This is the time of year when I get deluged with free DVDs of TV shows and invitations to come to screenings and panel discussions about them, all in an effort to get me to vote for those shows to win Emmy Awards. This should not be confused with the time of year when I get deluged with free DVDs of movies and invitations to come to screenings and panel discussions about them, all in an effort to get me to vote for those movies to win Oscars. It is not in this world possible for me or anyone to watch even a quarter of the DVDs I receive, let alone attend any of the events.

Last night, my friend Shelly Goldstein and I went to see a promotional event boosting Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, a show I think is terrific. I will more likely vote for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver in that category but Ms. Bee's program is first-rate and also Emmy-worthy. She was there along with several of the show's writers and producers, most of whom talked a lot more than she did. Matter of fact, most of them sounded more like the star of the show than the star of the show.

She did say (in answer to a question that Shelly asked) that TBS, which airs Full Frontal, was a lot more lenient than Comedy Central was when she was a correspondent for The Daily Show with That Guy We All Wish Was Still Doing It. She didn't call it that. I do.

She also insisted, as did others on the stage, that their show is not Liberal or Feminist; that its point-of-view was actually "Radical Centrist." There were around a thousand people there and I'd be surprised if more than five bought that.

There were no tough questions asked by the moderator or audience since this was, after all, a promotional event. After the panel (which included clips), we all hiked downstairs where there was lots of free food and drink, as well as free Full Frontal t-shirts, almost all in Small or Medium. In spite of all that, I still think she and her show are clever, brave and generally excellent. And I'm still going to vote for John Oliver.

Let's say you followed my advice in the previous post and ordered tickets to see Misty Lee's magic show at the end of July. You're probably sitting there now wondering, "Gee, what am I going to do for amusement before then? I wish Mark Evanier would recommend some shows before those dates!" Okay, here you go…

First off, if you're anywhere near Solana Beach, which is somewhere near Del Mar and La Jolla, you have two chances to see Frank Ferrante do his stunning An Evening With Groucho show which I rave about incessantly on this blog. They're Monday, June 12 and Tuesday, June 13 at the North Coast Repertory Theater in, of course, Solana Beach. It's Frank somehow turning himself into the great comedian to the point of making you (almost) forget that ain't the Real Thing dancing and singing and ad-libbing his way across the stage. Here's a link to order tickets while you still can, which might not be for long because Groucho Frank has a habit of selling out.

And if you go see him, here's a dining tip: The North Coast Repertory Theater is in a mall and so is the Samurai Restaurant, where I often stop for great Japanese food while going to or from San Diego. Check the hours though because they close for a spell each day between lunch and dinner.

Then! Recently, I raved on here about Puppet Up!, which is an adult puppet show done by the Jim Henson people. The show is largely improvised with much audience involvement and it's ridiculously funny and — the night I saw it — rather dirty. They don't do it very often but they're doing two shows on June 17 and I guarantee you they'll sell out. I just bought tix for the early show from this page. You can, too.

Finally for now: I've also raved — and I don't do that much raving — about The Black Version, a very funny improv troupe that does a show every month or two. It's six-or-so black comedy performers who take a suggestion from the audience of a movie that starred mostly white folks and they then improv it into a musical starring all black folks. I forgot to write about it here but a few weeks ago, I saw them do their version of Interview with a Vampire, which guest-starred Wayne Brady and featured a Dracula-type who, at the suggestion of someone in the audience, was named Count Chocula.

Their next performance is July 8 at the Largo at the Coronet (that's what they call the place now) on La Cienega Boulevard near Beverly. I bought my tickets at this site and again, you can do the same thing.

There's also some sort of comic convention down in San Diego in July where we will celebrate the 100th anniversaries of the births of Jack Kirby and Will Eisner. More on that later. Right now, if you're thinking of attending any of the above events, you'd better get to clicking.

I have this great friend named Misty Lee, who's married to another great friend named Paul Dini. Paul writes TV shows and comic books, and Misty does everything else. She's a top voiceover performer and she has a perfume line and she conducts seances at the Magic Castle and if I ever have to have my other knee replaced, I may just let her do it because she either knows how to do that or could figure it out in the time my orthopedic surgeon would spend scrubbing-up.

