1. It’s Thursday, June 30, 2016.

2. Now that I’m retired from CNN, I’m free to be politically active. On balance, that’s a good thing – it’s really hard to be objective when one side can be summed up in two odious words: Donald Trump.

But today’s a bad day to be a partisan, and I’m imagine this is true whether you’re a Democrat or Republican.

Today is the final day of June, which means it’s also the final day of the quarter. And thus, it’s a key deadline for political campaigns and parties to report how much they’ve taken in this month and quarter.

Because winning in politics is about having enough resources to get out your message, the parties want to make sure the amounts of money they report sound really good. They should be more than the last quarter, or the same quarter last year, or the same quarter in the last presidential election campaign.

And so what they do is badger.

My phone has rung a good eight or nine times a day the past few days as the deadline draws near. The few times I’ve answered some earnest voice comes on, identifies her/himself, says the call might be recorded, and then thanks me for my past support.

Then he/she tells me how important it is to stop Donald Trump/the Republicans/both and how, for a limited time, some donor will triple-match my contribution.

I try to get a word in edgewise to say I’ve donated. But that donation apparently wasn’t nearly enough. Because they keep coming, like the brooms in “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” except that instead of dumping money on me they want to keep extracting it.

It’s not like I don’t want to help. I won’t have to worry about money if Trump wins, because a guy who’s willing to default on the nation’s debt and print greenbacks would make anything I have virtually worthless.

But last I looked, I’m retired. Not making big bucks. Not nearly rich enough to make the quantity of donations these folks seem to need.

So this is not a good day to reach me on the phone. Unless the caller ID is someone I know, I’m not picking up. Hopefully, everybody understands.

Also hopefully, this country will find a better way to finance its political campaigns. But I’m not waiting around for that phone call any time soon.

3. One bad hairdo down, one to go.

Boris Johnson, the former London mayor who helped lead the campaign to extract Britain from the European Union, said today he won’t stand for Prime Minister.

He said that after finding out that Michael Gove, the Justice Secretary and one of Johnson’s partners in the Leave campaign, wouldn’t support Johnson’s bid to succeed David Cameron. Gove kinda wants the job himself.

This is just one more in a serious of misadventures in Britain following the vote to leave the E.U.

While the Conservatives – one year out from a substantial general election win – are trying to figure out who’ll run the country, Labor is reeling as well. An overwhelming majority of the party’s MPs voted against leader Jeremy Corbyn, who for some reason won’t quit.

With Johnson gone, Trump is now the undisputed world leader in miserable hairdos among potential leaders. Hopefully, we’re 131 days away from dispatching him from the scene as well.