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yesterday

Gabby is lounging lazily awaiting the first of numerous football games scheduled for today. It’s Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving Day. Probably too much to eat yesterday and a natural proclivity to take the benefits of retirement to heart attribute to Gabby’s casual approach.

We ate well. Roast turkey with mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, stewed sweet potatoes, and choice of 3 pies including apple, pumpkin and mince. Gabby, a product of the Pennsylvania Dutch culture chose the mince pie. But unlike Grandma’s mince meat pies of years ago, this version had no beef nor was it served drenched with a shot of whiskey. We thanked our Lord for the bounty and ate heartily.

How was your meal? Was your dinner table loaded with the wealth we have become accustomed to? Or did your family scale back due to the difficult times we are enduring as a nation? Many folks did not have the resources to celebrate the abundance. Especially those folks who necessarily rely on SNAP, the fed’s government nutritional assistance program, scrambled to provide food for their tables as the Potus and his minions denied funding for SNAP.

Several of Gabby’s and Larry’s friends from years past have been unhoused men who had hit on hard times. They survived in challenging conditions. They were grateful for their Lord’s provision and lived many days by a simple faith driven by determination and brotherly love for one another.

Howard had a part-time job as a dishwasher at a local mom and pop restaurant. He regularly came home with an overflowing bag of food that the restaurant manager had planned to throw in the garbage.

“Nothing wrong with it,” he proclaimed. “It’s good food.”

Indeed, it was good food that Howard saved from the dumpster. We all ate well since the restaurant’s specialty was Italian fare.

Another friend proudly boasted of his dumpster-diving skills. He observed numerous businesses and knew when each disposed of its out-of-date sandwiches and snacks. His favorite was the Wawa store on the corner. They had the best Cuban sandwiches even when they were a day over expiration date.

So, Gabby and Larry can only ponder as they remember those good days with loving friends. Did the Potus, his family and members of Congress who defunded SNAP fine dine yesterday on dumpster specials? If not, they ought to try it for Christmas. I’m too old and creaky to climb into dumpsters for food but I am blessed with friends who can and for that I am sincerely grateful during this season of love and gratitude.

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UNAPPRECIATED

Gabby is not a football fanatic but does enjoy Sunday afternoon NFL games interspersed with naps and junk food. This weekend was highly anticipated as honors were intended for our nation’s veterans. Could there be a more appropriate venue to salute the men and women who have served their country and fellow Americans in military arenas worldwide?

Alas, our poor government, specifically the Pentagon, announced just days prior that it did not have the funding to support this celebration. Gabby understands. With the recent expenditures for Israel’s war in Gaza and the bombing of Iran and the assault on alleged drug smugglers in the Caribbean, and the renaming of the Defense Department requiring millions in government money we certainly could not justify paying honors at football games to those who have made possible our Sunday afternoons sitting in front of the tube cheering our teams and feasting on a variety of special foods.

No spectacular flyovers, no honor guards, no special music. Nope, just can’t afford such trival, unnecessary displays of appreciation. Let’s spend that money on more weapons, more Washington, D.C. hoopla and extravagance and more flights to Florida for the Potus so that he can cavort on his golf course and entertain important people.

And as the brother of his creator Larry, who is a veteran, Gabby screams, “WTF”?

That says it all. That’s today’s headline. Surely others are asking, “Don’t we deserve better from our government?”

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as nero fiddled

So, here’s the headline.

Trump flies to Florida to golf and host parties.

The government remains in shutdown. America’s food insecurity is growing. Federal employees are missing their mortgage and car payments. Job security for long-term workers in the government and in private industry is non-existent. Food banks nationwide are in crisis mode. Health insurance costs for Americans are predicted to skyrocket. World economies including ours are collapsing as more tariffs are imposed. Alleged drug smugglers are blown out of the waters of the Caribbean at the whims of a rogue government. Ameria’s allies are saying, “WTF” as Potus is promoting a war in Central America.

Gabby screams, “Yeah, WTF”.

………and Trump flies to Florida to golf and host parties

The connection between Nero, the last emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, and the fire that burned Rome to the ground in 64 A.D. is disputed by some modern scholars. That Nero fiddled as Rome burned is widely considered mythical. However, Nero was known for his extravagance and cruelty and persecution of Christians. He murdered his mother and other family members. He committed suicide on June 9th, 68 A.D.

Our Potus golfs and parties in Florida as America burns. Don’t like Gabby’s comparison? We can discuss it in the 2026 and 2028 elections.

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smell the coffee

So, here’s the headline. Maga/trumpers, y’all got your asses handed to you this past Tuesday. No, Gabby isn’t gloating or talking trash. You folks have been behind the insurrectionist, wannabe dictator since the day Potus stood on the campaign trail in 2015 mimicking a questioner in the press corps for his disability, calling Senator John McCain a looser, telling an interviewer he loves beautiful women and that he can “grab ’em by the p***y”, declaring he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and get away with it, standing by the tombs of soldiers killed in action on a European battlefield and defining them as losers. That is the miscreant y’all have been supporting since 2015 and finally your hateful rhetoric has been addressed in a well-deserved Democratic ass-whooping.

Kudos to the candidates who won, among them 2 women governors and a Muslim, socialist mayor. And, of course the state of California for dead-ending Trump’s attempt to gerrymander the state’s voting districts. Hey maga, listen up. It was a great day for those Americans who cherish diversity and wokeness in our society rather than exclusiveness and innumerable phobias.

But the ‘blue tsunami’ is not over. Y’all need to batten down your hatches. Smell the coffee! What has been wrought by maga folks and maga leaders cannot be rectified by just one election day’s results.

You have taken our power and our will for granted. You believe you are the bad boys on this political stage, that it is your destiny to destroy a government and a Constitution that have survived for over 250 years. You are on a course to burn down the system which protects your rights just as it protects ours.

And please, don’t insult Gabby with kumbaya gestures to hold hands and work this out around the campfires of harmonious discourse. Ain’t gonna happen. You have made your beds, now sleep in them. See y’all in 2026.

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MORE FOX TRASH?

brian kilmeade

It’s been a busy weekend. Y’all know how it is. Gabby, not a sports participant, enjoys keeping up with teams and personalities. And the months of September/October are filled with telecasts of MLB, NFL and CFB. Many games are broadcast on FOX NETWORK. For that Gabby is grateful. Fox needs some redeeming coverage to compensate for its dearth of legitimate news.

But, entering under my radar screen is the FOX personality, Brian Kilmeade, co-host on weekdays ‘Fox & Friends’ and host on a Fox News Radio program under his name. A 61 year-old author, he holds a BA from Long Island University, and apparently, as referenced in a Wikipedia source, runs his mouth inappropriately while co-hosting and hosting. However, as if an apology after the fact remedies his racial slurs, the latest comment goes beyond anything that can be corrected with an apology.

“mentally ill homeless people should be executed.”

(Wednesday, 9/11 episode of FOX & FRIENDS)

Doesn’t matter what the context was, doesn’t matter if Kilmeade was talking out his ass just to gain attention, doesn’t matter that he issued an apology. Fact remains that a FOX NEWS personality suggested euthanasia for a member of American society suffering mental illness and homelessness.

Does that bother anyone? Those words were spoken by an alleged professional on a show viewed by millions of adoring fans. That statement can’t be retracted, those words of hatred are out there being consumed by an audience that is not known for compassion or empathy. And Gabby doesn’t care how sincere Kilmeade’s apology may have been.

Kilmeade needs to hear from FOX the words famously attributed to his champion,

“YOU’RE FIRED.”

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scapegoats

What is on Gabby’s mind today are the scapegoats POTUS 47 is creating to the delight of numb-minded Americans and the MAGA crowd. Immigrants, transgenders, blacks and browns, the unhoused population, woke folks, and most recently the Democrats have become his targets.

Certainly, Charlie Kirk did not deserve to die by an assassin’s bullet. His was just another dedicated voice for the far-right rhetoric pumped by the POTUS and his supporters. But on cue, the POTUS played his favorite trump card, viciously blaming everyone and everything for the shooting other than a man and his gun.