Anyway, we're talking today about her stunning career as a magician. She's currently assembling a new show and if you live anywhere near North Hollywood, California, you're going to want to get tickets to see her debut it at the El Portal Theater on July 28, 29 and 30. Here's the first installment of an ongoing video diary about the making of this show. Misty is one of the best and brightest performers I know — and I know a lot of best and bright performers…

I'm thinking the way it works now is like this: Trump says something like "I've always loved tapioca pudding."  Then the folks in charge at The Daily Show, Stephen Colbert's program, Late Night with Seth Meyers and other places assign interns to go dig up all the video clips of Trump in the past saying, "Anyone who eats tapioca pudding is unfit for public office."  No one asks if he ever said something which contradicts what he currently says but they just assume he did.  And indeed, such footage is quickly located and aired.

To those who already think Trump is a man of zero integrity and a belief that reality is less important than whipping your supporters into a compliant frenzy, it's just one more bit of evidence that he's as horrible as he seems.  To those who cheer the guy, it's…well, some might try arguing or rationalizing by saying, "He said he's always loved it.  He didn't say he actually eats it."

Most though won't bother.  They want to believe they have a bold leader who always speaks his mind and they don't really care if it's so.  He can even do something Barack Obama did as long as he never admits it's what Obama did.  I'm going to stop getting frustrated that they won't change their opinions of our current Oval Office Occupant…and so should you.  These folks would sooner change their genders.  Here are some links…

• The very liberal Fred Kaplan explains why it's a mistake for Trump to do what he seems to be trying to do in the Middle East.
• The very conservative Daniel Larison explains why it's a mistake for Trump to do what he seems to be trying to do in the Middle East.
• And meanwhile, what's the deal with Trump's budget and all the things he's proposing to cut?  Dylan Matthews explains.
• As Jonathan Chait explains, the rationale behind these tax cuts is based on the premise that tax cuts will pay for themselves.  In the word of the noted Flying Squirrel named Rocky, "That trick never works."  But people who want to cut taxes for the rich will never stop claiming it can, no matter how many times it fails.
• And then Ed Kilgore explains that Trump's proposal will never pass Congress.  Some bad things will but not all of them and Trump is already rolling out the excuses why so much of his proposal won't even make it past other Republicans…
• …because even Conservatives like Todd Scribner think it would send things in the wrong direction for those who want a smaller, less intrusive government.

I haven't written anything about the awful, awful bombing outside the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England because I can't think of anything to say beyond the obvious.  It's always chilling to think that someone who technically qualifies as a human being thought that killing innocent people — in this case, a lot of very young ones — would be a good thing to do.

The previous posting here prompted Paul Dushkind to write and ask…

I was wondering who drew the black-and-white caricature of Don Rickles in the frame with the big head on the Jimmy Olsen cover.

We don't know. When Rickles' publicist gave the approval for Don to guest in the comic, he sent over a few publicity photos he had around so Mr. Kirby could use them for reference. Jack picked out one for the cover of that issue and one for the next. The caricature was one of the photos sent and it was unsigned. A lot of people seem to assume Jack drew it but he didn't.

In the meantime, Jeff Watters found an old interview in which I said that my then-partner Steve Sherman and I helped with the writing of those issues and he jumped to the conclusion that we had written some of the Rickles-style dialogue. The jump is wrong. There was a subplot in those two issues about the Newsboy Legion and Jack had us write out an outline for that…and then he didn't follow much of it.

We wrote no dialogue and no part of the panels that involved Rickles or his look-alike. We did give Jack a page of insults that Don Rickles could hurl at Superman, as well as a few to be lobbed at Clark Kent, but Jack never got around to having Rickles meet either character.

When people hear that I — someone they know as a writer — assisted Jack Kirby, they often assume I did some of the writing on those comics. And that might be a logical assumption but, you know, not all logical assumptions are correct. I'd certainly be proud to say I did because I think the writing on those books is superb…but it ain't mine.

As I've explained many times, I wrote one page in one issue of Mister Miracle. I dialogued one story that was intended for Spirit World but which ran elsewhere with incorrect writing credits. I wrote the outline for the first issue of Kamandi, which mostly consisted of typing up Jack's ideas, and Steve and I wrote some outlines for portions of Jimmy Olsen, the Deadman appearance in Forever People, and a few of the mystery stories, plus we wrote any text pages that had our names on them. In the case of the outlines, they were all for stories drawn by Jack and he didn't follow them that closely, not even when we were regurgitating his own ideas back to him.

