__________
“There are two passions which have a powerful influence on the affairs of men. These are ambition and avarice; the love of power and the love of money.”
Benjamin Franklin
__________
June 1, 2026: Iran has broken off negotiations with the United States and oil prices have spiked again, by 7%-8%.
Have fun at the pump, Trump
fans.
*
NEVER FEAR, Donald Dumpling is laser focused on beating the Iranians and lowering drug prices, and …. late night comedians.
You would think those eleven thousand individuals who hit “like” would understand why free speech is important.
They don’t.
As Jimmy Kimmel, another of
Trump’s targets said recently, “We have the right, guaranteed by the
Constitution, to criticize and satirize our leaders,” he continued. “This is a
right that many of us take for granted.”
___
6/2-3/26: Iran has decided to escalate attacks on neighboring countries that harbor U.S. military bases. Both sides traded fire to start this week, and an Iranian drone hit the Kuwait International Airport. Commercial flights are temporarily halted, after one person was killed and dozens injured.
Iran also sent drones against targets in Bahrain, but U.S. Central Command says most missiles and drones fired by Iran were destroyed.
Meanwhile, Mr. Maturity in the White House is posting juvenile insults on Truth Social, because that’s just what he loves.
Trump also posted an implied
threat to withhold funding from California based on only one criterion. Did he like
the guy who would be elected the next governor. His post:
Next, Donald posted an anti-windmill meme:
*
ELIAS IRIZARRY, a convicted January 6 rioter, who later said that he regretted his participation in the effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election, has been hired “to work inside a Pentagon office that manages highly classified military operations, according to four people familiar with the matter.”
According to the Washington Post, Irizarry’s new job in the Defense Department’s Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict office “has raised alarm internally among staff who question how anyone convicted in the assault on American democracy could be trusted for such a sensitive role in the U.S. government.” All those who spoke with reporters did so, on the condition of anonymity, citing a fear of retaliation.
Normally, a post like the one
Irizarry will now fill, requires a top-secret security clearance, which it
would be almost impossible for him to hold.
*
SPEAKING OF STRANGE HIRES, President Trump has plucked another winner out of his giant sack of scoundrels and Bill Pulte will now serve as Acting Director of National Intelligence. Mr. Pulte has no experience in the field of intelligence gathering, but does have experience going after Donald’s enemies, as head of the Federal Housing Finance Authority. In that role, he tried to jumpstart criminal cases, for purported mortgage fraud, aimed at several of Trump’s enemies.
“The President chooses the best and most talented people to serve in his Cabinet,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement provided to CNBC. “That is why this Administration has achieved record successes for the American people. Bill Pulte is a great selection and he will do a great job on behalf of the American people.”
Mr. Ingle’s job is to praise or defend every action taken or statement made by President Trump, so that, if Donald Dumpling defecated on his Oval Office desk and then threw feces at reporters, Ingle would insist that that was exactly what the American people voted for – not lower grocery prices.
Even Republican senators seem unhappy with Pulte’s nomination; but in this case I will make a rare exception and quote the reaction of a Democratic senator to make the point. Most cross-party criticism is formulaic and self-serving.
In this case, I think Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is spot on in calling Pulte’s appointment to serve as acting intelligence director a terrible choice.
“Americans
have already seen Mr. Pulte use the powers of his office at the Federal Housing
Finance Agency to pursue the president’s grievances and lend credibility to
dubious prosecutions of President Trump’s perceived political opponents,”
Warner said in a statement.
“Elevating
him to oversee the Intelligence Community makes clear that this president is
not looking for an intelligence leader who will follow the facts or speak truth
to power, but rather someone who will be willing to shape intelligence around
the president’s wishes, regardless of the cost to the American people,” he
said.
*
AVERAGE PRICE of gas today:
*
AS YOU MAY KNOW to your sorrow, Donald Dumpling is planning to hold a UFC fight on the White House grounds later this month, kind of bringing the circus to where the biggest clown lives.
Now he’s suggesting that he might just leave the dome he is building up, after the fighting ends.
“People don’t know that in Paris, France, the Eiffel Tower – 1889, it was built – it was supposed to be taken down immediately after the World’s Fair. “And then they said, you know, we sort of like it. Let’s leave it up a little bit longer. And then they said, let’s leave it up longer and longer and longer.
“Well, they never took it down. And, you know, we’re building something in front of the White House that’s quite attractive to a lot of people.”
(Sure, if you want the White House grounds to look like a cheap amusement park.)
*
OLD CATEGORY – ASSHOLE TRUMP: We all know, if we are not living in caves on an island off the coast of Albania (see: 6/5/26) that President Trump has a real hatred for the free press.
It often comes out in the form of petty insults, but on Wednesday, Trump dug deep into his bag of obnoxious behaviors and let loose on CNN White House reporter Kaitlyn Collins – knowing that she wouldn’t fire back. She is after all a reporter, who must act in a professional manner.
Collins’ sin was to ask him about the $1.176 billion fund to pay back January 6 rioters who stormed the Capitol for their “suffering.” (Even most Republicans opposed the idea in a recent poll.)
This monologue followed.
“I'd have to ask the lawyers. I don't know. People like you have abused our people,” he responded. Then he went on to add that he thought the fund was “a beautiful thing.”
“CNN,” he continued, is a “very corrupt organization,” with a “corrupt reporter standing right there (pointing to Collins). Never smiles. She’s a young, beautiful woman, she never smiles. I never see a smile on her face. I see her standing there with hatred in her eyes. She has hatred because we have borders, because we have strong military, because we cut our taxes, because we do things that everybody wanted. And we win our election in a massive landslide. We win 87% of the counties in this country, nobody’s ever heard of a thing like that, and that’s because we’re doing the right job.”
Collins attempted to ask another question.
Mr. Maturity replied, “Be quiet. You should be ashamed of yourself. You used to be conservative from Alabama. CNN does such false reporting, but now they have new ownership, so maybe it’ll straighten it out. It’s hard to straighten garbage out.”
(Donald being Donald – an ass.)
___
6/4/26: During a meeting today with coal executives, President Trump was off on another weird tangent. He wanted the coal bros to know that he was the best president ever and all good Americans loved him and wished he could be president forever. Even if he was dead and started to rot right there in his chair in the Oval Office.
Americans would still want him and would gladly hold their noses, so long as they could worship him. Speaking of sitting in the Oval Office, at one point during the meeting Donald appeared to doze off again.
But not before he made this stunning claim: “I probably won all fifty states.” He was talking about the 2024 election but claimed the Democrats hadn’t been cheating. So much cheating! And yet, the cheaters still managed to lose.
It’s an absurd claim, but a variation of a claim he has been making, like a talking magpie, for more than a decade. In 2016, he claimed he won California – even though he lost by more than four million votes in that state. Then, after he was defeated in 2020, he insisted, three years later: “We won, the last time, 50 states, think of it, 50 states.”
Yes, indeed. Think of it. Think how f**king crazy you have to make such ludicrous claims. The actual California vote in 2016:
Clinton: 8,753,788
Trump: 4,483,810
As for his claims, regarding 2020, let’s consider Trump’s approval ratings during his entire first term:
Donald also told his captive listeners that he had to have won in 2024, and had to have won all the states, because he won 87% of the counties. He said that was something no one had ever heard of before.
FUN FACT: Mitt Romney won 78% of all U.S. counties, districts and independent cities in 2012, (2,477 of 3,154) and never complained about losing, because Mitt was not a delusional narcissist.
Trump won 83% in 2016. And Hillary Clinton still had more popular votes – which is mostly what counts.
Donald Dumpling also swept the “counties” race in 2020, although no one except him seems to care. It still didn’t matter and unless there’s some weird amendment to the U.S. Constitution, it never will.
Here is something the blogger knows – because he has pedaled across the United States twice, and almost a third time in 2024 (he only managed to pedal 3,125 miles that time). If you pedaled across Montana, starting in Wibaux County, as I did, you would have 937 people to wave to before heading north across McCone County (1,729 people) and Dawson County (8,940). Four of the next five counties are wide open: Prairie County (1,088), Garfield County (1,173), Petroleum County (496), Fergus County (11,446) and Judith Basin County (2,023). Then you have Cascade County (84,414), Teton County (6,226), Ponderosa County (5,898), Glacier County (13,778), and Flathead County (104,357), with Glacier National Park straddling those last two.
