Tag Archives: news

And So It Goes

Today is Sunday, June 8, 2025. The first flashpoint of this fascistic regime is now occurring in California, specifically in Los Angeles, with the deployment of the National Guard to quell peaceful protesters demonstrating against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents cracking down on immigrants at various sites. Today a political strategist predicted that this heavy measure undertaken by the convicted felon will backfire on him. Let’s hope she is right in this regard. Her comments appear in an online RawStory article entitled “‘This is going to backfire on him’: Strategist flags big mistake Trump is making.” It’s written by David McAfee.

At the moment, the president is using a heavy hand to suppress protests against his Draconian immigration policies, and it is bound to backfire, according to Shaniqua McClendon, vice president of politics for Crooked Media. She appeared on MSNBC today to discuss the protests.

McClendon initially stated that the Dump administration is making things “really tense” and that “they want the protesters to react in ways that ‘justify’ responses that are over the top.”

She compared the situation to the George Floyd protests in 2020, and then said Trump is “trying to get a reaction out of them.” I think this is very obvious. It has been already predicted that the Chump regime would rely on these measures in order to justify more violence against protesters.

McClendon said, “But I think the thing that may backfire [against] him is that he’s bringing more attention. More people are probably tuning into the news right now, and they’re going to wonder what is going on.” She added, “And this is going to backfire on him. But I just hope it’s enough time that, you know, he can be stopped.”

Another vocal critic of Dump’s actions here in Los Angeles is former Republican Representative Adam Kinzinger who issued a dire warning amid swirling speculation that Donald Dump might invoke the centuries-old Insurrection Act. In an online article for WGTC, Omar Faruque writes a piece entitled “‘It won’t end well,’ warns Adam Kinzinger as Donald Trump allegedly crosses the red line to unleash centuries-old military powers.”

The current mess began in Los Angeles when federal immigration authorities launched a series of high-profile raids across the city. These operations, targeting undocumented immigrants, were conducted in areas with significant Latino populations, including Paramount and the Fashion District. Over 100 persons have reportedly been detained, and the raids have left communities reeling.

Things escalated when protests erupted in response to these actions, with tensions boiling over near a Home Depot south of Los Angeles. Federal agents in riot gear faced off against angry protesters,. who hurled rocks, cement chunks, and other projectiles. “In retaliation, the agents deployed tear gas, flash-bang grenades, and pepper balls, resulting in a chaotic scene of smoke, shouting, and scattered fires in the streets.”

As the clashes intensified, California Governor Gavin Newsom stepped in, denouncing the federal government’s actions as “inflammatory” and accusing them of deliberately provoking unrest. However, Newsom urged protesters to remain peaceful, warning that any escalation would only “play into the hands” of those seeking to sow division, particularly the Dump regime.

The Insurrection Act was signed into law in 1807 and grants the president the authority to deploy military forces domestically in cases of rebellion, insurrection, or obstruction. One must ask then is why didn’t this thug invoke this during his own insurrection on January 6, 2021, against the protesters crashing the U.S. Capitol when a true insurrection was occurring? Anyone not watching Fox News knows the answer to that one.

This is a tool of last resort, though. It’s meant for moments when all other mechanisms of maintaining order have failed. Historically, it’s been invoked during extraordinary circumstances, such as enforcing desegregation in the South during the Civil Rights Movement or in response to the 1992 Los Angeles riots in the wake of the Rodney King beatings.

“Using the Insurrection Act to suppress protests, however, would be a controversial move, especially in a case like this where local and state officials – including Governor Newsom – are actively opposing intervention.” What is at stake here isn’t just the situation in Los Angeles – it’s the precedent this sets if Dump relies on it to quell peaceful protests. Then he can do this anywhere, at any time! Do we really want this, folks?

If Dump can do this, what does this mean for the future of American democracy? Are we really copacetic with the idea of a president using military force to suppress constitutional dissent? This situation is not about “restoring order” or “enforcing the law.” It’s about control and using force for no sane reason other than flexing the muscle that all dictators wield or wish to wield.

One other explanation for Dump doing this now is that he’s been humiliated in recent days by his public breakup with his billionaire donor, Elon Muskrat, who might even switch allegiances to Democrats – God forbid! – and by Senate Republicans’ refusal to quickly enact his so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill,” which should be renamed the “Murder Bill” instead, by China’s Xi Jinping’s refusal to back down on trade (and restrict shipments of China’s rare earths, which American industry depends on), and by Vladimir Putin’s refusal to end the war in Ukraine. Also, there is the federal courts that are pushing back against his unlawful actions regarding immigration and almost everything else. And he’s had to endure insults and smears from the richest person in the world, who has a larger social platform than he does.

I just hope that this situation does not escalate into full-on civil war because it isn’t pretty. I can’t wait until next week, June 14th, to see what this would-be despot does then against the millions of people protesting his “Big, Beautiful” fucking military parade! This is a president who will stop at nothing to use the military against ordinary Americans who disagree with him!

Have a great week anyway.

And so it went!

And So It Goes

Today is Friday, June 6, 2025. Outraging millions of Americans with their coddling of the Orange Cheeto, the “Extreme” Court allows this fucking DOGE (Disgusting Oligarchs Grabbing Everything”) gain access to your private Social Security data in a divided ruling today. This despicable ruling is examined in an online article entitled “Supreme Court lets DOGE access Social Security data of millions of Americans,” by Ann E. Marimow and Justin Jouvenal. The conservative majority on this partisan court just folded in front of Donald J. Chump. I’m livid with rage over this decision and so should you be!

