MORE NONSENSE AT THE NYT. A graph of the increasing use of the f-word in political discourse. What is the bigger problem — vulgarity or fascism? Think it over, carefully.

We learn today in the NYT that Trump has degraded and ridiculed Vance. OK. How about Trump has degraded and ridiculed the entire world with the possible exception of a handful of autocrats? Putin and Netanyahu should be pleased.

America should be ashamed of elevating a vulgar moron to the presidency. Having said that, we must not condone unrestrained racism and war crimes. There is no excuse. None.

Here’s my problem. Bondi is treated in the NYT like she is just an “ordinary” AG — just like all the others. Not so. She was involved in criminalizing the Justice Department not in prosecuting criminals.

THE ANODYNE NEW YORK TIMES. “Trump Fires Bondi After Bumpy Tenure.” How about Bondi fired after trying to destroy the rule of law in this country? Now, it’s time to fire Trump for the same reason.

CONFIRMATION OF NEW MAHA SCIENTIFIC THEORY. It turns out that the moon is not just made of green cheese, it’s made of unpasteurized whole milk green cheese.

NEW EXAMPLE OF IRONY. A friend recently told me that he and his family are moving to Germany to “escape fascism.”

It has been pointed out in the NYT that Hegseth in his 60 Minutes “interview” has given up extending democracy for unrestrained vengeance. That’s being too kind. How about telling it like it really is? Unmitigated gobbledygook. A mess of contradictions, evasions and nonsense talk.

Isn’t it time we take our country back?

MONKEY SEE, MONKEY DO. Do you really think that because one monkey may object, that the principle no longer holds? Let’s get real here.

MY CHILDHOOD FAVORITE. Dr. Seuss, Bartholomew and the Oobleck. Is it about Trump? It could be. The King-got-angry-at-the-sky. A greedy, unrestrained. imprudent King. The world is saved by his page boy, Bartholomew Cummins. Who will be our Bartholomew Cummins? Who will save us?

A supine Congress; a supine Supreme Court, and a rogue President. What more do you need for our own, individualistic brand of fascism?

MONKEY SEE, MONKEY DO. Kant would have benefited from an appeal to a much more powerful principle than the categorical imperative. IMITATING OTHERS. How better to describe human behavior?

WRITING ABOUT KANT. Eichmann at his trial in Jerusalem invoked the categorical imperative. Arendt believed he misinterpreted Kant. I disagree. I believe Kant helped justify the Holocaust.

Can humanity just say, “Uncle?"

RE-READING THE CASTLE. "When a matter has been deliberated on at great length, it can happen, even before the deliberations have ended, that in some unforeseeable place, which cannot be located, a directive is issued that usually justly, but nonetheless arbitrarily, brings the matter to a close."

To go to war shouldn’t a President have a coherent set of reasons? A strategy? An excuse? Perhaps an endgame? Good grief. It makes me yearn for the days when an administration (at least) had to go before Congress and lie.

The Putinization of America. (I learned the term from Garry Kasparov.) Unhinged aggression. Disregard for human life. Imperial aspirations. Need I say more?

“Our country is winning so much...that we really don’t know what to do about it.” I have a suggestion. How about impeachment?

It’s alarming how similar Trump’s policies are to Putin’s policies. Are we really supposed to side with the aggressor in any settlement in Ukraine? No, no, no.

After a host of unpleasant, ill informed obituaries, here is a good appraisal of Missile, a Wiseman film. Thank you, Alex Wellerstein. I have written that I have never felt further from God than in a Wiseman film. The film ends on the word “God,” and it is certainly true here.

"Launching missiles is your job." The sublime banality of Frederick Wiseman's "Missile" (1988)

open.substack.com/pub/doomsday...

Without irony life is not worth living. Without irony we are all slaves to language; with irony we are its masters.

Trump speaks endlessly of peace. It’s a form of self-deception mixed with self-congratulation. But… Actions speak louder than words. His meeting with Putin in Alaska served to prolong and exacerbate Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.

The media now covers criminals and idiots pretending that they’re not criminals and idiots.

My friend and America’s greatest filmmaker, Fred Wiseman, died. No one has penetrated further into the fabric of reality. I will miss him.

I used to think that all historical analogies were wrong. But it’s hard not to compare the Russian invasion of Crimea with the concessions made to Hitler over Austria and Czechoslovakia in the Munich Agreement.

Yes, you can have no truth without language, but that doesn’t mean that language is a vehicle for truth.

Language was invented to allow people to lie more effectively. It was not invented as a vehicle for truth. Rather for evasion and misrepresentation. And yes, for lying and prevarication. Just listen to and read what people say and write.

Can it be? Trump rescinds federal regulations on climate change. Not since the Vatican condemned Galileo has science been so thoroughly rebuked. The Vatican just wanted an earth-centric universe. Trump wants a Trump centric universe.