I just put out a can of Friskies Salmon for her. She ate half of it, then went back into the little house and curled up to sleep. I think she's finally moved in.

As readers of this blog and all the feral cats in my neighborhood are aware, I feed feral cats in my backyard. Leaving food out for them means I also unintentionally feed raccoons, as well as possums who hang around, trying to get in good with the guy who edits the Pogo books.

I've had as many as four feral cats at a time regularly stopping by — or just plain living in my backyard — to partake of the free buffet. At the moment though, I have but one. Lydia resides out there and she has since some time in 2007.

In 2008, as I detailed here, I captured her and took her to a vet who terminated her pregnancy and made sure she couldn't get that way again. If you have a problem with that, don't tell me. Tell the various cat care services and experts who told me that was the humane thing to do. Lydia doesn't seem to have objected. She's still living out there except when the gardeners or pool man come by, whereupon she flees to an adjoining yard until they get the hell out of her home.

A little before she came into my yard and life, I was concerned for the cats who had to weather rainstorms out there so I bought them a home — a little cat house which some of them would go into, though rarely when it was showering. Rain or shine, Lydia though never went into it.

I tried moving it to different places in the yard. She wouldn't go in there. I tried putting her food in the cat house. She'd lean in far enough to eat, then scamper away without ever putting her entire body through the door. I tried picking her up and putting her in there but she wriggled free and fled.

At one point, Carolyn tried some sort of catnip spray that was supposed to make anything you sprayed it on more feline-friendly. All that happened was that I wound up with a yard full of drunken pussycats, none of whom wanted to be in the house for more than a quick hit. I gave up the idea that Lydia would ever use the little house…

…which just shows to go ya. For no visible reason, today she's sleeping in the cat house. First time I've ever seen her in there. I took this photo about fifteen minutes ago…

Did you see John Oliver last night? It was a great episode about the attempts of the Trump administration to make the National Weather Service — which is paid for by us and which works for us — to instead be paid for by us and work for private industry. The N.W.S. is a super-efficient, right-more-often-than-you-think operation which gives away its expertise for nothing. Private weather companies take the N.W.S. data and process it further, making it more specific or tailored to paying clients, and profit off it. But what they'd really like is for the N.W.S. not to give away their forecasts for free to the public at all so they [the private companies] can sell it to us.

This is not new. Back in those wonderful pre-Trump days, companies like AccuWeather fought for this. On this blog in 2005, I wrote about how then-Senator Rick Santorum had introduced a bill that would make it illegal for the N.W.S. to make its forecasts available for free on the Internet. It was, of course, just a coincidence that Santorum was from Pennsylvania, AccuWeather was based in Pennsylvania, and AccuWeather had contributed lots of bucks to Santorum's campaign fund.

That didn't succeed but now Trump is trying to put one of the chief execs of AccuWeather in control of the National Weather Service. Trump has never believed that The Public Good ever takes precedence over someone increasing their profits. Ever.

So I just decided, while writing the above paragraph, that I ought to embed Mr. Oliver's report for anyone who didn't or couldn't see it. Keep in mind that the National Weather Service saves lives and property. To me, putting its resources under the control of those who want to make big money from it would be like letting a private, for-profit company take over the Fire Department in your town…and when your home was on fire, you'd have to call them and get an estimate on them sending someone over to put the fire out…

Today's Bad News for Donald Trump
Trump keeps citing Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, who in a tweet said there was no quid pro quo regarding the Ukraine call. But later this week, Sondland will reportedly testify that he wrote that there was no quid pro quo, not because he knew that to be the case but just because Trump told him.

Today's Outrage by Donald Trump
Did you catch any of Trump's rally last Thursday night in Minneapolis? There's more than a year until Election Day and he's hurling mud like an infinite number of monkeys flinging their poo. And he's getting it from the same place.

A Question About Donald Trump
Trump complained a lot about that Fox News Poll that showed that a majority of Americans want him impeached. He's been saying, "Fox News isn't working for us anymore," right? So what is he expecting? Is he angry that Fox News, having received those numbers from their pollsters, didn't just fib and adjust them in his favor? Is that what he expects of the news media? No wonder he doesn't like any of them.

This is a rerun from November of 2012 and maybe the second-most-linked-to article ever on this site, the Mel Tormé story being the first. It's my Larry Hagman story…

Here is my Larry Hagman story. Get comfy. This will take a while.

