Month: September 2024

We would request that the reader not be prematurely “discombobulated” by our present theme and patiently withhold his initial reaction to our present contextual declaration until we furnish its empirically based elucidation. Our perceptively radical proposition, simply stated, is that as a fundamental matter, Donald J. Trump has never possessed the desire to be President of the United States. Despite his strident public proclamations to the contrary he observably was never personally inspired to inherit the awesome multitudinous responsibilities of that office. It is our view that his aspirations have fundamentally been otherwise.

It has been our view that Trump’s nuanced persona and lifelong motivation, dynamically analogous to our earlier described “infant terrible” who, in his petulant frustration, painfully kicks his mother in the shins, valuing the pressing need for personal attention a higher priority than the predictable punishment. In our view, Donald J. Trump has existed as a lifetime anachronistic replication of that obnoxious brat, ever thirsty for personal attention and neurotically perceived admiration. In the nuanced perception of the immature Donald Trump, everything, inclusive of moral principle, sound judgment, empirical understanding, utilitarian capabilities, and societal expectations is situated on an aspirational rung on the ladder of his neurotic expectations.

As we have come to perceive it, Trump, eternally thirsty for adulation, and frustratingly wavering between his personal status as a reputed real estate grifter (apprenticed from his paternal mentor) and simultaneously in constant search for personal adoration has as a consequence, experienced multiple divorces, engaged in brisk porno-star sexual commerce, maintained a religiously dedicated attendance at the celebrity studios of Jeffrey Epstein, (of reverential memory), committed acts of deceitful avoidance of military service, committed serial tax fraud and tasteless attempts at public celebrity. Trump’s lust for self-delusional ego-enhancement was exacerbated by his opportune selection as the television host at an inane game show, “The Apprentice” furnishing him further opportunity for him to be the public eye, and somehow bizarrely, resulting in his selection for candidacy for the Presidency by an opportunistic and discordant GOP.

In stark contrast to the centuries of American Presidential candidates, Trump had never, previous to his nomination, evinced a modicum of interest in politics or public service. Bizarrely, the advent of his tactical public expression of interest in politics was at his nomination to run for the office of the Presidency. This was, in our view, personally perceived by him as an opportunity for the acquisition of neurotically needed celebrity, and public adoration, far more relevantly needed than the opportunity for the highest honor of public service in the Nation.

Unlike Donald Trump, previous Presidential candidates in our history dedicated their lives to politics and political office. President Joseph Biden, age 81, from the age of 39, dedicated himself to political service; first, in Congress, then as vice-president, during the two presidential terms of Barack Obama, preceding his office as President. The current Democratic Presidential candidate, Kamala Harris served as District Attorney, Attorney General, and in Congress before being vice-president to Joseph Biden, Tim Walz, running was Harris’ vice-president is, politically, the Wisconsin Governor.

Further, during his four-year-twice impeached term as President, Trump evinced no political philosophy, doctrinaire beliefs nor espoused any political platforms; his public pronouncements motivated solely by his deranged, self-serving considerations.

Our orange-hair-dyed protagonist had never had an interest or participation in politics or political office, and rather, envisioned the prospective potential for celebrity and massive public adoration as positive factors attributable to holding the consequential National office. The Office of the President of the American Nation inarguably represented to the ego-oriented Man-child a superlative opportunity to indulge his eternal and unsatiable need for notice and admiration.

During his unprecedented term of office, it appeared that he had little interest in responsible governance, demonstrating an implacable ignorance and patent incapability in the leadership of the Nation; self-interestedly catering to his rich industrialist supporters and his base of cultish underbelly populist supporters; the latter sought-after category of adherents, rewarding him with needed, but undeserved adoration. As reported in the news media, Trump evinced little interest in responsible governance, negligently failing to attend White House briefings and strategic conferences. He publicly ignored the mortal National sin of treason in his public bromances with autocratic enemies of our Nation, who strategically and deceitfully catered to his selfish egoism and lifelong neurotic longing for love and attention.Winning and inhabiting the Oval Office for this neurotic man-child continues to be seen as the best and most productive source of his immature and systemically required adoration.

