By Bob Gaydos

Map of Greenland and Iceland.

 Captain, oh Captain! To the helm hurry thee! 

‘Tis land ahead and large that we see!

“Huff, puff, wheeze and whew 

     At the helm, thank you.

Is that Greenland I see? Praise the lord! Glory be! 

All hands on deck! Prepare

   to set it free.”

Umm, captain, my captain, ‘tis Iceland dead ahead.

Those were our orders, as you said.

 “Iceland! Greenland! Abi gezunt! 

As long as we’re (hack … wheeze) healthy,

   one island’s just as good as another. Full ahead!”

But Captain, they’re free, as is Greenland to be sure.

They likely won’t welcome our ships on their shore.

   “No matter, we’ll lower their tariffs and promise 

them chips. They’ll gladly welcome (huff, puff) our ships.

Our moguls are angry, the market took a dip

   all because of Iceland. Is that a Coke?

Give me a sip.”

  “Look, I told them at Davos I’d buy Greenland,

or maybe Iceland,

Or some big island, I think.

      Not to worry.

But I’m getting old and I’m in a bit of a hurry.”

  “If I can give them Greenland or Iceland to feather their nest, they’ll give me more goodies

and I’ll be forever remembered

As the best of the best.”

Snore, snore, snore, snore, snore, snore, snore…

Umm, Captain, my Captain, wake up! 

We’re ashore! Anchor’s down! 

The Icelanders are angry. They want us to get out of town!

“Iceland?! You idiot! I said Greenland! These guys have

  absolutely nothing I want!

It’s the wrong f$&#ng island! Take us home,

then you’re fired!

    I should have just stayed on Epstein’s Island.

     S*&t, I’m tired.”

Aye, sir. Hoist anchor. Headed home.

(Silent: And if the powers that be, can hear me,

Please, oh please, oh please,

25 47

Before I get to Heaven.)

                ***

USA Today: “They’re not there for us on Iceland, that I can tell you. I mean, our stock market took the first dip yesterday because of Iceland. So Iceland’s already cost us a lot of money.” — Donald Trump in Davos, confusing Iceland with Greenland several times.

“Abi gezunt” is a Yiddish phrase meaning “As long as you’re healthy.” It is used to downplay problems.

By Bob Gaydos

Trump flipping the bird at a factory worker.

  As an old tabloid journalist, I’m a fan of short headlines that tell the story without beating around the bush. One of the most famous was a Daily News front page from 50 years ago that screamed: “Ford to New York: Drop Dead!”

  President Gerald Ford had refused to help the city out of some financial difficulties and the city’s leading morning daily had made the message clear. 

  A few days back, another story involving a president spurred a headline in my tabloid-programmed brain: Ford to factory worker: Shut up!

   No, you never saw it.

   The president was Trump and the Ford in this case was the automaker that was one of the proud founders of the American industrial empire, Ford Motor Company.

  As you’ve undoubtedly learned via social media by now, as Trump was touring a Ford plant in Dearborn, Michigan, posing for pictures and making smiling men in suits happy, a worker called out “Pedophile protector!” at the man who is protecting pedophiles by still refusing to release the full Epstein files as Congress specifically voted. 

   Trump, with the emotional maturity of a not very bright 12-year-old boy, responded by saying “F*#k You!” twice and giving the man the middle finger. Crude. The kind of stuff that makes an impression on the schoolyard, but is not especially presidential and certainly not dignified. Like accepting a Nobel Peace Prize that doesn’t belong to you, as I wrote about the other day. At least he’s consistent.

    Well, the press managed to cover the story, carefully, and Ford, which sponsored the visit by Trump without coordinating with the United Autoworkers Union, responded by suspending the worker, TJ Sabula.

    Social media covered the story much more directly, noting the American citizen expressing his free speech, the American president reacting boorishly, the union saying free speech is supposed to be protected and, eventually, lawyers saying that protection unfortunately doesn’t apply to private employers, but rather to the government.

    A Go Fund Me site started for Sabula, who has not regretted his remark, has reportedly raised more than half a million dollars for him already, which tells you where America stands on speaking truth to power. The Ford Company, which obviously invited Trump to flatter him and work out some deal, is still mum on further action on Sabula. The unredacted Epstein files have still not been released, although the congressionally set deadline was last December 19. The White House defended Trump’s reactions as “appropriate.”

