unraveling

29.Apr.2026

The killing will continue until morale improves

The farrago of fatuous fakery from the orange felon and his bagmen flies on, blotting out the disinfecting sunlight that should be shining on the full disclosure of the Epstein files. We're two months into the gas man's war of whim against Iran, and the NYT daily tease this morning led with U.S. military quietly accelerates boat strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific... but pointing to the Dec. 4 reporting from Charlie Savage and Julian E. Barnes. The top paragraph in the email:

"The U.S. military has ramped up attacks against boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean this month, deploying more attack aircraft than ever in its campaign to kill people the Trump administration has accused of smuggling drugs at sea."

It's so "quietly" that there isn't a new story from the Times? But the problems the December coverage identified remain unaddressed. What Geoffrey S. Corn, formerly the Army’s senior adviser for law-of-war issues said:

“The real problem here is the dubious and legally overbroad assertion that the United States is justified in using wartime authority against a criminal problem.”

The operational answer from major major and the minions is that we are the Department of War, so we can kill anyone, anywhere, if we feel like it.

"It would be a crime if officers instead simply gunned down suspected drug dealers in the street. Similarly, a military force is not allowed to target civilians, and being a suspected criminal does not make someone lose civilian status. In peacetime, targeting a civilian is murder. In an armed conflict, targeting a civilian is a war crime."

Speaking of our everywhere war, the Senate Republicans stymied the Democrats' attempt to end thug's energy blockade of Cuba. All but two Republicans, and fake-Democrat John Fetterman dismissed the resolution, saying "that it was out of order because the U.S. is not engaged in outright hostilities with Cuba." Except that a blockade is an act of outright hostility.

"Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat who introduced the war powers resolution, said the blockade had caused "humanitarian crises across Cuba," including disrupting medical care, leaving millions of people without clean water and spiking food prices."

The senate goobers aren't doing much to uphold "greatest deliberative body" status. Witness Florida's Rick Scott claiming that thug "is doing everything he can to bring back freedom and democracy all across Latin America, and we should do everything we can to support him."

For his part, Idaho's octogenerian senator running for reelection this year, and chairman of the foreign relations committee just sent out a campaign mailing dressed as coming from the president, return address the White House, and containing a facsimile of thug's dark-hearted endorsement of the dog who lost his bark. "When protestors disrupt his hearings, he has them arrested!" thug crowed.

All that while Karoline Leavitt delayed her maternity leave for a North Korean-style parting shot to demonize Democrats, set up by a Fox News reporting wondering how we could lower the political temperature. Seriously? Yes.

"Leavitt happened to have a list on hand containing names and quotes from Democrats who have criticized the president and his administration that she read from while accusing them of inciting violence."

"Happened" is so cute there. Reporter Laura Barrón-López restates the obvious, that thug wants to reserve political violence for himself. (I'm old enough to remember January 6, 2021.)

“[T]he president, since he entered the scene in 2016, has repeatedly talked about using violence against his enemies,” she continued. “He did this during 2016 rallies when there were protesters, saying he'd like to, ‘punch them in the face.’ And notably, his former Defense Secretary Mark Esper put in a memoir that Trump asked, ‘Why can't we just shoot protesters? Just shoot them in the legs or something?’"

Now we're at war with sea shells, too.

28.Apr.2026

The downfall of the DOJ

Unlike some bloggers you may know, Ken "Popehat" White knows how to bide his time, and reserve the richest vein of ridicule for the truly deserving. Today brings a case in point, précis in the hed, punchline in the dek:

The Comey Threat Indictment Is A Grave Embarrassment To The United States Department of Justice And The Rule of Law; "The Department of Justice Is Dead; Long Live The Department of Trump." If we were Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, this would be The Case of the Sinister Seashells.

"The charge is preposterous and no competent or honest prosecutor would bring it. It represents a betrayal of the professional and ethical obligations of every U.S. Department of Justice attorney involved, and reflects the complete collapse of the Department’s credibility and independence in favor of a cultish and cretinous devotion to Donald Trump....

"As a lawyer commenting on the Trump administration’s legal arguments, I face a challenge: how do I convey to non-lawyers, or even lawyers in different fields, the shameless fatuity of some of the Trump Justice Department’s arguments? Words fail. This case is overtly, obviously, on its face, ridiculous and premised on a foolish and unconstitutional theory. I know it as confidently that those of you who work with numbers know that 2 + 2 = 5 is not a plausible argument....

"Yet we live under a Department of Justice that will commit this travesty and argue it’s valid. Even now, members of Congress — nominally sworn to defend the Constitution — are defending it. And soon enough, some puerile throne-sniffer of the legal academy — some Wurman, some Barnett, some Turley — will emerge to argue that it’s plausible, so thoroughly has Trumpism corrupted us."

27.Apr.2026

The Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Ballroom

We don't need another court case to adjudicate thug's problems handling facts, truth, or reality. That's all tenuous, at best (and most charitable). He exaggerates, confabulates and flat out lies as a matter of course, facilely, casually, amorally.

In her April 25, 2026 Letter from an American, Heather Cox Richardson gave us the first draft of history of Saturday night's White House Correspondents' Association dinner, with a capsule history of the organization, which was started in 1914, with eleven White House reporters alarmed by rumors that Woodrow Wilson "might begin to choose which reporters would be allowed at [his] press conferences."

"While at first the reporters simply wanted access to the president, as the WHCA became an established force it came to work for transparency more generally, recognizing that journalists are the main eyes and voice of the people. It protected press passes for journalists who regularly covered the White House, and assigned seats in the briefing room.

"But all that changed in February 2025, after Trump took office for the second time. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that the administration would no longer recognize the role of the WHCA in managing the White House press pool. Instead, she said the “White House press team” would control access to the White House. At the time, then–WHCA president Eugene Daniels said the change “tears at the independence of a free press in the United States” and “suggests the government will choose the journalists who cover the president.”

“In a free country,” Daniels said, “leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps.”

Fast forward one day, and here's her description of Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Department of Justice Civil Division sending a letter to the lawyer for the National Trust for Historic Preservation "demanding that the organization drop its lawsuit against Trump’s planned ballroom on the site where the East Wing of the White House used to be."

