WHAT THEY’RE SAYING--It’s true.

If it wasn’t, he wouldn’t.

Now, I know what half of you (or 53.9% of you, to be precise) are saying, “Not the president I deserve!”

Au contrair mon frère!

Apologies for the French, but I write this as I am flying over France on my way from London to Barcelona, after a quick trip to Rome.

Three European cities in three different countries in six days on a business trip that often turned into something quite unique.

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING--Right off the bat, I must disclose my perspective: I am a lifelong liberal Democrat who was an early and enthusiastic supporter of Elizabeth Warren’s. I am very concerned about income inequality and the influence of money in politics. I would really like to see a woman lead the Democratic ticket, and I think we need a person of color either at the top of the ticket or as the running mate. Although I favor gun control, it is far from the top issue I care about.

Based on the above, you can see that I am no Bloomberg fanboy. He is not a dedicated partisan, as I am. His commitment to economic equality is not at the level of Warren or Sanders. He is an older, white male. He is trying to buy the nomination. The issue he appears to be most passionate about is gun control.

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING--Why some people still believe that the president of the United States of White Nationalism is still a salvageable piece of roadkill is beyond me. But some reporter found it in himself to ask the president of people who hate seasoning if he’d learned anything from his impeachment acquittal, and the first used colostomy bag to cheat his way into office offered this sound bite:

“The Democrats are crooked,” he said. “They got a lot of crooked things going. That they’re vicious. That they shouldn’t have brought impeachment,” CNN reports.

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING--One of the clearest ways to see America’s collapse is through the lens of its eerie mirror image: the Soviet Union.

 The similarities, by now — ideology, a collapsed middle, masses living in shortages of basic goods, elites too arrogant and clueless to understand, much less care — should be striking to any thoughtful person. And those resonances lead me to ask a tiny question: is Bernie America’s Gorbachev?

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING--I don’t know a lot about white history.

I also don’t know much about green bean casserole, Creedence Clearwater Revival or shampoo-and-conditioner-in-one. I am, however, familiar with seasoned salt, the nuances of Blue Magic vs. Dax vs. Pink Oil Lotion, and the musical stylings of Frankie Beverly and Maze.

And, unlike many of my educated white counterparts, I know a lot about American history.

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING--Donald Trump once made fun of a journalist for having a “t****y dad,” according to a new book co-authored by two Daily Beast journalists.

Lachlan Markay and Asawin Suebsaeng’s new book, Sinking in the Swamp: How Trump’s Minions and Misfits Poisoned Washington, bills itself as an “eyewitness account” of how the Trump administration brought an “unprecedented awfulness” to Washington in the form of “charlatans, conspiracy theorists, ideologues, and run-of-the-mill con artists” who were given powerful political jobs.