What Shall We Bake Today?

Food 1 Minute

Continuing on with great picnic desserts, today’s offering is Peach bars!

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.

Enjoy!

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Published by pat frederick

Published

105 thoughts on “What Shall We Bake Today?”

    1. Good morning, Pat! Super humid this morning w/fog, temp is 66 – supposed to be in the 80’s but the 90’s this week-end, then dropping again. But the dog days of summer (August) are still to come!

      Like

    2. Good morning! The peach bars sound delicious – love the peach/almond extract combination. I’ve got 3 ripe peaches and may make them today – but will mix the crumb topping with sliced almonds to gild the lily. Will wrap and freeze most for rewards for my hard work dealing with all of Sally’s stuff and getting house cleaned out.

      Thunder and thunderstorms started early this morning. Usually it’s an afternoon and evening thing. There’s a disturbance in the Gulf of America, that is probably feeding storms up our way.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Morning GA!
        I was going to ask you how to judge—3 pounds of peaches is roughly how many? I bought 2 large ones at walmart but they sold them by number, not the weight.

        Like

    1. Wellll…..many Americans won’t buy beef that is poisoned with all the chemicals either…as long as all the vaccines and crap is stopped, it will be safe again….

      Liked by 1 person

  10. from American Thinker:

    July 25, 2025
    We gotta get out of this place
    By Silvio Canto, Jr.

    A few years ago, I visited New York and stayed at a hotel near the UN building. I said to myself one morning that the tall building would make a nice hotel by the river. My reason for feeling that way is that I’ve been skeptical of the UN for years. What are we getting for paying so much of the UN budget? Today we learned that a court wants to turn climate change into another excuse to get into your pockets.

    Here is the story:

    A landmark decision by a top UN court has cleared the way for countries to sue each other over climate change, including over historic emissions of planet-warming gases.

    But the judge at the International Court of Justice in the Hague, Netherlands on Wednesday said that untangling who caused which part of climate change could be difficult.

    The ruling is non-binding but legal experts say it could have wide-ranging consequences.

    It will be seen as a victory for countries that are very vulnerable to climate change, who came to court after feeling frustrated about lack of global progress in tackling the problem.

    There you go. A non-binding opinion declared as landmark is the latest garbage to come out of this place called the United Nations.

    It makes you wonder: What are we doing sending our dollars to people who spend their time writing non-binding opinions that we refer to as landmark? Maybe the people at the UN should explain to their members that dictatorships are sitting in human rights commissions.

    Yes, the UN building would make a nice hotel and let Trump tell you how.

    Liked by 2 people

  12. “Justice Must Be Served”

    Newsletter | July 24, 2025

    “Denying the facts, spinning false narratives, or claiming ignorance won’t cut it – not this time. The headwinds of truth are breaking through with the greatest political scandal in American history – a coup led by a sitting president to destroy his successor – a duly-elected President, his administration, and the will of the American people.

    Recent documents declassified by the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard, provided evidence of what many Americans have surmised over the last eight years — that Barack Obama headed the operation targeting his successor.

    Donald Trump was the first one to say it out loud, just months after his inauguration on January 20, 2017, when he wrote in a March 4, 2017, tweet, “Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!”  Now we know for certain: it was Obama all along.

    Evidence pointing to the 44th president had been accumulating over the years. But on Friday, July 18, 2025, on social media, DNI Gabbard confirmed any lingering suspicions by laying out the facts: “Americans will finally learn the truth about how in 2016, intelligence was politicized and weaponized by the most powerful people in the Obama Administration to lay the groundwork for what was essentially a years-long coup against President Trump, subverting the will of the American people and undermining our democratic republic.” The Director’s press release, together with the declassified documents, outlined the guts of the assault on the Republic and the culprits involved.

    https://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsroom/press-releases/press-releases-2025/4086-pr-15-25

    So what’s next? Will there finally be justice for those whose lives were turned upside down by the Deep State’s plot against Trump? Will all those lives that were destroyed get justice?

    Americans are rightly skeptical. After all, many have known for years who was driving the conspiracy, Obama’s hands on the wheel. There was the Horowitz report, which provided some useful detail but held no one accountable. John Durham was appointed to investigate the origins of Russiagate, but when Biden won, the Justice Department clipped his wings. All we got was another report that failed to hold anyone accountable. The two conspirators Durham charged, Michael Sussman and Igor Danchenko, walked out of Washington, D.C. courtrooms laughing. No way was a jury drawn from a city that votes more than 90% Democrat going to find them guilty.

    Yesterday, July 23, 2025, the Department of Justice announced the formation of a Strike Force to assess and investigate potential next legal steps that may result from DNI Gabbard’s disclosures, confirming it “will investigate these troubling disclosures fully and leave no stone unturned to deliver justice.”

    Without Obama and his cabal being held accountable to We The People for “their egregious abuse of power and blatant rejection of our Constitution,” as DNI Gabbard stated, the foundation and integrity of the Republic is threatened. “No matter how powerful, every person involved in this conspiracy must be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, to ensure nothing like this ever happens again.”

