Wednesday, August 27, 2025

Mushroom Stroganoff in the Kitchen

Elizabeth's loves BBC's Good Foods recipes and her favorite is for mushroom stroganoff:


Ingredients 

    2 tsp olive oil

    1 onion finely chopped

    1 tbsp sweet paprika

    2 garlic cloves crushed

    300g mixed mushrooms chopped

    150ml low-sodium beef or vegetable stock

    1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce or vegetarian alternative

    3 tbsp half-fat soured cream

    small bunch of parsley roughly chopped

    250g pouch cooked wild rice


Method

  • step 1

    Heat the olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan and soften the onion for about 5 mins.

  • step 2

    Add the paprika and garlic, then cook for 1 min more. Add the mushrooms and cook on a high heat, stirring often, for about 5 mins.

  • step 3

    Pour in the stock and Worcestershire sauce. Bring to the boil, bubble for 5 mins until the sauce thickens, then turn off the heat and stir through the soured cream and most of the parsley. Make sure the pan is not on the heat or the sauce may split.

  • step 4

    Heat the wild rice following pack instructions, then stir through the remaining chopped parsley and serve with the stroganoff.


News?  Fatima Hussein (AP) reports:

More than 300 million Americans’ Social Security data was put at risk after Department of Government Efficiency officials uploaded sensitive information to a cloud account not subject to oversight, according to a whistleblower disclosure submitted to the special counsel’s office Tuesday.

Whistleblower Charles Borges, who worked as the chief data officer at the Social Security Administration since January, said the potential sensitive information that risks being released includes health diagnoses, income, banking information, familial relationships and personal biographic data.

“Should bad actors gain access to this cloud environment, Americans may be susceptible to widespread identity theft, may lose vital healthcare and food benefits, and the government may be responsible for re-issuing every American a new Social Security Number at great cost,” said the complaint.


Some of us warned about DOGE.  

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


Tuesday, August 26, 2025.  Chump tries to fund raise off the claim that he wants to go to heaven, he makes crackpot claims regarding ABC and NBC, he can't get a handle on covering his bald spot, he continues to work on defending the convicted sex trafficker and pedophile and not on protecting her victims.  Time and again where there's a line, Chump ends up on the wrong side of it.



Scum of the earth and convicted felon Donald Chump took time out yesterday from persecuting people to send him money.  Sarah Rumpf (MEDIAITE) reports:


President Donald Trump’s PAC sent out a fundraising email Monday with a message from the president declaring he believes “God saved me for one reason” and that he wants “to try and get to Heaven.”

The email was sent by Never Surrender, Inc., the leadership PAC formerly known as Donald J. Trump for President 2024, Inc., Monday morning with the subject line, “I want to try and get to Heaven,” repeating that line in a bold blue typeface at the top of the message text.


Chump's not going to heaven.  Because he's a sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot?





Bingo!


He goes on about God saved him last year from an assassination attempt.  He says God wanted him to save America.  Don't pin your crimes on Jesus Christ.  When God saves someone's life, most people generally assume it was to give them a second chance to repent.  Chump's failed to repent.  He's caused tremendous pain.  He steals money and grifts.  No, Chump, you're not going to heaven.  You're going to hell and you will burn there.  And you'll deserve to spend eternity in hell due to your actions.


People were not amused by his blasphemy as evidenced by so many comments on the article.


Lou Bond

7 minutes ago

I don't think kicking people off of their health insurance, cutting their supplementation for basic food, bullying and threatening people, belittling people and calling them names, denying due process, not following the laws of this country, chronic lying, cheating, stealing, conflicts of interest, abusing children, women; firing people indiscriminately and not in accordance with law and standard procedures, disrespecting and insulting veterans, both still alive and deceased, taking health care assistance away from the poorest countries, stealing from the taxpayers, manipulating the markets for personal gain, living as a racist, not following the US Constitution as sworn in your oath office (however, hand never touched the Bible). This list and the countless other despicable actions you have made will NOT get you into heaven. I'm absolutely positive of this.  Good Luck.


miguel semidei

45 minutes ago

God gave the commandments to Moses.

