I'm 76 and was the last man drafted for Vietnam, but never served, because between my intake physical and reporting day Nixon cancelled the draft. I sympathize with young men and women today in that I no longer see much worth defending. The Epstein/Trump oligarch class has stolen all the value from the nation, so what should they stand in the line of fire for? They also know that no rich Nepos will be called up. If there is a draft, it must be applied to all people of whatever sex or orientation they live as. Kegsbreath would have a stroke if he had to sign that order.
ALOHA. From the COCONUT WIRELESS. ....This WAR the orange nipo sucking cry baby taco bankruptoer PEDO PIG is still trying to distract the people .... If you want to do something about anything to get it out of your system, look into these organizations below as well and see what you can DO and not just gasp at things you can't control .... DEMOCRACYDOCKET.COM ..... DEFIANCE.ORG. ........ Some you don't need to go out in the streets to make a point.............. example of a fiery ad from the "SAM.org"........Mary Corcoran, Executive Director of the Save America Movement (SAM), .... Good to know of other orgs. like the "PROJECT SALT BOX". Look into it on the substack. "PROJECT SALT BOX" tell you where ICE is buying warehouses and what to do about it.. ............"EPSTEIN WAR"...... "Once you start looking for the signs, it is something you cannot easily unsee or ignore. For example, shortly after launching a military assault on Iran, Donald Trump posted on social media that "Iran tried to interfere in the 2020 and 2024 elections to stop Trump and now faces renewed war with the United States." False claims that foreign government interference caused him to lose in 2020 have been a staple of the diet of lies Trump feeds to his faithful. The countries may change — Venezuela, China, Italy, Cuba, Iran — but the purpose of the lies remains the same." .......... WARNING WARNING WARNING. ... OUR VOTE BY MAIL has been hit with a boom too. Not just Iran. Supreme court just said that POST OFFICE can ,hold ,burn,trash,your voting mail in ballets and have no consequences for their actions! Look it up!..... CNN is lost to the PEDOS........... there's a lot of unpacking to do....On other matters.... CONGRESS has SUPER POWER. They can DECLARES WAR not PEDO PIG. "EPSTEIN CLASS"..........For your voice in voting .Call.. 855-999-8503 to the US SENATE and tell your SENATOR to vote "NO" on the "SAVE ACT". ..... FOR 2026 and beyond...Here is a way the congress can protect/change our VOTING rights.. A new way of doing and thinking about our laws and to straighten it so it can't be tampered with.... https://youtu.be/TzgypBkIzPk?si=LYsZhoW-8H5dbVK4 .... Also, .Look into "resistandunsubscrbe.com" economic fight. Hit them where the money is.See if you have subscriptions that you forgot you still paying for. It might save YOU money you didn't know you were paying. Also look into "FAFO"..The Fight Against Federal Overreach (FAFO) is a national coalition of District Attorneys collaborating to ensure federal officials are held accountable when they exceed their lawful authority... "Federaloverreach.org" Make a difference.... LET'S GET IT DONE...The BILL is not done yet.. ICE funding bill is in congress.. Call (202)-224-3121. NO FUNDS FOR ICE. They are KILLING U.S. citizens on OUR DIME..They are not answering to our demands.... "We keep defying… because it is working. To preserve the American Republic, we must stay focused on the Constitution, keep calling out violations of it, refuse to NORMALIZE what should never be NORMAL, and resist the president’s futile efforts to shut us up. If we do that, and we keep doing that, our ranks will swell, and Trump’s servile circle of support will keep shrinking. Nothing angers him more. Nothing distracts him more. And nothing will accelerate his political and historical collapse faster than a movement of people he cannot buy off or scare off — because they are a breed he cannot MORALY COMPREHEND." ...defiance.org... If you get into trouble with ICE/FEDS or any other law enforcement agency, CALL, NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD at (212)679-2811 for HELP ................ .Stay strong, stand proud and loud.. DEFIANT PEACEFULLY ........... DEFIANT.ORG... WE are Growing in strength and numbers.. Please help your fellow brothers and sisters in arms and look in to these organizations... ... Take care to you and yours.. Be safe, stay strong , proud and loud..... MUCH MAHALO TO YOU ALL... ALOHA...
