Friday, December 19, 2025

CASH CHRISTMAS COMMENTARY FOR DEC. 25, 2025


                                                                 CASH MICHAELS

                                     BE A MIRACLE, BE OF SERVICE

        by Cash Michaels


It’s Christmas! That very special time of the year when we’re all supposed to come together in good spirit and cheer to rejoice the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

However, you may have noticed that for several years now, we’ve done anything but, instead preferring to celebrate our gift-giving prowess and ability to decorate our homes gaudier than a cheap Las Vegas casino.

That’s unfortunate, because while I’m pretty certain that December 25th is not the actual birthday of Christ, the fact that once upon a time we would take a moment to honor the most blessed event in the history of the world with reverence, prayer and song was something that, as a child, I deeply appreciated and looked forward to.

Yes, I too looked forward to the Christmas presents my hardworking mother wrapped and placed under the tree, but back in the day, Christmas seemed to be in closer alignment with the story of Baby Jesus than it is now. Indeed the church seemed to have more influence and engendered much more respect than it does now. And I’m so very happy it did, because I can honestly say that I’ve been “churched.”

No, I wasn’t “churched” to the extent of being a holy roller, speaking in tongues or dancing in the aisles or stuff like that. But “churched” enough to know from where my blessings have come from. Blessings that, hopefully, will allow me to see my 70th birthday on January 3rd. Given my tattered health history, being able to make it that far on this side of an old oak tree root, is truly a blessing.

But one of the things that has weighed heavily on my heart lately with the holiday spirit in the air, is this thing called “being of service.”

Recently, I had the privilege of attending a touching retirement program at the new Dept. of Health and Human Services building near the fairgrounds. A close family friend of ours was being feted for her retirement after 37 years of service to her department, and many of her colleagues, past and present, took the time to come out and pay tribute to her selfless contributions, and helping them better do their jobs over the years.

Helping them provide needed services to the people of North Carolina.

I say that here because they said that there. Being able to do their jobs so that the taxpayer was well served was something each of the speakers said they were proud to do and represent. And it wasn’t just bureaucratic lip service. These folks were genuine. You could feel it.

For me, hearing that, and being among people who saw being of service as their primary mission, whether it was to someone without a home, or in need of mental health counseling, or didn’t have enough food, was both important and refreshing.

If you seriously think about it, what are we here for as human beings but to ultimately be of service to one another, to be there for each other. To share our humanity in countless ways that makes our GOD in heaven smile. To do what Jesus did - wash the feet of His brother and sister - and do so so that they may stand strong on the truth - that GOD loves us all. To relieve them of, and strengthen them for, the burden being tired from slings and arrows of living. To help them feel being an important part of something bigger than themselves.

Given how many times I’ve had to be hospitalized over the years, I’ve said before that while I have deep regard for every one of my doctors, I have an even deeper love and respect for every one of my nurses, because they were the ones who left their own families to come to comfort me, and administer lifesaving food, medicine and humanity to me so that I could live longer.

But the vital caring and concern each nurse gave me were right out of the song of service we all should be singing. To ask, “How may I serve you” or declare to someone that you are at their service, and mean it,  is a blessing from GOD that we should all say and mean more often, because it is what He wants of His children.

And that’s the most important part of all of this, that at this time of year, ALL of GOD’s children, no matter what their race, color, creed, gender or orientation, should be intelligent enough, and spiritual enough, to know that we are part of GOD’s creation, and should always try to act like it.

And one of the ways is by loving one another, and being of service to one another - not because someone told us to, but because we can feel it inside that it’s something our Father in Heaven would have us do every day of our lives.

We all foolishly take a lot for granted. Well let me tell you that life is not guaranteed to anyone. It could all end in the twinkling of an eye at anytime or place. And that’s why Christmas should be about more than just gift-giving, or pagan tree images, and getting drunk at office parties.

Christmas should be about reminding all of us that after another year together by the grace of GOD, we should give Him His due. We should look around, and realize that of all of the things, and all of the people that are no longer with us, He chose to give us another chance to live, to grow, to learn and to love. We are His miracles!

Our GOD in Heaven decided to give us, His children, another chance to be of service! At this very precious time of year, that very special blessing should NOT be overlooked, but be deeply appreciated!

With that, I want to wish any and ALL of you who read this commentary throughout the year, a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!! And I pray that Almighty GOD continues to bless you and your families.

Take care!

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Monday, December 15, 2025

THE CASH COMMENTARY FOR DEC. 18, 2025


                                                                  CASH MICHAELS


    OUR “PANTS ON FIRE” PRESIDENT

                                              By Cash Michaels


Recently, I authored a commentary that examined how, under Trump, we are “governed by fraud, and led by liars.” I hope you read it, and if you did, I hope you got something out of it. It was a lengthy, fact-based opinion piece that I feel hit several nails on the head, one being that it is awfully hard to trust a president or anybody serving in his administration, when all they have to show for their existence is lying and deception.

       Indeed, one of the worst admitted Trump Administration perpetrators, FBI Assistant Director Dan Bongino, announced this week that he is leaving his post in January, apparently to return to his podcast and Fox News, where he admittedly lied for a paycheck, something Bongino said he dearly missed.

It’s very strange way to live in this, or any country, when you wake up everyday actually expecting to hear boldface, blatant lying from your nation’s leadership. Take Trump's rushed, unhinged, pre-Christmas "bah-humbug," nothing-new-here, partisan address to the nation Wednesday night. He actually took the time to continue to bash Joe Biden; insist that grocery prices are down, when they're certainly not; and that the country is doing great, when 64% of Americans say it's anything but.

        But that's the way it's going to be for the next three years. Trump is only going to see and preach what he needs for us to believe. What’s true and what’s not could very well be the difference between war and peace, life and death.

Maybe even yours.

With Donald Trump, unfortunately, all of the above is a daily fact of life. Whether it’s his over-the-top worship of Russian President Vladimir Putin or strange fealty for documented bad guys like the pardoned convicted January 6th insurrectionists or corrupt former NY Congressman George Santos, Trump embodies all of the characteristics of a leader who has absolutely no consideration for the honest people he’s supposed to serve, but has every consideration for miscreants like himself who always have something up their sleeves, and uses the powers of his high office to further his own corrupt appetite.

        In a series of very candid interviews in Vanity Fair magazine, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles said that Trump has “an alcoholic’s personality," that he feels there's nothing he can't do. To me, that means the man is drunk with power, has lost touch with reality, and there's no stopping him.

For the record, Trump doesn’t drink, so Susie's description can’t be good on its face, no matter how you slice it. He is NOT a normal human being.

Another aspect of this “trust him not” problem is when Trump repeatedly fails to reflect the decency and respect we’ve come to expect from our presidents, who, in times of national crisis or tragedy, are supposed to represent our collective feelings and values, and express them with grace, dignity and compassion when the situation warrants it.

That clearly was not the case earlier this week, after the tragic deaths of actor-director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele. The pair allegedly were murdered by their adult son, who has a long history of drug and mental health problems.

The positive generational impact of Reiner and his work in American culture is undeniable, and warmly appreciated by many, so such a tragedy is something that is deeply felt, and our supposed “leader” is supposed to speak for all of us in expressing that collective sentiment.

And yet, Trump saw fit to belittle Reiner, a beloved artist famously known as “Meathead" on the classic “All in the Family” sitcom, and successful director of noteworthy films like “Stand by Me,” “When Harry Met Sally” and “A Few Good Men,” alleging that the real cause of his death was the fact that he was a liberal critic of Trump.

        "What a good time it would be to have a leader with a moral compass," opined comedian Seth Meyers in reaction to Trump's deranged attack on his murdered friend.

        Make no mistake, while precious few in the Republican Party and MAGA movement have displayed some decency in criticizing Trump’s outrageous lack of compassion and dearth of moral compass, those who haven’t condemned him or said a respectful word about the Reiner tragedy are just as bad as he is. There’s no other way to look at it.

