Nuclear Jinx

I had so wanted to be frivolous here this week and then Saturday night happened.

Oh, what the hell. Here’s Jinkx Monsoon, Broadway star and former winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race, doing one of the most entertaining impressions I’ve ever seen of…

Oh, just watch it.

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A post shared by Jinkx Monsoon (She/Her) (@thejinkx)

Okay, fine.

NOW, let’s bring down the room.

Four guys you’d never want your daughter, son, sister or brother to date stood in the halls of the White House on the evening of June 21^st, 2025 and told us we just launched a bunch of mega-bombs on a Middle Eastern country of 90 million people in order to prevent said country from putting together some sort of nuclear material into some sort of weapon that said country was supposedly weeks, months or years away from…. creating… enriching… launching?…. obtaining?

None of us seems to quite know.

Perhaps POTUS does, but he’s not saying. Exactly. Or pretty much any other way.

As for the three other guys behind him – J.D. Vance, Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth (Note: If this was the track, they’re be an entry – aka three horses owned by the same stable – 1 a, b and c) – they remained suited up and silent in navy suits behind the boss, who was center stage in the blue jewel-toned number.

I mean, they might tell us more by the time you read this. Perhaps in a scheduled press conferences on June 22 or on June 23 in a top secret security briefing to our representatives in Congress. Who are supposed to know this stuff ahead of time and vote before the U.S. launches bombs into another country and ostensibly starts a war.

Of course, that didn’t happen.

And at no point last night was the word war mentioned in their four minute “presentation.”

So I guess that means we’re…. not in a war… with Iran?

Or are we?

I mean when George W. Bush and Dick Cheney took us into the Iraq War twenty plus years ago, at least there was a vote. And evidence, as specious and/or made up as it was. They even called it an actual WAR and gave it a name – Operation Iraqi Freedom. (Note: Yes, we eventually saw what they did there). But this time there was no vote, no evidence – false or otherwise – and nary a peep to any members in the Senate or the House of Representatives.

Just the Four Horsemen of the Christian Right telling us they did this thing that wasn’t a war. Just a lot of… and I quote:

…Great American patriots who flew those magnificent machines tonight…. and no military in the world could’ve done what we did…. Not even close… There’s never been a military that could do what just took place.

In case you were wondering.

FYI, the magnificent machines were B-2 bombers and what they dropped were 30,000 pound bunker busters (MOBs) that bore straight into the ground to presumably blow up nuclear material thousands of feet below thousands of feet of concrete. What happens to the remains of that nuclear material, and what the destruction caused by bombs weighing hundreds of thousands of pounds will be, is anyone’s guess. But presumably, like always, it’s all in the name of “peace.”

Seriously, what could go wrong?

And while you’re contemplating that, here’s Jinkx telling a dirty celebrity story.

Now remember that the man leading us into this war – or whatever he claims it is – is the same person who took over the Kennedy Center a few months ago because a handful of times, among its hundreds of thousands of evenings of entertainment, it served as a venue host for drag shows. This same person also runs a federal government whose national suicide hotline will no longer refer trans or gay kids to the LGBTQ+ hotline specifically for them, run by The Trevor Project. That’s an actual truth bomb that just happened that you can read about here.

Jinkx Monsoon and her kind, be damned.

Meanwhile, stay safe.

As for those of us in Los Angeles, luckily we now have an extra 700 Marines on our streets, courtesy of POTUS, to keep us safe….

…From immigrants.

“One Day More” from “Les Miserables” – Jinkx Monsoon (playing every role)

11.12.23

by notesfromachair

Hello Again

This is what happens when you leave for just a little while. When you return, everything is a mess.

Of course, I blame no one but myself. Certainly not any of you. For the last month or so my other half and I have been furiously working day and night to meet a deadline on an update to a book he first wrote about the history of Saturday Night Live ten years ago.

Oh, you want to know what it’s called?

Sure!

Saturday Night Live FAQ: Everything Left To Know About Television’s Longest Running Comedy.

Actually, it’s part history, part academic, part fan-based nostalgia, a lot of reliving of outstanding and controversial moments, a TON about how they cover politics (especially in the last 20 years) and hopefully all fun and informative.

And it will be coming out Fall 2024.

But meanwhile, what the what with the world??????

This Jewish, gay man of a certain age wants to know. Or do I?

Let’s not get too heavy this first week back, though it’s a little difficult to even broach the subject of being Jewish these days with a sense of humor while saying anything relevant.

On the other hand — um — FRAN DRESCHER!!!!

Yeah, you didn’t think she’d get the SAG strike settled to almost everyone’s satisfaction AND do anything about A.I. and streaming residuals.

See, like Fran, I grew up in Flushing so I know what we’re capable of when we put our minds to it. You want to make fun of her for bringing a plushy heart to a negotiation with Bob Iger or speaking with a NY (nee Jewish) accent? Go ahead.

It only makes her/us stronger.

Fran’s body language says “f*ck around and find out”

See New York Jews tend to thrive when the chips are down. Which is not to say we are the only ethnicity or cultural people this applies to. Far from it. It is also not to say we Jews, as a whole, are always right about everything, despite what our tone and manner might suggest.

However, what I can’t wrap my mind around is the knee-jerk anti-Jewish sentiment (Note: It used to be called anti-Semitism) that has suddenly blazed across the country and world, especially among the academic community, like wildfire. It makes one suspect it was always there.

Here’s a link to an article in The NY Times this weekend about what’s going on in college campuses across the country.

The bottom line for me is that it is possible to hold two or more thoughts in your head at the same time.

You can be appalled at the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel that killed hundreds of Israelis of all ages, took hundreds of hostages of all ages and was joyfully celebrated by its perpetrators of all ages.

You can also be horrified at the brutal decimation of the Gaza Strip and the deaths of many more hundreds of innocent Palestinians by Israel in an attempt to retaliate, protect itself and get its people back.

It’s ALL appalling and horrifying.

But to blame Jews for being, well, practicing Jews and protective of its people, or Muslims for feeling and advocating for Palestinians while practicing their faith is two awful sides of the same coin.

I have no sense yet of what the answer is to a many centuries old issue but it isn’t reveling in what about-isms like who was here first and who did what to whom when.

And it’s certainly not about threats and name-calling — veiled or not so veiled. It’s about trying to turn down the temperature a little and to then, slowly, begin to talk – or at least communicate.

This seems strange coming from a citizen of a country that elected Donald Trump president (Note: Ugh, saying his name, feel free to turn away) and may do so again. Though I, for one, do not think that will happen. It’s clear to me that Never Trumpers far, far outnumber those foolish enough to vote for the four times indicted, twice impeached huckster sociopath from Queens (Note: Yeah, we gave you Fran but we also gave you Him) again. Mark my words, he will lose any kind of national vote anywhere and anytime despite what any one snapshot in time poll number might now be saying.

None of which says anything about being Jewish anywhere, especially in the U.S. and most especially on a college campus, from 2023 on.

The only thing to remember is to be wary of ANYONE spouting racist, anti-Semitic, anti-democratic or virulently non-factual, pro-nativist dogma. Giving voice to, reproducing or energizing their platforms of hate in any way is how we got into this mess in the first place.

SNL – A Thanksgiving Miracle (Adele)

notes from a chair

Tag Archives: israel

Nuclear Jinx

Hello Again