THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH IS TIED INTO THE FREEDOM OF THOUGHT AND EXPRESSION

This post was triggered because someone clicked on and read my 2014 post about JULIAN ASSANGE.

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NOTE  September 23, 2025  I followed the Julian Assange saga for YEARS and well, it seems he was allowed to go free - in his home country of Australia.  Like the Edward Snowden saga, which I also followed for years - Snowden has married and has a child but looks to be permanently in Russia - it seems these men's stories have fallen out of media interest.  

As of today, the Freedom of Speech is being challenged in the United States.  Of course it's not like the Freedom of Speech isn't tied into Freedom of Thought or overall Expression through Art, Ideas, Interpretations, and so on.

The other day I spoke with a "conservative" friend of mine about POLITICAL CARTOONING and showed him some cartoons printed in publications - even before he was President - of Thomas Jefferson. Every President is controversial to someone, some more than others.

My favorite President is Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Controversial. He stepped up into the chaos of the Great Depression and found ways to put people to work and have money circulate again. 

Yes, we should be worried.

Get out there and vote. Vote those who oppose your IDEAS ABOUT HOW LIFE IS BEST LIVED - which includes, not just us as individuals with our "own" concerns but others - OUT OF OFFICE.

I know how frustrating it can be to even research who is running and what they stand for. I do it every election, especially looking into what various newspapers and organizations such as the Teachers and Women say.

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I loath the idea of persons being assassinated for their  opinions or ideas...

AND

I do not hold the values of a Charlie Kirk...  

Never heard of the man actually, until he was assassinated. So, I find it almost unbelievable that he is being held up as a Hero of the Crazy Right Wing Conservatives.***

C 2025 Christine Trzyna

***My conservative friend seems to think there are only Crazy Left Wing Liberals, no middle of the roaders.

CONGRESSWOMAN LAURA FRIEDMAN ON PROTEST CHAOS IN LOS ANGELES

 

GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA NEWSOM GIVES SPEECH ON THE TROOPS SENT BY TRUMP TO LOS ANGELES

TRIVIAL or SUPERFICIAL or LIGHTHEARTED ; THE LIST OF THE MOMENT

WHAT'S NEW?

I'm Curious : 

Will the advent of the Olympics really inspire the Powers That Are to end Homelessness in Los Angeles, or will the city put up facades that lie, kind of like the peasants did in Austria, to hide their poverty, when King Franz Joseph and his entourage came through?

Who even wants to be President of the United States any more? (A CEO earns more.)

What happened to my high school friend's children who were such brats twenty-five years ago? Did they grow out of it or are they demanding adults?

I Might Just Be Done With : Going to any event that advertises that FOOD TRUCKS will be there. 

So funny! : I went with a friend to an adult crafts class that was so childish (felt lady bug cut outs glued to magnets) that I told her I was going to have to start wearing a paper pinned to my shirt that said "If I'm lost please call my mother."

AM I WHO I KNOW? Impossible. I don't know anyone!

Celebrity I (once) met (just saying) : Marty Balin (Martyn Jerel Buchwald) singer/songwriter of the Jefferson Airplane who passed in 2018.

IF I COULD TRAVEL BACK IN TIME : Late spring/early summer 2023.

I'M LISTENING TO : Coverage of the so called "riots" and "insurrection" which never happened in the last few days Los Angeles. (Someone get out a dictionary and show President Trump the true meaning of these words.)

INDULGENCE? I wish! A long deep soak in a pristine claw foot tub.

Book I Recently Read Cover To Cover : I've read no books from cover to cover in recent months, though I have skimmed. This question should be "What magazine article did you read in its entirety? 

Book(s) I Keep Meaning To Re/read : Confessions of a Dangerous Mind by Chuck Barris, 

Films I Recently Watched From Beginning to End : Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, A Rainy Day in New York (Woody Allen), The Hoax.

AM I WHAT I EAT?

I'm Drinking : black tea

I Just Overate : potato salad

I'm Craving : potato salad

I'M GETTING BETTER AT :  threading a sewing machine and filling a bobbin

I FEAR : The Republican agenda to break Los Angeles.

C 2025  Christine Trzyna

THIS PARODY SONG WRITER - MUSICIAN DOES EX-PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP HIS DUE : WEIRD AL YANKOVIC WATCH OUT! LOL!

PATRICK FITZGERALD

THE DEVIL WENT DOWN TO GEORGIA  ( Original song was by Charlie Daniel's Band)

In this STOP THE WORLD I WANT TO GET OFF MOMENT (war in Israel, Ukraine, Genocide....) only the war has the ex-President's fiasco number two in the headlines) I take a moment to have my funny bone tickled. 

