A Trump Threefer
We were the beneficiaries of a Trump threefer in yesterday’s news spillage.
A twofer is when you get two for one; with a threefer, well, you can do the math.
Donald Trump is known for telling lies. It’s been hugely documented. This week alone brought evidence of lying a few more times.
‘Like he’s just lying’: Trump supporters in deep-red state have regrets
Trump claims South Korea will invest $50B in Alaska gas pipeline. Not so fast, Korean officials say
He’s also known for trying to bribe people to curry favor. That’s also historically demonstrated.
Finally, Donald Trump is a master of distraction. His attempts to change the narrative via have been ongoing but largely unsuccessful, thanks to modern technology. To Donald Trump’s surprise, modern technology is able to show videos and transcripts with the exact words, date, time, and context when he blustered or lied. I like to file these attempts under the umbrella, Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL!
As a sign of how desperate Donald Trump is, he gave us three for one yesterday — a lie, a bribe, and a distraction.
For background, the 2026 midterms are coming up in the United States. Democrats are expected to win, largely based on people disapproving of the job Donald Trump is doing and the direction the nation is going.
Donald Trump is desperately aware that’s he doing terrible. Claiming that he’s doing great, Trump grows angry and throws tantrums whenever someone asks about one of the many things not going well. That would include releasing the Epstein files, rising gas and food prices that Trump hasn’t been able to lower, the war in Iran Trump started, the many lies he’s been caught making, and his disastrous attempts to fix the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
The other things going terribly under Donald Trump was his attempt to add his name to the Kennedy Center, rising measles outbreaks and measles deaths in the United States, and the surging federal debt.
Besides those things, the other things going poorly for Donald Trump is the growing backlash to AI/data center backlash, multiple court rulings against his plans and tariffs, reported munitions shortages due to Trump’s Iran war, the debacle with the USS Abraham Lincoln, and his poorly attended midterm convention, Trumpapalooza.
Additionally, the things going bad for Donald Trump include anemic job growth, especially when compared to the success which Presidents Biden and Obama had with job growth. Donald Trump is increasingly shown injured, sleeping during meetings, or confused about what’s going on, a bad, bad image for Trump after he pummeled President Biden for being old and sleepy.
Aware of these things, Donald Trump presented his threefer.
Trump promises ‘nearly $100’ to 20M seniors in latest cash giveaway
Yes, another cash giveaway, or shall we call it a bribe?
Donald Trump promised cash giveways before.
- DOGE Dividend (Early 2025): Trump and Elon Musk floated sending 20% of federal budget cuts from the Department of Government Efficiency back to taxpayers as a $5,000 dividend. Never happened.
- Tariff Refund (Late 2025): Donald Trump proposed using incoming import tax revenue to fund direct payments or $2,000 checks for the public. Never happened.
- Repeated Tariff Dividend (2026): Trump again promoted sending cash directly to Americans using projected tariff revenues ahead of formal policy announcements. Never happened.
- The “Trump Dividend” (September 2026): Trump officially unveiled a $5,000 cash payment for adult citizens, conditioned on Republicans maintaining control of Congress in the midterms. Hasn’t happened, and has gained a lot of negative press.
Trump’s announcement about this $100 senior giveaway is another obvious bribe and distraction. But he also lied when he made the announcement. That gives us the threefer!
Donald Trump said the giveaway would, “…help pay for their Medicare Part B premiums, which we have already reduced by significant amounts.”
And there’s the lie. Trump Medicare Part B premiums have not been reduced. They’ve gone up, up, up. Anyone paying Part B premiums know this. And it’s easily verifiable by using a search engine on the Internet.
As an aside, that $100 would pay less than half of one month’s Part B premiums.
And BTW, Donald Trump said ‘he’ would be sending ‘nearly $100’ but the White House Fact Sheet puts it at $90.
Donald Trump had Trump lied again.
Those who still believe Trump after this threefer remain the hateful, the ignorant, or the ones who just don’t care about what Donald Trump is doing to this nation.
I guess they share the same values as him.
