Nigel Farage annoys the hell out of me. He’s a former broadcaster, a flamboyant, pompous loudmouth who thinks Britain can do just fine on its own by circling the wagons and closing doors and, apparently, just returning to the good old days of some sort of prideful self-sustenance. It’s a short walk from what he’s selling to racist isolationism. The fact that he and Trump see eye to eye on some things should tell us everything we need to know about him. He’s a fount of arrogance.

His critique of the new PM—that he’s boring—is boring in its own right. I’d take boring any day, if Keir Starmer can deliver on his promises.

The interview between George Stephanopoulos and the President was underwhelming. George was trying to get Joe to consider certain realities, to say he’s old and should consider withdrawing, and Joe was not having it, instead touting his own- or his administration’s—accomplishments.

Should the individual get all the credit, by the way? They’re making it sound like this is the case, like POTUS doesn’t have any other staff, or help on these highlighted legislative wins. And the increasingly loud drumbeat from other Democrats is disingenuous at best. They’re not concerned for the country, though they may be worried about Biden’s chances—but only because they’re worried about their own chances for reelection and the likelihood of holding onto their own cushy jobs.

It’s a crisis situation that’s been in the making since Biden won 4 years ago. He said himself, back then, that he was a bridge candidate, but now he’s convinced he’s gotta hang in there and hang on for another 4 years, “finish the job,” when he will be 86 and even more feeble than he already appears.

With age may come wisdom, but other less desirable realities also tag along—like mobility issues and an overall lack of stamina that would most likely inhibit his ability to keep up with the demands of the office. If he’s the only one who can beat Trump, then polling already says we’re in trouble, even though it’s only July. It’s turning into a nightmare for Democrats and the country, but the sooner a new candidate is found, the better.

There is becoming a certain inevitability about Biden’s odds of prevailing here. A certain momentum appears to be building. The sooner a decision about Kamala is made, the better. It may be time for her to step into the ring and face the Trump onslaught, and hopefully put him in his place. Shut him up for good.

Talk about having to rise to the occasion. Wow.

Hurricanes have such innocuous sounding names. Who’d ever think “Beryl” could be such a monster?

Ask the people of certain Caribbean islands like St. Vincent and the Grenadines, along with Jamaica.  Some islands in the chain are almost completely leveled, 100% of the populations affected, 90% of structures damaged or completely destroyed. It’s always hard to comprehend such damage.

The storm has weakened as it’s moved on to the Yucatan Peninsula and beyond, but will most likely strengthen again before it hits the Texas coast by the end of the weekend.

Meanwhile, in California, the heat has arrived, along with wildfires that have forced the evacuation of at least 30,000 people. It all sounds like Debbie Downer on steroids, like a really bad country song. But it’s just natural forces unfolding the way they’re liable to unfold when things are out of whack.  

Time for my annual July 4th assessment.

In a word—unsettled. Bland, I know, but there are lots of dishes spinning, currently. We as a nation are careening toward an election that has consequential written all over it—at least that’s what we keep hearing from a variety of pundits and people supposedly in the know. We’ve heard it so often that it might be starting to sound more than slightly cliché, losing its capacity to move people.

I don’t know what to think anymore, except that I don’t want Donald Trump to be President, because his vision for America is no vision at all. He’s an empty-souled, blood-sucking leech who’s hijacked nine years of our collective national life and poisoned the water, enticing millions of disciples with divisive rhetoric and promises he has no intention of keeping.

So, half the country is being misled, and the other half is wondering if the center will hold. The ideals haven’t gone anywhere. It’s just that we need to face this current assault before moving on.

It’s difficult, I guess, to think of America as anything less than a beacon of light. I hate the word “exceptional,” because that sounds like hubris and boasting and a symptom of neediness. But our forebears built us a firm foundation, perhaps based on an assumption that future generations would engage the struggle to understand it. To hold onto it, maintain it, build on it, and appreciate it.

I hate to think that we who are alive today will be the ones to witness the squandering, the crumbling, and the unwillingness to engage the task of forming that more perfect union.

(sorry… I’m suddenly unable to change the font size.)

Talking heads. The airwaves are full of ‘em. Loud, self-assured, peddling one opinion or another, carving out their niche, or trying to. We listened to a recent podcast from Rick Wilson, co-founder of the Lincoln Project, who spoke reassuringly about Joe Biden’s less-than-stellar debate performance. Mr. Wilson doesn’t seem too worried, or didn’t in the immediate aftermath.

But we flipped to other more recent clips and got a different sense for the level of alarm and hair-on-fire panic that seems to be spreading through certain media personalities and even among Democratic Party operatives.

I guess the public will make up its own mind, but the commentary people are liable to hear seems likely to be weighted toward skepticism regarding Biden’s fitness for wearing the mantle for another 4 years—years that will surely test the fittest of office holders. The fact that he’s not Donald Trump still matters, but it appears, currently, to matter much less than it did in 2020.

