Ascendant Ignorance in the Age of Donald Trump. Ignoramus Watch Part 4. Dr. Hegseth countermands George Washington edition.

 

April 22, 2026

During the Revolutionary War, George Washington ordered his troops inoculated against Small Pox.

This week Pete Hegseth lifted the requirement that troops be inoculated for influenza for "religious" reasons.

The current GOP is heavily anti scientific.

Opposition to vaccinations has been in American history largely a thing of smaller Christian and non Christian sects which are fairly anti scientific, as opposed to the majority of Christians who have no objection to vaccination.  However, when the far right of the country started to turn weird, listening to such medical lights as boob model Jenny McCarthy, that began to change a bit. Covid really made it worse as a significant portion of the country turned anti vax under the leadership of Donald Trump, who got the vaccine, but who recommended some really lethal approaches to the crisis as well.

Troops who don't get inoculated ought to just be given dishonorable or less than honorable discharges.  That's what should have occurred to those who refused the Covid vaccine.

April 24, 2026

The war department stands ready for what comes next. Locked and loaded. May God continue to breast—bless our warriors each and every day and on each and every mission.

Hegseth. 

Breast?

Okay, I get that it's a slip of the tongue, um, well, but it's an odd one.

May 12, 2026

The Aryan Nation, the Nazis, and the KKK are not far-right organizations.  Those are far-left organizations, and they always have been. The KKK was created and started by the Democrats in the United States to prevent blacks from being able to participate in the political arena, if you will. So, I'm going to say they've never been associated with the right, they've always been associated with the left.

Harriet Hageman.

Hageman's no dummy and she knows this is crap, or has drank so much of the Kool Aide she'll spout stuff that's absurd.

Every one of these organizations is from the far right and any claim to the contrary is patently absurd.  The claim about the Nazis, which I've seen before, comes from the party's very early, and frankly pre Hitler, days  and its name, the National Socialist Party.  The absurdity of that claim fails to realize that "socialism" in the context of nationalist parties doesn't necessarily mean Marxism, but "for society".  In the case of the Nazis, way early on their did espouse Socialism but by the time they'd come to power they'd abandoned it in favor of autarky and the early socialist in the party were sidelined or expelled.

And the claim about the KKK being founded by the Democrats and therefore left wing completely ignores that originally the Republican Party was the left wing party, and the Democrats were a right wing party.  The Democrats didn't evolve into the political left until the 20th Century and in the American South remained the conservative party into the 1980s.  Hageman herself is old enough to have voted in Reagan's first run for the Oval Office and therefore should be well aware of that.

This is totally reprehensible.

Cont:

Reporter: What extent are Americans’ financial situation motivating you to make a deal?

Trump: Not even a little bit. I don't think about Americans’ financial situation.

May 13, 2026

So it turns out that Trump's advisors uniformly told him not to launch the war against Iran, but he did anyway, and the advisors, not wanting to be blamed for his stupidity, leaked.  He wants them prosecuted for treason, and sycophant Todd Blanche is looking to to it.

The real crime here is Trump's, who launched an illegal war.  With no declaration of war, every single Iranian killed in it has been the victim of some sort of crime, and every American who has died has been the victim of some sort of crime ultimately attributable to Trump as well.

Blanche is pathetic.  When this is over, and it will be, his careers should be flushed down the toilet.

And then there's this:

PabloReports: Ted Cruz called you a parasite and disparaged your work as a bartender.

AOC: I think it’s funny that he’s been taking a government paycheck for 23 years but has the audacity to criticize someone who has come from a family that had to work their way up and earn their place here.

This is really becoming a Republican specialty around here.  We get retired servicemen who come in after sucking on the government tit for 30 years, retire, and then start sucking on the other government tit, and then run for office on the "I hate the government" ticket.

In that sense, the Democrat running against Collins in Maine is really refreshing.  He's given a speech about his combat service and then noted how he can't figure out how that's relevant to being a Senator.  It isn't.  

Recently I saw somebody post something in favor of Brent Bien here in Wyoming, noting that he's served in combat or dangerous conditions all over the world, and how that will make him ready to lead.  Yeah, lead troops, not a state government. 

We have a whole host of candidates from the He Man Government Haters Club running locally.  They have a right to run, but while they're doing it, they shouldn't be draining their mommy.  It's hypocritical.

June 22, 2026

Unqualified for her office Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said her office would prosecute individuals caught vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

That would mean prosecuting Donald Trump, which should be done for a variety of reasons.

June 24, 2026

The ideology of the Mooslims is slightly different than the ideology of the Catholics. We have the Catholics and the Mooslims. Slightly different. But Venezuela has been great and Iran has been great.

Donald Trump.

Insulting in the extreme.

The ideology of Catholics, of which I am one, is the ideology of Christianity, as Catholicism is the first and original Christian religion  It's more than "slightly different" than Islam.

This provides a good reason for those Catholics who support Trump to really question what they are doing.

June 26, 2026

Under President Trump the U.S. unemployment rate is at a historic low of just 4.3%. It was at a dismal rate of 3.4% under Biden.

Karoline Leavitt.

What the crap?

June 27, 2026

The new special edition passports with a glowering Supreme Leader Trump's image in them features the words, "Welcome!  But be good".

Apparently some moron didn't realize that these were passports, not visas.

Related thread:

August 7, 2026

After an embarrassing display of conspiratorial lunacy, in which Rand Paul notably played a part, a panel of Republican dimwits voted to send a measure to the Senate floor to hold Dr. Fauci in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer their moronic questions.

