Category: food

Satyrdaz Theme Music

It’s the darkest of times, it’s the dumbest of times, it’s Trumpiest of times. Borrowed from Mock Paper Scissors.

Bold sunshine shoots the windows today, Satyrda, November 15, 2025. 52 F now, the other numbers are 65 and 42 F for the day’s highs and low. Sunshine and blue are dominating like an NFL team playing a high school JV team. Lovely to rest my eyes on the panorama and what remains of the colorful leaves after the wind tore through over the last several days.

I was walking yesterday evening. Sidewalks and paths are wealthy with discarded leaves. I kicked ’em up as I passed through them like I was six years old. I always enjoy making that ruckus among the leaves. Meanwhile, I deliberately summoned the music to “New York State of Mind” by Billy Joel. My lyrics were adjusted to “Ashlandia State of Mind” and our local streets, activities, and centers of interest. After singing it last night and gazing out on this morning’s view, The Neurons resurrected the song for my morning mental music stream.

The Trump Regime has made statements about demanding all SNAP recipients re-enroll. They believe the debunked myths that SNAP is corruption riddled. 42,000,000 are receiving SNAP. The huge effort to re-enroll them all will fall on the states and the recipients. Recipients who are often children, working poor, struggling lower middle class, elderly and disabled. If this doesn’t scream, THE CRUELTY IS THE POINT, what does?

With the Trump Epstein Shutdown ended after a record run, attention is swinging hard to the Epstein files and Trump’s place among their annals. Dizzy Donny is displaying deeply demented demeanor. Many like me speculate that he knows the terrible things the files will reveal. Here’s hoping for the best.

BTW, that idea about 50-year mortgages is crackers. Won’t do much for helping affordability. Folks still need down payments, need the income for paying property taxes and insurance, and insurance is going higher and higher in many regions due to more extreme weather — but please, let us not say anything about climate change. Heaven forfend the TACO Regime even thinks about doing anything about that. See, with mega AI centers being planned and built, pollution will go yet higher. Demands on water will go yet higher. As will demands on electricity, causing the price of everything to increase, crushing affordability, but never mind all that. Realizing those things and planning to address those things takes something other than greed, lying, and cruelty, and that’s all the Trump Regime has.

The day is calling and the coffee is singing. My hope remains that peace and grace lift themselves up with a mighty shake and come around to yours and mine. Here we go again. Cheers

3

Wenzdaz Wandering Political Thoughts

I’ve been thinking about that $2000 that Trump is waving in front of people.

What an utterly disconnected offering. What a cheap fucking bribe. Sure, the poorest and those close to being poor will jump on two grand. It’d give them temporary breathing room, maybe help fix a car or pay for part of something needed. For most, though, two thou in today’s economy is like a cold slice of half-eaten pizza found for breakfast.

Fierce Healthcare notes that red staters have been flocking to ACA for the last several years.

ACA exchange enrollment has skyrocketed since 2020, with most of the growth in red states: KFF

Enrollment on the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA’s) exchanges has more than doubled over the past several years, with much of that growth coming from red states, according to a new report.

Analysts at KFF found that enrollment in marketplace plans reached 24.3 million for 2025, up from 11.4 million in 2020. That’s growth of 113% for those five years, the researchers said.

Almost all states have seen some level of increase since 2020, per the report. However, there are six states where enrollment more than tripled, and all were won by President Donald Trump in the 2024 election. The highest increases were in Texas and Mississippi, where enrollment grew by 255% and 242%, respectively.

 In Louisiana and West Virginia, enrollment increased by 234%, while Georgia saw an increase of 227%. Enrollment rose in Tennessee by 221%.

Yowza! Sounds like Trump is screwing over his base without the breaks the Big Beautiful Bill of 2025 ended. When cruelty is the point, it doesn’t matter who the victim is. More pointedly, when healthcare premiums are jumping by huge chunks, two thousand doesn’t gain much, especially now, when affordability is rising as a problem for ‘Muricans. Industries, reporters, businesses, and analysts are citing increases in food prices, pet food, construction and home repair, gas for heating homes and gas for driving cars, electricity, healthcare, and consumer goods. Against that flood, Trump desperately throws up two thousand dollars and tries those tired ol’ ploys of crying fake news, hoax, while repeatedly and shrilly lying, “No, no, it’s all going great!” But even hard-headed MAGAts are starting to notice the dick-tator’s new clothes.

