Mendocino County Today: Wednesday 5/28/2025

Overcast | Memorial Day | Victim Identified | Greasy Escape | FFA Benefit | Shooter Arrested | Ukiah Flour | County Advice | Cyanide Millipede | Big Time | River Adventure | Diversionary Haiku | Healthcare Funding | Yesterday's Catch | Anting | Rodeo Vets | Tunnel View | Cruel Cut | Giants Lose | Rose Signature | Insurance Rates | Too Dangerous | Bird Beaks | Rococo Hellscape | Uglier Place | Parade Wear | Two Mules | Hatfield Clan | Dear Bear | Coining Antisemitism | TV Blues | Promoting Hatred | Lead Stories | Genocide Sponsor | Military Parade | West Bank | Cigarette Break | Pachamama Pope | Lousy Audience | Betrayal | Gold Mine

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WARMER WEATHER will continue through late week. Hot temperatures likely Friday and Saturday for the interior before a quick trend downward next week. Gusty winds possible this weekend and early next week. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A big fog bank is upon this Thursday morning on the coast with an overcast 50F. I expect the usual clearing later today with the fog playing land tag along the shore. A good warm up into Friday then a cool down starts Sunday. No really.

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MEMORIAL DAY IN COVELO

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COVELO SHOOTING VICTIM IDENTIFIED

As a part of an continuing homicide investigation, Mendocino County Sheriff’s Investigators have positively identified the decedent in the May 14, 2025 shooing off Mina Road north of Covelo as Jorge M. Zavala Estrella, a 30-year-old male from Vallecito, California. Investigators identified and notified the decedent's legal next-of-kin and informed them of Zavala Estrella's death and of this homicide investigation. A post-mortem examination was conducted on May 17, 2025, where the forensic pathologist provided a preliminary cause of death being multiple gunshot wounds. The official cause and manner of death will not be finalized until all pathology reports and tests have been completed. During this investigation, Deputies uncovered evidence which is indicative of illegal marijuana cultivation and sales under the control of a drug trafficking organization. Additional information related to the suspected drug trafficking organization will not be released to maintain the integrity of this investigation. Anyone with information related to this investigation is requested to contact the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office Communications Center at 707-463-4086 (option 1). Information can also be provided anonymously by calling the non-emergency tip-line at 707-234-2100.

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FORT BRAGG, an on-line comment:

I remember when Juniper Jay Redwood made good his escape from the Fort Bragg jail by squeezing under the door. He used grease from his hamburger to grease himself up. Fort Bragg really is a skanky, dumpy place. With the mills gone and fishing gone to hell, it really doesn't have a purpose anymore. I've often thought the best future for the place would be a nuclear power plant on the old mill property. For everyone out there that doesn't like the idea of nuclear power, my advice is that you learn to like it. It's the only thing that's going to keep the whole mess running.

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FORT BRAGG SHOOTER ARRESTED

On Thursday, May 22, 2025 at approximately 10:28 P.M., Deputies from the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office were dispatched to investigate a report of a shooting in the 17000 block of N. Highway 1 in Fort Bragg. Jeremy Segura, a 23-year-old male from Fort Bragg, reported he believed he was shot by his roommate who he identified as Saysomone Manyphone, 39, of Fort Bragg.

When Deputies arrived at the scene, they located Jeremy who exited the residence and was determined to be uninjured. Jeremy was unsure if Saysomone Manyphone was still inside the residence so Deputies made several announcements inside the residence. However there was no response. Deputies also learned Saysomone's vehicle was no longer at the location and during an initial search of the residence, Saysomone was not located inside. As Deputies entered, they observed evidence of a firearm being discharged inside the residence, so a search warrant was obtained. When serving the search warrant, additional evidence was located to establish probable cause that a violent assault with a firearm had occurred and Saysomone was responsible for the assault.

The investigation continued through the early morning hours of 05/23/2025 however despite ongoing efforts, Saysomone was not located. Based on the investigation, there was no ongoing threat to the public as this was an isolated incident.

On Friday, May 23, 2025 at approximately 6:24 P.M., the Fort Bragg Police Department received information regarding Saysomone's whereabouts. Officers from the Fort Bragg Police Department responded to the 300 block of N. Main Street in Fort Bragg and detained Saysomone. Deputies responded and placed Saysomone under arrest for Assault with a firearm and Use of a firearm during the commission of a felony.

Saysomone was booked into the Mendocino County Jail where he is being held in lieu of $100,000 bail.

This incident is still actively being investigated and anyone with information regarding this investigation is requested to contact the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Dispatch Center at 707-463-4086 (option 1). Information can also be provided anonymously by calling the non-emergency tip-line at 707-234-2100. The Mendocino County Sheriff's Office would like to thank the Fort Bragg Police Department for their assistance with this investigation.

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JULIE BEARDSLEY

I would like to add some thoughts to yesterday’s very cogent discussion of how the current environment at the County is hurting not just employees, but the public the County is supposed to serve. During the eight and a half years I was the Senior Public Health Analyst, responsible for providing data about the well-being of our residents, I saw the kinds of questionable things the Executive Office did to try and balance the budget. For example, the CEO often creatively assigned members of the Executive Office to other departments, and used grant funding that was specifically for certain programs to pay their salaries, thus saving General Fund dollars. In every case where I saw this happen, the Executive Office employee assigned to another department, lacked the subject matter expertise required, according to the grant stipulations. While this was technically defensible, and could be argued to be within the wording of a grant, it was not what the grant funding was intended for and took resources away from the public the grant was intended to serve.

The combining and un-combining departments, against the advice of the employees, has resulted in thousands and thousands of wasted tax dollars.

The cronyism at the top has resulted in a lack of confidence by the hard working boots on the ground.

The millions of dollars spent on litigation due to unlawful firings, is a huge drain on the County’s limited budget. I suspect the cost of the Cubbison affair is now reaching something well over $2 million of your money. The County needs to pull in their horns and settle this.

Now I understand that the County is mandated to provide certain services, such as public safety, child welfare and protecting the public health, with a shrinking tax base. (And the City’s proposed annexation will make matters worse.) But the Executive Office has historically been at odds with the very dedicated employees who provide the services. Despite repeated requests to listen to the employees, the EO tends to ignore the very people who can provide insight about organizational structure and real cost-cutting ideas.

Ultimately it is the members of the Board of Supervisors who are responsible for running the County. I am impressed by both Ms.Cline and Mr.Norvell – please keep up the good work. We elect the members of the BOS, not the CEO. I suggest it’s time for a change of CEO to restore public confidence, and improve the work environment overall.

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THE MILLIPEDE THAT PROTECTS ITSELF WITH CYANIDE

Cyanide millipedes use chemical warfare to ward off predators. They also make critical nutrients available in forest ecosystems, and yet these amazing critters are understudied.

by Lisa Feldkamp

Keep an eye on the ground and any decaying trees as you’re walking the trails of the Pacific Northwest and you’re likely to see bright yellow spots moving along the ground, look closer and you’ll notice those spots are on the “keels” of a dark millipede about 2 inches long. That’s the yellow-spotted millipede (Harpaphe haydeniana) — AKA almond-scented millipede, AKA cyanide millipede.

