The Truth About Truth

 

Here are some things which are True:

1/ Alex Pretti is still dead.

2/ Renee Good is still dead.

3/ Neither one of them should be dead, and neither was either a terrorist or dangerous.

These things are pretty clearly, "self evident," truths.

Another truth:

4/ Jeffrey Epstein is still dead.

And here's something which is neither true nor false: Does anyone really believe Jeffrey Epstein was not murdered?

We have been lied to about his "suicide." And we all know it, but we move on. 

Government lies. 

What else is new?

If Kristi Noem had said Epstein was a terrorist, who was a danger to American citizens, then we could be sure Epstein was murdered, but she never has said that. Neither has Pam Bondi, and Bondi might even know.

Without going into the weeds: What's with all that missing video monitoring of Epstein's cell?  Every time you see that on a Netflix police procedural, you know something's not right. Does life not imitate art?

                            He's lying about being a tough guy. 

And here is a litmus test for whether you are about to be lied to:

1/ Ask your guest who won the 2020 Presidential election. 

If you get a dance--"Well, Joseph Biden was declared the winner," or "Joseph Biden was sworn in as President," then you are dealing with a liar. It would be generous to say you are dealing with a person who is so much a member of the cult, like a member of that Jim Jones cult who drank poison KoolAid they were so under the spell of Jones, or, in this case MAGA, that when they deny Biden won, they are not lying, but simply under a spell. 

Drinking the Kool Aid: Google Jonestown

But the dance is a lie. If they say, "I believe Donald Trump won, and the election was stolen," then they are not lying, but people like Pam Bondi, Kristi Noem and John Wayne Mullin all did the evasion dance, "Well, Joe Biden was proclaimed the winner," wink, wink. They are trying to evade the question which is, "Are you a cult, true believer or not?"

Cult Members in Jonestown who drank the Kool Aid

2/ Ask, "How do you know Iran is building a nuclear weapon?"  Anything other than, "We cannot know for sure, but if there's any chance, then  I'd bomb them back to the Stone Age," then you are being lied to.

He lied about being the Second Coming

3/ Do you believe Donald Trump was lying when he said he was not picturing himself as the Second Coming of Christ with his Truth Social posting or do you think he was simply showing himself as a physician, which is what he says he meant?  If you see the dance, they are lying either to you and/or to themselves, but either way they are lying.

He lied about being disabled for the draft

Lying in politics is as endemic as lying about sex.

When Bill Clinton was caught in a lie about having sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky, the reaction, especially among Black Americans was, "Everyone lies about sex."

As Chris Rock has noted so eloquently, we don't even expect people to tell the truth about sex. We expect them to lie.

Somehow this expectation is likely what dogs Trump about Jeffrey Epstein. You know he's lying, but his MAGA mob forgives lies about sex. We are all sinners.

But, the Epstein thing, under-aged girls, private islands, somehow has a life outside normal manners.

The other thing about Epstein, of all the million words now public, the one thing which sticks in Mad Dog's craw is that note from Trump to Epstein, "And may every day be another wonderful secret." Mad Dog is sorry, but that sounds like a lover's refrain. Nobody Mad Dog has ever mentioned this to has agreed, but Mad Dog thinks if Jeffry Epstein and Trump were gay lovers, then a lot of other things would make sense.

Just saying, as we say in New Hampshire.

Here are a few things we've been lied to about:

1/ The American government lied about overthrowing the Panamanian narco President, Noriega. He was on the payroll of the US government until he became inconvenient. The government lied about him.

2/ Ditto for the Contras, who were on the US payroll and who the US government lied about, with respect to Nicaragua. 

In fact, the U.S. government's only interest in the Caribbean has been the United Fruit company, not any of the island people who grow their products.

3/ The U.S. government arranged for the overthrow of a democratically elected President in Chile, Allende, and funded his execution, as it did with the U.S. puppet in Vietnam, Dieu, and the US government lied about that.

