Orderly Chaos
Not even the President again yet and he’s already in every headline. I must say, as someone who has a literal news letter—the next four years are going to be many options to pick from. I will need to learn some additional languages though just to watch news that doesn’t involve Trump at any point, and even then it’s not a sure thing. This puts me in a predicament, because then it makes it seem like I’m becoming America-centric. Trump-centric even. No thank you. I have a keener eye for affairs outside our borders rather than within. Invariably though I will be tracking a lot of what the Trump administration does…to people and places outside our borders.
Matt Gaetz is a terrible pick for AG. It’s simply true. It would be bad for America and it would be bad for the wider world. I’m not going to elaborate. And even with a Republican-majority Senate, Mitch McConnell made it pretty clear that it’s not going to pass a confirmation vote. It would be a disastrous and hopefully short-lived appointment.
I can’t even tell what exactly was up with Elon Musk and an ambassador for the Islamic Republic of Iran—a despicable and genocidal terrorist regime. If he were half as cool as he thinks he is, he would have just said “time’s up” and walked out of the meeting.
Elise Stefanik is an interesting pick for America’s ambassador to the “United” Nations. It could be nothing. It could be hysterical. It could be taking an entire wrecking ball to that utterly corrupt organization—a move I one hundred percent support. Bulldoze it to the ground, Elise.
I don’t care for her domestic politics. Her stances on some issues are inconceivable to me (I do know what that word means, by the way). Not to mention some of her past decisions. But she is one of the very few people that actually stood up to hate in higher education in the past year. The older I get, the more shades of gray I see. Is this what becoming cynical feels like?
Not much to say about Mike Huckabee, America’s apparent soon-to-be new ambassador to Israel. Donald Trump will be the de-facto ambassador to Israel, let’s face it. It could be quite beneficial in some ways, harmful in others. Know that no one on the entire planet represents me personally except myself. My support of you all in Israel is not contingent on Trump or anyone else’s opinion.
I think it’s realistic to say in more than one scenario it could lead us into armed conflict with Iran. The Mullahs’ regime is getting extremely desperate and lashing out either via proxies or even now directly firing weapons at Israel. They still have the Houthis in Yemen eyeing key shipping lanes for the global economy. I’m not certain on their capabilities at the moment; but if they start disrupting global trade on a large enough scale, I’m not sure Trump is going to let them continue for very long. And the “head of the snake” sits in Tehran.
I’m sure a lot of people have mixed feelings on the subject. We have an example from history where the Islamic Republic got feisty before and we destroyed a significant percentage of their naval capabilities: in one Operation Praying Mantis. Two Americans gave their lives in service when their helicopter was shot down. It didn’t lead to full-scale war. Persia is historically very hard to invade (unless your name starts with Alexander). Mountain ranges and such. It would be difficult and costly. That kind of price is probably unacceptable for the average American unless things get really bad, and I hope things never do.
Personally, I think if something like Praying Mantis happens again and combines with sufficient destruction of their global terror network i.e. their ability to project power and to threaten and bully and smuggle and et cetera, and a choking of Khamenei’s direct money flow like the previous Trump administration had in place—the people of Iran will do the rest. They are genuinely sick to death of the occupying religious fundamentalist regime. They have thousands of years of history as a strong, proud, and free people. And they are done with their homeland being used as an operating base for global terrorism.
“Free Palestine”? No—Woman Life Freedom, Free Persia, Free Iran.
In some uplifting news, chief propagandist for Hezbollah Mohammad Afif was just sent to his early retirement courtesy of the IDF. I have heard it said before that celebrating the passing of even truly evil human beings is not in line with Jewish values—which is a principle I absolutely respect. If only your enemies held life to be as sacred as you do. However, as Douglas Murray said in similar circumstances I believe after the death of Nasrallah: “I’m not Jewish.” One less terrorist leader in the world is an objectively good thing in my books, and it does make me happier to know it.
I will never get tired of thanking the Israeli people and the brave defenders of Israel for making our world a little bit safer each day. When hatred in our time is defeated, Israelis will truly be the heroes of our generation. Young men and women (many younger than I) that answered the unimaginably tragic test given to them and were not found wanting for strength or courage despite all the forces against them. If I had one-one millionth of that chazak…to face down true evil in this world and not tremble. You have my deepest respect.
Until we see each other in that brighter future, stay safe. Stay sane. Am Yisrael Chai, and God Bless America 🇮🇱 🇺🇸