Failure of Judgment?

[Editorial]

Did the Secretary of Defense have a serious lapse in judgment in the firing of the Army’s Chief of Staff, Gen. Randy George, weeks into Trump’s War? Trump invaded Iran, and five weeks later, Gen. George was “Shit Canned” for no reason given at the time.

But let us go back in time, just before his firing… Army attack helicopters did an unauthorized fly-by of Kid Rock’s house. Here is what was reported at the time...

Hegseth ousts Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George
CBS News
By Jennifer Jacobs, Eleanor Watson, James LaPorta
April 2, 2026

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has asked Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George to step down and take immediate retirement, sources familiar with the decision told CBS News.

One of the sources said Hegseth wants someone in the role who will implement President Trump and Hegseth's vision for the Army.

Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement that George "will be retiring from his position as the 41st Chief of Staff of the Army effective immediately. The Department of War is grateful for General George's decades of service to our nation. We wish him well in his retirement."

A senior Defense Department official told CBS News, "We are grateful for his service, but it was time for a leadership change in the Army."

Just like that—BOOM! With no hints… just the ax, with no replacement waiting in the wings! In the middle of the war. What could the general have done? That hasn’t come out until now, and the dots connect it to the Kid Rock fly-by… the general was all for investigating it against his boss’s wishes.

The Los Angeles Times reported back in April that:

The forced departure of George in the middle of a war created yet another blow to morale inside the Pentagon, where multiple officials expressed dismay over the state of the department’s leadership. Over the last year, Hegseth has fired five sitting members of the joint chiefs of staff, with only two holdovers remaining in their posts.

“Whenever you have a change in leadership, military or otherwise, there is bound to be some churn in information management,” one U.S. official said, granted anonymity to speak candidly. “So what you’re doing, in the middle of a war, as we are taking U.S. casualties, is you’re taking out the general in charge of making sure the right people and equipment are flowing into the Middle East."

Was it the bad news that got him “Shit Canned,” or was it something else? CBS News goes on to report:

The ouster follows Hegseth's X post lifting the suspension of the aircrew that flew by Kid Rock's house in Nashville last weekend. After the Army announced the suspension of the aviators involved and an administrative review, Hegseth overruled the Army, writing on his personal X account, "No punishment. No investigation. Carry on, patriots."

Timing?

But wait, there’s more! Since then…

Before Hegseth fired him, top general was advised to drop Kid Rock probe
Dan Lamothe and Noah Robertson,
The Washington Post
August 26, 2026

Days before the Army's top officer was abruptly fired earlier this year, he was advised by a fellow general now vying to replace him to stop the military's investigation into an unauthorized helicopter flyby of musician Kid Rock's Tennessee estate, three people familiar with the matter said.

Gen. Randy George, whom Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth removed as the Army chief of staff without explanation, felt it was important to follow typical protocol and determine whether any safety regulations had been violated during the March 28 flyby, these people said. Like some others, they spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the episode.

Gen. Chris LaNeve, the Army's No. 2 officer, told George that Hegseth did not want the investigation to proceed, one person said. The two others said that George later confided in colleagues that he seemed troubled by the encounter with LaNeve, who suggested it would be best if the review was scuttled.

The revelation, which has not previously been reported, adds a new layer of understanding to Hegseth's potential motivations for firing George on April 2. Kid Rock, whose legal name is Robert Ritchie, is a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump and avowed critic of many Democratic politicians and causes.

Here we are, right in the middle of Trump’s War, and we are changing leaders—not because of incompetence or a failure of judgment by the general. It was because a MAGA hotshot pilot wanted to impress a friend of Trump’s, Kid Rock, so he did a fly-by. The Army Chief of Staff wanted to pursue the possible violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), but his boss didn’t. His boss put politics ahead of the law and morale. That is why he was fired… he didn’t want special rules for special people. The general was advised to drop the Kid Rock investigation but felt it was important to follow normal protocol, and for that, he got fired!

Think about this: Gen. George was the Army’s senior uniformed officer during the planning and execution of the war in Iran. For that, I believe the Secretary of Defense showed a Failure of Judgment in putting politics before the war effort when he fired him.

I am reminded of “The Want of a Nail” by Todd Rundgren:

… For the want of a nail (the world was lost)
For the want of a nail, oh yeah (the world was lost)
For the want of a nail (the world was lost)
For the want of a nail (the world was lost)

[/Editorial]

What I Read Into This

There is an article in the Huff Post over this photo.