The year is 1980 and I am the Head Writer on Pink Lady, an infamous variety series that was forced by high-level corporate interests on All Concerned: Its producers, its staff, some of its stars, certain folks at NBC who didn't want to put it on…and on the American public, most of whom opt not to watch. Working on it presents every conceivable problem one can have making a variety show and a biggie is that guest stars do not wish to guest. Or at least, the ones you'd want for promotional purposes don't want to guest. Even before the show airs and anyone has any idea if it's good or bad, we cannot secure a guest star whose name means anything.

A man named Fred Silverman is running NBC that week, trying frantically but nobly to enrich the disastrous ratings levels he inherited upon his arrival. Mr. Silverman did not want to put Pink Lady on the air but was so ordered by those above him. Seeking to make the best of things, he adds his clout to our endless pursuit of guest stars. This means going after performers not on NBC shows since there are so few of those viewers will tune in to see. He sets his sights on Mr. Hagman, the star of Dallas over on CBS. Hagman is very popular, though not as popular as he'd be a few months later.

Silverman himself gets on the phone to try and arrange a Hagman guest shot on Pink Lady. Failing to navigate through a sea of agents, he decides to call the star directly. You can do that when you're Vice-President of Programming — I think that was his title — at NBC. Time is of the essence so he phones him on a Sunday. The following is the story as told to me by Mr. Hagman and if it isn't true, it oughta be.

Larry Hagman lives in a big house in Malibu where he observes certain rituals which some might call superstitions. One is that he does not speak on Sundays. He whistles. He can whistle in a manner that goes up in pitch at the end. That one means "yes." He can whistle in a manner that goes down in pitch at the end. That one means "no." He has a few others but those are the key ones — The whistle for "yes" and the whistle for "no." Those who know the star know all about this and Fred is well aware. He starts the call by saying, "Larry, I know you don't talk on Sundays but please listen to this…"

He tells him about the show and how all we want is a day or two of his time. The pay will be $7500, which is more or less standard for a Big Name Star in this kind of gig — or at least it was then. Hagman will be in a sketch or two and he will not be alone in these as Sid Caesar is also a guest. At he mentions Sid Caesar, Silverman unknowingly scratches a long-held itch of Mr. Larry Hagman. Larry grew up watching Sid's old Your Show of Shows, thinks Caesar is the greatest genius ever on television, and once fantasized about being Carl Reiner or Howie Morris — a second banana supporting player to Sid Caesar.

When Fred asks, "Will you do it?," Larry Hagman gives his whistle for "yes." Fred mishears it as the whistle for "no" and offers $10,000.

Hagman gives the whistle for "yes." Fred mishears it as the whistle for "no" and offers $12,500.

Hagman gives the whistle for "yes." Fred mishears it as the whistle for "no" and offers $15,000.

Hagman gives the whistle for "yes." Fred mishears it as the whistle for "no" and says, "Well, I can't go higher than that but I'll tell you what I can do. You have your own production company, right? I'll arrange for it to get two commitments to produce TV-movies for NBC. There's good money in those and if one of them becomes a series, that could mean millions."

Hagman says, "You've got a deal!" There are some situations for which one will break one's vow of silence.

Fred's happy. We're happy. Larry is happy. Who is not happy? The producers of Dallas are not happy. They're shooting a key episode that coming week and are horrified when their star announces that on two days — Wednesday and Thursday — he will be walking off their set at 6 PM so he can come over and do our show. They want him to be able to stay later if they need that, then they want him to go home and rest and learn lines for the next day. Wednesday evening, he will rehearse with us. Thursday evening, he will tape with us.

There's apparently no point in getting angry at him so they get angry at us, like it's unprofessional of us to make an offer to their actor. I have nothing at all to do with schedules nor did I hire Larry Hagman but one of their Production Managers phones me to complain and to say things like, "How would you like it if we hired one of your stars to moonlight while you're shooting?" I tell him (a) he's quite welcome to any or all of them and (b) if he doesn't like it, he should call Fred Silverman at NBC. In a semi-threatening tone, he tells me we'd better not keep Hagman up late. "He has to be in makeup for us by 6 AM each day."

Wednesday evening, Larry Hagman walks into our rehearsal at around 7 PM. He is utterly charming and human and just about the nicest guy you could ever want to meet. He is so thrilled to be working with Sid Caesar but he is also genuinely polite and gracious to everyone…and very humble. Well aware he is new to this "variety show thing," he asks everyone if he's doing this or that right, if we're okay with how he's reading certain lines, etc. He even comes up with one great joke to add to a routine.

