Music Video Of the Week - April 24, 2026

"Comin’ In And Out Of Your Life" by Barbra Streisand  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Sic Semper Tryannis

 Virginia lived up to its state motto this week. 

The state responded to efforts by Trump to have Republicans gerrymander enough U.S. House districts nationally to give the GOP an edge in the 2026 midterms.  Virginia voters had the opportunity to temporarily repeal a state constitutional provision requiring redistricting to be done in a bipartisan manner to allow the Democrats to gerrymander House districts and gain a greater advantage in mid-cycle redrawing of the congressional maps.  There are currently six Democrats and five Republicans in the Virginia's U.S. House delegation.

This week, the voters in the Old Dominion gave the state the authority to gerrymander the state in favor of the Democrats.  Trump's and the Republican Party's efforts to rig the system to keep the Republicans in control of the House in January 2027 and prevent congressional investigations into the administration can now be best described as . . . "failed." 

The temporary provision approved in Virginia is facing a legal challenge in the state Supreme Court.  But the odds are in the Democrats ' favor that the position will remain in force through the 2030 census.  

Thus be it always to tyrants.

Thinking Small Again?

I need a break from the current news cycle. I'd like to talk instead about one of my favorite topics - Volkswagen.

Kjell Gruner, president and CEO of Volkswagen of America (which marked its seventy-first anniversary yesterday),  assured die-hard Volkswagen enthusiasts that, despite the fact that five out of six Volkswagen vehicles sold in the U.S. are sport utility vehicles, the Golf and the Jetta will remain in VW's American lineup.  Gruner called them the two compacts the soul of the brand.

That  is all good and fine - at least it sounds all good and fine - but, last time I checked, the base version of Volkswagen's eighth-generation Golf (above) is still unavailable, as the current Golf - available here and in Canada in GTI and R form only - concludes its fifth model year in the New World, while the current Jetta (below), the seventh-generation model, has been on the market for eight years with the occasional facelift and upgrading.

I guess that's better than nothing, as the 2020s have mostly been a nothing decade for Volkswagen enthusiasts in the U.S. and Canada.  The decade began with the lack of a modern Beetle (and no convertible), the decision to drop the base Golf from the New World, and a pandemic that made Volkswagens difficult to produce thanks to supply-chain disruptions.  It continued with the termination of the Passat and the debut of the incredibly boring Taos compact SUV.  And while Europeans continue to get new and exciting electric vehicles, we have only gotten the ID.4 SUV and the ID. Buzz minivan - the latter taking a break for 2026 because VW dealers still have plenty of 2025 models in stock because it's too damn expensive.  The Passat-sized ID.7 electric sedan was canceled when it became apparent that U.S. government support for EVs was fleeting, and it will likely remain unavailable even if a Democrat is elected President in 2028.  The Golf GTI and Golf R remain too expensive for many VW customers, leaving the Jetta as our only recourse.  

And the biggest news for 2026 is a second-generation Atlas full-size SUV. That's what Volkswagen highlighted at the New York Auto Show in 2026. And that was another reason for me not to bother with the show this year, frankly.  

For the time being, the Jetta will return Volkswagen to its roots.  The car will be improved under the hood and under the floor with updated engines, fuel injectors, shocks and suspension as well as inside the car with better ambient lighting and controls, while the styling, already more conservative than a Heritage Foundation policy paper, will remain unchanged.  In other words, it will be how the Beetle evolved in the U.S. for thirty years.  Volkswagen of America ought to reprise its ad for the 1962 Volkswagen showing a blank page and explaining the car's non-visual improvements to sell next year's Jetta.

And it might not be our only realistic choice for long.  With production costs rising in Germany, and with an all-electric ninth-generation Golf (which, like the ID.3, will likely be forbidden fruit in These States) still a couple of years away, Volkswagen is actually planning to produce the current Golf in Mexico for the European market.  That's like Ford producing the Mustang for in Japan for Americans.   But Volkswagen deems it necessary to reduce production costs and make the Wolfsburg factory more devoted to EVs. 

Now bear with me here.  Part of the reason the base Golf was dropped from the North American market with the debut of the eighth generation (that does not only include Canada, it includes Mexico, and Mexico doesn't get any eighth-generation Golfs, not even the high-performance variants) was because VW had decided to produce the Mark 8 Golf exclusively in Wolfsburg and not in the Mexican factory at Puebla.  Puebla had been sourcing the Mark 7 Golf to North America because it was cheaper than exporting them to North America from Wolfsburg, as had been the case with the fifth- and sixth-generation cars.  But with the shift of Golf production back to Germany, restricting the Golf to only its high-performance variants in North America was the only thing that made sense to VW from an economic standpoint, considering the base Golf's lack of popularity in North America beyond VW's die-hard customer base.  So if the eighth-generation Golf is going to be made in Mexico for Europeans, and the Golf GTI and Golf R will be made for North America in Puebla as well . . . why not bring the base Golf back to North America, when it will inevitably be cheaper to make?  VW is playing the same game with SUVs that every other automaker doing business on this continent is playing - that is, make 'em bigger and more expensive.  But if Kjell Gruner really does want VW to remain true to its roots, maybe, just maybe, the base Golf can return to North American dealerships.

Volkswagen ought to consider taking advantage of this opportunity to bring the base Golf back to North America while continuing with the Jetta.  Both cars are economical and easy on gas, and at a time when affordability and a possible oil crisis are the top issues of the day, having affordable small cars available is good for Volkswagen, just as it can only be good for Toyota, Honda and Hyundai.   Admittedly, we wouldn't get the array of engine choices for the base Golf that Europeans get and have gotten for decades, but maybe VW might want to consider returning to the hybrid market in light of  U.S. transportation policy backtracking on EVs.  I drove the base Mark 8 Golf with an eTSI hybrid setup in Germany, and it performed as well as my Mark 6 Golf.  I loved it.  Former Volkswagen of America CEO Scott Keogh famously said that Volkswagen stood for affordability, and fuel-efficient, inexpensive compact cars are always the way for Volkswagen to go.

Come on, Volkswagen of America, think small again.

(Oh yeah, I'm still keeping my Mark 6 Golf for the foreseeable future.)