DEFINITION OF TRAITOR - TREASON

TIME : BENEDICT ARNOLD TRAITOR (Definition of TREASON)   This article from 2018 concerns President Donald Trump and Treason.  Excerpt:  Not that the definition of treason is complicated.  To the frustration of the President's critics, Article III, section 3 of the U.S. Constitution narrowly defines treason against the United States as consisting 'only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid or comfort."  Americans shared this understanding of treason, rooted in English Common Law, even before the Constitution was written.

SHUT UP TRUMP ! BRENT RENAUD - AMERICAN JOURNALIST KILLED BY RUSSIAN MILITARY

Ex President Donald Trump cannot shut his yap as if he is still campaigning for another bout of Presidency, going against President Joseph Biden, not even at this time of catastrophic invasion by Russia of Ukraine.  In my opinion his behavior is quite possibly treasonous to the United States of America and all our allies who believe in Democracy. Basically he is touting his relationship with Putin and his comparatively macho stance with Putin and thus Russia, as compared to the gentlemanly approach of Biden.  He says this war against Ukraine would not have happened if he were still President.  As usual, it is all about HIM.

Which were YOU on the schoolyard?  THE BULLY WHO STARTED THE FIGHT?  THE GANG LEADER?  THE PERSON WHO GOT PICKED ON?  THE ONE WHO TRIED TO BREAK IT UP? Did you walk away and decide it was best not to get involved because you didn't know who started it or what the fight was about?

Yea, Trump and Putin have a lot in common: They are both Bullies who spin Fake News. Evil people mess with our minds, and that is what if felt like every damn day of the Trump Presidency. Sick of being confused by the Princes of Lies, people felt they had to choose between being a member of a cult (The Republican Party) or dealing with the trauma that cult inflicted on the rest of us.  You had to choose sides.  For someone like me, whose beliefs were moderate overall - it was especially excruciating. What happened to honest debate? 

Does an ex-President have a 1st Amendment Right to Free Speech? Yes, he does. He should be reminded that citizens of Russia do not. Those who protest the war or anything else in Russia are being arrested. It is only because of those who have dared risk this arrest - and unknown future - that we know that all Russian people are not in agreement with their government  Does he have a moral obligation to speak the Truth? Yes. However, there is The Truth and then there is His Truth.

How do we know what information is True?  We rely on JOURNALISTS.

The killing of a journalist who might reveal the Truth through reportage Brent Renaud, is telling.  

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This morning one of the first news stories I picked up was that bombs had hit Lviv which is twelve miles from the present Polish border.  An airfield that was used for training and staging of Ukraine military air force was bombed.  Strategic?  Sure.

Remember the reports of Russian jets flirting with the borders of various countries a while back?

That WAS the hint of war to come.

C 2022 Christine Trzyna

JOE BIDEN WON and IT RAINED

It was 150 days with no rain in Southern California. That statement is probably in error as Southern California is thousands of square miles and it probably rained somewhere in all that territory in the last 150 days.  

However, we have been waiting for it.  

Real rain.  Not morning mist.  Not a little drizzle, though I'm sure the plants would love to have their leaves dusted off so they can breath.  

We wanted a downpour.  An inch.  Rain enough to stop using the hose and racking up the water bill. Rain enough to plant a garden and expect it to sprout.

It happened, for a few minutes. Then it happened again. The wind whipped through the trees.  The pavement was damp. The leaves glistened. The temperature went down and we pulled out the sweaters and warm fuzzy blankets from storage.

Soon after it was announced that Joseph Biden is our President Elect, it rained.

It was as if we had all been holding our breaths,  The fires consumed much of the state.  And then, he was elected.  And then the sky let it out.

That's my perception.

My friends and I opened a bottle of wine.

We all slept a little bit better.

Though we know "It ain't over yet."  (Where is the fat lady these days? Hopefully the White House.)

Then the catnip addicted cat, who now loves me, squinting it's eyes and looking up at my forehead, perhaps at my glowing third eye, got up on their table, though, because he is aging and bony it took more effort, and put out his hand-shaking paw.  "More"

I bought the catnip, claiming to be the world's strongest, at a dollar store. 

I bought it after he got beat up by some studly, younger, and mouse eating cats.

This one, he's an Egyptian. The smartest.  From the Pharoahs.

One of those other cats had put a neat slice in his head near his ear. It was deep and oozing. He was barely walking. He was in pain. His own eyes appeared foggy.  As he went out, my friend said, "In my gut I think he is going off somewhere to die."

A day later he came back.

I made a perch for him on top of their record album collection in the hall. Layered it with blankets.  

He had never had catnip before. The idea was to give him some bliss before it was all over. The idea was to increase his appetite.

