The Jewish Optimist

In the last few decades the United States has tried to instill democracy in Iraq and in Afghanistan.  The author Fintan O’Toole examined these attempts in the New York Review of Books (Oct. 7, 2021).  Mr. O’Toole wrote that the question was not whether the Iraqis and Afghans were fit for democracy.  The question was whether we were fit to teach it.  Did we have the values to teach?

O’Toole wrote:

     Those values include the accountability of the people in power, the consistent and universal application of human rights, a clear understanding of what policies are trying to achieve, the prevention of corrupt financial influence over political decisions, and the fundamental truthfulness of public utterances.  In the first two decades of the twenty-first century, the American republic was fighting, and often losing, a domestic battle to uphold those values for its own citizens.

Which brings me to my optimistic outlook:  What is the difference between a Jewish optimist and a Jewish pessimist?  The pessimist says, “It can’t possibly get any worse than this.”

“The optimist replies, “Oh, yes it can.”  

I’m very optimistic.

Trump chickens out

Bwaak, Bwaak, Bwaak. Bwaaaak.  That is what both my chickens and Donald Trump sound like.  The stock market tanks, he worries about his rich friends, and he postpones the tariffs that were so important as of just two days ago.  

When push comes to shove, when the feces hits the rotating blades, Mr. Bone Spurs wimps out.  

Of course I sound childish.  You expect more thoughtful analysis, more cogent observations on my posts.  Sorry, sometimes I just can’t help myself.  

Messing up Trump's speech

My colleague once told me that I could come up with more ways to mess up a speech or a demonstration than anyone she every knew.  She did use a synonym for “mess up.”

It isn’t that hard.  Suppose all the Democrats from the House and Senate had simply sat there holding signs that said “Liar.”  Or suppose they had brought books to read.  Or suppose they all had worn Zelensky army shirts.  (They are easy to get; I own one myself.)  I’ve got more, but you get the idea.

Trump has a thin skin.  You don’t need to do a lot to get under it. 

It's worse than the 1890s

In the 1890s U.S. Senators were appointed by state legislatures.  The “trusts”–railroads, oil, steel, and others–could buy Senators on the open markets, or so it seemed.  At least in the “gilded age” there was more than one “trust,” and they sometimes didn’t agree.  

Now one man can buy a state Supreme Court.  In the Wisconsin Supreme Court race a super PAC funded by Elon Musk has already spent 2.3 million on text messages, digital advertisements, and paid canvassers to win a state Supreme Court seat for a former Republican state attorney general. He is running against Susan Crawford, a judge who in her private practice once represented Planned Parenthood.  

How do you fight that when newspapers are defunct, cable news is full of talking heads who say nothing, and most voters get their info from Facebook, X, and other “social media.”  Elon Musk, with his Nazi salutes and apartheid background, is a cancer on the body politic.

Some info is from Reid J. Epstein, “Musk’s Millions Buoy G.O.P. Candidate in Wisconsin Supreme Court Race," New York Times (Feb. 28, 2025), p. A17.  That “buoy” is not an error.  Had I written the headline, I probably would have spelled it “buy.”

Elise Stefanik on Trump's powers

Elise Stefanik said that the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas would not have happened if Trump had been president.  

I’ll bet Trump could halt the tides from rolling in if he went down the seashore and ordered the ocean to stop.  I’m sure any day now he will cure cancer.  Perhaps he might even lay his hands on Elise Stefanik and cure her of her stupidity, but that one might be too much even for Trump.

Where does the name Elon come from?

According to Musk’s biographer, Walter Isaacson, Wernher von Braun, the Nazi’s leading rocket scientist, wrote a science fiction book called “Project Mars.”  (If you want to see a caricature of von Braun, he’s played by Peter Sellers in “Dr. Strangelove.”)

The book is about a colony on Mars, and the political system is described:

     The Martian government was directed by ten men the leader of whom

was elected by universal suffrage for five years and entitled “Elon.”  Two houses of Parliament enacted the laws to be administered by the Elon and his cabinet.

The colony on Mars is part of God’s plan to create the Ubermensch.  After a nuclear war, the right people can escape to Mars.

This is from a novel, but evidently grown men believe it’s a blueprint.  As George W. Bush whispered to Barack Obama during Trump’s first inaugural address:  “This is some weird shit.”

Info for this post is from Fintan O’Toole, “From Comedy to Brutality,” New York Review of Books, (Mar. 13, 2025), pp. 10-14.

Stone Yard Devotional

 Now and then I must do something to take my mind of what is happening to my country.  I am recommending a book by Charlotte Wood entitled Stone Yard Devotional.  I picked it up by chance in the Palmerton Library, read a few paragraphs, and thought it worth trying.  It was wonderful.  The “plot” is difficult to describe.  (A woman takes refuge with a group of nuns living in rural Australia, but that does not do it justice.)

Try it.  Read at least the first 25 pages.  You will be hooked.  And remember I’m an atheist.  Don’t be put off by the title.