Wednesday, April 22, 2026

What are the chances that Trump will resign? The odds are slim.

Google says: As of April 2026, Donald Trump is the oldest sitting president in U.S. history, having been inaugurated for his second term on January 20, 2025, at age 78 years and 220 days. He surpassed the previous record set by Joe Biden, who was 78 years, 61 days upon his inauguration in 2021 and became the oldest to hold office at age 82.

American voters, you may have a made mistake in electing Trump as our president. Many thought that Joe Biden was too old to be president, but now what about Donald Trump? Trump, who soon will be celebrating his 80th birthday, has both senile dementia and senior attention deficit disorder, a very difficult combination. But he still has almost 3 more years to go in his presidential term, so what might happen now?

Several commentators have been openly calling on Trump to resign. Of course, if he did so, his vice president JD Vance, age 41, would take office and could then run again, so do we actually want that? The current options are not enticing.

So do you think that Donald Trump might really resign? Commentators have suggested as much. Yet, in fact, he's quite unlikely to do so, though it actually might be a great relief. Even then, he's apt to keep on interfering in politics, so I think our country is simply stuck with him until he departs this mortal coil. Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Joe Biden have all retired gracefully, but it's hard to imagine Trump actually doing so. Have we ever had a president before like Donald Trump? Fortunately, there has been only one like him.

Three new polls released Tuesday showed Trump’s approval rating in the mid-30s: 36% in a Reuters-Ipsos poll, 35% in a Strength in Numbers-Verasight poll and 33% an an AP-NORC poll. They follow an NBC News poll over the weekend showing Donald Trump hitting a new low of 37%.

"Fake news!" would be Trump's likely response.

"Fake it till you make it" has been Donald Trump's life long modus operandi, which has really served him quite well. Google says: "It is a strategy of acting as if you are already confident or competent." Trump is still faking it now, pretending he is way more competent and knows so much more than he actually does. Many voters believe he is able to predict the future with some accuracy, though often that's not actually the case.

Daily Beast, Americans’ Disapproval of Congress Rockets to Record High Under Trump

NOT IMPRESSED

Republicans are driving much of the decline in approval ratings, according to Gallup, and they are also losing confidence in Trump.

Trump says the US will extend its ceasefire with Iran at Pakistan's request

Kudos to Pakistan!!

A golden toilet, "A Throne Fit for a King," makes its debut on the D.C. mall.

Below: A man wearing a MAGA cap sits on the golden toilet on the mall, erected to protest Trump's costly and extensive White House renovations.

Singer Elvis Presley died on August 16, 1977, at age 42, after suffering a heart attack while on the toilet in his Graceland master bathroom.

The humble toilet has quite a storied history.

Here is a Roman public toilet, 315 AD.

Royalty used only private commodes.

Hohenschwangau Castle, located near Füssen in Bavaria, is a 19th-century "fairytale" castle where King Ludwig II had spent his childhood. Here were the toilet facilities.

Shown below is that very same German castle that I once visited myself years ago. I've traveled to 40 countries in all, just visiting local friends, never taking tours or staying in hotels. Even when I didn't speak the language, as in Germany, I made myself understood. Most of my travels, like that to the German castle, took place after my late ex-husband had left our family, as he was blind--a very brilliant man--but he didn't like going to unfamiliar places. However, he once had won a traveling fellowship to Europe, so I went there with him, taking along our 2 small children, Andrew and Melanie, all of us together visiting a dozen countries then, which was quite an undertaking and a great adventure. I was also pregnant at the time with my daughter Stephanie. Just imagine our family taking flights from one country to the next, with me 7 months pregnant, trying to keep track of all our luggage, as well as my blind husband and our 2 small kids. Fortunately, I was only about 30 then, much younger than I am now.

Yes, my late ex-husband of 24 years, Tom Joe, was of Korean descent and totally blind. He also had Marfan's Syndrome, which is believed to have afflicted Abraham Lincoln, though Lincoln retained his sight. Tom was about 6 feet tall and very thin, also a chain smoker of unfiltered Camels. Once a tailor fitting him for a suit called him "the razor's edge." We used to make spicy Kimchee, which my son still likes to eat. Tom was a very impatient guy who would pinch my upper arm where he was holding on if I didn't walk fast enough, leaving me with dark bruises. He was very smart and won a MacArthur Genius Award after leaving our family, an award for which I feel I can take some credit.

Alas, after 24 years, he and his office sweetheart had made a quick trip to Las Vegas, where he divorced me and married her on the very same day. It was on Mother's Day and they had invited my daughter Melanie to go with them, but she wouldn't tell me why she wouldn't be spending that special day with me. I found out about the divorce after they came back.

It was quite a struggle for me to even get child support after that, though I absolutely refused alimony. After the quick Las Vegas divorce, my ex spoke with me only once, about 3 years later, when he made a surprise phone call after some articles about my efforts on behalf of Cuban human rights activists appeared in the local press. He never called me back after that and when I called him again, his second wife answered and took a message. She did not invite me to his funeral in 1999 nor was I included in his obituary, as if our 4 children mentioned there all belonged to her. But I attended his funeral anyway with a friend, to the wife's great shock and apparent surprise.

Then, after leaving my job at the Occupational Therapy Association, I joined the Peace Corps in Honduras as a health volunteer. I was already fluent in Spanish so I skipped the Spanish classes for other volunteers, all much younger than I was then, being already 62 when I joined the Peace Corps. After Peace Corps, I worked part-time as Spanish medical interpreter, making annual volunteer visits to Honduras, always taking a new wheelchair for someone there. My last visit there was in June, 2024, and now my passport has expired, so at age 88, I am not sure about ever going back. You can read all about it and about my human rights work in Cuba in my books, titles shown above.

Here are a couple of photos appearing in my books. The first is of my family with the late President Jimmy Carter whom I met again as election observer in Nicaragua in 1990.

The other is of friends I stayed with in La Esperanza (the "Hope" of my Honduras book title), where the high altitude makes the weather become quite cold there Nov.-Feb.

And here I was in Honduras in June 2024 with a new wheelchair I had brought for someone there.

Tuesday, April 21, 2026

The right to bear arms

High time to erect some guardrails around the so-called "right to bear arms."

Wash. Post, Louisiana gunman who killed 8 children had sought mental health treatment, relatives say

Police said the National Guard veteran used a pistol that operated like “an assault-style
weapon,” while the sho oter’s family said he recently spent more than a week in a VA hospital.

OK, NRA, so now where was that "good guy with a gun," standing by, ready to take down this deadly shooter?

Time to ditch the outdated "right to bear arms" in favor of the Swiss system, which allows pulling the trigger only at carefully monitored shooting ranges. So many American lives would then be saved.

A father apparently killed all his children (seen with him below) in retaliation against his wife who had planned a separation or divorce due to his increasingly erratic behavior. Now the children and their father are all dead and the mother is being treated in a hospital after her husband had tried to kill her. If and when she regains consciousness, she will wake up to a really dreadful nightmare.

The "right to bear arms" has seen so many other victims recently.

Wash. Post, D.C. sees seven homicides in five days, the deadliest stretch of 2026

Wash. Post,

Two teens killed after planned fight near North Carolina school ends in shooting

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In other news:

Wash. Post, In red states, anti-immigrant bills are failing as businesses push back

Deporting so many is proving to actually be bad for business. Businesses cannot find all the workers they need and also have fewer customers.

Wash. Post, Trump steps up a campaign against teaching English to immigrant kids

The administration plans to dissolve the office that supports English instruction. The justification for doing this is unclear, except that Trump just doesn't like immigrants any more, after members of his own family have made it safely to this country. His mother and his wife were both immigrants.

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Wash. Post, Trump’s statements on Iran increasingly contradict each other
Recent remarks highlighted a continuing challenge for the administration: The president’s oscillating claims have led to confusion and required cleanup by his staff.

Wash. Post, Israel struck five neighborhoods in Beirut without warning

The war has now spread to Lebanon. The Vatican has been delivering aid to south Lebanon.

Daily Beast, Trump Hit by Humiliating Poll in His Unholy War with the Pope

A new Reuters/Ipsos survey shows Trump with a 36 percent approval rating....Pope Leo's favorability stands at 60 percent.

POLL PAIN

Donald Trump lashed out at Pope Leo in a 344-word Truth Social post. Maybe doing that made him feel better after learning that the Pope is so much more popular than he is, even among American citizens.

Trump sees approval dip the most among young voters in poll

Donald Trump no longer enjoys high approval among any demographic, but may not really care as he probably isn't planning to run for office again. In any case, he dismisses all news he doesn't like simply as "fake."

Though it was never part of the Confederacy, Confederate flags are often seen being displayed here in West Virginia.

Donald Trump: In a recent The New York Times opinion piece,
Political scientist Michael Bailey from Georgetown University explicitly ranks Donald Trump as "easily the worst president in U.S. history," citing corruption and long-term damage to U.S. institutions. Other contemporary sources like have echoed this sentiment, predicting that future historians will maintain this view due to his handling of the Constitution and personal corruption.

Donald Trump, soon celebrating his 80th birthday, has both senile dementia and senior attention deficit disorder, making for a very difficult combination.

What can be done now, with almost 3 more years to go?

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NY Times, Measles Took My Daughter. This Is What I Want Everyone to Know.

A girl in a blue dress twirls, surrounded by points of light.

Yes, measles can be deadly. (This is Barbara talking now,) I can well remember when I was a child, being quarantined with measles, with a big warning sign plastered on our front window. My siblings and I survived, but only after becoming quite ill. Better to be vaccinated since measles vaccines are now readily available. RFK Jr., you simply are wrong!