Wednesday, July 30, 2025

Easy Summer Pasta in the Kitchen



Ingredients
8 oz (226 g) linguine pasta or preferred noodle pasta, uncooked
¼ cup (60 ml) extra virgin olive oil
1 cup (110 g) finely chopped onion sweet, yellow, or white onion, I like sweet (about ½ large onion)
6 large cloves garlic thinly sliced
24 oz (680 g) cherry tomatoes about 6 cups
½ teaspoon granulated sugar
½ teaspoon table salt plus additional for cooking pasta and to taste/as needed
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
¼ heaping teaspoon dried thyme
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 oz (28 g) fresh basil leaves shredded or cut into ribbons (about ⅓ cup)
⅓ cup freshly grated or shredded parmesan cheese plus more for topping

Directions 
Cook pasta in well-salted water according to package instructions. Before draining, reserve ½ cup of pasta water and set aside.
8 oz (226 g) linguine pasta
  Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat until shimmering.
¼ cup (60 ml) extra virgin olive oil
Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, then add garlic and cook about 30-60 seconds longer, until fragrant.
1 cup (110 g) finely chopped onion,6 large cloves garlic
Add tomatoes, sugar, salt, pepper, thyme, and red pepper and cook, stirring frequently until tomatoes soften and burst. Once tomatoes are soft enough you can use a wooden spoon or spatula to squish them as you stir.
24 oz (680 g) cherry tomatoes,½ teaspoon granulated sugar,½ teaspoon table salt,¼ teaspoon ground black pepper,¼ heaping teaspoon dried thyme,¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper
Add basil and stir.
1 oz (28 g) fresh basil leaves
Add warm cooked, drained linguine and stir well. Add splashes of pasta water as needed to make a thin sauce, you basically want to ensure the pasta is not dry and the noodles are coated with a thin layer of the sauce. I typically need to add about ¼ cup of the pasta water.
Remove from heat, add parmesan and stir well. Taste-test and add additional salt or pepper as needed, then serve warm topped with additional parmesan as desired with a side salad or side of crusty bread.
⅓ cup freshly grated or shredded parmesan cheese



It was a hot day today -- believe we got up to 96 degrees.  I'm so ready for cooler weather.  My son helped me with dinner tonight and a big thank you on that because it was a long workday and my feet were killing me.  He took care of the main course and I took care of the vegetables.  All I ended up eating was the vegetables.  Not a diss on his cooking.  It was just too hot for me.  I had iced water all evening and night and I ate just the vegetables -- and even then, I waited for the green beans and corn to cool off to the point that they were both pretty much cold when I ate them.

When fall gets here, all I want to do is make some casseroles and some bread in the oven. 


More than half of Americans disapprove of the way President Donald Trump is handling the Epstein Files after he suddenly backtracked on his promise to release previously undisclosed information in the government’s investigation into the convicted sex offender.

In a poll of 1,089 people by the Washington Post., 58 percent said they were not happy with the way Trump was responding to issues related to the Epstein Files.
The president has riled up his supporters by asking them to move on from the Epstein Files after the FBI and Department of Justice released a memo shutting down speculation that Epstein had a “client list” of high-profile individuals. The agencies also reaffirmed that the disgraced financier died by suicide while in federal jail in 2019.


And please note, we're all unhappy before she's been pardoned.  If he pardons her, the wratch he will face will be like nothing he's ever experienced before.  

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


Tuesday, July 29, 2025. Donald Chump disgraces the nation overseas, he floats pardoning his friend the convicted pedophile and sex trafficker, the Justice Dept can meet with Maxwell but not with her victims, Chump's cruelty towards the victims of assault is the same cruelty he aims at immigrants, and much more.




Let's start with Ben to give the morning some shape as he brings us up to speed.



