THE BERNHARD PERSPECTRIVE

DONALD’S WAR, OUR DIME

Why war against Iran? That country poses no real threat to the U.S. Unless, perhaps, you consider possible terrorist attacks. But if that were the criterion, there’s already a half-dozen countries and organizations lined up in front of Iran.

No, Iran poses no great threat to us. But it does pose a threat to a number of countries in the Mid East. That includes several Arab oil states and, of course, Israel, and this is plainly obvious as T****’s war expands to engulf the entire Saudi peninsula.

Remember Watergate’s Deep Throat? What was his advice to Woodward and Bernstein? If you want to get to the truth, follow the money. And we should be doing so here. Because then it all comes clear. And it was all about rich Arabs giving tons of it to you-know-who.

Qatar gave T**** a $400 million Boeing 747, a flying palace that the Constitution says he may not accept but that he plans to keep after he leaves office.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE), a federation of seven emirates including Abi Dhabi and Dubai, routed $2 billion through a crypto transaction into the T**** family’s financial firm.

The Saudis parked $2 billion with Jared Kushner the second he left government in 2020. And who was running America’s Iran negotiations right before the bombs fell? Why, it was Jared Kushner, with pockets lined by Iran’s avowed enemy.

And that’s not even to mention the hundreds of millions of dollars the Saudis and the UAE have spent on hotels and accommodations at dozens of T****-owned facilities in the last decade. Or the expensive gifts. Geez.

The truth is that we are spending American treasure and sacrificing American lives fighting other country’s wars that they’ve paid Donald T**** to fight on our dime.

Then there’s Israel. Netanyahu wasted no time joining in on T****’s war. With Israeli elections coming in October, a military campaign against Tehran is a huge political gift from his buddy, Donald. Netanyahu gets to play wartime leader while T**** plays tough guy in a baseball cap while he golfs and parties at Mar-a-Lago. A match made in hell? You betcha.

And because he and Hegseth are both idiots, they didn’t really plan anything and have no idea where they’re going with any of this. The bombing could stop tomorrow or go on for weeks. Specific goals? They change almost hourly. Exit strategy? What’s that? In the meantime, untold thousands will die.

There will be a lot more blood on Donalds’s already blood-stained hands before this catastrophe is over. And if he wasn’t already, he is clearly an international criminal now. But Donald doesn’t care.

For him, it’s all about his fat wallet.

THE BERNHARD PERSPECTIVE

I have had it up to here with the MAGAs, Evangelicals and Christian Nationalists whose almost apostatical hypocrisy defies belief. For them it’s always some like “America was founded on Christian principles,” or “America is a Christian nation.” Both of these are lies. And in their shallow souls, it goes no farther than that, because when it comes to actually following the teachings of their faith, all bets are off.

From them there is never a word about welcoming the foreigner or healing the sick. There is no sense of an obligation to the poor and the needy. There is never an acknowledgement of their Savior’s command to “love thy neighbor.”

They want prayer in public schools but aren’t interested in feeding hungry kids. Jesus spoke against public prayer but fed the hungry.
And there is never a word or thought about living in peace, as in: “Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” (Isaiah 2:4)

And since they conveniently ignore it, Jesus never told his followers to hate anybody, either. He made no exceptions for where they come from, what they look like, who they love or how they worship. But Evangelicals and Christian Nationalists do and their list is long. It is Islamophobic, xenophobic, homophobic, misogynist and racist, and their hatred is almost palpable.

And since they are all experts at picking and choosing isolated passages from the Bible to support their hateful agendas, I suggest they re-read Leviticus 19:33-34, Matthew 22:39 and 25:35-40. Then sit on it and twirl.

So here is what I have to say to the MAGAs and the (White) Christian Nationalists. You are commanded to feed the hungry, heal the sick, tend to the needy and welcome the foreigner. Those are not suggestions. If you don’t like that, be honest, and admit that you don’t care what your faith requires. You have your own agenda and you are just using it as cover.