Many of us who vehemently disagreed with the unsavory views of assassinated right-wing activist Charlie Kirk have always made clear that we abhorred his murder, because we were taught to respect a person’s humanity and right to it, no matter how much we opposed his thoughts.

Apparently, Donald Trump was never taught that simple lesson in human decency.  That’s another reason we can never trust him.

And never will.

That’s why literally anything he says or does is closely watched with a jaundiced eye.

For instance, it seems most apparent now that something very big is about to jump off in Venezuela by Christmas, if not sooner. Our military has moved big guns, tens of thousands of troops, and a multitude of fighter jets to the region. We’re hearing from Attorney General Pam Bondi that much of this is a law enforcement action backed up by the military. And we’re also hearing that Venezuela is not the only targeted South and Central American country Trump wants to bring to heel to his whims, meaning that Columbia, Honduras and other sovereign nations are also on the hit list.

On Monday, Trump issued an executive order designating fentanyl as a “weapon of mass destruction,” thus allowing him to further flex his military muscle in the supposed cause of fighting the importation of illegal drugs. On Tuesday, he ordered a "total and complete" naval blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers going to and coming from Venezuela. On Wednesday, The NY Times reported that those oil tankers will have Venezuelan military escorts, so Venezuela is about to become the mouse that roared, which may mean the prospect for war may be just around the corner.

Of course, Trump and company have draped their real intentions in claims that they’re “saving millions of American lives” with their provocative and certainly illegal military actions of bombing boats and seizing oil tankers. Stemming the spread of illegal drugs had been floated as the M.O. for a hot minute, until Trump suddenly pulled one of his pardon rabbits out of his magic hat, wiping the criminal slate clean for corrupt former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was convicted last year in a U.S. federal court of using his office to help drug traffickers import more than 400 tons of cocaine into the United States.

Hernandez was rightfully sentenced to 45 years in prison.

Trump’s excuse for pardoning and tolerating such a monster? He was “setup” by the Biden Administration.

Anyone who has studied Trump for 30 seconds or less knows that anything and everything he does is transactional. He expects loyalty from the plants in the Oval Office pots if he sees fit to water them.

So we all know that his pardon of the fellow felonious former president of Honduras has strings attached we can’t see clearly yet, because it makes no damn sense to pardon a major Central American drug dealer who helped traffic tons of coke into Ma and Pa Kettle’s middle America, while claiming from the other side of his mouth to champion the fight against drug smuggling from Venezuela.

Something is clearly up, and, in Trump’s mind at least, that something is big enough, and important enough, to move major American firepower into `the South, Central and Caribbean regions to show folks down there who’s boss.

We know Trump wants to confiscate, if not control, as much oil on Earth as possible. He’s on record as saying the United States should have taken the oil from Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein after the Gulf War. So it’s not a stretch to postulate that he wants to at least control Venezuela’s vast oil reserves once he forces Pres. Nicholas Maduro to start packing. 

I hope Maduro has read Los Angelos Times columnist Jackie Calmes’ latest offering like I have on why Trump got rid of his military lawyers. Calmes writes that after “firing top lawyers at the Army, Navy and Air Force” because they might “slow him down,” Trump’s military entanglements “are… creating a knotty mess of lawlessness, hypocrisy and potential war crimes…” when you throw in Venezuelan boat bombings, and threatening to prosecute Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona for telling military personnel that it is their duty to disobey illegal orders. 

According to Trump, such blasphemy from the former Navy officer and astronaut is “seditious behavior” deserving of “death.” For the record, no it isn’t, but of course, the military legal beagles normally around Trump to save him from himself apparently are not there to tell him so.

If I were Maduro, I would interpret all of that to mean that if Trump wants to bomb his country to kingdom come, and take his oil fields by force, there’s little or nothing to stop him.

And if Pres. Maduro kept reading the latest news out of Washington, D.C., he would have also seen that a majority of Americans opposed Trump giving a pardon to his cocaine trafficking buddy, former Pres. Hernandez from Honduras. 

