Wednesday, September 15, 1926. The Vineyard.

 Rudyard Kipling released Debits and Credits.  It contained the following poem.

The Vineyard

 1  

At the eleventh hour he came,

But his wages were the same

As ours who all day long had trod 

The wine-press of the Wrath of God.

2 

When he shouldered through the lines 

Of our cropped and mangled vines,

His unjaded eye could scan 

How each hour had marked its man.

3 

(Children of the morning-tide 

With the hosts of noon had died,

And our noon contingents lay 

Dead with twilight's spent array.)

4 

Since his back had felt no load, 

Virtue still in him abode

So he swiftly made his own 

Those last spoils we had not won.

5 

We went home delivered thence,

Grudging him no recompense 

Till he portioned praise of blame 

To our works before he came.

6 

Till he showed us for our good–

Deaf to mirth, and blind to scorn–

How we might have best withstood

Burdens that he had not borne! 

It was interpreted as a criticism of the US's late entry into World War One, which it seems to have been.  The bigger question may really have been, however, why the US would have had any reason to enter World War One but for German naval actions on the Atlantic.

Jelly Roll Morton released Black Bottom Stomp.

World War One German ace George Meyer was killed in a motorcycle accident.

Last edition:

Monday, September 13, 1926. Bigots march in Washington.

Labels: 1920s, 1926, Ignorance, Ku Klux Klan, Racism, Washington DC

Friday, September 10, 1976. A bad day for aviation.

176 people were killed in a collision between a British Airways Trident and a Yugoslavian DC-9 near Zagreb.

The Fighters for Free Croatia hijacked TWA Flight 355 that was flying between New York and Montreal.  A different group hijacked an Indian Airlines flight between New Delhi to Mumbai.

South Africa relaxed rules applying to "coloureds" but not black Africans.

Dalton and Cleo Trumbo at House Un-American Activities Committee hearings, 1947. 

Dalton Trumbo, blacklisted screenwriter who was originally from Colorado, died at age 70 in Los Angeles.  A Communist, some of his screenplays were credited to fronts during the McCarthy Era.

Last edition:

Tuesday, September 7, 1976. Mao dies.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, China, Communism, Mao Zedong, People's Republic of China, People's Republic of China v. Republic of China

Something is going on, and I'm not the only one sensing it.

Something is finally going on causing a definite shift in views, and support, for Donald Trump.

This was my through at 3:00 a.m. when the dog woke me up. I started to read the news items for the day shortly after that.

And then, taking a look at the blogs I follow, I ran across this:

Something New Is Happening. Republicans Are Stopping Me to Say Thank You.

For years the reaction from most Republicans was anger. Lately it's been something else.

Adam Kinzinger is right, something is happening.

It was Lincoln who is attributed as saying; "You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time."*I've thought of that from time to time over the last two years as it seems like Trump has managed to pull off fooling a lot of the people a lot of the time.  Having said that, he never fooled all of the people at any one time.  Frankly, if every eligible American had voted, he wouldn't be President.

Donald Trump is a horrible human being and he reflects the worst in American culture in every fashion. Beyond that, he reflects the wort of the wealthy.  That so many have willingly followed where he was leading, which was never clear in the first place, is simply amazing and speaks very poorly of Americans.

But the fact of the matter is that Americans actually never wanted to go where he was leading.

Boiled down to its essence, Trump reflected a nativist, isolationist, view that's always existed in American culture.  At various times that view has dominated the country.  We just don't recall that as it hasn't dominated it since December 7, 1941.  It came back as the voting class aged into a demographic where the lack of cooperation and involvement in the globe and its result was forgotten. The Great Depression/World War Two generation is dead.

Trump also reflected an American culture that was ill at ease with much that the progressive left stood for.  Transgenderism, multiculturalism, economic globalism, were all things that were on people's minds in various degrees.  Biden's failure to control illegal immigration over the Mexican border was the final straw for a lot of people for various reasons.  While that was a real problem, it also unleashed racist nativism that most Americans had assumed was a thing of the past, but which very much turned out not to be.

