It has finally busted.

Picture created by author using Chat GPT

(Content warning for mild profanity.)

When I saw the picture of Barack and Michelle Obama’s faces pasted on an ape’s body, that was the day I ran out of patience with Trump supporters, especially Christians.

Yesterday, I woke up and found out we’d bombed Iran.

To borrow the line from Jo Dee Messina’s 2005 song, my give-a-damn is busted.

I do not care anymore about Trump’s reasoning for dropping bombs. He did this without Congressional approval, and anyone who tells me, “But so-and-so did the same thing!” will get this response from Jurassic Park: “You were thinking so much about whether or not you could that you didn’t stop to think about whether or not you should!”

I was 15 when the Shah was overthrown and Iran became the Islamic Republic of Iran.

I was 16 when Iranian students overtook the American Embassy and held American hostages for 444 days. I remember Walter Cronkite’s nightly sign-off, “And that’s the way it is, [date], the [day number] day of captivity for the hostages in Iran.”

I was 17 when they were freed.

I am well aware that the USA is known as the Great Satan in Iran.

I am well aware that “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!” are common chants in Iran.

I am not sorry that Khamenei, a cruel dictator, is dead and can no longer hurt his people.

I hope that with his death, Iranians can be free to breathe again and make their own choices about how they are ruled and who rules them.

I’ve also lived long enough to see that when the USA attempts a regime change in any part of the world, the results are not always good. We were in Afghanistan for 20 years, and when we left, the country went right back to Taliban rule. Our history of involving ourselves in Latin America is, to say the least, checkered.

So I am very wary of any military action in the Middle East initiated by the United States.

After executive orders, punitive tariffs, Presidential tantrums, the constant drone about “stolen election/stupid people/worst government until we were elected/no one is persecuted more than me/etc.”, I’ve had it.

President Trump lost the 2020 election, and I’ve had it with his whining.

He thinks he can rule by tariff, intimidation, and executive order.

When the SCOTUS ruled against his tariffs, he said, “Fine, I’ll just smack a 10% tariff on everyone!” and then raised it to 15%.

He’s joked about canceling the 2026 elections.

He wants to nationalize elections (which he can’t do because the states are in charge of elections, but then again, this is also the same president who wrote an executive order outlawing birthright citizenship - which is guaranteed under the 14th Amendment, and if you want to change that, you cannot do it with an executive order, you have to change the Constitution!)

He’s barred certain news organizations from his press conferences, and when the press quizzed him after the SCOTUS ruling on tariffs, he refused to take a question from CNN, calling them “fake news”.

He’s authorized a military force to forcibly remove the ruler of a sovereign nation and says that “we” will be in charge.

He regularly denigrates and ridicules anyone who doesn’t agree with him, and he especially ridicules immigrants, non-Whites, and Democrats. And Congress puts up with him.

I have had it, and I’m tired of keeping my mouth shut and trying to be nice. (I am also writing this after two nights in a row of poor sleep, which is affecting my attitude.)

Dropping the bombs on Iran was the last straw.

After looking this over, I’m not sure if my ‘give a damn’ is actually busted because there’s plenty I care about. I care about people being treated decently, I care about fair elections, I care about the future of this country.

But after a decade of one man dominating the politics of this country, and people blindly following him, I have had it.

I don’t know if it’s my give a damn, but something has definitely busted in me.

Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.