Category: health

Sunday’s Theme Music — Money in Our Pockets

Ashland, southern Oregon — Sunday, October 18, 2026.

It’s totes autumn today, with rich fall foliage decorating trees with red, gold, orange, and yellow leaves burying the greens. Sun is up, delivering tepid temperatures, putting us at 60 F right now. 72 F is in the future for the valley and its blue sky.

Nothing from Mom today, and I only recall one dream. It was another military-themed dream where my hair was out of reg.

Today’s music is by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. The song, “Thrift Shop”, was released in 2012. My Neurons released it into the morning mental music stream as I read political news. Donald Trump is running on nothing but fear, trying to convince everyone that absolutely everthing will be much, much worse under Democrats. Republicans are pouring money into the 2026 midterm elections. So is Elon Musk, which should tell you how worried Trump and the GOP are at this point.

Trump has already tried buying votes. Donald Trump has offered seven different dividends or financial incentives for supporting him while crowing about how great everything is. Trump claims we’re in a new golden age in the United States.

But the actual numbers for most Americans show a completely different story. Compared to when Trump took office, most ordinary expense has increased for the majority of Americans.

  • Residential electric rates have steadily outpaced core consumer inflation. National averages climbed from roughly 17.5¢/kWh in 2025 to 18.31¢ – 18.83¢/kWh.
  • Grocery store inflation has significantly dropped down to 1.8% year-over-year. Heavy deflation in specific categories like eggs (-22.2%) has lightened the financial load for food, households are still facing steep localized spikes on beef (+9.4%) and coffee (+6.1%).

    Individuals purchasing coverage via the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace saw a premium spike of 20% to 30% following the structural expiration of enhanced federal premium tax credits.This increase is directly attributed to Donald Trump’s signature act of 2025, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

  • Gas prices are way up, as almost every driver can tell you. After averaging around $3.22 to $3.40 per gallon in 2025, national regular fuel prices rose above the $4.00 mark for historic stretches, peaking as high as $4.79 in May 2026 before leveling out to $4.33 – $4.47 per gallon. Most of these increases are tied to the war in Iran which Trump started in February, 2026, and the war in Ukraine, which Trump promised to end on day 1 of his second term.

It’s not surprising after noticing these price increases that “Thrift Shop” is playing in my morning mental music stream. Trump crows about how great things are but most people are worrying about how much money they have. Personal bankruptcies are up. Personal savings are down.

So. Much. Winning. For Donald Trump and his wealthy cohorts, like Elon Musk. They’re much, much wealthier now than they were before Trump took office in 2025.

May money worries leave you alone to enjoy the day, no matter who you’re with or what you’re doing.

Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music — Where the Hell

Ashland, southern Oregon – Tuesday, October 13, 2026.

Gorgeous, full-throttled autumn day out there. All of nature is actively participating to give us the full fall experience of changing leaves, blue sky, and crisp morning air. We’re going to heat up to 70 today and expect a warming trend for the coming weekend.

Mom is still doing poorly. Mom complained that she was out of pads and feeling a lot of pain urinating, and several other issues. We discovered that she doesn’t tell the assisted living staff any of that, due to her sense of privacy. There are people who can help her with her issues, but she doesn’t tell them she’s having issues, so they don’t offer help.

My sister went over today with new pads and to check on Mom. Found her in the rec room with others. Gina reported that Mom is very lethargic. Mom’s room smelled like urine. Gina has been going back and forth with the assisted living director, Mom, and Mom’s doctors. Gina has also delved more deeply into Mom’s medical records on Mychart.

It’s a busy morning for us. Workmen were expected to arrive and fix the flashing around the bathroom skylight and a few other minor issues on the roof. They were expected between 9 and 10 but didn’t show.

Meanwhile, I’d scheduled the same time for a contractor to come by to inspect the fence and give us assessment about what needs done, if he’ll take the job, and all the details that go with it. He showed on time and that went well. The fence is in pretty good shape overall, with just three posts requiring replacement. He will do those repairs, power wash the fence, and then paint it.

After that, I called the roofers to see what was going on. The other job they were on took longer than planned. They just arrived at 12:30 to begin the work.

My doctor’s office called and told me the Cologuard results were in. My tests were positive, so they’re going to schedule me for some tests and surgery to see if I have colon or other kinds of cancer down there.

