I read an article in “The Independent” about World Cup fans’ American experience. This, though, contains a critical observation to me. I added some emphasis.
“Many landed expecting the politically fractured country frequently highlighted in global headlines. Instead, they found Uber drivers brimming with recommendations and locals willing to open their homes to strangers. Even as game attendees grappled with the sticker shock of ticket prices, some Americans they met didn’t even know the World Cup was happening, or simply didn’t care.“
Honestly, I knew the World Cup was going on. I see news stories about the games and tournaments. But I am one who doesn’t care about it. Yet, I’m not surprised that some Americans were unaware of the World Cup going on; some of them emerged to vote, unsure about what’s going, back in 2024.
Then there was this from the same article:
“That felt like a proper American experience in Dallas,” Reader said. “He had, I would call it like a proper American setup, like a TV outside, a beer fridge, massive fly zappers, and then massive fans as well.”
Damn, I haven’t been exposed to that proper American setup yet.
“I don’t understand how it’s possible that Iran has the capabilities to fight this way and continue to try to lash out at Gulf countries and U.S. military bases because the U.S. has obliterated Iran’s military, and the president continues to reiterate that,” Bartiromo said Sunday on Fox News.
Gosh, yes, it IS a mystery. How, how, how? Can it be that Trump, the person who told us prices would go down 100s to 1000s percent, Trump who claimed Mexico would pay for the wall, Trump, who was documented lying and is widely perceived as dishonest, is LYING?
The inanity of this Blue Sky post rocked me:
WTF? DEI Bike Lanes? SMFH.
Seriously, these are the idiots Trump selected to run his administration.
The story reminds us that Trump’s Iran war is affecting oil and gas prices. But they also note that much of the gas products refined in Trump’s America are going to other places.
US refineries processed their largest amount of crude in the second quarter since 2019.
But a record amount of American-produced fuel is heading overseas – in the form of jet fuel (for Europe) and diesel (for Asia and Australia) to help the world bridge the gap in fuel supplies.
That has sent US gasoline inventories to their lowest levels since 2012.
The CNN article then goes on to mention that US refineries are struggling to produce products due to extreme heat.
Trump denies climate change, deriding it as a hoax, as he does many things which he can’t comprehend or doesn’t want to address.
“This ‘climate change,’ it’s the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world, in my opinion,” Trump said. “All of these predictions made by the United Nations and many others, often for bad reasons, were wrong. They were made by stupid people that have cost their countries fortunes and given those same countries no chance for success. If you don’t get away from this green scam, your country is going to fail.”
Your Trump Quote(s) of the Day:
Trump has chosen to treat our friends in Canada with more tariffs. That’s just the way he is. Instead of working with others to solve problems, he attacks, mocks, and derides.
Trump is so tone deaf. He claims that America “are a people like no other” and then goes to war with Americans, for example, referring to Democrats as “Dumbocrats”, significantly restricting, cutting, and altering healthcare benefits, and nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ individuals, with a heavy emphasis on transgender Americans.
This is how Trump ‘honors’ the people like no other.
That’s just the way he is.
No surprise for me, The Neurons have “The Way It Is” in the morning mental music stream. Bruce Hornsby wrote the song and he and his band, the Range, performed it. America’s civil rights movement of the 1960s inspired him when he wrote it.
Lyrics
They say, “Hey, little boy, you can’t go where the others go ‘Cause you don’t look like they do” Said, “Hey, old man, how can you stand to think that way? Did you really think about it before you made the rules?” He said, “Son
That’s just the way it is Some things will never change That’s just the way it is” Ha, but don’t you believe them Mmm, yeah
That’s just the way it is That’s just the way it is
Well, they passed a law in ’64 To give those who ain’t got a little more But it only goes so far ‘Cause the law don’t change another’s mind When all it sees at the hiring time Is the line on the color bar, ooh, no
“Narrow-minded attitudes prevailed in my small southern town,” he tells me. “But my mum, Lois, was from a more forward-thinking family of New Englanders who’d moved down to Richmond when her dad got a job there as a church organist. Liberal Lois, my mum, married a big old handsome country boy. Bob Hornsby was from a fishing village and he was cut from the local cloth. My parents’ votes cancelled each other out in elections from 1948 to 1976 when my mum persuaded my dad to vote for Jimmy Carter and he never looked back and he voted Democrat for the rest of his life.”
As Bruce’s mother, Liberal Lois, proves, it doesn’t have to be the way it is, if people are willing to keep trying to open narrow minds and change their values.
Not Trump, of course. From Epstein to corruption and dishonesty, that’s just the way he is.
I hope comes complete with safe times, good times, and happy memories.
Thursday, July 9, 2026 — Ashland, southern Oregon.
Gonna be another 90+ degree summer day in our Valley. Now is the time to be outdoor doing things, as it’s 70, with a light cooling breeze. Heeding that advice, that’s exactly what our Papi did. No moss grows under his paws.
Familial news front remains quiet. Mom’s house is going through the appraisal process today, needed for the buyer’s loan. Fingers crossed, you know? Fingers crossed is my favorite way to achieve good results, knock on wood.
