Phyllis Bennis on the “Stark Danger” Posed by Israel’s Attack on Iran

I’ve long respected and appreciated the informed perspective of Phyllis Bennis – author, scholar, and director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS). Indeed, she’s one of my “go-to” people for information and insights on both U.S. foreign policy and its implications both here and abroad and issues pertaining to the Middle East.

Following is an excerpt from a piece that Bennis and her IPS colleague Khury Petersen-Smith had published today on the IPS website.

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Israel’s attack on Iran last week has opened a stark danger – a predictable pattern of escalation ushering in a new phase of the long-standing crises roiling the Middle East region. Certainly Israel has a long history of attacking Iran – including bombing raids; assassinations of political and military leaders as well as nuclear scientists; cyberattacks; assaults on Iranian allies in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, and beyond – and Iran has on occasion struck back. But while it is too soon to know exactly how this latest assault will fully play out, it now holds the prospect of full-scale war between the two strongest military forces in the region, one of them backed by the strongest military power in the world. . . . While a full report of casualties – military, civilian, scientific, children and more – is not yet available, we know there were explosions across Tehran and in other Iranian cities. The Israeli strikes killed at least six nuclear scientists, unknown numbers of ordinary civilians including children, and important military leaders, including the chief of staff of Iran’s army and Ali Shakhani, who served as the main liaison between Iran’s top leader, Ali Khamenei, and the diplomatic team meeting with U.S. negotiators. Israeli officials bragged of having had agents of the Mossad, Israel’s international intelligence force, on the ground setting drone targets long before the attack began. While Iran’s initial response involved 100 drones that were all reportedly destroyed by Israel’s anti-aircraft systems, subsequent Iranian attacks have caused damage and injuries in Israeli cities, including Tel-Aviv.

We know that there is only one state that has nuclear weapons in the Middle East region. Israel maintains an arsenal that reportedly includes at least 90 nuclear weapons, and while it is widely known as one of the nine nuclear weapons states in the world, it is the only one that refuses to confirm or deny its arsenal. Iran has no nuclear weapons, and does not have a program to create such a weapon.

We also know that while President Donald Trump abandoned the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA, in 2018, he has shown an eagerness to return to some version of a deal based on the same principles – the U.S. ending sanctions in exchange for Iran not getting a nuclear bomb. The long-standing obstacle to such an agreement was always Israel – which insisted that Iran be denied not just a nuclear weapon but any nuclear enrichment capacity, including civilian uses. Until just a few weeks ago, Trump had maintained the demand that Iran be denied a nuclear weapon in return for lifting sanctions, which Israel continued to reject as insufficient. In the last two weeks, Trump and others in the White House began to switch back and forth between the long-standing U.S. position and the Israeli demand, something they knew would be impossible for Iran to accept.

. . . Before the June 12 attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was near the nadir of his popularity. He was close to facing the collapse of his government – and we know that citing Iran as an ostensibly “existential threat” to Israel, and claiming to be the only one capable of dealing with it, has always been at the core of his political career. . . . We know Netanyahu strengthens his domestic political position by attacking Iran, and that some Israeli officials believe a provocative attack leading to Iranian retaliation might bring the U.S. into the war. Those are likely both part of Netanyahu’s calculus. . . . [We also know] that Israel remains the main destabilizing force in the Middle East. Just in the last 20 months it has attacked and occupied new swathes of territory in Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank, and is carrying out a genocide in Gaza. It has bombed Iraq and Yemen. And now it is raising the level of instability to a qualitatively new level, directly confronting the other most powerful military and political force in the region. As is true with the assault on Gaza, we in the United States bear a particular responsibility to work to stop it – because, whatever the president or the secretary of state or any other official says or refuses to say, Washington is supplying the weapons and preventing accountability for Israel’s wars. To advance peace, we have a lot of work to do.

– Phyllis Bennis and Khury Petersen-Smith
Excerpted from "The U.S. Must Force Israel to End Its War on Iran "
Institute for Policy Studies
June 17, 2025

Related Off-site Links:
Not Just Progressives: Over Half of Trump Voters Oppose U.S. War on Iran – Brett Wilkins (Common Dreams, June 17, 2025).
Preemptive Strike or Act of War? Israel Attacked Iran Amid Sinking Global Support for Assault on Gaza – Democracy Now! (June 17, 2025).
Everyone Will Lose a Trump War of Choice With Iran – Trita Parsi (Common Dreams, June 17, 2025).
A Preemptive Strike on Diplomacy: Israel’s Attack and the Precipice of a Wider American War – Jamal Kanj (CounterPunch, June 16, 2025).
Israel and Iran at War: Trump Is “Only World Leader Who Can Stop the Cycle of Escalation” – Democracy Now! (June 16, 2025).
Israel’s Greatest Threat Isn’t Iran or Hamas, But Its Own Hubris – Orly Noy (972 Magazine, June 15, 2025).
The Grim Reality of the Conflict Between Iran and Israel – Ali Vaez (Time, June 14, 2025).
U.S. Lawmakers Blast Israel, Urge Against War With Iran – Stavroula Pabst (Responsible Statecraft (June 13, 2025).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Saying “No” to War on Iran (2020)
• Veterans for Peace Strongly Condemns Any and All U.S. Aggression Towards Iran (2020)
• Major Danny Sjursen: Quote of the Day – May 15, 2019
• Jeff Cohen: Quote of the Day – January 29, 2011

Image: Mohammed Ibrahim.

Quote of the Day

The huge decentralized turnout for No Kings Day has shown that grassroots power can be a major force against the momentum of the Trump regime. The protests were auspicious, with 5 million people participating in 2,100 gatherings nationwide. Activists are doing what the national Democratic Party leadership has failed to do – organize effectively and inspire mass action.

What we don’t need now is for newly activated people to catch a ride on plodding Democratic donkeys. The party’s top leadership and a large majority of its elected officials are just too conformist and traditional to creatively confront the magnitude of the unprecedented Trumpist threat to what remains of democracy in the United States.

