Saturday, June 20, 2026

A Country Boy’s Advice for the Chief E…FWIW (probably not much)

 

1.    Understand why you are President.  It is not because you are special (not), or brilliant (not), or wise beyond all (smart...but not the smartest), or because you have good fundamental policy instincts (which you clearly do).  You have been elected to both of your terms because you ran against idiots.  Stop thinking you are King of the World.  You were mainly selected because you were the least of two evils and that least is beginning to wear thin.

2.     You talk too much.  Tone down the amount, tone, volume, and arrogance in your rhetoric.  You have cried “Wolf” too many times and people have ceased to pay attention. 

3.    Treat our international allies like friends and our international foes like enemies.  Do not tie the settlement of their conflicts with the settlements of our conflicts. 

4.    You have two years and change left to establish your legacy…focus on results, not circus.  You are a talented, smart, and accomplished man…but you are vain and conceited; look at yourself in the mirror and embrace your faults.  When your speech writers or Administration members give you words to read or sage advice…take it.  Don’t riff…stick to the script.

5.    Your VP is in over his head as a Middle East negotiator.  He is quite simply not your best and most qualified Administration member to do this deal.  Send Marco Rubio over to settle this thing and grant him the authority necessary to get it done.

6.    Make a plain and simple statement that you and your Administration speak for America and her interests.  You do not speak for Israel…or any other nation for that matter.  The Israel/Lebanon/Hezbollah/Iran conflict is separate and apart from our America/Iran conflict.  Of course, we are close allies with Israel.  Of course, their conflict(s) are interwoven in the Middle Eastern dynamic.  But their battle is not our battle.  To put it in Trump terms…they are not the 51st state.

7.    This Iran conflict…get it done; one way or another.  We are not the world’s policeman.  The only reason most Americans support this military effort in Iran is because they (Iran) directly threaten our nation and our way of life.  We are not responsible for peace in their Middle Eastern neighborhood, or how they treat their citizens, or their particular differences with any of their neighbors…specifically Israel.  End this conflict with dispatch, with clarity, and with conviction.  Figure out who your best advisers are and listen to them.  No apology, no defending, no reservation.  Move on to more important matters…like our economy and the mid-terms.

8.    Stop selecting your Administration members based on their pure loyalty to you and their determination to settle old scores you hold with various parties.  Many of your selections have been exemplary…like Secretary of State, Energy, Interior, Transportation, SCOTUS Justices, and our new Federal Reserve Chairman.  There are many highly-qualified candidates out there willing and able to serve this nation in your Administration.   Help the country and yourself…pick them…empower them.

9.    International affairs are complex beyond belief, but one thing is for certain: Canada and Mexico share looooonnnnng borders with us. We are joined at the hip with them in trade and commerce and effective border security cannot be accomplished without their cooperation.  Understand this, embrace this, and treat them accordingly.

10.                       Give your wife a voice.  She is a beautiful and remarkable woman.  Allow her to spread her wings and represent your Administration in a substantive, visible, and effective fashion.  On occasions, you have treated this woman with great disrespect.  Treat her right.

11.                       Even though you are clearly the leader of the Republican Party, you do not own it.  Furthermore, you are not the future of the Republican Party.  Understand these realities…stay out of primaries, and do not demand to choose your potential successor. Fealty to the ring is not an appealing aspect to most voters.  The Republican Party wins on policy and agenda.  Do all you can within your significant power as Party leader to help select good, solid candidates for upcoming elections.  Give those candidates space…without intimidation and meddling…to demonstrate their ability to think for themselves and state their independence.

12.                       For heaven’s sake…enough of the gold and kingdom building and placing your name on everything.  Most people don’t have your money and don’t really appreciate lavish spending of tax dollars for pure extravagance.  Placing a president’s (appropriately, ex-president’s) name on a building is something other people do for you…not something you do for yourself.  Read the room.

