Maybe they can ship them to Boulder – or, heck, Martha's Vineyard

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Migrants Return to Vineyard for Heartfelt Reunion

Illegal immigrant healthcare costs in blue state triggers intense budget debate

Gov Gavin Newsom proposes $100 monthly premium for immigrants, while some Democrats suggest tax hikes

I’m betting the “solution” will be the the tax hike on legal, tax-paying constituents so that the selfish brutes can “pay their fair share”.

The [completely powerless in this one-party state] Republican minority leaders in California are responding to potential next steps for the highly scrutinized Medi-Cal program, which is insolvent, as some believe the ability for people to enroll "regardless of their immigration status" is a leading cause. 

The state faces a $12 billion budget shortfall as budget talks continue in Sacramento.

The Medi-Cal program went insolvent earlier this year after it went billions over budget, resulting in $3.44 billion in loan requests to salvage the program, which covers low-income Golden State residents. Republicans said it was in large part due to illegal immigrants being allowed to enroll in the program, and Newsom also said that it was part of the spending issue, but not the whole picture.

"That’s going to continue to be a big debate here in California as we're wrestling with a $12 billion dollar deficit and the cost of providing free healthcare to illegal immigrants is $11.4 billion dollars, so if we just didn't do that, that would eliminate our budget deficit," California State Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones said. "Now, there's lots of other ways we can find $12 billion dollars to eliminate the deficit as well."

Newsom’s May budget revision proposes a pause for adults 19 and older from enrolling in "full-scope coverage" and to start charging a $100 premium each month "for individuals with certain statuses," Fox News Digital reported earlier this month. 

"To be very clear, these proposals are the results of a $16 billion Trump Slump and higher-than-expected health care utilization. Because of these outside factors, the state must take difficult but necessary steps to ensure fiscal stability and preserve the long-term viability of Medi-Cal for all Californians," Elana Ross, deputy communications director for Newsom's office, told Fox News Digital in a statement.

[We interrupt her lying to bring you this this important news on the media-created and touted “Trump Slump” — Ed]

May 27, 2025, PowerLine: The May consumer confidence numbers came in today, and they are awesome:

The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index leaped to 98.0, a 12.3-point increase from April and much better than the Dow Jones consensus estimate for 86.0.
***
The present situation index increased to 135.9, up 4.8 points, and the expectations index posted a major surge to 72.8, a 17.4-point gain. Investors also showed more optimism, with 44% now expecting stocks to be higher over the next 12 months, up 6.4 percentage points from April.

Views on the labor market also improved, with 19.2% of respondents expecting more jobs to be available in the next six months, compared with 13.9% in April.

(We now return you to your regularly-scheduled duplicity diet)

The proposal from the Newsom administration sparked criticism among some in the legislature, as the Democratic California Legislative Latino Caucus is suggesting a tax hike to pay for the program’s coverage for illegal immigrants, according to KCRA.

Meanwhile, Assembly Minority Leader James Gallagher told Fox News Digital in an interview that the budget shortfall is "a total disaster" that "was completely predictable."

"You know, two years ago, Gavin Newsom and the supermajority Democrats decided to fund illegal immigrant healthcare through our Medi-Cal program. And everybody said it's gonna be billions of dollars. It's not sustainable. And at the time, Biden was president, and people were coming across the border, millions of people. We had no idea. And I think a lot of them came to California and signed up. And so now we have a completely unsustainable, bankrupted Medi-Cal system that's required $3.4 billion worth of loans to prop up."

On a federal level, the pending reconciliation bill that recently passed the House of Representatives could also create issues for the state’s Medi-Cal offerings, as it would change the federal "match" from 90% to 80% for care that is not an emergency, which the Newsom administration says could cost the state billions, The Center Square reported.

"If Republicans move this extreme MAGA proposal forward, millions will lose coverage, hospitals will close, and safety nets could collapse under the weight," Newsom stated last week.

This “radical” reform is to stop things like this:

How could this have happened? Orange Man, of course.

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“There can be no other explanation”

Denver mayor points finger at Trump after $250M shortfall brings hiring freezes, furloughs

The city and county of Denver plans on hiring freezes and furloughs as it projects $250 million in revenue shortfalls over the next couple years.