And then there were those who voted for him, some holding their noses, for a host of other reasons.  The Democrats failed to learn that the seas of blood from infanticide prohibited many voters from considering them where they otherwise would.  As AOC stated, "Woke 1 was weird" and that prevented many from voting for Democrats.  Trump left Biden with the disastrous surrender in Afghanistan and many blamed, and still blame, Biden for that.  And Biden was a flat out horrifically bad candidate in 2024 given his very obvious mental decline.

What was always obvious to those not besotted with Trump is that he was in a rocketing mental decline 2024 and that he was surrounded by weirdos and extremist.  That wasn't as obvious to others.

But it's true.  The fringe hard right of Protestant Evangelicalism, which many other Christians find to be unsettling at best saw, and still see, Trump as a way to bring about a new Israel in the form of the United States.  National Conservatives, a totally different group, saw Trump as a useful idiot whose laziness would allow them to remodel the globe on the 19th Century lines they adhore while bring about an cultural reform that would make Franco proud.  People with fringe economic theories saw the same silly putty mind of Trump being something they could use to implement their radical economic theories.

But most people who voted for Trump didn't hold most of the more odd views associated with his administration. They didn't read Project 2025, didn't have time to read it, and didn't have the interest to read it.

So, most people who voted for Trump wanted him to stop illegal immigration and send the illegal migrants home, to stop the evolving trend of weird gender theory (which was very much there), and to get out and stay out of foreign wars.  Quite a few, but not all, thought if that meant making the country more "white",more "protestant", and more protectionist, a bit, that was okay, as long as that didn't really mean they had to do anything themselves.  And an overwhelming majority of them really didn't back any particular aspect of conservatism, let alone far right conservatism, whatsoever.

Populism, it must be remembered, is just as much of a left wing thing as a right wing one.

People don't like to admit that they made a mistake.  They'll admit it, but only reluctantly.  And this is all the more the case now due to the internet, which has made people's declaration of support so much easier to recollect.

But something has happened.

I think that the trade war with Canada was the last straw.

Literally nobody but the willfully deluded believes that launching a trade war with Canada made any sense whatsoever.  All of the excuses for it were complete bunk. Even the scaled dairy tariffs that some like to cite to have never come into effect as they require such a massive amount of Canadian imports of American dairy to take effect.  Canada  has been our friend and neighbor for over a century.

Donald Trump likes to claim to be a master negotiator but in reality he's just an arrogant asshole bully.  A lot of other nations have managed to deflect his tariffs one way or another without launching a trade war with the US as they're counting on Americans coming to our senses, although they are moving on. Canadians, however, are proud and their tired of putting up with the arrogance that Americans show around the world.  We aren't the most advanced nation in the world, nor the freest.  Everyone but we know that, and the Canadians, who live next door, very much know it.

Canada has a history of being willing to endure for its own aims and has defeated the US in wars twice.  It had enough.

Americans, for their part, have a history of abandoning wars they were not keen on at the onset.  New England nearly left the union during the War of 1812 and it refused to stop trading with the United Kingdom during the war.  New England, again, basically chose not to participate in the Mexican War, which became, up until the current war, the most unpopular war in American history.  Americans were never hugely convinced that we needed to be in Vietnam and when the things got really tough, we left.

The President of the United States insulting Canada is frankly shocking to most Americans.  It's almost impossible to find anyone who supports it.  A lot of rank and file Americans are open about being shocked, many hoping that Canadians do not end up hating Americans because of it (the ship has sailed on that, they do).  And this followed hard on the heels of the administration repeatedly lying about the war in Iran, which Americans never supported either.

