Yesterday the United States mounted an early morning military operation and removed the chief executive, arguably an illegitimate chief executive, from office and brought him to the United States to face criminal charges, even though the real ability of the US to charge somebody overseas with a crime is dubious and we ignore that when people do that to us.
Later in the day, Donald Trump, also an illegitimate chief executive, gave a press conference.
This demonstrates senility. There's no doubt about it.
January 9, 2026
There is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me,. . .
Donald Trump.
Need anyone say more?
The 25th Amendment needs to be invoked now.
January 10, 2026
At a meeting with oil company executives, which was odd in and of itself.
"Hold on, I need to look at my beautiful ballroom” — then got up and walked to the door.
Wow. What a view! This is the door to the ballroom!
The man is a child, but then, that's what senility does.
It's worth finding the video. Trump is clearly senile and its at the point where nobody can hide it. Rubio is sitting there grim faced, because that's all he can do.
It's not, I'd note, just me that's been noticing a rapidly declining cognitive ability in Trump.
If Trump was a partner in a law or accounting firm, he'd have been wheeled out the door by now. If he ran a business on his own his employees would be jumping ship. The man is mentally gone.
At this point its absolutely the case that these conversations are, beyond a shadow of a doubt, taking place behind Trump's back. Rubio, Vance, etc., are discussing his mental incapacity. Rubio is full blown on correction mode all the time. Vance is hiding most of the time. The big question is who is angling for what. We have no reason to believe that these characters all get along with each other, and we know that the Trump administration basically breaks down into 1) National Conservatives, using him as a distraction (Vance, Miller), 2) New Apostolic Reformation Evangelicals who figure that Trump is divinely charged with a mission to bring in a new, Evangelical, Christian age (not in the admin, but think Mike Johnson), 3) rank sycophants who worship Trump unthinkingly and 4) rank opportunist (Marco Rubio). Any one of these groups save for the sycophants would have pushed Trump out by now, but no one group is really in agreement with what comes next. Opportunists don't want the NatCons or the NAR people in, the NAR people don't want the opportunists or the NatCon people in, the NatCon people know that this is their only chance.
January 15, 2025
January 16, 2026
Invoke the 25th Amendment you cowardly bastards.
January 17, 2026
He's completely unhinged:
The 25th Amendment needs to be applied now. Trump is a madman. This is utterly insane and anyone supporting it is a complete moron.
Congress, step in.
Section 4
Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.
Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.
Do your duty. Congress can declare itself to be the body that declares Donald Trump to be Bat Shit Crazy. If it was a Democratic Congress, presumably it would. It only requires a few Republicans who are sycophantic toadies to go get it done.
Get it done.
January 19, 2026.
Okay, MAGA adherents and Republican politicians, explain why this isn't batshit crazy:
cont:
The Atlantic.
Trump’s Letter to Norway Should Be the Last Straw
Will Republicans in Congress ever step in?
The man is bat shit crazy. He needs to be removed.
From that article:
Yet what matters isn’t the specific phrases, but the overall message: Donald Trump now genuinely lives in a different reality, one in which neither grammar nor history nor the normal rules of human interaction now affect him. Also, he really is maniacally, unhealthily obsessive about the Nobel Prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee, not the Norwegian government and certainly not the Danish government, determines the winner of that prize. Yet Trump now not only blames Norway for failing to give it to him, but is using it as a justification for an invasion of Greenland.
Congress, screw up your courage and do something.
January 20, 2026
Trump gave a long, rambling, completely unhinged speech today in Europe.
This is effectively the final constitutional test. The Emperor Has NO Clothes. He's batshit crazy and everyone knows it. If the cabinet will not act, it's because their souls are corrupt. It's up to Congress at this point, and the Republicans are gutless cowards.
If they don't act, this is the end of the United States as a great power, and likely the end of the American economic era. It's a disaster.
It's also the end of this edition. Trump's dementia is now in the rapidly accelerating stage and we've entered a new stage of frightful senility. I had predicted the application of the 25th Amendment over a year ago. What I hadn't counted on was evil men like Stephen Miller, or complete fools like Scott Bessett. It's doubtful that it'll be applied now. Like Hitler's minions, they're rather go down in the bunker, or can't realize that they are.
