Steamed

 The weather is superheated and so am I.  This will be in the nature of blowing off steam, so feel free to check back on Monday.

Yesterday, on the eightieth anniversary of the invasion of Europe, leaders of France, Canada and Great Britain gathered in Normandy and the President of the United States delivered a powerful and moving speech.  The climactic sentence was, "Isolation was not the answer eighty years ago, and it is not the answer today."  That was a reference to another head of state, the president of Ukraine.  You can hear it here (and see President Zelensky's interaction with an American veteran) because you probably did not see it yesterday.  CBS had a soap opera and a talk show which could not be pre-empted, and NBC had a tennis tournament.  Only ABC carried it.  If they're worried about having the convicted felon's campaign demand equal time, Reagan abolished that doctrine forty years ago.

Probably they were enjoying the felon being "interviewed" by Phil McGraw, a/k/a Dr. Phil, one of Oprah's crimes against humanity.  It started like this:  "I know you got thick skin.  You're not one of those people with the need to be loved by strangers.  You're a billionaire.  You got a great family.  You're a very dedicated father.  Why do you subject yourself to this?"  Every one of those statements is a lie so blatant, I'm surprised his nose didn't grow until it broke his neck.  This guy is allegedly some sort of mental health professional.  Following the new practice, do you mind if I refer to him as Mister Phil?

"When I'm president I will use Title 42 to end the tryyyyy...and we have to do this," Trump told some devotees in Arizona yesterday.  Your guess is as good as mine.  It has something to do with restricting or expelling asylum seekers, a hot (sorry) issue in Arizona.  The rally took place in the afternoon when it was 112F in Phoenix, because Trump had to romance some big donors in California at night.  About fifty people collapsed while waiting in line and needed medical treatment, which explains all the empty seats inside Dream City Church.  This is the last thing the old folks saw before keeling over.

This is good:  the D.C. district judge who ordered Steve Bannon to GO TO PRISON is Carl J. Nichols, a Trump appointee who used to clerk for Clarence Thomas.  When Bannon goes on trial in New York in the "We Build the Wall" money-laundering case, the judge will be Juan Merchan, so please hold your death threats.  Thank you.  (Bannon may want to add a layer of clothing; you know how cold it is in that courtroom.)

Pennsylvania state rep Stephanie Borowicz says free tampons will lead to communism but she's far from the only creep in that body.  Two former Capitol Police officers, Aquilino Gonell and Harry Dunn, who stood against the Trump coup of January 6, were invited to the House floor by Speaker Joanna McClinton.  The MAGAs greeted them with boos and shouts of "Cowards!" before walking out, which is quite an honor.

But of course it's not a cult, even if Trump's lucky social media followers were able to enjoy the music video he posted, a song by one Natasha Owens which hails him as "The Chosen One."  

Fix the Court reports that between 2004 and 2023 Supreme Court justices were the recipients of nearly five million dollars in gifts and cash, most of it going to Clarence Thomas.  I've always maintained that if Thomas had any wit or sense of irony, he would claim it's a one-man program of reparations.  

The Federalist decided to attack Dolly Parton for not hating LGBTQ people.  Bad idea.

Russia does not want Ukraine.  It just wants NATO aggression to end.  Tommy Tuberville said so.  If NATO would just take its missiles out of Ukraine, where there aren't any because Ukraine does not belong to NATO, war over!  Are you fucking with us, Alabama?  This is a joke, right?

I need a cold drink.  Stay out of the sun.