Munda’s Theme Music
My body and mind were unanimous. More sleep was wanted. Yesterday was busy with an Easter Brunch. We’d been preparing all week. 10:15, we set off to go help with setup. By 11:30, all were there. A smorgasbord awaited. Mexican quiche, salmon with asparagus, salmon and cream cheese rolls. Dutch babies and lemon cake for dessert. Salads. Juices and libation to make it chippier. Easter egg hunt and korn hole. A half dozen present shared their latest stories about demonstrating against Trump in Ashland and Medford. 2 PM, it was all over.
Over to a friend’s house for his 93rd birthday. Just family and my wife and I. He has health issues and didn’t want a gathering. After singing the birthday song, witnessing the candle blowout, and visiting for two hours, we headed home to unpack and wash everything.
Blue skies were the day’s order. Light wind kept it from becoming too warm. 69 F was the tops. Today seems like it looked over yesterday’s shoulder and copied the weather.
I reminded my body and mind that sleeping in wasn’t an option. Today is Food & Friends deliveries. Crank up the car, pick up the food, and roll through the streets on route 3 to knock on doors and ring bells and drop off a small meal in southeastern Ashlandia. I’m the driver; my wife makes the deliveries.
Then, finally, it’ll be back to writing at the coffee shop for a few hours, and then home to wash clothes and attend yard work. The grass and weeds are gladded by the sunshine. It’s all shooting up fast.
Papi is beside himself with happiness by the time the air warms. It’s rolled up to 49 F now. He heads outside and sniffs out the sunshine. Then wind sniffs him out and he’s back in. It’s a never-ending game of ‘In & Out’!
The mountain air loads the night with temperatures that dribble down into the mid thirties. That temp feels colder. But we’re on the regular Ashlandia spring track. Only troubling thing is we’re not seeing any bees. They’re normally all over the place with their buzzing presence. Their absence disturbs.
Yesterday’s Easter Trump dump again illuminated his pathetic ways. That vitriol and lie-filled text mess is a sign of an insecure, demented, ignorant person. Trump’s dark forces again rose to show what a sinister and ugly place the United States is becoming under his hand as two young and wholly innocent German tourists were detained and deported, all for the crime of not having accommodations already reserved. Such fools are now in charge. Then there’s Trump’s undocumented bullshit broadside against Abrego Garcia. WTF, United States. Is this truly your vision?
With those thoughts spinning through my groovy organic thought machine, The Neurons spun up Aerosmith in the morning mental music stream: “Same Old Song and Dance”. Last time I used this ditty was in 2019. Trump occupied the White House then. I wrote back on that day,
Reading the news yesterday and today, I was shaking my head, partially laughing while crying. You know, it was the same old story.
That led to me streaming Aerosmith.
It’s the same old story
Same old song and dance, my friend
It’s the same old story
Same old story
Same old song and dance
It was an easy song to identify with when I was a teenager and the song was released. When you asked questions, you often heard, “That’s just how it is. That’s how it goes.” It was always the same old song and dance, no matter what you were asked.
So here we go. Trump is attacking and bullying whatever he can — law, courts, common sense, history, morality, it’s all open to a Trump attack. He’s like a puppy gnawing on clothes, shoes, and furniture. Nothing is safe from his brainless chewing. A puppy does far less damage, though. A puppy will grow out of it. Trump, with his deteriorating and aging mental capacity, will get worse.
Same ol’ story, same ol’ song and dance.
Have the best day you can, my friend. Fueled with coffee, I’ll rock on for another day, it seems. Cheers
Sunda Insights
From Jill Dennison, memes, we got your memes here. Everything from the notoriously dangerous gang known as DT47 to the Archbishop of Cadbury is skewered. Facts are also tastefully served up.Time to think and chuckle. Cheers
Saturda’s Wandering Political Thoughts
Some things catching my attention in the week’s news…
I enjoy Ali’s regular offering, Peace & Justice History. Posted every day on Scottie’s Playground, the post provides a high-level recap of the day in history in the realm of peace, law, and justice. I like it as a reminder of the history which has gone before. While there is sometimes a sinking sensation that history is part of a wash cycle, and we’re going through the spin and rinse once again, reading about others stands against war and for justice and human dignity can inspire and fuel my need for optimism.
Infidel753 provided a good overview of the Bond market and the huge implications for the U.S. when our bonds fall out of favor. As several have suggested, the bond market drop probably caused the pause in Trump’s wacky tariff scheme.