    And, Trump has never denied the charge hurled at him on the factory floor: Pedophile protector! He just hurled an F-bomb — twice — and hoisted an arthritic middle finger, demonstrating once again to the world the embarrassment that he and his cowardly enablers in the Republican Party have inflicted on this once-proud nation.

     Trump to America: Drop Dead!

By Bob Gaydos

Marjorie Taylor Greene

I spent a surprisingly relaxing five minutes the other night listening to Marjorie Taylor Greene on YouTube. Yeah sure, I’ll repeat it. I spent a surprisingly relaxing five minutes the other night listening to Marjorie Taylor Greene on YouTube.

Believe me, I’m as surprised as you are. But it’s true.

The onetime MAGA maniac, who helped lead the Republican Party kicking and screaming (her, not the GOP regulars) into the cult of Trump, sat calmly and quietly, almost demurely, staring into the camera telling us about how she had been wrong to trust Trump and was disenchanted with politics because the people in it aren’t really there to serve the public. That is why she resigned from Congress, she said.

In and of itself, I wouldn’t buy that as her reason for quitting. She knew what the game was like and how to play as dirty as the next guy. But she was talking about the Epstein files and Trump and the victims whose stories of sexual assault she had heard in closed-door sessions and Trump’s reneging on his promise to release the files once elected and his continuing disregard of Congress’s official demand for release of the entire, unredacted files and about a phone call she said she got from Trump, because of her insistence on making the files public. She was talking about all that.

She said Trump called her office and said the files could not be released because people he knew would get hurt. Not that he would get hurt. People he knew. Read between the lines.

Greene said she put the call on speakerphone so her whole staff could hear it. She’s obviously serious about this and wants as many witnesses as possible.

I have no idea why, after all the Trump insanity, this is the issue that caused Greene to see the light, brought her a moment of clarity. I suspect, as with other Republican women in Congress who have pushed for release of the files, it’s highly personal.

Whatever the reason, and as delayed as this change of heart may be, I welcome it because she speaks to and for a lot of the MAGA crowd.

She may even have given some of her male colleagues in the Republican Party the courage to defy their leader on other issues. The House passed an extension to the Obamacare subsidies, despite Trump‘s opposition. The Senate finally declared Trump had no right to go to war against Venezuela or any other country without consulting Congress. Some Republicans called Trump‘s threats about taking Greenland reckless.

I don’t know if they’re all connected, but they are all deviations from the previous Republican norm regarding Trump — quiet obedience.

So I welcome Greene’s calm persistence in going after full release of the unredacted Epstein files as opposed to the Republican committee chair following Trump’s orders and focusing only on Democrats. And hey, if Bill Clinton’s in there, so be it.

I may be looking for something that’s not there. That’s the kind of world we live in today. But I had a surprisingly relaxing five minutes listening to Marjorie Taylor Greene the other night and I think that means something.

Stay tuned.

By Bob Gaydos

Donald Trump and Nicolas Maduro (kidnapped)

   Be careful what you wish for.

   After a few days of reminiscing about Christmases past and pondering the year to come, of musing about the choices and chances of survival of once seemingly stalwart Trumpers Elise Stefanik and Susie Wiles, I woke up on your regular Saturday, January 3, 2026, wondering what the man himself, the beneficiary of the first ever FIFA Peace Prize, would give me to write about.

     War.

      I should have known.

      This won’t take long. What you’re going to read here is likely to be pretty much what you read elsewhere because there’s only one way for rational, law-abiding citizens of our system of government with its separation of powers spelled out in a Constitution to look at it: Invading Venezuela and kidnapping its president and his wife/adviser with no legitimate provocation and without consulting Congress is an illegitimate act of war.

     The nonsense about Venezuela being a primary source of Fentanyl coming into this country is just that, nonsense. This is all about oil. Always has been. Gaining control of Venezuela’s vast oil reserves. Wait to see which of Trump’s wealthy backers benefit.

      That Nicolas Maduro was a much-hated dictator does not justify attacking Venezuela and looking to change the government with no request for intervention and the claim that he was in fact a major drug dealer himself for allowing the drug trade to continue is sheer nonsense when one considers the actual major drug dealers Trump has pardoned.