I know my 40 year old daughter has given up on the American dream - she is struggling with affordability day to day. I am 77 & a retired teacher & I no longer think it exists. Can we get it back? Maybe with big big changes which don’t include having AI take all the jobs & healthcare being unaffordable or nonexistant. And how do we get rid of oligarchs & obscene wealth? How do we tax fairly? How do we create jobs with livable wages? And as far as Trump explaining his burst into war - that is a joke! If he is breathing he is lying. Before Americans can believe in anything again, we need to hear from people we can trust and no one in the current regime fits that description. Both sides have reasonable sounding arguments. Were we in danger from a country who teaches its children “Death to America”? Maybe. Did we obliterate their nuclear capabilities? Who knows the truth. Were we really in eminent danger? Who knows. Do we need to go to war with Israel because Israel likes war & wants to own the whole region? I don’t think so. Do we really need to kill teachers & children? Did we really need to take out the leader & HIS FAMILY MEMBERS? Did we not need to think & plan & consult Congress? What is the real number of American casualties? I hear we are being lied to. Is it worth the oil prices & economic hardship to the whole world? Is it worth sacrificing our brave Americans for Netanyahu, a war criminal? I think not. Will this make the Middle East more or less of a threat? If only we could trust the answers. But we can’t. Not from Iran. Not from Netanyahu. Not from the Trump regime. It is no wonder we have disillusioned youth. We have failed them.
We all know the answer to these questions. I will keep marching in No Kings Day events and calling and writing my Republican representatives (only canned letters back and no answered phones}. Netanyahu suckered Trump into this mess and we have no off ramp.
Agree he loves it. But think Trump was sucked in by his assumption that it would be another Venezuela...quick and easy VICTORY. Netanyahu pushed...to any extent it was necessary.
O'Reilly had me on his FOX show in 2002 during the run-up to the Iraq War. He invited me to talk about Al Gore but when I segued to Iraq - and how polls showed Americans did not want a war - he told me to "get on a bus to Mexico" and ended the segment. Needless to say I was right and he was wrong then, just as he is now.
Thanks for this information, Mike. I will check out Ground News. I served in the Air Force for 27 years, the earliest few during Vietnam (being female I did not go there). As a response to my service, I did get spit on while wearing my Dress Blues traveling through the Airport in New Orleans. We do not need any more war. My grandchildren will not go to war for Trump and Netanyahu. By God, they will not.
I do get tired of the generalizations being made about “young people today,” because these perspectives are ignorant and uninformed. As a psychotherapist, I have the opportunity to see the inside view. Young people are emerging into a world far more complex and frightening than the world I entered as a young adult. What are we doing to mentor them and address their challenges? As a baby boomer, I’m also aware that we can’t make generational generalizations either. When I attend protests, candidate meetings and political action meetings, they are compromised primarily of boomers. Not all of us have lost our way. I think the divide is between the incredibly wealthy/powerful/privileged people and everyone else. Does anyone honestly believe that people like trump have ever struggled to pay their bills, gone grocery shopping or cleaned a toilet? He and his inner circle live in blissful ignorance.
I have followed Trump for some time now and after listening to him I knew he would start a war. I believe he thinks that while at war citizens will not want to change leadership. So you may think its too soon for him to be doing this and it should happen 3 years in the future. However, timelines and such mean little to him. What he thinks he does without looking to the future for anyone but himself. While he puts the lives of our children and grandchildren at risk his are secure. Just as he never served, none of them will. I keep looking for one Republican who is strong enough to do something, but none step up that others will follow.
First, what may be considered a small quibble. World War I was not a fight of good against evil. It was exactly what you are writing about throughout this column: a battle between aristocracies of the old world for power and money, using the common people to pay for it. It was the battle of the old world, which the new world was dragged into, not because we were fighting evil, but because it was in our interests.
World War II was a different story. This was also about power and money, because war always is. A good portion of the old world passed in world war I. But it was also about political ideology, institutionalized hate—the holocaust did not come from thin air, and Mussolini’s comments about wiping out the slavs likewise— and power and money. And like today, religion was busy fornicating with political power.
World war II was a battle of good versus evil. But just about every war ever since that this country has been involved in were back to power and money, religious dominion, political ideology (also power and money), and who is going to control everything. Also oil—more power and money. And also— religion. More power and money. But also more god.