“The sale of Treasury bonds is how the US government borrows money. A bond’s value at maturity is fixed; its initial sale price is lower and is determined by supply and demand, with the difference between sale price and maturity value being the interest paid by the government to the investor. For example, if a bond is worth $100 at maturity, and you buy it for $95, then the $5 difference is the interest you get on the investment, effectively paid to you by the government. If you are less confident that the bond is a good investment, and you pay only $90, then your return is $10 when the bond matures, and the government is having to pay twice as much interest to borrow the money from you. In practice, the sale price of Treasury bonds is set by supply and demand and reflects investors’ collective level of confidence in the US economy at any given moment.“
“The reason this matters for the future of Trump’s befuddled trade and foreign policy is that huge quantities of US bonds are owned by foreign governments. Japan holds over a trillion dollars worth of them, China holds $760 billion, the UK holds $720 billion, Canada holds $380 billion, and many others also hold substantial amounts. Even by the standards of the US federal budget, these are very large amounts of money. And these governments have now learned that turmoil in the bond market can get Trump to back down even when nothing else can.“
Some hope was found that the Roberts Court finally, finally, took a stronger stance against the Trump Regime’s mass deportation scheme, the one that pretends that due process has no place in the U.S. no matter what the Constitution and legal precedence says. Jennifer Rubin at The Contrarian gave a concise summary of the latest ruling. Now we all wait to see what happens next. I haven’t perused the news yet, but something else may have already happened. Whatever else, the Trump Regime is an evil and diabolical machine in its pursuit of unlawfully getting people out of the country.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin is coping with lead paint in its schools. The Biden administration was working with them to help them out of this mess. Isn’t working for the common welfare one reason for the Federal government’s existence? But under the Trump Regime, the CDC experts who were going to help Milwaukee have been fired. And, the Trump Regime told them that it’s declining their request for help. I’m sure that Milwaukee citizens are probably wondering, why the fuck are we paying taxes, then. I know that would be my reaction. Not sure how this fits, but Wisconsin was a swing state that went for Trump while Milwaukee went for Harris.
A confusing piece was in The Hill. Trump on egg costs: ‘If anything, the prices are getting too low’. It was a real head-scratching read.
‘President Trump weighed in on the cost of eggs around the country, claiming Friday at the White House that the prices are “getting too low.”
‘Trump praised Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins for doing a “great” job and then asserted that egg prices are “down 87 percent, but nobody talks about that.”’
“Bullshit,” my wife said. “I just bought eggs. They’re not down ’87 percent’. If that’s right, why are they still so expensive in Oregon?”
Yes, it’s something else to ponder.
Frida’s Wandering Political Thoughts
Again, a light of good news. Not all CEOs are profit-driven greedmeisters. Not all of them are weak-minded or fearful. Not all are ready to abandon their principles or their employees and roll over and do other tricks just because the Trusk Regime decrees it.
Marriott’s CEO spoke out about DEI. The next day, he had 40,000 emails from his associates
Snippet:
Much of the company’s success is driven by trust in leadership—including former chairman Bill Marriott, current chairman David S. Marriott, and CEO Anthony Capuano.
In an interview at the Great Place to Work For All Summit in Las Vegas with the organization’s CEO, Michael Bush, Capuano spoke about a recent crossroads—and how he responded.
Marriott’s CEO speaks out
After Trump announced sweeping changes to DEI in January, many executives and companies were left reeling.
Capuano says he met with his executive leadership team in Bethesda, Maryland, where they decided to take a week to research and process before meeting again. The CEO then flew to Los Angeles for the Americas Lodging Investment Summit. While there, he was inundated with questions about Marriott’s approach to DEI in the future.
Rather than stay silent, Capuano recalled many conversations with his mentor and former chairman Bill Marriott, and decided to speak.
“The winds blow, but there are some fundamental truths for those 98 years,” Capuano said. “We welcome all to our hotels and we create opportunities for all—and fundamentally those will never change. The words might change, but that’s who we are as a company.”
Capuano says he went back to his hotel that night hoping he had said the right thing.
Capuano’s message was simple, but it didn’t go unnoticed by associates. He was overwhelmed by how his employees responded.
“Within 24 hours, I had 40,000 emails from Marriott associates around the world, saying ‘thank you,’” he said. Many expressed appreciation to work for a company whose values aligned with their own.
