Frida’s Theme Music

Frida, June 13th, 2025, breached with cold air and muzzled sunshine. 59 F, we’re pacing ourselves to climb to 74 F. It’s a chill day. Feels good out there.

Another night of dreams. They covered feeling lost and frustrated, ignored, and change that confused me. Awakened, I felt heavy with loss and disappointment, struggling to find direction and traction, like I’m spinning my wheels to stay in place.

We saw more Trump Justice Two Step last night. Judge said, “Illegal to put them National Guard into LA, Donald,” and another court said, “Keep doing it while we talk about this.” I laughed when Trump’s lawyers argued that California should not “second-guess the President’s judgment that federal reinforcements were necessary” and that a federal court should defer to the president’s discretion on military matters. Oh, they can rouse themselves to such pompous righteous indignation. Trump loves to say he’s leaving things up to the states. ‘I’m gonna wean them off FEMA.’ “The people on the ground know what’s going on and can take care of it best,” he said before.

But he’s fast to ignore the state’s rights and decisions when it doesn’t suit him and barge right in wherever the fuck he wants. The principle behind his moves are always, “Me Donald, you I hate.” In this case, he hates Gov. Newsom and California because he lost California. Didn’t get within sniffing distance of winning it.

TACO is very predictable in his lawless ways. “You spit, we hit!” But that wasn’t the case with the J6 insurrectionists. Yeah, they were attacking the nation, doing a lot more damage phsically and judicially, as the J6 gang attacked the police. No, that had TACO saying, “Me Donald, me love you,” because they were doing it for him. He’s sickening, and the GOP is sickening and shameful for going along with his twisted hyperbole. They won’t be happy until they burn the nation down and then they’ll blink their eyes wide and say, “Gosh, what happened?” Just as they did with multiple previous fiascos. See the Gulf Wars as a big fucking example. My contempt for them has surged out past Starlink.

I’m also having a good laugh at MAGAts. They’re trying to excuse the DC parade as planned BT: Before Trump. One MAGAt declared that President Obama became planning it, lazily conflating celebrating the Army’s 250 year anniversary with the bloated military display scheduled for this weekend. That’s the MAGAts, always bending over for TACO to screw them.

I have “Creep” by Radiohead in the morning mental music stream. Just that sort of morning. Here, little TACO. This is for you.

Pressing on with coffee to go get things done. Let’s be safe out there. Cheers

Wenzda’s Wandering Political Thoughts

PINO TACO is moving into full bully mode. The mango chump who would be king has become a royal pain in the ass with his attitude.

This ‘servant of the people’ is screaming about disrespect. “If you spit, we hit.” Or some shit like that.

It’s true playground diplomacy bullshit, a threat worthy of an individual with little mental acumen.

Of course, he lies to embellish his reasoning and thinking for using the military in Los Angeles. Says the whole place is burning down, just like it did before, or some shit like that.

“Los Angeles was under siege until we got there. The police were unable to handle it,” he said, claiming the city was “out of control when we got there.”

That was a surprise to people living and working in Los Angeles. They’re far more worried about unwanted military troops entering their city. But here is Trump, acting like he’s King George III and this is 1775.

Not to be outdone, Gov. Abbott, the Republican Reactionary running Texas, has ordered his state’s national guard to quell unrest this weekend. Just in case, you know. They’ve learned nothing on the right. Escalating tensions and violence only leads to greater escalation. We saw it the colonies in the 1770s. Saw it again in the 1960s. Witnessed it at Kent State. Saw it again at Ruby Ridge and Waco.

And it’s really a problem when a strong-arm government views protestors as insurrectionists and employ their own military to put them down. For Trump to do this after Jan 6 of 2020, when insurrectionists destroyed things, and injured and killed people in his name to overturn the election results, is as hypocritical as anything Trump has ever done.

It’s like saying masks aren’t healthy and then ordering ICE agents to be masked.

Or claiming to be the most unfairly persecuted person ever and then arresting people and deporting them without paperwork, trial, or due process.

