We all know that generally, Trump is in poor health.  He’s obese, and lies about his weight and his height to conceal that.  He wears lifts in his shoes to appear taller which throws off his posture.  At the G7 summit in Italy in 2017, he rode in a golf cart while other world leaders strolled through the town where it was being held.  His diet is terrible, and he was rushed to Walter Reid Hospital last November for an unknown reason, only that it was for pre-work for his annual physical.  That physical is reported to have occurred in April, but results weren’t released until June 3rd, showing weight gain but stating the he “remains in good health”.

There have been a lot of questions about his true health as frailty, unsteadiness, and slurring his words have come to light regularly.  At It happened again on Saturday during the West Point graduation that Trump invited himself to attend, demanding that graduates already released to protect them from COVID-19 were ordered back to provide a backdrop for another of his rambling, self-aggrandizing word salad speeches.  This time, though, he struggled to drink water out of a glass, unable to raise it to his mouth with one hand, struggled to pronounce the word “ceremony” and then, after the speech unsteadily negotiated a shallow ramp down from the stage.  Here’s the walk.

Some make the excuse that he’s 74 years old; some think that he’s unsteady with those lifts in his shoes; I think he has some kind of health issue that he’s concealing from the public.  The slurring of words and weakness on his right side are telling, and feed speculation about Trump’s health on social media.  The lies and bombastic rhetoric pouring out of the White House  and his enablers tend to numb the public to his outrageous behavior; add that to his doctors exaggerating his “good health” and you get what you have today – speculation about his true condition.  Trump even gaslights the American people about his own health.  It’s time for him to come clean before the election, but I’m not holding my breath.

Colin Kaepernick and other athletes have received unmitigated grief from the late Bob McNair to none other than The Donald about protesting police brutality during the national anthem at their games.  Up until a few days ago, league owners and commissioners have responded to such protests with everything from benign neglect to outright hostility.  Fox Noise and their ilk have vilified protesting athletes by lying that they’re “disrespecting the flag” and other false equivalencies.  Now it’s all stirred up again after the murder by Minneapolis police of George Floyd where the nation’s conscience was truly moved to actually doing something about systemic racism that is pervasive and especially manifest through the violence visited upon ethic groups, especially African Americans.  States are finally removing Confederate monuments that were erected decades after the Civil War; policing policies are being changed all over the country.  Colin Kaepernick is actually in discussion with the Seattle Seahawks after 4 years of being exiled from the NFL for daring to protest actual and deadly police brutality.

And here we go again.  As the big athletic leagues finally retreat from their white supremacist stance in the name of unity, all the right-wingers on social media are most indignant about “disrespecting the flag” and other such drivel.  This is one of those subjects where everyone gets offended.  Right-wingers get pissed about people not standing at attention with hand over heart for the Star Spangled Banner, but then get oddly just as indignant when not allowed to wave the main flag of treason against the US, the Confederate battle flag.  I’m like, make up your fucking mind.  Do you support the US or treason? You can’t do both.

So, here’s my idea – Let’s just go back to the way it used to be…let’s just play ball and leave the jingoism at home.  No national anthem, no marching soldiers, no football-field-sized American flags, no cynical teary eyed reunions with Dad just home from active duty posing as the catcher for little Johnny to discover after the first pitch.  We can leave all the fighter jets in their hangars while their pilots can spend their weekends with family instead of smoke trailing flyovers over 100,000 drunk rednecks with blazing barbecue pits ready for NASCAR racers to drive in circles for hours in cars plastered with beer company and M&Ms advertisements.

Just dropping all these fake patriotic rituals would be a great relief for millions of us, not force professional athletes to choose between obedience and conscience, and would save thousands of hours of airtime on television, not to mention the millions of dollars spent by the US government showing off it’s latest example of overspending on new war toys.  And, how refreshing it would be to get baseball games back to under 4 hours.

Enough already.  Let’s just stop all this goofy jingoism.  Problem solved.

Our friend Kary found a real jewel that will make you smile with delight.

Chris Sevier has seen pornography but still wants to marry his computer. It’s real confusing.

Two people are suing the Mayor of Washington, DeeCee, because the Black Lives Matter “banner” is establishing a new religion.

The three folks suing are Pastor Rich Penkoski, attorney Chris Sevier, who sued Apple a few years ago because its computer let him access pornography, and Tex Christopher, who is identified as “a former bull rider” but I don’t think there’s any “former” to it – he’s still riding bull all over the damn place.

Go on – enjoy yourself and read it all.

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Goodness sake.  If you go to Trump’s pro-virus Junetenth rally in Tulsa, you have to get a reservation.

To get a reservation, you have to sign this:

Okay, if the virus is under control or gone away, why do people have to sign away their legal rights to go to the Trump rally?

Thanks to everybody for the heads up.

This is an honest-to-gosh email I got today.

Trump is complaining about ugly protesters. As America’s -and the World’s Most Dangerous Beauty Salon, it’s your obvious responsibility to provide beauty tips for demonstrators.

Peter

I take my beauty mission very seriously, Peter, and while I generally don’t feel any responsibility for Trump’s vision of beauty (I mean, have you seen his Christmas decorations?) (And those ties, ferpetesake), I do feel a duty to insure that America’s streets are filled with wowza! people.

I have fretted over this all morning. Coming up with something that wears well on all races, genders, body shapes, and ages is not an easy task. If it were, there would be no need for highly trained and fantastically expensive people like me.

But I think I have roughed-out a plan. It’s still in the toddler stage, but I think it just might work.

Demonstrate naked.

Now, now, don’t get carried away before I explain the benefits.  The human body is beautiful.  It’s a work of art. I’ve been to museums; I know these things.

Wear nothing but your name and your lawyer’s phone number written on your arm.  And a mask.

Think of the benefits.  First we can get America used to seeing bodies without immediately thinking nasty. Second, it’s hot out there and the cops are wearing seventeen layers of clothes. Who’s gonna pass out first?

Third, it’s easy to see you don’t have a weapon so the use of unnecessary force will look even worse for the cameras. Here are these guys looking like the offspring of Darth Vader and The Terminator. And here you are looking innocent as the day you were born.

But the main reason:  You cannot out-camo or out-ammo them.

And the last reason:  Honor thou hippie grandparents.