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

Rupert Murdoch
… done with Trump?

Rupert is done with Donald.

The man who created the monster is out to kill it and he’s doing it with the weapon he knows best — the power of the press.

The most telling blows against Donald Trump in the ever-growing scandal over his failure to release the Jeffrey Epstein files, as repeatedly promised in Trump’s campaign for president, have come from a most unlikely source: The dignified jewel in the somewhat tacky Murdoch Empire.

First, the Journal ran a story about Trump’s highly suggestive (they share “secrets”) birthday card to Epstein on his 50th birthday. Then came the report that Trump’s Justice Department (Pam Bondi) had told him in May that his name was all over the Epstein files, which Bondi, of course, had subsequently said publicly did and then did not exist, creating the current furor about them.

This is the well-respected, conservative Wall Street Journal, not Fox-makes-it-up-and-we-love-you-Donald News, not the headline-happy New York Post, definitely not your typical Murdoch sensation-seeing tabloid. Trump even asked Murdoch not to run the story. Said it wasn’t true.

It ran. Trump, typically, sued the Journal claiming defamation. He wants $10 billion. Murdoch said bring it on.

What’s going on?

There are several schools of thought on this. One is that Murdoch, who made his fame and fortune by publishing often made-up stories about famous people in sensational tabloid papers, first in Australia and Britain before coming to the U.S., is looking for a last hurrah. The man is 94-years-old, his sons are taking over the business, but taking down a president could be quite a rush and addition to your obituary, even if the reports are actually true.

The willingness to take Trump on knowing a lawsuit is inevitable probably lies in the law itself. To prove defamation, Trump must not only demonstrate that the statement was false, defamatory, published to a third party, but also that the publisher acted with at least negligence or actual malice in publishing the information.

They knew it was false but ran it anyway. I don’t see the Wall Street Journal’s experienced lawyers allowing anything like that happening.

Which means the stories must be true and the Journal has proof, the best defense. The story is clearly also of public interest, as witness the reaction to them.

The irony, of course, is that, while other media empires — ABC, CBS, The Washington Post — have bowed to Trump threats to sue or to scuttle potential deals by paying him off and softening criticism of him — Murdoch, who, as mentioned, built a fortune on lies, thus becomes the unlikely defender of the free press in America.

My hero.

It has been noted that, unlike years ago when Murdoch was helping build Trump’s cult following by making stuff up on Fox News, Murdoch has no mega deals in the works at this time that Trump could threaten. That obviously only buttresses the courage to, well, what the heck, print the truth.

But why? Why not just focus on tariffs, the Fed and interest rates, the usual Journal fare?

I think Murdoch sees what every rational-thinking American sees: Trump is used goods. His parts are breaking down and even Artificial Intelligence won’t improve the incoherent message. Plus, the Epstein stuff might even be too slimy for the elder Murdoch at this time.

It’s time for a new model to protect the Murdoch family’s interest, if not the average American’s. That would lend credence to the report that, coincidentally, there was a meeting between Vice President JD Vance and the Murdoch clan around the time of the Journal articles. What could they possibly have to discuss?

The only problem I see in this right of succession scenario for Murdoch and Vance is that Vance is not Trump. That is, he is not the swaggering TV personality, making stuff up off the cuff, challenging the system and riling up the cult the way Trump always did until very recently.

Would a Vance threat or lie carry the same weight with MAGA as Trump’s have? Will they ignore the broken economic promises and focus on the hateful bigotry they share? Will Republicans automatically genuflect en masse at Vance’s feet worried about being primaried? Can Vance bullshit people the way Trump can? Is he the new chosen one?

Honestly, I don’t see it. But then, I never saw Rupert Murdoch as the savior of the free press.

*********

Full disclosure: For 23 years, I wrote editorials for The Times Herald-Record in Middletown, N.Y., which was a member of the Ottaway Newspaper Group, a locally owned operation that had been sold to Dow Jones and then subsequently acquired by Rupert Murdoch in the deal that also brought him the Wall Street Journal. As far as I know, he never messed with what went on in Middletown. He also subsequently sold the Ottaway newspaper chain for a profit.

I didn’t get one.

By Bob Gaydos

This will be short and maybe a little personal because it’s Monday and it’s hot and buggy outside and I’m still brooding over not being invited to the Bezos wedding in Venice.