We're now seeing an American population that finds itself being hated by its closest neighbor, which many American adore, while fighting a war against a country that many suspect is a proxy war for another country, while the Chief Executive supports the brutal rape of another country by a vile dictator, while we steal another country's resources.  At home prices are going up on everything while he has the unmitigated gall so suggest that doesn't matter.  

In the recent primary election here, for the first time, even the hard right Wyoming Freedom Caucus had people who were angry with Trump.  As Trump's intellect is stunted, he's a fan of data centers which many people in rural communities are not, and that's angering people here and in other rural areas.  He's taken a sharp stick and poked agriculture in the eye, and ranchers are actually complaining about it.

The trade war with Canada will make this infinitely worse.

When the price of toilet paper goes up, and it's going to go up, people aren't going to metaphorically take it sitting down, even if they physically will have to.

Trump's support in Wyoming is at 54%.  Down from 75%.  We're now close to having a majority of Wyomingites that don't support him.  

Cowboy Joe Six Pack isn't going to be thrilled about any of this.  Paying $6.00 for diesel in a truck that will go up in price 10% in order to order an Argentinian Big Mac.  

And, this winter, wait until Joe learns where these are made:

Ski-doo from their (Bombardier) website, posted under fair use exception.

Like Donald now?

Not so much. 

I think things have shifted.

Footnotes:

*Apparently, he actually didn't say that.

Monday, September 9, 1776. United States.

Today In Wyoming's History: September 9: 1776   The term "United States" was adopted by the Second Continental Congress to be used instead of the "United Colonies of North America.

The succinct declaration provided:

In all continental commissions and other instruments, where the words ‘United Colonies’ have been used, the style be altered to ‘United States".

Last edition:

Wednesday, August 14, 1776. This Day in History: The Great Seal of the United States

Labels: 1770s, 1776, American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson

Subsidiarity Economics 2026. The Times more or less locally, Part 9, 25th Amendment Watch, 23d Edition. The Canadian Harvard and Oxford doctor in economics vs. the Wharton playboy. The Trade War with Canada edition.

By Self-created photograph by Jonathunder - Own work, GFDL, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64543672

If this is a match of intellects, and it likely is, Canada has already won the trade war. 

Carney is undoubtedly a genius and the only international leader currently in office, maybe ever in office, to have run the economies of two different countries.  Trump is increasingly obvious of rather low intellect and a real estate developer with a very narrow understanding of the economy, who is in turn heavily influenced by Peter Navarro, a 77 year old economic theorist who uniquely champions tariffs.  To make matters worse, Trump is suffering a rapid dementia related mental decline.

The US right now is destroying its own economy.

August 26, 2026

Canada imposed retaliatory tariffs on U.S. steel, aluminum, furniture and clothing (50%),  cheese, appliances and some seafood, (25%) and on electronics and tools (15%), effective September 8.

It also pledged aid to Canadian workers.

It was a dollar per dollar match on US tariffs, which it basically offsets.

As a side effect of this, the price of household paper products, toilet paper and paper towels, is climbing.

Thanks Don.

On the contest of intellects, the petulant baby in the Oval Office threatened to rename Lake Ontario the Lake of America or something.  Trump actually thinks he renamed the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, even though it remains the Gulf of Mexico in reality.  The Lake Ontario thing is incredibly stupid.  Nobody reacted positively to it, although I'm sure that administration flunkies will pretend it's a great idea.  Curtis Hertel Jr., chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, stated:

Donald Trump has been America first in name only his entire presidency. He promised lower prices, higher wages, and no foreign wars … all of that is bull shit.  Renaming th fourth best Great Lake isn’t going to change that.

Americans aren't impressed with the latest Trump stupidity.

Trump shitposts fail to win support for Canadian trade war

On Trump dumping American cattlemen, John Barrasso, Senator from Trump, oh, um, Senator allegedly from Wyoming, posted this on Twitter:

Americans want US beef on the table – not foreign imports. Wyoming ranchers produce the highest quality beef in the world. Our ranchers don't ask for special treatment. They simply want a fair marketplace. It needs to be easier – not harder – for Wyoming ranchers to feed America. I will continue to fight for policies that strengthen Wyoming beef producers and invest in the American cattle herd.

