Spidey Smashes Box Office Records While Fighting Evil

Spider-Man Brave New Day is the best movie about your favorite spider, and it is no wonder it is squashing box office records.  Why is it the best?  Well, we can start with Peter Parker (Tom Holland, who in my view is the best actor to ever portray our friend Peter).  The old Peter Parker was struggling to make it as a Pizza delivery boy and photographer for Adolf Hitler (disguised as newspaper editor J. Jonah Jameson, of course). There was just too much time devoted to makin Peter's life miserable, and it was just not as exciting as the moviemakers assumed.  Who is actually that interested in selling pizzas and getting yelled at by crabby customers and unreasonable dictator bosses?  

Spidey BND has plenty of more challenging problems due to being worn down by super-villains, while living in a world that has all but forgotten the existence of Peter Parker due to a spell cast by Dr. Strange. He doesn't have time to sell pizzas.  He winds up clashing with incredibly powerful humans as well as mutants.  Unlike DC Comics, which sought vanilla made-up urban areas for its heroes to in habit, there is no doubt that Spidey lives in real live New York City and confronts a city with its true-to-life problems.  

Historically, in moviedom the New York cops as well as the Feds have been Spidey's enemies.  Look, in the 1960s it was a fresh idea to have superheroes be masked vigilantes that were misunderstood by the authorities and persecuted by the media. But that plot device gets stale after 60 years or so.  Thankfully, we heard not a peep from Jolly Jonah this movie. The New York cops are on Spidey's side. It's about time they figured out he's a good guy! Even the United States Department of Damage Control (DODC), which is set up to regulate super-powered individuals, are willing to work with Spidey in solving problems that afflict New York City. 

DODC Head Bill Metzger (Trammell Tillman) holds a rational discussion with Spider-Man, realizing they may be facing threats larger than either of them can handle alone. 

Thankfully, this movie is finally about SPIDER-MAN, not some stupid puzzle piece that is part of the Thanos saga dealing with the bad guys winning and killing half the universe. That was just a horrible idea from the get go, and attaching all Marvel movies to that was tiresome and sick (sick = the literal definition, diseased; not the slang definition meaning really cool).

There are a lot of interesting characters who appear, but I can't even tell you who they are or it would spoil the fun. Just trust me on this one. You will not be disappointed! 

One major mystery is that we need to know more about the Punisher's backstory. Evidently he has accomplished both enormous positives as well as enormous negatives, and thus both Spidey and the authorities are not anxious to take him down.  Put it this way, if he looks like a terrorist, quacks like a terrorist, swims like a terrorist and waddles like a terrorist, why is he not regarded as a terrorist? There's an ongoing reference in the film that everything is explained by an event in Staten Island, but that is a cop out.  All the Internet commentators I researched seem to agree that whatever that event was, it is not (yet) contained in film or the comics. Someday it will probably make sense. But that day is not today.  Till then, you just have to keep an open mind about the Punisher, okay?  

There is a mystery to be solved, by Spidey, the Punisher, by the New York and Federal authorities. It's not just video game caliber action, though there are some memorable conflicts there too. Spider-Man has to rely on the science and engineering genius of Peter to figure out what is going on and what to do about it.  He is not just a web-slinging punching machine.  He is a complex young man who is prepared to do battle against evil with tech, psychology, inductive reasoning, super powers, and old fashioned grit and determination.  

Who wins?  Well, that is hard to say.  As we learn more about what is actually going on, the goals of many of the players, including Spidey and Peter, begin to change.  The resolution is not what you thought it was going to be at the beginning of the movie.  

Some of the tech has changed, and some of the characters have changed, and indeed the universe has actually evolved quite a bit since I started reading comics in the 1960s, but Spider-man is down to earth again, in fact, down to New York again, where he should be, and I could not be happier about how this movie developed and how it turned out. Somewhere, up in the sky, I know that Stan Lee and Steve Ditko are looking down on this movie and smiling.  Too bad they can't spend the money in Heaven, because there is going to be plenty made on this one, deservedly so.  

 

 

 

 

Ayatollahs' Apocalyptic Reality is Vastly Different than America's

Surely the coming of Donald J. Trump is not foretold in the Holy Quran, and the End Time and the associated destruction of the State of Israel is not imminent--or is it?  It may depend on who you ask.  Ask in the highest political circles within Iran and it has already been answered in the affirmative. At least one Ayatollah has claimed that President Trump is indeed the Islamic Antichrist or Dajjal, signaling an imminent transition to a Final Judgment.   Many may also believe that the development of nuclear bombs to destroy Israel is a mandatory commandment from Allah in order to initiate the End Times, which will right the imbalance of power between the evil first world (Israel, the USA and their allies) and the faithful Shiites. The Shiite clerics that rule Iran are not necessarily insane, but they adhere to ancient beliefs based on strict interpretation of Quranic prophecies that are utterly alien to Western pragmatism. Hence they are willing to endure massive bombings and devastation because they believe it is all part of Quranic prophecy, and at the end, the Twelfth Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi (the Hidden Imam),  and Jesus (Isa) will descend from the skies prior to the Day of Judgment to establish global peace and justice. This is not just lip service.  They truly believe it and they are not afraid to die for their beliefs.    