So lying about our nefarious, deadly and undemocratic deeds overseas is like lying about sex: It's expected. Nobody believes or expects to believe our government about stuff that happens outside our borders, like say, in Guantanamo. 

And now the US government lies about what happens inside our borders.

The government lied about the murder of Renee Good, who was not trying to run over a DEA agent with her car.

The government lied about who would benefit from any of Trump's beautiful bills to give away trillions to billionaires.

Trump lied about having a plan, or more precisely the concept of a plan, for healthcare and replacing Obamacare, which Trump lied about saying Obamacare was a disaster, when in fact it was a good thing.

Trump lies about windmills, which are no threat to global bird life or whales. Why he lies about this is unclear. Some people lie about things they don't have to lie about. Some people think he's lying to please the Koch brothers who want oil to be the only option for energy in the US. 

Trump lies about solar power being a bad thing. Even if he believes what he says about solar power, saying it raises energy costs or it is unreliable, he is being willfully wrong, which is the same as lying when it comes right down to it. If you know you are wrong and you simply do not want to hear the truth, then you are lying when you persist in being wrong.

The thing about lying is it is a cousin to fantasy. 

They are not actually fighting. They are acting.

Take professional wrestling: It's clearly not meant to be believed--the stories of the various figures in the ring, the "fights" themselves. Its just a sort of boys' fantasy camp, but the arenas are filled with people delighted, screaming and enjoying the show. Trump spent years promoting professional wrestling, living in that fantasyland.

Fake wresting

Real Wrestling, Not faked

That's where we are now with Trump and Hegseth and Miller and that smarmy Scott Bessent. They are all stomping around the ring, play acting, roaring like Hulk Hogan, having a good time, and the 40% are out there in the cheap seats roaring with delight.

They love the lie.

That's Not Really Him. He doesn't look like this.

It's fun.

It's just not true.

Amazing Grace: Our Savior is Risen in Donald John Trump

 

Our father, who art in Heaven, has apparently, finally sent the Second Coming of his Son back down to earth, and if 37% of Americans have their way, it will be the End of Times, the Rapture, not just the end of a trivial 2,000 year old Persian civilization, but the saving of all mankind, as Donald John Trump has done risen.

And, Mad Dog notes, it was not the Catholic Church which is responsible, as all his Ku Klux Klan friends have always warned him, but the evangelical Protestants, while the soft-on-crime Catholics, who soured on crucifixions because they thought that punishment barbaric, while Mr. Trump quickly grasped that real men dealt with their enemies with nails through the hands and feet, or dumps of excrement from the heavens. 

How could Mad Dog have been so blind?

But now he sees.

And will Donald the John save a wretch like thee?

                               Prophet of Peace

One can only hope, and if you have faith, you will be rewarded with riches beyond calculation, maybe with Bitcoin, maybe not. We'll have to see. In two, maybe three weeks, but you really should buy the Trump Bible for only $99.99. (If you act now, he'll throw in a few Trump steaks.) And really, this Bible is just so beautiful, but you better get yours fast, because, you know, time is running out. And in fact, it's the end of times, coming soon. 

For the savior is among us, and he's sent his angels to the Strait of Hormuz.

Grace will teach their hearts to fear, how precious does that grace now appear.

We were lost in Biden and Obama and on the ground.

Were lost but now we're found.

Were blind, but now we see.

And as John, for whom Donald is partially named, has said, "Then you will know the Truth. And the Truth shall set you free."

Ay-man to that. (Not Ah-men, as the Catholics say, but the true Ay-[rhymes with hay]man.)

Conventional Wisdom

 

The bombing of civilian infrastructure, bridges, power plants is a "war crime."

Pythons in Florida swamps and Norwegian maple trees in New Hampshire are "invasive species."

Colonizing the moon and Mars are an expression of the human spirit of exploration and represents a grand vision for the future of humanity which visionaries like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos will bring us.

We want workplaces, universities and clubs to "look like America."