Of course, Trump is booming with promises.

He promises — again — he’s coming out with a new healthcare plan. Promises and lies is what he doth best. ‘Member any of these?

Trump’s shutdown win just landed Republicans with a huge political headache

Trump and Republicans once again own the issue of health care, with millions of citizens — not just those on ACA plans — afflicted by rising premiums and high deductibles against the backdrop of a wider cost-of-living crisis. And just as in his first term, Trump lacks a comprehensive, detailed plan to bring relief to citizens who lack health care, who can’t afford the plans they have or who know that the loss of a job could leave them without any coverage at all.

~snip~

During the 2016 campaign, Trump pledged to repeal Obamacare and replace it with something “terrific.” At rallies, he promised Americans new health care that would cost less but be far better. If that sounds impossible, it’s probably because it is.

Early in his first term, Trump promised that change was on the way. “Despite what you hear in the press, healthcare is coming along great. We are talking to many groups and it will end in a beautiful picture!” he wrote on the website formerly known as Twitter in March 2017. The GOP failure to repeal Obamacare, partly because it couldn’t come up with an alternative, didn’t stop Trump’s sunny predictions. “The Republican Party will be soon be known as theparty of health care,” the president declared in March 2019.

Second term, same as the first. In his debate with Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in 2024, Trump was mocked for saying he had “concepts of a plan” to make health care “better and less expensive.” More than a year later — and despite some significant efforts by Trump to bring down the cost of some prescription drugs — Americans are still waiting for his wider solutions.

~snip~

But with unemployment likely rising, some people will be very desperate for any additional income.

US likely bled jobs in October

The Bureau of Labor Statistics did not release an October jobs report thanks to the GOP’s government shutdown. But the United States likely lost a whopping 50,000 jobs last month, according to a report released Tuesday by Goldman Sachs. This is a flashing warning that the nation may be entering recession territory.

Goldman Sachs’ report was backed up by data from the payroll company ADP, which on Tuesday said that the private sector lost an average of 11,250 jobs per week in the four weeks ending Oct. 25. ADP said the numbers signal that “the labor market struggled to produce jobs consistently during the second half” of October.

It’s all part of the MAGA magic, an illusion as deep and real as the man behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz.

Which means, of course, brace yerself. Trump and his allies need more distractions. Bigger distractions. They’ll get angrier. Meaner. Crueler. Declare more enemies and attack more. Lie more, and do it more loudly. Because, you know.

Just in time for the holidays. You’re a cruel one, Mr. Trump.

3

Wenzdaz Theme Music

Windy, sunny, foggy, chilly, cloudy. That’s Wenzda in a string of weather words. Also noisy with someone’s machine droning out a long song. Birds are scarce. Papi did a floofstep this AM, bouncing to the door when opened to gallop out, he slammed on the paws, and backed himself back into the house. He no like wind. The numbers for today, November 12, 2025, are 54, 56, and 52. Seriously. That’s what I was told is our current temp, and the high and low, all in Fahrenheit.

Mom is doing so much better now. While sis related that to me, she’s returned to texting with me, and they’re much more intelligent and thoughtful. She texts, “You’ll never know how much I miss Frank.” I will not, but my mind can give it some insights. They were together as a 24/7 couple for most of two decades, sharing meals and jokes, opinions and rants, tending each other when sick or recovering. I do get it but I won’t ever know all the ways he was there for her. I’m happy they were together, because I saw how happy they made one another.

As for me yesterday, I gut tested more food offerings and felt pretty confident that all was going well. At least, no overt reversals took place telling me otherwise. I call that a win. I’ve also noticed I have much higher energy levels now, sleep better, and think better. I still dream a huge amount but that’s something else. Bottom lining it, the surgery definitely was for the best.

Today’s music is “Love Runs Out”. That started in my head, “until the floof runs out.” I found Papi’s wind reaction very funny, which he, an austere cat with a measured gaze, did not find amusing. But when I chuckled about his reversal and sang a bit of half-remembered tune with my inserted words, The Neurons said, “Oh, that’s One Republic, here we go,” and delivered the melody to the morning mental music stream.

Haven’t checked the news. Enjoying the morning so much, I thought I’d give myself a reprieve before I submitted to seeing what fresh political bullshit the Trump Regime lays on the world. Far as I know, the Trump Epstein Shutdown of 2025 is still going on, and the GOP is giving a pass to Trump’s unsavory character and hiding his crimes, making them his accomplices. But hey, they got that Jesus thing going for them, right? “Who would Jesus be cruel to,” they ask themselves daily, and gleefully respond, “Everyone who is not us!” The GOP is a depraved bunch. Sure, there may be a few who are not, but given their silence and/or active participation of the GOP mass, they’re rarer than a daisy in Antarctica.

Epstein and Trump, forever together.

Coffee is serenading Les Neurons. Hope peace and grace find their way out of the wilderness and back into our lives. Meanwhile, here we go. Time to rock on. Cheers

0

Satyrdaz Wandering Political Thoughts

Nope, nothing to see here.

It’s a well-established pattern. When Trump is afraid of truth and facts, he works hard to hide it. He hid his tax returns. Hid his grades. Now Trump is hiding his regime’s poor-jobs reports.

US employment report will not be published again as government shutdown drags on

Pretty much as expected after he fired the person who told the truth before. Evil works in darkness. And that’s Trump all the way.

With the shutdown now hitting the travel industry, more FAFO is being exposed. Nevada voted Trump into office 2024. Now, gosh, their economy is taking some hits, and Vegas is feeling it. Thanks to ICE and the cold welcome the Trump Regime extends to people entering the United States, tourism is down across the board, which isn’t good for Vegas. Now, with the Trump-Epstein Shutdown of 2025 marching through record territory, flights are being canceled…

Which also isn’t good for Vegas. So much winning!

As flights are canceled, Las Vegas’s tourism troubles deepen

More FAFO is rising over in MAGALand. This is the cattle ranchers edition. The price of beef in the U.S. is historically high. Part of the problem is drought which may be related to climate change. Dozy Donny doesn’t believe in climate change and takes no action agin’ it. With drought shrinking the feeding areas, the herds are shrinking. Disease affected cattle in Mexico, and with tariffs pushing up the price of beef coming in, well, it’s just basic supply and demand economics. But not in Dozy’s eyes; he thinks the beef industry is acting like Trump would do, which is to take advantage of the situation to raise prices and make profits. Of course, he immediately pushed buttons to launch an investigation…

Trump rants at America’s beef producers after failed Argentine deal

Congress actually took action against the consolidation of the meat-packing industry back in 2022 via the “Meat and Poultry Special Investigator Act”. As meat prices were climbing, meat-packing companies were reporting record profits. The USDA is responsible for investigating these things. Wonder if DOGE had anything to do with reducing the USDA’s effectiveness for investigating these things back when DOGE cut the USDA’s workforce?

USDA offers staff buyouts, according to email, as Trump slashes workforce

What goes around, comes around.

1

Fridaz Wandering Political Thoughts

Oh no!

Moms for Liberty lost elections on Tuesday. That’s good news for the United States. Looky how Wikipedia describes them:

Moms for Liberty is an American political organization that advocates against school curricula that mention LGBTQ rights, race and ethnicity, critical race theory, and discrimination.[6] Multiple chapters have also campaigned to ban books that address gender and sexuality from school libraries.[2][7][8] Founded in January 2021, the group began by campaigning against COVID-19 responses in schools such as mask and vaccine mandates.[2] Moms for Liberty is influential within the Republican Party.[9]

Out of 31 elections, Moms for Liberty won zero.

Moms for Liberty Shut Out Nationwide with Every Candidate Losing in 2025 Elections

Such a shame.

Meanwhile, in news that doesn’t surprise anyone with a few brain cells, Meta has been making money off dodgy ads and scams.

Meta is making billions from scammy ads, leaks to Reuters show

Given the great rate of Facebook enshittification over the past several years, it’d be a surprise to learn that they weren’t making money off of scammy ads. I don’t go on FB much these days, as I felt like I was drowning in the enshittification on that site.

Locally, Jackson County, Oregon, declared a state of emergency over the loss of SNAP benefits.