So no, I have no truck with these people who wave their apostasy around as a badge of honor. Their hateful and corrupt vision of Jesus’ teachings is beneath contempt.

And they can just forget about any Rapture.

THE BERNHARD PERSPECTIVE

Here’s how hatred works:

Kill a man, and you are a murderer;
Kill millions and you are a conqueror;
Kill them all, and you are a god.
Execute you, and I am a hero.
Why? Because you live across a river.
If you lived on my side, killing you would be murder;
But because of a line a king drew on a map,
killing you is a virtue.
Morality is merely a matter of geography
— Al-Ghazáli (c.1058-1111)

The above quote showed up in my Facebook feed from another site. When I checked with AI, I found that it has been variously attributed to Al-Ghazali, Voltaire and Napoleon. One program attributed it to George Bernard Shaw, another said there is no accurate attribution. A third agreed with the second.

This is most likely what is called an “internet orphan.” Someone made it up, posted it, and it made the rounds until it became accepted as real. One AI program said it would take a deep search to see if the true author of this quotation could be identified, and another program said even that may not be possible.

The truth is that someone wanted to give Islam a bad name by putting morally indefensible words into the mouth of an influential Moslem theologian, jurist and historian. So they either made this up or took it from somewhere else and posted it with an invented attribution. Either way, it is a lie.

The moral, don’t believe anything you see on the web just because it’s there. Don’t be a sucker.

Know your source. Verify everything.

THE BERNHARD PERSPECTIVE

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was one of Donald T****’s most controversial cabinet appointments (HHS). Lacking any medical background and espousing anti-vaccine beliefs and conspiratorial ideologies, there was much trepidation among science, research and health systems professionals as Kennedy assumed office.

And for good reason. Kennedy has betrayed the the mission of HHS “to enhance the health and well-being of all Americans, by providing for effective health and human services and by fostering sound, sustained advances in the sciences underlying medicine, public health, and social services.” (from the HHS Mission Statement)
Consider these actions taken by Kennedy in just his first seven months:

1. He fired thousands of federal health care workers, from programs designed to protect Americans from cancer, heart attacks, strokes, lead poisoning, injury, violence and more; 2. He cancelled virtually all investments in promising medical research; 3. He replaced experts on federal health advisory committees with unqualified hacks; 4. He ended U.S. support for global vaccination programs that protect millions of children; 5. He advocated for federal legislation that will cause millions of people to lose their Medicaid coverage.

6. He cancelled ongoing projects addressing maternal health, LGBTQ+ health, autism, cancer, substance abuse and diabetes in underserved communities; 7. His response to the largest measles outbreak in the United Sates in a generation was focused on unproven treatments while downplaying vaccines; 8. Kennedy’s alignment with the anti-vax movement has left the populace vulnerable for contracting diseases such as polio, measles, rubella, hepatitis B, tetanus and more; 9. Kennedy has fundamentally altered the COVID mandates, dropping them for all but the youngest and oldest. His claim that healthy adults don’t need the vaccine is a lie.

10. His blocking of federal funding for school COVID vaccine programs specifically targets children; 11. Kennedy’s limited authorization of the 2025–26 COVID, flu, and other vaccinations will lead to hundreds of millions Americans being un-protected; 12. Because out-of-pocket cost for a COVID vaccination ranges from $140 to over $200, Kennedy is specifically targeting the poor and underclasses for a high risk of infection; 13. Kennedy has declared that all actions taken by HHS, and especially the Center for Disease Control (CDC), must conform with President Donald T****’s political agendas.

And if that’s not enough, the president himself is on board with these actions. Consider:

14. President T**** has bilaterally cancelled dozens of research projects both at HHS and universities nationwide; 15. He cancelled funding for an NIH grant to study sickle cell disease and a device designed to support blood circulation in infants with congenital heart defects; 16. He terminated a $65 million grant impacting fourteen Alzheimer’s Disease research centers; 17. Funding for the Diabetes Prevention Program tracking pre-diabetes and diabetes patients aimed at preventing transmissions among young people were wiped out by the president.

