Trump Promised the World, but Delivered Poughkeepsie

And he took us on a wild mountain ride to get there. So 100 days in, really about average, just with a few more dents and dings. Welcome to another FFS Friday.

Or . . .

Which reminds me . . . to check . . . yup, the neighbor mowed his lawn. Dang.

And away we go . . .

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This week, a semitrailer “tipped” and gave whole new meaning to the phrase “loose change.”

Get it? Tipped? Loose change?

Ba-da-ching.

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I may not be a psychologist, but I’m going to suggest that perhaps this woman is not mentally well.

Though to be fair, flying makes me a little twitchy too.

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So you get to tell me . . . stupid or brave?

I’m kind of going with stupid . . . lucky, but stupid.

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In science news, we learned something very important about depending on renewable energy, or at least part of Europe did.

You see, Spain did something that had never been done before . . .

Celebration, cheering in the streets, we are on to the future. No more dirty coal plants spewing toxins in the air. No more nuclear stacks blighting our view and threatening to radiate the land. We have arrived.

Just one little problem.

So I want you to watch this short video from Reuters, and tell me what you don’t hear.

So we start right out of the gate with the implication that there is a problem in that people depend too much on electricity. The “reporter” literally mentions South Africa as an example of a place that has learned to deal with power outages, as if that’s something that we all should aspire to.

We can have a long conversation about how much people depend on electricity and technology and how it might be best for a whole host of reasons to go back to knobs and levers rather than a touchscreens. But to suggest that the problem here is human expectation and that in the year of our Lord 2025 people who expect the power grid to function consistently are unreasonable is . . .

When the segment finally does tell the watcher what happened, they speed through talking about oscillations and lack of storage and lack of buffer, but never point out the obvious.

“Green” electricity is not reliable. It’s fragile. And the more you try to transfer to only “green” electricity, the more often this is going to happen unless someone gets really creative . . .

Or we can just keep telling people their expectations are too high.

Which one do you think will win out?

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I learned this week that Jews really are the masters of the universe . . .

Well thank you for letting us in on that little secret Norm Coleman, Republican Jewish Coalition National Chairman. I’m glad we cleared that up.

And here I’d been told that “Jews” controlling the media and trying to control people’s minds was something only “anti-semites” would think.¹

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The New York Times this week finally started to care about the surveillance of citizens, but only because Musk was involved.

Elon Musk may be stepping back from running the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, but his legacy there is already secured. DOGE is assembling a sprawling domestic surveillance system for the Trump administration — the likes of which we have never seen in the United States.

You only have not “seen” the previous surveillance systems-s-s-s because you were deliberately not looking at for them.

Have I said lately how much I loathe these people?

It bears repeating.

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Speaking of people I loathe . . .

Journalism’s big night out returned on Saturday in Washington as reporters, editors and A-list celebrities mingled at the Washington Hilton at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner, an event jokingly called the “nerd prom,” in what was a more muted soirée that, for the fourth time while he has been in the Oval Office, was not attended by President Donald Trump. This year, the WHCA opted to focus on the stellar journalism produced as the current administration charges into uncharted territory.

Do you know what the “stellar journalism” was?

Okay, here we go.

The Aldo Beckman Award for Overall Excellence in White House Coverage (yes, that’s what it’s called) goes to

Alex Thompson of Axios.

Not real footage, though it might as well be.

What did Alex Thompson do that benefited all humanity?

From the WHCA announcement of the award . . .

Alex Thompson’s work demonstrates that he embodies many of the traits exhibited by Aldo Beckman – impartiality, deep knowledge of the presidency (in this instance, the Biden administration) and integrity. Thompson’s aggressive reporting on Biden, especially leading up to and after the Trump-Biden debate, revealed that the president’s cognitive decline was impacting his ability to do his job, information the White House tried to conceal. After the debate, Thompson was the first to report that Biden was at his best from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. — a stunning revelation. This was among the stories by Thompson that provided important insight into the inner workings of the Biden White House at a confusing and critical time.

Yes, my friends, he cleverly discovered and bravely exposed what no one else knew . . .

And what the White House so cleverly hid . . .

That Joe Biden likely had dementia but it was cleverly concealed, so concealed it took until the summer of 2024 for anyone to catch on.

Here is a short clip of his speech.

The people around him?

Like the White House Press Corps?

All of the media.

Every yapping donkey from here to kingdom come?

Those people around him, like—I don’t know—you?

The fact that the Trump team tries to control the briefing room would bother me a lot more if I actually thought any real journalists were actually being affected.

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Speaking of spineless jackasses, let’s check in with the #Resistance.

We keep being told, day in and day out that democracy is ending, and the response is . . . a strongly worded letter?!?

But I’ll take “strongly worded letters” over this.

You remember Cory Booker’s twenty-five hour blow-a-thon that was supposed to be his Mr. Smith Goes to Washington moment?

Well, I think they’re working on a musical version.

Aw, sweetie, we got the country we deserve. That’s the problem.

Do you know how I know Trump does not have aspirations to dictatorship? Because if he did, we’d be there.

