The Bicentennial

People Magazine: See How America Celebrated Its 200th Birthday in 1976 as Trump's Great American State Fair Takes to Washington 50 Years Later

I was here then - I was 24 at the time of the Bicentennial. But actually, my family went on a tour of Europe in July of 1976.

It was a tense time to take a plane trip to Europe. There had been hijackings almost every year of the 1970s. In fact, it was Just days before we left on our trip that the Entebbe raid took place - passengers kidnapped by Palestinian and German terrorists were saved by an Israeli operation. When we got off the plane in Athens, I saw guards on the tarmac with macnine guns - maybe that's why.

But anyway, off we went. Here are some old photos and things we saved from the trip, which started in London, then we flew to Greece, took a boat to Italy, and spent the rest of the trip on a big tour bus, driving north to finally end in Paris.

We picked this up in the London Underground. I actually saw that movie, but back home ...

We took a train from London to Oxford and visited the famous Blackwell's bookstore there. Here's a photo of me in Oxford ...

Took a plane to Greece next. We did visit the acropolis, of couse, which was being renovated then, but also went other places, including Olympia. This was our hotel ...

We took a boat to Bari, Italy, and then on to Rome. Here's my sister and mom outside the Vatican ...

And this is me in the Vatican museum with a bust of Julius Caesar ...

From there we visited a lot of countries pretty quickly. Some of our hotels and bits of detritus ...

Finally we ended up in Paris, where we rode the Metro, ate french fries at our hotel restaurant :) and visited the Louvre. Wish we could have spent more time there, as I only later learned about the Paris Catacombs. But we did visit the Eiffel Tower. Here's my mom with the tower in the background ...

It was a fun trip but I was pretty homesick by the time we came home. Anyway, I have a feeling the Bicentential was probably more fun than this 250 celebration will be.

Excommunicated!

To understand why this is a big deal, you have to know a little about the SSPX and hence about why excommunicating them is Pope Leo taking a stance that Pope Benedict (and Pope Francis) wouldn't.

The SSPX is traditionalist and when that term is used, it means antisemetic. Those in the church who want to dump V2 resented the changes that tried to get some of that antisemitism out of the liturgy. B16 was quite sympathetic to the SSPX and their views and tried to reconcile them. Here's the beginning of a 2009 article in The National Catholic Reporter ... Lefebvre movement: long, troubled history with Judaism

When the Vatican lifted the excommunication of four traditionalist Catholic bishops Jan. 21, it’s entirely possible Rome was unaware that one of those bishops, an Englishman named Richard Williamson, had just given an interview to Swedish television in which he denied that the Nazis had used gas chambers and asserted that no more than 200,000 to 300,000 Jews had died during the Second World War.

In retrospect, however, it would be disingenuous for anyone to feign surprise.

A troubled history with Judaism has long been part of the Catholic traditionalist movement associated with the late French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre — beginning with Lefebvre himself, who spoke approvingly of both the World War II-era Vichy Regime in France and the far-right National Front, and who identified the contemporary enemies of the faith as “Jews, Communists and Freemasons” in an Aug. 31, 1985, letter to Pope John Paul II.

Reacting to the furor over Williamson, the Vatican has stressed that lifting the excommunication is not an endorsement of his views on the Holocaust, and has repeated its firm commitment to Catholic-Jewish dialogue and to combating anti-Semitism. The pope’s outreach to traditionalists should instead be seen, spokespersons said, as an “act of peace” intended to end the only formal schism in the wake of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) ...

So, long story short, Pope Leo excommunicating the SSPX guys says most of all, the Catholic church should not be antisemetic. Good.

If you want to know more on this subject ... the SSPX and antisemitism, Vatican II and Nostra Aetate and the Jews, Pope Benedict and how his views affected his stance with the SSPX, I have a lot of old posts that have many links. Here are just a few ...

The Mid-East Synod, Maximos IV, and Nostra Aetate ... The pope, his book, and the Jewish people ... SSPX and Vatican II

Regime Change

I haven't read the book yet ... Regime Change ... but here's a discussion of some of what's in it ...

Old photo

I found an old purse of mine in a drawer. Nothing inside but a make-up bag containing a small circular mirror. On the other side of the mirror was a photo of me. I think this photo was from when I was visiting my sister in San Diego around the time I was getting divorced. Maybe that's why I look so grim. I'm 30 here. Can't remember why the photo got made into the mirror thing ...

