This Was In My Facebook Feeds

The thing that got my attentions was from a Huff Post article about the Time interview with Trump.

President Donald Trump found another target for his press rage ― and this one got the full f-word treatment.

“You haven’t asked me one fucking positive question,” he griped to Time magazine during their recent interview. “All of this. What about this? What about that? What about that? What about this? All negative. Why are you devoting all this time to the White House?”

Does Trump think the only "Real News" is when the press asks just softballs Questions?

I Want To Point Out Some Facts.

100% of the people need to eat, but the price of food is skyrocketing!

100% of the people need to heat or cool their homes, but the cost of oil is out of sight!

100% of the people travel to work, but they can’t afford the gas!

0.5% of the people are trans and just want to live their lives in peace!

The GOP’s Culture-War Hail Mary

Will it work?

The Atlanitc

By Elaine Godfrey

October 2, 2026

Last week, as the war with Iran dragged into its seventh month, gas prices shot up to an average of $4.50 a gallon, and polling showed President Trump about twice as far underwater with American voters as he was at this point in 2018, Republican senators determined that the time had come to discuss something else entirely: youth sports. “Girls’ sports are for girls. Boys’ sports are for boys,” Senator Marsha Blackburn said in a news conference.

With 32 days to go until the midterm elections, Republicans’ closing strategy is obvious: They’re going all-in on trans. (It seems to have worked for them before, after all. More on that in a minute.) In Texas, Republicans are running an unsettling AI-generated ad that shows the Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico dressed as Maria von Trapp and singing about girls with mustaches. A spot in Iowa accuses the Senate candidate Josh Turek of supporting “sex changes for kids.” On X, former Representative Matt Gaetz offered a tidy summary of his party’s agenda: “I hate the war too,” he told a concerned voter. “But the Democrats want to trans your kids.”

People are starting to say… we don’t want your diversions!

Activists view the whole situation as an alarming shift among Democrats—one that portends worse to come. “Targeting trans people isn’t the winning strategy some people think it is,” Equality Ohio, an LGBTQ-advocacy group, told me in a statement. Childrey said that “the triangulation thought process is that we have to throw trans rights under the bus” to win elections: “We’re leaning in a direction that loses the heart and soul of what it means to be a Democrat.” In an online interview with a transgender political commentator last week, Childrey implied that she wouldn’t be voting for Acton in November, saying that activists need to show Democrats nationwide “that transphobia will not be a successful selling point.” The big risk, she explained, is that in 2028, “you’re going to have the choice between a transphobic Republican and a transphobic Democrat for president.”

Here is how I think we should answer those questions… with a question: “How many trans people are there? Do you even know? But I know people will be frozen out of their homes this winter! And I know people will be going hungry because of the price of food. Those are the issues we should be talking about!”

The voters demand answers to their urgent, basic needs for a roof over their heads, food, heat, and gas , while Republicans are overly fixated on culture-war distractions. And what gets me, is that for some their hate is more important than food on the table.

This Is Wrong! So Very Wrong!

You turned her into a drooling vegetable.

Christa Pike is in critical condition after Tennessee’s failed execution attempt, her lawyers say

AP New

By  KIM CHANDLER and KRISTIN M. HALL

October 1, 2026

Christa Pike was in critical condition Thursday and receiving “lifesaving care” at a hospital, her lawyers said, a day after a failed attempt to execute her pushed Tennessee’s governor to halt further executions this year and order an independent review.

[...]

“We don’t have a sense of her prognosis or much update on her health at the moment,” attorney Randy Spivey said during a news conference. “But we know she is alive right now.”

The failed execution, which one death penalty expert described as unprecedented, led Republican Gov. Bill Lee to order a review, calling what happened “deeply disturbing” and indefinitely postponing Pike’s execution and another one that had been scheduled for this year. It also reignited the debate over the state’s execution procedures, including its single-drug lethal injections.

So... she might be in a state of  prolonged unconsciousness requiring a ventilator, feeding tube, nursing care, etc. due to lack of oxygen. If she is it will mean that the Tennessee's Department of Correction is responsible for providing medical care to people incarcerated in its prisons, including hospitalization and treatment when necessary. Which could run into the millions each year!

