Today is Saturday, May 24, 2025. Much of the Dump news I missed during the two weeks I was away in Europe was summarized in an opinion piece by Dana Milbank in Democracy Dies in Darkness in which the title of his column says it all: “This is just embarrassing: Everywhere I looked this week, I cringed for my country.”

Milbank begins his lacerating piece on Dump’s bumbling foray into unreality by focusing on the Teflon Don’s sit-down with another foreign leader, this time South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, that ended in total disaster. At this sit-down, the ignorant president narrated a video that showed white crosses lining a roadside, which Chump portrayed as a mass grave for white South African farmers, murdered in what Dump has errantly described as a “genocide.” This is blatantly not true! Confronted with this delusion, Ramaphosa looked baffled. He said, “I’d like to know where that is because this I’ve never seen.”

It was explained that the video was not of graves at all, but of a symbolic protest five years ago. Where do you think this garbage was promoted? On Muskrat’s media platform X not surprisingly. Here Dump seemed genuinely to believe that the phony graves were evidence of an actual atrocity – in much the same way he presented as genuine an obviously Photoshopped image purporting to show the characters “MS-13” tattooed on the knuckles of the wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whom you don’t hear of anymore.

Thus this is but one cringeworthy incident involving the clueless president. Another one involved Dump’s receipt of a donated 747 from Qatar royals that would cost millions of dollars to be retrofitted as a new Air Force One. If this isn’t a blatant example of a violation of the emoluments clause of the Constitution, then nothing is! It just shows that Dump doesn’t even care anymore about bad optics here since he knows there will be no backlash from his pusillanimous repugnicans over this embarrassing announcement. Just think if former president Joe Biden accepted a jet from Saudi Arabia: there would be a frenzy of repugnicans shouting foul here, but when their own Supreme Leader does it, you can hear a pin drop in the room.

And there was that horrible gaffe from Dump on hearing about Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis last week, where Dump twice remarked that the cancer must have been growing a long time “to get to Stage 9.” Duh! There is – and never has been – a Stage 9, Mr. Orange Cheeto. Then the psychopath directed the conversation back to himself when he announced he aced a complete physical, including a cognitive test. Who asked the dumb cluck about it anyway?

Another way that Dump showed his “brilliance” was when he offered his thoughts on the first American pope in which Chump turned the discussion back to himself, as usual, by saying that the pope’s brother “is a major MAGA fan.” He then incoherently said, “He’s got MAGA and he’s got Trump, and I look forward to getting him to the White House.”

Not only the president is immune from stupidity, as ignorant Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi “Dog Killer” Noem, showed her dumb chops when she was quizzed by Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH) who asked her what habeas corpus is. This is exactly how this ignoramus answered: “Well, habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country.” No, Ms. Noem, that is not what the term means! Then Senator Andy Kim (D-NJ) continued quizzing the ignorant government official, asking her if she knew which article of the Constitution mentioned habeas corpus. Of course, Noem had no clue! She answered embarrassingly, “No, I do not, sir.” The answer is Article I, Section 9, Clause 2, which mentions the term.

Milbank says the most embarrassing moment of this horrible administration came Thursday with the passage of Dump’s “big, beautiful bill” by the House that is full of tax breaks for the fucking rich and cuts in help for the poor – those in Dump’s base of gullible voters. This came during an all-night session on the House floor, following an all-night session the night before in the House Rules Committee.

As constituted, the bill would strongly increase the federal debt (somewhere around $4 trillion), cut health insurance for 10 to 15 million people, and cut food assistance for close to 10 million people. I’m sure those who voted for Dump expected these cuts to go through during his second term. Not!

To further delude the public about how “good” the bill is, the Dump administration disseminated lie after lie about it. Here Chump promised that working-class people “won’t lose health insurance” when, in fact, they will. Dump’s bimbo press secretary Karoline Leavitt laughingly said the bill “does not add to the deficit,” when in fact it does. To add insult to injury, Dump himself said the bill, which cuts some $300 billion from food stamps, “is going to give everybody much more food.” What alternate reality is he subscribing to here?

But the markets weren’t fooled by this tomfoolery from the administration. Moody’s Ratings downgraded U.S. debt, specifically warning about high deficits “from current fiscal proposals under consideration.” Bond yields spiked on Wednesday, while stocks and the dollar fell. Lawmakers didn’t care about the consequences, as they passed the bill in the wee hours anyway.

More embarrassing actions announced by this lawless administration involve the vengeance tour of the president in which the Boss himself, Bruce Springsteen, has been threatened with legal action because of his scathing comments about Dump mentioned on tour in England. Other political foes perceived by this president include former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and former FBI director James Comey. All have been threatened with retaliation by the occupant in the White House.

Another idiot within the administration is Dump’s own son, Don, Jr. who thought that Biden’s wife who is a doctor of education mistakenly thought she was a medical doctor and accused her of missing her husband’s “stage 5” cancer diagnosis. At least, Jr. didn’t say “Stage 9” as his father did in his comments about the ailing former president.

So, this was some of the “wonderful” news I missed on our cruise and sojourns to England and Wales. I’m certainly happy that I did. But now back to sad reality!

And so it went!

Here is a dancer striking a pose before the show of Moulin Rouge.

Here is the windmill from Moulin Rouge.

A blue elephant from the one show we saw in London.

These are some pics from our canal ride in Ghent. This is one of them.

Another lovely site in Ghent.

This is a castle in Ghent.

More from our canal boat.

Doesn’t the yellow building look like it’s leaning over?

That first building on the left certainly has some strange shape, doesn’t it?

Another striking building in Ghent snapped off the boat.

Now we’re on the Celebrity Apex again and here is the sculpture outside Oceanview Cafe, 14, Deck 14. A waterfall can be seen toward the left.

Here is Captain Nikolaus and activity director Corinne on stage before one of the shows, Rockumentary, is shown. You also see someone’s head in the way. LOL