Wednesday’s Theme Music – Rock & Hard Place

Ashland, southern Oregon — Wednesday, June 3, 2026.

Pleasant valley Wednesday. 66 F, sunshine percolates through some clouds. Rain and a high of 76 F are expected.

Mom and my sister went through a rough day yesterday, spending over eight hours at ER. Classic ER scene as the staff attempts to help everyone but there are so many who need help. They got home early in the AM this morning.

We’re not sure what’s going on with Mom. She had a CT scan but no results have been shared with us. At one point, they asked her if she wanted or needed anything, then added, but nothing to drink or eat. We all knew that usually means surgery. But surgery was never mentioned. She went home tired, thirsty, hungry, and sleepy.

Home: her shared room at the assisted living facility.

The US — or Trump, specifically — is between a rock and hard place. After Trump claimed he would end the Russia – Ukraine War, it continues with fresh strikes by Ukraine on Russia today.

Over in Iran, where Trump decided to start a war and declared it over, Iran launched an attack on a Kuwaiti airport.

Speaker Mike Johnson, who said this was a small operation back in March, was not available for comment. Trump’s Iran War was supposed to be over in weeks if not sooner, according to Republicans back in March. Now the war has been going 95 days.

Without too much surprise for me, I read that the Trump administration is dragging its feet on refunding Trump tariffs as ordered by the courts. Meanwhile, Trump dropped more tariffs on 60 nations, claiming it’s because they use forced labor.

Over in World Cup news, a Swiss player is waiting to see if he’ll be taking part in the games because the US has not said he’s allowed in yet, and the Iranians are worried about their team’s ability to come and go to the US.

The US mint announced FIFA World Cup coins. McDonalds announced a World Cup meal so the poor can get in on the excitement. Papi announced he’s taking a World Cup nap. It’s World Cup mania! Except ticket sales are flat and FIFA is being accused of using unofficial resale sites to cut prices.

The Epstein files aren’t completely released, and the Epstein ballroom is still short of funds but under construction. Under Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL!, Trump is now not worried about it as a ballroom, but as a drone port. It’s all about the nation’s defense!

Of course, as I understand it, arming the White House to the teeth basically raises its value as a military target. After all, that’s what the US did in Iran: we went after the drone and missile launch sites.

Your Trump Quote of the Day:

What hyperbole. Trump blasts a judge and rants, “we can no longer defend Washington, D.C., with rifles and pistols, alone.”

No kidding, Trump. You just proposed a 1.5 trillion-dollar defense budget, the largest in history, and you think D.C, us being defended by ‘rifles and pistols’?

Let’s face it, too; if the US has reached a point in a conflict that we’re depending on drones on top of the White House to defend us, we’re pretty screwed.

Today’s music comes out of the thought stew bubbling my brain this morning. Spying on me, The Neurons brought the Rolling Stones and “Rock and A Hard Place” to the morning mental music stream.

Sample Lyrics:

We’re stuck between a rock
And a hard place
Between a rock (yeah) and a hard place

This talk of freedom
And human rights
Means bullying and private wars and
Chucking all the dust into our eyes

And peasant people
Poorer than dirt
Who are caught in the crossfire ain’t nothin’

To lose but their shirts, yeah

May your day be carried forward with peace and grace.

Cheers

Tuesday’s Theme Music – One More Time

Ashland, southern Oregon — Tuesday, June 2, 2026.

It’s clear skies and sunshine for us today. 66 degrees now, the high will be found in the 80s F. Some say 81, another contingent claims 88. We’ll see.

Oh, the Mom front. She ran out of her pain patches. They’re by prescription so she must see her doc for them. She didn’t have an appointment, and they don’t have an opening until early August. It’s concerning that with all the doctors she’d recently seen, no one ever thought to say, how are your pain patches?

Then she fell over backward in her wheelchair the other day. Hit her head. She’s been complaining of headaches since. Yet, that morning when it happened, she refused to get taken to the hospital. Today, it became a must. Now sis is at the ER with her and we’re in wait and see mode.

Poor sister, too. She’s already busy, working, meeting with the realtor to sell Mom’s house, selling and giving away Mom’s furnishings and possessions, taking care of her grandchildren, and here she is, summoned back to pick up Mom, take her to the hospital, wait with her, await next steps…

Locally, I’m perplexed and pleased with a credit union project. Bring a bag of papers to be shredded and three cans of food, and they’ll shred it for you. Sounds great! I went through our papers, filled a bag, and bought three cans of food to donate.

