Thoughts for the Day, July 23, 2025: Barefoot and Pregnant?

Barefoot and pregnant?

From the Atlantic. President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth seem to be on a mission to erase women from the top ranks of the U.S. armed forces. Last week, they took another step along this path by removing the first female head of the United States Naval Academy, in Annapolis, Maryland.

The Naval Academy was founded in 1845, but didn’t admit its first class of women until 1976. The head of the school is known as the superintendent, and Annapolis would not get its first female admiral in that position until 2024. Now the first woman to serve as the “supe” has been reassigned and replaced by a man, and for the first time in the academy’s history, the role went to a Marine. Last week, the Navy removed Vice Admiral Yvette Davids from her post and replaced her with Lieutenant General Michael Borgschulte.

At this point, women have been cleared out of all of the military’s top jobs. They are not likely to be replaced by other women: Of the three dozen four-star officers on active duty in the U.S. armed forces, none is female, and none of the administration’s pending appointments for senior jobs even at the three-star level is a woman.

Not that the secretary hates women, you should understand. Some of his best friends … well, as he put it in his book last year: “It’s not that individual women can’t be courageous, ambitious, and honorable. I know many phenomenal female soldiers. The problem is that the Left needs every woman to be as successful as every man, so they’ve redefined success in a counterproductive way.”

I’m sure that the more than 225,000 American women who serve their country in uniform are relieved to know that they, too, can be courageous, and all that other great stuff. But Hegseth seems to be implying that many women in today’s military might have had their fitness reports massaged “in a counterproductive way” to meet some sort of “woke” quota. And that, you see, is why the U.S. military’s most-senior female officers had to be removed: They were clearly part of some affirmative-action scheme. Thank you for your service, ladies, but let’s remember that the Pentagon’s E-Ring is for the men.

You cannot make this up. It would be laughable if it wasn’t coming from the President and the Secretary of Defense. How any woman continues to support the misogynist who occupies the White House is beyond my comprehension.

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Diversion?

On Monday I asked if Trump’s comments trying to strong arm the Washington Commanders and the Cleveland Guardians into reverting back to their previous names of Redskins and Indians is nothing more than a diversion to draw attention from the Epstein files.

Here is what The Atlantic had to say.

Trump is focusing on this small issue in the hopes of picking a racist scab that will occupy the attention of his base—because much of that base right now is deeply angry about a supposed cover-up relating to Trump’s former friend and the convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein.

Yet again, when trying to throw red meat to the faithful, Trump picked something small and silly. Trump rules by appeals to grievances—rather than focusing on substantive national problems—because at least some of the MAGA movement revels in that kind of cruelty. This culture-warring behavior helped get him elected, and Trump’s voters have been willing to join him on these capricious roller-coaster rides for the first six months of his second term. But roller coasters don’t have actual destinations, and sooner or later, even the most dedicated riders will want to get off.

The last sentence is my Quote of the Day

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“Vote yes/hope no”- A Gutless and Hypocritical Republican Congress

Trump’s vision of power is straight from Project 2025. Strengthen the Executive Branch while weakening the Legislative Branch and the Judicial Branch. In the six months he has been in office he has wasted little time in implementing it. One reason he’s been so successful is that Republican members of the House and Senate seem to have no idea of the purpose of Congress. Nor does the Supreme Court.

The past few weeks have seen Republican members of Congress wringing their hands furiously over bills under consideration, criticizing the White House’s legislative priorities … and then voting for them. Some are members of the “Vote yes-hope no” faction in the Republican Party.

Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, a prominent member of the supposedly populist wing of MAGA Republicans criticized Medicaid cuts included in the One Big not-Beautiful Bill Act in the form of work requirements. “If you want to be a working-class party, you’ve got to deliver for working-class people,” he said. “You cannot take away health care from working people.” Three days later, on July 1, he voted for a bill that did exactly that. This week, he introduced a bill to roll back some of the Medicaid cuts he’d voted for two weeks earlier. He knows his new bill has no chance of passing, but he will be able to tell his constituents he is working hard for them. If Hawley didn’t like the cuts, he could have voted to stop them. The Big not-Beautiful Bill passed 51–50, with Vice President J. D. Vance breaking the tie. By withholding his vote, Hawley could have killed the bill or forced changes.

Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted for the Big not-Beautiful Bill too and then told reporters that she hoped that the bill she had just voted for would not be enacted as written, pleading with the House to do her job for her by altering it.

My favorite member of the “Vote yes/hope no” club is Mitch McConnell. Here is what he said about the bill. “I don’t have any problem with reducing spending. We’re talking about not knowing. They would like a blank check, is what they would like. And I don’t think that’s appropriate. I think they ought to make the case.” McConnell voted for the bill.

“I suspect we’re going to find out there are some things that we’re going to regret. If only there were some ways to avoid that!” said Thom Tillis of North Carolina’s who decided to not run for re-election after being threatened to be “primaried” if he didn’t get in line with Trump. Tillis voted yes, because he said he’d been assured by the White House that certain programs wouldn’t be cut. How an experienced Senator like Tillis can believe what comes from the White House is beyond me. Tillis will not be missed. If he had just abstained, the Big not-Beautiful Bill would not have passed.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune paused a bill to levy sanctions against Russia, deferring to Trump, who has threatened to impose tariffs on Moscow. “It sounds like right now the president is going to attempt to do some of this on his own,” he said. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise concurred: “If anybody’s going to be able to get Putin to the table to finally agree to peace, it’s President Trump.” Never mind that the Constitution places the tariff power primarily with Congress.

Elections matter. The mid-terms are only 16 months away.

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The Tigers

The Tigers are in a funk, and it is not just one thing. They have lost 8 of 9 and are losing today’s game to the last place Pirates. If the Pirates hold on to win, it will be a three-game sweep for the Pirates.

It is not just one thing. Pitching, especially the bullpen has been getting hammered when they are not walking hitters. Mental errors on defense have creeped into their play and the hitting has been atrocious. What was once a 14.5 game lead, will be less than 10 after today.

They have time to right the ship, but it must happen quickly, or they are going to be in a ‘dogfight’ for the remainder of the season.

The Tigers get my Onion of the Day.

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Quote of the Day: “Roller coasters don’t have actual destinations, and sooner or later, even the most dedicated riders will want to get off.” Tom Nichols, Staff writer for The Atlantic.

Orchid of the Day: Musty Habhab, who is retiring from Michigan Medicine after 38 years. A special lady who started in Hospital Accounting 38 years ago and is retiring as the Chief Administrative Officer for Internal Medicine. Watching her succeed has been a joy for me.

Onion of the Day: The Detroit Tigers

Question of the Day: Will the Tigers right the ship in the next week?

Lyrics of the Day: I’ve listened to preachers. I’ve listened to fools. I’ve watched all the dropouts who make their own rules. One person conditioned to rule and control. The media sells it, and you live the role. Mental wounds still screaming driving me insane. I am going off the rails…

If you think you know the lyrics send me your answer in the comments section of the blog.

Answer to Lyrics of the Day for July 21: The Joker by the Steve Miller Band

Video of the Day: RIP Ozzy

Black Sabbath feat. Ozzy Osbourne - Paranoid (Live Aid 1985)

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