30 V 2026: I.D.F. and I.C.E.

The Associated Press has published an article about reports by “whistle-blowers” in the Israeli Defense Force of the atrocious behavior of the Israeli troops occupying Gaza. The way some of these soldiers kill and main Palestinians of every age show plainly that they regard the Palestinians as a subhuman group that must be expelled from Israel. The I.D.F. and the government behind them have come to rival the Nazis.

The article is accompanied by a photograph of I.D.F. soldiers in their tactical costume and the anonymity of their masks. Did the I.D.F. provide the model for I.C.E.?

30 V 2026: Trump, the star attraction

Trumpie is annoyed that so many performers tentatively scheduled to appear at what he is now calling the Great American State Fair are backing out, and he can’t think why they are withdrawing. Anyway, in a twitter, he said “So I am thinking about bringing the Number One Attraction anywhere in the World … DONALD J. TRUMP.” Well, “there’s no business like show business,” and show business is all that Trump is good for.

29 V 2026: No bread, but circuses

Trump has been leaving urine stains (i.e., gilt gee-gaws and his name) everywhere, and fantasizing about wannabe erections (White House Ballroom, triumphal [sic] arch, etc.). Trump’s vulgarity will also be manifested in the events he is orchestrating for the Nation’s 250th Anniversary. He plans to solemnize the semiquincentennial with more gilt, with popular entertainments, and with an Ultimate Fighting Championship match at the Whitehouse. 

This UFC match will mark the apotheosis of Trump as Caesar presiding over gladiatorial games. The Romans found the shedding of blood entertaining; Trump and his like are content with the possibility of the shedding of blood. Watching pieces of beefcake beat the shit out of one another must make Trump’s bone-spurs tingle. Moreover, the alliance of Trump with UFC is an ideal combination, for both are equally burdened with flim-flam and semi-criminal sleaze.

17 V 2026: “National Jubilee of Prayer” For pity’s sake!

Today MAGA inflicted on the nation a so-called “National Jubilee of Prayer.” This was staged to kiss up to MAGA’s wavering members from the evangelical-party who maybe don’t like the way the Epstein coverup is going. In an interview before the show started, Mike Johnson registered his disapproval of the term “Christian nationalism” declaring it “wildly inappropriate.” He may be right about this, for “Christian nationalism” is an abuse of the adjective Christian to describe Johnson and his associated televangelists. A more appropriate epithet might be “politicized brand-X pseudo-evangelism.”

11 V 2026: State and whose church?

Headline on AP News: “Rejecting church and state separation is on the wish list for Trump’s religious liberty commission.” Well, they want to reject separation of church and state! This comes as no surprise from a bogus commission of people to whom “religious liberty” means compelling everyone to live according to “evangelical” rules. 

But I do wonder just what they have in mind, specifically, what church they have in mind. Do they mean the self-styled evangelicals? That won’t work because the “evangelicals” are a political party, not a church. So what “church” do they have in mind? Trying to answer this question would lead to fierce fights about who is the church or at least about who indeed is really a church. To marginalize fights and conflicts of this sort is one of the purposes of the separation of church and state.

1 V 2025: A filter for lies

The Trump administration and its appendages continue to carpet-bomb America with lies. Indeed, the lies are coming so thick and fast that there could never be time enough to refute them. So I propose the following as a solution to this problem: the American people and media must agree to regard any and all statements that come from a Trumpian source as ipso facto false.

1 V 2025: God bless and uphold workers

Today is Mayday, Labor Day, Feast of St. Joseph the Workman. Whatever it is called, it celebrates the abiding dignity of labor and laborers. In an era in which honest work is disdained and white collar crime is admired, the honest must renew their determination to protect and honor laboring people.

12 IV 2025: Trumperlaine

The Iran Talks have not gone well, and Mr. Vance and Kushner and the real estate agent whose name I forget have returned. Now Trump is mumbling about blockading the Straits of Hormuz. It had been my impression that he was frantic to see to it that Iran does not blockade the Straits, but as with almost everything in Trump’s crusade, one plan is readily replaced by its opposite.

7 IV 2026: “whole civilization will die tonight”

This is Trump’s threat to Iran if Iran does not do what he wants, whatever that is. Our ignorant and crazed President is talking like Genghiz Khan or Tamurlaine. Or, maybe he’s re-enacting the God of the Old Testament threatening Sodom and Gomorrah, for Trump likes to think he is God.

If Trump levels Iran, Iranian civilization will not die. No, but the United States will die. Trump and other kill-crazies in his administration want to bomb Iran into the stone age, the very thing Gen. Curtis Lemay threatened to do to Japan, and Lemay followed up with the fire-bombing of Tokyo and the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The U.S. has long pretended that we are the “good guys,” and that our boys do not commit war crimes, and that our hands are not dripping with blood. Trump will, if he gets his way, tear off the mask of decency.

4 IV 2026: Yeah, Donald

Trump has warned Iran that they have only: “— 48 hours before all Hell will reign [sic] down on them.” The same news reported that Trump has ordered the release of government-held U.F.O. files. I guess he figures that aliens will reign down all Hell in two days.