YOUR SUNDAY MOMENT OF ZEN

 

“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.” ― Buddha Siddhartha Guatama Shakyamuni

SATURDAY NIGHT MUSIC

 

June -- Florence + The Machine

(One of my daughter's favorite performers.)

This is awful, but not surprising:

Trump, at the Faith and Freedom 2026 Coalition and Policy Conference:

 "From the very beginning of our country, American greatness has been forged by people of faith, and the very first settlers who set foot upon this new world at Jamestown got off their ship, raised up a cross, and bowed down to the Lord in prayer. It was faith that strengthened the Minutemen who stood up at Lexington Green and Concord Bridge in Philadelphia 250 years ago. Next week — our founders invoked the Creator four times in the Declaration of Independence — four times. I wasn’t mentioned once. I’m very upset. Not once."

Would it be asking too much to have a POTUS who knows basic, grammar school American history, especially Trump, who brags about how much he loves this country? When will his MAGA cultists finally realize how he's conned them into believing he cares about this country, when the fact is the absolute opposite? 

In May of 2025, former ABC newsman, Terry Moran, asked Trump what the Declaration of Independence meant to him, the president replied, "Well, it means exactly what it says, it's a declaration. A declaration of unity and love and respect, and it means a lot. And it's something very special to our country."

Because Trump’s never bothered to read the DoI, he showed his withering stupidity about one of America’s founding documents, which most certainly was not about “ unity, love, and respect!”

Trump’s MAGA cultists have embraced this functioning illiterate for their own desperate reasons, but one of them can’t be because they believe he loves America.  Trump shows us all the time that he’s nothing more than a shallow, performative patriot.  He relies on "flag-waving" and emotional grandstanding for political gain rather than having a genuine, informed dedication to our nation's history

Trump secures power by manipulating the emotions, prejudices, and ignorance of MAGA with sweeping, exaggerated claims, rather than engaging in thoughtful, history-based deliberation.

IMO, real patriots are informed by their nation's history and political philosophy, not crass displays of fake patriotism, like hugging and kissing the flag.

As we enter the week when we celebrate our 250th birthday, we are faced with the depressing fact that the president heading the celebration neither knows nor cares about the history that birthed this great nation. 

“We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.” —Benjamin Franklin

LIGHT POSTING FOR THIS WEEKEND

 

Family visiting from Virginia.

This caught my attention:

TRUMP'S PRESIDENCY CONDENSED INTO A SINGLE DEBACLE: THE REFLECTING POOL

"This will last for at least 50 years and you'll never have a leak," Trump said at the time. "I don't want to give anybody ideas, [but] if you had a knife, you can't even cut it. So strong, so powerful. It's like powerful rubber." 

 Donald J. Trump, May 2026 

CBS: We were in here in April when you first showed us plans…

Trump: I did what? 

 CBS: When you showed us pictures of what you were going to do on the Mall. You said you had a guy who was going to do it in a week for about a million dollars. It’s been two months and $14.5 million… 

 Trump: Okay. Okay. Are you ready? Barack Hussein Obama. Have you ever heard of him? 

CBS: Yes. 

Trump: He spent two years and over $100 million on trying to fix it. [Obama spent $37 million.] And you know what happened to it? It never even opened. [Yes, it opened.] He took the water from the river. You know about that, right? It turned out to be putrid. And it destroyed the whole thing. [No, it didn’t.] He spent over $100 million. [No, he didn’t.] Him and Biden together spent $147 million. [No they didn’t.] You know what happened. It never opened. [Yes, it did. And it was open under Trump in the intervening years.] You don’t mention that, right? We spent about ten. [They spent $16 million.] They were going to spend $300 to $400 million, you know that, right? [No, they weren’t.] And it was going to take four years. I spent, I spent six or seven weeks. Probably $10 million. [$16 million.] They say $16 million, but a lot of that is workers that work around there. [No. Only the lobbyists on K. Street are pulling down that much, not the ground crew on the Mall.] So they were going to spend $400 million. [No.] I spent $10. [No.] They were going to spend four years. [No.] I spent two months, maybe, less. And I have a better product. Now I can’t help it if somebody goes in with a knife and starts hacking it up.”

 

Michael Jochum:

"The Reflecting Pool was supposed to be a monument to Donald Trump’s greatness. Instead, it has become a monument to his presidency. I honestly cannot think of a more perfect metaphor if I tried. There it sits in the heart of the nation’s capital, a fourteen-million-dollar vanity project that was supposed to showcase competence, efficiency, strength, and the legendary deal-making prowess we have been hearing about for a decade. Instead, Americans are looking at algae-green water, peeling paint, dead ducks, accusations of sabotage without evidence, no-bid contracts, missed deadlines, ballooning costs, and a president insisting everything is beautiful while everyone can plainly see otherwise. If that is not the Trump presidency condensed into a single image, I do not know what is."

IF EVER THERE WAS A METAPHOR FOR THE 2ND TRUMP ADMINISTRATION, THIS IS IT:

 

#ETTD

And here the stable genius is blaming a former president who's been out of office almost 10 years:

GUEST POST BY DAVE MILLER

 

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…

• Iran had uranium enriched to 4%.
• IAEA inspectors were busy combing through Iran’s nuclear facilities.
• US and UN sanctions were wreaking havoc across IRAN.
• Iran was unable to sell oil internationally.
• Their economy was in tatters.
• Iran had agreed to forgo pursuing a nuclear weapon.
• A coalition of nations including Russia, China, France, Germany, the UK and the EU were allied to monitor enforcement.
• The Strait of Hormuz was open.
• President Obama was mocked mercilessly for releasing $1.8 billion dollars that was due Iran by the US because the US reneged on a weapons deal years ago.
• The Mullahs were in charge.

That was then, this is now.

• Iran has uranium enriched to over 60%.
• IAEA inspectors are not allowed in Iran.
• The crushing sanctions have been reduced or removed.
• Iran can sell their oil on the world market.
• Their economy and infrastructure is in tatters.
• Iran refuses to forgo pursuing a nuclear weapon.
• There is no world wide coalition allied to confront Iran.
• The Strait of Hormuz is open, then closed, then open, all at the whim of Iran, creating global shipping chaos.
• The US is brokering an international reconstruction plan of at least $300 billion in private and regional investments to repair damage from the war and help Iran's economy recover. 
• $100 billion in frozen assets is set to be released to Iran also.
• The Mullahs are still in charge.

Someone, anyone, please tell me again, why did we go to war with Iran?