Satyrdaz Theme Music

Today is Satyrda, October 11, 2025. Thin sunshine is cutting through the windows around the blinds but it’s 45 F and wet out there. High is pinned at 52 F, but I’ll note that we didn’t get within three degrees of the projected high for yesterday. It remained brrr-y all day. That was then, and this is now, where clouds mix it up with blue sky. The precipitation and cold air brought early snow to Mt. Ashland, a few miles from here, a few thousand feet higher in elevation. We’re also down to

Absolutely beautiful snow covered image of Mt. Ashland from the lodge webcam. This is stunning to see this early in the season. h/t to Ryanweather.com

You know this made me lose my appetite this morning:

Venezuelan opposition leader dedicates Nobel Prize to Trump for ‘decisive support’

I don’t know what Trump has done for Venezuela to help with their democracy. Up here in the United States, we’re chaffing under his military heel as he tries to make the press and everyone else bend the knee to him as the first Dictator of the United States.

Meanwhile, I guess I have to trust the physician, and not my own lying eyes. From Huffpost:

President Donald Trump Is In ‘Exceptional Health,’ His Doctor Says, After Visit To Walter Reed

President Donald Trump is in “exceptional health,” his physician said Friday after he underwent a checkup that included lab tests and preventive health assessments at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

Trump spent roughly three hours at the Bethesda, Maryland, hospital earlier Friday for what his doctor, Navy Capt. Sean Barbabella, called a “scheduled follow-up evaluation” that was a “part of his ongoing health maintenance plan.” While there, Trump also got his yearly flu shot, as well as a COVID-19 booster vaccine.

One, surprised that they mentioned Trump getting a COVID-19 booster vaccine. The Trump Regime regularly rails against it as a Democrat hoax.

Two, Trump doesn’t look healthy. He appears obese, doesn’t move well, and often speaks like he’s half alive. Basically, if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, then it’s an overweight, unhealthy person, and the proclamation that he’s in exceptional health is political theater. Then again, Trump and his minions are caught in lies every day. That is their well-established history. I’m conditioned not to believe a damn word any of them say.

It was an incomplete exam of Trump, though.

Today’s theme music is another dream product. Dream I was with others, worrying about the weather. People began running. I didn’t know why. We were on like a level paved area the size of an airfield, but it was paved in white. Huge mountains surrounded two sides. As I tried figuring out why others were running, an enormous green wave crested the mountains. After a “Holy fuck,” reaction, I scrambled to find somewhere safe. But I didn’t think anywhere would be safe. All that took too long. The wave crashed down. Water engulfed me but it was warm and soothing. I was surprised I was alive, then thought I was holding my breath but then grasped that I was breathing underwater, another WTF moment. Awakening from the dream and thinking about it, the “Iris” line, “You breathe just to know you’re alive,” came to me. The Neurons took note and flooded the morning mental music stream with the Goo Goo Dolls song.

Coffee is rocking the body so I guess it’s time to rock on. Hope peace and grace finds and embraces us, if not this year, than the next. Till then, keep calm and protest on. Cheers

Fridaz Theme Music

Rain just kicked in here. Dark and gloomy. Feels lifted from a gothic novel. All the blinds are up but sunshine has vacated its post. The rain though, is a comforting background song. Fall is here, the scene outside proclaims. Get used to it.

We will. Then we’ll tire of it, and the great conveyor belt will carry winter to us. We’ll get used to that and tired of that and hit the holidays and a new year and then start looking for spring. It’s almost a tradition.

Papi is tres upset by this weather change. His downcast expression has WTF written large. I tell him, “Stay in, you’ll be happy.” After desultory outdoor expeditions, he agrees and find a space to sleep.

48 F now, we won’t see 60 today. This is Frida, October 20, 2025, in Ashland, Oregon. Ashlandia.

Trump didn’t win the Noble Peace Prize. I am so happy that the deranged bully didn’t win that honor. The prize went to María Corina Machado, from Venezuela, who worked to restore democracy to that nation. Can we get her up here? Trump’s head would explode. And congratulations to María Corina Machado for a well-deserved honor.

Back in ‘Murica, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Hell) spoke, refreshing the impression that he’s an idiot.

‘Angry’ Johnson lashes out — says Dems need to be ‘physically separated’ from Republicans

This from Alternet:

“We’re so angry about it,” he told Fox News. “I mean, I’m a very patient guy, but I have had it with these people,” the Speaker said, emphatically, of Democrats. “They’re playing games with real people’s lives.”

