TheWiseOldFart

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart Yes, this old man does not respect or trust law enforcement by any name in the 21 st century. Both our military and law enforcement are fascist by design and necessity. However, in the 21 st century, they have forgotten their purpose and have surrendered their integrity, principles, and morals to the Fuhrer defiling our White House. Criminals, thugs, racists, and bigots: these are the components of a street gang known as ICE. They have the support of federal law enforcement agencies to harass, physically assault, and even murder innocent men and women in service to Donald Trump. HOW MY LIFE HAS CHANGED I was raised by my grandparents and one very special uncle. My mother was a single parent. To care for me and my younger brother, she worked as many hours as she could every week. Fortunately, we lived near her mother and father. I was taught to respect my elders, and every person in authority. That included the police. After my mother finally divorced my abusiv...

A voluntary enlistment program depends on making a partial or lifetime career in a branch of our military attractive. It doesn’t help when the “Commander-in-Chief” of our military forces abuses and disrespects the men and women who are willing to sacrifice their lives for their fellow countrymen if necessary. In 2001, George W. Bush ordered the invasion of Afghanistan. The purpose was to capture or kill the architect of 9/11, Osama bin Laden. He failed but decided to leave our military in a foreign country. They remained for 20 years. In 2003, Bush illegally invaded Iraq. He lied to the U.N., Congress, and the American people, claiming Saddam Hussein was harboring “weapons of mass destruction” for bin Laden’s terrorist group, Al Qaeda. This forced many of our military to serve as many as 3, 4, and even 5 tours in the Middle East. It was no surprise that this resulted in physical injuries as well as PTSD for thousands of young men and women who were used as tools by a politician. In 201...

The military of the United States of America is justifiably described as the “largest and most expensive in the world.” After reading and writing about the Pentagon for more than 10 years, I have one word to describe our nation’s military leaders: “incompetent.” First, the cost. Multiple watchdog groups claim that 50 cents out of every dollar allotted to the Pentagon is wasted. After what I have learned, they are correct. It may be more than 50 cents since Afghanistan and Iraq. Most importantly, the most powerful military force in the world has lost every war since WWII. Thousands of lives and trillions of dollars have been lost; all for nothing. On Wednesday a preventable tragedy happened in the skies above Washington D.C. An American Airlines passenger aircraft collided with a military Blackhawk helicopter, killing 64 in the airliner, and three crewmen aboard the Blackhawk. Regardless of the explanations yet to come, what the hell was a military aircraft doing in the path of a schedu...

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart   Let's look at what happened in America since 2017, and the truth about the darkest day in Ame rican history, January 6, 2021.   First, let me tell you about how time is the greatest teacher of all . As I moved from childhood and became a young adult, I realized that I had been a child of white privilege . Therefore, I had always trusted law enforcement, the justice system , and our military leaders , virtually anyone older than me, or in a position of power.   Education is not entirely the result of schools and books. I know that experien ce is often of greater value than formal education.     I was sixteen in 1962 before I learned about the “two Americas.” This is not a phrase popular in 2024, but it remains a reality, l ike it or not. I left Parochial School in my junior year of high school . I enrolled in a public high school . I was now a student in an institution which had a diverse student body and offered additional free...

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart Another truth you will never hear from the “fake news,” and that includes all of it, is that Donald Trump is a “draft dodger.” Father Fred purchased two deferments for his son, preventing his serving in the Vietnam War. I wonder how many “things” Fred Trump paid for in Donald Trump’s life. I question the legitimacy of his diploma from Wharton College. I have known several individuals who attended Ivy League schools, and all of them have the ability to communicate with others effectively. Trump displays his own unique form of illiteracy, constantly. We know that Fred Trump gave his son 413 million dollars after he “graduated” from college. We also know that Donny lost every penny. By 1999 he was facing bankruptcy. You might remember that this situation involved one of his first big lies. In 2015, Trump told his supporters that Fred Trump gave him just one-million dollars and from that relatively small amount of money, he built a real estate empire. Trump has neve...