Today this bastion of putrid conservatism sided with the Dump administration for now in two cases involving the U.S. DOGE Service, a fake agency for everyone to know, whose efforts to slash government agencies and obtain data about Americans have been mostly shrouded from public view.

The justices cleared the way in the first case for DOGE representatives to access the sensitive Social Security Administration data of millions of citizens, while litigation on the matter continues. Again, this ruling should outrage any American who feels his or her privacy has been violated by this permission granted to this phony government agency.

In the second case, which also should be viewed as a terrible decision, the high court shielded DOGE from having to immediately disclose records to a government watchdog group seeking information about the service. What is this court afraid of by not granting the group access to DOGE?

Of course, the court’s three liberal justices disagreed with the conservative majority’s actions in both cases with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson warning of “grave privacy risks for millions of Americans.” Go, girl, express your anger here toward your asshole colleagues, primarily Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito and the other conservative bums.

Taken together, the orders were another example of this court granting most of the Chump administration’s emergency requests to lift or scale back lower court rulings blocking his initiatives while legal challenges play out.

To cite some recent horrible decisions, the justices have permitted the administration to bar transgender troops from the military, fire independent agency leaders without cause, halt teacher grants, and remove protections for as many as 350,000 Venezuelans while legal challenges to all those efforts make their way through lower courts.

The only exceptions were in cases involving the due process rights of migrants targeted for fast-track deportation by this cruel administration. In such cases, the justices have required the government to provide notice and opportunity for the immigrants to challenge their removals.

Jackson used her lengthy dissent to criticize her colleagues for allowing the administration’s initiatives to take effect even though lower courts have not yet ruled on the legality of those measures.

Here Jackson tapped on the truth when she suggested the court has different rules for this regime, largely granting its emergency requests when the only emergency is that the government “cannot be bothered to wait.” That’s so true of this devilish administration that it’s not even funny.

Dump and his minions had asked the justices to intervene – which they did without any further ado – after a federal judge in Maryland correctly said DOGE representatives appeared to have violated privacy laws by viewing the personal data of some of the more than 70 million Americans who receive Social Security benefits.

Let’s hope this unfair ruling is not the final say on this continuing story with DOGE that is hated by so many decent Americans for its fucking infiltration into quite sensitive data of millions of people. Naturally, I’m one of those Americans who receives such benefits and are apprehensive of what this court has just allowed this crazy agency to do.

One of the critics of this poor decision, the coalition led by Democracy Forward said it is disappointed by the ruling. “This is a sad day for our democracy and a scary day for millions of people.” Adding in a statement, the group said, it “will continue to use every legal tool at our disposal to keep unelected bureaucrats from misusing the public’s most sensitive data as this case moves forward.”

What distinguished this Friday was Elliot and I having dinner with a regular at the Austin Street Diner who I will call “Jerry.” I’ve met Jerry many times for breakfast throughout the years, but it was Jerry who has always suggested we get together to plan a trip together. Since we really don’t know Jerry other than his anti-Dump views and the fact that he enjoys playing tennis, I thought the best thing was to schedule a dinner first before even thinking of going away with him. So we finally met Jerry at 6 at a local Italian restaurant by the name of Tuscan Hills.

I would say the dinner went quite well in that Jerry did open up a bit – but not too much – about his personal life. We learned he grew up in Oceanside, Long Island, and that he had a brother and sister. Jerry informed us that his brother died just last year, which I didn’t know anything about. He mentioned his sister now lives in Wyoming, but he’s not close to her. Very sad! We never asked why, though.

From the restaurant, I walked Jerry to MacDonald Park, while Elliot went home. We sat a little talking about my writing endeavors and then we parted as dusk rolled in. I walked Jerry to his building; he’s only about 10 minutes away from us. He suggested having us over for dessert the next time. And I agreed! So possibly we’ve made a nice, new friend late in life. I think that’s quite extraordinary.

Have a good weekend.

And so it went!

And So It Goes

Today is Thursday, June 5, 2025. I know I said I might not be here because of my being with my friend “Harvey.” I did see him for a very nice lunch at an eatery on Spring Street called Balthazar where we sat outside and watched the parade of passersby walk by. Most of them, we speculated, thought they fancied themselves as belonging to the beautiful set. Well, at least a few of them did as they pranced on by. I suggested we see a film afterward and Harvey did accompany me to the Mercer Street bookstore whereupon Harvey took his leave and I – regrettably – bought another book: The Fall of Richard Nixon by Tom Brokaw. It’s not such a long book, so I vow that I will read this one. After I read the books I bought in Wales first.

After paying for this book, I walked to Film Forum, on West Houston Street. I wanted to see a new documentary called Television Event which went on at 6:10. Actually, upon further review, I discover this documentary is not new; it was released on November 11, 2020. The documentary examines the production of a controversial 1983 made-for-television film on the effects of nuclear war on the citizens of the Kansas City area. The name of that film was called The Day After and almost 100 million terrified Americans watched the film in their living rooms. I was among them so many years ago. I had some time to kill, so I had another cup of coffee on Broadway.

When it was time to return to the cinema, I was stopped by the ticket taker who informed me the price of one ticket was not $13 for seniors, but $17 which is the regular adult price. He claimed this policy goes into effect after 5, which is quite strange, if you ask me. So I said goodbye Television Event, hello Queens. I called Elliot to tell him I was coming home. So I walked alongside Houston Street to take the F back to Forest Hills, where I had to stand the whole time because of how crowded the car was.