Finally, you can pedal through Sanders County (12,400) and after almost 600 miles, you’re in Idaho at last.
For nincompoops like Mr. Trump, a few more:
FUN FACT: Judith Basin County (1,871 sq. miles) is larger than Rhode Island (1,034 sq. miles).
FUN FACT: According to the 2020
census, Rhode Island (which could fit into Montana more than a hundred times)
had 13,000 more people than Montana.
FUN FACT: Wait! Rhode Island would
fit 142 times, with 172 square miles left over for bison ranching. I know,
because I’m not a lazy dullard like President Trump, so I did the math. I try
not to butcher the facts.
FUN FACT: Rhode Island has five
counties. Kamala Harris won all five in 2024.
FUN FACT: Montana has 56
counties. Donald won 54.
FUN FACT: We don’t vote by
counties – so it doesn’t matter how many counties you win. The president might
just as well have said, I won every county in this country where cattle
outnumber humans.
It’s a stupid measuring stick.
FUN FACT: If I step out my front door – or back door – or jump out of a second-floor window – I am in Hamilton County, Ohio. Hamilton County has 830,639 people, or one less, if I break my neck. Two less, if I land on my neighbor Tom, and kill him too. I do not want to kill Tom, or anyone else, including Dave, who lives across the street, and has voted for Trump in all three elections.
(Tom and Dave are both gentlemen. Their wives are lovely ladies.)
FUN FACT: It would be idiotic to think that winning Petroleum County was equal to winning Hamilton County, which Kamala Harris did. Democrats also carried the county easily in the three previous elections. For every person in Petroleum, you have 1,675 in Hamilton County, and I think the First Lady should explain this to President Trump.
Assuming she’s anywhere nearby to talk to the sap.
A brief history of the Iran War (to be continued).
6/4/26: May has ended. The Iran War has not. Recently, The New York Times offered a collection of President Trump’s comments on how the war is going. I, the poor blogger, have added examples to flesh out their list.
(Today is Day #97 since shooting commenced.)
President Trump, speaking to the Iranian people on the night the war began:
“The
hour of your freedom is at hand. Stay sheltered. Don’t leave your home. It’s
very dangerous outside. Bombs will be dropping everywhere. When we are
finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be,
probably, your only chance for generations. For many years, you have asked for
America’s help, but you never got it. No President was willing to do what I am
willing to do tonight. Now you have a President who is giving you what you
want.” Fox News.
There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER! Truth Social post on March 6.
“I think
the war is very complete, pretty much. [Iran has] no navy, no communications,
they’ve got no air force. Their missiles are down to a scatter. Their drones
are being blown up all over the place, including their manufacturing of drones.
If you look, they have nothing left. There’s nothing left in a military sense.”
Trump to CBS News, March 9.
“They’ve shot everything they have to shoot, and they better not try anything cute or it’s going to be the end of that country. … If they do anything bad, that would be the end of Iran and you’d never hear the name again.” Trump to CBS News, March 9.
(The U.S., he said, “could do a lot” and would soon open the Strait of Hormuz.)
That same afternoon the Department of Defense posted on X, “We have Only Just Begun to Fight” and “no mercy.”
“We’ve won. We’ve won. You never like to say too early you won. We won. In the first hour it was over.” Trump, speaking in Hebron, Kentucky, March 12.
“... Iran, which is totally defeated and wants a deal ...” Truth Social post on March 13.
“We have had very, very strong talks...” Press gaggle on March 23.
“VERY GOOD AND PRODUCTIVE CONVERSATIONS ...” Truth Social post on March 23.
“They are ‘begging’ us to make a deal ...” Truth Social post on March 26.
“Of course they’re negotiating, they’ve been obliterated. Who wouldn’t negotiate?” Remarks on March 26.
“Time is running out – 48 hours before all Hell will reign [sic] down on them.” Truth Social post on April 4.
“[T]he entire country” of Iran “can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night.” President Trump, White House press conference, April 5.
“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH!” Truth Social post, April 5.
“They’ve made a proposal, and it’s a significant proposal.” Remarks on April 6.
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.” Truth Social post on April 7.
“The hostilities that
began on February 28, 2026, have terminated.” White House letter to
Congress, May 1.
“I am fully aware that my Representatives are having very positive discussions with the Country of Iran, and that these discussions could lead to something very positive for all.” Truth Social Post on May 3.
In that same post, the president made a promise to nations whose ships were trapped in the closed Strait. “we will guide their Ships safely out of these restricted Waterways, so that they can freely and ably get on with their business.”
“I’m getting a letter supposedly tonight, so we’ll see how that goes.” Trump sees progress in negotiations. Press gaggle on May 8.
“I have just read the response from Iran’s so-called ‘Representatives.” I don’t like it — TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP.” Truth Social post on May 10.
“We were getting ready to do a very major attack tomorrow, and I put it off ... because we’ve had very big discussions with Iran ...” Press gaggle on May 18.
“Final aspects and details of the Deal are currently being discussed, and will be announced shortly.” Truth Social post on May 23.
“... I have informed my representatives not to rush into a deal in that time is on our side.” Truth Social post on May 24.
“We’re no longer conducting sustained strikes inside of Iran to degrade their military, because Epic Fury is over.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio, indicating the fighting with Iran is over.
He continued:
“We
define victory as destroying their defense industrial base, significantly
reducing the number of missile launchers that they possess, significantly
reducing their stockpile of drones. And we achieved all those, in addition
to destroying what they had left of an air force and wiping out their entire
conventional navy.” Testimony before Congress, June 3.
“I don’t care if they’re over,
honestly. Frankly, I thought they started to get very boring.” Trump, on June 3, expressing disinterest in
whether talks with Iran to end hostilities were continuing or not.
___
6/5/26: The president and his toadies are thrilled with the May jobs report (172,000 jobs added). It is a good report. The blogger is not stupid. Even better, the March jobs number was revised upward to 214,000. And the April report was also revised upward to 179,000. So: three good months in a row.
Donald Trump is still, personally, a giant asshole but that’s a different issue.
You can dig deeper into the report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and see cracks in the economic foundation. For example, 6.2 million Americans who want jobs are not currently looking. So, they don’t count as unemployed.
They just are.
We also know that wages are up 3.4% over the last twelve months, which is good, but prices are up 3.8%.
And the Strait of Hormuz is as
closed today as the First Ladies legs whenever Donald Dumpling is within a
hundred yards.
*
WE CAN ALSO REPORT that a whistleblower has come forward to reveal a Team Trump plan (never implemented) to declare 2.7 million living individuals dead – to block them from accessing their wages, benefits and banking services. This was part of the effort to drive more immigrants out of the country.
The plan was not carried out but let’s imagine it was and all the people picking strawberries and tomatoes had to leave – or making the beds at high end resorts. Let me know when you think the 6.2 million Americans who want jobs (but quit looking) will be lining up to bend over all day in the hot fields and cut asparagus or climb trees to pick oranges. And what maid doesn’t want to be sexually harassed by creeps like Steve Wynn and … well, you know, don’t you? The man who grabs p***y.
Because he can…
*
Wasteful spending by Team Trump.
GOVERNMENT SPENDING, with Donald Dumpling back in office, is not shrinking. During his first hundred days in office, during this, his second tour of duty, it was up 6%. Now he wants to spend a few hundred million dollars on a ballroom, and a few hundred million more to create a fund to pay off January 6 rioters. There’s also a plan to spend $700 million to try to help struggling coal plants generate more electricity.
They’re struggling, of course, because other energy sources are cheaper (not to mention much cleaner); but the nitwits who run the Trump government can’t figure out even the basics.
We must also report that Republicans in Congress have pushed forward a spending bill that includes $125 million to cover the cost of renaming the Department of Defense the Department of War. That means changing signs, redoing documents, and throwing out old letterhead paper.
You could name it the Department of Dumplings for all it matters – but it’s a waste of $125 million.
Another example of government
“efficiency” and cost-cutting under Donald Dumpling was revealed recently by
First Daughter-in-Law Lara Trump. On a White House tour, she pointed out to a
camera crew a presidential medallion underneath a large mirror – a stupid place
for a decoration – and then mentioned that they could be found all over the
building since Donald took over – including in showers.
