This is Trump's 56th visit to his course in West Palm Beach and 110th golf day in just over 14 months in office, keeping him on track to spend $300 million on golf. read more
Traveling by plane anywhere is bad right now, but in some places, it's worse. read more
The war in Iran will lead to a surge in inflation this year ... read more
An Iranian military spokesperson has mocked US attempts at a ceasefire deal, insisting the US was only negotiating with itself. read more
Outraged Americans are demanding that members of the Trump family face conscription if a comprehensive military draft is enacted during wartime. However, the 19 year old may be exempt from military service due to a medical waiver. read more
Early on, the Egyptian, Saudi, and Jordanian governments pushed the US hard behind the scenes to pressure Israel into embracing UN Security Council Resolution 242 (en.wikipedia.org), adopted unanimously in the wake of the 1967 war. I bumped into one of more than a few messengers emanating across the seas towards DC working on behalf of this effort. This was the 1969-era, with the three aforementioned powers regarding the Syrians and Iraqis as, and I quote, "savages" and "animals." That threesome of nations had some pretty good heft as a bloc in those days. The problem, then as now, lay in Israel's territorial ambitions. The reward for implementing g Resolution 242 was, according to a waverider with whom I spoke, summed up in a single word: "petrochemicals." They weren't kidding.
So here we are now, well over fifty years later, shilling for an expansionist ethnonationalist rogue state and worrying about ... what was that word again? Oh, yes: petrochemicals.
Aside from floating from one ceremonial testimonial to himself to another Potemkin village-style staged event, Trump actually does very little, certainly when it comes to actual work: rollcall.com
Clue: He surely regards the extraordinary amount of time he wastes mired in ridiculous displays of obeisance by glassy-eyed toadies as "work."
If we survive him and there is still a relatively free press running somewhere, historians are going to spend decades puzzling over this one.
And, as usual: No, thank you, MAGAts. No, really, the best you can do is just eff off.
At least the public's perception that Trump's War is an effup of staggering proportion is spreading faster than a similar view took hold when it came to Vietnam.
Perhaps (one hopes) it's getting more difficult to fool more of the people more of the time. Could it have been the commander-in-chief appearing in the middle of the night to croak out his war cry while wearing a cap he happens to be selling that whispered: "Plan? I don't need no steenkin plan."
Everything Trump touches gets ensheetified. It's just the way of things. And this war - he likes to call it a "maneuver" (one he and his kids are - sooprise! - missing out on) - is no different.