    Nearly a decade has passed since the 2016 election. Americans have lost patience, and trust is at an all-time low. In this case, more than any other, accountability must prevail and justice must be served.”

    Liked by 1 person

  13. The money hungry asshole I’ve got mowing my yard showed up at my door yesterday, looking for the bal due of $75 for the last mowing but I put it in the mail on Tuesday, just as I told him I would – I had him write down his mailing address for me before he left! Since all mail has to be routed thru Omaha these days (asinine!!!), I expect it took more than a day to make it to his box. What a greedy jackass!!!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. when we went out Wednesday to go to walmart, along the macadam road into town, a guy had 3 used riding mowers for sale. shame you don’t live closer!! they all looked in good shape. we didn’t stop to check on them or anything, but he’s a tinker…lol…always got stuff in his garage he’s working on or fixing.

      Liked by 1 person

        1. i wouldn’t even know how to start that process…lol
          goodness–you are always solving problems in your head, aren’t you?

          you write letters to the editor–can’t you advertise in the want ads–wanted used, but in decent shape mower?
          you might get a machine or a MAN with a machine…LOLOLOL

          Like

          1. Pffttt…I do NOT want a man, thank you very much! And it wouldn’t do any good here or in Norfolk, for that matter.

            Wonder if he is a veteran? He might be willing to go out of his way for a fellow veteran and people ship things via the RR all the time – why not a mower???? The RR tracks here are less than a block from my house or I could pick it up in Norfolk.

            Liked by 1 person

  14. “Ending Medical Gaslighting: How the institution of medicine covers up the inevitable harms of its unsafe therapeutic toolbox.”

    A Midwestern Doctor, Jul 24, 2025

    EXCERPT: “Every now and then, regardless of how difficult things are or how much you begin to doubt what you are doing, you will come across something that reminds you that what you are doing matters and you need to continue.

    That happened to me today when I saw a recent JAMA study surveying pregnant mothers and parents of young children, which found:

    That study, in turn, concluded with:

    Given the high decisional uncertainty during pregnancy about vaccinating children after birth, there may be value in intervening during pregnancy to proactively support families with childhood vaccination decisions.

    As COVID had been such a severe overreach, I had hoped that the COVID cartel’s greed would awaken people to the issues with vaccination and prompt significant skepticism against the existing pediatric vaccines. However, I did not expect such a large shift to occur so quickly. To briefly put this in context:

    First, while there has been an overall loss of trust in vaccination (which I consider to be absolutely profound), the drop in confidence is much greater among the youngest generation, who are actually making the decisions to vaccinate their children. Consider for example, the results of this January survey, where far more than 37% of all Americans fully trusted and intended to follow the CDC schedule.

    Second, a total of 37% of American parents fully trust the schedule, which represents a massive drop compared to the historical baseline. Specifically:

    •In 2000, 19% of parents had “concerns about vaccines”
    •In 2003, 28% of parents had “vaccine hesitancy,” of whom approximately two-thirds delayed or refused only certain vaccines.
    •In 2009, 50% of parents had “concerns about vaccines” and 11.5% had refused at least one vaccine for their child (most commonly refusing the injurious HPV vaccine)
    •In 2010, 89% of pediatricians reported at least one vaccine refusal by a parent each month, with yearly childhood flu shots being the most commonly refused vaccine.
    •In 2011, 13% of parents followed an alternative vaccine schedule (e.g., skipping or delaying some vaccines)—most of whom had originally followed the CDC schedule, along with 2.2% skipped all vaccines.
    •In 2013, 9% of parents declined or postponed all immunizations, and 32% had concerns about vaccine safety.

    The key context to understand about these figures is that they were alarming to the medical field, as their baseline had been to expect almost all parents would vaccinate without complaining and if someone dared to step out of line by doing something as simple as delaying vaccines (as more vaccines close together at a young age increases the likelihood of an injury) they were crucified by the medical field and often lost their licenses. As such, if you consider the figures they were alarmed by, and then compare them to the current reality, the difference is essentially “night and day.”

    Third, a major way vaccine compliance is enforced is through social pressure (e.g., “everyone else is doing it, so you must be crazy or a bad parent if you aren’t”) and mandates. Both of these are predicated on the majority of the population being vaccinated, which essentially is why the medical industry was so concerned about vaccine use dropping below 90%.

    As such, I believe a key reason why so many unconscionable and aggressive childhood mandates were pushed across America in 2019 (e.g., the California ones), despite widespread public protest, was because the vaccine industry realized they were losing the majority necessary to justify (an unscientific and unconscionable) vaccine program and hence had to default to forcing them to vaccinate…..”

    https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/p/ending-medical-gaslighting

    Like

  15. “Friday Funnies: Orange Man Bad…or is it, “Orange is the New Black”

    Robert W Malone MD, MS, Jul 25, 2025

    Like

  16. Who remembers these headlines -below?(TRUE STORY)…

    In retrospect, was this an attempt by legacy media, at the behest of the deep state controlled by Obama, to set the narrative that the findings of the Mueller report were inaccurate, due to Mueller’s “cognitive aging”?

