Science fiction, fantasy, mystery and what-not
I’d say that more people need to start thinking. However, we know from videos and posts, many are not interested in these positions. They’re not really pro-life. They’re not deep thinkers. They’re simple hypocrites. Easily conned, they don’t want to admit that they’re not knowledgeable and really don’t understand much. Most are just haters, and most have been convinced that hating Democrats provides the solutions to their problems.
Trump Regime Logic
“The canary in our mine has died,” the foreman reported.
“We’re not going to replace him,” the mine owner replied. “That bird was fraud, waste, and abuse. Never did anything but sit there in a cage. Useless. We’ll save hundreds of pennies by cutting that position.”
The next day, the foreman reported, “Three miners have died.”
“Good!” the mine owner enthused. “Look how much we’re saving on personnel costs. Keep up the good work.”
“All of the third shift are dead,” the foreman reported the next day. “There’s no mining going on today.”
The mine owner clapped his hand and cackled in glee. “That’s great news.”
The foreman stared at him. “How do you figure? Nothing’s being mined. Production is down.”
“Exactly,” the owner replied. “That’ll reduce supplies. With lower supplies, we can charge much more money per ton. In fact, go ahead and lay off everyone else. We’ll shut the mine down and save a fortune in overhead while we sign new deals.”
“Are you sure?” the foreman asked.
“Yes. We’ll be making so much money, you won’t believe it.” The owner’s orange face glowed with excitement. “Trust me, I’m a very stable genius. I know what I’m doing.”
Warm air, clouds, and sunshine mugged us this morning. It’s Wenzda, May 7, 2025. 57 F when the bed rejected a few more minutes of shuteye, it’s now 2 PM and 74 F, on its way to a 78 F now. Don’t know if that’s possible. Cloud are jumping the sunlight. The temperature climb has stalled.
Papi, the ginger blade, aka Butter Butt, loves this warm stretch. Some shade is needed so he’s back in Boinn’s spot. Boin is Boo & Quinn. They both enjoyed and utilized that space behind some bushes against the bac fence. Like them, all I need to do to draw Papi out is step outside and into the grass. Then, click, as if activiated by a motion detector, he’s out, talking and stretching, heading toward me.
A dental appointment threw off today’s timing. That all went well. This was intro work. Snaps to see what my mouth looks like. A new bridge is needed. That’ll be $4400. Oral surgery to remove three defunct molars. $2500 each. $7500 total. Then I’ll need either implants or flex bas for the missing teeth. Flex bas are $750 each. Only two are needed, so $1500. Implants are $2500 each. Three would be needed, so $7500 for those. Xrays were $247. Cleaning will be $250. It all adds up. I want to think about what I want done.
The dentist, staff, and facilities all impressed me. The doctor told me she had to give me bad news about what was needed and referred to herself as Debby Downer. Thereafter, I referred to her as Doctor Downer.
Today’s music is fresh from hearing a knock on the door. “Who Can It Be Now?” I wondered. Righteously awakened, The Neurons introduced Men At Work singing the 1980s hit song in the morning mental music stream. Later, singing the song in my head, I recalled, “Is it the man come to take me away. Why do they follow me. Is it my future that I can see. Or is it fantasy?” Those words are ripe for these times. It feels like Trump and his Trumpnistas are about to burn the Constitution and go after anyone who doesn’t say they love Trump. Like me. I don’t love him. Never did and never will.
Coffee has been enjoyed. Work on bushes is singing a siren song. Off I go. Enjoy the music, your day, and your life. Cheers
Sunshine beams down on us from a blue vault in Ashlandia. Already 72 F, we’ll kiss 81 F, it’s said. Lovely weather for Twosda, May 6, 2025.
I feel like I’m juggling a bobillion things today. I can’t define a bobillion except to say that it’s a number that keeps my mind whirling in different directions. Many are random minute modern matters. Then again, isn’t that the norm these days? Sure seems like it. We’ve gone from working the land to working in the office to working the phone and computer at home. Nothing to do but pursue and complete it all. Prioritize as necessary. Keep in mind is most of it is small stuff that fuels bureaucracies. But bureaucracies are the current engines that move things forward. I would now usually go on and point out that the Trusk Regime is busy tearing down bureaucracies, pointing to how much he and his Trumpnies (Trump cronies) want us to go backwards. But that point has been beaten into thin batter. If you don’t get it by now, you probably won’t until you’re personally affect and distraught at the results.
Today’s morning mental music stream is occupied by Journey. Journey had a strong presence on the rock scene in the mid-1970s to early 1980s. Today’s song is “Don’t Stop Believin'”. Released in 1981, the song became a top 10 hit in many nations. Arriving to Okinawa for military duty, I heard it often on AFN Radio and playing on jukeboxes.
Hope your day is strong and hopeful, and feeds and supports your need to keep believing. Coffee has been served. Here we go again, one more day in the United States. Cheers
IBM made news with the announcement of a ‘historic’ investment in manufacturing in the US. It made headlines and has the Trump Regime pretty excited.
Less coverage was given to IBM’s plan to ramp up operations in India. Working with new operations in Singapore, Brazil, Mexico, Europe, and Australia was a large part of my work for several years while at IBM. This was part of their offshoring investments to reduce overhead and personnel costs.
In other IBM news, IBM announced the ‘layoffs’ of 9,000 US employees. Many are being replaced by AI. As noted by many experts, a return to manufacturing in the U.S. won’t automatically translate to better employment numbers.
And keep in mind: the same replacements by AI are being planned at Amazon, Dell, and other U.S. corporations.
The old joke used to be that companies often required employees to train their replacements before they were released. Now it looks like employees are building their replacements.
Just a few thoughts after glancing at the news…
Trump Tariffs Threat Bloats Trade Deficit to Record High
This news wasn’t a surprise. US companies built up stockpiles in anticipation of the impact from Trump’s tariffs, officially referred to as Trumpriffs. It was curious that other nations’ businesses didn’t do a like buildup.
More interesting, later in the article, Trump claims that deals are coming. First, will those deals actually help the entire nation, or just a select few Trump cronies, aka Trumpnies? Two, are these deals on the same sliding timeline as Trump’s repeated claims that his ACA replacement plan was coming soon? He never did release such a healthcare plan. I suspect these deals will be small and meaningless in the greater scheme of the global environment, but the Trump Regime will trumpet them as the greatest thing since bottled beer.
Supreme Court allows Trump to implement transgender military ban
This news also wasn’t a surprise. The Roberts Court lists heavily to the right and gives Trump the legal standing to stick the nation in reverse and drive us backwards at very high speed. The Trump argument was based solely on ‘facts’ from Trump’s first term. Americans in polls support transgenders in the military. As usual, Trump doesn’t allow facts outside of his prejudiced and narrow scope to stand in his way.
Read on Facebook. Stolen immediately.
Charles Pierce is credited as the author of this opinion. His short but thoughtful review of past Presidents’ behavior are contrasted with the current POTUS’s behavior. Trump’s lack of empathy, lack of vision, lack of manners, insights, and intelligence were again displayed. He is a base and craven individual.
As Charles Pierce shares.
“In my life, I have watched John Kennedy talk on television about missiles in Cuba. I saw Lyndon Johnson look Richard Russell squarely in the eye and and say, “And we shall overcome.” I saw Richard Nixon resign and Gerald Ford tell the Congress that our long national nightmare was over. I saw Jimmy Carter talk about malaise and Ronald Reagan talk about a shining city on a hill. I saw George H.W. Bush deliver the eulogy for the Soviet bloc, and Bill Clinton comfort the survivors of Timothy McVeigh’s madness in Oklahoma City. I saw George W. Bush struggle to make sense of it all on September 11, 2001, and I saw Barack Obama sing ‘Amazing Grace’ in the wounded sanctuary of Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
“These were the presidents of my lifetime. These were not perfect men. They were not perfect presidents, god knows. Not one of them was that. But they approached the job, and they took to the podium, with all the gravitas they could muster as appropriate to the job. They tried, at least, to reach for something in the presidency that was beyond their grasp as ordinary human beings. They were not all ennobled by the attempt, but they tried nonetheless.
“And comes now this hopeless, vicious buffoon, and the audience of equally hopeless and vicious buffoons who laughed and cheered when he made sport of a woman whose lasting memory of the trauma she suffered is the laughter of the perpetrators. Now he comes, a man swathed in scandal, with no interest beyond what he can put in his pocket and what he can put over on a universe of suckers, and he does something like this while occupying an office that we gave him, and while endowed with a public trust that he dishonors every day he wakes up in the White House.
“The scion of a multigenerational criminal enterprise, the parameters of which we are only now beginning to comprehend. A vessel for all the worst elements of the American condition. And a cheap, soulless bully besides. We never have had such a cheap counterfeit of a president* as currently occupies the office. We never have had a president* so completely deserving of scorn and yet so small in the office that it almost seems a waste of time and energy to summon up the requisite contempt.
“Watch how a republic dies in the empty eyes of an empty man who feels nothing but his own imaginary greatness, and who cannot find in himself the decency simply to shut up even when it is in his best interest to do so. Presidents don’t have to be heroes to be good presidents. They just have to realize that their humanity is our common humanity, and that their political commonwealth is our political commonwealth, too.
Watch him behind the seal of the President of the United States. Isn’t he a funny man? Isn’t what happened to that lady hilarious? Watch the assembled morons cheer. This is the only story now.”
– Charles Pierce
Yet, Trump and his supporters believe that this clownish behavior makes America great again. Their vision for America is appallingly short-sighted.
History will not be kind to Trump and his minions.
It’s as I feared: future NAZIs developed time travel.
There is evidence:
Yes, they found a sword with a swastika. This isn’t the first time a swastika was found in the past. The cover story is that the swastika meant ‘good fortune’ before Hitler adopted it as his murderous regime’s emblem. I think NAZIs going back in time spread a tale that the swastika meant ‘good fortune’ to trick others into using it. Then the NAZIs held secret meetings to spread their hatred, prejudices, sexism, and racism. In fact, going out on a limb, I’ll wager that in some distant far, far, far, far future, we’ll learn that Adolf Hitler and Trump are related. Further, they’re both related to Darth Vader.
But Darth Vader isn’t real, cynics will protest. That’s because that’s what they want you to believe. Vader is real. He just resides in a galaxy far, far, far, far away.
As does Hitler, awaiting his time to return. If you recall, his body was burnd and buried. It was never seen by anyone but Hitler’s staff.
Remember, you read it here first.
A cold night surrendered to blue skies and warming sunshine. It’s 62 F now. The sun is promoting a high of 76 F. It’s said that we’ll see 81 F tomorrow. This is Munda, May 5, 2025 in Ashlandia. This is spring in Ashlandia.
Our trip last week gifted us a few things. One, my sciatica kicked in on Saturday. Too much time in a car seat. I’ve been dealing with it off and on since I was 20. I can usually feel it developing and head it off with stretching exercises. My early warning system failed me this time. I didn’t medicate but my wife suggested a Salon Pas. I slapped that thing on. I couldn’t believe the ensuing burning. I was in a recliner watching telly. The heat grew so intense, I pulled the patch off. On a whim, I popped it on my belly.
Well, call me Steve if I wasn’t surprised by the results. I suffer belly bloat. That Salon Pas patch remarkably reduced it. So I did it again yesterday. Same result. I was truly astonished and impressed and put another one on today. Only drawback from the patch at this point is hair. Yes, I’m a hairy boi. Getting that patch off required scissors and delicacy. The end result was a belly Brazil.
That’s my side. My wife could hardly get out of a chair on Friday night. She’d been complaining about pain and using different methods to address inflamation and pain. Epsom paths. Salon Pas. Valtaren. Red light therapy. Bed rest. Diet. But her weakness scared me. She’s better today but related that when we were on vacation, she worried about getting out of the bathtub. Fortunately, handles were available. Here an home, she reported a similar problem.
Her problems dig into my psyche as my sister peppers me with updates on Mom. “Mom is really debilitated. She’s confused about dates and other things.” Mom went and stayed with sis. “Mom said that she had to pee. Then she stood and began peeing. I went to help her, asking her what she needs. Mom said, I’m going to fall. I dropped everything and rushed over and caught her, keeping her from falling.” There are good answers about what to do but none are simple. Guilt spreads through me because I seem to recover. My sciatica did a quick and silent goodbye while Mom and my wife both endure. I can do little for either.
Politics again inspired The Neurons for today’s music. A conversation with my wife was the catalyst. She was reading about Conservatives complaining that the root of all of today’s problems in the USA is letting white women go to college and having the right to vote. Apparently, all those women going to college are getting liberal arts degrees and daring to think, and college screws up their thinking.
Like, WTF, seriously? Do those men really believe that? Pretty damn galling to that these people, these obviously sexist and biased shallow thinkers, think they have the right to deprive others of rights.
Included in the responses was a woman being interviewed. She said she could never vote for a woman to be POTUS. Because of hormones. What? Yes, because of hormones. If they’re going through menopause, their mood will change and they’ll go off and start a war.
The male interviewer responded, “But haven’t all the wars been started by men so far?”
The woman went wide eye and still. The video ended.
Talking about this thread of crazo thinking, we remarked, so many people underestimate others’ contributions. Maybe they learn and forget.
And that encouraged The Neurons to begin The Who and “Eminence Front” in the morning mental music stream.
Drinks flow
People forget
That big wheel spins, the hair thins
People forget
Forget they’re hiding
The news slows
People forget
Their shares crash, hopes are dashed
People forget
Forget they’re hiding
h/t to Americansongwriter.com
Off to drink more coffee and employ my neurons in some writing. Hope your energy is up and pulls you safely through another day. Here’s the music. Cheers
First, let’s review the Oath of Office for the Presidency.
ArtII.S1.C8.1.1 Oath of Office for the Presidency Generally
Article II, Section 1, Clause 8:
Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:– I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
Article II, Section 1, Clause 8 provides that the President must swear or affirm to “faithfully execute the Office of President” and “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution” to the best of the President’s ability. Presidents since George Washington have reflected on the oath’s significance and the burden it places on the President. In his second inaugural address, Washington declared that a violation of the presidential oath would occasion not only “constitutional punishment,” but “the upbraidings of all who are now witnesses of the present solemn ceremony.” Of the oath, Justice Joseph Story wrote: “[t]here is little need of commentary . . . . No man can well doubt the propriety of placing a president of the United States under the most solemn obligations to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution.”
Back on January 20, 2017, Donald J. Trump swore this oath of office. Despite winning the popular vote by a narrow margin, 49.8% to 48.3%, and almost 90,000,000 registered voters not voting, Trump was elected and swore this oath of office a second time on January 20, 2025.
Now Trump claims that he doesn’t know if he needs to uphold the Constitution?
Yep, that’s what PINO Trump said in an interview with Kristen Welker on NBC’s Meet the Press this week.
“Your Secretary of State says everyone who’s here, citizens and non-citizens, deserve due process. Do you agree, Mr. President?” Welker asked Trump.
“I don’t know. I’m not, I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know,” he said.
To summarize, this self-professed “really smart”, “very stable genius”, doesn’t trust or believe his Secretary of State’s assertion?
Trump also seems to believe he has a ‘mandate’. He won by less than two percent of the popular vote. Moreover, Trump believes that his campaign promises to deport undocumented immigrants — or this one, at least, because he already blew off several others, like ending the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and lowering inflation — carries more weight than his sworn oath to uphold the Constitution?
The United States of America really elected a duplicitous jackass in 2024. But he’s a useful jackass for those who aren’t interested in maintaining the United States as a democratic republic, entities such as the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025. We’re traversing deep wormholes of twisted logic these days. Tariffs will lower prices. The POTUS doesn’t need to support or defend the Constitution. Agencies can be ended by Executive Order regardless of Congress’s role in creating the agencies. Insider trading is now okay. Greed is good. Due process is not necessarily due process. Next thing that you know, Trump and his minions will be claiming that Christianity will be the official religion, despite the separation of church and state wall.
Oh, wait.
Trump, brushing aside separation of church and state, establishes religious liberty commission
Trump, who just reminded us that he’s not a lawyer, so he doesn’t know if he’s required to uphold the Constitution and due process as described in the Fifth Amendment of the Bill of Rights, has demonstrated he doesn’t care about the Constitution. He’ll just dance around it and drag the rest of us with him, regardless of the law.
So many of us saw it coming. It makes us increasingly angry and bitter.
The United States is not a monarchy. Trump’s election to the office of the presidency does not give him the right to overthrow or ignore the Constitution. In just 100 days of Trump’s second term, we are deep into a crisis.
Take it to the streets on June 14, 2025. Trump is not a king. See fiftyfifty.one for more.
Michael Seidel, writer 