A recurring theme in politics these days is how Trump supporters let him get away with stuff that they would have said was disqualifying and proof of lying and low moral fibre if done by a Democrat. Imagine if Clinton or Obama had bragged about receiving phone calls of support…and then the White House had to admit that those calls never took place. I have friends who used to cite Clinton's "I didn't inhale" quote as inarguable evidence that the man was a congenital liar and shouldn't be believed to tell you what day of the week it was.

We keep reading articles that say Trump will "pivot" and start being more presidential in the classic tradition. As Nate Silver notes, this never happens. Silver also notes that Trump's disapproval rating is getting so large and intense that it might not do Trump much good to "pivot." Personally, I wonder how many of those who say they do approve of Trump really do. Some of them have to be seething that he's been so ineffectual, that he's reversed himself on so many campaign pledges and that he's done so many things that make them squirm (like the Boy Scout thing) when their Trump-bashing friends point them as evidence that their boy is a liar and/or moron.

In the same vein, Frank Rich says all the attempts to re-staff and course-correct the White House will fail because the problem isn't the people Trump hires. It's the guy doing the hiring.

Trump is about to embark on what will probably be a long and costly (to taxpayers) vacation. This is the same man who used to bash Obama for taking shorter, cheaper vacations.

Kevin Drum explains why Single-Payer Health Insurance ain't as easy to set up as some people think it is. It could take a long time to get it up and running.

There will be a public tribute to June Foray on Tuesday, September 19 in the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in the headquarters of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. This is the building located at 8949 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, California. The event will be in the evening and that's darn near all I can tell you about it right now. This is just a "save the date" message. Watch this blog for information on how to get seats for this sure-to-be-jammed celebration of the very talented and much-loved Ms. Foray.

And yes, September 19 is one day after the date that would have been June's 100th birthday. We couldn't get the theater for Monday night because it was already booked for something else.

My buddy Richard Turner shows you why you can't win at Three Card Monte — not even if you're playing against a blind guy…

Jeffrey Toobin re-reads The Final Days by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein and finds much in it that parallels the Trump/Russia story…and much that Trump and his team could stand to learn.

Matt Taibbi — who won the pool on how many days before Anthony Scaramucci would be canned — says that there's really no way to work for this president. It's a lose/lose job no matter what you do.

Noah Millman elaborates on the kind of thing Taibbi's talking about. On the campaign trail, Trump used to say of some problem facing this country, "I alone can fix it." It's looking like he may have to fix these things alone.

What can Trump do about the situation with North Korea? Alex Ward runs down the options and they don't seem very promising. One does get the feeling that Trump supporters want him to be "really, really tough" but that they (and Trump) don't have any ideas about any courses of action other than to give tough-sounding speeches.

Daniel McCarthy, an editor at the American Conservative, explains why Trump fans stick with Trump. Says he, it's because they ain't going back to the days of George W. Bush so they have nowhere else to turn.

And Jonathan Chait thinks that Trump "has fully erased the boundary between legitimate conservatism and the most disreputable paranoid discourse on the far right." To support this president, you kind of have to buy into all sorts of looney beliefs and wear a chapeau made of Reynolds Wrap.

I'm going to be back in New York later this year for the first time in a long while. I hope Bette Midler is still doing Hello, Dolly! when I am and I hope my friend who brags about being able to get me good seats to "anything on Broadway" cheap is able to make good on this, Hamilton and a few others.

Here's some neat footage of a curtain call from Ms. Midler's show, shot by someone who apparently had front row seats. It's up close and personal, as they say, and Bette even shakes the hand of the person with the cameraphone…

John Oliver is, as you darn well know, being sued by a coal baron and that coal baron's company for defamation. The American Civil Liberties Union has filed an amicus curae brief in the matter and it's well worth a peek. It's a pretty good summary of why this case doesn't have much chance of success.

Next year's Comic-Con in San Diego will be held July 19-22 with Preview Night on July 18. Based on the traffic this year, I may start my journey down the 5 Freeway some time around Halloween.

