Author: A.T.

The president’s unhinged post threatening to destroy Iran’s bridges and power plants puts us on the brink of something truly terrible.

We will have taken the final step in going from the world’s good guy — despite our numerous and significant lapses along the way — to being one of the world’s bad guys.

We would also bring the world closer to financial collapse and global depression.

Paul Krugman: America as we knew it may end tomorrow (4 minutes or read the transcript).

Robert Reich: He’s Seriously Out of His Mind — And the Iranians Know it

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This morning, Trump posted:

Now, I ask you: If you were in the Iranian regime, would you be: (1) frightened by this post or (2) relieved that you were finally causing Trump to melt down?

I’d guess (2). You’d see his post and figure that Trump — posting on Easter Sunday — has finally gone utterly and definitively bonkers. You’ve done it. He’s mad as a hatter.

I was bullied as a kid. The way I knew I was winning against the bullies was when they started to scream and swear and rant and rave at me. That’s when I knew they felt powerless. They’d done everything they could to beat me down, and yet they couldn’t. I was tougher than their fists. They went nuts.

Is there any other explanation for Trump’s outburst? Many of Trump’s posts are really intended for domestic consumption. Perhaps he wanted to sound tough for his American followers?

That’s unlikely. Just Wednesday night he told America that the U.S. doesn’t “need” the strait to be open. If we don’t need it open, why threaten to blow up Iranian power plants (most likely war crimes) if Iran doesn’t open it?

The easiest explanation is the simplest: Trump is cornered, and he’s going stark-raving mad.

No less an expert on the workings of Trump’s brain than Marjorie Taylor Greene had this to say about Trump’s post:

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“Everyone in his administration that claims to be a Christian needs to fall on their knees and beg forgiveness from God and stop worshipping the President and intervene in Trump’s madness. I know all of you and him and he has gone insane, and all of you are complicit.”

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I’ve never agreed with Marjorie Taylor Greene on anything, until today.

Sleep well.

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With luck, the massive strike tomorrow, if there is one, will be strictly on military targets.  The wisdom of that is debatable; but would be very different from a massive war crime.

Fingers tightly crossed that he changes course for — what?  the fifth time in two weeks?  One loses count.

IRONY EXPLODES AGAIN

This time with Trump arguing vigorously for impeachment (60 seconds).

ARE WE WAR CRIMINALS?

It’s bad enough to murder suspected drug traffickers heading away from the United States and then to go back to kill two survivors clinging to the wreckage.  That is a war crime.

But now we’ve destroyed Iran’s tallest bridge — and gone back in with a second strike that killed emergency workers.   

We should be taking out missile launchers and drone factories, not vital civilian infrastructure.

Is this really who we’ve become?

“If we had a functioning democracy,” says Paul Krugman, “this would be 25th Amendment time.”  (Watch: 5 minutes.)

PEDOPHILE PROTECTORS?

This recap is nearly a month old, but lacking cooperation from the Obstruction of Justice Department it seems just as relevant today.

FROM UNCLOSETED MEDIA

I Live in Colorado. Conversion Therapy Destroyed My Life.

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The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn my state’s conversion therapy ban will be tragic for many LGBTQ kids.

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Four tidbits . . .

> PAM BONDI’S EXTRAORDINARY LEGACY

Two minutes.

> JEANINE PIRRO, ONE OF HER RUMORED REPLACEMENTS

The irony explodes.  You’ll be screaming at the screen in under 2 minutes.

> MAGA CHRISTIANITY . . .

. . . says John Fugelsang, is “more offended by Colin Kaepernick’s knee than by Derek Chauvin’s knee.”

The more I listen to his Separation of Church and Hate — and to James Talarico — the more I see the potential to welcome millions of Jesus’s faithful into the party that cares more for the least of us than for billionaires.

Not that I have anything against billionaires.  Many are awesome.  Several are my friends.  It’s just that the last few decades have tilted the game way too far in their favor — as many billionaires agree.

> THE TESLA TRUCK PERFECTLY DESCRIBED

“A large, angular vehicle, often with tinted windows — bringing to mind the brutalist architecture of mid-20th century fascism — with a look and practicality that defies understanding.”  — Glenn Sonnenberg

Two meatier reads . . .

MILES TAYLOR

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The Casual Crucifixions of Donald J. Trump
America’s current president welcomes comparisons to a persecuted Jesus Christ. But he shares one particular obsession with a different person: the persecutor.

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It was January 10, 2019.

We were on Air Force One with the president, headed to the Southern Border, and Donald Trump was in a boisterous mood. . . .

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Read on.