The Islamic world hates israel. They don’t care for the west, either. Our secular values are a threat. Half of islam hates the other half. This war is as much about that as anything else. Israel hates the muslims, especially the ones in Israel. American evangelicals are salivating yet again at a middle eastern conflict. Hoping that finally, their constant memos to Jesus to end the world are finally gonna get the old guy moving. Billionaires need more money, rich corporations need more corporate welfare. The oil companies see that the world is moving on from them, because it is no longer sustainable.
vietnam was a bad, stupid and very Wasteful war. Iraq, the gulf and Afghanistan were more of the same. And now the iranian war.
The same villiains. The same beneficiaries. And the same regular people who will pay for it.
Indeed. The divisions between and among peoples are both crystal clear AND confusing and muddy. The US hates Iran; Netanyahu-reviled among both Jewish - Muslim Israelis and those outside of Israel did not need to entice Trump and his horrific band of evangelicals to "join" the decimation of Iranians. Most Americans know little to nothing about Iran, except that they should drop bombs on them. Both Netanyahu and Trump have done fine jobs of pitting their respective nation's populations against each other. Speaking as a Jewish person, I can safely say that this current situation has made every Jewish person I know - American and international- feel even less safe than usual. It's the same old trope, equating and blaming all Jewish people with the separatist, hate-filled policies of Israel. Netanyahu is a monster AND so is Trump. Take the time to sort this out.
As a Jewish man—at least in theory— and a gay man, I can see all of that in operation. Especially as a gay man, where I can see the worst of the religious blaming all gay people for what the worst of the religious are themselves doing.
Exposed and lacking protection from what’s left of an inclusive, representative government. While all this is nothing new, the scale and framing of it all, along with the very unsubtle, blame-filled messaging, the need for allies is critical.
I tried to sign up for Ground News but couldn’t get past the robot check. After over 10 image selection screens I gave up. Perhaps you can check into with them. Thanks.
I'm 76 and was the last man drafted for Vietnam, but never served, because between my intake physical and reporting day Nixon cancelled the draft. I sympathize with young men and women today in that I no longer see much worth defending. The Epstein/Trump oligarch class has stolen all the value from the nation, so what should they stand in the line of fire for? They also know that no rich Nepos will be called up. If there is a draft, it must be applied to all people of whatever sex or orientation they live as. Kegsbreath would have a stroke if he had to sign that order.
Good article, Mike!
Young Americans should not fight for billionaires, period. Let their children die for them.
Thanks for this comment! We'll said! ❤️❤️❤️
ALOHA. From the COCONUT WIRELESS. ....This WAR the orange nipo sucking cry baby taco bankruptoer PEDO PIG is still trying to distract the people .... If you want to do something about anything to get it out of your system, look into these organizations below as well and see what you can DO and not just gasp at things you can't control .... DEMOCRACYDOCKET.COM ..... DEFIANCE.ORG. ........ Some you don't need to go out in the streets to make a point.............. example of a fiery ad from the "SAM.org"........Mary Corcoran, Executive Director of the Save America Movement (SAM), .... Good to know of other orgs. like the "PROJECT SALT BOX". Look into it on the substack. "PROJECT SALT BOX" tell you where ICE is buying warehouses and what to do about it.. ............"EPSTEIN WAR"...... "Once you start looking for the signs, it is something you cannot easily unsee or ignore. For example, shortly after launching a military assault on Iran, Donald Trump posted on social media that "Iran tried to interfere in the 2020 and 2024 elections to stop Trump and now faces renewed war with the United States." False claims that foreign government interference caused him to lose in 2020 have been a staple of the diet of lies Trump feeds to his faithful. The countries may change — Venezuela, China, Italy, Cuba, Iran — but the purpose of the lies remains the same." .......... WARNING WARNING WARNING. ... OUR VOTE BY MAIL has been hit with a boom too. Not just Iran. Supreme court just said that POST OFFICE can ,hold ,burn,trash,your voting mail in ballets and have no consequences for their actions! Look it up!..... CNN is lost to the PEDOS........... there's a lot of unpacking to do....On other matters.... CONGRESS has SUPER POWER. They can DECLARES WAR not PEDO PIG. "EPSTEIN CLASS"..........For your voice in voting .Call.. 855-999-8503 to the US SENATE and tell your SENATOR to vote "NO" on the "SAVE ACT". ..... FOR 2026 and beyond...Here is a way the congress can protect/change our VOTING rights.. A new way of doing and thinking about our laws and to straighten it so it can't be tampered with.... https://youtu.be/TzgypBkIzPk?si=LYsZhoW-8H5dbVK4 .... Also, .Look into "resistandunsubscrbe.com" economic fight. Hit them where the money is.See if you have subscriptions that you forgot you still paying for. It might save YOU money you didn't know you were paying. Also look into "FAFO"..The Fight Against Federal Overreach (FAFO) is a national coalition of District Attorneys collaborating to ensure federal officials are held accountable when they exceed their lawful authority... "Federaloverreach.org" Make a difference.... LET'S GET IT DONE...The BILL is not done yet.. ICE funding bill is in congress.. Call (202)-224-3121. NO FUNDS FOR ICE. They are KILLING U.S. citizens on OUR DIME..They are not answering to our demands.... "We keep defying… because it is working. To preserve the American Republic, we must stay focused on the Constitution, keep calling out violations of it, refuse to NORMALIZE what should never be NORMAL, and resist the president’s futile efforts to shut us up. If we do that, and we keep doing that, our ranks will swell, and Trump’s servile circle of support will keep shrinking. Nothing angers him more. Nothing distracts him more. And nothing will accelerate his political and historical collapse faster than a movement of people he cannot buy off or scare off — because they are a breed he cannot MORALY COMPREHEND." ...defiance.org... If you get into trouble with ICE/FEDS or any other law enforcement agency, CALL, NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD at (212)679-2811 for HELP ................ .Stay strong, stand proud and loud.. DEFIANT PEACEFULLY ........... DEFIANT.ORG... WE are Growing in strength and numbers.. Please help your fellow brothers and sisters in arms and look in to these organizations... ... Take care to you and yours.. Be safe, stay strong , proud and loud..... MUCH MAHALO TO YOU ALL... ALOHA...
I know my 40 year old daughter has given up on the American dream - she is struggling with affordability day to day. I am 77 & a retired teacher & I no longer think it exists. Can we get it back? Maybe with big big changes which don’t include having AI take all the jobs & healthcare being unaffordable or nonexistant. And how do we get rid of oligarchs & obscene wealth? How do we tax fairly? How do we create jobs with livable wages? And as far as Trump explaining his burst into war - that is a joke! If he is breathing he is lying. Before Americans can believe in anything again, we need to hear from people we can trust and no one in the current regime fits that description. Both sides have reasonable sounding arguments. Were we in danger from a country who teaches its children “Death to America”? Maybe. Did we obliterate their nuclear capabilities? Who knows the truth. Were we really in eminent danger? Who knows. Do we need to go to war with Israel because Israel likes war & wants to own the whole region? I don’t think so. Do we really need to kill teachers & children? Did we really need to take out the leader & HIS FAMILY MEMBERS? Did we not need to think & plan & consult Congress? What is the real number of American casualties? I hear we are being lied to. Is it worth the oil prices & economic hardship to the whole world? Is it worth sacrificing our brave Americans for Netanyahu, a war criminal? I think not. Will this make the Middle East more or less of a threat? If only we could trust the answers. But we can’t. Not from Iran. Not from Netanyahu. Not from the Trump regime. It is no wonder we have disillusioned youth. We have failed them.
We all know the answer to these questions. I will keep marching in No Kings Day events and calling and writing my Republican representatives (only canned letters back and no answered phones}. Netanyahu suckered Trump into this mess and we have no off ramp.
Suckered him???? No, HE LOVES THIS!!!!!
Agree he loves it. But think Trump was sucked in by his assumption that it would be another Venezuela...quick and easy VICTORY. Netanyahu pushed...to any extent it was necessary.
O'Reilly had me on his FOX show in 2002 during the run-up to the Iraq War. He invited me to talk about Al Gore but when I segued to Iraq - and how polls showed Americans did not want a war - he told me to "get on a bus to Mexico" and ended the segment. Needless to say I was right and he was wrong then, just as he is now.
Thanks for this information, Mike. I will check out Ground News. I served in the Air Force for 27 years, the earliest few during Vietnam (being female I did not go there). As a response to my service, I did get spit on while wearing my Dress Blues traveling through the Airport in New Orleans. We do not need any more war. My grandchildren will not go to war for Trump and Netanyahu. By God, they will not.