It is our perception that the American Presidency, as personally valued by him, inhabiting his singular and solitary bubble is thus, quite secondary and relevantly, beside the point.

-p,

To avoid the suggestion of any pretentious expectations, we would initially declare that this writing is not contextually relevant to any scientific or mathematical treatment of “time” for example, in an Einsteinian or esoteric context. Rather, its context relates to the empirical human lifetime on Earth. a.

In our view, the thematic word, “time.” is normally and ubiquitously used to describe quantum concepts like the length of seasons, hours, prefatory periods, events, the duration of activities or conditions, natural or man-made, and seasons of life. In our view, Man expends so much of his lifetime, consciously engaged in mundane tasks or preconceived responsibilities, that he escapes the awareness of its existence and expenditure as a quantified phenomenon,

Time proceeds, universally unnoticed in its distinct definitional sense, and is not pragmatically perceived as a conscious phenomenon or existent entity. For most of our lives, time remains overlooked, being camouflaged or distracted by our many substantive activities and concerns. One admittedly does experience temporally related physical evidence of his aging and is, at least in theory, generally aware of his ultimate mortality, yet, in the hustle and bustle of his busy lifetime, he remains essentially unaware of its vitally enduring presence.

One’s conscious appreciation of the metaphysical significance of finite time evidently appears to be a conception, most often universally reserved until its eventful and enlightening discovery in old age. Indeed, it was essentially upon reaching our 80th year, that the essential and invaluable essence of circumscribed time was realized, being no longer distracted by the substantive conduct of earlier life.

As we perceive it, the consciousness or contemplative discovery of “time,” was synchronistic with the final passage of our natural periods of maturation voz., education, career, and child-raising; all of which, as stated, served as effective distractions from any temporal awarenesss of the existence of the discrete phenomenon of time.

Our personal attainment of eight decades of life, in retrospect, as a result of such contextual unawareness, seems to have run as quickly and as unobtrusively as a swift downward current of river water; inarguably, as a consequence of, in our busy empirical lifetime in which we took little notice of it as an extant conception, At our current stage of life, by contrast, the distractions of education, career, family support and dynamics, social interaction, and undertaken temporal responsibilities have receded into barely accessible memory. We continue to be fortunate and grateful for spousal and family love and the self-affirming memories of past accomplishments as well as acquiring an understanding of the mitigating context of instances of painful memories. At long last, we find ourselves invited by the universal and eternal flow of life to the unique company of ourselves on an intimate and personalized basis.

The later years are accompanied by ample time and opportunity for a personal, contemplative audit or retrospective autobiography. Such a valuable franchise, unfortunately, is accompanied by a diminution of physical prowess, at times, as in our case, accompanied by a “walker,” joint pains, and significant loss of personal agency. Yet we are extremely fortunate to have such impediments minimized by the invaluable love of family and friends. We find ourselves awakening each day, especially fortunate with the existence of a relatively healthful continuance of life and most especially our positive outlook, based upon our developed mature perception of life, enabling appreciation for our past accomplishments and lifelong moral perspective, the latter borne of a lifetime of personal contemplation guided by a lifetime of extramuraL involvement in literature and the humanities.

Our life happily continues, albeit, somewhat painfully, albeit, accompanied by an overfull cornucopia of personal happiness borne of a matured contemplative understanding of life and of familial love, for all of which we are gratefully aware, despite the empirical recognition that precious time, our newly discovered phenomenon, is unremittingly finite.

-p,

There are several conspicuous differences between “Wordwatching” (see above) and its peripatetic homonym, “Birdwatching,” The latter is recreational, often, but not exclusively, performed in groups, is best done in the woodlands, preferably with the aid of binoculars, is entirely objective and non-judgmental but simply constitutes, a recreational study of birds living free in nature. However, our conceived homonym, “wordwatching,” is an entirely dissimilar occupation.

