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.

Thursday, September 16, 1976. Noche de los Lápices.

Teenage members of the Unión de Estudiantes Secundarios were rounded up by masked agents of the Argentine government and would continue for the next several days.   The victims would be tortured, raped, and in most instances, murdered.

The victims were:

• María Claudia Falcone, age 16. She is missing and presumed murdered. According to her brother Jorge Falcone, she was a Montoneros militant.
• Claudio de Acha, age 17.  Missing and presumed murdered.
• Gustavo Calotti "Francés" age 18 He was a police cadet.  He survived.
• María Clara Ciocchini, age 18.  A Catholic school student, she was murdered.
• Pablo Díaz, age 18.  He survived.
• Francisco López Muntaner "Panchito", age 16.  Missing and presumed murdered.
• Patricia Miranda, age 17.  He did not belong to any militant organization and was ultimately released.
• Emilce Moler, age 17.  She survived.
• Daniel A. Racero, age 18.  Missing and presumed murdered.
• Horacio Ungaro, age 17 Missing and presumed murdered.

Quite frankly, with the US on the very eve of an upcoming attempt by populist extremist to steal the 2026 election, things like this are now quite imaginable here in the US.

The first angioplasty on a human being was performed by West German surgeon Andreas Gruentzig.

Mao's widow Jiang Qing altered the Chairman's final directive with the help of three others giving rise to the Gang of Four which would briefly rule Communist China.

The House of Deputies of the Episcopal Church of the United States voted to permit the ordination of women into the Episcopal priesthood. 

1976 was at the height of the first wave feminist movement and the Episcopal Church, traditionally the richest and most powerful Church in the United States, had taken a definitely liberal bent.  Nearly all American Christian churches were going through a left wing wave at the time.  In the case of the Episcopal Church, this was effectively the beginning of its downfall.

Last edition:

Tuesday, September 14, 1976. Last foreigners out of Vietnam.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, Australopithecus africanus, Federal Emergencies, Geology, Gerald Ford, It was because of the Vietnam War, law, Prehistory, Red Cross, Tanzania, The Fall of Saigon, Vietnam War

Tuesday, September 3, 1946. Operation Paperclip.

Truman, on vacation, approved Operation Paperclip, the importation of German scientists in the US.

Look magazine featured "The American Look".

I wish that was still "the American Look".

Last edition:

Monday, September 2, 1946. Dominion of India.

Labels: 1940s, 1946, British Commonwealth, Greece, India, Monarchy

Saturday, August 14, 1926. More killings in Mexico.

The Mexican Government arrested Father Luis Bátiz Sainz at a private house.  He and three members of the Mexican Association for Catholic Youth would be driven out of town, and then shot, the following day.

Before the closure of the churches, he had spoken at a gathering where the topic of armed resistance to suppression of the Church had been discussed.

He was later canonized.

The USSR claimed Wrangel Island.

An Ethel Hays' cartoon for the day.

It was a Saturday

Last edition:

Tuesday, August 10, 1926. Executions in Mexico, Hurricane in Nova Scotia.

Labels: 1920s, 1926, boats and ships, Cartoons, Cristero War, Disaster, J.R. Williams, Mexico, Nova Scotia, Weather

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.

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

Monday, August 7, 1876. Margaretha Geertruida Zelle born.

Frisian Margaretha Geertruida Zelle was born in Leeuwarden to a then well to do family, the eldest child of Antje and Adam Zelle. The family's fortunes would decline before she was a teen.

She'd become the famous/infamous Mata Hari, in some ways an early, well, Sydney Sweeney, but also with scandalous romance attached. Those escapades ultimately lead to charges of espionage, based on what she was acquiring from her French male associates.

Frankly, she was not unattractive, but was never the great beauty of legend.  She was a surprisingly old 41 years of age when she was executed in 1917, and the mother of two.

Margaretha on the day of her arrest.

Her daughter Nonnie would die two years later age age 21.

Last edition:

Sunday, August 6, 1876. The lesson of history is rarely learned by the actors themselves.

Labels: 1870s, 1877, 1880s, 1885, Army, Battle of Little Big Horn, Heroes, Kentucky, Montana (Rosebud Creek)

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.

