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We have crossed the line.
The US under Trump is now a rogue nation.
We have elected for a second time a terrible, terrible human being who is destroying this country and all the good it has stood for since its founding. And he has unearthed our dark side, always present but suppressed by good people everywhere until now.
It is really easy to let it all pass by, to ignore it, tell yourself it will pass, that we go through these phases. I don’t think so. We cannot throw up our hands and hope it goes away.
To understand why, we have to first make a decent accounting of Trump’s depraved behavior. It is behavior that is sullying our reputation in the world. The criminal acts are another matter. The felonies. The $80 million courtroom judgment for sexually assaulting E. Jean Carroll in a New York City department store. The Epstein saga that continues to play out. We know what’s really in those files and how it all happened. And it is so ugly that we will want to turn away. When we finally find out the full Epstein story, it will make Harvey Weinstein look like a tea party.
We will be faced with the criminality once Trump leaves office – investigations, prosecutions. The press, led by the NY Times and new media outlets, will do their job and gradually uncover much of the corruption. Whether to prosecute or, as Obama did with the bankers in 2008, move forward. Those are political decisions that will take their course.
But our purpose today is the historic decline of the U.S. reputation around the world since 2016. Say what you want about George W. Bush on Iraq – billions squandered, hundreds of thousands dead and injured, lives ruined, lies about weapons of mass destruction.
But at least Bush based the Iraq debacle on some sort of ideal – that we had an obligation to fight terrorism, that we had a moral position at stake.
Same with Obama on the corrupt bankers in 2008. He made a decision to let them go so the country could move ahead and not squander his political capital and first term by prosecuting wrongdoers at the expense of economic recovery. (I believed you could do both)
Trump has none of this. I have now realized way too late that Trump is just one big TV show. He sees life in two week increments, like his reality show The Apprentice. When the story line runs out, say kidnapping the leader of Venezuela, he moves on to Cuba and then on to Iran. Then the pope. And now he is seeking to vacate the connection of more January 6 insurrectionists.
And a cartoon of Trump as Jesus tending to the sick, which his team then took down after complaints from catholics.
“…a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”
In the words of conservative writer David Brooks, a long time Republican voter who got his start at William F. Buckley’s right-wing National Review:
“Maximum malevolence….To threaten to wipe out a civilization. It is an assertion of true evil.’’
Brooks goes on: “Narcissists tend toward disinhibition as they age. They get more themselves.’’
Trump is now like the drunk uncle at dinner who thinks he can say whatever he wants. The more you put guidelines around him, the worse it gets. Brooks harkens back to Caligula, who killed anyone who disagreed.
The founders of this country feared that a rogue president could run through a Congress like a “whale through a net….Now their worst nightmare is happening,’’ Brooks said.
I’ve said this before and have been wrong. But I always believed that at some point, Trump’s incompetence would bring him down, that his disgusting, lying, made-up actions would bring him down, that the payoffs and grift would bring him down.
It has not happened because the line of decency in this country has moved to places we never expected.
Congressman Eric Swallwell thought he could abuse staffers and no one would care. Congressman Tony Gonzales thought he could have a sexual affair with a staffer who then killed herself and no one would care. Trump thinks that he can threaten a war crime of genocide against Iran and no one will care.
But eventually, the incompetence and hubris catch up. Trump went to war for revenge. Everything he does is about revenge. It has nothing to do with policy or helping people. It is ALL fake. It is ALL a lie. Nothing he says can be trusted.
He went to war in Iran because Netanyahu persuaded him to, because he hates Biden and Obama for signing the nuclear deal with Iran. He is threatened by anyone who disagrees with him.
Again – we have become numb to this behavior. So do me a favor and read the following statement from Trump on his social media account. Say it out loud and ask yourself if it makes you feel good that an American president is saying this.
“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran,” and adding, “Open the F***in’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH!”
Just saying that is a war crime. The Nuremberg tribunals after World War II established the principle that words carry weight.
Trump defenders point to the “madman theory.’’ That by looking and sounding deranged, the Iranians will cave for fear of annihilation. That these words are a negotiation tactic. They are wrong. The words are wrong. They are immoral. And they are a crime.
The 90 million people who live in Iran have it much tougher than we do. They are willing to endure a lot more pain than we are. They don’t look forward to Netflix at night and In & Out Burger. They are surviving a religious, fantastical regime. Imagine what Iranian families are thinking when they hear and read Trump’s words.
Imagine what the Germans and Japanese are thinking. The Canadians.
