It’s the end of July and we’re in the heart of the tourist season in the good ol’ USA. Unfortunately, the many folks who rely on international tourists for providing them a paycheck to pay the rent, mortgages, gas, eggs, and other monthly expenses, are instead getting laid off as the tourists have given the U.S. “the finger.” Visitors from Canada are probably the largest group to avoid travel here following the rhetoric from the current president and administration to make Canada our 51st state and the tariff issues. According to numbers from the U.S. Travel Association, Canadian visitation was down 26% in June from the same period a year ago. Last year, Canadians spent $20.5 billion during their visits to the U.S. Resorts and hotels in Northeastern states including Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and New York are experiencing a steady stream of cancelled reservations and tourists failing to arrive to spend money in their state. The World Travel and Tourism Council says that the U.S. is on track to lose $12 BILLION this year. This loss isn’t just hurting corporate America’s bottom line, but local communities feel the ripple effect from the displaced workers in retail, hospitality, air travel, lodging, and so on. A lack of tourists and an increase in unemployed workers result in a loss of tax revenue from sales taxes and income taxes. Where other countries are putting out the welcome mat, the U.S. is putting up a closed sign. It’s not just international tourism, but domestic travel is also showing a decline. Data from Bank of America indicates that travel-related expenditures, particularly lodging, attractions, and airline spending is seeing a pullback as Americans are prioritizing their purchases amid the economic uncertainty from the tariff nonsense.

But hey, while ordinary Americans have to prioritize their expenditures and maybe forego those summer travel plans, we should feel good that we are gifting Donnie a five day trip to Scotland to play a few rounds of golf and do some business for the Trump Organization. According to the Huff Post this little trip will cost us at least $10 million. Thus far, since Inauguration Day, Don has spent an estimated $60,200,000 golfing. Yep, $60 million. And that is not counting the $600,000 the Secret Service is spending for golf carts and portable toilets at Trump’s New Jersey golf resort, Bedminster. Per federal records, the Secret Service signed contracts with Associated Golf Car Service and Restroom Resources for the carts and port-a-potties. Make America Great Again! Pretty unbelievable ain’t it?

As much as the Guardians of Pedophiles are trying to make EpsteinGate go away, it just doesn’t look like that’s going to happen soon. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, this week, met for two days with Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s accomplice in the sex-trafficking operation to probably get information to help the cover-up plan. This meeting was totally inappropriate and had immediate blowback for Trump. 3 Republicans joined 5 Democrats on a House Oversight subcommittee to subpoena DOJ documents related to Epstein. Like I said earlier, this may end up to be Trump’s Watergate.

Well, that’s enough for today. Ramble at ya soon.

I just came back from a nice 35-minute walk and have time to kill, so I thought it would be a good time to ramble a little. This thought has been circling my brain for a while, but it came to center when I saw a post today related to Don’s puffy ankles and hands, which the WH doctor diagnosed as chronic venous insufficiency. Trump’s mouthpiece, Karoline Leavitt, calls this a common condition for people over the age of 70 and we all know who’s pushing 80. Now, I’m almost as old as that specimen of “excellent health,” but I don’t have that common condition, and quite frankly don’t know of another person who does. So, here’s the post I saw today:

Where she says he’s had JVD for years, I thought it meant ‘jacked-up venereal disease’, but further research led me to ‘jugular vein distention,’ the bulging of veins in your neck. An artifical intelligence overview describes CHF as Congestive Heart Failure. It’s a chronic condition where the heart muscle is unable to pump blood effectively, leading to a buildup of fluid in the lungs and other body tissues. This can cause various symptoms, including shortness of breath, fatigue, and swelling in the legs and feet. And, EF is not erection failure, but is a measure of how much your heart pumps. A normal EF measurement would be 55 – 70%. Granted, these folks have not examined the patient and are only making comments based on their years of experience and a knowledge that the patient’s diet is largely Big Mac’s and Coca Cola. As a follow up to my ramblings yesterday, my guess is that JD is ordering a few extra Quarter Pounders and Cokes for his boss, in the hope that if EpsteinGate doesn’t get him into that coveted presidency, a heart attack or stroke will.

