Showing posts with label Poetry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Poetry. Show all posts

August 9, 2026

Free-flowing White House Verse

Sure, there's lots of construction noise, and construction lawsuit noise, and some destruction of construction that was underway but didn't meet the Builder-in-Chief's vision, but even with all of that,  there was still plenty of arguing and yelling and ketchup-squishing noise that made it out into the public realm. 

I won't reveal my sources for this; let's just say they're very well-placed, like a good microphone or something. I might write a book, but first I'd probably need to officially be a reporter for the Fake News, to bump up my viewership.

The (alleged) words of the FOTUS are easily identifiable. Others (allegedly) involved? Secretaries Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth, and Scott Bessent; Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg; and yours truly. Let the free verse fly, like the American Flag over Greenland!

Talk Like Nobody's Listening (or yell, if you want)

We need more munitions! The Biden and Obama administrations depleted our reserves!

We need more munitions! The Biden administration gave all our weapons to Ukraine! I will end the war in Ukraine on Day One! I will win the Nobel Prize – maybe two, and Obama only has one!

We're fighting Iran because Israel said they were going in, and if we didn’t go with them, we’d look weak, and the world would be a more dangerous place!

We’re fighting Iran because it is TWO WEEKS AWAY from having ‘the nuclear’ and we can’t let that happen! We are winning the war! We have won the war! We will win the war!  We are winning the war! We are playing 5-D chess; they are playing ‘Fast and Furious’ with the ENTIRE MIDDLE EAST, and we won’t let that happen! The Bored of Peace will act swiftly, on my order to Jared, to end all the hostilities and develop plans for MULTIPLE Gold Coast Rivieras on the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman, the Gulf of America, and the Gulf Station in Winthrop, MA – they are ALL ripe for development!

We need more money from Congress because we are almost out of munitions!

We’re out of munitions because I’ve been ending wars around the globe, including in Gaza, Venezuela, Ukraine, Russia, Lebanon, the FIFA Soccer War, the Mulch War - that was BRUTAL but my Skid Steer of Peace has fixed that – we BURIED the opponent and Four Seasons Total Landscaping was declared the victor, by a pile! – and PakIndiaStan, where my tariffs stopped that war cold! NOBEL! NOBEL! NOBEL!

Holy crap, we have fewer munitions in the stockpile than we have barrels of oil in the strategic reserve – the Biden and Obama administrations were completely irresponsible!

Munitions are flowing in from all over the place to the US, where we do NOT have a munitions shortage!

Hi, Congress? It’s me, Pete - the Secretary of War, Tattoos, and Testosterone... we need way more manly dollars to make way more manly munitions. I'm in trouble here; can you help a guy out?

WE ARE NOT ALMOST OUT OF MUNITIONS – WE HAVE MANY MORE MUNITIONS THAN ANYONE ELSE, MORE MUNITIONS THAN ANY COUNTRY IN HISTORY! ANYONE SAYING WE ARE OUT OF MUNITIONS IS A COMMUNIST TRAITOR WHO DESERVES THE ULTIMATE PENALTY! KASH PATEL IS OFFERING A $50,000 REWARD FOR INFORMATION ON THE WHEREABOUTS OF THESE EVIL AMERICA-HATING DUMOCRATS!

We have directed munitions companies to tell us, within 21 days, how the hell they’re going to start delivering way more munitions way more faster than they ever dreamed they could, and how the hell they’re going to expand manufacturing facilities here in the US and hire American workers to make them, and oh, by the way, you can undocumented workers who will work for way less and save us money so we can afford to pay you for the munitions; we’ll tax the crap out of them, not fine you for hiring them, and deport them after we have the munitions we need to solve the shortage we don't have.

WE DO NOT HAVE A MUNITIONS SHORTAGE! THE REFLECTION POND WAS VANDALIZED! JEANNINE PIRRO FOLDED LIKE A COCKTAIL UMBRELLA! I HAVE ORDERED KASH PATEL TO OFFER A $50,000 REWARD FOR INFORMATION PROVING JEANNINE PIRRO IS A LYING, TRAITOROUS DUMOCRAT!!

