Ashland, southern Oregon — Thursday, July 30, 2026.
Clouds and sunshine is mixing it up in our valley. 75 F at this point, the high is expected to top off in the upper 80s today.
The air remains clear of wildfire smoke, as well, knock on wood. A little rain would be welcomed.
Trump continues to slog through a summer of bad news. More light came to be shed about Trump’s reasons for attacking on Iran, I think.
US economy slowed more than expected as the Iran war took hold
The United States economy slowed more than expected as an inflation surge took hold over the early months of the Iran war, a government report on Thursday showed.
The economy grew at an annualized rate of 1.5% over three months ending in June, marking a slight slowdown from 2.1% growth recorded in the previous quarter. The figure came in lower than economists’ expected.
Still, the latest data outperformed 0.5% annualized gross domestic product (GDP) recorded over final three months of 2025.
The period covered by the data release followed a historic global oil shock set off by the Middle East conflict.
Trump’s war with Iran makes more sense to me now. Trump attacked Iran because the economy was weak. He needed a distraction, cover for why inflation was not going down. Besides that, the Epstein files are still out there, waiting to be released. Also, polls were showing that Trump and his policies were becoming more and more unpopular, a trend that’s still going.
Trump’s approval rating plummets near George W. Bush levels – Daily Kos
Of course, Trump ignorantly thought the war with Iran would be a cakewalk. Instead, whoa, half a year has gone by.
Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! is another Epic Trump Failure.
On top of these things, Trump has been trying to drum up fears about election being stolen! Election fraud! Oh, no, commies are coming!
States are pushing back.
Florida ‘has not been hacked’: Trump election claim crumbles as states start to speak up
Facts, truth, history: these are anathema to Trump, who much prefers ignorance, lies, wealth, and idolization.
Your Trump Quote of the Day:
Trump loves tough talking. Especially when he’s sending others in to face danger, and it is others who are being killed.
Today’s theme music emerged from the headlines.
Noah Kahan rips White House, Trump for using hit song in video of prez touring GM plant
I wasn’t familiar with the song. Once I heard it, it struck me as a really weird song choice for visiting a factory. But that aligns with Trump and his Trumpions’ thinking. “American Cars” is the song title, and that’s all they needed.
I was pleased that Noah Kahan pushed back against Trump’s use of the song.
“Kahan wrote Tuesday, according to Variety, “Would never approve of my music being used in support of you or this administration.””
His writing partner, Noah Levine, was more to the point: “You fat f–k, this song isn’t for you.”
Love you, Noah Levine!
Hope your day is wealthy with friendship, good health, and good times.
Cheers
Michael Seidel, writer 
You’d think someone in the White House would “get it” by now on something this simple:
1) They routinely appropriate songs without permission. It doesn’t matter if it is “on point” or not. They just use the song.
2) The artist has a sh*t fit, insults Ding Dong Donnie, says “no way!” It hits the news, in the most mocking way for DDD. I believe (can’t recall) some have sued and or taken them to court over it.
I mean, it 99.99% never ends well for the WH or DDD yet they keep doing it. Are they expecting different results? Oh wait, isn’t that the meme for the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result from the other 1000 times?
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Exactly! It’s one thing for DDD to keep doing this because he refuses to learn and they keep him sealed against real news to protect his thin skin and fragile ego. But the rest should be learning. By now learning, they’re revealing how indifferent they are to everyone else and their opinion. It’s such arrogance.
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Arrogance and idiocy.
Seems like a good slogan to be emblazoned in gold on a Trump golf hat or something.
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