Puritans headed to church in early colonial North America.  Only male views really counted, all other religions including Christian ones were not tolerated, church attendance was mandated by law, sports were discouraged and prohibited on Sunday, but alcohol and married conjugal relations were approved of.  The world the way that Doug Wilson, Mike Johnson and Pete Hegseth would have it.

Donald Trump has been having a major hissy fit that the Senate will not take up the SAVE Act.  Senate Majority Leader Thune says the votes just aren't there.

Let's hope, and pray, they are not. 

According to the misleading GOP propaganda, all the SAVE Act would require is that registered voters go to the polls with photo ids.¹  That's simply not true.

It does require that, but it also requires that in order to vote at all, you present, when you register, with proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate or passport.  The majority of Americans do not hold passports.  Indeed, up until very recently you could visit our nearest neighbors without either, until international paranoia changed that.  A lot of people can't find their birth certificates, and getting one is a major pain that a lot of people won't bother with if they're challenged on this.

This, moreover, disproportionately impacts the poor and women, but it hits everyone else as well.

Americans are notoriously mobile.  They move for jobs, work, and just to move.  A lot of people eventually lose their vital records. If you move from Los Angeles to Austin, for example, you might have lost your birth certificate along the way.  Those keeping track of them are amongst those who are most likely to be well established. The same for getting certified copies of the same.  If you are working a low paying job, finding the time and the cash to get a certified copy won't be easy.  

Women, moreover, are by far the most likely to be impacted, with poorer women most of all.  This is because women are most likely to have changed names.  A woman may have been born Alice Jones, but upon getting married, she may be Alice Smith.  Now a birth certificate won't do. A marriage certificate will also be required.

But what if Alice is in that group, like Rachel Rodriguez-Williams was until recently, when she suddenly changed her name form her hyphenated, semi woke, moniker to just Williams (neatly avoiding the problem, perhaps, of her not being a WASP).  She may have a birth certificate showing her to have been born "Sanchez", and a marriage certificate showing where Williams came from, but there's very unlikely to be an official document showing "Sanchez-Williams". That's simply a convention she likely adopted.

For that matter, I've known professional women who used their husband's last name as their own for professional reasons, but their maiden name for work in which they were well established.

The fact of the matter is that the SAVE Act would take out a lot of women voters.  It would particularly take out a lot of black and Hispanic women voters.

And all to address a problem that doesn't exist. We know for a fact that the number of non citizens voting in this country is miniscule.  Chances are much higher than some of the handful of "illegal" votes are actually legal, rather than there being hoards of illegal voters going to the polls.

And the GOP knows this as an absolute certainty.

So, what's up with this?

Well part of it is that the GOP is using the Nazi Party playbook of 1932, or more accurately the 1932 Nazi Playbook Plus.  The Nazis hadn't actually been in power, yet, in 32, so they could legitimately claim they were going to fix inflation, etc.

But a lot of their campaign was that everything was the fault of the Jews.  

The GOP has no successful record this term to run on.  Everything it ran on has failed or turned out to be lies.  The Republicans didn't run on "I'm going to raise your taxes in a hidden way, boost inflation, and start a new war with no plan on how to win it" but that's what they've done. So, now, in order to try to stay in power they need to create bogus issues.  Communist and aliens are running amok, they claim.

No, they are not.

But it's more than that, or may at least may be more than that.

And here's the big clue:

House Speaker Mike Johnson says he grows more confident "with each passing day" that the GOP will retain control of Congress because:

This is a God thing. We have intercessory prayers who are on the ground at the Capitol praying.

That's right.  They are confident that God will intervene.

Well, praying for a just victory in anything is certainly not immoral and even laudatory.   Praying for victory is certainly not unheard of.

Most Christians in this context, however, would at least add the proviso to their prayer that they win, "if it be God's Will".  Many more, however, would simply pray that God's Will be done in the election, and leave God's desires up to God.  

Frankly not doing so here involves some rather shocking propositions, not the least of which is that those seeking God's intervention are asking God to return control of Congress to a political party that doesn't really exist in its old form, and instead to one which does not welcome the immigrant, as commanded by the Bible, rewards the wealthy, which is cautioned against by the Bible, launches unjust wars illegally, which is certainly immoral and which is headed by a serial polygamist, a condition which is completely immoral.

How can they do that?

They are doing that as people like Mike Johnson and some of the fringe elements of the Evangelical far right that are surrounding this administration sincerely believe that they have a Divine mandate to bring about an Evangelical Christian United States.  Johnson claimed that God was making him a new Moses. He wasn't kidding about believing that, he does.

Now, Moses didn't lie to the Jews, but at least Johnson seems to think that his status allows him to lie to advance the cause, a shockingly anti Christian view.  Others around Trump who hold these views don't openly express this as much, although Paula White has pretty clearly stated that she believes, or claims to believe, that God has created some sort of exalted role for Trump, but that doesn't mean they do not hold them.  Some fairly clearly do.

But why would they sabotage voting for this goal?

Two reasons, the first being the obvious one, the second being a less obvious one that we're suggesting, but frankly can't prove, yet.

The first reason is that the Republicans can't win an honest election, and they know it.  The panic on that is really starting to set in, and we're beginning to see, for the very first time, some Republicans putting distance between the GOP and themselves.  Harriet Hageman just did that by voting against the budget reconciliation bill even though it means she's bucking Trump.  That almost certainly must mean she's looked at polling data and knows that she's in political trouble.  People backing the SAVE Act are hoping that if a lot of female and poor voters are knocked out of the electorate, they stand a better chance.³ 

They're probably right on that, but maybe not quite as right as they suppose.  

So, the second reason?

It's the next step on the advance towards an Evangelical Christian state.  

How so?

Some in his movement believe that women should not be allowed to vote.

The best example of this is Idaho based minister Doug Wilson, whom Pete Hegseth is a fan of.  Wilson asserts that women should only be allowed to vote if they are the head of a household.  In Wilson's view men are of course the default head of households.  I suppose that this would really only come up if a woman was left being a widow, sort of.  

Now, while a skeptic can see all sorts of ways around that, in an Evangelical Christian State they wouldn't exist.  People aren't going to be allowed to shack up, and they're not going to be able to easily divorce either (and they certainly aren't going to be marrying a member of their own gender).²  So, if couples are going to do what comes naturally, and what naturally results occurs, at a bare minimum the original type of Common Law Marriage will come about.⁴ 

So gals won't be voting, at least not very darned often.

And if the SAVE Act passes, the next step has occurred.  A lot of women simply won't be voting.

And of course, women who won't be voting, won't be standing for elected office either.

Sound extreme and conspiratorial?

It is, but people like Johnson in the Evangelical right around Trump are extreme. And many are engaged in a conspiracy to steal the 2026 election right now.

At least Wilson is honest about his goals.

Which takes me to the lumpenproletariat.

The last few years, as an observer of local politics, I've been watching the collection of individuals who support the far right in this state. They come from all walks of life and backgrounds, but they disproportionately come from the lower middle class/poor boundary, and are very often rather badly educated.  This isn't always true, but where it isn't t here's some demographic information that sort of predicts their views.  A not inappreciable number are women.

Some are just highly rural. Rural people in this state tend to be badly educated on politics and extremely conservative in an unthinking way.  If you discuss things closely with them, they often hold views diametrically opposed to the people they're backing, they just don't realize what the people they're backing support.⁵   This has long been the case and can be demonstrated all the way back to the 1930s when the Democrats saved ranching while the ranchers were pissed off at them.  What I've noticed about this, however, is that younger ranchers and farmers no longer fit this mold.  The GOP may have a lock grip on Baby Boomer ranchers, but it doesn't have one on Gen X and Y ranchers.  The bloom is beginning to fade from the rose on this one.

Others who are at least somewhat educated tend to have very strong and identifiable religious views sounding in the Evangelical far right or in the LDS.  That demographic favors a much more traditional role for women than is currently common, and frankly would probably be okay with women losing their vote if that helped restore the pre 1940 status quo ante of domestic life.  Natrona County legislator Jayme Lien, for example, is a Mormon who notes that: "Outside of her legislative role, she identifies as a homeschooling mother and works as a homemaker/working mother, and has historically assisted with her family's concession business at local events like the Central Wyoming Fair and Rodeo"

Am I saying something is wrong with that weltanschauung?  No, I am not.  Indeed, the irony of much of this is that on some things I agree with the underlying traditionalist view, while being horrified by the attack on women in public and business life.  What I am saying, however, is that people vote for a candidate not really appreciating that candidate's weltanschauung, and then are surprised when we get results that reflect that.  Most women in Wyoming do not identify as homeschooling mothers, and for good reason.  If all of a sudden they get policies that favor that, and the crop of Charter Schools that have popped up recently are barely disguised religions schools, they shouldn't be too surprised.