Yeah, that jackass is angry that the Democrats are not caving and that more voters are realizing that the Epstein Shutdown of 2025 is a Trump GOP gift, a product of the Regime’s Misery Machine. Trump and the GOP control Congress and the Oval Office. The self-proclaimed ‘great negotiator’ can’t make a deal. As Donald J. loudly claimed back before he shut the government down three times, a government shutdown shows a weak president. He’s sitting on three. How weak does that prove him to be?

Personal news from home isn’t good. Mom’s BF, Frank, is in pretty bad shape. Hard to get details through the grapevine. Broken ribs, the hip that was replaced, heart issues, and dementia. What he’s enduring has him acting contrary to who he usually is, and he’s being violent, mean, loud, and angry. They have him restrained to a bed, someone watching him 24/7, and mitts on his hands so he can’t pull out tubes and try to escape. Little sister is pulling duty helping Mom. This is a sister who has two children. One of them lives with her. Her daughter’s BF also resides with them. She’s a grandmother who takes those duties seriously and spends time and money on her grands. She works, exercises, cooks for her family and Mom, and also keeps the books for her husband’s plumbing biz. She’s a dynamo and I’m pleased she’s there to help Mom. Other two sisters apparently have some medical problems of their own. They’re not discussing their issues but they’re not visiting Mom much.

Today’s music arises from a conversation with my orange floof, Papi. The weather has him restless. So I sang, “Lay down Papi,” to him to the tune of “Lay Down Sally” by Eric Clapton. “Lay down Papi. You don’t need go outside. I’m been trying all morning long just to pet you,” is what I sang to the boy. Natch, The Neurons were all over that, pumping “Lay Down Sally” into the morning mental music stream. And yep, that’s “Duck” Dunn on bass in this video.

Coffee is cruising through the alimentary system, delivering its needed cargo. Hope peace and grace pops out soon and visits for a prolonged period. Meanwhile, stay strong. I’ll try doing the same. And away we go. Cheers

Thirstdaz Wandering Political Thoughts

TL/DR: Donald Trump lies. So does Rep. Mike Jonson. The Epstein Shutdown continues. Trump continues his march toward being a dictator.

The Trump Regime continues to attack American cities. It’s a move that most U.S. citizens do not approve.

Polling Shows Americans Reject Trump’s Threat to Militarize US Cities

From Truthout:

A Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Wednesday found that Americans largely disapprove of troops being deployed to U.S. cities when there isn’t an external threat. Nearly 6 in 10 Americans, 58 percent, said the president should only deploy troops to areas of the country facing an external threat, while fewer than 3 in 10 Americans, 25 percent, disagreed with that sentiment.

A plurality of respondents, 48 percent, said they were opposed to a president sending troops to a state if the governor of that state disapproves of such an action. Only 37 percent said a president should be allowed to send troops to a state without the governor’s consent.

The Epstein Shutdown of 2025 continues. Speaker Johnson (R-Hell) continues his very Christian lying. He continues to lie and blame Democrats but he’s been exposed.

Ashen-Faced Johnson Dressed Down on Live TV by Voters

The Louisiana Republican looked visibly tense as caller after caller unloaded on him during the rare televised segment on the Washington Journal, the first time a House speaker had taken live questions from voters on the network in 24 years.

The most searing exchange came from “Samantha,” a self-described Republican military mother calling from Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Fighting back tears, she accused Johnson of failing troops and their families as a missed paycheck deadline loomed.

“I’m begging you to pass this legislation,” she said. “My kids could die.”

Samantha said her husband, a veteran with PTSD after two tours in Afghanistan, was struggling to keep their family afloat. “As a Republican, I’m very disappointed in my party, and I’m very disappointed in you,” she continued. “You could stop this. You could be the one to say, ‘Military is getting paid.’ The audacity of someone who makes six figures a year to do this to military families is insane.”

Johnson, maintaining a measured tone, told her he was “so sorry” and “so angry” about her situation—before blaming Senate Democrats for blocking troop funding. “Democrats are the ones preventing you from getting a check,” he said, calling any House vote on a standalone pay bill a “show vote.”

Guess the Trump Bible says nothing about lying.

I’m not surprised by Johnson’s lying. His hero and inspiration consistently lies. CNN has a fact check about the number of lies Trump told in a recent cabinet meeting.