Strait Jacket

When Iran got attacked, the Iranians took control of and closed the Strait of Hormuz, Trump responded by . . . blocking it?  A blockade of a strait that was already closed?  So no one could pay tolls to the Iranian government that Trump promised he would help the Iranian people overthrow? Blocking blockers?  That don't even make good nonsense.

Then Iran opened the Strait of Hormuz yesterday and Trump said the war would be over soon.  The stock market jumped.  But Trump never bothered to lift the U.S. blockade on the strait, so . . . Iran closed the strait again today and . . . well, apparently Trump made a killing off the killing by manipulating the market and then saying he plans to bomb Iran again soon.

Well, I've long since stopped trying to make sense out of all this, but I know that as long as the strait is closed, the Persian Gulf is the maritime equivalent of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory - no one goes in, no one comes out.  And since so many resources that make modern civilization function, including oil and helium, come out of the Gulf region, it means that much of the West and a good deal of the rest of the world will suffer really severe shortages of almost everything.  And given Iran's newfound power in the region and the United States' lost credibility, the Omanis and the Emiratis ought to consider a canal across the Musandam Peninsula to bypass the strait . . . though it would take at least a decade or so to even plan it before they could start building it.

Trump won't live long enough to deal with a long-term Iranian domination of the strait.  And that's assuming he even lives to see January 2029. 

Music Video Of the Week - April 17, 2026

"Ebony Eyes" by Bob Welch  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.) 

No Orbán Renewal

After sixteen years of unparalleled power, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (below) and his party were voted out of office, with opposition leader Peter Magyar gaining a supermajority in Parliament and overwhelming Orbán's Fidesz party.

Magyar, a conservative who's not a nut about his conservatism (he's actually a former Orbán ally), plans to use his overwhelming power in Parliament to dismantle the very system that had kept Orbán in power for so long and had enriched Orbán and his toadies.  The corruption in the Hungarian government he initiated eventually brought down the Hungarian economy and gave people in the Central European country a sense of fatigue, and it caught up with him.  He lost despite - or maybe because of - U.S. Vice President Vance going to Hungary and campaigning for him and his Fidesz party. 

Given that, here in the States, Donald Trump has done in a year what it took Orbán over a decade to do - push the limits of power to the point where his countrymen have grown sick of him - you would expect the Democrats to be buoyed about regaining the Presidency against a MAGA Republican in 2028.  They likely are.  But they're likely pumping themselves up with false hope.  A recent focus group in upstate New York found that the Democratic rank-and-file used adjectives such as "lacking," "bruised," and "spineless" to define their party and their party leadership.  And this is true.  What more can you say about how pathetic and useless the Democratic leadership is - misguidedly thinking that they only have to wait out Trump and return to a renewal of collegial fellowship with the GOP - when the only American willing to stand up against Trump and call out his crap is this guy? 

Why did the Vatican choose and American to be the next Holy Father?  Isn't it obvious?? 

There are two other things to consider.  Hungary is a small country of about nine million people or so - about the same size as the population of New Jersey - and it's ethnically homogenous, so it's a country where the people are much more tied to each other culturally and politically than in These States.  Also, Hungary is a European country, and Europeans at large tend to be smarter than Americans, who are easily misled and misdirected.  How else could we have kept voting for supply-side economics - a theory dating back to the 1970s and the economic policy that enabled guys like Trump - for the past 45 years?  All right, I'll come out and say it - Americans are too stupid to deal with MAGA the way Hungarians dealt with Orbán.

And as for Pope Leo XIV, I'm seriously taking advantage of my status as a Catholic to go to the Vatican and plead sanctuary.

On the other hand, it looks like Analilia Mejia, the Democratic socialist, pro-Sanders candidate for the U.S. House in my district, will win the special election for the district's seat after all . . ..

Eric the Red-Faced - The End

Eric Swalwell was one of the most esteemed members of the U.S. House of Representatives.  He was prized for his attacks on Donald Trump.  He was one of the Democratic Party's most effective communicators.  And he was on a glide path to the governorship of California. 

Then the roof caved in.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported on Friday that Swalwell had raped a female staffer and had sexually assaulted three others, with one woman insisting the Swalwell had assaulted her twice - both times when she was drunk.  Swalwell denied the charges, apparently hoping that he could navigate the accusations and ride out the storm.  But the storm was already past riding out.  The incident involving the woman accusing Swalwell of assaulting her while drunk occurred in New York City, which led Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to launch investigation.  Several other women are alleged to have similar accusations against Swalwell as well.

All of this proved to be too much for Swalwell, who terminated his California gubernatorial campaign two days after the Chronicle's report, announced his intention to resign to avoid a congressional investigation three days after the Chronicle's report, and made good on his intentions four days after the Chronicle's report - right as Lonna Drewes, a former model who had sought help from Swalwell for her software firm, came forward to say that he had raped and choked her in a hotel room after he'd drugged her glass of wine in the hotel bar.  She claimed that Swalwell had raped her and even choked her, which sounds a good deal like something Bill Cosby would have done.

In fact, in this particular case, the accusation from Lonna Drewes is what I call the Beverly Johnson Coordinate, the point at which an accusation is so credible and so detailed, it must be true on top of all of the others that preceded it.  The Beverly Johnson Coordinate is named for the legendary fashion and beauty model who came forward with accusations of sexual assault against her by Bill Cosby and described the incident in great detail that more or less corroborated charges from earlier accusers.  Before then, I had dismissed claims of Bill Cosby sexually assaulting women as too wild to be believed.  But when Beverly Johnson - a model I had long had a crush on (she was one of a handful of black models who opened my eyes to how astonishingly beautiful black women can be) and a woman who I always knew to be someone of integrity - made the same accusations against Cosby, that's when Cosby lost me, as I explained back in December 2014.

(Aside: I saw Ms. Johnson's one-woman show about her career in February 2024.  She opened with a brief slide show of her most famous modeling photos.  It ended with a picture of Bill Cosby, to which Ms. Johnson said, "What a fucker!"  Her f-bomb got a positive response from the audience, including me.  Call it expletive-delighted.)

