Deep Cover

Donald Trump is pissed that Ukraine won't end the war with Russia. He says that they have had lots of opportunities.

What he doesn't tell you is that they all involve giving up large portions of Ukrainian land. And rather than condemn the Russian predation, he rewards it. I will never forget something he once said about Putin; "He loves his country and he wants to make it bigger." 

This attitude and lack of respect for national sovereignty explains a lot about his bullying of Denmark and Canada and all the 51st state bullshit. Man is a lying sociopath.

"He doesn't want to settle. He says he wants to settle, but he doesn't. No, I'm not a big fan of Zelenskyy," the US president said. Trump also claimed that the root cause of the war was Barack Obama's presidency, during which Ukraine was supposedly made to "give up Crimea". The US president described the temporarily occupied peninsula as the "most beautiful piece of land", surrounded by ocean on all sides.

"Crimea is the most valuable part, by far, of Ukraine. You know what I'm talking about. Four sides of ocean. Most beautiful piece of land. I'm a real estate developer. I know good land. In Trump's view, Zelenskyy should make concessions to Putin because Moscow has a much larger pool of manpower to draw on in a war of attrition.

Thank god the Ukrainian people are not willing to give up their country for this nitwit. But what really irks me is when he says that if he had been around when Russia took Crimea in 2014, it would have never happened. He blames everybody but the predator itself.

“The fact is I had a very, very good meeting with President Putin," he said. “A lot was discussed -- about Syria, about security, about Ukraine.”

“About the fact that President Obama allowed a very large part of Ukraine to be taken [by Russia]," he added.

When a reporter stated that “it was President Putin who annexed Crimea,” Trump responded by saying, “That was President Obama’s regime. That was during President Obama. Right?

“It was President Obama that allowed it to happen,” he said.

U.S. and other Western countries criticized Moscow and imposed sanctions on Russia over its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region in March 2013 and its backing of separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Now how pray tell, would you have stopped it, Donald? Not saying Obama could not have been tougher but take whatever the orange monster days with a grain of salt. Remember he said that he could end the Russia Ukraine conflict with one phone call and that the Iran War wouldn't last a week? He always gives his buddy in Moscow a free pass.

The man is simply full of shit.

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Interesting to see the finger pointing between Musk and Trump over the slowing down of the Starlink connection over the Ukraine. 

Leaders at the Department of Defense received an order from inside the White House to slow the Starshield satellite system that Ukraine uses for battlefield communications and drone operations, two U.S. officials and a Western official briefed on the matter told Reuters Thursday.

It looks like Musk suggested it to Donald and he went along, when word got out they both ran for cover.

Mr. Trump told reporters on Friday he had not limited Ukraine's access to Starlink, adding he didn't believe Musk, SpaceX's CEO, was responsible either.

"Well, I don't know if it was anybody because it wasn't me, and I don't think it was Elon," Mr. Trump said while leaving the White House to travel for a rally in Georgia. "And from what I understand, it's the same as it's always been."

But the funny thing is that it is still slowed down but they are in denial mode and pretending it is not.

Mario Rubio today: 

I don't know what Zelenskyy said, I'm not sure Zelenskyy knows what he's talking about, but it wasn't deliberate," Rubio said. "We had nothing to do with that. I don't, the United States, nobody ordered that Starlink speed to be slowed down. It sort of happened, but my understanding is it's been restored, it's back to what it was before."

Zelenskyy obviously differs:

Ukraine is still unable to use its interceptor systems against Russian drones, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday, because of speed restrictions imposed on Starshield, an upgraded military version of Elon Musk's Starlink, amid an ongoing row with President Trump.

"Unfortunately, we can't use Starlink or Starshield technology on our territory today to shoot down jet-powered Shaheds," Zelenskyy said in an online group chat with reporters at the EU Summit. "They fly, and we can stop them with aircraft and other air defense, but we don't use Starlink for that, unfortunately. God willing, this will be restored."

Zelenskyy said Kyiv was discussing the issue with U.S. officials, and he was told the restrictions were linked to technical issues. The Ukrainian president added, however, that Starlink appears to be operating at higher speeds on European Union territory. 

Sort of happened? 

