News Vérité

The French stormed the Bastille, a notorious prison, on this day — July 14– in 1789. A tumultuous turn of events ensued, starting with the execution of King Louis XVI. Events began swirling out of control as ideas and politics kept taking increasingly bizarre twists until Napoleon came along to restore order. In short, the French Revolution did not lead to freedom, as our July 4th did. Quite the contrary, after years of sending their political opponents — and the public at large — to the guillotine, the French ended up with an Emperor. Napoleon, indeed, had quite the run, and his legacy carried on long after his death. There was even a Napoleon III. The French monarchy was restored as well for some time. At any rate, France celebrated Bastille Day this year with a huge military parade (taking a lesson from Trump, are they?) down the Champs-Élysées, which ends at the Arc de Triomphe, a monument Napoleon commissioned to honor his military victories. (Interestingly, Trump is now copying the idea for a similar arc in D.C. Donald Bonaparte?) I was in Paris for the 200th Bastille Day in 1989. Doubtful I can live long enough for No. 250,

President Trump vowed the destruction of Iran if he were to die at their assassins’ hands, so what if it’s shown that Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina were an Iranian victim? After all, during the staged funeral procession for the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei this past week, (paid) mourners toted placards (top image) calling for Graham’s death. Then today, after he suddenly died from what has been unofficially termed an aortic rupture, Iranian State Media cheered his demise. A TV anchor told Iranians that Graham had been “sent to hell.” I’ve seen enough TV crime dramas to know that one way to get rid of someone is to make their death look like it came from natural causes. There had better be a thorough autopsy of the late senator’s body to determine the exact cause. Graham was in Ukraine on Friday, the day before his death, so it appears more likely that the Russians would have had some access to the senator, perhaps putting something in the food he ate or the tea or coffee he consumed. It’s also possible that an Iranian stooge in Kyiv might have done the same (though Russia is famous for concoctions that kill its

Representative Ro Khanna (D.-Calif.) is in the news, making a big issue out of his treatment during a visit to an occupied — but abandoned — West Bank settlement. He claims he was detained by settlers and harassed by the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces). The IDF denies the charge. According to Khanna, his visit to Khirbet Zanuta was interrupted by settlers who detained him, while masked men with guns then moved in, whom evidently the Congressman believed to be IDF. A photographer traveling with the Californian verified the incident. Khanna says the only thing that got him and his crew extricated was a call to the U.S. Embassy and the arrival of local police to break things up. “If this can happen to an American member of Congress, imagine what life is like for Palestinians who have no smartphones, no security, and no national platform,” Khanna told supporters. (He’s eyeing a 2028 presidential bid.) The IDF has a different version. “Upon receiving the report [from the Embassy], IDF troops were dispatched to the scene, quickly dispersed the Israeli civilians, and reopened the blocked road,” the military said in a statement. “The IDF soldiers operating in the area did not take