Mad Dog hears these things and they make his head spin, his stomach growl and his fingers itch. These are articles of faith, such deeply engrained conventional podcast wisdom nobody even questions them any more, or, well, not "nobody" but too few people question them. We don't groan or cry out--we just let these things sail by as not worth challenging because so many people just nod and say, "Yeah, we know all that."

WAR CRIMES

The "war crime" thing is usually followed by some mention of the "Geneva Convention." As Mad Dog understands it, after World War II, a number of nations signed a treaty to prevent behavior by nations such as bombing civilian populations, destroying water supplies, torturing prisoners, exacting collective punishment for the crimes of a few terrorists--things for which the Allies executed Hitler's minions and generals, what Goering called, "victors' justice," meaning none of these things would be considered immoral or criminal if the Nazis had won the war by doing these things. 

The answer to "war crimes" is that life on earth was ever so, brutal, ruthless and selfish, and people who try to prettify, restrain or pretend we can wage war like gentlemen are ridiculous fools who think war ought to be fought with chivalry by gallant warriors. 

The only reason poison gas was not used during WWII was the fear if you used it, the other side would use it, and that fear, shared by both sides, worked unreasonably well. The first instance of mutually assured destruction.

Of course, the Americans  fire bombed Japanese cities relentlessly, targeting civilians, setting afire "non combatant" people, homes, factories, everything, even before Hiroshima. That was justified as a way of winning the war. 

But now, all that, which was once called "total war," is called immoral and "illegal." In reaction to that, in 1949 diplomats traipsed off to Geneva, and promised their countries would never do any of that again. They signed papers with ink. But, of course, by 1965, none of that mattered, as the United States tried to bomb Vietnam back to the Stone Age, mined harbors and set villages afire with napalm.

If there is nobody to enforce a law, is there a law?

If a tree falls in a forest and no ear to hear it, is there a sound?

Pete Hegseth argues we are fools to talk about rules of engagement and he joins Sylvester Stallone and Rambo saying we would have won in Vietnam if only those prissy generals had allowed us to fight with both hands rather than one tied behind our back. It was the American version of the Hitler thing about our indominable armies having been stabbed in the back by their own politicians and undesirable elements.

But nobody ever called any of this Vietnam behavior "war crimes," because these acts were committed by Americans, and even the My Lai massacre of infants and mothers, where photos were undeniable in the age before AI, none of the soldiers or officers who shot infants in the head were convicted--save the infamous Lt. Calley, who served three years of house arrest and then released.

Oh, well. Boys will be boys.

The fact is, when you unleash the dogs of war, they are going to go for the jugular, as the good citizens of Minneapolis discovered. Put guns in the hands of low grade psychopaths and sadists and bad things are going to happen, but that's not a "war crime."

Oh, well, boys will be boys and anyone they kill is a terrorist.

Renee Good

"Crime" means there is some authority to enforce transgressions, but when it's the authorities who are transgressing, there can be no crime. 

If a law is not enforced, it ceases to be a law.

"If the President does it, it's legal." Who said that? 

A/ Nixon? 

B/ Trump? 

C/ The Supreme Court?

 D/ All of the above?

No such thing as a war crime, because war itself is a crime against humanity. And we got no international police force, no international courts which are not a joke, or which have any power to enforce their decisions. Hell, we barely have a Supreme Court in the United States any more--just a bought and paid for rubber stamp for President Trump.

INVASIVE SPECIES

Then there is the concept of "invasive species." Trump would have you believe dark skinned immigrants are an invasive species, and when Mad Dog tried to buy a maroon leafed Norwegian maple, he was told they are illegal in New Hampshire because they are an "invasive species." 

Wrong leaf color. 

Never mind that you never see these trees growing wild in any wooded area in New Hampshire, but only as ornamental trees planted outside schools, parks or homes. 

If  you've taken introductory biology, you know that every species which has ever existed on the planet is an invasive species, seeking out a niche to occupy, out competing other plants or animals for resources, establishing its tenuous foothold in the great competition which is life on earth.

