Wenzda’s Theme Music

It’s Wenzda, aka humpday, but also July 2, 2025. Cooled down to a comfortable level last night some and the morning ingredients are calling birds, blue sky, sunshine, and 72F. High will be 83 F, a drop from what I saw yesterday at my casa, 95 F.

I realized this morning that I’m in a metaphorical holding-my-breath state. So many balls in the air. I scan horizons for ‘the next’ in six different directions. Out there is the One Big Beautiful Bill, known in some places as the Big Ripoff, the Great Screwed Up Give to the Rich bill in others. Trump was again idiotically blithering on TV like someone who shouldn’t be allowed out on their own again. Russia and Ukraine’s war continues. Iran and Israel are still out there glaring at one another. Israel bombed some more people in Gaza. Don’t worry: they’re ‘investigating’ how it came to be that they bombed a cafe and killed reporters and workers and such. Yep. Tariffs hang all over everything like toilet paper from trees after Devil’s Night. Supreme Court rulings have been issued and the storms building behind those will come out. It’s Hurricane Season. Europe is suffering record heat and it’s not that cool in ‘Merica, either. Wildfires burn and FEMA is ready to shrug because Trump says states should be doing it for themselves. DOGE has had access to personal data; can that be good? The U.S. measles outbreak has ‘plateaued’ according to the gov’t but has it really? And what will happen with all that new guidance from the science and medicine skewed HHS led by worm brain Kennedy? Killer Noem’s ICE Troops seem more reckless, sanctuary and blue states are being threatened by Trump, he has a new eua-du-shit out, and Musk and Trump have taken their insults to new levels. Then there’s the personal and family stuff.

Hold my breath. Wait to see. What. Is. Next.

Quickening to my mood and thoughts, The Neurons unleashed “I Will Wait” by Mumford and Sons into the morning mental music stream. The song came out in 2012. Led by Marcus Mumford, the band has a different sound but it works for me and enough others that they’ve established a solid career. Hope you find it okay for your Wenzda’s beats.

My follow up dental appointment went well yesterday. All is healing, no problems, no complaints. Biopsy showed nothing of concern from the cyst removed from my gum. Have another appointment, different dentist, for a cleaning.

Coffee-fueled energy is ascending. I’m off to early morning yardwork. Have the best day you can. Cheers

Satyrda’s Theme Music

If my grip on reality is sure and we’re sharing the same reality, today is Satyrda, June 28, 2025. A strong sun lords over us with a hot hand. Mid 80s to upper 80s is the sun’s upper reach for us. Funny, but Mid 80s to upper 80s was what I remember as a new house price range in South Carolina in the early 80s when we lived there during a military assignment.

Upon scouring the news for lowlights yesterday and cringing through the Roberts Court rulings, The Neurons told me, “That’s it. We’re out of here.” To where, I asked the squirrelly gray beasts. “Kathmandu,” they replied. To reinforce their notion, they sprang the Bob Seger song on the morning mentl music stream. So here we go with the fifty year old song, “Katmandu”.

Seger related that the song was born out of frustration and exasperation, so it’s wholly fitting for this era for many of us. At least, in theory. The Neurons were speaking out of my disappointment with my country, the United States. I love it and don’t plan to move away, but the current political atmo leaves me panting for some friggin’ other place, at least until TACO madness has subsided and we get back to being a democratic republic.

Time to rock and roll another summer day in the U.S.A. Hope you’re dealing, wherever we’re you’re at. Cheers

Munda’s Theme Music

Hot, I say, hot. Munda, June 9, 2025, will be anywhere from 99 to 103 F in Ashlandia. Where would we be as a civilized society without electricity and A/C?

It’s already a helluva week and it’s just Munda. Wildfires still burn in Canada. We have protestors in Los Angeles facing off against National Guard. Gov. Newsom of California is asking the guard to be removed. Trump, of course, will thumb his nose at that. There’s a more general feeling that Trump is eager for this situation and unmindful of law or violence. There’s also a question of legality. From what we’ve seen of TACO, doing illegal acts bothers him less than lying. So the whole question is probably destined for the Roberts Court. I won’t guess about how they’ll respond. Besides that, there have been several fatal aircraft accidents, part of a disturbing trend for 2025. On the weather side, Hurricane Barbara has emerged. Fortunately for the U.S., it’s not expected to nail our nation, but unfortunately for Mexico, the same can’t be said.

