WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE???? The naked cruelty and glee they exhibit is utterly appalling, especially since they're all praying and waving their bibles. The only thing that would ever make me believe in a god was if they all went directly to hell. Right now.
And evidently a third of this country thinks this is just fine. I read years ago that third of a population would kill another third of that population, while the remaining third watched. Are we at that point?
We, too, are drowning, “In death and destruction all day long”. The death of truth…of compassion and judgement born of experience. We are drowning in corruption, in fear, and in malfeasance. Joy has died, justice is drowning under the weight of oligarchic and tyrannical pressure to please Trump. Something in me is dying and drowning along with it as I look at the path forward and realize, with “shock and awe” that Congress could not even pass the War Powers Act to restrain our own brutal regime. I see a Republican Party that operates as a zombie party, and know that they, too, are dying and drowning all day and every day. They are like a football team that allows its competitor to carry the ball over the finish line with no defense. They’re just place holders.
Nobody is mourning the loss of the Iranian Ayatollah, but somehow, somewhere, decency, which has been standing at the bus stop of opportunity, should be allowed to ride along with our military goals. And along with our military goals, diplomacy, no matter how difficult, should have a seat, too. After all, it was Trump who scuttled the Iranian nuclear deal that Obama had crafted. But Trump is determined to make himself a war hero. The trouble is, he won’t be getting the coveted Nobel Peace Prize for starting this war. You can’t wage war and then demand a prize for peace. Even I know that.
I had a weird dream last night that my daughter had given me a trip on a private chartered jet owned by Amazon. It had no seats…only a strange sort of table with rolling work chairs inside. There was nowhere to hold on when the plane took off…no seats or seatbelts to secure us. As we started to ascend, my daughter said, “Mom, everything you ever said about Amazon is true”, implying that I had complained about the company’s performance. Indeed, as we looked out the window of the plane as it took off, I hoped and prayed that the propellers of the plane would work and tried to keep myself anchored to the floor by holding onto the sliding desk in front of me. There was nothing to anchor me in the dream.
I feel that way now. There are no anchors. Truth, Justice, Fairness, Decency…all were anchors…but whose certainty I have to rely on with a wing and a prayer. Up, up, up we go…watching the ground of democracy that was under our feet give way to who knows what?
I understand the sense of no anchors, Ellen. This is a time to hold onto principles that have stood the test of time and will see us through. This mad chapter is not the end of the story.
Ellen, I'm choosing to read into your dream a whiff of optimism. After all, you are drifting upward, not falling into an endlessly deep abyss. Perhaps we too (Steve's readers) are aboard this unsettling and even dangerous flight. Perhaps Truth, Fairness, and Decency are our fellow passengers, and will sustain us on our precarious journey to a better place.
They remain, as they must, our anchors. Without them we would be as lost as the “placeholders” (as you so aptly named them) and have nowhere to place our hopes & vision of the future we want.
Thanks Steven: I often think of Operation Barbarossa, in Russia when the Germans rolled through the country side with very little resistance , then the Russians turned the tide and came back with a vengeance. The Iranians don't have the fire power but they have their own way of revenge. They will retaliate in their own time and choosing.
My father a WWII wounded veteran -relieved to be home - brought me in to talk with me about Hitler and we watched his speeches in German on Black and White TV.
My father’s photo was in Life Magazine Twice.
On Day he landed in France.
His photo was taken while they were about to make land.
Thank You Steven .. Yes hold onto our sanity is an apt description of our circumstances . It is unbearable . I saw Hegseth and I was shocked by his words. I don't know if we can get our democracy back. I have friends who have adult children in the Military. They are worried about them and I have friends from Iran who have family still there and they are worried sick. My feelings of sadness, anger, and anxiety are the norm now. I hope we can have a free and fair election in 2026. lost in america
Trump has just called for ‘Unconditional Surrender’ - no negotiations. We see once more the trump methodology: (1) promise big, (2) deliver small (or not at all), (3) scurry away
He also said the Revolutionary Guard should lay down its arms. Who’s there to accept them? Or a surrender? He said the people should rise up and should stay in their homes because of the bombs. He said he was using the Venezuela template & that the bombs were so successful they killed all the 1st, 2nd and 3rd choices he had to lead the next regime. Then he said he was open to armed militias coming into Iran to accomplish regime change.
