In defense of voting for Trump

 Small but growing rift among conservatives.  A realization that many of Trump's latest actions suck for lack of a better way of putting it.  Joe Rogan has come out against the ICE raids.  Not sure if technically he's a conservative.  MTG has been busy blasting Trump over the bombing of Iran's nuclear sites.  Candace Owens told Piers Morgan that she is now embarrassed she told other people to vote for Trump.  Then there's Tucker.  OK.

What I'm seeing on some of the more liberal YouTube channels is gloating among the Left ("We told you so") and even anger at those who voted for Trump but who now have regrets.  It was all out there in the open they say.  Not really.  Trump's first term was fairly normal as a frame of reference.  Re the ICE raids JD Vance was directly asked, what was it during the VP debate what the plans were for the majority of illegal aliens who are not criminals.  He pointedly would not answer the question.  The overwhelming emphasis during the campaign was always on the criminal element.  As for bombing Iran Trump campaigned on the exact opposite no foreign wars ot entanglements in the Middle East.  America First.  Now to the real bone of contention.  Many libs take issue with having been called crazy and exaggerating for the things they said about Trump during the campaign, the whole TDS thing.  Yes because they used specifically Hitlerian rhetoric.  Technically though while Trump is many things technically he's still not a Hitler.  Has a ways to go if you know your history.

At least give those of us credit and some points for now admitting mistakes no?  That's how you grow.  Not hearing the same regrets about Biden.  

This too shall pass.

The ascendancy of the weird Right - it now IS the Right

 The latest examples being "Alligator Alcatraz" and those racist conservatives who want to deport NYC Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.  My friend has imbibed deeply of the Fox News propaganda.  For him Iran was on the verge, the very cusp of developing an intercontinental ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead to hit NYC.  For Mark Levin if you opposed Trump bombing Iran's nuclear facilities you're an unpatriotic American.  Levin gives off this vague creepy psycho vibe and said to MTG after their recent dust-up "you're on my radar."  Hmmmmm......Hannity is somewhat milder but his aging blockhead fills the screen as he constantly beats the drums for war in the Middle East or at least a bomb here and there.  The Senate now seems okay with Trump's giant sausage of a bill thus mortgaging our future and our children's future.  Musk continues to attack the bill and he is right for once.  At this rate the midterms may turn out to be a big blue tsunami.  The rise of Mamdani represents a left-wing populism not to be ignored.

It's all very depressing but this too shall pass.  Hopefully next time we'll get somebody better.

Holy shit Batman maybe we can deport Mamdani!

 Former and disgraced Governor of NYS Andrew Cuomo refuses to accept the fate of the politically damned.  Despite a healthy second place showing in the recent NYC Mayoralty Primary voting he lost to the Zohran.   The groper is very ambitious.  He now plans to run against Mamdani as an independent.  Mamdani has rocked the political establishment.   Conservative commentator Charlie Kirk thinks he's a terrorist and some Republicans want him stripped of his US citizenship and deported.  Could be Homan's next project.  Special assignment for Homan's Raiders.  Trump is looking into ways of disqualifying him for being a communist.  Sweet McCarthyism!  All for not being a Zionist.  For his part Cuomo is willing to serve on Benjamin Netanyahu's legal defense team before the ICC should it come to that.  You can't cancel Mamdani out though.  As even my rock-ribbed conservative friend says give the people what they want.

How best to describe Trump's second term?  Conservative Candace Owens who voted for Trump as did I recently told Piers Morgan Trump is "a chronic disappointment. "  That about fits.

I was having some trouble sleeping and thought it was my mattress

 Mark Levin over at Fox says we can all sleep better at night knowing Trump took out Iran's nuclear facilities.  Turns out we don't need the My Pillow guy after all.  MTG rips Trump a new one.  She may have said some loopy things in the past but she's 100% right.  Same with Tucker.  Some dispute over the exact damage to those three Iranian nuclear facilities.  Not exactly obliterated despite the hyperbole.  Also Trump's big mouth gave them advanced notice to put the enriched uranium someplace else.  Neocon warmongers who never picked up a rifle themselves.  Hannity probably wouldn't even know what to do with a home intruder.  Fox News - We Decide Then Report;)

MAGA MIGA and MAHA

 Sounds like a science fiction movie.  Pass the popcorn. 

