The decades-long peace vigil across from the White House that Trump ordered dismantled.

By Bob Gaydos

“Maybe it’s just me, but: If I’m going to keep doing this, I think I’m going to have to come up with a rating system on the absurdity (an all-inclusive, non-profane word for all the negatives imaginable) of news stories emanating from the White House.”

I wrote that sentence a few weeks back at the end of a column that included stories about Trump firing the commissioner in charge of providing monthly labor statistics because he didn’t like the numbers she reported and appointing Fox News personality and legal nut job Jeanine Pirro as prosecutor for the District of Columbia. On a scale of one to five, I gave them both a five.

I have to readjust my rating system, or just scrap it. I should have known better with Trump. He never misses an opportunity to do the more outrageous, stupid, harmful, arrogant, selfish, petty, cruel, illegal and ultimately absurd thing when given the opportunity. And the Supreme Court, one of his primary enablers, has given him that opportunity carte blanche with its conveyance of immunity for acts committed in accordance with his duties as president.

Last week, Trump ordered the killing by U.S. military of 11 Venezuelan citizens on a boat in the southern Caribbean, justifying it as a blow in the war against illegal drugs. He said the U.S. military had identified the crew as members of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which the U.S. designated a terrorist group in February and that the gang, not known for illegal drug activity, is controlled by Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro.

No warning was given. The boat was attacked, the occupants killed. No drugs were found. Even if there were, proper legal procedure is for proper authorities to arrest the people involved and let the legal system judge them. Not assassinate them with the military. That’s illegal. Some call it a war crime.

The rest is in no particular order since the outrageous keeps coming on a daily basis as Trump, who is clearly sliding to dementia, is also obviously panicked about the growing demand that the Epstein client list be made public.

This has resulted in him threatening war on a United States City — Chicago — not only threatening to send in National Guard troops, but posting a social media fantasy of himself in “Apocalypse Now” declaring, “I love the smell of deportation in the morning.” This also emphasizes the fact that he has given the Department of Defense a new (unofficial) nickname, Department of War. Which would also jibe with that war crime against Venezuela.

He has also tilted his javelin against windmills, stepping up his Don Quixote crusade against safe, clean, inexpensive alternative energy by shutting down a huge, nearly completed clean air project off the coast of Rhode Island, which is designed to serve hundreds of thousands of residents.

Then, after threatening Republican members of Congress who dared to demand full release of the Epstein files by calling them “traitors,” he turned his attention to upstate New York. He showed his absolute pettiness by celebrating the West Point Alumni Group’s decision to cancel the awards ceremony at which Tom Hanks was to receive the prestigious Sylvanus Thayer Award. It is given annually to “an outstanding citizen of the United States whose service and accomplishments in the national interest exemplify personal devotion to the ideals expressed in West Point‘s motto: ‘Duty, Honor, Country.’” Things about which Trump is completely clueless.

Hanks, who has appeared in several notable films portraying members of the armed services as well as the American space program, is also an outspoken critic of Trump. Trump called him “woke.” Horrors! Earlier this year, the Academy eliminated more than a dozen student clubs and organizations for women and minority students, bowing to Trump pressure to eliminate DEI programs. The alumni said Hanks will still get the award, but without the public pomp and ceremony. Maybe the press should show up.

And just to wrap up this mess, the fearless leader apparently looked out the window and didn’t like what he saw in a park across the street — a simple peace vigil that has been there for more than 40 years. Trump ordered Park Police to tear it down as part of his campaign to clear the nation’s capital of homeless people. Unfortunately, the people who maintain it are not homeless. They simply show up every day to sit under the blue tarp. Trump took that blue canvas as a sign it was a homeless encampment. There’s a war on against that, too.

The day after the blue awning, erected to defend against rain, was taken down and signs promoting peace thrown away, one of the founders of the vigil showed up in the usual place to continue the vigil. Without the blue tent awning. Determined to remain. The group found their signs, too.

It may be too much to expect, but it would be nice if one of Trump’s trusted aides could point out to their fearless leader that murdering foreign civilians without providing any evidence or cause, depriving thousands of your own citizens of an inexpensive source of energy, threatening war on an American city, bullying the military into a cowardly retreat on honoring a citizen who had honored them and then (really?) tearing down a simple vigil for peace in the world because some phony MAGA “journalist” called it to his attention are not the kinds of acts that are going to get him that Nobel peace prize he desperately wants.

They’re not likely to get him into heaven either.

By Bob Gaydos

Putin and Trump after their meeting in Alaska. Which one is smiling?

Well, at least he didn’t get a deal on selling Alaska back to Russsia.

That’s the most positive spin I can put on Trump’s ego-driven “summit” with Vladimir Putin last Friday. Everything else was a win for Putin, from the red carpet, hand-clapping, smiling welcome on the tarmac to the private limo ride bringing the two men to the meeting. Not bad for someone declared a war criminal for his invasion of Ukraine.

Oh right, Ukraine wasn’t invited to this Alaskan summit to decide its future. Just Trump and his Russian handler and their aides. Trump’s retinue, interestingly, included officials not typically involved in diplomacy, but rather, finance. Money. Did the two pals cook up a deal in the limo?