And so, once Lonna Drewes cam forward against Swalwell, it became impossible for anyone still defending him (if there were any such people left) to continue doing so. Ms. Drewes even claims to have notes from therapy sessions over the incident.  Swalwell's withdrawal statement included a denial of the accusations against him while apologizing for mistakes and bad judgment regarding . . . what?  That's just it, he doesn't say.  

Uh, anything you want to get off your chest now, Eric?  So the investigators don't have to pull it off first?

Compared to Swalwell's downfall, Al Franken's fall, pushed by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand to ignite her unignitable 2020 presidential campaign, was much more gradual.  Accusations of a tryst in Bimini in late March 1987 brought down Gary Hart's presidential campaign in a week.  Swalwell went from the top of the world to the bottom of the heap (from Mount Whitney to Death Valley, as it were, seeing that he's from California) in four days - a new record for a disgraced politician, unless Matt Gaetz somehow counts.  And Franken and Hart were forced out for not even having done one one-hundredth of what Swalwell has done.  Rumors of Swalwell's sexual misconduct, it turns out, have been circulating for years on Capitol Hill, so the rush of all this news is an unfortunate but well-deserved cap to his political career, which was sound and fury signifying hubris.  And by the way, Swalwell is not the only House member out the door - Representative Tony Gonzales, a Republican from Texas, also resigned after having admitted to an affair with a staffer who later committed suicide.

People may get the government they deserve, but we won't get the leaders we need until we demand better leaders that we deserve better from.  That goes for both parties.

Running Roughshod on Romanism

With Pete Hegseth prosecuting the war against Iran as a crusade against the Iran's extremist brand of Islam - no, make that all Islam - and Hegseth's own evangelical pastor railing against the Roman Catholic Church as being hostile to American values, Catholics who established partnerships with evangelicals in pursuit of common goals (like overturning Roe v. Wade)  suddenly found out that Christian nationalists like Hegseth and his pastor are anti-Catholic and anti-Vatican.

Hah - I figured that evangelicals and progressives had something in common!

The particular beef Donald Trump and his Christian nationalist allies had with the Church was Pope Leo XIV's opposition to the war against Iran apparently devolved into a threat in which the Pentagon warned the Holy See's ambassador to the United States, according to one source, that the U.S. "has the military power to do whatever it wants" - and if the pope knows what's good for him, he'd better acknowledge that and keep his damn trap shut.

I think it's time that Roman Catholics in the U.S., especially the extreme conservatives who voted for Trump thrice, realize that Trump is not their friend and, given his threat to end Persian civilization as well as force the pope to serve under the dominion of the American military machine in an arrangement not unlike the Avignon papacy in France, he is in fact the Antichrist.  You cannot serve the Holy Father in the Vatican and the Antichrist in the White House.  You cannot undermine your own values by establishing alliances with non-believers who wish you ill when the alliance no longer serves its purpose.  Catholics in the United States must renounce Trump, Trumpism and MAGA, even if it means the dissolution of the Union - which, as I've already argued here, is likely for the best.

And Trump chose the wrong religious patriarch to pick a fight with.  Let me remind you that Pope Leo is from Chicago . . . and he can play hardball as well as any alderman or machine boss. 

Iran Amok Again

At a pre-inaugural party for President-elect Ronald Reagan in January 1981, as the Iran hostage crisis was nearing its end - the American hostages were released on January 20, 1981, the day President Reagan was sworn in - Bob Hope, always one for a zinger that bordered on bad taste but was still trenchant, told the following joke: "What's big, sandy, and glows in the dark?  Iran, after Reagan's inaugurated." 

Ronald Reagan, of course, had no intention of nuking anyone, viewing nuclear weapons as a bargaining chip in which to negotiate with the United States' adversaries - "Peace is only achieved by a projection of strength" - in hammering out a treaty.  Like the Flintstones" character the Great Gazoo and his button for destroying the universe, Reagan never had any intention of using the U.S. nuclear arsenal.  He just liked the idea of having one.

Trump does want to use nuclear weapons - because he figures that there's no sense in having them if you don't use them - and so threatened to wipe out Iran and seven thousand years of its history and heritage with said nukes to make Iran open the Strait of Hormuz, which would still be open today if Trump hadn't started a war with Iran in the first place.  But then, at the last minute, Trump announced a "cease-fire" that he tried to treat as a victory and as a testament to his negotiating skills.  Right.  Only the Strait of Hormuz remains under Iranian control and the Iranians are charging fees - tolls, if you will - for oil tankers, and the "deal" does nothing regrading Iran's nuclear program.  Meanwhile, the "cease-fire" is being violated by the U.S.'s closest and only partner, Israel, which is busy bombing pro-Iranian militias in southern Lebanon.

All indications that, short of nuking Iran proper, Trump plans a ground assault on Kharg Island, the strategic island where Iran's oil exports are stored and sent out, which could involve a force as big as 50,000 service personnel.  It would be a fruitless - a fatally fruitless - endeavor, for the war is already lost.

Anyone who's been to a gas station can attest to that.  

As for rising gasoline prices . . . get used to it, SUV owners.  Good luck in finding a more fuel-efficient replacement.

Music Video Of the Week - April 10, 2026

"April Come She Will" by Simon and Garfunkel  (Go to the link in the right-hand corner.)

NJ-11's Special Election

The U.S. House in New Jersey's Eleventh U.S. House District has been vacant since Mikie Sherrill resigned from it to become governor of New Jersey.  This month, there is a special election for a U.S. Representative to complete the unexpired House term.  Many pundits say that it should be an easy win for the Democrats, given the left-of-center nature of many of the district's voters and given also that Trump is dragging down the Republican Party.

I'm not so sure of that.  Joe Hathaway, the Republican nominee, is running as a moderate and positioning himself as a fiscal conservative.  His Democratic opponent is running as a person who will fight for workers and ordinary people and fight for better health insurance and an affordable cost of living.  Well, what's wrong with that?

Nothing, at face value, but the problem is with the Democratic candidate in question.

The Democratic nominee is an Hispanic woman named Analilia Mejia. Her sex is not an issue - after all, she'd be taking over Mikie Sherrill's House seat if she wins - but her ethnicity just might be, despite the growing number of Hispanics in the district.  But that's actually the least of her troubles as she prepares for the special election next Thursday (April 16).

