Science fiction, fantasy, mystery and what-not
DC has organized and is battling against the Trump Regime’s moves to occupy and control the nation’s capitol with national guard troops. Here’s the story from NBC 4 in D.C.
Thousands protest Trump’s National Guard deployment in ‘We Are All DC’ march
A sea of signs and a chorus of chants filled 16th Street Northwest for the ‘We Are All D.C.” march Saturday.
There was a large showing to denounce the actions of the Trump administration, especially the recent federal surge of law enforcement in the District.
“It’s been almost a month now of just pure chaos,” said D.C. resident Nick Shereikis.
“I would’ve never imagined having the National Guard in place in this town terrorizing people,” said Natasha Sakolsky, a Silver Spring resident.
Thousands of people marched about two miles through the city starting at Meridian Hill Park and ending at Freedom Plaza.
“We want unification, and that’s what you’ll see here today, I think already, just the diversity of the different groups coming out,” Sakolsky said.
Many local and national organizations were represented at the march, as well as several labor unions, including UNITE HERE Local 24 from Detroit, Michigan.
Labor Day is arriving in the U.S. soon. It’s a good day to stand up and resist against the Trump Regime.
Scientists’ role in defending democracy
Medford Oregon #WorkersOverBillionaires Labor Day
Labor and community are planning more than a barbecue on Labor Day this year because we have to stop the billionaire takeover. They are converting the government into their private slush fund and just passed the largest wealth giveaway in the history of the US. The money they take from working families, they put in billionaires’ pockets and set aside to fund a private army of ICE agents.
I find many of the resources here useful. Resist!
What companies are particularly Trump friendly? The New Republic has an article about the Trump regime rating companies. In a classic pay-to-play move that corrupt governments like to employ, Trump rates companies as strong when they’re willing to support Trump and do his bidding. Some of those companies: Uber, DoorDash, United, Delta, AT&T, Cisco, Airlines for America, and the Steel Manufacturers Association, according to Axios.
Read the whole thing at Trump Has a Bonkers New Way to Make Companies Bend to His Will
And then resist using those companies so eager to undermine democracy in the United States.
It’s the age of betrayal, it’s the era of MAGA. Trump demands loyalty but will instantly betray anyone who sullies his self-image of magnificence.
That idea that he demands personal loyalty means nothings to his regime. They’re true to him, and that’s it. So, with little surprise, I read that FEMA probationary employees are being reshuffled to ICE.
I can imagine how that’s going down. FEMA interviewee: “Yes, I want to join FEMA and help my fellow citizens recover when disaster strikes. I want to comfort and reassure them, and help them rebuild.”
“Okay, we’re sending you to ICE.”
“ICE?”
“Yes. Here’s your mask and gun. Go round up brown people.”
“Brown people? That’s not legal.”
“Don’t worry about it. Just arrest them and let Trump sort them out.”
Apparently, *ahem* this personnel action is being taken because the Trump Regime is struggling to fill its ICE ranks. Rounding up citizens is labor intensive, especially on the scale that Trump envisions. Word around the coffee shops is that ICE is also paying hiring bonuses.
It occurs to me that this might be a good way to resist the Trump Regime. Join ICE, take the money, and then start sabotaging it from within. When intel about a raid comes available, broadcast it to apps to let people know that it’s coming so they can scatter and hide while protestors establish a cover force of protests and harassements.
While I write all this in a blend of seriousness and jest, I find it sad and disturbing that Trump and the GOP have formulated such an atmosphere that such thinking must exist.
Trump has proven to be the greatest at taking things and thoroughly enshittifying them. He is, in essence, the Enshittifier in Chief.
More bunder thusters prowled Ashlandia’s late afternoon and early evening. Less sprinkles than you’d find on a doughnut fell, too. But Satyrda, August 2, 2025, has awakened in our area as sun-filled blue skies. A 67 F temperature now is expected to climb into the top 80s. A check of the fire watch and fire warning systems shows no new lightning-started fires in southern Oregon and northern California, knock wood, once again.
We’re flabbergasted in our household about economics surprised by the ‘weaker-than-expected’ jobs numbers and manufacturing decline. “Gasp,” economists said. “Unemployment has gone up again. Less people are employed. Who would have believed that would happen after Trump terminated all those Federal jobs? Just because tourism is down because less people are traveling to the United States due to ICE shouldn’t affect jobs, should it? And I don’t think the shuttering of automobile factories, even temporarily due to material shortages and tariffs, would affect job numbers. I wonder what’s going on?” Those economics should consider relocating their offices from under those rocks.
This was another household laugher of a headline: RFK Jr. says cancer screenings are too ‘woke’ now. WTF does that word mess even mean? The Trump Regime continues toward new lows in coherency.
A second laugher came in the FAFO variety: Trump voter livid after being profiled by ICE: ‘I’m an American who now has to be afraid’. It was again a brown voter who thought Trump would go after those ‘other’ brown people, the bad ones, and not them.
Finally, more FAFO is being reported in Iowa. ‘Tidal wave on our hands’: Furious voters say Trump’s turning key red state purple. The first paragraph claims, “Angry voters in Iowa could turn the state from solid red to a swing state because they feel betrayed by President Donald Trump on issues from healthcare to agriculture.”
A large part of that is that farmers felt betrayed by Trump urging Coca Cola to make Coke with cane sugar only for sale in the U.S., what is often referred to as ‘Mexican Coke’ because they use cane sugar to make Coke in Mexico. The Iowa farmers grow corn; corn syrup was being used in Coke production. So there goes their market. As usual, Trump shows how naive and short-sighted he is, how disconnected from reality, or he would have known of the connection between corn syrup and American farmers. But he’s too damn painfully lacking of the brain cells needed to comprehend these things. Since he’s installed only ‘yes’ people who kowtow to him, he won’t hear anyone explain the relationship between corn, farmers, Coke, and sugar to him. Or, as likely, he’ll shrug and say with his ’empathy’, “They’ll get over it.”
Jill Dennison started a chain the other day. She played a Foreigner song on her blog. I countered with some other Foreigner song. Ark chimed in with another Foreigner song, “Urgent”. Ark mentioned the sax, and the album, Four or 4. That was a fine damn album and it was added to the rotation for a while at my house after it was released. Now The Neurons have run with that, of course, playing “Urgent” and other Foreigner songs from the album in the morning mental music stream. I’m afraid that means that I must share the song with you to stop The Neurons from playing it in my head. I’m sorry, but those are the rules. I didn’t create them; I just live by them.
May peace and grace find you today. Maybe some fun, too. Here we go. Cheers
Paul Vinent Cannon wrote a short poem, “Choices”. I find it perfect for these times and the TACO Regime. I attempted to reblog it but WordPress’s magic fizzled. So I have a link but also lifted the poem and posted it here.
An American Cinquain (2-4-6-8-2)
Choices
Silence
sometimes bidden
sometimes so moralised
well sometimes I just cannot be
silent.
Copyright 2025 ©️Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️
Hope you’ll visit his blog and enjoy more of his poems and observations. Cheers
Indivisible or someone was politically active in our region this AM. Protesters with banners against standing against ICE, protecting democracy, and defending the Constitution were on overpasses along I5 as we traveled from Ashland to Medford and back.
My wife is disinclined to protest and demonstrate this year. “Those are asking for permission,” she said. “We need active restistance, standing up and refusing to back down.” This is something she’s recently adopted from historian Tad Stoermer.
As Mr. Stoermer says, “There’s no normal to return to. There’s only what do we do next.”
Munda broke upon us like a soulless morning, 50 F and cloud. Sunshine that seemed hungover peeped in on us. Blue skies sluggishly swept in since and the temperatures drew up into the upper sixties, delivering a cool summerish morning on June 16, 2025.
The 2025 No Kings protests heartened me. So did the poor turnout for the DC parade. I believe mango TACO will respond first by lying. Second, brooding, sulking, and blaming the media and Dems. Third, by lashing out. And fourth, by being a bully. He’ll want to do something to restore his self esteem and regain the respect and admiration which he thinks he deserves. No, he doesn’t deserve it; he’s earned none of that. But he’ll decide he’ll need to be decisive, tough, and forceful. Which direction will he flash? What tools will he use? How long until it comes. Hopefully, it won’t be too over-the-top as in “Let’s attack another country.” But only Trump has the controls on the TACO Express and the track is rickety and unsteady.
While reading news and speculating, I’m wondering, with others, what’s with the KC135/KC46 tanker force deployment? 32 headed to the European theater Sunday night. It’s a suspiciously large number and Defense and the Air Force are being mum about it. Could be part of an exercise but the military PR machine usually likes highlighting those activities in a sort of ‘look at us! look what we can do!’ way.
Today’s music is a cover of “People Get Ready” written by the late, wonderful Curtis Mayfield. Here are some Wikipedia details about the song.
“People Get Ready” is a 1965 single by the Impressions, and the title track from the People Get Ready album. The single is the group’s best-known hit, reaching number three on the Billboard R&B chart and number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100. The gospel-influenced track was a Curtis Mayfield composition that displayed the growing sense of social and political awareness in his writing.
The gospel-influenced track was written and composed by Curtis Mayfield, who was displaying a growing sense of social and political awareness in his writing. Mayfield said,
“That was taken from my church or from the upbringing of messages from the church. Like there’s no hiding place and get on board, and images of that sort. I must have been in a very deep mood of that type of religious inspiration when I wrote that song.“
The single reached number 3 on the Billboard R&B Chart and number 14 on the Billboard Pop Chart.
Rolling Stone magazine named “People Get Ready” the 24th greatest song of all time and also placed it at number 20 on their list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks. The song was included in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. The song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998, and selected as one of the ten best songs of all time by a panel of 20 songwriters, including Paul McCartney, Brian Wilson, Hal David, for Britain’s Mojo music magazine in 2000.[7]
Today’s cover is by a collection of senior rock stars.
Coffee is being sucked up like a hungry V8 swallowing gasoline. Hope you have a better one. Cheers
Seen at a No-Kings protest on June 14, 2025.
Michael Seidel, writer 