Monday’s Theme Music –
Ashland, Oregon — Monday, March 9, 2026.
Cold and gloomy this morning. 44 F underneath clouds and tepid light. Showers are possible, along with a high in the fifties. Not bad as weather goes; just uninspiring.
Many things rocking the mind in this early Monday hours. A new week is underway and we don’t know what will happen next. We can guess but the overall trajectories are pointing toward bleak.
The partial government shutdown is creating travel problems as unpaid TSA agents fail to show up for work, resulting in long security lines in the United States. More importantly, a stressed and diminished security force can be a huge liability as Trump increases attacks on Iran.
A Federal court ruled that Kari Lake lacks the authority to make changes to the Voice of America and ordered people released to be returned.
Besides a rising death toll and greater regional destruction, the Trump Iran War is causing international shipping and travel chaos.
With Iran’s previous leader killed in the initial bombings, a new leader has been established: his son, a hardliner, much like his father.
Measles outbreaks continue growing in the United States, with sharp inclines in North Dakota, Utah, South Carolina, Colorado, and Ohio reported, along with a Texas Homeland Detention Center. Over 1100 cases are reported so far in 2026.
Although the weather here isn’t stormy, the mood around the world seems stormy and moving toward greater destabilization, and we must ride it out. Thinking of that inspired The Neurons to deliver “Riders on the Storm” by The Doors to the morning mental music stream.
This atmospheric song from my youth is always thought provoking but, on my way to find a video to share, I came across Playing for Change’s version, which includes Robby Krieger and John Densmore of The Doors. I enjoyed the new musical inflections added by different singers and instruments from around the world. I hope you enjoy this as much as me.
And off we go. I hope for the best for you and us, this day and every day.
Cheers
Sunday’s Theme Music: Promises & Empty Words
Ashland, Oregon — Sunday, March 8, 2026.
The clocks have been turned, the deed is done. We’ve sprung ahead until the autumn, when we’ll fall back. I admit, I’m not a fan.
It’s 50 F out there with birds on the utility wires silently eyeing the house under a bright blue dome. 66 F is the expectation today, a short drop from yesterday’s high. Flowers are blooming and all signs are trending toward spring.
Happy birthday to my youngest sister! I vividly remember when she was brought home and how we crowded around, adoring our newest little addition. May she receive the joy and happiness that she so often brings to others with her attitude and helpfulness. Love you, sis.
You know, consumer confidence was slightly up in February of 2026. That was BTW — Before Trump’s War, which he started in Iran at the end of February. The confidence reading was also before data showing how much the deficit has grown under Trump was released, and the terrible jobs report. With oil and gas prices rising and expected to push up costs, and the U.S. burning through its armament, I wonder what the confidence reading will look like in March.
My own consumer confidence remains low. Insurance premiums, food prices, and energy prices are caving in my consumer confidence. Doesn’t help that the non-profit running our local hospital cut back its services because it wasn’t pay enough money to the parent organization, even though it showed a net operating income of $10,000,000 for its last reporting year.
As an aside, I’m amazed that I’ve been reading about how people didn’t vote in the last election because they blame both parties, so, gosh, they gush, none of this is their problem.
Meanwhile, Trump in his wisdom, has decided to escalate the attacks in Iran, vowing to hit them very hard in a Truth Social message.
“Today Iran will be hit very hard! Under serious consideration for complete destruction and certain death, because of Iran’s bad behavior, are areas and groups of people that were not considered for targeting up until this moment in time.”
Complete destruction and certain death are certainly impressive aspirations for a ‘peace president’ and unifier.
Thinking hopes, promises, and optimism ended up with The Neurons filling the morning mental music stream with a song by the Cranberries, “Promises”. The 1999 song is about “all the meaningless and empty words”, a phrase going through my mind about Trump’s past promises. Although I like the song’s style and enjoy Dolores O’Riordan, the video is, ah…unusual.
Wonder what promises Trump will break next? Already broke promises to never golf, start no new wars, lower prices and end the Ukraine war on day one, improve healthcare, reduce the deficit, better the economy, release the Epstein files, bring back manufacturing…
Hope this finds you well and your day satisfies you in all the ways you need.
Cheers
Saturday’s Theme Music – Trump’s Failing Magic
Ashland, Oregon — Saturday, March 7, 2026.
51 F outside, curdling high white clouds clout a diluted blue sky. Today’s high might be 68. The snowbank level is at 39% of average, a worrying portends as we speed toward summer.
In some quick hits, I saw that Target’s new CEO vows to bring customers back to their stores and restore growth and profits. His idea is more fashion, failing to miss the point that Target rolled back DEI and was a quick and early supporter of Trump’s agenda and inauguration.
I don’t know about others but I’m not going to walk into their stores to shop until they restore DEI. Target said it was just a coincident that they were terminating their DEI programs, claiming that they’d already decided to end it before Trump declared his war on DEI.
Some coincidence.
Other quick hits have me musing about the economy. The news is days old that the U.S. economy lost 92,000 jobs in February. January and December’s numbers were revised downward. January had net growth but lost some of that, while December, which had shown job growth, now showed a contraction of 17,000 jobs.
It doesn’t help that 2025 was the worst year for jobs growth since 2020. Trump was in the White House back in 2020, too. KIn fact, the U.S. had negative jobs ‘growth’ for the first time since 2010. Interestingly, 2025’s job growth total was well below President Biden’s economy, which added over 2,000,000 new jobs in 2024.
Prices continue high and are expected to rise more with the Trump Iran war as gas and oil prices go up. With uncertainty about Trump’s goals and how long the war will last, fears of stockpiling gas and oil might push prices up, as has happened in the past.
This is all ‘older news’ but I bring it up because it shows the continual haphazard way that Trump functions and its deleterious impacts. Many of us who aren’t drinking Trump’s magic potions and don’t agree with Project 2025’s plans and intentions aren’t surprised. We saw the effects that tariffs would have, and we understand the history of mid-east wars on gas and oil prices. We also understood what would happen when Trump broke trade agreements, and nullified or withdraw from alliances.
We also knew that when he claimed to be the peace president and that there would be no new wars, war and military action was inevitable. Trump is a liar and wanted to use the military in his first term but was restrained by seasoned individuals. With those people gone, Trump rushes to war as a salve and distraction against falling approval ratings, a terrible economy, and the Epstein files.
Note, too, that Trump crows about this showing how strong we are. However, true military experts have noted that the United States is running through its inventory of high-tech precision weapons. These are expensive and take time to make. As we’re not on a ‘war footing’, manufacturing has not ramped up to support the current demand levels. That increases our nation’s vulnerability and reduces our safety and security.
In the last quick bit, note that the growing costs of these military costs won’t do anything to help our budget deficit. It’s growing; we’re now projected to pay more in interest than we pay for defense. Staggering.
And again, many of us outside of Trump and the MAGA world saw this coming. They didn’t because they live in a make-believe existence — to our detriment.
Today’s music selection by The Neurons is “Young Lust” by Pink Floyd. Released in 1979 from The Wall album, the song is residing in my morning mental music stream because I got the words wrong when I first heard it.
The song is about Pink, the hero of the album, having sex while he’s touring. The lyrics say, “I need a dirty woman.” Somehow, I heard that as, “I need a magic woman.” So the song came up today because I was contemplating how wrong Trump’s magical thinking is and thought, “He needs a magic woman,” with a laugh. My cheeky Neurons just ran with the mondegreen.
Hope you enjoy the video. Look how young the Floyds look. *smile*
I hope your day is joyous and safe, wherever you roam and whatever you do.
Cheers
The New Music
The exercise instructor had used new music for the class. Beginning the cool down session, she asked her students, “What did you think of that music?”
An older woman in the front row yelled, “More cowbell.”
The class lost it.
Friday’s Theme Music: “Fooling Yourself”, Trump
Ashland, Oregon — Friday, March 6, 2026.
Our temperature is 51 F. Sunshine broadly spreads across the valley as thin gray fog recedes. Today’s high might be in the low fifties, we’re told.
Papi doesn’t care about temperatures. That sunshine provides a warm bathing space and he uses his tongue like he hasn’t washed in weeks.
As I sipped coffee and read the news, I thought about the illusions that Trump and his supporters and enablers entertain. That only whites matter, that history should be rewritten to reject anyone who was not a white, Christian heterosexual. It’s so narrow and foolish; again, I’m reminding that we’re only as strong as the weakest among us, only as smart as the least intelligent in our ranks, only as healthy and wealthy as the sickest and poorest.
Trump initially sold those ideas to supporters but has abandoned them. He ran on a promise of lowering prices, convincing many that he would do so on day one of his second term, improving the economy. Now, asked about rising gas prices after his attack on Iran and its impact on gas prices, Trump shrugs it off.
“I don’t have any concern about it. They’ll drop very rapidly when this is over, and if they rise, they rise, but this is far more important than having gasoline prices go up a little bit.”
I don’t trust Trump’s analysis or promises. Trump has littered the political landscape with broken promises: he would deliver a new healthcare plan in two weeks. He would never golf because he would be too busy working. Mexico would pay for the wall. There would be no new wars. Prices would come down on day one. He would end Russia’s war on Ukraine on day 1. Those are just the ones I easily remember.
Trump also claimed that last year’s attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities had destroyed them. Now he says the war is needed to destroy them.
While thinking about Trump’s positions and policies, The Neurons filled the morning mental music stream with “Fooling Yourself” by Styx. I last played this on my blog when COVID-19 was raging in the United States.
