Month: September 2026

Children of Trump

Seeing and reading about that Trump pledge at Trumpapalooza more since it happened, I think, that is one of the silliest things that I’ve seen in my lifetime, outside of parties where people were drunk.

Those Republicans weren’t drunk, though. As far as I know…

Then I realized, yes, I have seen things like that before, in movies about secret societies, and at children’s parties.

The Trump pledge seems particularly childish to me now. Taking that pledge with Trump showed how the GOP has become a childish party. Led by Trump, they often threaten to withhold money, attack someone, sue someone, or take away FCC licenses. Even Speaker Johnson has been caught lying.

Trump also childishly promised more money to people if Republicans won and keep control of office. Sounds a lot like a kid saying, “If you’re nice to me, I’ll give you a piece of my candy.”

Trump offers the candy even though it’s not actually his candy to give. The candy he’s giving away belongs to We the People.

Like a child, Trump tries blaming everyone else. He’s like a school kid telling the teacher, “The dog ate my homework.” Today he’s blaming the high gas prices plaguing his administration on Ukraine.

Is it any wonder that disapproval of Trump among college educated people is increasing?

Right now, Trump is whining about NATO again. After he started a war with Iran without mentioning it to NATO, he wants NATO, a defense organization to step up and help us with his fight.

Trump says he won that war, so why does he want NATO’s help?

And just like a child making a grandiose claim, Trump declared, “You know, we’ve cut drug prices by 1,200, 1,300, 1,400, 1,500%. I don’t mean 50%, I mean 14 — 1,500%.”

Doesn’t that sound like a child who doesn’t understand math just saying things because it sounds good?

Trump’s final words in his speech was, “You know what happens if you don’t vote? You go to hell!”

Which sounds like a very MAGA thing to say, and as mature as a petulant teenager.

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The Negotiations

Grandma and her granddaughter came into the coffee shop. They’re lovely regulars.

Today, the granddaughter declared, “I want ice cream.”

Grandma said, “No, you can’t have ice cream for lunch.”

“I want ice cream.”

“How ’bout chicken noodle soup?”

The granddaughter pouted. “I want chocolate ice cream.”

“How ’bout if you eat chicken noodle soup first and then you can have a little ice cream?”

“I will have chicken noodle soup and then chocolate ice cream,” the little girl agreed.

They moved to the counter and ordered the soup.

The barista said, “I’m sorry, we’re out of the soup.”

Grandma was amazed. “You’re out of the soup?”

“How ’bout a piece of pizza focaccia bread for lunch?” the barista suggested.

As grandma and her granddaughter agreed, the barista said, “Oh, no. We’re out of focaccia pizza, too.”

“You’re out of the pizza thing, too?” Grandma was amazed.

A breakfast burrito was suggested as a compromise.

No ice cream was ever ordered.

Yet.

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Saturday’s Theme Music — Traitors

Ashland, southern Oregon. Saturday, September 12, 2026.

Sunny today, but also cloudy. Today’s high is expected to strike the low seventies. It’s 66 F now.

Rain is expected after five PM. That has me on a schedule. I cleaned half our gutters on Tuesday, then went for beers with friends Wednesday, blew off finishing the gutters on Thursday, and went shopping with my wife on Friday. So, I must finish dragging the ladder around today. Not difficult or challenging. I just prefer reading and writing.

I’m preparing for the next spinoff of “The Walking Dead” franchise: Mitch Returns. I’m certain there will be little action, lot of pathetic platitudes about greatness, and applause. They’ll continue to ignore the double standard that Mitch, working for We the People, took several months off work, something working Americans can rarely do.

Many believe that we saw a lot of evidence that Trump is falling apart. Trump has been a slow train wreck for the last twenty years, but those MAGAzens are wrecks themselves, falling apart. They happily follow a leader falling apart.

JD Vance has been stepping up, making more speeches, trying to stir confidence in him, positioning himself to be Trump’s successor. JD Vance might as well be a zombie, given his uninspiring demeanor and lackluster speaking skills. He’s not a thinker or orator, but he’s a damn good liar, willing to make things up as needed to gain power.

Today’s morning mental music stream inhabitant is “traitor”. Olivia Rodrigo wrote and sings the song, which came out in 2021. Her song is about dating a guy who insists he wasn’t cheating on her but after they broke up, he was dating the ‘other woman’ within two weeks.

Sample Lyrics

And ain’t it funny? All the twisted games
All the questions you used to avoid

And that’s what we have with Trump, the GOP, and MAGAzens, for me: “All the questions you avoid.”

They’re traitors to principles, truth, and facts. Ain’t it funny how they ignore the money that Trump is making, and how he ‘jokes’ about cheating, just like he joked about other things, which he then turned around and did.

May your day be one that finds you refreshed and satisfied when you look back.

Cheers

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Trump — Narrow and Backward

Let’s begin with your Trump Quote of the Day:

This was from the Dallas 2026 midterm conventions. Trump insisted that the convention be made about him. That way, the midterm will be about Trump, because Trump thinks he’s the greatest.

And those of him applauding and pledging with him must agree. Why else put your hand up and say those things — unless they’re like Trump, willing to say anything?

Trump made many claims during his speech. A few had a basis in truth. Like, he did increase oil and gas production.

But that’s the problem. Trump’s focus is so narrow and backward. While he increased oil and gas production, that resulted in:

  • Record high profits for the energy companies
  • Diesel gas prices going over $6 per gallon for the first time in US history
  • The highest average price per gallon for gas on Labor Day in the US — ever
  • Increased costs for food and construction due to high construction costs
  • A record national debt that is growing faster than our nation
  • And an affordability crisis for Americans

Now for our second Trump Quote of the Day:

Trump has insisted that we’re not at war (although Trump also claimed we are at war and that’s why we can’t afford things). He always calls the war with Iran a conflict.

But here he is, verifying, yes, he thinks of it as a war. He used the word ‘war’ repeatedly this week.

Because it is a war.

“I think the war’s going to end immediately after the election because they can’t hold out any longer,” Trump said. “They’re desperate to affect the election, so that we can get a nice, weak group of people in there and leave them alone and let them have their nuclear weapon. All they want is their nuclear weapon, and if they have a nuclear weapon, the whole world is in deep trouble.”

Which means that he has illegally taken our nation into war over six months ago. The Constitution states only Congress can declare war.

I know Trump apologists – Trumpologists – are hurriedly giving him cover. “He was just talking,” they’ll probably say. “That doesn’t mean that we’re at war.”

That’s what Trumpologists always say about Trump. Trump was just talking, whether it’s about why he ordered the attacks on Iran, when the Iran war will end, declaring he’ll balance the budget, reduce prices, start no new wars, be a unifier and a peacemaker, release the Epstein files, cheat, or lower drug prices by over 100%.

He was just talking.

Trump cannot be trusted to keep his word. And his attitude and policies are too backward and outdated for what’s needed in this century.

Instead of facing this, Trump lies, bullies, cheats, and exaggerates.

I believe we need people in our leadership positions who are willing to face the challenges and rise to them, instead of trying to drag us backwards.

Otherwise, we’ll forever be going backwards as the world goes forward.

Vote Blue in 2026. End the war, stop the lies, and restore trust.

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The Toilets Dream

Last night’s dream was a masterclass in chaos. Had a lot of fecal matter, too.

Backing up a little, I was again in the military, running some operations center. They’d been having issues there and I arrived to fix them. Which I immediately started doing, explaining it to the young airmen there. They began to understand what I was doing.

Weird thing was, the operations center wasn’t the classic secure and windowless, vaultlike facility where I usually worked during my military career. No, this place was part of some kind of large and busy convention center. People were coming and going. Loud, it was getting busier.

After arriving and doing some things at the ops center, I drifted out and changed clothes. Well, I basically took off everything except my underwear. Then I decided to go back to work to ensure everything was okay. To do that, I donned a short, furry pink robe that barely covered my rear end. Wearing only it and my undies, off I went to work.

Musicians were finishing a conference in the ops center, something which was entirely aligned with what I expected. Although they didn’t have instruments, I knew they were musicians, holding a meeting in the ops center conference room. I talked with them a bit, asking about how it had gone, small talk.

Others were impatiently waiting to use the conference room. I rushed around to get it ready for them but so many people were going in and out that I struggled to get anything done. Part of my cleaning was to check the commodes.

The first was out on a busy floor’s center. On carpet. No walls, no way to have privacy.

Which didn’t surprise me. Getting to the toile, I found – OMG, it was completely full with feces!

I was disgusted and angry. What was wrong with people that they kept using it when it obviously not working? How did they even do it? They would have had to squat over the toilet to avoid the piled crap.

I had no idea how to clean it out; there was no water, no way to use a plunger. I would need to shovel that shit out first. I was going to find someone else to do that, and that was an issue for later.

There was another toilet availab. I rushed to check it, confirm it was okay, and tell everyone to use it. But guess what? It, too, was stopped up. It at least had water and wasn’t as full but as soon as I put a plunger in, feces-filled water slopped out.

Nuts. Filling conspicuous in my short pink robe and bare white legs, I decided to go change before trying to fix this mess. Along the way, I ran into my superiors and gave them an update on the twin messes. Then I went on to change.

Dream end

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The Net’s Take on Trump This Week

Thank you to those in Ireland who took the time to make Trump a greeting for his pending visit.

h/t to Daily Kos.

Couldn’t put it better myself.

Over in sports, they’re talking about the Trump Curse. Two of the three teams Trump he mentioned as capable of winning the Superbowl, New England and the Los Angeles Rams, lost their season’s first game. It’s a long season, though. Trump will probably deny he ever said it.

Trump is scrambling like a quarterback under a fierce pass rush, trying to buy time, searching for ways to remain in power. First was the effort to block voting by mail, now thrown out by another court — or was it Republican efforts to gerrymander their way to power? The two actions were being done in parallel.

More recently came the $5K ‘Trump Dividend’, money Trump is willing to pay out of the nation’s funds if his party stays in power.

 “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

On to the net.

And a little satire…

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Friday’s Theme Music — September

Ashland, southern Oregon. Friday, September 11, 2026.

Today it’s 66 in Ashland with rain and a high of 83 F on the way.

It’s the anniversary of 9/11.

Yes, a quarter century has really passed since that day. We had unity in the US for a while after that. Dubya parlayed that unity to into wars against Iraq and Afghanistan. With Dick Cheney as his VP, the intel was constantly skewed to reinforce a drumbeat to war. The intel about WMD was all about stoking fears of greater attacks.

Those paying attention at the time called bullshit. But our voices were often ignored. We’ve learned in drips since that the intel was flawed. We learned that war was a costly and disastrous mistake.

Wreaths will be placed in many places in the US. A moment of silence will be held. Speeches will be made, and people will recall where they were when.

Then we will move on into the divisive era fostered by Trump and the MAGAzens, embraced by the Republicans, fostered by the Roberts Court.

Like many, many others, I will sigh, suck it up, grit my teeth, and go on.

Today’s music is “Wake Me Up When September Ends”. The song came out in 2005. Billy Joe Armstrong, Green Day lead guitarist and vocalist, wrote it about his father’s death in 1982. But the song’s sentiments of loss, suffering, and reflections work for anyone’s mourning, including those of us looking back on the 9/11 attacks.

Sample Lyrics

Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
Wake me up when September ends

Like my father’s come to pass
Seven years has gone so fast
Wake me up when September ends

Here comes the rain again
Falling from the stars
Drenched in my pain again
Becoming who we are

As my memory rests
But never forgets what I lost
Wake me up when September ends

May we find peace and solace in our lifetimes.

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