There was a time when the United States stood for something around the world.  There was a time when if you were being persecuted in another country, you could dream about coming to the United States, a time when the words on the bronze plaque at the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty were something to have hope in, pride in:


Give me your tired, your poor
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore
Send these, te homeless, tempest-lost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door


Today those words are meaningless thanks to Convicted Felon Donald Chump.  It's bad enough that he can't stop insulting the US when he's in our country, but in Europe now, he can't stop trashing the United States.  He really is garbage trash.

He is destroying this country and everything good we have ever stood for. 



As a Christian who smuggled Bibles into my home country of Iran, I became a target of the country’s Islamist regime, which imprisons and sometimes kills those who invite Muslims to convert. After living under house arrest for two years, I fled as a refugee and was ultimately resettled to the United States.
I experienced true religious freedom for the first time in my life in this country, of which I am now a proud, grateful citizen — and that’s why I am shocked by the ways that my government is now treating my Iranian congregants, who have been detained by masked officers, separated from their families and threatened with deportation to a country that would kill them for their Christian faith. What I have witnessed gives me flashbacks to Tehran, and I believe that America must be better.

Two families who are a part of the Farsi-speaking evangelical congregation that I pastor in Los Angeles have been detained in recent weeks. First, a couple and their 3-year-old daughter, who are in the process of seeking asylum because they fear persecution if they were returned to Iran. They were detained at their court hearing in downtown Los Angeles on June 23. The entire family is now being held in South Texas.
The next day, I received a call from a woman in my church. Like me, she had been forced to flee Iran for Turkey when her involvement in Iran’s underground churches was exposed.

When the woman and her husband found themselves in a desperate situation in Turkey last year, they were not offered the option to fly to the U.S. as resettled refugees as I had been in 2010. Instead, they flew to South America, made a treacherous journey north and waited in Mexico for an appointment they reserved on a U.S. government app, CBP One, to be able to explain their situation to officers of the U.S. government.

Once lawfully allowed in with provisional humanitarian status, they found our church — where they could be baptized and publicly profess their faith in Jesus — and legal help to begin their asylum request. They received their work authorization documents and found jobs. Their first asylum hearing in immigration court was scheduled for this September.
When President Trump returned to office, however, his administration both suspended all refugee resettlement and canceled humanitarian parole for those who had been allowed to enter via the CBP One app. Many parolees received menacing letters instructing them to self-deport or face prosecution, fines or deportation. But these letters also noted that these instructions did not apply to those who had “otherwise obtained a lawful basis to remain,” such as a pending asylum application.

That’s why I was so shocked to receive a call from the woman in my congregation informing me that her husband had been detained by masked immigration officers on the street, just a few blocks from our church. I rushed over and began to film the shocking scene: First he was detained by masked officers, and then she was. I asked if they had a judicial warrant, but if they did, they would not show me. The woman experienced a panic attack and was taken to a hospital but discharged into ICE custody; she is now hours away in a detention center in California. Her husband is in a detention center in Texas.


And that's how Chump 'celebrates' immigrants.   And that's how he degrades our image around the world.  

He appears to be conditioning Americans for him pardoning convicted sex trafficker and pedophile Ghislaine Maxwell.   Trina noted last night in response to Chump declaring that he's "allowed" to pardon Maxwell:


No, you aren't allowed to.

Yes, any president can pardon anyone but, no, you are not "allowed" to pardon a pedophile sex trafficker.  You're insane if you think so.  You'd have to be even crazier than I think you are.  And I think you are bat s**t insane, Chump.  You pardon Maxwell and you will find out just how disliked you can be.  Some MAGA's won't go along with it. Some may.  But MAGA's not Chump's problem.  The rest of us are Chump's problem.  I can tell you I won't go along with it nor would anyone in my church.  I can't imagine parents across the country running to stage a parade for you, "Look, it's the orange man!  He pardoned Maxwell!  Let's give him a parade."   

You are not ALLOWED to pardon Maxwell.  You're insane if you think the country will stand for that. There will be such a strong push to impeach you and it will be bipartisan.    



