Properly Subversive/Sherman R. Frederick

The old Monty Python comedy troop used to occasionally bridge bits with the line: “And now for something completely different.”

Donald Trump needs a line like that. 

  • No taxes on tips. Check.
  • Cut federal spending. Check.
  • End DEI. Check.
  • Develop Gaza into beachfront property.

Wait, what? Repeat that last one again.

That doozie of an idea came out of a meeting yesterday at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Don’t know about you, dear Properly Subversives, but it’s gonna take a minute for me to fully digest that one. 

I thought the plan has always been a two-state solution with Palestinians and the Israelis living side-by-side in peace and harmony. Admittedly, it hasn’t worked out well for, oh, the last several thousand years. But, that was the plan, right?

Now I feel like I did 50 years ago when I first read Frank Herbert’s sci-fi novel “Dune.” 

Why is the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV now changing course to replace the Atreides family with the Harkonnen family on Arrakis? Didn’t they just do that. What’s the point of reversing now? Also, you can call “spice,” but it’s still worm poop, right? 

Now — instead of rebuilding Gaza and returning Palestinians to their desired homeland — which they lost because their crazy elected leaders in Hamas committed atrocities on innocent Israeli citizens on Oct. 7, 2023 — we’re going to scatter Palestinians to other countries, “own” Gaza as some kind of an American protectorate and develop it into something nice for the world.

Did anyone have that on their 2025 bingo card?

I didn’t. 

I will say two things. 

  1. The two-state thing hasn’t worked for 3,000 years. It’s not going to work in 2025 or anytime in our, or our children’s, lifetimes.
  2. This Riviera of the Middle East idea didn’t come out of the blue. Trump, Netanyahu, Saudi Arabia or somebody’s been thinking about what life might look like in the aftermath of Gaza’s destruction. Might it be this?

At this point, I’m not betting against Trump. I just need a minute.

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