Dear Everybody:
The big news today was that Trump flew to Ireland, leaving a ton of wreckage behind him, including a mess of a convention which made it completely clear Trump is the leader of a cult or else wants to be and that the 9-11 people made a good decision telling him he couldn’t make a speech. If he wanted to leave his problems behind him, though, he didn’t exactly succeed:
–He was greeted as the plane landed with a sign a woman who lives on the flight path had painted on her land which was twice as big as her house spelling out “FUCK TRUMP!”
–Thousands of protesters turned out to protest him in Dublin, and their signs made the stuff at the No Kings protests look…downright polite. There were giant balloons of Trump having sex with Epstein and with Netanyahu, tons of “Feck off, Trump!” and “World’s Number One WarMonger” and “Rapists Not Welcome” signs, and people dressed as toilets carrying signs that said, “Trump is So Full of Shit Toilets Are Jealous.”
–Journalist Justine McCarthy said, “We don’t want him here.”
–And his meeting with the prime minister of Ireland (which was nothing more than cover for the fact that Trump wanted to go to the Irish Open) didn’t go too well either. He flubbed a bunch of questions–he had no idea what the USMCA Treaty was, even though he was the one who signed it with Canada and Mexico–and clearly had no idea what was going on in Iran (about which more later) and he infuriated the Irish–and the British–and Rupert Lowe’s pro-Trump neo-Nazi group–by ordering Ireland and Northern Ireland to “get together” and be one country.
–Trump told the prime minister of Ireland, “We had a rigged election. As you know, it was totally rigged. Because I won three times. I didn’t win twice. I won three times.”
–ashley: “Wild. Sowing doubt on your country’s elections on foreign land.”
–Trump trashed his own ambassador, saying, “Everybody wants to be in Ireland. It’s a really easy ambassadorship. All he has to do is play golf all day–he’s doing a great job.”
–Trump admitted he would cheat at golf if he could: “I was playing golf and we had hundreds of Secret Service all over the course. In fact, they said, Does Trump cheat? I can’t cheat. You have 250 Secret Service agents that I wouldn’t cheat, but you can’t move the ball.”
–Kristy Greenberg: “I would cheat, but the Secret Service won’t let me move the ball is quite the defense. They’re his protective detail, not Shorty McGovern forcing him to play it as it lies.”
–He also managed to get into a fight with reporters, though nothing like the one at the airport after the convention, criticizing the questions they asked.
–Natalie Harp is with him in Ireland. She was also at the Pentagon (even though Melania was there, too, and NOT looking happy.)
–The Ireland trip is a taxpayer-funded golf outing. The Open is being held at Trump’s International Golf Links and Hotel, and so his entire entourage, including his Secret Service detail, has to pay him for their accommodations and food while they’re there.
–Really American: “Diesel just hit the highest price in American history, a war is escalating across two shipping lanes, and the President of the United States flew across an ocean on your dime to watch golf at a resort that pays his family. Every dollar of that trip came out of the same Treasury that is supposed to be working on the problem.”
I promised I’d tell you some of the other stuff that happened at the convention on the second day, and here it is:
–Trump boasted his ballroom would hold up to 2000 people and would be impenetrable.
–During Trump’s speech, he told the audience, “We think it should be called New America. New America! The people love the idea!” (No, they don’t.)
–Dem Senator Ben Ray Lujan: “It’s New Mexico, always has been and always will be. Just like how you’ll always be a sinverguenza and corrupt.” (Note: A sinverguenza is a shameless scoundrel.)
–Adam Parkhomenko: “We don’t ever do this, but we want to thank Donald Trump. Yeah, thanks for helping us keep New Mexico blue, you dumb motherfucker!”
–JD Vance stopped mid-speech to look at the women behind him and said, “If you’re ever feeling down about our country, ladies and gentlemen, just take a look at the beautiful ladies right behind me. Ladies, I’d like to know what you had to drink.”
–Trump stopped in mid-speech to talk about his hair. Trump: “I’ve gotta do a little bit better back there. I don’t like that little skin that’s showing. I’m not happy. That’s not good. I shouldn’t have looked up there.”
–Mrs. Peacock: “Behold! Filterless effects of dementia.”
–Trump’s hair has changed four times in about two weeks. He had a golden toupee for one day, then dark brown hair, then light brown, then a part on the other side, and now his hair looks even thinner than usual.
–Mr. Zimm: “Oh, and by the way, is that Donald in his old brown wig again? What in the hell is going on with his nearly daily appearance changes?”