*
AT LEAST TWO AMERICANS are doing quite nicely, namely Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner. The couple has just purchased an island off the coast of Albania (for $1.4 billion) which they plan to develop into a resort for the rich and famous. I doubt any of the MAGA dopes who think billionaires will ever really want to rub elbows with threadbare humans will ever have a chance to visit.
I, for one, would like to say
that nothing says, “America First,” quite so clearly as developing an island
resort off the coast of Albania.
*
NOT DOING TOO NICELY: History. Team Trump is cleaning up the past by removing anything from monuments that might hint at the imperfections of this country, no matter how far back they might go. For example, the following quote has been scrubbed from the Bunker Hill Memorial. It came from The Liberator, an abolitionist newspaper, in 1846: “As we drew near to Boston, there stood Bunker Hill Monument, towering up towards the heavens, as if in silent, bitter mockery of the millions of slaves guarded by the professed lovers of Liberty, who reared its lofty column.”
That quote has been scrubbed. If Peter Salem, a slave who fought at Bunker Hill were still alive, he might have something to say on the question.
Salem Poor also fought in that battle – but he was not a slave – having previously saved up money he made on side work and having bought his freedom. Let’s pretend we never knew that, either.
Also gone, a newspaper quote from 1875, that indicated immigrants have always fought for this adopted country (unless their name is “Trump.”). That menacing bunch of words read as follows: “Now that a public orator has declared that foreign-born men have no association with the men of the Revolution, it is our duty to show that in love of freedom and loyalty to the republic, the citizens of foreign birth take no second place.”
You would have, for example, the Marquis de Lafeyette, Baron Von Steuben, and Thadeus Kosciusko, just to name three of the famous foreigners who helped win the American Revolution.
Jesus. The right-wing folks sure seem touchy.
Also on the chopping block, information at a historical site in Philadelphia, indicating that while George Washington was president – and the seat of the national government was in that city – he had several slaves tending to his needs.
That’s a plain and simple fact. He did. He and Martha owned a lot of slaves. The names of nine of the men and women he owned are carved in stone and there were displays explaining the contradiction between a country born pledging liberty for all and – you know – owning other humans. The Dumpling has complained that a “distorted narrative” has fostered a “sense of national shame.” What?
Are we supposed to be proud of our ancestors for owning slaves?
FUN FACT: By 1860, the number of slaves laboring for zero dollars in wages, was pushing 4,000,000.
That’s a large blemish on our nation’s
history.
*
NOT DOING TOO NICELY: Science! Suppose you had a system of 900 floating sensors in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. They are paid for and measure water temperature, currents, carbon levels, chemistry and ecosystem change, and, essentially, the health of the open seas. You would want to protect the oceans. Right?
You would want to know if powerful ocean currents that bring water from farther south, up and along the East Coast of North America, and across the North Atlantic, to help warm Europe are still functioning as they have for (likely) millennia.
Right?
Nope. Team Trump has ordered these sensors removed – because Team Trump doesn’t want you to know that the oceans are heating up – and that this is happening because climate change is real.
If you froze the heads of all the members of Trump’s cabinet, you could not have bigger numbskulls.
Of course, warmer waters also mean that coral
reefs begin to bleach and die, wiping out habitat in which all kinds of fish species
thrive – and warmer waters also supercharge hurricanes. But, hey, at least we
now have a new name for the “Gulf of Mexico.”
*
NOT DOING TOO NICELY – SCIENCE (AGAIN): The Team Trump effort to scare everyone away from vaccines is bearing fruit – which means diseases once rare or eradicated are making a comeback.
A rotavirus that can cause persistent diarrhea – often leading to dehydration and hospitalization for young children – is spreading. Whooping cough is increasing dramatically, in part because children cannot be vaccinated at a young age – but can be infected. In 2023, there were 7,000 cases.
Last year: 28,000.
Patients suffering from dog bites and lacerations of all kinds are refusing tetanus shots with increasing frequency, even though 1 in 10 patients infected with tetanus die. More parents are also rejecting the Vitamin K shots for infants, even though babies can develop brain or abdominal hemorrhages if they lack sufficient levels of the vitamin. The anti-vaxxers continue to push the envelope. The U.S. hits 2,030 cases of measles for the year, meaning 2026 is likely to set a record going back to at least the year 2000. The current record was set, sadly, in 2025.
Medical misinformation is a growing problem,
according to several doctors who described the current situation. “It just
feels like you’re a tiny little boat with a giant tidal wave coming at you,”
said Dr. Erin Charles, a regional pediatric hospitalist at Seattle Children’s
Hospital. So, doctors do the best they can.
*
NOT DOING TOO WELL – KIND OF A THEME – MORE SCIENCE: The New World Screwworm, which can kill cattle and spread rapidly, from herd to herd, has been found in two Texas counties. It’s the first time – and then the second – that the worm has been seen in this country since 1966.
Since we know the folks on the right fear immigrants, let’s focus on perhaps the most dangerous immigrant of all. Elon Musk! He and his DOGE “efficiency” twerps killed the federal program that monitored for such threats as Screwworms last year. Now, Gov. Abbott of Texas has issued the following warning to all 254 counties in his state. It’s almost as if gutting government programs might not always be wise:
*
“Unworthy of this trust at every point in this case.”
NOT DOING TOO WELL: DOJ lawyers. As Donald Dumpling might put it, this week a “woke judge,” an “Obama judge” (sound of MAGA stalwarts loading their guns and getting ready to take back America), referred DOJ lawyers to a court disciplinary board after she found their behavior to be highly questionable.
U.S. District Judge Mary S. McElroy wrote in part,
As
citizens, we trust that federal prosecutors, when wielding this awesome [subpoena]
power against a state, a company, or certainly against vulnerable children,
will play fair and be honest with its counterparts and the judiciary. DOJ has
proven unworthy of this trust at every point in this case. It has
misrepresented and withheld information to both this Court and the United
States District Court for the Northern District of Texas (the ‘Texas court’).”
Oh, my “mistake.”
Judge McElroy was a Trump appointee, from his first term.
*
NOT DOING TOO WELL – AGAIN: DOJ lawyers told a three-judge panel this week that Donald Dumpling had the power to build his Big Beautiful Ballroom because he was president and the courts had no right to stop him.
Besides, they argued, Trump had already moved too fast – and now it was a matter of national security. He had to have that ballroom.
A member of the panel asked, “If the government decides, very quickly, to bulldoze the Statue of Liberty – the people whose ancestors that was the first thing they saw coming to this country, but the government moved too fast – nothing can be done?”
DOJ lackey: “I think that’s right, yes.”
So, let’s do more hypotheticals. Could Donald blow up all the faces on Mt. Rushmore to make room for four of himself? Could he level the entire White House if he moved fast? Could he have Abraham Lincoln chiseled out of his chair at the Lincoln Memorial, and then add a granite image of himself seated there?
And the Trump Memorial would be born?
Yes, yes, and yes.
*
NOT DOING TOO WELL – MORMONS: Good old adulterous Christian Pete Hegseth has ordered the Pentagon to reconsider a list of religions it will recognize – removing Wicca from its list, for example.
Best of all, if you are a fan of irony, he has had the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints reclassified as a “non-Christian” denomination. This will no doubt be exciting news in Utah – which gave 59% of its vote to Donald Dumpling in 2024. Over half the population of the state is Mormon, especially in rural areas – and Old Dumps won 27 of 29 counties in the last presidential election.
Basically, all the rural counties. Well guess what MAGA Mormons! You’re no longer Christians!
Ask Pete.
*
NOT DOING TOO WELL – DONALD DUMPLING: A new poll shows that the president’s standing with rural voters across the nation has shifted dramatically. His net job approval with such voters was +20 in March 2025.
Now it stands at minus-14.
According to the Washington Examiner – a conservative newspaper – Donald’s approval rating has dropped to 35%, the lowest for any president since 2009. It’s only one polling operation – but 60% say they disapprove.
The only time that Donald Dumps has ever had a net positive approval rating was (briefly) at the start of this second term. That lasted from Inauguration Day, January 20, 2025, all the way to March 10.
Three entire weeks!!!
He’s been in negative territory
since, and I would make a friendly bet he’ll never reach positive territory again
during this second term.
