A Classroom Dream
I arrived with another man — my boss — and parked in a parking garage. The car, like others there, was a mid-1960s vintage. Windows were left open so cars could stay cool, a precaution in those pre-AC days.
My boss and I were going to a conference together, meeting our team. When we went in, we learned that we would be learning about and practicing Statistical Process Control. I already knew SPC so I decided to duck out. Taking a long piece of brown cardboard from a window, I returned to my car, put the cardboard over the windshield, and napped.
Waking up later, I realized I’d overslept. Jumping out of the car, I literally ran into my boss. He said, “I’m off now, have a good weekend,” and trotted away.
Hot, I decided to strip off my clothes, leaving only my shoes on, and entered the classroom. Everyone else in there were women. They all noticed that I was naked but nobody said anything.
As I started walking through, a woman called me over to chat with me along with several other women. She was showing us her marvelous new material, which could be used on tables or floors. It seemed odd to me to be doing that then but I looked at her samples. All were bright and colorful, and very shiny, with pieces of different colored tiles embedded in them. As I looked, she asked me, “What would you choose for your floor, Michael?”
At that point, someone else called for my attention. I began walking away but called back, “My floor would be light gray but very shiny.”
Sitting down at a desk, I listened to our team lead, speaking at the front and realized they were finishing an exercise. Deciding that I wasn’t comfortable being naked, I went back to another part and discreetly put on a casual shirt and shorts. Then I went back.
The class was ending. I stepped outside into sunshine and wondered what I should do.
Trump 2026: Chaos, Tariffs, and Presidential Whims
Recent Trump actions and behavior have me rolling my eyes.
First, congratulations to Trump for finally releasing a healthcare ‘plan’.
After ten years of promises, it underwhelms. Trump believes that giving money directly to taxpayers so they can ‘make their own decisions’ will make healthcare cheaper and more effective. The White House has declared this as a framework and urges Congress to take it up.
How much Trump’s healthcare idea will help is unknown, but —
- The plan lacks implementation detail and is light on issues such as rising costs or coverage gaps
- Potential impacts on revenue streams due to additional administrative and bureaucratic costs must be a concern
- Uncertainty about its legislative prospects loom as midterm elections draw near
- The competitive, heavily regulated nature of the industry means oversight will be needed, and that is opaque
- His proposal might help where healthcare is well established, like cities, but not in rural areas where options are limited
- Trump’s Inspector General purge of 2025 included HHS, handicapping the oversight mechanisms which already existed
As misdirection, Trump’s plan helps shift attention from unfavorable facts, like less than one percent of the Epstein files has been released, and ICE is increasingly unpopular with voters.
Trump’s second move is another emerging from the swollen perception he has of his intelligence, acumen, influence, and his abuse of what patriotism is.
A man who never served in the Army or Navy, who played football briefly as a teenager, Trump wants to dedicate one Saturday’s four-hour window to have only the Army-Navy college football game televised. To make that happen, Trump, professing he’s being patriotic, declares he’ll sign an executive order to make it happen.
I think if he wants to be patriotic, he’ll let Congress pass laws about things like that, according to what We the People want. Trump’s move is all about indulging his own whims as a barometer of what’s best. With all that’s wrong with the world, presidential oversight of college football television scheduling is completely unneeded.
Playing for the trifecta, Trump tied two favorites together, tariffs and Greenland, in one quick chop. Frustrated by other nations rallying around Greenland to stymy Trump’s plans, Trump declared tariffs on eight nations — all allies — to coerce them into ‘giving’ Greenland to the United States.
I can’t comprehend how taxing Americans and reducing product availability will force those nations to ‘give’ away Greenland. Never mind that Greenland belongs to one nation, Denmark. He wants other nations to do his dirty work and convince Denmark to give up Greenland, which Denmark and Greenland consistently reject.
Trump’s new tariffs fly against the trade agreements he’d just completed with these EU nations regarding tariffs, reducing their trust of the United States. Trump earned himself the nickname TACO — Trump Always Chickening Out — for the manner he rolled out and rescinded tariffs in 2026. Economists and CEOs often cited the resulting chaos from Trump’s practice for business uncertainty and confusion.
Trump still doesn’t get that We the People often end up paying the tariffs and rising prices result, directly impacting affordability.
Prices will likely increase, if Trump follows through with these new tariffs. Congress is talking about intervening, but the established pattern doesn’t bode well for any early or quick relief. The Trump Administration tends to actively resist rulings against their policies, push backs hard, and delays implementation.
With prices — like beef — already high, the stacking effect means other prices end up rising from demand. People who can’t buy beef buy chicken, for example, pushing up the demand on chicken, increasing prices.