BREAKING NEWS!! The QAnon Shaman, Jacob Chansley, that dude in the horned furry headdress who stormed the Capital on January 6th, was convicted and sentenced to 41 months in prison and then was released after Trump’s clemency order, has just called Big Boy a “fraud” and a “piece of shit.” Oh my, it appears that even the crazies are starting to figure out who their King really is and the sycophantic followers are beginning the rebellion.

Gotta get going. Ramble at ya later.

I’m baaaaack!! And yes, I am still alive. Over the past few days, several inquiries have shown concern that I may have been residing in Alligator Alcatraz or that I was still on the injured reserve list from the missus’ beatdown for my senior mistake of giving you an incorrect number of years of wedded bliss. The truth of the matter is that I feel guilty sitting inside rambling about stuff when the weather outside is so beautiful and since what I typically write about isn’t exactly joyful, cheerful and full of bliss, so I just decided to take a little break. It’s time to get back to work so here are a few musings for ya.

I see today that the GOP (Guardians of Pedophiles) House leaders have made the decision to pack it up and run back home so they don’t have to deal with what is becoming tRump’s biggest nightmare. That little goofball, House Leader Mike Johnson, cut short any new business and is sending House members home early to avoid having to hold votes on releasing files related to Jeffrey Epstein, and thus any mention of Donald in those files. Watergate brought Richard Nixon down and the way the ‘Guardians of Pedophiles’ are acting it just might be EpsteinGate that takes out the current president. The Dem’s are gloating over the latest actions by the GOP to deal with their crisis. Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern describes it succinctly with a big smile on his face, “They’re scared shitless!”

Get ready for the next relationship conflict, similar to the breakup of the Musk-Trump bromance. This one involves JD, the vice-prez, staging a coup in order for him to move into the presidency. If you haven’t heard, the Wall Street Journal, owned by Rupert Murdoch, who also owns Fox News, wrote a story last week about the Donald sending Jeffrey Epstein a bawdy birthday note for his “pal’s” 50th birthday party. It included a drawing of a nude woman with the note, “Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret.” It just so happens that JD made an unannounced secret trip to visit Murdoch on his ranch in Montana hours before the Wall Street Journal published the article about Trump’s birthday message to Epstein. Of course tRump denies he wrote it and is suing Murdoch et al, for $10 billion and has kicked the mean WSJ reporters from the White House press pool. Anyhoo, back to JD. Me thinks that the conspiracy theorists out there are seeing the timing of this trip as proof that JD is plotting a coup to replace Don.

In another attempt to distract us from EpsteinGate, ‘Stable Genius Don’ is demanding that the Washington Commanders rename their team back to the “Redskins” or he will block the deal to build a new stadium in D.C. He also wants the Cleveland Guardians baseball team to go back to their old team name, the “Indians.” We’ve got two wars going on globally, prices climbing at home because of the tariff nonsense, major healthcare issues on the horizon due to the Big Beautiful Bill, legal immigrants being arrested and put in concentration camps, and America being seen by our allies as that dog that just crapped on your new carpet. There’s nothing more important, though, than to demand we revert to racial slurs against Native Americans.

We’re only six months in and all of these MAGA “wins” are just making me jubilant. NOT!! What we have experienced is considerable harm to our country during this time period and the polls are showing that Americans are not buying this bulls**t. Even a number of MAGA’s are beginning “to see the light,” as Trump’s approval ratings are dropping faster than a prairie fire with a tailwind. In the most recent CBS News poll his approval rating has gone from 53% on February 9th to 42% now. Most major independent polls are showing the same results. On all key issues he is underwater – immigration, jobs, trade, inflation and the cost of living are tanking quickly. If I was a Guardian of Pedophiles House Representative up for reelection next year, my anal sphincter would be seriously constricted right now and I would do everything I could to stand up to Trump and the nonsense we have been experiencing since January 21st as as result of his incompetence.

There you have it. I might not be back in the groove yet, but I’ll try to keep you tuned in to my ramblings. Have a great evening and stay safe out there. Ziggyman

June 29, 2025

First off, I am nursing my wounds inflicted on me from the missus after my post on Friday in which I mentioned we were celebrating our 55^th wedding anniversary. My bad. It was actually number 56. Now, I knew we were married in 1969, but in my senior brain I didn’t add correctly from 1969 to 2025. This was after going four days with no alcohol, which I will use as my excuse. I had drinks Friday and yesterday and can now do mathematical operations again, just like the “stable genius.” The missus didn’t do a full blown Pete Hegseth meltdown, but made sure I knew how many years I have had the pleasure of being her husband.

