There Are Consequences

POST 1263

I Want To Be Wrong

Listening to Pete Hegseth*, head of our War Department, which has a tough guy name but is not a department of government, as he delivered the first Pentagon briefing since our attacks on Iran began, when I heard him invoking various hyper faux-masculine images, I choked. As he tried to puff up our “warriors” using dumb football coach words equivalent to, “Go team! You’re our guys! Fight! Fight! Fight!” I was insulted on behalf of our military personnel, whom he talked about like they are dull witted children. I choked on his pettiness. When he invoked God, as manipulators often do, I threw a dish towel at the TV.

I want to be wrong about all that and more. I want to be wrong about our justification for making war in a place where we have no such justification, where bombing a girls school and killing 100 – 175 children is just an oops and I want to be wrong about three of our war planes being shot down by allied forces and it’s no more than a regrettable error. I want to be wrong believing that there is no end game, that this is and will be another forever war where huge numbers of innocent people are uprooted and many thousands die, where there is never a path to peace, where the fetid mess is left to stink up another generation.

No words of explanation or justification can justify the unjustifiable. No jingoist blatherings will make this okay. No president’s addled brain, wandering images and tough guy non-sequiturs will cause this to make sense. Congressional cowardice when strength to stop the tyrant is called for can’t make this right. People are dying and they will die in ever greater numbers, as our leaders march all of us all off a cliff.

I want to be wrong. But I’m sad to say I’m not. And I’m furious with all those who think they are leaders but are just brainless hacks getting people killed. And they’re making the world more dangerous for us and and paving a highway to a Chinese century.

There are consequences to making stupid war.

The Consequences of Bullying Go All Around The World

Trump is stomping all over us, our rights and, with his illegal, un-constitutional tariffs/taxes, crushing our ability to care for our families and ourselves. He’s collected many billions of dollars from his abhorrent tariffs which are effectively being given over to his ultra rich friends. We know all of that and that is a major reason why there are angry demonstrations all over the country. But there’s more.

His temper tantrum tariffs have angered the entire commercial world, as trade has become both chaotic and much more expensive for all of our trading partners. Trump is acting as though the world is his play toy to do with as he wishes and with no negative consequences to him or to our country, but that isn’t how the world works. He’s pissed off a lot of world leaders and they’ve had quite enough of his bullying.

Politico reports on the beginning of efforts by world leaders to create a vast new trading coalition that will entirely bypass the United States. That’s what happens when we thumb our noses at those who were good friends, besties even, allies and others. They refuse to be treated poorly. They refuse to allow their people to suffer. And they develop a pent up urge to punch the bully in the nose. I urge you to read the Politico report and recognize that our welfare and our place in the world are threatened because of Trump’s baseless attacks.

There are consequences to stupid presidential bullying.

.Claims Of Voting Fraud – You Know: “Stop The Steal”

Trump, MAGAs, brain-free people and sycophantic power weasels all know that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. They don’ need no stinking evidence. Plus, they know that Trump is going to be whumped in the mid-term elections – they’re right about that – so they’re already wailing about voting fraud. But just a second.

These whiners claimed that millions of non-citizens voted for Democrats in 2020. Where were those supposed millions of cheats in the 2016 and 2024 elections when Trump won? Is there only voting fraud when Republicans lose, but elections are free, fair and honest when they win?

The incidence rate of voting by people not eligible to vote is vanishingly rare.

Examples:

In 2016, North Carolina audited its elections to make sure no one voted improperly. It found that 41 legal immigrants who had not yet become citizens cast ballots. That’s out of 4.8 million votes cast.

[The Brennan Center] found only about 30 incidents of a possible non-citizen voting out of 23.5 million votes cast in three states.

. . . a recent review in Michigan identified 15 people who appear to be non-citizens who voted in the 2024 general election, out of more than 5.7 million ballots cast in the state.

Doing the basic math, out of 34 million votes cast, there were only 86 cases of voting by people ineligible to vote in these states. That means the percentage of improper votes/voters is just

0.00000002529%

Said Trump, “The cheating is rampant in our elections.”

Does that look rampant to you? His words are just another pack of lies and he’s already using the lies to cheat in our next elections, should we have any.

Pete Hegseth, Secretary of War – Would you let your sons or daughters be led by him? There are consequences.

And if we don’t stop this, the consequences will be disastrous.

____________________________________

* From Steve Schmidt, describing our Secretary of War, March 2, They Died For Nothing:

[Pete Hegseth] is a colossus of incompetence and extremism, a poisonous nitwit enamored with violence, but estranged from the concept of duty, honor, country.

Time for action is dwindling
- Count-down Timer
- To The November 3, 2026
  
  Mid-Term Election
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