Another forgotten face
Another forgotten place
Another forgotten time
Another misplaced rhyme
Another greedy scheme
Another waylaid dream
Fridaz Wandering Political Thoughts
Lemme get this right.
Blue states and blue cities are run by Democrats.
Trump hates Democrats.
Democrats are Americans. United States citizens.
So Trump hates Americans. United States citizens.
To prove the depths of his hatred of United States citizens, Trump is following a course to destroy United States blue cities.
First, he disrupted supply chains by breaking trade agreements and declaring outrageous tariffs. That slowed imports. That damaged business, business planning, and employment.
That severely affected farmers in rural areas. In red states. Which means the nation produces less food. Which drives up the cost of food. So more food needs to be imported. Like beef. But tariffs increase the costs of importing food. Like beef.
Right?
Trump then marched in national guard units to patrol city streets, but only in blue cities. Even though they were safe.
The Trump Regime threatened media outlets that are less than flattering to Trump. Trump threatened to take away licenses to broadcast if they are critical or factual in their reporting about what he’s doing. He threatened networks which allowed comedians to make fun of him.
In parallel, Trump expanded his ICE police force and filled cities with ICE in masks, with guns, to sow terror, grab people and disappear them, just as we’ve seen and read about happening in all those stories about nations led by dictators, or places like the Soviet Union, NAZI Germany, North Korea, and Red China. Without due process. Without evidence.
Right?
Trump began persecuting political opposition through DOJ. If a prosecutor failed to fall in line, they were removed and replaced. As we’ve read about happening in the Soviet Union. NAZI Germany. North Korea. Red China. And many other countries ruled by despots.
Then Trump installed federal law enforcement units to protect the storm troopers from Americans trying to save and help their fellow citizens.
How am I doing so far? Do I have this right?
And as Americans stand up to protest Trump and these actions, Trump and his mouthpieces like Ted Cruz, Mike Johnson, and JD Vance accuse these Americans of being anything and everything except Americans exercising their Constitutional rights.
Then, this self-declared law and order prezzy cut funding to fight terrorism and other crimes, pouring Federal monies into his maligned destruction campaign against blue states and cities.
But –
Most revenues in the United States come from blue states and cities.
Red states and cities are poorer. Proven fact. They receive more from the Federal government than they give. And red cities and states dominate the crime statistics.
Blue states and cities dominate as centers of education, research, technology, business, and trade.
The money these blue states and cities make are paid into Federal coffers as taxes and fees to support people in red states and cities.
Right?
If you destroy blue states and cities, make them unlivable with heavy military and law enforcement presence, and disrupt their business means, their revenue to the federal government will drop.
Which means the red states will get less money. Which means red state voters and children will have less food to eat, less healthcare, be less secure, and have less education. So, red state citizens will be sicker. Poorer. Unhealthier.
All this is supposed to ‘make America great again’?
Do I have that right?
This is Trump’s alternate world as designed by Project 2025.
The Federal government is made a political tool. Oppression through the government against citizens and the media is increased.
Citizens are turned against citizens. The voter systems are handicapped. Protest and criticism are attacked. Employment falls. Health and safety systems are dismantled. Education is crated. They recklessly and wantonly destroy our national heritage and censor history. Only white history matters in their world.
This is to make us as a nation, ‘greater’.
Right?
No.
It is clear. Trump hates the United States. As do the leaders and architects of Project 2025. They’re out to destroy the nation. And Mike Johnson, JD Vance, the Roberts Court, and the GOP are happy to stand by and let them.
No matter what it takes, no matter what it costs, no matter how illogical, depraved, illegal, immoral, inhumane, or un-American it is.
I mean, it is only logical and makes sense if Trump is trying to destroy the United States. Because the actions he takes against the blue states and cities will affect and damage the red states and cities. That means that all United States citizens will be affected. If they have wealth, they can rise above the fray. Like Trump. Vance. Johnson. Billionaires.
Did I get that right?
