I'm only recent back in a Cessna, but I'm happy to say I've already had a few successful landings. (Which is all you can ask for... 😀)

New Republic: “To win big and… hold onto power, the Democrats need to work harder to build a party brand that answers voters’ real concerns and differentiates them from Republicans.” “That doesn’t mean behaving like a weather vane… It means having the courage and strength to make your own weather.”

Factcheck.org: "[Trump] falsely claimed he had 'inherited the worst inflation' in U.S. history and that it 'stopped' since he returned to the White House. The worst inflation period occurred after World War I, and inflation was up 3% for the 12-month period ending in September."

"Trump hung up on a ProPublica reporter after being asked whether his Florida mortgages were similar to those of others he had accused of fraud." - ProPublica

Factcheck.org: "Hernández had been found guilty by a jury after a three-week trial. He was sentenced by a U.S. District judge last year to 45 years in prison for using his position to help drug traffickers import more than 400 tons of cocaine into the United States, while accepting bribes..."

ICYMI: POTUS approval is at it's second-term low of 36%—although he hasn't broken his own first-term record... yet.

70% of Latinos disapprove of POTUS. 76% are dissatisfied with the way the country is going, which is higher than the General Public (which is at 72%). www.pewresearch.org/race-and-eth...

"[Trump] distorted his predecessor’s record on employment, falsely claiming that government jobs were increasing while 'real jobs' were declining. The number of private-sector jobs increased every year under [Biden’s] term and was up about 12% by the time he left office."

"On Nov. 19, the CDC replaced its webpage on autism and vaccines with a new one that leans into the discredited idea that vaccines might cause autism." "Numerous rigorous studies have repeatedly failed to identify any link between vaccination and autism."

All you need to know about this man in the headline. "Trump Turns to US Supreme Court to Block Order to Fully Fund SNAP Food Aid"

"Republicans had held a supermajority in the Senate since sweeping the state government in 2011."

The Hill: Senate GOP blocks Dem effort to fund SNAP "Senate Republicans nixed an attempt by Democrats to fully fund Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits on Monday after those funds dried up over the weekend amid the government shutdown."

"SNAP has become the third rail of shutdowns. You don’t let people go hungry to prove a political point. All while the president is building multimillion-dollar ballrooms, buying private jets for his cabinet members, and traveling around Asia rather than working to end the shutdown." - Dan Rather

"Can you imagine the reaction if Joe Biden said he pardoned someone because Hunter told him to? If Biden blindly freed a scammer based solely on his son’s recommendation... conservative media would be frothing at the mouth." - Mike Nellis open.substack.com/pub/endlessu...

"Trump promoted a military pay raise of 3.8% for next year, claiming that this was 'something you weren’t getting from the past administration.'" "Military pay increased by 4.6%, 5.2% and 4.5% in 2023, 2024 and 2025... Military raises are automatically determined by a formula set by law."

Factcheck.org: "...donations for the ballroom are being coordinated through a nonprofit charitable organization, the Trust for the National Mall... 'I don’t see how adding a ballroom to the White House grounds benefits the public. So it’s not clear to me how a 501(c)(3) should be funding this.'"

[RFK Jr.] further added to the ... administration’s problematic claims about Tylenol and autism on Oct. 9, alleging during a Cabinet meeting that circumcision-related studies provide evidence that the drug causes the condition when given to children. The studies, however, do no such thing.

Oct 2025 = $26.99.

After reading a piece about the rise in coffee prices, I decided to go into my shopping history and check to see what I used to pay for this staple in our household. Nov 2024 = $15.99 for 36 ounces. Aug 2025 = $24.99 (!!) ~56% increase. Thanks, 🌮!

"Gabbard’s claim relies heavily on an alleged contradiction between a Jan. 6, 2017, intelligence assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered an “influence campaign” ... and earlier intelligence assessments that concluded Russia did not successfully use cyberattacks..."

Does the WSJ letter "sound" like Trump? TL/dr: He's used "enigma," "pal," recounts narratives of himself in the third person, has a history with the poet (first line) and is known to draw with a sharpie and sign the bottom.

Just in case you've been wondering what the answer to this question is: 71.7% of ICE detainees as of June 29 have no criminal record or pending criminal charges. www.mississippifreepress.org/among-trumps...

Factcheck.org: "Contrary to [Trump's] claim that no one will die as a result of the [GOP] budget bill, an analysis from the University of Pennsylvania and Yale University estimated that the legislation’s changes to Medicaid and the [ACA] will result in at least 42,500 preventable deaths each year."

"What has made Baltimore — which President Trump and other conservatives deride as a 'filthy' Democrat-controlled 'slum' — so successful in making its streets safer?" popular.info/p/the-secret...

Tell me I'm crazy—I thought all of this was about the price of eggs. (Chart: CNBC).

