With the California jungle primary out of the way, the results basically settled, and the exhausting whiney attacks from MAGOPs on the long process, we take this brief moment to take a deep, relaxing breath and offer just a quick and extremely limited round-up of a very few of the Promises Made, Promises Kept* that Trump presented to the American people.

(*"Kept" shall here-in be described as "retained in memory".)

$​2,000 tariff dividend checks
10% cap on credit card rates
DOGE stimulus checks
Will lower prices on Day One
Will end Russian war against Ukraine on Day One
No new wars started
50-year mortgages
Lower the national debt.  (Since raised $3 trillion.)
Will release the entire Epstein files
No cuts to Medicaid. (Since cut $1 trillion.)
May attack Greenland
Will de-certify airplanes made in Canada
End DOJ weaponization by the government

And the all-time classic on health care:
"I have a concept of a plan."
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If you didn't see Jon Stewart's Monday hosting of the Daily Show, it was largely split into two topics.  The first dealt with the New York Knicks, for which I prepared myself to hear him to go into a paean of the team's glory -- but it turned into pure hilarity.  The second topic and Main Story was Trump's interview on Meet the Press.  And it, too, was wonderfully funny and scathing.

It’s hard to describe how manic and insane MAGOP officials have become in their claims of “outrage” trying to convince the public that California has “rigged” the election against their candidates, and their MAGA base has (of course) taken up the cries and moans.  So massive and out of control it’s as if a biblical plague of locusts have swarmed over social media.  I try my best to respond online, but I only have 10 fingers, and there is just so much typing one can do in a day.  How obsessive is this insanity?  Trump has had his DOJ open an investigation into election fraud.  The only saving grace is I feel near-certain that the only people who believe this truly idiotic (in every sense of the word, no hyperbole) divisiveness are the MAGA base.  The vote counting process is incredibly transparent.  (Literally. The vote-counting centers are wide-open spaces, with only see-through dividers, open to the public to observe.)  Still, though, trying to undermine trust in bases of authority, like elections, is one of the core tenets of fascism.

And how fascist is it? Just today, the Trump U.S. Attorney who is in charge of the aforementioned "investigation," Bill Essayli, went on conspiratorialist Glenn Beck's radio show to emphatically proclaim that election fraud charges not only are coming, but very soon:  "one to two months, I believe."  There is only one small hurdle — "What we need right now are witnesses," he told the audience. "If you've witnessed anything… we wanna know about that."  Hey, cool, that's sure how the justice system in a democracy works.  File charges and look for evidence later.
 
Yes, I know that MAGOPs say they don’t like being called fascists, but that’s an easy fix:  if you don’t want to be called fascist, don’t push core tenets of fascism.
 
To be fair, many MAGOPs promoting this election lie might not know that doing so is fascist.  But that doesn’t change the fact (fact) that it is.  And they know it’s divisive.  Whether Mr. Essayli knows what on earth he is talking about is another matter.
 
I have a great deal to say here about this, because after responding so much relentlessly every day to the non-stop insidious lies, it’s exhausting and infuriating, and sometimes you finally need to vent. And writing an article in detail will allow me to just simply link to all of it online. (Hey, you try cramming everything that's needed into a 288-character tweet.  Repeatedly.  And repeatedly.  This paragraph alone is 448 characters!)
 
However, for those who have a life and want something manageable, I’ll instead just offer a very simple explanation of why even MAGOPs should be able to grasp that their belief is ludicrous, utterly unsupportable and dances in the garden of loony.  (They won’t grasp it, but it’s so easy that they should.)
 
So, here’s the really easy, MAGOP-friendly explanation –
 
In the City of Los Angeles, the number of registered Democrats is 1,224,737.  The number of registered MAGOPs in Los Angeles is 326,292.  That’s a margin of 4-to-1 Democratic.  So, to believe that the results are rigged is to presume that the sitting-Democratic Mayor Karen Bass would actually prefer to run against a two-term, Democratic progressive member of the L.A. City Council rather than a completely unqualified MAGOP reality TV participant with zero experience, who sells crystals for a living and blew a $10 million fortune, endorsed by Trump who himself has a 21% approval in Los Angeles.  That’s ludicrous.  Unsupportable. Nuts.
 