ROY COHN, MICHAEL EPSTEIN, and RASPUTIN: DARK CONNECTORS 

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The Epstein Class Had a Signature Weakness

. . . Ah, the plane. Somewhere, a cultural anthropologist must be studying private air travel as a signifier among the tribes of the globalized elite. To bring someone aboard a private flight is a recognition of his status and an invitation for him to admire yours. It confers a feeling of belonging to a class whose members are too important to wait in lines, fasten seatbelts or proceed through customs. Even in this rarefied world, there are distinctions. Jeff’s plane was no ordinary C.E.O.’s jet, a Gulfstream or a Bombardier. It was a Boeing 727, outfitted for an outer-borough sultan, with velour sofas, a bar, a theater and a stateroom. . . .

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Oh, and hey — will the President obey the law that he himself signed into law requiring release of all the files without unnecessary redaction?

Is it now okay for the chief executive to defy the near unanimous will of Congress?

WINNING IN TEXAS

The more I listen to John Fugelsang’s Separation of Church and Hate, and the more I listen to James Talarico, the clearer it becomes that we have huge potential to reach millions of Jesus’s faithful, in Texas and nationwide, simply by quoting His words.

I know I recommend far more stuff than you have time to click on.  But try to make time for this.  I think you’ll find Fugelsang — a professional comedian who knows the Bible backwards and forwards — a really great read (or listen!) that you, too, will want to share (to spread the gospel, as it were).

Had Jesus been alive today, I think he would have given John’s book one hell of a blurb.

WINNING IN UKRAINE

Their execution of the mission in Iran has been extraordinary.

I think it was a mistake in 1953 overthrowing the democratically elected government of Iran.

I think it was a mistake pulling out of the Iran Peace deal.

There are compelling arguments on both sides, but I’m not sure it was a mistake to join Israel in degrading Iran’s military capacity, as we have.

Either way, now that we’ve gone this far — since those in power there could hardly hate us more than they already do — I hope we do spend the next two or three weeks degrading it further . . . while doing all we can to avoid casualties.  (It should be noted that the Iranian regime purposely killed vastly more of its own citizens during this way than have we.)

THE KING’S SPEECH

I think it was appalling to see the wildly corrupt, vulgar egomaniac who is our president intersperse the good and hopeful things he had to say . . .

(it is good that the theocratic extremists’ military strength has been largely destroyed; it is to be hoped they will reopen the Strait in order to re-start their flow of oil revenue) . . .

. . . with wild lies

(“In one year, we’ve taken a dead and crippled country” — widely considered the envy of the world — “and made it the hottest country anywhere in the world by far” — China is cleaning our clock and job growth has been close to zero — “with no inflation” — inflation is heading back up) . . .

. . . and his trademark counterproductive, humiliating insults.

(Where was the part about the great majority of Iranian people, custodians of a proud 6,000-year culture, with whom we stand ready to build a respectful, prosperous peace?)

. . . the President’s pronouncement tonight, and prays for a durable peace (but how?):

Pete Buttigieg on Stephen Miller (80 seconds).

SEX PEST – 2

A direct link to the BBC report Andy Borowitz wrote about — without a paywall this time: Trump–Is the President a Sex Pest?”  (Thanks, John, K.!)

AN EPSTEIN HYPOTHESIS

Epstein Likely Wasn’t the Boss. So Who Was?

[When should we expect to see the complete Epstein files in which Trump is mentioned more than 38,000 times, unredacted except as necessary to protect the victims?  As was unanimously mandated by the House and Senate (save Clay Higgins R-Louisiana) and signed into law by Trump?  The deadline was December 19, 2025.]

BONUS

Job Creation — The Cups Don’t Lie (3 minutes).

A SEX PEST

While we wait for the release of the Epstein files, as required by a virtually unanimous vote in Congress and signed into law by the President, there’s this teaser:

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This BBC documentary has never aired in the USA, and probably never will. But, as Stephen Colbert recently proved with his James Talarico interview, Trump’s stooges at the FCC can’t prevent video clips from being shared online.  So please share.

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WILL HE WRECK THE WORLD ECONOMY AND THE U.S. DOLLAR?

Not if he’s to have any chance of making it to Mt. Rushmore.

Here are . . . All the Things Trump Has Put His Name and Face on as President . . . “from federal agency buildings to government programs to—soon—U.S. currency.”

The only problem being that . . . Everything Trump Touches Dies.

November 3 can’t come soon enough.

CHAPTER 7 . . .

. . . of John Fugelsang’s Separation of Church and Hate:  THOU SHALT NOT HATE PEOPLE WHO HAVE ABORTIONS. 

So much I didn’t know.  (Not least that there were abortions in Jesus’s day.)

It begins with a quote:  

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“I have always felt that it was only after a child was born and had a life separate from his mother that it became an individual person.” Wallie Amos Criswell, president of the Southern Baptist Church, 1973

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And continues:

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This is a well-intentioned chapter about how the most important issue in US Christianity has nothing to do with, well, Christ.

Number of times the Bible demands punishment for ending a pregnancy: Zero. 

These are two facts that politicians, media, and fundamentalists always overlook: the Bible never forbids it, and Jesus never mentions it.

He opposes the death penalty, directs us to love and forgive each other, commands individuals and nations to care for the poor and welcome the stranger. He instructs his followers to pay their taxes and put away their swords. But Jesus never once gets around to condemning women who terminate pregnancies, or the individuals who help them.

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And concludes:

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And if you still think the God of the Bible prioritizes the innocent lives of children, let me remind you Gentiles about Passover, when God killed all Egyptian firstborn children as punishment for the sins of grown-ups.

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But there’s much more, well worth reading (or listening to) in full.

CHAPTER 9 . . .

. . . THOU SHALT NOT HATE ON POOR PEOPLE begins with a quote from John Kenneth Galbraith:

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“The modern conservative is… engaged… in one of man’s oldest, best financed, most applauded, and, on the whole, least successful exercises in moral philosophy. That is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” John Kenneth Galbraith, 1967

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And begins:

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America leads the world in Christians who believe Jesus wants us to help the poor by cutting programs that actually help the poor.

But the Bible has a lot to say about poverty, and its teachings may be surprising to many. This book bluntly commands generosity, justice, compassion, and fairness toward the poor and marginalized. And it doesn’t ask nicely.

> The Bible commands lending to the poor without expecting repayment or interest.

> The Law of Moses requires a “Year of Jubilee” every fifty years, when debts were to be forgiven, slaves freed, and land returned to its original owners, ensuring a reset of economic inequalities.

> Jesus commands individuals and nations to care for the poor and asserts that all will be judged by how well they did it.

> In the parable of the loaves and fishes, Jesus encourages everyone to give the food away instead of selling it, aka free guaranteed nutrition for everyone.

> In Mark 12:17, Jesus supports paying taxes the government will redistribute.

> The early church, in Acts of the Apostles, practiced a radical economic form of communal living where wealth and resources were shared.

> The Bible often depicts God directly identifying with the poor and oppressed, suggesting that how one treats the poor is indicative of their relationship with God: Proverbs 19:17 says, “Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward them for what they have done.”

Particularly since the early 1980s, the US has often pursued policies that favor the wealthy and increase economic inequality, which economists and theologians have come to label “the exact freaking opposite” of Jesus’s teachings about caring for the poor—and the dangers of wealth—as stated in Matthew 19:24 and Luke 16:19–31.

Christian America has been caught up in the long con of trickle-down economics, a rigged system that gives massive tax cuts to the wealthiest, who need them the least, and all too often punishes struggling people with cuts to social services, fare hikes, and a degrading minimum wage. Years of leadership (and media) demonizing the poor as worthless, lazy welfare cheats has helped millions of Christians make peace with the suffering of the least of us.

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Again: well worth reading (or listening!) in full.

JOHN WATERS’ SIGN

Just in case you know who he is.  It’s kind of perfect.

THE SIMPLER BILLBOARD

We’re 42% of the way there with this billboard.  (Thanks to those who’ve chipped in!)

I like this simpler version.

It seems less in-your-face; gentler and more welcoming.  Your thoughts?

I pre-ordered this on AppleTV . . .

The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist

. . . and then decided it was too important to wait.

Boy, was I right.

Watch the trailer here.

Last month I wrote:

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We need — urgently — to figure out (a) how to protect humanity from a superior species; (b) how to avoid economic catastrophe and, instead, harness A.I. for the benefit of all.

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This movie — which everyone will be talking about by next week — addresses (a).

[For thoughts on (b), please see that previous post.]

Fareed Zakaria: 

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Iran is exposing the limits of a presidency built on bluff, improvisation and submission rituals.

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Watch.

And hey — please chip in a small tax-deductible contribution for those LeavingMAGA billboards!  After just one weekend, we’re already 39% to goal.  THANK YOU!

The main thing, before we get to the robot, is to try to find time to listen to the “Give a Little Whistle” episode of This American Life.  One of my fellow protesters sent me the link yesterday and I was skeptical — who has an hour for a podcast?

But boy am I glad I dove in.

The first half is the story of a brave whistleblower ordered to instruct ICE recruits to ignore the Fourth Amendment. It is gripping.

The second half of the second half — Oscar’s story — would make even Carl gasp at what our country has become.  Which is why he won’t listen, but that shouldn’t stop you.

Both are stories from inside ICE, and they are (alert the pun police) chilling.