He said to follow them all or perish.

How many does Mr Trump follow,

how many has he not followed.

Do the math


An Independent and Veteran

32 minutes ago

Sorry Dear Leader...there is a special place in Hell reserved just for you.  When the man who embodies all 7 deadly sins, lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride – is signing Bibles it means it’s time to reevaluate your religion.



J. M. Lawson

23 minutes ago

Apparently, his god saved him for many reasons, to keep lying and treating people like trash, to destroy hard working people's live by firing them if they disagree with him, to close down and cut jobs in needed service departments, to kick many people off of healthcare, to investigate and punish his enemies, to take over our cities with his military coup and to suck up to dictators that don't care how many they kill. Any wonder who his god really is? So, no Mr. President you will not get into "our" heaven because your soul is already spoken for.


Sheri O'Sullivan

29 minutes ago

Trump will say and do anything - even use God - to get more money out of his MAGAs. How hilarious to believe that if they give money to Trump, he can go to heaven. (there is zero possibility that Trump will go to heaven).

     This is the way all con men work; they drain the fool's bank accounts until there is nothing left. And the fools can't believe they were so foolish. They need to open their eyes to this scam.

     He's a billionaire - why does he need their money so badly? How can any person of faith even consider the idea that Trump will go to heaven? Do they think Hitler went to heaven???


F*******

1 hour ago

Oh my goodness can this man go any lower and here he goes.  So he is saying that god made it so the guy behind him got hit by that bullet and died and for trump to live.


M*******

26 minutes ago

Straight to Hell. Trump and the GOP stopped sending food to starving people in Africa and cut SNAP benefits for hungry people in the US, then cut Medicaid. They are all headed to Hell.


Notafan45

40 minutes ago

God doesn't want him! He's everything we were told not to be. Pompous, cruel, greedy, a liar - he has no place there.



B P

1 hour ago

i wonder how god feels about his last crypto token scam where he took 73% of the proceeds and left the investors high and dry.


Hugh Jass

1 hour ago

Donnie seems to have had a realization that he's the most vile, reprehensible human to ever live. If there is a Hell he's guaranteed to go there


T K

33 minutes ago

Without a doubt he is going straight to hell!  Rape, Pedophile, draft dodger, crooked businessman etc., does not get him anywhere near heaven.


Infrate

1 hour ago

He's thinking about death because it nears.

On Monday, while saying he wanted to go to heaven, Chump yet again demonstrated why he won't be going.  Megan Lebowitz (NBC NEWS) reports:


President Donald Trump on Monday said he would target former President Joe Biden's circle, calling them "evil people."

"There were some brilliant people," Trump said, referring to Biden's allies in his White House. "But they’re evil people, and they’re going to be brought down. They have to be brought down 'cause they really hurt our country."
Trump's threat to have his political opponent's allies "brought down" marks his latest move to potentially target political adversaries in a pattern that has alarmed critics who paint the president as pursuing retribution and say he is weaponizing the Justice Department — a claim the president has made about the Biden administration.


He is going to abuse his position and bring down Biden advisors? 

Hmm.  Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.  Remember that?  Because Chump doesn't.  Here's GOOGLE AI explaining what that means:


"Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord" is a biblical declaration found in Deuteronomy 32:35 and Romans 12:19, meaning that God alone has the right to seek and deliver vengeance. It is a warning against personal revenge and an instruction to trust in God's perfect, righteous justice, rather than taking matters into one's own hands. Instead of seeking retaliation, believers are encouraged to show kindness and goodness to their enemies, thereby demonstrating God's love.

Here's Ben (MEIDASTOUCH NEWS) giving a reading on the mood of the country.





