A few predictable stories about Donald Trump and his health and desperation rose through the political news.
One was the story about Trump wandering away. He was supposed to be getting into the Beast. Instead, he passed the open doors and drifted to the limo’s front, vaguely drifting from security. Realizing he was drifting, SS rushed to protect him and herd him back.
Were this President Biden doing that on video in 2024, Trump, 80 — or a surrogate — would have been on X and Trump’s texting app, screaming, “Sleepy Joe Biden” in all caps, piling on to the episode to show that Joe Biden is unfit.
With Trump doing it, there’s mostly crickets.
To no surprise but with the usual Donald Trump fanfare, Trump announced a new program to bribe voters.
Honestly, this is like those stories about someone starting a fire, showing up to put it out, and then wanting recognition for being a hero.
Without Trump’s support of Russia, enabling Russia to attack Ukraine, and Trump’s war in Iran, diesel fuel prices would be much, much lower.
Republicans, however, are heaping praise on Trump for the move — as expected.
Of course, with extended droughts affecting land, water levels, and cattle herd sizes, this bailout temporarily mitigates the problem. The Super El Niño is coming. We’ll see how much Trump’s policies helped after it’s finished.
As with many of Donald Trump’s unhinged directives, it was based on flawed reasoning. More importantly, several people involved with the effort thought that Trump’s people were trying to find ways to skew results or declare them wrong and then show receipts how that would be possible, even if it didn’t happen.
Then we ended up with more Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! distractions.
Again, it was about the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Trump took a functional and beautiful historic monument and trashed it. Now he’s raving on about how wrong his US Attorney’s Office is and shoot a scattergun of threats about vandals. Again.
I must say, all this Trumpmania drives me nuts. Please Vote Blue in the 2026 midterms. Help preserve what little sanity remains in me.
It’s all about the danger within now. It begins with rising prices. Keeps us distracted, part of Donald Trump’s Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! The war does its part to distract us, keep us turning our heads.
Then we have the many competent and capable people Donald Trump has fired. Trump has attacked every institution, and assails and threatens freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
Ashland, southern Oregon — Thursday, October 15, 2026.
Ah, the 15th. Used to be one of our paydays in the military. Yea, money in the bank! I asked AI if people still get paid on the 15th. It says it does, because that’s how the modern payroll systems are structured. As a military retiree, I get paid once a month. Likewise, my SSA payment comes once a month. Just some morning mental flossing.
It’s warming up out there in our valley. 67 F now, it feels warmer. A high in the 80s is expected today and the overnight low will only dip into the low 50s. Blue sky provides a terrific background to the brightly colored trees, and sunshine dazzles on leaves right now, given the low angle of the sun.
No Mom news, which I call good news. Hope it means she’s painfree and comfortable.
Speaking of money — well, technically, I wrote about payday. Behind that is money, right? I read a WaPo article about Trump’s latest campaign thrust. Going to a deep red Arizona district, the article highlights how little Trump has to offer.
Your Trump Quote of the Day:
The radical authoritarian Donald Trump can’t talk about how great his economy is because it isn’t great. Under the radical, lawless Trump, who broke every campaign promise he ever made, we now have the highest national debt in the history of our great nation. If we had voted in Vice President Harris, we wouldn’t be paying Russia for diesel fuel in an attempt to lower prices from their current record highs and we wouldn’t be in a useless, pointless war in Iran.
Despite facts and history, Trump’s declarations still ring right with some MAGA. From the same article, one 72 year-old Trump supporter said, ““It’s not about MAGA. It’s about what’s best for our country, our freedom, our Constitution, our First and Second amendment.”
I would sure love to see him peppered with questions about Trump’s attacks on the press and freedom of speech. I would also like to hear this MAGAt explain how Trump is supporting our freedom and Constitution. What is he seeing and experiencing that makes this man believe Trump is good for either of those things?
I have the Pink Floyd song, “Money”, in my morning mental music stream. The song came out in 1973. I was a high school junior at the time. I vividly remember listening to it on AM radio as I drove with my friends, Kat and Sandy. We were in Kat’s parents’ car — a huge green Pontiac Bonneville, going through downtown Beckley, WV, on a fall day that’s a lot like today.
Sample Lyrics
Money It’s a crime
Share it fairly, but don’t take a slice of my pie Money So they say Is the root of all evil today
But if you ask for a rise It’s no surprise that they’re giving none away Away, away, away Away, away, away
It’s funny in a bitterly angry way, but Trump is giving money away in an effort to bribe voters to keep Republicans in office. Yet, when it comes to increasing people’s wages, Trump says he’s for it. Yet the minimum wage remains at the same level as 2009, $7.25. As with everything Donald Trump declares, it’s put your money where your mouth is. For us, that means, a larger military, more monuments for Trump, his name on more buildings and airports — and higher prices for everyone else.
May your day be worry free and joyous. See you on the next one.
Ashland, southern Oregon — Wednesday, October 14, 2026.
