Tipping Point

 

Tipping Point

This quote was Trump's Easter Day message to Iran, perhaps to the American people. His messages are usually contorted, often created to bolster his image (which is always under attack), counter the popular press, (which runs on the Opposition's bias), and to avenge himself upon the forces which historically have tried to undermine him with what must be described as calumny. All that and Zitos's brilliant description, "His enemies take him literally but not seriously, his supporters take him seriously, but not literally."

That is to say, we must take him in context.

We must approach our leaders carefully. It's a tough job. Often, they are chosen for reasons beyond their reach. Sometimes, the democracy offers options that have nothing to do with the democratic process and are entirely the result of small-minded party politics and ambition.

This is not an excuse; it is a description of our long-standing problem: we are real people living with real-world problems, who have created a revolutionary political vision, but are being ruled by politicians who live in a self-gratifying political world of symbolism and fantasy.

Take Iran. The country is an ancient, influential, and coherent people, currently ruled by a theocracy with an apocalyptic vision of confrontation and destruction. They are situated on an energy chokepoint. Over the years, Iran's powerful opponents, fearful of that chokepoint, have avoided confrontation and, occasionally, have actually supported the regime's military advancement financially. Kicking the can down the road...to what? A religious conversion? An emerging fear?

But angry martyrs are not afraid. This direction leads toward inevitable confrontation. The question is, confrontation under what circumstances? Now, their military gone, Iran defaults to their basic strength, the chokepoint. Maximum damage with tiny resources. The true terrorist advantage.

We have a debt of $38 trillion. This is because we spend more than we create. It is not from our incredible graft or immigrants. Those are serious, different problems. We spend too much. That will not go on forever, despite how our politicians act.

These problems, Iran, and debt — and many others —will not go away. They will be resolved. Or they will resolve themselves. The question is how. And every day of delay makes the resolution less controllable.

I do not envy Trump, but he did choose this. And his opponents, whose interest in America's success is only coincidental, will offer no help. His effort to grapple with these problems is admirable. But he is not. There is no reason, if you show the strength to confront these evolving crises, to cry out and tear your clothes. This is a proud country, and it should be. Having its leader weep like Europe is demeaning and spiritless. Man up. Be an example for the nation. Even Lincoln, huge as he was, never allowed himself to eclipse the nation or the cause he was fighting for.

“The time is out of joint—O cursèd spite,
That ever I was born to set it right!”

Easter/Sunday

On this day:

1242
During a battle on the ice of Lake Peipus, Russian forces, led by Alexander Nevsky, rebuff an invasion attempt by the Teutonic Knights.
1862
American Civil War: The Battle of Yorktown begins.
1900
Archaeologists in Knossos, Crete, discover a large cache of clay tablets with hieroglyphic writing in a script they call Linear B.

***

“The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.” — Fyodor Dostoyevsky

***

According to AI, Pilots can experience G-forces ranging from 12 to 20 Gs during ejection.

***

Obama's presidential campaign promised "fundamental change" in the country. What did he mean by that?

***

"Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F—n’ Strait, you crazy 

b—--ds, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP”

This is a tweet from the President of the United States.

Is having thoughtful, intelligent, patriotic, reflective leadership in this country too much to ask for?

***

Alexander Nevsky was a prince of a Russian city-state in a period when Russia was caught between Western Catholic crusaders seeking religious and territorial expansion, and Eastern Mongol invaders (the Golden Horde) enforcing brutal domination over the region. He is famous for his defeat of the Swedes at the river Neva (giving him his name) and "the Battle on the Ice" where he defeated the Germanic Teutonic Knights. He also negotiated--to his own advantage--with the Mongols.
He was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1547.


***

Easter/Sunday

Easter is the essential Christian event. Every aspect of the Christian church hinges on Christ's resurrection.

The gospel is filled with little particulars (the woman hesitant to enter the tomb, Peter being outrun to the tomb, the meticulous arrangement of the burial cloths, the assumption that the body was stolen--after the assumption by the Pharisees that the apostles would steal it)--all giving misdirection and specificity to what becomes the philosophical earthquake of all time. And, of course, another biblical irony: The first to arrive, the women, could not be legal witnesses.

