The Life in My Years

“We are not pawns for [President] Donald Trump,” said the young woman dressed in cammies. Her uniform bore two patches, one, U.S. Army, the other, a last name, Colado. She was appearing at an anti-ICE rally in Dallas.

The woman continued, “Why now? It’s because the military was called on against the protesters. In our oath to serve, we serve the people of the United States, the Constitution. These constitutional rights are being stripped, and just denied. And the military will not be pawns to that. So I’m calling on the conscience of military members who served previously and now. We have a conscience, we have a mind. We have a duty and a moral obligation to say no and resist evil orders.”

The announcement that an active duty soldier was speaking out against Trump lit up social media, but the truth of her status as active duty, retired military or just a random person who went to the Army/Navy store and bought an ACU wasn’t clear.

The video was forwarded to me by a friend and my initial response was

Oh hell yes!

But when a story emerges from a little known outlet on either side of the political spectrum, some due diligence is in order to be certain of the facts. So when I saw that the feature originated from a site called Breakthrough News, my bullshit radar lit up.

Turns out it was only a partially newsworthy story as the woman is not active duty, but a veteran who served in the U.S. Army from November 2010 to August 2014 and was an Army reservist from August 2014 to June 2020. Still any new voice is welcome to the anti-Trump choir.

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Pimping the Army
Meanwhile Donald Trump was at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, delivering a speech that was supposed to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the United States Army. You know, those blue clad musket packing men who overthrew a king and helped deliver what was once the world’s most successful democracy.

Trump’s speech should have been a commemoration of the Army’s history, a paean to sacrifice, and a tribute to duty. It should have been a celebration of the Army as a defender of freedom and of American ideals as penned in the great documents that formed the foundation of the great experiment.

But Donald Trump can’t help himself, and so the speech careened from the righteous road of what it should have been into the muddy ditch of one of his rally style rants.

The apologists shrug it all off as ‘just Trump being Trump.’

And so, ‘just being Trump’, violated yet another presidential norm by delivering, to an inappropriate audience, one of his bellicose, belly aching, falsehood filled, rants that have characterized ten exhausting MAGA years. Sure the speech could have been shrugged off, with a roll of the eyes and a ‘whatever’ had it been delivered in front of the usual amalgamation of red capped rubes and Confederate flag waving, snake oil swilling groupies. But the violation was in the fact that the MAGA tirade was delivered to an audience of active duty soldiers. Partisan harangues to the troops is a no-no.

For two-hundred and fifty years, since our first commanding general, who would become the first commander in chief, the American military has been an apolitical fighting organization. The Army has always, by tradition and by the demands of a democracy, remained loyal to the Constitution and democratic ideals rather than one man. In fact, before deciding on a national army the founders stopped to think long and hard about establishing an armed force that might one day be loyal to a king who would use that force against the citizenry.

But with Flag Day just a few days away, the orange counterfeit patriot who wraps himself in the banner he never lifted a finger to defend spoke to American soldiers and dubbed the people of Los Angeles, the people those soldiers took an oath to protect, “animals” and “a foreign enemy.”

“We will not allow an American city to be invaded and conquered by a foreign enemy. That’s what they are,” said the dictator in waiting.

During his rant, the dear leader went after his usual punching bag, his predecessor, Joe Biden. He continued with one of his wildest lies of ten years of exceptional bullshittery; “In Los Angeles, the governor of California, the mayor of Los Angeles, they’re incompetent and they paid troublemakers, agitators and insurrectionists. They’re engaged in this willful attempt to nullify federal law, and aid the occupation of the city by criminal invaders.”

Trump encouraged active duty soldiers to boo his political opponents and the press. Yes, that press. You know, the one whose freedom is named specifically in the First Amendment. The First Amendment is probably the one he hates the most, but there’s always the fourteenth, which has been a particularly thorny one for him. Hell, just clip out the Second Amendment post it on the White House fridge and burn the rest of that troublesome document.

Crickets in command
If there was anything more alarming than Trump’s partisan diatribe it was a senior officer corps that remained as silent as the grave of American democracy. Gone are Mark Esper, Mark Miley, John Kelly, and James Mattis, the men who, time and again, told Trump, ‘no you can’t do that. “

This time around Trump has advisors, the despicable authors of that manual of evil, Project 2025, who have instructed Trump to do what every dictator in history has done; and that is to populate the high command with fawning boot lickers.

Trump’s Fort Bragg event was so political and partisan, that the Army went through the trouble of hand picking a friendly audience that would not only smile through Trump’s entire jeremiad, but titter at his lounge act monologue.

An internal 82nd Airborne memo revealed that soldiers in attendance were selected based on political leanings and physical appearance. “No fat soldiers,” (in front of the fat president) read one memo. The italicized part is my own.

The partisanship was so egregious that MAGA paraphernalia was allowed to be sold on base property and some troops were seen snapping up various items of Trumpy gear including something called a White Privilege Card that reads, “Trumps Everything.”

