A new open thread is long overdue. I'm about to start a long conference call for work, but I'll be back over the weekend.

Donald Trump in the Middle East: It's like he won the jackpot of the highest paying slot machine in Vegas. With the Saudis backing Jared to the tune of a few billion; Jared's lavish construction project of luxury homes on an Albanian island (with the route to the permits and endorsement by the Albanian prime minister (or President, whichever he is) probably paved over by Richard Grennell, a current or former partner in Jared's Affinity Partners, who is now one of Trump's special envoys in the Middle East; Tiffany's billionaire Lebanese father-in-law who went all out for Trump in Michigan; Israel apparently not telling Trump he and Jared won't be the ones to get the contract to rebuild Gaza, turning it into the Riviera of the Middle East; Eric traveling to the Middle East to announce a new office tower being built there that will bear Trump's name (for an undisclosed sum) -- Trump will be a much wealthier person when he leaves office than when he came in. Even if he ends up leaving like Nixon in disgrace, he will just say he couldn't care less, he'll be laughing all the way to the bank.

He will also be leaving us without a work force to do necessary jobs Americans think are beneath them because of his absurd deportation priorities.

Democracy? Been there, done that, he'll say. Time to let the oligarchs and billionaires running the largest corporations in the world take over.

That's how I see the state of our union. Time for my call. I'll add some source links when I return.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.