Furthermore, all state election results have shown for years that the state of California is about 60-40% Democratic.  Right now, over 1.5 million more votes have been counted for Democrats in this election statewide.  To believe that the results are rigged is to presume that virtually all polls which showed that Democrat Xavier Becerra and MAGOP Steve Hilton would finish 1-2 and make the run-off -- and the current results which show Becerra and Hilton are 1-2 and will likely make the run-off) -- are ”wrong”.  “Rigged.” “Fixed”.  That’s ludicrous.  Unsupportable.  Nuts.
 
That’s the short version, based on facts and logic. Now, we delve into the long, winding path of reality.  For those of you who chose to depart for calmer grounds, thanks for stopping by.
 
For everyone else, though, first a brief explanation why California vote counting takes a long time.  Always.  And everyone knows it takes a long time.  Always.  And it’s absolutely too long.  But it always is.  This shouldn’t be a shock to anyone, including MAGOPs.  But there are reasons it takes so long.
 
California is the most populous state, with 39.5 million people.  There are 58 counties, each which have their own local elections, and each independent jurisdiction counts, verifies and reports their votes separately, on their own schedule, before then reporting results to the state.  Counties have 30 days (by law) to count ballots.  When they report their final results, the Secretary of State has a week (by law) to certify results.
 
A momentary pause for a quick perspective:  In the 2024 presidential election, 16.1 million Californians voted.  That’s more people than the entire population of 46 states!!!  In Los Angeles County alone, more people voted than the population of 22 states!!
 
Okay, back to the California vote-counting process.  In order to be secure and accurate, every voter signature must be verified that it matches those registered on file.  (Each one of those 16.1 million, whether mail-in ballots or the in-person voter rolls.) If they don’t match or the signature is missing, the voter is notified and has until two days before the election is certified to fix the mistake.  Further, officials check that each mailed ballot was returned on time, and that the voter did not already cast another ballot in the same election.

Further, every registered voter in California gets sent a mail-in ballot, which is why Californians vote by mail heavily.  And mail-in ballots get counted last – because (by law) all mail ballots are legal as long as they’re postmarked by Election Day…and (by law) ballots have seven days to arrive before being certified by the state's election authority.  (Why so long?  Keep in mind, Trump cut back the Postal Service in his first term, slowing delivery.  The state doesn’t want to disenfranchise any person’s vote.)  The state then has 30 days (by law) to report their results, and the Secretary of State has a week to certify results.
 
By the way, lest the meaning of this gets lost in the numbing jumble:  rather than this too-long process be seen as supposed evidence of “rigging,” to the contrary it actually helps protect the security by catching any potential illegitimate ballots that shouldn’t be counted!  Which is exactly what Trump and MAGOPs are attacking the state for!  And it’s all done in literally transparent vote-counting centers open to the public.  Which includes Trump, his DOJ, Steve Hilton and Spencer Pratt, should any of them choose to check it out.

Okay, with that explanation out of the way, we now return you to the venting portion of today’s program.  Also known as the reality check.
 
And to start, to establish that reality, it must be noted for the record that almost all polls by election eve for the governor’s race had Democrat Xavier Becerra and MAGOP Steve Hilton in the top two positions.  What many MAGOPs overlooked in the polls was that there had been about 26% undecided.  (Most surely Democrats, who are the vast majority in the state and had eight major candidates in the race, to only two for MAGOPs).  And as Election Day neared, those “undecideds” decided, and by the end, many polls had Mr. Becerra taking over first place.  Which is exactly where the two candidates sit today in the vote count.  And for the record, in the L.A. mayoral race right before Election Day, all polls had Mayor Karen Bass winning the primary, and a close race for second place between Spencer Pratt and L.A. City Council member Nithya Raman. And while Mayor Bass will finish first -- when it came time to actually casting a vote, many of the remaining “protest” Democrats (whose party outnumbers MAGOPS by 4-to-1 in L.A.) saw Trump's late endorsement of Pratt, just days before the election, and as it appears decided instead to cast their protest vote for Ms. Raman, to push her to second place over the now Trump-endorsed MAGOP Pratt.
 
