Category: politics

Saturda’s Theme Music

Good morning from Ashlandia, where the temperature has jumped 49 F. Thickened clouds lurk with dark intentions, prepared to unleash rain faster than can say “It’s Biden’s fault!” The clouds are forcing the sunshine to circumnavigate the clouds, so the sunshine is low energy and uncertain as Trump’s logic. Today’s high will be 59 F, or a little higher than Trump’s IQ. Or so I read on the net. So you know it must be true.

There’s not much change on Mom and Dad. Dad is going home with his wife. Mom is at home with her boyfriend. Mom’s pain is increasing. The source is sciatica. They gave her a steroid shot at the hospital the other day; that ended the pain. Now it’s wearing off and, as these things work, her pain is returning. I’ve not heard about what’s happening with the hospitalized uncle, Dad’s brother. Then there is also the case of the missing cousin. 72 years old, I’ve never met him but he reached out to me via Facebook. See, he met my sisters years ago, after I’d left home when I was fifteen. They kept in touch. A few years ago, he noticed me commenting on their posts and asked for clarification about who I was. See, Facebook does serve some good. Now, though, he’s dropped off of Facebook. Another cousin noticed first and asked if I knew what happened to him. Nope; I contacted his half-sister (same father, different mother). She had no idea what happened to him. So I’ve reached out to his children (who I’ve never met). I’m awaiting a response. He was hospitalized for heart issues last year, and we’re worried.

Today’s music came out of dreamland. I had an interesting, unresolved and frustrating dream. As I contemplated it while doing morning business, The Neurons introduced “Sunny Came Home”, a 1997 Shawn Colvin song that had a lot of radio play. I was puzzled about why The Neurons picked that song (but then again, The Neurons usually puzzle me by what they’re doing). Yet, as I reflected on the dream, some sort of parallels between the song and my dreeam were revealed. To me, the song is about a woman struggling to make sense of things who then becomes an arsonist to ‘solve her problems’. My dream was a reflection of my struggle to make sense of things, politically and personally. The Neurons agree that this makes sense. Who knows if it’s right?

I’m drinking hot coffee again, to which I raise my hands to the heavens and give thanks for small favors. Ready to rock another Saturday. I hope good things happen for you today. Cheers

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Frida’s Wandering Political Thoughts

So many of the headlines I read today make me pause and ask, “Yes, and?”

These rural Californians voted for Trump. Now the land they love is in danger. This is solid Fuck Around and Find Out Material. Trump wanted to sell Federally owned lands during his infamous rule as 45. Saner heads prevailed back then. Now the saner heads have left his flock. Trump and the GOTP are pursuing the sale of Federally owned lands. “Oh, no!” Trump voters cry, wringing their hands. “We’ll stop him.” How? By not voting for him any longer? Dumbasses.

Study: In States with Lax Gun Laws, More Children Are Killed by Guns From Diane Ravitch’s blog. She begins, “Guns are the leading cause of death among children. A new study concludes that states that have eliminated gun restrictions have higher death rates among children than states that have retained restrictions. The National Rifle Association, which opposes any restrictions on access to guns, dissented.“

No shit! The NRA dissented! The New York Times reported on the study. Naturally, the red states will continue to ignore facts and studies like these, because, well, that’s who they firmly are. Then they’ll blame blue states for increased violence and death. SMFH.

First measles case confirmed in Utah amid national outbreaks  “The Utah diagnosis comes amid a national spike in measles cases reported in at least 36 states, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As of Thursday, there were 1,214 confirmed cases across the country and 23 outbreaks reported in 2025.”

36 out of 50 states report measles: 72%. And we’re still in the first year of PINO TACO’s Regime of Ignorance & Misinformation. Wait until the Musk DOGE cuts are fully felt.

Why are so many children getting long COVID? Newsweek reports, “It’s been more than five years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, although millions of Americans, including children, are still affected by it today.

“More than one million Americans died due to the virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), while many were floored by the infection for weeks or even months.”

