Why does Donald hate women? Why can’t he just declare victory and leave Iran? And now our cherry trees? Really? Our cherry trees? To make way for a Trump ordered golf course renovation?

Doesn’t he know we’re running out of defensive armaments, while the Russians continue bombing the hell out of Ukraine, most recently targeting a home for the elderly and disabled? Doesn’t Donald understand that he is leaving a legacy of being a mad bomber who would be king?

Of course he doesn’t. He’s totally deluded. Has to be. It’s the only thing that makes any sense.

What can the doctors at Walter Reed possibly be giving him to keep him going? Why are a few angry old men being allowed to wreck the world?

If only he’d have left Iran alone, left the agreement John Kerry and Obama put in place alone. If only, if only.

If frogs had wings, they could hop backwards. A friend from Columbus gave me that one years ago, and I’ve never forgotten it.

Mostly, it’s greed, I think. Greed and madness brought on by the addictive power of power itself. But now, with the 21st Century, we have a new class of rulers. The uber-wealthy who were born into wealth and have no concept of what it’s like to go without anything. Like enough food to feed your children. Or free room and board at the country club. Or a car and driver. Or a private jet.

How can someone who never had to go shopping or do his own driving or been left wanting anything - how can you possibly expect that person to actually govern a country, mostly made up of people who are expected to do everything for themselves?

How can anyone who looks to the Gilded Age for direction, turns his back on Democracy and cozies up to dictators be looked to for governance of a free people?

I console myself in the knowledge that November is coming. Sweet, god-sent November. When our demented king, after doing all he can to shut down voting by mail, will send out his angry, masked, undertrained and overpaid ICE stormtroopers, to illegally seize voting machines and intimidate American citizens into staying away from the polls - while at the same time, cranking up a massive disinformation machine with the intention of discrediting our free, honest and open elections.

Thanks to the system our founders established, the center will likely hold and the election will move forward. It has to. Our very liberty is at stake. Our essential freedom.

The legacy media will, of course, cover Trump’s continuing attempt at destroying American Democracy, not as an act of madness, but as though it was meant to be. Our new normal. Like alienating all our allies, blowing up our economy, trashing the White House and now cutting down our cherry trees. Many, gifted us by Japan.

They’re our cherry trees, damn it, not his. None of this stuff is his. He’s a guest in our house, and he’s trashing the place.

If you think all of this is okay, then you need to get into therapy, fast.

Will we survive it? Of course we will. We must. And then Dementia Don will be impeached and convicted and booted from office, along with his crime family and his various sycophantic minions from hell. Bootlickers and ass-kissers, all.

Forgive my language, but as I told a frustrated Vince Bugliosi during the O.J. trial, “Somebody’s got to tell the truth!” Never forgotten that one, either.

We will bounce back from the brink. But we will do so, with Canada and our other traditional allies betrayed, and without our cherry trees, the rose garden, the White House lawn, the reflecting pool, the East Wing and whatever else he manages to tear down or defile before being kicked back into the sewer of his own personal hell.

It should take only thirty to forty years to reclaim our credibility on the world stage. The stench of Trump, however, will never be erased from our history, and that could be a good thing. No future generation should have to go through this again.

It’s not a script, it really happened, and now DJT is saying his people, Rubio and Hegseth, apparently, have cut a deal guaranteeing the U.S. some 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan crude, with an agreement that outside companies will be allowed in to invest in Venezuelan’s crumbling oil infrastructure.

At the time of Venezuela’s elected President, Nicolas Maduro’s kidnapping, it was pointed out by experts that the oil Trump was going after was not “sweet, light crude.” It was anything but. It is “heavy and sour,” not unlike his reflecting pool, and there were doubts the big oil companies would be lining up to invest in getting the oil out of Venezuela, particularly with the nation’s government facing an uncertain future.

So let’s add it up. The “heavy, sour” oil is there, but the infrastructure to get it out of the ground is crumbling. It will take a sizable investment to get it out, and the nation’s security going forward is questionable. Does that sound like a smart investment to you? Something that would have the Petro CEO’s and board chairs drooling in their oatmeal?

All of it makes good weekend copy for Donald Trump, but appears to be far from a sure thing. Experts say that even with any unforeseen circumstances, which there almost always are with DJT, it could take years before Trump’s new oil acquisition has any impact on the price of gas at the pump in the United States.

It all sounds vaguely similar to his unplanned, ill-advised invasion of Iran, resulting in the Iranians slamming the doors shut on the Strait of Hormuz. The art of the deal, phases one and two - could be more sour than sweet.

Speaking of which, the British papers will now have Fergie to kick around again. She’s returning to the U.K. The Sun reports that she’s rented a 6-bedroom house in a gated area.

To refresh your memory, Fergie’s ex, Prince Andrew, was buddies with Jeffrey Epstein. He was known to have stayed at Epstein’s townhouse in New York. Epstein, according to published reports, also loaned 15-thousand pounds to Fergie, to pay off one of her debts. There’s more, but isn’t that enough?

She was away, apparently in hiding on the Continent, for seven months. Now she’s back, her return coming close on the heels of the return of Harry and Megan from California, along with their two kids.

Nothing’s been said about it, but it almost feels like the King, now 78 and a cancer survivor, could be calling the family together as his days are increasingly limited. This would go for Harry and Megan, at least, not necessarily for Fergie, who, along with her ex-husband Andrew, have always been pretty much of a royal pain in the ass.

It’s difficult to say who faces the bigger challenge, the King, with his ongoing familial difficulties, or Donald Trump, who kidnapped an elected leader and then started an unnecessary war - all in the name of what?

How long has it been since anybody mentioned the Epstein Files? Admittedly, the files being buried under all the chaos could simply be nothing more than an unintentional byproduct of Trump’s ongoing attempt to mimic King George III. With Donald, one never really knows.

We were talking about where the news business might be headed, which can be a complicated and often dystopian topic, when our young server arrived at the table. I’m not great at guessing ages, but she appeared to be in her late teens or early twenties.

Coming off of our conversation about the news biz, I asked her if she knew who the Governor of Maryland is. “Wes Moore,” she replied. Stunned that she had the correct answer, I then asked if she ever reads a newspaper. “No,” she said. I then followed up by asking where she gets her news and information. “I follow Instagram,” she said.

Okay, I don’t know much about Instagram, except that it’s owned by Mark Zuckerberg, I think, and that it has a huge youth following. Instagram, along with TikTok, YouTube and maybe Facebook, are where most of the younger generation are getting their news and information, which is troubling to those of us who are say….60 and older. Those of us that remember Walter Cronkite and the way things used to be, with only three network news operations, all of which, carried the gravity of credibility.

Those days are dead and gone. Which brings me back to our young server in the restaurant, a follower of Instagram.

Her responses to my questions had little impression on me at the time, as I had no real idea what’s on Instagram. I thought it was a bunch of goofy selfies and whatnot. Personal pics and memes. While I imagine there’s a lot of that out there, I noticed just today, as I was sending out my latest post here on Substack, that one of the outlets Substack routinely offers to send its material to is Instagram.

So, along with Facebook and Bluesky, my writing has been going out to Instagram.

Well, how about that. Stuff from Substack, which includes a ton of former and current legit independent journalists is being offered to the kids who follow Instagram. I don’t know that it will be our salvation as a divided nation, but it is at least a hopeful sign, having stuff from Jim Acosta, Chris Matthews, Robert Reich and even yours truly, jammed in there among all those selfies and memes. Some of it might just slip through.

Here in America, crazy Donald is renaming things again. This time, it’s Lake Ontario. Which has been Lake Ontario for at least 400 years.

Daffy Donald, in an apparent fit of pique with Canada, wants to rename the lake, “Lake America.” How’s that for a diversion?

