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;)