Trump-headedness is my made-up word and the definition is: A mental condition during which one spouts facts contrary to the truth in order to further one’s own welfare, ego or pocketbook.
For Sunday Confessionals, we were asked to create a new word for the dictionary.
For Cee’s FOTD
We were about 5 minutes out of La Manzanilla on the twisty two lane road to Melaque when we started hearing something dragging on the undercarriage of the car. Irritated drivers piled up behind us as I slowed the car to a speed which minimized the scraping sound. Eventually, I found a small turnoff and pulled off the road. Cars zipped by us as Isidro got down on his hands and knees and eventually his stomach to try to figure out what piece of my car seemed determined to desert us. Moving around the car, he finally located the problem in the same locale that had started the problem the last time I drove to La Manzanilla a year ago that resulted in the entire protective shield for the undercarriage separating and falling off on the road.
Since we knew there was no garage in La Manzanilla, we continued on our way. I drove slowly, acquiring another sizable entourage behind us before finally reaching Melaque, where we spotted this small radiator/muffler repair shop by the side of the road. Although they had no car lift, they quickly pulled two small metal lift tracks and drove the car up onto them. We moved to the shade of the garage to inspect their organization and observe the forging of a piece for the job they’d been working on before our arrival by one of the three men in the shop as the other two collaborated to have us on the road again in 15 minutes or so. The cost? Five dollars!! I gave them a 50 percent tip and we were off with a warning that this was a temporary fix.
It is still serving me well 5 days later, but composing this cellpic feature has reminded me that I must make an appointment on Monday to have it checked out.
For Cellpic Sunday
Screenshot
This is an excerpt from Heather Cox Richardson’s latest “Letter from an American.” To see the entire piece go HERE:
“It is the policy of the Government of the United States to provide equal opportunity in Federal employment for all qualified persons, to prohibit discrimination in employment because of race, creed, color, or national origin, and to promote the full realization of equal employment opportunity through a positive, continuing program in each executive department and agency.”
This democratic government was popular, but as the memory of the dangers of fascism faded, opponents began to insist that such a government was leading the United States to communism. Tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, along with the deregulation of business and cuts to the social safety net, began to concentrate wealth at the top of society. As wealth moved upward, lawmakers chipped away at the postwar government that defended democracy.
And now, since the inauguration of President Donald Trump on Monday, the dismantling of that system is happening all at once.
The Guardian reported today that incoming Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered a halt to almost all foreign aid, with the exception of military assistance to Israel and Egypt. The Guardian notes that this order is likely unlawful, since Congress sets the budget and in 1974 declared it illegal for the president to impound funds. Still, a source foresaw the end of the global influence the U.S. has had since World War II, telling The Guardian: “Freezing these international investments will lead our international partners to seek other funding partners—likely US competitors and adversaries—to fill this hole and displace the United States’ influence the longer this unlawful impoundment continues.”
As Peter Baker of the New York Times notes, new president Donald Trump is trying to break NATO by demanding that members increase military spending to 5% of their nations’ economies, although the U.S. currently spends about 3% of its GDP on defense. If we were to meet that requirement, Baker points out, the U.S. would have to increase its defense budget by $567 billion a year. Isabel van Brugen of Newsweek reports that an Italian news agency says that Trump intends to pull about 20,000 U.S. troops from Europe and wants Europe to pay to maintain the rest.
Trump has undertaken to dismantle the postwar democratic government at home, too. He has stopped the funding for repairing roads, bridges, airports, and ports that passed Congress in a bipartisan vote in 2022, as well as taken away funding for new solar manufacturing plants and other new systems to address climate change.
He has frozen all travel and communications at the Department of Health and Human Services, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health. “We’ve never seen anything like this,” one researcher told Dan Diamond, Lena H. Sun, Carolyn Y. Johnson, and Mark Johnson of the Washington Post. “This is like a meteor just crashed into all of our cancer centers and research areas.”
And, of course, Trump has declared a war on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. In his revoking of LBJ’s Executive Order 11246, itself based on FDR’s Executive Order 8802, he explicitly rejected the principles for which the Americans fought in World War II.
“All Lined Up”
Lined up at the show
and everywhere we go,
it seems like we spend half our lives in lines that move too slow.
It seems that half the doing
consists of constant queueing––
a penance that we have to pay for eating, riding, viewing.
At cafes, traffic lanes,
post offices and trains,
museums, subways, cafeterias, we make small gains.
Standing more than walking,
muttering and gawking,
our progress is so slow that there’s less moving than there’s taking.
As we go two-by-twoing,
like milkcows softly mooing,
waiting here in lines, we find that we are all-too-often ruing
leaving our house at all
to line up at the mall
I think I’d rather be at home than waiting with y’all!
Here are a few “LIned Up” visuals: (Click on photos to enlarge.)
And, for more “lined up” photos go HERE.
The SOCS prompt is “In Line.”
I just discovered a very strange thing. Here are three photos of the rustic bench that my friend Lach “saved” for me by infusing the rotted wood with epoxy . The first is a photo of just the bench, the second of Lach with the bench. The third has Lach sitting on the bench and me behind, but where has the bench gone? He seems to be sitting on air!!! How could this have happened????? Has AI taken over my photo file and started pulling jokes on me?
I swear, I did not alter the photo..and would not have had the skill to have done so.
For Fibbing Friday the challenge is:
1. What is a fib? A heart stoppage that may be cured by a defibrillator.
2. What is a crib? The third chest bone down from the top.
3. What is a bib? The first 39.6 % of the Bible.
5. What is an antler? What you call your mother’s youngest sister.
6. Define staunch. A very strong bad odor.
7. What is a paunch? Your father’s midday meal.
8. What is a launch? The midday meal in Great Britain.
9. What is a nub? The mirror reflection of the bread used to make a hamburger.
10. What is a hub? A reversed half-hearted cheer.
Why I do not Ham on Rye it
You cannot borrow steal or buy it.
Sumo wrestlers never try it.
Female starlets do or die it.
Vitamin makers fortify it
You never cookie, cake or pie it.
Pizza parlors terrify it.
Now and then I me oh my it,
but I hope I don’t defy it,
for if I ever hope to guy it,
I simply must stay on my diet!
For dVerse Poets, a poem of negation.
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 