13.                       Enough with the Executive Orders!  You unwound Obama’s and Biden’s.  Do you not realize that the next Democrat President (oh yes…there will someday be one) will simply unwind yours?  Use your competent and rational leaders in Congress to accomplish your policy agenda priorities in a legislative…and durably lasting manner. 

14.                       Stop ignoring the critically essential importance of appointing federal judicial individuals.  Get with the Senate leadership, fill these vacancies, and get good people confirmed.  The judges you appoint and the legislation you accomplish with Congress will have far greater future impact on this nation than anything else you might do.

15.                       Stay the hell out of the Supreme Court of the United States affairs.  Your irresponsible SCOTUS rhetoric is at times as bad and reprehensible as the court packing lunacy being advocated by liberal progressive Democrats.  SCOTUS is your equal; it is not your subordinate.

16.                       Smell the roses.  If you can settle this Middle East deal quickly, your Party can keep the Senate and maybe hold the House.  Your final two years in office can be a time to pull back a bit from the spotlight and allow your Administration members to shine and execute.  Some very good things might be accomplished for this country.  You could bask in the glow of your many positive achievements and do what you enjoy the most…interact with America’s people in a meaningful, positive, and modest fashion.  Get out of WDC and see the country you lead…meet the people you serve. 

17.                       Lose some weight.  Get a haircut.  Trim up, shape up, and enjoy the rest of your life with your beautiful wife.  You just turned 80 years old and you are the most powerful man in the world.  For heaven’s sake, man…you can have and do anything you want!  Live, mend fences, do good things with your power and influence, show this nation and the world that you can be more than just a clueless narcissist who can’t see past his own ego.  Spend the rest of your term putting some class and credibility back into the presidency of this nation and do all within your power to bring our country together.  You have been greatly blessed in your life…do something positive with what’s left of it.


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And while we're on the subject, here is some bonus advice for ex-president Obama: Just...go...away.

Tuesday, June 16, 2026

As the World Inexorably Turns

There is so much going on in the world today…where to start?  We’ve got gladiators on the White House lawn, crowds burning school buses in New York City because they WON a championship, visitors from all over the world FIFA-traipsing across American and going gaga at what they find, a big wait-and-see moment in the Middle East with apparently no one happy with it, the markets continuing their yo-yo reactions to every day’s news tease, mid-term election drama rumbling in the background of every political thing (and that includes just about EVERYthing), historically-significant SCOTUS decisions ready to drop at any moment, a US economy just itching to break out of its doldrums, and of course…education, education, education.

 

Due to the wealth of good links below, I will limit my brief commentary on this piece to the Middle East.  Like so many of you, I am conflicted about how to view the pending settlement of this conflict.  It must be terribly frustrating to deal with the leadership of Iran, which has no credibility whatsoever.  Making it even more difficult is the fact that the leadership is broken up into various factions who do not agree on Iran’s future path, and you can never be sure exactly which faction you are dealing with.  On top of all that is the overriding limitation that the American public will simply not accept the insertion of US ground troops into Iran.

 

Ratcheting up the pressure on this dynamic is the impact it might have on the approaching mid-term elections, the impact on the US economy, the relationships between America and its NATO allies, the adversarial matrix of Iran tied in with China/Russia/North Korea, and the ever-suffocating influence of a media that demands minute-by-minute coverage regarding every piece of information available.  And then, in lieu of that…they have no hesitation to irresponsibly opine on what might happen or is likely to happen.

 

To me, the bottom line is this: At the end of the day, America will be leaving the Middle East with a much reduced military presence remaining.  We will not be occupying Iran.  Iran’s future will ultimately be in the hands of the existing government…such as it is…and its citizenry.  The neighbors of Iran must live with it as a regional partner.

 

 Israel has every right to defend itself against any threat that might come its way and that privilege can never be denied.  While the nexus between Iran/Lebanon/Israel is clearly a central element in all things Middle East, America has no right to tell Israel how it must defend itself against wanton aggression.  America does not negotiate for Israel; they do that for themselves. 