All in all, it adds up to very little and nothing of particular importance. It was more like "busy work" because Jack wanted to find an excuse to pay us some money, and because he hoped to convince DC to let him edit some comics he didn't write or draw, and was trying to sell them on the idea that we were writers who could be trusted.

I've said this on many occasions and so has Steve. Still, people write me or ask at conventions if I wrote this or that in some issue of Jack's New Gods. I fixed a couple of what were basically typos in Jack's New Gods — and not even that many of them — and that was all. Maybe it's too alien a concept in comics for someone to not claim credit for someone else's ideas, especially when that Someone Else is Jack Kirby.

Neil Anderson wrote me and said…

I assume you're going to write something about Don Rickles at some point, and was wondering if you'd discuss the two issues of Jimmy Olsen by Jack Kirby where Don Rickles guest-starred. I was confused by those stories, because it seemed like a natural that there would be a scene where Don Rickles meets Superman, and spends a few pages cleverly insulting him, but no such scene appears. Instead, there's this weird plot involving an evil twin of Don Rickles. I didn't know what to make of it at the time, and still don't. I'd be interested to know your thoughts.

I received quite a few questions about this even though I think I've written about it at least a dozen times. Here's a quick overview of what happened. This is from the big, exhaustive (and exhausting) biography of Jack that I've been writing and which I'm now able to finish. Which I will do soon…

The most famous plotline in Jimmy Olsen was probably a two-parter that guest-starred insult comedian Don Rickles. The event had originated with a suggestion from Steve Sherman and myself that Rickles — who boasted he "never picked on a little guy, only on the biggies" — make a brief cameo and insult Superman. After all, who was a bigger biggie than Superman?  Jack liked the idea and permission was procured from Rickles via his publicist for what was then planned as a sequence of but a page or two. At Jack's request, Steve and I wrote a batch of suggested Rickles lines. One went like this…

Rickles: "Hey, where you from, Big Boy?"

Superman: "I'm from the planet Krypton."

Rickles: "Just my luck. I got insults for every nationality on this planet. I gotta run into a yo-yo from Krypton!"

Then DC's own publicists decided that this presented an opportunity for promotion in other venues, and Kirby was asked to do two whole issues with Rickles, both to feature him prominently on their covers. One of those covers would display what cartoonist Scott Shaw has called the greatest line of ad copy ever done in comics: "Kirby says…Don't ask, just buy it!" The resultant issues were weird but wonderful, though Jack somehow never got around to actually having Rickles meet or insult Superman.

The comedian himself was less than thrilled by it all. He'd agreed to a cameo without remuneration, and felt exploited when it turned into two cover-featured guest appearances. He was further offended by a request from a DC publicist who presumed Rickles would gladly take the comics onto talk shows and promote them. Years later in an appearance on Conan O'Brien's NBC talk show, Rickles was less than delighted when the host hauled out a copy of the comic book and asked him about it. "Put that away," he said. "I had nothing to do with that."

Someone on the 'net recently wrote that it all came about because Rickles was a friend and neighbor of the Kirbys. I don't know where they got that because Don Rickles and Jack Kirby lived fifty miles apart and never met unless, of course, they have since Rickles passed away.

For what it's worth, I really like those issues. Liked them at the time when Jack did them, like them more now…and I think I like them for the exact same reasons that some people don't: Because they don't read like "normal" DC Comics or like what we longtime DC readers had come to expect when we picked up an issue of Jimmy Olsen. I sometimes wish Jack — and this goes for a lot of other folks in comics, past and present — could have been freed from some notion of what a DC or Marvel comic "should" be like. This applies to self-imposed restrictions as much as those dictated by editorial folks. The closer Jack got to doing that, the more successful his work was both financially and creatively. But he could have gotten even closer, especially when he was in full command of his creative powers.

Saturday Night Live cast member Bobby Moynihan departs the cast after tonight's season-ending telecast. He recently commissioned MAD's star caricaturist Tom Richmond to do this terrific drawing of the participants in this past season. You can enlarge it by clicking on it…and when you do, note that Tom did not do a drawing of Alec Baldwin or Donald Trump. He drew Alec Baldwin as Donald Trump. It's really a lovely piece of work.

