Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair
The recent events on the national and world stage are pretty hard to ignore given the effects on Americans, our allies and even our fellow Montanans who just want to go fishing.
But the wheels are coming off Donald Trump’s MAGA-mobile in real time and the result is absolutely predictable as he, his administration, and our once-stable nation are now all over the road, bouncing off curbs, going through fences, and headed for the barrow ditch.
The undeniable signs aren’t coming from “lib-tards” — they’re coming from hard right-wing MAGA supporters, or perhaps “former supporters” is more accurate. That lineup now includes Tucker Carlson, Alex Jones, Megyn Kelly, neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes, Mark Levin, and even looney Laura Loomer.
These are the headliners of Fox and Friends, the people who praised the president and believed he would keep his promises of “America First,” halt U.S. involvement in foreign wars and “Make America Great Again.”
But anyone who takes Donald Trump at his word is in for a rude awakening. The record is clear, his word means absolutely nothing. Not to us, not to our allies, and now not to the rest of the world as he becomes more erratic, violent, and threatening toward friends and foes alike.
The primary reason for the tidal wave of conservative criticism now crashing over the White House is Trump’s disastrous decision to allow Israel’s Benjamin “The Butcher” Netanyahu to drag us into his genocidal attacks on the sovereign nations of the Middle East.
Netanyahu has been indicted for bribery, fraud and breach of trust in his own country — and the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for his “crimes against humanity” including “murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts,” against Palestinians in Gaza. Of all the people not to follow anywhere, let alone into war, Netanyahu tops the list as he turns Israel into a rogue state in the eyes of the world.
Nonetheless, the rapidly-diminishing mental capacity of our president somehow justified the Iran War by claiming he had to because Israel was going to. How Israel can call the decision for the U.S. to go to war is a real mystery since declaring war is Constitutionally-delegated to Congress, not the president, and surely not a war criminal from another country.
But wars are a lot easier to start than win. And now, billions and billions of dollars and thousands of deaths later, this delusional president who claimed he deserved to win the Nobel Peace Prize, is forced to agree to a two-week “cease fire.” Putting that in quotes is intentional since Israel hasn’t quit bombing Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza as Netanyahu just announced it’s a “forever war.”
Moreover, none of the ever-changing reasons for the Iran War have been accomplished. Not seizing the uranium, effecting regime change, halting missile production, or “freeing” the Iranian people.
Instead, after being attacked by the U.S. and Israel Iran closed the Straits of Hormuz, cutting off one-fifth of the world’s oil supply and driving fuel and fertilizer prices sky high. When a Montanan decides he can’t go on an annual fishing campout at Fort Peck because it costs a thousand bucks to drive his truck and boat there and back, the impacts have truly come home to roost.
The talking heads at Fox News are largely responsible for the horrific situation they’re now facing. They have been betrayed, openly and repeatedly, and now they are viciously turning on their own creation — and for once, in a very rare instance, they are correct.
