A cool, rainy Memorial Day weekend on my N.C. barrier island. Renters started arriving yesterday. They’ll be disappointed big time. No beach days. No cookouts. Domino’s will do a landmark business.

Republicans, as they always do, are playing chicken with the debt ceiling, knowing they can vote against raising it if they don’t get the cuts they want - without raising taxes or cutting defense, of course - while Democrats, as they always do, will blink, bite the bullet, and accept the cuts they don’t want and vote to pass it because they’re, unlike MTG et al., unwilling to have the disaster of default.

Rep. Comer essentially admitted that his committee’s investigation into Hunter Biden is to hurt the president’s favorability and boost Trump. Well, everyone knew that already. But still. Shades of McCarthy bragging back in the day that the purpose of the Benghazi hearings was to bring down Hillary Clinton.

Putin has put all those prosecuting Trump or refusing to give in to his election fraud claims on his list of sanctions. And that the woman killed trying to storm the Capitol was a simple protestor who was assassinated. This from an autocrat who routinely imprisons protestors of his regime. Never has his relationship with Trump been more blatant. Hey, I’m a thriller writer, but I wouldn’t have dared put this plot into a fictional story. No one - until now, I guess - would find it credible!

If the U.S. defaults on its debt, Congress members will still get paid. But their staffers won’t. So we’ll have Congress, who was responsible for the default getting paid for doing nothing. Nice work if you can get it, right?

I wonder if Brooks Koepka now regrets selling his soul to LIV golf.

Can Congress please pass a law banning pharmaceutical ads on TV? Only one other country in the world does that - New Zealand. No offense, kiwis, but what’s your excuse? Ours is Congress in the tank for big Pharma. So we won’t ban the ads that pit patients against their doctors. “Why can’t I have that drug? Everyone who takes it seem so happy on TV.”

From champ to goat. After winning the Masters in my fantasy golf group, I will be a bottom-feeder for the PGA. Oh, well. But I’m playing with OPM!

Retire now, D. Feinstein. Don’t be another RBG!

Here’s to all the mothers! We couldn’t have don3 it without you.

Self-fulfilling circular reasoning by Wall Street. “Stocks down as consumer sentiment drops.” Yeah, it’s dropping because the market keeps dropping!

No, I’m sorry. CNN didn’t just air that “town hall” because, after all, Trump is a leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. They not only hosted the event, they created it! And what “towns” are populated only by Trump supporters? To use Trump’s often used excuse for a bad showing: It was rigged! I feel sorry for the moderator, Kaitlin Connors, who felt it was her duty to push back on the lies her bosses surely knew would be spewed by Trump. This isn’t 2015-2016 anymore.

CNN. Really?

Rep. McCarthy, when the story of Santos’s fraud came out: “ He hasn’t been charged with anything. It’s up to the voters.”

McCarthy, when Santos was indicted: “Everyone is presumed innocent until proved guilty.”

(Prediction) McCarthy when Santos is convicted: “Let the appeal process play out.”

I did some research! While I can see the rationale taken by The Atlantic, Columbia Journalism Review, the AP Stylebook and others for capitalizing “black” when referring to a person of African lineage (the Chicago Manual of Style favors lowercasing unless the author or publisher deems otherwise), the reason for lowercasing “white” seems contrary to that rationale. Why can’t White represent European lineage, with all the cultural and ethnic history that entails?

Why is it that “black” is capitalized in some news stories concerning a person of color, but “white,” when referring to a Caucasian, never is? Just wondering.

Yet another windy, though sunny, day in SE coastal N.C. Feels like I’m living in Hawaii! But guaranteed, when the hot summer starts, the breezes will stop.

Wow! Didn’t take long to indict Santos. I’m waiting for him to take a page out of Trump’s book and claim it’s a political witch hunt and that the justice system is a disgrace.

Okay, I was wrong about Trump being convicted in the defamation case.But the verdict hasn’t swayed Republican Trumpists, let alone Trump himself, who still claims he doesn’t know who the woman is and brays on that he wasn’t allowed to defend himself at the trial. Really? The judge bent over backwards to give him more time to come to NYC and testify after Trump declared he would do so. Sen. Rubio has called the jury a joke. No matter what happens, the Rs can:t get off the Trump train.