Don't mess with the Zohran.  Former dishonored Governor of NYS Andrew Cuomo yesterday lost the Democratic NYC Mayoralty primary race to this guy Zohran Mamdani who I never heard of.  I'm guessing Cuomo has some kind of law background to fall back on or maybe his brother Chris can help.  Maybe he can become the custodian at an auto dealership or slice deli meats.  It appears a fair number of New Yorkers still wanted him as Mayor but that's it for the comeback groper.  Maybe he can run for Yonkers Sidewalk Commissioner.

Trump has made Americans less safe

 Iran did not threaten us.  We were not at war with them.  Iranian Foreign Minister meets with Putin although other reports say Russia is unlikely to enter the conflict.  UPI reports however that other countries are willing to supply Iran with nukes after Trump's act of bellicosity.  Now as we all know Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard recently testified before Congress that it is the consensus of the intelligence community that Iran is not seeking nuclear weapons as the Ayatollah suspended that program in 2003.  After Trump dumped on Tulsi however she now says new intelligence has come to light (read: whatever Netanyahu says) in order to keep her post.  Call her Flipper.  People can't withstand the wrath of the Orange Man I guess.  I get concerned when I'm running low on the Christian Brothers.  For Hegseth it's the hair gel.  The last question when does Trump take Greenland?

Every president likes to use the military

 But Trump promised to be different so why throw rocks at a junkyard dog?  Trump campaigned as an anti-neocon non-interventionist America Firster.  Instead we get a saber-rattling Israel First foreign policy, impulsive interventionism.  Trump has claimed on his Truth Social overwhelming success in totally obliterating Iran's three nuclear facilities.  He has ignored the advice of his own Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard who recently testified before Congress that Iran was really not that close to developing an actual nuclear weapon.  She's probably on her way out.  Now we have to worry about a protracted conflict with Iran and possible terrorist reprisals.  Pakistan has just nominated Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize why I don't know.  Troubling times but kind of took Homan off the front pages.

Is it anti-semitic to not want to go to war with Iran?

 Trump mulling over possible strikes against Iran including the use of bunker busting bombs to target Iranian nuclear facilities.  What happened to no new wars and America First?  An Iranian missile struck a major hospital in southern Israel.  Oh the humanity!  Meanwhile Netanyahu just attacked Gaza's last functioning hospital.  Never fully understood countries with nuclear weapons telling other countries they can't have nuclear weapons.  What only we know how to use atomic bombs in a moral way?  All that and more on today's episode of Stranded.

Will Trump go to war?

Are Trump and Musk still hot for each other?

 Musk has expressed misgivings, deleted some tweets and says he may have gone too far.  Trump says he might be open to a reconciliation.  Defense Sec'y Hegseth says the US has contingency plans to occupy Greenland if necessary.   Israel attacked Tehran targeting their nuclear facilities and chain of command.  ICE agents are chasing farm laborers through strawberry fields and going into meat production plants.  Big military parade tomorrow.   Trump's birthday.  DHS Sec'y Kristi Noem doesn't like to be interrupted.  What's up with Dr. Phil?

Yeah the South Africa thing is embarrassing

 Speaking as one who voted for the man.  Trump's game of Gotcha! with world leaders.  Next he might hold a press conference saying the government captured a Bigfoot meanwhile it's just some giant eco-hippy who shops at Whole Foods.

