Republished with permission from D. Earl Stephens

As a United States Navy veteran my blood once again boils today.

For what must be the 79th time, the traitor, and convicted felon, Donald J. Trump, publicly insulted the brave people who selflessly offered the highest sacrifice to our country.

Last night, during yet another one of his pathetic, broken-down lounge acts at his garish golf club in New Jersey, Trump—the guy who did everything he possibly could to avoid serving his country in uniform—effortlessly blew a hot, noxious cloud of unfiltered hate and ignorance across his fawning, tone-deaf audience.

While babbling on in his customary snotty, sing-song delivery, the America-attacking Trump heaped praise on Republican mega-donor, Miriam Adelson, around whose neck he once draped the Presidential Medal of Freedom. This was to presumably honor her for all the money she heroically dumped in his bucket-sized pockets over the years.

Along with the Congressional Gold Medal, the Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award that can be bestowed upon an individual. It has been awarded in the hundreds since John F. Kennedy re-established President Harry Truman’s Medal of Freedom as the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963.

Prominent athletes, politicians and entertainers have been recognized with the honor over the years. It’s grand validation for a distinguished career of American achievement.

Like nearly everything Trump comes in contact with, however, the honor was greatly diminished during his four years spent trying to break this country in two, when he recognized Rush Limbaugh, the bombastic, racist radio talk-show host with the award, along with Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan, who has done absolutely nothing meaningful with this life, except make everybody he comes in contact with as miserable as possible.

So here was Trump Thursday night during another one of his endless look-at-me events unloading all of his bile when out of his dumpster of a mouth popped this loaded grenade:

“Miriam, I watched (Sheldon Adelson, her late husband) sitting so proud in the White House when we gave Miriam the Presidential Medal of Freedom. That’s the highest award you can get as a civilian, it’s the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor, but civilian version. It’s actually much better, because everyone gets the Congressional Medal of Honor—that’s soldiers. They’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets, or they’re dead.”

He finished himself off by adding this:

“She (Adelson) gets it and she’s a healthy, beautiful woman, and they’re rated equal,”

When I heard those comments, all the blood went to my head, and frankly, I was amazed at this grotesque man’s ceaseless capacity to make me absolutely furious.

Let’s get this out of the way quickly: There is NO COMPARISON between the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Medal of Honor. NONE.

The Medal of Honor is the United States’ highest award for military valor in action. The Medal is authorized for any military service member who distinguishes him or herself conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his or her life above and beyond the call of duty.

Comparing the actions of a fat-cat political-donor to a service member who risked (or gave) his or her life for their country in battle goes way past insulting and absurd.

And of course this high-test creep put his very own special accent on his 100-proof insult:

It’s actually much better, because everyone gets the Congressional Medal of Honor—that’s soldiers. They’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets, or they’re dead.”

It’s hard to fathom that coming out of anybody’s mouth, much less a person who was once our country’s Commander in Chief, but there it was in all its gory form again.

Trump is on the record as calling our fallen troops “suckers and losers” and barfing out that he “likes people who weren’t captured” like the late Senator John McCain, who was once a prisoner of war.

He avoided a trip to a World War I cemetery in Europe once because of rain, and brushed it away by saying to reporters “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.”

The examples of his contempt for our military are endless, but tell me: Why is he allowed to get away with it?

And if he doesn’t mean what he says, as he invariably contends, then why doesn’t he apologize?

Trump is by now fully aware of the backlash for his gross comments Thursday night. Any normal person would have offered a heartfelt apology, while doing everything they could to correct their comments for the record.

Not Trump.

Nope.

Like the hundreds of other hurtful comments he’s made about our military and myriad other subjects, such as berating women, these latest comments will simply die with the news-cycle, and will only be resuscitated again the next time he does it.

THIS IS NOT OK.

I am heartened to see some reporting on this in the mainstream media today, but I am once again wondering how big it would play if, God forbid, Joe Biden or Kamala Harris said such an atrocious thing JUST ONCE.

Thanks to our broken, horse race national media, we would never be able to un-hear it—even when they invariably did everything possible to apologize for their ghastly comments.

The double-standards in the way Republicans and Democrats are covered is revolting.

As I type this, Republican operatives at Trump’s direction are trying to smear Democratic Vice Presidential Candidate Tim Walz for his stellar service to our military. They are using the the same despicable “swift boat” attacks that helped sink John Kerry’s run for president on 2004.

Kerry served with distinction in Vietnam, but that didn’t stop these vulgar people from attacking him with an endless volley of lies.

How can this not make everybody in America furious?

How are we STILL dealing with such appalling double-standards 20 years later?

I am admittedly close to running out of words on this subject today, so in closing, I want to bestow an honor on the despicable coward, and America-hating, Donald Trump, for everything he has done to belittle America and her heroes.

I would love nothing more than to etch his name on this award, and hand it to him in person.