Going to Hell in a handbasket

Fact check: Trump makes numerous false and misleading claims about vaccines and autism

Much of Trump's misinformation and disinformation on vaccines comes directly from RFK. Jr., although the health secretary has backtracked on some of his more egregious claims. Yet trust in the government has been seriously undermined as a result of Trump's, RFK Jr.'s, and Hegseth's numerous false, dubious, harmful, and misleading health and other assertions, also by this terrible trio's blatant criminal conduct in some cases. 

So even after these 3 wacky, spendthrift, murderous, and very destructive guys are finally ousted, it will take some time to rebuild trust in the government among members of the  American public. But first we need to get Trump and all of his acolytes completely out of office, and even to get Trump out as a possible future vice president, something he has recently suggested as being his next step. He seems to really enjoys being in charge, standing there right in the spotlight, just bossing other folks around, so he wants to remain in office indefinitely in some shape or form. And if he becomes the vice president for a Republican president, don't you think he will still be calling the shots, and going over that guy's head to the public just whenever he feels like it? (And, yes, our next Republican president would most certainly be "he", a guy, not a gal.) 

But where are the Democrats these days? They seem mostly to be MIA. Come on, fellow Democrats, we can and really must do much better next time, as our nation and the whole world are going to hell in handbasket. 

This morning, when my son and I went to take our dog out to a national park, a doe ran right across the road, nearly colliding with our car. We often see deer, sometimes with fawns, running right through our yard. Nighttime is when wild rabbits will emerge. And now, migrating ducks have returned to swim in the pond at the Coolfont resort where my son is emplyed. We never hunt any of these creatures, as live and let live is our family's motto.  

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Judge again bars Trump administration from implementing order that sought to limit mail voting

Donald Trump is nothing if not persistent. His motto is "if at first, you don't succeed, try, try, try, and even try once again." 

Trump’s media company, which also owns Truth Social, reports $238m loss

While  Donald Trump can certainly afford these losses, might they also be a sign of his growing unpopularity?

Trump administration set to spend at least $900 million on White House construction

Fellow taxpayers, you and I will be footing this bill. And also paying for covering the Lincoln horse statues entirely in gold leaf.  

Jeanine Pirro just made a ‘rare move’ amid Trump fury: ‘This could be very interesting’

Judge Jeanine Makes Desperate Move as Trump Threatens Her Job 

Daily Beast,

HAIL MARY

The Justice Department has quietly convened a rare legal body.

So what happens if the grand jury decides there really was no vandalism, just shoddy workmanship, which is what had been determined from the beginning? Then Judge Jeanine may actually lose her job after all because that is not the outcome that Donald Trump wants, 

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Somalia and other countries are now being hit with the abrupt cancelation of US foreign aid.

Wash. Post, Severe malnutrition in Somalia is surging after U.S. cuts, aid groups say

The US is cutting back on foreign aid, even as our nation splurges on Trump's White House renovations and covers the Lincoln horse statues with gold leaf, as those are the president's priorities.  

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A former Peace Corps volunteer, now retired and living in Honduras, is urging me to visit there once again (his message is below). But I don't want Trump's image on my passport, which might happen if I tried to renew it right now. So it might be best to wait until Trump is out of office before deciding whether to go there again.

• Hello Barbara, 

  I have not heard from you so I am reaching out. 

  Things are going well here. I was just watching a video of one of your visits to El Triunfo. We had such a great time during that visit.

  Please be well. And visit us again soon!  Art
• Would I now want to have a US passport displaying a slimmed down Donald Trump? I may just wait a little longer before deciding whether to go anywhere again. 
• 

                                   OK folks, just eat all your veggies, that's my advice.

                               

                         And to finish the meal, this is Pavlova, a tasty Australian dessert. 

                              

                            So for now let's say goodbye friends, and see you next time.

Is justice blind?

Is justice really blind? Is justice also deaf? 

Maybe like Helen Keller, justice is both blind and deaf. Young Helen had lost her sight as well as her hearing after suffering a very high fever in infancy. After that, she was unable to communicate for quite some time. Then while water was being poured over her hand, she couldn't see it flowing; she couldn't hear it splashing; but as the letters 

W. A. T. E. R were being spelled out in her hand, she realized that water had a name.

Helen couldn't really remember what seeing and hearing were like, so it was hard for her to even imagine those senses. But she still learned to communicate, which was the most crucial ability, so she went on to have many friends and to even                                                                                         write books. 

My late former husband of 24 years was blind, as most readers already know, but he was not also deaf like Helen Keller, so he had little trouble communicating. He was a fast and quite convincing talker. 

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Justice is depicted as being blind to symbolize impartiality, objectivity, and fairness.

But justice should not be deaf to our entreaties as citizens-- to our appeals as members of a human family, a community, a nation, and the world.

Yes, --and while we now have a national community with a common language, an elected leadership, written laws, and political borders-- still our country is also part of the world community, past, present, and future. This year, we are celebrating our nation's 250th year since its original founding. And thus may Lady Justice rule over us all from now and on into the future. 

Wash. Post, Mamdani: Democratic socialists ‘going back to what the party used to be.'

Mamdani seems to be referring the Democratic Party of the past. 

Wash. Post, 

Trump signs executive order on birthright citizenship

Yes indeed, Donald Trump isn't giving up now, still trying to limit birthright citizenship, even though his previous efforts have failed. Why? Doesn't he know we need all the babies we can get, even if born to immigrants? And that we also need more immigrants here as well? His mother was an immigrant, so should that make Trump illegal?  Then let's just deport him back to Scotland, his mother's birthplace, if they will take even him there. 

Wash. Post, 

State Department says it has revoked more than 175,000 visas under Trump 

Not only is Donald Trump on a deportation spree, but he is revoking visas already granted. What is the reason for his mania against newcomers? Our nation has a long history of welcoming strangers. Remember the Statue of Liberty?  

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The famous monumental bronze and gold-leaf horse statues near the Lincoln Memorial—known as The Arts of War and The Arts of Peace—underwent a high-profile $5.1 million re-gilding project in 2026 using 23.75-karat gold leaf. You and I are paying the bill. 

Why was this such a priority of the Trump administration? (Hint, Donald Trump loves everything gold.)

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NY Times, Trump Said to Have Secretly Used Military Jet to Leave Turkey Amid Threats

President Trump hid in an airport catering container and was taken to a military jet for a secret flight out of country after the NATO summit last month.

Wash. Post, Contradicting public statements, Trump took secret flight from Turkey amid Iranian threat

The White House said the president was aboard Air Force One as he left a NATO summit. Instead, his departure included an elaborate ruse that concealed his travel.

Trump had hidden inside a shipping container to board his flight. 

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Wash. Post, Trump refuses to back down as Supreme Court blocks major policies

The president is seeking ways around rulings on tariffs, birthright citizenship and the Fed. 

Experts say the moves don’t signal outright defiance, but they push the court’s limits.

Donald Trump doesn't support "separation of powers." He believes that as president, he is like a king and should have the last word on absolutely everything.  

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Trump signs order calling for spacing out childhood vaccines, against medical groups' guidance

Under the influence of his ill-chosen health secretary, the long-time anti-vaxxer RFK Jr., Trump has ordered spacing out vaccines to children, leaving them unnecessarily vulnerable until they become fully vaccinated. RFK Jr. seems to actually favor administering no vaccines at all, allowing kids to get very sick and, if they survive, they will probably be immune to the return of that illness for the rest of their natural lives. That was the system--or non-system--for centuries before vaccines were ever even invented. RFK Jr. would really like to return to those old no-vaccine days, so this is his compromise--to delay and space out vaccines putting children at risk. So is he really a health secretary or an anti-health secretary?

Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth, and RFK Jr., instead of protecting Americans and providing us with useful and helpful advice, are now offering harmful recommendations, such as taking testosterone supplements and avoiding vaccines. We simply cannot get rid of these guys soon enough! Voters, we need to get all these guys out ASAP. 