Fact check: Trump makes numerous false claims at Cabinet meeting, many about vaccines

President Donald Trump made numerous false claims during a Cabinet meeting Thursday at the White House – many of them about vaccines.

He wrongly asserted that babies are given 82 vaccines in a single shot (not even close to true). He wrongly asserted that babies are given vaccine doses the size of two glasses of water (a standard dose is a small fraction of a teaspoon). He wrongly asserted that Amish people don’t take vaccines or pills (many do) and don’t have any autism (they do). And he wrongly asserted that the measles vaccine is already given separately from other vaccines (no separate measles shot is available in the US).

Trump was also wildly inaccurate on other subjects.

He again claimed each alleged Venezuelan drug boat kills 25,000 Americans, a number that is plainly absurd. He again used mathematically impossible figures in promising that drug prices will fall by hundreds of percent. He again declared that he had settled seven wars even before the new ceasefire he brokered in Gaza, though his figure includes a war that hasn’t ended and two situations that were not wars during his presidency.

He revived his usual lie that he was the rightful winner of the 2020 election he legitimately lost to Joe Biden. And he declared once more that the big domestic policy bill he signed earlier this year includes “no tax on Social Security,” though that’s not what the bill says.

As far as the Epstein Shutdown, we know that’s it first about protecting TACO from the Epstein files contents. Second, Project 2025 needs Trump chaos to distract and give TACO cover to further his ambition to be the first Dictator of the United States, DOTUS. We know stuff is probably in the Epstein file about Trump because TACO is working so hard to deny that he ever really knew his BFF, Jeffrey Epstein, and convince everyone that the Epstein files is a hoax, blaming Democrats, of course.

Trump and Epstein of the Smirketeers.

Meanwhile, the Trump Misery Machine continues to work destruction and misery on the population. Beef prices are at a record high. Trump is pretty mum on the subject. MAGAts will try to pin it on Democrats. But dwindling herds are a problem. Herds have been cut because drought is drying up pastures. Basic supply and demand. But wait, there’s more: Trump’s 76% tariffs on Brazilian beef have contributed to beef shortages and rising prices. NPR reports.

Why beef prices are higher than ever (and shoppers are finally resisting)

In July, the U.S. Department of Agriculture continued to record a shrinking number of U.S. cattle and calves, forecasting that beef production would decline 4% over this year and another 2% in 2026.

Meanwhile, foreign imports are also down. Brazilian beef faces a 76% tariff. Fears about the screwworm parasite have led the USDA to block livestock from crossing from Mexico to the U.S. to safeguard the nation’s food supply.

It is time to change the channel on Trump and his enablers from Faux and Project 2025. Step out and make your voice heard.

Take action with no kings.

Looks like if we’re going to restore democracy in the United States, it’s up to We the People to do it.

Wenzdaz Wandering Political Thoughts

One must wonder…

Read articles about Trump’s speech to assembled Navy sailors to celebrate the Navy’s 250 years in existence. But first, damn, this person who used deferments five-times to avoid serving in the military loves to strut around in front of the military as political capital, doesn’t he?

Trump Gave a Partisan Speech to Navy Sailors, to Mixed Reactions

Here’s one reaction which I read that dismayed me.

Why is this young woman in the military? Maybe just to have a job, perhaps to see the world, or possibly to get an education. Is she aware that if Trump’s Dept. of War Secretary had his way, females’ roles would be severely curtailed in the military? Maybe she does know. Perhaps Josie Reyna agrees, women should not be in combat roles because they’re not as good as men, in Hegseth’s opinion.

Also, I wonder if she sincerely thinks sending military forces to U.S. cities, using military force on U.S. citizens is ‘doing what’s right’? Either way, she puts a low value on ‘great’.

Trump is quoted from the same event.

Reflecting on the strength of the U.S. Navy over its 250 years of service, Trump said, “The instant a US carrier, cruiser, or destroyer breaks across the horizon, every tyrant and adversary on the planet knows their choice is very simple: it’s leave America in peace, or be blown up in fire and fury never seen before.”

Yet, he’s acting like an absolute dictator himself. So, every tyrant doesn’t know that they need to be leave America in peace. Trump is aggressively pursuing military action against U.S. citizens. Through his militant behavior against Democrats, he acts like he wants civil war. It’s quite fucking insane but aligns perfectly with the GOP’s broken policies and lack of principles.