We expect the Strait of Hormuz to be fully open by Tuesday or Wednesday of last week, maybe by Friday. I’ll have a market-roiling update for you on the status by yesterday, in time for tomorrow’s market opening. And just like K-cars, the K-shaped economy is over – that should help manipulate things nicely, don’t you think?

FAKE NEWS!!! HER EMAILS!!! RUSSIA RUSSIA RUSSIA!!! IT’S ALL FAKE NEWS! COMEY AND MARK KELLY ARE TRAITORS!!! SLEEPY JOE IS A TRAITOR!!! I WANT MY BALLROOM AND I WANT IT NOW!!!

August 4, 2026

OrangeVerse (LXVII): WHCA Part 2

Are you ready for more poetry? Let's pick up with another section of the FOTUS at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner.

It's about the One Big Beautiful Ballroom Activities, or OBBBA, which we know is one of the most very favorite FOTUS topics, right up there with the Arc de Trump, and painting the Reflection Pool/Pond/Lake 'American Flag Blue' and using 23.75 carat gold on the four bronze statues, and painting the granite of Executive Office Building one of several different white options, because everyone paints granite right?

The news isn't getting any better, but at least the poetry isn't getting any worse... I mean, the bar is on the ground already. 

The Great Room of China
I just visited China
They have this magnificent room,
The Great Room.
They call it The Great Room.
It's a great room
but what we have is gonna blow,
there won't be anything like it,
It's gonna be fantastic.
And with all of the things that are
going along with it
for safety and security
of future presidents.
You know, I'm only gonna be
using it for about six months,
assuming we finish it right on time.

Upstairs, Downstairs
I get to use it. Somebody said,
"He's building it for himself."
I'm building it for the future.
I'm not build, like, I'll use it.
Now, had it not gone down six or seven stories,
then, in that case, I would have been able
to get a couple of years out of it.
But that was far more complex,
what we did downstairs
than what we do upstairs so,
uh, we're very proud of it.
That is gonna be amazing.

Talk is Cheap
And I think I was just telling, uh,
the whole group sitting at the table,
we were talking about it.
I said, "I think, you know, it's
White House Correspondents, so I
don't see any reason why you
wouldn't be able to use that.
It's gonna be
very large and
very beautiful and 
very safe and
that's what you need."

Fetterman the Betterman
So I was thrilled
to see that after witnessing
the attack, even Democrat Senator 
John Fetterman
told his fellow Democrats to drop the
Trump Derangement Syndrome
and build the White House ballroom,
but it's much more than that.

Czech, Please
It's something that you're gonna use.
I predict that you're gonna end up using it
and, uh, a lot of people are gonna end up using it.
They're gonna be as safe as you can possibly be.
But despite everything that happened
at the previous dinner
and all of the dangers involved,
I'm told that this is still
the hottest ticket in town, this ticket
to get in tonight, because it's
a smaller room,
it's a beautiful room,
it's a luxury room.
See those beautiful chandeliers?
I can tell you everything
about them if you'd like to know.
[Laughter]

A Beautiful Capital
See that beautiful capital above?
See the beautiful capital?
See the, everything, the brass.
Uh, those chandeliers are great.
I, I'm looking at them saying,
"I wonder if I could --"
You know, I sold this building.
And, uh, they're doing a nice job, 
but they're nice people.
But I'll tell you, I'm looking at them saying,
"I wonder if I could walk out with those chandeliers"
because you can't buy them.
They're very special.
 I won't tell you the fact.
I won't mention that
they're Czech crystal,
because I'd like to say
everything's made here,
but they are Czech crystal.
[Laughter]

I'm Floored
And they are beautiful.
And the Waldorf people are
doing a really nice job.
We're proud of them,
actually, because, you know,
when I left town,
I was angry.
I was a little bit angry.
was offered a nice price.
I said, "I'm getting out of that place."
And then I said, "Let's make a comeback."
And, uh, but I was very proud of this building.
This building was hot.
Remember the lobby floor?
82,000 feet.
For those in the
real estate business,
82,000 feet.
That's a major,
that's a major floor.
 That thing was packed
 every single night.
It was packed mostly Republicans,
I would say, but it was
 packed every single night.
It almost brings back memories.

