What Shall We Make Today?

Food 1 Minute

Today’s offering is Peach Crumb Bars…a taste of summer that can be enjoyed all year round!

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour

1-1/2 cups sugar, divided

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

Dash ground cinnamon

1 cup shortening

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 pounds peaches, peeled and chopped

1 teaspoon almond extract

4 teaspoons cornstarch

Directions

Preheat oven to 375°. Whisk flour, 1 cup sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon; cut in shortening until crumbly. In another bowl, whisk egg and vanilla until blended; add to flour mixture, stirring with a fork until crumbly.

Reserve 2-1/2 cups crumb mixture for topping. Press remaining mixture onto bottom of a greased 13×9-in. baking pan.

Toss peaches with almond extract. In another bowl, mix cornstarch and remaining sugar; add to peaches and toss to coat. Spread over crust; sprinkle with reserved topping.

Bake until lightly browned and filling is bubbly, 40-45 minutes. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Cut into bars.

Test Kitchen Tip

If you’re craving a bit of summer in the off-season, try making these bars with canned peaches. Just substitute 5-1/2 cups canned peaches (drained well before measuring) for the fresh fruit.

ENJOY!

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Published by pat frederick

Published

115 thoughts on “What Shall We Make Today?”

  1. Morning All!
    what a great night’s sleep we had!! back in our bed with the a/c! although by this morning we didn’t need it–only 50* (!!) outside!
    so last night on the way home from walmart-down on the dirt road–we saw the first black bear this year! a small 2 year old out by himself. i think he had been in the woods around us for a little while because we weren’t seeing a lot of deer.
    last evening after we got home–they were everywhere!! we had 3 mamas and fawns running around like fools. one had triplets–and one had twins–they were the tallest by far–and one had a tiny fawn.
    and guess what i bought at walmart???

    Liked by 1 person

    1. That must be such fun, watching the deer with their fawns! Cool here this morning, too – 66, partly cloudy/thunder/light rain. IDT this one is supposed to amount to much – stronger storms still coming over the next several days.

      Wheezer was sleeping on my chair this morning; as soon as I opened the door, she jumped down and came over to her dish. I retrieved a can of tuna (went to the store yesterday) and she sat right next to the dish as I bent down to add some tuna and mix it with the dry food still in the bowl. She didn’t want to wait, almost pushing my hand aside to get to it, and I was able to pet her a couple of times.

      After she’d eaten it all, she stepped inside and sat on the rug to clean herself, before sauntering into/thru the kitchen; she went around the island and looked behind the TV stand, then walked over to my loveseat and decided to sharpen her claws on the arm of it. I yelled “Hey!” and she sat down and looked at me, then headed back thru the kitchen outside again. I refilled her dish with dry food and, after eating a little more, she went outside to make her rounds.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Morning Filly!
        making herself right at home is she? LOL
        cool that you got to pet her a little!
        the fawns were running all over and chasing one another.
        the mama with the smallest/youngest deer kept careful watch though. when the triplets got too close to her baby. she stepped towards them, stomping her foot. they backed away and ran in another direction. meanwhile, the tiny fawn mimicked its mom–took a step then stomped its foot…hysterical.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Trying to assert her dominance over Jake, is my guess – his scent is prominent everywhere so it’s kind of a “Well, so what if you get to stay inside? I can come inside, too!” Oh, I love watching fawns – they are soooo adorable and full of fun!

          Liked by 1 person

          1. that makes sense. perhaps leaving her scent on things too…to drive jake wild? LOL
            they are! i’m guessing the small bear set up shop in our area for a week or so, because the deer–and especially the fawn–have been scarce.

