Ashland, southern Oregon — Tuesday, June 16, 2026.
95 will be today’s high. Blue sky, sunshine, 71 F right now.
We’re in a mini-limbo with Mom’s house sale. One set of inspections is done, and it’s not bad. Repairs and issues are underway. Some are due to the house’s age. For instance, back in the day, a window in the bathroom sufficed; fans weren’t needed. Now, with the house changing hands, code stipulates bathroom fans. And the dryer duct came undone. Stuff like that.
I used to tease Mom about her old washer and dryer. Both were ‘low value’ purchases. Didn’t match: Whirlpool and GE. She bought the dryer shortly after moving in back in ’95. The house had a washer but then needed to be replaced around ’99. But those two pieces have chugged along. Same with the old gas range. We siblings pitched together to buy her a portable dishwasher from Sears one Mother’s Day in the late nineties. My brother-in-laws installed it as a permanent piece in the early 00s. Still works as well.
Mom’s house is full of things that were old but worked well. She always took care of it all.
My dental appointments didn’t go well yesterday. These are about surgical dental implants. I had the surgery a year ago. The site that remains had a cyst removed and needed more time to recover. Well, yesterday’s ‘click tests’ with that tiny torque wrench show that it needs more time. So the next steps — installing the implant — were pushed back six weeks.
Ironically, I’d changed the implant date, June 25, to July, because it clashed with my scheduled bladder surgery. Oh, well.
It feels like D.C. and Trump has entered a sort of stasis. That’s my opinion from ‘out here’. One, Trump’s war with Iran is ‘over’. We’re all digesting its consequences. Two, Trump is definitely physically and mentally run down. I don’t give a damn about official reports. We can see it in whenever he appears in public, and can read it when he sends out midnight texts.
Those texts remind me of my mother’s bout with sundowner syndrome, BTW. She was also sending them in the middle of the night and they also made little sense.
The economy and systems are all also giving the signals about what Trump’s unchecked actions have wrought. Additionally, the judicial system is pushing back. Many Trump initiatives have become a tug of war in courts, things like his ICE deportation policies, ICE killing of US citizens, renaming the Kennedy Center, building the Epstein ballroom, the tariffs…it’s a long list.
The trends are clear. Trump acts fast, asserting permission with arrogance. Shock travels the affected. Reactions set in. Legal actions are raised against Trump. Courts rule. Trump often loses but appeals decisions, frequently changing legal tactics.
All of that is Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! to cover his enormous stealing, his insider stock trading, his underhanded grifting.
It’s all slowly catching up, leading to the mid-term confrontations. I’m sure Trump rushed to a deal now because he’s trying to save face and gain back support before the mid-terms. I’m sure he believes he can gain some support with Freedom 250 and the Great American State Fair, and the pageantry planned for that.
The problem with his plan remains: he is Trump. He’ll make it about himself.
He is Trump. He refuses to understand that his policies have failed, and that’s why voters are turning against him.
So, he is Trump. He will lash out.
Our question remains, how?
Today’s song ends up being “The Man” by The Killers.
Sample Lyrics:
Don’t need no advice
I got a plan
I know the direction
The lay of the land
I know the score like the back of my hand
Them other boys
I don’t give a damn
I’m the man, come round
No-no-nothing can break, no-nothing can break me down
I’m the man, come round and
No-no-nothing can break, you can’t break me down
The 2017 song was written about the POV that you feel invincible when you’re young. That makes sense.
The song came to the morning mental music stream when I was thinking about Trump and the morning news. And I realized that the song is apt for the day because a large part of Trump is his immaturity. He remains a person who thinks himself invincible.
I hope you have an excellent day, full of peace and grace, no matter the weather or season wherever you are.
Cheers
Michael Seidel, writer 
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