We are deeply concerned that what is really being rededicated is a nation to a very narrow and ideological part of the Christian faith that betrays our nation’s fundamental commitment to religious freedom.
– Rev. Adam Russell Taylor on Sunday’s “Rededicate 250” rally
This week’s featured post is “Is Corruption the Democrats’ Unifying Theme?“
Ongoing stories
- Trump’s assault on American democracy. It just broke today: Trump’s Justice Department established a $1.7 billion fund to pay “damages” the US owes to Trump’s January 6 brownshirts for harassing them by convicting them of their crimes.
- Climate change. I lost track of this issue this week. I’ll do better.
- Iran war. Announcing fake peace deals is getting old, so Trump issuing ominous threats again. The basic situation hasn’t changed: Trump wants Iran to surrender, but he hasn’t defeated them. He talks about a “deal”, but an authentic deal has benefits for both sides.
- Ukraine. The war is still a stalemate, but seems to be turning Ukraine’s way. Both sides are pummeling each other with missile and drone attacks, but Ukraine is attacking strategic industries while Russia is terror-bombing civilian targets.
This week’s developments
This week everybody was talking about Trump in China
I continue to wonder why media outlets cover what Trump says, given how often it turns out to be meaningless. Trump came out of China boasting of “fantastic trade deals”, but no one can get details and Chinese sources don’t verify those deals.
I was surprised to hear Chinese leader Xi Jinping make a classical Greek reference I had to look up. He warned against a “Thucydides Trap“, which is when a declining power feels that it has to fight a war to keep down a rising power. (Thucydides chronicled the Peloponnesian War between rising power Athens and declining power Sparta.)
The reference implicitly slammed the US as a declining power. Trump did not rise to the occasion.
and Black voting rights in the South
One fact to remember when you read articles about redistricting: Prior to the round that began with Texas, gerrymandering had pretty much balanced out. In 2024, Republican congressional candidates won a small majority in the popular vote, and they got a small majority in Congress.
Now, it’s looking like the Republicans have given themselves a 10-15 seat advantage, which probably won’t be enough to save their House majority in November.
and inflation
[Having just posted two Nick Anderson cartoons in a row, I feel obligated to recommend that you subscribe to his Substack or follow him through Raw Story.]
The inflation rate in April hit a 3.8% annual rate, which is higher than the 3% when Trump was inaugurated in January 2025.
and you also might be interested in …
Trump’s approval rating continues to sink: 37% in today’s NYT/Siena poll, and 38% in the NYT’s polling average. Only 30% think the Iran attack was a good decision.
Austin Ahlman is an independent running for Congress in Nebraska against a Republican incumbent and a Democratic challenger. I knew nothing about him yesterday, but today I know that he can make one hell of a campaign video.
Your tax dollars paid for a Christian nationalist rally on the National Mall Sunday. (Remember when the Trump regime was all about rooting out government waste?) “Rededicate 250” was part of Trump’s one-sided celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Religion Unplugged commented:
The Rev. Adam Russell Taylor, a Baptist minister who heads the progressive Christian organization Sojourners, noted: “We are deeply concerned that what is really being rededicated is a nation to a very narrow and ideological part of the Christian faith that betrays our nation’s fundamental commitment to religious freedom.”
The role of Christianity in early American history is complex and should be presented in a nuanced way: Yes, the vast majority of Americans in 1776 thought of themselves as Protestant Christians. (Catholics who buy into the idea that we were founded to be a Christian nation should be careful: The same argument would say that you also are a second-class citizen.) Patrick Henry, for one, would probably fit in well in an Evangelical church today.
However, a significant number of the Founders (Franklin, Jefferson) were essentially Deists, Thomas Paine was very close to being an atheist, and Washington’s Christianity was vague at best. The Constitution does not mention God, which was a radical statement at the time. Contrast it with the Magna Carta, whose second paragraph begins:
KNOW THAT BEFORE GOD, for the health of our soul and those of our ancestors and heirs, to the honour of God, the exaltation of the holy Church, and the better ordering of our kingdom, at the advice of our reverend fathers …
But the Constitution’s only mentions of religion curb religious excess. (“no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States”). The Founders were familiar with the destruction wrought over the centuries as various sects of Christians battled for control of the government of England. That’s why they created a secular government for this country, regardless of any of their personal beliefs.
BTW: All the media accounts I’ve seen refer to “thousands” of people in attendance, which is not that big for an event like this. This picture from WaPo (during Marco Rubio’s presentation) shows a lot empty chairs.
Whether you know it or not, somebody you care about is taking anti-depressant drugs under a prescription from their doctor. In their later years both of my parents did, and both described the effects as life-changing. My father in particular had reached the point of despair, but became himself again.
Our quack Secretary of HHS, RFK Jr., would like to change all that. Speaking from a vast wisdom that doesn’t depend on mundane details like medical studies or other tangible evidence, Kennedy says prescribing anti-depressants is a form of “over-medicalization”, which his fevered imagination pictures as a cause of addiction and even violence. He recommends doctors prescribe non-drug remedies like exercise. (Have you ever tried to get a depressed person to exercise?)
Stat News comments:
Kennedy’s willfully uninformed rhetoric on antidepressants is going to cost lives. The similarity to his anti-vaccine chatter is clear: When you bad-mouth effective, lifesaving vaccines, you end up driving people away from lifesaving medical care. Kennedy’s antidepressant rhetoric is not only based on bad science, it fuels distrust in mental health treatments at a time when adolescent depression, anxiety, and suicide rates are at record highs.
The Department of WarDefense has just released a trove of previously classified documents pertaining to UFOs.
I didn’t consider that particularly interesting, but this piece from the WaPo “Awakenings” newsletter is: Belief in UFOs, religion professor Diana Walsh Pasulka notes, is taking on many of the roles traditionally played by religion.
It organizes communities of belief, creates narratives of revelation, offers cosmological meaning and establishes interpretive frameworks through which people understand mysterious experiences and humanity’s place in the universe. … Mistrust of institutions has powered the rise of anti-institutional forms of belief. Religious impulses have migrated into new technological and media environments that bypass gatekeepers.
Historians have been upgrading their opinions of President Dwight Eisenhower. At the time he was often dismissed as a “do-nothing president” who presided over a boring era, providing a backdrop for a charismatic JFK presidency and the socially transformative Johnson presidency.
I wonder if the Trump presidency has raised historians’ opinion of boring government. Yes, Ike didn’t appear to be doing much. But among the things he didn’t do: He didn’t bail out the French after their defeat at Dien Bien Phu. He didn’t roll back the New Deal. He didn’t give in to the temptation to take advantage of our lead in nuclear weapons.
and let’s close with something impressive
This peacock is yet another image from The Guardian’s “Week in Wildlife“.
The Weekly Sift 