Our term, “Wordwatching” is fundamentally distinguishable from the verb, “birdwatching” in several discrete features. It is preferably done alone, indoors, featuring no need for comfortable shoes, a camera, or an umbrella, Like its comparative homonym, it mandates a vigilant eye yet no binoculars (on occasion, eyeglasses). In contrast to studying an extant, natural subject, it relates to the privately exercised, diligent, and critical observation of nuanced vocabulary. The contextual activity utilizes the hearer’s personal perception and sense of linguistical aesthetics, albeit with the mandatory proviso that the aspirational standard is clarity. The primary offense is ubiquitously committed in the course of media news programs.

In the present “excursion,” we will “watch” an illustrative sample of inexorably tiresome and inexact choices of terminology, as indicated, often heard on television news programs; some are misleading and erroneous in conception others, definitional.

[“Free Gift.]” Many Television advertisements as a tactical inducement to purchase their product or utilize their services, proudly proclaim that the prospective purchaser or user will receive a “free gift.” Said two-word phrase is, tautological and annoying, if not completely ridiculous, The definition of “gift” portends the generous delivery of something for free.

[“Absolutely correct”] This confirmation of another person’s statement is grandiose, presumptuous and overboard. the comment, “correct, ” alone, would appear to be sufficient. The icing on the cake, “absolutely.” is superfluous and judgmentally, personally presumptuous. There are few absolutes on terra firma, and we would prefer that this excessive platitude be discarded

[“Illegal Immigrants”] No human being is intrinsically or systemically, “illegal.” The homo sapiens is capable of committing unlawful acts; however, the adjective, “illegal” immigrants is harsh merely in reference to unregistered immigrants, i.e., lacking the requisite paperwork.

{“Push back”] In our view, this tiresome phrase is misleading and unnecessarily aggressive in its mere intention to indicate its the existence of a contrary argument.
[“In studio,” “on ground,” “in country”] What happened to the ubiquitously useful word, “the? “

[“Communities of color”] Instead of the euphemistic description,, we would prefer: “Black and brown American citizens.

[You’re living on a gold mine! (to the elderly)] The insurance company’s invitation to induce older citizens who have paid the company’s contractual premiums all through their life, to deceptively save the insurer his now more imminent monetary obligation to pay the contracted death proceeds to the beneficiary,; and, notably, in the craven interest of the insurance company, deprive the intended beneficiary of the originally intended benefits.

Finally, we would offer a typical mews media declaration: “Here is the report, “in real-time”, from X who is “on the ground .” Translated into mundane English, this gibberish means, “Here is the current report from X who is on the location.”

Readers who are desirous of supplementing our short, but illustrative list, are invited to submit their “Wordwatching” favorites to: “just joshing @ plinyblog.com.

-p,

We have long been astounded at the reports of cosmic amounts of money raised for political campaigns, most notably regarding the coming November Presidential election. We presume the better part of such financing is consigned to partisan media advertisements.

However, regarding the singular context of the forthcoming November Presidential election, the extent of utility and pragmatic effect of such costly political advertisements may be limited, given MAGA’s devout worship of its perverse pied piper and semi-deity, Donald Trump.

In the context of the traditional American election, the voting public has a choice of two diversely articulated policy platforms. In such competition, the expenditure of adequate capital supporting a candidate and his proposed platform is strategically comprehensible,

By unprecedented contrast, the forthcoming November, Harris-Trump contest presents a sui generis event, unrelated to the customary dynamics of voters’ choice of party platform and anticipated performance. It is uniquely different in that, rather than a contest of diverse voter opinion, evinces a dimension having little to do with political policies, In unusual contrast, it appears to be a historically, determinative test of the determinative strength of an unprecedented, cultish devotion by the considerable populist underbelly of the nation, for a deceitful, but convincing, demagogic snake oil salesman, despite his publically announced intention to be an autocratic dictator.

Our two-party system, before the disastrous ascendency of Donald Trump, from his status as a real estate gonif and host of an inane television game show to MAGA cult leader, had already experienced a growing political and social hostility. In our perception, affiliation with a political group developed into a cogent source of personal identity. Political moderation declined among the general public and its elected legislature and officials. Such democratically harmful phenomenon increased to the extent that divergent political camps were decidedly homogeneous in their principled opposition to the other, As we have observed in earlier writings, groups of like-minded (“group think”) individuals became adherents to ardent political camps in dynamic opposition to analogous groups of divergent opinion. Such polarization metastasized and unfortunately became inconsistent with normal neighborly or fraternal friendship,.