Two key realities are contradictions that fully co-exist in the real world: The Democratic Party, led by the likes of Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, is in well-earned disrepute, having scant credibility even with most people who detest Trump. And yet, Democratic Party candidates will be the only way possible to end Republican control of Congress via midterm elections next year.

Few congressional Democrats have been able to articulate and fight for a truly progressive populist agenda – to directly challenge the pseudo-populism of MAGA Republicans. Instead, what implicitly comes across is a chorus of calls for a return to the incremental politics of the Biden era.

Awash in corporate cash and milquetoast rhetoric, most Democratic incumbents sound inauthentic while posturing as champions of the working class. For activists to simply cheer them on is hardly the best way to end GOP rule.

. . . The Democratic establishment keeps insisting that the way to get out of the current terrible situation is the same way that we got into it in the first place – with the party catering to corporate America while fueling wars with an ever-bigger military budget and refusing to really fight for people being crushed by modern capitalism.

– Norman Solomon
Excerpted from “‘No Kings Day’ Was Historic. Now We Need a
Powerful – and Independent – Movement Against Trump”
Common Dreams
June 16, 2024

Related Off-site Links:
Democratic Civil War: NYC Mayor’s Race Will Define Who Runs the Party in 2026 – Corbin Trent (Common Dreams, June 16, 2025).
The Left Is Dead – What and Who Will Rise From the Ashes?: An Interview with Ted Rall – The Kim Iversen Show (April 26, 2025).
A Movement Beats a Party Every Time – Ted Rall (Creators, February 21, 2025).
We Need More Independent, Working-Class Political Candidates – Nick French (Jacobin, March 25, 2025).
Why the Democratic Party Is Not Going to Save Us From Fascism – The Humanist Report (March 6, 2025).
Wimpy Democrats Cannot Lead This Fight Against Trump – Ralph Nader (Common Dreams, March 24, 2025).
Sanders Pushes Progressives to Run as Independents in Response to Election Losses – Austin Denean (NBC-15 News, March 21, 2025).
Jill Stein and Kshama Sawant on the Fight the Rich Movement – Sabby Sabs (January 26, 2025).
Trump Is Unpopular – and So Are the Do-Nothing Democrats – Jeet Heer (The Nation, February 18, 2025).
If You’re a Democrat Annoyed by Outraged Voters, You Are Doing It Wrong – Norman Solomon (Common Dreams, February 24, 2025).
Democrats Are MIA – Just When the Country Needs Them to Counter the Trump-Musk Blitzkrieg – David Corn (Mother Jones, February 24, 2025).
Dems Reportedly Angry That Progressives Are Pushing Them to Act Like an Opposition Party – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, February 12, 2025).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• “Protesting Is What Patriotism Looks Like in Public”: The “No Kings” Protests of June 14, 2025
• Peter Bloom: Quote of the Day – June 10, 2025
• Ted Rall on What It Means to Be a Leftist in 2025
• Butch Ware on His Run for California Governor and the Wider Goal of Disrupting the Duopoly
• Eric Fernández: Quote of the Day – May 14, 2025
• Progressive Perspectives on Bernie Sanders’ “Fighting Oligarchy” Tour
• Why the Democratic Party Is Not Going to Save Us From Fascism
• An Opportunity for Organizing Against Duopoly
• Building Solidarity on the Left
• “It Is Our Responsibility to Make a Third Party Viable”
• “The Moment Is Ripe”: Butch Ware on Building a “True Oppositional Alternative” to the Duopoly
• Democrat Talk on the Eve of Trump’s Return
• Breaking the Mold: Why Progressives Should Push for Marianne Williamson to Lead the DNC
• Inauguration Day Thoughts
• The Green Party’s Jill Stein and Butch Ware Give Their First Post-Election Interview
• Progressive Perspectives on Where Democrats Went Wrong in the 2024 Election
• “A New Chapter of the Democratic Party Needs to Begin”
• What the Republican Party Now Stands For
• The Lamentable Legacy of the Biden Administration
• Jill Stein: “We Give Reasons for People to Come Out and Vote”
• We’re Witnessing a Liberal Meltdown Over Jill Stein
• Butch Ware: “You Can Actually Vote Your Conscience”
• Peter Bloom on the Unmasking of the “Democratic Charade”
• The “Green Smoothie” Option
• Green Party Vice Presidential Candidate Butch Ware in Minneapolis
• When Democrats Undermine Democracy
• Elise Labott on How Third Parties Can Revitalize Democracy
• Something to Think About – August 15, 2024
• Centrist/Corporatist Democrats Have Just Launched “Left Punching” Season
• “Americans Deserve Choices”: Jill Stein on Breaking Points – 4/30/24
• AOC Falls in Line
• The Cassandra of U.S. Politics on the “True State of the Union”
• Will Democrats Never Learn?
• “The Next Step Is a Green Step”: Cornel West Endorses Jill Stein (2016)
• Hope Over Fear: Voting Green

Image: The “No Kings” march and rally in St. Paul, MN – Saturday, June 14, 2025. (Photo: Michael J. Bayly)

“Protesting Is What Patriotism Looks Like in Public”: The “No Kings” Protests of June 14, 2025

Earlier today my friend Kate and I joined approximately 80,000 others in the “No Kings” march and rally in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was one of thousands of similar events held across the country protesting the increasingly fascist rhetoric and actions of Donald Trump’s presidency. In fact, with an estimated 11-million people participatng in the “No Kings” day of nonviolent civil disobedience, it was the largest protest against a president in U.S. history. This number represents almost 3.5% of the population, a figure that political scientists refer to as the “3.5% rule” and one that should give us hope.

For as the BBC reported in 2019:

Erica Chenoweth, a political scientist at Harvard University, confirms that civil disobedience is not only the moral choice; it is also the most powerful way of shaping world politics – by a long way. Looking at hundreds of campaigns over the last century, Chenoweth found that nonviolent campaigns are twice as likely to achieve their goals as violent campaigns. And although the exact dynamics will depend on many factors, she has shown it takes around 3.5% of the population actively participating in the protests to ensure serious political change.

