I have an additional favorite political commentator who is on a par with Heather Cox Richardson. Here he is again!!! Thanks to Forgottenman for sending me this video.
Just today, Nov 4, 2025, I received this message from “Handy Barker” concerning this poem he wrote, which was quoted as a Dr. Seuss poem everywhere I could find it, or I would have attributed it to him. Here is the note I received from him, which I am publishing along with my apology:
Forgottenman has made his blog private, but he sent this to me and I asked him if he would put it on my blog. It is so well-stated and well-presented. In spite of the fact that I am no follower of any sport, this brought me to tears. The commentator is Richard Teresi, who writes under the title, “Ohh—That’s Rich.”
Comment by Forgottenman: 2025 World Series, game 3 in L.A., going 18 innings, setting multiple records. (No, I didn’t watch – highlight reels only.) Lots of commentary, but THIS is the absolute best, most important commentary on that game I can imagine! Thanks, Rich!
Links:
After you have read Elizabeth’s essay by clicking on the link above, read her mother, Jan Wilburg’s WP blog HERE. She certainly raised her daughter right!!!!
Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American, Sep 29, 2025
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) left a meeting with President Donald J. Trump this afternoon without a deal to keep the government open past the last day of the fiscal year, which is tomorrow: Tuesday. The president and Vice President J.D. Vance appeared to consider opening up negotiations over extending the premium tax subsidies for healthcare insurance that will expire at the end of 2025 because of the budget reconciliation bill the Republicans passed in July, but they insisted the Democrats must fund the government before talks begin.
“We think when they say ‘later,’ they mean ‘never,” Schumer told reporters. He noted that Democrats had asked repeatedly for meetings about the measure and the Republicans refused, so Democrats had no input on the continuing resolution. Jeffries pointed out that far from being willing to work with Democrats, House Republicans have left town. “House Democrats are here,” he said. “Senate Democrats are here. The Senate is ready to act. House Republicans [are] on vacation right now…. They’re not serious about actually reaching a bipartisan agreement that meets the needs of the American people. If House Republicans were serious, they’d be here right now.”
Schumer told reporters that in their discussions, Trump did not appear to be aware that Americans are facing huge increases in their healthcare insurance payments because of the budget reconciliation bill.
Tonight, Trump’s social media account posted a deepfake video of Schumer and Jeffries speaking to reporters. In the doctored video, Schumer talks with Mexican music playing in the background, while Jeffries stands beside him wearing what appears to be a colorful Mexican sombrero and sporting a mustache with the ends waxed and turned up.
In the video, Schumer’s image is made to say: “There’s no way to sugarcoat it. Nobody likes Democrats anymore. We have no voters left because of all of our woke, trans bullsh*t. Not even Black people want to vote for us anymore, even Latinos hate us. So we need new voters. And if we give all these illegal aliens free healthcare, we might be able to get them on our side so they can vote for us. They can’t even speak English, so they won’t realize we’re just a bunch of woke pieces of sh*t, you know? At least for a while, until they learn English and they realize they hate us too.”
When Lawrence O’Donnell asked Jeffries to comment on the video, he responded: “It’s a disgusting video and we’re going to continue to make clear: bigotry will get you nowhere.”
Jeffries continued: “We are fighting to protect the healthcare of the American people in the face of an unprecedented Republican assault. On all the things, Medicaid, Medicare, the Affordable Care Act, Republicans are closing our hospitals, nursing homes, and community-based health clinics, and have effectively shut down medical research in the United States of America. Clearly, Donald Trump and Republicans know that they have a very weak position, because they are hurting everyday Americans while continuing to reward their billionaire donors, just like they did in that one big, ugly bill with massive tax breaks. Democrats are united in the House and the Senate, and the point that we’ve made will continue to be clear. We are fighting to lower the high cost of healthcare, prevent these dramatically increased premiums, copays, and deductibles that will take place in a matter of days unless Republicans are willing to act in terms of renewing the Affordable Care Act tax credits.”
Hugo Lowell of The Guardian reported today that White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller has been leading the administration’s strikes on boats that the White House claims were smuggling drugs to the U.S., although it has offered no evidence of that claim either to lawmakers or to the public. Julie Turkewitz of the New York Times reported that “[i]n an interview, one woman who identified herself as the wife of one of the dead men said that her husband was a fisherman with four children who left one day for work and never came back.”