But that’s Trump, seeing everything upside down and backwards, leading a group of people who are the same.

Munda’s Wandering Political Thoughts

Here we are. I feel like things are piling up. Tension is rising. A big crash is building. But I can’t see what the crash will be like. Two many variables are in play.

When Trump left office after losing the 2020 election, this is where we thought he was taking us: the unitary executive, if not a dictatorship, a leader eager for revenge, willing to use military forces on any who opposed him. All the things we saw that he was, we said that he was, and now has proven to us to be what we thought he was, what we warned others about. Now we’re being shown as right. Now we’re waiting to see how far he’ll go, how deep the tear will be, how complete will be the destruction.

We know that Trump is a simpleton. But as a person who ‘speaks the people’s language, saying the things they think’, he’s a very effective tool for billionaires and the hardcore right. An unholy marriage was arranged on the right between neocons, new right, evangelists, racists, white supremacists, and misogynists. The underinformed and the rural, nursing a grudge because the Democrats didn’t seem to care enough about them were lured into the arrangement. The GOP went along because they wanted to be the party in power. They probably told each other, we can control him, if it becomes necessary.

I think the GOP were deluding themselves. The right-wing marriage is a frail transactional arrangement. It will not hold, but it wasn’t meant to hold. The left, and the Democrats were the ones moving the country forward. Getting equal rights for people. Raising the standard of living. Actually trying to improve the safety net and our education system. They — we, because I’m part of that left — are not perfect but we were looking forward, even if we sometimes move too damn slowly. Once the left is moved out of the way with their protective labor laws, the ‘nanny state’ which the right encourages them to scorn, Trump’s regime will be free to tear down the safety nets, send children back to work, and cut wages for the middle class down. That’s why removing the Department of Education became so important: it allows people to be indoctrinated. That’s why tariffs and rising prices will be secretly welcomed and accepted by the Trump Regime. He’ll keep telling his MAGAs the Democrats are causing it. And they, now well-trained to not trust the Democrats and to actively hate them, will accept it with little challenge or resistance.

What I didn’t understand until now is how many of those factions united under Trump were willing to go along with him, and will keep going along with him. That’s what polls are showing. Even as Trump does these things an his approval ratings fall, more Republicans identify and support him. It’s almost like this crises and destruction of the United States and its core strengths is what they want. Yes, there are some wretched individuals who thought that all the evil Trump would perpetrate would be done to others. They didn’t understand that Trump doesn’t care about them. Now some spill stories of regret for their voting decisions.

Now, serious questions are arising and falling. Is anyone above the law in the United States? Well, that answer is coming sharply into focus. How far above the law are they willing to raise him? Even if impeachment proceedings somehow begin, the mechanism for removing Trump from office is rapidly being torn apart.

More basic questions stand. How far are they willing to dismiss state rights as Trump seizes power and crushes opposition?

What will they do when Trump’s orders lead to the deaths of U.S. citizens on U.S. soil while those citizens are exercising their First Amendment rights? From what we’ve seen of most of them, they will go along with Trump. After all, it’s not hurting them.

Yet, they don’t see, even after all he’s done, the promises broken, and the lies made, that he will turn on them. Unfortunately, some will continue to embrace the transactional marriage because they’ve told themselves that he is a good man. To admit otherwise requires them to acknowledge that they’ve been duped, that they’re wrong.

Some already wonder, is there any hope for us after Trump? I’m not looking that far ahead any longer. Just get us through June.

Just get us through this week.

Then we’ll see where we stand.

Sunda’s Wandering Political Thoughts

Quisling: Vidkun Quisling was a Norwegian army officer who in 1933 founded Norway’s fascist party. In December 1939, he met with Adolf Hitler and urged him to occupy Norway. Following the German invasion of April 1940, Quisling served as a figurehead in the puppet government set up by the German occupation forces, and his linguistic fate was sealed. Before the end of 1940, quisling was being used generically in English to refer to any traitor. Winston Churchill, George Orwell, and H. G. Wells used it in their wartime writings. Quisling lived to see his name thus immortalized, but not much longer. He was executed for treason soon after the liberation of Norway in 1945.

h/t to Mirriam-Webster.com

Trump, aka TACO, remains my favorite current political target. This is because he disgusts me. He’s brazenly yet defensively ignorant while posing as a genius. He lacks economic acumen and self-awareness, and pushes ridiculous ideas, often while acting ridiculous. Busy enriching himself at the expense of anyone poor, he’s a shallow individual who is unfortunately put into a position to severely damage the democratic republic known as the United States of America. He has and had helpers, though. One, as Andy Borowitz reminds us, is Mitch McConnell. McConnell was a major bad actor during the years leading to now.

Here’s a taste of Mr. Borowitz’s insights to kick it off:

America’s Top Traitor: Mitch McConnell

A brief review of McConnell’s disgraceful behavior during the Trump era—also known as the Fourth Reich—confirms that “mcconnell” would indeed be a worthy replacement for “quisling” in the dictionary.

Before Trump was elected, McConnell had already spent decades doing everything in his power to make the United States unfit for human habitation. Specifically, he worked tirelessly to ensure that as many Americans as possible were killed by guns.

Whenever gun control legislation was proposed in the wake of a mass shooting, you could count on Mitch to discourage his fellow senators from taking any action that might prevent similar tragedies in the future.

After a mass shooting in his home state of Kentucky in 1989, he warned, “We need to be careful about legislating in the middle of a crisis.” Yes, because… wait, why, exactly?

Continue here. Enjoy.

Frida’s Wandering Political Thoughts

Did you see Trump’s fantasy spin involving himself, Lincoln, and Reagan?

It’s been out for a while so you probably have. I saw it again today and couldn’t stop thinking about it.

See, he has a painting of himself with Ronald Reagan and Abraham Lincoln. Titled ‘Great American Patriots,’ illustrator and painter Dick Bobnick created this. Mr Bobnick describes his painting, “Three American presidents who changed American History for the better in the areas of race, taxation, religious liberty, military strength, international relations, the economy and morality.”

I’m going out on a limb and suggest that historians are going to disagree with Bobnick on his assessment of Trump. Many people already disagree with his conclusion that Trump changed history for the better in the areas of morality. Trump is an actual felon, convicted in a court. Been married several times and cheated on every wife. Trump lies and lies and lies and lies and lies, and is in the business of weaponizing the legal system to go after his enemies. This is not the epitome of ‘morality’.

Trump has no idea who Lincoln and Reagan are. He has no idea who he is. He has a warped and twisted vision that the three of them are cut from the same American fabric. He, an unchecked and unrepentant serial liar whose every action and word is tearing our nation apart, dares to compare himself with Abraham Lincoln, who worked so hard to re-unite the nation, a man with the nickname of honest Abe, renown for his honesty and integrity. Con Don Trump thinks he’s on par with Abraham Lincoln. My body splits with laughter just considering the insanity.

That’s just half of the comparison going on. The third person depicted is Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan, the Great Communicator. And rambling, word salad Donald Trump. Trump who said, “You look at the nuclear deal, the thing that really bothers me, it would have been so easy, and it’s not – as important as their lives are, nuclear is so powerful. My uncle explained that to me many, many years ago, the power, and that was 35 years ago. He would explain the power of what’s going to happen and he was right – who would of thought – but when you look at what’s going on with the four prisoners, now it used to be three – now it’s four- but when it was was three and even now I would have said, it’s all in the messenger fellas and it is fellas because you know they don’t, they haven’t figured that the women are smarter right now than the men, so you know it’s going to take them about another 150 years but the Persians are great negotiators, the Iranians are great negotiators so and they, they just killed, they just killed us.” That’s from an August of 2016 speech. He’s gotten much worse in the years since.

And he compares himself to Lincoln and Reagan. It’s so surreally, magnificently — and Trumply — unreal.