Now, whenever he sees me, he wants some.

He is eating.  He is well. His eyes are bright and alert.  From their porch he watches the other cats carefully.

Joe Biden is President Elect.

Will we all get better?

C 2020 - 2026  Christine Trzyna All Rights Reserved Including Internet and International Rights

9/11 as I REMEMBER IT - VIOLENCE REDEFINED

The morning of 9/11 I was listening to KFI - Bill Handel on the radio.  Bill is still on the air but I don't listen to KFI much anymore.  (Audio Books suffice.)  He is known for a sort of jokey sarcasm - and an exaggerated way of telling stories - on himself - and on others.  For instance, he once gave a blow by blow account of a death row inmate being fried that was compelling.  So Bill is a character - a personality - and when he started talking about what was happening in New York, there was a question in my mind - it's a joke right?  But it was not.  The television set confirmed it and of all people to call first, I called my then building manager. He didn't believe me. Then I called my best friend - who didn't answer the phone. Like everyone else, I was riveted to the television set. 

And then, then I became depressed.

Someone gifted me something I really needed, something that no one else on this earth at the time would have thought to gift me, something that no one else I knew at the time could afford, and probably the most generous gift I ever received, but the box sat there unopened.  I wasn't even curious to open the Apple box.  I was moving through molasses. I awaited word that we were going to war, that war had been officially declared and called war, rather than a "military action."

At this time I went to a number of coffee houses in order to write.   I went over to one where I had a coffeehouse friend who was an artist, a painter of dog portraits, whose work was even published in a book not of his own making.  The artist told me his own mother had been in the building that the first plane hit.  In fact it probably hit her very office.  His family in New York City wanted him to get on a plane and fly there right away.  They were in denial.  They wanted him to go to the hospitals looking for their mom.  He didn't go.  He knew there was no chance she was alive.

The impact of the loss of his mom in such a horrific way was so strong that this artist could not paint.  He could not hold a brush.  Months later he was trying another form of creative expression - writing songs - to overcome the paralysis. He was clearly not in his normality for a long time.

A couple weeks after 9/11, while still feeling angry and powerless, I went ahead and opened the gift.  It was a laptop computer and I needed it to write.  It was intended as a practical gift but it became one in which self expression was also a way of maintaining the healing I needed because of this horrible event.

While the construct and enormity of 9/11 made it a special attack on an icon of the United States of America, I realize also that it was the closest thing to a military attack ON OUR TURF since Pearl Harbor.  Imagine though what it was for the Japanese when the United States dropped the atomic bomb.  Or enduring the Holocaust.  Or any other violent events that have taken place on this earth - and do now.

Is the world really getting more violent?  Mass shootings for no good reason beyond someone's hatred or insanity seem to happen with regularity.  Would they be as appealing to their originators if it were not for the fast global news coverage made possible not just on television but internet and cell phones?

A recent foray into a Fundamentalist Bible Study - long story as I know you know this is not like me - has been interesting in that just about every other woman there believes with certainty that we are in the End Times. Some people there think that President Donald Trump is in place, no matter how he screws it up, to usher in the End Times, citing his recognition of Jerusalem and the Holy Land. Trump and those like him are, to me, believers in the Prosperity Gospel, a kind of  New Age defilement of Christ's message. Christians feed the hungry, cloth and shelter those who have none, and there is a traditional acceptance and embrace of the poor as worthy human beings. The Prosperity Gospel to me is more like Janis Joplin singing Mercedes Benz.  I guess it could be argued that God gives prosperity to those who HAVE so they can give to the poor, but let's not talk about Amazon's unlivable wages, or that Google's blue collar employees live in RV's near the Silicon Valley "campus."
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Some think President Trump can do just about anything, because it's really Vice President Mike Pence who is the Real Believer and the Next President, one way or another.  There is lots of talk in this group about which politicians are "Believers" or not.  I'm not there to question the class or the teacher's belief system, just to absorb differences as comfortably as I can and learn some things that I didn't know about the lifeways of the ancient people of Bible times, particularly the few women mentioned.

As a more liberal Christian friend of mine said, "There have ALWAYS been wars.  So it's always the End Times."

One day in the class, someone said that Oprah Winfrey was leading millions of people straight to hell.  (On the list of deceivers was also Shirley MacLaine.)  So what is that if not intolerance?

And this is CALIFORNIA? 

I have no answers at the moment.  I just know that 9/11 became a pivotal moment in our history which marked a change of consciousness about our vulnerability and need for defense.

As a child in Catholic grade school we often prayed for the President, to make good decisions for us all, just as we did the Pope.  If you're a praying person, this is a good time to do so.

C 2018 Christine Trzyna  All Rights Reserved