I’m irritated because the credit union has two locations in our town. One is a half mile away; the other is almost two. Yet, to participate in this offer, I need to drive almost twenty miles to Medford to participate.

Makes little sense. Why not do it in an Ashland location as well as a Medford location? Why make so many people waste energy and pollute the air to drive that distance?

Then there’s the Trump front. Paul Krugman had commentary about Trump’s apparent mental and physical decline, and the enablers in DC and in business who support, cover, and front for him. For all, it seems to be, “What’s in it for me?” I don’t know if that’s true or reductivism. I think the truth is on a spectrum somewhere in between. Whatever their reasoning, I remain disappointed that so many seem eager to limit voting and embrace norms that seem to favor creating a Christian white nation.

Trump’s Iran war remains on, although a ‘ceasefire’ is in effect. I watched Jordan Klepper conduct interviews with MAGAs who smugly tried to tell us that Iran is a conflict, not a war.

They’re taking clues from right-wing media, the GOP, and Trump himself. Trump reminded the nation we’re at war but also said that we’re not at war and that saying we are would get him in trouble. He’s winking at the system of checks and balances, but we as a nation have been doing this for a long time as well.

At the bottom of my disgust at this mess remains the huge challenge: how do we fix our flaws? Can we fix them? Can we at least mitigate them enough to feel comfortable with calling ourselves a land of freedom and equality and a democratic republic. Because right now, those claims are very, very thin to me.

It didn’t begin when the Roberts Court decided that Trump as POTUS could be above the law. It began long before that, with small drips. We let the drips go. Now the foundation is showing rot and we’re wringing our hands about what to do.

To make myself feel a little better without drugs and alcohol, I turned to Nate Silver’s latest findings on Trump’s popularity.

Today, Donald Trump’s net approval rating is sitting at -19.1 in the Silver Bulletin average. That’s less popular than Joe Biden was at this point in his term (-13.6) and less popular than Trump himself was during his first term (-10.6).

About 48 percent of Americans strongly disapprove of Trump’s job performance. Just 21.7 percent strongly approve of the job he’s doing, while another 17.2 percent only somewhat approve.

As we wrote about over the weekend, Trump’s approval rating is even underwater in Texas.” 

“Trump is less popular than President Biden.”

Just wanted to highlight that for Trump.

Your Trump Quote of the Day:

It’s worth posting this quote again because it completely captures Trump’s attitude AND his base. He called it right, and we see it playing out over and over.

I have “One More Time” by Daft Punk in the morning mental music stream. A dance song, it’s actually a celebration of things, but it hit my stream because I muttered ‘one more time’ to myself as I checked texts from home and read the news.

I hope your mood is up and your day goes well. I hope the best for us all. I guess the challenge for that is agreeing what that is.

Cheers

Sunday’s Theme Music — Wrong Way

Ashland, southern Oregon — May 31, 2026.

The last day of sunshine finds our area with blue skies and sunshine. It’s 48 F now and we expect a high in the mid 70s.

The Mom report is that she fell over backwards in her wheelchair and hit her head hard on the ground. A facility employee was present when it happened and wanted Mom to go to the hospital. Mom declared that. It happened at 7 AM but she didn’t share that news with us until the late afternoon. Now we worry and wait, hopeful that she didn’t do more damage to herself.

When Mom spoke to me last week, she mentioned that they were required to be in the dining room for breakfast at 8 AM. Mom has a roommate and one bathroom that they share. The roommate is on hospice, and the guidelines are that hospice residents have bathroom priority. In practice then, Mom can’t get ready to go to the dining room in the morning because her roommate is in the bathroom, and ends up getting down there late or skips breakfast.

In light of performers withdrawing from Trump’s ‘Great American State Fair’, Trump is going to open, headline, and hold a rally.

It’s also reported that Trump is urging to cancel it outright, classic Trump Always Chickening Out.

