#1,030: From Melting Pot to Salad Bowl

Although now largely forgotten, in his day, the Anglo-Jewish writer Israel Zangwill (1864-1926) was considered “the Dickens of the Ghetto.” A prodigious author of novels, plays, and essays, the vast majority of Zangwill’s oeuvre of nearly 190 works, is, unbelievably, still in print nearly a century after his death. In addition to penning one of the earliest “locked room mysteries,” 1892’s The Big Bow Mystery  (filmed thrice, the most famous being the 1946 picture The Verdict starring that most unique of all cinematic pairings, Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre), he also wrote a series of ghetto novels and short-stories with titles such as Children of the Ghetto, King of the Schnorrers, Dreamers of the Ghetto, Ghetto Comedies and Ghetto Tragedies. Zangwill’s literary brilliance lay in his ability to take a time, a place and a people - Jewish immigrants living and surviving in the ghettoes of Victorian England - and make them universally understandable to a largely non-Jewish reading public. 

Zangwill also penned several plays that eventually made their way to both Broadway and Hollywood. Among the best-known were Merely Mary Ann, Children of the Ghetto, and most notably of all, The Melting Pot, which opened at Broadway’s Comedy Theatre on September 6, 1909 and ran for 136 performances (quite respectable in the early 20th century). As a sign of just how popular and successful a writer he was, on October 5, 1908, the night The Melting Pot opened at the Columbia Theatre in Washington, D.C., he was accompanied by no less a personage than President Theodore Roosevelt, who was heard above the applause at play’s end shouting “THAT’S A GREAT PLAY, MR. ZANGWILL.!” 

                             1916 performance of Zangwill’s play

Those who are widely read, know that Zangwill’s The Melting Pot is, in its own way, an update of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. This time, instead of the feuding families coming from a medieval Italian city, the lovers (David and Vera) are from Russian Jewish and Russian Cossack families. David emigrates to America in the wake of the 1903 Kishinev Massacre (pogrom) in which his entire family is killed. He composes a great symphony called “The Crucible” expressing hope for a world in which all ethnicity has melted away, and falls in love with a beautiful Russian Christian named Vera. The dramatic peak of the play is the moment when David meets Vera's father, who turns out to be the Russian officer responsible for the annihilation of David's family. Vera's father admits his guilt, the symphony is performed to accolades, David and Vera agree to wed, and kiss as the curtain falls.

Towards the end of Act I (the play has 4), Zangwill proclaims through David, the immigrant composer, America is God’s Crucible, the great Melting-Pot where all races of Europe are melting and re-forming! . . . . A fig for your feuds and vendettas! Germans and Frenchmen, Irishmen and Englishmen, Jews and Russians . . . into the Crucible with you all!  God is making the American.

Zangwill’s political, philosophical and emotional attachment to the melting-pot view of America is best expressed in a brief colloquy between David and Vera in Act IV:

David: [exalted by the spectacle of thousands of immigrants arriving in New York Harbor] There she lies, the great Melting Pot . . . listen! Can’t you hear the roaring and the bubbling? There gapes her mouth [He points east] . . . the harbor where a thousand mammoth feeders come from the ends of the world to pour in their human freight.  Ah, what a stirring and a seething! Celt and Latin, Slav and Teuton, Greek and Syrian, black and yellow . . .

Vera: [Softly nestling to David] Jew and Gentile.

David: Yes, East and West, and North and South, the palm and the pine, the pole and the equator, the crescent and the cross--how the great Alchemist melts and fuses them with his purging flame! Here shall they all unite to build the Republic of Man and the Kingdom of God. Ah, Vera, what is the glory of Rome and Jerusalem where all nations and races come to worship and look back, compared with the glory of America, where all races and nations come to labour and look forward! Peace, peace, to all ye unborn millions, fated to fill this giant continent--the God of our children give you Peace.

For years, this concept - e.g. the Melting Pot - was, for the most part, at the center of the American ethos; when people reached the “new world,” their history, ethnicity and language entered the melting (or “smelting” as Ralph Waldo Emerson called it) pot and fused into a new creation: the American.  But increasingly, this concept has fallen by the wayside in favor of either the “salad-bowl” or the “pizza pie.”  Why? In order to answer this, one must first understand what the smelting (or melting) process entails: applying tremendous heat and a chemical reducing agent to an ore to extract a desired base metal product.  It is a form of “extractive metallurgy” that is used to obtain many metals such as iron, copper, silver, tin, lead and zinc.  It is impossible to locate any of the original constituent ingredients within a melting or smelting pot; it is an altogether new metal.  

A salad bowl (or pizza pie) is a totally different construct: a singular entity in which virtually all the main ingredients are still easily identifiable.  In a salad, the tomatoes, radishes, olives, cheese crumbles etc. are all distinguishable, just as the mushrooms, onions and pineapple chunks (ugh!) visibly sit atop the cheese(s) and tomato sauce in a pizza pie.  Salads and pizza pies are the essence of diversity . . . a sort of gastronomic E pluribus Unum (“Out of many comes one”) or comestible DEI (Diversity equity and inclusion) . . . although over past year or so, I’ve come to the conclusion that it really stands for “Donald’s Embarrassing Idiocy”).

Inside the lower pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, there is a bronze plaque containing a sonnet (“The New Colossus”) composed by the poet and activist Emma Lazarus. Lazarus (1849-1887) was a member of one of the oldest Jewish families in the United States, her earliest ancestors arriving on these shores in 1654 aboard the St. Catrina, known to history as "The Jewish Mayflower.”  Her Petrachan sonnet, written in 1883, expresses the “melting pot” concept that Israel Zangwill would popularize a quarter century later.  The most oft-quoted of Lazarus’ 14-line poem are its last 5:

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"      

For as long as there has been an America, there has been an underpinning of racism, xenophobia, homophobia and various exclusionary practices.  Although not springing from the soil of the nation, it has existed, its targets being - depending on the time and place - natives, Catholics, the Irish, Chinese, Jews, Italians, women and today, Muslims and people of many different colors.  This is not a repudiation of the melting or smelting pot; rather it is the rejection of the salad bowl. In 2024, a minority of the voting public elected a president who pledged to “Make America Great Again” by deporting millions upon millions of people whom he claimed were “murderers,” “drug-dealers,” “terrorists” and “rapists” . . . the “dregs of humanity.”  Or to put it another way, he promised that from hereon in the American salad would “once again” consist of nothing but lettuce . . . read “White Christians.” In the eyes of many, this has long been the American Dream. In the eyes of – hopefully – many more, this has never been the dream.  For everlasting dreams cannot and must not be based on illegal actions . . . such as deporting people without benefit of a hearing or a  trial.

                      “Real Madrid” Tattoo 

Just this past week, Jerce Reyes Barrios, a former professional soccer player from Venezuela, was spirited away by members of ICE in California, where he was awaiting his asylum hearing and flown - along with 200 other, mostly Venezuelan refugees - to the notorious CECOT, El Salvador’s mega-prison for gang members. On what basis did the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) determine that Senor Barrios, who came to the U.S.-Mexico border legally through the CBP One app in September 2024 determine that he was a Tren de Argua (TdA) member? By a tattoo of a crown sitting atop a soccer ball with a rosary and the word “Dios” (God), which DHS decided was ink associated with the notorious Venezuelan gang.  According to Senor Barrios’ attorney, "In reality, he chose the tattoo because it is similar to the logo for his favorite soccer team, “Real Madrid.” The attorney, Linette Tobin rejected the idea her client was a gang member and said he had fled Venezuela in early 2024 after being detained at an anti-government demonstration by security forces and "taken to a clandestine building where he was tortured.”  He has neither been seen nor heard from in the past week.  All this without benefit of due process . . . another “carrot” . . . or "cucumber” or "mushroom” wrenched from the "salad.”   

                                          Pete Hegseth

(When it comes to tattoos which should get you deported [or at least tossed out of your current position] how about DOD secretary Pete Hegseth’s “Jerusalem Cross” ink, which has a long, long history in Christianity going back to the Crusades, but has lately been co-opted by some far-right groups as a symbol of the fight for Western civilization?  Or his tat with an AK-47 beneath the American flag?  If he was a Muslim, he would likely be shipped off to CICOT in the middle of the night.  But he is a Christian Nationalist and former FOX celebrity, so I guess that makes him fit for sitting atop the DOD
  

Hegseth, who has called for an “American Crusade” against the “internal” and “domestic enemies” of the U.S. and Israel, was nominated to his position by a President and Commander-in-Chief who is publicly itching to deploy that military throughout the United States. Who will save the people of the U.S. from an internal crusade of a military that already has an extremism problem?  Hegseth is a Christian Nationalist who believes that Islam is a natural, historic enemy to the West and has lamented growing numbers of American Muslims.  For Hegseth, his boss and oh so many MAGAites, this is the “Melting Pot” they are working for . . . even if they’ve never heard of Israel Zangwill or Emma Lazarus.

One positive thing we’ve learned over the past week is that public outcries can occasionally cause the MUMP regime to reverse course in rewriting history . . . in removing everything in the “salad bowl” save the utterly bland and tasteless lettuce.  Case in point: a couple of days ago the Pentagon deleted from its website pages highlighting Black veterans such as Jackie Robinson, the Tuskegee Airmen, the Navajo Code Talkers of WWII, Vietnam-era medal of Honor recipient Maj. Gen. Charles Calvin Rogers as well as the Japanese American 422nd Combat Regiment.  After a vast public roar against the deletions, the Pentagon restored most of the pages.  Let this be a lesson to us all: speaking in a loud, unified voice, making our thoughts public and feelings well-known can be more powerful than a clenched fist.  

In a few hours, we will be dining on a large Caesar Salad with chunks of baked Salmon . . . a perfect symbol of what America should be.

Copyright©2025 Kurt Franklin Stone

#1029: An Act of Resistance

It’s now been slightly more than 60 years (!) since the Free Speech Movement began at the University of California at Berkeley, long the nation’s number one public university. Those were incredibly heady days, which turned a generation of young adults into lifetime political activists. For those of us who were around at the time, the names Clark Kerr, Mario Savio and Bettina Aptheker (not to mention Jackie Goldberg, Art Goldberg and Michael Rossman) are as indelibly engrained as John, Paul, George and Ringo. Personally, my political memories of the ‘60s include attending large rallies, warming up crowds singing songs of protest penned by Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton and Pete Seeger, blocking highways and speaking at innumerable protest rallies.  For the most part, we were protesting the war in Viet Nam (Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh, NLF is gonna win!), the military draft (Hey, Hey LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?) and then, in 1969, the closing down of Berkeley over what has been historically known as The  Battle for People’s Park.  Those who were around at the time will long remember Alameda County Sheriff Frank Madigan, Santa Rita prison and the guards, who we nicknamed The Blue Meanies, named after the villains in the Beatles’ movie Yellow Submarine.  You may also remember the name James Rector, a student activist who was killed when teargassed from a sheriff’s helicopter . . . which we called a “whirley pig.”

By the summer of 1969, I’d chopped off my pony tail (which has returned every few years), trimmed my beard, purchased a couple of Brooks Brothers suits and went off to Washington, D.C. where I put my political energy to work as an intern in the United States Senate. Over the next several years I worked for Senator Mike Gravel (D-AK), former California Assembly Speaker Jess “Big Daddy” Unruh (where my boss was Fred Taugher, who has been a longtime reader of this blog), and California Governor Jerry Brown, where  I worked in the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research under Bill Press, one of the best political writers and pundits in the business.

One of the most important things political activists of the Viet Nam era managed to pack in their luggage of life was - and still is - the need for resistance.  Yes, I know, most often, it’s the people with the megabucks who generally call the shots.  Let’s face it: ever since the Supreme Court’s horrific 2010 ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that reversed century-old campaign finance restrictions and enabled corporations and other outside groups to spend unlimited money on elections, electing and controlling both the Congress and the political agenda has been even worse and more brazen than at any time since the Gilded Age. Just look at the financial statements (if you can find them) of those who sit in our current cabinet, or  he who serves as the "shadow POTUS.”  At first glance, there are really only 4 things that can stop the autocratic oligarchs from turning the United States into something that has only one goal: to enrich the already stinking rich and making the rest of us pay for it. What are these four entities?

1.   The United States Congress, which currently contains a majority of invertebrates.  Even if the Constitution is on their side when it comes to  controlling the purse strings, without a collective spine it really doesn’t matter.

2. The Federal Judiciary, which of late has begun showing a bit of spine. In a 5-4 decision this past Wednesday, Justice Amy Coney Barrett and Chief Justice John Roberts joined  Justices Sonia Sotomayor. Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson backing a federal judge’s power to order the MUMP Regime to pay $2 billion to USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development) contractors but did not require immediate payment.  This was the first DOGE test for SCOTUS; they are not happy campers.  As a result, MAGA extremists have targeted Justice Coney Barrett. claiming that she is a closet liberal. One conservative media personality, Mike Cernovich, posted on X. “Another DEI hire. It always ends badly.” When confirmed, she became the fifth woman to ever serve on the bench. Somehow I have my doubts about the federal courts being our saving grace. The response to Justice Barrett shows just how rattled and unprepared the right-wing marching and chowder society was for a setback.  Please note: although the federal court system is potentially the “last best hope” for stopping IT and his team in their demonic tracks, it will require POTUS and his BFFs to obey the court’s ruling.  Whether or not he/they will obey what the majority of the court rules is anyone’s guess. 

3. Wall Street: We have already seen what a couple of disastrous days for the Dow Jones can do to force Felon47’s hand.  Already well known for waffling, IT  tabled tariffs against both Mexico and Canada after the market lost more than a thousand points and both countries announced their own tariff proposals against the USA.  There is already quite a bit of talk on “the street” (a polite way of saying “among investors”) about POTUS’ economic policy vis-a-vis inflation, higher prices massive job losses.  If the titans of wealth lose faith in IT, he will have to change gears.  He has no concern about being accused of inconsistency; everyone on Wall Street knows who and what he is.

4. People Power:  This is something which has always existed in America . . . sometimes more, sometimes less.  It includes such obvious activities as voting and contributing money to candidates and campaigns we favor, and the broad category of “volunteerism.”  This latter category includes such things as knocking on doors, making phone calls or writing postcards to voters, and of course, corresponding with your member(s) of the House and Senate.  Then too, think about attending “Town Hall” meetings in which your elected officials make themselves available. Over the past several weeks, these meetings have met with such a wave of angry backlash that Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC), chair of the House GOP’s campaign arm issued a stark message to the G.O.P. rank and file: Stop having in-person town halls with your constituents.  Seems like something is beginning to get through. By cutting back on face-to-face meetings, Republican members of Congress are not winning any new friends . . . let alone keeping the friends they obvious have.

An Angry Crowd of Republicans at a Town Hall

Outside of ITs extreme MAGA base - which is cultic in its devotion - a growing percentage of the American public is finally beginning to catch on to his numerous character and personality flaws and utter lack of knowledge about oh so many things.  Farmers in the Midwest are scared witless that his tariffs will kill their livelihood; families sitting around the kitchen table are asking why the price of eggs continues to rise despite his promise to fix it on day one. In the eyes of many, with each passing proclamation, ITs craven bullishness is becoming more and more apparent. As a result, his poll numbers - historically anemic - are dropping like a 300-pound skydiver who forgot to strap on his parachute. 

Back in rabbinic school, we all had to take a course in what is called homiletics - the art and science of giving meaningful sermons. At Hebrew Union College our instructor was the delightful Lowell McCoy who, despite being an ordained Methodist minister, was, for many of us, our “favorite rabbi."  He was a gentleman of the highest order and had a passion for the spoken word. The professor who filled us in on subject matter for sermons was the late Hungarian-born Eugene Mihaly, who taught both rabbinic literature and homiletics. One of the things Dr. “Mihomily” (as many generations of students called him . . . but never to his face) was that in order for a sermon to be both proper and meaningful, it had to end on a note of נחמתה (n’khem-ta) a Hebrew word meaning, roughly “consolation,” “comfort,” or “relief.”

So what in the heck does this detour have to do with this post?  Just this: I’m going to take Dr. Mihomily’s advice and conclude with a bit of comfort.  To wit, the situation involving a handful of brave government employees working for a largely unknown, infinitesimally-tiny agency whose annual budget - about $46 million - (which is less than 0.000022% of the $2 trillion dollars DOGE wants to eliminate from the federal budget) who bravely stood their ground against the forces of the MUSK Regime.

The agency in question is the United States African Development Foundation, whose mission is To support African-led development that grows community enterprises by providing seed capital and technical support. Over the past 5 years, USADF has invested more than $117 million directly into over 1,000 African-owned led SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises), entrepreneurs, and community organizations and impacted over 7 million lives in some of the poorest countries in Africa. USADF was created by an act of Congress in 1980; its original sponsors were Senators Edward Kennedy and George McGovern, and began program operations in 1984, during the Reagan Administration. Throughout the 40+ years it has been in service it has provided financing to more than 1,700 small enterprises and community-based organizations.

This past February 25th, IT issued an executive order declaring that the “non-statutory components of functions” of USADF . . . shall be eliminated to the maximum. This past Wednesday (March 5), a couple of DOGE workers and Pete Marocco, the director of the State Department’s Office of Foreign Assistance,  arrived at USADF headquarters in order to get access and fire all the employees. The roughly 50 employees refused to let them inside. After about an hour of trying to enter the agency’s building, the DOGE squad left, threatening to come back the next day. But the next day did not come. On Thursday, March 6, Senior U.S. District Judge Richard j. Leon (appointed by Pres. G.W. Bush in 2002) issued an order hours after the filing of a lawsuit by the president and CEO of USADF.  In  his order, the judge agreed with the USAFD’s legal contention: DOGE and IT do not have the authority to shut down the agency, which was created by Congress.  This ruling, and the legal basis upon which it was filed, may pave the way to keep the Regime from closing down other agencies such as the Department of Education, FEMA and the EPA.

Although a “David” of an agency in terms of size and relative influence, its 50 employees combined, through an act of resistance, to at least temporarily “slay Goliath.”  If there is a G-d in Heaven (believe me, there is), their resistance should send shockwaves to all those in the United States and around the world who are afraid to turn on the news or read a headline.   There is so much we can do to shut down FELON 47’s nihilists and true-believers.  Keep up on what’s happening, no matter how depressing it is; always remember that together we can accomplish far more than we can a part; join your local Democratic Party club and lend support to those who make sense.  And above all, remember the words of Teddy Roosevelt:

“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” 

Copyright©2025 Kurt Franklin Stone

#1,028: The Ambush

                          “Diplomacy” - MUMP Style

The art and underlying skill of diplomacy lies in being able to firmly disagree with someone or express strong opposition while still maintaining a polite and respectful demeanor. Winston Churchill (supposedly) expressed this truism best when he opined that “Diplomacy is the art of telling people to go to hell in such a way that they ask for directions “ I’m not so sure Winnie ever said or wrote this; he simply wasn’t that witty. One wag I am sure of is humorist, columnist, movie star (and at one time the honorary Mayor of Beverly Hills) Will Rogers, who unquestionably said “Diplomacy is the art of saying 'nice doggie,' until you can find a rock."

Historically, the best, most successful acts of diplomacy have taken place behind closed doors - often in out-of-the-way places and, in the modern age, never, ever, in front of a bank of cameras.   Ever since his ride down his gilt escalator in 2015, the public has come to expect the unexpected from IT.  Whether it be in what he says, how he gestures or the lies he tells, people the world over have come to take it for granted that the 47th POTUS is what Mark Twain once called “a falsehood in flesh and blood.”  To say that IT is the bipolar opposite of a diplomat goes without saying . . . but say it we must.

Last Friday’s Oval Office presser with Felon47, Vantz, and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky was not an historic act of diplomacy taking place in a room full of cameras and reporters; it was an out-and-out ambush.  Going in to the meeting, President Zelensky had hoped to secure U.S. support in any cease-fire talks with Russia.  (Remember, during the 2024 campaign, IT  had promised the American voting public - and indeed, the world - that he could and would bring the now 3-year old war to a close within his first 24 hours in office . . . and likely even before he took the oath of office. Instead, Zelensky’s relationship with both the president and vice-president was revealed for the entire world to see.    

It was meant to be a moment of triumph for Zelensky, a change after weeks of maneuvering for an Oval Office meeting to demonstrate American backing in Europe’s longest and bloodiest war in generations. Instead, the meeting unraveled into insults. He was berated by both POTUS and VPOTUS as “disrespectful” for arguing that Russia posed a threat to Ukraine.  On more than one occasion, the V.P. accused Zelensky of never having “thanked the President and the American people” for all they had given Ukraine, blamed them for starting the war against Russia . . . both obvious falsehoods.  Voice rising, POTUS accused Pres. Zelensky of “gambling with World War III.”

                        Secretary of State Marco Rubio

 Throughout the brief (10 minute) press conference, Secretary of State Marco Rubio slouched quietly, his hands clasped and appearing stone-faced.  Some commentators claimed he appeared to be “embarrassed.” And yet, early Sunday he fiercely defended ITs sharp turn against Ukraine’s leader, accusing President Zelensky of trying to derail the peace process with Russia by openly challenging the POTUS and VPOTUS.  “What Zelensky did, unfortunately, is that he found every opportunity to try to ‘Ukrain-splain’ on every issue.”

