By Bob Gaydos

Donald Trump talks to the press from the roof of the White House. Really.

  In a Trumpian world in which a week (at least it seems like a week) starts with the woman in charge of providing the monthly labor statistics being fired because Trump didn’t like the numbers and ends with Trump wandering around the roof of the White House shouting answers to questions from reporters down on the ground, it’s good to have Jimmy Breslin’s approach to the news available.

   So …

— Maybe it’s just me, but: Really? He fired Erika McEntarfer, commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, just because the July jobs report was disastrous and he’s been lying to us constantly that everything was rosy? I mean, how did he keep any employees at all his businesses with this approach? The casino, the Plaza, the airline, the college … oh, right, they all went bankrupt and he fired everybody. Guess he likes to say, “You’re fired!” And blaming others for his failures. This one is especially unhinged and, considering his hiring philosophy and penchant for lying, it will be anyone’s guess as to whether to believe the next monthly report.

— Maybe it’s just me, but: The Smithsonian Institution quietly removing any mention of the two impeachments on Trump’s record was particularly disappointing. Erasing history is a hallmark of fascist societies. The secret removal left Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton as the only presidents to be impeached, if one believed the Smithsonianian. People didn’t. They complained. Publicly. The Smithsonian, to its credit, was properly embarrassed. It reinstalled the Russia meddling and the Ukraine meddling impeachment stories, making history accurate again. It’s history. Trump was impeached twice. It still pays to speak out.

— Maybe it’s just me, but: It’s hard for me to get too worked up when Trump reacts to a former Russian president trolling him on social media by noisily ordering “two nuclear submarines” (his words) into waters somewhere around Russia. “I have ordered two Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions,” Trump announced, scarily (at least to major media). First of all, all U.S. submarines are nuclear-powered. Second of all, submarines that have nuclear missiles are already in waters around the globe and capable of striking Russia. Third of all, Trump’s old buddy Putin wouldn’t let Dimitri Medvedev, a former political ally, get him into another war, which he pretty much said after Trump rattled his subs.

— Maybe it’s just me, but: Bulldozing Jackie Kennedy‘s Rose Garden and announcing plans for a grand, gauche, golden ballroom that will dwarf the White House is Donald Trump to a “T.” Tacky. No class. Also, I think, illegal, since the White House is an official government building. He might need to get a permit, which would probably mean a bribe. He has lawyers apparently willing to do that. Stay tuned.

— Maybe it’s just me, but: Announcing plans to put a nuclear reactor on the moon in five years, as the acting head of NASA did recently, seems to be at the very least, highly optimistic. For starters, the reactor is intended to support a small colony of humans on the moon, but there are as yet no plans to put such a colony on the moon. Cart before the horse? Then there are the 700° daily changes in temperature on the moon, which has no water or air. The timeline, the-out-of-the-blue announcement, the supposed assurance of senior NASA officials serving in a Trump administration that this is not “science fiction,” might lead a skeptic to conclude that this is basically “news” that doesn’t involve Jeffrey Epstein.

— Maybe it’s just me, but: Putting a Fox News drunk in charge of the Pentagon seemed at first to be just the typical Trumpian spiteful, narcissistic need to have sycophants around him. Apparently it’s just policy. If Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is looking for a female drinking buddy, he now has one – former Fox News loose cannon and Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro was confirmed by the Republican majority U.S. Senate to head the federal prosecutor’s office in Washington, D.C. Pirro, a sycophant’s sycophant where Trump is concerned, is a conspiracy theorist whose  constant lies about the 2020 election being stolen from Trump contributed to Fox News having to pay $800 million plus in damages to settle a lawsuit. So, nothing new here.

— Maybe it’s just me, but: That same skeptic mentioned above might conclude that moving Ghislaine Maxwell from a maximum-security prison in Florida to a minimum security prison/spa in Texas was an attempt by Trump and his disciples to erase Maxwell’s memory of Donald’s relationships with teenage girls in Epstein‘s Lair. Whatever she says, it won’t work. She’s a known liar facing a 20-year prison sentence. Interview the victims. The story is not going away.

