PRAYER FOR PEACE MEMORIAL DAY UPDATES

One Can – and Should – Follow the Other as We Remember Those Who Laid Their Lives and Selves for The Best of This Country

-While most of us think of this weekend as the more-or-less start of summer (and I know I did, with last week taken over with grading, lobbying for a minimum adjunct wage for university teachers, getting my deck set up with cleaning and plants, and a nasal allergy hammering me), this is one of the days set aside to, as it says in the holiday, memorialize the day for those who have served.

-As a kid who was too young to be drafted for Vietnam and not young enough for the various Iraq War excursions, this was a big deal of a day for my father, who was a medic in World War II and became a commander of American Legion Post 2 in Cleveland, OH. It was one of the days he would dust off his Legion hat and talk, briefly, about what he did (which included liberating a prison/consecration camp). Always the service or parade first, then the grill and the hot dogs.

-Thus, a ton of my disdain for the current and former President lies in the now well-established stories of Trump’s utter disdain for anyone everyone who has served – the “What’s in it for them?” remark to John Kelly (corroborated by multiple witnesses), the story of dressing-down failson Donald Trump Jr. when Junior said he wanted to enlist, the disgraceful disrespect shown by appointing open drunks and incompetents to running Defense and the Joint Chiefs, and never attending ceremonies when soldiers’ remains are returned to the United States (something Joe Biden always did and continues to do, even with his cancer diagnosis.

-It gives a bit of context to the most recent Depends-dumping Trump did over the weekend …

-On Saturday, Trump as the Commander-in-Chief attended the graduation ceremonies at West Point – and he did not disappoint in carrying on his tradition of suck towards the military. It began by showing up wearing one of his goddamed MAGA hats and never taking it off – even during the playing of the National Anthem, where he tried to play Commandante by “saluting” during the song (like he did with the Arab Sheikhs and Kim Jong Un) – and then taking his hand down before the song ended.

-The cadets then had to listen to an hours’ worth of droneprattling by Trump, in which he celebrated the newest graduates of America’s pre-eminent military institution by … bragging about being more persecuted than “Alphonse Capone,” discussing the ins and outs of marrying trophy wives, incongruously calling the graduates “winners,” and continuing his can’t-stop-won’t-stop attacks on President Biden by telling the graduates they are helping “rebuild” the military that Biden tore down … apparently not realizing that the graduating class sitting before him all, y’know, ENLISTED WHILE BIDEN WAS PRESIDENT.

-Not content with heaping enough disrespect there, this morning in one of his patented all-cap social media screeds, Trump posted, removed, and then reposted a block-text holiday “message” in which Trump bellowghosttyped giving greetings to “SCUM,” “WARPED RADICAL LEFT MINDS” “USA HATING JUDGES” (that protect rapists released from prisons around the world to the streets of America because of Biden) and “MONSTERS WHO WANT OUR COUNTRY TO GO TO HELL.” Amazingly, that last statement did not include his administration, although projection is a mental health situation …

-After all that, and another presentation at Arlington Memorial Cemetery this morning (I know, even I wish he was golfing), Trump took a few more posts to continue his attack on Harvard University. When we last left that, Trump attempted to Declare by the Power of his Sharpie and Steak House Menu-Covered Proclamations that Harvard could not allow foreign students to enroll there anymore – a declaration a Federal court slapped down before lunch the day after he showed us the signature like a big boy after doing a good potty.

-That only seemed to make Dear Leader grumpier, as he claimed Harvard was now teaching remedial math classes for students who “could not add two plus two” (and no, nobody followed up by asking Trump if he knew what 2 + 2 equals) and started nonsensically demanding Harvard send the U.S. a list of all the foreign students. (That list is available because all students have to, at a minimum, have visas in order to be in the U.S.)

-The attacks are absolutely of a pattern, and attacks on universities is a bedrock of Project 2025 and a pet project of Presidential Intern J.D. Vance – but it is also yet another example of Trumpian overreach and Harvard’s own assessment which showed fighting Trump is actually cheaper than capitulating (COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY), not to mention the Trump anger at the school for reportedly rejecting Barron Trump in (along with Columbia – HMMMM …) but allowing Trump’s Biggest Mortal Enemy, Barack Obama, in.

-Fight on Harvard! Fight! Fight! Fight!

-It being a long weekend, and me having to catch up a bit, domestic issues are not the only ones where Trump has been postwhining and snivelanswering about issues that he may only be worsening with his opinions demand to always be at the center of everything. Over the weekend, Russian drone and missile attacks on Ukraine and Kyiv (apparently connected with the anniversary of the founding of that city) have intensified in rate and scope, with tens of civilians killed and wounded in the battles. And in a somewhat curious set of circumstances, Trump commented that while he trusts Vladimir Putin (cue the Trump fist-pump-to-hide-a-defecation dance move), Trump – DONALD TRUMP – actually said he thought Putin’s most recent attacks made Putin seem like he has “gone absolutely crazy!”

-Given what we have been told intelligence sources around the world understand about the Putin/Trump relationship, what we have all seen about Trump’s utter deference to Putin and near-word-for-word fealty to say and do what Putin wants, the last few days of posts and statements are … curious. Is Putin actually trying to run a good cop/bad cop play where Trump is the good cop? Is Trump’s mental deterioration finally seeping into the one relationship he has never until the last two days (and even then mildly) broached to try to sully? Are there others in the White House (y’know, the people running this shite show) actually trying to nudge the relationship towards defending Ukraine at long last?

-All we know is, the war Putin started will not stop until Putin loses or is forced to start – and with continued reports of what Russian troops there still are amassing around the city of Kharkiv and Ukranians continuing to get additional support from a united European Union close to releasing frozen Russian assets to Ukraine, this summer looks to continue to be intense, albeit with a possible bit of space between Russia and Trump.

-SLAVA UKRAINI!

-And if by now you’re thinking, “Okay, even for Trump, this is getting really wacky – is Trump okay?!” some folks are starting to ask (see Rep. Jasmine Crockett, Heroine, this weekend). That is prompting the White House to react in a way totally in line with what you think they would do – they have taken down all the transcripts of all of Trump’s remarks since he has returned to the White House. Of course this is Not Legal, but recognize that it is also being done for tangible reasons. They could be nefarious and occasionally bizarre, but as always, take note …

-Thanks to getting to this update now and not late last week, only now do I get to last Thursday, which was arguably the best day in the Trump Presidency – and if it was a good day for him, it was a crap day for everyone else – and it was. Because the day started early Thursday by the MAGA House eking out a 215-214 “win” of the Big Pile of Dung budget bill that strips $1.3 billion worth of funding for Medicaid, Medicare (through budgetary triggering mechanism), food stamp programs and transferring those monies to the Musk/Bezos/Thiel/Zuckerberg bank accounts.

-And that’s just the start of the hideousness of the “bill,” as other provisions virtually criminalize any positive medical treatment to trans citizens (while fully funding “conversion therapy” programs), reportedly insulate the administration from being sued or being stopped by the judiciary from doing what they want, more provisions to make it difficult for anyone not a white Christian male of means to vote – it’s an 1,100+ page “budget bill,” after all, and may very well be the only piece of legislation “passed” by MAGA and Trump. (Not to mention that the monstrosity adds nearly $4 trillion to the budget deficit.)

-Now, the Big Bill O’Crap goes to the Senate, and it must either be passed with at least 50 votes and the Intern’s tie-breaker (this is not connected to the Chuck Schumer bend-over from earlier in the year, by the way), or four GOP Senators have to actually vote no on it, or the Senate would make modifications to the bill to then take it to a conference committee. And what few sane Republicans are out there are fully aware that this bill’s passage would likely combine with the STUPIPSTUPID MAGAGOPTrump Tariffs (and we got news on that too!), Trump finally reminding everyone who isn’t MAGA (which is the wide majority of the country) why he sucked before, and the traditional second-term suckage that most second Presidential terms are, would likely make 2026 (and the rest of 2025) a potential electoral cataclysm, vote-fixing or not (and remember, states still control Congressional elections and will) all dictate modifying the bill.

-The problem is that, in the words of one anonymous Senate staffer, what few sane Republicans may be out there are flat-out too intimidated to stop Trump – either from a cap-locked career-ending social media post or actual physical threats reportedly being made against Congresspeople by MAGAts. (The rest are in on the grift.)

-It is why only two House GOPers voted NO while two others voted “present” and one more did not to get them to 215, and while four Republican Senators have actually named themselves as opposing the bill (the four being Lindsay Graham, Ron Johnson, Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul), the bill has become another litmus test in which Republicans must tell Trump how virile and thin he is and how large his sex organ is and how they would give him a granddaughter for the benefit of Trump’s wee tiny hands … so, keep making noise, but … y’know …

-All that happened early in the day Thursday, and at the end of the day Thursday, he held a dinner at the Mar-a-Lago compound of 200 people who have invested in Trump’s cryptocurrency and bought their spot with a several hundred-thousand-dollar a plate “investment.” There is no list of attendees (though one person who was identified was, oddly enough, former Los Angeles Laker and Kardashian-dater Lamar Odom), though several took photos of the ‘dinner’ served – a pathetic pile of burnt filet mignon, barely-browned halibut, steamed frozen vegetables and thin gravy served on ¼ of the size of the china it was served on.

-As for the quaint idea that this entire dinner sures as shootin’ seems like a really grotesque form of corruption, perish the thought! God knows Trump spokesblonde Karoline Leavitt (we’ll make this the Petty Atrocity of today’s post) did, as she tossed away the suggestion by saying the dinner happened while Trump was “on private time.”

-Naturally, there is no such thing as being “off” the job as President – heck, if a President needs to be knocked out for a dental procedure the Vice President takes the oath temporarily, just in case – but such is where we are that the open marketplace of pleasing Trump was on full display Thursday. (That it is happening with the notoriously volatile crypto market should provide some solace, in that so many if not most of those folks will lose their shirts with their Trump-vestments, including and at the top of the list, Trump and The Failsons themselves).

