Let's see now if the blog is working again, as it was stymied for the last 2 days. with some kind of glitch which I hope is gone now. I tried trashing and erasing some items which seems to have helped. We shall soon see. Otherwise, I am tempted to give up the blog altogether. But several readers have urged me to continue. The follwing is one.
looking at online news all around, it’s very crazy how one man can create so many difficult situations for so many. and we are witnessing it, not only here but also around the world; resonance!
i m thinking that you may be lucky residing far away from the maddening crowd! have u thought of it that way?
please keep posting! we need you!
Most Americans say there was not sufficient reason to start war in Iran: Polls
Just to delay Netanyahu's corruption trial was definitely not a good enough reason.
Politico, President Donald Trump has refused to rule out the idea of seeking a constitutionally prohibited third term in office, telling NBC News’ Kristen Welker in a phone call that “there are methods” for doing so. “You have to start by saying, I have the highest poll numbers of any Republican for the last 100 years,” Trump said. “We’re in the high 70s in many polls, in the real polls, and you see that. And, and you know, we’re very popular. And you know, a lot of people would like me to do that."
Here is a recent cartoon from the Washington Post.
A display on DC's National Mall of thousands of tiny teddy bears seeks to help abducted Ukranian children be reunited with their families.
Millions of Americans may now also be considered Canadian under new law
Yes, for me, becoming a Canadian might not be so hard, as my late father was actually born in Stavely, Alberta. His mother was the youngest of 12 children growing up there on the family's wheat farm. However, my Dad renounced his Canadian citizenship as was required to serve in Europe as an officer of the US Army during World War II. Our family must have many relatives still living in Canada.
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US is adding firing squads, electrocution and gassing to federal execution methods
As already mentioned, I support life from womb to tomb, so oppose any execution methods whatsoever. However, it is hard to argue against executing this next guy.
Rex Heuermann, age 62, a former Long Island architect, pled guilty in April 2026 to murdering eight women, including victims in the long-unsolved Gilgo Beach serial killer case. Heuermann, arrested in 2023, admitted to strangling the victims—many of whom were sex workers—between 1993 and 2010.
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Here is a message now from my Cuban friend Sirley Ávila León, who has invited me to visit her in Miami. I had actually helped her get to the US over ten years ago. A Cuban regime supporter had been harrassing her, killing her farm animals, and destroying her crops. He then had attacked her and cut off her right hand, throwing it in the mud to contanminate it so it could not be reattached. Of course, he was never punished, having been protected by Cuban state security. After bringing her here to the US, I held several events for her in Washington, DC, including at the Amnesty International Office. Here is the message she has just sent me now.
Querida Barbara que Dios te siga bendiciendo, con salud y larga vida.
Yo sigo en Miami, porque no he aprendido inglés.
Sabes que esta es tu casa, si quieres o necesitas venir, puedes hacerlo.
Saludos para toda la familia y los amigos, Sirley
In 2016, here below I was with Sirley after inviting her to the Amnesty International office in DC. Her left arm with her missing left hand is not visible there. She was walking with a cane due to machete injuries inflicted on her legs and knees when her hand was cut off. Now she has invited me to visit her in Miami.
Here is a brief summary of her history and previous testimony after her arruval in Miami.
Sirley Ávila León, is an ex-delegate of Cuba's People’s Assembly of Majibacoa. She joined the
democratic opposition after she was driven out of her position for trying to keep a school open in
her community. Official channels ignored her, and when she went to the international media she
was removed from office.
Following escalating acts of repression by state security, the mother of two, aged 56, was gravely
wounded in a machete attack on May 24, 2015 at 3:00 p.m. The enforcer was Osmany Carrión,
who had been “sent by state-security thugs,” Ávila León explains, for an act of aggression that
“was politically motivated.”
Ávila León suffered deep cuts to her neck and knees, lost her left hand, and could still lose her
right arm. Although Carrión was the principal assailant in the coordinated attack, his wife forced
Ávila León’s hand into the mud to compound the injury with infection.
Sent home from hospital, Ávila León remained in this critical state without the proper
medication. Five months have passed, and she still needs medical attention, completely
incapacitated, demanding justice, and denouncing irregularities in the judicial process against her
assailant. On September 2, 2015, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights concurred
that she was in a “serious and urgent situation, since her life and physical integrity are at risk.”
On March 8, 2016, she arrived in the United States to give her testimony and obtain medical care
from the Miami Medical Team.
Whenever donating money to individuals or organizations anywhere in the world, if I am actually there in person, I prefer to hand over cash in US dollar bills, just in paper money, usually in denominations of $50 and $100 and let the recipients exchange them however they can. That way, I am never left with local currency when I leave and US dollars are usually good anywhere. In some places, they are really preferable to the local currency. US dollars if kept in a safe place may actually increase in value over time. The friends to whom I gift this US paper money know they can trust that I am not handing them any counterfeit bills.
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My friend in Barcelona has sent some photos:
Today in Barcelona we celebrate Saint Jordi’s day (April 23). It is a fairy tale, but is so beautiful because all the City celébrates with gifts of flowers and books.
Do you ever wonder if the universe has always existed? Or whether it actually only came into being with the big bang exploiding from nothing to somthing a zillion eons ago, for reasons that humankind may never know? And are there any other universes out there? What about other living and thinking beings? If individual humans even live to their thousanth birthday, it's something they might never, ever know. Indeed, human knowledge is always limited and never will be complete.
