Tag: MAGA

Trump’s Slipping Masks

Trump has worn masks all of his life.

Yeah, Trump put on masks as genius, intellectual, historian, grass keeper, builder…

Avoiding military service, Trump went to a military school and has since pretended he’s tough as a marine, as knowledgeable as admirals and generals.

Given hundreds of millions of dollars, power, and name when he was young, Donald Trump wore a mask as a self-made businessman. Masquerading as a leader, he’s trying to become a trillionaire via grift and political corruption.

Married three times, he’s worn masks as a faithful husband and doting father. Holding a Bible, he wore a mask as a Christian and paid money to hide his affairs.

Wearing a mask as a good friend to Epstein, Trump then put a mask that he would provide the truth, and now keeps trying to put on a mask that he had little to do with Epstein.

What wouldn’t Trump do to advance himself?

Well, tell the truth. Face reality.

Trump’s masks slip off his face so fast these days, it’s almost as if the masks are rejecting him. During his inauguration, Trump tried masking himself as a unifier and peacemaker.

Since that time in 2025, Trump:

  • Established immigration policies which ordered ICE to surge multiple times, brutally rounding up people, deporting them without due cause, detaining, shooting and killing US citizens
  • Directed the US Navy to attack boats in international waters, murdering 234 people without due process or evidence
  • Ordered the US military to kidnap President Maduro of Venezuela, again without court orders, due process, or evidence
  • Commanded the US military to attack Iran in 2025 to destroy their nuclear capability
  • Began a war with Iran to overturn their government and destroy their nuclear capability — which he’d already claimed to have destroyed, despite his promise of no new wars

Trump claimed he would Make America Healthy Again. Despite that slogan, the number of rural hospitals closing continues without slowing down. The hospital closures through 2026 are highest in Texas (39), Tennessee (19), Mississippi (17), and Oklahoma (17). All of these are red states who carried Trump back into office in 2025.

Measles outbreaks is at the highest levels in the United States since 1991, thanks to Trump’s healthcare policies and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Trump campaigned against President Biden and Vice President Harris on affordability. Now affordability is a major crisis for many Americans, completely tearing the mask off the person making those claims that he cared about them and would lower prices.

The worse mask Trump wore, though, was the one that he would govern in accordance with the Constitution and the laws and norms which bind our politics. Trump tossed that mask aside on day one. He began by Installing a billionaire, foreigner, and unelected individual, Elon Musk, to an official government position. Musk, via DOGE, fired employees, cut Congressionally authorized spending and programs, and ignored the checks and balance and agencies established via 250 years of trial and error, law, and votes.

That was only the beginning. Trump has since completely abandoned the masquerade that he’s for free and open democratic elections. Through Republican surrogates and toadies, he’s pushed for lines to be redrawn to favor Republicans. Using executive orders as imperial decrees, Trump personally attacked mail-in voting and is using the USPS and DHS to reduce its effectiveness — even though Trump uses the mail to cast his votes.

Classic Trump Double Standards. He never could find a mask to hide that one.

Trump’s masks fooled enough people that he was voted into office twice. But now, approach the midterms, enough of Trump’s masks have fallen away to expose all of his corruption and ineptitude.

Anyone voting for Trump now is voting to continue that corruption and ineptitude, regardless of the reasons they give for supporting Trump.

All of this is just the tip of the iceberg of corruption under Trump. We’re not sure how much of it is concealed. Growing evidence such as Trump’s exploding wealth and the number of pardons he’s issued led many of us to think that the corruption is enormous.

Vote blue in 2026 so We the People can begin again to try to have and hold a democratic republic.

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Trump In the News

Dateline U.S.A., September 25, 2026.

From court cases to historians to polls to pundits, we’re watching Trump continue to endure a disastrous year. Personally, I thought it would happen faster. But no; many MAGAzens and Republicans continue to support Trump. There’s much evidence that they will continue to support Trump albeit for different reasons.

Still, MAGA is currently contracting, and Trump’s unpopularity and disapproval grows.

Those points will matter if we’re still a functioning democracy when the midterms come.

The headlines are both encouraging and scary, reflecting the polarized electorate, and the Trump government’s effort to marginalize the will of We the People.

‘MAGA collapse’ is here as Trump’s embarrassments mount: historian

Trump loses big in Iowa court after trying to sue pollster

Trump can’t make ‘super intelligence’ happen

Donald Trump abdicates as leader of the free world

Trump-endorsed candidate says family member is now facing deportation

A Quiet ICE Surge That Unfolded ‘Everywhere All at Once’ This Summer

From 16,000 to 185 to Zero: Trump’s Claims of Illegal Voting in Nevada Fizzle.

Backfired: Trump’s plot to damage Canada has gone awry

On the flip side, the Heritage Foundation that’s propping Trump up with its Project 2025 playbook knew that the disastrous results would catch up with Trump. They’ve been working to change voting and voting districts to keep Republicans in power. While courts have been mostly ruling against these efforts, when they arrive at the Roberts Court, chances are Trump’s power play will win.

The Supreme Court revives a controversial data system for citizenship checks

It’s interesting — again — that Republicans, who complain about big government and want to insist they’re for law and order and democracy, keep reining in the checks and balances that helped our nation advance toward a true democracy, and have turned a blind eye to Trump’s willingness to corrupt the national discourse and enrich himself.

And then they wonder why progressives, liberals, and Democrats are so angry with them.

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The Trump Receipts

Who had Trump will ignore the court on their bingo cards?

I wasn’t overly surprised to read the Trump White House still refused to let the MS Now, Politico, and CNN reporters in after a judge issued an injunction against the White House ban on the three news organizations.

Trump declares himself as a ‘law and order’ proponent but keeps breaking laws. He also claims to be for peace while ordering attacks on other nations and insists he’s for technology — pushing AI and data centers — while stopping work on wind and solar-energy initiatives.

Likewise, Trump declared he’s for freedom of the press and freedom as speech while trying to shut down both. So ignoring the court’s ruling is totally in line with his general hypocrisy and double standards. I mean, he promised no new wars and then went to war and declared that he never promised no new wars and it’s not a war anyway. LOL. His duplicity and lawlessness are breathtaking.

Ironically, it’s technology that reveals what Trump said, context and all, proving that he said it. We have receipts: video. Transcripts. Records. He can squirm and try to wriggle out of what he said, but as long as we keep paying attention, facts and truths won’t be forgotten.

That circles us back to the Epstein files — again. Trump said that, yeah, I’ll probably release them. Then he insisted the Epstein files are a Democrat hoax.

That’s another of his favorite tactics, calling things a hoax, and blaming it on the Democrats.

Trump calls affordability crisis a ‘hoax.’ The data tells a different story

Impeaching Trump — twice — was a Democrat hoax; the Democrats’ criticism of how Trump was handling the coronavirus pandemic — hoax; Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election was a hoax, according to Trump.

Trans-Pacific Partnership? Hoax.

Climate change? Hoax, in Trumpworld.

Even rural MAGA voters have caught onto Trump’s methods and policies.

MAGA voters turned off by President Trump’s falsehoods in 2026

The distractions, lies, and broken promises are catching up with Trump.

We the People have receipts, and we’re not letting this go.

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The Fading of Donald Trump

Amused to read that MAGA podcasters have stopped talking about Trump much.

It’s funny because Trump is insisting the midterms are about him.

Trump is right, the midterms are about him, but not for why he thinks it is.

Trump believes he’s doing a fantastic job. He gave a speech at the United Nations this week full of many of the same lies, exaggerations, and misinformation that he claimed before. As before, factcheckers went through it and corrected the record for us.

The midterms are about Trump because many of We the People want control wrested away from him. He’s made many unpopular moves. Biggest ones are probably not lowering prices, not releasing the Epstein files, and starting the war in Iran.

Trump promised no new wars and lower prices when he was campaigning in 2024. Instead, he started a war and raised prices via tariffs, policy decisions, and yes, war. Now, as the midterms play out, an increasing number of Republicans are shying away from appearances with Trump and his endorsements — or that of his surrogates, like JD Vance. In multiple races, Republicans who stood with Trump are trying to pretend they don’t know him.

And MAGA is also slowly abandoning Trump, according to an analysis in a Wall Street Journal article.

MAGA podcasters are tuning out Trump. We tracked what they are talking about now.

To quote the article, “But MAGA podcasters aren’t playing along. Mentions of Trump’s name per hour on conservative podcasts have fallen nearly 70% from their peak in the run-up to the 2024 election.”