     Trump says we’re going to “run” Venezuela for a while. Why? They have a new president — the former Vice President. Trump says Maduro is going to be charged with drug charges in New York. There are international courts.

      Then there’s the fact that China and Russia both get a lot of oil from Venezuela and our seizing the country to make up for losing control of its oil fields when they were nationalized seems to give China an argument for taking back Taiwan and its wealth and Russia invading Ukraine for its. Same authoritarian playbook.

    Illegal. Dangerous. Foolhardy. Unwanted and unwarranted. If you believe what we tell the world, unAmerican.

   Americans don’t want this. Congress must step in. Republicans must finally find the courage to do their job. He is out of control.

    The Epstein files are still out there. Trump’s name is all over them. War is a powerful distraction. Frightened and unchecked, he will only get worse. It’s only January 3rd.

Footnote: The plane carrying Maduro and his wife apparently landed at Stewart Airport in Orange County, my neighborhood and a short ride to New York City. When the hostages from Iran landed there, it was a much more joyous event,

By Bob Gaydos

Catherine Lucey and Donald Trump

You can tell a lot about people by the way they speak, their choice of words.

Donald Trump has told us he has “the best words”. He has also demonstrated on many occasions that he is willing to use a lot of them in succession to no meaningful message. This suggests, at least superficially, that he is superficial, pretending to be what he is not or, worse, that he is not pretending but really believes what he says about magnets and windmills and shopping at grocery stores.

But this week he gave us a look inside the real man with just four words:

— “Quiet Piggy!”

— “Things happen.”

They were uttered on two separate occasions, both times to female journalists with whom Trump was more than a bit annoyed. Each had dared to ask the important question of the moment, in public and in front of witnesses.

Trump can’t handle this approach. He either explodes, as in the first case, or he lies, as in the second. Both replies were pathetically inappropriate, infuriating and embarrassing for having been uttered by the person occupying the office of President of the United States.

But then, that’s what we’ve come to expect — and far too many still accept — from Trump.

The “Quiet Piggy!” insult was directed at Catherine Lucey of Bloomberg News last Friday aboard Air Force One. As part of a group of reporters, she was asking him why he had not yet released the Jeffrey Epstein files.

“Quiet!” Trump barked. “Quiet Piggy.”

Trump’s well-documented misogynist attitude towards women in a nutshell. If they’re too smart and not appropriately deferential, insult their appearance. He’s done it before. Pathetic.

Mary Bruce

The “Things happen” remark was his nonchalant dismissal of Mary Bruce of ABC News who was asking Mohammad bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, about the killing and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in 2018.

Khashoggi had written articles critical of the ruling Saudi family and the CIA concluded that the prince now sitting next to Trump in the Oval Office had ordered the murder.

No matter to Trump, whose family has several financial deals in the works with the Saudis. He said the prince knew nothing about the killing and scolded the reporter for asking an embarrassing question of “our guest.“

“A lot of people didn’t like the gentleman that you’re talking about,” Trump said. “Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.”

Things happen. Death by dismemberment. The body parts placed in acid. No biggie. A journalist working for an American newspaper. A murder condemned around the world as an attack on the free press. The CIA says the “friend“ sitting next to Trump gave the order. Trump blamed the victim and called the question “insubordinate,” as if the reporter worked for him. He also called her a terrible reporter working for a terrible company and wondered about lifting their license, which is par for the course.

It’s difficult to try to come up with new ways to describe what an insult Trump is to the presidency and what a stain he is leaving on the idea of American democracy. Forget American exceptionalism.

And yes, as an American and a journalist, I do take this personally. I have lived through the presidencies of FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush Jr., Obama and Biden without ever feeling that any of them, faults though they may have had and policies with which I may have disagreed, had so little regard for what the office of president stands for to the average American. Even Nixon. He had the decency to resign.

Decency is not included in Trump‘s “best words” vocabulary.

Maybe the Epstein thing will finally get this little piggy. Hey, things happen.

By Bob Gaydos

Wrecking ball demolishing the East Wing of the White House.

— He is tearing down the East Wing of the White House, after saying he would not, to build a garish ballroom. Republicans say nothing.

— He is using our military to murder people on the high seas, in the name of fighting drugs, with no evidence offered of any wrongdoing. Republicans say nothing.

— He is using ICE as a  violent private army to kidnap people off the streets of American cities in the guise of fighting illegal immigration, locking them up in private prisons with no charges filed or sending them to other countries. Republicans say nothing.

— He is three weeks into a government shutdown, with federal employees going unpaid and services curtailed, having made no attempt to reach a budget compromise with Democrats. Republicans say nothing.

— He has scared House Speaker Mike Johnson into keeping the House out of session to work on a budget that will not cause millions of Americans to lose their health insurance because that would also require Johnson to swear in a new Democratic representative, who would be a deciding vote to require release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, which are believed to contain the names of prominent figures (including his) involved in a worldwide sex-trafficking scandal involving teenaged girls. Three Republicans complained.

— He has ordered federal prosecution of persons who he feels have disrespected him in word, in print or in court, offering none or flimsy excuses for evidence of wrongdoing. An enemies list. Republicans say nothing.

— He is ordering the National Guard into American cities governed by Democrats, over the opposition of governors,  while claiming crime is rampant when it is not and ignoring judicial rulings to cease. The Guardsmen are used as stage props. Republicans say nothing.

— He is suing the news media for daring to report the truth and seeking exorbitant sums to settle the suits as a way of silencing the press. Republicans say nothing.

— He is demanding payments from colleges for admission policies and courses which recognize the wide spectrum of people living in this country, as well as its history. Republicans say nothing.

— He is asking the Justice Department, which he has seeded with sycophants and lackeys and inexperienced lawyers, to pay him $230 million restitution for being the subject of several investigations and indictments, which ceased when he became president. Republicans say nothing.

— He has made enemies of America’s traditional allies, such as NATO, Canada and Mexico, through insults and accusations, while cozying up to Vladimir Putin of Russia and other authoritarian leaders. Republicans say nothing.

— He has filled his cabinet with the worst collection of incompetent, publicity seeking misfits in the history of the country. Planes are colliding; people are getting measles again. Republicans say nothing.

— He has played games with tariffs, imposing and threatening huge ones against various countries, disrupting trade, raising the price on imported goods, increasing supermarket shopping costs and causing hardship to farmers already hurting because of the kidnapping of their workers and undoubtedly resulting in profits to family and close associates who know ahead of time when he’s going to change his mind on a tariff and cause some stock to soar or sink because of his illegal market manipulation. Republicans say nothing.

— He pardoned the January 6 rioters, who lay waste to the nation’s Capitol over his false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Republicans say nothing.

— He has hawked watches, sneakers, bitcoin and coins with his name on it, held invitation-only dinners for ultra-wealthy influence seekers and accepted a jet from Qatar, which will cost a fortune to refurbish to use as president and as his personal aircraft in civilian life, all in violation of the law forbidding the office holder from profiting off the presidency. Republicans say nothing.

— He is talking about having a coin minted with his image on it (illegal) and maybe building a triumphal arch honoring him in Washington, D.C. Republicans say nothing.

— He acknowledged the No Kings Day demonstrations, as more than 7 million Americans took to the streets for peaceful protest against all of the above, with a social media post using an AI-generated video showing him as a royal ruler flying over the demonstrators and defecating on them. I repeat: Defecating on them. American citizens. Mikey Johnson called it “satire.” Other Republicans say nothing.

— He plays golf virtually every weekend, displays no working knowledge of math, science, history or how government works, lacks empathy, can’t remember who’s the leader of which country, is unable to give a speech without descending into disconnected sentences of self-glorification and lies about virtually everything, including being shot. Republicans say nothing.

   OK, that’s it. I’m exhausted and that’s only off the top of my head without doing any research.

   Here’s the point: There are elections coming up very soon for state, county, town  and city officials across the country. I have been an independent voter my entire adult life. I voted for whomever I thought was the best candidate for the job. The last few years, my decisions have been simplified. I simply vote for the Democrat. Or, put another way, I never vote for the Republican.

      They have sat by, mostly silently, while this man has laid a wrecking ball to our nation. To our ideals. To our reputation. To our heritage. To our sense of community. To our self-respect.

