By Bob Gaydos

Melania Trump

    OK, I was writing something else when a headline caught my eye this morning. It seems Trump had negotiated a temporary ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. 

    Wow. Well, it’s not the same as ending the war on day one of his term, as promised, but it’s something, I thought. Then I read the story. It turns out the temporary ceasefire applies to only one city in Ukraine, Oleshky, which is described as “war ravaged.“ The Russian-occupied city was the scene of the first Russian attack on Ukraine. It is without water, electricity, heat, food, medicine or anything else basically needed for human survival. Unlivable. The temporary ceasefire is described as “humanitarian,“ to bring desperately needed aid to residents of the area and allow those who wish to leave the opportunity to do so safely.

   OK, still a positive. Then I read further. The White House said that the Trump who negotiated the ceasefire was Melania.

   They really do think we’re that stupid. 

   The absentee First Lady brokered a deal with Russia and Ukraine, presumably because her Russian is much better than her English. Oh, and she heard some terrible stories about children suffering in the region at a recent meeting at the United Nations.

   And that bridge in Brooklyn is still for sale if you’re interested.

   What do I think? In a nutshell, Trump and the Republicans are in deep trouble with the midterm elections approaching and are desperate to find anything that sounds like a positive story coming out of the White House. The situation in Oleshky sounds like a perfect scenario for war crimes accusations against Putin and Russia. He could use a little good ink back home for all the suffering the war has caused in Russia. Trump, the one who is president, also desperately needs good ink to stave off a Democratic takeover of Congress. But Putin, who controls Trump, likely came up with the idea with some of Trump‘s close advisors. They are well aware that the number of Americans who believe Trump could actually come up with such a proposal is rapidly dwindling. He’s not bright enough. He doesn’t care enough. People have heard him speak in public. But he knows it will play well in certain places, maybe convince some voters, and so he is willing to take whatever goodwill comes out of it by attaching Melania‘s name to the deal. Makes it seem more believable. At least that’s the operating theory.

   The ceasefire is scheduled to begin at 4 A.M. Tuesday, Moscow time. A Russian spokesperson declined to say how long the cease-fire/evacuation will last or whether  those who choose to leave will be evacuated to Russian- or Ukrainian-held territory. Seems important.

   This, of course, is wonderful news for the suffering residents of the region. It might also be a reflection of Putin and Trump being aware of how unpopular the war has become with Americans and Russians and how that might affect their ability to continue to lead their countries. I seriously doubt it’s because of any sincere concern for the residents of Oleshky.

     As for what’s in it for Melania, the new peacemaker and old friend of Jeffrey Epstein, that’s probably spelled out in her non-disclosure agreement.

By Bob Gaydos

Trump and Putin in Helsinki.

   Forgive me if I sound a bit testy, but I get frustrated, after 10 years of dealing with Donald Trump, when people, especially people who are supposed to be educated in such matters, express surprise when the dotard says or does something that benefits Vladimir Putin.

   Like announcing a deal to buy 300,000 metric tons of diesel fuel from Russia. Let’s set aside the legality, duplicity and utter stupidity of the deal for a moment. To those not familiar with the details of diesel fuel usage in America — most of us, I suspect — that may sound like a lot of diesel. It is. But it is roughly half the amount of diesel that America uses every day.

    Half a day’s worth of diesel. To help out a financially struggling Russian economy on which the U.S. has placed economic sanctions, including on diesel, and a Russian leader engaged in a costly and unpopular war (half a million dead soldiers, a million wounded) he started with Ukraine, whom the U.S. is supposed to be supporting.

    Which is only half the war story. In the war that Trump started, Russia is on the side of Iran, sharing intelligence. So Trump wants to send money to Russia to help it fight against our ally, Ukraine, even though Russia is helping Iran to kill Americans. Do you get that MAGA? Republicans?

