Tag: quotes

Saturday’s Theme Music — Unravelling

Saturday, August 22, 2026. Ashland, southern Oregon.

Although the clouds have departed and sunshine spreads across a blue sky, today’s temperatures are cooler. 68 F now — feels like 70 something — 86 F will be our high.

Like many others, I’m reading about Trump, Natalie Harp, and Trump’s desperate efforts to win support. It’s unravelling for him.

2026 is becoming the year in which nothing goes right for Trump. Sure, he made a lot of money last year — $3B. But after bragging about how good the economy would be under him and proclaiming a golden age, Trump gets the honor of being the Oval Office resident as the national debt rockets past $40T and climbing.

Gas prices are up. Diesel prices are climbing. Beef prices are still up. Trump’s Iran war goes on. People still ask, what do the Epstein files reveal about Trump that Trump is dodging their release.

Then there’s Natalie Harp. Lo, this blonde looks much like his daughter, making us all gag with memory about Trump’s earlier suggestions about dating her. Natalie Harp, aka the Printer and the Human Binky, is Trump’s constant companion and his wall against the world. He was very upset when people said things about her.

Predictably, Trump launched more Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL!

Trump puts his face on Reflecting Pool water in algae green during latest posting spree

Does that shout WTF, or what? Certainly crazy of him because it draws attention back to a series of humiliating setbacks. Trump scorned previous administrations’ efforts to fix it. Trump also said, “Our job will take one week and will cost about a million and a half dollars.”

Trump also said, “This will last for at least 50 years and you’ll never have a leak. It’s very strong. You couldn’t — if you had a knife, I don’t want to give anybody ideas — if you had a knife you can’t even cut it.”

LOL.

“THE FACTS: Work is ongoing 15 weeks later. The pool was drained for a second time in mid-July to address returning algae blooms and issues with a new coating that was peeling. Trump’s estimates of the project’s cost have increased as work has progressed, to “less than $20 million.” Records show that more than $16 million worth of contracts have been awarded for the project so far.”

h/t to AP News

So why did Trump put his face on the pool, which many now call symbolic of his shambolic administration?

Maybe he didn’t.

It’s possible that Natalie Harp posted it on behalf of Trump, trying to coax a smile out of that dour old orange peel face. Because posting on social media on Trump’s behalf is part of Natalie Harp’s official duties.

Trump’s face on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool isn’t likely to improve his tanking poll numbers. Trump knows that. So he pulled another trick out of Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL!

Trump Announces Beef Tariff Relief — and Takes Jab at Biden — in Bid to Cut Prices

Anyone with half a brain would know that Trump’s move would irritate ranchers and beef producers. Tragically, there’s not half a brain within all of the Trump administration put together.

Pushback was almost instant.

Republicans revolt over Trump’s beef tariff relief: Will ‘further harm’ MAGA

This is so catastrophically funny. Trump imposed the beef tariffs. That, with the actions he took to cut out trading partners and his war with Iran, has raised prices. Now, desperately trying to do anything to improve his numbers, he’s actually going against his own tariffs and war.

Trump is basically warring with himself. Of course, with all of it, it’s always someone else’s fault.

Doesn’t matter who Trump tries to blame. He’s made a mess of the United States, and now he’s unraveling.

And all of it was predictable way back when he began his presidential campaign back in 2015. We knew he was a fraud, liar, and inept, a con who cheated his way to apparent success.

But there’s a sucker born every minute. Trump managed to con them into voting for him.

Thinking about Trump unravelling caused The Neurons to bring up one of my favorite unravelling songs. Weezer came out with “Undone” back in 1994. The song quickly became known as “Undone – The Sweater Song”.

Sample Lyrics

If you want to destroy my sweater
Hold this thread as I walk away (As I walk away!)
Watch me unravel I’ll soon be naked
Lying on the floor, lying on the floor, I’ve come undone

h/t to AZLyrics.com

It’s a fun song. Though, truthfully, I shudder to think about Trump lying naked on the floor. *ugh*

I hope you don’t unravel but that your day is carried out with peace and grace, and a tincture of tranquility.

Cheers

0

Facing Truths

It’s getting messy for Trump and the Republicans.

The headline says it all:

‘I’m Not That Informed on National Security,’ Graham Says in South Carolina Debate

That would be Darline Graham, Trump’s choice to replace the GOP senator who died last month. No, not Mitch McConnel, the other one.

Darline Graham is a Trump supporter so it’s no wonder that he chose her; for him, her not being informed on national security is a benefit. He doesn’t know much about national security, either.

Losses are piling up for Trump-backed candidates

“Republican primary voters have now rejected 10 Trump-endorsed candidates for statewide office or Congress this primary season.”

Why are they being rejected? Evidence is still being collected.

I don’t know if the truth is coming out, TBH, the truth being that Trump is self-centered, aging, sick, and incompetent. I think this is more of a FAFO matter that people are voting against Trump: they’re hurting and the future isn’t the rosy scenario that Trump promised and they expected.

Many people seemed to vote for Trump by ignoring his actual record of achievement. They blindly accepted his promises in 2024:

  • No new wars
  • Prices will come down — fast
  • No golfing
  • Law and order
  • Building the military
  • Improving the economy
  • Lowering the national debt
  • Make America healthy again

Everything Trump’s done since he began his second term has resulted in the opposite of his promises.

  • Trump started a war with Iran which reduced military munitions and readiness
  • Prices keep going up, now setting new records for how high they’ve reached
  • Trump golfs over a quarter of the time he’s been in office
  • Political prosecutions and pardons have replaced law and order
  • While the unemployment rate remains roughly 4%, the number of employed Americans are declining
  • Trump is adding no new jobs
  • Measles cases are at a 30 year high

Trump claims we’re in a ‘golden age’ but personal bankruptcies are going up.

Personal bankruptcy filings are soaring in 2026, signaling growing economic distress

“The number of Americans who file for bankruptcy is growing. More than 500,000 people took this step in 2025, nearly 50% more than in 2022. And the numbers have kept on climbing, with a 12% jump in June 2026 from a year earlier as many consumers struggled to pay their bills.”

The bottom line, again is the truth: Trump cares about no one but Trump.

Your Trump Quote of the Day reminder:

Unable to change now, Trump continues with the same con that brought him success, whip-cream claims and empty promises.

Trump’s ‘Golden Age’ Economy Pitch Fizzles With Midterm Voters

“Inside the White House, there’s broad confidence that the administration has a record to run on, one the president will likely be hammering from here to November. But other Republicans, including some people close to the president, are concerned that won’t be enough, especially for candidates running in competitive races. They want him to offer fresh economic plans, such as further tax cuts expanding on last year’s major law that’s central to the GOP economic pitch.”

And yet, with all that’s going bad, Trump thinks it’s going great:

Trump probably wants to be the next POTUS because he’s making so much money off of being in the Oval Office during this term. Besides increasing his wealth by over $3B in 2025, We the People are paying for all of his mistakes. We’re paying for his travel, and we’re paying for his golfing.

Yet, these are only the first manifestations of the many messes Trump has created. By rolling back environmental protections, the impact, via increased pollution, more extreme weather, and more natural disasters, are looming on the horizon.

Likewise, Education, which Trump has gutted, is a ticking timebomb. One of the foundations for US growth in the last century was its strong education system. It wasn’t perfect, and it was uneven, and yet, it offered promise and hope.

The GOP has been actively wrecking it, monetizing it more each year. Trump is accelerating this process, effectively dumbing down America at a time when the challenges we face require more thinking, more knowledge, more education, and more intelligence.

The evidence of Trump’s impact on our education system won’t immediately show. But like all the other mistakes which Trump has made, it’ll soon be as evident as the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and the White House lawn.



1

Monday’s Theme Music — Ordinary

Bandon, southern Oregon coast. It’s overcast here, chilly, a mere 60 F. A sea breeze takes the feel of that down a few degrees. Whatever the temperature, I love the fresh sea smell here.

We’re heading back home to see if Papi missed us. A wary orange boi, he’s always reserved in his opinions.

Sickening and repugnant how Trump dismisses We the People’s concerns. While the scope of deprivation and problems are still being vetted on the USS Abraham Lincoln, the fact that they’ve been awake on an extended deployment is not contested.

Your Trump Quote of the Day:

Let’s imagine Trump out there, serving for months at sea. Imagine how he’d be whining about his sacrifice. Imagine him having to go without McDonald’s, without golfing. Oh, the humanity. How we would be hearing about his suffering.

Likewise, Trump gives a rat’s ass about the rising gas prices. Oh, it was so important to Trump and the MAGAts back when Trump wasn’t in charge. Oh, how Trump eviscerated President Biden about the price of things.

Now — yes, in classic Trump Double Standards, it’s a completely different tune.

“For you to pay a TINY little bit more for your gasoline, you’re doing it so that a very evil country cannot have a nuclear weapon. Remember that when you’re paying $4. I’ll never apologize.”

Trump is also threatening to ‘bomb the shit out of Oman‘. I file this under Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! Things are going badly for Trumpy and the MAGAts. They haven’t had a hit in months and there’s talk that the band is breaking up.

All of this is just more ordinary Trump posturing. Ordinary in the sense, Trump is always doing these things. But they’re deadly, with serious, long-lasting consequences.

Trump is never one to understand that, though. He’s absolutely shameless. For example, look how he used to talk about Epstein as a friend. Then Trump declared that he would release the Epstein files. Now Trump desperately wants us to forget the Epstein files.

Today’s music is “Ordinary World” by Duran Duran. The Neurons have it playing in my morning mental music stream in light of Trump’s recurring ‘ordinary’ reactions — ordinary in the sense that this is how he always does things. To the rest of us, Trump’s behavior is anything but ordinary. No, words like sick, mindless, and depraved is what usually comes to mind — at least to my mind.

Sample Lyrics

Papers in the roadside tell of suffering and greed
Here today, forgot tomorrow
Ooh, here besides the news of holy war and holy need
Ours is just a little sorrowed talk

Have a great day of peace, grace, good health, and good fortune.

Cheers

2

Friday’s Theme Music — No Return

Friday, August 14, 2026. Ashland, southern Oregon.

Another cool day in which the high temperature is expected to crest in the mid 80s F again.

More stories are now coming out about the declining situation on the aircraft carrier, USS Abraham Lincoln. The ship has been on an extended deployment to support Trump’s war with Iran. The ship has been deployed a record number of days without a port stop.

Trump has not said anything about it. That makes sense; he’s claiming to be rebuilding the military, and has asked for record amounts of more money for that purpose. To find out now that one of the nation’s frontline warships is suffering problems more suited to a *cough* ‘shithole country’ would be another terrible blemish on Trump’s already horrid record.

No, Trump won’t say anything about that. Brace yourself for a new spurt of distractions — texts making insane claims, bold — but faulty — proclamations about how great Trump thinks he is and how wonderful everything is going in his eyes.

Meanwhile, Trump is the overseer of another modern record that will infuriate him:

Gas prices jump again, national average is highest price ever for month of August

Regular unleaded is $4.071 per gallon, up from $3.15 at this time last year while diesel has jumped to $5.40 per gallon nationally.

Yowza. That does not play well against the reality that Trump keeps trying to foist onto We the People.

Your Trump Quote of the Day:

Trump wants an A+ on the economy, with gas prices establishing a new record for this time of year. To me, that’s a failing grade.

Your bonus Trump quote of the day:

Instead of bringing energy prices down, Trump instead brought the global supply chain down via DOGE’s cuts and his tariffs. Then Trump made everything worse by attacking Iran, who responded by shutting down the Strait of Hormuz. That upended the global oil supply chain, which affected almost every other supply chain, driving up costs and prices.

That’s the MAGAts’ Trump: wholly unthinking — except when it comes to himself — irrational, and destructive, taking us all down while he improves his own situation.

What is the point of no return for them?

I have “Point of Know Return” by the prog rock band, Kansas, in the morning mental music stream. This is an energized 1977 song that often has people singing along with the refrain, “How long?” Easy to see how this emerged in my morning mental music stream, given My Neurons’ tendencies. Kind of interesting, but the song is actually about a sailor going off to sea. I think.

May peace and grace bless this and every day for you.

Cheers

2

Trump’s Critics

Heed The Warning ⚠️!!!

Jill Dennison — always a terrific source for news, opinion, music, and humor — provides more insights into why Trump can’t be trusted. “Where There’s Smoke” provides quotes from ten people who previously worked for Trump. People who endorsed him. Lawyers, generals, CEOs, politicians, governors, cabinet members. Pieces like this remind me that my distrust of Trump is seated in truth, revealed again and again. In this effort, she’s enabled by Keith, who is always good for intelligent and insightful discourse.

Read it, and as Jill says, take heed. I will but I know, MAGAts and many in the GOP will not. They’ll remain in FAFO mode, supporting Trump until their part of the world burns down or implodes.

Then they will probably cry about how Trump tricked them, absolving themselves of any responsibility.

0

Friday’s Theme Music —

Ashland, southern Oregon — Friday, August 7, 2026.

Sunshine rules but smoke threatens. We’re still safe, knock on wood. Our hearts go out to the many, many, many others — animals, people, land — enduring fires and its impacts.

Hit 102.7 at our house yesterday. Project to hit the same today. It’s 80 F right now.

It’s my anniversary with my wife today. 51 years. Some were rocky but we’re still here, growing old together.

Meanwhile, Trump’s economy, now in its second year, continues flailing. The Jobs Report comes on the heels of the report that showed that the economy’s growth is anemic. What happened to all those manufacturing jobs Trump promised?

Paul Krugman again helped me understand what the July Jobs Report means.

News of the Weak (Labor Market)

“The surprise fall in employment — 23,000 jobs lost, when the consensus forecast was for around 80,000 gained — made headlines. As always, it’s important to realize that monthly jobs numbers are noisy, so you shouldn’t overreact to one report. However, this report also revised data for several earlier months down, so the broader picture of job growth in Trump’s “golden age” is significantly worse than it seemed.“

Krugman also shares this graph from Haver Analytics.

Krugman has often talked about a recession vibe. That comes about when everyone talks about how bad the economy ‘feels’ versus what the data shows. The intersection of gas prices what won’t come down, a terrible job market — as show in the Jobs Report and in jobseekers’ perceptions of what the job market is like — and slow growth is what gives us this vibe.

Trump will probably respond with claims of fake news, or attempt to blame Presidents Obama or Biden, or the Democrats. It’s always someone else’s fault when things go wrong, although he’s always hungry to try to claim glory and success.

Your Trump Quote of the Day:

We need to keep repeating this: Trump doesn’t think about anybody except himself. He doesn’t care about anybody but himself. This economy, Trump’s growing wealth, and Trump’s war with Iran is what you get when you vote for Trump and the GOP that enables him.

“Beds Are Burning” are in my morning mental music stream again. This is a 1987 Midnight Oil song. The Australian group’s song is in there because there’s been so — much — fire — this year, around the world. Record disasters. With Trump’s reactive policies, this will get worse. A super El Nino is already forecast for this coming winter in the northern hemisphere. With fires burning so much of the woods and vegetation and a wet super El Nino in the works, the potential for devastating flooding is enormous.

The other reason that “Beds Are Burning” is today’s song is because of the Trump economy. It’s also burning; more money is being poured into the Defense budget and weapons. But Trump and Hegseth are burning through them. Meanwhile, Trump is trying to fund battleships and Arctic ships. It’s surreal as hell. The economy and world is burning, and he’s wasting money not on helping the people, but on building armies to attack others.

I hope you have a safe and healthy day, and it precedes a long string of such days for you.

Cheers

2

The Trump Problem

Several interesting Trump developments caught my wandering eye this morning. He’s losing more and more, and getting angrier and more desperate about it. He’s also denying that it’s because He. Is. The. Problem.

Rep. Andy Ogles loses his Republican primary in Tennessee

Good riddance to him Ogles, who was endorsed by Trump.

Retail gas stations touted by Trump racked up penalties in New Jersey

Basically confirms what I suspected about this business.

Appeals court says Trump lacks authority to build White House ballroom without approval from Congress

As we have suspected all along. But this will go to the Roberts Court, where they follow Calvinball rules.

Trump backpedals in $10B BBC lawsuit after request for his financials

The BBC’s attorneys note the result of Trump’s latest move:

“In fact, claiming $10 billion in harm while purporting to disclaim damage to Plaintiff’s business and professional interests renders it all the more implausible that Plaintiff will ever be able to show such damages.”

That’s pretty much Trump: wanting something for nothing.

Trump warns he may be the last Republican president in Abdul El-Sayed message

Trump’s warning is funny is so many hilarious ways. Trump claims he’s so popular and this is a ‘golden age‘. Well, for who, then, if he’s worried about being ‘the last Republican president’.

BTW, given how terrible it’s been under Trump — and getting worse — Republicans deserve not to have another POTUS. Trump was the best they could do? Sure, he tricked many voters, as they found out. He lied and made promises. They’ve awakened to that.

But others, like Mike Johnson, JD Vance, Pompeo, Cruz, will march right in line behind Trump, singing this same warning. It’ll become part of the fear chorus — Commies! Red Menace! Iran! Woke! Woe is Trump!

Elevating his insults to the nursery school level, Trump dismisses Democrats as dumocrats. Yet Trump is worrying about losing to the Democrats. Well, if they’re dumb and they’re winning and he’s not, what does that make him?