After World War II, we didn’t take over Europe via the spoils of victory. We helped rebuild it. We fed hungry people. We forgave Japan for bombing Pearl Harbor and helped build a democracy there. Presidents of both parties, Truman to Eisenhower and Kennedy to Nixon, Carter to Reagan, helped design and shape a post World War II era of rules and behavior that has worked for 80 plus years.
Trump despises rules. He hates working with others. He must be above everyone else and needs people to be beneath him.
The writer Fareed Zakaria fears that the damage done by Trump, the distrust that has been sown throughout the world, will take a generation to recover, if ever.
No one trusts us anymore. India and Canada are talking to the Chinese because they no longer trust the U.S. The Chinese electric car industry is eating our lunch as we lurch around the world demanding more fossil fuels, even though solar is now cheaper.
The whole thing is insane. And the question becomes whether a citizenry poisoned by runaway capitalism and wealth creation, oblivious to the injury being caused as we are served infinite scrolling on Instagram, can recover the democracy muscle. It has been done before in the 1890s and the 1930s. But it takes people to stand up and be counted. To get off the couch.
It is a lot to ask. It would help if people generally looked to for leadership would actually DO something. As the country comes down around us, where are Barack Obama and George W. Bush? Michelle Obama and Laura Bush? Where is Lebron James? Where is Mitt Romney? Where for that matter, is the entire women’s and men’s professional basketball association. Where is Planned Parenthood? Where are the Steelworkers? The churches? How much longer will evangelical Christians, who bet the farm on Trump to get rid of abortion, tolerate this abusive behavior? Aren’t they the moral ones?
When is someone gonna say what Mario Savio said at Berkeley in 1964, that sometimes the machine is so odious that participation is immoral and that you have to throw yourself at the gears to make it stop?
Most of us don’t have the luxury of protesting every day, of throwing sand in Trump’s gears. But Lebron James does. So does the Catholic Church. So does George W. Bush. I know that Bush is disgusted by Trump. Half the Republican senators and half of the people who now work for Trump say he is crazy. But they say it after work, at a bar, in the dark. Yet they do nothing. Why?
This will end at some point. Trump will go. Whether by age and infirmity or by criminal prosecution or whatever. But he will go. And we will be left to pick up the pieces, to apologize to our friends and allies around the world and put our government and society back together. It will be a monumental task.
And that task will have to be performed in the midst of an AI take-over of an already weak society. It will be very very hard.
Are we up to it?
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Categories: Opinion, Uncategorized
The writer forgets that the majority of voters as well as the electoral college voted for this. Peace comes through strength, not appeasement. I will take his crude comments and memes over giving away our country to a flood of globalists, terrorists and illegal immigrants who are bleeding our nation to death.
This is more than just Iran. Its a play to contain China and Russia, to end global terrorism and to possibly have a period of global peace. We were almost at the point of not having that choice any longer.
How many of our military service persons have been killed??????????
The lowest number of any war in our history of this duration
Ellis can be safely ignored here, as he hits on debunked talking point after debunked talking point. Jean Carrol turns out was a shill for a billionaire Democrat funder.She can’t even remember the year her attack took place. Epstein turns out was a guy recruiting teen-aged girls for himself, with almost no one else involved.
” A whole civilization will die tonight” ? I’m pretty sure Trump referred to the treacherous and murderous terrorist regime who have been torturing the Iranian people for 47 years…nothing else was even in the offing. Bottom line is..no one who dislikes Trump this week liked him last week and once you start describing New York Times Leftist writer David Brooks as a “conservative”….your last shred of credibility vanishes like McDonald’s Doordash in the Oval Office.
The Chronicle needs Kevin Ellis’ two cents like Eric Swalwell needs a video camera.
Kevin, we also now know that there was collusion between Federal Judges Howell and Bloesburg with Jack Smith, the Biden autopen Whitehouse, AG Fani Willis, AG Laticia James and DA Alvin Bragg to send President Trump to jail. Documents and texts have been located. Finally a judicial complaint by the Center to Advance Security in America accuses D.C. Judge Beryl Howell of compromising her impartiality by strategizing with Jack Smith’s team to prosecute Trump. Unearthed documents suggest the Obama appointee privately coached investigators on litigation tactics and fast-tracked the seizure of Republican congressmen’s phone records while bypassing standard adversarial protections. Also this week, a panel of Federal Judges ruled that Bloesburg overstepped his authority by starting his own investigation into, which were legal under Title 18 USC deportations.
According to the Patriot Post, laughter is all we need, thanks Kevin Ellis
Sorry, emotional manipulation doesn’t work on me.
When I first saw this, I was just going to let it go, as another example of the “Trump derangement Syndrome”. Which it is, basically focused on feelings than actual outcomes based on loosely worded facts.
But this is more the norm today than involving one self in actual debate of what’s real and what’s emotional responses one can get from such derogatory remarks…
As we say no one is not without sin, but fortunately we can all seek forgiveness of our sins big or small. Just non of us are perfect. Yes, it’s not news we are human…and comments make the news good or bad, and often taken out of context or even blow out of proportion to meet the narratives ones happy to make on all sides…
What hopefully we are still willing to see in our country, the willingness to share empathy for people here and abroad. I agree Nukes are bad, clearly in the wrong hands. I agree thousands of Americans have been killed by the support of a terrorist funding regimes for over forty years. Not to mention its killing of thousands of civilians in just the past few months. To include the hanging of young non violent protesters. Who thought that was okay?
We have seen rockets that can reach all of western Europe, along with drones, mostly used against civilians. Who thought that was okay?
But people are more worried about the gas prices, still lower or the same under Biden, in the short run, where we just might make the Middle East a safer place for all mankind. But for many doing nothing, is a choice that in the last 40 years, has only gotten where we were just a few months ago, facing a regime, that could unleash on the world nuclear destruction. Who thinks that was okay?
I could go on, about conflicts prevented or ended, last count I knew of were eight. But they are lost on the “TDS” which appears incurable.
I could mention the House of Representatives slush fund, protecting representatives on all sides of inappropriate actions. Who thinks that’s okay?
I could mention, a Pope, who states people like our service men and women God is not listening to your prayers. Who thinks that’s okay?
But without going on for ever, I just like to finish with, these type of rants are at best, hopefully therapeutic to help them get through the day, preventing them from spitting at our law enforcement, or throwing things at them, or trying to take away their weapon’s, at these so called peaceful demonstrations. Who thinks that’s okay?
But honestly, what does one expect, millions walked across border unvetted and released, victims are silenced by those who claim to support the needy, towns and cities and states are protecting the criminals over the law abiding citizens. To the level of allowing them to vote, steal, harm and then walk our streets, with no consequences. Who thinks that’s okay?
Unfortunately in today’s world, to many bots and those with incurable “TDS”
I still believe in love and prayers, but then again I’m a marine, forever, and will ever support this nations laws and constitution, and believe no country will ever threaten our world peace, freedom, as long as I’m alive…who else thinks that’s okay? Because I do!
Great comment, very true. This USAF vet (1958-1962) during the Cold War is with you. Hope people read and heed.
To answer Mr Ellis’s question of whether we’re up to it, well yes, the American people elected Donald Trump 3 times to restore America and common sense, and they will continue to support that project. The majority of Americans, unlike Mr Ellis, are still tethered to reality. And to hope, not the self-hating nihilism that this commentary expressed.
This sounds much like an article by John Bossange, whom has been quiet since Guy posted an article about him. The article had 22 responses so Bossange’s article 10-21-2025 hit a nerve. Wonder how many comments this article will generate. Negative articles in a negative State is a negative.
Bossange; A reckoning with evildoers
https://vermontdailychronicle.com/bossange-a-reckoning-with-evildoers/
In the same sentence by Mr Ellis mentioned Trump along with Swallwell and Gonzales indicates a real TDS. No mention if Trump had sexual violations. Did Trump have a sexual problem with the world? The sentence:
“Congressman Eric Swallwell thought he could abuse staffers and no one would care. Congressman Tony Gonzales thought he could have a sexual affair with a staffer who then killed herself and no one would care. Trump thinks that he can threaten a war crime of genocide against Iran and no one will care.”
A true TDS problem
John Bossange and Kevin Ellis = Siamese twins attached by the a$$ at birth.
Sadly, it seems the VDC does not have an IQ requirement for op-ed submissions.
Freedom of speech applies to everyone, for better or worse.
Stu, unless you are pro life or pro Trump, ask Allen Dershowitz
Where is the spirit and Wisdom of John F. Kennedy? “We believe that all the world–in Eastern Europe as well as Western, in Southern Africa as well as Northern, in old nations as well as new–that people must be free to choose their own future, without discrimination or dictation, without coercion or subversion” President John F. Kennedy.
This time of Trump will pass. What must pass with it is the war lust of the neocons and the influence of the nation of Isreal on our government
The question for today is who is controlling the Strait of Hormuz today??????? Try to answer that question with factual truth.
