A couple of my friends waiting for the riots to start, but we’ve got no riots here. What we have here, in Portland, Oregon, are concerned citizens, loving their country, speaking out against a lawless president and his gang of masked thugs.
Do You See Domestic Terrorism?Editor: Follow this link to watch some really ugly stuff that ICE is doing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOXOWAhFz0A
By Vajra Ma
Don’t you know that waking up in the middle of the night to the deafening roar of a helicopter over your home–that is not domestic terrorism?
Don’t you know when dozens of masked men in military gear smash your windows, break down your door and point their assault rifles at you–that is not domestic terrorism?
Don’t you know when they take you and your children at gunpoint from your home onto the street–that is not domestic terrorism? And when you are forced to stand there for hours, barely clothed or even naked–that is not domestic terrorism?
Don’t you know that when your children are taken from you, zip-tied and held corralled in a van for hours–that is not domestic terrorism?
Doesn’t it make you feel better this is happening to all the other 140 people in your five-story apartment building?
Don’t you know you are not experiencing terror? You are experiencing protection. Protection from the “mass invasion of hardened, foreign criminals.”
One of those criminals might be behind one of those 140 doors! That’s the only reason masked men smashed your windows, broke down your door, dragged you out of bed and separated you from your children–to protect you from the domestic terrorism of criminals.
The violence you experienced is protection.
George Orwell said it long ago. War is peace. Hate is love. And if I hold up four fingers you’d better say you see five.
What do you see?
But it’s more than that. If I hold up four fingers you must believe you see five.
What do you believe? Do you see four, or do you see five?
By Cate Rees-Hessel with D.S. Mitchell
Since taking office less than a year ago, “The Donald” has made quite the mess of our nation…. again. I feel like sending him right along with his policies to the nearest dump site. Here are just a few of his deliberate faux pas:
Mark 10/18/2025 on your Protest Calendar and hit the streets and tell Trump we’ll have ‘No Kings Here.’
** “Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized SAINT specifically, the official act of public veneration.”
**The White House announced that Charlie Kirk will be posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Charlie? Charlie? Hmmm….Charlie. Charlie Kirk? Mmmm, Charlie Kirk. Who? I don’t know who this guy was but apparently his death beat out Jesus Christ for the top political murder in history. On September 10, 2025, Charlie Kirk, an American right-wing political activist, was shot and killed while making a speech at the Utah Valley University campus in Orem, Utah.
So-o-o-o this guy, Charlie Kirk, that more than three quarters of the country never heard of, is getting more fevered press than the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Certainly more histrionics than we got when then Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi’s 82 year old husband, Paul Pelosi, was attacked in their home and nearly beaten to death with a hammer by a pissed off MAGA guy. Or on Jun 14, 2025 — House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman (D) Minnesota lawmaker and her husband, Mark, were fatally shot in their home by a right wing extremist with little more than a ripple on the political airwaves.
Welcome to Calamity News and Politics. Calamity is currently based in Southern Oregon, in beautiful Grants Pass. CNP attempts to present relevant and engaging political commentary, opinion, argument, speculation, and prediction regarding the political news in the United States. CNP also comments on health, wellness, fitness, silliness, games, and just about anything that tickles our panties. Once a month, or so, I do a post entitled “Things That Make Me Smile.” The number of items that make me smile usually change with each individual post. No reason, just because I can, I guess.
So, take your mind off of politics and policies, including your grandmother losing her Medicaid, you losing your SNAP benefits, the Russian attack on NATO ally, Poland, the total and complete destruction of Gaza by Israel. the attacks by Israel on our ally, Qatar, and try if possible, to focus on the good things in your life.
Today I’m going to keep it short, here are 12 Things That Make Me Smile, how about you?
1.) Being on time.
2.) Daddy’s old work bench.
3.) Blackened hot dogs. Yum, yum.
4.) Talking to my plants.
5.) Living in a vacation town, during the off season.
6.) Slow dancing with him.
7.) Pizza with a crispy paper thin crust.
8.) Wild strawberries peeking up in the flowerbeds.
9.) Fish On!
10.) Following estate sale signs.
11.) Putting pennies in a jar and watching them grow into dollars.
12.) Watching couples walk hand in hand.
The corruption and scandal in the Trump Administration is going to be around for a longer time than I would ever want, so think of your own 12 things that make you smile, because its gonna be a rough next three years plus years.
Call your congress person, write letters to the editor commenting on Trump policies, start a blog or a podcast, and hit the streets and protest. The next big rally is supposed to be on October 18, 2025. Watch for more information. Come out and protest, ‘No Kings,’ and let’s give our Dictator in Waiting, 10 million middle fingers. Join the New Resistance.
**If anyone is curious the picture accompanying this post is not me, but rather a lovely AI rendering of an imaginary woman.
It was 2001 and I was an RN working at the Portland, Oregon VA Medical Center on the Telemetry Unit. It was about 9:00 and I was finishing up the morning med pass for my patients. Most of the rooms were two man units. The guys in Room 206 were still eating breakfast and watching the morning news. As I handed the pills to one of my guys I looked up to the wall mounted TV just as a mammoth 767 jet plowed into the World Trade Center’s South Tower. “Holy shit!” our echoed commentary. Both my patients said it was probably “homegrown terrorism.” “Don’t be surprised if it doesn’t turn out to be another disgruntled vet-another Timothy McVeigh,” both insisted. At first I thought they were teasing, trying to get a rise out of me. But as they continued, I realized they were in no way joking.
The thought that this could have been perpetrated by a group of disgruntled U.S. veteran’s was both disturbing and heartbreaking. Yet, these two Vietnam veterans were both as serious as hell. I couldn’t understand the Timothy McVeigh bombing in the first place. Why would he kill nearly two hundred of his fellow countrymen? Mad at the government? Ok, but to kill innocent kids and others is just plain madness. I couldn’t understand how these two seemingly mentally stable individuals could even understand McVeigh’s rage.
The 9/11 airline hijackings and subsequent suicide attacks were not homegrown terrorism, as both my patients had insisted, but were rather 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremists group al-Qaeda. In final count, 2,750 died in N.Y., 184 at the Pentagon in D.C., 40 in Pennsylvania. Also, all 19 terrorists died. Police and fire departments in New York were hard hit, with more than 400 police officers and firefighters being killed.
After the tragic destruction of the World Trade Center on 9/11 2001 a new complex was built. Several towers, a 9/11 memorial and a museum and a transit hub were built on the site. While the new complex doesn’t replicate the original twin towers, it serves as a place of healing and remembrance.
Remembering 9/11 is important. Not just for the lives lost that day, but remembering the mistakes our government made-before and after-is just as important as remembering the attack.
“All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.”
This was our fourth protest in a season of protests. As usual Darlene, Vajra, John, and myself parked ourselves on our favorite bench under our favorite shade tree on 6th Street, Grants Pass, Oregon, kitty corner from the county courthouse. The turnout for the Worker’s over Billionaires rally was good, but not great.
I can also report that the opposition turnout, in deep red southern Oregon, was close to microscopic. I counted two rabid Trumpers in the crowd; one flipped me off and the other one, a jogger, stopped in front of my wheelchair and called me a “horrible person” and then accelerated his pace and headed to the safety of 7th street. Other than than those two events things were cool. We got lots of positive comments on our signs, in fact several folks stopped to take a selfie with me.
INDIVISIBLE came through with a new stereo system for our rally. It was cool being able to actually hear the speakers and some great music. John and Vajra wandered through the crowd checking things out; they told us about a group way up on the other side of the street out of our field of vision that were causing a ruckus. It seems they wanted to protest FOR pedophilia. Holy smokes, I can see why that might cause a fight or two. I suspect they were just a bunch of Trump supporters being A-holes, trying to stir up some shit.
Despite the smaller size of the Labor Day protest in our little town, I will admit that in Grants Pass it was very hot and there were a lot of folks out of town for the last week-end get-away before school started. With that said, we need to increase the pressure on Trump and his allies. We need to tell ‘ol Donnie Boy we are not going to stand for his masked thugs disappearing people from American streets, putting billionaires on the government dole when poor Americans are having health care and even food benefits snatched away. This isn’t ‘effin Russia, yet.
If these protests are going to have the intended impact they need to be getting bigger and bigger not smaller. In my mind, turnout is imperative to keeping Trump’s attention. We can’t weaken or tire now; we have another 3 and a 1/2 years of the Trump despot show. We can’t give in, give up or surrender to this lawless president and his corrupt allies; our freedom is literally at stake.
**Quote by Edmund Burke
Editor: Well, if we wanted chaos, stupidity, and cruelty we’ve got it, in spades. All those folks who didn’t get enough of Trump the first time around and couldn’t wait to get his sick, narcissistic ass back in the White House are paying the price now, right along with the rest of us. And the folks who didn’t vote because they were taking some effin’ high road, shame on you. In a democracy there isn’t a lot to do, other than look at candidates and choose those candidates whose philosophy and policies come closest to match your individual hopes and desires; and that magic happens at the ballot box. Cate and I agree about a lot of things and her thoughts on Joe Biden coincide with mine. No one is perfect, but some are a lot more perfect than others; and yes I am comparing Joe Biden at his worst to Donald Trump at his best. DSM
By Cate Rees-Hessel and D.S. Mitchell
Instead of changing the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America for purely racist reasons, wanting to change names of sports teams back to racist ones, wasting money on a military parade for his birthday, or wanting to be a king, President Biden was concerned with healthcare, infrastructure, and real world problems. Joe always had America’s best interest at heart, always thinking about the little guy in our society, a true patriot that took care of actual issues that we as Americans face. God bless President Joe Biden for his service.
by Marge Piercy
What can they do
to you? Whatever they want.
They can set you up, they can
bust you, they can break
your fingers, they can
burn your brain with electricity,
blur you with drugs till you
can’t walk, can’t remember, they can
take your child, wall up
your lover. They can do anything
you can’t stop them
from doing. How can you stop
them? Alone, you can fight,
you can refuse, you can
take what revenge you can
but they roll over you.
But two people fighting
back to back can cut through
a mob, a snake-dancing file
can break a cordon, an army
can meet an army.
Two people can keep each other
sane, can give support, conviction,
love, massage, hope, sex.
Three people are a delegation,
a committee, a wedge. With four
you can play bridge and start
an organization. With six
you can rent a whole house,
eat pie for dinner with no
seconds, and hold a fund raising party.
A dozen make a demonstration.
A hundred fill a hall.
A thousand have solidarity and your own newsletter;
ten thousand, power and your own paper;
a hundred thousand, your own media;
ten million, your own country.
It goes on one at a time,
it starts when you care
to act, it starts when you do
it again and they said no,
it starts when you say We
and know who you mean,
and each day you mean one more.
Editor: Millions of people attended No King protests nationwide, and some experts believe that it may have been the largest single-day protest in U.S. history. Reports indicate that more than 5 million people attended the anti-Trump demonstrations in 2100 towns and cities nationwide.
In our little Mayberry sort of town we have protests too-against this idiot and all his corruption. And an outsider might be surprised because Josephine County, Oregon as well as adjacent counties in this part of the state are, and have been been for years very strongly Republican. The majority vote in the 2024 presidential election was a Trump landslide. At the time of the actual election and preceding it, you would see a lot of pro-Trump signs and endorsements in all its various, and at least here, peaceful forms. The killings ain’t got here, yet. But it is getting a little more tense.
We had our fourth major protest on Saturday; the day when the nation as a whole was saying, Everywhere is protest. Everywhere is outrage. Everywhere the same desire, get the cancer out before it just destroys everything. And of course, easier said than done.
By legal, institutional means, the political system has been manipulated to enable this huge dysfunction to have achieved the position where it can begin to consume the host and that’s pretty galling if ya ask me. The fact that this monster has been created from within; is us, or at least a good portion of us, the worst of us, sickens me. The resulting power mad soulless Babylon becomes unsustainable for the majority where the ‘survival of the fittest’ mentality just leaves the sick, the disabled, and the less than perfect to die. And with that, it’s obvious they don’t care.
So, ok, and with that, our little town on Saturday June 14th, 2025, had its fourth big protest. What was so cool was that it was bigger, louder, and even more jubilant than ever; like minded people coming together, working for a common cause. A friendly smile, a big hug, we are all getting to know each other just a little bit through these protests. In a way, these protests are more like mass unstructured community outings, mostly people of like feelings, but also, just anybody who knows how to act somewhat normal is welcome. So far so good.
And of course it wouldn’t be a proper protest without a few anti-protesters, to keep it interesting. Before a few was all it had been but this time, it was more like Custer’s last stand with Custer telling the dozen or so assembled, “Get out there boys. Damn they’re back again talking all that stuff about rights, and No Kings and all the while criticizing our fearless and duly elected leader. So get your big trucks and your big boots and let’s make some noise.”
“But sir ….theys so few of us it seems, and theys so many of them.”
And damned if he didn’t hear that and think an actual thought….”Yeah, right, I hadn’t thought of that.”
Despite being outnumbered a few of them actually began walking amongst the crowd, but most were content to just drive by in their pickup trucks and blow black smoke and yell, “Fuck you” a lot. The ones walking through the crowd had put themselves out there, however, they mostly walked around smirking and saying cruel and demeaning things to people in wheelchairs, slow elderly people with their walkers, or just anybody, who wanted to question their motives. Motherfucker.
But they don’t really deserve any credit for mingling with the crowd. They weren’t really brave as they wanted us to think; ’cause they could pretty well figure that, even though greatly outnumbered they were not gonna be actually threatened or hurt in any way. They would have to be the ones to start it, cause that’s not who we are. Neither are we poor and pathetic, we’re more like powerful now, and getting more powerful everyday. Do you have to wonder why?
"If puppies and kittens don't make you smile, you might consider therapy." D. S. Mitchell 2015.
Self-isolating has forced us to turn even more to telecommunication and social media.
The Major Cause Of Sex Trafficking Is Poverty
Many great charities, here are a couple that I support: Sierra Club, World Wildlife Fund, ACLU, and Planned Parenthood.
