Political Fun House: Always full of surprises, Donald Trump said on ABC News yesterday that as president he would consider higher taxes on the rich. “I am willing to pay more, and you know what, the wealthy are willing to pay more,” Trump said on ABC’s “This Week.” That may come as a surprise to many of America’s wealthy, and it should be noted that if Trump is willing to pay more, he has yet to reveal how much he pays now. The billionaire Trump has not released any tax returns.

Higher taxes go against the Republican Party line, but Trump also said yesterday he doesn’t need a unified party to run for president.

Trump also said he’s in favor of a higher minimum wage. “I don’t know how people make it on $7.25 an hour,” he said about the current federal minimum. “I would like to see an increase of some magnitude. But I’d rather leave it to the states. Let the states decide.”

I Can See Russia: Former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin said yesterday on CNN that she will support House Speaker Paul Ryan’s opponent in Wisconsin’s congressional primary. Palin is furious that Ryan has not endorsed Donald Trump for the party’s presidential nomination. She said, “His political career is over but for a miracle because he has so disrespected the will of the people, and as the leader of the GOP, the convention, certainly he is to remain neutral, and for him to already come out and say who he will not support is not a wise decision of his.”

Somewhere in the double negatives is a thought.

Fox News host Sean Hannity also piled on saying, “I’m not ready to support Speaker Ryan anymore. I’m thinking maybe we need a new speaker.” Sometimes it’s who hates you that counts.

Football Über Alles: Penn State University has admitted that legal settlements with victims of sexual abuse by former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky date all the way back to 1971, 40 years before he was arrested on charges of being a serial child molester. The admission comes just days after Penn State President Eric Barron denied new allegations that the revered former football coach Joe Paterno was first told in 1976 that Sandusky had sexually abused a child. Paterno, who died in 2012, had claimed that the first time he heard a complaint against Sandusky was in 2001. He was the second most winning coach in college football history, but evidence that he had covered for Sandusky destroyed his reputation and led to his firing.

World: The crash of a fuel tanker into two buses in Afghanistan yesterday set all three vehicles on fire and killed 50 people. It happened on a highway linking Kabul and Kandahar. Some news agencies reported that the death toll was even higher. According to Agence France-Presse, the road passes through embattled zones causing bus drivers “to drive recklessly at top speeds so as not to get caught in insurgent activity.”

Mercury Rising: The planet Mercury began a transit in front of the sun at 7 EDT this morning. It will take about seven hours to finish the crossing. You would need a solar-filtered telescope or binoculars to see the dark circle of Mercury, but the easy way would be to go to NASA.gov and watch it streaming online.

President Lothario: Frank Bruni writes in the NY Times that of all the political norms that Donald Trump has evaded, it’s the one that says a politician must be monogamous and faithful. Bruni notes that we’ve come a long way from Jimmy Carter, who was lambasted for admitting to Playboy that he had “committed adultery in my heart many times.” Now we have the three-times married Donald Trump who brags about his conquests.

Bruni writes, “His carnal conquests are the cornerstone of his can-do braggadocio. I have always seized the best and the most, and this country deserves no less. I score, and so should you. His slogan might as well be Get America Laid Again.”

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