            Liked by 1 person

  4. Brian Cates – Political Columnist & Pundit

    @drawandstrike

    It took Trump about 9 years to effect this takeover of the GOP at the top. A lot of people didn’t understand this at the time. “Why does Trump keep endorsing The Ronna for RNC chair, huh? Riddle me that, Batman!” Well listen: from 2015 to just 3 months ago… …that vote for RNC Chair was always RIGGED. The power brokers on the Rep. Nat’l Committee [about 70 or so people, if I recall aright] were well stocked with Mitt Romney Clones. The chances Trump could successfully unseat The Ronna when the vote was **rigged in her favor** from 2015-early 2024 was around 0%. Trump is not interested in nominating someone to the RNC chair and then watching them go down in flames in a rigged vote just for some kind of stupid ‘moral victory’. I attempted to explain this several times over the past few years, with limited success. When the time was right, and his nominated candidate had an ACTUAL SHOT at beating The Ronna’s fat ass, Trump made his move. And now all these UniParty corrupticrats are now on the outside looking in. And that’s a beautiful thing…

    Liked by 1 person

  5. Liked by 1 person

  6. Liked by 1 person

  7. Mark Halperin

    @MarkHalperin

    BREAKING NEWS: Multiples sources outline the apparent state of play on Biden at this time: * plans to announce withdrawal from nomination as early as this weekend, with Sunday most likely * Jon Meacham polishing up remarks * Biden with NOT resign the presidency * Biden will NOT endorse Harris * open convention with Harris and about 3 others * super delegates will not be allowed to vote on 1st ballot * Harris is vetting at least four possible running mates, including Andy Beshear and possibly Shapiro

    Liked by 1 person

  14. Michael Shellenberger
    @shellenberger
    The Biden-Harris attempt at a fact check is wrong and Trump was right.

    “Data centers could consume 9% of the United States’ electricity generation by 2030 — double the amount consumed today, according to a study released Wednesday by the Electric Power Research Institute,” the main research group for electoc utilities.

    Liked by 1 person

  17. oh yeah…i picked a zucchini from the garden last night!!!

    it’s huge–i will peel and shred it for zucchini bread. hubby had some beautiful red tomatoes, but the dang chipmunks that are eating my tiny zucchini (when they first develop) are taking ONE bite fromt he tomatoes before they move on! threw away 6 so far

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Dang! Couldn’t you just cut out the section where they took a bite? At least you wouldn’t waste the whole tomato!

      Liked by 1 person

  18. Tom Homan on illegal immigration. I do not think we NEED immigration processes–either you prove your are a legal immigrant or citizen or out you go. why waste MORE taxpayer $$

    FTA

    TOM HOMAN: Last week I made a statement: “You ain’t seen nothing yet. Wait until 2025.” So I said it. I meant it. You can go ahead and print it. People say, Trump’s threatening this historic deportation operations. He’s going to build concentration camps. He’s going to sweep neighborhoods. Let me be clear. None of that will happen.

    We are going to have a historic deportation operation, because you’ve got a historic, illegal immigration, crossing the southern border. If you look at immigration court data, 9 out of 10, nearly 9 out of 10 of these people won’t get asylum because they don’t qualify. So they’re going to be ordered removed. They’ll get a federal order saying they must leave. What is the option? You have to execute those orders, or you know what, just shut down immigration court. Take the Border Patrol off the border. What the hell are we doing? 

    So when they get due process at billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money and a federal judge says “you must go home,” the Trump administration is going to make them go home. And it’s going to require a historic deportation operation. 

    …

    No one’s off the table. If you’re in the country illegally, it’s not OK. If you’re in the country illegally, you better be looking over your shoulder.

    …

    The bottom line is: every illegal alien is a criminal. They enter the country in violation of federal law. It’s a crime to enter this country illegally. 

    https://www.mediamatters.org/tom-homan/heritage-policy-fest-tom-homan-pledges-mass-deportations-under-another-trump

    Liked by 1 person

  21. wow…this seems a stretch. Smith was a PRIVATE citizen…Weiss IS a US attorney

    FTA

    Lawyers for Hunter Biden on Thursday asked federal judges in California and Delaware to dismiss the criminal cases against him in their courts, citing a recent opinion by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and the related dismissal this week of the criminal classified documents case against former President Donald Trump.

    Biden’s lawyers in motions filed in both courts pointed to those two opinions — which questioned the legality of the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith to prosecute Trump — in arguing that the appointment of U.S. Attorney David Weiss as special counsel for prosecutions of the son of President Joe Biden was unconstitutional.