Taken together, T**** and Kennedy have cancelled research and prevention programs covering virtually the entire spectrum of human health and medical services. Because of these actions, Americans with inherited tendencies or have simply contracted diseases, many of which are wholly preventable, will suffer and die.

The claim that these cuts are necessary to reduce the federal deficit is laughable at best. The total proposed or enacted health and science-related cuts made by these two is perhaps some $40-50 billion. Relative to the budget’s estimated cost of anywhere from $3-4 trillion, that amounts to at best no more than 1.7% of that total, an insignificant drop in the fiscal bucket.

Since these actions are not about the budget, what are T**** and Kennedy’s motivations for these acts of madness? We gain that insight by taking Kennedy at his own words concerning a deadly virus that raged through this country last year. And the answer is terrifying.

Remember the bird flu? In March 2025, Kennedy advocated that instead of culling flocks of chickens infected with the H5N1 virus, farmers should consider, “letting it run through the flock so that we can identify the birds, and preserve the birds, that are immune to it [H5N].” His rationale was that genetically superior survivors of the epidemic could be used to establish new, superior, resistant flocks. Fortunately, Kennedy’s proposal was not adopted as policy.

Up to now, Kennedy has exhibited the same consideration for certain segments of American society that he does for chickens: let the weak die and the strong survive. As such, these actions by the president and his secretary are close to an identifiable madness.

It is a madness that is not concerned with the plight of the sick and infirm and those who may be inflicted with or vulnerable to preventable diseases. It is a madness that targets the marginalized and the poor, and it is a madness designed to facilitate not survival and flourishing, but death and dying.

This is a madness advocating that in order to make America healthy, only those most resistant and resilient to disease and the well-off should survive. And this is a madness advocating that the desired fate of other segments of the population is to languish and ultimately perish.

It is clear that in his madness Kennedy cares as little for the lives of some people as he does for chickens. And in doing so, he has re-purposed HHS to assure that by the methods of this madness, he will be advancing Donald T****’s political agenda.

The most insidious, the most hidden and the most damning element of this madness is the nature of the targeted populations. Along with those already identified, they includes lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender and other marginalized people. It includes the invisible ones, the undocumented and homeless.

Most insidiously, since they include the poor and the underclasses, these targeted populations are significantly overrepresented by Black and Brown people, whose children may never reach puberty. And indeed, that is the point. And it is that racist aspect of the madness of Donald T*** and John F. Kennedy Jr. that is the most horrifying and damning.

There is a word for this madness: Eugenics

Eugenics: The psudo-scientific concept which advocates that society should encourage “desirable” traits through the enhancement of those qualities in much the same way farmers engage in animal husbandry.

Historically, eugenics has been intertwined with scientific racism and other discriminatory ideologies implemented through policies such as forced sterilizations and marriage restrictions.

If this all sounds familiar, it should. Eugenics was the “science” used by Dr. Mengele and his Nazi doctors to advance their Führer’s agenda of creating his Nordic, Aryan “Master Race.” The Nazi program included at the low end, systematic forced sterilization and euthanasia. At the hight end, whole populations were identified and put to death.

And no, we are not looking at anything like the Nazi horrors. At least not yet. But Donald T**** racism is well-documented. He and Kennedy have instituted a policy which aims to maintain those elements of the population they deem desirable—the wealthy, the “Epstein” class and the white—and suppress those which they don’t—the Black, Brown, poor, marginalized and underclass.

Up with the good, down with the bad. In its simplicity, that is the essence of eugenics as applied to entire populations. And it’s happening now, in America.

Courtesy of Donald T****’.