Pardon Maxwell?  Ann responded:

Or how about this? We leave the criminal convicted by a jury of her peers in prison where she's supposed to be and let her serve her sentence?  We leave the criminal who has refused to express any remorse at all in the prison she was sentenced to?

How about that.


Epstein and Maxwell's survivors aren't being protected by Chump.  Their attacker is.  That's who Chump identifies with.  Here's Tara Palmeri speaking with survivors Maria and Annie Farmer.




And here's Katie Couric speaking with survivor Jess Michaels.




That's Katie and Tara speaking to the three women.  

Not Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.  No.  Todd gets dispatched by Chump and AG Pam Bondi to visit Maxwell in prison -- to woo her for two days.  

Meet with the Convicted sex trafficker and pedophile and offer her limited immunity and the prospect of a pardon.  That's the reality of Donald Chump.

Remember that as he works to destroy the lives of children in the US -- especially migrant children.


A child developed a rash after he was prevented from changing his underwear for four days. A little boy, bored and overcome with despair, began hitting himself in the head. A child with autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder was forced to go without his medication, despite his mother's pleas. 
"I heard one officer say about us 'they smell like sh--,'" one detained person recounted in a federal court filing. "And another officer responded, 'They are sh--.'"

Attorneys for immigrant children collected these stories, and more, from youth and families detained in what they called "prison-like" settings across the U.S. from March through June, even as the Trump administration has requested a federal district court judge terminate existing protections that mandate basic rights and services — including safe and sanitary conditions — for children held by the government. 

The administration argues that the protections mandated under what is known as the Flores Settlement Agreement encourage immigration and interfere with its ability to establish immigration policy. U.S. District Court Judge Dolly Gee, who is in California, is expected to issue a ruling on the request after an Aug. 8 hearing.

With the Flores agreement in place, children are being held in "unsafe and unsanitary" U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities such as tents, airports, and offices for up to several weeks despite the agency's written policy saying people generally should not be held in its custody longer than 72 hours, according to the June court filing from immigrants' attorneys. In addition to opposing the U.S. Department of Justice's May request to terminate the Flores consent decree, the attorneys demanded more monitoring for children in immigration detention.
"The biggest fear is that without Flores, we will lose a crucial line of transparency and accountability," said Sergio Perez, executive director of the California-based Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law. "Then you have a perfect storm for the abuse of individuals, the violation of their rights, and the kind of treatment that this country doesn't stand for."


Maxwell and Epstein exploited children and so does Chump -- another thing binding to his friends of many, many years.  Most people believe that you protect children in your custody.  Chump believes you find further ways to harm and exploit them.



Horror stories.  In Houston, US citizen Miguel Angel Ponce Jr. is attempting to drive from his home to work when ICE assaults him. 



Anayeli Ruiz (KHOU) reports:


"He says, 'I need to see your ID.' I gave him the ID. When I went back down, he said, 'Get out of the car,'" Ponce said.

"For what?" Ponce said he asked. "'Get out.'"

He says officers then handcuffed him and took him away.

"I pretty much felt kidnapped. [They] told me I have a deportation order, put me in handcuffs, took me to another location. I couldn't call my wife — locked up in the back seat."

Despite showing his ID and insisting he was born in the U.S., Ponce says the officers continued to insist he was someone with immigration violations.

"[He] said, 'You've had an encounter with ICE.' I said, 'No, I've never...' At that point, he slapped handcuffs on me. They're like, 'You have an order of deportation.' That is crazy — because I was born here. I was born in College Station. 'No, you're the one I'm looking for.'"


Mistakes happen?  Mistakes happen a lot with ICE and that's because (a) they don't know their job and (b) they don't know the law -- which is also part of their job. Bonuses are being handed out to ICE but, note, no ICE agent's getting in trouble for breaking the law.  They're given immunity by Chump.  They're basically the gestapo.  Margaret Kadifa (MOTHER JONES) reports another horror story:


Three asylum seekers leaving routine court hearings at San Francisco immigration court Thursday morning were arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, including one man who a judge had just said might be mentally impaired.

They’re the latest in a series of ICE actions, where over 30 immigrants have been arrested by federal agents while leaving San Francisco immigration court, at 100 Montgomery Street or 630 Sansome Street—which also has an ICE field office and is where Thursday’s arrests took place.

After a Department of Homeland Security attorney on Thursday moved to dismiss the case of the man, a strategy federal attorneys have recently been using to make asylum seekers easier to remove, immigration judge Patrick O’Brien raised doubts over his mental ability, saying, “it’s obvious to me that there are competency issues.” 

The man—who was only fluent in Mam, a Mayan language primarily spoken in Guatemala—had been muttering to himself throughout the morning, O’Brien said.

Later in court, the man was unable to tell O’Brien his address. O’Brien even asked the man at one point if he was on medication.

There appear to be competency issues beyond just a language barrier, O’Brien said. (After a few hours of requesting one, the court had been able to find a remote Mam interpreter to help with the man’s hearing.)

O’Brien then proceeded to ask the Department of Homeland Security attorney for a continuance of the case, rather than a dismissal, due to the man’s possible mental incompetence. The man needed time to find a lawyer and other support, O’Brien said. “He’s clearly not understanding the questions,” O’Brien said. “Is this someone the department really wants to move to dismiss a motion to appear on?”

The DHS attorney agreed, and allowed for a continuance of the case, which essentially means the man will come back for another hearing in a few months. The DHS attorney said she could “renew” the motion to dismiss another time.

But as the man left the hearing room, Mission Local observed about five ICE officers stopping the man and then leading him out a side door. The man’s arrest was the third over the course of three hours Thursday morning.


Arrested on the way out of the court house?  It's happening over and over across the country.  And heartless trash like US House Rep Nancy Mace get off watching videos of it.  Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Nancy Meets A Stranger" went up yesterday. 


nancymeetsastranger



Isaiah's latest THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Nancy Meets A Stranger."  Jesus approaches US House Rep Nancy Mace and counsels, "Glee over someone being deported isn't very Christian."  Nancy, apparently ignorant of the teachings of Jesus as well as Jesus himself, barks, "F**k you, hippie.  Get out of my way or I'll lie on the House floor that you assaulted me."    Isaiah archives his comics at THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS.  


She is the Nazi pride in the US as she brags about getting off on watching videos of immigrants reporting to courts for hearings and then, as they leave the hearings, being kidnapped by ICE. 


This is apparently the sort of thing that allows the unmarried and unloved Nancy Mace to get off during her endless string of lonely nights, Alexandra Villarreal (GUARDIAN) reports:


Jerome traveled a thousand miles from California to El Paso, Texas, so he could accompany Jenny to her immigration hearing. He and his wife had promised to take her after she had fled Cuba last December, after the government there had targeted her because she had reported on the country’s deplorable conditions for her college radio station.

Everything should have been fine. Jenny, 25, had entered the United States legally under one of Joe Biden’s now-defunct programs, CBP One. By the end of the year, she could apply for a green card.

But a few days before her hearing, Jerome started to feel like something was off. Jenny’s court date had been abruptly moved from May to June with no explanation. Arrests at immigration courthouses peppered the news.

And when Jenny went before the court, the government attorney assigned to try to deport her asked the judge to dismiss her case, arguing vaguely that circumstances had changed.

Instead, the judge noted that Jenny was pursuing an asylum claim and scheduled her for another court date in August 2026 – the best possible outcome.

“She turned around and looked at me and smiled. And I smiled back, because she understood that she was free to go home,” Jerome said.

But as Jenny left the courtroom and approached the elevator to leave, a crowd of government agents in masks converged on her and demanded she go with them. Just before she disappeared down a corridor with the phalanx of officers, she turned back to look at Jerome, her face stricken, silently pleading with him to do something.

