Monday’s Theme Music – Fears & Monsters
Ashland, southern Oregon — Monday, July 20, 2026.
Smoke lingered until about midnight. That kept the area heat sealed in. Overnight slowly dropped into the low seventies after a daytime high of 96 F at our house.
Less smoke here today. Tiny, scattered showers. Now 80, 91 is the expected high.
Our smoke is from several fires. Dominating the skies is the East Evans Creek Fire. From the reports we’re getting, this fire will continue for several more weeks.
My younger sister, Gina, continues preparing Mom’s home for a change of ownership. She began by trying to sell a few things. Then items were given to charity, thrift stores, or the scrap man. One young woman, though, came early and bought several things. Gina kept in touch with her, giving her more items as time went by. Gina reported that she gave the woman a vacuum cleaner yesterday.
The woman said, “You don’t know how it’s helped me with all that you’ve given me.”
Gina replied, “I hope you remember and can help someone in the future.”
“I will,” the woman replied.
More US troops have been killed in Trump’s war with Iran. Trump claimed the US won the war before — 32 times. He also claimed it was over as far back as March of 2026, less than a month after he started it. Here we are, though, 142 days later, still at war with Iran, and it seems to be escalating.
The war is part of Operation Epic BE VERY AFRAID, itself part of Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! On the one hand, Trump does things and then tries distracting us. Then, as that fails to distract us because we become inured to his lies, he pivots and tries to make us afraid. Then Trump claims only he can fix it.
For example, back when he was running for office in 2024, Trump was all about affordability.
Your Trump Quote(s) of the Day:
Anyone can do the research and see how Trump operates. In this instance — affordability — he blasted Democrats about affordability when running for office in 2024.
About 14, 15 months later, Trump declares affordability will be much better under him and Republicans.
But, as prices don’t go down, and even increase, Trump declares affordability is a hoax. Created by the ‘opposition’, of course.
Yet, he was the one running so hard on it back in 2024.
He’s essentially declaring that he ran on a hoax.
Sure, but his hoax was enough to dupe a sufficient number of people to vote for him.
Now, though — July, 2026 — fewer people are no longer buying Trump’s excuses.
Half of Americans struggle to afford groceries and gas, exclusive poll finds
Republicans Increasingly Say Finances Worse Under Trump
With plunging popularity and approval, Trump has accelerated fear tactics. Communists. Stolen elections. Iran with nukes.
And Trump’s war with Iran takes the biggest stage, the most political oxygen.
Expect more fearful hysteria coming from the White House in the days to come.
Today’s music is by David Bowie. The Neurons caught me shaking my head over Trump’s manipulating language and unfounded declarations. In response, they fired up “Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps).
The song came out in 1980. The chorus fits Trump and his ‘be-very-afraid’ style, but I’m more drawn to Robert Fripp’s guitar work on it.
Chorus:
[Chorus]
Scary monsters
Super creeps
Keep me running
Running scared
Scary monsters
Super creeps
Keep me running
Running scared
h/t to Genius.com
I hope the creeps, monsters and fears leave you and your friends and family alone, giving you time for happiness, love, and to gorw.
Cheers
The State of Trumpland
First, a fine summary about the state of things:
States of things.
I read an article in “The Independent” about World Cup fans’ American experience. This, though, contains a critical observation to me. I added some emphasis.
“Many landed expecting the politically fractured country frequently highlighted in global headlines. Instead, they found Uber drivers brimming with recommendations and locals willing to open their homes to strangers. Even as game attendees grappled with the sticker shock of ticket prices, some Americans they met didn’t even know the World Cup was happening, or simply didn’t care.“
Honestly, I knew the World Cup was going on. I see news stories about the games and tournaments. But I am one who doesn’t care about it. Yet, I’m not surprised that some Americans were unaware of the World Cup going on; some of them emerged to vote, unsure about what’s going, back in 2024.
Then there was this from the same article:
“That felt like a proper American experience in Dallas,” Reader said. “He had, I would call it like a proper American setup, like a TV outside, a beer fridge, massive fly zappers, and then massive fans as well.”
Damn, I haven’t been exposed to that proper American setup yet.
Meanwhile, on Fox News, they’re puzzled: how can Iran be fighting back against the United States?
“I don’t understand how it’s possible that Iran has the capabilities to fight this way and continue to try to lash out at Gulf countries and U.S. military bases because the U.S. has obliterated Iran’s military, and the president continues to reiterate that,” Bartiromo said Sunday on Fox News.
Gosh, yes, it IS a mystery. How, how, how? Can it be that Trump, the person who told us prices would go down 100s to 1000s percent, Trump who claimed Mexico would pay for the wall, Trump, who was documented lying and is widely perceived as dishonest, is LYING?
The inanity of this Blue Sky post rocked me:
WTF? DEI Bike Lanes? SMFH.
Seriously, these are the idiots Trump selected to run his administration.
Enough said department:
The CIA Dream
I was working in marketing again, as I had for several years in real life. I was about the same age as well, early 40s, after retiring from the military.
Just returning from a long trade show, I went to my office and opened my cabinets to put things away. There I found that someone had been delivering food to me! Much of it were three by three inch cubes with Kanji on them. The wrappers were white, with either a red, green, or blue.
They totally mystified me. I questioned others, where did the food come from? Who brought them? No one could say.
I figured out through examination that the colors on the cubes represented fish, beef, or dairy. That amused me but needing my space, I began clearing them out.
Next I found bags of candy. Like WTF? Then cans of soup and containers of melted ice cream.
I couldn’t believe it. Why would someone put that in my cabinet?
A female co-worker came by and explained that the same thing had happened to her. It was part of some lunch program. We didn’t go in to get our food, so they delivered them to us. We weren’t there, so they put them away for us.
“But ice cream?” I protested. “That doesn’t make sense. Also, how much food do they think I need? There must be weeks worth.”
I was amused more than I was angry.
While I was cleaning, basically trying to do with this food, I kept getting summoned to meetings or interrupted by people coming by.
Two of the people who came by were CIA agents. Or so they said.
Male, dressed in suits, with ties. They wanted a favor.
Something was being installed. It was down on the ground floor, outside. They gave me a red and white placard. A white 5 was in the middle.
“Just put this on the cover of what they make. That’s all you need to do.”
Sure. Why not? Made no sense but did I care? Not really. I was too busy with other things to wonder about this strange venture.
Resuming my cleaning, I was almost done when two more men – white, in suits – stopped by. They identified themselves as part of the CIA. These two wore sunglasses.
I wondered, is this a joke?
One explained, “There is new construction being completed downstairs.”
The other held up a white thing. Basically resembled a white tent peg. “We want you to put this about a foot behind the construction, about a foot to the right. That’s all you need to do. We’ll do the rest.”
I repeated all that because it made no sense.
Then I asked, why are you asking me to do this?
“We’ve seen your records,” the first said, as if that explained everything.
I figured he meant my military records, and all those security clearances, and just accepted it.
Later, I did what the two pairs of agents asked. Privately, kind of secretly, ensuring no one was around to witness it.
Then I laughed as I walked away.
Dream end.
Sunday’s Theme Music – Way it is
Ashland, southern Oregon — Sunday, July 19, 2026.
We’re into the endurance stage of summer. Today will hit 97 degrees F. A maybe is attached, for it depends on the smoke’s thickness and sprawl.
80 right now, thin white clouds and strips of gray smoke force the sky into a hazy shade of blue.
That’s just how it is in the summer here.
This headline caught my attention this week:
Gas is nearly $4 again and diesel just topped $5. It’s not what you think
The story reminds us that Trump’s Iran war is affecting oil and gas prices. But they also note that much of the gas products refined in Trump’s America are going to other places.
US refineries processed their largest amount of crude in the second quarter since 2019.
But a record amount of American-produced fuel is heading overseas – in the form of jet fuel (for Europe) and diesel (for Asia and Australia) to help the world bridge the gap in fuel supplies.
That has sent US gasoline inventories to their lowest levels since 2012.
The CNN article then goes on to mention that US refineries are struggling to produce products due to extreme heat.
Meanwhile, Trump, whose administration has rolled air and water pollutions standards back, is complaining about Canada ‘invading the US’ with filthy air. Classic Trump Double Standards.
Trump denies climate change, deriding it as a hoax, as he does many things which he can’t comprehend or doesn’t want to address.
“This ‘climate change,’ it’s the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world, in my opinion,” Trump said. “All of these predictions made by the United Nations and many others, often for bad reasons, were wrong. They were made by stupid people that have cost their countries fortunes and given those same countries no chance for success. If you don’t get away from this green scam, your country is going to fail.”
Your Trump Quote(s) of the Day:
Trump has chosen to treat our friends in Canada with more tariffs. That’s just the way he is. Instead of working with others to solve problems, he attacks, mocks, and derides.
Trump is so tone deaf. He claims that America “are a people like no other” and then goes to war with Americans, for example, referring to Democrats as “Dumbocrats”, significantly restricting, cutting, and altering healthcare benefits, and nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ individuals, with a heavy emphasis on transgender Americans.
This is how Trump ‘honors’ the people like no other.
That’s just the way he is.
No surprise for me, The Neurons have “The Way It Is” in the morning mental music stream. Bruce Hornsby wrote the song and he and his band, the Range, performed it. America’s civil rights movement of the 1960s inspired him when he wrote it.
Lyrics
They say, “Hey, little boy, you can’t go where the others go
‘Cause you don’t look like they do”
Said, “Hey, old man, how can you stand to think that way?
Did you really think about it before you made the rules?”
He said, “Son
That’s just the way it is
Some things will never change
That’s just the way it is”
Ha, but don’t you believe them
Mmm, yeah
That’s just the way it is
That’s just the way it is
Well, they passed a law in ’64
To give those who ain’t got a little more
But it only goes so far
‘Cause the law don’t change another’s mind
When all it sees at the hiring time
Is the line on the color bar, ooh, no
h/t to AZLyrics.com
Bruce Hornsby is a liberal, something that came from his mother, according to him in this 2020 interview in “The Independent”:
“Narrow-minded attitudes prevailed in my small southern town,” he tells me. “But my mum, Lois, was from a more forward-thinking family of New Englanders who’d moved down to Richmond when her dad got a job there as a church organist. Liberal Lois, my mum, married a big old handsome country boy. Bob Hornsby was from a fishing village and he was cut from the local cloth. My parents’ votes cancelled each other out in elections from 1948 to 1976 when my mum persuaded my dad to vote for Jimmy Carter and he never looked back and he voted Democrat for the rest of his life.”
As Bruce’s mother, Liberal Lois, proves, it doesn’t have to be the way it is, if people are willing to keep trying to open narrow minds and change their values.
Not Trump, of course. From Epstein to corruption and dishonesty, that’s just the way he is.
I hope comes complete with safe times, good times, and happy memories.
Cheers
Saturday’s Theme Music — Honesty
Ashland, southern Oregon — Saturday, July 18, 2026.
It’s a sunny 68 F under blue skies in our valley. Hot again but not as, hitting only 86 F today.
The cooling effect comes from smoke. The East Evans Creek fire, north-northwest of Ashland, began on July 10, 2026 when a car hit a utility pole. It’s now 14,000 acres and about 8% contained. The air quality is unhealthy right now, better than yesterday, when we went purple. Smoke obscures the view to the west. Today’s wind forecast warns that we’re going to have a weekend of unhealthy air.
I read an interesting article this morning about an ICE traffic stop in Pennsylvania earlier this month. The article elaborates on 1) how poorly the ICE agents executed the stop and 2) how video evidence contradicts ICE’s public statements and claims.
ICE is always claiming vast criminal records for the people they stop. But ICE agents drive unmarked vehicles. They act aggressive, issue orders and make demands without properly identifying themselves, and are generally violently threatening. Reasonable people fearing for their lives try to get away. From the videos I’ve seen, I don’t blame the people. I blame ICE. They have a continuing pattern; without being punished or reprimanded for it, without accountability, they’ll just continue their ways. Now, after DHS said to suspend the traffic stops, Trump overruled them. So the continuing unreasonable violence against We the People will continue.
DHS is ordering that at least one agent on every stop will now wear a body cam. What good is to come of that? I believe that we’ll have a lot of incidents where agents ‘forgot’ to turn them on or the camera ‘failed to work properly’.
Let’s face a fact here: Trump lies. That’s well-documented.
And through his smirking ‘leadership’, so does his administration, and his spokespeople. I, along with most Americans, do not trust him or his administration to tell the truth. Thanks to Trump’s time on the world stage, it’s a global opinion that Trump is dishonest. Worse, Trump is dragging other nations’ opinion of the United States down with him.
Of course, here in ‘Merica, he’s broken marriage vows more than once, has multiple bankruptcies and failed businesses, and broken campaign promises. From lowering inflation to no new wars to attacking Iran — again and again — to releasing the Epstein files to a new healthcare program to the claim that the Epstein ballroom will be paid for by We the People, Trump lies and breaks promises.
No wonder Americans don’t trust ICE, a trend that is growing.
Today’s song is “Honesty” by Billy Joel.
I hope you have a safe and healthy Saturday and have good things to look back at when you call it a day.
Cheers
Friday’s Theme Music — God
Ashland, southern Oregon — Friday, July 17, 2026.
Hot today, but not overly so, with 90 F as the top end. It’s wildfire smoke knocking us down today. Smoke limits the view out the front; we can barely see the valley past the trees across the street, a sight I normally contemplate as I make breafast.
The East Evans Creek has been going on and growing for several days. Started when a car hit a power line, people have been evacuated from several of the surrounding areas.
‘Back east’ as the expression goes, in Pittsburgh, PA, my sisters are complaining about the Canadian wildfire smoke saturating their region. Can’t breathe, they note; gives you an instant headache. One brother-in-law stayed out there yesterday and lost his voice. Surprised that he was out there, as he was stented several years ago and then went through open-heart surgery. On the other hand, he is a MAGAt.
Get ready for more Trump-inspired price increases! Ha, ha, just kidding!
Trump is imposing more tariffs on Brazil.
Coffee is already trading at historically high prices. Last time Trump put a tariff on products from Brazil in 2025, the fallout from high coffee prices politically hurt him. So he exempted food, coffee, and oil this time. It’s only things used in construction, like steel and wood. So housing costs will go up. No problem, right?
Home Listing Prices Post Sharpest Drop in 9 Years as Sellers Face Reality Check
Today’s song in the morning mental music stream is “American Jesus”. Came out over a few handfuls of years ago. By Bad Religion, it’s an anti-war song inspired when President George Dubya Bush said during the Gulf War, “‘We’ll win, because God is on our side!”
As many historians have said since, we may have won that war, but we lost the peace.
Fortunately, we have Trump, a genius among geniuses, in the Oval House and he’s learn all the lessons from that war because he’s the smartest man in the universe’s entire existence. Sorry, I gagged and puked writing that bit of snark.
May your day go well, your health be strong, and your food be tasty.
Cheers
Michael Seidel, writer 