We're aiming for a Trump-free weekend on this blog and, more importantly, in my head. So I'll just say this here and then go work on Groo…

I'm not as confident as some people that Donald Trump will not be president much longer. Yeah, he's done many things that would have caused a Republican congress to insist President Hillary had to go but so what? We don't remove elected officials — presidents or their Congressional protectors — for hypocrisy. I guess I'm leery of predictions because one of the main complaints about Trump is he's too unpredictable; how he doesn't conform to past norms of presidential conduct. His popularity will continue to suffer from the slow drip-drip-drip of self-inflicted scandals and stupid statements but I'm not sure of much else about this guy. Like I said, too unpredictable. If there's one big misdeed that will knock him out of office, either it hasn't come out yet or he hasn't committed it yet.

Caught a few snippets of Jimmy Fallon trying to be rougher on Trump, presumably because that's what seems to be helping ratings in Late Night. Mr. Fallon has many talents but being rough on people is not among them. The same with James Corden. (I was about to type that Corden, being British, isn't all that convincing attacking American political figures but then I remembered how good John Oliver is at it.)

Every so often here, I have to remind some readers of this blog of the following: I do not post obits for everyone who dies. I feel like I do too many of them as it is. I post them for one or more of these reasons: (1) I knew the person really well, (2) I think I have something interesting to say about the person, and/or (3) I feel like if I don't post something about this person's passing, no one else on the 'net will. It does not mean I don't care about them. Most of the time when followers of this site write me and say "You must have some issues with this person since you didn't write about their death," the answer is that I didn't know the person and feel I have nothing to add to what others have written. No snub is ever intended.

The other day, I got one of those calls where from the room tone before the person even says anything, you know it's someone calling from a roomful of other people making calls. A woman who obviously learned English as a second (or third or fourth…) language told me she was from "Computer Technical Support" and there was a terrible virus on my computer. Since she was lying to me, I felt it was okay to lie to her and I told her I didn't own a computer. I said, "I don't want one because I heard there are really evil, criminal people in the world who call you and tell you they're from someplace like 'Computer Technical Support' and they try to get you to let them access your computer and then they steal data and plant viruses. Can you believe there are such sick, horrible human beings in the world?" She agreed with me that was pretty awful and then she hung up.

There may be more here later but I don't think you'll see me here until tomorrow. I have to go write Cheese Dip jokes…

From 2007: Regis Philbin interviews Don Rickles, the man who said such witty things as "You hockey puck, you," "Why don't you sit in a hot tub and watch a duck sink?" and "What do you want me to do? Drop my pants and fire a rocket?"

Here's a batch of behind-the-scene pictures from the making of the movie Goldfinger.  There must be something wrong with the home video market because it's been at least six months since it was time for me to buy this film in a new format.

Legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin explains why firing James Comey was an abuse of power and he also writes about the rules under which Robert Mueller will conduct his investigation. Apparently, it will be up to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to decide how much of Mueller's report will be made public. So we're looking at fights over what Mueller will subpoena and what he can learn, and then we'll have the battle over how much of it will be kept secret. This is going to take a while, people.

Alas, we can't ignore him for long, which is one of the things some of us don't like about D.J. Trump. I wake up each morning now, reach for the iPhone on my nightstand and think, "Well, let's see what horrible things he's done so far today."

Maybe I shouldn't say that here. I know that one of the things some of his fans like most about Trump is that he annoys people like me. There is a powerful "them or us" attitude in this country and to some folks, whatever "us" does is great and perfect and commendable if it upsets "them."  We don't even have to understand it to be happy about it if the right people are unhappy.

Browsing the 'net, I see a lot of people who figure anything Trump does that makes Liberals mad must be a good thing, especially if it undoes something Obama did. As long as he can, I don't think Trump will let those people down.

Some links…

• Trump has shown little talent for public speaking before audiences who aren't already on his side. If you already love him, he's kind of ingratiating and charming but if you don't, he's arrogant and contemptuous. He's about to deliver a major speech in Saudi Arabia. Jennifer Williams is, like a lot of us, thinking this will not help U.S.-Saudi relations.
• Rumor has it that Trump may install Joe Lieberman as the new director of the FBI. As Daniel Larison explains, this would be a terrible idea. So unless a worse one comes along, Trump will probably do it.
• Members of the House of Representative Committee on Science, Space and Technology recently sent a letter to Trump. It expresses concern that the information he is receiving — and on which he is presumably basing some of his decisions — is "misinformation and fake news." I'm imagining Trump reading the letter and saying, "So —?"
• Obamacare may actually fail soon, as Kevin Drum notes. If and when it does, there'll be a nasty debate in this country: Did it fail because it was always a bad idea? Or because Republicans, once they were in a position to do so, sabotaged it? I can't imagine most Americans believing the former unless the G.O.P. actually comes up with a plan that provides better health care for more people for less money. Which they really aren't even trying to do.