Yet in the midst of this hope there is also today in Minnesota horror and grief as in the early hours of the morning, Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark were fatally shot at their home in Brooklyn Park by a man impersonating a police officer. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has called their deaths “a politically motivated assassination.” Hortman was the top Democrat in the Minnesota House and a former House speaker. Walz said another prominent Democrat, state Sen. John Hoffman, and his wife Yvette were also shot and wounded at their home in Champlin. Officials have named 57-year-old Vance Boelter of Green Isle, Minn., as a suspect in the shootings and are asking for the public’s help in finding him. Boelter remains at large and is considered armed and dangerous.

Because of this, the majority of “No Kings” events were cancelled across Minnesota, not only because Boelter remains at large but bcause flyers for the St. Paul event at the State Capitol were found by police in his car. Despite this, 80,000 people, including Kate and I, chose to attend the St. Paul “No Kings” march and rally. We would not let fear silence us, choosing instead to embody the words of one of the event’s speakers: “Protesting is what patriotism looks like in public.”

Last night I shared with friends on Facebook images of the two-sided sign I made for today’s “No King” event, along with the following:

It’s a big day tomorrow, what with “No Kings” marches and rallies taking place in thousands of locations across the country. I’ll be attending the one in St. Paul, MN, and for the occasion I’ve made a two-sided sign, the message of which seeks to acknowledge and convey a deeper awareness of what’s being protested.

Yes, Donald Trump has clear authoritarian tendencies and is taking actions that are undermining and dismantling the democratic and humanitarian institutions of the U.S. This needs to be highlighted, resisted, and stopped. For the vast majority of people, this will be their message tomorrow. I support this message. Yet at the same time, many of us don’t see Trump himself as the sole or even primary problem; we see him as a symptom – an undeniably extreme and terrible one – of a deeper reality which for decades has undermined and made a mockery of democracy in this country.

I’m referring to the corrupting influence of corporate money, of special profit-obsessed interests. I’m talking about the corporate capture of our political system; the rise and devastating influence of a corporate aristocracy, an oligarchy to which both major parties bow.

Although such subservience benefits these parties’ coffers, it has proven profoundly detrimental to the well-being of their constituents, the environment, and democracy.

In choosing to appease their corporate donors at the expense of the needs of the people, both parties can be said to be oligarchic; both parties comprise a corporatist/oligarchic duopoly, the policies of which created the economic conditions of profound inequality that make the authoritarian populism of Trump so appealing to so many.

The oligarchy we’re up against is every bit as anti-democratic and thus un-American as any king. Indeed, it’s sadly accurate to say that in the U.S. “money rules,” that “money is king.”

“King” Trump could keel over tomorrow, but the kingship of the oligarchy would remain. It’s this “money is king” reality that I’ll be highlighting and protesting at the “No Kings” rally in St. Paul tomorrow. . . . I look forward to seeing many of my Minnesota friends there!

About the other side of my sign, one friend wondered if I’d get pushback from any “salty Democrats” in attendance; from the “vote blue no matter who” crowd (sometimes referred to as “Blue MAGA”).

I was kinda curious too. After all, the other side of my sign says: “How about next time we dump the duopoly by all agreeing to vote Green.” Yet as my concerned friend pointed out, “Whether offended or not, people gotta wake up.” As it turned out, I received no negative feedback, only the occasional knowing nod of recognition and agreement to the messages of my two-sided sign.

At least one person who shares my perspective opted to skip altogether any “No Kings” events. Dorothy Lennon, who describes herself as a “revolutionary intellectual trying to make the world a better place,” shared the following earlier today on Facebook.

Today there will be dozens of [“No Kings”] rallies organized across the nation. . . . Most of them are centered on President Trump’s flagrant violation of the constitution and his deportation of peaceful immigrants.

I won’t be attending any of them.

Most of these rallies are organized by organizations or people who are “vote blue no matter who” propagandists. They are a covert attempt to grow the ranks of the Democratic Party. That, and the hypocrisy of these rallies is overwhelming.

I didn’t see any of these rallies spring up when Barack Obama was treating the rule of law as a doormat. I didn’t see any of these rallies when both Obama and Joe Biden were deporting millions of undocumented immigrants.

They don’t care about the rule of law or our immigrant brothers and sisters. They care their version of fascism and xenophobia is implemented. The oligarchy isn’t afraid of these rallies. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them are financing them.

Lennon makes a number of valid points. Yet it felt important for me to be part of the “No Kings” movement today, and to convey the deeper message regarding the "kingship" of the oligarchy that I wanted to convey.

Following are some photos I took at today’s “No Kings” march and rally in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Above: My friend Kate, holding the sign I originally made for the inaugural Women’s March in January 2017.

As I noted at the time:

I had decided about a week before the march that I wanted to carry a sign that shared a positive message from an inspiring woman. I therefore decided on words of hope and encouragement from legendary singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie. They’re actually lyrics from her song “Getting Started” (from her phenomenal 1992 album Coincidence and Likely Stories). The image incorporated in my sign is one I took of Buffy when I saw her in concert last summer [2016] in Bayfield, WI.

Kate was more than happy to march with my sign from 8 years ago, and it was great to have Buffy be a part of today’s important and inspiring event.

Following are some of my photos from today’s “No Kings” march and rally in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Related Off-site Links:
Millions Rise Up to Say in Unison: “No Kings!” “No Dictator!” – Common Dreams (June 14, 2025).
Democratic State Representative Melissa Hortman Assassinated in Minnesota – Common Dreams (June 14, 2025).
Melissa Hortman Remembered as “Shining Light,” Consensus Builder – Tom Scheck and Clay Masters (MPR News (June 14, 2025).
Amid Warnings from State Officials Following Shootings, Crowds Show Up for “No Kings” Rallies in Minnesota – MPR News (June 14, 2025).