–Trump didn’t start his speech till after ten p.m. He said, “I’m getting a little bit tired of politics,” and suggested he might bring out an opera singer to entertain the audience instead, just like he did that time when he stood there swaying to music for half an hour.
–Alan Elrod: “Trump’s speech came off more like a sermon from Jonestown, and observers noticed. My own overriding thought was: This speech was like some sort of performance art piece of a live entombing of a mad king and his most loyal followers. If Trump is taking America down, if he’s going to bury this country, all the good in it and all its prosperity and potential, then he wants his most adoring loyal retainers with him. He wants his cult locked inside. He is going to bury us all with him in a tomb of his own design…a ballroom.”
–Trump mocked Ken Paxton (who’s running for the Senate in Texas and who’s trailing the Democrat Talarico) for his clothes, his voice, and his looks. Trump: “Some people may not like the way he dresses, the way his television interviews go, or the way he speaks, but he has been perhaps the best attorney general in the country, and that is far more important than the suit he is wearing, which does not look very good on him.” And “I don’t like the way Ken dresses.” And “He may not dress right. He may not talk exactly perfectly, and he may not be the best-looking guy I’ve ever seen.” (With friends like these…)
–Rick Wilson: “Trump handpicked every candidate on that stage, told them to speak only if their race was tight, and made them grin while he fed their electoral prospects into the Trump woodchipper.”
–There were tons of empty seats. They had to close down entire sections of the arena on the second night to make the attendance look less scattered. The streaming numbers were “dismal,” and the ratings for Fox, which carried the whole thing, were lower than for their usual weeknight shows. –Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins: “Democrats want to eradicate our history!”
–One of the January 6 insurrectionists Trump pardoned spoke at the convention.
–When Trump demanded the audience pledge allegiance to him, Christopher Bird said, “This isn’t Nazi shit. This is juche shit.” (Juche is the official state ideology of North Korea.)
–azmoderate: “Is that real? It can’t be real?”
Things didn’t go well after the convention was over, either:
–After the convention, Trump took questions from reporters on the tarmac and ended up screaming and getting in the face of ABC reporter Rachel Scott–and creating a video that immediately went viral and will follow him all the rest of his term–and, hopefully, his life.
–When Scott asked him a follow-up question about his $5000 bribe for voting, he said, “Not you, not you!” and then lunged forward and snapped, “NOT YOU! You and your network, you’re the worst!” (He’s done this before and always to female reporters (and usually black reporters–Rachel Scott is both), but never so violently. It was like the mask slipped, and we suddenly saw the fury and hatred that I think is there all the time, but which is usually–somewhat–controlled.
–Amy Tatum: “A new, even more aggressive level of behavior.”
–Ron Filipkowskui: “Look at this loathsome repulsive creature yelling at a reporter!”
In Iran war news:
–The Houthis are now in control of the Bab El-Mandeb Strait.
–Iranian drones damaged a major Saudi Arabian pipeline which provides 5% of all the world’s oil, and it is now offline, with no word on when it might be repaired.
–The Houthis have reportedly also taken over some American-made military equipment.
–A Yemeni official from the Saudi-backed government said Friday was the first day Iran really started winning the war.
–Today in Ireland, Trump said, “We had a short military conflict, I call it. They said, maybe can you not use the word war? Because when you use the word war, it’s a little different. So I call them military.” (The way it’s different is that it’s illegal for a war to go on past a certain date without Congressional approval, a date which has long been passed.)
–Trump wasn’t worried about the Houthis taking over the Bab El-Mandeb Strait at all.
–Trump: “Well, I had a call with Mohammed bin Salman. He’s a good friend of mine, and I can just say everything is gonna work out fine and dandy. It’s gonna be very good.”
–Trump: “The Houthis called us. They don’t want to fight us. They let us know they don’t want to fight with us. They don’t want us to go after them. They would much prefer not having us involved, and they are letting most ships go through. There’s just one country they’re not too happy with.”
–Miles Holmes: “Yeah, Donnie, they’re desperate for a deal. Like Iran. Like Canada. Like, not at all.’
–Arkenio: “It’s a remarkable betrayal of Saudi Arabia.”
–Ken Wilson: “Talking about 25 boats a day through the Strait of Hormuz is a small fraction of the Strait’s pre-war traffic. To describe that we are now ‘powerfully in control’ of a passage that was free to navigate before Trump took his ‘military action’ is quite the damning admission. Trump’s a buffoon!”
