The Life in My Years

It was surreal.

But there it was.

Two apostles of Trump, blood brothers, a pair of the most annoying people in the history of the planet, Ted Cruz and Tucker Carlson, in a shouting match. These two are almost always in concert when it comes to – anything.

I didn’t know whether to laugh, sing hallelujah, or look for some pearls to clutch.

So I did all three.

It was hilarious schadenfreude to watch Ted Cruz, the guy who hates elites while sporting the professorial beard, and old Tuck with his perpetual expression of confusion, go nose to nose in an argument that looked nostalgically like baseball manager Earl Weaver and any umpire you could (or couldn’t) name having an old fashioned shouting match. All that was missing was some infield dirt for them to kick on each other.

“Holy shit,” I shouted.

Loud enough for Cora, who was working in the garden, to poke her head in the door and ask, “What happened?”

“Tucker Carlson and Ted Cruz are going at it over leveling Iran.” (Ted is a “yay”, and Tuck is a “nay”)

“Good!”

An internecine MAGA-land feud is usually welcome news but the fact that this one is over whether or not to
bomb, bomb, bomb,
bomb, bomb
Iran (sung to the tune of The Beach Boys, Barbara Ann)
is cause
to give pause.

War is never a good thing and the fact that the decision of whether or not to wage one is being bounced around between two imbeciles; Pete Hegseth (a former Fox News host with a drinking problem and an overly energized sense of machismo), and Donald Trump (nuff said), makes the whole notion troublesome (normally the Director of National Security, Tulsi Gabbard, would be in on the decision but she pissed Trump off and who knows, maybe she’s on the outs – more below).

What adds a fire hose of gasoline to the flames of anxiety is the realization that Donald Trump is playing this like an eight year old reality show host thirsting for an audience. And the eight year old has an army play set.

Pop quiz. What does Donald Trump love more than Donald Trump?

Answer: The eyes of the entire world on Donald Trump.

And that’s what he’s got, and he’s playing it to the hilt.

Trump is playing a childish game of, tease the war, and the knowledge that the world is hanging on the Donald’s every word and move must be positively orgasmic for him.

On Tuesday, June 13 Trump went to work on Truth Social.
“We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding. He is an easy target, but is safe there – We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now.” Trump added: “But we don’t want missiles shot at civilians, or American soldiers. Our patience is wearing thin.” Typically bellicose, typically childish, typically incoherent.

And then Trump added, as if he was asking for payment of a past due bill, “Thank you for your attention to this matter.” Once a businessman, always a businessman I guess.

A short time later, Trump decided to play Ulysses S. Grant, posting “Unconditional Surrender.”

Surrender what? Surrender to whom?

The next day brought more Trump teasers. Asked about a potential U.S. strike against Iran, Trump responded, “I may do it, I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do.”

“. . . nobody knows what I’m going to do.”

Well,

no

shit.

Those should’ve been words to live by (or vote by) on a fateful Tuesday in November, 2024. Because nobody knows what a person is going to do when that person is a pathological

liar.

And nobody, n-o-b-o-d-y, should vote for a pathological

liar.

But that’s all spilled milk under the bridge now (to mix metaphors) isn’t it. And so here we are.

Nothing is finished until it is finished,” Trump added “The next week is going to be very big — maybe less than a week.” Because the art to being a successful showman is to keep ’em guessing.

But wait.

Later on Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary who conspicuously wears a Christian cross while she dispenses patent hooey said that Trump would make his decision in two weeks.

An extended season! Isn’t that what we always want in those exciting television series? Another episode. Stay tuned folks for another episode of To War or Not to War, brought to you by Cheat – O’s. We’re a half a year into four grueling years and it’s looking grimmer by the day. I know the title has been taken but maybe the more appropriate title would be,

The Last of Us.

One rolls the eyes over Trump’s churlish, silly orders, like renaming things he doesn’t like the names of, but the fact that this childish, attention craving buffoon of a man is playing out a public game of “will he or won’t he,” so that he can garner worldwide attention or take attention away from his other outrages (ICE kidnapping innocent people for instance, or trans people being more more marginalized – during Pride Month) are both equally frightening and infuriating.

Frightening?

Do we want another decade long war?

Infuriating?

Do we want a man with no filter, no knowledge of Middle Eastern history, no coherent geopolitical philosophy, and no concern over what happens to anyone but himself making life and death decisions?

Well apparently so because we made him the president.

Helping to keep the drama front and center is a supporting cast of MAGA world asunder in a do or don’t bomb brouhaha. These are all lesser characters whose strict purpose is to stir the pot and thicken the plot because nobody is allowed to upstage the great Donald (just ask Elon Musk).

On the don’t side are; Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Steve Bannon. Last night I leaned into my wife and said, “I never thought the day would come when I would agree with Marjorie Taylor Greene.” We could only exchange glances of befuddlement.

On the “do it” side are; Lindsay Graham, Ted Cruz, Sean Hannity, and Mark Levin (who is so maniacally frenzied that he should consider being hooked up to an IV of Ativan before going on the air).

In a blast (pardon the ironic wording) from the past, William Kristol of The Bulwark has joined the bomb, bomb, bomb, chorus. Kristol, a Never Trumper, was one of the major promoters of going to war with Iraq. In 1997, Kristol was one of the founders of a think tank called The Project for the New American Century (PNAC). PNAC was an amalgam of hard right neocons promoting a military and foreign policy agenda of American superiority. All the group needed was a dim bulb of a president to carry out it’s ideological agenda. Enter George W. Bush.

Hmmm, a group of right wing zealots looking for a moldable blockhead of a president to carry out it’s ideological agenda. Where have we seen that recently?

Back in the early 2000s nobody really heard of or cared about PNAC. I was one of the lone political junkie voices trying to sound the alarm. Hmmm, a nation that reacts to the dangerous agenda of a group of right wing zealots with a bored yawn and then finds out, far too late, that it fucked up. Who says history doesn’t repeat itself?

As it turned out, PNAC was short lived but survived long enough to push America into a protracted meat grinder.

At the heart of the matter is America’s mother of all weapons, a 30,000 pound bomb called a bunker buster that may be able to destroy Iran’s underground nuclear facility at Fordo. Or it may not.

Israel doesn’t have one of these behemoths and one has to wonder if the war criminal Netanyahu has punked Trump into unleashing hell on Israel’s behalf.

I suppose Trump and his hawkish groupies would call Trump’s kabuki the “art of the deal” (which has been a complete fizzle when it comes to trade). But “art” assumes some measure of finesse, something Trump is incapable of (even in the doubtful event that he knows the definition of the word). Trump’s idea of finesse is to apply a tactic suited for haggling over a piece of real estate, to a complex, decades old geopolitical challenge.

During his campaign, Trump promised he would be the peace president. No wars. Particularly those troublesome, sandy Middle Eastern wars. But let’s remember the one important thing that people forgot or ignored on a fateful Tuesday in November, 2024. Trump is a pathological

liar.

Attention class, let’s review. Just about every calamity and problem and crisis that is happening in America today boils down to the fact that in November of 2024 people forgot or ignored the fact that Donald Trump is a pathological

liar.

But back to bomb, bomb, bomb . . .

One of the “nay” voices coming out of MAGA is Trump’s own Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard who said in her confirmation hearing last March that Iran was not building a nuclear bomb.

When asked on Tuesday about Gabbard’s testimony, Trump said, “I don’t care what she said. I think they were very close to having one.”

Word on the street (well, Pennsylvania Ave) is that Trump is pissed at Tulsi over a video that she posted on X on June 10, 2025. The video is a quite moving paean against nuclear war. It discusses the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the destructive power of current nuclear weapons. She ends by saying, “But as we stand here today, closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before, political elite and warmongers (italics, mine) are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers. Perhaps it’s because they are confident that they will have access to nuclear shelters for themselves and their families that regular people won’t have access to. So it’s up to us, the people, to speak up and demand an end to this madness.”

(You go Tulsi. Wait. Go Tulsi? Agreement with Tulsi Gabbard – another Twilight Zone moment for me.)

Before posting the video on X, Tulsi didn’t ask “may I, please.” Instead she went with the theory that it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission. Problem is, Donald Trump runs on vengeance and not forgiveness.

Update the resume Tulsi. (And if you keep putting out sane shit like that video I might just change my thoughts about you.)

Another rerun
The verdict is out on Iran’s nuclear capabilities, just like it was out on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.

“Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof – the smoking gun – that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud,” said George W. Bush in October of 2002.

The company line was that Iraq would be a pushover. Go in, find the WMD, topple Saddam, set up a democracy and chalk up a victory for Uncle Sam.

My memory of March 20, 2003 is crystal clear. I was having dinner with my daughter at Pear Street Bistro in nearby Pinole, when the U.S. invaded Iraq. We watched the breaking news on the big screen TV in the bar, and exclaimed a concurrent disgusted “fuck” in response. 

On May 1, 2003, George W. Bush, looking all the buffoon on the deck of an aircraft carrier, declared victory in Iraq. 

In 2011, eight years after Bush called game, set, match, Obama tried to extricate the U.S from Iraq. In the vacuum ISIS grew like a weed from the rubble and the U.S. was back in, providing air support against ISIS. 

And the WMD?

None.

(To go with his domestic Katrina disaster and a crippling recession, Iraq ensured Dubya’s place as one of America’s most mediocre of presidents and maybe that’s why we hear so little from him during these dark days)

Mission creep was the name given to that extended war and changing priorities. The real mission creep was Bush for getting us into that mess. He was fueled by anger and turbocharged by Iraq hawks when he got the U.S. into that war. A real creep.

Easy in – easy out was the assumption.

Thought we would be greeted as heroes for toppling a brutal regime. No blow back. Iraq would find its own George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and would set up a Middle Eastern democracy. The Iraqis would welcome regime change.

As it turned out America was the dog that caught the car. No end of war strategy. No appreciation of a culture centuries older than America. Not a single thought given to the idea that Iraq would be a nation in chaos. No strategy for dealing with an insurrection. No exit strategy. And so the United States didn’t know whether to shit or go blind (to use another old saw).

Why I hate sequels
And so, a quarter of a century later:

America has an angry, vengeance fueled president being goaded into war by Iran hawks based on sketchy evidence (see above: George W. Bush/Iraq).

The administration has no appreciation of the culture of a nation it’s considering to attack (in fact the administration has a rabid hatred of Muslims and Muslim nations).

Easy in – easy out is the assumption.

Drop the bunker buster and the job is done. No need for “boots on the ground.”

One and done.

How could we possibly get sucked into mission creep?
Because there’s a war criminal creep in Israel who is spoiling for regime change (see above: regime change in Iraq).

Or let me answer the question with a question. Are we to believe that Donald Trump is his own man and never changes his mercurial mind based on bad advice from Fox News or bad actors who he wants to emulate (like Netanyahu)?

Nothing could possibly go wrong. Right?
Iran won’t retaliate against U.S. troops in the region.

Waging war won’t result in the increased threat of terrorist attacks (and no worries there, we have Kash Patel and Kristi Noem protecting us).

Americans overseas won’t be in danger.

We can deal with Iranian cyber warfare (which it is already carrying out against Israel).

And we’ll never get sucked into trying to change a regime.

So yeah, this is why I hate sequels.

Democrats play hide and go
hide

Well, we do what we do best. Right?

With Donald Trump getting ready to usurp Congress’ power to wage war, where are the Democrats? With a few exceptions, they can be found where they’re usually found. And that is –

they’re nowhere to be found.

Duck

Dodge

Hide

Senator Tim Kaine is moving to invoke the War Powers Act and Ro Khanna is acting similarly in the House.

Meanwhile neither Chuck Schumer or Hakeem Jeffries have gotten on board.

Democrats in both the House and the Senate should be howling in protest but the only sound is that of crickets. They have less gumption than yes, Marjorie Taylor Greene. Let’s face it, the Democratic Party is a party of useless (and please pardon the rough slang) pussies.

War or the threat of war is a convenient shiny object,
so meanwhile in other news that’s been largely unheeded except to those relatively few who pay heed, there’s:
Starvation and genocide in Gaza
ICE
An appeals court has ruled that Los Angeles can continue to be an occupied city.
Tariffs and
what happened to 90 deals in 90 days?
The economy stupid (thank you James Carville).
The further exclusion and persecution of the trans community.
The innocent gay make up artist rotting in a gulag in El Salvador – if he’s still alive.
All of the other innocents rotting in a gulag in El Salvador – if they’re still alive.
The further dismantling of the administrative state.
RFK making America sick again.
The big shitty bill.
The dismantling of democracy.
Ukraine
and of course
TACO again. After Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem blew their gaskets over Trump’s relaxation of the kidnapping of farm workers, Trump has turned the green light to kidnapping farm workers back on. So fine. Do it. Do it! Let the vegetables and fruit rot, let the economy get tanked, let us all wait forever for our food in restaurants that have been gutted of help, and let’s say goodbye to the restaurants that won’t survive the loss of good help. That’s the president we have folks. He can’t make up his mind from one day to the next; hell one minute to the next. Is this what makes leadership? That’s our TACO president but if you have a craving for tacos be forewarned, your favorite Mexican joint might soon be closed.
And finally, all of the unmentioned cruelties being perpetrated daily by a regime that history will remember as inhumane and barbarous.

It’s a long shitty to do list that Trump can pretty much carry out while the mainstream media focuses on one issue and the general public sips its collective latte and watches

The Last of Us.