Israel

A story at The Hill today ... Israel divide grows in Democratic Party after New York primaries.

I've had a few posts about this. I don't really understand why we Democrats are now supposed to hate Israel. The reasons given are, as far as I can tell, either misconceptions of facts or just lies.

I started being interested in Israel when I began visiting a daily photo blog posted by Dina ... Jerusalem Hills daily photo. Dina stopped posting a few years ago - hope she is ok. Also I learned a lot about Israel from reading a series of spy novels by Daniel Silva about artist/intelligence officer Gabriel Allon. But it was the attack of Oct 7 that really drew my attention to Israel.

Anyway, on The Times of Israel's daily briefing, they discuss the recent agreement between Israel and Lebanon, and also discuss what's been happening in Gaza ...

JD Vance and Nixon

Vance both lies and tells the truth about Nixon ... yes, today Nixon's crimes seem almost quaint in comparison to the things Trump has done, but it wasn't the "deep stste" that took Nixon down - it was superb investigative reporting ...



And, at the end, it was Congressional Republicans who saw the writing on the wall.

To Vance, it's just an historical story, but I'm old, so I remember it. In 1973, when the Watergate hearings were broadcast live on tv, I had one of my first part-time jobs while I was going to college.

My sister (L) my mom and me (R) in the college years ...

Anyway, I was working in a tv repair shop on an air force base. Never had a customer, so I spent all my time watching the hearings on the shop's tv. It made an impression ...



Vance and Trump want us to accept what they are doing as unremarkable. But it's the worst thing that can be done to a people ... the stealing of the right to vote in a free and fair election.

Hate will keep us together

Last night, after the Democratic primary races in New York, Chris Hayes had Mayor Mamdani on his show ... he had endorsed three candidates from his Democratic Socialist party to run against incombents, and they all won.

Chris is a big fan of Mamdani - he's almost giddy in the video. I'm not. a fan of Mamdani. I don't like the assertion that progressive Democrats should now be thought of as "centrists" because Socialists have been added to the party. I don't like their pandering to the "young working-class male" vote with candidates like Platner.

And I especially don't like their hatred of Israel and emphasis on a foreign policy that excludes every other foreign country's actions but instead focuses on a created narrative about the one democracy in the Middle East.

They give new definitions for words like "genocide" and obsess over a group that has freely elected a terrorist regime that keeps women as second class citizens and is proud of murder, rape, and hostage-taking.

Anyway, in the video, Mamdani's hatred of Israel is hard to miss, and he says a lot of stuff that is just not true. What's depressing is that I don't think anyone cares about that. As a political party, it seems we have decided to take a page from the Republican playbook .... we will let hate be the glue that binds us and propels us to supposed victory.

Now "we" are the antisemites

On June 9 I had a post titled The purity test. It was about an Ezra Klein podcast on the new directions of the Democratic party. One of those new directions was being anti-Israel.

In the post I mentioned how Congressman Dan Goldman was talked down in the podcast for supporting Israel. I mentioned that I had watched Goldman many times on MSNBC and when he was legal counsel for the Democrats in Trump's first impeachment, and that I thought he was a good guy.

As it turns out, Goldman lost his seat in the primary that just took place in New York. The person he lost the seat to is also Jewish, but is anti-Israel and is a Democratic Socialist endorsed by Mamdani.

What made me notice this was a news story of how Goldman was banned from a coffee shop in New York because he supports Israel ... NYC coffee shop tells Rep. Dan Goldman he’s not welcome over his pro-Israel views ....

[...] In the harshly worded [Instagram] post, Poetica Coffee alluded to Goldman’s stance in support of Israel, which progressives like Lander and human rights groups have strongly criticized over the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon, and mentioned genocide and AIPAC.

“Do you see how it doesn’t taste like genocide juice?” the post said, accompanied by what appeared to be a security image of Goldman looking at his phone while he was at the register.

“See, here at Poetica, we don’t serve racists, fascists, homophobes, genocide enablers, or anyone in between,” the post continued, according to screenshots that circulated on social media and were reported by several news outlets. “Too bad we didn’t recognize you right away, or we would have turned you away.” ...

And then there was his office ...

These are the same photo.

