Tag: Algaegate

Tuesday’s Theme Music – Money

Ashland, southern Oregon. Tuesday, August 11, 2026.

We continue slowly cooling in our area. 78 F, 92 F is the expected high. But we never saw the forecast high yesterday, coming up a few degrees short. I was alright with that. Smoke has been absent from the sky, too, knock on wood, despite so many fires plaguing Oregon and the United States in general — indeed, the world. The world’s oceans had their highest recorded temperature in July.

My sisters and I entered an extended text session a few days ago. Continued into today. All about the family. Turns out we aren’t “Parks” except in name. Mom’s maiden name is Parks. Her father was Parks. But his father was Slacks. So we’re Slacks. After Alfred Parks died, Mom’s grandmother married Slack and had our great-grandfather. She then divorced Slack and resumed life as Parks, re-naming her two children from Slack as Parks. Family legend from another part of the family claim that Alfred Slack’s side was shady, which might explain things.

It’s probably just me, but Trump’s Patriot Games seem to be going on with little notice. I think he imagined something grand but as usual with Trump efforts, the execution was shoddy. Besides having to move it from D.C. to Ohio, because of competing events — which Trump ordered — participants weren’t selected for their athletic prowess from great competitions. Most of them turned out to be white, which isn’t a surprise to me. Some represented states they weren’t from — which, yes, also aligns with classic Trump sloppiness.

Athletes attending Patriot Games reveal how it devolved into MAGA madness

The games themselves are a very strange choice, it seems like:

Qualifying rounds, along with kickball and dodgeball, took place on Sunday. On Monday, male and female competitors participated in a “varsity circuit” that strung together many sports: athletes had to throw footballs at targets, catch tennis balls out of the air, kick a soccer ball at a target, spike volleyballs over a net, hit wiffle balls with a bat, and sprint around a baseball diamond. Also on Monday, athletes competed in “operation endurance,” in which they had to maneuver through an obstacle course that involved army crawling, climbing nets, lifting heavy tires, monkey bars, and balance beams.

Let’s just call it what it is, more distraction from what a crappy job Trump is doing, more Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIREEL!, just like the Epstein ballroom, the war on Iran, the threats about Greenland, the attack on Venezuela, the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, the pathetic arch, calling Democrats ‘dumocrats, renaming buildings and airports after him, TrumpRx, Freedom Fuel, Trump’s denunciation of President Biden’s economy — which is way better than the Trump economy, America’s state fair, the blustering about commies stealing the election — hell, all the election fraud crap Trump spouts all the damn time — and other things, like Haitians eating pets. Lies, corruption, and distractions: that’s Trump.

While we have real problems in the US and around the world, Trump attacks imaginary problems, trying to magnifiy their impact, trying to scare people. Meanwhile, our real problems worsen.

I checked this morning and the measles outbreaks are still breaking out. We’re already into new modern records. Texas and South Carolina are the nation’s hot spots, with significant outbreaks taking place in Texas, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.

I have “For the Love Of Money” by the O’Jays playing in the morning mental music stream. Song came out in 1973 and was a top 10 hit for in the US. I’m thinking about it today because of how it’s screwing up existence. Capitalism, right? And dark money, which has assumed such a dominant role in modern US politics. Then there are the wealthy oligarchs and billionaires, hunting more for themselves to the detriment of everyone and everything else.

Then there’s the top of the greed pyramid, Donald Trump. Greed and money drives Trump — along with his fantasies about how wonderful and brilliant he thinks he is, ignoring all evidence and facts that consistently confirm, is actually pretty damn inept. He’s an excellent liar and con, and that’s about it.

Sample Lyrics

(For the love of money) people will steal from their mother
(For the love of money) people will rob their own brother
(For the love of money) people can’t even walk the streets
Because they never know who in the world they’re gonna beat
For that mean, oh mean, mean green

Almighty dollar, that money

(For the love of money) people will lie, Lord, they will cheat
(For the love of money) people don’t care who they hurt or beat
(For the love of money) a woman will sell her precious body
For a small piece of paper, it carries a lot of weight
For that mean, mean, mean, mean, mean green
Almighty dollar, talkin’ about, talkin’ about

I know that money is the root of all evil
Do funny things to some people
Give me a nickel, brother, can you spare a dime?
Money can drive some people out of their mind
(For the love of money) no good, no good, no good
(For the love of money) don’t sell your soul for the money, no, no
(For the love of money) lay down, lay down, women will

Money is the root of all evil
Do funny things to some people
Give me a nickel, brother, can you spare a dime?
Money can drive some people out of their minds

Hope your day brings you safety, peace, and security, along with good things to eat and drink. May you live long and prosper, as others used to say.

Cheers

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Monday’s Theme Music – Cracking Up

Ashland, southern Oregon. Monday, August 10, 2026.

Our August cooling trend continues. Today we’ll see low 90s with blue skies and sunshine in our valley. Last night saw the temperature fall to 58 F in our area. I had to go around closing windows to keep the house from getting too cold. Poor us, right?

Mom and Gina, my sister and Mom’s Power of Attorney, continue their cold war. I don’t think peace will come again, a change from how I was viewing it. Something about the conflict has triggered both, hardening their attitudes. Each instantly react angrily. Invectives and accusations fly.

Got Food & Friends deliveries today, along with a medical appointment this afternoon, so it’s another brief post. Somehow, most of my reading ended up being about Trump and the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. The story reminds us that Trump first claimed how resilient the fix he installed was.

“In May, for example, Trump said the lining was “so strong, so powerful” that it couldn’t be cut with a knife. He even drove his motorcade across it while it was being installed to inspect the work.”

Then, somehow, a vandal or group with knives managed to cut and tear that ‘so strong, so powerful’ lining.

Next, Trump was making claims about the evidence of this vandalism:

“We have photographs, or tapes,” he said, making a circular gesture with his hands. After a pause, he pointed to the cameras recording him and added: “Like moving cameras, right?”

Except, oh no, after Jeanine Pirro announced that they were dropping prosecution of the one vandal they’d arrested, Trump now claims there is no evidence:

“There was substantial other damage to the Reflecting Pool, also but, unfortunately, there is no video or proof, other than the damage, itself,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday. 

Anyone following the story knows the truth and has seen the evidence: the one who screwed up the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is Trump. And the one lying about it is also Trump.

The thing is, too, as it’s been often noted, the cover up is frequently worse than the crime. If Trump had just let it go, admitted he made a mistake, or anything like that, it would have already disappeared as a story. Instead, Trump dug in, refuse the facts and the truth, and made it worse.

But that’s Trump: lying, then lying about his lies, digging deeper and deeper holes. Did it with the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool; tariffs and the economy; the Epstein files; and the war he began with Iran.

A little over a year ago, I used the song “Basket Case” by Green Day as the day’s theme music. Trump has just attacked Iran for the first time. At that time, I wondered if June 21, 2025 and the attacks on that day would go down as the day that World War III quietly began?

Trump declared that mission enormously successful.

Trump says US ‘completely and totally obliterated’ nuclear facilities in Iran

Three days later, he walked back those claims. February of this year, he attacked Iran again. And the war has been going ever since, off and on, widening and creating death and destruction. Time and again, Trump gives different reasons for that war, not calling it a war to avoid being held in check, and has claimed different levels of results and success.

And that is why “Basket Case” is playing in the morning mental music stream today — again.

Sample Lyrics:

Do you have the time to listen to me whine?
About nothing and everything, all at once
I am one of those melodramatic fools
Neurotic to the bone, no doubt about it

Sometimes I give myself the creeps
Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me
It all keeps adding up
I think I’m cracking up
Am I just paranoid or am I just stoned?

Papi has settled in for the day. He’s ready for a day of relaxation. Hope you are, too.

Cheers

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Saturday’s Theme Music — Games

Ashland, southern Oregon. Saturday, August 8, 2026.

Cooler today. Although now 74 F, it will get only to 96 today. Officially, I think we hit 99 yesterday. My house saw 102 again.

There’s another fire burning. This one is to our northeast. Already at 19,000 acres with no containment, we’ve added it to our fire watch.

Trump urged his Attorney General to open prosecutions of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool again. Given the plethora of bad news for Trump this week, I’m not surprised.

That’s part of Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! When things get bad, Trump tries to change the topic. Bad economic news came out. Trump would normally bluster about bombing Iran again. Can’t: low munitions, so they’re supposed to be ‘negotiating’.

Fallback number two would be to talk about how great everything is. But with prices still up and affordability still in crisis mode, he’s probably been advised to not talk about that.

Trump’s other topics would be calling climate change a hoax but with so many fires burning in the United States, he’s been silent about them — after stupidly threatening to impose tariffs on Canada because their wildfire smoke was bothering the US. While the US has ‘only’ burned over 6 million acres compared to 9 million in Canada, the United States’s fires outnumber Canadian fires 45,000 to 3,900.

Trump sure as hell can’t talk about Epstein…especially after a Federal court ruled that tearing down part of the White House to build a new ballroom was outside of Trump’s authority. That sent Trump off on an angry frenzy; since Trump lives there, he thinks he can do what he wants to it and fails completely to understand that the White House belongs to We the People. He’s just an occupant, and many of us are ready to kick him out.

With celebration of the nation’s 250 Anniversary going poorly so far, Trump is staying pretty mum about the Patriot Games which are starting this week. They had to move them from D.C. to Ohio. This is a classic Trump thing: the Freedom 250 Indycar race is coming up in a few weeks. Guess what? You can’t set up for an Indycar race at the same time that you’re running Patriot Games. The operations clashed, setting up a logistics nightmare.

So the Hunger Games — sorry, Patriot Games — were quietly moved.

I’m not overly impressed with those games, either:

The DC Indycar race — arrives later this month. The event has free admission, but many are angry about it. 1) Trump ignored getting approval from anyone for the event — surprise! 2) Although ‘free’, people attending aren’t permitted to bring in anything: chairs, foods, suntan lotion, drink, etc. 3) Locals are upset about how the race and its logistics are going to affect their lives during hot, humid August, especially when the race was forced on them without their approval.

So, back to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool for Trump. It’s a mess that he created, a blot on his recorded, etched into his legacy, along with the Iran war, Epstein files, poor economy, and his corruption and ineptitude. He created this mess, and he’s going to go down swinging, pretending it’s not his own fault.

Your Trump Quote of the Day:

Yes, he’s had some great polls, if you ignore over half the nation.

Trump is weak, ineffective, losing power and losing face. He’s struggling to save it, but too delusional to do anything meaningful. So he’ll continue with the same ol’ same ol’ fantasies, ranting, raving, threatening, and bullying.

With all these thoughts of games — Trump’s games, pretending that he’s doing great, the ‘Patriot’ games, etc — Les Neurons supplied the morning mental music stream with an Alan Parson Project fave, “Games People Play.”

May your day bring a winning hand your way today and every day.

Cheers

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Never Trump

Hard to stomach reading today’s news. An opinion piece cited Trump’s tariffs as his biggest policy failure.

Opinion: Trump’s tariffs are his biggest policy failure

I disagree; I think the war with Iran is Trump’s biggest policy failure. It also completely undermines Trump’s whole philosophy.

Trump came in. Removed generals and military leadership. Then he hired sycophants such as Hegseth to shape military policy and develop strategy.

Screaming, “WOKE! DEI!, Hegseth bludgeoned the established military establishment. Took people who earned promotion off the list because of the color of their skin or their sex, or their political loyalties.

Trump did all of this while scoffing at the military. He declared himself smarter than generals and has repeatedly blasted them.

Trump blasted top military generals as ‘a bunch of dopes and babies’ according to new book

Yet, here we are, mired in a war that Trump started. Trump claimed to have won. Claimed it was already over. Claims it’s not a war.

Yet it’s draining us in multiple ways and exposing Trump and his arrogance. He and his chosen staff thought war was easy. Though it was just a matter of power: who has the biggest military and the most weapons.

And the war continues without a certain end in sight.

As in many other things, Trump was exposed as ignorant and wrong.

Both policies — tariffs and the Iran War — are policy failures, though.

Both are driving increased burdens to the economy and to our citizens. The war, though, also resulted in people being killed, maimed, and injured, and has devastating consequences on the people of another nation.

When I think of things that Trump boasts of as successes and triumphs, I realize that there is nothing that this administration has done that has impressed me. He’s exactly how terrible I thought he’d be, and then some. We as a nation stagger through increasing loops of disasters.

Take our healthcare issues. Rural hospitals are closing. Measles outbreaks are increasing. Healthcare premiums are rising. AI plants are being built, which will increase energy costs and use land, further driving up healthcare costs. Yet Trump pushes to build more AI centers, more data centers. Models say that will worsen the extreme heat problem as well as the water shortage. It’s like WTAF are people thinking?

Instead of real solutions, We the People are offered more political theater as another underqualified Trump nominee moves toward confirmation for a powerful Federal position.

We’re instead subjected to Trump crowing about himself winning a golf tournament. Venting at his staff about the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool fiasco.

Distracting us with AI-generated photos of himself as Elvis Presley.

While our nation is at war. While wildfires burn. While extreme heat and drought sweep the nation. While healthcare and affordability problems worsen.

That seems to be okay with MAGAts and the greater GOP, even if the rest of us are angry and disapprove of Trump. As long as Trump and his family keeps getting wealthier and speaking out for them — whatever the fuck that now means to them — they remain happy.

As far as those things falling apart and policy failures, that’s because of other people. It’s not because of Trump.

Never, in their eyes.

Never.

As for me, it will always remain, “Never Trump.”

Never.

2

Monday’s Theme Music — Stuck in the middle

Ashland, southern Oregon — Monday, July 27, 2026.

Another day of sunshine, blue skies and 90 F. Free again of fire and smoke. Kind of holding my breath on that. Been a relatively good year for us in terms of smoke and heat. We’re doing much better than previous years.

Can’t say the same for the rest of the world and the US. Once Democrats can take over Congress, I hope they turn their attention back to addressing climate change.

“The New Republic” offered a perspective on Trump’s second term. I’d noticed the same but they do a better job of categorizing it for us.

The Seven Trump News Cycles We’re All Stuck In

  • Tariffs
  • Iran War
  • ICE violence
  • Self enrichment
  • Voter suppression
  • Bad renovations
  • Everyone’s getting sicker

I would add Distractions, aka “Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL!”. Trump keeps circling to insulting people, claiming the US should own Greenland, he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, “The commies are coming!”, and multiple other irritatingly inane, pathetic proclamations.

Perhaps Affordability should be one, too.

Speaking of which, I don’t know if it’s true, but it’s an interesting idea:

MAGA voters will soon ‘quit watching Fox’ as gas soars and GOP excuses Trump: Republican

From what I’ve read, MAGA voters squirm and dismiss gas prices and the other things that irritate us, claiming that those things are happening because of the Deep State or other bizarre logic.

Grifter Rick Scott (Trump – Floridastan) still has his head firmly up Trump’s rear:

“We’ve got to explain to people that, you know, unfortunately until we get some new leadership in Iran, we’re going to continue to see conflict, which is going to see higher gas prices.”

As the rest of us know, higher gas prices also pad prices and costs on everything else. Also, Scott is flat out saying that Trump is working on regime change in Iran — again, since he already changed Iran’s regime once. As history shows, regime change as a policy is highly ineffective.

Since Republicans still think they’re in the 1800s, it’s not surprising that they haven’t picked up on that truth.

Given that we’re stuck in these horrid loops, My Neurons naturally turned to a Stealers Wheel classic. “Stuck in the Middle with You” was released in 1973 but it’s stuck in my morning mental music stream today.

I’ve always enjoyed the song. It’s one that Mom used to enjoy singing to us, a surprising change from her usual offerings. She especially liked the part that goes:

And your friends, they all come crawling
Slap you on the back and say
“Please, please”

Hope your day is loop free and takes you to refreshing new times and places.

If not, hang in there. I find that coffee, wine, beer, reading, and napping with fur friend helps.

Cheers

2

Wednesday’s Theme Music — Wild Claims

Ashland, southern Oregon — Wednesday, July 22, 2026.

Blue sky, sunshine, and high temperatures have arrived. 86 F now, gonna hit 99 F with a heat index of 105.

The sky is clear of smoke today. Our major threat, the East Evans Creek Fire, now 12 days old, is 26% contained. That’s good news but it’s a tragedy for the land, vegetation, and animals.

“The American Prospect” has a story about the ‘Freedom Fuel’ that made the White House so happy a few weeks ago.

Circle back. Knowing how MAGA Trump thinks, a gas station chain calling itself Freedom Fuel opened up gas stations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Knowing how to get Trump’s attention, and some free publicity, the gas was priced at $3.47 a gallon, the 47 cent part being in honor of Trump, which makes total economic sense.

Trump publicly pumped the gas station and its price, even though the price went up to $3.57 after a few days. He then crowed about how he promised gas prices were going to come down fast.

Your Trump Quote of the Day:

That was then. This is now. “The American Prospect” and others are shedding light on how that low gas price of $3.57 came about.

Freedom Fuel now averages $3.92 a gallon, and isn’t the cheapest gas around any longer. Meanwhile, thanks to Trump’s new attacks on Iran and other factors, the national average for a gallon of gas is again $4.

Classic Trump math: up is down. More is less.

Trump is always making wild claims. His war with Iran would be over quickly, in weeks — back in March.

Prescription drug prices were coming down over 1,000% — financially and medically impossible. He would cut energy prices immediately, if not by 12 months, certainly by 18.

That was two years ago.

Now — still — Trump keeps going on about election fraud. Has to be fraud, because he doesn’t understand how it works.

No evidence, of course, exists to support this election fraud fantasy, any more than his claims about the war ending back in March or that drug prices were coming down 1,000%, or that vandals damaged the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. He made fantastic claims about that, too, changing the damage from 250 feet to 300 yards.

How does anyone ever believer him about anything?

Today’s music circulating in the morning mental music stream is “Your Wildest Dreams” by The Moody Blues. Justin Hayward wrote the song while thinking back on a first love. But My Neurons, oblivious as they are, took ‘the wildest dreams’ aspect in reflection to Trump’s ongoing wild claims.

I hope your day is calm and fun, relaxing and healthy. Stay safe, wherever you are.

Cheers

0

Tuesday’s Theme Music — You Oughta Know

Ashland, southern Oregon — Tuesday, July 21, 2026.

Another hot day, but this one is cloudy. 83 F now, we’re destined for life in the 90s. The wind has changed, protecting us from the East Evans Creek Fire. The firefighters to whom we owe so much every year have it 18% contained. The fire has consumed over 16,000 acres, and mopping up is underway.

My younger sister, Gina, has been shepherding the project to move Mom’s things out of her home and sell the house. Part of the project is the collection and review of personal papers. I wrote Mom many letters from my assignments around the world. She kept them all, along with letters from her siblings and mother. My sisters are busy recalling the different eras of Mom’s life: the men she was with, where she lived, what was happening to them. A very chaotic period, it finally settled when Mom got her GED, went on to become a nurse, and bought her house. But for Mom and my sisters, its seems like an anguished period before that.

My two youngest sisters. Gina is on the left. The photo was taken in 2019.

Trump double standards — TDS — are in the news today. Trump has unleashed new retaliatory tariffs on Canada. Trump cites how Canada discriminates against the United States by importing fewer American cars and not selling American whiskey. Trump fails mentioning his history in this: that he began that trade war with Canada, that their ‘discrimination’ emerged because he attacked Canada with tariffs and suggested Canada should be the 51st US state.

Meanwhile, Trump is blasting Iran over human rights violations while he actively undermines human rights in the US. Ignoring due process and legal status — and even court’s decisions to not do things — Trump uses ICE to intimidate people, especially citizens of blue cities, run by Democrats, to coerce them to cooperate with them.

Classic Trump: do as I say, not as I do.

If you’ve been paying any attention, you ought to know this by now. You ought to know that Trump is only out for himself. You ought to know that Trump is vain and self-centered, and tone deaf. It’s all about him and how he can destroy our heritage to improve how he’s perceived.

That’s why Trump has done petty things with his predecessors portraits.

It’s why Trump paved over the historic Rose Garden and tore down the East Wing.

He had to change it all to make it about him.

That’s why he’s trying to rewrite history, enlarging his part while dismissing what women and people of color did. That’s why he’s trying to elevate himself to the same position as the founders.

That’s why he wants a place on Mount Rushmore.

That’s why Trump wants the Nobel Peace Prize.

That is so, so, laughable. Trump has nowhere near intellect of the founders. He lacks backbone, principles, and moral courage. His current active role in trying to curtail freedom, democracy, and voting rights would infuriate the founders. It’s scandalous how he’s enriching himself through the Oval Office, something that the founders actively warned the nation about happening.

President Lincoln famously warned that the United States is more likely to be destroyed from within. Ironic that the one doing so — Trump — likes to compare himself to Lincoln.

You ought to know, Donald Trump: you are not popular.

Your Trump Quote of the Day:

Another example of his double standards come via the Epstein file, Algaegate — the Trump Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool cockup — and the Jan 6 insurrections.

Trump and his administration keep hiding the Epstein file, ignoring the victims.

For Algaegate, he had a person arrested and charged with vandalism. In classic Trumpyism, his DoJ has screwed the case up.

For Jan 6, after his supporters were responsible for the death and injury of law enforcement officers and the destruction of Congressional offices, Trump pardoned him.

There is the clear line of Trump Double Standards.

Today’s song in the morning mental music stream is “You Oughta Know”. Alanis Morrisette. 1995. A scathing rebuke of a former lover. Listen to that crowd singing with her:

Lyrics:

And I’m here to remind you
Of the mess you left when you went away
It’s not fair, to deny me
Of the cross I bear that you gave to me
You, you, you oughta know

Yep, when Trump goes away, he’ll leave a huge mess.

You also should know that this song came out in the peak years of Trump socializing with Jeffrey Epstein.

Hope your day is safe, prosperity, and builds bridges for a better life for you and your family.

Cheers

3

Missing Connections

Facts and reality continue their freefall in Trumpland.

Much of the US is caught in extreme heat as a heat dome covers the nation.

Air quality sucks in many states due to wildfires smoke.

Measles outbreaks continue to rise in the US. South Carolina, Texas, and Utah have the most outbreaks and the highest caseloads.

The rural hospital crises roars along, with more hospitals slated to close in rural areas.

Energy prices are increasing, along with food prices. Affordability is cratering. Grocery prices are 33% higher than in 2019.

Water shortages are rising because of widespread drought in the continental US, with 48% of the lower 48 states enduring some levels of drought. Besides affecting people’s abilities to hydrate, reduced water levels threaten livestock, agriculture, and hydroelectric power. As those areas are affected, expect food and grocery prices to increase more.

Personal bankruptcies are still increasing, continuing a trend which started several years ago.

The US debt is at a record high.

It’s flooding in Texas. Bridges have collapsed. Roads are impassible.

A cyclospora outbreak has hit 34 states.

ICE violence continues.

Over in the Department of Defense, another endless war is going on, this time with Iran. The Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, worries about testosterone levels in the military members. Denies promotions to women and people of color.