Barrasso is a Trump suck up and hasn't really done much for Wyoming in years.  During election cycles he's for whatever he thinks Wyomingites are for and is otherwise a rank cowards pretending he thinks Trump is brilliant when he knows that he's not.  Last time he ran he became worried about gadfly candidate Reid Rasner and accordingly pulled to the hard right.

Barrasso must regard the Wyoming livestock industry as sufficiently powerful enough to actually hurt the GOP, or this an issue near enough to the hearts of Wyomingites, that he needs to speak up.  He didn't do that when public lands were on the table.  It's interesting in part because the Wyoming range cattle industry in particular, and agriculture in general, have been so pro Trump and pro GOP that it's quite literally actually stupid.  We posted on this the other day.

The GOP's useful idiots in agriculture.

Neither Hageman or Lummis have said anything.

Hageman, of course, has incentive not to.  She's a Trump endorsee and is now running against James Byrd tof Lummis' seat.  This makes her exposed on this issue.  If she speaks up, and she's going to have to, it puts her between somebody that supports here that she probably thinks is a heaping bowl of stupid in reality, but then exposing her to voters who she probably figures are more heaping bowls of stupid.  Byrd is perfectly suited to exploit this as Hageman comes from a farm/ranch and can't stay silent before she looks like a traitor.

Lummis, of course, comes from a ranch too, but as she's nto running, she doesn't have to say anything.  She seems to be bucking for a Trump cabinet post, anticipating that people will jump the Trump ship post election.

Anyhow, on Dr. John:

Beefing over foreign beef plan, Barrasso breaks with Trump administration

Closer to home, businesses have been closing right and left in Casper.

Casper’s Outback Steakhouse closes permanently after nearly three decades of business

Little Shop of Burgers announces closure at end of month

Two locally owned Casper small businesses closing permanently

And, good riddance:

Enough! Evanston Man Says He's Leaving The State Over Property Rights Fight

On other economic fronts, the US came out with its "Economic D-Day" against Iran, which are really sanctions against Iranian trading partners, but not really.  It delayed the imposition of them to January 1, 2027, which means they won't happen at all.

August 27, 2026

Will Trump's latest beef plan make your hamburger cheaper? Not much, experts say

Of course it won't.  It's not enough of an addition to the supply chain to matter.

But it could impact other things, depending upon where the beef is sourced.

August 28, 2026

INVOKE THE 25TH AMENDMENT YOU COWARDLY BASTARDS

Seriously, we have a fool ordering that Lake Ontario be called Lake America.

The GOP is a complete fucking joke.  Trump is the worst President in the American history and is destroying the country.

Headline in the CST:

Officials issue inflation warnings

This is at the big economic summit in Jackson Hole.

I wish they'd have this in Scranton or the Bronx.  Jackson is already full of rich carpetbaggers as it is.

400 Southwest Wyoming Trona Mining Jobs On Hold As China Floods Soda Ash Market

August 31, 2026

The US has entered into some sort of deal with Venezuela that has a 25 year life span which supplies the US with oil.

This is frankly naked, rank, colonialism.  My predication is that the deal will be voided as soon as this horrific administration is out.

September 1, 2026

Cattle imports from Mexico resumed.

They've been shut down for fifteen months.

Mexico normally imports 1,000,000 head of cattle into the US every year.

This is actually the resumption of importation that had been occurring until the screwworm outbreak.  The Trump administration blamed that on the Biden administration, like it does everything else.  

Closer to home, yet another Casper restaurant is biting the dust.

House of Sushi in downtown Casper permanently closes

There's been a real rash of these recently. Something is going on.  An article in Oil City notes that the list includes Little Shop of Burgers, Benny Montanaro’s Pizza (which I'd never even heard of), and Outback Steakhouse.