First lady Melania Trump, left, and President Donald Trump arrive for a Fostering the Future event
in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Aug. 20, 2026.
Bloomberg via Getty Images

But to me what this looks like is a battle of wills. This looks like abuse to me. It looks to me as if he is squeezing her hand until it hurts. Dominance, I am the boss, I am the president.

Others see it differently, the Huff Post article says,

Abbie Maroño, a behavioral scientist, told HuffPost that the couple entering the Rose Garden gave off a “controlled, coordinated display of unity.”

“Their interaction is restrained rather than overtly affectionate, but they are presenting themselves very clearly as a pair,” she said.

But is it forced?

Is Crossdressing Going the Way of the Dinosaur?

[Editorial]

Is it only the boomers who crossdress?

Think about it: support groups for crossdressers are mainly seniors. Conferences… seniors. Boomers. Where are the other generations? The alphabet generations?

Well, they are in queer groups. Huh? Yeah, you see, there is a lot less stigma attached to crossdressing, so why do they need their own support groups? They are out there with their own generation.

So, will our support groups turn up inside LTC centers?

Senior Center’s Monday Meetings:

The Knitting Circle

Setback

The Crossdresser Club

Bingo

Photography Club

Is this our fate?

Since I earned my “senior” badge by officially playing Bingo at a senior center, I think I qualify to wonder if we will truly see ourselves in “old folks’ homes”… Or will we just have another closet?

[/Editorial]

Duh!

[Editorial]

It’s the economy, stupid!

That was the gist of the 2024 election. The economy was the #1 issue, according to voters.

Then he started all his tariffs in 2025.

Then he started a war with Iran that choked off oil supplies and used up all the bombs and rockets.

Now he has added a 50% tariff on our number-one trading partner.

Meanwhile, they can’t feed the troops.

They hide the true material losses.

Warships are breaking down and need to be towed.

The guy is a total basket case! And still, his MAGA-loyal followers worship at his feet.

[/Editorial]

They’re Not Pawns

[Editorial]

Before I retired, I ran an electronic test department. At its peak, I managed 24 techs, including an Air Force master tech. Every once in a while, he would vanish for a month or two. So I had to hire a “Rent-A-Tech,” and we paid the difference in salaries.

When he came back in the middle of winter with a tan, all he said was, “There was a lot of sand.” But in the news, we knew that the military had sent troops to the Afghanistan area.

The thing is, he was a vital person on my team. His loss was felt!

It cost the company to hire a temp!

The company covered the difference in salaries, but many businesses do not, so it is a hardship on the families!

We didn’t mind because he was being used for what he signed up for, but… picking up trash in Washington, D.C., is wrong. Trump doesn’t care. He is using the Guard as pawns in a chess match. He doesn’t care about the hardships he is causing.

Now he is pissed off about a report that showed that the National Guard is not making any difference, and Trump is pissed. And, true to form, he is attacking the media.

Trump threatens lawsuit against nonprofit that questioned whether National Guard plan lessened crime

AP News

By  GARY FIELDS

August 21, 2026

President Donald Trump is threatening to sue a left-leaning think tank unless it retracts a report that said his National Guard deployments to various cities did not reduce crime as he said.

The letter gave the Washington, D.C.-based Center for American Progress until the end of business Friday to issue the retraction or face a $5 billion lawsuit. The center declined.

The nonprofit’s president and chief executive, Neera Tanden, said in a statement that the lawsuit “is a transparent attempt to silence us. We will neither cower nor bend in the face of it.”

The report, published July 13, criticized the administration for taking credit for a historic drop in violent crime at a time when that decline was already underway. The analysis concluded that Trump’s deployment of the National Guard “had no measurable effect on violent crime trends.”

In typical Trump fashion……. ATTACK!

Before, he used to short his subs on construction jobs. Now he has the full weight of the U.S. government behind him. The FCC is attacking Disney/ABC. The Defense Department went after Stars and Stripes for publishing the article about the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln. The First Amendment be damned! When asked about the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln the Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the reports were "fake news" and the conditions "completely misrepresented," and insisted the Pentagon makes sure "every ship, every crew, every captain has everything we can provide them at every single moment." So instead of focusing on fixing the problem he went after the media.

The thing is… these are people’s lives. They signed up to defend the Constitution, not to be used as some political pawns, not as cannon fodder for Trump’s political ambitions and to gather more wealth for the Trump family. 

[/Editorial]

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Updated: 8/26 @ 6AM

I just came across this NPR article: In candid interviews, National Guard members speak out about D.C. deployment and they write,

Thousands of armed National Guard members have been patrolling Washington, D.C., for more than a year now. But central voices have been missing from the public discourse around that deployment, and that's the Guard members themselves. NPR's Kat Lonsdorf has been speaking with some of them, and they say they're worried that this is a new norm of armed troops patrolling American cities. Kat's with me now. Good morning.