During the Q&A that followed, the Ukrainian President was questioned about his choice to wear combat gear while attending a function in the Oval Office.  “Why don’t you wear a suit?  You’re in the highest level of this country’s office, and you refuse to wear a suit? I just want to see, do you own a suit?” Brian Glenn, a commentator for the arch-conservative Real America’s Voice (RAV) outlet asked.  "A lot of Americans have problems with you respecting this office.” (It should be noted that Glenn is the boyfriend of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene).  President Zelensky quickly jabbed back with a sarcastic remark.  “I will wear [this] costume after the war will finish.  (N.B.: he used the word “costume,” which in Ukrainian is костюм, their word for ‘suit’). “Maybe something like yours, yes, maybe something better, I don’t know, he added.

(Anyone find it odd that no conservative reporter or news outlet has questioned Elon Musk’s attire at the first Cabinet meeting of the Mump Regime? At that event he came clad in a single-breasted charcoal peacoat, which he opened wide at one point to show off the words “tech support” in large letters on a black T-shirt. His outfit was complemented by two bespoke items: a Tesla-themed Texas belt buckle and a black “Make America Great Again” baseball cap.  It has long been considered the height of disrespect to wear a hat in the Oval Office  . . . )

It then quickly brought the gathering to an end and President Zelensky departed the Oval Office, and was driven to a military airport where he flew back to the Ukraine. Almost immediately thereafter, the marching and chowder society known as the Republican caucus began spreading verbal encomia, effusively praising and thanking the president for standing up for America. What went unspoken, of course, was that the only victor that afternoon was Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. As for the rest of America’s European allies, their leaders immediately rallied behind President Zelensky:

• French President Emmanuel Macron posted: "There is an aggressor: Russia. There is a victim: Ukraine. We were right to help Ukraine and sanction Russia three years ago - and to keep doing so."

• Germany's outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz wrote that "no one wants peace more than the citizens of Ukraine", with his replacement-in-waiting Friedrich Merz adding that "we stand with Ukraine" and "we must never confuse aggressor and victim in this terrible war".

• Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada "will continue to stand with Ukraine and Ukrainians in achieving a just and lasting peace".

• Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said: "Ukraine, Spain stands with you," while his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk wrote: "Dear [Zelensky], dear Ukrainian friends, you are not alone."

Whether or not the ambush of President Zelensky was preplanned or spontaneous is a question that began being asked within minutes of the actual event. Not surpassingly, the White House flatly denied any conspiracy to embarrass or humiliate Zelensky, thereby showing Vladimir Putin that he has an obsequious toady sitting in the Oval Office.  If the humiliation session was spontaneous, then why did Sen. Lindsey Graham (R.-SC) tell members of the press almost immediately after the meeting when down in flames, that he had urged Zelensky earlier that morning not to “take the bait?” Did he know something?  Even media pundit Geraldo Rivera weighed in on the meeting, telling viewers during his Friday appearance on NewsNation (formerly WGN), “I just could not believe what I was seeing. It’s President Trump at his worst. President Trump as an ill-mannered bully insulting a war hero. This wasn’t an Oval Office photo-op. This was an ambush,”

How much longer are we going to put up with a chief executive who seems to be a walking, breathing example of a tertiary syphilitic?   How much further can America stomach a reality TV show host who will do or say anything that is on the tip of his tongue or corroding his frontal lobe? Friends, It and his cadre of changelings are causing the United States to become a laughing stock among nations . . . seemingly for the sake of several multi-billionaires’ greed, cupidity and utter corruptibility.

620 days until the 2026 midterm elections . . .   

 Copyright©2026 Kurt Franklin Stone

(#1,027): We the People

    Warren G. Harding (1865-1923) 

Today, we end the 5th week (35 days) of the MUMP Regime. Yes, yes, I know, to most of you reading this post, it seems more like an eternity . . . something akin to the maleficent continuation of the Harding Administration, the one big difference being, from what I have read and learned, old Warren Gamliel, the original “America First” President, was a fairly benign gasbag with a well-developed self-deprecating sense of humor. Unlike IT, “Wurr’n” (as his wife Florence “The Duchess” called him), did not demand unswerving fealty in order to serve him; rather his cabinet and major advisors were drawn largely from his longtime twice-weekly poker circle (at which the Duchess mixed and served up the highballs).  And unlike IT, Harding, the nation’s 29th POTUS, in addition to being an inveterate gambler (who was said to have lost the White House china in a single poker game), smoked and chewed tobacco, and had a bastard child (Nan Britton) who wrote a best-seller entitled President’s Daughter. Then too, when Harding quite unexpectedly died at age 58, there was a lot of speculation that his much-older wife, the aforementioned “Duchess,” had murdered him in order to save his/their reputation.  

If it were not for Felon47, Warren Harding would still be considered the worst president in the history of the United States.

Getting back to IT’s first 5 weeks back in the White House:

• He has all but ceded the reins of government to the non-elected multi-billionaire Elon Musk, who runs an unofficial “department” (DOGE). which owes nothing to anyone save IT and his BFF.

• Managed to get his spineless U.S. Senate to approve 3 of the most unqualified people ever to serve in a presidential cabinet: RFK, Jr. at HHS; Pete Hegseth at DOD; Cash Patel as head of the FBI, (and as of this past Saturday, head of the ATF [Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives}), as well as an “unqualified henchman”, far-right podcaster Dan Bongino (who has never served in the bureau) as its next Deputy Director (the person in charge of its day-to-day operations). This marks the first time in the bureau’s 117-year history that the second-in-command post has not been held by one of its senior agents.

• Unilaterally removed virtually the entire board of the Kennedy Center (including Chair David M. Rubinstein, a fellow billionaire), created a new board made up entirely of IT loyalists who then - mirabile dictu -  selected him to be the center’s new chairman of the board. (n.b. It should be noted that IT has criticized past Kennedy Center programming, specifically drag performances, and vowed to reshape its cultural direction.  When asked by the press, he admitted that he has never attended a single Kennedy Center event.)

• Officially and unilaterally changed the name of The Gulf of Mexico to The Gulf of America (only within the couintry’s own continental shelf, which extends 22 nautical miles from the U.S. coast), thereby earning a gigantic raspberry from much of the Western world, and a threat to sue both him and Google Maps from Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, Ph.D., the daughter of  Carlos and Annie Sheinbaum Yoselevitz.   

• Announced that his regime was firing 2,000 USAID workers and putting thousands of others on leave. This past Friday, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols rejected pleas in a lawsuit from USAID employees to keep temporarily blocking the government’s plan. The move escalates a monthlong administration assault on the agency that has closed its headquarters in Washington and shut down thousands of U.S. aid and development programs worldwide following an effort to freeze foreign assistance.  Felon47 and his co-president/chief cost- cutter contend that the aid and development work is both “wasteful and furthers a liberal agenda.”

• Following a midair collision between a passenger plane and an Army helicopter at DCA outside Washington, D.C. several weeks ago, IT, without  citing a scintilla of evidence, insisted that DEI activities at the FAA under Joe Biden were to blame, and then proceeded to fire several hundred FAA employees, upending staff on a busy air travel weekend.

• Hoisting a shiny-red chainsaw overhead while speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, DOGE head Elon Musk vowed to cut between $1 trillion and $2 trillion from the annual federal budget by 2026. He even suggested that all Americans would receive a $5,000.00 check in the mail as their part of the savings. He said that in its first month of operation, the total estimated savings were $55 billion (which over the course of 12 months would be $660 billion . . . far less than the $1 to $2 trillion he had promised. Within a week, the DOGE website’s “wall of receipts” showed savings of just $7.2 billion.  (n.b. If the MUMP Regime were truly, vitally, concerned about cutting out WFAA (“Waste, Fraud and Abuse”) from the federal government, wouldn’t it be one whole hell of a lot smarter to hire accountants and auditors, rather than allies and acolytes to oversee the project?)

• As of February 25 - one day shy of 5 weeks - ITs  approval rating on virtually every major poll shows him already underwater . . . the first time in the history of polling this has happened in a POTUS’s first month in office.  Not surprisingly, Felon47  went incandescent, proclaiming the figures to be a conspiracy of lies, and rambling on Truth Social “I won the Presidential Election in a landslide, won ALL SEVEN SWING STATES, THE POPULAR VOTE, AND ALL FIFTY STATES SHIFTED REPUBLICAN, A RECORD, AND NOW I HAVE THE BEST POLLING NUMBERS I’VE EVER HAD.”

• The new regime roster seems to be totally ignorant (whether truly or willfully) that firing tens - if not hundreds - of thousands of probationary federal employees in one fell swoop is going to wreak havoc with the economic multiplier.  Simply stated, people without jobs and/or savings stop spending money; a lack of spending means that businesses like grocery and big box stores see a significant drop in sales, which means that they too may have to cut their personnel costs, which means more people without ready cash to make purchases. Unlike tech companies (which Musk knows best) where employee salaries and benefits are the No. 1 expense, in the federal government personnel costs make up about 4% of the entire budget.  In other words, our co-presidents don’t understand Jack about how things work in the world of government.      

Now mind you, all the above is but a minor, minor sampling.  It is indeed monstrous to realize that America (and the world) still has 259 weeks until this regime is (G-d willing) replaced.  Or, to be a bit more optimistic, 615 days and a few hours until the 2026 midterm elections - assuming they’re run on the up-and-up - can put Democrats back in charge of the  House and Senate.   

 Many people I speak with in my travels tell me that they have pretty much stopped watching or listening to the news.  It is, they say, just too painful and frightening to read or hear what the regime is doing to turn the country we love into an autocratic oligarchy . . . a country run for benefit of the super wealthy by the even wealthier.  They see too much heartlessness, treachery and downright illegality - as well as the bold-as-brass undoing of America’s historic ethos of world leadership and compassion - to feel utterly powerless. 

          The 3 Most Important Words in Our History

Ah, but this is America; a country that belongs not to the unfathomably wealthy and corrupt, but rather, to “We the People of the United States.”   These are the words which begin our most important document, the Constitution.  I am beginning to see the rebirth of protest from We the People; of average citizens - Democrats and Republicans showing up at townhall forums and giving their members of Congress unshirted hell; of citizens inundating their members of the House and Senate with surface mail, email and voice messages stressing that that which is most important in their lives . . . winning reelection . . . isn’t going to happen unless they stand up and say NO YOU DON’T to the regime.  (BTW: if you do not know who  your member of Congress is or how to contact him/her, you can simply go to  CONGRESS.GOV and find out).  This Friday, Feb. 28 there will be a nationwide economic blackout organized by The People's Union USA, which describes itself as a "movement uniting citizens to reclaim power from corrupt politicians and corporations."  Additionally, hundreds of people have been showing up in front of Tesla stores in order to protest Elan Musk.

Just a few hours ago, more than 20 Musk staffers resigned over DOGE’s (“Department of Government Efficiency”) “dismantling of public services.” And, in what might be a sign of things to come, Maine Governor Janet T. Mills actually defied IT right to his face, telling him that she would not accede to his executive order banning transgender athletes in women’s sports. “See you in court,” she said, while seated with a group of bipartisan governors in the White House State Dining Room.   

And so, dear readers, I beg you to neither disengage from, nor abandon the office of citizen . . . the highest office in the land.  We must do everything in our power to return this country to the people; to those who understand that when America is in the hands of the people, the country is healthier, safer and saner, and the whole world benefits.

We began with a paragraph about President Warren G. Harding and, for the sake of consistency, will end with him as well.  As weak and unsuccessful a president as he was, he actually did more to preserve and protect the Constitution than any of our 47 chief executives.  How so?  He moved it (along with the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights, known collectively as the “Charters of Freedom”) from a simple overflowing wooden cabinet in the State, War, and Navy Building (where they were fading) to the Library of Congress where the three documents were restored.  Today, these three “Charters” have a safe and permanent home in the Rotunda of the National Archives.  

Thanks President Harding: your place in history isn’t very good . . . but at least you did something positive for every American.

Copyright©2025 Kurt Franklin Stone

(#1,026): It's Hard to Be An Ossoff

                             Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-GA  (1987- ) 

Jon Ossoff, Georgia’s senior senator, is a man of many firsts: he is the first Jew ever elected to the upper chamber from the “Peach State”; he is the first millennial and first person born in the 1980s to serve in that chamber; at the time he took his oath of office (January 20, 2021), he was the youngest Democrat (33) in nearly a half century to win office (Delaware’s Joseph Biden was 30 years old when he was originally installed on January 3, 1973).

Additionally, Jon Ossoff survived one of the most overtly antisemitic senate campaigns in American history. In that election, incumbent Republican David Perdue ran a fund-raising ad which included grainy photographs of Ossoff and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who is also Jewish. An article in The Forward cited graphic design experts who found that the size of Mr. Ossoff’s nose was greatly exaggerated in comparison with the original image; his proboscis appeared wider and longer, while no other facial features had been noticeably altered.

Ossoff defeated incumbent Perdue by nearly 60,000 votes (50.61%-49.39%).  He was sworn into office using the Bible of Rabbi Jacob Rothschild, the late rabbi of the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation Temple in Atlanta, which was bombed in 1958 by white supremacists for Rothschild's civil rights activism. Ossoff became Bar Mitzvah at the Temple in 2000.

As a senator, Jon Ossoff has been among his party’s progressive wing.  He has seats on the Judiciary (Subcommittee on the Constitution and Human Rights); Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Spending Oversight); served as Chair of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations ion the 117th Congress); and Select Committee on Intelligence.  He ranks in the upper third among Senators who work in bipartisan fashion. Within 2 years of his arrival in the senate, then-former POTUS IT  publicly urged Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to run for Ossoff’s senate seat in 2026.  

(it should be noted that Senator Ossoff is the son of a Jewish father [Richard, an attorney/publisher] whose grandparents emigrated from Eastern Europe at the turn of the 20th century, and an Australian mother [Heather Fenton, founder of a political PAC], who was born and raised in Sidney.  The future senator was raised in a small unincorporated community where there were few if any Jews.  He traveled to Atlanta to take religious instruction and was formally converted before become a bar mitzvah.  According to strict Orthodox Jewish law, Ossoff is not Jewish; the Reform movement considers him Jewish by means of patrilineal descent.  John  Ossoff is married to Alisha Kramer, an obstetrics and gynecology resident at Emory University.  They were married in 2017 after 12 years of dating.  They have 1 daughter who was born in 2021.)   

Throughout his first 4 years in the Senate, Jon Ossoff has highlighted his Jewish identity and voted for billions of dollars in security assistance to Israel.  In the 2024 presidential election Georgia gave its 16 electoral votes to #Felon47. The final tally showed his winning margin to be 115,100 votes (50.7%-48.5%). In looking ahead to 2026, Jon Ossoff knows he is going to be in one of the costliest, most competitive senate races in the country.

Last November 20, just two weeks after the presidential election, the United States Senate (still in the hands of Democrats) resoundingly rejected a series of three resolutions offered by Senator Bernie Sanders to block weapons transfers to Israel.  Nonetheless, the move to curtail American support for the war in Gaza drew what the New York Times called “substantial support from Democrats, reflecting growing consternation in the party over the conflict.”  .  The vote showed that support for restricting Israel’s military operations had grown beyond just the most progressive lawmakers, with notably more senators joining them than in previous efforts. In his speech before the vote, Sanders (I-VT), a frequent critic of the Biden administration for continuing to support Israel militarily despite ample evidence of human rights violations in Gaza said, “You cannot condemn [human rights violations] . . . and then turn a blind eye to what the United States is now funding in Israel . . .” 

 The specific measures sought to block the transfer of certain tank rounds and mortar rounds and kits to turn ordinary bombs into precision-guided munitions, known as JDAMs. The vote on blocking the transfer of tank rounds failed, 18 to 79; the vote on blocking the transfer of mortar rounds failed, 19 to 78; and the vote on blocking the transfer of JDAMs failed, 17 to 80. Senator Tammy Baldwin, Democrat of Wisconsin, voted present on all three. 

Jon Ossoff was one of the seventeen Senate Democrats and two independents backing at least one of the three measures. After the bills went down to defeat, Ossoff defended his votes, saying: “American support for Israel’s non-negotiable right to exist and to defend itself is rock solid. Had these resolutions passed, however, perhaps Israeli politicians would have received the necessary message that has so far been disregarded, which is, ‘Yes, defend yourself. Yes, defeat your enemies,’ but have mercy for the innocent, restrain your own extremists, and respect the interests of the United States.”

These three votes - as well as the Georgia senior senator’s criticizing Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza - has put his reelection into question.  Within weeks of the November 20th vote, Ossoff was being attacked in the press; at least one editorial writer called his votes ". . . not only a betrayal of his previous stance,  but also an affront to the Jewish community of Georgia . . . . By failing to assist Israel in its battle to win the war, Sen. Ossoff is betraying those held captive.”  What made this opinion piece (written by Harry Paul of the Libertarian Independence Institute) even more ominous was that it was published in the Jerusalem Post.  

Even worse, now some of his fellow Democrats have not only turned on him - they are encouraging the most formidable Georgia Republican who could challenge him in 2026, Gov. Brian Kemp, to do just that. (n.b.: It should be noted that Gov. Kemp and #Felon47 have had a long and well-documented disaffinity for one another. Nonetheless, Kemp would  make a far, stronger opponent for Jon Ossoff than M.T.G.).

 Three days ago, the New York Times reported on a private mid-December letter to Governor Kemp from some of Georgia’s major political donors and Jewish community leaders.  It read, in part: “Should you decide to run in the 2026 election, you would find no better friends, more loyal allies or stronger supporters than us and our community.”   

This is indeed a troubling statement.  But then again, American Jewish Politics has long been quite puzzling to most outsiders. For more than 110 years, American Jews have voted overwhelmingly for Democrats in presidential elections.  To anyone who follows American politics closely, the attachment of Jews to the Democratic Party is hardly a revelation or a state secret.  It has, however, been a bit of an anomaly to many, perhaps best encapsulated by the late American sociographer Milton Himmelfarb’s tongue-in-cheek bon mot, “American Jews earn like Episcopalians but vote like Puerto Ricans.” 

Actually, when one stops and considers, Himmelfarb’s witty comment is really not all that surprising.  For most American Jews it was the Democrats who provided both a platform and series of accomplishments that best fit in with their set of core civic values.  Over many years it was the Democrats who got women the right to vote; got African-Americans the right to vote; created Social Security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty; ended (despite the Southern wing of the party) segregation and passed the Civil Rights Act; created Medicare; passed the Clean Air  and Clean Water Acts.  In many Jewish eyes, much of what they saw Republicans doing was standing in opposition to every one of those programs. If there is a secular political creed attached to being Jewish can be found in the words of  the sage Hillel: 

                                                                            אַל תִּפְרוֹשׁ מִן הַצִּבּוּר  

(Ahl teef-rosh min ha-Tzebor . . . namely, “Do not separate yourself from the community.”

Over the past several years - and especially since the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel and Israel’s military retaliation on Gaza - an increasing number of American Jews have placed the security of the Jewish State at the top of their political issues list.  The corresponding rise in anti-Semitic acts has caused many to to question “Which party is more solidly on the side of Israel, and the American Jewish community: Democrat or Republican?” I guess it all depends on to whom you ask the question. I have heard countless Republicans aver their party is far more pro-Israel; that their president is “the best friend” and “done more for Israel” than any chief executive in history. They frequently trash Democrats going on and on about “they are all the anti-Zionist, pro-Palestinian anti-Semites” and how “Liberals are socialists and socialists are communists and communists all hate Israel.”

When it comes to Israel, American Jews - the majority of whom still vote the Democratic ticket - are at sixes and sevens. While they/we love the Jewish State, have both visited and studied there, are, for the most part up on its politics, and many of us have family living there, nonetheless are in emotional, political, and verbal disagreement with Bibi Netanyahu and his war policy, and find Its proposal for an American take-over of Gaza and convincing Egypt and Jordan to give homes to approximately 2 million Palestinians risible, undoable, and just short of insane.      

 Senator Ossoff’s well-heeled Jewish donors are caught in this dangerous bind. By going on record as being deeply disappointed in his “turning” on Israel, they are essentially telling the world that a deeply conservative Republican like Brian Kemp – who has supported some of the strictest abortion bans in the nation, has supported efforts to overturn the Affordable Care Act, has sought to introduce work requirements for Medicaid recipients, and during the  the COVID-19 pandemic prohibited localities from implementing stricter public health measures in his state, would be preferable to the senator due to 3 votes he cast in November 2024 and questioned Netanyahu’s war strategy.

 Esther Panitch, a Democrat and Georgia’s only Jewish state legislator put the situation into a nutshell: “If Marjorie Taylor Greene is the Republican nominee, I can’t vote for her . . . [Governor] Kemp has done things I am fighting against every day (such as his signing of a six-week abortion ban) . . . but it is a different level of betray that Ossoff has committed.  

 In other words, a number of American Jews are willing to vote for - and donate to - conservative Republican politicians regardless of where they stand on a wide range of social, educational, economic and healthcare issues . . . just so long as they are as hawkish as hell when it comes to Israel.  I have long believed that if one wants to determine who is best for Israel in a race, find out first how they stand on at least 10 non-Israel related issues . . . such as climate change and the environment, gun safety, voter equality, the role of government, the separation of Church and State . . . and on and on.  Those whose positions on these issues go counter to what you believe cannot, in the long-run be "best for Israel.” 

