Spring has a solid hold on our stretch of valley. 59 F and sunny, we’re heading to the upper 60s today. Good weather if you’re a feline looking for a sunny place to nap…
I will do more yard work. I did all of my tasks yesterday, including pulling weeds. But the weeds have had a very successful year. If I could sell them, I’d be a thousandaire.
I had to again break off part of this post to create a Trump-centric post. I think Trump voters are addicted to hate, and Trump himself addicted to power. He’ll do anything to elevate himself. Lies, fake information, bragging are not beyond him. Nor is AI generated content showing him to be superhero strong, smart, and healthy. To those of us outside of his sphere, we see these things and shake our head, muttering, “What the fuck?” It’s amazing how many of his base can’t see the truth; it’s more amazing to see how many are willing to lie and just go along with Trump. It’s frankly sickening to see how low they’re willing to stoop to pretend things are going great with Trump in office.
Nothing new on Mom nor my health. Just awaiting developments on these fronts.
I ended up with The Neurons playing “Addicted to Love” in the morning mental music stream. It arose from thoughts that Trump is addicted to hate, and his base are addicted to him. I always enjoy the Night of the Proms series so I was pleased to find this video to present.
Hope your life finds you moving forward, healthy, happy, and safe.
As I read news and reflected on trends and events, I realized that not a whole lot will change once Trump is out of office. It’s a sad reflection but the MAGAts are dedicated to him. Doesn’t matter how well the country is or who is POTUS. They will always insist that Trump was better.
The evidence is clear. They disparaged President Biden as being too old, too tired, insisting he didn’t have it together mentally. Yet, with Trump now the oldest elected president and clearly showing signs of not having it together, they talk about other things.
Trump promised to do so many things — release Epstein files, no new wars, lower prices — and did none of it. They still love him.
And his base love it. They always love it until it hits them in the face. Even then, though, they’ll insist, he’s still better than a Democrat.
Trump feeds off that. Despite telling the world that he is a unifier, Trump doesn’t just politically blast political opponents or their policies. He makes it personal and hateful. Democrats are denigrated as scum and the enemy. These are United States citizens and account for half of the adult population or more.
Trump says half the nation is ‘the enemy’.
His deployments of ICE and national guard units reflect this thinking. He sends in troops and law enforcement to battle protestors, calling them ‘terrorists’ when they’re nothing of the kind. ICE killed Renee Nicole Good; Trump called her a terrorist. ICE killed Alex Pretti; Trump called him a terrorist. Trump accused Good and Pretti of being violent, threatening ICE agents. Videos show the truth, that neither person threatened others.
Every act of violence, such as Charlie Kirk’s murder, is blamed on the left, no matter what facts show.
Trump’s base has embraced it all, and anyone in the GOP who wants to be the party’s next leader sees and understands what Trump has done. JD Vance had already demonstrated the spine of a jellyfish and will eagerly say and be whoever that base wants him to be. The message is hate, the enemy is progress, and the goal is power.
That’s the lesson that Trump has bestowed on the GOP. He wasn’t the first. He’s the latest in a line but clearly the most nakedly selfish, self-serving, lying, ignorant person to hold office.
Sadly, too many Republicans are willing to go along with this charade, pretending that Democrats — and immigrants — have never brought anything worthwhile to our nation. So long as that base willingly rides the tide of hate and ignores the truth, facts, and history, they will be a force we must endure and turn back.
All we can do is remind ourselves of history, keep track of the truth, and keep pushing back until we finally start moving forward again.
Light clouds dappled with gray and white haze the sky. Blue peeks through like a shy child. Sunshine has grown bolder, spreading over the greening valley. 56 F, it’s springy in the best way, with the upper 60s listed as the day’s highs.
My wife and I are going through tasks challenges. Each night we ask the other, “What are you going to get done tomorrow?” The answer must be besides the normal activities. Yesterday, she did the quarterly shredding of receipts. Today, she is cleaning the bottom of the freezer. We have a drawer type freezer. I don’t know what happens in there, but below that drawer gets amazingly messy.
My chores include washing her car, pulling weeds, activating her new ID card, and buying a new phone. I already activated her ID, so I’m 25% done. *smile*
Here’s the long story behind that. I’m retired military, and she’s a retired military spouse. When I retired, my retired military ID became “Indefinite”. It wasn’t really indefinite: a new card was needed when I turned 65. At that point, I was eligible for Medicare Part B. My era’s retired military medical benefits change once I’m eligible for that, as Medicare becomes my primary insurance. My Tricare 4Life becomes my secondary insurance.
My wife’s retired military ID continued expiring every four years. That used to mean a trek to an office where a new card could be issued. The computer systems being used made getting this take about an hour. The local office is in Medford and didn’t do appointments. Everything was walk-in. So we would walk-in, join the line and wait about an hour to 90 minutes.
My wife’s card was expiring in July. Imagine my surprise and delight when the systems reached out and asked if we wanted to renew it online. Why, heck, yeah! Double the surprise when her card now has an “Indefinite” expiration now, too!
Thinking about the political and war news today, and Trump and his support, I wondered, are they dreamers? I’d had a very vivid dream and wondered how their minds work. From my POV, they’re unrealistic and full of illusions and delusions.
Proof of this to me is that Trump says one thing, does another, and it doesn’t work out. He’s done this all his life. He’s had failed businesses and bankruptcies. His supporters say, yes, but he’s a billionaire. Yes, but we know that he built that off his father’s empire, inheriting substantial money, lying, cheating others, suing others to bully them to ‘go along with him’.
Trump breaks promises, laws, rules, and norms. He broke businesses; now he’s breaking our nation, and maybe the world. He’s certainly has made it much messier.
Anyway, with those thoughts stacking in my mind, The Neurons responded with a Supertramp song, “Dreamer”, in the morning mental music stream. That actually had roots in the lyrics “Far out, what a day, a year, a life it is”. Of course, I was shaking my head as I thought it. *smile*
“Dreamer” is a simple song. I found a video of it being done as part of the Night of the Proms series. I always like how the orchestras add to the song. Honestly, I find it fun to watch the musicians and choir.
Hope your day progresses with joy, happiness, and good vibrations for you.
As they used to sing on a children’s television program, “One of these things is not like the other.”
It ought to get very interesting. My wife and I put $30 worth of gas in our ‘compact’ Mazda CX-5 SUV yesterday: 7.44 gallons at $4.569 per gallon. This was at Costco, which has the lowest prices around here. We laughed till we cried, remembering how we used to almost fill our tank each week for the price of one gallon now.
A Dodge RAM 1500 and a Ford F150 pickup trucks were filling up. Those trucks have big tanks, take a lot of fuel, and get poor gas mileage. Know who drive pickup trucks? Trump supporters.
Of course, Trump voters have a history of voting against the truth. They voted against Harris because Trump said Harris would take them to war. Trump said he wouldn’t start any wars.
56 F, spring is holding on against a late winter effort. Today’s sky favors heavy cloud blanketing and pots of sunshine. Blue has been shouldered out of the scene. Our high will tap the low sixties and tomorrow is supposedly going down into the 30s at night.
Round and round is going round my head. I began writing about the news. It became so Trumpcentric, I split it off.
I’m also going round and round with health matters. It’s bizarre to me because I feel pretty damn good. Could lose a few more pounds, and if you’re giving out miracles, put some hair back on my head.
They found a mass in my bladder yesterday. Not big, something like 2cm. We’ll check it out next week, see what it is, deal with it. The CT scan said liver, intestines, spleen, pancreas, appendix all look good. No loose fluid. Kidneys are intact and the right one has come calculi. The summary says all those things look just like they did in the 2021 scans, when kidney stones advanced out of my left kidney. Oh, what a night.
Everything with Mom is going round and round. The tale is familiar and old. Mom seems happy, enjoying others’ company, goes silent with all. All seems well. Then WHAMO. We’re bowled over by unexpected news and then wait for updates. Mom is being very cagey. We’re letting the assisted living home and county adult social services run the show.
So round we go, weather, health, Mom, Trump. The Neurons have blessed me with “You Spin Me Round” by Dead or Alive in the morning mental music stream. The song’s sentiment is about seeing and wanting someone. The disco beat just has me hooked on the idea that things keep me going round like a record.
Amusing: do the children know what it means to go round like a record?
Probably as much as I knew about ‘going spooning’ or a bicycle built for two.
Going round with a cup of coffee now. Hope your day goes well and peace and grace came around.
Same war, same Trump, intentions going everywhere in a lost haze of thought.
TSA lines are causing traffic delays as TSA agents don’t come to work. Why should they? Trump is not paying them because of his partial government shutdown.
As oil prices go up, so do gas prices at the pump but analysts warn that oil prices will hit every sector because of shipping. Meanwhile, another set of analysts warn that we’ll probably start seeing food prices increasing because of Trump’s tariffs — from ‘liberation day’ of last year. Companies were spreading the costs out among multiple products and lines to spread increases and ease the pain. Now, forced to the wall, Food Navigator thinks the price increases will be more direct.
My wife and I are forever laughing about economists and their expectations. Earlier this month, the poor jobs growth surprised them. Now APNews reports it’s consumer wholesale prices.
U.S. wholesale prices came in hotter than expected in February, driven partly by a sharp increase in food costs.
The Labor Department reported Wednesday that its producer price index — which measures inflation before it hits consumers — rose 0.7% from January, and 3.4% from February 2025. The year-over-year increase was the most since February 2025.
The price gains were bigger than economists had forecast, and they occurred before the U.S. and Israel attack on Iran pushed energy prices sharply higher.
It’s like, where do these economists live and shop that they don’t walk into a place and notice prices going on month by month? It’s surreal.
Now my wife and I are trying to figure out what a ‘K-shape economy recovery’ looks like. I’m telling you, if it’s not one thing…
Oh, BTW. Remember how Trump said he and one of his Republican lackeys had a great plan to send a hospital ship to Greenland? Surprised everyone because we all knew the Navy’s hospital ships weren’t available, but Trump’s ‘plan’ grabbed headlines and distracted everyone from the Epstein files for a few days. No ship was ever sent.
I mention it now because Trump signed an executive order to have the government work with the NCAA and whatever so that the Army-Navy football game is the only game being broadcast.
That smacks of classic Trump distraction. Polls for him are down, the economy is swirling around the toilet, and the Epstein files still haunt him. Now, what he thought would be a one and done in Iran is a growing disaster. Quick! Distraction: Army-Navy game.
Spring has officially sprung north of the equator. It’s 56 F in Ashland with high, thin white clouds coalescing in our blue sky. 72 will the high.
Just returned from a CT scan with iodine contrast. Had blood and clots in my urine last week. Urinalysis earlier this week showed cloudy urine with high levels of blood, along with particulates associated with kidney stones. Not a surprising. I passed a kidney stone on my left side in 2021. One was found in my right side, but at 15mm, it was too large to pass. That one seems to be getting cranky, agitating the kidney around it.
Texts are arrived talking about Mom moving and contacting an attorney. Details are sketchy. My app seems to have missed several texts. A new phone is being ordered. This one is now almost ten years old.
The Trump partial government continues to cause travel congestion due to long TSA lines.
Gas and oil prices continue to rise due to Trump’s war on Iran as Trump moves more troops into the middle east. Trump’s war is also producing an increase in mortgage rates, which have reached their highest level in 2026. 2025 home sales were already the weakest in three decades.
Trump’s tariffs continue to drive up food and housing prices. Have you seen the recent price of coffee?
80 degrees F and sunny, it’s just after 3 PM. We’ve just returned from community theater where we had brunch and watched a play called “Sherwood”.
I’ve not read much news today as my routines became overcome by events, making this a short post.
Basically, my feelings remain that the United States and its situation is worsening. Trump’s situation is also worsening. The Iran War and the middle east are worsening. All are basically going down.
Hearing that thinking, The Neurons fired up Jeff Beck from 1972 in the morning mental music stream. This is “Going Down”.
May your life and times go up to better places and a better future.
Sunshine and blue sky rule this morning. My current thermometer reading is 53 F with 79 F possible after seeing 80 yesterday.
The assisted living facility where Mom resides shared pix of their St Patrick’s day festivities. There was Mom, smiling, looking happy with a silly little green hat on.
Sis suspects that our youngest sister is secretly in contact with Mom and helping her. Mom has been quiet, not reaching out to any of us. Maybe we’ve found the balance for peaceful co-existence. I plan to send Mom a small Easter present.
We’re deeply into the Fuck Around, Find Out phase of Trump’s second term. After expending a lot of air and time on how ‘hot’ the United States is as a country, how other nations were ‘going to hell’, and how we don’t need them, Trump is now asking for help.
According to Trump, nobody anticipated Iran’s response after they were attacked. In fact, who didn’t anticipate it, other than Trump? Now, as the war and its costs are dragging on and dragging him down, he called on other nations to help.
No, they responded.
It’s classic FAFO.
Likewise, Trump insisted his tariffs were legal and would save the nation. No, to both, almost everyone outside of the GOP said. The Supreme Court ruled that the largest ones Trump installed were illegal and refunds were due, a costly, prolonged project.
Trump claimed that last year’s 4th quarter GDP would be 5.4%. It came in at .7%. He claimed his tariffs would decrease prices and unemployment. Didn’t happen. FAFO.
Meanwhile, Trump is pushing hard getting the SAVE Act passed. It’s more classic FAFO moment. We know the ramifications of the act if it passes. We’re not the fools Trump thinks we are. Neither are the Democrats in Congress refusing to go along with the SAVE Act, no matter what Trump threatens.
Trump acts alternately triumphant and angry, demanding help and attention and insisting it’s not needed. His performance reminds The Neurons of a song by the Who, “I’m One” from “Quadrophenia”.
This song is about a young man struggling with mental issues, trying to fit in, coping to find out who he is and create an identity for himself. That’s where I think Trump is. His threats and bullying have less and less impact. What he thought would work isn’t working, and even his bubble isn’t protecting him from knowing the truth any longer.
May this day find you chilling with some hope and grace that Trump will bottom out, the Democrats will take over in a blue wave, and we can begin fixing the Trump Mess. It’s so bad, I think that’s how we should call this period from when Trump began running for office last decade until he’s finally gone: the Trump Mess. We can refer to things pre TM and post TM. Trump likes his name on things. I think we give it to him.
Although Trump Mess might not be strong enough. Trump Hole? Trump Disaster?
Michael Seidel, writer 