Today is Tuesday, August 30, 2022. The continuing danger posed by an ex-president is becoming alarmingly apparent as “Julius” Dumpf magnifies calls for violence if he is ever to be prosecuted by law enforcement authorities for his myriad crimes against the Republic! In response to this MAGA bent toward fascism and violence, President Joe Biden has even gone on the offensive in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania today as he called out “MAGA Republicans” and their ever-increasing program of extremism.

Biden’s forceful speech was covered in Kate Sullivan’s online CNN article entitled “Biden condemns ‘sickening’ attacks on FBI following Mar-a-Lago search and slams GOP over January 6.” I believe the country desperately needs a president who can call out the darkening forces enveloping the nation under the toxic cloud of Trumpism. Biden also delivered a strong defense of the FBI in the wake of the search conducted on the former dictator-to-be’s Florida estate.

During the second speech, Biden delivered a forceful defense of the FBI amid increased threats following the events of August 8. Biden thundered, “It’s sickening to see the new attacks on the FBI, threatening the lives of law enforcement agents and their families for simply carrying out the law and doing their job.” The President addressed a crowd in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The enraged President strongly added, “Look, I want to say this clear as I can: There’s no place in this country, no place, for endangering the lives of law enforcement. No place. None, never, period. I’m opposed to defunding the police. I’m also opposed to defunding the FBI.” Some idiotic repugnicans like worthless Marjorie Taylor Greene has taken up this call to defund the FBI as she blindly follows her Golden Idol over the abyss!

The President also offered scathing criticism of repugnicans in Congress who remain aligned with the Orange Criminal and refuse to condemn the violent January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Biden smirkingly addressed his MAGA colleagues, which, sadly, is a large group these days, saying, “Let me say this to my MAGA Republican friends in Congress: Don’t tell me you support law enforcement if you won’t condemn what happened on (January 6). Don’t tell me. Can’t do it. For God’s sake, whose side are you on?” Biden wondered.

Continuing his scathing criticism of a bereft party, Biden said, “You can’t be prolaw enforcement and proinsurrection. You can’t be a party of law and order and call the people who attacked the police on January 6 patriots. You can’t do it.”

Saving blistering condemnation for the “sad, old man” of Lindsey Graham who came out with a indefensible comment of predicting “riots in the street” if his golf buddy were to be prosecuted for crimes he’s committed over four years in office, Biden stated, “The idea you turn on a television and see senior senators and congressmen saying, ‘If such and such happens, there’ll be blood in the street?’ Where the hell are we?”

Today’s remarks from the President built on his unofficial midterm campaign kickoff that occurred last week, in which he offered one of his sharpest rebukes of MAGA repugnicans and told a group of Democratic donors that the “entire philosophy that underpins” the Make America Great Again agenda is “semifascism.” Some political pundits have even deemed this a modest description of the party under Dumpf; they have called the repugnican party just plain old fascist, not “semifascist.”

The primary reason as to why Biden was in Pennsylvania was to promote his proposal to augment police forces across the nation and reduce crime, which includes hiring and training 100,000 police officers over the next five years.

Biden reiterated his message of not defunding the police. He added, “I’m tired of not giving the kind of help they need. Folks, look, we’re in a situation in this country where we have to give them additional resources they need to get their job done.”

The President dedicated a significant portion of his address to calling for a federal ban on assault weapons. Biden movingly talked of his trip to Uvalde, Texas, after a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School left 19 children and two children dead, and he said that parents had to provide DNA to identify their little ones, “because the AR-15 [used in the horrific massacre] just rips the body apart.” Biden wondered aloud over the irrational reality of a 20-year-old being able to walk in and buy one. Raising his voice, Biden pointed out the horror of parents identifying their children through this method and ended with “What the hell’s the matter with us?”

Congress passed the first major federal gun safety legislation in decades earlier this summer, but Biden indicated more needs to be done.

The President’s Tuesday visit to Pennsylvania was the first of three appearances in the key battleground state over the next week. Biden is even slated to deliver a primetime address in Philadelphia on Thursday on the “soul of the nation” in the wake of repugnican attacks on the very foundation of democracy in Philadelphia. He is also scheduled to travel to Pittsburgh on Labor Day.

I don’t know about you, but I like this new, dynamic, strong incarnation of the President, given that the fortunes of the former “president” are finally turning to shit! It’s been long overdue, I feel. The former wanna-be autocrat had a public meltdown on his erroneously named “Truth” Social chat platform when he went bonkers, literally, in endorsing the conspiracy theories of the far-right group QAnon. This is the movement that the former whiner-in-chief claimed he knew nothing about – despite having winked and nudged in their direction for years – but telling reporters sickeningly, “I heard these are people that love our country.” Yes, they do – so much so they will take up arms to kill Democrats whom they believe are nasty pedophiles! They really love this country, they sure do!

I won’t expound on the article that covers the ex-president’s public rant here; just know that Dumpf poured out a stream of over 60 – 60! – QAnon memes, reposts from QAnon accounts, and tangentially amplifying an original “Q drop.” This QAnon cache of postings from the delusional ex-president sure rips the facade off his earlier disavowal of what the crazy movement actually represents. By today’s embarrassing meltdown, we now know this is another lie from Dumpf. As you might recall, Q refers to the still-anonymous individual who originated the conspiracist cult. As a running joke, the acerbic comedian and late-night host Bill Maher has identified himself several times as the mysterious Q to uproarious laughter. That’s how irrational this whole movement is. Reading the article over, I can only say this guy is totally unhinged and repugnicans want this madman to run again in 2024? They’re truly crazy if they endorse this insane man two years from now. Dumpf’s meltdown can only be read as desperate rage from someone who knows that justice is knocking at his door!

