I thought I’d give you a break from the news and focus on a topic I’ve been interested in (and have written about) for a long time: happiness. After my journal entry, which is in itself much about happiness, I’ve included an interview between Coleman Hughes and Arthur C. Brooks on the nature of happiness, a piece titled “21 Ways to Make Your Life Miserable,” some encouraging facts about happiness, and a review of Brooks’s most popular book on happiness. Also included: an image that could have been taken in the mid-70’s during my service as a Peace Corps volunteer in Chad, and a few interesting reader contributions.

Will Donald Trump be remembered as “the greatest US President since Abraham Lincoln”? That’s the question I try to answer in today’s main essay.

I was all set to put this issue to bed on Monday night. I had just finished a longish essay on the US bombing of Iran when, almost as if it was done to spite me, Trump announced that the “war” had come to an end. The Iranians and the Israelis had agreed to a cease-fire, followed by negotiations for peace – after just 12 days.

The second sentence of that essay was: “This wasn’t just a minor step up in US support of Israel, this was – in so many ways – insane!”

“Insane” was not the perfect word, but anything else I thought of sounded bloodless and analytical.

I don’t think I was the only one struggling for words, which means, of course, struggling for coherent thoughts that conveyed my response to this surprising-if-not-astonishing action.

One part of my brain – the one that has been working out ideas I’ve been forming on culture – felt good about it. That brain believes that all cultures are not equal, neither in how they serve those who take part in them nor in respect to any universal moral standard.

Another part of my brain – the one that grows too quickly weary of comfort, lacks the discriminatory power to assess risk, and is always looking for adventure – was excited. No, it was more than excited. It was nothing short of thrilled to be alive at this moment – at the threshold of extinction!

A third part of my brain – the one that wants to present itself well – had been working furiously since the bombing, trying to make sense of what we (the US military) had done and what the effect of it would be.

In the main essay below, aside from updating a few facts, I’ve reprinted most of what I wrote on Monday almost entirely as I wrote it because (a) most of the questions I was trying to answer are still unanswered, and (b) some of the speculations I made about what the bombings could bring about did in fact come about.

I’m also including a few extra bits that I hope you will enjoy, including a unique profit-making opportunity (in the “Building Wealth” section) and a profile of NYC’s new mayor.

Correction: In the last issue, I mistakenly said that Benjamin Cañas, the brilliant Central American surrealist, was Guatemalan. Wrong! Though he was born in Honduras, he grew up in El Salvador and is considered to be Salvadoran. (I knew that! What was I thinking?)

It’s been a very busy week. For the world. For our country. And for me. So, this could easily be a very long issue – but I’m going to keep it to less than 10,000 words by touching on the major news issues and then giving you a link to a perspective about them that I thought was smart. Much of the rest of this issue is on two topics I’ve written about before: the gigantic economic and social shift that’s going to happen in the next few years because of the pandemic of artificial intelligence, and my thoughts about “the challenge of charity.”

* In “Notes from My Journal,” I update you on two subjects that I have reason to believe you’re interested in.

* In “Worth Considering,” I consider what may be (surprisingly) the most anti-free-speech country in the world.

* In “Business & Marketing,” I tell you how (and why) to master the most powerful selling secret of them all.

* And in the “wealth building” sections, I talk about a mental technique used by a self-made, super-rich guy that he credits with the enormous growth of his company as well as his personal success.

I take a deep dive into AI. (Be afraid! Be VERY afraid!)

Plus…

* In “Business & Marketing,” I reveal something every business owner should know about those smart, hardworking people that are running the business.

* In “Just the Facts,” I weigh the evidence in the South African “genocide” debate.

* In “The Economy,” I examine the biggest economic issue the US (and much of the rest of the developed world) is facing right now.

* In “Worth Considering,” I consider the question of government funding for NPR and PBS.

And scattered throughout, the usual extras, including a few interesting news items you might have missed last week and an especially fun video in today’s “Postscript.”

On April 11, I brought you Part One of the monograph I’ve been writing about COVID, and on May 6, I brought you Part Two. Today, I present Part Three: the “final nail in the coffin.”

I’ve been eager to get this final piece to you for some time. It was meant to be the definitive “I told you so!” to all my friends, colleagues, and family members who dismissed my early writing on COVID as crackpot. I knew this day would come, but I didn’t know it would come this week – with a Congressional hearing exposing the lies in front of the entire nation (or at least anyone curious enough to watch).

It’s long, so I won’t blame you if you simply scan it (or even ignore it). But, as always with these “Works in Progress,” keep in mind that this is not a final draft. So if you do take the time to read and review it, I thank you in advance. Please leave your comments/suggestions for me here.

But before we get to that…

* In “Notes from My Journal”: As I said in the last issue, it seems odd to me that, having visited France several dozen times over the years – not to mention being a fan of the Cannes Film Festival – K and I never visited the French Riviera. But here we are. And it is everything I could have expected.

* In “News & Views”: There was a ton of interesting news this past week. But the biggest story (other than the revelations about the COVID cover-up) – and the most fun to poke fun at – was the Biden cover-up. So I’m leading that section with a summary of about a half-dozen good, long essays I read about it.

And later in this issue…

* In “Business & Marketing,” I share one of the cleverest and most lucrative marketing secrets I know.

And…

* In “Worth Considering,” I give you my take on two subjects that always seem to come up when I’m traveling.

* More on this trip to France, this time focusing on the art that we’ve been lucky enough to see – especially a David Hockney retrospective that turned me from a mere admirer of his work to a superfan.

* Also, as usual, my take on significant (to me) news stories that you either missed or may have simply ignored.

* Plus a few items on the mechanics of building businesses and personal wealth – two subjects that, as I mentioned in the last issue, I’m getting back to in a big way.

* Not to mention some bits and pieces I’ve come across that I thought you would enjoy.

I’m devoting most of this issue to what I’ve been up to here in France. I’m also (as you’ve come to expect) giving you my take on what I consider to be important and/or thought-provoking stories in the news, and (what you may not expect) I’m getting back to writing about two subjects that I pretty much abandoned when I started this blog in 2020.

As you’ve undoubtedly noticed, I’ve been covering a lot of territory here. From a business perspective, it might have been smarter for me to stick to subjects I could “monetize” (as young people are so fond of saying), especially wealth building, which was my focus when I was writing Creating Wealth. But when I started this blog, I had spent 29 years thinking and writing about topics related to making money, and I was burned out.

Now, though, I’m getting back into the trenches of business and finance, and I’m enjoying it. So, once again, I’m going to be writing about those broad and interesting subjects.

What I won’t be doing, however, is giving up writing in-depth pieces about the admittedly controversial topics I’ve been covering for the past five or so years, because I still enjoy thinking about them. But I’ll try to keep those issues to a reasonable number of words by having J, my editor, cut out more of the fluff in the future.

Today, I bring you my assessment of Donald Trump’s first 100 (or so) days. I meant to publish this two weeks ago, but when I got into it, I realized it was going to be a much bigger job than I thought. One reason for that is that, when I took on the challenge of evaluating Trump’s work since taking office on Jan. 20, I was not aware of how many promises, including big, bold promises, he’d made during his campaign.

In preparing for this, I’ve read at least two dozen “report cards” – from the far left to the far right of the political spectrum, and from the heights of the Ivory Tower to its mildewed basement. What this means, to you, is that you have before you the longest “Just One Thing” essay I’ve ever published in this venue.

But first, some ruminations from my Journal and six brief news items that you might have missed.

And at the end, some bits and pieces for your amusement.