What a Feeling!
But, uh, I left town and,
uh, I have just had nothing
but good experiences. And
this might be the best
experience of all, having all of these
incredible people in this room.
It's a great, it's a great feeling,
frankly. It's a great feeling.
But tonight's event, thank you.
Thank you. But tonight's event
is even crazier than the last time.

A Hot Lotta Money
It's so successful that I've
been informed by CBS News's
David Ellison, 
who's gonna do a fantastic job.
He's the owner.
 He's the owner.
 He bought it,
spent a lot of money,
and he's gonna make,
I think, fantastic changes
and keep some of the
great stuff going.
But the next year,
they're going to call it
the Trump White House
Correspondents' (Dinner).
He told me that.
 And I like that very much.
We're gonna change the name of it, okay?
Well, it's gonna be so hot,
just like our country is hot.
We are hot, by the way. But to be honest,
it's just about the only way
that they're gonna ever get me back here.
You're gonna have to change the name of the dinner.

Hey Bobby? What's For Dinner?
But how's that one going?
Not too good. I hope
that everyone finally got to enjoy
their entire very delicious
beef tenderloins, very special beef.
And I want you all to know
that Bobby Kennedy,
who's right here, personally
ran over the cow in his car.
[Laughter]

Boom. 
And he cut it up and
he brought it here for you to eat
tonight, so it's very fresh.
And Bobby also suggested
an appetizer featuring
his favorite cut of
male raccoon
roadkill.
[Laughter]

But we drew the line at that,
Cheryl. We said, "No, we're
not gonna do that." We're not doing that.
We love Bobby. I'll tell you.
He's a piece of work.
 You think it's, it is fun,
but he is a very different
kind of a person,
I will tell you.
[Laughter]

What a Feeling
But he has what it takes
 and he's smart.
And he loves 
the country.
And he 
wants people
to be made 
to feel good.
Do you agree
with that, Bobby?
 He wants people
to feel good.
And, uh, he's
doing a fantastic job.
Thank you, Bobby.
Thank you.
We can joke
all we want,
but thank you.

July 27, 2026

OrangeVerse (LXVI): WHCA Part 1

For about an hour on Saturday night, the FOTUS rambled on and on at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner, rescheduled from April when a man tried to get into the ballroom and assassinate the president and other members of his administration. 

Other presidents who have attended usually speak for 15, 20, or maybe even 30 minutes, nothing like what GOP strategist Alyssa Farah Griffin described as "what felt like 90 minutes we'll never get back of our lives." 

There's so much to unpack, as the punditry likes to say, that I'm breaking it down into bite-sized pieces of poetry. Well, OK, Big Mac-sized bites... giant Diet Coke-sized slurps of verse, if you will. Are you ready?

Karoline
our favorite White House
Press Secretary...who just had her
second child, you and your husband.
She's great. She's done a fantastic job.
We all love her. She's done a fantastic job.
She is another one.
She can be nasty

But sometimes she has no choice, right?
Karoline
may have one of 
the hardest jobs...she
has to deal with all of you 
all of the time,
and you could be very difficult.
You can be very, very difficult people
but I'm probably being a little bit oversensitive.
Sometimes I really do think

That some of you don't like me
I read a report
I get 93% negative publicity,
93, I said, how the hell
did I win the election
by so much?
Think of it, I
don't think that's true.
I can't believe it's 93.
In the 80s maybe, but
not 93.

But this place
is the, really,
the largest group
of Trump Derangement Syndrome
people. Ever put together
at one time, I suspect. Some
of you are lucky
that our last dinner was cut short
because I brought with me
what would possibly
have been,
I'm telling you,
I had, uh...

 I had something
I was gonna go after you.
I was gonna. I feel
so badly doing this.
It's gotta be
such a letdown
Oh yay, yay.

But your lives were really in danger
the last time but for
an opposite reason.
But on the plus side, your
careers were saved and
we have a, uh, we really do.
We have a complete and total,
you know, I love the words

Complete and total
they say, but it means almost
the same thing,
I said, it doesn't matter
when you say it.
It's called emphasis.
It's called emphasis.
But everyone is now
really warming up
the new White House
military center,
drone port,
highly protected
ballroom.
It's, we have
our ballroom.

The windows are this thick.
I said to the people
well, if a bullet hits, what happens?
Nothing. Nothing.
It bounces right off, sir.
This is the greatest bulletproof glass.
I said AK-47,
that's supposed to be a big one.
I don't know so much
about the guns.

My sons know a lot.
But I said
Ah, I know it's big.
What would happen?
They go up, meaning
it could take more.
I said so, if I'm making
a speech and I hear that
pinging sound at a window
what would I do?
Sir, uh, leave the room
right away but
you're gonna be safe.
We're building something that's
gonna be amazing.
And in light of 
what we went through
I think, uh, people
understand it.
 It's 
gonna 
be 
amazing.

I wonder... what could be more amazing than Part 1? Stick around - you'll have a chance to pick your favorite part when it's done. 

July 10, 2026

OrangeVerse (LXV): America's 250th Birthday

The weather-delayed main event on July 4th in DC was the detonation and launch of some 850,000 fireworks, the most bigly fireworks display (for entertainment purposes, anyway) in our nation's 250 years, maybe longer. 

Preceding that? A speech by the FOTUS; fortunately, the weather not only delayed his appearance, but shortened it to an almost tolerable 40 minutes, compared to the threatened dictator-like hours-long ramble.

Trump's speech featured heroes, patriotic imagery, and villains. The heroes, which I'll feature in a Sidebar, were impressive. The patriotism and the villains are where I found the poetry. Note that these are all his words, but not all of his words - it's not a transcript. Rather, it's my re-punctuated capture of his main themes.  

Free Verse, 250 Years in the Making
This country is the home of freedom. 
This is the land of liberty, 
and this is a flag
 that's the banner of the most extraordinary, 
most exceptional, most incredible nation 
ever to exist on the face of the earth.
 
And we're doing better now than 
we've ever done before.
No people have done more good, 
shown more courage, 
made more progress, 
righted more injustice or 
achieved more greatness 
than you, 
the American people.

For 250 years, the United 
States of America has been 
the hope, the promise, the light, and the glory 
among all of the 
nations of the world. 
All over the world 
they try and be like us. 
Nobody can be like us. 

Here on our National Mall, we're celebrating 
freedom's triumph over tyranny, 
liberty's conquest over oppression
 and the enduring victory of 
the American spirit 
from the July 4th, 1776 to July 4th, 2026. 
Big dates. That's big dates. Two big ones.

And tonight our country
is stronger, freer, richer, safer, 
and prouder than ever before.
But it all started 
with the miracle of history that lives 
forever in the heart of every single patriot.

In Philadelphia, our founding fathers 
summoned the courage of giants 
and the wisdom of centuries 
to boldly proclaim these timeless truths. 
They declared that all men are created equal.
That they are endowed with sacred, 
unalienable rights by the hand of our creator.
And that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
 
In signing their names to the roster of freedom, 
those 56 patriots put everything at risk, 
stepped onto the stage of destiny and 
seized a victory for the ages. 

And that's what it was. 
And this is an evening for the ages, 
I believe. This is something very special. 
This is bigger than if we didn't have the lightning blaring. 
We had lightning blaring, but this is bigger. 
Little more inconvenient, but it's bigger. 
I think in its own way 
it's more beautiful.

