25 September—In yesterday’s “Dear Heloise” column, Cindi N. noted, “My cat stopped using his litter box for reasons he never explained, but he was happy to use his pee pad.” One is relieved that Cindi’s cat now happily relieves himself on a pee pad but wonders whether Cindi asked her cat the right questions. Because most cats tend to be forthcoming about their excretory functions.
And Goshen’s embattled soon-to-be-former first selectman Todd Carusillo evidently can’t take the heat his maladroit administration has generated: “They don’t have to use meetings to bash public officials,” he whined at a particularly lively and well-attended selectmen’s meeting Tuesday night. He won’t be missed.
But the big news is in Litchfield. In fact, it’s right in the cozy little Borough of Litchfield. The good news is that the lawyers—the only people who got anything out of the Chabad shakedown of the borough that was countenanced by the grossly misguided Second Circuit Court of Appeals—have been fully paid off and the borough has received the satisfaction of judgement. As Warden Gayle Carr put it, “That ship is now in dry dock.” The question, then, is, with a $130,000 reduction in the annual debit, how much relief will borough taxpayers actually see?
Litchfield town-borough news concerns the tempest-in-a-piss-pot about the new double-glazed windows on the town office building popularly known as Town Hall that were installed without benefit of a borough hysteric district commission (HDC) certificate of appropriateness (COA). Yes, that is indeed unforgivable.
So a week ago the town formally applied for a coveted COA after the fact, lest it be hauled into court by the omnipotent and sanctimonious taste police. Better late than never. Yeah, right. Adding injury to insult, the town is to install purely decorative muntins (commonly known as grills) on the outside of the new windows that already have them between the panes, presumably to add some Victorian colonial historic authenticity to the distinctly mid-century modern, architecturally blah building. Funny that storm windows on so many old houses along the borough axis aren’t embellished with grills.
There are really very fine, intelligent, reasonable people on the borough’s HDC. But when you put them all together they’re like a school board.
It must be noted that the only time (so far) the HDC actually took a property owner to court for doing the dirty without benefit of COA—it was about 25 years ago—the property owner prevailed in the trial and appellate courts. But the HDC was ready to waste still more borough taxpayer money at the state Supreme Court when the property owner, who had by then moved back to California, offered the HDC $75,000 to drop the silly suit.
So that it did. And in so doing the Borough of Litchfield Historic District Commission established a precedent for being bought . . .
24 September—No, these aren’t portraits of a volunteer fire department chief. They’re actually of David Farragut, the Civil War naval hero of “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!” fame in the Battle of Mobile Bay. In the top portrait he’s a rear admiral, to which newly created rank he was promoted (along with two other active captains) in 1862.
Before Congress adopted the term “admiral,” U.S. Navy flag officers had actually been called “flag officers” and the rank was only temporary. After his 1864 victory in Mobile Bay, President Abraham Lincoln promoted Farragut to be the first vice admiral. And in 1866 he was promoted to be the first full admiral by congressional act.
In the bottom early (and exceptionally rare) Kodacolor portrait we see Farragut as a full admiral.
Admiral Farragut remained on active duty for life (which ended in 1870, when he was 69), an honor accorded to only seven other U.S. Navy officers after the Civil War.
With his sleeves so heavy with gold-bullion braid (which was used before modern synthetics), Admiral Farragut may have been reluctant to return salutes . . .
23 September—“Urgent” email from Headline USA just received: “Charlie Kirk Commemoratives Selling Fast . . .” The reverse of the pictured silver round now says “Welcome without judgment, love without condition, forgive without limit.” But the “Design Details” still spell(s) “judgement” correctly.
And Dr. Donald Trump boasts that the politically driven changes his BFF charlatan Bobby Kennedy Jr.s flunkies have suggested to the childhood vaccine schedule are “based on what I feel.” Is comment necessary?
So fall fell yesterday at 6:19 UTC in the Northern Hemisphere as the autumnal equinox just happened: Earth, which is tilted on its axis, was perfectly positioned so that the sun shone directly over the Equator, resulting in day and night of equal length.
And at that very moment (6:19 UTC), spring sprung yesterday in the Southern Hemisphere as the vernal equinox just happened: Earth, which is tilted on its axis, was perfectly positioned so that the sun shone directly over the Equator, resulting in day and night of equal length. Is that a coincidence or what!
The word “equinox” is first found in Old French as “equinoxe.” It comes from late Latin “æquinox,” obviously meaning “equal night” but by extension and implication meaning “day-night equality.” Don’t ask why it’s not “æquidies,” meaning “equal day.” Or, for that matter, “die-noctis-æqualitatem,” really “day-night-equality.”
“Equator” also comes from late Latin, in this instance “æquator,” meaning “equalizer,” and giving us “æquator diei et noctis,” “equalizer of day and night.” The word is invariably used to refer to an imaginary line around the middle of a planet or other rotating spherical body that has poles. Thus the Earth’s (or terrestrial) Equator is equidistant from the North and South Poles and is the zero-degree line of latitude.
Got it? Then here’s more pedantry:
UTC is the initialism—in this instance erroneously called an acronym—for Coordinated Universal Time. In the good old days (before 1972) it was known as Greenwich Mean Time, GMT. UTC is in fact a compromise between English Coordinated Universal Time—CUT—and French Temps Universel Coordonné—TUC. Call it Universal Time Coordinated if it makes you feel better. And don’t worry about other languages.
Incidentally, 6:19 UTC is 2:19 pm EDT (Eastern Daylight Time), 11:19 am PDT (Pacific Daylight Time), and 7:19 pm BST (British Summer Time)—because Greenwich is in London but GMT/UTC doesn’t do ridiculous daylight time. And it might be said that time starts with GMT because zero-degree longitude is located at the Greenwich “prime” meridian, which runs through the North and South Poles.
So when does day become night and when does night become day? The transitions have in fact been defined in astronomical terms, based on the position of Earth relative to the sun. And that’s where we’ll leave it, except to remind you that the sun is just a big ball of hot gas . . .
22 September—Jesus the Jew and Christ on an e-bike! St. Charlie Kirk the Hypocrite was put out of America’s misery less than a fortnight ago and thousands upon thousands of wannabe worshipers were turned away from the ludicrous state memorial show in his honor at Arizona’s State Farm Stadium just yesterday. It starred America’s hateful and eminently hatable scumbag-in-chief, of course, with the late saint’s grieving but forgiving widow in a minor role. Yet already Headline USA, a staunchly conservative operation that bills itself as “America’s Most Trusted News Source,” is hawking St. Charlie “authorized commemoratives.”
In an email received yesterday with the subject line “RIP Charlie Kirk – His Fight Continues Here (Wow!) . . .” the email proclaims:
“In support of Charlie’s mission, all proceeds from Charlie Kirk Silver Rounds and other Authorized Commemoratives are donated directly to Turning Point USA by Money Metals Exchange.
“Charlie Kirk was an unapologetic Christian, a devoted family man, and a highly regarded advocate for American ideals of liberty, personal responsibility, civil debate, and free markets.
Among the tchotchkes (commemorative offerings) hawked in the email is the “Charlie Kirk ‘The Fight Continues’ – 1 Troy Ounce .999 Pure Silver Round.”
So clicking on the “More Details” link takes one to the appropriate web page and the “Design Details”:
“Obverse: Black and White portrait of Charlie Kirk, with the years 1993–2025, and the phrase ‘The Fight Continues’
“Reverse: Inscribed with Turning Point USA and the quote: ‘Welcome without judgement, love without condition, forgive without limit.’ [“judgement” spelled correctly, by the way]
“Also marked with One Troy Ounce .999 Fine Silver.”
As it happens, though, the reverse—of the round in the illustration, anyway—is actually inscribed with the quote: “Courage is committing yourself to the correct course of action regardless of the cost.” It must be noted, however, that the “Design Details” of the colorized silver round give the very same quote that’s pictured on the round.
(Did St. Charlie really utter the synthesis of Christ’s counsel about welcome, love, and foregiveness? The quotation about courage and cost sounds more like him.)
It’s worth noting, moreover, that as of 1 July fine (.999) silver tchotchkes—as well as any gold, silver, platinum, and palladium tchotchkes at least 90-percent pure—aren’t taxable in Connecticut. (So 18-karat metal—75 percent—is taxable but 22-karat—91+ percent—isn’t.)
As for Headline USA’s boast about being America’s most trusted news source, it didn’t even make the cut among Republicans. Here are the results of a May YouGov poll:
Overall:
The Weather Channel: Net trust score of +49
BBC: Net trust score of +26
PBS: Net trust score of +25
Forbes: Net trust score of +24
ESPN: Net trust score of +21
Sources trusted by Republicans:
The Weather Channel (+48 net trust)
Fox News (+46 net trust)
Fox Business Channel (+40 net trust)
Newsmax (+25 net trust)
One America News Network (+20 net trust)
Sources trusted by Democrats:
PBS (+66 net trust)
BBC (+62 net trust)
NBC (+59 net trust)
The Weather Channel (+59 net trust)
CBS (+59 net trust)
Who would lie about the weather? Oh yeah, Trump has lied about that too . . .
21 September—The Hearst Republican-American, like many other rags, often illustrates news and feature stories with pictures it has on hand or can get with minimal effort and expense. For instance, a recent story about a murder was illustrated with a file photo of a police cruiser from the town in which the murder occurred. Of course, the picture did absolutely nothing to illuminate the story. It just wasted space that could have been better used for more news. Seriously?
So in last week’s Hearst Sunday Republican (14 September, which I read only this morning because the news reported in Hearst Connecticut rags is usually at least a day late anyway and timeliness of features is less consequential) readers were reminded of Constitution Day upcoming on 17 September with the illustrated notice at the bottom of this page.
The reminder was appropriate and appreciated, to be sure. (Even after the fact.) But why was it illustrated with (a lousy picture of) John Hancock’s signature on the Declaration of Independence? Hancock hadn’t been present at the Constitutional Convention and didn’t sign the great document. Governor of Massachusetts at the time, he couldn’t make it down to Philadelphia because of his gout and generally poor health.
One wonders who was the Hearst Connecticut Media employee who committed that faux pas. On second thought, who cares? On third thought, did any other pedantic nit picker even notice the historical howler?
The Constitution naturally brings to mind Donald Trump’s history-making ignorance, disrespect, and abuse of it that’s brought shame to America. We can only hope that his disastrous dictatorship hasn’t done irreparable damage . . .
20 September—Add to Donald Trump’s extensive rap sheet that now he’s a murderer. You’ll recall that he was convicted last year on 34 felonies and was facing pretty certain conviction on several others had not his pals on the Supreme Court, inept national Democrats, and a small majority of gullible voters saved his criminal ass. And rest assured that Trump won’t even be charged with the murders.
Just yesterday Trump gleefully announced that U.S. forces had destroyed yet another Venezuelan boat that he called a “drug vessel.” He didn’t specify the forces, but both warships and aircraft were involved in all of what apologists would call the proactive or preemptive strikes on drug runners in international waters of the southern Caribbean.
On 2 September an airstrike destroyed a speedboat allegedly operated by the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang, killing 11 people.
On 15 September another boat allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela was sunk, this time killing only three people.
On 16 September a third alleged Venezuelan drug-running boat was sunk, although the death toll hasn’t been released.
On 19 September a fourth “lethal kinetic strike,” as Trump calls the offensive actions, clobbered yet another alleged Venezuelan drug-trafficking boat, killing three alleged drug traffickers.
While no military actions—strikes—have actually been instigated by Trump (because that’s what his flunkies do), clearly he authorized the four Caribbean exercises, just as he had authorized the bombing of the Iranian nuclear facility in June—and who knows what else (because that’s what presidents do).
Thus the homicides—possibly collateral, almost certainly intentional—can’t be considered murders, at least in the opinion of the Supremes, because they were authorized by the president and the president can do no wrong. (And in the opinion of Trump flunkies and Trump worshipers because Trump is greater than God.)
In the opinion of Venezuela dictator Nicolás Maduro and his opposition, however, as well as legal experts and politicians in the U.S. and elsewhere who aren’t intimidated by Trump, and just about everybody else, given the lack of evidence and due process, the unusual circumstances of the strikes, and the fact that they were extrajudicial and in clear violation of international law, the homicides—killings—were indeed murders.
Despite all his delusional ranting, Trump and his congress have not declared war on Venezuela, which could have justified the belligerent action in the Caribbean. So even suspected Venezuelan drug runners can’t be summarily executed. Not legally, anyway, or by anyone. What Trump is gloating about, then, is just plain murder. In fact, he authorized what amounts to political murder. But why should that bother Donald Trump?
19 September—Donald Trump wants the Bagram Air Base back in American hands. Why not!? As he said, “We gave it to them for nothing.” And, about 25 miles north of Kabul, Afghanistan, “it’s an hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons.” Bagram, built by the Soviets in the 1950s, had in fact been the NATO military hub in Afghanistan for two decades, after all, before Joe Biden effectively gave it to the Taliban in July 2021, just before our unceremonious and ignominious abandonment of Afghanistan the following month. The Taliban currently control most of the country. (In the very way Trump would like to control the United States. But that’s irrelevant. For now.)
Although Trump hasn’t (yet) mentioned military force to make Canada the 51st state, he hasn’t ruled it out to annex Greenland and Mexico. But evidently he reckons that it might just be possible for the U.S. to reclaim Bagram without force “because they need things from us.” Surprisingly, he’s not wrong. Because, among other things:
The United States and several European countries have frozen billions of dollars belonging to Afghanistan’s central bank—now controlled by the Taliban, of course—purportedly to prevent the buggers from accessing the scratch while not doing anything to alleviate Afghanistan’s severe humanitarian crisis, conspicuously exacerbated since the Taliban took over.
(It should be noted that about $7 billion of Da Afghanistan Bank Assets are held in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Which might just be a reason Trump wants to usurp control of the Fed. And Da Afghanistan Bank is not to be confused with a rapper. But that’s also irrelevant. For now.)
Some 23 million Afghanistanis—over half the country’s population—are in dire need of assistance. U.S. aid had, as usual, been the largest source of whatever assistance was needed. But Trump scotched that when he killed USAID—the U.S. Agency for International Development—as one of his first despicable executive orders right after his second despicable inauguration on 20 January. Currently, the Taliban are forced to extort and abuse aid only from the UN and various NGOs.
Of course, the Taliban naturally want the UN and EU to lift all sanctions, remove their designation as a terrorist organization, and formally recognize them as the legitimate government of Afghanistan. Seems perfectly reasonable. Yeah, right.
Back to Bagram, then, Trump claims that China has moved in to the base. The Taliban and China claim otherwise. And various sources confirm that, as usual, Trump is full of it. In all events, the Taliban have indicated they’re willing to talk about the base but have made it clear that no U.S. military personnel would be permitted.
In that case, if the Taliban figure that Trump really wants to open a luxury resort in Afghanistan, they’d better think twice before doing any business with him . . .
18 September—Not satisfied with being an apostle of hate, St. Charlie Kirk was a hypocrite. Among other things, the outspoken proponent of free speech created a publicly searchable database to finger and intimidate people who actually practiced free speech—that didn’t agree with his. It’s called the Professor Watchlist and it’s compiled from published news stories, recordings and other information provided (leaked?) by students, and tips from the enthusiastically cooperative great hyperconservative and paranoid unwashed.
The mission of the Professor Watchlist, according to St. Charlie, is to “expose and document college professors who discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom.” The slick website itself proclaims that it’s “exposing bias on campus, unmasking radicals, advancing freedom.”
It further explains: “Professor Watchlist is a project of 501(c)3 non-profit Turning Point USA. The mission of Professor Watchlist is to expose and document college professors who discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom. Professor Watchlist is a carefully aggregated list sourced by published news stories detailing instances of radical behavior among college professors.”
Discriminating against conservatives or anyone else is one thing, advancing anything in the classroom is quite another.
In all events, the Professor Watchlist brings to mind McCarthyism and Nixon’s enemies list and positively reeks of the dreaded networks of delators—Latin for accusers, canaries, denouncers, informers, rats, snitches, stoolies, and tattlers, among other untrustworthy sorts—of Nazi Germany, the communist Soviet Union, the communist People’s Republic of China, and every dictatorship you can imagine.
The difference is that the Professor Watchlist isn’t a function of the government. As far as we know, anyway. And even non-dictatorships have internal spy networks, purportedly for security reasons. The United States itself has several.
In case you missed it, then, St. Charlie’s academic shit-list fingers only educators who are accused of advancing “leftist propaganda,” which, however, is not defined. And the victims are only accused. “Accused” is the operative word. The probative—vetting—process of accusations is a secret. Only accused? In the real world, sadly, an accusation is all it takes. And St. Charlie’s accusations have proven most effective at intimidating and victimizing professors.
St. Charlie the Hypocrite launched his academic shit-list in 2016 and by the end of the year some 1,500 university teachers from all over the world petitioned to have their names added to it—in solidarity with those who had been targeted and intimidated.