___
6/6/26: Once again, the U.S. and Iran traded fire today with missiles and drones flying in all directions.
The Strait of Hormuz remains
closed.
___
6/7/26: During an interview with Kristen Welker of “Meet the Press” today, Donald Trump tipped into new territory. As The Dumpling zeros in on age 80, he enters the, “Get off my lawn, you damn kids” phase.
That is: He’s going to explode anytime he gets angry.
Ms. Welker had traveled to Wisconsin to interview the touchy old goat, but her questions displeased the Leader of the Free World, and he started insulting a variety of news organizations, then her, then he got red-faced and said he was done, and stomped off, Exit Stage Right.
Donald started to heat up when Welker pressed him on the idea that he would still like to create a taxpayer-supported fund to pay back the January 6 rioters, even the ones who attacked police. Donald explained – sort of – that police let the rioters in that day, and the F.B.I. tricked them all. And….
Welker pushed back, and when Trump insisted the 2020 election was rigged, she told him there was no evidence.
Then Trump insisted the 2026 primary elections in California were rigged and Welker asked what evidence he had. “All I have to do is look,” he replied.
“But that’s not evidence,” Welker pushed back.
ADD TRUMP INSULTS…
6/8/26: Monday morning, the president of the United States started howling about stolen elections again – this time in California – where he said votes were being counted illegally to make sure that Steve Hilton got knocked out of the primary for governor, and Spencer Pratt lost his bid to become mayor of Los Angeles.
Speaker of the House and Candy Ass Christian Mike Johnson soon made it clear that he agreed. The votes were rigged. “But what evidence is there to prove that the election was rigged?” Manu Raju, a reporter for CNN, inquired.
“Some of these efforts are so diabolical and so far upstream, it is impossible to prove,” Speaker Candy Ass replied. “But I think everybody knows instinctively something is wrong here, and that’s a concern. We need people to believe in the integrity of our election system. It is critical to maintain a constitutional republic.”
Instinctively, I feel like Johnson has no evidence and that the people undermining the integrity of our elections look like this:
ADD PICTURES OF TRUMP AND JOHNSON
Meanwhile, Bill O’Reilly – long known as a pillar of rectitude – said that everyone could look at the voting and see results were “suspicious,” even though he also admitted that he had no “evidence.”
A minor detail!
FUN FACT: We should also note that Donald encouraged voters in California to back Hilton because otherwise, he might withhold federal funding – even though Congress is supposed to control the purse strings:
FUN FACT: We know that Donald Dumpling claimed that the voting results in Wisconsin in 2020 were rigged. We also know that a recount in that state – paid for by Team Trump – showed Joe Biden gaining a few votes.
Now we can report that Jim Troupis, a lawyer who helped set up a slate of fake electors, in hopes of somehow corralling the Wisconsin electoral vote for the Orange Felon, is facing eleven felony counts, for forgery.
The blogger had forgotten that his case – in state courts – was still pending. Trump’s pardon for Jim only shielded him from federal charges. Now “Old Jim” is asking a Dane County judge to cut him some slack and honor the spirit of Donald’s pardon. Even better, Troupis was once a judge in that county, himself – and it was Dane County where a recount helped show the Wisconsin vote wasn’t rigged.
Around that same time, Iran fired missiles at Israel for the first time since the “ceasefire” was declared – at least in part because Israeli forces have been bombing Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon.
Donald decided he had to puff himself up again and assured a reporter for the Financial Times, that when he’s ready to end the war (which the U.S. won weeks ago), Israel “won’t have any choice” save to accept any deal he makes. If he decides all members of the Israeli Defense Force must wear pink tutus, they will be wearing pink tutus– and liking it, too. “I call the shots. I call all the shots. He doesn’t call the shots,” The Dumpling said, referring to Benjamin Netanyahu, the guy who convinced Donald to join him in dropping the first bombs on Iran.
Looks like the Strait of Hormuz
will remain shut.
*
EAT UP, South Carolinians! According to The State, Carolina’s leading newspaper,
Chemicals
that can cause cancer and other illnesses have
been discovered in six different types of crops that people and livestock in
South Carolina eat, a rare finding in a state where little research has been
done on the dangers of the toxic compounds on farms.
Scientists
from Yale University recently documented forever chemicals in collards,
okra, corn, squash, butter beans and hay on a Darlington County farm that
used contaminated sewer sludge as fertilizer before farmers knew about the
hazards.
Call the E.P.A. for additional
information. Director Lee Zeldin will tell you to suck it up. The E.P.A. has
other priorities now.
*
THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES has approved an additional aid package for Ukraine, a country still battling back Russian aggression – despite the wishes of the president. You know. Putin’s pal. Eighteen Republicans joined with Democrats to pass the measure and add additional sanctions on Russia.
Plus, they are slapping a 500%
tariff on Russian products.
___
6/11/26: The overworked, but diligent blogger is catching up on the news, as usual. There’s always a lot to cover where Team Trump and Captain “Fats” America are involved. First, let’s note that a U.S. Apache helicopter was shot down over the Strait of Hormuz (still closed) by an Iranian drone (the Iranian military has been obliterated)
That meant both sides traded
fire for two days, earlier this week, with Iran also targeting U.S. bases in
Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan.
*
On the same Monday the Apache went down in flames, leaving two American crewmembers floating in the sea (they were rescued), Donald enjoyed himself that evening, making himself the first sitting U.S. president to attend an NBA Finals game. It was New York Knicks vs. the San Antonio Spurs. The Knicks lost, and The Dumpling got booed – but later insisted he wasn’t.
You can judge from this clip for yourself.
In related news, the official White House account decided it was probably a good time to prop up Donald’s fragile ego, posting this:
*
ON WEDNESDAY, Donald Dumpling told gathered reporters that Iran “keeps playing us for suckers” – because previous presidents were “very stupid.” He said he was “embarrassed” to have to say that.
So: It was goddamn George
Washington, I guess.
*
WE ALSO LEARNED that it will cost $60 million to put on the Ultimate Fighting Championship event on White House grounds, in honor of Donald’s eightieth birthday. Seven federal agencies are helping with planning, and 500 portable toilets will have to be set up and then removed. As many as 900 different contractors must also be paid. These details come from a court filing seeking to stop the entire production.
Meanwhile, The Dumpling was focused on fighting a war of words with sports commentator Stephen A. Smith. Naturally, he went to his favorite insult, “low IQ:”
As a hard-working blogger, I must admit that I find Mr. Smith not to my taste. In fact, I would agree that he’s a “loudmouth huckster.”
But Donald attacking another
loudmouth? That’s like John Lee Gacy criticizing Jeffrey Dahmer.
*
DID YOU KNOW that the price of ground beef is up 32% in the last two years? Indeed, the inflation news is not what MAGA voted for. The May inflation report shows year-over-year prices are up 4.2%, overall.
Did you know that producer prices jumped 6.5% in one month – indicating that inflation this summer is unlikely to abate.
Did you know that the dread New World Screwworm can infect not only cattle (driving up beef prices further, unless eradicated), but also dogs and goats? There are now six confirmed cases, five in Texas, one in New Mexico.
Oops, an update: 7 cases.
According to current Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, the screwworm spread is really the fault of Joe Biden. And Barack Obama.
Dare we add: George Washington?
*
SPEAKING OF OBAMA: Did you know
his presidential library in Chicago is the work of the Devil! Well, just ask
MAGA-friendly Pastor Todd Friel, who calls the newly opened structure and grounds “an
affront to God.” The library is “odious,” Friel insists and the building shouts,
“I hate America, I hate tradition, and I hate God’s ordering of reality.” Friel
ends his little talk by describing the new structure, “downright diabolical ….
Just like the fellow who designed it.”
*
THIS MORNING, Donald rose early and phoned in to Fox & Friends to say that he dropped $250 million worth of bombs on Iran last night. According to the president our enemies have “no defense” and “can’t do anything about it.”
He continued: “The only thing
they have is Fake News.” But don’t worry. The Iranians are getting “decimated.”
They’re “dying to make a deal. … They’re really in submission,” he said. “They
just don’t know it yet.”
___
6/13/26: Donald spent the day golfing. He did not spend the day lowering grocery prices. You can check out his official schedule.
