Ashland, southern Oregon. Saturday, September 5, 2026.
Labor Day is just around the corner, but it feels like a gorgeous spring day. Warm sun, blue sky, scattered white clouds. Now 65 F, it feels warmer. Yet, as I walk, the wind carries yellow and red leaves past my head. Summer is ending; autumn is coming. Our high will be…70 today.
Today’s music comes from The Stooges. “Search and Destroy” is in my morning mental music stream after I read about Trump’s latest, and the nation’s latest with him in the Oval Office. Feels like Trump is out to destroy all evidence of anything good, all to glorify himself. So sickening.
The song came out in 1973; the title was derived from a newspaper or magazine article about the Vietnam War. The Trump era feels a lot like that period, when Nixon took over and dirty tricks became the new norm for a while, culminating in Nixon’s resignation. We can only hope that Trump will resign but he lacks the intelligence or grace to do so; resigning would require a self-awareness that Trump completely lacks.
May your day be filled with hope and optimism, as well as peace and grace. I think we’ll often need these things going forward in the coming months.
The August Jobs Reports was released. More new jobs were unexpectedly added. It wasn’t levels like we saw under President Biden or President Obama, but it was above the norm for Trump’s second term — although still anemic.
Like many Trump watchers, I’m skeptical of these unexpectedly stronger numbers. Trump fired previous people for reporting the numbers as they were, hiring someone who fit his mold. That’s one.
Ashland, southern Oregon. This is it: Monday, August 31, 2026. August’s last day for almost another year.
Autumn is manifesting through leaves changing colors, shorter days, cooler temperatures, and the sun’s angles. We have a blue sky and sunshine right now. 64 F, the air feels fresh and clean. Papi indulged in a short zoom around the yard, clawed up a tree’s bark, and then rolled around in sunshine on the patio and bathed himself. He paused once to give me a look that said, “Are you still there?”
Supposed to hit 89 F today. Rain is presumably on the way later this week. As with many things, we’ll see.
All quiet on the Mom front.
We’re going to the movies this afternoon to see “Coyote vs Acme”. This seems like a fun and natural outcome of the old Roadrunner cartoons. Coyote was always trying to catch the bird, often by using Acme products. The products frequently failed. Now Coyote is suing Acme.
Trump is a liar. That’s bad. But he’s delusional—and that’s even worse
Trump is painting the Venezuela oil deal as a great thing for the United States and Venezuela. But as details emerge, the deal appears legally shaky because it violates Venezuela’s laws.
Not that laws ever matter to Trump. He forced the deal through to feed his ego and appease his base because he’s desperate. Right now, it’s more of Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! to me, an effort to distract everyone from how crappy everything else is going — if you’re not wealthy. If you’re wealthy, well, this K-shaped economy is doing just fine, thank you.
As with everything else about Trump, it’s shady.
So is his ICE campaign to ‘deport’ immigrants. Trump isn’t employing due process in his ICE campaigns.
Reading about it, Laura Berlin began researching and found who profits from this crackdown. She created a website to document this information. Responding to criticism as the Trump administration does, Berlin’s website was labeled ‘a tool for domestic terrorism’.
Facts, truth, history, journalism, free speech. Every day brings more aggressive tactics from Trump to shut them down.
Today’s music is by a Canadian group, Blue Rodeo. I was not familiar with them, but they have a song, “Hasn’t Hit Me Yet”, which they released in 1993. The song features the lyrics, “Watching the snow fall on this cold December night, and out in the middle of Lake Ontario, the same snow is falling on the deep silent water.”
Trump thinks he can magically change things. We the People disagree. So I’m playing this song for Trump.
May this day find you strong and healthy, and you continue to thrive as we move into September of 2026.
Ashland, southern Oregon. It’s the next to last day of August – Sunday, August 30, 2026.
Autumn has definitely inserted itself around her. Chilly last night, dropping into the forties. Trees are turning gold and red against a blue velvet sky. Sunshine is expected to lift us from our current temp of 53 degrees F to 86 degrees F.
Mom texted me several times yesterday but I couldn’t understand most of it. She didn’t respond to requests for clarification.
We seem to be on flat loop for political news. That’s not to dismiss or make light of all the news about murders, gun violence, fires, and death going on. I’m just keeping the focus narrow right now.
Trump keeps sending out texts, of course, and does some AI-generated photos of himself with truly famous and important people, trying to revitalize his tired image and poor record by leeching off of others.
Ironically, Trump once leeched off of Epstein’s popularity to boost himself. Trump called Epstein a “terrific guy”. Now he’s trying to hide his relationship with Epstein.
Like, no kidding. We the People call them ‘distractions’. I refer to the entire body of distractions as Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL!
Besides the texts and AI generated images, Trump torn down part of the White House to build a ballroom. Now it’s a mess.
Trump started a war with Iran. That was also to project how tough he was and how powerful the United States is. But Trump has the anti-Midas touch: all which he touches, organizes, or touts quickly diminishes in value. So the US military is now mired in another new Middle East war.
Way to go, Trump.
Besides starting that war, Trump did the Venezuela oil deal. Which…we won’t know what it means until all details are released and time has passed. Trump is talking about how great it is, but that’s what he always does.
Like this economy. Trump says it’s great. But the numbers aren’t great. Beyond rising prices, which are mostly fueled by Trump’s tariffs, his lingering war with Iran, and rising costs associated with climate change and extreme weather, personal bankruptcies are up. So are home foreclosures. Trump is killing the American dream. He’s not worried, though, because he’s enriched himself.
Overall, Trump’s second term legacy can be summed up as lies, delusions, and failures.
And now, a quote about Trump:
Today’s music comes out after thinking — again — about Trump’s many promises and delusions. I think too much about it, to be honest. I do so because he says these things, breaks his promises, and yet MAGAts and the GOP are all, it’s all gone.
Some of the MAGAts support Trump because he’s tearing everything down. That’s what they want: tear it down so we can rebuild. Unfortunately for us, ‘tearing it all down’ in this age will cause huge damage to the world. I guess they have Mad Max fantasies about leaving in a dystopian land…
Anyway, The Neurons ended up inserting a Simple Minds song in my morning mental music stream. “Promised You A Miracle” came out in 1982 and has that 80s techno rock vibe. The lyrics fit now:
Sample Lyrics:
I promised you a miracle Belief is a beauty thing Promises, promises As golden days break wondering
Seems to fit with Trump and the MAGAts, doesn’t it. ‘Belief is a beauty thing’.
May love, peace, and abundance be with you on this and every day.
My wife and I greet each other many mornings with, “What’s the news? He dead yet?”
Then we laugh and say, “I know he’s not or you would have shouting the news.”
You know, this is the only person in our lifetime together — over fifty years — that we have ever said such things about. And we never specify who we’re talking about. That’s. Not. Needed.
Mom is complaining about her relationships with her daughters. “Three of them live nearby and none of them will take me to my appointments. Which will only HASTEN my death anyway.”
My sister’s daughter, May, is going to visit Mom tomorrow. We’re interested in the after-visit report. Mom helped raise May, and she and Mom had a great relationship until about four years ago. Then Mom became so angry and bitter, complaining about so many things, May declared, “I can’t do that any longer. It’s just too much.” Which is the case with my sisters and the rest of their children. Mom just became too much. I’d seen that trend developing and told Mom over and over through the last several years that all she does is complain and scold, that she’s always angry and bitter. Once she said that her partner, Frank, had just told her the same thing.
Trump has big action happening in DC with the Freedom 250 Indycar Grand Prix. It’s all part of Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! He’s just trying to distract all he can from how crappy things are going. Lots of corporations are going along with him. Retail sales are down, reflecting people’s challenges with the increasing affordability of living in the US. But corporations overall are doing well, with energy and technology companies doing particularly well.
So, yes, many corporations are all in for Trump’s Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! distractions. Hey, they’re getting theirs! Make hay while the sun shines! So what if the wealth gap continues to widen, if personal bankruptices are increasing, rural hospitals are closing, measles outbreaks are increasing, and the extreme weather gets worse? Corporation execs and shareholders are making money. Later, when the situation changes, they’ll contritely reduce prices, announcing ‘we’re all in this together’.
No. We’re not. They make that clear. They’re only in it together with us if it’s going to affect their profits, and then, they’ll only act under duress.
Today’s music emerges from my dream. I didn’t hear it in the dream but as I went through the night’s third dream, I suddenly heard Karen Carpenter singing “We’ve Only Just Begun”.
That could be an apt song for now, as far as the title’s sentiment. We’re about to go through some heavy duty loads with Donald Trump. He tried staying in power when he lost his bid for re-election, encouraging his supporters to resist the bona bide election results, encouraging them to ignore the law, resulting in death and destruction while widening the trust gap and polarizing the electorate. This year, he’s been working on trying to undermine the system.
