Deirdre

Exclusive: Boat at center of double-tap strike controversy was meeting vessel headed to Suriname, admiral told lawmakers | CNN Politics The alleged drug traffickers killed by the US military in a strike on September 2 were heading to link up with another, larger vessel that was bound for Suriname — a small South American country east ...

The boat wasn’t headed to the U.S., which we would have learned with a little due process instead of murder. www.cnn.com/2025/12/05/p...

So true! What an awful little pipsqueak he is! One hopes he is actually reformed enough by the end of the book …

Well, yes. But even so, Lewis can’t help writing Jane Studdock as the hero of the story. It’s a wonderful book, despite its flaws - and one of my comfort reads in these dark times.

Well, he says a lot of things, doesn’t he? 😂

Maybe he only shops for liquor?

People are left with a horrible choice that is no choice at all. People are going to be abandoning their pets left and right in favor of feeding their family. Consider adopting or temporarily fostering some dogs and cats. This would be a great place to drop a comment with information on this.

Nearly 8 in 10 Americans agree that spending by wealthy donors and corporations in our elections gives rise to corruption — including majorities of Republican and independent voters.

Money in politics is the root of our dysfunction.

We must overturn Citizens United.

On the other hand my father, who was quite a bit younger than Tolkien, was a devout Catholic, and loved some of the same writers Tolkien loved. Gerard Manley Hopkins was his favorite poet, and he would have had conniptions had anyone suggested that he was gay! So I think your point stands!

Tolkien loved a lot of queer writers The British fantasy writer walked the Wilde side

Fair enough! I think I may have been influenced by this article, which I read a while back. medium.com/sexstories/t...

Judges Order Trump to Pay for SNAP, Killing His Shutdown Strategy Two federal judges in different parts of the country ordered the Trump administration to use emergency funds to pay for the nutrition program.

White House officials had refused to fund SNAP from a $5B contingency fund that existed precisely in the event of something like this. trib.al/Y9NOimD

In response, 25 states sued the federal government, and two federal judges have ordered the Trump administration to use the funds.

The administration is refusing to release federal contingency funds that are intended to be used to fund programs like SNAP in the event of a shutdown, which is what has been done in the past.

Refusing to do so is a choice by the president to starve Americans.

#Pinks

You make a good point! On the other hand, his close personal friend, Auden, was gay. I think Tolkien’s attitude might have mirrored Pope Leo’s fairly closely - though of course I don’t know!

That’s interesting about the brightly colored waistcoats! I didn’t know that, either!

Also, I don’t think it’s clear that Tolkien would have been anti LGBTQ.

Absolutely. He would have been with Pope Leo, the NY Sisters of Charity and lots of other American Catholics!

Except for an egregious mischaracterization of the Stewards of Gondor, it’s a good article.

Remember: The richest 1% evade over $160 billion in taxes every year.

That amount would fund SNAP for a year with money to spare.

Ask yourself who the real freeloaders are.

8/10. I got all the Tolkien ones right - but, unlike the Dark Lord, I am not a Master of Metals!

A tweet from BrooklynDad_Defiant! says: “No words. If you think a golden ballroom is more important than childhood cancer research... I have nothing left to say to you.” The image shows an illustration of a bald child in a hospital gown, holding an IV pole and looking into an opulent golden ballroom filled with formally dressed adults.

It’s more than just bad priorities. It’s about lack of basic decency.

Remember that part in a Lord of the Rings when Saruman tells the orcs to rip down all the trees and turns the gardens of Isengard into an imitation of Mordor? That’s what Trump’s doing to the White House right now.

It’s a beautiful October in Connecticut! #fall #autumn #leaves #colors #nature

WOW: The White House says the president's MAIN PRIORITY is his BALLROOM. SNAP is ending. Subsidies for health care are gong to double and in some instances quadruple plan premiums. The government is shut down. The cost of living is through the roof. And his priority is his ballroom.

Tell Catholic bishops: Speak out against Trump's anti-immigrant cruelty Pope Leo XIV has urged U.S. Catholic bishops to be "more united and more forceful" in defending immigrant rights, but the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has not spoken out with the clarit...

Sign our petition act.faithfulamerica.org/sign/usccb-l...

Cartoon by John Darkow.

As first lady, Jacqueline Kennedy undertook a restoration of the White House, to show the evolving history of the people who had lived and worked there, calling the work “a question of scholarship.”

Read more about the White House Restoration: jfklibrary.org/whrestoratio...

A Bug’s Life (1998) a cutting edge political documentary in 2025. We the Ants

Chris Murphy: "There's a lot of history that has taken place in the East Wing & it was just destroyed without any conversation in the public, without any consent of Congress. It's absolutely illegal. That visual is powerful b/c you're watching destruction of the rule of law as those walls come down"

"Dumps brown liquid."