Trump went on to disparage Democrats, of course, and lie some more.

Trump described Democrat leaders, who have refused to pass a continuing resolution to fund the government, as a “little gnat that’s on our shoulder.” The president explained that while Democrats “want to give all of our money to illegal aliens that pour into the country,” he has “pledged the largest ever investment in our military’s history.”

That’s not what Democrats want at all. And who is ‘our shoulder’? He’s supposed to be the President of the United States, not the POTUS of half or a third. This is how he sows and deepens the divisions afflicting our nation. Trump’s ‘leadership’ reminds me of a joke.

All the organs were deciding who should be the boss….

“I should be in charge,” said the brain. “I do all the thinking. Without me nothing would happen.”

“I should be in charge,” said the heart. “I circulate oxygen and nutrients all over.”

“No! I should be in charge,” said the stomach. “I process the food that gives us energy.”

“I should be in charge,” said the eyes, “I can where we’re going.”

“I should be in charge,” said the anus. “I am responsible for waste removal.”

All of the other body parts laughed at the anus and insulted him. So he shut down. Within a few days, the brain had a terrible headache, the stomach was bloated, the legs got wobbly, the eyes got watery, and the heart pumped toxic blood. They all decided that the anus should be the boss.

The moral of the story is that you don’t need brains, heart, guts, or vision to be a leader. Just be an asshole.

Twosdaz Theme Music

If that’s the garbage truck, it must be Twozda. Indeed, it’s the garbage truck and Twozda, October 7, 2025. Beautiful 67 F with blue skies forever and sunshine flooding over the trees and mountains. 81 F is in range as today’s top end.

Trump news has me itchy with irritation. With the government shutdown underway, stats and data useful to decision making and trend spotting is MIA. Air traffic controllers and the military are being asked to work without pay. ATC is a stressful job. The military can be as stressful. Working without pay adds to that stress. Financial institutions are helping both segments cope with the loss of income but how sustainable is that? Beyond those areas, home foreclosures under Trump are on the rise. Mortgage rates are high. Insurance costs are soaring and will go yet higher as the costs of replacement materials increase. Local taxes and service fees are increasing to replace revenue losses and the loss of Federal assistance under the Trump Regime. Food prices keep going up. Going into the holiday season in the United States, the vaunted last three months of the year, home to Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Kwanza, and Hannukah, prices of gifts and food are expected to take deep bites out of budgets. Couple that with other factors, and an ugly quagmire is being put into place.

The Trump Regime doesn’t help any of it. As tax revenues fall and farmer suffer from losses because of tariffs, the Trump Regime wants to bail out the farmers hurting from Trump’s destructive tariffs and trade wars. It’s a classic downward spiral. Contributing further, Trump is cutting off renewable energy projects. That takes a chunk out of the economy, as those projects usually contributed to state and city local economic booms. Unemployment will rise. Meanwhile, his moves to instill manufacturing will take time. And if people are unemployed and counting pennies to get buy, who is going to buy the goods that the factories make? He’s killing the market.

Finally, uselessly deploying troops to cities are estimated to cost about twenty million dollars a day per place. Trump thinks that tariffs will replace tax revenues but if people are buying less and less because the cost of everything is rising, WTH does he think is going to buy? Coupled with all of this, the government shutdown and shaky economic and weakening economic forecast will drive higher costs to pay off the Federal deficit, and it has already caused companies to put spending and hiring plans on hold.

It is a fucking mess, and will just get worse. Healthcare premiums are set to soar under the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’. Read that in the mocking tone it deserves. With healthcare premiums increasing, people will cut insurance. More people will get sick but get help less often, usually until it’s dire. This leads to increasing healthcare costs and lower productivity. Lower productivity generates higher costs. All this is historically documented. The Trump Regime refuses to acknowledge those history lessons.

Stack on: tourism is down and will keep going down as Trump’s military presence grows in cities and his ICE agents aggressively attack people. Those are bad optics for tourism, and the soft data tells us that foreign visitors are shunning the United States as a tourist, education, and business destination. Additionally, the Trump assault on universities and colleges are reducing enrollment. That means those institutions will need to cut overhead and personnel. And, again, as Trump cuts Federal funding for government-backed research, activities in those projects will significantly drop or go completely idle. That’s more lost jobs. More lost local revenue. More lost Federal revenue.

It’ll all come crashing down under its own weight. Our questions are, how bad will it get? How long will it take before all these pressures come together to fuse the political will to work against Trump. So far, the GOP is completely MIA in this. This is their mess, but it will crush all except the wealthiest. The wealthiest, like Trump.

Reminder: this is the Epstein shutdown. The fear releasing the files. Releasing the files might generate the political will to move on from Trump. And the GOP is happier with him and they in charge, wrecking the world, than revealing who he is. As if we don’t already know. I guess they fear the validation of who he is, who they worship, and support.

All this stirred The Neurons to play “On the Dark Side” in the morning mental music stream. This song was from a movie called Eddie and the Cruisers, about the life and times of a fake rock band with heavy focus on the tortured soul lead singer, Eddie. The real music is performed by John Cafferty & the Beaver Brown Band.

Enough venting, enough from the dark side. Hope grace and peace resurfaces for us all and doesn’t hold out too much longer. Time for coffee. Time to write. Here we go, out into the day. Cheers

Sundaz Theme Music

Summery wisps are present for Sunda, October 5, 2025, in Ashlandia. Now 57 F, sunshine and blue skies say summer but the trees’ scarlets, oranges, golds, and yellows remind us, no, we’re turned the seasonal corner. Still, 75 F is our projected high. Good day for getting outside for yard chores. Papi approved, to judge from his floofverbals — tail up, eyes slitting in appreciation as a sun pool is turned into a floofspot. He commences a lazy spruce up of his whiskers.

Several interesting articles were read this AM. One is an Adam Gabbatt analysis in The Guardian addressing Trump’s increasing strange behavior.

The president is unhinged’: Trump’s online behavior grows increasingly odd

The column highlighted Trump’s AI use to portray Rep. Hakeem Jeffries as Hispanic, a strange and silly ploy which drew Hispanic anger against Trump. That was stacked atop the right-wing conspiracy about med beds shared in a Trump tweet (later deleted), his unfounded ideas about pregnant women using Tylenol, and Trump’s pingpong attention span. Trump went from the Michigan synagogue shooting, where he promised to keep people updated and then never posted about it again, to bragging about the tacky gold decoration he’s added to the Oval Office to his dissatisfaction with an NFL kickoff rule. Then he talked about how presidents walk.

“America is respected again as a country. We were not respected with Biden. They looked at him falling down stairs every day. Every day, the guy’s falling down stairs.”

Trump continued: “I said: ‘It’s not our president. We can’t have it.’ I’m very careful, you know, when I walk downstairs for – like I’m on stairs, like these stairs, I’m very – I walk very slowly. Nobody has to set a record, just try not to fall because it doesn’t work out well. A few of our presidents have fallen and it became a part of their legacy.

“We don’t want that. Need to walk nice and easy. You not have – you don’t have to set any record. Be cool, be cool when you walk down, but don’t, don’t bop down the stairs. That’s the one thing with Obama, I had zero respect for him as a president, but he would bop down those stairs, I’ve never seen – da da da da da da, bop, bop, bop, he’d go down the stairs, wouldn’t hold on. I said, it’s great, I don’t want to do it. I guess I could do it, but eventually bad things are going to happen and it only takes once, but he did a lousy job as president.”

Those of us who regularly Trump watch were wearily unsurprised. No, we’re more amazed that the GOP cynically not just accepts Trump’s surreal behavior but actually celebrate and support it. Meanwhile, Trump grows more violent, more eager to use the military every day. Attacks against Venezuela have escalated without any checks being offered by Congress about WTF is going on. And Trump regularly drools over chances of sending in military, even threatening to use the 82nd Airborne, into American cities run by Democrats.

The other article catching my attention was more direct about Trump and his growing wars.

Trump’s phony war on Venezuela — and his larger war on reality

That’s the heart of the matter, isn’t it: Trump is conducting a war on reality, and bringing his alternate reality and self-created facts and history into our reality. That’s the old square peg in a round hole problem. Trump reality is wholly at odds with truth, facts, medicine, and history, and often wars with logic. This piece is by Andrew O’Hehir in Salon. O’Hehir writes,

This war on the world has both fictional goals and real ones, and the fact that those are incompatible is, once again, not a fundamental problem for Trump’s courtiers or adherents. There’s no hypothetical version of global equilibrium in which the United States is simultaneously the dominant superpower and also an isolationist fortress-state with zero immigration. I would guess that Trump loves the sound of that but doesn’t follow the logic too far, while the people who intend to outlast him just “yes queen” along and roll their eyes. Their goal is more doable: leveraging American power to ensure the continued dominance of the billionaire elite for at least as long as our planet remains habitable. (They’re aware that it probably shouldn’t be advertised that way.)