The opinion that matters most is the opinion of the allegedly infallible Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who, we are assured, survived the bombing by the US and Israel last Feburary 28, and arose to this position upon the death of his father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. That bombing severely wounded Mojtaba but supposedly did not kill him, according to hints in the global media. We can assume he hates the US. 

The Supreme Leader of Iran is believed to be infallible, meaning his authority cannot be questioned in matters of Scripture or Law, either one.  He is like the Pope and Dictator.  There is no reason to believe the new Supreme Leader is friendly to the US at all.  He is said to have been seriously injured from the bomb blast, but according to The Jerusalem Post, he is alert though delegating his duties to the military.

Over the years, the previous Supreme Leader used his power to squash dissent via executions, torture and other policies that those in the West would normally find repugnant.  At the same time, Iran has used oil money to export revolution around the world, including to Lebanon (which has a sizeable Shi'ite population). This is how Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations around the world receive backing.  

Thanks in large measure to funding from Iran, Hezbollah has emerged as a formidable, well-trained fighting force.  

Christianity, Judaism and Islam all have End Time narratives, or apocalyptic literature which describe the overthrow of evil earthly authorities and bringing the Righteous to power.  The simple equation is this: Righteous = Christian in Christian interpretation of the Bible; = Jewish in the Tanakh, = Muslims in the Holy Quran.  In the Quranic version, Jesus survived the Crucifixion (many interpreters understand that someone else somehow died in his place).  The 12th and final Imam, accompanied by Jesus, will return to Earth to destroy the nonbelievers (i.e., Jews and Christians, for example). The Quran also prophecies that there is a Dajjal or Antichrist, a powerful world leader who will deceive many people into believing he is good, though actually he is incarnate evil. So, is Donald Trump the Shi'ite Dajjal?

Ayatollah Seyyed Hassan Ameli has made this explicit accusation.  Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi has created a Fatwa, or religious decree, calling for President Trump's death. He is joined in this call by Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi Amoli, who has called for death to President Trump as well as death to Israel's President Netanyahu as well as the destruction of the State of Israel. However, only the Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is truly regarded as infallible.  Mojtaba is the son of the previous Supreme Leader, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed by a joint U.S.-Israeli operation on February 28, 2026. Supposedly reliable sources insist that the younger Khamenei survived, but there are not confirmed photographs or audio recordings.  He is receiving the best available health care in Russia...but never mind. At some point, one way or the other Iran will have an undisputed, functioning Supreme Leader who will guide Iran through the End Time and decide whether they in fact need nuclear weapons to carry out the will of Allah. My belief is that they will continue to decide in the affirmative, although I hope I am wrong.    

From New Delhi (India) Television, Instagram site.  

For that matter, 39% of Americans also believe that the world is close to the End Time, according to a Pew Research survey taken in 2022. 

Many Americans are making similar claims after he posted pictures of himself which seemed to portray him as Jesus.   

After this image appeared, some Conservative Christians found themselves agreeing with Conservative Shiite Muslims that DJT is the AntiChrist.

Baptist New Global apparently believed President Trump is the AntiChrist prior to the controversial AI-generated images.   

Islam, Judaism and Christianity all have End Time narratives in which evil is destroyed and the righteous inherit the earth. Strict fundamentalists in Islam as well as Christianity and Judaism all have a clear idea who is who and where they will go after the Final Judgment, but disagree about who will be saved and who will be discarded into Hell. 

Last year, on June 29, 2025, Shia Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi issued a Fatwa (religious declaration), calling President Trump an Enemy of Allah (Mohareb), and called upon Muslims of the world to kill him. 

It does seem that there is great sentiment among senior Ayatollas for believing that the End Time is near, and that the Supreme Leader may well believe it also.  It is very plausible that the Supreme Leader believes that a nuclear bomb needs to be used to obliterate all or part of Israel. We can only hope that he realizes that such a bomb strike will be met with a counterattack that is 100 times more powerful. Millions will die and Iran will not be allowed to win. Nuclear war makes no sense to a pragmatist of whatever religion.  However, Iranian clerics are not pragmatists.  

In the End Times, Jesus (yes the same Jesus of the Christian New Testament) will return to earth and slay the Dajaal and rule the Earth. The Day of Judgment will come and the just people will be rewarded, and evildoers will  be placed in torment.

