On May 25, US president Donald Trump went back to war with Iran, launching strikes in the southern part of that country on a laughable claim of “self-defense.”

The previous phase of the war was stupid, evil, and illegal, as is this phase.

It was and is stupid because even given Trump’s constantly shifting (and mostly themselves stupid) objectives, there was no way to “win” it other than nuking all of Iran’s major cities and sending in a massive occupation force for the foreseeable future.

It was and is evil because war is always evil. Noncombatants are killed, injured, and impoverished, purposely or accidentally. There are seldom any “good guys” on the “leadership” level of any side — it’s merely a street gang turf rumble writ large, with regular people caught in the violent middle.

It was and is illegal because here was no declaration of war, and the attack didn’t even meet the minimal  requirements of the War Powers Resolution. Additionally, even if that resolution was constitutional (it wasn’t), Trump had 60 days to get congressional approval for continuing the operations (he didn’t — and no, the clock did not magically “reset” just because he took a brief break).

Wars usually aren’t really “won” in any meaningful sense of the word, but in this war the US regime — and the American people — have clearly lost, no matter the military outcome. It’s already impoverishing us considerably, and we’re only seeing the early impact of a situation which will drag on for a long time regardless of what happens next.

The most obvious indicator, of course, is the price of gasoline at the pump, but the shortages of petroleum products and fertilizer components that usually pass through the Strait of Hormuz will soon become very real in the prices we pay for consumer goods and groceries.

So, here we are: Instead of taking his lumps, letting the war end, and hoping for an economic upturn before the midterm elections mangle his party’s present projects and future prospects, Trump is doubling down.

There are three, and only three, plausible explanations:

Explanation One is that he’s evil, hates America, and is doing his damnedest to destroy the US economy. If that’s the  case the US House of Representatives should impeach him and the US Senate should convict and remove him. His illegal war clearly meets the standard of “high crimes and misdemeanors.”

Explanation Two is that he’s stupid — whether by nature or due to his obvious cognitive decline — and just doesn’t know what he’s doing or understand its moral, political, or economic implications. If that’s the case, the vice-president and a majority of the cabinet should, per the 25th Amendment, “transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,” after which the vice-president can become “acting president” and put a stop to this nonsense.

Explanation Three is that Trump — again, possibly due to the obvious cognitive decline he’s publicly and frequently displayed since before his second inauguration — isn’t in charge; the presidency is effectively controlled by other people who happen to be evildoers. If that’s the case, and if the 25th Amendment isn’t invoked because those evildoers also control — or consist of — the vice-president and cabinet, then it’s the public’s job to shut the war machine, and the regime controlling it, down.

That might look like a general strike, or even a revolution. It wouldn’t be pretty. But Trump clearly must be removed from power, and a popular uprising would likely be less ugly than the alternative, which is that US military commanders cease obeying Trump’s unlawful orders and depose him themselves. A junta is a lateral move on the evil and stupidity metrics, not an improvement on either.

There’s no question of “winning” the war. The war is lost, and lost it shall remain. The questions are about how much longer it lasts, how many more people are killed, maimed, displaced, and impoverished, what the terms of the US surrender look like, and what comes after. The sooner Trump loses the power to babble non-answers and act on them, the better.

Thomas L. Knapp (X: @thomaslknapp | Bluesky: @knappster.bsky.social | Mastodon: @knappster) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

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Last July, then US Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the formation of a “strike force” to investigate former president Barack Obama and members of his administration, based on claims from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard of a “treasonous conspiracy” to prevent the election of Donald Trump in 2016.

The alleged conspiracy involved falsifying intelligence findings to support claims that the Russian regime assisted, and possibly controlled, Trump.

Nearly a year later, no charges seem to have been filed regarding the “treasonous conspiracy,” unless we count the indictment of former FBI director James Comey for the crime of publishing a photo of seashells on the Internet, but Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh wonders (at his Substack) “Is Trump’s Justice Department Pursuing Obama” himself?

My read of Hersh’s piece suggests that the long arm of the law won’t extend that far, although others (such as former CIA director John Brennan) may end up fighting criminal charges.

That’s my prediction as well, and I consider it unfortunate. I’d love to see Barack Obama charged with, tried for, and convicted of crimes that we know beyond a shadow of a doubt he’s guilty of. For example:

Obama ordered the murders of at least two American citizens, Anwar al-Awlaki and his son, Abdulrahman Anwar al-Awlaki  (Donald Trump later ordered the murder of eight-year-old Nawar Anwar al-Awlaki, also a US citizen).

Obama also illegally took the US to war in Libya, never even seeking the constitutionally required declaration of war.

For those crimes, and many others, I’d very much like to see Obama face legal consequences.

