It is very difficult to write about the Orlando shooting. It is such a monumentally sad, tragic moment in American history that it almost defies comprehension. Fifty people dead, more than 50 seriously wounded. A savage attack, a specific target, and yet an attack on all Americans.

Prayers for those who died, who were wounded and their family and friends have been forthcoming and will continue. For those who suffered most acutely, the losses are inconsolable. We cry for you and we share our love for you and know the universal bond of our sorrow.

There is much we do not know about the motives of the shooter. We know at this point he pledged himself to Islamic terrorists, and we are told he harbored some anger at the LGBT community. Beyond that, speculation roams.

What we do know is that he obtained his weapons legally. We know that they included an assault rifle (an AR-15) which figured prominently in the slaughter of innocents at the Orlando club. And we know the same weapon was used by cowardly murderers in many other shooting incidents in recent years (Aurora, Colorado, and Newtown, Connecticut, for instance). And we know this gun can be purchased legally in much of the United States.

No, I’m not going to launch another plea for gun sanity in this country. At least not now, for now is the time to mourn the losses of our brothers and sisters. To celebrate and honor the lives of those who died and were wounded. To acknowledge their humanity. To accord them the dignity and respect and love they so deserve. To hold them close in our hearts.

We will soon need, however, to try and understand more of what is behind the shootings, and then turn our attention to what we can do to stop the increasingly pervasive, horrific series of violent incidents that seem almost to define our lives in the 21st century.

There has to be a better way than this. A true memorial to these victims and to the tens of thousands of victims of gun attacks in America would be action that ensures that tens of thousands of others would not share that fate.

We have a lot of work ahead.

Donald Trump — I’m referring here to the bigoted, narcissistic, incompetent loser who is the Republican candidate for President — has been the subject of too many words from me. He’s just not worth it, for all the reasons mentioned above and so many, many disgusting more.

But there comes a point of no return, and I’ve reached it when it comes to writing about this babbling, racist, incoherent fool. I believe there likely aren’t more than 7 people in the United States who have not already formed an opinion on Loser Don. And for those who are willing to vote for him, there is nothing I could write that would change their minds. Nothing. And for that matter, I doubt there’s anything anyone could write that could deter these voters.

Everyone else — I’m confident that’s an overwhelming majority of the American people — needs no additional reasons to consider the matter. Donald Trump is waste. Let’s stop there.

There are other subjects that I’d rather invest my time in, topics that include consumer matters, business, other politics and, yes, even occasional bits of humor. There is no further mistaking my views on this presidential election; any vote against Trump is a vote for sanity.

So I’m moving on, with the thought that I’ll not write again about the cancer that is Donald Trump. That’s my mission. I intend to stick to it. But I’m not betting the farm on it, friends.

Donald Trump is such a loser. He’s a really bad businessman who makes stupid business mistakes. And he’s a bully who uses lies and bluster in weak attempts to to cover up the vast plateau of ignorance that lies quietly beneath his orange hair.

Let’s look at just a few of Dangerous Don’s really bad business decisions that are so inept you’ll think they are some of the worst decisions you’ve ever heard. They are so stupid. They make you wonder how the tiny-hands bigot could ever have been responsible for them if it weren’t for the fact that Dangerous Don is really a big loser.

This week the PGA announced it is removing a major golf tournament that has been held at one of Loser Don’s courses in Miami. The really fun part is that the PGA is moving it to Mexico, one of Loser Don’s most detested countries. The PGA is not doing this to make a political statement, it says. Rather it is shifting the event because no major sponsors are willing to plop their money into something so brainlessly controversial as a Trump-held course. And that’s a big hit in prestige for the little Trumpie-town empire.

Of course that’s not the only golf hit loser don has taken lately. His Scottish gold course at Turnberry has lost its place in the rotation to host the prestigious British Open because officials there say Trumpie is such a bigot.

And then Loser Don was forced to sell his Miss Universe Pageant after NBC/Univision refused to broadcast it because of Trumpie’s bigoted comments. And NASCAR had to move a big awards program at one of loser Don’s resorts because sponsors wanted nothing to do with him, and executives at the sponsors noted his “blatantly bigoted and racist comments.”

Those are costly decisions all made as a result of what Loser Don has said and done. What a loser. What a poor businessman.

What else is there for Dangerous Don to lose? Well, for one there’s the election.

(Thank you Joe Nocera at the NYT for your sharp-eyed column)

With the arrival (and departure) of Memorial Day, summer is unofficially here, marking the time to speak briefly about another kind of disturbing arrival and departure. I’m talking about airports, which are experiencing a kind of institutional chaos these days.

Social media accounts as well as the airlines tell us that many thousands of ticketed passengers have missed their flights, and airlines have endured hundreds of delays, because of extraordinarily lengthy delays at some large-city airport security lines. The blame is usually laid at the feet of the TSA for slowing the process of making certain that passengers are safely placed on their flights, even if the delays ensure that some of them will never get to their flights.

And yes, the TSA is partly responsible. It is beset with seemingly inept management at the top. But let’s take note of who else shares in that blame, starting with the do-nothing, Republican-dominated Congress which has sliced funding for the TSA and guaranteed that it will be short-staffed. Those are both devastating problems which are feeding the airport issues.

But let’s not ignore the airlines, who have spent a lot of their marketing money making certain he TSA gets all the blame. Nope. Some of these problems arose in the wake of the airlines charging fees — and ever-rising fees — for passengers wanting to check baggage. Given a choice between paying up to $50 for one bag checked, passengers have not surprisingly decided to carry on everything they possible can. The result: far more work monitoring baggage that slows the operation of the TSA security lines.

And we cannot ignore the role of passengers who arrive at airports either woefully ignorant of TSA guidelines or so careless and stupid as not to follow them. We’ve all seen them in action: hey forget to empty their pockets, or forget the extra liquids, or even try to bring guns and knives on board. These people are costing others time and money, and their role in the chaos must not be neglected. (More of them should also sign up for pre-check lines.)

It all adds up to … well, chaos. And with summer passenger traffic expected to hit record levels, the problems likely are going to get worse. Now, TSA says it is bringing on more workers, and that’s good, although it seems just a drop in an awfully big bucket. It would help more if the greedy, uncaring airlines drop their checked baggage fees, at least for the summer months. And finally if flyers would familiarize them in advance with what they can and can’t carry and how to negotiate the security lines, we’d all be ahead a bit.

And the are admittedly short-term solutions, but let’s try to get to the fall as best we can. I’m not naive enough to believe all passengers will do that. And I’m especially not naive enough to believe the airlines will do anything that benefits customers. My recommendation? Drive or make the train if at all possible.

I know, I know. You;re flying to Europe, and what are you going to do? I’d suggest that for every day you’ll spend in Europe add one hour to your projected wait in the TSA lines. And have a fun summer.

Donald Trump, the lazy, tiny-hands bigot, says he won’t be publicly releasing his income taxes before the November election. Interesting.

Of course I don’t know what he’s hiding. But I can make a guess. I think he’s hiding the fact that he isn’t as smart financially as he claims, and that he probably isn’t worth nearly as much as he insists. It’s likely he doesn’t want everyone to see how he uses high-paid lawyers and accountants to scam the tax system. And I believe his returns will show his contributions to charities are negligible and reflect little or no cash contributions. In other words, on top of everything else, he’s a cheapskate.

It adds up to the fact that Donald Trump is a loser. Income taxes or not, he is exactly what he likes calling others: a weak, narrow-minded, braggart, cheap-shot loser.

But let’s not resort to Trump’s name-calling style. No, let’s take the high road here and just say that he’s a loser and let it go. All the rest of it — the policy ignorance, the contradictions, the lies, the serial adultery, the misogyny, the thinly-veiled racist attitudes, the narcissism, the pandering, the small hands — let’s just drop it for now.

No, let’s just remember he’s won primaries by getting a majority of ballots from voters in the relatively small base of right-wing Republicans. Let’s recall that he seems unable to tell the difference between the truth and what isn’t truth. Let’s remember he lacks a basic curiosity. Let’s remember he’s a bully.

Oops, sorry about that last one. We want to stay away from labeling the way Trump does others. Forget that last one. Instead, just focus on those very tiny hands and wonder what that tells us about the size of his ….. brain.

So, let’s make it official: Ted Cruz is a loser.

He dropped out of the Republican presidential race tonight in the wake of a humiliating defeat in Indiana. Actually, the wake had hardly started when Cruz announced he is a loser (in so many words) and will no longer be a candidate.

That leaves John Kasich as the sole remaining opponent for Trump. I expect there will be a cry from the GOP establishment for him to pull out, though my feeling is that Kasich is likely to slog on even without money or hope. Much as Bernie Sanders plods along without even the remote prospect of derailing Hillary Clinton.

It’s likely you’ll see Clinton putting Bernie in the rear-view mirror as she pivots to the general election concerns. And it’s almost certain you’ll see Republicans
scrambling to make sense out of what has happened to the party. I think there’s a good chance the GOP will fracture. It’s hard to see many in the establishment agreeing to back Trump with money and enthusiasm. And I’ll bet there are many hedging their bets to focus on what will be done after Trump loses and the party falls apart.

Fun times ahead…..

So, enough about the Republicans for a moment. Let’s look at a couple of other matters, starting with the only organization that may rival Ted Cruz for being despised intensely. I’m talking, of course, about the airlines.

Recently JetBlue publicly hailed itself for major renovations in its cabins including better wifi, new seats, attractive colors, etc. It all sounds great. Except for the fat that what the airline didn’t announce was the addition of more seats in its planes and the resulting takeaways in space for passengers. JetBlue upped the number of seats ton 162 from 150, which apparently means everyone loses two inches of room.