Now we go from Trump calling himself a “stable genius,” to basking in the attention he is receiving for being called “Daddy” by Nato’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, at the Nato summit last Wednesday. I’m sure this was just orchestrated groveling to make Don feel good and important as is always a top priority when dealing with the Trumpster. Can’t you just see that signature smirk as Don tells reporters, “I think he likes me. ‘Daddy, you’re my daddy. He did it very affectionately.” Not everyone was pleased with Rutte’s groveling, however. Some European officials grumbled that “people are embarrassed.” “Yes, the summit was a success on the whole. But the sucking up was pretty over the top.” Woo hoo! Who’s your daddy?

Back home, we see that the Supreme Court has kowtowed to Trump and made a ruling based on party rather than law in their ruling regarding birthright citizenship. They basically killed the authority of the district courts when they ruled that a single federal judge doesn’t have the authority to issue a universal injuction. Trump calls it a “monumental victory for the Constitution,” Justice Sotomayor calls it a “travesty,” and Justice Jackson warns of  “an existential threat to the rule of law.” This Supreme Court is quickly destroying it’s own legitimacy and demonstrating its decisions are based on politics rather than the Constitution and rule of law.

And then we have that “Big, Beautiful Bill.” While you and I were sleeping Friday night, the Senate quietly pushed forward their tax and budget package that will gut healthcare, food and housing for millions of Americans and add 4 trillion dollars to the budget while telling us it costs nearly nothing. If the bill passes, it will drop 15 million Americans off Medicaid, slash SNAP benefits (food stamps), and cut housing assistance. This is a bill that will increase taxes on people earning less than $50,000 a year, while granting billionaires and large corporations permanent tax cuts. This is a bill designed to transfer wealth upward and increase inequality in America. If this bill passes, it will kick as many as fifteen million Americans off Medicaid, the federal health insurance program for low-income families and disabled people. It will slash SNAP benefits, ensuring more families will go hungry, and cut housing assistance, driving more people into homelessness. It will increase taxes on people earning less than fifty thousand dollars a year while granting billionaires and large corporations permanent, sweeping tax cuts. The few crumbs it offers working people, like no taxes on tips and overtime pay, are temporary and designed as distractions, set to expire while the cuts for the ultra-wealthy remain. Turkey neck Mitch McConnell spoke to his colleagues who were a bit nervous about the blowback this bill might have on them from their constituents, telling them “I know a lot of us are hearing from people back home about Medicaid, but they’ll get over it.” There you have it my friends, Jodi Ernst talking about the cuts to Medicaid, “We’re all going to die someday,” and Mitch McConnell tells his colleagues “They’ll get over it.”

Time for me to get over it and go outside and water the plants. Have a great rest of this weekend! Ziggyman.

Well, it’s 3:00 pm on Friday and the missus and I just got back from a walk. It’s kind of dreary outside, so I thought I would sit down and ramble a little bit, since I have slacked off for a couple of weeks. It’s not like there hasn’t been anything happening in the world to write about. It’s just been so chaotic I was flummoxed. I haven’t had alcohol in my system for four days now, so perhaps I am thinking more clearly. So here goes.

I’m not going to ramble about the “obliteration” of Iran’s nuclear compounds, as I’m sure the media has kept y’all informed on that situation. What I will say, however, is that I believe history will show Obama’s 2015 Iran Deal,” which was “kicked to the curb” by Trump in 2018, was more effective at controlling Iran’s nuclear program than Trump’s Operation Midnight Hammer bombing. The Trump team say that Iran’s nuclear program is no longer operational and there is no need to sit down and hammer out an agreement because there is no longer a threat. I have no idea how much damage was done, but if the setback is only months to a year, then we are in deep doo-doo. Up until the bombing, Iran’s nuclear facilities were monitored and inspected by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Iran’s parliament voted on Wednesday to withdraw all cooperation with the IAEA, thereby eliminating crucial oversight of their program. The international community will have no oversight on Iran’s nuclear activities and Iran will begin covert reconstitution of their nuclear program. I give Obama’s diplomacy a win and Trump’s aggression a loss. Time will tell.