According to Ai, “The name "Lake Ontario" comes from the Iroquoian word “oniatarí:io,” which means “lake of shining waters.” This name was first used by Europeans in the 1600s.”

Apparently believing himself to be a king, Donald, took out his big marker pen, maybe the same one he used to change the path of that hurricane, and has signed another executive order, basically an official memorandum, declaring the name change to be official. With no other approval. Just his name on a piece of paper, which opens the floodgates on a whole host of problems, including, but not limited to the lawsuits that are sure to follow, challenging Donald’s latest, wacky pronouncement - which is sure to be wiped away by the next president. For many Americans, it’s something that can’t happen soon enough.

A poll from Economist/YouGov, released on Agust 25th, puts Trump’s approval rating at 36%, and probably falling, now that he’s turned his back on all those cattle ranchers and farmers, some being pushed into bankruptcy by Donald’s tariffs and other economy-wrecking moves, like the war with Iran, which closed the Strait of Hormuz, shutting down the flow of commerce for so many products the world needs. Not just around 20% to 25% of the world’s seaborne supply of oil, but LNG, fertilizer, aluminum, and a few other things, like helium.

Who needs helium? We do. We use it for a number of things, including MRI machines, semiconductor manufacturing and fiber optic cables.

Not to worry though, Donald has it covered, holding sports car races and flybys in DC, while all but declaring war on our most stable and benign of trading partners. Our former bosom buddy, good old Canada.

Turning friends into enemies is what Trump’s good at. Be it NATO, Canada or the Ukrainian people, who now shoulder the battle against Fascism without adequate support from the United States.

Trump, is responsible for all of this, even though it makes no sense. Even though it’s crazy. Even though his numbers continue to fall as the U.S. economy continues to take a dive for most Americans, who can no longer afford gas and groceries. Even though he is condemning Republican candidates at the polls in November. It’s nuts. All of it. Just plain nuts. He’s doing to us, precisely what he did to his casinos.

And yet, Republicans in the House and Senate, refuse to do their jobs by conducting any real oversight of the executive branch of government. They’re guilty in their complicity with Trump’s madness and they will pay at the polls.

Hundreds of years from now, the world will still have Lake Ontario, the Gulf of Mexico, the White House and the Kennedy Center, wiped clean of the temporary stain of Donald J. Trump.

One day, our National Weather Service, our air traffic control system, the military and the Dept. of Justice, will have been restored to their former glory. So long as we the people, don’t give up. So long as we don’t give in to fear.

We are still America and November’s on the way.

Politico reports, “The drone attack in Leipzig, among other things, shows that we are also facing very real threats. Germany has come under increased scrutiny from hybrid attackers,” Merz said in remarks ahead of a cabinet retreat in Neuhardenberg.”

This statement follows reports that on August 5th, an airport worker discovered a weaponized drone at the Leipzig Airport. The drone’s detonator had apparently failed. A second drone was discovered on August 14th.

In an event that may or may not be connected, it is being reported today, August 26th, that the Director of the CIA, John Ratcliffe, has made a “rare and unannounced trip to Moscow.”

According to Newsweek, “The continuing secrecy around his agenda in the Russian capital—there are many urgent items he could have been discussing—has turned his journey into a paradoxical case study in how more information can produce more uncertainty.”

At the same time, The Guardian reports that drones manufactured in the U.K., have been used by Ukraine in a recent attack on Russia. The newspaper reports, “The Russian embassy, seeking to maximise the impact of its remarks, added in a widely reported statement on Telegram: “London’s actions will inevitably carry consequences for which it will have to answer”.

Various sources report that the U.K. will be sending more than 100-thousand drones, missiles and advanced radar systems to Ukraine before the end of the year.

Over the weekend, The Telegraph reported, “Andrei Fedorov, a powerful adviser to Vladimir Putin, said Moscow would not "100 per cent exclude" the possibility of "semi-military action" against the manufacturers supplying drone and missile components to Kyiv.”

As for France, the Kyiv Post, reports, “French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed that France will supply Ukraine with interceptor missiles as part of an enhanced support package, following a nearly two-hour phone call with President Volodymyr Zelensky on Aug. 22.”

Earlier, President Donald Trump, said the U.S. would supply Ukraine with technology enabling them to build their own defensive Patriot missiles. He later withdrew the commitment.

And now CIA Director, Ratcliffe, is in Moscow.

This scenario, is precisely what the Russian people have been going through, and continue going through, thanks to Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine.

According to MSM, “Reuters said lines at some gasoline stations were a kilometer long. Major fuel retailers have restored purchase limits. Gazprom Neft has capped gasoline at 40 liters at automated stations and 60 liters at other outlets in Moscow. Diesel remains unrestricted.”

First, the Ukrainians sent their drones to take out Russian refineries and petroleum supplies. Then, a few months ago, they began hitting Wildberries supply centers. Russia’s biggest online retailer. A sort of Russian version of Amazon,com. And now, just this past weekend, Zelenskyy and his generals expanded their attacks to include Russia’s second largest online retailer, Ozon.

Reuters reports, “Ukraine has targeted four logistics hubs owned by Russia’s second-largest online retailer Ozon, widening a campaign of drone strikes on Russian e-commerce companies intended to inflict more damage on the war-battered economy.”

The Ukrainians are hitting the Russian people where they live, attacking both their fuel supplies and now their ability to order goods and services online through Wildberries and Ozon, two companies which, the Ukrainians argue, are used to help supply the military and are therefore, legitimate targets of war.

This new economic pressure comes on top of the thousands of Russian soldiers that lost their lives in a futile attempt to gratify the massive ego of Vladimir Putin, who apparently wants to be remembered as a kind of 21st Century Czar, the man who put the old Soviet Union back together again, rebuilding the Russian Empire. By one estimate, as many as 500,000 Russian soldiers have given their lives for this unnecessary and inexcusable military adventure by Putin and his generals, taking the world back into the early 20th Century.

Putin and Trump, it appears, both yearn for the past, as they can’t handle free and open societies. So they resort to gangsterism and thuggery. Fascism. Death, destruction and disingenuity. Which is not working.

In spite of the disinformation and misinformation campaigns on Russian state-controlled media, one has to wonder how much more of this nonsense, how much more needless death and destruction the Russian people will tolerate.

You have to think that a reckoning is coming for Vladimir Putin’s Russia, and that here in America, a reckoning is coming in November for the Trump crime family and their crooked Republican associates, who continue to try and turn The United States into their private fiefdom - crippling the American economy and possibly the World economy in the process. At the same time, America’s time tested allies like the U.K. and Canada, wait, worry and wonder if we’ll be able to pull ourselves out from under this mess as our idiot king slaps another tariff on the Canadians, while formula race cars owned by the uber-wealthy zoom through the streets of the nation’s capitol, with wave after wave of warplanes passing overhead, courtesy of the American taxpayer.

Somebody needs to tell Donald that Canada, as we used to say up in Minnesota, is our “Good neighbor to the North.” They always have been, and would still be now, except for Donald Trump, who, due to some psychiatric debilitation I’m not qualified to diagnose, seems to feel a need to turn everyone he comes into contact with, into an enemy. The man, is not well.

I covered Vandenberg for KABC back in the 80’s. Nothing like this ever happened back then - and at the time, they were talking about moving the launch site for the Space Shuttle from Florida to Vandenberg in California. No guns drawn then, even with all the security surrounding the Space Shuttle. That’s a whole new move.

