Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

Sunday, April 27, 2025

Can you guess who this is with my daughter?

 

They grew up in the same town in Massachusetts and have been friends ever since. She never misses a show when he and his band are on the west coast.


He and his band just played at the Hollywood Bowl last night.







My daughter's best friend, the mystery rocker, and my daughter.

YOUR SUNDAY MOMENT OF ZEN

 





Saturday, April 26, 2025

SATURDAY NIGHT DANCING

 


The evolution of dance:

GUEST POST BY DAVE MILLER







America is not in a post racial phase.

It's 2025 and after seeing so much change and advancement over the years, especially regarding race here in the US, I thought I had gotten to the point where nothing would shock me.

How wrong I was.

Imagine how I felt reading a comment from a supposedly educated man where the term pickaninny was used to describe black people. not once, but a number of times.

Just in case anyone is wondering, the term is a patently offensive, derogatory and racially charged word, akin to using ni**er. Why anyone would use such a term to describe people today is beyond me. Civilized people should be appalled when it is used as a descriptor of a fellow human being, created as a majority of the world believes, in the image of God.

But it gets worse.

Because not only did no one call him out on the offensiveness of the term, it was even applauded by the hosting blogger.

This is why we can't have nice things in America. Because there are still so many people who know certain terms are offensive, yet persist in their usage uncaring about the hurt it inflicts on others.

And lest any be confused, the people who use terms like this typically argue that we've overcome our race problems in this country. 

Sadly, their words, the evidence and their hearts say otherwise.


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Dave did NOT ask me to post where this racist term was used and published; but since this is my blog, I choose to publish it here to show Dave's claim is authentic and to call out Americans who believe it is still okay to demean  people through racial slurs. It's not. It's wrong. It's disgusting.



Voting is a responsibility of the states. If you have a state plagued by the cancer of stupidity, don’t expect any changes in how the state conducts its business. California is one of those states, but not the only one.

As Joe said, fraud is a primary feature of the progressive/communist party, not a by-product.

I maintain that slavery still exists, but in a different form. Today, it is possible to keep the Pickaninny’s on the plantation by promising them goodies in exchange for their votes — no one thinks anything of it. But it is slavery, and all it’s cracked up to be. In this sense, the Pickaninny’s don’t have to be blacks. The Democratic Party mirrors its counterpart in their mother country — Коммунистическая партия (Коммунисты России) — where only the inner circle benefits from any of its policies and programs, but they do have a great public relations program. One should also note that this filth has been going on now since the in-your-face racism of the Wilson Administration.







This Sam character appears to be angry and woefully misguided. Trumpers usually are.


THE GOLDEN AGE OF TRUMPIAN CORRUPTION

 





Thursday, April 24, 2025

FROM DAVE MILLER:

 


"Former Trump Secretary of Defense, Marine General James Mattis, has famously said... "if you haven't read hundreds of books, you're functionally illiterate." 


So share with us a couple of books you've read lately or are reading now. 

 I'll go first. 

One, "Anarchy and Christianity" by Jacques Ellul is a reread. 

The other is "Caste" by Isabelle Wilkerson.


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Shaw:  

I'm currently reading "The Robber Bride" by Margaret Atwood.

Previously, I read  "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari

My next book:  "On Tyranny" by Timothy Snyder

THE FELON OF THE UNITED STATES, DONALD J. TRUMP, IS A RAVING LUNATIC



"A lunatic is someone who is either clinically insane or just acting really crazy."

IMO, Trump is acting crazy. No other president in the history of our country EVER spoke about or wrote anything with the sort of irrational language Trump is using in his social media posts. 

It. Is. Crazy.

 

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The present president of Harvard University, Alan Garber, is Jewish. Harvard University has had three previous Jewish presidents: Neil Rudenstine, Lawrence Summers, and Lawrence Bacow.





FAUX NOOZ presented the facts on Trump's tanking approval numbers last night, and this is what Trump wrote about his once favorite cable news outlet this morning. Also, the Wall Street Journal has called Trump's tariff wars "the dumbest trade wars in history."





Trump's a genius at foreign policy, especially getting murderous dictators to stop killing people:




REALITY CHECK FOR MAGA

 

"President Trump’s job approval rating has fallen steadily during his first three months in office, according to a New York Times average of polling. 

Mr. Trump’s approval rating has sunk to about 45 percent, down from 52 percent one week after he took office. Around half of the country now disapproves of his performance, the polling shows. American presidents typically enter office with a groundswell of support that wanes over time. But Mr. Trump’s approval has been dropping slightly faster than that of his predecessors. 

 Mr. Trump started his term with the second-lowest approval rating for a president in modern history. The only recent president to have started in a worse position was Mr. Trump the first time he took office."





AND THIS:


"As Donald Trump approaches the 100th day of his second term, a Fox News survey finds voters pleased with the job he is doing on border security, but displeased on most other issues -- including inflation. 

President Trump receives his best marks on border security, as a 55% majority approves. That’s the only issue where his ratings are in positive territory. 

On immigration, a record high of 47% approve of Trump (48% disapprove), while a new low of 38% approve on the economy (56% disapprove). 

His worst ratings are on inflation (33% approve, 59% disapprove), followed by tariffs (33-58%), foreign policy (40-54%), taxes (38-53%), and guns (41-44%)."












