No Caesars, &c.

On the new ‘patriot passport’; the FBI director; a Ronette; and more

Néron au milieu d’un festin ordonnant la mort d’Agrippine, by Noël Coypel (Wikimedia Commons)

Like others, I have written a lot about Caesarism in our time. In February, for example, I had a piece titled “Hail, Caesar? Hell, No.” It would be nice to be done with the subject. But the subject is not done with us, so to speak.

What if a Democratic president were putting his image in our passports? What if another Republican president were doing the same?

“What if,” we keep saying—rightly.

(“Patriot passport” is a further offense, in my judgment. Also, how about “State Department” or “U.S. State Department” rather than “Trump State Department”?)

***

In that “Hail, Caesar?” piece, I wrote the following:

Earlier this week, Trump announced that he would close the Kennedy Center for two years for “renovation.” In other news—related—he is building an arch: a triumphal arch, to be placed near the entrance of Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac from the Lincoln Memorial. People are calling this the “Arc de Trump” (get it?)

In October, Ed O’Keefe of CBS News asked the president, “Who’s it for?” Trump pointed to himself and answered, “Me.”

This is not the American way—unless the American people want it to be so. May the republican spirit (note the small “r”) make a comeback.

Last week, the interior secretary was on Fox News, or Fox Business, talking about the arch. The secretary is Doug Burgum—who said, “Virtually every Western capital in the world has an arch of some sort. This one that’s proposed would be the equivalent or even better than the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.”

I thought of something we conservatives said for years and years: “We don’t have to be like Europe, you know. America is different.”

This was part of our hymnal, you could say. (William F. Buckley Jr. once published a collection called “A Hymnal: The Controversial Arts.”)

***

Yesterday, I was looking at Kash Patel, the FBI director, talking about the bureau’s investigation into a former FBI director, James Comey. Patel looked to me like a man trying to save his job—trying to stay in the good graces of Donald Trump.

Beware a public servant who would do anything to please, or appease, the boss and keep his job. Such people are not public servants at all.

***

Ephraim Mirvis—Sir Ephraim Mirvis—is the chief rabbi in Britain. I wanted to share the statement he made yesterday:

Following the antisemitic stabbing of two Jewish people on the streets of Golders Green this morning, words of condemnation are no longer sufficient. This must be a moment that demands meaningful action from every institution, every community, every leader, and every decent person in our country. This is a hatred that we must face down together.

***

A report from the Associated Press is headed, “Baby on board: Paramedics help passenger give birth just before Delta flight lands.” I like this line, from the reporter Mark Thiessen: “Baby Brielle Renee Blair came in about two weeks ahead of schedule; the plane, about 20 minutes.”

***

“Nedra Talley Ross, Last Surviving Member of the Ronettes, Dies at 80.” That is the headline over an obit by Clay Risen in the New York Times. (I did a podcast with Clay in February: “Writer of Lives.”) Here is a line from this latest obit: “The Ronettes never officially reunited onstage or in the studio, but they did make several courtroom appearances.”

Nicely turned.

***

Give you a shot of music? (Apart from the Ronettes, I mean?) Here is my review of a concert by the New York Philharmonic. On the podium: Gustavo Dudamel. At the piano: Evgeny Kissin. On the program: Mussorgsky, Scriabin, and Stravinsky.

By the way, I sometimes see the spelling “Musorgsky” (though I grew up with “Mussorgsky”). Maybe some linguist out there can tell me why one or the other is preferable. (I’m at mail@jaynordlinger.com.)

***

Often, I end my column with something on the light side. Not today. Fred Fransen sent me the obituary of his aunt. Fred is a friend of mine and the president of Amerion College, in Huntington, W.V. I will quote the obit, at some length:

Our dear mother and Oma, Martha Fransen (born Rempel), died peacefully after a brief illness at Marotta Family Hospital in St. Catharines on February 15, 2026, at the age of 98, surrounded by her family.

St. Catharines is in Ontario.

Martha Rempel was born on December 13, 1927, in the Russian Mennonite village of Gruenfeld, South Russia, in the Soviet Union. Her parents were Jakob A. and Sophie Rempel (née Sudermann). Her father was a Mennonite pastor, the Aeltester of the Baratov settlement, which had a number of Mennonite villages. He had studied and worked his way up from extreme poverty …

Pastor Rempel ran afoul of the Soviet authorities, as a pastor (a genuine one) would.

Martha was the youngest of six children. A seventh child died of starvation as an infant. It was the time of severe anti-Christian persecution by the Communist regime in the Soviet Union.

In September 1929, Martha’s family was forced out of their home, becoming homeless … Two months later, when the family had gone to Moscow hoping to emigrate, her father was taken away at night by the OGPU (secret police) and was imprisoned, beaten, and tortured for eight months, and then exiled to the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea …

Martha was not yet two years old. She and her mother (who was newly pregnant) and siblings were sent to the village of Zentral, near Moscow, where they lived for the next four years, moving from place to place since they were homeless and had nothing to eat. Then they were able to move to the Mennonite village of Einlage in the Chortitza region.

Meanwhile their father had been exiled to various concentration camps, attempted a few escapes, one time jumping a prisoners’ train overnight during January in Siberia, was always recaptured, and was eventually shot and killed on Stalin’s orders.

By the grace of God, Martha and her mother and siblings were able to survive these experiences …

What some people endure. What some people endure.

Also: to hell with dictatorships.