Last week, we warned everyone that July was going to be a sketchy month for us, in terms of our ability to write these Friday columns. So we begin today with a program update. Today's offering is not a complete Friday Talking Points column. It is bare-bones, at best. We're not even really going to attempt reviewing the past week, and we're also not going to write out talking points at the end (although we did complete the two awards sections). Just to warn everyone up front.

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If anyone needed any further proof that everything that Donald Trump touches turns to schlock (or worse), this week's opening of the Great American State Fair certainly provided some. The initial idea wasn't too bad a concept -- have all 50 states send an exhibit to the National Mall, and it would capture the spirit of state fairs held every year across America. Sounds kind of fun, actually.

But, of course, with Trump in charge of it, things didn't turn out as well as they could have. And that's putting it mildly. The whole thing was supposed to kick off with a big concert, but when the musical artists realized it was a pro-Trump event (rather than a nonpartisan celebration of patriotism), almost all of them immediately pulled out. So Trump, in a hissy fit, said that he'd give a speech instead, with the handful of the few musical artists still willing to perform for him also featured.

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It's pretty easy to see who won Donald Trump's war of choice with Iran -- and who lost. All you have to do is look at the deal both sides just signed, which is obviously heavily tilted in Iran's favor. In fact, it is pretty much impossible to claim otherwise -- to claim that somehow the U.S. won a resounding victory and forced a defeated foe to the bargaining table, where the U.S. would dictate terms of the surrender. In fact, it looks a lot more like exactly the opposite happened.

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We start today with some good news, for a change. The first is time-sensitive, so check it out now -- a livestream of workers removing Donald Trump's name from the outside wall of what will once again be known as simply The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center For The Performing Arts. As of this writing, the scaffolding has been set up, but nobody's on top of it and Trump's name still appears. By judicial order, Trump's name must be removed today, so take a look, maybe you'll get to see them prying letters off the building! They've already removed the odious new name from their website, but removing it from the building will be more satisfying to see.

The second piece of good news is more momentous. Are you sitting down? For once, Donald Trump apparently was not lying about a deal to end his Iran war of choice being finalized. No, really! CNN recently tallied it up and found that, previous to the last few days, Trump had lied about it a whopping 38 times, so it is definitely shocking that this time around the blind pig actually found an acorn!

We supposed we shouldn't be so snarky about something as serious as the end of a war, but after 38 times, we had to express our amazement (and frustration) somehow.

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There's a political cartoon out there just waiting to be drawn. Picture a coat-check window, with a line of people in front of it. But instead of coats, the sign says "Spinal Check." The person behind the counter is handing the person they're waiting on a full spine, while saying: "Here you go, Senator! Once you get it reinstalled, you'll find it's really liberating to get your spine back!" ...or something along those lines. The people in line would (if the cartoonist was good enough) resemble prominent Republicans who are now increasingly breaking with Donald Trump's agenda, of course.

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Welcome back, to this weeklong edition of "Deal, Or No Deal?" We're all anxiously awaiting word whether a short-term deal will be agreed to by both Donald Trump and the leaders of Iran, while the world's economy hangs in the balance. Will Trump agree? Will his own hawkish Republicans go ballistic when they find out what's in it? What is in it? Are any of the leaked clues as to what it contains accurate? Or will there be some doozies in there that nobody is expecting?

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The most startling development in the political world this week was that Republicans in Congress (some of them, at least) seem to be waking up to the fact that Donald Trump's poll numbers are sinking like a stone and that the only thing he cares about is building his palatial ballroom and wreaking vengeance on anyone who annoys him (including plenty of Republicans).

Is this the beginning of a wider break from Trump for Republicans deeply worried about their prospects in the midterm elections? Only time will tell, but it's rather astonishing how fast things seem to be shifting. And this pushback is happening not just on one issue, but on a whole range of them.

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We began writing this column series lo these many years ago to help tongue-tied Democrats formulate snappy lines to use when being interviewed on television and/or to use in their campaign ads. These days, however, we have to wonder whether we should just pack it in and not even bother. We say this because Donald Trump keeps providing the best talking points Democrats could ever hope for, serving them up on a weekly basis. And this week's was an absolute doozy.

When a reporter asked Trump if Americans' financial situation was motivating him to make a deal with Iran as soon as possible, Trump responded: "Not even a little bit... I don't think about Americans' financial situation. I don't think about anybody."

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As Donald Trump's war of choice stumbles and staggers into its third month, you'll be happy to hear that not everyone has been economically hit hard by the rise in prices it has caused. That's right -- there is one clear winner in all of this disruption. This headline sums it up: "Shell Reports Nearly $7 Billion Profit Amid 'Unprecedented Disruption'." Good to know that somebody's doing well, right?

Well... no. Not really. It's no comfort to everyone who is footing the bill for these monumental windfall profits to know that a whole lot of the money they are paying at the pump isn't because the price per barrel of oil has gone up, but is instead just going to line the pockets of Big Oil. But then, that's the way it has always worked, really.

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The term "shell shock" was initially used to describe what is now known as post-traumatic stress disorder (P.T.S.D.). It was created in World War I, to describe how the soldiers engaged in trench warfare felt from being continually bombarded by artillery fire and the sometimes long-lasting mental effects such an experience caused in them. Later, "shell-shocked" morphed into a more hyperbolic use, describing more generically being severely (and negatively) surprised by something. This week, it gained a new and ironically-literal meaning, as the Department of Justice charged James Comey with threatening to assassinate the president because he took a photo of some seashells he saw while walking on the beach. The shells were arranged to spell out "86 47" and what was truly shocking about the whole thing was not the implied message (which most sane people would translate as: "Get rid of the 47th president, Donald Trump") but instead the jaw-dropping ridiculousness of someone being criminally charged over posting a photo of seashells. It wasn't just James Comey who was shell-shocked at that, since it is such a blatant abuse of power and will no doubt get laughed out of court (hopefully sooner rather than later).

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