As is well known, the Jews control the weather. (Some people say that the Rothschild family, in particular, does, but this is a matter of debate. In any case, the Rothschilds are Jews.) In Iran, Brigadier General Gholam Reza Jalali said, “Israel and another country in the region have joint teams which work to ensure clouds entering Iranian skies are unable to release rain.”

Israel and another country in the region? Has Jordan gone Jewish or something?

“On top of that,” the general continued, “we are facing the issue of cloud and snow theft.”

The head of Iran’s meteorological service, Ahad Vazife, took a big risk. He said the general “probably has documents of which I am not aware” — a safe start — “but on the basis of meteorological knowledge, it is not possible for a country to steal snow or clouds.”

D’oh! Evin Prison has plenty of cells for Iranians who talk like that, and I hope that Mr. Vazife has managed to stay out.

(For a report on this matter, go here.)

• I knew about the Nazi running for Congress in Illinois — he is the Republican nominee. I didn’t know about this other Nazi running in California. He, too, is an “R.” What’s more, Congressman Steve King and others keep retweeting Nazis.

Doesn’t it seem like it’s springtime for Hitler, sort of? Perhaps Israel could withhold rain, nipping this spring in the bud . . .

• Here is a great piece by Jason Horowitz in the New York Times, about an Italian town, Macerata. At the same time, the piece is about Italy, Europe, and beyond. In it, I learned about a political movement, a party, I had never heard of: CasaPound. It is neo-fascist. Named after the poet Ezra? Yes.

(Wikipedia tells us, here.)

• Vladimir Putin’s Russia was none too happy with Montenegro, the little Balkan country, for wanting to join NATO. Here is a report that is both shocking and not: “Russian Military Spies Backed Attempt to Assassinate Leader of Montenegro.” Not a paragraph, not a sentence, is unbelievable.

(You can see why Montenegrins would want to join NATO, right?)

• Lately, I’ve recorded a couple of Jaywalking podcasts, with more soon to come. Jaywalking is like an audio version of Impromptus, with added touches such as music. If you care to check it out, try this page. And if you’d like to write me, try [email protected].

• Last week, President Trump tweeted, “If not for me, we would now be at War with North Korea!” Is that true? If so, it is beyond fortunate that we have him.

• At his rally in Montana, Trump said, “The new platform of the Democrat party — and, by the way, I call it the ‘Democrat party.’ It sounds better rhetorically, you know. I wrote bestsellers, I guess I speak well.”

Since I began writing Impromptus in 2001, I have addressed this issue many times: “Democrat party,” I mean, versus “Democratic party.” In his 1976 vice-presidential debate with Walter Mondale, Bob Dole referred to “Democrat wars” (meaning the world wars, Korea, and Vietnam). George W. Bush would use “Democrat” as an adjective from time to time, when in the mood. So would Mitt Romney. (Does he still?)

People get confused, I think, because “Republican” is both a noun and an adjective: A person is a Republican, and he belongs to the Republican party. “Democrat,” by contrast, is a noun: John Smith is a Democrat. “Democratic” is an adjective.

“Fun ’n’ games,” as Bill Buckley would occasionally say . . .

• Something occurred to me the other day, not for the first time: Just as you can tell whether someone is really pro-abortion, instead of “pro-choice,” you can tell whether someone is really anti-immigration, instead of anti–illegal immigration.

• While I’m on the subject: I keep seeing something on the Internet. It is a map of the United States, with these words written on it: “F*** off, we’re full.” (No asterisks.) According to news reports, President Trump has used the words “We’re full,” too, in discussions of immigration.

At his rallies, people are wearing a T-shirt with the words written on it (including the “F*** off”).

Is this true? Is America full? Or are the people who talk this way full of it? Does immigration end here and now, in 2018? Will the country prosper because of this end? Is there any room for refugees, as there has always been in our land, from sea to shining sea?

Momentous issues, however you come down on them.

• A news bulletin: “President Donald Trump’s resort, Mar-a-Lago, filed a request to the Department of Labor for 61 additional visas for foreign servers and cooks.” The whole article is interesting, including Trump’s claim that “getting help in Palm Beach during the season is almost impossible.”

In 2016, the New York Times reported the following about Mar-a-Lago:

Since 2010, nearly 300 United States residents have applied or been referred for jobs as waiters, waitresses, cooks and housekeepers there. But according to federal records, only 17 have been hired.
In all but a handful of cases, Mar-a-Lago sought to fill the jobs with hundreds of foreign guest workers from Romania and other countries.

