Greetings! Cowardly lion? I’m not necessarily accusing Trump of cowardly behavior last month for sneaking off Air Force One in a catering cart for the safety of a nearby U.S. Air Force jet while preparing to leave a NATO meeting in Turkey.  But the optics looked terrible, especially for an administration that prizes hyper-masculinity as one of its core values.  He let journalists and administration staff fly in Air Force One. Most were unaware that it might be targeted by Iranians aiming to blow the aircraft out of the sky. Worth noting: The NY Times nailed it by publishing this quote about the catering cart incident from Andrew Marlowe, who wrote the great 1997 movie “Air Force One” starring Harrison Ford as the heroic president. “If the threat were that great, it’s hard to imagine the audience rooting for any character who would trade his own safety by treating the remaining civilians onboard as potential sacrificial lambs, especially without their informed consent,” said Marlowe. Also worth noting: The relentlessly macho-posturing SecDef Pete Hegseth joined POTUS on the secret jet while Scott Bessent and Marco Rubio flew on the decoy jet. Does this mean Trump views them as more expendable than Hegseth?...America lost the Iran war. So says The American Conservative’s Andrew Day. “Clearly, the White House badly underestimated Tehran’s resilience and resolve,” Day writes, “an inexcusable miscalculation considering the frantic warnings issued by Iran experts before the war. There aren’t many silver linings here amid the gloom and doom.” Worth noting: the Washington Examiner also slams Trump’s war. The headline says it all: Trump Has a “Big Stick” in Iran. He Forgot to Bring a Brain...Why are canceled movie stars like Armie Hammer and Jonathan Majors appearing in anti-Muslim films? Texas Monthly has the answers....If you keep reading, I’ll keep Righting. Howard

Greetings! Most woke film review ever. That’s how Hollywood-in-Toto describes film critic Marya Gates’ critique of the rom-com One Night Only for the RogerEbert.com website.  Gates writes that the film “is everything that’s troubling about the current conservative capitalist hellscape that is the United States of America writ large.” Here’s the full review so you can decide for yourself... Tyler Boebert, the 21-year-old son of firebrand congresswoman Lauren Boebert (R-CO) has landed in legal hot water and it’s not for the first time.  He was just arrested on several felony charges relating to alleged sexual exploitation of a child stemming from a 2024 incident.  “The arrest could not come at a worse political moment for Rep. Boebert,” observes the far-right The Gateway Pundit. “The Colorado Republican is defending her seat in the state’s 4th Congressional District while facing Democrat Eileen Laubacher, a retired Navy veteran. Boebert has also endured a public rupture with President Donald Trump after campaigning for Rep. Thomas Massie against Trump’s preferred candidate.” Boebert gained fame before entering politics as the owner of a gun-themed Colorado restaurant where the waitstaff carried firearms...Podcaster-in-Chief: Next month, Barack Obama will release a six-part podcast series via Audible called “A Great Book with Barack Obama” in which the former president discusses six books that have inspired him.  Titles include “The Fire Next Time,” by James Baldwin; “Song of Solomon,” by Toni Morrison; and – a personal favorite of mine – “All the King’s Men,” by Robert Penn Warren. (Variety). I'd be willing to bet that Donald Trump would never release a competing great books podcast series based on his favorites...If you keep reading, I’ll keep Righting. Howard