SATURDAY 'ROUND-THE-HORN: GLIMMERS IN THE GLOOM EDITION.

Still hits.

A day late on ‘Round-the-Horn, sorry, had to hang some cup hooks. (Many years ago I did a newsletter for the Ogivy ad agency and got to look through the alumni newsletters that one of the copywriters put together. The cup hook thing was one of the reasons that members of the firm reportedly gave for not coming in to work. Always liked it.)

Well, since we were here last it looks as though things haven’t gotten much better for America. Along with its other, ever-escalating outrages, ICE has started shooting people in Chicago. (You don’t believe their bullshit about the victim and 10 cars attacking them, do you? You’ve read several complex sentences to get this far, so I assume you know better.) 

Also Kristi Noem is talking about sending ICE to the Super Bowl because Bad Bunny will be the half-time entertainment -- either she anticipates something like the Zoot Suit Riots of 1943 because BB’s Latino, or else the botox has reached her amygdala. 

The administration clearly isn’t looking to win hearts and minds -- except maybe among the mouth-breathers who constitute their small hardcore base -- and rather wants to terrify us all into compliance with what I guess no serious person will at this point mind my calling his fascist regime. I hope our nation still has a bit of the moxie for which it was once known. “There are certain sections of New York, Major, that I wouldn't advise you to try to invade.” We’ll find out soon enough. 

But not everything’s going the wrong way -- for example, the Tubby-and-Hegseth show for which the hapless SecDef (‘scuse me, Secretary of WAR, oooooh) commanded the senior officers to gather was a travesty, and this time the audience wasn't made up of complaisant reporters or brain-injured redhats accustomed to call their MAGA bollocks brilliant. It is impossible to imagine any self-respecting military careerist (and those guys are nothing if not self-respecting) listening to Posturing Pete and Wheezy Tubby and approving.

So I don’t think the boss was pleased, and that’s what the first of this week’s free Roy Edroso Breaks It Down episodes is about: How Trump may try to recover his dignity with the troops. Spoiler: It is not very dignified. 

(If Trump thinks declaring war on Venezuela for allegedly attacking America with drugs -- which, if such an assault has occurred, I’d say the U.S. lost the engagement years ago -- and getting the troops to murder even more fisherman to make it look good, I doubt the brass will take it well. They don’t make ‘em like General Westmoreland anymore!) 

For our second free Roy Edroso Breaks It Down episode, I’m going to do something new and exciting and let non-subscribers take part in a Fun Friday -- a long-standing REBID tradition whereby I throw out a prompt and readers give responses in comments. Try it, it’s fun! Can’t all be gloom and doom with a side of satire, you know.