Today is Thirstda, October 16, 2025. Fall sky and trees are in concert with sunshine and a spectrum of leafy colors to play against blue. Kind of visual that shows up on postcards and travelogues. Chilly 47 F but dry. Sun and air will take us to the upper sixties.
Met with my supplier last night. “Here,” she said, offering a brown paper bag. I glanced around for police or witnesses before accepting the bag. “Thanks.” She smiled. “Enjoy.”
Back in the truck, I told my driver, “Hit it.” Only then did I open the bag and peer in. Grins spread over my expression at the pretty collection of late-season figs.
Bad news for us on the ‘No Kings’ front. Ashland’s rally for this Satyrda was canceled. Couldn’t get a permit. We’ll attend the one in Medford instead.
The Epstein Shutdown has consumed over half of October of 2025. We’re still well short of the longest shutdown. That would be the Trump Shutdown of 2018-2019, which lasted 35 days. Large differences between the two include what DOGE did to the government before this shutdown, gutting the Federal infrastructure, mobilizing national guard units before this shutdown, and the deepening darkness of what’s going on with Federal spending as those functions have been kneecapped or muted. Also different this time is the capitulation of so many mainstream media outlets, aided by billionaire ownership who donate and support Trump. Last, of course, is the notorious masked ICE. They weren’t the unleashed paramilitary group they now are. Led by Kristi Noem, this force has demonstrated an eagerness to violently assault anyone who might by the wrong skin color, is in the wrong place, speaks with the wrong accent, or rolls their eyes at them.
The unsurprising news was delivered to us today that Mom’s boyfriend, Frank, passed away this morning. He would have been 96 in January. Love and light to Frank.
When Frank had his fall that precipitated his hospital stay and passing, he didn’t want Mom to call an ambulance or take him to the hospital. Told her that he was fine.
Today’s song is for Frank. Frank was a rock, dependable, reliable, steady, consistent. Not surprising that The Neurons placed “Carry On” by Fun in the morning mental music stream when the news came. Sample lyrics.
If you’re lost and alone Or you’re sinking like a stone. Carry on. May your past be the sound Of your feet upon the ground. Carry on.
Time to carry on after a few more gulps of coffee. Hope peace and grace finds us and lifts us up, and does so pretty damn soon. Okay, here we go. Cheers
Another rock and roll October fall day has pitched itself over Ashlandia. 39 F now, we’re expected to get over the 60 F hump and cruise to 67 F before falling back down to 40. The pattern is obvious by now, Wenzdaz, October 15, 2025. The nights are taking control, lengthening, growing colder. We know that means, winter is comin’.
No change in news from Dad’s locations. On Mom’s side, sis took Mom to see Frank. Wasn’t a good visit, as he was out of it. Mom told sis, she doesn’t think she can see him like that again. Frank is on 10 L/minute of O2 now but was on 15 as of yesterday morning. He can’t be moved from ICU until he is on 5.
After the visit, sis took Mom to get a flu shot and COVID booster, then went back that evening and made her dinner and visited with her. Another sister had a visit to Mom planned for Monday. No updates from that.
The Epstein Shutdown of 2025 continues. It’ been two weeks.
As part of the shutdown, the Trump regime employed reverse-day logic to RIF gov. employees. CNN published a story that finely chopped up the Trump-Vance-Johnson GOP tale that, “Gosh, the Democrats made us let go of people because the government is shut down.”
Vice President JD Vance said Sunday that layoffs during the government shutdown are needed to continue critical federal assistance programs, including the WIC nutrition assistance program, and to pay the military.
“We have to lay off some federal workers in the midst of this shutdown to preserve the essential benefits for the American people that the government does provide,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” blaming Democrats for the reductions.
However, budget experts pointed to several reasons why Vance’s statement wasn’t true. Among them, many federal workers aren’t being paid during the shutdown, so laying them off wouldn’t free up any funds — plus, if they were being paid, the money wouldn’t be available for 60 days, when most must actually leave their jobs, said Bobby Kogan, senior director of federal budget policy at the left-leaning Center for American Progress and a former OMB official during the Biden administration. Also, the Trump administration last week said it will extend WIC’s funding using tariff revenue.