So when human beings say a tree or a fish is not "native" to some place, they mean they do not like that particular tree or fish, and it is crowding out other trees or fish they do like. 

It's a value judgment. 

It's true, some fish can be so successful, they obliterate other fish in the lake and so the lake has fewer varieties of fish, so if that successful fish, which is now the only species, ever succumbs to a virus or a change in temperature, the ecosystem is less diverse and a particular lake may find itself devoid of fish, until a new one arrives to occupy that niche. 

Feral pigs are causing widespread destruction in Texas, and clearly are invasive, as they are the descendants of pigs left off by Spanish explorers, and we do not like them one bit, so they are invasive. 

And don't get Mad Dog started on lampreys in the Great Lakes.

When the Charlotteville Unite the Right MAGA's chanted, "You Will Not Replace US," they were expressing this very sentiment--we are the good   [White] species, and a new, invasive species with Brown or Black skin speaking Spanish or Haitian will not replace us, because they are the  invasive species and we are the natives.

                           You Will Not Replace Us!

But, as George Carlin observed, every human being is an invader, is not native, except, perhaps for a few living in the Rift Valley of Africa, where homo sapiens may have emerged from apes, but everyone else spread out from there, walked or boated across Asia and on to the Bering Strait or down the West Coast of North America by boat, all the way to Patagonia. 

So "Native Americans" are not actually natives, no more "native" than the Europeans who exterminated them, pushed them off the continent using more advanced technology and a determination to end the nomadic hunter/gatherer way of live on the Great Plains, and replaced it with industrialized agriculture. It was a case of one group being better adapted to the environment, even changing the environment to displace another and occupying a niche.

So "Native Americans" is a misnomer and, in fact, if George Carlin is correct, "Indians" were not named by mistake because Columbus thought he had reached India, but because he thought them "Indus Deus," that is people of God, and so there is nothing disparaging about calling people "Indians."

Of course, Native Americans may prefer "Native Americans" because it sounds more entitled, but that's another story. 

Indians were outcompeted by an invasive species, namely the Europeans.

COLONIZING SPACE FOR HOMO SAPIENS

Then there is the idea of needing to colonize Mars or distant solar systems to ensure humankind survives the coming Armageddon.  Truth is, there is nothing within reach--not just within our own lifetimes, but for millions of years, even if we could use nuclear fusion to power our spacecraft and travel at nearly the speed of light (and you cannot go faster). 

But we do it because we are human beings and human beings are explorers and adventurers.

By the time we reach Alpha Centauri, the nearest star in another galaxy 100,000 earth years would have elapsed. To put that in perspective, dinosaurs roamed the earth until 66,000 years ago, so any earthling to reach this new solar system would wake up on his spacecraft and the people who sent him (us) would have gone the way of the dinosaurs back home. Certainly, your girlfriend back on earth would not remember you.

And nobody is going to farm potatoes on Mars, not now,  not ever. And if they did, they'd have no market for them either on Mars or back on earth. Love Matt Damon, but really, "The Martian" is actually just a fun movie, not a visionary manifesto.

LOOKING LIKE AMERICA

And finally, there is the idea that our colleges and work places should "look like America." Corporate CEO's say such stuff. So do deans of medical school admissions. As if looking like America, if we could even agree what that means, would be a desirable thing in a medical school class or in an architectural firm or in at a Ford dealership.

Really, why are looks so important? 

Aren't colleges, just to take one example, supposed to be about stuff which is not connected to visual characteristics? Whatever happened to admitting homely girls who were good at differential calculus to college? Or nerds who taught themselves to program and used that to publish a photo book of the girls in the freshman class so guys could know who they wanted to date and now they had the phone numbers to call up their weekend fantasies. 

Does she look like America?
 But she's cute, so let her in

Even if we did decide to look like America: What would that even mean? That might mean that we'd have people with different skin colors, and maybe they'd even speak different languages at home--Spanish, French, Zulu, Swahili, Dutch, Africans, German, Russian--but, truth be told, even if theses folks had parents who spoke those languages, if they were American raised, likely they'd speak only one language. 

If you speak two languages, you are bilingual. If you speak only one language, you are American.

Now, on Starship Enterprise, it was lovely to see people of all different races, and even some folks with pointed ear pinnae who might not even be homo sapiens, working harmoniously without a trace of racial prejudice. It's a vision of a better world, a better future. But if we learned that Dr. Spock was selected for the crew because he filled the Vulcan quota,  would that not diminish the joy?

So, these are some of the unexamined articles of faith we hear and so uncritically accept, and Mad Dog feels ever so much better getting this all off his half Klingon half Hobbit chest.

TACO Tuesday at the Phantom Toll Booth

Last night, Tuesday, April 7, 2026 did not end a thousand year old civilization. Total war against Iran did not ignite and a ceasefire, which many pundits had told us was not something Iran would ever accept, actually took hold.

Why Iran would not be expected to accept a cease fire was blatantly obvious: The U.S., and most notably its ally in this war, Israel, has ignored every ceasefire, and in fact the U.S. tends to step up its bombing during negotiations. And Israel, well just ask Gaza about ceasefires with Israel.

But the Iranians, unlike Mr. Trump, are no fools, and if they can get something without losing their power plants and bridges, they are shrewd enough to take that deal.

Now, if reporting can be believed, they've got Trump accepting Iranian tolls on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, which they never had before, in a tacit concession by Mr. Trump that the Iranians hold all the cards in that critical passageway. They've come away with a Phantom Toll booth--not a bad deal for them.

But Trump can claim a victory, and maybe he can go home, or at least he can allow the Marines and the U.S. Navy to go home after they flex their Rambo muscles for a while.

Fact is, the Iranians live there, and they cannot and have no reason to try to leave.

It's not like the Israeli settlers who claim land owned by Palestinians, and move in, mow down houses and build their own: Americans don't want to live around Hormuz--they don't even want to build expensive Condos there for time sharing and luxury beach front property. 

Mr. Putin must be laughing, with his bros in the Kremlin, and, in case you've forgotten, Renee Good and Alex Pretti are still dead. Pete Hegseth has not brought them back from the dead. 

And Jeffrey Epstein did not hang himself. 

 

Tuesday's Gone

 "Tuesday will be power plant day and bridge day, all wrapped up in one in Iran. There will be nothing like it. Open the fuckin strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in hell. Just watch. Praise be to Allah."

--Donald J. Trump, President of the United States of America

During the Second World War, the United States Navy unleashed naval bombardment on Japanese troops who were protected deep inside cement tunnels, only to emerge to slaughter American marines once the bombing stopped. 

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, as President Kennedy considered his options, the possibility of simply launching a quick strike with Marines to depose Castro and to defeat the Cuban government was considered. Marine Commandant David Shoup briefed President Kennedy and his advisors. General Shoup displayed a large map of Cuba, and in the middle of the island was a red dot. That red dot was to scale representing the island of Tarawa. "It took us 18,000 Marines," he said and the casualties were enormous. What do you think, he asked, the cost of invading Cuba would be, and how long would it take? 

Charlottesville Rambos

JFK was a veteran of the Pacific war, where Guadalcanal, another small island, claimed the lives of seven thousand Marines and took 6 months to subdue.

 JFK took invasion off the table. 

Donald J. Trump's bone spurs precluded any chance he would have first hand knowledge of what combat can and cannot achieve. 

There is an old adage in the Pentagon: "Never allow an air force general to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff when you are facing a ground war: They only know what you can see from ten thousand feet." Which is to say, you cannot win a war with air power alone.  When air force generals argue that World War Two was ended by the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, they are wrong.  Japan was already defeated by naval blockade, and an island hopping grinding war and when the Russians entered the war and overwhelmed  the Japanese army in Manchuria, the Japanese finally capitulated. The atomic bombs were not decisive. 

What really worries most of the true cognoscenti is that Israel may use a score of atomic bombs against Iran, as Israel faces effective missile and drone strikes from Iran which Israel's "Iron Dome" cannot defend against.

And, of course, Trump's threats are empty. Even if he damaged Iran's economy and infrastructure severely, the damage to Western, and yes, to America's economy would be worse.

The question is: Can Trump's advisors put together a video to show him which might help him understand this.

Russia expected a quick victory in Ukraine. They did not expect drones would decimate their columns of tanks.

The best we can hope for is a TACO (Trump always chickens out) Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Renee Good and Alex Pretti are still dead.

And so, for that matter, is Jeffrey Epstein.

Terrorist killed by Submarine

 Barney Frank, the former Massachusetts Congressman, once remarked that he could not recall a terrorist ever being killed by a submarine.

What he was talking about is you have to use the right weapon for a particular enemy, and more generally, you have to fight a war with the right weapons.

There is that indelible scene in David Lean's movie, "Lawrence of Arabia" where an Arab king on horseback pursues a Turkish airplane strafing his village frantically waving his sword at the plane as it disappears off into the sky.

During the war in Vietnam, American military officials repeated the reassuring phrase, "We are bombing them back to the Stone Age," as the Viet Cong sheltered safely in their tunnels only to emerge during the Tet Offensive of 1968 to over run American and South Vietnamese positions.

Bombed Back to the Stone Age

Stone Aged Victory Entering Saigon

North Vietnam Emerges from Stone Age

In our current war on Iran, Secretary of Excursion, Pete Hegseth takes the podium to assure his bros in the sports bars that we are bombing them back to the Stone Age, hitting them while they're down, eviscerating the Iranian Air Force and Navy, which means, of course, we must be winning.

The Real Casualties of US Power

Of course, no mention is made of the Iranian's successful attack which set afire the Gerald Ford aircraft carrier, using a $20,000 drone to defeat a $3 billion aircraft carrier. The Ford has fled the field of battle as has the rest of the US Navy, effectively. We have only a show Navy there now. They are too vulnerable to cheapie drones and missiles to risk. Fourth rate powers like Iran and Yemen can take them out with dime store weapons.

Robert MacNamara, a hawk on Vietnam, lost faith in the ability of the United States to win that war no matter how many battles it won because he calculated it cost $20,000 to kill a single Viet Cong.

By that sort of analysis, we have already lost the war with Iran, which uses drones and missiles which cost tens of thousands of dollars while the U.S. and Israel spend missiles costing millions to bring down each of those Iranian weapons.

It is also likely that the Iranians can replace these cheap missiles more rapidly than the Americans can replace their million dollar Patriots.

Beyond all that, the real end point is who controls the Strait of Hormuz, which clearly the United States cannot do, and has, tacitly, admitted it has no chance of doing. The Strait is lined with mountainous caves from which missiles cannot be dislodged, and, in any event, the Iranians can close the Strait without missiles, using fast boats armed with drones or simply mines. So Trump has shrugged his shoulders and said, "We don't need the Strait of Hormuz. Let NATO worry about Hormuz."

Which is to say, we cannot beat Iran. Iran will still be there no matter how many Iranians we kill or how many power plants we bomb and we, eventually, have to go back to from where we came.

But, we beat them! USA! USA! 

Sieg Heil!

And once again, America has won a non touch war, fought on the other side of an ocean costing only money and few expendable middle class lives of hero servicemen and women who we solemnly welcome back in their coffins to Andrews Air Force Base, having made the ultimate sacrifice for a President who thinks them fools and losers.

The average MAGA mob guy will grumble about paying more for gas at the pump, but he knows that won't last long, as his President has reminded him: A short war we can declare we won is not really a war, but only an excursion and we won it, and moved on.

MAGA. MAGA.

And who was that fellow Jeffrey Epstein anyway? So last week's news.