The basic truth of the matter is that the GOP has become completely scientific and dimwit conspiratorial in nature.  Basically, Flat Earthers, really.  I'm sure the whole panel will hold an investigation soon on whether we really went to the moon, and decide we didn't.

Not really on ignorance, but on the perversion that surrounds everything Trump, Republicans have been more or less silent on Rep. Max Miller after having a fit about Graham Platner.  Miller has been accused of abusing his wife by pouring boiling water on her and breaking the collar bone of his daughter.  Even his father in law, who is in the Senate, has been reluctant to criticizes him.

That's your party of family values.

August 20, 2026

We have a spike in oil prices that I don't really understand

Scott Bessent.

Seriously?

September 16, 2026

Trust in vaccines for deadly childhood diseases including measles has fallen according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll found.  Measles is on the uptake.

People who don't vaccinate their children for measles are, quite frankly, criminally stupid.

September 20, 2026

Yeah, sure the military asked for that. . .

September 24, 2026

"We almost have to go back to, what did medicine look like to the pioneer days in America?"

Republican Minnesota state auditor candidate, Dr. Scott Jensen.

Eee gads.

Oh, but it gets better, Sen. "Coach" Tommy Tuberville was holding forth on the Senate floor yesterday about the dangers of transvestitism and furries in commercial avaiation.

It’s possible that the pilot flying your plane could have a deranged fetish of dressing up like an animal.

 U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville.

Maybe a Star Wars convention was in town?

Posted under fair use exception.

Tuberville says stuff all the time that's flat out stupid. How he was ever elected is a mystery, but frankly, he raises questions about Arkansas because of his routine idiotic comments.

Somebody else who routinely raised eyebrows before he was appointed to the government is Dr. OZ, who yesterday stated:

More than a third of people on Obamacare have never used the insurance policy once. If you were gonna pay your hard-earned money to buy insurance, would you ever use it? The answer is yes.

What an idiotic statement that was.  You never want to have to use your insurance. Did Dr. Oz go into the office everyday thinking "golly, I hope I get to turn something in on my malpractice insurance today!"

Cont:

Sen. Jim Justice held a huge birthday party for his dog on Capitol Hill, wheeling it in with a small covered wagon.

It's like the last days of the Roman Empire.

Justice is a West Virginian Republican.

So, we had John Barrasso calling the Democrats "weird" last weekend. . . 

September 25, 2026

Tommy Tuberville doubles down on stupid.

Tommy just causes me to unfairly bring to mind all the stereotypes I have about football coaches, a game I don't really like.

Last edition:

Ascendant Ignorance in the Age of Donald Trump. Ignoramus Watch Part 3. The Quack Edition.

Labels: Ascendant Ignorance in the Age of Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Epstein Scandal, Health, Health and Human Services, Ignorance, Medicine, Playboy, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., The Oprah Effect, Yeoman's Twentieth Law of Behavior

King Donald's War, Part 13. A Second Rate Military lead by a Third Rate Clown College with a Secretary of War who should be impeached.

As we noted yesterday, Thomas Massie has introduced articles of impeachment upon Pete Hegseth.

They actually stand a chance of passing.

They provide, in relevant part:

Massie needs a simple majority in the House to pass the resolution.  It would require 2/3ds in the Senate to impeach and remove Hegseth.

Massie is nothing if not independent.  I don't agree with him on everything, but he's been one of the few Republicans in Congress, as opposed to the pack of willing sycophantic cowards that claim to be Republicans.  When the history of this era is written, he'll be a hero, whereas people like Mike Johnson will be pathetic weirdos, and people like John Barrasso spineless wimps.

Everything in this bill is correct.

One thing that isn't is incompetence, which this administration has shown itself to be on military matters.  The US Military has been revealed to be, frankly, pathetically bad, or at least its Navy has has been.  We're losing the war against a power that has outfought us, and out thought us.

Hegseth promised a renewal, of sorts, in the U.S. Military. Frankly, it needs one, and has for a long time.

Hegseth seems to have imagined a military that was pre 1948 in some ways.  All white, and mostly men.  The date we really need to look back to is this one:

Today In Wyoming's History: September 16, 1940. Conscription starts and the National Guard mobilized.

September 16, 1940 is the day the US went from a peacetime establishment and peacetime military to a wartime establishment and a wartime military.  We've been there ever since.  To at least some degree, we've kept a huge military with a huge military establishment, massive arms requirement, and a very large professional military class.

That needs to end.

What Hegseth got right, sort of, is that the Military began to be used for odd social experiments and it never stopped.  People look back to the 1948 integration of the military as being when that started, but that really misses the point. Segregation of the Army (not the Navy) started during the Civil War when the Army took in large number of black troops for the first time. With the inherent racism of the country, it simply would not have been possible to integrate black soldiers into regular units.  They would have been killed.  Establishing black units in and of themselves was a major accomplishment, and one only the war could have brought about.

Some efforts to integrate the military more fully occured in the 19th Century, but inherent racism in American society really just didn't make it possible until World War Two when it started to occur on a smaller and localized scale.  American reaction to German racism reflected back in the face of Americans and made integration of the military not only fully possible, but inevitable, after the war.

Minorities have always been a huge success story in the military, and that's been the case all along.  It simply provided opportunities to them that didn't exist elsewhere.  That lesson was learned but started to be misapplied in the 1970s when the Carter Administration saw the military as a way to advance the cause of women in society.  That evolved into allowing women into combat MOS's which was a huge mistake. Women and men are different. And then the Obama Administration allowed "transgendered" individuals into the military starting in 2016, which was turning a blind eye to a medically enhanced mental illness.

