Ladies and gentlemen, just one nugget of news this week, and it’s only Tuesday:
Secretary of State Marco Rubio will participate in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signing ceremony at the U.S. Department of State with Dana White, President and CEO of UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) on Thursday, June 11, at 2:00 p.m. ET.
The MOU signing will mark a new public-private partnership to enhance sports diplomacy initiatives and collaborate on the global growth of mixed martial arts. Additional details will be announced following the ceremony.
Before you wipe the spit-take off your screen, as a seasoned reader, and sometimes writer, of press releases, I draw your attention to the phrase “memorandum of understanding.” What is that? About what it sounds like — nothing much. You reach a memo of understanding before you sign a contract. It’s kinda like going steady, maybe. It’s more formal than blowing kisses across the room, but it’s not binding, either. It’s a memorandum. It’s an understanding. You’re going steady, not engaged.
Also note: “Sports diplomacy.” What the fuck is that? At a time when NFL teams routinely hold exhibition games in Europe, when basketball is an Olympic sport, does this add mixed martial arts, i.e. televised felonious assault, to the mix? I don’t know.
Here’s what I do know: Marco Rubio is trying to end one war and start another, and should not have time for this nonsense, but as usual, something else is probably going on, and it involves filling the president’s pockets.
Dana White is a close friend of the president, this we know. MMA fighters come from all over the world, but notably from places like Chechnya and Belarus, former Soviet republics. We saw Chechen boxers when we went to a Claressa Shields fight in Detroit a few years ago, and about 60 seconds of thought told me why — like American ghettos, they’re the kind of places anyone with half a brain would risk great bodily harm to escape. And do. Chechens are also big players in the Russian mob.
So my guess is this involves kickbacks from White to Trump, and Vladimir Putin is probably involved too, somehow. The UFC just signed something like an $8 billion-with-a-b contract with some streaming channel, so there’s a LOT of money floating around it, and surely Tubby wants his taste. I’m reminded of something I read online this morning, looking at overhead photos of the White House then and now: It’s like a meth family moved in.
And it’s only Tuesday. What more joys will the week bring? I ask you.
We’re having a thunderstorm at the moment, which is the opening act for temperatures in the 90s for a few days. Nancy Mace has conceded in the GOP gubernatorial primary in South Carolina, and a Republican has won the second spot in the California governor’s race. RIGGED. RIGGED.
Happy Wednesday. May we all survive it.
Mark P said on June 10, 2026 at 12:10 am
We are witnessing first-hand a true miracle. The United States has transformed from a democratic republic to a clepto/ kaki/plutocracy in the Russian model in the gestation period of an elephant. I think the main conclusion we can draw from this is that it has been here all along, hidden beneath a very thin veneer of civilization. We are not and have never been what we thought, or pretended we were. All of America is a stage, and we are the stooges who believed it was real.
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David C said on June 10, 2026 at 5:58 am
Making it a pain for anyone to come to the US for the World Cup is what Trump style SPORTS DIPLOMACY! really looks like. How’d your Peace Prize work out FIFA?
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Jeff Borden said on June 10, 2026 at 9:07 am
By all accounts, the World Cup is shaping up to be a fiasco. The best soccer referee in Africa is from Somalia. He had a visa and all the paper work. U.S. Customs sent him home. Two teams have been subjected to body cavity searches. The expected financial bounty for host cities won’t come close to expectations.
Mark P. is correct the U.S. has never been the place we imagined it to be, but everything is so much worse now and trending ever downward. Our country is very I’ll and the prognosis is still unknown.
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Deborah said on June 10, 2026 at 10:03 am
White trash White House.
My husband is extremely worried that the country is headed for a catastrophic implosion of some kind. Not necessarily a civil war, he has no idea what form it will take. He turned 79 on the 1st, he just hopes he’s dead before it happens. For him, that’s astounding, he’s level headed and slow to hyperbole. I’m the one who rants and raves about the condition of the country.
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Julie Robinson said on June 10, 2026 at 12:13 pm
Remember when Zelinsky was an affront to the dignity of the White House by not wearing a suit? But wrestling is klassy, I guess?
We’re headed to a World Cup site, Kansas City, for the wedding this weekend, so I’ll report back. We were reviewing clothes this morning and it turns out the suit D was going to wear doesn’t fit anymore, whoops. His backup was zippable, if not as dressy. Except at our son’s wedding and a brother’s funeral, he hasn’t worn a suit since he retired six years ago. Dressing up in Orlando is a nice shirt and pants. No one wears ties.
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David C said on June 10, 2026 at 1:53 pm
Isn’t it strange how clothes shrink just hanging in the closet?
