Donald Trump drops hint about potential plan to add 6 new states to US
When I read that aloud to my wife, she replied, “Is that an April Fool’s joke?”
I laughed. Her suggestion made sense.
I read the article for more information. It referenced the flag on Trump’s proposed Miami library. Apparently, it has six extra stars.
My guess is, it’s a standard Trump error. He’s a sloppy thinker, leading a cabinet of sloppy thinkers. Putting too many stars on the US flag aligns with their sloppy trends.
Just as likely, it’s another attempt to distract us from the Epstein files, and — or — how badly Trump’s Iran War is going, along with rising prices, legal rulings going against him, rising measles, and falling approval ratings.
When you think about it, things are going bad for Dizzy Donny. If he follows his previous patterns, he’ll make some new bizarre announcement.
We’re looking at a rainy spring day in our valley. Sunshine is on the low side as clouds gather and darken. It’s 49 F with anticipation that we’ll peak in the low sixties today.
Out early to do our monthly Food & Friends delivery, we’re back now and into our daily grooves. Our F&F route was small again, with several favorite regulars missing. We always what’s happened to them and hope for the best.
I had a rush of micro-dreams last night. All of them felt very uplifting. Seeing and remembering them was like watching a strobe light on a crowd of dancers.
Mom remains quiet today but she’s on our minds as my sisters and I exchanged texts about her, remembering her, wondering what’s next. We spent a bit of time remembering Mom and Frank together. They used to love going dancing and to estate sales, or the grands’ concerts and ball games.
They were a sweet couple, but Mom’s illnesses, accidents, aging, and medications changed her.
Trump has also been on my Monday morning mind. I’ve been wondering, what’s next? Tariffs, ICE, Iran War, ballroom, Epstein files, general BS — what’s next?
Trump wants to start signing the currency. The GOP is proposing to issue a 250th Anniversary coin that will feature Trump’s pudgy scowl. Look others, I plan to Sharpie his signature if that comes to pass. I also agree with the premise that the only currency Trump’s face should grace is a wooden nickel or fake funny money.
Stevie Nicks wrote today’s song, “Dreams”. It was a hit for Fleetwood Mac and a personal favorite. Slow moving like a thunderstorm, it’s reflective words and sound carries me into different moods and thoughts. It’s also a song about loss, too, mourning what was and what is now. That’s no doubt why Les Neurons put it into the morning mental music stream.
I took to a different video for it, finding this lovely acoustic version on “Playing for Change”. I hope you enjoy it.
Let’s hope peace and grace arrive and help us all to improved lives.
I read the NYTimes review of the Trump Ballroom addition to the White House, the addition where Trump tore down the Easat Wing without public approval.
The Times article cited a grand staircase that leads to no entry. Pillars that block the view from inside the ballroom. A building that is too tall and too large for its planned purpose. It was also a building put up without previous engineering and architectural reviews.
A judge ordered construction stopped so reviews could be conducted. Trump responded to a hand-picked panel that unanimously grunted, “Approved” without thinking about any of the 19,000 objections raised.
In many ways, the ballroom is perfectly symbolic of Trump’s decisions.
Dismissing medical science, Trump appointed anti-vax people to important positions. With more people encouraged to dismiss childhood vaccinations, measles outbreaks in 2025 climbed to the highest levels seen in decades. 2026 is expected to surpass that mark.
Ignoring economic and political history, Trump instituted ’emergency’ tariffs which drove up costs and prices, and which now must be paid back.
Hiding from the truth is what always drives Trump’s unhinged, untethered vision, whether it’s how badly he lost in 2020 or how his popularity is tanking in 2026.
49 F here this morning, we’ll looking for another day where the high temperature is in the low 70s. Yesterday ended with clouds mixing up with sunshine, and that’s where we’re starting today.
My wife and I were zonked out from attending the No Kings protests. Standing there, holding letters spelling out “No War”, blasted by sunshine, car exhaust, and noise, just undone us. We ate at Ruby’s Grill, a local favorite afterwards, and then did some errands. Back home, I read myself into a thirty-minute nap.
Still, it lifted our spirits to be among so many protesting Trump and his policies. I was pleased by how many young people participated this time. The responses from motorists going by also pleased me, especially when I say cars full of young children go by, the driver honking their horns while the children waved, gave thumbs up, or flashed peace signs.