The highly toxic entry of Donald Trump into such a divisive political scene, catalyzed by his tactical cultural success among the Nation’s large horde of grievance-oriented populists, enhanced the existing polarization to unparalleled levels. Empirical truth, morality, and aspirations for personal and social advancement inclusive of the attainment of universal legal equality were, with Trump’s blessing and encouragement, discounted and tactically demeaned. With his demagogic encouragement the pernicious growth of a populist, (MAGA) disrespect for empirical truth, there developed among such Trump acolytes a virtual pandemic of bizarre paranoid ideational conspiracies, such as, the government had secreted tiny investigative computers in Covid vaccines, Isreal shoots rockets from outer space to the Planet, that horse worming salve is the cure for Covid, that 9/11 was a CIA c conspiracy, that homosexuality was being taught in public schools, that Global Warming is a ruse, perpetrated by the coastal elite, and so many others floating freely and unhampered in the exotic and extensive mist of irrational ideation.

Most recently, both Trump and his “weird” candidate for Vice-President may have succeeded in attaining the zenith of political science fiction, inarguably, surpassing their most clinically delusional prior pronouncements, The two, seemingly deranged candidates (see “Two Flew Over The Cuckoo Nest,” blog # M. 133), bizarrely declared that Haitian Immigrants, residing in Springfield, Illinois (Vance’s district) were kidnapping pet cats and dogs and eating them, We will refrain from honoring such insane drivel by the recitation of the ample proof of their falsity.

The salient point is that the Trump conglomeration of worshipful lemmings actually believes such insane ravings, confirmed by Trump and the other mental inmates, running the Republican asylum. It has proven frustrating and pragmatically naive to attempt or encourage the large MAGA horde to see reason, the latter seems, thematically, as not being contemporaneously relevant.

If, as empirically demonstrated, only democratic voters appear to be receptive to persuasive argument and reason. we thematically wonder, as to the wisdom of the expenditure of millions of dollars by the Democratic Party for purportedly, persuasive campaign advertisements,

-p.

–

Mainstream Americans, contemplating the forthcoming Presidential election, have good reason to fear for the very survival of democracy, should the miscreant and would-be dictator, Donald J. Trump and his weird running mate., J.D.Vance, be elected. We too, share in the existential fear of such a horrific eventuality. Next November, as generally accepted, the nation will host a contest between Democracy and Fascism, notably, one more existentially impactful to the Nation than the traditional four-year competition between Presidential aspirants

Thematically, the event will additionally and singularly, represent a rare and unprecedented contest between National rule by empirical sanity or, one evincing a virtual burlesque of distorted empirical reality, The candidates, representing the GOP ticket, Donald J. Trump and J.D, Vsnce have manifested such exotically “cuckoo nest” behavior as to render their conceivable national stewardship a virtual “cuckoo-nest ” amalgam of Franz Kafka-like or Lewis Carroll’s “Mads Hatter” distortion of the American Presidential Office.

Presumably, the American public is well aware of the immoral and incapable, nature of the past single and singular, twice-impeached term of Donald Trump, and easily recalls his pathologically delusional statements instructively indicative of his evident mental derangement. Akin to dual matching hospital gowns, J.D. Vance, his candidate for vice president,, similarly, furnishes little assurance of mental stability, as evidenced by his personally nuanced, diagnosably unstable public declarations. The two birds have empirically attained the diagnosable zenith of “cuckoo- nest,” attribution, in “flying” colors. To reprise the encyclopedic tsunami of their exotic drivel would, as a practical matter prove impossible; however, it might be useful to quote a few of their illustrative contextual utterances:

DONALD J. TRUMP: (sample)

” Washington had beautiful columns put together by the force of will because there never were columns of caterpillar factories of graffiti on them.”

“If China or any other country makes us pay 100% or 200% tariffs, which they do, we will make them pay reciprocal tariffs of 100% or 200%; in other words, you screw me and I’ll screw you.”

[As a medicinal cure for Covid-19]”Drink household cleanser,”

[Regarding Georgia prosecutor, Fanni Willis] “She spells Fanny like your ass, right? But she decided to add a little fancy French.”,

J.D. VANCE (sample)\

“Women without children are (seductive) black cats.”

In Springfield Ohio, Haitian immigrants care kidnapping and eating pet dogs and cats.”

We do not profess to enjoy the expertise requisite to locate the respective categories of mental illness, represented by the bizarre daily utterances of the two Republican, candidates for the highest National political offices; nevertheless, we are confident that those readers who have had psychiatric training can, easily locate the respective relevant diagnoses for these two cuckoo bird candidates among the comprehensive and authoritative contents of the professional DSM.

-p.

It is inarguable that, definitionally, the designation of a Nation as “Democratic,” necessarily connotes that its citizens have the equal franchise to vote and thus is dynamically, “by and for the people.”

Much of our media space and National attention has been centered on rectifying the spurious claims of MAGA adherents, and Donald Trump, himself, their potentate, that the Biden election was unfair and a product of “voter interference.” The latter practice, ironically, is seen in the pernicious Trump-Maga efforts to unlawfully and unconstitutionally win back another seat in the Nation’s Oval Office. The personal denial of the certified results of the Presidential election was the underlying motivation for the unprecedented Trump-inspired Insurrection in Washington regarding which many of its criminal participants, summoned to treasonous action by the would-be orange autocrat (but not yet Trump, himself) have been charged with criminality and incarcerated. The United States Justice Department and a plethora of other law enforcement agencies, together with law-abiding members of Congress have been continually obliged to monitor errant State legislative and administrative attempts to politically and unconstitutionally skew the results of the empirically accurate vote.

Yet it is inarguable that there has historically, existed an anachronistic cognitive dissonance between the constitutionally granted right of an American citizen to vote (protected as set forth above) and its provision for the existence of the “Electoral College,” applicable to electing America’s President.

Our readings inform us that the Founders created the subject institution as a compromise to appease small States that once feared the effects of majority rule. This historical anachronism has had the effect of dynamically skewing the democratically accurate result of our contemporary elections.

A media source relates: “In his first run for President, Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by 2,9 million votes by edging her in the Electoral College in winning three “swing” States by only a few thousand votes.” The report continues to opine that the GOP seeks only enough States to win in the Electoral College which is “heavily based” toward voters in smaller, less populous, and “redder” States.

Trump’s constant irrational complaint is that the election system is “rigged.” It is plain that the system is “rigged, in fact, in his favor.” Notwithstanding the rhetoric, if the American Nation is exemplified by its venerated, constitutional assurance of equal voting, the Electoral College, philosophically and morally, should be consigned to the historical “dustbin.”

-p.

We thought it would be interesting to again reprise the ambient scene of our childhood experience in 1940″s East New York, Brooklyn; this time, as an homage to the period’s diverse species of hard-working American tradesmen, gone entirely extinct. We would ask the reader, if possible, to imagine the presented images in sepia brown, as an enhanced reminder of the antiquity of the elegiac experience.

To our recollection, the existence of certain specific species of societal extinction heads the list of the plethora of bygone examples as the most prominent. Such examples include the coal deliverymen, the “ice man,” the milk and seltzer delivery men, the horse-drawn vendors of fruit and vegetables, the horse-drawn, knife and scissor sharpeners, and the familiar, loud cowbell clanking of the old clothes (“schmatas” (yid.) merchant. In the ambiance of the eternal street trolleys noisily clanking and sparking and an occasional street whiff of stale horse droppings, Brooklynites went about their mundane business, mundanely accustomed to the nuanced and exotic stimulus of their times.

In our view, the most dramatic were the “coal delivery men.” These hard-working, variously carbon-stained, aproned workers would, as needed, raise the coal shute on their transport to fill the several wood barrels with coal, then roll them on their respective bottom edges over to an opening to the basement of a serviced apartment building and tilt the heavy barrels to spill onto the sliding chute, leading to the building’s basement. Such grueling labor was required to deliver coal for the transmission and maintenance of warmth for the variously tiered apartments of resident tenants.