From the beginning, 
we were a nation that lived 
by the motto victory or death, 
and live free or die.
One out of every 100 
Americans gave their lives 
in the fight for independence 
to remind us of who these heroes were 
and what they gave us.

 These are the real flags.
These are flags that have seen a lot. 
These were the Stars and Stripes 
that flew triumphant when the British waved 
the white flag of surrender at Yorktown. 

That was a big surrender. 
Nobody thought that was possible.
They were the greatest power of the world,
and they surrendered, and that was the beginning.
Ever since, the entire world has been on notice
 that Americans will never let anyone 
take our freedom away. 

Won't happen.
And all these talks 
from the communists, 
they haven't got a chance. 
Not even a chance.
We don't want 
communists 
in our country.
Never worked, 
and it never will work. 
Americans must never forget 
that we are a historic and
 heroic people with a 
heroic spirit and a 
heroic purpose 
on this beautiful 
earth of ours.
We are 
made 
of the 
courage 
and the fire 
and the flesh 
and the blood 
of the best and 
the bravest people
this world has ever 
produced. 

Our founders not only won 
our liberty, they secured it 
with the most righteous 
political document
 ever conceived. It's called the 
Constitution of the United States. 
Very special.
And it's 
because of their 
genius that we remain
 the finest people on the planet 
after 250 years.

Unlike so many 
others in the world, 
in this country, 
we have freedom of speech, 
freedom of religion, 
equal justice under the law, 
although I wasn't treated that well, 
but we won't get into that.

 And the right to keep and bear arms. 
And for the almost six years 
that I was president,
I guarded very, 
very powerfully 
your Second Amendment, 
and they didn't do a thing to it, 
and it was not easy. 
But we guard your 
Second Amendment. 
We guard it very, very 
strongly and cautiously.

Across the generations 
Americans have 
fought, 
bled 
and 
died 
not just to secure 
those rights, 
but to expand them 
to citizens 
of every 
race, 
religion, 
color 
and creed 
because we 
are one people. 
We are 
one family.

And as our 
Declaration of Independence 
tells us, we are all made 
in the image of 
one Almighty God.
And a communist 
will never say that. 

Americans expanded
the blessings of freedom, 
and we have never stopped expanding 
our ambitions and our dreams. 
We had the American dream. 
We never had the American dream, 
however, like we have it right now. 
The American dream is 
back, very strong, 
beautiful.

Our rise
 to being the world's strongest 
and most powerful nation was no accident 
of history. We rebuilt our military in my first term. 
We use it a little bit in our... Well, actually, I should say 
third term, but I won't do that 
because I don't want any controversy.

But we use it and 
we've had tremendous success. 
You look at Venezuela,
 you look at Iran, 
we wiped it out, 
wiped out their military.

Americans 
crossed the Great Plains, 
scaled the Rockies, we just tamed 
the wilderness and conquered the frontier 
and built the empire, it's called the Empire of Liberty. 

We laid down the railroads, raised up the skyscrapers, 
those beautiful skyscrapers and dug out the Panama Canal, 
considered the eighth wonder of the world, 
which everyone said was an impossible thing to do. 
And by the way, 38,000 Americans died to
give us one of the greatest engineering feats of all time
 the Panama Canal.

This was the unstoppable spirit that created the world's
most powerful industries and built 
the strongest military anyone had ever seen. 
And today, it is stronger and more powerful than
 it ever was before.
Americans won the West and built
the modern world because America 
is a nation of winners. 
And today our country is winning again, 
and we're winning like never before.
America is back,
 and we want to 
keep America great. 

And we will do so by approving the Save America Act, 
which means all voters must show voter ID. 
All voters must provide a little thing called proof of citizenship.
And there will be no mail-in ballots, 
except for illness, disability, 
military deployment or travel.
And you won't have 
cheating on the elections anymore. 
It's very simple. 

Together, 
we are also reasserting the truth
that American strength and power is not 
something to be ashamed of. It is something that we 
are very, very proud of. This country has been
 the greatest force for peace 
and justice on earth. 
In the last century, we defeated tyrants, 
demolished evil and saved freedom again and again and again.

