Global

Prelude: As we welcome Pope Leo XIV, we do so with full awareness of the Church’s failures as an institution. Church-sanctioned teachings too often became instruments of empire, rather than channels of Christ’s peace. They upheld systems of enslavement, patriarchy, and racial hierarchy, instead of challenging institutions and bidding them to change. —

When Robert Francis Cardinal Prevost was proclaimed as Pope Leo XIV and then stepped onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, for me it was a moment of disbelief and wonderment: The first American-born Pope in the history of the Roman Catholic Church. Then came his Urbi et Orbi (to the City and the World) blessing, in which he repeatedly, and beautifully, invoked peace.

“Peace be with you all…Peace be with you…. The peace of the Risen Christ - - an unarmed and disarming peace, …uniting everyone, always in peace. …a Church that always seeks peace, …for peace in the world.”

I have in the past speculated that the day might come when President Donald Trump, he of a massive ego, might just become tired of his being manipulated and controlled by America’s Israel Lobby and by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in particular. I thought, and hoped, that he might become so annoyed that he might move to take control of the so-called tail wags the dog relationship that has for so long put Israel in the driver’s seat. While I am loathe to read too much into several recent developments, the first suggestion that all is not well in Washington’s relationship with what has been euphemistically referred to as “America’s best friend and closest ally.”

President Biden left behind an economy that was pretty healthy, conventionally speaking. Unemployment was low and wages were rising, but stubbornly high costs of living opened a door for Donald Trump’s political comeback.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Some people imagine seeing a famous person's face on a burnt piece of toast.

Online viewers and international media however were wondering if the embroidered crotch and rear of a sexy bodysuit branded by Louis Vuitton (LV) intentionally portrayed the late Black civil rights leader Rosa Parks' face.

And, if so, why did one of Thailand's most cherished celebrities, Lisa, wear and display the dazzling, no-pants outfit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Gala on May 5 in New York?

"People think the Louis Vuitton panties Lisa wore to the 2025 Met Gala have Rosa Parks' face on them," People magazine headlined its report.

"According to Vogue, artist Henry Taylor embroidered portraits into her [Lisa's] ensemble.

"Taylor was previously commissioned by Pharrell Williams -- Louis Vuitton’s men’s creative director and 2025 Met Gala co-chair -- to embroider the same design for the brand’s Men's Spring-Summer 2024 show," People reported.

After photos and questions about Lisa's outfit went viral online, Louis Vuitton said in a statement to The New York Times:

As Trump and friends claim control over the country, celebrating their war on migrants – “the enemy” of the moment, whom they’ve created and dehumanized – much of America writhes in shock and irony as it looks on.

The president who hates criminals is also our criminal-in-chief. But fortunately (for him), he’s above the law! Court rulings don’t apply to him – not when he’s busy keeping America safe from the boogeymen. To be an exalted leader, you need to keep a serious percentage of the populace in a state of simple-minded fear: The enemy are very, very bad people. They belong to gangs. They eat our pets. But I will protect you.

I’ll reopen Guantanamo. I’ll reopen Alcatraz. And the electorate can sigh with a sense of relief and safety. He’s bringing back our greatness – that is to say, our racist certainty. He’s recreating a country that real Americans can understand . . . one that’s like them.

In 1995, in Chicago, veterans of Silver Post No. 282 celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of their victory over Japan, marching around a catering hall wearing their old service caps, pins, ribbons and medals. My father sat at his table, silent. He did not wear his medals.

My parents, Gil and Gladys Palast, on their wedding day during World War II.

He had given them to me thirty years earlier. I can figure it exactly: March 8, 1965.

That day, like every other, we walked to the newsstand near the dime store to get the LA Times. He was a Times man. Never read the Examiner.

He looked at the headline: U.S. Marines had landed on the beach at Danang, Vietnam.