Our fragile world
As the maelstrom of news consumes the White House, the CDC, the campaign trail and the Pentagon, there is one story that is truly illustrative of the hubris and incompetence of the executive branch.
No, it’s not our president walking past the open door of the presidential limousine waiting for him and into the airfield nearby, only to be retrieved by special agents. And no, it’s not JD Vance’s defense of the attack ad financed by Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy that targets Democratic Ohio candidate Dr. Amy Acton. It features her estranged mother lying and exaggerating about Acton’s troubled childhood. Vance, in turn, called Dr. Acton a liar and chastised Republicans who condemned the abhorrent ad.
It is indeed Pete Hegseth whose arrogance knows no bounds. Hegseth apparently covets a priceless pre-World War II globe used by Dwight D. Eisenhower during the war. Hegseth wanted it put in his office at the Pentagon. According to the Washington Post, “rather than wait for the Army Center of Military History to move the globe, several staffers from Hegseth’s office tried to do so themselves, dropping it, creating a hole in the lower part of it and damaging another area, the officials said.”
I can’t help but see this as an ironic metaphor. All our “president’s men” acting as selfish children taking from our nation’s history, its reputation, its institutions, its ideals and its wealth. We must call out the current executive branch which is destroying not only our democracy and its norms but the “world” and its history.