[I should have also added that the Iranian Foreign Minister pointed out (as he has before) that there is no reason for them to trust. The last 2 times Iran was in negotiations with the US the US bombed Iran.]
None of this makes sense. It appears he is following the Bibi model.
Not his last words. [Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?". Kirk's last words were his response: "Counting or not counting gang violence?"]
He was known to say deaths from gun violence were the price of protecting the 2nd Amendment.
From NDTV — "It's worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year, so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights...That is a prudent deal," he said during an appearance at the Salt Lake City campus of Awaken Church on April 5, 2023.
The utter callousness and cruelty coming from Washington is unprecedented, isn’t it? We can’t compare this time to another given the technological changes, population growth and changing demographics. We aren’t the same country I grew up in. The world, too, is almost unrecognizable to anyone who can remember or is connected to a pre-WWII era event given its inequities. Yet we Americans certainly appreciate the overall morality and respect for order despite innumerable shortcomings, flaws, and terrible mistakes. The ships of state always seemed to right themselves, didn’t they? We can’t survive as a species if we let the monsters in our midst become the primary arbiters of our order. Wars are not the answer and simple views of right and wrong, might and right, and death and destruction should not be paramount.
What Trump has unleashed here is completely underrated by the media, the stock market, the average American.
We will see civilian airliners brought down, suicide bombers, violence against Americans overseas. People will be afraid to travel, go to large public gatherings. The stock market will crash, the dollar will devalue.
DOW Pete is loving his week in the spotlight, but all those battleship groups will need to relieve exhausted troops, will have to dock for maintenance, and our defense readiness will be compromised.
This war was impulsive. It will go to hell far faster than Iraq did.
I also see our regime has a new talking point from Leavitt, Hegseth & trump: We have plenty of ammo and weapons. This is in response to multiple reports that military analysts & sources inside the Pentagon are concerned the 1st attack on Iran, a few months ago, blew through about 25% of the stockpile. This war-not-a-war is eating it up at much faster rate while costing $1Billion a day or more. That certain munitions could run out in a matter of days.
• March 3rd - “Thought bubble from Axios Future of Defense author Colin Demarest: Iran is flooding its neighbors with missiles, drones and decoys that demand reactions from Western air defenses, some of which are worth millions of dollars a pop and take months to replenish.
An outgunned Tehran knows this — and is playing an existential numbers game.”
Yes, agreed. What happens when arms stock run down, planes and ships need maintenance? Iran is a huge country, and they are way pissed. It is ludicrous to demand unconditional surrender, Britain didn't when the Germans bombed them, Viet Nam didn't when the US bombed them.
Trump and Hegseth, molded by « The Apprentice » and « Fox & Friends Weekend » respectfully, have never really left their TV personas. Trump is keen on hiring and firing international leaders as Champagne Pete continues the Christian Nationalist crusades of violence and cruelty. (I wonder what his mom’s thinking now). These are the shameful leaders, among many others, that we’ve been dealt. In a word, before the community of nations, they are, to use Trump’s most often uttered term, a « DISGRACE ».
The docket at The Hague is going to be quite crowded once the war crimes tribunals begin. I’m angry, sad, and disgusted.
I hate not supporting anything my country is doing right now, but how can any sane person support anything this demented, rogue POTUS is doing? It’s almost as if I’m rooting against the US. To be a patriot today should mean opposing everything he does. I never thought I’d feel this way, but I can’t help it.
We're living under an administration that thinks war is a video game, that memes are communication and killing schoolgirls is OK. The evil and cruelty are breathtaking.