    As the deep state knew dam well that Trump did not collude with the Russians all along and that the report exonerating Trump was exactly what they didn’t want to come out – with the 2020 presidential election on the horizon?

    This was propaganda, plain and simple. PsyWar tech was repeatedly deployed by the deep state against American Citizens to delegitimize a duly elected president.

    Will there be consequences?

    Liked by 1 person

  22. EXCERPT: “Judges nominated by presidents Trump, Clinton and George W. Bush walk into a First Amendment case about compelled affirmation of gender identity and facilitation of medicalized transitions as a condition of adoption. The punchline may surprise you.

    The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday blocked Oregon’s Department of Human Services from denying Jessica Bates’ application to adopt the siblings she is fostering based on her refusal to honor the asserted gender identity of “hypothetical adopted children” in speech or actions, with the Trump and Clinton nominees overruling the Bush nominee.

    U.S District Judge Adrienne Nelson, nominated by President Biden, denied a preliminary injunction for the widowed Christian mother of five in 2023, arguing the failure to “respect a child’s LGBTQ+ identity imposes collateral harm on the child’s development, safety, and physical well-being.”

    Nelson also determined the regulation meets the highest standard of judicial review, strict scrutiny, as the least restrictive means of achieving a compelling state interest, explicitly disagreeing with a 2020 ruling against a similar Washington policy by an Obama nominee, Judge Salvador Mendoza, whom Biden subsequently appointed to the 9th Circuit.

    The ruling united free speech and religious freedom groups against the Beaver State at the San Francisco-based appeals court, as did a similar ruling upholding Vermont’s revocation of foster licenses for refusal to affirm gender ideology, now under review by the 2nd Circuit. 

    No ‘force field against the valid operation of other constitutional rights’

    The 9th Circuit majority applied strict scrutiny to the entire case, while the minority applied intermediate scrutiny to Bates’s free speech claim and easy-to-meet “rational basis” standard to her free exercise claim, arguing the policy only regulates conduct and is “neutral and generally applicable.”

    The panel divided on whether “Resource and Adoptive Families Training,” an instructor-led ODHS course that prospective parents must complete, is “purely advisory” because Oregon has not “enshrined the materials into regulations,” the majority said.

    “Oregon only initiated its investigation into Bates’s beliefs after she expressed disagreement with the RAFT training,” which it said defines its “expectation” for adhering to the regulation that adoption applicants “respect, accept and support” the gender identity of adoptive children, said the opinion by Judge Daniel Bress, joined by Judge Michael Hawkins.

    “In the context of raising children, such respect and support inevitably both restricts and compels speech,” as Judge Nelson found, they said, dinging Bush nominee Judge Richard Clifton’s dissent for botching the factual record and hence the correct review standards.

    “The situation would be no different if the state had restricted parental speech favoring more ‘progressive’ views of sexuality and gender identity, while compelling speech along the lines of Bates’s more traditional understanding,” according to the opinion.

    The duo said a “state’s general conception of the child’s best interest does not create a force field against the valid operation of other constitutional rights,” such that it could deny adoption based on the “political view, race, or religious affiliations” of prospective parents.

    Oregon deems as unfit prospective parents who won’t take young children “to events like pride parades,” as ODHS explicitly demanded of Bates, which is “false and incredibly dangerous,” Bates’s lawyer Jonathan Scruggs of the Alliance Defending Freedom said in celebrating the ruling.

    “The 9th Circuit was right to remind Oregon that the foster and adoption system is supposed to serve the best interests of children, not the state’s ideological crusade,” he said.

    “We are disappointed in the ruling but are reviewing to determine next steps,” Oregon Department of Justice spokesperson Jenny Hannson told Just the News when asked whether the state plans to seek a full-court rehearing or direct appeal to the Supreme Court.

    ‘Faith-based communities’ can be sources of ‘prejudice and rejection’

    Oregon’s RAFT training is far-reaching even by the standards of gender affirmation, resembling a Canadian gender studies course more than American adoption requirements…..”

    https://justthenews.com/nation/religion/appeals-court-blocks-gender-identity-mandates-adoption-pronouns-pride-parade

    Liked by 1 person

  23. Just The News: “The Pentagon on Thursday publicly announced it will no longer allow Defense Department officials to appear at events that do not align with the current presidential administration, and will instead thoroughly screen future programs.

    The move comes a week after the Pentagon pulled all of its military speakers from the annual Aspen Security Forum, which the Trump administration has blasted as a “globalist” summit. The Aspen Institute is a left-leaning think tank, and has featured critics of President Donald Trump like former National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.

    The order, which went into effect on Tuesday, has only directly impacted the Halifax International Security Forum in November so far, but Defense officials are still reviewing other national security summits, Politico reported.

    “The days of ‘business as usual’ are OVER! The DOD’s Office of Public Affairs will be conducting a thorough vetting of every event where Defense officials are invited to participate,” Pentagon spokesperson Kingsley Wilson posted to X. “Going forward, no DOD official will attend events by America Last organizations that promote globalism and hate [Trump].”