Yet how does this all hinge? Hearsay? The interpretation of a sacred book? Amulets and magic rites? No. Amazingly, it hinges on us.

By the time Christ rises, we know all the players. We even have some insights about them. They are not revolutionaries, not mystics and, while seemingly sincere, they are not special. They are relatively normal working folks with responsibilities and, probably, annoyed families. As seen by their behavior during the Passion, they are not fully aware of what is happening. Nor are they particularly brave. Yet, after this crisis where their leader is tortured and killed, they somehow emerge as philosophers and martyrs. They all, to a man, experience a mind-changing, life-changing event. Scattered and leaderless they raise a religious movement that challenges everything in its time and, eventually, forces mighty Rome to adapt.

Christ performed the great, unarguable miracle. It was the behavior of men, people, who confirmed and developed it. No leap of faith was necessary. They were convinced and changed. Then they convinced and changed the world.

Easter Eve

On this day:

397
Death of St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan

1147
First historical record of Moscow.
1581
Francis Drake is knighted for completing a circumnavigation of the world.
1814
Napoleon abdicates for the first time
1841
William Henry Harrison dies of pneumonia becoming the first President of the United States to die in office and the one with the shortest term served.
1865
American Civil War: A day after Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln visits the Confederate capital.
1905
In India, the 1905 Kangra earthquake hits the Kangra valley, kills 20,000, and destroys most buildings in Kangra, Mcleodganj and Dharamshala
1968
Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 6.
1968
Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated by James Earl Ray at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee.

1991
Senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania and six others are killed when a helicopter collides with their plane over an elementary school in Merion, Pennsylvania.

***

“It’s not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things. They can do it on a state basis. You can’t do it on a federal. We have to take care of one thing: military protection. We have to guard the country.”--Trump, letting the truth slip.

The Easter luncheon where the president made these remarks was not open to the press, but the White House posted the video of Trump’s remarks on its YouTube page — as it usually does with open press events — and then deleted it.

***

Medicaid lost $100 billion to fraud in one year, according to Oz. Oz.

***

Links between social media use and mental wellness in youth are an artifact of other factors: implications for public policy and meta- analysis--paper by Christopher J.Ferguson

So, question answered?

***

Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the opening of a new daycare center for municipal workers on Monday that will cost more than double the average price of child care, to a tune of nearly $60,000 per kid.

***

St. Ambrose was a theologian of the transition period between the decline of Rome and a rise of Christianity, mediating the struggle between the secular and religious powers.. He was an intellectual bridge between the Platonist philosophy of the old world and the spiritual new world. He integrated Eastern arts with the West. He converted and baptised Augustine.

***

Easter Eve

For all its importance, Easter in the New Testament is treated more as a challenge to Christ's followers than the challenge to nature and the intellect that it is. Several descriptions vary considerably; in one, the confused followers find a empty tomb with some linen fallen underfoot, some strangely, neatly folded. But in most the empty tomb is mediated by some extraordinary event or individual, earthquake or angel. Then the story seems to go into suspended animation. There is no cataclysmic epiphany. The realization is gradual--in typical biblical cosmic humor, the first witnesses are not even legal witnesses, as they are women. Christ's astonishing miracle is made clear and defined slowly to various individuals, one at a time.
As befits a collision of the physical and the spiritual which results in a new supernatural order.

 

.Good Friday

On this day:
33
Generally agreed-upon date for the historical crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth,
865
American Civil War: Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederate States of America.
1882
American Old West: Jesse James is killed by Robert Ford.
1885
Gottlieb Daimler is granted a German patent for his engine design.
1888
The first of 11 unsolved brutal murders of women committed in or near the impoverished Whitechapel district in the East End of London, occurs.
1948
President Harry S. Truman signs the Marshall Plan, authorizing $5 billion in aid for 16 countries.
1996
Suspected “Unabomber” Theodore Kaczynski is arrested at his cabin in Montana, United States.

***

History is a novel whose author is the people. -Alfred de Vigny, poet, playwright, and novelist

***

A professional comedian has a routine ridiculing a young woman who was made a widow by a gruesome public murder. 