We’re not at war again but Trump says the cease fire is over and we’re firing missiles at us, and they’re doing the same. The peace president declared, “This is really not a war so much. It’s a de-nuking of Iran, de-nuclearization of Iran.” To people who were in wars before, it seems like a war, what with all the bombings, explosions, and death. Classic Trump Double Standards.
It all feels like more of Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! Other than MAGA, Trump’s popularity is dropping. Bombing Iran is unpopular, and will likely get worse as Trump shifts why we’re doing it and how long it will last, exposing him again to being unreliable. The war will drive prices up again, and cause drops in the stock market, affecting the 401Ks that Trump was just crowing about a few weeks ago.
But the ‘conflict’ gives him a private boast to his ego because he can unleash the military and say to himself, “Look how powerful I am.”
Meanwhile, prices will rise. Affordability will get worse.
Trump will get richer.
Bonnie Tyler passed away.I always enjoyed her voice and style. So, today’s song is a reflection of her impact.
“Holding Out for A Hero” is right as a song to remember Bonnie Tyler as well as a song for the moment. Trump and his cast of spineless GOP minions are not heroes. Many have abandoned their duties as part of the checks and balances system in a crass display to remain in power, to be relevant, and to enrich themselves.
Meanwhile, on the Democrat’s side of the aisle, we have the Graham Platner fiasco. We thought he was someone with principles and moral courage. Subsequent revelations showed we were wrong.
Now we’re again looking for heroes. People to stand up against Trump and help rebuild our democracy. Someone who will drain the swamp and restore our values.
I hope your day is beneficial to you in every matter that’s important.
It’s another hot summer day. Clouds are in the air and the temperature will be about 90 degrees, not nearly as life-threatening as so many others are enduring around the world.
We attended the Independence Day parade in Ashland yesterday. Very tepid. Low turnout to watch, low enthusiasm for the people marching by, dull interest in the music. The ‘flyby’ came about ten minutes after the parade ended.
It could all be me and my friends, of course, but I walked around to hear what others were saying. One young man pushing a stroller, a woman and another child with him, were all dressed in the national colors. “That wasn’t much,” he was saying, walking away. “Where should we go?
Trump broke more promises yesterday, of course. He said he was going to speak no matter what the weather, but then waited until it was cool, much later. That’s TACO for you. He also said he was going to speak for a very long time but spoke only 40 minutes. More TACO.
Your Trump Quote of the Day:
Trump was said to be talking about the crowd at the July 4th celebration. He thinks that crowd is “the craziest thing anyone’s ever seen.”
No, Trump, the craziest thing ever seen remains how much you lie and steal, and yet people keep saying how wonderful and great you are. That’s the craziest thing anyone’s ever seen in the last fifty years.
Trump promised a ‘golden age’ during his speech. I’ll tuck that promise in with these previous Trump promises:
We’ve seen the outcomes of these Trump promises. Trump has attacked several countries. He went to war with Iran. Inflation is still up and affordability is a hot issue for many people. Trump was frequently golfing during the war with Iran. Medicare has been cut. A new healthcare plan never emerged. Trump is still building the border wall; Mexico isn’t paying for it.
With MAGA’s unquenched love for Trump going strong, The Neurons unspooled “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” by Queen in the morning mental music stream.
I’ve read essays during the last few weeks about how Republicans have weaponized words like patriotism, woke, freedom, God, and religion. They essentially coopted and twisted these words and their meanings in the finest “1984” fashion. So while I use ‘love’ as a descriptor for what MAGAts hold for Trump, I’m not certain that it’s love in the sense that the rest of us employ it. If it is, it’s love in the sense of too many tortured relationships, where one is the abuser and the other is abused, yet the abused cannot quit the relationship. I know that I’m thinking of it from my side of the perspective, and not the abused MAGA position.
But how else can I think of it? Trump continually lies to them. He makes and breaks promises, just as it’s seen in many abusive relationships. Yet, they can’t quit him; they love him. They love him even though he made two billion dollars and did little to improve their lives, even as they struggle more and more with worsening conditions and deteriorating affordability.
So here we go: theme music for the MAGAts and Trump.
Hope your day brings you the best life you can live. May peace and grace smooth your way and take you on to better things.
Our summer continues with its cool style. 56 degrees now with heavy cloud cover, 76 F is the forecast high.
Removed my Foley catheter this morning. ‘Bout the third thing done after emptying the bag and drinking some water. Well, fourth, as I checked the post-op notes to see review instructions and ensure I wasn’t overlooking anything. Then turned on the shower, stepped in, and made the cut to the balloon port of the tubing.
I could feel a subtle but dramatic change inside. Two gentle tugs and the catheter slipped from of my body. I unclipped the drain tube from its perch on my thigh and got busy getting clean. After unclipping and washing, I then removed the sticky cath-lock that had held the tube to me. Emptied the bag in the toilet and put it in a trash bag.
Sitting is so much more comfortable. As I reflect on my latest medical journal, I’m reminded that my issues have been temporary and mild compared to what so many others endure, and I have the means and access to have my problems addressed. This is how it should be for everyone. So often we make it more difficult than it needs to be.