Our autumn continues with cold nights and warmish days. We’re soaring into the upper seventies today. I will not complain about that. With low to moderate humidity, sunshine, bright blue skies, and turning, falling leaves, days like these encourage to stop outside. Pause. Suck in a huge breath. Admire the colors. Feel the sun, and think, this is wonderful.
Then I go back in to the computer. We didn’t have those as kids…LOL. Different era then. Yeah, I know, I’m being silly. Seems like every decade ushers in a new era.
Mom remains very sick and in pain. She’s asking for my sister’s company. Gina couldn’t go because of her own appointments but she asked the staff to check in on Mom.
The staff checked on Mom. Mom was dressed and down in the dining room, eating lunch.
Gina suggested that Mom doesn’t ask the staff for help so that Mom can try to manipulate Gina and the other sisters into going to see Mom. Meanwhile, new medicine is being delivered to the assisted living facility for Mom in an hour. Hope it helps.
As several commented in private or in responses, this roller coaster exhausts everyone.
A late update on Mom: she had her lunch. Now she’s playing bingo. Her new medicine arrived and was given to her.
Political news remains heavy in my thoughts. How could they not? Trump IMO has shown himself to be an outlaw, eager and willing to do anything to promote and protect himself. As far as he’s concerned, it’s screw the country, screw the people, screw the world, screw the Constitution, screw the economy, screw free press, screw it all. I can easily imagine hearing him say that; that’s the persona I’ve perceived.
I remain amazed that there are some out there insisting how great and wonderful Trump is. What’s happening in their world that they think this? It confounds me. I won’t belabor that here and now.
Doesn’t help that I’m reading things like this article:
The first paragraph is sharp summary of what we were told and what happened, in the big picture.
“One of the nagging questions about the DOGE fiasco is why. Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency was established to cut $2 trillion from the $7 trillion federal budget. But in fiscal year 2026, which ended two weeks ago, the federal budget was $7.4 trillion, a 6percent increase. The budget deficit, whose size was the reason to cut government spending, increasedby 12 percent to $2 trillion.”
I know what Trump said about the goals of DOGE. I also wrote that off as bullshit. IMO, DOGE’s goal was always to handicap the government and reshape it as a tool for Trump and his puppet masters, the Heritage Foundation. ‘They’ think the way to a better nation is less education, more money and power for the wealthy, smaller government — except for larger police forces, more surveillance, more military, and more conforming by anyone except the upper one to two percent. They frankly disgust me.
All that aside, all that as background, I walk the halls of my mind and wonder if we’ll ever come together to do various things to improve our world. First, we’d need to agree to what that means. Is there a someday out there when that will come to pass?
Will I ever see a ‘someday’ where I truly grasp why MAGAts enthusiastically support Trump to their own detriment? Will I reach a point someday where I understand what’s going on with Mom? Will I wake up someday and understand why people like Musk and Trump and other billionaires who keep craving more and then snarl and attack everyone who reasonably ask, “Why can’t your share your good fortune?”
I honestly don’t think those somedays are on my horizon. Maybe, after I die, there’s a huge internet of reality where all is revealed. You can see it, hear it, understand it, if even just for a moment.
Yeah. Maybe someday…
The Neurons responded predictably with “Someday Never Comes”. This is a 1972 Creedence Clearwater Revival song about being told that someday you’ll understand. No wonder it’s swimming around my morning mental music stream like a hungry shark!
Sample Lyrics
First thing I remember Was asking Papa, “Why?” For there were many things I didn’t know And Daddy always smiled Took me by the hand Saying, “Someday you’ll understand”
Well, I’m here to tell you now each and every mother’s son You better learn it fast, you better learn it young ‘Cause someday never comes
The time and tears went by And I collected dust For there were many things I didn’t know When Daddy went away He said, “Try to be a man And someday you’ll understand”
But I’m here to tell you now each and every mother’s son You better learn it fast, you better learn it young ‘Cause someday never comes
I offered you a taped version of the song being performed on the telly with Dawes and John Fogerty.
Well, I hope today, you’re not stuck in a reverie about somedays. I hope this day comes to you with open arms and takes you to good places, good health, and good people.
That’s especially true in this era, when extreme weather strikes more frequently, and el Nino is bringing in new changes to the patterns.
Donald Trump’s pattern under pressure and criticism is to become more belligerent and aggressive. He rails more; whines more; and attacks more. The midterms are coming up, and prices are not coming down. Trump, who once promised no new wars, instead finds the war he started with Iran dragging on. Trump has claimed it’s over, it’s almost over, or ‘we won’ numerous times before. Now, Trump is saying the war will “probably end after the mid-terms”.
Doubts about Trump are growing and persisting. Regardless of what polls say about the elections and a midterm blue wave or Donald Trump’s declining popularity, the tells of his decline among his base are visible. Rallies where Trump is appearing are weakly attended. Trump’s calls to support AI and data centers construction are met with silence.
After all that’s gone wrong and getting worse for Donald Trump, I was unsurprised that Trump’s DOJ raided Rep. Ilhan Omar’s home in Minnesota. Rep Omar has three things going against her in Trump’s eyes: she’s an intelligent woman, a refugee from Somalia, and an outspoken Trump critic.
