I finished writing the third novel in the Ministry of Death series. Began the first one in May. Now three are written:
“A Tribe Called Death”.
“Dead and Alive”.
“A Shadow of Life”.
As soon as I finished the third one, I wrote the opening paragraph to number four. It’s less like writing and more like stepping into a world and reporting what I see.
“A Shadow of Life” is 321 pages in Word, 55,000 words. I began writing it on September 9, 2026.
Book number four is titled, “Down into Death”.
I’m looking forward to finding out what happens. On we go.
The AI industry and data center construction were instantly up in arms, warning what the Democrats will do via building limitations on new and bigger data centers.
Healthcare and insurers focused on ACA were delighted, as Democrats were bound to make moves to restore the subsidies which many people need to afford insurance in this era.
Oil prices dropped, which will bring relief to food sectors because fertilizer prices should drop, along with gas and diesel prices, and the shipping costs associated with those. This comes just in time for Black Friday and the traditional holiday shopping frenzy in the US.
The renewable energy sector is also excited but realize, too, that with Trump in the White House, the Federal government will stymie investment and construction of windmills and solar arrays. They’ll probably turn to the states for renewable energy initiatives.
Meanwhile, who will emerge as the Democrats’ leaders? My wife is pushing a ‘take no prisoners’ attitude. She is all for bringing back the guillotine. Her choice to lead the Dems is AOC.
Others are pushing for Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, but there are also those pushing against those two, viewing them as enablers. Champions for these two react by claiming that the blue wave is a direct success from their leadership.
Selecting their party’s leadership is just the beginning for the Dems. They must decide on their priorities and objectives. One contingency of voters wants to go after Trump and his enablers and minions and demand accountability for their transgressions.
A more moderate group preaches to attack affordability first. Retake the purse strings and re-establish checks and balances. Put out the fires and then go after Trump et al.
Hakeem Jeffries suggested that voters don’t want to go after Trump at all. Jeffries said, “”I haven’t had a single member of the House Democratic caucus talk to me about impeachment. We’ve been relentlessly focused on affordability and accountability.”
Personally, I’m not certain that accountability can be achieved without impeachment, but that such claims either way should be part of a transparent investigation. Trump’s corruption is another growing sore point among Americans.
I suspect that if corruption isn’t investigated, Republicans would seize on that as evidence to them that the Democrats are the source of corruption. I make that suggestion based on Trump and the GOP’s recurring use of projection.
There’s also a fear that Democrats will waffle and bicker and not come to any decisions or take any directions, leaving us swirling around and around in a whirlpool of indecision.
Suggestions are out there about what to do. Drew Magarey published his demand list for Dems. It’s something to think about.
In the meantime, Donald Trump remains in the Oval Office, disconnected from reality, pushing forward an aggressively reactionary agenda, dismissing social services, pursuing deregulation and causing destabilization, distracting us from serious challenges as he tries to build things and name things in honor of him. Expect a great deal of Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! from Trump in the coming months. Expect more, too, quiet behind-the-scenes maneuverings from the Heritage Foundation. I have little doubt that they’re coaching Trump, pushing his lawsuits and attacks on checks and policies, sneaking around, trying to advance the goals and ideals of Project 2025.
Going into 2027, we know that for every Dem action, there will be a Trump reaction. Donald Trump will resist ending the Iran war and fight to keep the tariffs in place. Trump will fight renewable energy projects and attempts to gain transparency into his administration.
Ashland, southern Oregon — Thursday, November 5, 2026.
Warmer and drier today, with a hazy but blue sky and a temperature of 48 F. Our valley’s expected high is 60 F.
Mom’s latest lab report returned with bad news. Her Escherichia coli count was abnormal, >100,000 CFU/mL. More antibiotics are being prescribed, and Gina is picking those up.
