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Wednesday, July 1, 2026

Post #7748 M: Trump Blames Vandals for Slashing Reflecting Pool; Is AI Really Taking All the Jobs?; Why AI Is Not Taking Your Job

 Quote of the Day

An order that can be misunderstood 
will be misunderstood.
Napoleon Bonaparte  

Trump Blames Vandals for Slashing Reflecting Pool

Is AI Really Taking All the Jobs? 

Why AI Is Not Taking Your Job

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Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Michael DeAdder via Politico 

Musical Interlude: 1964 Top 100 Hits

 Navy Blue - Diane Renay

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Tuesday, June 30, 2026

Post #7747 Commentary: A Clear Case of Trump Fatigue

 I've made it clear throughout the history of the blog and my Twitter/X accounts that I have an utter political and personal rejection of Trump. I'm sure that Trumpkins believe that I have Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS). I don't think so. It is true that I've published thousands of critical tweets and probably well over a dozen critical blog posts, only a few of which are positive, but nearly all are reactions to things he (or his Trumpkins) says or does. My position is more nuanced. 

Let me provide some context for the distinction. More recently, my X feed has been swamped with personally pro-Trump and anti-Trump tweets. One dealt with the Epstein controversy,  something I really haven't blogged or tweeted about, in particular, allegations of pedophilia. As a Catholic blogger, I've occasionally had to write about a related controversy, the sexual abuse of minors by a small number of predatory priests. Clerics, like my beloved late maternal uncle, a priest, take a lifelong vow of chastity. As someone who once seriously considered the priesthood as a profession, I didn't need a lecture about priests who violate their vows with the abomination of sexual exploitation of vulnerable children. The Church has historically mismanaged the scandal by trying to contain it, emphasizing due process concerns of suspect clerics, and the redeployment of "rehabilitated" priests.  I don't like the virtue-signaling of anti-Catholic bigots using the scandal to rationalize their perspective. The sexual exploitation of children is not merely or distinctly a "Catholic" phenomenon (like Psychology Today reminds us)

The relevant Trump item was an anti-Trump tweet referring to Trump as a pedophile. I felt the way I often feel in response to leftist personal attacks. I don't like being put in a position where I almost feel compelled to defend Trump, e.g., "Trump should spend the rest of his life in prison". I have a more nuanced view. Trump is not above the law and should be accountable for his actions. But he has the presumption of innocence and his day in court, a right to due process, and the right to be tried by a jury of his peers. Trials require objective evidence, not presumptuous allegations. (I still recall a job incident from the early 80's. I've mentioned it earlier in the blog. I had a Trump-like boss, BB, in the early 80's; I was working for a now-defunct APL timesharing business, typically with local branches with up to a dozen or two tech employees, sales guys. administrative assistants and a branch manager. BB didn't like commuting to the heavily congested Houston loop. The company had agreed to let him relocate the branch to a location near his home in the NW Houston suburbs. Only (and I'm not sure why the parent company agreed to this) BB planned his own business team of female programmers; if you think he was an enlightened employer, think again: his own business model assumed that he could employ women cheaper and arbitrage the difference to his advantage. I had to set the stage to explain my bizarre termination. Apparently,  he bought some used office furniture for his still-unhired female staff, but confiscated my functional chair during the move and replaced it with a broken-caster chair. He caught me retrieving my old chair and fired me on the spot. His corporate boss knew and liked me, and I tried to find  a way of reporting directly to him. People with my skills were hard to find. I'm sure that to him, it seemed insane that I was fired over a chair, and BB concocted some way to explain my termination. His boss never mentioned the specifics but he kept asking me about my interactions with Mrs. BB. The fact is, I only met her in passing once: she had brought chain-bought doughnuts to a branch office open house.  I don't recall anything beyond a brief introduction. To this day, I have no clue why the boss mentioned her, but I suspect BB invented some misconduct on my part involving his wife.

Another example of a lie at my expense involved Oracle Tech Support duty managers who hated me with a passion. I can still remember my Oracle Consulting practice manager one day calling me, saying a duty manager was calling him and offering to help my boss recruit my replacement if he would just fire me. Why were they pissed? Basically, most of the analysts I dealt with were inexperienced, just out of college. If I had an experienced analyst, I would have gotten my answer in 5 minutes. Otherwise, the analysts would review internal knowledge bases;  most prospective fixes were completely irrelevant to my problem statement. A number of the analysts would go through the query results serially, with endless telephone tag. I was dealing with production databases and defects that caused real-world problems. If you push back on junior analysts, you risk having the iTAR closed unresolved. So it wasn't SOP, but I would sometimes escalate the issue to senior analysts--which duty managers hated.