    But, American truckers and farmers are angry that they can’t afford diesel fuel for their trucks because Trump’s war against Iran has resulted in Iran and its allies shutting down the main route for shipment of oil from the Middle East, resulting in a steep increase in the price of diesel available in the U.S. And diesel fuels the trucks that move all those now also more expensive groceries, etc. that Americans are complaining about.

   And the polls show Republicans likely losing control of the House of Representatives in next month’s election, meaning Trump won’t be able to ignore the law, as he is with the diesel deal, and is likely to spend two years, at least, of intense investigation. 

     So (and we’re not through with all the dots here) Trump looked for a quick fix to save his butt with voters and turned to his “friend,” Putin.

      This looks like a good spot to go back to why I’m so cranky about this Trump/Putin thing. It goes back to July 16, 2018. Trump and Putin had a summit meeting in Helsinki. Their third meeting. It began with a private, two-hour meeting between Trump and Putin and their interpreters. That’s it. No one to this day knows what was said behind closed doors for two hours. But the world saw a smiling Putin emerge along with a slumped over Trump looking like he had just been taken to the woodshed. That aura of smiling confidence Trump likes to put on was gone. He was thoroughly whipped. Very unpresidential.

       When asked by reporters what Putin had to say about  charges by Special Counsel Robert Mueller that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election to help him, Trump meekly said that Putin had denied it and that he believed him. Case closed.

       It was there for the world to see. Putin had Trump. Or more accurately, something on him. Has had it ever since. It has been reported often and too often forgotten when Trump does something that seems stupid because it helps Putin, who has never been this nation’s friend. Sex tapes, videos, photos of Trump in embarrassing and illegal situations. Believing they don’t exist is to ignore the life histories of the two men. A narcissistic, legally adjudicated sexual predator whose attorney general and FBI are hiding the Epstein files from the public and the former head of the Russian KGB, which is known to have used women to lure men with influence into “compromising” situations.

       Connect the dots. Trump is Putin’s puppet. In spy lingo, he’s a Russian asset. It makes him our liability. 

       Trump doesn’t care who is hurt if he can protect himself. Say that Ukraine should get a new president because Zelinsky refuses to surrender to Putin? Sure. Suggest at a political rally that Iran (with a large, international network of terrorist allies and intelligence help from Russia, remember?) might want to take out San Diego and Los Angeles? Why not? “Small price to pay,” said Trump. People laughed.

      He is solely driven by self-protection. 

      The “deal” with Russia is illegal, ignoring economic sanctions that were in place. In total, it amounts to about two weeks’ worth of diesel in the U.S. and can be gotten cheaper from Canada, our ally until Trump. It will do little to help either Russia or the U.S. economically. It’s political window dressing for two struggling authoritarians. The fact that Russia is helping Iran to fight us, killing Americans, makes the deal incredibly stupid and … maybe treasonous?

      You get the idea. We know all this. Republicans know and refuse to stop it. The media mostly treat it as business as usual. But there’s nothing “usual” about this. That’s why I’m testy.

By Bob Gaydos

A firing squad execution live on Tv?

   Dollars to donuts, the dotard wants to show up to witness the firing squad execution in Fort Hood. Pure spectacle. Violence. He loves it. Also, no one‘s talking about the illegal war he started in Iran that has wreaked havoc with the economy or the Epstein files which detail his involvement with sex trafficking and raping of young girls. Just saying.

    Back to death. With much of the nation, never mind government officials in Tennessee, still trying to figure out how that state’s prison system managed to botch the (twice) the execution of a 50-year-old woman sentenced to death 30 years ago for a brutal murder, Pete Hegseth, the chronically over-stimulated “war” Secretary, announced that the Army would carry out the first firing squad execution in this country in 65 years at Fort Hood. Don’t worry if you’re not invited. Your government plans to livestream it for your viewing pleasure. The ultimate reality show.

