20 VII 2026: “Do you hear that whistle down the line?”

Today one of Nature’s wonders ambled through our backyard. I don’t mean the beautiful deer that live in the neighborhood. No, I’m referring to Union Pacific R.R. locomotive no 4014, one of UP’s legendary “Big Boy” locomotives, the largest steam engine currently in use. It is an articulated locomotive with the wheel arrangement 4-8-8-4, and it is the apotheosis of articulated steam.

It had been on display yesterday at St. Louis’ Union Station, and today began its journey to the West over what was originally the right-of-way of the Missouri Pacific R.R., the oldest railroad west of the Mississippi, a line that happens to run through the end of our yard. A phone call let us know that it had passed through Webster Groves to the East of us, so we started listening for it to come along our way after passing through Kirkwood. Soon, we heard its bell ringing as it made its way up to the top of Kirkwood Hill where our house is located. Then, as it moved closer, we could hear that steam-engine sound, and then it passed by, a giant taller than the passenger cars it was pulling. It passed in the twinkling of an eye, but, after a short time, we heard its distinctive three-chime steam whistle blowing for a nearby grade crossing. 

This was a transcendent experience. And I beg God to bless the U.P. and the crew that maintain and operate Big Boy.

19 – VII – 2066: Like father, like son

Our President invariably accuses his critics of the very misdeeds of which he is himself guilty. Now, the Secretary of W A R, Pete Hegseth (Trump’s natural son?), is claiming that the men and women who serve in our military haven’t enough testosterone. Who is it that does not have enough testosterone? I imagine that Hegseth, that aspirational brute, is projecting onto others a lack that is in his case obvious and acute.

28 VI 2026: Theocratic lunatics

The following was a comment of Sen. Ted Cruz on Trump’s get-out-of-Iran plan: “History teaches that giving billions of dollars to theocratic lunatics who want to murder us is not a good idea. I think the president is receiving some very poor advice on this deal.” 

Second part first: Of course the President is receiving “some very poor advice.” Trump has surrounded himself with people who can give only very poor advice.

First part: I suppose that by theocratic lunatics Cruz means the Islamic Republic of Iran. However, this expression would just as well describe some people in the Trump administration, e.g. Pete Hegseth and Russel Vought, and Christian nationalists generally.

10 VI 2026: Dog fight at White House

The internet contains many reports about the upcoming few-holds-barred Ultimate Fighting Championship fights to be held at the White House for Trump’s birthday. Now A.I. tells me that “Engaging in or sponsoring animal fighting is a felony across all 50 states and the District of Columbia.” So if the Trumpies were to sponsor a dog fight they would go to jail. As it is, human fights are not so well regulated, so I suppose Trump will get away with this also.

1 VI 2026: How big were theirs?

As we’ve seen, Trump has denounced performers who bailed out from the program of his planned entertainment. His plan B is: “So I am thinking about bringing the Number One Attraction anywhere in the World, the man who gets much larger audiences than Elvis in his prime … ” This is unfair to Elvis who was just a popular singer, whereas Trump is a head of state. It would be more fair if Trump would measure himself against his peers, Mussolini and Hitler.

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.