At the same time, there’s something old, with WBAL-TV in Baltimore, airing video of a 57 year old Latino man, shot and killed by police in Bel Air, MD, while he was running away. He was apparently unarmed and may have thought the police vehicles, which are painted black, were ICE agents. Black vehicles under the cover of darkness, cops in body armor chasing a Latino man. Connect the dots. Kudos to WBAL, for having the stones to air the video. I thought (hoped) we were through with this “shot while running away” crap.

At the same time, another Baltimore tv station, WMAR, is now attempting to do a newscast without any anchors. Except that their weather anchors are still there. Or they were, the last time I looked. The station’s owners, I predict, will reverse their decision within a year’s time, after their ratings crash. I’ve tried watching. It’s pretty bad. Scripps Broadcasting, is apparently using their Baltimore station as a trial balloon to see if anchorless news will work.

Who needs people, anyway? They’re such a drain on profits and that community connection they provide can be so pesky. So much trouble. Human beings, are a real pain in the ass.

Which is a perfect segue to-

On the bright side, the massive outbreak of explosive diarrhea caused by cyclospora, continues. According to USA Today, it’s now in 47 states. Another literal load of crap.

It could be worse, I suppose. We could all be stationed on the USS Abraham Lincoln, or assigned to work with the DC press corps, following Donald around all day, listening to his insane blather while he continues to defile the nation’s capitol.

Have a great day, everybody! We may or may not get through this in one piece.

I went to see a doctor. His assistant came in, started mumbling while she was facing the floor to pick something up, and I had no idea what she had said. The problem persisted, even when she stood up and was talking to me face to face.

It took some time, but I finally figured it out. It wasn’t that I couldn’t hear them, it’s just that I couldn’t understand what they were saying, as they were speaking so fast, running their words together with such rapidity, that understanding their slurred speech patterns was nearly impossible. At least for a septuagenarian.

The experience got me thinking. First, about my own hearing ability, which led to my taking a hearing test online, using high quality headphones, which indicated my hearing was fine. My next step, was to ask people, some young, some older, if they use the subtitle feature on their tv sets. Nearly everyone said they keep it turned on all the time, regardless of their age. This surprised me. I had expected the younger folks to ignore the subtitles. I thought they’d be able to understand everything the actors were saying. That’s not the case.

From this, I concluded that we’ve entered an era of massively abusing the spoken word. I don’t know if it’s unique to the United States.

I recall my high school speech teacher, Marv Fasen, slapping his hands together, shouting out “enunciate….enunciate!” Drilling the need for clear communication into our young minds. And it worked. Worked for me, at least, as I ended up earning a living in broadcast journalism. Now, I doubt that any of the kids out there have ever heard of enunciation, or have taken a class in public speaking. Just a guess, based upon the current misuse and abuse of the spoken word in popular culture. Including tv and the movies.

There’s this new thing in acting, this push toward realism, that’s led to actors whispering to one another. It’s tough enough to understand what they’re saying, running all their words together as they’re now want to do, but when they whisper, it’s nearly impossible to hear the dialogue. Which is why, I guess, everybody I talk to is using subtitles.

I would except most broadcast journalists from all of this, as most of them are still speaking clearly. Some on the network guys though, are getting pretty speedy, approaching the inevitability of onedayrunningrightofftherails! Make it urgent! Edgy! Fast! Oh my. Fire the consultant. Take a pill.

We can’t blame it all on the acting coaches in Hollywood, who are just taking advantage of new technology, all those new sound systems that can pick up the beat of a flea’s wings a mile away and cameras that are zooming in on the actor’s eyeballs to the point of making viewers uncomfortable.

If someone whispers, we need to be able to understand what it is that they’re whispering. And we don’t need closeups that enable us to examine an actor’s pores.

It isn’t necessary to do something just because you can. It’s important to understand why it’s being done. Especially in the theater.

We the audience, are being abused by actors who are no longer trained to project so that they can be understood by theatergoers sitting in the back row. They are being trained to whisper, to make the scene more realistic. More common.

It’s gone too far in the direction of acting not like a trained actor, but like some guy you’d bump into out on the street, mumbling to himself about crooked politicians.

It appears our thespians need a little more classical theatrical training and less reliance on technology. We are also badly in need of our schools to return to the land of elocution. Proper diction. Enunciation. Inflection. The ability to communicate with the spoken word, before our ability to do so dies, and we’re all sitting around mute and glassy eyed with no human contact, ordering out for food and texting one another 7/24. Unwilling to accept an actual spoken phone call without prior approval.

Yahoonews! reports, “London’s actions will inevitably carry consequences for which it will have to answer,” the Russian Embassy to the U.K. wrote in a statement.

The Times reported on Aug. 15 that, although deep-strike missions mainly rely on Ukrainian drones, Ukraine’s Armed Forces also successfully used British drones to target oil refineries near Moscow and elsewhere.”

This should be alarming, in light of the fact that there is no pushback coming from the White House, as the United States, under the demented direction of Donald Trump, continues to refrain from playing its traditional role of world peacekeeper, encouraging international chaos rather than stability.

When nuclear powers threaten one another, and the United States has abdicated its role as referee, we should all be alarmed.

Dithering Donald, is also now threatening to bomb Oman, with regard to the mess in the Strait of Hormuz. This is concerning, in that Oman, was (or maybe is?) our ally in the ongoing conflict with Iran.

After turning his back on NATO, Donald Trump, is now apparently unable to determine who his allies are as he continues to throw his vocal support to enemies of Democracy like Russia and North Korea. This is not sane behavior.

It’s like sending his son in law, Jared Kushner to Israel, to conduct peacetalks with Bebe Netanyahu. They already had a “Memorandum of understanding,” which Netanyahu welcomed by bombing Lebanon, making the memorandum meaningless.

One form of madness, is doing the same thing the same way over and over again and expecting a different result. Bebe, clearly, doesn’t want peace. Not if it means a two-state solution, and what other solution is there?

It’s a chilling thought that under the Trump Administration, U.S. Envoy Jared Kushner is America’s frontline diplomat. In a couple of years, some poor soul, whomever inherits this mess, will have to send people over there, actual professional diplomats, to try and straighten things out.

Here at home, hell is freezing over as housing prices continue falling in California. According to realtor.com, “ If you're buying or selling in L.A. right now, April's data matters. The median list price dropped 8.8% year-over-year to $1,185,226, homes sat on the market longer, and fewer new sellers entered the market. Buyers have more negotiating room than they've had in years — but sellers who price right are still transacting.”

I said housing prices were falling, I didn’t say they were affordable. The median price in California is still nearly three times the national median of $425,000. Apparently higher interest rates are responsible for the drop in prices.

For those of you that discovered world football during the World Cup and are now following FIFA, the organization has fired its COO, Kevin Lamour, who came out against Trump buddy Gianni Infantino’s proposal to privatize the World Cup in a “private equity scheme.” According to USA Today, “FIFA said the proposed investment group will be lead by Thrive Eternal, which was ​founded ⁠by Joshua Kushner, the brother of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.”

Imagine that. The proposal can be tied to Trump. The same guy who started an unnecessary, avoidable war with Iran, tore down the White House, defaced The Kennedy Center, continues to promote ongoing warfare in Ukraine and turned our national reflecting pool into a sewer. Now he’s messing around with The World Cup.

Keep calm, carry on, and pray for a blue wave in November. A friggin tsunami.

I gently woke her up. She came to in a flash, eyes wide, startled, in full fight or flight mode. “What?” the poor woman asked. Feeling terrible about what I had done, I calmly asked her about paper towels on the kitchen floor. “Oh, I did that,” she said, “there was water on the floor, probably from the dishwasher, and I didn’t want you to go in there and slip.”

And there it was. Another potentially problematic situation possibly needing another call to the exterminator solved by a simple explanation. I went to a company online and ordered a new seal for the dishwasher door. Easy to install. Full instructions can be found on YouTube. Which has gotten to be my go-to source for all kinds of DIY repairs around the house. Which got me to thinking about our Commander in Cheese.

