Category: Thinking, thinking

Tuesday’s Theme Music — Money for Nothing

Ashland, southern Oregon — Tuesday, July 7, 2026.

We’re expecting another warm one, low 90s, with dry air. It’s 73 now. Not getting very cool at night, and doesn’t stay cool long. But these are not bad conditions. Fingers crossed that thunderstorms don’t move in and start fires.

We received bad news yesterday. Feeling ill, my brother-in-law drove himself to the hospital. Bottom line, they admitted it because his enzymes were high and he seemed to be about to have a heart attack. He’s going through a catherization as we speak. I don’t know what was blocked or any percentages involved. I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up with a stent or two. He’s a great guy, a few years younger than me, and deeply loves my sister. Hoping for the best for him.

Stories are circulating that Mitch McConnell is brain dead. His office is saying otherwise. His wife, Elaine Cho (edit – not Margaret, lol), went to China, which is totally and completely rational. Many people who rush out of the country when their partner is seriously ill.

Circumstantial evidence that McConnell isn’t doing well is rising. Social media accounts being deactivated. No one going in and out of their home. His office and staff aren’t returning calls.

The US is out of the World Cup. As I’m not a fan, I shrugged. Belgium eliminated the US and then mocked Trump in their victory by using his dance. Feels a bit like karma.

As part of the celebration of our freedom, democracy, and independence, a bunch of masked white supremacists marched around D.C. Nothing like old-fashioned racism and hatred to celebrate!

Realizing instantly that it’s bad optics, folks like Laura Ingraham immediately tried to pretend it was ‘Antifa’ faking everyone out. But at least one of the took their mask away and revealed the truth.

Sitting around a short time ago, I was on Bing and typed in, “How are food prices”. Bing responded with a list of facts about what’s going on with food prices in India.

I was like, India? Okay, I feel for them but why am I getting food prices for India? Wasn’t planning to shop there anytime soon. I asked Bing, “Why am I getting food prices for India?”

It responded with a laborious explanation about India exporting rice, and how that can affect prices. I replied, “But it didn’t tell me how prices are in the US.” It then told me how I can check prices in my area.

That just triggered my WTF meter to new levels. Being older than a teenager and a regular shopper, I already have a pretty good damn idea about how to find the prices in my area. I’m not impressed with Bing’s AI and search engine.

Today’s music is “Money for Nothing” by Dire Straits. The Neurons put it into the morning mental music stream as I was thinking about Trump. He’s made two billion dollars in his first year of his second term, basically by being there. And the nation picks up his golfing fees. So it’s all money for nothing and his golf for free for him.

In true Trump fashion, he made out but others riding his wave went under. His other businesses, Trump Phone and Trump shoes, are doing as well as Trump Steaks (2007), Trump University (2005-2010), and Trump Air (1989-1992). Even hawked by Lee Greenwood, Trump Bibles aren’t selling great, probably because of their impressive markup.

Trump Presidency (2025 to now) is making Trump much more money. That’s why he’s trying to game the mid-terms. Trump has never had a business that has done this well, making money for nothing.

As the song says, “That’s the way you do it. Let me tell you, them guys ain’t dumb. Maybe get a blister on your little finger. Maybe getting a blister on your thumb.”

Trump has perfected the art of getting money for nothing.

I hope you stay safe and healthy, wherever you are. Have the best day possible.

Cheers

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The Naha Dream

Another dream from last night found my wife and I arriving on an island – not deserted but civilized, part of a nation.

We were younger, in our thirties. Don’t know why we were there, but we were returning.

After disembarking from a red and white ferry, we found our car, got in, and began driving home. Leaving the port parking area, we were behind a small, old, Army-green bus. I knew that the driver – a man about my age – had been on the same boat as me, along with a group of quiet, sullen children.

Both of us drove over and parked at a little office to get cleared to go. I arrived there, went in, got my paper and got clearance.

Back in my car with my wife, we prepared to go on. Watching that slow-moving old green bus, I said, “Oh, no, don’t get in front of us.”

He did, pulling slowly onto the narrow, paved road. The road had a few potholes and high berms where the shoulders had crumbled and the dirt washed away. The green bus belched dark smoke.

I figured I was in for a long, slow trip behind that bus. My wife and I talked about the bus. But the bus pulled over to the right. Getting out of the bus, the driver waved us down.

He asked, “Do you know how to get to Naha?”

“Naha?” My wife and I were surprised, taken aback.

He continued on his own, explaining, “I’m going to go fishing there.”

I thought, fishing at Naha? “Yes,” my wife and I answered, talking at the same time. I took the lead. “Keep going on this road. There’s a intersection where you go right. There’s a brown sign that says ‘Naha’ on.”

“Is it a big sign?” he asked.

I laughed. “No, it’s one of those little military signs.” He looked military so I guessed he would understand that. “It’s brown but it’s by itself. You won’t miss it.”

He walked away and my wife and I drove on. “Fishing at Naha?” we said back and forth, wondering, is he taking the children to go fishing at Naha? We could think of better places to go but that was his business.

Dream end

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Cat Video

I saw this video on Youtube. This cat is wandering his routes. He talks to himself a lot, it seems. It also seems like he’s looking for someone or something in particular from the way he arrives at places and then says something. Like others, I thought he hurried a little when the police car cruised by and shifted closer to his left.

I like the video because Papi sometimes wanders and I worry, where’s he going, what’s he doing? Also, it’s funny to me that this cat is ‘chatty’. I’ve had several chatty cats in my life. Papi is not one of them. He’s more likely to just give a nod when you ask him something.

Hope you enjoy this as much as I did. Cheers

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Monday’s Theme Music —

Monday, July 6, 2026 — Ashland, southern Oregon.

Summer remains in full effect here. While it’s a pleasant, blue-sky 70 now, we expect 94 F to arrive before the sun curves out of sight.

Papi says, that’s okay. Let’s get something to eat, clean up, and take a nap.

With little surprise and total arrogance, Trump insisted on a huge fireworks display for the 4th. Per nature’s rules, that caused pollution which resulted in unhealthy air for We the People living and visiting there. The situation was made worse by the extreme heat the area is experiencing. Saturday’s temperature reached 103 degrees F that day. The extreme heat caused the pollution to linger.

I have “Cinnamon Girl” stuck in my morning mental music stream. It’s dream related. I had three dreams last night and one involved a woman with cinnamon-colored skin. With my wife, she and I were taken aback by the woman’s beautiful skin. She was petite, barely more than a girl. We saw her three times in the dream but never spoke with her. Instead, we would be walking through the throngs, look up and say, “Look, there’s the cinnamon girl.”

So, here is the song by Neil Young and Crazy Horse.

May happiness and joy fill your Monday and carry you into a brighter, better future.

Cheers

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Crime & Plumbing Dream

The dream found me at home – not my real-life place – with my wife. I awoke to discover that she had hired people to fix the plumbing. Thick, dark dust filled the air from the work. Three men were going all through the house, looking at the pipes and changing things.

I was floored that my wife had apparently decided to do that without consulting me. “First that I’ve heard about it,” I huffed before going off.

Coming back later, the men were in another part of the house. The three were all older, with short hair, white skin, and wore coveralls. Weirdly, usually they stayed clustering, staring at the pipes and talking about what they were going to do.

I came across my wife in another room. Wrench in hand, she was working herself on plumbing in a bathtub. I was like, “What the hell?”

I noticed that she was working on the faucet and spigots but she was on the side of the tub and had the floor torn up; but the tub still had its faucet and spigots attached on the end. I wondered, is she putting in new ones on the side to make it easier for her? Or putting in a new tub? I didn’t.

Going outside, I saw that she had people working in the garden and was building something new out there. That worried me. I knew that she had evidence of crimes committed buried there. (I was thinking that it was a murder but I didn’t seem sure.) I went back and told her that I didn’t think that was a smart decision but she was busy with the pipes and didn’t respond.

Returning outside, I saw a large rock being moved; I knew that was crucial evidence. With a sigh, I also saw that a police detective I’d seen earlier was watching and saw the rock. A little later, the police began digging up the area.

I thought, my wife is going to be going away, because her DNA is all over that. That disappointed and saddened me but I also thought, I should be okay because my DNA won’t be there.

Dream end

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Sunday’s Wandering Thoughts

I did my ‘first of the month’ chores the other day. These include pouring things down into the bathtub to keep the sewer lines cleared, and running cleaners through the washing machine, dishwasher, and garbage disposal. We hunt for organic, safe things to do this with. I do them every month on the first day to keep it all working well.

That’s the dream, anyway.

All transpired as planned with everything except the washing machine. It stopped, showing an error message.

My wife pointed it out to me by asking, “What’s this mean?”

“What?”

“The washing machine isn’t doing anything. It shows ‘rL’ where it usually shows the time.”

I looked. Not because I didn’t believe her. It’s just habit: see for myself. Helps me shift into ‘maybe I can fix it’ mode.

She was right about what it said. The time is always in green. These letters were in red.

“That’s not good,” I wisely noted.

We pulled out the manual and found the error message. It’s specifically for the cleaning cycle and means, ‘something is in the washer’. Nothing is supposed to be in the washer during this process. The only thing in it is the tablet purchased for the purpose.

My wife and I talked about it. “This is what we used before,” we agreed. “It was never upset before.”

Shrugging, I took the standard modern technology route: turn it off, turn it back on.

And it worked.

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Sunday’s Theme Music — the Craziest Thing

Ashland, southern Oregon — Sunday, July 5, 206.

It’s another hot summer day. Clouds are in the air and the temperature will be about 90 degrees, not nearly as life-threatening as so many others are enduring around the world.

We attended the Independence Day parade in Ashland yesterday. Very tepid. Low turnout to watch, low enthusiasm for the people marching by, dull interest in the music. The ‘flyby’ came about ten minutes after the parade ended.

It could all be me and my friends, of course, but I walked around to hear what others were saying. One young man pushing a stroller, a woman and another child with him, were all dressed in the national colors. “That wasn’t much,” he was saying, walking away. “Where should we go?

Trump broke more promises yesterday, of course. He said he was going to speak no matter what the weather, but then waited until it was cool, much later. That’s TACO for you. He also said he was going to speak for a very long time but spoke only 40 minutes. More TACO.

Your Trump Quote of the Day:

Trump was said to be talking about the crowd at the July 4th celebration. He thinks that crowd is “the craziest thing anyone’s ever seen.”

No, Trump, the craziest thing ever seen remains how much you lie and steal, and yet people keep saying how wonderful and great you are. That’s the craziest thing anyone’s ever seen in the last fifty years.

Trump promised a ‘golden age’ during his speech. I’ll tuck that promise in with these previous Trump promises:

We’ve seen the outcomes of these Trump promises. Trump has attacked several countries. He went to war with Iran. Inflation is still up and affordability is a hot issue for many people. Trump was frequently golfing during the war with Iran. Medicare has been cut. A new healthcare plan never emerged. Trump is still building the border wall; Mexico isn’t paying for it.

With MAGA’s unquenched love for Trump going strong, The Neurons unspooled “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” by Queen in the morning mental music stream.

I’ve read essays during the last few weeks about how Republicans have weaponized words like patriotism, woke, freedom, God, and religion. They essentially coopted and twisted these words and their meanings in the finest “1984” fashion. So while I use ‘love’ as a descriptor for what MAGAts hold for Trump, I’m not certain that it’s love in the sense that the rest of us employ it. If it is, it’s love in the sense of too many tortured relationships, where one is the abuser and the other is abused, yet the abused cannot quit the relationship. I know that I’m thinking of it from my side of the perspective, and not the abused MAGA position.

But how else can I think of it? Trump continually lies to them. He makes and breaks promises, just as it’s seen in many abusive relationships. Yet, they can’t quit him; they love him. They love him even though he made two billion dollars and did little to improve their lives, even as they struggle more and more with worsening conditions and deteriorating affordability.

So here we go: theme music for the MAGAts and Trump.

Hope your day brings you the best life you can live. May peace and grace smooth your way and take you on to better things.

Cheers

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