Finally, the Republican answer to gun violence, or threats of gun violence, or a staged event to bring up the idea when it's convenient. Because there was “another attempt on President Trump’s life” (was there, really?), or at least a guy with "a shotgun, a handgun, and multiple knives on the floor above the room where the [WHCA] dinner was taking place," THUG-POTUS MUST HAVE HIS BALLROOM.

Once that's in place... thug "and his successors will no longer need to venture beyond the safety of the White House perimeter to attend large gatherings..."

Except for, well, golfing, of course. And fake wrestling matches. And campaign events.

25.April.2026

Semi-local news

Idaho's Ada and Boise counties share a diagonal border, with "the mountains" to the NE, our ski hill, Idaho City, Horseshoe Bend, Banks, Garden Valley on the wilder side, population 8,000 in round numbers. The foothills, the bigger part of the state's largest conurbation, most of Lucky Peak reservoir, and a wide swath of desert north of the Snake River are on our side, population half a million. Gem county, sits north of Boise (city) and Ada, west of Boise (county), and weirdly keyed between five others. Lots of history behind the lines on the map, and on the ground.

We don't get a ton of Boise County news, maybe because there isn't that much, and maybe because we're busy with our own. But last week, something about a stabbing last summer, during "a riverside altercation" popped up, because the victims filed a lawsuit, and the stabber was an Idaho County Commissioner, Darrell "Lindy" Lindstrom.

That's newsworthy, eh? This week, Boise County's prosecuting attorney’s office filed a petition to transfer the investigation to an outside prosecutor, and a district court judge approved the petition, the case was transferred to Gem County Prosecuting Attorney Erick Thomson. Boise County Prosecuting Attorney Alex Sosa "also requested assistance in investigating broader allegations levied against unnamed Boise County officials."

"In a copy of the letter Sosa provided to Boise State Public Radio, he wrote, “the allegations involve Boise County Commissioners concealing/coercing a law enforcement investigation in Boise County Sheriff's Office’s [Payette River altercation] case [...], open meeting law violations at Boise County Commissioner meetings from the Board or others using information learned in executive sessions, electioneering from Boise County staff, and misuse of public funds from a fuel tank being parked at a Commissioner's residence.”

Very down home. BSU Public Radio delicately notes "it’s unclear who made these allegations and which Boise County officials were implicated."

The letter, signed by the county’s three commissioners – including Lindstrom – said the request seeks “to avoid the slightest appearance of impropriety and to promote public confidence in the outcome.”

That raft of impropriety has already pushed off, it seems. The lawsuit has been filed in the Fourth Judicial District, which conveniently comprises Ada and Boise counties (and Valley, and Elmore, but not Gem). The plaintiffs are from Ada; the three defendants from Boise county.

"11. Approximately one mile away from the [Payette River] take-out spot near Parnell Beach Recreation Spot, north of Horseshoe Bend, Idaho, a group of men on jet skis, with open alcohol containers, were operating their crafts at high speeds and in close proximity to Plaintiffs' rafts."

It went downhill from there.

23.Apr.2026

Other than that, how's your day going?

Jason "LOLGOP" Sattler's piece for The Cause today is lot bleaker than the stock market, "partying like it's 1999." (Anybody remember how that turned out? Eventually kind of OK, until the "financial engineering" of real estate debt blew up in '06.) Trump's delusion is dooming us to a global economic disaster.

I missed chuckleheaded thug's CNBC appearance earlier this week, but after he compared the duration of his war on Iran with WW I, WW II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, he said "five months" twice, as if... that's the plan now? Two months in, more than the "four to five weeks" he was saying early on. He also said we were ahead of schedule (despite there not being a schedule), "but whatever the time is, it's OK."

And, we've already won! And, this is just the beginning! And to the supine caucus in Congress that keeps him in power, "We've already won in many ways, but we haven't won enough." So much winning! His March 11 rally-goers got the dumbed-down version:

"Let me tell you, we've won. You know, you never like to say too early you won. We won. We won the -- in the first hour, it was over."

Four weeks later, he threatened Iran with genocide on his Lies Psychopathy channel. That brought a claim of "Total and complete victory. 100%. No question about it."

Not sure if it's "dark irony" or bright irony, but all of a sudden renewables look better than ever.

"Trump spent his entire presidency trying to lock in our fossil fuel addiction. He has now, accidentally and catastrophically, done more to accelerate the global pivot to clean energy than anyone since Al Gore."

The punchline is that the markets seem to be betting that it will end, and a joyous new day will follow, as if the "when" hardly mattered.

"But this bet requires Trump to take a loss. And there has never been anyone worse at taking an L. He torched the Iran nuclear deal—which the IAEA had verified was working—because it had Obama’s name on it. Eight years of maximum pressure later, Iran had 440 kilograms of enriched uranium, thousands of new centrifuges, and a hand on the throat of a fifth of the world’s oil supply. The policy produced exactly the outcome the deal was designed to prevent. That’s the L. His response to the L was to launch a war. His response to losing the war was a blockade. Each move burns more credibility; each burn makes the next deal harder....

"Watch the ships. Not the tweets. And watch the stocks, since that’s the only last connection to reality for Trump, which is why he was on CNBC in the first place. See how the ships just do not connect with the stocks. See who figures that out."

21.Apr.2026

Good morning sunshine!

They say that life is what happens while you're making other plans, and it's been one of those weeks so far. My usually closely-monitored spam bucket ran wild for a few days. This morning, I see some of the too-regular candidate-pleadings have been demoted. (Which is fine; I use the daily flow to give me a feeling like I'm "managing" my inbox by deleting a dozen or three at a time.) Sampling the wave of subject lines reveals poetry.

A change in the campaign playbook
What matters the most to you right now?
Stress-Free (smiley face) Payroll
Your cash flow problem has a simple fix
eat eggs like THIS to sooth nerve pain by 82.7%
Faster Shelf Labels (smiley heart-eyes face) Zero Hassle
This is why we reach out so often
Spring (sunflower emoji) into Bigger Profits
This email is about saying goodbye.

What matters the most to you right now? Yeah. As a sometime numbers guy, I'm allured by the eighty-two point seven percent nerve pain reduction. (Thank goodness I don't have any of that to reduce rn.) And then the punch line. Full stop. Damn.