These people are like trying to hold a steamroller back with Dollar Store brand toilet paper.

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So one hundred days in, how is it going for Orange Hitler?

Ay-uh, that didn’t take long.

Look Trump shouldn’t take it personally. People are angry and desperate. They gave Trump and the Republicans a try and found out that the hydra may have two heads, but it’s still the hydra.

And it’s still the same lousy theater.

The mainstream media however were having orgasms of joy. They’re back in business, baby.

Of course the irony of anyone on late night TV or the New York Times talking about anyone else’s popularity is hilarious in and of itself.

Self-aware these people are not.

On the other hand, this might not be the best way to react. You remember what I said about not taking it personally?

You are in office, dude. Just do what people put you there to do. Don’t pay attention to the media. They’re that grouchy old maiden aunt that no one can please. They’re not happy unless they’re making other people miserable.

But then, unreliability of polls aside, I suppose that’s the problem.

He’s losing us, and by “us” I mean a wide ranging “us.”

Yes, he’s done “good things.” People aren’t flooding the border, and there has finally been some official pushback to the worst cultural excesses of the “left.”

But that’s like promising the world and delivering a random city in New York, while taking everyone on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.

We’ll talk about Harvard in a moment, but the video should start about 6:10 in with a rant from Saager Enjeti along with Emily Jahinsky, the two hosts of Breaking Points most likely to defend Trump.

I suspect Trump is suffering a bit of the donkeys’ problem: you can do right by the voters or you can please the donors and the powers-that-be. But you have to choose. And if you’re unwilling to choose? Well, you end up singing songs on the Capitol steps pretending that you’re doing something akin to the Million Man March, and not simply throwing a fit because the voters chose the other head of a two-headed hydra.

Or you type out frothing texts about fake news instead of proving “fake news” and the naysayers wrong.

In other words, he doesn’t seem particularly willing to do anything hard.

Like get a handle on the war machine.

It’s hard to be the shining beacon of human rights when you’re blowing up innocent people and patting yourself on the back for it.

But if that were the biggest crisis on the horizon, we might be fine. It’s not like the US has a long history of not bombing civilians and Trump broke with that.

No, the big worry is Iran. Are we going to follow Israel off that cliff?

From Time’s interview with Trump . . .

You do that, Mr. Trump. You suit up and you grab a gun and you go fight in the desert.

Oh, wait, he didn’t mean he personally would be leading the pack. Stupid me.

Of course, who can blame him for not wanting to be anywhere near the frontlines. This is currently the state of our military.

We spent $320 million on a “floating pier” to deliver supplies to Gaza only for this to happen a month later . . .

The pier fell apart, literally.

Nine days after the pier was installed on the Gaza shore, bad weather broke it, forcing troops to dismantle it and take it to the Israeli port at Ashdod for more than two weeks for repairs. And weather forced troops to detach the pier from the shore two more times and move it to Ashdod. It was detached for the final time on June 28.

And then there was this . . .

Followed by this . . .

And we can’t forget the incident here at home that left sixty-some passengers of an American Airlines flight dead in a ball of fire over the Potomac as an Army helicopter t-boned them midair.

The New York Times very recently tried to explain how it wasn’t the female pilot’s fault while admitting it in fact was the female pilot’s fault.

“Multiple layers of safety precautions failed that night,” said Katie Thomson, the Federal Aviation Administration’s deputy administrator under President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Except . . .

The helicopter crew appeared to have made more than one mistake. Not only was the Black Hawk flying too high, but in the final seconds before the crash, its pilot failed to heed a directive from her co-pilot, an Army flight instructor, to change course.

So I ask you, if a plane is too high and the pilot fails to heed a directive to change direction, is that really the whole crew who made the mistake? Because to me, there is one person there with complete responsibility.

The girl pilot t-boned a passenger plane and the New York Times t-bones their reputation, and none of us should feel comfortable going into war in an environment like this.

And now we can add another “incident” to our list . . .

If only it were Kitty-zilla.

It fell off the ship. 🤦‍♀️

How are we going to “do war” if we can’t even keep our planes on our ships?

Yes, it’s time to get a handle on the war machine, because in addition to the lives lost and the money wasted, we’re going to make utter fools of ourselves.

But Trump can’t. Back and forth, in and out, threatening here and there, but never really making a stand.

It’s chaos, all of it. It’s like Trump and those with him didn’t have four years to think about what they would do if they got the chance. It’s like they’re shocked all over again that he won.

But perhaps nothing sums up Trump’s first 100 days better than his dust-up with Harvard.

It all started with a letter.

The Trump administration demanded on Thursday that Harvard eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion programming and ban masks at protests to avoid losing its federal funding, according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Crimson.

In a Thursday afternoon letter addressed to Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 and Harvard Corporation senior fellow Penny S. Pritkzer ’81, the White House called on Harvard to “make meaningful governance reforms” and install leaders who will help implement the demands outlined in the letter.

The letter was worried about DEI, yes, but it was also concerned about “student group accountability” and making sure the school cooperated with DHS and made sure programs weren’t fostering “antisemitism.” In other words, we get rid of DEI just in time to make campuses a safe space for another country’s feelings.

And it had worked with Columbia, sort of.

Now did Columbia really cave because it feared losing the federal funding? I’m not convinced. It struck me as a convenient excuse for doing what they wanted to do anyway, which is to make a certain group of donors happy and keep the money flowing.

But whatever happened, with one scalp in his hand, Trump set off for the fattest little ivy-covered pampered piggy of all.

And that’s what Harvard is.

This is the Wall Street Journal.

And this is the opposite of the Wall Street Journal.

These are both from the first Trump term. And while they may have different solutions (though I rather agree with both the solutions and don’t find them mutually exclusive), they agree fully on the problem.

In short, it’s hard to feel sorry for these schools. They are less institutions of learning and more exclusionary clubs that funnel a select group of people upward to solidify a ruling elite that would make Marie Antoinette seem grounded, all while engaging in the worst of investment excesses.

They do all this partially on the taxpayers’ teat because the taxpayers fund the student loans that pay their exorbitant tuition and ultimately lose out when students default on those loans.

The taxpayers also fund grants to these universities to the tune of billions every year.

We could have a reasonable discussion about that.

Instead, Trump sends them a letter in true Trumpian fashion.

But Harvard thinks it’s doing okay. It’s working with the administration, negotiating.

But then a second letter arrives, this one much longer.

Here is just a taste.

By August 2025, the University must reform its recruitment, screening, and admissions of international students to prevent admitting students hostile to the American values and institutions inscribed in the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence.

What even does that mean?

In particular, Harvard must end support and recognition of those student groups or clubs that engaged in anti-Semitic activity since October 7th, 2023, including the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee, Harvard Graduates Students 4 Palestine, Law Students 4 Palestine, Students for Justice in Palestine, and the National Lawyers Guild, and discipline and render ineligible the officers and active members of those student organizations.

Ah, that’s what “hostile to American values and institutions” means.

I’m going to have to re-read the US Constitution and the Declaration of Independence because I could swear there was no mention of Israel or Palestine in there.

But on with the story . . .

Harvard ran the odds and decided they’d rather take their chances. Therefore, they did the most American thing of all.

But you want to hear the joke about the second letter, the one that’s going to cost us millions in court fees and perhaps leave egg on the face of the Trump administration not to mention set precedents we may not like legally?

That second letter was sent by mistake!

It is unclear what prompted the letter to be sent last Friday. Its content was authentic, the three people said, but there were differing accounts inside the administration of how it had been mishandled. Some people at the White House believed it had been sent prematurely, according to the three people, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about internal discussions. Others in the administration thought it had been meant to be circulated among the task force members rather than sent to Harvard.

So I would like to report that the Trump administration put on its designer silk big boy panties and owned up to their error.

I would like to.

But . . . I’d be lying.

A senior White House official said the administration stood by the letter, calling the university’s decision to publicly rebuff the administration overblown and blaming Harvard for not continuing discussions.

“It was malpractice on the side of Harvard’s lawyers not to pick up the phone and call the members of the antisemitism task force who they had been talking to for weeks,” said May Mailman, the White House senior policy strategist. “Instead, Harvard went on a victimhood campaign.”

Yes, because whenever one receives a letter from the government making demands, we call up that agency and say . . .

OMG, just once . . .

That is all any of us ask.

But then again, what did I expect? Does any president ever “own it”?

Not really.

And that brings us full circle.

One hundred days in, I think I can safely say Trump will take his place handily where he did during his first administration: between Harry S and John, which is to say between Truman and Tyler, just one in a long line of many, ordered alphabetically.

Round and round we go; if we stop, no one knows.

And so it goes.

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Eh, I’m not as grumpy as I sound. Just having a bit of fun with the things that otherwise frustrate me.

So how was your week? Mine went . . . fast.

So something a bit different for a spoonful of sugar. As I’ve said before, my father was a pilot. My sister sent this to me the other night, thinking of him. (He actually did have a friend who fixed up a decommissioned Spitfire [I think it was a Spitfire] and would give people rides in it, for a price of course. But those things are crazy expensive to fix up, so . . . deserved.)

Thank you, sis, for the smiles.

And the rest of you, I’ll see you on the flipside. Have a great weekend!

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Hey, it’s Friday. That means it has to be payday somewhere. If you’re feeling suddenly flush, before you pay any other bills and that feeling fades, consider a monthly or yearly subscription to help support an idiot a very dedicated and informed person who goes where others fear to tread (by which I mean, the Harvard Crimson and the New York Times).

Or if it’s not payday, but you found a few dimes in the couch, consider throwing some change in the tip jar.

1. A footnote in case my niece ever decides to run for president and her aunt’s old blogs are dredged up. I do not really think “Jews” run the media. I think a certain group of people who happen to be mostly Jewish (though some not—Douglas Murray *cough cough*) are so desperate that the pro-Israel, pro-war with Iran position is losing ground that the absolutely dumbest s—t is coming out of their mouths.