Celebrating 250 years

 

Now in this 250th anniverary year, here was the original Betsy Ross American flag featuirg the first 13 colonies.

With less than 2 years to go in his term, how are voters feeling now about the president? Do they even feel like celebrating the 250-year anniversary of the nation's founding?  On this commemorative year, Trump ranks himself right on a par with Abraham Lincoln as our nation's 2 greatest presidents. Not all American voters actually agree. 

The Hill,  Trump’s approval rating among Republicans has dropped, with 1 in 5 party members affirming they are enthusiastic about the rest of his term, according to a new CNN poll. 

CNN found that 19 percent of self-identified GOP voters are enthusiastic about the next two years of the second Trump administration. Another 58 percent are “optimistic” about Trump’s next two years. Thirteen percent of Republicans are “pessimistic,” while 11 percent are “afraid.” Overall, 67 percent of U.S. adults in the poll said they are afraid or pessimistic about the country’s future with Trump at the helm. 

Comparatively, 33 percent maintain an enthusiastic or optimistic outlook on the future. 

Never mind such polls anyway, Donald Trump would say. Any news he doesn't like is imply "fake news." He knows he is tremendously popular, right up there with Abraham Lincoln. 

Trump still supports Netanyahu, but he might have forgotten just why, as his memory is fading so very fast. He also doesn't remember raping E. Jean Carroll or even about defaming her, saying he has never even met her. Still, Donald Trump paid her the $5 million court judgment after being unable to get the Supreme Court to hear his appeal. Now Carroll is trying to decide what to do with the money.

Every day, Donald Trump looks increasingly befuddled, as if trying to remember what he is supposed to be doing. 

Daily Beast, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins couldn’t hide her astonishment after playing documentary footage of [the late Senator] Lindsey Graham instructing Benjamin Netanyahu on how to fight war crimes accusations. During Thursday’s episode of The Source, audio of the senator showed Graham strategizing with the Israeli prime minister on how to persuade lawmakers to denounce the International Criminal Court as it investigated him for alleged crimes against humanity.

The Hill, Americans support Netanyahu arrest by 22-point margin: Survey 

Bibi Netanyahu is not actually going to be arrested, though he convinced a very suggestible and confused Donald Trump into attacking Iran for no reason, thus killing the Ayatolla and starting a war that now Trump can't figure out how to end. But Bibi's corruption trial was delayed, so that objective actually was achieved. 

CBS News reporter Jennifer Jacobs asked Trump why he wanted the Senate to stay in town when Senators should be campaigning across the country for the midterm elections, which are now 99 days away. "Why the stupid question you asked? What a stupid question!" Trump fired back. 

Trump often berates female reporters. But he did not actually answer her question. 

‘Iran War Participation Trophy’ mocking Trump arrives in New York

It has already been on display in DC. 

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What is a big problem with modern dating? Too many choices, making folks think there might be someone even better than out there even than their current partner. Are they themselves actually better than someone else whom their own favorite might choose? Is this just a commodities' market or do relationships require having experiences and creating a special life together? A dating partner found on line is actually a person, not a fixed entity always the same. For that, just order a Japanese robot doll. She never talks back, you don't have to feed her, she never gets pregnant, and she doesn't grow old, though her owner certainly still does. Women don't actually order male companion dolls because women are not stupid. 

Costa Rican forest monkeys have become intrigued by artificial intelligence,  

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especially when rewarded with tasty banana slices for pushing the right buttons. 

Here is another Costa Rican forest dweller, the endangered Macaw.

Looking now back in history to the large families of famous composers, is musical talent hereditary or the result of exposure in the family? Perhaps actually some of both. .

Johann Sebastian Bach had 20 kids (much easier for a man to do that than a woman). Some of his offspring also became composers. 

Mozart had 6 kids, but only 2 survived childhood. 

Antonin Dvorak had 8 siblings.

Some descendants of these famous composers are involved with music today.

We all have music, art, and science in out own family histories

My own paternal grandmother was the youngest of 12 children in an Alberta farming family, though she 

was born on the US side of the border, while her younger son, my own father, was born in Alberta and became an archeological explorer, an architect, and an officer in the US army 

during World War II. Many of us have lived several different lives, I myself have had missions to 

some 40 countries and am bilingual in Spanish. But folks I've met here in West Virginia have never 

 been even as far Washington, DC, 105 miles away.   

Here I was being bathed by a servant during my bathime in Honduras in 1940, with my late 

younger brother looking on.

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A former DC neighbor tells me this about his family history:

My dad's family consisted of French Canadians, and there are piles of interesting historical information about the early French Canadians. My favorite story relates to an ancestor who was captured by the Iroquois. After torturing him they turned him over as a slave to the woman whose husband he had killed when he was captured. Seems he took such good care of her that they wound up making him a member of the tribe and a representative of the tribe in Quebec.  

My sister-in-law descends from a very affluent Cherokee, who got caught up in the forced move of Cherokees to Oklahoma. He was known as Joseph (Rich Joe) Vann, and he owned hundreds of slaves, many farms, steamboats, stores, etc.  As part of the emigration he shipped hundreds of slaves to Oklahoma.

Both of us now find ourselves in the USA, with a president unlike any other. He will certainly be remembered, but not as one of the greatest presients, maybe as one of the worst. . (Amen to that!)

        A powerful earthquake has now hit Japan. 

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I told someone who just had a stroke:

Hello friend, what bum luck to have had a stroke! That's why it's called a stroke, because it can strike just out of the blue. I know a lady who has had 2 strokes, one on each side, and now is fed via a feeding tube to her stomach. So you certainly need to avoid that. But I hope occupational therapists (my former employers) can help you figure out how to do some of the things you still want to do. Your daughter can help you. We're all rooting for you!  I don't have your email, but my daughter probably does and can forward this message. Everyone is rooting for you!  Best wishes, Barbara

Here now is a game called Root whose characters are all rooting for you!

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 Many Ameicans can trace their ancestry to immigrants to Canada, including my own Dad, born in Alberta to immigrants from Scotland. 

A friend who was my former DC neighbor sent me this message about his own ancestors from France coming to 

Canada.

My dad's family consisted of French Canadians, and there are piles of interesting historical information about the early French Canadians. My favorite story relates to an ancestor who was captured by the Iroquois. After torturing him they turned him over as a slave to the woman whose husband he had killed when he was captured.  

Seems he took such good care of her that they wound up making him a member of their tribe and a representative of the tribe in Quebec.  

My relative is descended from a very affluent Cherokee, who got caught up in the forced move of Cherokees to Oklahoma.  He was know as Joseph (Rich Joe) Vann, and he owned hundreds of slaves, many farms, steamboats, stores, etc.  As part of the emigration he shipped hundreds of slaves to Oklahoma.

As descendants of European immigrants to Canada, my friend and I are both living now in the US of A under a very looney president. What more is there to say about loons, actually no relation to the president?  Let's take a look.

                                    Here is a mother loon with a small passenger. 

                                                        And here is another.

Wild loons do stop in West Virginia going and coming from their annual migrations, but they don't linger here very long, before heading further south.