Such gladiator-like capability was also demonstrated by the heroic”Ice Men” who with large metal tongs would remove from a horse-drawn ice truck, large, heavy, square blocks of ice, place them onto their cheese cloth-protected shoulder, and repeatedly march up the many-tiered staircase levels to deliver blocks of ice to the resident-tenants for insertion ion their “Cold Box” (The latter a non-motorized, insulated pre-cursor of the refrigerator}. The blocks of ice were heavy and undoubtedly became more so with repeated acts of delivery. The mechanical advent of the electrified “refrigerator” empirically spelled the emancipation of the slave-like labor of the ice man.

Also gone extinct were the challenging services of milkman and seltzer delivery man. The milk bottles in such era evinced cream floating at the top of each wire-and-paper sealed bottle. Seltzer bottles, delivered by the “seltzer man,” were somewhat dangerous but ubiquitously desirable among devoutly religious Jewish people who, because of ancient religious dietary prohibitions were limited in their choice of menu.

Cobblestones stonily resounded with the daily sound of moving vehicles and horse-drawn carts. Among these were the fruit and vegetable vendors, often of Italian extraction, and the used clothing wagons, often of Jewish Ashkenazi proprietorship, mutually festooned with softly tingling cowbells, publically advertising their appearance.

Today, by cosmic and digital contrast, basic and extracurricular needs and desires of the individual are effortlessly summoned and predictably fulfilled, merely with the mindless pressure of the tip of a finger on a proffered selection proffered on a laptop or smartphone. There is, by sheer contrast, little energy or effort required, however, the resultant empirical satisfaction from such robotic efficiency appears to leave much-needed, fulfilling, inter-active humanism, to be desired.

-p.

The evening had by now arrived
Yet he remained, lying on his chest
In a panicked state of high alarm
An unbroken state of primal fear

A vague view of the cliff’s sharp edge
Was the limit of his sight
The dread portal to gruesome death
From falling from the slippery edge

In the early morn, a young blond child
Out harvesting blooms for her new red vase
Came upon the trembling man
Thus immobile, on the rocky ground

“Are you O.K.?” the child inquired
He shouted “Alarm!” “Keep away from the cliff!”
“I don’t understand,” replied the child…
That’s the east edge of the lily pond.
-p.
Leonard N, Shapiro, 9/14/24. Kingston, N.Y.

Media sources indicate that this week, a major lawsuit was filed in the Federal District Court, Southern District of New York, against the former President, Donald J. Trump. Plaintiffs are the Sierra Club, the ASPCA., and the National Culinary Society. The case seeks injunctive relief and substantial monetary damages based on the defendant’s malicious, defamatory pronouncements and televised incitement to perverse and criminal action, by his venal, public pronouncements that dogs and cats are being eaten, in Ohio, by barbaric and hungry illegal immigrants. A large, enraged group of ardent pet owners, young and old, has provided financial support for the historic lawsuit..

The plaintiffs are represented by lead Counsel for the ASPA and the Fred Rogers Neighborhood Alliance, The defendant has retained for his defense, the cat-hating, T.J. Vance, and the universally acknowledged draconian, “Darth Vader” of immigration, the arrogant, ” Adolph Eichman-like,” Steven Miller.

The gravamen of the plaintiffs’ joint and several allegations charge the wrongful making of certain defamatory declarations, intentionally or in a grossly irresponsible manner, proximately’ causing personal and emotional suffering imposed upon the universe of American pet owners, the generations of householders containing much- beloved and life-affirming cats and dogs,; the latter, with especially egregious effect, on children, the elderly and the home-bound disabled The offensive inte false declaration to the American Nation that Haitian immigrants are eating household pets, in Ohio. As pleaded by the culinary plaintiff, such false, and disgraceful declaration, as alleged, relates to the brutalization of the wholesome act of dining and the creation of a paranoid-like, conspiratorial ideation that one has to defensively monitor meat meals for possibly included roadkill.

