Tag: rising prices

Friday’s Theme Music – Law & Order

Ashland, Oregon — Friday, April 23, 2025.

Rained earlier but a clear blue sky is above us now. Sunshine is warming us. We’re at 47 F but expect to hit the low to mid 70s today, spring weather at its finest.

Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! continues. Trump announced he’s ‘renovating’ the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool with a pool cover. Classy as ever. He says some suggested covering it with granite; I’m surprised Trump didn’t leap at that, which was basically what he did to the historic White House Rose Gardens.

Trump had to do something. His approval ratings are tanking, and the DOJ announced they ended the criminal probe of the Fed head, Jerome Powell, without any indictments. That’s another failure in Trump’s efforts to persecute political enemies. Some indictments were also tossed because Lindsey Halligan was illegally appointed, which further tarnishes Trump’s reputation.

Your Trump quote of the day:

Trump fired Bondi nine months later as part of Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL!

Trump is right, the Trump administration is THE TALK OF THE WORLD.

They’re talking about how Trump has disrupted world trade and global markets. Many are talking about how Trump caused a 40% increase in gas prices in the US. They are talking about Trump’s disastrous war in Iran, now going into its 8th week. They’re talking about his spat with the Pope and how many people he’s ordered killed in his multiple military operations.

And they’re still talking about Trump and Epstein, and why Trump is so desperate to bury the Epstein files. In that regard, Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! is backfiring.

The morning mental music stream was filled with “Lawyers, Guns and Money”. The song is by Warren Zevon, and it’s an angry tale about law, order, and things going wrong. This cover is by The Killers.

My hopes and wishes for you is that this is a happy, satisfying, and healthy Friday. Stack days like that, and you can have a good life.

Cheers

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Thursday’s Theme Music – History

Ashland, Oregon — Thursday, April 22, 2026.

Strong sunshine spreads across the valley from the east this morning. There are few clouds. The temperature is 41, the forecast calls for sunny weather, and the high end will see 67 F.

The latest move in Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! came out today.

Donald Trump reclassified state-medicinal marijuana as “less dangerous”. News reporting calls it “historic”, making it a perfect component of OELS!

With this, people will stop talking about:

  • High gas, fertilizer, and food prices
  • How badly Trump’s war in Iran is going, which he declared over as soon as it began (among other things)
  • The 1973 War Powers Act and the 60-day limit
  • Upcoming 2026 midterm elections and a potential blue wave
  • The Strait of Hormuz and whether it’s blockaded, who is doing it, and whether ships are paying tolls, and who’s collecting it
  • Trump’s feud with Pope Leo XIV
  • Rising disapproval numbers and bad polls
  • The backlash to depicting himself as Jesus via AI
  • Labor market weakness
  • Exploding national debt
  • Low consumer confidence
  • Trump’s health, stumbling, and slurring
  • The Epstein files, and Trump’s role in Epstein’s life and crimes.

If it’s not one thing, it’s the same damn thing, over and over.

Trump did his Bible verse reading. The right-wingers predictably gushed over Trump’s bold leadership. Many of the rest of us said, “Wow, that was terrible.”

Jokes arose about whether Trump would read from the Quentin Tarentino version. While others’ Bible reading was live-streamed, Trump’s was recorded and heavily edited.

Your Trump quote for the day:

Ah, Trump math. “Nobody’s ever seen anything like it.”

Sure, we have. Many con artists make outlandish claims like this, such as George C. Parker, famous for selling people ownership in the Brooklyn Bridge.

Today’s music comes from my dream side. During the dream, I kept hearing the song, “Shame on the Moon” by Bob Seger.

But the dream was about this big birthday celebration for somebody. At its end, Shirley Bassey was introduced to sing.

As I remembered the dream, The Neurons introduced a different Shirley Bassey song, “History Repeating”. The one with her and the Propellerheads from 1997 took over the morning mental music stream.