I mean, yeah, it was ostentatious and not that I would’ve known how to socialize with Oprah, the Kardashians, Tom Brady, Bill Gates and a bunch of influencers I never heard of, but I don’t cause trouble, I do have Amazon Prime and it would’ve been nice to see Venice.

It certainly would’ve been more fun than following the daily doings of Trump and the dumpster fire that is the Republican Party in the Congress. The big story of course is this big, awful budget bill that Trump wants passed in one shot, instead of holding hearings on budget proposals from various departments the way Congress usually does it. Get all the lies in one basket, pass it and go home. That’s the plan.

So far, it’s not working because it’s such a cruel bill, skewed to take from the poor and give to the rich that even a few Republicans have had to say so. There’s several thousand inches of copy on it in The New York Times if you want to know all the details. Basically, poor people lose healthcare and very rich people get very richer and ICE gets to build a big special prison all its own.

All it needs is a couple more Republican senators with a bare minimum of decency to kill it, but so far there don’t seem to be any. The Trumper likes holidays, so he wants the bill passed by July 4 so he can celebrate. He’ll probably invite Bezos for a big Mac.

Oh yeah, the prison that ICE would get to build, Trump and the MaGAs would no doubt love to use as a new home for Zohran Mamdani, the Muslim Democratic Socialist who just won the Democratic primary for mayor in New York City. Trump‘s already called him a communist. A Republican senator suggested he was a terrorist. The president’s press secretary suggested he might be worth investigating since he’s a naturalized citizen. I’m surprised the men in the masks haven’t already shown up.

This is not how I like to start my week. I mean, I would’ve gone out and rented a tux if Bezos had invited me.

Too hot and buggy. Talk to you tomorrow.

By Bob Gaydos

Trump drops an F bomb on Israel and Iran on the White House lawn for making him look bad.

Ok, let’s start with what we know.

— We know that the U.S.  dropped several “bunker-busting” bombs and also launched a bunch of missiles from submarines, targeting three nuclear weapons facilities in Iran.

— Trump did not consult with Congress,as required by law, before he ordered the attack.

That’s it.

We know this not only because Donald Trump said so, but because Iran and Congress confirmed it.

What we don’t know could fill thousands of inches of newspaper copy, untold hours of TV and podcast time and millions of hours on social media. In fact, it has. In fact, that’s why I stopped making a list of what we don’t know as I started writing this column, realizing that, with Donald Trump, you just never know.

That’s because with Trump, he never knows. It’s always about the show. Looking strong. Looking decisive. Looking important. Looking like he knows what he’s doing. Kind of the exact opposite of that sorry military parade he threw for his birthday.

Trump has always wanted to drop some bombs. After all, why be president if you can’t do that? His aides likely stopped him from doing it the first time around. This time, he’s loaded with incompetent sycophants. Bombs away!

But Israel had already softened up Iran when Trump sent B2 bombers in for the kill. Except that we don’t know that they actually killed Iran’s nuclear weapons program. It’s likely they wounded it badly, but no one really knows where that weapons grade uranium is except the Iranians.

Then we had all that nonsense with both countries continuing to attack each other after Trump announced a ceasefire on his social media account, which is apparently where all important presidential decisions will be announced in the near future. In all caps.

Apparently, Israel and Iran had started some military activity against each other and couldn’t just stop because Trump said so. I mean, they have some pride, too. And why waste the ammo?

Who knows? Not us. We do know this embarrassed Trump so, since he was apparently still in attack mode, he dropped an F-bomb on both countries in public, not his social media account. Used the presidential “F” word. They didn’t know what they were ##**+! doing, he said of two adversaries who have been doing it for a long time.

But the optics were bad for Trump. He had bombed Iran into peace, at least temporarily, but missiles were still flying. Don’t they read his posts?

At any rate, at this moment, which is all we have with Trump’s actions, there is apparently a ceasefire and no new war in the Middle East. That, of course, is always open to change. Trump may have blundered into a qualified success by dropping bombs on a universally hated country, since Iran is the leading supporter of terrorism on the planet.

Yes, there is that little matter of Congress not authorizing the attack and his Intelligence Director saying Iran posed no immediate threat to the U.S. because it wasn’t developing nuclear weapons. A couple of more things we know.

