I dreamed that Edie and I were attending some large function. She was very interested in what was being said; I was bored to death. I went out into the lobby to see if I could find some reading material that would catch my interest and that I could bring back into the gathering. Newspapers were too distracting, but there were two stacks of what I thought were periodicals, and I took one, came back in and sat down.

It turned out that this was not a stack of periodicals, but the mail of a couple of friends who were on vacation. I realized I should not be looking at their mail (they will remain nameless), but I saw that some of the junk mail was the same junk mail that we get and I decided that I would throw it in a trashcan.

I went back to the lobby, saw no trashcan and went outside. After I threw the mail into the trashcan, I turned around to go back into the building, but the building itself was not there. I thought maybe I had turned a corner, but I went all around in all directions; the building was not there, and nothing looked familiar. I asked a number of people where it was; everyone knew and everyone told me. Every direction I was given was different and none seemed to work. I figured I better call Edie and tell her of my problem. I turned on my phone, but I couldn’t find any app that let me contact anyone.

Throughout this ordeal (and I was getting more and more concerned), I said to myself (I don’t remember this happening before) “Am I dreaming or is this real?” The answer was consistent: I knew that I was not dreaming. I knew this was reality.

It was the same feeling that I had while watching the Republican Vice-Presidential hopefuls last night debate in Milwaukee. Can this be real? Really?

What did I learn? I learned that Doug Burgum, Governor of North Dakota, has as much personality as does North Dakota. I learned that Vivek Ramaswamy wants a new American Revolution, thinks that climate change is a liberal hoax, believes that human progress and fossil fuels are like love and marriage, and thinks America is in a “dark place”. I learned that Mike Pence thinks that his belief as to what Jesus thinks trumps (to put it succinctly) the Supreme Court and the Constitution. I learned that Chris Christie, who believes that Hunter Biden should get at least 10 years for lying on a gun application, doesn’t know the difference between a minimum sentence and a maximum sentence. I learned that Asa Hutchinson thinks that Asa Hutchinson was a wonderful governor of Arkansas. I learned that Tim Scott believes that if he could do it, anybody can. I learned that Nikki Haley believes that Donald Trump is the most despised politician in America. And I learned that Ron deSantis comes across just as badly as everyone says he does, thinks America is in decline, and – when in the Navy – was deployed “near” Navy SEALS, and will invade Mexico if elected.

Of course, any Republican candidate for president would scare me, even if I thought they personally would be acceptable, because there are so many loony Republicans in Congress. The Trump presidency caused so much damage – and another Republican led government would make it that much harder to fully recover.

It was interesting to see that some of the candidates would criticize Trump, while others would not, that they had differing opinions on abortion, and – not surprisingly – that they have very different opinions on Ukraine. Ramaswamy would pull our support out immediately and Pence, for example, would back Ukraine to the hilt.

Of course, all of these guys are well behind Trump in all of the polls. Like 30 points behind him or more. But, of course, today is the day that Trump is appearing in Fulton County to enter pleas as to his innocence of the many criminal counts filed against him. If Trump continues to hold the overwhelming lead going into the Republican convention next summer, one of the participants in the debate last night might wind up as the Vice Presidential candidate. Who would it be – Ramaswamy, who lauds Trump, or Christie, who doesn’t?

And will the Democrats get their act together consistently to be able to respond to Republican critiques of Biden’s border control policies and continuing inflation? If not, who knows what might happen?

Do we live in interesting times? Is the Pope Italian?