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Deborah said on June 10, 2026 at 3:36 pm
David C, you had me chuckling. I went up two sizes in jeans, all in the waist. I hate buying jeans because they’re all wide leg now and I’m not crazy about that style. It looked ok in the late 60s early 70s because I was pencil thin back then, but when your middle is wider, it’s not flattering to me at all.
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Julie Robinson said on June 10, 2026 at 5:53 pm
Having just tried on a dozen pairs of jeans, I concur. I’ve lost weight but after going to four stores, I detest what’s available right now. I’ll buy tops online but pants are a trickier fit. Plus most of the denim is so heavy, I just don’t understand why anyone here would want to wear it.
The reflecting pool looks much like before, no?
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Jeff Gill said on June 11, 2026 at 10:01 pm
Red cards are flying at the World Cup, if not in the Strait of Hormuz…
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Ann said on June 11, 2026 at 10:14 pm
Did you see the latest obscenity. Comparing this to Kennedy saying we’ll put man on the moon. https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/11/politics/rubio-ufc-dana-white-moon
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alex said on June 11, 2026 at 10:46 pm
I’d say that’s pretty consistent with Trump comparing himself to Abraham Lincoln and Jesus. Remember, Little Marco is auditioning for the top spot. He still has some pretty big shoes to fill, and he ain’t got no cankles.
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Jeff Gill said on June 12, 2026 at 7:32 am
“There’s never been anything like it.”
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Mark P said on June 12, 2026 at 7:26 pm
Elon Musk’s paper value exceeds $1 trillion after the SpaceX IPO. If Musk’s paper wealth could be turned into the same amount of cash, you could take $900 billion dollars from him and he would still have $100 billion. Can anyone else see a problem here?
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Sherri said on June 13, 2026 at 10:33 am
Musk could have funded USAID a hundred times over, and still be worth what he was before the SpaceX IPO.
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Deborah said on June 13, 2026 at 10:06 pm
Musk’s wealth is obscene. He’s not the only one of course, but he’s the worst. It’s a bubble and it’s going to burst and we’re all going to suffer.
I think Trump is going to keep the tarps up at the Kennedy Center until he can find a court to let him put his name back up. I hope some activist tear down the tarps. Will SCOTUS let hime do that?
I guess tomorrow he turns 80 and gets a bit closer to the end of his life. Can’t come soon enough. Then what?
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Jeff Gill said on June 14, 2026 at 7:05 am
At the NYT, there’s advice from a number of celebrities about turning 80 who have already done so. Bob Dylan is first and best, but Gloria Steinem, Liza Minelli, Robert DeNiro, Art Garfunkel, and Dionne Warwick all have good thoughts to share, with the president and any of the rest of us creeping up on that mark (most of Bob’s advice is good for 65 let alone 80).
Gift link, I hope: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/14/opinion/trump-turns-80.html?unlocked_article_code=1.qFA.aitv.ludpVulf4UXI&smid=url-share
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Ann said on June 14, 2026 at 12:45 pm
Mary Schmich wrote one of her wonderful “Trumpoems” for the 80th. I hope this link takes you there. Sample verse. “To celebrate this milestone day
I’m gonna throw a party
It will not be some liberal snooze—
Not prissy, snooty, arty.
I’m gonna host a great big fight!
Out on the White House lawn
Big manly men will grunt and punch…
Hang on, I need to yawn.
https://www.facebook.com/mary.t.schmich.2025/posts/pfbid0bhKqjQYtM1Q3Tr5jj4897xJhKymZuJxKn6A5Zd68twLMemGMKiY9sx2MyAhDVNbml
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Deborah said on June 14, 2026 at 2:06 pm
I keep seeing posts on social media that today is Obama appreciation day, which I love.
Great poem link, Ann.
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Julie Robinson said on June 14, 2026 at 2:41 pm
We’ve been in a rosy little wedding bubble and the only news I’ve seen is the reclamation of the Kennedy Center’s wall, and that an IU player was part of the Knicks team.
Last night was a storm with tornadic activity. It happened right after we got back to the hotel so we even dodged that.
We saw very little evidence of the World Cup save a lonely kiosk at the airport selling swag. Games here don’t start until Tuesday.
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Jeff Gill said on June 14, 2026 at 7:41 pm
I just hope Nancy’s ticket to the UFC Freedom 250 event was under The Claw, and not just a general public admission to The Ellipse. Looks stormy here shortly on my radar view of DC.
Nice to see, in the pics of the ring, advertising on the foam pads over the cage supports for great American institutions like Bud Light & Morgan and Morgan.
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