Thus, we in the West need to be concerned about the potential for a nuclear attack on Israel. This is the end goal of the Iranian nuclear program. In Iran, it is not fringe thinking, it is the belief held at the highest levels of their government.  Church (or Mosque) and State are not separated in Iran; rather, they are the same entity. 

Protestors in New York support Shiite movements in Iran, Lebannon and elsewhere. 

One of my greatest fears for America is that our Partisan instincts are so strong that one party or the other will automatically support the other side.  That is, if one party supports Israel, the other party will support the groups that oppose Israel, regardless of ideology.  

Conversely, it is possible to be very sympathetic to the cause of Islam without supporting nuclear annihilation of Israel. However, supporting the Shiite (Iranian) government is intimately associated with the development of nuclear weapons for the purpose of destroying Israel and fulfilling Quranic prophecies.  The Shiite government is not the people and does not speak for all Islam. Even so, in a democracy it is the right of American citizens to advocate support for entities such as the Iranian Supreme Leader and the Ayatollahs and Hezbollah and terror cells in the US if that is what they want. Just be aware that the Ayatollahs really do share an apocalyptic vision which may include overseeing the destruction of Israel via the use of nuclear bombs if they do not get their way. 

Conversely, can there be a country or a group that is supported by both Democrats and Republicans?  30 years ago, that would not have been a problem.  Now, however, if the Republics oppose the methods of the Shiites in Iran while supporting Israel, the Democrats may feel pressure to support the Shiites and oppose Israel.  

US citizens are certainly permitted to support totalitarian groups  and to advocate the destruction of Israel. Whether or not it is a good idea is a different matter entirely.  I would like to believe that today's dangerous partisan politics is an aberration and we may start to act sensibly again. But when?  

President Trump is Co-Opting the Bush Middle East Plan

When the news of the US bombing in Tehran broke, I could not believe it. Nothing made sense. How could Iran be a threat to anyone with nuclear weapons? Weren't we told by the President of the United State that Iran's nuclear weapons program had been OBLITERATED? How then could Iran be poised to carry out a nuclear attack as the President seems to claim?

The short answer is--stop the presses--our President has a tendency to be overly bombastic, which resulted in overstating US success and more recently overstating the threat posed by Iraq. Recall that the US used Bunker Buster bombs in June 2025 to penetrate deep underground and blow up the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant (near Qom, ~80m deep), and the Natanz Nuclear Facility (including the deep "Pickaxe Mountain" site) while also destroying surface facilities at Isfahan.

Recall that the news media was shown overhead photography of the Fordow and Natanz sites, clearly showing debris that had been blown out of the access tunnels. Clearly whatever was inside those facilities had been blown to smithereens.

However what most of us were missing was that although the surface facilities at Isfahan were destroyed, the deepest underground site at Isfahan was too deep to be affected by even a Bunker Buster. For that reason, the Bunker Buster was not used against Isfahan! Thus whatever was down there--possibly the bomb test site and a stockpile of enriched uranium and equipment to further enrich it to bomb grade--likely survived.

So it is quite plausible that sometime between now and and the next century or two Iran could have a nuclear weapons capability. Now, about the claim that Iran was going to have a nuclear weapon within two weeks, I think what the President may have meant was, had the US not bombed the nuclear sites on June 22, 2025, they would have had a nuclear weapon in two weeks. That is probably a gross exaggeration, which is part of the reason many Americans have trouble trusting this President. Nevertheless I personally have no problem with the actions he took at that time. 

President Trump's Exact Words

So why are we going in at this time? Well, the President said at the time that he was sympathetic to protestors in Iran.

"Bombs will be dropping everywhere. When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations."

That's what he said at the time the decision was made.

So his plan is to blow things up and hope that something good happens. The President has trusted his own hunch, or instinct, over the advice of his closest advisors. Taking out the Navy and Air Force is great. Remember, however, that protestors will be armed with rocks, while the Shiite authorities will have automatic weapons.

Ironically, President Trump's political career was launched by his takedown of the Bush political dynasty. Both Bushes were irrationally frightened of Iraq. Bush I sought to rescue the Emir of Kuwait from an Iraqi takeover. Bush II used the opportunity presented by Osama Bin Laden, a Saudi National who had fought in Afghanistan and sponsored global terrorism, but who had never been in Iraq as far as we know. Iraq had nothing to do with 911, but the US attacked them anyway, hoping to improve things by doing so. Jeb Bush argued that his brother George W. had "kept America safe" by throwing trillions of dollars into Iraq, and Trump trashed the Bushes in the Republican Presidential debates, rightly so. Both Bush President gave us an unnecessary war, a Recession and huge Deficit to the tune of trillions of dollars. Now, President Trump is creating his own version of George W.'s plan.