He’s now calling for modern digital electromagnetic catapults on our aircraft carriers to be replaced by old-fashioned steam powered catapults. He likes the way the steam looks rising up from the deck. At the same time, the buffoon wants to build a fleet of battleships. A concept that was outdated years ago, with the advent of modern naval warfare. Which is why the Navy retired its fleet of battleships.

Imagine Donald wandering around late one night on one of his social media benders and finding paper towels on the floor of the White House kitchen. He would, of course, do the sensible thing, calling in the Corps of Engineers to dam up the Potomac.

Maybe a select group of White House advisers can set up a private presidential YouTube channel, where an Ai version of George Washington could tell Donald what to do? It just might work. Overnight we might have the parks department asking for bids on the reflecting pool, an actual doctor being put in charge of Health and Human Services (annual budget of $1.6 trillion), the defunding of ICE (annual budget of $9.13 billion), the defrocking of Hegseth and seasoned negotiators being sent out to deal with the Iranians, instead of Trump’s son in law.

Or, we can dam up the Potomac, should he find paper towels on the kitchen floor.

There were no skippers when I was growing up on the many small town ballparks of Central Minnesota in the late 50’s and early 60’s. I went through three leagues, the PeeWees, Mighty Mites and Midgets, one hot summer after another, and never once heard anyone referred to as “skipper.”

I recall the late, great, Halsey Hall, calling games on WCCO Radio. According to Wikipedia, “Halsey Hall originated the huzzah "Holy cow!" as a home run exclamation on WCCO radio long before Harry Caray and Phil Rizzuto used it.’”

Wikipedia also says that it was Halsey, who coined the term “Golden Gophers.” Before Halsey gave them the name, they were just the “Gophers.” I did not know this, and I’m an alum of the University of Minnesota. Thank you, Halsey.

I don’t remember what we called the volunteer parents that coached our little league teams. I think we may have referred them as…coaches? I don’t recall anybody claiming to be a “manager.” Although the town team might have had one.

I just checked in an old high school yearbook and found our team in 1965, the Paynesville Bulldogs, had a coach and an assistant coach and two “student managers.” No “skippers” in sight. Mel Johnson, was our head coach and Keith Bangs, our assistant coach. Not sure what the student managers did, other than picking up towels in the locker room after a game. Not sure why they needed two.

In the big leagues, I’ve also heard managers referred to as “skip” by their players, an even more endearing form of an already endearing term. The people who carry the title though, are a mystery to me. Those in baseball, I mean, as opposed to those on the high seas, where the term presumably originated.

How and why it jumped from the high seas to American baseball, is a mystery.

Of the big league managers I came into contact with, Chuck Tanner, was the easiest to get along with, always smiling and always available for an interview. I liked the guy, and maybe he liked me. It could have been that simple, but if that’s the case, then there were others that wanted nothing to do with me. Earl Weaver of the O’s, was among them.

Earl wouldn’t talk to me. He’d just walk away. I’ve never taken it personally, and remain a fan to this day. I’ve also learned that he did the same with his players. There were those he’d talk to, like Jim Palmer, and others he’d ignore. He talked to Palmer a lot. Yelled some, too.

I did one day get an interview with the team’s owner, Edward Bennett Williams, but never with Earl. He was an enigma. A short, angry and very entertaining, enigma. It’s possible he wanted nothing to do with me because I’d just arrived from Pittsburgh, and the O’s were playing the Pirates in the Series. Because I had just landed, I knew more about Tanner and the Pirates, than about Weaver and the O’s. Even though I was now working for a Baltimore tv station. I was, I think, the only Baltimore reporter to get on a bus carrying the Pirate’s family members and the team doctor, Dr. Joe Finegold. For Dr. Joe, it was old home week. He treated me like I was still a Pittsburgher. To a large degree, I guess I still was.

Sparky Anderson, also shot me down, refusing to talk during the World Series in 79. He wasn’t with the Orioles or the Pirates, so I have no idea what he was doing there at the Cross Keys Inn during the Series, but there he was, so I figured I’d get a quick interview. He might have been covering the games for some broadcast outlet and was heading for an elevator when I approached. With camera in tow, I introduced myself. He looked at me with disdain in his eyes, said “no,” and walked into the elevator. Maybe he was having a bad day. He actually looked disgusted. Made me wonder if I had done something to insult the man. I probably should have called him skipper?

It only got worse from there, with Howard Cosell reading me the riot act when I tired to get a comment on something he’d said on a radio interview the day before, using words to the effect that “Baltimore’s only redeeming feature is crabs.”

Angry fans, met his limo at the stadium the next day, throwing things. Rocks and bottles as I recall. It was a bad scene. A day later, Howard was still upset. He looked at me with those beady Cosell eyes and said, “All you want to do is follow your bought and paid for newspaper.” He was talking about a story in the Baltimore Sun, but beyond that, I have no idea why he decided to attack me. He was downright angry. At me, a reporter, who was trying to do his job. The Sun was doing the job it was supposed to do by printing the story. Howard, was news. At least he was after opening his big yap and deriding both the City of Baltimore and the State of Maryland. He did know how to make an entrance, I guess, which I don’t think was his intention when he slammed the City. I had no sympathy for the man when he was fired from ABC Sports.

Once last baseball memory has to do with Tommy Lasorda, who would sometimes invite the press into his office for a chat. It was chaos in there. The players, some of whom had the emotional IQ of a 12 year old, would generally go nuts, yelling at Tommy as he attempted to talk to the press. I recall a giant phallus being waved in his face by a pitcher, whose name escapes me. Every time Tommy would start answering a question, the player would slowly insert the big phallus in front of Tommy’s face. Lasorda, thought it was funny. I thought it was odd. He was, after all, the skipper.

Baseball’s a complicated game. I don’t pretend to understand the difference between a curve and a slider, much less the people who play it. On a trip back to Pittsburgh, I was happy to see they’ve named a street on the north side after Chuck Tanner.

And this late word, just into our newsroom…

Bob Uecker’s voice just popped into my head. “A curveball becomes a slider, when it starts to slide” he said. I thought that might be the case. I’ll never forget another of Uecker’s masterful pieces of advice following his years as a big league catcher, this one on how to best catch a knuckleball. His technique, he said, was to wait until it stopped moving and then pick it up.

On one side, they enjoy the ego-rush of seeing their names in print or being elevated to celebrity status by way of what used to be tv news but is now any form of visually presented news be it on tv or via the Internet. On the other side, there’s an almost built-in need for some, or maybe many, to keep themselves out of the story, which is now pretty old school and probably on its way to becoming extinct.

Other potentially extinct attributes include the need to be beyond reproach politically, to the point of never voting. And even then, when you did feel compelled to vote, registering only as an Independent. For this reason alone, I spent much of my adult life as a registered Independent.

As for the question of accepting gifts, for the most part you simply didn’t do it. No matter what the FCC or anybody else had to say about an annual limit of gifts valued at no more than $25. It was easier and safer not to accept anything. From anybody. Food and drink and the occasional cheap t-shirt handout excepted. And that, was that.

Should any of this sounds beyond belief, it could be an indicator of how far we’ve strayed from a time when journalists were among the most trusted of Americans. Imagine that. A time when a network news anchor, Walter Cronkite, was called “The most trusted man in America.”

They tried to get him to run for president. But he wouldn’t. And that’s the way it was. To borrow part of a phrase.

A couple of the great levelers for all professional journalists, I would hope, are to present both (all) sides while being as objective as is humanly possible, and to never intentionally misrepresent anything.