      And that’s how we decide these days what is the appropriate way for the government to deal with capital punishment, if at all. Trump reinstitutes firing squads, calls Hegseth and says, hey, Pete, get out those rifles. Pete’s hormones flare and he sets it up, including the streaming. And so discussing the pros and cons of televising live executions is moot. Unless the guest of honor’s lawyers go to court.

     The target of the execution is Nidal Malik Hasan, an army psychiatrist who killed 13 people and injured 32 more in a mass shooting at the military base in 2009. He said he did it in an effort to prevent the United States from sending troops to Afghanistan to kill other Muslims. He represented himself at trial, saw the killings as a holy mission. He would probably welcome the firing squad as an apt ending, making him a martyr for his cause.

      But public executions are against international law. Amnesty International reported in 2025 that it knew of 17 public executions, 11 in Iran and six in Afghanistan. 

     Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, condemned the decision to livestream the execution. In a written statement, he said, “It is with shock and great sorrow that I have learned of the Department of War’s decision to publicly livestream the execution of Nidal Hassan. Our God is the God of life. In no way can Hassan’s actions be condoned, but this decision is a barbaric promotion of a culture of death and must be reconsidered.”

      The firing squad would probably be more efficient than the bungled lethal injections in Tennessee, but it’s doubtful that’s behind Trump’s promotion of them. For him, it’s always about the spectacle, looking “strong,” no matter how it may impact the nation as a whole. The archbishop’s use of the words “barbaric” and “culture of death” ring true for the Trump regime.

    Christa Pike was released from the hospital in Tennessee yesterday after her double failed executions. Her lawyers said she was back in prison, walking haltingly and was still somewhat confused. They have asked that she be allowed to live out the rest of her life in prison.

    Hasan, who has waited 17 years for his death sentence to be carried out, may be toying with going out a martyr at the hands of a firing squad. On live television.

    Neither of these killers deserves any sympathy, but why do I have the feeling that millions of innocent Americans are being negatively impacted by the clumsy, impulsive ways their punishment is being handled? It says much about us as a nation right now and a lot of it is not positive.

    Also, lest we forget with all this talk about the proper way to kill killers, Trump’s illegal war with Iran that has created chaos with economies around the world continues, as does the FBI‘s failure to release the Epstein files, which detail Trump‘s alleged involvement in the sex trafficking and rape of young girls.

   And, as I continue to say, the Republican Party, which controls Congress, bears full responsibility for all of this for allowing it to continue. Remember that on Election Day.

By Bob Gaydos

      The weekly reminder.

Mitch McConnell
… still missing and presumed dead

      The lowest price I saw today for gasoline in our mid-Hudson region of New York was $4:16 per gallon. The Food and Drug Administration, its rank of inspectors sharply reduced by the Trump administration, announced that organic frozen blueberries are being recalled in several states because of the risk of e-coli infection, which has caused vomiting, diarrhea and, well, death. Measles cases are multiplying. The U.S. resumed military action in the illegal war with Iran by attacking a wedding, killing several people including a child. Trump proposed renaming the Strait of Hormuz after himself. He also had a sculpture in front of the Kennedy Center removed and said he still wants to put his name on it if he doesn’t just tear it down and build a better one. Trump also announced a quarter of a million dollar fix up of the White House bowling alley and the U.S. mint released a one dollar gold coin with Trump’s face on it, despite a law prohibiting likenesses of living presidents being placed on U.S. currency. The U.S. debt recently reached $40 trillion, a record. The 50 percent tariffs Trump placed on Canadian goods in his infantile war with our neighboring ally are set to take place next week and will be met dollar for dollar by Canada, sharply increasing the cost of automobiles and steel among other other things. The trade deficit shot up again reaching $88.6 billion in July and the energy secretary blamed Ukraine for high energy prices, ignoring the war in Iran. The secretary of the Army resigned, citing constant conflict with Pete Hegseth over military strategy and the firing of top generals and admirals. The deputy secretary also resigned. Credible reports say that Trump has increased his net worth by $4 billion since taking office last year through a variety of grifts, insider trading and other illicit activity while inflation continues to rise. Trump again tried to do away with birthright citizenship, but another judge rejected it. The Justice Department still has not released the Epstein files as required by Congress. Meanwhile, Mitch McConnell has not been seen in person by any living person for more than 80 days, but still remains a member of the U.S. Senate where Republicans have set a tentative session of three weeks of work between now and November. In the House, Speaker Mike Johnson said his body would be in session this week and the week of September 14 and that’s it until after the November election. The House has been in recess since August 11 and Johnson is clearly in no mood to hang around and answer questions about Trump, much less pass legislation to help average Americans.