During breaks, he and I get to talking and I tell him — true story — that I was in a "test" audience once that was shown the pilot to his earlier TV series, I Dream of Jeannie. I was among those in the test group that voted to put the show on the air. He loves me for that and thanks me like I am wholly responsible for his career. He also likes that I don't ask him what's up in the current Dallas storyline…though he did let me in on a secret. He'd just come from filming a scene in which his character, J.R. Ewing, was shot and may die. "It's going to be the cliffhanger at the end of this season. Everyone will have to wait until September to find out if J.R. lives or dies and who shot him." I am not a watcher of Dallas but I have to ask, "Okay, so who shot him and are you coming back?"

He says he doesn't know who shot him. "I don't think the producers have figured that out yet or if they have, they ain't telling." As for coming back next season, he says that all depends on how contract negotiations go. In other words, how much they pay him. It is at this moment that he tells me and some of the others who work on the show, the story of how he agreed to do it — Fred Silverman, the whistling, the commitment for two TV-movies. The commitment is one reason he can say, "If they [the Dallas folks] don't meet my price, I'll star in one of those TV-movies, we'll make sure it becomes a series and I'll do just fine."

We hurry Larry through rehearsals, well aware he has to get back to Malibu (a 30-45 minute drive) and learn lines and sleep before he has to be in Burbank at 6 AM but he doesn't seem to care. We tell him at 10 PM he can go. Still, he sticks around, discussing his scene with Sid and then chatting with us. I mention a movie he was in that I had recently seen — Fail Safe with Henry Fonda — and that elicits a half-hour of anecdotes, all of them riveting, about how green and nervous he felt on that set with all those seasoned actors. He segues to tales of his mother, the great Mary Martin, and what it was like to grow up in her world.

We talk of Jeannie and of his hat collection. The man collects hats. He has come to us wearing what he says is his favorite. It's a baseball cap imprinted with the logo of a company in Texas that sells, presumably for purposes of artificial insemination, bull semen. I can't imagine what else you'd use the stuff for. Sun screen?

Hagman calls that cap the supreme metaphor for show business. He also likes the looks he gets when people who are talking to him suddenly read his hat. He says, and this is clearly a reference in some way to his upcoming negotiations to return to Dallas next season, "Life is a whole lot more fun when you can keep other people just a little off-balance."

The stories go on and on. Every ten or fifteen minutes, I hear the voice of that Production Manager and I say something like, "Well, Larry, I know you have that long drive back to Malibu and an early call tomorrow…" Larry nods and grins and starts another anecdote. I finally escort him to his car and we stand there in the parking lot for another half-hour until, just past Midnight, he grudgingly heads home. I have no idea how he managed to get there, sleep, learn lines and be on the set the next morning at six but he did that. He filmed there all day, then came to us with a full load of energy to perform.

He was perfect in every capacity: Charming, funny, gracious to all, etc. At one point, we encountered a production delay that added at least an hour to our evening and forced all to sit around and wait. Not a peep of complaint was heard from Larry Hagman.

His key sketch, the one he'd been looking forward to, was just him, Sid Caesar, one other actor and two allegedly naked women. The actor was Jim Varney, who was later famous for his "Hey, Vern" routines. The ladies were not naked but you only saw their legs and were supposed to presume that somewhere above the top of your screen, each was indecently attired.

Caesar and Hagman play two businessmen going out to discuss contracts and terms at a restaurant. It turns out the restaurant has strippers and as Hagman tries to talk about financial matters, Caesar struggles to take his eyes off the young ladies and to focus on what Hagman is saying. Hagman is brilliantly deadpan throughout, making like the dancers aren't there. Caesar cannot take his eyes off them, especially as items of clothing fly from the stage and land upon him. It's a very short sketch but it's pretty funny and Larry Hagman is thrilled to have done it. Afterwards, he tells all, especially Sid, over and over what it means to him to appear in a sketch with the great Sid Caesar.

I again walk Larry to his car and we stand out in the parking lot for another half-hour as he tells me about his love of Caesar and of that style of comedy and how he wishes he had grown up to be Howie Morris. (As I will learn later when I work with the man, even Howie Morris wished he had grown up to be Howie Morris.) Larry finally heads back to Malibu around 1 AM, which I'm sure thrilled the crew over on Dallas no end.

