the American State Fair? not so great

I was surprised by the attendance, or lack thereof, at the inaugural event of the Fair, where a thousand or so folks had to settle for Trump and Lee Greenwood rather than half of Milli Vanilli. I’ve been much more surprised by the sparse crowds since. True, last weekend saw inclement weather in D.C., but every image of the Big Do I’ve seen featured much more grass than attendees. One photo showed one person listening to a musical act.

Aging Orange has much more to dither about. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson sent the bipartisan housing bill to the White House today. Trump has ten days to sign it, and unless he vetoes it, it will become law. It would be a tremendous boon to the housing and affordability crisis, a no-brainer. The Donnie could make a big deal of signing it and take all the credit. Fruit doesn’t hang any lower than that. Instead, apparently pouting over his inability to interfere more effectively with the mid-terms, he called the bill “unimportant” and “a yawn”. “It’s very bipartisan,” he explained, “that means the Democrats like it.”

If June is too tedious to him, July could perk him up a mite. After celebrating America’s 250th birthday in a (likely) brutal heat wave, he has to agree to 86 the slush fund on July 8th. Failing that, Todd Blanche will face an even tougher confirmation hearing a week later. I hope for belated pyrotechnics. The Epstein kerfuffle might detonate.

But as a birthright U.S. citizen, I would like to get quasi-patriotic quite briefly to admit that Trump and I have something in common: trees. And not just your run-of-the-mill oak or elm. He has bought 47 maple trees for another one of his vanity projects. Maples grow very fast. That means that soon every autumn the D.C. area will be adorned with millions of Canadian flags