— Maybe it’s just me, but: The roof thing. What the hell was that? Surrounded by Secret Service, Trump appeared on the roof of the White House one morning apparently to survey the changes he has made and plans to make. Like the ballroom he says he and his supporters are going to pay for. Reporters spotting him up top shouted questions. Trump was asked what he was going to build. He said, “Nuclear missiles.” Chuckles. Well at least he didn’t have to stand at a real press conference and try to come up with real answers to real questions. Just another “normal” day at the Trump White House and no one mentioned Jeffrey Epstein.

— Maybe it’s just me, but: If I’m going to keep doing this, I think I’m going to have to come up with a rating system on the absurdity (an all-inclusive, non-profane word for all the negatives imaginable) of news stories emanating from the White House. On a scale of one to five, five would be the most absurd. I’ve got the labor statistics commish and Jeanine Pirro at five. Everything else is at least a two. Feel free to put your ratings in the comments below. Whew.

By Bob Gaydos

A deadly flash flood killed more than 100 people in Texas.

I’m so angry. Angry that the daily insanity of life with Trump makes it difficult to be sad. Just sad. Not frustrated and sad. Not bewildered and sad. Not dumbfounded and sad. Not furious and sad. Just sad.

The overlapping and competing of emotions is a byproduct of having to wake up each day in a “what the hell did he do or say now?” world. Like most of you, I’ve come to expect that, although I hesitate to say I’m used to it.

But that doesn’t matter when I just want to feel the sadness and sorrow for the families of all those young girls who drowned when a raging Guadalupe River swamped their summer camp in Central Texas. My god, what a tragedy. Impossible to imagine.

But at the same time, I also have to deal with the fact that Elon Musk, richest and second weirdest man on the planet, says he wants to start a new political party in the United States, to put pressure on both Republican and Democrats to create his view of society, which could have the beneficial effect of frustrating Trump’s MAGA agenda simply because Musk has so much money and he apparently now hates Trump. And he knows how to rig elections. So, is this good or bad?

Plus, Musk is the one who said Trump’s name was all over the Epstein files, and he likely had a look at them when he was Dogeing. But now, Pam Bondi, a thoroughly horrid human being, says those Epstein files she said she had on her desk to review, in effect, don’t exist. No client list, the attorney general says. And Jeffrey committed suicide. Case closed. And I am beyond angry at this load of BS and coverup for Epstein’s good friend, Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, the death toll in Texas is now more than 100 and they are still looking for more than 160 people, including 12-year-old girls missing from the church camp and you just know many won’t be found alive at this point and I am depressed thinking of them and area residents trapped in their homes.

As the story continued for days, Trump hadn’t said much about the deaths and, when asked if he would go to Texas, he said “maybe Friday.” But while the flood was still raging, he was putting on his greens and eating ice cream.

Yet he had previously had no trouble making a quick visit to fawn over the cruelly named Alligator Alcatraz in Florida. And I am angry again that this concentration camp for immigrants and whomever else ICE snatches off the streets actually sells souvenir merchandise and that it was thrown up in a couple of days in an area crawling with alligators and prone to flooding and that it is all pipes and canvas and wire and could be blown over in a heartbeat as hurricane season comes to Florida.

Which, of course, Trump didn‘t consider or care about when he decimated the workforce of the National Weather Service, which may have contributed to the lack of advance warning in Texas, for which Trump will accept no blame, as usual. Nor will he show any human empathy for the victims and their families. Incapable.

Meanwhile, rescue help pours into Texas, including from Mexico, and money for the rescue and the victims — millions — is pledged by just regular citizens, Trump still hasn’t shown his face or said that he’ll make sure the advance warning system the people of Kenn County asked the state of Texas to pay for but got only chump change will actually be built, even though he has effectively eliminated FEMA.

For me at least, the profound sadness this story deserves gets lost in anger over the lack of preparedness or concern for all affected and all the nonsense previously mentioned above as well as the insulting news that Bibi Netanyahu has written a letter nominating Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize for dropping a dozen bombs on Iran, blowing up a lot of rock and stuff, but likely no uranium and probably guaranteeing that country will now certainly develop a nuclear bomb. And that Bibi will now be Trump’s new best friend since he says he’s disappointed in Putin and, well, you know about Musk.

