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 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

The Agrarian's Lament: Massie of Kentucky.

The Agrarian's Lament: Massie of Kentucky.: Republican Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky, under constant attack from demented New  York real estate developer Donald Trump, milled h...

Massie of Kentucky.

Republican Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky, under constant attack from demented New  York real estate developer Donald Trump, milled his own lumber, chiseled stone, and formed iron to hand build his own house.

Massie actually is what Republicans claim to want to be, but aren't.  He's a far cry from Chuck Gray who went right to work for his daddy's radio station.

And he's sure a lot closer to Lincoln than Trump is.

The Madness of King Donald. The 25th Amendment Watch List, Sixth Edition. The demented panicked Octogenarian edition.

November 15, 2025

Rep. Thomas Massie's wife passed away, and he's remarried.

Trump hates Massie as Massie is not a toady sycophant.  In that vein, he's posted:

This from a guy whose been "married" four times and has cheated on at least three out of the four of his wives, admits that he screwed around, literally, earlier, and who hung around with kiddy diddlers.

What a vile disgusting human being Donald Trump is.

Massie's first wife died a little over a year ago.  They'd been married some 30 years.  His second wife is somebody he's known since 2016 who has worked for Sen. Rand Paul.  FWIW, marriages in that time frame are pretty common for people in Massie's situation.  Theodore Roosevelt, for instance, remarried about two years after the death of his first wife, and when he did marry, it was to somebody he had known for quite some time.

Trump, on the other hand. . . 

November 17, 2025

Q: Your voice sounds rough. Are you feeling alright?

TRUMP: I was shouting at people because they were stupid about something having to do with trade and a country. I blew my stack at these people

Q: Well it sounds like there's a follow up there--

TRUMP: What? I thought you said there was a polyp. I don't want to hear that!

November 18, 2025

Trump had a confrontation with Bloomberg reporter Jennifer Jacobs yesterday on Air Force One in which he once again demonstrated he has dementia

Jennifer Jacobs: “If there’s nothing incriminating in the Epstein files why not…?”

Trump: “Quiet. Quiet, Piggy.” 

Trump's clearing being kept in office by the NatCons as he's unintentionally running cover for them.  This can only go on so long. 

Also, while it didn't at first occur to me, as its so weird, this strikes me as quite misogynistic.  Calling a woman "piggy" is really vile, but it does serve to illustrate Trump's history with women, really.  Going into their dressing rooms, according to one of Epstein's former girlfriends, groping her in front of Epstein, etc.

cont:

There are times I look at him and I see my grandfather. I see that same look of confusion. I see that he does not always seem to be oriented to time and place. His short-term memory seems to be deteriorating. . . [Trump's] lifelong struggles with impulse control are also “deteriorating as well."

Mary Trump.

November 21, 2025

Sen. Elissa Slotkin, Sen. Mark Kelly, and Reps. Jason Crow, Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander and Chrissy Houlahan, all veterans, released  a video urging member of the armed forces not to follow illegal orders.  Donald Trump is now threatening them with prosecution for sedition, and the death penalty, which is ironic, as Trump is a seditionist.

The government is in the hands of a mad man.

November 28, 2025

Trump had a full blown late night Thanksgiving meltdown.

He's now openly, and obviously, completely unstable.

This wasn't the only example of this.  He also called a reporter stupid for pointing out that assailant who shot two National Guardsmen in Washington D.C. had received asylum from the Trump Administration.

There can be little doubt at this point that Trump is no longer control of himself, and probably only partially in control of the nation.  NatCons behind the administration are likely largely in control, but not fully, which is in part which makes Trump doubly dangerous.  A NatCon coup is basically going on while Trump retains enough authority to be legitimately dangerous.

Having allowed this to go on so long we're now in the situation where it's actually becoming increasingly difficult for the 25th Amendment to be invoked.  By pretending that Trump is not deranged, the bar has been set so high that Trump's supporters will not be able to tell what he actually did that caused him to be removed.  We are, therefore, really gambling now.  We're gambling that his actions don't cause a war, and that the war doesn't see the use of weapons that have largely become unthinkable in modern times. We're gambling that force isn't used against American citizens. And we're gambling that Trump's disregard for the law doesn't set in on a permanent institutional basis.

And about those supporters:

Jonah Goldberg

@JonahDispatch

60 percent of the people who constantly use the phrase “Trump derangement syndrome” and 98% of those who use it as an all-explanatory theory for any inconvenient arguments or facts, suffer from pro-Trump Derangement syndrome. Forget the terminology. If you think any information that make you doubt yourself is crazy, you are in a bubble.

Regarding that deline, the New York Times ran a recent article with this headline.

Shorter Days, Signs of Fatigue: Trump Faces Realities of Aging in Office

President Trump has always used his stamina and energy as a political strength. But that image is getting harder for him to sustain.

The article notes that Trump has reduced his workload 39%.

Also of note, those close to Trump are begging to openly admit that they're stressed and fatigued.  Poor old Mike Johnson has complained about not having a vacation in two years (yeah, well, suck it up, buttercup, I haven't had one for at least twice that long).  Loyal sycophant Karoline Leavitt complained openly about stress recently.

The question now is where all this leads.  Those who can invoke the 25th Amendment may simply have waited too long and now need Trump to do something that anyone would regard as fully insane. . . with the question being what that would be.

cont:

Trump is clearly vindictive and unhinged.  This will set the stage up for wiping out his executive orders, and perhaps reign back in the excessive use of executive orders.

November 30, 2025

Reporter: Walz called for the release of your MRI results

Trump: They can release it. It was perfect like my phone call where I got impeached.

Reporter: What were they looking at? 

Trump: For what? Releasing? 

Reporter: no, what part of your body was the MRI looking at

Trump: I have no idea. It’s just an MRI. It wasn’t the brain because I took a cognitive test and I aced it.

Uh huh. . . 

First of all, I heard Walz's remarks, and he's right. They don't give MRI's for sport. They had some brain thing they were looking into.

And they tell the patient the result. . . if they're functioning and able to understand it.

And as for cognitive tests, the entire nation gets a dose of bat shit demented from Trump weekly. 

December 3, 2025

Not a sign of dementia, but rather of age, Trump is having a hard time staying awake during daytime events.

No doubt this problem is made worse by his staying up late into the night to post rage tweets.

December 8, 2025

President Trump is upset because pardoned Democrat Rep. Henry Cuellar is running again as a Democrat.  

Trump, who pardoned him, is accusing him of disloyalty.

Cont:

Trump to ABC's Rachel Scott: "You are the most obnoxious reporter in the whole place. Let me just tell you -- you are an obnoxious-- a terrible reporter. And it's always the same thing with you. I told you."

December 10, 2025

He's clearly not well.

And he has his finger on the nuclear trigger.

Last edition:

The Madness of King Donald. The 25th Amendment Watch List, Fifth Edition. He's not okay.

Labels: Donald Trump, Illinois (Chicago), J. B. Pritzker, J. D. Vance, Mental Health, National Conservatism, Sic transit Gloria Mundi, The Madness of King Donald, The Second Trump Administration, Weird, You heard it here first