They have a platform and a playbook for changing America, American governance and American political weltanschauung.  It is called Project 2025, and many of its authors and contributors now work in and for the MUMP REGIME.  Many lack the basic qualifications or experience for the positions they hold save one: unswerving devotion to their leader and their leader’s BFF (aka the “Richest Man on the Planet").  Remember, this is the regime which employs many out-and-out anti-Semites and recently created (by executive order) a task force to be led by A.G. Pam Bondi to investigate and root our “anti-Christian bias” in the U.S.  In announcing its formation, #Felon47 said he believes people “can’t be happy without religion, without that belief.  Let’s bring religion back.  Let’s bring G-d back into our lives.”  

I realize that this particular blog may open me up to a lot of criticism . . .perhaps, even being accused of being a “self-hating Jew.”  What the heck; I have a fairly thick skin and know myself well.  I am what one might call a “traditional Jew who possesses both a social conscience and a wry, self-deprecating sense of humor.  We I registered to vote in Georgia, I would gladly vote for Jon Ossoff.  His occasional vote against upgrading military hardware destined for Israel doesn’t change reality; those bills were going to pass anyway.  He has long known that politics ain’t for sissies. 

 In Yiddish, there is a statement that says plain and simply “It’s hard to be a Jew” (ס'איז שווער צו זײַן אַ ייִד - s'iz shver tsu zayn a yid). It’s difficult to understand this common expression if you’re not a MOT - a “member of the tribe.”  Not because of any translational difficulty, but rather because among Jews, it is understood not as a complaint, but rather as a shoulder-shrugging lament about belonging to this ancient and most argumentative family. I’m sure Senator Ossoff heard the expression growing up and understands it in his kishkes - his innards, the home of all Jewish wisdom.

Perhaps for him and what he’s about to be going through heading into 2026, we should amend it to 

           עס איז שווער צו זיין אַן אָסף . . . “ Siz shver tsu zayn an OssofI “It’s hard to be an Ossoff . . . “

Copyright©2025 Kurt Franklin Stone

(#1,025) The MUMP Regime: Defying Democracy & the Constitution?

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall (R) Giving the Oath of Office to President Andrew Jackson on March 4, 1829.

It goes without saying that many of humanity’s most profound truths are either of unknown origin or attributed to more than one - if not two or three - different philosophers, writers or sages. Take but one example . . . the old saw which teaches “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Ask a literate person who is responsible for this eternal verity and you are just as likely to hear the names Edmund Burke, George Santayana and Winston Churchill, one of the most oft-quoted polymaths of the late 19th and 20th century. I myself have come across at least 5 slightly different versions of this lesson:

1. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

2. Those who do not learn from the experience of history, are doomed to repeat it.

3. Those who cannot learn from the mistakes of the past are destined to repeat them.

4. Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it, and

5. Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.

Yes, they are all saying pretty much the same thing, but with slightly different words.  As to precisely who the original author was no one knows of a certainty.  My money is on the Spanish-born American philosopher, essayist and novelist (The Last Puritan) George Santayana (1863-1952), just because he was so astonishingly sagacious.

Permit me to pair this aphorism with an historic phrase all but universally ascribed to America’s 7th president, Andrew Jackson (1767-1845).  Before typing out the phrase, and getting to the up-to-the-minute meat of this post,  I will give you its political background and let you know that “Old Hickory” never said it.

First its background:  First its background:  In September 1831, Samuel A. Worcester and others, all non-Native Americans, were indicted in the supreme court for the county of Gwinnett in the state of Georgia for "residing within the limits of the Cherokee nation without a license" and "without having taken the oath to support and defend the constitution and laws of the state of Georgia." They were indicted under an 1830 act of the Georgia legislature entitled "an act to prevent the exercise of assumed and arbitrary power by all persons, under pretext of authority from the Cherokee Indians." Among other things, Worcester argued that the state could not maintain the prosecution because the statute violated the Constitution, treaties between the United States and the Cherokee nation, and an act of Congress entitled "an act to regulate trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes." Worcester was convicted and sentenced to "hard labor in the penitentiary for four years." The U.S. Supreme Court received the case on a writ of error.  The case became known as Worcester v. Georgia, 31 U.S. 515 (1832). The question before the court was whether or not the state of Georgia had the authority to regulate the intercourse between citizens of its state and members of the Cherokee Nation.

The case was argued on February 21-23, 1832; the decision was handed down 8 days later. Writing for the court in a 4-1 decision, Chief Justice Marshall held that the Georgia act. under which Worcester was prosecuted, violated the Constitution, treaties, and laws of the United States. Marshall argued, "The Cherokee nation, then, is a distinct community occupying its own territory in which the laws of Georgia can have no force. The whole intercourse between the United States and this nation, is, by our constitution and laws, vested in the government of the United States." The Georgia act thus interfered with the federal government's authority and was unconstitutional. Justice Henry Baldwin dissented for procedural reasons and on the merits.

According to American political mythology, upon learning of the court’s decision, President Jackson (that’s him taking the oath of office alongside Chief Justice Marshall in the painting above, defiantly bellowed “Chief Justice Marshall made his ruling; now, let’s see him enforce it!” According to Court historian Jeffrey Rosen, Jackson’s real remark was made in a letter to John Coffee, a well-known planter and state militia brigadier general in Tennessee: “. . . the decision of the Supreme Court has fell still born, and they find that they cannot coerce Georgia to yield to its mandate.”  Truth to tell, Jackson had no desire to threaten Georgia with federal forces or openly challenge the Supreme Court.  “Old Hickory” solved the problem by convincing the governor of Georgia to set the defendants (who were Christian missionaries) free.  Years later, journalist Horace E. Greeley, who himself would lose in a landslide (286 electoral votes to 66) to Ulysses Grant, who referred to Greeley as “a genius without an ounce of common sense.”  Before running in the 1872 election, Greely  published a history of the recently concluded Civil War called "The American Conflict: A History of the Great Rebellion, in which he apparently gave the fictive quote about Justice Marshall enforcing his decision.

This bit of the past is meant to serve as prologue for the horror show that has been transpiring over the past 40 days; i.e. ever since January 20, 2025. In just his first week in office, IT signed dozens of executive orders affecting everything from immigration, climate change and oil exploration to health and medical research, as well as eliminating federal diversity programs, directives defining gender and much, much more. And this isn’t even mentioning the roughly 1,500 pardons and commutations he issued to the people he refers to as “hostages” or “true patriots” . . . the people who stormed Congress on January 6, 2021. Executive orders, despite being limited, are not all that easy to overturn. Courts can strike them down not only on the grounds that the president issuing them lacked authority to do so, but also in cases where the order is found to be unconstitutional in substance.

At this early point in the nascent MUMP Regime, when so many Americans are walking about in a collective haze, fearful that Democracy is being eroded from within, about the only positive feeling is that somehow, the Courts — our third branch of government - will step up and become our Knight (or Dame) in shining armor.  And despite the Supremes having a public opinion rating just ahead of cockroaches and snails, one must be aware of how the lower courts (both federal and state) have already been responding to the most asinine promises and proposals coming out of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. In a trenchant essay by A.P. writers Chris Megerian and Lindsay Whitehurst the two journalists note, A familiar pattern has emerged since President Donald Trump returned to the White House less than three weeks ago: He makes a brash proposal, his opponents file a lawsuit and a federal judge puts the plan on hold. It’s happened with Trump’s attempts to freeze certain federal funding, undermine birthright citizenship and push out government workers. 

A word to the wise: although just about every Democrat on the planet, most independents, and a majority of non-MAGA Republicans may be encouraged by the initial round of judicial resistance, the legal battles are only beginning. Lawsuits that originated in more liberal jurisdictions like Boston, Seattle and the District of Columbia could eventually find their way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where its conservative majority has time and again demonstrated its willingness to overturn precedent. To date, roughly three dozen lawsuits have already been filed, including those by FBI agents who fear they’re being purged for political reasons, families who are concerned about new limitations on healthcare for transgender youth, and the MUMP Regime’s attempt to freeze as much as $3 trillion in federal funding.

Just this past Thursday, U.,S. District Judge John Coughenour blocked ITs executive order on birthright citizenship, which was intended to prevent the children of parents who are in the country illegally from being automatically considered Americans. The judge described birthright citizenship, which was established by the 14th Amendment as “a fundamental constitutional right” and he assailed POTUS in scathing terms. On the very same day in Boston, U.S. District Judge George O’Toole Jr. put a kink in ITs plan to encourage federal workers to resign by offering them paid leave until September 2025. There is a huge judicial problem here: nowhere in the current federal budget are there the billions of dollars required to fulfill this paid leave promise . . . a promise coming from a man who has made a career of not paying bills to those who do work for him (let alone the American people). Congress - which has the sole right to craft and create a budget will not be voting on the next federal budget until October 2025. (BTW: It should be noted that Judge O’Toole, who was nominated by President Bill Clinton in 1995, did not express an opinion on the deferred resignation program; he merely voted with the majority.)

Currently, there are also three lawsuits challenging POTUS’ effort to overhaul the civil service, stripping away job protections from tens of thousands of employees, and giving the White House unilateral firing authority if they fail to “faithfully implement administration policies,” and other lawsuits challenging the administration’s attempts to unilaterally fire a member of the National Labor Relations Board, one of several agencies that are supposed to be independent of the executive branch. A lawsuit to stop Elon Musk’s team from accessing ultra-sensitive data at the Treasury Department yielded an agreement to do so for now.

It makes one wonder if IT (or anyone in his and his BFF’s circle of twenty-something acolytes who hold in their hands the super, super secret algorithmic keys to virtually everyone’s Social Security numbers) is familiar with Worcester v Georgia. Oh perhaps a couple of them have a vague recollection of some president long ago challenging a long-forgotten Chief Justice to enforce a decision that the White House did not like. But I’ll bet you a bushel and a peck that they neither know that the president in question never uttered the words about the Chief Justice enforcing the decision, nor understand that in his own way, that president Andrew Jackson was far more interested in preserving the Constitution than in getting his way.

 Nor do they likely know that during his time as POTUS, Thomas Jefferson actually disregarded a ruling (dealing with the Embargo Act of 1807, a drastic - and absurdly self-destructive - attempt to punish Great Britain for seizing American merchant ships. This legal ruling was issued by a single Supreme Court associate justice, William Johnson.  (Back in the early 19th century Supreme Court Justices “rode circuit” and traveled to courts around the country to hear appeals.) Jefferson disregarded John’sons decision which rebuked the nation’s 3rd President for insinuating the doctrine of “constructive treason” - a judicial fiction that refers to actions carried out without a treasonable intent, but found to have the effect of treason. Jefferson gave up his fight, thus allowing the Constitution to retain its supremacy.  Moreover, Presidents Lincoln and Grant both tried to suspend Habeas Corpus during their 16 years in office, and both suffered defeat at the hands of SCOTUS. 

          Justice Louis Brandeis (1856-1941)

And let’s not forget FDR who, after suffering a number of New Deal reversals in the nation’s highest court, (most notably, AL.A. Schechter Poultry Corp v. United States . . . nicknamed the “Sick Chicken Case”) set off on his disastrous “Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937,” (known to history as his “Court Packing Plan”), which would have granted the president power to appoint an additional justice to the U.S. Supreme Court, up to a maximum of six, for every member of the court over the age of 70 years.  One of FDR’s closest advisors, Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis (whom FDR called "Isaiah,” for his prophetic mien) openly opposed his friend’s court packing plan; in turn, FDR considered Brandeis’ public and private pronouncements to be an act of defiance.  Nonetheless, Roosevelt relented; his plan was consigned to the dustbin of history.

When it comes to democracy and the Constitution, we are indeed living in perilous times.  The MUMP Regime, guided largely by ultraconservatives from the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation, are doing their damndest  to, in the words of Washington anti-tax salonista Grover Norquist ". . . cut government in half in twenty-five years to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."  What all the MUMP loyalists seem to forget is that they - for better or for worst - are the government.  Whether or not they will actually reach their goal, and turn over what is left of the federal government to the approximately 756 billionaires who are members of their club, is anyone’s guess.  It strikes me that in order for them to fail, it will require Congressional Republicans growing spines, Democrats finding a positive path and purpose they can run on, and a federal judiciary that finally, finally, puts precedent over politics.  And as for we, the people, we must pull on our gloves, strap up our protest boots and act in consonance with the lesson taught us by our great  British cousin, Winston Churchill:

“ . . . never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to conviction of honour and good sense.  Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy . . . never, never, never, never!”     

And while we’re fighting the good fight, let’s never forget the lessons of history . . . lest we are forced to relive them.        

Copyright©2025 Kurt Franklin Stone                        

(#1,024): “Empathy,” “Compassion” and “Mercy” – Three Words sure to Put You on IT’s S****List

                                      Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde

Believe it or not, according to innumerable studies of mental health professionals, the vast majority of people rank fear of speaking in public as number one - 75% according to the National Institute of Mental Health. I know it sounds crazy, but public speaking is feared more than death itself. There’s even a name for the fear: glossophobia. It is derived from two Greek words: γλώσσα (glossa), meaning tongue and φόβος fovos), meaning fear or dread.  Glossophobia affects men and women in equal numbers, although men are more likely to seek treatment for it. When queried, people suffering from this common ailment site fear of being laughed at, fear of “falling flat on their face,” and being “found out” to be an ignorant fool.  Rememdies?  There are, relatively speaking, few.  It’s not like simply taking a dose of an antihistamine like Benadryl to ease pruritis (itching) or aspirin to ease the pain of a headache. Typically, glossophobia treatments often involve lifestyle changes, psychotherapy and medications.  Short-term medications known as beta-blockers (e.g. propranolol, which should never be mixed with Benadryl) can be taken prior to a speech or presentation to block the symptoms of anxiety.  

It seems counterintuitive, but even those of who regularly speak before the public - whether live or in front of a camera - can suffer from a subset of glossophobia, known as stage fright.  Hollywood lore abounds with stars who have suffered from paralyzing stage fright including, Julia Roberts, Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson, Barbara Streisand and even Lord Laurence Olivier. One of the most famous and best-documented examples is actor/comedian Carol Burnett, who is alleged to have thrown up nightly before each show.      

Those lifetime public speakers and/or actors who have never suffered a minute’s worth of glossophobia (including yours truly) find it hard to understand - at least emotionally - what the other 75% go through.  This is not to say that speaking in front of a “packed house” is as easy as playing chopsticks . . . especially when the speaker is also responsible for the script itself.  Besides needing to possess at least a modicum of oratorical skill, those who deliver (as opposed to merely write) political speeches, academic lectures and especially, sermons, eulogies and invocations, must know what they’re writing and speaking about. . . which can call for innumerable false starts, erasures, deletions and drafts. Composing and delivering sermons, of course, is a particularly difficult artform.  At their very best, they are a mixture of homily, Scriptural referencing, didacticism and frequently moral challenge.  They can also on occasion get the sermonizer in hot water with many congregants or parishioners.  Sermons work best when they combine empathy, sympathy, tenderness, humanity, occasionally a touch of humor and at least a dash of controversy. Take the sermon Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, delivered in front of the newly-sworn in POTUS, the First Lady, the Vice President and Second Lady at the National Cathedral the day after IT took the oath of office for the second time. This National Prayer Service is a tradition that goes back several generations. 

During her sermon, Bishop Budde, the first woman to lead the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, ignited a firestorm when she urged the newly-sworn in President to show empathy "upon the people in our country who are scared now," including immigrants and members of the LGBTQ community. "I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President," she pleaded with him, who was seated mere feet away in the first row of pews. In including immigrants among the people in our country “who are scared now,” she was speaking from personal experience, for not only has she devoted countless pastoral hours counseling and caring for members of the LGBTQ community, she herself is the daughter of an immigrant; her mother, the late Ann Bjorkman, moved to the U.S. from Sweden. married American William Edgar and eventually became a single mother raising the future Bishop.

In her sermon at the Washington National Cathedral, Bishop Budde challenged the president directly, asserting that "millions have put their trust in you."

"The vast majority of immigrants are not criminals," she told the crowd in the pews, adding that migrants are "good neighbors" who pay taxes and are also "faithful members of our churches, mosques and synagogues, gurdwara and temples."

The bishop's by now-famous talk followed #Felon47’s rollout of a series of controversial orders and policies, including his promises to deport "millions" of undocumented immigrants and his moves to end protections for transgender people. The president was. unsurprisingly, angry with Bishop Budde - a longtime progressive activist whose connection to the LGBTQ community is personal and long-standing. In 2018, she and Bishop V. Gene Robinson presided over a public ceremony at the National Cathedral to honor Matthew Shepard, a gay hate-crime victim whose ashes were interred there. In 2017, she oversaw the removal of Washington National Cathedral's stained-glass windows honoring Confederate generals, which were replaced in 2023 with windows representing the civil rights movement.

In 2020, Budde criticized the clearing of protestors from Lafayette Square for President Donald Trump's photo op during the George Floyd protests. She also delivered a benediction at the 2020 Democratic National Convention. Needless to say, the newly-inaugurated POTUS was sorely aggrieved at what the Bishop had to say in her homily, took it as a personal affront, and let his MAGA followers know precisely what he thought about her. He later demanded an apology, calling the bishop a "radical Left hard line Trump hater" and "so-called bishop." "She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart," he posted on Truth Social, the platform he owns. Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, a Georgia Republican, urged in a post on X that Budde be deported.  The question is: to where?  To New Jersey, where she was born in 1959?

I for one find it simply unfathomable that using the words “empathy, “compassion” and “mercy” in a homily can earn one an entire page on the president’s sh . .t list.  How thin can be his skin; how insecure can be his soul?

It seems that every day bring yet another cretinous, grossly insensitive, fact-free comment from #Felon47.  Just the other day, at his first news conference since the aircraft collision over the Potomac River, he implied that DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programs were likely the cause  of the crash, although an investigation into the fatal disaster has only just begun.  Later that day (Thursday Jan. 30) a White House memo said the Biden administration had recruited “individuals with severe disabilities in the FAA” . . . people incapable of handling the job of air traffic controller.  “A group within the FAA determined that the workforce was too white, then they had concerted efforts to get the administration to change that and to change it immediately,” he added. “This was in the Obama administration.”  Leave it to our newest POTUS to inject rancorous partisan political arguments at a time when empathy, unity and leadership are required.

Believe it or not, there is actually a term for making such cretinous statements in public: dontopedalogy . . . a curious word generally ascribed to the late Prince Phillip, meaning “The art and science of putting one’s foot in one’s mouth.”

                                   KFS Addressing the Florida State Senate

Over many years, I have been honored to deliver invocations at political and medical gatherings, and opening-day ceremonies of various legislatures and even the first public luncheon for the then-”Florida Marlins” back in 1993.  (I will never forget that invocation; it came the night after their first game . . . in which they had defeated my Los Angeles Dodgers by a score of 6-3, with former Dodger Charlie Hough getting the victory and future “Mr. Marlin” Jeff Conine going four-for-four). 

I close with a piece I delivered before the Florida State Senate  . . . a deeply conservative body . . . a number of years ago.  Believe it or not, I did not receive a single negative response.  Oh how the times have changed:

MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE:

     WE CALL YOU BY A HUNDRED DIFFERENT NAMES, AND CALL UPON YOU IN A THOUSAND DIFFERENT WAYS.  AND YET, WHETHER WE ADDRESS YOU AS G-D, JESUS, HA-SHEM, ALLAH, VISHNU OR YAWEH; WHETHER WE STAND, KNEEL OR FALL PROSTRATE ON THE GROUND; WHETHER WE RECITE PRAYERS THAT ARE WRITTEN FROM LEFT TO RIGHT, RIGHT TO LEFT OR TOP TO BOTTOM, WE ARE ALL, ESSENTIALLY, ADDRESSING THE ONE WHO CREATES AND SUSTAINS, WHO EXALTS AND JUDGES, WHO BLESSES AND ENABLES THAT WHICH IS BEST IN EACH OF US.  THROUGH THE VERY ACT OF INVOKING YOUR NAME, WE SEEK YOUR GUIDANCE, YOUR APPROVAL, AND ABOVE ALL, YOUR STRENGTH AND BLESSING.

   UNQUESTIONABLY, YOU HAVE ALREADY BESTOWED MANIFOLD BLESSINGS UPON THE MEMBERS OF THIS AUGUST LEGISLATIVE BODY – BLESSINGS THAT HAVE PERMITTED THEM TO BECOME LEADERS IN THIS GREAT STATE.  WE PRAY THAT THEY BE EVER MINDFUL OF THE AWESOME RESONSIBLITY THAT COMES FROM BEING SO ENGIFTED; THAT THEY CONSTANTLY PAUSE TO REFLECT UPON THE VERY NATURE OF COMMUNAL RESPONSIBILTY.  MAY THEY KEEP UPPERMOST IN THEIR HEARTS AND MINDS THE MOST BASIC AND PURPOSIVE REASONS WHY THEY ARE HERE: TO FEED THE HUNGRY AND CLOTHE THE NAKED; TO EXERCISE STEWARDSHIP OVER ALL THE NATURAL GLORIES THAT YOU HAVE CREATED; TO EDUCATE, TO ELEVATE AND TO ADVOCATE.

   MAY WE, WHO HAVE BEEN GIVEN SO MANY BLESSINGS, BE EVER COGNIZANT OF THE FACT THAT MANY PATHS CAN LEAD TO THE SAME DESTINATION.  MAY THESE MEN AND WOMEN – THEY WHO CALL EACH OTHER “HONORABLE” AND “DISTINGUISHED” – REALISE THAT YOU, DEAR G-D, HAVE GIVEN US TWO EARS WITH WHICH TO HEAR AND BUT ONE MOUTH WITH WHICH TO SPEAK.  MAY ALL OF US UNDERSTAND THAT ALTHOUGH THERE ARE UNDOUBTEDLY MANY PATHS TO THE GATES OF GLORY, THERE IS BUT ONE GATEKEEPER – YOU AND YOU ALONE.

   MAY YOU BLESS US AND KEEP US.

   MAY YOU CAUSE YOUR GREAT COUNTENANCE TO SHINE UPON US AND BE GRACIOUS UNTO US.

   MAY YOU LIFT UP THE LIGHT OF YOUR COUNTENACE AND GRANT US THE MOST PRECIOUS OF ALL YOUR ABUNDANT BLESSINGS – THE BLESSING OF PEACE.

AMEN

Now, more than ever, we must call out the callous words, the cruel names, the all but total lack of empathy, compassion and mercy being shown on the part of our supposed leader.  We have bid a tearful farewell to one of the most decent men ever to occupy the Oval Office, Jimmy Carter.  Although likely not our best president, no one has ever been able to hold a candle to his humanity, his love of people, and of G-d.  He followed the admonition to “do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with G-d” better than anyone else in our history.  He turned his beliefs into action and actually made the world a better place.  Will the same ever be said of #Felon47?  Unless and until he gets his foot out of his mouth and learns that the first person also has a plural . . . the chances are absolutely none . . . and even less than that.

In the words of King David’s lament (2 Samuel 1:19)    אֵ֖יךְ נָֽפְל֥וּ גִבּוֹרִֽים   “How the mighty have fallen!”

To remind a leader of the necessity of exercising empathy, compassion and mercy should never, ever be taken as an insult . . . it is a gift from on high. 

It’s time to take your foot out of your mouth and start acting like a human being.

 Copyright©2025 Kurt Franklin Stone

1,023: That Was the Week That Was

On November 10, 1963, NBC began airing one of the granddaddies of all satires on the news. Based on a BBC-produced program which was a huge hit across the pond, it was called That Was the Week That Was. Both were created and starred the future interviewer par excellence Sir David Frost. The American version - which only aired until May 1965, was, to say the least, an acquired taste. But what a delicious taste it was! Long, long before Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, The Daily Show starring John Stewart, The Colbert Report or Late Night With Seth Meyers, there was the show affectionately called TW3.

It’s pilot featured Henry Fonda and Henry Morgan, with Mike Nichols and Elaine May as guests, and supporting performers including Gene Hackman. The recurring cast included Frost, Morgan, Buck Henry, Tom Bosley, Bob Dishy, Mort Sahl, and Alan Alda, with Nancy Ames singing an opening news-satire-song.  The writing staff wasn’t too shabby either; it included such clever brainiacs as Gloria Steinem, Sol Turtletaub, and the irrepressible Calvin Trillin.  It’s music was handled by one of the greatest satirists of all time, Harvard Math Professor Tom Lehr (“It is a sobering thought to consider that when Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was my age,  he had been dead for 2 years.”) 

This is not meant to be a piece on a classic television comedy.  If it were, I would be posting it on my other blog, Tales From Hollywood & Vine.  Rather, I begin in this fashion because we are about to conclude the first week (168 hours) of the MUMP Regime.  And what a breathless, mind-numbing and, to be perfectly honest, horrifying week its been.  For nearly a century, the measure of a new presidential administration has been “The first hundred days.”  With the advent of IT.2, it would now seem to be the first 168 hours.  And so, let us present, with some specificity of detail, what that week has entailed . . . . the first of a possible 208 weeks of the strangest, silliest and g-d help us all, most sinister time in American history.

Presidential actions can take different forms, including executive orders, memoranda and proclamations. Pardons and other acts of clemency — of which Trump issued hundreds in his first days in office, most related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot — are not executive orders.

Let us note here: An executive order is an official document issued by the U.S. president that shapes the way federal government operates and sends a message as to the president's top priorities in office. It is not a piece of legislation, and it does not require approval from Congress. The only way to overturn an executive order is through another executive order — Trump revoked dozens of Biden's executive orders on Jan. 20. Historically, however, Congress has challenged executive orders and can also delay an order from taking effect, such as by removing funding.

That following are executive orders issued by IT on January 24, 2025,

BORDER SECURITY, CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION

• Clarify the military's role in protecting national borders; have the secretary of defense revise a plan to "seal" the borders and "repel forms of invasion."

• Designate cartels and other organizations, such as TdA and MS-13, as foreign terrorist organizations and specially designated global terrorists.

• End birthright U.S. citizenship of children born in the country when neither parent is a citizen or legal permanent resident.

• Enhance vetting and screening across agencies during the visa-issuance process.

• Ensure the federal government upholds existing immigration laws.

• Pause entry into the U.S. of refugees under the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program until the program is "realigned" with the interests of the U.S., given a "lack of ability to absorb large numbers of migrants."

• Secure U.S. borders, such as with a physical wall.

DIVERSITY AND GENDER

• End all "diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility" programs in the federal government, "under whatever name they appear."

• Prevent hiring in the federal government on the basis of race, gender or religion, and instead base hiring on "merit, practical skill, and dedication to our Constitution."

• Recognize only two sexes at the federal level of government, male and female.

ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT

• Declare a national energy emergency.

• Expand the use of American energy resources; for example, encourage energy exploration and production and end programs that promote electric vehicles over those with gasoline engines.

• Open Alaska to increased oil and gas drilling.

• Put the U.S. first in environmental agreements, including by withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement.

FEDERALWORKFORCE AND GOVERNMENTAL OPERATIONS

• End the "weaponization of the federal government," meaning the alleged use of the government's legal force and intelligence against its perceived political opponents. The attorney general will conduct a review of the federal government since 2021 to identify such instances.

• Establish the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

• Hold former government officials accountable for alleged election interference and improper disclosure of sensitive governmental information, such as relating to Hunter Biden's laptop and a memoir by former National Security Advisor John Bolton.

• Restore freedom of speech and end federal censorship by preventing federal government employees from abridging citizens' First Amendment rights, ensuring no taxpayer money is spent on such efforts and correcting past misconduct by the federal government related to censorship of protected speech.

• Revive a category of career federal employees — previously known as "Schedule F" — that makes them easier to hire and fire in order to "restore accountability" to the federal workforce. IT issued a similar order late in his first term, and Biden rescinded it shortly after his inauguration in 2021.

FOREIGN POLICY

• Bring the Department of State in line with an "America First" foreign policy.

• Designate Ansar Allah, more commonly known as "Houthis," as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

• Pause foreign development assistance funds in order to asses alignment with U.S. foreign policy.

• Withdraw the U.S. from the World Health Organization.

TECHNOLOGY

• Create a plan for the U.S. to "sustain and enhance" global artificial intelligence dominance and develop AI systems "free from ideological bias or engineered social agendas." The order also revokes certain existing AI policies and directives that "act as barriers to American AI innovation," but these policies and directives are not named.

• Delay a ban of TikTok for 75 days, starting on Jan. 20.

• Expand access to the digital asset industry, including blockchain technology, for citizens and the private sector by establishing a regulatory framework for issuing and operating digital assets. The order also revokes a Biden executive order titled "Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets" and the Treasury's "Framework for International Engagement on Digital Assets."  It should be noted that both Donald and Melania Trump now have their own crypto coins ($TRUMP).  It speaks to the nature of the crypto industry that someone could have more than $50 billion worth of something that literally did not exist 48 hours previously. How long it takes for this to come before the federal court as a conflict-of-interest is anyone’s guess. 

misc.

• Declassify the records concerning the assassinations of former President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

• Reinstate the name Mount McKinley, the highest mountain in North America, which has officially been recognized as Denali since 2015, and change the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America."

• Restore the death penalty in federal cases and ensure states that impose capital punishment have a "sufficient supply" of lethal-injection materials.

• Revoke 78 of Biden's executive orders and memorandums. Notable examples are his efforts to lower prescription drug prices, eliminate privately operated criminal detention facilities and advance racial equity.

Not making this list is a call placed from Air Force One to King Abdullah of Jordan early Saturday morning “suggesting” that both Jordan and Egypt take in more Palestinians. This raises new questions about U.S. policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and two of its most important allies in the Middle East. The President’s comments appear to echo the wishes of the Israeli far right that Palestinians be encouraged to leave Gaza – an idea that goes to the heart of Palestinian fears that they will be driven from their remaining homelands, and one that is likely to be roundly rejected by Egypt and Jordan. (As of this writing, IT has yet to speak with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

And so, that, in a huge nutshell, was the week that was. It is daunting, gloomy and downright horrifying to consider what the second week will be like. And this is not even to mention that IT’s nominee for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, whose baggage includes charges of alcoholism, support for extremist Christian views (including a belief in “sphere sovereignty,” which promotes Old Testament laws and patriarchal structures) has been approved by the Senate by a vote of 51-50. It not only shows how little IT cares about who runs the American military industrial complex, but how very weak-kneed and accommodating the Republican caucus is in the Senate; they are petrified that if they vote against their president, that their president with primary them. You tell me: is any job that pays $174,000.00 worth that much damage to one’s soul . . . presuming that one possesses a soul?

Of late, I have been receiving emails from readers wondering if I’m at all afraid of being labeled an “enemy of the state” for all my years of writing biting, satirical and occasionally downright disagreeable essays about the current POTUS.  My answer is always the same: “I’m too busy to be worried.  If there comes a day when I hear that ‘knock on the door,’ I’ll answer it and take it from there.”  You’ve got to understand, as a Hollywood Brat I lived through the Blacklist and know that a strong set of beliefs and an ethical core are more powerful than a gloved fist.  I also receive a different kind of email: those who write warning me that “you’re going to get what you deserve.”  I don’t respond to them.  But if I did, I would likely draw further wrath by explaining that “what I deserve is good health for me, my wife, our family and friends, and the ability to continue doing what I have always done . . . getting into good trouble.”  

When Erica and I were really young, our Grannie Annie, the mistress of a million million Afghans, used to put us to bed at night by reading poetry.  Her favorites were Lord Byron, Keats, Shelly and an American poet named Frank Lebby Stanton.  He couldn’t hold a candle to Byron, but was easier to understand.  My favorite of his pieces was called Keep A-Goin’! and has shaped my Weltanschauung (worldview) for more easily more than 70 years:

Ef you strike a thorn or rose,
    Keep a-goin'!
  Ef it hails, or ef it snows,
    Keep a-goin!
  'Taint no use to sit an' whine,
  When the fish ain't on yer line;
  Bait yer hook an' keep a-tryin'—
    Keep a-goin'!

  When the weather kills yer crop,
    Keep a-goin'!
  When you tumble from the top,
    Keep a-goin'!
  S'pose you're out of every dime,
  Bein' so ain't any crime;
  Tell the world you're feelin' prime—
    Keep a-goin'!

  When it looks like all is up,
    Keep a-goin'!
  Drain the sweetness from the cup,
    Keep a-goin'!
  See the wild birds on the wing,
  Hear the bells that sweetly ring,
  When you feel like sighin' sing -
    Keep a-goin'!

That was the week that was . . . what in the world will week two bring?

Copyright©2025 Kurt F. Stone

#1,022: "Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan"

Within literally 2 minutes of word being released that Israel and Hamas had agreed to a Gaza ceasefire deal, I posted both a headline and a link to that effect on my Facebook page.  Within a couple of minutes, a fellow I’ve known down here in South Florida for more than 40 years . . . and never really discussed politics with for reasons which will quickly become obvious . . . posted a 2-word response: “Thank Trump.”  I quickly answered in 2 words “Thanks, no.” 

The fellow responded to my answer in 6 words: “He threatened them and meant it.”  Not being able to sit still, I wrote him back: “You give him far, far too much credit. It's Biden and his State Department that have been working on this for over a year.”  My friend in turn wrote “You’ve got to be kidding! A Year !!?? The only thing Hamas or Iran types fear is force. Trump made it very clear after he was elected that if these lunatics didn’t release the American hostages ( assuming they are alive) by the time he took office they would pay a terrible price. If you think they are agreeing to release them a week before he takes office is a coincidence then you don’t understand how they see the world.”

At this point, not wishing to violate what I’ve been telling my university students for nearly 30 years (Don’t beat your head against a wall, engaging in political arguments with people who will never change their mind . . . unless you’re in love with migraine headaches”), I broke off the Facebook conversation. But this was by no means the end of the “Trump-was-solely-responsible-Biden-didn’t-accomplish-Jack-your’re-full-of-it-and you’re-a-liberal-no-nothing” back and forth.

As luck would have it, one of the “Hollywood Brats” (a second generation Property Manager) who was a mainstay of our temple youth group 60 years ago, took up the cudgels for his skinny friend and wouldn’t give an inch. This Hollywood Brat is a mountain of a man . . . easily the biggest of our crowd. He looks like the epitome of a hardcore jock (well, he does play a lot of golf) but is really a very bright and literate fellow. After about 30 back-and-forth postings, both men gave up the fight. I managed to call my “Brat” friend, thanked him for his staunch efforts, told him I would be writing this blog, and promised to safeguard his anonymity (except for others of our clique who will instantly know who I am writing about).

It should come as no surprise that Felon #47 and his staunchest loyalists firmly believe that a single, conning narcissist could pull off the ceasefire almost single-handedly because he is both lethally fearsome and the world’s best negotiator. Sorry to say, but this is simply not the way diplomacy works. It is a terribly difficult artform; some have even earned advanced degrees in it, from places like Georgetown University, Johns Hopkins and the “Rolls Royce” of such institutions, the Fletcher School of Diplomacy at Tufts University. Diplomatic successes do not occur overnight, which is what IT  has tried to convince the public about . . . that he did not become involved in achieving the cease fire until the day after he won the 2025 election . . . an election in which nearly 36% of the American voting public did not cast ballots.  To hear him tell it, the reason why the ceasefire took less than 2 months to achieve is because he put fear in the hearts and minds of those he faced, and is the world’s best negotiator.  Again, this is simply not how diplomacy succeeds.  

How can I put this? Well, consider an algae (which is neither bacteria nor plant but an aquatic photosynthetic organism) doubles in size in less than 24 hours. It begins life in, say Lake Michigan, as a teeny-tiny organism which cannot be seen without a microscope. Now, let’s say it takes 20 years to become visible to the naked eye. How long would it take to completely fill the lake’s 22,300 square miles? Believe it or not, if left unabated, less than 4 months. To those who pay no attention, it would seem that the lake was overtaken by this organism in a short span of time; to those who know something about microbiology, it took over 20 years. This, in a sense, is how a successful act of diplomacy works; it seems to happen overnight, but actually takes a lot of time and many starts and stops before it happens “overnight.”

Reportage on the Biden Administration’s initial efforts to patch together a ceasefire came as early as January 21st of last year. The first article published in the New York Times on January 21st, 2024 informed readers that the President and Sec. of State Anthony Blinken (who had already made several clandestine trips to the Middle East) were sending Middle East Coordinator Brett McGurk to meet with Egyptian and Qatari leaders “in hopes of making progress toward freeing captives held by Hamas.” This was likely the first time anyone outside of the White House, “Foggy Bottom” (which is the nickname for the State Department) or Capitol Hill had ever heard the name “McGurk.” He is a longtime diplomat who has served first as the Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant under Presidents Obama and Trump, who kept him on. He resigned this position during the first Trump Administration after 45’s October 2019 withdrawal from Syria, which McGurk had strongly warned against doing. Biden brought him back at the beginning of his administration and created a new position for McGurk: National Security Council for the Middle East and North Africa. He is well-schooled in the politics, culture and historical difficulties of the Middle East. Over the past year, occasionally accompanied by C.I.A. director William J. Burns, he has been on the road dealing with the leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah, Egypt and 5 of the 7 Gulf Coast Emirates (UAE, comprised of Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah and Ras al Khalman). Not universally loved or appreciated by more progressive members of the Democratic caucus on Capitol Hill (they say he doesn’t place human rights at the top of his agenda) he is widely acknowledged for knowing the politics, the people and the political psychology of Middle Eastern leaders.

Unlike Secretary McGurk’s years of diplomatic experience, the incoming administration’s Middle East representative, Steve Witkoff boasts no such credentials, but rather is a longtime (more than 4 decades) IT friend, business associate and golfing buddy. Like his pal, Witkoff and Jared Kusher’s father Charles (who, if approved will be America’s next Ambassador to France) Witkoff is a multi-billionaire property developer and investor. Like Jared, much of Witkoff’s investment capital comes from the Saudi’s and members of the U.A.E.

In addition to his business style and personal interests in the Middle East, Witkoff reportedly shares ITs brash personality. As an example, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Witkoff called from Qatar to tell Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's aides that he would be coming to Israel the following afternoon in order to finalize the ceasefire deal, but was told by aides that the Israeli leader could not be disturbed during Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest. Witkoff, who is Jewish himself, responded “in salty English”, saying that he did not care what day it was. Netanyahu obliged. Whether or not this is 100% accurate is immaterial; the contretemps is already a part of the story that will be told for generations as yet unborn . . .

In the final days of ceasefire talks it came down to a triumvirate: McGurk (representing the Biden Administration and the State Department), Witkoff (representing the incoming administration and himself) and the Qatari P.M. (and chairman of the Board of “Aspire” – the Qatari Investment Company) Sheik Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. Behind the scenes – and located on various floors of the prime minister’s palatial compound close to the old market in downtown Doha – were, among others, representatives of Egypt, Israel and Hamas. Unwilling to meet face-to-face with either the American or Israeli delegation, the people representing Hamas had negotiation “talking points” hand delivered to their rooms.

Meanwhile, back in Jerusalem, Netanyahu and his far-right nationalist war cabinet were venting, accusing and threatening to leave his coalition if he took pen to paper and agreed to any ceasefire. In other words, they were holding Bibi’s feet to the fire; without their continuing membership in his coalition, his job (and very freedom) could be at stake. It is difficult to know what deal they reached in order for the Israeli P.M. to sign on to the agreement without losing his parliamentary majority . . . a tall order, to say the least. As of yesterday, far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, did resign from the cabinet and encouraged like-minded parliamentarians to do the same, which could potentially force yet another “early election.”

It is far too early to know if the ceasefire will be worth the paper (sans handshakes) it’s written on.  The first stage, if all goes according to plan (which rarely happens in the Middle East) is for a six-week cessation to hostilities.  During that time, hostages and prisoners are scheduled to be freed; the precise number on both sides has been a point of contention since day one. During the ceasefire, upwards of 600 daily trucks of food, medicines and supplies will be delivered into Gaza, as the world’s economic powerhouses begin working on how the area will be rebuilt — how much it will cost, who will do the building, in what order will structures be constructed and how to keep graft and corruption to a minimum.  All of this must be negotiated under a new American administration whose initial concern back home is the deportation of millions of illegal residents, getting a cabinet approved, and instituting a system of tariffs, not seen since the disastrous days of the Fordney-McCumber Act passed during the Harding Administration in 1922.     

Unquestionably Bibi Netanyahu has given a pre-Inauguration gift to the man who will take the presidential oath of office later today. I fear, however, that it may well turn out to be a gift that will turn out to be as stable as mercury. Yes, Bibi has given Felon #47 the ability to boast that he - and he alone - was responsible for the ceasefire. At the same time President Biden has taken a quiet, gentlemanly share of the credit. It will be up to future historians to determine precisely who was most responsible for the Gaza ceasefire and, depending on whether it holds for even the initial 6-week period, whose fingerprints are the clearest. If the ceasefire manages to work and change the face of history, let everyone take a bow; if, alas, it falls apart, all we will hear or see is the sound of silence and the pointing of fingers.

For, as either JFK, Benito Mussolini’s son-in-law Galeazzo Ciano or the Roman historian and politician Tacitus said: Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan. (JKF supposedly said this after the utter failure of the Bay of Pigs fiasco); to Tacitus (56-120 CE) goes the original: Iniquum est hoc de bello; victoria ab omnibus petitur, non uni soli,” namely, “This is an unfair thing about war: victory is claimed by all, failure to one alone.”

 Let us pray it will a victory for the many. 

Copyright©2025 Kurt Franklin Stone

#1,021: Where There's Fire, There's Smoke & Mirrors

For nearly a week, my heart has been breaking, my soul in turmoil and my kishkes (Yiddish for “guts”) twisted into painful knots because of the many wildfires ravaging Los Angeles County. My sister Erica and brother-in-law Bob are longtime residents of West Hills (formerly Canoga Park) where they had been under an evacuation warning for 24+ hours, which was upgraded to an order on Thursday. They fled to Redondo Beach, about 40 miles to the Southeast via the 405 (we natives call it the San Diego Freeway) where they spent a couple of hours, had pizza with family, and then returned back home; turns out the order had been the likely result of a computer glitch. They, along with Madam’s longtime companion Fred, live on the very border of the “Kenneth” fire, centered in Calabasas, just down the hill, on the other side of the 101 (which natives call the Ventura Freeway).  As of  7:00 this morning (PST) the Kenneth, fire is fully contained.  Thank god!  It is currently being investigated as an act of arson.  Before containment, it burned 1,052 acres of Los Angeles and Ventura counties.  

Meanwhile, The Palisades fire between Santa Monica and Malibu on the city’s western flank and the Eaton fire in the east near Pasadena, already rank as the most destructive in L.A.’s history, consuming more than 34,000 acres as well as many homes of celebrities, with the Palisades Fire just 11% contained and the Eaton Fire 27% contained as of today (1/12/2025) at 1:06 EST. As of 6 hours ago, the death toll has risen to 16 with more than 12,000 structures (both homes and businesses) burned to the ground. Among the celebrities losing their homes in the Palisades fire (where homes list for more than $3 million) are actors Jeff Bridges, Mel Gibson, Rosie O’Donnell, Candy Spelling, Adam Brody, James Woods, Billy Crystal, Sir Anthony Hopkins, John Goodman and Paris Hilton.  

Among the historic landmarks destroyed in both the Palisades and Eaton fires were:

Palisades Charter High School, featured in movies like “Teen Wolf,” “Carrie” and “Freaky Friday,” was damaged by the Palisades Fire, including classrooms, bungalows, tennis courts and the school’s baseball field, a Los Angeles Unified School District official told the New York Times.

Several structures at the Will Rogers State Historic Park, a 300-acre property once owned by former actor Will Rogers until he died in 1935, were destroyed in the Palisades Fire, including Rogers’ former home, according to California State Parks.

The Getty Villa, a museum near the Pacific Coast Highway featuring Greek and Roman art and antiquities, said it would remain closed through at least Monday and is still “safe and intact,” though trees and vegetation at the museum had reportedly burned.

The Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center, founded in the early 20th century, told congregants its buildings were lost to the fire, though the facility’s Torah scrolls were safe, officials said.

The first monster conflagration I ever experienced up close and personal began on November 5, 1961: the Bel Air Fire. Beginning as a brush fire,  it  destroyed nearly 500 houses in the hillside enclave in less than 3 days, including the homes of Burt Lancaster, Zsa Zsa Gabor, comedian Joe E. Brown, composer Lukas Foss and writer Aldous Huxley. I remember the flames flaring up skyward and feeling like the world was coming to an end.  I followed it as closely as possible on my transistor radio and the old Los Angeles Mirror.  Reliving those hellish days the one thing  I do not recall was anyone blaming the city council, then-Mayor  Sam Yorty, or Governor Edmund G. "Pat” Brown for the disaster.  In a sense, you could say that while there was plenty of fire, there was hardly any "smoke” . . . a word which can also mean obfuscation, as in “smoke and mirrors.”

As compared to the Bel Air fire of 1961 which, until this week was the worst in L.A. history, the Palisades, Eaton, Kenneth and other wildfires of 2025 have far, far more smoke. The picture adorning the first paragraph of this post is an AI-generated lie.  Despite what you see I am delighted to say that the “Hollywood” sign has not burned down; it has been, however, cloaked in smoke.  (N.B. if you’re looking to check whether an online image is fake or AL-generated,  you can use the Google Reverse Image Search Tool to find the  origin of the image or whether it has been edited.)

Why in the world would anyone post such an utter falsehood as that sign being enveloped in flames? So far as I can tell, it serves to prove a political point: to wit, that G-d is the source of the wildfires; CO (my pronoun for the Divine) is punishing all those immoral, "woke-loving,” DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) -  pushing sensualists in Southern California for inducing “true believers” to turn their backs on the Divine. 

             Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom

Over the past several days, IT, the once and future POTUS, has been blowing smoke by the megaton. He has blamed the wildfires on California Governor Gavin Newsom (whom he now refers to "Newscum”) for failure to contain the fires and claimed he had blocked an infusion of water to SOCAL (our shorthand for "Southern Calif”) over concerns about how it would affect a threatened fish species.   The precise wording of his “Truth Social” online rant was: Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way.  

Governor Newsom’s press office responded by saying in a statement that the “water restoration declaration” that Mr. Trump had accused him of not signing did not exist. The response continued, “The governor is focused on protecting people, not playing politics, and making sure firefighters have all the resources they need.” the statement said, and then continued, The rhetoric is very familiar, it’s increasingly acute, and obviously we all have reason to be concerned about.” Newsom added that Trump’s assertions about a state water project and the delta smelt were a “salad, it’s the form and substance of a fog, it’s made-up, it’s delusional”.

IT has yet to respond to the governor’s invitation to visit SOCAL and get a first-hand look at the devastation.  There is also grave concern as to whether or not he will cancel President Biden’s release of FEMA funds and personnel. This is no idle fear.  Yesterday, Ohio Republican congressman Warren Davidson  said that aid should be withheld from California until the state reforms its forestry management. 

As for Governor Newsom, 6 hours ago, he issued an executive order to suspend permitting and review requirements under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the California Coastal Act to allow victims of the recent fires to restore their homes and businesses faster.  And just yesterday, Governor Newsom announced on his Facebook page that  “California is preventing insurance companies from canceling or not renewing home coverage for LA wildfire victims in affected zip codes over the next year.  Whether homeowners have suffered a loss or not, we're alleviating the stress of finding new insurance during these times.”

It really wasn’t all that long ago when a national disaster - a devastating hurricane or earthquake, the unimaginable tragedy of 9/11 - brought the nation together; a time when the American people’s “higher angels” managed to make us all proud despite our tears and grief.  Tragically, this is no longer the case . . . at least for now.  So long as we have so-called “leaders” whose preference is for an uppercut and a rabbit punch (as opposed to an open hand and a hug) we will find ourselves incapable of acting in the spirit of America -  e pluribus unum (Latin for “out of many, one” - at our times of greatest need.  But what can you expect when the "leader” of the moment is guided by another Latinism: falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus:, e.g. “false in one thing, false in everything.” 

For those who wish to make a contribution to the people of California who have lost so much, might I suggest a donation to Americares, which has the highest possible rating at the Charity Navigator website.    

To hell with עשן ומראות - “smoke and mirrors.”  What we need now -  more than ever - is  חסד ואמת - “loving kindness and truth.”

Copyright©2025 Kurt Franklin Stone

#1,020: Whatever Became Of the Truth?

  Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881)

Once upon a time there were newscasters like Walter Cronkite, John Chancellor, and David Brinkley - solid experienced journalists - who were unimpeachable sources of broadcast truth.  What news they broadcast 5 nights a week was rarely - if ever - questioned; they were the voices of truth, reason and Mt. Sinai. Those who did not like what they were hearing - about the war in Vietnam, racial relations or the economy to name but three - did not question the veracity of their reportage . . .  but merely the painful reality of the times. This is no longer the case.

The heirs of newscasters/journalists like Cronkite, Chancellor and Brinkley (among others) are no longer bound by what may be called “the truth,” but rather by what their corporate sponsors wish the public to see, hear and believe. And when it comes to the news-gathering public, it would seem that most seek those who broadcast what they want to hear or already believe, as opposed to those of us who are doing our darndest to learn what in the hell is really going on.  Print media, I am sorry to say, is largely in the same creaky boat.  When billionaire publishers of newspapers like the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post can, at the last moment, decide not to endorse a presidential candidate (Kamala Harris) for fear that they might be on ITs bad side should he be elected, is more than an act of craven cowardice; it is an egregious betrayal of journalistic integrity.

Precisely 2 weeks from today, the 47th POTUS will take the oath of office.  One can make book on the White House Office of Communications announcing that the gathered crowd was in the millions . . . far larger than any gathering since Moses descended from Mt. Sinai, Tablets in hand.  Of course, the crowd size will be exaggerated to the point of being an outright, obvious lie, which is only fair, considering that IT won the election on the basis of a long, long string of lies.  To have heard him tell it during - and even after - the campaign, “He is,” in the words of New York Times chief White House correspondent Peter Baker “ . . . about to take over a nation ravaged by crisis, a desolate hellscape of crime, chaos and economic hardship.”  Indeed, just the other day, IT declared on social media “Our Country is a disaster, a laughing stock all over the World!  This is what happens when you have OPEN BORDERS, with weak, ineffective and virtually nonexistent leadership. . . . The USA is breaking down - A violent erosion of Safety, National Security, and Democracy is taking place all across our Nation. Only strength and powerful leadership will stop it.” 

This is, of course, pure nonsense. By many traditional metrics, the America that the MUMP Regime inherits from President Biden 2 weeks from today is actually in far better shape than that bequeathed to any newly elected president since George W. Bush moved into the White House on January 20, 2001. For the first time in nearly a quarter century, there will be no American troops at war overseas. New data reported in the last few days indicate that murders are way down, illegal immigration at the southern border has fallen even below than where it was when IT left office, and roaring stock markets, finished their best two years in the past quarter century.

Moreover, jobs are up, wages are rising and the economy is growing as fast as it did during ITs presidency. Unemployment is as low as it was just before the Covid-19 pandemic and near its historic best. And to top it all off, the United States is producing more oil and natural gas today than ever before . . . and far more than any other country. These are all facts - the truth - which can be verified if only:

1. One is willing to do a bit of research . . . which not everyone is willing or capable of doing;

2. One doesn’t mistrust anything that comes from a source they’ve been convinced is part of a conspiracy whose sole purpose is disproving whatever their MAGA leader says, and

3. One accepts the fact that there is such a thing as the truth.

It goes without saying that for many Americans all these positive trends have yet to make a difference in their daily lives; consequently, they firmly believe that Biden and his team are talking through their hats. For in reality, these naysayers do, in the main, live from paycheck-to-paycheck, carry high credit card debt, cannot afford to buy a home, remember when gas prices were under $2.00 a gallon (March of 2020, during the Obama Administration), can read you line and verse about how both inflation and prices for such staples as eggs, milk and meat are all far too high (actually, the rate of inflation has returned close to normal), and on and on.  In short, they swallow much - if not all - of what IT endlessly ragged on about during the campaign, and concluded the race by saying that he had scored one of the largest victories in history.  (For those who care to check, the final vote showed It receiving 49.8% of the vote (77,303,428) to V.P. Harris’ 48.3% (75,018,929 votes) . . . hardly a crushing victory.

If history repeats itself, we can expect to see the 47th POTUS continue to tear into his predecessor’s record of doing nothing, of pardoning his son Hunter, and of being a doddering old fool.  As time goes by, he will make fewer and fewer promises (except renewing his gift-wrapped 2017 tax cut to the execrably hyper wealthy), and assert in no uncertain terms that what the public may perceive as failures, is really the fault of ultra-liberal, communistic collaborators.  He will, in turn, have any number of “Come to Jesus” moments when he learns that no one can deport 12-20 million illegals (tons of whom have lived in this country for decades . . . many working at Mar-a-Lago) all in one fell swoop.  Who’s going to pay for it?  Who’s going to hire the busses, planes, trains and ships?  Similarly, one man cannot simply shut down FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. and all that entails with a simple performative utterance.     

Indeed, it’s going to be hard enough for IT to get many of his cabinet nominees approved by the United States Senate. As deeply conservative as the new Majority Leader - South Dakota’s John Thune – may be, he is both affable and an institutionalist. As Senate Minority Leader, Thune was one of the few Republicans in that chamber who acknowledged Joe Biden’s 2020 win, telling reporters, “At some point you have to face the music.” During Biden’s presidency, Thune voted with Biden 35 percent of the time, which placed him in the top half of GOP senators who have voted in support of some of Biden's policy priorities.

 Just how long IT and his loyalists are going to be able to bend reality and truth to fit their agenda is anyone’s guess. Convincing so many Americans that two-times-two isn’t necessarily the truth is both highly dangerous and the mark of a dictator-in-the-making. It brings to mind a quote by the great Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky who, in one of his earliest (and most difficult) novels, Notes From the Underground, (written in reaction to Nikolay Chernyshevsky’s appallingly bad ideological novel What Is to Be Done? (1863), put into the mouth of his anonymous narrator the following simple piece of insolence:

Twice two makes four is a pert coxcomb who stands with arms akimbo barring your path and spitting. I admit that twice two makes four is an excellent thing, but if we are to give everything its due, twice two makes five is sometimes a very charming thing too.

This bit of sarcastic wisdom has stayed with me for nearly 60 years. Indeed, I typed out the quote, and hung it on my dorm room door a long, long time ago.

There are those who find health in seeking the truth; there are others who make a living convincing others that there is no objective truth . . .

G-d help us all!

Copyright©2025 Kurt Franklin Stone

#1,019: The Mump Regime

       Professor Timothy Snyder

Timothy Snyder, the Richard C. Levin Professor of History at Yale University, is without question, one of the most profoundly important thinkers of our time. The author of a dozen books, including such seminal works as On Tyranny, Our Malady, Black Earth, and his latest, On Freedom, Dr. Snyder (who earned his PhD at Oxford), is a polymath: an expert in diverse fields. His books, monographs and essays deal with both medieval and modern European history, the underpinnings of the Holocaust, the rise of American authoritarianism and healthcare in America. He speaks five and reads ten European languages, and is one of the few American intellectuals to be named a permanent fellow at Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen, the “Institute for Human Sciences” in Vienna.

I owe the title of this blog, The Mump Regime, to Professor Snyder. It comes from a piece he wrote for his own blog, Thinking About . . . Just as I had, within the past year, searched for a new epithet-cum-nickname for the once-and-future POTUS (IT), he had been looking for a term to use in place of “The Trump Administration.” In paying close attention to the implied threats and actions of the president-elect and his current BFF, Elon Musk (AKA “The richest man on the planet” TRMOTP), Prof. Snyder concluded that Musk just might do more of the political planning and damage than his “poorer” leader. Because of the fact that TRMOTP does seem, at this point, to wield more public power than IT, Prof. Snyder decided that his term for the new regime should be “MU(sk)TruMP.  After all, as co-head of the nongovernmental Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), TRMOTP has taken it upon himself to make pronouncements on everything from eliminating funding for childhood cancer research to tearing down the Department of Education to eliminating the debt ceiling and replacing it with a $280 Trillion Price Bitcoin Reserve To Save The Dollar.  (It should be noted that “DOGE” is also the name of the bitcoin the incoming regime is pushing for its own financial gain . . . as well as the name given to the supreme leaders of Venice from roughly the 5th to the 18th century.)

                                     “THE MUMPS”

Congress’ last minute passage of a spending bill that will keep the government running until March was a dangerous, headlong drive down a poorly-paved road.  That 38 Republicans (along with all but one Democrat who voted “present”) voted against MUMP - despite their threat to run and fund MAGA purists against any and all dissenters - was a major defeat for a regime which has yet to take the oath of office.  Much of the blame must rest with Musk, who in over 100 online messages repeatedly lied about what was in the original bill. 

TRMOTP falsely claimed that members of Congress would get a 40% pay raise as part of the package.  The truth is that members of the House and Senate have not had a raise to their $174,000 salaries since 2009, after repeatedly freezing a law implementing automatic cost-of-living (COLA) increases. The bill they passed did not include a COLA freeze, but this means a maximum potential pay adjustment of a mere 3.8%.  (Even if lawmakers had given themselves all 15 years of rejected COLAs (which again, they are not doing), it would result in only a 31% increase, according to the Congressional Research Service.  TRMOTP also posted a claim that the bill would provide $3 billion for a new NFL stadium in Washington.  This is pure stuff fand nonsense. The bill transfers control of the site of the existing RFK Stadium to the D.C. local government for redevelopment, which could potentially include a stadium. No federal funds are changing hands as part of the transaction.  

The entire funding affair didn’t do much for Speaker Mike Johnson’s hold on power. When he jettisoned the bipartisan deal to avert a government shutdown after facing the fierce criticism from MUMP, Democrats got into the act, decrying the omission of four bills related to pediatric cancer research and treatments from the revised funding bill. “Republicans would rather cut taxes for billionaire donors than fund research for children with cancer,” Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the Democratic leader, said Friday on social media.

But with the clock ticking down the minutes and seconding until Friday December 20 turned into Saturday December 21 (the “witching hour”) the Senate voted unanimously to renew the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act (named after a 10-year-old girl who died from diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma [DIPG], an inoperable brain tumor in 2013). The bill extended $12.6 million in annual cancer research funding through 2031, allowing the National Institutes of Health to continue researching the biology of childhood cancer and structural birth defects.

(It should be noted that three other cancer-related measures were scrapped at the end of 118th Congress. These include a new policy that would have made it easier for low-income children on Medicaid to cross state lines for specialized cancer treatment, and two bills aimed at incentivizing pediatric cancer drug development.) TRMOTP and his titular boss proclaimed that this kind of spending was precisely what the DOGE was looking to jettison in order to bring down a deficit which they know perfectly well will skyrocket once ITs 2017 tax cuts are reinstated in 2025.  Unless, of course, members of the House grow a pair and just say no . . .or go back and take Econ 101, which will teach them that passing massive tax cuts for the wealthy at the same time you are initiating historically high tariffs is a prescription for economic disaster.

Notably AWOL in last weeks fiscal sturm und drang was the Vice President Elect, J.D. Vontz, Republican of Ohio. The question is why? Why has he faded from view? Could it be because he has been replaced in ITs political affection by TRMOTP? If this is so - and I believe it is - then we can perhaps breathe a sigh of relief. Why? Because, if history is any indicator, the one thing that can get a person removed from IT’s A-list faster than anything is garnering more public airtime. than the boss of bosses. IT loves TRMOTP because he is a multi-multi billionaire who is willing to do anything and everything necessary to make his fellow narcissist the eternal king of kings. But that could be the source of his very downfall. Already, Musk is being chided and derided for knowing even less about politics, legislation, and the day-to-day operation of government than his “poor pitiful cousin.” Loyalty is one thing; publicity is another. I would give the MUMP Regime less than 6 months before it begins to suffer what in medical terminology is known as a comminuted fracture . . .  e.g. trouble in paradise . . .

Thank you, Prof. Snyder, for giving a truly sharp-witted appellation to what is shaping up to be a sinister administration. 

And we have yet to speak of such hideous afflictions the regime looks to foist on America, such as mumps (Parotitis), measles, polio . . . and getting Fluoride out of our drinking water . . .   

Wishing one and all a HAPPY, MERRY EVERYTHING!  See you next week.

Copyright ©2024 Kurt Franklin Stone

#1,018: Pardon Me!

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                              Emilie Todd and Benjamin Hardin Helm, 1857. 

   President Joseph R. Biden, Jr’s. recent pardon of his son Hunter has a lot of people talking. According to recent polling done by the now-80 year old Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research at the University of Chicago, only about 2 in 10 Americans approve of the President’s decision to pardon his son after earlier promising he would do no such thing.  The survey found that a relatively small share of Americans “strongly” or “somewhat” approve of the pardon, which came after the younger Biden was convicted on gun and tax charges. About half said they “strongly” or “somewhat” disapprove, and about 2 in 10 neither approve nor disapprove.  Unsurprisingly, a higher percentage of Republicans - both office-holders and everyday voters - found fault with Biden’s act than Democrats. As soon as the pardon was announced, the President-Elect took to Truth Social, slamming Biden for what he called "an abuse and miscarriage of Justice! Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years?" he wrote. Steven Cheung, the President-Elect’s communications director, told Newsweek, "The failed witch hunts against President Trump have proven that the Democrat-controlled DOJ and other radical prosecutors are guilty of weaponizing the justice system."

   Political commentator Ben Shapiro slammed the president for his decision to issue the pardon, saying that Biden "has always been a venal liar who utilized his political power to pursue familial gain. So of course he's pardoning Hunter. He was always going to pardon Hunter. Hunter was the bagman." Shapiro and many other voices on the right have seized on the timeframe of Hunter's pardon to note that it starts before he joined Ukrainian gas company Burisma's board of directors. Shapiro later posted a video trying to connect the dots on this narrative.

Ezra Klein, a popular New York Times opinion columnist, acknowledged that "it's terrible politics and precedent," but argued that "the Trump team has been brutally clear they want revenge on their enemies, they are obsessed with Hunter in particular, and that would weigh like hell on me if I were his father and could protect him." Klein also joked about the "Dark Brandon" memes and endorsed the suggestion that Hunter Biden should appear on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast.

Political pollster Nate Silver had harsh words for the president, writing on X that he "voted for Harris despite feeling like Democrats indulged in a lot of bad behavior that voters were rational to publish. After the White House lying about the Hunter pardon I'm not sure how much more I can tolerate."  Silver also called for voters to reject "any Democrat in 2028 who doesn't repudiate the pardon within 48 hours." He also accused the White House of "consistently" lying about Biden's plan to abide by the court's decision on Hunter Biden's cases and called Biden "a selfish and senile old man."

Many Republicans, including members of both the House and Senate appear to believe that Biden’s pardon of son Hunter was, historically speaking, absolutely nonpareil; that no other POTUS had ever pardoned a member of his own family.  If they really, truly believe this  (which I doubt) when the lights go down and they put their heads on the pillow, then they had best go back and relearn high school-level American history.  For not only did their once-and-future leader pardon his מַחֲטוּנִים* billionaire real estate mogul Charles Kushner in December 2020; he recently announced that he was nominating him to become America’s next Ambassador to France.  (*Pronounced mechute’n), this is a basically untranslatable Yiddish term, meaning something like “your child’s father-in-law” which, in the eyes of Jewish custom, makes Jared’s father a flesh-and-blood member of the Trump family).  And to make sure we’re all on the same page, remember that In 2005, Charles Kushner was convicted of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion and witness tampering. After learning that his brother-in-law was cooperating with federal investigators, Charles Kushner hired a sex worker to lure him into a hotel room with a hidden camera and then sent the recording of the encounter to his sister.  The senior Kushner pleaded guilty to 18 counts, including tax evasion and witness tampering. He was sentenced to two years in prison and was ordered to pay $508,900 to the Federal Election Commission. After his release - and before he received his pardon -  he returned to the real estate business.