But The Dumpling wasn’t done focusing on the Iran War. Dinner invites were going out, and if you would donate $1 million, “You are invited to a candlelight dinner featuring special guest speaker Donald J. Trump,” the invitation read.
Well, suppose a cool million to eat dinner in the presence of The Dumpling was too steep for your wallet – but you still wanted to show Donald you cared. You could also buy gold coins, “designed by the president” commemorating his UFC fight, scheduled for his birthday, June 14.
Those coins came at a bargain price of $11,999.99, with all profits being donated to veterans’ health care……
Ha, ha. Of course not. The profits were going right into the Trump Family bank accounts.
In other news, a judge’s order
to have Trump’s name removed from the Kennedy Performing Arts Center has
been carried out.
FUN FACT: The weigh in for UFC
fighters was held in front of the Lincoln Memorial – which was classless in
itself. But close observers noted one detail that made the grotesque spectacle
even worse. Honor guards – U.S. troops trained to show respect for this
nation’s fallen heroes – were seen flanking the steps, as the cage-fighting contestants
and others arrived for the show.
___
6/14/26: Donald turns 80; but the Iranians deny him the president he most covets – an end to the Iran War.
It should be coming in a few
days (according to the president), but the Israelis may have blown up the whole
deal to end the war. After our allies bombed Lebanon again, Trump exploded. “It is so bad –
I couldn’t believe it. An hour before we are supposed to sign the deal,” he
grumbled.
“Why did Bibi [Netanyahu] have to do a fucking attack? I was so pissed off. I let him know. He has no fucking judgement. I let him know that,” the Art of the Deal genius said. But Donald says the Strait of Hormuz is open!!!
Same as when the war began.
Donald was expecting a deal on
his birthday, but, of course, the Iranians denied him that pleasure. So the
president was forced to just say the deal was done, all by himself, and hope to
be right.
___
6/15/26: The world continues to spin but the Iran War is supposedly over and now all that’s left is the big victory parade.
There was a UFC fight at the White House last night – and Josh Hokit, one of the winners of a bout, got up afterward – possibly having been drilled in the head too many times by fists and feet – and announced, “Michelle Obama is a man. Am I right, America?”
Nope. You’re not and she’s not, and you have no class, and neither does the 47th President of the United States.
Speaking of no class, the White House took offense when the D.C. weatherman warned that the whole UFC fight might be delayed by rain, and high winds, and mosquitoes and gnats might be a problem for the fighters. God damn weatherman predicting weather.
And we got this:
It didn’t help to know that a giant steel structure had been constructed above the ring, festooned with lights – since lightning might be involved in any storm and even Joe Rogan, the macho podcaster said he thought the event should never have been scheduled for the outdoors.
In fact, the “friendless loser” made an excellent call – as even UFC officials noted. The start of the show was delayed for 54 minutes.
Once the
Paramount+ stream began, with an indoor four-person panel on camera, reporter
Heidi Androl relayed that a private weather service working the event was more
concerned about lightning and high winds than rain. In the event of lightning,
a shelter-in-place order will be instituted until 30 minutes after the most
recent strike. They reportedly hope the weather will clear up after 9 p.m.
Finally, Josh and the rest of
the fighters were cleared to go on; and the tacky event proceeded without
Donald Trump getting fried by a bolt from above.
*
THE NO CLASS FOLKS were busy on the nation’s 250th birthday, with the Lt. Governor of Texas, Dan Patrick, trying to stir up the people of his state, as if a Devil was running for the next seat in the U.S. Senate.
Was he talking about his own party’s candidate, Ken Paxton – know for cheating on his wife, for accepting bribes, and for retaliating against multiple members of his own staff who decided to tell the truth about their boss?
Oh, no. Dan decided to thump his Bible – in the sense that Dan read the Bible in one way, and his way (of course) had to be right.
“It’s James Talarico [the Democratic candidate] who decided to bring the Bible into this election,” Patrick fumed in a speech at the recent Republican Party of Texas convention. “And let me tell you, that’s not a Bible I’ve ever read … I’ve never seen so much blasphemy from anyone running for office. Let me tell you what, I’m going to pray for that guy, because when he loses the Senate race, if he campaigns against God as he’s been doing, he’s going to Hell for sure. That’s what we’re up against. That’s the darkness. That’s the light. That’s why we must be one.”
So, Talarico reads the Bible – normally considered to be good by folks of the religious right; but doesn’t read it correctly.
So Dan has talked to God –
apparently – and knows who’s going to hell and who isn’t. And we can assume Ken Paxton is going to Heaven despite being an
adulterous, bribe-taking, lying crook.
*
WE NOW LEARN that more energy was generated in 2025 in this country, by
solar (12.8%), than by coal (12.2%). So that’s good.
*
AS FOR AMERICANS who might be struggling with rising grocery prices, and high gas prices (soon to fall?), and ballooning costs for healthcare, don’t worry!!! Elon Musk is now the first person in history to be worth a trillion dollars.
This is what MAGA voted for!
*
SAD NEWS out of Edwards Air Force Base in California, where a B-52 Stratofortress had gone down. All eight members of the crew have been killed. (If this had happened during the Biden presidency, no doubt Fox News would have blamed it on him.)
FUN FACT: With Republicans in
control of House, Senate, the Supreme Court, and with Donald Dumpling running
the show from the Oval Office, we can also report that the Social Security Fund
is likely to start running out of money in the fourth quarter of
2032. From that point forward, 56 million Americans who rely on Social Security
checks monthly, could see their payments cut by 22%. But, Elon is happy. So
let’s all of us ordinary folks just be content knowing that.
FUN FACT #2: Iran has just announced that ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz will be expected to pay tolls.
Donald Dumpling has said the
Strait shall be “permanently toll-free.” Making a deal with Iran isn’t as easy as he thought. Vice President Vance
says not to worry. “Our expectation is that the strait is going to be opened in
a toll-free way for the long term, and that’s the sort of thing that we’re
going to figure out in these technical negotiations,” almost as if maybe we
don’t really have a deal yet.
FUN FACT #3: It has been said that money can’t buy happiness, but as someone pointed out, other than happiness, “It’s Katy bar the door.” In recent testimony before Congress, Epstein aide and facilitator Sarah Kellen revealed that while he was imprisoned in Palm Beach County, Florida, he paid for special treatment in cash and tickets to Disneyland. The recipient, Kellen told lawmakers, was a deputy named Michael Fox.
Among other perks, Kellen was allowed to visit Epstein on numerous occasions and once used a jail computer to Skype with her at home – and that he asked her to undress for him, while he watched.
Emails contained in the Epstein Files also show that the pedophile was able to convince his sex therapist, Dr. Stephen Alexander, to reach out to Palm Beach County officials who ran the jail, to push for improved treatment for his client.
Epstein famously received permission to leave jail six days a week, for twelve hours, to do “work.” Now we know that he paid tens of thousands of dollars to cover overtime costs for deputies to monitor his actions. Deputies were asked to wear suits and refer to the prisoner as their “client.”
You know: Don’t call him a pedophile monster.
The Miami Herald has also
learned that Michael Gauger, who ran the jail during the time Epstein served
his sentence, once agreed to meet Epstein for lunch, and in September 2009,
visited Epstein’s mansion for dinner.
___
6/17/26: Well, I see I’m not alone: A new Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) poll of almost 5,500 adults across all 50 states found that 59% percent now believe that Donald Trump “is a dangerous dictator whose power should be limited before he destroys American democracy.”
(I agree with the sentiment, but that number seems high, since most polls show Donald Dumpling with a low 40s percent approval rating. There have to be some Americans who can’t make up their minds.)
In other news, Team Trump numbskulls have agreed to buy back $765 million worth of offshore leases for wind farms – bringing the total to $2.6 billion spent on stopping such projects.
Really.
Is there a better word than “numbskulls” to describe this idiocy?
But there’s more! The famed “Alligator Alcatraz” camp for illegal immigrant detainees has now been emptied out – because the bozos who built it in the Everglades never realized the flimsy buildings they paid to put up might not withstand a hurricane. Such bozos including then-Director of Homeland Security and then-and-still-President Donald Dumpling.
It was all fun, fun, funny when the idea for the camp was first pitched and adopted. Noem and the Numbskull-in-Chief both toured the camp and enjoyed laughing about escapees being torn to shreds by gators.
