Most of what Trump does doesn't benefit the average American

 From vanity projects to personal political vendettas.  The vomit of his own mind.  The presidency for him is nothing more than an extension of his own personality.  The wars.  So far the only country he has benefited is Israel.  Domestically the only thing he seems to care about is immigration.  Judge ruled he has to take his name off the Kennedy Center.  He wasted our time.  Has he made it easier for anyone to afford a home or buy health insurance?  War abroad and ICE coming to a town near you.  Throw in the settling of old political scores and this is about as broad and multifaceted a presidency as you're going to get from Donald J. Trump.  He's so bad he makes you want to stick a Vance sign on your front lawn.  Almost.

I was thinking of adding a ballroom to my house

 Not for entertainment but for security reasons.  Let's relive the Cuban Missile Crisis.  Gin it up.  You have to leave the country first to apply for a green card.  Tucker Carlson is a domestic terrorist.  Oh btw just saw a vid on YouTube.  The reason why you don't see Bigfoot in the open woods as much is because he spends most of his time underground in cave systems and tunnels coast to coast.

We are living in what I call the Post-Reason Age.

Financial thoughts while pipe smoking

 In between the Cavendish and Burley I tend to cogitate on money matters a lot during my pipe sessions.  Get a lot of solicitations in the mail.  Pre-approved personal loans, home equity, credit cards.  The big come-on with the loans is paying off high-interest credit card debt.  However if your minimum payment isn't that high to begin with I don't see how this holds you back.  How many loan sharks are okay with paying them back 80 or 100 bucks every month over the course of twenty years?  OK so you take out the loan or loans and wipe out your Visa and Mastercard obligations so now you owe monthly payments on the loan which is probably bigger than your minimum credit card payments were.  Now you get another loan solicitation in the mail to pay back your other loans.  The never-ending cycle of debt.  Also Tom Selleck wants to talk to you about something. 

Maybe go off the grid and live in a cave for five years?

Odd woman out

 I don't think she ever really fit in.  She always opposed invading Venezuela and going to war with Iran.  Talking about Tulsi Gabbard who just stepped down from her post as the Director of National Intelligence.   The cover story is that she resigned to be with her husband in his battle with bone cancer.  There are reports the CIA raided her office and took back some JFK and MK-ULTRA files about to be declassified and released to the public  There are other reports the WH forced her to step down.  Maybe a little of everything. 

I think Tulsi Gabbard was initially happy to join the Trump Cabinet because she supported the version of Trump that he campaigned on.  Must be a relief for her.

Cat people and dog people

 

Early on growing up we had mostly dogs.  An occasional cat but mostly canines.  My folks picked up a stray mutt on a street corner once.  Had Mickey for a while.  Had a couple of German Shepherds.  Beautiful animal, good for protection but don't seem to live that long.  Sometimes they have problems with the hind legs.  Then for whatever reason we shifted totally to felines.  They're low maintenance compared to dogs.  For the most part you don't have to housebreak them unless they have some type of emotional issues going on.  You don't have to walk them three times a day even in Arctic conditions.  They sleep much of the time and as a bonus help control the rodent population.  They're also cleaner than dogs.  We had a dog once and every now and then we'd put him in the car and drove to a wooded area.  If there was a dead animal around he liked to roll around in that. A cat would never do that.  Am I biased?  Maybe.  Dog may be man's best friend but but a cat ain't that much work.

It's a cat thing.

The elusive nature of Trump's greatness

 It always escapes me.  Driving my Trumper friend home the other day and he always brings up politics.  He said Trump loves America then he starts talking about Obama.  When was the last time Obama was president?  Welcome to the retro grievance department.  Of those remaining and dwindling few who are digging in their heels still defending Trump my question is 

WHY???

Gloss over Trump's dementia

 Focus on the Left.  Seems to be the strategy of Trump's dwindling stalwarts.  Big Blue Wave coming this Fall.

If Bigfoot fought a hippo who would win?

 YouTube running out of ideas.  I once got in my feed how would a corpse look after ten years.  I never searched this subject.  I have no interest in this subject.  I'm guessing pretty bad.  Maybe it'll turn up again like a bad penny.  John Wick vs. Jason.  I almost clicked on this one.  YouTube is the McDonaldizing of information.  Guy trying to replicate quicksand in the lab.  My journey through toenail fungus.  The podcasters all like to talk about what the other podcasters are saying instead of just you do you.  Young Turks is good.  Jimmy Dore is funny.  Jim Gaffigan just bounced back into my feed.    Cats are too fast for rattlesnakes.  Honey badgers don't give a rat's ass.  They'll chase a Sasquatch.  The algorithm must know I'm old.  Starting getting how to properly use a cane in my feed.  Watched a couple.  Kind of counterintuitive.  You use the cane on the opposite side of the bad leg.  I now keep a cane in my car.

YouTube.  Every night at least one hour for me.  Metal detectors......

The only aliens Trump likes

 My friend kept talking about some UFO dump today.  Another distraction?

What's in your wallet?

 Are you better off under Trump?  This is the basic question.  The price of groceries.  Pain at the pump.  I've had to resort to coin to cash conversions of late.  I own property.  Any buried treasure in my backyard?  Been pondering. Have even thought of getting a cheap metal detector to find out.  Indian head pennies.  Artifacts.  Jimmy Hoffa?  Far as I can see I can't join any class-action lawsuits.  I've never been molested in an Uber or a Lyft.  Never lived or worked close to Camp Lejeune.  I still got a ton of pennies to go through to convert to spending money.  Call it the Christian Brothers/Tobacco Fund.  Will also help with the Fancy Feast.

So ask your Trump cultist friends and co-workers what's in their wallet.  The bottom line:)

Is it a ceasefire or did Hegseth run out of ammunition?