Friday’s Theme Music — Gigantic
Ashland, southern Oregon — October 2, 2026.
It’s a summery fall day with a spring feel in our area. A thin, waning moon hides behind a screen of nebulous clouds in a bright blue sky. Sunshine splashes off the autumn foliage with eye-watering vividness. We’re at 68 F, on our way to 85.
October always means birthdays in my family. Too many of the people we’d fete have gone through the secret door. But I set up reminders to buy cards during the digital dawn. The reminders come up, reminding me that I need to take them down.
It amuses me that the reminders have survived a succession of computers, laptops, and software updates, yet my regular processes are often maligned or broken. As Laura put it in a comment on my current WordPress issues, “In order to serve us better… (worst phrase in the English language!) …”
Yes, when they tell us, they’re often putting icing on a turd.
No, my WordPress tags do not work today. Hearing that Laura was also a comfort in the ‘it’s-not-just-me’ sense.
As I went through the news headline progressions today, I thought, what a gigantic friggin’ mess the world is becoming. I modified my appraisal a few times. The world has always been a gigantic mess. Usually, though, if we found out we were making the world worse, we would try to fix things. With Donald Trump on the scene, our government actively works to make the gigantic mess an even larger mess.
Which led to my conclusion, Donald Trump is a gigantic jackass.
This headline helped cement that conclusion:
Third aircraft carrier and thousands of troops head to Mideast as Trump weighs new Iran strikes
Most striking here are, well, so many thoughts. Like, it’s Trump weighing new strikes. Said he was a peacemaker. Unifier. Said the war was over. Said it wouldn’t last more than a few weeks. Yes, that Trump.
SMFH
Verifying Trump remains a gigantic liar and ignorant buffoon, I read the story following this headline:
When Trump boasts about donating his presidential salary, be sure to read the fine print
- Trump inflates is salary from $400K to $550K.
- Trump is not the first or only to donate is salary.
- All of this is easily found and verified via the Internet so, WTF is he making these claims?
- Donald Trump is a gigantic jackass.
Which brings us to Your Trump Quote of the Day:
It’s another Trump broken promise, as Trump reported making over $1B while being in office in 2025. That doesn’t include his golf and travel scams.
That brings me to a song by The Pixies, “Gigantic”. The Neurons plugged the song into my morning mental music stream but the song doesn’t really fit. It only connects with my thinking via that one word, gigantic.
Sample Lyrics
[Chorus: Kim Deal & Frank Black]
Gigantic, gigantic, gigantic
A big, big love
Gigantic, gigantic, gigantic
A big, big love
[Verse 2: Kim Deal]
Lovely legs, they’re a…
What a big black mess, what a hunk of love
He’d walk her every day into a shady place
He’s like the dark, but I’d want him
Nevertheless, I like the song — especially Kim’s voice.
May your day be full of gigantic good news and good times
Cheers
The Funny Donald Trump
I had to laugh when I read the complaint.
Here’s the headline that drew me in:
Trump blew his top during his Time interview with a furious curse-filled tirade
Donald Trump blowing his top during an interview is nothing new. Donald Trump ‘blowing his top’ about anything isn’t new, as he seems like a perpetually angry person, swearing, lunging at people, turning red and scowling.
Reading the article, what made Donald Trump angry was that Trump didn’t think he was being asked enough positive questions about all the positive things Trump has done.
Like what?
Eradicating measles? Oh, no, that’s worse under Trump.
Reduce personal bankruptcies, released the Epstein files, apologize for all the things he’s done to others, apologize for his grift, lower prices, better healthcare, cheaper insurance, a better education system, a lower national debt, higher respect among other nations?
No, no, no, no, no, no.
Here’s an excerpt from Tom Boggioni’s article:
After being asked about the status of former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the president lost his cool.
“Have you seen the videos of Mitch McConnell back in the Senate? Do you think he should resign because of his health condition?” he was asked.
“It was a disappointment to a lot of Republicans,” Trump began before switching gears and going back to a previous question about handing out pardons.