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Hmmm. I wonder what could be the cause of Trump's tanking approval numbers. Is it the idiocy of Trump's tariffs? The incompetence at DOD leading to a less secure USA? Or maybe it's Trump's taking every step he can to destroy our relationships with our allies and trading partners? Maybe it's Trump's disregard for the Constitution and the rule of law. Will the GOP wake up and fix the shameful mess they've created?


That 45% still approve of his job performance reveals more about their cruel mentality and narrow mindedness than anything else.


"We’re going to be making money with everyone, and everyone’s going to be happy," Trump told reporters outside the White House on Wednesday. That quote highlights part of the problem. Making money doesn't make everyone happy, but cruelty, incompetence, revenge politics, and destruction of the government itself, make quite a few people unhappy.

Wednesday, April 23, 2025

DEAR AMERICA,



That the Trump Regime is even SUGGESTING this should set everyone's hair on fire: 




"Some officials say U.S. citizens who criticize administration policies could be charged with crimes, based on the notion that they're aiding terrorists and criminals. 

'You have to ask yourself, are they technically aiding and abetting them, because aiding and abetting criminals and terrorists is a crime,'  White House senior director for counterterrorism Seb Gorka said in an interview with Newsmax. 




Trump's team also has questioned the legality of civic groups providing immigrants with 'know your rights' trainings on how to respond to federal agents. Border czar Tom Homan suggested that such seminars help people evade law enforcement. 

'They're trying to use terrorism laws to attack people for their speech and for their political activism, and that's an authoritarian effort,' said Kerri Talbot, co-executive director of the Immigration Hub, an immigration advocacy group."

"TRUMP IS TRUMP"

 





Good advice for opposing an inept, bungling, weak FOTUS:

Trump has managed to make himself an object of ridicule and mockery around the world. His approval numbers are under water. He's managed to take a thriving economy that was the envy of the developed world and ruin it in only three months. 

And the worst of it is his failures:  To "take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed," creating a Constitutional crisis.

What did those who voted for him think would happen when they decided that a convicted felon and sexual assaulter, cheater, liar, and fraud would be a competent, honest, and decent leader?  Trump is the opposite of all that is good and honorable.

This is all on those who betrayed America by putting this pile of garbage into the Oval Office.    


CONSERVATIVE BRET STEPHENS, NYTIMES:


"Trump is Trump. Let’s think of him on his own terms. 

When the president completed his extraordinary political comeback in November, he was at the summit of his political power. He has eroded it every day since. With Matt Gaetz as his first choice for attorney general. With the needlessly bruising confirmation fights over the absurd choices of Hegseth, Robert Kennedy Jr., Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard. With making an enemy of Canada. With JD Vance’s grotesque outreach to the German far right. With the Oval Office abuse of Volodymyr Zelensky. With the helter-skelter tariff regime. With threats of conquest that antagonize historic allies for no plausible benefit. With dubious arrests and lawless deportations that can make heroes of unsympathetic individuals. And now with threats to the basic economic order that sent gold soaring to a record high of $3,500 an ounce and the Dow on track to its worst April since the late Hoover administration.

Democrats wondering how to oppose Trump most effectively might consider the following. Drop the dictator comparisons. Rehearse the above facts. Promise normality and offer plans to regain it. And remember that no matter how malignant he may be, there’s no better opponent than a face-plant president stumbling over his untied laces."



NOTE: FDR famously said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” 

Today, America has to fear Trump himself. His completely, unhinged, uncalculated actions are destroying America's economy and moral standing in the world.  

Tuesday, April 22, 2025

*ETTD: "Everything Trump Touches Dies." Or, in Tesla's case, is damaged!

 

I have an interest in what is happening to Tesla. 

Both my children own Teslas.




Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives is sounding another loud alarm bell for Tesla Inc., warning that CEO Elon Musk faces his own fork in the road as the electric vehicle maker prepares to report first quarter earnings Tuesday. 

 “Musk needs to leave the government, take a major step back on DOGE, and get back to being CEO of Tesla full-time,” wrote Ives in a report to clients Sunday. 

“Tesla is Musk and Musk is Tesla....and anyone that thinks the brand damage Musk has inflicted is not a real thing....spend some time speaking to car buyers in the US, Europe, and Asia...you will think differently after those discussions.” 

 “Tesla has unfortunately become a political symbol globally of the Trump Administration/DOGE,” wrote Ives on Sunday. He then ticked off several points: Tesla’s stock has been crushed since inauguration, the company’s first quarter delivery numbers were terrible, and protests against Tesla continue. Tesla faces “potentially 15 percent-20 percent permanent demand destruction for future Tesla buyers due to the brand damage Musk has created with DOGE,” Ives said.


[skip]



Tesla shares have fallen 43 percent since January 17. When the company reports earnings Tuesday, it will face questions about volume sales for 2025, progress on autonomous driving and plans for a robotaxi network, and how tariffs will impact profitability. Looming over everything is Musk’s role in the White House. 

 [skip] 

 “We view this as a fork in the road time: if Musk leaves the White House there will be permanent brand damage, but Tesla will have its most important asset and strategic thinker back as full time CEO,” wrote Ives. “If Musk chooses to stay with the Trump White House it could change the future of Tesla/brand damage will grow.”
 

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TRUMP MAKING AMERICA HATED AGAIN:


No countries in Europe hanged effigies of former President Biden when he was in office. Look at what Trump has done to US:





MEXICO: