Mort Report is a labor of love by old-style correspondents with lifetimes on the road and young ones with fresh eyes. Our philosophy is simple: we report at first hand with analysis based on non-alternative fact, not opinion. If we get something wrong, we fix it.
TUCSON — ICE terrorizes parts of America. Ice paralyzes much of the rest. Polls turn against a corrupt, climate-denying autocrat who sees the White House as his Versailles Palace and runs roughshod across the globe jabbing big sticks into hornets' nests.
Reporters close in on Donald Trump's starring role in shielded Epstein files. They include FBI interview notes with a woman who maintains that when she was in her early teens, he forced her to have oral sex, then slugged her when she bit his penis.
And so now, flushed with hubris after a quick abduction in Venezuela, Trump attempts a wag-the-dog war with the country that fought Saddam Hussein's Iraq to a standstill in the 1980s after eight years of artillery fire and human waves shouting, "Allahu Akbar."
At least a half million combatants and civilians died, likely many more.
This report will be brief. No one can predict the future. But after covering conflicts of every sort since the 1960s, my scalp tingled when Trump said the attack would last several days, if not weeks.
My guess is years, if not decades, if you factor in the fallout. Iran's supreme leader, at 87, is more interested in martyrdom than capitulation to the Great Satan. Proxy guerrilla groups on Israel's borders are weakened but still active. Remember the Houthis.
Iran's navy and shore batteries immediately blocked the Straits of Hormuz, throttling global oil supplies. They can bedevil shipping across the Middle East. Israel likely faces extended retaliation. Iranian operatives can bring terror attacks to the heart of America.
Trump declared: "You must lay down your weapons. Or, in the alternative, face certain death."
Perhaps he is the genius "peace through strength" statesman he claims to be. In this case, I hope he is right. But I think he is insane.
ORO VALLEY, Arizona — Donald Trump, a mix of Midas and Mussolini, is going for broke in America. If he and his despotic cohorts win their game of global Monopoly on a board with no "go to jail" cards, democracy and decency are over.
His latest lunacy is blocking Joe Biden's signature project, an $18 billion road-rail tunnel linking New York and New Jersey. He wants Washington's Dulles International Airport renamed Trump. That is not so laughable if you remember John Foster Dulles.
As secretary of state under Dwight Eisenhower, John Foster Dulles foresaw the inevitable result if NATO did not contain Stalin's Soviet Union. He fortified an alliance with Europe, restoring prosperity after Hitler tried to ethnically cleanse the human race.
Dulles was the main force behind SEATO, a NATO-like military and economic organization to confront Mao Zedong's "Red China" and thwart communism in Southeast Asia after a crippled Japan left Asia up for grabs.
He championed strong support for Israel within the 1947 U.N.-mandated borders — and action to resolve the "bitter fate" of Palestinians.
Trump is trashing all of that. He bullies allies and toadies to adversaries, risking hot war on an overheated planet. And most Americans, caught up in domestic drama, ignore the unthinkable looming dangers.
Oro Valley, just north of Tucson under majestic mountains, is a fool's gold reflection of a wider world fast nearing endgame. Republican zealots in a corrupted, cruel ex-Grand Old Party enable Trump to do his worst.
