Tag: war in Iran

Meanwhile, Trump continues to lower the bar

Every single time I think Trump can’t go any lower, he goes much lower. Today’s blog post hits a few of the highlight (or lowlights!) of the past week.

I tried to be a good blogger this week. I made an effort Monday through yesterday to not post about Trump, but I can only remain silent for so long. If you read my blog on a regular basis, you know that.

I cannot and will not sit idly by while I have this platform. I’m sorry this is long, but please stay with it to the end.

Death of former FBI Director Robert Mueller

We found out last weekend just how small and callous Donald Trump is.

Former FBI Director Robert Mueller died at the age of 81. He was respected by people of both political parties. He was a lifelong servant of the people. He volunteered for military duty during the Vietnam War and received a Purple Heart after being shot in the leg.

Upon hearing the news of Mueller’s death from Parkinson’s Disease, President Trump put on his Truth Social account: “Robert Mueller just died. Good. I’m glad he’s dead.”

It is sad that such a civil servant died of a devastating disease at the age of 81; however, it is tragic that the little man sitting in the Oval Office is so self-absorbed and evil-spirited that he wrote such an abhorrent thing.

It was that same Vietnam War Robert Mueller got wounded in that Donald Trump weaseled out of going to after he and his father got a doctor to claim he had bone spurs. He has been ridiculing the veterans of that war ever since.

When a person shows you what they are, believe them. If there is anyone out there who still thinks Trump was sent by God to save America… you might want to look in the mirror and ask yourself which god you and Trump believe in.

Speaking of religion… “Make it for Jesus!”

Has there ever been a U.S. President more devoid of knowledge of Christianity?

On Monday, Trump said he wants photo voter ID with proof of citizenship to be par to the Homeland Security bill. He addressed his remarks to the Republicans and said, “You don’t have to worry about going home for Easter break. Make this one for Jesus. Make it for Jesus. That’s what I tell ‘em. It would be a d_mn good thing.”

Jesus was all about loving your neighbor – and everyone is your neighbor. He was all about taking care of the sick, the poor, the lonely.

Trump is all about hating his neighbors – which is everyone who doesn’t lick his boots. He is all about taking healthcare away from the sick, making poor people pay higher prices for necessities, and ignoring the lonely.

Every single thing I can think of that Jesus demonstrated and asked us to do, Trump demonstrates the opposite and spouts out hate for everyone.

The irony of it all is that the movement is being led by a little orange man who would not know a Christian if he met one.

Can someone please tell Trump that Jesus is not concerned about voter ID or citizenship in the United States? My hunch is that Jesus is more concerned about the way Christians are treating people. For the Republicans to vote a requirement into law that in order to vote in the United States one must present a certified birth certificate would not be a gift for Jesus. Voting for photo voter ID or voter proof of citizenship will not get a single Republican into heaven. 

Yet again, the U.S. President is pushing for a solution to a problem that has been proven not to exist.

The United States of America is not a theocracy… yet.

The Inaugural America First Award

Knowing that we have the neediest U.S. President ever, the Republican Party invented a new award this week.

At the National Republican Congressional Committee fundraising dinner on March 25, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, with Congressman Richard Hudson of North Carolina proudly standing by his side, announced the creation of the America First Award to be bestowed upon Donald Trump.

It seems that the Republicans in Congress are so enamored with Donald Trump that they must go above and beyond supporting him through thick and thin, through peace time and war, through government shutdowns, and through the dismantling of our medical research, public education, museums, national parks, clean air, and the East Wing of the White House.

Their unflinching support of their puppet master is not enough. They couldn’t help themselves. They had to create a new award with Trump in mind, claiming it will be an annual award. It boggles the mind to think just how many years they will give Donald Trump the America First Award.

Of course, as everything Trumpian requires, the award comes complete with a gold trophy. It can be proudly displayed in the Oval Office next to the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize he was given in December to soothe his ego for not receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.