Women in combat units did create an internal reaction in military units that went unnoticed to some degree.  Male combat troops didn't and don't like it, and react accordingly whereas the influence of young women had a feminizing and softening, even cutsey, impact on the military.  Look up "Battle Boo" on Youtube and you'll see what I mean.  

Having troops set against their political leaders is a bad thing. But that has occured.  This created the perfect situation for a sort of Curragh Mutiny, and it's happened.

The thing here is that this all needed correction, but competent correction, which would have required a an actually conservative administration to bring about.  We don't have one of those.  In stead we have a demented megalomaniac octogenarian who is surrounded by sycophants, weirdos, and dimwits. Pete Hegseth is a good example.  A Evangelical Protestant Zealot with tattoos recalling the Crusades, which weren't done by Evangelical Protestants, a record of hard drinking and philandering, he presents himself like an insecure frat boy trying to hang out with college football players.  He also, as noted, not only claims to want to restore the "warrior" ethos to the military, he seems to have something against minorities and a bias against women that extend to their just being women.  

Like much of the overgrown bloated U.S. Military, he doesn't seem to have grasped that its not 1941 any longer either.  The war in Ukraine has shown that the age of drones is here.  Iran and the Houthis have shown an ability to launch missile strikes that would have made Peenemunde pound.  Believing that the US could take on Iran with Naval air alone, something GMT Games had already shown you could not, US forces were left heavily exposed in Middle Eastern bases which were wiped out by Iran nearly immediately.  Logistical tails were stepped on and the USS Abraham Lincoln became a symbol for the entire country, a rusting psychologically stressed hulk.

There doesn't seem to have been a lot of clear thinking going on.

Speaking of not thinking, and related to this war:

But with your money.  

What the crap?

President Trump’s administration is planning to sell to Israel a munitions package worth $2.8 including 2,000-pound bombs which will be funded by a Foreign Military Financing (FMF) grant.

That's right.  The heavily indebted United States will be spending money it doesn't have for Israel's military.

One thing that this war has caused and is causing is a rethinking of the US relationship with Israel.  It's long overdue.

The common line is that "Israel is our only ally in the Middle East".  Israel isn't a formal US ally at all.  Indeed, in terms of formal allies, the only Middle Eastern one we have is Turkey, not Israel.  

The US has a close relationship to Israel for historic and demographic reasons.  The US was horrified to a greater extent than any other nation to what happened to Jews during World War Two and reacted by giving its strong support to the establishment of Israel, ignoring the fact that importing thousands of immigrants into a land already occupied by somebody else would result in problems.

Put another way, if Europe demanded that thousands of Mexican immigrants be allowed into Texas to create a new country, we'd freak out.

Added to that, the US has a substantial Jewish minority, although it has not been and has never been huge.  It's about 2.4% of the population today.  Somewhat ignored in this is that the US also has notable population of Middle Eastern immigrants, most of whom up until a couple of decades ago were Lebanese and Syrian Christians and Armenians.  Perhaps because they were all members of Apostolic Christian faiths, that was just easy to ignore in some ways.  It's France, for instance, that has traditionally defended the rights of the Lebanese.  The US once concerned itself with the plight of Armenians, but that's been a long time ago.  To some extent, perhaps because they were a more distinct minority, Jewish populations in the US have tended to be relatively better organized.

Anyhow, almost from day 1 Americans really bought off on the concept of the establishment of Israel being a really noble cause.  In my household growing up I remember my mother feeling that way, although my father had a much more nuanced opinion.  The plight of Arabs in the same region was generally ignored by Americans up until relatively recently, and only because populations of Palestinian and other Arabs have immigrated into the US. They're still a much smaller percentage of the population than Jewish Americans are.

Added to that, Islam has tended to really freak Americans out, and for good reason.  

Israel has very divided politics and is going through something akin to what the US is, with the current Israeli government being, in my view, extreme.  Nobody has ever stated it, but it seems relatively clear that there are those in Israel who would outright force Palestinians out of what had been Mandatory Palestine.  There are Americans who have equally extreme views about modern Israel and its place in the world from a religious perspective.

Whatever brought the current Israeli government to power, it's also clear that there are huge numbers of Israelis who are horrified by recent events and would take Israel in another direction.

At this point, I'm with those who, like my father so many decades ago, take a much more nuanced view on Israel.  Like Ukrainian born Argentinian-Israeli author Jacobo Timerman, I view Israel as a Middle Eastern state that has to learn to live in that neighborhood.  It also, at this point, has to learn to get by on its own.  It can build its own weapons and pay for them itself.

For that matter, while its a topic for another thread, the US wasn't a serious supplier of arms around the world until World War Two.  It needs to stop being one now.  Selling arms to some countries is, okay, in my view, but not to as many as we do, and for cash, not best wishes.

I'll note that it is interesting that a lot of our former arms client states have stepped out on its own in recent years.  South Korea, for example, manufactures its own armored vehicles, artillery and small arms.  Israel does produce some weapons of its own, but not all that many.  I'm not for selling them arms anymore.

When people are killed by American arms, no matter who uses them, we're implicated.

Back to the illegal war in the Middle East that Israel got us into.

A resolution requiring the US to get out of that war passed the House yesterday.

H. CON. RES. 93

Directing the President, pursuant to section 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution, to remove United States Armed Forces from hostilities with Iran.

---

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

April 28, 2026

Mr. Moulton (for himself, Mr. Crow, Mr. Ryan, Ms. Houlahan, Mr. Panetta, Mr. Auchincloss, Ms. Goodlander, Mr. Vindman, and Mr. Scott of Virginia) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

---

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Directing the President, pursuant to section 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution, to remove United States Armed Forces from hostilities with Iran.