This is how many of us have viewed Trump and MAGALand since early days. I recommend reading the entire article.

The summer/autumn blend has The Neurons feeding me a song about summer. Called “Summer”, by Calvin Harris. This video of young people at a show having fun was amusing to me to watch. Hope it doesn’t something for you, too.

Coffee has again answered the call. Peace and grace are still hanging back, despite my naked dance under the moonlight last night. Hope peace and grace get here soon. Till then, cheers.

Fridaz Wandering Political Thoughts

Ah, so the ‘no new wars’ POTUS, Trump, he who thinks he so richly deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, has declared a war on drugs. After having several Venezuelan boats attacked and destroyed by the United States military, seventeen people killed, Trump is now attacking United States citizens in Chicago through ICE, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives raids. United States citizens were dragged out of their apartments during the night. Their apartments were trashed. All without due process.

ICE Agents Rappel from Helicopter in Overnight Chicago Raid, Dragging Kids from Beds to U-Hauls

All this by the Grand Old Party, the party begun by Abraham Lincoln. President Lincoln, who declared, “A house divided cannot stand,” a phrase he took from the Bible. How sickening now, less than two hundred years later, that party is deliberately pursuing courses to divide the United States by wantonly attacking United States. It’s not just part of the war on immigrants that he began on day one as the 47 POTUS, recklessly abducting, shackling, and deporting people. No, Trump is also attacking Blue states, deliberately withholding funds that were appropriated by Congress. These funds supported approved projects to improve situations. Some are infrastructure. All employed people. Without the approving funding, these projects will most likely un-employ people. That’ll drop state, local, and Federal spending and revenue. Trump, in his hatred for the United States, is deliberately sabotaging the economy. It is surreal.

A house divided cannot stand. You’d think the GOP would know that phrase. You’d think they understand the principle behind it, and the history upon which the speech was made. Yet, they mindlessly endorse and encourage Trump’s war on their own nation. Trump is even trying to set up the use of the U.S. military against United States citizens.

All this by a man with six deferments, an individual who never served the country, who now holds pretensions to being king, an absolute and tyrannical ruler, a dictator. There’s supposed to be a term limit for the presidency, but he’s changing the White House without regard to tradition, norms, history, or good taste, building a monstrosity of a ‘ball room’. Many think these changes are a signal that he never plans to leave.

Donald Trump has left a path of destruction and failures behind him. He’s been a failure at everything he attempted except for lying and being a con man. He declared multiple bankruptcies. He has several failed marriages, cheating on his wife just as he cheated on his taxes. He’s even a failure as a friend, once declaring that he and Jeffrey Epstein were friends, and now denying him, just as Judas denied Jesus in the Bible. Now, as POTUS, like his businesses, his ‘university’, and his marriages, he’s destroying the United States, dividing its population. Are he and his GOP enablers really so dense that they don’t think that destroying the economies of the blue states won’t contribute to the greater downfall of the United States economy?

A house divided cannot stand.

We’ve learned that lesson once. Well, some did. It’s clear that MAGAts and the GOP in general have forgotten that lesson. Either that, or they, like Trump, hate the United States and the freedoms and principles for which it stands.

I can’t conclude that it’s anything but that: Trump hates the United States, as do his supporters. Because as we know, especially with Trump, actions speak louder than words.

And Trump, clearly, is intent on destroying the nation.

Thirstdaz Wandering Political Thoughts

Keep asking. Trump has a history of lying and making false promises.

Keep the pressure on. Don’t let Trump worm his way out of being confronted with facts and truth. He is a liar. Truth, facts, and history are his kryptonite.

We knew the truth about TACO’s relationship with Project 2025 in 2024. But, per his usual, Trump lied his way out of it, claiming that Project 2025 was a Democratic Party disinformation campaign.

That’s Trump. Lying. Blaming others. But now he’s openly embracing this ‘disinformation’. See how he lies?

Trump Flaunts Project 2025 While Teasing Permanent Cuts To ‘Democrat Agencies’

Likewise, adhering to his established pattern, while running for office, Trump trumpeted that he would release the Epstein files. Now he’s spinning it as a hoax by the Democratic party.