While those EU prices might not directly drive up prices, pressures in the supply chain and indirect costs associated with them might be experienced.
Too early to say. Trump may chicken out from imposing the tariffs, or lower the tariff amounts — who knows?
I know the global markets didn’t like it, as many economists and investors worry about a trade war.
The only thing clear at this point is that 2026 is much like 2025: chaotic and uncertain.
With Trump still calling the shots, I expect it to get worse.
Sundaz Theme Music
Sunday, January 18, 2026, commenced as an extension of Friday and Saturday’s weather in Ashland. Dry, air stagnation continues from an inversion layer, making air unhealthy by trapping particles. Although now in the 30s to 40s — 32 degrees F at my house — blue sky and sunshine promise another venture into the sixties today.
Meaning temperatures in the 60s, of course, not the famous years of demonstrations, civil unrest, hippies, and war in the United States, the 1960s. Wait; that 60s may be coming, too, the way I.C.E. violently attacks We the People and Trump escalates military power to bully other nations.
As a 1960s teen, I watched confrontations between protestors and the Federal government on the television nightly news. Now, in 2026, I’m watching the news from Minnesota.
Minnesota has become the focal point of ICE tension in 2026. Trump ordered U.S. military troops in Alaska to be ready for deployment to Minnesota. Minnesota has National Guard ready in response to the ongoing unrest tied to ICE enforcement in Minneapolis.
That’s an interesting inversion of the 1960s, when state governments used national guard units to enforce segregation. Presidents Eisenhower (Republican) and Kennedy (Democrat) responded by Federalizing the national guard or sending in military troops to enforce court rulings.
Back in the 1960s, the perception was that states were resisting change and wanted to continue treating Blacks as lessor individuals, with fewer rights.
Now, Trump is trying to treat anyone who doesn’t support him and his policies as lessor individuals, with fewer rights, and using ICE to bully people into submission. Then, as now, race and power were key issues.
It’s not overly surprising. Progress is uneven. A relatively young nation — just 250 years old — the United States is still adjusting to this whole idea of We the People, with freedom, justice, and equality for all.
It’s a classic situation. Who has the most rights, Federal government, state government, or We the People? Trump’s posture is usually, “The State is Me, and I have the power.” He also claims that We the People gave him the power when he won the support to be POTUS, completely warping the concept that he’s the people’s servant.
After the morning news scan, The Neurons offer Dropkick Murphys and “Citizen I.C.E.” in the morning mental music stream. Not my usual genre, so I wasn’t familiar with the song, learning of it through Crooks & Liars. Watching the Minneapolis crucible to see what happens today, “Citizen I.C.E.” emerges as a worthy theme song.
May your day satisfy your needs today and start an upward trend of good things happening for you. I’m going to address my needs with a little coffee now, if you don’t mind. Cheers
“Standing Beside Her: Confronting ICE in the Heartland”
Protests against ICE swept across the United States last weekend. Many citizens filled the streets and lined sidewalks to protest ICE’s policies and deployments.
Those ICE policies and deployments led to escalated violence. The most shocking violence occurred when ICE agent Ross killed Renee Nicole Good, unarmed and in her car, in Minneapolis a few days into 2026.
This week, another report emerges of ICE agents threatening U.S. citizens. This is the story of Pastor Kenny Callaghan of Minnesota.
White and gay, Pastor Callaghan was standing with protestors a few days ago when an ICE agent confronted him. Pastor Callaghan told his story to news reporters.
Rev. Kenny Callaghan is the senior pastor at All God’s Children Metropolitan Community Church in Minneapolis. He was driving to work on the morning of Jan. 7 when he saw a large crowd on Portland Avenue.
Callaghan said he parked his car and walked three blocks toward the crowd and saw several ICE agents. At the time, Callaghan didn’t know why agents were there, but saw agents approach a Hispanic woman, so he went to stand beside her.
He heard her tell agents she wasn’t afraid of them. Then, he said there was a wave of energy. It was the news of Renee Good’s death.
“I welled up in energy, even more energy than I had, and I said at that time toward those ICE agents approaching this young Hispanic woman, ‘take me, take me instead of her, I am not afraid of you either’,” he said.
Callaghan said an ICE agent approached him and asked him to repeat what he said.
“I said I am not afraid and then they pointed a gun in my face, and the crowd was chanting louder and louder, they were also chanting at this time, ‘we are not afraid, we are not afraid.’ ICE put handcuffs on my hands and put me in a black SUV,” Callaghan said.
He said while he was handcuffed in the car, ICE agents approached him a few times, asking if he was scared, and he repeatedly said no. Callaghan said ICE agents then asked him for his ID and cellphone. He asked if he was being arrested, and then he said ICE slammed the door and walked away.