“I said, ‘She’s legal. She’s here legally. And you guys just don’t care, do you? Nobody cares about this. You guys just like pulling people away like this,’” Jerome recalled telling the agents. “And nobody said a word. They couldn’t even look me in the eye,” he told the Guardian.


No, they couldn't look anyone in the eye.  They're cowards who are breaking the law and they live in shame so they hide behind masks.  PASADENA NOW covers yet another one:


Federal immigration officials have detained the husband of Huntington Hospital’s Chief of Medical Staff in downtown Los Angeles, where he has allegedly endured nearly two weeks of harsh treatment and insufficient medical care, according to a civil rights group’s statement released Thursday evening.

Tunisian immigrant Rami Othmane was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on July 13 while driving to a grocery store, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network said. His wife, Dr. Wafaa Alrashid, who oversees more than 1,000 physicians associated with Huntington Hospital, claims immigration officers blocked her husband’s car, did not present a warrant, and failed to identify themselves during the encounter.

Othmane suffers from chronic pain and an untreated tumor and is reportedly being held under inhumane conditions at a federal facility in downtown Los Angeles, NDLON said.

“He is not a criminal,” Alrashid was quoted in the group’s statement as saying. “He is a kind, peaceful man with an open immigration petition. He should be with his family, not sleeping on a concrete floor without medical care.”

The family filed an I-130 Petition for Alien Relative on June 12, initiating a legal pathway toward permanent residency. The petition remains pending, according to the advocacy group.

 

Jasmine Mendez (LOS ANGELES TIMES) adds:

Rami Othmane was held July 13 while driving to the grocery store. His wife, Dr. Wafaa Alrashid, said agents blocked Othmane’s car and did not identify themselves or present a warrant before detaining him.

Alrashid, chief of medical staff at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, was on FaceTime with her husband during the incident. The couple married on March 5, 2024, and filed an I-130 petition last month to qualify their relationship status to obtain Orthmane’s green card.

[. . .]

“This is not just an immigration issue — this is a human rights crisis,” Alrashid said in a statement. “My husband has been subjected to 12 days of inhumane treatment in a federal building. He is not a criminal. He is a kind, peaceful man with an open immigration petition.”


Remember when the big lie was told that only violent criminals would be targeted?  Alicia Victoria Lozano (NBC NEWS) notes:

 

Immigration officials have been repeatedly spotted outside a Hollywood homeless shelter since May, leading staff to accompany residents from war-torn countries to work, errands and court.

An executive at the shelter that serves people ages 18 to 24 said she saw two Venezuelan men handcuffed and arrested by ICE agents after they returned to the shelter from work.

“There was no conversation,” said the employee, Lailanie, who asked that her last name not be used because she feared retribution from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

She said about half a dozen immigration officers went up to the residents “and put their hands behind their backs right away.”

Homeless shelters appear to be another target in the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration crackdown, which has resulted in nearly 3,000 arrests in the Los Angeles area. They now join Home Depots, 7-Elevens and cannabis farms as locations where the federal government is carrying out its mass deportation effort.

In addition to the Hollywood shelter, service providers have reported seeing immigration enforcement at shelters in North Hollywood and San Diego, according to local media.


Chump Land is one horror story after another.  And it's tanking him in the polls.  Diamond Walker and Valentina Palm (PALM BEACH POST) report:


 Kenny Laynez's cellphone camera captured every undocumented immigrant’s nightmare on video when it happened to him on the morning of May 2. One problem: He is a U.S. citizen. Here's more to know about what happened.

Kenny Laynez, a U.S. citizen, was driving with his mother and coworkers to their landscaping jobs when they were pulled over on Singer Island by Florida Highway Patrol and Border Patrol agents. Officers dragged them from the car, grabbing necks, twisting arms, using a Taser, and later joked about raises and promotions.

