Tag: war

Fridaz Theme Music

Hey, good morning, sunshine. It’s Frida, December 26, 2025. After a rainy night, the clouds shuffled aside and sunlight broke in on us. We were warned that snow might fall in the night. Peerings out the window provide no visuals that snow was encountered in our area.

My system says it’s 41 F outside. The net claims 38 F with light rain. Alexa claims 41 and cloudy. SOU marks it as 44 F. We’re basically in agreement, then, in a six degree range. That range makes sense. SOU is lower down and about a mile away. The location is subject to being foggy. If fog doesn’t show, it’s subject to being sunny. Projected highs aren’t far off with the given range as 43 to 46 degrees F.

We’re settling into the post-Christmas groove. I find this an odd period. People are coming down from the holiday high of eating, giving, and receiving. Schools are closed, as are some businesses. Others are forced to trudge back to work. It’s a Frida but lacks a Frida vibe.

Next week brings the New Year. My cynical side asks, “How many other nations can the Trump Regime attack before the year’s end? How many more people can this administration kill and displace?” Being a peace president isn’t easy, you know. That’s why Trump wanted a department of war, so he could push for peace. He’s going to threaten, bomb, bully, or kill everyone into peaceful. It’s ‘do as I say or else’ diplomacy. Which is also is political tactic, and his negotiating stance. It’s all ‘do as I say or else’.

The ‘or else’ side of things is diminishing. Everyone has the measure of Trump’s blustering. He can’t do much economically. That’s largely because he severely damaged the United States’ economic power by breaking trade agreements, and levying tariffs. That leaves Trump with the greater danger for the rest of us, to employing the power of the U.S. military, which is still potent.

With that in mind, thinking over 2025 and looking ahead to 2026, The Neurons came up with the Grateful Dead song, “Casey Jones”. “Trouble ahead, trouble behind.” Yep, Trump is driving us toward a no-win, no-way-out situation of isolation.

By the way, what does everyone think about Trump bombing another place at about the same time that the DOJ found a million more Epstein Files? That seems like suspicious serendipity to me. I can imagine a conversation inside the place formerly known as the White House:

Trump’s minions: “We’re going to announce that Justice just discovered one million more Epstein files.”

Trump: “Whatever.”

TM: “We’re also announcing we’re releasing them.”

Trump: “Bomb someone. Quick.”

As mentioned in yesterday’s post, Christmas brunch was at at friend’s house, and a Czech student was present. She’s from a small village. Her school there covered elementary school through ninth grade and had only 117 students. After hearing her version of Christmas celebrations in her village, with baby Jesus delivering presents, I asked the net for more info. I learned that Martin Luther had encouraged this idea to help move people toward Christianity.

I also ended up looking up Sinterklaas. I’d mentioned that figure as another interesting Christmas variation. They all claimed to have never heard of Sinterklaas, so I had to look him up just to reassure myself that I wasn’t nuts.

I hope your holidays were and are pleasant for you. Hope, too, that whatever troubles 2025 brought to you drop away and that 2026 is less problematic and troublesome for all of us. Fingers crossed. At least we’re going to be seeing longer periods of daylight up north now, having crossed the solstice boundary.

Got my coffee. Here we go again. Cheers

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Twas the Day Before Tomorrow

Twas the day before tomorrow

And all through the land,

Was a man on television,

A person who many couldn’t stand.

Blustery and yelling,

Threatening to be harsh and mean,

Much of what he said made no sense

To those watching the scene.

“Affordability is a hoax,”

He shouted again and again.

“You just watch me, I’ll make it end.

“I inherited the worse job in the land.

“But it’s getting better,

“Just close your eyes and pretend.

“Start buying less of what you want,

“Prices will go down,

“Ten thousand percent, twenty thousand,

“So much! It’ll astound!

“You’ll be much happier

“With one room instead of three,

“If you work harder,

“Eat less eggs and meat,

“Play with less dolls,

“And watch less Teevee.

“You’d better be peaceful,”

He added in a rising voice,

“Or I’ll bomb you all

“Because you give me no choice.”

He finished up with a scowl and a smirk,

And stumbled away with a twitch and a jerk.

Then we read his holiday texts as day went into night,

“I’m the best ever.

“Give up! Don’t fight!”             