So we can add IT to Biden as presidents who have pardoned family members.  But we’re not even halfway there.  In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln  issued a posthumous pardon to Confederate General Benjamin Hardin  Helm, who was the late husband of Emilie Todd Helm, (that’s them in the picture above). Emilie Todd was the half-sister of Lincoln’s wife, thereby making the general Lincoln’s brother-in-law. General Helm was the last commander of the “Orphan Brigade”* and was killed at the Battle of Chickamauga. Lincoln had originally offered Emilie Todd's husband a position in the Union Army, but he chose to raise a regiment for the Confederacy.  (*The “Orphan Brigade was made up of Kentucky regiments that were "orphans" because Kentucky's secession movement failed, leaving them without a "home state" in the Confederacy.)  Nonetheless, Lincoln pardoned him, thus permitting his widow (who after his death moved to the White House), to sell her homestead and Kentucky-grown tobacco on the open market.  

Ironically, Abraham Lincoln also pardoned Joseph Robinette Biden’s Great Great Grandfather, Moses Robinette on September 1, 1864.  In 1861, Robinette, who was working as a veterinary surgeon for the Army of the Potomac’s reserve artillery had been convicted of a number of offenses including attempted murder. Found guilty in 1864, he was sent to the Dry Tortugas islands of Florida to serve out his 2-year sentence. When the attempted murder charge was overturned, Robinette’s case was brought to Lincoln’s attention.  Within a matter of weeks, the nation’s 16th POTUS pardoned “Doc” Robinette.

Rounding out the list of presidents who have pardoned family members is Bill Clinton, our 42nd Commander-in-Chief. On one of his last days in office, he issued a pardon for his half-brother Roger Clinton, Jr., who, in 1985, had been tried, convicted and served federal time for possession and drug-trafficking. The conviction came on the heels of a sting operation operation looking into conspiracy to distribute cocaine. During the time his brother served as POTUS, Roger’s Secret Service code name was “Headache,” due to his unpredictable behavior.

   I for one am a bit torn about Joe Biden pardoning Hunter.  On the one hand, this man has lived through more family tragedy than perhaps anyone in public life: those of a certain age well remember the president’s shared anguish over his two sons, after the boys survived a car crash that killed Biden's first wife and a daughter more than a half-century ago. Or to those who heard the president regularly lament the death of his older son, Beau, from cancer, or voice concerns — largely in private — about Hunter’s sobriety and health after years of deep addiction. But on the other, for months prior to the November election President Biden said he would not, under any circumstance, pardon his remaining son: “No one is above the law.”  His stunning reversal is hard for a majority of Americans to swallow, myself included.  But this pardon is not the sum total of everything one need to know about Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr.  For Republicans, this reversal gives them license to self-righteously proclaim to anyone and everyone who will listen and agree, that this pardon will, when all is said and done, be the only thing history will remember about Joe Biden.  This is stuff and nonsense.  American history is replete with presidents who have granted pardons that are far more questionable and downright dishonest:

• In 1869, President Andrew Johnson pardoned Dr. Samuel Mudd, who had been sentenced for assisting Abraham Lincoln’s assassin John Wilkes Booth.  It is likely that Mudd earned his pardon from Ft. Jefferson n part because of his efforts to halt the spread of an outbreak of deadly yellow fever at the prison.  (In 1936, 20th Century Fox produced a film loosely based on Mudd’s life. The Prisoner of Shark Island, directed by John Ford, and starring Warner Baxter. 

• In 1922, President Calvin Coolidge granted an unconditional pardon to Lothar Witzke, a citizen of the Weimar Republic who had been imprisoned in the United States for his involvement in a 1916 bombing attack on New York Harbor that left seven dead. After being Coolidge’s pardon, Witzke was deported to Germany where he received a hero’s welcome. 

• In 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant effectively pardoned most members of the Confederacy when he signed the Amnesty Act. This allowed former Confederacy members to once again vote and hold office. Tensions were still high across the United States and Grant viewed the act as a way to promote unity.  Believe it or not, the incoming administration has used this act in defense of their stated goal of pardoning all the jailed or arrested January 6 perpetrators.

• On September 8, 1974, President Gerald R. Ford signed what is hands down, the most controversial pardon in American history: that of Richard Nixon. The former president received a full, unconditional pardon for his role in the Watergate Scandal, which resulted in his resignation. Nixon is the only former president to receive a pardon.

• IT’s mass pardons of such convicted loyalists as Roger Stone, Paul Manifort, Michael Flynn and former Maricopa County (AZ) Sheriff Joe Arpaio The last of these was perhaps IT’s most controversial pardon. Arpaio was convicted of contempt of court for illegally detaining people without reasonable evidence after being ordered to cease these practices. Civil rights groups protested the pardon as they viewed Arpaio's actions as unconstitutional attacks on immigrants. to name but a few.

Those who believe that Joe Biden’s pardoning of his son (despite his earlier statements to the contrary) will be all that history remembers him for are delusional. Historians (presidential and otherwise) tend to have a far broader and more all-encompassing view of our nation’s chief executives than political operatives, staunch loyalists and the so-called “partisan base.”  I’ve got to believe that Joe Biden doesn’t sleep as well at night as the man who will replace him come January 20, 2025.  Biden, when all is said and done, is a man of heart, faith, inherent kindness and conscience.  He is, in the words of Mark Twain, “. . . the sort of man who speaks a language that the deaf can hear and the blind can see.”t A perfect man?  No, of course not.  But within his soul he is at least a man who cares about doing for others, rather than mostly - if not strictly - for himself.  His successor, on the other hand, sleeps well and does not worry a farthing about what history’s  . . . let alone G-d’s . . . judgement of him will be.  In his mind it really doesn’t matter, for he will be dead and all those mansions, towers and golf courses bearing his name will be the only legacy that matters.  However much he will ultimately eviscerate democracy while enriching both himself and his billionaire backers is of no concern to him, for he lives only in the moment, only for himself. 

   Will IT ever get his comeuppance?  Will it ever dawn on a majority of the American voting public that the man they elected with precisely 49.78% of the popular vote is a grifter, a conman, what British humorist Sir P.G. Wodehouse would have called a “gumboil of a human being”?  I hope so.  2026 is going to be as crucial - if not more so - than 2024.  Already, Democrats are raising money and seeking candidates in order to take back both the House and the Senate in the next mid-term elections . . . assuming there will be elections. 

If I sound a bit harried and pessimistic, please, PARDON ME!

 Copyright024 Kurt Franklin Stone        

#1,017: Farewell, Dr. al-Assad?

The past 48 hours have marked a tectonic shift in the political plates and fates of the Middle East. The fall of Damascus at the hands of Hayʼat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS: Arabic for either “Organization for the Liberation of the Levant” or “Levant Liberation Committee”) and the fleeing of murderous Syrian President Bashir al-Assad and his family to Moscow, have left tens of million in the region - and indeed, around the world - cheering and fearing the future. Already, thousands upon thousands of Syrian refugees are making the trek back to their homeland from Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, the U.K. and Germany  . . . to name but 4 countries where they have been living in exile.

                      Abu Muhammad al-Jolani

At this early juncture, it would appear that the biggest losers are Iran and Russia, who have been largely responsible for supplying the Assad regime with arms and weaponry. It is, of course, far too early to say with any certainty what the toppling of Dr. al-Assad (he’s a board-certified ophthalmologist who did his post-graduate training at London’s Western Eye Hospital) will have on the future of the country he and his father ruled with an iron fist for more than half a century. Abu Muhammad al-Julani is the nom de guerre of the leader of Hayʼat Tahrir al-Sham, which eventually toppled al-Assad and forced him to flee.  As of today, al-Jolani is the titular Syrian Prime Minister. Born Ahmed Hussein al-Shar'a in 1982, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to a family whose historic roots were the Golan Heights (hence the nisba* “al-Julani” [roughly translated as “the Golanite”]), his life over the past two decades has been a roadmap of Islamist militancy in Iraq and Syria. He battled U.S. forces in Iraq and was jailed by the Americans for several years. He rose through the ranks of the group then known as the Islamic State of Iraq, or ISI, and then with help from ISI’s successor, ISIS, Jolani founded an Al Qaeda affiliate in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra, which has been designated a terrorist by the United States since 2013.  

(* nisba: نسبة “attribution” . . . an adjectival surname indicating the person's place of origin, ancestral tribe, or ancestry, used at the end of the name).

In 2021, al-Jolani (who, since this past Thursday has dropped his nom de guerre in favor of his birth name) emerged from the shadows and sat down for his first interview with Frontline correspondent Martin Smith. Much was to be learned:

Jolani's journey as a jihadist began in Iraq, linked to al-Qaeda through the Islamic State (IS) group's precursor - al-Qaeda in Iraq and, later, the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI). After the 2003 US-led invasion, he joined other foreign fighters in Iraq and, in 2005, was imprisoned at Camp Bucca, a forward operating base that housed a theater internment facility maintained by the United States military in the vicinity of Umm Qasr, in extreme southeastern Iraq, where he enhanced his jihadist affiliations and later on was introduced to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the quiet scholar who would later go on to lead IS.

In 2011, Baghdadi sent Jolani to Syria with funding to establish the al-Nusra Front, a covert faction tied to ISI. By 2012, al-Nusra had become a prominent Syrian fighting force, hiding its IS and al-Qaeda ties. Tensions arose in 2013 when Baghdadi's group in Iraq unilaterally declared the merger of the two groups (ISI and al-Nusra), declaring the creation of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS), and publicly revealing for the first time the links between them. Jolani resisted, as he wanted to distance his group from ISI's violent tactics, thus leading to a split. To get out of that sticky situation, Jolani pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda, making the al-Nusra Front its Syrian branch.

From the start, he prioritized winning Syrian support, distancing himself from IS's brutality and emphasizing a more pragmatic approach to jihad. Despite the public split from al-Qaeda and name changes, HTS continued to be designated by the UN, US, UK and other countries as a terrorist organization, and the US maintained a $10m reward for information about Jolani's whereabouts. Western powers considered the break-up to be a façade.

Under Jolani, HTS became the dominant force in Idlib, north-west Syria's largest rebel stronghold, and home to about four million people, many of whom were displaced from other Syrian provinces. To address concerns about a militant group governing the area, HTS established a civilian front, the so-called "Syrian Salvation Government" (SG) in 2017 as its political and administrative arm. The SG functioned like a state, with a prime minister, ministries and local departments overseeing sectors such as education, health, taxes and reconstruction, while maintaining a religious council guided by Sharia, or Islamic law.  Although the new government did not mandate the wearing of the hajib (head-covering) for women, many women in the province began donning them in public. Since the beginning of 2024, a former engineer, Muhammed al-Bashir was the chief administrator of the SG.

                                    Interim Syrian P.M. al-Bashir

Earlier today (Tuesday, Dec. 11)  al-Bashir has been appointed post-Assad Syria’s interim prime minister.  The decision came after Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) leader met with the outgoing Syrian Prime Minister and Vice President Faisal Mekdad to discuss a transitional government just yesterday.  "The general command has tasked us with running the transitional government until 1 March," Bashir said on Tuesday, according to state media.  

So what happens next? Anyone got a crystal ball they truly trust? al-Assad’s downfall evokes memories of the 2011 uprisings in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen, each of which brought about either civil war or authoritarian rule. Global responses, both rhetorical and real, are pretty much what one would expect: we are truly glad the Assad regime is on history’s ash-heap, pray that the rebels will turn their spears into pruning hooks, but beyond that, who knows?

In Washington, deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East Daniel Shapiro said, “No one should shed any tears over the end of the Assad regime.” He said that the U.S. would maintain a presence in Eastern Syria “to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS,” and would take all necessary measures to defend its forces in the area.

IT proclaimed on his social media site that the United States should stay out of Syria: “THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT,” he declared in his ALL CAPS style.

Turkey: Hakan Fidan, the Turkish foreign minister said, “Syria has reached a stage where the Syrian people will shape the future of their own country. Today there is hope.” Turkey is obvious glad that Assad is gone; perhaps now Turkey can see the more than 3 million Syrians living within their borders return home.

France: President Emmanuel Macron wrote that “the barbaric state has fallen . . . In this moment of uncertainty, I send them my wishes for peace, freedom and unity. France will remain committed to the security of all in the Middle East.”

Iran: Although the country has long been among Dr. Assad’s staunchest supporters, its foreign ministry wrote in a post that “determining Syria’s future and making decisions about its destiny are solely the responsibility of the Syrian people, without any destructive interference or external imposition.”

Israel: P.M. Netanyahu took a victory lap, proclaiming that Israel’s war against Hezbollah in Lebanon had caused a “chain reaction”  that helped precipitate the collapse of the Assad regime, which he called “ . . . a key cell in Iran’s axis.  This [is] the direct result of the blows we dealt Iran and Hezbollah.” Earlier today, Israel said that it had destroyed Syria’s navy in overnight airstrikes, as it continued to pound targets in Syria despite warnings that its operations there could ignite new conflict and jeopardize the transition of power to an interim government.

Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, said that the Israeli military had “destroyed Syria’s navy overnight, and with great success.” His remarks appeared to confirm Israel’s responsibility for the destruction documented in the Syrian port city of Latakia, where photos showed the smoldering remains of ships sunk at their dock.

Britain: “It’s too early to remove Syrian rebels from the terror list. 

In boning up on, and familiarizing myself with, Ahmed Hussein al-Shara’a, I find myself convinced of 3 things:

1. He is sharp as a tack;

2. He possesses the inscrutability of the truly unknowable;

3. He is an utter pragmatist.

   This last point could be, when all is said and done, the most important and telling of all. History teaches that once the shooting stops, leaders of successful rebellions and/or revolutions are frequently failures when it comes to governing. Take the Hasmoneans (Maccabees) as an early example; they were uncanny guerilla fighters who, though totally unskilled as warriors and going up against what was perhaps the very first professional army in the history of the world (the Greco-Assyrians of King Antiochus Epiphanes) they managed to pull off a miraculous victory. However, when it came to leading a state at peace, they were utter failures at governance and had to ‘invite in” a group to help them (the Romans), who would eventually be responsible for destroying all they had created. They lacked both vision and an understanding of pragmatism.

Ahmed Hussein al-Shara’a appears to be a pragmatist. Once he and HTS conquered Idlib, he and his lieutenants removed their headpieces, trimmed their beards, put on western clothing and began creating a civil government. They also jettisoned their early sponsors’ notion of worldwide jihad and began proclaiming themselves to be interested in remaking Syria. Period.  Just how much religious fanaticism will be on display in the new Syria is anyone’s guess; however, there is always their first test case in Idlib. There, they created a civil administration which, if not favorable to all (I mean, who likes paying increased taxes?), at least they had the support of enough people to not have the problem of counter-revolution hounding them every hour of the day. And within hours of getting Dr. al-Assad to flee, began the process of governmental transition which, as we in the U.S. have learned of late, is not always a given.

What tomorrow will bring to Syria and the rest of the Middle East is anyone’s guess.  But at least for now, Iran and Russia seem to have lost a supportive conduit, which is a good start.  Let’s hope that Tevya’s rabbi’s blessing for the Tzar will be the same for Dr. al-Assad . . . that “G-d bless and keep him . . . far away from us.”

Copyright©2024 Kurt Franklin Stone

Trying to Put the Genie Back in the Bottle (#1,016)

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The apposite expressions “Letting the genie out of the bottle” and “Putting the genie back into the bottle” come from One Thousand and One Nights,” a massive collection of medieval folktales composed in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age (c. 8th - 13th Century, C.E.). The main storyteller in these tales is Scheherazade, wife to the sultan, who saves her life by telling him a different story for one thousand and one nights. Many of the stories deal with genies who are either trapped in . . . or escaping from . . . a bottle. Over centuries, the parallel expressions about “letting the genie out of the bottle, and “putting the genie back in” have come to mean, respectively, doing something that cannot be undone and reverting a situation; putting things back as they were before something became a reality.

One of the most obvious examples of letting the genie out of the bottle would be August 6, 1945 . . . the dropping of an atomic bomb (nicknamed “Little Boy”) on Hiroshima, and 3 days later, the second atomic bomb (nicknamed “Fat Man”) on Nagasaki. In dropping these two bombs, the “genie” of nuclear destruction was let out of the “bottle” of human warfare; forever more, the nightmare of nuclear destruction engulfed all humanity. And despite the signing, sealing and delivering of various treaties over the past several decades, the genie has never been successfully returned to the bottle.

More recently, the genie of “Artificial Intelligence”(A.I.) has escaped from the bottle, thus unleashing incalculable problems, possibilities and challenges within the realms of academia, political campaigning and what used to be known as “the truth.” (See my January 29, 2023 piece entitled A Pandora’s Box of Existential Fears.)  Because of such innovations as ChatGPT, it has become next to impossible to know who wrote what and/or whether there is any such thing as the “objectively verifiable.” For that generation now known as “Mind Children,” (as the Harvard roboticist Hans Moravec dubbed them more than 30 years ago) the source of knowledge is no longer to be searched out in the classroom or a cavernous library, but rather by turning attention to that which one can easily hold in the palm of one’s hand.

Which leads us to the fastest growing and most omnipresent genie of them all . . . SOCIAL MEDIA.

The first true social media networking site - SixDegrees.com -  was launched in 1997, allowing users to create profiles, connect with friends, and share content. It marked the beginning of the social networking era, enabling users to see connections between friends and expand their social circles through a concept known as 'six degrees of separation.' 6 years later, Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe, co-founded My Space, the first social network to reach a global audience.  (Although still active today, My Space has become a ghost of its past. With no new content added since early 2022 and a disabled media player, the site's functionality is severely limited.  Nonetheless, it still occupies a spot in the “Social Networking Hall of Fame” [if indeed, there were any such thing.])  

2 years after My Space (2004), Harvard undergraduate Mark Zuckerberg started up Facebook (originally called Thefacebook). Its initial purpose was to connect Harvard students with one another. Facebook's popularity exploded; by the end of 2004, it already  had over 1 million users.  And the rest, as they say, is history.  At the end of 2024, Facebook, which is now owned by “Meta,” a publicly owned company (of which Mr. Zuckerberg owns approximately 13.5% of its 350 million outstanding shares [worth c. $120 billion to young Mr. Z.]) it has 3.27 billion daily active people (DAPs)  who access Meta-owned products including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger.  Additionally:

• Facebook, as a stand-alone platform, gets 2.11 billion daily active users, which may have accounts on other family products

• Last quarter’s investors’ report shows a 6.51% increase in daily active people year-over-year

• 80.15% of the monthly people will log in daily to one of these family-owned services

• 60.56% of the world’s active internet users access Meta-owned services daily.

• India has more Facebook users (350 million) than any other country in the world; the USA comes in second with 194 million.

There are, of course, many, many highly successful social media platforms in today’s world.  Interestingly, the younger one is, the greater the chance will be that he/she are signed up with - and make daily use of -  a greater array of platforms than one’s elders. This is to say that Baby Boomers (whom I would imagine make up the majority of this blog’s readers) are familiar with - and make use of - Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and perhaps Linkedin, while members of younger generations make use of platforms that are largely unknown to those who are now pretirees (my term for those of retirement age who are still gainfully employed).  Like you, I have vaguely heard of "Tik Tok,” "WhatsApp,”  “Tumblr,” “Snapchat” and “Telegram.”   

These, and other platforms are where a vast majority of young people get their news and views (whether it be true, false or sheer twaddle), “meet” new people and share thoughts, feelings and fears they might never share face-to-face with family, teachers, classmates or non-cyberspace inhabitants.  You can see them all over the place using their iPhones, Androids or occasionally Tablets, in classrooms, malls, gyms, sporting events and restaurants (both fast and slow food); walking down the street, texting, chatting, listening to music, connecting with the rest of the planet. I have yet to get over seeing a table filled with teens at Dunkin Donuts, Wendy’s or some other public place, each one caught up in their own world despite the fact there may be 4, 5, 6 or more people sitting with them.  To my way of thinking, overreliance on social media has become an addiction for many.  Moreover, it represents a clear and present danger to mental health of those - especially teens - for whom it is a way of life.  

Over the past decade, numerous peer-reviewed academic studies have found a strong link between heavy social media and an increased risk for depression, anxiety, loneliness, self-harm, and even suicidal thoughts. Social media may promote negative experiences such as: Inadequacy about one’s  life or appearance, as a skewed view of the world itself . . . which can lead to feelings of doom.  In May of last year, United States Surgeon General (U.S.S.G.)  Dr. Vivek Murthy released a new Surgeon General’s Advisory on Social Media and Youth Mental Health - PDF. In it, Dr. Murthy and his research colleagues noted in the reports introductory paragraph: While social media may offer some benefits, there are ample indicators that social media can also pose a risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents. Social media use by young people is nearly universal, with up to 95% of young people ages 13-17 reporting using a social media platform and more than a third saying they use social media “almost constantly.”

Dr. Murthy and his colleagues further noted “Children are exposed to harmful content on social media, ranging from violent and sexual content, to bullying and harassment. And for too many children, social media use is compromising their sleep and valuable in-person time with family and friends. We are in the middle of a national youth mental health crisis, and I am concerned that social media is an important driver of that crisis – one that we must urgently address.”  In other words, the Genie has escaped from the bottle. 