Some years I do this thread, other years not. 2025 was such a serious year, I'm tempted not to.
Maybe that's when you should.
I'm going to start of with a minor one.
Heather Cox Richardson, for goodness sakes pay some attention to the production values of your Vlog. It's absolutely horrific and yes, it does matter. Sitting in front of a coast map may be something you can get away with as a professor to your students, but frankly everyone else just wonders on to Erza Klein.
The ones with Joanne B. Freeman are the absolutely worst, not because you both don't have things that are serious to say, but because it comes across like two elderly professors in the faculty lounge who are annoyed with undergraduates.
You have good content. Improve the production values.
Okay, now that we have that out of the way. . .
Cabinet members, invoke the 25h Amendment.
You know that Donald Trump is getting increasingly bat shit crazy and he's making everything worse. The point at which he serves as razzle dazzle is over. It's no longer safe. Remove him.
And once he's removed, do a serious investigation into what his thing with Putin is. It's weird, bare minimum, but is there more there?
Some will note, and indeed people already are, that if Trump goes Vance is in. This is true.Vance has his own dangers, but he's not likely to nuke Denmark.
Regarding Vance, Vance probably is who he always was, or so it seems to me, but his philosophical underpinnings have developed enormously, whether you like them or not. It occurs to me that people who were charmed by Hillbilly Elegy were charmed by it as they didn't regard it as a call for action for a hillbilly class, but rather as a fun thing to lament over while sipping some weird tea based drink and watching Heather Cox Richardson. Nope, it was a call to arms.
Vance, or whatever your name is, its time for you to be open about your beliefs. Either the American public accepts them, which they probably do not, or they'll reject them and you can try to convince them.
Also, reconsider their harshness. It's easier to be Kevin Roberts if you are an academic. In the real world, Pope Leo XIV makes a lot more sense.
Wyoming Freedom Caucus. Go back to your homes and leave Wyoming alone.
John Barrasso. Grow a spine and start backing Wyoming.
Chuck Gray. See item on Freedom Caucus.
Wyoming Democrats. Be like what you once were, moderate Republicans. You're never getting anywhere running as the French Socialist Party.
Wyoming voters, quit screwing yourself. I swear, the things you keep voting to support are so darned dumb it defines description. Voting for politicians who will grab Federal lands would sell them in a heartbeat. Coal is not coming back. Climate change is real and needs to be addressed.
And, if you are a new Freedom Caucus type voter, go home. We'll even buy you a box set of the Dukes of Hazzard if you leave.
Members of the Evangelical Protestant right wing community (and maybe Evangelical Protestants in general). Read some history. You guys are carrying out a historically discredited effort that's contrary to the Church.
Also, knock off the divorce doesn't matter thing. It does.
And the 2028 Presidential Season has begun. Erika Kirk of Turning Point USA has endorsed J. D. Vance.
And yes, it's way, way, early.
But perhaps its not surprising. Trump's mentally departing the stage and chance are good that he'll be out of office in the next few months, Vance is probably looking towards his future right now. His best chances for that position, of course, would be if Trump is escorted out of the building babbling about being the greatest and sent to a gilded retirement home.
But if that doesn't occur, the knives will be coming out before 2028. Marco Rubio will not have sat through four years of soul corrupting dementia not to take a run at the White House. No doubt others are in the wings.
One who may be in the wings, if I'm wrong on his being too demented to carry on in any fashion, is Donald Trump. Everyone keeps noting that he's constitutionally barred but he has no regard for the law in the first place and his threads to run need to be taken seriously.
On Vance, he's a true NatCon, although a recent convert to the philosophy, and his being backed by Turning Point means something, assuming that Turning Point doesn't fly apart or become highly diminished (which I think it will). It's hard to know exactly what's going on, but it might be suspected that it's probable that Kirk's coming out now has the backing of other significant NatCon figures, who know that they need to put their man in power now (Trump really isn't their man, but their tool). A figure like Rubio would turn the clock back.
And so the race is on.
December 22, 2025
It wasn't until listening to the weekend shows that I learned that Marco Rubio has endorsed Vance as well.