Is djt trying to use war in iran to control country for her personal use and profit, not for any legitimate geo political goals. Iran was no threat. Its just a real estate deal where he kills people and treats military a expendable and doesn't care about costs.
they won't suffer the consequences of their actions but we will..... if they ever go before our judicial system it will be years so here's my Italian curse on them to stay on place until they are in jail... "may they never sleep and slowly rot from within."... my curses aren't very good but I feel better
For how much longer are we going to allow this child molester, this monstrous psychopath, to continue setting the world on fire? We need regime change here at home. NOW!
Reports are now surfacing that American forces were responsible for the bombing of the girls' school in Iran, which resulted in the death of over165 students and staff. The most innocent explanation is that the strike was evidently based on outdated intelligence which misidentified the school as a neighboring naval base.
At the very least, this speaks of gross negligence, incompetence and irresponsibility. If not, this is a war crime of the utmost magnitude.
Either way, this horrendous act needs to be investigated by independent sources and the perpetrators must be prosecuted all the way up the chain of command to include Hegseth and Trump at its head.
I wondered because all the US would say was it is being investigated. It was an early strike by the US and Israel. Now there is reporting that only the US was striking that area. Israel was targeting a different area.
That intel would be 10 yrs old & equally old maps. The buildings are clearly marked. I forget whose reporting showed them & the signage. A concrete wall was built for separation from the barracks and the school.
This war is a cause for celebration for “Christian” Nationalists, tough guy wannabes and the dictator in charge. In this mishmash are many evangelicals like Mike Huckabee who see war & domination by Israel as another step toward the 2nd Coming of Jesus. They want to speed up the End Times and the Rapture for ‘true believers’. All others will perish. Death of innocent civilians and war crimes are excused by their god in pursuit of a ‘higher’ goal.
Pete Hegseth showed who he was many times before this war, even before he was nominated to be Secretary of Defense. As a headline from the Guardian asked November 30th: Does Pete Hegseth even believe war crimes exist? - During T1, Hegseth successfully lobbied from his perch at Faux News for pardons: Army Lieutenant Clint Lorance & Army Major Mathew Golsteyn & pushed support for Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher. Each had charges or were convicted of actions related to war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. When they were pardoned in Nov. 2019, Trump noted Hegseth and Faux News in his tweets.
As DOD Secretary, he has repeatedly & publicly said “stupid” restraints placed on the military are a thing of the past. He made that point when he called US admirals and generals together. He will continue to carefully avoid mention of the warship being unarmed or civilian ‘collateral damage’. He will continue to try to distract from the lack of planning with over the top rhetoric, flashy imagery including war video game imagery. He will continue to say the US military is no longer bound by “stupid rules” & has “maximum authority” to operate.
Perpetrating crimes and cruelty has a price. The world will take note. The consequences will be long lasting. For civilians and service members like my grandson and beyond the US.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE???? The naked cruelty and glee they exhibit is utterly appalling, especially since they're all praying and waving their bibles. The only thing that would ever make me believe in a god was if they all went directly to hell. Right now.
And evidently a third of this country thinks this is just fine. I read years ago that third of a population would kill another third of that population, while the remaining third watched. Are we at that point?
"The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous." - George Orwell
Hi, Al. Thank you for responding.
Exchanging comments here and writing in Substack helps reduce the tears- feeling sense of strength we have in this together.
Fiction? Or non fiction?
☺️💙🇺🇸💙
We need to make Orwell's writing fiction again, rather than a cruel reality we live day to day.
We are in this together. 🖖
Ahhhhh
Thank you Al.
Al
We need to change this thought
☺️💙🇺🇸💙
Yes. We need to make it fiction again!
We, too, are drowning, “In death and destruction all day long”. The death of truth…of compassion and judgement born of experience. We are drowning in corruption, in fear, and in malfeasance. Joy has died, justice is drowning under the weight of oligarchic and tyrannical pressure to please Trump. Something in me is dying and drowning along with it as I look at the path forward and realize, with “shock and awe” that Congress could not even pass the War Powers Act to restrain our own brutal regime. I see a Republican Party that operates as a zombie party, and know that they, too, are dying and drowning all day and every day. They are like a football team that allows its competitor to carry the ball over the finish line with no defense. They’re just place holders.