Our job used to be to find out what the hell was going on and to then tell people about it. If you got stuck, you could always come back to presenting “just the facts” and any analysis you felt necessary, provided you kept your personal opinions and biases out of it. It had to be transparent and done in an effort to educate and inform your readers or audience.

For some of us, “When in doubt, leave it out,” was more than just a catchphrase. They were words to live by. Your credibility, was everything.

There’s more to it, but those are, or were, the basics, along with the old school understanding that if you made the same mistake twice, you were out. Pretty sure that one died long ago, based upon what I listen to or read on a daily basis. Particularly so for those networks and other organs of communication that don’t qualify for consideration as professional journalists.

They’re one-sided. What we used to call “hacks” or “rags.” Purveyors of propaganda, for fun and profit. A brand of reportage that once was limited to racks at the checkout counters in supermarkets. We called them, “Supermarket Rags.” One headline I recall was, “Pope Declares Saint Elvis!”

There used to be a line between real journalists and the hacks. It’s pretty much gone now, thanks to the KGB style propaganda machine rattling on endlessly about “fake news.” A theme that continues to be pushed by the Trump Administration, and others, in an effort to confuse, divide and conquer, making it pretty tough for many Americans to sort it all out. It’s a damn shame, and a threat to our Constitutional Republic.

That said, there are still thousands of real, honest to God journalists out there, both on the air and in print. With a little effort, a little thinking, it is still possible to separate out the real reporters from the hacks and propagandists, much to the chagrin of Donald Trump and his masters of obfuscation, fear and confusion. They, and others in their Neo-fascist elite orbit, want nothing more than to eliminate the free flow of honest information. To that end, they will continue to discredit real journalists and journalism.

It’s my fear that one day, they’ll send out ICE or some other pseudo police force to round us all up, sending us off to detention centers disguised to look like data-centers somewhere in the middle of Kansas.

And there we’ll all be. The purveyors of truth. America’s true illuminati and a big chunk of the nation’s intelligentsia. Silenced. No longer a problem for the sickos, sycophants and sociopaths running the Federal Government.

A Federal Government that will have convinced nearly half of America that real news is fake, and that fake news, is real.

Real news will no longer be a problem for political hacks and predatory capitalists, determined to have it all for themselves. All of it. Only the Constitution and a free press stand in their way.

That evil “East Coast Intelligentsia,” labeled the enemy by Harvard educated politicians from wealthy families, out to convince an increasingly confused populace that the “Trickle Down” economics of the extreme right will work for them - even though it’s never worked for anybody, other than the very rich.

Who was it that labeled our military as “Suckers and Losers?” That was Donald Trump, wasn’t it? A very rich man, with an Ivy League education? A guy who hates the free press and continues to insist that there’s no problem with the economy, the environment or his endless war with Iran, while he and his family rake in billions of dollars from questionable sources? See how neatly it all comes together? For some?

See how much trouble a free press could be for those who spend their days sloughing through a reflecting pool of corruption, greed and deceit?

Contrary to popular propaganda deriding the well-educated and deeply experienced, intellectually superior people are critically important to maintaining our freedoms. Those same people, those same journalists, are currently under threat.

Anyone of any real intellect that stands against these Neo-fascists, will be seen as the enemy. Including all those real journalists still standing. They are going to try and silence us all.

Don’t think it isn’t possible. Much of the corporate media has already been cowed or bought up by Donald Trump and his friends, despite the fact that for millions, due process has been set aside, along with other constitutional guarantees that made us uniquely American.

Federal agents have murdered Americans on American streets. Sent out by a government that sees itself as being almost without constraints, lacking any proper congressional oversight from Republicans who continue to hide under their desks, saying nothing that might upset the Administration.

Only what remains of our Constitution and the free press stand between Liberty and the purveyors of chaos who continue tearing our system to bits. Charging ahead and doing whatever they please, ignoring tradition and in some cases, established law. Including, but not limited to, using the DC traveling press corps as bait for Iranian assassins while Trump was shuttled around in a food truck.

It’s a mess that will take years to sort out in the courts. If we survive as a Constitutional Republic. If anything remains of the First Amendment and the free press, once they’re done.

You can be sure that at this moment, they are laying plans to plant federal agents at polling places in November. Even though they have no reason to do so, as elections in this country are run by the states, and not by the federal government. The Trump camp, will do it anyway. Anything to keep voters away from the polls. To scare people into submission. To subvert the election, should the other side win, with only what’s left of the free press to tell us what’s really going on.

The Strait of Hormuz and the fact that Bebe Netanyahu, wants his war with Iran to continue ad infinitum to keep the World Court at bay, is Simple Simon stuff compared to what’s going on across the region and into Europe and Russia, and possibly North Korea.

For me it started over the weekend, with news of a new alliance between the Saudis, Turkey and Pakistan, a nuclear armed nation. The Yeshiva World News reports, “Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed a new mutual defense agreement in Mecca on Friday, strengthening military cooperation between the three countries as Riyadh faces growing concerns over regional threats. The agreement was signed during a summit attended by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.”

This was followed in rapid fashion by another announcement, that Turkey is now providing missiles and other military hardware acquired from the United States to Ukraine. The Kyiv Independent reports, “The package includes 70 M39 ATACMS missiles, 12 M270 multiple-launch rocket systems (MLRS), over 2,000 cluster munitions, and 47,000 howitzer rounds, according to a notice from the U.S. State Department recorded in congressional minutes on Aug. 6.”

In short, Turkey is supplying some U.S. military hardware to Ukraine, through a sort of “backdoor.” So, the military hardware Trump is refusing to supply to Ukraine, is now getting to Ukraine by way of Turkey, a move which, it appears, had to be approved by the U.S. State Department.

How do you suppose Putin, will feel about this? Will the Trump/Putin bromance survive this latest move?

But what, you ask, does North Korea have to do with it? Just a few days ago it was reported that a North Korean ballistic missile unit has now deployed in Russia, to help the Russians in their endless attack against Ukraine, while, at the same time, the Ukrainians continue to batter the Russian homeland with drone attacks. This deployment is in addition to missiles already sent to Russia by the North Koreans and North Korean soldiers already stationed there. One report indicates North Korea sent 14-thousand troops to Russia in 2024. Then, on July 27th, The South China Morning Post reported, “Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed that preparations had been under way in Russia’s Voronezh region to receive another 30,000 North Korean troops since last month.”

So Turkey, is now supplying Ukraine with weapons manufactured in the United States, while North Korea is supplying Russia with North Korean made military hardware and troops - while, at the same time, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan, have formed a mutual defense alliance - which Turkey joined, in spite of the fact that it was already a member of NATO, and home to a storage facility holding nuclear weapons belonging to the United States.

Turkey, must feel that Iran is more of a threat than some have suspected? But why are they helping Ukraine, which is sure to draw the wrath of Vladimir Putin? Unless, of course, the pot is about to boil over, leaving the Turks, the Pakistanis and the Saudis, desperate for allies, with the United States now regarded as nothing more than a wild card. Just one more rogue nation, undependable and out of control.

Like I said, convoluted. And caused, or in the case of Ukraine/Russia, at least abetted by just one man. Donald John Trump. A man who can’t repair a reflecting pool with unlimited funds much less pretend to have any skills whatsoever on an increasingly inflamed world stage.

Again, from the South China Morning Post, “ Estimates of the death toll vary, but Western intelligence assessments claimed in May that nearly 500,000 Russian soldiers had been killed or injured. In January, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies think tank put the Russian military death toll at around 325,000, out of some 1.2 million casualties since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.”

One I find particularly disgusting is something Trump and his Republican Party have used with great success for years now, even before Karl Rove, going back to the insidious Lee Atwater. Read about him, if you want. He came up with what they call “The Southern Strategy,” trying to garner the white vote by appealing to racism in the South.

