Frieda’s Wandering Political Thoughts
In the latest edition of FAFO, Texas has an outbreak of measles on its hands.
As before, all cases are in unvaccinated people or people with unknown vaccination status. Of the 48 cases, 42 are in children, including 13 between the ages of 0 and 4. Thirteen people (27 percent) have been hospitalized.
Texas measles outbreak is the state’s largest in 30 years
By the way, I stand for the Gulf of Mexico. And AP. The bully in the White House, aka PINO Trusk, will force everyone to report the news as they wanted, or they won’t allow it.
On Thursday, for the third day in a row, the White House prevented Associated Press reporters from attending official events, a spokesperson for the news organization confirmed to The Washington Post. An AP reporter was blocked from attending two afternoon events in the Oval Office, including a swearing-in ceremony for Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
By way of an explanation, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday, “I was very upfront in my briefing on Day 1 that if we feel that there are lies being pushed by outlets in this room, we are going to hold those lies accountable.” She added, “And it is a fact that the body of water off the coast of Louisiana is called the Gulf of America, and I’m not sure why news outlets don’t want to call it that.”
It is not a fact, except in Truskworld. But Leavitt was right about lies being pushed by outlets in the room, but it’s the White House and her behind those lies.
Just as so many of us expected from PINO Trusk.
Frieda’s Theme Music
The weather warmed, delivered rain, and the massed, pile snow is dwindling.
Good mornin’, afternoon, or evening, wherever you are. Today is Frieda, February 14, 2025. Valentine’s Day, so here’s to that if you’re into that commercialized celebration. 37 F air holds us in its palms. White clouds overlay the valley, piles of graying white towels fresh the laundry, waiting to be folded. No breaks are permitted for blue sky, no cracks for sunshine. Rain has fallen and probably will again within a few hours. Our air will warm to the low forties, upper thirties, ‘they’ tell us.
PINO Trusk established a new commission. MAHA: Make America Healthy Again. They’ll be working under the ideas that that vaccines which so effectively curtained the effects of a number of diseases didn’t work. Trump, who gorges on McDonald’s food, wants MAHA to look at food and water, this by an administration which is on a run to gut the EPA and the clean air and water standards. Irony laughed so hard when it heard this news, it peed its pants and farted.
MAHA will stand alongside PINO Trusk’s other initiatives, MADA: Make America Dumb Again; MASA: Make America Sexist Again; MAWA: Make America White Again; MARA: Make America Racist Again; and MAPA: Make Americans Poor Again. The rinions — right-wing minions — will eat it up.
In honor of what our nation is enduring under PINO Trusk’s lawless guidance, The Neurons have dragged out an old Black Sabbath offering. After dusting off the 1972 song, they have “Changes” orbiting my morning mental music stream. It’s an odd BS composition, as it’s slow and reflective, with no guitars and drums. “What?” You exclaim. “And this is Black Sabbath, you say? The group who gave us “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath”, “War Pigs”, “Paranoid”, “Iron Man” and “Snow Blind”?” Indeedio, it is.
Coffee ambushed me in the kitchen. Next thing I knew, had a cup in my hand, breathing in its heady fumes, testing it on my tongue with tentative sips. Hope your day goes through some changes for the better. Let’s rock. Cheers
Thurzda’s Wandering Political Thoughts
Many of us who oppose Trump, whether he’s running for office, in office, or just breathing, have consistently pointed out that he uses others. Yet people voted for him by remarking that he speaks for them. And we replied, “Then you’re racist. Sexist. Anti-knowledge. Anti-history. Anti-fact. Anti-science.”
PINO Trusk is proving us right. His supporters and the low-information voters may never realize it. Okay, one to three percent might. (Isn’t that two percent? Yes, and that’s based on some marketing knowledge I acquired years ago.) But what’s that about action speaking louder than words?