The Dumpling, for example, joked that detainees would be taught “how to run away from an alligator, OK, if they escape prison,” and advised them not to run in a straight line. This from the lard ass who waddles.
According to ABC news, it cost $245 million to build the detention center and may cost an additional $20 million to tear it down.
Speaking of Noem, we have another “family values” member of the Republican Party – and a Christian pastor, to boot – dabbling in adultery or at least hoping to dabble his wingwang. Jackson Lahmeyer, a Tulsa megachurch pastor and founder of Pastors for Trump, told people he plans to drop out of Oklahoma's 1st Congressional District Republican primary.
The randy pastor was exposed (bad choice of words) after texts he sent to Caitlin Simmons Key, a former Miss Oklahoma, were revealed, including one in which he invited the babe to visit him in his hotel room.
Then Pastor Lahmeyer made it worse by saying that he had “crossed a line” by texting, only to have Key say that they had crossed the line by “kissing.” So, it could be time to review the Ten Commandments.
Also, in one text, he talks
about leaving Mar-a-Lago with some of the other Trump lovers and being offered cocaine – and then says he ended up at
a strip club at 1 a.m.
*
I THINK we can probably all agree that Donald Trump is losing his grip on whatever shreds of decency he ever possessed. Just today he called former-President Obama “a stupid son-of-a-bitch,” covering up for his lack of class by claiming that’s what the Iranians said, and referred to Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia as Os(jerk)off.
As for Donald’s great deal with
the Iranians, we now know what might be included, with that deal said to be
ready for signing on Friday. I think you could probably say, the Iranians can
hardly wait.
___
6/19/26: For reasons that make no sense to this former history teacher, VP Vance showed up for a talk with some podcaster dope who suggested that he had heard Frederick Douglass, the great fighter for abolition and equal rights for blacks, was “gay.” Vance broke out in laughter at the thought.
The dope continued: “And that’s why he wanted to free all those men, because he was having trouble meeting anybody.”
“Is that right?” Vance responded, laughing a little harder – but not correcting the dope.
Yes, the dope continued, that’s why Douglass wanted to “get them off work early.” Boy, oh, boy, nothing makes me crack a smile like joking about slavery and making people work for zero pay – and then selling family members for fun and profit.
In fact, J.D. has been working hard to prostitute himself to please the president. He recently suggested, “If you give Donald Trump an IQ test with the other 45, 46 presidents that the United States has had, he’d be either near the top or at the top.”
How could we possibly know this, since the modern IQ test did not exist until 1905, and since we know Donald Dumpling has never revealed his own results? You can be sure, if The Dumpling had a high score – you’d be seeing it.
Just like his “bone spurs” X-ray.
Or his transcripts from Wharton.
*
YOU CAN’T SAY MAGA doesn’t attract the “best people,” such as Ryan Fournier, first made famous as co-founder of Students for Trump. Fournier and a man named Jordan Daley were arrested in D.C., Friday night, after Daley ran afoul of the Secret Service when agents were tipped off he was using a fake badge to claim he was a member of the Service, and that he and Ryan would be attending the UFC fight, but would also have guns.
Fournier was then picked up along with Daley, because he was wanted for texting a woman he had been accused of attacking in his apartment in D.C. Apparently, the two young men were claiming that Daley was assigned to guard Fournier, and used that tall tale “to impress or intimidate Uber drivers, strip club employees and others, including an employee of the apartment building where Fournier lived.”
Fournier was arrested in a
domestic violence incident on May 25, after he allegedly hit a woman in the
face two or three times with a closed fist.
___
6/20/26: The pesky Iranians keep making Donald Trump’s deal to end the Iran War look stupid and half-assed. Once again on this third Saturday in June, the Strait of Hormuz is closed to traffic.
*
DURING HIS MEETING with other leaders of the G7 nations, Donald continued his string of alienating our best allies, and praising … the Iranians? For real! Almost everyone in the world, except the members of the MAGA cult, realizes that Donald J. Trump is a boorish lout, an individual of not only no class, but negative class. This time, he came away from the G7, claiming that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni “begged” him to take a picture with her.
Because he’s “sexy?” Who knows.
Meloni promptly replied. “There is one thing he must remember,” she said, referring to the President of the United States: “Neither I nor Italy ever beg,” Meloni said in a video, speaking Italian. She went on to say that she was “astounded” by Trump’s claims and called them “completely fabricated.”
“I do not know why the president of the United States behaves this way toward his allies – it is certainly not the first time this has happened,” she added. So, let’s be blunt. That’s another person who is calling Donald a liar.
This social media exchange then took place:
*
SPEAKING OF LIARS, we now know the Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C. – which Donald said he was going to clean up like a champ, and not like Biden and Obama, who were, as he likes to say, “losers” – has now turned green within a matter of days as the algae he said he was getting rid of came right back.
That meant Donald had no choice but to lie. Now he’s claiming that vandals – maybe Obama and Biden? – polluted the waters he was so proud of cleaning up. So, let’s do a little scratching of our noggins.
A more likely story might involve the man who got the contract to fix the water purification system for the Pool, botching the job – or even cutting corners to maximize profit – on what was already a no-bid contract. That gentleman would be John Cafaro, either a known visitor to Mar-a-Lago or possibly a member.
(The cost to join is reportedly $1 million).
I, for one, would trust Cafaro about as far as a wife should trust RFK Jr. John has two previous felony counts to his credit, including one involving his attempt to bribe U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant, a notoriously corrupt Democratic lawmaker from Ohio. Traficant got seven years in prison for taking bribes; and Cafaro – who knew his man – got fined $150,000 for being a crook, himself.
*
YOU MAY NOT HAVE HEARD, but one of Donald Dumpling’s sycophantic friends told reporters recently that more people watched the UFC fights on the White House lawn than watched the last Super Bowl.
It turns out 125.6 million people watched the Seattle Seahawks beat
up on the New England Patriots – a little better than one-third of the U.S.
population. The UFC cage battles on Paramount Plus drew an average audience of 8.2 million people
worldwide, including seven million Americans.
FUN FACT: This blogger is old
enough to remember when conservatives warned that a shift toward soccer in the
U.S., and away from football, would threaten the American way of life. It turns
out that more than three times as many people (20.68 million) in this
country watched the USMNT defeat Australia, 2-0, Friday afternoon.
___
6/21/26: Donald Trump made it through an entire holiday post without insulting any group of Americans – unless you count insulting the intelligence of all Americans who know how to count to twenty and keep going.
“Happy Father’s Day!” he wrote on Truth Social. “Our Country is doing GREAT. Record Jobs Numbers and Stock Market, BEST ECONOMY EVER! Greatest Military in the World, by far. We are WINNING on all fronts, WINNING LIKE NEVER BEFORE. GOD BLESS YOU ALL!!!”
According to a Fox News poll only 12% of Americans feel like they are getting ahead financially. Almost five times as many, 59%, feel pessimistic about their finances.
Americans who feel good about the economy would include:
All members of the Trump family.
Trillionaires (okay, there’s only one: Elon Musk).
Billionaires.
David Gentile, the guy convicted in a $1.6 billion scheme to defraud thousands of mom-and-pop investors, who got out of jail after what we can call a “brief visit.” He also avoids a requirement to forfeit $15.5 million.
The guy who got a no-bid contract to paint the Reflecting Pool in D.C. blue.
The other guy – convicted felon John Cafaro – who got a no-bid contract to clean all the algae out of the newly painted pool.
President Trump wants us all to understand that we have won the Iran War and the greatest deal in history is all but ready to be signed. Yet, Donald is still unhappy – because reporters are being mean. Sunday night, he erupted on Truth Social again, saying, “The way the Corrupt and Failing New York Times is covering stories on a very battered and beat up Iran, through FAKE & MADE UP ‘FACTS’ is, in my opinion, ‘TREASONOUS.’”
“I will be adding all of their false and ridiculous reporting to my multi Billion Dollar lawsuit against them. They are Criminals!”
As Newsweek explains, “Trump filed a $15 billion civil lawsuit, alleging defamation, against the Times in September last year, but a judge tossed it out days later, saying the 85-page complaint was full of ‘tedious and burdensome’ language that had no bearing on the legal case.”