Tomorrow is not only the last day of the fiscal year, it is also the date Defense Secretary Pete Hegeseth set for what was to be his own highly unusual meeting with more than 800 military leaders and their senior enlisted advisors. Hegseth did not specify the purpose of the meeting. Since he called it hastily last week, news reports have suggested that he intended to talk to the generals and admirals about “soldier ethos.” Now Trump says he intends to go to the meeting himself and give the military leaders a pep talk.
We’ll see.
Noah Robertson, Tara Copp, Alex Horton, and Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post reported today that eight current and former officials have told them there is a deep rift between the political appointees at the Pentagon and the military leaders there.
The journalists report that in a reordering of U.S. military priorities, Hegseth is withdrawing forces from Europe, reducing the concentration of power and consolidating commands abroad while focusing on using the military in the U.S. and neighboring countries. According to the reporters, General Dan Caine, Trump’s hand-picked chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, shares others’ concerns about the reworking of U.S. priorities.
Also tomorrow, as Michael Sainato of The Guardian reports, the resignations of more than 100,000 federal workers will take effect as part of the Trump administration’s cuts to the federal workforce. Those leaving say they were forced out through fear and pressure from administration officials, reminding Sainato of the comment from Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought, who wants to destroy the modern government. Last October he said of federal workers: “When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work, because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. We want their funding to be shut down.… We want to put them in trauma.”
This year’s cuts to the government workforce will mean the loss of at least 275,000 workers, the largest decline in civilian federal employment in a single year since World War II.
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Notes:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/29/stephen-miller-venezuela-drug-boat-strike
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/28/world/americas/venezuela-mood.html
https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/26/politics/hegseth-generals-meeting-warrior-ethos
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/29/president-trump-administration-news-updates-today
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/28/us-mass-resignation-federal-workers
Bluesky:
onestpress.onestnetwork.com/post/3lzzerqujmk25
Here is Heather Cox Richardson’s substack sit:
When I saw this prompt, I just had to reblog this blog of mine from 2018. It was too perfect.
My friend Larry Kolczak has allowed me to copy this hilarious email sent to me. I’ve been trying to convince him he should have a blog himself. Do you agree?
Six months ago, we hung these beaded curtains on our second-floor patio fence to obscure the view into the neighboring lot. Recently, …
… we started finding broken strands. We figured it was because the curtains weren’t made for outdoor use, and that sun and wind had deteriorated the nylon strings. But, that wasn’t the problem…
It turns out that many of the eco-friendly beads are acorns.
Guess who noticed?
He nips the string to get the uppermost acorn…
… which he either eats on the spot, or buries in our potted plants, and leaves us with the…
…collateral damage.
Go HERE to find Larry’s monthly articles in El Ojo del Lago.
MVB‘s Prompt is Acorn.
 July 22, 2025
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| By Carl Swanson
Deputy Editorial Director, Opinion |
The writer and podcast host Molly Jong-Fast grew up knowing that her grandfather Howard Fast, known for writing the novel the movie “Spartacus” was based on, was also famous for being blacklisted in Hollywood for refusing to give information to the House Un-American Activities Committee.
In a guest essay for Times Opinion, she writes that she was reminded of what her grandfather went through after CBS’s decision last week to cancel Stephen Colbert’s late-night show. Colbert had been graciously derisive of President Trump for years. The cancellation looks to Jong-Fast like a “dark moment for an American media company seemingly bowing and scraping” to the president, “obeying in advance, hoping to make a deal,” since Paramount, CBS’s parent company, is in the midst of closing a merger with Skydance that requires approval from his administration.
For its part, CBS released a statement saying that the cancellation was “purely a financial decision,” and it’s true that “The Late Show,” like most everything else on TV, isn’t the moneymaker it once was (although it is still the top-rated late-night show on air). But it’s also true that Paramount’s chairwoman, Shari Redstone, has a family fortune tied up in getting the Skydance deal done.
What does this mean for free speech?
It’s pretty clear now that nobody is safe from an administration determined to bring anyone or anything it sees as standing in its way, no matter how august — Harvard University, high-powered law firms, and TV networks — to heel. And, as Colbert might have just shown, “We’ll never be able to mock Mr. Trump into submission.”
