Blood Orange

The song of the day is 2013's You're Not Good Enough by English singer-songwriter Blood Orange (Devonté Hynes).

Billie Eilish

The song of the day is Ocean Eyes by singer-songwriter Billie Eilish (Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O'Connell). The song is from the 2017 romantic drama film Everything, Everything.

Trump versus the Experts

Headline:
NOAA staff warned in Sept. 1 directive against contradicting Trump

The next time a hurricane is on the way, I won’t visit the NOAA website to see if I’m in the path of the storm. Instead, I’ll call the White House. Multiple news sources report NOAA scientists were advised to not contradict anything Trump had to say about the storm prediction. If that’s true and NOAA is simply relaying Trump’s forecast, why not skip the middleman? Go directly to the person who knows what the storm will do. Go to the top.

In fact, do we really need NOAA? Do we really need a National Hurricane Center? For that matter, do we really need the National Weather Service? All of these agencies could be replaced with tweets from you-know-who. Think of the savings! Plus, the president would be occupied with weather predictions and wouldn’t have time to rip up treaties we have with other nations.

Headline:
Trump contradicts CBP head on Bahamian refugees

I guess Customs and Border Protection now have to be micro-managed from the White House.

At least we can be comforted by the knowledge there is nothing bad happening around the globe that might require our president’s attention. We know that because if bad stuff was happening, Trump wouldn’t have time to waste on twitter feuds with celebrities like John Legend and Chrissy Teigen. And he wouldn’t have time to redraw weather maps to support his own predictions.

Headline:
US mental health staff warned not to contradict Trump after mass shootings
Human Services directive orders medical professionals not to post anything on social media running contrary to president's comments on tragedies in El Paso and Dayton

Want to know who else has contradicted Trump? Here’s a short list:

• All of our nation’s intelligence agencies
• National Park Service 
• Rolling Thunder organizers
• All 4 living presidents

And so it goes. You can go to your favorite search engine and enter “Trump contradicts” and you’ll get a list of news articles that will keep you busy reading for weeks.

It reminds me of the Danish tale called The Emperor’s New Clothes. It is, of course, not an exact comparison, but in the story written by Hans Christian Andersen the crowds around the emperor were supposed to believe what they were told rather than the evidence of their own eyes. “Believe what I tell you, not what you see” seems to be the motto of the current administration.

Toto

The song of the day is Africa from the 1982 album Toto IV by American rock band Toto. Africa rose to number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Also on the album was Rosanna, which peaked at number 2 for five weeks.

Pentastich

I get out of bed. It's dark outside. I go to the living room and sit down. I don't turn on the TV. I just sit silently. The silence is palpable. More real than real sound would be. This is what the wee hours of the morning sound like. I hear nothing but the tinnitus in my head. I pour a glass of wine. I sit at my computer. I decide to write a pentastich.

time goes by
the candle grows short
wax runs down
soon a burnt wick
grows from a waxy puddle

There you go. It’s late. I’m going to bed. Goodnight.

Blue October

The song of the day is Into The Ocean from the 2009 album Foiled by American alternative rock band Blue October. (There is also a British band named Blue October.)

Madilyn Bailey

The song of the day is Titanium from the 2011 album Nothing but the Beat by French DJ and songwriter David Guetta. The original release featured vocals by Australian singer/songwriter Sia. The song is covered in this video by singer/songwriter Madilyn Bailey.

Hadag Nahash

The song of the day is Bella Bellissima from the 2003 album Lazuz by Israeli hip hop/funk band Hadag Nahash.

Dorian Out

Dorian brought misery and death to some, but it sputtered when it passed Virginia. Central Virginia received modest rain and mild breezes for a short time. Then the day turned sunny and comfortable.

Now it’s twilight. All is quiet except for kids playing in the park across the street. The air is 71° headed for a low of 60° tonight, but it feels cooler. I close the back door and front window, cutting off the night sounds. I hear nothing except the ever-present tinnitus in my head. The weekend will see more sunshine and temps in the 80s. I’ll do some housekeeping, sort the mail, throw away advertising circulars, and maybe I’ll drive to Food Lion and buy some baby back ribs. And cereal. And cookies. And the rest of the stuff I forgot to get at Wally World today.

Dorian is gone but still churning many miles from land, probably unnerving mariners in the seas off Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. But this is early September, and September is the most active month for Atlantic hurricanes. We can’t know what storm lurks in the wings, just off-stage, awaiting its entrance. Humans can’t control the path of hurricanes—yet. But if and when we have that control, I’m sure the first thing we humans will do will be to weaponize hurricanes. Why let all that power and fury go to waste churning up waves when it could be used to threaten our enemies?

The Pentagon is probably working on something like that now.

Kirstin Maldonado

The song of the day is Break A Little from the 2017 EP L O V E by Pentatonix vocalist kirstin™ (Kirstin Taylor Maldonado).