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, a Democrat, laid some of the blame on the Trump administration for the municipality's budget woes in a fiscal update given on Thursday.

“The economic downturn and volatility brought on by President Trump is a major challenge facing Denver,” Johnston said in a written statement. “This uncertainty, coupled with declining revenues and significant growth in the cost of city government over the past decade, require us to immediately address the city’s structural budget deficit while protecting essential services and positioning Denver for economic growth in 2026 and beyond.”

The city projects a $50 million revenue gap for the remainder of this year and a $200 million shortfall in 2026.

Well, there might be another explanation; two of them, in fact, and they’re related:

Spending:

Johnston explained the growth of city government is “unsustainable,” nearly doubling in size over the last 12 years while costs have increased 83% and revenue has grown by 75%, leaving an 8% difference.

Inviting in the migrants:

Denver's sanctuary city status has resulted in significant costs to taxpayers. Estimates for the City of Denver's spending on migrant response goods and services have ranged from $70 million to $90 million through 2024. This includes spending on housing, medical care, and other services for migrants. Additionally, area schools and hospitals have incurred costs for resources, instruction, and care, with the latter estimated to be around $228 million, according to the Common Sense Institute. 

  • Direct City Costs:

    The City of Denver has estimated spending on migrant response to be around $70 million, with a projected $90 million through 2024.

  • Funding Sources:

    The city has utilized federal funding, city grant programs, and cuts to city budget items to cover these costs.

  • Impact on Public Safety Budgets:

    To fund the response, Denver City Council faced budget cuts, including reductions in public safety agencies like the Denver Police Department and Fire Department,

  • Area School and Hospital Costs:

    Schools and hospitals have incurred significant costs for resources, instruction, and care, with the latter estimated at $228 million,

  • Migrant Population:

    The city has counted 45,000 total arrivals from December 1, 2022, to date, with half estimated to have remained in the Denver metro area.

  • NY Post, December 1, 2024: Sanctuary city Denver has spent almost $8,000 for each of the 45,000 migrants that have come to the city — and now the mayor says he’ll risk jail to stop them being deported

The bill so far for Denver’s sanctuary city policies: $356 million in taxpayer dollars — about $7,900 per migrant, a new study estimates — and the city’s mayor said he would rather go to jail than let any of them be deported.

The Mile-High City has shelled out a full 8% of its 2025 budget caring for the roughly 45,000 migrants who have arrived since 2022, according to an updated report by the Common Sense Institute (CSI).

In addition to funding hotels, transportation and childcare, Denver has dropped $49 million for migrant healthcare and a staggering $256 million into education for more than 16,000 migrant children enrolled in local schools.

As the city bleeds cash, doctors have said hospitals are at a breaking point and cops are struggling to contain a gang crime wave, yet Democratic Denver Mayor Mike Johnston told 9News he would rather face jail than cooperate with Donald Trump’s mass-deportation plan.

Of course, it’s not just Denver, the entire state of Colorado is suffering under Trump — Trump, and “bad luck”

Coloradoan Stephen Green, PJ Media:

'F' Is for Democrat: Colorado’s Collapse Under One-Party Rule

Colorado's economic report card is in, and my beloved home state — formerly a solid A and B student — just flunked every subject. 

Once upon a time, Colorado was a devilishly weird purple state — home to moderate-to-conservative Republicans like Ben Nighthorse Campbell and Tom Tancredo, idiosyncratic Democrats like Gary Hart and Richard Lamm, and (outside the Denver-Boulder Axis) a healthy libertarian streak.

It was such a swirl that one of those famous Republicans, Campbell, was originally a Democrat.

That all began to change around 2008 when my purple state went deep blue for Barack Obama. By 2018, the hope'n'change was locked in. The last Republican to win statewide office was in 2016, when Heidi Ganahl was elected to the University of Colorado Board of Regents. The last Republican to win a Senate seat was Cory Gardner in 2014, and he served but a single term. 

Colorado's Democrats are no longer hard to pin down. The party is increasingly dominated by the hard left, and the party has dominated the general assembly going back to 2018. Today, Dems hold both chambers by a two-to-one margin. Whatever they want, they get.

How's that workin' out for us?

Before we went Full Indigo, Colorado was pretty well run. This is my state — or was, using figures from before 2018:

  • Third in the nation for personal income growth.

  • A regulatory burden in the lower half of all states.

  • Tied for second-lowest unemployment in 2017 at 2.7% — and that wasn’t unusual.

  • Job growth of 2.4% in 2017 — typical for a state that was regularly in the top ten.

  • A top-10 destination for people moving in from other states.

Colorado wasn't perfect, but we punched above our weight economically and in sheer beauty. Just 11 years old, I fell in love with Colorado's beauty at first sight. I didn't know anything about economics, but I knew then I'd make this place my home — which I did at 25, three decades ago.

And this is my state on Democrats, all taken from the 2024 report card just published by the Denver Gazette:

  • 39th in the nation for personal income growth.

  • Sixth worst regulatory burden in the nation.

  • In March, we had the second-highest unemployment rate (not an atypical month).

  • Job-growth rate of 0.17% (March 2024-March 2025), 43rd in the nation.

  • A bottom-10 destination for people moving in from other states.

One last note, directly from the Gazette: "Beginning with Senate Bill-181 (2019), Colorado has obstructed energy production — a major Colorado export — at an expense of the state’s economy and high-wage blue-collar jobs." The paper added, "In all, multiple new regulations since 2018 have Colorado producing less oil and gas in 2025 than in 2019, as the country’s production has increased."

And across nearly every other metric — schools, housing, homelessness, crime, addiction, even abortion rates — the numbers all go the wrong way.

For 45 years, I always thought I'd die in Colorado. Now, like so many others, I'm dying to get out.

Thanks, Dems. 

The trouble with affirmative action is that when a black man acts this stupidly, some people may think that he got through Princeton and Harvard Law on the basis of his skin color and not his brains

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And that’s so not true, of course.

The Illegal Alien Party: Maryland Dem Flies to El Salvador Claiming He ‘Represents’ Kilmar Abrego Garcia

Democratic Rep. Glenn Ivey FURIOUS after being TURNED AWAY from trying to meet Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador.

"I'm the Congressman that represents Kilmar. I came all the way down from the United States...and now they're telling us we got to go all the way back to San Salvador to get a permit. That's ridiculous!"

"We ought to have a chance to come in and visit. They knew we were coming. They knew why we were coming. And they know we have the right to do this. So they need to just cut the crap."

"Let us get in there and have a chance to see him and talk with him. You got his lawyer here. You got somebody from the unions here. Talk with them. Let us in. Stop playing games. Let us have a chance to talk with."

(It’s a minor point, but what union, precisely, does Mr. Garcia belong to that called for a union representative to fly at taxpayers’ expense to El Salvador. Asking for a friend.)

Revealing, yes; embarrassing? That would require self-awareness. Donor class holds canape summit to address its lack of appeal to working men

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”More ads on video games — yes, that’s exactly the ticket!”

Top Democratic operatives and donors have been hobnobbing in “luxury hotels” while trying to figure out why the party is shedding men and the working class — moves that have liberals have slammed as out of touch. 

In one instance, liberal super PAC Future Forward hosted a gathering in the Ritz-Carlton resort in wealthy Half Moon Bay, California, to apprise donors on what went wrong in 2024. Prominent figures such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) were reported in attendance.

Some of the elite gatherings featured appetizers like short-rib tostones, mini lobster rolls, beef tenderloin and other expensive hors d’oeuvres, according to reporting from the New York Times. 

Among the strategy discussions was a $20 million effort codenamed SAM, “Speaking with American Men: A Strategic Plan,” which is working toward stemming Democrats’ hemorrhaging of young men.

Some of its recommendations include purchasing more ads on video games and changing the party’s language towards men. SAM really underscored the need for Democrats to stop having such a “moralizing tone” toward men, according to the report.

UPDATE:

I can't imagine anything that would please me more, or residents who deserve this more; gooder and harder, please

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I’d have thought the Episcopal flag alone would suffice to signal their virtue, but, belts, suspenders and all that ….

What better neighborhood in which to demonstrate the merits of the liberal agenda than the West Village?

West Village residents blast church’s plans to build mission for junkies, vagrants: ‘We’re losing the Village’

West Villagers are up in arms over a church’s plan to build a new $11 million mission at a historic NYC street corner, arguing it would lure even more junkies and vagrants to the already besieged area.

The Church of St. Luke in the Field’s plans to erect a 4,400-square-foot building on the iconic corner of Christopher and Hudson streets — on the same block as a swanky school — complete with Narcan kits and free meals, to serve up to 300 hobos and drug addicts.

Some fear the mission will devolve into a shooting gallery for junkies in broad daylight.

“There is absolutely no way to justify a safe injection site within blocks of three schools,” raged West Village resident Kathleen Walters.

Not only is there a school on the church’s grounds — St Luke’s elementary and middle school — but there are two other schools around the corner — PS3 Charrette school across the street on Hudson and the West Village Community School one block away.

And that’s got parents fuming.

“What’s been frustrating is that multiple parent groups and neighbors have tried to open a dialogue with the church about safety, scale, and transparency — especially given the proximity to several schools —and those efforts have been met with silence,” said Cameron Neilson.

Crime in the West Village skyrocketed 80% in 2022, continuing to climb through 2024, when major felonies surged to 1,789, up 16% from 2019. Residents have since begged for more cops from the 6th Precinct to patrol the streets.

The church plans to have Narcan — used to reverse opioid overdoses — readily available for potential overdoses, train staff on dealing with addicts and give out free lunches.

It currently serves about 40 people a week, most of them vagrants and junkies.

“It would greatly enhance our service to these weekday guests if there was a dedicated outreach space with a direct street-level entrance and space to wait beyond the stoop,” rector Mother Caroline Stacey said in a letter to parishioners

“Could this statement serve as an invitation to ‘weekday guests,’ when schools are in session, to shoot up near St. Luke in the Fields because along with Narcan, the church states elsewhere in the letter that it also provides ‘a sandwich, two snacks, bottled water along with some food for later and often individualized clothing …?’ ” concerned neighbors said in the petition.

The planned space could potentially hold up to 300 people.

Vanessa Warren, president of the Washington Place Block Association, said the mission helps create an environment that “welcomes addicts.”

“To help addicts, you don’t provide an abundance of resources that make it easy for them to continue using. However, the point of St. Luke’s new mission is exactly that.”

She continued: “The village is going to become an enclave of enablers if we don’t stop confusing compassion with enabling. Anyone who has real experience with friends or family in active drug addiction knows that this is the absolute opposite way to behave, it is alien to common sense.”

For decades, West Villagers have provided money and support to the very people who espouse these policies; and the true cost of what they’ve demanded is now coming home. Sniff.

Too late smart, too soon stupid.

You can blame Trump

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The Democrats' Anti-Electoral College Scheme May Be Imploding

The liberal dream of circumventing the Electoral College might be crumbling faster than anyone expected. Maine, one of the 17 states that joined the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, is now poised to become the first state to exit the agreement—and it's sending shockwaves through the left-wing coalition that thought they'd found a clever workaround to the Constitution.

Just last year, Maine opted to join the compact, which would award all participating states' electoral votes to whoever wins the national popular vote. 

But now the state is having serious second thoughts.

The Maine House passed a bipartisan bill on Tuesday to withdraw from the compact, and it's headed to the state Senate.

Let’s be honest—this reversal is no coincidence. The National Popular Vote compact has always had a partisan flavor, pushed hardest by Democrats who’ve long been frustrated by Electoral College outcomes they don’t like. The 2000 election was clearly a factor, and Trump’s 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton only supercharged the movement. Liberal states such as California and New York signed on, bringing the total to 209 electoral votes—still 61 short of the 270 needed to activate the compact.

Flashback: The Case Against the National Popular Vote Compact

….

Maine's experience perfectly illustrates why the compact was always a bad idea [for both parties— Ed]. The state joined when Democrats figured Trump could never win the popular vote again. But Trump's decisive popular vote victory in 2024 changed everything. Had the compact been in effect with current members, Trump would have carried a whopping 520 electoral votes, instead of the 312 he actually won.

The irony is delicious. Democrats pushed this compact because they thought it would permanently benefit their party’s candidates.

"We were the first state in the nation to split our Electoral College votes by congressional district—a system that reflects our political diversity and values, every voice, whether rural or urban," said Maine state Rep. Barbara Bagshaw, who sponsored the withdrawal bill. "By joining the National Popular Vote Compact, we have undermined that."

Bagshaw's got a point. Maine and Nebraska are the only two states that split their electoral votes by congressional district rather than winner-take-all. This system actually gives rural and urban voters meaningful representation—something the popular vote compact would completely destroy.

Talk about buyer's remorse.

Now that Trump has proven he can win both the Electoral College and the popular vote, blue states are scrambling for the exits. Make no mistake about it—if Maine successfully withdraws, other states may follow. The compact was built on the false premise that Republicans couldn't win the national popular vote, and Trump just shattered that illusion completely.

Is this the beginning of the end of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact? 

They've banned lots of chemicals on data far more tenuous than this: COVID vaccines and population control. "That's not a bug, it's a feature!" Bill Gates

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Extrapolating effects on humans from experiments with rats, even when using human-equivalent doses, is not a sure thing — what’s toxic to a rat may not be toxic to humans, and vice versa — but it’s certainly evidence that should be considered, not, as our COVID masters did, ignored.

COVID Vaccines Reduce Fertility Significantly

David Strom:

“According to a peer-reviewed study published in Vaccines, mRNA COVID vaccines destroy 60% of female ovum supplies, which are non-renewable. 

“Granted, the studies were conducted in lab rats given human-equivalent doses of the vaccines, so the effects in human beings may be different, but this sure blows a hole in the claims that the COVID vaccines posed no risks to women's fertility. 

“The claims made by all those "experts" were made with absolutely no scientific evidence to back them up, and the evidence to the contrary is now overwhelming.”

Our findings suggest that both mRNA and inactivated COVID-19 vaccines may detrimentally impact ovarian reserve in rats, primarily through accelerated follicular loss and alterations in apoptotic pathways during folliculogenesis. Given these observations in a rat model, further investigations into the vaccines’ effects on human ovarian reserve are needed.

“It has long been known that women who were administered the COVID-19 vaccines suffered from menstrual changes--this effect was noticed early on and is now well-established--so it shouldn't be shocking that the vaccines had a detrimental impact on fertility itself. 

“Despite this fact, public health officials went on a campaign to reassure women that there was no danger at all to their fertility and that any suggestion that there might be was misinformation--misinformation that was, of course, censored for quite a while. 

“Oops. 

“Here’s what the study found in simple terms:”

Severe Destruction of Ovarian Reserve

  • Rats injected intramuscularly with a Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 mRNA vaccine — at a human-equivalent dose — experienced a >60% reduction in primordial follicles, the foundational egg supply for future fertility (p < 0.001).

  • The inactivated vaccine (CoronaVac) also caused loss, but to a lesser extent.

  • The primordial follicle pool is finite and non-regenerating — females are born with all the eggs they will ever have.

  • Destruction of this pool is irreversible, leading to permanent fertility loss if translated to humans.

  • AMH, a hormone reflecting ovarian reserve, dropped significantly in the mRNA group — both in serum and in ovarian tissue (p < 0.001).

  • Lower AMH is associated with poor fertility outcomes and earlier menopause.

  • Increased expression of caspase-3 (a cell-death enzyme) and inflammatory markers like TGF-β1 and VEGF were found in vaccinated rats.

  • These biomarkers are linked to ovarian atresia, fibrosis, and long-term tissue damage.

  • Compared to the inactivated vaccine, the mRNA group had:

  • Fewer growing follicles (primary, secondary, antral, preovulatory)

  • More dying follicles (atretic)

  • Greater reductions in hormone markers of fertility

Strom:

“It can't be repeated enough that the claims that the vaccine wouldn't impact fertility were entirely unfounded by even the most cursory scientific study. No evidence at all. 

“Yet public health officials performed a full-court press to gaslight people into believing that they were "following the science," even though no science had been done, nor could it have been in the short period of time between the creation of the vaccine and its wide-scale distribution. 

“Worse, since the mRNA vaccines were fundamentally different in kind from prior vaccines, it wasn't even possible to extrapolate from prior experience to make a decent guess whether there was a danger. mRNA technology isn't remotely similar to traditional vaccines. 

I”f these findings indeed apply to humans, the implications for global fertility rates are profound. This kind of damage — to a woman’s lifelong egg supply — is biologically irreversible.

“Unfortunately, a recent study by Manniche et al indicates that these ovarian reserve destruction findings likely DO translate to humans. Among ~1.3 million Czech women aged 18–39, those vaccinated against COVID-19 had ~33% fewer successful pregnancies compared to unvaccinated women:

“While I doubt that any of the people pushing these vaccines knew that they would cause a loss in fertility--there was no data to go on or, as far as I know, a reason to predict that this would happen--we do have reason to believe that it wouldn't be seen as a tragedy by many of them. They are, as a class, if not all individually, in favor of reducing the population. This may explain their indifference to the possibility. 

“Or it could just be groupthink and excessive zeal. 

“Whatever the case, almost no childbearing age women were at risk from COVID itself, so there was no urgency to get the vaccine out to this cohort. By any reasonable cost/benefit calculation, it was a terrible idea. 

“One could even say a crime against humanity.”

RELATED:

Senate Report Alleges that Biden Officials Downplayed Covid Vaccine Myocarditis Risks

I inadvertently buried the lede: read this article that summarizes that Senate hearing. Devastating.

Little Rocket Man announces massive new hiring plan for North Korea's shipbuilding industry as hundreds of top positions are suddenly vacated

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t’wasn’t meant to be

We knew this was coming when news of the mishap hit the airwaves Thursday:

Kim Jong Un left fuming after North Korea's new destroyer damaged in failed launch

North Korean dictator Kim Jung Un was left fuming this week when he attended the botched launch of a new 5,000-ton naval destroyer.

The launch, at the northeastern port of Chongjin, was intended to tout the communist nation’s military advancement, but ended in embarrassment for Kim after the ship slid off a ramp and became stuck, state media reported.

The flatcar failed to move alongside the ship, throwing it off balance and crushing parts of the ship’s bottom, North Korean news agency KCNA reported. Its stern slid down the launch slipway, while its bow section failed to leave the ramp.

The total extent of the damage was unclear and it isn’t known if there were any injuries.

North Korea did not release photos from the scene, although satellite imagery released by South Korea on Thursday indicated that the ship was lying on its side in the water after the failed launch.

According to KCNA, Kim, who was present at the ceremony on Wednesday, blamed military officials, scientists and shipyard operators for a "serious accident and criminal act caused by absolute carelessness, irresponsibility and unscientific empiricism." 

Kim warned that the errors caused by the "irresponsibility of the relevant officials" would need to be investigated at a ruling Workers’ Party meeting slated for late June.

…. Moon Keun-sik, a navy expert who teaches at Seoul’s Hanyang University … suspected that the incident likely happened because North Korean workers aren't yet familiar with such a large warship and had been rushed to put it in the water.

It was the second naval destroyer the secretive nation launched in a month after Kim attended the successful launch of another 5,000-ton destroyer from Nampo, a port on the west coast of North Korea. Kim later watched missiles fired from the ship, with experts saying that it appeared to have been built with Russian technology.

A report by the North Korea-focused 38 North website assessed last week that the destroyer in Chongjin was being prepared to be launched sideways from the quay, a method that has rarely been used in North Korea. The report said the destroyer launched in Nampo, in contrast, used a floating dry dock.

And sure enough: all you young, ambitious Hermit Kingdom engineers and dockyard workers, put down your slide rules, put aside your lunch boxes, and start polishing your resumes.

North Korea vows to arrest those responsible for failed ship launch

North Korea has begun steps to arrest and investigate those responsible for a failed launch of its second naval destroyer this week

It’s a good bet that everyone involved, however peripherally, with this fiasco will not live to regret it.