Trina's Kitchen: Avocado Sweet Potato Tacos in the Kitchen

Ralph loved the recipe from last time ("") and notes that he loves avocados period. His favorite avocado recipe is Love & Lemons' Avocado Sweet Potato Tacos:

Ingredients

1 medium sweet potato, cubed

Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

4 to 6 tortillas, I like these white corn & wheat tortillas, or homemade tortillas

1 cup black beans, cooked, drained, and rinsed

Lime slices, for serving

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Avocado yogurt sauce

1/2 cup whole milk Greek yogurt

1 small avocado

1/2 garlic clove

Juice of 1 lime

Sea salt & fresh black pepper

Optional toppings:

1 small avocado, diced

2 scallions, diced

Crumbled feta or Cotija cheese

Pickled onions

Microgreens or fresh cilantro

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400° F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

Toss the sweet potatoes with olive oil, chili powder, salt and pepper, and spread onto the baking sheet. Roast for 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Make the avocado yogurt sauce: In a small food processor, combine the yogurt, avocado, garlic, lime juice, and a few generous pinches of salt and pepper. Pulse until smooth. Taste and adjust seasonings. Chill until ready to use.

Assemble the tacos with a scoop of the sauce, the roasted sweet potatoes, black beans, and desired toppings. Season with salt, pepper, and squeezes of lime.

Sounds very tasty. News? KABC reports:

Federal agents conducted an immigration enforcement operation at an agricultural area in Ventura County on Thursday that led to a clash with demonstrators.

The operation was taking place at Glass House Farms along Laguna Road near Camarillo. AIR7 was over the scene surrounded by fields as federal agents formed a line across the street.

Glass House Farms bills itself as the largest cannabis growing operation in the world.

At one point, a group of protesters were seen facing off with agents, some of whom threw smoke canisters towards the growing crowd.

"We were speaking our mind like we can as U.S. citizens. We got tear-gassed... I got hit with a paintball. This is not OK," said one demonstrator. "This is what we need to be doing as people -- coming together against them, the tyranny. They are evil."

Good for the protesters. This is evil, what's taking place. Lives are being destroyed. People just try to work are being kidnapped off the streets. It's outrageous and it's unAmerican. 100% unAmerican. Only someone with no respect for our country and no respect for democracy, only a Nazi dictator, like Donald Chump, would be doing this.

This is C.I.'s "The Snapshot" for Thursday:

Thursday, July 10, 2025. Whistle blower Joni Ernst outed herself and her party when she declared healthcare cuts don't matter because "we're all going to die." That 'logic' explains the indifference to the flooding, to the destruction of families across the country, to every vile and evil thing the GOP is promoting in 2025.

The tragedy in Texas continues with the death toll from the flood having now risen to 120 and approximately 170 people still missing.

As MEIDASTOUCH NEWS notes above, questions need to be asked and need to be addressed. There is a failure of leadership here. It goes beyond Chump attacking former President Joe Biden. But let's note that as well. The first time he spoke of the flood, Chump blamed Joe and then tried to say he wasn't blaming Joe. Joe's name came out of your moth, no one else's and it came out of Chump's mouth again yesterday.

In "The never take accountability administration," Ruth noted Chump's refusal to take accountability In her post, she also cited Aaron Blake's analysis for CNN of how Chump repeatedly blames others:

Less than 24 hours before Leavitt’s comments, though, it was her boss, Trump, who was levying blame – not on the incumbent government, but the previous one.

“If you look at that water situation, that was really the Biden setup,” Trump said.

Trump quickly clarified that he wasn’t actually blaming Biden – he cited the historic nature of the floods – but there is no question he was attempting to shift potential responsibility for any government missteps to his predecessor.

And indeed, this has become Trump’s M.O. When something bad happens – including tragedy – Trump’s reflex has been to blame his predecessor. And often, despite Leavitt’s admonishment, he casts blame very quickly.

Airplane crashes and air traffic control problems

After a tragic crash in the Potomac River near Washington, DC, in late January that killed 67 people, Trump blamed the Biden administration and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies – despite no evidence forming anything close to such a link. He did so even as bodies were being pulled from the river.

