Yesterday was a hot one, as they advertised. Today, Saturda, May 31, 2025, is expected to cool into the mid-80s. It’s 72 F and sunny now, and the clouds have ran away for grayer skies.
It’s May’s last day. Five months of 2025 are history. It’s been as chaotic as a Black Friday sale in the United States. As we spring into summer, I’m not enthused about what will come out of the Gold House, as Nan calls it. Her reasoning is spot on. It ssed to be the White House, but the present occupant, PINO TACO, is remaking it in the right’s craven, gold-worshipping image. They say that’s what the Bible says to do.
From Gold House, I crossed to Heart of Gold.My Neurons went onto a Neil Young kick. Soon they had “Old Man” playing in the morning mental music stream. The music faded for a while as I rambled through a litany of problems, stories, and challenges. Some were personal and narrowly defined from my novel-writing half of living. Thoughts about Mom’s health boiled in, and then came sympathy for a friend who is enduring a mess in his life. Prosaic matters like fixing the oven — the part has arrived — took over. Then there’s the ever-growing worries about the human rights, war, climate change, the nation, the world, and measles.
There are 1,088 confirmed measles cases in the U.S., up 42 from last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. Texas, where the nation’s biggest outbreak raged during the late winter and spring, reported 10 additional cases this week for a total of 738.
The Neurons shot a gap to bring “Don’t Let It Get You Down” by Neil Young into the morning mental music stream. It’s a 1970 song which will probably get you down, because it makes you listen, think, and feel. I once heard a DJ say that Young announced this song by saying, “This song is guaranteed to bring you down. It’s called “Don’t Let It Get You Down”.” It was a song I preferred to hear with a glass of red wine, either overlooking a body of water at sunset, or in a dark room, alone.
Into the day I go, with a cuppa coffee to help me carry the load. Funny, but our existence is fleeting in the great rush of time and space, but sometimes it seems so long.
Got up early, cut the grass. It’s Frida. Gonna be 95 F plus here in Ashlandia today. It’s 85 F now, all pretty typical for May’s penultimate day, the 30th, in 2025. Connectivity issues are stalking me in the coffee shop, which is also typical for when it’s hot, cold, wet, snowy, windy, or stormy. This post took an extra chunk of time because connectivity drops, and the categories and tags would disappear. Sigh of frustration.
Papi has taken early to his hot weather hidey hole among the vinca on the house’s side yard.
The photo was taken through the window glass, between the blinds, with my phone. Papi is usually hyper aware of sound, so I didn’t want to move the blinds and risk waking him. That’s me, don’t-disturb-the-cat Michael.
The news spin is so fast, it’s like trying to catch Road Runner. Just ask Wile E. Coyote how challenging that is, and he’s a super genius. Tariffs are on hold, tariffs are back, the Roberts Court ruled for TACO, the SCOTUS ruled against TACO. Senators are speaking against Trump, speakers have just supported his agenda. The stock market is up, the stock market is down.
Speaking of super geniuses,TACO sent the stock market tumbling with accusations that China has been caught cheating on tariffs. Given TACO’s usual M.O., that means the TACO Regime was probably caught cheating. Or they’re playing squirrel again, trying to distract us from news and information which TACO finds upsetting and doesn’t want us to notice. It might just be that he’s trying to make us forget that we’re calling him TACO now.
LET’S GO, TACO!
There. Don’t know if he got that. It’s our version of “Let’s Go, Brandon” that made the right so happy last year. Maybe if more of us did it, TACO will get the message. So, let’s all amplify it via social media:
News reading and wondering what fresh bad news is rising for TACO has The Neurons firing up “Duran Duran” with “Is There Something I Should Know?” from 1983 in the morning mental music stream. I suppose it could be the Propublica and Texas Tribune article (shared here via Alternet) that the Trump Regime knew that the Venezuelans they deported were not the criminals claimed. Maybe there’s worse economic news coming that’s prompting the Trump Regime to shout, “Squirrel!” Time will tell.