I’d prefer the latter. If Trump is there, he would make this overtly political. It’ll be less about the United States and more about him. Sure, he’ll say that we’re a ‘great nation’. Then he’ll go on to say how great he is, how great he made the nation, call former President Biden some names, name some others as enemies, and rail about how Democrats are ‘ruining’ the nation, and spread lies about what he’s done and how others think he’s doing a great job.

Exhibit A:

Your Trump Quote of the Day:

*snark alert* Isn’t that sweet how Trump compares himself to ‘The King’ of rock and roll, someone who has been dead almost fifty years, someone who people paid to see? If he wants to draw the largest draw, he’ll need over 3.5 million people.

Trump is against Democrats because Democrats keep pushing on voters’ rights, diversity, law and order, truth, facts, and history. Those principles and ideals often collide with Trump’s grifting, ego, ignorance, and authoritarianism. Trump would prefer to lie about what’s going on, making up information, and boast about doing things like lowering prescription prices 1,000 percent. While Trump campaigned on no new wars, releasing the Epstein files, lowering food and energy prices on day one, he broken all of those promises.

His supporters like Trump and still support him because he runs roughshod over the Constitution, ignoring due process to go after political enemies, ordering ICE to attack anyone who might be illegal — especially if they look like they’re anything but white. ICE goons will ignore evidence that others are here legally and will react violently when confronted. That’s Trump’s ‘law and order’ for you: a police state.

Trump’s Iran War is at 92 days.

Meanwhile, his destruction of Washington DC and the White House continues. Not satisfied with tearing up a public golf course, screwing up the Lincoln Memorial, and tearing down the East Wing to build the Epstein ballroom, Trump is now talking about the Kennedy Center never re-opening.

After illegally changing the Kennedy Center’s name by adding his to it and closing the center for ‘renovations’, a judge ruled put the name back to what was established by act of Congress, per the law, and open it. TACO immediately whined that he’s not being allowed to do what he wants to do and threatened to keep the Kennedy Center closed forever.

Of course, much of this classic Trump bluster is part of Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! Keep everyone distracted so he can enrich himself. Like, where is the money for the Board of Peace?

No wonder two thirds of Americans think we’re going the wrong way.

After thinking about how Trump is taking the nation in the wrong direction, The Neurons had a response. They brought “Wrong Way” by Sublime to the morning mental music stream.

That surprised me. I didn’t know The Neurons have such a dark sense of humor. The punk ska melody is all about young prostitution and the struggles of young women and what they face.

Wrong Way” Lyrics:

Annie’s twelve years old, in two more, she’ll be a whore
Nobody ever told her it’s the wrong way
Don’t be afraid with the quickness, you get laid
For your family, get paid
It’s the wrong way

I gave her all that I had to give
I’m gonna make it hard to live
Salty tears running down to her chin
And it ruins up her makeup and never wan’ give

A cigarette pressed between her lips
But I’m staring at her tits
It’s the wrong way
Strong if I can, but I am only a man
So I take her to the can
It’s the wrong way

The only family that she’s ever had
Is the seven horny brothers and a drunk-ass dad
He needed money, so he put her on the street
Everything was going fine, until the day she met me

h/t to Songfacts.com

I hope your life and day are going the right way.

Cheers

Saturday’s Theme Music — Going Down

Ashland, southern Oregon — Saturday, May 30, 2026.

It’s a gray and chilly May day, 52 F with no blue sky available for the eyes. Bleak sunshine slants in, casting faint shadows. No rain is expected today but our high will crest in the mid 60s again.

Not the happiest of weather but not the worst, either. Makes it perfect for morning reflections on the news and life on this next to last day in May.

Mom’s possessions are going fast. Sis found people who wanted things and invited them over. Now she’s not accepting any money. It has to go, so. We the siblings are fine with that, and agree with that sentiment. We like to know these things will be useful to others.

Gina sends photos of Mom’s rooms and the transformation as items disappear. Click, click, click. It’s forlorn progress.

Likewise, we have forlorn progress against Trump’s moves. Judges have ruled that the Kennedy Center couldn’t have the board just up and change its name and that they needed to stop the renovations because it wasn’t properly addressed. Other judges ruled that Trump’s slush fund might be illegal and no payments can be made from it yet. Diane Ravitch offers good summaries of it all.

Also, an ICE agent who shot a man through a door in Minnesota and lied about it was arrested in Texas.