    The motions follow the ruling Monday by Florida federal court Judge Aileen Cannon tossing out Smith’s prosecution of Trump over his retention of classified documents after leaving the White House. Cannon ruled that Smith’s appointment as special counsel violated the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/07/hunter-biden-seeks-dismissal-gun-tax-fraud-cases/

    Liked by 1 person

  23. “The Joe Booster Biden COVID Case and Congressional Vax Health Crisis”

    Tom Renz, JUL 19, 2024

    EXCERPT: “President Joe “Booster” Biden has “isolated” due to a COVID diagnosis despite leading the way as the poster boy for boosters. People are even talking about Biden using COVID or his health as an excuse to quit the race though that is not confirmed.

    Biden certainly a mess but he’s not the only one facing bizarre “health issues.” Mitch McConnell’s brain malfunctions seem to continue to pop up time and time again and Pelosi isn’t doing much better (though as a Democrat the media is more willing to cover it up). We have also observed the deterioration of former Senator Dianne Feinstein and many others as well.

    To be fair, many of our elected officials are extremely advanced in years and so cognitive decline and loss of motor function is somewhat normal and expected. But in a time when strong leadership and clear communication is paramount, a pattern of cognitive decline and oversights like Secretary Austin being hospitalized without informing the chain of command – cannot be overlooked.

    House Representative Payne died suddenly of a heart attack earlier this year. Relatively young members of Congress are having strokes (Fetterman), and we hear things like Rep. Sean Casten’s young, otherwise healthy and ‘fully vaccinated’ teenage daughter died suddenly of sudden cardiac arrhythmia in her sleep. Perhaps it’s time to start asking some real questions… even if they do offend the big pharma political donors.

    Is this really just about old age and staying too long in the game or is there something else we need to look at?

    I recently asked on X whether Biden’s mental decline was related to his continual exposure to mRNA booster and I’m not the only one. Dr. Peter McCullough apparently agrees and recently suggested that the apparent cognitive decline afflicting Biden is consistent with a COVID-19 vaccine injury neurodegenerative syndrome. He is calling for transparency from the White House and that they disclose the dates, brand, and number of doses of vaccines that Biden received. Dr. McCullough, who has not treated or examined Biden, believes it is very likely that COVID-19 vaccination is either the cause of or has significantly contributed to his decline.

    It’s pretty clear that our troops have been harmed by these injections and that military readiness and enlistment have been impacted as a result of the mandate. Congresspeople have also almost certainly been affected even cabinet members have likely been impacted by these poisons. Seeing all this prompted me to ask my team to look into who has likely been injured by the “safe and effective” gene therapies.

    As a reminder, the mRNA gene therapy injections are not actually ‘vaccines’. I’ve already covered that this, and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed that if they do not prevent COVID then they do not meet the definition of a vaccine (we know they do not prevent COVID).

    This list is not comprehensive and naturally no one is going to admit it is a vax injury. Regardless, I’m sharing evidence so decide for yourself. This is not a matter of political allegiance or bias, but rather a genuine concern for the health and well-being of those in positions of power….”

    https://tomrenz.substack.com/p/biden-the-vax-and-congress

    Liked by 1 person

  24. mycroft

    July 19, 2024 9:21 am

    🇺🇸Travis🇺🇸
    from twitter

    @Travis_4_Trump
    Jul 18
    The FBI couldn’t find a man laying on a building 150 yards from Trump with people pointing at him, but they tracked down a J6 patriot from Arkansas with just a picture of his ear. 

    They’ll find what they want to find

    Liked by 1 person

      1. I’m here to serve, my dear! I can’t do much in this fight we’re in but THIS, I can do! We all have to use what skills we possess, however we can!

