My Opinion ~~ Donald Trump and the Jews

The other night Trump was speaking at a Combat Anti-Semitism Event in Washington, DC, 

BOY! THAT’S RICH!!

where he told his audience of Jewish folks that if he lost the election it would “be their fault” and that the Jewish people “had never treated him fairly”.  (He  just can’t help himself.)

Donald J. Trump has disparaged the Jewish community on so many levels over the years:

In December 2015, Trump gave a speech before the Republican Jewish Coalition, saying, “I’m a negotiator like you folks, we are negotiators … Is there anybody that doesn’t renegotiate deals in this room? This room negotiates them — perhaps more than any other room I’ve ever spoken in.”

Trump has focused particular ire on George Soros (Hungarian-American businessman, investor, and philanthropist. As of October 2023, he had a net worth of $6.7 billion, having donated more than $32 billion to the Open Society Foundations) . He baselessly accused him of funding protesters of  Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, and suggested Soros could be funding the refugee caravan — lending credence to the conspiracy theory that world Jewry is conspiring to bring immigrants into the United States to replace white people (thus the “Jews will not replace us” chant in Charlottesville).

It bears repeating that this kind of thing is very close to what you find in Mein Kompf, by Adolf Hitler.  

He was heard to say:  “I’ve got black accountants at Trump Castle and Trump Plaza. Black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day.”

Trump has repeatedly suggested that “Jews who vote for Democrats are disloyal to Israel and their faith.”

In 2019, he said, “I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty”

Trump has also targeted prominent Jewish political figures. For example, he called Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro a “highly overrated Jewish Governor.”

Donald Trump hosted Timothy Hale-Cusanelli,  at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J.  Hale-Cusanelli is a white supremacist and Nazi sympathizer, who was heard to tell his coworkers (at a naval weapons station) that “Hitler should have finished the job” and “babies born with any deformities or disabilities should be shot in the forehead.” 

Fact check #5:  Does Donald know Laura Loomer, unashamed racist, xenophobe (fear and dislike of anyone from a different country/culture) and all around Looney Tune, his VERY ‘close’ friend and confidant, is a Jewish woman? Laura Loomer is of Jewish descent. She was raised in Arizona and identifies as ethnically, culturally, and politically Jewish. She is quoted as saying: “Roger Stone is one of my personal heroes.”
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Love and hope,

                                Trisha
                            Childless Cat Lady
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My Opinion ~~ The King is Insane!

  My Silence has Ended!   I cannot be silent any longer! 
(or at least not for the next 52 days)

Silence is Complicity!  I am not complicit! 

Fact check #1:   During recorded history, many world leaders, including many reigning kings and queens were INSANE while on the throne or in the seat of power.  Some notable examples include Caligula of Rome, Henry VI of England, Joanna of Castile, Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon, Erik XIV of Sweden, Ludwig II of Bavaria, Queen Maria of Portugal, and most famously, George III of England.

Eighteen (49%) US Presidents met the criteria for some form of psychiatric disorder.  Shocking! Not one was removed from office. 

Historically, corrupt enablers and sycophants covered for the leader, ran the countries and propped up the diminished heads of state in public when and where it was needed.  The INSANE or diminished leader could be suffering from early dementia, or insane from the late stages of syphilis (King Henry VI of England, King Charles VIII of France, & Ivan, the Terrible of Russia)  or from the in-breeding of the royals across Europe.  
The royal courts (Mar-a-Lago) were stuffed with panderers; petting,

 praising and stroking the ego of the ranting King or President. 

Does all this SOUND FAMILIAR?

Fact check #2:  How can the EX-President hound, badger, threaten, stalk, and deport immigrants, with a straight face? HE is MARRIED to an IMMIGRANT? HIS parents-in-law are IMMIGRANTS. HIS SON is the SON of an IMMIGRANT!    Hypocrite!!