Jorma

Blues for Challah

I was doing an AI search on why so many deadheads proportionately are Jewish and got this response, thought it was interesting:

Don't dream it's over

Bad humans

 

A Washington Post reporter who was watching Israeli settlers knock down Palestinians harvesting olives was herself knocked down and beaten today. 

“They just kept kicking me and kicking me,” photojournalist Heidi Levine recalled from a hospital bed after the attack. 

Dozens of masked Israelis, clad in black and armed with slings, clubs and gas canisters, attacked Palestinians harvesting olives in the Palestinian West Bank village of Abu Falah on Friday.

The mob then set fire to the grove, aided by Israeli soldiers in military jeeps who fired tear gas at the Palestinians, witnesses told Reuters.

Medics told Reuters two people were injured in the attack. One of them was Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine, who was clearly identified as a member of the press.

Video of the attack’s aftermath captured by American journalist Jasper Nathaniel shows Levine, wearing a helmet and a flak jacket reading “PRESS,” slumped over in the road after the attack.

“They clubbed her, kicked her. Pulled her off the ground to beat her more. Robbed her of her equipment. If she didn’t have a helmet — and if she was Palestinian — she could be dead,” Nathaniel said.

Netanyahu went into his typical Trumpian doublespeak when describing the incident.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed in a statement that the “approximately 40 Israeli youths” hadn’t attacked anyone but were instead attacked themselves by “some 200 Arabs and far-left activists.”

Netanyahu further claimed that Levine had been “knocked down and immediately helped to her feet by the same unidentified individual,” contradicting the journalist’s own recollection of the attack.

“We will not allow disputed incidents to be exploited to demonize the hundreds of thousands of law-abiding Jewish residents,” he said.

Doesn't sound like a disputed incident to me, Bibi. It sounds like more and more of what we have been hearing from your side. You have to stop making excuses for the settler's actions and the demonization of the Palestinian villagers and protect these people. And stop stealing their land.

Israel imposed new rules on the olive harvest this year, barring Palestinians from harvesting their trees located in Area C, an area under the Israeli military’s control, which comprises most of the West Bank’s agricultural land.

The new orders prohibit Palestinians from entering about 8,800 hectares (21,800 acres) of agricultural land – a 30% increase from the year prior – without the approval of the Israeli military. By contrast, the military gave Israeli citizens access to more land this year.

Obviously Jews can be every bit as bad as any other human. I have less and less affinity for Israel every day and the settlers' behavior makes me downright sick. wasn't it nice that the guy who knocked her down helped her back up? 

Thursday non sequitur

I was talking to a state Agricultural Inspector I know the other day at the donut shop. They found another one of the insects responsible for citrus greening Huanglongbing in Fallbrook. It was in an infected pomelo. This bacterium, Candidatus Liberibacter, is spread by the Asian Citrus Psyllid. We have been in citrus quarantine for some time.

It is 100% fatal for citrus trees. Florida has been totally decimated. I have about a hundred valencia orange trees left, it is quite scary.

First the South American Palm Beetle, then the agave weevil, now this. Sucks. 

One day you will never get a drink of orange juice again.

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I was talking to Russ, a rather svelte older gent I know the other day and he was telling me about the fat shots he is getting. His buddy Steve is too, has no more appetite. It seems like everybody is on GLP or Ozembic or something.

Am I the last guy standing who doesn't give a shit?

It seems like fat people are pariahs in today's society. If I am too heavy for you to talk to, talk to somebody else, okay.

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Speaking of Steve, his four year old grandson built this out of leggos.

Four years old? 

Amazing.

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I stepped off a curb wrong yesterday and twisted my right angle.

I iced it last night, took anti-inflammatory drugs and an epsom bath but it still aches.

Should make a three day drive to Texas extra fun next week.

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New Trump Press Secretary Katie Zacharia seems to have all the qualifications necessary for the job, first and foremost she is a great liar.

It would have been tough to find someone who could lie better than the last one, but it looks like he did.

Just look at the august group of prevaricators she is joining:

Sean Spicer (2017)

Sarah Huckabee Sanders (2017–2019)

Stephanie Grisham (2019–2020)

Kayleigh McEnany (2020–2021)

Karoline Leavitt (2025–2026)

Katie Zacharia (2026–present) 

They seem to get worse and worse but just when you think he hit bottom he finds a new brainless platinum eye candy blond to bring it down even further.