In my opinion – I may be a simple blogger, but I clearly understand the importance of a free press more than that lardass in the White House – Donald J. Trump remains a threat, and a growing one, to the First Amendment.
___
6/22/26: Donald Dumpling had either a big win, if you ask him, and J.D. Vance, or a big loss, if you ask most foreign policy experts. But the deal to end the Iran War is now moving forward again.
This comes after President Bluster once again threatened to blow up Iran, but this time he added a new warning. If the Iranian negotiators who traveled to Switzerland to meet with VP Vance didn’t agree to open the Strait of Hormuz, they wouldn’t live to see their home country again.
In an interview with Fox News, Donald said he had told Iranian officials, “You close [the Strait] of Hormuz] and you won’t have a country. You won’t even make it back to your fu*king country.”
Killing emissaries during peace negotiations – or any other negotiations – would make the U.S. a pariah on the world stage.
But, hey, at least the Reflecting Pool in D.C. is looking … great?
Okay, nope to that. It now seems the no-bid-contract boys who coated the pool with dark blue “American Flag” paint, and the other no-bid-contract boys who installed the new filtration system may not have known – technically – what the fuck they were doing.
(Since Donald is now dropping f-bombs, why not drop a few of my own.)
The algae that has bedeviled all previous efforts to clean the pool has returned – and if you’re the reading type, USA Today explains some of the quite natural reasons why the green muck might have returned as quickly as it has. For example, the dark paint would absorb more heat and the warmer water would be ideal for the growth of the green. We also know that the D.C. area has suffered through several unusually hot days in June. Run-off from lawn treatments, such as fertilizer, spilling into the pool may be boosting algae growth. Or, if you are Donald, a man who can never admit he makes mistakes – it could all be the work of vandals!
President Trump now says the Reflecting Pool will likely need to be drained and “fixed” all over again.
Claiming to have inspected the damage himself, Mr. Trump went on to describe, in a Truth Social post, how he reacted on seeing the horrible mess. I “could only say to myself, and those gathered around me, WOW, who would do such a thing? SICK, DERANGED PEOPLE.” In fact, he also claimed that someone “took some form of knife or blade, and put a 250 foot long gash into the beautiful facade of what took so much work, competence, and money to build and complete.”
The use of the word “façade” is confusing – and you have to wonder how long it would take to carve such a “gash” in the bottom of a shallow pool of water – not to mention wonder how you could do any real damage (except a scratch) on “Flag Blue” paint on concrete.
(After the January 6 rioters
were all pardoned, I though damaging federal property was kind of a new MAGA
vibe.)
*
IF YOU THOUGHT algae in the Reflecting Pool was the only gross water problem in the news, we can also report that the Florida coast is being hit with tons of floating sargassum seaweed, as the weed flourishes in increasingly warm coastal waters. Not all 29 million metric tons of sargassum will end up on the beaches. But the rotting, stinking stuff is piling up on Florida shores.
Like an overwhelming majority of scientists, Mr. Blogger is a firm believer in climate change, and he knows that the experts have been warning that we will see more large hail as the earth’s atmosphere continues to warm. From a storm in Rawlins County, Kansas over the weekend, we have this:
FUN FACT: I can also report that I have been added to a pro-Trump mailing list and have been assured that Donald can not make America great again without my help.
I really love this picture, which also accompanied the mailing, because I like to see how Donald has lost so much weight.
Why, if this isn’t photoshopped, he’s looking good enough to possibly lure Melania back into bed.
FUN FACT: We can also report that the President of the United States was defeated recently by the clasp of a medal he was trying to bestow. At a ceremony to honor three men awarded the Medal of Honor, Trump couldn’t get the clasp to work (maybe he should have practiced, no?) so he settled for tying the ribbon in a knot, instead.
He also talked
again – in front of an audience gathered to see the awards – that
he wanted to give the same medal to himself.
*
HOW IS THAT IRAN DEAL shaping up – and who loves it even more than matzo ball soup? Not so much, our allies. In a poll taken in Israel, 92% of respondents said they believed Iran had won the war – meaning they came out in a stronger position, overall. More than four in five Israelis also believe the war has weakened national security.
Tucker Carlson, once one of Donald Trump’s premier apologists, now says he’s “out” on the GOP. “I would not support the Republican Party. There’s no chance I would support the Republican Party,” Carlson said, adding that the GOP has “betrayed” voters by prioritizing Israel’s national security over America’s.
Former VP Pence said the nascent deal “smacks of the kind of appeasement” Dumpling Donald avoided during his first term.
Could the deal work out for the good? So far, he called the “deal” nothing more than Pence, “a plan to make a plan.”
Current VP Vance, of course, loves the deal – which still isn’t really a deal, but rather an ongoing discussion to finalize a deal. He is, however, excited to tell anyone who will listen that Iran has agreed in principle to allow nuclear inspectors into the country to make sure Iran isn’t working on creating nuclear weapons. It’s de ja vu back to the last time inspectors were allowed to visit in June 2025.
And
if it doesn’t sound like the shadow of a deal Obama worked out more than a
decade ago, you need to read more history and probably shoot a hole in your
television set if all you do is watch right-wing news.
FUN FACT: Nuclear weapons that Iran possessed when Barack Hussein Obama first took office: 0.
Nuclear weapons Iran possessed when Obama left office: 0.
(See how that worked?)
Trump’s own former Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, has also said that he has serious reservations about the deal, as it is so far shaping up. “Well, look, I like the fact that we’ve extended the ceasefire,” said during an interview with “Meet the Press.” “I like the fact that the strait is being opened up, that will provide economic relief to a lot of people, and I like the fact that we’re getting into nuclear talks. But that said, when I look at the MOU [memorandum of understanding], there are many of the points that I have serious questions about and concerns about.”
“My principle concern,” he continued, “has been that it appears that too many of the incentives in my view have been given up front instead of later in the deal when we’ve seen much more progress on the nuclear aspects of whatever potential agreement comes from this.”
He also admitted that he did not think the president was getting good advice – but by now we should all just admit that Donald J. Trump now does whatever he feels like doing, and his advisors’ jobs involve telling him every move he makes is brilliant.
In fact, the president recently sat for an interview with Axios and told the interviewer that he sees “no limits” on his war powers. In fact, when asked about his demand, at the start of the Iran War, that “unconditional surrender” was Iran’s only choice, Mr. Trump, “Well, it really probably is unconditional surrender.”
Well, not counting:
Iran gets to start selling oil immediately, as the Treasury Department lifts all sanctions on such sales.
Iran has a pledge from U.S. negotiators that a fund will be set up to provide $300 billion to rebuild all the crap we blew up, with Israel’s help.
Regime change failed and the Iranian people remain at the mercy of the merciless mullahs and Revolutionary Guard generals.
I think you might be able to
tell by this post from the Iranians that they are pleased
with the deal being offered so far.
*
THE POOR BLOGGER has been accused many times of suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome – which of course is a made-up term beloved by the MAGA faithful, unsupported by anything except silliness by those who cite it. If I insisted that all Trump supporters worshipped turnips, saying it was so wouldn’t make that statement true, not even if people like me began making the same claim a hundred thousand times.
I should like to point out that at no time during his first term did Donald Dumpling have a net approval rating. That means, most Americans have always been on the same side as me.
In my case, I find Trump to be a repulsive human being. Plus, I taught history for decades, and I know I’m not unique in my disdain for the man. Recently, some poor MAGA rube lost his shit on X when I told him I thought Donald was a terrible president. Like many people (on both sides) on X, he turned to insults and said I must be retarded. I politely noted that in a poll of presidential scholars, Trump was not rated the “greatest president.”
When I pointed out that Trump was rated lower than James Buchanan, Maga-Man flipped out.
He responded, “Yeah you’re a total moron and if society didn’t go out of its way to take care of idiots like you you would not survive.”
I don’t deal in electronic insults, and finally responded simply, “Are you always this obstreperous?”
Admittedly, this ranking (see above) was compiled in 2024. So, let’s just say that Mr. Trump can’t go anywhere but up during this second term.
If we look at the bottom ten presidents, as rated by presidential scholars, I think most Americans will admit they didn’t even know Millard Fillmore was a president.
And if you consider Richard Nixon had to resign from office in disgrace and still came in at #35, and that Hoover was in office when the Great Depression struck, you must admit, finishing last is an accomplishment.
So, let’s have a look at how Donald is doing in the eyes of the American people, as of today, June 22, 2026. His approval rating hovers around 40%. His disapproval rating, as of now, stands at 57%.
The only time, during either of
his terms, where he had a net positive approval rating, came at the start of
2025, from January 20, to March 12. He’s been on the skids ever since, mainly
because he’s a giant asshole.
*
FINALLY, FOR TODAY, we know that
a federal judge appointed by George W. Bush, who clerked for conservative
Justice Anton Scalia, has roasted and toasted the Trump DOJ buffoons. U.S.
District Judge Patrick Schiltz has blocked subpoenas for a
variety of officials from Minnesota, including Governor Tim Walz, Kamala
Harris’ running mate in 2024, and anyone who has criticized ICE tactics in that
state.
___
6/23/26: I know
how opinion polls work; and I know there are often outliers. This one, however,
amuses me. According to the American Research Group, the
president’s approval rating has plummeted to 30%, and his disapproval numbers
have skyrocketed to 66%, with a margin of error of plus or minus three points.
___
6/24/26: Someone rich and fat and no doubt horny was having a tough day, Wednesday, after Fox News and other media outlets pointed out his poll numbers were sagging like his wiener at night.
Yes, Donald Dumpling was alive and well and posting late at night on Truth Social. To wit: “MY REAL POLL NUMBERS ARE THE HIGHEST THEY HAVE EVER BEEN.” All in caps, of course.
So let’s go to the numbers and see how The Dumpling is doing. And, in ALL CAPS:
HOLY SHIT!
ADD POLLING NUMBERS
___
6/25/26: Yay, yay, yay! More guns every day, every place, under all circumstances. In a 6-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court overturns a state law in Hawaii that required gun owners to gain “express authorization” before bringing their weapons on private property, that is also open to the public.
Also today, the Iranians struck a Singapore-flagged commercial vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, almost as if the waterway wasn’t open – as the president insists it is. The ship’s bridge was hit by some type of “unknown projectile.”
Knowing Donald Dumpling, he’ll
claim it was an iceberg and tell his silly followers that he’s the greatest
deal maker in the history of deal making.
*
IN OTHER NEWS, Katie Miller, wife of White House aide and racist Stephen Miller decided to celebrate the U.S. Supreme Court decision which will allow the favorite president of all good Christians (!!!) to deport Haitians and Syrians who are currently living in this country under protected status.
(See, for example, her husband’s love for the racist book, The Camp of the Saints.)
In fact, Katie thought it would be funny to post a clip of Trump talking about pet-eating Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, from his 2024 campaign, and call the ruling, “Great news for the dogs and cats of Springfield.”
Nothing is “funnier” than sending people back to war-torn and crime infested countries; and we all know – if we have read the Bible – that Jesus would approve. Right?
(By the way, no proof of the eating of the pets has ever been
uncovered.)
FUN FACT: Texas officials have now agreed on a mandate to require Bible readings in all public schools, starting this fall. Elementary school teachers will read such favorites as the story of Noah’s Ark and Daniel in the Lions’ Den.
By
fourth grade, students would encounter passages about Jesus from the New
Testament. Middle schoolers would be expected to read several passages about
Jesus, including excerpts from his most famous sermon and another where he
instructs people to cast aside earthly anxiety and seek the kingdom of God.
Another proposed reading would connect the Book of Lamentations, with its themes of the destruction of Jerusalem, with readings about the Holocaust. High school students would delve into the parable of the prodigal son, portions of the Book of Job, and the story of Adam and Eve.
I for one, hope that reading Bible passages will lead to healthy debate about how one goes about interpreting the Gospel.
For example, do we need to return to the stoning of adulterers? Half of Donald Trump’s cabinet would be wiped out, including himself. What about the biblical admonition not to “suffer witches to live?”
As a former history teacher, would I need to defend the people of Salem, Massachusetts, who executed dozens of men and women on charges of witchcraft. Are spells and hexes real? Does a science teacher now have to explain that snakes could once talk? And if a second grader asks how a flood covered up all the lands – you know, forty days and forty nights of rain – and Mt. Everest rising just over 29,000 feet in elevation, wouldn’t that be a tough math problem to lay out? If my math is correct that would require 750 inches of rain per day to get the job done right.
As a former history teacher,
would I need to defend the people of Salem, Massachusetts, who executed dozens
of men and women on charges of witchcraft. Are spells and hexes real? Does a
science teacher now have to explain that snakes could once talk? And if a
second grader asks how a flood covered up all the lands – you know, forty days
and forty nights of rain – and Mt. Everest rising just over 29,000 feet in
elevation, wouldn’t that be a tough math problem to lay out? If my math is
correct that would require 750 inches of rain per day to get the job done
right.
*
NEWS OUT OF CARBONDALE, COLORADO offers grim warning as the region where the headwaters of the Colorado River rises are abnormally hot and dry. Springs have dried up and ponds have turned into cracked-mud holes in the ground. With historically low snowfall this past winter, and warming temperatures, local ranchers are concerned. Know who isn’t?
Donald Dumpling.
Because The Dumpling is a moron.
As the Los Angeles Times reports, the situation is “terrifying.” Drinking water for 35 million Americans could soon be at risk, as well as water used to irrigate five million acres of cropland. Lake Meade, the largest reservoir in the U.S., is now only 28% full, and Lake Powell, the second in size, is at 24%.
Since 2020, water flow in the Colorado has declined by 32%.
“In Colorado, reporters explain, “farmers and ranchers are struggling with the immediate consequences. They’re leaving many fields and pastures dry, selling off cows, and bracing for tough economic times.”
Speaking of tough times, Commissar Donald is sounding like a communist who wants to control how Big Businesses run. Angered by the fact that prices at the pump aren’t dropping fast enough to make voters love him, Donald is now insisting that the Big Oil folks are “gouging” the public.
This is probably true – and has probably been made easier by Donald and the dopes who run his administration. But now Donald cares.
He cares – not because he cares for the consumer – but because he cares about himself and his political fortunes.
“I grew
up here and have never seen the creeks and the springs dried up like they have
this year,” said Merrit Linke, a fourth-generation rancher and county
commissioner. “There’s just not any water.”
Linke
drove his pickup through pastures searching for the few remaining water holes
where he could lead cattle to drink.
“No one
has ever seen it like this,” he said, “not this dry, not this warm, not this
low a snowpack.”
Pointing to a nearby mountain peak, at 13,000 feet normally still snow covered in June, now bare, Rancher Bill Fales sums up what he has seen over the last three decades. Pastures that were once blanketed all winter by two feet of snow now get little. Less water runs off into streams, he adds, due to higher temperatures which also increase evaporation, because “it’s grabbed by the ground and by the atmosphere.”
Donald? He doesn’t believe in climate change. He does believe that vandals are ruining the Reflecting Pool in the nation’s capital.
As I said, he’s a moron.
___
6/27/26: President Trump’s efforts to end the fighting with Iran are going just about as well as his efforts to win the war against algae in the Washington D.C. Reflecting Pool. After Iran struck a commercial vessel in the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, the U.S. bombed targets along the southern coast of Iran.
Both sides continue to trade fire today, with the Iranians claiming to have struck U.S. targets in Bahrain. Meanwhile, an agreement has been reached between Lebanon and Israel to end fighting – but Hezbollah, allied with Iran, says no deal with them has been made. A rather vexing issue…
Meanwhile, the dumpling president was focused, with the help of his favorite aide, Natalie Harp, in posting memes like this:
___
6/28/26: We now know that Donald Dumpling had to be called back to the White House from his Virginia golf course to discuss renewed bombings of Iranian positions along the Strait of Hormuz. (Natalie Harp, his favorite blonde, 34-year-old aide was also apparently seen returning from the course with her Big Boy Boss.)
According to a new book, Regime Change by Haberman and Jonathan Swan, Trump will sometimes get bad news from cabinet secretaries, tell them, “Your numbers are B.S.,” turn to Harp, who follows him everywhere, and say, “Get me the right numbers.” And she will, meaning she will get numbers that make Trump look good.
“She’s fueling his delusions,”
another journalist warns.
