Tag: opinion

Saturday’s Theme Music — Here We Go Again

Ashland, southern Oregon — Saturday, May 9, 2026.

72 F. Sunny. Blue skies. Moving toward 86 this afternoon.

Had smoke in the area yesterday. Turned out to be from winds carrying smoke from three controlled burns into the valley, where it became trapped. The sight and smells triggered alarm until we verified the source/causes. Even knowing what it was, I was left toiling inside, as the smoke immediately irritated my nose and sinuses.

Progress on selling Mom’s home is slowly being made. We’re worried about how long it’ll take. Mom is slowly running out of cash and has meager income from social security and her VA nurse’s pension. We’re selling her home’s contents but I don’t believe that will bring her much. I told my family I’d cover the costs between when/if Mom’s money runs out and her contents/house is sold.

Here we go again. What’s going on with the war and the cease-fire? What’s going on with tariffs?

The Trade Court ruled against Trump’s tariffs. How long until it hits the Robert’s Court and how will they rule? Will it be in open court or will there be another shadow docket decision?

In parallel to those questions, I wonder if the Roberts Conservatives will do some more originalist cherry-picking to ignore historic precedence to claim, “This is what the founders intended!” They duplicitously employed such thinking before. Then Roberts whines that his court is being misunderstood. Right.

Shall we talk about what your court is doing to equal rights, voting rights, and democracy in the United States, Chief Justice Roberts?

On top of those things, hurricane season is bearing down on us. It’s expected to be below average to above average, depending upon who’s doing the forecast. But there’s also a potentially super strong El Nino coming, too.

Meanwhile, what will happen with Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL!?

Despite a ‘ceasefire’, the US military attacked several Iranian targets during the last several days. Like everything else Trump does, he lies and misleads about what’s going on.

Your Trump Quote of the Day:

Trump said this in August of 2024, while running for office and laying out his ‘economic plan’.

It didn’t surprise me that My Neurons blended the news with things I was doing this morning to come up with “Here It Goes Again”. I don’t think I’ve heard the 2006 song by OK Go in years, but it popped into my morning mental music stream today.

So on we go, into another Saturday. Hope your day is of the kind that goes well in all the important ways.

Coffee is served. Here I go.

Cheers

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Sunday’s Theme Music – Going Down

Ashland, southern Oregon — Sunday, May 3, 2026.

It’s a springy 63 F in Ashland this morning. Clouds feather the sunshine effect. We’re expecting a high of 77 F and thunderstorms.

All is quiet on the Mom front. I’m privately mourning the changes and losses to her life. Don’t know what my sisters are thinking but their relationship with Mom was rockier than mine. Part of that is that I moved out early and was away for years at a time, inuring me to her chaos.

Unfortunately, we’re not inured to Trump’s chaos. Let’s call it Traos. No matter what I drink or how much, he’s still there, and the reality of what he’s doing to us gets worse with every viewing.

Now several months into Trump’s second year of his second term, certain trends have become cemented as part of his legacy.

  • Trump is a corrupt person, enriching himself at the expense of the country
  • Trump’s cabinet is inept and chaotic
  • Dizzy Donnie’s health is worsening and he’s hiding something
  • Whatever is in the Epstein files, Trump doesn’t want it found
  • Trump has no plan forward except to cut everything except Homeland Security and Defense, impose more tariffs, and isolate the nation
  • Between his lies, broken promises, failed policies, and delusions, Trump can’t be trusted

Some will say that I’m being harsh. I am. But I’m using standard benchmarks for my judgements.

  • Trump keeps playing ‘hide the Epstein file’
  • His personal wealth has grown while social services and education are being cut
  • The national debt is growing at a record rate and has overtaken the GNP
  • Prices are rising and he can only offer band aids like the $6000 tax credit for seniors that results in $720
  • Awakening to his grift, his approval ratings are falling, and his disapproval ratings are rising
  • He promised no new wars and started one
  • Declaring himself the unity president, he’s done more to polarize voters than any other in modern history

And as final proof of how delusional he is, he keeps ordering things renamed for himself, and planning monuments for himself, because he thinks everything is going great. The rest of the world knows, if he was worthy of monuments, we’d be proposing and building them on our own. Instead, brown nosers who like to kiss his ass are trying to find new ways of doing it.

Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! still goes. No doubt trying to regain some of his mojo, Trump announced some major gun safety changes. Makes the NRA happy. That’s what’s important. *snark*

We have months to go before it’s all over.

BTW, have you seen Iran’s humorous take on Trump?

The confluence of news, dreams, and mood inspired The Neurons to pull the trigger on “Sugar, We’re Goin Down”.

The Fall Out Boy chorus fills the morning mental music stream:

“We’re going down, down in an earlier round, and sugar we’re going down swinging. I’ll be your number one with a bullet.”

My hope for you today is that you weather it all and come out stronger, healthier, and happier.

Got my coffee. Time to rock on. Cheers

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Saturday’s Theme Music — Stuck

Ashland, southern Oregon — Saturday, May 2, 2026.

Clouds rule our valley this morning. It’s an almost unbroken sea of white and gray but thin enough to let sporadic sunshine sneak in and out. 59 F now, we’re anticipating a high of 77 today. Again.

Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! has recommenced. After Trump successfully grifted Republicans in Congress into believing that Trump’s Iran War is over, Trump has turned his sights to Cuba.

To recap:

  • Eastern Pacific/Caribbean – killed 181 to 186 people while destroying 40 ‘drug boats’
  • Venezuela: abducted the nation’s president and first lady
  • Greenland: threatened to take it in the name of peace
  • Iran bombed it twice
    • October 2025, to ‘obliterate’ its nuclear capability
    • February 2025 to now, because of its nuclear threat
  • Now — CUBA!

Donald Trump says US will take over Cuba ‘almost immediately’

Yet, the Epstein files remain unreleased.

Trump’s approval ratings are dropping, and his disapproval ratings are falling.

High food, gas, and oil prices challenge US shoppers.

It’s all so Trump. He can’t solve problems, only create them, then lie about what they are, and insist that only he can fix it.

Your Trump Quote of the Day:

“Mark my words.”

Yes, we marked your words, Trump.

“In a February 2016 interview with MSNBC, Trump said the wall would go “probably 35 or 40 feet up.” The height reduction was short-lived, however. Later in the same interview he said “And I heard [Mexican President Vicente Fox] said that we will not pay. Guess what? The wall just got higher.” At rallies in early 2016, Trump repeatedly said the wall gained 10 feet everytime Mexico rejected paying for it.

“At the Republican presidential debate in March he reverted to his earlier claim that “the wall’s 50 feet high.” Later that month at a MSNBC town hall he stated the wall would be “a good 35 feet. It’s getting higher all the time” and reiterated Mexico “will pay in one form or another.” At the same town hall the price of the wall jumped to $10 billion.”

Repeat after me: you can’t believe anything that Trump claims.

Now tell me, who is going to pay for the ballroom? And how much will it cost?

Today’s theme music came as I went about lazily doing things this morning. Papi had been fed and was outside, washing, being a cat. I was lost in thought about a dream and realized, damn, time! So I told myself, “Get it together. Let’s go. Move.”

Hearing that, The Neurons hooked up with a U2 song, and delivered it to my morning mental music stream: “Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of”.

Sample Lyrics

You’ve got to get yourself together
You’ve got stuck in a moment
And you can’t get out of it

The song came out in 2001 — before 9/11. Yet it feels like a perfect summary of our political situation in the US since then, with war, Trump, the Great Recession, etc.

It feels like a moment we’re stuck in, and can’t get out.

I hope the end of today finds you better off than the start of the day, and that you can stack good days upon good days.

Cheers

2

Wednesday’s Theme Music – Trump Circles

Ashland, Southern Oregon — Wednesday, April 29, 2026.

Sunshine and blue sky rule the valley with a 47 degree temperature and a high of 72 F possible this afternoon.

I read a Paul Krugman post this morning. In “The Oil Squeeze Tightens”, Krugman asks, “How long will it take before Trump accepts the reality that he doesn’t have the cards, that in the end his Iran venture will be resolved in a way that leaves Iran stronger and America weaker than before the war?”

Krugman concludes that Trump is clearly dissociating. I feel the same. Trump has become strangely quiet. Is it because of his health? I think it’s that failures are stacking for him. The usual tried and true schemes aren’t working.

Regardless of whether the assassination attempt at the WHCD last week was staged or real, Trump probably expected a bounce from that. He got none. It didn’t help his cause that he immediately pivoted to “Build the ballroom! Security!” It was such a non-sequitur that everyone immediately pounced on the flawed logic.

