Tag Archives: news

And So It Goes

Today is Tuesday, July 8, 2025. Yes, I did say that I was going to be absent from my blog, but Elliot convinced me to cancel plans we had with my cousins “Rivka” and “Dillon” tonight because of an expected weather alert. And I’m glad I did because it did rain here quite furiously for a while after we had dinner locally at a restaurant in Forest Hills. We managed to return home right before the deluge. Also it was quite hot outside for most of the day, and having to wait on a subway platform in this heat was not something either of us looked forward to, which was another reason to delay getting together with Rivka and Dillon. Thus I called Rivka early thing morning to convey our reasons for not getting together and she was very understanding. We were able to reschedule for next Wednesday, July 16.

So since I’m here, I can report on new, breaking news regarding the Trumpfication of this country, and one significant story is the increasingly partisan “Extreme” Court issuing another decision supporting America’s newest dictator. In an online article for The Washington Post, Anne E. Marimow delivers an explanation of the Court’s new ruling regarding the firing of federal workers under the Chump regime. The article is entitled “Supreme Court allows Trump to launch mass layoff and restructuring plans.”

Today this partisan court cleared the way for the Dump administration to launch plans for mass firings and reorganizations at 19 federal agencies and departments while litigation continues.

The highly conservative justices lifted a lower-court order that temporarily blocked plans to lay off thousands of federal workers, including at the State Department and the Social Security Administration (SSA) because the administration did not first consult Congress. This ghastly autocratic regime seems not to consult Congress for anything these days! They do whatever they fucking want without any Congressional oversight and these lawmakers are just permitting the worst abuses being carried out by this dictatorial regime.

In response to other emergency requests from this administration, the Supreme Court consistently has sided with this president’s efforts to upend the federal bureaucracy and they don’t think this is fucking wrong. The court’s horrible conservative majority, featuring two justices who have been compromised by billionaires who have them in their pockets, has permitted the regime to fire independent regulators [who root out corruption] and thousands of probationary workers, while legal challenges play out in the lower courts.

As you would not expect, two liberal justices joined their despicable conservative justices, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, who think this dismantling of 19 agencies was okay. Sotomayor said she was doing this because the administration had directed agencies to operate “consistent with applicable law,” which I don’t know what the hell this means.

In their brief unsigned order, the majority said that “we express no view on the legality of any” agency plans for restructuring or shrinking of the workforce and left open the possibility that the issue could return to the Supreme Court. Oh, fuck me!

The only dissenting voice on this un-American court was Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who noted her sharp disagreement with her other colleagues, warning of serious harm that could come from allowing the administration to dramatically remake the federal government before determining whether its actions are legal. She is the only voice of reason here in a gaggle of insensible and irrational voices as expressed by the majority on the Court.

She appropriately stated, “For some reason, this Court sees fit to step in now and release the President’s wrecking ball at the outset of this litigation” which she wrote in her 15-page dissent. “In my view, this decision is not only truly unfortunate but also hubristic and senseless.”

This new development just indicates how this idiot is allowed to take a “wrecking ball” to all governmental agencies without anyone stopping him! It’s appalling and I wonder how we will be in just two years when – and if – the midterms occur.

I will not repeat what occurred during a marathon Cabinet meeting presided over this buffoon since it truly showed how demented this guy really is. Lawrence O’Donnell provided an overview of it just now on The Last Word and it would be hilarious if this man wasn’t president. Actually, it would be pathetic mostly.

To change direction a little here, who would expect that a film that hasn’t even officially opened has generated negative backlash against its director because he chose to emphasize the principal character as an immigrant. If you haven’t guessed what I’m referring to here, it’s the new Superman movie that opens on Friday, July 11. I intend to see this newest entry in the Superman franchise since I’ve seen every one of them since 1978. As you know, I’m a collector of Superman comics from the get-go.

But this criticism of the film for its immigrant stance is just plain stupid and it shows how a vocal minority has taken over social platforms and, actually, this country for its extreme views on immigration. For those of you who hold on to this view, let me remind you of this fact: Superman IS a fucking immigrant. He wasn’t born here, if you know his origin story. He was born on the planet Krypton and he rocketed to this world as a baby (his parents save him as their planet was facing total destruction) and was adopted by kindly Martha and Jonathan Kent of Smallville, Kansas. So if you want to paint Superman as an immigrant, be aware that he is. But he’s a super-powered one, no doubt about it. So those who criticize this film because of its apparent politics, fuck you and get a life.

Tomorrow I definitely won’t be here since I will be seeing my friend “Jake.”

Have a nice Wednesday.

And so it went!

And So It Goes

Today is Monday, July 7, 2025. While the death toll from those central Texas flash flooding disaster has risen to at least 82 (since this writing), we have a pic of our disgusting president enjoying an ice cream cone in today’s online article from Irish Star by Debadrita Sur and Kai McDonald entitled “‘Heartless’ Trump captured enjoying ice cream while rescue workers desperately search for Texas flood victims.”

Deservedly so, the faux president, as I call him, received brutal backlash after a video of him engaging in leisure activities over the weekend emerged on social media as the search for more victims of the devastating Texas floods continues. There are 41 more missing victims after the Guadalupe River rose to the height of a two-story building early Friday morning.

An online right-wing watch X account, Patriot Takes, posted a video of their stupid Supreme Leader, donning a ghastly red Make America Great Again, golfing and enjoying ice cream. He’s fat already; he doesn’t need to add any more weight to his stocky bulk.

The account posted this statement about the horrible optics of the fat president eating ice cream: “Trump was golfing and enjoying ice cream this weekend while search and rescue teams were in Texas looking for child flood victims.”

Another X user posted this: “While Texas was drowning and children were missing in catastrophic floods, Trump was out golfing and indulging in ice cream like it was just another weekend. At a time when leadership meant showing up, coordinating rescue efforts, and putting politics aside, he chose distraction and leisure.” The user went on, saying what so many millions of us have been saying all of these fucking years about this monster, “Too little, too late. This isn’t leadership. It’s callous neglect. While families grieve and communities are shattered, Trump’s priorities are clear: himself, not the American people. Shameful.”

Dump’s own “busy” schedule showed that he had no public events scheduled. Of course, this clown’s very supporters still backed him, despite the evidence to the contrary that truly showed his lack of empathy for the scores of flood victims in his own country. Some nitwit [read: Trump supporter] posted this in defense of the useful idiot: “He does have a Cabinet and Administration, you know. After Biden’s 4 years of zero responsibility for anything, it’s best that you cease commenting on Trump’s Performance, isn’t it?” Does this jerk know what he’s writing about and why bring in the previous president who definitely would have flown to Texas as soon as it was possible; he would not be shown having an ice cream cone and golfing like this asshole.

Thus the “president” has yet to visit Texas in the wake of the floods, but claims he will “probably” travel to the Lone Star State later this week. I won’t hold my breath.

In defense of this golfer in chief, he did sign a major disaster declaration for Kerr County on Saturday morning “due to damage resulting from severe storms, straight-line winds, and flooding beginning on July 2.” Oh, it was Texas Governor Gregg Abbott who requested him to do it. So maybe he might have gone golfing instead if he didn’t get that missive from Abbott.

An update on the flooding in Texas: now more than 100 people have died in the wake of this horrible natural disaster. And our president licks an ice cream cone.

As for me, I will be out having dinner tomorrow with my Manhattan cousins “Rivka” and “Dillon.” We have reservations at Bottega Restaurant on 2nd Avenue at 7. So I’m not sure I’ll be home in time to post my blog.

As for Wednesday, I plan to spend the entire day with my Long Island friend, “Jake.” He usually has me join his trivia night group at 8 or so, so I won’t be home until after midnight.

My next blog should be posted on Thursday then. Let’s cross our fingers then.

And so it went!

And So It Goes

Today is Saturday, July 5, 2025. It’s just a day after our “day of mourning.,” which is equivalent to July 4. An online article in Democracy Dies in Darkness hits home about how pride in being American has slumped to a national low since Diaper Don was inaugurated in January. Any fucking wonder? The article was written by Niha Masih and is entitled “National pride in the U.S. has declined sharply, Gallup survey.”

Thus only 58 percent of adults in the nation are “extremely” or “very” proud to be American [I’m shocked it’s even this high!], according to a Gallup poll released this week. This percentage represents the lowest level recorded by the company in the more than two decades since it started including the question in surveys.

The dramatic decline was driven – as predicted – not by repugnicans but by Democrats. Republicans who share the same delusional aspects of Diaper Don’s personality had strong feelings of national pride, according to the poll published Monday. Again, this result just shows – once more – the deepening partisan divide in the U.S. I can predict, though, when effects of Diaper Don’s “ugly, mean bill” start affecting people in rural, red states, I fucking hope that these people who are repugnicans will change their minds about how proud they are in being Americans. They will have nothing to show for their continuing support of the Orange Cheeto by then.

According to the poll, “At the beginning of the 21st century, U.S. adults were nearly unanimous in saying they were extremely or very proud to be Americans. But that national unity has eroded over the past 25 years due to a combination of political and generational changes.” In my mind, it’s not all Chump; it’s the rise of social internet platforms like TikTok, X, and Instagram or whatever that has caused this rift. These were not as dominant 25 years ago.

Also, younger Americans, particularly Gen Z, were more likely not to be proud of their country compared with previous generations. Thirty-six percent of Democrats expressed strong pride in their country in this year’s poll, down 26 percentage points from last year to a new low. Political independents also reached an all-time low, with 53 percent expressing great pride.

“The 56 percentage point gap between Republicans and Democrats is at its widest since 2001, when Gallup started surveying national pride.”

The new poll was conducted between June 2 and June 19 before the U.S. military strikes on nuclear sites in Iran, which could bolster the percentages even more for those feeling less patriotic for this country. Gallup says it was conducted through telephone interviews with a random sample of 1,000 adults across the country; the margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4 percentage points for overall results.

“Referencing some of its previous polls, the company said the decline in national pride has come amid waning optimism about the future, widespread dissatisfaction with the direction of the country as well as ‘unfavorable images of both parties, and intense partisan rancor during the Trump and Biden administrations.'”

In the run-up to last year’s presidential election, The Washington Post reported that the “U.S. has become more polarized than ever, with more inflammatory rhetoric and anger.” This I totally blame Diaper Don for!

The survey showed clear generational differences, with each successive generation “less likely than the previous one to say they are extremely or very proud to be an American.”

Less than half of Generation Z (those born after 1996, according to Gallup) – or 41 percent – expressed strong national pride between 2021 and 2025, while that number was 58 percent among Millennials (those born between 1980 and 1996). Those figures are lower than the 71 percent among Generation X, 75 percent for Baby Boomers, and 83 percent for the Silent Generation.

Peter Loge, associate professor of media and public affairs at George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs, said, “Negative partisanship is a feature of our politics.” He added, “Rather than agreeing with a party platform, negative partisans disparage people who agree with the other party.”

Loge indicated that Generation Z has “been told by the right that Democrats are anti-American [not true!], unpatriotic, and beyond redemption. They have been told by the left that Republicans are anti-American [so true!], fascistic [definitely true!], and beyond redemption.” As long as they have drunk the Kool-Aid for Diaper Don, they are beyond redemption, in my opinion.

I won’t compare this poll’s findings with those conducted by Fox News that was somewhat at odds with the Gallup findings. To me, it’s not credible at all since this supposed “news” station lies all the time. I have not and will never watch this network.

I thought I’d circulate these findings in the wake of our 249th birthday that was just marked yesterday. As you know, I was absent because Elliot and I were spending the holiday out in Woodmere with our friends “Mary” and “Joseph.” We brought a hefty chunk of flank steak for Joseph to barbecue. There were just two more guests sitting on Mary and Joseph’s porch: Joseph’s brother, “Richard” and his girlfriend “Melanie.” They were reunited after over 30 years when Noah’s wife died recently. I think they were sweethearts after high school or something like that. They looked each other up when Noah lost his wife and Melanie went through a contentious divorce. But now they’re an item for about five years. What’s particularly interesting about Richard is that he has a trans daughter. I could only imagine what he feels about this liar in chief.

I had an interesting discussion with Richard over my late-life activism since I informed him about my anti-Trump group online. He recommended that from this day onward, we need to post pictures and the names of every fucking repugnican who voted to take health insurance away from Americans. I hope that Democrats then start having town halls to discuss how bad Diaper Don’s bill will be for the majority of Americans until 2026.

We had as nice an evening as possible discussing the dire political situation gripping the country. Melanie mentioned she had family members who were Trumpers; I offered her my condolences.

We left Woodmere around 9:45 and didn’t get home until 10:30 or so. On the way home, we were treated to fireworks over the Grand Central Parkway. So we didn’t have to watch the spectacle on televise to see the Macy’s July 4th fireworks show. We got a birds-eye view of the pyrotechnical effects without having to take the subway or car to Brooklyn or Long Island City.

I forgot to mention that Diaper Don’s restrictive immigration tactics have had a real-life effect on our cleaning lady, “Lareto,” who canceled for the second time coming to us on July 3rd. When we probed the real reason she wasn’t coming, she mentioned how scared she was of being picked up by agents of ICE. You see, she’s from Guatemala and she’s not a U.S. citizen as of yet. So Elliot promised to pick her up at her home this coming week to take her to Forest Hills to have her work for us. As of now, that hasn’t been confirmed. This is the kind of fear this so-called felon in chief has instilled in those trying just to survive here and make a better life for themselves and their families. It’s a crying shame!

Tomorrow we have tickets to Pilobolus at The Joyce Theater, on 8th Avenue and 18th Street. The performance is at 2, but we intend to have a quick bite after the show. I might go somewhere after that, I’m not sure. So I might not be here then. You’ll just have to wait.

Have a good Sunday anyway.

And so it went!

And So It Goes

Today is Monday, June 30, 2025, the last day in June. As I write this, the despicable Senate is debating the president’s “big, beautiful bill,” which really should be renamed the “murder bill” because it will result in many Americans dying because they will lose their health insurance. “It has been dubbed the cruelest bill ever seen in Congress,” by Lawrence O’Donnell from The Last Word tonight at 10. So far, the bill took a procedural step forward when, on Saturday, June 28, the U.S. Senate voted, 51-49, to advance it. We have to commend the “no” votes on the bill advancing to the Senate: all Senate Democrats, including Independent Bernie Sanders who voted no, plus two repugnicans, Kentucky’s Rand Paul and North Carolina’s Thom Tillis. Because of undue pressure exerted on him by this Orange Turd, Tillis has just announced that he won’t be seeking reelection in 2026, which will actually be fantastic for Democrats who can now run someone in his stead. So maybe this buffoon who finds himself president just fucked himself by pressuring Tillis to vote for the bill.

The reasons for these no votes is examined in an online AlterNet article by Alex Henderson entitled ‘Terrible, terrible, terrible’: CNN data guru exposes Trump plan’s ‘horrible’ unpopularity.” Paul opposes the bill because he’s a hardcore budget hawk who has warned that the bill will greatly increase the country’s federal deficit. Tillis’s reasons for opposing the bill are different from Paul’s in that he is warning fellow repugnicans that the megabill’s steep cuts to Medicaid will hurt their party in the 2026 midterms. This is so true! And Tillis is a hard-core realist; where are other repugncians who know this to be the truth and are still favoring it?

This fucking bill is faring badly in poll after poll, and CNN data analyst Harry Enten showed just how badly during an early morning June 30 presentation. Enten told his colleague Omar Jimenez, “If we’re talking about adjectives how about they think it’s awful, horrible and, to quote our colleague Charles Barkley, ‘terrible, terrible, terrible?'”

According to The Washington Post, Enten noted, the bill’s favorable rating is -19. And it’s -20 in a Pew Research poll. But Enten stressed that it’s even more unpopular in polls from Fox News (-21), Quinnipiac University (-26), and the Kaiser Family Foundation (-29). That’s terrible from all levels of polling. Never have we seen such a piece of legislation that is hated by such a swath of the American public. Enten stated, “The American public, at this particular point, hate hate hate the big, beautiful bill. As far as they’re concerned, it’s not a big, beautiful bill – it’s a big, bad bill.”

In response to Tillis bowing out of politics for the midterms, “Bitch” McConnell, the Grim Reaper himself, lamented about Tillis’s retirement, calling it a “big setback for the Senate and the Republican Conference.” For stating the truth, Tillis had his head bashed by fucking Dump on Truth Social when he excoriated the senator for voting against the bill; this liar in chief warned that Tillis was “Making a BIG MISTAKE for America.” The mistake is that we have Donald J. Chump as president!

A laughable replacement for Tillis, 64, is the president’s own daughter-in-law Lara Trump who is considering a run to replace Tillis in her home state of North Carolina. Thus repugnicans have a solid fear now that they will lose the Senate in 2026. There is no way that voters would favor a daughter-in-law – with no political experience – of this monumentally unpopular president. And Dump won’t have Muskrat to buy the election for him anymore.

Anyway, I hope this represents a glimmer of hope for 2026 with the bowing out of Thom Tillis from running in his home state in which he was considered a strong favorite to win the seat once more. Let Laura Dump run against a more experienced and competent Democrat, and let’s see who will win in November.

Tomorrow is my gay men’s reading club meeting, and I don’t think I will post my blog then since I might accompany some of the members to Julius’s after the meeting, at 8. I hope to have my friend “Harvey” with me tomorrow evening.

I just heard on O’Donnell’s show that an amendment to prevent families with kids under 12 from losing their food assistance as proposed by Democratic California Senator Adam Schiff was REJECTED by all repugnicans on the Senate floor. Don’t these fuckers have any decency? This is an outrage! Boy, have we become such an inferior country under these repugnicans in office.

Have a good Tuesday then.

And so it went!

And So It Goes

Today is Thursday, June 26, 2025. Today Elliot and I had a surprisingly disappointing day trying to get Elliot a real ID at the White Plains Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) in which his appointed time was 1:45 p.m. We woke up early, say, around 8:15 to prepare to receive our cleaning lady, “Lareto,” who unfortunately called us at 10:15 to say that she was canceling because her son couldn’t drive her. We were going to leave around 10:30 to get to Larchmont to have breakfast, and so we did, Lareto or no Lareto.

It was smooth sailing driving to Larchmont, as we sauntered over the Throgs Neck Bridge and past my old stomping grounds in the Northeast Bronx, Co-op City, which used to be where Freedomland U.S.A., a theme park dedicated to American history, was situated in the Baychester section of the North Bronx. It opened on June 19, 1960, and permanently closed four years later, on September 13, 1964. I have very vague memories of going to Freedomland as a child with my parents before moving there to live in the housing development known as Co-op City which broke ground in 1966.

When we got to Palmer Avenue where the Harbour House Coffee Shop is located, we had to find parking. The only parking we found was linked to some app that I had to download since no meters were functioning. Naturally, I was left to navigate this system, as Elliot just left me to go to the coffee shop. I moved the car first from the street into a lot, thinking I wouldn’t have to use this system, but I was unable to find a snug-enough spot for the car, so I had to find another spot somewhere else. I lucked out with moving into a spot at the end of the block where the coffee shop was across the street. However, I was beginning to have trouble registering the car with this parking app. Fortunately for me, a young man was passing me on the corner, so I accosted him and asked if he could help me download the app properly. He was very courteous and showed me how to do it. And if this young man hadn’t shown up, we might have still been there in Larchmont. Now I was able to join Elliot in the coffee shop.

To make a long story short, we got to White Plains within 24 minutes or so. We were early for Elliot’s appointment at 1:45, so we were told to return five minutes before 1:45. The guard who informed us of this mentioned we could go to Whole Foods around the block and hang out there. Which we did. I got a coffee and a chocolate croissant while Elliot did a little shopping. By 1:30, we returned to the DMV office.

After waiting at least an hour, Elliot was given the red light by one of the clerks who examined all of the documents he brought to verify who he was. She stated he did not have an original Social Security card and that was why she was not proceeding with his application. Huh! Elliot showed the woman other forms of proof of his identity and this was still not enough. In fact, he had a copy of his Social Security card, but that was not accepted. Elliot took this setback rather well; me, I wanted to scream. I should have said something to the clerk behind the window, but I didn’t. Like, “Can’t you let this one pass?” Didn’t he bring you enough forms of identification?” I wanted to proclaim, but I stayed quiet.

Even though you can say we had a pleasant enough drive to White Plains, I considered the whole venture a major disappointment. Now we have to start from Square 1, schedule another appointment somewhere else, and go through with the same waiting. At least Elliot didn’t have to wait as long as I did on Friday, April 4, when I applied in Manhattan for the same thing. Elliot will also have to carry his passport the next time we travel domestically, which will be next month. I expected his new ID to have been mailed to him before this trip. But that was not meant to be!

I wanted to indicate that today, June 26, marks the 10-year anniversary of nationwide marriage equality in the United States. An online article about this milestone appears in Gay City News by Matt Tracy entitled “Report sheds light on 10 years of marriage equality in the United States.”

“Nearly 600,000 same-sex couples have been married in the United States since the landmark 2015 Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, according to a report published by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law.” Here’s another intriguing statistic: “In total, there are now 823,000 married same-sex couples in the United States – twice as many as there were in 2014, just one year before the Obergefell ruling, according to the report.”

Not surprising is the fact that the ruling has had the greatest impact on southern states, “none of which had achieved marriage equality by the time the Obergefell ruling was handed down: From 2014 to 2023, there was a 21% increase in same-sex married couples in the south, compared to 16% in the west, 15% in the midwest, and 11% in the northeast.”

Even though many states have moved to codify marriage equality in recent years, the fate of this precedent is uncertain, especially in these troubling and regressive times under a new fascistic president. The year that the legislation was passed, it was Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas who wrote in a concurring opinion that the Supreme Court “should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell,” referring to rulings establishing rights to contraception, sodomy, and marriage equality, respectively. Oh, why hasn’t this very corrupt justice been impeached already? I ask.

Voters last year in California, Colorado, and Hawaii became the latest to repeal bans on same-sex marriage, and earlier this month, the Delaware Senate approved legislation to codify same-sex marriage.

“As of June 2025, more than two dozen states still maintained statutes and/or constitutional amendments barring marriage equality – though those policies have been with 433,000 married same-sex couples residing in those states.”

Though today does mark a commemoration of the ruling that brought marriage equality to the United States, there is still a sense that things can change very fast, just like Roe v. Wade was overturned by this “Extreme” Court in June 2022 after observing it for 50 years. We still have to remain very vigilant then.

In the meantime, let’s hope that horrible “murder” bill that the lying sack of shit called Donald Chump laughingly calls his “Big, Beautiful” bill dies before it can ever be passed. But this president wants the bill jammed through very soon so that he could sign it before the Fourth of July. This is only for optics., folks, nothing else.

But the bill is now receiving opposition from the Senate’s rules referee, Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, who struck down key provisions, saying they don’t meet the chamber’s strict budget rules that must be followed so the bill can be approved by a simple majority of 51 votes – or just GOP support. This fact is reported in a CNN online article by Lauren Fox, Manu Raju, and Morgan Rimmer entitled “Trump’s massive agenda bill faces headwinds in the Senate after key ruling from chamber’s rules referee.”

Devastating changes to the Medicaid program have badly divided the Senate GOP, with a number of members – including Josh Hawley (He with the Raised Fist) of Missouri and Susan Collins of Maine, among others – worried that the new limits would devastate rural hospitals in their states, just the kind of Dump supporter that would be affected by these changes.

Again, let’s hope this bill goes through various iterations and that certain changes are added to it that will not devastate Americans’ food assistance and Medicaid as it’s originally been conceived. If it does pass with these horrible cuts untouched, repugnicans should then run for the hills in 2026!

Tomorrow Elliot and I are driving to Highland, New York, to visit our friends “Ted” and “Peter.” We are staying until Saturday. So I’ll be absent from this venue until Saturday or Sunday, depending on what time we get home on Saturday.

Have a good Friday then.

And so it went!

And So It Goes

Today is Wednesday, June 25, 2025. It was another sultry day in the Baked Apple and I spent more time outside than I should have, considering how intense the heat was. Since I wasn’t seeing my friend in Central Islip, I then ventured driving to my comic book store on Metropolitan Avenue, but I was not prepared to sit in the car on such a hot day for almost 40 minutes when the ride generally only takes 15 minutes. It appeared that there were blockades everywhere tying traffic up for extended lengths of time. I couldn’t drive up 71st Road where I would make a turn onto Continental Avenue because there were cars stuck in a snarl for some reason. I had to circumvent this traffic to use another approach to get to Metropolitan Avenue and that consumed more time than I would have liked. Therefore, I got to Royal Collectibles closer to 11:30, which is about a half hour later than usual. I know I shouldn’t complain, but this is truly indicative of how enervating driving is in this city at this time. I thought of leaving the car before getting to my destination, but I certainly wasn’t going to walk to the store. I was trapped in my Subaru Forrester Sport vehicle until I arrived at the store. When I walked into the nicely air-conditioned store, I told the women behind the counter how terrible my drive was in getting there. They were sympathetic and agreed that driving in the city has become a major headache. One of the staff persons behind the counter informed me she stopped driving to take the railroad. I listened to her raptly before asking how many books came in since I didn’t receive an email yesterday listing my new comics. I had three to pick up.

I then had breakfast at Buen Sabor Latino Restaurant, where I read my new books. I usually have poached eggs and home fries, plus coffee and rye toast and butter. I usually never eat the toast. Afterward, I walked out into the sweltering air to buy some items in CVS and then walked to the North Forest Library to return a book that I knew I wouldn’t have time to read.

At least my return trip home went more smoothly than my drive to Metropolitan Avenue. This did not take another 40 minutes; in fact, it only took me about 15 minutes to get home.

In terms of Dump World, a confirmation hearing of a Dump appointee to serve on the federal bench is receiving a lot of publicity – thank God – in the way that this appointee, Emil Bove, is supremely unqualified for the job. He had to fend off many accusations of corruption made by only Democrats in the room and it would seem that this candidate would have been soundly rejected anytime in the past, but not anymore since these repugnicans only kneel before their Supreme Leader and have forgotten their oath to the country.

This developing story was covered in an online CNN article by Paula Reid, Casey Gannon, and Holmes Lybrand entitled “Trump judicial nominee Emil Bove denies allegations in whistleblower report and say’s he’s not a ‘henchman.'” Again, this appointee by this compromised president just shows how corrupt the system of government has become under him.

Thus, this candidate, who is a personal lawyer of the president, has been nominated to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and fended off angry accusations by members before the Senate Judiciary Committee today. One of those accusations was actually made by a whistleblower at the Justice Department who alleged that in a previous meeting with this ghoul (you really have to look at him, and I promise you’ll make the same physical conclusion that Bove looks like a ghoul), Bove “stated that DOJ would need to consider telling the courts ‘fuck you’ and ignore any orders to stop the hasty deportation of migrants to a prison to El Salvador. This complaint was reported on Tuesday, and when reminded of it, he denied any wrongdoing. Bove said, “I don’t think there’s any validity to the suggestion that that whistleblower complaint filed yesterday calls into question my qualifications to serve as a circuit judge.”

For the past six months, Bove has served as a high-ranking official in the Justice Department. In that very short time, he has proven himself to be a reliable lackey for the president – which should instantly disqualify him for the job – and also has been embroiled in a series of major controversies – the major one being dropping federal charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams which seems as tainted as curdled milk. He has also investigated officials who worked on cases related to January 6, 2021 and pursued Dump’s deportation goals in ways that prompted a whistleblower to allege Bove intended to ignore court orders and mislead federal judges.

Here is this unworthy candidate for a position on the circuit court saying that the decision to drop charges against Adams was based on a “substantiated” concern “on the weaponization of the criminal justice system” in the case, though he did not elaborate. Anyone with a brain knows that this administration yells weaponization of the justice system only when it pertains to real cases against them, so no one is fooled by the dropping of charges against this corrupt mayor who will not serve a second term because of this development. People know that he received a pro quid pro from the Dump administration in these charges being so magically dropped. That is why he will not receive a second term; he’s irrevocably tainted from that moment on.

Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) lambasted Bove for not further explaining those decisions when pressed during the hearing, including over questions of whether there was an element of quid pro quo in dropping the charges against Adams. Blumenthal fumed, “I am absolutely flabbergasted that you would come before this committee and refuse to tell us basic facts about a case that is at the core of the challenges to the appearance of impropriety that should disqualify you.”

If confirmed, Bove would be one of roughly a dozen of judges with the power to review federal cases being appealed in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and the Virgin Islands.

Bove denied ever telling this whistleblower that he shouldn’t obey court orders. This came out during a heated exchange with Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA).

Considering how all of Dump’s appointees have been confirmed, despite serious reservations about their worthiness in all of these nominations, I would be shocked if Bove is not confirmed, despite serious reservations about his qualifications for the job. Another sad day for America if he is confirmed!

And so it went!

And So It Goes

Today is Tuesday, June 24, 2025. I forgot to mention in yesterday’s blog that today is New York’s mayoral primary where polls have closed at 9. Where the city was still gripped in 98-degree heat, but that didn’t stop Elliot and me from voting earlier than usual since I woke up at 7:40 which is not the usual time when I wake up. So by 9, we trundled off to the elementary school where Elliot volunteers for a remarkable kindergarten teacher at P.S. 196. Before we voted downstairs, Elliot paid a visit to this teacher on the first floor and I could hear her kids say to Elliot, “Hi, Mr. B.” Then he walked in and hugged his colleague, “Irma.” I followed Elliot into the room and hugged and kissed Irma and was immediately greeted by a young girl who asked how I was related to Elliot. Boy, was she curious. She first inquired if I were a cousin, I believe, then asked if I were a friend. I thought it was easier to say the latter and leave it at that.

Actually, temperatures reached a high of 100 today and I went out at least four times. The first time was to vote; the other times had to do with going to the bank, getting a pedicure, and then going out and having dinner at a local Chinese restaurant since no one was cooking today. I even had to drive to Staples to buy a whole new set of cartridges since my printer warned me yesterday that two cartridges were depleted. I even stupidly sat outside for a very brief spell to read my new book on the Astor family, written by Anderson Cooper, but bounced up as the temperature got sultrier and sultrier. I had just called my friend “Harvey,” whom I was supposed to have met in the city, but this get-together I canceled because of the heat. I was not going to stand on a subway platform where the temps might have been over 100 degrees. And I’m sure they were!

I have not been personally engaged in the mayoralty race because of obvious concern of what’s happening on the national level with this current fascistic regime, so excuse me for not writing about it. An online article in the Mirror provides some early results of the race for mayor and they are quite interesting. The article is written by Falyn Stempler and it’s entitled “Zohran Mamdani leading in early NYC mayoral race exit polls followed by Andrew Cuomo.” As I said, these early results are quite intriguing.

The article states in the first paragraph that Mamdani is currently leading in early exit polling for New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary race. This candidate is a democratic socialist and he has been endorsed by such progressive figures as Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and former DNC Vice Chair David Hogg (formerly a survivor of the Parkland high school shooting in Florida on February 14, 2018), who currently leads with 43.8 percent of the votes, followed by former NYC Governor Andrew Cuomo (35.8 percent), NYC Comptroller Brad Lander (11.7 percent), and NYC Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (4.1 percent), according to the Associated Press.

These results reflect approximately 84 percent of votes cast, totaling over 866,000 voters. I’m not sure if that’s an impressive number, considering how many registered Democrats there are in the city.

These results will only reflect the voter’s first choice, including mail-in ballots processed by June 20. The full ranked-choice tabulations will not be available until the beginning of next week.

In the ranked voting system, if no candidate is the first choice on a majority of ballots, then the election will advance to ranked voting.

If Mamdani wins, his would be a historic feat for the progressive wing of the Democratic Party as it challenges establishment figure Cuomo who led the city through the horrific COVID-19 pandemic. Cuomo, 67, also faces nearly a dozen accusations of sexual harassment.

Mamdani, 33, is currently a New York State Assembly member who is a registered democratic socialist. He was born in Uganda to a Muslim-Indian family and raised in New York City.

He champions working-class causes and has focused his campaign on the cost-of-living crisis. Among his other progressive proposals are creating affordable housing and free childcare, raising the minimum wage, offering free public bus transit, and creating city-run supermarket stores, according to his website.

If elected, he will be this city’s first Muslim mayor and it highlights the split within the Democratic Party’s older entrenched faction and a new, younger one, as embodied by Mamdani and other young progressives like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Oops, an update: Cuomo has indeed lost the primary and he has conceded to Mamdani. Very interesting. Maybe this young man’s victory has all the earmarks of a fucking backlash to Chump’s supposed victory in November.

Today we heard an actual sitting president use the F-bomb in comments he made to reporters in which he condemned both Israel and Iran for the unraveling of the ceasefire that he supposedly brokered between the two warring nations. But now both Israel and Iran said they will not break the ceasefire unless the other does first, after the two countries traded accusations of truce violations. So Dump lashed out at both parties, saying, in fury, “They don’t know what the fuck they’re doing.” This was heard around the world, as parents will now have to explain to their children how their president can stoop to such vulgar language like everyone else. Maybe this toddler was responding to the reports that those military strikes he deployed on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities did not destroy the country’s nuclear program and likely only set it back by months, not years. The assessment was done by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s intelligence arm. But we all know that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said earlier that Iran’s nuclear ambitions “have been obliterated.” Maybe they were obliterated – but only in his head.

Tomorrow I was going to see my Long Island friend “Jake” and not write my blog since I usually spend at least 12 hours with him, always ending up coming home past midnight generally. But my friend called me to cancel because of the expected heat and other reasons I won’t mention here. “But I already bought my train ticket,” I told him. Jake responded that it is still good for several months; he’s right – I checked. So we rescheduled to get together in two weeks: on Wednesday, July 9. That’s fine with me; I didn’t really want to ride the subway to the Jamaica LIRR train station. So I can now go to my comic book store as planned.

I should see you tomorrow then if nothing else arises out of the blue.

And so it went!

And So It Goes

Today is Monday, June 23, 2025. This is my first blog since Thursday, June 19, 2025, not because Elliot and I went away or – God forbid – I was suffering from malaise or anything like that. (Since Dump was reelected, I have truly been suffering from unrepressed anger and gargantuan disillusionment over my fellow Americans who would stoop to bring this convicted felon back into the White House.) As I said when we journeyed to Norway and Europe in early May, no one I spoke to had any words of approbation for this criminal governing this country until 2028.

The reason for this mysterious lapse in the blog had everything to do with a nonfunctioning keyboard that began Thursday night when I decided to restart the computer after I saw my screen flickering for some strange reason. After I did that, I restarted the computer, went into my half of the computer, and then promptly learned my keyboard stopped typing. I couldn’t understand why. This keyboard works with batteries; it’s not powered by plugging it into a power source. I changed the batteries first as a solution to the problem, and again, the keyboard wouldn’t type one letter. So I wasted away for two long days before I called a tech guy from two years earlier, who helped us install our new Mac device. He didn’t come until Saturday around 2 and stayed for about an hour or so and he was unable to do anything. So he told me he had to take the keyboard away with him to test it with another computer and wouldn’t return until today, Monday. I was without my little device for four days, and Elliot said I was experiencing computer withdrawal symptoms. I agreed with him. I couldn’t write my blog, read my email, or write anything else for those four days. I’m not content with finding these things on my cell phone.

So “Eddie” returned today, but much later than I had hoped. Even though he’s very good at what he does, he really didn’t respond to my texts right away; I had to resort to calling him this morning to find out when he was coming. So I did call him close to 11 to inquire when he was coming, and he said, around 1 to 2. I ran out in the sweltering heat for a quick bite and came home to wait for him. Actually, Eddie didn’t come until around 3:20 instead of the time he earlier indicated in his text to me. I waited until 3 and was just about to call him when he did text me to indicate his phone died and that he was going to come in about 20 minutes, which made it about 3:20.

When Eddie appeared, he had a new keyboard in his hand and mouse, and he sat at the computer desk and got me to sign into my screen name, and – voila’ – the keys were working as beautifully as they should. But my old keyboard was now fodder for the garbage bin. It was not working; Eddie declared it corrupted. He provided me with a brand new black keyboard whose keys actually feel a little less taut than the old one. However, I’m still not totally inured to the new Logitech mouse. That might take more time to get used to.

So look what I missed in just four days: The big news is this “peace” president’s stunning pronouncement that this country dropped several bunker buster bombs on Fordo, Iran’s heavily fortified nuclear facility on Saturday, June 21. I’m sure this “wonderful” news was greeted by cheers by most decent-loving Americans! Not at all!

So now calls for impeachment have actually grown since this decision made by this lying sack of shit who just stated he was giving the Iranian regime two weeks to return to the negotiating table. I think he said this lie a day before dropping those bombs. Could you imagine the uproar if this brazen lie were made by a Democratic president, say, Joe Biden? Those hypocritical, cowardly repugnicans would be calling for his head!

An online article in Common Dreams by Eloise Goldsmith covers this development in “Calls for Impeachment Grow as Trump Floats ‘Regime Change’ in Iran.” As the president took to social media on Sunday to suggest that regime change was on the table for Iran, calls from Democratic lawmakers and outside progressive voices have continued to grow calling for his impeachment following the weekend bombing of Iranian nuclear sites.

As for those claims that these Iranian facilities were completely destroyed, independent experts who viewed satellite imagery of the areas told NPR that the strike left Iran’s nuclear program damaged, but not destroyed. Unlike what the drunken Pete Hegseth who is our Secretary of Defense, who countered the facilities were “obliterated.” Not so, Pete; look at your own intelligence reports.

And there isn’t any proof that Iran was even attempting to build a nuclear weapon, according to U.S. intelligence agencies. Doesn’t this rash attack smack of our falsehood of “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq that were never there during the Bush era? Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), a frequent vocal critic of this president, wrote on X, “It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment.”

Meanwhile, Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) wrote on Sunday: “This is not about the merits of Iran’s nuclear program. No president has the authority to bomb another country that does not pose an imminent threat to the U.S. without the approval of Congress. This is an unambiguous impeachment offense.”

Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) have introduced a war powers resolution in the U.S. House last week, asserting the constitutional requirement of congressional approval for any declaration of war. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) introduced one in the Senate.

Countering the notion that this illiberal regime wants regime change in Iran, Defense Secretary Hegseth said in a press conference on Sunday, “This mission was not, and has not been, about regime change.” Vice President JD Vance said on NBC News on Sunday morning, “Our view has been very clear that we don’t want a regime change.” If you believe these liars about their true aim in a foreign country, then I have a bridge I can sell you cheap!

Well, I’m very glad to be back! I hope you missed me!

Stay cool tomorrow if you can. Temps are going to be in the vicinity of 99 degrees! I’ve already canceled plans on getting together with my friend “Harvey” tomorrow since I don’t want to be on a subway platform during the day.

And so it went!

And So It Goes

Today is Monday, June 16, 2025. Yes, I was missing here yesterday because of it being Father’s Day and I wanted to spend some time with Elliot last night, even though it was just watching an old film together on Amazon Prime, 1997’s Wilde, a British biographical drama about the inimitable Oscar Wilde, the toast of the town in late 19th-century London until his shattering downfall after falling in love with Lord Alfred “Bosie” Douglas (a stunningly handsome Jude Law) and battling it out with Douglas’s homophobic father, the Marquess of Queensberry (Tom Wilkinson), in court and losing a libel suit against him when the truth comes out about Wilde’s penchant for young male lovers, even though he was married and had children. The actor tapped to portray the icon of Victorian glamor was Stephen Fry.

The day began nicely enough with Elliot preparing me French toast out of croissants. I also received an obligatory call from my son “Joshua” in the morning to wish me happy Father’s Day. We had an earnest man-to-man conversation about his present situation, of which I will not divulge here because of privacy concerns. He definitely would not approve of my disclosing what we talked about here, so I won’t.

In the afternoon, I decided to drive to Huntington, New York, to go to a favored bookstore, The Next Chapter, located on New York Avenue. Elliot was content staying home, so I walked to the garage to pick up the car. I had directions to the store printed out. And tried to follow them as best as I could without getting into an accident. I had the foolish tendency to look down at the paper, and I realized it could have been fatal to do so. However, there was so much traffic on the Grand Central Parkway and the Cross Island Parkway that I even considered returning without spending so much time on the highway stuck in traffic. I felt I didn’t have to do this; this was a Sunday and I didn’t have to be stuck in traffic.

However, I stayed the course and persevered and drove all the way to Huntington anyway. It must have taken me close to 85 minutes, instead of a little over 60 minutes. I finally parked on New York Avenue and stepped into a cafe to get a cup of coffee and a slice of nut cake. From there, I drove to The Next Chapter, but it was close to 4. I called Elliot and said I would probably come home around 7. I expected the return drive would be another hour or so. And I wouldn’t have had much time in the bookstore.

Actually, it was a good thing that I had less time to browse the shelves in The Next Chapter, so I couldn’t purchase more books. Pleasantly, I found out that a sale was going on that day and it consisted of putting as many books from the back room and records in your own shopping bag for a mere $20. Yesterday marked the last day, unfortunately, of the sale. I was able to resist the temptation to pack my new Strand bag with a countless number of books. From the back room, I just picked one, Quentin Crisp’s The Naked Civil Servant and Anderson Cooper’s Astor: The Rise and Fall of an American Fortune, written with Katherine Howe. This I found on the regular shelves. This was $7.98, while Crisp’s autobiography was only $2. Now it was time to leave the premises and drive home. Again, I encountered traffic on both the Long Island Expressway and the Northern State Parkway, and this time, I turned on my car GPS instead of using paper directions. It was a much wiser decision, I felt, than referring to printed directions.

