Sunday’s Theme Music — Diamonds & Rust
Ashland, southern Oregon – Sunday 28, 2026
Our June cooldown continues. 53 F under muttering graybeard clouds. 69 has a small chance of being the high, although 69 was briefly seen yesterday in one bright, sun spangled minute.
Rather have the light right and faint sunshine than the wildfires and drought. Drought is still on, the city reminds us. Conserve water.
Optimism that we’re all in this together flags as we go past the universe where its water sprinklers keeping their campus green and healthy.
That’s not city drinking water, it’s explained; that’s the Talent Irrigation District water. Some mumble back, water is water, but no; like money these days, it’s all in specific buckets. You must have access to the correct bucket to get the money and water.
Wonkette’s coverage of Trump 250 is maddening because it’s true. The tawdry ‘national state fair’ stinks from Trump’s malignancy. I grit my teeth while reading it.
The fair is like the Lincoln reflecting pool, a cheap mess. They try papering over mistakes but anyone with eyes can see it. Who we kidding? That’s like everything Trump has touched. Cheap, papered over.
It’s also sad and fascinating – sadcinating – how often Trump claims to do something for We the People but end up making it about himself. And how often Trump says we don’t have money for schools, the poor, etc., while he spends money for the Epstein ballroom, his war with Iran, more billions for ICE, and an estimated $162,000,000 for golfing.
Your Trump Quote of the Day:
With Trump, gas is now $4, $5 a gallon. Diesel gas is still averaging $5 a gallon nationally.
Musically, my morning mental music stream was filled with “Diamonds & Rust” by Joan Baez. While the song is about a former love calling and chatting on the phone, it’s about the emotional weight of broken promises to me. So when I thought about Trump today, I thought of empty promises and broken trust. The Neurons then introduced “Diamonds & Rust”.
I wish for you the very best of luck and happiness.
Cheers
The Trump Dichotomy
We’re at a fascinating — and disappointing — crossroads in the US. The Trump administration is advocating more funding for defense, security, and detention centers. They’re doing this while the national debt grows.
Inflation is eating into people’s discretionary spending. Yet Trump is deliberately shrinking the safety net. Under MAHA, they’re actively working against people being healthy by cutting oversight and campaigning against vaccines while cutting the EPA air and water regulations which kept our air and water safe.
As inflation increases and the number of people on Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security rises, the Trump administration says, “Work harder! Work more!”
Meanwhile, Trump’s administration pushes for more AI.
As with robotics in manufacturing, AI and General AI are often touted as a way to reduce personnel costs in help centers and bureaucracies through employing less people.
Conversely, AI and data centers have an adverse effect on the environment and increases the price of water and energy and hit local economies. That will again squeeze the poor. Spending more on water and energy, they’ll have less for food and anything else.
So, the Trump administration is driving us toward being poorer, with fewer work and employment opportunities, with higher food, energy, and water costs.
That setup benefits the hyperwealthy. People like Trump. Musk. And most of Trump’s administration. They’re not affected by inflation.
In parallel to this, Trump is hyping stocks and then buying them. Once articles about that came out, don’t you think that his administration and faithful followers are doing the same, if they have the money to?
“Oh, look, Trump just visited Thermo Fisher and hyped it. Buy, buy, buy!”
As the days of Trump’s war continue adding up, the war is heating up again. Iran struck; now Trump vows he’ll strike back ‘very hard’. That’s the person who declared himself ‘the peace president’.
The dichotomy between what Trump says he wants and what he does has never been greater. He’s making himself and his cronies wealthier and bankrupting the rest of us.
This is Trump’s vision of make America great again. The irony, first noted back in 2016 and apparent ever since, is how negatively Trump’s policies hit his staunchest MAGA supporters. Yet, they cheer his moves. It’s a dichotomy rooted in perversity and emotions that I’ll never grasp. Nor will they.
How does the $1,00,000,000 Epstein bunker-ballroom help MAGA? Does it cut inflation?
How ’bout that mega arch that Trump plans to build? How does that alleviate the water problems, the drought, the rising food and healthcare prices that Americans are enduring?
Is the Iran war making MAGA safer? Trump is convincing them that it is.
Likewise, Trump convinced MAGA that tariffs are good for them, but the opposite impact has been seen.
Just as Trump has convinced them that cutting health and environmental rules and regulations will make it ‘easier to do business in America’ — while making it harder for anyone to enter the United States to do business with his oppressive ICE and Homeland Security tactics.
You can fool some of the people some of the time, but Trump can fool MAGA all of the time.
Saturday’s Theme Music — Going Down
Ashland, southern Oregon — Saturday, May 30, 2026.
It’s a gray and chilly May day, 52 F with no blue sky available for the eyes. Bleak sunshine slants in, casting faint shadows. No rain is expected today but our high will crest in the mid 60s again.
Not the happiest of weather but not the worst, either. Makes it perfect for morning reflections on the news and life on this next to last day in May.
Mom’s possessions are going fast. Sis found people who wanted things and invited them over. Now she’s not accepting any money. It has to go, so. We the siblings are fine with that, and agree with that sentiment. We like to know these things will be useful to others.
Gina sends photos of Mom’s rooms and the transformation as items disappear. Click, click, click. It’s forlorn progress.
Likewise, we have forlorn progress against Trump’s moves. Judges have ruled that the Kennedy Center couldn’t have the board just up and change its name and that they needed to stop the renovations because it wasn’t properly addressed. Other judges ruled that Trump’s slush fund might be illegal and no payments can be made from it yet. Diane Ravitch offers good summaries of it all.
Also, an ICE agent who shot a man through a door in Minnesota and lied about it was arrested in Texas.
In other ‘yea’ Trump news, the Comey seashell Federal prosecutor stepped aside. It’s a ridiculous case, likely unwinnable, and that’s probably what he concluded and decided, screw this. Just guessing. But as so many have pointed out on social media, if Trump goes after Comey for ’86 47′, then what about that time that Trump endorsed his supporters showing graphics with President Biden tied up?
Meanwhile, economist Paul Krugman helps us understand more about the Trump economy and We the People’s view of it. Trump and his minions like to crow about how MAGA supports him 100%. And polls show that as true.
But when it comes to the economy, Krugman points out that only MAGA approves of the economy at this point, and they represent 19% of all Americans. Even non-MAGA Republicans are going, no, this is not good.
What’s most disturbing when I look at that MAGA trend line is that it’s slowly increasing. This is despite Trump’s clear lies, corruption, and ineptitude. Truly makes me shake my head. This is why it’s become the Golden Age of Corruption.
Trump’s war in Iran is now over 90 days old.
Classic con man sleight of hand. If he was as interested in the law as he proclaims, he would not ignored it to wreck the White House and begin building the Epstein ballroom. He would have released the Epstein files, as he promised, instead of twisting and turning, trying to claim that it was a hoax.
Today’s music is “I’m Goin’ Down”. This Bruce Springsteen song came out in the mid 1980s. It’s about relationships and songs. I really don’t know why The Neurons parked it in the morning mental music stream today. Sometimes they work in ways that I don’t understand.
Here’s to you and a great day for you and yours.
Cheers
Facts & Response
Trump Administration (TA): Woke ruined everything! White men are being discriminated against! It’s not fair to white men!
MAGA: Yea! Woke sucks!
TA: Cities – especially blue cities – are the economic engines of the US. So let’s send ICE there and disrupt flights into them and cause a slowdown there because we don’t like them and their woke liberal policies.
MAGA: Yea! Libruls suck.
TA: Companies will move out of blue cities and blue states to red states.
MAGA: Yeah! Libruls suck.
Blue States: Even though the nation is going through a drought and there’s less and less water available to drink?
MAGA: Fake news!
TA: We have plenty of water, don’t worry. There is a drought going on, don’t worry. It’s weather! Louisiana isn’t sinking, don’t worry. The glaciers aren’t melting, don’t worry. The sea level isn’t rising, don’t worry. The average temperature isn’t rising, don’t worry. That’s all a Chinese Democrat Deep State hoax.
MAGA: Yeah! Hoax!
Media and Economists: The tariffs and war in Iran are driving up oil prices and disrupting supply chains. That increases energy and fertilizer prices. That raises transportation and shipping costs, food prices, healthcare costs, and consumer goods prices.
TA: Prices might go up a little bit for food but don’t worry, we’ll be better off for it in the long run.
MAGA: Um…yeah.
TA: Don’t worry about the national debt, either. We’re all going to get so rich, it’ll be beautiful.
MAGA: Yeah.