Wenzda’s Wandering Thoughts

I’m on a doom-scrolling slowdown. I wasn’t even generally doom scrolling. I was just going through the news and blog posts. Too often when I did, I found myself muttering, “Bastard,” after reading something. Like, the tale of the manhunt for the father who killed his three daughters. “Bastard.” Or the Trump appointee idiot who doesn’t know the U.S. has a hurricane season. Is he American? How long has he lived in the United States? If he’s been living in the U.S., has it been under rocks in Utah or somewhere? “Stupid bastard.”

There is Trump, of course. Donald J. “Trump Again Chickens Out” TACO Trump. And Rep. Mike Johnson. Both are bastards. Unfeeling, uncaring, unprincipled bastards. Bastards who have sold whatever was left of their souls.

Johnson was called out for only citing CBO figures as accurate when Dems are in charge. Trump’s budget bill is called the OBBB. They say it means “One Big Beautiful Bill”. I believe OBBB means “Only Bullshit Being Boosted”. More and more constituents are calling their reps and senators on it. Not that the Republican side of things will care. See Joni “We’re all dying” Ernst, for example. More Republicans are reacting to criticism by claiming, “I didn’t know that was in the bill.” See Rep. Mike Flood and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for example.

Then there’s hate crimes like the murder of Jonathan Joss, unarmed and shot to death while mourning the loss of his home and pets. Shot dead by some asshole who hates gays. “Bastard.” The murderous bastard who killed Jonathan Joss probably won’t get the punishment deserved. There’s too much systemic hate, bias, and prejudice built into our judicial systems for fair trails when the victims are gay.

This is our nation now, bending over backwards, encouraging us to look away from the shit happening on our streets. People being disappeared by armed masked paramilitary who show no insignia or badges. People killed for being whatever disturbs thin-skinned, cowardly white people.

This is Trump’s America. The land the MAGAts want, a hateful place where the truth is spit upon, where science is dismissed and undermined, where murder and violence is called for by the POTUS against anyone deemed ‘his enemy’, where the past is being whitewashed of contributions by any person that TACO doesn’t like or admire, and that is a long list of honorable, intelligent people who refuse to kiss his ass.

“Land of the free and home of the brave?”

Not in Trump’s America.

Thirstda’s Theme Music

After a beautiful Ashlandia day yesterday, today has improved to a better version of itself. Yesterday punched up to 89 F under rich sunshine. Today’s sky is bluer and cloud-free. But other conditions have been checked, so our high has dropped to the low 80s region. 60 degree F air armed with a cool mountain breeze moved through the windows and open doors this AM, kissing us with a refreshing chill. Little too chill for my wife, who turned on her little space heater.

This is Thirtsda, May 29, 2025. We’re sailing on through the second quarter of 2025. What a time it has been. Trump has earned a new name, based on his cowardly behavior. TACO means “Trump always chickens out”. Calling him TACO Trump would be repetitive. Should just be PINO TACO, or as I frequently absently call him in my mind, “Little PINO Trump”. Now, air warning: Donald Trump doesn’t like his new nickname, TACO. Feels it’s hurtful, mean, unfair. As he’s never flinched from smirking and bestowing hateful and cruel nicknames on others, I think we should spread it far and use it often.

Other Little PINO TACO news has the mango boi losing out in the courts and getting sued more frequently.

Donald Trump, Karoline Leavitt Sued by Deaf Association, “This Practice Abruptly Ended”

Judge extends order blocking revocation of Harvard’s enrollment of foreign students

Stocks waver after a federal court halted Trump’s tariffs

NPR sues Trump over funding cuts amid ongoing battle between administration and press

Oh, and as Republicans try to gush about how wonderful Little PINO TACO is doing, they’re getting facts in the face:

‘Easily Checkable Lies’: Republican Senator Roasted Over Wildly Inaccurate Post Trying to Hype Trump’s Wins In Office

The Pretenders own my morning mental music stream with a 1984 offering. The Neurons found it in my mental basement and cued it up after I read more news stories last night and this morning. My response has often been, “Time will tell.” Reacting to that, The Neurons gave me “Time the Avenger”. The song is a story told to a 1980s rock rhythm about time’s influence on lives and relationships.

