'Mad Man Moon'

After returning from China at the end of last week, POTUS is now indulging in his third consecutive day of ‘Executive Time’.

Our geriatric, drug-addicted POTUS will indulge in posting AI-generated memes and cartoonish images of himself as a virile Commander-in-Chief consorting with muscular aliens (I’m not making this up) before finally surfacing at 4:30pm for a ‘Healthcare Affordability Event’.

Of course, there is no actual GOP plan for healthcare and the coverage I personally have received for the last 15 years through the ACA expires in 5 weeks. After that, like millions of Americans, I will head into uncertainty and skyrocketing health insurance costs while Trump rakes in billions by exploiting the office of the presidency for his own financial gain.

Trump’s trip to China was President Xi summoning him like an employee, and not only telling him the US was no longer to protect Taiwan and sell them arms - he literally fed him talking points that Donald was to later deliver on Fox News.

It was as low as an American president has sunk on the world stage, mirroring the time Trump groveled before Putin in Helsinki during his first term. Both of those dictatorial leaders are aware of Trump’s long history of sexual predation; President Xi certainly used POTUS’s desire to distract from the Epstein files to get over on the United States.

We are paying a huge price for Trump’s loathsome past, his criminality, his bottomless greed and ignorance. The only success DJT ever points to diplomatically are his own relationships with these dictators because they make sure to promise him that he will personally benefit financially.

This is not governance, it is punitive incompetence and abject corruption.

The Trump administration bombed a school in the opening hours of his ill-conceived and illegal war with Iran in early March.

It is now the third week of May and the Pentagon still won’t take the blame for the lethal mistake that killed 175 children. That is not accountability nor is it our nation acting honorably, as we have the right to expect. It is as far from sober and moral leadership as we have known in our lifetimes.

It is, in essence, exactly what it was designed to be when Pete Hegseth was appointed to the position he was woefully unqualified for - and subsequently fired and demoted all of the career military brass who would stand in the way of what his broken personality desired.

Hegseth summarily purged the upper echelons of the Pentagon of the character and experience that made our military so professional and competent.

He did this to create the sort of Christofascist killing machine he pines for with his goofy, toxically masculine rhetoric and endless physical training videos with our troops. Pilsner Pete stands like a caricature of a smarmy frat boy overdosing on creatine and his first taste of hazing vulnerable pledges. One of those guys who spends his entire workout looking at himself in the gym mirror and uses terms like ‘jacked’ un-ironically.

In summation, he’s a complete tool.

Our Secretary of War gets off on the worst parts of military culture, and masculinity in general, whilst eschewing the very attributes that lead to real manhood: responsibility, ethics, a conscious awareness of the horrors of war and a desire for restraint and compassion over a lust for blood. Having Pete lead our military is one of the biggest indicators of America’s retreat from its responsibilities on the world stage and its disregard for global well being.

He is doing exactly what anyone who knew him in his years as an alcoholic sexual predator at Fox News would expect him to given the awesome powers of his appointment as Secretary of Defense.

Ending service members careers, mindlessly killing without any sense of accountability or remorse, and following the orders of a clueless madman and a consortium of reactionary Christian pastors who prey on the maladjusted minds of stunted men like Hegseth.

Our very own Rambo-wannabe is living proof of the sort of mediocrity Trump has always sought it to accomplish his true goal: breaking things. Donald has a sixth sense when it comes to finding the folks that will have absolutely no qualms helping him accomplish his twisted goals.

One of Pocket Square Pete’s first actions was to dismantle the office set up to prevent civilian deaths, established by his predecessor, former Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin; a man who is everything Pete is not, and whose kind we sadly may not see again in service of our nation while Trump is in charge.

The Civilian Harm Mitigation Response Office (CMRH) was gutted of dozens of positions designed to prevent the sort of collateral damage this administration celebrates.

The Trump regime not only does not want an effective CMRH, they want to use their mindless acts of violence to punctuate their sophomoric memes and barbaric saber rattling. This is not to say there is dishonor among the rank and file service members, but the upper echelons of our military have been going along with what history will come to record as an awful and ignoble moment.

We are only a year and a half into Trump’s second term and he has ordered bombing in seven countries while starting major military ‘excursions’ in two without the consent of Congress, or the blessing of the American people. POTUS is building a war machine to benefit his own business interests - and innocent people are suffering and dying.

Which, given the Trump I knew in my years on television production, will only please him further. He is a very unwell and demented man, and the same family that failed to protect the world from such a bad seed is now profiting from his reckless military misadventures - most prominently his two eldest sons.

They know that the more wars their old man starts while in office, the longer they will profit from all the businesses they are starting that are now receiving U.S. Defense Department contracts.

If you don’t think Cuba is next on this list, you’re not paying attention: they are already laying the groundwork.

Look for a preemptive attack on the communist Caribbean island in the near future -under the guise of preventing them from seeking weapons that could harm the United States, most probably drones.

Trump has also dispatched the odious Louisiana Governor, Jeff Landry, to Greenland this week to insert himself in the Future Greenland Conference in order to sow discord and use the power of the United States to bully an ally, all to assuage Trump’s imperialist interests.

It will also provide further distraction from the Epstein files and give Putin a little cover from the successful assaults by Ukraine on Moscow. All of these things are related; POTUS is essentially a marionette dancing on strings that are being pulled by much more powerful men interested in creating a multipolar world.

The good news is we do not have to accept this insanity.

If Americans truly want to stop Donald Trump, they may be called upon to not only give up certain levels of comfort but to acquaint themselves with the truth - and share it like gospel.

It is not hard to see the motivations of corporate men and women in service of MAGA and its mad king. We must lean into the hope and history of our collective common good. When we come together in service of justice and equanimity we can drive out the darkness.

The danger that Trump poses requires us to move beyond our fear - and closer to love, compassion and empathy. Bravery takes place in the day-to-day actions of the righteous folks willing to stand up and be counted.

To act with kindness over enmity, generosity of spirit over greed and a desire to transcend this bitter and broken moment for the beauty and stillness that comes from an enlightened heart and a focused mind.

We owe it to ourselves and we owe to the world not to fall for the distractions or the forced complacency of despair.

If we want to save this planet from its current chaos and calamity each of us must find ways to do our part in our daily lives.

Every action has consequence and we must always choose aggressive non-violence and awareness. Take these words not as an indictment but as a call to peaceful arms; a return to sanity.

We must rise up like a thunderclap and make our presence known.

There are many who would show us the way, we would do well to listen.

Peace.

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