    The order applies to all civil servants, military officers and senior leaders. Attendance at future events will require the approval of the Pentagon’s public affairs team, and approved speakers will be asked to provide talking points for their speeches in advance.

    The directive could also impact events held by nonprofit military associations, such as Sea Air Space and Modern Day Marine, but military officials are still seeking clarification on that aspect.”

    Liked by 1 person

  24. Just The News: “President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order directing federal agencies to help empower states and cities to get homeless people off the streets and into rehabilitation centers, by prioritizing federal grants for that purpose.

    The order, titled “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets,” comes after Trump promised to clean up major U.S. cities, including Washington, D.C., that have become hot spots for illicit drug use and crime.

    Trump also directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to “reverse judicial precedents and end consent decrees” that prohibit cities and states from removing drug-addicted homeless people and placing them into treatment centers.

    “Endemic vagrancy, disorderly behavior, sudden confrontations, and violent attacks have made our cities unsafe,” the order reads. “The number of individuals living on the streets in the United States on a single night during the last year of the previous administration — 274,224 — was the highest ever recorded.”

    “The overwhelming majority of these individuals are addicted to drugs, have a mental health condition, or both,” it continued. “The Federal Government and the States have spent tens of billions of dollars on failed programs that address homelessness but not its root causes, leaving other citizens vulnerable to public safety threats.”

    The order is part of Trump’s commitment to “Make America Safe Again,” which has also included a crackdown on illegal immigration. 

    Trump further directed Bondi to work with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner to designate funds for states and cities that already enforce bans on open drug use, urban camping and loitering, and keep an eye on sex offenders.

    The president did not specify how much funding would be allocated to the grants, but he claimed moving homeless drug users into “humane” treatment centers would “restore public order.”

    Liked by 1 person

  25. “Biden Excited to See What Autopen Comes Up With For His Memoir”

    Politics · Jul 24, 2025 · BabylonBee.com

    Image for article: Biden Excited to See What Autopen Comes Up With For His Memoir

    GREENVILLE, DE — Former President Joe Biden expressed great interest and enthusiasm in his upcoming memoir, adding that he’s quite eager to see what the autopen comes up with for it.

    “That autopen and I go way back, fat,” Biden said. “It’s always coming up with something creative. I’m on the edge of my seat with… with… on the… I’m… it’ll be something.”

    Biden’s auto-penned memoir was reportedly sold to Hachette Book Group, a New York-based publisher, for $10 million. A sizable sum, but less than Obama earned for his twenty memoirs, presumably because Obama actually wrote it himself.

    “To be clear, that autopen is going to know more about my presidency than myself,” Biden confirmed. “But I wrote a little poem in there about ice cream. I love ice cream. Streetsweeper. Anyway… I rathalamber, Samantha. Mrerdifilbiltatorkanf.”

    “Pardon Me: The Joe Biden Story” was slated for release in fall 2025.

    At publishing time, Biden had filed suit against the autopen for claiming he had lost all his faculties and was unable to write a memoir.

    Like

  26. “Top 10 Fallback Jobs For Laid-Off IRS Workers”

    U.S. · Jul 24, 2025 · BabylonBee.com

    Image for article: Top 10 Fallback Jobs For Laid-Off IRS Workers

    With new reports indicating that President Trump’s administration has reduced the Internal Revenue Service workforce by a staggering 25% since January, tens of thousands of former IRS employees are now looking for work. But what does the job market look like for them?

    The Babylon Bee has put together the following list to help laid-off IRS workers land on their feet:

    1. Pretty much any job at the DMV: Unpleasant government positions nobody in the general public wants to interact with? A natural fit.
    2. Mugger: Jumping out of a dark alley to demand all of someone’s money. Sounds about right.
    3. Fill-in host of CBS’s The Late Show: Wait, never mind.
    4. Proctologist: Another job that’s perfect for someone accustomed to probing people in the most uncomfortable and invasive ways possible.
    5. Middle management on the Death Star: A simple, lateral move from one evil empire to another.
    6. Summer spot on the host panel for ABC’s The View: Wait, never mind.
    7. Serial killer: A great job for someone who is used to having everyone mortally terrified at the mere mention of them.
    8. Goon for cartoonish supervillain: Most of Batman’s rogues’ gallery is probably in the market for mobs of henchmen.
    9. CIA interrogator: Waterboarding can’t be that much worse than being audited.
    10. Jehovah’s Witness missionary: IRS workers are well-suited for jobs that have them showing up unwanted on people’s doorsteps.

    If you’re a former IRS employee, any one of the jobs listed above should be right up your alley. Have other positions you’d suggest for out-of-work IRS workers? Throw them in the comments below.

    Like

  27. “Hosts Of ‘The View’ Go On Hiatus To Tear Unwary Sailors Apart With Their Talons”

    Entertainment · Jul 24, 2025 · BabylonBee.com

    Image for article: Hosts Of 'The View' Go On Hiatus To Tear Unwary Sailors Apart With Their Talons

    THE HIGH SEAS — Following the announcement of the show’s annual summer break, the hosts of ABC’s The View revealed they were going on hiatus to tear unwary sailors apart with their talons.

