in Vietnam—but had the family doctor declare that "bone spurs" rendered him ineligible for service 🙄.
So here we are, six months into Trump 2.0, with inflation still high, a recession predicted to emerge before year's end due to this president's foolish tariff policies, and now a war with Iran, one that will make U.S. service personnel in the Middle East targets—and one that will very likely see oil and gas prices shoot sky high should Iran take the predictable retaliatory course of closing off the Straits of Hormuz, the waterways within which 20 percent of the region's oil supplies must pass for delivery to American, European, and Asian markets.
A few hours after U.S. missiles attacked vacated Iranian nuclear facilities, Iranian missiles rained down on Tel Aviv, Israel in response. (Reuters)
And to think that all of these calamities and future calamities are a result of 31 percent of MAGA voters who chose hate over hope by voting for Trump, and another 30 percent of non-voters who were too damned indifferent to care enough to choose a viable candidate last year—facts which allowed a racist, rapist, sexist, white supremacist, and prodigiously ignorant convicted felon to narrowly slide back into the Oval Office with a grudge against any and everyone who doesn't share his fatalistic vision of the world.
Or, the similarly fatalistic vision of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the puppet master who has masterfully fooled MAGA Republicans and many Democrats into believing that criticizing his military whims is akin to being anti-Semitic, a dastardly lie that has made the Middle East less stable, and has the potential to become yet another front in an unnecessary war based partially on the principle that white nationalist leaders in America, Europe, and Israel have the right to own nuclear weapons—and maintain the right to prevent non-white nations from developing their own nuclear capabilities.
All I can say is "Lord help us".
Hobbs, we are phenomenally blessed to have you on our side.