Thoughts for the Day, October 13, 2025: A major step in the right direction. A bad weekend for my favorite sports teams.

Orchid of the Day: To the world leaders who were able to pressure Israel and Hamas to implement Step one of Trump’s plans to bring the hostages and prisoners back to their homelands. There is still much work to do, but this is a major step in the right direction.

I pray that cool heads will prevail and the hostilities between Israel and Hamas will end and that an interim plan for governing Gaza can be implemented in the days ahead.

I cannot imagine the despair the residents of Gaza feel as they return to what is left of their cities and homes. I pray they can focus their efforts on rebuilding their country and put aside the anger and despair they must feel. Rebuilding Gaza will take a concerted effort by many countries, including Arab countries, NATO countries, Russia, China and most of all Israel.

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Tigers, Lions, Wolverines and Spartans.

We got our asses kicked this weekend as the Tigers, the Spartans, the Wolverines and the Lions all lost. None of the losses were unexpected, although the Spartans were favored, but they still hurt.

The Tigers’ loss was exhilarating and frustrating. It was a game that will go down in MLB playoff history for many reasons, including the longest elimination game in MLB history. The game lasted 15 innings and 4 hours and 58 minutes. The final out was recorded at 1:10 AM EST Saturday morning. It was a challenge to stay up that late, but it was worth it. Both teams had many chances to end the game early, but when it mattered most, the pitching and defenses of both teams came through with the big defensive play or the big pitch. In the end it was a matter of attrition as both teams were running out of pitching.

I was interested in how crew chief Alan Porter graded out as the plate umpire in the game. From my perspective as a TV viewer, Porter was consistent throughout the game. The concentration that it takes to be the plate umpire in a game that lasts five hours and includes nearly 500 pitches is unimaginable. The longest game I ever umpired was 17 innings, but it did not last five hours. To the best of my knowledge, Porter never took a bathroom break during the game. Here is how he graded out.

• Overall accuracy was 96.1% by calling 219 pitches correctly out of the 228 he called. This was 0.8% above expectancy.

• His consistency was 96.8%.

• His incorrect calls did not favor one team over the other.

The Agony of Defeat.

If you didn’t see the ending of the Dodgers and Phillies NLDS series, please check out my Video of the Day. It is gut wrenching for Philly fans. My heart goes out to the Philly pitcher who will make that play 999 times out of 1,000. Unfortunately, he didn’t make it when it counted.

Is this what the founding fathers envisioned?

The images of the Texas National Guard in Chicago this week are contrary to everything I know about the constitutional role of our military. The expansion of ICE as it is currently being used by the Trump administration in our cities also goes against my vision of the role of ICE, which is protecting our borders and enforcing immigration laws in accordance to how they have been written.

An Opinion from the NY Times. By Jason P. Houser, a former chief of staff at Immigration and Customs Enforcement captures many of my concerns about ICE being used as a political tool for the president to keep his base happy. Here are excerpts from Houser’s article.

Nearly nine months into President Trump’s second term, immigration enforcement has become the administration’s primary political weapon — not to solve problems, but to manufacture fear, provoke outrage and stage an illusion of control. This isn’t a crisis response. It’s crisis construction.

The president’s team vowed to target gang members, murderers and rapists, but we’re not just rounding up violent offenders. We’re arresting working parents, students, asylum seekers and even U.S. citizens, to create made-for-TV crackdowns.

Over the next three years, detention space will be multiplied. Due process will likely be further sidelined. The broken legal immigration system won’t be fixed — it will be abandoned.

The One Big Beautiful Bill signed in July will inject agencies at every level — federal, state and local — with funding for immigration enforcement. That will entrench removal as the singular goal of our law enforcement at every level of government, while focusing away from terrorism, transnational crime, cyberattacks and foreign adversaries.

Federal, state and local law enforcement are already being deputized to support ICE endeavors. Nearly 14,500 law enforcement agents have been pulled off their investigations to do civil immigration work, including agents taken off the border. Nearly 3,000 Federal Bureau of Investigation agents were reassigned to civil immigration enforcement, instead of focusing on their mission of national security and public safety. Federal prosecutions for drug violations have dropped significantly.

….We need immigration enforcement — but it must be humane, targeted and precise. This country deserves an approach that prioritizes national security, protects communities and upholds due process. ICE officers are capable of that mission. Placing the formidable power of ICE — with its vast authority and reach — in the hands of political opportunists who neither fully comprehend nor respect its mission is a volatile and dangerous combination, turning a critical national security tool into a blunt political weapon.

When law enforcement is forced into partisan roles, it stops serving the public. And when the public loses trust in law enforcement, the whole system begins to fail. The blueprint is: Create chaos. Blame the chaos. Then offer yourself as the cure.

This plan is already underway. The question now is if the rest of us will keep pretending this is law and order? This is my Question of the Day.

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Inch by Inch, Step by Step

From The Atlantic: To capture a democratic nation, authoritarians must control three sources of power: the intelligence agencies, the justice system, and the military. President Donald Trump and his circle of would-be autocrats have made rapid progress toward seizing these institutions and detaching them from the Constitution and rule of law. The intelligence community has effectively been muzzled, and the nation’s top lawyers and cops are being purged and replaced with loyalist….

Only the military remains outside Trump’s grip. Despite the firing of several top officers—and Trump’s threat to fire more—the U.S. armed forces are still led by generals and admirals whose oath is to the Constitution, not the commander in chief. But for how long?