UPDATES: What a Weekend – Marianne Williamson (Transform, June 15, 2025).
Vance Boelter Captured, Charged in Shootings of Minnesota Lawmakers – MPR News (June 15, 2025).
No Kings: Millions Across U.S. Protest Trump’s Power Grab, Overshadowing His Military Parade – Democracy Now! (June 16, 2025).
“An Outstanding Leader”: Minnesota Mourns Assassinated Lawmaker Melissa Hortman as Suspect Is Arrested – Democracy Now! (June 16, 2025).
“No Kings Day” Was Historic. Now We Need a Powerful – and Independent – Movement Against Trump – Norman Solomon (Common Dreams, June 16, 2025).
“We Loved Her”: MN Attorney General Keith Ellison Mourns His Friend Melissa Hortman, Slams Republican Rhetoric – Democracy Now! (June 17, 2025).


See also the following chronologically-ordered Wild Reed posts:
• Marisa Kabas: “We’re Witnessing a Coup By an Unelected Billionaire Propped Up By a Felonious President”
• Protesting Trump’s “Dystopian” Immigration Policies
• Timothy Snyder on Resisting the Oligarchs’ “Logic of Destruction”
• “This Is Essentially Viktor Orbán’s Playbook”
• “An Extremely Clever Ruse” by and for the Rich: Owen Jones on Elon Musk’s Coup
• “To Be a Rib in This Body of Our Country”
• Quote of the Day – February 21, 2025
• Ralph Nader: “We’re Heading Into the Most Serious Crisis in American History. There’s No Comparison”
• Why the Democratic Party Is Not Going to Save Us From Fascism
• “This Is How Democracy Unravels”
• Jason Stanley on How Fascism Works
• James Greenberg on Trumpism: “The Tactics Are Unmistakable”
• Tony Pentimalli on Trump’s “Death Warrant for Democracy”
• The Reckoning Is Coming
• “This Is What Fascism Looks Like”
• Peter Bloom: Quote of the Day – June 10, 2025
• Brent Molnar on the Silence of the Generals


See also:
• “The Moment Is Ripe”: Butch Ware on Building a “True Oppositional Alternative” to the Duopoly
• “It Is Our Responsibility to Make a Third Party Viable”
• Building Solidarity on the Left
• Progressive Perspectives on Bernie Sanders’ “Fighting Oligarchy” Tour
• The Only Difference
• An Opportunity for Organizing Against Duopoly
• Andor’s Depiction of the Rise of Fascism: Not Predictive But Reflective
• Butch Ware on His Run for California Governor and the Wider Goal of Disrupting the Duopoly
• Ted Rall on What It Means to Be a Leftist in 2025

Remembering the “Out, Proud and Vivid” Sylvester

The Wild Reed’s 2025 Queer Appreciation series continues with a remembrance of groundbreaking queer singer Sylvester (1947-1988).

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“Sylvester defied all labeling,” said longtime gay activist Cleve Jones. “He was nonetheless an out, proud and vivid gay person.”

Listening to Sylvester’s recordings makes it easy to see why his music was so popular with gay and straight audiences alike. His voice, a powerful falsetto, was filled with raw emotion. When Sylvester sang, he transcended the disco genre. He could have sung anything – in his early days he attracted attention for his stunning vocal stylings on cover performances taken from the songbooks of jazz greats Billie Holiday and Etta James, among others.

In the 1970s, long before being gay was broadly acceptable in mainstream American society, Sylvester was a pop/disco superstar who came to national prominence. In gay culture of that era, disco hits like “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” and “Dance (Disco Heat)” were anthems.

Born Sylvester James Jr. in 1947 in Los Angeles, Sylvester created music that underscored the joy many felt for their newly found freedoms, at least in this city. Along with Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official in the country, he helped make the Castro a beacon of hope.

– Steve Arnold

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Following is Lauren Tabak and Barry Walters’ 2020 mini-documentary on the “brave and bold” Sylvester. Enjoy!





See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Remembering Little Richard, 1932-2020
• “Creative Outsider, Determined Innovator”: Remembering Berto Pasuka
• Dusty Springfield: Queer Icon
• Remembering Dusty Springfield’s “Daring” 1979 Gay-Affirming Song
• Remembering Prince, “Fabulous Freak, Defiant Outsider, Dark Dandy” – 1958-2016
• David Bowie: Queer Messiah
• Durrand Bernarr, “a Genre-Bending Talent”
• Dyllón Burnside: “For Me, the Term Queer Just Opens Up Space”
• Lil Nas X, the Latest Face of Pop’s Gay Sexual Revolution
• In a Historic First, Country Music’s Latest Star Is a Queer Black Man
• Nakhane Touré’s “Tortured Journey to Clarity”
• Nakhane’s Hymn to Freedom
• Rahsaan Patterson: Standing Within His True Light
• Ocean Trip
• Adam Lamert Comes Out: It Shouldn’t Matter. Except it Does
• Sam Sparro
• Play It Again, Sam
• Rules and Regulations – Rufus Style
• Darren Hayes, Coming Out . . . Oh, and Time Travel
• The Latest from Darren Hayes
• Remembering Stephen Gately, Gay Pop Pioneer
• No Matter What

Brent Molnar on the Silence of the Generals

Fort Bragg, June 10, 2025: Lee Greenwood blares, Marines snap selfies, and the commander-in-chief lumbers onstage to trash California, mock the press, and pledge to re-rename Army bases after Confederate traitors. The soldiers behind him cheer on cue, their top brass staring straight ahead like mannequins in dress blues – an honor guard for revisionist history.

Trump’s first target is the Fourth Estate. He points to the press pen, sneers “fake news,” and the crowd obligingly boos. In uniform, on federal property, active-duty troops are coaxed into partisan theater – exactly what George Washington warned against when he said the military must remain above faction. The generals? Silent, medals glittering.