Lyrics

The word is about, there’s something evolving
Whatever may come, the world keeps revolving
They say the next big thing is here
That the revolution’s near
But to me it seems quite clear
That it’s all just a little bit of history repeating

The newspapers shout – a new style is growing
But it don’t know if it’s coming or going
There is fashion – there is fad
Some is good – some is bad
And the joke is rather sad
That it’s all just a little bit of history repeating

h/t to Genius.com

We heard from Mom. The social worker contacted her. Mom sent a chaotic text summarizing it. Basically, the social worker said that they would not be helping Mom move from the assisted living facility. Mom ended the text by asking my sister if she’ll help her move out at the end of the month.

Hope you have a great Thursday, wherever you are.

Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music – Hang On

Ashland, Oregon — Tuesday, April 7, 2026.

54 F right now under light clouds skirmishing with blue skies, we’re anticipating a high of 75 F.

It’s a whirlwind morning. Sis is picking up her car from its body shop repairs AND taking Mom to the doctors at the same time. It’s a high-wire act.

Meanwhile, sis has been assisting Mom and is now suggesting maybe Mom should live alone, maybe with help from Visiting Angels.

More critically, Trump is escalating his rhetoric against Iran. After practically vanishing for a few days, he emerged to bless the people of Iran while threatening to kill them. So sane. So smart.

How seriously do we take Trump and this threat — and what can we do. His whole approach to the war he started with Iran has been one of his patented crazy weaves.

Mock Paper Scissors brought us the highlights about Trump and what he’s said about his war. “We’ve won, we’re close to winning, it’s over, close to over, here’s a deadline — and another — and another — and another.” It’s like dealing with a drunk relative when you’re trying to tell them it’s not safe for them to drive.

Trump is loving it in the spotlight. Judging from their silence, Republicans seem to like it as well. They’re saying, “Yes, threatening to destroy another nation, basically for existing. That’s exactly what we Christians voted for in 2024.”

What is interesting as well is that Trump was losing ground with Evangelicals — until he attacked Iran. Now he’s gaining ground with them again. I cringe to think how happy they would be if he actually nuked Iran.

What was that Trump said about no more wars? What was that about being a unifier and peace president?

What was that Trump said about lowering prices? That was before he decided to start bombing Iran, which raised prices for air travel, food, and anything related to gas and oil.

What was that Trump said about bombing Iran in 2025 and obliterating their nuclear program?

We still wait for the full release of the Epstein files, too. How many times has that been promised?

Today’s music came from the thought I had upon reading several Trump posts, “Something has you going tonight.” I thought that because his crazy level seemed to be higher. Was he hopped up on sugar or off some secret meds they’re given him, or enduring a UTI?

Eavesdropping on me, The Neurons pulled that line out of an April Wine song, “I Like to Rock”. That began playing in my morning mental music stream. Then I had to sit back and think, what is that song?

My mind refused to cooperate, holding my thinking for ransom until I gave them coffee and a chocolate biscotti. Then they finally identified the song and band.

Hope peace and grace come our way, and lands on Trump without getting blown out of the sky, and helps him see reason. Fingers crossed, right, that he doesn’t escalate us into WWIII.

Cheers

4

More Foolish Thinkin’

April Fool’s Day?

Or just the regular fool?

Donald Trump drops hint about potential plan to add 6 new states to US

When I read that aloud to my wife, she replied, “Is that an April Fool’s joke?”

I laughed. Her suggestion made sense.

I read the article for more information. It referenced the flag on Trump’s proposed Miami library. Apparently, it has six extra stars.

My guess is, it’s a standard Trump error. He’s a sloppy thinker, leading a cabinet of sloppy thinkers. Putting too many stars on the US flag aligns with their sloppy trends.

Just as likely, it’s another attempt to distract us from the Epstein files, and — or — how badly Trump’s Iran War is going, along with rising prices, legal rulings going against him, rising measles, and falling approval ratings.

When you think about it, things are going bad for Dizzy Donny. If he follows his previous patterns, he’ll make some new bizarre announcement.