In his Quixotic quest for a Nobel Peace Prize, Trump, who did not manage, as pledged, to end the Ukraine War on Day One of his presidency, did manage to change his position on Ukraine after the “summit,” from ceasefire to full peace deal, which is, coincidentally, Putin’s position.

Surprise!

It’s obvious that Trump is totally lost in diplomatic relations and has been a Putin puppet for years. I’m constantly amazed that the major media treat him as if he has a clue beyond doing whatever benefits him. Make America an afterthought!

If you doubt Trump is Putin’s tool, just look at the photos of the two men after meeting in Finland in 2018 and last Friday. Putin owns him.

Ukrainian President Volodamyr Zelensky is scheduled to meet Trump Monday at the White House. Last time, he was insulted by Trump and JD Vance. I don’t expect anything different this time.

It’s all about Trump playing at being president. A national embarrassment that needs to be reported as such.

By Bob Gaydos

The check William Seward wrote in 1867 to purchase Alaska from Russia. It was no folly.

While I sit and read about the ongoing demands of Americans of all stripes — Democrats, Republicans, MAGAs, What Nots— for the Trump administration to release the Epstein files because no rational person believes that it is does not include mentions of Trump’s name and numerous girls between the ages of 13 and 17 with whom he may have engaged in sexual acts, which is officially known as rape, I also marvel at the lengths to which this soulless excuse for a human being is willing to go to divert attention from the Epstein files and his efforts to avoid their public release.

The latest entries in this traffic wreck of a presidency involve Trump taking over the policing of Washington, D.C., and negotiating a peace treaty between Russia and Ukraine without including Ukraine. What could possibly go wrong? In truth, with Trump’s record, almost anything.

Taking over the D.C. National Guard and mobilizing 800 troops to “police“ the nation’s capital along with the help of several hundred FBI agents, while claiming a major crime problem even though recent statistics show crime significantly down in the city, is fascism 101. Add the fact that Trump says he’s going to clean up the city by rounding up homeless people and taking them somewhere else. Anywhere else apparently because he hasn’t said where. That doesn’t bode well for the homeless ever since Trump’s Supreme Court last year ruled homelessness could be treated as a crime.

The mentally ill will also inevitably be included in any such round up. Apparently, Trump wants to return to the out-of-sight out-of-mind philosophy for dealing with these issues.

The fact that the National Guard, citizen soldiers, many of whom have day jobs (accountants, mechanics, sales people, politicians) are not trained for this kind of work apparently doesn’t matter to the geniuses in the White House. Send them out there, armed to the teeth so the citizenry feel safe. I doubt most of the guardsmen are thrilled with the mission.

And apparently the FBI agents are going to be patrolling some swanky D.C. neighborhoods. What a great use of trained investigators who should be dealing with actual crime committed by some of Trump’s wealthier supporters.

None of which, of course, is going to convince anybody to forget about the Epstein files. I suspect the show of force will be mostly a show simply to show that Trump, racist to the core, can do it seeing as he’s threatened to do it in other cities run by black mayors.

What could possibly go wrong? Look up Kent State in the history books if they haven’t been removed from the library.

As for the Putin meeting, it has disaster written all over it. Just recall the meeting with Putin in Finland and watch the Russian president emerge with a big grin on his face and Trump look like an 11-year-old boy who just had the riot act read to him. Just the two of them in the room. Manchurian Candidate material.

Trump is talking about giving up some land somehow to settle this deal even though Ukraine didn’t take any land and Russia is the one who invaded despite Trump’s insistence otherwise and Ukrainian President Volodamyr Zelinsky isn’t even invited to this “peace talk.“

What could go wrong? Well, for starters, Trump thought he was going to meet Putin in Russia and had to be reminded that the meeting was in Alaska, which is American territory which should be off-limits to Putin, who was declared a war criminal by the United Nations. Putin might be willing to forget about claiming a chunk of Ukraine if Trump lets him go home with Alaska back in his pocket. After all, it’s worth a lot more than the $7.2 million Secretary of State William Seward wrote a check for in 1867 to purchase the territory from Russia. Who knows what Trump’s price might be to sell it back, with hotel rights?

Far-fetched? Will there be any other American adults in the room who know what they’re doing? And will they realize that even giving Alaska back to Russia will not make Americans forget about those Epstein files?

Just a note of appreciation in this festive season for your support throughout all seasons.

For much of the year, the world has been a stressful, angry, violent place. It sometimes becomes difficult to keep writing about greed, bigotry, hatred, and unyielding ignorance. Indeed, the steady beat of such news can make it easy to forget the good things in our lives, create an imbalance, even make one cynical. That can skew a person’s outlook … and writing.

So we take a break to remember the good things. To be grateful. To share good times with our families and friends. We hope you are doing the same.

We wish you peace, love, laughs, health and serenity.  We’ll have some zestful views on some of that good stuff next time.

And thank you again.

The writers at Zest of Orange.