17.Apr.2026

Corporations are perpetrators too

M. Gessen in the New York Times: A Stunning New Verdict Rewrites the Rules of Corporate Morality.

"For the first time in France, and possibly for the first time ever, anywhere, an entire corporation had been put on trial and found criminally liable for enabling terrorism."

Says there that the former CEO and deputy head of ops of Lafarge, one of the wordl's largest cement manufacturers, would being serving their six and five year prison sentences for "financing terrorism in Syria and beyond" immediately. Not sure if "Judge Isabelle Prévost-Desprez’s verdict, which took almost four hours to read" (!) counts as time served.

"Prosecuting corporations is particularly difficult for at least two reasons. One is the problem of intent, which is essential to determining guilt in a criminal trial. Does a corporation have a mind? Can it have intent? The defense in the Lafarge trial claimed that the company’s and its executives’ only intent was to keep the Syria plant in operation; the judge concluded that the executives’ exclusive focus on this goal was itself incriminating, since it could be achieved only by cooperating with armed groups terrorizing and plundering Syria.

"But the bigger problem with prosecuting corporations, in Hamilton’s opinion, is resource disparity. “These cases are mind-bendingly complex, involving subsidiaries, across different countries, regulated by different laws,” she wrote to me. “They take decades. The defendants in these situations are multinational corporations with effectively unlimited resources to throw at a lawsuit. On the other side, we have victim communities and their nonprofit lawyers urging public prosecutors — who may have had no previous exposure to international crimes — to bring charges.”

But now in Paris, an important win. Closer to home, we have the "absence of pretense" for our felon's international criming. As we await accountability of any sort.

"One war after another is unleashed without even the pretense of legitimacy. [Thug] doesn’t just announce genocidal intent on social media: He advertises his plans to take over sovereign countries, he brags about kidnapping a head of state, he flaunts his disregard for human life, and, of course, he vows to take all the oil. The world’s most powerful man has made cynicism itself into a ruling ideology."

Will have to think on that

There's a lot to digest in the Politico.eu "EU Influence" newsletter from Mari Eccles, Hungary's web of US-linked think tanks.

Starting with how inadequate the term "think tank" is to cover the field of semi-covert political action networks. The Heritage Foundation in this country, for example, which formulated the "Project 2025" action plan that thug, and musk, and miller have brought into being. The game in Hungary isn't looking quite so jolly just now.

"HOW HUNGARY JOINS EPPO: One of Magyar’s (many) promises as prime minister is to bring the country under the scope of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO). Hungary is one of the few countries in the EU not to sign up to the anti-fraud organization, with Orbán’s government having considered the possibility of EU investigators probing cases in the country an infringement on its own sovereignty. All change now though."

Closer to home, IdahoEdNews provides a generous report from Ryan Suppe on Idaho's governor, and state superintendent of schools promoting one particular conservative group in our high schools. As Dave Barry used to have to say, "I am not making this up."

A Proclamation from the Governor sounds like a pretty big thing, but our main man's website doesn't seem to include an archive of them. There is a page (under the "Contact" menu, which I did not guess, but found with the site's search) with a link to a request form, and an email address to send it to.

IdahoEdNews did provide a link to a .docx version, dated April 8, but lacking the letterhead, filled-in Brad Little and Secretary of State Phil McGrane (does he have to?!) signatures, and idk our Seal to make it "official."

Is all caps 18 pt. Times New Roman official enough for you? The reaffirmation is for "IDAHO’S COMMITMENT TO UPHOLDING THE PRINCIPLES OF THE FIRST AMENDMENT WITHIN ALL PUBLIC EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS," and specific encouragement of Idaho students to lead or join a Club America or Turning Point USA chapter, perhaps signed on April 8th, "in the year of our Lord two thousand and twenty-six," as they style our calendar.

He also styles the proclaimed actor as "we," which seems to refer to himself and the non-signatory superintendent of public instruction, state department of education, and state board of education, spelled out in one of the Whereases. Below the all-caps big font COMMITMENT, there's a lower-case, 11 pt. italic kicker:

"we pledge a commitment to preserving opportunities for civil discourse, open dialogue, and civic engagement within our public school system. I encourage any student who is interested in leading or joining a Club America or Turning Point USA chapter to do so."

not including that bold face I added. Apparently all TPUSA had to do was ask! Contrast that with our execrable attorney general's proclamation last year that ‘Everyone is Welcome Here’ sign cannot be displayed in Idaho schools. (Not because of "truth in advertising," but because our admitted partisan hack of an AG discerned that a message of multicultural inclusion and welcome was clearly a Democratic Party plot.)

The [attorney general's] opinion went on to say that [West Ada District teacher Sarah] Inama began displaying the signs in 2017, shortly after Trump’s first election, and that Inama said she hung the sign to “share her personal, ideological beliefs.”

Inama told EdNews in an interview Monday that she wasn’t even a teacher in 2017 and didn’t put the signs up until 2020 or 2021. She bought the sign at a craft store in the Boise area and had never heard of the Minnesota story until EdNews sent her the attorney general’s opinion Friday.

Some commitments to upholding the First Amendment in Idaho are more equal than others.

But wait, there's more! Then I got to The Atlantic tab with the April 6 dateline, and The MAGA Intellectual Who Prophesied a Queen Melania. "An ally of J. D. Vance who has dabbled in monarchism is now working for Viktor Orbán." Probably "was working" now, but here's the connecting thread:

"When I asked him whether he believes in democracy, he said, “Western democracies need to return to their roots in Christian civilization in order to pull back from hyperliberal progressivism.” In a 2022 essay, he called the presidency a “quasi-monarchical office.”

"[Gladden] Pappin followed these interests to Hungary, where government-funded think tanks catering to foreign intellectuals have sprouted along the Danube like spring poplars. American conservatives journey to Budapest and return gushing about how Orbán has curbed migration and consolidated power, ruling for the past 16 years."

That post on Pappin's Postliberal Order (as far as I could read, because no, I don't even want to "claim my free post") extolled Queen Elizabeth II, and in particular her

"Prudence, elegance, graciousness, aplomb, patience, benignity, justice, temperance, charity, religion, modesty and fidelity were all among the jewels in her crown. But what knit them together and set them in their place was the practice, fading and now faded, of duty of state."