    Like other harpies throughout history, the members of the daytime talk show’s host panel said they were eager to take a vacation from their day jobs to fall back into their natural inclination to terrorize seafarers when they least expect it.

    “Hosting the show every day is nice, but ripping sailors to shreds with our razor-sharp claws is always more fun,” said Joy Behar. “Even though we feel very strongly about going on television and unleashing our horrifying screeching and bloodthirsty viciousness on our viewers and the country as a whole, nothing beats getting out there on the seas during a windstorm and plaguing unsuspecting sailors. SKREEEEEEEEEEEEE!”

    Seamen were already warning each other about the impending onslaught. “Aye, there be harpies about in these waters,” said one old sailor. “On a stormy night on the sea, folks say you can hear ‘em off in the distance. Howlin’ and screamin’ about Donald Trump in the darkness. If you sail too close, the terrible, loathsome hags from The View will swoop down and rip into you with those nasty claws of theirs. It’s a tale that’s been told a thousand times. They say once screechin’ starts… it’s the last sound you’ll ever hear.”

    At publishing time, Stephen Colbert, former host of The Late Show, had reportedly asked the ladies from The View if they would teach him how to be a harpy.

    Like

  34. Just The News: “Illinois GOP Rep. Mary Miller said Thursday that she will introduce a companion bill to Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley’s legislation protecting U.S. farmland from being purchased by China.

    Hawley reintroduced “Protecting Our Farms and Homes from China Act” last week, and Miller told Fox News that her companion bill will be introduced in the House with a dozen Republican co-sponsors. “Prized American land is not for sale to our enemies,” Miller told the news outlet. “The Chinese Communist Party is the greatest threat to our national security, and their aggressive push to buy up our farmland and homes is a direct attack on our sovereignty. It’s long past time we take back control and put America’s food supply and communities back in American hands — where they belong,” she also said.

    Chinese entities currently own about 265,000 acres of U.S. agricultural land, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

    “For far too long, foreign adversaries have taken advantage of our farmland. While USDA doesn’t currently have the authority to prevent the purchase of farmland by foreign nationals, we are actively working to improve the accuracy of foreign-owned farmland reporting so that the public, Congress, and state governments have the relevant data needed to make informed policy decisions,” a USDA spokesperson told Fox News.

    The House and Senate bills would each ban Chinese corporations and individuals affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party from acquiring or leasing any agricultural land in the U.S. The legislation prohibits them from purchasing U.S. residential real estate for two years, with an option for the president to extend the ban every two years. Property already held by those entities will be required to divest within a year of the bill being enacted.

    The bill also nullifies any non-compete agreements that involve foreign agricultural employers and establishes compliance offices within the Departments of Agriculture and Commerce to oversee enforcement.

    The legislation includes civil fines of $100 per acre per day for illegal agricultural holdings, and $1,000 per day for residential real estate violations, and criminal penalties include up to five years in prison. Land that is acquired in violation of the law would be subject to forfeiture and sold at public auction.

    “China’s ownership of U.S. farmland poses a direct threat to American interests,” Hawley said. “We should never let our nation’s greatest adversary have access to our vital resources, including our housing supply. That’s why I’m reintroducing legislation to protect American assets from the CCP once and for all.”

    Liked by 1 person

  35. Just The News: “The Justice Department (DOJ) on Thursday filed an emergency request to the Supreme Court, asking it to lift a lower court’s block on the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) decisions to cancel health grants related to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

    The NIH began canceling grants in March that it claimed were spent on projects like studies on transgender healthcare, vaccine hesitancy, and diversity research, arguing the grants no longer aligned with the agency’s priorities under President Donald Trump. However, U.S. District Judge William Young ruled last month that the NIH’s decisions violated the Constitution.

    The DOJ asked the court for an emergency stay on the order, which would allow the cancellations to resume while the appeals process plays out, according to The Hill. 

    “The district court’s order directs the NIH to continue paying $783 million in federal grants that are undisputedly counter to the Administration’s priorities,” federal attorneys wrote in the filing. “Following the change in Administration, the NIH identified, explained, and pursued new funding priorities.”

    “That is democracy at work, not, as the district court thought, proof of inappropriate ‘partisan[ship]’ let alone a permissible basis for setting agency action aside,” the lawyers added.

    The move marks the administration’s latest request for the Supreme Court to wade into its legal battles. The administration has also asked the court to let it continue its plan for massive layoffs at federal agencies, and to allow it to gut the Department of Education.”

    Liked by 1 person

  36. Just The News: “President Donald Trump’s special envoy for peace missions, Steve Witkoff, on Thursday announced the United States would withdraw from Gaza ceasefire talks, citing frustrations with Hamas.

    Israel and Hamas reached a tentative deal earlier this month, which the United States hoped would result in a 60-day ceasefire. The deal would have included the release of 10 living hostages, but progress on the talks has since stalled. 

    Witkoff said that the United States and Israel will now consider “alternative options” to bring the remaining hostages home, but has not teased what other options are currently on the table.