I have to chuckle when I see that Governor Gavin Newsom is following Trump’s playbook and has filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox and host Jesse Watters after Watters showed an edited clip and made false claims about Newsom’s communications with Trump. I’m chuckling because Newsom is asking for $787 in damages, matching the settlement Fox paid Dominion voting Systems in 2023 over election misinformation. Also from the Trump playbook, Newsom’s lawyers, however, will drop the lawsuit if Fox issues a public retraction and Watters apologizes on his show.

Regarding the tariff’s. Remember Trump and his economic team promised 90 deals in 90 days? That was 76 days ago. Today Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, says we should have it wrapped up by Labor Day. I predict come August 15^th we’ll hear something to the effect that the tariff trade deals will be our Christmas present from Don wrapped up with a red satin bow.  Meanwhile, the US trade deficit in goods continues to grow – up 11% from April  The biggest problem is the decline in goods being exported. The stable genius’ tariff plan to reduce trade deficits while increasing our exports is working just like all his other attempts to Make America Great Again. A turd in the bowl.

That’s all I have time for today, folks. It’s our 55th wedding anniversary and I’ve got to get spruced up to go out to dinner. I guarantee I won’t be getting my 5th day in a row without alcohol. Have a great weekend!

Oh, oh. Today is Friday the 13th. Bad luck day, although it seems that every day for the past 4 1/2 months has been ‘bad luck day.’ I’ve been so busy looking for that perfect birthday present for the $45 million ‘Big Beautiful Tanks on the Street Birthday Bash’ to be held tomorrow, that I just haven’t had time to sit down and ramble. I finally gave up and just put a turd in a shoebox and sent it off. I ate 4 Big Mac’s and a pound of meatloaf to get that perfect turd that Don can relate to. Anyhoo, let’s move on.

Here’s where we are in the banana republic today. We’ve got U.S. Marines and California National Guard patrolling the streets of Los Angeles. Israel and Iran are at war. Yesterday a U.S. Senator, Alex Padilla, was thrown to the floor and handcuffed because he asked the puppy killer Ice Barbie a simple question. Paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne, hand picked to stand behind Trump and Hegseth for their allegiance and physical appearance (no fat one’s), earlier this week at Fort Bragg, cheered the partisan speeches by Trump attacking American states and booed Governor Newsom, Mayor Bass, President Biden, and the press. Military.com, a military news publication, wrote about the Fort Bragg event and was not complimentary about the behavior of Trump, Hegseth and the soldiers involved. “This has been a bad week for the Army for anyone who cares about us being a neutral institution,” one commander at Fort Bragg told Military.com on the condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation. “This was shameful. I don’t expect anything to come out of it, but I hope maybe we can learn from it long term.” Retired Army Lt. General Russel Honore called the speech “inappropriate” and said “I never witnessed that shit like this in 37 years in uniform.”

We may be just hours away from American soldiers and Marines receiving orders to kill American citizens, being told it is the right and lawful thing to do by their superiors, including the Commander in Chief. Many of these young soldiers, who have been put into this precarious situation, don’t realize that killing American citizens on American soil is a crime and is illegal. They must remember that they swore an oath to the Constitution – not Donald Trump. The Save America Movement (https://ourmoralmoment.substack.com/p/this-moment-demands-a-moral-movement believes that we are in a crisis and has started an  ad campaign aimed at military personnel and their families as a reminder that The military serves the Republic, and swears an oath of allegiance to the US Constitution.

Now on to some good news. The weather forecast for tomorrow’s ‘birthday bash’ calls for rain and a possible thunderstorm in Washington D.C. Isn’t it a shame that the Kim Jong Un wannabe might have his authoritarian military parade disrupted a bit? Hopefully, the weather throughout the rest of the nation will be warm and dry for the “No King’s Day” demonstrations in over 2000 cities in all 50 states in protest to ‘America going North Korea’ on us.