[...]

FADEL: So what did they tell you?

LONSDORF: Well, all three spoke really bluntly about how they didn't buy the justification for the deployment by this administration, which, remember, came after President Trump declared a crime emergency despite a 30-year low in violent crime in the city. They all said that reasoning was confusing to them in the beginning but even more so now, as the deployment has been extended for several years.

One Guard member said, quote, "it feels like the Guard is being exploited, being used for political narratives by the administration." Another told me that he hopes there will be some kind of official reckoning someday about why the Guard is here and whether it was worth it. And another Guard member told me that it, quote, "embarrasses" him to be involved in any way with the deployment.

They feel the same way I wrote... that they are nothing but pawns!

"Lock 'em up"

And throw away the key, the is the Republican philosophy. They're "Tough On Crime" however it doesn't work!

Scotland was the 'murder capital of Europe'. Then it started treating violence like a disease

BBC News

29 June 2026

Eve Livingston

In the early 2000s you were three times more likely to be assaulted in Scotland than in the US. But when the Scottish authorities started looking at violent crime as a public health problem, levels plummeted and the country now ranks among some of the safest in the world.

It was no ordinary day in court. There was no jury, no witnesses or defendants at Glasgow Sheriff Court on 24 October 2008. Instead, in front of the judge, who was dressed in full regalia, were 85 rival gang members from the east end of Glasgow, Scotland's biggest city.

For decades, the area had been plagued by territorial youth gangs, organised crime and fights over drugs and weapons, with knife crime an almost daily occurrence.

Despite their ongoing feuds, the assembled gang members fell silent as they were addressed in turn by a range of speakers. A mother described seeing her son's unrecognisable face after a gang-related machete attack at age 13. An American basketball player recalled losing his brother to gun violence. Doctors and surgeons described brutal lacerations and permanent disfigurements.

The message was clear: the violence has to stop.

But it is not the message that the Republicans push!

In Idaho they are tough on drugs! But it can snare unsuspecting women who get caught in their traps!

How THC tests have landed more than a thousand new mothers onto child abuse registries

CBS Sunday Morning

By Erin Moriarty

August 9, 2026

Giving birth to her fourth child in January of 2021 was life-changing, says Nicole Hamann, but not in the way she ever imagined. While still at the hospital, Hamann was informed that both she and her newborn tested positive for a trace amount of THC, the psychoactive chemical in marijuana. [A urine test is given to mothers, which is followed up by testing the umbilical cord.] "I felt like, all of the sudden, I was a criminal," Hamann said.

"Through all of my pregnancies, I took very good care of myself and my body. Now all of the sudden, I have these people making me feel guilt and shame and fear."

Hamann lives in Idaho, where marijuana is illegal. But a month before giving birth, Hamann, who has no criminal record, says she accidentally ate a pot-laced brownie at a relative's home in Oregon, where marijuana is legal. She says no one was interested in hearing her explanation of why she had THC in her system.

But that was enough to sic the hounds on her!

Child and Family Services began an investigation immediately, because in Idaho (and a number of other states), a single positive test result of THC in a newborn is considered presumptive evidence of child abuse.

"They knocked on my door, and there was an officer standing with them, a police officer," Hamann said.

Here in Connecticut it would have been handled a lot different! It wouldn't have escalated to criminal charges right off the bat!

Take a look at Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire verses Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Texas.

Maine recorded just 100.1 violent crimes per 100,000 residents. New Hampshire recorded 110.1, and Connecticut 136.0. Massachusetts was higher at 314.7, but still below the national rate of 359.1. Now look at the four states we're putting in the “lock ’em up” category; Louisiana recorded 519.8 violent crimes per 100,000 residents. Arkansas recorded 579.4, Tennessee 592.3, and Texas 389.4. Put another way, the violent-crime rate in Tennessee was almost six times the rate in Maine. Arkansas was nearly six times Maine's rate. Louisiana's rate was more than five times Maine's.

Now just look at Texas, they had a violent-crime rate almost four times that of Maine and more than three times that of Connecticut.

But perhaps the most important numbers aren't the violent-crime rates. They're the incarceration rates.

The Prison Policy Initiative's 2024 state data show an incarceration rate of 272 per 100,000 residents in Maine, 278 in New Hampshire, 326 in Connecticut, and 241 in Massachusetts.

Compare that with 1,067 in Louisiana, 912 in Arkansas, 817 in Tennessee, and 751 in Texas.

There it is.

