Tag: Jill Dennison

Tuesday’s Theme Music – Turn to stone

Ashland, southern Oregon — Tuesday, May 12, 2026.

It’s 66 F in Ashland. Clouds have painted a thin white veneer over the blue. Thunderstorms are forecast, along with an 87 degree high as spring moves toward summer.

Papi and I went out back. As I was stretching and yawning, I looked down and saw him doing the same. I laughed. “Nice stretching, oh great fur being.” He sat down and began grooming places that I groom in the shower.

News from home is that Mom is sick again. Details are shared. Her sciatic nerve has flared up and she’s back in her wheelchair. Also suffering from diarrhea. Sis says that’s been going on for a week.

My sister has been in content with estate sellers. Familiar with them? They buy the contents and then sell it to the public. They really want to know if there’s anything there besides furniture. Yes, there’s all the things you’d find in house where someone lives. I know that there’s a new movement on about ‘vintage’ stuff. Corning Ware is very popular now. Old clothes. Mom has all that stuff.

Strange and humbling to think simultaneously of all that stuff being bought, used, and sold to others. Decisions made about each purchase. I’d rather that someone else finds and uses the stuff rather than having it going to trash or recycled for its materials.

Today’s music has a two-prong inspiration. One, Jill Dennison recently played ELO’s song, “Turn to Stone”. A good song, it brought to mind another song called “Turn to Stone”. As soon as I read “Turn to Stone” on Jill’s blog, The Neurons introduced Joe Walsh’s “Turn to Stone” song.

I also remembered that I once read that Walsh said the song was about frustration. In true ‘net spirit, Wikipedia.org has a good quote about that from Walsh.

“‘Turn to Stone’ was written about the Nixon administration and the Vietnam War and the protesting that was going on and all of that. It’s a song about frustration. Also, I attended Kent State. I was at the shootings. That fueled it, too. In those days it felt like the government’s priority was not the population. They had an agenda that was about something other than doing what was necessarily good for the country.”

That last line echoes through Trump’s agenda. Driven by ‘right-wing values’, also known as racism, sexism, and greed, and orchestrate by the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025, Trump’s agenda is about him and not at all anything necessarily good for the country.

As Joe sings, “Read the writing on the wall.”

Your Trump Quote of the Day:

Inflation news grabbed headlines this morning. Driven by Trump’s non-war in Iran, inflation jumped 3.8% in April. Rising gas prices were a big factor.

Trump’s disapproval rating keeps climbing. The NYT’s page summarizing polls and their Trump ratings are a column of red, showing net disapproval in every poll.

One another piece of news was that Epstein survivors are testifying in Florida. Standing by for another salvo from Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL to distract us from these pieces of news.

On to the music. Hope your day is full of good intentions and good results.

Got my coffee. Time to fly. Cheers

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Thursday’s Theme Music — Look! Roberts!

Ashland, southern Oregon — Thursday, May 7, 2026.

Blue, blue sky. 67 F that we now feel would’ve been the high a few days again. Now it’s a measurement as the thermometer sings toward 83 F. Higher is possible, I think.

Mom is settling into acceptance that the nursing facility will be home for a while. Although she looks and seems happy in photos and videos, she doesn’t like paying the money and doesn’t like having her independence curtailed.

I hear her. I can see myself feeling and doing the same. I wish something better was available for her.

Meanwhile, my sister is moving forward on selling Mom’s house and getting powers of attorney. Sis has been patient and persistent and gets a lot of points for that.

My sisters and I shared health texts yesterday. We older beings laughed as we compared our health issues. My younger siblings were agog with dismay. My older sister responded, “Getting old ain’t for sissies.”

Big news front that I’m seeing is Justice Roberts is upset.

Chief Justice laments perception of ‘political’ Supreme Court

I read that to my wife. She laughed. “Gosh, I wonder why.”

No kidding. The shadow docket has surged under Roberts once Trump came into power. The Brennan Center summarized exactly why we think the Roberts Court is politicized and favoring Trump:

“The Court has sided with the administration 80 percent of the time when making “emergency” rulings, often without revealing its reasoning.“

Your Trump Quote of the Day:

Despite Trump’s claim, made less than three months ago, Republicans are now asking for $1,000,000,000 for the ballroom. Trump also claims the Epstein ballroom is under budget, even though they’re now asking for five times the original amount to build it.

Trump can’t be trusted. Nor can the GOP. What’s your guess for how much the Epstein ballroom will end up costing?

Between the Epstein ballroom and Trump’s Iran War, Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! is becoming one of most expensive fiascos in history.

Today’s theme music is “Under My Wheels” by Alice Cooper. The song came out in 1971. It entered my morning mental music stream today after reading Jill Dennison’s blog. It featured the ELO song, “Telephone Line”. That was enough to inspire The Neurons to lift “Under My Wheels” out of my dusty folds of memory. See, the song begins, “The telephone is ringing,” and the line is repeated throughout the song.

Hope you enjoy it. Still sounds good to me, fifty years plus later. However, I don’t often play Alice Cooper these days; he’s a right-wing individual who trashes trans ‘as a fad’.

I hope this day finds you doing well in all ways that matter. May peace and grace carry you on no matter what adversity life might deliver.

On to my coffee. Cheers

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What A Story!

