Tag: Constitution

Thirstdaz Theme Music

A gorgeous day of blue sky and blue ocean gave us a sunny good-morning today. 65 F that feels like 71. Skin-chilling sea breeze skips off the water and charges up over us. Today’s high is that 65. It was a short climb from the overnight low of 58 F. Narrow margins preside over this period of weather for the most part.

Thirstda morning, 10:30 AM, Yachats, Oregon, 8/21/2025

TACO revealed his cowardly side again. First, he’d demonstrated his authoritarian tendency by declaring that he was changing how we vote. Yeah, he’s smarter than the founders and everyone who has worked on the laws and mechanisms involved in the U.S. voting process since the nation was established. He also proved himself ignorant again of how the gubmint works — especially voting and states’ rights. Once again, all this has me shaking my head at all those voters who support him. Meanwhile, after pushback against his comments and ideas, TACO backed away fast from what he was saying. He realized he sounded like a fool. Trump no like looking like a fool, even though he does it so often, he’s become very adept at appearing the fool. Just another exasperating GRRRRRRR Trump Regime episode.

After reading that, it was out to walk to breakfast food. We were out there eating, having coffee, then walking. Food and drink were had at a place called The Green Salmon, one of our all-time favorite places. Delicious vegan food. I had plant-based sausage and Just Eggs sandwich on multigrain vegan bread with lettuce and tomato. Soooo gooood. Another had oat pancakes. No diary; no meats. All is plant-based, delicious, and amazing. Down where the rocky land holds on against the pounding waves, we watched one or more whales release flumes and show their backs. Funny how excited we get when we spot them.

Today’s song is “Renegades” by the X Ambassadors. This came about when one of our little vacationing tribe declared to a friendly coastal local that we were ambassadors from southern Oregon. Seizing the moment, The Neurons dialed up “Renegades” from 2015 into the morning mental music stream.

May the sun be your friend and peace and grace stay with you. Here I go again, on coffee wings. Cheers

2

Wenzdaz Theme Music

Greetings to all you stars from bucolic Ashlandia, the gem of southern Oregon. It’s Wenzda, August 13, 2025. We cooled a little last night after 102 F plugged the thermometer in the late afternoon. It was a late cooling, as midnight still saw us hugging the 80s. Today’s temperature has dropped into the friendlier realm of 96 F and tonight’s low will splash into the low 60s. Air is clear, blue, no skunks bothered us last night, and we continue a good string of not being pestered by flooding, wildfires, or smoke, knock wood.

Man, I slept well but it was a night of wild dreams. Gonna think about them for a while.

Today’s song is dedicated to Papi. As I star-gazed and soaked up cool night air, Papi startled me by slipping up from behind to brush against my calf. My body shouted, “Holy shit, something’s got me,” before saner Neurons said, “Hey, Papi.” He didn’t stay long, floating off through the moonlight into the shadows. The Neurons honored the moment by channeling Bob Seger and the Bob Seger System into the morning mental music stream with “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Cat”, I mean, “Ramblin Gamblin Man” from way back in my mid-teen years. It’s simple, basic rock and roll, folks.

After reading the news, I’m eschewing comments for now. Weather the storm for the moment, keep the rage alive and the powder dry, you know? Trump’s crash is coming. How far he takes us all will be interesting. He lies about so much, as do his stand-ins, and the lies are so easily proven. Now they’re trying hard to hide facts so they can build pillow forts and play make believe. It sucks that while they drool over fantasies, real world problems are being ignored, and they’re creating more, making life miserable for millions.

Coffee has tuned my mind and soul again. Time to take the body out for a spin. Hope peace and grace walk with you wherever you are today. Cheers

3

Mundaz Wandering Political Thoughts

Time to take stock of other people’s thoughts and insights into the current political scene in ‘Murica 2025.

Sadly, too many voters did not realize what the lesson was.

It’s the Trump shuffle, a dazzling tapdance of deflection, projections, and lies that easily beguiles the weak-minded.

He admits the affair but denies the abortions. He won’t run for re-election. Wonder if he’ll end up in the Trump Regime. He has the record for it.

Yep. It’s a metaphor. Funny that it’s probably driven by Trump’s mind. His subconscious is trying to tell him that he’s turning the nation into a sewer.

Yep, the greedy, unprincipled Offal Office liar is living up to his rep as a greedy, unprincipled liar

Those who chose to put on blinders and pretend that the past was different than what history says are doomed to keep trying to rewrite it.

The fact that nobody around him has told him this isn’t how numbers work shows you how afraid of him everyone who works for him is. The fact that he doesn’t know after being in business his entire adult life also explains his many bankruptcies.

That’s the TACO way!

And a final reminder:

Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein. With Trump. Smirking together.

0

Munda’s Wandering Political Thoughts

If you have a brain, and some thinking skills, the full Trumpasy is all revealed. Just check out the Trump Regime’s actions. Look at the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’. Read again Project 2025.

  1. Redistribute wealth to the wealthy. They need it to ‘build the economy’. This is called trickle down economics. It has been decisively proven not to work.
  2. Start shredding the welfare net. Cut Medicaid. Force people to work more.
  3. Cut all assistance contributed by the Federal government to the states and local communities. Downtrodden existences lead to downtrodden morale. A sick people is a desperate people, and are more easily manipulated.
  4. De-construct the education system. An uneducatd population is more guillible. Indoctrinate young people into right wing values via vouchers and private schools.
  5. Manufacture and reinforce negative stereotypes of other citizens, people who ‘are different’, i.e., people who are not heterosexual and white. This is useful for blame games and distraction, and helps neuter political will.
  6. Weaponize ICE into a paramilitary force. While laws limit what the US military is authorized to do to citizens, it’s a more wide-open field with ICE. Under the guise of rounding up ‘illegal immigrants’, the Trump Regime are also undermining due process and the concepts of ‘innocent until proven guilty’. People are being disappeared as the right-wing social media machine provides cover by declaring that the Constitution isn’t meant to be applied to ‘non-citizens’.
  7. Establish concentration camps. The first one has been built in Florida, of course. Don’t be surprised if Texas eagerly builds one in the race to be patriotic by refusing others equality, rights, and freedom. Disappearing people and creating concentration camps stoke fears and can be used to threaten political opposition.
  8. Build a right-wing Supreme Court bias that’s willing to overlook history and precedence, one which will used flawed interpretations of the U.S. Constitution to empower the Executive Branch and wipe out the checks and balance system provided by three equal branches.
  9. Weaponize trade. Try to force manufacturing back to the United States, even though the raw materials are obtained elsewhere, and even though the capital investments needed for new factories are astronomical. This provides a false hope of new jobs; there will be new jobs but they won’t pay wages needed to live in this ever expensive land, forcing people to work more, no matter their health or situation. This will also increase people’s desperation to work and make money to pay for basic goods and services such as food and housing, as prices see tariff-based inflation bound upward.
  10. But — also cut limitations on child labor laws. Encourage poor poeple to have more children to provide a larger and cheaper work force.
  11. Cut or waive environmental laws and regulations to reduce the cost of building new manufacturing facilities.
  12. Nurture confusion among facts and distrust of the news media. Confusion helps the Regime maintain control by undermining grass root organizations’ ability to effectively organize and protest. It also allows the Regime to turn citizen against citizen in a cold war that favors the Trump Regime’s heavy hand.
  13. Distract, distract, distract. In this endeavor, natural disasters are your friend; they pull focus from the political arena. Reduce the Federal government’s effectiveness in predicting disasters and helping states and communities. Again, chaos, confusion, and low morale are useful for controlling and manipulating the population. As a bonus, when a natural disaster levels a region, it opens up land and opportunity to rebuild. People with next to nothing can be more easily induced to take less pay for bad jobs.
  14. Attack other nations; encourage aggression among other nations. Make the world a scarier place.

Yes, this is cynical. It’s not my thinking, but my interpretation of what the Trump Regime and the Republican-filled Greedy Ol’ Trump Party, also known as the GOTP, is doing. Show me I’m wrong. Point to Trump’s actions and demonstrate otherwise. Parse that OBBB for clues that this is not what the Trump Regime pursues.

