Today is Monday, July 14, 2025, Bastile Day. As you must know, Bastile Day commemorates the storming of the Bastille prison on July 14, 1789, a key event in the French Revolution. It’s France’s national holiday, symbolizing the end of absolute monarchy and the beginning of a new era of liberty and equality. I seriously wonder when will this country have its own Bastile Day after we cleanse ourselves of this wanna-be monarch, Donald J. Dump, out of our collective consciousness?

In the latest effluvia known as an “Extreme” Court decision today, this “Trump” Court, as it really should be called until this asshole leaves office – if he ever leaves office – the court has now allowed this ogre to proceed with his plan to carry out mass layoffs at the Department of Education. Another fucking win for the convicted felon you can say, delivered to him by the Trump Court. An online CNN article by Devan Cole and John Fritze entitled “Supreme Court allows Trump to proceed with mass firings at Education Department” lays out the repercussions of such a terrible ruling made by the Trump Court.

So, in another irrational victory for this fascistic regime, the Court lifted for now a lower court ruling that had indefinitely paused Diaper Don’s plan. The Trump Court’s decision puts that ruling on hold while the legal challenge plays out.

But in a scathing dissent – Go, Sonia, go! – Sonia Sotomayor said her colleagues had made an “indefensible” decision to let Chump proceed with taking apart an agency that ordinarily can be dismantled only by Congress, but in the second era of Dump, this Congress has ceded its entire power over to the Orange Cheeto, so waiting for Congress to do its job is a moot point these days.

“The majority is either willfully blind to the implications of its ruling or naive, but either way the threat to our Constitution’s separation of powers is grave,” Sotomayor wrote in the dissent, which was joined in full by the other two liberal justices.

The Orange Cheeto ordered mass layoffs at the department earlier this year – cutting its workforce in half – but lower courts have blocked that effort.

Of course, the incompetent and loyal Dump acolyte, Education Secretary Linda McMahon, who is a former professional wrestling promoter – boy, does she have such sterling education credentials to run this agency – described the court’s decision as a “significant win for students and families.” What world is she in when this can be considered a “significant win” for students and families?

Created during the Carter administration, the Education Department is tasked with distributing federal aid to schools, managing federal aid for college students and ensuring compliance with civil rights laws – including schools accommodate students with disabilities. Most public school policies are a function of state government.

The court’s decision, Sotomayor wrote, “will unleash untold harm, delaying or denying educational opportunities and leaving students to suffer from discrimination, sexual assault, and other civil rights violations without the federal resources Congress intended.” This horrible decision by this extreme court just plays into this regime’s fucking record of destroying civil rights in this country ever since Dump took office in January 2025. In the meantime, people will suffer from being laid off when they clearly shouldn’t be. Also, I ask those justices who gave Dump another unworthy win, how do they sleep at night, knowing that their ruling will lead to so much suffering among the American public? They probably just don’t care.

One thing I got done today is have our new Subaru Forrester repaired after some idiot sideswiped it last Friday near Metropolitan Avenue where I had it parked for about two hours. I called my garage and had the attendant known as “Leandro” take the car to his brother-in-law’s repair shop. The job was done within one day. I was called close to 4 and told the car was ready. The cost: just $600. When I went to the garage before getting ready to be picked up by our friend “Patricia,” I was directed to see the car by the manager, “Jerry.” I walked down the ramp and saw Leandro who took me to the car. The rear of the car, which sustained the damage, looked totally brand new. I couldn’t see anything there (though it was dark in the garage) that looked remotely out of joint. I was told to let the car stay in the garage until Wednesday, and I said I would do that.

In a stunning coincidence with my little “accident” on Friday, today I witnessed the aftereffects of a fucking accident with two parked cars right outside my building! Can you believe that? One car was bizarrely up on the street and the other’s rear fender was badly dented. How then could this happen if those cars were parked? It sounds like my little mishap last Friday, doesn’t it? I asked a neighbor who was doing gardening outside, and she mentioned – without corroboration – that the cars might have been struck by an Amazon van. So there you go? Driving in this crazy city is truly a dangerous sport.

Now I feel a little apprehensive about parking in the same area since I will drive to my comic bookstore on Wednesday like I normally do. It’s the best area in which to leave a car. There are metered spots outside the store, but they are in a very narrow two-way street. And it’s still too warm to walk there. I’ll just have to give it some thought. I could use an Uber both ways, but that will be an expensive proposition. I’ll let you know what happens by Wednesday.

And so it went!