You know, all those vaunted qualities our own aspirant to royalty (and deity) has in spades. You and I can't make this up, but OMG.

16.April.2026

And in other Pontifex vs. surrealThug news

Back in the day, I knew Forbes as a glossy, weighty magazine that dad subscribed to, stuff about captains of industry that were far removed (I imagined) from reality growing up in suburbia. It's business was business. And rich people?

Now, it appears they're covering the same beat as my blog does, "politics, religion, economics, engineering, life." Case in point: Pope Leo Says ‘Love Your Neighbor’ Applies To International Relations Amid Feud With Trump. The top tag is BREAKINGBUSINESS which is a bit weird, but still: politics, religion, economics, (not so much engineering), life. And death. In the KEY BACKGROUND there.

"The feud between the White House and the Vatican began after the Pope criticized Trump’s threats against Iran. The president threatened to target civilian infrastructure in the country earlier this month and said “a whole civilization will die tonight” before a ceasefire agreement was reached. Pope Leo said Trump’s threat was “truly unacceptable,” catching Trump’s attention days later as the president accused the Pope of being “WEAK on Crime” and “terrible for Foreign Policy.”"

That threat of genocide flitted through the news cycle absurdly lightly. The Republican caucus (minus Rand Paul, and plus John Fetterman) in the Senate once again blocked a war powers resolution, continuing its abrogation of its constitutional duty, and green-lighting anything and everything that thug and Whiskey Pete decide to do.

Even threatening genocide.

Idaho, with just under 0.6% of the population of the U.S., should punch way above its weight, with 2% representation in the supposedly greatest deliberative body in the world. Our junior senator is the bloody chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, but hasn't had squeak to say against thug's reign of domestic and worldwide terror.

Once upon a time, he acted like "a full-throated supporter of Ukraine." Lately, he's offered cowardly silence on thug's betrayal, and the capitulation to Vladimir Putin's aggression.

Risch, one of 24 Catholic members of the Senate, as if that matters, "accused backers of the war powers resolution of supporting Iran in a speech before the vote," according to the Reuters report eysterday.

"Nobody is coming to help you, Iran, except for the 47 people over here," he said, referring to senators who back the resolution.

Such an embarrassing toady.

The murderer's prayer

"I guess a little light sedition is ok with the new DOJ..." As long as your seditting for THUG, obvs, which he made clear from day 2.1. It's so vile. Charlie Sykes and Harry Litman talk about Trump‘s DOJ: From Bad to Worse.

Looking at Facebook this AM (because BlueSky was under the weather a while), two posts bubbled to the top. Both having to do with our Secretary of Psychopathy, Major Major Pete "Pete" Hegseth. Jim Wright, who has paid longer attention than I have:

"When Hegseth was just another run-of-the-mill Fox News commentator mostly famous for bragging how he didn't wash his hands after using the toilet and nearly killing a member of a military band on live TV, the guy NEVER had anything positive to say about the United States or the government or most especially the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (both of which were happening during his tenure on Fox). Not one word. Thus, by his own definition, Pete Hegseth is 'incredibly unpatriotic.'

"But, I'll give him this: It's not hard to see which side HE's on."

That's over a screencap from Aaron Rupar quoting Kegsbreath reviling "the American media" for its "relentlessly negative coverage," despite how gloriously we are killing people all over the world. "It's incredibly unpatriotic," he said. Incredibly. Unpatriotic.

Where's that TR quote when you need it? (Sheesh, I remember when that sort of question was hard to answer, but here you go, you can just read the URL if you don't want to take the jump. Shorter: unpatriotic and servile, morally treasonable to the American public. Almost as if he knew Major Major Pete "Pete" personally.

Secondly, and for which one wag commented that "Satire is dead because no one can make up anything more absurd than our current reality," Feminist News on Pete "Pete" leading a "prayer" service and quoting a fake Bible verse from Pulp Fiction to justify his war crimes and murder.

I wish I were exaggerating.

"The 'prayer' Hegseth read is Samuel L. Jackson's [in]famous monologue from Pulp Fiction — a speech the character Jules Winnfield delivers right before he executes someone....

"Christianity — a faith centered on caring for the poor, welcoming the stranger, and loving your enemy — has been hijacked and weaponized into a shield for white nationalist imperialism. For mass deportations. For bombing campaigns blessed with fake Bible verses. For a 'Religious Liberty Commission' that exists to give powerful people the right to discriminate, not to protect the vulnerable."

Pope Leo XIV is hanging out with the low-lifes, same as Jesus used to do, on Xitter, as @Pontifex, where he tweeted this:

"Woe to those who maniuplate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic, and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth. #ApostolicJourney #Cameroon vatican.va/content..."

Hey, speaking of the military, I didn't fact check this BlueSky post, but the orders of magnitude sound about right:

"Iran has a military budget of $10 billion
Pentagon is asking for $200 billion on top of $1 TRILLION to fight Iran
ANYBODY ELSE SEE A PROBLEM HERE?"

Lighter fare

Needed another shot of the Traveling Wilburys this morning. "The End of the Line" status report. @tanstaafl1301, 5 years ago, commented:

"Can we pause a moment to let this sink in? Tom Petty (already a world-wide star on his own), George Harrison (a freaking Beatle for God's sake, as well as successful on his own), Bob Dylan (THE Bob Dylan, troubadour for an entire generation), Roy Orbison (one of the most distinctive and original voices of foundational rock in the 1950s), Jeff Lynne (the founder and driving force behind ELO, the successor to the Beatles) - five epic-level musicians in a room recording tunes. We will NEVER see the like again."

Other comments add: The FABULOUS Jim Keltner ("Buster Sidebury") on percussion, "best session drummer of all time."

Tax Day, 2026

Il Papa v. JK & JD

The rain is back (after the last wave dropped two feet of powder on our local ski hill; sorry to say I missed the bus), and the answer to "how to spend the morning" started with yesterday's end-of-day stack of bookmarked tabs. Why not the very last one first? And if it's any guide, I'll never be catching all the way up. It's a blogworthy doozie.

Rick Wilson's Against All Enemies blog yesterday: Is Trump The Antichrist? A Totally Sober, Very, Very Serious Theological Analysis. [Spoiler alert: it's not actually very, very serious, but it is pretty good analysis.] First off, props for vocabulary building, adding kaiju and Kultursmog to mine. Not to digress too much, but that Wikipedia page on kaiju is a thing of beauty, and reminds me that I come from the cultural milieu that produced the Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (who was scantily clad after her enlargement, naturally).

