Soul Kitchen

Now that's a sandwich.

I'm not really a white bread guy, we called it balloon bread when I was a kid because of the way it stuck on your upper palette, but it does have its place.

Great way to make a beautiful old pair of Sioux moccasins pliable again! No mustard or mayo required.

Cool Cool Water

Close call

 

Rob's down there somewhere...

I dodged a bullet yesterday. Walked into the back of my shop and saw water on the floor. My plumbing is really old and I had a leaking angle stop in the back bathroom. Turns out that I had minor damage but nothing that would kill me.

Ray gave me a name of a great plumber, Jessie.

He showed up quickly. It took him about an hour to get things capped off and fixed temporarily. He was very cautious and fastidious, not to mention inexpensive.

If this had happened in another week, it could have been totally disastrous for my gallery. Wouldn't have seen the leak for a very long time and it would have been an economic calamity for me.

Yesterday must have been the day for it. My friend Rick had a water heater go out. Tom put an iron bar through his main line, while planting his plumeria. The problem with these sorts of things is that there is no early warning system, you know things are bad when you see water on the floor. Thank god I caught it early.

Lucinda Williams

Sierra Strother

If you have ordered or eaten at Bakin' it up, the bakery located across the street from my store, you have probably run into this young lady, Sierra Strother. The first thing you notice about her, apart from her obvious beauty and fitness, is her humility and sweet disposition.

I had no idea that she was also an athlete and performer until I saw her showing someone a snippet of her on Tik Tok the other day. She told me that she started out in dance. I think she is part of a circus troupe now. Pretty amazing.

When I went in for coffee and bread pudding today she told me I could find some demos of her on YouTube.

What an athlete. Incredible!

Dead Chroma

There's never been a rock and roll marketing machine like the Good Ol' Grateful Dead. Now they have branded the iconic Steal your Face colors with Pantone. Talk about squeezing the last drops of moisture from the sponge. 

I just find it sad and curious that a band with this kind of gelt cashes in continually while people like their long time workers like lighting engineer Candace Brightman and soundman Harry Popick are so broke they are forced to start go fund me sites for their serious medical issues. Steals your face right off your head.

Really?

 

https://www.reuters.com/world/italy-poll-finds-15-see-attacks-jewish-people-justifiable-2025-09-30/

https://www.algemeiner.com/2025/09/30/viral-video-jewish-tourists-assaulted-florence-sparks-outrage-surge-antisemitic-attacks-italy/

https://www.ynetnews.com/jewish-world/article/h1idgsikll

Bruce Cockburn

Another one of the great fingerstylists.

Snapshots in the garden

Nothing spectacular, just checking in.

I like this time of year. In Mediterranean climates certain plants like to bloom in the fall. The chorisia tree just favored us with a few blossoms. It is only a few years old and will look better and better with time.

We have an old biplane sculpture that was getting obstructed by purple sage out front. 

Todd made it visible again this week.

I like our old plane. The sage is so vigorous that it will be covered up again in a year or so.

I have one beautiful and massive Canary Island Palm on my property, which I planted when it was a baby.

Unfortunately the South American beetle is laying waste to these palms in our county, marching north and west every day.

I hadn't heard about any reaching Fallbrook yet but Tom told me he just lost his last week.

That is the first one I heard of dying in Fallbrook, had seen their destruction in Oceanside.

I asked someone who should know, he said there were others.

Sad.

I have been hitting mine with a systemic insecticide about three times a year.

I guess it is time for another dose.

Wish her well.

I have seen people with whole yards of Phoenix canariensis, never understood that but, oh well.  Some people are in for a heap of trouble.

Paul Butterfield Blues Band

Train I ride, sixteen coaches long...

Never shared this with you but last trip to Texas I saw a train derailed in the desert, cars scattered everywhere. 

Never seen anything like it, this side of Kyiv anyway.

I was about fifteen minutes east of Van Horn, about 6:30 in the morning.

There was nobody on the scene, it felt like it just happened.

Later I talked with a thirty year railroad engineer and he said I must have got there right at the moment it occurred.

Said it would be all put together in a couple days.

It was tidied up when I drove past it on the way back.

You never know...

 

People often ask me how I know which painting to take to a show? I have a bunch of them and they can't all go.

The truth is that I don't. It is a mercurial project, I don't pull the ouiji board out or anything like that, but it is essentially a spur of the moment thing, I do it by feel. As I'm packing.

I know that my van has finite space, pretty much fourteen painting boxes across, hopefully leaving enough room for totes, clothes and utility items like my ladder and dolly.

You have to think about your audience but who knows exactly who will show up? I am leaving soon for Texas but I am throwing a couple California paintings in to the mix, a photograph from New Orleans, a print from Carolina. I found a lovely Bucks County, Pennsylvania painting by Fern Coppedge, bringing that.

You never know, you could bring an obscure Maine painting and have that couple from Penobscot show up out of the blue but it is not really the high percentage play. You also don't want to keep bringing the same merchandise because people have really good memories and art can get stale. Doesn't hurt to skip a show or two. Fresh sells. But it is all honestly little more than a guess.

This trip looks like it is trending Southwest for me but I don't want to be too southwest because a lot of people in Texas see too much of it and are frankly burned out by it. I brought a mixed race nude last time and had several people remind me that I was in the bible belt and to be careful. 

So I will bring an assortment, a few abstracts, a couple small nudes, things I like, because it is always easier to make a case and sell something that you love.

I did really well with young decorators at the last show and found that although they were not extremely knowledgable, they were enthusiastic and had a look they were after. 

They favored a lower price point than I might sell at in say, my Santa Barbara show or Santa Fe. 

But they bought.

The market is changing and younger collectors are favoring more super saturated color and more graphic works.

I made sure to bring some this time.

So you have to think affordable, you have to have something for everybody price wise so people don't get alienated. And tastes change. What was popular last week might be deader than a doornail today.

So it can't be a show off museum of my best stuff. I am there to sell, not preen. 

I guess my strategy is to have a wide range of inventory across the price spectrum and hope that something strikes a chord with the audience. 

I sold a lot of low to middle range native american last time so have to remember to bring that.

In Santa Fe they only will buy the best examples, good still sells in Round Top.

It is a long show and you have to have backup. I have plenty of that. I knocked it out of the park in the spring, will there be a sophomore curse? We shall see... An awful lot of time and expense involved.

I bought this nice painting from an estate in the Bay Area yesterday, the artist is Ron Riddick. CA (Cowboy Artists of America) Emeritus. 

It is titled Dream Weaver.

It is well painted but it wasn't cheap.

There is no certainty. 

After many decades selling art I know that occasionally I will guess wrong and fall on my ass and have said ass handed to me. 

It is a given. 

Hopefully that doesn't happen this time.

My booth

I had an eighty foot booth of walls last time, this time I am down to fifty six in my forty foot long booth. After I get my smalls back I will see what else I can shoehorn into the van. I am taking two pieces of western furniture this time so it will be a definite squeeze.

I had a man from Texas call me a week or two back and ask me if I was going to be there this time? I sold him several things last time. He said he wasn't coming if I wasn't going to be there which is nice to hear. Maybe I will make a sale?

So cross your fingers, say a little prayer for me and hope that I guess right.

Texas Bound

 

If you're over  that way, come visit me at Round Top in Carmine, Texas in  October.

The Blue Heron Gallery will be exhibiting at the Big Red Barn. 

More info here.

Tony

 

I got a free IPhone 17 pro max from ATT this week with a trade in. Dave days that it has a great camera, I haven't quite mastered it yet. I had been using a 14 plus.

But I did find it gave me a lot more sharpness, focus and control in the difficult cross lighting environment of the concert last night.

And also it gives one the ability to change the aperture and separate the background on shots like this one I took of my pal Tony today. Not quite the same as my nikkor ƒ1.2 but not that far off.

Hail to the King

I am an unabashed fan of Elvis Presley. 

If you get Netflix make sure to watch this recent documentary chronicling his 1968 concert comeback.

His first stage appearance in seven years, after a string of dumb movies, after a bout of fear, you see him retake the throne with every power intact.

Commentary by Springsteen, Robbie Robertson and Billie Corgan (really, why?) you get a look at one of the most amazing concerts in history.

Can't Let Go

Lucinda

My friends Mary and Steve had reserved balcony seats at the Belly Up Tavern to see Lucinda Williams. Did I want to go?

Heck ya.

We met at Davanti Enoteca in Del Mar for dinner, one of my favorite Italian restaurants. Had to try their focaccia again. Excellent as always.

My friend Kevin joined me to fill the extra seat. He had never seen her before. Kevin is from Indiana and is not really into twang and Lucinda is a Southern woman. I sent him some Youtube videos and he was okay with it.

The show was the second night in a row in Solana Beach and the opening of the tour. To my chagrin it wasn't scheduled to open until 9:30 and that would be a late night for me, off a very exhausting week.

I have seen Lucinda four or five times. I love her but she is not for everybody. I have several friends that can't stand her.

Part chanteuse, part poet, felt like punk, heroin/cowboy roots with a literature degree mixed in somewhere, at least metaphorically speaking.

The band was smoking. Two great guitar players, Marc Ford and Doug Pettibone from Long Beach and Ventura.  Ford used to play for the Black Crowes, Pettibone has played with her for a long time. She always gets great musicians every time.

Place was packed. I asked my friends if they could spot anybody under forty? Maybe one guy... Lot of older people rocking out and shrieking for their hero, I honestly felt like the youngest person there and I'm no spring chicken.

Lucinda had a stroke in 2020. She is now 71.  I don't think it has been easy for her. A man carefully walked her to the mike in the beginning and she stayed in one position, clutching it tightly all night. Certainly different than the last time I saw her, she was quite animated when she totally outplayed co-bill Chrissie Hynde at Humphrey's.

Hey, we all get older and we get to a point in our lives when everything hurts and we all do the best we can.

She sang her heart out. Sang a song for the President to the joy of the crowd, "You don't rule me."

My hosts had to leave early, Steve was showing his Ridgeback in Los Angeles and had to be up at four in the morning. (They won, first place, a point)

Kevin left after the set when she started doing a Mississippi Fred McDowell gospel number that I loved. 

Ended up doing a three song encore, including you stole my joy and the energy got higher and higher.

I really had a good time. Didn't hear Jackson or Can't let go, two of my favorites, but saw a performance where the band left nothing on the table and I left satiated for the long drive back home. Don't have too many one o'clock nights anymore.

Grateful to my friends for the ticket. Not sure how many tours Lucinda and I have left.

*

I drove through Del Dios on the way home and thought about how many nights I had drove that road drunk or stoned in my youth, not knowing exactly where I was or how I got there? Much easier to navigate during this year of sobriety.

Peace out.

And so it begins...

Chilling White House memo that should scare the hell out of anybody who cares about free speech. This snare looks awful wide. Where are all the GOP brass on this? Not a peep... 

Did you see Senator Lindsey Graham is all in on a third Trump term? Why not a Putin style President for life? Had a dream last night where they were hauling liberals off to the gulags...

Here's the plan to foment dissent and political opposition...

NATIONAL SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM/NSPM-7

MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE

               THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY

THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

THE SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY

SUBJECT:       Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized

               Political Violence

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby direct the following:

Section 1.  Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence.  Heinous assassinations and other acts of political violence in the United States have dramatically increased in recent years.  Even in the aftermath of the horrifying assassination of Charlie Kirk, some individuals who adhered to the alleged shooter’s ideology embraced and cheered this evil murder while actively encouraging more political violence.  This was preceded by the 2024 assassination of a senior healthcare executive and the 2022 assassination attempt against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.  Two separate assassination attempts against my own life in less than 3 months took place during the 2024 Presidential election cycle.  Riots in Los Angeles and Portland reflect a more than 1,000 percent increase in attacks on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers since January 21, 2025, compared to the same period last year.  Just yesterday, a shooting targeting an ICE facility in Dallas resulted in multiple casualties.  Separate anti-police and “criminal justice” riots have left many people dead and injured and inflicted over $2 billion in property damage nationwide.

This political violence is not a series of isolated incidents and does not emerge organically.  Instead, it is a culmination of sophisticated, organized campaigns of targeted intimidation, radicalization, threats, and violence designed to silence opposing speech, limit political activity, change or direct policy outcomes, and prevent the functioning of a democratic society.  A new law enforcement strategy that investigates all participants in these criminal and terroristic conspiracies — including the organized structures, networks, entities, organizations, funding sources, and predicate actions behind them — is required. 

These campaigns often begin by isolating and dehumanizing specific targets to justify murder or other violent action against them.  They do so through a variety of fora, including anonymous chat forums, in-person meetings, social media, and even educational institutions.  These campaigns then escalate to organized doxing, where the private or identifying information of their targets (such as home addresses, phone numbers, or other personal information) is exposed to the public with the explicit intent of encouraging others to harass, intimidate, or violently assault them.  As in the case of several ICE agents in Los Angeles being doxed, the goal of these campaigns can be to obstruct the operations of the Federal Government as well as aid and abet criminal activity the Federal Government is lawfully pursuing.  These campaigns are coordinated and perpetrated by actors who have developed a comprehensive strategy to achieve specific policy goals through radicalization and violent intimidation.

There are common recurrent motivations and indicia uniting this pattern of violent and terroristic activities under the umbrella of self-described “anti-fascism.”  These movements portray foundational American principles (e.g., support for law enforcement and border control) as “fascist” to justify and encourage acts of violent revolution.  This “anti-fascist” lie has become the organizing rallying cry used by domestic terrorists to wage a violent assault against democratic institutions, constitutional rights, and fundamental American liberties.  Common threads animating this violent conduct include anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity; support for the overthrow of the United States Government; extremism on migration, race, and gender; and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality.  As described in the Order of September 22, 2025 (Designating Antifa as a Domestic Terrorist Organization), the groups and entities that perpetuate this extremism have created a movement that embraces and elevates violence to achieve policy outcomes, including justifying additional assassinations.  For example, Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin engraved the bullets used in the murder with so-called “anti-fascist” rhetoric.  

The United States requires a national strategy to investigate and disrupt networks, entities, and organizations that foment political violence so that law enforcement can intervene in criminal conspiracies before they result in violent political acts.  Through this comprehensive strategy, law enforcement will disband and uproot networks, entities, and organizations that promote organized violence, violent intimidation, conspiracies against rights, and other efforts to disrupt the functioning of a democratic society.

Sec. 2.  Investigating Domestic Terrorist Organizations.  (a)  The National Joint Terrorism Task Force and its local offices (collectively, “JTTFs”) shall coordinate and supervise a comprehensive national strategy to investigate, prosecute, and disrupt entities and individuals engaged in acts of political violence and intimidation designed to suppress lawful political activity or obstruct the rule of law.  This strategy shall include the investigatory and prosecutorial measures set forth in this section.

(b)  The JTTFs shall investigate potential Federal crimes relating to acts of recruiting or radicalizing persons for the purpose of:

(i)   political violence, terrorism, or conspiracy against rights; or

(ii)  the violent deprivation of any citizen’s rights.

(c)  The JTTFs shall also investigate:

(i)   institutional and individual funders, and officers and employees of organizations, that are responsible for, sponsor, or otherwise aid and abet the principal actors engaging in the criminal conduct described in subsections (a) and (b) of this section; and

(ii)  non-governmental organizations and American citizens residing abroad or with close ties to foreign governments, agents, citizens, foundations, or influence networks engaged in violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (22 U.S.C. 611 et seq.) or money laundering by funding, creating, or supporting entities that engage in activities that support or encourage domestic terrorism.

(d)  The JTTFs shall consult and coordinate with executive departments and agencies (agencies) as needed to determine whether such agencies can apply existing authorities or exercise their own authorities, as appropriate, to support the JTTFs’ investigations and relevant prosecutions of political violence.

(e)  The JTTFs may, to the extent permitted by law, request operational assistance from and coordinate with law enforcement partners when investigating domestic terrorism.

(f)  The National Joint Terrorism Task Force shall provide regular progress updates to the President through the Assistant to the President and Homeland Security Advisor. 

(g)  The Attorney General shall direct the Department of Justice to prosecute all Federal crimes, to the maximum extent permissible by law, related to the investigations described in subsections (a) through (c) of this section.

(h)  The Attorney General shall issue specific guidance that ensures domestic terrorism priorities include politically motivated terrorist acts such as organized doxing campaigns, swatting, rioting, looting, trespass, assault, destruction of property, threats of violence, and civil disorder.  This guidance shall also include an identification of any behaviors, fact patterns, recurrent motivations, or other indicia common to organizations and entities that coordinate these acts in order to direct efforts to identify and prevent potential violent activity. 

Young Rascals

Trip to Yuma

I drove to Yuma the other day to pick up some paintings, which included this beautiful Bill Schenck. It was about a four hour trip and I approached it with a bit of dread. 

But it turned out to be a great drive and day.

I left at 6:00, did the Costco fillup in Escondido and made my way down to Interstate 8 east.

They must have had a lot of rain in East County because it was really green for the most part. 

Not too hot either, quite enjoyable.

Basically had the road to myself.

I drove through Jacumba and checked out the hot springs, which has become a real destination for the hipsters.

"Come here, leave different."

Hmmm.

Made it to El Centro and had lunch, sopes and flautas.

Same as it ever was.

I met my friend Rick Merrill in Yuma, at a park.

He cast this heroic bronze of a member of the Mormon Battalion back in 2006.

It is located at the exact point where the battalion crossed the Colorado River.

Rick is a very talented artist and a helluva nice guy.

On the way back I decided to skip the traffic on the fifteen and go through the back country. 

Eleven minutes longer, who cares? It was beautiful up there in Mt. Laguna, cool and perfect.

All in all, for an eight hour journey into 115° weather, a very nice day.

Pete Best Combo

5786

I sent this out to a bunch of the tribe and thought, what the hell, might as well post it to the blog. I only have had one negative comment, most of the recipients agree with me, but you don't have to.

Rosh Hashana, 5786

To all of my Jewish and partly Jewish friends and their spouses and families, I wish you the happiest and most productive coming year.

I would also like to say something political that some of you might like and others might dislike. It pains me to say this.  I rarely vent against Israel while among gentiles but feel like we mishpucha can talk. 

It is okay to love Israel and hate their current representatives. They are not serving their people. They are deserving of shame and scorn. 

I am the son of a sabra. I have lived under rocket and scud missile attacks during two conflicts including the totality of desert storm. I support their right to exist and abhor the Hamas attack of October 7th.  

I want to see every remaining hostage released alive.

But I must also say that every Palestinian is not supportive of Hamas nor do they deserve to be removed from Gaza or exterminated. An Israeli intelligence chief said that he wanted to see fifty Palestinians killed for every victim of the October 7th attacks, even if they are children.

“The fact that there are already 50,000 dead in Gaza is necessary and required for future generations,” he said in the broadcast comments. “For everything that happened on October 7th, for every person on October 7, 50 Palestinians must die. It doesn’t matter now if they are children.”

As you know, about 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas-led cross-border attacks, the majority of them civilians, and 250 were taken hostage to Gaza.

This man's attitude is sick. This attitude and the attitude of the zealots on the right who feel like they have a biblical mandate for taking Judea and Samaria, makes me very nauseous and want to squirm. We have no right to kill thousands of innocent arabs with such disdain. 

I had quite a few Palestinian friends in Israel and would like to tell you that many are wonderful people and themselves abhor Hamas. The ridiculous and desensitized disproportionality of the Israeli response was horrific.

In fact there have been many occasions these last few years when I have been embarrassed to be Jewish. Thankfully many Israelis feel the same way I do. Hopefully their crazy leader will be gone one day and they can find a way to co-exist but the duplicitous Netanyahu has done everything in his power to make sure that will never happen, letting extremist settlers kill their neighbors and fragment what once could have been a second contiguous state. 

The Jewish leader I respect right now is Zelenskyy,  not Bibi. I love the Jewish people but the Israelis need to get their shit together and start acting like human beings again. They have alienated the world and many jews here in America and I am certainly one of them.

You may agree or not agree with me and that is your right. But I am disgusted by Israel and also by their relationship with our own leader, Donald Trump. May saner and more human heads and hearts prevail.

Love,  Robert

Bert Jansch - Angie

Innovation and derivation

Bert Jansch

I have had some discussions in the last year that have got me to thinking about art and music. I went out to dinner a while back with three musician friends. A question was posed, "Who is your favorite fingerstyle guitar player?" It was a tough question for me, I have seen so many great players, including Doc Watson in his prime, Jorma, Paul Simon, Joan Baez, Tony Rice and more. Who was better than Chet Atkins or Merle Travis? I even was able to watch Elizabeth Cotton perform and she was incredible.

At the end I sputtered out, "Bert Jansch." The Pentangle guitar player seemed to do things in the sixties that nobody else came close to for me. He took the work of Davy Graham and really pushed it forward and made it more beautiful. Love a lot of the early people, Fahey, Sandy Bull, many of them long forgotten.

Another person said Ralph Towner, a fine selection. The question is so subjective and everybody is, of course, entitled to their personal opinion. He also expressed his admiration for the wonderful Tommy Emmanuel.

Interestingly, I read an interview with Jimmy Page not that long ago where he claimed that Jansch was his favorite fingerstylist too so I guess that I am in good company.

Anyway I mentioned that to my friend and he said that there were dozens of people that could play that well today.

Really?

Who?

Conversely, we were talking about drummers and I mentioned what a huge fan I was of Elvin Jones. I love Elvin and his bands as well as Tony Williams and DeJohnette. There was something there in the days of hard bop and early fusion that I never heard later on. Downhill ever since.

My buddy is also a drummer and told me that similarly, there were a surfeit of players today that could match or surpass Elvin, he might have mentioned Dennis Chambers, I don't remember...

I thought a lot about our discussion these last few months and had another thought.

I don't think so...

Ten Elvin Jones alive today? Blakeys? In my way of thinking, I will always go with the innovator, the person on the original cutting edge who coined the style, seemingly out of thin air and not the people who are the great imitators, the derivative Johnny come late-lies. Hendrix over Frank Marino, Gary Moore and Trower, Billy Cobham and not Neal Peart, McLaughlin over practically everybody. Roy Buchanan instead of Jeff Beck, sorry, at least with the knob twisting. Django and Charlie Christian over their imitators. Listen to how sparing and efficient Muddy Waters played compared to the later blues players. Old school wins everytime.

Of course people do come along with their own style that do match or arguably surpass their predecessors, think Stewart Copeland and Jaco. But innovators are few and far between.

*

I have sold at the modernism shows for about thirty years or more. I try to sell vintage artworks by innovators of the time period while the people next to me are selling current and perfect knockoffs. I suppose that you can make the argument that these latter day Diebenkorn or Pollack imitators are an improvement or on par or as good as the original, but I don't think so. But they sell really well and have made it very hard for me to make a living when a well executed copy is enough for most people to hang in their home.

As for me, I think the true artists are the people who create the original style or movement, the people selling the copycat look or sound are just poachers in my book and rarely rise to the level of the giants. 

A Day In The Life (Takes 1, 2, 6 And Orchestra)

Happy Ten Million Views!

I'm not really sure why I am so fascinated with round numbers but the blog reached the 10 million view milestone this morning. Yippee!

Thanks to all of my readers, the newcomers, the occasionals, the bots, the lurkers and especially those of you who have been with me from the start, eighteen years ago. 

Thanks to those of you who agree with me and also to those that disagree. Keeps it fun.

And thanks to those that were part of the inception but split or died or got lost somewhere, people like KJ, Grumpy, Martin, Window Dancer, Stan, MMWB. You made it real.

I doubt we will get another ten million but we can still have fun on the way.

Poland turns the screws on China

Love this. China is the one country that can get Russia to modify its bad behavior,

Brewer and Shipley

One of the great singing duos of the early seventies. Sadly the last surviving member, Tom Shipley, passed earlier this month.

A friend and associate of mine, Chuck Morgenstern, had to be their number one fan. If memory serves they came and played at his sixtieth birthday party. He was very devoted to their music.

This was a wonderful album, Jerry Garcia played pedal steel on Oh Mommy.

They played beautifully and harmonized like angels. Godspeed.

Stutz

I visited the artist Michael Stutz the other day. I hadn't seen him in a long time. He has been very busy and quite successful, landing public art commissions at several universities and elsewhere, showing in Lucca, Italy for what I think is the third time and more.

He was putting the patina on this metal sculpture of Quincy Jones that when completed, is heading to Bremerton, Washington.

Michael created a technique and unique look some years ago. I think he has perfected it over time, this piece was really great. I enjoyed looking at the moquettes. 

I think he has a series of pieces going to UTEP next. Will try to stay in touch.

Cat's Squirrel

The great Mick Abrahams on guitar.

One more cup of coffee before I go...

“I won on groceries. Very simple word, groceries. When you buy apples, when you buy bacon, when you buy eggs, they would double and triple the price over a short period of time, and I won an election based on that. We’re going to bring those prices way down.” Donald Trump

I was reading NextDoor the other day when I saw this post:

I thought, five bucks for a cup of coffee, that does seem a little extreme. Didn't the great leader tell us that grocery prices were going down, down, down?

“When I win, I will immediately bring prices down, starting on day one.” Donald Trump

I know that it is an upside down world these days but grocery and commodity prices are not going down, in fact they are going up.

A lot.

Coffee prices surged by 3.6% last month, the largest one-month increase since 2011, according to the latest Consumer Price Index. Coffee prices are up 20.9% so far this year, a near-record annual increase. The US gets most of its coffee from Brazil, and Brazilian imports – including coffee – began facing 50% tariffs last month.

It’s not just your cup of joe. America is highly dependent on other countries for most of its fresh fruit and vegetables. Imports make up 60% of fresh fruit and 38% of fresh vegetables in the United States, according to the Agriculture Department.

Prices on these items are rising. Last month, apple prices increased 3.5%, lettuce 3.5% and bananas 2.1% from the month prior, the index showed.

Tomato prices were up 4.5%. The United States depends on Mexico for a variety of fresh tomatoes, most of which began facing 17% tariffs in July after a nearly three-decade-old trade agreement expired.

From HuffPo:

Perhaps the most extreme example of tariff-induced price hikes thus far is coffee, which is experiencing a 63% annualized inflation rate thanks in large part to Trump’s 50% import tax on major coffee exporter Brazil, a response to that country’s prosecution of Trump’s friend and fellow coup-attempter Jair Bolsonaro.

Presidents not kings?

50% tariff on coffee?  Like drinking liquid gold and not the fake gold plated stuff that now adorns most of the White House like some tawdry Clampett wet dream, I mean the real stuff. 

Soon the only people that will be able to afford to drink the stuff will be the Prez and his assorted grifter robber barons.

Of course, it is not just coffee getting hit, it is pretty much everything, including electricity.

In the four months since he announced his so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs on goods from the rest of the world, inflation on groceries is running at 3.1% on an annualized basis, according to a HuffPost analysis of federal government statistics. In Biden’s final year, grocery prices increased 1.8%.

The inflation rate for electricity over the past four months is running at 15.7% – more than four times what it was in Biden’s final year.

The overall inflation rate is now also higher than it was in Biden’s last 12 months in office: 3.1% on an annualized basis, compared to 2.8%.

“This is what economists warned would happen,” said University of Michigan economics professor Justin Wolfers. “Trump promised these prices would fall. While one could quibble about the rate at which these prices are rising, there’s no question that he hasn’t delivered.”

But wait, didn't the great one tell us that Americans wouldn't pay for tariffs, that they would be absorbed by the other exporting countries?

'Fraid not. The five dollar coffees are getting borne by you and I, American consumers. 

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There is nothing that red staters hate worse than the specter of communism creeping into American life. But it is funny, it is okay to keep handing out fat checks to American corporate farmers after a catastrophe, even if it is one of the administration's making like the tariff fiasco.

We have killed corn and soybean markets. This is mostly the fault of Trump but also the fault of pig headed farmers who followed the GMO and pesticide train, even after consumers said that they were not interested.

China, Europe and Canada now want certifications on every bin and a guarantee of less than lethal ppm pesticide residue. And we can't deliver. I was reading an interview with an Arkansas farmer and he was asked what the administration could now do about the market crash and he said that they could write him a big fat check.

And you know that they ultimately will. Everybody can fail except the red state base, they get to suck on the government tit and they get to win every time.

We have screwed our farmers over by playing hardball with Canada, which is now shutting us out of their potash supply, which is absolutely necessary for plants and food to grow. Couple that with an immigration policy that has left very few to work the fields and you have yourself a food disaster.

“We will pry open foreign markets and break down foreign trade barriers and, ultimately, more production at home will mean stronger competition and lower prices for consumers,” he promised. “This will be indeed the golden age of America.”Instead of lowering costs, though, tariffs have brought higher prices, both because of the tax American importers pay for finished goods but also because U.S. manufacturers rely on so many foreign raw materials and intermediary parts.“Donald Trump promised he’d bring costs down on ‘day one,’ but eight months into his term, inflation remains high, and now, it’s getting harder and harder to find a job as hiring slows to a near standstill and unemployment rises,” said Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin. “Americans aren’t being ‘liberated,’ they’re being robbed by Trump’s chaotic billionaire-first economic agenda.”

We haven't done such a good job at prying open foreign markets with our trade practices and tariff ineptitude, we have instead broke long standing supply chains and bred resentment. And I have to wonder if we will ever get them back? 

People don't like to negotiate with bullies who have a gun to their head. That is not the way friends and allies are supposed to behave.

I would tell you that I would buy you a coffee and discuss this, but frankly I can't afford one. 

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If you are looking for recent inflation numbers, don't bother.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday postponed the release of a key annual report central to future inflation data.

Why it matters: The BLS — charged with collecting critical data on employment, prices and more — did not explain the reasoning for the delay or when it might ultimately be released.

My guess is that the numbers weren't too charitable. In Trumpworld that means that statistics get squashed and somebody gets fired.

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We are cancelling our Disney + subscription. Not much left to see there anyway. 

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Did you see this? And when have we seen it before?

GOP Lawmakers push to build Charlie Kirk Memorials on public campuses in Red States

Lenin or Stalin?