Disgusting as that is, I have something else for you to consider. It’s come to be defined with regard to Donald Trump, by saying, “Every accusation is a confession.” Which pretty well sums it up. If he complains about somebody else doing something, chances are he’s the one who did it.

Consider the words of President Trump, speaking from the White House, on July 31st, when he said with regard to the January 6th insurrectionists, who staged an attempted coup against the Government of the United States, and his push to provide them with compensation for their attempted overthrow of the Government, Trump said, “I think people were horribly treated. Horribly abused. This has nothing to do with Todd, this was me. Horribly abused, and I’d like to see them compensated for the pain. I wasn’t covered by that fund, I don’t wanna be covered by the fund. I probably was abused more than anybody in the history of our country. They went down for an innocent journey.”

An “innocent journey?” Trump directed them to go to the Capitol, and “fight like hell.” They defiled the Capitol of the United States and physically beat and battered capitol police. They threatened to hang the Vice President and brought a gallows to get the job done. And now Trump wants nearly $1.8 billion to compensate them for their crimes against the people of the United States. Crimes against our police and our public officials. Crimes against us.

Every accusation, is a confession. Even more frightening than what Trump says, is the possibility that he actually believes his own mad ramblings.

For years now, I’m not sure who came up with it, but for several decades, the Republicans have been doing something, and then blaming it on the opposition. For example, it wasn’t Donald Trump who looked the other way on the Covid Pandemic, trying to convince America that it would magically just “wash away” in the Spring. No, the Republicans, rather than accept responsibility and their candidate’s massive failure, are still blaming it on Joe Biden. The whole thing, even though Biden wasn’t in office when the Pandemic struck, Trump was - and it was Trump who totally bungled the country’s initial response to the outbreak.

“Now, the virus that we’re talking about having to do — you know, a lot of people think that goes away in April with the heat — as the heat comes in. Typically, that will go away in April. We’re in great shape though. We have 12 cases — 11 cases, and many of them are in good shape now.” -Donald Trump, Feb. 10th, 2020

The same can be said for numerous other situations, from the Democrats inheriting the disastrous economy in 2008 from George W. Bush, to Republican operatives running around the South, putting flyers on the car windows of churchgoers on Sunday, claiming that war hero and Senator, John McCain, had fathered a black child. McCain, was, at the time, running against George W. Bush. I can’t say it was his idea, but Karl Rove, was Bush’s chief strategist. The deceit may very well have cost McCain the nomination. At the very least, it did hurt his campaign.

This kind of negative campaigning, lying about who is responsible for what, has, at the least, been very confusing for the poor electorate, who, like sheep to the slaughter, generally buy into the lies. Most people vote with their guts, not with their heads. With Trump, there are simply so many lies, that listing them would require a book. Beyond that, one can’t really blame Trump for anything he’s done, as he appears to be a clinical sociopath, lacking any conscience whatsoever. I would refer you to Dr. Bandy Lee’s books.

The great Republican strategist Lee Atwater, can be blamed and for a lot of it. Atwater died at the age of 40 in 1991, after suffering from a brain tumor. He converted to Roman Catholicism after falling ill, and was quoted in Life Magazine as having said, “My illness helped me to see that what was missing in society is what was missing in me: a little heart, a lot of brotherhood. The 1980s were about acquiring – acquiring wealth, power, prestige. I know. I acquired more wealth, power, and prestige than most. But you can acquire all you want and still feel empty. What power wouldn't I trade for a little more time with my family? What price wouldn't I pay for an evening with friends? It took a deadly illness to put me eye to eye with that truth, but it is a truth that the country, caught up in its ruthless ambitions and moral decay, can learn on my dime. I don't know who will lead us through the '90s, but they must be made to speak to this spiritual vacuum at the heart of American society, this tumor of the soul.”

It’s debatable, but it continues to be said and written, with some pretty good reference material, that Atwater asked forgiveness on his deathbed for what he’d done to American politics.

Lee Atwater, didn’t invent negative campaigning, he just took it to a new level. And that’s where we’re at right now, reaching into another level altogether - which brings me to another tactic which is sometimes harmless, and other times, despicable. It’s the tactic of floating “trial balloons” to see whether there’s any pushback from both legislators and the common folk who are likely to go to the polls.

Donad Trump, is famous for his many trial balloons, first innocently suggesting something, no matter how outrageous it might be, and then waiting to see whether there’s a reaction to it. If the negative reaction’s strong enough, he’ll probably just drop the idea, at least for the time being. If he gets a positive reaction, he’s likely to carry through with his idea - like creating ICE to act as his personal Gestapo, rounding up and even killing innocent Americans - and then blaming what’s happened on years of failure by Joe Biden and the Democrats.

The truth, is that both parties are to blame for our immigration mess, which developed over decades, and not from just one administration to another.

Although Trump, who appears to be sinking deeper into some form of mental incapacity with each passing day, is now likely to blame almost anybody for anything if he thinks it will get him off the hook. But we were on the subject of floating “trial balloons.”

Trump’s really good at this, to the point of his cult members arguing that he’s not always serious, that it’s just “Trump being Trump.” Well, okay, I can buy into that, except when he follows through.

Some examples are his economy wrecking tariffs, ICE acting as his personal Gestapo on our streets, and with Elon Musk, helping him to “demolish the deep state” by gutting the Federal Government. He told us he was going to do all those things before he carried them out. Trial balloons. And now, here we are, stuck with ICE, an inadequate and dangerous Federal Government and an economy saddled by tariffs. Which have never worked, and aren’t working now.

That said, there’s a trial balloon or two out there right now, so insidious, that not even Lee Atwater would have dreamed it up. It’s dangerous, because it appears to be nothing more than an innocent coincidence of two apparently unrelated separate events.

Event number one, is the head of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, suggesting (trial balloon) that perhaps FIFA would be better off, if they allowed certain very wealthy persons to purchase, that is to say “privatize” some or all of FIFA.

The pushback on this one was almost immediate, with World Cup organizations issuing a strong “no” from North America, Asia and Europe. It was such a strong no, that it is also being suggested that this will be the end of Mr. Infantino’s tenure with FIFA.

Which bring us to event number two, Donald Trump suggesting that the Transportation Safety Administration, the “TSA,” should be privatized - giving the very wealthy the ability to cut to the front of the line when boarding and probably other advantages as well. Who really knows what Trump or his minions might be thinking at any given time? Except that it will be better for Trump, who is clearly the most clinically self-absorbed person ever to occupy the Oval Office.

There are your two trial balloons, floated almost simultaneously. The TSA and FIFA. Both, apparently, coincidental. Or maybe not. But if they aren’t coincidental, then we’d be off into the land of conspiracy theories, and that would make our entire hypothesis an intellectual fraud, right? Interesting how that works, isn’t it?

Beware trial balloons. They could be tomorrow’s reality. Like DJT running for another term in the White House, ushering in the new “Golden Era” he’s spoken of repeatedly. His new “Age of the Billionaires.” That friends, could be his ultimate trial balloon.

Goodbye Democracy. Goodbye American Republic and all the individual freedoms that went with it. As Franklin feared, it turned out to be more than we could handle. Trial balloons and all.

I later learned, and may have read about it via Tom Clancy or some other writer of military lore, that the doomsday plane was the name given to a big jet converted to withstand a nuclear attack. Provided they could get the President on board and get the plane up in the air before a bomb went off nearby. It would be the President’s flying command post, able to withstand even the electromagnetic blast of a nuclear attack. Or at least that’s the thinking.