It’s a new day but it’s another day of Trump. Trump is claiming great attendance for the Great American State Fair. But evidence is stacking against him, things like facts, truths, videos, and photographs. Trump staked a lot on this, as he always does as part of Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! But like his other efforts, he’s faceplanted again.
The Supreme Court issued some shocking decisions last week which ignored basic tenets established and followed through our 250 years of history, like, if Congress writes a law and that law is legal, the Executive Branch can’t just ignore it. Among these were Mullin vs. Doeregarding Trump’s impulse to remove Temporary Protection Status from Haitians.
Trump is hugely against mail-in or absentee ballots, even though he used them. That’s part of TDS: Trump Double Standards. What’s good for him is not good for you. Trump claims mail-in ballots are used to steal elections because of historic trends against him seen in mail-in ballots. It can’t be that people are legally voting against him. No! Trump’s ego won’t accept that. Therefore, they must be fraud.
Trump claimed that he wants to be remembered as a peacemaker and unifier in his inauguration day remarks of 2025. But as his remarks of 2026 show, he does not do anything to be a peacemaker or unifier. Any parent will tell their children, if you want peace, you don’t begin by starting fights and calling other people names. Yet, that’s what Trump does. He has, in essence, failed to learn a lesson taught to children.
Trump keeps complaining that mail-in ballots are unsafe or that they’ve been used to steal elections. That’s been investigated and dismissed. But again, Trump refuses to learn. Trump refuses to acknowledge the truth or facts.
It’s a new day but it’s the same Trump, and will forever be so, a person concerned only about himself.
For this new day, a little reminder from ACO:
I would modify this to clarify, Trump must go. But the rest of her comments hold true: the dark money and radicalization enabled by social media, the bizarre conspiracy theories, general anti-knowledge trend, and the rampant racism need to be addressed.
Today’s theme music is “Feeling Good” by Nina Simone. Many others have covered this song but I prefer this cover that she released in the 1960s.
The song came into my morning mental music stream after I stepped out of the shower after removing the catheter. Feels like a new day, if you know what I’m saying.
Hope your day is a new day in hopeful, peaceful ways.
Having my first coffee in four days. Here we go. Cheers
Collections from BlueSky, Facebook, and other social media platforms.
Trump and Iran have a Memorandum of Understanding about not shooting and killing any longer. Much is being said about the $300B portion of the MOU. None of that money is supposed to be from the US government.
Tell you, what, though. Trump has established a pattern of being opaque about money, where it came from, and where it went. Trump made claims about Mexico paying for the wall. Cutting the national debt. Money for the Board of Peace. Trump makes big, headline-grabbing claims that rarely materialize as truth.
Trump claimed he would release the Epstein files and then tried to write it off as a hoax and keeps using every trick possible to keep them from being fully revealed. Likewise, Trump resists releasing his full income tax information, leading many, including me to wonder, what is he hiding?
Then there’s the ballroom, which was to cost US taxpayers nothing, and now — yeah, you get it.
It’s another cool June morning in Ashland’s valley. Also damp with light rain. I’ll take both over the dry, hot weather which had been predicted for us. Right now, it’s 53 degrees F with clouds and expected to reach 64.
My sister has continued reporting on emptying Mom’s house. The ‘metal guy’ came and hauled away metal shelves, chairs, tables, junk. As she lists the accumulation and where it was found — behind or in the shed, in the garage — it becomes a reflection on how we make plans and set things aside, then forget about them. I confess, there’s probably a chunk of stuff like that in my life.
Each time that I share a story like this with my wife, she responds, “Don’t you think your mother wishes she did a death clean?”
No; I don’t. Mom isn’t involved. The FAMILY might wish it so, but Mom is in many ways removed from the process.
Technically, it’s the trust run by Junior which refused to hand over the records. Don’t doubt that Junior didn’t ask Trump about it before saying that they’re not handing over the records.
If it was anyone else not handing over records, Trump would immediately be declaring, “So CROOKED AND DISGUSTING!!! WHAT ARE THEY HIDING!!!”
TDS — Trump Double Standards — are Trump’s only standard.
“He broke every record. He sleeps all the time, during the day, during the night, on the beach. The only guy could fall asleep on the beach with the press watching,” Trump said, seeming to reference a clip of Biden filmed while he was vacationing.
Trump added, “When you love your job, when you love your country, and when you’re in a position like we are, future king, highly respected, crown prince, and, in my case, president, you’re thinking about your country.”
Trump has been photographed multiple times sleeping in meetings recently. Using Trump’s logic, Trump must not love his country.
Today’s music is from Sammy Hagar. His song, “There’s Only One Way to Rock” was released in 1981. It’s in my morning mental music stream today due to one phrase: “It’s a fact and you know that it’s true.”
Trump’s war with Iran isn’t a war but a conflict. It’s not that long, even though it’s 100 days and longer than he said it would be.
It’s also true with Epstein’s ballroom. Trump made it all about the need for a ballroom and then flipped his reasoning when private financing stalled, and made it about ‘security’. But the facts are facts; they are documented.
And you know it’s true.
May peace and joy grace your day in all and every meaningful way.