Please remember that Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was the recipient of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize and, even though she literally gave him the physical part of that honor, the Nobel Committee was quick to assert that Ms. Machado is still the recipient and it in no way belongs to Donald Trump.

U.S. Department of the Treasury bowing to Trump

The U.S. Treasury Department “has considered” minting a new one-dollar coin with Trump’s image on both sides. Well, isn’t that special?

Fortunately, Americans don’t want to carry around heavy coins. Most Americans don’t even carry paper currency now. They sure don’t want a pocket full of big ugly coins bearing Trump’s likeness!

In another development yesterday afternoon, the Treasury Department announced the printing of a new $100 bill which will have the iconic Donald Trump signature on it. This goes against tradition, to say the least.

It will be the first time in 165 years that the signature of a sitting U.S. President will be printed on a piece of paper currency in the United States.

Since his signature resembles a toddler’s angry scrawling (my apologies to all toddlers), won’t that be a wondrous thing to behold?

Trump’s views on children and adults with dyslexia

Photo by Rob Hobson on Unsplash

Trump has belittled California Governor Gavin Newsome many times for admitting that he has dyslexia. Newsome compensates having dyslexia by memorizing speeches and speaking extemporaneously.

But Trump sees that as a weakness, and he always attacks a person where he sees a weakness. That’s just the great guy he is.

This week, Trump attacked Gov. Newsome at least twice for having dyslexia and, in so doing, he attacked every child in our country who struggles to compensate for having it.

Trump labels dyslexia as “a learning disability” and the insinuation is that having a learning disability is something to be ashamed of. To be hidden. To never be admitted to having.

Trump using the term “learning disability” and “dyslexia” as a cudgel. It is a label he can proclaim to try to ruin an opponent’s political aspirations.

Every time Trump talks about dyslexia he shows his ignorance.

Or perhaps he says it because he knows that U.S. President Woodrow Wilson was thought to have had dyslexia, but Wilson went on to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

We all know how jealous Trump is of every recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

What the U.S. President Worries About

In case you wonder what the President of the United States worries about, I found out last Saturday.

One would think the U.S. President had pressing things to worry about like how to get out a war he started in Iran, but that was not the case last Friday.

On Friday, March 20, 2026, President Trump signed a two-page Executive Order dictating that no other NCAA football games can be scheduled during the time slot for the Army-Navy game.

Since they don’t have anything else to do, the Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Department of Commerce are to make sure all colleges, universities, conferences, and broadcasters comply.

In a White House press released titled “Preserving America’s Game,” Trump said, “Such scheduling conflicts weaken the national focus on our Military Service Academies and detract from a morale-building event of vital interest to the Department of War. Accordingly, it is the policy of the United States that no college football game, specifically college football’s CFP or other postseason games, be broadcast in a manner that directly conflicts with the Army-Navy Game.”

Besides being a ludicrous thing for the U.S. President to be thinking about, it is a nice gift to CBS Sports which is under contract to televise the Army-Navy game through 2038.

It looks like CBS is going to be in competition with FoxNews to be the official broadcaster for the Trump Administration. Every authoritarian regime needs one.

You can’t make this stuff up.

Meanwhile, the war continues in Iran and Trump is begging other countries to help get him out of it… even as he declares almost every day that we won the war in the first hour.

On Monday, Trump all but said Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth started the war. Later in the week, Hegseth said, “We negotiate with bombs.”

Trump claims the peace negotiations with Iran are “going well,” while Iran says the US must be negotiating with itself because there are no such talks taking place with Iran.

Trump claims the peace negotiations with Iran are “going fairly well,” while Iran says the US must be negotiating with itself because there are no such talks taking place with Iran.

Sadly, no one on the planet can believe what either side says.

Trump continues the oil embargo against Venezuela, which is bringing Cuba to its knees… so he can take over … you guessed it: Cuba.