‘Equity,’ ‘trauma’, ‘women’, and ‘female’ are among the words that could bring research grants under scrutiny in the US. The National Science Foundation (NSF) is reviewing thousands of ongoing grants to ensure compliance with executive orders issued by former President Donald Trump during his first week in office. These orders mandate the recognition of only two genders, scale back diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, and have led to the creation of a list of words whose use may trigger a review of funding, according to internal documents reviewed by The Washington Post.
Can it be more clearly stated that you’re sexist if you don’t allow the word ‘women’ to be written? Over half of the population of the United States are women. A vibrant and critical part of how we arrived here as a species and civilizaton, and women can’t be mentioned in National Science Foundation reports in the new Trusk administration.
How fucking backward is that? I thought Trusk, the GOTP, and Project 2025 wanted to drive us back into the 1800s. Wrong; they’re going further than that. Women as a word has been in use since the 12th century. That’s how far back the Trusk administration and the rignions — right-wing minions — are trying to take us.
“He speaks for us, he’s one of us.” And that’s why Alabama went big for Trump in 2024.
They’re probably pretty happy about their pretty situation now.
Here’s how much NIH cuts could cost UA, Tuscaloosa
President Trump’s tariffs: Why Alabama’s thriving car industry will see biggest impact
Trump’s job reduction order could hit most at this major Huntsville employer
Trump executive order leads to $100 energy bill hike for hundreds in Alabama
Alabama Arise: Federal funding cuts could undermine healthcare, education, vital services
Yep, less than a month in, and it’s all going great for Alabama!
Thurzda’s Theme Music
A stiff wind was rockin’ us last night in Ashlandia. As night came on shift, I watched our outside temperature drop to 34 F and then rise to 37 F. Rain fell and the temperature kept sneaking up outside as the wind barked at the moving branchs and howled at the sky. It’s not 41 F. ‘They’ have notified us that 51 F is possible as a high. The wind has skipped into a more mellow mood, sunshine has found a place in the sky, and all seems momentarily well on this day, Thurzda, Feb. 13, 2025.
Snow remains out there in force but its presence is shrinking. Bushes and trees continue their recovery. Fallen branches and trees around the city are being collected, cut up, moved away. If a bit more snow can melt off the piles lining the roads, we’re almost be back to normal.
Many are commenting on the bizarro Oval Office presentation by PINO Trusk. The elected half sat in a chair doing nothing and little vacuous. The other paced and made claims about finding and eliminating fraud. He made wild claims but stayed with the GOTP M.O. of offering no evidence or facts to back the claims. Looked like a Banana Republic Production to me. Paul Krugman did a nice take down of it in a post titled, Elon Musk Is Faking It.
Bet you saw the news that the GOTP wants to raise the debt ceiling for PINO Trusk. One reason given for the need for more debt is that ICE is running low on funds. Wow, who would’ve predicted that, right? Well, just ’bout anybody with the wits to realize the enormous costs involved with Trusk’s deportation plans. As seen on TV, the GOTP and their Project 2025 planners are purty damn witless, in addition to being lawless.
The Neurons jumped back to 1974 to find a tune to honor PINO Trusk. With all of his claims, he’s done nothing provable in quest of slaying fraud, as he claims; he’s only made us more vulnerable as a nation, broke laws and undermined justice, broke promises made to his MAGAts (see inflation and the cost of eggs), and sowed disorder and chaos on a national scale.
Stevie Wonder was found to have provided a song for the times. He called it, “You Haven’t Done Nothin'”.
We are amazed but not amused
By all the things you say that you’ll do
Though much concerned but not involved
With decisions that are made by you
But we are sick and tired of hearing your song
Telling how you are gonna change right from wrong
‘Cause if you really want to hear our views
“You haven’t done nothing”!
It’s not too cool to be ridiculed
But you brought this upon yourself
The world is tired of pacifiers
We want the truth and nothing else
And we are sick and tired of hearing your song
Telling how you are gonna change right from wrong
‘Cause if you really want to hear our views
“You haven’t done nothing”!
h/t to AZLyrics.com
I chugged some coffee earlier and I’m pretty well ready to go. Hope you have the plum-est of days imaginable, or some reasonable facsimile thereof. Let’s go get it. Cheers
Wenzda’s Wandering Political Thoughts
From a post by the Florence County Democratic Party (South Carolina):
“A day in the Life of Sue Republican.