The WSJ article noted that the downturn in Trump mentions sharply coincides with when Trump began the Iran war in February, 2026.

Reading Leaving MAGA confessions, many of them slowly realized that Trump and the right-wing media was lying to them. It didn’t automatically drive them toward the Democrats, and I understand that. The Democrats are also far from being the party I desire. My request for term limits, dark money, and PAC participation include Democrats.

Nor does all this mean that Trump is going away soon, nor easily. If the GOP loses the House, Senate or both in the midterms, Trump will ramp up his war on democracy in America. He will be angrier, more bellicose, more erratic, and he will lie more.

We’ve all seen it before. It’s really more about how much do we trust, remember, and believe?

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Sunday’s Theme Music — Guns, Guns, Guns

Ashland, southern Oregon. Sunday, September 20, 2026.

We’re sitting on the cusp of autumn at 78 F, anticipating a rise to 90 F, so sunny and blue that you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s the middle of summer.

But the changing leaves on the trees defy that assessment. And the night temperatures have been coming down…cooler…cooler.

Sunset comes more quickly, and sunrise seems to lag.

It’s summer’s end, autumn’s beginning.

Seasons don’t slow Trump down! First, he tells us that he’s built the world’s greatest military, seizing all the credit, as though he conceived and built everything while selecting and training every soldier, marine, sailor, and airman.

Then, while building the White House ballroom on the site of the East Wing that he illegally tore down, he embellished his ballroom dream, declaring it would be ‘drone-proof’ with a drone port, a military installation with snipers.

Now Trump is saying the same thing about the new Arch he wants built.

Trump says new arch will also deploy drones, position snipers and store ammo

Who are all these invaders Trump is fearing that he’s obsessed with adding snipers to everything he builds?

Well, wiser heads suggest that Trump is pitching the security angle because the beautification scam isn’t working any longer.

More cynical people like me like me believe that it’s a three-prong attack on common sense and decency. The reasons include both of the previous reasons, but it’s also another distraction as part of Operation Epic LOOK SQUIRREL!

Trump using the security angle for the arch does make sense; when courts heard about ‘security concerns’ after the Epstein ballroom construction had been halted, they yielded to Trump.

Your Trump Quote of the Day:

It’s classic, irritating Trump to me. On the one hand, Trump boasts of building the world’s most powerful military and proposes a huge military budget. On the other hand, he’s reducing the US military power as ‘rifles and pistols’. As if we don’t already have stealth fighters and bombers, ICBMs, space and other space, land, and sea-based weapon systems.

He is ridiculous. So are his supporters, especially those zealots, the MAGAzens.

All this Trump thinking about wars, guns, and shooting provoked Les Neurons to bring JoJo Gunne into the morning mental music stream. The band was named after a Chuck Berry song and the song came out in 1972. No much to the lyrics, to be honest, but it’s upbeat and easy to sing along with.

I hope this is a good day for you, using whatever metrics are meaningful to your life.

Cheers



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Saturday’s Theme Music — Talking

Ashland, southern Oregon. Saturday, September 19, 2026.

Summer is serving up a last hurrah, taking us into the high 80s today and low 90s tomorrow. Sunshine crowns the multi-colored trees and serves up against a deep blue sky.

I’m going to pass on writing about Trump and politics today, so it’ll be a short post.

Today’s music is “Talk of the Town”. It’s in the morning mental music stream after friends and I were talking about the plight of the bears here in southern Oregon. “Talk of the Town” is a 1980 song by the Pretenders. If I was writing about the current national situation, it would be a good song for today.

Sample Lyrics

The rules and such never bothered you
You call the shots and they follow

May this day and every day find you safe, free, healthy and happy.

Cheers

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Friday’s Theme Music — Storms

Ashland, southern Oregon. Friday, September 18, 2026.

Another Friday reached, another week trickling toward the end. We drift further into autumn in the northern hemes as they moved toward hot weather south of the equator.

Today has Ashland at 68 F with 83 F on the blue horizons. Leaves are not falling from trees yet, but colors are swarming into the green. Maples are already shimmering with dark reds.

All quiet with Mom and my family. I texted Mom and received one to two words in response. Nothing from any sisters.

Today’s warm sunshine is appreciated. Nicely complements my morning coffee. I usually take it black but my physician suggested that I need more protein in my diet. I now pour some chocolate protein shake into my morning coffee, resulting in a protein mocha, more or less. *smile*

I go through headlines, plucking out information, studying the runes, peering at the tea leaves, hoping for revelations.

Fox News Poll: Squeezed by costs, frustrated voters turn to the Democrats

Iran war has cost $45.1 billion, Pentagon tells Congress

Karoline Leavitt’s new Trump line becomes accidental rallying cry for Dems

Trump bans CNN, MS Now, and Politico from White House

Another Great Lake is renamed to mock Trump’s Lake Ontario decision

‘I don’t want you to stand with me and the MAGA movement today’: Trump sends urgent fundraising appeal

The omens show a divided nation and a desperate, flailing Trump. Even as I wonder about that, I remember that Trump has always enjoyed being confrontational and combative. He likes to appear defiant and is often bullying, no matter what the circumstances are. He’s rarely conciliatory.

Basically, though, most Republicans still seem to support Trump, according to polls. For a significant part of the GOP coalition, the economy is not the central objective, and his lies and broken promises are not a problem. These are prices they seem willing to pay for cultural dominance, institutional transformation, or the defeat of their perceived enemies.

My overall sense is that we’re in the lull in a storm. More stormy weather is coming.

Der Donald is doing his best to keep us distracted and angry. This week, Trump floated conjecture about demolishing the Kennedy Center because he can’t have his name on it. How very Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! of him. Of course, with any Trump declaration, he can swing swiftly from rhetoric to destruction. Court orders were quickly sought. Whether they’ll slow Trump is debatable. He always claims he’s for law and order but has shown that he doesn’t think it applies to him.

Today’s song is about storms but it came about yesterday. As my wife and I chatted about the novel “John of John” in our home office, we heard thunder. Or it could have been thunder. Maybe it was a passing truck.

Going to the window, we looked out on a confused collage — stormy clouds, bright sunshine, blue sky, distant rain veils. We stayed a bit, continuing to chat but heard no more thunder and saw no lightning.

All that culminated in The Neurons recalling a 1974 Deep Purple song, “Stormbringer”. The song stayed in the morning mental music stream as I read the news and drank my coffee. Part of that is because whenever it’s sunny but rainy, my wife and I look for rainbows. “Stormbringer” references riding a rainbow.

Hope you find a day of rainbows, peace, and good health. Here we go, into another one.

Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music – Wrong

Ashland, southern Oregon. Tuesday, September 15, 2026.

Going to warm up to 80 here, giving us a warm late summer day. 57 F under blue skies.

I spent time on the phone with Mom the last several days. Or tried. I would call her and she wouldn’t answer. She would call me but I would be out doing things.

Per a text agreement, I called her at 9 AM yesterday. Didn’t get her. She called me hours later. They took her to Forbes Hospital in an ambulance. Another UTI infection. Severe pain. She was given an antibiotic by IV.

She asked me to ask some favors of Gina, my sister who is Mom’s primary helper among the family in the area. Gina agreed but warned that if Mom said anything nasty, Gina would cut her off.

But Gina is helping Mom, visiting her in the hospital, helping her sit up to eat lunch (chef’s salad), sending us a photo of Mom in bed. Mom is getting an IV of Ertapenem now. Gina stayed longer with Mom, telling Mom stories and making her laugh. Peace is at hand for a few hours.

As for Trump and the United States…

Satisfying that the Roberts Court ruled against Trump and the mail-in ballot scam he’d concocted with the USPS. I laughed and shook my head when I read comments on the ruling that ‘the liberal judges had done it again’. Yes, such a VERY liberal Roberts Court, isn’t it?

Naturally, Trump attacked the justices he appointed for this decision.

Your Trump Quote of the Day:

Clearly, the deep state got to those justices…right? That’s how the Trump and MAGA mind work.

Donald Trump Jr had his wedding paid in part by a Russian oligarch. Many are making a big thing about it. But c’mon, man, you know how expensive weddings are. And Donald Trump Jr barely has a crypto to his name. Sad face. So happy that a Russian oligarch was there to bail those young lovers out. I’m sure there’s no sweet deal going on there, no reciprocity expected, no politics, scheming, and conning involved. No, this was just an oligarch being magnanimous to the billionaire president’s poor son.

