Let us prey: Cheeto Jeezus wants to save the soul of 'Murica

I can't run no more
With that lawless crowd
While the killers in high places
Say their prayers out loud

~ Leonard Cohen, "Anthem" (from The Future, 1992)

Mark your calendar for May 17, Year of Our Lard 2026. For that is the day that #neverwasmypresident Donald John Trump, aka Cheeto Jeezus, aka Mango Messiah, aka Cantaloupe Caligula, has declared that he shall lead a "National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise, and Thanksgiving" on the National Mall to "rededicate America as one nation under God."

Trump first announced this momentous event back on February 5, 2026 at the National Prayer Breakfast as he boasted about his regime's efforts to force religion back into the public arena, whether the public arena likes it or not. (When you're a celebrity savior, they let you do it.)

The upcoming National Jubilee is intended to be part of the greater celebration of America's 250th birthday. And the MAGAts who consider themselves People Of Faith are beside themselves with joy; they've been all over social media with words of praise for the Orange Overlord. They practically wet themselves with reverent joy over the fact that their idol sat at his desk and droned out a few passages from the Old Testament during a marathon Bible reading on April 21. But this May event has had them really psyched for months.

I have written a lot on this Whirled over the years about the cynicism and hypocrisy of Christofascist leaders who suck up to Trump, and about the gullibility or naivete or willful blindness or (in some cases) the stupidity of his followers who have apparently swallowed his religious shtick. And many millions of other words have been written by others about Trump's utter lack of biblical virtues. So I don't need to go over those points in detail; they speak for themselves.

But I do feel a need to reiterate another oft-repeated point: the idea of Trump as any type of savior or religious leader is funny on one level, but dangerous on another -- at least it's dangerous if you actually believe in the First Amendment and are worried about the crass and unprecedented politicization of religion that we're seeing from the Turd Reich. That politicization began during Trump's first reign and has accelerated alarmingly since he slithered into office again.

In an April 27, 2026 editorial on The Hill, opinion contributor Svante Myrick wrote that April has been a strange month for American Christians whose religious identity is not bound up with the adoration of Trump. For instance:

We watched a president who postures as a defender of the faith pollute the holiest days of the Christian calendar by invoking God while making profane threats to commit war crimes and annihilate an entire civilization.

The same president offended Christians of all stripes by sharing an AI-generated image of himself appearing as a Christ-like figure, surrounded by prayerful and adoring supporters and carrying out a miraculous healing. Oh, yeah, and he responded to the pope’s calls for peace by rudely insulting the spiritual leader of the world’s Catholics.

We also had Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, our self-proclaimed “secretary of war” and bloodthirsty crusader wannabe, treating the U.S. attack on the Iranian regime as a holy war to be waged without mercy and with “overwhelming violence.” Meanwhile, he urged Americans to pray for American victory “in the name of Christ” — or was it in the name of Quentin Tarantino? 

Religious MAGAts will brush all of that off, saying the important issue is that Trump is returning America to the Christian roots in which it was founded. Oh, good lord, how many times have we heard that lame rationalization? Here's Svante Mryick again:

It has indeed been a rough year for Americans who support the religious freedom and pluralism that thrive here thanks to the constitutional separation of church and state.

Trump’s devotees claim that he was anointed by God to carry out a divine mission to save America from people they see as their enemies — secularists, feminists, gay and transgender people, non-white immigrants — and to ensure that America remains, or returns to being, their version of a “Christian nation.” 

But that’s more fantasy than history. If our country’s founders, who were unhappily familiar with Europe’s state churches, wanted to create a “Christian nation,” they could have written Christian dogma into the Constitution. Instead, they included a ban on any official national religion and an explicit ban on any religious test for public office.  

So no matter what George Washington or some other Founding Father did or didn't say about faith and God and all of that stuff, the brand of Christian nationalism that Trump is enabling is running roughshod over all of our freedoms, and not just our religious freedoms.

And Trump himself as a leader of a national prayer event? Gimme a break. The man who has spent a lifetime worshiping at the altar of his own ego is now calling on the rest of us to bow our heads in reverence. It’s a level of hypocrisy so dense it could bend light.

Those of us -- and there are many millions of us -- who don't have orange-stained noses from spending so much time up Trump's ass can see what this event actually is. It’s not a spiritual awakening; it’s a campaign rally with a gospel soundtrack. It is the ultimate branding exercise. By wrapping himself in the flag and holding a cross, he is trying to sell himself as the divinely appointed savior of the nation

Of course he has a lot of support for that branding from the evangelical "leaders" who regularly infest what my favorite foul-mouthed pundit, Jeff Tiedrich, calls the Oval Bordello, where said "leaders" gather 'round their orange savior and pray while he slumps at his desk with eyes closed and hands folded, looking properly humble and reverent. (Actually, his eyes are most likely shut because he's snoozing yet again. Tiedrich has often referred to him as a "narcoleptic fart factory.") Also lending support to the con is the Christofascist wing of the GOP, which actually is much more than a wing; it's practically the whole big fat turkey. And naturally there are the gullible MAGAts who take everything that their Cheeto Jeezus says at face value.

And that prayer jubilee? It’s classic political theater, designed to keep Trump's base energized and the rest of us shaking our heads in disbelief or disgust. It's all just another way for the career grifters to prey on the gullible. In fact I can already see the merch table now: "Make America Pray Again" hats, gold-plated Trump Bibles and gaudy, overpriced jewelry (he's an old hand at that), and maybe some commemorative holy water bottled straight from the tap at Mar-a-Lago.

Rededicating America to God is a lovely sentiment for those who are religious, though not so much for those who aren't, or who are of the "wrong" religion by Christofascist standards. In any case, having a rededication ceremony led by a man whose entire public persona is built on pride, greed, and wrath feels less like a holy moment and more like a rejected movie script for a third-rate political satire.

So on May 17, while the crowd of the faithful gathers on the Mall to watch the spectacle, and while the performers stand up before them oozing their religion, I'll be here in the corner, longing for salvation from the ersatz saviors who urge us to pray while they continue, endlessly, to prey.

March marches into history and the Whirled marches on

Trump just couldn't stay away from something that was about him...

Once again, I missed tons of opportunities this month to hold forth here on some of the jaw-dropping number of atrocities that continue to flood the zone in accordance with Slovenly Steve "Three Shirts" Bannon's master plan. There was so much to write about, and I did so much not-writing. Go ahead, call me a slacker. I can take it.

This time my lame excuse was an alarming and, frankly, life-threatening emergency due to a hemoglobin level that had dropped way down to 4.8 (trust me, that is very bad). After my new PCP literally begged me to go to the ER, my best friend/sister-by-choice took me, and I was admitted to the hospital for two days for multiple blood transfusions and iron infusions and... well, I won't bore you with the details right now, except to say that more than one provider at the hospital expressed amazement that I was still up and walking around. Also, my years-long suspicion that I had severe iron deficiency anemia was spot-on, though tests also uncovered a few other conditions that were most likely either caused or exacerbated by the increasingly serious anemia.

The bottom line is that I seem to be on the mend, but am girding up for a deluge of hospital and individual provider bills that I will not be able to pay due to lack of insurance and money (you can help out with the latter if you're so inclined, see note at the end of this post).

But the Whirled goes on, and I certainly have every intention of going on myself. And even while I was reclining in my hospital bed hooked up to the blood transfusion apparatus, I was following the news, as I've also been doing since I returned home. Doomscrolling never takes a holiday. Indeed, there are countless things to inspire anger and despair as the ruthless American Reich regime marches on -- in recent times, most notably, the illegal, immoral, and totally stupid war in Iran, initiated by the self-described "Peace President" and his buddy Bibi in Israel. One of the latest newsbits is Trump's blatant threat to commit war crimes if he doesn't get his way.

And MAGA is all, "Yeah, baby, bring on the End Times. We're going to end up in Paradise with Jeezus, and anyone who doesn't agree with us will be burning in hell."

But even as we teeter on the edge of the End Times, there is still reason for hope, as symbolized most powerfully in this past weekend's No Kings mass marches and demonstrations, which by most accounts drew record numbers of protesters who, as in the past two No Kings events, are NOT being paid by George Soros or any other real or imaginary reich-wing scapegoat, but are perfectly happy to justifiably hate Mango Mussolini and his cohorts for free.

(Not that you'd ever, ever convince Faux News and its willfully blind MAGA-cult audience that the millions of protesters are expressing genuine sentiment: no, in FAUX World, even if they're not being paid directly, those marchers are being ruthlessly manipulated by a bunch of rich, Murcia-hating commies. Which means that all of their signs and costumes and marches and demonstrations really mean nothing at all; they don't represent the Real America.)

My favorite foul-mouthed commentator, Jeff Tiedrich, posted some words, accompanied by lots of pictures, the day after NK3. His coverage included pics of solidarity demonstrations that took place across the globe. People all over the world hate Trump, also for free.

Tiedrich also noted, with a couple of comical pics to back up his claim:

huge crowds were everywhere — except for one place: the CPAC conference in Texas.
while millions of people were protesting the fucked-up reign of Mad King Donny, CPAC couldn’t even fill one small room.

The next day, in addition to further documenting the Mad King's madness (e.g., his obsession with tacky Corinthian columns on his gaudy gilded ballroom/bunker cover), Tiedrich posted more coverage and pics from the No Kings events. Some of the signs are true works of art.

I wasn't able to attend the NK demonstration in my town, but my bestie did, and the crowd was pretty substantial for the seat of a still-deep-red Texas county. So, as crazy as it might sound to anyone who is on the verge of giving up, as this turbulent month marches into history, I am renewing my commitment of clinging to hope as long as there's even a tiny speck of it.

And I think that you, and everyone who cares at all about the survival of democracy, should do the same. MAGA jeered and sneered at this latest No Kings event, as they did at the first two. It was their way of whistling past the graveyard, stubbornly refusing to face their own fears and doubts about the demented orange man-child they continue, against all of the evidence that he's a POS, to worship. My sense is that the only way they can go on ignoring what they know in their hearts to be true is to pretend that dissenters are either being handsomely paid or cynically manipulated or both... or that there just aren't that many of us. But the truth is that we are everywhere. We're not going away.

These past few months -- well, actually, these past two years -- have been, to say the least, a serious trial for me. But after dealing with a very stressful move and then, shortly after, facing a potentially fatal medical outcome, I think that I am finally beginning to hit my stride again. And I'll be back next month with more.

Thank you as always for visiting my Whirled.

Before you leave...
While money cannot make some nightmares go away, be they political or personal, it can make them far easier to bear. With my husband Ron's passing in February 2025, I have experienced significant income loss and have been scrambling to find more work, but in an industry increasingly being taken over by AI, it has been a challenge. And now that I am facing new personal challenges, donations are urgently needed and profoundly appreciated. Here are some ways to do it:

• New: Venmo -- username @Connie-Schmidt-42. Here is a direct link to the Venmo page.
• New: PayPal -- Here is a direct link to my PayPal page.
• Old but still good: You can click on the "Donate" icon that currently appears on the right-hand side of every page of this blog on the Web version. There's also a donation link at the end of many of my older blog posts. In the case of both the icon and the links on the older posts, as well as the link in this sentence, this is also a PayPal link, but it references the email account RevRon -- which is cool, because it all ultimately goes to the same place.

NOTE: If you are donating by PayPal, please specify that your contribution is for "friends and family," which will waive PayPal's substantial transaction fee.

Whether you can donate or not, thank you for visiting this Whirled.

February out, March in, and the Whirled will come back to life

Damn, Feb flew by. Well, it is a short month, after all... But enough with the excuses. Once again another month has gone by with little of substance on this Whirled, but I do finally have my infrastructure set up at the new place, and I will be ready to pound the keyboard again in March. And there's a lot to pound about, as the orange blob in the White House -- and his fascist cartel -- continue to wreck the country and the entire globe. So stay tuned, and thank you as always for stopping by.

Belated happy new year

The new(ish) year is off to a roaring start, but I am not — not yet, anyway. But soon. I just wanted to keep my commitment to posting at least once evey month: a tradition I have been keeping since this blog was born nearly 20 (!) years ago. 

After numerous additional delays, I am just about ready to jump back in full force, and I will have plenty to say. 

Meanwhile, thanks for sticking by me, and I will be back soon.

Goodbye and good riddance to 2025

It has been a very rough year for me, and very possibly for you too. For many if not most of us, 2025 sucked even harder than 2024. But we survived it.

After a long and turbulent — hellish, in fact — few months, I am safely settled (well, mostly settled) in a lovely part of Texas, no longer at the Edge of Nowhere but now in the Middle of Somewhere. I am no longer a country mouse; as I noted in my previous post, I have come in from the wild after nearly 18 years, which has been a little strange, but not as unsettling as I had feared. 

One factor making the transition easier is that, to my delight, the manicured and hyper-regulated neighborhood in which I now live is also home to wandering wild deer, some of whom bed down in my yard at night. They wander through the well-tended yards and streets like they own the place.

I’ll miss the raccoons and opossums at the old location, but at least I’ve got the deer.

I will have more to write about all of this — not to mention about my normal blog topics — as soon as I finally get my computers and Internet set up, which for several reasons is taking much longer than it should ever have taken. 

For now, I wish all of you a safe and happy new year, even if it does seem like we’re living in hell at the moment. Things will get better — I am more certain of that now than ever — but it’s going to take a lot of effort from all of us. 

I’m going to see the new year in with a glass of cold crisp shampagne,  my NA libation of choice being Sutter Fre Sparkling Brut. And I will be surrounded by my fur babies, trying not to think too much about how profoundly I miss Ron. I’ll drink a toast to him, and to the lovely but fleeting time we had together. 

Thank you as always for visiting my Whirled. 

In from the wild: moving on

I am getting ready to make a big move -- from out in the sticks back to “civilization.” It’s actually a very scary step for me but it is something I really need to do.

I like where I am living now; I have the best landlords and good neighbors (except for the [alleged] meth cookers and owners of cat-murdering rogue dogs on the other side of the woods, but hey, this is East Texas). And it’s very pretty out here. I have enjoyed living “in the country” for the past nearly 18 years, but it’s time for me to come in from the wild. My current situation is not sustainable; for the sake of both my physical and emotional health, I really need to be in a place where I am not so isolated, especially since I don’t drive.

Fortunately I have been given a wonderful opportunity by very dear friends who are really my extended family and who have a suburban rental house available in the city where they live, which is about 200 miles from where I am now. There will be more amenities, better access to needed services, and numerous other advantages that I don’t currently have.

I’m now dealing with an almost overwhelming amount of logistical details that on previous moves I had Ron to help me with, and on which I have been egregiously behind schedule, mainly due to getting sick several times over the past several months. One challenge is covering the cost of moving, which is hovering around $6,000. After Ron died I was immediately faced with drastically reduced income, and while I am still trying to find ways to increase that income, my immediate concern is raising funds to help with the costs of using a professional moving company, as well as with a few miscellaneous expenses that are always a part of moving.

Since I don’t drive, a do-it-yourself moving service such as UHaul was not an option. Asking friends or my one remaining immediate family member (my brother) to help execute an entire move, including loading and unloading, was simply not an option either. My friends and my brother all have busy lives, and they live far away from here (I told you I was out in the sticks), plus we’re all getting too old to be lifting a lot of heavy stuff anyway.

And since I am going to be moving a considerably greater distance than all of the previous moves that Ron and I made together over the past three decades, I had to hire a company with big enough trucks that the move would not require multiple trips. That might sound painfully obvious, but due to my large library, it’s more of a challenge than it might be for many folks. (Don’t get me wrong; I have been purging books as well as other items to help keep costs down, but moving is still an expensive undertaking!)

So any any donation, no matter how small, will be deeply appreciated.

Moving is stressful for anyone. It’s one of the most stressful of life events, just behind divorce or the death of a loved one. For me it it’s no exaggeration to say that moving has always been at least a little bit traumatic, even when it was a very welcomed move, such as this one will be. And doing it all without Ron for the first time has added considerably to the stress and fear and uncertainty. I know there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, and I have faith that it’s not an oncoming train. But for now, I need to get through this move so I can begin a new and more sustainable life.

Below is my information for Venmo and Paypal. I actually prefer Venmo, but Paypal will work fine too. Again, any amount will be appreciated. Thank you in advance.

• Venmo: Username: @Connie-Schmidt-42email: cosmic.connie@gmail.com
  Here’s a direct link to my Venmo page:https://account.venmo.com/u/Connie-Schmidt-42
• Paypal: Username: CosmicConnieSchmidt
  Email: cosmic.connie@gmail.com
  Here’s a direct link to my PayPal page: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/CosmicConnieSchmidt
  If you are donating by PayPal, please specify that your contribution is for "friends and family," which will waive PayPal's transaction fee.

The "Donate" button that currently appears on the right-hand side of every page of this blog on the Web version is still good, though I prefer the Venmo or PayPal links cited above. There's also a donation link at the end of many of my older blog posts. In the case of both the icon and the links on the older posts, as well as the link in this sentence, this is also a PayPal link, but it references the email account that belonged to Ron, but which I've kept active -- which is cool, because it all ultimately goes to the same place.

Thank you so much. And even if you can’t send a donation, please send me a heapin’ helpin’ of good vibes. I need all the help I can get. And I'll be back as soon as possible with a real post.

Meet me at the wrecking ball: Trump's gaudy gilded dance hall is more than just a metaphor, it's a warning

 

If you thought that #NeverWasMyPresident Donald John Trump's tarting-up of the Oval Office with garish gold gew-gaws was THE metaphor for his profoundly awful Biff Tannen presidency, or that his desecration of the Rose Garden, turning it into a Mar-a-Lago patio club for billionaires and toadies, was the ultimate symbol of his reckless, destructive impulses and elitist nature, the Trump regime says, "Hold my beer." For as you must surely know by now, a newer and far more extreme Trump-presidential metaphor that illustrates all of the above has hit the news over the past few days: the total destruction of the lovely and historic East Wing of the White House in order to build an obscene gilded grand ballroom (or should that be gallroom?) that is nearly twice the size of the existing White House.

The current price tag is $300 million $350 million, up from the $200 million Trump announced back in July. Don't be surprised if the price continues to go up and up and up, but no worries. He claims that the project will be totally funded by him and some of his bestest oligarch buddies, who almost certainly are doing it out of the goodness of their hearts and a heartwarmingly patriotic desire to improve the White House, and who don't expect a thing in return. Not a penny will come out of taxpayer pockets; you have his word on it.

But try telling that to the malcontents! Despite his reassurances that the project won't cost taxpayers a dime, a few (million) folks apparently aren't at all happy about the fact that Trump can't stop gloating about his tawdry Winter Palace ballroom while the government is still shut down, and thousands of employees as well as military members are going without pay, and inflation is creeping up, and employment is flat, and groceries and gasoline prices and utility bills are increasing, and armed masked thugs are snatching hundreds of people, including American citizens, from the streets of America and disappearing them, and Trump tariffs and other policies have screwed our farmers and countless small business owners, and people are losing healthcare coverage as well as food benefits and other social safety nets, and funding for scientific and medical research -- including the funding of childhood cancer research -- has been halted so billionaires can get a bigger tax break. Such ingrates, these complainers, who clearly can't appreciate the breadth and depth of King Donold's grand vision.

Along with countless others, my favorite foul-mouthed pundit Jeff Tiedrich pointed out that besides being a metaphor for Trump's wrecking of the country so he can rebuild it in his image, this atrocity is also yet another example of Trump's endless stream of lies.

“it won’t interfere with the current building. it’ll be near it but not touching it. and pays total respect to the existing building, which I’m the biggest fan of. it’s my favorite.” [That's what Trump originally promised.]

oh gee, who even knew that Donny had a favorite wing of the White House — the east one. yeah, right. just like Cokey McSniffles is his favorite son. totally credible remark.

so, it turns out that the guy who lied to us about bone spurs and hush money and his Ukraine phone call and a hurricane and covid and the election and his height and his weight and his golf scores and his magically regenerated ear also lied to us about preserving the East Wing.

I’m fucking shocked, I tell you. how did we Nazi this coming?

Yet Trump took umbrage when a reporter suggested that he had been less than transparent about the ballroom plans. Tiedrich continued:

reporter: “I just want a quick follow-up to that question. your response to people who say you haven’t been transparent enough about this—”

Donny: “I haven’t been transparent enough? really? I’ve shown this to everybody that would listen. third-rate reporters didn’t see it because they didn’t look. you’re a third-rate reporter. always have been.”

what a whiny fucking crybaby. ‘everyone has to love my vulgar dance hall, and you’re a third-rate poopyhead if you don’t.’

oh, boo fucking hoo.

here’s what our Fuckstain-in-Chief calls ‘being transparent’: he held up a drawing of some gaudy gold monstrosity — and then raged because every reporter didn’t immediately burst into tears and go ‘sir! thank you for your transparency. how do you do it? how do you hold up a drawing like no one thought possible? sir! sir!’

In an eloquent piece on the Lincoln Square Substack on October 23, writer Rick Wilson lamented the utter obscenity of it all.

Donald Trump didn’t just misunderstand the East Wing; he loathes the category of things it represents.

He walked into a cathedral with a bullhorn, spray paint, and faux gold leaf. He saw a place designed for civic honor, official tenderness, and historical respect and wondered why it didn’t look more like a casino atrium, a glittery Liberace dreamscape.

The East Wing, under Melania Trump, became a mood board for grievance. The holiday corridors turned into a fever dream of performative menace, a pomo aesthetic that screamed more threat than holiday spirit. The Social Office, traditionally where protocol breathes, is now one more wing of the Department of Trolling, a conveyor belt of grotesque events staged not as acts of national hospitality but as moments for the Dear Leader to caper while his minions offer proofs of loyalty.

The White House grounds have become a gimcrack stage set, a regional dinner theater of the absurd.

It’s American malaise dressed up as blaring pageant: a stripper-pole segment added to a ballet, a spiritual emptiness that comes when a man confuses himself with a country and then tries to decorate the void in more and more gold leaf and Temu-grade gradeau.

The conservative Bulwark had a few words about the matter too, discussing on an October 23 piece the fact that Trump apparently sees the physical history of the People's House in much the same way that he views the nation's laws, as something to be swept aside at will. In a segment headlined "The Asbestos Wing," Bill Kristol wrote about why Trump broke his promise that the White House wouldn't be touched by construction of the new ballroom.

But that pledge by the President is no longer operative. Why not? Well, Trump explained yesterday, the East Wing “was never thought of as being much. It was a very small building.”

Very small is bad. Very big is good. And so Donald Trump decided that the small old East Wing would be summarily replaced by a big new ballroom.

What, you ask, will that grand structure be called? Did you have to ask? According to the pledge agreement sent to donors, they’ll be contributing to the construction of ”The Donald J. Trump Ballroom at the White House.”

Eeesh. And unless you're a devoted MAGA cultist, the implications are grim.

Trump... as he sat Tuesday at his desk in his newly gilded Oval Office, looking out on his paved-over Rose Garden, not far from where he plans to build his new imitation of the Arc de Triomphe, said this: “We can never let what happened in the 2020 election happen again. We just can’t let that happen. I know Kash is working on it, everybody is working on it. And certainly Tulsi is working on it. We can’t let that happen again to our country.”

Unlike Lincoln, Donald Trump doesn’t seem to imagine himself a mere temporary inhabitant of the building in which he resides. He apparently doesn’t intend to allow for the defeat of the incumbent administration, and a peaceful transfer of power, in November, 2028.

Kristol is just one of many who have warned that the grand ballroom is far more than an ugly metaphor for an ugly "presidency" -- it's also a stark warning that the current occupant of the White House does not intend to leave when his term is up. And there is almost certainly much more going on beneath the surface -- literally. From CBS News, October 22, 2025:

The bunker under the East Wing will also be upgraded, sources told CBS News. The White House Military Office is handling the renovation of the bunker, which is known as the President's Emergency Operations Center.

Commentator Glee Violette, on an October 23, 2025 Facebook post, wrote:

Trump will use ANY means - ANY MEANS - to hold on to the office this time around. He has proven that. He has three goals that motivate him - personal power, wealth, and revenge. Nothing he does is for the MAGA folks - they are just his pawns. And he is not here to make America "great", but to PLUNDER it and OWN it.

So, there must be NO midterm elections next year. [To stop them] he needs war-time conditions. And that war will be RIGHT HERE. So he needs himself a proper bunker. Not the 60 year old WWII bunker he hid in last time. A lavish, opulent, HUGE bunker, in the style to which he has become accustomed.

Oh, and the Ballroom he is building over it will be a nice place to serve as a proper Great Hall and Throne Room, afterwards, in order to receive tributes from future supplicants, as well.

If you think that sounds like mere leftist hysteria or conspiranoia, you haven't been paying attention. Read the rest of Glee's post for a list of some of the most egregious violations of U.S. and international law being committed by the bellicose, power-hungry Trump regime.

The White House desecration may seem like a non-issue or at least a minor matter in the larger scheme of things; in fact, MAGA by and large seems totally on-board with it. Note that these are the same folks who got all bent out of shape when Cracker Barrel changed its logo and some of its interior decor; they heralded those changes as the end of American culture and the takeover of evil wokeness. They screamed and shouted and wept and whined until Cracker Barrel ultimately changed the logo back.

But the vulgarization of the White House? Hey, say the regime as well as countless MAGA, other presidents have done stuff to the White House, and this is no different (ignoring the fact that it is, in many ways, very different and much more extreme). To MAGA it's just a matter of letting Donald be Donald. He builds stuff, that's his thing. Besides, he's Our President and he can do whatever he wants. So shut up, you complainers with your trivial gripes.

But what is being done to the People's House is hardly trivial: it is both an ugly metaphor and, very likely, an ominous sign of things to come.

P.S. Getty Images offers a pictorial demolition diary. If you have any love of American history and ideals, it will make you sad.

Before you leave...
While money cannot make some nightmares go away, be they political or personal, it can make them far easier to bear. With my husband Ron's passing in February 2025, I have experienced significant income loss and am scrambling to find more work, but in an industry increasingly being taken over by AI, it has been a challenge. And now that I am making a major move, which is never cheap, donations are urgently needed and profoundly appreciated. Here are some ways to do it:

• New: Venmo -- username @Connie-Schmidt-42. Here is a direct link to the Venmo page.
• New: PayPal -- Here is a direct link to my PayPal page.
• Old but still good: You can click on the "Donate" icon that currently appears on the right-hand side of every page of this blog on the Web version. There's also a donation link at the end of many of my older blog posts. In the case of both the icon and the links on the older posts, as well as the link in this sentence, this is also a PayPal link, but it references the email account RevRon -- which is cool, because it all ultimately goes to the same place.

NOTE: If you are donating by PayPal, please specify that your contribution is for "friends and family," which will waive PayPal's substantial transaction fee.

Whether you can donate or not, thank you for visiting this Whirled.

Hope for America and the world: the No Kings movement is just getting stronger

 

You gave the man your eyes
so you could sleep at night
but you still hear their cries
you can't outrun this shame.
this land was yours and mine
until they bled it dry
history won't be kind
to those who turned the other way
~ Earth to Eve, "Have you heard the news" (addressing MAGA cult members)

Millions of Americans -- and people the world over -- have not turned the other way. Indeed, as the Trump regime doubles and triples down on its horrendous overreach, fascist policies and actions, and shameless attempts to destroy civil rights and shred the Constitution, the resistance seems to be hitting its stride at last -- that is, if the massive turnout for the October 18, 2025 No Kings protests is any indication.

Here is a link on the Talking Points Memo site to a few photos and videos from just some of the demonstrations. You can find much, much more online with even a casual search.

And, just like the previous No Kings events on June 14, 2025, the October 18 demonstrations stretched far beyond the borders of the US. Our wonderful but worried neighbors (or neighbours) to the North showed up by the thousands, from Vancouver to Toronto to Montreal. The tone across Canada has been one of firm support and shared purpose. Canadians are clearly watching developments in the U.S. closely — and they’re not staying silent. They're really, really worried about us. (And I am too.)

Several major cities in Europe and the UK also participated in demonstrations.

Reportedly even Australia rallied to the cause as well, from Sidney to Melbourne to Brisbane. While turnout was reported to be modest in comparison to No Kings events elsewhere, it's good to know the Aussies have our backs. I'll add a good link as soon as I can find one; the link I'd intended to use has been 404'd. But I know from communicating with my friends in Oz, and from reading posts by Australian participants on social media, that they do indeed have our backs.

I have also seen unverified reports of a small demonstration in Seoul, South Korea, and there's a video circulating on BlueSky of what looks like a pretty significant march that the person sharing the video, with the hashtag NoKings, claimed took place in South Korea and was in support of US democracy. I watched the video but couldn't understand what was being shouted, and I couldn't read the marchers' signs, so I can't verify. There's a lot going on there, and South Koreans have held other political demonstrations recently. I'll update if I find out any more specifics about a protest or demonstration in South Korea in support of the No Kings events in America.

But clearly, South Korea is paying attention to what's going on within the borders of their increasingly unreliable (thanks to Trump) ally. Other parts of Asia, as well as Latin America, have apparently been paying attention as well, and I have seen scattered reports that they're showing early signs of engagement in the larger movement against authoritarianism. I think we can expect more as the movement grows. For now, the verified and well-sourced reports of participation by other countries is immensely gratifying.

The pearl clutchers were ludicrously wrong
Contrary to the alarmist rants and warnings and outrageous lies from the Trump regime, the protests showed that the millions of participants in the No Kings demonstrations have an abiding love for America. Here's just one dispatch from a northwest suburb of my beloved former hometown of Houston. I'm friends in real life with the person in the frog costume, who explained to the reporter that the demonstrators were out in the wilting Texas heat because they love their country.

Moreover the No Kings events on October 18 were overwhelmingly peaceful, with no major disturbances reported. There was significant law enforcement and in several areas National Guard presence at demonstrations across the US, but while visible, they were by and large non-confrontational. In fact police departments in some areas coordinated with the organizers of the No Kings events to help ensure peaceful demonstrations.

A few incidents and arrests occurred in some locations, mostly involving counter-protesters, presumably Trump supporters. Other reported incidents either involved ICE and were separate from the main No Kings events, or happened late at night with stragglers hours after the main events had concluded.

• In Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, 59-year-old woman who was wearing a Trump T-shirt was arrested for brandishing a firearm from her vehicle near the No Kings protest at Chapin Memorial Park. She expressed regret and claimed that the gun was unloaded, but she was charged with two counts of pointing and presenting a firearm. According to the article I linked to, public records indicate that she isn't even legally allowed to possess a firearm or deadly weapons. On Sunday a judge set her bond at $100,000, which she posted later that day, after which she was released.
• In Detroit, Michigan, a counter-protester supporting President Trump was arrested for scuffling with demonstrators who were peacefully marching on Michigan Avenue.
• In Portland, Oregon, three arrests were made following late-night clashes between protesters and federal agents outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility. Law enforcement used tear gas and crowd control measures. But this was separate from the No Kings protests in the area. It was just ICE doing more of what ICE has been doing in Portland and other cities for months now.
• In Broadview, Illinois, several people were arrested near a local ICE facility, with some charges related to disorderly conduct and disobeying police orders. These incidents were reportedly separate from the main "No Kings" march in Chicago, which was peaceful.
• In LA, while the main protest was peaceful in Los Angeles that day, late-night dispersal orders led to arrests after some smaller groups refused to leave the downtown area.
• And in a few cities, such as Ocala, Florida, there were verbal confrontations between MAGA counter-protesters and No Kings participants, but no arrests or violence were confirmed.

Additional isolated incidents will no doubt surface in the days and weeks to come, so the above list is of course not comprehensive. But in most of the large blue cities that Trump and his goons and supporters love to hate there were no major incidents. And across the country, there wasn't a single riot or terrorist attack or attempt to overthrow the government. Sorry, pearl clutchers.

Mango Mussolini is in deep denial (and deep doo-doo)
And what did Trump, the man-baby who would be king, think about the overwhelming displays of resistance against His Mango Majesty? Well, there's the now-infamous Donald Dump video, which as far as I'm concerned should be declared the official video of the Turd Reich: an AI-generated vid of MAGA's big hero wearing a crown while flying a fighter jet over the Big Apple (the city that rejected him), and dumping poop over a huge crowd of protesters. It was posted to his Truth Social account -- here's a direct link -- and the Internet can't stop buzzing about it.

There have been contradictory reports about just when this video was originally posted. Some accounts say it was posted on Friday by his communications team, ahead of the demonstrations, and was amplified by his campaign team. (That's what I originally reported here.) But most sources are saying that Trump posted the vid on Saturday after the events had begun, in reaction to all of the buzz about the protests.

On the Truth Social site there's no date/time indicator on the post that I can see, but maybe that's just because I'm not a member of Truth Social. I'm not going to join just to see if I can find out when the video was originally posted. I suppose it doesn't really matter; what seems clear is that Trump hasn't disavowed it, and the MAGAs are absolutely giddy about what they see as clever trolling. Talk about owning the libs/Democrats/"radical left"/Trump critics! King Donald sure showed them, didn't he?

By and large the criticism of the poop vid focuses on how unprecedented and unpresidential and just generally unhinged it is. On the other hand, some critics have also pointed out that this video is actually far more accurate than most of what spews from the Trump propaganda machine. It's an apt metaphor not only for how he sees himself but also for what he's doing to the nation. Notwithstanding his repeated claims that "I am not a king!", he acts like a king wannabe, and he is in so many ways dumping on the American people.

And he's not just dumping on the libs. The problem for the MAGAs who are so busy cheering the ca-ca king is that most of them simply don't realize yet that they're getting shat on as well.

One of my favorite responses so far to the poop-shooting video is from political commentator, comedian, and social media influencer Maggie Reed, aka Mermaidmamamaggie, whom I adore. I just love that woman's smirk. She smirks better than just about anyone I have ever seen. In a short reel posted on October 18, Reed manages to communicate, with her facial expressions and a few pertinent visuals, that there's a yuuuuge difference between childish trolling for the base and acknowledging the harsh reality that most Americans despise Trump and what his regime is doing to our beloved country.

Meanwhile Trump continues to protest-too-much that he's "not a king," and he dismisses the October 18 protests as NBD. During a brief press interaction aboard his plane on Sunday, October 19, he had this to say when a reporter asked him for his response to the No Kings protests (thanks to Bryan Tyler Cohen for the reel):

I think it's a joke. I looked at the people, they're not representative of this country. And I looked at all the brand new signs paid for -- I guess it was paid for by Soros and other radical left lunatics. It looks like it was, we're checking it out. The demonstrations were very small, very ineffective, and the people were whacked-out. When you look at those people, those are not representative of the people of our country.

Then he added, "By the way I'm not a king. I'm not a king. I work my ass off to make our country great. That's all it is. I'm not a king at all."

I'm no expert on abnormal psychology, but offhand I'd say that Trump's dismissal of the mass protest is the declaration of a man who is in deep denial and who, despite his arrogance, is scared... well, sh-tless.

* * * * *

Due to a combination of personal circumstances, I was unable to attend a No Kings event in my area. But I was with all of them in spirit. And seeing some of the photos and videos of the massive crowds actually brought tears to my eyes as I realized that there still seems to be hope in the fight against tyranny.

I'll leave you with a couple of videos that do not involve poop-dumping, and a link to a post by one of my favorite foul-mouthed commentators.

First, if you haven't done so already, check out the song linked to at the head of this post, by an amazing young talent going by the name Earth to Eve. She actually composed a song specifically for No Kings 2, but I don't yet have a link to a full version. For now, "Have you heard the news" (here's a direct link) sums up the state of affairs under Trump very powerfully and eloquently.

And then there's Jasmyne A. Cannick, who, unlike our esteemed leaders, said what needed to be said in response to Trump press puppet Karolyin' Leavitt's declaration that the Democratic Party's main constituency is "Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals." Forget "when they go low, we go high." I am a big fan of Michelle Obama, but unfortunately that strategy, which she famously suggested in her speech in support of Hillary Clinton at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, never worked. Cannick shows that she is willing to meet Leavitt in the basement. "You wanna find America's terrorists? Check your own damn Christmas card list!"

And finally, one of my favorite potty-mouthed pundits, Jeff Tiedrich, weighed in on Sunday with a celebratory post and plenty of photos and links. Here he is.

Stay strong, stay peaceful, stay safe, my friends, and do stay in touch with the No Kings movement, which has more events planned for the future.

This post has been updated and amended since its original publication, most notably, to correct and update information about isolated incidents during the protests, as well as to correct and clarify information about the responses (from Trump and others) to the No Kings events on October 18.
~ CC

Before you leave...
While money cannot make some nightmares go away, be they political or personal, it can make them far easier to bear. With my husband Ron's passing in February 2025, I have experienced significant income loss and am scrambling to find more work, but in an industry increasingly being taken over by AI, it has been a challenge. And now that I am making a major move, which is never cheap, donations are urgently needed and profoundly appreciated. Here are some ways to do it:

• New: Venmo -- username @Connie-Schmidt-42. Here is a direct link to the Venmo page.
• New: PayPal -- Here is a direct link to my PayPal page.
• Old but still good: You can click on the "Donate" icon that currently appears on the right-hand side of every page of this blog on the Web version. There's also a donation link at the end of many of my older blog posts. In the case of both the icon and the links on the older posts, as well as the link in this sentence, this is also a PayPal link, but it references the email account RevRon -- which is cool, because it all ultimately goes to the same place.

NOTE: If you are donating by PayPal, please specify that your contribution is for "friends and family," which will waive PayPal's substantial transaction fee.

Whether you can donate or not, thank you for visiting this Whirled.

Time flies when you're living in chaos

 

The month of September 2025 has simultaneously flown by and dragged on endlessly. It has been almost too much for me, and maybe it has for you as well. Chaos swirls around us, and now more than ever the U.S. seems on the brink of disaster on multiple fronts, such that it's often difficult for many of us to maintain even a semblance of hope for the survival of American (and world) democracy.

Things look especially grim now in light of today's infamous forced gathering of top U.S. military brass in Quantico, where the worse than incompetent secretary of the department formerly known as defense, Pete Kegsbreath, railed on and on about a new "warrior ethos" while Cadet Bone Spurs, the illustrious Commander in Chief, officially directed the entire U.S. military to wage war on "the enemy from within" -- in other words, any American who doesn't bow down to the regime.

Top defense officials -- or should that now be "war officials?" -- were appalled. They weren't the only ones.

And that's just one event in the endless deluge of shock-and-awe-and-nausea to which we are continually subjected, almost certainly by design.

Even so, I haven't given up hope entirely, and one of my hopes is that you haven't either.

But there's also this: I am in the midst of a major upheaval in my life that involves one of the biggest moves I've ever made. And I'm doing it for the first time in decades without my partner and soul mate, Ron, who died earlier this year.

Accordingly, even though I am still keeping up with events both in Scamworld and the larger world, I haven't had the focus and energy needed to churn out much content on this Whirled. And I refuse to let AI do it for me. So I hope you will bear with me for another few weeks; I promise to be back as soon as possible with actual substance. (And for those of you who are wondering when I am going to turn my attention back to something more closely related to this blog's original beat, such as tracking the latest grifts of serial scammer Kevin Trudeau, I hear you. Don't give up on me.)

I'll see you again soon.

Before you leave...
While money cannot make some nightmares go away, be they political or personal, it can make them far easier to bear. With my husband Ron's passing in February 2025, I have experienced significant income loss and am scrambling to find more work, but in an industry increasingly being taken over by AI, it has been a challenge. And now that I am making a major move, which is never cheap, donations are urgently needed and profoundly appreciated. Here are some ways to do it:

• New: Venmo -- username @Connie-Schmidt-42. Here is a direct link to the Venmo page.
• New: PayPal -- Here is a direct link to my PayPal page.
• Old but still good: You can click on the "Donate" icon that currently appears on the right-hand side of every page of this blog on the Web version. There's also a donation link at the end of many of my older blog posts. In the case of both the icon and the links on the older posts, as well as the link in this sentence, this is also a PayPal link, but it references the email account RevRon -- which is cool, because it all ultimately goes to the same place.

NOTE: If you are donating by PayPal, please specify that your contribution is for "friends and family," which will waive PayPal's substantial transaction fee.

Whether you can donate or not, thank you for visiting this Whirled. Stay strong, and stay hopeful.

2547: a number steeped in mystical meaning is suddenly appearing everywhere

Number 2547 combines the vibrations and qualities of numbers 2 and 5, as well as the energies and influences of numbers 4 and 7. Do you keep seeing 2547? Does the number 2547 come up in conversation? Do you ever see 2547 on television?

Do you hear the number 2547 on the radio? What does it imply to see and hear the number 2547 everywhere?

~ Bridget Cole, "2547 Angel Number Spiritual Meaning and Significance," on the ZodiacSigns101 site

In answer to the questions posed by Bridget Cole, whoever she is: why, yes, I am seeing the number "2547" quite a lot lately, mostly on the Interwebs. I even saw a picture of it spelled out in pebbles on a beach, most likely West Palm Beach, Florida, I'm thinking.

On the Zodiac 101 site, I skimmed Ms. Cole's detailed analysis of what these four digits, individually and collectively, signify from the perspective of angel numbers, twin flame numbers, numerology, spirituality, and so forth. I don't mind confessing that it's a lot to absorb. It's quite technical and it can be more than a little bit confusing.

Numerous other sites besides Zodiac Signs 101 also explore the meaning of the number 2547. Some, such as this one, offer Biblical interpretations:

In biblical numerology, number 2547 is associated with love, compassion, and the expression of one’s inner emotions. It signifies the importance of showing kindness towards others and nurturing harmonious relationships. The number 2547 reminds us of the divine love that guides us on our spiritual journey.

When we delve into the biblical interpretation of number 2547, we find that it represents the unconditional love and compassion of the divine. It is a reminder of the love that God has for us and the love that we should share with others. This number encourages us to be kind and compassionate towards our fellow human beings, to extend a helping hand to those in need, and to embrace the power of forgiveness and understanding.

Furthermore, number 2547 symbolizes the expression of one’s inner emotions and the importance of emotional intelligence. It reminds us to be in touch with our feelings and to express them in a healthy and constructive manner. This number encourages us to listen to our hearts and to trust our intuition, as it is through our emotions that we connect with our true selves and with others on a deeper level.

There are also sites, some of them Biblically-based, that explore the meanings of the two-digit numbers 25 and 47.

After several grueling minutes of intense research on sites such as these, however, I didn't feel that my questions had been answered. Somehow, all of the above didn't quite resonate with the context in which I have been seeing the number 2547. No doubt that's a reflection of my own spiritual limitations and closed-mindedness, about which I used to get frequently lectured by various members of the conspicuously enlightened crowd.

Or it could just be that the search engines are cowering before the regime...

In any case I felt that I had to go by my gut feelings, my divine intuition if you will, to which the conspicuously enlightened are always telling us to pay heed. And I had to pay heed to the fact that the vibes around the 2547s I'd been seeing did not evoke lofty visions of angels and God and whatnot, but, rather, disturbing thoughts about the Devil and some of his employees.

Yikes.

Oddly enough, though, there was an unmistakable vibe of cheese and crackers as well. At first I attributed this to the fact that I hadn't eaten much today, and dinner time was fast approaching. But being the intrepid researcher I am, I delved into further exploration of the cheese-and-cracker theme, and that was the big breakthrough for me: the picture was finally becoming clearer.

And now at last I see: it's as clear as clear can be.

Lord help us all.

The Whirled turns 19 today

 

Today, July 27, 2025, this Whirled turns nineteen. That's right: I've been hobby-blogging on this platform for nineteen years, spewing many hundreds of thousands of words, as well as tons of tawdry graphics to accompany those words. And I have to say, it's been fun for the most part. At the very least, I'm keeping myself entertained with it.

I've observed the Whirled birthday/anniversary/blogaversary every year, sometimes with a brief mention and other times offering a more extended rumination about the history and purpose of this endeavor. Regarding said history and purpose, the latter of which has evolved over the years, I have said pretty much everything that I think needs to be said, and don't feel compelled to say it all again. But for anyone who's curious, this page tells it all.

Some say blogs are passé, but they've been saying that for years and that hasn't discouraged me. And so I'm going to keep this old Whirled spinning as long as I can.

I'm not going all out to celebrate my nearly two decades of blogging; I plan to spend a quiet evening at home with my fur babies (just like every other night). However, if you want to help me celebrate, I have a helpful suggestion.

If this were a 19th wedding anniversary, the traditional gift would be something in bronze, such as jewelry or cookware, "symbolizing strength and durability in a marriage." The traditional gemstone for the 19th wedding anny is aquamarine, and the flower is the chrysanthemum. But I don't need jewelry or cookware or flowers, and besides, this is a blogaversary we're celebrating.

The one gift that is appropriate any time for any occasion or non-occasion is money, and frankly, it is needed now more than ever. Here are some ways to give it:

• New(er): Venmo -- username @Connie-Schmidt-42. Here is a direct link to the Venmo page.
• New(er): PayPal -- Here is a direct link to my PayPal page.
• Old but still good: You can click on the "Donate" icon that currently appears on the right-hand side of every page of this blog on the Web version. There's also a donation link at the end of many of my older blog posts. In the case of both the icon and the links on the older posts, as well as the link in this sentence, this is also a PayPal link, but it references the email account RevRon -- which is cool, because it all ultimately goes to the same place.

NOTE: If you are donating by PayPal, please specify that your contribution is for "friends and family," which will waive PayPal's substantial transaction fee.

Whether you can donate or not, thank you for visiting this Whirled. And I will be back soon with more substantial content.

Christmas in July? Bah, humbug!

 

It has been yet another busy, crazy, scary month on what one of my favorite online wits, Jeff Tiedrich, likes to describe as the stupidest possible timeline in the dumbest country, but Real Life has occupied much of my time this month once again, taking me away from my blogging duties. And now the month is almost gone.

But I did want to make a passing mention of a few items. First up is the sad occasion that I've covered on this blog every year since 2010: the anniversary of the death of Colleen Conaway, a faithful follower of a sociopathic huckster named James Arthur Ray, at one of Ray's live events in San Diego. This is the 16th anniversary of Colleen's death on July 25, 2009. (Here is more information, from my 10-year anniversary post.)

Ray was never charged or convicted for his part in Colleen's passing, although he was charged, convicted, and served (far too little) time for the deaths of three more followers -- Kirby Brown, Liz Neuman, and James Shore -- who died as a result of participating in his marathon "sweat lodge" torture session in Sedona, Arizona in October of 2009.

All of this might seem mostly moot now that Ray himself has passed away; as reported here, he died in January of this year. He can do no more damage. And after I write my annual post in October, I may very well retire my own yearly observations of the deaths of people at Ray's live events.

But I don't want anyone to ever forget about these people, nor do I want them to forget that while Ray is gone, others will almost certainly rise up in his place, to deceive and possibly harm new generations of followers. This is true of the New-Wage/selfish-help/McSpirituality industries, as well as fringe religious organizations, as well as political groups; due to the very human desire for leaders and heroes and saviors, cults -- and charismatic, cult-like "leaders" -- remain a danger and probably always will.

(Many would contend that MAGA is a cult, though some would argue that it's not quite a cult... but in any case, the devotion heaped upon Cheeto Jeezus has had an enormous impact on the US and arguably on other countries as well, and there seems to be a growing sentiment that this impact has been overwhelmingly terrible.)

* * * * *

July 25 is also a sad day for me personally because it would have been the birthday of my only sister, who died in March 2024, as a result of health problems that were poorly managed because of our broken f-----g health care system. It was on his own birthday last year that my brother -- and the police -- found her in her home. She had been gone for some time. I'll leave it at that.

And yesterday, July 24, was the five-month anniversary of the death of my husband, Ron Kaye. I'm still reeling from that, and still trying to process the years-long nightmare of his illness, while tending to dozens of practical details, most notably finances.

There is a long tradition of informally celebrating "Christmas in July." For me, this month has been, for the most part, the opposite of a reason to celebrate, both on a personal and political basis. Still, I look forward to better times ahead. I haven't entirely given up hope, especially now that it seems MAGA is finally splintering over the Epstein scandal and other matters. And besides, this blog's 19th (!) birthday is coming up on July 27. So I'm just going to keep on keeping on, and I hope you will too.

Before you leave...
While money cannot make some nightmares go away, be they political or personal, it can make them far easier to bear. With my husband Ron's passing in February 2025, I have experienced significant income loss and am scrambling to find more work, but in an industry increasingly being taken over by AI, it has been a challenge. Now more than ever, donations are urgently needed and profoundly appreciated. Here are some ways to do it:

• New: Venmo -- username @Connie-Schmidt-42. Here is a direct link to the Venmo page.
• New: PayPal -- Here is a direct link to my PayPal page.
• Old but still good: You can click on the "Donate" icon that currently appears on the right-hand side of every page of this blog on the Web version. There's also a donation link at the end of many of my older blog posts. In the case of both the icon and the links on the older posts, as well as the link in this sentence, this is also a PayPal link, but it references the email account RevRon -- which is cool, because it all ultimately goes to the same place.

NOTE: If you are donating by PayPal, please specify that your contribution is for "friends and family," which will waive PayPal's substantial transaction fee.

Whether you can donate or not, thank you for visiting this Whirled.