Jackson County commissioners declare state of emergency amid ongoing food scarcity

Sadly, this is a bit of FAFO. While my little city of Ashland went for Veep Kamela Harris for POTUS in 2024, Trump carried Jackson County by over five percent. What, they’re not blue voters? Why no, Sleepy Donny, they’re not:

Some 47,000 Jackson County residents who receive food benefits — nearly 14,000 of which are children or individuals living with disabilities — have been facing uncertainty since the announcement of suspension of SNAP benefits, previously known as food stamps, Oct. 1.

These are your people, Sleepyhead Trump, your base. It was clearly evident during 2024, as Trump flags flew in lawns and on trucks. But as we the blue knew, you didn’t really give a crap about them. You just wanted their votes. Now that you won, you turned your back on them.

As we knew you would.

Finally, measles outbreaks are surging anew.

Map shows more than 1,600 measles cases across U.S. as outbreaks grow

The number of cases in Texas alone grew to over 760 before the state declared it officially over in August, while total cases nationwide have topped 1,500, with infections confirmed in at least 39 states.

Measles is one of the most contagious infectious diseases, and in some cases, can cause severe infections in the lungs and brain that can lead to cognitive issues, deafness or death. But doctors and health officials say the vaccine, which is normally given as part of the combination measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, is highly safe and effective.

While most people’s symptoms improve, about 1 in 5 unvaccinated people who get measles will be hospitalized. About 1 out of every 1,000 children with measles will develop brain swelling that can lead to brain damage, and up to 3 of every 1,000 children who become infected will die, the CDC says. 

So much winning, right?

3

Just the Facts

MPS brings us the November price check.

Project Price Check November 2025

These are the prices which had voters riled up by Trump in 2024. All graphics are from MPS. I suggest you go over there for the full view. Just click on the headline above.

Then there was the Walmart con job that got Trump excited.

Trump is pretty excited that you can buy 15 things of lesser quality for the same price you paid for 21 items of better-quality items in 2024. Such a friggin’ genniyus.

And now, those high prices that upset so many folks in 2024, like eggs, gas, meat…? They’re up, my friends. As most of us who were thinking about it expected.

DateGasEggsBeefMilkButterBreadCanned Tomatoes*
Feb. 2025hi: 4.75
lo: 2.87		hi: 10.00
lo: 5.39		hi: 7.99
lo: 5.49		hi: 6.00
lo: 2.79		hi: 5.79
lo: 2.79		hi: 5.29
lo: 2.99		N/A
May 2025hi: 4.99
lo: 2.64		hi: 10.79
lo: 4.49		hi: 8.99
lo: 7.00		hi: 5.25
lo: 3.56		hi: 6.49
lo: 1.96		hi: 6.29
lo: 2.79		N/A
Aug. 2025hi: 4.99lo: 2.30hi: 8.99lo: 3.00hi: 9.99lo: 9.49hi: 3.89lo:hi: 6.49lo: 4.59hi: 6.49lo: 3.49hi: 3.69lo:

Just to add some turbidity to the issue, Consumer Confidence is down. Judging from the headlines and stories, there’s a lot of spin out there about how bad it is and what it portends. But all agree, it is down.

Just like Trump’s approval ratings.

0

Thirstdaz Theme Music

Through the fog creeps Thirstda, November 11, 2025. 52/57/48 are the numbers for the day: present, high, low. It’s a remarkably narrow range, with fog and clouds gaining the lower hand over the sun’s position as an influencer.

Mom continues to improve and impress, according to sis. Had her first PT session today and did great! Wife, on the other hand, is not doing well, in her words. Not surprising for me. She and stress aren’t good friends. Her anxiety climbs and she becomes physically challenged with a great deal of pain. She’s working through her protocols to cope. As for me, other than physical limitations and restricted diet, I feel fab. Didn’t do much yesterday except nibble on crackers and binge on a series called “Suspicions” with short naps. Found I wasn’t comfortable sitting at the desk, as that strained my abs, so the planned typing didn’t come about. Tried other places and positions but all felt wrong and I didn’t have enough to push through. Part of this is because my wife gave a steady stream of reminders not to do too much. I didn’t want to add to her stress, so I backed off.

I also ate too many crackers, I think. I had some vegan, gluten-free vegetarian broth. No flavor, at all. Really disappointing, so I went back to the crackers. We had picked up some TJ’s garlic-flavored naan crackers, water wafers, and something from Costco, potato crackers seasoned with seaweed. I didn’t think much of the water wafers, but my taste buds highly rated the other two.