Still disturbing the political horizon is the ridiculously named “One Big Beautiful Bill”. The longer it storms, the worse the bill seems to be. Many are angry about its impact on Medicaid. Others, like former First Bro. Elon Reeve Musk, complains that it will add to the deficit and is loaded with pork. The Congressional Budget Office say it will add trillions to the national debt. More people are angry that there’s a stipulation in the bill that will keep Trump administration officials from being declared in contempt of court. Others, like Marjorie Taylor-Green, voted for the bill but is now upset that it strips states from the ability to regulate Artificial Intelligence. Bitcoin marketeers are excited about the bill because many of them believe it’ll led to hyperinflation and the potential to rebase the US economy from the dollar to crypto.

As they say, time will tell.

Moreover, against these events, June 14 is Saturday, a perfect storm of TACO celebrating himself with a military parade for his birthday. It’s all about his ego. TACO has never served in the military but he feels that he should be honored with a military parade. This, from a man who frequently insults military veterans. He’s planning this parade while complaining about fraud, waste, and abuse, using that as a reason to chop up government agencies, don’t you know. That parade is expected to cost anywhere from 25 million to over 100 million dollars. Depends on what’s included, and who’s doing the addition. Either way, a penny over a dollar is too much and runs wholly and rudely counter to Republican squeaking about ‘the deficit’. That’s the way they always are.

Countering the TACO parade, several organizations are coming together in mass protests against TACO and his positioning via strongarm tactics and lawlessness as either a king, dictator, or PINO for life. Besides that, it’s Father’s Day on Sunday.

Watching events in Los Angeles, I ended up with Led Zeppelin and “Immigrant Song” in the morning mental music stream. The song’s been used in several movies, like School of Rock, Thor: Ragnorak, and Shrek the Third, so people who wouldn’t regularly know it are familiar with its driving staccato beat and Robert Plant’s wailing. Immigration, of course, has always been about trying to find a better place, and so it is the case with this song. On the issue’s converse side, the inhabitants of existing places often had something to say about immigrants coming into ‘their’ land.

Coffee is at hand again. I’m getting out of reality and slipping into story-telling and writing mood, somewhere were greed and evil is successfully countered, unlike the shitshow that we call reality. Y’all have a good one. Cheers

Frida’s Theme Music

Got up early, cut the grass. It’s Frida. Gonna be 95 F plus here in Ashlandia today. It’s 85 F now, all pretty typical for May’s penultimate day, the 30th, in 2025. Connectivity issues are stalking me in the coffee shop, which is also typical for when it’s hot, cold, wet, snowy, windy, or stormy. This post took an extra chunk of time because connectivity drops, and the categories and tags would disappear. Sigh of frustration.

Papi has taken early to his hot weather hidey hole among the vinca on the house’s side yard.

The photo was taken through the window glass, between the blinds, with my phone. Papi is usually hyper aware of sound, so I didn’t want to move the blinds and risk waking him. That’s me, don’t-disturb-the-cat Michael.

The news spin is so fast, it’s like trying to catch Road Runner. Just ask Wile E. Coyote how challenging that is, and he’s a super genius. Tariffs are on hold, tariffs are back, the Roberts Court ruled for TACO, the SCOTUS ruled against TACO. Senators are speaking against Trump, speakers have just supported his agenda. The stock market is up, the stock market is down.

Speaking of super geniuses, TACO sent the stock market tumbling with accusations that China has been caught cheating on tariffs. Given TACO’s usual M.O., that means the TACO Regime was probably caught cheating. Or they’re playing squirrel again, trying to distract us from news and information which TACO finds upsetting and doesn’t want us to notice. It might just be that he’s trying to make us forget that we’re calling him TACO now.

LET’S GO, TACO!

There. Don’t know if he got that. It’s our version of “Let’s Go, Brandon” that made the right so happy last year. Maybe if more of us did it, TACO will get the message. So, let’s all amplify it via social media:

News reading and wondering what fresh bad news is rising for TACO has The Neurons firing up “Duran Duran” with “Is There Something I Should Know?” from 1983 in the morning mental music stream. I suppose it could be the Propublica and Texas Tribune article (shared here via Alternet) that the Trump Regime knew that the Venezuelans they deported were not the criminals claimed. Maybe there’s worse economic news coming that’s prompting the Trump Regime to shout, “Squirrel!” Time will tell.