“So, this is a Democrat hoax that never ends. You know, it reminds me a little of the Kennedy situation,” Trump said in the Oval Office, referencing documents related to the assassination of former President Kennedy. “We gave them everything over and over again, more, and more and more. And nobody is ever satisfied. From what I understand, thousands of pages of documents have been given.”

Do we need to ask about his healthcare plan? That’s been completely dropped, despite his continual insistence in his first term that he was just about to release. Such a plan was never released.

Back to the future: Trump’s history of promising a health plan that never comes

How many times must it be shown that Trump is a liar purveying in false promises before people believe?

Now we’ve arrived at the 2025 Government Shutdown. Trump, Republican, is in the Offal Office. Republicans control the House and Senate. Back in 2013, he proclaimed that shutdowns are on the president.

Yet, since making that claim, Trump has been in the Offal Office for the last three government shutdowns. In his own words, that shows how weak he is.

Just as he did with Project 2025, TACO is trying to lay the blame on the Democrats. Yet, there’s one fact that can’t be overlooked.

That should tell people who wants this shutdown and who specifically are responsible: Donald J. Trump and the GOP.

Stop believing his lies. Stop accepting his promises. Don’t accept his blame game. He is an agent of destruction, a hollow man without empathy. Don’t let him tell you otherwise any longer. The facts are in.

He’s shown who he is. Make him face the truth.

Thirstdaz Theme Music

Rain, clouds, cool temperatures, and colorful leaves. It is indeed autumn in Ashlandia. 51 F now, 62 F on the way. This is Thirstda, October 2, 2025.

Gonna be a busy day for me. Slew of health and dental appointments scheduled. All were scheduled through different agencies back in June and July.

Remember when Donald J. Trump lied to everyone about Project 2025 while running for POTUS in 2024?

“I have not seen it, have no idea who is in charge of it, and, unlike our very well received Republican Platform, had nothing to do with it,” he wrote, describing attempts to tie him to the proposal as “pure disinformation.”

He wrote in another post, “I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal.”

Trump’s Past ‘Project 2025’ Remarks Resurface as He Touts Conservative Plan

Now he’s loving and embracing that ‘absolutely ridiculous and abysmal’ things. That’s Trump, con man and liar to the core, as many of us knew. That’s one of three areas where he keeps exceeding expectations during his term: lying. The second area would be making up things, and the third is bragging about himself. In all other areas, he’s an absolute failure and disaster.

But of course Trump lied about his relationship with Project 2025 during the 2024 elections. Its flat-out regressive plans were massively unpopular with voters in polls. Trump couldn’t stand that. He knew that without lying, such as his lies about immigrants eating pets, he would never be elected.

Speaking of Trump’s lies, Daily Beast has an update.

Trump Shamelessly Blames His Enemies for Carnage He’s About to Order

“Well, there could be firings, and that’s their fault, and it also could be other things,” Trump told OANN’s Daniel Baldwin. “We could cut projects that they wanted, favorite projects, and they’d be permanently cut.”

So Trumpian! So TACO! MAGA will swallow it whole, because that’s what they do. Low and under-informed voters will dully go along with that thinking because they don’t pay much attention and still don’t get what a greedy and selfish con man and liar Trump is. But the world knows. You know, and I know. Just as we know that the Epstein file is wealthy with the many terrible things Trump did as Epstein’s BFF, which is why Trump fights the release of the files and the truth that’s on display in them.

Today’s theme music comes straight out of thinking and reading about news, coupled with my busy day. As all the plans and appointments were regurgitated through my thoughts, The Neurons bounced up with a Grateful Dead song. Here’s “Touch of Grey”, with its chorus, “I will get by. I will survive.” Perfect song for the growing Trumpswamp.

Well, still waiting for peace and grace to pop back into our lives. Till then, I’ll coffee up and work on getting by. Hope you get by and survive, too. Cheers

Wenzdaz Wandering Political Thoughts

Breathe deep, I remind myself. So much shitty news roils my complacent sailing. I seethe against Trump and the GOP. My specific seething target is that waste of space, Mike Johnson (R) – Hell. When questioned and pressed for an opinion about Trump suggesting that United States cities should be used as a training ground for the military, Johson squirms like a worm putting put on a hook. The Daily Beast reports via MSN.