Hope your Frida works out well for you. Hope mine works out for me and my family, too. Let’s make it the best one we can. Coffee is at hand. Here we go again. Cheers
We’ve made it through another cycle, and we’re set up to repeat it again. I mean the week, of course. Today is May 26, 2025. The month is singing its last notes. Many associate Memorial Day in the U.S. with the beginning of summer. I’m a traditionalist, though, and recognize summer’s start with the June solstice, as we’re north of the equator. The weather doesn’t care what we’re calling the season; it’s gonna do as it wants. Today, it looks like it wants more cloudiness baking with some sunshine. 60 F now, we’re be roaming the seventies through the late afternoon.
My bright mood has expired. Darkness has soldiered in. That’s my standard cycle. I just need deep breaths and patience to survive it, and then more normal moods will rotate in, and it’ll be up and down again for a while. That’s me.
“With each new Republican administration, it is the same promise. With each round of tax cuts, it is the same result: vast benefits for the wealthiest Americans and a pittance for everyone else. There is little growth but widening inequality and an even starker gap between the haves and have-nots.“
Reagan promised tax cuts in 1981. Bush Senior was forced into tax increases to address the damage done by Reagan’s cuts. Dubya promised tax cuts, and then Trump in 2017, and now Trump in 2025. Each time those cuts came, the economy did not do better. It took Democrats in charge to clean up the economic mess and get the economy on track again. And here we go again. Will it work this time when it failed every other effort? Time will tell.
But as Mr. Bouie writes of this latest effort:
We are now looking at another round of Republican tax cuts. Yet again the claim is that this will benefit most Americans. “The next phase of our plan to deliver the greatest economy in history is for this Congress to pass tax cuts for everybody,” Trump said in his March 4 address to Congress. But as Paul Krugman points out in his Substack newsletter, this latest package is both a shameless giveaway to the rich and a ruinous cut to safety net programs for lower-income and working Americans.
Today’s song comes from reading about the viral corruption spreading under the Trump Regime. Out of that GRRRRRRRRRR news review, The Neurons dropped “Perry Mason” by Ozzy into the morning mental music stream. Perry Mason is a fictitious lawyer of high repute. He saved the innocent and delivered the guilty for a serving of justice. He came onto the scene in a series of Erle Stanley Gardner novels in the 1930s and joined the pop culture as a television show starring Raymond Burr in the 1950s and 1960s. Yes, I know of the later series. Anyway… Ozzy Osbourne put some words to music by guitarist Zakk Wylde and keyboard player John Sinclair. The song’s chorus goes,
Was anyone surprised that the United States Air Force accepted the gift aircraft from Qatar? The question answers itself.
What is interesting is what red news sites such as OANN and RedState said about it: nothing.
Yes, nothing. Surprised? No. They know accepting this gift will further enshittify the United States. They are aiding and abetting Trump’s support but saying nothing at all about it. We can deduce this because multiple celebrated MAGAts don’t like it.
In an interview with Fox News, Republican Sen. John Kennedy said, “I trust Qatar like I trust a rest stop bathroom. If they want to be friendly, I want to be friendly back. But with those guys, you know, trust in God, but tie up your camel.”
Ben Shapiro, a conservative political commentator, criticized Trump’s $400-million gift on his podcast, saying, “Taking sacks of goodies from people who support Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Jazeera, all the rest, that’s not America First.” He continued, “If you want President Trump to succeed, this kind of skeezy stuff needs to stop.”
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, an avid supporter of Trump, even expressed hesitancy about Trump’s $400 million gift. Graham said, “Air Force One is the symbol of America. When it lands or flies, it is America flying and landing. And I want to make sure that this whole thing is kosher. Time will tell.”
At this point, I’m actually forthe Trump Regime accepting this aircraft. It’ll require years and chunks of money to refurbish it to use as Air Force One. As the economy crashes, inflation rises, the government misfires because of reduced personnel and mismanagement, unemployment rises, the wealthy enjoy more Republican tax breaks, the poor grow poorer, and the debt doesn’t doesn’t go down, this spending, along with spending on parades, golf, and poorly-thought out attacks on Trump critics, will help highlight how out of touch Trump and his GOTP are. How terrible they are at running the government. How misguided they are regarding freedom of the press, religion, and speech. The MAGA might wake up, although they’ll never sway their support until it’s all over but the crying. But independents and Democrats who thought they’d vote for Trump — i.e., the “Fuck Around and Find Out” horde — will awaken and may be pissed enough to actually act against Trump.
