Michaela Barnett is running for the U.S. House of Representatives, District 02. When she wins, Burchett (with 2 Ts) will be out of a job.

Barnett held a Town Hall at the Blount County library in downtown Maryville, TN. The attendance overwhelmed the room, about 150 people. They had to bring in more chairs and remove tables. It was great. I was surprised to see about 20% of the audience were young people.

Barnett spoke for a few minutes, then opened up the room for questions.

IMO, Barnett is an excellent replacement for Burchett. She cares about the people. She will be accountable to her constituents. She will try to get laws passed to bring back healthcare. She will work in Washington, not just walk around shaking hands saying dadgum (my word, not hers). Her issues are more than just Yetis and UFOs. She's educated, intelligent, and experienced.

I asked her how she thinks she can beat Burchett, with him getting 86,000 votes and her getting 38,000 votes in the primary, both unopposed. She said that was the primary. Many people voted in the Republican primary for specific seats, e.g. Marsha for governor. In addition, her campaign is highly organized. They have over 1,100 volunteers. They have 7 full-time employees. Barnett's campaign is the best funded opponent Tim Burchett has ever had. So far they have raised over $500,000. Keep on giving.

She has a plan to push for a return to healthcare for most, with a look to the future for universal coverage. Restore ACA premium tax cuts. The current administration spent more money bailing out Argentina than what is needed to provide healthcare in the U.S. She wants to raise Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates for rural areas.

Barnett said she is ok with nuclear power as long as all are held to the highest standards. She is against using Tennessee as a storage facility for nuclear waste from other states. She wants to replace coal with other alternatives.

Barnett said she will work towards campaign funding limits, term limits, and to overturn Citizens United.

More was said but I had to leave early.

Support Michaela Barnett for the U.S. House of Representatives. She's a true replacement for Burchett.

Gloria Steinem, a trailblazing journalist and activist who devoted her life to fighting for women's rights, died on Wednesday. She was 92.

Starting in the 1960s, at a time when women were largely limited to domestic roles, Steinem challenged gender stereotypes and championed feminist ideals like equality, sisterhood and reproductive freedom. In doing so, she inspired generations of women to do the same. Today, she's a household name that is synonymous with the women's rights movement.

"Because of her work, across America and around the world, more women are afforded the respect and opportunities that they deserve," then-President Barack Obama said when he awarded Steinem the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her commitment to activism in 2013. "She also changed how women thought about themselves."

Wikipedia - Gloria Marie Steinem (/ˈstaɪnəm/ STY-nəm; March 25, 1934 – September 2, 2026) was an American journalist and social movement activist who emerged as a nationally recognized leader of second-wave feminism in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and who was particularly popular in the 1980s and early 1990s.

The "administration has begun acting on its deep aversion to cycling, revoking federal grants for what it calls “D.E.I. bike lanes.”

tried to remove a bike lane near the White House.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy "have deployed rhetoric that suggests the bicycle is hopelessly lefty, belonging in the same category as green-haired baristas, Rosie O’Donnell and yard signs professing that love is love." Also "told National Public Radio that liberals believe “that everyone should ride a bike to their shoebox-sized apartment to eat crickets to achieve a phony climate agenda.”

Good grief. I'll say it again, this administration is taking us back 50 years.

A new wave of COVID-19 is sweeping the country, with cases on the rise in nearly every state.

As of Aug. 19, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that COVID infections are growing or likely growing in 48 states and declining in zero states.
...

The new COVID shots are expected to be rolled out at pharmacies, clinics and hospitals in September, experts say.

... purge of the military has been so dramatic that with Army Secretary Driscoll gone, the military’s largest service is left without a top civilian leader, a Senate-confirmed top general, a confirmed Army general in charge of operations, or a confirmed commander of Army troops in Europe. Because of all the firings across the service over the past year, the Army, with more than 450,000 active-duty soldiers positioned across the globe, has fewer generals than at any point in recent history.

It's all so hard to believe. This Administration. We can only hope the voters vote these people out of office.

The 80-year-old president posted two fake videos on Truth Social showing a military attack on Kharg Island, Iran’s oil export hub...

There has been no such attack on the island, but the cringe AI videos were posted after the U.S. carried out rocket launcher strikes on Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz.

WTF?!?!?! How is it he still has followers? So embarrassing. Should be illegal.

I thought I'd share this image from Wednesday night after being awarded the National Press Club's Angele Gingras Award for satirical column writing.

Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency has a multi-million-dollar deficit. To help ease that deficit, TWRA’s governing body is proposing increases to fishing, hunting, and sportsman licenses.

For Seniors, the hunting and fishing license will be 5+ times the current fee, from $4 to $21. An increase of $17.
For those under 65, the hunting and fishing license will increase by $9, from $33 to $42.

For Seniors, the Sportman license will nearly double, ftom $49 to $95. An increase of $46.
For those under 65, the Sportsman license will increase by $20, from $165 to $185.
Youth Sportsman licenses increase by $3, from $9 to $12.

Yikes! Do they have something against Senior citizens?

Why do you think the U.S. Government is using two different types of logins? Login.gov is operated by the U.S. Government and ID.Me is a private entity that is separate from the government.

For Social Security you use Login.gov unless you live outside the U.S. or don't have a social security number.