Good news #2. Trump may have put a damper on Stephen Miller’s goal of deporting 3,000 immigrants per day, whether they are in America legally or illegally, when Don announced, “Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!” later, speaking to reporters, he said “Our farmers are being hurt badly by—you know, they have very good workers, they’ve worked for them for 20 years, they’re not citizens, but they’ve turned out to be, you know, great. And we’re going to have to do something about that. We can’t take farmers and take all their people and send them back.”. Wow! The administration is just figuring this out? The sastirical Andy Borowitz thinks that It’s dawning on Trump that without migrants to pick tomatoes he would not have ketchup to throw. Whatever works.

Good news #3. Don and Melania attended their first show at the Kennedy Center Wednesday night, where they saw the opening night of “Les Misérables.” It probably wasn’t the ‘date night’ that Mel was expecting, however, as her date was booed, yelled at, cursed at, and had several drag queens draped in what they described as a “lovely creamsicle flowing comfortable gown,” seated in front of the stage. They were there to protest tRump’s social media post that under his new leadership there would be “NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA — ONLY THE BEST.” It was a fitting show for the couple, as they obviously don’t see the irony of the show’s themes and what is happening across the country right now.

Finally, did you happen to see Bonespurs Trump almost take a face plant going up the stairs of Air Force One? Karma.

Have a great weekend and stay safe. Ziggyman

Happy Hump Day!! Mid-week and things have already been hoppin’ this week. We’ll start with the official divorce of the tRump/Muskrat bromance. Elon left the White House with a black eye last Friday, probably administered by Stephen Miller after his wife took off with Elon to work full time for him. The rumors are flying on the internet that Katie Miller left her husband, the Nazi Stephen Miller, for a hookup with another Nazi, the Muskrat. I don’t know what the truth of the matter is, but sure sounds kinky to me. Elon’s exit from his DOGE duties with effusive praise from tRump and a promise from Elon that he will be available to help run the country anytime he is needed lasted four days. Yesterday, the alpha Musk ripped into Trump about his “Big Beautiful Bill” as a “disgusting abomination” and accused Congress of “betraying the American people.”  Congressional Republicans are causing panic at supermarkets and Amazon as they are creating a run on adult Depends diapers. I understand they are poopin’ their  pants following another post by Elon last night aimed at them. “In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people,” suggesting Republican politicians should be kicked out of Congress at the midterms. Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah are aligning themselves with Musk as they agree the bill will cause the deficit to increase substantially. My friends, it’s time to get out your popcorn popper and watch the next few episodes of the’ tRump Administration Shit Show,’ staring Donald J Trump, Mike Johnson, and the sycophants, who may, all of a sudden, turn tail and head for the hills. This is gonna get juicy. Taco Man must be hiding in a bunker, as he has been surprisingly quiet following his ex-pal’s rants. Early on I posted that the honeymoon would last about six months and sure enough, that’s about how long the bromance lasted.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is at it again. The homophobe, who first gave the directive to remove transgender personnel from the military, and then had anything that had to do with DEI purged from Department of Defense files, including photos of the bomber that dropped the first bomb on Hiroshima, Enola Gay, named for the pilot’s mother, has now ordered the Navy to rename the USNS Harvey Milk, named after the slain gay rights leader and Navy veteran. Evidently, he fears that the USNS Harvey Milk will turn all other Navy ships gay and it might send a message that being gay is okay. Meanwhile, the rest of the world continues to sit back and laugh at what this administration is doing to our country. Ukraine just pulled off a spectacular drone military operation against Russia, probably with a number of gay soldiers involved in the mission, and the most important operation from our Department of Defense is to order the renaming of a Navy boat named after a gay rights leader.  This fits right in with the insistence by our drunktard Fox News Host Secretary of Defense, who needs his own makeup room, that only straight white males can be a soldier in the United States military.

You’ve probably seen or heard about Iowa Senator Joni Ernst trying to defend cuts to Medicaid and Obamacare in the “Big Beautiful Bill” during a town hall meeting last Friday after audience members yelled that people would die. Her flippant response was “Well, we are all going to die.”  As you can imagine, that hit the internet and not in a good way. As a result, she doubled down and posted an Instagram video of her walking through a cemetery and sarcastically stating that she wanted to apologize for revealing that human beings are mortal. Followed by a snarky “I’m really, really  glad I did not have to bring up the subject of the tooth fairy, too. She ends with the coup de grace “those who would like to see eternal and everlasting life” really should “embrace my lord and savior Jesus Christ.” She should have let it go instead of trying to be Teflon Don, but she didn’t quite realize that she’s just an amateur. If there were an election for Senator in Iowa tomorrow with Joni running, my bet is she would be on the short end of the stick.