 

If we cannot occupy and control Iran, then we must arrive at an end game alternative to that scenario.  That end game has apparently now been determined and we shall see how it turns out.  If American and Iranian leaders do not know the answer to that question, then certainly the armies of political pundits do not know either. 

 

President Trump has taken bold military action to destroy the ability of Iran to threaten America and the world.  Could we have hit them harder and hit them again…and again?  Of course we could…but where do you draw the line?  Do we want to destroy the ability of Iran to ever rebuild and have a reasonable standard of living for its people?  I think not.  They have been weakened to what must be considered near maximum extent, given the exclusion of ground troops.  When it comes to fighting, a large portion of the success determinant is in knowing when to walk away.  Most of us allow our emotions to rule during times like this and we either fail to step up or fail to step back at the right time. As our President…Trump stepped up at the right time.  Is this the right time to step away?

 

At some point, the reality is that we…the USA…must leave, go back home, accept that we have done all we could within the existing limitations, and put the future of Iran into others’ hands. The time of that departure has apparently arrived.  The terms…and consequences…of that departure are yet to be determined.  The only way to predict the future of Iran with any degree of certainty is to OWN Iran.  America will never own Iran.

 

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https://reason.com/2026/06/15/the-iran-war-is-over-for-now/

 

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2026/06/memo-to-file.php#google_vignette


https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22597/no-good-deal-with-iran

 

https://jewishworldreview.com/0626/york061026.php

 

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/trump-pallets-cash-iran

 

https://freebeacon.com/israel/the-case-for-israel/

 

https://claritywithmichaeloren.substack.com/p/israel-has-no-choice-left-but-to

 

https://freebeacon.com/israel/exclusive-hamas-turns-gaza-hospitals-and-schools-into-torture-chambers-as-it-reestablishes-police-state-gazans-describe-horrific-interrogations-beatings/

 

Once this Middle East conflict is tamped down and somewhat settled, much attention will return to the US economy.  In the days before the COVID epidemic hit America, the US economy was simply roaring.  The cost of living was acceptable, there were plenty of jobs for those willing to work, and for those workers with ambition…there was plentiful upward mobility.  COVID and the Joe Biden Administration put an end to all of that. 

 

I personally believe that if the Iran conflict can be reasonably and responsibly ended, our economy will once again return to that pre-COVID state of high performance and opportunity.  But a huge part of that potential depends on our government…specifically the Executive and Legislative branches…gaining some semblance of fiscal sanity.  Our government must refrain from their arrogant approach of micro-managing all things economic and simply put the pieces in place to allow the awesome gears and machinery of capitalism and the free market to work.

 

A precursor to this discussion from five years ago shows how little things have actually changed: https://centerlineright.blogspot.com/2021/08/fiscal-reality-check.html

 

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/can-the-normal-democratic-process-lead-to-deficit-reduction/

 

https://americanmind.org/memo/tariffs-built-to-last/

 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cpi-report-today-may-2026-inflation-iran-war-trump/

 

https://www.nationalreview.com/2026/06/social-security-insolvency-creeps-further-up/

 

https://reason.com/2026/06/11/social-security-is-going-bankrupt-because-its-benefits-are-too-generous/

 

I have long railed against the autocratic tendencies of our government, its unquenchable desire for power and authority, the far too many rascals that inhabit it, and the shameful way that we as citizens empower it to steal our constitutional rights and privileges.  I cannot repeat it too many times: Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fisa-section-702-expiring-congress-what-that-means/

 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/house-vote-extension-fisa-702-spy-power-bill-pulte-uproar-trump/

 

https://amgreatness.com/2026/06/10/the-potemkin-ballot/

 

https://www.wsj.com/video/series/opinion-docs/wsj-opinion-the-lockdown-dissidents/179C024E-10D0-4428-AF47-2941CDB5CC83?st=k3HNnQ

 

Government overreach is not simply an American concern: https://jonathanturley.org/2026/06/10/merkel-receives-the-first-european-order-of-merit-and-repeats-call-for-crackdown-on-free-speech/

 

Our Constitution is the blueprint that should rule our three branches of government.  The last firewall between domestic anti-Americanism and the terms of that document is the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS).  There are those among us who would tear apart our Constitution and rebuild it, rather than work within its confines to help it evolve properly.  Our nation and its people must hold dear the Constitution and SCOTUS, for if we lose either or both…our country will cease to exist as we know it.  By their very design, the Executive and Legislative branches of our government will continue to be political circuses.  We cannot afford, as a nation, to permit our Constitution and SCOTUS to be dragged into that arena.