If y’all need a scapegoat, take a look at gun violence which has become a sad commentary on American society in 2025. However, it seems that disenfranchised people are an easier target for the POTUS and his minions. All of history’s infamous despots hit upon this realization quickly in their reigns of terror.

Of course, Gabby is not comparing POTUS 47 to any of history’s bad boys. Trump doesn’t have the intelligence to stand shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Nero or Hitler or Stalin or Putin or Kim Jong Un. He is nothing more than a seasoned PR man who hit upon a winning formula with his TV series and gained favor as the lap dog of the world’s truly notorious bad boys.

By now, some of you are asking, “Gabby, and your point is?”

Martin Niemöller, a prominent German pastor in the 1920’s and 1930’s, said, “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me.”

After Hitler’s reign of terror was eliminated, Niemöller toured allied-occupied Germany sharing his self-defined ‘confession’ to urge fellow Germans to accept personal responsibility for their complicity in the Nazi regime’s horror.

Gabby must ask of himself and all Americans, “Are we complicit in the crimes of a rogue government led by a modern-day demigod?” Am I fearful of speaking up and standing shoulder to shoulder with the disenfranchised, the poor, the meek, the homeless, the persecuted, the people of color?”

If so, what is my problem? Lack of courage, lack of compassion, a distorted view of faith?

If any of the above are true, perhaps I should align my life according to the grace and blessing bestowed upon me as an American, to always ask WWJD, to honor the freedom which sober living affords. This is my personal responsibility as an American and as a man of faith. To remain quiet dishonors the many patriots and martyrs who have given their lives trusting all of us with America’s legacy.

……and Gabby says, “AMEN, brother.”

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77,302,580

Y’all are asking, “Gabby, where are you taking us with seventy-seven million, three hundred-two thousand, five hundred eighty?”

Doesn’t ring a bell, does it?

That, dear friends, is the number of Americans who cast their vote for what we have today as POTUS 47. I promised myself not to take the role of political antagonist when I resumed blogging a few weeks ago. Several of my blogging friends are, by far, more talented and informed than I am. But I also promised to find my voice in support of what is the truth of my heart. If I can rattle a few MAGA cages than I should do so.

Yes, I have several acquaintances who are part of that number, family members also. We have an understanding when we get together. No talk about gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, and politics. Truly, that doesn’t leave much to fill the dinner table conversation. Talking about errant cousins and idiot neighbors is not edifying either.

But one question I often die to ask is this. Are you still the strident MAGA supporter screaming vulgarities at rallies, using your middle finger as your primary form of communication, ridiculing those who are not as privileged as you, bullying those who oppose your choice of candidates, wearing your silly red caps and ‘trump girl’ tees?

Does your dollar miraculously stretch further than mine does at the grocery store? The head of lettuce I bought yesterday was almost 5 bucks. Indeed, most fresh produce or fresh meat is priced beyond what I am willing to pay. I shop the grocery store, ACE HARDWARE and local thrift shops. If I can’t find it there, I obviously don’t need it.

“Beans n rice, baby” was a mantra of years ago when I was trying to cook healthier, earth friendly recipes. But, my media connections tell me that rice will become scarce as tariffs stifle international trade. My survivalist friends advise to stock up on essentials and staples that will endure a food crisis. But alas, we also know that in a declared national emergency which POTUS 47 threatens, our food stash can be confiscated by the same military that is terrorizing our Democratic-led cities today. Some call it ICE while others compare that force to Hitler’s special police force. Does that scare you, MAGA? It should, but y’all are too absorbed in the beautiful big bill that guarantees massive tax cuts to the wealthiest of Americans and gives us peanuts.

