Bobby Kennedy, Edith Hamilton and Aeschylus — wrongness compounded, perhaps deliberately

Bobby Kennedy's quotation of Aeschylus on the night of Martin Luther King Jr.'s death is probably one of his greatest known moments. It has flickered in and out of my mind through the years, and came to my starker attention recently. On the divine? It's bullshit, really, whether classical Greece's panoply or Aeschylus going henotheistic, on one hand, or Kennedy's Christian god on the other. 

Anyway, here it is:

"In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God."

First, per several sites, the Edith Hamilton translation is "despite," not "despair." Aeschylus is slightly less bullshitting than RFK with "despite." The original idea doubles down on "against our will." Bobby's sounds more poignant.

But, neither is true. In the Christian dual-omni god world of Bobby, this runs straight on into the problem of evil, Aeschylus' original or his misremembered version equally so. A god who can't teach wisdom outside of suicides or homicides is either less than omnipotent or less than omnibenevolent.

That said, of course, Hamilton herself mistranslated the last word. In Aeschylus, it's, to give the whole phrase, "the awful grace of the gods." 

For more on that, and other problems with Hamilton's translation, go here. I quote author Tara Wanda Milligan:

Even more than this, it is perhaps Hamilton’s reconstruction of Athenian tragedy, Americanized to focus on individual “poetically transmuted pain,” that appealed to Robert F. Kennedy. Hallett says that tragedy as conceived by Hamilton, a school headmistress with a master’s degree in classics but no further training, “focused intensely on individual suffering, democratic to the extent that it equalizes, and minimizes differences among, individuals who suffer and exult in their suffering.” A man of forty-two who had witnessed both his elder brothers die unexpectedly (Joe Jr. died while fighting in World War II), Kennedy needed solace and founded it in Hamilton’s writing. “Reading the Greeks was Jackie’s idea but something Bobby was ready for,” writes biographer Evan Thomas, adding that Aeschylus’s words “seemed to be speaking directly to Bobby.”

Going past that, the author notes that Hamilton misconstrues Hellenic Greek tragedy in general. Indeed, the Americanization is tragedy as individualized pathos.  

While that's not "the problem of evil," per se, and it's not "theodicy," it is A problem of evil of sorts.

Go back to World War II, where African-American combat deaths, or service short of death, received less valourous recognition than that of Whites. Or look at "Drunken" Ira Hayes. 

But, that issue goes yet deeper.

And I quote her again:

Donald Lateiner, professor of classics at Ohio Wesleyan, says that Hamilton’s notion of Athenian democracy, which overlooks its oppressive and hierarchical qualities and use of slavery, could serve as a sort of justification for American anti-communist foreign policy during the Cold War. That Robert, who served as his brother’s attorney general and enforcer during John’s presidency, found Hamilton’s depiction of Athens inspiring is unsurprising. “The Kennedys found in Edith Hamilton someone who presented a way of conceiving of American power that gave them some cache of the ancient democracy but also found justification for the use of power in the promotion of an ideology of democracy,” Lateiner says. Kennedy, therefore, was an ideal embodiment and champion of Hamilton’s conception of tragedy, and, conversely, Hamilton’s rendering of Athens provided a template for Kennedy to project his longing on—a nostalgia for an existence that never existed, a sort of left-leaning version of the #MAGA moment that took hold of Americans in 2016.

Ouch. Right?

Well, not so "ouch" for those who know the real RFK. That's especially true for those of us who know that in the 1968 primaries, he threw elbows at Clean Gene McCarthy, and also, in California, in a debate shortly before his assassination, opposed moving public housing in Los Angeles out to Orange County, while McCarthy supported it, noted in the link below. It's also not so ouch for those of us who know, re our current geopolitics, that he was a Zionist (contra overblown anti-Zionist conspiracy theories about Jack's assassination).

And, as far as the Kennedy take on Hamilton's take on Greece, another way of putting it is that "the grandeur of the Fourth Rome" was being covered with the lipstick of "the glory of Greece." 

In other words? American Exceptionalism 101. 

Coming up: One red heifer, without blemish or spot?

