Today is Saturday, June 6, 2025. It’s late here owing to Elliot and I having dinner out with our friend “Patricia” on the occasion of her birthday this coming Wednesday and our watching the second and final episode of a marvelous documentary on the late Paul Reubens, better known as his alter ego, Pee-wee Herman. The documentary is being screened on HBO as Pee-wee as Himself and is only two episodes long. It’s a fascinating, expansive examination of the artist and performer Paul Reubens who achieved stunning success portraying the character of Pee-wee Herman and the devastating fall from grace experienced during the period in the early 90s when he was arrested for indecent exposure in an adult movie house in Sarasota, Florida, where his parents lived. If any of you were a fan of the absurd character known as Pee-wee Herman, this documentary is for you. For me, I was mildly interested in knowing his story. I was not a viewer of Pee-wee’s Playhouse, the iconic show he launched on CBS in the 1980s which ran for five seasons, as I found out. I haven’t watched any of his films either, but I was interested in seeing this documentary since it is narrated by the late actor right before his death on July 30, 2023, at the tender age of 70. The documentary revealed that the actor never told anyone that he was in failing health because that was the type of person he was: secretive. He was also secretive about his personal life since he was gay and this would not score too well with his millions of fans way back then if he were in character as Pee-wee. In the film, Reubens does acknowledge he was in a gay relationship with a painter named Guy Brown that ended before the painter died from the complications of AIDS in the 80s. This is a highly entertaining and ultimately sad portrait of someone who eschewed his true identity in order to pursue the trappings of fame and notoriety. It’s a fitting documentary to be shown in the month of Pride.

In the latest dictatorial move made by this lawless president, the Dump regime has deployed 2,000 National Guard troops to California as a result of ongoing protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents for doing their job in Los Angeles. An online article in The Washington Post covers this breaking story and it’s entitled “Trump activates National Guard in L.A. area protests” and it’s written by Maeve Reston and Emily Davies.

This move is strongly condemned by California Governor Gavin Newsom, calling it “purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions.”

Dump immigration czar Tom Homan said authorities were mobilizing “to address violence and destruction” near locations that were raided on Saturday, in an interview – where else? – on Fox News.

This measure can only be seen as Dump making his promise a reality which he posted on the campaign trail that, if elected, he would crack down on Democrat-run cities and states that offered “sanctuary” to undocumented immigrants.

In a statement, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt claimed that “violent mobs have attacked ICE Officers and Federal Law Enforcement Agents carrying out basic deportation operations in Los Angeles.”

“Federal immigration officials began the series of sweeps in Los Angeles County on Friday, including in the fashion district downtown.” Demonstrators began gathering in Paramount, California – about 20 minutes outside of Los Angeles – after a Saturday morning raid near a Home Depot. In a separate clash with police on Friday in downtown Los Angeles, officers reported that a small group of violent individuals were throwing large pieces of concrete.

Newsom stated that the federal government’s move to nationalize the California guard to respond to protests was unwarranted. He claimed that local authorities were handling the protests that unfolded in Paramount.

The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, which handles law enforcement operations in Paramount, did urge the public to “exercise the right to protest peacefully with respect for the safety of all community members.”

Don’t you really think this is an unnecessary move on the part of this would-be autocrat who really wants to show his muscle here with respect to a few protests that have not devolved into acts of violence? Their assessment of these protesters as “violent mobs” is just Trump-speak, nothing else! We should not be duped by their overexaggerations of reality in this case.

Have a good Sunday.

And so it went!