The death of Roger Ailes raised the oft-raised question of how respectful one should be of someone who was not respectful of others. A friend of mine once said, "When a person dies, you show the proper manners by following their lead." If you believe that, go ahead and read Matt Taibbi. If not, wait a week or so.

I told this story to someone the other day and they said, "Hey, you should put that on your blog." Okay, so here it is on my blog. It might not be the best anecdote I've told here but it is guaranteed to be 100% Trump-Free…

I have written here about my friend Bridget, a very lovely actress-dancer who for some reason was willing to go out with me for a few years in the late seventies and early eighties. That's Bridget on the left in the photo above, in which we were all trying to pretend we were posing for a soup ad. The lovely blonde lady on the right is Linda Hoxit, another actress-dancer who was a friend of Bridget's. The pic is from one afternoon when for some reason, they decided to come over and make me lunch, which is not what this anecdote is about. It is, however, from around this time…

In addition to acting and dancing, Bridget sometimes earned money as a model. Her biggest gig was a few years as a Nexxus Hair Care Girl but there were others. Two or three times a year f'ristance, she would spend a day or two being photographed for the catalog of a very popular seller of sexy lingerie. The pay was pretty good and there was a bonus in that the models were allowed to take home the remnants of any outfits which were destroyed in the process.

As she explained to me, to make the lingerie fit perfectly and to enhance how it enhanced the figure, she would sometimes be sewn into the garments along with much judiciously-placed padding. They didn't do this with bras and panties but anything that covered much of the body would have had most of its seams removed before the shoot. The photo stylist and dresser would literally construct that kind of lingerie on the models' bodies, using a hand-held sewing device to baste this and sew that and tighten everything where they wanted it to be tight. When they were done, it would be necessary to literally cut her out of it.

Usually, everyone was in a hurry to get onto the next item to be modeled but sometimes, there was time for Bridget to perform some deft surgery and free herself from a garment without totally destroying it. Later, she could re-sew it so it could be worn again — and the last thing she wore, she could wear home and take all the time in the world to get it off.

Naturally though, one does not drive home in a something black and lacey — though she and another model once discussed whether it would help if they got pulled over by the police or make the pulling-over more likely. Bridget thought it would make it more likely so she would arrive at each shoot dressed in a pair of baggy sweats. She'd look over the rack of lingerie she'd be modeling and select the one she wanted to keep most intact, then she would get the photographer to agree to do that one last. Once those pics were taken and she was done for the day, she could put the sweats on over the selected item, wear it home and carefully remove the temporary stitching.

Upon arrival at one session, her selection was instantaneous. Among the pieces she'd be wearing was a red satin bustier. Actually, she called it a bustier but I would have called it a corset. In fact, I did and whenever I called it a corset, Bridget said, "No, no…it's a bustier!" By any name, it was gorgeous and hand-made and covered with lace and jewels and gold piping and it was very expensive. The corset bustier was $2000 in 1985 and if the company is still making 'em, it's probably more than twice that by now. It looked great on its own and even better with Bridget in it and I'm kicking myself that I didn't take any photos of her wearing it.

Just trust me. Stunning.

She wore it for her last photos of the day, pulled her sweatsuit on over it, then realized it would be tough to escape from on her own. They'd sewn her into it from the back and she couldn't reach the stitching…so she phoned me. I didn't live that far from the photo studio.

She came over and I took a pair of nail scissors and an X-Acto knife and ever-so-carefully began removing stitches. This may sound like a fun pastime and I guess it was for about the first three minutes. After ten, my index finger and thumb were aching from the scissors. After twenty, it was agony. I did get a brief intermission when the phone rang. I said to whoever was phoning, "I can't talk to you now. I'm cutting a beautiful model out of her underwear." Saying that was the only fun part of the experience.

But we got it off her without doing too much damage to it. Bridget took it home and sewed up the parts of it that were supposed to be sewed-up and — voila! — she had herself a $2000 bustier — or as I put it, a $2000 corset. Sweet. A few weeks later, it got even sweeter.

