Boy, that speech in Arizona was ugly. Trump's popularity is so low, he's now banking on angry racist voters rallying to keep him in power. I'm sure he still has plenty of non-racist supporters but he's not playing to them. Charles P. Pierce really unloads not so much on Trump but on those who cheer the white supremacist side of him.

Matt Taibbi puts more of the blame on Trump than on his supporters and is a wee bit nicer about it all.

William Saletan thinks that the more Trump talks, the more he's exposed as a hateful fraud. That's true but I think there are a lot of people out there who want to see gay, minority and gender rights rolled back and their advocates punished for ever supporting them. And if it takes a hateful fraud to do that, fine.

As Matt Yglesias notes, Trump's campaign to delegitimize the media is not working. Yeah, but it may be working with his base and that may be all he cares about.

Eric Levitz explains the big fight that's going on in Congress about the budget. Looks messy and we can count on the guy in the White House to not only make it messier but to be proud he's making it messier.

Finally: Trump is reportedly considering a pardon of former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. When I hear some government official is "considering" something, I often think his or her office has leaked that as a kind of trial balloon to gauge what the response might be. I agree with the A.C.L.U. that a pardon would be "an official presidential endorsement of racism." I also think it would send the message to the Nazi crowd that if you go out and rough up brown people, the White House has your back. Here's some background on Joe Arpaio, a man that some cheer for his utter contempt for the rights of minorities.

From Chris Pepin…

I was watching an episode of Garfield and Friends yesterday and noticed that James Earl Jones did the voice of a ghost in the episode. How did you manage to get him to work on the show?

We recorded the voice tracks for that show at a terrific little place in Hollywood called Buzzy's Recording Studio. Usually, when we were there, someone else was recording in one of the other studios there and one day it was James Earl Jones, doing narration for some sort of public service announcement. He strolled in to watch our fine actors at work and later, we had a nice conversation about all sorts of things, one being that he'd seen and liked our show.

To my surprise, he said, "I'm going to be in town a lot over the next month or so. If you come across a role that would suit me, I'd love to do a voice on your show." I said, "You know…we have a recording session in two weeks and there's a part in one of those scripts that would be perfect for you." I told him what it paid and he said, "I don't care about the money. I just want to do a voice in a Garfield cartoon."

So we set it up and then I had to write a cartoon with a part for a guy with a very deep, sinister voice…because, of course, we had nothing at all in the works when I said I had a role for him and he knew it. But he came in two weeks later and he was an absolute delight. Of course.

I get an awful lot of requests to plug Kickstarter, Go Fund Me and other crowd-funded projects on this blog…at least one a day. I don't do many but my old friend Martha Thomases has a good one — Mine!, a benefit comic to support Planned Parenthood. It features work by Neil Gaiman, Gabby Rivera, Amber Benson, Gerard Way and an awful lot of good people and I certainly believe in the cause. I'll let Martha tell you more about it but when you're ready to back it, here's the link…

My friend Carolyn passed away at the beginning of April and I'm still mopping up various leftovers from her life. One of these has been a steady stream of bills for $27.08 from a company that supplies medical equipment. A new one is sent every week to her old address, which forwards for the time being to my address, and they're getting nastier and nastier. Donald Trump has less threatening words for the Taliban than this company has for my late girl friend.

In the last months of her life, she was in an Assisted Living Facility. A Hospice Doctor ordered 24/7 oxygen for her and somehow — don't ask me how or why — two different companies delivered oxygen supplies. One set, from what we'll call Company B, worked fine and when we had questions or problems, all we had to do was call Company B and someone would answer immediately and make things right. The other set, from what we'll call Company A, didn't work…or maybe it did but it came without instructions and neither I nor anyone at the Assisted Care facility could figure out how to make it work.

We called their support line a few times and invariably got placed on hold for…well, I don't know how long. It was long enough to cause us to surrender and hang up. That's how long it was. Then I tried calling their delivery department and telling them to come get their machine and tanks. Each time, someone said, "We'll send someone out" and each time, no one came.