Trump expected his war with Iran to be over. Instead, more and more are suggesting the US lost that war. It’s at a stalemate, which aren’t good optics for what’s supposed to be a world superpower.

Prices are going up. I don’t think Trump cares about prices for oil, gas, and food, except as it affects his popularity. Nor does he care that he promised to lower them on day one. He lies about prices as much as he lies about losing the 2020 election. His lies are losing their power. Too many are experiencing the real impact of high prices.

Trump probably wants to attack another nation but with Iran going poorly, he’s probably being warned not to. Likewise, he probably wants to escalate on attacks on Iran but somebody with more sense is holding him back.

Meanwhile, summer travel is coming, the war goes on, and Trump’s popularity declines. Beyond all of that, the Epstein files still shadow everything Trump does.

Everything Trump is doing seems flaccid and limp. In his latest Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! effort, it’s announced his face and signature will be on passports. The usual rejection chorus rang out, but overall, the effort has fallen flat. It’s same old, same old, Trump wants to be idolized, the GOP is supporting it, but it does nothing for anyone but Trump.

Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! is in danger of becoming Operation Epic Dead Squirrel.

Today’s music in my morning mental music stream riffs off that trend. “Face to the Floor” by Chevelle contain these lines:

Well, caused by their own
And by default
Time to vamanos

Well course now the cracks
Should we intervene?

It brings a chortle out. The 2011 song is probably too alt metal for many but its heavy sound fits my morning mood.

May this Wednesday see you through to a brighter future.

Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music — Enduring

Ashland, Oregon — Tuesday, April 28, 2026.

Spring endures in Ashland. 48, blue skies, clouds, sunshine, high in the mid-sixties expected.

Mom endures in her assisted living facility. My sister couldn’t do the things she enumerated yesterday. Mom remains in the assisted living facility and seems agreeable to selling her house. However, she’s trying to manipulate us in other ways, according to my sister. She said Mom wrote a long text that she wanted sis to share with all of us. My sister refused. Life.

My plumbing endures. Mixed results with the plumber yesterday. Both shutoff valves replaced at the toilets, but the plumber felt only one had a leaking wax seal. When he pulled it, lo, the wood under it was soaked. So, wax ring replaced, toilet put back, but now we need to send someone under the house to examine that area. I’ve been under the house; not fun. We have a low, low crawlspace. But I don’t have the expertise needed for this kind of assessment. Thought about using different cameras to see what it looks like. Still noodling that.

Trump endures, too. It is remarkable but many speculate that Trump staged the attempt on him. While Trump blames ‘the left’, he continues to incite hatred and violence toward others while asking that we be nicer to him.

Part of this is that Trump is a documented liar and cheat. He wants to be feared, liked, respected, admired. As part of his ‘weave’, he’ll say anything but that’s shredded his credibility. We know now he makes grandiose promises and bizarre accusations and declarations; it’s all just air.

Doesn’t help, neither, that within hours of the attempt, Trump was calling to build his White House ballroom because, “Security!” But the WHCD was not in the White House. Even if the ballroom had been done, it wouldn’t have affected what happened at the WHCD.

I will also say that even if Cole Tomas Allen left behind a ‘manifesto’ and seems to have a life, Hollywood has convinced me that creating a legend like that is very possible. While I don’t particularly believe the Trump administration is sanguine enough to get it done, there are some high-tech security firms in his corner who could do it. If I believe Hollywood, so could the CIA.

Why not? It’s the age of deep fakes and AI.

With Trump not being held accountable for his lies and behavior, it’ll probably because worse as others attempt to emulate and duplicate his success as a con artist. More troubling is how his actions undermine our trust and belief in authority.

Meanwhile, the squeeze is on U.S. farmers. They’re in a bad situation: diesel is up, fertilizer is up, interest rates are up, available migrant labor is down, and droughts are in the forecast.

Perhaps they will reconsider who they vote for in November.

Your Trump quote of the day:

“Data from the USDA show that soybean exports to China, as of March 19, are about half the amount they were last year.” 

Reminder: we’re into the eighth week of the Trump Iran War. He has no exit plan.

Reminder: the Epstein files have not been completely released.

Reminder: Trump’s popularity is declining and prices are rising.

Expect some new Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! breaking news soon.

“Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)” ended up in my morning mental music stream. So many bricks being put into place between what we were, what we could become. Trump builds walls to divide and separate, keep the poor in misery and empower the wealthy, along with walls against equality, freedom, science, and education.

Hope you end up in the best possible place when this day is finished. Onward.

Cheers

1

That Didn’t Take Long: So Trump

There was another assassination attempt on Trump on April 25, 2026.

Immediately after that attempt at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Trump called for Americans to “resolve our differences peacefully”.

Less than 24 hours later, Trump and Karoline Leavitt were blaming “Democratic hate speech” for the attack. Leavitt explicitly named Democratic leaders like Hakeem Jeffries and governors like JB Pritzker and Josh Shapiro.

This is how the Trump Administration functions: blame everyone else for the shit they do.

And then cry, poor us.

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Friday Focus on Trump & his Minions

A summary of the Enshittifier-in-Chief and his dumbfuckery for the week.

Friends are suggesting that we have annual Trump Enshittification Awards to immortalize him. Who’s in?

And finally…

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Monday’s Theme Music —

Ashland, Oregon — Monday, April 20, 2026.

Sunshine baths the east. Dark, stormy clouds claim the rest of the horizon. It’s 58 F outside with a mild, pleasantly balmy wind. 62 is expected to be the high as rain returns to the valley.

We’re going into eight weeks in the Trump Iran war. Trump and Iran each are declaring victory. As it was a month ago, the Strait of Hormuz remains closed. The ceasefire that Trump declared is fracturing as Iranian ships fire on tanks and US ships fire on Iranian ships and seize them.

Trump’s comments are the war seem almost meaningless. He doesn’t seem to understand what’s going on sometimes, making contradictory claims. He’s proving himself to be as poor at managing a war or negotiating a ceasefire as he was running his businesses. The difference here: he can’t save himself in a bankruptcy court. There are no contractors he can stiff and walk away from. The art of the con has been fully exposed.

Stories have emerged that Trump was kept out of the planning stages for the airman rescue in Iran because the military and staff worried that Trump would derail it. The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump raged about fear of failure.

Stock markets don’t know to go up or down. Oil prices immediately rose.

So, we sit on Monday morning, waiting to see what will happen on Monday afternoon.

Meanwhile, the Epstein files are still out there, waiting for all to be revealed.

My wife and I watched Shrinking last night. Today’s song was featured. My wife sang along with it; when the show was over, she walked around the house singing it. Somehow The Neurons ended up mindlessly playing it over and over in the morning mental music stream.

From out of 2011, here is Christina Perri with “A Thousand Years”.

The lyrics cycling through my brain:

I have died every day waiting for you
Darling, don’t be afraid
I have loved you for a thousand years
I’ll love you for a thousand more

Time stands still
Beauty in all she is
I will be brave
I will not let anything take away
What’s standing in front of me
Every breath, every hour has come to this

The song was originally written and featured on “Twilight”, which I’ve never seen. I found an interesting ‘cover’ of the song and thought I’d share it here.

My wish for you is that you find yourself on Tuesday healthy, happy, safe, and free.

Cheers

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Saturday’s Theme Music – Have A Bite!

Ashland, Oregon — Saturday, April 18, 2026.

Warming up today. 56 degrees, climbing to 75 as the sky goes full blue. After Saturday and Sunday going to the 70s, rain is expected Monday and most of the week, with high temperatures in the mid to upper fifties.

Scanning the news, I read a good piece from Digby, Trump’s El Foldo, about Trump’s Iran deal. They pointed out how Trump raged about President Obama releasing 1.7 billion to Iran.

Trump outdid that, of course, without a shred of self-awareness or irony, releasing 20 billion dollars to Iran according to some news reports. It’s a payoff to keep the Strait of Hormuz open, which were already open before Trump bombed Iran. It’s also a payoff to stop Iran’s nuclear program, which started on a fast track once Trump began his first term and tore up the agreement the United States had with Iran.

That’s the Trump shuffle: one step forward, five steps back.

The NYTimes has obtained Supreme Court ‘shadow papers’ regarding their shadow docket, where they decide cases with little to no explanation. Did not read the documents yet, but I read the reporters take on them. The most infuriating takeaway:

The conservatives reacted to Obama’s use of power very differently from Trump’s.

Yeah, no shit. We’ve known this. Seeing it in print just stimulates my fury about GOP hypocrisy and double standards.

The rest of the papers seem to show that Roberts’ drive was a personal grudge against the Obama Administration and the EPA, and not about legal reasoning, which is something that we’ve long suspected. Roberts is supposedly thinking more about his ‘legacy’ these days; if so, these revelations did substantial damage.

There are also articles about the huge price increase — from $12.90 to $150 — for World Cup spectators to take the train to get nine miles to Met Life Stadium, Trump’s massive, ridiculous monument to himself (the drunk arch), and how much it’s costing to retrofit Qatari’s gift aircraft.

Everything Trump does stinks of ‘me first’. There is little outside of his braying that is ‘America first’. Sending Vance to campaign for Orbán; America first? Really?

And then, just to fuel that extra edge of anger I feel about the Trump administration:

Hundreds of Fake Pro-Trump Avatars Emerge on Social Media

Sure, tell me again the fable that this is all about truth, justice, and the ‘American Way’.

I remain convinced that all of this is still part of Operation LOOK — SQUIRREL! to keep the public from knowing what Trump did with Epstein, which is why all the files are still not released. Trump’s minions have claimed several times that all were released, only to later reveal that more unreleased files exist. Tell me again that they’re not hiding something.

In a sliver of good news, US gas prices dropped seven cents. The average price per gallon still remains over $4 a gallon.

Is it any surprise that My Neurons have Aerosmith serenading me with “Eat the Rich” from 1993 in my morning mental music stream?

Jean Jacques Rousseau originated the phrase, “Eat the rich”, during the French Revolution. Little ironic that a rock band of wealthy successful individuals advocate ‘eat the rich’.

Lyrics

Well I woke up this morning
On the wrong side of the bed
And how I got to thinkin'
About all those things you said
About ordinary people
And how they make you sick
And if callin' names kicks back on you
Then I hope this does the trick
'cause I'm sick of your complainin'
About how many bills
And I'm sick of all your bitchin'
'Bout your poodles and your pills
And I just can't see no humor
About your way of life
And I think I can do more for you
With this here fork and knife

Eat the rich
There's only one thing that they are good for
Eat the rich
Take one bite now - come back for more
Eat the rich
I gotta get this off my chest
Eat the rich
Take one bite now - spit out the rest

I got a little coffee to wash down a few bites of the rich. I hope you have a significantly satisfying Saturday.

Cheers

2

Friday’s Theme Music – Wild Life

Ashland, Oregon — Friday, April 17, 2026.

The clock is running; here we go.

It’s up to 44 from its overnight low of 32 F. Clouds and fog were graying the blue sky but now they’re gone. Unbridled sunshine lights up the green spring world. We’re heading for the upper sixties, they say.

Mom’s deadline is today. 30 days ago, she told the assisted living facility she was moving out. She then started searching for someone to ‘take her home’. It’s been a tug of war since. Today is quiet; no texts from Mom or sisters. I wait on pins and needles.

There’s breaking news — again.

Crude oil prices fell to $90 a barrel based on something Iran was said to agree to. The stock markets were quick to shout good news and go up, but then, that is its modern nature.

We won’t know what it means for a while. Higher oil prices are already embedded in our economic fabric. It will take a while to get it out.

Will the war be over? Will the US military forces leave that area? Depends on what Trump’s bones say.

Even if this war ends, what will happen next? What nation will Trump next attack?

Waiting to see when SOUTHCOM kills some more people in boats in the Pacific.

Still waiting to see what else is in the Epstein files.

Still waiting to see what’s really going on with Trump’s health and mind.

That brings me to “Wild Wild Life”, a 1986 song by Talking Heads.

I’d read a piece about Kavanagh saying, oh, based on Dobbs and original intent, the military draft could be illegal, because it’s not mentioned in the Constitution. That encourage me to scowl and mutter about cherry picking precedence and the dead hand of our founders — all white men — orchestrating our response to modern issues via conservatives who want to turn back the clock.

That all triggered Der Neurons to bring “Wild Wild Life” lyrics into the morning mental music stream.

Like sitting on pins and needles
Things fall apart
It’s scientific

Sleeping on the Interstate, oh-oh-oh
Getting wild, wild life
Checking in and checking out, oh-oh-oh
I got ’em, wild, wild life
Spending all of my money and time, oh-oh-oh
On too much wild, wild life
We wanna go and we go where we go, oh-oh-oh
Ah, doing wild, wild life

I know it, that’s how we start, oh-oh-oh
Got some wild, wild life

h/t to musixmatch.com

Hope your wild, wild, Friday is a safe, prosperous, peaceful one for you, maybe with a little celebration and libation. Have the best one you can make.

Coffee, please.

Cheers

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