Just like the bright colors of the monarch butterfly, and other aposematic species, these yellow spots are a warning to potential predators – “Don’t mess with me!”

If you were to pick up a yellow-spotted millipede, it would likely curl into a spiral and exude hydrogen cyanide on you, accompanied by the strong scent of toasted almonds (that’s the smell of cyanide). The amount secreted by an individual millipede is not enough to seriously harm a human, though it may stain the skin or burn and blister if you’re sensitive (wash your hands if you handle one). This amount is lethal, however, to birds and rodents. Similar cyanide producing millipedes in the Appalachians can produce 18 times the amount of the toxin needed to kill a pigeon. The threat is enough to protect these abundant arthropods from most predators (they do have a beetle nemesis).

Cyanide is so toxic to most living organisms that it was once thought that cyanide millipedes were running the risk of killing themselves each time released this secretion; that they must close off the openings that they use to breathe in order to survive. But scientists found that the millipedes are immune to cyanide — able to process it and convert it into harmless chemicals.

Abundant may be an understatement for the yellow-spotted millipede. In some places, yellow-spotted millipedes can reach densities of 20-90 individuals per square meter, an unusually high density for millipedes in a conifer forest. So many millipedes with so few predators eat a lot of food and their favorite food is leaf litter, primarily needles from trees like the Douglas fir and Sitka spruce.

“They are in fact the most important detritivore, or organism that actually feeds on dead leaves and litter and turns it into feces so it can enter the soil decomposition recycling chain,” Andrew Moldenke of Oregon State University said, as reported by the Nature Conservancy in Washington. “From a conservation point of view, they’re absolutely critical.”

Within their range yellow-spotted millipedes eat 33 to 50 percent of all coniferous and deciduous leaf litter. For a millipede, eating is a complex process – they crush their food, filter it, and crush it again increasing the availability of nutrients 40,000-fold. The millipede uses the nutrients it needs and then excretes much of that rich nutrient load onto the forest floor where it becomes part of a complex food web.

And if you think all that is crazy, this is how they reproduce.

“What people are totally blown away by are their mating habits,” Moldenke reports. “They get together by tens of thousands to millions in one spot and mate.”

Despite their abundance and importance, millipedes remain understudied. 12,000 species of millipedes have been identified globally, but estimates of the true number of species out there on Earth range from 15,000 to 80,000 – either way there are at least 3,000 millipede species out there to discover. You can contribute to scientific knowledge of millipedes by reporting your sightings to iNaturalist.

(blog.nature.org)

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BIG RIVER ADVENTURE

There’s still time to grab your tickets for Cancer Resource Centers’ Big River Adventure this Saturday, May 31! Invite your friends and choose your adventure — run, walk, paddle, or swim — for a meaningful cause.

Buy tickets and get more information here: https://www.paddlesignup.com/Race/CA/Mendocino/BigRiverAdventure

See you at the river!

With gratitude,

Anya Jindrich

Executive Director

Cancer Resource Centers of Mendocino County

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DIVERSIONARY HAIKU

Swallow shadows swoop
Cavorting darting so fast 
So mischievously

Playfully coyly
Diverting our attention
Away from their nest

— Jim Luther

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MENDOCINO COAST HEALTHCARE DISTRICT

President Trump’s proposed budget does not include cuts to Medicare and Medicaid in its cuts to healthcare funding. Medicare and Medicaid coverage are essential to keeping our community healthy and our hospital open. For more information on the effects of the proposed budget, and for other current news effecting your healthcare on the coast, visit the Current News Events page of our website at: https://www.mendocinochcd.gov/current-news-events

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CATCH OF THE DAY, Tuesday, May 27, 2025

ILEANA AMRULL, 47, Ukiah. Petty theft with priors, trespassing, probation violation.

JOSHUA BENNETT, 51, Fort Bragg. Metal knuckles.

RICARDO CAMPOS, 30, Ukiah. Under influence.

ROBERT FULLER, 52, Fort Bragg. Grand theft, stolen property.

ALEXIS HUYCK, 23, Clearlake/Ukiah. DUI.

JULIAN LORENTINO, 36, Ukiah. Rape by violence, duress, menace, or fear of bodily injury; incest; sex acts with child of 14-15 years old; anal or genital penetration by foreign object by force violence, duress or menace; oral copulation of person under 14 by force/injury; cruelty to child-infliction of injury.

JOHN PALACIOS, 56, Ukiah. Trespassing.

ERIC ROMANDIA, 58, Ukiah. Domestic battery.

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SAM ROSS

When a crow feels sick… it visits an anthill.

Sounds strange? It’s actually one of nature’s most fascinating healing rituals.

When a crow senses it’s unwell, it will intentionally find an anthill, spread its wings wide, and remain completely still—waiting for the ants to crawl into its feathers.

Why?

Because ants release formic acid—a natural antiseptic that kills bacteria, fungi, and parasites hiding in the bird’s feathers.

This behavior is called “anting”, and it’s been observed not just in crows, but in many bird species.

No medicine.

No vet.

Just pure instinct and nature’s built-in pharmacy.

A brilliant reminder that the natural world is full of intelligent, self-healing systems…

We just need to stop and notice.

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DEMAND ON-SITE VETS FOR RODEOS

Editor,

Rodeo season, alas, is upon us, an actiity condemned for its inherent cruelty by nearly every animal welfare organization. Rodeo is mostly hype, a macho exercise in domination.

California boasts the nation’s most comprehensive rodeo law, Penal Code 596.7, enacted in 2000, amended in 2007 to cover the hundreds of Mexican style rodeos called “charreadas.” The law forbids the use of electric prods in holding chutes and requires an on-site or on-call veterninarian at every rodeo and charreada. The law should be amended, dropping the “on-call” vet option. Racetracks, horse shows and endurance rides all require on-site vets. So should all rodeos. State rodeo law also requires that injury reports be submitted to the state Veterinary Medical Board.

These reports are public record, free for the asking. Let your state reps hear from you.

Eric Mills

Oakland

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STOP THIS CRUEL CUT

Editor,

By holding back funding for Alzheimer’s disease research and care, the Trump administration is destroying hope for millions of young Americans like me.

I’m 26 and lost my mother to young-onset Alzheimer’s disease last year. She started showing signs when I was just 14. It was just the two of us at home, and I was alone in dealing with her angry lash outs, confusion, anxieties and forgetfulness. At the time, her doctor told her it was just menopause that was causing confusion and stress.

Between our family’s lack of information and her doctors’ failure to test, she went undiagnosed for seven painful years. My mom went from the most caring, thoughtful, and kind woman to someone I didn’t even recognize anymore. In high school, I wondered if I was even important enough for her to care and remember things about my life.

Now, as a young woman, I and other family members have the Alzheimer’s gene and a high risk of diagnosis. We must find a cure for my family and others at risk.

Please join me in urging California’s senators and House members to fight for continued investment in Alzheimer’s research and care.

Sarah Scott

San Francisco

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GIANTS’ OFFENSE CONTINUES TO FLAIL, Melvin ejected in loss to Detroit

by Shayna Rubin

DETROIT — Logan Webb’s sinker to Gleyber Torres in the fifth inning brushed the bottom of the strike zone and home plate umpire Tony Randazzo called it a ball. That got San Francisco Giants manager Bob Melvin heated enough to earn an ejection from his dugout post, but he didn’t leave until he hurled a few angry words at Randazzo.

