Tag: MAGA

Sunday’s Theme Music — Bad Moon Rising

Sunday, October 11, 2026 — Ashland, southern Oregon.

The weather and foliage matched perfectly yesterday and feel right today. Many of us enthused about the crisp and cool autumn air. This was what we’d been looking for! Temperatures topped in the mid 70s yesterday and dropped to the low 30s last night. Right now finds us at 42 F. Though it’s quite sunny and the sky is clear and blue, today’s high is expected to close out in the mid 50s.

Mom reports a new decline. She’d in pretty good spirits this week. Today, she reported, “My pain upon urinating is worse than ever like it was when I first had the bladder infection and it is brown up upon the pads. And it smells rotten. And I feel physically ill.”

This blow came as my sisters and I have been working out what to get Mom for her upcoming 92 birthday at the end of this month.

Trump and Hegseth are excited for their upcoming military execution by firing squad. Outside of them, Americans are checking their priority lists and problems and realizing that Donald Trump is completely out of touch with them.

People are concerned about Trump’s broken promises, the war in Iran, rising prices, AI, and high food, energy, and healthcare costs. Trump responded with more Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! antics.

Your Donald Trump Quote of the Day:

Call me an enemy, then, Trump, because I’ll continue to adhere to history and industry standards and refer to artificial intelligence, or AI.

At this point, reading the political news has me growling and shaking my head. I never expected much out of Trump, but he and his administration is an absolute trainwreck. More of Trump’s supporters are pulling away. I doubt it helped Trump’s cause when Trump told supporters at one recent rally, “It’s amazing. When you stand up here, it’s just like…the love. I could say the stupidest things and you’d clap. ‘Oh, I love you so—’ It’s true.”

We’ll see how those Donald Trump supporters feel when the midterm elections results come in next month. Trump said to make the upcoming elections about himself. He doesn’t know how much disapproval of him has grown, how many are turning away from him, and tuning out from him.

Between Mom and Trump, The Neurons put “Bad Moon Rising” in the morning mental music stream. This song by Clearance Clearwater Revival, aka CCR, was released in 1969. It’s about premonitions about bad things on the verge of happening.

Sample Lyrics:

I see the bad moon rising
I see trouble on the way
I see earthquakes and lightning
I see bad times today

Don’t go around tonight
Well, it’s bound to take your life
There’s a bad moon on the rise

I hear hurricanes a-blowing
I know the end is coming soon
I fear rivers overflowing
I hear the voice of rage and ruin

May this day bless you and yours with fresh air, good health, and good fortune.

Cheers

4

Trump: More Signs of Fear & Desperation

Riddle me this.

Donald Trump made a deal with Russia for diesel fuel. Russia supplies and backs Iran. Iran and the US are at war. The amount of diesel is small in comparison to the world’s needs and will take time to ship and deliver, but Trump did the deal in a desperate hail Mary to garner some political capital before next month’s midterms.

How does this make sense?

The answer is that it doesn’t. Donald Trump is so desperate, it has him spinning.

Just last month — less than thirty days ago — Trump signed a sweeping bipartisan sanctions bill intended to clamp down on Russian energy revenues. Those sanctions would choke off funding for Russia’s war in Ukraine. Easing these less than a month later undermines everything he said those sanctions would do and the reasons for imposing them.

That brings us to your Trump Quote of the Day:

When Trump made that statement, he accused China and India of funding the war between Russia and Ukraine by continuing to purchase Russian oil and called out NATO allies for failing to cut ties with Moscow’s energy sector.

Now, invoking classic Trump Double Standards (TDS), Trump made a deal with Russia for fuel, which will be used to fund the war.

Ukraine responded to Donald Trump’s duplicity by bombing and setting fire to Russia’s export terminals. That’s good strategy. As Trump pointed out, exporting oil and fuel funds Russia’s war with Ukraine. Cutting off that venue reduces Russia’s war fighting abilities.

Not to Donald Trump. Oh, no. Trump responded by threatening Ukraine’s president:

“I think it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president.”

That’s up to the Ukrainian voters, Donald Trump. That’s how a democracy works. Like many other things, you don’t get that yet.

Why should Ukrainian voters replace President Zelensky? Zelensky didn’t start a war with another country and has been holding the aggressor off.

In fact, looking at how the war with Iran is going for Trump, President Zelensky is doing a much. Better. Job.

Maybe Trump wants Zelensky replaced because Zelensky is so much better at being a war president than Donald Trump, and Donald Trump knows how he pales in comparison.

Comparisons in which Trump comes off looking the worse — and there are many — always anger Trump.

Just as with so many other Trump endeavors and promises, Trump proved again how ignorant and incompetent he is. Donald Trump proved again that his words and actions mean nothing.

Donald Trump proved again that he cares nothing about anything or anyone except himself — his wealth, his image, his power and position.

And Trump proved again, as he has done innumerable times before, he is not a leader and has no principles.

I’m tired of this narrative. I’m tired of Donald Trump’s lies, betrayals, hypocrisy, and duplicity, and I’m sick of his corruption, bullying, and hate mongering.

And I’m thoroughly disgusted with the GOP’s complicity in all that Trump does.

It’s time for a change.

Trump knows it.

That’s why he’s so desperate — desperate and afraid. It’s TACO all over again.

3

Big Lies, Broken Promises: Donald Trump

Trump has nothing but desperation and empty words as we count down to the midterm elections at this point.

He’s offered money. He’s tried distractions. Now he’s trying to gaslight people.

Let’s review a few of those promises Donald Trump says he kept!

Your Trump Quote(s) of the Day.

During the interview, which aired on “Meet the Press,” Mr. Trump also claimed he never promised not to get the U.S. into new wars.

“But on the campaign trail, Mr. Trump repeatedly pledged to “expel the warmongers from our government” and strongly hinted there would be no new wars, like was the case in his first term.

“I’m going to keep you out of wars, I kept you out of wars,” the president said in a July 24, 2024, campaign rally. 

“And in his November 2024 victory speech, he said, “We had no wars. Four years, we had no wars. Except we defeated ISIS. We defeated ISIS in record time. But we had no wars. They said, ‘He will start a war.’ I’m not going to start a war, I’m going to stop wars.”“

WATCH: Trump promises to ‘settle’ war in Ukraine if elected

President Donald Trump said in a new interview that he was joking when he promised to end the Russia-Ukraine war in the first 24 hours of his second term.

Trump promised to replace ACA, said he would be too busy to golf, promised to lower the national debt…

Donald Trump warned us, though. Trump and his MAGAzens like to pretend that he’s an outsider.

But Trump is the political establishment in 2026. And to quote him, he’ll say anything to remain in power.

Which circles us back to Trump’s base:

Unfortunately for Trump, many of We the People have wised up to his multiple cons. That’s why Trump is so desperately trying to pretend that everything is really going great — including the war.

And yet, despite Trump’s claim, the Iran war goes on.

Donald Trump will never stop lying, cheating, and conning people. That’s why a strong Congress is needed now more than ever.

Republicans have shown that a few might protest what Trump does or says once in a while — usually to curry favor with voters — but overall, they are quite willing to let Trump continue what he’s done, regardless of what is happening to the nation.

5

Trump Sells Fear & Ignorance

Donald J Trump’s latest efforts to protect himself has shown ghastly ignorance and is deeply rooted in fear.

The fear that Trump is feeling is that if the GOP loses control of Congress, he will be investigated, impeached, and convicted.

The fear that Donald Trump selling is another of those tired, worn out, overused ‘what if’ kind of fears that the weak-minded feed on:

What if Iran has nuclear weapons and ‘takes out a California city’?

Multiple facts spring to mind in response to Trump’s remarks. Donald Trump claimed to have destroyed Iran’s nuclear capability several times before. Yet here he is again, trying to instill fear in others that Iran has them and will use them.

Donald Trump claimed that the war he began with Iran is over or almost over thirty-eight times before last night. After all of those statements, why should anyone believe that the war is ‘almost over’ again, or will be over after the midterms? Trump originally claimed the war would be over in a few weeks. Donald Trump made that claim over 167 days ago. What has changed to make us believe that Donald Trump is suddenly telling the truth?

Worse, most cravenly, is how Donald Trump so cavalierly writes off the chance of a couple US cities. He dismisses the lives which would be lost in such a strike to be ‘a very small price to pay’.

The MAGA crowd Trump was speaking to cheered.

Trump’s MAGA crowd cheered for American deaths.

It apparently doesn’t matter to them if Americans are killed. What’s important to Trump and MAGA is that these are not Americans to them, no, they are Democrats, and *gasp* probably liberals.

They do not care at all if among those Democrats are MAGAts just like them, or Republicans.

Nor does this ‘pro-life’ crowd care if there are children among the dead. No, they’re just vacuously cheering Donald Trump’s threats.

Beyond the callousness about life and death and the disregard for American lives, Donald J Trump and his supporters display amazing stupidity. San Diego and Los Angeles are huge ports. Los Angeles has been the number 1 container port in the world for years.

Shall we talk about what the devastation of any two American cities would do to the United States and global economy?

Donald Trump also dismisses what such an impact would have on the safety and security of the United States. San Diego is home to a US Navy fleet and training center. It’s where the USS Abraham Lincoln went home for repairs after serving in Trump’s war with Iran.

Donald Trump doesn’t care. All Donald Trump cares about is protecting his ass and staying in power.

And to hear those MAGAzens cheer, they’re of one mind with him on this.

Trump is so scared and desperate at this point, he’ll say and do anything to protect and promote himself. No life matters to him but his own. That’s why the Democrats must take control of Congress next month.

Vote Blue in November.

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Looking Back on Trump Double Standards

Paul Krugman gets right to the point with his headline:

The Trump Administration is a Cesspit of Corruption

Mr Krugman shows us the receipts, among them, the damning one that looms over the nation:

“America currently has a Republican president who, along with his family, has raked in billions, possibly close to $10 billion in personal gain from office in less than two years.”

Remember when the GOP complained about President Obama’s spending?

State Department spends $70,000 on Obama’s books – and stirs a controversy

How ’bout this one, about President Biden?

Oversight Republicans Raise Concerns About Biden Family Profiting Off White House

It’s funny in a “I am very pissed off about it” manner, but the GOP has said little about Donald J Trump’s spending and income during Trump’s second term, until a few months before the 2026 midterms.

It’s almost as if Republicans didn’t care until it was shown that they might lose political power because of Trump’s income and spending.

But Heather Cox Richardson puts some things together for us in her regular column in “Letters from An American”, October 2, 2026. Going back to 2015 and Trump’s initial rallies in Alabama, she compares now and then.

Read these quotes and insights Ms Richardson gives us from back then:

“Although the actual unemployment rate was 5.6%, he claimed it was “anywhere from 18 to 20 percent”—although he then upped it to 21%—and “the worst since 1978.” “A lot of people…can’t get jobs,” he said. “They can’t get jobs, because there are no jobs, because China has our jobs and Mexico has our jobs. They all have jobs.

“He sneered at the federal government, claiming “stupid” politicians had no idea how to negotiate and were wasting so much money that the national debt was close to $24 trillion, a number he called “the point of no return…. That’s when we become a country that’s unsalvageable.””

Trump called that national debt of $24T the point of no return and has shoved it since to over $40T — $16T more.

Ms Richardson addresses more details about what’s transpiring in 2026 as we close on the midterm elections. But here is the money shot:

“And therein lies the crux of the crisis that is driving a seismic political change: it has become crystal clear that Trump never intended to address the real problems he identified. His tariffs, deep tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, extraordinary corruption, multiple vanity projects, and war on Iran are benefiting him, his family, and his cronies. At the same time, the Republicans are, at his direction, slashing the social welfare programs, medical funding, education, infrastructure, and healthcare that used to serve the American people.

“Trump has taken to claiming that the country’s economy is booming, but that he and the Republicans have done a bad job of telling people. “All over the country, they’re building factories, plants—manufacturing’s coming back,” he told a crowd at a truck facility in Texas. “The only thing we’re doing badly at is public relations.””

But the truth is, the affordability crisis has become more painful for many Americans under Donald Trump, and he cares only about himself and his opinion. Donald Trump crows about how wonderful, great, and smart he is, again and again and again. Yet condition for most in this nation continue to deteriorate.

With that, the Trump Double Standard is finally crumbling.

No, it will never go away. Too many still support Donald Trump for reasons that make many of the rest of us shake our heads and sigh, and then spit in anger and spew some angry swear words.

Hopefully, enough voters have learned that come the midterms, We the People can finally handcuff the runaway government Donald J Trump has launched.

Vote Blue in November, 2026.

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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.

3

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.

0

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.

1

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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