Per the old bible verse of Numbers 19:2, Texas Monthly reports on the efforts of rancher Jerome Urbanosky and businessman Byron Stinson to raise just such animals. (Another rancher, Ty Davenport, eventually has his ranch looped in by Stinson, too.)

Stinson is a Christian Zionist wingnut. Urbanosky raises Santa Gertrudis, which caught his eye. The story says Stinson also looked at Red Angus.

The entire red heifer and purification water ceremony is in Numbers 19. Not all Christian Zionists, nor all religiously Orthodox Jewish Zionists, believe the red heifer is necessary to build a new Jewish temple, but many do. Ultra-Orthodox Jews are generally non-Zionist to outrightly anti-Zionist; their stances on temple rebuilding in general as well as the need for a red heifer can vary. Within Christianity, amillennial Christians reject the entire temple rebuilding nuttery as being necessary to bring on the apocalypse. On paper, this is the official stance of Catholicism, Orthodoxy and all mainline Protestant churches. In reality, it's not so clearcut among the laity. Outside of this, postmillennialists also generally reject this.

Shockingly, the Monthly gets several things wrong.

First, technically, it's to enter the tabernacle, not the temple. TM quotes Numbers 19 as saying "temple"; it does not.

Second, as with much of Numbers, there's no indication on how much this was ideal and aspirational vs being real, per Yonathan Adler's book.

Third, it was for general purification as much as anything. 

Fourth, there's no indication in either the Tanakh or the New Testament that it was specifically necessary for temple rebuilding. (The Monthly does note that Orthodox Judaism sees a temple already ready to come down from heaven; see also Revelation.)

Yitshak Mamo, Stinson's partner, is an ultra-Zionist Israel settler colonialist nutter. 

Related to that, the Monthly does tell you this:

Urbanosky told me he knew “doodley-squat” about the significance of a perfect red heifer. “You’re Christian, and they’re Jews,” Urbanosky said to Stinson. “So when the Temple gets built, who’s coming back, Jesus or the Jewish messiah?”

There you go. Millennialist Christian Zionist and Zionist Jews figure that, like other things, they'll fight it out after they kill the last Palestinian and finish making Eretz Israel Arab-rein. 

Cut to the chase: Five heifers eventually got sent to Israel in 2022. (The Monthly and other sites have reported on this before.) Hamas noticed and mentioned this in early 2024, after the start of the current intifada; and the Israeli rabbi who will have the last word on making the purity call says they're not.)

According to [Rabbi Joshua] Wander, Rabbi Azria Ariel, of the Temple Institute, is the world’s foremost authority on the red heifer and perhaps the only figure with the clout to compel the necessary consensus to move forward. Ariel wasn’t satisfied with the candidates. “At this moment, it is unclear whether we have in our possession in Israel a red heifer that is verifiably kosher and suited for the ceremony,” Ariel announced in March 2025. One of the five heifers had sprouted white hairs; another grew warts on the side of its neck.

There you are. Perhaps it's a stall tactic, too. 

It gets nuttier from there, with Stinson eventually finding some Israeli Jews, including an alleged priest raised for this moment, to do a practice red heifer ceremony. From there, Stinson goes MAHA with the ashes.

The author does note that the claims of Stinson and his ilk are rejected by mainstream scholars, but not until the last paragraph. 

Texas Progressives talk votes, Iran

Off the Kuff did his initial analyses of the 2026 primaries. 

SocraticGadfly had a roundup of coverage, reaction and issues with the first week of war in Iran, including callouts both of most mainstream media coverage and of actions and reactions by much of both duopoly political parties.

Steve Toth and his backers surely can't handle the truth, per Dan Crenshaw, but Dan? You're not a reliable dispenser of it yourself. Have fun playing your tiny violin in the corner.

Calhoun County GOP officials, because of hand-counting ballots, missed a state-mandated reporting deadline. Will any local officials actually be subjected to the Class B misdemeanor penalty prescribed by law? The Secretary of State's office punted, saying any legal action is in the hands of the county attorney's discretion.

Will banning institutional investors from buying homes stop a housing shortage and price-gouging? Shock me that the dude representing Redfin doesn't think so. Shock me more that he presents institutional investors as fighting housing segregation. Pontificating aside, he's right that more housing is needed.