Time passes, as it has a way of doing. I finish the sixth episode of Pink Lady (all anyone was contracted to do) and move on to another show. J.R. Ewing is shot on the final episode of Dallas that season and all of America wonders whodunnit. Those who are aware that Larry Hagman is renegotiating his contract are equally intrigued to know if J.R. will live or die. Larry does sign. J.R. comes back. It turns out J.R.'s mistress Kristin shot him. And at some point, Fred Silverman leaves NBC.

One day, I am over at the studio of that very same network, walking through a corridor and I hear a voice say of me, "I know that man." It is Larry Hagman. He doesn't recall my name — I wouldn't have expected him to — but he does recall me. I wouldn't have expected that, either. He hugs me and tells the folks he's with all about this sketch he got to do on our show with Sid Caesar and how it was a childhood fantasy come true. In the course of the chat, he casually mentions, "I had such a great time that it doesn't even bother me I didn't get paid."

"Didn't get paid?"

No, he tells me. He was supposed to get these two TV-movies to do for his production company but NBC kept stalling his lawyers on when…and then after Silverman departed, the network said, "What commitments? Nobody here knows anything about any TV-movie commitments to Mr. Hagman." He literally did not receive anything for doing our show.

I tell him, "That's awful" and I say I'll call Marty Krofft (he was the producer) and maybe we can get him paid some amount in some way. Legally, he must at least receive union scale.

Larry interrupts and tells me not to bother. "If you saw the deal I made to come back to Dallas, you'd know why this doesn't bother me. They're paying me millions." He insists I drop the entire matter saying, "I just told you that on account of I find it so funny the way they love you one moment in this town and the next, it's like "who the f are you?'" And he says it with a twinkle that reminds me why he is able to play J.R. Ewing so well. Then he adds, "Hey, you know what I would like? I don't have a copy of that show. If you could arrange that, I'd call it even."

I assure him that will be arranged and he gives me his address saying, "Now, if you lose that, just call the National Enquirer and ask them. They send a nice man around every night to go through my garbage." We part and I go home and phone Marty Krofft who arranges for a videotape to be messengered to Hagman's home.

End of that story. Here's the sequel…

A few days later, Marty's secretary Trudy phones and tells me, "Larry Hagman's assistant just called. He wants to send you something to thank you. Is it okay if I give them your address?" I tell her it's fine and I figure I'm about to get an autographed photo or a note or something. Two days later, a delivery man brings a large, cylindrical package to my door. It's from one of the most expensive stores in Beverly Hills and I want to say it was Abercrombie and Fitch. Maybe it wasn't but I'm going to say it was Abercrombie and Fitch.

Helping me open it — because she was there at the moment — is a young lady named Bridget Holloman, who was one of the dancers on Pink Lady. In fact, she provided one set of the legs Sid Caesar had ogled in that sketch. The box, we discover, contains a quite-lovely white Stetson-style cowboy hat. There's also a handwritten note. It says, "Thanks for being one of the good guys" and it's signed "Larry."

What a nice, thoughtful gesture. I certainly wasn't expecting anything from him, particularly something like this. But I don't wear hats and I certainly don't wear hats like this. Bridget, on the other hand does. She looks good in everything but she really looks good in this white Stetson except, of course, that it's a size or two too big for her. Fortunately, the box also contains a slip that says that if it doesn't fit, bring it back to the store and exchange it. I tell Bridget the hat is hers. "Take it back and get one that fits." Three days later, she goes to do that.

I'm working at home when I get a frantic call from her — from a pay phone at the store in Beverly Hills. At first from her tone, I think she's been mugged or beaten up or that something horrible has happened. "Calm down, Bridget," I tell her. "Take a deep breath and tell me what happened."

She takes a deep breath and says, like she's telling me the Earth has been invaded, "It's…it's a fourteen hundred dollar hat!"

She says they cheerily took it back and told her she had a little over $1,400 in store credit. This is around 1983. That was even more money then than it is now and it's a lot of money now. "What do I do?" she asks me. I tell her she can pick out another hat or anything else she wants or she can see if they'll let her take some or all of it in cash. I say, "Maybe you can buy a pair of $20 earrings and take $1,380 bucks in change." What she does is to buy a cheaper (and to my eye, almost identical) hat and take the rest in currency.

The almost-identical hat costs her under $200 and it makes a good point. If Larry Hagman wanted to send me a white cowboy hat, he could have spent $200 and I would have been perfectly pleased and impressed by the gesture. But he didn't. He spent $1,400.