 Hegseth pleads with Congress for a trillion dollars more to continue with the Iran War.  Lawmakers want to know when he plans on wrapping things up.  Before Taylor Swift releases her next album?  No stimulus checks from the Trump Government yet.  No gas rebates, consumer tariff refunds.  Nothing.  Also Trump wants Jimmy Kimmel fired (again) and ABC's license revoked over some Melania joke.  Most folk ain't up that late anyway.  Every president has been made fun of by the late-night comedians.  Goes with the territory.  No president has ever made an issue about it before.  You have a planet to run ya know?Meanwhile YouTube is demonetizing platforms over what it considers inauthentic content.  The stuck poop videos get to stay though.

Forge ahead or cut your losses?

 We all make bad decisions in life at which time the most basic simple course of action is to cut your losses, regroup and recover, learn and go forward.  One can easily apply this to the Iran War but I'm thinking of the Republicans here.  The choice is simple and stark.  Impeach Trump now or lose the midterms.

So that's my anti-Trump post for today.  Shame we always have to spend so much time talking about the man.

Don't stand so close to me

 What we know about the shooter.  A not uncommon phrase now during the Era of Trump.  31-year old teacher from Torrance, CA taken into custody for charging a security checkpoint and firing shots at the WH Correspondents' Dinner last night.  Secret Service man injured not seriously.  Suspect - Cole Tomas Allen.  He is also a Caltech grad, has a degree in computer science and is also an indie video game developer.  Authorities now perusing his writings which Trump calls a manifesto.  It was said he was targeting Trump Administration officials.  The POTUS now says we have to work to resolve our differences.  Ya think?

As The Trump World Turns;)

Trump got in because the Left is weak on certain issues

 This needs to be said.

The Left would like to tax the wealthy into oblivion.  As soon as they start talking about wealth redistribution they give off communist vibes.  The Left acts like illegal immigrants have the same right to be here as you and me.  The open borders crowd.  The Left is perceived as being soft on crime.  Also anti-religion at times and the list goes on.  So now the political pendulum has swung to the opposite extreme of Trump.  The Left helped to elect Donald Trump.  That and the rest of us bought into the consumate bullshit artist. 

Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

I've never understood trickle-down economics

 Say a wealthy doctor owns a mansion in Scarsdale he's so overflowing with money there are coins and money on the sidewalk that passerbys happily pick up.  I've never experienced this myself walking past a wealthy person's residence or place of business and paper bills wafting down from the sky.  The notion did indeed start with Reagan though.

I understand dribble-itis though.

The Few. The Proud. The 20%

 Parts of Trump's evangelical base are now openly calling Trump an antichrist.  He didn't attend any kind of Easter religious service and he uses ai regularly now to poke fun at faith.  Polling consistently shows deep negative job approval ratings and most folk are not on board with the Iran War.  If you still support Trump what's up?  On a personal level he has absolutely no likeable qualities as far as I can see.  Even Megyn Kelly has finally jumped ship.  If you're still in that polling minority that approves of Trump you need to explain his greatness because I'm missing it.

Cult:)

A fan of AI not

 AI is taking over.  Whatever happened to straight up information?  Google the most mundane topic say "how to change a light bulb" and you get about two seconds of the ai "thinking" then you get the AI Overview.  There are many concerns about ai but one of mine is you can get a rogue ai spreading misinfo along the web.  Not even a malicious ai but maybe just a faulty ai.  I've heard it explained that the ai will scour the internet and sometimes pick up false information and rumors and present it as fact.  You'll occasionally see the disclaimer that the information presented by ai can contain mistakes and may not even be 100% accurate so why would you use it in a school report?  When I was a yoot we used to use the encyclopedia as a reference.

Which brings us back to Trump.  He has already posted ai-generated images of himself as pope and as Jesus.  Perhaps a more accurate ai rendition might be that of a mad Emperor and his few remaining loyalists feeding him grapes.  You know who you are. 

Artistic dementia

 Trump takes time off from ruling the world to play around with AI.  Trump as Jesus.  Him and Pope Leo don't get along.  Kindergarten stuff.  Trump says the ai-generated image of him as Jesus was really just him as a doctor for the Red Cross.  Aesthetic interpretations.  If Salvador Dali were alive today he'd probably do a Trump and a Bibi and include an unmistakable phallic symbol. The Persistence of Egoism.  I'm only guessing here but if someone posted an ai-generated image of Trump and Bibi in an act of homoeroticism he would not be amused.

Will this stuff be taught in art class someday?

Off the beaten path

 I have some fond memories of growing up and going to what Yonkerites referred to as the Austin Dump.  I don't know whether this was an official dump or just some unofficial location where folk just got rid of stuff.  Every once in a while my Dad would take my Mom and me and my aunt to visit the Dump so called because it was off of Austin Avenue just on the outskirts of town.  There was a cool blind hill on the road over there and you better slow down because you never knew what was on the other side.  A Sasquatch?  So we went on these free shopping sprees at the Austin Dump because that's what poor Yonkerites did back in the day.  Interesting forays.  People threw away some good stuff.  I still have a nice wooden shelf with sliding doors where I keep light bulbs and whatnot.  Shop at your local dump.  A forgotten poor family hack but you saved money.

I never got the issue with dumping.  Is it simply ignorance?  Do people not know you can go to your local recycling center to get rid of unwanted stuff?  They take practically everything.  I've gotten rid of those big old school tvs, a stereo system, patio chairs, folding tables you name it.  I mean if you're going to make the effort to take a beaten up old sofa to the outskirts of some woodlot why not just go to your recycling center instead?  Ain't that hard.

A trip down memory lane.  Pour yourself some Christian Brothers, sit back and just ponder;)

How to salvage the Trump presidency

 I have nothing.  25th Amendment.