Ella e-mailed to note Trop Rockin's recipe for Pizza Casserole:
Ingredients
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and spray a 9x13 inch baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.
- Cook the pasta according to package directions. Drain and return the cooked pasta to the pot. Pour an entire jar of tomato sauce over the pasta, add 1 teaspoon of garlic salt and stir to coat.
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the chopped green pepper, onion, and mushrooms. Season with a pinch of salt and sauté for 5-10 minutes, or until the onions are softened and the vegetables are slightly tender.
- Add the ground beef to the skillet and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until browned. Drain any excess fat.
- Add ½ jar of pasta sauce to the meat mixture and stir to combine. Then stir in the pepperoni, Parmesan cheese, and olives.
- Add the shredded Parmesan cheese and stir to incorporate.
- Spread the cooked pasta mixture evenly across the bottom of the prepared baking dish.
- Spread the meat mixture evenly over the pasta layer.
- Pour the remaining half jar of pasta sauce over the top of the meat mixture and spread.
- Sprinkle the shredded mozzarella cheese evenly across the top.
- Arrange the pepperoni slices, a sprinkle of chopped green peppers, sliced olives, and sliced mushrooms over the cheese.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and bubbly.
So a pizza casserole, great idea.
News? Brigid Brown (Irish Star) reports:
Donald Trump’s backside has once again become the center of a social media wildfire after a video shared on X sparked intense online speculation regarding the 80-year-old president's health.
Prominent journalist Aaron Rupar shared a clip from a recent White House event, adding the caption, “I once again ask what sort of contraption Trump is wearing around his a--.”
The footage quickly captured the attention of critics and internet onlookers, who zoomed in on a pronounced, oddly shaped bulge visibly protruding beneath the fabric of the president's tailored suit jacket. There are a number of theories as to what can be causing the bulge with one being a diaper and others going a more reasonable route.
The viral clip immediately revived the long-running, crude "Diaper Don" hashtags across social media platforms, with users aggressively debating the origin of the boxy protrusion.
He wears diapers. He should be honest about it.
This is C.I.'s "The Snapshot" for Friday:
The first night of Donald Trump‘s midterm convention failed to generate a ratings bounce for Fox News, with the audiences comparable or even slightly below regular primetime programming.
Fox News’s coverage of the convention dominated the primetime hours on Wednesday, drawing an average 2.3 million viewers. But that is less than its September, 2025 primetime viewership, when it averaged 2.54 million viewers.
During Donald Trump’s speech from 9 p.m. ET to 11 p.m. ET, Fox News averaged 2.5 million viewers. A year ago, during the month of September, Hannity drew an average of 2.89 million in the 9 p.m. ET hour and Gutfeld! garnered an average of 2.94 million at 10 p.m. ET.
CNN‘s primetime coverage averaged 441,000 viewers, compared to a 543,000 average in September, 2025. MS NOW posted 1.1 million viewers in primetime, an uptick from an average of 810,000 during the month a year ago. In contrast to Fox News and CNN, MS NOW carried little of Trump’s speech and stayed on analysis from Jen Psaki and Lawrence O’Donnell and their guests.
"I'm asking you to pretend that I'm on the ballot," the president implored the first day.
"You know what happens if you don't vote? You go to hell," he said on the second night.
After suffering defeats in 2024, Democrats have now expressed more enthusiasm to vote, have flipped a number of state and local seats and improved their margins with nearly every voter demographic group in elections across the country since then.
At the same time, the Republican base has fractured over key issues in the last 18 months, including the war in Iran, the handling of the release of the Epstein files, surging gas prices and rising costs driven by tariffs.
The GOP Convention audience roared in a bizarre moment Thursday as President Donald Trump had them raise their right hands and swear to get to the polls on Nov. 3 and to “try to cheat like hell like they do.”
Trump took the stage promising he’d be “brief” after giving a two-hour speech the night before on the convention’s opening day, when he caused a firestorm by promising to dole out $5,000 checks to Americans should Republicans win the midterms.
After insisting Democrats “want to cheat” and warning the party “would destroy everything we’ve built” if they win in the midterms, he then practically begged the crowd to make sure to get out to the polls.
[. . .]
He then proceeded with his pledge — urging the crowd to promise, “That I will go out with my family, my friends, I’ll do it any way, I don’t care if I’m registered or not, I’m going to try to cheat like hell like they do. There has never been bigger cheaters, they don’t care, I am going to go out and I’m going to get my friends and family and we are going to vote on November 3, or we are going to vote before that.”
“JD Vance has been Donald Trump’s most loyal puppet, working in lockstep to enact an agenda that has hiked prices and made life unaffordable for working families. Vance has defended even their most disastrous policies, proving his loyalty to Trump over the American people. Vance will continue to gaslight Americans, but voters know the truth: Trump and Vance have tanked the economy, plunged the country into more endless wars, and failed to make life more affordable for everyday Americans.”
Vance has defended Trump every time he’s disregarded Americans’ financial concerns, like telling them that high prices at the pump are “not a big price to pay,” and declaring, “I love the inflation.”
Vance became the chief dealmaker of his and Trump’s war with Iran — and after more than six months of the war, the administration is no closer to reaching a deal to end the war. After Trump and Vance started their war with Iran, Vance flipped on his anti-interventionist views, after assuring voters on the campaign trail, “our interest very much is in not going to war with Iran. It would be a huge distraction of resources. It would be massively expensive to our country.”
As Trump’s so-called “fraud czar,” Vance has buried his head in the sand as Trump profits off the presidency and engages in rampant pay-to-play politics to enrich himself and his family to the tune of billions.
CNN fact checker Daniel Dale took to X to eviscerate Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s GOP Convention speech, pointing out almost half a dozen falsehoods before saying he didn’t have time to check the rest.
RFK Jr. spoke at length during Thursday’s convention, making a number of claims and dourly proclaiming his famed uncle and father — President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy — would not recognize today’s Democratic party.
[. . .]
Dale wasted no time slamming the factual content of RFK Jr.’s remarks:
In one speech tonight…
RFK Jr. falsely claimed Democrats canceled their 2024 convention and didn’t let delegates vote on the nominee.
There was a convention. Delegates voted for Harris.
RFK Jr. falsely claimed Democrats closed every single church in the US for a year during the pandemic. Some Dem-run states did not forbid religious gatherings, while some GOP-run states did at least briefly.
RFK Jr. falsely claimed Trump ended nine wars. It’s not even true that Trump ended the eight he cites himself.
RFK Jr. baselessly claimed Democrats lost 360,000 kids. Not what happened.
RFK Jr. claimed the Trump administration has reversed a 30-year decline in longevity. Not clear what stat he’s citing, but US life expectancy rose for years, dropped briefly during the pandemic, then started to rebound in 2022 under Biden before hitting a new record high in 2024 under Biden.
And that’s just a smattering of the checkable claims, many of which I don’t have time to check.
The controversial two-day convention saw President Donald Trump — whom RFK Jr. described in his remarks as “a self effacing man of superior intelligence, of empathy and compassion with an encyclopedic grasp of the issues and in molecular detail” — asking the audience to raise their right hands and pledge to go vote in the midterms.
Dale annointed RFK Jr.’s turn at the mic as the “most falsehood-filled” speech of the day at the convention.
More than six months ago, Donald Trump started a deadly and costly war with Iran that has already killed at least 18 U.S. service members and wounded at least 750 more, while sending the economy into a tailspin.
Trump and his chief dealmaker JD Vance have failed to reach an agreement to end their war, despite assuring Americans dozens of times that the war was nearly over, that they were nearing a deal, or that the war was already over. Trump originally claimed the war with Iran would last “four to five weeks,” and Vance said there is “no way” Trump would “allow this country to get into a multi-year conflict with no clear end in sight.” Meanwhile, just recently, Trump said he is “not in a hurry” to end the war.
In response, DNC Rapid Response Director Kendall Witmer released the following statement:
“Donald Trump’s deadly and costly war with Iran has been an unmitigated disaster that has put U.S. service members in harm’s way and decimated the economy as prices back home skyrocket. Everyday Americans were already struggling to pay for groceries and afford their medical bills — and Trump’s war has made life even worse as he spends billions of taxpayer dollars on bombs but not healthcare. Trump and JD Vance campaigned as the ‘pro-peace’ ticket, yet six months later, they still have no way to end this war while working families pay the price.”
Trump and Vance’s war has already cost up to $100 billion of taxpayer money — four times the original $25 billion estimate — and cost consumers roughly $150 billion, or about $1,100 per household in higher prices. Americans have already spent $72 billion more on gas since the beginning of the war, approximately $604 per household, as last month saw the most expensive gas prices for any August on record.
Meanwhile, Trump and his corporate donors have cashed in on the war. Trump has seen his wealth increase by as much as $15.5 million solely through stocks he owned in oil and gas companies at the end of 2025 due to the surge in global oil prices because of his war with Iran. Meanwhile, Big Oil companies have reported a whopping $125 billion in profits this year — after Trump promised them on the campaign trail that he would reward them if they donated $1 billion to his campaign.
President Trump on Thursday denied reports that Iranian forces damaged U.S. war planes during a raid on an air base in Jordan.
“Nope,” the president said when NewsNation’s Robert Sherman asked whether there is “any truth” to the reports.
“None whatsoever. No damage. No nothing,” Trump told Sherman over the phone.
Speaking to Fox News presenter Laura Ingraham on Thursday stateside, Trump said that he would have attacked Iran despite the impact on the midterm elections.
“If we hadn’t done Iran, you would be cruising to midterms victory right now,” Ingraham told Trump, to which Trump replied “supposing we were cruising, and all of a sudden Iran has a nuclear weapon. They would use it.”
[. . .]
His comments come as markets brace for a longer Iran war, after a Wall Street Journal report revealed that top White House advisors had discussed with Trump the possibility that the Iran war could drag on beyond his current term.
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senators Chris Coons (D-DE), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) released the following statement in response to President Trump’s continued imposition of new tariffs on Canada:
“The states we represent rely on Canada as a key trading partner and our primary export market. We have deep ties with our neighbors to the north, and we share one of the world’s most enduring defense partnerships. We have built two powerful nations over many decades by working together, growing our economies together, and securing our homelands together. Our countries have achieved great things by working closely together, and we still can.
“Instead of working with our neighbors, President Trump is doubling down on a pointless trade war. His tariffs will squeeze our states’ small businesses and farmers harder and drive costs up for working families. They will raise the cost of the lumber, plywood, and construction equipment we need to build new housing. They will hurt our workers and businesses who manufacture autos, aircraft, and machinery. They will drive up the prices consumers pay for everyday basics like milk, clothing, and paper products.
“President Trump’s tariffs have already cost American families as much as $5,000 in some states, and his senseless trade war with Canada will only grow that number. While American families and businesses suffer from President Trump’s trade wars, partners around the world, including Canada, are increasingly looking to diversify away from the United States and deepen trade ties with other countries including China. Congressional Republicans need to stand up to the president and do their part to give families and businesses on both sides of the border relief from this insanity.”
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BlackCommentator.com September 10, 2026 Issue 1097 |
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