Buttermilk Sky

  Sometimes there's nothing to do but laugh. Via Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who by definition knows nothing about energy,  Trump  has given himself credit for work done in the 1980s at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory by John Clarke, which led to Michel Devoret, John Martinis and Clarke receiving the Nobel Prize for physics in 2025.  "Trump 47 racks up his first Nobel Prize!!"  I'm not saying Wright, or any other member of the Cabinet of Crawlers, didn't say that -- I'm saying neither of them could tell the difference between quantum physics and a bucket of fresh elephant shit. This will happen if you give a monkey a gold crown. Retired police officer  Larry Bushart  spent five weeks in jail in Linden, Tennessee, for the crime of quoting Trump ("We have to get over it") during the paroxysm of MAGA grief that followed the death of the Blessed Martyr Kirk.  Trump was responding with his customary indifference to the Perry, Iowa, school shoo...

  Your US Department of Labor and the workers they want for tomorrow.  Not one of them even wears glasses, although the jobs of tomorrow will mostly involve staring at screens.  And shouldn't the couple in church have a lot more children? Xi Jinping knew it was going to be a good day when  Trump  asked him how to get off the stage.  He agreed to buy some of the US's now-surplus soybeans and  Scott Bessent  acted like it was VJ day.  Next year China may buy more.  It's not definite.  Nothing is definite except Trump's sad need for the strong man to like him.  "Tariffs are remain exactly the same."  REPORTER:  "55 percent."  TRUMP:  "No, it was 57 and now it's 47 because we reduced it by the fentanyl."  (He's obsessed with fentanyl but can't remember if it comes from China, Venezuela or "Aberbaijan.")  The point is, most people will pay more for all the holiday stuff they buy.  When  Chuck ...

 As the Trump shutdown (of the federal government, not his personal mental collapse on the world stage) enters its fifth week, two state legislators in  New Mexico  remembered that Jeffrey Epstein owned a ranch in Santa Fe County.  Past investigations were inconclusive, hampered by overlapping state and federal jurisdictions, and in some cases the statute of limitations has come into effect.  But they hope to establish a bipartisan commission like those that looked into the 9/11 attacks and the January 6, 2021, coup attempt.  Witnesses have said that Epstein wanted to set up some sort of baby breeding facility at the Zorro Ranch because like Elon Musk, he was a proponent of eugenics, an idea whose time has returned, if you've been paying attention to Tucker Carlson and Brainworm Bob. All is not lost, however -- November 10 is the fiftieth anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior, and Kash Patel and his bosses will certainly want ...

 This is getting ridiculous.  After the promise of full disclosure in the Amelia Earhart case and the doubtless bombshell revelations in the Russian files on JFK -- finally we'll learn the name of the radio factory where Oswald worked! -- the FBI is investigating the fifty-year-old disappearance of  Jimmy Hoffa .  All agents have been told to stop what they're doing and search their work stations and gym lockers for any documents that may have been overlooked or mislabeled "Judge Joseph Crater."  (There was no FBI when Ambrose Bierce vanished in 1913, so they probably have no information.) They call it transparency.  You may call it RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILE!  Tomato, tomahto.   The British do this kind of flummery with more style.  As the public and the press clamor for the truth about Prince Andrew's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the king went to  Rome to meet and pray publicly with Pope Leo, the first time this has happened ...

  In November 1963, when every other opinion writer in America was trying to find something fresh to say about John F. Kennedy,  Jimmy Breslin  went to Arlington National Cemetery to interview Clifton Pollard, the man who was digging his grave.  "It's an Honor" became his most famous and frequently anthologized column, still taught in journalism classes. Last March NPR  reported  that the names of black, Hispanic and female veterans buried in Arlington had been scrubbed from the cemetery's website on orders from Pete Hegseth and his master, part of their plot to abolish an inconvenient chunk of American history.  I thought that was the end of the obscene and petty barbarism but now I'm not so sure.  How long before the veterans themselves are evicted, their bodies burned or dumped in mass graves, their markers pulverized for  golf course refurbishment?   That's the final destination of the East Wing.  Follow the backhoes. It's been ...

  The Consumer Price Index has risen by three percent since January and Trump's poll numbers have  plummeted  even among  Hispanics,  one of his steadiest demographics.  The war with  Canada  is on again after Ontario premier Doug Ford had the temerity to attack Donnie with the words of Ronald Reagan denouncing tariffs.  ("Trade barriers hurt every American worker.")  The vandalism at the White House is so hated that reporters documenting it were kicked out of the Ellipse park.  Equally unpopular is the latest outrageous pardon -- Zhao Changpeng, founder of  Binance  and admitted money launderer who helped the Trump crime family amass $4.5 billion since last November.  Higher  insurance premiums under the ACA have begun with a 75 percent increase in Idaho.  The ICEstapo is having trouble recruiting goons who can pass its already relaxed  fitness  tests, even after waiving background checks.  ...

 With less than two weeks to go and fourteen percentage points to make up,  Andrew Cuomo  has decided to let his Trump flag fly.  He released an AI video called "Criminals for Mamdani," in which his opponent's supporters are shown abusing a woman, shoplifting (in a keffiyah), selling drugs, etc.  Cuomo lived in Albany for a long time, so he may have forgotten how diverse New York City is.  I can't think of any other possible excuse. What, no Red Sox hat? Today, according to the  Times,  Cuomo will receive the endorsement of the deeply unpopular incumbent Eric Adams, who once called him "a snake and a liar."  All he needs now is a photo op with Trump in front of the ruins of the White House. J.D. Vance was in Israel this week and  Netanyahu  marked the occasion by having the Knesset, which he controls, vote for formal annexation of the West Bank.  Vance pronounced himself "insulted," sensing that the thousand-year peace declared...

 A man was snorkeling off the coast of Israel when he encountered a shiver of  Dusky sharks,  a species considered harmless to humans.  A few minutes later there was only blood in the water and small pieces of snorkeler.  Well. The water in this area is unusually warm because of a nearby power plant.  Also boat operators throw them fish scraps to provide a show for tourists.  This teaches them to beg and when that doesn't work, to help themselves. I thought I'd start there because it makes a kind of sense, unlike everything else. "A  Christian music star  born without arms has been arrested on charges of possessing and producing child pornography."  Why is this newsworthy?  Because Jon Paul Sheptock, former pastor of First Montgomery Baptist Church in Texas, also worked at a women's prison.  Oh, and he sang the National Anthem at a Trump rally in 2022. Leaving that Flannery O'Connor novel behind, we turn to the New York mayoral...

  This is the former East Wing of the White House being smashed open to make room for the desperately not needed Make 'em Believe Ballroom.  No professional builder, even a terrible one, starts a big job like this in late October and no one but a vandal would alter a  National Historical Landmark  without permission from Congress and the National Park Service, but when you've already been convicted of 34 felonies, what's one more?  It's not as if Little Mike is going to stand up to Daddy, and  Doug Burgum  is busy firing Park staff and having his eyebrows landscaped. According to  Kash Patel , so believe it if you want, the Secret Service were strolling around West Palm Beach and came across "an elevated hunting stand within elevated sight line" of the place Air Force One lands.  No one was there but someone could have drawn down on Dear Leader as he struggled with one of those woke Marxist umbrellas that conspire against him.  CNN says ...