Everything is Awesome

by Errington C. Thompson, MD –

A little over a decade ago, The Lego Movie came out.

It was an interesting and ambitious movie in which everything was made of Legos. There were good guys and bad guys. There is this one song in the movie that continues to ricochet around in my head: “Everything is Awesome.”

This was a song that the lead character sang several times in the movie when he was feeling down. The song is really a bunch of propaganda. It’s nonsense. It is overly happy. But that is the kind of tongue-in-cheek humor that this movie has.

The State of the Union

Our president, Donald J. Trump, spent more than 90 minutes trying to convince us that everything was awesome. The economy was good. He had made strong, thoughtful decisions on foreign policy. American manufacturing was back. The stock market was booming. Several times during the speech, he stopped to hand out Congressional Medals of Honor.

Back in the old days, during the Biden administration, the State of the Union address was used to highlight true accomplishments and propose new legislation. As far as I can tell, Donald Trump did not offer any new initiatives. The speech was exactly what we expected from Donald Trump. He was unrestrained. He praised himself often. He lied frequently. Classic Donald Trump.

Iran

Back in June, Trump decided that we would bomb three specific Iranian nuclear sites. He sent seven B2 bombers to take out their nuclear facilities. We clearly hit the targets. Donald Trump declared victory and stated that we “totally obliterated” their facilities. Pentagon estimates suggest that we set their nuclear program back two years.

As you recall, the United States, along with the United Kingdom, France, Russia, China, and Germany, signed an agreement with Iran in 2015. In the agreement, Iran agreed to reduce its nuclear enrichment so it could use uranium for civil power but not for nuclear weapons. It agreed to this for 15 years.

It also agreed to reduce its nuclear stockpiles from over 10,000 kg to just 300 kg. It also agreed to reduce its centrifuges. It also agreed to redesign one of its heavy water reactors so that it could not produce weapons-grade plutonium. Finally, Iran agreed to international inspections.

In exchange for all of this, the international community would gradually lift sanctions and return some of the money that we had confiscated (billions of dollars). By all counts, the treaty—negotiated by the Obama Administration—was working. Yet Donald Trump tore up the agreement in 2018.

Without an agreement in place, Iran restarted its nuclear program. So, now, we have a problem of Trump’s own making. Trump wants a signature deal that would include ballistic missiles.

Why would they make another treaty? Trump tore up the last one. From Iran’s standpoint, Trump and the United States are unreliable. Trump says Iran wants to negotiate, but I’m not so sure.

Israel Wagged the US Dog’s Tail

Trump, along with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, decided to bomb Iran. Exactly what our goals were is really unclear. It appears we wanted to remove Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. We killed him, but now what? And this is the part that makes me question the sanity and intelligence of folks in the White House and the Pentagon. What are the next steps?

Ayatollah Khamenei had been ruling Iran for over 40 years. All dissent has been crushed. There is no opposition party. There is only the power structure of the current Iranian government. So killing the Ayatollah will only produce another radical cleric to take his place. And so it has: his son, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, is the new “Supreme Leader.”

Trump has tried to justify this war by telling us that Iran’s nuclear program was a threat to our national security. If that is true, then the bombing that we did several months ago was not the complete success that Trump told us it was. Trump has also claimed that Iran was developing a ballistic missile that could reach the US. I’m sure that they were, but how close were they to making that weapon a reality? A week? A year? Two years? Who knows? We haven’t been shown any convincing evidence.

The bottom line is that Trump got played by Netanyahu again. It is Netanyahu who was threatened by Iranian medium-range missiles. It is Netanyahu and Israel who want to bomb Iran back to the Stone Age, but they couldn’t do it alone. They needed our help. Netanyahu played Trump like the sucker he is. So, now, we are in a Middle East war with no clear exit strategy. Everything is … awesome.

But Epstein Won’t Go Away

For Trump, this war provides a much-needed distraction from the Epstein files. I must admit that I haven’t jumped into the Epstein files. I’m sure that thousands of people who are much smarter than I am can read the released pages and tell us what they have found.

It appears that a woman accused Trump of attempting a sex act with her when she was underage. The FBI interviewed this woman four different times, but these pages seem to be missing from the Epstein files. Bill Gates has apologized for having sex with women that Epstein provided. These women were not underage, at least so we’ve been told.

Larry Summers, former Treasury Secretary and President of Harvard, has resigned his position at Harvard because of his long-standing, close relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. (Former) Prince Andrew was taken into custody in Britain for sharing confidential British documents with Epstein. (He had already been stripped of his royal and ducal titles and is now simply Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.) Bill and Hillary Clinton testified behind closed doors regarding the Epstein files.

The Epstein files have gained momentum. The Department of Justice may not want to act, but I think the public and Congress will force it to start bringing charges against some powerful people.

Trump has done a lot of bone-headed things while he has been president. His handling of the Covid-19 crisis was criminally negligent, but bombing Iran… Starting a war with Iran seemed to be his worst blunder yet. Everything is NOT awesome.

Jesse Jackson

The Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr., has died at 84. He was a civil rights icon. He deserved—he earned—national and international recognition. He marched with Martin Luther King, Jr.. He was there when King was shot at the Lorriane Motel. He became the leader of Operation Breadbasket, the economic task force of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Jackson used the collective economic buying power of the Black community to force businesses to serve and hire Blacks. This led to Jackson’s Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity).

From the late 1960s through the late 1980s, Jesse Jackson was a force. He had a booming, deep voice that was instantly recognizable. He had a cadence that demanded attention. His mantra—“I am somebody”—sought to instill dignity and respect in the minority community. He paved the way for future Black politicians, such as Barack Obama. Rest in peace, Reverend Jackson.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed here, as well as assertions of facts, are those of the author. They do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of The Urban News.