Maybe the bloom is really off the apparently narcotic Trump Rose:
Friday, November 7, 2025
Barrasso Honors Cheney Despite Complex History, Silence From Trump
Wow, the first independent action by Barrasso since. . . well a long time.
Barrasso Honors Cheney Despite Complex History, Silence From Trump
Planning for little emergencies
Planning for little emergencies: Because we never know when we, or someone else, will be in need, it's best to live life ready to share, writes columnist David Romtvedt.
The Agrarian's Lament: Blog Mirror: Couple Donate Legacy 38,000-Acre, $2...
The Agrarian's Lament: Blog Mirror: Couple Donate Legacy 38,000-Acre, $2...: Couple Donate Legacy 38,000-Acre, $21 Million Cattle Ranch To Keep It A Ranch
Thursday, November 6, 2025
CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 107th Edition. Tacky Crap, Delusion, and the Sgt. Schultz defense.
The House of the Rising Sun
Lex Anteinternet: Gilded Age Brothel School of Interior Design:Gilded Age Brothel School of Interior Design
Nuclear weapons should not be entrusted to anyone pleased by Trump’s Gilded Age Brothel school of interior design.George F. Will.
Trump has now put a gold lettered sign outside the Oval Office which says "The Oval Office".
This has, of course, sparked derision, as its stupid. The question is, however, does Trump not realize that all the tacky gold crap is going in the dumpster just as soon as he's gone? He probably actually doesn't.
"I know nothing".
Mike Johnson hasn't seen it. Whatever it is, he hasn't seen that.
Poor Mike, knowing nothing is his only defense.
Freak Out!
At least based on Twitter, which isn't a good place to actually judge how people feel, MAGAs are freaking out about the election results, as in "it means nothing at all it isn't donny's fault he wasn't on the ballot and people love him groceries are now free and Saudi chicks have a lot of money and everything is fine and new york will be sorry as they elected an Islamic commie I'l ltell my ma when Iget home the girls won't leave the boys alone. . .
Get a grip.
Well, actually don't. The results do mean something and you took a dope slap.
Last edition:
Wednesday, November 5, 2025
The 2025 Midterms. For the GOP it's June, 1944 and the choices couldn't be more clear.
Yesterday's' election made it clear.
Yesterday, November 4,2025, was metaphorically D-Day, June 6, 1944. The forces that will destroy you are now present on all flanks. They're on the ground to your south, to your east, and now to your west, and you cannot stop them.
Those who are not besotted by Der Führer know this. Indeed, they know that the leader is mentally unstable and in irreversible physical decline. He is, quite frankly, mad and getting worse. He's surrounded, of course, by seemingly loyal lieutenants. . . not all of whom are really loyal . . . or seem to be.
You can read the situation. He never had the majority of force, only temporary advantage brought on by shock. You went along as it seemed that he'd bring along constative values with him. Because he seemed to do that, even while leading an immoral life and surrounding himself with immoral men, you tolerated deep immoralities, including extra judicial killings and racist round ups. This seemed to be the price you had to pay, temporarily, in order to restore true conservatism to the country.
But it went too far, and it got too weird, and you were in too deep to do anything about it. You know that. You watched him decline into illegality and insanity, and stood by as it got worse and worse.
But you can still save yourself, and your movement.
He had sworn an oath. He was a Roman Catholic. He knew the leader was immoral. He knew the country was committing deeply immoral acts. He served his country's efforts anyway until the raving madness of Der Führer reached the point where he could not ignore it. The situation isn't the same, except perhaps metaphorically, in that there is a Roman Catholic, who has taken an oath, who is serving his country, and knows that what is occuring deeply wrong and that the Leader is mad. He could use, with help, the 25th Amendment.
That will involve deploying something that you never thought you'd see used, and you have to do it. Some of you on the inside, who are not members of the MAGA SA, have to deploy the 25th Amendment before it's too late. You can't wait until the Red Army is in Berlin . . . or the mushroom cloud is over the Korean Peninsula, or protestors are shot dead in Portland, or mayor and governors arrested simply for being opponents.
And you might, just might, avoid bloodshed in American streets, or foreign dead from an illegally provoked war, perhaps a nuclear one.
Or, you can decide that Loyalty is Your Honor and go down in complete and utter defeat in November 2026 while your increasingly demented leader rants and decides that you failed, as you weren't sufficiently loyal to him.
Indeed, that's already started, hasn't it? The wild party with barely clad young women, the sycophantic adoration sessions, the purges of the less than loyal.
And, too, the wise are leaving, aren't they?
The 25th Amendment was for the rare and extraordinary. You know the leader is mad. You know that this is going to take conservatism down. You know is madness is resulting in death. You know that you can act.
His madness is unfortunately not out of the ordinarily for the elderly, which he is. But to have somebody in such a state of mental decline in power, and grasping for absolute power, is. He's sick, getting sicker, and seeks complete control.
Will you, to your difficult credit, act to uphold your sworn oaths to the country, and save the nation from a demented autocrat whose decline gets worse every day, or will you abstain and simply try to take the last plane out of Berlin?
2025 Off Year US Elections
They can be, sometimes, an indicator of things to come.
June 25, 2025
New York City Mayoral Race
Progressive Zohran Mamdani beat Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic Primary.
Mamdani, who immigrated with his parents as a child from Uganda to the US, is a self declared democratic socialist. He's a Shi'a Muslim. All of these things are setting off the populist far right.
Curtis Sliwa, founder of Guardian Angels, won the Republican primary for New York City mayor, but was unopposed. He stands no chancing of winning the general election.
September 22, 2025
Texas
Texas has an election this year, and it includes a bunch of ballot propositions, which are:
- Proposition 1 (SJR 59): Texas State Technical College funding
- Proposition 2 (SJR 18): Capital gains tax ban
- Proposition 3 (SJR 5): Bail reform
- Proposition 4 (HJR 7): Water infrastructure funding
- Proposition 5 (HJR 99): Tax exemption on animal feed
- Proposition 6 (HJR 4): Securities tax ban
- Proposition 7 (HJR 133): Tax exemption for veterans’ spouses
- Proposition 8 (HJR 2): Inheritance tax ban
- Proposition 9 (HJR 1): Inventory and equipment tax exemption
- Proposition 10 (SJR 84): Tax exemption for homes destroyed by fire
- Proposition 11 (SJR 85): School tax exemption for the elderly or disabled homeowners
- Proposition 12 (SJR 27): Changing the State Judicial Conduct Commission
- Proposition 13 (SJR 2): Increased school tax exemption for homeowners
- Proposition 14 (SJR 3): Funding for dementia research and prevention
- Proposition 15 (SJR 34): Codifying parental rights
- Proposition 16 (SJR 37): Clarifying citizenship requirement for voters
- Proposition 17 (HJR 34): Property tax exemption for border security infrastructure
November 4, 2025
The kiss of death:
And so the demented New York octogenarian made it clear to thousands that they were going to vote for New York Democratic Socialist Mamdani.
New York has actually had a prior Democratic Socialist Mayor, David Dinkins, who served from 1990 to 1993. Trump made minor contributions to the Dinkin's election campaign and reelection campaign, the latter of which failed. The current mayor of Cheektowaga, New York, Brian Nowak, is a Democratic Socialist.
Trump made another post last night:
Early indications are that this election is going to be an utter disaster for the Republican Party, setting up a potential disaster next year, and causing those who wish to evade disaster to potentially start moving away from MAGA now.
Prop 50 will be on California's ballot, which may end up countering the anti Democratic moves of the Texas legislature.
Cont:
New York State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani won the race for Mayor of New York City, becoming the first Muslim to occupy that position, and the first Democratic Socialist since Dinkens to occupy it.
It's a generational change with Mamdani defeating two elderly opponents.
It's an important mayoral seat, but nobody who has occupied it has ever been President, and for the most part, its occupants do not rise further in politics.
Democrat Abigail Spanberger took the Virginia Governor's race, causing it to go from Republican to Democratic control. She's the first female governor of Virginia. Democrat Mikie Sherill took the Governor's race in New Jersey.
Democrats are going to take Texas' 18th Congressional District, Houston, but they already held that.
Proposition 50 passed in California.
The Democrats won everywhere they were running. It's a dope slap in the face for Donald Trump.
November 5, 2025
So Donald Trump, since I know you're watching, I have four words for you: Turn the volume up.
Zohran Mamdani.
Cont:
A race we weren't following was that for Virginian AG. T he race was won by Jay Jones. Jones made headline news because some absolutely horrible things he said about another member of Virginia's legislature came to light. They were awful.
Jones beat the Republican incumbent Miyares, which suggest a pretty significant move away from the GOP in Virginia. Jones is a practicing African American Catholic, which is interesting in various ways.
Notable in the races last night Hispanics began to pull away from the GOP. Catholics had been attracted to the Republican Party for various reasons that I've noted here on numerous occasions, the principal one being that they're social conservatives as a rule. The interesting thing here is that the GOP, which only recently attracted them, has treated them much like the Democratic Party treated ethnic minorities, which is to say to ignore them and more particularly, to offend them. Merely being Hispanic is putting people in the target zone for ICE and the GOP has broken out into outright open feuds of race recently, with some figures in the pundit class being openly racist.
This gets back for a moment to noting that Jones is a Catholic. The populist far right is strongly Evangelical, and Evangelicalism has attracted a lot of American Hispanics. But the nature of the Evangelicalism and MAGA has not been sorted out and now, in the wake of Charlie Kirk's assassination, the pot is really boiling. Quite a few on the populist far right have barely hidden contempt for women working, which most Hispanic women have to do by default. Some MAGA pundits are openly racist with Nick Fuentes now openly going after J. D. Vance, a Catholic married to an Indian, on the basis that he's a "race mixer".
This doesn't explain last night's results overall, but it fits into it. The price of things, a major factor in Trump's win, is now starting to be a major factor in a retreat from the GOP. The brutality and lawlessness of the Trump administration is disgusting many people. The outright stupidity of some the things the Trump Administration says is taking a toll. The Government shutdown is being blamed, rightfully, on the Republican Party.
The 2026 election is a long ways off but so far the Administration and MAGA's reaction to everything is to double down on it. That probably won't change, but what might is the extent to which Republicans who don't have to go down with the ship begin to abandon it. Some already have. Marjorie Taylor Green, who was a MAGA fanatic, now is an opponent, for example. Thune is suddenly, as of yesterday, sounding more moderate.
But you can't moderate a demented narcissist surrounded by sycophants.
Related threads:
Thursday, November 5, 1925. The Big Parade.
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Released on this day in 1925, the film is regarded as one of the greatest films about World War One.
The picture also would be associated with a level of tragedy for its stars. John Gilbert died in 1936 at age 38 due to alcoholism. He managed to marry four times in his short life, and was not married at the time of his death. His costar in the film, Renee Adoree made the transition to sound movies, but died in 1933 at age 35 of tuberculosis. She'd married twice, but was not married at the time of her death.
Born in the Russian Empire, with his true name never definitively learned, Sidney Reilly, a British spy, was executed by the Soviets.
He had a prolific career as a spy, leading to his nickname as The Ace of Spies. He was reported a model for James Bond. Early in his life as an emigre he went by the last name of Rosenblum, which would suggest Jewish heritage. In the late 19th Century he seems to have worked for Scotland Yard as a paid informant on immigrant matters. He married widow Margaret Thomas at Holborn Registry Office in London in 1898 after her husband had died under conditions that suggested poisoning, something of note as Rosenblum was working as sort of a herbalist at the time. She was wealthy and that, by extension, made him wealthy. Soon after that, he began his career as a spy, spying for the British and the Japanese in the lead up to the Russo Japanese War.
While it is difficult to determine the range of his activities, it is claimed that:
- He pretended to be a Russian arms merchant to spy on Dutch weapons shipments to the Boers during the Boer War.
- He obtained intelligence on Russian military defences in Manchuria for the Kempeitai.
- He obtained Persian oil concessions for the British Admiralty in events surrounding the D'Arcy Concession.
- He infiltrated a Krupp armaments plant in prewar Germany and stole weapon plans.
- He seduced the wife of a Russian minister to glean information about German weapons shipments to Russia.
- He attempted to overthrow the Russian Bolshevik government and to rescue the imprisoned Romanov family, actions which lead to his being sentenced to death in absentia.
- He served as a courier to transport the forged Zinoviev letter into the United Kingdom.
He had been lured by into the Soviet Union by the Cheka, posing as anti Soviet agents.
It's difficult to tell the overall truth of his activities. British intelligence is notoriously able to keep its secrets for one thing. Reilly was good at keeping them as well, and as he worked for various entities he had a strong reason to. Like the James Bond character that's supposedly based upon him, he had a strong affinity for women and married up to three or four times, with other alleged affairs in addition. His last marriage was to actress Pepita Bobadilla.
Last edition:
Wednesday, November 4, 1925. Now or then?
Local Lookout: Perils facing public lands | Powell planning commission protest | Pig wrestling comeback?
Local Lookout: Perils facing public lands | Powell planning commission protest | Pig wrestling comeback?: A Sublette County forum rates its top three risks to public lands and wildlife. A Powell planning commissioner resigns in protest over a decision to dilute employee protections. The pandemic put an end to pig wrestling at the Teton County Fair, but that could change.
Wyoming remembers Dick Cheney, the state’s most powerful and polarizing politician
Wyoming remembers Dick Cheney, the state’s most powerful and polarizing politician: The former vice president died Monday at the age of 84. His passing represents the end of an era in Wyoming politics, those who knew him say.
Tuesday, November 4, 2025
Dick Cheney, Wyoming oilman and former vice president, dies at 84
Dick Cheney, Wyoming oilman and former vice president, dies at 84: The divisive and powerful 9/11-era vice president was also a devoted husband, avid outdoorsman and close advisor to his daughter, Liz Cheney.
I was not a fan of Cheney when he was our Congressman nor when he was Vice President. I tended to regard his association with Wyoming, while he was in office, as thin, something I've complained about in regard to recent Wyoming politicians as well. For that matter, I regarded his daughter Liz's connection with the state as thin as well.
Liz Cheney really rose to the moment and in the latter stages of Trump's first Administration she stood out as a genuine hero, a status she has, in my view, today. Dick Cheney also remained a steadfast defender of democracy in his old age.
It'll be interesting to see how the State, and the current illegitimate administration in Washington, treats his passing. In recent years Wyoming's politics have been taken over by carpetbaggers who mentally reside in 1970s Alabama, rather than Wyoming, and Donald Trump has lost the ability to be rational in his dementia. Cheney deserves some sort of national recognition upon his passing.
Will he receive one?
Sunday, November 4, 1945. Independent Smallholders Party win the Hungarian parliamentary elections.
The Independent Smallholders Party won the Hungarian parliamentary elections.
Contrary to what is commonly assumed, Eastern Europe didn't become Communist instantly upon the Soviet occupation of their territory. Where elections were allowed, often non Communist parties did well. It took some months for the Communists to effect what essentially amounted to coups in most places, with the exceptions being Poland and East Germany, where Communists were immediately installed, and the Baltic States, which were reabsorbed into the Soviet Empire.
The party revived after the fall of Communism, but only holds one seat currently.
Libyan rioters killed 121 Jews. British troops had to fire upon the rioters and arrested over 500.
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The Sunday Parade magazine installment to newspapers across the country had a man and woman on the cover, goose hunting. This cover, posted under the fair use exception, shows how widely hunting remained part of the culture before the post war relentless advance of urbanization cut into it.
The man is carrying a Browning Auto 5 or the Remington equivalent of it. The device on the barrel of the shotgun on the right is a Cutts Compensator, which was designed to reduce recoil and in later versions allowed for changeable chokes.
It's noted on Reddit's 80 Years Ago sub that "Dick Winters finally embarks from Marseille to return to America." I wouldn't have regarded that as a "finally" item, really, which I suppose shows my failure to appreciate how rapid demobilization actually was.
Last edition:
Saturday, November 3, 1945. Chinese Civil War, Game Wardens Killed.
Wednesday, November 4, 1925. Now or then?
A headline we'll be likely to see later today again, about New York and New Jersey.
Last edition:
Tuesday, November 3, 1925. Mitchell's Witness Demands Upheld, New Jersey Ballot, and the evolution of word meaning.
Thursday, November 4, 1875. A Proclamation of Thanksgiving.
Proclamation of Thanksgiving.BY J. A. CAMPBELL GOVERNOR OF THE TERRITORY OF WYOMING.THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES HAVING DESIGNATEDThursday, the 27th day of November, 1873,As a day of Thanksgiving and Praise, I recommend the faithful observance of the day by all the people of Wyoming, in accordance with the usual and time-honored custom."GIVE THANKS UNTO THE LORD, FOR HE IS GOOD, FOR HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER."IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the Great Seal of the Territory to be affixed. Done at Cheyenne, this, Fourth day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy-three.J. A. CAMPBELL.[seal] * GREAT SEAL * TERRITORY OF WYOMING [/seal]By the Governor:JASON B. BROWN,Secretary of Territory.
Territorial Governor Campbell was of course a Republican, but not of the type that Republicans would now recognize. He was a political liberal and a backer of women's suffrage. He's served in the Union Army as a general during the Civil War and died in 1880 at the mere age of 44.
After leaving his post as the Territorial Governor, he served in various capacities in the Federal government for the remainder of his short life. Campbell County Wyoming is probably named after him, although there's some dispute on that.
Last edition:
Wednesday, November 3, 1875. A fateful day.
Monday, November 3, 2025
Erika Kirk, and J.D. and Usha Vance.
I'm not going to link it in, as I think it's shallow on the solution, but pundit Ezra Klein has a current segment of his vlog in which he discusses how the Democratic Party is in such a mess, in spite of people really not being all that keen on Donald Trump's Fascist Roadshow, because they're really lost touch with average people at the street level. I've been saying the same thing now for what's approaching a decade.
Well, actually more like two, or more.
Anyhow, yesterday I ran this item which was sparked by liberal/center left blather about J. D. Vance hoping that his wife Usha become a Christian:
Lex Anteinternet: Religion, J.D. and Usha Vance.: Because this blog is steadfastly horrified by Donald Trump and his administration, it'd be easy to assume that it's run by a rampagi...
One of the things this event shows, quite frankly, is the degree to which the left holds religion in contempt. The fact that they so obviously hold religion in contempt is part of the reason that people who are serious about their faiths, and that isn't limited by any means to Christians, do not trust the Democratic Party and, as long as it continues, aren't going to trust the Democratic Party. As I warned would occur, this is leading to a massive exodus from the Party by Hispanics, who are largely Catholic. If you demonstrate contempt for people's existential beliefs, they're not going to vote for you even if you promise all kinds of nifty social programs.
They also are not going to vote for you if you show childish glee over a made up sense of morality over an event that doesn't mean anything.
As people who stop in here know, I really don't particularly know what to make of the late Charlie Kirk. I've expressed my views on that elsewhere and I'm not going to back into them here. As little as I know about Charlie Kirk, and that's not much, I know even less about Erika Kirk.
The widowed Erika Kirk has been in the news a lot recently, as she's sort of taken up the mantle of her late husband's organization, Turning Point USA. In that role, she's been very public and is making public appearances. She's drawn criticism for that alone, as apparently those generally on the left feel, even if they don't, that she should be dressed in widow's weeds and moping around the house or something. Quite frankly, if she was a figure on the left, the same people would be praising her for her bravery.
And now comes the embrace with J. D. Vance.
Vance was speaking at some Turning Point USA event. He's probably a good choice for that, as Donald Trump is 750 years old and most Turning Point members aren't. The populist right has to keep in Turning Point's good graces, moreover, as it's part and parcel of the Evangelical embrace of Trump, albeit one that wasn't initially certain about Trump.
Anyhow, Kirk made some comment about Vance and her late husband being similar. I don't see that at all, quite frankly. And then she went on to hug him after introducing him.
This is a big non event.
Indeed, if you see the whole video, the entire thing lasted just second from beginning to end. You can only really make it a big deal, if you desire to, by screenshotting the whole thing as if it was an endless romantic embrace.*
Nonetheless, the left has reached out in shock and horror, certain after Vance's recent comments about hoping his wife converts, that he's about to ditch her as Kirk and Vance are now a couple.
Oh horseshit.
This shows once again the degree of contempt for conservative views that people on the left hold. There's no evidence at all that Erika Kirk is happy that her late husband was murdered and has now moved on to Vance. There's no evidence at all that Vance would betray his wife. Indeed, as he is a Catholic, and is expressing a Catholic view on his desire that she also convert, the better evidence is that he'd never do that.
This is, again, the very sort of thing that causes people on the right to regard the left and contemptuous and mean. And that doesn't win votes.
Footnotes:
*FWIW, as an Irish American (and genetically, I'm more Irish than many Irish), with some Westphalian heritage, I'm in that category of people who abhor hugs from people I'm not extremely close to. By that I mean I'll accept hugs from my wife and children, and I'm uncomfortable with them from anyone else.
This is a real northern European thing. We aren't a touchy people, and any kind of physical contact of this type is an unwanted intimacy unless its a wanted intimacy, in which case, you're contemplating marriage. Out in society, however, this just ain't so.
I've known people, almost invariably women, who are very touchy and it means nothing at all. And for some reason, in recent years, it's become increasingly common. I used to work with somebody, for example, that would do this routinely, particularly if you were at any sort of a function and she's had a drink. She's latch on to an arm and not let go. I took up using my wife as sort of a shield to avoid that. Another female lawyer I know invariably will make physical contact. There I am sitting at a hearing when all of a sudden there's hands on my shoulders so that I'll say "hi". Couldn't you have just said hi?
To make matters worse, I'm 5'6" tall and that puts me way down torso wise on any woman who is inclined to hug me for some reason. If they're short too it's okay, but if they're not, it's really awkward.
Anyhow, a flap like this reinforces my desire to avoid that sort of thing. The irony is, the people complaining about this probably aren't bugged by hugs at all, and a lot of them probably aren't all that concerned about personal or sexual morality either.
Saturday, November 3, 1945. Chinese Civil War, Game Wardens Killed.
China's civil war was acknowledged now to be a major conflict and two Game Wardens were found dead near Rawlins.
The Chinese Civil War was the topic of a political cartoon as well.
The murdered Game Wardens were Bill Lakanen and Don Simpson who were killed by ardent Nazi sympathizer and German immigrant Johann Malten. The same Game Wardens had arrested Malten for game violations when investigating, interestingly enough, claims that Malten had been involved in espionage and was relaying weather reports on shortwave, something that was illegal during the war when there was a blackout on weather reporting as the information was useful to submarines. Upon visiting Malten's cabin in the Sierra Madres they found he had committed numerous game violations.
On this occasion they were stopping by to see if Malten had continued to ignore the law. They were shot down out of hand when they arrived.
Malten burned his cabin down and it was officially reported that he'd died within it, although the evidence of that is very poor. There were reported sightings of him for years thereafter.
And a selection of 1945 cartoons.
The 3 November 1945 declaration was made in Indonesia, encouraging the formation of political parties as part of an anticipated Indonesian democracy.
Irvin Charles Mollison was sworn in as a U.S. Customs Court judge in New York City. He the first African-American to serve on the federal bench within the continental United States.
Last edition:
Thursday, November 1, 1945. The sabotage of railways in Mandatory Palestine.
Tuesday, November 3, 1925. Mitchell's Witness Demands Upheld, New Jersey Ballot, and the evolution of word meaning.
Mitchell was having some success with his witness list.
And Cowboys Out Our Way illustrated the evolution of a word in a somewhat ironic way.
Last edition:
Saturday, October 31, 1925. Subpoena for Coolidge?
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