Category: health

The Donald Trump GOP Paradox

Donald Trump made headlines with a new steel manufacturing complex in Iowa.

In it is a tale about the Republican party.

In 2008, Essar Steel Minnesota planned to build a taconite mine, a direct-reduction-grade iron ore pellet plant, and a steel mill in Minnesota. The project suffered from repeated delays and over $1 billion in debt. In 2015, Essar withdrew its financial pledge, and the project collapsed into bankruptcy. From the bankruptcy emerged Mesabi Metallics.

Mesabi Metallics is Iowa’s new partner in the $15B steel mill complex.

Trump didn’t mention that Iowa could build this new steel plant because of windmills. Iowa is the top state in the nation for wind dependency, generating roughly 63% of its total electricity from wind power. Wind leads coal by far. A Republican governor began Iowa’s wind turbine electricity project waaayyyy back in 1983.

The project succeeded in part because Senator Chuck Grassley sponsored Wind Energy Incentives Act of 1992, which created the Production Tax Credit (PTC).

It’s hilarious in a not-funny way. Trump disparages wind energy. Donald Trump blames them for cancer, talks about how ugly they are, and bellows about how dangerous they are to birds. Yet, thanks to windmills, Donald Trump is in Iowa, trumpeting about a new manufacturing plant. Trump fights against the sort of incentives which Senator Grassley championed, the incentives which make Iowa’s new projects possible.

Trump’s hypocrisy and ignorance remain appalling.

On the other hand…

Because of all that flat farmland in Iowa, Iowa is currently at a critical energy crossroads. It ranks among the top five states per capita for data center density—with 4 massive centers under active construction and 17 more in planning in counties like Linn—meaning the Mesabi plant is landing right in the middle of a pre-existing technology boom.

Sounds good, doesn’t it? The problem is the climate, and the chance of flooding.

Your Trump Quote of the Day:

Donald Trump dismisses climate change as a con job. The new Iowa Mesabi Metallics plant sits close to the Mississippi River, which is needed as part of the plant’s supply chain. The iron pellets needed for the new steel production facility comes from Minnesota via barges on the Mississippi and railroad routes along river basins. The mining and iron pellets in Minnesota are part of that original, failed Essar Steel project that began in 2008.

Analysts cite a 15% chance that the area where the steel plant is being built will experience a major flood. That percentage might become worse, thanks to climate change and the extreme weather changes it causes, such as the super El Nino forecast for this winter.

The new steel plant is being built to survive a flood. The problem with a flood is that the plant would need to be shut down and restarted, a long and complicated process. Also, flooding will affect workers’ ability to reach the plant.

Flooding will also affect the power sources. Not the windmills, but the infrastructure needed to deliver the power.

Yet, Trump — and the GOP — are focused only on the construction and manufacturing aspects. Not the climate, weather, or other threats.

It’s funny, again, in a sad, I’m not laughing way. Back in 1983, Republicans had the vision to see these problems and forge productive viable paths forward.

Now, under Trump, they close their eyes, trying to pretend like they don’t exist.

Unfortunately, Iowans are pushing back against windmills. It again takes us to another crossoad of challenges and history. Blades have broken off and fallen in cornfields. There was also the Greenfield disaster, where a tornado hit and destroyed windmills.

Climate scientists are expecting more tornados in Iowa due to climate change. Fewer ‘tornado days’ are projected, but more tornado clusters are expected. Windmills falling apart rightly scare people. Their reaction is to build fewer windmills and even remove those which already exist. But to do that, they must shift energy production back to fossil fuels, which will accelerate climate change.

The Iowa steel and energy story is a microcosm of the global climate challenge we face. The hardest part of transitioning to clean energy isn’t the engineering or the math; it’s the political and human friction.

When Donald Trump attacks wind projects, he is speaking directly to the anxieties of older, core conservative voters who view rapid green mandates as costly and unreliable. Yet, those are now the Republicans pushing back against wind power.

It’s an interesting dichotomy. Part of that can be traced to how windmills changed from those early years into what they are now.

Part of the battle now can also be viewed as the difference between how the issue used to be framed — as a business initiative to improve costs — vice a political football to address climate change.

The good news is that young Republicans view the problem much differently than old Republicans. So, there might be hope in the future.

Once Donald Trump is gone.

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Saturday’s Theme Music — Don’t Look Back

Ashland, southern Oregon — Saturday, October 3, 2026.

A scorcher of a day is set up. Long stretches of thin white crossing the atmosphere’s bowl, but it’s mostly blue. Dropped to 80 now — a hot 80 — but it was over 90. More of the same is expected tomorrow.

Mom reports she’s feeling better. Played bingo at the assisted living facility and won five games. She seemed relaxed and — risking the chance of jinxing it — happier today.

Meanwhile, my WordPress still isn’t right, just a fly in my pinot noir. On the good news side, my next step in my cancer treatment, the BCG was moved up to this coming Monday. An impatient person, that pleases me. I’m a ‘let’s get this done’ sort of personality.

Reading political and other news, I told myself, don’t look back. Looking back causes me to grit my teeth with pain and anger over what’s happening with our nation, especially so as Donald Trump breaks promise after promises, rages about different things, and lies about almost everything. There’s a lot riding on the upcoming midterms.

Those thoughts encouraged The Neurons to introduce “Don’t Look Back in Anger” into the morning mental music stream. As I hummed the Oasis tune to myself this morning, I was surprised to see an article claiming that it was released 31 years ago. Why it seems like just yesterday!

Then again, it seems like just yesterday that I took my first driving test and got my license. It feels like just yesterday that I as going to the prom, and just yesterday that I was getting ready to play a football game.

Just yesterday seems so close and so far. Maybe I’m going on a long elliptical orbit around my existence. My memories will begin fading and the next thing I know — without knowing — is that I’m living my life all over again, following the orbit already established through agencies outside of my control.

Here’s the Oasis music. May your orbit take you into brighter, happier days and you smile often.

Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music – Masquerade

Ashland, southern Oregon. Tuesday, September 29, 2026.

Another lovely autumn day in the Pacific northwest corner of the United States — at least in my small valley. 65 F, with sunshine and blue skies, and a high of 75 F expected.

Spent some time reading sickening news of the Cornell 7. The truth is dribbling out. Right now, the university and those seven men appear despicable, part of the patriarchy and ol’ boys network which so many of us have come to despise. It reminded me and my wife of how Brock Turner got off.

Mom’s birthday is next month. She’ll be 92. My sisters and I are sharing ideas about what she needs and what we can buy her to show love and caring while filling needs and making her a little happier.

One of the other residents is an elderly blind man. Mom returned to find him in her room after lunch today. He’d taken all her clothes out of her closet and strewn them around the room, knocked things over, and made a big mess. Mom summoned the home’s director. She’s calling the blind man’s daughter.

While what happened to Mom is disturbing, I think about what the blind man might be enduring, and how this call can affect his daughter and her family and plans. It’s another of those things which just induces sighs.

Listening to Trump, it feels like we’re at a masquerade ball. Trump pretends we’re in a golden age while so many struggle to pay bills and personal bankruptcies are at a rate not seen since 2010. As the US military launches more attacks on Iran and Iran swings back, Trump at once pretends it’s ‘a conflict’ and simultaneously declares we’re at war.

Trump also masquerades as being indifferent about the war, referring to it as small potatoes. I’m sure that Iranian citizens will be pleased to hear that Trump thinks the bombing of their nation and the killing of their children and others is ‘small potatoes’. But that’s Trump — a monster trying to masquerade as a human.

Most distressingly, so many Republicans, too many citizens, too many in the media, and even too many Democrats treat what Trump and the Project 2025 contingency embedded in his administration as if it’s normal. Chief Justice Roberts in the Supreme Court bounces around the masquerade ball, fretting about what Trump is doing, then enabling him via unsigned shadow docket rulings for emergencies.

So today’s music is “This Masquerade”. George Benson had a hit with this half a century ago, a fact that makes me LAUGH OUT LOUD.

I hope this day gave you a number of reasons to laugh out loud and look back with joy.

Cheers

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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.

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Monday’s Theme Music – Blues

Ashland, southern Oregon. Monday, September 28, 2026.

Lovely fall day with bold white billowy clouds and small, scattered negligee clouds hanging against a blue sky. Temperature crept out of the forties into the mid 70s F.

I got the first world blues this morning. Internet went out at 11:15 last night. I rebooted our system and went to bed. All looked good this morning but ‘lo, no Internet. I called our ISP, Ashland Home Net (HSN), to see what they could tell me. First tech said, “Reboot your router for me.” Pretty damn imperial about it, too. I did and we agreed I’d call back in ten minutes if it didn’t work.

Fifteen minutes later, I called HSN again. This tech was not the same as the first tech. He told me, “Oh, there’s an outage in the city. They’re working on it. Should be fixed in an hour. If you still don’t have a connection then, call back.”

Hour later, no connection, call back. Get the first tech who told me again, “I told you to just reset your router.”

I blew up on him and channeled my pissed-off senior NCO genes, which greatly changed his attitude. Anyway, to make this long story a little shorter, I decided I needed a new modem.

In parallel to this happening, my sister, Gina, took Mom to a doctor’s appointment as a follow up to the UTI that sent her to the hospital, keeping us up to date via texts. Mom has also been complaining of chest pains. EKG showed no issues with Mom’s heart or pace maker, but other test showed that yes, she still had a UTI. So, there’s more antibiotics scheduled, and an appointment with another doctor.

Gina took Mom clothes shopping, too, which was very nice of her.

Back here at home, it was our day to do Food & Friends delivery. However, my wife didn’t put it on the official house calendar, so we were double booked. We had noticed some slight leaking around the bathroom skylight. I’d scheduled a consultation for today for 11, which directly conflicted with the F&F timing. A friend volunteered to replace me so my wife could do the route and deliveries while I stayed home with the skylight folks.

Skylight folks, Andy and James, arrived at 11 and left at 11:30. Just flashing, Andy assured me. I’m waiting or the estimate to get that done. He says it’s minor work and can schedule it and do it done soon as I say go.

So, that was my morning. As I say, first world blues.

Later that day…(which is, yes, today…)

Went to the coffee shop. Researched routers. Went out and bought a new one. Came home, installed it. Everything except my Ooma VOIP linked up. I’m working on it.

My wife’s Food & Friends deliveries with her friend went fantastic! Everyone was home, and many were already at the door when she arrived. My wife said it was much better than when I go with her… *smile*

Later that same day…(which is, yes, still today..)

I was focused on software, settings for the new router, etc. Modem, cell phones, computers, and Roku all seamlessly connected. Terrific!

Our Ooma VOIP wouldn’t connect.

I’ve been an Ooma customer since 2008, and the unit I have is now ten years old. I thought that maybe its card had gone. No matter what I tried, I could not connect between the router and the Ooma telos. Lo, turned out to be the old ethernet cable was failing. With that replaced, all is up and running. Took hours of trying different paths, though. But, yes, done.

So ends my first world blues.

Today’s song is “Roadhouse Blues”. The Neurons began playing this 1970 song by The Doors when I rolled out of bed and told myself, “Let’s get this day rolling.” Bang, the song rolled through my morning mental music stream.

I hope your day treated you well, and you were able to avoid all kinds of blues, whether they were just simple first world complaints like mine today, or more serious blues.

Cheers

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Trump’s Backwards Thinking

It’s more of here we go again, the same damn thing after another.

Today’s political headlines are about Trump rolling back CAFE regulations to lower car prices.

Trump approves new fuel economy rules, says car prices will fall

Trump says he approved new fuel economy standards ending Biden-era electric vehicle mandate

Yes, let’s pause to consider the logic of this. Gas prices are high and will probably go up more with current global variables, so let’s gut the mileage requirements for new cars.

It’s not a surprise that this comes from the same Trump logic that declared that prescription drug prices would be reduced 100% or more, the same fine intelligence that claims elections are stolen without presenting evidence, the same weak thinking that pushes raising tariffs on products won’t affect prices because other countries, companies, manufacturers will pay for them.

Right.

Let’s file this under Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL!

It’s another Trump attempt to distract people from how poorly things are going for them under Trump. Previous Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! actions include demolishing the White House East Wing to build the ballroom and distract people from Trump’s relationship with Epstein. Trump then tried distracting We the People with a summer of celebrations, much as Hitler used the 1936 Olympics and Rome used games in the coliseum.

This phase of Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! specifically targets several favorite MAGA and Republican areas: regulations, electric cars (and ‘green’ initiatives’), and car prices, specifically how manufacturers wring their hands and declare, “Woe is me, we could make much cheaper cars if it wasn’t for those darn regulations!”

From what I read, these regulations will require three to seven years to get merged into the design, manufacturing, and sales of cars. So these are no immediate savings as Trump is insinuating.

Meanwhile, Trump claims it will save people buying new cars about $810M. But industry experts say that high gas prices will cost more than double that in the meantime.

As a result, Trump is trying for cheap headlines and distractions from the affordability crisis and the war with Iran. Trump’s war with Iran goes on; oil, gas, and diesel prices remain high because of that war. Trump has no clearcut objectives or timelines, and no exit strategy.

Hence, a distraction.

Ultimately, these Trump moves will move the United States further out of step with the rest of the world. As EPA standards for clean air and water are dropped, our air, water, and land quality will decline, affecting the tourism industry. Respiratory illness will probably increase, causing a decline in student and worker health, lower productivity, higher healthcare costs, higher insurance costs, and increased absenteeism.

We know these things will likely happen because we experienced it before. By paying attention to history and facts, we can predict the outcome of these actions. Or, equally effectively, we can look at other nations who lack these regulations, and how it affects them.

We know that’s not what will happen. Trump is taking the United States back in time. As the US pivots back to fossil fuels in its power plants and internal combustion engines, led by China and Europe, the rest of the world will race forward with electric cars and green power initiatives.

And Trump and the oligarchs will grow wealthier.

That’s why voting blue in the 2026 midterms matter.

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Thursday’s Theme Music – Wrong

Ashland, southern Oregon. Thursday, September 24, 2026.

We’re winding September down. Less than a week to go. Autumn continues stealing in, delivering threats of light rain, weaker sunshine, shorter days, cooler temperatures. Clouds give the day a weary bleakness. Sunshine seems like it needs to go back to bed. Yet, today’s high will tap the low 80s F.

Unemployment stayed about the same, while the broader U6 declined a little. Looking at the reports, though, many were associated with local government and schools. In other words, it was because the school year started again. Hospitality service also had some small growth in employment, bouncing back after a miserable summer for that industry, as far as employment goes.

Mom is begging my sisters to let her live with her. She’s also painting a different recollection of what’s happened in the past year. I spent time last night reading my sisters’ texts to me from the early 2026 troubles with Mom. Leaving with my sister, Gina, at the time, Mom was texting me about how unhappy she was, how she wanted to return to her own home and live there. Now she’s telling us — again — how unhappy she is at the affordable living place and wants to move. Texts from last October include Mom’s confession that she while living alone, she kept falling and ended up sleeping on the floor. It really is a no-win period for all involved.

Thinking about Mom, my sisters and I repeatedly focus on ‘what went wrong’. I often hear ‘it’s Mom’s own fault’, but I’ve seen her personality and mental acuity change, along with her memory. Yes, I bemoan Mom’s choices as we tried to get her and her partner to move into a safer space or to allow us to hire someone to clean and otherwise assist Mom. Mom, and her partner, Frank, rejected all those suggestions. Yet…yet, we could not have predicted that Frank would fall down the steps and die. We did worry about it.

‘What went wrong’ seems like the wrong question. Mom aged and changed, as we all do. This is another of those ‘if only’ exercises so many of us find ourselves going through as we look back on our lives.

Today’s music is by Oasis. “Where Did It All Go Wrong” is a soft lament about struggling to understand change.

Hope your day goes well — friction free, with good decisions, and wonderful outcomes.

Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music — Fall

Ashland, southern Oregon. Tuesday, September 22, 2026.

First day of fall today in the northern latitudes. Autumn and summer have been fluttering in and out for the past few weeks. Leaves are rushing to change colors in some parts of the city. Other leaves are like, nah, not yet.

Temperature today will rise to 75 degrees from its current level of 61 F. Rain showers are considered possible though in my view out the window, the clouds aren’t the rain kind. They’re just thin, wispy white paste.

Mom asked my sister Gina to let her move back in with her. Mom insisted, she would never go upstairs and Pat, Gina’s husband, would not be allowed within six feet of Mom.

Of course, Gina said, no. Pat never did anything to Mom; we have video footage proving so. Mom was hallucinating, a combo of pain pills, other medication, and UTIs. But she insists that what Pat did was real. Guess it was, to her.

The White House has announced “Trump TV”. I laughed and shook my head at that.

It’s showing clips of Trump speeches. Trump thinks himself a great orator but he’s a terrible, stumbling speaker who doesn’t stay on topic. The clips will reveal this, reminding people of Trump’s grandiose promises about greatness, lies about his accomplishments, falling prices, refund and dividend checks, and how we won in Iran as the war continues seven months later. Trump is failing and falling in approval and popularity as a result.

I have spent time reading “Leaving MAGA” over the past two days. Started by a former MAGAzen, Rich Logis, a few years ago, this is a place where Trump supporters reveal what finally broke their willingness to support Trump. They’re not monolithic but very individual stories, although they often show common threads. Most stories tell of their slow spiral into anger, disillusionment, and conspiracy theories. They end up supporting Trump because they’re hoping for change. Then they begin to notice his inconsistencies and the scales fall from their eyes.

For example, Erica Roach:

“A doctored video circulated that made it seem as if Gates was saying he could kill more people with better vaccines. 

“Then Trump played up Operation Warp Speed, which led to the creation of the COVID vaccine. He called himself the father of the vaccine. He said he had saved millions of lives. That didn’t make sense to me.

“I started doing a bunch of research in the White House archive; I found Trump executive orders, including one setting up a national influenza vaccine task force. I learned that Trump had asked Bill Gates to be the White House science advisor.

“This all upset me terribly; Q had said Trump knew about the 16-year plan to destroy America, so why was he backing what I believed to be a depopulation tool?

Trump often tries to play both sides of the field simultaneously when making claims. For instance, when running for re-election in 2020, Trump claimed that the Democrat’s characterization of the coronavirus as a “hoax”.

Then Trump ran for re-election in 2024 and hammered President Biden’s economy, especially inflation. After Trump returned to the Oval Office, he dismissed affordability as a Democratic hoax.

When Trump ran for office in 2024, he warned that Democrats would begin new wars. Then he promised no new wars, and then attacked Iran — twice, in 2025, and 2026. We remain at war with Iran seven months after Trump initiated the attacks on Iran. He tries to sell the softer term, ‘conflict’, but has also notably referred to it as a war.

Most of the US caught on to Trump’s Double Standards, outright lying, and rhetorical flexibility long ago. I’m happy that some MAGAzens are also waking up.

Today’s music is “Catch Me Now I’m Falling” by the Kinks. When I first heard the song on their live album, I thought, oh, the Kinks have done a “Jumping Jack Flash” cover.

I was wrong. While it often sounds like that Stones song, this song was written about the United States needing help back in 1979. Took me a while to decode the lyrics back then. When I finally did, I was like, whaaat?

Sample Lyrics

Now I’m calling all citizens from all over the world
This is captain America calling
I bailed you out when you were down on your knees
So will you catch me now I’m falling

Help me now I’m calling you
Catch me now I’m falling
I’m in your hands, it’s up to you
Catch me now I’m falling

I remember when you were down
You would always come running to me
I never denied you and I would guide you
Through all of your difficulties

I thought of the song today because of our nation’s fluctuations in fortune. Davis wrote and sang about America needing help in the last century, how America used to reach out and help others. In the Trump era, the US has been withdrawing and reducing help. Instead, Trump uses economic clout and military threat to bludgeon others. Hasn’t been working well, with disastrous results for the US and its allies.

I hope you enjoy the first day of whatever season this day is for you, that it makes you smile now and look back later, and smile again.

Cheers

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