Category: writing

Trump Caught Lying Again

Trump was caught lying again.

It was one of his classic whoppers about stolen elections. He focused on one of his favorite hate targets — yes, the ‘unifier’ has many hate targets, doesn’t he? — California, and the mayor’s race in Los Angeles.

“Very few people voted. They had more votes cast than they had people. So the people came in, but the ballots were far more than the people.”

“They had more votes cast than they had people. Okay? How about that one? By a lot.”

No; they didn’t.

Trump didn’t provide any evidence because Trump was making it up. Lying. Fact checkers confirm that no, the number of votes was not more than the city’s population.

Trump just lies. He keeps the stolen election lies going because he’s suffering failure after failure, disaster after disaster. Energy prices aren’t coming down. Affordability isn’t improving, and it’s Trump’s economy — although he wants to blame anyone else for it. Everyone is not getting ‘richer’. The Iran War isn’t over, and Iran is fighting back. In fact, the war is enlarging.

Trump orders fresh attack against Iran as war enters sixth month

Trump has still kept the Epstein files back. Still golfs. Still building the ridiculous, ugly White House ballroom. Still charging the taxpayers for it after he said they wouldn’t.

Lie after lie after lie. Broken promise after broken promise. Failure after failure.

Like the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

Trump grandstanded about how he was finally fixing it, clapping himself on the back about doing something that no one’s ever done before.

Within weeks, it was a mess. Spinning, trying to blame others, Trump launched new lies about sabotage and vandals.

Now the DOJ has dropped the case.

Justice Dept. admits Reflecting Pool renovation was ‘hasty and botched,‘ drops case against former Olympian

Labirinto Pisani said it well in comments on the story:

“Only a month ago, FOX News had Leavitt, Pirro, Burgum, and Watters all solemnly insisting the Reflecting Pool vandalism was real, while Trump’s slapstick imitation of “slashing the pool” played like a lost Marx Brothers reel. MAGA loyalists, predictably, swallowed every frame. Reality, as usual, declined to participate.“

Failures like this — and the news coverage of it — is why Trump so desperately keeps churning out the same baseless fantasies about stolen elections, now trying to drum up fears about communism. He’s trying to distract everyone from how badly he’s doing. Keep us divided. Unsure.

Trump is instilling chaos. Then he can declare an emergency. Assume sweeping powers. Vacate elections.

No; the Constitution doesn’t give him these powers. Trump is taking them.

And MAGA and the GOP say, yep; go for it, Trump. Because that’s their twisted vision of how the government should work.

We thought that the American ideals are justice, freedom, and democracy. We thought we understood that we are all better if we stand united.

Turns out, that’s not what they think.

I’m so disappointed in them.

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Saturday’s Theme Music — The End

Ashland, southern Oregon.

Saturday, August 1, 2026. Happy Lammas Day!

It’s 71 F in our valley at the moment. Light, high white clouds. We expect a high in the upper 80s.

A new heat dome is moving into the region. But the jet stream shifted a few years ago. Now we’re often protected from those heat domes. It can change again at any moment, so I’ll take it for now and celebrate the small win.

It’s a new month but much hasn’t changed.

Eight-five fires are burning in Oregon.

They still haven’t closed on Mom’s house. She is aware that it’s being sold, though, asking me for updates every day.

Trump is still lying. Still squirming, trying to distract us from his failures.

The Epstein files haven’t been released. Trump’s war with Iran is still going on. Affordability remains a crisis. Healthcare costs are going up.

Like many people, I’m waiting for other things. Like the old story: waiting for the other shoe to drop.

So, it’s a new month, but the same mode of waiting.

Without much surprise, The Neurons caught onto my thinking. My Neurons can be slow and flaky, easily distracted by games and cats, but like a car, they can get fired up and pointed in the right direction once in a while.

Today’s song in the morning mental music stream is “Waiting for the End”. This is a Linkin Park song. Came out in 2010. I caught it on SNL and went looking for it to hear it again.

Sample Lyrics:

Waiting for the end to come
Wishing I had strength to stand
This is not what I had planned
It’s out of my control

Yeah, yeah
What was left when that fire was gone?
I thought it felt right, but that right was wrong
All caught up in the eye of the storm
And trying to figure out what it’s like moving on
And I don’t even know what kind of things I’ve said
My mouth kept moving, and my mind went dead
So, I’m picking up the pieces now, where to begin?
The hardest part of ending is starting again

The song is about hope, paralysis, and frustration, IMO. Feels right for today. Here we are, waiting for the end, trying to figure out how we define the end.