“A few moments later, they came back and they said, ‘Are you afraid yet?’ and I said ‘no,’ and then they said it ‘Well, you’re White. You wouldn’t be fun anyway.’ And then I was shocked because if I hadn’t seen enough, it was then that I knew that this staging that these ICE raids are really about fear and intimidation,” he said.
Many observers agree that Pastor Callaghan is right. Trump’s ICE policies aren’t about making America great again, immigrants, whether they’re illegal or not. ICE’s tactics are about threatening Americans to do as they say, or else.
For many of us, Trump’s ICE policies aren’t a surprise. Reports from Defense Secretary Esper emerged that Trump asked about shooting protestors in Trump’s first term. During that same period, Trump also suggested invoking the Insurrection Act as justification to send tens of thousands of soldiers to deal with protestors.
Since taking office in 2025, Trump increased ICE’s budget and role. He sent ICE agents into cities on missions to round up illegal immigrants but also sent National Guard units into multiple U.S. cities. Established in 2003, ICE — Immigration and Customs Enforcement — is part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Under Trump, the agency is now violently confronting U.S. citizens far from our borders. The people they’re stopping are not immigrants and ICE agents often do not identify themselves.
Tell me, are you afraid yet?
Mundaz Theme Music
Munda, January 12, 2026, arrived in Ashland with little fanfare but plenty of cold.
I’m suspicious again of technology and weather forecasts. My weather system told me it was 30 degrees F last night when Alexa shared, 41 degrees F, with a low of 36. I provided feedback. Today, she is closer to my system, which says it’s 25 F outside. Sunny, hard frost coats part of the ground white under a sprawling blue sky.
Circumstances shorten this morning’s post as it’s our morning to deliver Food & Friends. This program delivers prepared meals from state and local agencies to people in need.
Before racing off to deliver meals, I do want to note how heartened I was that so many people protested Trump and demonstrate against ICE. More de-ICEing is needed, given the wanton way they arbitrarily act as judge, jury, and executioner.
So, in honor of those standing against them, or those, like Renee Good — dying while exercising her rights and freedoms as a citizen — I present today’s theme music.
Neil Young first offered us “Rockin’ in the Free World” in 1989 in response to the politics of that era, which included the Cold War. I think what we’re seeing now is worse in the U.S. I hope more people stand up to keep us in a free world.
May peace and grace be with you today and every day as we move forward. Cheers
Thirstdaz Theme Music
I’m working through tendrils of a new day, a new month, and a new year. Not much of it taxes me yet, but we’re only nine hours into it in Ashland.
Winter continues its weather games. Today, Thirstda, January 1, 2026, brings rain and a leaden, swollen sky. Winds whisper, howl, and moan. Temperatures around town reportedly range of 46 degrees F to 53. My house says it’s 51. Today’s high will be…51.
I posted news of Dad’s passing on Facebook and heard from many, including military peers, corporation co-workers, fellow writers-in-struggling, and friends on other continents. Comfort and thankfulness rose in me for so many taking the time from their lives to comment.
I’ve accepted Dad’s death on at least the surface. Flashes of not being able to speak or visit with him slide like gentle waves through my thoughts. Some tears fell yesterday. Today, I’m remembering him with fondness, chuckling and laughing at memories of how he smiled, laughed, and spoke.
As for the new year and month, I’m uncertain of what to expect. Last year was a ride on a cantankerous bear. Too many Trump and GOP actions dismayed my core. That core holds beliefs that We the People are supposed to have a voice in our government; that laws will be followed and enforced; that everyone is equal and deserves freedom and respect. Actions such as Trump’s rants about hoaxes, fake news, Democratic scum, and ICE rounding up people without due process all undermine my hopes.
I’ll continue voting, protesting, and writing about how Trump is conducting business. And I’ll keep trying to nurture hope and optimism that we’ll see a shift toward my hopeful vision of progress and democracy.
Here’s today’s music: “God Gave Rock and Roll to You”. The 1973 song was written by Russ Ballard. Ballard was in Argent at the time, so Argent performed and released it.
I suspect The Neurons planted the song in the morning mental music stream because I was thinking about working hard on the novel-in-progress, and the need to keep editing it. The song reflects those sentiments on one stanza:
Lyrics (h/t to Genius.com)
If you wanna be a singer or play guitar
Man, you’ve gotta sweat, or you won’t get far
‘Cause it’s never too late to work nine to five
And if you’re young, then you’ll never be old
Music can make your dreams unfold
How good it feels to be alive
Coffee is served again. May peace and grace find you and guide you along a hopeful path in the new year. Cheers
Michael Seidel, writer 