That's really interesting, and frankly surprising.
Cont:
And now the rumors are circulating, probably correctly, that Ted Cruz will be running.
Moreover. . . .
The NatCon nerve center and author of Project 2025 starts to come unglued as the Trump Administration does:
I've always thought Roberts' organization would maneuver to put Vance in power in 2026 and shove aside the Pine Tree flag folks, who don't have the intellectual capacity to run a government. The risk has always been that they'd hold the hand they were dealt too long.
They may have.
And Pence, who didn't look like a good candidate before, is starting to with some folks.
Trump's dementia is clearly accelerating, as his weird speech to assembled senior military officers demonstrated.
In response to the speeches assertion that cities like Chicago should be used as training grounds, Gov. JB Pritzker called for Trump to be removed from office under the 25th Amendment.
I've been saying that for months.
The Atlantic noted:
The president talked at length, and his comments should have confirmed to even the most sympathetic observer that he is, as the kids say, not okay. Several of Hegseth’s people said in advance of the senior-officer conclave that its goal was to energize America’s top military leaders and get them to focus on Hegseth’s vision for a new Department of War. But the generals and admirals should be forgiven if they walked out of the auditorium and wondered: What on earth is wrong with the commander in chief?
Trump seemed quieter and more confused than usual; he is not accustomed to audiences who do not clap and react to obvious applause lines. “I’ve never walked into a room so silent before,” he said at the outset. (Hegseth had the same awkward problem earlier, waiting for laughs and applause that never came.) The president announced his participation only days ago, and he certainly seemed unprepared.
I've also been stating that he's not okay.
It's now becoming undeniable even where it had been ignored. Donald Trump is not okay.
October 2, 2025
A growing momentum on Trump's insanity.
This is huge.
In this clip, an off mike Speaker of the House Mike Johnson basically admits that Trump is "unwell", and only defends it by saying that some Democrats are as well.
He doesn't defined Trump's insanity, and he claims not to have seen the speech to the Military.
There's growing momentum now for the 25th Amendment to be invoked. It's openly being called for, and here one of Trump's closest allies doesn't try to defend his sanity at all.
MADELEINE DEAN: The president is unhinged. He is unwell.
MIKE JOHNSON: A lot of folks on your side are too
DEAN: Oh my god, please. That performance in front of the generals?
MIKE JOHNSON: I didn't see it
DEAN: It's so dangerous! Our allies are looking elsewhere. Our enemies are laughing. You have a president who is unwell.
Things like this have a way of happening suddenly. Since Trump's very publized speech to the senior officers, there has been a lot of public commentary on his being "unwell" and now senior politicians are saying so openly. Some are Democrats who aren't afraid of saying it, even though they've been reluctant to up until now, such as Madelene Dean.
Dean: “Is it racist? You put a sombrero on a Black man who’s the leader of the House. You don’t see that as racist? We need you desperately to lead,”
Johnson: “I’m working on it. And personally, it’s not my style. I love you and I respect you, OK?”
Dean: “That’s why I’m talking to you".
We covered this quite a while back, but the 25th Amendment requires the vice president, together with a "majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide", to issue a written declaration that the president is unable to discharge his duties. So who all has to buy in on that? The majority of the cabinet, but just a simple majority.
Who all is in the cabinet?
Secretary of StateMarco Rubio
Secretary of the TreasuryScott Bessent
Secretary of DefensePete Hegseth
Attorney GeneralPam Bondi
Secretary of the InteriorDoug Burgum
Secretary of AgricultureBrooke Rollins
Secretary of CommerceHoward Lutnick
Secretary of LaborLori Chavez-DeRemer
Secretary of Health and Human ServicesRobert F. Kennedy Jr.
Secretary of Housing and Urban DevelopmentScott Turner
Secretary of TransportationSean Duffy
Secretary of EnergyChris Wright
Secretary of EducationLinda McMahon
Secretary of Veterans AffairsDoug Collins
Secretary of Homeland SecurityKristi Noem
Administrator of the Environmental Protection AgencyLee Zeldin
Director of the Office of Management and BudgetRussell Vought
Director of National IntelligenceTulsi Gabbard
Director of the Central Intelligence AgencyJohn Ratcliffe
United States Trade RepresentativeJamieson Greer
Administrator of the Small Business AdministrationKelly Loeffler
Chief of StaffSusie Wiles
Okay, let's make some reasonable assumptions.