GiGi’s consignment store in Casper is also closing.

Next to House of Sushi it appears an entity called Jae's Place is opening in the old Wonder Bar space.

I don't really understand Jae's Place, but apparently its a wester wear store that supports a charitable mental health foundation.  That's admirable but frankly opening in that location is desecrating a Casper landmark. The space had been the Wonder Bar more or less continually since 1937, having originally been located in another space.  It became a steakhouse under the name C85 a decade or more ago that sold out to Wyoming Rib and Chop which became, you guessed it, another Casper restaurant that closed.

I understand that Jae's Place is a charity so I should not have a non charitable attitude about it, but there's a really old Western Wear store just a block away that I hope is not hurt by this multi state entity and for a long time Casperite seeing this converted into retail is disappointing.  Workmen have been busy for weeks molesting the interior so the damage will likely be permanent.

This is the sort of thing that happens when a place has no sense of itself.

The Wonder Bar

These photographs are of the "World Famous" Wonder Bar. The Wonder Bar has operated on Center Street for decades, although it has had short periods of time in recent years in which it operated under a different name (Tommy Knockers, Dillingers, and very briefly, "Sludge and Eddies"). Still, the bar has been around so long that even efforts to operate it under a different name do not deter the locals from continuing to refer to it as the Wonder Bar.

Downtown Casper once had a vast number of bars. This are of downtown had multiple bars on a single block. Only the Wonder Bar survives as a bar.

At some point in time, decades ago, Lee Riders paid to paint an advertisement on the side of the bar. The sign is still there, although an effort to paint over it was made at some point. This reflects the stockman heritage of central Wyoming, and indeed at one time quite a few cowboys and sheepherders spent time in the Wonder Bar.

As an aside, it's hard to see how a town that has a microbrewery every other door can't keep a legendary bar open.

September 2, 2026

The House passed another stopgap budget bill to keep the government running.

Data centers are becoming a big topic in Wyoming.

Pitching 940-acre data center, Prometheus Hyperscale asks Natrona County to bypass state review

Frankly, I"m not a big fan, meaning not a fan at all, of the big expansion of data centers and I'm absolutely opposed to them being constructed on vacant agricultural land.

This was a hearing in front of the County Commissioners.  It looked like each of the current sitting commissioners made some sort of comment at the end, as the Oil City News reports:

In their closing comments, Nicolaysen and Chair Jim Milne said the board must balance community concerns with the rights of private landowners. Laird framed the current technology infrastructure race as an issue of national defense. He said that domestic computing facilities keep American technology out of foreign hands.

“[President Donald] Trump has said it too,” the commissioner said. “He says we have a war going on with China and Russia over who’s going to take over with this AI business. And that’s what this data center is all about. … Do you want China running your AI or Russia running your AI or do you want Natrona County commissioners and the state of Wyoming and America running AI?”

Commissioner Casey Coates cautioned against reacting with panic instead of focusing on tangible facts.

“When we ask for the protection of the government, we really ought to be careful because government at times can be overreaching and those protections that we ask for can be overly applied to ourselves,” Coates said. “Do we not like something because of what it is, or do we have real impacts? If we have real impacts, let’s address those.”

Commissioner Dave North said that state environmental regulators handle water rights and industrial pollution under state statutes.

“The state engineer is the one that takes care of the water,” he said. “That is not our responsibility. That’s not our job. That is up to the state. The DEQ takes care of a lot of stuff. That’s their job. That is not our job.”

Of the five sitting commissioners, only Laird is on the ballot this election.  Laird is correct on Donald Trump's position.  Trump basically called communities that don't want data centers stupid as life is all about money and he loves money and you should love money because Trump loves money and you should love Trump, and money, but Trump most of all.

This must be a nightmare of Chuck Gray, who has been trying to hate things Wyomingite's claim to hate, and they seem to hate data farms, but Trump, who Gray loves, loves them.

On something Trump and Gray presently hate, wind farms:

Scaled-Down Laramie Range Wind Project Gets Go Ahead After Intense 2-Day Hearing

Something else that's been a topic in the news.

Uinta County Ranch Family Builds USDA Meat Processing Plant From The Ground Up

The Donald Trump beef story gets worse:

Driskill Blasts Trump Meeting World's Largest Meatpacker Before Beef Import Deal

Driskill is in the legislature and has been consistently clear thinking.

September 4, 2026

Maybe Wyomingites will wake up about Trump:

Wyomingites, Trump Differ On Whether Data Center Foes Will Be ‘Backwards And Poor’

Sending more money out, than they're taking in.

Last edition:

Subsidiarity Economics 2026. The Times more or less locally, Part 8. $40,012,700,535,679.44

Labels: 2020s, 2026, Agriculture, Canada, Disaster, Donald Trump, Economics, Food, Government, Kyla Scanlon, Republican Party, Taxes, The Second Trump Administration, Wyoming's boom and bust economy

Additional Labels:

Subsidiarity Economics 2026. The Times more or less locally, Part 9, 25th Amendment Watch, 23d Edition. The Canadian Harvard and Oxford doctor in economics vs. the Wharton playboy. The Trade War with Canada edition. First set of Additional labels.

 

Labels: 2026 Election, Agriculture, Cowards, Cynthia Lummis, Food, Harriet Hageman, Health, James Byrd, John Barrasso, Reid Rasner, restaurants and bars, The Second Trump Administration, Wyoming, Wyoming (Casper), Wyoming (Evanston)

Subsidiarity Economics 2026. The Times more or less locally, Part 9, 25th Amendment Watch, 23d Edition. The Canadian Harvard and Oxford doctor in economics vs. the Wharton playboy. The Trade War with Canada edition. Second set of Additional labels.

 

Wharton, you owe us an explanation and an apology.

Friday, August 30, 1946. Aircraft to Nationalist China.

The United States agreed to sell surplus military aircraft to the Chinese Nationalist, which brought to an end negotiations that were being conducted by Gen. George C. Marshall between the Chinese Communists and the Nationalist.

It's really doubtful those negotiations would have borne fruit anyhow.  They might have bought time.

At any rate, by the end of the year the US, under Marshall's influence, had suspended supplying the Nationalist in an effort to pressure them into negotiating with the Red Chinese.

The French created the German state of Rheinland-Pflaz.

The film The Killers was released.

Last edition:

Saturday, August 24, 1946. Portents and changes.

Labels: 1930s, 1936, 1940s, 1946, actors and actresses, Communists, Douglas MacArthur, Hukabalahap Rebellion, It was because of World War Two, Japan, Marilyn Monroe, Philippines

America Shows an Ugly Face to Canada. We are better than this. (Aren’t we?)

 

America Shows an Ugly Face to Canada

We are better than this. (Aren’t we?)

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.

Blog Mirror: Trump and Hegseth ignored the grim history of the Iran-Iraq war. We will pay the price of their ignorance for years.

 

Trump and Hegseth ignored the grim history of the Iran-Iraq war. We will pay the price of their ignorance for years.

King Donald's War, Part 10. "If any question why we died, Tell them, because our fathers lied." Donald Trump, the killer edition.

 July 21, 2026.

If any question why we died, 

Tell them, because our fathers lied.

Kipling. 

Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, age 19, killed in Jordan. 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan also died.  Both were assigned to Air Defense Artillery units.

Just 19 years old. She died, not so that Iran would not have a nuclear weapon, not for liberal democracy in Iran, but because a demented old narcassist duped by a prime minister of a desperately minoritarian regime in the Middle East could spill her blood for its purposes.*

Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth, and every American supporting this war has blood on their hands.

And not just hers.

Isabella Gonzales.  A life cut short, and a life taken on behalf a regime that would likely send her to Mexico on the basis that she has a Spanish last name, if it could, for a war that most Americans don't want, and which is being fought for Israel.

I'm not, as I've noted before, in favor of women in combat.  Pvt. Gonzales left a few social media type posts of herself, in uniform, acting very cute, and very feminine.  She did not deserve this.  It sounds brutal to say this, but this is a man's role.

But more than that, this is a role that should be filled, if it had to be, by those who brought it about.  Why are the Trumps not in action? 

Why have they never been?

A person who did.

1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, 2nd Battalion, 55th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command, 25 years of age.

The classic look of a lieutenant.  Too bad he died for utterly nothing.  He deserved better.

A third serviceman was killed but has yet to be identified.  It taking this long probably says something about the nature of his wartime death, a war that we're waging and which we're waging illegally, with no declaration of war.

Not one prominent MAGA, we'd note, has stepped up to the plate.  Barron, Eric, Donald Trump Jr.,.Ivanka Trump and Tiffany Trump.  Won't you?  You can join Pete Hegseth in our new colonial escapade, and;

Take up the White Man’s burden—
Send forth the best ye breed—
Go send your sons to exile
To serve your captives’ need*

Nah, that's not going to happen.

Most days now, it won't even be the main headline.  Troops will go on killing and dying, and for what?  A goal never clearly expressed, and which cannot be obtained without massive loss of life.

July 22, 2026

The third soldier:

Sgt. Angel S. Rampersad, age 28.

And killed elsewhere in Iraq.

Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton, age 30.

I suppose their faces look like America as it is. . . but not really the America that people like some in the Trump seem to want it to look like.

CST  headline:

Well, like they say, freedom isn't free, and apparently giving up your freedoms for a demented narcissist isn't either.

The Houthis are threatening to close the Red Sea.

July 24, 2026

From the CST:

Waist deep in the big muddy.

July 26, 2026

The Houthis hit oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia yesterday.

News reports hold that the administration has put on hold an escalation of the war due to a shortage of air defense munitions.  Savvy analysts, including yours truly, have been warning about that occurring for months, and not it's here.

So, in keeping with that, a prediction.

This is also likely a moment that Putin and Xi have been waiting for as well.  Our weapons stockpile has been built up over years, and now we've wasted it on a war fought for Israel and Trump's vanity.  Both Putin and Xi know that the next President, assuming at Trump 2028 coup to be unsuccessful, and assuming that we don't have another President before 2028, is much less likely to be a complete patsy and geopolitical dimwit.  

For Russia, that means Russia needs to fight on in hopes it can win before the next administration comes on.  For Xi, that means the time to invade Taiwan is. . . now.

July 27, 2026

We're really back to, if not surpassing, the Vietnam War era administration fibbing levels.

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.

July 29, 2026

Trump openly showed frustration with Netanyahu who was in town for Lindsey Graham's funeral as Bibi announced ahead of time that he wanted to share Israeli intelligence on Pickaxe Mountain. 

That intelligence would reportedly show that the Iranians are reconstituting their nuclear program there and have no plans to give it up, which is obvious.  That frustrates Donny, however, who was basically suckered into the war by Bibi and now can't find a way out.  Bibi is trying to keep him focused and involved.

Iran launched a series of missile strikes on US targets yesterday.  The missiles were reportedly alls hot down, but they cause the US to burn through it's depleting anti missile supply.

July 30, 2026

Well worth reading.  We're not only losing, recent actions have made us even weaker than we were before.

Midweek Update #21: Iran Is Toying With The USA

Plus: Iranian Strategy; How Does This End?

We really have a evered amateurs at war problem going on.  Hegseth apparently just feels that bombing wins wars, which has never worked.  Trumps managed to go from having a horror of war into being nearly bloodthirsty, at least in his rhetoric.  We're depleting weapons like crazy when we're already broke.

The war not only will have a losing result, but this is going to have a severely bad end for the country.