Donald Trump, through his errant and cultish attorneys, reflexively, alleges several purported, defenses, predictably asserting as his singular trademark response the alternate facts viz., (1) a falsx denial of the publically broadcast statement, (2) the plaintiffs’ assertion that he declared that Haitian immigrants are eating household cats and dogs, is a “witch-hunt: that what he really said was that Haitian immigrants eat hot dogs at Katz’s Delicatessen and that either Biden or Harris had tactically created the false story, loyally published by the “left-leaning” media.

The case proceeded to trial, before a non-partisan (and notably, handicapped) Judge, following the conclusion of Trump’s predictable delaying tactics, engineered by his MAGA-inspired attorneys. There was heart-rending testimony for the plaintiff by several pet-owning, handicapped children, an elderly, sight-challenged witness who testified to his mandatory dependence on a seeing-eye dog, as well as compelling testimony from the ASPA and an animal expert from The Sierra Club.

The defendant’s attorneys merely called as a defense witness the smirking, cosmetically-tanned, orange -dyed hair, Donald Trump, who, with his characteristic body language and irreverent smirk alleged the distorted and irrational assertion, quoted above.

The Judge, as was empirically predictable, ruled against the defendant, and in favor of the plaintiffs, unprecedentedly, holding that Trump, together with his two “sordid attorneys” reimburse the plaintiffs in full for legal costs and expenses in the case and, remarkably, sentenced both defendant Trump and his two reprehensible attorneys to thirty monitored days of animal cleanup at the local petting zoo.

-p.

As soon as Samantha Epicac woke up, as was her daily habit, she checked her phone for messages and proceeded, directly and excitedly, to her specially programmed television set. The latter had been uniquely and expertly programmed, following her wishes by a friend with a degree in Computer Science, to entirely eliminate all news, sports, movie, and informational programs; in fact, all programs save the cosmetics, exercise, and fashion presentations. When asked by an acquaintance about her delimited choice, she curtly replied, “Because the deleted “apps” feature matters totally irrelevant to my personal interest and vital concerns and, definitely outside of my control.

Samantha, when asked about her limited interest would, in a forensic manner declare,” I have been given only one life to live and I am obliged by necessity to protect and nurture that one life and defensively preserve and protect my youthful and appearance, in responsible opposition to the negative and unattractive process of aging, After all, what has Ukraine or Trump have to do with wrinkles, dry, creping skin, and sagging chin? I am confident that a sufficient number of television viewers exist, content with wasting their precious time, by viewing all sorts of matters, inarguably beyond their control and totally irrelevant to their personal needs.

After brushing and carefully flossing her teeth, examining her smile for any errant traces of yellow, she recalled with a start, that it was 8:45 on Sunday morning and that at 10:30 she had a blind date for brunch with a young man named, Algernon Cronkite. The date had been arranged by her best friend, Ophelia Wart. Samantha judicially selected a light-colored, sporty outfit, arranged her hair, eye shadow, and facial makeup in a dedicated effort to present her 36-year-old persona in its youngest and most enticing aspect.

As arranged, Samantha met “Algy” at a nearby posh restaurant for their 10:30 A.M. brunch date. Samantha was excited by his handsome appearance, slim, youthful, fashionable eyeglasses, tweed jacket, and remarkably clear and dulcet speech. Concerning the latter characteristic, in reply to Samanthga’s praise, Algy explained that he was a television host on a major televised news program.

After ordering their food, Algy, in an attempt to discern his new acquaintance’s personality and foundational beliefs, asked her general questions relating to his personally familiar topic, current news events. Various such attempts on subjects such as, Israel-Hamas, Ukraine, Presidential preference, and global warming were met with non-committa comments such as, “It is a tough problem,” or “You don’t say?” or, alternatively, silence, After the passage of an uncomfortable fifteen minutes, Samantha, providentially recalling that Algy was a television broadcaster, earnestly posed the following question: In your professional opinion, is the sales commercial for anti-crepe skin cream, featuring Jane Seymour, an effective product? Algernon, as if stricken with a bolt of errant lightning, immediately, muttered, arose from the table and determinatively, marched out of the restaurant

Samantha loudly declared, “What the hell is the matter with him?

-p,