Trump Returns to Clouds, Gregg Allman Dead

The Chickens Roost: President Trump returned to the White House yesterday and gathering clouds over his administration after a checkered 9-day foreign tour. Trump is reported to be collecting a private legal team to deal with inquiries into possible Russian collusion with his political campaign and the new bombshell that his son-in-law and political adviser Jared Kushner may have been trying to set up a secure back channel of communication with the Russians during the transition period.

Kushner, Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, and political adviser Steve Bannon returned early from the foreign trip to deal with the growing crisis in Washington.

Climate Cloud: President Trump left the G-7 summit in Italy yesterday without endorsing the Paris Climate Accord, putting the worldwide pollution control agreement in doubt. The other G-7 leaders all support the accord that has been signed by 135 countries.

Trump tweeted that he will make his decision next week.

“There was a lot of give-and-take between the different countries in the room,” according to Trump’s economic adviser Gary Cohn. In diplomatic language, that could mean anything up to threats of murder.

France’s new President Emmanuel Macron said he had told Trump it was “indispensable for the reputation of the United States and for the Americans themselves that the Americans remain committed” to the climate agreement.

Trump, who has called man made climate change a “hoax” appears to be holding out for something, but what that is, we don’t know.

Warren Harding for President: Rolling Stone contributing writer Stephen Rodrick ruminates in the NY Times about whether the country would really want Vice President Mike Pence to replace Trump. “It is possible that we could replace the most flamboyant and flamboyantly unqualified president in history with the most quietly unqualified and unexamined president since Warren Harding. (He has never answered whether he believes in evolution, but the evidence is not encouraging.)”

The Obit Page: Gregg Allman, a founding member of The Allman Brothers Band and a prime mover in Southern blues-rock, has died at age 69 in Savannah. No cause of death was given, but Allman was said to have struggled with health issues for years. He had a lot of trouble with drugs and alcohol.

Allman was the band’s lead singer and keyboard player. Back in the 1970s, his brother Duane played lead and slide guitar, but he was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1971 when he was just 24.

The Allman Brothers’ sound of wailing electric blues is as good today as it was in 1971 when they broke out with their live album, “At Fillmore East.” Gregg Allman was the primary song writer, giving the world the loud “Whipping Post,” and the bluesy “Midnight Rider,” “Melissa,” and “Statesboro Blues.”

Allman was married five times, including briefly, and most unlikely, to the singer Cher.

>Former Hall of Fame pitcher and conservative Senator from Kentucky, Jim Bunning, has died at age 85. Bunning threw the ball in the big leagues for 17 years, threw two no-hitters, and won the Cy Young Award. He won 224 games and pitched the first perfect game in modern National League history.

He was elected to the House in 1986 and the Senate in 1998.

The Jersey Shaw: In a sign of restoration to its pre-disaster tackiness, the new Jersey beachfront features a new roller coaster to replace the iconic old Jet Star that was pulled into the Atlantic by Hurricane Sandy more than five years ago. The rumbling old wooden roller coaster has been replaced by a green modern wonder of twists and turns called the Hydrus.

The town of Seaside Heights is only about 70 percent of what it was before the storm, but the screams of summer are back.

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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Page Two

The Most Corrupt Justice

Monday, October 2, 2023

Democracy and Video in the Dark

Sunday, February 26, 2023

Page Two: Do the Right Thing

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Page Two: Sound Recall

Monday, September 13, 2021

Page Two: Cuomo Must Go

Friday, August 13, 2021

Trump and the Truth

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

The “Great” President

Monday, March 30, 2020

The Wright Stuff

Saturday, February 29, 2020

It's Been Said

"In my mind, I’ve never crossed the line with anyone, but I didn’t realize the extent to which the line has been redrawn. There are generational and cultural shifts that I just didn’t fully appreciate, and I should have, no excuses."

-Andrew Cuomo, resigning as governor of New York after accusations of sexual harassment

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