OK, a couple of things we don’t know: (1) How long Republicans in Congress will continue to abide this reckless, unlawful behavior and (2) how long MAGA will excuse their proclaimed “peace president” for putting their sons and daughters and maybe the world in peril just for the headlines.

Meanwhile, as he heads to a NATO meeting just full of new opportunity for grandstanding and bluster and also embarrassment, who knows where ICE will be kidnapping dark-skinned people off the streets and what program to help the elderly, the infirm, the addicted, the cash-poor will be eliminated? Where will he call out the National Guard to create chaos and fear?

You never know with Trump because he doesn’t know, or care. He’s got a flagpole to put up on the White House lawn.

It’s always about the show.

By Bob Gaydos

Sunrise at Stonehenge during the summer solstice.

It’s official. Today is the longest day of the year.

AI says so: “The longest day of summer in 2025, also known as the summer solstice, will be Friday, June 20th. This is when the Northern Hemisphere will experience its longest period of daylight and the shortest night of the year. The solstice marks the official start of astronomical summer.”

The Old Farmer’s Almanac and NASA say so: “The 2025 summer solstice falls on Friday, June 20, at 10:42 PM. ET. This marks the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, when the Earth’s tilt positions it closest to the Sun.”

Man, I’m embarrassed to admit this news kind of took me by surprise. I mean, every one of those 151 days since January 20 of this year has felt like the longest day of the year. I know you know what I mean.

Well, it’s late afternoon as I’m writing this and I’ve still got more than six hours for the official entry of summer and if the gods are with me, I may survive the longest day of the year without the USA going to war again.

It seems Taco Don has pulled his usual schtick and backed off from threatening to kill the leader of Iran and give Israel our bunker busting bombers to wipe out Iran’s nuclear facilities for at least “two weeks.”

That gives his staff and any Republican left in Congress with a shred of pride enough time to give our confused leader a little dose of reality to go with his bombast. Also to give delegates from France, the UK and Germany an  opportunity to meet with an Iranian delegate to consider ways to end the war between Iran and Israel without blowing up the world.

It’s similar to Trump backing off threatening 80 percent tariffs on Chinese goods and blowing up the stock market. That little insider-trading maneuver helped Donald and a few close friends make a bundle while backing off also preserved the portfolios of so-called average Americans. Supposedly we’re still talking to the Chinese, although they say we’re not.

Funny, India says Trump had nothing to do with stopping the fighting between it and Pakistan, although he says he did.

And, remember that Salvadoran native Trump’s goon squad deported to El Salvador against the judge’s orders? Trump repeatedly insisted he could not be brought back, despite repeated court orders to do so, because, well that’s a different country.

Remember? Well, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is back in Tennessee and recently appeared in court to face criminal charges for allegedly transporting migrants within the U. S. One constitutional crisis averted.

Also, the Fed chairman still has a job and we have not, despite various poorly disguised threats, invaded Panama, Greenland or Canada yet. As far as I know. But then, this is the longest day of the year, and Trump, the consummate car salesman, has yet to sell the Tesla that Elon gave him.

So who knows? Maybe I should just count my blessings, enjoy the sunshine, the air conditioning, have a little supper and find a movie to watch.

Wonder if “The Longest Day” is on Netflix.

By Bob Gaydos

Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton settled their differences.

“May you live in interesting times.”

He keeps saying this, my friend. Over lunch. On the phone. “May you live in interesting times.”

It doesn’t help. Not when the current interpretation of “interesting” vacillates among “chaotic,” “disturbing,” “infuriating,” and “frightening.”

First of all, a lot of us (including me) have been blaming the Chinese for this bit of wisdom generally regarded as a curse. Not so, Google’s artificial intelligence informs me. (Glad it’s good for something useful.)

Direct quote from Google search: “The phrase ‘May you live in interesting times’ is often attributed as a Chinese curse, but it’s actually an English expression of unclear origin. It’s likely the phrase was misattributed as a Chinese saying, possibly by British politician Sir Austen Chamberlain in the 1930s. The phrase itself, ‘live in interesting times,’ can be traced back to the late 19th century in British political circles.”

So that’s that on the quote. The times, alas, are still with us and currently amount to two super-wealthy sociopaths swapping threats and insults with each other via social media in an apparent attempt to control the world.

I don’t really have a favorite in the cat fight between Donald Trump and Elon Musk. I don’t really find it entertaining. I just want them both to lose. That’s the only positive outcome I can see, but I can’t yet imagine how it comes about.

