This past News Year’s Eve, someone in the town across the river from us decided to celebrate with fireworks. I’m not sure if they were big-time fireworks, the kind people would have to drive out of state to find, or if they were leftovers from July 4th and purchased at one of the pop-up stands that show up in shuttered K-Mart parking lots– cheap explosives, mostly relatively mild and harmless, with adult supervision.
As the story goes, these folks had their fun setting off various incendiary devices, but decided to throw the spent pieces into the trash. In the house. These spent fireworks were apparently still very hot. They started the trash on fire, which spread to the rest of the house, burning it beyond salvageability. To add insult to injury, the fire was so hot and out of control long enough that it spread to the beautifully remodeled home next door and rendered it uninhabitable.
It seems someone was angling for a Darwin Award, though there were no injuries. At this point, all that remains is a pile of rubble sitting next to a partially burned-out, empty dwelling.
We seem to have reached the point when yesterday often turns out to be a relative cakewalk compared to today. Each new day, instead of providing a bit of respite from the torrid pace, seems to present compounded problems, thornier issues, and more reminders that we’re living in a nightmare, the product of horrendous leadership, poor decisions, and increasingly dire prospects.
From the perspective of anyone with a moral compass, the Trump administration is the worst thing to happen to this country in a very long time, maybe ever. And now, as if to remind us all just how terrible they can be, we are involved in “targeted military operations,” aka a war, with Iran.
Pete Hegseth, the self-named Secretary of War who was plucked from the proving grounds of Weekend Fox and Friends, touted the efficiency and brute force of the American and Israeli air attacks, bragging about the destruction and how things would probably be wrapped up in a few days. Meanwhile, people at home were concerned about a plan, a timeframe, and a reason for starting this assault in the first place.
Rationales have been plentiful, if not underwhelming and unsatisfying. And, to be fair, how does anyone know how long hostilities will last, once the cat is out of the bag? War isn’t a thing that neatly ends when the buzzer sounds at the end of the 4th quarter.
What’s happened since last weekend is that the fire has spread, as anyone with any knowledge of the region would expect it to do. We spent so much time telegraphing our intentions, between building up our naval presence and Trump being his usual stupidly bombastic self, that Iran had time to prepare for a counterattack which, as it turns out, would mean returning fire and going after American interests in several surrounding countries.
To top it all off, there is reason to believe that Trump and his stellar supporting cast have no intention of stopping this anytime soon. This unnecessary war kills three birds with one stone, pardon the expression. In Trump’s mind, trying to hold elections with a war going on just isn’t something that can happen. It’s great, ongoing cover and distraction from the Epstein files. In addition, everyone knows Iran was involved in election hijinks in 2020 and 2024, so precautions must be taken to “safeguard the election process” to ensure such involvement doesn’t happen again…
We’re gonna need one helluva fire department.
3 Cents' 