Well, that’s enough for today. I’m just feeling tired from all of this “winning” that Donnie has accomplished thus far, and I’m feeling so giddy about bringing out the popcorn machine again, I think I’m going to go fix me a little ol’ drinky poo and prepare for tomorrow’s drama. Have a great evening and try to stay sane. Ziggyman  

I hope you all had a nice, relaxing weekend. We got home from the beach safe and sound Sunday afternoon with no near-death experience like we had on the ride down. We know Donnie had a good weekend spent on the golf links during the day and rage-posting during the night. As it is, however, things are not looking good for Taco Man. I believe that he just received the ultimate humiliation from President Zelensky over the weekend when Ukraine launched a spectacular drone operation against Russia, knocking out a third of their strategic bomber fleet deep inside Russian territory. The humiliation comes following that infamous Oval Office meeting on February 28^th in which President Zelensky was ambushed by Trump and JD Vance, leading to a heated exchange between the three participants ending in Trump kicking Zelensky out of the White House after telling him that “You’re right now not in a very good position…You don’t have the cards right now. With us you start having cards” and basically telling him that Ukraine needed the United States involvement if a peace deal was going to be reached. Ukraine had been planning this mission for over a year and a half and had not informed the White House of the plans, a sign that Trump and his administration cannot be trusted. So, on Sunday, 117 drones were launched covertly from the backs of cargo trucks secretly transported into Russia and strategically planted near Russian military bases. In any other administration, the United States would have been informed that a strike of this magnitude was going to happen and intelligence shared. This is just another example of how far we have fallen from respect by our allies and it’s going to only get worse. Trump promised he would get a deal in one day, and we are now four months from the inauguration with nothing accomplished by the Art of the Deal Master. I guess President Zelensky showed the TACO that he does have a few cards up his sleeve.

Saturday night, shortly after 10:00 pm, following a day of golf, a couple of Big Macs, some meatloaf, and 7 Diet Cokes, Donald fired up his iPhone and reposted an outlandish conspiracy theory made by another Truth Social user to fire up his cult members. Are you ready? President Joseph R. Biden had been “executed in 2020” and replaced by a robotic clone controlled by the Deep State. I am serious, folks. This is getting scary. There are lots of people that believe this QAnon conspiracy shite.

And how about all the negotiations taking place to bring some clarity to these tariffs and the Trade War? Let me see now, about two months ago, I thought I heard Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick promise 90 deals in 90 days. If I’m not mistaken, the only one I’ve heard completed thus far is some piddly ass weak agreement with the UK. I keep hearing we’re close, very close, but so far, no cigar. Meanwhile, the cost of this nonsense is starting to show up in the marketplace, and Americans will be paying for it every time they get out their checkbook, credit card, or pull a green back from their wallet. I sure hope Ma and Pa Magaturds are happy with all the extra money that the TACO trades (remember Trump Always Chickens Out) are putting in their pocket. Speaking of turds, and I can’t take credit for this because I saw it on the internet, TACO Man may have some stiff competition from TURD Man in the near future (Trump Unfailingly Reverses Demands). As I write this, I’ve got Credence Clearwater Revival’s “I heard it through the grapevine” going through my head.

It’s getting late, so I think I will join the missus and retreat to my nice warm bed. Keep smilin’.

As you may have noticed, I took a vacation from rambling as we have been relaxing down here at the beach. I just couldn’t get in the mood to write about trophy wives, Al Capone, tacos, grift, and golf over the past week or so. We’re heading back to the mountain on Sunday, so I thought I should sit down on this lovely Friday and recap the crap since I last rambled. So here goes.