Enough is enough. Where do we draw the line? pic.twitter.com/Fuv0GFli5d

— Rep Josh Gottheimer (@RepJoshG) June 23, 2026

So now my party, the Dems, are the party of antisemitism :(

Hah!

- RFK Jr. on Air Force One with his happy meal of ultraprocessed food. OMG! ... is that a "sugary drink" sitting before him?!

Federal judge blocks state bans on buying soda and candy with food stamps

A federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration from allowing five states to ban the purchase of sugary drinks and candy with food stamps.

The decision is a major setback for Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement, known as MAHA, which is focused on minimizing the consumption of ultraprocessed foods to reduce the prevalence of chronic diseases such as obesity and diabetes ...

The idea that millionaires like RFK Jr., a man with no medical degree who eats road kill and wants to make tallow great again, should give advice to poor people about their food choices is absurd. The sad truth is that many ultraprocessed foods are cheaper and more convenient than their healthier counterparts. When you are down to buying your groceries with a credit card at the end of the month, sometimes you have to settle.

I think the real issue is not nutrition but punishment - this administration wants to punish poor people for needing government help to feed their families.

Press conference

Watching Meet the Press Now, in which Trump is giving a press conference, completely misrepresenting the situation with Iran. He's hailing the MOU as if it was a wonderfully crafted treaty that will benefit the US, when actually it's a maimed copy of the JCPOA, which greatly benefits Iran instead. Then off he goes on all other subjects with his pet press corps.

In Switzerland

Mideast Live Updates: Strains Quickly Emerge on First Day of U.S.-Iran Talks

Negotiators for Iran and the United States met in Switzerland for a little over an hour on Sunday as they seek to turn a 60-day cease-fire into a lasting peace, but it was quickly apparent how far apart the two sides are.

Iranian negotiators insisted on an end to the war between Israel, a U.S. ally, and Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group in Lebanon, as a condition for further talks, according to Iranian state media. The talks were also strained by President Trump’s renewal of threats against Iran, just as Vice President JD Vance was hailing the “great progress” that was being made ...

Two things ...

1) The very first point in the MOU contains this language ... The United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran .... undertake from now on ... to refrain from the threat or use of force against each other ... Trump has laready broken the agreement by making his latest threats aganst Iran.

2) Vance and some Iranians met today to discuss the MOU, particularly the problem of Israel and Hezbollah fighting in Lebanon. So why on earth is Israel not at the meeting? Or Hezbollah? Why was Israel not consulted about the terms of the MOU? Why was Israel not asked to sign it?

The chance of any agreement created by Trump surviving is non-existent. Perhaps by design?

Father's Day

Celebrating dads of every kind 🦢🫶

📸: Trudie Davidson#swan #fathersday #cygnets pic.twitter.com/OssArUP2Gn

— Animal Planet (@AnimalPlanet) June 21, 2026

Washington Week on the MOU

Washington Week discusses Trump's MOU with Iran. I used to watch this show a lot. It's very good ...

The hatchet man

JD Vance sticks it to Israel ...



Trump needs someone on whom to blame his terrible failure with Iran. Who could be better, with the midterms coming up, than unpopular Israel?

What Israel thinks of the MOU

And also what's happening with the Gaza Board of Peace? All this discussed in the Times of Israel's daily briefing ...

The MOU

It's one thing to have made mistakes, but it's another to spin the failure as a win. It's not just that time was wasted, an ally let down, money spent and prices going up at home. People are dead. Maybe the Strait of Hormuz will work right again eventually, but there's no coming back from dead.

At the G7

God help us all :(

Let's make up a deal

Michelle

Michelle Obama is not a man, and neither is that dope that called her one.

This is Michelle Obama: sweet, kind, intelligent, and good ...

Losing the war

Rachel Maddow on us losing the war with Iran ...

Told you

The White House would never describe a jihadist drone attack on an American town as “small and meaningless.”

It is beyond disappointing to hear it refer to Hezbollah aggression as the same.

Say no to IRGC blackmail. https://t.co/HAJVbNomyb

— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) June 14, 2026

And ...



It was a mistake for Israel to trust Trump. I understand why they did it ... they felt they had to ... but any observation of him as a person and as a leader would show that he is untrustworthy. I'd like to tell Israel that things will get better, and I hope they do eventually, but as long as he is in power, I think the whole world will continue to be negatively affected by him.