This one has claimed to be a lawyer for years, then a lawyer in China. Turns out she never passed the bar in any country.

Perfect!

Iceman cometh...

The website says that ICE has come to Fallbrook.

FALLBROOK, Calif. (FOX 5/KUSI) — ICE and Border Patrol agents have stepped up their efforts to detain migrants with questionable legal status.

The Washington Examiner reported on Operation Safe California which started Oct. 7. Community activists say they are seeing a significant increase in federal agents in the rural community of Fallbrook with several flash check points trying to detain people on their way to work or school on a one lane road near Santa Margarita Preserve.

“Our community is living under fear, is living under terror at the moment,” said Ricardo.

Interesting that there was a checkpoint on my lonely little road near the Santa Margarita Preserve. Never saw it.

No one has asked me but if it is a choice between ICE and my good hispanic neighbors, illegal or not, I will take the latter, thanks. 98% are very good people. The sheriffs can take care of the few bad ones. ICE sucks.

One's for blood at the point of a knife...

I saw that Zelensky quote today, "It's not about business for us, it is our lives" and immediately thought about the lyrics to the Grateful Dead song Jack Straw.

We used to play for silver, now we play for life;

And one's for sport and one's for blood at the point of a knife

And now the die is shaken, now the die must fall

There ain't a winner in the game, he don't go home with all

Not with all...

To kingdom come

Meanwhile...

Reports are that Kimberly Guilfoyle has been keeping notes on the Trump administration and some are quite nervous that she will spill. If I were her I would stay away from high windows for a while...

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Elon Musk's Starlink is apparently disconnecting the Ukrainians.

Ukrainian military’s access to Starlink satellite internet suddenly restricted - Launch of Russian ballistic missiles on Ukraine, with no US warning, coincides with outage of Starlink managed by Musk’s SpaceX

Pretty horrible when the world's richest man and one of the most unpopular of people, can hold people's lives in his hands like this and be allowed this much power over entire countries.

Ukraine’s military has suddenly had its access to Starlink satellite internet terminals restricted as the Trump administration has increased pressure on Ukraine to halt long-range strikes on Russia’s oil industry immediately.

The terminals, which are distributed and managed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, are a key component of Ukraine’s military operations and the sudden restrictions on the terminals travelling at high speeds on Tuesday evening led to the failure of several combat missions, said an adviser on military technology to Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The sudden outage came as Russia launched ballistic missiles at Ukraine without any advance warning from the US for a second night. For years, the US has provided Ukraine with intelligence when strikes were about to take place.

Musk is donating $336 million dollars to shore up Republicans in the midterms. A very dangerous man.

Like Trump, Musk has repeatedly oscillated in his stance on the war.

The billionaire turned on the Starlink satellite internet service over Ukraine shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.

It has become a lifeline for war-torn parts of the country, but has also facilitated battlefield communications ​and enabled the use of longer-range drones, given its resistance to signal jamming.

Musk agreed to ​turn off thousands of Russian-used Starlinks in Ukraine this year, causing problems ‌for ⁠the Kremlin’s forces. But in recent days, Musk has echoed Trump’s criticism.

The suggestion that his company might have deliberately limited Ukraine’s battlefield operations drew criticism in Europe.

“Hey, @elonmusk, big man, are you playing politics with your products again?” Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski wrote in a post on X, referencing a past clash over Starlink in which Musk called him a “small man.”

Sikorski continued; “As your European customers, we are watching you.”

No private individual should have this much power to disrupt. Remember this quote from Musk?

No matter how much I disagree with the Ukraine policy, Starlink will never turn off its terminals … We would never do such a thing or use it as a bargaining chip.

Elon Musk March 2025

Unless of course, it is Trump doing the disconnecting? But with 81% of America backing Ukraine and hating Putin, including a majority of his own party, he wouldn't be so stupid, would he? 

Postscript: Musk answers.

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ICE is trying to share voter data with Trump crony Peter Thiel's Palantir.

The nonprofit legal group Democracy Forward** obtained the government documents through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against ICE seeking any information about the agency’s role in election-related operations. The records are a series of reports Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) — the immigration agency’s investigative arm — made for other parts of the Department of Homeland Security.