    “We have decided to bring our team home from Doha for consultations after the latest response from Hamas, which clearly shows a lack of desire to reach a ceasefire in Gaza,” Witkoff posted to X. “While the mediators have made a great effort, Hamas does not appear to be coordinated or acting in good faith. 

    “We will now consider alternative options to bring the hostages home and try to create a more stable environment for the people of Gaza,” he continued. “It is a shame that Hamas has acted in this selfish way. We are resolute in seeking an end to this conflict and a permanent peace in Gaza.”

    The U.S. is not the only country pushing for an end to the war in the Middle East, which has caused starvation in Gaza due to disruptions in sending food and other aid into the territory. More than 30 other countries issued a joint statement on Monday, calling for an immediate end to the war and the release of all remaining hostages.”

    Liked by 1 person

  37. Ummm….I always liked Paxton but THIS???? Uh, this is NOT right!!!!

    Just The News: “Texas GOP Senate candidate state Attorney General Ken Paxton claims three homes as primary residences, which results in low mortgage interest rates, and a homestead tax break on two of the properties, according to a news report Thursday. Paxton and his now-estranged wife, Angela, have long owned a $1.5 million house in a gated community outside Dallas, and in 2015 bought another home in Austin, followed by another one in the capital city, the Associated Press reported.

    The Dallas home is where the family has resided and where the Paxtons are registered to vote. Angela Paxton represents the state Senate district that includes Dallas. Her husband held that seat before his election in 2014 for attorney general.

    Paxton is  running for Sen. John Cornyn’s seat in the GOP primary race, and his wife announced earlier this month that she had filed for divorce.

    According to the AP’s review of public records, the three houses are all listed as the Paxtons’ primary residence, which gave them low interest rates, saving them tens of thousands of dollars in payments over the life of the loans. Also, in 2018, the Paxtons submitted paperwork for and received homestead property tax breaks for both the Dallas home and a $1.1 million home in Austin. Homestead property tax breaks are for homeowners to collect for one property that is their primary home.

    The Paxtons also have a mortgage on a home in College Station, Texas, and a $1.2 million mortgage on a “5 bedroom luxury cabin” in Broken Bow, Okla., per the news wire. Both mortgages state that the properties cannot be rented out, but the College Station home has been listed for rent on real estate websites on-and-off since at least 2022, and the Oklahoma cabin is for rent on Airbnb and other short-term rental sites.

    The Paxtons didn’t respond to the AP’s requests for comment.”

    Liked by 1 person

  38. “The Wall Street Journal’s Epstein Reports Are Kind Of Proving Trump’s Point’

    The Federalist, By: Eddie Scarry, July 24, 2025

    Donald Trump

    ENTIRE ARTICLE: “I don’t know about you, but I’m certainly not going to be taken for another Russiagate ride, particularly now that this new would-be scandal comes with the added bonus of centering on a child sex trafficking operation. No thanks!

    The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday ran another story in a week’s time purporting to uncover President Trump’s attempts to conceal the extent of his past relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. This time the paper reported that Trump was informed by Justice Department officials that his name turns up repeatedly in the “Epstein files,” and that the information was relayed to him before his administration announced there would be no more public disclosures on the case.

    As a lot of people have already acknowledged, Trump’s name turning up in the file isn’t some shock development given that the public already knew that the two men knew each other personally. And as the Journal itself said, “Being mentioned in the records isn’t a sign of wrongdoing.”

    But of course, the point here isn’t to definitively determine whether the president is guilty of wrongdoing. It’s to continue feeding a narrative that he might be and to imply that by declining to endlessly indulge each new accusation related to Epstein, he’s creating more suspicion and thus inviting more scrutiny. Agitate, rinse, and repeat. That’s what happened with Russiagate, and that’s why Trump now, as he did back then, is calling the story a hoax.

    I’ve been here before, and I’m not interested. When the Journal has a documented confession or smoking gun photograph proving that Trump partook in Epstein’s misdeeds, or even that he’s trying to hide them for any reason at all, feel free to let me know. But I’m not going to spend years like we did on Russiagate, allowing the dying media to trickle out little suggestions fed to them by unnamed bureaucrats that something is afoul, while proving nothing. Nobody should tolerate it.

    On top of the Journal’s report that Trump’s — gasp! — name is in the “files,” the paper also claims to have seen some typewritten letter and doodle-like drawing from Trump to Epstein for the now-dead man’s 50th birthday in 2003. Trump denies that he’s the author, and there’s no proof that he is. Next!

    That’s the problem though. There will be a next “exclusive,” and then another and another, each one intended to chip away at Trump’s support and thus his political agenda and ultimately his legacy. You can follow along or skip to the end, at which point you’re likely to see you’ve been had again.”

    Liked by 1 person

  39. “Hospital settles lawsuit after patient dies during surgery. The doctors were playing “Music Bingo” during the procedure.”

    Not The Bee, Mister Retrops, Jul 24, 2025

    Image for article: Hospital settles lawsuit after patient dies during surgery. The doctors were playing "Music Bingo" during the procedure.

    “Cataract surgery is one of the most common surgeries out there with 4 million performed per year, but any surgery can be dangerous, especially if your surgeon is playing bingo while conducting it.

    According to KUSA 9News’s investigative team, that’s what cost 56-year-old Bart Writer his life in 2023.

    While he was under the knife at InSight Surgery Center in Lone Tree, Colorado, his doctors were playing “Music Bingo,” so, as you may expect, the surgeon soon found himself in a lawsuit.

    The bingo game, according to court records and deposition transcripts, involved Drs. Urban and Johnson playing mostly ’70s and ’80s music and attempting to tie the bands involved to ‘B’ ‘I’ ‘N’ ‘G’ and ‘O.’

    ‘So, as an example, if the ’70s group the Bee Gees were to sing a song, that would be the letter “B,”‘ said Urban during a deposition in the lawsuit against Johnson.

    ‘Were you the one keeping score on Feb. 3, 2023?’ asked an attorney.

    ‘I believe so,’ replied Urban.

    ‘When did the game get started?’ asked the attorney.

    ‘I’m not even sure. It had been going on for a few years, I believe,’ said Urban.

    It’s all fun and games until you have to play the Reaper:

    According to Chris Writer, Bart’s widow, the doctors had turned off the alarms for equipment during the procedure and were distracted by the bingo game, so they didn’t notice that her husband’s oxygen was turned off and that his skin was turning blue.

    The surgery was supposed to last all but ten minutes, and during that time, Bart died from cardiac arrest.

    She recalled: ‘We had just talked about what we were gonna do for dinner that night. He just never met anyone that he didn’t like and that didn’t like him, you know, it’s just that’s who he was.

    ‘My son is without his dad, his best friend. I’m without Bart, my guy. Yeah, it makes me angry. It makes me sad. I’m sad. I’m mad. I’m just disgusted. I’m just infuriated,’ Chris said as she cried.

    Dr. Johnson, the one performing the surgery, had known Bart for years, which makes this story all the more tragic. And now Johnson has settled the case for an undisclosed amount.”

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Cotton is a Sea Island RINO – and all these NGOs are a sneaky way to get donor $$$ and other kinds of $$$ into politicians pockets.

      Betcha they all have a bunch of NGOs that trace to nefarious people like $0r0$

      Liked by 2 people

  41. Australia is fucked thru-and-thru!

    Liked by 1 person

  42. Pat & Filly – I made the Peach Bars with a few changes/additions.

    1. My baking powder and vanilla are in the spare apartment at the Village. So I had to substitute Cream of Tartar and Baking Soda and just use Almond Extract.
    2. I made them in a bigger jelly roll pan, so I made a bit more crust – 1.5 amount of everything.
    3. I didn’t have enough peaches to do sliced peaches, and my peaches were over ripe so that the pink inner portion was a bit gray – so I put them in the food processor with the corn starch, and 4 semi frozen strawberries for color. Made a smooth peach filling that I spread over the bottom crust almost to the edge.
    4. The eggs made it a bit more like dough than crumbles, so I put most of the dough in the bottom of the pan, then added more butter, sugar and flour to the remaining dough to make crumbles which I sprinkled on top of the peach filling, then sprinkled sliced almonds, and pressed the topping gently to make it not so 3D. Then I lightly sprinkled the top with a tablespoon of sugar and a light sprinkle of cinnamon sugar.

    I’ve got the dishes washed and the counter wiped.

    Skipped breakfast and lunch – plan to have a bowl of vegetable beef soup and a big portion of peach bars for a late lunch! Will let you know how they turned out.

    Liked by 2 people

  43. (Video)

    “Russiagate is the Tip of the Iceberg”

    Clandestine, Jul 25, 2025

    “Flashback to 05/01/25:

    DNI Gabbard confirms she is working with NIH Bhattacharya and HHS RFK Jr., to find the source of C19. She brings up the US-funded biolabs in Ukraine multiple times.

    If this “grand conspiracy” investigation believes that this coup was a continuous act carried out through the entirety of the 2020 election, and the virus was created by US funding via USAID Project PREDICT, then that would mean that elements within the US government created the virus that ultimately interfered in the 2020 election via mass mail-ballots and sabotage of Trump’s presidency.

    Tulsi looking into C19 while she is looking into Russiagate, is not an accident. They are connected. Yes, I am inferring that C19 was a man-made biological weapon, that was released intentionally, to sabotage Trump’s presidency, interfere in the election, and ultimately overthrow Trump.

    I am inferring that C19 was part of the years-long regime-change operation launched by Obama and his intelligence spooks. It’s quite literally the CIA playbook to use biological agents to sabotage governments as part of regime-change operations, see Operation Mongoose in JFK files.

    Russiagate is just the tip of the iceberg. Tulsi is looking into the entire treasonous conspiracy. She knows the entire thing is connected and she knows where this trail ends.

    Yes, I am inferring that the same treasonous cabal that unleashed the Russia hoax, also released C19, and I’ve got the paper trail to prove it.