And yes, there will be, Trump has decreed, a mixed martial arts fight on the White House lawn next Fourth of July to properly celebrate this country’s 250th birthday. Seating for 20,000. No word on ticket prices yet.

I am beyond sad.

By Bob Gaydos

Trump’s TruthSocial post

Boy, you take a couple days off from the news to do some weeding and cleaning up and it’s almost impossible to know where to start catching up on the craziness.

I guess the logical place to start is with my reading about Trump posting on his official social media page that Joe Biden was actually killed in 2020 and it’s been a robot parading around impersonating him ever since.

I had to go back and read that a couple of times just to be sure. Hard to top this one. Trump even repeated the revelation verbally to other real people later on. I guess the robot must have malfunctioned in that debate with Trump.

Qanon, where the story originated a few years back, must be thrilled, but I am at a loss for words.

I mean, you might as well have told me that the other stable genius and apparent no longer co-president Elon Musk was hooked on drugs and that he ran his whole DOGE scam while in a Ketamine cloud.

No way? Really? The guy who wants to single-handedly repopulate the Earth with as many willing partners as possible? The guy who recruited Steven Miller’s wife away from the White House to be his, umm assistant? The guy who bumped the Treasury Secretary in the hallway of the White House (not that he didn’t deserve it) and showed up for work the next day with a black left eye? That guy?

So Trump actually fired him because he found out Musk had no idea how government works and wasn’t actually saving any money in the budget? Oh, and the drugs story in the New York Times.

Well heck, turns out attention to detail hasn’t actually been a major requirement in this Oval Office. I also learned that Tulsi Gabbard, Director of Intelligence, is contemplating providing Fox News style daily briefings in the Oval Office instead of the normal written reports that every other president has always received. Apparently Trump “doesn’t read.” He’s actually only made 14 daily briefings since he took office. He’s golfed more than that. Shocking.

It’s probably safe to say that those daily reports did  not include mention of Sen.  Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa, telling a constituent at a Town Hall meeting not to worry about someone dying because their Medicaid had been cut off because, “We are all going to die.” Touching.

The report also probably wouldn’t mention that Bobby Kennedy Junior over at the Health Department issued a report labeled Make America Healthy Again (MAHA, got it? ) that was written entirely by AI because all the researchers and scientists in the department have been fired. Also, it was totally false.

It seems actual scientists and doctors read the report and said none of the studies and reports, etc., listed in MAHA existed. Phony, like Bobby. C’mon, really?

The last surprise was a big one. Ukraine managed to pull off a massive drone attack inside Russia and destroy or disable about 40 strategic bombers as they sat at airfields. One-third of the Russian bomber fleet. No injuries for Ukraine. Huge. A plan a year in the making.

The big surprise? U.S. intelligence agencies knew nothing about it. That’s the kind of thing that’s not supposed to surprise them. Trump‘s response was that it wasn’t fair for Ukraine to attack those planes because they were “just sitting there not bothering anyone.” He said it would have been different if they were attacking someone in combat. “It’s like hitting someone who’s already down,” he said.

Keen sense of warfare there. Also, a strong suggestion of where his sympathies lie. Zelensky had this ace in the hole the whole time, including in his White House visit. Ukraine didn’t trust the U.S. with this big secret. Now the world knows.

It was just a couple of days off. This can’t survive.

By Bob Gaydos

Trump as pope. SeriouslyPart of my morning routine, after tea and a friendly word game to get the brain cells active, is to scroll through my Facebook feed to get a handle on the news of the day.

Yeah, I check The Times, AP, etc. but for in-your-face-they-must-be-kidding stuff, Facebook gets it to me quicker and without the cautious prose of today’s major media. If You Know Who did something dumb, illegal or outright insane, I’ll know in a couple of minutes and from trusted sources.

Saturday was no exception. The hands down winner of the  “They-must-be-kidding, but-I-know-they’re-not” Award goes to the social media posting from the White House no less of Trump sitting on a throne dressed as the pope, crown and all. Seriously.

Disgusting. Crude. Callous. Ignorant. Egotistical. Obscene. Incredibly stupid. One hundred percent Trump. On the day Pope Francis was being laid to rest. After Trump having previously fallen asleep at the funeral service. An insult to every Catholic on the planet and a message to all Americans. Trump wants to be pope. Seriously.

