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There is something a little lame about Musk saying Trump has a connection to the infamous Jeffrey Epstein. It would matter if Musk discovered this connection and turned on Trump because of it. That isn’t the story here. It was more of another stone to throw at Trump as Musk was walking out the door. The truth is if he really cared about this sexual abuse accusation he never would have taken the DOGE job in the first place.

But he did with full knowledge of Trump’s connection to Epstein. The abused girls didn’t matter when he was working well with Trump. The only reason they matter now is Musk thinks he can hurt Trump with this information. How brave.

What a morally bankrupt man. There are no other words for it. Well, maybe — what an asshole.

The good news here is that he is taking on Trump. There is nothing quite as much fun as two assholes going after each other in a blood fight. You don’t have to root for a winner and hopefully they both come out of this rumble irreparably damaged. Fingers crossed.

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Christiane Amanpour says she prepares for a trip to the United States now like she is preparing for a trip to North Korea.

I believe that her preparations may be different with Trump and his cronies in charge but North Korea — a country so backward that there are no lights on at night and where there is no political opposition whatsoever seems a bit of a stretch. More importantly it obviously isn’t the least bit true. The lights are very much on in the USA and the opposition to Trump is both active and vigorous. The mere fact that she is saying this while in the United States undermines her own statement.

She has a point. Unfortunately it got lost in the hyperbolic nature of her statement. This is especially damaging for someone who is a journalist. Maybe a comedian could get away with the North Korean comparison but someone who conveys important information to the public it calls into question their judgment. And, to be clear, she wasn’t joking so can I trust what this journalist is saying?

Now I think I can because of her long record of accurate reporting but what about red America? People who are already deeply suspicious of journalists. They might think if she believes that traveling to the USA is akin to North Korea, she is clearly someone who has lost her senses or, at least, her ability to reason.

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Sometimes I can not believe the things I see — Masturbation Month Sale advertised in the Daily Beast.

I am not saying it is wrong but it is jolting for someone who was raised in the 1960’s and 1970’s. I didn’t even know the correct spelling of masturbation until a few months ago and I am a little embarrassed about using the word even today but I had to relay this important information to all of my reader.

You can thank me later.

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I am always amazed when I hear young people complain about how they should be able to invest the money they give to Social Security into the stock market instead. Whenever I ask them how they are going to invest it, they invariably have a friend who knows what he is talking about. Hmm.

They would rather give their money to some Dude selling stocks than to the United States government which, for all its failings, has been around for 250 years supporting a retirement program that has been around for 90 years.

To which I get the response, Social Security is going to run out of money any way. I don’t think so, not as long as a majority of people continue to support it and the government continues to fund it. But, say it does go under, what effect will this have on any money in the stock market. I mean if the largest retirement program in the country stops cutting checks to retirees this will certainly have an effect on the stock market.

So, if I have to gamble, I am certainly going to place my marker on the U.S. government because, if there is an economic crisis at some point, my bets are that the U.S. government will survive much better than the Dude.

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I have been in San Francisco on several occasions when a nearly nude man will be walking around with the barest of fig leafs leaving his genitals clearly visible. My San Francisco friends informed me that this is perfectly legal and happened all of the time. I tried to confirm the legality when I started to write this blog because I know that things are changing in the city but was left with a lot of ambiguous information. From what I could learn, it isn’t exactly legal and it isn’t exactly illegal.

My San Francisco friends supported these men’s rights to walk around nearly nude. They thought that they should be free to do what they want. I was uncomfortable with both the naked man and their response. At the time I was unable to enunciate my disagreement. After thinking about for some time, years in fact, I think I have figured out what I want to say.

I knew if I had small children I wouldn’t want them to see it. Not because the child would be traumatized either. I am sure that most children wouldn’t even remember it happening the next day. On the other hand, it might require some awkward explanation on why the man is walking around the streets of a city naked. Like is it all right for me to walk around naked?

Well, it isn’t all right to walk around naked in most places. It might not even be all right in San Francisco. It seems more like San Franciscan cops have given up on enforcing the law as opposed to it actually being legal which is a nuanced position for parents to make. Yes it is a rule Johnny but it is too difficult to enforce so people don’t get in trouble for doing it. Does that make sense to you? Of course, it doesn’t.

And yes this is small potatoes. In a city like San Fransisco there are bigger problems for the cops to deal with. It is a nuisance more than a crime. It is one of the hundreds of small annoyances that people in a city encounter. It requires self policing from individuals and that is what isn’t happening.

There is an extremely small number of San Franciscans who want to walk around with their dicks hanging out. I hardly ever see it. The mass of San Franciscans I have seen almost always have their clothes on. I am talking 99.99 %. It is irritating that this infinitesimally small number of people feel the need to indulge their exhibitionist tendencies for the rest of us to see. It isn’t very neighborly.