Well, going out on a limb, I think it might have to do with anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers. I think they’re being encouraged by PINO TACO and his worm-eaten Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Only fools are surprised by any of these trend. But then, as the news continually demonstrate, the United States has become number one in raising fools.

And too many of them are now running the government.

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Frida’s Theme Music

It’s supposed to be the first day of summer in Ashlandia: Frida, June 20, 2025. But it’s fifty and has a certain autumn flavor to the air. Sun and blue sky have surrendered to charcoal clouds. Rain veils aren’t there but an atmosphere of impending rain lurks. Today’s high will only be 61.

The cat is not happy. Prancing out for sunshine, he stops and looks around. “Right,” I say. “Where’s the sun?” The cat doesn’t say anything. He’s not much for conversing. “Want to come back in?” I ask. The cat’s gaze at me is rich with skepticism and disappointment. “I can’t control the sun,” I say. “I’m going back in.” I go in and close the door. A few minutes later, I check on the cat. He’s sulking. I open the door. He hurries in. “I agree,” I say. He meows for food and is given a third breakfast to make up for the sunless suffering he endured.

My mouth is healing. This is Post Op Day 2. Teeth are missing from the upper right and left sides. I’m not allowed hot stuff yet. I make oat oatmeal and let it cool, doing the same with my black coffee. I inhale the coffee’s aroma, comforting myself that I can soon gulp down a tepid splash. I make my warm water with salt and swish, rinse, and spit, as required, marking it off my mental checklist, along with two Ibuprofen and my Amoxicillin. I have pain killers but I don’t use them. Just give me some coffee, damn it.

My wife is leaving for the gym. “Do you want me to pick you up anything?” she asks.

“Sunshine,” I sniff.

“I mean food.”

“No.”

I sit and eat my chilled oatmeal and smell my coffee.

I check my phone for texts. Nothing from Dad’s side in Texas nor Mom’s side in Pittsburgh, PA. Guess both of their issues are temporarily abated.

Today’s music is “How Does It Feel” by London Grammar. The Neurons turned it loose in the morning mental music stream after my wife asked how my mouth felt. “Fine,” I answer, feeling grumbly.

The coffee is cool enough to drink. The sky has gotten darker. It’s almost time for my chlorhexidine gluconate oral rinse. I raise my cup and look out the window. “To summer.”

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Thursda’s Theme Music

Clouds are climbing over the mountains and shouldering the blue sky and sunshine out of the valley. It’s Thursda, June 19, 2025. Today will tap out in the low to mid 70s after breaking down to the low fifties, all Fahrenheit, in the night. Rain might be coming tomorrow, along with lower temperatures.

We’re watching a fire to our west. In the Upper Applegate/Ruch area, it’s already eaten over 350 acres. Firefighters are working it; the cooler temperatures are helping. Some smoke is slipping our way, taxing our air quality.

News about Mom is not readily available. When we last left her story, she’d been taken to the hospital where, at a few minutes after midnight, they weren’t sure they were keeping her or discharging her. She was constipated and in intense pain. They don’t know what’s causing the pain.

Today’s music is by the O’Jays. “Love Train” is part of the Philly sound. Coming out in 1972, many call it early disco but I book it as R&B. Whatever genre you label it, the song was part of a more optimistic period, when we were saying, hey, peace and brotherhood are good things and they are possible. It’s possible for us all to live side by side and not just survive but thrive. Some, though, fell behind while others were thriving. Contemptuous neer’ do wells use the gap to wedge people further apart and pour hate in. Whatever someone hates or doesn’t like, they find someone on ‘the other side’ to hate for it. The Neurons hooked it when a snatch of song was heard which may have been “Love Train”. So here we are.

It’s a short entry. I’m off for oral surgery now. Coffee, food, and any fluids are currently off limits. See you on the rebound. Cheers

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Wenzda’s Wandering Political Thoughts

Just putting this out here so we can judge Trump’s failures by his own words:

Unlike Trump, President Obama left office with an agreement with Iran in place. Trump removed the US from that agreement, calling it a bad day. And now, here we sit.

BTW, the United States never attacked Iran militarily during President Obama’s term of office. So, wrong again, TACO.

Wrong, again.

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Wenzda’s Theme Music

It’s another golden morning of cool night air. Wenzda, June 18, 2025, has us at 60 F. Sunshine is expected to lift us up to 83 F. These days of mild warmth and cool nights reminds me of living in Mountain View, CA, while we were stationed at Onizuka Air Base in California in the early 1990s. Starting in May, this would be our weather until fall began descending into winter and the rains started slashing us. It is not bad at all, though.

Just gotta ask people a few questions. Anyone remember when Trump said, “In a golden age of America, the entire planet will be more peaceful and prosperous as a result.” Yes, that’s right, it was on his inauguration day in January of this year. 2025.

He also claimed in that speech, “In the United States of America, as we gather today, our government confronts a crisis of trust.” Then he unleashed Elon Reeve Musk and DOGE and gutted the government’s services and cut payments to people who trusted the government to pay them as it said it would.

In that speech, Trump also said, “For American citizens, January 20, 2025, is Liberation Day. It is my hope that our recent presidential election will be remembered as the greatest and most consequential election in the history of our country — as our victory showed, the entire nation is rapidly unifying behind our agenda, with dramatic increases in support from virtually every element of our society: young and old, men and women, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, urban, suburban, rural, and, very importantly, we had a powerful win in all seven swing states and the popular vote, we won by millions…”

‘The entire nation is rapidly unifying behind our agenda…’ Yes, that explains why so many Americans were out there protesting him and his policies on No Kings Day, June 14, 2025, right? That explains why he’s minus ten in approval ratings in polls, right? Only in Donald World is the nation more unified now than it was last year.

Trump is such a liar. He’s full of bullshit. He’s incompetent, and for Trump 2.0, he’s installed incompetent loyalists.

When will this peace he promised the entire world begin? Well, you know Trump; based on his record of lies and promises, it’ll come at about the same time as the terrific, great healthcare plan which he never revealed. The one he promised almost ten years ago.

Today’s music is “Emotional Rescue” by the Rolling Stones. I admit, the song has grown on me through the years. Still not real fond of Mick Jagger’s falsetto. But I like the 1980 song’s funkiness. None of this explains why The Neurons selected it for the morning mental music stream. The Neurons work in mysterious ways.

Well, rock on. Brace yourself for more shitty news from PINO TACO. And hang on. Looks like it’s gonna be a bumpy fucking ride.

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Twosda’s Theme Music

Welcome, welcome to Twosda, June 17, 2025. We’re continuing a nice weather balance in Ashlandia, dropping into the fifties at night, sunny & cloudy during the day, high of 84 F. No one has been heard complaining.

Although I slept well, I had a night rich with dreams. Papi has refined a way of awakening me which can only be called a bark. I don’t know where this cat learned his bark. I guess he went out and hung around with some dogs, heard them barking, and then imitated them. It’s effective — for him. I wish he’d go back to purrs and nuzzles.

My wife’s ‘movie group’ is meeting today. One of them began hosting about a dozen of her exercise class comrades to watch and discuss movies. Today, they’re watching the 1990 flick, Truly, Madly, Deeply, in which the late Alan Rickman plays a ghost, and Juliet Stevenson is his widow. What surprised me was how many of the rest professed to be unaware of the film. My wife and I both enjoyed it on its theater run and have seen it again since. She is a big fan of it and suggested the film. I’m interested in learning whether others remember the film when they see it again.

Dad’s surgery went well. He told me that his kidney was stented; his wife said, no, he had a nephrostomy tube and drainage bag installed. Come on, give him a break; he’s 92. When I speak to him and ask him for details such as, “Where did they put the stent,” he replies, “Hell, I don’t know. Ask Maxine. She takes notes.” Maxine is his wife (#3, and the longest tenured wife by far).

There’s something wrong with Trump. We have many ideas about what it is. Now we have Catheter Gate & Bag Gate. This is based on Trump’s leaning forward walk, like something is irritating his ass, and photos which seem to show a catheter installed in his johnson area. Since he’s our elected official, don’t we have a right to know? To employ the voice used when Republicans are demanding answers from Democrats, WHAT ARE THEY HIDING FROM US? IS TRUMP DYING? Well, of course he’s dying — just ask Sen. Joni Ernst. But is he dying so fast that he’s failing to do us job? Is he a liability? We the People demand to know the truth about what’s protruding in those photos. Snopes claims they investigated and Trump isn’t wearing a catheter but the Trump Regime may have gotten to them. We want answers and we won’t accept anything reasonable until Trump takes off his pants on national TV and shows us that he’s not wearing a catheter, bag, or diaper. Even then, we probably won’t accept it because that could be Trump clone or a Trumpbot, or AI creating a wholly fake television event.

Trump fled the G7 conference in Canada. He claimed it was because of Mid East tensions but many believe he was just Taco Always Chickening Out again. In this case, the meeting was structured, they weren’t deferring to him, and he wasn’t getting the attention he wanted and kept being quoted saying stupid things, so he fled. That’s so TACO!

Today’s music is “Tough Guy”. It’s a 1980 Reo Speedwagon song. Don’t know why The Neurons plugged it into the morning mental music stream. I was just reading the news online about Trump fleeing the G7 when that song kicked off in the stream.

Coffee has snuggled into my system again. You all have a good one. Here we go, one more time. Cheers

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Munda’s Theme Music

Munda broke upon us like a soulless morning, 50 F and cloud. Sunshine that seemed hungover peeped in on us. Blue skies sluggishly swept in since and the temperatures drew up into the upper sixties, delivering a cool summerish morning on June 16, 2025.

The 2025 No Kings protests heartened me. So did the poor turnout for the DC parade. I believe mango TACO will respond first by lying. Second, brooding, sulking, and blaming the media and Dems. Third, by lashing out. And fourth, by being a bully. He’ll want to do something to restore his self esteem and regain the respect and admiration which he thinks he deserves. No, he doesn’t deserve it; he’s earned none of that. But he’ll decide he’ll need to be decisive, tough, and forceful. Which direction will he flash? What tools will he use? How long until it comes. Hopefully, it won’t be too over-the-top as in “Let’s attack another country.” But only Trump has the controls on the TACO Express and the track is rickety and unsteady.

While reading news and speculating, I’m wondering, with others, what’s with the KC135/KC46 tanker force deployment? 32 headed to the European theater Sunday night. It’s a suspiciously large number and Defense and the Air Force are being mum about it. Could be part of an exercise but the military PR machine usually likes highlighting those activities in a sort of ‘look at us! look what we can do!’ way.

Today’s music is a cover of “People Get Ready” written by the late, wonderful Curtis Mayfield. Here are some Wikipedia details about the song.

“People Get Ready” is a 1965 single by the Impressions, and the title track from the People Get Ready album. The single is the group’s best-known hit, reaching number three on the Billboard R&B chart and number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100. The gospel-influenced track was a Curtis Mayfield composition that displayed the growing sense of social and political awareness in his writing.

The gospel-influenced track was written and composed by Curtis Mayfield, who was displaying a growing sense of social and political awareness in his writing. Mayfield said,

“That was taken from my church or from the upbringing of messages from the church. Like there’s no hiding place and get on board, and images of that sort. I must have been in a very deep mood of that type of religious inspiration when I wrote that song.“

The single reached number 3 on the Billboard R&B Chart and number 14 on the Billboard Pop Chart.

Rolling Stone magazine named “People Get Ready” the 24th greatest song of all time and also placed it at number 20 on their list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks. The song was included in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. The song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998, and selected as one of the ten best songs of all time by a panel of 20 songwriters, including Paul McCartney, Brian Wilson, Hal David, for Britain’s Mojo music magazine in 2000.[7]

Today’s cover is by a collection of senior rock stars.

Coffee is being sucked up like a hungry V8 swallowing gasoline. Hope you have a better one. Cheers

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