The rest of the feed included what had to be the most obsequious cabinet meeting in history, as each member of the Trump team, seated around him with their red Maga hats on the table facing him, competed with each other to offer the most ingratiating, devoid of facts compliments to their leader, who was sitting self-satisfied in the middle. Pam Bondi and Marco Rubio duked it out for the coveted comfy knee cushion award. No one, apparently, was embarrassed, except for millions of Americans who saw this cult video and at first mistook it for a Monty Python movie.

There was also a post about, of course, Pete Hegseth installing a dressing room next to his office in the Pentagon, presumably so his eyeliner could be on straight when he has unprotected group chats on his phone with family and friends about U.S. military attacks in the Middle East. No Republican in Congress expressed any displeasure with the defense secretary spending taxpayer dollars in this manner. Because of course.

Then there was an item about RFK Junior, secretary of health, asking the Centers for Disease Control to look for some alternative treatments for measles because Kennedy believes the vaccine that has prevented the disease for  decades contains “aborted fetus debris” as well as “DNA particles” and doesn’t work. This, as the measles outbreak in the country reaches 900 cases as he bad mouths the vaccine. And, the man who says he once had a dead worm in his brain, also still insists that vaccines are causing autism and wants to conduct new testing on this theory even though it has been done and disproven.

Finally, one unrelated item on my feed informed me that May is mental health month.

Sign me up.

By Bob Gaydos

Gene Hackman roles.

Keeping up with the news is challenging, but it’s a lot more secure than a job with the federal government these days. That said, some thoughts on some recent events, with a deep bow to the late, great Jimmy Cannon.

— Maybe it’s just me, but: Chuck Schumer was right when he called the decision to vote in favor of a terrible Republican budget bill to keep the government open or to vote against it and give Trump even more power over government spending than he has already exercised “no choice at all.” Still, the Senate Minority leader had to choose and decided to vote against a shutdown and for the bill. He convinced enough Democrats to join him for the bill to proceed. In an op ed piece in The New York Times, Schumer said, “A shutdown would give Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk permission to destroy vital government services at a significantly faster rate than they can right now. Under a shutdown, the Trump administration would have wide-ranging authority to deem whole agencies, programs and personnel nonessential, furloughing staff members with no promise they would ever be rehired.” Voting against the bill would’ve shut down the government for who knows how long and Republicans would have forever blamed the Democrats, even though, as the party in control, it was Republicans’ responsibility to make something happen. Tough call. House Democrats could safely vote against the bill unanimously, knowing it still had to pass the Senate. Schumer knew he’d get heat, but chose what he saw as the lesser of two evils. Hard to argue with that.

— Maybe it’s just me, but: If Jeff Bezos is going to run a documentary autobiography of Kay Graham on Prime Video, the least he can do is watch it so he knows what the publisher of the Washington Post is supposed to act like. Graham led the paper through the Watergate and Pentagon Papers scandals in Washington, helping forge the newspaper’s reputation as a staunch defender of the truth and a fearless foe of political corruption. Bezos folded to Trump like a cheap tent you could probably get delivered overnight from Amazon Prime. Gutless.

  — Maybe it’s just me, but: It was sad to hear of the death of Gene Hackman at 94, especially considering the details of his demise. In honor of his memory, we held a mini-marathon of the two-time Oscar winner’s films. None of the really big ones. We watched “Enemy of the State,” also starring Will Smith and Jon Voight; “Get Shorty,” also starring John Travolta and Danny DeVito; and “Crimson Tide,” also starring Denzel Washington. All enjoyable. Gene hung out in good company. I got voted down on “The French Connection.”

   — Maybe it’s just me, but: I still call it the Gulf of Mexico.

   — Maybe it’s just me, but: The Yankees decision to no longer play Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” after a home game when the team loses was the right thing to do. A suggestion for what to play instead on those losing occasions might be Sinatra‘s “That’s Life.” They could also apply that philosophy to all the injuries the team has suffered in spring training.