I guess Trump sees Rep. Omar is a good test case for Trump’s increasing tactics of lawfare and weaponizing the government against his opponents. Trump’s previous efforts to prosecute political opponents, James Comey, Letitia James, and David Hearn, flopped in big, audacious ways.
But Trump has nothing else to offer. Trump already went after the press, trying to ban press organizations who tell the truth about his sparsely attended rallies, terrible and worsening economy, and the growing disaster that is now the Iran war. Trump also dislikes being reminded that he’s breaking promises and laws, and that he is not the all-powerful, all-knowing, always-right person he likes to pretend he is.
The press fought back, and the courts have sided with the press, so far. Precedence would point to a win for the press in all the courts. Freedom of the press is one of those things we used to pride ourselves on in the United States. Donald Trump arrived on the scene, though, and weaponized people’s distrust of the press to gain popularity.
Now, with his popularity waning, even Donald Trump’s MAGA base are walking away from him. Not because of the attacks on the press, or attacks on the sitting members of Congress, or using the government as a weapon to persecute and prosecute opponents. No.
MAGAzens are turning on Trump because he failed to release the Epstein files and he failed to lower prices. Now, thanks to Trump’s own failed policies, it’s too late for him to fix either.
Trump has tried badgering and bullying his way back to strength. He’s lied from the beginning and fed people’s hate and fear. Those aspects of his portfolio have grown old and thin.
Trump tried bribing We the People, attempting to buy popularity with various ‘dividends’. But Trump’s brand is so toxic, even that failed to gain Trump any props.
Trump tried to lower prices, drilling, making deals for oil and gas, temporarily suspending sanctions and tariffs. They, too, failed to win anyone back, as his efforts instead highlighted his hypocrisy.
Now Trump has returned to his most proven, effective tool, attacking immigrants and women. Doesn’t matter if the woman he’s attacking is a sitting member of Congress, legally elected to the office by We the People, and legally sworn in.
Trump has never cared for law or justice and won’t begin now. Donald Trump will just attack more, hoping to bully his way into popularity once again.
So, brace yourself. I don’t doubt that this is just a test case. Trump and his minions and advisors floated this raid on Rep. Omar to see how it floats with his base.
Trump doesn’t see that a growing number of people are weary of him and ready to turn the page.
Vote blue in November, so we can keep turning the page on Donald Trump.
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.
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.
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.
We ask that question every day at my house. We ask even though we know he’ll be lying, whining, distracting, and doing things that test the limits of law, ethics, and taste. We ask knowing that with polls showing the GOP and Trump as losers in the upcoming elections, Trump will be triggered and will increase the scale of distractions under Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! to new heights.
I’m not surprised that Donald Trump didn’t win. In his worldview, killing people and destroying things mean peace. That’s not how the rest of the world tends to view peace. At 80 years old, you would think Trump would have learned by now that he has not. Trump demonstrated long ago that he lacks learning abilities — unless it’s about ways to gain and keep more money for himself.
Trump thinks he’s done ‘far more blah blah Trump weave blah’ than the human rights activist, Navi Pillay, who won. Of course, Donald Trump has also rated himself as the greatest president ever earlier this year, another sign of Trump’s detachment from reality. Over in reality, historians and voters disagree with his assessment.
Polls since Trump released his assessment said that almost half Americans rank Trump as a failure. 65% disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy.
The letter announcing this latest move made my wife and I laugh and laugh. Summaries of the letter’s contents published in newspapers said that Trump International will pay for the improvements.
Sure.
I believe that, dont’ you? I’ll bank that right beside Trump’s promise to not golf if he won the election because he’s too busy.
That promise for Trump International to pay for the improvement carries the same weight of promise for Trump’s gold cell phones. I believe that Trump International will pay for it as much as I believe Trump’s previous claims that he would probably release the Epstein files, that private donors would pay for the new ballroom, and that that Americans would get a DOGE dividend because we’re making so much money as a nation.
I believe the assertion that Trump International will pay for it as much as I believe that Trump has lowered prices on everything since taking office, and that he lowered the price of prescription drugs by hundreds, even thousands of percent.
I believe this declaration as much as I believe that Donald Trump has fixed the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, one — two — three times — no, wait, they’re still working on it.
I believe it as much as I believe that Trump’s tariffs will not raise prices. (Note: they HAVE.)
Assurances that Trump International will pay for it all carries as much water as a pail without a bottom. I believe it as much as Trump’s declaration that as part of his ‘bold agenda’, there would be no new wars.
In short, I don’t believe any of Trump’s promises, or any promises made by any organization or project with Trump’s name attached to it.
The evidence that Trump and his organization will not do what they say they will is overwhelming. Only people in cults or those who have an agenda which Trump serves will believe it.
“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.”“
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.
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.
Multiple facts spring to mind in response to Trump’s remarks. Donald Trump claimed to have destroyed Iran’s nuclearcapability 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.