Jill’s post, “Da ‘Toons Tell Da Story” sharply illustrate the foolhardiness of the Trump administration and his followers. I pulled a few favorites to share right here and now, but way more are on her page. Get thee over there to check ’em out!

Da ‘Toons Tell Da Story!

My Five Favorites:

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Good to Laugh

It’s good to laugh, especially when I can laugh at Trump. Jill Dennison again provides the need laugh-fuel for a weary feeling March Tuesday. Here are my top choices from her terrific solution. Hope you read the rest and find your own.

Time For Some ‘Toons!

Feels good to laugh, even when it hurts a little because it’s all too damn true and real.

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Awesome Toons

Just in time to save my sanity, I clicked on Jill Dennison’s Saturday Afternoon ‘Toon Time! Quite a collection of humor, I encourage you to check them out. Meanwhile, here are my Saturday super-seven favorites.

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Friday’s Theme Music

Ashland settles into Friday, January 30, 2026, with a long sigh of clouds. 46 F now, we don’t expect it to get much hotter or colder. We’re still looking for our first winter snow.

In other U.S. regions, snow and ice remain big problems. Power outages continue, communities are digging out, but more snow is on the way in several places.

Turning to political ICE, ICE remains a problem for too many as another ICE detainee’s January death was a homicide. Add Geraldo Lunas Campos to the list of deaths beside Keith Porter, Renee Nicole Good, and Alex Pretti.

A new story highlights that ICE is converting warehouses and industrial buildings located by 23 towns around the United States. Each is expected hold thousands. Concerns emerge about the conditions of those buildings and the impact on local fresh water supplies. The Trump ICE team plows on regardless of worries that We the People express. Trump is in charge, and ICE is going to remind you, it’s the Trump way or else.

These new Trump ICE facilities are in addition to existing facilities.

Trump was called out for lying — again. The subject was California and Walmart. Trump claimed that California’s minimum wage was too much for WalMart, and WalMart was closing stores. Trump stated that California’s minimum wage is $22 per hour but it’s $16.90, except for fast-food workers, paid $20 per hour.

Trump claimed WalMart was closing 250 California stores. “This isn’t accurate information,” an unnamed Walmart spokesperson told CNN. “In fact, we actually just recently opened a new store in California.”

CNN calls Trump’s claims ‘wildly inaccurate’. Based on Trump’s extensive catalogue as a serial liar, I think Trump’s claims can safely be declared another lie.

The Neurons have Faith No More singing “Epic” from 1990 in the morning mental music stream.

“Epic” Lyrics

Can you feel it, see it, hear it today?
If you can’t, then it doesn’t matter anyway
You will never understand it, ’cause it happens too fast
And it feels so good, it’s like walking on glass
It’s so cool, it’s so hip, it’s alright
It’s so groovy, it’s outta sight
You can touch it, smell it, taste it, so sweet
But it makes no difference ’cause it knocks you off your feet, say

The song mostly just rhymes to a heavy beat, challenging you to follow the logic. It fits as today’s theme music because following such hollow logic is how it is for me with MAGA and Trump. What’s the logic, and how does it hold?

I find many Trump and MAGA claims effectively hold up as solidly as a brown paper bag in water. Affordability and the assertion that Trump is the Peace President — and a unifier — sit at the top of the messed-up logic pyramid. MAGA and Trump both keep squirming away from the truth, but the truth is rising faster than the new Trump ballroom.

The trick at this point is not to become inured or complacent, or as worse, too weary and drained to respond. Thom Hartmann wrote about the dangers, and Jill Dennison shared it for us. A good read, it’s a necessary reinforcement, this is not the end or beginning; we’re in the middle.

I hope peace and grace finds you and keeps you warm, safe, strong, and healthy — today and every day. Cheers

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Toons!

A Day Out For Filosofa

Jill Dennison posted some wonderful toons on her site. I have to share them. I will note my favorites. You should check them out and see which ones talk to you. Cheers

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A Little Perspective

Ever Wonder What It’s Like …?

I am a person who suffers from first world blues. Viktor Kravchuk’s insights about the war in Ukraine, lifted from Jill Dennison’s blog, helps me with an attitude adjustment about slow net speeds, poor customer service, terrible drivers, and writing difficulties. Mr. Kravhuk’s comments commend an attitude that is too often lost, that it’s easy to despair and give up, but what’s the point of that? Better to pick up and keep going.

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Sharing Some Humor

I Flipped A Coin — Da ‘Toons Won!

Sharing some political humor from my friend Jill. Most made me laugh, although my teeth were grinding together from the truth behind the humor, but there are a few which really stood out for me. You should go check out the rest.

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Welcome to MAGALand

More Tears Of Shame

Jill Dennison is my online friend, and a staunch defender of justice, liberty, equality, and democracy. Jill found and shared a piece by Jay Kuo about the travesty sickly called ‘Alligator Alcatraz’. Trump likes to joke about prisoners trying to escape the nasty conditions ending ending up as a Mc gator meal. This is a place with the squalid and inhumane conditions of backwards areas of the 1900s United States, places we’d legislated against and outlawed out of respect for life. Now, under Trump, instead of advancing, we’re throwing away due process and law and order and sinking into the miasma of a third-world shithole.

Welcome to MAGALand.

Read it for yourself but be ready for your GRRRRRRRR meeting to go off the scale.

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