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.
2 – IV- 2026: Disappearing without a trace
AP has published an article entitled “Universities pressured to strip names of those who appear in the Epstein files from campus buildings.” Most attention is paid there to the case of Les Wexner, a pathologically wealthy pal of Epstein who has donated buckets of money to several universities that have used that cash to erect buildings that are named for him. Now a few have already removed the Wexner name from their buildings, and more are being called upon to do the same.
This shows how easy it will be to remove the name of another close friend of Epstein, Donald Trump, from the many buildings etc. to which he has affixed his name.
16 III 2025: Maga anti-Catholics
I encountered the following headline on MS NOW: “Hegseth mentor’s anti-Catholic remarks expose divide in MAGA world … Far-right pastor Doug Wilson set off a firestorm by saying that Catholic parades ought to be banned in a Christian-controlled nation.” This is not as shocking as it may seem, for the self-styled Christian Nationalists claim the right to determine who is Christian and routinely exclude Catholics from that category.
The article in MS NOW begins: “Faith-based fissures continue to grow among conservatives, as prominent right-wing Catholic and Protestants grapple for control of the MAGA movement’s future.”
The same MS NOW also reports: “Trump’s FCC chair threatens news networks over Iran war coverage.” This Trump’d FCC chair is Brendan Carr, who in a submission for his congressional hearing declared his religion: “I have been a member of this Catholic church [Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle] in Washington, D.C. from 2006 to the present.” So, is Rev. Doug Wilson going to maintain that Mr. Carr is not a Christian, and, therefore, can be only a second-class citizen in the “Christian-controlled nation” ruled by MAGA saints?
10 III 2026: Donald Trumperlane
Trump seems to crawl from delusion to illusion in his make-believe-becomes too true war. For a while he was going to bomb the Iranians into the Stone Age (an expression of Curtis Lemay) and the war would be over in jig time. But now he seems to think that the war is almost-not-finished, depending on who was the last person with whom he spoke.
He has tasted blood. After Iran, Cuba and Greenland will feel his wrath and maybe Mexico, and he’ll block Chinese efforts to destroy Hockey. Small craft anywhere in North or South America had better head for port, for after his victories in Iran he will blow them all out of the water.
Is he mentally ill? Yes he is, but so are the Republicans who enable him.
6 III 2025: Professional wrestling on a world state
I cannot decide whether Trump and Hegseth are acting John Wayne re-runs in their statements about the War or if they’ve taken their style and lines from professional wrestlers. I think it is the latter. I’ve seen ads on youtube promoting professional wrestlers’ slapdowns that involve “interviews” with one or both of the big-name contenders. In these interviews the wrestler complains bitterly about the past behavior and attitude of his opponent and promises that opponent’s utter destruction and embarrassment.
Trump and Hegseth who know nothing of war except what they’ve seen in movies, on television, and at slapdowns are left with only intemperate cliches to predict the pseudo-successes of their real war.
3 III 2026: Snaps of Trump
I encountered a headline on youtube that said that Trump is getting his orders from Netanyahu. Why would Trump have to obey Netanyahu? Well, why does Trump have to keep playing footsies with Putin?Could it be that they both have the same compromising photographs of Trump??? This question is, I realize, quite far-fetched, but one has to wonder why Trump is so subservient to his fellow dictators. He doesn’t love all dictators, I suppose. But he does seem to prefer domineering men.
28 II 2025: Sneaky bastards
Well, Trump and Netanyahu have had their own little Pearl Harbor in Iran. They started by assassinating leading figures in the Iranian government, and now are just blowing up this and that. Israel has done it again, suckered us into another war from which we will gain nothing, and all the while Israel is blocking peace efforts so that it can continue its genocide in Gaza and on the West Bank. The Israeli regime is brutal, ruthless, and indifferent to human rights and human suffering, Trump’s kind of people! Trump and Netanyahu have also in common a need to keep a war going so they won’t be put in jail as they deserve. Leaves me wondering if Netanyahu is in the Epstein Files.
27 II 2025: Racist rampage
I read an article today that described the rampage of racism currently taking place in the UK. This can be seen in the substantial increase in hate crimes and hate speech, in a growing sense in some circles that it is o.k. to talk and be racist, and the facile blend of religious prejudice with xenophobia. This racism is promoted, very much in working-class communities, by right-wing “influencers” who are attempting to gain political credibility by playing the race card. Poor Britain.
But before we extend “thoughts and prayers” to the United Kingdom, we should first notice that there is a rampage of racism in the United States of America. Racism is a constituent element of MAGA and one of the bases of the popularity of its leader, Trump. We are hearing more and more advocates for White Supremacy and Christian Supremacy. Racist talk is now allowed in many families and communities that earlier were embarrassed to indulge in it. Racism has always disfigured law enforcement to some degree, but now our President has raised his own army of untrained, mostly racist irregulars, I.C.E., whose sole purpose is to expel or subdue people of color and non-Judeo-Christians. The violence sponsored by I.C.E. has so far been limited to murder, beating, kidnapping, and terrorizing non-citizens and citizens alike. If nothing is done, I.C.E. will amplify its violence and extend the range of its victims to include all non-whites and all non-Christians.
So we can and should extend our sympathy to our fellow democracy for its renewal of racism, but we cannot tinge our sympathy with any attitude of moral superiority.