Yesterday, Trump announced in relation to the war in Iran that a “Trump day” is not 24 hours. “A Trump day is eternity.”

For those of us living under his regime, it certainly feels like it!

Looking toward the November Mid-Term Elections

If I were a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, I would be more than a little worried about the mid-term elections coming up in November. Even though it appears that all the Republicans in the House want the United States to have a monarchy at the very least, they believe a dictator would serve them better. But that’s not what the American people want.

Deep down in their hearts, I don’t think the MAGA voters really want a dictator. They might think they do but, when push comes to shove, I don’t think they will be happy with the outcome after 34 more months of this firehose form of governance.

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

Various telling things about Trump Administration

I really try not to write about politics every day on my blog, but there are things happening that do not get coverage on the nightly news programs because there are just too many things for journalists to report on.

The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America

There’s the war in Iran. There are shootings and terrorist attacks. There’s Punch the monkey and his stuffed animal from IKEA in Tokyo. There’s the Kīlauea volcano blowing its stack in Hawaii. There are the women who were abused by Jeffrey Epstein and his rich friends who apparently are not going to face consequences in the United States like they are in Great Britain.

In a 30-minute news broadcast, minus eight to ten minutes of commercials, a host of happenings fall on the editor’s floor. Today I will touch on a few of those.

Trump’s attitude about the war in Iran

President Trump wants other countries to police the Strait of Hormuz. We’ll see how that goes. He also wants the crews on oil tankers to just be brave and go through the strait. Easy for him to say.

He wants China, France, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom and “others” to send warships there to secure the two-mile wide passage. He says things will go “well” with the U.S. coordinating things.

The President said the U.S. may hit Iran’s Kharg Island a few more times “just for fun.” His cavalier attitude over putting American military personnel is harm’s way and spending U.S. tax dollars is deplorable. This is not a video game.

President Trump says he will know when the war is over because he “will feel it in his bones.” He started the war because he “had a feeling.” As a student of history, I don’t recall any other U.S. President approaching a war based on “feelings.”

Can you imagine the misogynistic outcry there would be if a female U.S. President ever said such a thing? She would be the last female U.S. President!

One day he calls the war “a war.” The next day he calls it “an excursion.” The objectives of the war change hourly.

If we get to have a Presidential election in 2028, I hope voters will remember the ramifications when we elect a President who is unable to communicate their objectives or their dependence on facts.

The FCC

After President Trump accused the news media of “intentionally misleading” the public in their coverage of the war in Iran, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr threatened to revoke broadcasters’ licenses.

We’ve heard these threats before from the Trump Administration, as they try to dictate news coverage.

This is an attack on the free press and a major foundation of our nation. Countries like Russia, China, and North Korea have state-controlled television. We cannot allow this to happen in the United States! If you want to watch and listen to state-controlled TV, you can watch Fox News.

Carr warned that a network’s coverage of the war in Iran will be taken into consideration when their broadcast licenses come up for renewal. In a social media post, Carr warned them that they still had a chance to “correct course” and stop broadcasting “fake news” and distortions of the war.

Carr wrote, “The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not.”

He accused broadcast networks of “running hoaxes.”

Carr doubled down on this in an interview with CBS News later on Saturday.

The trouble is that the law is left to interpretation now. Until recently, it was generally agreed that the news media should be free to report facts. Under the Trump Administration, they are being pressured to only report things that put Trump in a good light. This is what they have in autocracies like Russia, China, and North Korea.

Carr has encouraged broadcast networks to air “patriotic pro-America content” this year as we mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. But when a politically-appointed FCC Chair starts to dictate broadcast content, we and the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution are under attack.

When the politician in power gets to decide the definition of “public interest,” freedom of the press is in peril.

We have not heard the last of this. If push comes to shove, I imagine we will see a case going before the U.S. Supreme Court.