What’s more, any funds saved by laying off several thousand federal employees would be only a tiny fraction of what’s needed to fund WIC and the military, said Michael Linden, a former senior OMB official during the Biden administration who is now a senior policy fellow at the left-leaning Washington Center for Equitable Growth.
Yes, that’s right, it’s another Trump Regime lie exposed. Should be news — well, it was, I guess, because it was covered by CNN — but the Trump Regime lies every day, almost every hour. Those of a MAGA heart pay no heed until Trump’s actions hit them hard enough on the head to shake their beliefs. The Trump WH is a swampland of lies and corruption. It’ll take some serious work to drain that swamp and rebuild it into a functioning democractic government and kick down the disastrous framework that is Project 2025. Meanwhile, farmers are going belly up from the lack of infrastructure to support them. Prices are rising. Employment is falling. Shortages are appearing, and foreclosures are climbing. The Trump Destruction Machine is tearing the nation down.
Riddle: how many Trump Regime officials does it take to tell the truth? No one can guess because it’s never happened.
Today’s song is “Skateaway” by Dire Straits. In my head, this is called “Rollergirl”. Yes, this was obliquely related to a dream sequence of moi. Had sufficient substance found in it that The Neurons made the call to feature it in the morning mental music stream.
Here’s a lyrics sampling that prompts my head to call the song “Rollergirl”.
She gets rock and roll and a rock and roll station And a rock and roll dream She’s making movies on location She don’t know what it means And the music make her wanna be the story And the story was whatever was the song, what it was Rollergirl, don’t worry D.J. play the movies all night long, all night long
Coffee is being re-homed into my body as I type. Time to rock another day before it rocks me. Hope peace and grace comes out of the shadows to warm and shelter us all. Till then, here we go, one more time around the sun. Cheers
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.
The Smirketeers. Donald Trump, left, with Jeffrey Epstein, second from the right, BFFs.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
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:
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 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
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.
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.
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.
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.
It’s fallish out there in the autumn style. Clouds hug the sky for miles and miles. Bringing darkness and an offer of rain. There’s a chance tomorrow we might do it again.
52 F now, 62 F is the suggested high at almost every oracle. 80% chance of rain. Doesn’t stop Papi from going in and out and out and in. He’s looking for that sunshine’s warm embrace and refuses to believe it’s not there. Now he’s curled up in a chair.
This is Thirstda, October 9, 2025. Winter is coming. So are the holidays.
Read that Trump is to undergo a medical exam. This CBS headline tells it all.
Wouldn’t surprise me to read after the exam, “Why he’s the healthy person the world has ever seen. Such muscles! He’s so lean and fit and active and athletic, he could run a marathon, not just run it, but win.” Such is the Trump Regime that lies and bullshit are their expected output.
My wife and I were in conversation this morning. I finished my end by proclaiming with a laugh, “That’s just my style.”
The Neurons pounced like a kitten on a leaf. “She’s Just My Style” began filling the morning mental music stream. Familiar with it? It’s a 1965 hit in the U.S. by Gary Lewis & the Playboys. I would’ve been nine at its release. But AM radio was in its heyday and so was pop. I won’t hazard a guess how many times I heard that song back in the day. Haven’t heard it in yonks since.
Coffee has made its way through my mouth and esophagus and is engaging with Les Neurons. Hope peace and grace make its way to you and the rest of the world today. Now, hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to write I go. Cheers
The troubling trend of false news isn’t new. Trump is a false news god. Been practicing it since he was a young one still dodging military service with bone spurs. But now, the shit is getting deep. Earl has a good post on it that I’d like to share. Cheers
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?
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.
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.
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.”
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.
“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
Trump’s BS isn’t going over well in the socialsphere. The right-wing bubble might be lapping it up but here in the real world, mocking Trump is growing as a pastime.
Some straightforward truth…
A little history…
In closing…
Laurence Britt’s list was displayed in the holocaust museum
Michael Seidel, writer 