Send lawyers, trans and money

Due to previous management, I'm about out of political outrage at the moment. If I'm going to ration it out, you're going to have to up your game to get a rise out of me.

I’m hiding in Honduras. I’m a desperate man. Send lawyers, guns, and money. The shit has hit the fan. - Warren Zevon

Today, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth addressed hundreds of military leaders at a Marine base in Quantico, Virginia, in a gathering described as a “key leaders all-call.” It was actually a wake-up call for some who’ve lost their way.

Hegseth used his address to slam current military standards, calling for a full review of education, training and physical fitness practices, as well as woke practices in the military. As much as anything, this address was to put the assembled brass on notice that the political winds have shifted. Lethality now “trumps” progressive priorities in the military. Despite the messenger, I think that this is closer to right than wrong.

President Trump followed Hegseth with a rambling address touting his accomplishments. It was a predictable boasting, preening, grievance-filled, and in many ways an inappropriate Trump speech. Par for the course.

The left and much of the MSM are outraged. Me? I’m going to go fetch the kids from school and take a nap before the Reds-Dodgers WCS game one tonight. I am more concerned about getting the crust on the lasagna just right for dinner than I am about any of this. Democrats going ape shit over Trump's legal, moral, and constitutional transgressions constitute the pot calling the kettle black. I just am unable to gin up any surfeit of outrage over most things Trump. After what’s come before, I’m all out.

The calamity machine goes on and on and on with the latest Trump scandal. Last week it was Trump ordering the military to blow up a boat from Venezuela on its way to the U.S. loaded with drugs. This is outrageous, claimed the usual suspects.

You know what? I think that this probably is legally/constitutionally dubious. You know what else is legally/constitutionally dubious? A government disinformation bureau, unilaterally attempting to forgive student loan debt and having the intelligence community gin up fake intelligence to 86 a political candidate—then misleading Congress about it.

Lying about COVID, crazy deficit spending on partisan priorities, and forcing expensive green technology on the country that doesn’t work is less than great if you expect to be taken seriously. Watching large parts of a major city burn down because of government incompetence is not a key to electoral popularity either.

At least when Trump blows up a boat full of drugs headed for our shores, the supply of drugs in every town in America gets a little tighter, and someone among a boatload of illegals never gets the chance to become Superintendent of Public Instruction in Iowa.

There’s been too much murky water under the bridge for me to get overly wound up about the latest Trump outrage. If I’m going to have to ration outrage, many of Trump’s antics will not be near the top of the list—no matter how many times you call me Hitler for telling you to go sell someone else.

For all of Trump’s posing, preening and bragadocio, he was not the first to hitch his political star to lawfare, fake intelligence, and having my kids taken away if I object to a boy with a record of sex offenses sharing a bathroom with my girls. The guidance from the previous administration on this was so egregiously out of sync with the mores of about 95% of the country that it could only have been dreamed up by people who don’t get out much.

The same kind of people who think that a tiny country in the Middle East surrounded by foes who press deadly attack after deadly attack against this tiny nation are somehow oppressors while their murderers are victims.

The same kind of people who imagine that a paradigm-shifting mathematical equation has been newly discovered stating merit=oppression.

The same kind of people who ruined academia and science by replacing standards, rigor, and proof with equity, whatever that is.

The same kind of people who believe that homelessness, mental illness, and substance abuse—often interconnected—are merely alternative lifestyle choices that must not only be respected but honored.

The same kind of people who believe that there is no such thing as an “illegal” immigrant, even when there are many in this country in literal violation of our laws. Just check out any Home Depot. Any crime committed by this cohort is either statistically insignificant or the victim’s fault.

The same kind of people who cared more about teachers’ unions during COVID than the well-being of schoolchildren.

The same kind of people who insisted that our foundational ideals are a threat to our foundational ideals.

The same kind of people who think that it’s OK to burn down cities over George Floyd but also think that Charlie Kirk had it coming.

The same kind of people who believe that the answer to crime is to cut policing, then ignore the problem.

The same kind of people who think that alternative media (except for BlueSky) is bad because they don’t control it.

The same kind of people who think that no one except white males can possibly succeed on their own volition.

The same kind of people who insist that women can do anything that men can do except object to members of the opposite sex sharing their locker room.

So yeah, I’m about out of outrage based on what upsets these kinds of people.

Rant all you wish. I’m over it. If you wanted any credibility with me, you could have started by admitting that messaging isn’t your problem; it’s your message. You didn’t lose to Trump because no one got your message; it’s because everyone got your message loud and clear and then decided that Trump, for all of his obvious faults, was a better choice. Not great, but a better choice. I know that’s gotta leave a mark. But sometimes you’ve got to burn to learn.

So call for all of the lawyers, trans and money that you want. Scream to a compliant (but shrinking) MSM all that you want. Call the voters that you need to win over to move your vision forward “fascists,” “Hitler,” or whatever. My squelch filter is on. I’d rather worry about supper.

Associated Press and Idaho Press Club-winning columnist Martin Hackworth of Pocatello is a physicist, writer, and retired Idaho State University faculty member who now spends his time with family, riding bicycles and motorcycles, and arranging and playing music. Follow him on X at @MartinHackworth, on Facebook at facebook.com/martin.hackworth, and on Substack at martinhackworthsubstack.com.