27 Comments
User's avatar
Lynn's avatar

A truly vile man without any humanity

Jack Hopkins's avatar

Without question, Lynn.

-Jack

Christie's avatar

This is exactly who Donald J. Trump is…there is no concern for those he has put in harms way in order to play “a war time President,” something he’s talked about doing a number of times! There is no concern for the people of this country that he placed in financial jeopardy with the increasing prices of everything from gas to food to medicine!! To say he is unfit is an understatement…he is a delusional, ignorant fool who is playing with the lives and welfare of not only those in this country but everyone on this planet!

Jack Hopkins's avatar

Christie...you nailed it.

The word I keep coming back to...is consequential. Delusional and ignorant we've seen before in powerful people. What makes this different...is the SCALE of what he's playing with.

A missing pilot. A closed strait. Four-dollar gas. An army being rebuilt around loyalty instead of competence.

EVERY one of those...is a consequence with a HUMAN face on it.

You're not overstating it. If anything...most people are still understating it. Stay in it!

#HoldFast

-Jack

Morgan's avatar

The Orange Shitstain doesn’t give a Fuck who lives and who dies. It’s just a fucking game to him. My family is military my closest childhood friends thru college are military and to think of even one of our own missing rips me apart. I’ve got texts to each and every single one of them to check in. JFC

Jack Hopkins's avatar

Morgan...what you just wrote matters.

The texts you sent today...that's what real support for the troops looks like. Not a bumper sticker. Not a flag pin. YOU...picking up your phone and checking on the people you love.

The anger you're feeling is the right anger. Hold onto it. Not as rage...as FUEL.

And...for what it's worth...the fact that people like you are in this community...paying attention...refusing to look away…that's not nothing. That's actually EVERYTHING.

Grateful for you tonight. Check in on your people!

-Jack

Morgan's avatar

Waiting for any of them to check in. I know they will if able. One will check with one and then it’ll go down the line until they get back to me all is well or we haven’t heard from one of them. So I’ll hold until I get contact. I’ll let you know when I do. I hate fucking waiting. I’ve been with these guys since we were kids like preschool elementary and junior high and high school. I was the only girl in this group of boys LOL and of course I’m the mother hen..

Teri Gelini's avatar

Morgan I truly understand your feelings. This is how it was during Vietnam when I graduated high school in 1969. That same feeling. One of my uncles did 3 tours. I lost many high school friends in that war. Then my son was in the service during Blackhawk down. He came back but he was different. Prayers all of yours get back to you as safe

Morgan's avatar

Thank you Teri. No word yet..

Teri Gelini's avatar

I will hope that you get good newd

Barbara Agness's avatar

I wonder if Hegseth firing of the top commander plays into any of this?

This administration is so inept!

Jack Hopkins's avatar

Barbara...not just plays into it...it may be CENTRAL to it.

Think about the timing. George was fired Thursday. The F-15 went down Friday. The generals who might have reviewed yesterday's mission profiles...raised flags about Iranian air defense capabilities...or...pushed back on operational assumptions…were being escorted out the door the day before.

That is not a coincidence I'm willing to dismiss. Inept is the charitable read.

#HoldFast

-Jack

Tamie Swain 🌊✌🏻🖇️'s avatar

Can the military just stop?

Go on defense only?

Jack Hopkins's avatar

Tamie Swain...legally and operationally...yes.

The president could order a defensive posture. But...here's the problem: in this environment...with a missing pilot...Iranian bounties...and Trump's ego on the line...."defense only" requires someone with the standing to walk into the Oval Office and say STOP.

That person was fired yesterday.

-Jack

Tamie Swain 🌊✌🏻🖇️'s avatar

She never would have done it.

Need a solution to come from outside the White House.

And no matter how I look at it, it’s still someone performing a coup. Even if it’s a “soft” non-action refusal to do as told on the part of the military.

25th? No guts for it in the cabinet or vp

Impeachment? No balls in the craven republican cabal to do it - even with so many leaving with nothing to lose.

Where’s a good deus ex machina when you need one?

HKJANE's avatar

Jack is correct that the sequence is the story. Two days before the F-15 was shot down, the president declared Iran’s radar “100% annihilated” and its skies dominated. The day before the mission, the generals who might have challenged that assessment were fired. The officers installed in their place were selected for a different quality than foresight. This is not coincidence — it is the operational architecture of an authoritarian war: replace the people who tell you the truth, then send others into the sky on the basis of the lie. The wreckage on Iranian soil is not a military footnote. It is the document. And while a weapons systems officer waited somewhere in southwestern Iran with a government bounty on their head, the Commander in Chief posted “KEEP THE OIL, ANYONE?” That is not a caption. That is a confession of priorities, rendered in capital letters, timestamped and permanent.

Jack is correct, too, that a captured American does not behave like other news — it cannot be managed, lidded, or posted past. Iran has understood since 1979 that a prisoner is leverage with its own clock, immune to Truth Social, indifferent to press briefings. Note which administration removed the people who would have war-gamed this scenario. Note which administration is now negotiating, from a weaker position than it held forty-eight hours ago, with an adversary that has been planning for this moment for thirty years. File the date. The war that was described as nearing completion has just entered its most dangerous and least controllable chapter — and the men who might have said so out loud were gone before the mission launched.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Alexa Russell's avatar

Unbelievable how so many dedicated, intelligent and trained military individuals, their families and those they defend are invested without cause at this moment. A sick human being is putting everyone’s lives at risk. We are here. Stay strong. Thank you Jack. Steady as we go.

Diana Abel's avatar

In the Bible, the willow tree primarily symbolizes mourning, captivity, and sorrow. The tree also symbolizes resilience and God’s grace. 

Framed by the spirit of Passover and Easter High Holy Days, plus the recent ending days of Ramadan, today’s news of downed military pilots and weapon specialist officers overwhelmed me with a profound sense of sorrow. The entire Iranian military operation has filled me with a wide range of emotions that I’ve struggled to adequately articulate.

Remembering the symbolism of the weeping willow tree became an outlet for my overwhelming emotions, sparking deeply rooted feelings of mourning, sorrow, and captivity that emanate from the endless years of our engagement in the senseless destructive Vietnam war. The loss of 57,000 lives, plus the approximate 591 POWs and the 303,500 + wounded who carried more emotional and physical scars than most of us will ever experience, accelerated my engulfing fears for this current military war.

My soul is weeping: we are all captives of power-thirsty, evil humans who possess no remorse, who lack guilt, empathy, or conscience. DJT personifies a pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others. I cannot implore God to have mercy on him. I ask that He by no means leave the guilty unpunished.

For those of you reading my reply, I wish you the willow’s symbolism of resilience for these trying times and remind you of God’s grace.

(I rarely frame my social media comments against a religious context, but I must do so tonight.)

Jill Branch's avatar

AAAAAGGGGRRRRRHHHH!!!! This is so f-ing out of control!!!! I feel like I've reached my absolute breaking point!! That missing United States soldier deserves SO MUCH BETTER from us!!

Steven Erick's avatar

One clarification. Trump doesn't physically send the troops into the battle. Mission commanders do. If they are echoing the words of Trump, then they are at fault unless the local intel they are receiving is faulty. A a retired Nuclear Submarine captain, I always knew what the enemy capabilities were and if we didn't't know, I was told so. This way I could be on my guard for the unexpected.

Trump's lack of concern for the missing airman borders noncriminal. A Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, he has the most visible impact on how the military is perceived, work wide.

On the side, he also tipped his hand as to his actual reason for attacking Iran - get and keep the oil. Who benefits? Saudi Arabia.

Faith Senie's avatar

If that downed crew member is captured, Trump will likely dismiss the news. Remember his saying that John McCain’s captivity during wartime meant nothing to him because, “I like people who weren’t captured.” But the American public won’t dismiss the news. It will be interesting to see what the reaction is by veterans and current service members if he tries to shrug it off.

Faith Senie's avatar

This morning, I remembered Trump’s request to the oil company executives back in 2024 to donate $1B to his campaign. They didn’t quite put in that much, but they did put in a sizable amount. Given how low oil prices have been for so long, I wonder if Iran and Venezuela are his attempts to “thank” them?

Jane Rabbit's avatar

epic fury.

thanks Jack for the laser-like focus.

Elizabeth George's avatar

Trump is leading the US press and the stock market by the nose. He is doing what he has always done best: cause a distraction. He knows thet chaos causes distraction and so do unhinged posts that the breathless media report on. If we ever see the Epstein files and if anyone is ever sent to jail because of the crimes revealed therein, I will eat my laptop.

Teri Gelini's avatar

This could be seen as coming because there is no leadership that listens to the intelligence community and one just shoots off on fake social whatever comes into that squirrel laden brain and the other is a tv actor pretending to be a real warrior.

Jo Burns's avatar

Evil is on the house, Whitehouse. if Trump ever told the truth, I'd faint 😳

Sue P's avatar

When trump lets the words "he (they) knew what they signed up for," fall from his traitorous lips, I may implode.