So let’s get back to that juicy duel between two assholes, one Donald J. Dump and the other one Elon Muskrat, that spilled out into the public today, as two egomaniacs carry out their school yard feud to the utmost pleasure of the American public who could have seen it coming over the horizon. It’s now Muskrat who went full tilt against Dump in an online Radar article entitled “Musk goes off! Elon Claims Trump Was ‘Replaced By Body Double’ and Bashes ‘Lying’ President As Bromance Falls Apart Amid Spending Bill Chaos.” Don’t you just love this public tiff between these two crybabies!

Oops, I lost the article. Here’s another one from USA Today entitled “Elon Musk escalates feud with Trump: ‘Time to drop the really big bomb.'” The writer is Joey Garrison. The accusations made by Dump’s now-former chum are even more deadly than the ones mentioned in the earlier article that I can’t find. In this article, Muskrat alleged that the so-called president’s name is mentioned in undisclosed, classified files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as their feud devolved into nasty personal attacks today.

Today in a post on his own social platform, X, Muskrat stated, “Time to drop the really big bomb,” referring to Dump’s name in the Epstein files. He added, “That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!”

Muskrat provided no evidence for his allegation but wrote: “Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out.”

On the other side, it was Dump who threatened to end government contracts with Muskrat’s companies and Musk left the White House’s DOGE because he supposedly “fired” him. Maybe this deluded man thinks he’s still on The Apprentice and believes he truly fired him. We’ll never fucking know!

Then Muskrat fired back at this pretender to the throne by saying, rightfully, that “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate.” Finally, he told the truth about how his fucking money helped this crazy man back into the White House. If he had funneled his money to Kamala Harris, we probably would not have Chump back in the White House. Maybe he would have been in the Big House instead!

“Two madmen are at war!” Lawrence O’Donnell just stated on The Last Word. And that is the damn truth. Hopefully their feud will divert the attention of this ADHD president away from destroying the country – at least for a short while. And maybe his “big, beautiful bill” will be scorched by Muskrat’s condemnation of it! I’m hoping for it!

Oh, Muskrat also said that DJT should be impeached. That’s also correct!

Don’t you just love this public quarrel between two unworthy men?

Have a good Friday!

And so it went!

And So It Goes

Today is Wednesday, June 4, 2025. Rumors are circulating around the Orange Cheeto’s silence the last few days, especially after his former billionaire bro slammed his “big, beautiful bill” as a “disgusting abomination” before he huffed and puffed out of the White House and out of his duties as the head of DOGE (“Disgusting Oligarchs Grabbing Everything”). MSNBC host LawrenceO’Donnell provides some answers as to why TACO Dump has remained silent amid this blowback from a previous fucking rich friend in an online article for Daily Beast called “MSNBC Host Says Trump Is Too Scared to Fire Back at Musk.”

Speaking on The Last Word, O’Donnell claimed the president is simply afraid of Musk. Remember this fecund bastard donated $288 million to Dumpster’s presidential race.

Also, on Tuesday, the longterm MSNBC host said Muskrat’s condemnation of the bill was the moment that all the watchers of Elon Muskrat and Donald Chump have been waiting for since Muskrat joined the Dump presidential campaign.

O’Donnell rightfully states that Dump didn’t respond to Muskrat’s public condemnation of his stupid bill because of the reality that he fears Muskrat. O’Donnell reports, “If you attack Donald Trump and Donald Trump says nothing, Donald Trump’s silence is the biggest expression of fear that he has.”

The MSNBC host says it plainly to explain Dumpster’s silence here. “Donald Trump fears the richest person in the world turning his money against Donald Trump’s candidates in Republican primary elections.” So there it is: the bastard is afraid of losing Muskrat’s millions and is afraid of his turning other repugnicans against the bill, which could mean its eventual death. O’Donnell corroborates this, saying, “And Donald Trump fears the richest person in the world convincing Republican members of the Senate, and the House, not to vote for Donald Trump’s budget bill that Elon Musk now calls a ‘disgusting abomination.'”

A more alarming and dystopian feature of this buffoon’s ongoing dismantling of democratic principles in America is an online article predicting a rebellion by MAGA supporters against Dump and a new initiative that will raise the hackles on everyone living in the United States. The online article appears in Tyla and it’s entitled “MAGA supporters ‘turn against’ Trump after terrifying new citizen database sparks major privacy concerns,” and it’s written by Rhianna Benson.

Thus a group of even the most loyal MAGA loyalists have seemingly turned against the president following a controversial new partnership between the Dump administration and a data analytics firm.

According to a New York Times article published this week, the president and his team of traitors have recently made the decision to partner with a software company called Palantir. The Colorado-based firm, cofounded by Dump billionaire supporter Peter Thiel, would give the unproclaimed king unlimited access to a new compilation of data on all American citizens. This means the bastard would have all of our personal information at his fat fingertips. “The new partnership would therefore be handing the president an unprecedented amount of surveillance power.”

This decision has naturally sparked national outrage – not just among left-leaning Democrats but among thousands of Dump’s former fans. Finally, a cause that can unite all of us against this Orange Cheeto.

“Many Americans now live in fear about the growing influence of technology in the States, specifically with regards to how their personal and professional data will be managed.”

Many people question whether this initiative will affect their right to privacy, as well as their civil liberties.

Now expressing his feeling of betrayal by this convicted felon, one die-hard supporter tweeted, “People are so quick to suggest that I flipped on Trump . . . No, no, no . . . I didn’t flip on Trump. TRUMP FLIPPED ON US.”