Gina, my sister, acts as Mom’s POA, messenger, driver, and financial manager. Now, as she points out to Mom, she’s also managing Mom’s doctor visits and prescriptions. Mom can do little on her own. I was aware of this back when I visited Mom before Frank passed away. Mom struggled to keep things mentally organized and clarified. Frank helped a great deal by being Mom’s driver, helping Mom with her doctor’s visits, and picking up her prescriptions.
Now, with Frank no longer available in those roles, Mom struggles to understand why Gina doesn’t respond immediately to every text Mom sends her, instantly escalating from “I need this” to “WHY ARE YOU IGNORING ME”. When Mom posits her requests and needs, she tends to be demanding, as if an imperial decree is being issued.
Mom has always been like that. What’s fascinating is that I’ve witnessed these transactions and saw how they went down. Mom often projected herself as being very sweet, patient and polite. That was often far from the truth. That’s part of the reasons why my sisters and I keep our distance from her.
Enough of that complaining. Had to get it off my chest.
We’ve been processing the blue wave, waiting for some results, and digesting the ‘what happened’ autopsies. I’m expecting two years of Trump chaos and legislative gridlock. The Democrats will be under a microscope, with every move and word examined for effectiveness as the GOP and Trump enter counter-attack mode. Accusations about overreach, communism, socialism and other rightwing scare tactics will soon begin popping up.
I don’t expect any changes to Trump’s attempts to rule like a dictator. He’ll keep insisting that he’s above the law, the greatest ever, and a genius at everything, while demonstrating amazing ignorance. Trump has already gone from being contrite about the midterm results to blaming the Republicans who lost for not being him.
Your Trump Quote of the Day:
There’s a mountain of evidence that Trump and his policies and administration are unpopular. Donald Trump will continue to deny them because he cannot face the truth.
Today’s theme music is a 1972 Black Sabbath offering. I was thinking about Mom, politics, and life and went into a reflection about wheels turning.
The Neurons pounced! The morning mental music stream went from John Lennon and Alice Cooper offerings to a Journey tune to a BST song1. Then, perhaps because I was thinking about my youth and Mom, 1972 called up with “Wheels of Confusion”.
My gosh, was that a surprise. I’d not heard this song in too long and hearing it in my mental stream made me grin. So I offer it up to you.
I hope the wheels keep turning for you and carry you to better places.
Cheers
John Lennon – “Watching the Wheels”; Alice Cooper: “Under My Wheels”; Journey: “Wheel in the Sky”; BST (Blood, Sweat, and Tears), “Spinning Wheel”. ↩︎
I was reflecting on a Trump quote I shared in an earlier post. It triggered a need for a sports analogy for me.
Ordinarily, I avoid sports analogies when addressing politics. Such analogies are generally lazy, lowering politics and their outcome to the same level as pastimes which have grown into enormous, profitable businesses but are meaningless in the long run. Sports preoccupy many people and divert their attention from real and serious matters. (Some will rebut, that’s exactly why sports are needed, to divert us from all the problems we face but I’ll leave that diversion alone…)
First, the Trump quote:
I want to add context. Trump made his statement on the day on which a blue tsunami took national elections in a stark repudiation of the direction Trump was taking the United States.
Additional context: when Trump took office in 2025 after winning election in 2024, the GOP took control of both chambers of Congress. The Roberts Court already had a right-wing tilt built into it. In essence, conservatives, led by Donald Trump, controlled the Federal government.
Donald Trump won re-election by making many promises, among these, starting no new wars, lowering prices on day one, and ending Russia’s war with Ukraine.
Trump said at his inauguration that he wanted to be remembered as a uniter and a peace president.
Since taking office, he’s broken many promises. While he’s become quite wealthy, many Americans are coping with an affordability crisis. People are struggling with food, housing, insurance, and energy prices, among other things.
Here’s where the sports analogy enters.
First, let’s pretend that Donald Trump is the head coach of a football team.
Trump’s team started aggressively but undisciplined. They stalled their own efforts with penalty after penalty. It was like they didn’t understand the rules and refused to accept the rules.
His team has not scored any touchdowns. They fumbled the ball away multiple times, challenged rulings on the field, and lost, setting them further back.
The offensive side of the ball couldn’t advance the ball down the field, so they kicked it from far away from the goal and scored a few points. The defense is worn down because the offense no longer has anything left.
The other side, meanwhile, has grabbed the momentum. Their defense has been playing strongly, keeping Trump’s offense from advancing, and now the offense has scored multiple times.
And here is Donald Trump, head coach, walking to the locker room at halftime, beyond by over twenty points, saying, “We’ve played the greatest first half in all of football.” It’s a delusional halftime speech from a coach refusing to look at the scoreboard.
As I watch, I think, Trump still refuses to admit how miserable it’s going. He’s going into the locker room and won’t make any adjustments. He’ll just keep trying to do the same miserable, failed plays.
Beautiful day outside. Something in the air. The sky is a fantastic BLUE and the sunshine is sharp and bright.
It’s 49 F degrees outside, rising to 58 F today. We might see 60. Overall, a crispy autumn day.
My sister, Gina, took Mom to vote yesterday as well as taking Mom to her doctor’s appointment. Gina treated us to regular updates about Mom’s awareness of what was going on and what was expected. Gina concluded that Mom needs to be in a nursing home.
The midterm elections were held in the US yesterday. The projected blue tsunami came through even stronger than expected.
I’m sure there are many who think as I do, that the midterm election results are in with good results for We the People but the mango maniac still remains in a seat of power. Trump may be contrite today, blaming others for his mistakes, but Donald Trump will come raging back. Don’t let your guard down.
Your Trump Quote of the Day:
Even after the decisive Democratic victories in the midterms, an election specifically about the success and direction of the nation, Donald Trump refuses to accept the failure of his policies and practices.
With all that bubbling in my thinking, The Neurons pulled up “Right Here, Right Now”. This Jesus Jones song reflected exactly what my main body of thought was reporting. Take a pause, right here, right now, to accept the win because we’ve been waiting for it but now that it’s not over.
Trump has become a bad television show or movie, one you stay with because it becomes so bad, it’s funny.
Unlike those television shows and movies, Trump is a real-life challenge to our norms and acceptable behavior, with far-ranging repercussions emerging from his action.
We rolled into Tuesday, November 3, 2026 — Election Day in the US — with Trump and his policies and administration growing less popular. Donald Trump has fired effort after effort to enhance his standing. He’s offered payments, subsidies, and benefits to offset the impact of starting a war in Iran, driving up prices, and causing death and chaos. He’s even portrayed himself as various respected people like superheroes and saints. Nothing is swaying the voters because the pain from Trump’s failures is cutting too deeply.
As part of Trump’s flailing desperation, he turned again to Iran. New attacks were launched, resulting in greater confusion and tension about what was going on with the war. Donald Trump previously said no attacks on Iran were planned and also mentioned that the war was over or won, that the war wasn’t a war, and that gas prices would quickly come down, soon.
Your Trump Quote of the Day:
Trump was trying to say that the US isn’t at war because there was no shooting going on — never mind the death and destruction already caused by the seven months of war already endured.
Unfortunately for Donald Trump, commander-in-chief, the US announced new military strikes on Iran shortly after Trump’s convoluted weave about what constitutes war. The timing between Trump’s defensive explanation and the new attacks left Trump looking like an a) an idiot, b) a liar, c) out of touch, d) not in charge, or e) all of these things.
Trump already attempted to reduce the impact of voting by mail. Recent elections showed more Democrats than Republicans voting by mail so Trump tried an end run, attempting to slow down the mail. This slowdown affected rural areas more sharply. Rural areas in the US tend to lean heavily Republican, so these postal measures have paradoxically created the highest risk of ballot rejection for the very demographic that Trump historically needs, rural voters.
Trump also attacked voter registration in California and other states, and tried intimidating state voting officials. In parallel, red states attempted to reduce voter participation by onerous voter registration and ID laws, closing voting locations, and prohibiting water in line.
With none of that working, Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! went into action.
Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! is Donald Trump’s recurring project to keep people distracted from what’s going on — especially bad things like a war not going as planned, prices rising across the board, and a rising national debt and a growing deficit. Worse than all of those things for Donald Trump is the specter of the Epstein files and what they tell about Donald Trump, and Trump’s declining popularity.
Under Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL!, Donald Trump has launched a succession of distractions. These include trying to renovate the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, demolishing part of the White House, starting construction of a new, gigantic White House ballroom, festooning the Oval Office with tacky gold decor, paving over the historic Rose Garden, tearing up a golf course, cutting down trees, arbitrarily declaring new names for places, sending ICE into US cities, abducting the sitting president of Venezuela, and of course, attacking boats at sea, killing people, and starting the war with Iran.
Whew! That’s not even a complete list!
The distractions aren’t working. In fact, many of them blew up in Trump’s face, acting as a catalyst to decrease his popularity and approval ratings.
I yawned when I read Trump’s latest desperate distraction.
There are a number of legal, political, and logistical impediments to Trump’s grand declaration. Besides those aspects, I’m dubious of Trump maintaining the focus and political will to do this. I put this alongside of many other Trump announcements, like eliminating the national debt, prices coming down on day one, no new wars, prescription drug prices being cut by hundreds or thousands percent, and stopping the Ukraine War before he even began his second term.
Donald Trump makes many promises. Few promises result in anything close to what he claims. Instead, he’s enriched himself, increased division in the nation, and is inflaming the affordability crisis.
A change is needed. I hope enough people realized this.
Ashland, southern Oregon — Monday, November 11, 2026.
Overcast and wet defines the morning’s view of the sky and land. Still colorful but fading, November is taking over, kicking October’s influences out. It’s 52 F with a chance of 58 F as a high.
My 1440 minutes are consumed with writing and BCG wash number 5. My wife and I were talking about going to a Day of the Dead celebration after my appointment but we both realized how stupid that would be. *smile*
Nothing new from Mom’s negotiations with my sister, Gina. I don’t expect a fast decision. Gina is always suspicious of Mom these days. In Gina’s view, Mom uses pain and problems as tools to manipulate others, so she’s waiting to see how sincere and true Mom’s offer to apologize to Gina’s husbands really is.
I don’t blame Gina at all. I’m extremely leery of Mom’s current entreaties. I want Mom to be happy but I’m not certain she has that capacity any longer.
My wife and I talk about the midterm elections a lot at our house. There is a bit of fatigue in our conversations. The GOP’s television commercials are so friggin’ annoying.
Like Brad Hicks, running for state office. Part of the appeal he makes to voters is that ‘one party shouldn’t be in charge of everything.’
Hello, Brad. You’re a Republican. You do realize that Republicans control Congress and the White House, don’t you? You are, in effect, arguing against voting for Republicans because one party shouldn’t be in charge of everything.
Other than that, and attack, attack, these Trump-supportingcandidates try to appeal for affordability and common sense. They never elaborate on either and don’t address the Trump-sized elephant who is affecting affordability in America.
So we are really, really, REALLY looking forward to Election Day — ESPECIALLY if We the People manage the blue wave so many are predicting.
With those thoughts in mind, The Neurons have placed “Sweet Tuesday Morning” in my morning mental music stream. This is a Badfinger song which came out in 1971. I had the album and listened to the tune often. I don’t think I’ve heard it on the radio in decades, which is a shame. Other than being about Tuesday, though, the song doesn’t have much to do with election day or the stresses, worries, and frustrations it represents.
I hope your 1440 minutes are stress free and relaxed although I suspect many are like me, hopeful but anxious, angry and weary.