“So that’s just—well, Sleepy Joe gave pardons to everybody. He gave them to Fauci. He gave them to this. But you mean I’m not allowed to give them, but Sleepy Joe’s allowed to give them?” he argued. “This ain’t gonna be much of a story.”
“Here we are doing this. You haven’t asked me one f—— positive question. All of this. What about this? What about that? What about that? What about this? All negative,” he continued.
“Why are you devoting all this time to the White House? You know how I do, I do that out of my back pocket. I pay for a lot of it, but I fix it because the White House should look like that,” he complained. “It shouldn’t look like—if you would have stood in that balcony and looked at that wall, half the wall was falling. It’s actually dangerous. People are walking under, crap was falling off it all the time. Every time it rained, it was leaking, horrible. Now it’s perfect, and I would say that I should be given credit for fixing the White House because I’m also doing very well with the war.”
I was laughing at this point, because Trump thinks the war he started with Iran is going very well. That’s the war that Trump claimed to have won, the one that was supposed to have been over weeks after it started, which was months ago, the war that’s disrupting the global supply chain, driving up energy costs, and making affordability a major issue for millions of Americans.
This would also be the war with Iran which Trump insists is not a war. *cough cough*
But here is the clincher, the Trump statement that had me rocking with incredulous laughter:
“I’m doing very well with another war that we already won, Venezuela. Do you notice you haven’t asked me a question about Venezuela?”
WTAF?
Trump, who promised to start no new wars, has now admitted to starting two — if you can call a military operation on another nation to abduct its sitting president a ‘war’.
Donald Trump is one warped individual, demanding credit for his lawlessness and failures.
Please, Vote Blue in 2026.
The Festival Dream
Young again, as it often happens in my dreams, my wife and I were at a three-day festival. We knew a few people there casually, but most were strangers. We were making acquaintances, though.
I’m not sure what the festival was about. It was partly outside and inside, on different levels, but was very easy to get around. Some areas were set up with drinks and other areas had food, dancing, and demonstrations.
After wandering around some, my wife and I went to explore different things. I ended up in the company of a young charismatic man with thick, dark curly hair. He was the de facto leader of a social group there and invited me to be part of that group. I had a lot of fun with them.
Then there was a quiet time for resting. He invited me to find them the next day. I ended up borrowing his car. First, it was a silver blue. Then, it was red. Both times, it was a small car, convertible and sporty but nothing familiar. Yet, with the second car, I thought that I remembered them. Very red and small, it still seated four. I recalled that a panel could be put over the rear seats to give the car a racier look, but that could be removed for seating, which I thought was clever.
I drove the car a bit but had trouble parking it. Misjudging an angle when I turned into the garage, I had to wait until people walked around the back of the car before I could reverse, widen my approach, and park in the space.
After that, I began to drift through the festival, eyes open for my wife or my new friends. I ran into my wife. We talked for a moment but she went on.
The festival was thinning out. A woman who had been with my wife approached me as I looked at a menu board. She asked if I wanted something. Her way of talking confused me and I politely declined and walked away. She re-approached with a large bag of potato chips. Giving them to me, she lectured me a little, telling me that I should accept offers when they’re given. Then she finished, “We Americans need to stick together and help each other.”
She seemed to indicate that we were the only Americans at the festival. Her remark confused me. I came across my wife again and offered her some chips. She declined and went off again. I gave the chips to someone else and went to watch a demonstration of fire department teams showing their skills doing different things.
One woman led a team. She was very impressive with how she went about rolling hoses, wielding axes, and other things. Growing drowsy, I laid down to watch her from a platform. Others were there. I could hear them talking about the same woman who impressed me. After a bit, one of the other people jostled me. Faking indignation, I turned around and demanded to know who was disturbing my sleep.
I was surprised. It was my sister. She was her ‘real age’, that is the age she is now. Her youngest son, also in his current age, was with her, along with a few other people who I didn’t know.
I was now my real age. Telling them, “I’ll see you later,” I decided it was time to leave the festival and went off into a large warehouse lit with yellow lights to find my wife. Behind me, I heard my nephew say, “That’s how he is. Watch, he won’t be back.”