Where were we? Ah yes, signs of the End Times and the Antichrist. Wilson notes four of them, including this:

Sign the Third: The Prosperity Gospel as Proof of Concept

"...The Antichrist doesn’t come in looking like a villain. He comes in looking like a savior. That’s the whole trick. That’s the entire scam.

"Trump has been sold to evangelicals (and a damn good percentage of Catholics) as America as a vessel of divine providence. The man with three wives, the hush money, the Epstein mess, the whores, the sexual abuse, the porn stars, the casinos, the fraud judgments, the scams and rip-offs, the gleeful cruelty, this is the man God chose.

"That’s the pitch. With a straight face. From pulpits. Joel Osteen has several private jets and a house the size of Rhode Island because he and others like Franklin Graham sold you this guy. Think on that.

"The prosperity gospel, which is to actual Christianity what a gas station sushi roll is to fine dining, created the perfect theological runway for a figure like Trump: you don’t need to be holy to be chosen, you just need to be rich, which proves you’re holy."

This same fellow, shamelessly employing his position, and our federal government to enrich himself further (the second annual Thug Memecoin dinner, which thug himself may or may not attend, is coming up) had a go at bullying the Pope, spewing his usual deranged potpourri of fabulations on Lies Sociopathy, including taking credit for Robert Francis Prevost getting his job as Leo XIV, as if, and complaining about him being "Weak on Crime" and stuff.

Asked for his thoughts on the president's Truth Social comments, the pontiff said: “It’s ironic – the name of the site itself. Say no more.”

If only we could honor that papal exhortation!

The pope has been vocal about his opposition to the war for weeks. During a prayer service at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican on April 11, he called out the "delusion of omnipotence that surrounds us and is becoming increasingly unpredictable and aggressive."

"Enough of the idolatry of self and money! Enough of the display of power! Enough of war! True strength is shown in serving life," the pope continued.

Our Bizarro Batman's Robin, J.D. Vance, is trying to tag team Leo inside the dugout. Let me recommend the Liturgy and Truth substack of Msgr. Arthur Holquin, When the Neophyte Corrects the Vicar of Christ.

"There is a particular arrogance that takes root in the newly converted — the zeal of the autodidact who, having just discovered the tradition, mistakes enthusiasm for mastery. JD Vance, who received baptism into the Catholic Church in 2019 at the age of thirty-five, has now committed the singular error of instructing the Bishop of Rome to “be careful when he talks about matters of theology.”

"We should sit with the full weight of that sentence.

"The Vice President of the United States — seven years a Catholic, formerly an evangelical, before that a self-described atheist — stood before a Turning Point USA audience in Georgia and publicly admonished Pope Leo XIV about theological precision. “If you’re going to opine on matters of theology,” Vance informed the successor of Peter, “you’ve got to be careful, you’ve got to make sure it’s anchored in the truth.”

"The audacity is breathtaking. The irony is almost comic."

The Monsignor closes with an extra slap for Vance's next book, "on his Catholic faith," titled Communion, and featuring a United Methodist church on the cover, which would be ecumenical in a lovely way if it weren't just confused.

"A seven-year Catholic who tells the pope to watch his theology, while defending an administration that posted an AI image of the president as Jesus Christ and refused to apologize, is not in communion with the tradition he claims to be writing about. He is in communion with power."

There is some risk in trivializing all this as bad reality TV. I'm old to remember the bombing of an elementary school in Iran, thug threatening that country with genocide, and the thug-Hegseth extra-judicial/war criminal murder campaign in the Caribbean, continuing through the weekend and this Monday, with at least 170 now dead, with precisely zero due process.

In the comments under Holquin's post on Facebook, the former counsel of the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct, James T. Parsons chips in:

"Vance is in the tradition of “Christianity” that brought us the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the Witch Trials spread throughout Dark Ages, Middle Ages until Enlightenment.

"I truly appreciate Pope Leo and think he truly is the best possible Pope for the times. When much of the World sees evil and ignorance rising, there are Lights that give hope. Leo is a bright one."

13.April.2026

Death and taxes

The weather did its part by giving us a rainy weekend, encouraging the screen time and head-scratching to complete and e-file federal and state returns. Yay? I celebrated late yesterday afternoon with a bike ride in the rain, roughly following my old "work" commute to the site formerly known as "HP" and now owned by the State of Idaho. (The HP badge is still there at the entrance, but not for much longer.) The first time I rode my bike to that work is now 43 years in the rear-view mirror. Tempus fugit.

On the other side of the ledger, this timeline we're in is pretty damn weird, isn't it? Hungary kicked its proto-fascist prime minister to the curb yesterday, that's good news for them, and us. A lot of people were surprised that he conceded, but there's something to be said for a parliamentary system, maybe? (In our once-vaunted democratic republic, the decrepit and supine Republican Party continues to green-light our lawless and corrupt dictator's whims; may our mid-term elections be an effective and uncorrupted plebiscite on him.)

The Beeb's headline is an inspiring thing for the turn of the tide: Orbán era swept away by Péter Magyar's Hungary election landslide. ("Magyar" means Hungarian, btw. Sort of like electing Amerigo Vespucci here.) It looks like Magyar's Tisza party will have 138 seats, Orbán's Fidesz 55 and the far-right Our Homeland 6. The more than two-thirds majority delivered by a record 79.5% turnout will enable them to begin repairing the damage of Orbán's 16 years as prime minister. Nothing is certain (except, you know), but there's this:

"Hungary has for some time felt like two different worlds running in tandem. In one, Orbán convinced his supporters and TV viewers they were heading for victory and four more years in power, backed up by opinion polls run by sympathetic pollsters, who continued to forecast a Fidesz victory as late as Sunday evening.

"In the other world was Magyar, attracting big crowds wherever he went, backed up by respected pollsters reporting an increasing lead over his rival.

"On Sunday night, those two worlds collided, and only one was real."