So, ladies and gentlemen,
these are the fighters and the banners 
of the greatest generation. 
They are the greatest generation. 
I hate to admit that, but they are. 
They saved the world and they made 
America very, very proud. 
We are very proud of you here us all. 
And after we vanquished fascism, 

Americans stood against the evil of communism in the Cold War. 
And as I said last night at the beautiful Mount Rushmore,
what a beautiful place where 
Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt loomed 
over my shoulder as I spoke.
 America will never be a communist country. 
Won't happen. Communism is a loser and it always will be.

The communist system is
the opposite of the American system
 and the communist system has never worked. 
Our warriors did not fight communism 
on battlefields across the world only to have that menace 
rear its ugly head right back here in America. 
We're not going to let it happen. 
We like to stop a threat like that immediately 
and before it begins. 
It's like a cancer. 
You got to cut it out. You got to cut it out fast. 

Congratulations and thank you
for being here very much. 
And from the now safe and beautiful capital of Washington. 
Think of it. Washington DC, our capital. 
Our capital is now safe, gleaming and beautiful again. 
It's safe again.
Went from a very unsafe place two years ago 
to one of the safest cities in the country 
and one of the most beautiful 
to the gleaming waters of the Gulf of America.
 
There is no challenge Americans cannot overcome. 
There is no place we cannot go. 
There is no goal we cannot reach and 
there is nothing that Americans cannot do. 
And we're proving that right now. 

Our stock market is the strongest it's ever been. 
We have $19.2 trillion being invested in our country, 
which is six times more than ever happened before. 
We're building more factories in the United States t
han ever before. Everyone's 401(k)s 
are at the highest number they've ever been.
And more people are working today in the United States 
than any time in the history of our country. 

But in this country, 
we can achieve the wildest 
and most impossible dreams. 
And no dream in history
 is bigger or more incredible 
than the one that started on July 4th, 1776. 
The war for independence was launched

 by minutemen, farmers, blacksmens, tradesmen 
who took up their muskets against
 the mightiest army on earth, 
most powerful army and 
unbeatable army until they met us. 
No one made them do it. 

They fought because they knew 
that a free people must have a free country over 250 years. 
The world has seen the great empires, vast kingdoms, 
mighty nations and terrible tyrants. 
They came and they went. 

But after two and a half centuries, 
this American republic still stands tall and strong 
and we love each other. 
That show tonight, you heard it was over and what happened? 
You came back. 
And this American flag still waves 
proud and free and beautiful. 
We have thrived and flourished 
because our founders were great. 
Our cause was just 
our people are brave. 
Our culture is exceptional 
and our destiny is written 
by God. 

And as we can see here tonight,
after 250 years, the spirit of 1776 still lives within us all. 
It still roars in the hearts of our nation's capital.
It still burns in the heart of every patriot,
thunders through every city and town and
 it still lights the entire world 
with the glow of American liberty. 
And there is nothing like that. 

At 250 years old, we may be the oldest 
constitutional republic on earth, 
but our country is just getting started 
because the best is yet to come. 

On this 250th 4th of July
we declared just as they did 
two and a half centuries ago 
that for our country and for our children 
and for the cause of liberty, 
we are going to take our country to new levels,
to levels not reached. 
We're going to make it bigger, better, stronger, 
and we're going to love it even more.


February 25, 2024

In Case You Missed It (v122)

Time to settle into a comfy chair and catch up on last week's posts, in case you missed anything.

I listened to three Democrats for your Sunday School this week: South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro

They all put in good words for President Biden, tried to dispel fears about his age, and reminded us why we need him to be re-elected in November.  Here's a bit of Shapiro, referencing Ezra Klein's NYT comments.

Shapiro agrees with Klein that "the stakes could not be higher," but said Biden'll be the guy, and he'll have Shapiro's support.

