119 Comments
User's avatar
jane's avatar

Thank you, Mr. Sykes. Auggie has great form. The U.S., on the other hand, does not.

Expand full comment
Diane Battista's avatar

Watching Trump out on the White House lawn with the workers putting up his most important flagpoles is like watching Grandpa going out to check on the work being done in the lawn

Isn’t there more pressing things that the president of the United States needs to be doing?

Doesn’t the president of United States usually have a busy schedule?

CRAZY

Expand full comment
Owlette's avatar

Why is it that I'm rarely able to watch him doing something without

having some Freudian 'overcompensation' stuff coming into mind??

Those flagpoles...

Expand full comment
Diane Battista's avatar

I’ve had your book

“Dumbing Down our Kids” since you first, put it out

You must write a book and title it

“Dumbing Down America”

Because that is the process that has happened with Trump and Maga

The emotional and the intellectual damage that has been done is profound

We are at the lowest level ever and the lowest common denominator in this country .

Expand full comment
Diane Battista's avatar

In watching Trump yesterday out on the lawn of the White House with the workers that are putting up the “very important flagpoles “ all organized behind him…. He looked horrible and he talked nonsense.

Trumps words :

“ Iran’s got a lot of trouble and they want to negotiate and I say, why didn’t you negotiate with me before all this death and destruction why didn’t you negotiate I said to people why didn’t you negotiate with me two weeks ago you could have done fine you would’ve had a country …..

Unconditional surrender that means I’ve had it I’ve had it I give up go no more we go blow up all the nuclear stuff that’s all over the place

Nothing‘s finished until it’s finished you know war is a very complex a lot of bad things can happen

A lot of terms are made. I don’t know I wouldn’t say we want anything yet but i would say we sure as hell made a lot of progress we’ll see the next week is gonna be very big maybe less than a week maybe less than a week”

WHAT THE HELL IS THIS ???

So tired of listening to just this type of ramble instead of something serious, presidential, informed and intelligent .

It’s like mafia talk and thuggery.

That’s all we’ve heard is this type of talk and in these tweets that he’s put out which are only meant to create fear intimidation ,threats, gaslighting to create heightened fear into submission.

This is not how the United States is supposed to handle anything, especially with such a sensitive matter as Iran.

First of all before anybody invades any country they need congressional approval

Everything is not his final decision.

He was always working with Benjamin Netanyahu about Iran .

Neither one of them want to follow any type of democracy or rules or norms.

Where are the Republicans in Congress?

Expand full comment
Diane Battista's avatar

Good summary!

Everyone must catch Denver Riggleman, talking about Tucker and Cruz !

https://open.substack.com/pub/denverriggleman926601/p/tucker-carlson-v-ted-cruz?r=eit6y&utm_medium=ios

Expand full comment
Mark Rodin's avatar

Auggie's got the right idea for the whole Iran mess. Where's a highly qualified and eminent psychiatrist when you really need one. Trump's desire for controversy and publicity never ceases

Expand full comment
Grumpy Liberal's avatar

All that time at Harvard Law apparently didn't serve Cruz very well.

The real tragedy of the MAGA-spat is that the American people are the losers, regardless of who wins.

Expand full comment
S. A. Linden's avatar

Auggie is pure joy. That's all I will say except "thanks" for counterpointing that with the Trump Nightmare.

Expand full comment
Mary Schweitzer's avatar

Real swift - dismantling our intelligence capabilities while taunting Iran.

Expand full comment
Linda McGoey's avatar

Excuse me. But if he wants to take us into that war, doesn’t Congress have to declare war? Or is that a silly question?

Expand full comment
Mark Rodin's avatar

As Charlie says Congress is now a potted plant.

Expand full comment
Mary Schweitzer's avatar

We have a history of military action that is never declared a war - getting militarily involved in Latin America - for generations, then after WWII trying to avoid the post -WWI mistakes that caused the rise of Hitler by becoming involved in Europe.

Korea was not technically a war - it was a police action sponsored by the United Nations. Vietnam was never voted a war. It started out as advisors helping out one side of the Vietnamese civil war, then we needed more troops to support the advisors, then troops to support the troops, until we had 500,000 fighting in not-a-war.

I don’t think Congress has voted for a war since WWII. But the dead are dead. The permanently injured remain injured. And PTSD is still PTSD.

Expand full comment
Linda McGoey's avatar

Thank you for enlightening me.

Expand full comment
Stephen Chamberlin's avatar

Trump's childish and petulant approach ("I've had it...) didn't work in the far simpler world of real estate...yet he is now employing the same approach in one of the most complex foreign policy environments that exists on earth. This should go well.

Expand full comment
Arugula's avatar

Any move toward war is terrifying. But when there are no serious, principled, or skilled people making the decision - when the decision might well be based on how Trump is feeling from one hour to the next - the fallout will condemn our children to years of chaos.

Expand full comment
Bluchek Mark's avatar

When there is no declared war, to whom is one supposed to surrender unconditionally? Just asking.

Expand full comment
DK Brooklyn's avatar

How are they going to defend us if they couldn’t organize a parade on our own streets.

Expand full comment
S. A. Linden's avatar

Good question. He demoralized the troops so much by that, he'd never be able to declare war if it wasn't fought now with tech robots. Where's Mr. Musk on this?

Expand full comment
ReneeUpNorth's avatar

Any piece that includes “dipsomaniacal chode” gets an automatic thumbs up. 👍🏻

This is all so very grave and dreadful no matter which way you look at it. I don’t even know what to say. the future of the country and possibly the world is in the hands of someone who just learned the word groceries last month and can’t stay awake for his own birthday party.

Expand full comment
Krist Hager's avatar

Had to look up dipsomaniacal thinking it could have been a word that Charlie just made up.

Expand full comment