19 VI 2025: Let the brutes fight it out

Who doesn’t hate Iran? However, if other rogue nations, like Israel, can have nukes, why can’t Iran? 

When you think about it, Iran and Israel have a number of features in common. The Iranian Shiites consider themselves to be God’s chosen people, just like the Israelis. Both Iran and Israel are garrison states, intoxicated with militarism. Both Iran and Israel have very reckless, self-serving governments. Both Iran and Israel have leaders who should be in jail.

I do not think the U.S. should cozy up to Iran, though we might treat the Iranians with some respect. Nor do I see why the U.S. should cozy up to Israel that has shown itself to be a ruthless aggressor again and again. And I think Trump should be held incommunicado until this crisis is resolved.

14 VI 2025: Toad’s Parade

Trumpie’s parade makes me think of a stanza from Wind in the Willows, from a song by Toad, described as “perhaps the most conceited song that any animal ever composed”:

                         The Army all saluted

                             As they marched along the road.

                         Was it the King? or Kitchener?

                             No. It was Mr. Toad!

12 VI 2025: The new Röhm?

I have been wondering if Tom Honan is the new Ernst Röhm? Röhm, you will recall, was the head of Hitler’s paramilitary hooligans, the SA (Sturmabteilung a.k.a. Brown Shirts). Röhm was riding high until Hitler became suspicious of him and had him killed on the Night of the Long Knives. Of course, Trump is not paranoid, nor is he in the habit of suddenly turning against associates, so Tom Honan need not worry.

11 VI 2025: Evasion, deceit, and contempt

I’ve been wasting my time watching a tape of Mr. Hegseth testifying before Congress. He, like all of the other Trumplets I’ve seen being questioned before Congress refused to answer the questions put to him and offered nothing but pre-memorized sound bites that he kept repeating in order to waste time.

In these circumstances in which Hegseth and Co. find themselves, evasion amounts to a lie. Trump and all his people are playing Congress and the American people for suckers. That’s what they think of us and how little they truly care for us.

11 VI 2025: Who were those masked men?

There is a widespread criticism of ICE “agents” wearing masks as they try to round up immigrants. Today I found this headline on CNN: “Masked rioters in Northern Ireland attack police, torch houses for second night.” 

Why do you suppose those Irish rioters are wearing masks? They do not want to be identified because they are doing something criminal. I think the same could be said of ICE.

John 3:20: “For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed.”

Hitler’s bully-boys in the SA did not wear masks when they went out to beat up Jews and political opponents, but that may be because Germany had moved farther on its way to autocracy than we have.

07 VI 2025: Wish it were still true

O Columbia! the gem of the ocean,
The home of the brave and the free,
The shrine of each patriot’s devotion,
A world offers homage to thee;
Thy mandates make heroes assemble,
When Liberty’s form stands in view;
Thy banners make tyranny tremble,
When borne by the red, white, and blue.

05 VI 2025: Militant fascists in the Trump regime

The more vicious initiatives of the Trump administration come from two sources.

Russel Vought, a Christian nationalist, who is the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. He’s the one behind the demolition of our government so that a void can be created for a military takeover by the Christian nationalists.

Stephen Miller is a xenophobic ideologue who is pushing the removal of migrants. He is the brains behind the illegal steps taken by the Trump government and a raving critic of the courts that keep getting in his way. He is said to be quite upset at the slow pace of deportations. Miller could have been a charter member of the many dictatorial regimes of the past (Hitler, Stalin, et al) that have been characterized by the mass deportations of people.

03 VI 2025: Attempt to  silence critics

If I criticize the state of Israel for relentlessly slaughtering the civilians of Gaza, does that make me anti-Semitic? I don’t think so.

If some who are criticizing Israel because of its bestial behavior are anti-Semitic, would that make me anti-Semitic? No.

The label “anti-Semitic” is routinely applied to any critics of the State of Israel, whatever their motivation. Why? To silence any and all criticism.

29 V 2025: Dropping bombs or dumping “settlers”

Two juxtaposed headlines today on CNN: 

Israel accepts new US proposal for ceasefire with Hamas, says Israeli official

Right, Israel is just buying time while it kills or exiles more Palestinians from Gaza. Any similar Russian agreement to ceasefire in Ukraine will go the same way.

This is followed by 

Israel approves biggest expansion of West Bank settlements in decades. 

This means that the Israeli invasion of the West Bank is not only continuing, but is being ramped up. (some 60,000 of the “settlers” are American citizens; the Americans provide the leadership for state-sponsored terror on the West Bank).