Daniel Lubetzky, the guy who created the Kind health and hiking bars, wants to improve healthcare. Like Mark Cuban, the guy he followed on Shark Tank, his ideas here are incrementalist and at the edges. Will they be achieved? If so, will they be better than nothing? Probably no on the first, maybe on the second, just like his liberal semi-Zionism that was behind Kind's founding. 

Forrest Wilder talked about the newest revival of "Will Texas Turn Blue?" G. Elliott Morris says "yes," at least on Luke 1 says Abort It Pander Bear James Talarico.

Were votes deliberately suppressed in Dallas County? Per The Barbed Wire, I would say no by local GOP offices, no by the Secretary of State, but maybe yes by Kenny Boy Paxton and the Texas Supremes. 

The Observer covers the weirdest primary upset — Dallas County DA John Creuzot's stunning loss. 

Neil at the Houston Democracy Project said with the primary over, we can get back to the more essential business of organizing ourselves and in his case, continuing to ignore Palestinians.

Audubon Texas is urging everyone to turn off all non-essential nighttime lighting on buildings and other structures from 11:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. each night, to help migratory birds get where they're going.

Bay Area Houston hopes you weren't fooled by phony endorsement slates.

Pete von der Haar has seen this movie before. 

The Lone Star Project reminds us that John Cornyn is in a bad position no matter what happens with the possible Trump endorsement.

Environmental news roundup — methane undercounts and more

If drillers and frackers in Colorado are undercounting methane emissions — and they are — you know that's the case in Tex-ass.

A unique aerial measurement campaign found that emission inventories compiled by energy companies to account for planet-warming methane leaking from equipment on Colorado oil and gas production sites undercount such pollutants by at least two times.

Yeah, I'm sure it is more than that here. 

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A Midland federal judge officially agreed with delisting the lesser prairie chicken in a lawsuit by environmental organizations against the pseudoenvironmental US Fish and Wildlife Service. 

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The decline in bird populations is accelerating:

Birds in the United States are not only declining, but they are declining faster, especially in areas with intensive agriculture, according to new research. Overall drops in bird population, measured from 1987 to 2021, were sharpest in warm and warming areas, suggesting that climate change may play a role.

Well, that would be my part of the world. The NYT piece, discussing a new study in Science, notes correlation is not causation, but still.

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US environmental scientists and others have independently released a report on the state of global nature health that Trump killed shortly after entering the White House. As for Team Trump claiming in response that killing this was strengthening Merikkka's edge in research and development? Er, why are so many European PhDs going back to Europe, then>

What's next from and vis-a-vis Iran?

First, in the week ahead, we will find out whether President Masoud Pezeshkian or Iran's remaining top mullahs, even without an appointed successor to Grand Ayatollah and Supreme Leader Khamenei, have more control in the country, I do believe. That's in part as divisions seem to be arising between Pezeshkian and other avenues of leadership over targeting the Gulf Arab states. More on that here.

That said, Iran can target "Israel abroad," just as Israel has targeted "Iran abroad" in Hezbullah. Or the US abroad, and I don't mean US military bases in Gulf Arab states. It's done this, or tried this, all before, per the Atlantic. 

THAT said, would Trump really be dumb enough to send ground troops to Iran, after mocking Shrub Bush for Iraq, and starting the Afghanistan withdrawal process? Dumb enough or egotistical enough, he would. At a minimum, he's not ruled it out.

THAT that said, per Palestine Will Be Free, is Trump stupid enough to listen to junior grade Zionist neocons in Merikkka and the likes of Naftali Bennett, if not Bibi himself, and do something to Turkey? Speaking of, how craven will Turkish President for Life it seems Reccep Tayyip Erdogan look over the next week? 

What will NOT be next is Trump admitting any responsibility for killing at least 175 kids in a school bombing. What will also NOT be next is capitalists discontinuing betting on war. What will also also NOT be next is Trump admitting Netanyahu played him for a fool rather than him refusing to green-light an Israel-only attack. (The Dissident's Internet Archive link to a WaPost piece kept resending me to "captchas" time after time and never would load.)

Finally, in all of this, don't forget about Noam Chomsky as militarist. 