HSI tried to share the information with Palantir as part of DHS’s sweeping search for illegal voting by noncitizens before the upcoming midterms. 

Thiel has been a major funder of Republican causes, including Trump’s 2016 campaign. 

“I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible,” he once wrote, explaining his strategy for achieving his libertarian goals. 

In a July internal report, HSI indicated that data from those six states “are pending Palantir entry into ELITE,” the highly detailed map-based software the tech company built for ICE to identify, prioritize and locate people targeted for immigration enforcement.

The document noted that the information had been “enriched” by “iLab,” referring to HSI’s Innovation Lab. Generally, data enrichment refers to merging datasets to add missing context, depth or usability. The document did not indicate exactly what data iLab incorporated into the voter records.

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Inflation is rising quickly, either 3.4 or 3.7% this month according to divergent figures. Biden's numbers were 2.9 to 3.0 at the end of his term. A comparison of the economy under Trump and Biden. 

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Travelin' McCourys

David Grisman and Billy Strings Band

Your caption here

I stuck this picture on Nextdoor and asked people to add a caption. Got some good responses. Steve Layton wins...

Seven and seven is

Cartoon Time

 

One after 909

 

This is actually the first song John and Paul wrote together, possibly as far back as 1957. The Quarrymen released a version in 1960 but they were not happy with it and it got shelved. It was recorded again in 1963 but they were again dissatisfied. It didn't get ultimately released until Let it be, the last Beatles album, in 1970.

The song that made it to the album was the live version from the rooftop which perhaps explains all the energy, the band letting it all loose. The band that was too big for stadiums and had to stop touring because of all the noise and hassle was allowed to jam again publicly and show why they were the greatest rock and roll band that has ever been.

For a day they were a live band again.

Let it be is probably my least favorite album by the fab four, somewhat depressing for me, not sure why. I think it was recorded before Abbey Road but released after.

Anyway, it came on the radio the other day and forgetting that it was the Rooftop session I realized that I wasn't sure who was playing the ripping lead guitar. While George was the ostensible lead in the band, both John and Paul were quite capable and this song had some of John's punky brilliance.

I checked. It was George. And damn fine playing at that.The Beatles made their bones playing five grueling sets a day/night in Hamburg. 

"I may have been born in Liverpool, but I grew up in Hamburg." John Lennon

That is when they honed their craft, really became a band and also when they themselves thought that they did their best work.  It is nice to hear them let it loose.

John on One after 909:

"That was something I wrote when I was about seventeen. I lived at 9 Newcastle Road. I was born on the ninth of October, the ninth month [sic]. It's just a number that follows me around, but, numerologically, apparently I'm a number six or a three or something, but it's all part of nine." John Lennon

 

Says it all

 

Another Trump pipedream. Does this "ceasefire" exist anywhere but in Trump's head?

Ashamed for my country.

Trump and his cohorts sell out Ukraine for Russian diesel. Who didn't see this one coming? Our word obviously means nothing. 

“70% of Americans support Ukraine. Propping up Putin’s war economy is morally wrong as he uses that money to bomb cities,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.)

Bravo to those on both sides of the aisle speaking out against this travesty. Putin must have something really big on Trump because he plays him like a fiddle. Pee tape, anybody?

The announcement comes just weeks after Trump signed a major Russia sanctions package ‒ legislation named after the late Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina ‒ that was meant to suffocate the Russian economy that is financing the country's war against Ukraine.

Russia has been allowed to strike Ukraine's energy grid but Ukraine can't hit back. Doesn't seem quite fair.

"Zelenskyy, in a lengthy post online reacting to the deal, said Russia would repay it “with further terror and perfidy.” He cast it as an investment in the war, allowing it to be prolonged.

“It plays into Russia’s hands — allowing it to kill more, wage war for longer, have even less respect for America, and inflict even greater losses and damage on the world,” he said.

I believe our team is simply being used as a smokescreen. And that is certainly not fair. It is certainly not how partners should treat each other,” Zelenskyy said.

Witkoff and Kushner deserve to be keelhauled. I hope that my friends on the right will take some ownership of this one. Typical Trump, sell out an ally so he can save his own butt politically. He would sell out his own mother. But I don't think anyone here is that stupid to not understand this one. We used to stand for something. Remember?

You can have Trump, Putin and Kim Jong Un. We will take Zelenskyy. 