6

Satyrdaz Wandering Political Thoughts

Processing More of Trump

The latest Trumpshit that really annoys is the continued withholding of energy funds to blue states and cities. This has been going on for months. The Trump Regime is withholding the funds because those states didn’t vote for him. The Trump Regime is actually framing it like that to the courts. Once again, Trump is trashing the U.S., spiting the Constitution and the law because of his vindictive nature.

That energy funding was passed by Congress and previous administrations. Yes, it’s being argued now that the TACO Regime’s actions are unlawful.

But, again, Trump can’t see the bigger picture.

Withholding this funding will affect technological development, putting the U.S. further behind other nations. As they advance, we’re regressing.

The funding provided money for projects. Those projects provide jobs. Yes, Trump has abundantly proven that he cares nothing about anyone but himself so the argument automatically beings failing. But growing numbers of unemployed people costs the government and craters the economy. Lets be reductive so he might grasp it: less money in pockets means less money to spend. Less money to spend means less things purchased. Less things purchased means less manufacturing and services, which cut into the gross national product.

I know, I know, this is all beyond the comprehension of a person who thinks starting a lawnmower is overly complicated. Maybe that’s where Trump’s cognitive testing should begin. “Mr Trump, can you open this door by using a handle?”

Assuming Trump does manage to open the door, we can then test him with a series of devices. “Mr Trump, can you start this lawnmower? Can you turn on this dishwasher?”

On the other hand, the TACO Regime is betting on the Roberts Court, who has bailed them out via shadow dockets and breaking with Constitutional precedence to protect Trump’s actions.

Also, as demonstrated over and over again, Trump and his minions love crapping on the United States. They actively hate it and show it through their actions every day, attacking American history, American cities, and American citizens.

The ‘Peace President’ continues to malign the concept.

This time, Trump is attacking ISIS. This is of course in retribution for the deaths of three service members.

“This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance. The United States of America, under President Trump’s leadership, will never hesitate and never relent to defend our people,” Hegseth said on social media.

~snip~

Yes, that dim beam of light known as Hegseth thinks that changing a word reframes WTF is going on.So, Pete, question: would that be a ‘declaration of vengeance’ against ISIS, which Trump claimed he’d 100% eliminated back in 2019?

Trump claims ‘100 percent‘ of ISIS caliphate defeated in Syria

“We just took over … you kept hearing 90 percent, 92 percent, the caliphate in Syria. Now it is 100 percent. We just took over 100 percent caliphate. That means the area of the land. We have 100 percent,” Trump said.

“We did that in a much shorter period of time then it was supposed to be,” he said. “It was supposed to take — I will not tell you what a certain general told me. But I went and met a couple of other generals. And they said how long do you think it could take, general? One week, sir. One week? I heard two years. One week, sir. Let us do it the way that we want to do it. I said: General, do it.’ And if so, what happened. We had the whole thing.”

~snip~

That’s a perfect summary for Trump. Lying and boasting, working on the same issues that he claimed to have completely solved. Or pretending it’s a hoax or fake news. Always resorting to lies to escape accountability, always depending on bullying to get ahead.

Trump & Hegseth remind me of someone else who said and did something similar.

What’s that expression about learning from history again? Something about not learning from history and repeating it.

Fact check: Trump repeats numerous false claims in prime-time address

Trump spews lies about the economy in his year-end address to nation

Fact-Checking Trump’s Prime-Time Address on the Economy

Why, he’s just telling it like it is. * Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more, say no more *

Some final Dizzy Donny thoughts from the web.

I’m in, Kerry. I’m in.

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Must Share

Jill Dennison has again brought us a luscious pre-Thanksgiving offering to humor and politics. I didn’t want to share them but The Neurons felt they were so compelling…anyway, here are my favorites. Hope you go by her site to see the rest.

And the link to the rest…

When All Else Fails, There’s Still ‘TOONS!

And a bonus offering for your time…

Just in time for the holidays!


6

Mundaz Wandering Political Thoughts

My Inner Cynic cracked their eyes opened and cackled. “Huh.”

“What?” I asked.

“I just thought of something.”

That wasn’t news. The Inner Cynic thinks of something two, three hundred times a day. Yet, here they are, saying it like it was important news.