Getting J.D. Vance on board only really requires that a majority of the cabinet go along. I suspect Vance would be pretty willing to stab Trump in the back if it elevates him to the Oval Office, and as I've said here all along, the NatCons have been planning on this development since day one.
So who might go along? Keep in mind that there are a whopping 22 cabinet officers (an absurd amount). In order to invoke the 25th Amendment, 12 would need to be willing to vote that Trump is bonkers.
Let's put them in "probable" (red), no way (blue) and unknown categories (orange) and see where that takes us, keeping in mind that unknown, is unknown to me. Others might have a pretty good idea of how everyone is likely to go.
1. Secretary of StateMarco Rubio. Rubio would definitely remove Trump and is undoubtedly willing to save his own career rather than be hitched to a mentally declining unpopular President.
2. Secretary of the TreasuryScott Bessent. Bessent might seem like a surprise here, but he's been clearly uncomfortable saying the stupidest stuff and would likely like to be relieved of that burden.
1. Secretary of DefensePete Hegseth. Hegseth is hitched to Trump's wagon, and knows it. The only way he might consider otherwise is an open threat/promise that if he goes along, he keeps his job (the NatCons probably like him), but if he doesn't, when this gets worse, he'll be sent packing before his work is done.
3. Attorney GeneralPam Bondi. This probably seems like a surprise too, but recently Trump's been forcing Bondi into clearly unethical and stupid positions. She's pretty smart, and would likely vote to save herself.
4. Secretary of the InteriorDoug Burgum. Burgum's role in the administration is a self serving marriage of convenience. He'd hitch his wagon to any Republican President.
2. Secretary of AgricultureBrooke Rollins. I don't know much about Rollins and probably should put her in orange, but she served Texas Governor Perry, which speaks for itself.
3. Secretary of CommerceHoward Lutnick. Lutnick has come across as a complete Trump toady and likely knows that if Trump falls, he's going to be sent packing.
1. Secretary of LaborLori Chavez-DeRemer. Chavez-DeRemer has really flown under the wire, but she seems pretty sharp. She's Hispanic, and her father was a Teamster. I suspect that she'd lean towards removal as she's drawn little attention and would continue to draw little attention in a new administration.
4. Secretary of Health and Human ServicesRobert F. Kennedy Jr.. This one speaks for itself.
2. Secretary of Housing and Urban DevelopmentScott Turner. Turner's an unknown. His political career has been tied to Trump, but whether he's so loyal that he'll go down with Trump is another question.
3. Secretary of TransportationSean DuffyNo idea whatsoever, but I suspect he would not go along.
5. Secretary of EnergyChris WrightWright's weltanschauung in his department is too aligned with Trump for him to go along.
6. Secretary of EducationLinda McMahonSpeaks for itself.
5. Secretary of Veterans AffairsDoug CollinsCollins served as an active duty and reserve chaplain. He's very conservative, but I suspect that military officers have his ear.
6. Secretary of Homeland SecurityKristi Noem. Noem is from the far right, but she's savvy and she's not going to go down with the Trump ship.
7. Administrator of the Environmental Protection AgencyLee Zeldin. Zeldin is a Trump ally. He won't vote to remove Trump.
7. Director of the Office of Management and BudgetRussell Vought. Vought is a far right NatCon and pretty smart, which puts him in the cynical camp. Trump's only a vehicle for the NatCons, and he'll be willing to change lines if it means it keeps the NatCons in control under a NatCon Vance. Indeed, his participation would nearly guaranty that it would.
8. Director of National IntelligenceTulsi Gabbard. Gabbard has a demonstrated independent streak and has been in both political parties. She'll act to advance and save herself.
