Richard (DNArich)

I am moving most of my material to BlueSky - "bsky.app" for those who haven't joined yet (free). It is a "Twitter-like" social media platform, with a bit more control over content for the user, and less algorithm-push for your feeds (you control what you see). Handle - "@touchinglight.bsky.social".

Unfortunately, major media is aligned with Kushner in business terms so they see this imbalance as a major success and not a failure at all.

Forest path - ZigZag Creek, OR.

I’m in California. I have a car.

For god sakes, this has to stop. This was a special-ed student, an American citizen. ICE broke his wrist, now he needs surgery, and caused lacerations and who knows what type of psychological damage.

bsky.app/profile/mich...

Elon Musk says the limit on Ukraine’s drones came from “ultimately POTUS.” Trump says he has no idea who did it. One of them is lying.

Yes, it's back to the Painted Hills yet again (I have quite a few photos from that small region of Oregon!):

Four senior officials from Trump's first term, including two national security advisers, told Cole they knew of no presidential approval for Kushner to touch a foreign government's account.

Another view of the Crooked River at Smith Rock State Park, OR.

The New York Times has two new stories highlighting the rampant corruption and self-dealing in the trump administration, all the expense of the health and well-being of the American people.

It's being done in service to Putin. That makes it straight up treason, not just tantamount to it.

The danger isn’t only whether the scheme reaches its end state. It’s whether officials learn that defying lawful election results carries no personal or institutional cost—how failed power grabs become future operating procedures.

What happens to these criminals will determine whether, at some point in the near future, some not-huge number of years down the line, this country is a liberal democracy or else has a consolidated authoritarian regime and/or collapses into civil conflict. That's not hyperbole, it's what's at stake.

Muddling through is not good enough. It's kicking the can down the road for the next would-be autocrat to try again and try harder. It can be repudiated as a fundamental discontinuity in legitimacy and its perpetrators punished accordingly or else the democratic death spiral doesn't stop with him.

We'll see how far the attempt goes, even if it will clearly fail. But a constitutional system that sees such an attempt by its chief executive and then leaves him in office has already been shattered. Merely trying is betrayal enough and places him outside of constitutional or democratic legitimacy.

That it'll fail because they lack sufficient consolidation and centralized control does not make it trivial that the president of the United States is trying to steal elections and produce an illegitimate sham Congress. It is open rebellion against the Constitution and morally tantamount to treason.

The Goose and the Moon. Smith Rock State Park, OR. Gallery: www.flickr.com/photos/29772...

Thank Trump & GOP Congress, "---Annualized corporate profits surged by a near-record $400 billion in the second quarter due in part to tariff refunds---" NOT CONSUMER REFUNDS, the wealthy corps got the money-money US consumers paid thanks to TRUMP/ GOP CONGRES www.investopedia.com/here-s-what-...

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026.... What a wanker. Everything the pedo regime touches gets damaged #News #USpol #USA #MAGA

JUST IN: A filing cited by Politico shows Elon Musk put another $76 million into efforts to boost Republicans, he has now spent a total $442 million to buy the elections. He is a desperate, sick person.

Another close-up view of the folds in the hills at the Painted Hills Unit of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument.

Trump (and Musk) is a traitor, providing aid to our adversary and harming out ally during wartime. Treason, plain for all to see.

Read the article. Yet another performance if insults by an ill informed President who had his facts wrong and therefore castigated a reporter who has his facts right. Truly sickening that this guy is our president.

Well said and absolutely true. Zelenskyy will go down in history as a patriot and a hero. Trump will go down in history as a monster and a traitor.

the governing philosophy of trump, rfk jr., and their loyal CDC director is there are no cases when you don’t test for and count them

The Trump regime are Russian assets and all are traitors to the United States! Remove and prosecute them all!

Stand with Ukraine. Trump is #PutinsPuppet

Musk now apparently runs US foreign policy and the military. One would think that even Republicans would object.

interval_news Bloomberg reports that Pentagon officials intend to pause the release of the internal investigation into the attack on a school in Minab, Iran. The US strike killed at least 156 people, including 120 schoolchildren and 26 teachers. The rest were parents and other civilians.

THIS is what MUSK and TRUMP are SUPPORTING: The murder of civilians in Ukraine by Russia. Musk, a private "citizen" (???) (or is he an illegal immigrant from South Africa) has taken US foreign policy into his own hands by ordering the slowdown of Starshield, preventing Ukraine from getting warnings.

‘Billionaires Aren’t Compatible With Democracy’: Elon Musk Tries to Boost Ken Paxton With $158 Million Donation www.commondreams.org/news/musk-pa...

Musk is NOT a government official and does NOT represent the American people, yet HE is deciding how to steer this war between an ally (Ukraine) and an adversary (Russia). For giving aid and comfort to our enemies, he's guilty of treason. In the very least, kick him out of America!

Afternoon light at Phoenix Buttress at Smith Rock State Park.

Millions of Americans Offer Trump $90 to Resign open.substack.com/pub/borowitz...

🌐 Global Brief (Oct 20, 2026) • US: Trump's Policies Linked to Highest Inflation Rates in Years Ahead of 2026 • ASIA: Crude Oil Futures Dip from 5-Month Highs Amid New US-Iran Proposals 📈 Markets: ⚪️ USD | 🔴 SPX | 🟢 OIL | 🟢 US10Y 👇 Full insights https://econbriefs.info #EconSky #Markets

Jared Kushner cannot legally participate in meetings as Trump's envoy unless and until he is confirmed by the Senate and files financial disclosures. We sued to enforce the law last week. So, no, he can't join this meeting with Zelensky today.

As with *many* others I am sure, I received the letter "from Trump" telling me I would get a $90 refund by direct deposit because Biden overcharged me for my Medicare Part B premium. Hasn't happened. Won't happen for me. Another lie to buy my vote.

Republicans have finally jumped the shark... Entirely delusional. Selling Oligarchs have become richer than god, under BBB... and tariffs taxation on the American people to prop up endless welfare/socialism for the rich... Was always, how shall we say, a "LOSE - LOSE."

All this hand wringing by the GOP in congress is just ridiculous. They enabled Trump and he has not been shy about helping Russia and hurting the Ukraine. Do something, don't just talk about it. www.politico.com/news/2026/10... GOP lawmakers scramble to spare Ukraine from Trump

All GOP candidates right now... "Hey, that boy named Trump? Don't even know him, never met him. I think he was just the coffee boy!"

Trump suggests that Putin, not Zelensky, should negotiate for Ukraine! /S www.cnn.com/2026/10/19/e...

A quiet afternoon before sunset at Trillium Lake in Oregon with Mt. Hood in the background.

At this point, it is best to tell Meta (Facebook) and Musk (X.com, StarLink, Tesla) "we are done. We will not buy any of your products, because doing so supports the undemocratic power that you wield simply because you are wealthy."

This is not true. ABC and other outlets have reported is that Congress had approved the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 (22 U.S.C. 10802 et seq.) (Graham Act), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code. Unfortunately, that act *allows* Trump's recent action.

Americans should have moved the White House to the Donbas if they wanted to keep it out of Russian hands.

Where the ERA stands: 38 states ratified, the constitutional threshold. Biden said in January 2025 he considered it ratified. The Archivist refused to publish. A deadline removal resolution passed the House in 2020 and 2021, died in the Senate at 51 votes. The Senate is the wall. Nov. 3 picks it.