Total Eclipse 2017

  1. Here comes President Honey Boo Boo
  2. Parlez vous Français?
  3. Talk Radio
  4. Farewell to a brief visitor


Wanna know why the media are always bad-mouthing the alt-right, whatever the heck that is? To deflect our attention from the real culprit in the making of this execrable President: themselves.

The alt-right did not make Donald Trump. Our major media, starting with Random House and continuing through NBC and every show or movie that had him in cameo appearances. They fed and normalized his narcissism, turning “you’re fired” into a running joke and giving him an aura like a lovable drunk uncle (from what I can tell; I had no drunk uncles).

Sure, they did it to make money, the all-excusing justification. Nobody knew they were making a monster. But they did it just the same.

Get ready for President Honey Boo Boo.

That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it holding it very lightly.


I’m working on taking 52 years of accumulated rust off my high school French skills (with 12 semester hours of college Spanish to confuse things further).

All in all, I don’t feel too bad about my inability to translate this tweet without help:

French tech bitch


Progressive talk radio is a sty of conspiracy theories, hysteria, and bigotry that makes right-wing talk radio sound like Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus — which is not easy to do, because right-wing talk radio is bonkers.

The Democrats think they are beating the Republicans at their own game. Republicans countenanced cranks who insisted that Barack Obama was a Kenyan and a Muslim, and Democrats raised the stakes with claims that Donald Trump is a Russian plant and a Nazi. A few years ago, John Kerry mournfully scolded Republicans who had, so he claimed, questioned his patriotism. We were all supposed to recoil from the idea of questioning anybody’s patriotism. That was quaint. Now, Democrats insist that their political opponents are traitors, that ordinary politics is treason, and that their rivals ought not only be defeated at the ballot box but jailed.

There are two ways to come off a ledge, and Americans should choose carefully.

(Kevin D. Williamson)


I am deleting from my daily endnote the maxim Qui tacet consentire videtur, ubi loqui debuit ac potuit. Having concluded that Trump’s agenda is still doing just fine thanks to its narrow and narcissistic scope, it seems portentous to act as if it needs to be opposed.

Better, methinks, to feign just enough fascination with President Jabberwock that he doesn’t feel compelled to start a nuclear war to gain the limelight again.

* * * * *

Gosh! Did you see what President Donald Trump is up to today? How utterly fascinating he is! I weep with envy when I look upon Melania! He fills my every thought! He surely doesn’t need to start any more stupid wars to get my undivided attention! No siree!


Some succinct standing advice on recurring themes.