NORTH CAROLINA - If a U.S. President can screw up both stupid and also some vaguely well-meaning initiatives given U.S. problems, Donald Trump three months into his time in office (and his last) is doing a pretty good job of it. His shallowness of thought and lack of real thought-out strategies to MAGA are becoming apparent by the week.

The U.S. war Trump unleashed on steadfast Yemen is a case in point and representative of other moves he has so far made. He seems to have imagined that he could bomb the Hell out of Yemenis, whose SOLE aim has been to halt ships to Israel so that Israel might at least consider a halt to pulverizing Gaza. He is not apparently aware of how deep Yemen’s resolve has been, and frankly, the entire world outside of even some Arab governments wants to see the genocide ended by any means. Yes, bombs are terrifying but they only ever compound anger and distress and hatred.

Writing as an average American, and on behalf of many smarter friends with the same basic sensibilities, it is difficult to be a citizen of a country that appears to be all chaos and warmongering and death and threats, and one that also allies with the Zionist genocide. What is most concerning is the absence of a hook or clear movement at this time that Americans might hang trust upon, as one might a coat, that somehow things will improve and wisdom will dawn in Washington. Currently, there is little to nothing to suggest a corrupted government almost across the board, including most of the U.S. Congress, will wake up and at last condemn this in your face genocide underway in Gaza, which is the shame of the century.

Trump and his administration are a full-blown tantrum of an empire in decline. His wild and sudden impositions of economic tariffs on trading partners (and then often retractions) are signs of desperation, efforts to MAGA amidst a tide of decline that in truth cannot be reversed except through radically different policies that enshrine at the top of its initiative one simple concept: morality or a moral posture. This is a universal concept which ALL humanity recognizes when it is extant. It is something that could in fact make the U.S. reputation truly “great” again even though the U.S. IS more or less bankrupt economically, a failing former giant, a bully with nukes. If the U.S were clearly respected, it would not need to deploy threats whether economic or military.

What can be more important but a widely admired reputation both for individuals anywhere but also for nations? No country or even individual can forever manage to thrive without a secure, positive reputation. The Israeli regime is one instance of a country that has pushed a criminal agenda up front for all humanity to witness with the genocide, but this agenda has existed as a criminal enterprise for decades, too, but covered up until recently. U.S. imperialism has stripped away its mask, too, by supporting Zionism and is therefore also at risk, too.

As for Iran, it has apparently flipped the negotiation table in Oman and smartly called for a completely nuclear-free West Asia. What could be more sensible and rational? Does this not more or less solve by elimination the drift towards wider war in West Asia if not the world? So-called “leaders”, primarily Western, have been pointing fingers at Iran for decades. But Iranians have not built nuclear bombs, and Iran has not attacked anyone for centuries except very occasionally in efforts to discourage direct attacks on Iran and Iranians.

Trump in any event claims he is trying to stamp out “antisemitism”. On its face “antisemitism” is not kosher or a good anywhere in any form. But he is crushing free speech against the Israeli genocide, and free speech is the cornerstone of the U.S. Constitution. He is thus wrecking the U.S. pat of what had made the U.S. “great”. The fact seems to be that real “antisemitism” is NOT a serious problem in the U.S. and never has been, just as it is NOT in Iran with many thousands of its own Jewish citizens who have no interest in moving to Israel, and rightly so.  But equating valid opposition to what Zionists have been doing — ethnic cleansing and genocide — with “antisemitism” is a core problem and a horrific lie foisted by current Washington on Americans, too many of whom remain vastly ignorant of history and facts, no thanks the U.S. mainstream media too often.