Serve? Personally I'm so disgusted with this government that I refuse to pay federal taxes.
The song Fortunate Son comes to mind! The wealthy always get out of fighting in oil wars!😬😬😬
AMEN!
I do get tired of the generalizations being made about “young people today,” because these perspectives are ignorant and uninformed. As a psychotherapist, I have the opportunity to see the inside view. Young people are emerging into a world far more complex and frightening than the world I entered as a young adult. What are we doing to mentor them and address their challenges? As a baby boomer, I’m also aware that we can’t make generational generalizations either. When I attend protests, candidate meetings and political action meetings, they are compromised primarily of boomers. Not all of us have lost our way. I think the divide is between the incredibly wealthy/powerful/privileged people and everyone else. Does anyone honestly believe that people like trump have ever struggled to pay their bills, gone grocery shopping or cleaned a toilet? He and his inner circle live in blissful ignorance.
I have followed Trump for some time now and after listening to him I knew he would start a war. I believe he thinks that while at war citizens will not want to change leadership. So you may think its too soon for him to be doing this and it should happen 3 years in the future. However, timelines and such mean little to him. What he thinks he does without looking to the future for anyone but himself. While he puts the lives of our children and grandchildren at risk his are secure. Just as he never served, none of them will. I keep looking for one Republican who is strong enough to do something, but none step up that others will follow.
I’m writing this as a nearly 76-year-old man.
First, what may be considered a small quibble. World War I was not a fight of good against evil. It was exactly what you are writing about throughout this column: a battle between aristocracies of the old world for power and money, using the common people to pay for it. It was the battle of the old world, which the new world was dragged into, not because we were fighting evil, but because it was in our interests.
World War II was a different story. This was also about power and money, because war always is. A good portion of the old world passed in world war I. But it was also about political ideology, institutionalized hate—the holocaust did not come from thin air, and Mussolini’s comments about wiping out the slavs likewise— and power and money. And like today, religion was busy fornicating with political power.
World war II was a battle of good versus evil. But just about every war ever since that this country has been involved in were back to power and money, religious dominion, political ideology (also power and money), and who is going to control everything. Also oil—more power and money. And also— religion. More power and money. But also more god.
The Islamic world hates israel. They don’t care for the west, either. Our secular values are a threat. Half of islam hates the other half. This war is as much about that as anything else. Israel hates the muslims, especially the ones in Israel. American evangelicals are salivating yet again at a middle eastern conflict. Hoping that finally, their constant memos to Jesus to end the world are finally gonna get the old guy moving. Billionaires need more money, rich corporations need more corporate welfare. The oil companies see that the world is moving on from them, because it is no longer sustainable.
vietnam was a bad, stupid and very Wasteful war. Iraq, the gulf and Afghanistan were more of the same. And now the iranian war.
The same villiains. The same beneficiaries. And the same regular people who will pay for it.
Indeed. The divisions between and among peoples are both crystal clear AND confusing and muddy. The US hates Iran; Netanyahu-reviled among both Jewish - Muslim Israelis and those outside of Israel did not need to entice Trump and his horrific band of evangelicals to "join" the decimation of Iranians. Most Americans know little to nothing about Iran, except that they should drop bombs on them. Both Netanyahu and Trump have done fine jobs of pitting their respective nation's populations against each other. Speaking as a Jewish person, I can safely say that this current situation has made every Jewish person I know - American and international- feel even less safe than usual. It's the same old trope, equating and blaming all Jewish people with the separatist, hate-filled policies of Israel. Netanyahu is a monster AND so is Trump. Take the time to sort this out.
As a Jewish man—at least in theory— and a gay man, I can see all of that in operation. Especially as a gay man, where I can see the worst of the religious blaming all gay people for what the worst of the religious are themselves doing.
Moral corruption of the worst sort.
Exposed and lacking protection from what’s left of an inclusive, representative government. While all this is nothing new, the scale and framing of it all, along with the very unsubtle, blame-filled messaging, the need for allies is critical.
Mike
I tried to sign up for Ground News but couldn’t get past the robot check. After over 10 image selection screens I gave up. Perhaps you can check into with them. Thanks.
This was real good Mike! Thanks for this piece, and Spot ON!!
Oh, you mean avoiding prison, as was the case with Vietnam?