I hope you have a strong day, whatever one it is, whatever your season, a day that comes with lasting peace and grace.

Cheers

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Friday’s Theme Music — Seeing Truth

Ashland, southern Oregon — Friday, July 31, 2026.

July is dawdling to a close. Hotter today; but 74 degrees F now, a high of 96 F is expected. Then it will cool back down tomorrow.

Concerns for days like this is that the dry land, already very hot, cranks up the winds, and thunderstorms develop, lashing us with lightning. We’ve been fortunate so far this year.

Not so with much of Oregon. The state is on track for the worst season ever as 34 major fires burn. As an Oregon rancher affected notes, this ends up affecting everything. With the grasslands burned, they’ll need to buy expensive hay to feed their cattle.

With gas and diesel prices up, thanks to Trump’s Iran war and refineries threatened by high heat, expect grocery store prices to rise more. Beef, lettuce, and tomatoes are expected to surge by over 10% this year.

Trump doesn’t help the situation. Instead of providing funding and help to fight the fires, he worsens the situation by playing political games. Between that, DOGE cuts, and a poorly thought out reorganization, Trump has reduced the nation’s ability to effectively fight these fires.

Hackers are apparently going after our water infrastructure. Minnesota reported attacks earlier in the week. Since then, the FBI confirmed that seven US states have seen such attacks and warn of more.

Naturally — because that’s who he is — Trump denied that Iran could be involved and instead blamed Democrats. This goes against the FBI, security, and intelligence assessments.

But that’s Trump, exposing both his ignorance and his pettiness in one clumsy display.

Your Trump Quote of the Day:

Trump declared himself the ‘peace’ and ‘unity’ president when he took office in January of 2024.

“My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier. That’s what I want to be: a peacemaker and a unifier.”

Of course, Trump also claimed in that same speech, “Next, I will direct all members of my cabinet to marshal the vast powers at their disposal to defeat what was record inflation, and rapidly bring down costs and prices. The inflation crisis was caused by massive overspending and escalating energy prices, and that is why today I will also declare a national energy emergency. We will drill, baby, drill.”

All of us then scoffed because we knew from history that he’s only about enriching himself.

Everything since then has validated that truth and that he will break every promise, from being a peacemaker to lowering prices. Our national oil reserves are now at the lowest level in 43 years. Maybe Trump will try to make them the lowest in 47 years; that’s the sort of egotist he is.

But MAGA believes, yes, Trump is a unifier. Yes, he’s bringing peace by being strong. Perhaps they’ll see the truth…someday. I’ve become doubtful. There is no FAFO for many of them.

As for Trump’s legacy, it will be one of lies, corruption and destruction, not unity and peace.

That takes me to today’s music: “Gimme Some Truth”. John Lennon released the song in 1971. I ended up with a Pearl Jam live version from a few years later in my morning mental music stream. I can’t explain it.

Lennon’s lyrics fit this Trump era:

I’m sick and tired of hearin’ things
From uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocritics
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth

I’ve had enough of readin’ things
By neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth

Over fifty years later, we’re still hearing from uptight short-sided, narrow-minded hypocrites, led now by Trump.

Hope the day speaks to you in positive ways.

Cheers

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The Aircraft Learning Dream

I was traveling again, a younger person but adult. With many others, all strangers. Most of them were traveling in groups.

I was traveling light, with just a few things. It was cold, kind of dark, as we headed from one classroom to our next one: a jet aircraft.

The jet was spacious and well-lit, with many halls, classrooms, and lounging areas. People rushed around, hurrying to get to preferred spots. As the jet took off, I wandered around, looking for a place to sit. As I did, I would think, oh, no, I forgot something – book – which was green — phone, laptop. But then an insight would come: no, I didn’t bring it, or no, there it is, over there.

Almost all the other travelers were females. They seemed younger than me. Classes and their locations were announced. I tried to get there but found I was too late: the class was always full.

Meanwhile, people left things on their seats to save them, so I couldn’t use their seats while they were in class.

Becoming very dejected, I passed a man in the hall who asked, “Do you need a seat?”

“I do,” I replied.

“Come on,” he said with a gesture, turning away. “I can find something for you on the flight deck.”

We got up there. He explained to the crew up there what was going on. Another crew member said, “We have no problem with letting him sit up here but we just gave the seats away to others, right before you arrived.”

They all apologized and I headed away, looking to see, do I have my phone? My green book? Laptop? As I confirmed, yes, I had those things, they announced the flight was due to land soon.

Dream end.

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Thursday’s Theme Music — Distractions

Ashland, southern Oregon — Thursday, July 30, 2026.

Clouds and sunshine is mixing it up in our valley. 75 F at this point, the high is expected to top off in the upper 80s today.

The air remains clear of wildfire smoke, as well, knock on wood. A little rain would be welcomed.

Trump continues to slog through a summer of bad news. More light came to be shed about Trump’s reasons for attacking on Iran, I think.

US economy slowed more than expected as the Iran war took hold

The United States economy slowed more than expected as an inflation surge took hold over the early months of the Iran war, a government report on Thursday showed.

The economy grew at an annualized rate of 1.5% over three months ending in June, marking a slight slowdown from 2.1% growth recorded in the previous quarter. The figure came in lower than economists’ expected.

Still, the latest data outperformed 0.5% annualized gross domestic product (GDP) recorded over final three months of 2025.

The period covered by the data release followed a historic global oil shock set off by the Middle East conflict.

Trump’s war with Iran makes more sense to me now. Trump attacked Iran because the economy was weak. He needed a distraction, cover for why inflation was not going down. Besides that, the Epstein files are still out there, waiting to be released. Also, polls were showing that Trump and his policies were becoming more and more unpopular, a trend that’s still going.

Trump’s approval rating plummets near George W. Bush levels – Daily Kos

Of course, Trump ignorantly thought the war with Iran would be a cakewalk. Instead, whoa, half a year has gone by.

Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! is another Epic Trump Failure.

On top of these things, Trump has been trying to drum up fears about election being stolen! Election fraud! Oh, no, commies are coming!

States are pushing back.

Florida ‘has not been hacked’: Trump election claim crumbles as states start to speak up

Facts, truth, history: these are anathema to Trump, who much prefers ignorance, lies, wealth, and idolization.

Your Trump Quote of the Day:

Trump loves tough talking. Especially when he’s sending others in to face danger, and it is others who are being killed.

Today’s theme music emerged from the headlines.

Noah Kahan rips White House, Trump for using hit song in video of prez touring GM plant

I wasn’t familiar with the song. Once I heard it, it struck me as a really weird song choice for visiting a factory. But that aligns with Trump and his Trumpions’ thinking. “American Cars” is the song title, and that’s all they needed.

I was pleased that Noah Kahan pushed back against Trump’s use of the song.

“Kahan wrote Tuesday, according to Variety, “Would never approve of my music being used in support of you or this administration.””

His writing partner, Noah Levine, was more to the point: “You fat f–k, this song isn’t for you.”

Love you, Noah Levine!

Hope your day is wealthy with friendship, good health, and good times.

Cheers

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The Wake Up Ping

WARNING: It’s ‘nother first world blues rant.

I don’t usually keep my phone near me when I’m in bed. Had a lifetime in the military, along with my time in marketing. People always wanted me immediately available.

Well, no longer! It’s one of the declarations of independence I made when I retired from all that work stuff. The phone stays in the other room.

Except, yesterday, it didn’t. I wasn’t feeling well. My car was in the shop for routine maintenance. I was waiting for them to call or text to tell me it was ready. So I had the phone on my nightstand.

They called about four-ish, asking if they could keep it overnight. No, nothing major found; they were just short-handed and overscheduled.

Shrugging it off, I agreed, sure. “Call me in the morning when it’s ready.”

I went back to sleep, off and on, and forgot about the phone.

Until six AM this morning.

The phone pinged with a message. In irritation, I thought, sisters. That was more a matter of my mood than anything. My sisters have habits of getting up early and sending texts early. They’re on the east coast of the US, so they’re three hours ahead of me. Texts that they’re sending at 8 AM are pinging on my phone at 5 AM.

But it wasn’t my sisters.

Nor was it the car repair shop.

No, it was Google Health, formerly known as Fitbit.

Google Health pinged me awake at 6 AM to tell me that I didn’t have a good night of sleep.

Sure; that made total freaking sense.

As Mom often grumbles, “Those so and so’s.”

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