Today is Monday, March 31, 2025. I just heard this stunning piece of news on the Rachel Maddow show, and to me, it represents finally some good resistance to what is fucking going on in this country ever since the fascist retook the White House, and that is New Jersey Senator Cory Booker has taken to the Senate floor to protest actions taken by this cruel administration, saying that he will keep going “as long as I am physically able.” This breaking news is covered in an online CNN article by Morgan Rimmer and Ted Barrett entitled “Democrat kicks off marathon Senate floor speech to protest Trump administration actions.”

The speech is not considered a filibuster because Booker is not blocking legislation or a nomination. The Democratic senator’s address will keep the Senate floor open – and floor staff working as well as U.S. Capitol police members detailed to the chamber – but lawmakers had concluded voting for the day before the senator began his remarks.

Speaking at 7 p.m., Booker stated, “I rise with the intention of disrupting the normal business of the United States Senate for as long as I am physically able.” He added, “I rise tonight because I believe sincerely that our country is in crisis.” Boy, is that an understatement!

Booker is undertaking this effort at a time when Democratic leaders in Washington are under pressure from their base to do more to stand up to the Orange Asshole. He is a member of the Senate Democratic leadership team.

Booker pointed out the insanity being practiced in this country under a Dump regime, stating, “In just 71 days, the president of the United States has inflicted so much harm on Americans’ safety; financial stability; the core foundations of our democracy; and even our aspirations as a people from our highest offices for a sense of common decency.” He indicated the obvious when he said, “These are not normal times in America. And they should not be treated as such in the United States Senate.”

This marathon session by the New Jersey senator has its precedents in earlier times, including: Jeff Merkley against Neil Gorsuch in 2017; Chris Murphy on gun control in 2016; Rand Paul over National Security Agency surveillance programs in 2015; and the abominable Ted “Ooze” against the Affordable Care Act in 2013 (we know how that one went: it was passed nevertheless, thank God!)

As if you would recall this one: the late Strom Thurmond – who was a raging segregationist – holds the record for the longest speech when he spoke on the floor for 24 hours and 18 minutes to oppose the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

I don’t know about you, but I’m dumbfounded by this low percentage rating of Democrats by the American public which now stands at 27 percentage points. Huh! How could anyone with a brain support this president’s meshuganah agenda? I would suspect there would be a very small percentage of dimwitted bulbs who still support the “president’s” policies. Especially when their IRAs, Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits dry up because of Muskrat’s misuse of DOGE (new name: “Department of Greed and Evil” as offered by some protestor across the country who held such a sign).

Tomorrow we will see how Democrats really fare in crucial races in Wisconsin and Florida where two Democrats are almost favored over the stinking Republicans who are running. I truly pray that Brad “Schlimzael” is turned out by a blue wave. This fucking billionaire has no purchase anymore in this country and should be rejected by all decent Americans. I’m hoping that Susan Crawford does win, which will be a symbolic victory for the principles of fairness and decency. Let’s have some good news here finally in this country of woe.

As for tomorrow, I won’t be posting my blog since I will be at my gay men’s club meeting on April Fool’s Day discussing the merits of Edith Wharton’s The Custom of the Country which has no relevance to the homosexual world at all. However, even though I plowed through it with great difficulty, I do consider it a fascinating portrait of an early Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian, even though the two ladies of the present have done something more than the gold digging protagonist of Miss Wharton’s 1913 novel, Undine Spragg. All she could do was to move up the economic scale and leave less-rich husbands behind, which she does in a novel spanning over 394 pages. I’m very elated that I could actually finish this book in the allotted time. I started it around March 15 and just finished it last week, on March 28. This represents the longest I’ve ever taken to finish a reading club selection.

Let’s give our support to Senator Cory Booker who will be talking as long as it’s physically sustainable to give this country a bird’s eye view of the cruelty being practiced in this second Dump administration.

Oh, and today I baked my very first cake for 2025: a yellow cake with chocolate frosting that we will present to our good neighbor/friend “Diane” tomorrow on the occasion of her birthday on April Fool’s Day. I will post a picture of it without the chocolate frosting.

See you on Wednesday.

And so it went!

Here is my first 2025 cake: a yellow cake with no chocolate frosting as of yet!