As Michelle Goldberg points out, with the experience of being there and talking to people (my emphasis added),

"Some admirers of Orban have argued that the fact that he lost proves he was never an autocrat to begin with. What it really demonstrates, however, is that opposition to Fidesz was so strong it was able to overwhelm all the structures Orban put in place to protect his rule: wildly distorted voting districts, a captured media, state-sponsored propaganda, local patronage networks, and widespread threats and intimidation."

Unwinding kleptocracy (and kakistocracy, where we are now) is no small thing. Stay tuned. Speaking of our own corrupt and incompetent regime, among today's news teasers:

President [redacted] criticizes Pope Leo XIV; Pope Leo says he has "no fear" after thug's attack; and, from a man who unironically claimed that "my own morality" is the only fetter on his gallop across infamy, thug Posts Image of Himself as a Jesus-Like Figure. Blasphemer much?!

Posted on his personal Lies Sociopathy channel, of course, get this: thug is "dressed in white and red robes," his hands "emit shining lights" (maybe that's what all the bruising is from?), "and his right hand is touching the forehead of a man lying on a bed, wearing a hospital gown, [evoking] religious art depicting Jesus healing the sick." You can't hardly make this shit up, but AI helps.

"In the image posted on Sunday, the man in the bed is surrounded by figures looking up at [redacted], including a medical worker with a stethoscope, a praying woman and a man in a camouflage uniform. The background of the image includes the Statue of Liberty [!], a building resembling the Lincoln Memorial, fighter jets, eagles, fireworks and a billowing American flag."

Jesus did always love fireworks. It's also funny because President [redacted] just told us that "It’s not possible for [the federal government] to take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things." (Call your state Jesus if you need healing.)

Also, if you're in a disaster and live in a "blue" state, tough luck getting help from FEMA, because it's 3 times harder for blue states to get disaster funding under thug 2.0. Why should he help you if your state didn't give him any electoral votes? Exactly like what Jesus would do, after he skipped church to go golfing on Easter Sunday.

Update:
This is awkward. Don Demento has now said he doesn't even know Jesus, he thought the picture was posting was him as a doctor, "it had to do with Red Cross, there was a Red Cross worker there, which we support." Just waiting for the rooster now. Cock-a-doodle-doo!

11.April.2026

The dignity and stability of government in all its branches

On March 22, 2018, I was in Boston for my first-ever stint as a deponent, on my way to being an expert witness in a patent dispute between leviathan Japanese corporations. It's a fun story I need to assemble in its entirety before I shed this mortal coil. But for today, there was something I saw in my after-deposition walk, at the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse. Yeah, I'd never heard of him either, but his name was caved large in the brick over a striking granite inset, quoting John Adams, from 1776. It goes like this, one sentence, all caps:

THE DIGNITY AND STABILITY OF GOVERNMENT IN ALL ITS BRANCHES, THE MORALS OF THE PEOPLE, AND EVERY BLESSING OF SOCIETY DEPEND UPON AN UPRIGHT AND SKILLFUL ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE.

Two hundred forty-two years on, after the bloody revolution, the Constitution, the genocide against the natives, the Civil War, the becoming a colossus (and being given one for the New York Harbor), a world power, then a nuclear-armed superpower, Adams' exhortation redounded in the chaotic, stumbling, often lawless realm of the first regime of thug. Participating in a (civil) case that would eventually take me to a courtroom of the International Trade Commission in Washington D.C., standing on the street outside an edifice of power, the righteous call seemed deeply important, and timeless. Things Would Be All Right, you know?

Fast forward 8 years and 3 weeks, and the memory was refreshed by an item on Democracy Docket, Trump DOJ now 0 for 4 on voter roll cases as court rejects Massachusetts lawsuit. Their hero image echoed my own, but at a jaunty angle, and with an unfortunately placed trash bin. I wanted my view of Justice to be straight ahead, tidy, reliable. The two-days ago lede:

"A federal judge dismissed the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) lawsuit demanding Massachusetts’ unredacted voter registration rolls Thursday, marking the fourth loss for the agency, with zero wins, out of 30 active cases."

And the wider score in the next graf: "17 Republican-led states have complied, the rest have refused, leading the DOJ to sue 29 states and Washington, D.C. for their voter rolls."

Idaho is a very Republican-led state which has not complied, beyond sharing already-public registration information, thanks to our upstanding (Republican) Secretary of State, Phil McGrane. The DOJ announced it had filed a lawsuit against the state, on April 1, no less.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon is quoted on the DOJ site, with performative and uncredible blather about "continu[ing] to verify that all States are carrying out critical election integrity legal duties." Sooner or later, someone's going to have to ironically quote St. Ronnie's "nine most terrifying words," because no, AAG Dhillon is not actually "here to help" in any way, shape or form.

She has an impressive CV for right-wing lawfare, and in one year heading the Civil Rights division, she's managed to drive out nearly three-fourths of its career employees, most recently the criminal section chief, principal deputy chief, deputy chief, and acting deputy chief who would not countenance her refusal to open an investigation into whether ICE agent Jonathan Ross's involvement in the killing of Renée Good violated her federal rights.

Her law firm represented thug when he was subpoenaed by Congress’ Jan. 6 select committee, and when he was sued by lawmakers and police officers for his role in the attack on the Capitol, which puts her in "the center of the battle" to be Pam Bondi's successor, according to Politico. She'll have to outdo Trump’s former defense lawyer, Todd Blanche: "There’s no attorney more singularly responsible for keeping Trump out of prison than" Blanche, it says there.

You can bet on anything these days (although not legally here in Idaho), and I would bet on Blanche over Dhillon, because Job #1 for thug has always been keeping his sorry ass out of prison.

7.April.2026

Lost and found poetry

It's poetry month again (isn't every month that?
I've been slow to start, but today's "FedEx"
con apologizing for my lost package (ha!),
proposing amends with my choice of "premium gift"
"after secure verification is completed" restored my spirit.
The gift-in-a-grift was subtext down the left rail.
Let the dough rest, baby.

I
meant
to
reply
sooner,
but
the
week
kept
getting
away
from
me
and
I
wanted
to
give
a
real
answer
instead
of
a
rushed
note.
I
did
try
that
bread
recipe
again,
and
this
time
I
finally
stopped
changing
little
things
midway
through.
It
turned
out
much
better,
especially
after
I
let
the
dough
rest
longer
and
stopped
checking
on
it
every
few
minutes.
I
also
moved
a
few
plants
to
the
brighter
corner
by
the
window
and
they
look
less
dramatic
now,
which
is
a
relief
because
I
was
convinced
I
had
ruined
them.
As
for
the
weekend,
I
am
keeping
it
simple.
I
want
a
slow
morning,
a
walk
if
the
weather
cooperates,
and
maybe
a
movie
in
the
evening.
I
have
been
trying
to
leave
more
blank
space
in
the
day
instead
of
filling
every
hour.
It
makes
everything
feel
calmer,
even
the
ordinary
stuff
like
folding
laundry
or
cleaning
out
a
drawer.
Let
me
know
what
you
decided,
because
I
am
still
making
up
my
mind.

But wait, there was more!
More AI slop trying to appear human to a spam filter, a spinning whirl of ironic failure.

"I was thinking about your question on routines," it begins, in a helpful tone. "And I honestly think the biggest shift came from making things easier to begin."

Yes.

"The all or nothing mindset used to derail me constantly, so I am trying to be less dramatic about missed days and just begin again without turning it into a whole issue."

I hear you, calling from the abyss.

Up here in what's passing for "the real world," our madman issued an ultimatum: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”

One resident of Tehran offered the astute observation that “I think [he] is under a lot of pressure and that he has lost his mind.”

Easter Monday, 2026

Theme of the month: War crimes

It has also been the theme of Thug 2.0 more generally, starting at least last September with the blowing up boats in the Caribbean and murdering the people on them. The idea of members of the military upholding their oaths by refusing to carry out unlawful orders was mostly lost in the fog. Last November, the NYT reported that our swaggering major major had "fired or sidelined at least two dozen generals and admirals over the past nine months in a series of ousters that could reshape the U.S. military for years to come."

"His actions, which are without precedent in recent decades, have come with little explanation. In many cases, they have run counter to the advice of top military leaders who fought alongside the officers in combat, senior military officials said.

"The utter unpredictability of Mr. Hegseth’s moves, as described in interviews with 20 current and former military officials, has created an atmosphere of anxiety and mistrust that has forced senior officers to take sides and, at times, pitted them against one another."

At the time, the official statement was that “The department will continue to elevate those in our ranks who are committed to warfighting and meritocracy.” "Warfighting" now includes war crimes. "Meritocracy" now translated to sycophancy. It's not a good look.

Props to the New York Times for succinct candor in its "editorial picks" email, which had the subject (and link to) Trump revels in threats to commit war crimes in Iran, after thug's vile antisocial media post on Easter. "No other recent American president has talked so openly about committing potential war crimes, experts say." You hardly need an expert to discern that.

No other American president has used antisocial media to spread his F-bombs, either. ICYMI, with links in the original:

"International laws aimed at preventing the horrors of total war are codified in a series of agreements, including the Geneva Conventions, the Hague Conventions, the Nuremberg Principles and the United Nations Charter. Deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure violate those. So does pillaging a country, which Mr. Trump has suggested he might do by taking Iran’s oil."

And, of course thug's "aides are on board."

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last month that “we will keep pushing, keep advancing, no quarter, no mercy for our enemies.” A “no quarter” order — to kill all enemy soldiers, even those who are badly injured or who surrender — is a war crime under international law and in the U.S. military code.

Oh, and in the assessment of 100+ international law experts warning that U.S. Strikes on Iran Violate UN Charter and May Be War Crimes,

"the very act of the United States’ attacking Iran is a violation of the U.N. Charter, since there is no evidence Mr. Trump was acting to defend his country against an imminent threat. And the president did not get congressional authorization for the war, in violation of the Constitution."

4.April.2026

Two weeks from now

Thug's favorite unit of time to deliver whatever inevitably brings to my mind J. Wellington Wimpy's promise, "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today." We're looking forward to the war being over in two weeks. In the meantime, I surveyed David Ignatius' stack of March opinions, starting with The Iran war is a hostage crisis, on March 31. He opens with Ted Koppel's "grim nightly message" on ABC from half a century ago, when the Pahlavi dynasty ran out of gas after taking over a century ago. It's complicated. Anyway.

"Let’s examine how the Iran war became what is essentially a hostage crisis: President Donald Trump joined Israel on Feb. 28 in an assault on Iran that demonstrated masterful military tactics but poor strategic planning. Iran responded with ballistic missiles and drones — and, most important, by closing the vital Strait of Hormuz. That last action took not just America but the entire global economy captive.

"When a hostage-taking occurs, there are two basic options: Rescuers can try to free the captives through force, or they can attempt to negotiate a peaceful release. Both approaches take time, planning and coordinated action. But all those factors are missing now. Trump is in such a rush to end the crisis, he seems ready to declare victory and abandon the other parties bound up in Hormuz. Europeans are so angry at Trump that they’re refusing to form a common front."

You fix it, everyone else. The oil is there for the taking. Just take it! The "negotiation" part can't possibly work after at least three rounds of set-ups leading to attacks and murder of negotiators. Quite the art of the deal.

"Any sensible person" makes a surprise appearance in Ignatius' analysis. Said person "will know that this [misadventure] has shaken [thug's] presidency." And then the "More from" headlines:

• Trump isn’t hiding his election power grab. He’s bragging about it. March 26, 2026
• In their game of chicken, Trump and Iran tap the brakes at last March 23, 2026
• The Iran war is metastasizing. Trump needs an endgame. March 19, 2026

Happy Birthday, NATO!

78 years ago yesterday, President Harry S. Truman signed the European Recovery Program, "the Marshall Plan," into law. 77 years ago today, eleven nations joined the United States to create the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Professor Heather Cox Richardson's succinct history capsule takes us back to a different world, one in which we resolved to end war by standing together. It's a sobering read in our new time of madmen.

Good Friday.2026

Maybe if I'd sacrificed more for Lent

The waypoints of my childhood religion have turned to warm nostalgia by now, but early learning is the most persistent, it seems. I woke up wondering if Jesus said whatever "Thank God it's Friday" is in his native Aramaic (or any of the other languages he knew) on the Good Friday.

Probably not? It seems midly sacrilegious to speculate. (Having checked that spelling, now I want to know why it isn't sacreligious? Wikipedia answers that it's from Latin sacer, sacred, and legere, to steal. Of course there are multiple versions of the etymology of 'religion'; I like the one with ligare, bind or connect.)

Sacrilege has always been a relative thing; it depends on what you believe, and who commands the particulars of "sacred." Here on the verge of Armageddon, with a christian nationalist bigot "negotiating with bombs" and pounding lecterns with his index finger after styling himself Secretary of War, what in hell is left for sacrilege?

About to say "when the New York Times said God is dead," hearing Bernie Taupin's lyric, as ever, in Elton John's voice, I see it's now also available in Jon Bon Jovi's cover that was part of a (who knew?!) 1991 tribute album with covers by a host of stars. Rod Stewart did "Your Song," Tina Turner "The Bitch is Back." We are far further from the tribute than it was from the original, out in the year I turned 16.

But I digress. You have to have the "TimesMachine" to see the original allusion in context, Section H, page 146 (of 357) of the January 9, 1966 Sunday paper. The headline is in quotes: 'GOD IS DEAD'. A paragraph explains the poetic form:

The following ritual was presented during a chapel service at a small denominational college in the South. It was designed to explore in liturgical form the experience of the “death of God,” The reaction, according to a campus reporter, “ranged from tears to a new enthusiasm for theology.”

It would have been too risible, it seems, for the Times to name the college, or the author, and so it seems it inhabits our vast Public Domain (even as its sketchy pixels remain guarded by the NYT paywall). Searching and a dollop of AI identifies Thomas J.J. Altizer (another doubter!) as the theologian who "popularized" the phrase.

Religion-online.org has the whole book chapter with his byline, Theology and the Death of God. They don't say, but others do, that it was also published in January, 1966. Here's an excerpt from the ritual:

Reader:
Now the day is over
Night is drawing nigh
Shadows of the evening steal across the sky

Chorus:
He is gone. He is stolen by darkness
He is gone. He is stolen by darkness

Reader:
Now we must wonder
Was He only our dream
A dream painted across the sky?

Chorus:
And in the beginning our fear created him
And in the beginning our fear created him

Reader:
Did we create Him in our image?
Did we surround Him with hosts because
We were alone?

Chorus:
Our imaginations rescued us from the deep
Our imaginations rescued us from the deep

John Cogley's opinion piece in the Religion section sat above the poetic box. 'God Is Dead' Debate Widens was its headline, and it's also in their non-full text, image-digitized archive. They give us the opening graf:

"The clearest thing about the small but much-publicized “God is Dead” movement in Protestant theology is its catchy, provocative title. After that, all is subtlety, the specialized technical language of the academy, professional abstruseness and lay bafflement."

I give you a little more:

"The movement has been taken by some to mean the propagation of old-fashioned cracker-barrel atheism in poly-syllabic [sic] terms. As such it has angered many church folk who feel the idea of proponents of atheism drawing salaries from theological schools is an abomination...

"Dr. Thomas Altizer, a leading figure in the movement who is a professor of Bible and religion at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga., has said that after the first national publicity about the movement, he was bombarded by letters and telephone calls, a good percentage of them hightly critical....

"The urbane spokesman for evangelical Christianity, Christianity Today, said editorially:

"No one will deny these men the right to be atheists, but (we say it reverently) for God's sake let them be atheists outside of institutions supposedly training men to spread the Gospel that God is alive and that faith in His Son means life from the dead."

If you've stuck with me this far, you'll know I don't hold any truck with public pieties and obsequity to war-mongers. Neither does Pope Leo XIV, as it turns out.

"This is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war. He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: “Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood” (Is 1:15)."

My daily prayer, my Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday prayers rolled together is in Peter Mayer's beautiful voice: Holy Now. May it be so.

2.April.2026

It's the war crimes, stupid

We did not tune into last night's April Fool addressing the nation, but the intertubes are reverberating with the impact. I wish I could bottle up Jim Wright for a stormy day or maybe chisel his response into a monument in Washington. Or link to it somewhere other than Facebook, but alas, his stonekettle blog went dark after the 2024 election. He shares generously on FB, and Instagram, at least.

First off, he quoted CNN, "Just one-third of Americans believe President Donald Trump has a clear plan to handle the situation in Iran," and followed up:

"Yeah. The same one third of Americans also think dinosaurs and people lived at the same time, vaccinees cause autism, and a 600-year-old guy and his kids built a boat the size of a WWII heavy cruiser out of wood with bronze age hand tools in his backyard and put two of every kind of animal on it.

"Maybe we should stop listening to that third of America."

Then, his review of thug's speech last night. I feel like I want to quote the whole thing for anyone unable (or unwilling) to take the jump, but at least a wholesome helping of it, to give the flavor:

"How about that ... speech?

"Sure, let's call it a speech, not the kind of dementia-addled 19 minutes of white-knuckled bug-eating insanity that a Roman Emperor might have given after generations of inbreeding, utterly insulated from reality, and a lifetime of lead contaminated water....

"A great speech. Oh yes. One for the ages!

"Trump says he'll end the war "shortly." Two weeks, maybe, the standard Republican Time Unit. Two weeks. Two weeks to come up with a Republican healthcare plan. Two weeks for national infrastructure legislation. Two weeks to peace and prosperity. Two weeks to Trump's new Golden Age of America!

"In Republican Land, we're always just two weeks away from Making America Great Again....

"So, with [the war on Iran] out of the way, we should be able to get back to those Epstein files, right? In two weeks, probably.

"We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We’re going to bring them back to the stone ages where they belong" declares Trump, the peacemaker.

"Certain people deserve to live in the stone ages [sic]. Not the billionaires, of course. They're God's chosen. They deserve to live in golden towers and their own space programs and many, many tax breaks. But some people, peasants you might call them, they deserve a life of toil and mud and poverty.

"Like it says in the Bible.

"Also, if their navy is gone, the air force is in ruins, their leaders are dead, who then are we bombing into the Stone Age? Children? Old people? Civilians? The very same people Trump expects to rise up, overthrow their religiously fanatical leaders and build an America-loving secular society from the rubble? Those people?...

"Because of the actions we have taken we are on the cusp of ending Iran's sinister threat to America and the world," Trump, an expert on sinister threats, assures us.

"On the cusp....

"Trust us. Just two more weeks."

raveling

Tom von Alten