Plans today are to catch up on writing, reading, and blogging. I finished reading my last two books, both fiction on my travels. Gravity’s Rainbow is available at long last. Yes, I confess, I haven’t read the classic. Found it in the library system and put it on hold back in July. I began reading a terrific (so far) historical fiction book by Amy Stewart called Woman Waits with Gun. Ironically, I’d purchased it at Half-Priced Books in Monroeville on the 2023 visit to attend my nephew’s marriage in Pittsburgh. I know this because the receipt was inside. It sat in the TBR stack by the bed until I came back from Pittsburgh. I’d just finished a romantasy and a crime thriller and needed a read, and ‘lo, there it was.

Over on streaming land, we are into the latest season of “Slow Horses” and “Down Cemetery Road” and are ready to begin “King and Conqueror” and the latest season of “Diplomat”. This is augmented by “The Graham Norton Show” and rewatching “Would I Lie to You”. I cut the last short because laughing and coughing really rile my incisions.

Today’s music is out of dreamland again. The Neurons, looking over my shoulder as I reviewed my strange and amusing dream, came up with “Rocket” by the Smashing Pumpkins, in the morning mental music stream. That was sort of funny on their part, as I’d been dreaming about being on a spaceship. I’ve gone through this before, dreaming of being traveling in space, then awakening to bafflement about where I am.

Another of my dreams was very short. This was about kittens gamboling on me, mewing until I got up to feed them. I thought there were two kittens but when I put out the food, four more appeared with sharp cries, “Me, too!” I rhetorically responded, “How many kittens do we have,” as one more little grey fluff of floof waddled in. That was all the dream offered.

I’ve been looking at news but don’t have many thoughts on it at this point. Trump is being Trump, as far as I can tell, with all the mendacity, greed, and arrogance that implies.

Hope peace and grace find their way out of the fog to you. My body is suggesting it’s time to lay down again. Think I’ll do as it says. Cheers

2

Mundaz Theme Music

A thin grey cloud layer is sliding in. Eastern sunshine sings off the dwindling golden leaves hanging on the neighborhood trees. Autumn has a firm grip on Munda, November 3, 2025, in Ashlandia. 50 F, showers are going to visit amid an attempt to reach 62 F.

Sis made stuffed green peppers with the final harvest from her garden. The peppers were smallish, she said. Gave two to Mom with mashed taters. Mom ate one pepper and all of her potatoes, so she was rewarded with a cookie for dessert. Mom has been sharper, and sis, conversing with Mom, reports that Mom barely recalls what happened in the week in which Frank died. Mom acknowledged to several of us that it was a deeper shock than she realized. I think she’s happy to be out of the house where she and Frank spent more than twenty years together between their dating and living arrangements. I know from losses that every look around a corner and usual routine delivers a stab of painful realization about the loss. I’m like Mom so I believe that’s what she was feeling. And that pattern rocks emotions and disrupts focus. Prying her from her home was a good move. I think Mom even is beginning to realize that.

Sis is talking about putting a stair glide in her house for Mom. Sis’s house is a split level. Mom is in the lower level. A stair glide would provide her with more independence. While true, I worry that more independence and movement will also provide Mom with more falling opportunities. Fingers crossed, I’m wrong if the stair glide is installed.

Today’s theme music is “Blue Monday” by New Order. You must address questions about it to The Neurons. I was minding my own business as I went about the biznez of breakfast when The Neurons put it into the morning mental music stream. Here’s the part that was bumping through the MMMS.

How does it feel
To treat me like you do?
When you’ve laid your hands upon me
And told me who you are?

I thought I was mistaken
I thought I heard your words
Tell me, how do I feel?
Tell me now, how do I feel?

Those who came before me
Lived through their vocations
From the past until completion
They’ll turn away no more

h/t to Bing.

Been a full month since the Trump Epstein Shutdown of 2025 began, hasn’t it? Sure, started October 1, 2025, didn’t it? Trump has been too busy golfing and partying to end this shutdown. It’s like he’s channeling the spirit of his old smirking partner, Jeffrey Epstein.

As Donald Trump said about a shutdown before:

I mean, problems start from the top and they have to get solved from the top. And the president’s the leader and he’s got to get everybody in a room and he’s got to lead. And he doesn’t do that. He doesn’t like doing that. That’s not his strength.

Like a stopped clock, Trump is right: the problems of this country start with him. He’s not a leader. It’s not his strength. He can’t even get everybody in a room.

I read about Trump complaining about the NFL’s revised kickoff rules introduced last season.

“I HATE WATCHING THE NFL’S NEW KICK OFF RULE,” Trump wrote.

“IT’S RIDICULOUS — TAKES THE PAGEANTRY AND GLAMOUR AWAY FROM THE GAME, AND DOES NOTHING FOR SAFETY.

“THEY SHOULD CHANGE BACK TO WHAT IT USED TO BE. HOPEFULLY COLLEGE FOOTBALL WILL NEVER MAKE THIS RIDICULOUS CHANGE! IN THE MEANTIME, I’M GETTING READY TO WATCH PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP (ME!) ON 60 MINUTES.”

Well, one, it’s RIDICULOUS HOW HE TYPES IN ALL CAPS. Two, if it’s so offensive, turn it off. As I did you, on 60 Minutes.

Does Trump have a point about the NFL kickoff rules. Well, I bow to his extensive football career.

Donald J. Trump football record by position, including regular and post season, professional, amateur and coaching, by year and results.

(This space intentionally left blank)

It compares favorably with his RIDICULOUS MILITARY SERVICE RECORD, doesn’t it?

Bone spurs – did not serve

Bone spurs – did not serve

Bone spurs – did not serve

Bone spurs – did not serve

Bone spurs – did not serve

Very impressive.

Gotta go on to other things. Watching for peace and grace’s arrival through the front window. Should be here any minute now. I’ll just have some coffee while I wait. Cheers

0

Satyrdaz Theme Music

Suddenly, it’s November — again! Yep, we’ve leaped onto Satyrda, November 1, 2025 in Ashlandia, where the temperature is 52 and sunshine is singing praises to blue skies. The thermometer is expected to hop up to 68 F in our area.

Seems like it was just last year when it was November and we were voting on the nation’s future in the United States. The scandal-plagued, greed monger formally known as Trump, more informally known as TACO – Trump Always Chickening Out — won the 2024 election, to the joy of racists, white supremacists, and reactionaries everywhere. The rest of us were less sanguine about it. Now, just a year after that election, the Federal government is grinding to a halt. Under Trump, the government has been shut down for a third time, and Republicans, ‘led’ by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Hell), are refusing to work. Air traffic control and the military are working on promises to be paid, along with TSA. No worries, they’re just the backbone of safety and security. Thanks to DOGE, multiple agencies which helped farmers and families are struggling to function. Trump has stripped funding away from activities and canceled projects regardless of Congressional approval. Congress, remember, are our delegates, voted into office to work for We the People as our servants, just as Trump is supposed to be our servant.

What a servant. Stealing from us. Wrecking the White House. Trying to rewrite history and wipe out our heritage. Arbitrarily deciding what is a crime and who is a criminal, a total 180 of what is supposed to be ‘the American Way’. Taking bribes. Killing in the name of peace. Hounding and persecuting political enemies without evidence, trying to trump up charges that will stick. Dismissing real and meaningful work in the Department of Justice. He’s fired almost all of the Inspector Generals, who were there to investigate the government’s functions to ensure everything was being done legally. A general sense of disarray circles around D.C. It’s like a storm system building toward a hurricane. Distrust of Trump is growing. Disapproval is increasing as the fog thickens about what Trump is doing and how much is legal. Disapproval is rising as citizens and their families starve, employment falls off, inflation grows, and Trump goes golfing.

We still don’t know what it says in the Epstein Files against Trump. Maybe the Andrew formerly known as a prince can illuminate those things for us. I’d love to see that smirk chased off of Trump’s face.

Just a reminder to Trump, the Heritage Foundation and their Project 2025 wet dream, and MAGAland. We the People said No Kings in 1776. We the People said no to fascists in the last world war. We meant it both times. We the People still mean it.

My dreams featured hills, so The Neurons plugged a familiar song about hills in the morning mental music stream. Mind you, one major dream also featured food. People were plying me with sandwiches and desserts wherever I went, doing so as a way of thanks for stepping up and helping them. The food was so delicious and fresh! Kind of amused me in the dream, as I was just a dog with a bone, organizing things because that’s what was needed and that’s my strength. For a time, Der Neurons did consider songs like”Mean Mister Mustard” and “Long Tall Glasses” in the morning mental music stream. But ultimately, they went with “Over the Hills and Far Away” by Led Zeppelin.

We really need more peace and grace in this world. It’s a struggle to get it with Trump and his agents of chaos and destruction. May peace and grace emerge and grow and spread soon. Till then, be strong. Cheers

2

Fridaz Wandering Political Thoughts

First, happy Samhain or happy Halloween, whatever works for you.

I disagree with Jasmine Crocket. I like the humor but she’s wrong.

Trump is also progressing toward one-party authoritarian rule. When Trump briefed ‘Congress’ about his military activities, he only included Republicans.

Democrats Fume After GOP Shuts Them Out Of Briefing On Trump’s Military Strikes

“What the administration did in the last 24 hours is corrosive not only to our democracy but downright dangerous for our national security,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters on Thursday, warning that the move set a “troubling precedent” that had trampled on the longheld bipartisan tradition of bipartisan briefings of Congress on U.S. military activities abroad.

More at Yahoo.com/news.

Meanwhile, demonstrating his progressive trend of cratering successful organizations, the Trump Destruction Syndrome is evident at the Kennedy Center.

Ticket sales plummet at Kennedy Center after Trump takeover: Washington Post analysis

Ticket sales for the Kennedy Center have continued to plummet in the months since President Trump took over its operations.

Tens of thousands of seats have been left empty at the three main performance venues, according to The Washington Post. 

About 43 percent of tickets remain unsold according to the Post’s daily analysis of the Kennedy Center’s Opera House, Concert Hall and Eisenhower Theater from Sept. 3 to Oct. 19.

More can be read at The Hill on MSN.com

New Trump administration rule bars student loan relief for public workers tied to ‘illegal’ activity

On Thursday, Oct. 30, the Education Department finalized new rules for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which allows people in specialized careers – such as nursing, firefighting, teaching and certain types of nonprofit work – to have their student debt canceled after 10 years of timely payments. The program was mismanaged for years until recently, when former President Joe Biden reformed it, ultimately forgiving billions of dollars in debt for more than 1 million Americans.

This topic shows Trump is now more actively and progressively deciding who is breaking the law and deciding who will be a target based on his discrimination without evidence or due process.

 Specifically, the rules prevent businesses and organizations that have engaged in activities with a “substantial illegal purpose” from being eligible to participate.

Yet it’s not clear exactly what the Education Department will ultimately define as an “illegal” activity. According to the new regulations, such conduct will likely include providing support for undocumented immigrants, gender-affirming care for minors, supporting “terrorism” and aiding and abetting “illegal discrimination.”

More is available at USA Today.

Now some points of interest about current events from the web.

These posts reflect the lack of thinking behind the GOP and Trump’s actions and claims. This isn’t new. These are continuing trends. Trump and the GOP mouth things about the importance of law and order, how much they cherish life, children, and families, and then by their actions, they show that none of that matters. All that matters to them is money, being in control, and power.

The next one reveals so much about Trump. Trump doesn’t understand leadership, history, or Lincoln.

President Lincoln would not have been proud that the priority for the POTUS was to remodel the bathroom as millions of Americans face starvation. Of course, I’m pretty certain that President Lincoln would have been appalled that Trump is off golfing as the Epstein Government Shutdown of 2025 continues.

Yep, that’s the Trump M.O. all the way. Witness those recent talks with China. He created the problem and now he’s strutting around like he’s a genius.

This next one has special meaning to me. My brother-in-law is a MAGA with a ten-year-pin. He’s supported Trump for POTUS from go. He engaged my wife about antifa and tried to claim that it’s a national organization with elected officials, etc. She laughed and said, “You do realize that your father was antifa.”

He responded in surprise, “What?”

And she replied, “Yes, he fought in World War II, didn’t he?”

My wife’s point completely stunned my BIL. As it does with many MAGAts. They don’t understand history or choose to ignore it, and they just don’t think, preferring to parrot inane talking points.

Until they’re forced to confront the truth.

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