But there’s a problem with the idea:

In 2024, the US Supreme Court ruled that presidents — in the particular case, Donald Trump — enjoy substantial immunity for their “official acts” despite the US Constitution neither saying nor implying any such immunity.

The “official acts” at issue involved Trump’s attempt to rig the 2020 presidential election, in ways far less obviously “official” than those cited in the Obama investigation.

And Trump has since attempted to stretch the definition of “official acts” enjoying immunity to cover such things as unrelatd to the presidency per se as defaming a woman he sexually assaulted, the assault having occurred when he wasn’t even president.

A successful prosecution of Obama himself  for the actions laid out in the “treasonous conspiracy” claims would irrefutably place a number of Trump’s own acts  outside the “official acts” protection awarded by SCOTUS.

Since Trump probably doesn’t want to go to prison, it seems unlikely that he’ll try very hard to send Obama there either.

Obama’s underlings may take a fall … unless Obama says he pardoned them just by thinking about it, in much the same way that Trump declassified secret documents he was unsuccessfully prosecuted for stealing. But Obama himself will likely live out his life in freedom despite his crimes.

It’s a shame, really. All living American presidents, current and former, should be wearing orange jumpsuits and leg irons right now, and the dead ones should faced the music too.

Thomas L. Knapp (X: @thomaslknapp | Bluesky: @knappster.bsky.social | Mastodon: @knappster) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

PUBLICATION/CITATION HISTORY

“Some men,” an old saying has it, “are sent to Washington because their hometowns want them somewhere else.”

Although Melbourne Beach, Florida isn’t US Representative Randy Fine’s hometown  — he was born in Arizona, raised in Kentucky, and subsequently managed to wear out his welcome in Massachusetts, Nevada, and Michigan before landing there — I have to think the remark explains his career in the state legislature and now Congress. He’s a generally unpleasant character with lots of stupid and bigoted ideas. Not the kind of guy you want wandering around getting into fights with the tourists during Bike Week in Daytona Beach.

Last October, Fine introduced the “Disqualifying Dual Loyalty Act of 2025,” which would mandate that “[n]o person, without regard to whether that person is a United States national, may be elected to the office of Representative or Senator if that person is a national of any country other than the United States.”

Not a terrible idea, you might say, but it’s got one technical problem and one PR problem.

The technical problem:

The US Constitution specifies the qualifications for election to Congress, which do not include a prohibition on “dual citizens,” and Congress doesn’t get to change those qualifications through legislation. It would take a constitutional amendment — requiring approval by 2/3 of both houses of Congress and ratification by 3/4 of state legislatures — to do that.

In other words, Fine’s bill is just public virtue signaling. It’s gone approximately nowhere, apparently dead in the Committee on House Administration, which is better — or at least less tedious — than it possibly getting passed by the House, passed by the Senate, signed by the president … and thrown out by the US Supreme Court at its first challenge because it’s clearly, unambiguously, and irrefutably unconstitutional.

The PR problem is Randy Fine. He loves to talk about his bill, all the time and everywhere, especially on social media.

Sample recent tweet: “You CANNOT serve two masters. My bill makes it simple: Only Americans. Full allegiance to the United States and the United States alone. No more dual loyalty in Congress.”

Unfortunately for the PR angle, Fine spends a great deal of time and effort publicly demonstrating his own loyalty — not to the US, and not to his constituents, but to a foreign power.

In the state legislature, Fine successfully pushed legislation requiring businesses which contract with the state to demonstrate THEIR loyalty … not to the state of Florida, but to the state of Israel.

In 2023, Fine arranged to have messages inscribed on Israeli shells to be fired into Gaza: “Regards from Randy Fine.”

Right before his election to Congress, Fine confided to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, he’d  been considering a move anyway — and not to  Washington:  “He had been fully prepared to move his family to Israel in the event Kamala Harris had won the presidential election, he says.”

Since his election to the House, Fine’s agenda has remained clear: The Israeli regime must receive everything it demands from Americans, without question or objection, and the Israeli regime must never, under any circumstances, be held to any behavioral standard as a condition of receiving whatever it demands.

Can you see the problem there?

The only respect in which the “dual loyalty” Fine loves to grandstand on  isn’t a problem for Fine himself is that his own loyalty clearly isn’t “dual.” It’s not to America, Florida, his constituents or the Constitution he swore an oath to. It’s to the state of Israel.

A state that he readily can, and probably should, claim citizenship with and move to. All sane Americans and Floridians very much want him somewhere else.

Thomas L. Knapp (X: @thomaslknapp | Bluesky: @knappster.bsky.social | Mastodon: @knappster) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

PUBLICATION/CITATION HISTORY