What I can say is that this was inevitable. Two spoiled little rich boys used to getting whatever they want who don’t give a damn about anyone else, totally lacking in impulse control and mostly in the dark about proper social behavior. Plus, they’re racist and bigoted. And liars. And cheats. And millions of Americans admired them and thought it was a wonderful idea to put them in charge of our country and our lives.

Interesting indeed.

What is interesting right now is watching to see if any Republican in Congress takes sides in this fight. Who represents the greatest threat to their continued presence in Congress? After all, that’s pretty much all they care about these days.

I would think Trump does because he’s got the MAGAnuts behind him. Musk has the money to threaten their reelection, but Trump still has the cult of personality going for him and the voters behind it. Elon is definitely damaging the golden boy’s image, but is anyone really surprised that Trump is in the Epstein files?

But is this any way to run a country? Is this any way to make America great again? An old man with declining mental capacities, sitting in the Oval Office and insulting world leaders who come to visit with him. A Nazi-saluting, richest man in the world, who may well have stolen the last presidential election for the man he is currently insinuating raped young girls.

Some choice.

Once upon a time, “gentlemen” settled differences of opinion without involving the rest of the world. Aaron Burr, at the time the vice president of the United States, finally got fed up with the opinions and statements of Alexander Hamilton, some of which were published in newspapers, and challenged his longtime political rival to a duel. Let’s settle this.

Pistols at the Weehawken Dueling Grounds.  Apparently, kind of like the Meadowlands of the day. On July 11, 1804, Hamilton was mortally wounded and died the next day. Burr was charged with murder, but eventually acquitted. He was later also acquitted of treason charges, but his reputation was shattered and his political career was over.

Interesting times.

By Bob Gaydos

Elise Stefanik … pondering her future

  Poor Elise Stefanik. She just got Trumpified out of the dream job of her young lifetime, the crowning glory if you will of all that scraping, bowing, butt-kissing, lying, conniving, scheming and surrendering of personal dignity required to become the Orange One’s nominee as Ambassador to the United Nations, and no one noticed because the rest of the Trump cabinet shared classified war plans on a private chat line that they are forbidden to use for such purposes and somehow managed to include a bonafide — as in ethical and trained — journalist on the chat, which has the Trump team all in distract, lie and point fingers mode because many average Americans can understand a breach of national security even when their Social Security office is closed and a lot of people want Trump to fire Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth even though Trump said he was told no classified information was included in the unsecure chat of the bombing of Yemen’s Houthis, which, it being a warlike act, one might expect the chief executive to be in on the action, and the group was caught with their collective pants down when the journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of The Atlantic magazine, followed up his original story on being mysteriously included on the chat by publishing the entire thread since Trump said it wasn’t classified, although having the sense to redact the name of an undercover CIA agent that Tulsi Gabbard, director of intelligence, happened to drop into the chat, although she couldn’t remember much of anything when members of Congress asked her about it, which was reminiscent of Trump’s response when he couldn’t remember signing an order citing an old wartime act to justify shipping a couple of hundred migrants, who may or may not be members of a Venezuelan gang, to a brutal prison in El Salvador, despite the order of a federal judge not to do so, said judge now serendipitously being the one also assigned to a case in which a private watchdog group, American Oversight, is accusing the Trump Administration of breaking the law, because all intergovernmental communications are required to be preserved, while the beauty of the Signal chat app the war group used is that it eventually deletes all conversations, making it hard to be held accountable, which is why, of course, the aforesaid judge has ordered all members of the chat to preserve everything on their phones and as he is already ticked at being given the runaround by Trump’s lawyers on the deportation matter, was in no mood for any more nonsense on a serious national security issue, which is why hardly anybody knows that poor Elise Stefanik of upstate New York, who did a victory tour of the Adirondacks and fired most of her congressional staff to become part of Trump’s cabinet, is now being told to be patient, go back to Congress even though you’ve lost your leadership position, be a good soldier  and run again for Congress in two years, because we are afraid that we can lose your seat, even though you and Trump carried the district easily, if somebody new runs for the Republican Party, and we only have a couple of seats to spare to control the House of Representatives and heck, you understand it’s all politics, and if we lose control in two years, we can’t do any of the neat crap we’ve been doing — firing people, threatening Greenland — and then you’ll probably never get to be UN ambassador anyway, so please and thank you, Elise.

