ARE WE SEEING A PATTERN HERE?

        So it seems that the crazies are at it again.

        I wonder whether or not anybody else is noticing a disturbing pattern here? Let us go back to February, at the start of the Iran War. The Pentagon targeted and murdered Ayatollah Khamenei who is the Supreme spiritual leader of Shia Islam. Islam is divided into two main sects, like Protestants and Catholics: one has a top spiritual leader and the other doesn't. The Sunni Moslems don't have a spiritual head, but their top political official is the King of Saudi Arabia who is custodian of the Islamic Holy Sites, Mecca and Medina. The Saudi flag even has a passage from the Koran emblazoned upon it in Arabic which translates: "There is no god but Allah, and Mohammed is His messenger." But our Head-of-State boasted to the Saudi King's 'subjects' that His Royal Majesty 'kisses Trump's a--' and has sent out at least two posts mockingly praising Allah.

      Then, within the next two weeks, the White House launched a series of insults against Pope Leo, who is the head of the of the Catholic Church. It was leaked (probably deliberately) at the same time that Hegseth's thugs had summoned the Papal Nuncio and insulted him, threatening that the US could remove Popes and the Holy See like other tyrants during the Middle Ages did. Then, yesterday, Protestants were shocked to see a post depicting Trump as Christ with people praying to him, and what looks like (to me anyway) American soldiers chasing or capturing a demon in the sky above. 

         These things were all liberally interspersed with apocalyptic threats such as wiping out entire civilizations. Note too that all of this has happened during the Islamic Holy Season of Ramadan and the Christian Holy Season of Easter, which occurred together in 2026. What do these things suggest? We have a President who evidently believes that he can replace the spiritual leaders of the world at will, and assume the leadership of those sects without one. In other words, he may actually have started believing himself a Messiah. 

          The partisans of this Administration naturally will dismiss such suggestions as tin-foil hat stuff as JD Vance and others are doing. It must be confessed that, in the postmodern United States, it is not at all uncommon for those in positions of power---notably Corporate CEOs, heads of Governmental Agencies, and Educational Administrators---to suffer from God Complexes: they imagine themselves superior to other men; they take delight bestowing favors on their sycophants and destroying others' lives at their whims; they treat any opposition as heresy; and they have Boards who sing their praises at meetings like angelic choirs; etc. Few, however, actually go so far as to portray themselves as actual Deities---not because they don't believe that they are; but because they've been advised that it would be bad PR to make such displays public. 

        What we may be seeing here with the Second Trump Administration is something more characteristic of cult leaders. It isn't uncommon that cult leaders build a large following, amass power, and ultimately start believing their own hokum. Ordinary cult leaders who've reached this point are dangerous enough: but one heading a nuclear-armed global superpower---surrounded by fanatics utterly submissive to his will---is not a pleasant scenario to contemplate. However, if this is the pattern that it appears to be, we'll have to face it whether we want to or not.