Honestly, I was annoyed. I’d gone back to an article pointed out by Nan the other day: The Anger Games: Who Voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 Election, and Why. After reading it lightly once, I was reading it again as The Neurons pondered the articles’ points, such as this one.

Our starting point is the hypothesis that prejudice is fueled more by aggressiveness than by submissiveness, and that it is accompanied by the wish for a domineering leader who will punish the “undeserving.” This wish is clearly authoritarian in the original sense, but we give the notion of authoritarianism a fresh spin. In contrast to most of the established theories, we posit that people with authoritarian tendencies follow domineering leaders less for the pleasure of submission than for the pleasure of forcing moral outsiders to submit. Vicarious participation in the domination and punishment of out-groups is a core part of the authoritarian wish to follow a domineering leader. Hence, to activate this wish, leaders must be punitive and intolerant. Authoritarianism is not the wish to follow any and every authority but, rather, the wish to support a strong and determined authority who will “crush evil and take us back to our true path.” Authorities who reject intolerance are anathema, and must be punished themselves.

Yes, I understood that. Trump obviously and clearly sharply embraced the idea. It’s one of his central policy pillars, sharing space with “Love and obey me,” “Don’t trust Democrats,” “Facts are fake news and don’t trust the media,” “Fuck you, I’m getting mine,” and “Violence is peace.”

The inner cynic said, “Well, what if Trump is blustering and threatening those other countries to provoke them back into attacking us?” As The Neurons stewed on this, the Inner Cynic continued, “You keep thinking that Trump hasn’t learned lessons from the history. But that’s on his own. The Heritage Foundation is propping him up and guiding him. They know history. They know how popular George W. Bush became after terrorists attacked the United States on 9/11. His approval ratings shot up overnight. Then almost everyone rolled over to give him (and Dick Cheney) whatever they wanted in the name of patriotism.”

“Yes, and that culminated in those disastrous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

The Inner Cynic chortled. “Yes, and you remember that. You also remember that you were furious when revelations came out later about how the United States was conned into war. You were mad because you saw it coming and predicted it. Then people responded to the revelations with statements like, ‘they fooled us all.'”

“That’s right. They didn’t fool us all. I wasn’t alone in that. I was following Krugman, Olbermann, and other, even Colin Powell, who was against the war before he was for it. That Bush Administration was using information from the intel source known as curveball because he was always lying, for god’s sake. People were acting like brainless zombies.”

“That’s the point, though. How many Americans will remember that crap? You pointed out that the terrorist attacks were a result of failed American policy where we secretly killed people and manipulated others in secret.”

“Again, that wasn’t me, I just — “

“Tut, tut,” my Inner Cynic interrupted. “Let me finish. The point, to finish, is that you think Trump is doing the same thing without realizing what happened before.”

“Right. Because Trump is pretty damn dim.”

“Yes, but the Heritage Foundation folks aren’t. They’re the ones advising, guiding, and goading him. They’re the ones who put stupid, unprincipled people in charge of various departments, people like Noem, Hegseth, Kennedy, Bessent, Miller, Patel, who will do whatever the fuck Trump orders, regardless of law, logic, and precedence.

“There is a reason why there are no guard rails in 47’s Regime. And there’s a reason for the constant chaos and impulsiveness.

“And there’s a reason for his saber rattling.”

Closing their eyes, the Inner Cynic sat back. “And that’s why Trump doesn’t care about falling approval ratings. That’s why he doesn’t give a shit about the laws, the government shutdown, starvation, or inflation. Why he doesn’t care about accountability. He’s going to keep attacking other groups and nations with limited military force until one of them makes the mistake of attacking us back, giving him a firm reason to unleash the full force of the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines. And Congress will approve it because the homeland was attacked, and the MAGAts will roar their approval, and all those other low-informed people who don’t pay attention will roar right along with them.”

“I hope you’re wrong,” I answered.

The Inner Cynic smiled. “We’ll see.”

4

Disappointment

I was visiting my sister at her house. She, her husband, my wife, niece, her boyfriend, Mom, and I were chatting. All present are Democrats at the least and progressive for the most part. Liberals. Most of our previous conversation included invectives aimed right at Trump and the Trump Regime minions destroying our nation. Then, lo, sis said, “I’m okay with him destroying those boats and killing those drug dealers.”

I was so horrified.

