The Gospel according to Quentin Tarantino

In the past few days the Secretary of the Treasury said global warming was a creation of the “elite,” Lee Zeldin of the E.P.A. pushed the use of “clean coal,” Trump appeared in a post as Jesus healing a sick man while armed angels flew overhead, a “Door Dash Grandma” delivering food to the White House was found to be a propaganda set-up, recent convert to Catholicism J.D. Vance lectured the Pope on theology, Todd Blanche said all the Epstein files had been released, Trump delivered an eight-minute lecture on Peruvian snakes, and Pete Hegseth quoted a Bible verse from the Gospel of Quentin Tarantino.

I am not making this up. 

Scott Bessent isn't that dumb

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent at the meeting of the International Monertary Fund said it was difficult to determine the causes of global climate change and said global warming was a belief of the “elite.”  He said global institutions should emphasize economic growth.  He said emphasizing measures to fight warming would harm the poor.

He is the goddam Treasury Secretary.  He knows that the world’s poor will (and are) suffering the most from climate change.  Jeff Bezos won’t be affected by forest fires and tornadoes and loss of cropland.  Scott Bessent won’t be harmed either.  He will be dead before the worst effects are felt, but he will die rich.  That seems to be what motivates these people.  They want to die rich.  The hell with the rest of us.  They will live like kings, and the hell with the rest of us.

See Alan Rappeport and Lisa Friedman,”Bessent Questions Climate Change Cause and Financial Toll,” New York Times, (Apr. 15, 2026), p. A19.

Bombing hospitals

When Trump threatened to destroy the Iranian civilization, most people viewed that as a future threat.  Little did we know the process had already started.  The Times today on page A10 published a partial list of some of the dozens of civilian structures hit by U.S. and Israeli bombs.  Those are two countries that brag about their accuracy in targeting.  

I can’t list all of the buildings damaged or destroyed, but they included the Isfahan University of Technology, the Gandhi Hospital, The Khatam al-Anbia Hospital, the Motahari Burn and Trauma Hospital, the Tehran Emergency Center, the Ghazal Surgical Center, the Imam Ali Hospital, the Delaram Sina Psychiatric Hospital, the Hedayat Boys’ High School, and the Shahid Mahallati Elementrary School.  

This is what Hegseth was praying for.  These are our bombs.

Pope Leo is "weak on crime"

Do we really need to respond to this kind of idiocy?  Is there anything left to say?  Or do we just throw up our hands and move on?  Evidently that is what members of Congress and members of the Cabinet are doing.  

And how do you respond to Trump as Jesus?  Evidently somebody got to him on that one, since he removed the picture some hours after he posted it.  And then he said he thought he was being portrayed as a doctor.  That was so cute.

There is some debate about whether Trump is mentally ill.  Why is that up for debate?  Let me make it clear in case you have doubts.  Yes, Trump is mentally ill.  Period.  And he is in charge of nuclear weapons.

Orban loses in Hungary

In June 2016 the people of the U.K. voted to leave the European Union.  This was a huge shock to many people, including me.  I had a very bad feeling.  If that could happen in the U.K., I saw it as an omen for our own Presidential election that November.  My fears were justified; Trump won.

Today in Hungary the Tisza party won a smashing victory, and the authoritarian dictator Viktor Orban is out.  He didn’t even claim the election was stolen; he congratulated his opponent.  This was after Orban received the support of Putin and Trump.  Netanyahu and J.D. Vance both campaigned for Orban.  None of that mattered.  In fact, all of that probably hurt him.  

I have a very good feeling.  The tide is turning.  This is an omen of what will happen here in November.  You read it here first.

My friend Roger

This morning I emailed my friend Roger in New Jersey to ask him how goldfinches could change from drab grey to bright yellow in less than a week.  Roger in his later life became an amazing birder and photographer of birds, and I figured he would know.  I also asked him about Zillow, the real estate company.  I wanted to know how it worked, and I figured he could tell me, since he had been a realtor for most of his life.

At noon I got a call from his wife, and I had a bad feeling.  She said their daughter had read my email, and she wanted me to know that Roger had died last evening from heart-related issues.  

I met him my first year at Ursinus College, when he was a sophomore.  We lived in the same dorm for three years.  When I went to grad school at Penn State, Roger was an MBA student, and we were apartment mates.  We each had one daughter, and we kept in touch for the last 60 years, occasionally visiting and emailing.  

My father died when he was 91.  He said the hardest thing about getting old was seeing your friends die.  I had five really good friends from my Ursinus days.  I’ve lost touch with two of them, and the other three have died.  I didn’t see Roger that often, but I will miss him.

Another rant about cats and deer

Two species have a deleterious effect on Pennsylvania’s natural environment–cats and deer.  House cats kill millions of birds each year.  The Audubon Society reports that many bird species are in major decline, and one of the big reasons is cats.  We actually have a local organization that takes care of feral cats, raises money for them, and feeds them.  The cats are neutered, but neutered cats kill birds.  But the cates are so cute and furry and cuddly.  No, they aren’t.  They are killing machines.

And deer.  Tonight I counted 23 deer in our fields behind our house.  We rent out those fields to a friend and nearby farmer.  This year I will tell him not to pay me.  With a deer herd that big eating soybeans down to the ground, how can he make any money?  In the Poconos you can see though the forest.  There’s a “browse line.”  The deer eat all the vegetation as far as they can reach.  And people feed them!  But the fawns are so cute.  No, they aren’t.  They are destroying crops and forests.  The only natural predators are coyotes, and there aren’t nearly enough of them.