Even one of Dump’s previous famous supporters, self-professed white nationalist and far-right voter Nick Fuentes even chimed in on the debate.

Also taking to X (formerly Twitter), he described the administration’s new partnership as “the ultimate betrayal” of Dump’s “own people.” Fuentes wrote, “They are tracking everybody that criticized Israel, everybody that interacts with somebody that’s criticizing Israel, and whether you’re a citizen or not, whether you’re brown or not, Christian or Muslim, they’re putting you in the Palantir database.” He then added, “They’re putting you on the enemies list. If you don’t see a problem with that . . .”

God, if this disgusting white nationalist himself has a beef with this unpopular president’s initiatives like collecting everyone’s personal information for his own nefarious needs, then maybe this asshole has finally crossed the Rubicon with regard to his horrible policies. I just wish the legacy press gave this story more airtime than what it’s been getting. This will unite all Americans against the Dump administration in a way you’ve never seen since he took office on January 20.

Tomorrow I’m seeing my newfound friend “Harvey” for lunch since we didn’t attend Tuesday’s gay men’s club meeting. We also might see a film afterward, so I’m not sure if I’ll be here tomorrow evening. Time will tell.

Have a good Thursday.

And so it went!

And So It Goes

Today is Tuesday, June 3, 2025. Just what I’ve always written in this blog: that president Donald J. Chump may not last his second term because of obvious mental decline, as now being suggested by a top Republican political strategist by the name of Rick Wilson who predicts this for online Mirror in an article by Christopher Strong entitled “Donald Trump ‘may not last White House term’ as political advisor spots cognitive decline.”

Wilson thus points out that Dump might not serve out his term because of possible cognitive issues. Speaking to Times Radio, Wilson, who cofounded political action committee the Lincoln Project, argued that Dump is showing worse signs than just senior moments.

The long-time political strategist stated, “He is incoherent. His inability to articulate any thought or position without constant asides, constant lapses, the verbal aphasias he is experiencing at various points.” It comes after another ex-presidential advisor claimed Dump may be suffering from syphilis. Oh shit!

Rick continued his examination of the president’s declining mental health: “As a very close observer of Trump since 2015, I can tell you the man you’re watching today is not the Trump of 2015, nor is he the Trump of 2020, he’s not even the Trump of 2024.”

The advisor noted that Dump’s struggle to communicate is not unusual, given his age. He will be 79 on the afternoon of that wasteful military parade on June 14.

Wilson added, “There is a decline in Trump’s ability to communicate, there is a decline in Trump’s ability to articulate his thoughts. This is not uncommon when people get older.”

Other experts have speculated that Dump may actually be suffering from dementia, reports the Irish Star.

Because of this new speculation over Dump’s mental fitness, don’t even accept the lies told by Dump’s own physician, Captain Sean Barbabella, who wrote in a recent statement, “President Trump remains in excellent health, exhibiting robust cardiac, pulmonary, neurological, and general physical function.” What bullshit, I would dare say. Don’t you recall that during his first term, a now disgraced doctor claimed that Dump would live to the age of 200! Who believes in this bullshit, given the many signs of his declining mental acuity for everyone to see?

On a lighter side, given these very dark, dire times, it’s been noted that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) will be distributing free tacos today in reference to the new TACO slogan inspired by Donald Duck’s erratic approach to instituting tariffs that will prove to be injurious to this country’s economy. The slogan or acronym stands for “Trump Always Chickens Out,” and it’s evident it has gotten under this son of a bitch’s skin. So I would say, “use it until he loses it!” Maybe he’ll pop an aneurysm after lashing out at his critics who are using it ad nauseam. This humorous story appears in The New Republic in an article written by Adrienne Mahsa Varkiani entitled “Democrats Are Giving Out Free Tacos to Make Fun of Trump.”

The DNC has commissioned a taco truck that will be parked outside the Republican National Committee’s Washington, D.C., headquarters from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. The truck also comes with a a graphic of Dump in a chicken suit and the “Trump Always Chickens Out” slogan.

DNC Chair Ken Martin said in a statement to Axios, “With his idiotic trade policy, he talks a big game, caves, and then leaves working families and small businesses to deal with the fallout.”

We have to thank Financial Times columnist Robert Armstrong for coining the term TACO last month to describe Dump’s tendency to announce massive tariffs before suddenly changing his mind, as he has done over and over again. The term has now become a common one among Wall Street traders trying to predict the market.

When confronted with this acronym by a brave female reporter, the toddler in chief responded, “Don’t ever say what you said. That’s a nasty question. To me, that’s the nastiest question.” No, Mr. Dump, you’re the nastiest human on the planet for very obvious reasons!

Even though this is a funny stunt, it still be would be better if the Democratic Party had a more aggressive stance toward this nascent fascism being carried out by this horrible administration.

Oh, by the way, it’s the month of June and that means it’s Pride Month. With this president, the attacks against the LGBTQ+ community have risen in shocking numbers, so we must all be vigilant and stand against this erosion of civil rights for gay individuals, especially people in the trans community.

What we should applaud now is the breakup between the mental midget Dump and his billionaire bro, Elon Muskrat, when it was announced that the latter will be leaving his position in government. Let’s all say, “Good riddance, Mr. ‘Drug-addled’ Muskrat!” It couldn’t come at a better time! We should all be surprised that it even lasted this long!

And so it went!

