Why Trump Is Batting On A Losing Moral Wicket In His Battle With Pope Leo

                       It's no contest between Pope Leo and a proven traitor and amoral madman

“Jesus said 'blessed are the peacemakers but Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic, and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth. The world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants”- Pope Leo Thursday

"The argument Leo is making is not based on a tactical foreign policy disagreement. Rather it is a moral argument he is making against Donald Trump and Trump is going to lose a moral argument every time." - Alex Wagner, on Deadline Whitehouse, MSNOW, Thursday, April 15)

" A man who has lived a completely amoral life, who lacks even basic decency and integrity, and revels in cruelty. He has not the intellect or temperament to be President and is a genuine threat to our democracy. The cowardice of Republicans in not constraining him is unforgivable." - NY T comment

The self-idolatry of Trump  - either depicting himself as Christ or claiming "divinely ordained power"   - has been supercharged since being compared to Jesus Christ by an evangelical minister named Paula White. White, who also heads the 'White House Faith Office' famously described Trump as a latter day Jesus - with a batch of analogies - at a WH Easter luncheon.  She actually said:

 “Mr. President, no one has paid the price like you have paid the price. You were betrayed and arrested and falsely accused. It’s a familiar pattern that our Lord and Savior showed us. 

A further WSJ article ('Christians Stunned By Pope Slam', 4/14) noted:

"Other spiritual advisors like Paula White publicly framed the president's authority as divinely ordained."

The blasphemous comparisons and attributions began soon after the attempted assassination of Trump back in July, 2025. Indeed, as soon as Trump did his fist pump, e.g.

It became emblematic for his presumed "godhood". Thereby a freak happenstance (a lucky last minute head turn) transmuted into his firm belief that "divine providence" rendered him beyond criticism and above the law. Solidifying this lunacy in the brains of his followers and especially the White Nationalist Christian theocrats salivating at making him their new god. In the words of one Reep Rep stooge (Pete Sessions (TX)) who spouted in a CNN interview last Thursday: "He is as close to the Second Coming as one could want!"

 The adoration swiftly went to Trump's mangled brain whereupon his god complex was hatched and has metastasized like a tumor.  Only a few days after Paula White confirmed he was like Jesus, he vowed - like the god of the Old Testament - he could incinerate Iranian civilization. A couple more days and his AI image of himself as Christ went up (which he tried to fob off as being a "doctor" -believing we're all as dumb as his supporters). Then a couple more days he attacked Pope Leo after the Pontiff earlier made gospel-based remarks about the folly and ungodliness of the Iran war - especially attempts to invoke divine will for the cause of bloodshed, i.e.

"God will not listen to prayers from those whose hands are full of blood."

The pope did not name specific political leaders but  steadily sharpened his criticism of Trump's war in ensuing weeks, repeatedly calling for an immediate ceasefire.  Leo especially enraged the Trumper war criminals when he said:

Brothers and sisters, this is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war. He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.”

All this has led up to the current bitter divide which has seen Trump, the reincarnated 'father of lies' issuing a stream of them such as:

"Pope Leo wants Iran to have nuclear weapons".

See the video:   Trump claims Pope Leo says Iran can have a nuclear weapon

Which Lawrence O'Donnell - on his Thursday night show - condemned as one of the vilest.

NY Times WH reporter Katie Rogers further described Trump's reactions:

"In a 12-hour span this week, President Trump promised that the war with Iran was ending soon. He picked a fight with the pope on social media. He posted an illustration of himself receiving an encouraging hug from Jesus Christ.  Now, Mr. Trump is showering Truth Social with Jesus memes and threats and endorsements."

Of course he is, because he needs to deflect - to spin that he is not truly a vile, tyrant traitor madman but actually a 'friend' of Jesus. In his demented mind. He is no friend of Jesu no matter how many times he spurts out babble and memes, because as Leo proclaimed, Christ never slaughtered innocents - such as Trump has done, whether blowing up fishing boats off the coast of South America, or school children outside Tehran.

What makes this altercation with the Pope different from all the other Trump fights is that he cannot post or bully his way out of it.  This is because the maniac is not going up against a person but an institution.  As Katie Rogers wrote:

"Isn’t getting into a fight with the Vatican during the middle of a war — and during a midterm election year when the main topic of discussion is the high cost of living — a little extreme, even for Mr. Trump?"

Indeed it is, but when a psychopath acquires a good complex, this is what happens. He then is convinced he can outright challenge the leader of Christendom's largest religion. (Probably also because 55% of deluded Roman Catholics voted for him in 2024).

But soon after his inauguration and the first felon president began mass deportations with  ICE raids on immigrants, the fracture with the Church began.  This was after Pope Leo XIV questioned whether the “inhuman treatment of immigrants” is consistent with being pro-life. Then this year, on Easter, he said, “Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace!” 

Then on Friday 2 weeks ago Leo posted a message that anyone who is a disciple of Jesus Christ “is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.”

By Sunday, wannabe "Jesus" Trump apparently heard enough and  unleashed a lengthy post accusing the pope of being “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.” The orange fungus also posted a picture of himself as a Christ-like figure, though that was taken down after it generated a backlash.  But Trump in his papal obsessions has not let up, even blabbering that "Leo was elected only because he was an American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump.”