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The tangerine toddler has been having conniptions about coverage of his rallies that are showing so many empty seats. After his Alabama rally crowd looked so poorly attended, Trump ranted that the event was actually sold out and "MAXED OUT," and that the upper sections were vacant because rallygoers "migrate down to the Main Floor."

Now this is ludicrous on its face. If a place is maxed out and people are migrating to the main floor, just where are they sitting? In other people's laps? This makes no logical sense whatsoever.

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Postscript - Trump calls for a new Ukrainian President. Because high diesel prices are hurting his status with American farmers, a key MAGA voting block.

U.S. President Donald Trump says it's time for Ukraine to get a new president, suggesting current Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has not done enough to end his country's war with Russia.

Speaking at the White House Saturday, Trump said, "I suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal,″ adding that "for some reason [Zelenskyy] never does."

Trump also suggested that if he had been U.S. president in 2022, "that war would have never started. There was no reason that that war with Ukraine and Russia started. It started due to incompetence."

Zelenskyy has "lost 30 per cent of your country and you've had over a million people go between the two of them, over two million people killed. That's a war that should have never started. And I think it's time for Ukraine to get a new president."

From A.P:

The president, who on Friday struck a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to buy diesel from Russia in an attempt to address high fuel prices ahead of the U.S. midterm elections, has been urging Zelenskyy for weeks to stop strikes on Russian energy infrastructure. He has also sought to blame record U.S. diesel prices on Ukraine rather than the U.S.-led war in Iran, which has elevated world energy prices.

“He wants to make problems for the world. He wants to make problems for our farmers, our ranchers, with diesel fuel,” Trump said, before departing for Tennessee where he was set to rally Republican voters.

Wasn't this the war Trump promised he could settle in one day? 

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James Carville's nsfw rant about Guilfoyle must be read to be believed. I love this guy.

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Alice Cooper

Bloodsport

I have been watching the news regarding the upcoming live streamed public execution of Nidal Hasan with a little bit of shock. I don't really understand the purpose or need for this but it does seem to coincide with the long term retrograde motion apparent in our society. He faces the firing squad on December third. I'm not going to watch, he deserves everything he gets but I think I have something else to do that day. 

Not my cup of tea.

Perhaps Dana White or Vince McMahon could provide the color commentary? 

Or even the orange one hisself?

Who knows, this could be the next hit series on Fox.

Of course if they botch it up, like happened with the woman from Tennessee it could turn into a ratings disaster. 

I say let her go, third time is not the charm, she deserves a pass. But nobody is asking me.

I assume that kids will be watching too but is it really any worse than a five year old watching ICE shoot his dad in the neck?

Public executions are sort of passe´ globally right now. Amnesty International recorded at least 17 in 2025, including 11 in Iran and six in Taliban-run Afghanistan.

I was thinking of a corollary to this upcoming event. 

The last legally sanctioned public execution took place in our country in 1936. The man's name was Rainey Bethea. 

At least the Kentuckian found the lord first, no word yet on Hasan's religious inclinations.

Rainey Bethea's last meal consisted of fried chicken, pork chops, mashed potatoes, pickled cucumbers, cornbread, lemon pie, and ice cream, which he ate at 4:00 p.m. on August 13 in Louisville. At about 1:00 a.m., Daviess County deputy sheriffs transported Bethea from Louisville to Owensboro. At the Daviess County Jail, professional hangman Phil Hanna of Epworth, Illinois, visited Bethea and instructed him to stand on the X that would be marked on the trapdoor.

Bethea left the Daviess County Jail at 5:21 a.m. and walked with two deputies to the scaffold. Within two minutes, he was at the base of the scaffold. Removing his shoes, he put on a new pair of socks. He ascended the steps and stood on the large X as instructed. After Bethea made his final confession to Fr Herman J. Lammers of the Cathedral of the Assumption in Louisville, who had also supervised Bethea's conversion to Catholicism during Bethea's incarceration at the Jefferson County Jail two weeks prior to the execution, officers placed a black hood over his head and fastened three large straps around his ankles, thighs, arms, and chest.

Hanna placed the noose around Bethea's neck, adjusted it, and then signaled to Hash to pull the trigger. Instead, Hash, who was drunk, did nothing. Hanna shouted at Hash, "Do it!" A deputy then leaned onto the trigger, which sprang the trap door. Bethea fell 8 feet (2.4 m), and his neck was instantly broken. Afterward, two doctors confirmed he was dead. He wanted his body to be sent to his sister in South Carolina so that she could arrange for him to be interred next to his father, but against these wishes, he was buried in a pauper's grave at Owensboro Cemetery (also known as City Cemetery and "Potter's Field") in Owensboro.

It was estimated that a crowd of about 20,000 people gathered to watch the execution. One man, 36-year-old Leonard A. Peters, was killed in a car accident while driving to Owensboro to witness the hanging. Three others, including his wife, were injured. Afterwards, Hanna complained that Hash should not have been allowed to perform the execution in his drunken condition. Hanna further said it was the worst display he experienced in the 70 hangings he had supervised. 

Hasan’s execution would be the first carried out by firing squad by the U.S. military since the 1945 execution of Eddie Slovik, who was convicted of desertion during World War II.

I have written before of Canton's Trade days, the first flea market in America.

When I was doing the show in Santa Barbara last month, my buddy Ted, who is a dealer and a promoter who has been in the business for a long time, was regaling me with stories of one of the most unusual flea markets in America, the First Monday Trade Days in Canton, Texas. This flea market started way back in the 1850's and was evidently originally known as "hoss monday".

The way he told the story is that the old circuit judge only rode through Canton one day a month. He would first adjudicate and then hang any miscreants on Monday.

The townspeople came from miles around to watch the proceedings and catch a few hangings and then the town fathers would raffle off the departed soul's horse and possessions.

In any case, this reminds me a lot of the late Saddam Hussein. He would hold executions and the occasional chopping off of hands in soccer stadiums and require the public to watch. 

Still happens all the time in Iran. Not like we are morally superior or anything.

Back in Roman times Caligula did something similar, 

Barrett describes some of the supposed equestrian offences punished by Caligula as "decidedly trivial", and their punishments as sensationalist. Dio claims that Caligula had more than 26 equestrians executed in a circus "fracas"; in Suetonius' biography "more than 20" lives were lost in what is almost certainly the same event, described as a violent but accidental crush.Some sources claim that Caligula forced equestrians and senators to fight in the arena as gladiators. Condemnation to the gladiator arena as a combatant was a standard punishment, doubling as public entertainment, for non-citizens found guilty of certain offences. Laws of AD 19 by Augustus and Tiberius banned voluntary participation of the elite in any public spectacles, but the ban was never particularly effective, and was broadly ignored in Caligula's reign. During Caligula's illness two citizens, an equestrian named Atanius Secundus and a plebeian named Publius Afranius Potitus, offered to fight as a gladiator and take their own life if only the gods would spare the emperor's life. The offers were insincere, intended to flatter and invite reward. When Caligula recovered, he insisted that they be taken at face value, to avoid accusations of perjury: "cynical, but not without wit of a kind".

So be it, if this is what Hegseth and Trump want, let the killing begin. Probably have a big hit on their hands, especially in the MAGA circles.

However I must point out that Trump got in hot water with the Pentagon before for taking photographs of soldiers' funerals at Arlington National Cemetery. No matter, the man knows ratings.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump’s campaign was warned about not taking photographs before an altercation at Arlington National Cemetery during a wreath-laying ceremony earlier this week to honor service members killed in the Afghanistan War withdrawal, a defense official told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter concerning Monday’s events. It came a day after NPR reported, citing a source with knowledge of the incident, that two Trump campaign staff members “verbally abused and pushed” aside a cemetery official who tried to stop them from filming and photographing in Section 60, the burial site for military personnel killed while fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The defense official told the AP that the Trump campaign was warned about not taking photographs in Section 60 before their arrival and the altercation. Trump was at Arlington on Monday at the invitation of some of the families of the 13 service members who were killed in the Kabul airport bombing exactly three years prior.

So where do we stand? Going to fire up the air popper and watch Hasan fry with your family or are you going to sit this one out?

Taco Time

San Diego used to be known for having decent tacos. The first taco shop I remember as a kid was Azteca Tacos on Rosecrans, and maybe El Indio. Then in the seventies Roberto's came along and we were bombarded by a lot of very boring and mediocre shops of a similar variety, Albertos, Juanitas, etc.

They all pretty much tasted the same. Not great. Same offering, carne asada, pollo, pescado or carnitas basically.

I remember getting street tacos from Whittier around this time that were far better than the local fare, smaller but delicious. Loved Los Golosos in Torrance too. Great quesabirria.

We have several taco shops in Fallbrook but they are all pretty eh-h-h. Everything pretty much tastes the same at Robertitos although their rolled tacos are good in a pinch and they are open late. Luna smells funny to me and I stay clear of the place across from El Toro Market. Been through too many incarnations. El Toro is expensive. We won't talk about my beloved Jack in the Box, I don't want to argue with you. Dog meat or cardboard, I don't care, their tacos are a guilty pleasure.

I have tried one of the local street taco trucks but was not impressed. Loved the Birria food truck out on East Mission but they got shut down.

Anyway we found our new gold standard in Temecula at Los Tacos last year and really love the place. Best red and green salsas we have ever tried.

But I have been doing some research and there are some really good taco shops opening up, if you are willing to drive.

The new star getting all the buzz is Mesa Agricola in Escondido. Couple has a farm in Valley Center and grows their own vegetables. I guess it is only open a few days a week and the line goes around the block. I met someone who visited and he said that that was indeed true.

They specialize in guisados, which I get in Texas. They were named one of the 50 best new restaurants in the entire country this year by the New York Times. I look forward to visiting them once the buzz dies down and I can actually get in.

We had an emergency room trip to Palomar in the middle of the night this week. After six hours of wife in the hospital I decided to get breakfast and I went to a new place for me on East Valley Parkway, TJ tacos.

This place gets really top online love throughout the county as a people's favorite.

I had a carne asada and a lengua taco. They put the sauce on, do everything. You get what they give you. There are individual stations for each type of taco with separate cooks. I liked it but not as much as I like Los Tacos. The girl that works there told us that the adobado is her favorite and I will try it next time. Place is good but not exceptional, to my palate anyway.

I guess that there are some really great taco shops in Chula Vista, a long way to drive but I will make it down there, I promise. There are some that are way too authentic, no eyeball tacos for me, thank you. The place that intrigues me is Aqui es Texcoco, a place that specializes in lamb tacos.

Really want to check that place out. Their address is 520 Broadway. I saw a vlog on the place and the food looked fantastic. Barbacoa style lamb, my mouth is watering...

The best taco I ever had was the place in front of the Bullring by the Sea. My dad loved the bullfights and would take me down there as a kid to see Eloy Cavazos and Lomelin, his favorite toreadors. There was a taco stand out front that was heaven.

He made it a point to always sit on the shady side of the ring because as he explained, people got too drunk on the sunny side and people would get knifed. Very exciting prospect for a young kid. He told me that the vanquished bulls were cut up and fed to the poor and that that was what I was eating at the taco shop. Not sure if it was true or not but I believed him.

The tacos in Oaxaca City at the second mercado were also very good with the cotija and crema, quite healthy, helped by the fragrance of tuberose in the air. Greatest market I have ever been to.

Anyhow, if you know of a great taco shop around these parts, let me know.

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I had to drive to City of Commerce to pick up something I bought at auction and ended up driving east on Telegraph to catch the 605. Might have been in Downey or Pico Rivera. 

I was hungry and needed something to drink and I saw Luna Maya Grill in my periphery. I pulled a youie and checked the place out.

It was El Salvadoran cuisine, something I don't get very often. Looked clean and nice. 

I started out with a chicken and cheese pupusa and some nice pickled cabbage or radish.

She said that the salsa on the right was muy picante, cuidado but she obviously did not know who she was talking to.

I said what the hell and followed up with a grilled fish and way more food than I could eat.

Food was good, server was nice and the best part of the meal was the super thick corn tortillas, very different and made like, right then.

If I ever make it back there, I am trying the chicharrone.

The storm approacheth...

SAN DIEGO, CA — Tropical Storm Rachel is approaching Southern California, bringing the prospect of dangerous coastal flooding, powerful surf, gusty winds and torrential rain this weekend as an unusual combination of weather systems threatens to create hazardous conditions along the Southern California coastline.

Although the storm has weakened from hurricane strength, it's still expected to reach landfall as a tropical storm - not something California has seen since 1939, according to Accuweather.