Besides, it’s not like the wedding was a lavish affair. Like most Americans, it was a small thing, involving only friends and family, lasting only three days, held on two private islands, with a fireworks show.

I’m sure that Americans struggling with food and gas security, worrying about paying off credit card bills, coping with the rising cost of healthcare, gas, water, and utilities totally understand.

A Federal judge also ruled that Trump’s name can’t be added to the Kennedy Center. Judge Christopher Cooper was pretty clear about it:

“Simply put,” the board “cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing.”

Thank you, Judge Cooper.

Too bad someone couldn’t tell Trump that Congress needs to approve what he does with the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and the White House east wing.

For the record, Trump’s Iran War continues, driving up inflation, causing death, and costing our nation and world.

With things going so poorly for Donald Trump on multiple fronts, I expect some fresh AI-generated posting featuring Trump as someone else who is more respected and admired than him. Either that, or he’ll launch more military attacks, screw up another monument or Federal building, or complain about how much he’s not appreciated. Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! never rests.

Busy day ahead for me. Don’t get me wrong — I have a cushy life. ‘Busy’ means medical, dental, and haircut appointments, and I’m always staying busy with writing. Reading, too, as I’m trying to finish reading “John of John” before the library summons me to return the book. And house and yard work.

Thinking about being wrong, as in, “Trump is always so wrong”, as in war, tariffs, economy, manufacturing, grass, AI, history, intelligence…I have Dr John’s 1973 song in mind. “Right Place, Wrong Time” is a fun blend of rock, pop, R&B and funk. He has a lot of fun with the lyrics.

Love the trombone player in this video. She’s enjoying herself.

Sample Lyrics

I been the right place
But it must have been the wrong time
My head was in a place
But I’m having such a good time
I been running trying to get hung up in my mind
Got to give myself a little talking to this time

Just need a little brain salad surgery
Got to cure this insecurity
I been in the wrong place
But it must have been the right time
I been in the right place
But it must have been the wrong song

I been in the right vein
But it seems like the wrong arm
I been in the right world
But it seems wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong

Slipping, dodging, sneaking
Creeping hiding out down the street
See me life shaking with every who I meet
Refried confusion is making itself clear
Wonder which way do I go to get on out of here

Time to go out and see the world and let the world view me again.

May this day pass for you in comfort and security, perhaps with a little booze.

Cheers

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Children of Trump

Seeing and reading about that Trump pledge at Trumpapalooza more since it happened, I think, that is one of the silliest things that I’ve seen in my lifetime, outside of parties where people were drunk.

Those Republicans weren’t drunk, though. As far as I know…

Then I realized, yes, I have seen things like that before, in movies about secret societies, and at children’s parties.

The Trump pledge seems particularly childish to me now. Taking that pledge with Trump showed how the GOP has become a childish party. Led by Trump, they often threaten to withhold money, attack someone, sue someone, or take away FCC licenses. Even Speaker Johnson has been caught lying.

Trump also childishly promised more money to people if Republicans won and keep control of office. Sounds a lot like a kid saying, “If you’re nice to me, I’ll give you a piece of my candy.”

Trump offers the candy even though it’s not actually his candy to give. The candy he’s giving away belongs to We the People.

Like a child, Trump tries blaming everyone else. He’s like a school kid telling the teacher, “The dog ate my homework.” Today he’s blaming the high gas prices plaguing his administration on Ukraine.

Is it any wonder that disapproval of Trump among college educated people is increasing?

Right now, Trump is whining about NATO again. After he started a war with Iran without mentioning it to NATO, he wants NATO, a defense organization to step up and help us with his fight.

Trump says he won that war, so why does he want NATO’s help?

And just like a child making a grandiose claim, Trump declared, “You know, we’ve cut drug prices by 1,200, 1,300, 1,400, 1,500%. I don’t mean 50%, I mean 14 — 1,500%.”

Doesn’t that sound like a child who doesn’t understand math just saying things because it sounds good?

Trump’s final words in his speech was, “You know what happens if you don’t vote? You go to hell!”

Which sounds like a very MAGA thing to say, and as mature as a petulant teenager.

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