Greetings! The knives are out for Graham Platner.  Over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal and the NY Times both published major stories alleging that the married Platner was texting multiple women with sexually oriented messages.  And the Washington Free Beacon reported that Platner’s role as harbormaster of Sullivan, Maine, was basically a clerical position, undercutting his blue collar image that he projects as he seeks to oust Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) in the November election...Pride Month begins today. Brace yourselves for a barrage of homophobic remarks and innuendos from the Trump administration and right-wing press.  It was bad last year and I expect the insults will be worse this year...Arkansas declared June “Fidelity Month” in a move to counter-program Pride Month. I guess Trump won’t be visiting Arkansas this month...Something is wrong with the Trump: He seemed to have spent his entire weekend on Truth Social concocting a deluge of unhinged posts.  I stopped counting at 70; it’s more than I’ve ever seen from him in such a short period.  Here are just a few of the topics that got Trump’s attention: Greenland, Mt. Rushmore (with his face etched in stone, natch), DC’s reflecting pool, Rosie O’Donnell, E. Jean Carroll, the NY Times, and NFL QB Jaxson Dart. He also included many AI-generated images like this one of him and George Washington (both dressed in 1776 military clothing) riding horse across the White House lawn as racing cars zoom across the White House lawn. If he was your teenage son, this would be the time to take his phone away and send him to a wilderness therapy camp for out-of-control adolescents....If you keep reading, I’ll keep Righting. Howard

Greetings! Scratch Gretchen Whitmer as a Dem candidate for president in 2028.  The Michigan governor said she wasn’t considering running in 2028.  Presumably that leaves the door open for 2032. I liked that she was a moderate from Michigan, a key battleground state, but she never excited me...It’s early, but: Speaking of the 2028 election, AOC has risen to third place in the Emerson College poll of Democratic presidential candidates.  She trails only Pete Buttigieg and Gavin Newsom....Thumbs down. The first review is in for the new Trump phone and it’s not good.  The tech-review site CNET points out several problems with the phone.  That includes a subpar camera, the matte gold design that shows fingerprints, and a security breach on the Trump Mobile site.  And CNET also zeroes in on Trump’s year-ago claim that the device would be made in America. "(N)owhere on the box, website or phone itself does it say which country it was manufactured in," notes the review. "The box says it was ‘assembled in the USA,’ but we don't know to what extent -- whether the parts were all put together in the US, or if the phone was just put in its packaging”...Trump suggests in a Truth Social post this morning that the real reason for Joe Biden’s disastrous debate with him in June 2024 was his strong performance that caused Biden to “choke.” No dice, Don. Biden looked lost the moment he stepped on the stage.....Weekend Watch: The Boroughs.  This eight-part Netflix series set in a New Mexico independent living community starts strong but stumbles toward the less-than-rousing conclusion.  The stellar cast led by Alfred Molina and Geena Davis elevates this series about a small band of golden-age rebels fighting the community’s corrupt administration and some otherworldly creatures. Bad title BTW...If you keep reading, I’ll keep Righting. Howard