“Trump’s supporters are reportedly down an estimated $7 billion after investing in the president’s business ventures, including his meme coin, Forbes reported.”
Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. Stock (DJT) below:
Art of The Deal – Poor MAGA!
Month: October 2026
3 Day Reading Weekend
Finished reading both with the luxury of old guy time. Highly recommended
A Record New Low!
Poor 47! Once, at $100 per share, his holdings were worth $47 billion! Now it’s only a measly $799 Million! Good thing he’s making a pile selling $55 hats!
Big Butt News & Views!
Frightening Halloween Masks!
Ocean Breeze
Hard to believe I made this image 17 years ago, on a morning walk at Kill Devil Hills. I think it was during a family outing week & beach house rental. Today, I’m pretty much like the Stilt, exploring the surf line at sunrise, solo. At peace.
Mother Of Exiles
Email today included an invitation to watch “Raising Lady Liberty”, courtesy of my monthly PBS contribution. And I did. My photograph of this 1/16th scale version, in the Musée d’Orsay by the Sculptor Auguste Bartholdi, is the closest I’ve been to New York Harbor, where 12 to 14 million immigrants saw it, between 1892 and 1920. My maternal Grand Parents were among them. This grandson and their great grandsons swore oaths to preserve liberty and served in both cold and hot wars, to protect that idea. Some privileged, didn’t serve. They lately declare themselves, superior to exiles. That is, Un-American.
“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” Emma Lazarus, November 2, 1883
Backslider’s Wine
In my case Bourbon, to paraphrase the classic outlaw country song written by Michael Martin Murphey and made famous by Jerry Jeff Walker. Reading all the news from Crazy Town aka Wash., D.C., I could not resist sharing today’s financial news about DJT stock aka Trump Media & Technology Group. And I was thinking about the poor souls and true believers in 2022 who bought the stock, believing Donald was a brilliant businessman. As Gertrude Stein once described Oakland, “there is no there, there”. There are McDonald franchise locations with higher revenue and something never seen with DJT for stockholders, profits. Today’s chart after 4 years.
“Salon des Refusés” – 2026
Just like 1863 Paris, when paintings by Gustave Courbet, Édouard Manet and Camille Pissarro were rejected by the Paris Salon, I once again, got the same from a Juried Photography Competition. So a la Salon des Refusés, here are my rejects. ( All 3 are back on my apt. dining room wall. Made solely for my Muse.)
“Paris Perfect“
“Looks Fishy“
“Impression , Maison Monet”
The Days Are Just Packed!
Some folks might think being a Septuagenarian is a life of idleness and ease. Au contraire! Busy Bee! Today for example:
a. Entered 3 printed & framed photographs to the Cary Photographic Artists Open Juried Exhibit. I’ll post them in a “Salon des Refuses” after juror rejection.
b. Cancelled a Blue Cross Blue Shield High Deductible Medicare Supplement that I’ve had forever and wasn’t paying attention to. I was their cash cow. Especially with the latest 33% rate increase. The vendor website is a Byzantine maze that Magellan couldn’t navigate. I finally surrendered to an actual live person chat to get it done.
c. Changed my long held Part D Medicare Drug Plan. The $32 per month 2026 rate was increasing to $51 for 2027. Changed to a $12 per month Plan that covers all my Tier 1 Med’s. The vendor website menus are another Gordian Knot to solve.
d. Got out a step stool and extended handle pruners to groom my Viburnum before the apt. complex landscape crew butchers it on “Mower & Blower Tuesdays”
e. Harvested a LOT of Basil from my kind upstairs neighbor’s garden. Tomorrow will be a pesto production afternoon! It freezes!
Next up, laundry! Argh!
Decision Day
Yep, I do feel better
Leaving Crazy Town
I’ve had silly fun lampooning the lunacy of 47’s administration. But it’s time to ignore the meaningless noise. Early voting in North Carolina began today. I needed to shop (out of beer) but will attend to it tomorrow. It will take decades for the USA to recover from P.T. Barnum’s endless barrage of unguided missiles.
Paris Opera News
The 1875 Paris Opera House (aka Palais Garnier) is facing potential legal action by a descendant of the artist Jules-Eugène Lenepveu, painter of the original ceiling. In 1964, it was covered over by canvasses painted by Marc Chagall, seen in my first photograph below. The Chagall canvasses can be removed and re-installed while the Lenepveu painting was done directly on the copper plates of the dome. My late sweetheart and I made our third Paris visit in 2016, giving me the opportunity to make this gallery. 2017 found us back in Paris, this time with good loge seats for the 50th Anniversary of the Balanchine Ballet “Jewels”, directly across from the “Phantoms Loge” (Image 7). Heads up, the Palais Garnier is closing for renovation, 2027 to 2032. Read about it here: Chagall or Lenepveu or both? Click each image for full size.
18 Years Later
I made this image of Tiananmen Square just before the 2008 Summer Olympics. My last business trip to Beijing. This morning, a New York Times article describes how difficult it’s become for foreigners to visit the Square. Beyond the swarms of surveillance devices that make our Flock cameras look rare.
I do remember waiting in a tunnel access & security line to enter. Passports were checked and my camera bag was hand searched by Police. While I liked my Chinese co-workers, I hated the 14 hour flights & smog. Loved the air miles.
Great Hall Of The People – Tiananmen Square – 2008
Al’s A Moron, Bob’s A Jerk!
Insomnia played havoc with my Old Man Circadian Rhythms. Attempting to reset, I planned to stay awake until late night and exit “Vampire Hours”. Spelunking new setup menus on my rarely used Samsung TV, after its the latest auto firmware update, to scan for Air broadcast channels via antenna, I was stunned by the unrelenting cascade of Politcal Ads! I rarely use my TV, mostly for DVD Movies or PBS. I had no idea! And then an article I’d read about Ohio voters being exhausted by political ads clicked.
There is great physical & mental health benefit to “Noise Avoidance”. Which explains my long ago departure from Social Media and Mobile Apps (except for one that starts Washers & Dryers at my Apt. complex).
Disclaimer: I spend a lot of time on a Chromebook with 15″ screen & full Keyboard, reading my local newspaper, New York Times, AP, Reuters and BBC. I spend a lot of time on my Desktop PC with its Calibrated Monitor, Digitizer and homemade NAS, curating and editing a dozen years of photographs. And writing a couple of books. And reading a pile of TBR’s (To Be Read Books). More time is spent on monthly budget tracking, meal planning, shopping, cooking and afternoon libations! The days are just packed! And Noise Free, “Far from the Ignoble Strife of the Madding Crowd” ( Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard By Thomas Gray).