Time will tell. It’s already told us a great deal in the first six months of 2025.

1

Frida’s Wandering Political Thoughts

We have violence escalating in the Middle East and the United States as the Ukraine-Russia War burns on. This is the forefront. In the momentary background are tariffs and trade wars, climate change and natural disasters like wildfires. Always thinking ahead *cough cough, yes, that’s very thick snark*, a Florida right wing sheriff is threatening to kill protestors, Gov. DeSantis in Florida beams and tells drivers that it’s okay to hit protestors with their cars (anyone remember Charlottesville, VA?), Gov. Abott in Texas is calling out the National Guard, and so is Gov. Kehoe in Missouri. That First Amendment and its right to assemble really terrifies the right wing. Which, I guess we can infer means that We the People terrify them.

The current situation isn’t triggering joy and optimism in me. I could play whatif games about Trump, Putin, and Netanyahu being more restrained and diplomatic. These games are as pointless as wishes Kamela Harris won the election in 2024. Or Hillary won in 2016. Or Gore in 2000. Or that spineless Republicans like Mitch McConnell stood up, did his job, and impeached Trump in the latter’s first term. Or the Roberts Supreme Court didn’t behave like an overindulgent absent father and ruled to appease the right wing. We’re beyond those things mattering, except the ripples are still going.

That’s the thing. I, we, gotta ride the ripples. Do what I can, what we can, to mitigate their impact. Survive and help others do the same. And seize the opportunity to help change the world — again — when the chance comes.

Stand up this weekend. Stay calm. De-escalate violence but stand for your principles. Be reasonable in the face of absurdity. It can be painful. It will take courage and strength. It can be done.

No kings. No fascism. Not in the United States of America. Not now. Not ever.

0

Twosda’s Theme Music

Munda’s temperature topped out at 99 F around my house. Thunderstorms rolled in. Enough rain drops were issued to prompt some petrichor but mostly the clouds blocked the sun and crashed the temp down to 83 F in less than an hour. Hurrah for that! Twosda, June 10, 2025, has a 91 F high on hand for Ashlandia.

I read Tangle’s coverage of the protests last night. Tangle presents sample right and left side reactions to the news. Nichole Russell’s USA Today’s article was cited for the right. Russell wrote this:

“It’s important to note that ICE agents aren’t arresting just anyone. The Department of Homeland Security reported that the arrests in Los Angeles included people accused of drug trafficking, assault, cruelty to children, domestic violence, robbery and the smuggling of illegal immigrants.”

She repeats several fact-free memes and basically wants us to trust the Department of Homeland Security and the masked ICE gunmen sent out snatch people off the streets. It’s important to note, these people are ‘accused’ of crimes, but, gosh, what happened to innocent until proven guilty? It’s important to note, the the ICE personnel rarely show faces, insigniar, badges, or documents. We’re supposed to trust these people hiding their faces.

I struggle to trust DHS and the Trump Regime. They’ve been caught lying, ignoring court orders, and dismissing the Constitution. They try to rearrange history and semantics to make it seem like not everyone in the United States is entitled to due process. Well, let me tell you, respect and trust aren’t given; they need to be earned. The Trump Regime and the right wing are doing nothing to earn either from me, with a few exceptions, as others remind me, such as Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.

Today’s music is “Nowhere Man” by The Beatles. I can’t honestly pinpoint what The Neurons were thinking when they plugged the 1965 song into the morning mental music stream. It might have been caused by a dream. Could also be triggered by Trump antics as the lyrics go,

He’s as blind as he can be
Just sees what he wants to see
Nowhere man can you see me at all

I’m off to the dentist! See you in about five hours. Have the best one you can. Cheers

2

Happy Belated Reminder

This reminder comes to you courtesy of Mock Paper Scissors. I tried reblogging it, but, WordPress. So here it is, with a link to them. Respect to them for the reminder, this felon is the leader of the former GOP, which is now the Greedy Old TACO Party, GOTP. The Trumplicans who were once Republicans sometimes weakly mew with indignation have certainly demonstrated that they are, like him, racist, greedy, unprincipled, with little regard for due process, the oaths they swore, or most of their constituents.

LET’S GO, TACO.

3

Wenzda’s Theme Music

It’s been over two weeks since I last heard the furnace warming our house. That pleases me. Pleases my mango tango, the ginger floof known as Papi even more. He scampers in to say hello and eat but otherwise lives a life snoozing in secret places among cooling bushes and vinca. Not a bad life for him, I think.

Today is Wenzda, May 28, 2025. Munda passed in a flounce. Tuesday barely registered for me. Here I sit on Wenzda, enjoying blue sky and sunshine. Air temp is already 80 F with 88 in our sights today. Later this week, we expect to push past 90 F. We’ll soon see the green hills on the valley’s northern sun brown like baking bread.

I went to cut back the backyard. The weeds had shoot up to a foot in height. Finally turned my attention to whacking it back, but when I went out there — bees were buzzing around the weeds. I was so pleased to see them. A hummingbird zipped by, too. Hallelujah, sang The Neurons. Out front, a thick buzz was rising from the tree upfront which the bees regularly frequent. They hadn’t been around yet and I was happy to see them back.

The Neurons have blessed the morning mental music stream with “Bad Company”. “Bad Company” is a 1974 power ballad by the group called “Bad Company”. Ostensibly, it relates to the chosen life of being a gunslinger but to hear him say it, he really had no choice. I can dig that; I feel as if choice is taken from me when it comes to writing. This boy’s gotta do it. However, I don’t know why The Neurons plugged “Bad Company” into my head. Was this a reference to people coming into town to visit, or were they making a disparaging remark about my attitude? Hard to say with The Neurons. They jump out with a claim and then dance away before they can be questioned.

Over in the political quarter of my life, I read about Republican Rep. Mike Flood’s town hall meeting in Nebraska. Flood was there chatting about the disastrous bill that the Greedy Old Trump Party passed in the House last week. When called out about one provision, Flood admitted that he didn’t know the provision was in it because he hadn’t read the bill.

Republican Rep. Mike Flood appeared before his constituents in Nebraska on Tuesday for a town hall that turned ugly as he tried to defend President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” the reconciliation package the House of Representatives passed last week, and which is expected to force millions of Americans off their health care coverage and food aid.

Unfortunately, Flood hadn’t actually read the bill. 

Flood could barely get through a sentence without facing boos and heckling from the audience. At one point, when asked about a provision in the GOP’s massive reconciliation package that would restrict the judiciary’s ability to hold government officials in contempt, Flood said he did not agree with the provision, before admitting that the “provision was unknown to me when I voted for that.”

That’s what we’re hearing time and again from Republicans in Congress: the classic but weak defense, “I didn’t know.” It’s especially weak when it’s their job to know. That’s why he was voted into office, wasn’t it? As their servant and representative? As seen across the nation during PINO Trump’s first four months in office in 2025, rising numbers of constituents are pissed that their representatives aren’t doing their jobs. Flood went on to claim that he’s taken an oath that he’ll defend the Constitution. As always, actions speak louder than words. With his inaction, he’s complicit in undermining the Constitution, our checks and balances, and the rule of law. Likewise, he’s part of the party gleefully tearing down the education system that helped the United States advance as it did last century. But as part of the Greedy Old Trump Party, he can’t see or admit what he’s doing.

Rep. Mike Flood is a DOGE Faithful and Trump lover. Back in March, his constituents called him out for DOGE’s cuts to research, Medicaid, and Medicare. Flood defended it by saying that cuts were needed because of the national debt. Back then, Flood said, “Ultimately, where we need to go is to a balanced budget. How can you be against a balanced budget?” This, before passing that bill that cut taxes for the wealthy. It all reeks of bullshit and hypocrisy, doesn’t it? The way they’re ‘governing’ is a crime.

Okay, out of lecture mode. Coffee has been embraced; into writing mode. Have the best day you can, and do things that make you hold your head up high. Cheers

0

Thirstda’s Wandering Political Thoughts

Current political events and trends in the United States got you down? Are you, like me, frustrated and angry about what’s happening to the United States under the Trump Regime? Are you appalled by how PINO Trump and his minions are trampling the Constitution and the balance of power? Maybe you’re ready for VoodooByMoodoo.

The chances that standard law and order, court rulings, or Congress will address Trump’s lawless ways seem to be dimming. Maybe Voodoo is the answer. At the least, it might provide some stress release as you stick a pin in a little orange doll. Maybe, with luck, you’ll nail his brain or heart. I wouldn’t bet on either; both are incredibly tiny. They said evidence of either were not found during his last physical. The physician pretended

VoodooByMoodoo. When nothing else seems to work. After all, we’re dealing with a lot of zombies out there.

They call themselves MAGA.

Borrowed from Teri Seitz @teri-teri-boberry.bsky.social.

5

WTF, America

Trump Says ‘I Don’t Know’ When Asked if He Has to ‘Uphold the Constitution’

First, let’s review the Oath of Office for the Presidency.

ArtII.S1.C8.1.1 Oath of Office for the Presidency Generally

Article II, Section 1, Clause 8:

Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:– I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Article II, Section 1, Clause 8 provides that the President must swear or affirm to “faithfully execute the Office of President” and “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution” to the best of the President’s ability. Presidents since George Washington have reflected on the oath’s significance and the burden it places on the President. In his second inaugural address, Washington declared that a violation of the presidential oath would occasion not only “constitutional punishment,” but “the upbraidings of all who are now witnesses of the present solemn ceremony.” Of the oath, Justice Joseph Story wrote: “[t]here is little need of commentary . . . . No man can well doubt the propriety of placing a president of the United States under the most solemn obligations to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution.” 

Back on January 20, 2017, Donald J. Trump swore this oath of office. Despite winning the popular vote by a narrow margin, 49.8% to 48.3%, and almost 90,000,000 registered voters not voting, Trump was elected and swore this oath of office a second time on January 20, 2025.

Now Trump claims that he doesn’t know if he needs to uphold the Constitution?

Yep, that’s what PINO Trump said in an interview with Kristen Welker on NBC’s Meet the Press this week.

“Your Secretary of State says everyone who’s here, citizens and non-citizens, deserve due process. Do you agree, Mr. President?” Welker asked Trump.

“I don’t know. I’m not, I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know,” he said.

To summarize, this self-professed “really smart”, “very stable genius”, doesn’t trust or believe his Secretary of State’s assertion?

Trump also seems to believe he has a ‘mandate’. He won by less than two percent of the popular vote. Moreover, Trump believes that his campaign promises to deport undocumented immigrants — or this one, at least, because he already blew off several others, like ending the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and lowering inflation — carries more weight than his sworn oath to uphold the Constitution?

The United States of America really elected a duplicitous jackass in 2024. But he’s a useful jackass for those who aren’t interested in maintaining the United States as a democratic republic, entities such as the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025. We’re traversing deep wormholes of twisted logic these days. Tariffs will lower prices. The POTUS doesn’t need to support or defend the Constitution. Agencies can be ended by Executive Order regardless of Congress’s role in creating the agencies. Insider trading is now okay. Greed is good. Due process is not necessarily due process. Next thing that you know, Trump and his minions will be claiming that Christianity will be the official religion, despite the separation of church and state wall.

Oh, wait.

Trump, brushing aside separation of church and state, establishes religious liberty commission

Trump, who just reminded us that he’s not a lawyer, so he doesn’t know if he’s required to uphold the Constitution and due process as described in the Fifth Amendment of the Bill of Rights, has demonstrated he doesn’t care about the Constitution. He’ll just dance around it and drag the rest of us with him, regardless of the law.

So many of us saw it coming. It makes us increasingly angry and bitter.

The United States is not a monarchy. Trump’s election to the office of the presidency does not give him the right to overthrow or ignore the Constitution. In just 100 days of Trump’s second term, we are deep into a crisis.

Take it to the streets on June 14, 2025. Trump is not a king. See fiftyfifty.one for more.

6

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