The Untied States of America

Donald Trump's proposed federal budget - which cuts domestic spending to the bone and in some cases the marrow while increasing spending on deportations - is probably the best reason so far for the Democratic and Democratic-leaning states to secede from the Union.  The proposed federal budget severely cuts spending on cancer research and weather forecasting while zeroing out altogether programs like Head Start and agencies like FEMA.  Presidential budget plans are meant to be a statement of values.  This budget blueprint was completely unnecessary; we already know what Trump's values are.  He has none.

Meanwhile, Trump concedes that the tariffs he imposed on China will make Christmas gifts such as toys much more expensive this December, but the Donald thinks that maybe a little austerity would be good for us after having promised his voters to be able to live the good life like he does.  Maybe only two dolls for little girls instead of dozens - funny how he never said that little boys should have only a couple of toy cars.  

And while all of this is going on, Trump is extending his tariffs to foreign films - which won't do much for Hollywood but will certainly shut down the very few remaining art houses in Manhattan.  Trump is actually less concerned with keeping a 2026 seventieth-anniversary American re-release of And God Created Woman, starring Brigitte Bardot (though his evangelical base might be), than he is at getting Hollywood studios to shoot fewer films on location abroad.  Well, that should finish off the James Bond franchise!  

Aside from forcing us to pay double to see the Palme d'Or winner at Cannes, Trump and Elon Musk have devastated the Federal Aviation Administration so much that Newark Airport can barely function amid its numerous delays and cancellations.  Now I get it.  Trump won't try to prevent us from leaving the country by banning us.  He's doing it by making fights to London and Paris impossible.  At least out of Newark.  JFK is next.

It is in this milieu that the Met Gala, a fashion party for rich celebrities with terrible taste in clothes that shuts down the Metropolitan Museum of Art to tourists with only one evening in New York City who are denied the opportunity to see the painting of Washington crossing the Delaware 😡, was held.  As usual, female pop stars unfamiliar to fans of classic rock dominated this event, which manages to be both elitist and vulgar, with their space-cadet threads, but the star of the show was a female pop singer classic rock fans, through their affinity for Motown, are familiar with - Diana Ross, who arrived in a gown that could have clothed all three Supremes, with a train longer than a BNSF freight coming into Chicago.

Oh yeah, another female pop-culture figure was at the gala - Kamala Harris!

The former Vice President and former future President, aware that her political career is over, chose to spend her down time to attend this ode to vulgarity by showing up in a dress that was clearly inspired by the black and white cookie!

Seriously, her dress is making me hungry.

The fact that Harris would rather attend this ode to vulgarity in a dress that is clearly too big for her than join Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (to whom I now offer anew a proposal of marriage) on their anti-oligarchy road show offers prima facie evidence that top Democrats have no connection to the middle and working classes they purport to represent.

Least of all, Senate Democratic "leader" Charles Schumer, who, in response to Trump's trashing of the Constitution, has vowed to issue a strongly worded letter to Trump in protest.

Not gonna work, Chuck.  Trump can't read.

Right, I have to return to my secessionist activities . . ..