Indecency and cruelty are apparently not covered by the Constitution.

Does society have no option?

***

The most intense tornado outbreak on record hit 13 states and southern Ontario in the opening days of April 1974, solidifying its spot in history as the 'Super Outbreak' against which all future outbreaks would be measured.

Experts confirmed nearly 150 twisters over the course of 24 hours

***

Don't know this military site but the story is provocative. If true, it raises some questions about how the West should position itself here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-eKb0Mm4zs

***

For most of the West, the story is about the individual, their actions, their decisions. However, for many in the non-Western world, the story is about things outside of their agency. 

Is there movement present? Which way?

***

Good Friday


How the norms slide and slip, how the bell-shaped curve moves. Two poems about Good Friday that were outliers are now the norm.


Christina Rossetti's Good Friday


Am I a stone, and not a sheep,

That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy cross,

To number drop by drop Thy blood’s slow loss,

And yet not weep?


Not so those women loved

Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee;

Not so fallen Peter, weeping bitterly;

Not so the thief was moved;


Not so the Sun and Moon

Which hid their faces in a starless sky,

A horror of great darkness at broad noon –

I, only I.


Yet give not o’er,

But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;

Greater than Moses, turn and look once more

And smite a rock.


And the atheist Housmann's Easter Sunday, taking the human-centric position of the thief:


If in that Syrian garden, ages slain,

You sleep, and know not you are dead in vain,

Nor even in dreams behold how dark and bright

Ascends in smoke and fire by day and night

The hate you died to quench and could but fan,

Sleep well and see no morning, son of man.


But if, the grave rent and the stone rolled by,

At the right hand of majesty on high

You sit, and sitting so remember yet

Your tears, your agony and bloody sweat,

Your cross and passion and the life you gave,

Bow hither out of heaven and see and save.

Egalitarianism Broadens

On this day:

1863
Richmond Bread Riot: Food shortages incite hundreds of angry women to riot in Richmond, Virginia, and demand that the Confederate government release emergency supplies.
1865
American Civil War: Confederate President Jefferson Davis and most of his Cabinet flee the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.
1865
American Civil War: The Siege of Petersburg is broken – Union troops capture the trenches around Petersburg, Virginia, forcing Confederate General Robert E. Lee to retreat.
2002
Israeli forces surround the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem into which armed Palestinians had retreated. A siege ensues. Ecumenism.
2004
Islamist terrorists involved in the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks attempt to bomb the Spanish high-speed train AVE near Madrid. Their attack is thwarted

***

A cult is a religion with no political power.--Tom Wolfe

***

Obama campaigned on a slogan to "fundamentally change America." What does that mean?

***

The Petersburg campaign consisted of nine months of trench warfare in which Union forces commanded by Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant assaulted Petersburg unsuccessfully and then constructed trench lines that eventually extended over 30 miles (48 km) from the eastern outskirts of Richmond, Virginia, to around the eastern and southern outskirts of Petersburg. Petersburg was crucial to the supply of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's army and the Confederate capital of Richmond.
Key battles included the Battle of the Crater and the Battle of Fort Stedman.

***


Egalitarianism Broadens

The one-worlders in this country, a bit behind an increasingly alarmed Europe (Asia is not participating), hope to improve upon the vision of freedom and man's individual worth and responsibility by randomizing the American population base. Why a nation would earnestly assimilate people who have no interest in its future--and, in some instances, active hostility to it--is unclear. Yet such an effort is underway.

Many of the new breed Americans see the country as a theme park where they can hunt the locals for sport. One such pioneer recently shot a young girl in Chicago, an event that seems at best casual. He likely was uninformed of her right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
He also has a case of open tuberculosis.

Consistent with previous years, in 2025, TB disease disproportionally affected non-U.S.–born persons. Among non-U.S.–born persons, there were 7,858 (77%) provisionally reported TB cases, with a corresponding rate of 15.4 per 100,000 persons. Among U.S.-born persons, there were 2,252 (22%) provisionally reported TB cases with a corresponding rate of 0.8 per 100,000 persons.