There are plenty of places — nude beaches, nudist camps, your own home — you can walk around nude. And then there are also plenty of places where you don’t. You wouldn’t walk into a school nude. Or a restaurant. Or a museum. Or a church. So, even the most free thinking of individuals set limits to when people should walk around naked. The argument then is where to draw the line.

Living in big cities means you are around thousands of people with different ideas of how to behave. We should try to get along as best we can. This means I agree to not being able to do everything I want to do. So, for example, I don’t play music loudly. Now, I may want to play my music loudly but I won’t because I know that I might bother my neighbors. I want to get along with my neighbors so I don’t listen to music loudly.

These men need to face the fact that some people might not want to see their junk and keep that in mind when they go on one of their strolls. Being a good neighbor isn’t that hard, and I’m willing to give up these really minor freedoms to live in a big city. Because I really enjoy living in a big city and, to continue to enjoy this experience, I want to be a good neighbor. I wish everyone would.

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The most mind boggling aspect about Qatar’s gift of an airplane to Donald Trump is his seeming lack of understanding that this is wrong and why he should pass on the gift. This isn’t a bottle of whiskey or a box of chocolates, this is an airplane.

There is a difference and, if he had paid attention to the HR presentations that most working stiffs suffer through every year, he would know why. The last company I worked for repeatedly reminded its employees that they never should take a gift over $100 because, even if everything is above board, it looks suspicious.

The best case scenarios on this, and I mean by that you can still plausibly claim to be honest, are still wrong. If someone has been kind or generous to you, you are more inclined to help them. This is unfair to other less generous customers and, more importantly, may cloud your judgment on what is right for the company. It shifts the power dynamic in a business relationship. The gift giver has this little bit of extra power over the gift receiver when making difficult decisions.

Trump, despite his unsubstantiated claim of being a good businessman, is clearly ignorant of modern business practices which are both pretty basic and universal. That he is unable to see the problem with this is shocking because I absolutely believe him. He doesn’t understand the power shift. He doesn’t understand why it would be wrong to give consideration to a country who has given him plane. I am sure he thinks it is all right to scratch your back if you scratch mine.

This should be more than troubling to Republicans. And lets face it, the Democrats just aren’t in any position to do anything about it. It has to come from Republicans. The sad thing is they think they are clinging to power. But whatever power they had is long gone. The only person who holds significant power in the Republican party is Trump. The rest are his lackeys. Sadly, they appear to be really suited for the role.

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OK I am going to admit something about myself that I really really find embarrassing. The problem is it is what was rumbling through my head when I heard Peter Frampton’s Show Me The Way the other night. So, here goes, I can be a bit of a snob sometimes particularly about popular culture. To give you a good example of how this snobbery sometimes makes me behave, I have never seen the first three Star War movies. That is correct. I haven’t seen the Star War movies that almost everyone agrees are the best ones because someone had the audacity to recommend this popular entertainment to me. TO ME. That last vestige of advant-garde art and foreign films, depressing movies, John Cassavetes movies, that’s the movies I watch, not this nonsense that the hoi polloi watches. The nerve.

Which somehow brings me to Peter Frampton’s Show Me The Way. It is one of my guilty pleasures. I have to be in a mood before I deign listen to it but it generally does the trick for me. I particularly enjoy the live version which I linked to above. And I do not have a reasonable explanation for it. Frampton is a good guitarist who sings well and with a lot of energy but the song has pretty trite lyrics accompanied by pretty pedestrian music. So pretty much like most of the entertainment I encounter.

The lesson for me here is that is all I really should expect. A bit of pleasure. And if later I decide that it was a groundbreaking, earth shattering, inspiring piece of art all the better.

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I can’t tell you how disappointed I was to see only 7 stories about the Met Gala on the Huffington Post.

Only seven! For the Met Fucking Gala! You can tell I am riled because I rarely use exclamation points and I have used two in one paragraph.

It is an insult too difficult to bear. I can only hope that the editorial team at the Huffington Post will seriously assess their headline reporting a bit more seriously and make better decisions.

Poor Anna Wintour! She must be gutted. My heart bleeds for her!

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Dear God. Donald Trump has sent out a picture to his many fans as him dressed as the new pope. Isn’t this really disrespectful to Catholics? I think so but then I am just not sure any more. That is how jaded I have become about Trump’s behavior. I really don’t know what is acceptable behavior any more. It seems wrong for the President of the United States to do this but I could see a comedian doing it and being perfectly fine with it. Where is the line?

And forget Hitler, I think we have moved into Caligula territory now. I am pretty sure we are pretty close to Trump announcing a horse to the cabinet.