Your Trump Quote of the Day:

Yes, voters are mad at ‘Republicans’ but they’re not mad at Trump. *sure* Trump is confusing his base with We the People.

Trump’s base swallows almost every line and asks for more. Meanwhile, We the People are very pissed at Trump. He’s started a war with Iran, he’s blowing through the treasury coating things with gold and firing missiles, all while prices keep going up and the economy worsens.

US economy lost 23,000 jobs in July; analysts expected gains

Trump’s record speaks for itself.

‘I’m very good at grass’: Why does Trump keep talking about lawns?

The question is, is Trump as ‘good at grass’ as he is with war and the economy.

Face the facts: Trump is only good at lying and taking care of Trump.

As we see as he plays hide the Epstein files.

To me, Trump’s declarations about being good at grass is another Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! distraction.

And he’s hiding from the truth: he is the problem.

2

Wednesday’s Theme Music — Shadows

Ashland, southern Oregon. Wednesday — August 5, 2026.

We hit 101.5 at my house yesterday. That was outside. Inside, we stayed below 80. We’ve yet to run the A/C yet this year — knock wood — as the temperatures drop enough at night to cool the house and land down.

We’ll see if that holds today. Right now, it’s 83 F, on its way to 101 again.

The thing about yesterday’s weather is that it climbed slowly. At one mid-afternoon point, I thought, well, this isn’t bad. 91 then, I thought, maybe we won’t hit one hundred. Then I entered a store, came back out said to myself, holy shit, it’s hot as hell. What happened?

Today, though — hot early, hot fast.

Although there are more fires burning across the United States, we’re still fire-free — knock wood. The smoke isn’t bad, either. We’re fortunate in our neck of the woods; Oregon has topped 2,000,000 acres burned this year. Washington has several large fires going. Portland (OR) now has the worst air in the world, due to the wildfires.

Mom and my sister, Gina, continue their quiet war. Mom turned to her granddaughter, Gina’s daughter — Amy — as the go-between. Amy is rejecting the role. Although Mom helped raise Amy, Amy doesn’t deal well with the tension of being the go-between. Plus, Amy is in college, working on a Masters, and she works. So I help fill the gap.

As 2026 wears on, we’re seeing the shadows of Trump’s thinking, lying, fantasizing, playing out in real time now. It’s all catching up.

US has used ‘virtually all’ of its long-range precision missiles during Iran war, sources say

  • Some of these are new weapon systems
  • There’s a bottleneck on refilling them
  • They’re expensive
  • Experts estimate that it will take 1 to 4 years to replenish the supplies
  • While Trump and his staff deny it, this is likely why Trump backed off on the Iran bombing campaigns

And what has the war achieved? Death and high prices. A more unstable Middle-East. And now, a more vulnerable US.

‘Delusional’: Donald Trump flunks reality with his ‘A+’ grade claim

Trump’s golden age reality check

Trump and his administration predicted 6% growth; it’s 1.5%

Trump’s solution to abuse in ICE facilities is pricey—and evil

Jeanine Pirro faces the choice many Trump officials confront at one point or another

Which reality do you choose?

“When Trump hits a brick wall now, as president, he just fashions an alternative reality. He can talk up tough financial data or a foreign policy hiccup as though he’s bigging up a tatty property in a real estate prospectus.“

Your Trump Quote(s) of the Day:

This is the same tired claim Trump made in January of this year:

Trump has made this claim dozens of times already. But reality does not back him up. As with many matters, Trump has a basic misunderstanding of how things work. If inflation cools, prices don’t ‘come down’; inflation is a measure of how much they’ll increase.

Trump’s claims about affordability and prices coming down, and being in a ‘golden age’ is just like his Iran War rhetoric. Trump has claimed victory again (April), again (June), and again (July). Yet the war goes on, in August. He keeps trying to distract us from the truth. Not happening, because we’re paying through the nose, and we’re feeling it.

Today’s music is “Shadowplay” by Joy Division. Seems right for today. I didn’t know the song when it came out, and discovered it when The Killers covered it for a movie. I like the original’s sonic approach to the gittar playin’. Good morning mental music stream occupant for these times as Trump’s shadow grows.

Sample Lyrics:

In the shadowplay, acting out your own death
Knowing no more
As the assassins all grouped in four lines
Dancing on the floor
And with cold steel, odour on their bodies
Made a move to connect
But I could only stare in disbelief
As the crowds all left

h/t to Genius.com

2

Monday’s Theme Music – Failure

Ashland, southern Oregon. Monday, August 3, 2026.

It’s cool now but heat and fire weather warnings are up. Our present temp is 68 F but we’re bracing for a 96 F high as the heat dome comes our way. Will the jet stream save us? If it doesn’t they warn us, brace yourself for temperatures over 100 with a heat index that pushes it much higher.

My wife and I had the case of the missing mangos this morning. “Hey, didn’t we buy mangos?” she asked, looking around.

Yes, I agreed, also looked around. We began a search. Not in the frig, on the counter anywhere. Didn’t ‘somehow’ get left in the car. At last: the last place we looked: with the potatoes.

My wife said. “I was tired when we were putting the food away.”

Case solved.

This is unlike the case of the missing senator. “He’s alive,” the GOP proclaims, but Mitch McConnell still hasn’t been seen in public for almost two months. It’s starting to be a lot like Trump’s war.

Trump’s war with Iran is also in a limbo states. Back in March, Trump and Hegseth claimed the war was over, with Trump declaring it was an “unmitigated success”.

That was six months ago.

Then Trump has gone on and off the record about what’s happening, swatting away any attempt to being held accountable to We the People. “I’m gonna bomb them,” he texts, then reverses himself. Oil prices rise and drop. Oil companies are making record profits. The rest of us scramble to deal with rising prices. That’s standard under GOP guidance: the rich get richer, the poor are told to suck rocks.

The Iran war is just one of many incomplete Trump mysteries. Other is, what happened to releasing the Epstein files? Trump promised he would release the files. A law was passed that they must be released. After months of distraction, Trumpnions are still holding them back on behalf of the bossman.

Thanks to Pirro’s terrible legal skills in leading the DoJ, the case about the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is much stronger. Let the records show that it’s just as we thought, that Trump’s contractor botched the job and Trump scrambled to save face by screaming, “Vandals! Plots! Democrats!” Just as he does every time he screws up.

Likewise, the Freedom250 celebration isn’t as profitable and successful as Trump crowed it was, which required that We the People made up the shortfall. We all kind of saw that coming: Trump announced the performers and almost all immediately said, “No, no, we’re not part of this.”

Yes, it’s been the summer of Trump failures. Building toward a year.

Except for grifting; as always, he’s taking care of himself, making a ton of money by making the Oval Office into a crime boss’s golden lair. Between his ruthless need to be honored and his insane hunger to appear rich and powerful, he’s become a Bond villain caricature, which is something, since they’re often caricatures to begin.

Except, also, for the tournament he won at one of his golf courses. He won that. Everyone outside of his grift circle immediately questioned whether he cheated. This is because he’s Donald Trump, a known liar, adulterer, and cheater. Just pick a topic. Look what he promised and claimed. If you’re a MAGAt or Republican, you’re fine because the ends justify the means for you. So, Trump Double Standards are employed.

But they’ll reach that final FAFO moment when they’ve burned it all down. Given their recent history, they’ll pivot: create conspiracies. Blame others about what went wrong.

Just like their leader, Donald J. Trump.

Your Trump Quote(s) of the Day:

Trump on Jeffrey Epstein:

Trump on Affordability:

And the only truth Trump has ever uttered:

Today’s occupant in the morning mental music stream is “Power Failure” by Procol Harum. Released in 1971, it’s an old favorite of mine from a distant era. The song is about bands and the struggles they face. But I think it translates well to politics.

Lyrics (h/t to AZLyrics.com)

Climbing out of open windows
Crashing down from broken stairs
Keeping watch on smoking cinders
Falling over burning chairs
Tossed and crossed and screwed in transit
Broken , splintered, bruised and thrown
Badly shattered, gale force frighty
Rrushed across and shown alone
Speech reduced by poor relations
Strung from weeks of self abuse
Chopped up, churned out weeks of greazy
Spark plugs burned up, power’s fused

That imagery spells Trump failure and GOP collapse.

Hope your Monday — or whatever day — sparkles with magic that invigorates and moves you on to new heights and familiar joys.

Cheers

2

Friday’s Theme Music — Seeing Truth

Ashland, southern Oregon — Friday, July 31, 2026.

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.

Hackers are apparently going after our water infrastructure. Minnesota reported attacks earlier in the week. Since then, the FBI confirmed that seven US states have seen such attacks and warn of more.

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.

Hope the day speaks to you in positive ways.

Cheers

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