No, actually I just thought I should give you the dates and tell you that if you want to go, start thinking about it soon. This page will tell you a few of the basics. I hear from a lot of people who don't plan ahead. They miss all the opportunities to score badges, then they write me three weeks before the con and ask me how they get in. The answer is that they probably don't.

You don't have to start working on it now but don't miss the general badge sales. That's the easy way to do it. And also consider WonderCon Anaheim in 2018. It will be held March 23–25 at the Anaheim Convention Center. Also a very fine convention.

The wonderful wit of W.C. Fields…

Joey Wohl has a question worth answering here…

I'm glad to hear you'll be at the Baltimore Comic-Con in September. Would you be good enough to explain on your site why you don't do more conventions? I notice you're always at Comic-Con and WonderCon.

Lotsa reasons, Joey. First off, those two conventions invite me every year and others don't.

Moreover, they invite me to do lots of panels, which I enjoy doing. I've been to cons where I felt kind of useless. Most guests are given a table where they can display their wares, sell autographs or books or sketches and sign a lot of things. I don't like selling things and this is not a criticism of those who do. I just don't want to be in the retail business. When I have a book out, as I do now, I'll sign copies for some dealer who can move a lot of copies but I won't be the dealer myself. The "business model" of inviting guests to conventions presumes I'm going to do that so I don't fit in.

Also, I can drive to Comic-Con in San Diego and WonderCon in Anaheim, whereas others require air travel and take me farther away from Los Angeles. The last three or so years, I didn't travel much because I didn't want to be that far from my friend Carolyn and for years before that, I didn't want to be too far from my mother who also needed me around for medical-type emergencies.

And another "also": I'm not fond of travel. I may never visit anywhere that is more than about a 7-hour plane ride because I cannot imagine anything that would be so wonderful it would make up for sitting on an airplane for seven hours. I don't fit in those seats too well, especially since my knee surgery which makes it necessary to flex my right knee often.

On my recent trip to Vegas, I couldn't — and that was okay for the hour-long flight but I'm not sure I could do a lot longer. Baltimore is five hours and whereas I used to always try to fly non-stop to save time, I'm going to see if I can get them to book flights with one or maybe even two stops so I can get out and walk around a bit.

Lastly, I've been going to comic conventions for a long time. The recent Comic-Con International was my 48th of those and I used to do three or four other cons per year.

One thing I used to love about these gatherings is that at each one, I would meet — and often spend quality time with — some people who had written or drawn comics that I'd loved when I was just a reader of them. There are very few of those people I haven't met. So there's another reason I don't go to a lot of cons and I'm also not that active in current comics, which is yet another reason. But the biggie is that a lot of them don't ask me and when they do, all they want to do is have me sit behind a table. Thanks for the question.

President Donald Trump removed Anthony Scaramucci from his role as White House communications director just 10 days after bringing him on, the New York Times reported on Monday.

Anyone surprised? Not if they read Matt Taibbi's column last Friday.

It's gotten so that every time one of these news items breaks during the day, I find myself wondering if shows like Colbert's, Seth Meyers' and The Daily Show have recorded their shows for that evening and if not, how much time do they have to rewrite?

A cat supposedly watching a scary movie. The cat is probably watching its owner dangling something or otherwise evoking the expressions but it's still fun to see…

I wasn't going to post one of these today but there are too many good articles up…

In the past, I've written here how much I dislike people who "talk tough" and how rarely they seem to actually be tough…or for that matter, effectual. Guys who talk tough are always trying to win an argument by bullying, as opposed to being right. This article by Kevin D. Williamson has something important to say about that with regard to Trump and some of the folks around him. Give it a click, especially if you've seen Glengarry Glen Ross.

And after you read that, read Matt Yglesias explaining why Anthony Scaramucci fits right into the Trump administration.

Jeffrey Toobin explains what it is about Jeff Sessions' job that Trump has never seemed to understand.

And lastly for now: Bernie Sanders agrees with Donald Trump on one thing. And probably only one thing.