  — Maybe it’s just me, but: Hawking Teslas on the lawn of the White House like some cheesy used car salesman is not only demeaning to the office of the president, but it’s probably illegal, no?

By Bob Gaydos

First responders with part of wreckage of American Airlines Flight 5342 in the Potomac River.

   Since there are thousands of concerned citizens monitoring and reporting on the daily doings of Trump 2: The Revenge, I thought I’d give the White House crew a chance to get their feet re-wet (is that a word?) before checking in and issuing a report. Also, it helps preserve my sanity.

   In any event, here’s a quick summary of Team Trump’s nearly a fortnight back in business:

   — Ukraine. The war is still raging despite Trump’s boast he would end it the day he got elected.

  — The price of eggs. Rather than falling, as Trump promised voters, they have risen. No sign of falling. Gas prices are up, too. Fruits and vegetables are likely to follow with the promised mass deportation of migrant farm workers.

  — Deportations. ICE agents arrested some American citizens and non-criminal immigrants in initial efforts of the pledge to detain and deport criminal undocumented immigrants. Without warrants in some cases. Mexico refused to allow a U. S. military plane carrying undocumented immigrants to land. Inappropriate, its president said. So did Colombia, but its president agreed when Trump agreed not to use military planes, only after his threat of tariffs on Colombian goods failed. Trump said he would use Guantanamo as a mass holding facility (concentration camp) for undocumented immigrants.

  — The budget. An executive order to freeze virtually all federal funding already approved by Congress caused mass confusion nationwide, besides being illegal. Congress was flooded with calls. Lawsuits were filed. Non-profits scrambled. The order was rescinded the next day over the protests of Trump advisor Stephen Miller.

  — Greenland. Denmark says it’s still not for sale.

  — Cabinet. Vice President Vance cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate to approve TV personality Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense, despite reports of his drinking, womanizing and lack of experience for the position. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s nominee for health secretary, displayed no knowledge of how Medicare and Medicaid work. And his cousin, Caroline, called him a predator who has consistently sought to profit from the assassinations of his father and uncle.

  — Condoms. Trump’s new press secretary said her boss’s new quasi Department of Government Efficiency had stopped the shipment of $50 million in condoms to Gaza, which Fox News said were to be used by Hamas to make mini-bombs. This never happened. Government accountants said $50 million would buy one billion condoms.

  — Pardons. Three insurrectionists were re-arrested two days after their release from prison. Two others refused the pardons, saying we saw what we saw on television.

   — DEI, staffing, etc. Trump fired the female head of the Coast Guard, the FAA director, froze hiring of air traffic controllers, disbanded the Aviation Safety Advisory Committee, illegally fired all inspectors general and encouraged all federal employees to consider retirement or a job buyout, similar to the one his buddy/advisor/neo-nazi Elon Musk offered and reneged on at Twitter/X.

   — DEI, part 2. An army helicopter collided late at night with a passenger jet on path to land at Reagan National Airport outside Washington, D.C. The two aircraft landed in the Potomac River. The FAA said 67 people were killed, the largest air traffic fatality in the country in 16 years. Trump (see above firings, etc.), without proof, blamed the crash on DEI (diversity, equality, inclusion) policies in the Biden administration that allowed hiring of “those who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions,” including people with hearing and vision issues as well as paralysis, epilepsy and “dwarfism.” Questioned repeatedly for specific roof of these allegations by reporters, he said he based his opinion on “common sense.”

   — DEI, part 3.  The FAA said staffing at the air traffic control tower was “not normal.” One controller was handling the job of two and the helicopter was off course.

  —  DEI, etc. While Trump blamed Biden, the nation mourned.

  Can’t wait for the next nearly a fortnight.                                    

By Bob Gaydos

Steve Bannon and Elon Musk … not friends

    I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m rooting for Steve Bannon in his food fight with Elon Musk over who’s the bigger racist in the MAGA tent. Not because I agree with either man’s views on immigration or anything else, but rather because Musk’s money has the potential to do a lot more harm than Bannon’s pure bile and, frankly, anything that exposes the hypocrisy of the Trump cult is good for America, especially if it’s self-inflicted.