The question becomes: is there anything currently being done to put the Genie back in the bottle? Attempts to do so are in their early stages here in the United States. According to the Age Verification Providers Association website: As of June 2024, 10 states have passed laws requiring children’s access to social media be restricted or parental consent gained. 3 more are currently injuncted (e.g. restrained by a court order). Here in Florida, H.B. 3 goes into effect on July 1, 2025. The bill, the Online Protections for Minors Act, requires social media platforms to verify users’ ages, obtain parental consent for users under 18, protect minors’ personal data, and limit their exposure to harmful content.

Doing things on a state-by-state or city-by-city basis does not do away with the Genie; it merely creates a series of different sized bottles . . . most of which will be too small to hold a gigantic Genie. To date, one country (which happens to be a continent) has done something on a national basis: Australia.

Less than a week ago, Australia, the “Land Down Under,” imposed a sweeping ban on social media for children under 16. After sailing through Parliament’s lower house on Wednesday, November 27, the bill passed the Senate the very next day with bipartisan support. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that it puts Australia at the vanguard of efforts to protect the mental health and well-being of children from detrimental effects of social media, such as online hate or bullying. Not every “Down Under” agrees with the legislation: some claim it will stifle freedom of thought and expression; others are of the opinion that it does not go far enough. I find nothing surprising about this; after all, Australia is a robust democracy. The one good and hopeful thing to note is that at least one non-authoritarian country on the planet has decided that it may well be possible to put the Genie back in the bottle.

Could this ever work in the United States on a national level? I highly doubt it . . . and for several reasons. First and foremost, there’s the matter of the makeup of the new, incoming 119th Congress. Unless something drastically changes in the next 32 days, the first resolution that body will consider is Rep. Nancy Grace’s (R-SC) bill to ban transgender people from using bathrooms of their choice in the U.S. Capitol.  (It just so happens that on January 3, 2025, the nation's first transgender lawmaker, U.S. Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, D-Del., is set to join Congress). In her obviously disingenuous remarks about the reason behind the resolution, Rep. Grace told the press; "The sanctity of protecting women and standing up against the Left’s systematic erasure of biological women starts here in the nation’s Capitol. We are standing up for women, protecting their spaces, and restoring a bit of sanity to Capitol Hill." She added, "The Left screams TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist) politics, we call it putting women first."  There likely won’t be enough serious-minded legislators on Capitol Hill to get beyond the “Attack on WOKE” legislation that holds their base in thrall.

Then too, when one considers that IT’s new BFF, Elon Musk, is not only the richest person on the planet, but also owns X, the planet’s largest money-losing social media platform.  And to make matters worse, who just came by to  kiss the ring at Mar-a-Lago?  Meta owner Mark Zuckerberg, that’s who.  Can you see him being in favor of losing money by putting legal strictures on his platform?  I rather doubt it.

Having said the obvious, I still believe that for the sake of our children . . . and the generation of leaders they will someday become . . . we must follow in the footsteps of our Aussie cousins and doing whatever we can to put the Genie of Social Media (which is inherently anti-social) back in the bottle.  Our future depends on it.

 Copyright©2024 Kurt Franklin Stone

1,015: In the Land of Oz . . . RFK, Jr., Musk, Hegseth, and the Rest of the Sycophants

           Dr. Memet Oz and Robert Kennedy, Jr. 

OK, so it turns out that 2 weeks is my limit for staying away from writing political blogs. Call me a fool.  Actually, it’s a weakness.  I guess it’s a combination of genetics and ethnicity.  Madame gave me the middle named “Franklin” due to her great love of Roosevelt (which seemingly emersed me in politics from my very my first breath); ); and my Jewish ethnicity, infused me with gobs of guilt. Add them together, and I simply could not stay away from what’s been going on since November 5. Believe me, it’s been like holding my breath to stay away from commenting on ITS Cabinet selections and “non-brain trust” selections over the past several weeks and days. Most of these men and women could easily make a "least experienced, worst presidential selections of all time” list. A high percentage of them are billionaires; most have a systemic aversion to the very programs they are, at least in theory, meant to oversee; virtually all of them share a toadying loyalty that makes a reasonable person want to reach for a strong emetic.

Even before IT and his transition team began announcing the names of those being nominated for his cabinet, he seriously sidestepped the Presidential Transition Act of 1963 by refusing to abide by its requirements. In brief, this act, updated in 2019, requires the 2 major party candidates for POTUS to sign and file with the General Services Administration (GSA) 3 memorandums of understanding (MOUs) which allow an incoming administration to work with the outgoing one to begin an orderly transition process on issues such as providing IT (information technology) services and office space, and permitting the FNY to vet candidates tapped for national security positions.  Theses MOUs are typically submitted by September and October before Election Day.  Why they did not sign the 3 MOUs is anyone’s guess, although I presume they did not want anyone knowing precisely who was underwriting the transition.  In theory - if not in fact - they could be receiving millions or even billions of dollars from the likes of Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orbán, or Kim Jong Un and no one would be the wiser.  But then again, there is a distinct downside for the transition team.

Case in point: when advisers to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reached out to the Health and Human Services Department multiple times after the President-Elect tapped him to lead the massive agency, hoping to jumpstart coordination before his takeover in late January. They were rebuffed. Kennedy’s inability to communicate with the agency he may soon manage, is just one consequence of the president-elect’s continued foot-dragging on signing the standard trio of ethics and transparency agreements with the federal government — something his team pledged to do shortly after the election.  The more things change, the more they remain the same.  At this time 4 years ago, then President-elect Joe Biden and his team experienced a multi-week delay in preparing for their administration due to the President IT’s refusal to concede the 2020 election, thus blocking Biden’s access to government agencies and data, and hampering their work on national security and controlling the then-raging Covid-19 pandemic.

                                          Pete Hegseth

Not being able to properly vet cabinet-level appointees is especially dangerous when it comes to defense and intelligence positions. Some of IT’s Cabinet selections, including Pete Hegseth for Sec. of Defense and from former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence could actually force Republicans to choose between their allegiance to IT and their growing concerns that some of his nominees might not be up to the job or might not be possible to confirm in a narrowly controlled Senate. Former Rep. Gabbard has faced accusations of helping spread Russian propaganda and criticism for meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Late last week, Pete Hegseth, a former Army National Guard officer and Fox News contributor, huddled with a handful of Republican senators in face-to-face meetings in order for them to get to know him. Earlier on the morning of those meetings, details emerged about a police report from 2017 in which a woman alleged that Hegseth blocked her from leaving a hotel room, took her phone and then sexually assaulted her even though she “remembered saying ‘no’ a lot.” Not too long ago, merely having smoked a joint while in college 20 years ago or not paying withholding taxes on a nanny would have been enough to pull a Cabinet-level appointment. I guess being an alleged sexual predator isn’t such a huge deal in the incoming administration.

Within the world of health, IT’s picks for the top posts are troubling:

• Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

• Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr. Dave Weldon, M.D.

• Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Dr. Mehmet Oz, M.D

• Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Dr. Marty Makary, M.D. and  

•  U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, M.D.

A brief comment about the 5 is in keeping at this point. I will leave Mr. Kennedy and Dr. Oz for last, beginning with Dr. Weldon, and then Drs. Makary and Nesheiwat.

                                                    Dave Weldon

Dave Weldon, M.D. (CDC): is a physician who received his M.D. from the University of Buffalo in 1981.  He then went on to serve in the United States Army from 1981 to 1987, and practiced general medicine in Florida for a short while. He was a member of Congress, representing Florida’s 15th District from 1995 to 2009.  During his years in Congress, Weldon raised concerns about the safety of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccines, as well as the safety of Gardasil, the vaccine that protects against the papillomavirus virus.  He was perhaps best-known for his legislation to force the federal government to review the case of Terri Schiavo, a young woman who was in an irreversible persistent vegetative state (PVS).  Despite his medical training - and the vast majority of medical ethicists (myself included) disagreeing with him, Weldon insisted that Mrs. Schiavo was not in a PVS: he believed that Schiavo was not in a vegetative state because, "She responds to verbal stimuli, she attempts to vocalize, she tracks with her eyes, she emotes, she attempts to kiss her father."  A self-professed “Christian conservative,” Weldon, like several of IT’s nominees, is devoutly skeptical of vaccine safety . . . a key issue that the CDC deals with on an almost daily basis.  Weldon is the first nominee for CDC director who will need to be confirmed by the Senate, due to a law passed in 2022 requiring the role to have such confirmation. In announcing Weldon as his pick for head of the C.D.C., IT said: Americans have lost trust in the CDC and in our Federal Health Authorities who have engaged in censorship, data manipulation, and misinformation. . . .  Dave Weldon is a well-trained internist. He’s practiced medicine . . . He doesn’t [seem to] have traditional public health training, but we’ll learn more when he goes through Senate confirmation.”  I guess that’s what happens when you don’t have access to proper vetting.  Just so long as he will be on the side of Big Pharma, Christian fundamentalists and anti-vaxxers is all that seems to matter to the folks who pull ITs strings.

                                        Dr. Marty Markary

Marty Markary, M.D. (FDA): Marty Makary is a surgical oncologist (cancer) at Johns Hopkins University and frequent guest on Fox News.  He served in the first IT administration, working on issues like surprise medical billing.  He shouldn’t face much difficulty in being approved for the top job at the FDA.  One issue of note: he’s recently made statements indicating support for RFK Jr’s. “Make America Healthy Again” platform. Earlier this year, Makary appeared alongside Kennedy in a congressional roundtable on health and nutrition, where he criticized federal health agencies for not prioritizing chronic diseases and said "the greatest perpetrator of misinformation has been the United States government with the food pyramid."  In announcing his choice of Makary, IT pledged that as head of the FDA, the good doctor would work with Kennedy to "properly evaluate harmful chemicals poisoning our Nation's food supply and drugs and biologics being given to our Nation's youth, so that we can finally address the Childhood Chronic Disease Epidemic." Sounds kind of strange coming from the mouth of a man who has spent a lifetime scarfing down a diet of nothing but MacDonalds faux foods . . . 

Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, M.D., ( U.S. Surgeon General): It’s nominee for S.G. is a medical contributor to Fox News and author of of Beyond the Stethoscope: Miracles in Medicine, a book described on her website as "a vivid Christian memoir" that recounts her experiences during the pandemic and after. She's also medical director at CityMD, a network of urgent and virtual care centers in New York and New Jersey — experience she has drawn on in selling her own line of vitamin supplements. Unlike many Fox medical commentators, she emphasized on camera the benefits of being vaccinated against COVID-19 and other infectious diseases. 

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (Sec. Designate HHS): Whatever IT  and his Project 2025 handlers had in mind in putting forth RFK, Jr’s name for heading up the Department of Health and Human Services is beyond any thinking person’s understanding.  And no, it’s not just because he spent years addicted to both heroin (for which he was arrested in South Dakota) and sex; or that acknowledged that what was believed to have been a brain tumor was actually 'a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died'; or that he revealed that he uses testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) in order to have, at age 70,  the “ripped” muscle mass of a man at least half his age; or that he suffers from atrial fibrillation (AFIB, irregular heartbeat), which can be fatal; or last but not least, that RFK, Jr. sounds like a raspy frog due to a neurological voice disorder known as spasmodic dysphonia.

If he is confirmed by the Senate, RFK Jr. will will be in charge of a massive portfolio overseeing Americans’ insurance, drugs, medical supplies and food. Once a pioneering environmental activist, RFK, Jr. has, for more than 20 years, been best known for a disproven set of medical conspiracy beliefs, such as:

• Linking the childhood vaccine schedule to autism — a claim that has been debunked by scientists all over the world. Kennedy has falsely blamed autism on thimerosal, a compound safely used as a preservative in vaccines, and decried the number of shots on the childhood vaccination schedule.

• Falsely calling the corona virus vaccine the “deadliest vaccine ever made.” The vast majority of public health officials and infectious disease specialists have referred to this as “the intentional spread of health disinformation.”

• His promoting of raw (e.g. non-pasteurized) milk. In a recent posting on “X” (formerly known as  Twitter), he wrote “FDA’s war on public health is about to end. This includes its aggressive suppression of psychedelics, peptides, stem cells, raw milk, hyperbaric therapies, chelating compounds, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, vitamins, clean foods, sunshine, exercise, nutraceuticals and anything else that advances human health and can't be patented by Pharma.” There is a reason why milk is pasteurized. Raw milk is unsafe to consume, and both the Food and Drug Administration and the CDC have strongly advised against consuming, it because it can contain dangerous bacteria, such as salmonella, E. coli and listeria. It can also contain viruses, including the H5N1 bird flu virus that is causing an outbreak in dairy cattle and, many predict, could form the basis of the world’s next pandemic.

• Taking a page out of the 1950s-era John Birch Society’s playbook, RFK, Jr. urges the removal of fluoride from the nation’s various drinking water systems. (No federal law mandates fluoridation of water supplies. The decision to fluoridate water is typically made by municipal governments, city councils or local water authorities.) But RFK, Jr., Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo (who had a history of controversial public health stances during the COVID-19 pandemic) and other conspiratorialists, have been recommending against adding fluoride to community water supplies, citing inconclusive studies that suggest the practice poses a risk to children’s brains. People of a certain age will recall the Bircher’s contention that putting fluoride in drinking water was part and parcel of the Communist conspiracy to ruin the health of Americans.  (n.b. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has called fluoridation of drinking water one of the nation's top 10 public health achievements of the 20th century, noting that it effectively prevents tooth decay regardless of a person's socioeconomic status or access to care.)

Mehmet Oz, M.D. (CMS): Founded in 1965, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is a federal agency within the Dept. of Health and Human Services that administers the Medicare program works in partnership with state governments to administer Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and health insurance portability standards. If approved by the United States Senate, Dr. Oz will become the 17th - and by far best-known - administrator of the Center.  Dr. Oz is a trained cardiothoracic surgeon (Univ. of Penn.) who first came to public prominence in 1996 when Dr. Oz, along with colleague Dr. Eric Rose received extensive media publicity following their work on a successful heart transplant for Frank Torre, brother of then-New York Yankees manager Joe Torre, during the 1996 World Series, which the Yankees won.  Oz loved the publicity.  Not too many years passed before he began hosting a television show called Second Opinion With Dr. Oz.  Although the show only ran 5 episodes, he came into contact with Oprah Winfrey, who began having him on her nationally syndicated program. Eventually, he became “America’s Doctor.”  Over the years, Dr. Oz has made a fortune recommending and selling various herbal, homeopathic and holistic medicines and procedures.   

In 2022, Dr. Oz ran for a seat in the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, losing the race to John Futterman.  During that campaign, Oz was a vocal supporter of privatizing Medicare.  According to financial disclosure forms during that race, Oz and his wife own up to $650,000 in stock in UnitedHealth Group and CVS Health, both of which make substantial revenue from Medicare Advantage Plans. If he is to be confirmed, he will likely have to divest himself of these and other stocks or face “conflict of interest” problems. 

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST:

                                                  The DOGE Logo

Recently, the President-elect tapped entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to head up an advisory panel called the “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE, that’s tasked with identifying trillions of dollars in government waste. While IT has not detailed how the entity will operate, or from whence its funding will come, he said in a statement that it would “slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure federal agencies” and “provide advice and guidance from outside of government . . . A smaller Government, with more efficiency and less bureaucracy, will be the perfect gift to America on the 250th Anniversary of The Declaration of Independence,” Mr. Trump wrote in a statement. “I am confident they will succeed!”

Conventionally, what outsiders can do in the government has been pretty limited. But with IT and Musk both known for pushing boundaries, it’s not clear what “DOGE” will look like, who will fund it and what it may legally do.

The federal code’s primary conflict-of-interest law is a big deterrent to adopting government authority. It bans government employees from participating in government matters where they have a financial stake. But it doesn’t apply to outside contractors or advisers, which could be important to Musk, whose businesses interact with many federal agencies and who would most likely be required to make divestments if he became a federal employee.

If this sounds like something straight out of the mind of Barn Von Munchausen, consider that House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) announced this past Tuesday that there will be a brand new caucus to be called “Delivering Outstanding Government Efficiency”, and a new  subcommittee called “Delivering on Government Efficiency.” The acronym “DOGE” refers to a once-popular image macro featuring a Shiba Inu dog. The topper is the member of Congress Comer named as the new subcommittee’s Chair . . . . are you ready?

REP. MAJORIE TAYLOR GREENE!

Ciao for now . . .

Copyright2024 Kurt Franklin Stone

There's Got to Be a Morning After (#1,014)

Good morning dear readers: Like you, I awoke this morning with a queasy feeling in my gut and an ache in my head. After checking various online sources of political information, and attempting to deconstruct yesterday’s “Trumpster fire,” I felt the immediate need to be in contact with you all . . . even if briefly.  While contemplating what words of comfort I could compose, two word-streams kept swirling through my brain: the first, Macbeth’s 75-word soliloquy in Act 5 Scene 5 (“Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps into this petty pace . . . "  and Al Kasha and Joel Hirschorn’s Academy-Awarding winning (1972) song The Morning After.”  Both word-streams have their own haunting quality this morning: in the former, Macbeth states, in part,  “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot . . .” while the latter bravely asks, Oh, can't you see the morning after? It's waiting right outside the storm. Why don't we cross the bridge together, And find a place that's safe and warm?

While it is true that America is about to enter uncharted ground, the spirit and strength which has seen us overcome so many past challenges still hovers amidst and above us.  Trying to figure out “how we came to this point” is, this morning, a fool’s errand best left for another day.  We owe ourselves a bit of a breather . . . a period of adjustment in which we might reacquaint ourselves with the higher angels of our being.  

Democrats and people who love America are grieving. That is understandable. Everyone will need time to express feelings of shock, anger, and fear. Respect those who need to talk about what happened and those who don’t want to talk about it. Everyone will need to process the results in their own way.

It will take time to digest what happened and why it happened. Both are necessary inquiries. But there is no rational explanation for America’s election of a felon, adjudicated sexual abuser, incessant liar, narcissist, and aspiring dictator. None. So, think about it as much as you need to, but don’t waste emotional energy seeking answers where there are none.

Trump is an avatar of anger for millions who see their world slipping away. There is additional nuance about racism, misogyny, and white nationalism, but it’s not more complicated than that.

We must invest all our energy in the process of recovery and the continued defense of democracy.

For those of you who have the ability to do so, providing leadership, comfort, and hope today will be a blessing to those who feel shattered. No false optimism, just genuine determination.

For myself, I think I will be taking a break from writing about politics.  Instead, I shall spend a bit of my researching, writing and editing time dealing with my other blog, Tales From Hollywood & Vine. Perhaps I will find a bit of comfort getting back to my roots and "visiting” the heroes and heroines of my youth.  I invite you to join me . . . 

Be good to yourselves . . . 

KFS

Copyright2024 Kurt Franklin Stone

Back to the Future: Sinclair Lewis & Robert Penn Warren Were Dead On About Donald Trump . . . Just Ask Huey Long (#1,013)

Redgrave, Witty and Lockwood in Alfred             Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes (1938)

This coming Thursday I will be concluding a  6-week film class at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, entitled Knights and Dames: Cinematic Royalty.  What links the six films together is that each is produced, directed, or written by, as well as  starring titled Brits such as Barons Laurence Olivier, Richard Attenborough and Bernard Miles; Knights Sir John Mills, Sir Peter Ustinov, Sir David Lean and Sir Michael Redgrave and Dames Celia Johnson, Judy Dench, Angela Lansbury and Maggie Smith. The last of these films the one I shall be screening this Thursday, is a classic 1938 mystery starring Sir Michael Redgrave, Dame Mae Witty and Margaret Lockwood (CBE) and directed by no less than Sir Alfred Hitchcock. The film bears - in light of this Tuesday’s national election and where your political sentiments may reside – a title which is either hopeful or deeply eerie: The Lady Vanishes.      

Thank G-d for my film courses . . . as well as the literally dozens of hours I spend each week vetting medical research protocols and consent documents; performing rabbinic functions; and researching and writing at least one 1,000+ word blog article. Otherwise, I would be even more involved in the various political races than I already am. Like you, I receive tons and tons of email requests every hour on the hour from candidates begging me to save democracy by donating as much as I can . . . which I do. I pray that there will be a significant drop-off in the texts and emails after this Tuesday. Like many, I rise and fall with each new poll - although after after spending more than a half century in and around the political world, I should know better; polls are mere snapshots, not chronicles. I too cringe at every gaff, distortion, verbal attack or sign of incipient dementia coming from IT, while glorying at V.P. Harris’ ability to charm, inform and uplift a crowd. Likewise, I wonder how anyone with half a brain (or a passionate love for America, warts and all) could ever vote for a twice-impeached, misogynistic, convicted felon whose psychopathology would have caused Sigmund Freud to change professions.    

When it came to thinking about what my final pre-Election Day essay should be, I began feeling a brain cramp of agonizing proportions welling up and soon to be enveloping me.  Call it PEDM (“Pre-Election Day Malaise”) I knew that,  were I to manage to put all I’m thinking, feeling, fearing and fretting about into a single piece, it could easily require 50,000 words, as well as a minimum of a case-and-a-half of Martini & Rossi Sweet Vermouth. Believe me: writing while imbibing can only lead to incomprehensible gibberish.  And so, after much thought, I’ve decided to republish an essay from June, 2020 . . . during the last presidential election.  Any prescience it may show is purely unintentional; I do not own a crystal ball, just a smattering of knowedge.