And so, let’s look now at a few samples of some of the most divisive, and “outraged” utterly loony, truly unhinged and sadly typical cries on social media from MAGOP officials about both of the major California primaries, for governor and Los Angeles mayor.  There were a torrential mass of these delusional, panicked attacks online, but with Trump, Ted Cruz, Mike Johnson, Steve Hilton and Spencer Pratt in the lead among them.  But there were a great many others -- as in many, many, many, many, many, many, many.  (At this point, I don’t recall which “outraged” MAGOP official or MAGA cultist tweeted what outrage, the names have all blurred into a mashed-together “someone,” so in most places here I can’t name the specific person writing.  Though the cries were near-identical.)
 
For instance, there was an “outraged” tweet about how “impossible” it was that Spencer Pratt would lose to someone who nobody had ever heard of.  For the record, that “someone” nobody heard of being referred to -- Nithya Raman -- is not only a sitting member of the Los Angeles City Council (of whom there are only 15, and they are more powerful together than the mayor)...but she has been elected twice!!!!  Hard as it might be to believe, just because the person tweeting from out of state didn’t know her -- people who actually live in Los Angeles do!!
 
Monica Crowley, the Chief Protocol Officer for Trump’s State Department, and a former Fox contributor, actually tweeted – “Literally no one believes the LA election ‘results.’ Another stolen election in broad daylight.”
 
Yes, Trump’s Chief Protocol Officer for State actually said “literally” no one.  Well, okay, as long as we’re using the word “literally,” what she insists here is "literally" as foolishly false as foolish false could be. As in, literally.  Democrats in L.A. outnumber MAGOPs 1,200,000 to 320,000.  I feel absolutely certain that tens of millions of Americans literally believe the Los Angeles election results.  Which is literally more than “literally “none.”
 
(I should note that Ms. Crowley’s general credibility is further harmed by being the person Trump had to withdraw his appointment as deputy NSA after reports came out that she had plagiarized part of her book What the (Bleep) Just Happened? and that there was plagiarism in her Ph.D. dissertation.)
 
Governor candidate Steve Hilton nervously sitting in second place at the moment petulantly wrote that “The world is laughing at our inability to count votes in a timely manner.  Where is Gavin Newsom?”
 
Actually, no, in reality if the world is laughing at anything it's at Mr. Hilton and other MAGOPs whining about making the two-person run-off, which all polls at the very end said would actually be the case!  As for where Governor Gavin Newsom is -- he’s staying out of the counting of votes...which is of course is the correct place for him and any politician to be.
 
The ever-divisive Ted Cruz, in one of his great-many “outraged” tweets wrote about how California elections are so “messed up” and adding divisively (of course), “It seems they keep counting until they get the results they want.”
 
Of course, by Cruz “logic”, that means the result Democratic power brokers supposedly want is to have a MAGOP in the final two run-off for governor (as it currently stands), and supposedly want (in a city with 900,000 more registered Democrats than MAGOPs) is for the sitting Democratic mayor to run against (as it currently stands) a highly-qualified, progressive city council member who could knock her off, as opposed to a wildly-unqualified MAGOP who sells crystals and is endorsed by Trump.
 
There was an “outraged” conspiracy-minded complaint how convenient it was that “IMMEDIATELY” after Nithya Raman took over second place from Pratt, all the news outlets immediately “called” the race for her.  Well…yeah, vote analysists call races when a candidate takes the lead, most of the remaining votes are in that party’s districts, and there aren’t enough other votes to overtake them.  That’s how it works.  But even more to the point, as most rational people grasp – It is news outlets who "call" races, based on their own statistical records and history. Not the state and local election officials – all of whom continue to count the votes until there's an official and final result.  Which are the only numbers that matter.  Not when a press outlet “calls” a race.
 
And so many more, on and on and relentlessly on.  It was, is, and will remain numbing.  Because Trump and MAGOP officials will relentlessly push it.  Including the DOJ “investigation."
 
The reality is very basic:
 
All polls had Mayor Karen Bass in first place, with MAGOP reality TV performer Spencer Pratt in second, and City Council member Nithya Raman a close third.  In a city where registered Democrats outnumber registered MAGOPs 4-to-1, Democrat Raman ended up with more votes than Pratt who will lose.  This is not shocking. 
 
