Year One

April 11, 2025 

In the predawn hours of this Friday morning Lt. Gen. John Caine (Retired), US Air National Guard, was sworn in as trump’s new Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. He had never held a four-star rank, or command, and was promoted upon approval by a vote of 60-25. Fifteen senators, including nine Republicans, missed the vote in the wee hours of the morning. “Raizin” Cain claims to be non-partisan, despite a story told by trump himself about the general wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat. He says he’s “never worn any political merchandise.” A presidential waiver was required for him to be considered, since he was not active-duty. He’s the first National Guard member to ever hold the chairmanship of the Joint Chiefs. His last assignment before he retired was as the associate director for military affairs at the CIA.  

His non-partisan claims notwithstanding, since his retirement just last year, Caine has been a partner at Thrive Capital. It is run by Joshua Kushner. He is the younger brother of Jared Kushner, trump’s son-in-law. No questions about this connection were even brought up during the nomination process. Yup. He should be very non-partisan and not a “yes” man at all.  

In July it was announced that the chief executive would personally meet with all candidates for nomination to four-star rank. This is a break with long standing traditions geared towards making these positions non-political and non-partisan appointments. The men who would hold four-star rank in our military will command all of the major active-duty commands in our military and are the highest rank in our military.  

On August 25th of this year, trump signed an executive order directing the creation of specialized National Guard units in each state to be mobilized for “quelling civil disturbances.”   

On September 6th trump posted on “Truth Social” a meme that depicted him as Lt.Col. Killgore in Apocalypse Now (wearing Robert Duval’s sunglasses and cavalry hat, and fire and helos in the background) and the modified quote: “I love the smell of deportations in the morning…” Instead of “Apocalypse Now” it was marked “Chipocalypse Now” in reference to his threats to the city mayor of Chicago and the Governor of Illinois to send troops into Chicago. He also wrote: “Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of War.” Posted by the President of the United States of America! 
All of these things are facts. They are easily verified by the daily news. I can’t make this stuff up. If America is okay with this kind of behavior by a chief executive, then we are on our way towards being a very different America, and very soon. It’s been a beautiful idea for 249 years. We almost made it to 250. He might as well call it Year One next year.  

God bless Y’all.  

And God Bless the United States of America.