Read this! That’s an order!

There was immense curiosity and speculation from the public and media in anticipation of the recent meeting between President Trump and Mayor-elect Mamdani, and the post-mortem reviews are keeping the story on the front burners of our intermittently empty, clueless lives.

The media called up every news analyst, political strategist, academician, pollster, psychic, lip-reader, body-language interpreter and talk-show chatterer in their mothballed fleet to instruct us what to conclude and how to prepare for the fallout of this momentous drama, which likely got more viewers than the first moon landing.

All our collective palpitating hearts and sweaty palms as we sat in the bedroom bleachers to watch a nothingburger. We were like fans of sport team rivals or buddies of schoolyard combatants egging them on, smacking our lips in loyal hopes of our adversary’s brain bleed.

Neither side would have gained from gladiatorial poses, and they both knew it. The bonhomie was staged. It was a semi-improvised thespian exercise. It was an investment in future credibility when the inevitable clashes happen. 

There was more vinegar than honey in their conciliatory pose, but it was cunningly disguised by reciprocal design.

Both sides will trot out footage of the Oval Office bonding, with voice-overs to the effect of “I had an open mind. I didn’t embarrass him. I emphasized partnership and conciliation for the sake of all New Yorkers, and expressed optimism for putting aside our differences, and now he’s spoiling the deal.”

The greatest danger to our freedom is not the spreading of militant, unorthodox notions about governance and the false idols of tradition and history, but the malleability of a population rendered pathetically gullible by divestiture of ability and desire to think.

As long as slogans encapsulate our nation’s ideals, we’re home free. “Equal rights for all” is a narcotics-strength duller of the pain from awakening self-disillusionment. It’s codified even in local laws.

It is illegal in New York City for co-op boards to reject an applicant on account of race, ethnicity, national origin, etc. However, the law also does not require the co-op board to give any reason for denying an applicant who has completely and in all respects satisfied their stated criteria for acceptance.

That’s not a loophole. It’s a blank check for mocking and savaging the “equality” bromide.

Here’s a true story. It’s not an outlier. Not an anomaly. It’s typical of what happens all the time and is obviously tolerated, or else there would be an uproar, presumably, including legislators.

An NYPD supervisor, whose heroic actions as a street cop in high-crime neighborhoods were reported in the tabloids, who never got a complaint, and who waited his turn for three hours during the gasoline shortage when he could have jumped the queue by flashing his badge, but didn't, because he didn’t think it  would be right, was rejected by a co-op board in a gated community.

Everything was hunky dory except his Caribbean skin. It’s rumored this co-op board is “politically connected,” and we know this is a saving grace for the NIMBY community, which includes a fair share of professed “progressives.”

Will the City Council and the new mayor check out this real estate kink and make corrections as necessary? And also look into the harassment of worshipers at the Park East Synagogue recently. Let's globalize indignation. 

Historically in Europe and elsewhere, nothing has for so ageless a continuum, sparked such  ungovernable wrath as the temerity of Jews unapologetically fighting for their lives. Let's not revive the archives. 

In the federal Supremacy Theater, we have a frenetically cluttered stage at the moment. 

There’s the resignation of Marjorie Taylor Greene after serving (herself) in Congress for five years, in which her net worth increased from a reported estimate of $700,000 to around $32 million as she indulged in the bi-partisan sport of insider trading. And there are the Epstein files, which are being dug up and combed through in a crusade to find dirt on ideological opponents. 

What other purpose is served? Is it because the moral sensibilities of the nation have been violated? Is it because our national compass has been bent? Is it to forestall the sun from setting on the eve of destruction that’s been descending since the ‘60s?

Hah!

Like Kim Philby and Sir Anthony Blunt, two upper-class British “pillars of society,” straight out of Central Casting whose pristine patriotism was taken for granted, but who turned out to be harboring dark secrets that betrayed their nation, the Epstein figures, still cloaked in secrecy, are likely to also be clandestine slobs, stateless at heart.

If their piggery is of a non-criminal sexual nature and doesn’t compromise national security (whatever that means these days), the scandal should be allowed to die the natural death of obscurity.

Such antics have befitted the rankings of the privileged sectors of societies since long before the romps of England’s King Charles II in the 17th century. Many of today’s modern royalty are his descendants, and their coats of arms were sewn on their ancestor’s noble bedsheets.

Scandals of a prurient nature repeat themselves in perpetual, slightly modified iterations, and will arise no matter our half-hearted legislations and token renunciations. They are staples of advanced civilizations.

They are our bread, albeit not whole wheat.

The public’s attention span is much shorter, and our depth of absorption far shallower, for authentic “existential threats,” such as the scrupulously rationalized, hydra-headed movement to disassemble the ancient concept of nationhood.

Non-citizens should not be allowed to vote in national elections. Neither should the word “immigrant” be used to categorize any person who is voluntarily, by any means, situated in the country. If a tourist is nine months pregnant and is visiting the country on a three-month tourist visa, should their child, and extended family, be automatically a citizen by birthright extension?

The Supreme Court will likely rule. In any case, legal residency should not, and is not, limited to citizens.

As a nation confident in our values and secure in our destiny, we should not fear or resist redefinitions of who is an American, nor should we deny that vibrant culture is in a perpetual state of emerging.

But what about questioning authority? It’s one of those things that sometimes we cannot live with, and sometimes not live without. Here’s one of the former.

Several members of Congress, citing the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), reminded members of the military in active service that they must refuse to carry out illegal orders. They were channeling  the original Nuremberg trial of the major Nazi war criminals after World War II,  where a common defense was that they had no choice and were not responsible for atrocities, because they were bound within the chain of command by the official and therefore lawful orders of the government.

Allies of those members of Congress and their opponents, who regard absolute military discipline and obedience as sacrosanct, both cite the Constitution for vindication. Secular scripture is a source cited in every rogue's footnote.

Taken to its extreme, the Congress members' admonishment could mean that any soldier who didn't want to do anything for any reason, could refuse and hide behind even a fabricated pretext. Without cohesion, there is anarchy. 

Yet the case of the late Lieutenant William Calley and the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War does not allow us to dismiss individual responsibility altogether. It should also be noted that Calley was court-martialed and sentenced to life imprisonment, but his punishment was ludicrously reduced, as has since become commonplace in civilian courts.

As even pacifists engage in the seasonal bombardment of commercialization and become captives of their purchasing power, let our awareness of the holidays and our celebration of each other be a gift. A present, that is; not in the meaning of the German word "gift" (poison).