Tag: protests

Wenzdaz Wandering Political Thoughts

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.

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Satyrdaz Theme Music

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

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A Poem For The Regime

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

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Thirstda’s Wandering Political Thoughts

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.

@tadstoermer

The toughest lesson in resistance history is the one people least want to hear: Institutions won’t save us, opposition isn’t enough, and authoritarianism doesn’t have a stopping point. Be an optimist with friends, but a pessimist in the mirror. There’s no normal to go back to—only what we do now. #ResistanceHistory #HonestHistory #HistoryTime #TikTokLearningCampaign #resistance

♬ original sound – Tad Stoermer – Tad Stoermer

As Mr. Stoermer says, “There’s no normal to return to. There’s only what do we do next.”

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Munda’s Theme Music

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

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Just A Little Pause to Wonder

The New York Times featured interviews with Trump supporters to see what they said about current events such as ICE tactics, the protests in Los Angeles and deploying the National Guard there. This fellow had me wondering and laughing.

Brian D. Kozlowski, a lawyer who supports Mr. Trump, said on Thursday that the president responded appropriately to the protests in Los Angeles.

“It was necessary, given the riots,” he said.

“If you’re the governor of a state and you’re not cooperating with the law and federal agents, who are then getting attacked by citizens of the state,” he said, “then at that point, the federal government has every right to step in.”

“I don’t know what world you live in where you think you can attack a law enforcement officer,” he added.

The demonstrations in Los Angeles were generally peaceful, but there were pockets of violence, including protesters who kicked and threw objects at law enforcement vehicles, and officers have used tear gas.

Mr. Kozlowski said it appeared to him that Gov. Gavin Newsom of California was playing politics with the protests, allowing them to continue without requesting help from the National Guard so that he could cast himself as a foil to Mr. Trump.

“It certainly seems like there’s a lot of politically motivated decision-making taking place — or lack of decision-making,” he said.

Mr. Kozlowski said Americans should not be surprised that the Trump administration was following through on aggressive immigration enforcement, since Mr. Trump promised during the election campaign to do so.

“How did you not see this coming?” he asked.

So, Brian Kozlowski saw it coming. As the riots seemed to be important to Brian, I wonder how he felt about those Trump-inspired riots on January 6?

You know, the ones where Trump didn’t call out the National Guard when the police were being attacked.

I think you’ve shown your true colors, Brian.

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Frida’s Wandering Political Thoughts

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

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

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

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

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

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Frida’s Theme Music

Frida, June 13th, 2025, breached with cold air and muzzled sunshine. 59 F, we’re pacing ourselves to climb to 74 F. It’s a chill day. Feels good out there.

Another night of dreams. They covered feeling lost and frustrated, ignored, and change that confused me. Awakened, I felt heavy with loss and disappointment, struggling to find direction and traction, like I’m spinning my wheels to stay in place.

We saw more Trump Justice Two Step last night. Judge said, “Illegal to put them National Guard into LA, Donald,” and another court said, “Keep doing it while we talk about this.” I laughed when Trump’s lawyers argued that California should not “second-guess the President’s judgment that federal reinforcements were necessary” and that a federal court should defer to the president’s discretion on military matters. Oh, they can rouse themselves to such pompous righteous indignation. Trump loves to say he’s leaving things up to the states. ‘I’m gonna wean them off FEMA.’ “The people on the ground know what’s going on and can take care of it best,” he said before.

But he’s fast to ignore the state’s rights and decisions when it doesn’t suit him and barge right in wherever the fuck he wants. The principle behind his moves are always, “Me Donald, you I hate.” In this case, he hates Gov. Newsom and California because he lost California. Didn’t get within sniffing distance of winning it.

TACO is very predictable in his lawless ways. “You spit, we hit!” But that wasn’t the case with the J6 insurrectionists. Yeah, they were attacking the nation, doing a lot more damage phsically and judicially, as the J6 gang attacked the police. No, that had TACO saying, “Me Donald, me love you,” because they were doing it for him. He’s sickening, and the GOP is sickening and shameful for going along with his twisted hyperbole. They won’t be happy until they burn the nation down and then they’ll blink their eyes wide and say, “Gosh, what happened?” Just as they did with multiple previous fiascos. See the Gulf Wars as a big fucking example. My contempt for them has surged out past Starlink.

I’m also having a good laugh at MAGAts. They’re trying to excuse the DC parade as planned BT: Before Trump. One MAGAt declared that President Obama became planning it, lazily conflating celebrating the Army’s 250 year anniversary with the bloated military display scheduled for this weekend. That’s the MAGAts, always bending over for TACO to screw them.

I have “Creep” by Radiohead in the morning mental music stream. Just that sort of morning. Here, little TACO. This is for you.

Pressing on with coffee to go get things done. Let’s be safe out there. Cheers

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