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Monday Morning additions:

First, Trump continues to show this war is as Netanyahu's lackey, saying Bibi will be in on on peace talks. 

Second, we have dueling UN resolutions as the Israeli-US lackeys among Gulf Arab states laughably expect Russia to also pick their side. 

Third, and huge, Ms. Unchristian, Karoline Leavitt, refuses to rule out a military draft. 

Fourth, with Ayatollah Khamenei's son, Mojtaba, elected to succeed him, and beyond the smears of Graeme Wood at the Atlantic (not linking) aside, it appears that President Pezeshkian has been shunted aside as far as having final say-so on attacking Gulf Arab states and that will actually ramp up.

As for Wood? Dishonest over Russia-Ukraine four years ago. When I got to the graywall-paywall on his piece about Khamenei fils, I was barfing. Nat-Sec Nutsacks™ scribe. The dood IS a member of the CFR.

Corpus Christi burns through most its water as local officials fiddle

Inside Climate News reports on how Corpus Christi may face a water emergency within months and run out of water within a year. We're going to see if the anti-environmental Proposition 4 is worth the paper it was written on, or if it's even ready to be implemented. The story notes that a full-scale version of the problem will affect refineries that make the jet fuel for Texas' airports.

How bad? Bad:

Depletion of this region’s reservoirs would lead to “controlled depression” for the local economy, “mass unemployment” and “industrial total shutdown,” according to a two-page report by Don Roach, former assistant general manager of the San Patricio Municipal Water District, which supplies many of the region’s large industrial water users.

He's not the only voice saying this. Here's the guy who used to run the port, and before that ran the port at Long Beach, California:

“The impacts are going to be felt tremendously through the state, if not internationally,” said Sean Strawbridge, former CEO of the Port of Corpus Christi Authority, the nation’s top port for crude oil exports, in a 40-minute interview Thursday. “This should be no surprise to anybody. We were talking about this over a decade ago.”

Oh, he agrees with Roach. 

That said, per the old saying, Corpus Christi's problem is just the tip of the Texas iceberg:

“This waiting disaster is under the radar for the rest of the state,” said Roach, who worked 20 years at the water district and retired in 2014. “We hear nothing from the Texas politicians about the seriousness of the situation or any state plan to mitigate it.”

Ouch. 

Speaking of? Corpus' mayor and city manager both refused to talk to Inside Climate News. Their public information manager had an emailed statement about "five year drought" that itself refused to admit that climate change is part of that drought.

That city manager, Peter Zanoni, has been there since 2019, before the five-year drought, and apparently like an ostrich with his head in the sand, per a former city staffer:

James Dodson, a former director of Corpus Christi’s water department who retired this year as a private consultant and was involved in several of those projects, disagreed. He said residents and officials “are crazy not to be panicking.” 

“It’s the very worst scenario that I’ve ever seen,” said Dodson, who oversaw a historic expansion of Corpus Christi’s water supply in the 1990s. “It’s going to be an economic disaster.”

Speaking of the anti-environmental Prop 4? This, also from Dodson:

For years, he said, the city dismissed repeated opportunities to develop groundwater import projects as it maintained a singular and fruitless focus on desalination. That includes projects that the city only recently scrambled to get started. Dodson doubted any will materialize in time.

The story notes elsewhere that pursing desal nearly wrecked Corpus Christi financially.

It's not just the likes of Zanoni who are fiddling while Corpus burns (through its water). Over to you, Gov. Strangeabbott:

A spokesperson for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Andrew Mahaleris, didn’t address specific comments about an impending water catastrophe or disruption of the state economy. In an emailed statement, he said: “Corpus Christi is an important economic driver not only for Texas but also the nation. The State of Texas has made significant investments into ensuring the Corpus Christi area has the water resources it needs to serve citizens and industry alike.” He added that the governor “will continue working with the legislature to ensure Texans have a safe, reliable water supply for the next fifty years.”

You're full of shit. 

Read the whole thing. You should be getting more panicky yourself. (All of the above is just from the first half of the piece.)

The background to all of this is the city cutting blank water supply checks to the refineries, who remain immune from most emergency-declaration water throttling, whenever that might happen, and have done nothing in the way of prep on their own, like private desal plants.