Media and Economists: The rising prices will also affect insurance premiums because they’re tied to the costs of everything else. Insurance is also going up for many homeowners due to more extreme weather events and wildfires.
MAGA:
TA: Forget the Epstein files! It’s a Democrat hoax! They’ve all been released. They’re nothing.
MAGA: Grumble grumble grumble
TA: Look at this ballroom! Isn’t it beautiful? It’s the biggest and most beautiful in the world!
MAGA:
TA: Donors are paying for the ballroom! It’ll only cost 200 million! 300 million! 400 million! We need a billion dollars to make it safe!
MAGA:
TA: And look at this 250th celebration of our nation. Look at this fight we’re staging at the White House!
Media: It’s just like the Coliseum in Rome. Or the Olympic Games in Berlin before World War II.
MAGA:
TA: We’re winning the war in Iran! It’s already over! We obliterated their military! There is no more threat from Iran! It’s all or nothing! They’re running on fumes there! The people are going to rise up and take over! The Strait of Hormuz will be open, or else! We’ll bomb them more! The clock is ticking! They must give up their nuclear program! We destroyed their nuclear program! They have nothing!
MAGA:
Media: Trump has gone golfing today. He’s golfed 23% of the time he’s been in office.
MAGA:
TA: Biden!
MAGA: Biden sucks!
The Bottom Line for Trump
For Trump, 2026 mid-terms are coming fast. Reminders are coming, too: of what he promised, the promises he broke, and the failures littering his promises. Here’s one person’s reflections on Trump’s state of the mid-terms worth reading.
Monday’s Theme Music – Dreams
Ashland, Oregon — Monday, March 30, 2026.
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.
Cheers
Oops, She Did It Again
Jill Dennison has curated another magnificent collection of ‘humor’ to highlight the friggin’ insanity imperiling us. I posted my favorites. Go on to her page to find more gems.
Cheers
BONUS MATERIAL
Not necessarily toons but memes you may enjoy.
Cheers
Waiting On Trump
We’re almost halfway through March of 2026 and have seen the United States attack another nation, embrace more tariffs, and see more rising prices.
After a breakneck pace, fallout is arriving. Under Trump, led by Noem at Homeland Security, ICE created recurring headlines around confrontations, court cases, and death. Now Noem is out.
On February 20, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump that the administration could not use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose sweeping global tariffs. National refunds were ordered.
It’s a $170 billion dollar refund question, and Customs and Border Protection initially said, they can’t do it — yet.
The agency estimates that there have been roughly 53 million entries subject to IEEPA tariffs as of March 4, accounting for roughly $166 billion in deposits. The agency further said because CBP personnel must validate all refund requests, it would take over 4 million labor hours to complete returns for all IEEPA tariffs.
Trump hastily swung to other rationales for the tariffs, invoking Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 to impose a new 10% tariff on imports from all countries. He later threatened to raise that to 15%.
Twenty-four states sued, arguing Section 122 requires tariffs to be applied nondiscriminatory and uniformly, contrary to Trump’s announcement. Some critics argue Section 122 has never been used for broad tariffs because it was meant for narrow, temporary financial emergencies that no longer exist.
We’re waiting to see what happens next.
More critically, we’re waiting to see what will happen next in the Trump Iran War. Israel is moving aggressively with the U.S. alongside them as a military power but costs are stacking. The war is expensive in terms of human life and financial costs. Most importantly to Trump, he’s probably realizing he’s a FAFO fool for attacking Iran, destabilizing the region, and upending the global economy.
Patterns and reminders are fast emerging that this is economy depends on shipping and cooperation. Trump was warned that before, when he broke trade agreements, arbitrarily imposed-rescinded-imposed-changed tariffs, and when he attacked allies and let the U.S. walk away from defense agreements.
Oil and gas prices swiftly went up. As oil storage tanks filled, production facilities shut down, because the shipping lanes have been impacted.
The results of all those are hurtling toward us in big ways. While ‘inflation’ is stable, that doesn’t include volatile things like food and energy prices. Food and energy are where American consumers are most affected.
More people are becoming aware that Trump promised no new wars. Now words like draft and phrases like ‘boots on the ground’ are rising in use. Polls show voters don’t like the air and naval war already in progress. They’ll like it less if large ground forces are sent into Iran.
When will it end?
We don’t know.