As I’m typing this blog, Lawrence O’Donnell is exposing the hypocrisy of Lindsey Graham right this moment. He pondered the reason for Graham’s slavishness to Dumpf has more to do with what Dumpf has on the never married senator. I’ve always said that Dumpf has a rolodex of peccadilloes of every GOP House member and senator that he has in a safe place in which he forces every GOP member into submission before his orange image. A clip that O’Donnell just played shows the Orange Menace giving out Graham’s personal phone number to the idiots at one of his MAGA rallies. If you were Lindsey Graham, wouldn’t you be quaking in your boots over the potential threat posed by an amoral criminal like “Julius” Dumpf? This criminal could expose secrets that you would want no one to know before you finish your “service” to the country! As an example, O’Donnell revealed the secret that Graham’s predecessor James Strom Thurmond, who served 46 years as a senator from South Carolina, withheld from the public until he died. He was an out-and-out racist and segregationist and died at age 101. His dark secret was that he fathered a Black child when he was very young. On August 28, 1957, Thurmond began the longest filibuster in U.S. history. He was railing against the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

As O’Donnell suggested, now Graham is in thrall to Dumpf for whatever hold he has on him. What secret or secrets does Dumpf have on this pusillanimous senator, one must wonder?

Today Elliot showed his generosity to his Beverly Hills friend “Megan,” who was coming to New York for a wedding, by picking her up at John F. Kennedy Airport around 2:40 or so. I went along for the ride since the two other people expected to come along didn’t.

Before driving to the airport, we visited briefly with our friend “Patricia” who is home recovering from hip surgery. We parked by her building’s driveway for about 15 minutes and went directly up to her apartment. She greeted us at the door with a walker and we sat on the couch and talked about the procedure.

Then we drove to the airport not knowing exactly when Megan was exiting the arrivals building. Thus we had to circle Terminal 8 once as the airport agent whooshed us away after we sat in the car for several minutes. When we drove back, Megan texted us to say she was coming out. That’s when I got out to look for her; Elliot had to drive away once more as some asshole in a black jeep honked him as he was parked waiting for a deplaning passenger. I don’t know why this idiot was honking him; he was not blocking him, but maybe, he perceived him as being in the way. Before Elliot drove off, I cursed at the guy in the jeep. Thus Elliot drove off again, leaving me to pick Megan up. This time, I did see her with her one suitcase.

Finally, Elliot returned and was able to pick both of us up and take Megan to East 88th Street where she was staying for the duration of her time here in New York. We dropped her off and then attempted to find a parking spot in the city to have dinner at a restaurant between 88th and 89th Streets called Cafe D’Alsace. We were resigned to not finding a spot, but we lucked out, surprisingly, at 85th Street when I spotted a car getting out of a legal spot. This was a miracle! I think we were being rewarded for our doing a mitzvah in bringing a friend into the East Side from the airport when she could easily have gotten a taxi.

When we walked to the restaurant, we found out that it was closed – until 5. It was about 4, so we had an hour to kill. We walked to a pricey ice cream parlor near the restaurant and had two cups of ice cream. Afterward, I walked into a Goodwill store across the street. I always like to look at their selection of books, but this time, their selection was quite sparse, except for one book by Ann Rule called The Stranger Beside Me, which is her in-depth account of America’s most fascinating serial killer, Ted Bundy. I decided to buy this, along with a Tony Bennett CD. Combined, both book and CD cost $2.17.

Instead of going to the original restaurant, we had remembered another one on East 85th Street which was very good. This was an Italian restaurant that we dined in with my friend “Harold” and his wife “Rachel” on June 2, the occasion of their 37th anniversary. The name of the restaurant was Luna Rossa, and it was located at 347 East 85th Street. So we walked to the restaurant after I came out of the Goodwill store.

When we arrived at the eatery, we were ushered into an empty interior to a table in the back. It seemed as if we had the restaurant all to ourselves. Before anything, I had to ask for a cup of coffee. I didn’t have caffeine since earlier this morning when I met my breakfast gals at the Austin Street Diner.

For those of you who are interested, I ordered the polpettine di mango e vitello in Pomarola, which is homemade veal and beef meatballs and tagliolini al pesto Genovese e fagiolini, which is tagliolini tossed with Genovese basil pesto and green beans. Elliot ordered a beet salad as his appetizer and gnocchi di patate ai fichi, which is fig gnocchi in a butter sage sauce, topped with shaved truffle cheese and truffle balsamic. Naturally, both dishes were delicious. We were able to resist having dessert this time. The dishes were certainly high in carbohydrates.

We then walked back to 88th Street where we were parked. Now we made our way to the Williamsburg Bridge and our route back to Forest Hills. The only drawback was the traffic we encountered on the way back to Queens. There were pockets of heavy traffic all the way back. I even had time to peruse the Daily News at moments.

Anyway, it’s getting late here. I just wanted to mention that tomorrow marks 25 years since the death of Princess Diana. I’m sure this sad day will be remembered by Brits all over the United Kingdom. There is nothing one can say over this somber anniversary.

This will be my last blog before Saturday, September (Oye) 3. The reason being is that Elliot and I will be spending several days with our friends “Peter” and “Ted” in Highland, New York. This hamlet is in Ulster County and this is where we will be ensconced with our dear chums.

So I will see you, hopefully, on Saturday if we’re not stuck on some highway.

Have a great Labor Day weekend. I can’t believe I’m wishing you this.

Stay safe and be well.