Tag: pino

Tuesday’s Theme Music

Ashland, southern Oregon — Tuesday, May 26, 2026.

We’re mired in a gloomy late spring day. Dull sunshine seeps down through swollen rain clouds. 48 F now; 60 F later.

Despite this cool temperature and rain clouds, the drought is already browning the valley. A wildfire was fought and put out not too far away. The air this morning smells like the remains of a sodden bonfire.

Many of my Pittsburgh family members gathered at the youngest’s house for a BBQ. They also played Kornhole and shared social media photos of the gathering. All my sisters were there with their partners. Most of their children and grands, and their children’s partners. Some were missing, as there was a baseball tournament where they were playing. And other than my sister, the Georgia contingent was absent. Of course, Mom and Frank weren’t there in a long line of firsts we’ll encounter this year.

In Trump Iran War news, the US broke the ceasefire. That was okay, though, because it was the United States, which, under Trump, doesn’t follow the rules and norms. That generally leads to anger, reprisal, uncertainty, and confusion. We’ll see how it goes this time.

The Trump administration labeled these ‘self-defense’ strikes. Funny how self-defense is ‘needed’ when there’s a ceasefire on, and the war is over or almost over, and the US won, which are all things which Trump claimed.

The war is now into it 87th day.

The full Epstein files have not been released.

Prices are rising.

The Epstein ballroom funding is short of its need.

The Trump tariffs ruled illegal by the Roberts Court are being refunded to businesses. Consumers beginning to sue businesses to get their share of the tariff refunds.

I’m reading the novel, “James”, by Percival Everestt. James had a wonderful line:

“Religion is just a controlling tool they employ and adhere to when convenient.”

That summarizes my attitude toward not just religion, but how patriotism is invoked in the US — especially by Trump — and also how I see the Constitution now often being employed.

Of course, ‘they’ do it with team and family, as well: “We’re one team!” “We’re a family!”

True when it’s useful to be true.

Your Trump Quote of the Day:

Today’s music comes from a glance in the bathroom mirror. I laughed at my reflection. I look less like Mom or Dad than I used to, I thought, and sort of reflected on that. (No, I am not sorry for that phrase!)

Seeing an open door, The Neurons came in with “Mirror in the Bathroom” by English Beat in the morning mental music stream. It’s such a classic 1980s sound for me. Brings flashbacks and smiles.

Lyrics:

Mirror in the bathroom, please talk free
The door is locked, just you and me

I hope for the best for you, your family, home, and region. Stay strong.

Cheers

0

Wednesday’s Theme Music – The Consequences

Ashland, southern Oregon — Wednesday, May 13, 2026.

Cloudy, sunny, windy describes the morning. Thunderstorms are expected. They were also expected the last two days but didn’t show. Today’s clouds look like they have more serious intentions.

They’ve cooled the air. A high of 70 is expected. It’s 56 F now.

We’re talking a lot about the blue wave for the 2026 midterm elections. Hopes are rising that Democrats will be able to gain enough seats in Congress to counter Trump’s rampage through democracy and US political norms. Maybe arrest his war-mongering mentality and willingness to threaten other nations, and bomb and kill people. Perhaps, too, we can then curtail the massive ego massaging that the GOP are doing, going along with naming everything for Trump, ignoring rising prices, a cratering economy, and a shrinking impact on the world. Maybe we’ll also get to see what’s in the Epstein files about Trump that shook Melania enough to make public statements trying to distance herself. We’ll hopefully gain enough votes and influence to restore and repair the social safety net, begin countering climate change again, and stop air and water pollution.

Big ambitions. We did it before. Let’s do it again.

‘No kings’ is still our mantra.

The GOP is fighting against a blue wave by gerrymandering districts to promote and protect Republican candidates. Doing so undermines the progress made under voting rights and substantially diminishes the principles established as part of our democratic republic. Their actions reveal just how little they hold all of that in regard.

Meanwhile, on to Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! Shimmying and trying shift attention from all the bad things happening under Trump and to Trump — rising prices, failing war, falling approval, rising disapproval, increasing national debt — Trump announced tariff relief for beef. It’s a move he tried in 2025. It didn’t work then. Won’t work now.

Trump is trying to lower the price of beef in order to slow inflation. He’s way behind and not addressing the problem. The cause has been going on for years: droughts are causing shrinking grasslands. Less grasslands support smaller herds. Shrinking herds mean less supply. Less supply = higher prices.

It takes years to rebuild a herd. First, the droughts must end.

Trump supplied the same thinking about lowering mortgages, braying that will help people with buying houses. No; it won’t. Housing supply is still the problem. As long as it remains low, prices will keep going up. Supply and demand.

Now, part of the reason why supply remains low: climate change. Wildfires. Droughts. Flooding. Hurricanes. Tornadoes.

Trump won’t try to do anything about any of them.

Instead, he began a war. That war drove up oil prices. Rising oil prices affect food, transportation — and building. Because it takes gas and oil to build. Bulldozers. Trucks to bring in supplies.

Everything Trump does is opposite of what he tries he’s trying to do.

The consequences of his shallow, short-term, backwards thinking are slamming us in the face.

Oh, and then TACO delayed that tariff relief.

I read yesterday about New Orleans sinking, which means it’s flooding. In comments about the article, people quickly asked, “If it’s sinking, why isn’t Florida sinking?”

I thought, wow. Critical thinking is really diminished in this nation. As we know from history, many parts of New Orleans are lower than sea level. Wetlands dominate. It’s been singing and is well documented. Louisiana has been fighting it but under this Republican governor, they stopped that fight.

Finishing the comparison, Florida is mostly porous rock underneath so it’s not sinking. Sea waters are rising, and that will affect Florida, along with storm surge and flooding.

Today’s music comes by way of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. The novel has a character called Marvin, who is a depressed android. I’m not certain what precipitated me thinking of that book. That then flowed into recalling the movie. From that, The Neurons supplied a 1997 song by Radiohead called “Paranoid Android”.

One line of lyrics goes like this:

When I am king you will be first against the wall
With your opinion, which is of no consequence at all

Yes, certain people came to mind as The Neurons played it in my morning mental music stream.

The song’s music is interesting because of the multiple influences which show up in it. Fun to just listen to and identify them.

I hope your day is excellent in whatever ways are important to you right here, right now.

Cheers

0

Trump’s Vision: Unhinged, Untethered

I read the NYTimes review of the Trump Ballroom addition to the White House, the addition where Trump tore down the Easat Wing without public approval.

The Times article cited a grand staircase that leads to no entry. Pillars that block the view from inside the ballroom. A building that is too tall and too large for its planned purpose. It was also a building put up without previous engineering and architectural reviews.

A judge ordered construction stopped so reviews could be conducted. Trump responded to a hand-picked panel that unanimously grunted, “Approved” without thinking about any of the 19,000 objections raised.

In many ways, the ballroom is perfectly symbolic of Trump’s decisions.

  • Dismissing medical science, Trump appointed anti-vax people to important positions. With more people encouraged to dismiss childhood vaccinations, measles outbreaks in 2025 climbed to the highest levels seen in decades. 2026 is expected to surpass that mark.
  • Ignoring economic and political history, Trump instituted ’emergency’ tariffs which drove up costs and prices, and which now must be paid back.

All these are like his ballroom: with steps that go nowhere, a confused design that even now, he’s trying to change.

The problem with it all is Trump. He has a maligned vision of what peace, war, unity, and prosperity means, and it’s an unhinged, untethered vision.

The one clear thing we know about Trump from his actions is that he and Jeffrey Epstein were good friends and he’s scared of having details about his Epstein friendship revealed. To that end, he’ll do anything to hide the truth.

Hiding from the truth is what always drives Trump’s unhinged, untethered vision, whether it’s how badly he lost in 2020 or how his popularity is tanking in 2026.

Get ready for more.

4

Sundaz Theme Music

Sunda has arrived in Ashlandia and is offering it’s bonafides as a typical summer day for us. It is July 27,2025. July skidded by on greased slicks, with little sound but a lot of speed. 82 F now, at noon, sunny, an 87 F high is expected by most forecasters for us. Air quality is good with a small smell of wet smoke detected by my nose. That smoke may have been from the Greenway Fire in Medford, 90% contained and 256 acres.

Lot of Trump news to review today.