To top off Father’s Day, Elliot prepared a dinner of home cooked roast beef and mashed potatoes for the both of us. The meal was very, very delicious, and that’s when we decided to watch the film. But first, I watched a little more of George Clooney in CNN’s live telecast of Good Night, and Good Luck from last week. This newest adaptation of the 2005 film couldn’t be more topical, with its themes of truth, journalistic integrity, and the fight against fear and discrimination during the incendiary McCarthy era. It tells the story of iconic journalist, Edward R. Murrow, clashing with the Wisconsin senator over baseless claims of communism. I watched the part where Clooney slams the senator on the CBS network for conducting a campaign of terror and intimidation in his incessant agenda of rooting out so-called communists in the federal government. The audience whooped and cheered after Clooney’s fearless speech, as the specter of what’s happening here in the United States was invoked in his address.

Now back to reality: in the wake of the despicable shootings in Minnesota, a U.S. senator, Utah Republican Mike Lee, is receiving a torrent of criticism after he sent a disturbing tweet about the Minnesota gunman who killed Democratic state former House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and shot Democratic state Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette. An online article about this abominable senator appears in Daily Koss by Emily Singer entitled “GOP senator slammed for disgusting tweets about Minnesota shooting.”

This disgusting individual could not wait until the suspect’s motives were disclosed, so he tweeted out an image of the alleged murderer in the rubber mask he wore when he opened fire on the lawmakers. In text alongside the disturbing image, Lee wrote in the style of his fucking Dear Leader who can’t bother to check the correct spelling of someone’s name, “Nightmare on Waltz [sic] Street.” This fucking “senator” couldn’t even spell correctly Minnesota Democratic Governor Tim Walz in his appalling tweet, especially when Walz’s name was also on the killer’s intended target list.

Another disgusting message this so-called lawmaker posted was another image of the killer in the rubber mask with the text, “This is what happens when Marxists don’t get their way.” This message was posted to further the false GOP message that this 57-year-old lunatic was a Democrat; instead, the truth is that the murderer was a Dump-supporting, antiabortion zealot, a true detritus of MAGA. As more politicians are calling for lawmakers to ratchet down their rhetoric in the wake of this latest explosion of political violence, we have this stupid Mike Lee ratcheting up the rhetoric instead.

The article says it all, “Ultimately, it’s sick the lengths Republicans are going – including a U.S. senator – to gin up a false narrative absolving the Republican Party of responsibility in radicalizing Americans who commit violence in the name of their furthering their right-wing agenda.” It goes on to say that these cowardly republicans “are too irresponsible to accept that they are at fault for causing the climate that leads to political violence.” It concludes, “At the end of the day, however, this is what happens when someone like Trump is the leader of a political party.”

Of course, as true to form, sadly, the sitting insulter in chief has yet to call Walz to send his condolences over what just happened in his state. But this putrid, little man had the audacity, even, to attack Walz for “being a terrible governor.” How can anyone think this man is rational after this is beyond me.

Tomorrow Elliot and I plan a day out. We intend to meet our newest acquaintance, “Barry,” for either dinner and drinks. Also, we might go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for some special exhibits that Elliot is interested in seeing. Something on “Black Dandyism” and the other on chinoiserie. So I might not be here also tomorrow night, depending on how long we stay out with Barry.

So have a great Tuesday.

And so it went!

And So It Goes

Today is Monday, June 9, 2025. Today people protested right here inside Trump Tower and took over the lobby around 12:45 p.m. A brief article appeared in Forest Hills’ Patch by David Luces entitled “More Than 20 Arrests Made At ICE Protest Inside Trump Tower.” Police arrested more than 20 demonstrators during this ICE protest inside the Chump Tower today.

The protesters were calling for the release of inmates from a controversial El Salvador prison, according to a New York Post report.

This demonstration comes a day after an ICE protest in Lower Manhattan, where dozens of demonstrators were arrested.

In addition, the protest came as the Dump regime sent National Guard troops to Los Angeles, where protesters have clashed with police over ICE raids.

A more alarming article by frequent a contributor to The Atlantic, David Frum, appeared online yesterday which calls everything happening under this lawless regime as a “dress rehearsal.” The article is entitled “For Trump, This Is a Dress Rehearsal” and it’s quite shocking, but anything to do with this “president” is not shocking anymore, actually, since the horrible Supreme Court has given him almost total immunity from illegal actions that he will try to put into practice.

In the wake of the mobilization of the National Guard in Los Angeles, Frum says that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth declared his readiness to obey the Dear Leader by invoking the Marines as well. Frum maintains that the “state, counties, and cities of California employ more than 75,000 uniformed law-enforcement personnel with arrest powers.” Also, the Los Angeles Police Department alone numbers nearly 9,000 uniformed officers. It’s a certainty that these personnel would surely be able to handle a small number of agitators throwing rocks, shooting fireworks, and impeding vehicular traffic.

This particular moment of ours, according to this sagacious columnist, is actually a dress rehearsal for Dump to do the unimaginable, which is to use “federal powers in ways to provoke some kind of made-for-TV disturbance – flames, smoke, loud noises, waving of foreign flags,” and to “invoke the disturbance to declare a state of emergency and deploy federal troops,” and to “seize control of local operations of government – policing in June 2025; voting in November 2026.” Which means this bastard can terminate or subvert voting in 2026 since he understands that his party could be thrown out of office by then.

Frum writes, “If Trump can incite disturbances in blue states before the midterm elections, he can assert emergency powers to impose federal control over the voting process, which is to say his control.” Another option is that he suspend voting until, in his opinion, order has been restored, which will be never! “Either way, blue-state seats could be rendered vacant for some time.” This would be a disaster.

The columnist maintains that Trump was constrained during his first term from implementing his more egregious policies by his own appointees, but not this time, which was sadly predicted a long time ago. Now Dump is surrounded by idiots who are loyal only to him, not to the country.

So even if Dump might be concerned about what could happen during the midterms, he is probably taking early actions like these that will ensure no midterm elections actually take place! That surely will be the beginning of the end for this country if that ever happens. Let us make sure it won’t ever be put into practice! Let’s not make him a king with absolute powers!

And so it went!