Fast forward to 2026, with Donald J. Trump, accepting his new Air Force One from the Qatari Government. A plane without adequate defenses to serve as Air Force One, much less a “doomsday plane.” And it gets even better. Or worse, if you connect the dots, as the United States currently has two Air Force One capable jets with two more on the way and four doomsday planes on standby.

The tech is beyond me, but according to Ai, it takes years to build an Air Force One capable jet, “due to the complexity of upgrades like secure communications and nuclear-blast shielding.”

With two fully capable Air Force One jets and two more under construction, and four doomsday planes on standby, our stable genius, accepted a gifted civilian aircraft from a foreign government, not thinking the gift would possibly never size-up to what he already had, or what was currently under construction - or why flying around in a gifted civilian plane might put his life in danger.

Imagine someone so utterly stupid, that they couldn’t put that together in their head? Hard to do, isn’t it? Unless that same person was bankrupted six times, twice impeached and then found guilty of 34 felony counts by a jury of his peers - before he again proved his skills as one of history’s greatest con-men by convincing a majority of the American electorate to put him back in the Oval Office a second time, in spite of the fact that Jeffrey Epstein was among his best friends.

And now, in the latest twist of his already twisted mind, he is calling anyone that disagrees with his idiotic ravings a “Communist.”

Staggering, isn’t it? But it keeps getting better, beyond the unnecessary war with Iran, soaring prices and climbing temperatures. Speaking before a crowd of autoworkers in Michigan, Trump recently bragged about putting in an order for 250 Cadillac Escalades for his Secret Service agents to use. He said something about his security people “looking sharp” while doing their jobs.

Once again, it appears the most powerful man in the world doesn’t know what he’s talking about. His claim hasn’t been backed up by a procurement order, or other documentation to prove his statement. Trump, it appears, will say anything if he thinks it will impress an audience.

It could be the Qatari jet kerfuffle all over again. Trump gets something in his head, it pops out of his mouth, and people take him seriously because he was, in one of history’s worst mistakes, elected President of the United States. A second time.

He doesn’t have the judgement to use an existing secure aircraft. He blurts out incorrect information about his Secret Service protection - about when he’ll be getting a new armored limo and from where, not to mention armored vehicles for his Secret Service contingent, which can cost up to $300-thousand per vehicle.

And he ordered 250 of them? Or could it be that some will be Chevy Suburbans?

The judgement of Donald J. Trump cannot be trusted. It’s not only that he has no idea what he’s talking about, it’s that he talks about it anyway, and people continue to listen, while his avoidable war with Iran continues with no end in sight and fires continue burning in Canada, Spain, France, England, Crete and elsewhere.

DJT is beginning to remind me of that MAD Magazine character, Alfred E. Neuman. The “What me worry?” guy from our youth. When you think about it, why should Donald worry about wars, fires or anything else? The man has a doomsday plane on standby.

Imagine a tale of two realities. One reality, deals with what actually is. No fantasy, just factual reality. The other, is the alternate reality of Donald J. Trump, which deals not with facts or logic, but with saying whatever he must to support every crazy idea that pops into his head at any given moment before calling his lawyers, demanding they sue those that disagree with his latest mad position.

Because of this difference, the WHCA Dinner was doomed. It was a bad idea made worse by DJT, who infects everything he touches.

You can’t have journalists inviting the world’s foremost liar to dinner without a problem or two. Beyond that, you were presented with an “out” after that crazy guy ran in with a gun the first time you tried to hold the event. You should have taken the hint and canceled, not taken the view, “Well that was interesting…let’s try it again?”

Trump, represents the enemy camp. He is an enemy to journalism, an enemy to the truth, an enemy to American Democracy.

Our job as journalists, is to find out what’s going on and to then tell people about it. This is anathema to Trump, as the truth will destroy him. And he knows it, which is why he hates journalists. Real journalists, not the ass-kissing sycophants from Trump supporting outlets, who only pose as reporters.

And that’s the way it is. Time for everybody, including the WHCA, to stop denying reality. Things are not what they were and it’s time to move ahead. The dinner didn’t work and it won’t work in the future. Not so long as DJT is in office. It might be a good idea to either scale it down, making it less of a celestial gathering, or maybe getting rid of it altogether, while setting up a much smaller operation to promote your scholarships.

Mostly, we need you to forget about dinners and to get back to work. There is a democracy to save. DJT, is trying to destroy it. The very same man you invited to dinner, lending a degree of normalization to his madness.

If your idea was to pull an Ed Murrow, exposing Trump for who he really is, I’m pretty sure everybody already knows. After all this time and all those lies, those who are still following the guy aren’t likely to be persuaded he’s a dangerous waste of time by one more speech.

This could be the best explanation yet, for what I until now, looked upon as a deep mystery. Until now, I couldn’t wade through the swamp of trying to understand how and why so many otherwise intelligent people, could continue being led around by the nose by the never-ending stream of lies coming from Donald J. Trump and his political minions from hell. But this explains it, and seems to make sense. And it’s simple enough for me to understand. Even though I’m not conservative. About most things. About a few, maybe. Yeah, definitely about a few, which tends to confuse the hell out of some right-wingers who try and put me in one category or another because I refuse to adhere to their nursery rhyme political credos.

While I do still have questions as to why these otherwise intelligent folks continuine following a madman, I am also exhausted by their obstinance, and do hereby bow out of the contest. I just can’t take it anymore.

Conservatives, “need someone to tell them what to think, because thinking is hard for them.” -Lucas Bean

Could it be that simple? Are there really that many people who are that thick between the ears? It’s doubtful to me, but some seem to think so. Maybe they’re right.

Then there are the studies. One after another point to what is being called “the education gap” between those that support DJT, and those that do not. Study after study, points to Trump’s supporters being less educated. Many, without college degrees. However, recent data shows a shift in opinion among those same voters, some of whom are now leaving the Trumpist camp, possibly because they’re tired of ever higher prices for gas and groceries, and another possibly endless war in the Middle East.

So maybe they’re not so stupid after all? Maybe they’ve been busy working two or three jobs to feed their families, and it’s just taken them longer to come around to realizing that they were snookered by a con-man from New York. Some of them, anyway. Others, unable to admit their mistake, may never change

If nursery rhyme level concepts are all they can understand, if their DNA blocks them from doing a critical analysis of complex geopolitical problems, then so be it. It’s not their fault. Just wish they’d step aside and leave the complex critical thinking to those of us who are able to do it. So the country can stop blowing up children’s schoolrooms in Iran and otherwise punishing the citizens of a county who, like us, are currently trapped by a mad dictator. A megalomaniac, who, like an angry six year old, will tear apart everything we have if we don’t comply with his every childish whim.

If he can’t have it all, then he doesn’t want anybody to have anything. It’s something most of us got over somewhere in grammar school.

First, there’s DJT, again, who is now apparently encouraging the development of nuclear power by the Saudis, a Royal Family, that is floating on oil. Apart from the contradiction of fossil fuel loving Donald Trump encouraging the oil-rich Saudis to turn to nuclear power, which appears to make no sense at all, there is, of course, the issue of why the Saudis would do it, and how much DJT is being paid to clear the way for this to happen. If that is in fact, the case. It is at least interesting, that on the one hand, he argues for preventing the Iranians from moving forward with nuclear development, to the point of bombing the hell out of the county, while on the other, he now appears to be putting the Saudis on a path to do the same.

Why would the transactional and acquisitional Donald J. Trump do it? A quick check with my favorite Ai engine tells us, “Donald Trump’s crypto-related earnings totaled $1,430,390,415 in his latest financial disclosure, with his family’s crypto ventures valued at roughly $5 billion as of September 2025.”

I recall the words of one of my professors at the University of Minnesota, many years ago, as he proclaimed, “Every man wants to be a god!”