In other ‘yea’ Trump news, the Comey seashell Federal prosecutor stepped aside. It’s a ridiculous case, likely unwinnable, and that’s probably what he concluded and decided, screw this. Just guessing. But as so many have pointed out on social media, if Trump goes after Comey for ’86 47′, then what about that time that Trump endorsed his supporters showing graphics with President Biden tied up?

Meanwhile, economist Paul Krugman helps us understand more about the Trump economy and We the People’s view of it. Trump and his minions like to crow about how MAGA supports him 100%. And polls show that as true.

But when it comes to the economy, Krugman points out that only MAGA approves of the economy at this point, and they represent 19% of all Americans. Even non-MAGA Republicans are going, no, this is not good.

What’s most disturbing when I look at that MAGA trend line is that it’s slowly increasing. This is despite Trump’s clear lies, corruption, and ineptitude. Truly makes me shake my head. This is why it’s become the Golden Age of Corruption.

Trump’s war in Iran is now over 90 days old.

Classic con man sleight of hand. If he was as interested in the law as he proclaims, he would not ignored it to wreck the White House and begin building the Epstein ballroom. He would have released the Epstein files, as he promised, instead of twisting and turning, trying to claim that it was a hoax.

Today’s music is “I’m Goin’ Down”. This Bruce Springsteen song came out in the mid 1980s. It’s about relationships and songs. I really don’t know why The Neurons parked it in the morning mental music stream today. Sometimes they work in ways that I don’t understand.

Here’s to you and a great day for you and yours.

Cheers

Spreading It Around

Yes, I’m sharing a post that another shared that Digby shared. It’s worth sharing because Trump looks at the world through his Trumpvision glasses, which only permit him to see what he wants to see. His glasses generally colorize the world via politics, sexism, and racism. He is great and all who support him are great. Everyone else is terrible, ugly, crooks, stupid, unfair, etc.

Trump proclaimed in March of 2026, “Because of the fact that we have had such Military Success, we no longer ‘need,’ or desire, the Nato Countries’ assistance _ WE NEVER DID!”

So here is the shared post in response, “The Truth Hurts”. Which is painful for Trump, because it’s the truth.

Cheers

Tuesday’s Theme Music

Ashland, southern Oregon — Tuesday, May 26, 2026.

We’re mired in a gloomy late spring day. Dull sunshine seeps down through swollen rain clouds. 48 F now; 60 F later.

Despite this cool temperature and rain clouds, the drought is already browning the valley. A wildfire was fought and put out not too far away. The air this morning smells like the remains of a sodden bonfire.

Many of my Pittsburgh family members gathered at the youngest’s house for a BBQ. They also played Kornhole and shared social media photos of the gathering. All my sisters were there with their partners. Most of their children and grands, and their children’s partners. Some were missing, as there was a baseball tournament where they were playing. And other than my sister, the Georgia contingent was absent. Of course, Mom and Frank weren’t there in a long line of firsts we’ll encounter this year.

In Trump Iran War news, the US broke the ceasefire. That was okay, though, because it was the United States, which, under Trump, doesn’t follow the rules and norms. That generally leads to anger, reprisal, uncertainty, and confusion. We’ll see how it goes this time.

The Trump administration labeled these ‘self-defense’ strikes. Funny how self-defense is ‘needed’ when there’s a ceasefire on, and the war is over or almost over, and the US won, which are all things which Trump claimed.

The war is now into it 87th day.

The full Epstein files have not been released.

Prices are rising.

The Epstein ballroom funding is short of its need.

The Trump tariffs ruled illegal by the Roberts Court are being refunded to businesses. Consumers beginning to sue businesses to get their share of the tariff refunds.

I’m reading the novel, “James”, by Percival Everestt. James had a wonderful line:

“Religion is just a controlling tool they employ and adhere to when convenient.”

That summarizes my attitude toward not just religion, but how patriotism is invoked in the US — especially by Trump — and also how I see the Constitution now often being employed.

Of course, ‘they’ do it with team and family, as well: “We’re one team!” “We’re a family!”

True when it’s useful to be true.

Your Trump Quote of the Day:

Today’s music comes from a glance in the bathroom mirror. I laughed at my reflection. I look less like Mom or Dad than I used to, I thought, and sort of reflected on that. (No, I am not sorry for that phrase!)

Seeing an open door, The Neurons came in with “Mirror in the Bathroom” by English Beat in the morning mental music stream. It’s such a classic 1980s sound for me. Brings flashbacks and smiles.

Lyrics:

Mirror in the bathroom, please talk free
The door is locked, just you and me

I hope for the best for you, your family, home, and region. Stay strong.

Cheers

Monday’s Theme Music

Ashland, southern Oregon — Monday, May 25, 2026.

Sunny, cloudy, dry. 60 F with 81 potentially the high. Rain is expected. The sky has that look, and the air has that skin.

It’s Memorial Day in the US, as specified by Congress in the 1968 Uniform Monday Holiday Act as one of the Monday holidays. The act was about creating three-day weekends for Federal employees. I recall as a youth hearing about it being promoted. They said at that time that it was for productivity; the Monday holidays would interfere less with business and the work week, and would be could for the economy because people could take mini-vacations during the three-day weekends.

My wife’s family knew it as Decoration Day. They always observed it by going to the family cemetery and cleaning up the grave markers and cemetery and decorating them with flowers.

My family always celebrated it by having cook-outs. Others call this a ‘barbeque’ or ‘barbecue’, or even grilling out. It was a day of eating, fun and games for us. For a few years, this meant going out to Keystone Lake. We’d pile into the car before 8 AM so we could beat the traffic, get good parking, and have a good picnic spot. Then full and exhausted, we’d head for home before one. Which was okay because we often had rain showers in the afternoon.

Back home, we’d have watermelon and leftovers. Mom made terrific potato salad, and fried chicken. We’d also have apple pie, chips, cookies, burgers, and hot dogs.

Now it’s just another Monday for me, another pause to look back on what was and what would never be.

I read about the rains and floods striking the eastern and southern states. Good luck and safe harbor to all of them, and the animals.

Also read that Trump is going to the hospital for some checks and dental work tomorrow. Is it part of Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! to distract us from the war in Iran, high gas, food, and energy prices, grift, corruption, and Epstein ballroom?

It could be a ploy to gain sympathy after the latest White House shooting didn’t move the needle on Trump’s declining approval ratings.

Or, Trump could really be ill. He looks and acts the part.

This may be all three — a diabolically clever ‘weave’ by the self-professed genius to confuse us about what’s going on. The biggest problem with his weave is that he often entangles himself. Reality, lies, and fantasy fuse into a glaze of uncertainty, changing directions, and contradictory words and behavior. The truth is, his weave confuses him more than it does us.

Your Trump Quote of the Day:

Here, as part of Trump’s clever weave, the person who referred to himself as a unifier denigrates others with childish nicknames. That was the same speech in which he considered himself a peacemaker. This was a little while before he began blowing things up and killing people.

Trump also said in that speech that he hoped his election would bring “a new spirit of unity to a world that has been angry, violent, and totally unpredictable.”

Irony is completely lost on him.

Bonus Trump Quote:

“It will be the exact opposite of the JCPOA disaster negotiated by the failed Obama Administration, which was a direct and open path to a Nuclear Weapon for Iran. No, I don’t do deals like that! President DJT.”

Yes, because that was quite a disaster. No war, no death. No rising oil prices because of a closed strait. No rising food and energy prices because of the rising oil prices. No strain on our military because of wanton bombing and ship deployments.

Oh, yeah, and they weren’t working on their nuclear program. That didn’t begin until Trump withdrew from the JCPOA.

Yep. Quite a ‘disaster’.

Today’s theme music comes from an exchange with my wife. Standard one: “How’d you sleep?” she asked.

“I slept great,” I said. “How’d you sleep?”

“Pretty good.”

Those words awoke The Neurons. They immediately summoned John Prine to the morning mental music stream. I soon had him singing, “Pretty Good” in my head.

Hope you have a pretty good day, and a pretty good week, too.

This coffee tastes pretty good right now.

Cheers

Sunday’s Theme Music

Ashland, southern Oregon — May 24, 2026.

Home again, home again…

Papi was as pleased as he ever shows himself to be when we opened the back door and called his name. Standing, stretching, he paused to wash, then began to trot towards us, then stopped to stretch, and finally walked over, sat down, washed, and looked up: “Oh. Hi. Didn’t see you there.”

Good to see him.

56 degrees F here, roaring power lawn equipment has replaced the sounds of surf. There’s no beach to ponder, no waves to assess and admire, no fresh ocean air to breath, no ‘sea breeze’ to battle as I walk.

Bummer. It’ll be 85 and dry here…

One thing that struck us yesterday coming home was how empty the roads were. Motor homes were especially absent, but in general, it was light traffic to moderate traffic. Long stretches of secondary roads were driven where we met no other cars, followed no vehicles, and had nothing in our mirrors. It did not seem like the holiday traffic — or even the coastal traffic — we’ve encountered in previous years.

Gina, my younger sister, makes progress selling Mom’s possessions: $530 has been realized. The dining room table, chairs, hutch and sideboard are gone. Gina is wheeling and dealing. Someone shows interest, she reaches out, negotiates, shows them what else is available. More prospective buyers are coming by tomorrow. Vacuuming, sweeping, dusting, and polishing is underway. Our oldest sister is driving in from Georgia to help out this week.

Trump says the US is almost close to a peace deal with Iran. Let’s add it to the list of times he said the war was over, we won, or that a deal had been negotiated before.

Iran says that they’ll control the Strait of Hormuz and that their nuclear program isn’t being discussed. They’re proposing ‘fees’ instead of tolls or taxes to use the straits.

It’s the same kind of deals we often see on the local levels when our local government wants to raise money but knows that ‘taxes’ will cause a backlash. The answer: fees. We see it with airlines, too. Security fees, handling fees, administrative fees. Not charges, not taxes, not tolls — fees. I remember once reading that Texas had no taxes but they charged fees on everything.

Besides the Golden Age of Corruption, it’s the Golden Age of Fees.

The war costing our nation a small fortune, monetarily. We also killed many people, disrupted lives, and lost military members.

Economists note that the US has been adding to its national debt at the rate of $5,000,000,000 per day since October of 2025.

In an interest coincidence, October of 2025 is when Trump demolished the White House East Wing to begin building the Epstein ballroom under Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL!

Coincidentally, Trump’s disapproval ratings continue to rise to record levels in polls.

Your Trump Quote of the Day:

Today’s music is by Night Ranger. The Neurons unlocked it when I was in bed this morning, remembering dreams and drifting in and out of sleep. During that fugue state, “When You Close Your Eyes” from the 1980s began playing in the morning mental music stream.

As I remembered the song, I also remembered this was one of the songs I heard while visiting Mom and family after returning from Japan on military duty. My youngest sister and I were together. The song came on the radio. She smiled wide and said, “I love this song.” *smile*

And I realized that’s why the song came into the morning mental music stream; that sister had been in my dream as a young person.

I hope this day is going well for you, and you enjoy a day of peace and grace. If you can’t have that, I hope you can at least have a good meal and some happy times.

Cheers

Thursday’s Theme Music — State of things

Ashland, southern Oregon — Thursday, May 14, 2026.

It’s blue out there, full of sunshine. Clouds are absent. 50 F with a high in the mid 70s today.

Thunderstorms looked possible yesterday but it didn’t happen. Just as in the previous days of forecasted activity. After the winter snow drought, May is at 3% of its average rainfall.

Our snowpack is at about 7%. While the reservoirs are above 80%, without snowmelt to replenish them, it’ll be a hot, dry summer. Stack the El Nino predictions, many of us are bracing ourselves for a rough year ahead.

Mom’s state is not good. She wasn’t responding to my sister’s texts. Sis called the assisted living facility, Heritage Grove, to ask about Mom. They said Mom went to bed before dinner and had not felt well all day.

On the optimistic side of the board, two neighbors are reportedly interested in buying Mom’s house.

My wife and I had new tires installed. For the record, we replaced a set that we’d bought in 2019. Got 35,000 miles out of them. Not great, not bad.

We bought them at Costco and had them installed there, shopping while we waited. As we were in the Medford area, we decided to eat out and chose the Texas Roadhouse Restaurant. My wife likes the salmon they serve there.

We couldn’t eat there. The way was blocked by ambulances and firetrucks. Wondering what’s going on, we took to our phones to learn. Nothing at the fire department, alert system, social media, or local television stations could give us that info.

This duplicated a Tuesday incident, in my mind. Driving home from writing at the coffee shop, one lane of traffic was blocked off in front of an SOU building on Siskiyou Avenue. What happened? I searched for information after I got home and couldn’t find anything. 24 hours later, the answer came: a woman had driven across the median strip, up a walkway, and into a building, breaking a gas meter along the way.

Miserable headlines fill my feed. When will there be good news? I’m not sure what I mean by good news at this point. An end to wars would be nice, along with a return to normalcy. Normalcy to me is let’s take action against polluting our air and water. Action against climate change. But the cynic in me says that PINO Trump would take credit for whatever and enough brain-dead people would slurp that down and bray about how great Dozy Donnie is that I’d regurgitate everything taken in during the last three days.

But here’s the state of things in the United States nation in one sharp observation someone else made:

Your Trump Quote of the Day:

Paraphrasing, Trump lies, says this isn’t so bad, Biden! Because that worked well previously under Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL!

Enough people with brains are responding, screw you.

You started a war, Donald J “No new wars” Trump.

The economy is a mess, gas prices are rising, all the prices are rising, Donald J “We’ll cut prices on day 1” Trump, and the country is going in the wrong direction.

And you, DONALD J TRUMP, YOU ARE THE REASON WE’RE IN SIX MILLION MESSES WITH NO WAY OUT EXCEPT TO FIRST GET RID OF YOU AND YOUR CRONIES.

Now stop building the damn ballroom and release the damn Epstein files so we can feast on your political corpse.

The Neurons inserted “Mind Games” by John Lennon into my morning mental music stream. This actually came about from Papi’s state of mind this morning. I played with him and his favorite nemesis, the red dot. The play began abruptly. As soon as he engaged, I stopped for about a minute. He kept peeking left and right, waiting for it to reappear. Just as he started walking off, I blinked it back on. Off Papi went, chasing it across the room, then stalking it.

I hope your Thursday brings you some good news and fair winds, assuming you need winds to get somewhere. Like you drive a sail car and need to have wind to blow you along the Interstate.

Have my coffee now. Cheers

Saturday’s Theme Music — Here We Go Again

Ashland, southern Oregon — Saturday, May 9, 2026.

72 F. Sunny. Blue skies. Moving toward 86 this afternoon.

Had smoke in the area yesterday. Turned out to be from winds carrying smoke from three controlled burns into the valley, where it became trapped. The sight and smells triggered alarm until we verified the source/causes. Even knowing what it was, I was left toiling inside, as the smoke immediately irritated my nose and sinuses.

Progress on selling Mom’s home is slowly being made. We’re worried about how long it’ll take. Mom is slowly running out of cash and has meager income from social security and her VA nurse’s pension. We’re selling her home’s contents but I don’t believe that will bring her much. I told my family I’d cover the costs between when/if Mom’s money runs out and her contents/house is sold.

Here we go again. What’s going on with the war and the cease-fire? What’s going on with tariffs?

The Trade Court ruled against Trump’s tariffs. How long until it hits the Robert’s Court and how will they rule? Will it be in open court or will there be another shadow docket decision?

In parallel to those questions, I wonder if the Roberts Conservatives will do some more originalist cherry-picking to ignore historic precedence to claim, “This is what the founders intended!” They duplicitously employed such thinking before. Then Roberts whines that his court is being misunderstood. Right.

Shall we talk about what your court is doing to equal rights, voting rights, and democracy in the United States, Chief Justice Roberts?

On top of those things, hurricane season is bearing down on us. It’s expected to be below average to above average, depending upon who’s doing the forecast. But there’s also a potentially super strong El Nino coming, too.

Meanwhile, what will happen with Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL!?

Despite a ‘ceasefire’, the US military attacked several Iranian targets during the last several days. Like everything else Trump does, he lies and misleads about what’s going on.

Your Trump Quote of the Day:

Trump said this in August of 2024, while running for office and laying out his ‘economic plan’.

It didn’t surprise me that My Neurons blended the news with things I was doing this morning to come up with “Here It Goes Again”. I don’t think I’ve heard the 2006 song by OK Go in years, but it popped into my morning mental music stream today.

So on we go, into another Saturday. Hope your day is of the kind that goes well in all the important ways.

Coffee is served. Here I go.

Cheers

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