To Read the entire article, go HERE
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Two days after deadly Texas floods, the agency struggled to answer calls from survivors because of call center contracts that weren’t extended.
Two days after catastrophic floods roared through Central Texas, the Federal Emergency Management Agency did not answer nearly two-thirds of calls to its disaster assistance line, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times.
The lack of responsiveness happened because the agency had fired hundreds of contractors at call centers, according to a person briefed on the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal matters.
The agency laid off the contractors on July 5 after their contracts expired and were not extended, according to the documents and the person briefed on the matter. Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, who has instituted a new requirement that she personally approve expenses over $100,000, did not renew the contracts until Thursday, five days after the contracts expired. FEMA is part of the Department of Homeland Security.
From Heather Cox Richardson.:
At a news conference today, acting U.S. attorney for the District of Minnesota Joseph H. Thompson, who was appointed by President Donald Trump just two weeks ago, said that Minnesota suspect Vance Boelter went to the homes of two more politicians than the two he eventually shot along with their spouses. One was on vacation with her family, and at another home, a police officer apparently scared him off.
Thompson said Boelter had “voluminous” writings that showed he had been planning the attacks for “quite some time.” “But,” Thompson added, “I have not seen anything involving some sort of political screed or manifesto that would clearly identify what motivated him. Obviously, his primary motive was to go out and murder people. They were all elected officials. They were all Democrats. Beyond that, I think it’s just way too speculative for anyone that’s reviewed these materials to know and to say what was motivating him in terms of ideology or specific issues.”
Zoe Sottile of CNN reported that Boelter is facing federal charges of two counts of stalking, two counts of murder, and two counts of firearms offenses. He is facing state charges of first-degree murder, second degree murder, and attempted murder.
MAGA loyalists have continued to radicalize in the wake of the shootings, spreading disinformation that blamed the violence on Democrats or joking about the event. Walker Orenstein of the Minnesota Star Tribune debunked the disinformation spread by MAGA loyalists, noting that Boelter was not close to Walz, who simply okayed his reappointment to a bipartisan board that then-governor Mark Dayton had put him on in 2016. According to his roommate, Boelter was a “strong supporter” of Trump.
Emily Anderson Stern and Robert Gehrke of the Salt Lake Tribune called out Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) for his behavior in the aftermath of the shootings. Lee joked about the killings and falsely blamed the violence on his political opponents, tying the shooting to Minnesota governor Tim Walz. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) responded: “This was an incredible woman, her husband, her two kids—yesterday on Father’s Day, there was no Father’s Day for them. They lost both their parents…. This is not a laughing matter, and certainly what we’re seeing is an increase in violence, and this evil man who did this—this is not a joke.”
Of Lee’s behavior, influencer George Takei wrote: “Utah voters: Are these really your values? Mike Lee is the best you can do?” After Lee pinned one of his disturbing tweets to the top of his social media timeline, Tim Miller of The Bulwark wrote: “This is less of a political matter than a sign of deep mental illness.”
As of this afternoon, Trump had not called Walz, calling him “a terrible governor” and “a grossly incompetent person.”
Trump drew criticism of his own incompetence today at the meeting of the Group of Seven (G7) in Kananaskis, Alberta, in Canada. The G7 is a forum of democracies with advanced economies that includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as the European Union. During today’s meetings, Trump seemed to think the United Kingdom and the European Union were the same thing.
Trump also parroted Russian talking points, telling reporters: “The G7 used to be the G8. Barack Obama and a person named Trudeau didn’t want to have Russia in, and I would say that that was a mistake, because I think you wouldn’t have a war right now if you had Russia in, and you wouldn’t have a war right now if Trump were president four years ago.”
In fact, the members of the G7 kicked Russia out of the forum after Russian president Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in 2014. And former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau didn’t take office until 2015.
On Friday, journalist Dean Blundell reported that Washington insiders and observers from abroad had noticed how rarely Trump appears in public and how often he falls asleep when he does, prompting speculation that he is not physically able to do the work of the presidency. Blundell suggested Trump’s team would look for a way to get the president out of the G7 early to avoid exposure.