She went on to say, “They know who those people are.”

“Really? The people we were just talking about ‘know’ who those people are in those boats? Those people we just talked about? The ones who lie about anything and everything? You trust them to correctly and intelligently inform us that the people they’re killing in those boats are drug dealers just on their word?”

That was just the opening salvo. Yeah, I ranted. I pointed out that the U.S. military isn’t supposed to be used as wholesale executioners, killing non-combatants or civilians who are not actively attacking United States troops. Pointed out that this takes a huge step around due process and justice. Depends on the single word of a single individual to declare who is a criminal and who is guilty, all without presenting any evidence. And that person who we’re trusted that process to is a well-known liar, an untrustworthy individual named Donald J. Trump. That on its own is terrible but what it does as precedence for the rule of law is monstrously worse.

Further, I added, cuz I was not done, further, haven’t we learned from history? This is the start down the same path of pseudo warfare and lawlessness we pursued before as national policy, policy which ultimately culminated with the attacks of 9/11 that killed thousands of United States citizens, attacks which were then used with manipulated evidence to attack the nations of Iraq and Afghanistan. Where did that lead us? What did we gain from attacking those nations and killing those people and sacrificing so many of our own citizens in fruitless war?

“I don’t care,” sis said. “I want those drug dealers dead.”

Yeah. Disappointed. Angry.

Sad.

5

Satyrdaz Theme Music

Suddenly, it’s November — again! Yep, we’ve leaped onto Satyrda, November 1, 2025 in Ashlandia, where the temperature is 52 and sunshine is singing praises to blue skies. The thermometer is expected to hop up to 68 F in our area.

Seems like it was just last year when it was November and we were voting on the nation’s future in the United States. The scandal-plagued, greed monger formally known as Trump, more informally known as TACO – Trump Always Chickening Out — won the 2024 election, to the joy of racists, white supremacists, and reactionaries everywhere. The rest of us were less sanguine about it. Now, just a year after that election, the Federal government is grinding to a halt. Under Trump, the government has been shut down for a third time, and Republicans, ‘led’ by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Hell), are refusing to work. Air traffic control and the military are working on promises to be paid, along with TSA. No worries, they’re just the backbone of safety and security. Thanks to DOGE, multiple agencies which helped farmers and families are struggling to function. Trump has stripped funding away from activities and canceled projects regardless of Congressional approval. Congress, remember, are our delegates, voted into office to work for We the People as our servants, just as Trump is supposed to be our servant.

What a servant. Stealing from us. Wrecking the White House. Trying to rewrite history and wipe out our heritage. Arbitrarily deciding what is a crime and who is a criminal, a total 180 of what is supposed to be ‘the American Way’. Taking bribes. Killing in the name of peace. Hounding and persecuting political enemies without evidence, trying to trump up charges that will stick. Dismissing real and meaningful work in the Department of Justice. He’s fired almost all of the Inspector Generals, who were there to investigate the government’s functions to ensure everything was being done legally. A general sense of disarray circles around D.C. It’s like a storm system building toward a hurricane. Distrust of Trump is growing. Disapproval is increasing as the fog thickens about what Trump is doing and how much is legal. Disapproval is rising as citizens and their families starve, employment falls off, inflation grows, and Trump goes golfing.

We still don’t know what it says in the Epstein Files against Trump. Maybe the Andrew formerly known as a prince can illuminate those things for us. I’d love to see that smirk chased off of Trump’s face.

Just a reminder to Trump, the Heritage Foundation and their Project 2025 wet dream, and MAGAland. We the People said No Kings in 1776. We the People said no to fascists in the last world war. We meant it both times. We the People still mean it.

My dreams featured hills, so The Neurons plugged a familiar song about hills in the morning mental music stream. Mind you, one major dream also featured food. People were plying me with sandwiches and desserts wherever I went, doing so as a way of thanks for stepping up and helping them. The food was so delicious and fresh! Kind of amused me in the dream, as I was just a dog with a bone, organizing things because that’s what was needed and that’s my strength. For a time, Der Neurons did consider songs like”Mean Mister Mustard” and “Long Tall Glasses” in the morning mental music stream. But ultimately, they went with “Over the Hills and Far Away” by Led Zeppelin.