This blog lags behind a little bit

 I'm not a political junkie.  I follow politics in a tangential general sort of way but I don't follow say every bill working its way through the Congress.  My cats need to eat.  I have yardwork to do.  I'm not like the old people who look at the TV screen all day and follow the news 24/7.  I see the headlines on my devices that's enough.  Ok so the leader of South Africa met with Trump at the WH.  Trump has given refugee status to some white Afrikaaners.  Trump has accused the leader of some kind of genocide.  Perhaps Trump is projecting onto him what he should be saying to Bibi but I'm not a shrink.  I know way back in the day the South African government was harassing the white landowners but again I'm too busy of late to dive down these rabbit holes.  Media calling it false.  Again I'm not up to speed on a lot of stuff.  I'm more likely to google lizards of New York State as I have varied interests.   I don't discuss politics with my vet or when getting an oil change.  FWIW I don't think Biden was healthy enough to hold the most important position in the land but at the same time I don't think it amounts to treason so you can call me not a team player.

Just some light opining here.  Pour yourself a drink and let's have a chat.  Not everything is binary.

Word on the street

 Is President Trump will soon officially recognize a Palestinian State.  Angling for a Nobel Peace Prize to show Obama.  Meeting with the Saudis, the new Syrian president putting Netanyahu on the back burner for now.  Helped free the last American hostage without his help.  Rumor has it he has cut off direct contact with Bibi.  As part of the nuclear energy agreement with the Saudis he has dropped the Biden era stipulation that they recognize the State of Israel.  Also got a major investment deal going.  More than major.

Down through the decades with each succeeding president the Middle East has taken up way too much of our foreign policy time.  If he does officially recognize the State of Palestine I'll give him more than a few points for this.  Would be a good legacy if he controls the other zaniness.  So far Trump is an assortment. 

Trump's First 100 Days in Office - Take a walk on the wild Right

 Arresting judges.  We don't need no Education Dept.  Bomb the Houthis.  Hey hey ho ho DEI has got to go.  You're fired then rehired.  Deporting the wrong people.  DOGE it baby!  Tariffs.  Trade wars.  Funding freezes.  Bibi.  Gaza.  Zelensky.  Putin.  Harvard.  You wanna protest on campus?  STFU.  Have you checked your cat for anti-semitism lately?  Executive orders.  Homan.  Cap'n Crunch.  Food dyes.  Measles.  Gulf of Trump.  Greenland.  Have you caught up on your texts today for maybe secret Yemeni war plans?  Closing USAID.  Who needs to eat?  Scale back the medical research grants already.  Cancer shmancer.  Low polls blame FOX News.  Tell the judges to go fuck off.  Bondi.  Patel.  Lawfare.  Trump vs. trans soldiers.  Canada as the 51st state?

Can Fall Out Boy make a song out of all of this?

The media made me do it

 Yes the left-wing media doesn't like Trump.   Never did.  This was really obvious during the campaign.  My daily newsfeeds were saturated with anti-Trump stuff.  If the media could have gone with Trump ate somebody's dog they would have gone with Trump ate somebody's dog.  Having said that Trump has tracked a nuttier course than I would have expected but conservatives are still blaming the msm.  Trump lost me after Gulf of America and Greenland.  The media didn't make him almost trigger a worldwide recession.  Not speedily correcting deportation mistakes.  Squelching free speech on campus etc. etc.  To paraphrase Flip Wilson's Geraldine the media made me do it.  Not good enough.  Doesn't wash anymore. 

Trumpian economics is a lot like quantum physics

 

You can't understand it.  Looks like we're in a bear market now.  U.S. futures are way down and last few days Wall Street and the global markets have been tanking.  Sen. Ted Cruz is starting to get pissed and Elon Musk has been taking potshots at Trump's trade advisor Peter Navarro.  Trump says it's all medicine to make it all better.  Just a spoonful of bullshit I guess.  The UAW likes the tariffs though.  Some House Repubs are worried and have put stuff on the table.  CA is looking to still do business despite the tariffs.  New cars sales are up all of a sudden.  Folks buying wheels now before the tariffs drive the prices up.  Pop a prozac?  Maybe stock up on the Christian Brothers.