This is a serious, communicable illness that American science has been trying to wipe out-- with a lot of success--for 100 years.
One wonders if our eagerness to be unselective in our immigrant population might have some medical limits. 

Maybe they have a misunderstanding of 'white plague.' Or maybe they see third-world illnesses as egalitarian. But seemingly, these people don't feel an obligation to protect Americans medically, either.

Ritualized Mendacity

On this day:

1826
Samuel Morey patents the internal combustion engine.
1865
American Civil War: Battle of Five Forks – In Siege of Petersburg, Confederate General Robert E. Lee begins his final offensive.
1873
The British steamer RMS Atlantic sinks off Nova Scotia, killing 547.
1924
Adolf Hitler is sentenced to five years in jail for his participation in the “Beer Hall Putsch”. However, he spends only nine months in jail, during which he writes Mein Kampf.
1939
Generalísimo Francisco Franco of the Spanish State announces the end of the Spanish Civil War, when the last of the Republican forces surrender.
1944
Navigation errors lead to an accidental American bombing of the Swiss city of Schaffhausen.
1949
The Canadian government repeals Japanese Canadian internment after seven years.
1957
The BBC broadcasts the spaghetti tree hoax on its current affairs programme Panorama.

***

“If you can detach yourself temperamentally from the crowd, you'll get very rich. You won't have to be very bright. It doesn't take brains. It takes temperament.”--Buffett

***

Newly released photos appeared to show the husband of former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem cross-dressing in private messages to several women.


***

“It was once believed that clones were identical to the original, but it has become clear through this study that mutations occur at a rate three times higher than in offspring born through natural mating.” That quote is one of the clearest summaries of why the study matters: genome sequencing showed that cloned mice were not preserving a perfect copy of the donor. Instead, the defects kept being passed forward, with no genetic reshuffling to help remove them.--project head, Wakayama

***

"We're not a rich country. We're a debtor nation," then-candidate Trump told The Washington Post in an interview on March 31, 2016 (a full transcript was published two days later). "We've got to get rid of the $19 trillion in debt."

How long would it take to do that, asked the Post's Bob Woodward.

"Fairly quickly," Trump replied. When pressed for a more specific answer, Trump provided a shocking timeline. "Well, I would say over a period of eight years."

***

Ritualized Mendacity

April Fool's Day, once an opportunity for annoying dim-wits, has become a national Holy Day of Obligation. The silliest frauds are presented as accurate with the straightest of faces. Social lies are routine.

Just like daily life.

In our modern culture of unchallenged opportunism and mendacity, April Fool's Day has become more of a cautionary tale.

The lead singer of the New York Times’ 1619 Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones, is on record calling the white race “the biggest murderer, rapist, pillager, and thief in the modern world.” Despite this, the 1619 educational curriculum—much of which conveys basically the same point of view—is one of the more popular educational supplements in American schools. Major magazines and journals, at the level of Salon, quite regularly run articles with titles like “White Men Must Be Stopped–the Future of Mankind Depends on It.” Maybe we have become so tolerant, so non-judgmental, we will tolerate anything. 

As Sec. Mayorkas said, "The border is closed."

April Fools' Day has become a welcome day of benign jokes and foolishness amidst our days of serious lies, manipulation, and propaganda. There have been some real efforts made at its comic relief. In 1957, the BBC reported that Swiss farmers were experiencing a record spaghetti crop and showed footage of people harvesting noodles from trees. In 1985, Sports Illustrated tricked many of its readers when it ran a made-up article about a rookie pitcher named Sidd Finch who could throw a fastball over 168 miles per hour. In 1996, Taco Bell, the fast-food restaurant chain, duped people when it announced it had agreed to purchase Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell and intended to rename it the Taco Liberty Bell. In 1998, after Burger King advertised a “Left-Handed Whopper,” scores of clueless customers requested the fake sandwich.
There is probably little to learn about humans through this. Most of us, simply by observing politics, know that some people will believe anything.

