The missing checks

 Never got that 5K DOGE check.  Never got the 2K tariff rebate check either.  That would've been 7K total nice for some home improvement.   On the other hand NYS Governor Kathy Hochul promised New Yorkers an inflation refund check and delivered difference being she wasn't talking out of her ass.  Don't float something if you're not serious.  BB is probably right the money went to fund Hegseth's war games.  Maybe after Trump topples Cuba he can install the son over there.

My friend the Trump junkie.  Driving him home yesterday and trying to bring up different topics.  Movies from the 70s.  Robert Duvall.  Even Bigfoot couldn't stop him from proselytizing for Trump.  He brought up Kristi Noem and why Trump was right in firing her.  Appointed her the shield of feral cats in Latin America or something.  My friend brought up her muti-million dollar advertising campaign and something about a private jet.  Just as an outside observer looking in I offered even though I probably disagreed with most of what she said and did, spinning the ICE abuses for example she was extremely loyal to Trump and seems to me he pushed her off the subway platform.  Ethics?  When did that ever bother Mr. Trump before?

What's wrong with Lindsey Graham?

Ìs Hannity into Irish kickboxing?

 The warmongers over at Fox News.  Sean Hannity armchair warrior.  Probably never even picked up a rifle to shoot a duck.  You know things are serious when even Megyn Kelly is distancing herself from Trump over the Iran War.  She who spun the ICE abuses.  The rift in the Trump base is widening.  Trump is both impulsive and compulsive.  Is there a disorder for that?  Makes important decisions without considering the consequences.  Banned the penny now a woman at work doesn't know what to do with all her pennies.  The Strait of Hormuz now a huge problem for Trump.  The new Ayatollah, Ayatollah Jr. now closing it off.  Affecting the global economy.  Will you get your SHEIN shoes?  Hannity can afford to pay more at the pump.  YOU may have to have sardines for dinner.  Hegseth says it may take some time to take control of the Stait.  Maybe he can put some of his hair gel in the water and set the place on fire.

According to my Analytics I'm even getting blogviews in Vietnam.  I don't know what this means.

Remember when gas prices rose under Biden

 Some people put Biden "I Did That" stickers on the gas pumps.  Now we can put Trump stickers on the pumps.

Another Khamenei chosen as Iran's Supreme Leader.  The son.  That's some regime change.

7th US Serviceman killed.  Trump telling Americans to expect domestic terror.  Noem fired as Secretary of DHS.  I think Trump put her in charge of feral cats or something.  She went above and beyond for her man.  Thrown under the bus.  That's the Trump M.O.  Does the guy have any real friends?

Losing the midterms;)

Keeping the Epstein Files off the front page

 The War with Iran.  I think they make it up as they go along.  Apparently we bombed a girl's elementary school over there and the first American casualties are coming in.  Gone are the days I guess of the CIA trying to give a foreign dictator an exploding cigar and sparing everyone else.  The send our men and women into harm's way presidency.

The unexpurgated unredacted Epstein Files must be pretty bad.  Trump doing a Bibi.  Expect more wars.  Cuba?

A visceral take on the Iranian action

 No tears here for Khamenei.  Saw some of our American protesters on TV.  I never understood the soft spot for dictators on the part of the Left.  Never understood the soft spot for radical Islam on the part of the Left.  Having said that Trump didn't campaign on taking out the Ayatollah.  A key part of MAGA was not so much anti-war but no foreign wars or entanglements.   Joint US/Israeli action striking Iran.  Again whatever Bibi wants Bibi gets.  That too goes against another key part of MAGA America First.  So a kind of mixed reaction from me.  Ali Khamenei now officially deceased did have thousands of those Iranian protesters killed.  No grief here for the ex-Iran Supreme Leader.  However since this is all about regime change who will succeed him?  Does Bibi have him all picked out?  Unclear.  Will probably also affect the oil markets.

Chaos in the Middle East.  What else is new?

Trump and the Argonauts

 In another flight of fancy Trump says newer Navy battleships are in the works larger faster and more powerful than anything Mankind has ever seen before.  It's part of his grander delusion of what he calls a Golden Fleet.  The first Trump battleship will be called the USS Defiant.  I can think of some other names.  It'll have hypersonic missiles, nuclear cruise missiles, rail guns......I think it will be able to take an asteroid or two out of the sky.  The crew will be able to battle the Cyclops if they encounter one.  Will the on-board cuisine include giant squid?  Commander Trump will be able to do battle with half the world.  Meanwhile the Navy says they may not have all that technology up to par yet.