The Death Penalty Information Center (DPI) reports that (According to ChatGPT):

• The system is demonstrably fallible. Since 1973, at least 203 people who were sentenced to death have been exonerated in the United States. Tennessee itself has had three death-row exonerations. 
• The risk isn't merely theoretical. A peer-reviewed study estimated that at least 4.1% of people sentenced to death were likely wrongfully convicted, although that is an estimate rather than a count of proven innocent people. 
• Once an execution occurs, the error cannot be corrected. An imprisoned innocent person can theoretically be released and compensated; an executed person cannot be restored to life.
• On deterrence, the evidence is considerably less straightforward than “states with executions have less crime.” The National Research Council concluded that existing research was not sufficient to determine whether the death penalty increases, decreases, or has no effect on homicide rates. So it would be inaccurate to claim that executions have been demonstrated to reduce murder.
• There is also a documented problem with official misconduct in capital cases. DPIC currently identifies more than 600 capital convictions or death sentences overturned or resulting in exonerations involving prosecutorial misconduct. 

After you fry someone you can't say "Ops... sorry, we made a mistake!" There is a real question behind all the rhetoric... if all the evidence doesn't capital punishment makes any difference, why are they so eager to fry someone? Why? Could it possible for votes? I know I'm cynical.

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The Nashville Tennessean writes;

Christa Pike unconscious, burned and intubated, court filing shows

Kelly Puente & Rachel Wegner

Oct. 2, 2026

An Oct. 2 emergency court filing seeks to preserve all evidence related to Tennessee's failed execution of Christa Pike, arguing the state botched the lethal injection procedure.

A judge was considering the request shortly after it was filed. While an unsigned document for the hearing was filed in the court system, no date or time was immediately listed.

Pike was set to be executed by the Tennessee Department of Correction on Sept. 30, but survived two doses of pentobarbital. The document, filed in Davidson County Chancery Court on Oct. 2, revealed more details about Pike's condition. It said she is intubated, on a ventilator and unconscious, and that both her arms were swollen, burned and blistered. As of the night of Oct. 1, Pike was still in critical condition at a Nashville-area hospital, the motion said.

"Hospital staff are working to save Ms. Pike's life and to clear the pentobarbital from her system," the Oct. 2 motion stated.

[...]

"Apparently at no point did any member of the execution team realize that the IV lines were not correctly placed or that the veins had blown and that the pentobarbital was, in whole or in part, entering Ms. Pike's body," the emergency motion stated. "Instead of remedying this failure, TDOC elected to prepare a backup set of syringes (if they were not also prepared earlier that day) and then administered another lethal dose of pentobarbital."

That is torture!

The Eighth Amendment states:

"Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted."

Why Oh Why?

Is the Trump adminstration collecting information from ER records? Could it possible be to go after immigrants?

Trump administration demands hospitals share emergency room records

CNN

By Amanda Seitz, Maia Rosenfeld and Darius Tahir

Jul 27, 2026

A tiny federal agency tasked with protecting the public from injuries caused by lawn mowers and coffeemakers is demanding that some of the nation’s biggest health systems turn over detailed, personally identifiable medical records of all patients who seek help at their emergency rooms.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission, responsible for tracking and issuing recalls of dangerous products sold in the U.S., began discreetly pressuring hospital executives this year to share personally identifiable health data with a private contractor. But hospital lawyers and other industry experts have questioned the agency’s authority to collect, its ability to safeguard such a swath of sensitive information, and whether it has followed the legal process to overhaul its surveillance system.

After KFF Health News asked the CPSC about the new system, the agency announced the program on July 21. Left unmentioned, however, is the alarm it has raised among hospital executives, as well as the nature and extent of the agency’s data demands.

What possible reason does an agency tasked with product safety want with your name, address, and social security number?

Trump administration to upgrade national consumer product injury database

The revamped surveillance system will incorporate hospital injury data from all 50 states, allowing faster product safety recalls.

Politico

By: Kelly Hooper

07/21/2026

The Trump administration is overhauling the system for tracking consumer-product-related injuries at hospitals, implementing a standardized data exchange that will help the federal government more quickly issue product safety recalls.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission, in an announcement shared first with POLITICO, said the changes to the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System will bring tracking for product-related injuries into the 21st century. Starting next year, the system, which has used the same manually coded data process since 1972, will automatically pull from patients’ electronic health records to flag issues with consumer product safety in near real-time.

Once again... why do they need your personal information for product safety. Unless it is a way they want to ferret out some other data... maybe like immigrants?

Democrats demand that Trump administration halt collection of patients’ ER records

Anchorage Daily News

By Amanda Seitz, Maia Rosenfeld and Darius Tahir

Published: September 10, 2026

A group of Democratic lawmakers is calling for the Trump administration to suspend a new surveillance program it quietly launched to collect the personal and identifiable health data of Americans who visit emergency rooms.