THE BERNHARD PERSPECTIVE

Currently, both the polio and measles vaccines are required for children to attend public schools nationwide. That’s so children in our public schools are safe from these crippling and deadly viruses. But, listen to Dr. Kirk Milhoan, the pediatric cardiologist who chairs the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

This is the part of the CDC that advises which vaccines should be covered by Medical, Medicaid and by extension, private insurance corporations. Just listen: “If there is no choice, then informed consent is an illusion. Without consent it is medical battery.”

“Informed consent” is the Right-wing’s idea that people need to talk to their doctors and get informed about vaccinations so that they can give their full consent on their children getting vaccinated. So, for Donald T****’s CDC, vaccinating children is not about the best medical practices and public health. Rather, it is all about Right-wing politics.

Of course, before T**** took them down, Federal websites contained all the information anyone needed about the efficacy of vaccinations. And since few if any insurance plans offer members paid time to talk to a doctor about vaccinating their kids, this idea of “informed consent” exists only for those who can on their own afford the time off from work and an hour of a doctor’s time. And that, of course, leaves out the underclasses: the unemployed, the underemployed, the under-insured and the uninsured.

The clear choice for Milhoan is between “medical battery”—mandatory vaccinations—or unvaccinated, dead children. And since the affected classes are overly represented by Black and Brown Americans, the overtly racist overtones of the Right wing’s plans are obvious. Not only is Milhoun a bad doctor, he’s a racially bigoted one as well.

Clearly It would be just fine with this soulless ghoul if his kid gets measles and gives the disease to another kid who later dies from it. And even should he refuses governmental medical battery, I am quite positive he can afford these vaccines if he changes his mind, as well as the best medical care money can buy should the need arise.

Yet, under the banner of informed consent, he is quite comfortable with the idea that—unlike wealthy people like himself—people without means would struggle to afford non-mandated vaccinations, thus “choosing” that their children go without, and the risks that go with it.

He also heartlessly suggested that the increasing numbers of unvaccinated deaths from the current measles outbreaks will be helpful for statistical analysis. Says Milhoan: “What we’re going to have is a real-world experience of when unvaccinated people get measles. What is the new incidence of hospitalization? What’s the incidence of death?”

Says the good MAGA doctor, let’s just watch those incidents of hospitalization and death mount up. Think of all that we can learn. After all, it won’t be our kids who are dying.

When it comes to not caring if poor people’s children live or die, this guy’s as bad as Donald T****’, who is just fine taking food out of their mouths. Maybe even worse, because Milhoan is a medical practitioner who should know better. Yet he has no problem putting crass and heartless Right-wing conspiratorial politics before hisHippocratic Oath.

Or perhaps he just wants to see children of color die.

THE BERNHARD PERSPECTIVE

In an interview with Reuters, President Donald T****suggested he’s been so successful as president that we shouLd not have to hold midterm elections that may be disastrous for the Republican Party. This should come as no surprise since he believes the law shouldn’t apply to him.

That’s what this ICE and immigration business is all about, because it’s never been about immigration. And we know this because:

It was never about immigrants not paying taxes or not working. And arresting them at courthouses means it was never about them not obeying the law. Since they’re kidnapping women and children off the streets it was never about deporting criminals. Refusing them due process and spending billions to do all this means it was never about the Constitution or the economy. And if their plan is to deport all non-citizens, they should just say so. 

No. None of this has really ever been about the “immigrant thing.” Rather, it has been about  T*** creating the kind of havoc and violence we’re seeing in Minneapolis. He has already said that the army needs to be deployed in American streets, and his private little army of ICE and CBP agents is already there.  

And that’s what he’s after to stay in power. That’s what he need to invoke the Insurrection Act, flood “blue” city streets with masked, armed, agents and soldiers to harass and provoke citizens. It’s what he needs to declare martial law, and it’s all about compromising or outright cancelling the upcoming elections. He’s already started the process in Fulton County, Georgia. 