He had no criminal record and was living with his grandparents in Iowa. Abducted by ICE, imprisoned and shipped off with no due process. It's simply un-American. Great work by Little Village. littlevillagemag.com/iowans-rally...

Gut-wrenching read. Mom abducted at work by ICE. Kids left at home. 15-year-old son: “I don’t know what to tell [my brothers] because I don’t want them to freak out. Because they’re little, they’re little kids.” Amplify this work by Santa Barbara Independent.

"Trump’s supporters are discovering that they have become 77 million Ivanas. They are 77 million Marla Maples. They are 77 million customers of Trump steaks or Trump universities, 77 million of the creditors he left high and dry." - David Rothkopf

"... make no mistake: This 3,000-bed facility quickly built with cages and razor-wire by floundering Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis—who is trying to get back into the cruelty spotlight—should be seen for what it is... a concentration camp. This is no mere hyperbole." -Steven Beschloss

Can anybody tell me why MAGA/GOP/🌮 wouldn’t want to harvest all the American-made solar and wind energy we possibly could? Doesn’t that make us greater than lying about gas prices being lower?

At IKEA to buy $85 chairs. Got to the warehouse section and they were priced at $125. When we got to the front, we told the sales rep, who scanned them and they rung up $85. We asked what the deal was. "They're probably marking things up back there for when the tariffs hit next week."

That should solve it.

Washington Monthly quotes defense intelligence expert: "As long as we didn’t use [bunker-buster bombs], Iran didn’t know for sure how damaging they could be. That gave us leverage with them. Now the situation is reversed."

From Gizmodo: "The law is still in flux, so there’s no hard and fast rule for protecting your phone from searches. Still, if you know you will be interacting with police, your best bet is to turn off biometrics before you head out, according to Crocker."

TNR: "Bump found that assaults on agents had decreased every month since 2024 and, despite repeated requests to ICE, wasn’t given any proof of ICE agents being doxxed, targeted, or assaulted outside the context of an immigration arrest."

Robert Reich: "So what’s Trump doing about the slump in new housing? Three things. All will worsen it."

Factcheck.org: "In defending his decision to deploy the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles... Trump claimed that the police chief said the situation with immigration protests 'had gotten away from them'... that’s not what McDonnell said."

"To have these influential men in particular, who were part of the manosphere — that is how Trump got elected — come out and say what's going on on a policy perspective is wrong is a big f-ing deal. And it's an even bigger deal when you consider that there is nothing for them to gain...."

Dan Rather on #NoKings: "A prescient lyric from the song is, perhaps, a moment of art imitating life: 'And when push comes to shove, I will send a fully armed battalion to remind you of my love!' 'You’ll Be Back' is an entertaining reminder that no, in fact, we didn’t go back, and we never will."

FactCheck.org: "The Department of Health and Human Services has defended cuts to vaccine research with statements that mislead on the safety of mRNA technology, despite an extensive history of testing. HHS recently terminated a $766 million award to Moderna for developing mRNA vaccines..."

Breyer's ruling is a masterclass. "... this case is not one involving the kind of foreign policy or national security questions that traditionally are left to the President. It instead implicates the President’s domestic use of military force, a matter on which the courts can certainly weigh in."

You've probably seen this, but it also deserves one more post, both in support of the sentiment (that being, you know, "democracy = good") and the history it represents.

CNBC: "The rift sent Tesla shares plummeting 14% on Thursday, wiping out roughly $152 billion in value, the most for any day in the company’s 15 year-history on the public market. While Musk is still the richest person in the world on paper, his net worth plunged by $34 billion..."

CNBC: "The [CBO] projected that about 11 million people would lose health-care coverage due to provisions in the bill passed by the House... The CBO estimated that an additional 4 million or so would lose insurance due to expiring Obamacare subsidies, which the bill doesn’t extend."

ProPublica: "One year out of college and with no apparent national security expertise, Thomas Fugate is the [DHS] official tasked with overseeing the government’s main hub for combating violent extremism." Rep Bennie Thompson (D-MS): "None of this will make America safer."

It's kinda like fourth-grade boys deciding they're no longer best friends and divvying up their toys, except there are a lot of actual cars and spaceships involved.

Not that I mind 🌮 getting owned here a bit, but here's a thought -- should a *privately held* company be the U.S.'s only option for getting astronauts to and from the International Space Station? Shouldn't that maybe be NASA?

"With Vought, a self-described Christian nationalist, at the helm (of DOGE), the slash-and-burn effort against the federal government may be on the cusp of an even darker turn."

I'm attending VoteRiders's event, “Arizona & North Carolina Text Bank w/ VoteRiders!” - sign up now to join me!

(Said like Steve Harvey on Family Feud) "And the CBO SAYS.... [bing!] ... $2.4 trillion added to the debt!"