And So It Goes

Today is Sunday, June 1, 2025. I was indeed missing in action yesterday, as I was watching some films that I started a day earlier but never finished. One of those films was Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths, released in 2024. Leigh is noted for a number of films like Secrets and Lies exploring the human condition through nuanced, naturalistic characters. This latest from him is not any different. It stars Marianne Jean-Baptiste as a woman experiencing bouts of depression and fits of anger, directed toward loved ones as well as complete strangers. It’s not too clear as to why Pansy, played by Jean-Baptiste, is that way other than her making an admission that her mother favored her younger sister, Chantelle, and that she feels that everyone hates her.

The second film I finished yesterday was from 2023: To Catch a Killer starring Shailene Woodley and Ben Mendelsohn as two people brought together in an FBI investigation of a shocking New Year’s Eve rash of killings in Baltimore. Under the explosive booms of fireworks on that night, 29 people are shot and killed, without pattern, leaving the investigative team in the dark, grasping at paper-thin straws of evidence. Woodley plays Eleanor Falco, a police officer who is at the scene of the horrible killings. Mendelsohn plays FBI investigator Geoffrey Lammark who recruits Falco as his teammate on the burgeoning investigation of the mass murders. This movie was quite different from the earlier one that didn’t rely on sensational violence to tell its tale of human misery.

Today a violent antisemitic attack occurred in Boulder, Colorado, in which a man set at least six elderly Jewish people on fire during a Boulder Run for Their Lives event, a weekly gathering of Jewish community members meant to support the hostages taken during the October 7 attacks in Israel in 2023. The suspect, an Egyptian, allegedly used a flamethrower and yelled “Free Palestine” moments before launching the terrible attack. This incident came less than two weeks after two Israeli Embassy staffers were shot and killed in Washington, D.C., by a lone gunman who yelled “Free Palestine” while being arrested.

Colorado Governor Jared Polis condemned the attack in Boulder that left at least six injured today. He was interviewed for an online CNN article by Michelle Watson entitled “Gov. Polis condemns the ‘heinous’ attack in Boulder that left six injured.” Polis said, “As the Jewish community reels from the recent antisemitic murders in Washington, D.C., it is unfathomable that the community is facing another antisemitic attack here in Boulder, on the eve of the holiday of Shavuot.”

What’s interesting about Polis is that he’s Jewish and got married to his longtime partner in a traditional Jewish ceremony in 2021.

It’s incidents such as this one and the one in Washington, D.C., that has frazzled many Jewish Americans who feel that they are being unfairly targeted for these abominable terroristic attacks just because of their Jewish faith. There are many residents of Israel who do not support the current prime minister’s war in Gaza. However, this reality is lost on these assailants who mistakenly lump everyone together just because they identify themselves as being Jewish. It’s a very unsettling time to be living here after the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel more than two years ago. Let’s see if this president actually comes out and condemns the violence without hesitation witnessed in Boulder, Colorado, today. I wouldn’t hold my breath!

Have a good week.

By the way, tomorrow I’m going for my first shingles vaccine at 2:30 at a local CVS. This is a two-shot dosage series, with the second shot administered 2 to 6 months after the first shot. Let’s hope there are no side effects to this inoculation.

And so it went!

This is Saint Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church, located on 6th Avenue, in Park Slope. I drove myself to a new bookstore in Park Slope called Troubled Sleep, located on 6th Avenue, and this is the church standing across from the bookstore.

Here is another view of that dazzling structure.

And So It Goes

Today is Sunday, May 25, 2025, the fifth anniversary of the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, that sparked a worldwide protest movement. It’s hard to believe that five years have elapsed since Floyd’s gruesome murder.

An online article for BBC News – of all places – reflects on this grim anniversary by Madeline Halpert entitled “Americans remember George Floyd on fifth anniversary of death.” The article points out that there have been special gatherings in the city where he grew up and in the one where he died.

Today in Floyd’s hometown of Houston near his gravesite, his family gathered for an event led by the Reverend Al Sharpton, while Minneapolis held several commemorations.

The mood five years ago, in my opinion, was much more optimistic than the mood today, given a second Dump administration and how it’s started to roll back police reforms in Minneapolis and other cities.

In Minneapolis, community members planned a morning church service, a candlelight vigil, and an evening gospel concert today to remember Floyd.

The events were a part of the annual Rise and Remember Festival taking place in George Floyd Square, the intersection where Floyd was murdered and which has since been named to honor him.

“Now is the time for the people to rise up and continue the good work we started,” Angela Harrelson, Floyd’s aunt and cochair of the Rise and Remember nonprofit, said in a statement about the festival.

In Houston, where Floyd grew up and where he is buried, local organizations planned poetry sessions, musical performances, and speeches by local pastors.

The police officer accused of murdering the unarmed Black man has been serving a 22-year prison sentence after he was convicted of murdering the 46-year-old. Other officers were convicted for failing to intervene in the killing.

In a post on X, Rev. Sharpton said Floyd’s death had “forced a long overdue reckoning with systemic racism and galvanized millions to take to the streets in protest.”

In the wake of Floyd’s death, under former President Joe Biden, the justice department opened civil investigations into several local law enforcement agencies, including Minneapolis, Louisville, Phoenix and Lexington, Mississippi, where investigators found evidence of systemic police misconduct.

The department reached agreements with both the Louisville and Minneapolis police departments that included oversight measures like enhanced training, accountability, and improved data collection of police activity.

But just last Wednesday, the Dump administration said those findings relied on “flawed methodologies [where’s the proof?] and incomplete data.”

Administration officials said the agreements were “handcuffing” local police departments.

In opposition to this announcement by a lawless administration, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey stated that his city would still “comply with every sentence of every paragraph, of the 169-page consent decree that we signed this year.”