I haven’t bought any of tRump’s meme coins, so I didn’t have the opportunity to attend the grifter’s black-tie optional, unforgettable gala dinner at his Virginia golf club, but it sounds like I didn’t miss much from reports I read. Bear in mind, this gala event was limited to the top 220 purchasers of the $TRUMP coin and overall they spent $148 million to attend “this most exclusive invitation in the world.” Also, the top 25 purchasers were promised a private reception and guided tour of the club. One attendee, Nicholas Pinto, said that Trump made a brief 23 minute appearance, gave a short address, and then got on his helicopter and flew off into the night without talking personally to any of the contest winners or having pictures taken.“The food sucked,” Pinto said. “Wasn’t given any drinks other than water or Trump’s wine. I don’t drink, so I had water. My glass was only filled once.” And, as usual, the price of the grifter’s meme coin plunged 16% hours after this unforgettable dinner. In case you missed the invitation, you can look it up here Dinner↗

Two days later the Commander in Chief flew to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and gave a commencement speech, or should I say deranged dementia riddled oration, to the West Point grads and their families. After strutting to the podium in his red MAGA ball cap, and here’s where the ‘trophy wives’ come in, for some inexplicable reason in the middle of his rambling, he starts talking about some friend of his in the real estate business who worked hard, got divorced, and found a new wife. “He was great at what he did. “You see him all over the country, still Levittowns. This was a long time ago, but he was a first of the really, really big home builders, and he became very rich, a very rich man, and then he decided to sell. And he sold his company, and he had nothing to do. He ended up getting a divorce, found a new wife. Could you say a trophy wife? I guess we can say a trophy wife. It didn’t work out too well, but it doesn’t — that doesn’t work out too well, I must tell ya. A lot of trophy wives.” I’ll bet you’re thinking the same thing I did. What the hell does this have to do with graduates of West Point? He couldn’t stop there, however, because he hadn’t put the focus on himself yet, so he has to go with, “I was investigated more than the great late Alphonse Capone. Alphonse Capone was a monster. He was a very hardened criminal. I went through more investigations than Alphonse Capone, and now I’m talking to you as president. Can you believe this?” No, Donnie, I can’t believe you think this is commencement presentation material. Just another daily embarrassment from the lips of the felonious President of the United States.

On Wednesday, Don had a meltdown when a reporter from CNBC asked him about the hottest acronym on Wall Street right now – the ‘TACO trade’ and man, he was not amused. The term TACO, which stands for “Trump Always Chickens Out” was first coined by Financial Times commentator Robert Armstrong to describe what he says is Trump’s pattern of announcing heavy tariffs on countries causing economic shock and panic causing the stock market to plummet and then later reversing course with pauses or reductions that create a market rebound. Trump became very upset with the reporter and said “Six months ago, this country was stone cold dead. We had a dead country. We had a country that people didn’t think it was going to survive, and you ask a nasty question like that. It’s called negotiation.” Followed by “Don’t ever say what you said because that’s a nasty question.” Of course you know what happened after this — the internet is now swarming with TACO memes. His niece Dr. Mary Trump has always said that Donnie can’t take ridicule, so he must be just seething over this new nickname. From the guy who has given hundreds of people unflattering nicknames, this is a jewel. Oh, hang on for BREAKING NEWS from The Halfway Cafe BREAKING: White House staffers say Donald Trump is “apocalyptically mad” about the TACO acronym, and his doctors are worried it will give him a heart attack.

1500 January 6th Capitol riot defendants; Enrique Tarrio, former Proud Boys leader sentenced to 22 years for seditious conspiracy; Stewart Rhodes, founder of far-right Oath Keepers, sentenced to 18 years; Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the Silk Road dark web marketplace, an anonymous platform that facilitated the sale of illegal drugs and other illicit goods using cryptocurrency, sentenced to life in 2015; 23 anti-abortion activists; Brian Kelsey, former Tennessee state Senator, who had pleaded guilty over attempting to illegally funnel money to his failed campaign for Congress in 2016; Devon Archer, convicted in 2022 for defrauding a Native American tribe in a $60 million bond scheme; Trevor Milton, who had engaged in a scheme to defraud investors, and was convicted of two counts of wire fraud and one count of securities fraud; three co-founders of a cryptocurrency exchange who had plead guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act; Michele Fiore, who had been convicted of seven counts relating to wire fraud for stealing $70,000 she had collected for a memorial to fallen police officers, and instead used for personal expenses; Paul Walczak, a former nursing home executive convicted of misappropriating over $10 million in employment taxes for personal luxury spending, and whose mother was a significant Trump donor; Scott Jenkins, the former sheriff of Culpeper County, Virginia, who was convicted of accepting more than $75,000 in bribes in exchange for appointing individuals as auxiliary deputies; Todd and Julie Chrisley, reality TV stars who were convicted in 2022 of several counts of fraud and tax evasion involving over $30 million, whose daughter, Savannah, is a vocal Trump supporter; rapper Kentrell DeSean Gaulden, known as NBAYoungBoy; Michael Grimm, former Republican Congressman from New York, who stepped down from office following a conviction for tax fraud; Larry Hoover, former Chicago gang leader, who had been serving a life sentence at a supermax prison in Colorado. This, my friends, is a roster of convicted felons who have been pardoned or had their sentence commuted by the “law and order” president over the past four months. Do you notice any similarities in the list? Loyalists, Republicans, financial supporters. Yep.

Well, this was a long one, but I guess when one hasn’t mused for a while, there is much to catch up. Time to get outside and do some yard work. Have a great weekend! Ziggyman

Here’s a little musing for you on this Election Day. We came to the beach yesterday, driving on back roads to keep me off the freeway, as per the missus’ strict instructions. Funny thing, though. We damn near got killed on a two lane just outside of Silverton on the way down here. We’re driving along at 55 mph behind two cars when the first car stops to turn left onto a side street, waiting for the incoming traffic to go by so he can make the turn. We’re at a dead stop when I look into my rearview mirror and see a beater pickup coming upon us. All of a sudden, he either finishes his texting or wakes up from his nap in time to see us at a dead stop. All I see and hear is screeching tires, black smoke 15 feet in the air from his tires smokin’, and this pickup now sideways, out of control, coming right at us. All I could think of was to get our car out of his path by inching us to the right shoulder as fast as possible. As I did this brilliant move, he’s still sideways, sliding toward the rear of our car. Miraculously, his locked-up brakes stopped him one inch from us. He was so close I’m pretty sure I could smell the ‘load’ he left in his pants. For the next three miles to Silverton, he stayed about a quarter mile behind us and then took a side street before we hit the stop sign. I wonder if the missus got the irony of this little episode. Anyhooooo, that’s not my musing. As we are traveling these back roads from Independence through the Kings Valley to Highway 20, there are many pieces of property and homes with American flags, some with an accompanying Trump flag or banner. It’s regrettable that over the past few years when I see an American flag on someone’s property, I think “They’re Trumpies.” When I see it in the bed of a pickup, I’m almost certain it’s their “Don’t Tread on Me” message. So, my second irony of the day is that the American flag is supposed to be a symbol of  freedom, liberty, patriotism, national unity, and the values of democracy, justice, and equality. The issue I see is that the leader of the MAGA cult, through his actions and words, does not embody the symbolism of the flag that is flying in the back of big 4×4 pickup trucks and on the front yard fence posts, and neither do his followers whom I will call “faux patriots” as they promote a vision of America that is far from our founding principles and values. Unfortunately, these flag waving faux patriots are not bright enough to understand what the flag means. They just do whatever Trump says and give a big ‘rah rah’ when he disparages veterans, political opponents, Judges, impersonates Tony Soprano, and mixes fear, anger, and insults to fire up his simpleton base. They don’t see non-MAGA’s as fellow Americans who live next door, only as enemies to defeat. So, as we approach Memorial Day this weekend, I’ll view the American flag for what it stands for and not as a political symbol for a bunch of minions who live in denial of what is happening in our country today.

As he wages war on America and pillages the nation with his incompetent economic maneuvering via his tariffs and now the “One Big Beautiful Bill” $4 trillion tax scam, the “followers” are still running out to the mailbox every day to see if their DOGE check is in the mail, not understanding that there will not be a DOGE check coming to their house soon; Medicaid services will be severely limited if the far-right gets their way; proposed changes to the SNAP program (food stamps) include reducing benefits, restricting eligibility, and expanding work requirements, which will have an impact on many of these cultists. But, hey, I guess the “faux patriots” won’t have a problem paying for tRump’s “Big Beautiful Birthday Bash” on June 14^th that will include lots of flags, guns, tanks, aircraft and a beautiful parade. After all it is his 79^th birthday and what says  “Happy 79” better than a $25 million to $45 million birthday present, paid for by us taxpayers. I’m getting goosebumps just thinking how cool this is going to be.

Well, it’s time to get outside and enjoy the sun. Have a great evening.