And so, without further ado, let’s go "forward into the past” and meet up with a cast of characters known to most political cognoscenti.  The original title was Sinclair Lewis & Robert Penn Warren Were Dead On About Donald Trump . . . Just Ask Huey Long:   

Shortly after his September 10, 1935 assassination at the hands of Dr. Carl Weiss, Louisiana Governor/Senator Huey Long’s final work (and second biography), My First Days in the White House was published by The Telegraph Press. Unlike his best-selling autobiography Every Man a King, My First Days in the White House is more of a novella (barely 100 pages) in which “The Kingfish” (as he was commonly known) outlines both his presidential platform and precisely who he would name to his Cabinet. In many regards, Long comes off as a Socialist. The main thrust of his presidency would be his “Share the Wealth” program, which called for higher taxes on the wealthy (which would provide every American with a guaranteed annual income of $5,000.00, universal healthcare, and increased spending on public works, education and old-age pensions. His favorite slogan was “Everyman a King!”

Long was the kind of politician Americans either loved or hated. The poor and downtrodden loved him for his populist progressivism; the middle-class and wealthy abhorred him for the autocratic means by which he sought to get what he wanted. In his 1935 novel It Can’t Happen Here, novelist Sinclair Lewis used Long as the model for Senator Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip, a charismatic and power-hungry politician who wins the  1936 presidential election on a populist platform, promising to restore the country to prosperity and greatness, and provide each citizen $5,000 a year.  Once elected, he rapidly outlaws dissent, incarcerates political enemies in concentration camps, and trains and arms a paramilitary force called the Minute Men. They terrorize citizens and enforce the policies of Windrip and his "corporatist” regime.

11 years later (1946), Pulitzer-prize winning poet and novelist Robert Penn Warren turned the Kingfish into Willie Stark, the lead character in All the King’s Men. In this novel, Willie, like Huey, is a small-town southern lawyer who, starting out as a man-of-the-people populist, climbs the political ladder, eventually becoming the dictatorial governor of his state, backed by his own military. Like Huey Long, Willie Stark is assassinated by a doctor who in turn is killed on the spot by the governor’s bodyguards. In passing, it should also be noted that the 1953 film A Lion Is in the Streets, adapted from Adria Locke Langley’s 1946 novel, starred James Cagney as the Huey Long-like southern populist politician Hank Martin, was also based on the Kingfish.

To date, there have been more biographies, novels and movies based on Huey Long than any other Louisianan. He captures our attention because of his audacity, the adoration showered upon him by the little guy, his dangerous turn towards autocracy and the fact that he came the closest to being America’s first dictator. Sinclair Lewis, Robert Penn Warren and Adria Locke Langley all understood just how dangerous the man and his movement was . . . and how much divisiveness some politicians can foist upon the nation.

In many regards, Donald J. Trump shares both character strengths and flaws with the Kingfish . . . and his literary doppelgängers. Both are self-centered egotists whose personal insecurity makes them more fearful of losing than hopeful of winning. Both share a type of charisma which is alluring to many, and repellant to many more. Unlike Donald Trump, Huey Long - and Willie Stark and Hank Martin - are well disciplined and, for the most part, manage to stay on message most of the time.

Not so ‘45.

This point was forcefully made in a recent interview in which Fox entertainer - and Trump favorite - Sean Hannity threw a nerf ball question 45’s way. Here’s the transcript of both question and answer:

Hannity: If you hear in 131 days from now at some point in the night or early morning, ‘We can now project Donald J. Trump has been reelected the 45th President of the United States’ - let’s talk. What’s at stake in this election as you compare and contrast, and what are your top priority items for a second term?

Trump: Well, one of the things that will be equally great: you know, the word experience is still good. I always say talent is more important than experience. I’ve always said that. But the word experience is a very important word. It’s a very important meaning. I never did this before. I never slept over in Washington. I was in Washington I think 17 times, all of a sudden, I’m President of the United States, you know the story. I’m riding down Pennsylvania Avenue with our First Lady and I say, ‘This is great.’ But I don’t know very many people in Washington, it wasn’t my thing. I was from Manhattan, from New York. Now I know everybody. And I have great people in my administration. You make some mistakes, like you know an idiot like Bolton, all he wanted to do is drop bombs on everybody. You don’t have to drop bombs on everybody. You don’t have to kill people.

We can see that when asked what his top priorities items were for a second term, Trump did not articulate a single item. Instead, he offered a stream-of-consciousness narrative about the importance of the word “experience,” explained how he hadn’t spent much time in Washington prior to becoming president, and derided John Bolton (his former National Security Advisor, who had just published an embarrassing book (The Room Where it Happened) about his experiences in the Trump administration) as an “idiot.”

Compare this to Huey Long, who even before he announced his candidacy for the 1936 Democratic presidential nomination, published a novella in which he clearly laid out what his priorities would be, what direction he wished to lead the nation, how he would deal with the rest of the world, and who his advisers would be. Audaciously (and perhaps somewhat tongue-in-cheek) Long named General Smedley Butler Secretary of War, former President Franklin D. Roosevelt Secretary of the Navy, former President Herbert Hoover Secretary of Commerce, and Isolationist Idaho Senator William Borah Secretary of State.

One wonders who will be the first novelist/satirist or screenwriter to turn Donald Trump into a fictional character.  That character definitely will not be a poor southern good-ole-boy like Willie Stark, nor a New England everyman like Buzz Windrip.  And unlike Huey Long, he will definitely not be an avowed enemy of Wall Street and the hyper wealthy.  Whoever that fictional character will be, one thing is certain: he will, incongruously, have the devotion of middle America - what Nixon and now Trump refer to as the “Silent Majority,” and Buzz Windrip as “The Forgotten Men.”  It will remain for future historians to figure out just how it was that a lying, larcenous, immoral supposed multi-billionaire could earn the undying allegiance of the undereducated, the hyper-religious and the believers in conspiracy. . . 

(It should be noted that there is a recently released (well, sort of “released”) biopic about IT’s early pre-political days called “The Apprentice,” starring Sebastian Stan as IT, Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn, Maria Bakalova as Ivana Trump, and Mark Rendell as Roger Stone.  Even more fascinating than the movie (which currently has a 7.2 rating on IMDB and 82% on Rotten Tomatoes) is the backstory of the near impossibility of getting the film released due to the fear that the film’s eponymous pitchman would do what he does with such gay abandon: sue, sue, sue).

Lastly, a brief clip from Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, where his character, Charles Foster Kane’s staff is waiting for election results: 

And so here we are, back in the present and waiting for the future.

See you next week.  I wonder if we will be any closer to knowing who “won” the election . . . 

Copyright©2020, 2024, Kurt F. Stone

"Democracy Dies in Darkness" (#1,012)

    Edward Gray, 1st Viscount of Fallodon (1862-1933)

Back in 1897, Adolph S. Ochs, the owner of The New York Times, created the famous slogan “All the News That’s Fit to Print,” which still appears on the daily print edition’s masthead. (In recognizing that “The Times, they are a-changing’” the slogan on their digital edition has been changed to “All the News That’s Fit to Click”). In 1897, the then 39-year old Ochs (1858-1935) wrote that the paper’s front-page slogan would serve as a declaration that it was his intention that The Times’ would forever more report the news impartially. (When Ochs purchased his first newspaper, the Chattanooga Times, at age 20, he told the folks of his hometown that his paper would “. . . give the news impartially, without fear or favor.” Eventually nicknamed “The Gray Lady,” Ochs’ the New York Times - which is, in 2024 - owned and published by AG Sulzberger, the Great-Great-Great Grandson of Adolph Ochs, has long been globally accept as “America’s Paper of Record” . . . to almost everyone except, It who considers it to be nothing more than “a failing rag of a paper. . . . fake news.”  Sorry, It, but you are wrong, wrong, wrong.  The NYT still publishes “without fear of favor.”

A brief tour through American newspapers will find a ton of slogans . . . some heartfelt, others absurd.  Here’s a handful:

• The Wall Street Journal: “The daily diary of the American dream.”

• The Scripps Company: “Give light and the people will find their own way.”

• The New York Sun: “It shines for All.”

• The Hartford Courant: “Older than the nation.”

• USA Today: The Nation’s Newspaper.”

• Long Island’s Newsday: “Truth, Justice and the Comics” (a nod to “Superman”).

• Detroit Free Press: “On Guard Since 1831.”

• The Atlanta Journal Constitution: “Covers Dixie Like the Dew.”

• Aspen Daily News: “If you don’t want it printed, don’t let it happen.”

• The Washington Post: “Democracy Dies in Darkness.”

This last slogan - that of The Washington Post - is unique.  How so?  Well, to begin with, the Post, which had been founded in 1877 by Stilson Hutchins (1838-1912) - a Southern sympathizer and an outspoken racist against African Americans, Asian Americans and immigrants - had never carried a slogan until February of 2017, a month after IT  began his first (and, some of us pray his only) term as POTUS. In other words, it took Jeff Bezos, the owner and publisher of The Post (who had purchased it for $250 million from the Graham family), less than 30 days to adopt a slogan that seemed to be sending a loud warning to the 45th POTUS; to wit, that they were on to him, to his lies, mistruths and total unfitness for leading a Representative Democracy.  At first, it seemed as if Bezos (1964- ), the founder, president and CEO of Amazon, and one of the world’s richest people (c. $205.6 billion as of 2024) would a watchful challenger; a beacon of light in what promised to be an ever-darkening world. 

One of Bezos’ first steps was to beef up the paper’s column - “The Fact Checker” - described as a "truth squad.” In the four years of IT’s presidency, the squad catalogued and published 30,573 lies - an average of more than 50 per day, 365 days a year. 

But something must have happened, because just the other day, Jeff Bezos exercised one of his inalienable rights as publisher, by turning out the very lights by which Democracy survives: he refused to endorse either IT or V.P. Kamala Harris for President.  Writing in The Conversation (a highly recommended online journal)  Denis Muller  said that Bezos’ decision not to endorse either of the two “. . . disgraces journalism, disgraces the papers’ own heritage and represents an abandonment of civic responsibility at a moment when the United States faces its most consequential presidential election since the Civil War.”  Whatever in the world led Jeff Bezos to such a craven decision?  My guess is a mixture of cash and cowardice.  In a joint statement, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, of Watergate fame, called the decision “surprising and disappointing;” 2 columnists, Robert Kagan and Michele Norris, resigned in protest.  And thousands of subscribers (myself included) cancelled their subscriptions.

But it wasn’t only the Washington Post that withheld an endorsement . . . thereby losing longtime editorial writers and subscribers.  Two days before the Post’s Bezos decided that his paper would remain neutral, the Los Angeles Times which, like the Post, is owned by Dr. Soon Shiong, M.D., a multi-billionaire without a nanoparticle’s worth of journalistic experience,   let it be known that likewise his paper would not be endorsing a candidate in 2024. According to Dr. Shiong’s daughter Nika said, in a statement to The New York Times that the reason for the non-endorsement was V.P. Harris’ continued support for Israel: “Our family made the joint decision not to endorse a Presidential candidate. This was the first and only time I have been involved in the process,” Ms. Soon-Shiong, who has no formal role at the paper, said in her statement. “As a citizen of a country openly financing genocide, and as a family that experienced South African Apartheid, the endorsement was an opportunity to repudiate justifications for the widespread targeting of journalists and ongoing war on children.” 

When asked to respond to his daughter’s statement, Dr. Shiong merely said “Nika speaks in her own personal capacity regarding her opinion . . . She does not have any role at the LA Times, nor does she participate in any decision or discussion with the editorial board.” He further added that his decision not to offer readers a recommendation would be “less divisive in a tumultuous election year” . . .that he "feared that picking one candidate would only exacerbate the already deep divisions in the country.”  

In other words, there no way of knowing precisely what led the owner of the Times (like the owner of the Post) to withhold their papers’ endorsements.  And so we are left to figure it out for ourselves.  I for one believe the two billionaire owners are first, participating in anticipatory kowtowing; they are worried sick that if elected in November, IT will make good on his continual promises to extract retribution from those who have been disloyal to him.  Second, people like Bezos and Schiong want something from IT  should he wind up back in the White House.  We already know that back in 2017, Dr. Schiong, a transplant surgeon who made his first billion by inventing the drug Abraxane (which is  one of the medical world’s best-selling, most-used chemo drugs for lung, breast, and pancreatic cancer) contributed a ton of money to a MAGA PAC in the hopes of being named the newly-elected President’s “Health Czar.”  So far as what Bezos might want . . . perhaps we need look no further than his latest business venture: Amazon Prime “One Medical.” 

What Bezos and Schiong have done at the very tale-end of the 2024 campaign is nothing short of what might be called either “an act of journalistic sedition” or the “euthanizing of Democracy.” Compare their death by a thousand cowardly cuts to the pride and patriotism of The New York Times’ ringing 1,925-word endorsement of Kamala Harris precisely one month ago. It begins with words meant to shock and shame:

It is hard to imagine a candidate more unworthy to serve as president of the United States than Donald Trump. He has proved himself morally unfit for an office that asks its occupant to put the good of the nation above self-interest. He has proved himself temperamentally unfit for a role that requires the very qualities — wisdom, honesty, empathy, courage, restraint, humility, discipline — that he most lacks.

and ends with 6 words meant to bring light back to the world:

Kamala Harris is the only choice.

Symbolically, the Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times have gone dark at a time when America needs now, more than ever, to continue being a beacon of light for world.  This is the worst possible time for the light to go out.  It is reminiscent of a remark made 110 years ago by Britain’s longest-serving Foreign Minister,  Edward Gray, 1st Viscount of Fallodon (that’s him in the painting at the beginning of this essay).  Just as England was about to enter the “Great War,” as WW1 was then known, Sir Edward remarked to a friend:

The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.

There are but 8 days left until Election Day. May we be the torch-bearers who continue providing light for the world, and with all due apologies, to Sir Edward . . . as well as the likes of Bezos and Schiong . . . prove them to have been terribly, terribly wrong. For as we know, Democracy does die in Darkness.

 Copyright©2024 Kurt Franklin Stone

Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place (#1,011)

                 Yahya Ibrahim Hassan Sinwar 

With Thursday’s assassination of Yahya Ibrahim Hassan Sinwar, the chair of the Hamas Political Bureau, leader of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, and a chief architect of Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel a little over a year ago, Israel has made a huge dent in a prime objective: eliminating most - if not all - of the prime leaders of both Hamas and Hezbollah. For in addition to Sinwar, whose targeted assassination was captured by an Israeli drone, Israeli intelligence has managed to eliminate, among others, Hezbollah  chief Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in a massive Israeli air strike on Beirut this past September 28, and Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas since 2017, who was assassinated in the early hours of July 31 in Teheran.  This is only part of Israel’s "Most Wanted” list.  Also taken out in recent months have been Fuad Shukr, Hezbollah’s top commander,  senior Hezbollah commander Taleb Abdallah, who led forces in the central and southern border strip firing missiles into Northern Israel, and Mohammed Nasser, who Israel says headed a unite responsible for firing missiles from southwestern Lebanon into Israel.  

Despite all these targeted deaths, it does not appear that neither Hamas nor Hezbollah is going to give up attacking Israel.  Moreover, Israeli P.M. Benyamin Netanyahu has publicly stated that although the killing of Sinwar et al should end the Gaza War, he won’t let it.  He took an ambiguous stance in announcing the death of Sinwar.  After speaking with President Biden, his office released a statement that acknowledged “an opportunity to advance the release of the hostages.”  But in an earlier video statement, Mr. Netanyahu appeared to side with his coalition partners, warning Israelis of tough challenges ahead and pledging to continue to pursue Hamas’ remaining leadership.

I for one will shed not a single tear over the death of Yahya Sinwar. Regardless of how his early life in a rundown refugee camp (Khan Yunis, which at the time of his 1962 birth was under Egyptian control) how it pushed him towards violent hatred for the Jewish State. The man was, simply stated, a fascist psychopathic, murderer; a man whose repeated gruesome murders of suspected collaborators with Israel earned him both four life sentences in an Israeli prison in 1988, and the nickname “The Butcher of Khan Younis.” What the immediate, mid- and long-range effect his death will have on the future of the bloody struggle between Israel, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon is anyone’s guess.

Still seeking a cease fire as well as the return of all surviving hostages, President Bided has sent American Secretary of State Anthony Blinken back to the region for what will be his 11th trip since October 7, 2023. According to the State Department, Secretary Blinken will visit Jerusalem and a number of Arab countries, once again attempting to hammer out a cease fire. Whether or not this will be in the offing is hard to imagine; this past Saturday, Teheran’s proxy, Hezbollah, launched three drones from Lebanon in an attack targeting PM and Mrs. Netanyahu’s private residence in the central seaside town of Caesarea. Two drones were intercepted over Rosh Hanikra and Nahariya, while the third, according to Axios, hit the Netanyahu’s home. The couple were not at home at the time. This certainly cannot bode well for achieving the POTUS’s goal. Netanyahu’s initial public response was aimed directly at Iran: “The agents of Iran who tried to assassinate me and my wife today made a bitter mistake . . . “

History is replete with fascists (long before the word was first coined by Benito Mussolini in 1915), anti-Semites (first used by German agitator Wilhelm Marr in 1879) and mass murderers who, with or without just cause, sought the utter destruction of a perceived enemy. When it comes to the utter annihilation of the Jews, several names and events stand out:

• British Kings Richard I (Richard Coeur de Lion - reigned Sept. 1189-Apr. 1199) and Edward III (known as “Longshanks” and “Hammer of the Scots,” who reigned from Nov. 1272-Jul. 1307): the former was responsible for the total massacre of the Jewish community of York at Clifford’s Tower in 1190; the latter expelled virtually every Jew from England by All Saints Day (November 1, 1290).

• The medieval “Black Death” (Bubonic Plague, caused by infection with the bacterium Yersinia pestis, which originated in China and Inner Asia, arrived in Europe in 1347.  By a rough estimate, 25 million people died during this pandemic.  Members of the clergy and many royals blamed Jews, who died in far fewer numbers (likely as a result of a Jewish law making it mandatory to wash one’s hands before eating). Anti-Semitism greatly intensified throughout Europe as Jews were blamed for the spread of the Black Death. A wave of violent pogroms ensued, and entire Jewish communities were killed throughout Central Europe by mobs, or burned at the stake en masse. 

• The Ukrainian Hetman (nobleman/military leader) Bohdan Chmielnicki, who between 1648 and 1649 is estimated to have brutally and viciously murdered tens of thousands of Polish Jews, in the process destroying more than 300 Jewish communities. Chmielnicki’s initial agitation against the government was due to a property dispute with a neighboring (Polish) nobleman who tried to steal Chmielnicki’s estate. Jews were easy targets for Chmielnicki and the Cossacks, who joined him in a bloody uprising. Since the Jews were usually well educated, knew mathematics and how to read and write, a substantial number of Jews served as representatives of the Polish nobility and ran their estates.

• SS Stadartenfürer Paul Blogel, who was responsible for carrying out the murder of 33,771 Jews over a 2 day period (September 29-30, 1941) at Babyn Yar (sometimes spelled “Babi Yar”), a ravine in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev. 

Is it any wonder that a vast majority of Jewish people around the world acted with aggressive solidarity when Sinwar’s Hamas terrorists murdered more than 1,200 men, women and children on October 7, 2023?  1,200 deaths in a country whose Jewish population is approximately 7,208,000, is the equivalent of approximately 57,190 men, women and children of any and all religions in the United States, which had a 2023 population of  c. 343,477,335. Could anyone blame the United States - let alone Israel - for retaliating with just about everything in its arsenal?  A country or sovereign state can (or should) have the right to defend itself and protect its citizens against those who are its attackers. With Israel (and the United States, its major backer) the rules change when the issue is proportionality  . . . i.e. how much tonnage for how much mayhem and murder. 

Throughout modern history, the American military - often along with its allies - has decimated entire cities and regions as a means of retaliation.  Think of the firebombing of Dresden, the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which forever changed human history, and the March 1945 bombing of Tokyo (codenamed Operation Meetinghouse), which killed at least 80.000 people.

When it comes to Israel’s retaliation against both Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, things are far, far more difficult to comprehend.  I guess much of the world can no longer accept David’s protecting himself and his kingdom against Goliath and his henchmen.  Many people across the globe still view reality as a zero-sum, black-and-white, us-versus-them proposition . . . without possessing a grasp of the history of religion, politics or ethnopsychology. Although reasonably well educated, I find myself in the throes of an emotional/intellectual dilemma . . .  that which an Israeli would identify as  נתפס בין הפטיש לסדן (neetpas bayn ha-pahsheet l’sadahn . . . “Caught between the hammer and the anvil) e.g. “caught between a rock and a hard place.”

To wit, how to reconcile being foursquarely on the side of the Israelis when it comes to eliminating the bloodthirsty leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah, without garnering the world’s utter wrath for killing so many tens of thousands of mostly innocent civilians . . . all the “collateral damage,” the undesired death, injury and damage?  How can one be an אוהב ישראל (ohev Yisrael – a “lover of Israel”) while refusing to be a סנקציה של הרס (sanktzya shel heres – a “sanctioner of destruction?” Indeed, it is a disparity which invades my nightly sleep.

I know that I am not alone; most of my family and friends suffer from the same political/psychological bipolarity. Solving this conundrum is never going o be easy. I guess that’s why we’ve long said

("S'iz sjver tsi zayn a yid") .ס'איז שווער צו זײַן אַ ייִד

“It’s hard to be a Jew"

Copyright2024 Kurt Franklin Stone