Category: food

Thanks for the Broken Promises, Donald Trump

Today ends the ninth month of 2026.

Just a little month than a month and a few days remain until the November midterm elections. It’s a good time to reflect on what Donald Trump promised and what Donald Trump delivered.

Back in 2024, Donald Trump promised no new wars. At the end of Feb, just seven months ago, Trump started a new war with Iran. Donald Trump has since claimed we won the war or that it’s over or that it’s almost over over 30 times.

How can anyone still believe anything Donald Trump says about the war with Iran after that?

Donald Trump’s story about his relationship with Epstein and the Epstein files shifts just as much.

From that quote, Trump drifting into telling us that he barely knew Epstein.

““Well, I knew him like everybody in Palm Beach knew him. I mean, people in Palm Beach knew him. He was a fixture in Palm Beach,” Trump said in 2019 soon after Epstein was charged. “I had a falling out with him a long time ago. I don’t think I’ve spoken to him for 15 years. I wasn’t a fan.”

When asked in 2024 while he was running for office, Donald Trump said that he would release the Epstein files if elected. Almost two years into his second term, they still haven’t been fully released, and Trump’s DOJ continues to avoid doing so, despite a law saying he would.

While campaigning in 2024, Donald Trump assured voters he would lower prices, vilifying President Biden’s economy as he did.

Now AAA national average for a gallon of regular gasoline is $4.43. By comparison, the national average in September 2024 hovered between $3.06 and $3.24, meaning drivers are paying roughly $1.20 to $1.37 more per gallon today than they did two years ago.

Many food prices are higher this year than they were in 2024, especially beef, coffee, chicken, and fruit and vegetables.

Thanks, Donald Trump, for breaking all of these promises and assurances.

Thanks to Donald Trump’s arrogance, Americans can no longer see the White House’s East Wing. Donald Trump demolished it to build a new ballroom. Donald Trump claimed that balloom would cost Americans nothing because donors were paying for it all. Now Trump insists that the ballroom is being build for ‘national security’.

We the People will pay about $1B for a project we didn’t ask for and Congress never approved.

It’s like renting your house to someone. While they’re living there, they tear down part of it because they’re living there, so they assume they have the right to change it as they want.

These things are not even the top of the mountain, and Trump has brought a mountain of disaster to the United States and the world. Today’s headlines will help keep us focused on what a disaster Trump is in his second term of office.

The Government Rolled Back Fuel Economy Standards. Here’s How Many Lives It Will Cost

Only Trump Would Spell United States Wrong in an Executive Order

Donald Trump embarrassed as NFL ratings claim is contradicted

Trump Used to Be Good at Attacking the Press. Things Have Changed.

From the horse’s mouth: Trump’s comment on his presidency becomes accidental self-own

That last headline leads us to your Trump Quote of the Day:

Renaming AI to something else is Donald Trump’s latest effort in the Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! playbook. As with many other things, Donald Trump, arrogant and ignorant, thinks that just because he thinks of something and says it aloud, it’s so.

Desperate to make something out of nothing because 2026 has been such a horrible year for Donald Trump, he tried to make it look like he was being praised for being great.

Instead, he stupidly confessed that he’s doing a shitty job.

Couldn’t have said it better, Donald Trump.

Couldn’t have said it better.

1

Trump, You Are Your Record

Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! is cranking up!

As the United States moves to toward the midterms elections, things are going not so good to terrible for Trump. Trump has tried distraction after distraction. Despite that, people remember that he promised no new wars and started another war.

We the People noticed, too, that Trump promised to lower prices right away but hasn’t. We the People didn’t forget that Trump said he’d release the Epstein files and has done everything possible since then to change that channel.

Trump has always gone after the press. With pressure mounting, his popularity plummeting, and criticism growing — and not going away — he’s trying desperately to keep people from telling the facts about his terrible presidency, his authoritarian methods, and horrid economic policies.

Naturally, in response Trump did the one thing he still does well: he put out a whining rant filed with lies, misinformation, and innuendoes, trying to plead, “NATIONAL SECURITY!”

It no longer works because he’s cried national security so many times, We the People are on to his scam.

I caught one of the Trump ads which We the People paid for while watching a football game last night. This BS showed Trump walking toward a camera with a sour face as one of his speeches about getting rid of commies played.

My honest reaction went from WTF to screw you asshole in .4 seconds.

What unmitigated crap. With all that he’s done to this country, Trump comes on squealing about saving us from the commies like some right-wing 1950s propaganda.

After hearing viewing that commercial, I began reading “The Premonition” by Michael Lewis. He wrote about the nation’s terrible response to the COVID-19 pandemic under Trump, then added a Bill Parcells quote which fit.

Bill Parcells was an NFL coach. Won a few championships and helmed multiple competitive teams. Parcells said, “You are what your record says you are.”

And there it is, the perfect rebuttal to Trump, the GOP, and MAGA: you are what your records says you are.

In this case, the United States has entered another foreign war which Trump needlessly started.

Measles outbreaks and bankruptcies are increasing, the national debt is climbing, climbing, climbing, farmers and ranchers are doing terribly, energy prices are going up up up, and Trump can do nothing but bully, whine, plead — or try to bribe people into ‘voting for him’.

Because as Trump said, vote like he is on the ballot.

Because Trump is on the ballot.

And the record shows just what you are Trump.

No matter how hard you whine, cry, bluster, and bully, the record shows us who.

You.

Are.

Trump.

8

Five Cracks in Trump Support

Maggie Habermann wrote that the first crack in MAGA’s blind support of Trump came with Trump’s handling of the Epstein files.

Maggie Haberman reveals the moment MAGA broke with Trump

That makes sense to me. It also follows a distinct Trump pattern of making promises which he then breaks. Reading different sits online, the Epstein files were he first crack, but there were four others. In each case, a MAGA crack came because what Trump promised and what happened after he took office in his second term were far apart.

For the TL/DR crowd, the five cracks in MAGA support of Trump which I see right now:

  1. 1. Epstein files
  2. 2. Lower prices
  3. 3. Immigration policies
  4. 4. No new wars
  5. 5. Helping farmers

No, I’m not an expert on any of these things. Just a concerned and aging American citizen. Let me unpack my thinking.

When running for re-election in 2024, Trump picked up that MAGAzens really cared about the Epstein files. MAGAzens spent a lot of energy building scenarios about the damaging information the Epstein files had on Democrats and ‘elites’, two primary MAGA targets. When Trump was asked if he would release the files, Trump replied, “Probably.” Thus was born the belief that the Epstein files’ contents would finally be fully and completely seen if Trump won.

Since then, Trump has angrily demanded that people stop talking about the Epstein files, calling it a hoax. Many are also convinced that he attacked Iran initially in 2025 and tore down the White House East Wing in order to change the conversation from the Epstein files.

The damage had already been done with MAGAzens. They wanted to see what was in the Epstein files, and they’re pissed that they’re being denied.

Many Americans were completely about high inflation and the affordability crises during President Biden’s term. Seizing on that discontent, Trump promised that he would immediately lower prices. While some prices did initially drop, Trump first said that lowering inflation was harder than he thought, then dismissed affordability as a hoax, and then started the war with Iran in 2026.

Prices had already been going up in 2025, due to many factors, including Trump’s tariffs and the trade agreements he broke.

Trump then started the Iran war in February of 2026. This no gave him cover for higher prices; the higher prices were due to the war, yes, but he was doing it to free Iranians from their terrible government and to save the world from Iran’s nuclear weapons.

Either way, prices keep rising, and many now blame Trump. The second crack with MAGA had begun to spread.

Trump initially did just as he promised with immigrants. He went after them hard and violently.

Trump’s MAGA supporters were initially gleeful. But then their friends and relatives began getting picked up and whisked away.

A collective cry went out among MAGAzens. Trump said he was going to deport criminals, but he was departing people who were not criminals. Many were here legally, trying to go through the process of becoming US citizens.

Trump didn’t care. They weren’t born in the US, so he was departing them. Then, to worsen matters, Trump began sending them to nations where they were not from.

While running for office in 2024, Trump promised no new wars. He made speeches that Kamala Harris and the Democrats would start new foreign wars and decried the idea that Americans would go off and fight in another endless war.

Then, in 2026, before he was in office for two full years, Trump attacked Iran. Since then, Americans have been treated to a shifting tapestry about why Iran was attacked and the war’s objectives, how much the war is costing us, and when the war would end.

It was not the cakewalk that Trump and his administration expected. They had put in a Fox personality as the head of DOD and fired many high-ranking individuals. Trump and his staff thought they could bomb Iran into submission in a matter of days or weeks.

They were wrong.

Trump’s Iran War has been going over 210 days. Trump calls it a conflict to avoid problems with Congress and the Constitution and then calls it a war when it’s convenient to sell demands for more weapons, munitions, and cutbacks to other programs.

Even MAGAzens are seeing through this, opening a fourth crack with Trump’s MAGA base.

Trump campaigned on helping American farmers and ranchers. Trump said that raising tariffs would save American farmers because other countries were taking advantage of the US.

The tariffs didn’t lower prices. Nor did they open markets. Instead, the tariffs and Trump’s Iran war raised prices. The prices which went up the most affecting farmers and ranchers was diesel fuel and fertilizer. Potash was primary imported from Canada; Trump’s tariffs and trade war with Canada pushed those prices up yet more. In fact, diesel prices increased transportation costs across the board.

Trump knew his tariffs and the war, with its resulting high diesel prices, was hurting both consumers and producers. To address it, Trump pushed a temporary suspension of his tariffs on imported beef.

That resulted in anger among ranchers and farmers, because it didn’t help them. Farmers and ranchers’ problems are far more complex and has to do with droughts, rising energy prices, and smaller herds. Those things couldn’t be fixed by a bandage like suspended tariffs for a limited period and amounts.

Nor did suspending tariffs substantially lower prices. The fifth crack with MAGA opened.

There are potentially other cracks getting exposed.

  • Rural hospitals remain in a crisis.
  • The national debt is growing fast, disrupting the accepted truism that Republicans are fiscally more responsible.
  • People of both parties are pushing back against AI and data center construction while Trump urges more building. Trump is pushing for their construction because that’s where most of the commercial construction in the US is now taking place. Stopping construction of them would massively affect the stock market and economy.

Many rifts are emerging between Trump and MAGA. Some of those will probably expand into more cracks in their support of Trump.

The larger question for us now is when will traditional Republicans finally realize that the Trump experiment is a disaster and give him up?

0

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.

2

An Aston Martin Dream

Young again, middle-aged, I was with my wife and others in this place with blue carpets. I don’t know why the others were present, but I was there to see a doctor. The doctor, young, White female, with, with short, dark hair, briefly saw me.

“You need surgery,” she said, indicating my neck. “We’ll do it today.”

That pleased me although I was surprised that my neck was to be operated on. I waited for the my scheduled time to arrive. I noticed the others began dressing up. My wife emerged wearing a dark suit with a white shirt. From overheard snippets, I realized that everyone else was waiting for surgery as well.

I was taken back; I’d not seen the doctor examine any of them. As people came out dressed up, the doctor began telling people when she would see them. Hastily I dressed like the rest, in a black suit with a white shirt and tie, but laughed at it as I did, thinking, this is silly.

Then – poof – the surgery was completed. I didn’t notice a thing but I knew it was done. It’d been so quick and simple, it was completed in an eyeblink.

I encountered my sister-in-law. She and I went off to await everyone else finishing off. I began helping some children drawing with crayons. I ended up with crayon on my white cuffs. While wondering how I was going to clean those off, my SIL showed up with a similar problem. I then took a paper towel and blotted the colors off. I shared what I was doing with her and she started doing the same.

We talked while we did that. I asked when she was going home and how long it would take her. Then I remembered that she lived in Florida. No, she answered with surprise. “I live just an hour and a half away. I’m taking my boyfriend’s train him.”

I hadn’t met her boyfriend but I knew of him. My wife arrived. She and I talked with my SIL and my wife and I announced that we would go get my SIL and her boyfriend some food for their trip home. We went out and bought very large sandwiches with French fries. We ate while we were there.

Then we rushed back to give them their food. They were already gone. We looked down the track to see a three-car train pulling away, which amused me and my wife.

We then needed to go deliver a package. I jumped into my car, a gorgeous and expensive Aston Martin roadster, green, with a white interior. I raced down the highway at very high speeds, overtaking many cars. Then, seeing a line of cars breaking, I slowed down and moved left.

Good thing I did, I told myself, as we overtook a long line of cars and trucks pulling travel trailers. They were stopped. I worried that we wouldn’t be able to mail my package.

Then I pulled up to a booth. Jumping out of the car with my package, I told him what I was doing. He was short, solemn, round Black guy. He listened and worked as I apologized for the state of my package and for not having it correctly prepared.

He shrugged that off, saying something like, “No problem.” I thought the packaging needed to be replaced. He consulted with a co-worker. They agree, it just needed a new clear plastic bag. He put that on, then grinned and told me, all down.

I laughed, surprised at how easy it went. Returning to my car, I prepared to drive away.

Dream end.

0

Here We Go Again — Your Trump Quotes of the Day

I laughed as soon as I read the headline today:

Trump pledges $5K ‘Trump dividend’ if Republicans hold onto Congress

Bribery: such a classic grifter move: I’ll pay you through the government if you vote to keep and put Republicans in office.

Gosh, has Trump ever made a promise like this before?

Trump Has Repeatedly Promised Payments That Have Yet to Materialize

I’m sure there are some voters out there nodding and saying, “Did you hear? Trump promised us money for our vote. I’m going to vote Republican.”

Meaning, they would need to pretend that Trump is going to follow through on this promise after all his other failed promises. It’s so much easier for Trump to promise more instead of fulfilling all the previous promises. Especially those promises Trump made such as, “I will not golf”, “I will deliver a new healthcare plan”, and “I will start no new wars.”

Or this classic Trump promise:

Over two years later, and we’re waiting for Trump to do what he promised.

Trump is calling this a ‘dividend’. He’s not really explaining how it’ll be paid for. It’s hard to believe that a ‘dividend’ is available when the national debt has surged past $40T, a level never seen before, and shows no signs of slowing.

In the past, Trump has cut programs and services which he didn’t like, labeling these fraud and waste. These were mostly from the regulatory side and the social safety net, like SNAP, healthcare premium subsidies, and childcare assistance. Since Trump has already cut those, what else can be cut? Defense?

I can see why people with little future and little hope, desperate just to make it to the next payday in order to buy gas and food might want to take Trump’s deal. But Trump is the one who create the 2026 affordability crisis. His DOGE cuts, tariffs, and bloated defense budget with its plan to build ‘Trump’ class battleships created this crisis. Trump’s Iran War fueled the crisis by disrupting the global supply chain and pushing gas prices to record levels.

Now, instead of addressing those things, he’s offering a bandage when surgery is needed.

I think Trump is falling back on an old favorite.

We’ll need to wait and see if Trump can buy his way out of another mess, as he tried to do when he paid off Stormy Daniels after Trump had an affair with her.

That worked out so well.

2

Your Trump Quotes of the Day – Prices

Let’s set the stage. You are here:

Trump pledged to lower prices in eight areas. Have they risen or fallen?

“Since Trump started his second term, prices have gone up in 5 of 8 areas he pledged to cut. Inflation spiked earlier this year as the Iran war drove up prices for gas and other essentials.”

Your Trump Quote of the Day 1:

Here’s a useful table for validating Trump’s claim.

The grocery items people actually buy

We can go one level more concrete using BLS’s average retail prices, rather than indexes:

ItemJanuary 2025July 2026Change
Large eggs, dozen$4.953$2.189−55.8%
Butter, stick$4.912$3.922−20.2%
White bread, lb.$1.925$1.820−5.5%
Whole milk, gallon$4.025$4.313+7.2%
Ground beef, 100% beef, lb.$5.545$6.885+24.2%
All uncooked ground beef, lb.$5.820$7.116+22.3%
Regular gasoline, gallon$3.211$4.094+27.5%

This is based on the BLS’s information. I must point out that egg producers were later convicted of price gouging during President Biden’s term.

Headlines tell more about the worsening economic conditions we’re facing as we move toward the midterm elections in the United States.

Gas prices set a record for Labor Day. Trump’s energy secretary says they are ‘more likely to go down than go up.’

Inflation Odds Move Toward 100%

Funny how Trump interprets these to be much better with him in the Oval Office. Back when President Biden was leading the nation, Trump kept screaming about these prices.

Your Trump Quote of the Day 2:

Your Trump Quote of the Day 3

Your Trump Quote of the Day 4:

Your Trump Quote of the Day 6

As this sequence of Trump quotes reveal, Trump will absolutely lie and promise without regard to reality. Perhaps the only quote we can really trust from Trump is this, which Trump made earlier this year.

Your Trump Quote of the Day 7:

While Trump said that last quote in May of 2026 while talking about the war he started with Iran. But even that was part of Trump’s shifting explanations and claims about what’s going on. He says one thing about the Iran war — and denies it’s a war — while claiming to be lowering prices — when the prices are going up, and the war is contributing to them — while saying the war is necessary to stop Iran from having a nuclear capability after HE has said that he has destroyed that capability — while also claiming ‘we already won’ and the war wouldn’t last for more than four or five weeks. Those specific inconsistences trouble me.

The greater point is that prices are not coming down and the war is not over.

It all adds up to a credibility problem, a legacy of lies, corruption, and broken promises for me. Keeping Trump and his power will lead to higher prices, more war, and more violence, based on what I’ve seen under Trump in this term.

Vote blue in 2026.

0

Monday’s Theme Music — Moon Man

Ashland, southern Oregon. Monday, September 7, 2026.

Our valley will warm back up today. It’s 52 F now but the high is supposed to be in the upper 70s. Sunshine and blue sky are all my vantage offers. Warmer tomorrow, in the low 80s, and low 90s by Wednesday.

It’s Labor Day in the US. Happy Labor Day! Labor Day used to mark the unofficial end of the summer and the start of the autumn and school year when I was growing up. As I moved to other areas, I discovered the school year starting in August as districts frontloaded the school calendar in anticipation of school closures for snow days.

This is one of those holidays Mom enjoyed as family. It usually meant a gathering and cookout. I feel fortunate to have such memories of enjoying life, delicious food, fun company.

For today, there is no cookout. We’re going to friends later for dinner and games. I go on with my normal routines.

Trump launched another part of Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! last weekend. He’s been making some outrageous claims by changing the names of places, generating AI images, and doing his pathetic little kicks dance. And Trump changed his hair style to some very ugly reviews. He’s even trying to fix the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool — again — crowing — again — how great it’ll be, which stirred a lot of mocking about him and his previous claims, and the amount of money Trump has spent trying to fix it.

With all that bad press happening, Trump went to the net and — quick. LOOK — SQUIRREL!

“THE MOON IS OURS”

Yes, that’s Donald Trump, current Oval Office occupant, highest elected position in the land, acting like a cartoon villain.

Just to prove how much of a fool he is, and keep us distracted, Trump also floated changing New Mexico’s name.

Trump Floats Renaming New Mexico as ‘New America,’ Prompting Pushback

I’m sure MAGAzens are chortling, “Look how Trump is owning the libs!” Meanwhile, they’re paying a lot more for food and gas. For example, gas prices on Labor Day 2024 were about $3.29 a gallon. Thanks to Trump, they’re at a record Labor Day high.

Fuel prices at record Labor Day high in US thanks to Iran War and refinery issues

The gas price per gallon US average is $4.14, 32 cents per gallon more than the previous record, set in 2012.

Affordability remains a crisis in the US, Trump’s war with Iran is dragging on — 191 days and counting — he hasn’t released the Epstein files…it’s a long list of failures and broken promises.

That’s the Trump legacy.

That’s the MAGA legacy.

In honor of Trump’s absurdity, my morning mental music stream is gushing with songs about the moon. So many are out there…”Dark Side of the Moon” punched in fast. But I ended up with “Man on the Moon” by R.E.M.

Sample Lyrics

Mott the Hoople and the Game of Life
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Andy Kaufman in the wrestling match
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Monopoly, twenty-one checkers, and chess
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Mister Fred Blassie in a breakfast mess
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Let’s play Twister, let’s play Risk
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
See you in Heaven if you make the list
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Now, Andy, did you hear about this one?
Tell me, are you locked in the punch?
Andy, are you goofing on Elvis?
Hey baby, are we losing touch?

If you believed they put a man on the moon
Man on the moon

If you believe there’s nothing up his sleeve
Then nothing is cool

The 1992 song was a tribute to comedian Andy Kaufman. It’s also about questioning truth, history, and reality, and losing track of these things. It’s a suitable song to reflect what we seem to be seeing from Trump and his long, very public decline.

As always, I wish the best for you and yours on this day as well as every other day.

Cheers

0

Your Trump Quote of the Day

The August Jobs Reports was released. More new jobs were unexpectedly added. It wasn’t levels like we saw under President Biden or President Obama, but it was above the norm for Trump’s second term — although still anemic.

Like many Trump watchers, I’m skeptical of these unexpectedly stronger numbers. Trump fired previous people for reporting the numbers as they were, hiring someone who fit his mold. That’s one.

Two, this is the same administration that had Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick claim that data centers don’t use much water. Lutnick knows the US is facing water shortages. Data centers are shown to use water but Trump wants them built, as that’s most of the factory construction in the US in 2026.

Then there is Trump Math, where Trump declared that he and his administration were lowering prescription prices by hundreds and thousands of percents — which is not mathematically possible.

Finally, we have Trump’s shifting timeline on the Iran war and Trump on the White House ballroom cost and reasons for building it, Trump’s relationship with Epstein and releasing the Epstein files, Trump’s disastrous attempts to fix the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Trump on how prices ‘are going down’ when they’re going up, Trump’s claims about tariffs not costing consumers — and then suspending some beef tariffs to lower prices — and Trump’s administration skirting laws, norms, and regulations since he entered office. Trump has woven a tapestry of lies, misinformation, fraud, and deception.

Now we’re just expected to accept what he or his administration says? Especially when Trump needs good news as we head into the midterms?

This quote perfectly captures my sentiment.

That quote is from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who works for the Trump government. He made that statement this week on a podcast.

Since Duffy works for Trump, he should know. If he doesn’t trust what the Trump administration is saying, should anyone else?

As Trump said before:

Trump is now the establishment. And hell do anything to hold his power and wealth at your expense.

And that’s what’s been happening.

0

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