KFF Health News first reported that the Consumer Product Safety Commission — a federal agency tasked with monitoring injuries from household items — was pressuring hospitals to provide a private company with personally identifiable health information for analysis. The rollout of the program has inspired broad pushback from hospitals and privacy advocates.

This is what authoritarian governments do build databases on its citizens. 

Visions

The elections are less than a month away, and it is time to ask ourselves a very basic question: Is this the United States you envision for your country? Do you feel proud to say, “I’m an American,” or is there a persistent voice in the back of your mind whispering, “But… but…”?

We stood up in school each morning, and the promise was pounded into our heads: “liberty and justice for all” in the Pledge of Allegiance.

But then we found out “liberty and justice for all” wasn't true. We saw it on the evening news: Black people sitting at lunch counters, demanding their rights. And the people said, “Enough,” and passed nondiscrimination laws. That was their vision of America.

Now we have a government claiming those nondiscrimination laws are unconstitutional. A government telling us it is okay to suppress the Black vote as long as you don’t explicitly say that’s the reason. That it is okay to step between you and your doctor as long as they claim, “It’s to save the children!” That it is okay to round up people who don’t look like they belong and deny them their constitutional rights as long as it's disguised as targeting illegal immigration.

It is time to say, “Enough.”

Stormtrooper-clad paramilitary forces yanking people off the streets simply because they look like foreigners. Stormtrooper-clad paramilitary forces bashing the heads of peaceful protesters, while high government officials lie about it right as we watch it with our own eyes.

We have seen images like these before.

We saw them in photographs from the Jim Crow South here in America during the 1950s and ’60s.

We saw them in photographs from Germany in the 1930s. Different countries. Different circumstances. Different histories. But the images carry a universal warning: What happens when a government begins treating some people as less deserving of rights than others?

It is time to say, “Enough” this November.

Which party cares about working people and making sure they have food on the table, while the other tries to trade away parts of Yosemite National Park to build a road to million-dollar private condos? Is this your vision of our country? It is time to stop enabling policies that line the pockets of oligarchs.

Is this the America you envision?

It is time to say, “Enough,” and vote Blue.

Sat 9

Saturday 9: Eastbound and Down (1977)

On Saturdays I take a break from the heavy stuff and have some fun…

 

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) This week's song was featured in the movie Smokey and the Bandit, the surprise box office hit of 1977. Have you seen it?

Yeah, and I never liked it.

2) Though not well received by critics, Smokey and the Bandit had one very famous fan: Alfred Hitchcock. The classic film director enjoyed re-watching the movie on video at home, often while having dinner. Do you ever watch TV with your meal?

All the time! Mainly the news… or a western. The Lone Ranger ride again!

3) Jerry Reed not only wrote and performed the movie's theme, he appeared in the movie as truck driver Cledus "Snowman" Snow. Have you ever driven, or ridden in, a big rig?

YES! YES!

Back in my high school summer job (Do they even have those now-a-days?) I worked in a warehouse. The factory was about five miles away. So we loaded the “Big Rig” and that day I have my brother’s MGB. The driver said “Kid you drive a standard?” You want to drive the “Big Rig” over to the factory? And of course I didn’t say no.

4) He sings, "We've got a long way to go and a short time to get there." Have you recently felt rushed?

All the time

5) Director Hal Needham asked Jerry Reed for a song that explained the plot of the movie. He wrote this overnight and always considered it a happy accident. Can you think of a time when something turned out better than you expected?

Chicken Cordon Bleu

Instead of wrapping up ham and chicken, I sliced the chicken in half instead of butterflying it. In a 16oz. Rankin I place the one half of the flatten chicken breast, then the ham steak, Swiss cheese and then the other half of the breast. Plastered a little mayo on top and sprinkled Panko bread crumbs on top. Voilà! It came out so moist! 

6) Reed was born in Atlanta and, coincidentally, he mentions Atlanta in the lyrics. Has your hometown been immortalized in song?

Nope!

7) Jerry met Priscilla Mitchell at Capitol Records, where Jerry was a session musician and Priscilla was backup singer. Though she was only 18 when they wed, it seems their union was a happy one and they were together until his death almost 50 years later. If a newly engaged 18-year-old asked you for advice, what would you say?

Don’t ever lie!

8) In 1977, when "Eastbound and Down" was on the radio, nostalgia for the 1950s topped the TV ratings. The two most popular shows that year were Laverne & Shirley and Happy Days. If you magically transported back to the 1950s, what do you think you'd like about it? What do you think you'd miss about your life in 2026?

Well knowing what going to happen in the future “Plastics”

What would in miss? Having all the worlds knowledge at your fingertips and word processors! Do you know how many hours I spent at the card files and in “The stacks” at college?

9) Random question: Were you ever afraid of monsters in your closet or under your bed?

Yeah… a real monster slept on the lower bunk… my brother!

 

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I'm still here in CT... life conspired to keep me here... just little things to putting the drive tot he Cape off. Plus a good dose of procrastination.

 

Also last weekend's Nor'easter had a part in the delay. The outer Cape got hammered with gale force winds.

 

Here is a photo on my backyard in CT that I posted on Facebook.

 

 Updated: 12:30PM

Oh, the hooks. I use them to hang hurricane lanterns with citronella lamp oil. As you can guess I get a lot of biting insects from the swamp wetlands when I am having cookout.

Breaking News: Inquiring Minds Want To Know...

… The Russian connection?

Do you remember the wedding that was financed in part by someone from the Kremlin inner circle?

Do you know the steel mill coming to Iowa is financed in part by someone from the Kremlin inner circle?

Kind of makes you wonder, doesn’t it!

Republican senator calls for probe of Trump Jr. after wedding party bankrolled by Russian oligarch

AP News

By — Joey Cappelletti, & Mary Clare Jalonick

Sep 22, 2026

Republican Sen. John Curtis of Utah is calling on the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate whether Donald Trump Jr. used his proximity to the presidency for financial benefit, after his recent wedding party was partially bankrolled by a Russian oligarch.

In a letter sent Tuesday, Curtis called on the committee to subpoena Trump Jr. over his business dealings, relationships with foreign individuals and entities, gifts or other benefits he has received and any instances in which his relationship to President Donald Trump, a Republican, "was invoked or understood to provide value." Curtis called for the same scrutiny of Hunter Biden, the son of former President Joe Biden, a Democrat.

"The country should not have to accept one standard for the family of a Republican president and another for the family of a Democratic president," Curtis wrote in the letter addressed to GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, chairman of the committee, and Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the top Democrat on the committee.

Then we have the mill in Iowa… it also has a Kremlin connection!

Indian firm building $15bn Trump-announced steel mill has deep Russia ties

Russian cash helped Essar, the firm behind the steel factory, manage major debts. Now the group is investing in the US.
Al Jazeera

By Yashraj Sharma and Charu Sudan Kasturi

29 Sep 2026

As United States President Donald Trump announced a $15bn steel megaplant while seated at his Oval Office desk on Monday, he had a lineup of mostly US politicians standing behind him – from cabinet members to elected representatives from Iowa, where the mill is to be built. There was one exception: an Indian man with a receding hairline and a lilac pocket handkerchief, standing behind the US president’s right shoulder.

Ravi Ruia is a cofounder of the Essar Group, which owns Mesabi Metallics, the Minnesota-based firm that is building the steel mill, expected to be the US’s largest. A decade earlier, in October 2016, his brother Shashi was in the photo frame with a different president during the signing of another major deal: Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Curiouser & curiouser.

I’m not the only one to wonder about this…  a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability released this is from last May…

Rep. Robert Garcia, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, demanded answers after new reporting revealed that Russian oligarch Umar Kremlev, who has close ties to Vladimir Putin, spent hundreds of thousands bankrolling Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding earlier this year. Oversight Democrats opened an investigation into the payments with letters to the White House and Donald Trump Jr.

“A Russian oligarch with close ties to Vladimir Putin spent hundreds of thousands of dollars bankrolling Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding. It’s baffling that the son of a President would even think about allowing a Russian oligarch to bankroll his wedding. Is this why President Trump skipped his son’s wedding? Oversight Democrats are investigating and demanding answers immediately,” said Ranking Member Robert Garcia.

In the letter to Donald Trump Jr., Ranking Member Robert Garcia wrote, “Oversight Democrats are investigating the numerous ways in which you have sought to enrich yourself and your family on the basis of your proximity to President Donald Trump. However, your ties to your self-described “dear friend” Mr. Umar Kremlev, a Russian oligarch responsible for bankrolling your May 24, 2026, wedding celebrations in the Bahamas, may be the most serious allegation against you to date. As the son of President Donald Trump and the part-owner and major investor of multiple companies with extensive Department of Defense contracts, your praise of such an “extraordinarily generous wedding gift” from a member of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s inner circle raises serious questions about pay-to-play schemes and foreign intelligence infiltration of the President’s family. I request you immediately preserve all records, documents, and communications concerning your relationship to Mr. Kremlev, including any communications with the White House regarding financing or attendance at your wedding celebrations.”

Kind of makes you wonder, doesn’t it!