Dream end.
Two Dreams
I remember two dreams from last night but only snippets from a third. Here’s what I recall about the two.
First, there was a writing dream. A young man again, I was in my early twenties.
I love how my dreams often make me younger. *smile*
I was sitting with my wife at a low, light gray counter. She was on my right. To my left was a young girl, white with long brown hair. I think she was about 12. Nobody I knew.
In front of me on the counter was a yellow legal pad. A male voice outside of my dream frame was suggesting that I write a book about writing fiction.
I was laughing and denigrating the idea. “I’ve had a couple short stories published, and I self-published a few books,” I rebutted. “That’s not really a good position as someone giving writing advice.”
But as I was talking, I was scribbling ideas on the yellow pad. Using a red pen, I wrote down four columns.
My wife said, “I think you should.”
And the out of dream voice said, “The girl will type it up for you.”
And the girl was saying, “I’m bored. Is there anything for me to type?”
That all made me laugh harder. On the yellow pad, I jotted down ideas in the four columns as I laughed.
Dream end
The Race Dream
I was in some coastal area with my wife and some friends. (The friends weren’t anyone from real life.)
A storm was coming in from the ocean, building up. The winds were growing higher, and the surf was rising and becoming more violent.
But a race was being held in the water. I don’t know what distance was involved but people could parasail, surf, bicycle, swim, or run to win. The race would go along the coastline.
I had a friend there with a saddled brown horse (with a black mane and tail) and several young children. The friend BTW looked like a young Viggo Mortensen. The children were begging him to enter the race. He was uncertain but they talked him into it. So he climbed into the saddle. After pulling the two children up onto the saddle with him, he urged the horse forward to join the race.
I watched, amused and also wondering, “Is that safe?” I saw that the surf was much worse than I thought it was. I was considering how he would do this, envisioning the horse galloping sometimes through waves breaking on the shore, but mostly urging the horse along on the firm, wet sound just above the water line.
I heard people mocking my friend, “Oh, look, here’s another one who doesn’t know how to surf.”
The starting gun went off and the race began. I watched as the racers went south, through the crashing waves, as sunlight broke through thinning gray storm clouds.
Knowing the race would be away, I went to the house where we were staying. This was actually a large, lovely terra cotta mansion. I was standing out there, having drinks with friends and my wife. It was a small group. Two of the friends were from my childhood, and two were adult friends.
One childhood friend asked, “Why did they call you the professor when you were young.”
I laughed it off. “Probably because I read a lot and had to wear glasses.”
My wife said, “No, it was because you were smart.”
My other childhood friend said it was because I always got good grades.
As we were talking, I noticed a blonde teenage girl standing off to one side, listening. I realized that she was going to back and tell her friends about this conversation.
Turning, and shifting angles, I found a view of the ocean. The race was still going on. I saw about forty competitors and thought I spotted my friend on horseback but wasn’t sure.
Dream end
Wednesday’s Theme Music — Right Now
Ashland, southern Oregon. Wednesday, September 30, 2026.
Gonna be a warm autumn day here — 85 F at its hottest — with springlike ambiance among the fall foliage.
Had one of those sighing but I must laugh moments today. Reading politics (of course, sigh). And about a Trump administration announcement by the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth.
Hegseth was announcing Project Meridian. Looking to the United States’ future needs, Hegseth is tapping Trump’s favored billionaire — Elon Musk — along with Newt Gingrich, an 83-year-old politician, and Palmer Luckey, a weapons manufacturer.
Yeah, that sounds like an effective group. *eye roll* Perfect for looking forward to protect America’s future.
As Newt Gingrich once said, “You can’t trust anybody with power.” I certainly don’t Hegseth and this triumvirate, or Donald Trump.
Then, oh Lordy, we had the spectacle of a GOP senator attempting to trap Jack Smith in his testimony, only for Missouri Senator Eric Schmitt to reveal himself as a buffoon. It’s another one of those situations which would be funny — certainly worth of a Saturday Night Live skit — except this is a US senator, an elected official who is supposed to be capable of deciding our nation’s laws and solving its problems, which makes this painfully, painfully sad.
