The Desecration of the House (plus a Prescript on Trump's 'Iran Deal')
"Either this nation shall kill racism, or racism shall kill this nation." (S. Jonas, August 2018)
See the Supreme Court decision killing the Voting Rights Act, April 27, 2026;
& see State Sen. Morris(R) LA, toBlack voting rights supporters: "Shut up, Boy!"
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"How do you spell ICE in German? GESTAPO." (S. Jonas, July 2025)
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"First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist.
"Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.
"Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
"Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me." Pastor Martin Niemoller (c. 1946)
Pre-script: A Comment on the "Iran Deal" that Trump has signed.
As just about everyone is saying, even including far-right wing Republicans like Ted Cruz the "Iran Deal" is a gigantic giveaway to the Iranian government and defeat for Trump (and legitimate U.S. interests --- there are some). What can explain it?
Well, in my mind, not simply the inflation at home, gas prices way up, and certainly not the damage to the global economy (about which Trump cares not one whit). Or "Epstein" (one way or another). I can think of only one thing that would make Trump make the seemingly complete turnaround that he has undergone in the last 72 hours or so: that the Iranians have blackmailed him with some truly damning evidence about personal behaviors, on tape. We shall of course see over time (likely a good bit of time) whether this surmise is on point, but I can't think of anything else. This man is driven by personal interest on every single issue. And if someone comes after the parts of his reputation that matter to him, as well as carrying major poltical risks, well then, oh my!
And, oh yes. Unless Trump double crosses Iran again, as he did the first time (a la the Japanese at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941) by launching a surprise attack on February 28, 2026, while negotiations were underway, this deal virtually guarantees that the Iranian Right-Wing will stay in power indefinitely, regardless of what the will of the majority of the people might be.
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And now to the substance of this column: a "Commentary on the UFC 'Cage Match' held on The United States' White House Lawn on June 14, 2026."
"The Consecration of the House"(German: Die Weihe des Hauses) is an orchestral work by Ludwig van Beethoven, his Opus 124, composed in September 1822. It was commissioned by Carl Friedrich Hensler, the Director of Vienna's new Theater in der Josefstadt, and was first performed at the theatre's opening on October 3, 1822. It was the first work Beethoven wrote after his close studying of the works of J. S. Bach and G.F. Haendel, and bears their influence.
"TheConsecration of the House "overture was also the first item on the program at Beethoven's 7 May 1824 concert at Vienna's Theater am Kärntnertor, where the world premiere of his 9th Symphony took place.*"
While of course, even if he were still alive, Beethoven, who was always on the look-out to getting paid for his compositions, would not compose a concert overture entitled [the] "Desecration of the House." Just read the text of the Ode to Joy which is introduced in the fourth movement of his famous 9th Symphony.**
But "to desecrate" is what the Trump/P2025 White House symbolically stands for --- first and foremost the President and the Presidency as the one, controlling, Branch of a uni-partite Government, regardless of the tri-partite structure established in the Constitution. That is, as I call it, TrumpRepubloFascism** --- is exactly what Trump, the Republican Party (which has played a major role in allowing the desecration to occur), and perhaps most importantly, P2025, did in creating the Ultimate Fighting Championship mixed martial arts cage matches. (For short, the "UFC.") In brief, this reference is all that is needed to describe the event: Click Here.)
But not all (to put it mildly) observers have seen it in a favorable light. For a description from a different perspective, we can go, for example, to a former Republican Stalwart, Bill Kristol (whom in the past I have criticized roundly, as on the old BuzzFlash [September 29, 2008, no longer available on-line --- I do have the text] as noted On Facebook, McGill Media(6-15-26):
"Bill Kristol, editor at large of The Bulwark and a prominent conservative voice against Trump, did not mince words when sizing up the UFC Freedom 250 event on the White House South Lawn. In a pointed assessment, Kristol called the spectacle 'vulgar,' 'violent,' 'commercial,' 'grandiose,' and 'tacky', a venue, he argued, that dishonors a place once held in national reverence. For Kristol, the event is not an anomaly but a portrait: a $60-million [emphasis added] cage fight on hallowed ground that captures, in his words, the essence of Donald Trump."
It is remarkable how much I am now in agreement with Bill, given how roundly I have in the past criticized him in print, going back to the 1990s. Among other things, that clearly indicates how far most of the Republican Party has moved to the Right, under Trump, but most especially under Stephen Miller in the White House and Russell Vought, formerly of P2025 and, under Trump.
The White House itself, obviously the residence of the President and the location of a number of important Executive Branch offices, has also been traditionally known as "The People's House." Which appellation can be interpreted to mean that the President-of-the-Time simply resides there, with some offices for his (her) staff. (Many more offices are now housed across the street in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which formerly housed the Sate, War, and Navy Departments. [Yes, Mr. Hegseth, your department indeed was previously known as the War Department.])
