What’s in it for Donald J Trump?

 Was it a good idea to bomb Iran? I don’t think I supported that in any case. But…

It might have been acceptable. If the United States had a president, if the United States had a State Dept, if the United States had a Defense Department, if the United States had an intelligence service.

But the United States does not have a president, the United States has a TV star playing president on TV who thinks he was elected king. The TV star is just doing that which dominates the day on TV.

The pretend president has destroyed much of the defense department, the state department, the intelligence services, and as much of the federal government as he possibly could. Why? Because the pretend president knows nothing and cannot allow people who know things to work for him. So he gets rid of them and puts in place other people who are good on TV and know nothing and will do whatever he tells them to do.

But the real question is what is in it for Donald Trump? I would bet that Trump and many of his billionaire collaborators made fortunes on buying defense and oil stocks just prior to the bombings. Did Donald Trump make money by bombing Iran? Duh.

But what does Donald Trump really need? Donald Trump really needs to avoid prison. Donald Trump really needs to avoid the election in 2026 where he is very likely to lose both the House and the Senate. Donald Trump really needs to avoid impeachment conviction and removal from office.

What Donald Trump really needs is to declare martial law so as to stop the 2026 elections and arrest all political opponents, and destroy all opposition media, and arrest and imprison all protesters. And stop the 2028 elections too. 

Donald Trump needed his Reichstag Fire moment. So he created it. With bombs.  Any opposition to Donald Trump from this moment forward will be deemed  treason and dealt with imprisonment.

The only question to ever ask about anything that Donald Trump did or will do is what’s in it for Donald Trump?

He got his stupid headline

 So the mentally ill megalomaniac bombed Iran.  Start a war with Iran?  The way Netanyahu wanted him to? Maybe the way Putin told him to? 

So he goes on TV…such a tough guy!  See how important he is?  See how he can kill?  Aren’t you impressed?

So we have the war criminal, Netanyahu, and the 86 year old mentally impaired fanatical Ayatollah, and the mentally declining Dumbass.  

Afghanistan…Iraq…Iran…

Boom. 

Why MAGA needs to destroy beauty

 Why is MAGA gutting the National Parks and destroying environmental protections?  Oh, you say, money… save money by not “wasting” it on National Park personnel, and let the billionaire oligarchs make more and more and more and more money and who cares about preserving parks or increasing pollution or accelerating Climate Change or spurring Global Warming?  

OK, sure. But…

I think it is deeper than that. I think that tyranny needs to destroy beauty. I remember an interview of a man who had served time in a Federal Prison. What I remember from that interview was how important it was for the prison to block as much beauty from the lives of prisoners as they could. The movie “Shawshank Rebellion” has a memorable scene where a prisoner managed to play a transcendently beautiful aria over the loudspeaker and was punished as a consequence. 

Beauty, love, empathy, compassion… these are powers that need to be killed by Nazis and KKK and MAGA and fascists and oligarchs and tyrants. Because they are powerful antidotes to the soul and spirit crushing aims of the tyranny of the “king”.

Indeed, the billionaire MAGA supporter, Musk, famously said that empathy and compassion were weaknesses.

So, the White House “king” takes over the Kennedy Arts Center.  Why? So that the man who thinks gold toilets are beautiful can control the arts. Because the arts, and beauty, are threats to tyrannies. 

We are in the midst of a full out fascist takeover of the U.S. This shall not succeed. 

A call to decency

 June 14, 2025 and the White House megalomaniac insists on a four mile military parade, in front of him, on his birthday. Gag…

But, the Catholic Church has a new pope. And he is having a mass led by him broadcast in his Chicago White Sox stadium.  Excellent counter programming. 

He is an American, and like Pope Francis before him he appears to be a spiritual and decent man focused on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, rather than being a scolding dogmatic theocratic, trying to take the church and the world back into previous centuries.

I am glad they chose an American because, in this current moment in the world, America has turned into a force of domination, cruelty, greed, and repression, because that is who the current American president, Donald J Trump, is. So now we have an American spiritual leader who is opposed to all of that, who is the symbol of empathy and compassion and caring.

Empathy, compassion, and caring. 

Of course, he is Catholic, so I am sure he will not approve of gay marriage, too bad, nor abortion, too bad, but bringing a message of compassion is very welcome. 

I stopped being a Catholic decades ago. And I will not become one now. But I welcome a pope who focuses on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. 

I see this as a call to America, and the to world, to decency.

What’s the ONLY THING that matters to Trump?