Neither does Trump, apparently. He has said, “We won.”
Trump also said — on the same day — it’s “ending soon.”
He also said that it’ll end whenever he says it ends.
Joe Rogan, a Trump supporter, seems like a bellwether. He’s called the Iran war, “nuts.” In comments made in an interview, Rogan pointed out that Trump is breaking his campaign promises.
“I mean, this is why a lot of people feel betrayed, right? He ran on ‘no more wars,’ ‘end these stupid, senseless wars,’ and then we have one that we can’t even really clearly define why we did it.”
Many Trump voters had already awakened to Trump’s broken promises about lowering food prices on Day One.
They’ve noticed, too, that Trump didn’t end the Ukraine War on Day One. He later claimed he was being “sarcastic”.
That response is part of Trump’s regular responses whenever something is pointed out that’s factually wrong. For example, during the early part of the Trump Iran War, a school in Iran was bombed, resulting in 165 and 175 people killed, mostly children.
Trump suggested it was Iran’s fault.
“In my opinion, based on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran…We think it was done by Iran, because they’re very inaccurate with their munitions, they have no accuracy whatsoever, it was done by Iran.”
When pressed by a reporter if Mr. Trump’s assessment was accurate, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth responded that the Pentagon was “investigating,” adding that “the only side that targets civilians is Iran.”
Investigations show a U.S. Tomahawk missile hit the school.
Trump responded, “I don’t know about that.”
The impact of Trump’s whimsical, chaotic approach is slowly adding up. I’m just waiting for the tipping point.
It can’t come too soon for me.
Tuesday’s Theme Music: Disruptions
Ashland, Oregon — Tuesday, March 10, 2026.
Cloudy and 39F outside, dry with a high of 52 F projected.
This post is mostly about me and Mom. Pings erupted in the middle of the night. Mom had launched a text blitz, and the sisters were sharing and discussing them. I read many and saw it basically as the same old, same old on every front. One sister had helped Mom by picking things up at her house; another had responded, telling Mom that she’d created this living situation mess.
Meanwhile, searching for info and thinking late last night, I hunted for more about Heritage Grove, the assisted living facility where Mom now lives. I found this photo on their Facebook page. That’s Mom, the 90 year-old in the front left in pink in the ‘drive’ wheelchair. She’d won a Snickers bar at bingo.
Returning to sleep after the text barrage was a challenge. I finally slept but awoke when I thought I heard a man saying, “There’s a fire.” There was no man there and the house was silent. I rose, though, and walked through the house, trying to see if I smelled smoke or saw sparks or flames. Then back to bed, back to sleep, but ended up getting up late. Just eating breakfast now, 10:30, two hours late. Bah, humbug.
While I was awake in the night, I thought about yesterday’s news.
Trump urges Australia to give Iran’s Asian Cup players asylum
The story quoted Trump saying on Truth social, “Australia is making a terrible humanitarian mistake by allowing the Iran National Woman’s Soccer team to be forced back to Iran, where they will most likely be killed.”
Damn it, the only people he’s fooling are his unthinking supporters and the uninformed. This is the same person who has Homeland Security and ICE rounding people up and sending them anywhere he could get away with sending them, without one damn thought about whether they’d be killed. In the process of rounding up people and shipping them out, people were actually and being killed. And Trump always, always blamed the victims, labeling them as domestic terrorists, criminals, or thugs.
U.S. Deports Planeload of Iranians After Deal With Tehran, Officials Say
The NYTimes headline was from last October. Since then, the Iranian government killed thousands of people. And, were any of those people Trump flew back to Iran in 2025 killed when Trump bombed them in 2026?
It all has me shaking my head.
Which carries me into theme song territory. The Neurons came up with “Helen Wheels.” To which I responded, what?
The Paul McCartney & Wings song is about Paul’s Land Rover and driving around. How did it fit into my mind?
Well, it hinged on two salient aspects: “Ain’t nobody else gonna know the way she feels.” And yep, that’s Mom and life with Mom at this point. It’s a mystery. And the other part is the long-sigh “bye buh” I feel toward what’s happening with Mom, especially with my sisters.
The upbeat song feels like it’s driving me forward, pulling me off the night’s inertia.
I hope your day is going well, wherever you are, whatever you doing. May peace and grace nestle up against your efforts and help you move forward.
Cheers
Michael Seidel, writer 