I must absorb this week, the Supreme Court rulings, the U.S. bombing of Iran and then the militant need to burnish presidential “veracity,” my memory of the courage of the Iranian women and girls who rebelled against their theocratic regime a few years ago. 

Wary of my own punditry at this point, I read, and recommend these:

Jim Sleeper, “What is it about “the Jews,” American Protestants, and Israel/Palestine,” an original and striking piece, in part autobiography, in part analysis, by a highly experienced journalist and political scientist.

Samantha Williams, “The Supreme Court Ruled Against My Daughter,” New York Times (June 18, 2025), A22.  A heart-breaking and enraging account of a parent’s anguish at the latest Supreme Court ruling that permits states to deny gender-affirming care to minors, no matter what a family might want. 

The poems of Jessica Greenbaum, The Two Yvonnes: Poems (2012) and Spilled and Gone (2019), lucid, acute,  questing, and deep illuminations of contemporary life, a vital voice.

Of course, signs from the huge “No Kings” demonstrations. My favorite: “Stop Truth Decay”.

Addendum of Sunday, June 29,2025:

I have also been taking in the  U.S. Senate debate on that huge bill
President Trump and many of the Republicans are seeking to push through
Congress, a bill that will cause incalculable harm to the health and
safety and culture of Americans— unless they find comfort and joy in
the tax cuts.

Living under a corrupt authoritarian president and his party, at a time
when A.I. is making disinformation easier and easier to ooze and flow
out, creates a combined feeling of sickness and steely anger, of nausea
and resistance— at least in me.  I must live with the first and act on
the second, as robustly and cheerfully as possible.  Those guys may want
my submission.  They cannot have my soul, not if I can help it.