        Liked by 1 person

            1. my in law (DIL’s father) is a BIG Trump fan and so is his family. at the surprise party we were talking (pre rally time) about possible vp choices…i shot down 3 of his contenders as rinos/ in it for the deep state. he said seriously? haley was one–i said she’s a war monger…desantis? i said he’s in it for himself–we discussed his wife…and i forget the third right now.
              after the attempt, we were talking and he said he would do some investigating with his family and get back to me.
              I got a text yesterday saying damn you’re right.
              spreading the truth…just like 1776…tavern to tavern. lol

              Liked by 1 person

              1. Perfect! Outstanding job! Accurate, in-depth information is what sooooo many people need!!! I don’t have the personality to do it IRL so I do it on-line.

                Liked by 1 person

  27. Shall we take a walk down memory lane???

    “Timeline of Crowdstrike’s “Russia Hacks Ukrainian Military” Debacle + Comey’s Cleanup”

    Lee Stranahan, Mar 20, 2017

    Introduction

    This timeline is a companion piece to my story Fix Is In: Comey Praised DNC-Hired Cybersecurity Firm Even After Botched Report, where I detail how beginning in June, 2016 the Democratic National Committee and Crowdstrike, the FBI-connected cybersecurity firm that they hired, began to create a narrative about “Russian Election Hacking” that now overwhelms the news cycle. I go into detail on how despite no conclusive technical evidence, Crowdstrike and DNC pushed this narrative to attempt to influence the election by smearing Donald Trump and now to delegitimize his victory over Hillary Clinton.

    I also lay out how DNC-hired Crowdstrike produced a report purported to connect Russian intelligence to an alleged hack of the Ukrainian military at the end of December, 2016… just one week prior to the Obama administration imposing a sanction on Russia. This report was thoroughly debunked, yet days after the Ukrainian military denied the claims, FBI director James Comey praised Crowdstrike.

    “Crowdstrike’s Ukrainian Report and Responses,” December 22nd, 2016: Crowdstrike publishes report on Ukrainian artillery hacking: …….”

    https://medium.com/@stranahan/timeline-of-crowdstrikes-russia-hacks-ukrainian-military-debacle-comey-s-cleanup-7871c1710961

    Liked by 1 person

  28. TLHoward
    TLHoward
    July 19, 2024 9:48 am

    This is scary. These guys are the ones who should get to testify in court and in tv hearings on the Hill about ballot fraud.

    https://omega4america.substack.com/p/the-democratization-of-fraud-how

    One paragraph is especially frightening because the US Postal Service and Joe Biden signed an agreement that the Postal Service would adopt special procedures during election season.

    “For example, we have emails from letter carriers – that Postal guy with the leather bag, noting they collect piles of undeliverable ballots in the apartment buildings – bring them to the central U.S. Post Office – those ballots are given, en mass to Leftist groups.
    No big deal – just bring in those ballots from the 500 unit building collecting by the hundreds on the mail room floor – because the address has no apartment number.”

    Liked by 1 person

  29. Just The News: “The White House and the Biden campaign on Friday denied a news report that President Biden is having discussions with family members about a possible exit plan from the 2024 presidential race against GOP nominee Donald Trump.

    “That is not happening, period,” said White House spokesperson Andrew Bates. “The individuals making those claims are not speaking for his family or his team – and they will be proven wrong. Keep the faith.”

    Members of Biden’s family have discussed what an exit from his campaign might look like, based on two people familiar with the discussions, reported NBC News.

    Jen O’Malley Dillon, Biden’s re-election campaign chair,said on Friday that Biden isn’t leaving the race and he has “multiple pathways to victory” in November.

    “Absolutely the president is in this race, you’ve heard him say that time and time again,” she said on MSNBC. “He is the best person to take on Donald Trump.”

    Dillon said the campaign has “seen some slippage in support, but it has been a small movement.”

    Liked by 1 person

    1. boy they ARE delusional.
      although this latest crowdstrike thing makes me wonder. they were involved with hillary AND the 2020 election. perhaps they are supersizing the steal to make sure the maggot wins

      Liked by 1 person

  30. “Republicans Concerned It’s Going To Be Harder Than Usual To Blow This Election”

    POLITICS · Jul 18, 2024 · BabylonBee.com

    Article Image

    MILWAUKEE, WI — Riding a wave of increased popularity with November swiftly approaching, prominent members of the Republican party expressed concern that it’s going to be harder than usual to blow this election.

    Despite positive buzz among the crowds at the Republican National Convention that momentum continues to build behind the party, GOP insiders lamented the significant challenges the party would now face to totally botch this year’s election.

    “The American people are going to make it tough for us this year,” said RNC Chairman Michael Whatley. “We’ve maintained a long tradition of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory right at the last moment, but the voters turning to us in droves is going to pose a real challenge to keep the streak going. I want our supporters to know that we will continue working as hard as we can to blow this election one way or another.”

    Other notable Republicans were not as optimistic about the party’s chances of completely bungling everything by election day. “It’s not looking good,” said Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, who has worked feverishly to anger and alienate loyal voters. “No matter how hard we try to mess things up, support keeps building behind us. We thought we had something going with changing our platform to upset a lot of voters, but Trump surviving an assassination attempt really dealt our chances of ruining the election a huge blow. We’ll totally keep trying, though. We’re Republicans. It’s what we do.”

    At publishing time, RNC leaders discussed holding a human sacrifice to the ancient Canaanite idol Baal in a last-ditch attempt to drive away their voters.

    Liked by 1 person

  31. “New White House Doctor Sadly Informs Biden Only Cure For COVID Is Euthanasia”

    POLITICS · Jul 18, 2024 · BabylonBee.com

    Article Image

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Washington sources report that the White House received “a real downer of a prognosis” yesterday after Dr. Pillary Schminton informed President Biden that the only known cure for COVID is euthanasia.

    Dr. Schminton, who received formal training in Canada, said that — despite the seeming cruelty of it all — euthanasia is the only responsible choice for treating the President’s terrible case of COVID-19.

    “I’m so sorry to say, this is totally fatal,” Dr. Schminton reportedly said. “The only thing we have left to do is keep the poor fellow comfortable and inject him with morphine until he just slips quietly into the sweet embrace of dropping out of the race, er, I mean, death.”

    According to White House insiders, the top Democrat leaders who had hired Dr. Schminton were utterly shocked by the diagnosis.

    “What? Oh no,” gasped Vice-President Kamala Harris, as a cackle tugged at the corners of her mouth. “Euthanasia? No, Joe! We’ve got to do it! I’m so sorry old buddy…we’ve been through so much together! I’ll miss you so dearly!”

    Reports say that Dr. Jill Biden attempted to use her Doctorate of Education to offer a second opinion, but she was quickly hustled out of the White House and into an unmarked black SUV before she could give a comment. President Biden was unavailable for comment, as he was being forcibly quarantined.

    At publishing time, Democrat leaders had Dr. Schminton hard at work putting together a certificate of death to release after the president’s COVID treatment was completed.

    Liked by 1 person

  32. we just picked the first 2 peppers from the plants–about a dozen or more on there currently with more flowers. not a single green or other color pepper at walmart last night.
    picked 5 just about ripe tomatoes (before they get teeth bites) but they got the new zucchini…sigh
    the watermelons are flowering lol and we have 2 tiny balls coming out.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. No actual fruit on mine yet; I ran to the local store yesterday for tuna and creamer and grabbed a mini-melon while I was there. I also broke my favorite pair of sunglasses so I hit Family $ on the way home – got another pair exactly like the other one, but with mirrored lenses this time. I’ve gotta have wrap-around to block the sun from the side.

      Liked by 1 person

  34. Nate Cain, Host of The Raising Cain Show

    @NateCain4WV

    For CrowdStrike to make claims that this is not a cyber attack or cyber incident is laughable. No patch or update is pushed out to production without rigorous development testing in order to prevent what just happened. In my professional opinion as a cybersecurity expert of 27 years, CrowdStrike is guilty of gross negligence in their software development life-cycle and patch distribution, or this global, distributed denial of service, attack was an inside job by a malicious or disgruntled employee. This underscores the need by companies and agencies to do their own patch testing before trusting these companies to do it. It also proves why it is not a good idea to allow these big tech companies to hold monopolies on government contracts within all agencies of the government. One bad piece of software can take down everyone. Make no mistake. This revealed a major vulnerability in our government agencies. This is huge!

    Liked by 1 person

  35. From an episode of Mysteries at the Museum – what this article doesn’t mention is the fact that the US Navy also distributed maps of the locations of the pistol shrimp breeding grounds and US Commanders would use them to hide from German ships:

    EXCERPT: “…….They (Almost) Interfered with WWII

    The powerful pistol shrimp threw an unlikely wrench into the U.S. Navy’s defense plan during World War II. The snap-crackle-pop sound began interfering with sonar used to detect enemy ships, causing the sailors to bring in researchers from the University of California Division of War Research. Luckily they sorted out the source and recorded the shrimp’s sounds to train sonar operators to recognize them as sea denizens rather than enemies.

    Yet while at times troublesome to us humans, the sound created by pistol shrimp isn’t always problematic. It can reflect the health of the coral reef since lots of hunting means lots of life and a balanced ecosystem. The noise can also help other sea creatures navigate the area.”

    https://animals.howstuffworks.com/marine-life/pistol-shrimp.htm

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Earlier, there was a tiny small bubble similar to this in the header with a “0” or “1” next to it that signified a pending comment – now it’s totally gone!

        Liked by 1 person

              1. Oh, it wasn’t anything I did – it just flipped suddenly to a different look all across the top header, both here and at M’s.

                Liked by 1 person

  38. Patience

    July 19, 2024 12:26 pm

    Is THIS true? 🫣

    New information reveals the woman in the photo behind Trump, who calmly recorded the shots fired, is Janeen Diguiseppi, assistant Director of the FBI. Share this widely to spread awareness of her presence and actions during the incident.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Betsy jones

      Betsy jones

      July 19, 2024 12:39 pm

      Last week I posted a tweet, a video, from whom I can’t remember which focused on a young woman in a MAGA hat and over sized sunglasses, holding up her phone and, remaining completely without emotion, who taking a video of the back of Mr Trump as he was hit… then without moving a muscle, continued to do so.

      It seems she has now been identified as Janeen Diguiseppi, assistant Director to the FBI.

      From the Twitter account of Mike Engleman at 6:35 am today…

      WOW! WOW! WOW!” Here’s Janeen Diguiseppi, assistant director to the FBI, sitting directly behind Trump at the Butler rally after he was hit! She never budged when he went to the ground but took pics. Just WTH is going on here?”

      Is he right with his identification of this woman? I must say it looked exceedingly suspicious to me.

      For what it is worth.

      Liked by 1 person

  40. Oh, my! I just looked outside – REALLY dark storm clouds to the N / NW and I can hear thunder in the distance. If I disappear, you’ll know why! Up to 80 and humid now.

    Liked by 1 person

  44. eilert (@guest_1307750)Online
    July 19, 2024 14:48

    Regarding Trump’s speech, I I think the hyper-critical need to settle down a little bit. Trump’s post-trauma testimony was that he changed. Those closest to him corroborated it. His supporters believed it. And it is real. But transformative incidents aren’t personality-snatchers.…

    — David Limbaugh (@DavidLimbaugh) July 19, 2024

    David Limbaugh

    @DavidLimbaugh

    Regarding Trump’s speech, I I think the hyper-critical need to settle down a little bit. Trump’s post-trauma testimony was that he changed. Those closest to him corroborated it. His supporters believed it. And it is real. But transformative incidents aren’t personality-snatchers.

    A further consensus is that the first part, maybe the first half of Trump’s speech was moving, profound, reflective and might signal a different Trump altogether. But as he continued I would suspect few present at the convention were annoyed that he kept going.

    I also sense that many of his supporters watching on TV were very pleased but at a certain point, even though we were forewarned of the possible length, started to get a little nervous for him — not annoyance with him, but rooting for him to wrap it up reasonably soon to ensure that he wouldn’t lose the magic. But they were mostly still riveted by the substance, which in my opinion was specific and powerful, even if sometimes rambling.

    This man is manifestly in command of the facts and the issues and when he went off prompter you could tell that he truly gets it — the damage Joe Biden and his handlers have done to America, and his genuine patriotic grief over this destruction. And Trump couldn’t resist telling us how he was going to dismantle this metastatic government and drain the poison from our system.

    To assure the nervous well-wishers, let me say that Trump did show he had changed. His description of the life-changing, near death experience could not be faked, and people intrinsically know it was sincere and that it has changed Trump — all for the better.

    But we have to understand something else. Trump is irrepressible and that will never change. It’s part of his DNA that no divine transformation will turn him into an entirely different human being. God is not going to gut him of his uniqueness.

    If we’ve learned anything about Trump over the last near-decade it’s that his lifeblood is the country he loves and the people who support him. There is a mutual love bond. He feels it; he’s energized by it; it is contagious and it trickles down into the entire party and into the American body politic at large. Without it, the incredibly explosive convention the entire four days leading up to Trump’s culminating speech would not have been infused with the positive energy it was. The convention might have been a dud.

    Some understandably hoped that Trump would shock everyone by issuing a profound sober address that would leave people reeling with awe and that he might then leave the stage and take the win — that would have been an easy one to knock out of the park and with little risk. But, again, Trump is Trump.

    And what I think happened is that despite plans he might have had to follow probably advice that he do just that, he started feeling that energy from people who love him — and who love him now even more than they did before the shooting. He was pulsating with this energy, it radiated to the audience and it came right back to him tenfold.

    At that point Trump couldn’t resist reverting to self — his humor and his entertainment mode — and a detailed explanation — a laundry list, if you will — of what Biden has done to this country, specifically, and how he panned to fix it — specifically.

    What I think you saw last night was a love-fest and Donald Trump, precisely because he was genuinely affected from the assassination attempt and the outpouring of love from his supporters — genuine American patriots, not kooks, not cult members, not idolators — was compelled to continue because he simply couldn’t get enough of the intoxicating experience. It was an orgy of optimism.

    I think some of the critics might be projecting a bit, thinking their annoyance at the length of the speech was shared by way more people than it actually was. People might have preferred that it end before it did, but they were not annoyed and I truly don’t believe he lost many votes, if any, because of it.

    In fact, considering the feelings of the audience, I think it might be a good thing in part that he continued and showed his personal side even more, validating what his family, friends, and others had said about him throughout this week.

    We saw an intimately personal and lovable Trump last night. He wasn’t shrieking or bitter even as he described the disgusting, deliberate damage Biden has done to America. He was personally likable throughout. And I, for one, hope millions of Americans watching on TV saw the real human side of Trump, his humor, his charm, and his genuine love for America and absolute determination to fix it and the indomitable optimism he has that he is up to the job.

    People who watched this might have heard for the first time, in graphic detail, a bill of particulars of the “crimes” Biden and his handlers have visited on America. Those in a news void might have been blown away by what they heard.

    Because of my own optimism and my starvation for a monumental corrective and rebirth for America, I may be wrong about all of this but I sincerely doubt it. If Trump could ever get a pass, if there were ever an opportunity for grace being extended to him, it was last night, following the shooting.

    The country is desperately sick of the assault on our nation. Americans are crying out for relief from the left’s internal revolution against our founding ideals and our Constitution and rule of law. Trump signaled in spades that he was up to the task of answering that call and he intended to implement revolutionary-level remedies — albeit lawful and constitutional ones, to right the ship of state.

    So supporters who are worried that Trump may have squandered his good will and lost a golden opportunity, don’t let your hearts be troubled because he didn’t. (Again, sorry this post is as long as Trump’s speech).

    God bless America.

    Liked by 1 person

  45. Storms weren’t bad at all – just some heavy rain followed by a good long, soaking rain. I can hear some thunder still off in the distance but it’s pleasant now at 69. The Orioles are still on their hiatus but the Red-Headed WP’s never stop!!!

    Liked by 1 person

  47. “Hey, everyone, gather round. Let’s hire based on appearance and/or membership in a grievance group! Forget merit, this will work! I promise!”

    Friday Open Road:

    Liked by 1 person

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