Nothing wrong with peanuts. I love peanuts. I have a terrific peanut butter cookie recipe that Grandma shared with me decades ago. But, get honest with me you 77,302,580 American voters. Are you still proud of what you did? Is your life better than it was in 2023? Will you sit idly by the roadside as your immigrant co-workers and neighbors are rounded up and sent to hell holes that in any other society would be termed concentration camps? What will you do when they come for you? Y’all ain’t special. POTUS 47 will one day throw you under the bus like he’s done to all the folks who are no longer useful to him. Think about it. If there are future elections in 2026 and 2028, who and what will you vote for?

Will you spiffy up in your red caps and silly tees when you head out to vote? Will you say a prayer asking the good Lord to guide your thinking and vote for what’s good for all the people? Will you try to remember that all of us from the highest-ranking leaders to the immigrants working the fields and meat factories are all children of the same God. We are a population of brothers and sisters.

No, God did not send to us POTUS 47 to save America. God doesn’t make mistakes. Seventy-seven million, three-hundred-two thousand, five-hundred eighty Americans elected him. People make mistakes.

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AW SHUCKS

Tis the season. Yes, corn on the cob is a mandatory food for the upcoming holiday cookouts on Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, and any summertime occasion. I will always remember a boyhood festivity in midsummer, the peak of sweet corn season, when the nearby cow pasture was cleared of debris, a concrete block fire pit was set up and on a Saturday afternoon carloads of neighbors, friends and family began arriving. They parked in the cow pasture and congregated in clusters chatting about crops, new babies, and miscellaneous gossip. Bushels of freshly picked corn, unshucked, were roasting under wet burlap bags on the blazing wood fire. I don’t remember what was being celebrated, but it was a glorious Saturday afternoon and evening. Many bushels of delicious corn were consumed. My aunt and I always had a competition going on. Her capacity was a dozen ears, mine was not quite as many.

Back in those days, one always needed to be on the lookout for that wiggly, slimy worm eating its way through your ear of corn. Today’s pesticides, which have virtually eradicated ear corn surprises, were not available.

My local grocery store has an impressive display of fresh corn in its produce department and on a table at the store entrance. I have learned to bring it home, leave it in its husk, wet it and microwave a few ears for ten minutes. It’s almost as good as that boyhood corn which I remember and savor.

The ear of corn is a product of evolution and of God’s genius in design. The husk is there for a reason. It keeps freshness in and prevents bugs from infesting. That natural packaging serves a purpose. Human fingers and germs are not purposed to touch those kernels until ready to process or eat.

So you can imagine my horror upon approaching a tidy display of freshness to see a sweet, little ole granny standing there pulling back the husks to inspect the merchandise. One by one she carefully strips the tip of its husk and silk, holds it up to her nose to smell and upon rejecting the product throws it back in the bin for the next customer. Especially in this era of virus and disease, that granny has just reduced my choices when it’s my turn to select. I will not pick an ear that has its protective husk compromised.

I observed this behavior several times and finally could no longer grin and bear it. In a moment of grocery store bravery, (she could have been packing more in her purse than keys and wallet) I softly and civilly educated her regarding ‘buying corn’ etiquette. I nicely explained to her that in today’s farming culture, worms and other pests are virtually eliminated. And to ensure that her selection is a delicious, mature ear of corn, she only needs to feel to the tip for fullness. Furthermore, I explained to her that when she stripped back its protective husk, she was ruining that ear for the next customer (who happened to be me). The store produce manager would need to dispose of it when it dried out thus increasing the operational costs of the store resulting in higher prices to all of us.

That sweet little granny looked me in the eye, told me to mind my own effing business and shove the corn she was holding up a place on my anatomy where ‘the sun don’t shine’.

Of course, being the gentleman that I am, I responded, “Yes, maam.” But truly, that is not a pretty picture.

Like I said before, “Tis the season.”

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the challenge

Gabby tries so hard to stay open-minded about politics and social issues and religion. But there are times when Jesus himself says:

“Aw heck, Gabby, go ahead, take the plunge. Do it for me. Remember what I did for you way back when? I gave you a brain with which to think and a conscience with which to guide and then I died for you. Take up my cross, use my gifts and grace, take the chance that you might offend someone. They’ll get over it. But I will be mightily pleased.”