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That, pursuant to section 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution (50 U.S.C. 1544(c)), Congress directs the President to remove United States Armed Forces from hostilities against the Islamic Republic of Iran, other than those elements of the Armed Forces that may be necessary to defend the United States or an ally or partner of the United States from imminent attack provided that the President complies fully with the requirements of section 5(b) the War Powers Resolution (50 U.S.C. 1544(b)) with respect to any such use of the Armed Forces, unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or a specific congressional authorization for use of military force against Iran.

It's not going to go anywhere, but it's not irrelevant.  At least some are speaking up and standing out.

And some who claim to adhere to certain values should take note.  In the Particular Judgement Mike Johnson is going to have to explain supporting all this killing and standing with Israel isn't going to excuse it.  But then Johnson will have a lot to answer for.

cont:

The Houthis shot down a Saudi F-15 with a domestically produced missile today.

cont:

And Mike Johnson sent the House home early to avoid the impeachment vote.

That'd suggest either there were enough votes to pass it, or there were Republican Congressmen afraid to go on record.

They won't be back until November 9. They'd only been working for seven days since they came back from their last recess.

September 17, 2026

So it turns out the administration sent representatives to meet with the Houthis.

The same man who betrayed the Afghanis and surrendered their country to the Taliban is now negotiating with the Houthis while refusing support to Saudi Arabia.

Figures.

cont:

Apparently a deal was reached:

Yemen’s Houthis have agreed to allow US shipping unfettered Red Sea access if Washington refrains from direct military involvement in the Saudi-led war. That’s according to US reports which say the two sides struck the deal amid a Houthi offensive along Yemen’s Red Sea coast.

Al Jazeera.   

So King Donny stabbed Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the back, not that he is a nice guy.

Not that the Houthis are either.

The Houthis (Ansar Allah) are a Zaydi revivalist and Shia Islamist organization allied with Iran, which supports them.  They've been a player in the Israel/Hezbollah War, as was Iran, and are attempting to gain control of all of Yemen.  

Their emblem:

The phrase on it translates as "God is the Greatest, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse be upon the Jews, Victory to Islam".

Some deluded sots who supported the Trump participation in the ongoing war against Iran maintained early on that it was sort of a Protestant crusade. The US had a Divine mission, some argued who were in the military, or the Department of Defense, to take on Shi'a Islam.

Well, apparently not so much.

For the second time, Trump has surrendered to an Islamist organization and betrayed somebody we supported.

Anyone relying on Trump  for support is a fool.

And with this stab in the back, we will conclude this edition.

Last edition:

King Donald's War, Part 12. The "Economic D-Day" edition. CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist 152nd Edition, the irony edition.

King Donald's War, Part 12. The "Economic D-Day" edition. CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist 152nd Edition, the irony edition.

The fearsome Scott Bessent.

August 26, 2026

King Donny sent the fearsome Scott Bessent out to cause the Iranians to quiver in their boots, announcing that the US would inflict an "Economic D-Day" on Iran.

Except the US is going to exempt China, meaning that Operation Economic Outcast was stillborn from the very beginning.

Midweek Update#25: Sanctions Without China Are A Sign Of Defeat

So, It Turns Out That The US Is Winning!; A Story Illustrating Why This Pentagon Cannot Be Trusted

The US is moving its ambassadors back to the Middle East, however, which suggests it either naively thinks this will work, or that it's just going to give up.

Meanwhile:

Pentagon reveals hundreds of new Iran war casualties

More than 600 troops have been wounded in the Iran war, officials disclosed Saturday, almost 200 more than previously known.

This post, by the way, is the first one that I've ever had Bessent's name as a label, which surprises me.  He's been mentioned before, but I've never put in a label.

One thing I've thought about doing is posting how he's sort of uniquely a symbol of hypocrisy in the Trump Administration, or maybe in MAGA.  MAGA proclaims loudly that it's for "Christian" values by which it means far right Evangelical values.

Christianity pretty clearly holds that homosexual sex is a mortal sin.  St. Paul was blunt about it.  And yet Bessent is a homosexual in a homosexual union in which two children are being raised.  Most actual Christians of any type would question this, and if Evangelical Christians are to be believed, they find it completely abhorrent.

But then, by the same token, having an alleged president who is a serial polygamist, a special envoy for the Shield of the Americas, whatever that is, who seemed to be having an affair while in her earlier role and whose husband was wearing giant fake boobs in internet photos, etc. etc., is pretty odd too.

Indeed, it's impossible to reconcile.

Mind you, I'm not saying that a homosexual, including one who is in a homosexual union, cannot be an effective Secretary of the Treasury.  I'm saying you can't have an implied policy that everyone who isn't, white, straight, and sympathetic to far right Evangelicalism isn't a real American and still have a homosexual as one of your primary cabinet members and really mean any of that.

Making it all the more odd, Bessent is one of those cabinet members who has in recent months been dragged out to try to explain away whatever brain fart the Trump has uttered.  

That feature of this administration has been there all along.  Whereas for a transportation issue you might, in normal times, get a Transportation official, in this administration you might very well end up getting the Chief Chef of the White House to address it. And people appear and then disappear in that role pretty rapidly.  Chris Wright, the Secretary of Energy, regularly was being hauled out to address the Press on all sorts of things for awhile, right up until he said that Biden was validly elected to the Oval Office.

Goodbye Chris.

Anyhow, there's something extra weird about Bessent, who always seems extremely nervous, being hauled out to address the Press on the war while we have Pete "High T" Hegseth in charge of the "War Department".  Hegseth definitely fits into the far right Evangelical mold and is loud about it, while also being loud about the services being for manly men.  

Well, anyhow.  So much for Operation Economic Outcast.

August 31, 2026

Trump just shot some missiles at Iran and nobody cared

September 1, 2026

Iran, which you will recall supposedly lost the war, numerous times, hit Jordan with missiles within the last couple of days.

Only somewhat related, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who is close to J. D. Vance, submitted his resignation.  It is well known that he does not get along with Hegseth.

September 8, 2026

Iran, which we are repeatedly assured is on the edge of complete collapse, is imposing a restricted zone in the Strati of Hormuz.

September 9, 2026

Houthis attacked four Saudi Arabian cities and their oil installations yesterday opening a new theater in the war.

The US hit Iranian tankers.

September 11, 2026

Iranian allied Houthis seized control of Yemen’s port city of Mocha on Thursday and advanced down the Red Sea coast to strategic islands giving them extended control over the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.  The movies are likely Iranian backed themselves and squeeze Saudi Arabia and the world further.

Meanwhile Donald Trump stated that he expected  the Iran war to end after the U.S.  midterm elections.  D'uh.

If the Houthi advance isn't arrested, it will draw Saudi Arabia back into the Yemeni civil war which will be an expansion of King Donald's War.  

September 12, 2026

It's being reported that Saudi Arabia asked for Trump to intervene against the Houthis.  Trump declined.

What an absolute irony.  Trump illegally engaged in war against Iran where Israel undoubtedly had an influence, if in fact it didn't convince Trump to do it.  That war has caused the Houthis to advance in the Yemeni Civil War, which was always a risk given that they're an Iranian client and have been active previously.  They've struck Saudi Arabia, probably at Iran's request.  Saudi Arabia has legitimately asked the US for assistance as a result, and we've said no.

If only we'd said no to start with.

The Houthis have taken islands in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Saudi Arabia has halted transfers on its East-West Pipeline.

September 15, 2026

When the Japanese succeeded in launching a surprise attack on Army air installations in Hawaii and on the Navy's base at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 it resulted in a Congressional investigation that ended the careers of the Admiral and General in command.

All that and frankly the Japanese attack wasn't all that predictable.

The Iranian strike on U.S. installations in Bahrain were.

New photos show widespread damage at U.S. positions caused by Iranian missile, drone attacks

Donald Trump and his collection little girls are the most outrageous liars to have ever been in the senior leadership of a democratic nation, and perhaps in the leadership of any nation.  You'd have to look at Nazi Germany to find any comparison, so they are going to excuse this away, but the Iranian counterstrike's success shows a lack of planning and understanding by the Trump Administration that is simply unforgivable.

Related to the outrageous failures of the administration, Thomas Massie introduced Articles of Impeachment on Peter Hegseth including contravention of the War Powers Act, but also including ignoring the laws of war and extrajudicial killings, the latter including the illegal attack on Venezuela.  

With this, we will conclude this addition.

Last edition:

King Donald's War, Part 11. The worst defeat in American History. Sic transit Gloria Mundi.

Labels: 2020s, 2026, 2026 Election, Chris Christie, Donald Trump, Iran, Israel, King Donald's War, Operation Eagle Claw, Sic transit Gloria Mundi, Suez Crisis, The Second Trump Administration, United States and Israel v. Iran

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist 151st Edition. Дональд Трамп. Нелегалы? Donald Trump, Moscow's man in the White House or just really stupid (probably really stupid)?

Labels: China, Donald Trump, Espionage, Iran, North Korea, Predictions, Russia, Russo Ukrainian War, South Korea, Stupidity, United States and Israel v. Iran, Weird, Zeitgeist, Дональд Трамп — агент России

 

Hegseth is stripping the military of talent, money, and morale

 

There’s a war on, and Hegseth is running out of generals

How did war gamers get the war with Iran right, before it started, and the Administration didn't?

The other day I posted an item noting that old Avalon Hills gamers could have predicted the outcome of our ill advised and illegal war with Iran.  

Turns out, they did.  

I hadn't realized that at all when I posted that, but somebody I know well and who also likes hex and counter games did, and pointed it out.  

GMT Games has it as part of their Next War series in the form of Next War: Iran.

Here's GMT Games write up on its game:

Description

The Middle East has long been a hobgoblin for foreign powers and, as much as Afghanistan, also a graveyard of empires. Sitting squarely astride ancient trade routes and with the added impetus of the world's addiction to oil, the area has been a hot spot for centuries.

Now, with the old regime teetering and losing its grip, Iran makes a bid for forcing the West to recognize its complete sovereignty and control over its own affairs by striking at the one thing they care about: the flow of oil. Mining the Straits of Hormuz and declaring it closed to all traffic, Iran defies the world. The US, and perhaps some of its allies, takes action to re-open the straits and get the black gold flowing to the world again.

Next War: Iran is the sixth game in the Next War series. It is unique in the series in that the Allied player has to do the attacking while the non-Allied player attempts to defend its territory against neo-imperial oppression. With a long logistical tail, few true allies in the region, and the menace of Iran's A2AD capabilities, re-opening the Straits is a tall order.

The game came out in 2024.

Note the difficulty the war poses:

With a long logistical tail, few true allies in the region, and the menace of Iran's A2AD capabilities, re-opening the Straits is a tall order.

Gee. . . . 

Maybe Pete should have bought a few boxes of Next War:  Iran rather than worrying about low T.

The game was, we'd note, the 2024 Charles S. Roberts award winner for Best Hypothetical Game.

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist 146th Edition. What does the SAVE Act, Groypers, A coup in progress, Dominionism, Women staying barefoot and pregnant, and the Lumpenproletariat have in common? A movement, it's leaders, and it's really dim backers. More labels.

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist 145th Edition. The Department of Manly White Men.

 An AP Headline:

Hegseth announces new policy to test troops for low testosterone

Umm. . . .why?

There's something more than a little creepy about this.

Presumably female troops won't have to be tested for testosterone.

And then there's this:

Hegseth intervenes on promotion list (again), blocks female and Black officers

A Pentagon spokesperson said, “Military promotions are given to those who have earned them,” but the defense secretary hasn’t earned the benefit of the doubt.

The Secretary's campaign against female officers I'd guess to be part of a back door move toward limiting the role of women in the military, but what's up with the seeming bias against black officers?  Maybe it's just a statistical glitch, but then we have the taking down and relocation of a portrait of black Air Force Gen. Daniel “Chappie” James Jr. a genuine hero. The excuse was that it was being relocated due to renovations or something.  Chappie actually stared down Muammar Qaddafi during the latter's 1969 coup and nearly drew his M1911 on him in a true Western style standoff.

Maybe it's all a coincidence but it's an odd one.

For that matter, the entire Trump Administration is the whitest administration imaginable, which we could chalk up to coincidence too but for all the recent rumblings about who is and isn't a "real" American.  Black have of course been in the country since before it was a country, indeed since 1619.  At that time the Trumps were just doing whatever it is they did in Germany.  Nonetheless, I can't think of any prominent black members of the current illegitimate administration.

Even the Joint Chiefs, who represent members of the Armed Forces, which have 30 to 33% minorities in the ranks, are lily white, and of course all male.  African Americans, who are 13.5% of the population and 20% of the military, don't show up there.

Seems a bit odd.

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CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist 144th Edition. Just in case you've begun to think that being governed by an 80 year old demented dictator is somehow normal, here's. . .

Labels: 2020s, 2026, 930, 930s, Donald Trump, Iceland, Kristrún Mjöll Frostadóttir, Politics, Social Democracy, United States, Zeitgeist

Lex Anteinternet: Tuesday, July 6, 1976. First women at Anapolis. Not nothing the anniversary.

Lex Anteinternet: Tuesday, July 6, 1976. First women at Anapolis.: The first women to do so entered the United States Naval Academy. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II began a "Bicentennial tour" of se...

We ran this a few days ago.

And now we see this article:

The Naval Academy enrolled women 50 years ago. It’s not celebrating.

It's no secret that Pete Hegseth is hostile to women in combat (one of the very few things I agree with Pete about), but that's not the same thing as not noting this milestone, which is pretty darned close to saying that women don't have a place in the Navy.

Well, actually, it's exactly the same thing as saying women don't have a place in the Navy.

Women have been in the Navy since March 21, 1917, as we noted on the anniversary of that occurrence:

Loretta Perfectus Walsh becomes the first female sailor in the United States Navy

Incorporating women into the Navy has been sort of a peculiar problem in some ways, and those ways are heavily biological, although honesty compels us to note that it's not as problematic now as it once was, or would be suspected as being.  

Approximately 75% of all sailors are assigned to sea-intensive ratings  rather than shore duty ones.  Only about 19% to 20% of the active fleet is deployed or underway at any one time, however.  About 20% of the Navy's manpower if female, with that figure applying to both the enlisted and officers.  There are instances you can find of ships that end up with a problematic number of female sailors pregnant, but on average only 0.7% to 1.5% of a female crew find that to be the case.  

Not that there are not problems.*  Having young men and young women in that level of close proximity is going to cause problems.  Again, I'm not in favor of women in combat and while I don't think of the Navy all that much, about any ship at sea can be a combat vessel in some fashion.  

The Navy changed its billeting policy in 2024 in order to allow pregnant female sailors to find land billets more easily than it had previously, so the Navy, in pre Hegseth Department of Defense it was moving towards being more accomodating.

So what's going on here?

I don't know, but it's part of a sub silentio drift in the DoD.  If the Hegseth run DoD just wants women out, or out of some roles, it can move in that directly openly.  Instead, it's been sort of just being hostile to them, of which this is one example.

And its not just female sailors, or servicemembers.  It's being silently hostile to minorities as well.  People who normally would have been promoted to senior positions are not being if they're women, or black, etc.  A portrait of a legendary senior black Air Force officer was removed from display without explanation.  

Without explanation, it has the appearance of a harassment campaign to quietly discourage women and blacks from joining the service.

And I have to wonder, to some degree, if the DoD is trying to make it through November before it takes a formal step of eliminating women from all combat roles.  It can't eliminate blacks from the service, of course, but it's also allowing Evangelical Protestant campaigning in the service, which is hostile to various religions, including various Christian religions.  At some point that has the effect of telling Catholic Hispanics and African Methodist blacks maybe they aren't welcome, or at least that they don't want to hang around with a bunch of troops who look and act like Confederate Partisan Rangers.

Or maybe it's not that extreme.  Be that as it may, the treatment of women in this fashion is hard to ignore.

Footnotes

*In recent years the bigger problem has been with the Department of the Navy's female Marines, who had to be expressly told to wear shirts while doing PT overseas.  Their omission of shirts clearly wasn't because it was just hot where they were.

King Donald's War, Part 6. The Dunce in Chief and the The Four with Conscience. The Lions Lead by the Yappy Chihuahua Edition.

Rufus T. Firefly: Gentlemen, Chicolini here may talk like an idiot, and look like an idiot, but don't let that fool you: he really is an idiot.

Duck Soup. 

Trump doing is signature creepy old guy dance..

June 4, 2026

Tom Barrett of Michigan, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Warren Davidson of Ohio and Thomas Massie of Kentucky crossed party lines to vote with Democrats in favor of the resolution to end the illegal assault on Iran.

The measure goes on to the Senate.  We'll see what happens there, as Trump's stabbed some Senators in the back, and they're ready to gut him like a fish now.

The action of the Senators is based on conscience.  I believe its the right one, but it also serves to remind us that we're now in an incredibly bad spot in regard to the war against Iran, and in the Middle East in general.

It should have been obvious to anyone that decapitating the Iranian regime would not lead to a liberal democracy.  The Iranian people have no real ability to overthrow their government and when they tried before the war, after we urged it, they were mowed down.  It's the IRGC that has the guns.  

When the July 20 plotters mapped out their attempt to kill Hitler, in the attempt that almost worked, it involved wiping out the Nazi state.  The idea wasn't just to kill Hitler, but to remove the Nazis in every form.  Men like Himmler, Goebbels and Goering would have ended up against a wall had the plot succeeded.  Removing those in the seat of power just opens up a vacuum for those positions to be filled.  Moreover, in the Iranian case, they'd planned for such eventualities, which we should have known as prior selective US assassinations didn't change the direction of the regime at all.

Moreover, the regime has no place to go.  It's not as if they can walk out of their offices retire to cabbage farms.   They have to remain in power.  Like the German SS in 1945, the IRGC has no place to go.  It has to keep the regime in power.

All of this is obvious.

It was likewise obvious that Iran would close the Strait of Hormuz and that would so severely disrupt the world's petroleum supplies that it would actually boost the move to green energy, although people still have really awakened to that reality.

And it should have been obvious that those advocating for the war had ulterior agendas.  Israel doesn't care about U.S. global considerations and is well aware that the U.S. is a declining power.  Convincing a weak minded Trump to go to war with Iran was completely in its interest, and it doesn't care about considerations about defending Taiwan or South Korea.

Pete Hegseth and the pack of far right wing Evangelical would be Crusaders don't care what this will cost.  In the view of those in that minoritarian group of American Protestants, a big war will bring on the end of the world and the return of Christ, now.  They don't worry about the Just War Theory, as their convinced this is a Divinely ordained mission.

And, it's obvious right now, that the Iranian regime can in fact outwait Trump and its doing it.  

The war can only come to an end in one of two ways.  We quit, and leave the mess we created as it is, which is a complete and total defeat, or we undertake a largescale ground invasion.  Those are the only two options.

The second one leaves open the question of should a country pursue a victory against a legitimate enemy when the war started illegally.  It's only a hypothetical question, however, as Trump, who was so stupid as to believe the war would end in a few days, does not have the stomach for that.  That really would cause there to be a vote on the war and he knows he'd loose it.

That means the only other option for ending the war is simply leaving, which is a complete defeat.  Trump also can't bring himself to do that, as he can't stand the thought that he is what he is, a loser.

So, Trump's option will be increasingly just to ignore the war.  He basically just hopes it will go away.  In the meantime, like Hitler in the bunker, he plays with models of a reimagined gaudy capital city.

And increasingly look like this to the world.

June 8, 2026

Iran launched something on the order of thirty ballistic missiles on Israel today, and Israel retaliated with air strikes on Iran.

Israel also hit sites in Lebanon.

June 9, 2026

Iran shot down a U.S. helicopter, the US retaliated with airstrikes

Iran hit a U.S. airbase in eastern Jordan with ballistic missiles.

June 11, 2026

The IRGC has announced its shutting down the Strait of Hormuz.

Pete Hegseth is at Guantanamo Bay being a blowhard.

June 12, 2026

Trump claims a deal has been worked out, Iran says no final deal has been reached.

Trump claims he called off massive attacks.  Iran claims it controls the Straits of Hormuz.

Frankly, Iranian state media is much more reliable than the stream of crap that comes out of the Oval Office, so we don't really know what's going on.  This is the 39th time in the war that Trump has claimed a deal is close, so you have to be extremely gullible to believe what he's saying at this point.  It's not even at the "trust but verify" level, so much as the distrust and see what happens in a day or two level.

June 13, 2026

Leaked details of the Trump deal with Iran show Iran pretty much prevailing in the agreement.  There will be, under the agreement, 60 days in which to discuss nuclear topics, which means that if Iran chooses not to resolve them, they won't be resolved.  Once the war is stopped, and it never should have started, there will be no stomach for resuming it.

June 14, 2026

In the "I'll believe it when I see it" category, a CST headline:

TRUMP: PEACE DEAL TO BE SIGNED SUNDAY

We'll see.

cont:

Iranian sources have indicated that there is a deal immanent, and it will include:

• Fully opening the Strait of Hormuz immediately
• U.S. to lift naval blockade within 30 days
• No new sanctions imposed while negotiations continue
• The U.S. will suspend current sanctions, allowing Iranian oil to be openly sold
• $25 billion in Iranian assets to be unfrozen, including direct cash transfers
• Formation of an economic development and reconstruction plan
• Iran agrees it will neither produce nor acquire nuclear weapons
• Fate of the nuclear program, including stockpile of highly enriched uranium, to be negotiated and finalized within 60 days
• Full sanctions relief following a final agreement in 60 days

This is an overview, so it doesn't say anything about anything else.  Some of these things can just happen, but the big thing the war may have been over (it was never clear what it was over), that being the nuclear program is really vague.  Nothing will mean anything unless there's a way to verify what Iran is doing.

The $25B in frozen assets is about 1/4 the total amount that's frozen, I think.  That's a major concession by the United States as the assets have been frozen since 1979.

The war has been completely illegal all along.  Now the question is whether the war was worth it.  It really doesn't seem that this achieved anything that the Obama era agreement hadn't.  It might actually achieve less.

That it's time for Trump's birthday is interesting.  I suspect a bit of political theater there.  His administration will be declaring it a great victory, but it's pretty clear it isn't.  The Iranian regime is more hard line than it was before, and its more in control than it was before.  It actually retains a significant missile inventory, and there's no reason to believe it won't resume its past behavior pretty quickly.

June 15, 2026

So it seems like a deal has been reached, but it seems that for the most part the war didn't achieve much over what Obama's had, with no illegal war.

More than that, Iran's government is now more hardline than it was before, and they'll be receiving a massive infusion of cash.

June 17, 2026

The Memorandum of Understanding (not treaty) between the illegitimate Trump regime and Iran to end the Trump illegal war, with comments:

1 — The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States, together with their allies in the current war, declare upon the signing of this Memorandum of Understanding an immediate and permanent end to the war on all fronts, including Lebanon, and undertake that from now on they will not launch any hostile action against each other, and will refrain from the threat or use of force against each other. The final agreement will confirm the provisions of this Article and the remaining Articles.

Interesting that its admitted that its a war, confessing that its launching by the United States is a crime.  Frankly, Trump should be impeached for this.

2 — The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States undertake to respect each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and to refrain from interfering in each other’s internal affairs.

So, not only did we not change the regime, we've agreed not to touch Iran's.

3 — The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States undertake to negotiate and reach a final agreement within a maximum period of 60 days, extendable by mutual consent.

4 — Immediately upon the signing of this Memorandum of Understanding, the United States lift the naval blockade and prevent any interference or obstruction against the Islamic Republic of Iran, and restore traffic within a maximum of 30 days to its full capacity; the traffic of ships shall be proportional to the pre-war volume of traffic on the part of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The United States also undertakes to withdraw its forces from the surrounding areas within 30 days after the final agreement.

So, we're pulling out.

5 — Upon signing this Memorandum of Understanding, the Islamic Republic of Iran will immediately take steps to ensure that the movement of merchant ships from the Persian Gulf to the Sea of Oman and vice versa is resumed within 30 days to the pre-war volume, taking into account the need for the removal of technical obstacles and the neutralization of mines by Iran.

6 — The United States undertakes, together with its regional partners, to create a comprehensive plan agreed upon by both parties for the rehabilitation and economic development of the Islamic Republic of Iran, while ensuring financing of at least $300 billion. The implementation mechanism of this plan, as part of the final agreement, will be formulated within 60 days.

So we're paying for the damage we did during the war.

7 — The United States commits to ending, on a schedule to be agreed upon as part of the final agreement, all types of sanctions currently facing the Islamic Republic of Iran, including resolutions of the United Nations Security Council and the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and all unilateral U.S. sanctions, both primary and secondary.

And we're lifting the sanctions.

8 — The Islamic Republic of Iran reiterates that it will never produce nuclear weapons. The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States have agreed that the fate of enriched material and the fate of all other mutually agreed nuclear-related issues, including Iran’s nuclear needs, will be adequately addressed in a final agreement; the final agreement will confirm the provisions of this Article.

Iran promises not to build what it had already promised to build, and there's no agreement on nuclear materials.

9 — The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States agree that, pending a final agreement, they will maintain the status quo: Iran will maintain the status quo on its nuclear program, and the United States will not impose new sanctions on Iran or strengthen its forces in the region.

10 — The United States undertakes that immediately after the signing of this Memorandum of Understanding, and until the date of the lifting of sanctions, the United States Treasury Department will issue waivers for exports of Iranian crude oil, petrochemical products and their derivatives, and all related services, including banking, insurance, transportation, and the like.

11 — The United States undertakes that, in light of the progress of negotiations towards a final agreement, frozen or restricted funds and assets of the Islamic Republic of Iran will be released and made fully available. These funds, whether held in the master account or transferred, will be used for any final beneficiary payment determined by the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran and will be fully available for use. The United States undertakes to issue all necessary permits and licenses on this basis.

Some Iranian assets have been frozen for 47 years.

12 — The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States agree that an implementation mechanism will be established to oversee the successful implementation of and future commitment to the Final Agreement.

13 — Following the signing of this Memorandum of Understanding, and upon receipt of assurances regarding the commencement of implementation of Articles 4, 5, 10, and 11 of this Memorandum of Understanding, and the continued implementation of these steps, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States will enter into negotiations for a Final Agreement solely with respect to the remaining Articles.

14 — The final agreement will be approved through a binding resolution of the UN Security Council.

Effectively, the war was about nothing.  We killed people, murdered them really as there was no declared war, didn't change the regime, don't know where the nuclear material really is, didn't actually deplete their missile stockpiles as much as thought, demonstrated to the Chinese that we're much weaker militarily than might have been supposed, encouraged Israel to take advantage of the situation by invading Lebanon, and used up a significant amount of our weapons stockpile.

Incredible.

With this astounding result, we'll close out this edition.

Last edition:

King Donald's War, Part 5. Quagmire. The $25,000,000,000 and thirteen American lives later, "So we (but not Donald) were in Vietnam for 18 years. Iraq, many, many years....I've been doing this for...six weeks" Edition.

Labels: Ascendant Ignorance in the Age of Donald Trump, Gallipoli, Ignorance, Iran, Israel, King Donald's War, Pete Hegseth, Petroleum, Saudi Arabia, Straits of Hormuz, U.S. Navy, United States, United States and Israel v. Iran, War