What a national shitshow.

From NPR “Republican Sen. Rand Paul posted a letter he received after an information request showing that 21% of Coast Guard interdictions turn up no drugs, suggesting that at least 1 in 5 of the deadly strikes could be in error.” The entire boat strike ops are horrible, but with this error rate?!

We live in the stupidest of times.

My mom’s memory care costs north of $8K/month and it’s not by any means luxurious. I hear the employees chat together and it’s clear that many have second jobs. Example: one was leaving the facility to go directly to another full shift at Amazon. Terrible $ math. It’s enraging.

“If America hasn’t broken your heart, you don’t love her enough.” —Cory Booker

I was never a Scout, but I was a military brat. This would apparently ban troops from bases. Anything that would cause military kids to feel more isolated and socially awkward is monstrous. www.npr.org/2025/11/25/n...

Fuck Elon Musk. He’s a monster.

I miss Harry Reid in the Senate.

The vote to reopen the government with no deal on health care is a brutal blow to all those who have stood together to save affordable health care for more than 20 million Americans. I will vote ‘NO’ with every fiber of my being.

Heritage kerfuffle, Marjorie Taylor Green acting out of character, Josh Hawley worrying about people running short of food, election blowout. It’s time to point out that Republicans are in Disarray.

Here we are.

For some reason 🤔 I am reminded of a time some years back when, walking my dog after dark, some young people drove by me an threw a very mustard-y hamburger remnant at me. Reader: Somehow, I survived.

I grew a gajillion pounds of winter squash, mostly butternut, so comes the apocalypse, I am sort of ready. This is a little ol’ fraction of the output.

Here’s a really good story. www.goodmorningamerica.com/living/story...

One of my college friends gave me a book about Mad King Ludwig and the Bavarian castles he built in the late 1800s. His taste and Trump’s are pretty same-same. It didn’t end well for Ludwig.

Like almost everyone born in Oklahoma, I was told we had a Cherokee ancestor. Early versions of my DNA tests showed no indigenous heritage. But now, they show a small amount, consistent with about seven generations back. I find it inconclusive, but possible, perhaps likely. Nothing to ridicule.

Someone ought to make a zillion of those blow-up suits for Portlanders that look like flames 🔥.

In today’s Gospel (Catholic, Lutheran, and Episcopalian) Jesus met a foreigner and instead of hating on him or getting him locked up or thrown out, he healed him.

My kid did a piano concert here last night in the old hometown and it was SO GOOD.

My Medigap (Part G) policy is going up some 30% next year and Part B is going up 11.6%. A worrying trend.

It’s a firehose of lies and you can’t make headway in a torrent.

When my son was in the Navy, he said the nuclear techs on carriers got away with not meeting physical fitness requirements because they were so essential. A modern military needs brains as much or probably more as brawn. Hegseth clearly wants women out of the military. Won’t end well.

How the hell are we going to survive all this?

I remember when the Trump administration loudly admired the Milei “chainsaw” tactics in Argentina while DOGE was ransacking our civil service. It was supposed to be a brilliant economic strategy. Who will bail us out if our economy collapses?

If we weren’t a nation with a history AND PRESENT INFLUX of immigrants, our restaurant food would be a huge bore. (I am obsessed with the new Ethiopian restaurant in my modest-sized city.)

I guess pregnant folks are supposed to take ivermectin.

Not the country I grew up in.

If hate speech isn’t allowed then they might as well sew Stephen Miller’s mouth shut and never let him near a keyboard.

So maybe this guy was a groyper and the far-right is actually at war with another far-right faction while we liberals are mostly not committing violent acts? Too soon to be sure but wow, what will “they” do if this is the case?

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to live in a country where gun violence hardly exists?

My guess is not too many preventable childhood deaths, but a very large number of preventable deaths in the 65+ demographic. Heaven , Obi-Wan, somebody help us.

As many gun deaths as we have in America, I can’t help thinking it has something to do with guns.

I just read the NYT article about the fired January 6 prosecutors and I am shaking. Time for a bike ride and brain cleanse. Anyone have audiobook recommendations?

It’s still really hard to believe about that damned airplane.

That woman driving the pickup truck who “failed to yield the right of way” to me on my bicycle.

The thing about observing that trump has the vocabulary of a fourth grader is that if you are ever around fourth graders, you see that they are absorbing new vocabulary so fast and so eagerly. They are anything but stuck.

If only everywhere

www.newson6.com/story/688410... Surprising? Nah.

www.nytimes.com/live/2025/07... Quelle surprise 🙄

Fuck that guy

I got a Covid shot last week and asked the pharmacist how often we 65+ folks should get them. He said every 4-6 months, and to get one this fall when a new one should come out, the one going into my arm being released a year ago. I nodded, yes, I will! But will there be a new vaccine?

It just keeps getting worse. So I am doing the best I can. Baking cookies.

I would as soon bow to Chinese overlords than Don the Con, though, especially if I could get a cheap but very sleek and rad electric car. And a network of high speed trains! Seriously, we’re losing “number one best at so many things!” status—ever faster, now. 🙁 www.nytimes.com/2025/07/14/o...

His administration is the talk of the world, but not because of its shining perfection.

I see a cybertruck approximately 2-3x/week and they look like some carboard model of a car that was slapped together be a seven year old. They look cheap and flimsy.

We’re being eclipsed, MAGA. And you aren’t even allowed to buy a great yet inexpensive car. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/08/o...

None of this is funny. MechaHitler is completely unfunny. That awful bill is a long-term disaster in dozens of ways. Floods and heatwaves are not at all amusing. Oh, wait, Ted Cruz being in Greece and lying about catching the next plane back to Texas? THAT is pretty funny.

So exactly how soon do we become this massive police state?

If you’re 25-35 and incurring significant medical costs, you’re likely to be disabled in some way. My kids didn’t even get checkups in those years, and I mostly didn’t either.

I’m on a little vacation to an area with hardly any nonwhite people. It’s beautiful and outdoorsy but overall I am conflicted about being here at all. This is the kind of demographic environment a lot of trump voters want. They will disappear as many nonwhites as they can to get closer to it.