We got enough on our plate.  My thing is Trump didn't campaign on bring the pain.

He's not wrong

 Obama on Trump

Okay I guess I'm not a team player but I agree with some of this.  It's not that I'm turning more liberal it's Trump doesn't understand the Constitution or appreciate American values like free speech.  Anti-Trump protests planned across the country today.  Conservative media will most likely downplay it but you don't have to be a liberal to have concerns about Trump.  Also on the Greenland front  the Danish PM reminded Trump you can't just annex a country.

100 Days of Chaos.

Anti-semitism on campus and Trump's Gestapo

 "Anti-semitism" being rather loosely defined these days to include legitimate criticism of the State of Israel.  Trump Administration now going after perfectly legal people who have all the right paperwork.  Pro-Palestinian foreign students on visas now being detained and actively deported for protesting Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza.  Over 50,000 Gazans already dead including scores of women and children.  Secretary of State Marco Rubio in charge of revoking the student visas over 300 at last count.  Homan's goon squads.  Tufts U. student arrested or should we say kidnapped by masked ICE agents in the middle of the street in broad daylight.  Her crime?  Simply writing an op-ed piece in the university newspaper calling on Tufts to divest itself from companies that do business with Israel.  The horror stories go on.  The banality of evil.

We tend to forget that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Gaza.  On at least two occasions Netanyahu has cut off all water and electricity into Gaza most recently even well after the ICC issued an arrest warrant for him.  He's doing what he wants regardless and is now singing the praises of Trump's crackdown on campus speech and says other governments should follow his example.

This is quite possibly the most shocking episode of our government censoring perfectly valid speech in modern times.  Unless Trump fires some people (e.g. Rubio, Homan) it means the downfall of the Trump Administration imo and the end of MAGA.  A blot on the history books.

4 more years for a political hemorrhoid?

 Trump wants to invade Greenland and is thinking about a 3rd term in office.  On the first score the military should simply disobey and on the second it's ludicrous.  Who does he think he is FDR?  You're witnessing a man in his dotage with psychotic tendencies.  I think at this stage you can slowly build a case for a potential 25th Amendment Section 4 scenario.  Not being dramatic here he just belongs in a ward and not leading the free world.

IMO Puerto Rico is the best candidate for the 51st state

 It's not controversial, many people could probably get behind the idea and it's already a U.S. territory.  Mexico - If Mexico became a part of the United States the illegal Mexicans crossing over would no longer be illegal but would simply be crossing state lines.  Problem solved or at least half the problem anyway.  Watching OAN last night and OAN bemoaning we lost that expansionist spirit where did it go?  Oh yes PR doesn't have any of them rare earth minerals and PR and Mexico apparently have no strategic military importance but just sayin'.  Sure China and Putin are vying for influence in the Artic but Puerto Rico could be an easy pickup if expansionism is your thing.  It could be a historic part of your legacy if nothing else so why are Trump and Vance bullying the Greenlanders?  We already have a military base there and you're pissing off NATO.  In the meantime folks be wondering whatever happened to lowering the price of groceries?

There is nothing inspiring about the Trump presidency

 The dismal 2nd term continues.  I honestly thought Marco Rubio was a decent choice for Secretary of State but he's turned into a dick.  He's boasting he revoked 300 Visas of foreign students who have engaged in pro-Palestinian protests on campus.  Actually it may be more he lost count.  He says those coming here from abroad to colleges and universities are here to study and learn and to earn a degree.  Has he never heard of intercollegiate sports?  The Vietnam War protests?  Thou Shalt Not Criticize Israel.  Rubio somehow conflates condemning the ongoing genocide in Gaza with support for Hamas.  Expect more judicial spanking.  Meanwhile RFK Jr. in his mission to make America healthy again has cut about 10,000 jobs from his own agency.  So where are all the Fruit Loops cops gonna come from?  On the Greenland front Trump is now making almost daily veiled threats against the island nation.  Denmark is not amused.

You can't make this shit up.