Mike Johnson Cornered Over Trump’s Dark Military Threat: ‘Answer the Question!’

“I don’t serve in the Pentagon. I run the House of Representatives, and what we need to be talking about today is real harm that the American people are going to feel because of what Chuck Schumer is doing,” Johnson replied, referencing the government shutdown that Republicans are trying to pin on Democrats.

Yes, squirm, worm, squirm!

Shutdown Blues are sweeping the country. Trump seems pretty unconcerned from what we’ve seen and heard of him. Hell, he’s still getting rich, stealing from the government and scamming folks from the Offal Office. More than that, in his altered reality, he’s probably being cheered and feted with confefve from adoring crowds. Yet, coupled with the government shutdown and the impact that’ll splash over into the economy and the United States’ credit and bond ratings, people should be bracing themselves for rising prices, falling services, failing and businesses, and well, greater yet enshittification. This is the kind of event that’ll sweep over all facets of society. Trump seems oblivious, but that just released ADP jobs report is ugly. UPI feeds us the deets.

ADP report shows 32,000 loss in jobs in September

Oct. 1 (UPI) — Private companies’ payrolls dropped by a seasonally adjusted 32,000 jobs in September, according to an ADP report released Wednesday.

The figure represented the largest decline since March 2023. ADP also revised its August numbers — from an increase of 54,000 jobs to a drop of 3,000.

Well, tourism is down. Prices are rising as tariffs kick in and stock built up before Trump’s tariffs were announced dwindle. Beyond that, Trump’s erratic rollout, as consistent as a tide on a stormy beach, confuses business leaders and encourages distrust. Disrupted supply chains and doubtful, worried consumers encourages suspicions about what will happen next. Trust, once broken, isn’t easily regained.

UPI‘s story goes on to note,

The ADP report showed a 28,000 overall drop in service-related jobs, including leisure/hospitality (19,000), professional/business services (13,000), financial activities (9,000), trade/transportation/utilities (7,000) and other services (16,000). There was a rise in education and health services jobs — by 33,000 — and in information jobs — by 3,000.

Meanwhile, MarketWatch reports on deeper, ongoing problems.

The vital signs for the U.S. jobs market were already flickering before the employment report was delayed. Just how bad is it?

The health of the labor market is the single biggest worry of the Fed — even more than a recent rise in inflation. The central bank trimmed a key U.S. interest rate in September in what appears to be the beginning of a rate-cutting cycle to shore up the economy.

Most top Fed officials continue to call the labor market stable. Yet they are increasingly alert to the possibility of “more meaningful and unwelcome increase in the unemployment rate” that could damage the economy, as Boston Fed President Susan M. Collins said Tuesday.

But is the labor market really stable? On the surface, it appears so.

The economy is still adding jobs, if at a glacial pace, and the unemployment rate is quite low historically at 4.3%.

The number of people applying for unemployment benefits each week is also surprisingly low, a sign that businesses are mostly avoiding layoffs. Instead, they simply aren’t filling open positions after former employees leave — what economists call “attrition.”

Dig a little deeper, though, and the vital signs for the labor market don’t look nearly so good.

Start with a decline in hiring — the number of new hires per 100 workers. The hiring rate among private-sector businesses fell again in August to 3.5%, matching a five-year low.

The slowdown in hiring is glaring in the most recent U.S. employment reports. The economy added an average of just 25,000 new jobs a month from May through August, marking the weakest four-month stretch since 2010, ignoring the COVID-19-era period.

Not only that, but employment actually fell in June for the first time since 2020.

“Low hiring remains the main driver of weaker labor market,” economists at Citi Research said.

Trump has a proven history of trying to hide from facts and pretend that all is not just great, but the greatest ever. It’s not a deep surprise that the BLS Jobs Report will be delayed. Many, including moi, think Trump’s minions will outright game the numbers to tell a wholly different story. While that might appease his MAGA base and buy time with lockstep Republicans, business people, critical thinkers, and, well, citizens residing in the real world will react with greater distrust and suspicion.

Seasonally, we should be seeing a jump in sales and employment in the United States. It’s the economic fourth quarter. Black Friday is coming, along with the big holiday season that so many love and loathe. The portents are mixed about what will happen. As Paul Krugman likes to remind us, hard data is catching up with soft data.

Time will tell for us but despite his appearances, Trump knows the clock is running. Tick, tock, TACO, tick, tock.


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