On Wednesday night, November 12, 2025, President Donald Trump signed a continuing resolution (CR) into law, ending a record-breaking 42-day federal government shutdown and resuming normal government operations.The legislation, officially titled the Senate Amendment to H.R. 5371, funds most of the federal government through January 30, 2026.It also provides full-year appropriations through September 30 for key sectors including military construction, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Agriculture, and Congress.
Two weeks away! I’m including links to various methods for handling your turkey. I pick and choose parts of each for mine.
I received my “humanely raised” turkey yesterday from Butcher Box. This is the description:
Turkeys are raised in enriched environments, allowing them to behave naturally. This includes room to move, sunlight, fresh bedding, and toys such as ramps and xylophones to promote curiosity.
I didn’t know that turkeys needed toys, but I will say that the product is very good! No antibiotics or hormones.
ADD: This year I may spatchcock my turkey and dry brine for 12-24 hrs. before roasting.
In past years, I cut the bird into pieces and dry brined it before roasting on the big day. Here’s How I Brine. This is the method I used last year and it turned out great. If cutting your turkey into parts before brining (legs, thighs, wings and breasts), here’s how to do it:
The turkey is absolutely delicious and a big hit with everyone (except my vegetarian grandson, of course.) It takes a much shorter time to roast, and the meat is perfectly cooked and juicy.
Six Democrats voted in favor of the continuing resolution, and two Republicans voted no.
Reps. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), Don Davis (D-N.C.), Jared Golden (D-Maine), Adam Gray (D-Calif.), Marie Gluesenkamp (D-Wash.), and Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) voted yes, while Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Greg Steube (R-Fla.) voted no.
This continuing resolution kicks the can down the road until the end of January. We can only hope that Congress will someday vote on a real budget instead of an endless series of continuing resolutions.
The Senate passed a government funding package Monday night that is moving on to the House for confirmation.
The 60-40 vote came roughly 24 hours after a bipartisan group of rank-and-file senators, reached an agreement that officially broke a weeks-long stalemate.
When Sen. John Kennedy talks politics, you’d be wise to listen. The Louisiana Republican never minces words, and last month, in the early days of the Schumer Shutdown, he made a prediction that turned out to be prophetic.
“It will end eventually when Senator Schumer goes to six or eight of his members and his Democrats and says, ‘Do me a favor. Vote to open it back up. I may have to criticize you, I’m not gonna vote with you, but I need a way out of this. I need an offering.’” He even warned, with his trademark wit, that Schumer would have to be careful not to make it look orchestrated. Because, as he put it, “if it looks contrived… he’s boned.”
Well, Kennedy was right. The shutdown ended Sunday after eight members of Schumer’s own caucus broke ranks and voted to end debate on the continuing resolution. The 60–40 vote drew a clean line in the sand: Republicans held their ground, while Democrats quietly folded.
On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, was declared between the Allied nations and Germany in the First World War, then known as “the Great War.” Commemorated as Armistice Day beginning the following year, November 11th became a legal federal holiday in the United States in 1938. In the aftermath of World War II and the Korean War, Armistice Day became Veterans Day, a holiday dedicated to American veterans of all wars.
888,246 lives – a cascade of terrible beauty that shocks the eye as it tugs at the heart. The number of Empire soldiers who lost their lives in the “War to End All Wars”. The total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I was more than 38 million: there were over 17 million deaths and 20 million wounded, one of the deadliest conflicts in human history.
116,000 U.S. military lost their lives in WWI. 204,000 were wounded.