   Whether it be out of fear or pure complicity, at this point it doesn’t matter anymore. Their silence defines them. They are him.

   I will vote for and/or publicly commend the first local Republican official whom I am aware of speaking critically of him publicly. But it’s been 10 years and I’m still waiting. And I’m not holding my breath.

    Republicans need not say anything.

By Bob Gaydos

 It’s all about connecting the dots. That’s what I eventually figured out early in my 23 years of writing daily editorials for The Times Herald-Record in Middletown, N.Y. Six times a week with a break on Saturday. What’s the issue, who’s involved, how does it affect readers and what, if anything, can they do about it. After a while, it became second nature.

     Long retired and, unfortunately, writing about two Trump administrations on my own deadlines, connecting the dots has been challenging. It’s more like following the ball in a pinball machine. Haphazard, slambang, unpredictable, without the fun. All followed by more of the same.

     But I think I’m starting to see some dots.

     Let’s start with Laura Loomer, Trump’s favorite and most avid crackpot fan. Responding to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s announcement that Qatar will be allowed to operate an Air Force Base in Idaho, Loomer said, “There isn’t a single Trump supporter who supports allowing Qatar to have a military base on U.S. soil. I don’t know who told President Trump this was a good idea, but it has made people not want to vote. … No foreign country should have a military base on US soil. Especially Islamic countries. … I don’t think I’ll be voting in 2026.” Loomer had previously disagreed with Trump’s accepting a $400 million airplane from Qatar as a gift.

       Next dot, Tucker Carlson. Trump’s favorite Fox News host, now an independent podcaster, took issue with comments made by Attorney General Pam Bondi following the killing of Charlie Kirk, a MAGA hero. In the aftermath of Kirk’s killing, there was a flurry of commentary about him, much favorable (from MAGAs), but also a considerable amount that was critical of him. Bondi threatened that the Justice Department would “target” the critical ones, describing it as “hate speech.”

     Carlson, probably recognizing that his entire career depends on freedom of speech, said, “You hope that a year from now, the turmoil we’re seeing in the aftermath of [Kirk’s] murder won’t be leveraged to bring hate speech laws to this country. And trust me, if it is, if that does happen, there is never a more justified moment for civil disobedience than that, ever. Because if they can tell you what to say, they’re telling you what to think … There is nothing they can’t do to you because they don’t consider you human.”

        Dot number three (and probably the most unexpected), Marjorie Taylor Greene. The Republican congresswoman, part of an outspoken group that has driven a couple of speakers out of their jobs in the House of Representatives for not being loyal enough to Trump, has taken sharp issue with Trump, Bondi and House Speaker Mike Johnson over their refusal to release the Jeffrey Epstein files to Congress. Greene has gone so far as to volunteer to read any list of perpetrators’ names provided by Epstein victims on the floor of the House, since the law protects members of Congress from legal action for any comments made on the floor of Congress during debate.

       Greene also has criticized Johnson for keeping the House in recess while the government is shut down and refusing to swear in a newly elected congresswoman from Arizona, who would be the deciding vote requiring release of the Epstein files to Congress. Discarding the Republican talking points that the shutdown is the fault of Democrats, Greene also points to the fact that the budget presented by Republicans will cause millions of Americans to lose their health insurance and sharply raise the insurance rates for millions of others, including, as she points out, her own children.

      More dots: Trump mysteriously went to the Walter Reed Medical Center for his “annual“ check up, even though he had one In April, but no detailed report on his health was released. Just the usual, he’s OK, while rumors persist that he’s not and his daily public utterances are a word salad of self-praise and misinformation and obvious declining mental acuity. Other Republicans in the House, hearing complaints from their districts about losing health insurance, are privately grumbling over Johnson’s refusal to negotiate with Democrats on a budget. And Johnson, going straight from the Republican playbook, has taken to describing the coming No Kings protest as a “hate America rally.”

    Fear, panic, over-reaching and ignoring your supporters just to feather your nest and protect your own hide. The Trump playbook, but very poorly done. It was not a good week for Trump or MAGA. What would make it even worse, dear readers, would be for the No Kings protest to be the biggest pro-America rally ever.

    Dots all for now.

Missing in action

By Bob Gaydos
Where in the world

is Donald Trump?

