David Dvorkin @DavidDvorkin@qoto.org

Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial institution in Jerusalem has a searchable database of Holocaust victims. They just passed 5,000,000 names and have some hope of being able to recover 250,000 of the remaining one million. I searched the database and found the names of my mother's mother and teenage sister:
https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/names/9151952
https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/names/9151953

During the Dubya administration, I published a darkly comic novel titled Business Secrets from the Stars which involved a near-future right-wing-religious takeover of the US. I thought it was probably far-fetched. It wasn't, although the reality isn't comic, but it is dark.

Did the MAGAts finally give up trying to pretend that Charlie Kirk's assassin was not one of their own? I haven't seen that for a while.

Maybe soon call centers will be replaced by AI that I'll be able to understand on the phone.

My speculation about a loyalty oath and disappearances was off the mark, but I had the end result right: a military transformed into a super-Gestapo eager to do Der Fuehrer's bidding.

It's easy to be either alarmist or dismissive. It's often not clear which one is appropriate. In the current atmosphere, I think it's wise to err on the side of alarmism.

Here's one possible explanation for Hegseth calling so many top generals and admirals to a meeting on September 30th. I hope this is far fetched, but here's my hypothetical scenario.

The officers will be met by thousands of heavily armed ICE goons who will immediately arrest and disappear them. They will then be replaced by junior officers loyal to Trump. In other words, an even larger scale, and possibly less bloody, Night of the Long Knives.

When the Republican whackadoodles are finally ousted and depart Washington leaving behind a giant Trump statue, it will soon be discovered that the statue is Styrofoam with sprayed-on cheap gold paint.

It's no longer even newsworthy when Trump embarrasses us in front of the world. We cringe, roll our eyes, and go on. He has lowered the bar to the ground.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that historical facts are far less entertaining than self-righteous indignation.

It would be amusing if there were an afterlife and MAGAts, after dying, found themselves being treated there as unwelcome immigrants.

I'm so excited for the Rapture. I can't wait for Trump and his followers to get sucked down to Hell. That is the way it works, right?

Karoline Leavitt is the worst one yet. It's disturbing to think what vile thing will take her place once she inevitably leaves for Fox So-Called News.

MAGA is a core of stupid, ignorant people filled with anger and resentment, led by opportunistic demagogues and catered to by amoral plutocrats. It's a deadly combination we've seen throughout history. Our institutions weren't designed to protect us against it, and I don't see how they can be modified to do so.

The new Superman movie certainly has lots of tedious CGI and equally tedious childish silliness. I'm sure the good part will begin at any moment. Surely.

Taxes are the dues we pay to live in a civilized society. Unless they're used to pay for a buffoon's golf vacations and giant ballroom. That hurts.

The fragility of democracy, the gullibility of a population, the amoral greed of the plutocracy, the rapid ascent of a dimwitted egotist to the position of Glorious Leader, and the equally rapid decline of American influence -- a short chapter in a future history book.

Kirk! Kirk! Kirk!

Epstein.

Kirk! Kirk! Kirk! Kirk! Kirk!

Epstein

Kirkirkirkirkirkirkirkirkirkirk...

Epstein.

Maybe we could create a replica of Buckingham Palace in DC and put Trump there, waited on by men in livery (big, strong, burly, beautiful men with tears in their eyes), and he'd issue orders that everyone would ignore. He wouldn't know the difference.

It was Charlie Kirk's good fortune to die before he had a falling out with Trump and became a pariah to the right.