America's democratic foundations have collapsed, according to journalist Garrett Graff. The United States has crossed the threshold into authoritarianism under President Trump's second term. From military occupations of opposition-led cities to arbitrary detentions and corporate extortion, the U.S. is looking a lot like Germany in 1933.
Graff presents the evidence in his piece, "America Tips Into Fascism":

Military occupation of cities: "American fascism looks like the president using armed military units from governors loyal to his regime to seize cities run by opposition political figures"

Threats against states: "Word came over the weekend that the president is now drawing up plans and explicitly threatening domestic political opponents like the governors of California and Illinois with similar military occupations"

Arbitrary stops and ID checks: "America has become a country where armed officers of the state shout "Papers please!" on the street at men and women heading home from work, a vision we associate with the Gestapo in Nazi Germany or the KGB in Soviet Russia"

Abductions without due process: "masked men wrestle to the ground and abduct people without due process into unmarked vehicles, disappearing them into an opaque system"


When he's not putting the country at risk by breaking the laws and attacking democracy, he's putting us at risk by his incompetence and that of his appointees.  Tim Reid (REUTERS) reports:


Nearly three dozen staff at the U.S. agency that responds to natural disasters warned Congress in a letter on Monday that the inexperience of the Trump administration's top appointees could lead to a catastrophe on the level of Hurricane Katrina.
The letter, signed by 35 named employees at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was a rare airing of internal dissent at FEMA. It said the agency's current leaders, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and acting FEMA director David Richardson, lacked the qualifications to manage natural disasters and were eroding its ability to respond to hurricanes and other emergencies.

Noem's requirement that she review all contracts and grants over $100,000 "reduces FEMA's authorities and capabilities to swiftly deliver our mission," the letter states.


Chump is an embarrassment.  A very vain man trying to hide so much. Tessa Hayley Hellberg (NICKI SWIFT) reports:


On the off chance Donald Trump's bleaching schedule didn't spell it out for you, the president is pretty precious about his hair. In fact, his obsession with having his hair look a certain way has reportedly become incredibly volatile in the past. For that reason, when he does look a little more gray, or seems to have a bald spot or two, we can't help but point it out notice ... and as it turns out, 2025 has had a number of very noticeable moments. 
We'll start with the ultra-thin 'do he donned for the 2025 Super Bowl in February. Although from the front the newly inaugurated president didn't seem to have too fine a mop, snaps of him from behind showed the unmistakable pink glow of his scalp. Considering he was once said to have had his scalp dyed specifically so no one would see that telltale glow, we'll file this under "Oops."


Let's leave his bald spot to go to another Chump embarrassment: Ghislaine Maxwell.  Chump has the government trying to rehab the image of a convicted sex trafficker and pedophile.  Nothing he's done has been about the victims of Maxwell.  It has been all about making life better for Ghislaine.

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile releasing the entire transcript of the hours of talks with Maxwell means that they have no plan to charge her with anything. See video below.


 

 

While most Americans scratch their heads over Chump and Maxwell's sketchy behavior, Jim Jordan's all aboard with the nothing-to-see-here clatch.



Steve Benen (MADDOW BLOG, MSNBC) notes that accused sex crime enabler US House Rep Jim Jordan should be the last one to speak in defense of convicted sex trafficker and pedophile Ghislaine Maxwell:
 

There are a couple of problems here.

The first is Jordan’s eagerness to trust the word of a convicted sex trafficker who is looking for a pardon. I can appreciate why Trump’s sycophantic allies are eager to make the Epstein scandal go away, but to pretend that Maxwell has credibility and her claims should be accepted at face value is ridiculous.

The second problem is that Jordan isn’t exactly the Republican Party’s best messenger on this issue. After all, as NBC News reported over the course of several years, the right-wing congressman was accused of turning a blind eye to sexual misconduct targeting student athletes at Ohio State during Jordan’s tenure as an assistant coach.


Know your lane, Jordan.  He is credibly accused by many male athletes as having enabled sexual assaults at Ohio State  Univeristy.  Not only has this not gone away, He's also had to give another deposition just last month.  Julie Carr Smyth (AP) reported July 22nd:


Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan was among those questioned under oath this month about the sexual abuse of Ohio State University athletes decades ago by a team doctor, according to a court filing.

Jordan’s deposition Friday came in a federal lawsuit brought by former student athletes against the university over its failure to stop abuse by Dr. Richard Strauss, who died in 2005. Hundreds say they were abused by Strauss, who worked at the school from 1978 to 1998.