Okay, so there we were, hundreds of us protesting joyfully, peacefully on Miami Beach — one of the hundreds of new locations that had not held protests for NO KINGS rallies before — the movement is growing — when down the sidewalk came one of those little delivery robots programmed to avoid hitting anything.  In a year or two, it will likely be able to leap over impediments or even organize a protest of his own — perhaps reason with the protesters — “I come to bury Caeser (and deliver this Caesar salad and a burger), not to praise him!” — but yesterday it was completely flummoxed, as various protesters tried to figure out how to get it to carry a protest sign for the rest of the day.

It was fun, as was the entire event.  My little group of five — one of whom, aged 60, had never in his life been to a protest before and rather enjoyed it — were talking economic gloom when a health-conscious solo guy near us lowered his mask and told us that Nero was also a terrible ruler, burning half of Rome, but that the empire bounced back just fine for a few hundred years and we will too.

He declaimed about Hadrian, as well, and seemed a little crazy, but not all that much, and, as he and my friends were going back and forth, I kept looking at him: I feel like I know this guy.  Finally there was a lull and I said — Do we know each other?  You look awfully familiar.  So we looked at each other for a while, and I said my name, and he said his first name — which began to bring my memory of him back into focus — and it turns out that he had stayed with me for a week or two when he first came to Florida 40 years ago.  We hadn’t seen each other since.  He now writes for the Daily Kos.

There’s no point to that story other than to say these protests are fun!  Everyone is in the mood to talk with whoever happens to be next to them, everyone is elated as passing cars honk in support, everyone is buoyed to realize that the movement will just build and build until we win.  And you just might run into an old friend or make some new ones.

THE BILLBOARD

Yesterday, I wrote about the billboard that Leaving MAGA will be erecting near Mar-A-Lago.  Thanks to those of you who chipped in!  And to those who offered suggestions. After 24 hours, we’re 30% of the way there. If you can chip in a few dollars — it doesn’t have to be much, and it can be anonymous if you prefer — please help.

Thanks, also, to Gloria who reminded me of this perfect SNL skit (6 minutes).

It pretty much says it all.

It’s hard leaving MAGA!

So it was exciting to see people around the country spreading the word:

DOUGLASVILLE, GEORGIA

DENVER, COLORADO

BLOOMINGTON, MINNESOTA

JEFFERSONVILLE, INDIANA

From Facebook:

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We had a Leaving Maga speaker in Southern Indiana! It was in Jeffersonville IN, a lady speaker but she also had a booth with information about your organization, mentioned Rich by name! And then we also had a local politician who has changed his political affiliation from GOP to independent, who ALSO referenced Leaving Maga! It’s spreading like wildfire in Hoosier territory!

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KINGWOOD, TEXAS

ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA

VANCOUVER, WASHINGTON

Of course, most of the signs people brought yesterday were not about Leaving MAGA.

You’ve doubtless seen a million by now, so I’ll just share this one I had not seen before being held up in 19º weather in Freeport, Maine:

CORRECTION

I want the less creative route, just buying a few, including this one:

I am only slightly embarrassed to report that Pope Leo likely never said that.

I say, “only slightly,” because I’m almost certain that, even if he never have said it, he’s thought it.

Still, I wanted to set the record straight.

Have a great Sunday — and try to find time to listen (and share?) that Give a Little Whistle episode from This American Life.

That’s just a rendering.

With your help, the first two REAL ones will be going up near Mar-a-Lago soon.

If it catches on, others will follow on highways across the country.

The message: A welcoming community awaits those who’ve become disillusioned.

It’s what led former MAGA podcaster Rich Logis to write his fascinating look into how a totally smart, sane person could get sucked into MAGA; how hard it is to get out; and how you might (gently!) help a friend or relative struggling with this problem:

> To find out more without reading the book, visit Leaving MAGA.

> To help launch the first billboards, I’d really appreciate your chipping in to the GoFundMe that went up a few hours ago.  It suggests a (TAX-DEDUCTIBLE!) donation of $200, so that’s what I did.  (And then — well, you know how enthusiastic I get — I did a bunch more.)  But you can contribute whatever feels right. Twenty bucks would be great.  I noticed one early contribution for $7.   I love it.  Truly: no amount is too small.

> To suggest variations on the above, me-mail me and I’ll pass them on.  I like an even simpler, understated, all blue . . . no flags or logos . . .  just:

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  Having Doubts?
You Are Not Alone
   leavingMAGA.org

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Imagine if this billboard campaign became enough of a thing that we could get Rich onto Joe Rogan.  He’d sway many thousands of listeners.

But first things first.  Can you help fund the launch?

Thanks!

Enjoy NO KINGS 3 today!  It’s not too late to find your event.