Since returning to office, Dump has taken aim at Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) measures intended to reduce racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination. Early in his tenure, Dump signed an executive order to eliminate DEI policies in the federal government, some of which were the result of protests during what is often called “Black Lives Matter Summer,” held after the deaths of Floyd and others.

As a capitulation to Dump’s twisted view of America, the mayor of Washington, Muriel Bowser, removed Black Lives Matter Plaza, a strip of road that was emblazoned with the phrase near the White House. God forbid that racist president Dump should be offended by the sight of that phrase staring up at him in the White House. This week, a famous mural of Floyd was destroyed as part of a building demolition, according to Houston Public Media.

Recent surveys suggest Americans believe there have been few improvements for the lives of Black people in the United States five years after Floyd’s demise, including a May survey from Pew Research Center in which 72 percent of participants said there had been no meaningful changes.

The number of Americans expressing support for the Black Lives Matter movement has also fallen by 15 percent since June 2020, the same survey suggests. It appears then that the hope that arose from the movement five years ago in the wake of Floyd’s death has indeed paled as a result of the regressive mood in the country since Dump’s reelection. Too bad and too sad! The country certainly has stalled its progress in the civil rights arena as a result of reelecting this Neanderthal to the White House.

In the meantime, the buffoon who is president drew sharp criticism from critics everywhere for his West Point speech to the graduating cadets there yesterday. An online Mirror article by Anna Carlson entitled “Trump sparks backlash by wearing giant MAGA hat and pink tie to formal West Point graduation” details the volley of criticism engendered by Dump’s bizarre speech in front of graduating cadets at this country’s elite military school. Right away the clueless president received backlash for wearing a bold red MAGA hat to the ceremony, as if he were addressing his ignorant supporters at a campaign rally. He also got flak for wearing a pink tie.

One critic denounced Dump for his lack of respect of the graduating class for his ridiculous fashion choices. One user on social media stated, “Wearing a campaign hat at West Point disgraces that hallowed path. This isn’t a rally, it’s a solemn military ceremony. The uniform demands respect. The moment demands dignity. Trump brought neither. Shameful.” Another asked pointedly, “Why is the orangutan disrespecting our military with a red hat?”

Firebrand Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) who has gotten raves for her intelligent assaults against bimbo Marjorie Taylor Greene and other MAGA idiots in Washington mocked the president’s West Point address in language only she can use. During this speech now being called a rant, the buffoon in chief complained that he had been “through more investigations than Alphonse Capone” and noted that “a lot of trophy wives [don’t] work out.” Huh! What the fuck has this nonsense to do with the cadets’ mission in the near term? Supposedly, Dump also complained about “drag shows” in the U.S. armed forces.

In response to Dump’s incoherent speech, which is just another in a long line of rambling rants, Crockett fumed, “I am tired of it.” She laughingly indicates, “I mean, he literally sounds like someone who is broken out of the insane asylum. Like, he just be all over the place.”

Crockett continues her rant against the president, saying, “Like get him some ADHD medicine, if nothing else, because I don’t know where he’s ever going to go.” She continued, “And I don’t think that those that have gone through West Point expected to have their commander-in-chief address them and start talking about trophy wives or start talking about how he had so many investigations.” But this is what a malignant narcissistic personality – like Dump – does: veer the discussion back to him- or herself, no matter what the subject of the speech is. It will always be about the narcissist.

Crockett spared no sympathy for Dump, as she continued, “What a great reminder that you are not qualified to be the person that potentially will command us as troops to go into war. Like, that is not instilling confidence whatsoever. And honestly, our troops deserve better. Our graduates deserve better. We as a country deserve better.”

Crockett argued that the speech was a sign that Republicans should seriously question Dump’s mental capacity. She turns the knife in further, by concluding, “We know when it comes down to his criminality, he is not qualified to serve. But this is absolutely deplorable.” (These comments from Rep. Crockett come from an online RawStory article by David Edwards entitled ‘Get him some ADHD medicine’: Jasmine Crockett trashes Trump’s West Point speech.”) I’m afraid the mainstream media will overlook this event and not concentrate on the buffoon’s declining mental capacity, which would have certainly been the case if former President Joe Biden ever offered the same speech to these West Point cadets. That is deplorable!

Oh, have a good Memorial Day, by the way!

And so it went!

And So It Goes

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

And So It Goes

Today is Monday, May 5, 2025. While I was away, I missed the anti-Dump demonstration scheduled for May Day, May 1, last Thursday. I know that protesters were out in Arizona as well as many other states across the country. Of course, I was unable to join them, even though I would have preferred to do so. I’ll have to wait until the next one is scheduled, which could be sometime in the next two weeks.

An online article for AlterNet predicts a catastrophic meltdown of the Dump administration as millions of Americans are shitting on Dump’s autocratic agenda. The article is written by Adam Lynch and is entitled ‘A broad-based crash’: Here’s why Americans are dumping Trump’s agenda” and it’s a bad omen for the failing president if there ever was one.

The article’s opening paragraph begins, “Salon Magazine reports multiple sources are watching President Donald Trump’s agenda implode under the weight of Americans’ disapproval.” Senior Writer Chauncey DeVega writes in that piece that Dump’s approval ratings are falling to levels not seen for an American president in the last 80 years. Another bad first for you, Donnie!

Oops, I lost the article by accidentally clicking on something else on my phone and I can’t retrieve it. Sorry! But you get the idea!