Company A's oxygen equipment sat in the corner for several weeks, unused. The day after Carolyn left, I called Company A, told them the patient had died and that revelation caused them to send someone over to pick up supplies. No one however told their Billing Department that the patient had died. She's been getting weekly bills which are now escalating into threats of collection agencies, interest payments, fines and other unspecified nastiness…all to collect twenty-eight bucks from a woman who died in April.

I probably should have just let it go but I get curious as to why certain people and companies do things that make so little sense to me. I mean, has it never occurred to anyone there that if you deliver oxygen equipment to a Nursing Home — equipment which was ordered by a Hospice Doctor — and then bills go unanswered for four months, maybe — just maybe — the person who was in hospice care is not around to pay that bill?

I tried writing "deceased" on bills and sending them back. This did nothing.

A few times, I tried phoning their billing department and until this morning, the shortest wait time estimate the computer lady gave me was "Your call will be answered in approximately twenty-six minutes." This is the number you call if you have a question about the bill before you pay it, and I can't see how that could possibly be cost-effective for them. I mean, shouldn't you make it easy for the folks with questions to find out what they need to know before they pay?

This morning when the latest threatening letter arrived, I decided to write this article but first, I called up to see what the wait time would be. Amazingly, the computer lady said I'd have to hold for three minutes so I decided okay, fine. It turned out to be more like seven, proving that you just can't trust computer ladies. This one sounded a lot like Kellyanne Conway so I suppose I should have been wary.

The non-computer lady who finally came on the line sounded nice enough and when I told her my lady friend had died, she said, 'I'm sorry for your loss," with a delivery that suggested this is said often in her building with the about the same frequency they also say, "You have a nice day." She then insisted that I stay on the line until she had filled out some sort of computer screen form and gotten it approved. I said, "Can't I go now? I'm doing your company a favor by calling at all and I've told you everything you need to know. I've been on this call for fifteen minutes."

She said, "If you end this call before the cancellation of the bill is approved, it wipes out everything and the bills will keep on coming. And you've only been on with me for eight minutes."

I probably should have just hung up and let them keep sending threats because, after all, what can they do? But I gave her a few more minutes and finally, she said, "All right. The cancellation of the bill has been approved."

I asked, "Can I go now?" She said yes but added, "You may continue to receive the bills for a month or two but eventually, they will stop." I have this strange feeling that they won't.

More hummingbirds bathing…

As I've mentioned here before, it bugs me no end when people think "talking tough" is an answer to a problem. Anyone can talk tough. Ask me how to solve any problem in the world and I can say, "We're going to stop pussyfooting around. We're going to get in there and kick ass and get it done and if anyone gets in our way, they're gonna regret it!"

That is not a solution. It's what you say when you don't have one and you don't want to admit it. A solution might emerge if you take that attitude but it's kind of like if I ask you, "What's your plan?" and you answer decisively, "To get a plan!"

Yesterday, Donald Trump delivered what they're calling a major speech on Afghanistan and what his administration will do there. It sure sounded to me like…

We're not going to follow the failed policies of previous administrations! No, I'm a bold and decisive leader so instead, we're going to do what previous administrations have done but we may try a little more of it and I'm going to talk tougher to the American people and tell them we're kicking ass and getting it done and if anyone gets in our way, they're gonna regret it! Furthermore, when anything does go right — as some things have based on what my predecessors did — my administration is going to claim full credit for it, and when things go wrong, we're not going to hesitate one moment before blaming my predecessors, because really all that matters here is that I look like a great leader! Thank you and God bless America!