Patrick Bailey, an inning prior, lost a nine-pitch at-bat after being rung up on a borderline pitch. Randazzo’s strike zone ticked Melvin off, but the frustration of a grueling road trip thus far was already brewing.

“Maybe a little bit,” Melvin said. “I thought we were getting calls on us that we weren’t getting on the other side.”

By that point, the Giants were down three runs with no comeback in sight. They lost to the Detroit Tigers 3-1 on Tuesday night, guaranteeing a series loss to the winningest team in baseball so far.

Not since May 16 against the Athletics, 10 games ago, have the Giants scored more than four runs. Yet, on the back of one of baseball’s best pitching staffs the Giants went 5-5.

The team’s struggles at the plate put pressure on Webb to limit his mistakes, but the Tigers mounted a lead early.

Coming off a loss to the Kansas City Royals in which he gave up 10 hits, Webb surrendered all three runs and six hits in the first three innings, including a home run. Riley Greene was his primary nemesis, scorching a two-out double in the first inning to score Gleyber Torres and with an RBI single in the third to bring in Colt Keith (who had tripled). In between, Wenceel Perez led off the second with a home run; it was his first at-bat of the year, making it tough to game-plan on Webb’s end.

After striking out the side with a runner on in the third, Webb settled in. He struck out 10 overall, his 10th career double-digit strikeout game and third of the year, while throwing 104 pitches over six innings.

“Honestly in my head after the third I thought ‘I want to get through five,’” Webb said. “They asked how I was feeling and I said I wanted to go back out there and I’m glad I did. I just have to figure some stuff early out in the game and be better in general. I get two outs in the first inning and feel like that’s, honestly, once I get two outs I’ve been giving up runs recently in the first inning. That’s frustrating.”

As has been the trend, the Giants could get nothing going against a starter — this time, righty Jack Flaherty.

The winds blowing in from left field might’ve robbed the Giants of a pair of home runs. Wilmer Flores was a few inches shy of a two-run HR in the first inning, but Greene had his glove at the wall ready to make the catch.

Matt Chapman hit a ball 102 mph to the same location in the fourth inning, but — again — it was caught at the wall. When the Giants made contact, they were hitting the ball hard; five times they recorded exit velocities over 100 mph against Flaherty. They had two hits to show for it.

“It looks like we almost got shut out again, but Flo hits a ball in the first inning I think is a two-run homer and Chappy hits a ball to left field I feel like, with the way the wind is blowing, is another homer,” Melvin said. “If they were center to right, both probably go out. Both hit really good and one or both of them, it’s a different ball game. Even though it didn’t look good in the middle innings, I thought there were some decent at-bats that could have impacted the game a little bit differently.”

They scored their run in the ninth against Tigers reliever Will Vest. Heliot Ramos hit a leadoff single and Flores hit a double into the gap for his 45th RBI. The double was the Giants’ first extra-base hit of the series and brought the tying run to the plate. Flores was stranded.

“We won the last series,” Webb said. “It’s not like it’s a crazy long patch. It’s two games against a really good team — the best team in baseball by the numbers. But it’s something we want. We want to play the best team. We’ll be alright. It’s still early in the season and, personally, I just need to be better. If I get out of the first, it changes the way we think about things in the dugout. Especially the leadoff homer is a mood killer. I’ll be better.”

(sfchronicle.com)

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BUCKLE UP, IT’S COMING’: CALIFORNIA INSURERS ARE LIKELY TO JOIN STATE FARM IN RAISING RATES

by Megan Fan Munce

State Farm’s rates for homeowners are set to rise 17% starting next month, and potentially even more in 2026.

Are other insurers going to raise rates too? The short answer is almost certainly yes — but not immediately.

Prices already have been rising rapidly. Over the past year, nearly every major insurer has implemented a double-digit rate increase — and more is expected.

Regulatory reforms finalized at the beginning of this year, enacted to stop more insurers from leaving California, are expected to result in increased home insurance rates. Now tariffs, and potentially the Los Angeles wildfires, are poised to drive prices even higher.

Still, because of the way insurance works, homeowners won’t likely see the brunt of those increases until 2026, experts say.

“People are getting hurt now. They’re going to get hurt more. The message for homeowners is ‘buckle up, it’s coming,’” said David Russell, professor of insurance at California State University Northridge. “We’re all going to have to pay more.”

Insurers are closely watching the impact that the Trump administration’s new tariffs will have on a wide range of imported building and auto parts, from lumber from Canada to fiberglass door panels from China to the electronic sensors in cars.

When the price of repairing the product being insured — be it homes or cars — goes up, the cost of paying claims goes up, and that makes premiums rise, said Bob Passmore, vice president of auto and claims for the American Property Casualty Insurance Association (APCIA), an industry group.

What’s less clear is how the multibillion-dollar losses from the Los Angeles fires will impact homeowners’ bills. Traditionally, rates have also risen rapidly after large catastrophes, said Deputy Insurance Commissioner Michael Soller. That’s because in the past, California home insurers have set their rates based on historical data about claims and losses, which spike after disasters.

But starting this year, insurers will be allowed to set their prices using wildfire catastrophe models rather than historical data. These models aim to set prices based on risk, rather than losses — so theoretically, Soller said, a wildfire happening in a high-risk area would not spike rates if the model was already indicating risk was high.

But the Los Angeles fires happened before insurers made the switch to using catastrophe models to set prices. When that switch happens, experts agree it will result in higher prices — something that would happen even if there had been no fires. The industry says it will be a one-time bump as the models catch up to the increased risk of wildfires and other catastrophes due to climate change. But consumer groups such as Consumer Watchdog have long worried that the private models could overstate risk and overcharge consumers.

“There’s going to be some legitimate pressure to raise homeowners’ rates because of the increasing threat of wildfires and climate change. But there’s also going to be a bunch of insurance companies trying to take advantage of that in order to reap windfall profits,” said the group’s founder, Harvey Rosenfield.

To address that concern, the Department of Insurance’s regulation required all models undergo an extensive and confidential review. The department’s website shows that four models began that process at the beginning of the year; Soller said the department expects to have its review completed by the summer.

A second reform that took effect in January allows insurers to pass along the cost of reinsurance, or insurance for insurance companies — a practice previously permitted by every state but California. This, too, would mean higher rates, according to consumer advocates.

Until the model process review is done, insurance companies can’t make filings utilizing either reform, because insurers will be required to use the same models to buy reinsurance as they do to set prices, Soller said.

Even when they do, it will take time for the department to review them. California is one of a dozen states where insurance companies must get approval from the Department of Insurance before they can raise or otherwise alter their rates. State records show it can take months or even more than a year for an insurance company’s rate filings to be approved.

Rate filings often involve back and forth between regulators, insurance companies and sometimes third-party consumer groups, which can intervene in filings to ask additional questions and public oversight. Delays in responses from any of those groups can mean longer processing times.

Soller said his department has been working to speed up reviews and decreased the average review time by 71 days from 2023 to 2024. Mark Sektnan, vice president of state government relations for the APCIA, said he was optimistic about the department’s motivation to review filings more quickly.