4. Director of the Central Intelligence AgencyJohn Ratcliffe. Quite unknown, but I suspect would lean towards removal.
5. United States Trade RepresentativeJamieson Greer. Unknown, but would likely lean towards removal.
6. Administrator of the Small Business AdministrationKelly Loeffler. Unknown, but would likely lean towards removal.
7. Chief of StaffSusie WilesProbably loyal to Trump.
So, if my math and ponderings are correct, which they may very well not be, things are probably nearly tied, in knowns, right now. I figure there are 8 out of the needed 12 who would remove Trump, if four more signed on.
Of the unknowns, there are seven. Of the diehard Trump loyalist, seven. I figure five of the unknowns, one more than needed, would likely go for removal, but that's a pretty thin margin. Some on the fence would likely want a greater margin.
You can bet these conversations are going on right now, however. They are openly going on now in Congress.
October 5, 2025
Don is using the budget shutdown to cozy up to Project 2025, making his removal less likely as the NatCons will get what the want from the document under the cover of the budget shutdown. Russell Vought, for example, can now be moved to the no removal column.
It was a crafty move on somebody's part.
October 15, 2025
I'd love to go to Argentina. I'd like to be like Biden. I'd like to go to the beach. My legs are not quite as thin as his. My legs are slightly heavier…My body is a little bit larger than his. I'm not sure it would be appreciated on the beach.
Donald Trump.
October 20, 2025
The destruction of the facade of the East Wing of the White House began today in anticipation of the construction of a ballroom that will never get built.
Construction of the gaudy structure will advance until the 25th Amendment or advanced old age remove Trump from office, at which point the East Wing will have to be repaired on the taxpayers dime. Worst case scenario is that Trump somehow managed to babble through a full term, which would be a disaster for the nation, after which the structure will be taken down and a new East Wing built.
October 21, 2025
So I just wanna say, thank you all. Uh, simply, behind me, so, is a knockout panel. This panel, the next time you come here, will be opened up and gone. No – uh, no problem with any of the surrounding areas. These, this room will be fixed. This will be like a cocktail – the whole floor will be cocktails or pre-briefings or whatever it may be, lots of different things. So the entire floor. So you come in, the entire floor sets up. We didn’t have to do any of that. Usually, you have to do that. You need different rooms to go along with a ballroom.
Donald Trump.
October 22, 2025
Trump now claims the justice department owes him $230M dollars.
He's clearly insane.
October 24, 2025
October 24, 2025
cont:
Oh yeah. . .that's clearly the reaction a totally stable secure genius would have . . .
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
And with that petulant temper tantrum, we'll close out this edition.
October 30, 2025
The United States, with a demented child in the Oval Office, is going to resume the testing of nuclear weapons.
Trump is clearly, to use the legal standard, "a danger to himself or others".
Trump was clearly clueless and walked right when the Japanese Prime Minister stopped to review the honor guard, leaving her to have to catch up. People guided Trump around like a demented elderly person. . . which of course he is.
And the saluting.
Ronald Reagan started saluting at U.S troops. It's moronic. It was then, and it still is. Trump's a civilian, he shouldn't be saluting anyone.
November 4, 2025
Donald Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao without knowing who he was.
This from the guy who complains about autopens.
November 5, 2025
You go to a grocery store, you have to give ID. You go to a gas station, you give ID. But for voting they want no voter ID. It's only for one reason: because they cheat.
I don't have to show an ID at the grocery store or the gas station. And I don't believe Trump ever goes to the grocery store or the gas station.
Cont:
1300% lower than last year. We love the creamed corn. I don’t know who came up with that. Bob Corn, or maybe Jack Cream. Hey look, a woman from Saudi Arabia!
Trump on creamed corn.
I don't know if they care about that in Saudi Arabia, but here it means a lot. We got the princess here from Saudi Arabia. She's got a lot of cash.
Trump on the cost of a Thanksgiving meal.
November 7, 2025
Our energy costs are way down. Our groceries are way down. Everything is way down. And the press does not report it… Thanksgiving meals 25% down. So I don't want to hear about the affordability.
I'm not going to link it in, as I think it's shallow on the solution, but pundit Ezra Klein has a current segment of his vlog in which he discusses how the Democratic Party is in such a mess, in spite of people really not being all that keen on Donald Trump's Fascist Roadshow, because they're really lost touch with average people at the street level. I've been saying the same thing now for what's approaching a decade.