Afghanistan has turned into one of those wars that no one knows how to "win" in any sense of that word so all we can do is not look like we're losing. Kevin Drum writes about it here and again here. All Trump ever cares about is his own reputation and we've all seen how well he's handling that. Now, this…

• Daniel Larison on Trump's alleged Afghanistan policy…and here's another piece by Larison which says more about it. And while you're at it, read Mark Perry and James Fallows and also Fred Kaplan. This is one of those amazing times when lots of Liberal pundits and Conservative ones are saying the same thing.
• In other news, the travel and lifestyle plans of the Trump family are exhausting the budget of the Secret Service. Remember when if Obama went anywhere, his critics would spread stories about him costing taxpayers eighty zillion dollars? Well, the Trumps really are costing us a whole lot of money and those same critics now look the other way because, after all, it's them.
• As Jonathan Chait notes, the new Republican strategy about Obamacare just seems to be lying even more about it.
• The list of false and misleading claims by Trump, as tallied by the Washington Post, tops the 1,000 mark!  Congrats!
• And getting partially back to Afghanistan, Matt Yglesias goes for an overview of the Trump administration and how it really isn't changing very much of what it promised to change…unless doing the same things badly constitutes a change.

Trump's approval ratings do not seem to be plunging as much as some had predicted but they sure ain't going up.  Maybe he's now down to the people who wouldn't squawk if he did shoot someone on Fifth Avenue.  Let's hope he doesn't decide to try it just to make sure.

Not long ago, I posted the version of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" that was recorded by my friends in the musical group, Big Daddy. Most of those who wrote loved it but one fellow who signed his message as "Walrus" was really angry, feeling they had desecrated the greatest musical album ever written. Sorry you felt that way, Walrus. Maybe this version will be more to your liking…

Daniel Larison may write for the American Conservative but he has much the same view of Donald Trump as I do. Key quote…

The president could hardly be anything else, since the only things that seem to concern him are how others treat him and the status of his brand. He makes no firm commitments, and he reverses himself according to whatever is most expedient to him at the time. It is almost inevitable that he is winging it because he has no relevant experience or knowledge that would keep him from doing so. Trump believes in himself and nothing else, and Chesterton observed long ago that asylums were full of such people.

Moving on: As Jonathan Chait reports, accounts of that meeting Donald Trump Jr. had in Trump Tower with Russian officials are sounding more and more treasonous. In other words, more evidence that even Maxwell Smart couldn't overlook.

Steve Bannon has this concept called "Economic Nationalism" which he believes is the Republican mantra to remain in power forever. Matt Yglesias explains it for us and tells us why it's nonsense.

Ezra Klein on Trump's defense of Civil War monuments. How many people think Trump would hesitate a second before tearing down anything in this country if he wanted to build a Trump Something — a hotel, a country club, a statue of himself — on that land?

And lastly: Every so often, I run into someone who thinks the United States was a hellhole under Barack Obama and that Trump is great if only because he isn't his predecessor. These folks never convince me that Obama was bad. They don't even convince me that they would have had any problem with anything he did had he been white and/or someone they could think of as "their guy." But for the record, let's review Eight Years of Suffering under President Obama.

Dick Gregory's 1964 interview in Playboy. This was back when Playboy interviews were important and people really did read it for the articles…and other things.

• This is strange. I'm being followed by a moonshadow.

  Moonshadow, moonshadow.

Our friend Leonard Maltin has some nice words about Jerry Lewis. Consider this Equal Time to balance my piece, though we certainly agree on Jerry's success and good works for charity.

The last time I spoke (for three seconds) to Jerry, it was at an event where Leonard was interviewing him. Jerry brought a gift for Leonard — an antique Tuck Tape dispenser with Martin on one side, Lewis on the other. It was not the one in the above photo but similar. Leonard, who collects items like that, was genuinely touched. (Leonard and I sometimes exchange gifts of that nature. I forget if I gave it to him or he gave it to me but at one time, there passed between us a deck of playing cards where the backs were all the same photo of Joey Bishop.)

That was the nice Jerry, the thoughtful Jerry. Later though, I saw him screaming at the organizers of the event over a totally imagined slight. You could say that the truth of the man was somewhere between the extremes. Or you could say that the good moments do not excuse the bad moments, especially when the bad moments seem less than rational. I lean towards the latter.

• Attention, David Copperfield: Okay, we're impressed. Now, would you please put it back? Thank you.

• Remember not to look directly at the eclipse or Steve Bannon.

• Watching live coverage on the Science Channel. Apparently, a side effect of the eclipse is that it makes everyone talk out of sync.

• Okay, so what's Trump going to do to try and upstage the eclipse?