Bridget wants to give me the change or at least split it with me but it's almost her birthday so we make a deal: She'll keep the cash but for the next six months, whenever we go to a restaurant, she pays. I kind of enjoy that when our server brings me a check, I can point to the cute blonde lady and say, "She's paying." I get some awfully odd looks.

Larry Hagman was right. Life is so much more interesting when you can keep other people just a little off-balance. I'm sorry his is over. There may be other stories about him that paint him as another kind of guy but this is my Larry Hagman story and I'm sticking to it.

Jake Tapper is a wise man as proven by his love of the Pogo comic strip. But he also proves it with segments like this…

Today's Bad News for Donald Trump
There are a couple of choices but I'm going with how it increasingly looks like Rudy Giuliani is in legal trouble. Yesterday, it seemed like Trump was going to drop Rudy as his lawyer and start claiming he barely knew the guy. Today, he looks like he's decided he's stuck with him.

Today's Outrage by Donald Trump
The commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, Gen. Mazloum Kobani Abdi, is being quoted as having told a senior American diplomat, "You have given up on us. You are leaving us to be slaughtered. You are not willing to protect the people, but you do not want another force to come and protect us. You have sold us. This is immoral." And indeed, the slaughter seems to be starting.

Bonus Article About Donald Trump
Here's an odd article by Alexander Hurst which compares ceasing to be a Trump supporter with fleeing from a cult. The author tells us a lot of interesting things about cults and the mentality of those who people them but he doesn't convince me it's that bad with most who voted for Donald and would again. There are those in this country who simply prefer the right-wing agenda and if Trump's the guy who's going to put it in power, fine. That's all they want him for.

If someone else could give them the same "win" without the pathological crap and the shady business history and the pussy-grabbing and insulting Bruce Springsteen, fine. What I think Trump fears most now is that some Republican — maybe Romney — is going to mount a credible campaign to offer the Trump agenda without Trump, and a lot of Trump voters will flee to that person. Once he starts looking like a loser — and he's lost a lot lately and been acting like a panicked loser — he's of no use to them. Cult leaders don't worry like that.

I have a couple of e-mails asking me if I'm affected by the California wildfires. They're nowhere near me, if that's what you're asking. 90% of Los Angeles would have to have burned to the ground before the flames got anywhere near where I live…but yes, I'm affected. I'm affected any time people are losing their lives and/or homes…from mass shootings, hurricanes, fires, anything. I'm concerned for friends and even for strangers. That's how I'm affected.

---

Last Monday night in New York, there was a tribute/memorial evening for Stan Lee at the New Amsterdam Theater — the Broadway house where Disney's Aladdin plays on other nights. According to reports, there were a few speeches by folks who knew and worked with Stan and several from actors who play Marvel characters in recent TV shows and movies. It was all recorded for a special which will be broadcast on ABC at some yet-to-be-announced time. The audience was in large part, a gathering/reunion of Marvel staffers and freelancers from the last few decades.

I just got someone to take down a tirade posted on Facebook. It was anger over the celebration of Stan Lee without a corresponding celebration of Jack Kirby and as an example of the snub, they said that I, Jack's one-time assistant, was not invited to the event. That's not true. I was invited. I just chose not to spend the time 'n' dough to fly to New York for the one evening. (Most of those who did, I assume had another reason: To attend the New York Comic Con which was held in the days just before the Stan event. Given my unpleasant experience at that con two years ago, I didn't want to go to that.)

But, please…relax, Kirby fans. Jack's getting more recognition than he ever has and I'm as certain as I can be of anything that there will only be more and more ahead. We can argue that Stan sometimes gets feted for the work of others but many things he inarguably did are still cause for celebration and remembrance. And time will add more perspective to what he didn't do.

---

This morning was the Returning Registration online scramble for Comic-Con International 2020. A certain number of badges were available for past attendees and that certain number sold out in 59 minutes. On some as-yet-unannounced date, they will have Open Registration when anyone with a Member I.D. can try to get the badges that will be made available at that time. I will try to post that date when it's revealed but if you want to try for badges then, don't count on me. Sign up for the e-mail alerts and keep an eye on the Comic-Con website. Many who want badges will not be able to get them and there's nothing you, I or anyone can do about that.