I guess “white” immigrants are immune from his racist and ignorant opinions. Immune from his  persecution of black and brown IMMIGRANTS.  He’s wished out loud that the US would receive immigrants from Norway. 
So it’s not about “illegal immigrants” but rather, it’s that they are brown or black or yellow.

Poor Donald!  In spite of all of his efforts, he just can’t seem to get AWAY from all these BLACK and BROWN WOMEN

Love and hope,New Year, cats,happy wishes
                                Trisha
                            Childless Cat Lady
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9/11 Remembered!

9/11 Memorial 2024  911.3

We haven’t forgotten that day…we, each, know exactly where we were when that terrible thing happened. That horrific thing that we never imagined could happen here.  I remember I turned on the TV at about 10 that morning, going to catch up on a little news…at first, I thought I was seeing a trailer for an action movie on the screen. Then I tuned my ears in and realized the disbelieving tone to the journalist’s voice, the horror at what we were all watching across our nation. And then the unbelievable on top of the unimaginable, another plane slammed into the second Tower.  

Americans gathered today in NY City, at the Pentagon, D.C., and in Pennsylvania to pay respects to the heroes lost that day. 
WE AMERICANS WILL NEVER FORGET! 

9/11 Memorial (2014,)  I’ve been watching those terrible days on TV, relived, from 9/11/2001.  The release of new, sometimes grisly, information about that horrific, bright blue, autumn day when our beloved cou911ntry was invaded for the first time in our history, (if you don’t count the Brits).  Over the years I have written some poetry of my reflections, my heartbreak as I visited ground zero and the firehouses [back in the early days], then observed the almost finished repair a few years back.  It’s pretty for a cemetery.  The building I’m not so fond of the architecture; for me, it resembles a middle finger thrusting into the same blue sky, daring them to try it again?  I don’t know…………so here is my latest offering and a couple from other years on this anniversary of our souls weeping, forever changed.

the  forever wound       (Haiku)

A deep gaping hole
newly covered with scar flesh
a cemetery

the reflective pond
the bright thirteen year old trees
the lost souls still there

the money-men charge
fees to visit our worst time
Ah, America!

Anniversary 9.11.11

I wait to exhale
will terrorists celebrate
with their big loud bang?

walking among us9.11
to celebrate what they did
murder innocence

today, a grief day
remember a bright, fall day
ten short years ago

Ground Zero 9.11.12

Heartache fills the chest
Terrorists murdered thousands
Pain is fresh and new

Haunts walk the gardens
Four hundred trees, firemen all
the fountain of tears

Green leafed trees stand tall
Names carved never to forget
Red, white, blue flies proud

(c) Trisha Sugarek

The question begs:  Have we learned anything?
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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS featuring INTERVIEWS with  best-selling AUTHORS!

In addition to my twice weekly blog I also feature an interview with another author once a month. So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create!    

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Writers supporting Writers. (Really?)

Dear Readers and fellow-writers,  I have received wonderful reviews for Ain’t Nuthin’ Gonna Separate Us  and I am so grateful for the support.

However, one well-known author, who will remain unnamed here, chose not to support her fellow writer (me) after, literally, years of my supporting her work. She cited the reason was, she objected to the language I used when relating to black folk.  She seemed to forget my historical novel takes place in the early 1950’s. When language was far different than what is acceptable and respectful today.  
Trust me, I researched it heavily and then asked some of my African-American friends to be beta readers and their feedback was favorable. In the end, I tried my best to write a thoughtful and true depiction of the deep South in the 50’s.   

Here’s what others thought of my new story:

“What a wonderful coming-of-age story. In Ain’t Nothin’ Gonna Separate Us both Hannah Mae and Jerry will grab hold of your heart and not let go, long after their story has ended.” Kathleen Grissom, author of The Kitchen House

“Sugarek’s outstanding, realistic portrait of the 1950s South and the forces that buffet two children reaching for more than rote safety creates a memorable tale. It will reach a wide audience, from those interested in Southern settings and portraits to readers of coming-of-age stories and sagas of survival, musical growth, and foster care struggles.” ~ Diane Donovan, Sr. Reviewer, Midwest Book Review

“The story is very well written, including the poetic moments in the language that gives the narrator a meaningful and convincing voice.” An Educator, Pace University

“Ain’t Nothin’ Gonna Separate Us is a vivid and powerful coming-of-age story that is both compelling and uplifting. I loved it – I couldn’t put it down – I love Sugarek’s writing.” ~~ Donna Ashcroft, author of Christmas in the Scottish Highlands

“A yummy read.” Atia, about Ain’t Nothin’ Gonna Separate Us
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Book Review ~~ The Summer Swap

   5 out of 5 stars    ~~  Book Review

Just Released!

Sarah Morgan has really delivered this time! The characters are so fun and richly drawn.  I had special empathy for the 75-year-old, Cecilia. A feisty matriarch, she gets a few surprises when she returns to Dune Cottage after avoiding the place for decades.

The writer’s imagery is powerful. You can smell the salty air from the ocean, hear the seagulls scolding. 

Overall, it’s a great summer read and I highly recommend it to my readers. 

Did you miss my interview with Sarah
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Poetry Soup gives Trisha’s poetry some love!

Dear Trisha,

Congratulations, this is just a quick notice to let you know that your poem Heart is one of the poems being featured on the PoetrySoup home page this week. Poems are rotated each day in groups of 14-16 to give each poem an equal opportunity to be displayed.

Thanks again and congratulations.

Sincerely, PoetrySoup

heart ©

the heart
pumping, nourishing the body’s life
feeding life’s blood, glistening, pumping
pumping,

the heart
the largest vessel in the universe
it holds as much love and grief
as its host fills it with
its capacity never replete,

the heart
still there is room for more
joy, pain, love, grief, ache
bleeding out with sorrow
surfeit with joyous wonder

and still there is room for
more
and more
and more
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                                                   COMINGSOON!

What Do You Do When Your Story Plot Takes a Hard Turn?

GO WITH IT!!

I write this post at the risk of my readers rubbing their temples and saying to themselves, ‘Trish has completely gone off the rails. Now she’s got voices talking to her, reaching out their hands and leading her down another story pathway? Has she gone completely nuts?’

I’m not a very organized writer…well, that is to say, I just let ‘er rip! I’m what’s known as a ‘pantser‘. A writer who dives into their work without a detailed plan or outline is often called a “pantser”. Yes, you read that right—it’s not a typo! The term ‘pantser’ comes from the phrase “flying by the seat of your pants.” These writers rely on their intuition and creativity to guide them as they write, allowing the story to unfold naturally without the constraints of pre-planning. Famous authors who embrace this approach include Margaret Atwood, George R.R. Martin, and Stephen King. So I’m in good company.

So here how it works:

I have an idea of a story plot but only in my head. When my brain is so full of the new story I must empty it out, I sit at my keyboard and began typing.  It’s going very well, the words are flowing and the story is going in the direction I had loosely planned.

Then one night, (120 pages in) about 3am (my best thinking time) I thought to myself, ‘this isn’t about Hannah Mae at all. It’s about her brother, Jerry and his music.’ I lay there and started dictating into my phone the salient points I wanted to tell. How young Jerry is a prodigy. He can play a song after he hears it just once. He can write the music down on paper. He composes effortlessly.
It was like Jerry reached out his hand and led me to his story path. And now with a bit of editing I am exploring his story and the musicians and mentors he meets as a young musician. It has been fascinating, for me, to research and learn about the ‘bluesmen’ of the 1950’s. 

I mentioned it’s happened before:  I had occasion to visit a state prison for men and as I sat waiting with the other visitors (mostly other women) their energy reached out to me and whispered, “you must write about us. The women who wait, the women who hold the family together until the day our man is released.’ 
I began writing their stories the next day.

Half way through writing this warm and fuzzy tale, I was interrupted when one of my characters took a hostage, at knife point, in the visiting room. It stopped me dead in my tracks. I remember yelling at the computer screen, “NO!!”   I considered ignoring what the character,  Charlie, had done. Back space the words, delete them, forget it had happened. But I couldn’t. It was already there on the screen and besides…it was a good twist and made perfect sense within the plot. It was meant to be.

I knew nothing about hostage negotiating. It was a delay of about two months while I researched and wove a new negotiator  into my story, how the other visitors relate to her (yes, she’s a female negotiator .) and remembering that the entire visitors’ area has been taken hostage too. 

Learn how to do the rest: story plot, character development, structure, arc, themes, rising action, inciting incident/s, and setting. 
But, TRUST YOUR GUT!  Your creativity, intuition, and (if you’re very lucky) your story characters should lead you through the story that must be told!
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Interview with author, Sarah Morgan (part 2)

Q. What first inspired you to write?

SM. I always loved writing, even when I was a child. Then by chance I read a medical romance when I was working as a nurse and I was sure I could write one! I did, and I had a great deal of fun doing it. My whole career started from there.

Q. Do you ‘get lost’ in your writing?

SM. Sometimes I do, depending on where I am in the book. But I’m careful not to romanticize writing. There are days when the words flow easily and those days are to be treasured of course, but there are also days where I’m examining each sentence and editing closely, making sure that everything I write is as good as it can be and that is important too. Writing is wonderful, but also hard work and I think it’s important to acknowledge that. If it feels hard it’s not because you’re not doing it right!

Q. What compelled you to choose and settle on the genre you now write in?

SM. I mostly write women’s fiction now, but there is almost always some romance in my books (and I wrote romance for years before I moved on to broader stories). I’m interested in relationships, and that includes family and friends as well as romantic relationships. I’m interested in what happens when friendships are challenged, when family relationships are in conflict and when romance isn’t straightforward. I enjoy exploring many of the issues that affect women today, but most of all I love to entertain and romance and women’s fiction are both entertaining genres.

Q. Are you working on something now or have a new release coming up? If so tell us about it.

SM. I’ve just finished a book that will be out in time for the festive season. It’s called The Holiday Cottage (in the UK the title is The Christmas Cottage) and it explores themes of loneliness, friendship and family. It was so much fun to write and I hope it will make readers laugh aloud (although they may well shed a tear too!).

Q. When did you begin to write seriously?

SM. I’ve scribbled stories and experimented for as long as I can remember, but I didn’t finish a book until I was at home with young children. After that there was no stopping me.

Q. Do you think we will see, in our lifetime, the total demise of paper books?

SM. No I don’t. I think readers are individuals and we all seek different ways to read. I know people who walk for miles listening to an audiobook, who use an ebook to soften the boredom of a long commute, but will still lounge in a bubble bath with a paperback at the end of the day. And let’s not underestimate the appeal of a beautiful hardcover book with sprayed edges!

Q. What makes a writer great?

SM. As a reader I want to be immersed in the story and engaged with the characters. I want to be transported from my world to the world the writer has created, and I want to care enough about what happens in the book to want to read the book in one sitting. A great writer will make me feel everything the characters are feeling.

Did you miss Part 1 of this wonderful Interview?

The conclusion upcoming next week!

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Interview with Sarah Morgan, Author

Sarah Morgan always knew she wanted to be a writer but took a slight detour along the way to train as a nurse, an experience that has found its way into many of her books. A lover of the outdoors, many of her story ideas come while hiking in wild places and she is also a keen photographer. She has been a published author for more than twenty years and lives near London, England where the rain frequently keeps her trapped in her office.

Q. Where do you write? Do you have a special room, shed, barn, or special space for your writing? (please provide a photo of you at work in your shed, room, closet, barn, or houseboat….) Or tell us about your ‘dream’ workspace.

SM. At the beginning of my career I worked

anywhere and everywhere. I had young children so I made sure I was flexible – I’d keep notebooks with me and scribble a few lines at every opportunity and I often worked in the evenings when they were in bed. Now I’m lucky enough to have an office at the bottom of my garden, so in the summer I work with the doors and windows open, surrounded by birdsong and the buzz of bees. It’s very relaxing and great for focus.

Q. Do you have any special rituals or quirks when you sit down to write? (a neat workspace, sharpened #2 pencils, legal pad, cup of tea, a glass of brandy, favorite pajamas, etc.)

SM. I almost always have a cup of tea or coffee, but that’s as far as it goes! I have resisted the temptation to create rituals because I want to be able to write anywhere, at any time, regardless of the conditions. I used to write to music, but now I find I need silence although I often use music for inspiration to get me in the right ‘mood’ for the story.

Q. Could you tell us something about yourself that we might not already know?

SM. I worked behind a bar one summer and it was the most perfect job for observing human behaviour. Also great for learning to mix a drink!

Q. What tools do you begin with? Legal pad, spiral notebook, pencils, fountain pen, or do you go right to your keyboard?

SM. All I need is something to write on. Preferably my laptop, but if a pen and paper is all that is available I’ll use that. I find sticky notes useful because you can scribble down a line of dialogue or a plot point and put it on the wall. It’s easy to move notes around and a great way to visualize your story.

Q. What’s your best advice to other writers for overcoming procrastination?

SM. I think it’s all about developing positive habits. Presumably you want to write, or you wouldn’t be doing it, so sometimes it helps to remind yourself why you’re doing it. Identify your temptations so that you can plan to avoid them. For example if your weakness is getting distracted by the internet then switch it off until you’ve finished your word count for the day. If you’re finding it hard to concentrate then set yourself small acheiveable goals, either in time (work for thirty minutes without distraction), or word count (write 1000 words before stopping). Having a schedule and sticking to it is often helpful.

Q. Where/when do you first discover your characters?

SM. The characters and their situation/problem usually appear to me at the same time. Like most writers I ask myself the ‘what if’ question. No two individuals will respond to a challenge in the same way, and that’s why every story is fresh and new even when you might be exploring well trodden themes.

Q. What first inspired you to write?

Join us for part 2  Click here!

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A new novel by Trisha Sugarek:   Ain’t Nothin’ Gonna Separate  Us

Book Review ~~ Thirty Days in Paris by Veronica Henry

5 out of 5 stars     Book Review

Good writers have the most wonderful ideas for a book. Great writers have the persistence, courage, knowledge, and passion to get the story written down,  weaving those ideas into the very fabric of existence. 

Veronica Henry is a great writer of contemporary stories with wonderful empathic, interesting characters.  And Thirty Days in Paris is no exception.

Juliet has just suffered from empty nest syndrome big time, and her husband is in some mid-life crisis that she can’t understand. They finally agree that they have grown apart and their marriage has reached its ‘sell by’ date. 

Juliet happens upon an advert:  “ TO LET. Charming ‘chambre de bonne’ in the 2eme. Situated a stone’s throw from the glamorous Rue Saint-Honore with its chic boutiques….” 
Paris, the city of love, has always lingered in Juliet’s heart. Now, fueled by whimsy and courage, she answers the ad. The tiny apartment becomes her cocoon, her canvas for reinvention.

The plot is delicious! Juliet’s courage to move from a suburban-Mom’s life to a soon-to-be single middle aged woman on her own is tantilizing. The writing flows like wine. The surprises? Oh, they sizzle like crepes in a skillet—each flip revealing a layer of vulnerability, resilience, and newfound purpose. Veronica Henry’s prose dances, and we, the readers, waltz along.

I highly recommend this book to my readers. 
Did you miss my interview with Veronica Henry? 
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