The Internet darn near exploded last week with the news that June Foray had passed. She was so dear and so wonderful that a lot of people seemed to be having trouble processing the information that a woman who was 99 years and 10 months old had died, like that was impossible. I suppose some of it is that she is so omnipresent — in the shows we watch and in our minds — that it's difficult to think of yourself as living in a world where there is no June Foray.

She was also so accessible and friendly to all. I must have counted a hundred different photos of her on Facebook, posing with some person who was proud to say June Foray was their friend. I know exactly how you all feel. As I said, those of us who were fortunate enough to know her will forever brag that we knew her. And people will respond like we'd told them we knew the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus…or even Rocky the Flying Squirrel.

I've received a lot of inquiries about a public memorial and here is the answer: Plans are just starting to come together to have one, probably in a very large room because so many people will want to attend. It will not be in the next few weeks. When things are firmed up, I will post the details here.

Whenever and wherever it happens, get there early. The place is going to be packed. I'm thinking Hollywood Bowl with maybe overflow seating at the Greek Theatre.

This is a great find for some of us. It's an unsold game show pilot from around 1977 called The Smart Alecks, hosted by Allen Ludden and with a panel consisting of Don Meredith, Pat Carroll and a new comedian named David Letterman. The "game" isn't very impressive but a lot of you will be interested in this video because of Mr. Letterman.

Me, I'm interested because the first contestant is an old friend of mine, Don R. Christensen. Don, who passed away in 2006, was one of the most prolific comic book writers of all time. He also drew a lot of comics, sometimes under the name "Don Arr," and worked intermittently in animation. He worked for Disney from 1937 to 1941, then spent a few years in the Warner Brothers cartoon studio, primarily in Bob Clampett's unit. At some point, he connected with Western Publishing Company and began working on Dell and later Gold Key Comics. He wrote for all their funny animal comics — Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Woody Woodpecker, Bugs Bunny and so on — and occasionally on adventure comics, including Magnus, Robot Fighter.

Don was a great, clever guy. Among the zillions of comics he wrote was one of my all-time favorites — a 1959 special called Donald in MathMagic Land. He was also responsible for an awful lot of the puzzle and activity pages that ran in Dell and Gold Key comics, and as you'll see in the video, he was also an inventor. I was pleased to stumble across this video and to be able to see and hear him again…

Jim Newell has the same view I do; that most Republican senators, even though they voted to kill it, didn't really want to repeal Obamacare. If they'd repealed it, they would have had to replace it with something better and it's pretty clear they can't do that.

William Saletan sees John McCain's speech of the other night as a road map out of Trumpism. I agree with the expressed recommendations and like most folks, can list all too many ways Senator McCain has done the opposite. But I think Saletan is wrong to identify the movement as "Trumpism." It was there before Donald Trump was part of our political scene and if he disappeared tomorrow, it would still be there in full force.

Ezra Klein explains — quite well, I think — why Republican attempts to repeal/replace Obamacare failed. They operated from the false premise that Obamacare was a disaster and the public would be pleased to have anything else…and they couldn't even agree among themselves what that "anything else" should be.

Andrew Prokop summarizes the chaos of the Trump administration. And Matt Taibbi predicts the quick failure and ouster of the new White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci. I'm thinking Trump may keep the guy around longer than Taibbi thinks so as to not have to break in a new laughingstock right away.

Two years ago, who among us would have imagined that the President of the United States would address a convention of Boy Scouts and then the Boys Scouts organization would find it necessary to issue an apology for the President's speech?

The speech to the Boy Scouts was one of the scarier things I've heard out of Trump. Even scarier was the speech he recently gave to a group of police officers, urging them to get tougher on criminals. Actually, in practical terms, he was suggesting they get tougher on people suspected of being criminals, which is not the same thing. I've always thought of myself as pro-police and as I think I mentioned here recently, I think the "bad cops" are exceptions. The reaction of the crowd to Trump's rhetoric makes me wonder a bit.