Nearly nine months into the president’s oversight, sales for orchestra, theater and dance performances are the worst they’ve been since the pandemic, according to a Washington Post analysis.
25th Anniversary of the last time ALL of humankind was alone...on Earth.
On October 31, 2000, a momentous event marked a turning point in humanity’s presence in space. That day, the Soyuz TM-31 capsule launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying three astronauts on a mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The crew included Bill Shepherd, a NASA astronaut, and Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko, cosmonauts from Roscosmos. Their mission, Expedition One, would begin a continuous human presence in orbit—a milestone that remains in place nearly 25 years later.
From The NY Times:
"More than nine months into his second term, the only thing predictable about Mr. Trump’s handling of global affairs is that it will be an unpredictable mix of instinct, grievance and ego. And there is little evidence that his tantrums, swerves and reversals are strategic and thought-out, as his supporters sometimes insist, rather than the products of impulsivity, mood and circumstance.
Either way, foreign leaders and ambassadors know to remain wary at all times, with one saying the other day that he enters the Oval Office with the kind of caution needed if there were sticks of unexploded dynamite under the couch cushions."
Source: Washington Post story HERE.
“…staffers were taken aback the next morning, when [Mark] Thompson suggested during the daily network editorial call that it should ease up on covering Trump’s East Wing demolition, claiming that their viewership isn’t all that interested in the story, according to two people familiar with the matter.”
"This is just one more assault on the American psyche. One wearies. This is as Trump would have it. Throw everything at the people until they can no longer muster outrage. Each objectionable action — from invading and militarizing cities to dropping bombs on small boats — merges with all the others into one prolonged scream that no one can hear."
(From a column by Kathleen Parker in The Washington Post)
From ABC News:
"When speaking about the ballroom project earlier this month, Trump marveled at what he said was the lack of an approval process, compared to his experience constructing buildings in New York.
"I said, 'How long will it take me?' 'Sir, you can start tonight, you have no approvals.' I said, 'You gotta be kidding,'" Trump said. "They said, 'Sir, this is the White House, you're the President of the United States, you can do anything you want.'"
Just what tRump wants to hear about life!
“Nixon tried to keep his criminality secret, and the Bush administration tried to keep the torture secret, and that secrecy acknowledged the norm that these things were wrong,” Professor Goldsmith said. “Trump, as he often does when he is breaking law or norms, is acting publicly and without shame or unease. This is a very successful way to destroy the efficacy of law and norms.”
SOURCE: HERE.
“It won’t interfere with the current building. It won’t be. It’ll be near it but not touching it — and pays total respect to the existing building, which I’m the biggest fan of,” Trump said during an executive order signing in July. “It’s my favorite. It’s my favorite place. I love it.”
From The Washington Post, showing the size of tRump's "ballroom" addition to the White House. (Full White House story HERE.)
MEDIA ADVISORY—ALABAMA PUBLIC LIBRARY SERVICE TO HOLD PUBLIC HEARING ON RULE CHANGES DESIGNED TO PROTECT CHILDREN FROM GENDER IDEOLOGY
From a NY Times editorial:
"It’s what happens when Mr. Trump’s zero-sum philosophy of trade — which is that there are always winners and losers, and he should get to choose the winners — collides with Washington’s sycophantic approach to agriculture, which ensures that farmers always win and taxpayers always lose. In the end, Mr. Trump’s allies, including President Javier Milei of Argentina and the politically influential agricultural community, will get paid, and you will pay."
Full editorial HERE.
"Statues of civil rights activist Rosa Parks and disability rights activist Helen Keller are scheduled to be dedicated on the grounds of the Alabama State Capitol in late October.
Members of the Alabama Women’s Tribute Statue Commission on Wednesday discussed a planned unveiling at the Capitol grounds on Friday, October 24, with a guest list of 214 that will include “individuals, families, stakeholders, and partner organizations.” The ceremony will be held in the Capitol Auditorium, with Gov. Kay Ivey providing the opening remarks, before the unveiling of the statues."
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| Rosa Parks |
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| Helen Keller |
The Keller statue will be placed on the other side of the capitol, facing the new statehouse, which is under construction.
A post was shared more than 600 times in just several hours showing a Birmingham police officer asleep in his patrol car. BUT....
Police officials released this statement: “The Birmingham Police Department is aware of a video circulating on social involving an off-duty BPD officer who had just completed his shift and was observed asleep inside his assigned take-home marked patrol unit.”
A Republican congressman believes that if Jesus Christ had an additional disciple that individual would have been slain, conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
“Charlie Kirk was a man of faith first and foremost,” Rep. Troy Nehls, R-TX said. “He loved his Lord Jesus. He loved his family. Beautiful wife, beautiful children. Just a remarkable honorable man that was silenced with this assassin‘s bullet. I would say if Charlie Kirk lived in the biblical times he‘d have been the 13th disciple.”
Banks will be closed today--- Monday, October 13---, as well as post offices. There will be no mail service, but private carriers like UPS and FedEx will operate as normal.
Elementary and secondary schools in Alabama will be closed on Monday in recognition of the holiday, though it does vary by school district. Universities and colleges may still hold classes, as they often follow different academic calendars.
(From an NPR story:)
Christopher Columbus was born in Italy in 1451 and sailed to what he thought would be Asia in 1492, with support from the Spanish monarchy. He instead arrived in what is now the Bahamas. He would make three more voyages to South America, Central America and the Caribbean before his death, but never made it to what is now the U.S., according to Britannica.
President Benjamin Harrison first commemorated Columbus Day in 1892, a year after anti-Italian rhetoric culminated in the murder of 11 Italian immigrants in New Orleans by a lynch mob. The attack put a strain on the relationship between Italy and the U.S., and the holiday was an olive branch. President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed it a federal holiday in 1934.
The Rev. Jesse L. Douglas Sr., who as a longtime lieutenant to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. played a vital behind-the-scenes role in staging the historic civil rights marches from Selma to Montgomery in Alabama in 1965, has died in Charlotte, N.C. He was 90.
A lieutenant to Martin Luther King Jr. and a fellow preacher, he played a vital role in organizing voting-rights protests in 1965 that began with “Bloody Sunday.”
FULL NY Times story HERE.
A majority of American voters now oppose sending additional economic and military aid to Israel, a stunning reversal in public opinion since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.
SOURCE: HERE