    Yes, sadly, that’s what has become a typical week in the Trump administration. But that’s Trump — a new bottom every day. I do not blame him for being who he is; I simply detest him. In truth, I’m sick of him. I do, however, blame the Republican Party for infecting American society (not just politics) with this utterly despicable human being. I mean every elected Republican official, from the House Speaker, Senate Majority Leader, the entire cabinet, to every governor, senator, congressperson, state legislator, attorney general, county executive, county legislator, sheriff, mayor, supervisor, councilman, or candidate who has stood silently by, day after day, and let Trump make a mockery of our laws, our democratic system of government and lay waste to any sense of decency or decorum befitting the office of president of the most powerful nation on the planet. Ladies and gentlemen, you are him. You could stop this. Instead, you own this.

       This message will repeat as necessary. Vote for every Democrat in November.

By Bob Gaydos

Senator Joe McCarthy, left and Donald Trump. Birds of a feather.
Anna Lefkowitz / MS NOW; Jabin Botsford / The Washington Post via Getty Images; Getty Images

  “Are you now, or have you ever been …”

  It’s come to that already. The sure sign of a desperate man and a desperate party. The “communist” threat.

   Give me a break.

   Stuck with historically low polling numbers, the result of a lost war of choice, high gas prices, high food prices, failed projects all over D.C., a measles outbreak, a diarrhea outbreak, a bleak jobs report, restlessness among the ranks who must face reelection and the always present specter of the actual release of the Epstein files, Trump has fallen back on the oldest Republican gimmick. Calling Democrats communists. “Godless communists.”

    Shades of Joe McCarthy. And shades of Roy Cohn, the Wisconsin senator’s pit bull lawyer during the televised Army-McCarthy congressional hearings in 1954 that pitted neighbor against neighbor, friend against friend, no evidence needed. Just the question: Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?

      Trump learned at Cohn’s side. When in trouble: Accuse, insult, insinuate. Repeat. Take the focus off yourself. With his world and support crumbling around him, clearly more delusional by the day, Trump looked around and saw two popular Democrats with foreign-sounding names, policies at odds with his brand of fascism and identified what he desperately thought were targets of opportunity.

     The new mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, and the new Democratic Senate candidate in the state of Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed are both well-accomplished, intelligent, well -spoken native-born Americans, both Social Democrats, both Muslim with Muslim-sounding names.

     Communists! Clearly. And the Republican sheep in the Congress picked up the cue. Any popular Democrat with proposals that sound like they might be good for people‘s health, wealth and welfare must be communists.

    Head Start, Medicare, Snap. Tax the wealthy. Feed the poor. Communists.

    Not really. Not even close. But the sheep figured maybe the MAGA diehards won’t know the difference. (They won’t). So they picked up the call. But first, the Republican cowards approved Trump‘s personal lawyer to be the top law enforcement official in the country, passed a quickie interim budget so the country wouldn’t have to shut down and then they fled town. No, they didn’t pass Trump‘s Save Act designed to save his butt by making it difficult for a lot of people to vote in November. They didn’t have the votes, so they ran away.

     That left Trump alone in the White House, posting inane comments and photos on social media all night, selling advance access to his posts, reaping money from Bitcoin and anything else with his name on it, a personal lawyer as U.S. attorney general to protect him from the IRS and “communist” state attorneys general, a war with Iran he started and can’t win even though Pete Hegseth used up all our ballistic missiles, Jeanine Pirro deciding she’s an actual lawyer and refusing to prosecute an innocent person for damaging the Reflecting Pool, ICE still roaming the streets, America’s reputation badly tarnished internationally and the Epstein …

    Look! Communists! Over there! Don’t vote for them!

    That’s Trump — a new bottom every day. I do not blame him for being who he is; I simply detest him. In truth, I’m sick of him. I do, however, blame the Republican Party for infecting American society (not just politics) with this utterly despicable human being.

     I mean every elected Republican official, from the House Speaker, Senate Majority Leader, the entire cabinet, to every governor, senator, congressperson, state legislator, attorney general, county executive, county legislator, mayor, supervisor, councilman, who has stood silently by and let Trump make a mockery of our laws, our democratic system of government and lay waste to any sense of decency or decorum befitting the most powerful political leader on the planet. Ladies and gentlemen, you are him.

    I intend to post that last paragraph as much as possible between now and the November election. It can’t be said too much.

    Communist indeed!

    At long last, Republicans, have you left no sense of decency?

Syracuse Post-Dispatch

 

By Bob Gaydos

    With the death of local newspapers, the co-opting of major media, the widespread fake news on social media, and the daily torrent of lies emanating from the White House and the Republican Party, it is often impossible these days to know what is actually going on in this country and the rest of the world. Therefore, I present here a list of 20 questions for our times. Honest answers would be welcome.

                                The Questions

1. Where in the world is Mitch McConnell?
2. Is he dead or alive?
3. Why did his wife go to China?
4. When and why did Marco Rubio turn in to Lindsay Graham?
5. Could Trump pass even a basic cognitive test today?
6. Will legal gambling and “probability betting” eventually destroy sports at all levels in this country?
7. Who killed Jeffrey Epstein?
8. How badly has Netanyahu fractured the America/Israel connection?
9. Are there aliens (non-earthlings) living among us?
10. What is the biggest threat from Artificial Intelligence?
11. Should the president be elected by popular vote?
12. Why does anyone care how fast a baseball leaves a major league stadium?
13. What religion will J.D. Vance convert to next?
14. Where in the world is Chuck Schumer?
15. Why are so many Americans, all the descendants of immigrants, so afraid of immigrants?
16. Has Putin already lost the war in Ukraine?
17. What will eventually replace the soulless Republican Party?
18. Should Supreme Court justices have term limits rather than lifetime appointments?
19. Should cursive writing still be taught in school?
20. How could anyone vote for Donald Trump TWICE?

   Feel free to respond to any question and to suggest any of your own. The list can grow. Remember, we’re all in this together.

By Bob Gaydos 

Don Sr., Don Jr. and Bettina, the new Mrs. Trump

RSVP: I regret that I will be unable to attend your wedding because the timing is bad and I have a lot of important stuff to do at home and people would be angry if I took the time away from that stuff.

Love, Dad

       No, he didn’t write that email to his first-born son, named after him. He just said it out loud for the world to hear. At least he didn’t say, “Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

        Donald Trump Jr., also known as “Dumb,” from the Dumb and Dumber duo, was married Friday on a small island in the Bahamas. His second marriage. A small, intimate affair. Just 50 family and close friends. Daddy, who once said, “The family is really the foundation of a prosperous and good society,” couldn’t make it. He was, he said, too busy. 

        Trying to wreck the New World Order. There was this annoying war thing in Iran. And, you know, that 30-year-old murder charge to file against Raoul Castro. Maybe even invade Cuba for some reason. And the Congress wasn’t buying his slush fund for the criminals who invaded the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2020, trying to overthrow a newly elected government

        Stuff.

        It was simply too much to deal with just for a second marriage of your oldest son. Besides, there wouldn’t really be any voters there to try to impress. And the Bahamas have some kind of silly law about being able to deny entry to anyone convicted of a serious felony. And there was that speaking appearance in the Hudson Valley to support a loyal congressman who was elected by a small group of enthusiastic, well-organized supporters apparently pretending to be Democrats.

       Important stuff.

       Funny coincidence: Don Jr.’s new wife, Bettina Anderson, described as a “sociaIite,” is the daughter of the late Palm Beach banker, Harry Loy Anderson Jr., who had a mutual friend with Trump Senior — Jeffrey Epstein. The banker reportedly socialized with and helped Epstein get major tax breaks for his own special island.

       Talk about synchronicity. It’s too bad Trump had too much important stuff to deal with to attend his son’s wedding. Dad might have had some stories to share with his new daughter-in-law about her father and their fun days with Epstein. 

        Better luck next time.

Melania Trump

By Bob Gaydos

Melania figured she had nothing to lose

Since Donny was stuck

in the Straight of Hormuz.

Commandeer his podium.

Summon the press.

Make sure her maid finds just the right, modest dress.

***

“Good afternoon, media people,

I have something to say.

Something vich troubles me every day.

“I vill talk about Epstein, who I never knew.

Never slept with him either. Who vould? Vould you?

Those pictures you see are phony.

The stories, too.

The old ones, the new ones.

The ones in the files, too.

“I met Donald purely by chance,

at a New York singles mixer.

No one named Jeffrey or Ghislaine

was the fixer.

“So don’t bother, Congress,

to call me to testify.

I know nothing. Never saw any island.

That, too, is a lie.

Better you should call all those girls,

the victims, to speak.

Let them tell their awvful stories.

Make those powerful men shudder.

Make them look veak.

“Thank you for listening.

And now I must go.”

                      ***

No questions. No answers.

Just good bye and hello.

                       ***

Much later that night and weary from war,

a president spoke to his country.

‘Twas raw.

Forgoing news media, as is his wont,

He chose to be social. The better to taunt.

But there was naught

 ‘bout his wife’s earlier talk

about Epstein and victims

and that chance meet in New York.

Nor words of anger or frustration.

No unnecessary drama.

Merely a seemingly random video

of a man

beating a woman

to death

with a hammer.

By Bob Gaydos 

Is reality really virtual? What if none of it mattered?

  What if killing 168 schoolgirls in the process of killing much of the leadership of a sovereign nation that hadn’t attacked or even threatened us didn’t matter?

  What if killing innocent fishermen earning a living in the sea off Venezuela didn’t matter?

  What if cutting off the oil supply to Cuba, effectively starving the island nation that also posed no threat, didn’t matter?

    What if eliminating funds for food and HIV treatment for African nations, effectively killing thousands, didn’t matter?

    What if government agents randomly kidnapping people off the streets of American cities didn’t matter? What if those same agents killing innocent American citizens in the same streets didn’t matter?

   What if powerful, influential men participating in a worldwide sex trafficking ring with young girls didn’t matter?

    What if caring about such things was all just something we made up in our minds? A “construct,” to borrow a concept from Deepak Chopra. Constructs, according to the meditation guru who shared intimate emails about a taste for young girls with Jeffrey Epstein, are mental creations (beliefs, roles, ideas) that help us get through life, but keep us from recognizing our true nature – pure awareness, as he says. Chopra promotes meditation to get past the fear and ego which he says bind us to these constructs so that we can find the “real” reality within ourselves as part of a massive field of consciousness. 

    What if, as part of this vast consciousness, age, sexual behavior, honesty, respect, compassion, decency and other “constructs” that guide us through life don’t matter? What if grown men meditating regularly and engaging in sexual activity with young girls (a construct defined by most as rape) is a construct one can live with? And, of course, lying about it. One’s own convenient “real” reality? Pure awareness.

   Meditate on that.

   And while you’re in a meditative state, consider the proposition put forth by another proponent of the “all is not what it seems to be” fraternity — Tom Campbell. The physicist/philosopher posits that we are all simply characters in a digital virtual reality. Campbell’s “larger consciousness system“ is the computer that produces our reality.

   Campbell’s three-book series under the umbrella title of “My Big Toe” (“My Big Theory of Everything“), posits that your true self — the Player — is a non-physical unit of consciousness, which exists outside of a physical simulation, your avatar, which is your body and brain. The “player” (not your brain) makes all the choices for your avatar within the virtual reality. And, it has a purpose — to lower the entropy (the disorder in our lives such as war, killing, kidnaping, rape, lying) by choosing love and cooperation over fear and ego.

   Well, in that case, all of it would seem to matter.

   Hmm. Conundrum.

   “Real” reality or virtual reality?

   Upon reflection of about 30 seconds I’ve decided my Player is telling me that Deepak is full of crap. Pure evil. The Player has apparently also instructed me to keep writing that all the others who were part of the Epstein sex-trafficking and whatever else was going on construct deserve to be severely punished for their behaviors. And that the most efficient way to quickly reduce the entropy in all our shared reality, virtual or otherwise, is to haul Donald Trump’s diapered butt out of our White House and into a prison cell as soon as possible.

    For what it’s worth, that’s my construct of a big theory of everything and my very real reality.

By Bob Gaydos

Deepak Chopra, friend of Jeffrey Epstein?

When the world starts to run away from me and there’s too much to comment on but I know more is coming fast, I turn to the late, great Jimmy Cannon’s approach. So,

• Maybe it’s just me, but: A president who has said, “We are not looking for regime change. We’ve learned that lesson a long time ago.“ And, “We must abandon the failed policy of nation building and regime change.“ And, just in June of last year when asked about regime change said it “leads to chaos,” but has now said in a space of a few months, “We are in charge“ with regard to Venezuela and “regime change in Iran seems like the best possible outcome“ and, noting that he’s still a little busy with Iran, did say that the fall of the Cuban regime was just “a question of time,” is basically dangerous, power-hungry and not to be believed any time he opens his mouth.
• Maybe it’s just me, but: I get a little worried when one mega corporation starts buying up all kinds of media outlets, threatening the diversity of opinion and trustworthy newsgathering. So, I’m not happy that Paramount, which is in the process of turning CBS into a clone of Fox News, is reportedly ready to do the same with CNN and also owns Paramount Pictures, Skydance Media, HBO, MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, HGTV, TLC, Discovery, Paramount+, Pluto TV, Oracle (which owns 15% of TikTok) CBS Sports and the Cartoon Network, outbid (with a big nudge from the White House) Netflix to buy Warner Brothers Discovery. This has monopoly written all over it and the FCC should carefully review this deal. But this is Trump’s FCC and it’s Trump’s buddy who owns Paramount, which means Congress should really look at this closely. Which is why it’s really nice to have a true two-party system. Remember?
• Maybe it’s just me, but: I’ve become somewhat numbed to the steady release of names of prominent, influential or just plain rich people in the Epstein files. I mean, the man formally known as Prince Andrew was not a surprise, nor was Woody Allen, Bill Clinton or even Bill Gates. Their names had been out there a while. But I have to admit Deepak Chopra stopped me in my tracks. Is this a construct? Or did the wellness guru have something else in mind when he e-mailed Jeffrey to “bring your girls” and commented on the sounds young girls make? Something to meditate on.
• Maybe it’s just me, but: I’m only mildly surprised that the inevitable Trump purge of disposable sycophants has begun with the kiss off of Kristi Noem from Homeland Security to some other phony organization with a fancy name Trump has cooked up. You can only embarrass the Donald … well, actually you cannot embarrass the Donald and run a scam funding operation that doesn’t include him and get caught doing it. Eventually, Noem needs to be held accountable for her criminal behavior running Homeland Security. And lose those hair extensions.