Based on the time for the models to be approved, and filings to be made and then approved, Sektnan predicted the rate hikes using the new models would show up on the first homeowners’ bills in the early months of 2026. Then, increased prices will roll out throughout the year as individual homeowners’ renewal dates come up.

At a conference this month in Sacramento, Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said his reforms would make sure companies that increase their rates are required to write a certain number of policies in wildfire-prone areas.

“Here’s the bottom line: Insurance prices may rise, but they will be nowhere near the cost of being uninsurable,” he said.

Sektnan added that prices in California have historically been low as compared to other catastrophe-prone states such as Florida and Louisiana, especially when taking into account the increased cost of housing and building in the state.

“Insurance has always been reasonably priced here in California, but as the risk grows, that’s going to change,” Sektnan said. “I don’t think we’re going to become Florida or Louisiana, but I think people have to accept that rates are going to increase.”

(SF Chronicle)

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BERKELEY RESEARCH FINDS FEEDERS LITERALLY RESHAPED CALIF. HUMMINGBIRDS

The birds evolved in a remarkably short time.

by Kasia Pawloska

Your backyard bird feeder could be changing the birds that use it. A former UC Berkeley grad student, Nicolas M. Alexandre, along with a team of other researchers, published a study last week in Global Change Biology about a fascinating hummingbird adaptation.

According to their findings, Anna’s hummingbirds on the West Coast of the U.S. have been able to expand their territory because of the proliferation of hummingbird feeders. The study also found that over several generations, the birds’ beaks have also evolved in response to these human-made sugar dispensers.

Alexandre was inspired by an old National Geographic magazine. The scientist came across an article from 1928 about the earliest hummingbird feeders, which brought to mind another study he had seen, showing that seed feeders in the UK may have caused great tits to grow longer beaks relative to those in the Netherlands. “And so I was thinking, ‘Well, what if feeders actually create a change in the beaks of hummingbirds here?’ because they’re really widespread,” he said.

Along with study co-author Faye Romero, Alexandre began looking at Anna’s hummingbirds beak shapes before and after World War II — when commercial feeders for the species started to take off — to see if there were any differences. “Me and Fay went into the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology collection, and they had about 400 specimens of Anna’s hummingbirds that date back to like 1860, and we just did a bunch of measurements,” he said.

This included not just measurements, but lots of photography and analysis. “We did really cool shape analyzes, we looked at all the shapes of beaks in two dimensions as well as three dimensions,” he said.

What the duo found was that after World War II, beaks started to get longer and significantly slimmer. Males’ beaks also underwent a discrete shift, getting sharper and pointier. “And we know that they [the males] attack each other at feeders quite aggressively,” Alexandre noted.

Despite these clear changes, Alexandre and Romero couldn’t definitively say that bird feeders were directly changing the animals.

“The beak is such a malleable trait, natural selection acts on it in so many different directions,” said Alexandre, pointing out that cold temperatures can make the bill smaller, because birds will retain more heat that way.

To see if the bird feeders were really causing the changes, the scientists partnered with other researchers to analyze how often bird feeders were sold in California according to newspaper clippings. Alexandre and Romero found that the sales of bird feeders were strongly associated with the beak changes. The Anna’s hummingbird population has expanded from Southern California all the way up to British Columbia and Canada, and the researchers also found that, at least in California, bird feeders were the “best predictor of hummingbird population expansions as well.”

Alexandre is now focusing his research on the biology of the extinct dodo, but hopes others will continue exploring the questions raised by this research. Professor Alejandro Rico-Guevara, the senior author of this study, is continuing to study the biology of these and many other hummingbirds.

(SFGate.com)

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ALL HAIL OUR ROCOCO PRESIDENT

by Emily Keegin

Lately the American president has been spending quite a bit of time redecorating the Oval Office. The results can only be called a gilded rococo hellscape. If our leader’s appearance is a depiction of the country…

Since the start of President Trump’s Oval Office decorating spree in February, there has been a steady torrent of articles condemning his design choices. And to be sure, the redesign has been … significant.

There is a parade of golden objects that march across the mantel, relegating the traditional Swedish ivy to a greenhouse. Gilded Rococo wall appliqués, nearly identical to the ones at Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, are stuck to the fireplace and office walls with the same level of aesthetic consideration a child gives her doll’s face before covering it in nail polish.

In what appears to be a bid to tie the room together, gilded floral onlays form a chain around the room’s cornice. Even the doorknobs are highly polished, so the presidential seal upon them shines.

Regarding the office’s artwork, Mr. Trump, a man with a more-is-more sensibility, chose what decorators call a gallery hang. A dozen or so gold-framed presidential portraits crawl up the walls of the Oval Office. Just outside his office there’s even a copy of his mug shot printed on the front page of The New York Post.

The most unusual additions to the office are two gilded mirrors that hang on either side of the fireplace. This is so quintessentially Mr. Trump that I’m surprised he didn’t think of it earlier. When standing in front of one, your reflection joins the pantheon of great leaders above you. It’s just like they say: In America anyone can grow up to become president.

In 2017 the journalist Peter York called Mr. Trump’s aesthetic “dictator chic,” likening his New York penthouse to Muammar el-Qaddafi’s homes. Others have looked further back in history for an analogue. Many concluded not only that Mr. Trump’s style is the stuff of kings and despots but also that it’s French.

On one level, they aren’t wrong. The decoration Mr. Trump has splattered across the Oval Office is inspired by European Baroque and Rococo of the 1600s and 1700s, when power was shown through ornate displays of grotesque abundance. Gold leaf moldings and large mirrors filled Baroque palace walls from Versailles to the Peterhof Palace. But in the early 1700s Rococo, an even gaudier style distinct for its asymmetry, swirling tendrils and gilded seashells, was born. Often criticized for being purely decorative and intellectually vacuous, it would become a perfect visual metaphor for the European royal courts of the 18th century: unserious people draped in gold baubles and ruffled pastels.

But Rococo’s most enduring trait has been its embrace by the bourgeoisie. By replacing marble and gold with stucco and gilded bronze, the ornamental splendor once reserved for gods and kings was now available to merchants and a growing middle class. Rococo was itself revolutionary, in part because it upset the established hierarchy by making molded plaster look as good as solid gold. Four hundred years on, its cheap extravagance is still simultaneously elitist and democratic. Use it as a commoner and you can feel like a king. Use it as a king and it might just get you guillotined.

Whatever Mr. Trump is doing to the walls of the Oval Office is not French; it is deeply American. Prerevolutionary America was awash in Rococo design. Even one of America’s most famous revolutionaries, Paul Revere, a silversmith by trade, was known for his Rococo home goods. After the Revolution, like a good patriot, he pivoted to neo-Classicism, a heavy and serious style that is a suitable metaphor for what America wished itself to be: a democracy for the people, not for a king. When we talk about American design, we tend to prefer our neo-Classical fantasy to our gilded one. It’s almost as if we are embarrassed by how much we want to look like kings.

American Rococo is the stuff of bubbles. It hits when the 1 percent is thriving, when government leaders are overconfident and new technology is causing great uncertainty. It celebrates conspicuous consumption and nods to the perceived stability of the past.

The first map of the fledgling United States, from 1784, featured a Rococo corsage of swirling fronds, an American flag and cherubs, all of which would look right at home stuffed in one of Mr. Trump’s office pediments. And Rococo has remained a significant part of the American vernacular ever since. It became a favored embellishment for American guns, stoves, radiators and, when the first cash registers started emerging in 1879, well, of course, many of them were Rococo chic, too.

By the time Mr. Trump was born in June 1946, a Rococo revival was coming for postwar America. Home design magazines were filled with advertisements for chiffon curtains that draped like ruffled queens’ sleeves. Modern rooms were full of 18th-century reproduction furniture, bowlegged and ornately embellished. Silverware sets were edged in swooping florets and seashells. In women’s fashion, Christian Dior’s “new look” would bring back exaggerated female silhouettes with small waists and full ruffled skirts, a shape last popular in the 1800s.

But by 1960 the hard lines of midcentury modernism filled those same magazines. For the rest of the 20th century Rococo was a bit player, fading in and out of fashion. Not until the turn of the millennium did Americans go full Rococo all over again.

In 1997, after tremendous financial losses, Mr. Trump released the book “The Art of the Comeback.” The cover featured a portrait of him pouting at the camera in front of a flinty gold background, and its interior was stuffed with dropped names and braggadocious renderings of his business exploits. That year his gilded penthouse was a stand-in for a fictional billionaire’s in the film “The Devil’s Advocate.” All this was meant to display that famous people do, in fact, like him, that he was as important as he ever was and that, no matter the financial losses, the name Trump was still synonymous with ostentatious wealth.

In 1998, The New York Times summarized the latest trends in fashion. Among them: “ruffles, fringe and asymmetrical hems,” “Ivanka Trump” and “religion (celebrity worship).” When Mr. Trump stormed back, Rococo did, too.

As it turns out, Rococo was the perfect visual accompaniment for a moment that lasted for the next two decades. Over the next few years, new technology would reshape the middle class and a tiny handful of Americans would become very, very rich. Some of those rich Americans became TV stars. There were shows documenting the lives of millionaires — “The Simple Life” (2003), “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” (2007) — and shows where Americans tried to become millionaires — “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” (1999), “Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?” (2000). And of course there was a show that was both: “The Apprentice” (2004). On reality TV we witness baroque story lines and frivolous drama, the collision of high society and low art and, of course, performative wealth’s obvious facade.

That is, until the stock market crash of 2008 had a sobering effect, and the backlash to these millionaires’ royal extravagance was sharp, for a time.

Right before the 2016 election, Fran Lebowitz called Mr. Trump “a poor person’s idea of a rich person.” On the campaign trail, he didn’t look or sound like the rest of the new American billionaires. He wasn’t polished or smooth. His appearance was shoddy, strange, lacking all polish. And all that gold in his house? Well, yes, it looked fake. It was Rococo. He was a normal guy self-consciously performing wealth, something Americans had been doing for the previous 20 years. Not to mention the past 240.

Last year, trend forecasters predicted Rococo’s return. There had been hints it was coming for years. The buzzy shoe in 2021 was a jelly mule reminiscent of the shoe Marie Antoinette is said to have lost on the way to the guillotine. In 2022, when the neo-Rococo artist Flora Yukhnovich’s painting sold at auction for over $3 million, critics trumpeted the return of Rococo art. Rococo was on fashion runways in 2023 and 2024 and was so prominent on Pinterest that, by 2025, Target got in on the action, posting a Rococo trend board pointing shoppers to gilded mirrors and pastel cherubs. The pattern running behind the products was a light gray damask almost identical to the wallpaper that hangs in Mr. Trump’s Oval Office.

In November a country enamored (again) with populist wealth elected (again) a Rococo president. In Mr. Trump’s America, everything is gold. Our new $175 billion missile defense shield? It’s a Golden Dome, of course. And from the looks of the 3-D renderings it will turn the whole country into a shimmering gilded cheese platter. Want to come to America on the EB-5 immigrant investor visa? Surely you mean Mr. Trump’s gold card. Unlike the last version, it costs $5 million, but it does allow you to skip paying U.S. taxes on your overseas income.

So, is this us?

There is something very American about a man who wants to be both king and revolutionary. And there’s something very American about the lust for gold. We shouldn’t forget that large swaths of this nation were developed and destroyed because of it. And we shouldn’t forget that our wealth has often been used not for communal betterment but to enrich the self.

This spring Mr. Trump invited the Fox News host Laura Ingraham into the Oval Office to show off his redecorating skills. He pointed to the Rococo décor. “People have tried to come up with a gold paint that would look like gold, and they have never been able to do it,” he told her. “That’s why it’s gold.”

But those of us watching at home know how time always reveals that Rococo is just gilded plaster. Unfortunately for America, we like it that way.

(Emily Keegin is a photo editor and a creative consultant based in Northern California.)

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ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Trump's Rococo fashion preference should carry over to the Great Leader's June 14th, self-centered military parade. Gold details on Abrams tanks would be essential. The soldiers themselves should retain their "war-fighting" uniforms but their Commander in Chief, Generalissimo Donald J. Trump should wear a special uniform. On account of his continuing battle with bone spurs, he can't be expected to march at the head of the column. But he could be driven in a golden golf cart wearing a gold lamé uniform. His service ribbons would have to include a bone spur ribbon, but more come to mind. A ribbon commemorating his ear's survival from the Butler, PA assassination attempt would be one of them. Another should honor his service in New York's 1970s club scene. Ribbons should also commemorate each of his primary victories in 2016, 2020, and 2024. His personal win against Covid deserves a ribbon, as do each of his "Club Championships" at his golf clubs. Most importantly, Trump should have more combat ribbons than any other Commander in Chief, living or dead.

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TRUMP IS GETTING THE MILITARY PARADE HE WANTED IN HIS FIRST TERM

There will be 28 Abrams tanks, 6,700 soldiers, 50 helicopters, 34 horses, two mules and a dog, according to the Army’s plans for the June 14 event.

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WHO COMETH HERE?

by Mary Oliver

Years after I wrote a joke poem about a black bear being sighted in our neighboring town, Truro, one adventurer did actually come, crossing Massachusetts, swimming the channel, striding the length of the Cape to the end of it. One can imagine him staring out at the water — waves to the coast of Portugal — before he sighed and turned back.

He did no harm, was seen almost rubbing up against the Provincetown Town Hall, striding the edge of Route 6, and finally (who can blame him?) invading a beehive in the town of Wellfleet. There he was captured, tranquilized, tagged, and trucked back to where, by the rangers’ best guess, he had begun his journey.

Most residents on the Cape were relieved. But a few, myself among them, had other thoughts.

The truth is, he was probably looking for a partner, and he certainly wasn’t the first of our sort — though possibly the first of his — to visit Provincetown for the same purpose. In any case, he didn’t come to stir up the government, or open another café or — heaven forbid — a fast-food restaurant, or mouth off opinions about gay, antigay, or what he thought of the artists, or write endless complaining letters to the town paper.

Yes, I suppose he must have poached a few fish. But on the other hand think what a valuable resident he might have become, had he been willing to join in our charitable events (a hundred dollars for a chance to go dancing with Provincetown’s very own bear!). Also, with his preference for camping out he certainly wouldn’t have left behind the necessities and amenities in obvious distress.

Dear Bear, it’s no use, the world is like that. So stay where you are, and live long. Someday maybe we’ll wise up and remember what you were: hopeless ambassador of a world that returns now only in poets’ dreams.

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COINING ANTISEMITISM

by Fred Gardner

There was no such thing as "semitism" when Wilhelm Marr, a German journalist/political organizer, coined the term "antisemitism" to mean prejudice against Jews. When Marr founded "The Anti-Semitic League" in 1879, why didn't he use the obvious term, "Anti-Jewish?" 

According to his biographer, Moshe Zimmerman,  "The Patriarch of Antisemitism," wanted to distinguish his point of view from that of a rival faction who hated Jews on religious grounds (for killing Jesus, etc.).  Marr hated their political and economic power.  He was an atheist. 

Marr was born in 1819. His father was a famous actor, the first to play Goethe's Mefisto. Wilhelm spent two years with a secret revolutionary group called "Young Germany in Switzerland," whose members included Heinrich Heine. He wrote to his father, "The time is ripe to share Rothschilds' property among 3,333,333 poor weavers." In 1845, based in Hamburg, he published a book about his experience in Switzerland that sold well and established his reputation. He also edited and published abridged versions of books by Bruno Bauer ("The Jewish Question")  and Ludwig Feuerbach ("The Essence of Christianism").  In Cologne, Marr's contemporary Karl Marx, was writing piercing critiques of these books. 

According to Zimmermann (chairman of the history department at Hebrew University, Jerusalem), "Marr, like Marx, would eventually arrive at the conclusion that the emancipation of the Jews would be their liberation from the spirit of haggling, or the liberation of the world from this spirit." 

In 1847 Marr published a newspaper called Mephistopheles. He admired Louis Blanc, a French socialist, and called for a "universal European republic." To his disappointment, the revolution of 1848 did not succeed in creating a German republic. He ran for office in Hamburg and lost. His chief rivals in electoral politics were Jews named Wolffson and Riesser. 

In 1852 Marr emigrated to Central America, intending to be a merchant, then found a niche settling German immigrants in Costa Rica (as indentured servants). He came back in 1859 with some capital and in 1862 got elected to the Hamburg parliament. He published a book called "Der Jugenspiegel" that refers to "a racial difference between the Germans and the Orientals." His surprising solution was intermarriage, and he practiced what he preached, marrying a Jewish woman and two who were half-Jewish.  His fourth and final wife was a shiksa. 

In 1863 he retired to his villa and wrote a 598-page account of his time in North America. This book, according to Zimmermann, "did not lack a haughty attitude towards the black and red races." Marr noted that most of the slave ships had embarked from Boston. 

A socialist movement led by Ferdinand Lasalle was gaining momentum in Hamburg. In a pamphlet attacking "Lasalle the Messiah," Marr wrote, "the intervention of a state on behalf of the workers is foolishness… The state has absolutely no right to prefer these individuals over others… The individualistic feelings of freedom within me rebel against any form of guardianship."

For two years Marr edited a political weekly promoting the annexation of Hamburg by Prussia. "In 1866 he began to edit a Sunday newspaper, Der Kosmopolit. This was his swan song as a publisher and editor; during the following 10 years, he would wander from newspaper to newspaper and from place to place, as a feuillotinist. He went in 1867 to Italy and Switzerland, later publishing a book, the Council of Trent, which was a general attack on the church. The book includes an attack on the press, which Marr accused of promoting 'Orientalism.' 

Marr published an anonymous pamphlet in 1867, "The New Trinity," which foresaw Russia, France, and Germany overseeing separate spheres of influence, each of which opposed and excluded "Asianism." A decade later, when he published his magnum opus, The Victory of Judaism over Germanism, "the word 'Asianism' would be replaced by 'Semitism,'" Zimmerman writes, "and the horrible product would stand completed."

The Victory of Judaism Over Germanism was widely read, but Marr's "Anti-Semitic League" remained small compared to groups led by Adolf Stoecker, Theodor Frisch, and others who raised and made money for their cause. "The charge which Marr now repeatedly brought," Zimmerman writes, "was that anti-Semitism had become a business." In a final testament, Marr regretted having collaborated with the conservative monarchy and the church, instead of taking joint action with the workers to advance the cause of Social Democracy.

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ISRAEL has done more to promote hatred toward Jews in the last year and a half than Stormfront has in its entire existence. No white supremacist propaganda will ever be as effective at spreading hatred against Jews as openly mass murdering children under a Star of David flag.

— Caitlin Johnstone

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LEAD STORIES, WEDNESDAY'S NYT

As Trump Seeks Iran Deal, Israel Again Raises Possible Strikes on Nuclear Sites

Chaos Mars Opening of Israeli-Backed Aid Distribution Site in Gaza

State Department Halts Interviews for Student and Exchange Visas

ICE, Shifting Tactics, Detains High School Student at N.Y.C. Courthouse

U.S. Will No Longer Recommend Covid Shots for Children and Pregnant Women

How a Generation’s Struggle Led to a Record Surge in Homelessness

They Inhaled a Gas and Scaled Everest in Days. Is It the Future of Mountaineering?

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US HAS DELIVERED 90,000 TONS OF WEAPONS to Israel in Nearly 600 Days

by Dave DeCamp

The US has delivered 90,000 tons of bombs, guns, and other military equipment to Israel since October 7, 2023, to support the genocidal war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to numbers from the Israeli Defense Ministry.…

https://news.antiwar.com/2025/05/27/us-has-delivered-90000-tons-of-weapons-to-israel-in-nearly-600-days/

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IN THE WEST BANK

by Mejd Azzeh

When I walked through the shattered streets of Tulkarem refugee camp the day after a military incursion last November, the air was heavy with dust from demolished homes and bulldozed streets. I am the Palestine director of 1for3, a Boston-based non-profit organisation that works in Palestinian refugee communities. I was in Tulkarem to meet our team of community health workers at al-Awda Centre. The centre’s director guided a small group of us through the camp to see the wreckage caused by the Israeli military.

Having watched Israel’s war on Gaza on TV and online from my home in Bethlehem, it was strange to see similar scenes of destruction in the West Bank first-hand. But as we walked through Tulkarem camp, we saw residents of all ages – still able to muster a smile – clearing up the wreckage or checking on elderly neighbours to see if they needed anything.

Health is inseparable from politics, especially in a refugee camp like Tulkarem. Refugees should be treated not as victims or passive recipients of aid, but as experts on their own conditions. Given the resources and space, they are able to lead the way in building systems of care that are both culturally rooted and sustainable. When access to healthcare is obstructed by economic hardship, military attacks, checkpoints and other restrictions on movement, community health workers are essential. Bridging the gaps in a fractured healthcare system, they provide home-based care, chronic disease management, paediatric care and psychosocial support. In Tulkarem, they have also become key figures in community cohesion and emergency response.

In circumstances where systemic violence is designed to fragment and isolate populations, community health work has become a form of resistance. It is not only a model for survival, but a way to assert the right to live in dignity. Despite Israeli efforts to erase and displace them, community members remain, adapt and support one another. After the mass displacement of over 80 per cent of the population of Tulkarem and Nur Shams refugee camps in February, residents of Tulkarem city opened their doors to strangers from the camps.