She got a call to go audition for a part in a commercial for some brand of ale. The commercial was set in a saloon in the old west and Bridget was trying out to play a dance hall girl. She put on the thing I called a corset and she called a bustier, put her sweats on over it and went to the audition.

All the other ladies there to audition had dressed up real fancy and they were baffled by the one in the waiting room who had shown up in unflattering, baggy sweats. Then when it was Bridget's turn, she went into the room where the casting was done, pulled off the sweats and instantly got the part. The producer said, "You're our girl if you wear that — what do you call it? A corset?"

She said, "Yes, yes…it's a corset!" If I'd been hiring her, she would have let me call it that, too. So she wore the red satin whatever-it-was in the commercial when it was filmed and made about a thousand dollars.

The commercial was edited and shown to Arthur, the man who owned the ale company for his approval. He loved it but, alas, someone didn't. That would be Arthur's lady friend who was there when it was screened. She loudly announced, "Arthur, we have to talk!" Then she took him to one side and demanded to know, in a voice so loud with outrage that all could hear it, "Why didn't you have me play the dance hall girl?" She was young enough and lovely enough that she could have but the folks who made the commercial didn't know of her at the time and her wealthy male friend Arthur hadn't thought to suggest/demand it.

For days after, the argument continued and all his apologies and gift offers couldn't placate his lady love. She kept demanding that the commercial be reshot with her in lieu of Bridget, and after a week or so of withheld sex and angry and/or tearful upset, Arthur gave in. He called the agency that had made the commercial and said, "I know it'll cost me a lot of money but reshoot the spot with Helga" — or whatever her name was — "as the dance hall girl." And he added, "Oh — and she insists she absolutely must wear that same red corset thing."

So Bridget got a call. "We have to reshoot," they told her and she thought, "Oh boy! I get to make another thousand dollars." Then they explained they weren't going to use her. They just needed to borrow the corset.

"You can't have it," she said defiantly. "It's mine and I'm the only one who wears it. And by the way, it's a bustier."

They said they'd pay her the same fee again, plus she'd still receive whatever residuals might be paid when the ad aired. She said no. They offered her $1500. She said no.

They offered two thousand dollars. She said, "Let me get this straight. You want to pay me twice as much to not be in the commercial as you paid me to be in the commercial?" They said yes. She thought for a second and said, "Make it $2500 and you've got a deal." They agreed. Bridget was blonde but she was in no way stupid, except occasionally in her choice of male companions.

So a week later, Bridget was on the set again but only to keep an eye on her beloved bustier. Not only was Helga (or whatever her name was) there to wear it but Arthur was there to watch the love of his life make her acting debut. Helga looked fine in the bustier and Bridget, who'd emotionally committed to being a good, well-compensated sport about it, admitted that Helga was fine in the part.

After they wrapped, Helga herself carried the bustier on its hanger over to Bridget, who was going to drop it off at the dry cleaner's on her way home. Helga thanked her and said, "They told me they paid you again for it so look at it this way. We each got a thousand dollars for wearing it and you made another thousand for loaning it to us."

Bridget said, "Well, to be honest, they paid me $2500 to let you wear it." And as she left with it, she could hear Helga storming across the studio and yelling, "Arthur, we have to talk!"

I think I'll take the rest of today off from paying attention to what's going on with Donald Trump, the target of the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history. And don't you kinda admire in a strange way how everything Trump does is the single greatest ever? If he eats a piece of chocolate cake, it's the single greatest piece of chocolate cake ever and if he were to go bowling, he would probably throw the single greatest gutterball ever. Can't wait to see him bragging over the ratings his resignation speech will get.

One thing to note by those of us tracking how Trump's crisis apes and does not ape Watergate: A lot less of Nixon's problems were self-inflicted. Some were…but Nixon was a little better at taking a bad situation and not making it ten times worse. With his "witch hunt" claims, Trump is setting up in advance — as he always does — the excuses if he loses. If he'd lost the election, it was because the whole process was rigged, remember? He's still flogging that as the reason he lost the popular vote. He doesn't know enough to greet the appointment of a Special Counsel with "Happy to hear it! Robert Mueller is a man of integrity and I look forward to cooperating with him in every possible way to clear up this matter so we can get on with the nation's business."

But that's it for today…I hope.