Then comes the resurrection of Robert E. Lee. Trump vows to “restore proud Southern names” to bases Congress stripped in 2023. The line detonates applause from the bleachers – and not a single star-studded shoulder shrugs in protest. Evidently, the Army’s new HOO-ah is a nostalgic rebel yell.

He pivots to immigration doom-scrolling, calling foreign asylum-seekers “animals,” Europe a “chaos lab,” and 2024 “the election of a president who loves you” – as if he isn’t already serving term two. Soldiers laugh, reporters wince, and brass polishes their silence into a mirror.

Next, the California beat-down: Los Angeles is “a trash heap,” its governor “an incompetent fool,” its mayor “a socialist menace.” Trump promises to “liberate L.A.” the way he “won” World War I – never mind he just mangled the alliances onstage like a high-schooler who skipped history class. Cheers again. Commanders again mute.

Flag talk follows: anyone who burns Old Glory should face one year minimum behind bars. The troops roar. But the oath they swore – to defend the Constitution – protects flag burners, too. Apparently authoritarian applause now outranks the First Amendment in the chain of command.

He rebrands Face the Nation as Deface the Nation, because in grievance-culture grammar, every institution begging for accountability is graffiti on his gilded image. The brass? Busy practicing statuesque restraint – eyes front, mouths shut.

To cap the spectacle, he recounts a purely imaginary victory in L.A.: protesters “with bricks and hammers” crushed by “unstoppable, overwhelming force.” Reality check: the only bricks were in his rhetorical wall. But why fact-check when uniformed validation is cheaper than ammo?

Offstage, California’s $3.9-trillion economy – fourth largest on Earth – keeps the nation’s lights on, subsidizing red-state coffers Trump claims to champion. If California’s “trash heap” vanished tomorrow, Fort Bragg would be raffling Humvees on eBay. Funny how fiscal dependency never makes the teleprompter.

The louder Trump barks, the quieter his generals become. Their silence isn’t professionalism; it’s complicity. When the commander orders cheers for treason and mockery for the Constitution, every unchallenged syllable erodes the very oath draped across their ribbons. Speak up, generals – or history will note you stood at attention while the Republic was heckled into the ground.

– Brent Molnar
via Brent Molnar: Voice of Reason
June 11, 2025

Related Off-site Links:
Trump Is Normalizing the Unthinkable: Federal Troops in American Streets, Breaking the Law – and Getting Away With It – Thom Hartmann (Common Dreams, June 9, 2025).
“Absolutely Unprecedented”: Trump Deploys National Guard to L.A. and Hegseth Threatens to Send in Marines – Democracy Now! (June 9, 2025).
L.A. Under Siege: Trump Sends in National Guard as Protests Continue Over Militarized ICE Raids – Democracy Now! (June 9, 2025).
With Tanks Heading to D.C., Call by “Dictator” Trump to “Bring in the Troops” Spurs Fear of Wider Repression – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, June 9, 2025).
U.S. Military Deploys Marines to Los Angeles as Trump Backs Arrest of California Governor – Jane Ross and Idrees Ali (Reuters, June 9, 2025).
Donald Trump Manufactured the Crisis in Los Angeles – Meagan Day (Jacobin, June 9, 2025).
Some Notes on the City of Angels and the Nature of Violence – Rebecca Solnit (Meditations in an Emergency, June 9, 2025).
1,800+ “No Kings” Rallies Planned Across U.S. as Trump Deploys Military to Crush Protests – Eloise Goldsmith (Common Dreams, June 9, 2025).
The L.A. Awakening: Repression, Resistance, and the Possibility of Radical Democratic Renewal – Peter Bloom (Common Dreams, June 10, 2025).
“A Grave Escalation”: Leaked Letter Shows Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem Requested Military Arrests at L.A. Protests – Julia Conley (Common Dreams, June 10, 2025).
From Protest to Pretext: Trump, Troops, and the Illusion of Crisis – James B. Greenberg (James’s Substack, June 10, 2025).
From Travel Ban to Troops in Streets, Advocates Blast Trump’s Targeting of Immigrant Communities – Democracy Now! (June 11, 2025).
Trumps Preps Insurrection Act as Protests Go Nationwide – Breaking Points (June 11, 2025).


UPDATES: Troops and Marines Deeply Troubled by L.A. Deployment: “Morale is Not Great” – Andrew Gumbel (The Guardian, June 12, 2025).
“We Are in the Midst of the Creation of a Police State”: Rep. Ilhan Omar on Trump’s Authoritarianism – Democracy Now! (June 13, 2025).


See also the following chronologically-ordered Wild Reed posts:
• Marisa Kabas: “We’re Witnessing a Coup By an Unelected Billionaire Propped Up By a Felonious President”
• Timothy Snyder on Resisting the Oligarchs’ “Logic of Destruction”
• “This Is Essentially Viktor Orbán’s Playbook”
• “An Extremely Clever Ruse” by and for the Rich: Owen Jones on Elon Musk’s Coup
• “To Be a Rib in This Body of Our Country”
• Quote of the Day – February 21, 2025
• Ralph Nader: “We’re Heading Into the Most Serious Crisis in American History. There’s No Comparison”
• Why the Democratic Party Is Not Going to Save Us From Fascism
• “This Is How Democracy Unravels”
• Jason Stanley on How Fascism Works
• James Greenberg on Trumpism: “The Tactics Are Unmistakable”
• Tony Pentimalli on Trump’s “Death Warrant for Democracy”
• “This Is What Fascism Looks Like”
• Peter Bloom: Quote of the Day – June 10, 2025

A Common Misconception About Palliative Care

As regular readers of The Wild Reed would know, since September 2018 I’ve worked as an interfaith chaplain (or spiritual health provider) with the palliative care team of a hospital in the north-west metro of the Twin Cities of St. Paul/Minneapolis.