Last September, during an Israeli military incursion into the camp, one of our community health workers was shot while saving one of his colleagues and protecting residents. He has spent several months in hospital rehabilitation. His story is not exceptional but a reflection of the daily risks that community health workers face.

After the ceasefire agreement in Gaza in January, Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank saw the most intense attacks in a generation. Military incursions, home demolitions, mass arrests and killings became routine. Since Israel launched ‘Operation Iron Wall’, nearly nine hundred military checkpoints have been installed, crippling movement between Palestinian cities and cutting off access to healthcare and essential services. Israel has also established military barracks in the camps.

With hospitals inaccessible, home visits from community health workers – often displaced themselves – have become more important than ever. They also, at some risk to themselves, co-ordinate between the Red Crescent and the military to allow ambulances to carry the elderly, injured and disabled to safety.

The violence threatens to shatter not only individual lives but the structures of care and support that hold communities together. The city of Bethlehem is now facing similar threats as Tulkarem and other areas in the West Bank: there has been an increase in military activity and markings on the walls of homes, which may be destroyed soon to pave the way for more settler-only roads. But we will not give up. As one of the community health workers put it, ‘our community is everything. Even when we have nothing else, we have each other. And as long as that is true, we will find a way to keep going.’

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THE POPE & PACHAMAMA

by Colin Toibin

Steve Bannon doesn’t like him. Before the conclave, he named Cardinal Robert Prevost as “one of the dark horses” to become the next pope. “Unfortunately, he’s one of the most progressive,” Bannon added. It is unlikely that Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis, who had objected to Pope Francis and wants a return to a more traditional Catholicism, has much time for him either. And Brian Burch, Trump’s nominee as ambassador to the Vatican, can’t be happy.

These last two, according to the New York Times, went to a ball in Rome ahead of the conclave with various right-wing European politicians. Most of those present supported a Hungarian cardinal called Peter Erdo. “He’s what we need right now,” Tim Busch, president of the conservative Napa Institute in California, told the Times. “We need someone who can teach clearly and be strong.” When it came to the cardinals’ vote, Erdo’s case could not have been helped by the fact that he had also been backed by Viktor Orbán, and by Cardinal George Pell of Australia, who was convicted of sexual abuse in 2018 (the conviction was overturned on appeal two years later).

Among the revellers at the ball was Alexander Tschugguel, a Catholic convert from Austria who delighted conservatives five years ago when he stole some statues of Pachamama, a fertility goddess, from the Church of Santa Maria del Carmelo in Rome. Francis had gladly accepted them during a meeting with Amazonian leaders, and Tschugguel was outraged at what he saw as idol worship, so he broke into the chapel at dawn, pocketed the statues and tossed them into the Tiber. Francis asked for forgiveness from those who were offended and the statues were recovered.

The abiding spirit in this conclave, clearly, was Pachamama herself. She must be pleased to have a Peruvian citizen running things in Rome. What will she want in return? It might be enough for her to know that Pope Leo, thus far in his life, has been skilled at placing himself in the middle whenever there are warring factions. He can’t be called conservative and he can’t be called too liberal. Francis, the dead pope, will be smiling in heaven. He liked the idea of being neither one thing nor another.

But on one issue, Leo is clear. He is not a supporter of the Trump regime or of the large body of rich and conservative American Catholics who wish to make themselves heard. Trump and Vance may publicly welcome him now, but the warmth will not last.

In the week before Francis died, there had been concern in the Vatican about the impending visit of Vance, who had converted to Catholicism in 2019. In an encounter with Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office on 28 February, Vance had shown himself to be aggressive and combative, a populist politician in search of a cause.

How interesting it might be for him, then, were he looking for a second target, to begin a campaign against the liberal wing of the Catholic Church, to establish himself as a leader of a more traditional Catholicism, someone longing for the Latin Mass and for a time when rules were rules, a time when the most the poor could expect from the Church was its pity and its charity.

Vance had already suggested that the Catholic Church in America was interested in settling migrants for material gain. On ‘Face the Nation,’ in his first interview as vice president, he said: “I think that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops needs to actually look in the mirror a little bit and recognize that when they receive over $100 million to help resettle illegal immigrants, are they worried about humanitarian concerns? Or are they actually worried about their bottom line?’ Cardinal Timothy Dolan, normally a cheerleader for Trump (he delivered the traditional prayer at both inaugurations), called Vance’s remarks “just scurrilous” and “very nasty.”

Trump had fired the first shot in a battle between the White House and the Vatican by nominating Burch, the president of the right-wing advocacy group CatholicVote, as his ambassador. On December 20, the National Catholic Reporter wrote: “Trump’s choice of Burch to represent him here in Rome is certain to raise eyebrows inside the Vatican, as he has long expressed criticism of the Francis papacy.” When Francis decided, in 2023, to allow priests to bless individuals in same-sex unions, Burch had attacked him for creating “confusion” within the Church. He predicted that the Pope would not be in office much longer and said that the next Pope must “clarify” the confusion of the Francis era. He also criticized Francis’s governance for what he described as a “pattern of vindictiveness.”

Francis retaliated on January 6 by appointing Robert McElroy as cardinal arch- bishop of Washington DC. In 2015, when McElroy, who supported Francis’s stance against injustice and social inequality, was appointed bishop of San Diego, he spoke out against homelessness and expressed his support for immigration reform. While his fellow American bishops were preaching against abortion and euthanasia, he insisted that they also oppose “poverty and the degradation of the earth.” When Trump visited California in 2019 to inspect a site for the border wall he wished to build, McElroy said: “It is a sad day for our country when we trade the majestic, hope-filled symbolism of the Statue of Liberty for an ineffective and grotesque wall, which both displays and inflames the ethnic and cultural divisions that have long been the underside of our national history.’

In February, a month before he was installed in Washington, McElroy led a protest march in San Diego against Trump’s immigration policies, made up mainly of Latino members of his congregation. In the sermon he gave on his actual installation, however, he was careful to make no direct reference to the White House. Instead, he spoke in high-minded tones about matters of faith, especially the Resurrection. His task that day was not to confront Trump — he had done that with this march — but to make it clear that he operated from an unassailable position. Who can argue with the Resurrection?

Vance was visiting Rome before the new US ambassador to the Vatican had been ratified by the Senate. He could easily, if the mood took him, find a willing camera somewhere in front of St Peter’s and call on the Church to keep its nose out of American politics, to concentrate instead on cleaning up its own doctrinal house. It wasn’t hard to imagine Vance, in that week, as Trump’s continued outrages dominated every news cycle, telling the Pope and his cardinals that their views on immigrants and asylum seekers would not have any influence in Washington, in spite of the new cardinal. He could add that many Catholics were tired of fudge and prevarication. They wanted clarity. He was here, he might say, to offer his leadership to Catholics alienated from the Church by the weakness of Pope Francis.

The problem was not merely that the Pope was dying and that this was hardly the moment to launch an assault on him. The Vatican was ready to make clear that while its secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and its foreign minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, would meet the vice president, they wished to distance themselves from his views. What followed, according to the official Vatican statement, was “an exchange of opinions on the international situation, especially regarding countries affected by war, political tensions and difficult humanitarian situations, with particular attention to migrants, refugees and prisoners.”