I fell asleep before the end of Maddow’s interview with Stormy Daniels. Must be tough to remember everything about an encounter that happened 18 years ago. It seems like forces opposed to Trump are pulling out all the stops in an effort to find something that stuns people into realizing what a ne’r-do-well they’re thinking about voting for.

In the bigger picture, the indictments and counts that would seem to matter more may never see the light of day, or come to trial. Lower courts and the highest court appear to be doing their best to make sure nothing happens before the election.

Maybe this is how justice works and it’s just frustrating for those of us who hope Trump faces consequences for being the scumbag he’s always been. Or maybe there is indeed a sizeable army of people willing to defend him because he’s still their ticket to wielding the power and forcing their fossilized conservative views on the masses. And of course, Trump has always been good for business, blah, blah, blah.

One could get the sense that the Trump kool-aid is being consumed by people one might have thought would have rejected it. It’s like all most of us can do is sit and watch. Well, we can vote, but so can the masses of lackies and zombies who still think Trump is the best thing since… whatever. What’s so life-altering about sliced white bread?

So, what are we supposed to make of the SCOTUS’s immunity decision?

I didn’t watch Fox or similar spewage of bullshit—I just assumed they were celebrating and saying that this was the decision we all should have expected—the right and proper decision. The no-brainer. Anyway, all I got was the reaction of MSNBC folks and Maddow, who didn’t sugarcoat anything and reacted the way I guess I expected her to.

We indeed have two nations between the shores, one step closer to being at war. If things are indeed the way Maddow and Schiff and Totenberg described them last night, then what’s left for us who have always assumed we had at least some handle on how elected officials are supposed to behave when entrusted with the responsibilities of public office?

Maddow kept harping on what to me sounds like the most stark implication of the majority opinion—the scenario where Trump could order the death of a rival and be immune from prosecution. I can see where critics like Maddow might start to get a bit queasy over such a development.

I keep wondering how anyone—including the POTUS—can, in general, be above the law. He’s just a guy, or someday it’ll be a woman—given great power, no doubt, but not above the law. And if someone like Trump is ordained by God, then maybe we need to start questioning God’s judgment.

This can’t fly. No one is above the law. For Trump now, the law becomes irrelevant, because it apparently doesn’t apply to him in the same way it applies to the rest of the population. This just feeds his delusions, reinforces his warped views of reality.

SCOTUS has parsed it all out and come to this stunning conclusion. Or the Roberts court has just decided to join the Trump bandwagon. They can hide behind the legalese and write what sounds like a cogent argument, but it feels like they’re just offering up a convenient take on things under the guise of an eloquent-sounding opinion, using convoluted language with intent to distract and confuse.

Justice Sotomayor wrote an eloquent dissenting opinion, which cuts to the chase and I hope is prescient and on point as we venture further into this wholly rotten new day. The groundwork has been laid by a once-proud body who gave us advances in human rights and bodily autonomy. The current iteration has apparently gone rogue.

How can there not be agreement that Trump is a bad apple? He’s shredding our moral, legal and judicial hand, and everybody’s folding. Remarkable. More like a house of cards every day.

People are worried about Joe Biden’s chances. The WSJ suggests that he and Trump withdraw their candidacies, which would be historic, to say the least. Chances are next to nil that Trump would ever consider this, and Biden’s family is telling him to keep up the good fight and move forward with the campaign. So, an interesting suggestion, but nothing will come of it.

I only see one possible outcome, and that would be Biden deciding that enough is enough and withdrawing. There would be much behind-the-scenes wrangling and hand-wringing, but Trump would once again emerge unscathed, with an open path, because the good guys blink first.

All of this could have been avoided nine years ago, if Trump had just decided to stay in his penthouse and leave well enough alone.

Family reunions are big events that take more planning than probably initially anticipated. I went to one yesterday, the first ever that I can remember, though apparently there have been others we didn’t get to.

My generation of cousins is of course getting older—we’re the patriarchs and matriarchs now—and two (three?) more generations have come along. We’re looking and maybe feeling older, but the same sense of humor is there, the same sense of family and acceptance.

There was some mingling beyond our own family units, but our extended family doesn’t get to see each other all that often, so we sort of stuck together. A great day, made all the better with traditional food and that chance to touch base with the people who helped form some of my earliest, most deeply seated memories.   

I didn’t watch the debate, assuming that I wouldn’t learn anything I didn’t aready know. Sounds like it wasn’t a very good night for Joe. No surprise there. A big reason he was elected in the first place is because he wasn’t Donald Trump. Age and the ravages of time might yet be his downfall, I’m afraid, and that leaves us with the nightmare, unless the Dems can find an attractive alternative in a hurry.

Or maybe the reaction here is just more predictable hype?