                    ***

PS: You think it’s easy covering these people?

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

    Really?

    He declared English the “official language” of The United States? The guy who can’t finish a sentence without wandering through three wildernesses? The guy whose most ardent supporters don’t know their “they’res” from their “theres”?

    What does it mean? Does it mean you’ll get kicked out of the country if you can’t speak English? Does it mean  you’ll have to pass a test to prove you can speak English? Does it mean they’ll start insisting that you’ll actually have to be able to speak and write relatively correct English in order to graduate from high school? That would improve some of the discourse on social media.

    As usual, it’s kind of a broad statement from the “Covfefe” guy. Sounds important, but really just plays to the anti-immigrant tenor of the MAGA base. Still, if it makes them brush up on their pronouns and improves Americans’ communications skills in general, it could be a good thing.

    In fact, without meaning to, the guy has already made a significant contribution to our knowledge of our “official” language. I wrote about that in 2019, back in his first term of office. I’ve re-posted that column below. It still applies. His stuff always does. A couple of the names might need to be changed, but their replacements are carbon copies, so I mostly didn’t bother. Read and learn. Who knows, there may be a quiz.

                              ***

Vocabulary for the Trump era

        In the category of nothing is ever all good or all bad (I keep trying), have you noticed a marked improvement in your vocabulary since the man with “all the best words” moved in to the White House?

        Seriously. It struck me the other day as I was reading the daily disaster report that people — not just reporters or TV and radio commentators — regular people were reading, hearing, using and even understanding words, many of which have never been routine in American conversation. It started with “narcissist” and “misogynist,” but the vocabulary lesson has expanded exponentially (see what I mean?) since the news cycle has become all Trump all the time. I mean, “quisling,” really?

      I started compiling a list of words that were previously not your normal fare in your daily paper, including some words I had to look up (using Wikipedia and various legitimate online dictionaries), and decided I might as well share them. Who knows, maybe an English teacher will see it and want to help some students better understand what the grownups have done to the world. If you feel daring, test your partner. Here’s my list (including examples), starting with the two aforementioned words, which are now household staples:

       — Misogynist. From Wikipedia: “Misogyny is the hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women or girls. Misogyny manifests in numerous ways, including social exclusion, sex discrimination, hostility, androcentrism, patriarchy, male privilege, belittling of women, disenfranchisement of women, violence against women, and sexual objectification.” It’s Trump’s middle name and now the whole world is aware of what misogyny looks like in practice. That’s a good thing if steps are taken to combat it, which appears to be happening (#metoo).

       — Narcissist. From Psychology Today: ”The hallmarks of narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) are grandiosity, a lack of empathy for other people, and a need for admiration. People with this condition are frequently described as arrogant, self-centered, manipulative, and demanding. They may also have grandiose fantasies and may be convinced that they deserve special treatment. These characteristics typically begin in early adulthood and must be consistently evident in multiple contexts, such as at work and in relationships. People with NPD … tend to seek excessive admiration and attention and have difficulty tolerating criticism or defeat.” Mussolini comes to mind or, well, you know.

      — Quisling. Turns out we’ve got a bunch of them in the USA. Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonssøn Quisling was a Norwegian military officer and politician who was head of the government of Norway during Nazi Germany’s occupation of the country during World War II. Actually, he was a figurehead who collaborated with the Nazis in every way, including the killing of Jews and others. After the war, he was tried and convicted of murder and treason and was executed. His name became synonymous for collaborator and traitor. Until recently, there hasn’t been much call for “quisling,” but Trump, Mitch McConnell, Lindsay Graham, and the guy Trump wanted to run the CIA, among others, have given new life to it. I could have lived my life without wanting to get the history of this word. ( OK, I lied. Add J.D.Vance.)

       — Sycophant. While we have Lindsay Graham available as a perfect example, why not give a dictionary description of a sycophant: “A person who acts obsequiously (I’ll get to that) toward someone important in order to gain advantage. Synonyms: toady, creep, crawler, fawner, flatterer, flunkey, truckler, groveller, doormat, lickspittle, kowtower, obsequious person, minion, hanger-on, leech, puppet, spaniel …” Add the entire Trump cabinet and staff and most Republicans in Congress.