In May, after more crashes and technical problems that in some cases traumatized air traffic controllers, Trump added that “Biden didn’t do a thing for four years.”

And just last week, Trump suggested air traffic controllers would have had better equipment, but “then Biden canceled the order when he came in.” The comment echoed previous ones from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.

It’s not clear what Trump was referring to. Administrations have for decades declined to proactively modernize air traffic control. That included Trump proposals that were never enacted, the New York Times reported.

An antisemitic attack in Colorado

After an antisemitic firebomb attack in Boulder, Colorado last month that led to dozens of injuries and eventually a death, Trump the next day blamed “Biden’s ridiculous Open Border Policy.”

Other top administration officials echoed that line, with White House adviser Stephen Miller calling the suspect an “illegal alien” who benefited from the Biden’s “suicidal immigration” policies.

The reality was more complex, as the Atlantic reported. The Egyptian man had arrived in 2022 during the Biden administration, but he didn’t cross the border illegally. He instead arrived on a tourist visa that Trump’s first administration had frequently awarded, and then applied for asylum – a process that allows one to temporarily stay in the country. That application was still pending when the attacks occurred.

Ruth notes that I told her how the disgusting Secretary of Defenses Pete Hegseth can't make it through a Congressional committee hearing without attacking Joe Biden -- and we're not talking deep into a hearing, we're talking his opening statements, his prepared remarks.

The GOP keeps insisting this is being politicized. They politicized it. They went along with DOGE cuts, they went alone with the destruction of the safety net, they want to deregulate everything. They are responsible.

From July 1st, Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "The Debbie Downers of the Dining Set."

Isaiah's latest THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "The Debbie Downers of the Dining Set." Pray they never crash your dinner party. Border czar and War Criminal Tom Homan sighs, "People die." Senator Joni Ernst heaves, "We're all going to die." The hostess complains, "No one wants to sit next to them!" While the host asks, "Who invited them?" Isaiah archives his comics at THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS.

These are not accidents, this is not they didn't have accurate information. This is GOP not caring and not caring because "We're all going to die" and "People die" -- they are in the US government and that's their attitude to the chaos and misfortune they create. This is not, "Oh, they're just msiguided." No, this is their outlook and this is their escape that allows them to live guilt free and lie.

If we're all going to die (yes, we are), their attitude is who cares? Who cares about saving the planet, who cares about saving the people? Especially when there is big money to be made.

Yesterday, Brian Slodysko and Michael Biesecker (AP) reported:

As commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick oversees the U.S. government’s vast efforts to monitor and predict the weather.

The billionaire also ran a financial firm, which he recently left in the control of his adult sons, that stands to benefit if President Donald Trump's administration follows through on a decade-long Republican effort to privatize government weather forecasting.

Deadly weekend flooding in central Texas has drawn a spotlight to budget cuts and staff reductions at the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, two agencies housed within the Commerce Department that provide the public with free climate and weather data that can be crucial during natural disasters.

What’s drawn less attention is how the downsizing appears to be part of an effort to privatize the work of such agencies. In several instances, the companies poised to step into the void have deep ties to people tapped by Trump to run weather-related agencies.

Privatization would diminish a central role the federal government has played in weather forecasting since the 1800s, which experts say poses a particular harm for those facing financial strain who may not be able to afford commercial weather data.

The effort also reveals the difficulty that uber wealthy members of Trump's Cabinet have in freeing themselves from conflicts, even if they have met the letter of federal ethics law.

“It’s the most insidious aspect of this: Are we really talking about making weather products available only to those who can afford it?” said Rick Spinrad, who served as NOAA administrator under President Joe Biden, a Democrat. “Basically turning the weather service into a subscription streaming service? As a taxpayer, I don’t want to be in the position of saying, ‘I get a better weather forecast because I’m willing to pay for it.’”

That's what they're doing, they're focusing on enriching themselves and they don't care about public safety because "we're all going to die."

Someone needs to make clear to the useless pieces of garbage that we were all going to die before they ever got into office and the whole point people into office is to make things better for us while we're alive. They needed to be called out every time they say "thoughts and prayers" because, for them, that is just a cop out to avoid taking responsibility. Their actions have made things much, much worse. They shouldn't be allowed to pretend otherwise.

Yesterday on CNN, Bill Nye The Science Guy provided some context on the extreme weather that we are seeing in the last seven days.

That's reality, that's science. We need to stop letting the GOP get away with their garbage. No more cop outs, no more pretending that because we're all going to die they don't have to address our concerns and our needs. If they can't offer more than that, they don't deserve to be in office.

When you grasp that they really are just blaming God for everything and using God as a cop out, you grasp not only why they don't care about Medicaid, but why they don't care about any of the damage that they inflict upon the American people.

Next topic . . .

Every couple needs their love song and Donald Chump and Pete Hegseth have theirs.

Every chain

Has got a weak link

I might be weak, yeah

But I'll give you strength

Oh, hey

You told me to leave you alone

My father said, "Come on home"

My doctor said, "Take it easy"

Oh, but your lovin' is much too strong

I'm added to your chain, chain, chain

(Chain, chain, chain)

Chain, chain, chain

(Chain, chain, chain)

Chain, chain, chain

(Chain, chain, chain)

Chain of fools

One of these mornings

The chain is gonna break

But up until the day

I'm gonna take all I can take, oh hey

For now, the chain's held but some question how much longer it will? David McAfee (RAW STORY) reports Republican Doug Heye was on CNN yesterday and noted Hegseth's twice stopping shipments of weapons to Ukraine without apparently informing Chump was a "fireable offense" and "When we've seen problems in this administration, it's always coming from the DoD... It's always the DoD. [. . .] We have to wonder if the branch is going to break there," he then added. "This is absolutely out of bounds."

Noting the same actions, David Badash writes:

Last week’s halt was the third time Secretary Hegseth unilaterally decided to stop weapons shipments to Ukraine, according to NBC News.

Pentagon officials last week said the halt was due to concerns over U.S. weapons stockpile levels, but NBC News reported that “an analysis by senior military officers found that the aid package would not jeopardize the American military’s own ammunition supplies, according to three U.S. officials.”

Hegseth’s decision “blindsided the State Department, members of Congress, officials in Kyiv and European allies.”

Now, critics are calling for Hegseth’s resignation.

Declaring the Defense Secretary “completely unqualified, and on an ego trip,” U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) responded to a post about Hegseth not informing the White House about his weapons halt.

“When is Pete Hegseth going to resign?” asked Congressman Lieu, a retired U.S. Air Force officer.

[. . .]

Iraq War veteran Paul Rieckhoff, founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), and host of the Independent Americans podcast, blasted Hegseth.

“No surprise here,” he wrote, also responding to a post about the weapons halt. “The sloppiness and incompetence is consistent. And his flawed leadership continues to disrupt and frustrate folks all across the Pentagon. And now, it’s also frustrating the White House and Trump himself.”

“He is Secretary Chaos,” Rieckhoff continued. “And every day he falls deeper beyond his depth. We are less safe, our allies are weakened, and our enemies are celebrating.”

Chump and Loose lips Hegseth have always been a threat to active duty service members. However, Chump's also a threat to veterans. Michael Embrich (ROLLING STONE) reports:

President Donald Trump's administration has backed off its plan to fire 83,000 employees at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The VA will still get rid of about 30,000 employees, a figure that includes the thousands it has already let go.

After arguing for months that the proposed cuts were essential to ensure the VA could continue its mission, the administration has done a 180 on these claims. It is unclear whether the administration has decided to back off due to pressure from veterans groups, no longer needing the money for their billionaire tax breaks, or pressure from Congress. It may be a combination of all three. But it is more likely that this is a shell game to buy Trump time.

This revised approach is being sold as a win for efficiency, but it's actually a calculated retreat in language - not in intent. They swapped pink slips for attrition, hiring freezes, early retirements, and a bureaucratic euphemism called "deferred resignation," which lets people technically stay on the books while being paid to prepare to leave. The new plan is not a full walk-back - it's a workaround. All this at a time when the VA patient base is growing and its supply of doctors and nurses is shrinking.

Frontline staffers at the VA are sounding the alarm. Nurses and doctors are now being asked to cover administrative duties because the people who used to handle billing or facilities management are simply gone.

Since January 1, the VA has lost 17,000 employees. By the end of September, 12,000 more will be gone. The administration claims these departures won't impact veteran care. Ask any veteran waiting months for a disability claim to be processed or stuck in a long line for an appointment if that's true.

But remember, kids, no complaining. Governor Asshole says trying to figure out blame is losing the football game -- despite the fact that football games do not involve healthcare for veterans or, for that matter, surgery or any real knowledge of medicine. And Joni Ernst says that we're all going to die. And that Holman says . So what's the point? That's their attitude -- destroy people's lives and then ignore it unless forced to comment. And if forced to comment? Just mutter through thin lips, "Our thoughts and prayers are with them." It's the MAGA way.

Right now, we are witnessing the effects of Chump's attack on the US government. It'll probably be months before we are fully seeing the effects of his attack on the VA. I have to wonder how the GOP expects to go into next year's mid-terms? Are they praying for mass amnesia? That somehow the whole country forgets what's been going on and who caused it?

For some clarity, logic and truth, let's insert Lawrence O'Donnell right here.

Onto immigration, Tom Li (SAN FRANCISO CHRONICLE) reports:

San Francisco Immigration Court was again the scene of chaos and clashes between authorities and protesters Tuesday as federal agents detained at least one person and faced a swarm of activists trying to prevent the arrest, including several who clung to a black van as it drove away.

Videos posted on social media showed a tense scene Tuesday morning as roughly 30 protesters attempted to block Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from escorting the person to a van outside the courthouse at 100 Montgomery St. The group screamed, physically confronted agents and tried to block the van from departing, and ICE officers in body armor, at least some of whom wore masks, yelled for them to stay away and forcefully pushed and moved them away.

The arrest is the latest of at least 26 courthouse detentions in San Francisco immigration court since May, according to Milli Atkinson, legal director at the San Francisco Immigrant Legal Defense Collaborative, who heads up the city's Rapid Response Network that responds to immigration enforcement actions. The arrests in San Francisco, Concord and other cities have sparked angry protests and near-violent confrontations at courthouses where immigrants facing potential deportation attend hearings.

Atkinson said that the attorney of the person who was arrested Tuesday is trying to get access to the client.

In videos, as the van departed at least two protesters can be seen clinging to the vehicle as it accelerates past the intersection of Montgomery and Sutter streets. One falls off the car at the crosswalk, while the van sways side to side, seemingly attempting to rock the other protester off of the front windshield. One video shows the protester still clinging to the van as the vehicle approaches the intersection of Post and Montgomery streets, one block further.

This pushback, happening across the country, is not going to be forgotten at the mid-terms. Families are being destroyed, communities are being destroyed and our economy is being destroyed by Chump and Noem and Holman's attacks on immigrants. People are outraged and they've had enough. At THE HILL, Max Burns writes:

To the families sent fleeing from MacArthur Park on Monday in California, President Trump’s latest ICE raid must have seemed like an invasion. The massive operation involved nine federal agencies, the National Guard, local police and more than a dozen armored military vehicles. It was the kind of shock-and-awe campaign more at home in Fallujah than in a quiet Los Angeles park.

The agencies involved sure seemed to think the raid on MacArthur Park was a military campaign. Photos from the scene show federal agents dressed in camouflage combat gear pouring out of armored trucks as stunned civilians look on in disbelief. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement even gave the raid a puffy, military-sounding name: “Operation Excalibur.”

Trump’s draconian immigration crackdowns may play well with his MAGA base, but they’re alienating nearly everyone else — including the mainstream conservatives Republicans will depend on to protect their fragile congressional majorities next year.

Prior to May, most Americans viewed ICE positively. Now the agency evokes images of masked men huddled around blacked-out vans and Alligator Alcatraz. Agents’ refusal to identify themselves, and MAGA’s celebration of their unaccountability, has led millions of Americans to see the agency as little more than Trump’s personal skullcrushers. Now, 54 percent of adults say ICE’s actions have gone too far.

People also know exactly who to blame for letting ICE run wild. Six recent polls show a collapse in public support for Trump’s immigration policies, leaving the GOP 3 points underwater with voters on an issue they’ve dominated for years. In fact, it’s been nearly 20 years since Republicans’ immigration policies were this unpopular with voters — a dip Democrats exploited to reclaim both houses of Congress in 2006. Trump’s stumbles are setting the stage for history to repeat itself next year.

People watch as a chaplain at Cincinnati's Children's hospital is rounded up by ICE and they rightly think, "How is that man a 'violent criminal'?" And they rightly conclude, "He isn't." This does not have the support of the American people. You see it in the polling and you see it in the rising sentiment against Chump personally.

Eric Killelea (HOUSTON CHRONICLE) reports:

Pope Leo XIV has named Bishop Daniel Garcia of Monterey, California, to be the next Roman Catholic bishop of Austin, promoting another vocal ally on immigration to a leadership position in Texas.

The move, announced at a news conference earlier this week at the Diocese of Austin, comes at a time when Catholic bishops across the state have denounced President Donald Trump's mass deportation efforts. Many influential Texas Catholics, including Gov. Greg Abbott, have expressed support for the new administration's plans that include allowing ICE agents into schools, hospitals and churches to make arrests.

While the Catholic church teaches that a nation has the right to control its borders, Garcia, a 64-year-old Texas native, delivered a message in both English and Spanish to say the church would also speak up for the "poor, the weak, and those who live on the margins," including undocumented immigrants, per the Catholic News Agency.

The bishop, who is a board member of Catholic Relief Services—which faces an uncertain future amid Trump's slashed aid funding—cited St. Vincent de Paul during his speech, saying, "It will be the poor who will be our entrance into heaven."

Let's wind down by noting this from Senator Patty Murray's office:

ICYMI: At HELP Hearing, Senator Murray Presses CDC Nominee on Commitment to Scientific Integrity, Vaccine Access, as RFK Jr. Fires ACIP Members, Pushes Vaccine Conspiracies

Senator Murray, along with Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), authored the PREVENT Pandemics Act that made the CDC Director a Senate confirmed position for the first time starting this year

***WATCH HERE: Murray remarks at HELP markup on measles outbreak***

Washington, D.C. – Today—at a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee markup to advance the nomination of Susan Monarez, PhD to be Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former chair of the Committee, spoke forcefully about how measles cases in the U.S. have reached a 33-year high, and yet our conspiracy-minded Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has only doubled down on his dangerous anti-vaccine activism, and the Republican leadership of the HELP Committee is refusing to exercise any serious oversight of the measles crisis or other public health disasters the Trump administration is fanning the flames of.

At the markup, the HELP committee voted 12-11 to send Dr. Monarez’s nomination to the Senate floor—Senator Murray voted against advancing her nomination.

The CDC Director is a Senate-confirmed position for the first time this year thanks to a provision in Senator Murray’s bipartisan PREVENT Pandemics Act, which she negotiated and passed with former Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) in 2022.

Senator Murray’s full remarks at the HELP markup, as delivered, are below and video is HERE:

“I think it’s really important as we consider a CDC nominee today, we talk about the real elephant in the room.

“Because we could actually have the best CDC director in the world, and it wouldn’t change the fact that we have a person leading HHS who is an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist—and a Committee that I fear is failing to do its bipartisan, public oversight of public health disasters.

“Measles cases are at a record 33-year high. They have not been this high since before we eliminated the disease in 2000.

“And now we are over 1,200 cases—that is really, we believe, also an undercount.