Both of these stories echo with the stupidity of Pizzagate and other QAnon insanity.
Then there’s a ‘this-is-so-expected’ headline about Meta using AI to cheat on its Federal taxes.
How Meta Uses A.I. Data Centers to Avoid Billions in Federal Taxes
That about seems up my morning view of things. It ended up leaving me thinking, right now, I could use some good news, and moved on to other needs.
Hearing that, though, The Neurons introduced the Van Halen song, “Right Now” to my morning mental music stream. It’s a good song to carry me through the day, strong sound, solid vocals. Hope you find something in it.
May some good news find you right now and carry you forward on its shoulders for a couple days at least.
Cheers
Thanks for the Broken Promises, Donald Trump
Today ends the ninth month of 2026.
Just a little month than a month and a few days remain until the November midterm elections. It’s a good time to reflect on what Donald Trump promised and what Donald Trump delivered.
Back in 2024, Donald Trump promised no new wars. At the end of Feb, just seven months ago, Trump started a new war with Iran. Donald Trump has since claimed we won the war or that it’s over or that it’s almost over over 30 times.
How can anyone still believe anything Donald Trump says about the war with Iran after that?
Donald Trump’s story about his relationship with Epstein and the Epstein files shifts just as much.
From that quote, Trump drifting into telling us that he barely knew Epstein.
““Well, I knew him like everybody in Palm Beach knew him. I mean, people in Palm Beach knew him. He was a fixture in Palm Beach,” Trump said in 2019 soon after Epstein was charged. “I had a falling out with him a long time ago. I don’t think I’ve spoken to him for 15 years. I wasn’t a fan.”
When asked in 2024 while he was running for office, Donald Trump said that he would release the Epstein files if elected. Almost two years into his second term, they still haven’t been fully released, and Trump’s DOJ continues to avoid doing so, despite a law saying he would.
While campaigning in 2024, Donald Trump assured voters he would lower prices, vilifying President Biden’s economy as he did.
Now AAA national average for a gallon of regular gasoline is $4.43. By comparison, the national average in September 2024 hovered between $3.06 and $3.24, meaning drivers are paying roughly $1.20 to $1.37 more per gallon today than they did two years ago.
Many food prices are higher this year than they were in 2024, especially beef, coffee, chicken, and fruit and vegetables.
Thanks, Donald Trump, for breaking all of these promises and assurances.
Thanks to Donald Trump’s arrogance, Americans can no longer see the White House’s East Wing. Donald Trump demolished it to build a new ballroom. Donald Trump claimed that balloom would cost Americans nothing because donors were paying for it all. Now Trump insists that the ballroom is being build for ‘national security’.
We the People will pay about $1B for a project we didn’t ask for and Congress never approved.
It’s like renting your house to someone. While they’re living there, they tear down part of it because they’re living there, so they assume they have the right to change it as they want.
These things are not even the top of the mountain, and Trump has brought a mountain of disaster to the United States and the world. Today’s headlines will help keep us focused on what a disaster Trump is in his second term of office.
The Government Rolled Back Fuel Economy Standards. Here’s How Many Lives It Will Cost
Only Trump Would Spell United States Wrong in an Executive Order
Donald Trump embarrassed as NFL ratings claim is contradicted
Trump Used to Be Good at Attacking the Press. Things Have Changed.
From the horse’s mouth: Trump’s comment on his presidency becomes accidental self-own
That last headline leads us to your Trump Quote of the Day:
Renaming AI to something else is Donald Trump’s latest effort in the Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! playbook. As with many other things, Donald Trump, arrogant and ignorant, thinks that just because he thinks of something and says it aloud, it’s so.
Desperate to make something out of nothing because 2026 has been such a horrible year for Donald Trump, he tried to make it look like he was being praised for being great.
Instead, he stupidly confessed that he’s doing a shitty job.
Couldn’t have said it better, Donald Trump.
Couldn’t have said it better.