But, and it's a big BUT, that the White House is also known as "The People's House" means that whichever President is in office at a given time does not own it and cannot, by tradition at least, use it for any purpose other than the purposes of the powers granted to the Executive Branch of the Government by Article II of the Constitution. And so, from the non-Republican-Trump-Trumpist-P2025 perspective, among other things the White House stands for the central governing principle of the Constitution: the Separation of Powers. And, as I have written numbers of times on these pages, that Central Principle of the Constitution is precisely what P2025, and its-present-implementation-in-fact TrumpRepubloFascism,** are determined to destroy.
And this is where the Cage-Match-on-the-White-House-Lawn and its pre- and post-fight extensions into the White House come in symbolically. Of course the cage itself, and the accompanying (very expensive) seats were built on the South Lawn without getting even a bye-your-leave from the government agency that owns the building, the (believe it or not) National Park Service. Then significant parts of the interior space (including even the Oval Office) were used as changing, pre-fight warm-up, and post-fight cool-down areas for the fighters, who then passed through the halls in various stages of undress. To say nothing of the fights themselves. They are either really vicious or staged to look vicious (which difference does matter to the fighters, or, possibly, "fighters," but not to the spectators).
And so, how is this all a "Desecration of the House?" Well, it is only desecration to those of us --- that is a significant proportion of the U.S. people --- who believe that such an event is a use well beyond what is and has been intended for the White House. But further, observers such as I who believe that the Principle of Government and Governing which is at the center of U.S. Constitutional government is the Separation of Powers. And that the President, representing one of the three co-equal branches of the Government, does not own the White House. He/she only lives and works there, in cooperation with the other two branches.
The Principle of the Separation of Powers is illustrated by the fact that the three principal powers of any government --- the executive, the legislative, and the judicial --- are each defined and described in a separate Article, beginning with the very first one that defines the Legislative Branch. This is the central principle of U.S. government that P2025 and the TrumpRepubloFascists are determined to destroy --- replacing it with an all-powerful Presidency which, in other historical times has been referred to as "Fascist Dictatorship.**" The White House, in addition to its practical purposes and functions, is a symbol of the central element of the Constitution --- the Separation of Powers, and it has one function to house and support the Executive Branch and its functions.
By turning the White House over to an entirely different function, that is of a succession of fights between two men (in this case with few rules --- that fits into the TrumpP2025 paradigm perfectly), plus allowing them to roam freely through its rooms and hallways before and after their bouts, creates three hours of Desecration of the House, as defined: "the action of damaging or showing no respect towards something holy or very much respected."
Which of course exactly what P2025 is doing and intends to do further in the gradual destruction of U.S. Constitutional government. Symbolically, and practically, that destruction was begun by the Attack of the DOGE on the Civil Service Act of 1883, as amended, (as various elements of the Federal government were forced to symbolically walk across the Bridge of Sighs). Under Trump it has continued on apace. And unless the Democrats win back control of at least the House of Representatives in the 2026 elections, that destruction of the central element of U.S. Constitutional Democracy --- once again the Separation of Powers --- will continue on apace.
In the meantime, if the TrumpRepubloFascists succeed in the rigging of the 2026 elections which they will apparently need to do if they are to retain control of the House (if not also the Senate as well), it appears to be clear that U.S. Constitutional Government will be destroyed for the foreseeable future. That is, symbolically, The Desecration of the House, so well symbolized by the actual desecration of the White House, by the hysterically mis-named UFC_Freedom_250 event.
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*As a student at the Tanglewood (MA.) Music Festival in the summer of 1956, I was fortunate enough to have sung in the chorus for Beethoven's 9th symphony, under the musical direction of Leonard Bernstein. And yes, I vividly remember that experience down to this very day.
**On the issue of what "fascism" is, here is the definition that I use: "There is a single, all-powerful executive branch of government, in service of an industrial/financial/sales-and-marketing/communications ruling class, that controls, for the most part, the functions of production, distribution, finance, and exchange. There is no separation of the principal governmental powers: executive, legislative, and judicial. They are all held by the Executive branch. There is no independent judiciary/civil/criminal/justice system. There are no independent media. There is a single national ideology, based on some combination of racism, misogyny, religious bigotry, authoritarianism, homophobia, and xenophobia. There is a political party supporting the movement. There is a state propaganda machine using the big and little lie techniques. There may be a full-blown dictatorship, a charismatic leader, engagement in foreign wars, and the use of the mob/private armies to enforce governmental control."
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Post-script: Jimmy Kimmel had a different way to "celebrate" Trump's birthday: Click Here