Another earth-shattering story is the one that occurred on Sunday on Meet the Press which was moderated by Kristen Welker in which the deranged president sat down for another one of his rambling, incoherent interviews, but this one is drawing outrage from many sectors for what the president admitted about upholding the Constitution after responding to a question about it from Welker. This bizarre admission of “I don’t know” when asked if he would uphold the principle of due process, repeating the same vacuous response when asked if he would uphold the Constitution, drew the attention of conservative former judge Michael Luttig – who was a vehement critic of Dump during his first term – who called the comments made by the Orange Mussolini as the “most important” statement made by a U.S. president for an online RawStory article by Sarah K. Burns entitled “Trump uttered ‘most important words’ ever spoken’ by a president: conservative ex-judge.”

I promise I won’t lose this article. This interview which aired Sunday did not see me viewing it, so I had to learn about it from my news sources on my smartphone. The questions posed to the doofus involved the deported migrants sent to a prison in El Salvador and whether they received the due process required under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution. It is here where he answered with “I don’t know.”

Then on Monday, Luttig told MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace that Chump’s comments “are perhaps the most important words ever spoken by a president of the United States.” He added that the story is “one of the most important stories of our times.”

Luttig dismissed this president’s bizarre words as not just another gaffe made by an Alzheimer’s-afflicted person, but that he believes that Dump himself doesn’t necessarily thinks he is obligated to preserve the Constitution of the United States, as it’s interpreted by the Supreme Court. Luttig feels Dump might be subscribing to a school of thought called “constitutional denialism,” a corpus of belief that Luttig himself has followed and has attempted to understand for most of his career. Here Luttig gives Dump more credit than he deserves; I sincerely doubt that he even understands the term “constitutional denialism,” let alone following it in his shambling, plodding course through his second term.

Don’t get me on the more bizarre exchange that ensued between Welker and this idiot about dolls. That girls don’t need 30 dolls to play with, they need only 3 dolls and then threw in pencils. Can anyone grasp what this moron is saying?

Where are the men out with the butterfly net for this guy?

I should mention that Elliot and I are going away – yet again – this Thursday, May 8, to England where we will be boarding a Celebrity ship called the Apex on Saturday, May 10, to enjoy a seven-day jaunt to Norway to see the fjords. We also will spend some time in Wales to visit a remarkable book village called Hay-on-Wye. And spend some time in London as well. We return to the States on May 22. This cruise marks my first sailing venture since February 2020 – right before the looming pandemic. So I’m a little nervous about doing it five years later. My last entry will be on Wednesday then.

Tomorrow marks my men’s reading club meeting, so I will be away from this venue on Tuesday eve since I will be discussing The New Life by Tom Crewe with, maybe, 30 or 40 other avid readers. I made it my business to finish the book before going to Los Angeles for the TCM Film Festival.

And so it went!

And So It Goes

Today is Saturday, May, 3, 2025. Boy, I’ve been away since Tuesday, April 22, 2025. Elliot and I got into our apartment yesterday just around now, which is close to 9:30. And today we commuted to Princeton to attend a 2nd-year birthday party for my closest friend’s granddaughter. Thank God we decided to take mass transit instead of driving to New Jersey. This was a better choice for us as we hadn’t even settled into our usual routine since we just arrived in Queens less than 24 hours earlier.

However, I would like to expound on my trip to Los Angeles last week to take in the TCM Film Festival from Thursday, April 24, through Sunday, April 27. I arrived a whole day earlier, on Wednesday, April 23, and had a little problem checking into my home away from home for five nights. The name of the “hotel” where I stayed was called the Fenix Hotel, but upon closer examination, it turned out to be an Airbnb instead of a traditional hotel. Of course, it behooved me to check it out before agreeing to stay there, but I really didn’t give it much thought – until I had trouble getting to my room around 8:30 or so. I was under the mistaken belief that I needed an access code for my room only, but I actually required two more codes: for the outside gate and an inner door. Since this was not your traditional hotel, management was not on the premises; I was left with only a telephone number with which to contact them. So with a great stroke of luck, I met a woman coming into the complex at the same time as I was trying to do, and she graciously gave me the two codes that I needed to gain access to the establishment and to my room. I took a picture of the original email they sent me with only my room code and added the two additional codes, which I referred to any time I found myself outside the “hotel.” Thus I had no issue with this place after my initial problem getting in. I even called the number left with me on the email and got speedy assistance when a staff person knocked on my door and told me what I was doing wrong with the coffee maker and gave me additional hangers.

Now to the film festival which didn’t get under way until Thursday, April 24, with the screening of George Lucas’s The Empire Strikes Back, the second film in the Star Wars series. This almost three-hour film provided us with a long, rambling interview with the creator of the franchise himself, George Lucas, conducted before the screening with TCM host Ben Mankiewicz. This was a total delight, but I was not a fan of the franchise, so I had trouble staying up for the entire length of the film. This was the only film I saw that night since by the time it ended, it was close to 10, I believe. I went across the street to have a light bite at the restaurant attached to the festival’s venue, the Roosevelt Hotel.

The next day I made up for this anemic start to the festival by seeing five films. I also took a tumble on the slippery sidewalk after a brief spot of rain early in the morning. This was a rare event since it usually doesn’t rain for these festivals, but that day, it did. Luckily, I wasn’t hurt beyond my pride and, as expected, no one came to my aid at the time of my fall. I ditched seeing the first film at the Egyptian Theatre owing to my tumble since the theater was on Hollywood Boulevard which is where I slipped. Thus I went across to one of the Chinese Multiplex Theaters and saw my first movie: 1965’s Thunderball, James Bond’s third film in the series. As a treat, Luciana Paluzzi was interviewed by one of the hosts of the channel. She admitted to being 87 years young. She looked remarkably young considering her true age. Most of the film takes place under water, if you recall, and the action sequences were quite extraordinary, given that the third James Bond entry came out in 1965. Paluzzi played Bond villainess Fiona Volpe which is “fox” in Italian. During the interview, she mentioned she auditioned for the role of the good Bond girl, “Domino” Petacchi, but got the role of the “bad” girl instead.