But the incident I'll never forget was when I worked as the corporate DBA for a Japanese-owned computer memory testing subsidiary in Santa Clara around 2000. My boss was visiting a branch facility in another state, and the corporate switchboard connected me to a hostile Oracle duty manager who had no clue his call had been routed to me instead of my boss. It was one of the weirdest experiences of my life, hearing a duty manager screaming about me he thought behind my back. If you've never heard someone spread libelous lies directly to you, it's surreal. In this guy's delusion, one of his young female analysts was allegedly subjected to my profanity-filled meltdown and personal attack that reduced her to an emotional mess, so unable to work, he had to send her home for the day. I know for a fact that never happened. As a DBA, I have to deal with stress all the time. I have a reputation for being soft-spoken and unflappable on the job. (I remember holding my tongue at the Chicago Park District when a visiting project DBA told my boss right in front of me that he should fire me.)  So I told the duty manager that he was talking about me. The dude was initially confused, then transitioned, doubling down with a direct personal attack. I had no clue what he was talking about, maybe a case of mistaken identity, or maybe face-saving getting caught in the act. The guy then bluffed that he's got "proof" (maybe a recorded phone call?), but I'm like "Dude, you can't possibly have proof  of something that never happened."

So these are examples of when other people lied about me; I know there are Epstein-related references to a 13-year-old girl who allegedly was intimate with Trump, biting his penis. But, like the Kavanaugh allegation, I was not aware of any related confirmatory evidence. I did not expect my tweet to satisfy those convinced that Trump's sexual crimes were enabled by Epstein. I was well aware that others might read my reply as a Trumpkin or an attack on "Me Too" -ism.  It's similar to how I feel when I tweet about the Catholic sex abuse scandal. I'm not in doubt that there are real-world crimes against sex victims. Sure enough, someone replied to my tweet, arguing effectively it was more than one accusation and effectively, where there's smoke, there's fire. Sigh, I made my point.

A similar point on another impeachment/trial of Trump. Am I for Trump's impeachment? It depends on the charge and the evidence. I've been clear that his tariff wars and his military interventions (Iran and Venezuela) were unconstitutional. I thought that Trump abused his pardon power on J6 defendants.        

I don't necessarily want to see an 80-year-old die in prison, but I do think he should be held accountable for his crimes, whether that means a lenient sentence or Presidential clemency. The TDS leftists are routinely rating or confirming him as the worst  POTUS ever. I believe that he has been, at best. a mediocre POTUS at best. But, as bad as Trump is, there are others even worse. Lincoln was responsible for over a million Americans killed or wounded; he also violated constitutional rights.

So what is it about Trump that repels me to the point of insulting him routinely in tweets, like "RINO Felon-in-Chief" or "Asshole-in-Chief"? In part, it's his toxic, abusive. bullying, hypocritical personality. He is hypersensitive to criticism; he'll call lifelong principled Republicans like Tom Massie  RINO" (Republicans in Name Only, a routine insult usually reserved for moderate Republicans, typically from the Northeast). What particularly makes it obnoxious is that he initially ran for the Reform Party's Presidential nomination and was a registered Democrat in the 2000's, donating to Democratic campaigns and even supporting both Clinton and Obama in 2008. He has gone on literally his own platform (Truth Social) to launch unfair personal attacks on anyone who offends him for whatever reason. It's not just his obnoxious juvenile name-calling (like "Sleepy Joe" Biden). He's gone after the livelihoods of late-night comedians and has directly ridiculed or insulted reporters. He has specifically abused his position to go after others in his way, like politically independent Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook. He has abused his authority to use the Justice Department hypocritically to go after  Bolton.. Letitia James, James Comey, Adam Schiff, and Jean Carroll, among others. Trump has insulted foreign leaders, even picked sides in foreign elections (e.g., Hungary). He has repeatedly gone after NATO allies, more recently, especially his attempts to acquire Greenland or other partners refusing to provide logistical support for his Iran War.