 

https://americanmind.org/salvo/our-revolutionary-constitution/

 

https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/supreme-court-nears-end-term-several-high-profile-cases-still-pending


https://thefederalist.com/2026/06/16/supreme-court-to-hear-major-case-on-trump-admins-detention-of-illegal-aliens/

 

https://jonathanturley.org/2026/06/14/drinking-the-court-packing-kool-aid-buttigieg-joins-the-calls-to-take-over-the-supreme-court/

 

Just as the Democrat Party is wrestling with its factional demons, so is the Republican Party doing likewise.  As I have previously noted, the big difference between the two is the power and influence of the radical elements within each.  The Republican far right (neo-cons) is simply one of the many groups in the party that hold some…but not massive …influence.  In the Democrat Party, the far left (liberal progressives) is actually controlling the party’s leadership and dictating its agenda. 

 

This nation needs a strong and vital two-party system that features coexistence with statesmanlike disagreements on policy.  They need to be civil in discussion; reasonable in debate; and they need to share a common love and respect for this country.  That is not the current environment.  I fervently hope for the Democrat Party to pare down its radical elements and return to its Blue Dog roots.  This would be good for their Party and a good thing for our nation.

 

https://amgreatness.com/2026/06/12/a-conservative-audit-of-the-lefts-ruling-assumptions/

 

Here is one of the liberal progressive’s poster children: https://freebeacon.com/media/lesley-stahl-says-journalists-getting-fired-is-worse-than-child-trafficking-nazi-torture-dungeons/

 

https://americanmind.org/memo/dei-by-default/

 

https://freebeacon.com/democrats/socialist-operatives-behind-scandal-plagued-platner-and-squad-member-summer-lee-recruited-independent-dan-osborn-to-run-in-deep-red-nebraska/

 

https://reason.com/2026/06/12/graham-platner-signals-a-problem-for-democrats-and-the-rest-of-us/

 

President Donald John Trump is…if nothing else…an unconventional president.  His character and moral behavior has been, at times, undeniably reprehensible.  While living a life of privilege, he has been without a doubt quite accomplished in a material sense.  Unfortunately…his arrogant personality and his undisciplined rhetoric at times diminish the obvious wisdom and practicality of his many policy initiatives. 

 

As he approaches the midway point of his second term, one can reasonably question whether or not his policy assets will continue to outweigh his personal affronts.  While he was clearly essential to ending the idiotic and incompetent policies of the Obama/Biden Administrations, his continuing inability to subjugate his personality to presidential leadership concerns brings his chief executive performance into doubt.  One thing is for certain: He ain’t gonna change.  Love him or hate him…Trump is gonna be Trump.

 

His unconventional approach is at times refreshing and exciting: https://reason.com/2026/06/14/the-white-house-ufc-fight-is-the-perfect-event-for-the-present-not-the-past/

 

But the reality of father time is quite sobering: https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/80-year-olds-should-not-be-president/

Monday, June 8, 2026

The State of Oblivion Is So Inviting

The world and America, in the main, are going through tough times right now.  The Koreas continue to stare coldly at each other across the 38th parallel.  Ukraine continues to defend itself against a barbaric Russian invasion.  Mexico battles with the drug cartels.  Greenland fears invasion by and/or absorption into some other country (duh).  Canada wants to break up with America (for understandable reasons), but can’t deny the reality of the economic dynamic between the two.  China eyes Taiwan with envy, but cannot overcome the fear of bad consequences flowing from an invasion.  Much like Canada, NATO simply hates Donald Trump, but cannot bring itself to face the future without American military support.  While I concede the complexity of the Middle Eastern conflicts, our President continues to drag out the issues with a combination of indecisiveness and arrogance.

