Despite the cover-up with noble intentions, this trip is about trying to persuade Saudi Arabia to produce more oil so U.S. gas prices will come down to tolerable levels ahead of the November and 2024 elections. What will the U.S. get in return? Probably no more than Biden and Obama got from opening diplomatic relations with Cuba.

How many friends do you have, gentle reader — much less mere “advisers” — who could influence you to plot a coup against the U.S. government? How weak-minded would you have to be? The fact that such shabby and absurd reasoning passes as strategy within the walls of Trump World suggests not just how desperate things are in there, but how detached from reality the people inside have become.

A party that exists in its own echo chamber and that is more and more reliant on the votes of a highly educated, socially progressive portion of the electorate simply can’t process the idea that the rest of the country may be in a different place. Instead, it is consumed by its own obsessions.

I’ve learned a lot over my first six months as mayor, and it’s more clear to me than ever that we need to move Lewiston forward together: elected officials, city administration, business owners, service providers and residents. We need to leave the failed policies of yesterday in the past and focus on solving problems.

Apple CEO Tim Cook did talk of allowing some work-from-wherever setups, but on a very limited basis. As he told workers, “We have an opportunity to combine the best of what we have learned about working remotely with the irreplaceable benefits of in-person collaboration.”