Maybe six new states, even.

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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

Friday’s Theme Music — Nobody Knows

Ashland, Oregon — Friday, March 20, 2026.

Spring has officially sprung north of the equator. It’s 56 F in Ashland with high, thin white clouds coalescing in our blue sky. 72 will the high.

Just returned from a CT scan with iodine contrast. Had blood and clots in my urine last week. Urinalysis earlier this week showed cloudy urine with high levels of blood, along with particulates associated with kidney stones. Not a surprising. I passed a kidney stone on my left side in 2021. One was found in my right side, but at 15mm, it was too large to pass. That one seems to be getting cranky, agitating the kidney around it.

Texts are arrived talking about Mom moving and contacting an attorney. Details are sketchy. My app seems to have missed several texts. A new phone is being ordered. This one is now almost ten years old.

The Trump partial government continues to cause travel congestion due to long TSA lines.

Gas and oil prices continue to rise due to Trump’s war on Iran as Trump moves more troops into the middle east. Trump’s war is also producing an increase in mortgage rates, which have reached their highest level in 2026. 2025 home sales were already the weakest in three decades.

Trump’s tariffs continue to drive up food and housing prices. Have you seen the recent price of coffee?

The national debt is going up fast, thanks to Trump’s fraud and waste.

And more rural hospitals are closing, especially in Trump strongholds in the Midwest and South, accelerating a rural hospital crisis.

— Just in from Mom’s assisted living place, Mom has put in a notice to vacate by April 17th and contacted a lawyer about elder abuse.

With these topics and uncertainty inhabiting my thinking, The Neurons are assisting by playing “What Happens Now” by Duran Duran.

Hope your change of seasons bring the best to you. Whether you’re going into spring or fall, may peace and grace find you.

Cheers

2

Thursday’s Theme Music

Ashland, Oregon — Thursday, March 5, 2026.

We’re winding through winter’s last days toward spring in Ashland. History provides us reminders that Ashland often experiences late winter to mid-spring snowstorms. I’d like more snow in the area, especially in the Cascades where our snowbank resides.

Today, it’s overcast with uncertain, flexing sunshine. 48 F, it feels neither warm nor cold, and our high is arcing toward just 50.

My phone has developed problems with receiving text messages all of a sudden. I’ve added fixing that to my todo list. I did get some updates from my siblings about Mom before the system went tango unform on me.

Mom is reverting to the behavior displayed in January. I drift toward remembering who she was and the complex relationships my sisters and I have with her. I contrast what’s she’s enduring with who she was, what and who she was trying to be, and where she arrived as a person. Much of it now is beyond her control. Doesn’t stop my sisters from getting angry about it. But we saw this pattern emerging. There was little we could do, which we learned with time, because we tried to do things to change the course.

I smile at some things, like her potato salad. My wife insists nobody makes potato salad like Mom. My wife tried but when she asked for a recipe, Mom was more about the ingredients and less about the measurements. One thing I learned from helping her make it sometimes was that Mom depended on tasting it and how it looked — color, texture. That’s hard to translate through recipes.

I was just settling into checking on prices, the war that Republicans don’t want to call a war, and other matters when breaking news arrived.

Trump replaces Noem at DHS, taps Mullin for job

I think at first, “about time”. Her arrogance and attitude doesn’t fit with what I look for in public servants. I temper that, though, with the understanding that she was carrying out Trump and Miller’s policies, and generally working as a functionary for Project 2025. It’ll be interesting to see how much this change will actually manifest as change.

On the heels of that thinking, I scoff, but of course Trump has replaced Noem. She’s become a lightning rod for negative impressions about Trump. With his popularity falling, he made her his scapegoat.

Today’s music is “Wild Horses” by the Rolling Stones. When The Neurons first settled it into my morning mental music stream, I sang it as “Wild Kitties” for Papi’s entertainment. He did not seem entertained.

I’m not sure why the song is playing in me. I can see how its themes and melody is about yearning for another time, for a different outcome, even for hope. I suppose that’s where I reside now — wishing for other things than what now exists. It also came out in 1971, when I was fifteen, so I suppose remembering the song stirs some nostalgia for being back there — young, with Mom, facing a bright future.

I’ll close with best wishes for you and us to stay safe, be healthy and find new ways toward a peaceful, prosperous, and inclusive future.

Cheers

0

Trump 2026: Chaos, Tariffs, and Presidential Whims

Recent Trump actions and behavior have me rolling my eyes.

First, congratulations to Trump for finally releasing a healthcare ‘plan’.

After ten years of promises, it underwhelms. Trump believes that giving money directly to taxpayers so they can ‘make their own decisions’ will make healthcare cheaper and more effective. The White House has declared this as a framework and urges Congress to take it up.

How much Trump’s healthcare idea will help is unknown, but —

  • The plan lacks implementation detail and is light on issues such as rising costs or coverage gaps
  • Potential impacts on revenue streams due to additional administrative and bureaucratic costs must be a concern
  • Uncertainty about its legislative prospects loom as midterm elections draw near
  • The competitive, heavily regulated nature of the industry means oversight will be needed, and that is opaque
  • His proposal might help where healthcare is well established, like cities, but not in rural areas where options are limited
  • Trump’s Inspector General purge of 2025 included HHS, handicapping the oversight mechanisms which already existed

As misdirection, Trump’s plan helps shift attention from unfavorable facts, like less than one percent of the Epstein files has been released, and ICE is increasingly unpopular with voters.

Trump’s second move is another emerging from the swollen perception he has of his intelligence, acumen, influence, and his abuse of what patriotism is.

A man who never served in the Army or Navy, who played football briefly as a teenager, Trump wants to dedicate one Saturday’s four-hour window to have only the Army-Navy college football game televised. To make that happen, Trump, professing he’s being patriotic, declares he’ll sign an executive order to make it happen.

I think if he wants to be patriotic, he’ll let Congress pass laws about things like that, according to what We the People want. Trump’s move is all about indulging his own whims as a barometer of what’s best. With all that’s wrong with the world, presidential oversight of college football television scheduling is completely unneeded.

Playing for the trifecta, Trump tied two favorites together, tariffs and Greenland, in one quick chop. Frustrated by other nations rallying around Greenland to stymy Trump’s plans, Trump declared tariffs on eight nations — all allies — to coerce them into ‘giving’ Greenland to the United States.

I can’t comprehend how taxing Americans and reducing product availability will force those nations to ‘give’ away Greenland. Never mind that Greenland belongs to one nation, Denmark. He wants other nations to do his dirty work and convince Denmark to give up Greenland, which Denmark and Greenland consistently reject.

Trump’s new tariffs fly against the trade agreements he’d just completed with these EU nations regarding tariffs, reducing their trust of the United States. Trump earned himself the nickname TACO — Trump Always Chickening Out — for the manner he rolled out and rescinded tariffs in 2026. Economists and CEOs often cited the resulting chaos from Trump’s practice for business uncertainty and confusion.

Trump still doesn’t get that We the People often end up paying the tariffs and rising prices result, directly impacting affordability.

Prices will likely increase, if Trump follows through with these new tariffs. Congress is talking about intervening, but the established pattern doesn’t bode well for any early or quick relief. The Trump Administration tends to actively resist rulings against their policies, push backs hard, and delays implementation.

With prices — like beef — already high, the stacking effect means other prices end up rising from demand. People who can’t buy beef buy chicken, for example, pushing up the demand on chicken, increasing prices.

While those EU prices might not directly drive up prices, pressures in the supply chain and indirect costs associated with them might be experienced.

Too early to say. Trump may chicken out from imposing the tariffs, or lower the tariff amounts — who knows?

I know the global markets didn’t like it, as many economists and investors worry about a trade war.

The only thing clear at this point is that 2026 is much like 2025: chaotic and uncertain.

With Trump still calling the shots, I expect it to get worse.

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