I only took one Constitutional Law course in college, so I’m no expert; however, I know under the First Amendment to the Constitution it is illegal for the government to censor free speech.

Print media

The President criticized The Wall Street Journal for reporting last Friday that Iran had damaged five U.S. Air Force tanker planes in Saudi Arabia. It seems he did not want that reported to the public. He insisted that four of those planes had “virtually no damage and are already back in service.”

He is so thin-skinned that he takes honest journalism as a personal affront.

He called The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal “Lowlife ‘Papers’ and accused them of wanting the U.S. to lose the war. He called journalists “sick and demented people.”

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

Are you tired of winning?

Donald Trump told us that if he was elected U.S. President, Americans would get tired of winning.

Trump wanted the Nobel Peace Prize so much that he invented “wars” around the world so he could claim he ended them. These were wars no one had heard of until he said he had ended them. Singlehandedly, of course. He was so desperate for a trophy that FIFA created a gold one just for him.

After ending all those wars and only receiving accolades from FIFA, I guess his patience ran out in February. The war in Iran has taken the glaring lights of public attention off the Epstein files. Great Britain is punishing British men who abused the girls in Epstein’s orbit, but the United States is tap dancing around the issue. The FBI has not even interviewed the hundreds of accusers, and one cannot help but conclude that is at the direction of Trump. I’m not saying he started a war to take our attention off the Epstein files, but I believe it is serving his purposes.

Americans are being told by Trump every day that we won the war in Iran in the first hour. He has been unable to give us a consistent answer for why he started this war.

In a speech this week, Trump bragged about how he got to name this war “Operation Epic Fury.” He claimed he was given 20 names to choose from and he really loved the way “Operation Epic Fury” sounded. He was telling it like he was leading a high school pep rally, egging on the audience to laugh and cheer at his excellent naming skills.

One day he calls it “a war.” The next day he calls it “an excursion. (I thought an excursion was a side trip you could take on land as part of your vacation cruise package.) The next day, he said it was “a war and an excursion.” How can anyone call what Trump ordered to be done in Iran since February 28 an excursion?

WAH! WAH! WAH! — like the teacher being ignored in a cartoon. It is getting more difficult by the day to keep paying attention, and that’s what Trump is counting on.

At a cost to Americans of nearly $1 billion per day just for the military price, that is staggering – especially from an administration that gutted money for cancer research and so many heretofore valued things we depended on the U.S. Government to support “for the good of all” not just for us but for the good of people around the world.

And what did Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency accomplish last year, if the Department of Defense could spend $2 million of Alaskan king crab, $6.9 million on lobster tail, and more millions on rib-eye steaks in September alone? And the Department of Homeland Security could purchase more than 2,000 vehicles for Immigration and Customs Enforcement with “ICE” painted on the sides in huge letters… when everyone knows ICE vehicles display no identification?

The blood-thirsty rhetoric coming from the Trump Administration in the form of not just their words but the childish and extremely offensive way the White House has put out videos that make war look like a video game were a new low for Trump and his inner circle. Every time we think they can’t stoop lower… they hit a new low. There is no end to it.

Photo by Jeff Kingma on Unsplash

Trump said he will accept nothing short of an unconditional surrender by Iran, but when his press secretary was questioned about that she said that complete surrender will be whatever Trump decides to define it as. It has been hinted that Trump can just say Iran has surrendered, whether Iran has surrendered or not. That is no surprise, since Trump has never been bothered or worried over facts or the truth.

When questioned about the bombing of the girls’ school in Iran, Trump said Iran bombed it. He said Iran isn’t very accurate with its bombs. With all the evidence indicating that it was a Tomahawk missile, Trump’s explanation doesn’t hold water. If you are waiting for him to admit that the United States made a horrible mistake, don’t hold your breath. Several explanations have surfaced over why the school was bombed by mistake, but we do not have President who knows how to admit error or apologize for anything.