Donald Trump struggles to understand simple question amid ‘cognitive decline’ concerns

Trump posts fat JD Vance meme sparking rumor they’ve fallen out

Trump’s imaginary numbers, from $1.99 gas to 1,500 percent price cuts

Poll: Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Is a Flop With Voters

Trump Is Trying to Hide the Cost of Renovating His New Air Force One

I take exception with the use of ‘imaginary numbers’ in the one article. Imaginary numbers have a place in math; what Trump is using is fictional numbers to spread his lies, as fiction is something invented or feigned. I know I’m pissing up a tree. It’s semantics and pretty meaningless in a world which plays with irregardless, figuratively vs. literally, etc.

I find the Trump meme about a fat Vance hilarious. Hello, kettle, sayeth the pot. You’re black.

And, there we go again, talking about Trump’s cognitive decline and his age, but few others take up the beat, yet they mercilessly hammered President Biden about these things. Yes, we know where the media takes their lead.

Today’s theme music comes from being outside and considering the stars and the black field where they play. Looking at those nocturnal diamonds, I wondered if there was anyone out there coming to save us or destroyus. Meanwhile, The Neutons quickly filled the mental music stream with songs about space and time before bringing up the diamong aspect, and “Shine on You Crazy Diamond” by Pink Floyd from 1975. I enjoy the lyrics and the sonic interplay happening during the various suites.

Hope you have the best Sunda that aliens, gods, fate, and your good selves can deliver. Time to put another one in the books. Cheers

0

Sunda’s Wandering Political Thoughts

Southwest Nebraska medical center announces plans to close, blames uncertainty over funding

The uncertainty over federal Medicaid funding appears to have claimed its first victim in Nebraska.

Community Hospital in McCook announced Wednesday that it will close Curtis Medical Center in Curtis, winding down its services over the next several months.

“Unfortunately, the current financial environment, driven by anticipated federal budget cuts to Medicaid, has made it impossible for us to continue operating all of our services, many of which have faced significant financial challenges for years,” Troy Bruntz, President and CEO of Community Hospital, said in a news release.

The budget reconciliation bill that the House of Representatives voted to approve on Thursday contains several provisions that experts say will slash Medicaid, which rural hospitals are more dependent on than their urban counterpart

Read the rest…

Mauna Loa Observatory captured the reality of climate change. The US plans to shut it down

The greenhouse effect was discovered more than 150 years ago and the first scientific paper linking carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere with climate change was published in 1896.

But it wasn’t until the 1950s that scientists could definitively detect the effect of human activities on the Earth’s atmosphere.

In 1956, United States scientist Charles Keeling chose Hawaii’s Mauna Loa volcano for the site of a new atmospheric measuring station. It was ideal, located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and at high altitude away from the confounding influence of population centres.

Data collected by Mauna Loa from 1958 onward let us clearly see the evidence of climate change for the first time. The station samples the air and measures global CO₂ levels. Charles Keeling and his successors used this data to produce the famous Keeling curve – a graph showing carbon dioxide levels increasing year after year.

But this precious record is in peril. US President Donald Trump has decided to defund the observatory recording the data, as well as the widespread US greenhouse gas monitoring network and other climate measuring sites.

Read the rest…

The Dilemma of the Fourth of July
As we finish out this holiday weekend, it’s a good moment to reflect on how the Fourth of July is a complicated holiday for many of those living in the United States. At Native News Online, author Mark Charles looks at the contradictions in the experience of July 4th for many Native communities.

“The other day I was eating dinner with my wife in a restaurant located in Gallup, New Mexico, a border town to the Navajo reservation. Gallup was recently named “Most Patriotic Small Town” in a nationwide contest. Soon after sitting down I noticed that we were seated at a table directly facing a framed poster of the Declaration of Independence.

The irony almost made me laugh.

When our server, who was also Native, came to the table, I asked if I could show him something. I then stood up and pointed out that 30 lines below the famous quote “All men are created equal” the Declaration of Independence refers to Natives as “merciless Indian savages.”

The irony was that the restaurant was filled with Native Americans customers and employees and there in plain sight, a poster hanging on the wall was literally calling all of us “savages.”

Read more…

0

TUBCS Graduate

Looks like Jeanine Pirro, newly appointed top DC lawyer, is still day-drinking

“We’ve got massive amounts of evidence that we are vetting, we are verifying and we are reviewing. This is the start and not the beginning.”

She is definitely a graduate of Trump University of Batshit Crazy Speaking, TUBCS.

0

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