First, there's her very name.  You know how Hispanics will be speaking English with an American accent but lapse into a Latin American accent to pronounce a Spanish name?  Even Anglophones who don't know a word of Spanish would have to adopt a Latin American cadence to pronounce her full name properly - and that's ballot-box poison.  And not just for Hispanics.  Just ask Michael Dukakis, who was mocked by, of all people, country singer Loretta Lynn because she "can't even pronounce his name!"

Second, Mejia is a progressive.  That might help her with voters in some of the Essex County communities in the district (though not all of them, least of all the Caldwells, which gave America Sam Alito!), but her affiliations with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren may be an Achilles heel in more Republican Morris County, in which the district is centered.  Mejia started out as an organizer with the United Food and Commercial Workers.  She has been the executive director of the New Jersey Working Families Alliance, an affiliate of the arch-progressive Working Families Party, and she was a delegate for Bernie Sanders in the 2016 New Jersey Democratic presidential primary, a contest easily won by Hillary Clinton.  Oh yeah, Mejia was also national political director for Sanders's 2020 presidential campaign. 

Third, Mejia won the Democratic U.S. House nomination in a crowded primary that featured eleven candidates.  She only got about 25 percent of the vote, meaning that 75 percent of Democrats in the district voted to nominate someone else.  In fact, Tom Malinowski, the former congressman from another New Jersey district, might have won the nomination if not for the fact that the American Israel Public Affairs Public Committee had spent so much money to defeat him for votes he cast in the House regarding Israel they objected to that they shot themselves in the foot, enabling Mejia's victory despite Mejia being more skeptical of Israel than Malinowski is.

One other thing - Justin Strickland, one of those ten other candidates for the nomination for the election to complete Governor Sherrill's House term, plans to run in the June 2 primary for the full term for the seat that begins in January 2027, arguing that Mejia was not a consensus candidate for the Democrats with only 25 percent of the vote and that Democrats deserve a choice in the June primary.  He has a case.  Only question is whether Mejia will be running for a full House term then or be just another failed Democratic candidate for public office.

So there you have it - a Latina with a difficult name to spell, never mind pronounce, affiliated with Bernie Sanders and an anti-capitalist third party, and someone who was the first choice of only one out of four Democrats in the district.  And she's running against an all-American white male Republican whose name is spelled the way it sounds

Early voting started in the district yesterday, and I plan to vote myself later this week.  Possibly as early as tomorrow.  Oh, I'll vote for Mejia, all right.  But I can't say with full confidence that she's going to eke out a victory. 

Heck of a Way To Start Easter Season

Easter, for those who don't know, is not just one Sunday after the first full moon of spring but an entire season devoted to rebirth and renewal.  So bear that in mind when you see Donald Trump's post from yesterday, Easter Sunday, on his misnomered TruthSocial social media platform.

To think, eighty-five thousand people are cheering him on.

Trump is either evil or crazy, though, like the Joker, he's likely both.  And I doubt he's joking.  It looks like he will mark tomorrow, April 7, with the fire and fury he threatened against North Korea in his first term of office.  Bombing power stations and bridges used primarily by civilians is, of course, a war crime, and he will have to answer for plenty to many if he goes ahead with this idea.

And if Trump is interested in a little Easter-time ecumenicalism, he sure has a funny way of showing it with his mocking reference to Allah, which Iranian religious leaders - who are also government leaders - will not forget.  Or forgive.  As an infidel, Trump can expect severe punishment from the mullahs in charge.

Meanwhile, Roman Catholics - already under the gun from progressives for too many reasons to list - have been slighted by the Pentagon.  Evangelical warrior Pete Hegseth - whose boss won the majority of the Catholic vote in 2024 because Trump managed to convince enough of them that the Democrats mocked their values and because Kamala Harris couldn't be bothered to show up at the Al Smith dinner - let Catholic service personnel know that there would be no Good Friday services aimed at Catholics in the Pentagon chapel this year, as his pastor has denounced Catholicism and has called for the banning of Catholic idolatry in public spaces.

Between the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence on one hand and the evangelicals on the other, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Catholics are becoming increasingly paranoid, though Pope Leo XIV has gone a long way toward repairing the Church's negative reputation.

It is in this milieu, in which Hegseth has declared the war against a Muslim country to be a crusade, that Trump is suspected to be planning nuclear strikes.

Today marks the 196th anniversary of the founding of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, i.e. the Mormon Church, whose followers are constantly preparing for End Times, when Jesus returns and the angel Moroni will herald His return with the sound of his horn.

Blow your trumpet, son.  See you in Kansas City.     

Happy Easter!

Non-Stick Pam

Pam Bondi is out as Attorney General.

Donald Trump fired her for numerous reasons one of them being her complete lack of media savviness.  The hearing in which she was forced to talk about the Epstein files and defended Trump by citing the Dow hitting 50,000 points (thanks to the Iran war, it's since gone way down for that) and referring to House members by their last names without salutations, made her like the fool she is, and even Trump understood that.  She just didn't look good on TV.

Seeing as how Trump wanted woman who was good  on television to serve as the nation's top law enforcement officer, I'm surprised he didn't appoint Pam Dawber.

But then that would make sense.  At least Pam Dawber could act like an Attorney General!

But there were a couple of other reasons Trump ousted Bondi.  No mater how corrupt she was at trying to shield Trump from the Epstein files and allowing him to break the law, she wasn't corrupt enough.  And even though she prosecuted many of Trump's enemies as part of his revenge against folks who tried to prosecute him - James Comey, Letitia James - the cases got thrown out of court.  She was not the sort of Attorney General who could successfully keep the Epstein files under wraps completely, and she did not have the necessary skills to make any cases against Trump's adversaries stick.  Now that she's gone, Trump hopes to find someone who can outdo her - and given how there are probably more federal judges out there who might make it easier for the Justice Department to prosecute Trump's enemies, like Aileen Cannon, than we might think, Trump might find the right Attorney General to do his dirty work.

For now, Trump has Assistant Attorney General Todd Blanche, one of his personal attorneys from the 2024 fraud trial, as acting Attorney General to ignore the law, and Environmental Protection Agency director Lee Zeldin, who has spent the past year and change ignoring the ecosystem, is the likeliest permanent successor to Bondi.  Whether either Blanche or Zeldin can cover up the Epstein files and fuck up Comey and James well enough to satisfy Trump remains to be seen.  (Zeldin graduated from Albany Law School, which, as far as I know, is like Ed's Law School on the late Tony Randall's eponymous late-seventies sitcom; when you have an Attorney General who holds a law degree from a school you'd never heard before he took office, expect amateur hour.)  As for Bondi, she can expect endless hours of testifying under oath once Democrats regain the House of Representatives and start investigating her and her old boss.   

And that Republican Party-friendly Italian-American group on Facebook that celebrated that Italian-American Bondi for becoming the first female attorney general appointed by a Republican President won't be talking so loudly about her in the future. 

Music Video Of the Week - April 3, 2026

"Mr. Spaceman" by the Byrds  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Early Retirement

I'm done as a reporter.

As you know, or maybe you don't know, I was a reporter for TAPinto Montclair, a local news site in Montclair, New Jersey, franchised by the TAPinto group, until June of last year (2025), when my editor gave up the franchise.  I was not allowed to continue working for TAPinto without a franchisee and unless or until a new franchisee editor took over the Montclair site.  At the end of last year, a friend of mine negotiated for the Montclair franchise and got it, and he told me he would have me back covering the Montclair town council and planning board as soon as he got settled.  He more or less relaunched TAPinto Montclair in January.  He wanted me to write for him because he loved my reporting for TAPinto Montclair under the previous editor.  The last time I spoke to him was in early February, nearly two months ago. 

When it became apparent that my friend was in no rush to contact me about continuing to write for TAPinto Montclair, I decided to wait until March 31 to hear from him.  If I didn't hear from him be then, I'd cease pursuing a journalism career and retire from the profession.

It's March 31.  I haven't heard from him at all since early February.  Draw the conclusion.

Ahh, I don't care.  I've been keeping up a bit with what goes on in Montclair, and the news there is so depressing - animosity on the council, the possible bankruptcy of the school district . . . you get the picture.   I'm also increasingly tired, feeling sleepy in the daytime;  I fell sleepy at the same time I wrote this.  And, I want more time to spend on taking care of the community park in my neighborhood, which I seem to be doing all by myself these days, as my neighbors obviously can't be bothered.  I also want to spend more time on the Internet creating content.  

Even if it's silly content like this! 

Or this!

 

The truth is, journalism in These States, at all levels, is pretty much hitting the skids, declining and falling like the Roman Empire.  I, for one, do not intend or want to be part of its downward slide.  Especially when reporting something that someone i a position of power doesn't like may be hazardous to your health.

Goodbye, American journalism, it's been good to know ya, but the ball game is over. 

I might come out of retirement some time in the future, but don't bet on it. 

Auto Show Blues - 2026 Edition, Part Two

 Well, I looked at the floor map for the 2026 New York International Auto Show.  

Chevrolet an Ford have the bulk of floor space.  All of their "regular' family vehicles, like the 2026 Blazer below, are SUVs.

Cadillac won't be there, but BMW will . . . but its floor space, which one dominated an entire end of the main level of the Jacob Javits Convention center, is very small.  But not as small as the Mercedes-Benz exhibit. And the display area for Lincoln's all-SUV lineup is even smaller than that.

Right.  I'm not going to the New York auto show this year.

Or any other year, from now on.

The reason is obvious.  If you are into sedans and hatchbacks, you're out of luck.  The few auto brands that still offer real cars in These States are mostly confined to very little floor space, ,and while many of the Asian brands still have a healthy presence and a more diverse lineup, they offer little to get excited about.  Nothing new for Toyota or Hyundai.  Given the absence of some brands, like Mazda, the "international" auto show in the city feels more like a local show in a suburban arena.  Last year, when I went to the New York show,  I was in and out in about three hours. 

Also, there's no direct mass transit into New York City from where I live anymore except for commuter-only weekday buses - I've talked about that here.  It's just not cost-effective for me to travel to the city for a show where the admission is now twenty-two bucks a head.  The cars on display are not only more expensive, so are the tickets to get in and see them. 

The best car shows for me these days are the classic shows that show the sort of cars the automakers used to offer here before the sport-utility and pickup tsunami crashed onto our shores.  That most certainly includes Volkswagen.  And given that there are more VW shows in the Northeast these days, some of which are as likely to have old Rabbits and Dashers (Mark 1 Golfs and Mark 1 Passats) as Beetles, that's a better deal.  

You may not be able to get in any of these cars, but you can still look inside them, and the admission fee to these shows is cheaper.

"I'm Glad You're Dead!"

Last week, Robert Mueller died.  A former FBI director who took office the day before 9/11, Mueller came out of retirement to investigate Donald Trump's dealings with the Russians to try to steal the 2016 presidential election, and many Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans and independents hoped for Mueller's report to bring about Trump's downfall.  Instead, his report got whitewashed by Bill Barr, Trump's then-Attorney General, and Democrats balked at pursuing the matter further.  The tragic irony is that Mueller died knowing that Trump had come back and has since ensconced himself so securely in power that no one, for the time being, can touch him.

And when Mueller died, Trump, complaining that Mueller's investigation had hurt him and other people, said he was glad he was dead.

And yes, I was immediately reminded of the scene in the 1989 Batman movie in which the Joker electrocutes a rival gangster with a joy buzzer and says to his burned-out skeletal corpse that he's glad he's' dead.

When the President of the United States starts talking like a gangster who's become an evil clown, we're in trouble.

We're mainly in trouble because Trump's glee in knowing that a political enemy has died is inspiring similar expressions of glee over other people dying.  Someone I was (note tense) connected to on Facebook actually expressed jubilation over Chuck Norris's death because he said that Norris's arch-conservative politics and his movies and television work promoted a racist agenda because the villains in his films and TV shows tended to be Palestinians, Colombians . . . you get the picture.  But on his TV show "Walker, Texas Ranger," Cordell Walker (Norris) had a black partner who was also his best friend, so go figure.  And other gleeful comments about Norris dying have appeared on Threads.

Look, I was not a Chuck Norris fan and I obviously did not share his political views, but I would never express any sort of glee over his passing, even though this guy on Facebook did, which is why I unfriended him.  What's next - heavy metal fans celebrating the death of Dash Crofts of Seals and Crofts because they think popular music has now become much less boring?   Superhero-movie buffs celebrating Valerie Perrine's death because they couldn't stand her in the Superman movies?  No such comments on social media yet, at least to my knowledge (and by the way, there are a couple of Seals and Crofts songs I do like, and I loved Valerie Perrine and thought she was good even when the movie she was in wasn't, so let me get all that straight).  But the uncharitable comments made about Norris (can we expect Erin Ryan and Alyssa Mastromonaco to do a "This F*cking Guy" video about Norris on their Hysteria YouTube channel soon?) are clearly a by-product of the ethos Trump has set by celebrating the deaths of Robert Mueller, Rob Reiner, and possibly any other man named Robert by his mother.  (Robert DeNiro, take note.)

But of course, while I would never say anything gleeful about the death of someone I merely found odious, I would not hesitate to celebrate upon hearing of the death of someone so irredeemably evil that there would be no more appropriate reaction to that person's death . . . like when I cackled when I heard that Rush Limbaugh kicked the bucket.  And when Madonna dies, the news will be music to my ears - which is ironic, since her recording career has never produced anything that sounds like music to my ears.  (When she fell of a horse in England back in the 2000s, my first reaction was, "I hope the horse is all right!") And of course, most of us will likely celebrate the death of one Donald J. Trump, with Monty Python alumnus John Cleese having said that when Trump dies, "the glorious outburst of happiness of celebration will be heard on the outer moons of Jupiter."

Quite an understatement.  I would throw in the outer moons of Saturn as well.

Music Video Of the Week - March 27, 2026

"We May Never Pass This Way (Again)" by Seals and Crofts  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

TSA? No, ICE.

The Democrats finally found a hill to die on in challenging Trump, and that expression seems to be slowly becoming literal.

The Democrats in Congress allowed much of the government to open, but they decided to draw the line on funding for the Department of Homeland Security, refusing to fund it until Trump and congressional Republicans reform Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), whose antics have scared the Shinola out of everyone and who have already been funded through the Enabling Act (also known as that one big beautiful bill). Though congressional leaders have cut a deal, Trump is refusing to sign any bill until the Suppression Against Voters Egregiously (SAVE) Act is passed.  As a result, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) isn't being funded and TSA agents are walking out of their jobs at airports.

So Trump had a stroke, though not one of genius.  He assigned ICE agents to the airports to handle the long and interminable backups at our airports.

Aside from a couple of anecdotal stories I've heard bout ICE agents tackling passengers (totally unconfirmed, though not implausible), ICE agents at airports haven't done anything outrageous.  In fact, they haven't done much at all, really.  They've mostly been handing out water bottles to people and directing them to the terminal food court. And, they've been showing up for their airport duties unmasked and undisguised.  

As of this writing, Senate Republican leader John Thune of South Dakota thinks he may have a deal that ends the standoff which Trump would support.  Until then, ICE is going to remain in the airports, and one must proceed at airports with what the late Alexander Haig once referred to as "careful caution."  It's best to cooperate with ICE as much as one possibly can, especially if they offer you a free water bottle, and not call any unwanted attention to oneself, the better to get on your flight with no trouble at all.  Especially if you're boarding an international flight.

But if ICE agents suddenly show up at airports dressed like ninja warriors, watch out.  They just might want to take you into that little room before you board that flight to London or Paris.  Because while Trump can't stop Americans form leaving the country, he can make it extremely difficult.  

Meanwhile, the Senate has confirmed Markwayne Mullin as the new Secretary of Homeland Security.  His biggest qualification for the job is being so stupid, belligerent and obnoxious that his fellow senators want him out of their chamber.  

Auto Show Blues - 2026 Edition

I haven't made a final decision, but I might not go to the New York auto show in a couple of weeks.

It should be easy for me to firmly decide not to go.  After all, Chevrolet and Ford have only one non-SUV passenger vehicle each - the Corvette and the Mustang, respectively.  Lincoln has nothing but SUVs.  So does Buick, and that brand won't even be there.  Honda - which still sells real cars, including an all-new Prelude that retuned that nameplate to the Honda lineup after a quarter-century absence - wont be there, either, and neither will be Mazda.  Sure, Volkswagen will be there - but I can see the latest VW models at my dealer when I take my own VW for service every June. 

So what's making hesitate before ruling out another auto show trip altogether?  BMW and Cadillac - two of my favorite luxury brands - are returning to the New York auto show for the first time in nearly a decade.  BMW always has great cars on display, having refused to give up on sedans and even coupes, and Cadillac, in addition to having traditional sports sedans, has introduced two new EVs with old-school land-yacht flair combined with sporty fastback styling.  So I'm intrigued.

I'm also suspicious.  I remember the Mercedes-Benz and Audi displays from last year.  Each brand had only two or three cars each behind velvet ropes.  Naturally, the cars were locked so you couldn't get in them.    I have a sneaky feeling that the BMW and Cadillac displays will be similarly token exhibits.   I won't know for certain until I see the 2026 New York auto shows floor plan, which hasn't been released yet.

Then again, even it BMW and Cadillac do have real displays that are worth the trip, would the rest of the show be worth it?  Having to skip the Ford display owing to lack of an interesting car to look at (sad to say, the current Mustang doesn't thrill me).  More exhibits aimed at amusement, like the indoor EV test-drive track, that makes the show more like a limpid world's fair?  Besides, after seeing Autostadt in Wolfsburg, Germany, I don't know why I would go to an American auto shoe to see even Volkswagen. 

I've always looked forward to the Easter season with the knowledge that the New York auto show was opening ever since the show's organizers moved it to the Jacob Javits Center and started scheduling it for Easter Week beginning in 1987.  But whether or not I go this year, I'm aware that it won't be the same as the shows of yore.  The nature of the product has changed, and they are changes I do not like. 

Music Video Of the Week - March 20, 2026

"Locomotive Breath" by Jethro Tull  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

"Not An Imminent Threat"

If Donald Trump wanted to prosecute a war of choice with Iran successfully, he needed to play to his strengths.  

Thinking ain't one of them.

Like, he never considered the possibility of Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz and choking off a key source of the global oil supply?

And now Joseph Kent, a counterterrorism "expert" in the Trump regime who was hired only because he was an avid Trump supporter, has resigned his post because Trump broke his promise not to start a new war, adding that Iran was not an imminent threat to the United States.

In a congressional hearing this week, Director of national Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard more or less said the same thing.

Gabbard also added that Iran's capability to build a nuclear weapon had in fact been eliminated, even though actual intelligence gathering has determined that Iran still has the basics for making such a weapon, even though no one knows much material the Iranians may still have.

Dude, when you've lost a key ally in your administration and your own DNI contradicts you, its time to take a hint.  

If Donald Trump wanted to prosecute a war of choice with Iran successfully, he needed to play to his strengths.  

Thinking ain't one of them.

St. Patrick's Day 2026

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 😊

Who Wears These Shoes?

There is nothing necessarily wrong with Florsheim shoes.  True, they are known for being cheap, stiff, and plebian, but they can be a reasonable and affordable choice to wear once in awhile, which sort of makes them the working man's dress shoes. A typical blue-collar guy probably has a pair of Florsheim shoes in his closet to go with the suit he wears to weddings, funerals, and lodge banquets.

But when Donald Trump wears them in the Oval Office, it only shows how cheap and tawdry the executive branch of the U.S. government has become.  It is the footwear equivalent of the Chevrolet SUVs Trump has ridden in.

So why is every dude in Trump's Cabinet wearing them?

Just because Trump wears Florsheims. you might think, that doesn't mean that his Cabinet secretaries have to wear them.  But it does mean they have to wear them.  And they do.  Trump, dissatisfied with the high-class luxury shoes his Cabinet secretaries sported, decided that if Florsheim shoes were good enough for him, they were good enough for men who work with him.  So he doled a bunch of pairs out to his flunkies and more or less made it clear that if they knew what was good for them, they would wear their new shoes.

And so came the greatest footwear story in American politics since George Walker Bush was in Baghdad and had a pair of shoes thrown at them by an Iraqi national ticked off at Bush for starting the Iraq War.

Working for Trump is like taking a wedding vow.  You must promise to love, honor and obey.  That is, if you want to remain in Trump's good graces - or employment.  And if he gives you Florsheims to wear, you wear them, if only to express your gratitude to the Dear Leader.  Crockett & Jones? Bruno Magli? Paul Evans?  No go, Joe - when you work for The Donald, you do what he says.

Especially if you're Marco Rubio, and you want to be Trump's heir apparent in 2028, even if the Florsheims your boss got you are three sizes too big, because Trump guessed your shoe size and was off by a country mile.

If you ask me, Trump's minions (despicable them) are acting their shoe sizes - certainly not their ages.

And so we now raise a toast to America's new war with Iran, and or wartime leader, Donald J. Trump!

Euch! Blecch! Blecch? Yuck! AUGH!!!  AUGH!!!  AUGHHHH!!!!!!  GAGAGAGAAUGHHHH!!!!!!

Gas Up . . .

 . . . before gas is up.

Trump's war on Iran has caused gasoline prices to start climbing, and the Iranians have closed the Strait of Hormuz that separates the Persian Gulf from the Arabian Sea.  This strait, one of the narrowest maritime bottlenecks in the world, is the only way Arab oil can get out into the world because that's where the Persian Gulf is from where the Gulf states ship their oil exports.

Which is very inconvenient for people who own a Ford Expedition.

Or just about any other sport utility vehicle on the market today.

Of course, if you have a Honda Civic, you'll get off easier.  Maybe not by much, but you'll still be able to drive by a gasoline station and honk your horn in merriment while some guy is blowing 140 bucks to fill the gas tank in his Chevrolet Tahoe.  

But if you prefer to try to save money on gasoline, no matter what vehicle you own, you'd better be prepared for spending more money on gas and liking it, because mass transit, never very comprehensive in most of These States, has been contracting and cratering of late.  As I noted on this blog, it's almost impossible to take a bus into new York City from parts of northern New Jersey.

No matter . . . given how long and protracted this oil shock will be - because even though the U.S. is a leading oil producer, the closing of the Strait of Hormuz raises oil prices everywhere, because it's a global commodity, and they won't drop for a long time even if the war in Iran is over tomorrow - that means that the era of the sport utility vehicle and the daily-driver pickup truck is almost over.

It's too bad that General Motors and Ford don't have any existing car platforms, especially in the compact segment, to replace the light trucks and crossovers that are suddenly going to be even more hard to sell than they already are.  Stellantis may be able to retool its American factories with cars based on Opel and Peugeot platforms. 

And I have one question to ask of Volkswagen . . .

VW?  Can we have the Polo here now?  Pleeeeeeeeeeeeez???? 

Music Video Of the Week - March 13, 2026

"Breezin'" by George Benson  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

They Just Might

Former Vice President Kamala Harris is still considering a political comeback.

Asked if she would run for President in 2028, she said that she just "might" do so.

To those who think she should try for the Presidency again, let me refresh your memories.

How many primaries and caucuses did she win in her 2020 presidential campaign?  Zero.

How many primaries and caucuses did she actually compete in in her 2020 presidential campaign?  Zero.  She had to end her candidacy in 2019.

How many swing states did she win in the 2024 general election?  Zero.

How many Democratic presidential candidates other than Harris have lost the popular vote in the past twenty years?  Zero.

Well, at least she has a perfect record.

You know, it's really galling to hear Harris say she might run again after losing to Trump in 2024 and not see her being ridiculed en masse when Martin O'Malley, who showed a real feistiness in going after Trump when he ran for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, got laughed at when he said that he might run again in 2020 after he lost to Trump in 2016, and . . . oh, wait, that was Hillary Clinton!

Good luck with another run for the Presidency, Madam Former Vice President.  The Democrats, as repeatedly noted here, are notorious for shunning and turning away failed presidential nominees.  They don't get to make comebacks.   They don't get a second chance.  They don't even get a lousy speaking slot at the next Democratic National Convention.  They are complete . . . losers.

And that certainly includes Harris.  In fact, she's even less popular than Donald Trump.  Seriously.  In an NBC News poll released this week, Donald Trump - who has led the country into another unjust war in the Middle East, destroyed the economy, sicced ICE on native-born U.S. citizens - including journalists - suspended civil liberties, dismantled federal government services, and has taken away people's health insurance - had 41 percent of people surveyed respond favorably to him.  Harris had a 36 percent favorable response.

Is it any wonder why advertising genius Donny Deutsch laughed at the Democrats on television two days after Trump forced Harris into early retirement? 

Oh, and lest you think I'm being a nasty ol' white man beating up on a woman of color, I'm also here to tell you that Gavin Newsom, Harris's fellow Californian, is even less popular; he only got a 27 percent favorable response.  It's not really surprising.  Newsom has trolled Trump and ridiculed him every chance he gets and has been instrumental in bringing Donald's poll numbers down.  But that should not be construed into thinking that Newsom himself is popular.  In fact, he has been held in great - and justified - suspicion among progressives, who have noted that Newsom does not want to tax billionaires because of the wealth they benefit for the economy, he started a podcast because he apparently has too much time on his hands as governor of California, his podcast included guests such as Steve Bannon and the late Charlie Kirk, and, while talking with Kirk, he agreed with him that it is "unfair" in allowing transsexual women to compete in women's sports.

Gavin Newsom is not the savior of the Democratic Party, people.  He's a smooth-talking technocrat who takes superficially liberal positions and hopes his suave demeanor and his perfect hair will compensate for his lack of substance.  In other words, he's the Gary Hart of California.

I hope Democrats don't get sold on Harris or Newsom in 2028 simply on name recognition alone - or because they're not Vance or Rubio (or Trump, who's already plotting on how to stand for a third term).  As for whom the Democrats should nominate for President in 2028 - assuming there'll be two candidates for th3e office - they must remember Smokey Robinson's mother's advice.

They'd better shop around.  Just not in California.     

What Has Trump Done?

 When I was a kid, my sister and I had to spend occasional weekends with my maternal grandmother, because my mother had to work overtime on Saturdays.  It was not fun, because my maternal grandmother lived in an inner-city neighborhood in which there was no sign of grass.  Even her entire backyard was paved.  Anyway, one weekend there, I did something incredibly and spectacularly wrong.  I won't say what it is, but when my grandmother called my mother and told her what happened, my mother demanded to speak to me.  When I took the receiver and said hello, the first thing my mother said was, "What have you done?"

If the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA) had the same directness and indignation as my mother had in that moment she spoke to me, they would be asking Donald Trump the same question about the war he started against Iran.  But WHCA president Eugene Daniels, apparently, is a wuss, and so are the other correspondents, so no one is asking him that.

But I'll answer that unasked question.  What Trump has done is spark a regional war that includes attacks on Iran from Israel, whose leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, is a war criminal who is continuing his crackdown on Gaza.  Iran has retaliated not just by attacking American military installations but attacking civilian targets in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and several other Middle Eastern countries with drones.  Trump and Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth are responsible for having destroyed a girls' school in Iran in which nearly 170 students were killed.  Oil prices are going through the roof.  (That's the one good thing that has come out of this war; maybe Detroit will revert to making small cars - Ford has said it has the ability to do so in short order - and Americans will dump their sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks, and maybe Volkswagen will finally sell the Polo in America and maybe Honda will bring back the Fit.)  An explosion at the U.S. Embassy in Norway - whose capital, Oslo, is the site of the accords that tried to establish peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians - may have been  an Iranian terrorist attack and could be a portent of things to come . . . not just in Europe but here in the U.S.  

And as if that weren't enough, Christian nationalist commanders in the military, no doubt with Hegseth's tacit approval, have declared that this war is the prelude to the End Times, when Christ returns to judge the living, the dead, and likely the undead - including MAGA zombies.

Well, that's going to ruin my summer vacation plans!

And as if that weren't enough, Russian leader Vladimir Putin - supposed Trump's best bud - is giving intelligence on American military positions to the Iranians! 

You know, when Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, the war that began was, at first, a minor conflict over the status of Poland., with the Third Reich claiming it as living space and the British and the French fighting to help Poland preserve its independence.  Unable to send troops to Poland, Great Britain and France occupied land along the German border with France, and both sides exchanged harmless volleys,  leading to the war's original name, the "phony war."  (The Winter War, which began with the Soviet invasion of Finland in November 1939, was a separate conflict.)   In April 1940 the phony war became real as Adolf Hitler attacked and occupied Denmark and Norway, followed by a major blitzkrieg that result in the Nazi occupation of the Low Countries and the fall of France, prompting Italy to enter the war and prompting Japan, already at war with China, to join what then became known as the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis.   By 1941, even before the Japanese attack on Peral Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt began referring to the conflict as "World War II."

My point - and I do have one - is that we are likely at the beginning of World War III, but it may take a year or two before that becomes apparent.  Such a war will likely redraw national borders at least, ,and end millions of lives at worst, and possibly wipe currently existing countries off the map.

Like the United States.

Oh yeah, that horrible thing I did at my grandmother's house?  It turned out to be no big deal in the end.  My mother would later laugh about it, though, I remembering the terror I felt at the time, did not.  And no one will look back in 2026 years from now and laugh.  They won't even have the urge to chuckle. 

The 2026 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Nominees Explained

There's a group of racial extremists who fellow a tenet of faith generally downplayed by mainstream media.  This group believes that white men are the greatest villains on earth. They believe that white men were the result of a botched experiment from the days of creation, the experiment conducted by a wicked deity.  They charge that the white man is guilty of cultural colonialism and they repeatedly declare that they find the white man guilty as charged.  These people believe that white men were given domination of the earth but that a time would come when, after seventy years, the white men would lose their domination of the earth and be condemned to a richly deserved downfall and be forced to pay for their sins by being forced to accept everything that is anathema to them before they would be finally wiped from the face of the earth.

These people are called . . . pop-music critics. 

Not an original thought, I concede - I read it in either Blender or Spin - but when you look at most of the non-rock-and-roll acts being nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (and Jethro Tull have been snubbed again) and you recall that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's board is dominated by  pop-music critics . . . 

. . .the list makes total sense.

Brought to you by the same people who inducted Madonna the second she became eligible two years before they inducted the Hollies, who had been eligible since 1964.

It's 2026 - seventy years after Elvis Presley became a star.

That is all.