Can you seriously imagine any former U.S. President wearing a white “USA” baseball cap to Dover Air Force Base to accept the flag-draped coffins of Americans killed in war? I watched the “Dignified Transfer” live on television last Saturday. It is called the Dignified Transfer for a reason.

Trump showed his true colors by wearing a white USA baseball cap – part of his own brand’s merchandise – to the ceremony. Wearing the cap wasn’t bad enough. He did not remove the cap as the flag-draped coffins were presented in front of him. It was shocking to see but, since it was Donald Trump, it was not surprising.

Trump cannot tolerate criticism, so after being criticized for wearing a baseball cap to the Dignified Transfer on Saturday, he did not attend the Dignified Transfer on Monday night for Sgt. Benjamin N. Pennington.

Trump wants us to think that he has already moved on.

Yesterday, in yet another ludicrous attempt to make Americans think our attack on Iran was a fantastic idea and overwhelming success, Trump said on social media that America is going to make “a lot of money” since the price of oil has skyrocketed this week because we are the largest oil producer in the world. He is an insult to our intelligence… or at least to those of us who never voted for him.

Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan was attacked by a terrorist yesterday. A terrorist opened fire and killed the instructor in an ROTC classroom yesterday at Old Dominion University in Virginia.

There appears to have been a massive lack of foresight put into the decision to bomb Iran – and that just might be the biggest understatement of all time. Lack of foresight and lack of forethought are the hallmarks of the Trump Administration.

Who thinks you can poke a bear and not pay the consequences? Who thought we could poke the radical Islamists in the Middle East and not expect them to lash out at us and all their enemies?

Why didn’t Trump and his advisors consider that they might shut down the Strait of Hormuz?

Why didn’t Trump and his advisors consider that they had sleeper cells in the United States?

Why didn’t they take into account that the extremists who survive this war and the descendants of the extremists and innocent people killed in this war will dedicate themselves to terrorizing us?

The battle cry of Iran this week is “Death to America!” The battle cry of Iran has been “Death to America” for 47 years, so it is difficult to see what this war has accomplished.

Trump told us months ago that we had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear war capabilities, but some days this month we’re being told it was their nuclear war capabilities that necessitated the current war. And Trump doesn’t understand why we cannot believe a word he says?

If Trump thinks bombing Iran in 2026 will not result in Islamic extremists retaliating against the U.S. and Americans for the rest of time, he clearly knows nothing about ideological extremism.

Perhaps today he will stop bragging about defeating Iran and get back to talking about how easy it would be for him to take over Cuba and Greenland. We get up in the morning and brace ourselves for whatever he said or did overnight and what he will do or say next. He is exhausting.

Americans, are you tired of winning yet?

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

A rare author event

The title of today’s blog post might be misleading. I am not writing about rare authors but rather a rare event for this author.

I could look back through prior years’ records to determine when my last author event was, but let it suffice to say it has been quite a while.

I was delighted to participate in a “Local Author Showcase” at Thornwell Books in Morganton, North Carolina this past Saturday! Being a fan and cheerleaders for independent bookstores, I jumped at the chance to be included in this third annual event at Thornwell Books.

Ad for Third Annual Local Author Showcase at Thornwell Books, Morganton, NC

I had contacted Thornwell Books last year when I published my devotional book and its companion journal. I contacted the store’s owner again in November 2025, when I published Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories. I did not know if the store had any of my books in stock, but I thought it wise to participate on Saturday and meet Ashley Ewing, Thornwell’s Bookseller and Socia Media & Events Coordinator.

Thornwell Books was on my list of bookstores to visit the next time I got to travel in the Hickory to Asheville area, but I had not made it there yet. Even though I am not technically “local” to Morganton, I was invited to take part in the bookstore’s three-hour event last Saturday.

It turned out there were 11 authors there from all over North Carolina and one from Columbia, South Carolina, so I was not the only one who traveled 100 miles or so to the event.

