Survival Mode Dream
I was part of a military unit. A light colonel – a commander from my real life – led us. Something disastrous had happened, and we’d shifted into holding on, bracing for attacks and problems. Food, water, and fuel were all issues.
Second in command, we had a dozen people. All were much younger than the commander and me. The weather seemed consistently dark and cloudy. Rain was often falling.
I started out required to make suggestions to the commander. He then agreed or not, and gave orders. My suggestions were about needing shifts, requiring everyone to collect and bring food, man the place and keep watch.
We arrived back in the morning as scheduled. Still a dark, rainy day. Part of our structure was gone. I suggested to the commander, maybe we should move our people inside the rest of the structure, to get us out of the rain.
“No,” he said. “Put them on the covered porch.”
I ordered that, but saw at that point that my commander had recognized that I was thinking about things. Touching my shoulder, he told me, “Supervise them. Get them set up and ready.”
I agreed. We had an engine. It ran a generator which gave us electricity. I’d seen the commander add oil to it the previous day. I went to the engine to do the same. The way he’d done it before didn’t make sense with what I saw. This was a Chevy V8, and it was running. I knew it was important to keep the engine running. The engine steamed as rain drops hit.
I checked fluid levels. Gas, oil, etc., were all topped off. I worried that I was overlooking something and decided, I didn’t know enough about how the engine worked. I needed to learn more.
People reported in to work, bringing food and water with them, including doughnuts. Thanking the people for them, I ordered the doughnuts to be shared, encouraging everyone to eat.
Reports came in – I’m not sure of the mechanism – that enemy forces weren’t far off. I directed people to take positions as lookouts. Someone asked if we should launch a drone.
I knew we had a drone but we also had a plane. I directed that both be launched.
They were launched but we weren’t getting images from other. I went outside to see where they were in the sky, which had turned apricot but was marbled with gray and black. Craning my head back, holding my hat on, I couldn’t see the plane or drone.
My commander asked me what I was doing. I told him, and he replied, “Good idea.” Others came out to also look. None of us could see either aircraft.
“I think the enemy destroyed them,” I said with worry.
The situation is getting grim, I thought.
Dream end.
The Donald Trump GOP Paradox
Donald Trump made headlines with a new steel manufacturing complex in Iowa.
In it is a tale about the Republican party.
In 2008, Essar Steel Minnesota planned to build a taconite mine, a direct-reduction-grade iron ore pellet plant, and a steel mill in Minnesota. The project suffered from repeated delays and over $1 billion in debt. In 2015, Essar withdrew its financial pledge, and the project collapsed into bankruptcy. From the bankruptcy emerged Mesabi Metallics.
Mesabi Metallics is Iowa’s new partner in the $15B steel mill complex.
Trump didn’t mention that Iowa could build this new steel plant because of windmills. Iowa is the top state in the nation for wind dependency, generating roughly 63% of its total electricity from wind power. Wind leads coal by far. A Republican governor began Iowa’s wind turbine electricity project waaayyyy back in 1983.
The project succeeded in part because Senator Chuck Grassley sponsored Wind Energy Incentives Act of 1992, which created the Production Tax Credit (PTC).
It’s hilarious in a not-funny way. Trump disparages wind energy. Donald Trump blames them for cancer, talks about how ugly they are, and bellows about how dangerous they are to birds. Yet, thanks to windmills, Donald Trump is in Iowa, trumpeting about a new manufacturing plant. Trump fights against the sort of incentives which Senator Grassley championed, the incentives which make Iowa’s new projects possible.
Trump’s hypocrisy and ignorance remain appalling.
On the other hand…
Because of all that flat farmland in Iowa, Iowa is currently at a critical energy crossroads. It ranks among the top five states per capita for data center density—with 4 massive centers under active construction and 17 more in planning in counties like Linn—meaning the Mesabi plant is landing right in the middle of a pre-existing technology boom.
Sounds good, doesn’t it? The problem is the climate, and the chance of flooding.