The states in our “lock ’em up” group are incarcerating people at dramatically higher rates than the four New England states.

And yet they are not safer. In fact, three of the four, Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee, have violent-crime rates substantially higher than the national average. Texas is also above the national average. Meanwhile, Maine, New Hampshire and Connecticut have among the lowest violent-crime rates in the country. Massachusetts is below the national average as well.

But when the Republican cry "We are tough on crime, unlike those pansy liberals!" Their MAGA crowd all cheer on.

It Has Changed.

The other day I pulled in to the Stop & Shop, and when I came out, I looked around my car... BMWs, Mercedes, Escalades, and Porsches. Yeah, I saw them all before, but they seem to have taken over the lot.

Wicked Local writes... in Two 'quirky' Massachusetts town are some of the best East Coast trips...

Provincetown, Massachusetts

World Atlas named Provincetown, also known as P-Town, as one of the quirkiest and most fun towns to visit on the East Coast because of how much it offers its visitors.

"Victorian buildings house working art galleries beside bookstores, bakeries, and drag performance venues, which gives the street a mix few other New England downtowns can match," World Atlas said.

Yes, they are all still there, but the quaint little stores are disappearing, and the quaint little restaurants are disappearing. They are going upscale! The weathered storefronts are being replaced by steel and glass. The one- and two-story buildings that have been there for centuries are now being turned into three-story, million-dollar condos. The old Bohemian atmosphere is disappearing, replaced by conspicuous consumption. It's turning into Yuppieville!

I know someone who worked there for well over a dozen years, but not anymore; he cannot find a place to stay. It was gay heaven for us, but now it is GAY INC. heaven. You see the BLING they're wearing. It reminds me of... of... of... Fire Island on Long Island, NY.

The Truth.

Under our Constitution… you, the military are answerable to us. The voters.

And we demand that our congressional representatives get answers from the administration to the following questions:

1. How much damage was done to the U.S. military bases in the Middle East?
2. Are the reports true that some of these bases are unusable?
3. Was the damage the cause of the resupply problems with the USS Abraham Lincoln?

Then there are questions about who was fired or removed from positions within the U.S. intelligence establishment — including the CIA, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the NSA, and parts of military intelligence:

4. Did these changes affect the intelligence used in the bombing of the school in Iran?
5. Did these changes affect the planning to protect our military bases in the region?
6. Did these changes affect the deployment of ships to rotate in and out of the Middle East?
7. Did these changes affect logistics and resupply for the Middle East combat zone?

I think we need to find out whether all of this was the result of incompetence, a political agenda, or both.

They Don’t Come Back!

One thing that we have learned from Trump’s “Tariff Yo-Yo” is that they don’t come back! Businesses find other suppliers.

Trump accuses Canada of wanting ‘benefits of being a State, without being one’ amid trade war

The Hill

by Tara Suter

08/23/26

President Trump on Sunday claimed that Canada desires the “benefits of being a state, without being one” amid trade tensions between the U.S. and its northern neighbor.

“Canada wants the benefits of being a State, without being one!!! They have also charged our great farmers, for many years, massive amounts of Tariffs. No more!!!” the president said in an early morning Truth Social post.

On Saturday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said that his country would implement retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. starting on Sep. 8, responding to the Trump administration’s new 50 percent tariffs, which just went into effect.

During a press conference, Carney said that Canada would “match Washington’s new tariffs dollar for dollar in order to protect Canadian workers, farmers, families and businesses.”

But it is much more than the tariffs… once businesses find another supplier, they don’t come back! Trump isn’t just shooting himself in the foot; he is doing it to the whole nation! The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) writes:

We use the 2018-2019 U.S. trade war to examine how supply chains adjustments to a tariff cost shock affect imports and exports. Using confidential firm-trade linked data, we show that the decline in imports of tariffed goods was driven by discontinuations of U.S. buyer–foreign supplier relationships, reduced formation of new relationships, and exits by U.S. firms from import markets altogether. However, tariffed products where imports were concentrated in fewer suppliers had a smaller decline in import growth. We then construct measures of export exposure to import tariffs by linking tariffs paid by importing firms to their exported products. We find that the most exposed products had lower exports in 2018-2019, with most of the impact occurring in 2019.

A tariff doesn't necessarily cause a business to bring production home. It can cause the business to find a different foreign supplier. And once the new supply chain is established, lowering the tariff doesn't necessarily undo that decision.

They don’t come back! Think about it. If you are having problems with Supplier A and now you are doing business with Supplier B… would you go back to Supplier A?

Trump is doing what Trump does best... wreck things. What a loser... but sadly he is the head of our country.

[/Editorial]