     Bannon has called Musk “pure  evil” and pledged to get gim out of the guest rooms in Mar-a-Lago and the White House. In fact, Bannon said, “I will have Elon Musk run out of here by Inauguration Day.” 

    That appears to be unlikely, but that’s what Bannon told the Italian newspaper Corrientes Della Serra last week. He also said the billionaire won’t have full access to the White House. Trump says he’s giving Musk the building next door to try to figure out how to steal from the poor to give to the rich.

      The crux of the fight between Trump’s old sidekick/strategist and his new, much richer one, is which immigrants are acceptable to MAGA and which are not. Old school Bannon took Trump at his word when he said he’s going to round up millions of undocumented immigrants, (mostly brown or black) and ship them back wherever they came from. No more immigrants. More jobs for real Americans.

      But Musk and other big tech billionaires say real Americans are too dumb (they actually say untrained, but  that’s what they think) to fill the jobs in their companies. They say they need more better-trained immigrants, mostly from Asian countries, here on H-1B visas as “skilled workers,” to fill all those good jobs at the tech companies.

    Musk says they are vital and Trump agreed and Bannon blew up, basically saying an immigrant is an immigrant. He also wasn’t thrilled with Musk’s opinion of real Americans’ intelligence, which actually is the same as (“I love the uneducated”) Trump’s. 

   In response to Bannon’s comments, Musk said he would go to “war” to preserve and defend the program for foreign workers at tech companies. 

    Bannon replied, “He should go back to South Africa. Why do we have South Africans, the most racist people on earth, white South Africans … making any comments at all on what goes on in the United States?”

      Clearly, irony is lost on Bannon.

       Now, Musk may be right about that lack of skilled American workers for tech companies, but no one ever talks about more training programs for Americans. The real reason Musk and the other tech bigwigs want immigrants from Asian countries on their payrolls is that they are willing to work for less money and are happy just to be in America for all the advantages it provides. Just like all those immigrants Trump and Bannon want to round up and deport. Hypocrisy.

      The good news in terms of reducing Musk’s influence is that Bannon has the voice and support of the hard-core far-right Trump base. The ones who vote for candidates he endorses. Musk, who seems to live in a high-rent area of the spectrum, basically is just in this for his own enrichment and gratification. Like Trump. But Trump is going to be president and his ego typically wins out over his affection for other people’s money and sycophancy. He has no real agenda other than enriching himself and staying out of prison, which he thus far has managed to accomplish.

      Bottom line is that promising all things to all supporters only works when all supporters are in it for the same reason. Bannon just wants to get rid of all non-white immigrants. Musk apparently just wants to be emperor of the world, with lots of non-tran children. Maybe they should check with the suddenly much poorer Rudy Giuliani to find out what went wrong with his love affair with Donald Trump.

 rjgaydos@gmail.com

By Bob Gaydos

    Temporarily out of touch and easing my way back in via the sports portal, which used to be a place to escape from a world gone mad. Used to be. With a nod to Jimmy Cannon …

Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter in happier times.