July 31, 2026

The U.S. resumed strikes on Iran yesterday.  A drone strike on gas vessels in Egypt’s Mediterranean port of Damietta occurred which is fairly clearly linked to the war, but the details have yet to be developed.

As an aside, I've already noted that the recent dead are half female and 3/4s minorities.  It's also the case that one, Sgt. Angel S. Rampersad, was  lesbian in a same gender union.

I'm noting that as the dead do not line up with Pete Hegseth's and MAGAs world view of who are Americans, yet they're the ones dying.

Iran has conducted a cyber attack on the Minnesota public water systems.

Cont:

The dipshit in the Oval Office blamed Minnesota for the Iranian attack on that state's public water systems.

He really doesn't care about you folks.

August 1, 2026

The illegitimate Trump Administration is meeting at Camp David today to discuss the illegal war it started.

August 3, 2026

Trump called off attacks and promised not to resume if a deal could be reached quickly.

It's won't be.

Iran and Oman are apparently in separate discussions on the Strait of Hormuz.

August 4, 2026

Trump claimed yesterday that talks were "underway".  Iran denied that any were going on.

In fact, last night, Iran has launched a drone attack on a U.S. military base in Kuwait. and Iran struck a cargo vessel off the coast of Oman, all after King Donny  claimed the U.S. and Iran have resumed negotiations.

Nobody knows for sure what the story is here, but we all know that Trump is an outrageous liar.

Trump is showing signs of getting increasingly frustrated with the war and clearly doesn't have any idea what to do.  Iran knows that and has zero incentive in working with him on anything.  More likely than not this is going to drag on for many more months.

The critical breaking point may prove to be a military one.  The US cannot sustain the war and it's now very clear that's the case.  Every single day of active fighting in the Middle East brings war with China, now inevitable in my view, closer.

"Amateurs talk tactics, professionals study logistics" is the phrase that come to mind.  Trump isn't a student of either.  Neither is Hegseth, by observation . Trump listened to armature hawks like Hegseth whose war philosophy seemed boil down to "make big boom, kill people, opponents surrender" which would demonstrate that he wasn't much of a student of history.

The U.S. Army has used up most of its stockpile of highly accurate long-range missiles in the war.

August 6, 2026

Apparently Hegseth and Trump got into a raging argument about the war at Camp David.

August 8, 2026

Iran has announced that the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until the United States meets certain conditions, including lifting the U.S. naval blockade and sanctions, withdrawing U.S. forces from around Iran, paying war reparations, releasing frozen Iranian assets, and ending attacks on Iran’s allies and threats against the country.

Yup, they're dictating terms to the U.S.

Those responsible for this debacle, from the Secretary of Defense down to the military planners, need to go, and need to go right away.  Fire them.

August 10, 2026

Leaks from the Administration indicate that Trump is now at the point that the US will end the war if Iran only promises to keep the Strait of Hormuz open.

Iran is refusing that offer, wanting the US to pay reparations.

This is a complete defeat.

Donald Trump is about to become what he never wanted to be: Jimmy Carter. Held hostage by Iran. And it was all voluntary.

Chris Christie.

This is such a humiliating turning point that we will close this edition out with this.

Footnotes:

*“The White Man’s Burden" by Kipling, quote in part. 

I don't admire the sentiments in this poem at all.  It's racist.  But it expresses the type of WASP colonialism, sans the Protestantism which at least moderated it a bit, of the colonial 19th Century, that the US is now experiencing under Donald Trump.

Related threads:

Wars and Rumors of War, 2026. Part 8. Donald Trump, China's (and Russia's) greatest ally edition.

Last edition:

King Donald's War, Part 9. The paper tiger edition.

Labels: 2020s, 2025 Israel v. Iran War, 2026, Barbary Pirates, Donald Trump, Gaza, Iran, Israel, King Donald's War, Rudyard Kipling, Straits of Hormuz, Stupidity, The Second Trump Administration, United States