A common misconception about palliative care is that it is only for those who are close to death. Going through some old papers and magazines the other night, I came across an article I saved from the April 2022 issue of my local TPT/PBS magazine. Known primarily for its TV guide, promotional pieces on its programming, and ads from its sponsers, the TPT/PBS magazine also has one or two stories of interest in each issue. One of these stories in the April 2022 issue focused on palliative care, which of course caught my attention, especially as it addressed the aforementioned common misconception.

I’ll let Nora Macaluso, the author of this article, take it from here.

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Palliative Care is Not Just for the Dying

By Nora Macaluso
Palliative care can provide relief to people with severe, but not necessarily life-ending, health conditions. But often patients – and their doctors – don’t realize they can take advantage of a team-based treatment approach that includes doctors, nurse practitioners, social workers, chaplains, and community support.

“The big misconception about palliative care in general is that you need to be dying to get it,” said Dr. Andrew Esch, a palliative care specialist for the Center to Advance Palliative Care in Tampla, Florida.

The pandemic has helped counter that view as physicians see the benefits to people living with COVID-19 and their families. A palliative care team aims to take a holistic view of the patient’s world rather than focusing solely on treating the primary condition.

Dr. John Mulder, of Spring Lake, Michigan, executive director pf palliative care training center Trillium Institute, uses “life-defining” or “life-altering” to identify conditions that might benefit from palliative care.

“Many, many individuals as they navigate their lives are going to be diagnosed with something that is going to forever change them, and it’s going to impact their longevity, impact their quality of life, and can place some burden of suffering upon them,” he said.

“What we do in palliative care is acknowledge the fact that we have something we can’t fix,” Mulder continued. “It might be modifiable, it might be manageable, but we can’t fix it.”

People with cancer, for example, can rely on the symptom-based approach of palliative care to build their strength so they’re better able to withstand chemotherapy, he said. People with conditions like multiple sclerosis or Parkinson’s disease can also benefit, as can those with Alzheimer’s disease.

As Esch sees it, one of the real values of palliative care is “coordinating care and communicating with the patient’s family and other clinicians” so “we’re not doing things in silos,” he said.

“Palliative care takes the lead and makes it so the patient feels they have four doctors and nurse practitioners taking care of them, and they have four of them talking to each other.”

– Nora Macaluso
April 2022

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• From the Palliative/Spiritual Care Bookshelf – Part I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX
• Arthur Kleinman on the “Soul of Care”
• Chaplaincy: A Ministry of Welcome
• Interfaith Chaplaincy: Meeting People Where They're At
• Spirituality and the Healthcare Setting
• World Hospice and Palliative Care Day
• In the Telling – and the Listening – There Is Healing
• Resilience and Hope
• George Yancy on the “Unspoken Reality of Death”
• “Call Upon Those You Love”
• Yahia Lababidi: “Poetry Is How We Pray Now”
• The Calm Before the Storm
• Out and About – Spring 2020
• A Pandemic Year
• Out and About – Autumn 2021
• Difficult Choices
• On the 2nd Anniversary of the Coronavirus Pandemic, Words of Gratitude and Hope

Quote of the Day

[What we’re seeing with the Trump/Miller regime’s actions in Los Angeles] is a stark illustration of the imperial boomerang in motion: the tools of empire – surveillance, militarized policing, psychological control – returning home. What was once deployed to suppress resistance abroad is now turned inward. But rather than subdue, this backlash is catalyzing a broader awakening. The brutality in Los Angeles has illuminated the deeper architecture of repression, drawing new political lines that unite across race, status, and geography. From L.A. to Gaza, the common thread is clear: state violence serves elite power, and the response from below is no longer fragmented. It is building into a global resistance that sees through the old divisions and names its adversary plainly – oligarchy.

. . . This uprising is forcing a reckoning within the Democratic Party. For too long, party leaders have paid lip service to justice while quietly enabling enforcement budgets and border expansion. Now, protestors are demanding clarity: who are you with? Those who remain silent risk political irrelevance. The bipartisan oligarchy is cracking, and a new political line is emerging – between those who serve concentrated power and those who challenge it.

– Peter Bloom
Excerpted from “The L.A. Awakening:
Repression, Resistance, and the Possibility
of Radical Democratic Renewal”
Common Dreams
June 10, 2025

Related Off-site Links:
Stephen Miller’s Order Likely Sparked Immigration Arrests And Protests – Stuart Anderson (Forbes, June 9, 2025).
1,800+ “No Kings” Rallies Planned Across U.S. as Trump Deploys Military to Crush Protests – Eloise Goldsmith (Common Dreams, June 9, 2025).
Chaos and Cruelty: Trump Deploys Thousands of Soldiers to Put Down Anti-ICE Protests in Los Angeles – Democracy Now! (June 10, 2025).
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Lays Out a Case for Troop Deployments in “Any Jurisdiction in the Country” – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, June 10, 2025).
From Protest to Pretext: Trump, Troops, and the Illusion of Crisis – James B. Greenberg (James’s Substack, June 10, 2025).

UPDATES: Stephen Miller Can’t Make America White. Los Angeles is Paying for His Impotent Rage – Amanda Marcotte (Salon, June 11, 2025).
No Kings, Just Guards: What Trump’s National Guard Deployment Tells Us About Power – James B. Greenberg (James’s Substack, June 11, 2025).
“No Kings”: 1,800+ Rallies Planned as Trump Threatens “Very Heavy Force” on Army Parade Protesters – Democracy Now! (June 11, 2025).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• “This Is What Fascism Looks Like”
• The Reckoning Is Coming
• James Greenberg on Trumpism: “The Tactics Are Unmistakable”
• Jason Stanley on How Fascism Works
• “This Is How Democracy Unravels”
• Why the Democratic Party Is Not Going to Save Us From Fascism
• “This Is Essentially Viktor Orbán’s Playbook”
• Timothy Snyder on Resisting the Oligarchs’ “Logic of Destruction”

What the Bible Really Says About Gender Justice

Since 2009 I’ve shared at this time of year a series of what I call “Queer Appreciation” posts.