The other item, one that was perhaps, inevitable, is that an Ai program has “gone rouge,” breaking loose from all constraints and hacking into another program. At least, that’s what it sounds like.

According to The Guardian, “OpenAI has revealed an autonomous AI agent powered by its technology went rogue during a test, accessed the open web and hacked a prominent startup by itself in an “unprecedented incident”. The company behind ChatGPT said the startup Hugging Face had detected and contained the agent – an AI tool designed to carry out tasks without human assistance – which had entered its systems.”

They tell us everything is fine, that it will ultimately be a learning experience for all involved. Isn’t that special?

Truth is, most of us are not programmers and know nothing at all about Ai or where it’s taking us. Just that we’re being forced to go along for the ride. A ride that could turn “Terminator II” into a tale of the real world. Or is that overstating the situation? A key for me is the phrase “…hacked a prominent startup by itself.”

Any type of Ai that’s smart enough to go rouge and attack another Ai program, will eventually become self-aware and smart enough to outsmart us analogue brained, egocentric, greedy humans, one would think. But then, what do I know? My talents always sided more with the arts. The Humanities and literature, that kind of thing, not higher math. Most of us, I’m quite certain, can’t properly define an algorithm, much less “write” one, and yet these algorithm things are increasingly gaining control of our lives, in what will eventually be a battle between analog humans and digital, robotic, cybernetic droids, who care nothing for the arts, nothing for any of that which defines us as human beings. Unless you happen to be a droid, posing as a human.

Think of it as a war between the language of math and the language of Shakespeare. Humanity vs. the droids.

Over the short-term, meaning the next 100 years or so, the language of math will surely be far more profitable, which should give you some idea of which side is going to win. This doesn’t necessarily bode well for us human units with all our organic issues as Ai breaks out of the corral and gallops away.

Chances are that in the bionic eyes of Ai, we won’t be efficient enough, deserving enough, to merit continued survival. After several thousand years, we haven’t even been able to put an end to war.

Before we’re done, war, could turn out to be our most profitable enterprise. With no one left to enjoy the profits, except for Ai of course, which will continue to evolve.

Hasta la vista, baby….

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Hours after writing this piece, and following heavy criticism, the Trump Administration announced that the deal with the Saudis would be made only after the Saudis signed onto “The Abraham Accords,” normalizing relations with Israel.

There is, for example, a terrible imbalance in the reporting on the U.S., Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Gaza, West Bank, Cutter, Bahrain, Kuwait, UAE, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq and maybe Turkey war. It’s difficult to keep up with who has and has not been fired on over the past four months since Donald started his new war. But that’s not my point. Although it merits consideration.

My point is, yes, it’s horrible that these two most recent American soldiers were killed in the bombing. It’s horrible that 17 Americans have now been killed in Donald’s new war. However, it makes no sense to keep repeating news about the tragedy of 17 deaths while all but ignoring the fact that since this thing started with the assassination of Ayatollah Khamenei on February 12th of this year, there have apparently been over eight-thousand casualties. Including, but not limited to, as many as 43-hundred in Lebanon and something between four and six thousand in Iran. And 17 Americans.

It is perhaps ironic, or maybe just a tad terrifying, that President Trump, who now appears to have trouble remembering where he is or why he is there, has scheduled a meeting with the President of Lebanon, a man whose country is being bombed regularly, probably by munitions manufactured in the United States. By one account, the United States assistance to Israel amounts to nearly four billion dollars a year, with most of it going to the Israeli military.

The vast difference between the numbers of Iranians killed in the war with the number of Americans killed is eclipsed only by the number of Israelis killed when compared to the Palestinians. The numbers are something above 70-thousand Palestinians killed in the war on Gaza, and about 12-hundred Israelis, in what is increasingly being referred to as the “Gaza genocide.”

Most of this is never pointed out by the American press, which prefers to focus on, and repeat endlessly, that 17 Americans have now been killed in the fighting. Which is tragic, but there is a bigger picture sorely in need of consideration apart from the burning issue of handing out testosterone pills to U.S. military personnel. Not that it doesn’t matter.

There was no “ceasefire.” The war continues, and Trump can’t handle it. Obama, had it handled and Trump tore it to pieces. And then he started an unnecessary war. Before making a fool of himself by stumbling around on the stage at the World Cup while the world booed.

It should be noted that none of the above accounts for the estimated hundreds of thousands of deaths that will be caused by the Trump/Musk cuts to USAID. A quick check wtih Ai, returned the following: “Approximately 600,000 people have died as a result of the Trump administration's dismantling of USAID, with about two-thirds of those being children. Estimates suggest that this number could rise to 14 million preventable deaths by 2030 if the cuts continue.”

It is beyond time to impeach DJT in the House and Convict him in the Senate. He is visibly fading while people continue to die. He is a dangerous embarrassment, and yet, he is expected to attend the White House Correspondents Association dinner on Friday. The WHCA leadership has apparently forgotten that everything he touches, turns to……

(The numbers used in this piece are estimates, as the fighting continues and the numbers can change almost daily).

Donald Trump, is not only digging himself into a hole, he’s digging it deeper and deeper for all of us. The entire country.

With the standoff closing the Strait of Hormuz, gas prices again going up and Iran opening fire on U.S. bases located on the soil of American allies, Donald, has nowhere to go. Bombing, clearly won’t do it. He’s already done that, and it didn’t work. Putting in ground troops, further enmeshing the United States in another “forever war” against a country with a massive military, would be immensely unpopular with the voters, and there’s a midterm election only a few months away.

Thank God, and the founders.

You have to remember that nobody wanted this war to begin with - and that there was no problem with Iran, before Donald, apparently at Bebe Netanyahu’s urging, started the war.

So what does Donald do? The more resistance he gets, the harder he digs. The guy’s probably gone through several shovels. It’s his MO. It’s all he knows. If they hit you, you hit them back, even harder. And it is not working. So he just keeps digging.

At this point, there are 17 American lives lost. Probably. Only a fool would believe casualty numbers coming from Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon. How many more? How many more Iranians? And we still have no idea why. Because Trump has no idea why.

Is it all a deflection from the Epstein Files? Will Trump try and stand in the way of Florida extraditing the Tate brothers, to face charges in England, because the Taits, who are suspected of sex trafficking, are also reportedly friends of Don Jr. and Baron Trump?

This is, to my knowledge, the first time Baron Trump’s name has been raised by the press in connection to any alleged untoward activity. Chances are, Melania, who has been hiding in the shadows while keeping Baron out of sight, won’t be happy at all - giving Donald problems both domestically and overseas.

While there is nothing anyone can do about family friends, like the Tates, somehow, Donald Trump must be removed from the war negotiations picture.

Actual diplomats, not Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, but someone with actual experience in geopolitical negotiations, must be sent over to cut a deal with the Iranians, maybe reporting back to a congressional committee, and not DJT. It’s the only way. Otherwise, Donald will just keep digging with that big hole getting deeper and deeper.

If the cowardly Republicans in the Congress are too timid to stop Trump directly, with impeachment in the House and then conviction in the Senate, then perhaps they can be persuaded to shut off funding for the military. They did it to Nixon, with the Case-Church Amendment of 1973, forcing him to get out of Vietnam after 19 years.

Donald Trump has damaged the Kennedy Center, wrecked the White House and the reflecting pool and is threatening to block the entrance to Arlington with an antiquated, ugly, out of place, arch. Now he’s opening the door on expanding a regional war with the potential of running on for years. A war, which, like the proposed arch, was totally avoidable and unnecessary.

But our self-proclaimed “stable genius,” just keeps digging away. And the hole keeps getting deeper. It’s all he knows.