In his interview with Reuters, the president claimed: “It’s some deep psychological thing, but when you win the presidency, you don’t win the midterms. When you think of it, we shouldn’t even have an election.”

His little blond doxie Leavitt said he was just joking; that he didn’t really mean it. But with T****, who the hell knows? Besides, it’s all part of the Republican’s “Project 2025” playbook. Have we forgotten about that already? 

Bet you sweet patoot they haven’t. 

 

THE BERNHARD PERSPECTIVE

Heard anything about Greenland recently? It’s been pretty much out of the news for a while, now. I suspect that’s because it was never about Greenland. We never saw a U.S. military build-up in the North Sea, no carrier group, no fleet armada like we’ve seen in the Caribbean and Persian Gulf. T**** talks a good game, but BS is still BS.

And there’s a simple reason for that. Right now, the United States has one base in a very remote corner of the island. But under an obscure Cold War agreement, the United States already enjoys sweeping military access in Greenland.

The agreement allows us to “construct, install, maintain, and operate” military bases across Greenland, “house personnel” and “control landings, takeoffs, anchorages, moorings, movements, and operation of ships, aircraft, and waterborne craft.”

It was signed in 1951 by the United States and Denmark, which colonized Greenland more than 300 years ago and still controls some of its affairs.

The U.S. has such a free hand in Greenland right now that it can pretty much do what it wants. Donald T**** could get everything he covets except outright ownership of the island if he just asked nicely.

However, being an uncivilized jerk, The Tdrumpfenfürher doesn’t know how to ask nicely. Instead, like his Nazi idol, he simply wants to bully, bomb and kill, and take what is not his.

THE BERNHARD PERSPECTIVE

President T****’s administration released a document bemoaning “civilizational erasure” in Europe. It is little more than a dog whistle to White Nationalists.

The report purports to be a national security plan about maintaining American dominance in the Western world. It suggests that European nations aren’t strong allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, citing a racially diversifying Europe as the cause.

T**** argues that “within a few decades at the latest, certain NATO members will become majority non-European. ” (ie: not white). It further claims that “Should present trends continue, the continent will be unrecognizable in 20 years or less.” (again, non-white) There are no citations or evidence offered for any of these assertions.

The Tdrumphenfùhrer further warns “whether they will view their place in the world, or their alliance with the United States in the same way as the when they signed the NATO charter.” The administration’s report was full dire warnings about Europe’s “loss of national identities,” and the need for American diplomacy to uphold European countries’ Individual character and history.” (ie: white and Christian).

“We want Europe to remain European,” (again, read: white) the document states, using language from racist groups including and Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán, who has decried the existence of mixed race people and called for “ethnic homogeny.” (read: ethnic cleansing) T**** also warns about “migration policies that are transforming the continent and creating strife.” (ie: Brown, Muslim immigrants)

T**** also celebrates the rise of “the growing influence of patriotic European parties,” (these being White Nationalist, anti-Muslim and neo-Nazis), saying they’re “cause for great optimism.” That includes Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany party, a group with similar tenets.

These assertions are designed to stoke fear of Brown people and non-Christians becoming predominant in Europe. . The sentiment behind the words is intended to stoke fear of migrants and an adherence to an idealized, old-world Europe that is questionable at best.

In truth, this is all little more than a T****ian extension of the conspiratorial “replacement theory” which permeates the paranoid world of the American far-Right. And fully exposes Donald T**** as a flaming racist, bigot, White Supremacist and Christian Nationalist.

Time for him to go.

THE BERNHARD PERSPECTIVE

The good people of Minneapolis are falling into T****’s sinister trap. He has deployed thousands of his private militia of masked, unidentifiable armed brownshirts. Their job is not to arrest criminal immigrants. It is to create panic and chaos, to terrify the population and goad them into retaliation. This will give him the justification he wants to invoke the Insurrection Act and send in thousands more soldiers, declare martial law, cancel elections and subjugate the civilian population.

A more appropriate path forward responding to these clear and present provocations comes from John Lennon in 1969: “When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system’s game. The establishment will irritate you – pull your beard, flick your face – to make you fight. Because once they’ve got you violent, then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don’t know how to handle is non-violence and humor.” But it is time to act. As Thunderclap Newman sang:

“Call out the instigators,
Because there’s something in the air.
We got to get together sooner or later,
Because the revolution’s here
And you know that it’s right.”

However, with 12.000 ICE agents, some 20,000 CBP agents and all the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and Christian Nationalists he can enlist in his insidious cause, T*** has a huge private army, all armed zealots who are not afraid to maim and kill. Again, we would be playing right into the Trumpfenführer’s hand if we try to match up with these killers.

A better way forward comes from a speech delivered by Mario Savio during the UC Berkeley Free Speech Protests in1964 as he stood atop a police car surrounded by hundreds of angry students. This is how patriots peacefully confront tyranny:

“There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part. You can’t even passively take part. And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gearS and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop. And you’ve got to indicate to the people who own it, to the people who run it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all.”

Those of us who march against him now are too few. Our strength is tries to suppresses the people, he suppresses our will as well. That will must awaken before we can confront and beat this madman. And so I wonder, in the words of John Kay as sung by Steppenwolf in 1969:

“America, where are you now
Don’t you care about your sons and daughters?
Don’t you know we need you now
We can’t fight alone against the monster.”

We can beat you, Donald T****. It is our country, not yours. We let you run it in our name. But unless we are free, we can prevent the country from running at all. As John Kay reminded tyrant wannabes like you”:
“Remember, if you plan to stay,
Those who give can take away.
Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.” And so I say:

ON ON STRIKE, SHUT IT DOWN

THE BERNHARD PERSPECTIVE

The good people of Minneapolis are falling into T****’s sinister trap. He has deployed thousands of his private militia of masked, unidentifiable armed brownshirts. Their job is not to arrest criminal immigrants. It is to create panic and chaos, to terrify the population and goad them into retaliation. This will give him the justification he wants to invoke the Insurrection Act and send in thousands more soldiers, declare martial law, and subjugate the civilian population. 

A more nuanced response to clear and present provocations comes from John Lennon:  “When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system’s game. The establishment will irritate you – pull your beard, flick your face – to make you fight. Because once they’ve got you violent, then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don’t know how to handle is non-violence and humor.” 1969

But it is time to act. As Thunderclap Newman sang in 1969:

“Call out the instigators,

Because there’s something in the air.

We got to get together sooner or later,

Because the revolution’s here

And you know that it’s right.” 

However, with 12.000 ICE agents, some  20,000 CBP agents and all the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and Christian Nationalists he enlist in his “cause,” T*** has a huge private army, all armed zealots who are not afraid to maim and kill. Again, we would be playing right into the Trumpfenführer’s hand if we try to match up with these killers. 

The solution comes from a speech delivered by Mario Savio during the UC Berkeley Free Speech Protests in 1964 as he stood atop a police car surrounded by hundreds of angry students. This is how patriots peacefully confront tyranny:

“There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part. You can’t even passively take part. And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gearS and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop. And you’ve got to indicate to the people who own it, to the people who run it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all.”

Those of us who march against him now, are too few. Our strength is numbers. We need many tens of millions in the streets. As T**** tries to suppress the people, he suppresses our will as well. That will must awaken before we can confront and beat this madman. And so I wonder, in the words of John Kay as sung by Steppenwolf in 1969: 

“America, where are you now

Don’t you care about your sons and daughters?

Don’t you know we need you now

We can’t fight alone against the monster.” 

We can beat you, Donald T****. It is our country, not yours. We let you run it in our name. But unless we are free, we can prevent the country from running at all. As John Kay reminded tyrant wannabes like you”:

“Remember, if you plan to stay, 

Those who give can take away. 

Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.” And so I say:

                            ON  ON STRIKE,  SHUT IT DOWN