Friday’s Theme Music — Notorious
Ashland, southern Oregon – Friday, October 30, 2026.
Octobers is sliding home. On to November – highly anticipated, fraught with tension and holidays, November. Many think change is needed. Disagreement still fills debate about what change is required.
It was another cold night last night, 34 F. Today is bleakly sunny with faded, slanting sunshine and a high in the low 50s.
My wife and I are going to a movie tonight at the Varsity Theater. “Wicker” is finally out, a movie starring Olivia Colman, Peter Dinklage, and Alexander Skarsgård, my wife has been looking forward to it for months. Based on a short story, the movie is a romantasy comedy about a woman who commissions a basket weaver to make her a man made of wicker.
Mom and I talked on the phone for another 30 minutes today. Her voice doesn’t carry well and her thoughts seem to scatter. She’s free of her UTI for today, and her birthday went well as my other sister, Lisa, visited her. Gina went by today, dropping supplies off for Mom. Gina also will take Mom to her doctor appointment on Tuesday and take Mom to vote. Peace is at hand for a day.
Like many, I’m waiting to see what happens on election day next week. Mail slowdowns have been spotted so people have voted early in reaction. Trump’s Department of Injustice is already attempting to influence and challenge election results in several states. Whispers keep circulating about ICE being deployed to voting locations or other ‘strong man’ intimidation tactics. Trump insists without evidence that it’s needed because others will cheat. Well, we can smell that trumpshit, because we’ve smelled it before.
Trump is notorious for being indifferent to the law – or anything and anyone who isn’t him. When it comes to his welfare, wealth, image, and legacy, he’s very concerned. Not so much when it’s anyone else.
Donald Trump has failed in so many ways. Economy, healthcare, national debt, war, popularity, cell phone, crypto, tariffs, trade agreements. He even failed to win the Nobel Peace Prize and the Pulitzer Prize. He’s only won fake prizes created to appease him.
And his approval and popularity are getting lower and lower, especially compared to former President Obama. President Obama is filling places, getting cheers, and grabbing headlines. He’s very popular. People came away from President Obama’s speeches saying, “President Obama is so smart, and he looks so good. Wasn’t that another great speech?”
Trump is winning empty seats and crickets. He’s very unpopular. People come away from Trump’s erratic rants wondering, “What the hell was he saying? God, he looks so sick and unhealthy. I think he’s going to die soon.”
So, we’ll see what Trump. Tries. Next.
“Notorious” by Duran Duran is today’s theme music. Yes, The Neurons plugged it into the morning mental music stream after I used the word notorious while discussing Trump with my wife this morning.
Although it was released in 1986, the song has some lyrics which fit well with the Trump practice of making and blowing off promises.
Sample Lyrics
Girls will keep the secrets so alone the boys making noise
Fools run rings to break up something they’ll never destroy
Grand notorious slam (bam) and who really gives a damn for a flaky bandit
Don’t ask me to bleed about it I need this blood to survive
You own the money you control the witness I’ll leave you lonely
Don’t monkey with my business you’ve paid the profits to justify your reasons
I’ve heard you promise but I don’t believe it that’s why I done it again
No no notorious, notorious, notorious
I can see references to the Epstein files via ‘girls will keep secrets’ too. Ditto, ‘fools run rings to break something’. Damn, that pretty well summarizes the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025: let’s break everything so white rich people can rule and make more money!
I hope these final days of October of 2026 find you in good health and good spirits. May you keep both through the coming months and many years beyond.
Cheers
Thursday’s Theme Music — Think
Ashland, southern Oregon — Thursday, October 29, 2026.
Another cold autumn night fell over us last night. I awoke this morning to 30 F and frost on the ground. A line of high and thing white clouds stretches over the blue sky. 36 F now, we expect a high of about 52 F today.
Happy birthday to Mom! I called and spoke with her for thirty minutes. She’d just had pizza for lunch as part of her birthday celebration, which the assisted living people did for her. They also presented her with a birthday cake for them to all to enjoy. Yellow cake with thick white frosting with yellow, purple, and pink flowers on it. Sheet cake. Mom was eating it while speaking with me. Our conversation was peppered with, “Oh, this cake is so good.”