“But instead of pounding the pavement to encourage people to get vaccinated—the single most effective protection against measles, as you know—RFK Jr. has been firing every single member of the CDC vaccine advisory panel, and he loaded it up with his favorite vaccine skeptics, so they can pursue debunked conspiracies.

“And I am concerned because this Committee, it feels like, has all but abandoned serious oversight of this crisis. We haven’t had a hearing on the record-breaking number of measles outbreaks.

“Or a hearing on how the CDC vaccine panel is now stacked with people who are actually not unvetted, and all the previous board members—every single one of them—was removed with no credible explanation.

“So, I really believe we need public oversight.

“I really do hope that Dr. Monarez will defy my expectations, I hope she will stand up for science, and put public health first.

“But again, I have hoped that for others, and here we are today. So, I just want to express my disappointment, and real feeling that this committee should have oversight and do hearings before it’s too late to do anything all.

“And I would just say, my door is open to everyone. I think that we do need to work together and try and repair some of the harm that this anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists are doing to our country right now, and I hope that you take that into consideration.”

_______________

At her nomination hearing last month, under Senator Murray’s questioning, Dr. Monarez admitted she agreed with Senator Murray that the eight new members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP)—which Secretary Kennedy handpicked after firing every member of the Committee for no reason—should go through a thorough ethics review process before participating in ACIP meetings. At the hearing, Senator Murray also raised alarm over Secretary Kennedy bringing Lyn Redwood in to the ACIP meeting to give a presentation on thimerosal in vaccines, and pressed Dr. Monarez on how changes to the ACIP recommendation could force families to pay out of pocket for vaccines, or forgo vaccination altogether. Senator Murray has been speaking out for weeks against Secretary Kennedy’s reckless decision to fire the entire slate of ACIP members without cause—holding a press call with Dr. Helen Chu of Washington state, one of the 17 ACIP members who was fired, and calling on Secretary Kennedy to reinstate the ACIP members he fired and ensure any new members undergo appropriate vetting.

Senator Murray forcefully opposed the nomination of notorious anti-vaccine activist RFK Jr. to be Secretary of HHS, and she has long worked to combat vaccine skepticism and highlight the importance of scientific research and vaccines. Murray was also a leading voice against the nomination of Dr. Dave Weldon to lead CDC, repeatedly speaking up about her serious concerns with the nominee immediately after their meeting. In 2019, Senator Murray co-led a bipartisan hearing in the HELP Committee on vaccine hesitancy and spoke about the importance of addressing vaccine skepticism and getting people the facts they need to keep their families and communities safe and healthy. Ahead of the 2019 hearing, as multiple states were facing measles outbreaks in under-vaccinated areas, Murray sent a bipartisan letter with former HELP Committee Chair Lamar Alexander pressing Trump’s CDC Director and HHS Assistant Secretary for Health on their efforts to promote vaccination and vaccine confidence.

Senator Murray has been a leading voice in Congress against RFK Jr.’s dismantling of HHS and attacks on America’s public health infrastructure, raising the alarm over HHS’ unilateral reorganization plan and slamming the closure of the HHS Region 10 office in Seattle and the CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Spokane Research Laboratory. Senator Murray has sent oversight letters and hosted numerous press conferences and events to lay out how the administration’s reckless gutting of HHS is risking Americans’ health and safety and will set our country back decades, and lifting up the voices of HHS employees who were fired for no reason and through no fault of their own.

###

The country really does owe Senator Joni Ernst a thank you. She told her ugly truth. When her constituents pointed out that the cuts to healthcare Chump was proposing and Joni was supporting (and she, in fact voted for) were going to result in the deaths of many people, she replied, "We're all going to die."

"We're all going to die."

She's a US senator who could fight to make life brter for Americans but "we're all going to die."

A health crisis in the country and no leadership from Secretary of Health Junior? To Joni, it doesn't matter because "we're all going to die."

Every thing the GOP is doing to harm and hurt this country right now? The answer for their actions is they believe that since "we're all going to die," they don't have to do anything for us.

The following sites updated: