8 April—On this day in 217 CE (formerly AD), Roman emperor Caracalla was assassinated by one of his personal bodyguards, a member of the Praetorian Guard (like the U.S. Secret Service). His legacy is the humongous—over 60-acre—eponymous public bath complex in Rome intended to ingratiate him with the great (literally) unwashed, which he named the Antonine Baths after his family name. (Born Lucius Septimius Bassanius, he adopted the name Marcus Aurelius Antoninus for political reasons but was commonly known as Caracalla because he liked to wear a hoodie, known as a caracallus.)

While Caracalla is famous for his ablutionary boondoggle, he was actually a terrible head of state, a ruthless, selfish, erratic, cruel, self-dealing tyrant who abused his authority and didn’t really care about the well-being of Rome or Romans.

Remind you of anyone? Let it just be said that Caracalla is far from the only tyrant to have been offed by his most trusted bodyguards.

Moving on, then, Donald Trump’s wicked flunky warlord Pete Hegseth must have cried himself to sleep last night after announcing the two-week ceasefire with Iran, which, for all it’s worth, wasn’t unexpected. Brinksmanship is de rigueur these days, after all. As Hegseth crowed, “President Trump had the power to cripple Iran’s entire economy in minutes. But he choose—he chose—mercy because Iran accepted the ceasefire under overwhelming pressure.”

For a Princeton and Harvard man, Hegseth is a real idiot. Trump chose mercy because Iran accepted the ceasefire under overwhelming pressure? Without going too deeply into it, did overwhelming pressure give Iran much of a choice? And wasn’t what Hegseth calls mercy the whole point of the deal? And evidently economy is all that matters.

In all events, to celebrate the great ephemeral event, here are some pictures of the wanton destruction, devastation, and despoliation in Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Ukraine, and the United States, all unnecessary, lots attributable to Donald Trump and his enthusiastic warlord. Guess which is where and forgive the lousy resolution. But it doesn’t matter: