Well, I just discovered BLT sandwiches today!!! I just had a hankering for one of them (which I'd never eaten before), and Katie said, oh yes, by all means, and we went down to Dolly's Diner—in the hospital quarter, here in Willpo—and had two fabulous BLT's, one for each of us. And Onion rings, oh boy. Best birthday I ever had!
https://share.google/KIH9iwQZw49ORUshe
Well, go out and get one, before Don assesses tariffs on them!
Arch
You can't, unless you're rich already, and maybe not even then. No need to read to the end.
If it was possible, a lot of MAGA would already be comfortably off. There's no earthly reason for Trump to keep everyone suffering for two more years, to open the floodgates of wealth. The Tarriffs would have worked by now, if they were going to work at all. They didn't even make Trump rich. (They were trying to pass a law that would put all the customs payments in Trump's bank accounts, but that didn't work.)
He was trying to arrange for Jan 6th people to get money through suing the DOJ. But the judge caught them at it. Interesting idea, to sue the government, and divert the proceeds to certain private citizens. But most of Trump's ideas are terrible.
Just this evening, I saw a video of Trump explaining to the Press, why he should be put in charge of the Kennedy Center. "I'm a fantastic businessman," he said. "I have lots of experience running successful businesses. The Kennedy Center has been leaking money since the Sixties." But Trump bankrupted so many businesses. The best people to run the Kennedy Center is regular, honest people, not swindlers like Trump and his family.
It's really interesting that the only people willing to take leadership positions in the Federal Government are failed people, with no government experience—except for Musk, who made all our information available to Palantir. An exception is Pam Bondi, who was an AG in Florida. But I consider Florida a shady place, and being a lawyer there is no recommendation.
Then there's the puppy-shooting governor from Montana. [Kristy Noem.] OK, so she should have known how government worked. Unfortunately, though, she bought a plane to use as personal transportation, when she worked as the immigration boss. All the Trump cabinet is possessed with getting fancy personal transportation for themselves, and they use them mostly for showing their sweethearts a good time. Kash Patel is an example.
Trump is slowly learning that any plan (straight or crooked) takes time, and the longer if there are dozens of guys hanging onto Trump's coattails. He really could quite a lot to make life easier for us, if his plans weren't so screwy.
Meanwhile, there are a ton of people surrounding Donald sugesting ideas to him, such as: why don't you surprise bomb Iran?
Oh, you know, Trump must have said, That Netanyahu wants us to take the lead in bombing Iran. (Why? Obviously, the Israelis are sort of White, while the Iranians are not.) OK, I'm going to do it. (Hegseth says: go for it. He's cool with any violence, generally.) Meanwhile, the Trump kids have bought tons of shares in armament manufacturing companies. (Armament companies are usually a good bet during a war. If any of my readers has money saved up, that might be an exception to "No way to make money in the time of Trump" rule, provided there isn't a sneaky racket that redirects most of the profits into Trump accounts.
No news but bad news for poor people. Well go out and vote Republican; you might get a check from Trump. But probably not.
Arch
It's my belief that Democrat attendance at the polls, and votes, will not be greatly affected by TV ads. (I should say that my vote won't be; but it's a mistake to believe that I'm at all typical, really.) In contrast, I think Republican votes will be influenced by TV ads. I have absolutely no scientific basis for thinking this way, except that I have a feeling that everyone is sick of being jockeyed around by Big Money. Once the Big Money <—> TV Ads connection is made, the persuasiveness of the ads will dim, at least for a while. (Do I have it in for the dimwit sector? So it seems.)
Archeology
I just saw a video that seems to claim that the 2024 elections were actually won by Kamala Harris, but were stolen by Trump.
There is even some belief that all the elections: 2016, 2020, and 2024, were all rigged by Trump. But he only lost the 2020 election (because of massive early voting by Dems), and Trump knew he should have won, if not for the mail-in vote, which is why he keeps harping about that election.
Foolishly, Trump has said, in public, that Musk "knows about voting machines," which is why he won in 2024. So, it appears that Musk found a way to disappear thousands of ballots (presumably for Kamala Harris), which is why Trumpy ended up winning.
I didn't realize that US elections were such fragile things. I don't know anything about election security, so I had better pipe down while I'm still ahead.
Arch
Really?
Trump doesn't know enough about how things are named to successfully taunt anyone with name-calling.
Why not name the toilet of his Florida house "New Maralago"!
I think I've discovered what Trump really, really wants to be. He wants to be an influencer, and Natalie Harp is his assistant. She's fairly hip about technology (They say she's the one who helped put up the images of Trump as Elvis, etc, and the Obamas as gorillas), so she can make happen what Trump dreams up.
In my mind, influencers work on selling merchandise. They do want be well known, but in the way to selling stuff. But the stuff they usually promote are small, relatively inexpensive things, though the media pays them to advertise ẅhatever they're marketing, which can end up getting them a lot of cash.
Some of this really parallels what Trump and the family is doing, though in a clumsy way. (In the post-MAGA world, clumsiness follows the star performers as they chase the dollars.)
Arch
I'm so embarrassed when I write to friends back home, if they bring up Trump's mean spirited retaliation. I never liked Harvard University, but since Trump got on their case, I've felt myself drift to their side. There's no way to legislate even-handedness by the White House. In the past, any administrative partiality has been kept under cover. Now, of course, it's all out in the open. (I wonder why; do MAGA have trouble with being subtle? I think I know the answer to that. Is there some benefit to flaunting administrative viciousness? ICE people perhaps don't pick up on subtlety; so if trump and company want to discourage ICErs from attending Harvard ... no, that doesn't make any sense.
Arch
