“For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” When Sir Isaac Newton published his Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy in 1687, he couldn’t possibly have known he would be asserting a principle that would apply to American politics in the 21st century. When it comes to actions and reactions, these last couple of weeks have been a doozy.
We’re still muddling through this war with Iran and its Strait of Hormuz problem. To be honest here, I am one of the many Americans who couldn’t have found any strait on a world map that wasn’t named Gibraltar. And, at the risk of being politically incorrect (in public, that is), it seems to have an unfortunate pronunciation in English that is right next door to the equally unfortunate noun “hormones.”
The Iranian reaction to the American attack there is gumming up the works that has more folks talking about supply chains than we’ve heard about since the COVID pandemic. With gas prices escalating, I suspect a whole bunch of regular folks want that strait opened, mooing or moaning aside.
On a somewhat less vital matter, Trump seems to be having a feud with Pope Leo XIV. The pope, in a call for peace within the context of the U. S./Israeli war against Iran, went so far as to “invite the citizens of all the countries involved to contact the authorities—political leaders, congressmen—to ask them, to tell them, to work for peace and to reject war and violence.” That last was on top of calling out Trump’s threats to wipe out the “whole [Iranian] civilization.” Mercifully, we’ve avoided that for the time being. But, of course, Trump has more to say.
“Leo should get his act together… and focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician.” Someone really needs to tell Trump that the Pope is a head of state. In fact, he’s kind of an absolute monarch of Vatican City. It’s a little kingdom, if you will, but still…
While there were those who defended the pope’s words as being pretty pope-y peace talk, I personally think encouraging Americans to tell their congressional representatives “to reject war” in this context is pretty political. But then, even a cursory review of history for the last millennium would show that popes have almost always been political. They are, after all, elected officials of the Roman Catholic church.
But why get into it with the pope in the first place? It’s as if Trump doesn’t know there’s a midterm election coming up, and he isn’t doing much that helps the Republican candidates. 55% of Catholics voted for Trump last time, and that increases to 64% among those who attend church at least monthly. One needn’t be set on fire with brains to know that this is a group of voters that Republicans can’t afford to lose.
So on the heels of this, why not just post a picture of yourself as Jesus Christ? That ought to send a message. Maybe the wrong one, but a message nonetheless. Well, that backlash hit so fast and so hard that Trump took the offending post down, defending himself saying he thought it represented him as a doctor. Lord, where do I start?
First of all, the post probably didn’t offend those of us who are heathens, but I knew when I saw it that there were going to be a whole lot of people who would be horrified by it. Then, when good Christian people start throwing around words like “blasphemy” and “heresy,” I know it’s not about to hit the fan—it already has.
As for that lame doctor defense, I could have bought it if Trump had been wearing scrubs. With doctors not wearing a snow white robe and a crimson mantel, I have been poked and prodded, had pressure applied here and there, and had every single orifice violated by scopes, tubes, devices, and digits. Perhaps the only place a doctor has never placed a hand is on my forehead. Thought it was a doctor, my Aunt Fannie.
With Trump at the helm for some time to come, actions and reactions seem inevitable. We should be a bit used to it by now, even though it seems to be getting stranger by the day. So I only have one question at the moment.
When will we know that we’re in the middle of a chain reaction?
