Monday’s Theme Music — Words
Ashland, southern Oregon. Monday, October 5, 2026.
Another summery autumn day was upon us, high 80s, thin clouds, blue sky, sun.
Last night’s dream was a short, weird one. My wife has been blowing her nose a lot yesterday, complaining, “I have one nostril which seems like a leaky faucet.” I ended up dreaming that she was blowing her nose. Her snot was coming out like yellow mustard. I then blew my nose in the dream; my tissue ended up looking like a slice of white bread thickly slathered with yellow mustard. I went into the other room and showed her, saying, “I have what you have.”
Had my first BCG wash today. Wasn’t ‘quite’ like I expected in some ways but was otherwise exactly as I expected.
The BCG wash is why I’m late posting today. Had to be there at 1:40. Doing the math, I needed to leave at 1:10. Before leaving, I wanted a three-hour writing session so that needed to begin at 10:10 AM. Ergo, leave the house by ten, which means getting dressed, getting up, getting routines done, etc.
Other things happening threw off that timing. But I was finally there, preparing for the BCG. One thing I immediately noticed was how different it is in medical offices and dentist offices. At the dentist, they provide a picture for you to look at while things are being done to you. Music is playing.
Not so at the medical offices. It’s all medical function, like you, the patient, are barely considered.
I had a good tech and a good nurse, Nurse Chrissy C, who did my procedure. I was told to strip off my pants and underwear, then sat in a chair. A large paper, like a giant paper towel, was spread across me for modesty. A foot rest was raised and the back was leaned back, kind of like a barber’s chair. Then they pulled the paper back and began doing things to my wee willie winkle.
Hibiclense was employed to wash my genitals. Lidocaine was injected to numb my pecker. Brrrr, cold. The tech left and the nurse entered. She explained that they only get two vials of the almost dead tuberculosis bacilli a week and it must be immediately used once it’s mixed. Each vial can be used for three treatments, so three of us are done in parallel at the same time.
I surmised something like that was going on because two other people were called simultaneously at my appointment time. One of these people was a teenager, and the other was a heavy woman in a wheelchair with one foot in a walking boot.
My narrow urethra cropped up, of course. The foley catheter wasn’t going in. “Breath deep and cough for me,” the nurse ordered, which I did multiple times. I explained about my previous experiences with catheters, my narrow urethra, and the kink that vexes everything partway through it.
She got it in, though, pumped out my urine, and then filled it with the treatment. Then I was free to clean up, dress and leave. “Don’t urinate for one to three hours,” she said. Only problem was I was already ready to go — with a bowel movement. Yikes.
Here we go again with Donald Trump. After trying to change voting by mail and raging that it’s ‘inherently corrupt’, Trump has spun 180 degrees.
Trump urges supporters to vote by mail despite fraud claims
Donald J Trump added a bitter word salad to explain his new position:
“They can vote by mail if they want, because we seem to have no choice because a lot of people want to vote by mail, but a lot of very good people also want to vote in-person. You can do either.”
I had “Word Up” playing in my morning mental music stream after seeing some video about Donald Trump making a speech. After that speech, he did that smug, mind-smothering dance of his. That triggered The Neurons into making a connection with “Word Up”.
Sample Lyrics
Wave your hands in the air
Like you don’t care
Glide by the People as they start to look and stare
Do your dance, do your dance, do your dance quick
And that was the connection between what I saw Trump doing — dancing like he doesn’t care, making his MAGAts laugh because he’s one of them — and the 1986 song by Cameo.
Looking Back on Trump Double Standards
Paul Krugman gets right to the point with his headline:
The Trump Administration is a Cesspit of Corruption
Mr Krugman shows us the receipts, among them, the damning one that looms over the nation:
“America currently has a Republican president who, along with his family, has raked in billions, possibly close to $10 billion in personal gain from office in less than two years.”
Remember when the GOP complained about President Obama’s spending?
State Department spends $70,000 on Obama’s books – and stirs a controversy
How ’bout this one, about President Biden?
Oversight Republicans Raise Concerns About Biden Family Profiting Off White House
It’s funny in a “I am very pissed off about it” manner, but the GOP has said little about Donald J Trump’s spending and income during Trump’s second term, until a few months before the 2026 midterms.
It’s almost as if Republicans didn’t care until it was shown that they might lose political power because of Trump’s income and spending.
But Heather Cox Richardson puts some things together for us in her regular column in “Letters from An American”, October 2, 2026. Going back to 2015 and Trump’s initial rallies in Alabama, she compares now and then.
Read these quotes and insights Ms Richardson gives us from back then:
“Although the actual unemployment rate was 5.6%, he claimed it was “anywhere from 18 to 20 percent”—although he then upped it to 21%—and “the worst since 1978.” “A lot of people…can’t get jobs,” he said. “They can’t get jobs, because there are no jobs, because China has our jobs and Mexico has our jobs. They all have jobs.
“He sneered at the federal government, claiming “stupid” politicians had no idea how to negotiate and were wasting so much money that the national debt was close to $24 trillion, a number he called “the point of no return…. That’s when we become a country that’s unsalvageable.””
Trump called that national debt of $24T the point of no return and has shoved it since to over $40T — $16T more.
Ms Richardson addresses more details about what’s transpiring in 2026 as we close on the midterm elections. But here is the money shot:
“And therein lies the crux of the crisis that is driving a seismic political change: it has become crystal clear that Trump never intended to address the real problems he identified. His tariffs, deep tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, extraordinary corruption, multiple vanity projects, and war on Iran are benefiting him, his family, and his cronies. At the same time, the Republicans are, at his direction, slashing the social welfare programs, medical funding, education, infrastructure, and healthcare that used to serve the American people.
“Trump has taken to claiming that the country’s economy is booming, but that he and the Republicans have done a bad job of telling people. “All over the country, they’re building factories, plants—manufacturing’s coming back,” he told a crowd at a truck facility in Texas. “The only thing we’re doing badly at is public relations.””
But the truth is, the affordability crisis has become more painful for many Americans under Donald Trump, and he cares only about himself and his opinion. Donald Trump crows about how wonderful, great, and smart he is, again and again and again. Yet condition for most in this nation continue to deteriorate.
With that, the Trump Double Standard is finally crumbling.
No, it will never go away. Too many still support Donald Trump for reasons that make many of the rest of us shake our heads and sigh, and then spit in anger and spew some angry swear words.
Hopefully, enough voters have learned that come the midterms, We the People can finally handcuff the runaway government Donald J Trump has launched.
Vote Blue in November, 2026.