Hope your Frida works out well for you. Hope mine works out for me and my family, too. Let’s make it the best one we can. Coffee is at hand. Here we go again. Cheers

Frida’s Theme Music

I’m still riding a good mood. Knock on wood, right? Well, depends on your age and beliefs, I guess. I was speaking with someone the other day who claimed that ‘knocking on wood’ was to summon good spirits. I always heard/slash read it was the opposite: to scare off evil spirits or to avoid tempting fate.

Today is Frida, May 23, 2025. Sunny in Ashlandia, we’re anticipating a warm stretch. It’s not going to be a steady rise. Today will be 75, tomorrow will be 82 F, and then it drops a little again before rising into the nineties by Wenzda. Clouds lurk like spectators at a crime scene but blue sky and sunshine are on the main stage.

Per usual in Trumpland, the news is a blender full of good and bad news. Supreme Court rulings, miscarriage of justice, vindictive DOJ action on Trump’s behalf, redistribution of wealth to the wealthy at everyone else’s expense catch most of my attention. I was intrigued to see how expensive beef is becoming. I don’t eat much beef so prices have skyrocketed without me noticing. Lot of it is driven by Texas beef and the cost of feed. The cost of feed has increased because of drought. Don’t worry; Trump will be all over this, as he’s a big advocate of addressing climate change. Yes, that’s snark. We know Trump will try to blame former President Joe Biden and the Democrats for it. I’ll just shake my head and move on until the rest catchup. With tariffs on beef from multiple countries, beef prices are set to increase more.

Today’s music is related to a dream. I was in the kitchen, chatting with Papi, aka butter butt, about his brekkie when dream snippets floated in on my brain waves. As more dream made its way into memory, I recalled an individual in the dream telling me, “Don’t forget me when I’m gone. I won’t forget you.” It’d been a touching dream scene.

The Neurons were on that like Trump jumping on a woman. “Don’t Forget Me (When I’m Gone)” was soon playing in my morning mental music stream. I had no idea what year it came out or who performed it. The net helped me learn that it was 1986 and a Canadian group called Glass Tiger.

Alright. Got my coffee at the coffee shop. Sunshine is warming the outside world, and shadows grow shorter and sharper as we move into the afternoon. It’s Memorial Day weekend and vehicle traffic in Ashland has jumped. Hope you have an awesome day. Cheers

Twosda’s Wandering Political Thoughts

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.

Frida’s Wandering Political Thoughts

I’m trying to decide: are we living in the New Dark Ages, or the Chaos Era?

I think it might be both.

It could also be that the Chaos Era is the New Dark Ages intro. Too early for mere mortals to decide. Historians or AI will call it at some future date.

The news churn stays heavy. Stock market swings and bond selloffs, inflation, and tariff wars suck up most of the oxygen, followed by Trump administration emergency appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court, and docket rulings. I’m forced to hunt for updates to stories which I follow, like the U.S. measles outbreaks.

West Texas has 541 reported measles cases but ‘only’ 30 of them are still able to spread. The U.S. has over 700 cases now. Six states are reporting measles outbreaks. The U.S. is reporting 90 new cases in one week in the nation, the highest since 2019.

Trump was POTUS for that 2019 outbreak, too. I think there might be a pattern there…

With vaccination rates down, measles cases have been reported in Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, and Washington.

Under RFK Jr’s guidance, the Federal government’s response is spotty. That reminds me that we already had the Anti-science Age and Misinformation Age under way, along with the Conspiracy Era.

Donald Trump may have put the name on the period for us: “I couldn’t care less.”

Yes, it’s the Careless Age of Misinformation and Chaos. CAMAC. A place of chaos, misinformation, declining personal freedom, drooping consumer confidence, rising prices, growing ignorance, increasing disease, less trust, more danger, and mushrooming lawlessness.

Also known as Trumpworld.

Wednesday’s Political Thoughts

The GOP’s outrageous lying has my spouse issuing full-throated growls.

Some claim that lying is part of the political process. While acknowledging that truth, what’s happening now seems different. The Trump led GOP spreads fictions as easily as others butter toast. It doesn’t matter how far their claims stray from facts, truth, or reality. No subject is sacrosanct. If it will win them a vote, they’ll lie about it, and then lie that they lied about it.