But the infernal sociopathic fool is still missing the point. Right after Leo was elected, seven cardinals — six Americans and Cardinal Christophe Pierre,  were asked if he had been selected to serve as “a counterweight” to Trump. While Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark noted that Leo “is not one to back down if the cause is just,” the group said no: 

In choosing the new pope, their conclave was thinking about the future in terms of the unity and strength of the Roman Catholic Church, not designating a foil for Trump.  But since Trump's psychotic universe is limited only to his own ego and grievances, he measures all comments, events and actions as referred to himself. We call it a psychotic embolism, e.g.

Donald Trump

Urgent Warning to Congressional Leaders: Trump is Psychologically Unstable and Dangerous

by Bandy X. Lee | April 15, 2026 - 5:19am | permalink

As James Grimaldi of The National Catholic Reporter put it in his NY Times piece 'Trump Has Pope Derangement Syndrome'.

"Pope Leo’s statements aren’t partisan barbs; they are expressions of his understanding of the Gospel and Catholic social teaching."

Or as Alex Wagner framed it last week Thursday on Deadline Whitehouse:

"Trump thinks he is at war with a person, but it's actually an unshakeable faith. He thinks he's in a food fight with a guy from Chicago, but that's not how millions of Roman Catholics are seeing it. U.S. Catholic Bishops spent the last three election cycles trying to move voters to Trump, and now they are taking Leo's side against him."

But given Trump is no gospel or theology specialist he reduces all gospel remarks to personal attacks, especially given he already likely feels a sense of guilt for all the lives he's butchered indiscriminately Hence, Trump’s maggot brain flared up after Pope Leo – speaking in Cameroon- said the world is  “being ravaged by tyrants”.

Meanwhile, Trumper buffoons like Pete Hegseth have tried to summon the troops to war using fake bible quotes taken from the script of the Quentin Tarantino movie Pulp Fiction, e.g.

Did Pete Hegseth Quote FAKE 'Pulp Fiction' Bible Verse At Prayer Service?

Hegseth channels his inner Tarantino with fake Bible verse from Pulp Fiction | Trump administration | The Guardian

Citing this idiocy on Deadline Whitehouse last Friday, Anthea Butler - Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Pennslyvania- observed that it's reduced our nation to laughing stocks around the world. This is given that Hegseth and Trump's crusade is now apparent as a "myth making exercise based on cultural wars fomented mainly by the Religious Right,"  Basically, using fake quotes, movie lines and myths to wage a war that makes them all look stupid."

Alex Wagner put it more brutally on the same program:

"This gang of clowns is going up against a thousand year old line of theological discourse and thought."

And no match for the Pope who speaks actual biblical verses not fake ones from movie scripts. This is why Prof. Butler believes it will cost Trump the Catholic vote in the midterms, with the rank and file of those misled 2024 Trump voters now saying:

"This is not what I voted for."

Meanwhile the rest of the word is wondering how a country that talks so much religion can actually know so little about the actual bible. Or as Prof. Butler noted:

"I just hope all those soldiers and others with heads bowed during Hegseth's fake bible reading didn't seriously believe it was real, or they were really praying."

But they may well have, given Hegseth at least knows how to make a big act out of whatever he says or does.  A performative puppet of Trump's. But he chose the wrong person to go up against in Pope Leo XIV.  So did buttbrain DJT.

It was Prof. Anthea Butler, indeed, who first pointed out that Pope Leo's articulation of the gospel truths from his readings were not directed at Trump personally, but for the laity's benefit. But Trump took them personally because: a) He take everything personally as an attack given his sociopathy, and b) knows next to nothing of the gospels himself.

See Also:

Donald Trump | Pope Leo

Why a President Should Never Pick a Fight with a Pope

by Robert Reich | April 17, 2026 - 5:36am | permalink

— from Robert Reich's Substack

You’ve got to hand it to Pope Leo, who used a speech today in Cameroon to express “woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.”

I can’t imagine who Leo was talking about, can you?

In case there was any doubt, the pope added: “The world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants, yet it is held together by a multitude of supportive brothers and sisters.”

The tyrant in the Oval Office has been trying to portray his war in Iran as a “just war” backed by the will of God and Jesus Christ. Pope Leo disagrees. Jesus, he says, “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war.”

» article continues...

And:

Opinion | The Pope Bedevils Trump - The New York Times

Excerpt:

President Trump has been rampaging around the globe like Grendel at dinner time, a rapacious, feral creature. Who could stand up to him?

The soft-spoken, humble Leo, who strives to unify, squared off against the bombastic, solipsistic Trump, who strives to divide. And watching the saintly pope school the amoral president is a blessed sight.

On Easter Sunday, Trump blasted out one of his assorted threats to destroy Iranian civilization, crudely appending the phrase “Praise be to Allah.” Leo called the existential extortion “truly unacceptable,” a transgression against moral law.

Trump escalated. He posted a meme of himself as a Jesus-like figure healing a sick man and he attacked the Holy Father on social media with sinful aspersions, saying the pope is “WEAK on crime” and “I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon.”

Leo, who’s Chicago-tough, hasn’t backed down. On X, he said: “God does not bless any conflict. Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.”

He reminded the authoritarian, Strangelovian president that he should be promoting peace through dialogue and multilateralism.