Here’s the irony: Trump is cheerleading the nation’s 250th anniversary while simultaneously undermining the system that we’ve developed and improved for 250 years, the system which actually delivered him victory — twice.
Yet, Trump keeps whining and complaining about stolen elections without evidence. Is cutting much of the federal government in order to shift loads to states because of states’ rights. Meanwhile, he’s working hard to hollow out the states’ role in the national elections, basically usurping it so he can mold it as head of the executive branch of the federal government. It’s such a naked, wanton, power grab.
Trump is doing it because he’s a failure. His policies are failures, and people are awakening to this. His only way to get ahead, as always, is to lie, cheat, and steal.
So get ready: we’ve only just begun.
May your day begin with love and happiness and end on a high note.
The Trump administration repeatedly claims that ICE agents were threatened or attacked — often saying that people ‘weaponized’ their vehicles or that agents feared for their lives. Yet in case after case, video, witnesses, and subsequent legal proceedings have contradicted or undermined those accounts.
So it was with some doubt that I read this DHS claim:
“Our officers are experiencing a more than 1,300% increase in assaults against them, a 3,300% increase in vehicular attacks, and an 8,000% increase in death threats. When faced with dangerous circumstances, DHS law enforcement used their training to protect themselves, their fellow officers, and the public,” the DHS spokesperson said in the statement.
There’s not much context to assess their claim, such as a timeline. Additionally, ICE underwent a huge expansion since Trump came back into office. I want to know, what are the raw numbers, such as the number of assaults based on the number of agents? That would be a more meaningful number.
Secondly, I ponder, how is DHS categorizing and cataloguing ‘threats’. Do they change definitions to make the numbers seem worse, giving them cover to respond more aggressively because ‘their agents are being threatened’? That seems to be the conclusion of an older DHS Inspector General finding.
Third, for me, while ICE aggressively expanded, ICE slashed their training regime. Based on historic trends among military, law enforcement, and other professions, less training often ends up resulting in lower standards and more incidents.
Finally, I think that Trump’s more aggressive deployments to cities and
In short, has the danger to the typical ICE officer actually increased by anything remotely approaching the enormous percentages being cited?
Or is this like the Trump and his administration’s broader pattern of making outlandish claims:
Given Trump’s history of unsupported and misleading quantitative claims, I want to see the underlying data and methodology before accepting the interpretation DHS is placing on those numbers.
It was one of his classic whoppers about stolen elections. He focused on one of his favorite hate targets — yes, the ‘unifier’ has many hate targets, doesn’t he? — California, and the mayor’s race in Los Angeles.
“Very few people voted. They had more votes cast than they had people. So the people came in, but the ballots were far more than the people.”
“They had more votes cast than they had people. Okay? How about that one? By a lot.”
Trump didn’t provide any evidence because Trump was making it up. Lying. Fact checkers confirm that no, the number of votes was not more than the city’s population.
Trump just lies. He keeps the stolen election lies going because he’s suffering failure after failure, disaster after disaster. Energy prices aren’t coming down. Affordability isn’t improving, and it’s Trump’s economy — although he wants to blame anyone else for it. Everyone is not getting ‘richer’. The Iran War isn’t over, and Iran is fighting back. In fact, the war is enlarging.
Trump has still kept the Epstein files back. Still golfs. Still building the ridiculous, ugly White House ballroom. Still charging the taxpayers for it after he said they wouldn’t.
Lie after lie after lie. Broken promise after broken promise. Failure after failure.
Like the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
Trump grandstanded about how he was finally fixing it, clapping himself on the back about doing something that no one’s ever done before.
Within weeks, it was a mess. Spinning, trying to blame others, Trump launched new lies about sabotage and vandals.
Labirinto Pisani said it well in comments on the story:
“Only a month ago, FOX News had Leavitt, Pirro, Burgum, and Watters all solemnly insisting the Reflecting Pool vandalism was real, while Trump’s slapstick imitation of “slashing the pool” played like a lost Marx Brothers reel. MAGA loyalists, predictably, swallowed every frame. Reality, as usual, declined to participate.“
Failures like this — and the news coverage of it — is why Trump so desperately keeps churning out the same baseless fantasies about stolen elections, now trying to drum up fears about communism. He’s trying to distract everyone from how badly he’s doing. Keep us divided. Unsure.
Trump is instilling chaos. Then he can declare an emergency. Assume sweeping powers. Vacate elections.
No; the Constitution doesn’t give him these powers. Trump is taking them.
And MAGA and the GOP say, yep; go for it, Trump. Because that’s their twisted vision of how the government should work.
We thought that the American ideals are justice, freedom, and democracy. We thought we understood that we are all better if we stand united.
July is dawdling to a close. Hotter today; but 74 degrees F now, a high of 96 F is expected. Then it will cool back down tomorrow.
Concerns for days like this is that the dry land, already very hot, cranks up the winds, and thunderstorms develop, lashing us with lightning. We’ve been fortunate so far this year.
Not so with much of Oregon. The state is on track for the worst season ever as 34 major fires burn. As an Oregon rancher affected notes, this ends up affecting everything. With the grasslands burned, they’ll need to buy expensive hay to feed their cattle.
With gas and diesel prices up, thanks to Trump’s Iran war and refineries threatened by high heat, expect grocery store prices to rise more. Beef, lettuce, and tomatoes are expected to surge by over 10% this year.
Trump doesn’t help the situation. Instead of providing funding and help to fight the fires, he worsens the situation by playing political games. Between that, DOGE cuts, and a poorly thought out reorganization, Trump has reduced the nation’s ability to effectively fight these fires.
Naturally — because that’s who he is — Trump denied that Iran could be involved and instead blamed Democrats. This goes against the FBI, security, and intelligence assessments.
But that’s Trump, exposing both his ignorance and his pettiness in one clumsy display.
Your Trump Quote of the Day:
Trump declared himself the ‘peace’ and ‘unity’ president when he took office in January of 2024.
“My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier. That’s what I want to be: a peacemaker and a unifier.”
Of course, Trump also claimed in that same speech, “Next, I will direct all members of my cabinet to marshal the vast powers at their disposal to defeat what was record inflation, and rapidly bring down costs and prices. The inflation crisis was caused by massive overspending and escalating energy prices, and that is why today I will also declare a national energy emergency. We will drill, baby, drill.”
All of us then scoffed because we knew from history that he’s only about enriching himself.
Everything since then has validated that truth and that he will break every promise, from being a peacemaker to lowering prices. Our national oil reserves are now at the lowest level in 43 years. Maybe Trump will try to make them the lowest in 47 years; that’s the sort of egotist he is.
But MAGA believes, yes, Trump is a unifier. Yes, he’s bringing peace by being strong. Perhaps they’ll see the truth…someday. I’ve become doubtful. There is no FAFO for many of them.
As for Trump’s legacy, it will be one of lies, corruption and destruction, not unity and peace.
That takes me to today’s music: “Gimme Some Truth”. John Lennon released the song in 1971. I ended up with a Pearl Jam live version from a few years later in my morning mental music stream. I can’t explain it.
Lennon’s lyrics fit this Trump era:
I’m sick and tired of hearin’ things From uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocritics All I want is the truth Just gimme some truth
I’ve had enough of readin’ things By neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians All I want is the truth Just gimme some truth
Over fifty years later, we’re still hearing from uptight short-sided, narrow-minded hypocrites, led now by Trump.
The United States economy slowed more than expected as an inflation surge took hold over the early months of the Iran war, a government report on Thursday showed.
The economy grew at an annualized rate of 1.5% over three months ending in June, marking a slight slowdown from 2.1% growth recorded in the previous quarter. The figure came in lower than economists’ expected.
Still, the latest data outperformed 0.5% annualized gross domestic product (GDP) recorded over final three months of 2025.
The period covered by the data release followed a historic global oil shock set off by the Middle East conflict.
Trump’s war with Iran makes more sense to me now. Trump attacked Iran because the economy was weak. He needed a distraction, cover for why inflation was not going down. Besides that, the Epstein files are still out there, waiting to be released. Also, polls were showing that Trump and his policies were becoming more and more unpopular, a trend that’s still going.
I wasn’t familiar with the song. Once I heard it, it struck me as a really weird song choice for visiting a factory. But that aligns with Trump and his Trumpions’ thinking. “American Cars” is the song title, and that’s all they needed.
I was pleased that Noah Kahan pushed back against Trump’s use of the song.
“Kahan wrote Tuesday, according to Variety, “Would never approve of my music being used in support of you or this administration.””
His writing partner, Noah Levine, was more to the point: “You fat f–k, this song isn’t for you.”
Love you, Noah Levine!
Hope your day is wealthy with friendship, good health, and good times.
Michael Seidel, writer 