We really need more peace and grace in this world. It’s a struggle to get it with Trump and his agents of chaos and destruction. May peace and grace emerge and grow and spread soon. Till then, be strong. Cheers

2

Sundaz Theme Music

Summery wisps are present for Sunda, October 5, 2025, in Ashlandia. Now 57 F, sunshine and blue skies say summer but the trees’ scarlets, oranges, golds, and yellows remind us, no, we’re turned the seasonal corner. Still, 75 F is our projected high. Good day for getting outside for yard chores. Papi approved, to judge from his floofverbals — tail up, eyes slitting in appreciation as a sun pool is turned into a floofspot. He commences a lazy spruce up of his whiskers.

Several interesting articles were read this AM. One is an Adam Gabbatt analysis in The Guardian addressing Trump’s increasing strange behavior.

The president is unhinged’: Trump’s online behavior grows increasingly odd

The column highlighted Trump’s AI use to portray Rep. Hakeem Jeffries as Hispanic, a strange and silly ploy which drew Hispanic anger against Trump. That was stacked atop the right-wing conspiracy about med beds shared in a Trump tweet (later deleted), his unfounded ideas about pregnant women using Tylenol, and Trump’s pingpong attention span. Trump went from the Michigan synagogue shooting, where he promised to keep people updated and then never posted about it again, to bragging about the tacky gold decoration he’s added to the Oval Office to his dissatisfaction with an NFL kickoff rule. Then he talked about how presidents walk.

“America is respected again as a country. We were not respected with Biden. They looked at him falling down stairs every day. Every day, the guy’s falling down stairs.”

Trump continued: “I said: ‘It’s not our president. We can’t have it.’ I’m very careful, you know, when I walk downstairs for – like I’m on stairs, like these stairs, I’m very – I walk very slowly. Nobody has to set a record, just try not to fall because it doesn’t work out well. A few of our presidents have fallen and it became a part of their legacy.

“We don’t want that. Need to walk nice and easy. You not have – you don’t have to set any record. Be cool, be cool when you walk down, but don’t, don’t bop down the stairs. That’s the one thing with Obama, I had zero respect for him as a president, but he would bop down those stairs, I’ve never seen – da da da da da da, bop, bop, bop, he’d go down the stairs, wouldn’t hold on. I said, it’s great, I don’t want to do it. I guess I could do it, but eventually bad things are going to happen and it only takes once, but he did a lousy job as president.”

Those of us who regularly Trump watch were wearily unsurprised. No, we’re more amazed that the GOP cynically not just accepts Trump’s surreal behavior but actually celebrate and support it. Meanwhile, Trump grows more violent, more eager to use the military every day. Attacks against Venezuela have escalated without any checks being offered by Congress about WTF is going on. And Trump regularly drools over chances of sending in military, even threatening to use the 82nd Airborne, into American cities run by Democrats.

The other article catching my attention was more direct about Trump and his growing wars.

Trump’s phony war on Venezuela — and his larger war on reality

That’s the heart of the matter, isn’t it: Trump is conducting a war on reality, and bringing his alternate reality and self-created facts and history into our reality. That’s the old square peg in a round hole problem. Trump reality is wholly at odds with truth, facts, medicine, and history, and often wars with logic. This piece is by Andrew O’Hehir in Salon. O’Hehir writes,

This war on the world has both fictional goals and real ones, and the fact that those are incompatible is, once again, not a fundamental problem for Trump’s courtiers or adherents. There’s no hypothetical version of global equilibrium in which the United States is simultaneously the dominant superpower and also an isolationist fortress-state with zero immigration. I would guess that Trump loves the sound of that but doesn’t follow the logic too far, while the people who intend to outlast him just “yes queen” along and roll their eyes. Their goal is more doable: leveraging American power to ensure the continued dominance of the billionaire elite for at least as long as our planet remains habitable. (They’re aware that it probably shouldn’t be advertised that way.)

This is how many of us have viewed Trump and MAGALand since early days. I recommend reading the entire article.

The summer/autumn blend has The Neurons feeding me a song about summer. Called “Summer”, by Calvin Harris. This video of young people at a show having fun was amusing to me to watch. Hope it doesn’t something for you, too.

Coffee has again answered the call. Peace and grace are still hanging back, despite my naked dance under the moonlight last night. Hope peace and grace get here soon. Till then, cheers.

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