Just A Note
Don’t mind me. I’m just going through a mid-life crisis. Started when I turned 40.
I’ll be 70 in a few months.
Should get over it shortly after that.
I think.
The Mood in May
Time again to assess how the net feels about the state of the union under Trump.
As backdrop:
- Trump’s Iran war is heading into week 11. Donald “No new wars” doesn’t like to call it a war except when he reminds us that we’re at war.
- Republicans have asked for $1,000,000,000 for the Epstein ballroom that was begun under Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! Trump said the ballroom would cost $200 million and that US taxpayers wouldn’t pay for any of it.
- Epstein files still aren’t fully released.
- The April Jobs Report surprised everyone because jobs were added, but the 185,000 jobs were well below the jobs President Biden’s administration saw every month.
- The Trade Court struck down another set of Trump tariffs.
- As of May 2026, the U.S. national debt stands at approximately $39 trillion, exceeding 120% of the country’s GDP.
- Gas prices are climbing to record highs at a record pace: Station Price Charts – Local & National Historical Average Trends – GasBuddy.com
So much winning! Here we go.
Squirrel!
My wife and I were driving around, dropping off books at Little Libraries. So far, we’d dropped off twenty-five books at five Little Libraries. Only one stop remained.
I turned off East Main. It was sunny but rain was falling on the windshield.
“Squirrel!” my wife shouted.
I’d seen the squirrel bolting into the street and was braking before my wife said anything.
The squirrel and I both stopped. They turned and ran back to the sidewalk but stayed there.
I edged the car forward.
The squirrel edged forward.
I increased my speed.
So did the squirrel.
“Damn, dude, what are you doing?” I asked the squirrel through the window.
It turned right.
I accelerated away.
Thoughts From the Bottom
The birth center
Closes
But
It’s alright
Price of beef is
Out of sight
Gas is higher than
We ever thought
Normal
But we’ll be alright
Cause
We got streams
And games
And color
TV
Things like virtual
Reality
Artificial
Dreams
It’s a blast
It’s a scene
Get the highest score
Be
Number
One
Game might be over
But your day
Just
Begun
The Writing on the Page
I keep spying on the woman to my right.
Sounds quasi pervi, doesn’t it?
I just want to see her book, a small paperback. She flips through it, pen in hand, underlining passages.
I’m horrified and fascinated. Writing in books? I know others do this and it’s permitted under certain circumstances, but it’s something against my personal coda. Unless…is it a puzzle book?
What is this book she’s defiling? If only she’d put it down so that I can see it.
She left while I was busy writing. I never saw the book.
It’s another unsolved mystery.
Trump: Pretzel Logic
The war with Iran is not a war.
Trump reminded everyone we’re at war but also said he’s not going to use the word war because that would need approval. Also, the war that wasn’t a war stopped with the ceasefire in April, even though there’s shooting going on.
The really big question is, what do Dozing Donnie’s bones say about the war?
At the same time, Trump also told Axios there was “nothing left” to bomb in Iran. Trump also said, “Any time I want it to end, it will end.”
Trump later told supporters at a Kentucky rally that same day that Washington “won” in Iran and the conflict was “over.”
You follow that? We were at war, we were never at war, it’s a mini-war, the war is over, and it’ll be over whenever Trump says it’s over.
Fine, fine pretzel logic.
“We have a war right now, and we’re to what, six weeks? They said, ‘What’s taking so long!’ We were in Vietnam 19 years.” Donald Trump, April 21, 2026.
Technically, the US can’t blockade Iran because that’s an act of war and we’re not at war, although we might be in a ‘mini-war‘.
Lindsey Graham is getting into Trump’s pretzel logic: “If we can take back control of the Strait of Hormuz, it is checkmate. This thing is over.”
George Conway “Interesting. This must be a new kind of chess where you compete to put the pieces back where they were before you smacked them off the board.”
Meanwhile, smog is increasing in Utah and Arizona, but it’s not a problem. That bad air is from other places. Although it affects local citizens, Trump’s EPA ruled that the affected cities don’t need to do anything about them.
Did you hear, too, Trump says his economy is booming!
That’s what Trump told small businesses this week.
Small business bankruptcies surged 67% in the first quarter of 2026.
However, the stock market is doing well. Corporate profits are at record levels.
Not everyone is in the stock market. And even if corporations are making profits, not all employees will see much more money, except for in the C suite. People who aren’t in the stock market or a corporate exec paying $4.46 per gallon of gas in the US might not agree that the economy is booming.
Especially if that gas price goes to $7 per gallon, as some analysts suggest.
The U.S. average for regular gasoline was approximately $3.81 to $3.82 per gallon at that time.
Bones of Steel: A Dream
Don’t know exactly where I was but I was younger – middle-aged.
In a building, I could look out windows and see a large body of pale blue water. I seemed to be in a white building, like a lab.
A man was treating another man. I could hear the conversation but really see them. The man treating the other was saying, “I’m injecting him with this.” There was more blah blah which I couldn’t follow.
I kept getting distracted, turning around, looking to see what else was going on, looking out the window. Sunny out there. Inviting.
The man said, “What I’m doing will replace his bones.”
I saw him now, tall, black receding hair, thick black beard, white lab coat. Oh, I realized. He’s injecting the other man with something that will replace his bones with steel. The ‘something’ seemed like a thick green fluid. Well, that could be useful, I thought. If they’re in the military, for example.
Then I realized I was the one being injected. Oh, they’re turning my bones into steel with this fluid. How does it work? How long does it take?
“Not long,” the man replied, as if I’d asked the questions. “We’re almost done.”
Dream end
Monday’s Theme Music – Hope
Ashland, southern Oregon — Monday, May 4, 2026.
It’s cloudy this morning but it’s not a solid mass. Sunshine washes through to warm us. It’s 55 F but we expect a high in the mid to upper 70s, and thunderstorms. We experienced a high of 80 yesterday before thunderstorms cooled us in the mid-afternoon hours.
Trump’s thin ego and weak position has been on display all weekend, beginning on Friday night. Heather Cox Richardson summarized Trump’s frenzied Friday night texts in her May 3, 2026, edition of “Letters from An American”.
- This great uniter called Rep. Jeffries ‘low-IQ’ and a thug
- Trump continued his pattern of spreading fake information, showing an AI-generated image of Jeffries holding a bat
- Likewise, Trump showed an image of him and some of cabinet desecrating the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, a national monument
- Trump added a text showing his worry about the mid-term elections; in his mind, they’re going to be stolen
Trump also makes the fake claim that Democrats destroyed the US after the 2020 elections. History shows otherwise. BTW, gas was a lot cheaper back in President Biden’s days, wasn’t it?
Trump was promising to release the Epstein files, and still hasn’t released them all.
And we also weren’t at war.
Your Trump Quotes of the Day:
Hope is my theme today, though. Last night, I watched a documentary on Netflix about the making of the song, “We Are the World”. The documentary came out two years ago. Here is the Wikipedia summary of the song:
“We Are the World” is a charity single recorded by the supergroup USA for Africa in 1985. It was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie and produced by Quincy Jones for the album We Are the World to raise money for the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia. With sales in excess of 20 million physical copies, it is the eighth-best-selling single of all time.
Documentary trailer:
It’s the hopeful nature of the endeavor that made me decide to play the song today. The song was made at a time when there was a lot of hand-wringing as people asked, “We can we do?” It reminds me of now, as so many watch Trump stagger through the world, destroying the nation, peace, and the environment. Come together, focus, and work against him and his reactionary, destructive policies.
The documentary was full of some fascinating moments. Diana Ross took her music to Daryl Hall and asked him to sign it for her because she was his biggest fan. Watching those singers cope with the notes, wording, and situation fired my amazement about how capable and accomplished they are. They were also often star struck by the others in the room.
One of the most hilarious pieces came from an anecdote related Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles talking together. Both are blind. Ray commented that he needed the restroom. Stevie said, “Oh, I’ll show you where it is.” Stevie then led Ray away, leading someone to crack, “The blind are really leading the blind here.”
Hope you have a great day. I’m off to do Food & Friends deliveries with my wife.
Cheers
Michael Seidel, writer 