A lot of my dismay deals with my strong support for free trade and immigration, and my opposition to his prolific unconstitutional executive orders and unconstitutional wars/meddling (Venezuela and Iran). I am furious with how his ICE thugs went after protesters in Minnesota and elsewhere. It goes beyond his xenophobic rhetoric, scapegoating immigrants as criminals or mentally ill, falsely arguing that they were milking the social welfare net benefits 

I'm just tired of Trump constantly testing the limits of his constitutionally limited office. I'm tired of his constant hype of exaggerated economic claims (even firing a government statistician over worsening job numbers). It's like constantly playing Whac-a-Mole. I'm tired of hearing him play the victim card over Russiagate and his failed 2020 election. I'm tired of his obsession with controlling state elections. I'm tired of his divisive leadership. I have Trump fatigue.

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Post #7746 M: Trump Throws 16-Day Celebration for America's 250th; The Federal Welfare System Is Designed to Waste Your Money;

 Quote of the Day

Accept responsibility for your life. 
Know that it is you who will get you where you want to go, 
no one else. 
Les Brown  

Trump Throws 16-Day Celebration for America's 250th

The Federal Welfare System Is Designed to Waste Your Money

The Billionaire Wealth Tax: A Recipe for Economic Disaster

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Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Pat Bagley via Politico

Musical Interlude: 1964 Top 100 Hits

Baby I Need Your Loving - Four Tops

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Monday, June 29, 2026

Post #7745 M: Mamdani’s Endorsements Sweep NY Primaries; McClanahan on The 14th Amendment Strikes Again; Noah Smith: I owe libertarians an apology

 Quote of the Day

In men of the highest character and noblest genius 
there is to be found an insatiable desire for 
honour, command, power, and glory.
Cicero 

Mamdani’s Endorsements Sweep NY Primaries

McClanahan on The 14th Amendment Strikes Again

Noah Smith: I owe libertarians an apology

Choose Life

Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Lisa Benson via Politico

Musical Interlude: 1964 Top 100 Hits

Keep On Pushing - Impressions

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Sunday, June 28, 2026

Post #7744 Social Media Digest

 X/Twitter

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Post #7743 M: Jimmy explains the U.S. & Iran negotiations in #Trump’s own words; McClanahan on The Reflecting Pool Pyschosis; Texan Fights Back Against Construction Dumpster Monopoly

 Quote of the Day

When a true genius appears in this world 
you may know him by this sign, 
that the dunces are all in confederacy against him. 
Jonathan Swift  

Jimmy explains the U.S. & Iran negotiations in #Trump’s own words

McClanahan on The Reflecting Pool Pyschosis

Texan Fights Back Against Construction Dumpster Monopoly

Choose Life

Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Michael Ramirez via Politico

Musical Interlude: 1964 Top 100 Hits

The Beatles - Do you want to know a secret

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Saturday, June 27, 2026

Post #7742 J

 Endemic Report

CDC weekly stats:





The Sick Times:



Now that we are officially in summer, no compelling evidence of a summer wave yet, although there are signs of the virus spreading in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida. Two major stories over the past week: the research favorable to the effectiveness of recent COVID vaccines, suppressed by the acting CDC director Jay Bhattacharya due to his ideological rejection of the use of negative test design, has been independently published by a respected medical journal, and Republicans look to exploit departing DNI Chief document dump relevant to the lab leak hypothesis and obsessive scapegoating of Dr. Fauci' alleged coverup by Rand Paul, Comer, Peter Navarro and others (Fauci has not volunteered to testify.).

COVID-related news items:

Other Notes

The blog statistics roughly doubled over the past week. I did publish my first June essay and am working on a second. X reports 1.7K impressions over the past week

I think both Hallmark and Great American Family got an early start on Christmas in July, though it's somewhat nuanced in Hallmark's case; for example, tonight's prime movie is a summer movie. Hallmark started out on a good note with 3 favorites: ' A Bride for Christmas'. 'The Most Wonderful Time of Year', and 'Christmas with Holly'.

I no longer follow WWE PLE's live because ESPN tripled the subscription price. But 2 promising results. They finally put the "undisputed" title on Sami Zayn.. and Oba Femi won King of the Ring. The latter is interesting because, in theory, he could challenge Reigns or Zayn for their belts, but it's widely expected Lesnar will battle Femi in a rubber match at SummerSlam for a likely final match on his home venue. It is possible, however, that a freed-up Gunther could reinstate his career-killer gimmick in a long-anticipated dream match against Lesnar. I think they could be eyeing a Reigns/Rollins clash for the World belt.
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