Now, JetBlue only reluctantly admits this, asserting that it still offers more room than other airlines. And for the most part that is accurate. But it’s all relative, and the bottom line is that every airline is cheating on it space for passengers (at least the ones who fly coach). There is no airline that offers living space for coach travelers. Not one.

And then there’s this: JetBlue has begun charging a fee for a first checked bag. that’s not very friendly, either.

Still, sometimes you have to fly, and you try to make the best of it. We managed a first class domestic flight on American Airlines recently, and much to our surprise the seat was actually spacious, recalling what first class used to be like. And American served a pretty darned good meal in first class as well, even though the flight was just three hours. (Hear that, Delta?)

And finally, a travel writer for the Boston newspaper wrote about a cruise along the Canadian Maritime provinces, observing how wonderful it was the see lovely, interesting cities and get to really know other places without having to put up with lots of traffic.

Really? You get to know other places with 6-hour shore excursions? And hey, there really isn’t a lot of traffic in the Maritimes. And if you drive there and spend a few days, you might actually have a chance to get to know the place a bit. Not a lot; just a bit. But a bit longer than hopping off and on your luxury cruise ship allows you.

Ah, well, any more and this will get to sound like a rant.

Breaking news: Ted Cruz announced that if he gets the Republican presidential nomination, he will select Carly Fiorina as his running mate.

As if we needed another reason to vote against Cruz.

Incredibly, this sleazy, unprincipled loser managed to connect with an even bigger loser in Fiorina, who got out of the race earlier this year after discovering — to the surprise of only her campaign staff, apparently — that hardly anyone wanted to vote for her and even fewer liked her.

On the campaign trail, Fiorina showed herself to be an obnoxious, condescending person who could boast of little experience in government, little knowledge of it and when she was involved with politics, she was a loser. In so many words, a perfect fit for someone like Ted Cruz.

If anything was needed to shove Donald Trump over the top, this ought to do it. Thanks, Ted.

I had been hoping for Rick Santorum.

So Ted Cruz and John Kasich struck a deal. And just when you thought the manipulation and cynicism of politicians couldn’t get any worse. This one is pretty rank, and it is already falling apart.

In their effort to deny the lazy, tiny-hands bigot Donald Trump the party’s presidential nomination, the two connived to basically take one or the other out of three upcoming primaries. Their thought was that facing opposition one-on-one and not one-on-two, Trump would have less of a chance of winning. Which could conceivably be true –on Mars.

This ignores the mockery involved in telling voters, basically, “don’t vote for me, vote for one of my opponents so Trump doesn’t win.” If you were one of those voters, how would you react? If you are a Kasich supporter, you surely would find Ted Cruz as repellant as most everyone else does and would have no thought of voting for him. Similarly, if you are so deluded as to vote for Cruz, Kasich probably seems something of a party wimp. Which maybe he is.

Anyhow, these two politicians cooked up a pretty shabby arrangement. Not unexpectedly, it took less than 24 hours for it to begin to collapse since neither man actually wanted to tell his supporters to vote for the other guy. And their respective PACs didn’t think much of it either. That really matters. And so, it’s doomed, a failure.

What remains is this: a very shabby plan by two insiders to thwart Trump that is backfiring and exposing them ever more clearly as simply selfish, manipulative, presidential wannabes. They are no more deserving of a major party nomination than lyin’ Donald.”

The whole situation stinks.

But before going, it’s worth remembering what the last week brought us: reassurances from Trump’s campaign handlers that most of what the small-minded candidate has been saying is all part of an act, just entertainment for his admirers. That thing about the wall? Not for real. Waterboard torture? Just a joke.

How does that make people who voted for him feel, I wonder? Maybe cheated? Maybe lied to? Maybe treated as patsies? Maybe laughed at?

There is a joke involved here. And it’s no what Trump says. No, it’s Trump himself.

A few quick thoughts about the menace to America, Donald J. Trump.

Whatever bad is said of him — and most of it he has richly earned — I’ll give him this: he is not stupid. But what he is is a person who is intellectually lazy, lacks intelligence, is a poor businessman, and suffers a debilitating egotism.

Yes, of course he has a degree from he Wharton School of Business, but if you think a college degree is indicative of intelligence, please allow me to introduce you to some of my Ph.D friends. No, Donald Trump lacks intelligence because he lacks curiosity, and he lacks that because he is intellectually lazy, and he’s lazy because his egotism tells him he is all he needs.

It is a unforgiving cycle of ineptitude made worse by Trump’s overt racism and sexism and his facility at merging lies with altered truths.

And no, it doesn’t make Trump the worst person on the planet — there are plenty of others in line ahead of him — but as a potential President of the United States, it places him in a unique role to inflict enormous damage to hundreds of millions of people. That’s scary.

Just think about it.