Here we have Liza Minnelli singing one of the best songs she sings. This is from The Dick Cavett Show in 1972…

Back in this post in 2010, I wrote the following here…

Visiting New York in the seventies, I discovered the mixed joy of a chain of eateries, primarily around Times Square, called Tad's Steaks. A Tad's was a steakhouse the way a stripper is a professional dancer…but I have to tell you: I've had worse steaks in fancy, well-reviewed restaurants than I used to get at Tad's for a fifth the price. The decor was nothing fancy unless you have a thing for red-flocked velvet wallpaper, which is what they had at some of the Tad's outlets. It was cafeteria style and in every Tad's I ever visited in Manhattan, there was a little Hispanic fellow behind the counter — it seemed to be the exact same guy in every Tad's — whose job was to stand there and ask everyone as they slid their trays past him, "Jew want onions?" I always told him, "Yes, the Jew would like some onions." I was always afraid that since I'm really only half-Jewish, I'd only get a half-portion.

The onions were cooked, like everything else at Tad's, in this amazing, all-purpose yellow liquid. I have no idea what it was and had the ominous sense that I was better for not knowing — but they did everything with it. The chef would brush the grill with it, then cook your steak in it. The onions were cooked in it. If you got a salad, they'd daub it on as dressing. If you got a baked potato, they'd put it on in lieu of butter. The garlic bread was made by painting split french rolls with the yellow liquid, then grilling them face down. Once when the cashier handed me my change, I caught her making it out of the yellow liquid.

Great food? No. Good food? Good for the money, maybe. I don't recall what they charged in '70 for the specialty of the house, which was a steak, baked potato, side salad and maybe even onions if you were Jewish, but it was a tremendous bargain and it was also quick. My friends and I liked both those things about Tad's. Then. I haven't been back to one in New York in more than twenty years, though I've occasionally passed the few that have not closed and gone away.

Now, nine years later, I haven't been to a Tad's in New York in more than twenty-nine years…and unless I get back East by January 5, I never will. That's when they're closing the last one, which is located at 761 Seventh Ave., not far from Times Square. My last two trips there, I passed it with my friend Amber and pointed it out and told her about it…but we went to other, better dining establishments.

Craving a good steak? Less than a tenth of a mile away, there's a Ruth's Chris and within two blocks, there's Mastro's, Capital Grille, Gallagher's, Del Frisco's and if you're low on funds, an Applebee's. I guess I'm not the only one who remembered Tad's fondly but went to one of those other places. I certainly did when someone else was picking up the check.

When it shutters, the only one remaining will be the one in San Francisco, which I'd just visited when I wrote the above-linked post. It was pretty good…better than Applebee's and maybe a few of those higher-priced joints I just listed. I don't know how the New York ones have been in the last 29+ years but maybe they weren't as good.

Some of the articles reporting the closure (like this one) say you can still get a steak lunch there for about $9. Looking at the online menu for the S.F. one, the cheapest steak lunch I see is $18.99. Maybe the Manhattan one decided to go with lower prices which meant lower quality.

One night not so long ago in Vegas, I found myself in a casino coffee shop at 3 AM and they were offering a "graveyard special": A steak and fries for $3.95. Somehow, the word "graveyard" did not scare me off so I ordered it, as much out of curiosity as hunger. When it came, I tasted it and decided that the fries were worth about three bucks but that the piece of meat was overpriced at ninety-five cents. Not everything cheap in this world is a bargain.

When the server cleared away my dish, she seemed unsurprised that the fries were gone but the steak was only reduced by the size of about two bites. I asked her, "Do you sell a lot of these?" She said, "Tons of 'em. We must sell fifty or sixty of 'em a night."

I then asked, "Any repeat customers for it?" She said, "Nope." Maybe that's why New York will soon be Tad's-less.

Today's Bad News for Donald Trump
Well, it looks like a three-way tie! In a 2-1 ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld a lower court ruling saying Trump's accounting firm must turn over eight years of his accounting records — i.e., his income tax forms. That's one. Then a federal judge in Texas ruled that Trump's "national emergency" declaration to build The Wall is unlawful. That's two. Then a different federal judge blocked the Trump's "public charge" rule, which would have made it harder for immigrants to obtain green cards. Had it not been blocked, it would have gone into effect next week. That's three.