Trump uses a Disney cartoon character to text about how good he’s doing. Goes on television to promote hysteria about election fraud and election interference, offering no evidence for his claims, and ignoring the mountains of proof about how safe US elections are.

After paving over the historic Rose Garden, Trump is paving more of the White House grounds, ignoring again that it’s not his place, but belongs to We the People.

Treasury announced a gold coin with Trump on it will be coming out.

Good. We need a gold commemorative reminder of how horrible life is becoming under Trump.

Trump and his administration do little to address the real problems facing real people. All he does is go on about how wonderful he is, whining how people cheat and persecute him.

They’re still trying to fix the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and still building the Epstein ballroom.

On to the next distraction.

4

Thursday’s Theme Music – Working

Ashland, southern Oregon — Thursday, July 2, 2026.

It’s blue-sky Thursday. Admittedly, that’s the July norm for our parts. 61 F now, our high is jumping into the mid eighties today. There’s a good feel to the air. Papi and I sat back and sucked it up for a while. I went back in, and he commenced a vigorous pre-nap cleaning.

No smoke, either. I feel for places enduring wildfire and its smoke and its impact, such as Utah. I understand from my sisters that their area is insufferable due to high humidity and high heat. They’re trapped under that dome of dangerous heat affecting 160 million Americans.

I’m feeling so good today, it’s almost criminal. Had amazing dreams and a solid night of fantastic sleep.

Mom has been quiet. As has two of my sisters, on vacation. Hope it’s because all is well with all of them. Fingers crossed, knock on wood, etc.

What can we say about Trump and the news at this point that hasn’t been said? Empty promises, lying to promote himself, extending the Trump touch to everything, he gets wealthier while whatever he touches withers and collapses, decaying and fading.

Trump, though, feeds off others’ energy. He’s a strange, unusual creature. That’s why he likes to do rallies, have them all smiling hopefully up at him, agreeing with all he says as he spins stories about his greatness, ‘telling it like it is’.

Job numbers were down. Analysts expected 100K and only 57K were reported. Unemployment also ticked down but that’s because less people are participating in the work force. It’s at its lowest level since 2021. We won’t know what it all means for months but the people embroiled in it probably will tell you, “I know exactly what it means: the economy sucks.” The questions about why it sucks will rage on.

My wife told me of an interview with people in Florida that she watched. Asked about the economy and Trump’s increasing wealth, one said, “He’s not doing anything for the middle class but he’s certainly enriching himself.”

While I like hearing that from others, hoping it’s a sign that people are shifting from Trump, I read — but couldn’t vet — remarks from the MAGAsphere that Trump is so smart, and that’s why he’s making money. *gag*

More news came out about the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pond and Trump’s ‘renovations’, aka Algaegate. Now they’re saying toxic materials were used. Bad for the environment, but that’s never been a Trump worry, long as he has a golf course.

The Epstein files still haven’t been fully released. Although not fully financed, the Epstein ballroom construction rolls on. With Trump’s manhandling of it, the nation continues to stumble through the celebration of 250 years.

Your Trump Quote of the Day:

Trump made that statement in January of 2026 when he was asked about conflicts of interest.

He is wrong, of course, but it’s not surprising that he believes it. Being told by staff, friends, and family would let him shrug it off, as they knew he wanted to do. As he’s not a student of law or history, neither of those aspects would affect him, either. Since his bottom line has and is always how can he make things better for himself, how he can make himself look better, and how he can make himself richer, he was happy to run with what he was being told.

As usual, Trump heard what he wanted to hear, so he could think what he wanted to think, and do what he wanted to do.

That is exactly why his approval ratings keep declining and why more and more people seem to actively hate and resent him.

My thoughts this morning were a stew. Jobs reports, working people, the upcoming holiday, and the struggles with affordability. Tasting it as I stirred, The Neurons emerged with “Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)” by Styx. The 1978 song is all about working and making a living, and the determination to get ahead.

I’m off to other matters. Stay comfortable and safe, whatever conditions come at you, and go with grace and peace.

Cheers

0

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