According to a new Economist/YouGov poll taken December 5-8,  66% of Americans disapprove and only 13% approve of that pardon. I’m sure such numbers do anything but warm Madura’s crooked heart about how we feel about bad guys over here.

So, there will be no sympathy for Maduro if Trump decides to make an example out of him.

Bottomline here is whatever Trump is doing with these weird power moves with the U.S. military, you can bet it’s to ultimately fatten his pockets with more power and money. Problem is, when you start showing off your military might for nefarious reasons, enemies tend to figure it out, and start to test your mettle.

That may have been what that unfortunate murder of three Americans in Syria was all about over the weekend. Trump has blamed ISIS for the crime, and has vowed to retaliate, but that just might get us into another war that Trump might not be ready to handle, though I'm sure he thinks he is.

Pres. Donald Trump is not an honest man. We know this, so anything we hear coming from the White House these days, we have to always read between the lines because we all know he’s always up to something that does not benefit the country.

In a recent editorial in The Hill, William S. Decker, opinion contributor wrote, The person who currently commands the awesome weapons of the presidency lacks the temperament, mental stability and moral compass required for the job. The American republic and the international order are hanging by a thread.

Decker later added:

The unadorned truth is that Trump’s broken moral compass, overactive testosterone, sycophantic staff, pathological narcissism, and extraordinary presidential powers make him a clear and present danger to the republic and the world. That mix of accelerants is even more volatile with a capitulating Congress and the Supreme Court’s decision that he is above the law.

This is our “pants on fire” president, folks, and the sooner this nation gets this sick, sick man out of office, the better!

            -30-

Sunday, December 14, 2025

THE CASH STUFF FOR DEC. 18, 2025


                                                          CECIL BROCKMAN


9-1-1 CALLS UNLOCK

POSSIBLE MYSTERY

IN BROCKMAN CASE

By Cash Michaels

Contributing writer


When former NC House member Cecil Brockman called Guilford County authorities in desperate search for a young, underage companion he would later be charged with allegedly sexually molesting, did the High Point Democrat do so because he was genuinely concerned that the 15-year-old may be hurt or injured somewhere, or because the 41 year-old former legislator knew the teenager’s phone allegedly contained sexually explicit videos of the two that would get Brockman in the hot water he’s in now, and wanted to retrieve it?

A recent story in the Raleigh News & Observer reveals the 911 call that Brockman made on Oct. 3rd, where he told the dispatcher, “…that he was trying to get in contact with his “friend,” who was walking down Old Greensboro Road in Thomasville, which is near High Point. “I’m trying to find him,” Brockman said. That 911 call, alongside another placed by a bystander who saw the teenager while driving, would end up drawing the attention of criminal investigators, who arrested Brockman later that week and charged him with two counts each of indecent liberties with a child and statutory sex offense with a person who is 15 years old or younger. The “friend” Brockman mentions in the call was actually a 15-year-old with whom he was having an illegal relationship, Guilford County District Attorney Avery Crump would later say.”

Brockman, who was eventually forced to resign his District 60 seat in the NC House because of his arrest, has vehemently denied that he knew the teenager was a minor child.

“Why should I pay the ultimate price because someone wanted to grow up too fast? Why should I bare (sic) the entirety of consequence for another person’s lie?” Brockman asked in a Nov. 4th handwritten letter from jail before he was released on bond. 

“His father knew he was staying with me, a 41 year-old man and said nothing,” Brockman continued in his missive. “When he came to me to stay with me in NC [from Atlanta where they met in the spring], his father knew and said nothing. He didn’t have or do any schoolwork. His best friend lived in another state with her boyfriend. He told me he was a legally consenting age and he looked the age he claimed. He was 6’1 muscular. And we met on an adult doing app.”

