Though I laughed, I admit I also gnashed my teeth as I scrolled and read. Trump’s first term was horrible. His second term is a disaster, with assaults on equal rights, good taste, intelligence, and common sense. These toons remind me that he’s an empty person who only cares about himself who makes empty promises to con others.
Here are my top three:
This summarizes not just Trump’s Iran war, but every promise he’s made since he became a candidate for office: empty, empty, empty.
Perfect: the web Trump has trapped himself in. Yet, MAGAts continue to cheer him on.
Disappointed that the Epstein files aren’t on there.
Click on over to Jill to find one that makes you laugh more than you GRRRRRowl.
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.
Ashland, southern Oregon — Wednesday, June 17, 2026.
72 F. Our heat advisory has been lifted. Today’s high will be 95, compared to yesterday, which was, what, 95? Today’s low was 59 while yesterday’s low was 61.
I took some time out this morning to check on wildlife warnings. An abundance of bears, and aggressive deer are being reported. No cougars this year (so far). Nothing reported in our immediate neighborhood.
It ain’t over, but out there in G7 land, Trump isn’t looking good. In fact, his appearance makes President Biden’s end of term appearances fantastic in comparison. President Biden looked trim but old; Trump looks old, tired, obese, weary, and depressed.
Lot of noise about the terrible deal Trump made is circulating. As expected, Trump is threatening to start bombing Iran again if the progress he wants isn’t made. So much peace!
Bombing Iran must be kept as an option because Trump is running out of options. He has so much losing going on that Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! is in danger of collapsing in a puddle of orange. The ballroom keeps getting negative price. The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is sadly reflecting Trump’s poor taste and low abilities, and looks pretty damn ugly. Trump’s Iran War deal seems like a shoddy temper tantrum that brought nothing of value to the world. And prices remain up.
Your Trump Quote(s) of the Day:
Just another reminder of all the things Trump claimed and promised and failed to do.
Today’s music came about from doing happy dances to things going wrong for Trump. Quick mental flash: I know some readers would say, well, then, you don’t like America if you wish things bad for Trump, because he’s our President.
Yeah, bullshit. He’s doing it for himself. Glorying himself. Disrupting because it arouses his hardcore supporters. They like it so Trump does it. Making them scream his name satisfies him, and provide succor about the real failure he’s shown himself again to be.
So the song is “Don’t Dream” by Crowded House. Came to the morning mental music stream because I was thinking, yeah, don’t dream it’s over, a warning to myself. Trump is resilient. More Teflon than old Ronnie R. And MAGA is boneheaded, and the GOP are desperate. So, it’s not over till the fat orange guy is out of the White House.
Hope your dreams thrive and fly. Take care of you and yours.
Ashland, southern Oregon — Tuesday, June 16, 2026.
95 will be today’s high. Blue sky, sunshine, 71 F right now.
We’re in a mini-limbo with Mom’s house sale. One set of inspections is done, and it’s not bad. Repairs and issues are underway. Some are due to the house’s age. For instance, back in the day, a window in the bathroom sufficed; fans weren’t needed. Now, with the house changing hands, code stipulates bathroom fans. And the dryer duct came undone. Stuff like that.
I used to tease Mom about her old washer and dryer. Both were ‘low value’ purchases. Didn’t match: Whirlpool and GE. She bought the dryer shortly after moving in back in ’95. The house had a washer but then needed to be replaced around ’99. But those two pieces have chugged along. Same with the old gas range. We siblings pitched together to buy her a portable dishwasher from Sears one Mother’s Day in the late nineties. My brother-in-laws installed it as a permanent piece in the early 00s. Still works as well.
Mom’s house is full of things that were old but worked well. She always took care of it all.
My dental appointments didn’t go well yesterday. These are about surgical dental implants. I had the surgery a year ago. The site that remains had a cyst removed and needed more time to recover. Well, yesterday’s ‘click tests’ with that tiny torque wrench show that it needs more time. So the next steps — installing the implant — were pushed back six weeks.
Ironically, I’d changed the implant date, June 25, to July, because it clashed with my scheduled bladder surgery. Oh, well.
It feels like D.C. and Trump has entered a sort of stasis. That’s my opinion from ‘out here’. One, Trump’s war with Iran is ‘over’. We’re all digesting its consequences. Two, Trump is definitely physically and mentally run down. I don’t give a damn about official reports. We can see it in whenever he appears in public, and can read it when he sends out midnight texts.
Those texts remind me of my mother’s bout with sundowner syndrome, BTW. She was also sending them in the middle of the night and they also made little sense.
The economy and systems are all also giving the signals about what Trump’s unchecked actions have wrought. Additionally, the judicial system is pushing back. Many Trump initiatives have become a tug of war in courts, things like his ICE deportation policies, ICE killing of US citizens, renaming the Kennedy Center, building the Epstein ballroom, the tariffs…it’s a long list.
The trends are clear. Trump acts fast, asserting permission with arrogance. Shock travels the affected. Reactions set in. Legal actions are raised against Trump. Courts rule. Trump often loses but appeals decisions, frequently changing legal tactics.
All of that is Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! to cover his enormous stealing, his insider stock trading, his underhanded grifting.
It’s all slowly catching up, leading to the mid-term confrontations. I’m sure Trump rushed to a deal now because he’s trying to save face and gain back support before the mid-terms. I’m sure he believes he can gain some support with Freedom 250 and the Great American State Fair, and the pageantry planned for that.
The problem with his plan remains: he is Trump. He’ll make it about himself.
He is Trump. He refuses to understand that his policies have failed, and that’s why voters are turning against him.
So, he is Trump. He will lash out.
Our question remains, how?
Today’s song ends up being “The Man” by The Killers.
Sample Lyrics:
Don’t need no advice I got a plan I know the direction The lay of the land I know the score like the back of my hand Them other boys I don’t give a damn
I’m the man, come round No-no-nothing can break, no-nothing can break me down I’m the man, come round and No-no-nothing can break, you can’t break me down
The 2017 song was written about the POV that you feel invincible when you’re young. That makes sense.
The song came to the morning mental music stream when I was thinking about Trump and the morning news. And I realized that the song is apt for the day because a large part of Trump is his immaturity. He remains a person who thinks himself invincible.
I hope you have an excellent day, full of peace and grace, no matter the weather or season wherever you are.
Summer is set to officially begin in the northern hemes next week. It’s already getting in place in Ashland. The sky is blue, blue, blue, and the sun is getting hot, hot, hot. My house saw 96 yesterday while most of Ashland felt mid 90s temperatures.
Right now, it’s 77 F with the upper 90s on the table. Officially, the weather services differ from my local reading; they say, it’s 83 and feels like 91.
Going through this heat wave with my wife is fascinating in a terrible way. When it hit 96 outside yesterday, inside was 83. Warmish to me, causing sweat to dribble down the small of my back and accumulate in my pits.
I asked my wife what she thought of the heat in the house. She said, “It’s cool to me.”
She also often needs lights on. Complains, “It’s so dark in here.”
Dismaying. The other day, I came home. It was 86 degrees outside. The room was 78. She had a space heater on.
My sister, Gina, said she thinks Mom is on her ‘last legs’. As an aside, that’s an interesting expression for humans, comparing us to repaired furniture.
Gina’s assessment came in the wake of continued complaints from Mom about headaches, UTIs, yeast infections, and diarrhea. Tests come back and show, ‘nothing is wrong’. But Mom had another fall and hit her head again yesterday.
I have felt that Mom was on her last legs for the last month. She’s continued through a spiral of pain and difficulty communicating, remembering, and moving. She still eats, though. How long her ‘last legs’ will last is always difficult to predict.
Gina sent photos of Mom’s empty rooms today. Mom’s keyboard was given away to a young woman. Gina shared stories of how Mom would play the keyboard and sing while Frank strummed along on the guitar.
There’s been a few headlines and stories like that abounded, complaining about the costs of food and beverages at World Cup venues. Americans have been enduring this for years at professional sporting events. We’re not overly outraged, just savagely bitter. What makes these prices taste worse is that they’re often inflated by ‘fees’ to pay for the site.
That all helps fuel the K-shaped economy. Prices are hypermanaged to attract consumers. Then we’re gouged on ‘monetized’ aspects. For example, I can buy a ‘cheap’ airline ticket for a few hundred dollars. It won’t include food. The seat will be the worse on the plane. Doesn’t include baggage except a small carryon. And the actual price I pay will be much higher, as fees and administrative charges are added to pay for airport construction, security, and higher fuel and insurance costs.
I don’t expect it to get any better in Trump’s economy. Window dressing drives Trump’s values. He’s interested in what he thinks ‘looks good.’ So ‘low’ ticket prices are nice optics, even if they don’t reflect reality.
Americans have learned, though. We — those marginalized by the costs of living — understand how this works now. Consumer sentiment is understandably low. As this headline nicely puts it:
How is Trump’s war with Iran going? I don’t know; you tell me. The war is now at 106 days as Trump and Iran continue to negotiate.
The Epstein ballroom remains under construction. I believe that Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! is hosting an event involving UFC fighting on the White House lawn. BTW, in true Trump Double Standards fashion, Bud Light is sponsoring the UFC White House event. Bud Light was boycotted by MAGA just a few years ago for partnering with a transgender influencer.
Instead of a Trump Quote of the Day, I offer you this:
The states that remain in Trump’s column are still red on the map, although the intensity of that red has faded noticeably since inauguration day. Wyoming, still his strongest state, now sits at +25 after starting at +47. North Dakota follows at +15, South Dakota at +14, and West Virginia at +13. The more telling detail is not where they sit now, but where they began, with several of these states having effectively lost around half their initial support while staying on the positive side of the ledger.
Kentucky stands out as the only state to cross fully into negative territory, moving from +23 at the start of the term to -4 today, a 27-point swing that leads the national decline. Montana follows closely behind, dropping from +25 to +1, while Idaho slides from +34 to +11.
That’s a present to We the People on Trump’s birthday!
Today’s song is “More than A Feeling” by Boston. While the song is about love and loss, it’s in my morning mental music stream because economists keep talking about a recession vibe. They insist that the numbers look ‘okay’ if not great for the economy and we not heading for a recession. But We the People see the price and then the real cost. We know that’s a screwed-up economy.
My hope for you is that you have an enjoyable, happy day, wherever you are.
As Trump and MAGA break our norms, spread hate, and attempt to rewrite history, Jill Dennison reminds us of the results of such hate, events like the Pulse Nightclub murders.
Sunshine. Blue sky. Cool now — 68 degrees — but climbing into the upper 80s again today.
Reports from the Eastern Front were about Mom suffering. A storm knocked out power. Afterward, the temperature climbed into the upper 80s and the humidity was high. Mom was in pain with headaches and other problems. Nothing we could do…
When Mom and I text, she often repeats the same questions and statements, frequently almost word for word.
My sister, Gina, sent texts relating all that remains to be done on Mom’s house, and the progress of things. She’s doing the work of five of us. But she’s supposed to be going on vacation two weeks from now, plans established last year. The house closing is scheduled for July 23, which suddenly seems very close.
Despite Trump’s talk of peace deals and the war being over, Trump’s war with Iran grinds on. Trump said something like we could get a deal as early as this weekend, but he’ll say anything.
A report came out in the “The Independent” that Trump’s support among Independent voters is sinking. The losses are among young Independent voters, along with Hispanic voters. Trump’s support with older, white Indpendent voters is unchanging.
A lot of the news is about Elon Musk becoming richer, thanks to the SpaceX IPO. Paul Krugman did a fine job of relating how little Musk actually accomplishes to become as wealthy as he is. Like Trump, Musk made a lot of promises. Much of what he promised was supposed to be done by 2025, but it isn’t. Krugman reminds us of what a disaster X has been since Musk bought Twitter, and how Wall Street bankers are still sucking on those losses.
In other Trump news, Trump used Ariana Grande’s song, “Bye”, without authorization. Grande immediately responded, “Please do not ever use my music in relation to this barbaric, inhumane, heinous nonsense. F*** ICE.
Reading of that, My Neurons responded by instantly playing “Bye” in the morning mental music stream. I thought I’d share it with you. *smile*
Your Trump Quote of the Day:
I hope your day proceeds safely, securely, happily.
We’re at a fascinating — and disappointing — crossroads in the US. The Trump administration is advocating more funding for defense, security, and detention centers. They’re doing this while the national debt grows.
Inflation is eating into people’s discretionary spending. Yet Trump is deliberately shrinking the safety net. Under MAHA, they’re actively working against people being healthy by cutting oversight and campaigning against vaccines while cutting the EPA air and water regulations which kept our air and water safe.
As inflation increases and the number of people on Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security rises, the Trump administration says, “Work harder! Work more!”
As with robotics in manufacturing, AI and General AI are often touted as a way to reduce personnel costs in help centers and bureaucracies through employing less people.
Conversely, AI and data centers have an adverse effect on the environment and increases the price of water and energy and hit local economies. That will again squeeze the poor. Spending more on water and energy, they’ll have less for food and anything else.
So, the Trump administration is driving us toward being poorer, with fewer work and employment opportunities, with higher food, energy, and water costs.
That setup benefits the hyperwealthy. People like Trump. Musk. And most of Trump’s administration. They’re not affected by inflation.
In parallel to this, Trump is hyping stocks and then buying them. Once articles about that came out, don’t you think that his administration and faithful followers are doing the same, if they have the money to?
“Oh, look, Trump just visited Thermo Fisher and hyped it. Buy, buy, buy!”
The dichotomy between what Trump says he wants and what he does has never been greater. He’s making himself and his cronies wealthier and bankrupting the rest of us.
This is Trump’s vision of make America great again. The irony, first noted back in 2016 and apparent ever since, is how negatively Trump’s policies hit his staunchest MAGA supporters. Yet, they cheer his moves. It’s a dichotomy rooted in perversity and emotions that I’ll never grasp. Nor will they.
How ’bout that mega arch that Trump plans to build? How does that alleviate the water problems, the drought, the rising food and healthcare prices that Americans are enduring?
Is the Iran war making MAGA safer? Trump is convincing them that it is.
Just as Trump has convinced them that cutting health and environmental rules and regulations will make it ‘easier to do business in America’ — while making it harder for anyone to enter the United States to do business with his oppressive ICE and Homeland Security tactics.
You can fool some of the people some of the time, but Trump can fool MAGA all of the time.
Ashland, southern Oregon — Thursday, June 11, 2026.
It’s blue skies and warmer temperatures for us today. Like the weather has just awakened to the season and decided, alright, let’s go.
Tear it up, break it up, go for it. That’s Trump. He alone decides what ‘we’ the nation will do. This is true whether we’re going to war, escalating violence, tearing down the White House, remodeling it, building, modifying, or renaming monuments.
Trump ignores the law, goes around the requirements, skips past reviews. Then, as work begins and We the People protest, we go to court. While the issues are adjudicated, Trump keeps tearing and down and building. He’s been doing this with attacking Iran, building the Epstein ballroom — well, it’s a long list.
It’s also a giant middle finger at We the People, our political norms, checks and balances, laws, and Constitution.
The GOP is okay with it. Him. Speaker Johnson metaphorically shrugs. The media tiptoes around what he’s doing, because the other thing Trump does is threaten. His administration holds a bunch of keys. Everyone knows it. And Trump has demonstrated he has no concerns for anything and anyone but himself. Beyond his words, his policies reflect it. He thinks, oh, the war will end and prices will drop.
Really? Is that what happened when prices rose during COVID?
Your Trump Quote of the Day:
Trump was lying, of course. He always lies. He began acting like a dictator on day one, and still is.
That’s why protests are important. When Congress stands aside, SCOTUS enables, and the press backs away, We the People must stand up.
Show up again. Keep showing up, please. We don’t like the direction Trump is taking us and must change it.
Today’s morning mental music stream song is “Invisible Sun” by The Police. I was reflecting on my childhood and pictures of smoky, polluted skies we would see in the newspaper. By then, our skies were much clearer and cleaner. Now, Trump is turning it back in the name of making money.
Sample Lyrics
It’s dark all day and it glows all night Factory smoke and acetylene light I face the day with my head caved in Lookin’ like somethin’ that the cat brought in
My hopes for you are that the sun is warm, the air is fresh and clean, and your spirits are high.
Michael Seidel, writer 