Believing Your Own, Uh, Press. Yeah That's It.

"He was born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad." - Rafael Sabatini "Scaramouche"

It is one of my favorite books and produced a marvelous film that contains one of the two greatest sword fights ever in movies. And trust me. Those of us who believe that ultimately the world is mad got a lot of backup this week. And the maddest thing to me is that the madness is believed by so many.

But let's start on a lighter note. Well, it's light if you're not her. Katie Zacharia has been fired as the new Presidential Press Secretary after only 5 days on the job. She didn't even make it through one complete Scaramucci. After a disastrous debut, and a week full of arguments over what a lawyer actually is, the mercy killing took place on Friday.

Now we hear that Chief of Staff Susie Wiles engineered an interview with Sean Hannity, where he asked questions that were, for him, uncharacteristically multi-syllabic and she muffed the whole thing.

But now she is well known and a spot on Fox is assured. Or maybe one of the Fox wannabees. Another example of failing upwards.

Continuing in this vein, there is the former Ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle. The former Fox personality, and (DEMOCRAT ALERT!), former wife of Governor Gavin Newsom and fiancée of Don Jr., fell victim to some of her text messages and emails, along with some pretty outrageous hijinks in Athens. She is now gone.

And let's face it. Wife of Newsom and fiancée of Don Jr. is the very definition of playing the field.

Word now is that she is privy to all the MAGA dirt and if not treated carefully, which is to say, paid, expect the tell-all to be coming soon.

We have already heard from former Fox employees that she loved to talk dirty and showed the news gang several former lovers' d*ck pics on her phone.

"Kimberly, HR is on line one."

But it is becoming clear that the old adage that if you tell a lie often enough, people ultimately believe it, is now turned on it's head. Ultimately, it seems the liar believes it as well.

The President is stumping for candidates all over the country, even formerly solid MAGA country. He is essentially rattling off his greatest hits over and over. The 2020 election was stolen, Obama didn't earn his law degree fairly, Biden was asleep for four years, he settled 8 wars, or 9 or however many since I started that sentence, and well, you know them by now, including new variations on old 3rd grade level nicknames.

And all of it is declared with the certainty that comes only with the confidence that the crowd is full of wide-eyed, pliant gullibles.

There are some new twists, though. How can he admit to admiring men's physiques and dance off the stage to YMCA, admittedly badly, and still be so homophobic? It's an art, I tell ya.

And I have to wonder at this point if his fealty to President Putin has reached such a point that he really thinks Ukraine is to blame for the war continuing? He has displayed an ignorance of things that until now, only Speaker Mike Johnson has mastered.

A good example is the look of guileless disbelief when asked about a Reuters report that Elon Musk's Starlink satellite system was ordered offline by the White House to stop Ukraine's attacks on Russia. That, of course, has the unfortunate side effect of crippling Ukrainian defenses when Russian missiles are coming in.

From CNBC...

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk pinned responsibility for any restrictions on the U.S. government and Trump, writing on X that, “Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government.”

Reporters in Washington, D.C., on Friday asked Trump who was responsible for pausing access for the Ukrainian military.

“Well, I don’t know if it was anybody because it wasn’t me, and I don’t think it was Elon,” Trump said. “And from what I understand, it’s the same as it’s always been.”

No, it's not. And he knows that. If he doesn't, he fell asleep again when the decision was made. One man who knows that is Volodimyr Zelenskyy. During a press conference today he was asked about it.

“President Zelensky, Alistair Bunkall from Sky News. President Trump is facing pretty difficult midterm elections, his personal popularity is very low, diesel prices in the US are very high, and the war that he started in the Middle East is not going the way he wants it. Do you think you are being treated as a scapegoat for his own problems?” Zelensky was asked by Sky’s correspondent in Brussels.

After a long pause, Zelensky then smiled and said, “This is my answer.”

The smile said it all.

This, of course, is part of the shameful betrayal of Ukraine by the United States. No, let me correct that. If we all had our say, we'd still be aiding their fight. This is a betrayal by one man and his unexplainable devotion to a bloody tyrant.

NBC's Gabe Gutierrez asked Trump if he remembers who started the whole thing. His evasion was as lame as his jokes.

“Well, you know, I know the details, okay?” Trump answered. “And at some point, I’ll release the details."

Details? What details can explain an outright invasion 4 years ago? Again, this is disgraceful and the world knows it. But MAGA folks are in large part, swallowing it whole. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to return to the Guilfoyle discussion.

And the claims are getting more out of touch with reality. He says President Obama didn't get into college "the way you did." We all know what that means, even if he graduated cum laude from Harvard Law.

He claimed that since the Affordable Care Act, nobody has seen their doctor in years. Their doctor has grown old before they see him again. Rally goers who assault protesters are cheered from the podium, even when they hit a woman in the face.

That guy was fired by his company, by the way.

If Ken Paxton loses his race for the Senate, he says, it is John Cornyn and Karl Rove's fault. Don't ask me why, except they don't like Ken Paxton.

If that's the criterion, then the line forms to the right.

And at his Georgia rally, it got downright weird as he talked about his promised $5000 to everyone for a Republican win. He imagined some sort of family conversation about what to do with the newfound wealth. No, he did the voices and everything...

“You can’t say, ‘Darling, the president just sent us $5,000, let’s take a trip to China and spend our money in China,’” Trump said.

He continued: “Or, ‘I have always wanted to see Japan, let’s go there, darling, I love you so much. Or how about France? It is a lovely place. No riots, no revolutions.’ You know France seems to be so good revolutions, it’s unbelievable. ‘Let’s go to France and join the revolution and spend our $5,000 there. Let’s go anywhere, darling.’ And she will say, ‘No, no, the caveat is you have to spend it in the United States of America.’”

“‘So, let’s go to Miami, darling,’” he riffed as the imaginary wife. “‘Or let’s go to Palm Beach and join the president for lunch at Mar-a-Lago –’”

As the crowd applauded, Trump pivoted to a supposed punchline: “ –where, for $5,000, you will get one hamburger and a small dessert.”

Telling a cheering crowd that they can't afford to even have lunch with him. And they keep cheering.

On the one hand, it is proof that Trump was right about his acolytes forgiving anything, including a shooting on 5th Avenue, and on the other, you really have to wonder if the repetition has sunk into his brainpan. Is he now believing his own BS?

He has revived an investigation of Representative Ilhan Omar that he tried unsuccessfully in his first term. Yeah, it's a do-over. He continues to say his botched reflecting pool was sabotaged. He is playing hide-and-seek with donations to the Kennedy Center.

His big ballroom donor list has been revealed against his will and includes defense contractors, a pardon recipient’s family, Big Tech, crypto firms and billionaires, the casino industry, tobacco companies, media corporations, health care businesses, utilities and wealthy political donors.

Knock me over with a feather.

So, in addition to believing his own fantasies, he appears to have given up on this election and anything down the road. It's all about feathering the nest. Let those congressional ingrates fend for themselves for two years.

And if, perchance, the GOP pulls it out in November, that just clears the way for the Triumphal Arch: an easy couple of years, throw some money at Kimberly and then a nice trip back to Florida in the comfy Qatari jet, which he gets to keep, by the way.

Melania is going over the prenup and counting the days.

Yep, the world is mad, and to quote the late Charlie Kirk, prove me wrong.