A C. T U. A L. L Y

Step right up, ladies and gentlemen !   Welcome to the Big Top at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC, home of the 2024 Narcissist Games!   This presidential election year, we have a really special show for you:     T wo C heeks of the S ame Arse! On the left cheek above and pictured below, i s Mr. I A lone C an W in I t ! And on the right cheek above and pictured below, is Mr. I A lone C an F ix I t !   We’ve got a really great 119 days of sheer fun lined up for you, folks!   Here are just a few of the exciting events you can count on:   Watch the candidates toss word salads at each other from their clown cars!                                              Thrill to the sight of each taking a selfish!         Experience your very own disorienting sense of...

  Yesterday, the Supreme Court of the United States made law by debasing and destroying it.   The 6-3 majority decision erased with the stroke of a pen a couple of provisions of the U.S. Constitution and scribbled over several federal laws as they apply to the President, making it perfectly peachy for him or her, while in the White House, to: Hold office after engaging in or aiding an insurrection, which declares Section 3 of the 14th Amendment officially dead.  Accept gifts from a foreign leader, which hollows out Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution, the emoluments clause, because if it's good enough for Thomas and Alito, it should be good enough for a President. Sell classified information to the highest bidder, which steamrolls right over 18 US Code, §798 (a), paving the way for grifts “the likes of which we’ve never seen before.” Accept election campaign contributions from foreign leaders like Victor Orban, which until yesterday was prohibited by 52...

March 1:   Our van from Ninh Binh deposited us at Tuan Chau / Quang Ninh, the embarkation point for our Ha Long Bay cruise, but not without incident.   Our driver had tried to pass on the right, got into trouble, and swerved wildly back into his lane, nearly losing control of the van.   It was a bit hair-raising, to tell the truth. The countryside south of Hanoi and west of Ha Long Bay is very industrial and not at all scenic. As you get closer to the bay, the area is chock-a-block with new holiday townhomes designed to evoke the French colonial past.   A few photos I pulled off the net show the scale and repetitiveness of these developments.   The photo I took below of the Tuan Chau port shows that some of these developments are in financial trouble and remain unfinished. We had booked the Ocean Suite through Halong Bay Tours on the Hera Grand , a small wooden junk with only 11 cabins and no AstroTurf on her decks, the latter being my husband's non-negot...