Sue gets up at 6 a.m. and fills her coffeepot with water to prepare her morning coffee. The water is clean and good because some tree-hugging liberal fought for minimum water-quality standards.
With her first swallow of coffee, she takes her daily medication. Her medications are safe to take because some stupid commie liberal fought to insure their safety and that they work as advertised.
All but $10 of her medications are paid for by her employer’s medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance – now Sue gets it too.
She prepares her morning breakfast, bacon and eggs. Sue’s bacon is safe to eat because some girly-man liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry.
In the shower, Sue reaches for her shampoo. Her bottle is properly labeled with each ingredient and its amount in the total contents because some crybaby liberal fought for her right to know what she was putting on her body and how much it contained.
Sue dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air she breathes is clean because some environmentalist wacko liberal fought for laws to stop industries from polluting our air.
She walks to the subway station for her government-subsidized ride to work. It saves her considerable money in parking and transportation fees because some fancy-pants liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.
Sue begins her work day. She has a good job with excellent pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some lazy liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. Sue’s employer pays these standards because Sue’s employer doesn’t want his employees to call the union.
If Sue is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, she’ll get a worker compensation or unemployment check because some stupid liberal didn’t think she should lose her home because of her temporary misfortune.
It’s noon and Sue needs to make a bank deposit so she can pay some bills. Sue’s deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC because some godless liberal wanted to protect Sue’s money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the Great Depression.
Sue has to pay her Fannie Mae-underwritten mortgage and her below-market federal student loan because some elitist liberal decided that Sue and the government would be better off if she was educated and earned more money over her lifetime.
Sue is home from work. She plans to visit her father this evening at his farm home in the country. She gets in her car for the drive. Her car is among the safest in the world because some America-hating liberal fought for car safety standards.
She arrives at her childhood home. Her generation was the third to live in the house financed by Farmers’ Home Administration because bankers didn’t want to make rural loans. The house didn’t have electricity until some big-government liberal stuck his nose where it didn’t belong and demanded rural electrification.
She is happy to see her father, who is now retired. Her father lives on Social Security and a union pension because some wine-drinking, cheese-eating liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Sue wouldn’t have to.
Sue gets back in her car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk show. The radio host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. He doesn’t mention that Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Sue enjoys throughout her day. Sue agrees: “We don’t need those big-government liberals ruining our lives! After all, I’m self-made and believe everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have.”
The writer(s) captured the conundrum quite brilliantly to me. These Republicans in their bubbles or those low-informed voters not paying attention, gladly and eagerly seize whatever they’re fed by a right-wing outlet and bet on it as gospel. They’re dismantling so many things brought to them by Democratic initiatives and the Federal government. And as so many of us consistently predict, they won’t know what they have until it’s gone. Then, after the collapse of progress, the GOTP will blame the Democrats.
And Sue Republican and her peers and the under informed will all agree.
Wenzda’s Theme Music
Greetings to all on this day, Wenzda, February 12, 2025. Sunshine is blazing across a bold blue sky, dazzling off the disheveled snow comforter still in place around much of Ashlandia. It’s 24 F, up from 19 F. Gonna get up to 42, 43 F, ‘they’ tell us.
A gorgeous full moon visited last night. Light sprayed across the snow, throwing deep shadows around trees and houses. One of those wondrous sights that hold your attention and forces you to invest in deep philosophical thoughts about the nature of existence. At least, until the wine runs out.
Happy Darwin Day! “Charles Robert Darwin, who first described the process of evolution of species in the plant and animal kingdoms through natural selection, was born.
It is now celebrated as Darwin Day, when the common language of science, bridging language and culture, is recognized and appreciated.“ stolen from Scottie’s Playtime. A friend puts on a one-person play as Darwin to honor the man. We were planning to attend but with the rise of flu and other respiratory illnesses, we backed off that intention.
I also have another lymphedema bandage session this afternoon. The left appendage and all of its accessories responded well and I may come out of there wearing a normal shoe on it. The right, which had the surgery, still had some space to improve.
Today’s song is “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” by Elton John with Lyrics by Bernie Taupin. Released in 1973, while I was in high school, it’s one of those songs which are easy to sing along with…if you know the words! It’s like, what is he saying? Hearing the actual lyrics cause conniptions over meanings and associations. Some seem straightforward enough but others give a ‘huuuhhh?’ moment. It’s about longing to me, though, about being in a different place and time, one where you feel more comfortable. That’s why I The Neurons have delivered it to the morning mental music stream. Reading the world’s news, especially politics in the U.S., I wondered what road we’ll need to follow to survive and free ourselves of this mess. Where is the yellow brick road?
Coffee grabbed me as I was walking by and took me into the kitchen, where I indulged a cup to wash down a lemon turnover. Hope your day goes well. Stay safe out there. Cheers
Twozda’s Wandering Political Thoughts
The news scene is a junkyard out there. Trying to find stories of substance, truth, and facts in an age when substance, truth, and facts are dismissed by a political leader, undermined by opportunistic greedheads, and bushwhacked by right-wing schemers can be like navigating a hoarder’s apartment. Strange, confusing, unexplainable messes abound. Figuring it all out wearies me in a nano second.
I’ve winnowed down my news feed to a trusted few. 1440 is my main daily news source. Several blogs augment it with insights and links to stories. Paul Krugman, Robert Hubble, Peter Sage, Diane Ravitch, and Heather Cox Richardson add depth, relevance, and historic insights. Blue Sky provides me with a buffet of other opinions and stories. But a more recent find has proven enormously effective.
I’m not sure how I stumbled onto Breaking News USA.com. I love their format. So simple. Straightforward. No popups, no ads crowding in to obscure information, no videos about other stories running.
Click on Firehose. A list of posts with links and headlines are revealed.
Stay on the main page. Breaking news up top. Simple font.
Then, below, different sources with links to three stories from each. Daily Kos. Crooks and Liars. The New Republic. ProPublica. Wonkette. The Nation. That’s just a few of them. There are a few missing which I’d like to see included but I’ll take what they give and look up the rest. Their site is so functional, informative, and useful, its beautiful.
I hope it lasts. Check it out. It could be of use to you, too.
Unless you enjoy those messy piles of news.
Update: Dang it, I forgot to mention that Oliver Willis maintains the site. So, thank you, Oliver Willis. Cheers
Raise Your Voice
Annieasksyou and tengrain at MPS are sharing resources for letting the Trusk administation know that We The People are pissed.
Annie’s points are worth pulling from her post and plopping here for added emphasis.
For anyone you know who doubts the importance of government services, perusing the links below will also be an education.
It takes a little patience to navigate among the agencies listed, and you’ll need to ignore an “Access Denied” notice.
If you appreciate this effort, there’s a request for donations to help the folks who are making this possible. All donations are tax-deductible.
I see the circulation of this information as a potentially massive citizen rebellion against Trump’s Second Attempted Coup to make us feel we have no power to oppose him and his ilk.
Let’s all fight back using our nonviolent weapons: our computers and smartphones. Please share on your blogs, social media, emails, and any other way you can think of. If you don’t want to keep all the links, you can save the instructions for adapting a government URL to reach the Wayback version.
And please, if you have Republican elected officials, contact them and tell them they must stop this wreckage. If enough Republicans can be barraged continually by their constituents, they may begin to deliver a message that even Trump can’t ignore.
Share widely. Persist. Resist.
Mundaz’s Wandering Political Thoughts
The FAFO tide is rising. Who knows what impact it will have? PINO Trusk is an obtuse and ignorant beast. His (their) decisions and actions keep reinforcing that impression.