Janet and her half-table display space at Local Author Showcase March 7, 2026, at Thornwell Books, Morganton, NC

It was fun to get acquainted with other writers from the region and see what they writer. There were several children’s books authors, a fantasy author, an author of LGBTQ romance, a couple of self-help/inspirational authors, two non-fiction history authors, and the founder of the Spoken Word Society in Mt. Airy, North Carolina. If Mt. Airy sounds familiar, that’s because it is the hometown of Andy Griffin, one of North Carolina’s favorite sons.

Photo of the front cover of Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories, by Janet Morrison
Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories, by Janet Morrison

Two or three of the authors made more sales than the rest of us. I only sold one copy of Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories, but I knew going in that it might not be a lucrative financial venture. You just never know how author events will be received, and it was a beautiful and uncommonly warm late winter day that felt more like late April or May. It was more of a networking opportunity.

It was interesting to see how other authors displayed their books, and during slow times we had the opportunity to commiserate about the pitfalls of being a writer such as looking for publishers, the various routes to self-publishing, and how different writers structure (or don’t structure) their writing time. Some of us are outliners and others are “pantsers.” (Pantsers write by the seat of their pants, with no idea where their book’s plot is going. Yikes!)

Thornwell Books

Front entrance to Thornwell Books

Thornwell Books is located at 202 S. Sterling Street in Morganton, NC. Morganton is the county seat of a very old county (Burke) in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, some 60 miles east of Asheville and sits along I-40. The population is around 18,000.

Side entrance to Thornwell Books

The bookstore is in a former Ford car dealership. The architecture is unique and quite interesting. The shop includes a coffee and pastry bar. There are numerous tables in the second-floor loft to accommodate students wanting a place to work on their laptops and study. That area was extremely busy on Saturday, as was the coffee shop. Many locals popped in to get a coffee and buy a newspaper.

Coffee Bar at Thornwell Books and view of part of the reading and study loft

It is the kind of independent bookstore that every town needs. It’s a shame there are so few independent bookstores in existence.

Morganton, North Carolina

If you are ever in Morganton or simply passing through on I-40 on your way to somewhere else, take time to get off the busy interstate and drive into the town. Sterling Street is one of the main streets in the town and easy to find. Thornwell Books is just a couple of blocks from the old courthouse. There is on-street parking and parking on both sides of the store.

There is a downtown shopping district, an old courthouse to drive around in the center of town which features a wonderful statue of the late U.S. Senator Sam Ervin who was born and lived there, a local history museum, Western Piedmont Community College, a building that houses branches of several colleges including Appalachian State University, the North Carolina School for the Deaf, and a state-operated mental hospital.

Burke County Old Courthouse, Morganton, NC, as seen from Thornwell Books

The City of Morganton Municipal Center for the Arts (COMMA) is a beautiful facility that hosts various performances. “The Jazz Legacy Project – Billie Holiday: God Bless the Child” is scheduled for April 17, and the website says the tickets are selling fast. It sounds like a delightful event!

Big cities tend to look down their noses at small cities like Morganton but, as you can see, many of them offer wonderful cultural opportunities and great independent bookstore!

Interesting bench outside Thornwell Books

Meanwhile…

The war in the Middle East rages on as attacks spread throughout the region. A committee in Iran selected a new Ayatollah this weekend – the 56-year-old son of the one killed in the war the previous weekend. The bodies of the first six U.S. military personnel killed in the war were returned to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Saturday. A seventh U.S. military service person died this weekend from injuries sustained on Iran’s attack on Saudi Arabia on March 1. Russia is reportedly giving intelligence information about the U.S. military to Iran. Ukraine is going to help the United States with drone expertise.

Our European allies continue to watch and wait without making any commitments, except for Germany and Italy. And who can blame them? This is Trump and Netanyahu’s war of choice.

As more countries get dragged into the war to various degrees, it remains a dangerous situation without a clear path to an end.

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.