Just as I went to write this I had a very sobering thought. Following Citizens United, billionaires shopped around looking for a puppet to install in the White House to do their bidding. After trying out a Newt Gingrich and a Rick Santorum, they seemed to settle on someone who was much like them in Mitt Romney.

This year they are shopping again with bushel baskets of money at the ready. But they are not finding quite the quality they had in 2012 (quit snickering I am trying to make a point here). Certain of the .0001% have just realized if they want someone like themselves, then why not themselves? It is sort of the ultimate outcome of Citizens United. Ladies and gentlemen, Donald Trump!

Next cycle keep an eye out for someone named Walton looking to open a store in the DC area. You heard it here first!

Were you paying attention?

1) Thursday night a gunman in Lafayette, Louisiana murdered 3 and nearly murdered 9 more during what movie?

2) One of the longest running mysteries in America began on July 30th, 1975 when who was last seen outside a restaurant in Detroit, Michigan?

3) The last bike riders should have dipped their tires in the Mississippi. What general direction does RAGBRAI always take across Iowa?

4) As the bike riders swarm Davenport that city is also celebrating native musician Bix Beiderbecke. What instrument is Beiderbecke most associated with?

5) Physicist Stephen Hawking this week announced a $100 million effort to find what?

6) Another week, another Republican runs for president. Who was it this week?

7) Whose cell phone number did Donald Trump announce on national TV?

8) The world temperatures for June are in. How does the first six months of 2015 stack up as far as heat goes?

9) Engineers have been warning about infrastructure problems in this country for decades. A bridge on I10 between what two major cities collapsed in the rain last week?

10) The Annie E. Casey Foundation said that what percentage of American children currently live in poverty?

11) A remote hack on what brand of automobiles was demonstrated last week when hackers took over control of what from 10 miles away?

12) Hackers threatened to expose customers of what web site that arranges “discreet encounters for married men?”

13) In one of the oddest stories of the week, the winner of the French Scrabble world championship was unique in that he what?

14) In Colorado an ABC television almost broadcast the first US commercial for what product until the parent company stepped in to stop it?

15) A new embassy opened for what country in Washington, DC last week?

16) And so the media flexes its muscle. Rupert Murdoch has reportedly told his Fox News executives to back off covering what politician?

17) And in California, protestors did what to try to stop the removal of trees in the Claremont Canyon in Oakland and the U of Cal campus?

18) It was a wild ride up for the stock of what online retailer Friday?

19) In a shake up at MSNBC what voice of the working man was shown the door Thursday?

20) Reaching waaaay back for a comparison, Arkansas’ goofy senator Tom Cotton compared SoS John Kerry to what biblical character?

Whoa, dude, next Saturday is August 1st. Only 6 months to the caucus. Have you chosen your candidate yet?

Answers:

1) Amy Schumer’s “Trainwreck”

2) Jimmy Hoffa

3) west to east ending with the traditional tire dip in the Mississippi

4) cornet, but piano is also acceptable

5) intelligent life in our galaxy

6) John Kasich of Ohio

7) Lyndsey Graham’s

8) the hottest first half of a year ever

9) Los Angeles and Phoenix

10) 22% including 39% of AA, 37% of Native Americans and 33% of Hispanic

11) Chrysler. The hack was on one of their Jeep Cherokees

12) Ashley Madison

13) he can’t speak French

14) marijuana

15) Cuba

16) Donald Trump

17) stripped naked and hugged the trees – you don’t want to see the pictures

18) Amazon which ended up nearly $50 after being up nearly $90/share

19) Ed Schultz – he’s there for a while but the show was cancelled

20) Pontius Pilate – not sure what the similarity is

See you next week!