Laynez, who was born and raised in West Palm Beach, was held for six hours at a federal facility in Riviera Beach before being released. His mom, who is Guatemalan and has legal status in this country, was not detained. His coworkers were taken to the Krome Detention Center in Miami and later released on bail.

“I have rights. I was born and raised here," Laynez told the officers, according to a copy of the video shared by the Guatemalan-Maya Center of Lake Worth Beach.

"You don’t have any rights here. You are a ‘Migo,’ brother,” said the officer, who hurried him into a van. "Migo" is short for "amigo," the Spanish word for "friend, " an apparent reference to Laynez's ethnicity.


No one appears to have rights these days, not even basic human rights.  Mike Schneider (LOS ANGELES TIMES) reports on Chump's concentration camp in Florida:


Lawyers seeking a temporary restraining order against an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades say that “Alligator Alcatraz” detainees have been barred from meeting attorneys, are being held without any charges and that a federal immigration court has canceled bond hearings.

A virtual hearing in federal court in Miami was being held Monday on a lawsuit that was filed July 16. A new motion on the case was filed Friday.

Lawyers who have shown up for bond hearings for “Alligator Alcatraz” detainees have been told that the immigration court doesn't have jurisdiction over their clients, the attorneys wrote in court papers. The immigration attorneys demanded that federal and state officials identify an immigration court that has jurisdiction over the detainees and start accepting petitions for bond, claiming the detainees constitutional rights to due process are being violated.

“This is an unprecedented situation where hundreds of detainees are held incommunicado, with no ability to access the courts, under legal authority that has never been explained and may not exist,” the immigration attorneys wrote. “This is an unprecedented and disturbing situation.”


Detainees who have managed to communicate with family, friends, and lawyers report appalling conditions. Insufficient and contaminated water. Inadequate, spoiled food. Ignored requests for medical care. Swarms of mosquitoes. Unbearably hot tents that leak when it rains. Severe overcrowding. Facility personnel who berate and threaten them. We have studied immigration detention for over a decade and can say with grim certainty that it's just a matter of time until someone dies at Alligator Alcatraz.

This is what happens when detainees are seen as dollar signs. In our book, Immigration Detention Inc: The Big Business of Locking Up Migrants, we follow the money that coalesces around detention in the United States. Countless companies, state and local governments, and communities are tangled up in the economic webs tied to incarcerating migrants. These entities make money by starving, sickening, and exploiting detained migrants. The less they provide, the bigger their profits.



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

***PHOTOS COURTESY OF CUONG VAN HUYNH AVAILABLE HERE***

Washington, D.C. –  Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) issued the following statement calling for longtime Seattle area resident Cuong Van Huynh to be allowed to remain in the United States ahead of an immigration check-in, joining a chorus of public statements in support, including from Teamsters Local 117 and MLK Labor:

“Cuong Van Huynh is a hardworking and esteemed member of the Seattle and King County community. Here’s what I know from Van and the people who love him: He works full-time at Swire Coca-Cola and also runs a beloved Banh Mi and chicken wings shop, Honey Bear, with his wife in Federal Way. Van works overtime to support his two sons who are in college studying aerospace engineering and business. He often engages in charitable works across the community and truly embodies the American dream.

“Van came to America as a refugee from Vietnam in 1984. Van was convicted back in 2006 for attempting to purchase marijuana—since then, he has made tremendous contributions to our community. It is beyond wrong to deport a man with an American wife and two American children for trying to purchase marijuana nearly two decades ago, a substance that has now been legalized in Washington state.

“I am joining local unions and community members in calling on the Trump administration to allow Van to remain here in America, his home, with his family. Seattle and King County are better off thanks to Van, his hard work, the family he’s raised here, and the community he’s built. I hope the entire community will join me in standing with Van. This man is a pillar of our community, and he should not be torn away from his family and his home after 40 years.”

###





The following sites updated:






Posted by at