Now of course we don't know exactly where it will hit but be prepared, might get a little wetter than you think. Could be very close to home. Be prepared.

Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac at the Boston Tea Party

My friend Gordon created a lot of light shows in the 1960's. We were discussing music and Peter Green and he told me that this 1970 recording at the Boston Tea Party was his all time favorite.

Peter Green

Danny Kirwin

Jeremy Spencer

John McVie

Mick Fleetwood

Reminds me of a story I heard recently. Someone asked John Mayall what he was going to do when Clapton left the Bluesbreakers. He said that he had somebody better.

Peter Green.

(Beware, this is over three hours long.)

Wow, Fallbrook is off limits, right?

 

This should do wonders for Republican candidates in California. Way to cheer him on, Nebraska. Screw you too.

KTLA :

U.S. President Donald Trump seemingly discussed the idea of foreign powers taking out California’s most populated cities while delivering a speech at a Republican rally at the Pinnacle Bank Expo in Grand Island, Nebraska Monday evening.

Trump was discussing the war in Iran and the price of gasoline before referencing the Southern California cities.

“With the war it’s just artificial, it’s a little bit high, it’s a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe. They could take out a city. Let ‘em take out Los Angeles. Let ‘em take out San Diego,” Trump said, drawing cheers from the crowd. “This is a very small price to pay and it’s going to be over very soon. It’s essentially almost over with.”

Trump’s appearance is the latest effort to rally Republican voters ahead of the midterm elections. Trump was there to campaign for Nebraska Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), who faces an unexpectedly competitive race against independent Dan Osborn, polls show.

Get this

New ICE Challenge Coins.

 

Billy was a race car driver

The Fendermen

Calling B.S.

We have been hearing a lot about the scourge of voter fraud in this country. Something that by the numbers, hardly exists. 

We have a nation of approximately 340,000,000 Americans. Of these approximately 174,000,000 are registered voters.

The Trump administration has been doing everything it can to ferret out the scofflaws that vote illegally.

They have found a total of 160 voters in the last two years.

I am not a math whiz but if we put 160 over 174,000,000 in a ratio and then try to find x over 100 we end up with .0009195. Thank you to my old math teachers at Dwight York Preparatory School back in New York!

Now you can check my arithmetic but I think that is a shade under a thousandth of a percent. In fact it is nine hundred nineteen ten millionths.

Hardly enough to make a statistical difference, as awful as it might be. Beyond miniscule.

And I seem to recall that some of these miscreants voted Republican. Funnily, even anti immigration groups are in general agreement with this calculus.

Stop blaming your election losses on non citizen voting. It ain't happening. Statistically anyway. It is not an issue.

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Daily Koz - Trump thwarted in hunt for rare noncitizen voters as midterms near

The U.S. Census in August identified about 24,000 instances of noncitizen voting in the 2020 election out of roughly 160 million votes cast, or 0.015% of all votes. One study of the 2016 election placed the prevalence of noncitizen voting at 0.0001% of votes cast.

But Homeland Security has suggested large numbers of noncitizens may be registered to vote. In July, the department said it had identified over 250,000 potential noncitizens on the voter rolls in California, New Jersey, Nevada and Pennsylvania.

On Monday, U.S. Senate Democrats in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin wrote that they couldn’t trust those numbers. For instance, DHS initially floated nearly 16,000 possible noncitizen voters in Nevada. In the end, the agency provided state officials with a list of 185 people that officials said were noncitizens. All turned out to be citizens.

Similar thing happened in Utah, generally a conservative bastion but not always so keen on Trump.

Utah released the results of a year-long audit of the state’s voter rolls, finding that the vast majority of its voters are verifiably US citizens, amid an escalating legal battle with the Trump administration over access to voter registration data.

The audit, launched in April 2025, found that 99.72% of Utah’s registered voters are confirmed US citizens. Of the more than 2 million voter records reviewed, 27 individuals were identified as non-citizens and removed from the rolls. Only 13 of those individuals had ever cast a ballot. The review, released on Wednesday by Lieutenant Governor Deidre Henderson’s office, also flagged 25 probable non-citizens, who have been given 30 days to provide proof of citizenship or face removal from the voter rolls.

Get it?