-One person who apparently did not attend that ‘dinner,’ however, was Apple CEO Tim Cook. That, it is believed, may have been a motivator for Trump to take out his Tariff Power! Post and arbitrarily demand Apple make iPhones in the U.S. by the end of this week or be forced to have iPhones stamped with 25% tariffs. To perhaps cover that, or because Trump felt a bit manly (for him), Trump then put a 50% tariff on all European Union products – but a call from the head of the EU made Trump “declare victory” with one of his patented 90-day “delays.” The move roiled the markets, again brought the idea of market manipulation into question by a handful of Legacy Media, Inc. commentators not being forced to deal with the Jake Tapper BIDEN B OLD gossip book the rest of them are needing to, and reminded everyone that this summer is likely to be economically bumpy.

-Again, I missed a few issues here – the horrific murder of two young Israeli diplomats at the Holocaust Museum by someone reportedly with an anti-Israel ‘manifesto,’ the head-in-hands ignorantly racist attempt by Trump to shame the President of South African into admitting non-existent ‘genocide’ on white South African farmers using photos taken in Congo, too-rich Democratic funders holing up in a swank DC hotel trying to find (I shite you not) “the Democratic Joe Rogan,” and the decision to stop making pennies – and one more trip for plants is beckoning me, but before I do on this American holiday, I want to take a moment to give everyone inspiration by looking to … British soccer?!

-Because one other thing that made this post a little late for me was to celebrate my adopted English Premiere League football team, Tottenham Hotspur, win the Europa Cup – the first competition of its kind I have celebrated with them since NBC started broadcasting games and finding that was the favorite team of the husband of a dear friend who was a Cubs fan! The Cup was the first cup Spurs won in 17 years and the first European cup it won in 41 years, and that was a trend in British football this year. The winners of the League (now Carabao) Cup was Newcastle United, and that was the first title that team had won in 70 years – but that was topped by the FA Cup won by Crystal Palace, which is the first Cup that Palace had won ever, and “ever” was since its founding in 1861!

-The moral? Keep working, keep seeking glory, keep going – hopefully not for over 100 years or even 17 (though arguably we have been fighting Trump since 2015) – because when the win happens, it will be worth it and glorious.

-Here’s to Memorial Day. Now for the day’s trivia …

-EVENTS ON THIS DATE: In 1521, Martin Luther was declared a heretic. In 1868, Andrew Jackson survived his second impeachment vote. In 1908, oil was discovered in the Middle East. In 1927, the Ford Motor Company ended production of the Model T. In 1940, Britain began evacuating troops from Dunkirk, France. In 1990, the top five positions on the Billboard Hot 100 were held by female artists for the first time (the artists: Madonna, Heart, Sinead O’Connor, Wilson Phillips, and Janet Jackson).

-DEBUTS ON THIS DATE: The Dow Jones Industrial Average (1896), DRACULA (1897), Actors Equity Association (1913), the 24 Hours of Le Mans auto race (1923), The House Un-American Activities Committee (1938), “Twist and Shout” (1962), Guyana (1966), SGT. PEPPERS LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND (1967), the SALT nuclear arms limitation treaty (1972), KISS ME KISS ME KISS ME (1987).

-HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Isadora Duncan, Al Jolson, Dorothea Lange, Estes Kefauver, Robert Morley, Peter Cushing, Peggy Lee, James Arness, Roy Dotrice, Miles Davis, Jim Frey, Joe Altobelli, Monkey Punch, Brent Musburger, Levon Helm, Mick Ronson, Stevie Nicks, Dan Pastorini, Jeremy Corbyn, Pam Grier, Philip Michael Thomas, Sally Ride, Masaharu Morimoto, Margaret Colin, Tarsem Singh, Bobcat Goldthwait, Genie Francis, Lenny Kravitz, Helena Bonham Carter, and Matt Stone.

-REST IN PEACE/REST IN POWER: Jimmy Rodgers, Allan Lockheed, Martin Heidegger, Tom Eyen, Friz Freling, Severn Darden, Eddie Albert, Sydney Pollack, Art Linkletter, Jim Bunning, Zbignew Brzezinski, Bart Starr, Alan White, Andy Fletcher, Ray Liotta, and today, Charles Rangel.

-FEED THE WORMS: Flag-humping nepo baby Hank Williams Jr. entered Earth on this date.

-John Wayne, Jack Kevorkian and Zola Budd were born on this date. You decide if they get Happy Birthdays or if they Feed the Worms.

-THIS DATE IN CULTURE: The Number One Novel in the U.S. on this date … in 2025, A CURSE CARVED IN BONE by Daniell L. Jensen … in 2015, 14^th DEADLY SIN by James Patterson … in 2005, 4^th OF JULY by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro … in 1995, THE RAINMAKER by John Grisham … in 1985, IF TOMORROW COMES by Sidney Sheldon … and in 1975, THE MONEYCHANGERS by Arthur Hailey.

-TODAY’S MUSIC INTERLUDE: Happy Birthday to Lauryn Hill!