For the U.S. Treasury where individuals can buy Savings Bonds, Treasury Bills, Notes, etc. they will be forcing you to use ID.Me.

I would be a lot more comfortable if the U.S. Treasury was using Login.gov.

Using the bathroom or having a cry is about to become more expensive for North Americans as the US and Canada enter a full-fledged trade war that threatens to flush away decades of peaceful trading between the two nations.
...
Paper products are among the hardest-hit sectors, with Canada threatening to put tariffs of between 25% and 50% on “toilet paper or face tissue stock” from 8 September in retaliation for a 50% hike from Washington DC.

Though American toilet paper and tissues are often made domestically, they heavily rely on lumber-rich Canada for raw materials.

Dang. I thought toilet paper was already expensive.

From Sep 7, 2011. Narrated by Tom Hanks.

I found this after reading the New York Times story about "The Tour Guide Who Lived Through 9/11".

We thought, and hoped, she would live a lot longer. An inspiration. Tennessee, and especially East Tennessee, can't thank her enough.

Dolly Parton, Superstar Whose Songs Spoke to Millions, Dies at 80.

A photo of Dolly taken by the Mr. at the 75th Anniversary Rededication of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 2009.

This slice of God’s country could soon be destroyed because of data centers... But here’s the twist: [the] County doesn’t even have a data center, nor does it have plans for one... And yet residents... are set to have their land, and their scenic vistas, taken from them against their will by eminent domain to make way for monstrous new power lines: 12 story-tall towers carrying the highest voltage lines that exist in the United States to bring electricity to data centers ..., some 100 miles away.

[The utility company] has proposed to build the largest gas-fueled power plant in the state, with 300-foot smokestacks and a water intake averaging 800,000 gallons a day — also to provide electricity for far-away data centers. And, in the ultimate insult, residents here and across the [area] could well end up paying for this construction in the form of higher utility rates. Ordinary [citizens] would be forced to subsidize the multitrillion-dollar AI industry even more than they do with their taxes today.

Knox News visited multiple food vendors at the South Knoxville destination (Kern's Food Hall) Aug. 19 and found additional fees varied by business, ranging from 4% to 10%, while some charged none at all.

Kern's manager Grant Belback told Knox News "said he saw the Reddit post and understands that "nobody likes paying higher prices." But South Knoxville is "growing fast," he said, and "as we grow, costs grow too."

Irvey's Ice Cream is doing the same thing, adding a 10% "experience fee. "

...customers who prefer not to pay the fee at [at Irvey's Ice Cream] and Cochran's businesses can ask to have it removed."

Just do it.

Oh, do Downtown and/or West Knox food services charge an "experience fee"?

Thursday, Aug. 20, 2026, "Tens of thousands of residents in northwest Indiana were in survival mode Thursday as they endured a ninth day without power..."
...
Northern Indiana Public Service Co. said 68,000 customers were still without power as of Thursday morning, the majority of them in Lake County beside the Illinois border... power is not expected to be fully restored until Tuesday in some places, including Gary, IN.
...
“We’re always in survival mode in Gary. And I think that’s probably why it wasn’t so much of an uproar because the first few days, it was like, ‘OK, we’re used to this .... but this is the second week now,” Hardin said. “It’s not OK for us to continually be in survival mode, doing the best that we can.”

It's reported often that residents and businesses alike are leaving California in droves.

They must be doing something right.

California Draws More Startup Investment Than All Other 49 States Combined.

I wish I could afford to live there and it wasn't so far from the East coast.

We live in a neighborhood. There are no thru streets. The speed limit is 20 mph. We have lots of walkers. Our neighbors, via email, have been cautioned numerous times to slow down.

Some of our neighbors in the back of the neighborhood don't care.

I put up a cute flag that says, Slow - Bunny Crossing.
I did this because we do have several bunnies in our yard that cross the street. In addition, I was trying to subtly ask everyone to slow down. It takes an extra 1-3 minutes to go the speed limit and get thru the neighborhood from the farthest back spot.

Sadly, one or two months into displaying this flag, yes, someone ran over a bunny right in front of my flag. I have no idea if it could have been avoided. I do know the sun was up. I do know it happened in the morning when people are leaving for work.

I definitely don't want people wrecking to avoid animals.

Whatta ya gonna do? I've noticed some neighborhoods in West Knoxville install mini-roundabouts. We'll see. That's Knox County, we're in Blount County.

We've been getting a lot of fake, scam phone calls. They are really good. The bot sounds real. They even insert a little throat clearing.

Some of the calls say they're updating Medicare data, some say you are due a Medicare benefit, the last one said we haven't used a Medicare coupon.

They ask, "Do you have Part A and Part B?"

It's all lies. Don't respond to any prompts. If you do, it will give them a lead to use your data. If you say Yes, they'll use the Yes to say you agreed to whatever they arecselliny.

Be careful out there.

In 2018, registered Democrats outnumbered Republicans by about 250,000 voters. Today, Republicans outnumber Democrats by more than 1.5 million voters.

In that time frame, the Florida population has increased by approximately 2 million people, with a net migration to the state of approximately 1.5 million in the 8 years.

Is Florida now only a Republican paradise?

Saw these at the Ladies of Charity Thrift Store. They are so cute. One bike has heart shaped pedals with a doll seat on the back. You have to wonder what is the backstory. They all look dirty like they were dug up out of the ground or the garbage dump.