Just in: US stops 9 oil tankers attempting to break Trump’s blockade on Iranian ports
U.S. official says 2 tankers left Chabahar port on the Gulf of Oman before being contacted by warship via radio communication. S&P 500 hits all time high just now
Stu, really, I believe John F. Kennedy was a great president and died way too early.
But I was only a kid back then…
I do remember Vietnam, the bay of pigs, the missile crisis in Cuba, just to name a few.
Then again based on anyone’s focus, it seems today history is debatable as one wants to make it?
I believe in the right of freedom of speech. I also understand “different strokes for different folks”, but this dude is stroking a dead horse ! Elections have consequences, get over it as I had to get over the Biden years .
Iran, Russia, and China have an answer to my question and we will have to see what is the truth about the Strait of Hormuz. Lot of fake news out there.
US stops 9 oil tankers attempting to break Trump’s blockade on Iranian ports
U.S. official says 2 tankers left Chabahar port on the Gulf of Oman before being contacted by warship via radio communication. S&P 500 hits all time high, just now President DJT says the Straits are open now, permitting the transport of oil to China
Re: The $80 million courtroom judgment for sexually assaulting E. Jean Carroll in a New York City department store.
New York literally changed the statute of limitation laws to make this suit possible.
Re: The Epstein saga that continues to play out.
The Biden administrations FBI & Dog had full access to the Epstein fils yet took no action against Trump let alone use it in the 2024 election.
Re: Say what you want about George W. Bush on Iraq – billions squandered, hundreds of thousands dead and injured, lives ruined, lies about weapons of mass destruction.
Biden got 13 service people killed with his rules of engagement during the Afghanistan withdrawal and left 83 billion dollars of military equipment to the enemy which killed Americans.
Re: “…a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”
The Persian culture was destroyed by the Islamist mullahs. Iran was a secular nation before 1979.
Re: He went to war in Iran because Netanyahu persuaded him to, because he hates Biden and Obama for signing the nuclear deal with Iran. He is threatened by anyone who disagrees with him.
Trump was talking about Iran in 2015. How come the rest of the gulf states are not siding with Iran?
Re: The US under Trump is now a rogue nation.
The Democ-RATS are the most rogue parties that has ever governed the United States.
1. They impeached Trump in the House Intelligence Committee instead of the House Judiciary Committee as prescribed by the Constitution.
2. Appointed Jack Smith without the consent of the Senate violating the Appointments Clause.
3. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania changed election laws in violation of the Constitution.
4. Biden tried to go around the Supreme Court when they told him he did not have the Constitutional authority to wipe away student loan debt.
5.They are constantly passing unconstitutional gun con control laws
6. Every sanctuary state and city violates the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution.
Donald L. Cline: “A federal government that does not derive every scintilla of its lawful and limited authority from the Constitution of the United States is by definition a rogue occupation government and criminal regime. Its authority is null and void and no one is bound by any rule of law to obey it”.
So, who are the rogues?
You say you don’t want a king, but you want a government that runs healthcare, housing, education, labor, wages, the financial system, and tells you what lightbulb to use.
Sounds like you want a king…as long as it is a Democrat
Trump has been POTUS for five of the last seventeen years. So, who’s to blame?
Point that should be considered, future wars and it will happen given past century’s history. New war tactics are happening. Predict it’ll be push button conflicts. It’s happening NOW, Ukraine gaining back ground from the Russians with drones and robots only. The conflict with Iran has elements of robotic guided missiles Seems like every 80 years or so, there’s a new conflict Time to test new weaponry, the Industrial and political complex. Money has to be made at expense of others. It’ll be mostly a machine / electronic war. 1960 -1962 we were very close to total war with the Russians, I was on emergency War Operations with loaded B-52’s to SD and my brother was on a destroyer during the Cuban conflict with a direct line to the Kennedy WH. Both times, on record we were within 15 seconds of total. I still have my EW orders, can be viewed. Both times faulty computers were a problem and it took human interference to over ride the images and info. Robots today are of diff configurations are being manufactured, even some as small as a quarter. Robots can now walk and act like humans, China has them. Interesting and learning of the people that are pushing this. Consider the future scenarios and Generations X, Y, Z, futures.
Not an original thought in this piece.
For a video of what I’m,mentioning, link this about future technology
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/d5mVeShzSaA (0:20)
Regarding not an original thought, the article mentions Trump’s involvement in the Iran conflict, and noting how being fought and how future fighting will be done given the future. Evolution, should be concerned. Understand or not, just providing alternatives relative to the past. The video shows how fast technology evolves, for entertainment. Simple.