Marriott is among Fortune’s Best Companies to Work For that are sticking up for DEI policies right now. Others on the list include Delta and Cisco.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
See, Donald? This is leadership.
Health Cares
A little reminder of the bullshit which surrounds reports about Trump’s health.
Snippet:
Unless you care about the president’s (sic) health (and I do not), it doesn’t matter to you or me what he weighs or how tall he is. What is important is that they’re dishonest. What’s important is the depth into which this regime sinks the cult into the government.
Trump, who is 78, needs to appear as a Superman to his cult. I’m shocked the memo mentions he takes aspirin for cardiac prevention. As we’ve learned, they lie about everything.
Right now, the regime is lying to the Supreme Court by claiming they can’t have a man they illegally snatched off the street and sent to a prison in El Salvador brought back to this country.
When Trump was running for president in 2016, Dr. Harold Bornstein stated that Trump would be the “healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.” A couple of years later, we learned that Trump had dictated that letter, which didn’t surprise anyone. A doctor should lose his medical license over that. And it wouldn’t surprise us to learn he dictated “224” and “75 inches” to Captain Barbarella and wouldn’t allow him to mention that Trump’s cholesterol is just Big Mac Secret Sauce. His first White House physician was a lying alcoholic lunatic, Dr. Ronny Jackson, who doesn’t practice medicine anymore and is now in a place where he can’t hurt anybody, Congress.
Ronny Jackson claimed that Trump could live to be 200, and judging from the way our luck works, that might be true.
The memo does show that despite spreading debunked lies about vaccines, like his Health Secretary does, Trump is up to date on vaccines.
The part we should care about, and is more absurd than claiming he weighs 224 pounds, is the claim he scored 30 out of 30 on a cognitive test. I checked to be sure the memo didn’t state that he also has hands that are not tiny.
Anyone who believes Trump, the shark boat battery guy, scored 30 out of 30 on a cognitive test needs to take a cognitive test. I don’t believe this doctor would let us know if Trump scored less than 30.
Trump’s last presidential physical had him at 244 pounds. His 2023 arrest in Georgia listed him at 215 (they don’t weigh the prisoners but take their word for how much they weigh), and this exam says he’s 224.
If Trump does weigh 224 pounds, then that’s 224 pounds of walking/talking bullshit.
The one number that’s accurate about Trump is 34, as in 34 felony convictions.
And that’s the bottom line.
Thirstda’s Wandering Political Thoughts
Once again, without much urging, I think, what fucking idiots.
Unfortunately, I’m in that frame of mind many times as I read the news. This time, the fucking idiots are lawyers.
Lawyers are supposedly smart people. That’s what I’ve always been told. Admittedly, the few lawyers I’ve personally encountered did reduce my appreciation for lawyers’ intelligence. Now, after watching the news for the last five years, I feel that they standards have been steadily dropping. Did you read their arguments about the ‘stolen election’? Did you see their performance in Trump’s trials? Did you read about the Roberts Court decision that Trump has immunity for his acts as POTUS? Sure, they tried to write around it and explain that it’s not absolute. You can bet your ass that Trump is thinking, “I’m President, and I’m making these decisions, and the Supreme Court said that I can’t be tried for that.”
Yes, it was a stupid fucking decision.
I’m telling you, lawyers are dumbing down. Soon, the requirements for being a lawyer will be, “Do you speak English, have five million dollars, and will vow allegiance to the great and mighty sacred god, Donald Trump? Here you go: you’re a lawyer.”
The kickoff for this new round of low regard for lawyers was a New York Times headline:
Law Firms Made Deals With Trump. Now He Wants More From Them.
“To avoid retribution, big firms agreed to provide free legal services for uncontroversial causes. To the White House, that could mean negotiating trade deals — or even defending the president and his allies.“
Absolute fucking fools, I think. Fucking idiots. Have these lawyers not been awake and aware of Donald fucking Trump for the last twenty years? He lacks honor. Has gone back on his word several times, describing it as being ‘flexible’. His only principle is, “How can I further enrich myself?” Secondary to that is, “How can I make others pay for making fun of me and not worshipping me as the greatest ever?” The man is a documented liar. He violated his marriage vows with affairs. He will cheat these law firms out of every fucking dollar and shred of dignity they have.
Capitulating to Trump is not the answer. Reading and thinking individuals know this. Michael Cohen warned us. So I want to know: how did these lawyers get their degrees and pass the bar without being able to fucking read and think?
Thirstda’s Theme Music
The cat and I agree. It’s not as warm out as we expected from eyeballing the scene. The full sunshine just isn’t cutting the notorious north wind playing in the trees. Papi, ever hopeful, keeps making the trek out through the door, only to beat the window within ten minutes, his cat signal to get back in. I don’t blame him. That batting wind inspires a change in my dressing plans.
It’s Thirstda, April 17, 2025. 59 F and sunny, 72 will rise on the thermometer before the day’s end. I think the wind will have me rethinking how it feels, though.
Our city is going through some budget wrassling. Parks and Rec, as ever, wants to hire more people, buy more land for parks, develop more parks. A continuous battle has been transpiring between Parks and the City and citizenry for years. Parks wanted to be given all tax monies gained from the local sales tax. Oregonians are anti-sales tax. Ashland’s sales tax is often cited for reasons why others in the area won’t eat in the town. It’s only prepared food that’s taxed. Five percent. Outrageous, the anti-sales taxers cry.
Things came to a head last night with Parks and the City Council. Parks wanted $9 a month tack onto every household’s monthly utility bill to pay for more Parks stuff. They threatened layoffs, closures, and cutbacks if that doesn’t happen. The city itself is already planning cutbacks in services because of a budget deficit. The populace is already balking at a lot of this. Ashland’s water rates are already high. Hikes are planned to build a new water treatment plant. It’s a quite contentious thing.
Of course, the city’s plan for its new water treatment plant take a huge step backward this year. Trump cut FEMA plans and fundings. Ashland’s water treatment plant was due to receive a $50 million grant from FEMA’s Flood Mitigation Assistance Grant Program that was created by Congress as part of BRIC. Trump ended that program. “Wasteful,” declared the orange White House occupant.
Today’s music is from Bon Jovi. I’m not particularly fond of “Wanted Dead or Alive”. I think the lyrics are a little silly with lines like “a loaded six string on my back”. What is a loaded six string? Well, Jon Bon Jovi wrote the song. He explained that this song is about the rough rock star touring life. How exhausting it all is. His lyrics were inspired by comparisons with ‘wild-west outlaws’ and the Bob Seger song, “Turn the Page”. So I cut the song some slack.
Not caring about any of that, The Neurons have the song going in the morning mental music stream. I tried to pin them down on their reasoning. That’s like trying to get an explanation from the cat about why the food he loved last week is not acceptable this week.
I’ve had some coffee and I’m feeling alright. Hope some magic comes your way and makes good things happen for you. Time to work on making Thirstda real. Cheers
Wenzda’s Theme Music
“Meeyouow,” the cat says.
I shake my head. “I don’t understand what that means.” I guess, treats, water, outside, attention, scratching, Lassie’s in the well? Papi keeps talking. He’s a chatty cat this morning.
I’m less so but have been talking to my computer. My computer doesn’t say much but it’s a good listener. Never interrupts. Most of my words are sentences of disbelieving comments about some of the things I’m reading. There is some spirited cursing thrown in. Like, the thirty thousand eggs the White House is using in this time of high egg prices has me saying some things to my monitor. Poor optics, as if the man gives a shit ’bout optics. He wants the eggs.
“They were saying that for Easter ‘please don’t use eggs. Could you use plastic eggs?’ I say we don’t want to do that,” Trump said earlier this month during remarks announcing a new tariff policy.
Yes, so, there you go.
It is Wenzda, April 16, 2025, 64 F, and sunny. Yesterday clipped 79 F. That’s a good temperature to enjoy when it’s a hot sun and cool breeze. Nice combo. I’ll probably order that regularly once we’re living in virtual reality and ordering our weather. Snow still whitens some higher peaks and ridges, such as Mt. Ashland. The green trees and white mountains dazzle in the sunlit blue sky. I went out and pulled weeds. The front area is a weeded, cut and trimmed. The back yard is a tall grass, weedy, bee and pollinator paradise. We’re seeing few bees so far this year.
Today’s theme music is “It’s Good to Be King”. This is a 1995 Tom Petty song. My Neurons slotted it into the morning mental music stream after reading many of the things Trump said and do. Yes, he acts like the American King which our founders warned us about.
Coffee has landed in my gullet again. Time to rock on through another day, though it might be a slow-paced rock. Hope the best for you. Cheers
Twosda’s Wandering Political Thoughts
Stolen from elsewhere…
Michael Seidel, writer 