“Too many people are suffering today, too many innocent people have been killed,” Leo told reporters, “and I believe someone must stand up and say that there is a better way.”

In a puerile fit of apparent retribution on Thursday, Trump canceled an $11 million federal contract with Catholic Charities in Miami to house and feed migrant children coming to America alone. (Even my Trump-indulging sister found that disgusting.)

It’s hard for the president to give the pope the respect that he deserves because Trump clearly thinks that he’s the Messiah.

And:

Pope Leo Continues Feud with Trump: 'World Being Ravaged by Tyrants'

And:

Opinion | Trump Needs to Get Over the Pope - The New York Times

And:

YouTube videos:

‘He thinks he's smarter than the POPE?: Nicolle and Tim Miller ROAST JD Vance over Vatican beef

Pressure Builds as Trump Doubles Down Against the Pope

FURIOUS Pope STRIKES BACK at Trump after DEATH THREATS!!!

Springs Residents Raise Alarm At Prospect Of AI Data Center While Mainers Take Matters Into Their Own Hands

 

    Line outside venue to learn details of AI data center bound for Springs

                       Info shown on white board noting potential sound effects

Word of building a new AI data center here in Colorado Springs has triggered  a firestorm reaction. The planned data center is being touted to be a chip manufacturer's plant off of Garden of the Gods Road.

The center, proposed by Raeden, a real estate data center company, would be located at 1565 High Tech Way. It's been given the moniker "Project Taurus" as part of the development proposal.

However, word of the proposal has been met with fierce backlash by neighbors adjacent to the proposed center. Residents are calling for transparency and sustainable solutions to mitigate potential disruptions. The facility is expected to use between 50 and 55 megawatts, and almost certain to raise electricity costs for locals.

According to an April 7 Colorado Springs Gazette story:

Colorado Springs residents fired up over proposed AI data center

"Residents of the area were fired up as they met face-to-face with a developer who wants to bring a data center into their backyards. So many wanted to speak that the line stretched from the lobby to the parking lot of the Hyatt Place hotel at 503 W. Garden of the Gods Road."

Adding:

"Those who made it in mainly expressed concerns about the data center’s water use, noise pollution and power requirements. One man, a retired Air Force Lt. Col. who has lived in Colorado Springs for 30 years worried about the cascading effects the data center will have. He said:

“The impact on us will be more than significant … the noise levels, impact on the electrical grid, utilities continue to crank up our rates, and we are in a drought,” he said. “The last thing we need is something sucking up our precious resources.”  

He's not wrong, nor is he 'hysterical".  While the development is claimed to focus on a "brownfield" approach, which involves retrofitting the existing structure to utilize its established electrical infrastructure, the residents aren't convinced this will relieve them of unaffordable electric bills. Not to mention a host of other negative impacts - which have hit other regions, towns, cities. (Interestingly, Raeden’s founder, Jason Green, said he could not disclose the name of the company that will occupy the new data center.)

Let's be clear that the rapid expansion of AI data centers has introduced significant environmental and community impacts, particularly concerning intense water consumption and persistent noise pollution. These facilities, often designed to support high-density computing, require vast amounts of water for cooling and create significant sound due to 24/7 operations, diesel generators, and heavy-duty HVAC systems. 

Legislators in Maine on Tuesday were already acting. They passed the nation’s first statewide ban on large data centers, part of a growing backlash to the energy-intensive facilities that fuel the rise of artificial intelligence.

The measure would block the creation of new data centers that draw more than 20 megawatts of power until the fall of 2027 and establish a mechanism to study their impact on the electrical grid.

Maine’s moratorium was approved in final votes Tuesday by both houses of the state legislature. The bill will now go to Gov. Janet Mills (D) for signature.

A spokesman for Mills did not immediately respond to a query about whether she plans to approve the legislation. Mills has said she wants an exception for a data center on the site of a defunct paper mill, but legislators earlier rejected such an amendment.

Battles over data centers have erupted across the country, from small towns to big cities, emerging as a rare source of bipartisan alarm. At least 12 other states led by both Democrats and Republicans are considering their own temporary bans.

Data centers house computer servers crucial to the internet, cloud computing and more recently AI. The average newly planned data center uses as much electricity as a city of 500,000, according to a Washington Post analysis, and some supersized facilities now under construction use far more.

A broad range of communities are voicing concern over how data centers consume electricity, water and farmland. Maine’s bill pausing new data centers was introduced in February. The state has some of the highest electricity prices in the country, and lawmakers say the moratorium is necessary to study how data centers fit into Maine’s larger energy picture.

Last year, local resistance stymied proposed data centers representing $152 billion in potential investment, according to Data Center Watch, a research project by an AI security firm.

Proponents, meanwhile, say the centers create jobs, fulfill consumer demand for online services and are critical to the next wave of technological progress.

Those advocating temporary bans say they’re not standing in the way of progress but taking the time to implement the proper regulatory framework for large projects with potentially wide-ranging impacts.

For example, a single large hyperscale data center can consume between 1 to 5 million gallons of water per day, comparable to the water usage of a small town of 30,000–50,000 people.  This is simply inadequate here in the mountain West where already our snowpack (which feed the river, lakes) is already down to 20% or less.  Roughly 40% of U.S. data centers are located in areas of high or extreme water stress. By 2028, it is projected that AI-related data centers in the U.S. could require up to 32 billion gallons of water annually. Where is all of this water going to come from?   

Then there is the pollution. Discharged water, or "blowdown," from cooling towers can contain high levels of dissolved solids and treatment chemicals, which, if not managed, can affect local waterways and strain municipal treatment systems. 

Now add to the above all the sound pollution. Large-scale HVAC units and fans produce a constant (24/7), low-frequency hum that can be audible to residents hundreds of feet away with dire effects.

At the Colorado Springs information meeting, developer Jason Green put up a white board showing specific decibel (dB(A) limits (see lower top image). The presentation attempted to defuse the issue by focusing only on the design parameter of a 60-70 dBA maximum output. 

But this is not an effective measure by itself because it filters out the low frequency/infrasonic range, focusing on sound sensitivity detectable by the human ear.  There are numerous health and other environmental impacts of this low frequency attenuation that weren't addressed. There are studies indicating long term exposure to this low frequency range can result in cognitive impairment and hearing loss.  A better measure of design safety requirements is dB(C).

 Second is the heat island effect.  Jason Green informed Springs' attendees of a power consumption between 50 and 55 megawatts.  But a Cambridge study of 6000 data centers found nearby temperatures were raised by up to 16.4 degrees F, with effects felt up to 6.2 miles away.  The study found the math involved to calculate for this particular center that would require knowing the cooling system design's Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE).  But it cannot be lower than 1, meaning a 50MW data center operating a capacity could be discharging 60MW of heat into the atmosphere. (Note: 1 Megawatt is equal to approximately 3,412,142 BTU/hr.

 See Also:

7 Ways Data Centers Affect US Communities | World Resources Institute

And:

Data centers are fueling the lobbying industry, not just the growth of AI - Wisconsin Democracy Campaign

And:

Thirsty Data and the Lone Star State: The Impact of Data Center Growth on Texas’ Water Supply - Houston Advanced Research Center : Houston Advanced Research Center

Looking at D.E. Littlewood's Congruences and Prime Modulus

 

As I noted in my March 13 post, math legend D.E. Littlewood also treated congruences via the Euclidean Algorithm in his timeless monograph 'The Skeleton Key Of Mathematics.

In this post we want to see how Littlewood arrives at congruences. We consider moving around the clock face with the hour hand going beyond the 12.  It is clear looking at the clock that to go forward four hours or to go forward sixteen hours amounts to the same thing, in so far as the final position of the clock's hands are concerned.  We can say, after Littlewood (p. 30):

"Four is congruent to sixteen to modulus twelve"

Which is written:

   4   ≡   16 (mod 12)

As Littlewood puts it:  

"In general p is congruent to q (mod n) if and only if  (p - q) is divisible by n"

So we check to see for this case, given p = 4, q = 12 so that (p - q) = 4 - 12 = -8

Then (p - q)/ n =  -8/ 12 =  - 2/3

Thus, Littlewood concludes:

"Every integer p is congruent (mod n) to one of the numbers: 0, 1, 2,...., (n- 1). The particular number is found by dividing p by n until the reminder is less than n and considering this remainder, which is called the residue  (mod n)."

Adding: "The most interesting case is when the modulus is a prime number."

He calls this number a "prime modulus"

Littlewood goes on to elaborate the number system he is proposing:

"We define the product and the sum of two residues (mod p) to be the residue to which the product or sum of the numbers is congruent. In this way we obtain a number system which has many of the properties of the ordinary integers.  Thus addition and multiplication are defined and these obey the commutative, associative and distributive laws."

One analogous (not exactly alike) simple system I showed in a 2010 post to do with group theory. This specifically applied to 'clock groups' which bear a similarity to Littlewood's modular 12-hour clock. One example is the clock group defined in the image below:

 As we can see there are four members, 0, 1, 2, and 3. The process of addition is defined by adding elements – starting with 0- in a clockwise sense. Doing this we should be able to find a complete closed set of addition operations for all the elements. For example, we find 0 + 1 =1, and 0 + 2 = 2 and so forth. Similarly, we find 1 + 1 = 2, 1 + 3 = 0, 2 + 3 = 1 and so on. Each result obtained by adding the portion of the cycle from the starting element. From here, we may set out the group under addition (+) (Fig. 1- right top).

In the case of multiplication we can write, for example:

1 x 2 = 2 (mod 4)  or:   2 x 2 = 0 (mod 4)  or: 3 x 2 = 2 (mod 4)

Note, however, this system is not the same as the one Littlewood is proposing. This is because the commutative and distributive laws are not consistently obeyed by groups.

Note also the examples given above are nothing to do with Littlewood's prime modulus case because n = 4 is not a prime number.

Littlewood makes the case that in one respect the residues to a prime modulus resemble the rational numbers rather than the integers (i.e. division is always possible except by zero.).

Consider Littlewood's example (to modulus 7):

Since: 4 x 2 = 8  ≡ 1 (mod 7)

Then we can also write:

1   ÷  2 = 4 (mod 7) 

And:

1   ÷   4 = 2 (mod 7) 

Division by 7 is obviously impossible since 7  ≡   0  (mod 7) which is equivalent to division by zero.

For the general prime modulus p, Littlewood notes:

"Division is accomplished by the use of Euclid's Algorithm, which suffices to prove that division except by 0 is always possible."

Suggested Problems:

1)  Write four additional equivalences for the mod 7 residues (2 already shown)

2)  Consider the p = 5 prime modulus portrayed as shown below in clock form:

Write four equivalences for the mod 5 residues. Can these be written in the form for the mod 7 cases in Problem 1? Why or why not?

All Experts Redux: Is Pluto Still A Planet Or Not?

Question: I read recently that Pluto was 'demoted' from being a planet by a vote of astronomers. Is this true, and if so how can it be that Pluto was classed as a planet for so long?

Answer:

Dr.Kenneth Franklin (former Director of the Hayden Planetarium) in Barbados for a guest lecture he gave at the Harry Bayley Observatory, was asked a question on the possible future demotion of Pluto. The questioner wanted to know, given we knew so little about Pluto (this was 1975) whether a possible demotion, e.g. to an asteroid, might be in the works if we discovered it was much smaller than then believed. (At that time, it was presumed to be about 3600 miles in diameter or about the size of Mercury).

Franklin’s answer – which I captured on audiotape- was clear and distinct:

“That depends. If someday it’s found that Pluto is only half as large as Mercury or even less, BUT if it’s found around the same time to have satellites of its own, then it is still a planet.”

Thus in one clear concise definition, Franklin disclosed how and why even a planet found to be much smaller than originally thought, can retain its status

Flashing forward decades, all the incoming photos of Pluto have been collected during the fly-by via two New Horizons'  cameras: LORRI (Long Range Reconnaissance Imager) , which takes black-and-white images, and "Ralph", which takes both panchromatic and color images. It will take nearly a year to get all the images back on account of the vast distance involved.

Sure enough, one of the amazing flyby images to emerge was of Charon, a satellite of Pluto:

Charon showed a surface somewhat like our Moon but far less cratered, suggesting a much younger object.  So, from the viewpoint of Dr. Franklin, Pluto had retained its planet status.  But let's explicate things in a bit more detail.  

Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator,  gave a terrific analogy to the demotion of Pluto to a 'dwarf planet' in the NOVA special  'Chasing Pluto'.  He compared the ridiculous IAU vote (on Aug. 24, 2006) to an analogous vote by professed canine specialists to demote all small dogs, i.e. pugs, to 'dwarf dogs' while all larger dogs are 'real dogs'.

Of course, to make the analogy much better,  one would postulate a scenario in which people go crazy about breeding and owning small dogs which soon outnumber large breeds by 10:1 or more. Worrying about a proliferation of small dogs, the specialist canine community makes the decision to vote on redefining them as 'dwarf dogs' to try to discourage ownership and breeding.

In Stern's Wall Street Journal interview (July 18-19, 2015, p. A9) he is even more specific, after referencing what led to the IAU vote.  This was when scientists began finding worlds even farther away and one (Eris) nearly the same size as Pluto. This led certain investigators (e.g. Michael Brown) to propose a special class for the proliferating small planets, calling them all 'dwarf planets'.

So rather than have public confusion about dozens of proliferating planets, it made sense to them to separate eight regular planets from the multitude of dwarf planets.

As one IAU voter put it at the time of the vote (ibid.):

"We're not so keen to have Pluto and all his friends in the club because it gets crowded. By the end of the decade we would have had 100 planets.."

But Stern objected, writing (ibid.):

"That's a very 20th century view. Our technology used to be very limited, so we could only see a few planets, and we could memorize the list because we thought we knew them all. Arbitrarily limiting the number of planets to a familiar few is like deciding to name only seven mountains on Earth,"

Of course, the response of the pro-dwarfers would be that gazillions more people are interested in space and the planets rather than all the terrestrial mountains. But in fact that planet prejudice is immaterial to Stern's basic point. In another parallel universe, many more might be interested in mountains... but planets -  not so much.

Stern also dissents on more technical grounds given the IAU insisted that a bone fide planet must have "gravitationally swept its neighborhood clear of other objects" which Pluto hasn't done. But as Stern observes, a body big enough to clear a small orbit and qualify as a planet might fail to make the cut for a larger orbit (as Pluto has).

In other words, when is a planet not a planet? Well, when it is somewhere else!

Stern goes on to maintain Pluto is a planet simply because it is massive enough that gravity has forced it into a spherical shape. (A sphere - for technical reasons - is the maximum volume shape arrived at from g-forces) By this definition, Ceres also qualifies as a planet.

In one of his most incisive points, Stern acknowledges that planetary scientists regularly define objects this way. Which is why it was wrong to bring the planetary definitional vote before the entire International Astronomical Union. This is because you're mixing planetary astronomers, with stellar astrophysicists, solar physicists, cosmologists, space physicists, astro-geologists, astro-biologists, astrometry specialists (astrometrists), celestial mehanicians and so forth.

As Stern aptly put it:

"I know the public thinks we're all the same because we study things in space. So my analogy is doctors. Would you let a podiatrist do brain surgery on you. Wrong specialty! So don't let an astrometrist classify planets."

A point well taken which is why many of us ignore the  supercilious IAU vote and continue to regard Pluto as a planet.

"Not The Diction Of A Sane Man" -- WSJ's Peggy Noonan Nails Trump's 'Dark Triad Of Personality Traits '- And Danger for the Country

 

                                    Raging at Pope Leo - the orange pustule at it again

                         Latest evidence of the demented Traitor's god complex

"It's inconceivable to me that any president would pick a fight with the Pope, indeed, pick a fight with the entire Catholic Church. The Pope is speaking in favor of peace which he has been doing throughout. But this is as blunt an attack on the Vatican as has ever been done by an American administration."` -  Father Sam Sawyer, S.J. interviewed on MS Now, yesterday morning

"The post was exactly what Trump wanted:  to show himself as omnipotent. Left up 12hours to show the Iranian leadership he's all-powerful. Trump has no regrets. What is regrettable is Christian religious leaders thinking they influence or advise Trump on religious matters. ISN'T IT EVIDENT TRUMP USES CHRISTIANITY AS A PROPAGANDA TOOL?" WaPo comment

In the Weekend  (April 11-12, p. A13) Wall Street Journal, columnist Peggy Noonan clearly described the orange traitor occupying the White House for the dangerous, sociopath he is.  And this was before Dr. Bandy X. Lee's warning letter to Congress -  see 1st link at bottom - that he has crossed the danger zone into the Dark Triad.

Noonan's column appeared after his explosive Trash Social posts last Sunday and Tuesday, i.e.

"Open the fucking Strait, you crazy bastards, or you'll be living in hell. JUST WATCH! A whole civilization will die tonight never to be brought back again." etc.

Noonan wrote:

"The post left his friends and foes slackjawed. They constituted hitting a new bottom, a new and infernal, face-lit-by -flames bottom, in world communications."

But still missing the obvious signal that the words are being spewed by a totally deranged madman who has no business being anywhere near the nuclear codes. A basket case, senile asshole who ought to have been removed from power months ago. Anyway, Ms. Noonan continues:

"The posts weren't showbiz they were sinister. You destabilize the world when, as the American president, you say such things. You rob your own nation of a claim to moral seriousness in the military action in which it is engaged."

A point I'd made in an earlier post regarding the basis for launching the reckless attack on Iran, which had no justified moral or military basis behind it, i.e.

Aspects Connecting Practical Reason, Morality, Law and Whether Actual Human Evil Exists

The attack was done on the fly (and with Netanyahu's urging) to feed this monster's ego, despite the critical Strait of Hormuz already being open.  But Trump didn't care how it would hurl the globe into fuel and food insufficiency and misery. He believed he could knock off Iran as easily as he did Venezuela - and now also fancies doing to Cuba.

Noonan goes on, making clear just how despicable the post was:

"You are saying we're not trying to protect life but plan to attack it, and in the attacking kill noncombatants who are members of the targeted civilization."

And bear in mind these are the same people (Iranians) he was earlier begging to "rise up" and overthrow the regime. So he would incinerate those whose cooperation he'd earlier sought.  This again shows the man has lost all reasoning power as well as any moral conscience. In truth, it is having a madman at the reins of power.

Noonan again, driving her points home further:

"The moral high ground is relinquished. You lower the bar for all potential response. You encourage violent action by trumpeting your readiness for it."

But again, this echoes admonitions from assorted WSJ editorials and op-ed where Trump is simply being advised to not be so bombastic. To adopt a more 'presidential' and sober demeanor. It fails to recognize you are trying to reason with a madman who is detached from any semblance of balance, proportion or moral insight.

Despite this, she writes on:

"It bolsters the position of your enemies - their animus is justified, their commitment deepened.  It's even ineffective as a threat. The reason the 'madman theory' worked for Richard Nixon  - if it did -was that the world leaders knew he wasn't crazy but might be tripped into extreme behavior by an adversary's intransigence. Donald Trump plays the part of a madman every day.  His head fake would be sanity."

Here she comes closest to the main point but backs away - perhaps out of fear of inviting an editor's intrusion. It's not that Trump 'plays the part of a madman every day' he IS a madman.  A malignant narcissistic sociopath and psychopath. This is what too many are not processing!  Noonan near the end at least notes his posts "even shocked his followers", writing:

"This (Easter Sunday) post is not the diction of the common man but the language of sociopathy. That isn't how his supporters want the world to see him."

Acknowledging at last, despite his supporters' delusions, he is no 'common man' simply gone off the rails temporarily. No. We have a madman sitting next to the nuclear codes and too few in the media acknowledge it, by calling for this psycho  to be removed NOW under the 25th amendment.  

Peggy Noonan writes his "head fake" would be sanity, and this is so - except for a true madman like Trump no such head fake is possible. He would not be able to do it because his 'set' position is madman.

Don't buy it? Then look at his attack on Pope Leo Sunday night, not long after the segment on 60 Minutes came on regarding Leo's opposition to Trump's war. Then look at his AI depiction of himself as Christ trying to upend Leo's role as "the Vicar of Christ on Earth'.

 All this came after the interview of the three RC Cardinals by Nora O'Donnell - each of whom stated clearly Trump was in the wrong and this war of choice was not a just war. The Catholic Just War doctrine above all demands a judicious application of ethical oversight such that no war would be casually conducted by a random presidential edict, or pseudo-doctrine, i.e. in the guise of a brash social media POST as opposed to a formal announcement or authorization by congress.

In particular, there can be no just war when noncombatants are recklessly targeted, such as when Trump sent a Tomahawk cruise missile to blow up 176 children in an Iranian school. Little different from what the savage Israelis have been doing to Gaza and now doing in Lebanon again.

Bottom line, you cannot employ evil to take out or destroy evil.  Unless that evil is of vastly greater magnitude than the version you inflict. (As in WW II) And despite all the Trumpers' yammering about Iran getting a nuclear weapon or trying to, this has not been proven. In fact, the blatant exaggeration that Iran was an "imminent threat" is what triggered the resignation of Joe Kent, the former Director of the National Counter Terrorism Center.

 Back to the proof of a madman in the Oval. Not satisfied after attacking Pope Leo – following a Nora O’Donnell interview on 60 Minutes, Trump posted an AI-generated image, depicting himself as Jesus Christ, on his Trash Social Sunday night.  This sparked immediate outrage from former Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and other social media users.

“It’s more than blasphemy,”  Greene remarked, “It’s an Antichrist spirit.”

Other would-be supporters of Trump seemed equally repulsed by the image, and the depths to which the orange maggot had sunk. But let's not fool ourselves this 'Trump godhood' trope is anything new . The New Apostolic Reformation, a White Christian Nationalist cult, has been pushing this crap for the past two years with assorted imagery of Trump's piety or "holiness", e.g.

And the bejabber really acquired jet fuel after Trump escaped an assassination attempt in July, 2024, as the 2024 election campaign was heating up.  Way too many seemed to bite that his escape really did imply a "divine intervention" when it was merely luck - twisting his head at the right time.

Now, we are saddled with this demented, senile orange freak and no one knows how his latest insane move with Iran will end. Peggy Noonan had her description of this monster spot 0n, she just didn't go far enough: advocating for his immediate removal from office at the end of her column. Which the WSJ editors would likely have pulled and had her removed from her columnist job.

See Also:

Donald Trump

Urgent Warning to Congressional Leaders: Trump is Psychologically Unstable and Dangerous

by Bandy X. Lee | April 15, 2026 - 5:19am | permalink

by Jeffrey D. Sachs, Bandy X. Lee, James Gilligan, Prudence L. Gourguechon and James R. Merikangas

Editor’s note: The following letter was sent to the bipartisan leadership of Congress on Monday, April 13, 2026 in regard to recent rhetoric and actions taken by US President Donald J. Trump.

Senator John Thune
Senate Majority Leader, US Senate

Senator Charles E. Schumer
Senate Minority Leader, US Senate

Representative Mike Johnson
Speaker of the House, USHouse of Representatives

Representative Hakeem Jeffries
House Minority Leader, US House of Representatives

Dear Senate Majority Leader Thune, Senate Minority Leader Schumer, Speaker Johnson, and House Minority Leader Jeffries:

We write to you today with a sense of urgency that we do not use lightly. The behavior and rhetoric of President Donald Trump have crossed a threshold that demands the immediate and bipartisan attention of Congress. This is not a partisan assessment. It is a judgment grounded in observable fact, consistent professional assessment, and the constitutional responsibilities that your offices carry.

President Trump exhibits what forensic mental health experts have, across dozens of independent assessments, identified as the “Dark Triad” of personality traits: narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Rather than constituting a clinical diagnosis, this trait-based assessment is grounded in behavioral observation and is particularly useful for assessing the level of danger an individual poses in a political leadership position. 

» article continues..

Donald Trump

Trump’s God Complex Is Getting Even Worse

by Robert Reich | April 14, 2026 - 5:34am | permalink

— from Robert Reich's Substack

Friends,

Late Sunday night, Trump posted on Truth Social the most grandiose depiction any U.S. president has ever made of himself.

I’ve reproduced it above. Take a look, and remember: It came from Trump.

What kind of a president would post this of himself?

Today, Trump told reporters that he posted it because he thought it depicted him as a physician. “I thought it was me as a doctor,” he said, adding that news organizations had misinterpreted the image. “It’s supposed to be me as a doctor, making people better, and I do make people better,” he said.

There’s something fundamentally wrong with the man.

» article continues...

And:

Trump’s Erratic Behavior and Extreme Comments Revive Mental Health Debate - The New York Times

Excerpt:

As the president threatens to wipe out Iran and attacks the pope, even some former allies and advisers are questioning whether he has grown increasingly unbalanced, describing him as “lunatic” and “clearly insane.”

A series of disjointed, hard-to-follow and sometimes-profane statements capped by his “a whole civilization will die tonight” threat to wipe Iran off the map last week and his head-spinning attack on the “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy” pope on Sunday night have left many with the impression of a deranged autocrat mad with power.

It is not just a concern voiced by partisans on the left, late-night comics or mental health professionals making long-distance diagnoses. It can be heard now among retired generals, diplomats and foreign officials. And most strikingly, it can be heard now on the political right among onetime allies of the president.

Ty Cobb, a White House lawyer in Mr. Trump’s first term, told the journalist Jim Acosta that the president is “a man who is clearly insane” and that his recent string of belligerent, middle-of-the-night social media posts “highlights the level of his insanity.”

And:

Trump post appearing to depict him as Jesus removed amid backlash - The Washington Post

Excerpt:

Unlike the post criticizing Leo, whom Trump later said he didn’t like and is too “liberal,” the image evoking Jesus drew swift criticism from some evangelical Christians and conservative Catholics who have otherwise expressed near constant support for Trump’s decisions.

“I don’t know if the President thought he was being funny or if he is under the influence of some substance or what possible explanation he could have for this OUTRAGEOUS blasphemy,” wrote Megan Basham, a prominent conservative Protestant Christian writer and commentator. “But he needs to take this down immediately and ask for forgiveness from the American people and then from God.”

Following the backlash and after appearing on the president’s Truth Social account for more than 12 hours, the image was deleted without explanation from Trump or the White House.

The president last year posted an image of him as pope that appeared to be AI-generated.

And:

Donald Trump

Sunday Thought: How the Hell Did We Get to This Point?

by Robert Reich | April 12, 2026 - 5:33am | permalink

— from Robert Reich's Substack

Friends,

The past terrifying week has caused me to wonder: How did America ever get to a point where one man, backed by the military might of the United States, could credibly threaten death to an entire civilization?

I’m also wondering how 19 super-rich American households could have added $1.8 trillion to their wealth in just the last 24 months — roughly the size of the economy of Australia — while the rate of child poverty in the U.S. has more than doubled, from a low of 5.2 percent in 2021 to over 13 percent now?

How have we come so perilously close to climate catastrophe, with spring temperatures in the Western United States already shattering records — and yet governments are spending over a trillion dollars a year subsidizing the fossil fuel industry and banks have channeled over $3 trillion to fossil fuel companies since the Paris Agreement, while there are almost no funds to protect living ecosystems?

» article continues...

And:

Iran | Religious Right

The Christian Right’s Victim Complex Fuels Trump’s Iran War

by Amanda Marcotte | April 11, 2026 - 5:18am | permalink

— from Salon

Donald Trump, a self-described Christian, issued a shockingly crude threat on Easter Sunday. Five weeks into his unnecessary war of choice with Iran, he ordered the country to “Open the F**kin’ Strait” of Hormuz to international oil tankers or he would bomb civilian infrastructure like power plants and bridges, a war crime that would have killed untold numbers of people. That the president’s intent was genocidal is indisputable, as he later threatened to destroy a “whole civilization.”

But just a few days before he invoked the mass murder of civilians, Trump hosted an Easter luncheon at the White House, where he enjoyed being compared to Jesus Christ by his friend Paula White, a popular evangelical minister who also heads the White House Faith Office. “Mr. President, no one has paid the price like you have paid the price. You were betrayed and arrested and falsely accused,” she said, even though there is no evidence that Trump’s dozens of indictments were based on false allegations. “It’s a familiar pattern that our Lord and Savior showed us.”

» article continues...

And:

Youtube videos:

Trump Has TOTAL PSYCHOTIC BREAK & Threatens To NUKE IRAN ON LIVE TV | The Kyle Kulinski Show

IHIP News: Trump Causes MAJOR MAGA MELTDOWN! They SLAM Him as the "ANTICHRIST!"

Why Trump is lashing out at Pope Leo over Iran

Every Empire Dies the Same Way. America Is at Stage Four | By Prof. Jiang Xueqin

And:

Iran

A War Against Children Cannot be a Christian War

by George Cassidy Payne | April 11, 2026 - 4:59am | permalink

There are moments when political language begins to sound like something older than politics.

A prayer inside the Pentagon recently asked God to bless the “overwhelming violence of action” and to ensure that “every round find its mark.” Scripture was woven into the cadence of military speech, as though divine presence could be made to converge with operational precision.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, speaking within a worship context tied to military life, drew from the Psalms: “I pursued my enemies and overtook them, and did not turn back till they were consumed.” In that setting, the words do not remain safely in the past. They are re-entered as invocation, carried from ancient text into the present tense of state power.

» article continues...

And:

Cue The Sane-Washing (& Psychobabble): Trump's Not Really Demented He's Just Experiencing A 'Flow State'

And:

Donald Trump

America’s Hitler Has Dementia. Here Are Three Things You Can Do About It.

by Harvey Wasserman | October 23, 2024 - 5:12am | permalink

And:

opinion content. Why time is on Iran’s side

Excerpt:

Donald Trump claims to be a master of the “art of the deal”. But patient negotiations are not his style. After a weekend of failed peace talks with Iran, the US has decided to escalate again by announcing a blockade. This latest tactic is likely to backfire. Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz has caused global energy prices to surge. 

But an American blockade is already causing oil and gas prices to go even higher. It also increases the risk that Iran will counter-escalate by striking energy infrastructure in the Gulf. The Iranians believe that time is on their side in this confrontation and they are probably right. The longer the Strait of Hormuz is closed, the more the political and economic pressure on the U.S. will mount.

The loss of some twenty percent of the world's energy supplies has already been called 'the greatest global energy security threat in history.'  The effects of the strait's closure are now really kicking in. The rise in the price of petrol at the pump is just the beginning.

A shortage of jet fuel will hit air travel, which will damage tourism just ahead of the crucial summer season. A lack of   helium   much of which is produced in Qatar - could stop production of semiconductors. Food production, damaged by fertiliser shortages, will lead to further inflation.

Negotiating an end to this war - and the energy crisis it's causing - will require strategic vision, patience and an ability to understand tradeoffs and build alliances. All qualities which Trump lacks. What a mess.