By and large commanders and Pentagon officials seemed foursquare behind this festival of political bias. But not everyone. In an interview with Military.com, one commander, still moored in the harbor of democracy said, “This has been a bad week for the Army for anyone who cares about us being a neutral institution. This was shameful. I don’t expect anything to come out of it, but I hope maybe we can learn from it long term.”

And the cherry on top of this odious sundae is, yes, the name of the base – Fort Bragg. Once again, military bases will be re-named after Confederates, America’s 19th century cadre of traitors. “Fort Bragg is in,” said Trump. “That’s the name. And Fort Bragg it shall always remain. That’s never going to be happening again.”

Just for the record, Braxton Bragg was a slaver and a commander who was known mostly for his incompetence. But Trump wouldn’t know that because he and historical knowledge do not share an intimate relationship.

The stain of MAGA
The Fort Bragg incident highlighted something that has had me deeply concerned for quite some time; Trump’s extended influence. Ten years of Trump; ten years of chaos, incompetence, gaslighting, racism, political violence, and nationalism. A bestial stain, absorbed into America’s fabric for a decade.

New voters, those just turning 18, have spent many of their formative years watching the normalization of Trump. They watched an insurrection four years ago, the story of which is being shape shifted into a holiday outing or totally expunged by the perpetrators who were bizarrely returned to the helm (and aided in no small part by an opposition party that once again managed to stumble all over itself).

Young men have been consuming the noxious swill dispensed by a corps of MAGA bros; Joe Rogan, David Portnoy, Pat McAfee, Charlie Kirk. The so-called manosphere has captured the unimaginative imaginations of young men, many of whom have a shared gripe that they can’t get a date. You know what they say, “if you lay down with dogs, don’t be surprised if you wake up with fleas.” Or more to the point, if you don’t let yourself be shaped by assholes, then maybe women won’t think you’re an asshole.

But that isn’t the most chilling chapter in the horror story. What truly terrifies me is the realization that a new generation of soldiers and officers has watched the homogenization of an unstable autocrat. Will they defend the Constitution or will they be the ones who will one day find themselves claiming, “I was just following orders?” (see above: armed force that might one day be loyal to a king who would use that force against the citizenry)

Which of course circles back to White Privilege Cards being sold out in the open at a military base in front of God and generals.

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That anxious moment when you hear the door lock behind you
Florida State Senator Ileana Garcia gets it now. Donald Trump is a liar.

Well

no

shit.

Where were you senator when the guy was convicted of being a fraudster? Did you not realize that the key ingredient in the recipe for fraud is

lying?

It bears repeating that the man who she voted for and supported was essentially convicted of

lying.

Senator Garcia is angry over the regime’s deportation rampage.

“I have always supported Trump, through thick and thin. However, this is unacceptable and inhumane,” said the senator. Garcia continued, “I understand the importance of deporting criminal aliens, but what we are witnessing are arbitrary measures to hunt down people who are complying with their immigration hearings — in many cases, with credible fear of persecution claims — all driven by a Miller-like desire to satisfy a self-fabricated deportation goal.”

Garcia said that her Cuban born, immigrant parents are “just as American, if not more so, than Stephen Miller.” Well there’s an understatement given Miller is as un-American as Joseph Goebbels the man he most emulates.

Repeating what is now becoming the maxim of MAGA buyer’s remorse Garcia said, “This is not what we voted for.”

Again –

No

shit.

Of course it isn’t what you voted for because when you vote for a pathological liar you can’t possibly know what you are voting for. Because

liar, liar, pants

in a raging nuclear inferno. (Yes I know it doesn’t rhyme with liar, but in the case of Trump “on fire” seems so – inadequate)

Before Ileana Garcia there was the story of a dairy farmer named Nicholas Gilbert. Nicholas was MAGA up to his eyeballs. I say “was”, because after what happened to him it’s assumed he’s burned his red MAGA cap, flag and other MAGA swag.

Farmer Nicholas was a true believer in the economic flummery put forth by Trump and his various propagandists that the tariffs would not be a tax burden on the American consumer.

But farmer Nick’s faith in the gospel of Trump was shaken when he received an invoice for a grain shipment from Canada that included an unexpected $2200 dollar line item for the Trump tariff. But that wasn’t the worst of it. He was already under contract to sell his dairy product at a previously agreed upon price. Two thousand two hundred dollars that blew right past farmer Nick’s bottom line only to get flushed down Trump’s gold toilet. Say goodbye to that new flat screen you had your eye on Nick.

One would expect that Farmer Nick has sworn off snorting the MAGA nose candy, but addictions die hard and if he’s still doing the Trumpy blow, someone needs to call for intervention. But I really don’t have a grain of sympathy for farmer Nick or Senator Garcia (though I do hurt for the Hispanic constituents who followed her lead). If it’s pain that will get the orange monkey off the backs of the addicted MAGAts then bring it on – in bigly amounts. No doubt, Farmer Nick didn’t vote for the tariffs but when a pathological liar tells you that a tariff isn’t a tax you have to realize that you’re taking the word of a convicted

fraudster.

You all walked through the door of your own free will of stupid, and you’ve heard the click of the lock. Now what are you gonna do about it?

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Food for thought
Fun facts: California’s agricultural economy ranks fifth in the world as a food supplier. The Golden State grows over 400 commodity crops and generates 11 percent of America’s agricultural value. Nineteen California crops – including almonds, pistachios, walnuts, raisins, olives, plums and table grapes – are grown only in California. California ag contributes nearly $47 billion to the U.S. economy.

And so when I saw ICE agents chasing migrant farm workers through California fields it dawned on me that since California’s farms produce the lion’s share of the worlds nuts, the notion of arresting and deporting farm hands is just plain

nuts.

Meanwhile the ICE Gestapo raids on restaurants are forcing some eateries, such as El Control Mexican Restaurant in Harlingen Texas, to close. Because in a restaurant you need someone to

cook the food.

Arresting food pickers and food preparers led inevitably to

Thursday is TACO day
On the morning of Wednesday June 11th, the dear leader took a call from his Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins (she’s the dumb cluck whose cure for high egg prices was for Americans to invest in chickens).

Rollins called to pass along the concerns of ag industry bigshots and ag lobbyists who were getting a little squirmy seeing ICE whisking produce pickers off the fields and onto southbound buses.

The next morning (Thursday) dear leader served up another TACO order by softening his stance on kidnapping farm laborers. As if by magic these so-called hardened criminals have become

“very good, long time workers.”

Like they’ve always been.

Farm workers are suddenly untouchable.

Someone also got to Trump about workers in the leisure and hospitality industries because that group was also exempted. (Being the proprietor of hotels and restaurants maybe Trump got to himself)

This all must have sent the crockery and the invective flying about the Stephen Miller household because, a) it’s going to make hitting the daily kidnap quota a lot harder, and b) this puts a wrench in Miller’s plan to re-engineer the demographics of America by reducing the amount of melanin in the population.

With ag and hospitality off limits, who is ICE gonna snatch now?

I imagine the next target will be Mexican nannies accused of selling black tar heroin out of their apron pockets to the youngsters in their charge. That’s until some billionaire donor loses his family’s nanny to an ICE raid, causing dear leader to serve up another TACO.

Yeah, those immigrants are all desperadoes until, by fiat, they become essential hard workers (which by far they’ve always been).

And the moral of the story? When Trump promised he would only deport murderers, drug dealers and rapists of white women he was being a

liar.

A normalized occupation
Has anyone noticed that much of the news about the presence of the U.S. military in Los Angeles has been muted? But wait, the Guard and the Marines are

still in Los Angeles.

News of protests in the City of Angels has also been relegated to the back pages.

Should we be concerned about that?

Hell

Yes

I would feel comfortable betting the deed to my house against the charred remains of farmer Nicholas Gilbert’s MAGA cap that, barring the intervention of the courts, the Guard and the Marines are there to stay – permanently. That’s because too many of Trump’s atrocities and bullshit are allowed to become status quo. The administration will throw up a flash bang of a crisis here and a smoke screen of stupidity there and just like that, an occupation army in an American city will become an accepted state of affairs because everyone stopped looking.

If Americans have learned to be inured to school shootings they can certainly be made to yawn at the idea of the military occupation of a city.

And after L.A. what blue city will be the next to house an occupying army? Chicago? New York? Boston? (see above :armed force that might one day be loyal to a king who would use that force against the citizenry )

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Another episode of Comer pile
How is Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, James Comer like a Timex watch?

He takes a licking and keeps on ticking.

Comer spent four years fruitlessly trying to prove that Joe Biden was the ruthless head of an international crime family (that is when Biden wasn’t the addled, drooling idiot that Comer also accused him of being). Comer was pummeled with ridicule every single time (and there were many, many times) that he promised the smoking gun and managed to deliver a water pistol.

And now, after four years of thrashings Comer says, “Thank you, I’ll have another,” as he’s decided to launch an investigation into Gavin Newsom, Karen Bass and the L.A. “riots.” I’m waiting for Comer to put up an image of a burned out car, claiming it’s from the “insurrection” in Los Angeles, only to have it revealed an hour later that the image is of an old Yugo that was torched in Sarajevo during the Bosnian War of the 1990s.

But that’s how Comer rolls.

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And this is how America’s rolling.
Clunking along on square wheels powered by a sputtering engine in need of an overhaul. Maybe the overhaul comes in 2026 with the midterms. Maybe not (see above :armed force that might one day be loyal to a king who would use that force against the citizenry). What’s clear is that the engine of America needs the care of a mechanic.

And who is that mechanic?

He’s a collective grease monkey – he’s us.

The mechanic is us; not the confused running around like headless chickens, when they’re not busy being silent, Democrats in Congress. Do not count on a group that, with a few exceptions, can’t find its collective ass with both hands.

We the people are the mechanic. But we need more of us, (at the very least more than twice the current number) to put on the overalls, roll up the sleeves, be willing to get a little grimy, and start turning the wrench of protest. Because if not, the American engine is going to grind to a halt.