Many ex-wrestlers over the years have accused Jordan, who served as assistant coach of the Ohio State wrestling team from 1986 to 1994, of knowing about the abuse and failing to act.



”In July, four former Ohio State University wrestlers alleged in lawsuits that Jordan, then an assistant wrestling coach from 1986 to 1994, failed to protect them from the team's doctor, Richard Strauss, who later faced widespread accusations of sexual misconduct.

According to these plaintiffs, it would have been impossible for Jordan to be unaware of Strauss’s actions, which they said were “common knowledge” within the wrestling program.

One former wrestler, Dunyasha Yetts, recounted reporting an uncomfortable physical exam to Jordan and the head coach at the time; according to Yetts, they subsequently spoke with Strauss about the incident.
Jordan has denied any knowledge of abuse during his tenure, stating that no one ever reported such behavior to him.

Meanwhile, his Saturday remarks about Maxwell's testimony were mocked on social media.

Political commentator Brian Cohen wrote on the social platfom X: "If you can trust anyone when it comes to exposing pedophilia, it’s Jim Jordan."

Writer Michael Freeman said: "You can’t make this up. Congressman who turned a blind eye to sexual abuse endorses claims by perpetrator of sexual abuse."

Author John Pavlovitz said: "There has never been a better friend to pedophiles than @Jim_Jordan."

Niels Groenveld wrote: "Pathetic take. Ghislaine Maxwell is a convicted sex trafficker, not a beacon of truth. Treating her word as exoneration is like boasting a serial killer vouched for your innocence. How much longer can Jordan keep humiliating himself groveling for Trump?"


In June, HBO  began airing a documentary entitled SURVIVING OHIO STATE.  Ava and I reviewed it in "Media: Truth Molested Versus Truth Told:"


Fortunately, HBO started airing a strong, new documentary last week SURVIVING OHIO STATE. The documentary about the assault and abuse of male athletes at Ohio State for several decades is produced by  Eva Orner (who also directed), David Glasser, George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Joshua Rofe and Steven J. Berger.

 

Survivors talk on camera about how they were abused and assaulted by Dr Richard Strauss.  They talk about it and they talk about how wrestling coach Russ Hellickson and assistant coach Jim Jordan knew about the abuse and laughed at it and looked the other way.  Multiple players discuss how they went to Hellickson and asked him to stand with them as they went public and he said he would.  But Jim wouldn't.  Jim was now US House Rep Jim Jordan.  Suddenly, Russ wanted nothing to do with the men that he had hailed as his sons and Jim was too busy doing things like calling one of the accusers brothers up on the phone and begging him -- in tears -- to come forward and accuse his brother of lying in order to save Jim's reputation.  

 

Watching, we were reminded of a man who was the envy of a huge number of straight men at one point because of whom he was married to. The man who is still alive was a college athlete in another state in an earlier time and he was pimped out to men.  He even managed to turn it into a career starter.  And he was happy to do it because he says he's bi (he's gay).  He'll be dead soon and he'll die a disgrace (he's already disgraced himself once this year).  

 

He was able to get away with his act because of attitudes about gay people.  He didn't seem gay, right?  And athletes are big and strong.

 

Male.

 

Male athletes are meat.  That's the attitude.  They can endure anything. They can take being ripped off by universities that basically own their bodies for four years.  They can take this and that.  And nobody better ever complain because you're not supposed to think, you're supposed to be an animal -- on the field and off. 

"Our coaches knew," one survivor explains in the new documentary.   Another explains, "We had guys complaining about Dr. Strauss to Jim Jordan."

A female coach did take it seriously and did lodge complaints and concerns about what Strauss was doing with the young men.

 

What was he doing?

 

"One of the wrestlers said, 'Dude, why does this guy have to constantly check our nuts, check our dicks."

 Another explains how Jim Jordan at one point says, "If he ever did that to me, I'd snap his neck like a stick of dry balsa wood." 

  

At other times, the future member of Congress downplayed it.  He told one wrestler, "It's Strauss.  You know what he does."


And this came in reply to the wrestler complaining that the team doctor was now in the locker room with the team, taking showers with the team, masturbating in the showers.  

He was allowed a locker in every male team's locker room.  He took several showers a day.  When he would shower, he wouldn't turn to the wall where the nozzle was, he'd put his back to the wall so he could study the young males.  As one survivor explains, "He's showering three times a day.  He's sporting erections.  He's masturbating."

And Jim Jordan and Russ Hellickson looked the other way.  They were supposed to protect the students.  They were legally obligated to protect them -- in loco parentis.  They failed.  And, years later, they won't grow the hell up and admit that they failed these men.

 

They always knew and they looked the other way.

 

A survivor explains he goes to Strauss and tells the doctor, "'My foot is sore.  My foot is sore.'  And the first thing he says to me is 'Drop your trousers'."  Another explains, "I got in there and showed him my bleeding ear and the first thing Dr Strauss said was, 'Drop your shorts'."

 

Documentaries, when they're truthful, can make a difference.  The Ohio State athletes never really had their day in the court of public opinion because this was the first case that really addressed how colleges and universities prey on young men.  They make millions off them but will dump them in a minute due to a sports' injury.  The survivors of Strauss talk about being on scholarships and how Strauss and his 'physicals' decided whether or not they played.  We're not used to seeing the college 'beasts' as potential victims.  They had that wall to break through with this scandal.  

 

Their stories are consistent and address what they witnessed and what they experienced.  

 

That's the great thing about truth -- it usually comes out.  Sometimes it comes out too late.  Sometimes, it's dismissed initially.  But it does usually come out and it slowly leaks into our national consciousness and national conversation.   




While few believe Jim Jordan, Cybele Mayes-Osterman (USA TODAY) notes the comments from a GOP politician far more respected that Jimmy Jordan:


Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie slammed comments from Jeffrey Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell in which she said President Donald Trump was not guilty of any wrongdoing and praised him as "cordial" and "kind."
"She might as well have taken out Donald Trump, or President Trump, and said, 'The man who can pardon me has never done anything wrong. The man who can pardon me has always been wonderful," Christie, a rare vocal critic of Trump in the Republican party, told ABC's "This Week" on Aug. 24.
"I don't think Donald Trump had anything to do with Jeffrey Epstein that was untoward or illegal, but we're going to believe Ghislaine Maxwell?" Christie asked. "Give me a break."


And that attitude of "give me a break" echoes what a lot of Americans are feeling right now.  Caroline Vakil (THE HILL) notes:


An overwhelming majority of voters said transparency in the Jeffrey Epstein case is important to their views on President Trump, according to a new poll. 

A Harvard CAPS/Harris poll released Monday found 65 percent of respondents said transparency around the case of the disgraced financier is important to their opinion of Trump, while 22 percent said it is not important.  
A separate 13 percent said they did not know or were unsure. 

The poll also found that about 2 in 5 respondents were unsatisfied with Trump’s handling of the case’s investigation: 42 percent of respondents rated Trump as “poor” over his handling of the case’s investigation, while 18 percent rated him as “excellent,” a separate 16 percent said “good” and 13 percent rated Trump as “fair.” 

Playing games and trying to trick Americans doesn't add up to Chump being transparent.  Anna Commander (NEWSWEEK) notes, "Democratic Congressman Robert Garcia of California on X on Monday: 'We reviewed 33,000 pages of documents related to the Epstein files -- 97% of them were are already public. It's clear the White House cover-up continues. Pam Bondi could release the full Epstein files today, but she refuses to do so. What are they hiding?'"

When not playing games, Chump can be found throwing tantrums.  John Johnson (NEWSWER) reports:

President Trump issued some late-night threats to ABC and NBC, accusing both of bias and threatening their broadcast licenses.