Today's Outrage by Donald Trump
The Trump administration is sending 3,000 service members, two fighter squadrons, one air expeditionary wing, two Patriot Missile batteries and one THAAD missile defense system to Saudi Arabia to aid that kingdom. As Daniel Larison noted in a link yesterday, Trump is often praised by his supporters for his policy of getting us out of permanent foreign wars…but he hasn't actually done that yet anywhere. To date, he has escalated every war he inherited and he sure looks poised to create some new ones.

Bonus Article About Donald Trump
Trump keeps soliciting or applauding illegal or unethical actions done on his behalf. His followers claim that what he says in these instances are "jokes." But as William Saletan makes clear, they're not.

Our buddy Jim Meskimen recites a poem about his trade (being an impressionist) with a little help from DeepFake technology…

Today's Bad News for Donald Trump
Two associates of Rudy Giuliani were arrested today and "America's Mayor" may himself be in great legal jeopardy. That's all worse news for Rudy than it is for Donald but having his lawyer and most visible spokesperson in legal trouble sure won't reflect well on Trump. Giuliani keeps saying that when all this is over, he will emerge as "the hero." And that may be true — to those of us who want to see Trump gone.

Today's Outrage by Donald Trump
Trump's attacks against the Bidens are getting wilder, coarser and more hysterical. If he's at this level of mud-hurling with close to 13 months before Election Day, where is the public discourse going to be by Halloween of 2020?

Bonus Article About Donald Trump
Daniel Larison makes the important point that most of the folks praising Trump's foreign policy are hailing what he says he's going to do, not what he actually does. There's a very big difference.

This is Part Two of a series by SYFY Wire on Jack Kirby's Fourth World series for DC Comics. Part One is here and — caution! — I'm in both of them, looking very sleepy as we did the interview during Comic-Con back in August and I spent much of that convention in a walking coma. But it was a happy walking coma.

I like what they produced but I would quibble when they say "The Fourth World was due to be Jack Kirby's final masterpiece." Oh my God, no. He did some great things after that — I get the feeling Kamandi and perhaps The Demon now have more fans than the Fourth World — and Jack sure didn't intend the Fourth World to be his final anything. He had dozens of future masterpieces in mind — or at least dozens of projects he thought could or would be masterpieces.

It is important to understand that at that point in comics history — 1970 — newsstand sales were dropping as that distribution system was crumbling, and no one in comics had any serious concepts for other forms of distribution. By "serious," I mean something in which they were willing to invest serious money.

Years later, new means of distribution would turn up but at the time, the business was locked into those little 32-page comics printed via the cheapest possible means and Jack wanted to drag the business away from that format and into higher-priced, better-printed packages, many of which are now the profit centers for the field. DC said they wanted to go there but as we all know, there's often a vast gap between saying you want to invest in something new and actually risking the funds to do so. First though, they wanted Jack to come up with something in the old, atrophying format to boost them up in that area.

When Jack first envisioned The New Gods, Forever People and Mister Miracle — as well as the mythology and supporting characters who could spin off into additional, related books — he thought of it as something he'd launch, then turn it over to others. New writers and artists would continue it under his editorial supervision while he invested his time in the kind of fancier, upscale comics he felt the industry needed to begin producing. My then-partner Steve Sherman and I would probably have done a lot of the writing.

For the art, Jack mentioned getting Wally Wood for New Gods, Don Heck for Forever People and Steve Ditko for Mister Miracle — but those were just thoughts. No firm offer was ever made to any of those men and if you'd asked Jack two days later, he might have come up with three different names. He also sometimes talked about us doing a massive talent search and discovering new, probably-young and inexperienced kids in the local area that he could train.

While Jack was doing the early issues of those three books, he certainly didn't think of them as any sort of "final masterpiece." He expected to be off them shortly and on to other things. As DC began to chicken out on the "other things" in other formats, that trio of comics increasingly became Jack's immediate future and it was then that he began to think of them as his own epic graphic novel. And even that was just something he wanted to do before moving on to future masterpieces.

Despite that quibble, I really like what SYFY Wire did here. Have a look…

Today's Bad News for Donald Trump
For the first time, a major poll shows more than half the country believes Trump should be impeached and removed from office. And it's going to be hard to dismiss this as some rigged Liberal-Democratic poll since it's the Fox News Poll.

Today's Outrage by Donald Trump
According to a new book, back in March, Trump was in a frenzy to stop immigration and he discussed shooting migrants in the legs, electrifying the border wall and fortifying it with spikes, and putting in a moat stocked with snakes or alligators. It's frightening to think how many of his supporters would have cheered these measures…and even complained they weren't harsh enough.