D.A. Crump says evidence disputes Brockman’s claim, however. According to the N&O story, “Upon finding [the teenager] on the road, authorities brought the alleged victim to the hospital due to the condition he was in, Crump said in court last month. She declined to provide details publicly, telling the judge it was confidential medical information. A 911 call from a bystander, which authorities received prior to Brockman’s call, described seeing someone “slumped over” standing in the middle of the road. “He almost walked in front of three people, almost got hit,” the caller said in a recording…”

The N&O story continued, “Once the teenager was in the hospital, Crump said Brockman made multiple attempts to gain access to him. She alleged he did so with the intent of retrieving the individual’s phone and deleting any evidence of their relationship. Brockman’s attorney, Alec Carpenter, denied this claim, saying his client only went to the hospital because “he cared very much about this person.” A trial date has not yet been scheduled in Brockman’s case.

Brockman’s Nov. 4th letter, which some legal observers would say was a mistake, may actually help destroy the notion that he was desperately searching for the teen because he “cared very much” about him.

Brockman’s Nov. 4th letter clearly shows that by that time, at least, he was angry with the boy, and very concerned about his own welfare.

“My life has already been ruined. The career and legacy that I have work so hard for, always trying to do the right thing taken in a instant because someone lied to me.”

“I have paid severely for his dishonesty,” the former state house member continued. “I will never be the same.”

“I spent all of my 30’s in public service,” Brockman went on. “The thought of spending the rest of my life or 12 years in prison is unimaginable. Especially when I was the one that was lied to.”

Brockman concluded, “This amount of cruelty is unbarable (sic). I keep waking up and it’s a reality that I cannot change. I am so devastated, constantly hurt and sad. I do not know what to do. Praying God loves me and heals me.”

The question that will now plague Brockman’s defense once his case goes to trial is why did he try so hard to gain access to the juvenile once he knew that he had been found, was safe, and receiving medical treatment for his injuries?

What was the nature of those injuries, and did they, in any way, provide evidence against Brockman that authorities could followup on?

Did he, in fact, know what allegedly incriminating videos were on the teenager’s cellphone?

And despite his letter claiming otherwise, exactly when did Cecil Brockman determine that the “6’1 [and] muscular” young man he admittedly met on a dating app, allegedly flew to Atlanta, Ga. to meet and be with in May, then bring back to High Point to live with in August, only to lose track of in October, was, in fact, a minor child?

Brockman is charged with two counts of taking indecent liberties with a minor under the age of 16, and two counts of statutory rape.

Authorities say the investigation is ongoing.

-30-



 GOP BOARDS OF ELECTION

DO AWAY WITH SUNDAY 

AND CAMPUS VOTING

By Cash Michaels

Contributing writer


With the candidate filing period for the 2026 midterm elections drawing to a close December 19th at 12 noon, county boards of elections (BOE) are firming up their plans for voting. And since all BOEs in North Carolina are Republican majority by court order, that means the rules for casting a ballot are going to be different from previous Democratic BOE-run midterms.

Important to black voters in Guilford County, especially students attending N.C. A&T University and UNC Greensboro in Greensboro, there will be no early voting site for the 2026 midterms on those campuses.

Republican BOE members rejected a proposal to establish sites on both campuses, which had early voting locations for the 2024 primary elections.

Elsewhere, BOE’s in Harnett and Craven counties have decided to eliminate Sunday early voting. Reportedly, Republicans on the BOEs in both counties disagreed with Democrats in allowing  voters to cast ballots on Sunday, saying there aren’t enough voters who come to the early voting polls on Sundays to justify the costs. One Republican Harnett County BOE member is quoted as saying “It’s not needed.”

However, it’s been well-known for years that Sundays are very popular early voting days for churchgoers in the African-American community statewide. Wherever there is a significant black churchgoing community, congregations traditionally board church vans and go to their nearest early voting sites on Sundays after service during the early voting period to cast their ballots in what has become known as “Souls to the Polls.”

Republicans have long opposed “Souls to the Polls” not only because it draws significant numbers of black churchgoers, but primarily because those voters tend to be Democrats.

Now that they have control of not only the State Board of Elections, but the local county BOEs as well for the first time in ten years, Republicans are exercising that power to suppress opposition turnout as much as legally possible, political observers say.

County BOEs must submit their early voting plans to the State Board of elections by December 19th.

-30-


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Sunday, December 7, 2025

THE CASH COMMENTARY FOR DECEMBER 11, 2025

                                                                      CASH MICHAELS


        GOVERNED BY FRAUD, LED BY LIARS

                                             By Cash Michaels

If you’ve been paying attention to the headlines from Washington, D.C. of late, there’s no getting around the overwhelming feeling that we’re being governed by a bunch of phonies and frauds.

Not a nice thing to say about anybody for sure, but facts are facts. And quite frankly, ever since Donald Trump won reelection, it was inevitable that he would put a select group of  secondhand wannabes in important positions of power whose only outstanding skill in life is expressing unvarnished loyalty to our disgraceful convict-in-chief.

Go online to the White House account on Youtube and see how Trump begins each of his Cabinet meetings. His agency secretaries around the table, in glowing, sickening terms, start off praising him, with news media cameras rolling, touting how great he is and how lucky America and the planet is to have him.

         Trump wants the entire world to be his presidential cabinet, and lavish him with unceasing praise. Mind you, this is the same guy who was just awarded a phony “peace prize” by FIFA; had the Institute of Peace building in Washington renamed “the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace;” and incredibly, just replaced the MLK and Juneteenth federal holidays with his June 14th birthday, which is NOT a holiday, on the National Park Service list for free admission days.

There hasn’t been this much -ss kissing since Taylor Swift last attended a Kansas City Chiefs football game. But with this malarkey about Trump comes dangerous incompetence from people who have no damn business in government. They could start a war, or hurt innocent people, and NOT take responsibility for any of it.

Let’s start with Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino.

A tough guy, right-wing former podcaster/radio host who made a name for himself as part of the Fox News stable of certified loudmouths, he was up there last week grinning from ear to ear with Atty General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and US. Attorney Jeanne Pirro during their press conference to announce the capture of the 2021 suspect who planted pipe bombs outside the RNC and DNC headquarters in Washington the night before the January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

After months of headlines detailing their individual monumental screwups (Bondi was caught lying about having the Epstein files “on her desk” ready for release; Patel fought off damning headlines about using an FBI private jet to go see his country music singing girlfriend and having an FBI SWAT team guard her; and prosecutor Pirro lost several high-profile cases, including “the sandwich man,” who got off after assaulting an ICE agent with a hero sandwich), Trump’s Justice Dept. stooges were proud as pigs in political slop that after almost five years, they were able to identify and capture a suspect in the attempted bombings.

Gee, the way they were all grinning, grabbing credit and throwing shade on the Biden Administration, you’d think the bombs actually went off, and it was the biggest manhunt in FBI history. But the bombs didn’t go off, and the manhunt wasn’t the biggest. The Trump-inspired U.S. Capitol insurrection was the larger crime that federal authorities had to probe as priority, but of course, none of Trump’s Justice Dept. wing-nuts touched that reality with a ten-foot pole.

What was also weird was Bongino taking credit for some of the many years of  “police work” that went into the FBI finally getting their man, when that same Dan Bongino, in 2024, pointedly told his podcast audience that the FBI actually knew who the attempted bomber was, but “just doesn’t want to tell us, because it was an inside job.”

In other words, he falsely threw deep state shade on his own law enforcement agency just to run his conspiratorial mouth.

When asked if he still believed that load of bull after the FBI he’s now second-in-command of reportedly caught the suspect, Bongino sheepishly said, “Listen I was paid in the past…for my opinions. That’s clear. And one day I will be back in that space, but that’s not what I’m paid for now. I’m paid to be your deputy director, and we base investigations on facts.”

So let me get this straight, Mr. FBI Deputy Director. You admit that years ago you were proud to be a paid lying loudmouth who made up stuff about serious issues just to keep the checks coming in.

Now that you work for the very government agency you felt free to crap all over at will in 2024, you think that now requires you to be “honorable” for the time being. But you make clear that after you’re out of office, you’ll go right back to taking a buck to lie your right-wing butt off again in a heartbeat.

Hey, call Dan “Bongo” Bongino a lot things, but a pillar of high noble integrity should NOT be one of them.

The only reason why this admitted fraud is working at the FBI now playing cops and robbers with Director Patel, whose greatest accomplishment on the job, so far, is proving he has no damn business in it, is because Bongino is extremely loyal to their mutual boss, DJT.

Just like “Dept. of War” Secretary Pete Hegeseth, who has already had his hand officially slapped for putting classified attack information out on an unsecured online commercial social media platform ( to his wife, brother, and mistakenly, a journalist) endangering the pilots on a secret bombing mission, and did a rhetorical Fred Astaire last week passing the buck for illegally bombing a suspected drug boat on Sept. 2nd at least twice, allegedly with orders to “kill everybody,” even when there were just two survivors helplessly hanging on for dear life.

        Reportedly, at least 87 people on 23 alleged drug boats have been killed without due process, and this particular Sept. 2nd double strike was on a vessel that was confirmed headed towards Europe and Africa, NOT the United States. That means survivors were illegally wiped out for nothing. There's a bi-partisan effort in Congress now to force Hegeseth to publicly release that "double-tap" boat video. Guess they've gotten tired of his Trump-backed B.S.!

This clown, who Trump has the unmitigated gall to say "is doing a great job," is a liar AND a fraud, and has no business leading the Defense Dept., but again, Hegespeth, like Bongino, Pirro, Bondi and Patel, kisses the DJT ring with pride.

        Now I would be remiss at this point if I didn't invoke the name of four-star Admiral Alvin Holsey, former head of the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), but for a different reason.

Admiral Holsey was the naval Joint Special Operations Commander responsible for all U.S. military operations in the Central, South America and Caribbean regions when Trump came into office last January. Holsey reportedly refused to go along with Sec. Hegeseth’s orders to illegally bomb boats coming from Venezuela in international waters simply on the notion that they were carrying illegal drugs to the U.S..

In other words, Admiral Holsey refused to illegally kill people just on Trump’s and Hegeseth's say-so, so he was forced to resign two years early from a post he had only held for a year, replaced by Admiral Frank Bradley, who carried out those orders, including on Sept. 2nd when two survivors of a bombed vessel, reportedly seen waving for help, were blown to smithereens. Legal experts say that action was undeniably a war crime, and Hegeseth and Trump know it. And could care less!

        Some critics disagree that the boat strikes fall under that classification, however.

“We are not in a war, and so any discussion of these illegal strikes as war crimes is inaccurate," Jeffrey Stein, attorney for the ACLU, one of the advocacy groups suing for the documents authorizing the boat strikes, told NBC News. "The law of armed conflict does not apply to these strikes. They are premeditated killings outside of the context of armed conflict, and we have a legal concept for that conduct. It’s [called] murder.”

        I think Brother Stein has a point!

Admiral Holsey officially retires this week from the Navy after 37 years of service to this country. I salute this principled man of duty, service and high honor, who is no fraud, no liar, and no murderer. I eagerly await Admiral Holsey telling his story to “60 Minutes,” and a Congressional committee. He reportedly spoke with the head Republicans and Democrats on the Senate and House Armed Services committees Tuesday. Let's see what happens next.

        And as you’re reading this, tensions between the United States and Venezuela have ratcheted up as American military forces have taken control of a Venezuelan oil tanker off the coast of that country. Whatever the reason, Trump and company will have a hard time convincing the world this isn’t about regime change.

Meanwhile insurance attorney Lindsey Halligan, on the other hand, is anything but principled. Trump installed this jetset Barbie-girl as an interim U.S. attorney with absolutely no prosecutorial experience, an idiot stunt that proved fatal to Trump’s attempt to have his sworn nemesis, former FBI Director James Comey, indicted on B.S. charges.

Same with NY Attorney General Letitia James, who once dragged Trump’s butt into a New York courtroom and successfully sued him, his sons and his company for $450 million for fraud. In retribution, she was indicted on a flimsy charge of bank fraud, also by Halligan. But Trump’s handpicked clownster Halligan was declared by a federal judge “unlawfully appointed,” meaning she had no damn business even trying to get a ham sandwich indicted, something an experienced federal prosector could have done with her eyes closed.

        And just this week, another Trump fraud, his former attorney Alina Habba, was forced to resign from serving as top federal prosecutor in New Jersey, after a federal appeals court ruled that she had also been serving in that post “unlawfully."

So why is it so important to rail against Trump’s frauds in office? Simple, because they’re doing damage to their respective government agencies and institutions, and trying to hurt people for him.

Let’s add Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to that list, shall we?

Here’s a certified nut who is supposed to diligently look out for the health and welfare of all Americans, and instead, RFK Jr. is a notorious anti-vaxxer who will not rest until he puts a dagger in the heart of the established scientific and medical communities.

From leading the charge to deny newborn children vaccinations for Hepatitis B, to trying to convince pregnant women that Tylenol is bad for them, to demanding that teeth-saving fluoride be removed from our water, Kennedy is at war with the medical and scientific establishment, and is as unhinged as they come, thanks to his warped personal and political agenda. A House Democrat already has filed articles of impeachment against him.

This is government by fraud, folks, and it’s only a matter of time before a lot of people are seriously hurt by these phonies. And when that happens, no one will take the ultimate responsibility. Certainly won’t be Trump, who personally chose these and other losers to serve in his administration because he saw them on television. Fox News, no less. He thinks government should be run like reality TV, like his old show, "The Apprentice." 

No one can tell me that appointing the founder of the World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. as the U.S. Education Dept. secretary has been a discernible boon for the advancement of our nation’s public schools. Hell, the woman’s actual job is not to improve national education policy, but to shut the entire agency down!

Haven’t you noticed that anyone who had even an once of integrity in the the first Trump Administration was promptly shown the door, especially if they stood up to him? For Trump 2.0 however, he hasn’t made that same mistake. He’s recruited incompetent, but loyal sycophants who would lie, cheat, steal and yes, it turns out, even kill for him.

Our country deserves better. It’s not too early to work towards restoring the high standard of competence we’re used to having in our government. Where all we wanted from the cabinet members who served the president was at least some accomplished background we could all point to with confidence. We knew in the past that most cabinet secretaries were chosen because of their expertise in their areas, and devotion to serving the American people. If someone proved not worthy, past presidents made it their responsibility to dump that person, and find someone else just as qualified.

But now, this governing by fraud and leading with lies mantra from the Trump Administration is corruption at best! Add that to his incessant lying, and clearly we’re in deep,  deep bullcrap!

Whether it’s Trump’s constant rant about grocery prices going down, or major foreign investment in the United States going up because of his unconstitutional tariffs, the lies this convicted con man trots out everyday are willful and embarrassing, and not worthy of the office of the American presidency. It's amazing how they were able to fit all 36% of Americans polled who say they approve of Trump's handling of the economy into that Mt. Pocono, Pa. resort "affordability rally" Tuesday night to hear him lie his behind off, because the other 64% of us who weren't there damn sure are NOT buying it!

        During that Tuesday night diatribe, by the way, Trump finally admitted something that he vehemently denied before - that he called countries like Haiti and Somalia “sh-tholes.” The man is a disgusting liar! There’s no getting around it!

        And it’s good to see former Trump bubblehead Marjorie Taylor Greene - who will resign from Congress next month - get on national television and renounce her former MAGA master, making the media rounds now calling him a liar, among other unkind, but truer than true things. It’s a tremendous sign of things to come.

I hope and pray voters have had enough of this mess by the 2026 midterm elections, and literally clean out the U.S. House, and maybe even a significant portion of the U.S. Senate, of Republicans that tolerate this fraudulent standard of government we have to put up with.

Doing so would remove any backstops Trump currently enjoys.

You and I deserve much, much better!

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