 

Maine Democrats are nominating a slime candidate in Platner, while Texas Republicans have already nominated a slime candidate in Paxton.  California (and several more states) now has an election month rather than an election day and all of it with no integrity whatsoever…and yet four Republican Senators (plus 45 Democrats and 2 Independents) refrain from supporting a law that will take significant steps towards restoring efficiency and credibility back into state elections.  With an abundance of job openings nationwide and salaries trending above inflation rates, public opinion continues to indicate a dismal attitude towards our national economy (gas prices rule).   The American public continues to exhibit an irrational resistance to AI, notwithstanding its incredible potential (while acknowledging the potential abuses) to make the world a better place.  Our nation is approaching a midterm election cycle that more resembles a UFC fight card than a democratic selection of leaders.

 

Life is not easy.  I suppose that is natural and we should all accept it.  But sometimes, it certainly appears that all about us is chaos, brutality, and incomprehension.  I watched the national news early this morning and after about fifteen minutes of the headlines, I left to go sit out on the front deck.  I sat in the swing and watched a gentle rain falling on the pasture fields and the woods.  I thought about the things I was currently worrying with…like expecting the delivery of new herd bull, figuring out the malfunction code on my split HVAC unit, helping my grandson to search online for a good used pickup truck, wondering where I might find some available hay to buy due the yield shortage of our dry spring…and I realized: I don’t have much to complain about.  Why should I get torn up about these things over which I have little or no control?  The blessings in my life far outweigh the problems in my life; and most of those blessings are by grace rather than merit. 

 

The Serenity Prayer reads: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.  Like most great lessons in literary guidance…especially those in the Bible…the most honest and useful words are the ones that are brief, direct, and carefully chosen.  In times like these, it is understandable why a person might want to enter into oblivion, simply give up on impacting the world, and circle the wagons around themselves.  No doubt, the circumstances and environments that push us towards that dilemma are much more severe for some than they are for others.  The degree to which each of us must publicly interact is not always a matter of personal choice.  And the row to be hoed is much more difficult for some than it is for others…long rows, dull hoes, lots of weeds.

 

But having said that and recognizing the infinite wisdom in focusing on the things in our lives that we can control and influence…we cannot allow ourselves to pull back entirely from being an active participant in the world around us.  Involvement in that world starts with us, our families, our communities, our states, our nations, and this entire planet.   The degree to which we can impact events certainly lessens as we climb up that ladder I just mentioned; but a lesser influence does not mean that it is no less an important and vital influence. 

 

Whether it is being the best person you can be, a good parent, a good partner, a good son or daughter, a good sibling, helping a friend or neighbor, working within your church or faith to serve others, being a responsible citizen and doing your best to earn a good living standard for yourself and your family, voting every single time you have an opportunity, putting forth the time and effort to at least remain aware of the world in which we live, appropriately sharing your thoughts and opinions with others in an effort to reach a common understanding…we must never withdraw from these things that make us a part and parcel of the world we live in. 

 

Few of us will ever achieve accomplishments that garner much attention.  In fact, many of us will live lives of relative obscurity and be quickly forgotten once we expire…hopefully, not by the ones we loved and cared about.  But each will leave an indelible mark on this earth…a record of deeds and consequences that cannot be denied.  No matter how crazy and irrational the world around us might seem, it serves us well to remain aware that each of us does, in fact, matter.  And inconsequential as it might seem, each of us exerts some degree of control over what occurs about us. 

 

The state of oblivion will pull on us and draw our focus inward; encouraging us to ignore the madness and contradictions about us and pushing us into withdrawal and solitary concern about ourselves…making us want to go out and sit in the swing.  There is certainly a proper place for this, inasmuch as we are each accountable for our own words and deeds.  But if this world is going to become a better place, then we must always remember that we are all part of a bigger organism.  To step back and deny that reality is to embrace the status of irrelevance.  Not one of us is irrelevant.

