Today’s to-do list:
Update blog
Pay two car insurance premiums
Think about the 9/11 anniversary on Friday.
So, to job no. 1, then: A couple weeks ago I wrote a check — a paper check, like the senior citizen I am — to Abdul el-Sayed’s campaign, and dropped it in the mail. The U.S. mail, also favored by we Olds. I did this specifically to avoid the fundraising platform Act Blue, through which I donated to Jocelyn Benson earlier in the year, and now spams me relentlessly, on every single channel of communication. Sorry, Dem Candidate Running in Arkansas, I wish you luck, but I don’t have the resources to help everybody. Every plea is a puppy looking up at you from the kill pen. Please please please our fundraising reporting deadline passed and we’re so far behind, etc.
Meanwhile, I’m getting the same pleas from El-Sayed, mostly on social media, and my check is still uncashed.
How often do you write checks? I just looked at my register, and it’s…eight so far in 2026. It would be near zero if my city would stop assessing a $10 service charge for online payments.
Just paid the car insurance, because I had to get up to pee and lost my train of thought here. Might as well get that out of the way.
So here we are at 9/11. As so often happens these days, I find myself arriving back at a state of disgust with my fellow American, at least the ones who voted for Trump. Like everyone else who is paying attention, I heard about Tubby’s remarks earlier this week on the subject. First, how envious he was of “the man in the red bandanna,” because that man, Welles Crowther, was briefly more famous than him, and Tubby doesn’t like that. Next, the statement that he went to lower Manhattan to help with the cleanup, and perhaps most outrageous, that he was rescued by two firefighters as one of the towers started to collapse.
Here, the Guardian has a roundup of a couple more 9/11 lies he’s told.
It’s just mind-boggling, how every stutter and hesitation and misremembering by Joe Biden was amplified and beaten like a bass drum, and the New York Times — the goddamn New York Times — called Trump’s lies part of an “evolving — and often disputed — account of his actions on Sept. 11 and in its aftermath.” Evolving! And often disputed! I mean, I know the NYT isn’t going to screech LIAR LIAR PANTS ON FIRE, but to call this “disputed” is underselling it, I’d say.
I’m so disgusted. Two notes from the weekend:
1) Alan was watching the Take 6 performance, an a cappella group, wildly popular, at the jazz festival Sunday night. Between numbers, one of the vocalists remarked on the venue’s proximity to Canada, right across the river. “I love Canada,” he said, and the crowd roared its approval, at a near-ear-splitting level. Which you’d expect. Besides the proximity, some of the audience no doubt works in the auto sector, and the Detroit companies sell more than 600,000 vehicles in Canada, now tariffed at 50 percent.
2) I was sitting at breakfast Monday, alone at the bar in the hotel restaurant, chatting with a couple roughly my age, locals. We were talking about the temptation of moving to northern Michigan post-retirement, but then the husband said, “The only problem is, if you need a decent hospital, you have to come back downstate.” And I replied that the current administration had only worsened that issue, what with the rural hospital closings amid lower Medicaid reimbursements. The husband said, “Well, they voted for that.” No sympathy. And then he identified himself as a “real Republican.”
I know this doesn’t mean he’ll necessarily be voting for Abdul, but maybe he’ll stay home on Election Day, or leave that race untouched. One can hope.
OK, one bit of bloggage: While I know that when an allegation of child abuse is made, authorities must act quickly and not quibble over the trustworthiness of the accuser, hoo-boy the more that we learn about the accuser in the Pete Buttigieg accusation earlier this summer, the worse it gets:
While acknowledging that the evidence shows that her false hotline tip resulted in an “intrusive investigation of an innocent individual and his family,” the prosecutor determined the woman was not “capable of forming the requisite intent to support a criminal conviction.”
The caller has a long history of alcohol abuse and mental illness, E. Nelson Chipman Jr., a prosecutor in Indiana’s Marshall County, where investigators determined the call had originated, wrote to state police in a July 29 email outlining his decision [to not charge her with a crime]. Her history includes “hallucinations and delusional thinking which includes frequently responding to voices only she hears,” he added.
…The woman, who was not named in the email, is from Alabama but was visiting family in Indiana at the time of her call about Buttigieg. During her “relatively short stay” with relatives, she was involved in at least three separate police encounters, according to the prosecutor. The incidents included an arrest for domestic battery, during which her blood alcohol level was reportedly 0.32, four times the legal driving limit in most states.