 The only thing that matters to Trump is…Trump…the only thing that matters to Trump is that he stays out of prison…the only thing that matters to Trump is that he is not impeached and convicted and thrown out of office…the only thing that matters to Trump is that the Democrats don’t win the House and Senate in 2026…the only thing that matters to Trump is that the 2026 elections are rigged to keep the House and Senate Republican…how?

Oh, maybe declare martial law in response to “foreign invasion”…you know…send in the troops…arrest hundreds…show smoke and fires and violence…on TV…on Fox News TV…SMOKE, FIRE, VIOLENCE, TROOPS…TV TV TV.

Aw shucks, sorry America, we can’t have elections in 2026, you know…MARTIAL LAW…NO ELECTIONS….

Whew, no elections, no Democratic House and Senate, no impeachment, no dying in prison….no problem NO PROBLEM….for Donald J Trump….

Which is the ONLY THING that matters to Donald J Trump.

The direct line from McCarthy to Trump

 I watched a recording of the live broadcast “ Good Night, and Good Luck”, the story of CBS and Edward R Murrow exposing the filthy bullying destructive attacks by Joseph McCarthy against people he falsely slandered as Communist.  The good news is that in 1954 the Senate finally turned on McCarthy, held hearings, and destroyed him. This only happened after concerted efforts by journalists like Drew Pearson and Edward R Murrow, and a growing demonstration of disgust by Americans. So in one way it was a positive story that can give us hope.

The problem is that there is a direct line between Joe McCarthy and Donald Trump. That direct line is the hideous monstrous lawyer Roy Cohn.  Cohn was the vile hate filled opportunistic lawyer who fed and led McCarthy. And who became the vile hate filled opportunistic lawyer who trained Donald J Trump.

Cohn is gone, but his filthy bullying methods to attack and destroy innocent people’s lives was imprinted on in the filthy mind of the heartless President of the United States, Donald J Trump. Trump isn’t very smart, but he has decades of practice of the despicable tactics of the toxic Cohn.

We beat these people once, I hope and expect we can beat them again. But right now, I am pretty depressed.  Why are these terrible people always with us, attacking our freedoms, soiling all that is good and true of America?  

The play is a good one, and there was an earlier movie of the same name.  And the comfort is that it showed good winning over evil.  Can we win again?  

It is up to us.  That is the message of the play.  “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in the stars, but in ourselves…”. We Americans allowed and wanted this toxic boil, and his rabid minions, in power.

Thank you, George Clooney for this Production  

Oops, maybe a big mistake?

America’s richest heartless jerk, Elon Musk, decided to make his move and take over the MAGA movement.   I think Musk always thought he was so smart, and Trump was so dumb, that he could easily take over the MAGA movement.  Oops. The trouble is that Musk has all the charisma and magnetism as the high school nerd trying to be popular. His political attractiveness ranks right next to failed presidential candidate Ron DeSantis. 

Musk accuses Trump of raping children at Epstein parties. Musk calls for the impeachment of Trump. Musk is in the throws of multiple drugs induced hubris. 

Trump threatens to cancel Musk’s government contracts. Lots of fun for us to watch two severely psychologically diminished jerks fight, but not really all that funny,

I easily believe that the convicted sexual assaulter assaulted underage girls at the many Epstein parties. I really hope he is impeached and convicted. And I can easily believe that the orange psychopath would turn over the government tables to revenge Musk regardless of the consequences for the country. 

I believe both are completely devoid of human empathy or caring about others. But Trump is crazy, I mean actually mentally ill. Musk has cold, calculating, threatening eyes, but Trump has the eyes of a predator lizard. 

By the way, did Musk hack the votes in the swing states to give Trump/MAGA the win?  Is that one of his secrets? 

Israel/Palestine … endless

The United States is not the only country whose heartless right wing fanatics are destroying their own country. Netanyahu’s Israel is committing war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza, says former Israeli Prime Minister, Olmert. The result is devastating to Israel. 

I have never wanted to pay much attention to the endless Israeli – Palestinian “conflict” because it is hard for me to spend a lot of mental time on it. This has been going on since I first paid attention in 1967.  Somewhere between sickening and tiresome. 
 
To me, any time anyone thinks of Israel/Palestine starting with the present and looking back in time, all you get is the reason for one side to kill those on the other side. It’s endless. 
 
To me, the only way to think about Israel/Palestine is to start with the present and look forward with one and only one goal and that is a goal of peaceful living, and the only future that has peaceful living is a fair and equitable two state solution.  
 
Hamas is at fault, of course, and Iran is at fault, of course, and Netanyahu’s entire career has been to prevent a two-state solution. So…it goes on, and on, and on….bloodthirsty, evil...
 
Ireland managed to walk away from the horrors of endless religious blood feuds.  I can only hope for the same for this little piece of land in the Middle East.