My sister, Gina, complained that Mom is losing it because she paid for her rent with old checking account, and if Mom keeps doing that, that account will run out of money.
I resisted responding, yes, as you get older, change is harder to process. It doesn’t necessarily mean Mom is ‘losing it’. But changing habits and routines get more challenging as we age — especially since Mom didn’t participate in making the change. Gina made the change and forced it on Mom.
But I don’t think I would change Gina’s mind with those insights, so I’ll go on.
Mom had some coughing fits while I was talking to her and asked me if I could call her again later. So we agreed that I will call her again tomorrow morning.
Meanwhile, the flowers I ordered her were delivered after our conversation. She should have them by now but hasn’t mentioned it. Maybe she’s saving it for tomorrow. *smile* She does that.
Back to politics. It’s asking a lot for some people, I know, but I hope they go into the 2026 midterms, think, and vote. Hard to do when Republicans are juking and jiving, avoiding giving truthful answers about anything and everything. They try to dismiss inflation by mentioning that it’s not as bad as it was under President Biden, while ignoring the practical ramifications of how much more things cost now. And the Iran war? Why, that’s necessary to save us, using the same kind of trumped up *sorry, not sorry* excuses used to invade Iraq.
So I hope people think and vote blue. Hope they realize that Donald Trump lies and breaks promises. Hope they think and understand that Donald Trump can’t be trusted. Hope people think and see that Donald Trump’s policies are not making America great in any sense of what that means.
I know I’m 1) a broken record about this (ha, ha, hope you’re old enough to understand the reference) and 2) that there’s a solid wall of Republicans who say, “Never Democrat”. 3) There’s also a group of voters out there who remain ignorant, some deliberately so, and 4) some MAGAts love the way Trump is tearing down the nation because of their framework, emotions, self-pity, or whatever.
So here is Aretha Frankling with “Think!” A rousing song, it’s one of The Neurons’ favorite songs and often haunts the morning mental music stream.
Sample Lyrics
People walk around everyday
Playin’ games and takin’ scores
Tryin’ to make other people lose their mind
Well, be careful you don’t lose yours
Ooh think (think)
Think about what you’re tryin’ to do to me
Woo-hoo, think (think)
Let your mind go, let yourself be free
I love this scene in the movie. Makes me grin and laugh every time. Hope you enjoy it as well.
Cheers
Trump World Truths
I Found a new time suck.
Yes, that’s what my life was missing because I have all the time in the world and absolutely nothing to do.
This particular suck is all about the elections. The UF Election Lab maintained by Dr. MacDonald, offers interesting data on the 2026 midterm election cycles. Like any good time suck, it offers the kind of information that always has me questing across the net, looking for validation. Trust but verify.
But wait, there’s more!
The next site is called MAGA Report Cards. And holy cow, it’s a magnificent time suck for a good cause. It’s such a great collection of information about GOP candidates. What’s best about it, though, is how it connects the dots between who they were before and who they claim to be now.
For instance, on here, you can look up Republican’s positions on Medicaid cuts. You know that Republicans claim they’re against Medicare cuts, right? Or so they claim.
MAGA Report Cards responds with the receipts:
Republicans Cut Medicaid by Nearly $1 Trillion. They Scheduled the Pain for After You Vote.
This isn’t news for most of us who have been paying attention. But it’s helpful as a refresher, especially if you need to repudiate some MAGA fact denier.
MAGA fact deniers are amazing, terrifying critters. My wife was listening to a video of one yesterday. A reporter was asking a MAGAt woman what she thought of the Ukraine War and Trump’s failure to end it as he promised he would. This woman responded, well, that’s fake news.
There is no Ukraine war.
Like, whhhhaaaatttt?
No, according to this MAGAt, all that you see on the news about the Ukraine War is made up. Fake.
And that’s where technology fails us. At a time like this, I had a desperate urge to go through the computer screen and ask this woman, “If the Ukraine War is fake news, why is Donald Trump talking about it? Why did he make that promise in the first place, you fucking moron?”
Alas, technology hasn’t advanced that far yet.
Your Trump Quote of the Day, for the record:
I came across the MAGA Report Card when I looked up Christine Drazan’s record. Christine Drazan is a *cough* Republican running to be Oregon’s governor. Oregon is where I now reside and vote.
Voting by mail has been Oregon’s standard since 1998. Works great from my POV. I moved here in 2005 and have always voted by mail as an Oregon resident. I liked it because as a military member for twenty years, stationed around the world, voting by mail was often the only way to go.
Christine Drazen claimed that she fully supports voting by mail and blah blah blah.
That’s not what I remember of Christine Drazen’s previous position. She’s been in the Oregon legislature for a while. A search for her position on voting by mail took to MAGA Report Card.
MAGA Report Card handed me the receipts.
Christine Drazan Wrote the Bill to End Oregon’s Vote-by-Mail. She Describes It Very Differently.
Sites like MAGA Report Cards are so important in this digital age. The party of Trump follows their leader’s course. Donald Trump charts paths of lying, cheating, denying, and pretending.
MAGA Report Cards helps us stayed moored in facts, truth, and history.
Change is needed.
Vote blue in 2026.
Wednesday’s Theme Music – Wrap it up
Ashland, southern Oregon — Wednesday, October 28, 2026.
Awoke to 30 degrees at my house and very clear skies. Gorgeous moon last night lit up the valley. Peaceful, but cold. We’re creeping past 48 F, leaning toward something in the mid 50s as a high. The sun shines but our planet’s journey mitigates its effects. Angles, distance, all that.
Mom is scuffling with Gina again. Mom ends up texting and calling Gina’s daughter, complaining about Gina and begging the daughter to pick her up and take her shopping. Mom won’t ask the assisted living facility staff for help because Mom thinks they’re too dumb to help her. So it goes.
Got my diet requirements for the week of my colonoscopy and polypectomy. The diet is to be started three days before surgery. No caffeine. Like, gasp! The horrors!
White bread and no fiber. Nothing with seeds. No nuts. But I can eat all the meat I want. Geez. But don’t drink or eat anything red! That’s repeated multiple times. Then, only clear fluids the day before.
My wife seized on it. She loves a good eating challenge. She quickly started mapping out meals for me.
Meanwhile, though, we’ve joined a soup organization. SoupDivas make a soup every week, then send out an email announcing the choice. After that, it’s first come, first served, $17 a quart. Once you’re on the list, pick up is Wednesday. I duly picked up this week’s quart, Quixote Lemon Lentil. Looking forward to a nice hot soup on a chilly autumn day.
I was reading about the increasing odds of a ‘blue tsunami’ in the 2026 midterms. I remain anxious, hopeful, and leery, which sounds like some new variation on the seven dwarfs.
Part of me though, thinks, wrap it up, I’ll take it! Which triggered The Neurons. They put “Wrap it Up” in my morning mental music stream. I had the cover done by the Fabulous Thunderbirds in mind. But when I drifted through the net in search of a video offering, I came across Bonnie Raitt and friends performing it on “Austin City Limits”. The friends include Brittany Howard, Gary Clark Jr., and Jimmie Vaughan playing and singing, a good group of friends for this Sam and Dave classic.
Yes, I’ll take a blue tsunami. Wrap it up!
Simultaneously, if a blue tsunami takes over, I expect Trump’s rage to break the rage meter. He’ll dial up the chaos and hate, screaming and crying about fraud and stolen elections. I also expect him to turn on the Republicans who lose, blasting them for not being as good as him, which is how Trump sees it. Donald Trump works hard to pretend he’s great and all powerful, and not a miserable cheating creep. Taking a loss that repudiates him will spin him like tornado. Expect an F5.
I hope the best kind of day for you today. May it feel your needs and help with your wishes.
Cheers