    USAID Project PREDICT. Metabiota. EcoHealth Alliance. Ukraine. Hunter Biden. Nathan Wolfe. Contracts begin 2014 post Maidan-coup.

    Ace in the back pocket.”

    https://bioclandestine.substack.com/p/russiagate-is-the-tip-of-the-iceberg

    Liked by 1 person

  44. “Note to Congress on DEI in the Sciences: The Call is Coming from Inside the House”

    OpenTheBooks, Jul 25, 2025

    EXCERPT: “In his address to a joint session of Congress earlier this year, President Trump promised to “conquer the frontiers of science.” Many journalists and critics then feigned confusion when his budget took direct aim at the National Science Foundation, slashing funding by 55%, to $3.9 billion.

    Sen. Bernie Sanders has bemoaned Trump’s “War on Science,” while a sample Nature headline blared “an attack on science anywhere is an attack on science everywhere.”

    How to reconcile the cuts with promises to conquer new frontiers, explore deeper into space and win the Artificial Intelligence race? Well, they’re not as irreconcilable as some would like us to think.

    Injecting Science with Ideology

    The NSF’s descent into ideological madness has been well documented. Far too many of its grants reward divisive identity politics, going to projects that seem ridiculous to taxpayers and smack of social engineering rather than hard science. Open the Books has identified at least $800 million worth of them. Just one example we uncovered was $445,600 to Ohio State University for Girls* on Rock: a program to diversify the geosciences by providing “16-18-year-old girls and nonbinary individuals with immersive, hands-on experiences in the geosciences, combined with elements of artistic expression and technical rock climbing in the Rocky Mountains, Colorado.” So much for the frontiers of science.

    Aside from proposing budget cuts, the president has signed executive orders aimed at broadly dismantling grants and programs that advance DEI and gender theory, of the sort that universities have regularly won funding to execute.

    Congress’ Role

    But while many of Trump’s allies in Congress cheer his battles with academia over extremist ideas, when it comes to NSF grantmaking, the lede remains at least partly buried.

    Sure, universities are plenty radical of their own accord, but criteria mandated by Congress have structurally incentivized adding DEI, minority outreach and gender politics to grant proposals in order to win funding. Nonprofits have followed suit. In future administrations that may not align with Trump’s executive orders, existing statute risks sending federal money right back toward the same set of distractions and away from hard scientific innovation. Every dollar the federal government spends on a faddish DEI grant is a dollar not available to cure breast cancer or childhood leukemia.

    In horror movie parlance, this is the part of the film where our protagonists realize the DEI call is coming from inside the house.

    History of the NSF

    The National Science Foundation was created by an act of Congress and signed into law in 1950. The initial law called for funding basic science research and supporting graduate students in science through scholarships and fellowships. But In 1968 the agency underwent a dramatic shift thanks to the Daddario-Kennedy amendment, which added social science to its mandate and instructed the agency to fund “applied science.”

    The amendment empowered the agency to work towards solving social problems, and this shift was reinforced in subsequent years as lawmakers sought to require NSF to have “broader impacts” on society beyond scientific discovery.

    The subsequent ideological metamorphosis at NSF is well documented. Last year Open the Books found $800 million in highly problematic STEM education-focused grants from the agency, like:

    • $772,953 to Emory University for “Black Feminist Epistemologies: Building a Sisterhood in Computing”
    • $905,642 across three universities (Florida International University, Colorado State University, and University of Minnesota) for a “qualitative inquiry into sex/gender narratives in undergraduate biology and their impacts on transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming students” to create a “more inclusive environment.”
    • $2,998,446 to Washington University in St. Louis will study applications of photon spectrography while also “detect[ing] phenomena that evade identification in the human-scaled realm of lived experience,” such as how “students perceive themselves as science learners via their science identity, [and] racial and gender identity.”

    Another investigation into woke DEI grants, led by Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), identified 3,400 grants, totaling more than $2.05 billion.

    Less well-publicized is that all NSF grant proposals are evaluated on DEI-related requirements, distractions from basic research and development efforts.

    America Competes?….”

    https://openthebooks.substack.com/p/note-to-congress-on-dei-in-the-sciences

    Liked by 1 person

  47. “I read an article that said there’s virtually no difference between these two membership-only behemoths. The article basically discounted BJ’s as the red-headed step child of the genre, but all three do have one thing in common with the others. They all generate the vast majority of their profits by selling – and retaining – memberships. Products and services are sold at all three at basically cost just to get and keep members. Fascinating business models huh?”

    Liked by 1 person

  49. “Osbourne was not Jewish, but Judaism became important to his life through his wife, Sharon. The Jerusalem Post reported that Osbourne played in Israel twice, and spoke out against boycotts, as well as antisemitism: Ozzy Osbourne, who died on Tuesday aged 76, forged a decades-long bond with Israel through his Jewish family, two arena-sized concerts in the country, and outspoken support for the fight against antisemitism, according to multiple interviews and reports.”

    Yeah – believe in the First Amendment – I have to to do what I do here, but why are these miserable non-humans given a voice? There are limits – or at the very least should be – ya have to believe that…”

    Liked by 1 person

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