In economic news:
–10-year Treasury yields rose to 4.92%, and 30-year Treasury yields to 5.35%, both of which will make the cost of borrowing, mortgages, etc. MUCH higher.
–The cost of a barrel of oil is way up, too. The Brent Crude is at $104 to 105.
–Gas is $6.19 a gallon in California, $5.50 in Denver, $4.58 in Arizona, Connecticut $4.43.
–The average price of diesel is now $6.06 a gallon (up from $3.71 the same time last year.
–Majority Democrats: “Five gas stations in California are selling diesel at $9.99 a gallon. Fortunately for Trump the price won’t go any higher–because the pumps have hit their limits and literally can’t go any higher.”
–David Stockman: “Yes, you did read that right. Diesel prices just hit $10 in California. Good job, Trumpy!”
–Journalist Brad Pearce: “Incredible stuff. True Golden Age. Glad Trump solved the Strait of Hormuz situation.”
–Kevin: “This Trump catastrophe is just getting started.”
–Tom di Galoma: “Everybody is selling everything.”
In Cracks in the Dam news:
–Jen Psaki on MS NOW interviewed a guy who’s been down on the Texas-Mexico border doing interviews. His verdict? “People hate, just hate what Trump is doing!”
–Doctor Strange reported on a friend who was always very conservative and Christian: “He is now center-left and has rejected Christianity entirely. I couldn’t believe it. Even his very right-wing wife said she is voting Democrat for the first time in her life. They hate Trump so much they are also thinking of moving to Canada.”
–A Trump voter asked about Paxton (who’s running for Senate): “If that’s the best we can do, does it really even matter? Like a toilet bowl flushing, we’re going down, down, down!”
–Axios reports that Trump aides, even the most senior and influential of them, have simply given up. No one is trying to make him do the right thing. No one is trying to make him do the smart thing. No one is even bothering to pretend anymore that they are led by anything but a decaying madman.”
A warning for anybody on Medicaid:
–Under the new Trump rules, you have to prove that you qualify for Medicaid twice a year. If the form doesn’t get sent back in time, you’re dropped from coverage.
In 9-11 news:
–The morning after 9-11, Rosie O’Donnell donated $1 million dollars to New York City.
–Trump didn’t donate anything. Instead, he applied for and got $150,000 from a 9-11 fund to help people who’d suffered damage to their buildings, even though none of his buildings had been damaged. Trump said, “The money was there for the taking.”
In science news:
–Astrophysicist Adin AJ Samadi took this great photo of the crescent moon and Jupiter. If you look close you can see Ganymede and Io:
In other news:
–Not content with ruining everything else in Washington, DC, Trump is now demanding that the iconic sculpture, “Infinity,” which stands in the main lobby of the Smithsonian, be removed and replaced with a thirty-foot-tall “Washington Colossus” to celebrate George Washington’s 300th birthday in 2032. (And we all know whose 30-foot colossus he really wants standing there.)
–The contractor for the Reflecting Pool has admitted that it was his company’s fault, and theirs alone. No vandalism, no nothing. They didn’t spray enough primer to make the layers of liner stick together, and they mixed two chemicals together which shouldn’t have been and which caused the liner to blister.
–Ted Cruz gave an interview today before a college football game, and the fans were furious, booing him loudly and shouting, “Ted, you suck!”
–Sports writer Chris Marler: “Ted Cruz getting booed way worse than Ohio State or Oklahoma down in Austin.”
In good news:
–A federal appeals court threw out a Trump administrative order that had forced a Michigan coal plant to remain open beyond its planned retirement, ruling that the Department of Energy had exceeded its authority with the order.
–A bunch of reporters who were fired from the Washington Post have banded together and are going to put out an online newspaper called The Washington Sun.
–The AP is refusing to change Lake Ontario’s name. So is Canada. And Mapquest is cleaning up. It’s now the number one app in the Free App Store, usage is up 50 times its normal rate, and its downloads are up, 6,295%!
–Scott Dworkin: “Trump can boss around his minions, but he can’t order a wire service, or a foreign country, or a map company from the nineties to do his bidding. November is coming.”
Best comment of the day, from Sundae Gurl: “The midterm election will be like a carpool where half want to drive to the movies and half want to drive off a cliff. Even if the movies win, you’re still buckled in with the cliff people.”
Keep calm and carry on,
Connie Willis