Your Trump Quote of the Day:
Donald Trump dismisses climate change as a con job. The new Iowa Mesabi Metallics plant sits close to the Mississippi River, which is needed as part of the plant’s supply chain. The iron pellets needed for the new steel production facility comes from Minnesota via barges on the Mississippi and railroad routes along river basins. The mining and iron pellets in Minnesota are part of that original, failed Essar Steel project that began in 2008.
Analysts cite a 15% chance that the area where the steel plant is being built will experience a major flood. That percentage might become worse, thanks to climate change and the extreme weather changes it causes, such as the super El Nino forecast for this winter.
The new steel plant is being built to survive a flood. The problem with a flood is that the plant would need to be shut down and restarted, a long and complicated process. Also, flooding will affect workers’ ability to reach the plant.
Flooding will also affect the power sources. Not the windmills, but the infrastructure needed to deliver the power.
Yet, Trump — and the GOP — are focused only on the construction and manufacturing aspects. Not the climate, weather, or other threats.
It’s funny, again, in a sad, I’m not laughing way. Back in 1983, Republicans had the vision to see these problems and forge productive viable paths forward.
Now, under Trump, they close their eyes, trying to pretend like they don’t exist.
Unfortunately, Iowans are pushing back against windmills. It again takes us to another crossoad of challenges and history. Blades have broken off and fallen in cornfields. There was also the Greenfield disaster, where a tornado hit and destroyed windmills.
Climate scientists are expecting more tornados in Iowa due to climate change. Fewer ‘tornado days’ are projected, but more tornado clusters are expected. Windmills falling apart rightly scare people. Their reaction is to build fewer windmills and even remove those which already exist. But to do that, they must shift energy production back to fossil fuels, which will accelerate climate change.
The Iowa steel and energy story is a microcosm of the global climate challenge we face. The hardest part of transitioning to clean energy isn’t the engineering or the math; it’s the political and human friction.
When Donald Trump attacks wind projects, he is speaking directly to the anxieties of older, core conservative voters who view rapid green mandates as costly and unreliable. Yet, those are now the Republicans pushing back against wind power.
It’s an interesting dichotomy. Part of that can be traced to how windmills changed from those early years into what they are now.
Part of the battle now can also be viewed as the difference between how the issue used to be framed — as a business initiative to improve costs — vice a political football to address climate change.
The good news is that young Republicans view the problem much differently than old Republicans. So, there might be hope in the future.
Once Donald Trump is gone.
Saturday’s Theme Music — Don’t Look Back
Ashland, southern Oregon — Saturday, October 3, 2026.
A scorcher of a day is set up. Long stretches of thin white crossing the atmosphere’s bowl, but it’s mostly blue. Dropped to 80 now — a hot 80 — but it was over 90. More of the same is expected tomorrow.
Mom reports she’s feeling better. Played bingo at the assisted living facility and won five games. She seemed relaxed and — risking the chance of jinxing it — happier today.
Meanwhile, my WordPress still isn’t right, just a fly in my pinot noir. On the good news side, my next step in my cancer treatment, the BCG was moved up to this coming Monday. An impatient person, that pleases me. I’m a ‘let’s get this done’ sort of personality.
Reading political and other news, I told myself, don’t look back. Looking back causes me to grit my teeth with pain and anger over what’s happening with our nation, especially so as Donald Trump breaks promise after promises, rages about different things, and lies about almost everything. There’s a lot riding on the upcoming midterms.
Those thoughts encouraged The Neurons to introduce “Don’t Look Back in Anger” into the morning mental music stream. As I hummed the Oasis tune to myself this morning, I was surprised to see an article claiming that it was released 31 years ago. Why it seems like just yesterday!
Then again, it seems like just yesterday that I took my first driving test and got my license. It feels like just yesterday that I as going to the prom, and just yesterday that I was getting ready to play a football game.
Just yesterday seems so close and so far. Maybe I’m going on a long elliptical orbit around my existence. My memories will begin fading and the next thing I know — without knowing — is that I’m living my life all over again, following the orbit already established through agencies outside of my control.
Here’s the Oasis music. May your orbit take you into brighter, happier days and you smile often.
Cheers
Friday’s Theme Music — Gigantic
Ashland, southern Oregon — October 2, 2026.
It’s a summery fall day with a spring feel in our area. A thin, waning moon hides behind a screen of nebulous clouds in a bright blue sky. Sunshine splashes off the autumn foliage with eye-watering vividness. We’re at 68 F, on our way to 85.
October always means birthdays in my family. Too many of the people we’d fete have gone through the secret door. But I set up reminders to buy cards during the digital dawn. The reminders come up, reminding me that I need to take them down.
It amuses me that the reminders have survived a succession of computers, laptops, and software updates, yet my regular processes are often maligned or broken. As Laura put it in a comment on my current WordPress issues, “In order to serve us better… (worst phrase in the English language!) …”
Yes, when they tell us, they’re often putting icing on a turd.
No, my WordPress tags do not work today. Hearing that Laura was also a comfort in the ‘it’s-not-just-me’ sense.
As I went through the news headline progressions today, I thought, what a gigantic friggin’ mess the world is becoming. I modified my appraisal a few times. The world has always been a gigantic mess. Usually, though, if we found out we were making the world worse, we would try to fix things. With Donald Trump on the scene, our government actively works to make the gigantic mess an even larger mess.
Which led to my conclusion, Donald Trump is a gigantic jackass.
This headline helped cement that conclusion:
Third aircraft carrier and thousands of troops head to Mideast as Trump weighs new Iran strikes
Most striking here are, well, so many thoughts. Like, it’s Trump weighing new strikes. Said he was a peacemaker. Unifier. Said the war was over. Said it wouldn’t last more than a few weeks. Yes, that Trump.
SMFH
Verifying Trump remains a gigantic liar and ignorant buffoon, I read the story following this headline:
When Trump boasts about donating his presidential salary, be sure to read the fine print
- Trump inflates is salary from $400K to $550K.
- Trump is not the first or only to donate is salary.
- All of this is easily found and verified via the Internet so, WTF is he making these claims?
- Donald Trump is a gigantic jackass.
Which brings us to Your Trump Quote of the Day:
It’s another Trump broken promise, as Trump reported making over $1B while being in office in 2025. That doesn’t include his golf and travel scams.
That brings me to a song by The Pixies, “Gigantic”. The Neurons plugged the song into my morning mental music stream but the song doesn’t really fit. It only connects with my thinking via that one word, gigantic.
Sample Lyrics
[Chorus: Kim Deal & Frank Black]
Gigantic, gigantic, gigantic
A big, big love
Gigantic, gigantic, gigantic
A big, big love
[Verse 2: Kim Deal]
Lovely legs, they’re a…
What a big black mess, what a hunk of love
He’d walk her every day into a shady place
He’s like the dark, but I’d want him
Nevertheless, I like the song — especially Kim’s voice.
May your day be full of gigantic good news and good times
Cheers
The Funny Donald Trump
I had to laugh when I read the complaint.
Here’s the headline that drew me in:
Trump blew his top during his Time interview with a furious curse-filled tirade
Donald Trump blowing his top during an interview is nothing new. Donald Trump ‘blowing his top’ about anything isn’t new, as he seems like a perpetually angry person, swearing, lunging at people, turning red and scowling.
Reading the article, what made Donald Trump angry was that Trump didn’t think he was being asked enough positive questions about all the positive things Trump has done.
Like what?
Eradicating measles? Oh, no, that’s worse under Trump.
Reduce personal bankruptcies, released the Epstein files, apologize for all the things he’s done to others, apologize for his grift, lower prices, better healthcare, cheaper insurance, a better education system, a lower national debt, higher respect among other nations?
No, no, no, no, no, no.
Here’s an excerpt from Tom Boggioni’s article:
After being asked about the status of former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the president lost his cool.
“Have you seen the videos of Mitch McConnell back in the Senate? Do you think he should resign because of his health condition?” he was asked.
“It was a disappointment to a lot of Republicans,” Trump began before switching gears and going back to a previous question about handing out pardons.
“So that’s just—well, Sleepy Joe gave pardons to everybody. He gave them to Fauci. He gave them to this. But you mean I’m not allowed to give them, but Sleepy Joe’s allowed to give them?” he argued. “This ain’t gonna be much of a story.”
“Here we are doing this. You haven’t asked me one f—— positive question. All of this. What about this? What about that? What about that? What about this? All negative,” he continued.
“Why are you devoting all this time to the White House? You know how I do, I do that out of my back pocket. I pay for a lot of it, but I fix it because the White House should look like that,” he complained. “It shouldn’t look like—if you would have stood in that balcony and looked at that wall, half the wall was falling. It’s actually dangerous. People are walking under, crap was falling off it all the time. Every time it rained, it was leaking, horrible. Now it’s perfect, and I would say that I should be given credit for fixing the White House because I’m also doing very well with the war.”
I was laughing at this point, because Trump thinks the war he started with Iran is going very well. That’s the war that Trump claimed to have won, the one that was supposed to have been over weeks after it started, which was months ago, the war that’s disrupting the global supply chain, driving up energy costs, and making affordability a major issue for millions of Americans.
This would also be the war with Iran which Trump insists is not a war. *cough cough*
But here is the clincher, the Trump statement that had me rocking with incredulous laughter:
“I’m doing very well with another war that we already won, Venezuela. Do you notice you haven’t asked me a question about Venezuela?”
WTAF?
Trump, who promised to start no new wars, has now admitted to starting two — if you can call a military operation on another nation to abduct its sitting president a ‘war’.
Donald Trump is one warped individual, demanding credit for his lawlessness and failures.
Please, Vote Blue in 2026.
The Festival Dream
Young again, as it often happens in my dreams, my wife and I were at a three-day festival. We knew a few people there casually, but most were strangers. We were making acquaintances, though.
I’m not sure what the festival was about. It was partly outside and inside, on different levels, but was very easy to get around. Some areas were set up with drinks and other areas had food, dancing, and demonstrations.
After wandering around some, my wife and I went to explore different things. I ended up in the company of a young charismatic man with thick, dark curly hair. He was the de facto leader of a social group there and invited me to be part of that group. I had a lot of fun with them.
Then there was a quiet time for resting. He invited me to find them the next day. I ended up borrowing his car. First, it was a silver blue. Then, it was red. Both times, it was a small car, convertible and sporty but nothing familiar. Yet, with the second car, I thought that I remembered them. Very red and small, it still seated four. I recalled that a panel could be put over the rear seats to give the car a racier look, but that could be removed for seating, which I thought was clever.
I drove the car a bit but had trouble parking it. Misjudging an angle when I turned into the garage, I had to wait until people walked around the back of the car before I could reverse, widen my approach, and park in the space.
After that, I began to drift through the festival, eyes open for my wife or my new friends. I ran into my wife. We talked for a moment but she went on.
The festival was thinning out. A woman who had been with my wife approached me as I looked at a menu board. She asked if I wanted something. Her way of talking confused me and I politely declined and walked away. She re-approached with a large bag of potato chips. Giving them to me, she lectured me a little, telling me that I should accept offers when they’re given. Then she finished, “We Americans need to stick together and help each other.”
She seemed to indicate that we were the only Americans at the festival. Her remark confused me. I came across my wife again and offered her some chips. She declined and went off again. I gave the chips to someone else and went to watch a demonstration of fire department teams showing their skills doing different things.
One woman led a team. She was very impressive with how she went about rolling hoses, wielding axes, and other things. Growing drowsy, I laid down to watch her from a platform. Others were there. I could hear them talking about the same woman who impressed me. After a bit, one of the other people jostled me. Faking indignation, I turned around and demanded to know who was disturbing my sleep.
I was surprised. It was my sister. She was her ‘real age’, that is the age she is now. Her youngest son, also in his current age, was with her, along with a few other people who I didn’t know.
I was now my real age. Telling them, “I’ll see you later,” I decided it was time to leave the festival and went off into a large warehouse lit with yellow lights to find my wife. Behind me, I heard my nephew say, “That’s how he is. Watch, he won’t be back.”
Dream end.