Trump and Pete Hegseth are now making a dedicated run at turning the men and women of the armed forces into Trump’s personal and partisan army. In his first term, Trump regularly violated the sacred American tradition of the military’s political neutrality, but people around him restrained some of his worst impulses. Now no one is left to stop him: The president learned from his first-term struggles and this time has surrounded himself with a Cabinet of sycophants and ideologues rather than advisers, especially those at the Pentagon. He has declared war on Chicago; called Portland, Oregon, a war zone; and referred to his political opponents as “the enemy from within” Trump clearly wants to use military power to exert more control over the American people…..

Soon, top U.S.-military commanders may have to decide whether they will refuse such orders from the commander in chief. The greatest crisis of American civil-military relations in modern history is now under way.

…This new and dangerous moment has arrived for many reasons, including Trump’s antics in front of young soldiers and sailors, through which he has succeeded in pulling many of them into displays of partisan behavior that are both an insult to American civil-military traditions and a violation of military regulations. Senior military leaders should have stepped in to prevent Trump from turning addresses at Fort Bragg and Naval Station Norfolk into political rallies; the silence of the Army and Navy secretaries, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and some top generals and admirals is appalling.

Trump’s rhetoric in his speeches to the military has been awful—he has ridiculed former commanders in chief, castigated sitting elected officials, and told the members of America’s armed forces that other Americans are their enemies. But his actions are worse. In deploying troops to American cities, he has set up a confrontation in which military commanders may soon have to choose between obeying the president and obeying the law.

“This is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law,” Judge Karin Immergut—a conservative Trump appointee—wrote last week when she blocked Trump’s attempt to send troops to Portland.

Trump’s attempt to militarize America’s cities is still being tested in court. But he has already issued other orders that are likely illegal. The president has determined—on his own—that he can go to war against “narco-terrorists,” and he has furthermore decided that he can order the military to blow up these suspected drug runners at will. Several boats have been destroyed and many people have been killed, but neither American law nor international law (including agreements signed by the United States) allow the president to ….direct the summary execution of people who are not in actual hostilities with the United States and who pose no imminent threat to American lives.

The Pentagon keeps fulfilling these orders, but reports are already surfacing that some military commanders are trying to figure out if they face legal exposure for acting as Trump’s personal hit squad.

Trump, of course, doesn’t care all that much about Venezuelan speedboats or costumed pranksters in Portland. He cares about power, which is why he is determined to flex military muscle on the streets of American cities. As opposition grows…Trump may be tempted to issue orders to the military that will be aimed at suppressing dissent, or disrupting elections, or detaining political figures; he has already floated the idea of invoking the Insurrection Act, which could enable such actions.

…..now that the president has been blessed by the Supreme Court with monarchical immunity. Nothing would prevent Trump from saying: Forget the lawyers. Do it. I’ll cover you. (After all, he’s already…put that promise into action when he pardoned the January 6 insurrectionists.) Even if one officer declines an illegal order, Trump can just keep firing people until he gets to another officer who is enough of a coward, or opportunist, or true MAGA believer, to carry out the order.

This is why America’s senior military officers, including the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, must approach Trump now and make clear to him that they will not obey illegal orders to act against American citizens or disrupt the American political process….Congress, so far, has been useless in restraining Trump: The Democrats are too timid, and the Republicans are too compromised. Only by standing together can the senior military officials warn Trump away from leading America into a full-blown civil-military confrontation.

… Most American military personnel, however, need no reminder of their constitutional duty. But they do need some reassurance that they have support from their chain of command to resist illegal orders. And the rest of us, whether we’re elected officials or ordinary citizens, should do everything we can to let our fellow Americans in uniform know that if they risk their careers and even their freedom to protect the Constitution, we will stand with them.

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My frustration level continues to rise

For over five years I have been expressing my concern about Trump and his lack of having a moral compass, and his disdain for the rule of law and the Constitution when it comes to limiting his power. I continue to emphasize that Trump believes, as president, his word is law regardless of the Constitution or previously enacted laws. I pledge to continue sharing my thoughts but sometimes it gets frustrating as I realize how many people I encounter in my daily life, who endorse Trump’s actions and do not see his actions as a threat to our democracy.

They downplay January 6, 2021. They think there is nothing wrong with sending the military into our major cities. They believe him when he says the boats that he blew up off the coast of Venezuela contained drug dealers that were headed for the U.S. They don’t care if blowing up the boats who were not a threat to our country goes against international laws. They don’t care if he ignores laws that were put in place to control the executive branch and protect the Constitution. As long as Trump continues to remake America into the Land of the Great White Male, they will continue to support him with their money and their votes.

That is not the America I want. I will not give in to my frustration.

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Quote of the Day: “And we just played the best win-or-go-home game of all time. There’s a lot to be proud of.” Tiger ace and starting pitcher Tarik Skubal after the 15-inning loss to the Mariners. Skubal pitched six innings, struck out 13, walked none, and allowed one run while throwing 69 of 99 pitches for strikes.

Orchid of the Day: See above

Onion of the Day: Detroit Lions Brian Branch for his slapping KC Chief Ju Ju Smith-Schuster at the end of the Lions game on Sunday night. There is no excuse for this happening.

Question of the Day: Will the rest of us will keep pretending this is law and order?

Lyrics of the Day: I was working part time at the five and dime store. My boss was Mr. McGee. He told me several times that he didn’t like my kind, cause I was a bit to leisurely.

Seems that I was busy doing something close to nothing but different than the day before. That’s when I saw her, ooh, I saw her. She walked through the out door. Out door.

If you know the answer, send me the answer in the comments section of the blog or email me at thomasdbiggs@gmail.com.

Lyrics of the Day for October 6, 2025. Money for Nothing by Dire Straits.

Video of the Day: The Agony of Defeat raises its ugly head.

Dodgers Eliminate Phillies in WILD Ending | 2025 MLB Postseason

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