We’re a nation of games. How many of us play a computer game or two each day? I am guilty. The NY Times offers me Connections, Wordle, and Spelling Bee. I play them to keep my mind sharp *ahem*. I also play Sudoku at the Seattle Times, again to exercise my brain.
Online gaming is big business. People buy special chairs, headsets, computers and support systems to play hours online. Playing games on phones are an effective way to pass time while waiting for flights, buses, or meetings to begin.
Children begin playing games at a young age. Occupies their minds, helps their brains develop, and gives parents and caregivers a break. Games such as sports like football, basketball, and baseball are idolized as a way to gain fame and fortune. Television game shows offer you a chance for cash prices, as do lottery games. Besides a chance for people to add to their bank accounts, states use lotteries to raise money for education and projects. Indian casinos have increased in numbers, bringing money in for cash-starved tribes, and tax revenues and employment for communities.
The biggest games center in Washington, DC. Trump and the GOTP, along with complicit media, love playing games with The People. For instance, the cost of eggs.
Trump lies and claims that egg prices have dropped over ninety percent. In one speech, he claimed they’d declined over 98%! Ludicrous. Meanwhile, the Dollar Store has raised its prices to $1.25 and plan to raise them more. That comes and goes under the radar as Trump games people into looking elsewhere.
If you’re a coffee drinker, you know that coffee prices have increased. Initially, it’s not Trump’s fault. Weather affected coffee crops in important coffee growing places. This is just like the egg situation; it wasn’t President Biden’s fault that egg prices increased. Bird flu was causing it. Yet, we don’t hear nearly the screams about coffee inflation that we heard about eggflation. Because Trump and his campaign hammered eggflation. The game participants called the mass media picked up the ball and ran with it, trying to score points. But now, thanks to the Trump tariffs, coffee prices are percolating higher and higher. Little is heard, though. Trump has moved their attention to another game.
Meanwhile, funny enough, check out the egg prices on eggprices.org. Their chart shows egg prices have dropped.
But check below on the same page, at the highest price per dozen in the nation, and the lowest price per dozen in the U.S.:
Isn’t that odd? Virginia is cited as having the lowest price of eggs per dozen: $7.39. Yet the chart by the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the average price of eggs per dozen is $3.43 a dozen.
Sure seems odd. Almost like someone is gaming the BLS chart.
Trump and Walmart are probably going to game us over prices. Walmart said they’ll increase prices to cope with the tariffs. Trump warned them, you’d better not, you’d better eat them. Walmart said, okay, will do, chief. What they’ll probably do at Walmart is subtly raise prices on specific sets of items and blame other factors. Trump will let them get away with it because they’re not blaming his tariffs. But customers will be paying more; inflation will increase.
In other gaming news, we have President Biden’s prostate cancer. Of course Trump and his surrogates, such as his son and the DOJ, jumped all over it with stories of coverups. They’re gaming the nation by feeding the media distractions, moving our attention away from Supreme Court rulings, Trump failures, and Trump scandals.
Among the failures are Trump’s pretended success with a Ukraine-Russia ceasefire. Check out multiple news sources on this continuing situation.
Trump Says Russia, Ukraine Will Start Ceasefire Talks
Trump says Russia, Ukraine peace talks to begin ‘immediately’ after Putin chat
What superb gamemanship! Trump is playing everybody…in the United States.
Likewise, with Trump’s potential scandal involving the Qatari jet offer, suddenly claims emerge that the Biden administration initiated that process. Ignoring all previous history on the subject, the press dutifully pivots toward that, bringing the Biden administration back into play.
The latest word game Trump is playing is his “Big Beautiful Bill” in Congress. This thing is loaded with strategically placed bombs to undermine the nation. It focuses on making the wealthy wealthier and sinking the poor deeper into poverty. As it’s based on Project 2025 and Heritage Foundation thinking and guidance, you know that this is about easing the burden on the wealthiest, thus encouraging them to create more business for the nation. These are the same people who offshored and contracted out manufacturing jobs. These are people who hoard wealth while others starve, beg, and are rendered homeless.
This is, of course, trickle-down economics. The theory has been disproven but the wealthy and conservatives love it. So we will not hear anyone calling it that this year. But that’s what Trump is leading the GOTP to do in his “Big Beautiful Bill”.
It’s not a surprise that Trump’s approval ratings have improved in polls. Too many people are too easily taken in by the games, or they’re busy playing elsewhere.
Now, I’m off. There are six pangrams today. Let the games continue.
“We’re seeing as a result that ports here in the U.S., the traffic has really slowed and now thousands of dockworkers and truck drivers are worried about their jobs,” a reporter said in the press briefing.
“That means we lose less money,” Trump said. “When you say it slowed down, that’s a good thing, not a bad thing.”
I agree with PINO Trump.
I have found that having my bank account, refrigerator, freezer, and pantry all almost empty is a good thing. Without money, I can’t buy replacement stuff for my pantry, refrigerator, and freezer. Things like food, and “eggs”, as PINO Trump likes to write it.
Having less food is so much healthier. Thanks to less food, I’m losing weight. With less food, I have less energy, so I’m sleeping more. That keeps me more sated with doing nothing, so I’m not out there, spending money, contributing to the local economy, accumulating stuff which I’d just need to get rid of. Thanks to having less money, I’m using my car less, buying less gas. With others like me also buying less gas and things, we keep prices down. Since we’re buying less, businesses are able to fire employees. That means those former employees are also buying less, staying home more often, and sleeping more. Win, win, win!
We’re also helping to save the environment. We don’t have the cash or means to go places. That keeps the air, land, and water, free from our cars’ pollutants. Since we don’t have money or energy, we also go on vacation less, further keeping the air clean of pollutants from aircraft. It all makes sense, in an Alice-in-Wonderland way that I’ve never realized before.
What a stable genius PINO Trump is. I so admire his brilliant logic.
This snark was brought to you by coffee. Coffee: it’s what’s for breakfast, and writing.
“The canary in our mine has died,” the foreman reported.
“We’re not going to replace him,” the mine owner replied. “That bird was fraud, waste, and abuse. Never did anything but sit there in a cage. Useless. We’ll save hundreds of pennies by cutting that position.”
The next day, the foreman reported, “Three miners have died.”
“Good!” the mine owner enthused. “Look how much we’re saving on personnel costs. Keep up the good work.”
“All of the third shift are dead,” the foreman reported the next day. “There’s no mining going on today.”
The mine owner clapped his hand and cackled in glee. “That’s great news.”
The foreman stared at him. “How do you figure? Nothing’s being mined. Production is down.”
“Exactly,” the owner replied. “That’ll reduce supplies. With lower supplies, we can charge much more money per ton. In fact, go ahead and lay off everyone else. We’ll shut the mine down and save a fortune in overhead while we sign new deals.”
“Are you sure?” the foreman asked.
“Yes. We’ll be making so much money, you won’t believe it.” The owner’s orange face glowed with excitement. “Trust me, I’m a very stable genius. I know what I’m doing.”
IBM made news with the announcement of a ‘historic’ investment in manufacturing in the US. It made headlines and has the Trump Regime pretty excited.
Less coverage was given to IBM’s plan to ramp up operations in India. Working with new operations in Singapore, Brazil, Mexico, Europe, and Australia was a large part of my work for several years while at IBM. This was part of their offshoring investments to reduce overhead and personnel costs.
In other IBM news, IBM announced the ‘layoffs’ of 9,000 US employees. Many are being replaced by AI. As noted by many experts, a return to manufacturing in the U.S. won’t automatically translate to better employment numbers.
