John T. Reed’s news blog

Why did Trump send the Carl Vinson carrier strike group to the vicinity of North Korea?   My Unelected President allowed a carrier strike group to stay in the Persian Gulf, to his great regret, but he did not send one to North Korea. Trump declined to comment on what’s next in Korea. Smart. But smarter not to draw attention with the strike group to begin with. Readers of my Unelected President novel probably can see what’s going on very clearly. 1. That carrier can be sunk by North Korea.2. The U.S. can “sink” North Korea—with just one of the US...

As best I can tell, Syria has about 300 combat fixed-wing aircraft. Why not destroy all of them? Planes spend most of their time on the ground. They can be destroyed by a .50 cal. sniper rifle fired from about 1,000 meters away. Land a remote-operated belt fed .50 cal. on top of a building or on a hill at night. Put an incendiary or exploding bullet into every plane at that base. Cost? I would guess $500 or so.Or deliver small thermite grenades to the wings of them by small helicopter drones. Cost? Probably about a $1,000 before they...

I know a guy who is getting married in June. They just bought a brand new home. They fell in love in their early twenties but other stuff came up. He was my roommate in college. Our first marriages are dead. Long live our new marriage.One of my wife’s cats died unexpectedly last Friday. She just put down a deposit on a replacement kitten. Our cat is dead. Long live our kitten.My middle son just bought his first home, a condo. My youngest son is going to get back to his first home search when his Realtor® gets back from...

There is a saying in Hollywood, “If you want to send a message, use Western Union.” It means, don’t make a movie the purpose of which is to send a message to the audience.It would appear that Trump violated that rule. He used $84 million of cruise missiles to send a message. In this case, probably neither a movie nor Western Union would have been believed by the intended audience. The exploding missiles were believed. Military intimidated by Trump? My main reason for not liking draft dodgers in chief like Clinton, Bush II, Obama, and Trump is they seem to be...

My Unelected President “Mike Medlock” already dealt with Syria in my novel. He was asked what he wanted to do, asked why it would be the business of the US president, and upon hearing no good answer, said, “I will do nothing. It’s none of my business.” Would poison gas change his mind? No, the first poison gas attacks had already happened by 2013 when my novel is set. The terribleness of the various regimes around the world does not make them the business of the US. It is arguably not even the business of the neighboring countries. If it...