Lordy. With that, I’m going to eat lunch and read a book on this rainy but otherwise very pleasant afternoon. Enjoy yours.
ROGirl said on September 9, 2026 at 2:12 pm
Another rainstorm, another power outage. I’m hoping it will be back on tonight.
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alex said on September 9, 2026 at 3:24 pm
I think “disputable” just became my favorite new sarcastic word for all things Trump or Republican. (Although in its non-sarcastic sense it applies perfectly to the journalistic standards of the New York Times.)
As for the Buttigieg fiasco, if that same woman had threatened the president, I’m reasonably certain the authorities wouldn’t be giving her a pass for being crazy and a drunk. The fact that anyone acted on her false allegations (or would those be “disputable” allegations?) suggests to me that those involved in the mess need to be held accountable.
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nancy said on September 9, 2026 at 4:23 pm
ROGirl, you had a storm? We just had gentle rain off and on most of the day.
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ROGirl said on September 9, 2026 at 5:06 pm
A heavy downpour started around noon, I was at work and got a DTE alert that my power went out around 12:30, the rain slacked off by 1. The trucks were in front of my house when I got home and it came back up around 4:30.
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Icarus said on September 9, 2026 at 5:27 pm
I’m trying to create a meme along the lines of …
White people: we aren’t responsible for Slavery because our families weren’t even in this country then
also White people: every muslim is responsible for 9/11
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nancy said on September 9, 2026 at 5:35 pm
That’s a good one. Make it so.
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David C said on September 10, 2026 at 5:46 am
This year, I gave to state house and senate candidates through their web sites. I figure US house and senate candidates have all the money they need. So far, I’m my inbox isn’t going nuts.
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Julie Robinson said on September 10, 2026 at 8:44 am
My last check was paying for the hot tub in early spring. Everything else is auto debit or charge, depending on the fees. The new pool guy sends an email bill through Intuit, the landscaper and handyman text me and I pay them through Zelle. And yes, we are in our era of outsourcing chores. We worked and scrimped to save, now we’re using the money foran easier life. Who knows, cleaners may be next.
My shoulder allowed me better sleep, but moving it hurts and I can’t raise it at all. Ice packs and sling for the win. My daughter has been bringing meals to the hotel and I’m only going out for shows, two yesterday and two today. Will not be taking public transportation to the airport.
I hate giving money anywhere because of all the begging letters for years after. These days I prefer direct charity and daughter’s church.
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Jeff Borden said on September 10, 2026 at 8:55 am
It’s impossible to deny how much our nation has been hurt by wimpy and obsequious coverage of the madmsn by legacy media. There are tapes of tRump bragging on 9/11 that the collapse of the WTC meant he now had the tallest building in lower Manhattan. Now,THAT is exactly what you’d expect him to act like on a day of tragedy. The idea of this soft man, who has likely never even made his own toast, working amidst the smoldering rubble is beyond imagining. God, he’s despicable.
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Deborah said on September 10, 2026 at 9:08 am
My last check was a couple of years ago I paid for chimney sweeping in Santa Fe but last year they accepted credit cards so I didn’t have to write a check. My husband is old school he pays for a lot of bills with checks because he hates to use credit cards online and he doesn’t like direct banking or whatever they call it. But he has been reading about how putting a check in the mailbox either one at your door or out on the street is becoming more and more iffy so he takes the letters to the PO now. We got new mailboxes for the condo in Santa Fe that lock and moved them closer to the building because they’ve been having a lot of mail theft there.
Speaking of buying things online, be careful using a credit card buying things from Michael’s online, mine got hacked immediately after I ordered stuff from there yesterday. I had to get a new card and now I have to get the new number when it arrives to all my subscriptions etc. What a pain. I told Michael’s about it but they don’t care so I’m never ordering anything from them again. I’ll only go to the store from now on, if I even ever do that again. Unfortunately there aren’t very many local art supply stores left anywhere anymore. I will never ever buy anything from Hobby Lobby, that’s always been the case.
One thing I like about traveling in Europe they still have the coolest little art supply stores.
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Peter said on September 10, 2026 at 5:26 pm
Deborah, your art supply store comment got me thinking about the old days.
When I was in college there was a Japanese paper store – Aiko’s – that had the greatest paper that you could use for projects. There was also a place on South Wabash – Northwestern Drawing Supplies – that had good prices on drafting paper and products.
I really miss the small stores that were tucked away in large buildings – there was an architectural printer/bookstore, Paul Theobold, that was really nice. I also remember when Prairie Avenue Bookstore was really on Prairie Avenue. They’re long gone as well.