Up in his bedroom

texting on his rump?

The government’s come

to a grinding halt.

Republicans, though in charge,

say the Dems are at fault.

Not that it matters.

The House has gone home.

No one can vote,

not even by remote.

But Trump has been missing

since the generals’

silent dissing.

Embarrassed? Enraged?

Or merely incontinent?

Doesn’t matter. We can handle the news.

Of that, I feel confident.

Is he ailing? Is he failing?

Is he simply off his feed?

Is he prepping his notes

for the next shutdown dance?

Or should we get ready

for President Vance?

Oh, where in the world

is Donald Trump?

If he’s golfing on Epstein’s Island,

I’ll feel like a chump.

By Bob Gaydos

The nation’s top military leaders listening to a pep talk from Pete Hegseth.

   A famous political leader once said, “Problems start from the top and they have to get solved from the top …”

   I tend to agree. Actions taken or not taken by those at the top, in my experience, often have a profound effect on situations. In fact, four recent, seemingly unrelated situations illustrate that theory perfectly.

     First, we have the command performance of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth before 800 of the nation’s top military leaders at Quantico Marine Corps Base in Virginia. Hegseth summoned generals and admirals from around the globe at a cost of millions of dollars and untold security risk to subject them to the most insulting, embarrassing lecture on leadership. He complained about “fat generals,“ insulted women in the military and told the brass they could start beating up recruits again. He inflicted a war ethic on those who know war all too well and who also understand the wisdom of quiet strength.

    The commander-in-chief, never one to miss what he apparently thought was a public rally, decided to show up and told the generals to train their troops in America’s cities to fight “the enemy within.“ Both men, although clearly looking for applause, were greeted with silence before, during and after their addresses, to the immense credit of the assembled military leaders of this nation.

   At the same time this was happening, the federal government was rushing to a shutdown because Congress has yet to pass a new budget. In fact, instead of meeting with congressional leaders, Trump was busy delivering his usual rambling “speech“ at the generals and admirals. Despite having control of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government,  congressional Republicans have not been able to deliver a budget on time because they can’t get enough votes. They blame Democrats. Democrats say they would be happy to sign a budget bill, so long as it did not remove medical insurance coverage for millions of Americans. Which it does.

   Complicating the budget problem is situation number three. House Republicans were actually still on vacation. That’s because Speaker Mike Johnson, who is clearly lacking any modicum of self-respect, is seeking to delay as long as possible the swearing in of the newest member of Congress, Adelita Grijalva, Democrat of Arizona. She would be the deciding vote on the passage of a bill requiring the Justice Department to release the full Epstein files. Interestingly, the votes are apparently there in the Republican Congress for release of the Epstein files, but not to pass a budget.

   The fourth problem situation was the Ryder Cup golf tournament at Bethpage, Long Island, which was more like a drunken beach party. The match pitting a team of American golfers against a European team, was marred by rowdy, drunken American fans, hurling insults, water bottles and beer cans at the European team and in general behaving like a bunch of drunken hoodlums. Not what one would expect at a major golf tournament. It was also embarrassing for the American team and, indeed, another reason for Europeans to lose respect for this country. Europe won the match, by the way.

    So let’s start from the top. 1. Trump appointed Hegseth, a Fox News personality with a drinking problem, to head the Defense Department, a job for which he is criminally unqualified. 2. Trump also refuses to negotiate a budget deal with Democrats on the budget because he is not capable of understanding political negotiations. It’s too difficult. For him it’s always warfare and he doesn’t care about the casualties. 3. Trump clearly doesn’t want the Epstein files released because his name is all over them and Johnson is totally in his pocket. 4. Trump, perhaps the most famous golfer in the country, has given a large segment of the population permission to behave like ignorant buffoons and worse in public via his own language in public, including name-calling political rivals and encouraging an attack on the U.S. Capitol and then pardoning those responsible for the attack. And he has provided the example to followers that it is acceptable to publicly insult allies, be it Team Europe or members of NATO and indeed the entire United Nations. There is no friendly competition, only us versus them and they are the bad guys.

    So there it is. If you haven’t guessed yet, Trump is the famous politician who uttered that quote at the top. These problems all started from the top. They need to be solved, from the top.

    Prove me wrong.

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.