So, Trump has done it again (no surprise there). That it is one of his most open, most violent, racist screams should come as no surprise. For Trump is already buckling down for an election fight in 2020 that is going to be a tough one, even for him. He is, of course, going to run on The Three R's: "Racism, Russia, and Repression (of voting)," just as he did in 2016. But Trump, history's consummate con man, who, knowing nothing about U.S. government, thinks always in terms of reality TV. He knows that in order to keep his audience (otherwise known as "his base") he's got to up the ante this time around. And so he has, in spades, as they used to say at one his (bankrupt) casinos. Of course, we hope that his electoral strategy this time around will be in the end as bankrupt as were those casinos, with no (unknown-but-we-can-guess) bank(s) to bail him out. But hey, you never know. There were many in Germany in 1932 who thought that that "crazy man" Hitler could never become Chancellor.

The Epstein-Barr virus, first of all, is the cause of an infectious disease, mononucleosis, which is (interestingly enough in light of what this column is principally about) called the "kissing disease." Its primary symptoms are: fatigue, fever, lack of appetite, rash, sore throat , swollen glands in the neck, and weakness and sore muscles. While in this column we are dealing with a different kind of Epstein-Barr virus, one of the political sort (credit here must go to one of my Twitter mates, JoeInWVa, for identifying it as such [although unfortunately I cannot find the link to that particular cartoon]) some of the symptoms are the same. That is if you broaden the diagnosis to include Sick-of-Trump-and-Barr Syndrome.

A few weeks ago I published a column entitled "Why do the Republicans Stick with Trump ?" After going through the various possible reasons that I could think of at the time, I came to the conclusion that most of them who do so, do so because they realize that without him at the top of the ticket in the 2020 election, down-ballot the Party would get destroyed. With that conclusion, I came up with a new name for their party: the Trumpublicans (tm). However, following what has been going on the Mexican border over the last several months, and the total refusal of the Congressional Republicans to ally with the Democrat in the Congress to "do something" about it in the legislative manner, I have come to a different conclusion.

If you are going to read just one (or one more) book about Donald Trump and his character, what drives him, what explains his behavior in all the realms of his life (at least in the ones of which we are aware), I strongly recommend Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump (Hachette Books, 2019) by the golf writer, Rick Reilly, associated for a long time with Sports Illustrated and ESPN.

Adolf Hitler, head of the German Nazi party (that is the party with the mis-leading name, sort of like Trump will make America great again, when he really means "white" again), was appointed Chancellor (Prime Minister) of Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg on January 30, 1933. The Nazis, although powerful, were still not the dominant political party in Germany of the time. In fact, there was no dominant political party at that time.

Trump, the Trumpublicans (tm) in the Congress and elsewhere in the Republican Party (where there are very few members who are not Trumpublicans [tm]), and at the Propaganda Channel , are hard at work promulgating two hypotheses (conspiracy theories, actually) about Trump's enemies. Both are intended to distract attention from what could really bring him down: even partial disclosure of his financial-related crimes over the years.

The Legislature of the (U.S.[!]) State of Georgia recently passed, and the Governor signed into law, a bill that criminalizes abortion in the state, as well as making a felon out of any Georgia woman who travelled outside of the state to obtain an abortion. [The text below summarizing the main provisions of the law is adapted from the article referenced just above.]