Nobody is mourning the loss of the Iranian Ayatollah, but somehow, somewhere, decency, which has been standing at the bus stop of opportunity, should be allowed to ride along with our military goals. And along with our military goals, diplomacy, no matter how difficult, should have a seat, too. After all, it was Trump who scuttled the Iranian nuclear deal that Obama had crafted. But Trump is determined to make himself a war hero. The trouble is, he won’t be getting the coveted Nobel Peace Prize for starting this war. You can’t wage war and then demand a prize for peace. Even I know that.
I had a weird dream last night that my daughter had given me a trip on a private chartered jet owned by Amazon. It had no seats…only a strange sort of table with rolling work chairs inside. There was nowhere to hold on when the plane took off…no seats or seatbelts to secure us. As we started to ascend, my daughter said, “Mom, everything you ever said about Amazon is true”, implying that I had complained about the company’s performance. Indeed, as we looked out the window of the plane as it took off, I hoped and prayed that the propellers of the plane would work and tried to keep myself anchored to the floor by holding onto the sliding desk in front of me. There was nothing to anchor me in the dream.
I feel that way now. There are no anchors. Truth, Justice, Fairness, Decency…all were anchors…but whose certainty I have to rely on with a wing and a prayer. Up, up, up we go…watching the ground of democracy that was under our feet give way to who knows what?
I understand the sense of no anchors, Ellen. This is a time to hold onto principles that have stood the test of time and will see us through. This mad chapter is not the end of the story.
I really needed to hear that…and I know I am not alone. Thank you, Steven!
Has there been a comparable time? Political fascists. Terrorists. Technology.
Ellen, I'm choosing to read into your dream a whiff of optimism. After all, you are drifting upward, not falling into an endlessly deep abyss. Perhaps we too (Steve's readers) are aboard this unsettling and even dangerous flight. Perhaps Truth, Fairness, and Decency are our fellow passengers, and will sustain us on our precarious journey to a better place.
What a wonderful way to interpret this!❤️
Jill, I love your idea of drifting upward. My sweet mom used to tell me to stay friends with the attic people.
The attic people! What a beautiful image. At home, but up high.
They remain, as they must, our anchors. Without them we would be as lost as the “placeholders” (as you so aptly named them) and have nowhere to place our hopes & vision of the future we want.
Thanks Steven: I often think of Operation Barbarossa, in Russia when the Germans rolled through the country side with very little resistance , then the Russians turned the tide and came back with a vengeance. The Iranians don't have the fire power but they have their own way of revenge. They will retaliate in their own time and choosing.
Yes
Hegseth reminds me of the speeches of Hitler.
My father a WWII wounded veteran -relieved to be home - brought me in to talk with me about Hitler and we watched his speeches in German on Black and White TV.
My father’s photo was in Life Magazine Twice.
On Day he landed in France.
His photo was taken while they were about to make land.
So
My curiosity was piqued to say the least.
And my heartbreak over war everlasting.
💙🇺🇸💙
Thanks AVee.
💙🇺🇸💙
Difficult times
Thanks for responding
The pen is mightier than the sword
I hope our honest journalists understand how precious they are.
I subscribe to as many I independents as I can afford because I don’t want to lose them.
I am exceedingly emotional over all this …
So
All this communication does help
As a father of three daughter , I am hoping they expose all these sick vile fellows and hold them to account. Independent media is the only way to go.
Thank You Steven .. Yes hold onto our sanity is an apt description of our circumstances . It is unbearable . I saw Hegseth and I was shocked by his words. I don't know if we can get our democracy back. I have friends who have adult children in the Military. They are worried about them and I have friends from Iran who have family still there and they are worried sick. My feelings of sadness, anger, and anxiety are the norm now. I hope we can have a free and fair election in 2026. lost in america
Trump has just called for ‘Unconditional Surrender’ - no negotiations. We see once more the trump methodology: (1) promise big, (2) deliver small (or not at all), (3) scurry away
An absolute imbecile with no real plan.
