where to go this summer? I need outttt of FL for a few days :
• Jackson hole, WY / Yellowstone
• Sedona / Scottsdale or Santa Fe
• Cooperstown / upstate NY
@GetSpectrum How is it blacked out when using your app? Ridiculous BS. My dad's using a box at my house but using the app at my camp cant be watched either with your app or the TNT app. What is the reason. Thats messed up.
I DON'T TRUST TRUMP ON IRAN
I voted for Trump three times, but I don’t trust him any farther than I can throw him.
And I don’t trust him on this war, and I fear that someone like Trump is exactly why the Constitution empowers only the Congress – the most democratic branch of government – to declare war.
The framers of our Republic knew the long history of monarchs starting wars which others would have to fight in and pay for, and of the great suffering and sorrow that resulted, and so they purposely denied the president the power to initiate hostilities.
And yet that is exactly what Trump has done, and what the Congress has allowed him to do.
Don’t get me wrong, I hate Iran. Iran has been killing Americans all of my adult life. Iran has it coming.
But each unfolding day of this war makes it seem more and more like we were sold a bill of goods, and that we are being lied to about what has been done thus far and what is planned for the future.
And so frayed is the relationship of trust between the people and the president that many begin to fear that Trump has some secret plan to start a larger and sustained regional or global conflict. It’s like the White House project, which he first said was a minor renovation of the East Wing, and then a $200 million ballroom project, and then a massive $400 million, 90,000 square foot monstrosity, the plans for which were premade – and lied about – from the very beginning.
Further, Trump’s statements about the war have been conflicting, vacillating, and disingenuous. He has boasted of our destruction of Iran’s offensive capabilities at the same time it is able to put missiles and drones on target at our installations and among our allies across the Middle East. Five weeks into our supposed decimation of its air defenses it was able to take down two of our aircraft and significantly damage a third, all in one day.
His flip-flopping on the Strait of Hormuz has earned the derision of our allies and the scorn of our enemy, and his issuing and extending and waiving and reissuing of threats relative to the strait are a textbook example of how not to negotiate – or parent, for that matter.
And a month into the war, he finally spoke to the nation, and said virtually nothing. And what he did say you don’t know if you can believe. While promising the war would be done in the “next two or three weeks,” he has a third aircraft carrier battle group on the way and is loading soldiers onto planes at Fort Bragg as a second Marine Expeditionary Unit nears the Middle East. His words say he wants a quick peace, but his actions say he wants a ground war.
Against a nation of 92 million people. By comparison, Germany had 70 million when it started World War II. There are 180,000 of the well-trained and well-equipped Revolutionary Guards, and about a million in the Iranian army and reserve. Granted, they are poorly trained and poorly armed, but when a man is fighting to defend his homeland, you’re a fool to write him off.
And right in the middle of all this, the least-qualified Secretary of Defense in our history decided to fire the much-admired highest ranking general in the Army and the general in charge of planning for the future – two men with 70 years of service, eight Bronze Stars and two Purple Hearts between them. It makes you wonder why they had to get cashiered right now, what it is they weren’t willing to go along with.
The president said we went after Iran to: Defeat its navy in order to keep the Strait of Hormuz open; take out its offensive missile and drone capability; break up its network of surrogate terrorist militias; and assure it never has a nuclear weapon. These are worthy objectives, none of which have been achieved – the president’s boasts to the contrary notwithstanding. We decimated Iran’s top leadership with no apparent negative impact on the nation’s ability to fight or oppress its people. Our hopes of toppling the cultish Islamic Republic, with some sort of popular uprising, have been unattained.
And repeated Trump assertions of progress with negotiations end up looking more like stock manipulation than honest reports. Pakistan hasn’t been able to be an effective intermediary and Qatar has recently refused to try. Repeated presidential references to some moderate Iranian leader who has emerged and who is eager for a peace deal seem false. And any thought of making peace with the new ayatollah seems unlikely – given that we have killed his father, wife and daughter.
And there is the issue of the role of Israel. Did it, as Marco Rubio said, force our hand by deciding to attack? Was this our idea or was it Israel’s idea? Is Trump manipulating Netanyahu, or is Netanyahu manipulating Trump? Did we really have a plan going into this war, or is it being made up as we go?
And finally, why the secrecy from the Department of Defense? Since the Civil War, the American press has reported from the side of the American warrior. Journalists have been imbedded since Bull Run, and more than 500 reporters came ashore on D-Day. Yet the Pentagon is off limits to reporters and we have had no with-the-troops journalism arising from these five weeks of action. Great feats have been achieved that we know nothing about, as well as significant losses – to include something like 350 Americans who have thus far been wounded in this conflict.
To sum it all up, we don’t know why this war was started, we don’t know how it’s going, and we don’t know what is planned for its future. And all of those things are true because of conflicting, confused or dishonest statements by the president. That is not the way it’s supposed to be in a free country or in the modern world.
And that should scare the hell out of everybody.
Like I said, I voted for Trump three times, but given the way this war has been handled, I don’t trust him any farther than I can throw him.
I need new metal for my ears.
Just name me bands you’re listening to, even if they’re obvious and I’m likely already onto them. It’s worth the risk. 😂
👇
The return of #DSmithThings tonight and Friday as former Amerk favorite and Sabres legendary forward Dalton Smith returns to town with the Hershey Bears.
hmmm... no entries on @hockeyfights between Dalton Smith and Jagger Joshua.
Over the course of a lifetime, we face only a few moments where the decisions we make and the actions we take will shape our history for years to come. This is one of them.