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Jakash said on September 10, 2026 at 7:15 pm
The orange felon lies enough that we lefties don’t need to be making stuff up.
I was disappointed by Aaron Rupar, who posted on Bluesky: “Trump claims he was basically lifted out of the rubble on 9/11…” which is a blatant mischaracterization. I count on Rupar to be more accurate, because he follows all of this nonsense so we don’t have to.
Then, even our esteemed and gracious proprietress wrote above: “Next, the statement that he went to lower Manhattan to help with the cleanup, and perhaps most outrageous, that he was rescued by two firefighters as one of the towers started to collapse.” That’s just not what he said. The link from “The Guardian” posted directly beneath that sentence contradicts it.
“Trump said that when he and a group of workers went to visit lower Manhattan shortly after the attacks, he was carried out by firefighters worried that the lower Manhattan skyscraper One Liberty Plaza – formerly known as the US Steel Building – would collapse.”
He wasn’t clear about what “right after this happened” meant, but in the past was not referring to 9/11 itself, but the next day or two. He *was* clear Tuesday about naming the U.S. Steel building, and not one of the twin towers.
This just bugs me because, though the whole notion of him going to the site with 100 workers may have been made up, his lies about 9/11 are bad enough without embellishing them. He lies all the time to call the trustworthiness of the media into question. If he can demonstrate that they’ve gotten *anything* wrong, his supporters just assume that he’s justified in saying that they get *everything* wrong.
It’s mostly bullshit, of course. There *are* photos of him downtown in the ensuing days, but he’s in a nice suit with not even a hint of dust on it. There is no evidence he took 100 workers there.
Somebody who used to work for him made the valid point that if he *had* been there with workers, he would have been sure to publicize it and there’d be *a lot* of photographic evidence to support that claim.
https://politifact.com/article/2026/sep/08/donald-trump-9-11-response-firemen-ground-zero/
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Ann said on September 10, 2026 at 9:37 pm
My dentist recently announced a surcharge if you paid by credit card. No problem. I said I was an old person and still carried checks around. I’ll sometimes offer a check to a small business because I know the credit card charges are no joke. Usually they pass but sometimes they’re grateful.
On the other hand, I am terrible at writing checks. Drugs have gotten my familial tremor under control enough that you can now read my handwriting (friends, do you suffer from a familial tremor? Ask you doctor about primidone), but I’m still terrible at it. Our otherwise fine lifelong learning program decided it was too expensive to send out programs and registration slips so now you have to go online to find the program. But to register you have to print out the registration form, fill it out by hand, and mail it in with a check. Last term the coordinator called me to say I’d written my check for the wrong amount. I asked if I’d at least remembered to sign it this time. Nope, I hadn’t.
But this business of having to write a check AND remember to sign it AND find an envelope AND find a stamp AND remember to mail it is just too much. Most of my bills are on direct debit and the others I pay in whatever online form they give me to pay them. Except for the stupid lifelong learning people, when I do need to write a check I have my bank do it. No need to remember to sign the check or find the envelope, etc.
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alex said on September 11, 2026 at 8:56 am
I’ve gone electronic and I’m quite happy with it, although I’m on vacation right now with a dwindling checking account, waiting on tenterhooks for my brokerage account to process my monthly infusion. Meanwhile autopay is doling out cash for all sorts of bills coming due — trash collection (every third month), annual subscriptions, all kinds of things that aren’t top of mind. While I’ve never been overdrawn, sometimes it comes a little close for comfort.
As an HOA treasurer, I still write checks to pay the bills because that’s how it has always been done and the Board likes a paper trail and photocopies of all checks received from dues payers. Years ago there was an embezzlement scandal under a previous treasurer, and something like that is never forgotten. People still pay their dues with checks, and a lot of them gripe about it. Our accounting software now links up directly with our bank and allows the use of PayPal to perform and record transactions, so we’ll be offering that as a convenience next year, even though there’s a surcharge, which will be charged to the dues payer as a convenience fee. It will be 2 percent instead of 3 because we’re a nonprofit, but we have to hop through some hoops to prove our nonprofit status to PayPal.
I think the last check I wrote was two or three summers ago for a new roof. The added charge for paying with a card was something ridiculous.
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ROGirl said on September 11, 2026 at 9:20 am
My lawn service charges $3 for processing credit cards. I still pay by check, but had to get more stamps recently and those are freaking expensive now.