• Maybe it’s just me, but: I’d love to be having a cuppa coffee with Pete Rose right now. I don’t know about you, but I’m not buying any of the stories the Los Angeles Dodgers and Shohei Ohtani‘s lawyers have offered so far regarding an IRS investigation into the Japanese star’s interpreter and gambling. The interpreter was supposedly ripping off Ohtani or, in another story, Shohei was helping the guy pay off illegal gambling debts. The keyword here for the interpreter, who has been fired by the Dodgers, is illegal. Sports betting is illegal in California. The keyword here for Ohtani is gambling. Unfortunately, all major sports have succumbed to the lure of easy money via gambling, while repeatedly urging players not to do it, because, you know, people might wonder what you’re placing a bet on. And, of course, betting on your own sport, in this case baseball, is forbidden. Ohtani’s now former interpreter has assured everyone that he never, never, ever, cross-his -heart-and-hopes-to-die bet on baseball. Because, you know, cheating. Integrity of the game. But a bookie was owed a lot of money, apparently, and Ohtani did, or didn’t try to pay him off for his interpreter, but didn’t notice a bunch of money missing from his bank account. Or something. Baseball’s investigating and no one’s talking now but the lawyers so Ohtani can try to focus on baseball. The slugger/pitcher recently signed a $700 million contract with the Dodgers. He agreed to take just $2 million a year while he played for them so they could afford to pay the rest of the team. Take the rest when he retires. Nice. If Pete and I are still around then, maybe we can all get together for a cup of coffee in Cooperstown and lay odds on who’s going to get into the Hall of Fame that year.
• Maybe it’s just me, but: I’m a little confused when Major League Baseball sends the aforementioned Dodgers and the San Diego Padres to Korea to play two official,  season-opening baseball games, then has them come back to the States to resume spring training with the rest of the teams. Couldn’t they just be exhibition games or couldn’t they just start the actual season? And while they were at it, couldn’t they just take that ghost runner off second base to start the 10th inning?
• Maybe it’s just me, but: I’m hoping Aaron Rodgers has had enough time to decide whether he wants to try again to play football for the New York Jets this fall or run for vice president of the United States as Bobby Kennedy Jr.’s running mate. Tough choice, I know. Rodgers is known to have some political views that are as, umm, unusual as Kennedy’s and the quarterback’s ego undoubtedly found the mention by the third-party presidential candidate flattering, but instead of playing second fiddle to a conspiracy theory fanatic, he’s likely to find more acceptance in New York playing quarterback for a team that desperately needs one. At least he has a wealth of experience at that job. And of course, there’s the fact that he had to be helped off the field after his first series of downs for the team last year never to take another snap. Unfinished business. Stick with what you know, Mr. Rodgers, and they’ll cheer you in the Meadowlands.
• Maybe it’s just me, but: On the positive side, it was nice to see the Robert Kennedy family gather for a reunion (without Bobby Junior) at the Washington, D.C.  home of family friend, Joe Biden. Warmth and support all around the White House. I think the family patriarch would have understood and appreciated. Bobby Kennedy understood the importance of freedom and democracy and I’m pretty sure would’ve recognized President Biden as the best bet this year to maintain and continue to fight for both. In fact, I’d take that bet to the bank.

By Bob Gaydos

The Republican presidential debaters.

    Let me state at the outset that I have not watched any of the Republican Party “presidential” debates, nor do I anticipate watching any in the near future. I see no reason to subject myself to hours of meaningless posturing.

    I say meaningless because the Republican Party apparently is and will remain hostage to Donald Trump’s MAGA minions until and unless he is removed from the equation by a judge, jury or some higher power. 

      Thus far, no Republican has been capable of challenging him for leadership of the once-proud party, or even saying why he or she would be a better president than Trump. Even with years of evidence to make the case.

       Let me also note here that, while I haven’t watched any of the Republican debates, I have read many and varied accounts of them and am aware of the fact that no one on stage — not even Chris Christie, the most vocal Trump critic — could simply point to Trump’s reckless, self-serving, ineffectual approach to running the country, including promises unkept, and articulate what he or she would do or would have done differently. You know, maybe send in the National Guard right away on Jan. 6. Something concrete.

    The so-called presidential hopefuls appear to be campaigning to be the “best” one remaining should Trump — who leads all of them by a wide margin in polling among Republicans and who has ignored all the debates in favor of court appearances and campaign rallies, which he sometimes confuses — somehow turn out not to be the party’s nominee.

      But even then, with Republicans suffering losses in each election since Trump was elected president, the party presidential candidate would face the issue of how to gain more votes — appeal to a wider base of Americans  — without losing the MAGA base that is all Trump all the time.

        Democrats don’t have the same problem. While Republicans were debating, polls were “revealing” that Trump has a lead over President Biden in a hypothetical 2024 rematch. It happens all the time to incumbents.

     Age is supposedly one of the issues, even though Biden is 80 and Trump 77. I’m betting on Biden’s lifestyle and health care over Trump’s.

     But Biden also has an impressive presidential record of accomplishment to run on (employment is up, roads and bridges are being rebuilt, Medicare can negotiate drug prices, inflation is being wrestled down), a lifelong resume of leadership and — do not ignore this — a demonstrated respect for American democracy, the rule of law and the Constitution.

    Trump has none of that. And none of his so-called challengers seems willing to simply make that case. It’s as if we are supposed to simply trust that under another Trump administration America would not be further divided politically, more threatened by world leaders playing to Trump’s ego and ignorance and even more prone to believe the lies of charlatans.

    Polls notwithstanding,  Biden a year from now will have a strong record to run on while Trump may be in jail or in court or both. Answering to 91 felony counts can be time consuming. Even some of his allies are bailing on him in court cases and in books that also expose their complicity.

     Trump is simply a menace to democracy and doesn’t belong anywhere near the White House again. The facts and his daily statements make that abundantly clear to a majority of Americans. 

   In any campaign for president against Donald Trump, Joe Biden, as he did in 2020, can proudly, unequivocally and truthfully say that he represents America’s best choice to protect and preserve democracy.

     Apparently, other Republican “candidates” for president can’t find the courage to make the same case for themselves.

     Meaningless posturing.

rjgaydos@gmail.com

 By Bob Gaydos

President Biden and Commander

    Not that you’d notice it, what with all the media attention paid to the lies, threats, chaos and confusion generated by the Party of Trump, but (1.) President Biden made history this week as he became the first sitting president of the United States of America to walk a picket line when he joined  striking auto industry union workers, which is as bold and clear a statement of support for the working people of America as any president can make and far removed from (2.)the phony effort by Trump to court those same workers by showing up at a non-union auto parts plant to complain about electric vehicles (promoted by Biden to help save the planet) taking workers jobs, which is more Trump nonsense, when, in reality, (3.) his motivation was to avoid yet another confrontation with the rest of the field seeking the Republican nomination for president because, as more and more Republicans fear, the twice-impeached, four times indicted, twice found guilty in civil court ex-president seems to be having even more difficulty than usual keeping his facts straight and may actually fear having to debate other Trump wannabes in public, especially since (4.) there’s yet another book out written by a former Trump White House insider laying out the selfishness and hypocrisy in his administration, that book being a memoir by Cassidy Hutchinson, the young woman who bravely testified before the Jan. 6 committee about her experiences as chief aide to Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff, and, (5.) like all the others, is looking to cash in on her experience now that Trump may actually be held accountable for his many crimes, which is (6.) the fate a Democrat, New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez, is facing, having been accused by the Justice Department in a bribery scheme, along with his wife, in which he’s accused of trading political favors for lots of cash (several hundred thousand dollars of it being found in his home, some stuffed in pockets of his suits) and gold bullion (also found in a search of his home), all of which (7.) prompted a call from many Democrats in the Senate, including fellow New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, for Menendez to resign, a reaction strikingly different from typical Republican response to misbehavior within their ranks, but no doubt prompted by the fact that (8.) Menendez was charged with a similar crime a few years ago by the Justice Department but a trial resulted in a hung jury and, Jersey voters being, well, Jersey voters, Menendez subsequently was reelected to the Senate where, from all appearances, he learned nothing from his misbehavior, which, also, (9.) unfortunately, seems to be the pattern with family pets the president has brought to the White House, the most recent one being a German Shepherd Dog named Commander, who reportedly (10.) bit a Secret Service agent (again) in the family quarters of the White House, reviving stories of a previous German Shepherd who was shipped off to Delaware for similarly inappropriate behavior, prompting one (me) to (11.) wonder what steps Biden and all those security conscious people around him have taken to make sure the shepherds, who are highly intelligent dogs bred to herd sheep and to protect, have received proper training as puppies so that they can be comfortable in social situations with non-threatening individuals, such as Secret Service agents and other “friends” they come into contact with routinely during the day and whether there is (12.) a designated handler for the dog, perhaps First Lady Jill Biden and maybe a Secret Service agent, who work regularly with the dog so that he is friendly, alert and obedient and only aggressive when needed, which is what basic training for such a dog would provide and Commander, being only two years old, could likely learn, thereby allowing everyone to feel comfortable in his presence and (13.) avoiding any more “Dog bites Secret Service agent” headlines, which only tarnish the reputation of these special dogs, just because some humans have neglected to provide them with the proper training that, in fact, should allow Commander to (14.) walk anywhere with the president, including a picket line, without any fear of “President’s dog bites man” headlines.

      Sit. Stay. Friend. Good boy.