He also said the Revolutionary Guard should lay down its arms. Who’s there to accept them? Or a surrender? He said the people should rise up and should stay in their homes because of the bombs. He said he was using the Venezuela template & that the bombs were so successful they killed all the 1st, 2nd and 3rd choices he had to lead the next regime. Then he said he was open to armed militias coming into Iran to accomplish regime change.
[I should have also added that the Iranian Foreign Minister pointed out (as he has before) that there is no reason for them to trust. The last 2 times Iran was in negotiations with the US the US bombed Iran.]
None of this makes sense. It appears he is following the Bibi model.
He also told Time: “People will die.” Weren’t those Charlie Kirk’s last words?
Not his last words. [Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?". Kirk's last words were his response: "Counting or not counting gang violence?"]
He was known to say deaths from gun violence were the price of protecting the 2nd Amendment.
From NDTV — "It's worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year, so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights...That is a prudent deal," he said during an appearance at the Salt Lake City campus of Awaken Church on April 5, 2023.
Thanks. I know he was Honorary Chairman of the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party
The utter callousness and cruelty coming from Washington is unprecedented, isn’t it? We can’t compare this time to another given the technological changes, population growth and changing demographics. We aren’t the same country I grew up in. The world, too, is almost unrecognizable to anyone who can remember or is connected to a pre-WWII era event given its inequities. Yet we Americans certainly appreciate the overall morality and respect for order despite innumerable shortcomings, flaws, and terrible mistakes. The ships of state always seemed to right themselves, didn’t they? We can’t survive as a species if we let the monsters in our midst become the primary arbiters of our order. Wars are not the answer and simple views of right and wrong, might and right, and death and destruction should not be paramount.
What Trump has unleashed here is completely underrated by the media, the stock market, the average American.
We will see civilian airliners brought down, suicide bombers, violence against Americans overseas. People will be afraid to travel, go to large public gatherings. The stock market will crash, the dollar will devalue.
DOW Pete is loving his week in the spotlight, but all those battleship groups will need to relieve exhausted troops, will have to dock for maintenance, and our defense readiness will be compromised.
This war was impulsive. It will go to hell far faster than Iraq did.
I also see our regime has a new talking point from Leavitt, Hegseth & trump: We have plenty of ammo and weapons. This is in response to multiple reports that military analysts & sources inside the Pentagon are concerned the 1st attack on Iran, a few months ago, blew through about 25% of the stockpile. This war-not-a-war is eating it up at much faster rate while costing $1Billion a day or more. That certain munitions could run out in a matter of days.
• https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5765875-us-munitions-stockpile-iran-trump/
• March 3rd - “Thought bubble from Axios Future of Defense author Colin Demarest: Iran is flooding its neighbors with missiles, drones and decoys that demand reactions from Western air defenses, some of which are worth millions of dollars a pop and take months to replenish.
An outgunned Tehran knows this — and is playing an existential numbers game.”
Yes, agreed. What happens when arms stock run down, planes and ships need maintenance? Iran is a huge country, and they are way pissed. It is ludicrous to demand unconditional surrender, Britain didn't when the Germans bombed them, Viet Nam didn't when the US bombed them.
You change the definition of “unconditional surrender”? He can declare it for them. I take that as an admission that they know it will never happen.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-leavitt-clarifies-what-trumps-demand-for-irans-unconditional-surrender-means
Trump and Hegseth, molded by « The Apprentice » and « Fox & Friends Weekend » respectfully, have never really left their TV personas. Trump is keen on hiring and firing international leaders as Champagne Pete continues the Christian Nationalist crusades of violence and cruelty. (I wonder what his mom’s thinking now). These are the shameful leaders, among many others, that we’ve been dealt. In a word, before the community of nations, they are, to use Trump’s most often uttered term, a « DISGRACE ».
The docket at The Hague is going to be quite crowded once the war crimes tribunals begin. I’m angry, sad, and disgusted.
I hate not supporting anything my country is doing right now, but how can any sane person support anything this demented, rogue POTUS is doing? It’s almost as if I’m rooting against the US. To be a patriot today should mean opposing everything he does. I never thought I’d feel this way, but I can’t help it.