A person shouldn't leap to conclusions either.  A highly devout LDS family in my neighborhood has a crop of election signs up all favoring the moderate thinking Republicans.

Beyond that, however, are a group of people that are just pathetic.⁶   Some women are amongst them and at least one is a candidate this year. She simply has nothing in her life other than the biggest political crush going on a WFC candidate.  She's literally do anything for him, and in fact has been excusing his rather upsetting court record.  These people are the Rosa Luxemburgs of Republican far right.  The revolution they're seeking is going to dump them like a box of rocks should it succeed, but in their pathetic semi impoverished poorly educated lives, they can't see it.

Were women to be disenfranchised from voting by the SAVE Act, and they lose their votes, and if their male fellows in the same demographic were to, they probably wouldn't even care. They're besotted the way Luxemburg was with Communism.  It's all they have.

Clara Zentkin and Rosa Luxemburg, 1910.

Footnotes:

1.  At one time, it might be noted, the GOP adamantly opposed the concept of a national ID which would have fulfilled all of these rolls as well as being a Social Security Card.  This was probably always a good idea, but they've traditionally hated it.

2.  I'm not in favor of easy divorce or same sex unions either.  This is part of the way that the GOP has managed to gain power.  People who have real conservative views on these things and many others, as well as strong religion based views, have found themselves voting for the Republicans as morality seems to mandate it.  This has been hotly debated in Catholic circles as many well informed Catholics are horrified by Trump and his administrations, but at the same time felt they had no other moral choice.

Personally, I've never voted for Trump and the last three election cycles have voted for the American Solidarity Party.

3.  While it would be folly to count on it, one thing the GOP hardly seems to notice that Republican voters are not very highly motivated as a rule and a lot of the remaining GOP voters may very well fall into a lower middle class/poor class that is barely motivated to go to the polls, while man y Democrats are highly motivated.  The GOP could actually hurt itself.

4.  Barely noticed, some in this camp are opposed to pharmaceutical birth control, which at least observant Catholics also are.  I note this as in this context, it emphasizes not only a preference for marriage, but an absolute need and mandate for it.

5.  At least in Wyoming, which is the least religious state in the US, most ranchers are actually adherents of the American Civil Religion. Whether  you disagrees with their views or not, you'd find that in regards to sexual morality most only oppose homosexcuality, and are fine with everything else.  Accordingly, they'd be horrified by policies that opposed pharmaceutical birth control or mandated common law marriages, the latter of which they have a particular interest in defeating.  They also tend to be very provincial and intensely dislike monied interest buying up agricultural land, which the GOP is just fine with. 

In short, they're actually either moderate Republicans or moderate Democrats in their actual world outlook, but don't put much thought into it.

6.  I'm not going to go into two remaining categories in detail, but there are two more.

One is the Groypers.  They really detest women, while longing for them at the same time.  Basically pathetic early 20s basement dwellers, they sort of lust for women that they can't have, and as a result, they don't like real world women.

This group, best characterized by Nick Fuentes, feels that women and minorities have deprived them of their rightful place in society. They don't like women, and they don't like Jews.  If women lost the right to vote, that'd serve them right, in their view.

The other are the flat out weird and stupid.  These people have always existed, but before the Internet they didn't really have a voice. They sure do now.  They don't necessarily oppose women voting, but they tend to think the whole world is one giant conspiracy.

As an example of that, I saw an instance in which a far right wing candidate attempted to defend another who has fallen into ill repute, only to see a third party race in to declare that all opposition to the far right is involved in a pro pedophile, chem trail, anti agricultural conspiracy.  That's flat out nuts, absolutely everyone kind of backed away from the entire topic, but it shows how wacky things have become.