I hesitatingly use any form of the word “lead” when talking about Donald Trump, because he doesn’t know how to lead. He only likes to say words and watch people jump, or grovel.

As a concerned observer, it looks to me like The Donald has no problem with leading us into another Vietnam. A large contingent of Marines and accompanying hardware are either on their way or already in place near Iran, apparently to do something big and dramatic to Kharg Island.

Pundits and anchors are already murmuring mission creep, which is confusing, because does anyone know what the mission in Iran even is? Is it about nuke development, regime change, maybe an extension of the fallout from October 7, 2023 somehow? Or is it more about one last gargantuan, costly, ill-advised distraction from the Epstein files and an attempt to sabotage the November elections?

Are these Marines so focused on following orders, so mission-driven, that they can’t stop to think for a minute about why they’re doing what they’re about to do? What are they being told? Are they being fed a line about how America is depending on them to be successful, that it’s all for the cause of red, white, and blue and apple pie? Or is more about being manly, talking big, “giving no quarter”?

How can there be anyone left who thinks Donald Trump or anyone in his Cabinet or wider administration is at all capable of rational thinking? And where and how does all this fit in the Project 2025 playbook?

This is starting to have the feel of a Little Big Horn.

Sometimes it seems like the talking heads aren’t zeroing in on the right issues. They harp on procedure, despite Trump putting procedure and protocol and proper channels in the rearview mirror a long time ago.

Everyone is insisting on having an exit strategy and an estimate of duration, re the war in Iran, as if war is characterized by tidiness and some sort of contractual agreement between adversaries (which usually comes at the end, after the carnage and ghastly loss of life).

It seems to me more appropriate questions might include, Why are we doing this? Is there anyone who knows the truth of the matter, Epstein, when it comes to motivation, midterms?

Do they have any concern for the well-being of the people who, most likely needlessly, are being put in harm’s way? Did they have the best intel going in? Could they not foresee, given the history of the region and the voluminous knowledge of Iran that already existed, that this incursion might be fraught with difficulty and serve as a catalyst for more widespread hostilities? Is Congress useful anymore? Does the black rain smell like victory? What role is Benjamin Netanyahu playing in this clusterf*!@? And is Donald Trump really just a doormat on which everyone wipes their feet?

Sorry. Inquiring minds want to know.

He keeps stringing us out. In fact, that’s been his MO for a long time now. He says whatever he thinks he needs to say in order to placate, or get elected, then resumes the agenda the Heritage Foundation wants him to push, throws around a few idle threats, or tries to sell another cosmetic fix like a ballroom, or marble in the Lincoln bathroom.

He’s playing a role, operates without convictions. Currently, he’s speaking out of both sides of his mouth regarding the war in Iran. He claims it’s going well (it’s not) but we may be there for a while, which makes sense if his sole objective is to create another Epstein distraction and chaos ahead of the midterms in November—you know, so there’s a perceived reason why elections couldn’t be held, even though they were able to hold a Presidential Election during the Civil War.

What’s it gonna take, folks? Can our election apparatus survive long enough to shift the balance of power in favor of people with a beating heart and a brain in their skull space? Even if legitimate elections are held, we know that Trump and the rest will cry foul and try to drag us into the weeds. We can’t let him do that anymore.

He’s such an unserious scumbag, incapable of assessing the damage he’s doing or the pain he’s causing. At a bare minimum, we need to show him the door.

Here’s a surprising development: the war with Iran isn’t going very well.

Wow, you could knock me over with a feather! Apparently, more Americans are being put unnecessarily in harm’s way, we’re losing critical radars, and our foreign bases are sustaining heavy damage. And Russia and China are feeding Iran real-time surveillance info re the whereabouts of our military assets.

The countries hosting our bases must be pleased as punch that they’ve become targets.

All in all, it’s been a great week-plus for Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth, J.D. Vance, and the rest of the pretenders who, maybe, are finding out that the real thing is yucky. They’re tired of playing war, still talking tough but wondering how to extricate themselves from the mess they’ve gotten themselves—and the rest of us—into.

What a crew we have at the helm— invoking Armageddon, trying to transform the country into a playground for ultra-rich white people, but having to spend so much time navigating in the bowels of the ship, dealing with pesty, self-inflicted wounds, and issues like war, cost of living and jobs numbers, and moral conundrums like having to shield their boss from bad press over a sexual abuse scandal that isn’t going away.

It all seems to be going south, which means we need to be on the lookout for the next dumb utterance, the next reactive order, the next round of firings, more tightening or loosening of restrictions, the next clash with protesters that turns deadly, the next order for more voting records, or plans to raze or rename the Washington Monument.

In any event, the next indications that the rat is cornered and desperate and ready to lash out in order to save his own ass.

When is Daylight Saving Time gonna go away? Every time the second Sunday in March rolls around, various media parade out their articles describing how it messes with circadian rhythms– how bad the leap forward can be for our bodies, our internal clocks.

These are usually accompanied by pros and cons of either doing away with DST altogether or making it the practice year ‘round.

For what it’s worth, returning to Standard Time year ‘round gets my vote. While gaining the hour in November is pretty nice, we’d just have to find some other marker for changing our smoke detector batteries. And besides, who wants an extra hour of scorching sunshine and ridiculous heat when the temps are hovering at such increasingly inhospitable highs?

Keep in mind that permanent DST means winter sunrises between 8:30 and 9am, depending on where you live. An extra hour of daylight in the summer isn’t the great bonus people make it out out be. Let’s dare to go with the science on this one.