I was cut up short reading a tweet that Trump wrote the other day. (I assume he wrote it but I note that he has said other people have access to his Twitter account and they can tweet for him. This, of course, is another lie but it is an attempt to protect himself from his own words and give him some deniability.”

The tweet that caught me up was: “If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran. Never threaten the United States again! 1:25 PM – 19 May 2019”

Whatever could that mean “the official end of Iran?” How do you end the existence of a country? How would a person even think that could be accomplished? Never mind that, why is a person who is the U.S. president tweeting out such absurdities?

I pondered that thought. Then I remembered Trump’s statement about nuclear weapons. I also remembered Sheldon Adelson’s statement about them in relation to Iran. Knowing of the close connection between Trump and Adelson I dreaded thinking that Trump was actually planning to nuke Iran. I suppose that would in a sense be the official end of Iran since much of the area nuked would not be habitable for many years; along with that, there would be a drastic decrease in the number of Iranians living there.

I knew something was up when my wife, Maria, told me that I had to go up to the Boston area on my birthday, Wednesday, May 1, because the two grandchildren of my son Ted, Theo and Cora, had wanted to see me because they had something special to give me. My other grandchild of my daughter Tatiana, Matty, had been at my house over the weekend before. They left Tuesday afternoon, the day before the birthday for their home in Connecticut, so I was told.

My birthday dawned and my wife gave me the traditional birthday gift which was “oh, it’s your birthday, Happy Birthday.” Many years before she said she didn’t like to give gifts on birthdays.  She added, “by the way, we have to leave earlier than planned” telling me my son Matt had cleaners coming to his condo. We had to let them in at noon time because he would be tied up at work.

Kevin Cullen of the Boston Glove wrote something a few weeks ago about another scandal in the Catholic Church which he called the annulment scam or something to that effect. He mentioned in passing Sheila Rauch Kennedy’s book called Shattered Faith.

That struck a note for me because I wondered how it was that Ted Kennedy and Joe Kennedy were able to get their marriages annulled by the Catholic Church after being married for so many years: Ted to Joan for about 20 years and Joe, the son of Ted’s brother Bobby, to Sheila for 16 years.

That was what Sheila wondered also. She had no problem with them being divorced which was an event she brought about because Joe had found some other arms that a country music song would suggest apparently had not gone cold. They went their separate ways on a somewhat friendly manner; Joe kept the house they lived in; Sheila with their two kids, twins, had to move to Cambridge. I’d guess Sheila was indoctrinated in the belief she should not complain for after all it was in the best interests of the men in the family that she go along with their desires.

Do you know where the expression “praise the Lord and pass the ammunition comes from?” I knew it was a WWII patriotic song but did not know that it existed prior to the song. The first time it was spoken was during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Chaplain, Lt. j.g. Howell M. Forgy, was stationed aboard the USS New Orleans during the attack.

According to Lieutenant Edwin F. Woodhead, who was the officer in charge of an ammunition line on that ship, “I heard a voice behind me saying, ‘Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.’ I turned and saw Chaplain Forgy walking toward me, along the line of men. He was patting them on the back and making that remark to cheer and keep them going. I know it helped me a lot, too.”

Chaplain Forgy later recounted, “our electrical power wasn’t on, and so when we went to lift the ammunition by the hoist, we had to form lines of men — form a bucket brigade — and we began to carry the ammunition up through the quarterdeck into the gurneys, and I stood there and directed some of the boys down the port side and some down the starboard side, and as they were getting a little tired, I just happened to say, “Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.” That’s all there was to it.”

Local boy Jack Kerouac son of a potato farmer said: “Whither goest thou, America, in thy shiny car in the night?”  It is appropriate I think to ask Judge Joseph where does she think she will be going  in the near future after the Boston U.S. attorney Andrew Lelling finishes up with her. But I also to wonder where America is also going when situations like this arise.

Judge Joseph is allege to have kicked an immigration (ICE) officer out of her courtroom. This ICE officer held a warrant to arrest a person who was appearing before her in court on a criminal charges . Then she is said to have provided that person a secret escape route out of the court so that the ICE officer was thwarted in the performance of his job. Lelling indicted her for obstruction of justice.

Her attorney Thomas Hoopes said: “This prosecution is totally political and Shelley Joseph is absolutely innocent.” That remains to be seen although I suggest it is far from political. Others though suggested it was political and that the judge should not have been indicted.

John Durham – I first saw him at the trial of FBI agent John Connolly back in 2002. Not a tall guy but sort of on the short side but certainly his walrus type mustache was impressive. He’s the guy in his opening statement who said that John Connolly was the FBI handler for William Bulger, oops, James Whitey Bulger.

I often wondered how was it that William Bulger was on his mind rather than his older brother James, “the White Man” as my recently departed cousin Roger Concannon would have called him. Roger told the story I’ve often mentioned how Theresa Stanley’s son, a woman Whitey lived with at times, told him how generous Whitey was to him. He gave him five bucks to start his car every morning. A treacherous assignment if ever there was one.

But there was no doubt that Freudian slip spoke a thousand words spelling out  the reason behind the Connolly trial. It was a Potemkin affair. The idea was to pressure Connolly into giving up William Bulger. Unfortunately for Connolly, he had nothing on him to give. Which makes me wonder what will Durham come up with this time to hide his real purpose.

Some groups never accepted  the calendar named after Pope Gregory XIII, who introduced it in October 1582. This has resulted in Easter being celebrated on different Sundays. Far back In 325 A.D. the Council of Nicaea established that Easter would be held on the first Sunday after the first Full Moon occurring on or after the vernal equinox.  From that point forward, the Easter date depended on the ecclesiastical approximation of March 21 for the vernal equinox.

Currently the Gregorian Calendar is thirteen days ahead of the Julian Calendar. Beginning on 14 Mar 2100 (29 Feb 2100 Julian), the difference will be fourteen days but few of us will see that change. By moving March 21 up 13 days the first full moon may occur somewhat earlier and Easter will be celebrated differently.

On my Easter last Sunday circumstances made me unable to post. Had I been in a position to do so then this essay by Samuel Ullman would have been posted. So to keep with the spirit of the time I appropriate my wife’s Easter to publish it which seems fitting for this time of year which is one of renewal and reflection.

Youth

At a recent Town Hall Elizabeth Warren “ proposed eliminating the student loan debts of tens of millions of Americans and making all public colleges tuition-free,  . . . ” It goes something like this: “Households that make less than $100,000 a year would get $50,000 in loan cancellation, with the amount of relief getting gradually smaller as income level goes up, with households that make more than $250,000 not eligible for any debt relief.” 

Even with making public college free for everyone, regardless of their finances, she’s also going to help for the non tuition costs. “It’s not just paying the tuition. It’s how they pay for books. It’s how they pay for the expenses of having a baby taken care of if they already have a child at home or being able to cover commuting expenses or maybe it’s a chance to live in a dorm and have the kind of college experience that other kids can.” 

Add to that she is going to have free universal child care for every child from zero to five, and universal pre-K among other things. She’s going to pay for it by taxing wealth. Not income, but wealth. Her worth is about 8 million so she won’t be adversely affected by her tax proposals.