Trump.  Man Myth and Legend:)

Good time to travel no? Hop on a flight

 What was the bone of contention again to cause the entire Government to shut down?  Health care for illegals?  Release of the Epstein Files?  A UFO cover-up?  I forget.  Trump likes to break his own records.  Longest government  shutdown in history.  Second longest also held by Trump during his first term.  Trump doesn't like the government being open apparently.  Homan and ICE still doing their work though come rain or shine.  Meanwhile Pelosi's retiring after 100 years in the Congress.

My toilet bowl started glowing last night.  Are they retesting the nuclear program in Yonkers?

Is the Trump Doctrine just to go to war against everybody?

 The little countries anyway.  Venezuela, Colombia, perhaps Nigeria.  Modeling himself after Bibi maybe.  Multi-front wars or wars in the making.  Seems to have forgotten about Greenland.  Lost track of all the Venezuelan fishing boats blown out of the water.  Hegseth talks about it like a video game.  Hegseth the gamer - 3 killed today.  Is Trump gonna take the coffee fields in Colombia too?  Retesting our nuclear arsenal in his spare time.  Funny way to angle for a peace prize down the road.

Right-wing influencers love Trump more than the base does

The base is adrift over Epstein, Iran and the genocide in Gaza.  MTG has threatened to leave the party.  Meanwhile on my YouTube feed the right-wing influencers like Megyn Kelly are more in love with Trump than ever.  In the meantime Trump is going to meet with his BFF Putin in Alaska.  Trump feels Zelensky should cede Crimea to Russia.  This would be like if we gave a part of Poland to Hitler.  Trump's second term is so strange he wants to treat the country to a third term.

You scratch my nuts I'll scratch yours

 Bibi nominates Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Not sure Netanyahu knows what a ceasefire is

 Someone should crack open a dictionary for him.  The news it's hard to keep pace anymore.  Musk forming his own political party.  Fringe activist Laura Loomer now an unofficial national security advisor.  God help us!  Flooding in TX.  They're saying the Trump cuts didn't help they made things worse.  Dunno are we still working on cancer?  Homan is out of control but he goes to church every week.  Wreak social havoc and then take your soul to the cleaners every Sunday.  A president being mediocre is not the issue for me it's the sheer weirdness of this Administration.   All you can do is take up a hobby in the meantime and hope it passes quickly.  Not sure why he still has fans.

In defense of voting for Trump

 Small but growing rift among conservatives.  A realization that many of Trump's latest actions suck for lack of a better way of putting it.  Joe Rogan has come out against the ICE raids.  Not sure if technically he's a conservative.  MTG has been busy blasting Trump over the bombing of Iran's nuclear sites.  Candace Owens told Piers Morgan that she is now embarrassed she told other people to vote for Trump.  Then there's Tucker.  OK.

What I'm seeing on some of the more liberal YouTube channels is gloating among the Left ("We told you so") and even anger at those who voted for Trump but who now have regrets.  It was all out there in the open they say.  Not really.  Trump's first term was fairly normal as a frame of reference.  Re the ICE raids JD Vance was directly asked, what was it during the VP debate what the plans were for the majority of illegal aliens who are not criminals.  He pointedly would not answer the question.  The overwhelming emphasis during the campaign was always on the criminal element.  As for bombing Iran Trump campaigned on the exact opposite no foreign wars ot entanglements in the Middle East.  America First.  Now to the real bone of contention.  Many libs take issue with having been called crazy and exaggerating for the things they said about Trump during the campaign, the whole TDS thing.  Yes because they used specifically Hitlerian rhetoric.  Technically though while Trump is many things technically he's still not a Hitler.  Has a ways to go if you know your history.

At least give those of us credit and some points for now admitting mistakes no?  That's how you grow.  Not hearing the same regrets about Biden.  

This too shall pass.

The ascendancy of the weird Right - it now IS the Right

 The latest examples being "Alligator Alcatraz" and those racist conservatives who want to deport NYC Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.  My friend has imbibed deeply of the Fox News propaganda.  For him Iran was on the verge, the very cusp of developing an intercontinental ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead to hit NYC.  For Mark Levin if you opposed Trump bombing Iran's nuclear facilities you're an unpatriotic American.  Levin gives off this vague creepy psycho vibe and said to MTG after their recent dust-up "you're on my radar."  Hmmmmm......Hannity is somewhat milder but his aging blockhead fills the screen as he constantly beats the drums for war in the Middle East or at least a bomb here and there.  The Senate now seems okay with Trump's giant sausage of a bill thus mortgaging our future and our children's future.  Musk continues to attack the bill and he is right for once.  At this rate the midterms may turn out to be a big blue tsunami.  The rise of Mamdani represents a left-wing populism not to be ignored.