Back then, I quoted and commented on these statements and beliefs made by a MAGAt.
No worse than the flu and already going away. No, the greatest threat to America comes from “libtards” and their willingness to give everything away (he believes “Obama destroyed America and the economy”). Further, Trump’s recent sickness was really just a cover for him to rise up and finally vanquish the Dems and “libtards”.
Again, I think Trump supporters are fooling themselves. Trump is fooling himself.
On February 19, 2026, Trump said at the ‘Board of Peace’ meeting in the Oval Office:
“And there’s nothing less expensive than peace. You know, when you go to wars, it costs you 100 times what it costs to make peace.”
Nine days later, Trump launched a war that’s costing over $60,000,000 a day for the United States. This doesn’t address the cost of the other nations, such as Iran, the center of the destruction. Nor does it address the cost of lives lost, disrupted, and destroyed, regardless of the nationality, age, or religion.
And after a year in office, the Ukraine War continues.
The video I chose joins the song’s writer, Tommy Shaw of Styx, performing it with the Cleveland-based Contemporary Youth Orchestra. I hope you watch, listen, and enjoy.
May your day find you warm, safe, and blessed with love and good fortune.
Cheers
A Chaotic Dream
I read an article in a newspaper, something about prizes being given away, and decided that would be a good idea for my group of friends. I don’t recall prize details but I thought they were practical household goods — but expensive — which some of my friends could use. So I pulled my local friends together and pushed the idea on them, persuading them, “Let’s do this.”
We then got on the phone to call two other couples. We used to live close to each other but they’d moved away. I knew the wives better than their husbands, as I’d known the women first, so I kept forgetting the men’s names when I was on the phone with them.
We ended up at one of the couple’s house. It was a small three-bedroom, two baths California townhouse. Not shabby but cluttered. They were home but the husband wasn’t coming out; I sensed our ‘invasion’ irritated him and felt sort of sad that he lived in a small, cluttered place.
There was a device we were supposed to use in conjunction with this scheme, although the scheme was to call people up or knock on their doors and try to sign them up. The little rectangular device had come apart, so I was trying to fix it. Mostly metal, with a wind-up motor and gears, it also had some small red and yellow pieces, and a body that clipped on it. I continued trying to fix that while talking to others and laughing.
After a long period of aimless conversations, everyone agreed with my idea. One of the guys, a younger Mexican-native American who I worked with before, came to me and told me my assignment was to go sign up three new customers. I declined, explaining, “I’m not a salesperson. My role is to organize and oversee.”
He accepted that but seemed glum. I finished fixing the little device and put it together, telling him, “Look, I fixed it.” I felt very proud of that, vindicated because ‘I knew I could do it’.
I then asked him what the matter because his energy seemed low, then guessed that he was facing discrimination from his boss. He confirmed that, adding, “It’s others, too.” We spoke about that a little bit more.
Another friend came in to tell me my wife was missing. She said she’d gone to bed but she wasn’t in her bed. I went and checked on her; she was in bed. I told her that others checked on her, but she wasn’t there and asked where she’d been. Crossly, she replied, “I had to go to the bathroom.”
I went back out and told my friends about the exchange, then I again went looking for my wife. This time, I went outside and up the street. We were in a suburban neighborhood. I found her sitting on a lawn chair on someone’s walk to their front door. Sprinkler systems were on, watering large, lush green front yards.
My wife was younger and laughing, though she was alone. She pointed out this kitten. Tail straight up, it was an odd tarnished gold color and was prancing around. My wife said that it’s a stray but she was very fond of the cat and had been watching it for a while.
Dream end
The Building Dream
I was in a dark building, but then was outside it, adjacent to it. The building was red brick but I didn’t see much of it. I don’t know what I was doing there. The whole thing seemed murky.
A woman who reminded me of one of my sisters approached and told me, “I can do this.”
I thought, do what? What is going on here?
She then proceeded to quickly build a piece of wall of horizontal wooden planks painted dark forest green.
How the hell is that going to do anything, I thought. What is she up to?
She put her dark green construction up against the red brick facade. I saw then, it was shaped exactly to fit in that space, including the angle for the roof. Further, the brick building had a slot, and she’d included a tongue which fit in there.
I was impressed but still didn’t know what was going on, or why.
Then, though, I knew whatever she was doing was working. That just floored me.
Then she complained, “Oh, no, there’s a problem. Something got away from me.”
Trying to understand that, I got up and looked over the top of her green wall. Beyond it, I saw broad, deep blue water.
I also saw a little bug flying toward me. “Is that it?” I asked. She was talking more but I couldn’t hear her. I tried talking more loudly but she kept talking.
The bug was coming on. Now I saw, mosquito. Was that the bug she meant?
Dream end.
Michael Seidel, writer 