It’s reasonable to root against Trump’s America as a patriotic act.
We're living under an administration that thinks war is a video game, that memes are communication and killing schoolgirls is OK. The evil and cruelty are breathtaking.
Is djt trying to use war in iran to control country for her personal use and profit, not for any legitimate geo political goals. Iran was no threat. Its just a real estate deal where he kills people and treats military a expendable and doesn't care about costs.
A reasonable assumption, JBR.
they won't suffer the consequences of their actions but we will..... if they ever go before our judicial system it will be years so here's my Italian curse on them to stay on place until they are in jail... "may they never sleep and slowly rot from within."... my curses aren't very good but I feel better
For how much longer are we going to allow this child molester, this monstrous psychopath, to continue setting the world on fire? We need regime change here at home. NOW!
We do.
Reports are now surfacing that American forces were responsible for the bombing of the girls' school in Iran, which resulted in the death of over165 students and staff. The most innocent explanation is that the strike was evidently based on outdated intelligence which misidentified the school as a neighboring naval base.
At the very least, this speaks of gross negligence, incompetence and irresponsibility. If not, this is a war crime of the utmost magnitude.
Either way, this horrendous act needs to be investigated by independent sources and the perpetrators must be prosecuted all the way up the chain of command to include Hegseth and Trump at its head.
I wondered because all the US would say was it is being investigated. It was an early strike by the US and Israel. Now there is reporting that only the US was striking that area. Israel was targeting a different area.
That intel would be 10 yrs old & equally old maps. The buildings are clearly marked. I forget whose reporting showed them & the signage. A concrete wall was built for separation from the barracks and the school.
https://www.wral.com/news/ap/c3095-evidence-suggests-the-deadly-blast-at-an-iranian-school-was-likely-a-us-airstrike/
2/
Steven I rarely disagree with you but…this statement, I do, “It would be futile for me to say that I dream of a day where there are no more wars”
It may be idealistic and of a “dream quality”
now but I feel we must constantly be advocates and communicate this “dream.”
I dream of an evolutionary advance that eliminates wars.
Bless you
💙🇺🇸💙
This war is a cause for celebration for “Christian” Nationalists, tough guy wannabes and the dictator in charge. In this mishmash are many evangelicals like Mike Huckabee who see war & domination by Israel as another step toward the 2nd Coming of Jesus. They want to speed up the End Times and the Rapture for ‘true believers’. All others will perish. Death of innocent civilians and war crimes are excused by their god in pursuit of a ‘higher’ goal.
Military news: Commanders Accused of Framing Iran War as Biblical Mandate, Jesus' 'Return' [Generating 200+ complaints] — https://www.military.com/daily-news/2026/03/03/military-officers-accused-of-framing-iran-war-biblical-mandate.html#:~:text=Pentagon's%20Christian%20Connection,Afghanistan%20with%20all%20their%20proxies.%22
Pete Hegseth showed who he was many times before this war, even before he was nominated to be Secretary of Defense. As a headline from the Guardian asked November 30th: Does Pete Hegseth even believe war crimes exist? - During T1, Hegseth successfully lobbied from his perch at Faux News for pardons: Army Lieutenant Clint Lorance & Army Major Mathew Golsteyn & pushed support for Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher. Each had charges or were convicted of actions related to war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. When they were pardoned in Nov. 2019, Trump noted Hegseth and Faux News in his tweets.
As DOD Secretary, he has repeatedly & publicly said “stupid” restraints placed on the military are a thing of the past. He made that point when he called US admirals and generals together. He will continue to carefully avoid mention of the warship being unarmed or civilian ‘collateral damage’. He will continue to try to distract from the lack of planning with over the top rhetoric, flashy imagery including war video game imagery. He will continue to say the US military is no longer bound by “stupid rules” & has “maximum authority” to operate.
Perpetrating crimes and cruelty has a price. The world will take note. The consequences will be long lasting. For civilians and service members like my grandson and beyond the US.
https://www.military.com/feature/2026/03/05/hegseths-stupid-rules-of-engagement-line-and-what-roe-actually-do.html