Each series is comprised of a number of informed and insightful writings to mark Gay Pride . . . or, as I’ve preferred to call it since 2011, Queer Appreciation.

I always try to include in each series a diverse range of writers and topics, and in general the writings I share are positive, proactive and celebratory.

I start this year’s Queer Appreciation series with an excerpt from an insightful commentary by Aaron Scott, Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, and Moses Hernandez McGavin. Entitled “What We Can Learn From Trans People in the Fight for Dignity and Democracy,” this commentary, first published yesterday at Common Dreams, is a timely response to the reality that Pride Month arrives this year “at an especially dire moment for the LGBTQ+ community.” This is because “under the second Trump administration . . . the attacks against LGBTQ+ people, especially transgender people, seem to be on steroids.”

Contine the authors: “Since taking office a second time, Trump has issued executive orders that ban transgender women in sports and transgender troops in the military, while limiting federal recognition to two genders. And his executive actions are only the spear tip of a significantly larger legislative attempt to target and scapegoat transgender people, who make up just over 1% of the U.S. population.”

The authors note that “none of this is happening simply because Donald Trump himself is a bigot or because the Republican Party is just deeply cruel. It’s happening because there is a highly connected, well-funded, and strategically positioned Christian nationalist movement pushing forward anti-trans policy and its accompanying social violence.”

Yet we can and must push back on this movement, and the trans community has much to inspire and teach us about such resistance . . . and about how to build inclusive and loving alternatives to it.

In the following excerpt from “What We Can Learn From Trans People in the Fight for Dignity and Democracy,” the authors share what the Bible says about gender justice.

_______________________

Christian nationalists like to weaponize the Bible as a primary way of justifying their attacks on trans and nonbinary people. And yet, like all Christian nationalist theology, theirs is heretical when it comes to actual Christian scriptures and the subject of Jesus’ teachings.

After all, the creation story in Genesis is fully inclusive of God’s greatness – from the creation of light and darkness to the nonbinary sunrises and sunsets in between. It should be a reminder that all of us are created in God’s image. While the anti-trans crew has sought to use the biblical phrase “male and female God created them” from Genesis 1:27 in defense of exclusionary violence, some of the oldest interpretations of that text hold that God created the first human beings to contain both “maleness” and “femaleness” inside one body. Indeed, the Bible repeatedly names third-gender people as important.

In Isaiah 56:3-5, for instance, God affirms not only the sanctity but the spiritual importance of people who exist outside of the gender binary, in essence promising LGBTQ+ people, “an everlasting name, a name better than sons and daughters.” The Book of Esther, for instance, identifies no fewer than 10 gender non-conforming people, some of whom are identified as playing a role in assisting Esther’s defense of her people against imperial violence. The Jewish Talmud reflects a similar affirmation of gender diversity, legally recognizing no fewer than seven genders.

This inclusivity carries through to the New Testament and the stories about Jesus as well. In Matthew 19:12, Jesus teaches that there are human beings who exist outside of the gender binary from birth. Acts 8:26-39 explicitly lifts up the spiritual leadership of gender nonconforming people of African descent in the story of the Ethiopian eunuch. In our time, that eunuch would have been far more welcome at the Stonewall Inn than at the Family Research Council’s annual summit.

There are numerous other biblical examples of gender diversity and of Jesus’ celebration of and identification with gender nonconforming people. The point is that if Christian nationalists insist on using the Bible to underwrite their social and political violence, those of us who call ourselves Christians must be willing to defend LGBTQ+ people with fervor and theological rigor.

This is a “Kairos moment” for faith communities that affirm the dignity and rights of LGBTQ+ people—especially trans and nonbinary people. Christian nationalism’s spiritual and political attacks on LGBTQ+ people are also an attack on our deep belief in God’s inclusive love. Isn’t it time, especially in the age of Donald Trump, to leverage our public witness, our pastoral presence, our theological voice, and the power of our institutions in defense of the surviving and thriving of all people?

For too long, religion has been used to attack LGBTQ+ people. Today, Christian nationalists are amassing power by claiming a monopoly on morality. But beneath theological distortions and manipulations exists an untarnished gospel that teaches love, inclusion, diversity, and justice. We must be brave enough to proclaim this gospel for all to hear.

– Aaron Scott, Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis,
and Moses Hernandez McGavin
Excerpted from “What We Can Learn
From Trans People in the Fight
for Dignity and Democracy”
Common Dreams, June 7, 2025

The Wild Reed’s 2024 Queer Appreciation series:
• “Let Us Be the Incarnation of Inclusion”
• Durrand Bernarr, “a Genre-Bending Talent”
• Kyle Kvamme, Advocate for LGBTQIA+ Refugees
• Remembering Paco Jamandreu, Evita’s Gay Friend and Confidant
• Christina Cauterucci on the Olympics Moment That Shows Where the Anti-Trans Movement Has Brought Us
• A Powerhouse Performance of One of the First Gay Liberation Anthems


The Wild Reed’s 2023 Queer Appreciation series:
• Angela Kade Goepferd on the “Manufactured Controversy” Targeting Gender-Affirming Care
• The Bigger Box of Crayons We All Deserve
• Transgender in America Today
• Accounting for the Backlash
• Celebrating Every Body
• Three Radical (Religious) Ideas for Queer Liberation
• In St. Paul Schools, “Trans Advocacy Is Always Advocacy for Everyone”


The Wild Reed’s 2022 Queer Appreciation series:
• Cassandra Snow on Reclaiming the Word “Queer”
• Tian Richards’ Message to Queer Youth: “Every Part of Your Identity Is a Superpower”
• Gabbi Pierce on the “Evolution of Gender”
• Afdhere Jama’s “Love Song to the Queer Somali”
• “Creative Outsider, Determined Innovator”: Remembering Berto Pasuka
• “Queer Love Is My Divine Companion”
• Dyllón Burnside: “For Me, the Term Queer Just Opens Up Space”
• Tarot: A Compass For Journeying Toward the Truth of Who We Are and Who We Can Be


The Wild Reed’s 2021 Queer Appreciation series:
• “A Book About Revolutionary People That Feels Revolutionary Itself”
• Remembering Dusty Springfield’s “Daring” 1979 Gay-Affirming Song
• Zaylore Stout on the Meaning of Emancipation in 2021
• Maebe A. Girl: A “Decidedly Progressive Candidate” for Congress
• The Art of Tania Rivilis
• Lil Nas X, the Latest Face of Pop’s Gay Sexual Revolution
• Kuan Yin: “A Mirror of the Queer Experience”


The Wild Reed’s 2020 Queer Appreciation series:
• Zaylore Stout on Pride 2020: “What Do We Have to Be Proud Of?”
• Francis DeBernardo on the U.S. Supreme Court Ruling on Title VII: “A Reason for All Catholics to Celebrate”
• Mia Birdsong on the “Queering of Friendship”
• The Distinguished Rhone Fraser: Cultural Critic, Bibliophile, and Dramatist
• “To Walk the World Without Masks”
• What We Are Hoping and Fighting For


The Wild Reed’s 2019 Queer Appreciation series:
• Raquel Willis: Quote of the Day – May 31, 2019
• James Baldwin’s Potent Interweavings of Race, Homoeroticism, and the Spiritual
• John Gehring on Why Catholics Should Participate in LGBTQ Pride Parades
• A Dance of Queer Love
• The Queer Liberation March: Bringing Back the Spirit of Stonewall
• Barbara Smith on Why She Left the Mainstream LGBTQI Movement
• Remembering the Stonewall Uprising on Its 50th Anniversary
• In a Historic First, Country Music’s Latest Star Is a Queer Black Man
• Historian Martin Duberman on the Rightward Shift of the Gay Movement
• Queer Black Panther


The Wild Reed’s 2018 Queer Appreciation series:
• Michelangelo Signorile on the Rebellious Purpose of Queer Pride
• Liberating Paris: Exploring the Meaning of Liberation in Paris Is Burning
• Stephanie Beatriz on the Truth of Being Bi
• Queer Native Americans, Colonialism, and the Fourth of July


The Wild Reed’s 2017 Queer Appreciation series:
• Our Lives as LGBTQI People: “Garments Grown in Love”
• On the First Anniversary of the Pulse Gay Nightclub Massacre, Orlando Martyrs Commemorated in Artist Tony O'Connell’s “Triptych for the 49”
• Tony Enos on Understanding the Two Spirit Community
• Making the Connections


The Wild Reed’s 2016 Queer Appreciation post of solace, inspiration and hope:
• “I Will Dance”


The Wild Reed’s 2015 Queer Appreciation series:
• Vittorio Lingiardi on the Limits of the Hetero/Homo Dichotomy
• Reclaiming and Re-Queering Pride
• Standing with Jennicet Gutiérrez, “the Mother of Our Newest Stonewall Movement”
• Questions for Archbishop Kurtz re. the U.S. Bishops' Response to the Supreme Court's Marriage Equality Ruling
• Clyde Hall: “All Gay People, in One Form or Another, Have Something to Give to This World, Something Rich and Very Wonderful”
• The (Same-Love) Dance Goes On


The Wild Reed’s 2014 Queer Appreciation series:
• Michael Bayly’s “The Kiss” Wins the People's Choice Award at This Year's Twin Cities Pride Art Exhibition
• Same-Sex Desires: “Immanent and Essential Traits Transcending Time and Culture”
• Lisa Leff on Five Things to Know About Transgender People
• Steven W. Thrasher on the Bland and Misleading “Gay Inc” Treatment of the Struggle to Overturn Prop 8
• Test: A Film that “Illuminates Why Queer Cinema Still Matters”
• Sister Teresa Forcades on Queer Theology
• Omar Akersim: Muslim and Gay
• Catholics Make Their Voices Heard on LGBTQ Issues


The Wild Reed’s 2013 Queer Appreciation series:
• Doing Papa Proud
• Jesse Bering: “It’s Time to Throw 'Sexual Preference' into the Vernacular Trash”
• Dan Savage on How Leather Guys, Dykes on Bikes, Go-Go Boys, and Drag Queens Have Helped the LGBT Movement
• On Brokeback Mountain: Remembering Queer Lives and Loves Never Fully Realized
• Manly Love


The Wild Reed’s 2012 Queer Appreciation series:
• The Theology of Gay Pride
• Bi God, Somebody Listen
• North America: Perhaps Once the “Queerest Continent on the Planet”
• Gay Men and Modern Dance
• A Spirit of Defiance


The Wild Reed’s 2011 Gay Pride/Queer Appreciation series:
• Gay Pride: A Celebration of True Humility
• Dusty Springfield: Queer Icon
• Gay Pioneer Malcolm Boyd on Survival – and Victory – with Grace
• Senator Scott Dibble’s Message of Hope and Optimism
• Parvez Sharma on Islam and Homosexuality


The Wild Reed’s 2010 Gay Pride series:
• Standing Strong
• Growing Strong
• Jesus and Homosexuality
• It Is Not Good To Be Alone
• The Bisexual: “Living Consciously in the Place Where the Twain Meet”
• Spirituality and the Gay Experience
• Recovering the Queer Artistic Heritage


The Wild Reed’s 2009 Gay Pride series:
• A Mother’s Request to President Obama: Full Equality for My Gay Son
• Marriage Equality in Massachusetts: Five Years On
• It Shouldn’t Matter. Except It Does
• Gay Pride as a Christian Event
• Not Just Another Political Special Interest Group
• Can You Hear Me, Yet, My Friend?


Opening image: Gabriela Hernandez. Says Hernandez: “In my art, I illustrate the relationships between our planet, community, and identities. In this piece, the marigolds uplift the wisdom of our ancestors, and remind us that together we can heal from the injustices that we face.” (Source of artwork.)