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Icarus said on September 11, 2026 at 11:56 am
A lot of trades people want checks (which is really just cash bundled up in one bill). They claim it’s to avoid the credit card fees but when I tell them to just pass it on to me, they still balk. I finally figured out why.
When you pay with a credit card, the CC company is paying the vendor. Then you pay the CC company back. If you don’t, the vendor still receives payment. That’s what that annoying 3-4% fee is for.
But here’s the thing. If the tradesperson doesn’t finish the work or do a good job, the kind of thing you may not realize until a few days or weeks later, your credit card company can reverse the funds.
Trades people don’t like that.
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Julie Robinson said on September 11, 2026 at 12:58 pm
Icarus, I think that’s true in some cases, but increasingly they are billing through Intuit and you can pay with PayPal or credit card.
Our church receives most donations online and the fees add up. We request the giver to add the fees. Most do. We still take checks and cash too!
We’re heading back home after four days, five shows, and one semi- wrecked shoulder. All in all a pretty good trip.
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Sherri said on September 11, 2026 at 2:31 pm
It’s a good thing my husband is now officially retired, because health care is taking up all our time!
He had what we think is the last diagnostic test of the cancers, which was a lung biopsy. The lung biopsy showed that the kidney cancer has spread to the lungs. If you’re keeping score at home, that’s neuroendocrine tumors in the intestines and liver, and renal cell carcinoma in the kidney and lungs.
The lung biopsy was a week ago, but on Tuesday, he was feeling a weird gurgling sensation in his chest, and a chest X-ray revealed a pneumothorax. They put in a chest tube in the ER, and admit him to the hospital. He came home late yesterday afternoon from that, with a follow up with a pulmonologist on Monday.
We’ll talk to the oncologist next Wednesday about next steps. From previous conversations with him, I expect that they will start immunotherapy for the kidney cancer. The treatments for kidney cancer have changed quite a bit over the last few years, so I’m hoping that the prognosis is better than what the current five year survival rates are(20%), but who knows?
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Deborah said on September 11, 2026 at 2:37 pm
Well, LB got her letter from Medicaid saying she has to work (or volunteer) 80 hours per month to keep it unless she can prove this and that. It was a confusing letter that a lot of people won’t understand. LB is freaking out about it which is not good for her, stress only exacerbates her health issues as I’m sure is true for a lot of people getting this letter. She got the letter a couple of days ago and was afraid to open it, which she did last night because a friend was over to help calm her nerves.
My husband and I are researching and thinking hard about how to deal with this, it starts for her January 2027.
The good news is that these letters are going out before the midterm election, can you imagine how many people in Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, other places in the Republican south are getting these letters before they will be voting. Of course there will be people in those states who will be smugly happy about it, which makes my blood boil.
Just imagine what this is going to be like for many people who will now have to fill out complicated forms monthly when this starts. They will also have to renew their Medicaid every 6 months.
Maybe if the Democrats win the majority in the house and Senate this will all be reconsidered. But at this point who knows.
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Deborah said on September 11, 2026 at 4:57 pm
Sherri, it sounds like your husband is getting good care, that must be reassuring.
I had my colonoscopy yesterday afternoon and thank god I never have to do that again. The prep was horrible, way worse than I remembered from the last time which was 20 years ago, the last 3 times I did the mail in thing, each was 3 years apart as is directed.
I was looking forward to a nice nap during the actual procedure but unfortunately I woke up in the middle of it. Lordy that was painful, it felt like they were moving around big rocks in my gut. I saw them scurrying around getting me more sedative. I groaned in pain. I remember it clearly. They said they gave me moderate sedation at first which is normal for an older person but in the end the Dr said they gave me the amount of sedation that they would give a 38 year old. They didn’t tell me why.
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Dave said on September 11, 2026 at 5:08 pm
Sherri, no fair to retire and then have to face this crisis. May you be guided into the best care and best of possible outcomes.
And Deborah, may you find some answers, these clowns always think one size fits all.
So many people are dealing with such awful things right now and it’s made worse by the Orange plague, who wants to buy votes and have allegiance pledged to him. I’m furious, I wrote that complete waste, Banks, a strongly worded e-mail (think Susan Collins);-), not that he gives two hoots about anything I’d say. I wrote Young, the other north Mississippi senator a letter, too, I see Young was in Texas, how he can be proud of that, bragging about his military background and all, is something I can’t grasp.
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Peter said on September 11, 2026 at 6:14 pm
Deborah, that’s a colonoscopy treatment I hope to never have. The fear of that will make me take up whole grains and plenty of legumes.
Yeah, who am I kidding.
My first colonoscopy was still my best – when I woke up, I saw the hose and probe in the corner of the room, and I asked how much of that hose made it inside, and the doctor said “THE WHOLE THING! I could have used a garden hose on you buddy!”
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Deborah said on September 11, 2026 at 6:27 pm
To add a bit more: before they gave me sedation in the procedure room the Dr said they would be giving me “light” sedation and I was surprised and said that I surely wanted to be comfortable and he kind of blew that off saying “of course” or something like that. Then afterwards he seemed embarrassed and that’s when he said they gave me “lots” of sedation as much as they would give a 38 year old. At that time I was a little too woozy to ask more questions but believe me I will be following up on this. I think he didn’t expect me to remember waking up. But you better believe I’m never going to forget that.
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Sherri said on September 11, 2026 at 6:50 pm
The care from the Hutch has been great. The doctor’s office has been very responsive, and it’s very nice that the Hutch is able to provide all this care without us having to go into Seattle all the time. We’re an easy 15 minutes away from the hospital, while it would be a minimum of twice that if there’s no traffic, and typically more like 3-4 times that.
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Little Bird said on September 11, 2026 at 8:45 pm
Suffice it to say I am beyond stressed right now. And angry. Forcing us to prove our disabilities every six months is ridiculous. I was born with a DEGENERATIVE genetic disorder. It’s never going to get better than it is now. This new system seems to be set up in such a way that quadriplegic individuals would have to renew (and prove their disability) every six months. It’s insult to injury. I’m convinced the goal is to hope that we all get frustrated and just give up.
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ROGirl said on September 12, 2026 at 7:05 am
What a terrible thing you’re having to go through, Little Bird. They are appalling.
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Jeff Gill said on September 12, 2026 at 11:21 am
And while I know this is the least of the matter for you, Little Bird, or Deborah et alia, it’s worth noting for local agencies doing the work (in Ohio it goes through what is currently called “Job and Family Services” or JFS but locals all still call “the welfare office”), all this added compliance comes with no additional funding for their end, so the tripled and quadrupled and monthly review has to be done with current staff within existing budgets. There’s work they’d like to do, social work skills they’d prefer to deploy, that gets shelved in deference to federal mandates for added compliance and reapplication.
Sherri, you & your spouse are in my prayers.
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Deborah said on September 12, 2026 at 1:37 pm
It’s evil, that’s all I can say.
Our newest neighbor in Santa Fe is a former appellate judge, she still practices law. She is going to help LB and us come up with a plan. She’s the nicest person you can imagine. God bless her.
What do disabled people do when they don’t have family or friends who can help them navigate this obscenity?
We knew this could happen but now the reality of it hits between the eyes. We had hopes that it wouldn’t actually come to this, how naive could we be?
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Little Bird said on September 12, 2026 at 2:23 pm
Disabled people who don’t have support systems end up living on the streets and/or dying.
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Suzanne said on September 12, 2026 at 5:13 pm
My brother who is in his early 70s has been type 1 diabetic since he was in his early 20s. Several years ago, his prescription Medicare policy changed something and he had to jump through all kinds of hoops to get his insulin prescription filled. At some point, he was asked to prove that he really truly needed it or something equally inane. On insulin for over 50 years but, gee, maybe he really didn’t need it after all? He was frustrated and angry but they did finally get it straightened out before he ran out. I feel for you Little Bird.
Thinking of you & your husband Sherri. Cancer treatments are a whirlwind that changes direction too frequently to keep up and there seem to be unknowns lurking in every corner. The Kingdom of the Sick is one that no one wants to visit. Trust your doctor and if you can’t, seek a second opinion. Best to both of you.
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David C said on September 12, 2026 at 6:01 pm
The MAHA stuff, the Medicaid disability work requirements, it’s all eugenics. If a person is not healthy, thin, and perfect they don’t think they deserve to live. I read about some “pastor” who said that childless women over 65 shouldn’t be fed. I guess since men can frump up a kid with a younger woman, they’re allowed to eat? They’re all sick people.
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Jeff Gill said on September 12, 2026 at 6:29 pm
Check out Trump’s ankles at the Pentagon ceremony on Friday. His diuretics don’t seem to be making much of an impact…
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alex said on September 13, 2026 at 9:23 am
At the Pentagon ceremony, Trump’s amphetamines weren’t helping much either.
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