• Another article begins, “Waiting is so yesterday.” Yeah? The article continues, “Shoppers increasingly want their orders to arrive at their doorsteps as soon as they click a button, whether it’s a hot meal, groceries or a sofa.” The market has been responding to them.

Reading this article, I marveled, once more, at American ingenuity, and human ingenuity. When people want a better mousetrap — they get one.

(But can’t my cell reception be better?)

• Ed Schultz, the political talk-show host, has died. He was sometimes on the left, sometimes on the right — he swung, throughout his career. He spent his last few years on RT, the Russian state-television network.

An obit provided an example of the “moral equivalence” (as we used to call it) among Putin defenders in America. You may remember Donald Trump as a candidate for the GOP nomination.

Joe Scarborough pressed him on Putin’s killing of political opponents. Trump answered, “Well, I think our country does plenty of killing also.”

After the inauguration in 2017, Bill O’Reilly pressed the new president on the same thing. He answered, “There are a lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers. What, you think our country’s so innocent?”

Earlier this year, Jamie Weinstein had Ed Schultz as a podcast guest, here. The obit I linked to above cited this podcast. Schultz had once described Putin’s human-rights record as “nasty.” And now? “I think the United States has a nasty human-rights record,” he said. “I do think that every superpower on the globe has a very poor record on human rights.”

You see the pattern. Sad, and outrageous.

• In Poland, Irena Szewinska has died. She was a great athlete, a sprinter and long jumper. Won a slew of medals, set a slew of world records. I loved this line from an obit: She “had a devastating kick, or last burst of speed, that sometimes let her snatch victory by a stride.”

I wish that could be said of me. I have no wheels at all (not even a car, living as I do in Manhattan!).

By the way, Szewinska was Jewish, which made some proud and some . . . well, hateful. When she died, there was a burst — a last burst? — of Jew-hating invective against her.

I doubt she would have been surprised.

• A couple of weeks ago, I had a Japan journal, in two parts (here and here). Want to publish just a dollop of mail here.

A lady writes,

My family took me to Japan many years ago and I loved it — incredibly tidy and clean and very kind to visitors. I managed to get myself lost and stopped at a fire station to ask for directions. They spoke English well, were fascinated by my Southern accent, and gifted me with a maneki-neko to bring me good luck on my travels. That little china cat still sits in a bookcase in my den.

In that journal of mine, I mentioned baseball, and in particular the sight of a mother playing catch with her son, with the father eventually joining them.

A reader writes,

Families make baseball players. Coaches make football players. You make yourself into a basketball player. . . .
Grandson #3 is on the staff at a local baseball camp, and is amazed at what kids don’t know. I explained to him that not everybody has the advantage of brothers, parents, grandparents, who will throw a ball to you as soon as you can stand up. Teaches you to get along with siblings too, because you can’t do much baseball by yourself. Compromise.
My sisters both learned to hit and throw. I learned to sing every male part in The Sound of Music. Compromise.

I loved that.

• Dwane Casey is the new coach of the Detroit Pistons. Last season, he won NBA Coach of the Year honors, coaching the Toronto Raptors. They fired him anyway. And Detroit, my team, snapped him up.

In the Detroit News, he was quoted on basketball players and their game: “They’re going to make mistakes. It’s a mistake game. What you want to do is try to minimize those mistakes and help the team win. Play through the mistakes and learn from them.”

Wise.

• A little language? Outside an airport, I saw a sign, whose wording made me smile: “Pet Relief Area.” What a fine, delicate way of putting it.

• A little music? Okay, but how about some ballet, coupled with music, even dominated by music (in my posts)? For Harlequinade, go here. For Romeo and Juliet, go here. And for Don Quixote, go here.

• Feel like a movie? In 2004, a lot of us loved The Incredibles, the animated flick (in more senses than one). It was superb as a movie, plain and simple, but politics also came into play: Conservatives tended to love the film, the Left, not so much. National Review talked about this; so did The Nation, as I recall.

Anyway, Incredibles 2 is out, 14 years later. I don’t want to say anything political. I merely want to mention this: A baby with superpowers, duking it out with a raccoon? America truly is great, y’all.

Thanks and see you.