I’m beginning to wonder if we’ll have a real summer this year.I put in a swimming pool in my backyard back in February. Normally, I’d already be a month into swim season by now. But I’ve only been in once - back in April when we had a short-lived heat wave. Water temp then was 76 degrees. It’s now 70. El Niño?

So, the stock market plunged in the last week because making a deal for raising the debt ceiling was in doubt. The analysts said. Today, it looks like the deal will go through. What does the market do? You guessed it. It went down.

Yes, you’re right and I misspoke. @TwiHusband and I have been through that already, but thanks for weighing in. Frankly, what annoys me is not the term but the pettiness of it. Is that all they got? But for those whose goat has been gotten by the MAGA crowd in this way, I have a solution: be like the Republicans and have the same word as adjective and noun. Democrats could then be Democratics!

We should remember that democracies are relatively new on the world stage. When times are tough, and the people get angry, they tend to gravitate to autocracy, it seems. Look at Hungary and Turkey, for recent examples. Doesn’t surprise me that would-be autocrats like Trump and DeSantis have large followings.

Here’s something to ponder: If a Democrat president cut taxes for the rich (which would never happen, of course), would Republicans be outraged that this would increase the deficit and ruin the economy?

Got a question. Two, actually. If you’re charged extra for overweight bags on a flight, yet those bags are still allowed on the plane, what’s the point? And how is that extra fee used?

Alas, the Boston Celtics’ attempt to make history, a la the 2004 Red Sox, fell woefully short last night. Now we’ll have a Denver and Miami team in the finals. No offense to Nugget and Heat fans, but I’m pretty sure the TV coverage for the series would have preferred another matchup. I predict low ratings.

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.