It’s hard to pick a favorite part but I think it’s the lack of a “filter,” and the shamelessness. So there was the delicious moment in which we savored how Trump would respond to Bob Mueller’s passing. I was hoping he’d suggest shoving dynamite up his tuchas and blowing him to hell, but even for Trump that would be a reach. The actual Presidential posting: “Robert Mueller just died. Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people! President DONALD J. TRUMP.” I don’t know. It does the job, but he seems a little off his game. The second sentence is good, but overall it’s a bit colorless.
How’s the war going? Gas up to $5 a gallon yet? Here’s Sen. Chris Murphy on Trump’s brilliant move to lift the sanctions on Russia and Iran.
“We’re gonna give Iran $14 billion to fund this war with the United States? We’re gonna give Russia billions of dollars to fund their war with Ukraine? We’re literally putting money into the pockets of the very nations that we are fighting right now. We’ve never seen this level of incompetence in war-making in this country’s history.”
We don’t mean to diss the media but do they really need to fawn over every pronouncement Trump blows out of his ass? Isn’t it clear he might as well be singing show tunes when he says things like “no troops on the ground?” To repeat an observation I made years ago about a corrupt lawyer I knew in Rochester (NY): “To Trump, the truth is a coincidence.”
With the war, it seems to me, Trump has crossed the line to hurt the class of people that I’m in. I mean via the zooming gas price and the stock market falling to hurt our retirement holdings. It’s pretty much only the very wealthy that have been safe from him so far. And his lunacy and incompetence should eventually do so much damage that even they will take a hit, IMO. The courts are doing their best, but are impotent to a great extent. We’ll see what happens with the mid-terms: I predict DJT will try to stop them entirely via the declaration of a national emergency. But even if the Dems take the House (and Senate), can Trump’s lawlessness be countered legislatively? Via hearings? We’ll see, I hope. So far the only truly bright star in these dark 15 months has been the extraordinary Minneapolis story.
Let’s listen to these pretty Irish girls now.
If it seemed like the puzzle today gave off a WEIRD VIBE, then you probably did well with it. The theme was WEIRD VIBE. I.e., the theme answers were two-word phrases (or a name) with the words attached by the letters V-I-B-E spelled not in that order (so, “weirdly”), three different ways. My favorite was: “Popular character actor in both ‘The Godfather’ and ‘Barney Miller.’” ABE VIGODA, of course. The others were MOVIE BUFF, EXECUTIVE BRANCH, and LOVE BIRDS (Awww).
The Vigoda quote several commenters noted from You-Know-What was “Tell Mike it was only business. I always liked him.”
And Anony Mouse wrote: Abe VIGODA played the chief in my favorite movie, Joe vs the Volcano, and delivered the most poignant line:
“We are children of children and we live how we are shown.”
I had forgotten this too:
From Wikipedia: Prior to his actual death in January 2016, Vigoda was a repeated victim of mistaken death announcements. These led to jokes, often with Vigoda as a participant. In 1982, People magazine mistakenly referred to Vigoda as dead. At the time, Vigoda, aged 60, was performing in a stage play in Canada. He took the mistake with good humor, posing for a photograph published in Variety, in which he is sitting up in a coffin, holding the erroneous issue of People.
Well, they finally nailed Bill Cosby, at least in a civil suit in California. Cosby, who is 135 years old now, was found liable for sexually assaulting Donna Motsinger, a waitress, in 1972. Motsinger, 108, was pleased with the verdict. The jury awarded her $37 in damages, but with interest it comes to $19 million.
Take the LOVEBIRD
Kiss the stranger
Leave the trailer
Take the car
If you can get past the album cover . . . .
Closing the shop early tonight. Tired from a long day of doing, hmmm — nothing. Good thing I retired. See you tomorrow.
The Wellington Files 