Well, actually more like two, or more.
Anyhow, yesterday I ran this item which was sparked by liberal/center left blather about J. D. Vance hoping that his wife Usha become a Christian:
One of the things this event shows, quite frankly, is the degree to which the left holds religion in contempt. The fact that they so obviously hold religion in contempt is part of the reason that people who are serious about their faiths, and that isn't limited by any means to Christians, do not trust the Democratic Party and, as long as it continues, aren't going to trust the Democratic Party. As I warned would occur, this is leading to a massive exodus from the Party by Hispanics, who are largely Catholic. If you demonstrate contempt for people's existential beliefs, they're not going to vote for you even if you promise all kinds of nifty social programs.
They also are not going to vote for you if you show childish glee over a made up sense of morality over an event that doesn't mean anything.
As people who stop in here know, I really don't particularly know what to make of the late Charlie Kirk. I've expressed my views on that elsewhere and I'm not going to back into them here. As little as I know about Charlie Kirk, and that's not much, I know even less about Erika Kirk.
The widowed Erika Kirk has been in the news a lot recently, as she's sort of taken up the mantle of her late husband's organization, Turning Point USA. In that role, she's been very public and is making public appearances. She's drawn criticism for that alone, as apparently those generally on the left feel, even if they don't, that she should be dressed in widow's weeds and moping around the house or something. Quite frankly, if she was a figure on the left, the same people would be praising her for her bravery.
And now comes the embrace with J. D. Vance.
Vance was speaking at some Turning Point USA event. He's probably a good choice for that, as Donald Trump is 750 years old and most Turning Point members aren't. The populist right has to keep in Turning Point's good graces, moreover, as it's part and parcel of the Evangelical embrace of Trump, albeit one that wasn't initially certain about Trump.
Anyhow, Kirk made some comment about Vance and her late husband being similar. I don't see that at all, quite frankly. And then she went on to hug him after introducing him.
This is a big non event.
Indeed, if you see the whole video, the entire thing lasted just second from beginning to end. You can only really make it a big deal, if you desire to, by screenshotting the whole thing as if it was an endless romantic embrace.*
Nonetheless, the left has reached out in shock and horror, certain after Vance's recent comments about hoping his wife converts, that he's about to ditch her as Kirk and Vance are now a couple.
Oh horseshit.
This shows once again the degree of contempt for conservative views that people on the left hold. There's no evidence at all that Erika Kirk is happy that her late husband was murdered and has now moved on to Vance. There's no evidence at all that Vance would betray his wife. Indeed, as he is a Catholic, and is expressing a Catholic view on his desire that she also convert, the better evidence is that he'd never do that.
This is, again, the very sort of thing that causes people on the right to regard the left and contemptuous and mean. And that doesn't win votes.
Footnotes:
*FWIW, as an Irish American (and genetically, I'm more Irish than many Irish), with some Westphalian heritage, I'm in that category of people who abhor hugs from people I'm not extremely close to. By that I mean I'll accept hugs from my wife and children, and I'm uncomfortable with them from anyone else.
This is a real northern European thing. We aren't a touchy people, and any kind of physical contact of this type is an unwanted intimacy unless its a wanted intimacy, in which case, you're contemplating marriage. Out in society, however, this just ain't so.
I've known people, almost invariably women, who are very touchy and it means nothing at all. And for some reason, in recent years, it's become increasingly common. I used to work with somebody, for example, that would do this routinely, particularly if you were at any sort of a function and she's had a drink. She's latch on to an arm and not let go. I took up using my wife as sort of a shield to avoid that. Another female lawyer I know invariably will make physical contact. There I am sitting at a hearing when all of a sudden there's hands on my shoulders so that I'll say "hi". Couldn't you have just said hi?
To make matters worse, I'm 5'6" tall and that puts me way down torso wise on any woman who is inclined to hug me for some reason. If they're short too it's okay, but if they're not, it's really awkward.
Anyhow, a flap like this reinforces my desire to avoid that sort of thing. The irony is, the people complaining about this probably aren't bugged by hugs at all, and a lot of them probably aren't all that concerned about personal or sexual morality either.
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