My wife offers a solution. President Joe Biden should use the Supreme Court’s newly forged presidential immunity and start having these people making outrageous claims arrested. She doesn’t know what the charges would be; she figures President Biden is president, so he’s immune, right?

Sure, that’s kind of what the Roberts Court said about presidential immunity, leaving it open to interpretation what goes over the line.

We conclude that under our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of Presidential power requires that a former President have some immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts during his tenure in office. At least with respect to the President’s exercise of his core constitutional powers, this immunity must be absolute. As for his remaining official actions, he is also entitled to immunity. At the current stage of proceedings in this case, however, we need not and do not decide whether that immunity must be absolute, or instead whether a presumptive immunity is sufficient.

My tack is different; I think doing as she suggests would undermine our democracy and weaponize the DOJ in ways that won’t shut down for many election cycles.

She’s willing to take that risk to keep Trump out of the White House. She’s willing to do so, she says, because she does not doubt that is what the Republicans would do.

Tuesday’s Theme Music

Mood: recoffeefied

Tuesday, July 2, 2024, begins with a cool breeze talking to me as quiet coddles the area and black coffee takes my throat. It’s a peaceful and relaxed moment, diametrically opposed to the world exposed on the world wide web.

The cats are fed. They washed themselves and bedded down in outside locations for a while. It’s 70 F as I write but the expectation is for an 88 degrees F high. Sunshine is ruling without much challenge from clouds, and it’s a blue, unscathed sky.

My ankle is improving. Most striking to me is how it felt as I walked. Slightly off-balance and hitched to me, others often said, “You don’t seem to be limping.” Maybe they didn’t see it but I felt it. Yesterday was the first time that I felt like I walked using my usual stride.

Also, received my blood test results, and they all look good. Nothing worried my PCP, so nothing is worrying me.

I have been reading political news, especially concerning the qualified immunity bullshit being ladled on Donald Trump by the Roberts Supreme Court. If the GOP wins in 2024 and Trump is POTUS again, a lot of bad shit will probably go down in the U.S. I mean, much of it already began under his first efforts to undermine progress. Then the SCOTUS issued its Dobbs ruling and stripped women of their right to decide what to do when pregnant. Right wing states piled on. So, if the GOP wins, history will write that the Roberts Supreme Court was a noble instrument in guiding the United States to a benevolent theocracy ruled by a Christian white patriarchy.

But if the Democrats prevail, the Roberts Supreme Court will be called out as corrupt and misguided. Honestly, look at how these self-professed conservative originalists pulled immunity for the POTUS out of their asses. Where in the fucking U.S. Constitution does it say anything about the POTUS enjoying qualified immunity? Nor does it address abortion, but these right-wing miscreants are as hypocritical and unethical as anything ever seen in any nation in the last two hundred years. Yes, I have little faith in them.

I agree with Robert Hubbell’s assessment, that we — progressives, like the progressives who started the nation — will eventually prevail. He wrote, “My only hopeful comment is that the decision is so bad it will not stand. Like Dred Scott (enslaved people are not citizens and not entitled to judicial protections), Plessy v. Ferguson (upholding segregation), Koramatsu v US (upholding the Japanese internment camps), today’s decision will be overturned and remembered as a mark of shame on the Roberts Court.”. Then he opened his comments section for anyone to weigh in. There are some solid, re-affirming comments in there. Some uplifting, motivating comments. If you need a kick of positive energy, as I did, go to his site and read some. They’ll help.

Just as a final aside on that, I’ll mention that besides the three rulings that R. Hubbell listed, I’ll include the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization as a decision that will someday be overturned as wrong and another mark of shame on the Roberts Court. May that day come soon.

For today’s music, I’ve turned to the late Tom Petty. “I Won’t Back Down” came out in 1989, while I was stationed and living in Germany with the U.S. Air Force. I immediately took to the song and its declarations.

Well I know what’s right
I got just one life
In a world that keeps on pushin’ me around
But I’ll stand my ground
And I won’t back down

h/t to Genius.com

The song is filling my morning mental music stream (Trademark immune), and it’s a good thing.

Be positive, stay strong, and Vote Blue in 2024. Coffee has rehabilitated my brain, so here’s the music. Cheers

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