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Rabbis Plead With Mamdani to Tone Down His Anti-Israel Rhetoric

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The New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com › 

Wash. Post, Hunter Biden tells Tucker Carlson that Trump poses an ‘existential threat’

“The one existential threat I think we face as a country is Donald Trump. I’m not this believer that Trump is merely the symptom of a disease. I believe Trump is central to why this disease has gone from a local epidemic to a pandemic," Biden told Carlson.

Hunter Biden also laid into Netanyahu. 

“If it’s anti-semitic to point out that Bibi Netanyahu is evil incarnate then I don’t know what to say to people anymore."

NY Times, What to Know About the Cuban Mafia in Quintana Roo

A group of Cuban men in Mexico was charged with smuggling people to the United States. One of its leaders said Raúl Castro’s grandson helped, according to interviews and court records.

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A scene from the Bayeux Tapestry depicts Bishop Odo rallying Duke William's army during the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

                    The tapestry is now on loan from France for display in the UK. 

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 An earthquake has now devastated parts of in Colombia, my son's birthplace, and it is also 

where I graduated from high school.

CNN, Death toll rises to 132 with hundreds more injured in Colombia earthquake

The 7.4 magnitude quake is the strongest recorded in the country in the last decade, according to officials, and was also felt in Ecuador, Panama, and Venezuela.

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 Earthquakes are not the only devastation. Destruction and deaths have been caused by multiple US strikes on Yemen, although our country is not officially at war with Yemen. 

Wash. Post, 

Nearly 400 civilians killed, wounded in U.S. strikes on Yemen last year

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Wash. Post, Netanyahu rejects Trump-backed Gaza plan for Hamas disarmament, Israeli withdrawal

Netanyahu doesn't want the war to end because then he will have to go to trial. How about showing a little tough-love now for Israel and for Netanyahu in the form of greatly reduced aid? Even some American Jews are becoming impatient with Netanyahu. Is he the tail wagging the dog?  

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NY Times, What to Know About the Cuban Mafia in Quintana Roo

A group of Cuban men in Mexico has been charged with smuggling people into the United States. One of its leaders said Raúl Castro’s grandson helped, according to interviews and court records.

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Wash. Post, Ebola deaths surpass 2,000 in Democratic Republic of Congo

                                                    Ebola is spreading once again. 

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Wash. Post, 7 killed and more than 20 injured in Thailand school shooting

Guns should be restricted everywhere, as they are lethal, not protective. 

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see  themore of our s

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Below is something called a tapper, but it is not the Bruce Tapper I've actually been looking for. 

Whatever happened to Bruce Tapper, whom I last saw some years ago with his wife and 2 young children? 

Bruce was formerly the editor of a magazine called OT Week, which several of us had created for occupational therapists, although neither he nor I actually were therapists ourselves. I am a former social worker, juvenile probation officer, disability rights advocate, prolific ghost writer, social researcher, Spanish medical interpreter, and Spanish translator. (An interpreter deals with spoken words, a translator with written words.) I am also a former Peace Corps volunteer, election monitor, and international humanitarian who has served in some 40 countries all over the world, as well as a mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother.

 These days, at age 88, I am getting rather tired now, my passport has expired, and I'm living with my son in West Virginia in a house that I've bought for us here. So I may just stay home from now on, remaining involved only "virtually" with family and friends all over the world, thanks to the magic of email and the internet. 

But if anyone knows how to reach the Bruce Tapper whom I am looking for, please advise.

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Iran is now taking a hard line on negotiations with the US and even has resumed public executions.

With a different approach, our country might have been able to become allied with Iran and even to have softened its treatment of its own citizens, 

 just as happened with former enemy nations like Japan, Cambodia, and Viet Nam.  

But no. Attacking Iran for no reason and killing the Ayatollah has now immersed Trump and our country into a war that is proving rather difficult to exit and which certainly has not made Israel any safer. What was Donald Trump thinking? Was he even thinking at all? Is this how most wars actually start? By accident, not really by careful planning, foresight, and design?