Fridaz Theme Music
So we come to Frida. Frida’s here at last. However you might feel about it, the day is sure to pass. Might go slow, might be low, or it could be blindingly quick. Whatever happens on this day, there could be some that make you sick. But if you persevere and get through again, you might come away with a win. So try a smile on your face, then set your pace, better yet, make it a grin.
Yep, it’s Frida, October 17, 2025. 45 F in Ashlandia around my home, we’re learning toward an upper sixties high. 70 F might be found for some. Depends on the winds and the air, the clouds and the sun. As of now, sunshine is dashing off the huge old oak’s golden leaves across the street, startling brilliant against an unmarked blue sky.
Awoke from a solid night of zee and some startling, vivid dreams, and arose in a spirited mood. Thinking about the past, present, and future, The Neurons gifted me with a Bryan Adams song which captures my Frida energy. They projected “Summer of 69” into my morning mental music stream, offering a rocking early morning. Feel free to look back and sing along, if you’re old enough to look back, and know the words, ‘course.
Coffee is plowing the body with its offering. Hope grace and peace climbs out of the shadows and leaps forward to help us all as we launch into the No Kings protests this weekend. Just for the record, the Ashland No Kings II rally doesn’t have permits, but many are planning to be there to exercise their rights.
Here we go. Cheers
Mike Johnson Accuses No Kings Protesters of Blatantly Exercising First Amendment Rights
Satyrdaz Wandering Political Thoughts
TL/DR: Trump lies a lot. So does Speaker Mike Johnson. And they’re wrecking the United States. Also, an explanation of the TLLs.
GOP duplicity and hypocrisy increases. Not surprising, really. Duplicity and hypocrisy are not finite. Tariffs don’t affect their availability. Duplicity and hypocrisy are as cheap and free as words. With the Epstein Shutdown of 2025 diving toward unpopularity reaching MAGA’s levels of hatred for diversity, Trump and the GOP are lying more about it.
BTW, this is Trump’s third government shutdown in less than five years of running the government. Spell that out, Trump has had a government shutdown in three out of five years of governing. Such a weak leader, isn’t he?
Except, we know the Epstein Shutdown isn’t like the others. This shutdown is to, one, distract people from the Epstein files and stop their release so that all the dirt that Trump did with Epstein is kept hidden from the light.
Perhaps as importantly, the Epstein Shutdown gives cover to the Project 2025 architects, enabling them to orchestrate the MAGA takeover of the Federal government. They want only GOP loyalists in there. Anyone critical of Trump or the anti-Christ known as Charlie Kirk must go! Third, and even more importantly, Trump can barrel through the Constitution and its checks and balances and broaden the cold war he’s conducting against Democrats through Federal funding of projects in blue states and blue cities. It’s all pretty cunning evil, certainly worthy of another Austin Powers movie.
Here’s where the hypocrisy, duplicity, and well, general lying kicks in.
Trump says it’s all the evil Democrats’ fault. Claims, they want funding to give trillions away to illegal immigrants. That’s a bonafide Trump Lie Level 5 lie, or in net shorthand, a TLL5. Trump lies so often and completely, we’ve been forced to develop a scale to discuss his lies.
Trump Lie Levels Examples for Clarification:
TLL1: Trump’s lies about his golfing or his weight
TLL2: Trump lies about coming out with a healthcare plan to replace ACA
TLL3: The lies Trump told about $50 million in funding for Hamas condoms
TLL4: Trump’s lies about immigrants eating pets.
TLL5: Democrats shut down the government because they want to give free health care to immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally, a lie Trump continually repeats.
Going along with Trump’s lie, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Hell) is now praising the Federal government that he so often maligned. From Carl Hulse in the NYTimes.
Shutdown Politics Has G.O.P. Singing Government’s Praises
“You’re talking about women, infants and children who rely upon these supplemental nutrition programs that are now not being funded and being shut down,” Speaker Mike Johnson lamented on the Fox Business Network. “They are affecting FEMA services in the middle of the hurricane season.”
Never mind that Mr. Johnson led Republicans this year in pushing through legislation to slash nutrition assistance programs as part of the party’s marquee tax cut law, or that President Trump has taken an ax to FEMA grants during his first months in office.
In the upside-down political messaging surrounding the shutdown fight, conservative Republicans, usually eager to assail government largess, have transformed themselves into enthusiastic evangelists for federal spending and programs. It is part of a bid by the G.O.P. to maximize the pressure on Democrats, who routinely advocate for government workers and services, to relent in the spending battle.
Speaker Johnson pushes TLL5 lies out there, pretending he cares about people and how the government helps people. Johnson’s actions, as Carl Hulse pointed out, Speaker Johnson has consistently and cruelly demonstrated that he does not give a shit about anyone but Trump and whoever will help keep Trump and the GOP in power as they destroy the United States in all but name.
The truth is the Democrats want the CR being offered to include provisions to stop healthcare premiums from rising. The GOP under the Trump and Johnson tandem put those into effect in Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill passed earlier this year. Even Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is outraged about it.
Greene ‘disgusted’ if health care tax credits expire and premiums double
We need to vote these liars out of office. Stand up and be heard. Wake up those who are sleeping through the Trump Destruction Machine and what it’s doing to the United States. The longer it takes to wake others up and stop the destruction, the longer it’ll take to rebuild and resume our effort to be a democracy with justice, freedom, and equality for all.
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.
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.
Satyrdaz Theme Music
Dreary sunshine and bleached skies say hello when Papi and I step out to inspect the morning. It’s 49 F in Ashlandia today, Satyrda, October 4, 2025. A high of 60 is anticipated. The furnace was turned on to dispel some of the morning chill, as it was just 67 F in the house. Despite these clouds, rain is not a worry for us. Personal note, today is the 51st anniversary of when I swore my oath to defend the Constitution in the U.S. military.
All my appointments went very well Thursday. Texted Mom to tell her we’re coming to Pittsburgh for her 90th birthday. She says she’s looking forward to seeing us but is busy painting the kitchen cupboards right now. Dad remains in rehab in Texas. Spoke to him, and he was in terrific spirits and sounded strong, healthy, and alert.
Trump’s Venezuelan body count is 21 after U.S. missiles destroyed another boat. That’s number four. What’s the body count over/under for a Nobel Peace Prize?
The Weariness Meter is in the upper ranges today. I feel I’m flagging over the news. Think I’ll take a time out from keeping up to date. That general malaise striking me had me thinking about past and present. 1974, when I graduated from high school and joined the military, still appears as a decent year when I look back through time’s long lens. This year, 2025, feels like a terrible year on multiple levels. Reflections have me treading on a path of thought about how much we’ve regressed in my lifetime. Most of that came in the last 20 years. Hell, most of it came with Trump’s takeover of the White House in 2025. Much of it is due to Russ Vought and Project 2025 and their effective use of Trump as a dupe.
The Neurons decide to cheer me up with “Here’s Where the Story Ends” by Sundays in my morning mental music stream. Sample lyrics for you from Songfacts.com.
Crazy I know, places I go
Make me feel so tired
I can see how people look down
I’m on the outside
Oh, Here’s where the story ends
Ooh, Here’s where the story ends
It’s that little souvenir of a terrible year
Which makes my eyes feel sore
And who ever would’ve thought the books that you brought
Were all I loved you for
Oh the devil in me said go down to the shed
I know where I belong
But the only thing I ever really wanted to say
Was wrong, was wrong, was wrong
It’s that little souvenir of a colorful year
Which makes me smile inside
So I cynically, cynically say the world is that way
Surprise, surprise, surprise, surprise, surprise
Here’s where the post ends. Hope grace and peace pop up for us someday soon. Got my coffee. Time to motor. Cheers
Fridaz Theme Music
Thickening, layer, dark wool clouds lay seige to diminishing blue sky patches. Hi. Welcome to Frida, October 3, 2025 in Ashlandia. Rains which came yesterday will continue today, chilling the 50 F air and keeping it from getting much higher than the mid-fifties. Autumn is here, and winter is coming.
My wife and I chatted about this as we drove on errands. “I like days like this,” I said, appreciating, at that point, a cloudy sky with a blustery wind and lazy, low angle sunshine. It was about 68 F but felt warmer because the breeze carried in summery hints, like leftovers in the kitchen. Then I laughed. “But that’s how it happens with every season. There’s a sense of gladness and appreciation for the new season. Then.”
“Then you get tired of it,” my wife finished for me. “Summer sunshine is great, and the hot air feels wonderful for a while but then, OMG, it’s hot day after day and you get tired of it. Now fall is here, and it’s great but in another month, we’ll be complaining about how cold and wet it is. That’s human nature.”
After perusing news and skating through details of how Trump is wrecking the United States, I wonder when the MAGA will awaken and turn on him. Well, we know that answer. It’s been established that the vast majority of them won’t turn on him until they are personally aggrieved. They’ll wait until they can’t afford healthcare because premiums are skyrocketing. Inflation won’t bother them until suddenly they find themselves unable to buy the food they’re used to because tariffs and trade wars force them to go without. The shutdowns to colleges and universities and Trump’s decision to curtail the war on cancer won’t hit them until they or a loved-one are suffering cancer’s effects and they wonder, why can’t we fix this. Polluted skies and water won’t bother them until it’s their air they can’t breathe, their water they can’t drink. They’ll remain indifferent about Trump’s anti-vax campaign until their children are sick and dying, and they’re wondering, why? They won’t be upset with what’s happening to the immigrants until suddenly there are fewer people to wait on them, to provide services, or there’s less doctors, nurses, and healthcare providers and they can’t get appointments because trained professionals are no longer available. The MAGA won’t care until the military rolls into their town under Trump’s law and order banner and they discover themselves being thrown to the ground or locked up and held for days even though they’re citizens. They won’t care until the private voucher systems states are instituting start turning out ignorant children and they wonder, what’s wrong with schools these days. They won’t care about Trump gutting tourism with his fear and bullying tactics until there are no longer tourists providing tourist dollars and businesses are closing, leaving empty buildings and unemployment in their wake. They won’t care about the lack of infrastructure funding until their bridges collapse, killing friends and family, and inconveniencing them. They won’t care about free speech until Trump turns on them and warns them, “How dare you criticize me?”
Yes, so The Neurons turned to an old faithful for these MAGAts. They’re acting like zombies. The Cranberries came up with a brilliant song for ’em: “Zombie”. Zombie vocalist Dolores O’Riordan wrote the powerful song after a bombing conducted by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (Provisional IRA) killed and injured people.
There were a lot of bombs going off in London and I remember this one time a child was killed when a bomb was put in a rubbish bin – that’s why there’s that line in the song, ‘A child is slowly taken’. [ … ] We were on a tour bus and I was near the location where it happened, so it really struck me hard – I was quite young, but I remember being devastated about the innocent children being pulled into that kind of thing. So I suppose that’s why I was saying, ‘It’s not me’ – that even though I’m Irish it wasn’t me, I didn’t do it. Because being Irish, it was quite hard, especially in the UK when there was so much tension.
— Dolores O’Riordan in 2017, on writing “Zombie”
h/t to Wikipedia.org
She sings, “What’s in your head, in your head, zombie, zombie, zombie?” Because a zombie is an unthinking creature who is just going along with what’s happening, never awakening to its impacts. That’s what’s in my head this morning, pouring through the morning mental music stream.
Peace and grace seem to be a long way off. I’m searching for some way to lure them in. Maybe a ritual. I hope they find and hold you. Until then, I guess I’ll depend on coffee. Think I’ll indulge in another gulp now, while I can still afford it. 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.
Michael Seidel, writer 