Seems like ICE isn’t popular. Nor is the Trump Iran War. Nor is Trump’s grifting, tariffs, lies, and pardons, or his connections to Epstein.
My sisters and I received a good Mom report today. Karin — daughter of Mom’s late partner, Frank — visited Mom yesterday. She reported that Mom was happy and healthy. Using her walker, Mom showed Karin around the assisted living facility, pointing out her friends and their names. Mom said she could live alone at home except she struggles to get out of bed.
My sisters and I pointed out to one another that Mom is doing well because she’s more active. Part of that is her vanity: other women are using their walkers there, so Mom will, too. She doesn’t want to be known as the ‘old woman in the wheelchair’.
Mom is also eating better there, and probably sleeping better. Her desire to be home stems from her fixation on finances: she has a home that she owns and doesn’t want to be paying a small fortune for a place to lay her head. Mom also knows her finances will only go so far — and then what?
Yes, it’s an aging riddle wrapped up in a social enigma. We’re happy that Mom is reported to be doing well.
Today’s morning mental music stream inhabitant is “Only A Fool Would Say That”. This is a 1972 Steely Dan tune. It came to mind yesterday during the No Kings protest in Medford. A young white woman stopped at a traffic light rolled her window down and shouted “God bless Trump” five times.
People around me laughed and said, “What a fool.” The Neurons picked it up and rushed to the music memory module to find the Steely Dan song.
It’s a quietly rainy day out there. Clouds are cemented together against encroachments of sunshine and blue sky. Temperature isn’t bad, 51 F. 54 F is the prospective high.
Made an appointment with a urologist for a cystoscopy in May to figure out what caused the blood in my urine. It’s abated, far as I can tell but other tests show something growing in my bladder. They’re going to go in and see what that is.
I haven’t read much news this morning. A ‘something is about to happen’ vibe seems to be humming. Trump had threatened bombings which were against modern rules of war and gave a Monday PM deadline. Then, Monday morning, he reversed himself. That news changed financial markets. Traders made money by making moves just fifteen minutes before Trump made his announcement that he was holding off on further bombing.
What a coincidence.
I did read another comprehensive story about Epstein’s death.
I’m indulging in another day of reflections about Mom. We, her family, can’t just converse with her without it spiraling into deeply disturbing, frustrating patterns. She’s now saying the same thing about her primary assisted living contact that she said about my sister and about Frank. “She’s mean to me. She screams at me. I’m so unhappy here.”
It tears my sisters and I apart to see Mom be in this situation. We feel helpless and resigned.
I ended up with The Neurons playing “So Far Away” by Carole King in the morning mental music stream. Her songs with her singing them came out while I was in high school. Her album, Tapestry, resonated with so many young women in my life then. The songs were being heard everywhere.
I’m a rocker and leaned toward The Who and Pink Floyd as examples of my preferences back then. Yet her songs’ sensibilities and melodies worked.
The song arrived today because sis, who took Mom in, is really feeling it and reacting now. Venting a great deal. I can do very little except lend a shoulder because I’m so far away. And as I thought about it, Mom is far away in space and memory, far away from who she was. Going ‘home’ next time will be a very different place and experience.
Let me get off my pity pot. I hope your day and relationships surpass wonderful, it’s an excellent day of peace and grace for you.
It’s warming today but not like much of the continental United States. Currently 68 F, our 75 F high will give us a comfortably warm day.
My wife purchased this little art piece for the house. It’s perfect for us, as we both enjoy reading, and I also write. I enjoy the little reader statue so much, I thought I would share.
My life is otherwise auto-pilot quiet as we go through routine tasks and await news or results.
As I often do, I began reading the news today and ended up struck with some ideas which evolved into a small piece about Trump world. I split it off.
Meanwhile, the basic theme stayed with me: imaginary. Much of Trump’s existence is based on false ideas, misconstrued history, and things which he imagines. My Neurons sensed the direction and introduced “Imaginary Lover” by ARS into my morning mental music stream.
It fits, though: “Imaginary lovers never turn you down.” That’s Trump and his base all the way; they never turn him down.
Also, despite all the files being suppressed and the history that shows Trump was friends with Epstein, Trump is trying to insist that’s not true. He’s trying to tell us that we imagine his relationship with Epstein.
I chuckled when I heard the song in my head. How many of Trump’s base imagine him as their lover?
I hope your day is comfortable, safe, and leaning toward optimistic outcomes.
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.
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.
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.
Michael Seidel, writer 