Like, under Trusk’s guidance, funding has been cut to research projects at universities. Why, that only affects blue states, elites, and libruls, right? No! Not according to some red state folks like Alabama’s junior senator Katie Britt.
Britt loves her some Trump. “One candidate has already proven he’s more than up for the job – because he’s done the job successfully,” Britt wrote. “There is one candidate I know will secure the border — because he’s done it. There is one candidate I know will achieve peace through strength — because he’s done it. And that’s why President Donald Trump has my endorsement to be our 47th President.” Britt didn’t drink the Kool-aid (yes, a dated reference, so I hope you get it), she opened the package and poured it straight into her mouth, chewed and swallowed. Yum!
But those cuts PINO Trusk has made. Yikes!
Katie Britt vows to work with RFK Jr. after NIH funding cuts cause concern in Alabama. “While the administration works to achieve this goal at NIH, a smart, targeted approach is needed in order to not hinder life-saving, groundbreaking research at high-achieving institutions like those in Alabama,” Britt told AL.com.
So don’t cut funds to her state. Cut it in those blue states. They’re not conducting life-saving, groundbreaking research, no sir, nope. Oh, the idiocy, the selffishness, the myopic views, paint a picture of ignorance personified.
As PINO Trusk attacks clean energy programs, news report after news report shows that red states will lose more. Trump Is Freezing Money for Clean Energy. Red States Have the Most to Lose. “About 80 percent of manufacturing investments spurred by a Biden-era climate law have flowed to Republican districts. Efforts to stop federal payments are already causing pain.”
What? No way. I don’t understand. Trusk ran on the promise to gut these programs. So those red states didn’t vote for him and cuts to the programs running in their states…did they? Well, I’m sure they had good reasons to vote him and his promise to cut those nasty green energy programs.
PINO Trusk’s decision to shut down U.S.A.I.D. is having repercussions among the Trusk faithful, too. How Christian Groups Are Responding to Trump’s Foreign-Aid Freeze. “Among the organizations that lost funding are such Christian behemoths as World Vision, International Justice Mission, Samaritan’s Purse, and Catholic Relief Services, which at $476 million, was the largest USAID recipient in 2024.” Oh, no, who could’ve thunk it? FAFO, right? Sure you’re right.
And surprise, Gutting USAID threatens billions of dollars for U.S. farms, businesses! Well, that can’t be too bad, can it? After all, Trusk is a genius. He would’ve known that farmers and U.S. businesses and workers depend on that U.S.A.I.D. funds, right? Of course! So those businesss, farmers, and workers must all be wasteful, or the genius wouldn’t have cut their funding.
“USAID oversees projects such as food aid, disaster relief and health programs in over 100 countries with a staff of more than 10,000 and a budget of around $40 billion. Billions of those dollars flowed back into the American economy until President Donald Trump ordered a 90-day freeze on foreign-aid spending last month.
“Now U.S. businesses that sold goods and services to USAID are in limbo. That includes American farms, which supply about 41 percent of the food aid that the agency, working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, sends around the world each year, according to a 2021 report by the Congressional Research Service. In 2020, the U.S. government bought $2.1 billion in food aid from American farmers.”
I’m sure that none of that will affect the unemployment rate, or other economic factors.
Trump should ‘get rid’ of FEMA, Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem says. Wow, Trusk is really going after that waste! Look how much was wasted by FEMA just last year when they helped states hit by wildfires, hurricanes, tornados, and flooding!
“We still need the resources and the funds and the finances to go to people who have these types of disasters like Hurricane Helene and the fires in California,” Noem told CNN’s Dana Bash. “But you need to let the local officials make the decisions on how that is deployed so it can be deployed much quicker.”
Sure! Because local officials without electricity, water, or resources on hand like temporary housing will just be able to snap their fingers and fix it all!
Somehow, this reminds me of that time when President 45 cut the pandemic response time back in 2020.
That worked out real well, didn’t it?
Michael Seidel, writer 