The origin of April Fools' Day is uncertain. The best explanation is the confusion caused by the change of the New Year from April First to January First.
Ancient cultures, including those of the Romans and Hindus, celebrated New Year's Day on or around April 1. It closely follows the vernal equinox (March 20th or March 21st). In medieval times, much of Europe celebrated March 25, the Feast of Annunciation, as the beginning of the new year.
In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII ordered a new calendar (the Gregorian Calendar) to replace the old Julian Calendar. The new calendar called for New Year's Day to be celebrated Jan. 1.
It is said that some refused to accept the new calendar and became the object of ridicule at that time of year.

In a great story, Joseph Boskin, a professor of history at Boston University, explained that the practice began during the reign of Constantine, when a group of court jesters and fools told the Roman emperor that they could do a better job of running the empire. Constantine, amused, allowed a jester named Kugel to be king for one day. Kugel passed an edict calling for absurdity on that day, and the custom became an annual event.
"In a way," explained Prof. Boskin, "it was a very serious day. In those times, fools were really wise men. It was the role of jesters to put things in perspective with humor."
This explanation was brought to the public's attention in an Associated Press article printed by many newspapers in 1983. Wonderfully, Boskin had made the whole thing up. It took a couple of weeks for the AP to realize that they'd been victims of an April Fools' joke themselves.

So, enjoy your spaghetti or your left-handed whopper. You need the break. 

Tempest

On this day:

1146
Bernard of Clairvaux preaches his famous sermon in a field at Vézelay, urging the necessity of a Second Crusade. Louis VII is present, and joins the Crusade.
1492
Queen Isabella of Castille issues the Alhambra decree, ordering her 150,000 Jewish subjects to convert to Christianity or face expulsion.
1717
A sermon on “The Nature of the Kingdom of Christ” by Benjamin Hoadly, the Bishop of Bangor, provokes the Bangorian Controversy.
1854
Commodore Matthew Perry signs the Treaty of Kanagawa with the Japanese government, opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American trade.
1994
Human evolution: The journal Nature reports the finding in Ethiopia of the first complete Australopithecus afarensis skull.
1995
Selena, an American singer, was murdered by her friend and employee of her boutiques, Yolanda Saldívar, who was embezzling money from the establishments. The event was named “Black Friday” by Hispanics.

***

“The worst enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge”--Hawking

***

America first, right after I call my broker: 

A broker for U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attempted to make a ​big investment in major defense companies in the weeks ‌leading up to the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

***

Bangorian Controversy: From John 18:36, "My kingdom is not of this world." Hoadly deduced, supposedly at the request of the king himself, that there is no biblical justification for any church government of any sort. He had not delegated his power, like temporal lawgivers during their absence, to any persons as his deputies; and that the church of England, as all other national churches, was merely a civil or human institution, established for the purpose of diffusing and perpetuating the knowledge and belief of Christianity.

***

NASA is targeting an April 1 launch for the historic Artemis II mission, with meteorologists currently tracking an 80% "Go" weather forecast at Kennedy Space Center.

***

13 starting pitchers across all of MLB were drafted out of high school, are still with the team that drafted them, and, according to FanGraphs' 2026 playing time projections, are projected to be one of their team's primary starting pitchers this season. The Pirates have four of them — Mitch Keller, Braxton Ashcraft, Bubba Chandler, and Jared Jones.

***


Tempest

The American court is a microcosm of the evolution of the American democracy. 

A debate over right and wrong, sometimes life and death, is moderated by a supervisor of uncertain--but undeniably unpredictable-- intelligence and knowledge, carried out between equally unpredictable individuals willing to debate either side of the conflict for money. This is resolved by the votes of twelve average citizens assigned this duty against their will.

A recent case is enlightening. Meta, a huge company that deals in complex technology and algorithmic predictability, was accused of luring children into an interactive computer program, habituating them to it, and distorting their personalities and judgment. They were accused of developing a product that encouraged people to like it and then changing how they think.

People selling a product with the hope that customers will like it? A technology company can predict how people's minds develop and work when no psychiatrist, or physician, or research scientist can? The complex ball of yarn that is nature and nurture has been untangled?
These complexities will be debated and decided by the same people on your bus?

Oh, brave new world!