It's all very depressing but this too shall pass.  Hopefully next time we'll get somebody better.

I was having some trouble sleeping and thought it was my mattress

 Mark Levin over at Fox says we can all sleep better at night knowing Trump took out Iran's nuclear facilities.  Turns out we don't need the My Pillow guy after all.  MTG rips Trump a new one.  She may have said some loopy things in the past but she's 100% right.  Same with Tucker.  Some dispute over the exact damage to those three Iranian nuclear facilities.  Not exactly obliterated despite the hyperbole.  Also Trump's big mouth gave them advanced notice to put the enriched uranium someplace else.  Neocon warmongers who never picked up a rifle themselves.  Hannity probably wouldn't even know what to do with a home intruder.  Fox News - We Decide Then Report;)

Trump has made Americans less safe

 Iran did not threaten us.  We were not at war with them.  Iranian Foreign Minister meets with Putin although other reports say Russia is unlikely to enter the conflict.  UPI reports however that other countries are willing to supply Iran with nukes after Trump's act of bellicosity.  Now as we all know Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard recently testified before Congress that it is the consensus of the intelligence community that Iran is not seeking nuclear weapons as the Ayatollah suspended that program in 2003.  After Trump dumped on Tulsi however she now says new intelligence has come to light (read: whatever Netanyahu says) in order to keep her post.  Call her Flipper.  People can't withstand the wrath of the Orange Man I guess.  I get concerned when I'm running low on the Christian Brothers.  For Hegseth it's the hair gel.  The last question when does Trump take Greenland?

Every president likes to use the military

 But Trump promised to be different so why throw rocks at a junkyard dog?  Trump campaigned as an anti-neocon non-interventionist America Firster.  Instead we get a saber-rattling Israel First foreign policy, impulsive interventionism.  Trump has claimed on his Truth Social overwhelming success in totally obliterating Iran's three nuclear facilities.  He has ignored the advice of his own Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard who recently testified before Congress that Iran was really not that close to developing an actual nuclear weapon.  She's probably on her way out.  Now we have to worry about a protracted conflict with Iran and possible terrorist reprisals.  Pakistan has just nominated Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize why I don't know.  Troubling times but kind of took Homan off the front pages.

Is it anti-semitic to not want to go to war with Iran?

 Trump mulling over possible strikes against Iran including the use of bunker busting bombs to target Iranian nuclear facilities.  What happened to no new wars and America First?  An Iranian missile struck a major hospital in southern Israel.  Oh the humanity!  Meanwhile Netanyahu just attacked Gaza's last functioning hospital.  Never fully understood countries with nuclear weapons telling other countries they can't have nuclear weapons.  What only we know how to use atomic bombs in a moral way?  All that and more on today's episode of Stranded.

Will Trump go to war?

Are Trump and Musk still hot for each other?

 Musk has expressed misgivings, deleted some tweets and says he may have gone too far.  Trump says he might be open to a reconciliation.  Defense Sec'y Hegseth says the US has contingency plans to occupy Greenland if necessary.   Israel attacked Tehran targeting their nuclear facilities and chain of command.  ICE agents are chasing farm laborers through strawberry fields and going into meat production plants.  Big military parade tomorrow.   Trump's birthday.  DHS Sec'y Kristi Noem doesn't like to be interrupted.  What's up with Dr. Phil?

The News is a bit off-center of late

Bill Cosby may spend the rest of his life in prison and President Donald Trump may win the Nobel Peace Prize. Haven't googled Bill Cosby's exact age of late. Could be 89, 97 or 105 but Justice has been served. Public disgrace and opprobrium not enough and I'm no legal authority but I thought there was a statute of limitations or something. The Hollywood academies have rescinded his many awards and mere mention and it's as if I Spy never existed. They finally realized Roman Polanski is a perv too and did the same such is the feminist juggernaut a little late in coming though. President Trump is seriously being mentioned as a viable peace prize potential winner with the upcoming Kim Jong-Un summit in Singapore the Stormy Daniels saga being merely a springtime diversion to fuel the news cycle. As an aside I don't see any more tip cups in Dunkin' Donuts and I have a chunk of change to spare. Are the clerks making too much or something?

Can Dennis Rodman save the world?

Seemingly overnight the whole North Korea/Kim Jong-Un discussion is now the easily unhingeable despot may possess an actual hydrogen bomb.  Think fusion not fission and over 10X the power of an A-bomb.  If Kim can customize it for the nose of one of his ICBMs he can conceivably detonate it at a very high altitude thus causing a superpowerful electromagnetic pulse (EMP) completely destroying the US power grid.  This whole thing reminds me of a bad Austin Powers movie.