・In one post, he suggested the networks functioned as "an arm of the Democratic party" and "should, according to many, have their licenses revoked by the FCC. I would be totally in favor of that because they are so biased and untruthful, an actual threat to our Democracy!"
・Short of having the Federal Communications Commission pull their licenses—the president does not appear to have the authority to do that— Trump wrote they should at least "pay up BIG for having the privilege of using the most valuable airwaves anywhere at anytime!" Such a fee could be millions per year, he added, backing an idea previously endorsed by Elon Musk, notes Forbes.


America has been repeatedly rescued this year by Chump's stupidity.  His ignorance of the law or even the most basic things has repeatedly thwarted him.  And does so now.  Solcyré Burga (TIME) explains:


The FCC only licenses “individual broadcast systems,” however, not networks such as ABC and NBC, as the agency notes. The FCC is also barred under the First Amendment and the federal law that created the agency from dictating what programming networks air.

Broadcast stations can violate FCC rules if they knowingly publish false information which then results in “substantial public harm” that was “foreseeable,” or if direct evidence shows them intentionally “rigging or slanting” the news, the agency says. But the FCC also generally does not engage with complaints alleging“one-sided news reports or comments,” it says, because doing so would be “inconsistent with the First Amendment to replace the journalistic judgment of licensees with our own.”
The President’s recent comments add to his previous calls for networks to lose their broadcast licenses—including both ABC and NBC. Past heads of the agency have pushed back on those threats and emphasized the limits of the FCC’s authority.

“Under the law, the FCC does not have the authority to revoke a license of a broadcast station based on the content of a particular newscast,” then-agency Chair Ajit Pai said in 2017, after Trump suggested challenging NBC’s license over a report regarding the President’s relationship with his national security advisers.

“As I’ve said before, the First Amendment is a cornerstone of our democracy. The FCC does not and will not revoke licenses for broadcast stations simply because a political candidate disagrees with or dislikes content or coverage,” then-Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said last year, after Trump indicated CBS News should lose its license over its editing of a “60 Minutes” interview with 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.


It's these sort of tantrums that make people question Chump's mental decline.  Leigh Kimmins (DAILY BEAST) reports:

America’s key swing voters are moving away from President Trump and his policies, according to veteran pollster Larry Sabato.

Appearing on CNN Newsroom, Sabato highlighted that just over six months into Trump’s second term, his approval among independents has cratered, pulling his overall job rating deep underwater.
“But if you’ve noticed the pattern in public opinion polls, and you have to look across all the polls, not just focus on one or two or three that please you, you can see that independents have actually broken pretty substantially against Trump,” the media regular, who runs Sabato’s Crystal Ball, an online newsletter and website that gives electoral projections, told host Jessica Dean.
“They‘re the main reason why his job approval is now in the low to mid-40s. He hasn‘t been over 50 really since the very beginning of his presidency. That is the best signal of what is likely to happen in the midterm elections—job approval for the incumbent president.”


Let's wind down with Senator Tammy Duckworth.





And let's note this press release that her office released Sunday:

U.S. Senator and combat Veteran Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) issued the following statement today amid reports that the Trump Administration is planning another inappropriate deployment of American troops into American cities, this time to Chicago, without coordinating with state or local officials and despite the state not requesting any deployment:

 

“It comes as no surprise Donald Trump is once again attacking Chicago, but that doesn’t change that Trump’s continuing pattern of politicizing and misusing our nation’s military for his own partisan gain and to crush dissent is deeply disturbing, is un-American and has no place in any of our cities.

“We know this isn’t about ‘law and order’ because Trump is once again refusing to coordinate with state and local officials. And if he really cared about ‘health and safety,’ he wouldn’t have cut millions of dollars in gun violence prevention funding just weeks ago. This is just another attempt to distract the American people from the price increases his own policies are causing and the various personal scandals he wants to change the subject from.

“Forcing the military, uninvited, into Chicago to intimidate Americans in their own communities does not make our nation stronger, it simply distracts the military from executing its core mission of keeping Americans safe from real adversaries who wish us harm.

“It’s yet another unwarranted, unwanted and unjust move straight out of the authoritarian’s playbook that will only undermine our military’s readiness and ultimately weaken our national security.”



The following sites updated:

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