My wife is in a cranky mood. She has a nervous disposition and high anxiety and couldn’t sleep last night because of today’s appointments. So it’s one of those if it’s not one thing, it’s another kind of days so far. All in all, it’s still a better life than many others experience. I complain because that’s who I am.

Probably won’t be able to get out and write today, though, which is a bummer. That’s my escape from the insanity, my coping mechanism. I will write at home but it’s not quite the same. For one, I enjoy the coffee shop’s helter skelter energy. Two, when I write at home, my wife often interrupts. She will actually ask, “Can I interrupt you?” Yeah, I’m a curmudgeon of sorts. *smile*

Today’s music is “Where Is My Husband!” This is a 2025 song by Raye. It played on the radio yesterday morning as my wife and I did our food deliveries. I ‘adapted’ it to “Where Is My Congress?” The Neurons like that twist and kept it in the morning mental music stream.

I enjoy the song on its own, though. Here’s the sample lyrics for you.

Sample Lyrics

Baby (whoo-hoo), where the hell is my husband? (Whoo-hoo)
What is taking him so long (whoo-hoo) to find me?
Oh, baby, where the hell is my lover?
Getting down with another? (Whoo-hoo, yeah)
Tell him if you see him, baby, if you see him
Tell him, tell him he should holler

Why is this beautiful man waiting for me to get old?
Why he already testing my patience?
I only fear he’s taking time with other women that ain’t me
While I’ve been reviewing applications

Wait ’til I get my hands on him, I’ma tell him off too
For how long he kept mе waiting, anticipating
Praying to the Lord to give him to my loving arms
And despite my frustrations

He must need me (he must need me) completely (completely)
How my heart yearns for him
Is he far away (is he far away?), is he okay? (Is he okay?)
This man is testing me, uh-huh, uh-huh
Uh, help me, help me, help me, Lord

Of course, yesterday morning, I was singing, “Where the hell is my Congress!” Then I created other lyrics.

May this day find you healthy, peaceful, and ready to vote blue and take the nation back.

Thanks for visiting. Cheers

6

Sunday’s Theme Music — Bad Moon Rising

Sunday, October 11, 2026 — Ashland, southern Oregon.

The weather and foliage matched perfectly yesterday and feel right today. Many of us enthused about the crisp and cool autumn air. This was what we’d been looking for! Temperatures topped in the mid 70s yesterday and dropped to the low 30s last night. Right now finds us at 42 F. Though it’s quite sunny and the sky is clear and blue, today’s high is expected to close out in the mid 50s.

Mom reports a new decline. She’d in pretty good spirits this week. Today, she reported, “My pain upon urinating is worse than ever like it was when I first had the bladder infection and it is brown up upon the pads. And it smells rotten. And I feel physically ill.”

This blow came as my sisters and I have been working out what to get Mom for her upcoming 92 birthday at the end of this month.

Trump and Hegseth are excited for their upcoming military execution by firing squad. Outside of them, Americans are checking their priority lists and problems and realizing that Donald Trump is completely out of touch with them.

People are concerned about Trump’s broken promises, the war in Iran, rising prices, AI, and high food, energy, and healthcare costs. Trump responded with more Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! antics.

Your Donald Trump Quote of the Day:

Call me an enemy, then, Trump, because I’ll continue to adhere to history and industry standards and refer to artificial intelligence, or AI.

At this point, reading the political news has me growling and shaking my head. I never expected much out of Trump, but he and his administration is an absolute trainwreck. More of Trump’s supporters are pulling away. I doubt it helped Trump’s cause when Trump told supporters at one recent rally, “It’s amazing. When you stand up here, it’s just like…the love. I could say the stupidest things and you’d clap. ‘Oh, I love you so—’ It’s true.”

We’ll see how those Donald Trump supporters feel when the midterm elections results come in next month. Trump said to make the upcoming elections about himself. He doesn’t know how much disapproval of him has grown, how many are turning away from him, and tuning out from him.

Between Mom and Trump, The Neurons put “Bad Moon Rising” in the morning mental music stream. This song by Clearance Clearwater Revival, aka CCR, was released in 1969. It’s about premonitions about bad things on the verge of happening.

Sample Lyrics:

I see the bad moon rising
I see trouble on the way
I see earthquakes and lightning
I see bad times today

Don’t go around tonight
Well, it’s bound to take your life
There’s a bad moon on the rise

I hear hurricanes a-blowing
I know the end is coming soon
I fear rivers overflowing
I hear the voice of rage and ruin

May this day bless you and yours with fresh air, good health, and good fortune.

Cheers

4

Trump Accelerates Distractions & Whining

What’s Trump doing today?

We ask that question every day at my house. We ask even though we know he’ll be lying, whining, distracting, and doing things that test the limits of law, ethics, and taste. We ask knowing that with polls showing the GOP and Trump as losers in the upcoming elections, Trump will be triggered and will increase the scale of distractions under Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! to new heights.

Today, Trump is whining again about not winning the Nobel Peace Prize. It went instead to Navi Pillay. Congratulations to her!

I’m not surprised that Donald Trump didn’t win. In his worldview, killing people and destroying things mean peace. That’s not how the rest of the world tends to view peace. At 80 years old, you would think Trump would have learned by now that he has not. Trump demonstrated long ago that he lacks learning abilities — unless it’s about ways to gain and keep more money for himself.

Donald Trump has also proven to be vindictive. It wasn’t surprising that his administration immediately ordered more sanctions against the ICC after one of those former judges won the Peace Prize.

Trump thinks he’s done ‘far more blah blah Trump weave blah’ than the human rights activist, Navi Pillay, who won. Of course, Donald Trump has also rated himself as the greatest president ever earlier this year, another sign of Trump’s detachment from reality. Over in reality, historians and voters disagree with his assessment.

Polls since Trump released his assessment said that almost half Americans rank Trump as a failure. 65% disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy.

In other “we-don’t-really-need-this” Trump news, Donald Trump has announced that he wants to make one of his Florida golf resorts into a presidential retreat.

The letter announcing this latest move made my wife and I laugh and laugh. Summaries of the letter’s contents published in newspapers said that Trump International will pay for the improvements.

Sure.

I believe that, dont’ you? I’ll bank that right beside Trump’s promise to not golf if he won the election because he’s too busy.

That promise for Trump International to pay for the improvement carries the same weight of promise for Trump’s gold cell phones. I believe that Trump International will pay for it as much as I believe Trump’s previous claims that he would probably release the Epstein files, that private donors would pay for the new ballroom, and that that Americans would get a DOGE dividend because we’re making so much money as a nation.

I believe the assertion that Trump International will pay for it as much as I believe that Trump has lowered prices on everything since taking office, and that he lowered the price of prescription drugs by hundreds, even thousands of percent.

I believe this declaration as much as I believe that Donald Trump has fixed the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, one — two — three times — no, wait, they’re still working on it.

I believe it as much as I believe that Trump’s tariffs will not raise prices. (Note: they HAVE.)

Assurances that Trump International will pay for it all carries as much water as a pail without a bottom. I believe it as much as Trump’s declaration that as part of his ‘bold agenda’, there would be no new wars.

In short, I don’t believe any of Trump’s promises, or any promises made by any organization or project with Trump’s name attached to it.

The evidence that Trump and his organization will not do what they say they will is overwhelming. Only people in cults or those who have an agenda which Trump serves will believe it.

I’m not part of either of those camps.

5

Donald Trump’s Multi-Thread Approach

We’ve seen enough of Donald Trump to know his approach. He’s used them in business, interpersonal relations, and in politics. We know what to expect.

  1. Trump begins with lies, misinformation, and exaggeration to establish a position for himself. Facts, data, and history are all distorted or dismissed.
  2. After Trump repeats his position multiple times, Trump claims that only he can fix it, and talks about how great he is. He’ll often claim that he’s never wrong and that only he can see what’s going on. As part of this, he’ll frequently declare himself an expert, even often saying that he ‘probably knows more than anyone in the world’ about the subject. Anecdotes about others coming to him — often with tears in their eyes — will emerge. These thankful people shake his hand and tell him how great he is, that, “nobody else has ever done this before.”
  3. In the next stage, Trump makes dire predictions about how bad everything will be if he doesn’t get his way. Along the way, Trump now begins character assassination and name-calling of anyone who criticizes, questions, or opposes him. Others are dumb, stupid, horrible. They’re rapists, murderers, thugs. They come from shit-hole places.
  4. Trump will then stoke fears with angry tirades — commies, con jobs, hoaxes, woke! They’re taking advantage of you! They’re coming for you! They’re eating your pets, killing your babies, stealing your money, forcing their religion on you, taking your jobs!
  5. Distractions commence. Trump makes broad proclamations, announces a new project, a new trade agreement, new investments, new peace deals, new factories! He’s renaming something, he stopped another war, we’ve made so much money! Prices are going down, everyone is getting rich!
  6. Bribes, wheedling, and begging begin. Donald Trump offers money, often characterizing them as dividends. When the money can be found, the promise is fulfilled, such as the $1776 dividend to the military, where the funds were shifted from military housing. Or the more recent $90 Medicare dividend, where money was drawn from the Medicare improvement fund. More often than not, the money is never seen.

If you’ve been paying attention to US political news, you can see how Trump puts them together in his ‘weave’. Trump’s methodology creates a sort of chaos, like a toddler running through a dinner party.

Donald Trump doesn’t understand that many of We the People are as smart or smarter than him. Trump’s magical weave is nothing new to We the People who track what’s going on. His lies and broken promises were bound to catch up with him.

When his lies and cheating caught up with him in business, Donald Trump stiffed contractors and declared bankruptcy.

Trump can’t do those things in his current situation. Instead, he uses the Oval Office’s power to threaten, cajole, attack, and declare emergencies.

But more of We the People are onto his ‘weave’. They know that despite his claims, promises, and lies, prices are not going down, the war in Iran should never have been started and is not over, and that putting his name on more buildings does nothing to improve freedom, democracy, security, or affordability.

Trump’s weave is frayed and falling apart.

Vote Blue in November. It won’t ‘magically’ change things or automatically lower prices, as Trump likes to claim he will do, but it will help temper the whims and arrogance of the authoritarian now in office, Donald J Trump.

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Quick Hits on Donald Trump & the 2026 Midterm Elections

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Don’t Read That Book

Just finished reading a book. Non-fiction, it’s by Michael Lewis. It’s called “The Premonition”.

The book is about the US government’s efforts to develop a coherent pandemic plan well before COVID-19 struck. A small group of people took deep interest in it and kept things going, even when the various presidents changed requirements. Most strikingly, we gained insight into Trump and his administration’s response to COVID-19.

Oh, I remember what Trump said about COVID-19. His quotes are burned in my mind.

Trump lied about how bad COVID-19 was and refused to commit the US government to any course to mitigate the virus’s spread. Donald Trump then told the states, “You’re on your own,” and finally, took credit for the vaccine’s quick development when he was barely part of the equation. He was a fan in the stand shouting, “We won,” after the game is over.

So, I urge you not to read this book because it will probably piss you off.

By reading that book right now, I see Trump taking the same course of action with the US education system. He’s dismantling the federal system and telling states, you’re on your own.

Donald Trump is pursuing his same ass-backward approach with climate change. He’s denying it’s a problem, deriding it as a con job or a hoax. When it’s finally too late, he’ll walk away and tell everyone, you’re on your own

Trump is already doing his COVID-19 shuffle with affordability and healthcare. When running for election, Trump extravagantly and frequently criticized President Obama’s healthcare plan, claiming, “I’m coming up with a better one.” Trump never did come up with a better healthcare plan.

Likewise, Donald Trump stumped on the affordability crisis in 2024. Oh, how terrible it is to live in President Biden’s economy, Trump screeched over and over. I will make it all better. I will lower prices on day one.

Well, it’s well past day one. Prices are much higher and heading even higher. Trump is already shrugging it off, telling us, “You’re on your own.”

It’s not that bad, Trump says. Prices are already falling.

Just as Trump did with healthcare.

Just as Trump did with COVID-19.

1

Survival Mode Dream

I was part of a military unit. A light colonel – a commander from my real life – led us. Something disastrous had happened, and we’d shifted into holding on, bracing for attacks and problems. Food, water, and fuel were all issues.

Second in command, we had a dozen people. All were much younger than the commander and me. The weather seemed consistently dark and cloudy. Rain was often falling.

I started out required to make suggestions to the commander. He then agreed or not, and gave orders. My suggestions were about needing shifts,  requiring everyone to collect and bring food, man the place and keep watch.

We arrived back in the morning as scheduled. Still a dark, rainy day. Part of our structure was gone. I suggested to the commander, maybe we should move our people inside the rest of the structure, to get us out of the rain.

“No,” he said. “Put them on the covered porch.”

I ordered that, but saw at that point that my commander had recognized that I was thinking about things. Touching my shoulder, he told me, “Supervise them. Get them set up and ready.”

I agreed. We had an engine. It ran a generator which gave us electricity. I’d seen the commander add oil to it the previous day. I went to the engine to do the same. The way he’d done it before didn’t make sense with what I saw. This was a Chevy V8, and it was running. I knew it was important to keep the engine running. The engine steamed as rain drops hit.

I checked fluid levels. Gas, oil, etc., were all topped off. I worried that I was overlooking something and decided, I didn’t know enough about how the engine worked. I needed to learn more.

People reported in to work, bringing food and water with them, including doughnuts. Thanking the people for them, I ordered the doughnuts to be shared, encouraging everyone to eat.

Reports came in – I’m not sure of the mechanism – that enemy forces weren’t far off. I directed people to take positions as lookouts. Someone asked if we should launch a drone.

I knew we had a drone but we also had a plane. I directed that both be launched.

They were launched but we weren’t getting images from other. I went outside to see where they were in the sky, which had turned apricot but was marbled with gray and black. Craning my head back, holding my hat on, I couldn’t see the plane or drone.

My commander asked me what I was doing. I told him, and he replied, “Good idea.” Others came out to also look. None of us could see either aircraft.

“I think the enemy destroyed them,” I said with worry.

The situation is getting grim, I thought.

Dream end.

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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.

4

Sunday’s Theme Song — Promises

Ashland, southern Oregon. Sunday, October 4, 2026.

Supposed to be bright, sunny, and hot today, but clouds swamped three fourths of the sky, and sunshine struggled to be seen and felt. Never reached close to the 90 which was forecast, but it’s now 83 F.

Dreamed last night that I was in basic training. When I awoke and saw the date, I realized it was the anniversary of my first enlistment. October 4, 1974, I took my first oath. Twenty years later, I declared done.

I remember that first day. Rainy and overcast. Went in oh dark thirty. Was given a meal voucher for breakfast at a nearby local diner. Then had lunch at the same place with another voucher. We didn’t take off until late that afternoon.

That was my first time in an airplane, too. Flew from West Virginia, where I then lived, to San Antonio, Texas, via some other city.

It was a Friday, too. When we arrived at Lackland AFB, Texas, to begin basic training, we were informed there weren’t enough to make a full flight. We wouldn’t begin training until the following Tuesday, and spent the extended weekend in silence in our civies, waiting to begin.

Yes, welcome to the military. That’s how it was during my entire career: hurry up, then wait, then GO!

I spoke with Mom today. She called so I ended up chatting with her for an hour, just talking about life in the assisted living facility, Heritage Grove, Penn Hills. While I was speaking with her, my wife took a call on the home line and we learned that our friend, Larry, passed away at 3 AM this morning.

Larry was 96, and a military veteran. Obtaining a degree from Purdue via the GI Bill, he ended up as an engineer and an executive in the aerospace industry. After college, he lived and worked most of his life in the Los Angeles, California, area, moving up here to Ashland after retiring. He was married and adopted and raised two children and had two grandchildren. Although staunchly conservative and Republican, he was intelligent, trustworthy, and fun. I’ll miss him.

I read the NYT’s coverage of a 2026 Trump rally. They’re heavy with promise and rituals: attack the Democrats, maybe throw in a commie scare. Lie about multiple things. Donald Trump will use profanity — his fans love it when he uses profanity, because he’s telling it like it is, isn’t he? Trump sometimes claims prices are way down, which probably surprises anyone who regularly shops.

At many stops this year, Trump is begging people to support AI and data center construction. It’s the primary commercial construction now underway. He might claim the US already won against Iran, or he might threaten Iran with more bombing.

What is so sad is that after the many lies Donald Trump has made, and after all the promises that Donald Trump has broken, his brand of chaos, hatred, and bigotry still serve a portion of the Republican party.

Today’s music is by Incubus. The 2011 song, “Promises, Promises” did not come from reading the news. It came instead while listening to my mother talk about the inherent promises made — work hard, save your money, buy a house, raise a familiar — all that American dream debris, will bring you happy closure when you pass away. Mom relates that she and her gang of assisted living friends refer to their new home as jail — three hots and a cot.

I hope you live up to the promises you make, and that others fulfill the promises they make to you.

I also hope that promise and swear to Vote Blue in November, 2026.

Cheers

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