Other films I saw included a lesser known film from 1934 called Servants’ Entrance starring Janet Gaynor and Lew Ayres who had a long-term film and television career. This was a pre-Code film but had no racy scenes that I could think of. It was a ditzy romantic comedy having Gaynor playing the pampered daughter of an automobile tycoon who falls on hard times and who devises an ingenious plot to disguise herself as a servant for another well-off family where she falls in love with the family’s chauffeur, here played by a very young Ayres. For this film, the inestimable Walt Disney inserted an animated sequence that, to me, was superfluous, given the action of the film.

Other films I saw on Friday were a tense drama from 1957 called Edge of the City which starred Sidney Poitier and John Cassavetes. This film was totally dissimilar to the last one I saw at the Egyptian Theatre, as it was a powerful depiction of an interracial friendship on the docks of New York harbor where Cassavetes played a man who was running from his past and Poitier portrayed a family man just trying to make a buck while being in the crosshairs of a racist foreman, here played by Jack Warden. This was directed by Martin Ritt who was known for his gritty style of filmmaking.

One of the highlights of that day was seeing 1990’s Misery and hearing an interview of director Rob Reiner and star Kathy Bates conducted by Ben Mankiewicz. One of the memorable quotes she made during the interview was when Mankiewicz mentioned if Bates were ever in a psychotic relationship depicted on the screen in Stephen King’s adaptation of his work and she quipped, “No, but there’s time!”

My last film was a hoot: 1975’s The Rocky Horror Show which was scheduled to go on at 11:59 pm. but didn’t start until 12:20 or so. There one of the stars of the film, Barry Bostwick, was interviewed by Alicia Malone, another host of the channel. Thank God he was interviewed before the screening since it went past 2 a.m. I haven’t seen this film with an audience for many years, and I sensed that the TCM audience was a little restrained, given the looniness of the audience members who generally see this at theaters at 12 midnight. We were given a bag of props to wear and hoist around, but there was no throwing anything at the screen. There was also a shadow cast performing in front of the screen as the story unfolded before our eyes. The way this screening was much tamer than ones playing around the country was that I actually heard more of the dialogue this time. Usually, you can’t hear the dialogue over the screaming from those in the audience. That morning I didn’t get to bed until after 3.

Saturday I saw only four films, not five. In the morning, I saw two sci-fi classics: Earth vs. The Flying Saucers and Colossus: The Forbin Project, released in 1970, and way ahead of its time, as it portrays the pernicious effects of AI over 50 years ago. This film stars an unknown Eric Braeden who was cast as Dr. Charles Forbin, who develops a supercomputer named Colossus which was supposed to control U.S. weapons systems, but as it so happens, it has designs of its very own that include murder and the control of the world that it was initially designed to protect. Here Braeden provided the only political comment of the entire festival as he urged voters to choose their leaders wisely the next time.

My last film of the day was seeing Humphrey Bogart in a lighthearted comedy from 1955: We’re No Angels where he costarred with Peter Ustinov and Aldo Ray. Here Bogart, Ustinov, and Ray play three Devil’s Island escapees who meddle in the affairs of a failing shopkeeper, Leo G. Carroll and his wife, played by Joan Bennett. They are experiencing financial difficulties at the hand of their malicious cousin, here played by Sherlock Holmes, Basil Rathbone, and this is when the “angels” set things right with their holy meddling. This film was shown in its initial VistaVision print and the jokes were fast and furious. When I’ve seen it by myself, I never laughed as heartedly as I did while seeing it with a huge audience.

It’s getting late here, so I’ll end with the highlight of the last day of the festival when the 30th-anniversary of 1995’s Heat was shown with an appearance by its director, Michael Mann, and its major star, Al Pacino, at the beginning of the film. What sets this film apart from others is that Robert De Niro and Pacino share screen time together for the first time. Although they previously costarred in Godfather Part II, they never appeared on screen together – until 1995. The film is memorably known for its extended shootout scene in downtown Los Angeles which seemed so damn real.

I haven’t even mentioned going to Arizona on Monday where I met Elliot in Phoenix and we stayed with our cousin “Joan” in Scottsdale. Tomorrow could be Part II then.

And so it went!

This is TCM host Ben Mankiewicz.

This is Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings introducing a rare film from 1933 called Moonlight and Pretzels on Sunday which was a knockoff of Forty-Second Street, which was more successful and had a better-known cast than this Broadway musical.

This is the late Natalie Wood’s daughter, Natasha Gregson Wagner, and her daughter, Clover, born in 2012. They were interviewed by Alicia Malone on the screening of Wood’s 1961 tearjerker Splendor in the Grass costarring heartthrob Warren Beatty. This film was shown in all of its restored glory in one of the Chinese Multiplex Theaters.

Here are Rob Reiner and Kathy Bates being interviewed by Dave Karger.

Here is “Brad,” Barry Bostwick, from The Rocky Horror Show.

Here is George Lucas being interviewed by Ben Mankiewicz.

Here are Michael Mann and the great Al Pacino being grilled by Ben Mankiewicz.