And in a state that’s 60-40% Democratic, a MAGOP candidate made it into the run-off.  Even this is not shocking. Because it’s what the polls all showed.  What will be shocking is if Democrat Xavier Becerra doesn’t pummel Mr. Hilton in the run-off.
 
As I noted, the MAGOP “outrage” at supposedly “rigged” elections will have zero impact, since the only people who are buying the cries are other conspiracy-minded cult MAGOPs.  Because it’s what they do.  It’s what Trump has been doing for six years, still whining.  And “still” meaning up to this past Sunday when he was whining so much about rigged elections and so much about how everyone who is against him is either crooked or stupid that when he didn’t get his way, he pouted and stormed off.
 
Ultimately, things like that and MAGOPs crying about “fixed” and “rigged” elections will only be counter-productive, as I suspect most Americans by far grasp reality – and hate when Trump and MAGOP officials keep trying to undermine the authority and trust of elections, most especially without a whiff of evidence and court-losses after court-losses.  It’s the fascist playbook, whether they realize it or not.
 
But it is divisive.  And it is counter-productive to democracy.  And it is who the MAGOP have become.

There!  And I even did it all in just under 288 characters!!
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It you didn't see "Last Week Tonight" with John Oliver on Sunday, his Main Story was about New College of Florida.  You might recall New College, a progressive college in Florida that went after a complete transformation a few years back when Gov. Ron DeSantis stepped in and pushed for massive changes that completely undermined the school and turned it into platform for the far right and a mess.  It's a terrific report, extremely funny, and brutal throughout.
​

​On Sunday, Trump was a guest on Meet the Press.  No, I didn't see it -- though in fairness, about eight seconds that I can watch him at any given time.  That said, I did read about what took place and watched a clip of the last 2-1/2 minutes.  Even at that, I only was able to manage most of the 2-1/2 minutes – though in fairness, that’s only because it was so ghastly.  But I mean that in the best way.
 
And the best way because I hope the video gets seen a lot.  And I suspect it will.  It should.  That’s because it shows Trump as he is, in real time, unfiltered.  Angry, delusional, misogynistic, hate-filled, petulant, insecure, disrespectful, unstable, lack of self-control, unhinged and cowardly.  As he abruptly ends the interview and storms off.  With his dementia in full-blown display.
 
Just what you’re looking for in a president, the most powerful man in the world, during a war he started, with gas prices rising, consumer goods soaring, all while under the microscope of the Epstein files, and an approval of 34%.

It was an appearance that military expert Tom Nichols called "emotionally unstable." 
 
It also begs the question: if Trump can’t handle dealing with Kristin Welker, how can we possibly have expected him to deal with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping?  Which explains a lot.  Including why he had no plan for his attack against Iran, and no exit strategy.
 
It was an interview where Trump insisted that his getting the country involved in the war against Iran did not break his promise to not get the country involved in a war.  It was an interview where Trump cut it off, upset by the noise of rain on the barn they were in when it was his own team that made the decision to do the interview in a barn.  It was an interview where Trump blamed pretty much everyone as being crooked or stupid if they didn’t agree with him.
 
The only thing missing in Trump’s rage fit for the cameras was him rolling metal balls in his hand while madly insisting that he was able to mathematically prove that the strawberries were stolen by the entire crew, all of whom were conspiring against him.  ‘Captain Queeg’ had nothing on his mania.
 
It’s all fixed, it’s all rigged, it’s all crooked.  And you know it.  You all know it.  And if you say you don’t, you’re crooked.  Or stupid.

This is the man who the MAGOPs in Congress have enabled and fully supported and protected.  And a vote for any MAGOP in the Mid-Terms is a vote to continue enabling this man for another two years.
 
And so, because the video deserves to be seen as much as possible, we turn things over for just 2-1/2 minutes, which is more than enough, of Trump showing who he is.
 
Trump.  Being Trump.

On this week’s Naked Lunch podcast, co-hosts Phil Rosenthal and David Wild welcome back Peter Frampton.  As the show writes, “Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Peter Frampton -- the subject of a new documentary showing at this year's Tribeca Film Festival -- returns to ‘Naked Lunch’ to discuss his shiny new album, ‘Carry The Light.’ This time around, Peter is joined by his son Julian Frampton with whom Peter wrote and produced his first album of all-new rock material in 14 years.”