And keep in mind: the same replacements by AI are being planned at Amazon, Dell, and other U.S. corporations.
The old joke used to be that companies often required employees to train their replacements before they were released. Now it looks like employees are building their replacements.
Trump is celebrating his first 100 days. Some of his most fanatical base are applauding and telling us and each other, “Look what he’s done!” Other Trump voters are saying, “Oh my god, look what he’s done!” Others of us are saying, “Damn it, look what he’s done!” Only that first base group seems real happy.
I’m part of the third group. After 100 days, I’m not better off. Nor is my wife. Or any of my family.
Chaos reigns. Pragmatically, inflation and high prices keep my wife and me from buying less. We go out less often because eating out is not cheap. Yes, that’s a first world blues complaint, isn’t it? Except that we share that frame of mind with many others. Lack of going out and eating affects others’ jobs and income. Affects the local tax revenues, and yes, our state of mind. With higher prices, it’s more of a struggle to donate to charities. It usually takes a second thought to convince ourselves because we worry about what will happen to the economy with Trump’s tariffs when the dominos begin falling.
Trump thinks it’s all swell. Experts and history disagree.
We’re not doing better after Trump’s first 100 days because he’s slashed through treaties, alliances, and agreements. His appeasement approach to Putin and Russia has undermined allies like Ukraine and encourages naked aggression. Traditional allies now don’t trust us. I fully understand that. Being isolated as a nation isn’t a safe stance in this complex and violent world. Trump shrugs that off like it doesn’t matter. History is not his strong suit.
Only strong suits for Trump are lying and conning people. Looking back on how this failed businessman made his money, it was by being corrupt, immoral, and dishonest. By not paying contractors. By gaming the bankruptcy systems and conning others into investing in his businesses. Then, doing a Trump good-bye, he slips away with the money and leaves others with the mess.
We’re not doing better because of what Trump did to government agencies in his first 100 days. Under the guise of cutting ‘fraud, waste, and abuse’, he empowered Elon Reeve Musk to have ‘DOGE’ go in and cut personnel and services. Laws and legal protections were shrugged off. So were Congressional mandates done years before. Trump didn’t agree with them or like them, so he just cut them. In effect, he became a one-man nation. Our previous votes and mandates were dismissed. He’s implemented the Project 2025 playbook after insisting all through his presidential campaign that he knew nothing about Project 2025. It’s totally in line with his reputation as a liar and conman.
On top of those traits, he’s proven to be cruel and lacking empathy. He demands and rewards personal loyalty and punishes whatever he perceives as criticism or disloyalty, to the detriment of our democracy and national welfare.
We’re not doing better after Trump’s first 100 days for what he’s done with our history and rights. As a deeply prejudiced, ignorant, and flawed individual, whatever he doesn’t understand or agree with is removed and locked out of sight. Included in this are women’s contributions to our advances. Women’s contributions and women’s rights. He rejects due process as though it’s a pizza topping choice and not a Constitutional-mandated requirement. He undermines our independent judiciary by railing against them, threatening violence, and rushing to the Roberts Court for ’emergency intervention’. Through it all, of course, he refuses to take responsibility when things go to shit, refuses to learn, and refuses to change.
More pragmatically and personally, we’re not doing better after Trump’s first 100 days because of what his behavior has done to the stock market. That directly translated to our retirement accounts. Our IRA and 401k’s. While our frugalness, savings, pensions, and investments have inured us to the impact on our retirement accounts, it takes its toll on our emotional and mental states. We worry more. We rethink our choices and decisions. We plan for the worse.
Others are not as fortunate as us. Trump has cut FEMA aid to communities recovering from natural disasters. He’s cut HeadStart, education funding, and food assistant programs for the poor, children, and the elderly. Thanks to his encouragement to not get vaccinated and his cuts to health and medical services, measles outbreaks are spreading. He’s cut grant programs for medical research.
His recklessness has us wondering and worrying, what next?
No, we are not doing better after Trump’s first 100 days. Were I grading this on a letter scale as we did in school, he’d get a big red F- for all that he’s done.
Michael Seidel, writer 