After today’s meetings, at which it appears the U.S. was delaying a joint statement in which G7 members called for an end to the conflict between Israel and Iran, Trump posted on social media: “Iran should have signed the ‘deal’ I told them to sign,” although it was Trump who pulled out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the “Iran nuclear deal” that limited Iran’s nuclear program. He continued: “What a shame, and waste of human life. Simply stated, IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. I said it over and over again! Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!”
More than 9 million people live in Tehran, with more than 16 million in the metropolitan area.
Then Trump’s team announced the situation in the Middle East required the president to leave the G7 a day early.
Twelve minutes after his post about evacuating Tehran, Trump reposted a Newsmax story saying that Trump “deserves an A+ for his job performance so far,” and less than an hour later, he posted an attack on right-wing personality Tucker Carlson and then posted: “AMERICA FIRST means many GREAT things, including that fact that IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!” Just before midnight, he posted an attack on California governor Gavin Newsom.
It’s unclear what Trump’s abrupt departure from the G7 indicates for events in the Middle East and U.S. involvement in them. As Brian O’Neill of The Contrarian noted, Trump had said he hoped to negotiate a deal with Iran, and indeed, talks were scheduled for Sunday in Oman when Israel launched its attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities on Friday. O’Neill notes that when Israel struck Iran last Friday without U.S. coordination, the Trump administration was left “scrambling to respond.”
Being sidelined in foreign affairs at the same time as the American people turned out in huge numbers to protest his administration and as his military parade fizzled shows Trump has less power than he tries to project.
How decisions are being made in the administration is unclear. Notably, after Trump wrote last Thursday that “changes are coming” in deportation orders because it made no sense to deport workers who had been here for a long time and were vital to farms, hotels, and restaurants, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today reversed that decision.
Carol D. Leonnig, Natalie Allison, Marianne LeVine, and Lauren Kaori Gurley of the Washington Post reported that after Trump’s post and comments to reporters, a DHS official told agents to pause raids on agriculture, including meatpacking plants, as well as restaurants and hotels. But on Sunday, DHS leadership suggested a reversal was coming because, as the journalists write, “the White House did not support” the new policy. In a call this morning, officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) told agents to continue immigration raids at the businesses Trump had said he was going to protect.
This shift makes it seem as if White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, a white nationalist who insists that the U.S. must deport a million immigrants this year, is determining White House policies, just as he did on the Signal chat about the military strikes on the Houthis in Yemen when his statement that Trump wanted a strike appeared to shut down any further debate of the question.
If Trump is leaving the work of the presidency to others, his family is certainly using the prestige of the presidency to make money. In what it says is in honor of the tenth anniversary of Trump’s trip down the Trump Tower escalator into presidential politics, the Trump Organization has launched a mobile phone service. As Nikki McCann Ramirez of Rolling Stone explains, the plan is essentially another licensing deal, with the disclaimer specifying that the service simply uses the Trump name after contracting with another provider.
The announcement claims that new made-in-America gold phones will be available in September, but as David Pierce of The Verge notes, the photoshopped image of the phone and the wonky specs on it, as well as the impossible promise to make them in America within three months, mean the phone “looks both bad and impossible.” The phone, too, is simply branded with the Trump name; the family business will not design or manufacture it.
The family was evidently in a hurry to get this venture up and running. Kelcee Griffis of Bloomberg reported that the Trump Organization only applied for the trademarks for it last Thursday.
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Notes:
https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/minnesota-shootings-manhunt-06-15-25
https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/minnesota-shootings-manhunt-06-15-25#cmbzbc7if002v3b6mcyozzw5i
https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2025/06/16/mineesota-shootinig-sen-amy/
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/16/republicans-trump-minnesota-lawmakers-killings
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/16/trump-leaving-g7-early-00409449
Trump, Truth Social post, June 16, 2025, 6:30 p.m.
Trump, Truth Social post, June 16, 2025, 6:42 p.m.
Trump, Truth Social post, June 16, 2025, 7:18 p.m.
Trump, Truth Social post, June 16, 2025, 11:50 pm.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/16/politics/trump-israel-iran-g7-statement
https://apnews.com/live/israel-iran-attack#00000197-67c9-d583-a19f-7fcf30bc0000
https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/06/16/trump-farms-hotels-immigration-raids/
https://www.theverge.com/gadgets/687492/trump-mobile-phone-t1
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/what-we-know-about-trump-organizations-mobile-service-2025-06-16/
X:
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 