The National Review, a distinctly conservative magazine, described Professor Watchlist as “an irritable gesture of victimhood by conservatives.”
There’s also a Turning Point UK and it has a similar abomination called Education Watch.
If you want to check on the leftist credentials of a college teacher or two, the execrable website in the United States is www.professorwatchlist.org/. Readers in the United Kingdom can check up on their favorite lefties on https://tpointuk.co.uk/education-watch/. Just for the fun of it, of course . . .
17 September—Based on his extensive record of public pronouncements, it’s pretty safe to call St. Charlie Kirk an apostle of hate. But it’s probably just as safe to call him a proponent of and martyr to free speech. Last year he said: “Hate speech does not exist legally in America. There’s ugly speech. There’s gross speech. There’s evil speech. And all of it is protected by the First Amendment.” Presumably he actually believed what he said. In all events, St. Charlie was absolutely right and certainly was protected by the First Amendment.
Conservatives in general tend to be somewhat more dedicated and active proponents of so-called free speech than liberals. They give more lip service to it, anyway. That’s certainly not because most conservatives are altruistic, but rather it’s from self-interest, because most opportunities for communication—including media and university campuses—tend to be controlled by liberals. And while all liberals are quick to talk about the necessity of freedom of speech in a democracy (when in the case of the United States they mean a republic on implied democratic principles, of course), many if not most sanctimonious liberals are just as quick to ban or restrict speech that doesn’t coincide with their sacred beliefs or agendas. QED.
It’s not that conservatives practice what they preach, mind you. Take hate speech (please), which the self-consciously liberal ACLU used to defend unconditionally on principle and St. Charlie Kirk defended and practiced most of his life on who knows what. Just yesterday Pam Bondi, Donald Trump’s demonstrably unqualified ditz-flunky of an attorney general, announced on a podcast, “There’s free speech and then there’s hate speech. We will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech.”
Then the ditz-flunky AG told Fox News that employers have “an obligation to get rid of” people who say nasty things about Charlie Kirk’s assassination. Upon advice or instruction from more intelligent and/or pragmatic Trump flunkies, Bondi tried to walk that back: “My intention was to speak about threats of violence that individuals incite against others. Under President Trump, the Department of Justice will be unabashed in our efforts to root out credible, violent threats. [The weaponized DOJ] will investigate organizations that pursue [what we can trump up to be] illegal activities, engage in political violence, violate our civil rights, and commit tax or nonprofit fraud.”
Like for instance, as Bondi suggested, prosecuting Office Depot workers in Michigan for unlawful discrimination because they refused to print posters for a St. Charlie Kirk memorial. Or, as Trump vigilantes are demanding, firing, arresting, and deporting people for anti-St. Charlie Kirk remarks or even criticism of his right-wing views. What does that remind you of?
Moreover, it’s accepted as gospel in Donald Trump’s loathsome corridors of power that the Philistine-in-chief’s definition of hate speech is anything that criticizes him: “[My ditzy AG] will probably go after people like you,” he told an ABC interviewer, “because you treat me unfairly. It’s hate. You have a lot of hate in your heart.”
Aw gee . . .
16 September—Today is Pythagorean Triple Day, a once-in-a-century event that’s worth noting if not celebrating. Remember the Pythagorean theorem—a2+b2=c2, the formula for a right triangle? Sure you do. Well, today’s date can be expressed as 9/16/25, or 9+16=25, the three numbers being the squares of 3/4/5. And the square roots are consecutive numbers. Is that special or what?
Today also may be celebrated as the 527th anniversary of brutal Spanish grand inquisitor Tomás de Torquemada’s death.
Now down to business. The following letter was received from Litchfield’s retired long-term first selectman Leo Paul, responding to charges made at a campaign event last Wednesday by incumbent first selectman Denise Raap—who is hoping for a fourth term—and reported in Litchfield.bz on Saturday.
Leo Paul’s letter eloquently speaks for itself. But if readers want to refresh their memories, The Monitor first reported on “the Jespersen affair” in Shame on Denise Raap back in 2021.
You’ve got to wonder why Denise has resorted to mud slinging after three successful amicable issue-oriented campaigns—especially targeting her happily retired predecessor. On the other hand, if what Denise said at the campaign event about opponent Bill Zampaglione not attending meetings, as reported in Litchfield.bz, is true, it gives voters something to think about:
“I’m sure he’s nice guy, but he has never served on a town board or commission and in fact over the last couple of months, he hasn’t come to any of our (selectmen) meetings,” Raap said of Zampaglione, noting that when she ran for the first time in 2019 she made sure to educate herself on the issues by attending selectmen and Board of Finance meetings. “So, if you are committed to taking the top job in town and you don’t show up, I’m sorry, you don’t deserve the job.”
Has Bill Zampaglione really not attended any meetings?
So here’s Leo Paul’s letter:
I am compelled to write this letter to correct false and libelous accusations in the article “Denise on Public Works Scandal: Leo Knew.” Denise Raap must be desperate when she says “I don’t want to talk poorly” but then does just that by accusing me of something she knows is not true.
The truth is that if I had known anything about Richard Jespersen’s activities I would have fired him immediately, as I did when I discovered an employee at the recycling center was stealing cash. My record of sixteen years as First Selectman shows that when I had personnel issues facing Litchfield, I took action swiftly and fairly.
Denise claims that I was told about Jespersen’s thefts by two “good Republican friends.” Who are they? I am sure everyone in Litchfield would like to know. So would I. I don’t know because nobody told me and the two Republican friends don’t exist. Is Denise lying.
My name is not associated with Jespersen’s arrest warrant or the investigation. I was never contacted by the state police or John Pudlinski, who Denise hired for a private investigation, because there are no facts linking me to having any knowledge about Jespersen’s activities. According to Jespersen’s arrest warrant retired long term trusted Public Works employee Naomi Boccio reported her suspicions to Public Works Director Raz Alexe but was told by him to mind her own business. Neither of them told me a thing, according to the warrant, which doesn’t mention me at all.
When “the Jespersen affair” was revealed, Denise said she was the one who discovered it when going over purchase orders. But the warrant states that “she was notified that Jespersen was possibly stealing from the town.” Which is it? Both cannot be true.
One of Denise’s problems is that she cites rumors for her allegations. Another problem is that she ignores anything she doesn’t want to hear about from anyone she feels is unworthy of her attention, which doesn’t demonstrate leadership but does cause town employees and residents not to trust her. This is part of the “hostile workplace” town employees have complained about since Denise took over.
To repeat, Denise Raap must be desperate when she resorts to defaming someone who isn’t even running for the office she wants.
I told John McKenna I would prefer to take the high road to avoid inflaming the issue, but Denise’s outright lies have caused me to take a detour.
Sincerely,
Leo Paul Jr.
15 September—Reluctant Trump apologist Michael Barone writes today in passing that the upward “shift in Trump’s approval ratings, from 45.9% in 2016 to 46.8% in 2020 to 49.8% in 2024, wasn’t overwhelming.” True enough. Problem is, though, the shift in Trump’s approval rating has in fact been downward and is currently at 45% according to Morning Consult Pro, 44.2% according to Nate Silver, 41% according to YouGov, 40% according to Gallup, and an even more embarrassing 38% according to Pew—with fully 60% of Pew’s sample disapproving of the Philistine-in-chief.
On the delightful subject of Donald Trump, on his website a few days ago he opined with some justification that St. Charlie Kirk’s murder was “a dark moment for America.” That could be said about virtually any murder. (Yes, we all can think or dream of murders that wouldn’t be dark moments, but we mustn’t specify the victims.) Trump normally bloviates in superlatives, so it’s rather surprising he didn’t call St. Charlie’s martyrdom “the darkest moment for America.”
In all events, as it happens, another dark moment for America was the presumably fair and honest election of Donald Trump as president in 2016; and beyond any reasonable doubt the absolute darkest moment was Trump’s unfortunate election in 2024. And that includes all the wars, disasters, and cataclysms the republic has suffered since even before its establishment. I.e., ever.
Almost as dark a moment—arguably an even darker moment when you think about it—was the Supreme Court’s inconceivably irrational ruling, not long before the 2024 election, in Trump v. United States that effectively made American presidents—not just Trump—virtually omnipotent tyrants essentially above the law. We’d like to think that people of presidential caliber wouldn’t abuse that power.
But then there’s Donald Trump, Satan’s gift to America and the world.
And apropos nothing, today is the 90th anniversary of the Nazi Reichstag’s passage—in special session, of course—of the infamous antisemitic Nuremberg Laws that among other things stripped German Jews of their citizenship . . .