The writing mind is getting greased and primed by a new load of coffee. Here we go, on into another day. Cheers

Wenzda’s Theme Music

It’s been over two weeks since I last heard the furnace warming our house. That pleases me. Pleases my mango tango, the ginger floof known as Papi even more. He scampers in to say hello and eat but otherwise lives a life snoozing in secret places among cooling bushes and vinca. Not a bad life for him, I think.

Today is Wenzda, May 28, 2025. Munda passed in a flounce. Tuesday barely registered for me. Here I sit on Wenzda, enjoying blue sky and sunshine. Air temp is already 80 F with 88 in our sights today. Later this week, we expect to push past 90 F. We’ll soon see the green hills on the valley’s northern sun brown like baking bread.

I went to cut back the backyard. The weeds had shoot up to a foot in height. Finally turned my attention to whacking it back, but when I went out there — bees were buzzing around the weeds. I was so pleased to see them. A hummingbird zipped by, too. Hallelujah, sang The Neurons. Out front, a thick buzz was rising from the tree upfront which the bees regularly frequent. They hadn’t been around yet and I was happy to see them back.

The Neurons have blessed the morning mental music stream with “Bad Company”. “Bad Company” is a 1974 power ballad by the group called “Bad Company”. Ostensibly, it relates to the chosen life of being a gunslinger but to hear him say it, he really had no choice. I can dig that; I feel as if choice is taken from me when it comes to writing. This boy’s gotta do it. However, I don’t know why The Neurons plugged “Bad Company” into my head. Was this a reference to people coming into town to visit, or were they making a disparaging remark about my attitude? Hard to say with The Neurons. They jump out with a claim and then dance away before they can be questioned.

Over in the political quarter of my life, I read about Republican Rep. Mike Flood’s town hall meeting in Nebraska. Flood was there chatting about the disastrous bill that the Greedy Old Trump Party passed in the House last week. When called out about one provision, Flood admitted that he didn’t know the provision was in it because he hadn’t read the bill.

Republican Rep. Mike Flood appeared before his constituents in Nebraska on Tuesday for a town hall that turned ugly as he tried to defend President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” the reconciliation package the House of Representatives passed last week, and which is expected to force millions of Americans off their health care coverage and food aid.

Unfortunately, Flood hadn’t actually read the bill. 

Flood could barely get through a sentence without facing boos and heckling from the audience. At one point, when asked about a provision in the GOP’s massive reconciliation package that would restrict the judiciary’s ability to hold government officials in contempt, Flood said he did not agree with the provision, before admitting that the “provision was unknown to me when I voted for that.”

That’s what we’re hearing time and again from Republicans in Congress: the classic but weak defense, “I didn’t know.” It’s especially weak when it’s their job to know. That’s why he was voted into office, wasn’t it? As their servant and representative? As seen across the nation during PINO Trump’s first four months in office in 2025, rising numbers of constituents are pissed that their representatives aren’t doing their jobs. Flood went on to claim that he’s taken an oath that he’ll defend the Constitution. As always, actions speak louder than words. With his inaction, he’s complicit in undermining the Constitution, our checks and balances, and the rule of law. Likewise, he’s part of the party gleefully tearing down the education system that helped the United States advance as it did last century. But as part of the Greedy Old Trump Party, he can’t see or admit what he’s doing.

Rep. Mike Flood is a DOGE Faithful and Trump lover. Back in March, his constituents called him out for DOGE’s cuts to research, Medicaid, and Medicare. Flood defended it by saying that cuts were needed because of the national debt. Back then, Flood said, “Ultimately, where we need to go is to a balanced budget. How can you be against a balanced budget?” This, before passing that bill that cut taxes for the wealthy. It all reeks of bullshit and hypocrisy, doesn’t it? The way they’re ‘governing’ is a crime.

Okay, out of lecture mode. Coffee has been embraced; into writing mode. Have the best day you can, and do things that make you hold your head up high. Cheers

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