 

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We continue to wait for the climatic actions that will bring the Iran conflict to some type of conclusion.  As Tom Petty wrote…the waiting is the hardest par. You know…he actually said waaaaiting…

 

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2026/06/gen-keane-on-the-iran-status-quo.php

 

https://freebeacon.com/columns/restraining-israel-is-not-the-answer/

 

Education…Education…Education

 

https://jamesgmartin.center/2026/06/toward-a-sensible-federal-financial-aid-policy/

 

https://jonathanturley.org/2026/06/04/facing-the-big-zero-the-university-of-oregon-grapples-with-a-budget-crisis-after-years-of-woke-excess/

 

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/iowa-higher-ed-breakthrough/

 

https://jamesgmartin.center/2026/06/what-would-a-pro-family-academia-look-like/

 

Current Events Potpourri…

 

The arrogance and conceit of the mainstream media is matched only by that of our nation’s elected officials…especially our President.  They now have a new poster child:

 

https://www.sashastone.com/p/60-minutes-and-the-collapse-of-the

 

https://freebeacon.com/media/scott-pelley-isnt-a-serious-journalist/

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/maher-weighs-in-on-60-minutes-shakeup-pelley-ouster-i-m-for-it/ar-AA256lqd?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=6a26ed45fe78494a8737c9ff7e1eb700&ei=35

 

Beware the progressive Democrats who publicly portray themselves to be moderate Democrats:

 

https://freebeacon.com/democrats/moderate-abigail-spanberger-taps-soros-tied-activist-who-says-shes-self-conscious-about-her-whiteness-to-serve-on-virginia-criminal-justi/

 

https://jonathanturley.org/2026/06/07/the-spanberger-surge-virginia-governor-may-prove-the-greatest-influencer-for-gun-ownership-since-charlton-heston/#more-245602

 

https://www.nationalreview.com/2026/06/the-mendacity-of-graham-platner/

 

https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/why-graham-platners-supporters-dont-care/

 

Immigration laws exist for a reason…to preserve our nation.  If you find the laws unacceptable, work through democratic channels to change the law.

 

https://jonathanturley.org/2026/06/03/federal-inspection-reportedly-finds-delaney-hall-in-compliance-on-virtually-all-standards/

 

https://justthenews.com/government/congress/senator-teams-left-wing-protest-organizer-boost-mass-mobilization-against-ice

 

Whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, we should all be able to agree that serious reforms must be implemented to restore public confidence in election integrity.

 

https://jonathanturley.org/2026/06/06/california-and-the-politics-of-low-expectations/#more-245569

 

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2026/06/are-they-cheating-in-california.php

 

President Trump has made some excellent appointments for his Administration; but he has also picked several incompetents for all the wrong reasons.  Overall, his hits exceed his misses; but the misses are still inexcusable.

 

https://www.nationalreview.com/2026/06/remove-bill-pulte/

 

On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed into law The Affordable Care Act…commonly referred to as Obamacare.  It was passed through Congress without a single Republican vote and in an extra-ordinary fashion best described by then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who said “we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it – away from the fog of controversy”.  This is quite literally the worst piece of legislation passed in my lifetime.  The damage that this law has done to the healthcare systems of our nation, the economic health of nation, and the literal health of our citizenry, is inestimable and will reach far forward into future generations. The clear goal of those supporting Obamacare was for it to serve as a glide path towards a national, single-payer health care system.  Like many radically progressive and liberal Democrat ideas, this was…and remains…a baseless fantasy detached from reality. 

 

https://reason.com/2026/06/04/after-40-years-no-one-has-produced-a-workable-single-payer-health-care-plan/

 

 

A Country Boy’s Advice for the Chief E…FWIW (probably not much)

  1.     Understand why you are President.   It is not because you are special ( not ), or brilliant ( not ), or wise beyond all ( smart.....