This was the narrative reported by most journalists, who ignored the statement from the vice president’s office claiming that he and the cardinal had discussed “their shared religious faith, Catholicism in the United States, the plight of persecuted Christian communities around the world and President Trump’s commitment to restoring world peace.”

But what to do with Vance before he went on his way? He and Francis had already had an open argument. Vance had spoken in January of ordo amoris, or a “hierarchy of obligations,” stating in a social media post that his “moral duties” to his children were greater than those to “a stranger who lives thousands of miles away.” In a direct rebuke, Francis replied: “Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups… The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan,’ that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception.” In Chicago, a little-known recently appointed cardinal retweeted another attack on Vance’s statement: “J.D. Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others.” That cardinal was Robert Prevost.

Since the Pope was ill, he had every excuse not to see Vance. While it’s tempting to claim that the sight of Vance, all humble and obsequious, might have hastened Francis’s demise, it would be more plausible to suppose that seeing Vance for a few minutes, and hearing his expressions of gratitude, allowed the Pope to die slightly more content. The footage of Vance being received by the ailing and unsmiling Pope, with Vance looking like an attack Chihuahua who had lost the will to live, must have given the Pontiff and his followers some comfort. The meeting ended with a gift of Easter eggs for the three Vance children and Vance saying that he would pray for the Pope.

Vance’s prayers go far. Attentive readers will know that the last time Vance’s prayers were reported, they had been to seek the “victory” of US military strikes against the Houthis in Yemen. He did this in a Signal chat with other members of the Trump administration on March 15, a chat that was shared with the editor of the Atlantic magazine.

(London Review of Books)

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POST WAR BETRAYAL

by General Donald V. Bennett

The tragedy was not ended. It still echoes today.

Of all the horrors endured, what came next was perhaps the worst and the most haunting, for supposedly it came in a time of peace.

It was, as well, a betrayal of what we were supposedly fighting for and the foundation in blood of the 45-year struggle to come, a struggle which at times took us again to the brink of annihilation.

The Soviets pushed westward, and we drew up to a demarcation line near Zatavi, just west of Prague. And then came an order that we were to seal our line. We were to continue rounding up any German military personnel that wandered in, but no displaced peoples, that is, refugees, were to be allowed to cross into our lines.

What ensued was like something out of stories of the ancient world.

Ever since the beginning of the German pullback on the eastern front in 1943, millions of civilians had retreated with them. They were not necessarily pro-Nazi, but they were decidedly anti-Stalin. Retreating behind the Germans were Ukrainians, anticommunist Russians, ethnic Germans who lived in Russia before the war, Tatars who were descendants of the medieval Mongols… millions upon millions.

Some might be defined as guilty. They had allied with the Germans for a variety of reasons, and some of those reasons were understandable to those who claimed to support freedom. But what of the children, of young women who like all young women fall in love, of old men and grandmothers? Millions of these innocents were fleeing as well, and they saw that behind the flag of America there might be a chance to survive.

We betrayed them.

It was simple enough at Yalta. Just a few words and a signature was all it took. It was an agreement declaring that in the postwar world all civilians should be returned to their place of origin. Bureaucratically, that seemed logical enough, a simple way to sort things out, to separate the sheep from the wolves, to bring justice, and then to rebuild. And yet the agreement was a death sentence for millions.

We were ordered to seal our lines, to let no one pass, and the tragedies played out before us tore our hearts out as these pitiful survivors, terrified of what was behind them, begged to be let through. Many of us turned a blind eye at first, and then orders, in the harshest of terms, came down from Corps.

Then the Russians came.

I’ll never forget my first sight of them, a vast sprawling horde coming up out of the east. Our allies yes, and yet still somehow alien to behold. On a road parallel to our position they came, a vast convoy made up of every kind of commandeered vehicle ever made, from civilian trucks and cars to the standard Studebaker deuce-and-a-half.

One of these trucks broke down directly in front of us. The men piled out, popped the hood, stood around for a few minutes shaking their heads, then piled into another truck and left the abandoned vehicle behind. My men were incredulous. Hell, we would have had it back on the road, or if need be, we would have towed it along. They left it as junk in their wake.

Almost immediately the first confrontation came. A convoy started to roll straight for our line, and the next thing I knew, there I was in the middle of the road blocking their advance. I was polite, at first, but the tension was clear. The commander of the convoy demanded that we step aside, and I firmly conveyed that we were on the line of demarcation. They backed off. It was the first of numerous confrontations to come, all the way through my tenure as commander of the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Several days later the Soviets actually did infiltrate through our lines, moving into a town several miles to our rear, and started to run riot with the civilian population.

There are numerous stories, most of them apocryphal, that George Patton wanted to trigger World War III right there.

Well, I almost gave him that chance.

The Soviets had illegally cut behind our lines, seized a town, and then announced they were there to stay. Without waiting for high command to hem and haw, I mounted up my battalion, moved my M-7s in, ringing the town, and then at dawn sent in a polite message informing the local commander that it was best that he leave immediately.

If he had called my bluff, I think I might have fired. I was already getting fed up with them, but fortunately he backed down and retreated.

The true nightmare, however, unfolded a couple of weeks later.

Displaced persons camps were going into operation all along the front lines as refugees were herded in and sorted out to be shipped back to their old homes. In Czechoslovakia there were hundreds of thousands of DPs from the east — Hungary, Romania, all the way back to the Volga.

Orders came down for military police units to take these people and turn them over to the Soviets.

What unfolded before my eyes was a crime that history has turned away from, an act of shame that few speak of, and which my nation and our leaders were in part responsible for.

Within a couple of days after this transfer started, I received horrifying reports of massacres occurring right in front of our troops. Several commanders had protested and were summarily relieved of command and shipped back to the States.

I ordered one of my recon pilots to take me up. We took off and flew along the line of demarcation. It was a damned nightmare. Less than a mile away, on the Soviet side, I could see holding areas containing thousands of people, and they were being murdered. I could see bodies sprawled everywhere, columns of a dark, seething humanity marching east into the gulag, the weak, the old, the young — shot on the spot and left to rot.

I was sick with rage. To have fought for so long to end such madness and then to see the same ugly blot spreading again like a poisonous filth was more than I could bear.

I could not fly beyond that line. Soviet fighters were patrolling the front and would have dropped us, just as Nazi planes would have dropped us only weeks before.

Our supposed allies had already established their curtain, and to this day I condemn any apologist who mouths platitudes about the Soviets and how wrong we were in 1945.

Go and say those words to the forgotten dead, murdered in a time of peace, murdered for the solidarity of the working man.

To this day I wonder if I should have done more. Perhaps this report is in part an atonement for that, a reminder of what we fought for, and how across the years afterward far too many lies have been spoken about the confrontation with the Soviets and our supposed wrongs that created that confrontation.

I confronted them across 30 years of my career and never for a second did I doubt what we were facing, an evil every bit as evil as that of Hitler.

I do not condemn the ordinary Soviet soldier, so many of them died anonymously, heroes defending their motherland, and far too many were betrayed by Stalin and his henchmen, sent to the gulag along with the prisoners they were forced to escort.

(from ‘Honor Untarnished: A West Point Graduate’s Memoir of World War II,’ by Retired General Donald V. Bennett.)

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