     — Obsequious. Again, just dictionaries here: “Obsequious people are usually not being genuine; they resort to flattery and other fawning ways to stay in the good graces of authority figures. An obsequious person can be called a bootlicker, a brownnoser or a toady.” Our man Lindsay again and let’s add Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s acting chief of staff and bootlicker par excellence.

      — Nativist. “Relating to or supporting the policy of protecting the interests of native-born or established inhabitants against those of immigrants. Example. ‘He has made his nativist beliefs known through his divisive comments about immigrants.’” The Republican Party and MAGA hat wearers who are still waiting for the wall are perfect examples.

       — Xenophobe. “A person who fears or hates foreigners, people from different cultures, or strangers. A person who fears or dislikes the customs, dress, etc., of people who are culturally different.” The same folks as above. Stephen Miller to be sure.

        — Asylum. Here’s one every American should learn. “The right of asylum is an ancient juridical concept, under which a person persecuted by one’s own country may be protected by another sovereign authority, such as another country or church official, who in medieval times could offer sanctuary. 

      “The United States recognizes the right of asylum of individuals as specified by international and federal law. A specified number of legally defined refugees who apply for refugee status overseas, as well as those applying for asylum after arriving in the U.S., are admitted annually. Since World War II, more refugees have found homes in the U.S. than any other nation and more than two million refugees have arrived in the U.S. since 1980.”

        — Oligarchy. “A small group of people having control of a country, organization, or institution. … Oligarchy is from the Greek word oligarkhes, and it means ‘few governing.’ Three of the most well-known countries with oligarchies are Russia, China, and Iran. Other examples are Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and apartheid South Africa. Trump leans to the Russian and Saudi versions, although he admires certain things about the others. He would probably have been comfortable with apartheid South Africa.

         — Plutocracy. “Government by the rich or the wealthy class. Oligarchy is not necessarily just the wealthy. If a system of plutocracy and oligarchy occurred at the same time (government by a few wealthy people), it would be termed a …

        — Plutarchy. Again, I refer you to Trump’s cabinet, the Koch brothers, and various wealthy interests who have been able to buy power thanks to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling. (OK, yes, Elon.)

         — Nepotism. “The practice among those with power or influence of favoring relatives or friends, especially by giving them jobs.” Especially for which they are unqualified. Trump is a master at keeping it in the family (his own and Fox News) in the White House. Ivanka, Jared, Larry Kudlow.

        —  Emoluments. (Tell me you knew what this meant before Trump.) “The emoluments clause, also called the foreign emoluments clause, is a provision of the U.S. Constitution (Article I, Section 9, Paragraph 8) that generally prohibits federal officeholders from receiving any gift, payment, or other thing of value from a foreign state or its rulers, officers, or representatives. It prohibits those holding offices of profit or trust under the United States from accepting ‘any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever’ from ‘any . . foreign State’ unless Congress consents.” Every stay at a Trump hotel, round of golf at a Trump golf course by the Saudis, the Russians, the Turks, the Chinese … goes into his bank account and he won’t share his income tax returns.

        — Exculpable. (Same category as emoluments.) To exculpate is “to clear from a charge of guilt or fault; free from blame; vindicate.” The person is thus exculpable, something Trump claims Robert Mueller found him. Not true. (Chief Justice John Roberts did it the second time around for Trump.)

        — Propaganda. “Information that is intended to persuade an audience to accept a particular idea or cause, often by using biased material or by stirring up emotions — one of the most powerful tools the Nazis used to consolidate their power and cultivate an ‘Aryan national community’ in the mid-1930s. … the manipulation of the recipient’s emotions in order to win an argument, especially in the absence of factual evidence.” Fox News and Trump and rightwing radio hosts spew it. Trump has even talked about setting up a government broadcast agency to counter the “fake news” of  mainstream media.

         — Brainwash. More commonly known, but worth putting in context. “To make people believe only what you want them to believe by continually telling them that it is true and preventing any other information from reaching them: Could it be that we’re brainwashed to accept these things?”

      Again, Fox News — 24 hours a day of fake news right out of George Orwell. Also, Trump’s pathological lying. Second definition: “A method for systematically changing attitudes or altering beliefs, originated in totalitarian countries, especially through the use of torture, drugs, or psychological-stress techniques.” The Manchurian Candidate, or, perhaps, Putin’s Puppet. Once a far-fetched idea.

        — Hypocrite. “1: a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion. 2: a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings.” Trump of course, but here we’re referring to evangelical Christian leaders who kiss Trump’s ring and conservative, family values-spouting Republicans who do likewise.

         — Penultimate. Nothing to do with Trump, just a word I like. “As both an adjective and a noun, penultimate means next to the last. (Penultimate is not more ultimate than ultimate.)” In other words, this lesson is almost over. Just one more paragraph and thanks for staying with me.

        — Dotard. Kim Jong-un’s name for Trump. “The insult is centuries old, appearing in medieval literature from the ninth century. Searches for the term have spiked since Kim resurrected it. Merriam-Webster: “A state or period of senile decay marked by decline of mental poise.” Side note: Kim didn’t say the word. The North Korean state news agency, KCNA, offered it as the English translation of Kim’s Korean insult, which literally is “old lunatic.” Works for me in any language.

By Bob Gaydos

Governor Kathy Hochul says New York is suing the would-be king.

 I don’t know how it happened, what with the world on a 24-hour what-the- hell-did-he-do-now news cycle, but I somehow managed to miss a cycle or two and found myself scrambling to catch up. I apparently got some laundry and food shopping done and connected with a few friends, so it was time well spent. Still, life as we know it, you know?

     I realized I had had a news blackout when an image of Trump on the cover of Time Magazine (renamed “Trump”) showed up on my phone. (Remember when it was just spam calls?) He was wearing a smile and a crown. The headline said, “Long live the king.”

      That was fast, I thought. What else had I missed? Of course, I quickly discovered it was a mockup of Time put out by the White House, but the guy had actually uttered the words. Or rather, typed them on his social media platform: “CONGESTIONPRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!”

   Having decreed New York City “saved” from its traffic issue, even though it’s none of his business (New York is suing), I learned Trump had also wandered into the wilderness in Ukraine, declaring that its president Volodymer Zelenskyy was “a dictator” and that Ukraine had actually started the war with Russia, apparently by letting itself be invaded by Vladimir Putin’s troops.

    This last bit of historical rewriting actually prompted a few Republican lawmakers to snap their suspenders and disagree publicly with their leader. I also found that his not so vague attempt at extorting valuable minerals from Ukraine in exchange for possibly continued U.S. support in the war, prompted some speculation that Trump was a Russian asset. A Putin puppet.

    Shocking!

    Actually, I was not at all surprised to learn this information because I have been convinced that Trump has been somehow compromised by Putin ever since their private meeting in Helsinki in 2018.

     I’ve said it before more than once and I’m saying it yet again — Putin emerged from that meeting looking like he had swallowed, not the canary, but the American eagle, and Trump looked like a teenaged boy who had just been caught doing something best done in private and was going to be blackmailed for it for the rest of his life.

      Just because “The Manchurian Candidate” was a movie doesn’t mean it couldn’t be happening before our very eyes. Especially with an ego-driven, cowardly person like Trump. Putin owns Trump. It’s not just Trump’s admiration for “strong“ leaders, I don’t think. Putin’s got the goods on Trump and Trump has been trying to satisfy his master, by sabotaging NATO and refusing to support Ukraine, among other things. Some might scoff that this is just another wild conspiracy theory (the bullet never hit him) and I’ve mocked conspiracy theorists myself. But it’s not a theory when it’s staring us in the face.

      But, as I said, that’s old news. Back in my news blackout I also apparently missed Trump firing the general heading the Joint Chiefs of Staff because he’s black and the heads of the Navy and Coast Guard because they’re women and replacing them with less qualified white men. Because DEI.

    But the real shocker came in the area I go to for escape from unsettling news. Sports. Apparently, after six decades and a bunch of championships, I learned the New York Yankees have lifted their ban on facial hair among players. Wow! This was even more shocking than reading about robot umpires being tested. Hal Steinbrenner Jr., team owner, has altered the policy initiated by his father to now allow facial hair as long as beards are “well trimmed.” I guess the players are happy.

      I’m not sure how I feel about this. The Yankee haters will have lost one of their major talking points. On the other hand, there’s something to be said for tradition and daring to be different. Maybe they’ll just have to go back to winning championships again. That would be nice.

    And maybe I need to stay on top of the news a little better because this catching up on stuff could drive a lesser person to drink. (Wink, wink.)

PS: The bullet never did hit him.