...we’ve got to go out and make that case. The president, the vice president and those of us who are privileged who support him and have a front-row seat to this, we've got to go out and do this important work now.  

He said we all are "going to have to stand up and be counted" on whether America will continue "to be a voice of freedom and democracy..." and he's confident voters,

 ...just as they did in 2020, they will rise up; they will demand more; they will seek justice; and they will look to defend freedom in this nation, and they will reject Donald Trump.

Switching gears for your Extra Credit, I focused solely on Jake Tapper's chat with former Rep. Liz Cheney who, of course, is persona non grata with the MAGA crowd. She was not impressed with recent comments from Snitty Snitty Bill Barr, who recently said he'd vote for Trump over Biden even though, he also said,

Voting for Trump is playing Russian roulette with the country. Voting for Biden is outright national suicide.

She said he's "absolutely wrong," and even though she hasn't endorsed anyone, she "certainly would never support Donald Trump." Why?

...we know what Donald Trump will do because he's telling us every day. And anybody who has spent any time overseas, who has spent any time studying the history of autocracies and of autocrats knows we have to listen to what Donald Trump's saying. So electing Donald Trump's not Russian roulette. Electing Donald Trump would mean putting in power a man who's committed to unraveling our constitutional framework. So Bill Barr is just wrong on that.

I was Wondering on Wednesday about Choco Tacos, and about a proposed 'trucker boycott' of NYC, among other things,. The boycott was proposed by a trucker named Chicago Ray who tweeted about the boycott as a response to the penalties in the NY financial fraud case.

I'm just one of the many millions of Truckers who believe in God and love this Country. I stand with Trump bc Trump stands with me. Truckers for Trump ain't just a slogan, it's real.
Trump was delighted, as you might imagine, to "have so many Great Patriots" on his side, and so on. But then, Chicago Ray deleted his original tweet, put up another one in which he stressed he was not encouraging anyone to do anything - and then deleted that one, too. And I can't help wondering, is he still a Great Patriot, or not?

I took a more serious turn on Thursday, where I highlighted one more Sunday School interview in a Quick Take. I was not familiar with Charlemagne tha God until I watched his taped conversation with Jon Karl. Here's how things kicked off.

Karl started with a quote from his guest, who said the 2024 campaign is "a race between the cowards, the crooks, and the couch." Here's how he defines those three Cs.

...the crooks are the Republicans. The cowards are the Democrats, because they don't fight hard enough on anything. And, you know, the couch is voter apathy. And, you know, that's -- that's who everybody is up against in 2024. 

He doesn't know if anyone benefits from the couch winning, but that's what it feels like will happen; even his audience isn't energetic. He said "nobody wants to see the rematch" between Biden and Trump, and that's why he feels the couch will win.

Charlamagne's very quotable, and he had a few in the interview that I think really hit the mark, even though a lot of Dems might be mad at him for saying the quiet part out loud. 

Friday was a two-fer: first, an OrangeVerse entry in which I turn former president Donald Trump's words into verse, and there was my usual Friday feature, TGIF, where I attempt to identify folks I think had a good week or a bad one. 

There were political references, of course, including Rep. Dean Phillips, who's running for president on the Dem line, who had a good week.  There also was a culture reference, one that didn't mention Taylor Swift. 

Beyonce has her first #1 single on the Billboard Country chart, the first Black woman with that achievement in the history of the chart. And some folks don't seem happy about it.
Sure, if a Black woman either native to country music or coming up through the country music ranks would have achieved a similar goal, it would speak to the opening up of the genre to women of color. But that’s not what’s happened here at all. Instead, Beyonce is leveraging her global superstar status earned in the pop and R&B/hip-hop world, the enthusiasm of her Stan army the Beyhive, and the coercion of country music’s institutions to ensconce herself atop the genre.

On the other hand, people are line dancing all over the place to the song - including the Savannah Bananas - does that mean this whole thing is a wash?

See a snippet you like? Click the link and check out the full post - and be sure to stop back this week for more of the pastiche.