Guns or butter?

            

Living out here in the West Virginia countryside, as I am doing right now, protects me from some of the worst effects of the Trump presidency. I can always go outside for a breath of fresh air, with wild geese, ducks, and deer crossing my path, then walk out into the nearby woods, with tree tops extending in all directions as far as the eye can see. It's very relaxing. 

Yet maybe I really don't belong here right now. I've even considered living abroad until Donald Trump is safely out of office. That man has been causing me daily distress. But can I really afford to move away now? At age 88, after having bought the house my son and I live in right now, it would not be so easy to just pull up stakes. But I really don't want to give even tacit support to this president or to his own family and associates. Mexico and even Honduras look pretty good to me now these days. 

Mexico already has a female president and Honduras has had one. What about here in the US? Kamala came pretty close, but not close enough. Hillary actually had won the popular vote but was defeated by the Electoral College. Let's give a woman president another try. Time now to finally shatter that outdated glass ceiling!

                                     Claudia Sheinbaum is Mexico's current president.

If I could find a way to effectively fight back against Trump without embarassing my son, I would stay right here to fight, but I'm not sure just how to do that effectively. I don't have any allies here; in fact, I don't know very many people at all. No one actually lives close by and the only car we have belongs to my son who often is away at work. Maybe I'll just continue to write this blog with its modest readership and communicate with the few folks here whom I know. It's only a small circle. And I must confess that I don't have as much energy as before. If Kamala had won election, I would certainly feel more energetic.

OK, enough with laments. So what's actually going on right now? 

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First things first:

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are married! Couple wed at Madison Square Garden in a ceremony officiated by Adam Sandler.

    Best wishes to them as a couple! May they have a good life together and actually stay married. That would be so heart-warming and set an example for others. Being married is not always easy; I tried it for 24 years and would have continued right on despite all the challenges, but my late ex-husband had other ideas.

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           Of course, Donald Trump is still our US president. That's an unfortunate fact. 

     What can we do about it bow? His term won't expire until January 20, 2029. 

So I am now counting down the days, hoping to survive until the end of his presidency             =============================================================

One issue to consider now is that our nation needs both guns and butter, but in what proportion? So let's ask Google, that authority on everything

"Guns and butter" is a classic macroeconomic model demonstrating the trade-off a country faces when choosing between defense spending ("guns") and social programs ("butter"). Because resources are finite, increasing military output typically requires sacrificing domestic investments like healthcare, education, and infrastructure.

So how to have more butter than guns and stop the proliferation of firearms in this country? There are way too many guns in circulation here already. Yet Doanld Trump and his family are doing nothing whatever to reduce gun violance, even though the president himself has experienced several close calls. 

And, most unfortunately, Donald Trump's own namesake son, Donald Trump Jr. , is now on the board of GrabAGun, an online firearms outlet where he serves as a consultant. He wants guns to be sent through the mail and the president is trying to make that happen. 

Trump Jr.'s 'Amazon of guns' could make millions under new proposed firearm rule  

Wash, Post, Trump’s proposal to ease rules on mailing guns could benefit a company in which his son owns a stake

President Donald Trump’s eldest son is a key player in GrabAGun, a company that hopes to dominate internet firearms sales.

Having more guns sold, by then being sent through the mail, simply means more gun deaths right here in our own country. Guns are simply not protective at all, but actually increase the risks to their owners--those statistics simply don't lie. The Trump family and the NRA now pose an increased threat to all American lives. And internet gun sales would just make things so much worse.

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 But that is not the only threat to our citizens coming from the Trump family and Trump administration, so many other threats exist. 

The Trumps have proved quite toxic for our nation in just so many ways. It's hard to actually enumerate them all, so I won't even try.

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 Can you possibly imagine Donald Trump now as a doctor for the body politic? 

Trump shares AI video of himself as a doctor who treats celebrities with 'Trump Derangement Syndrome'

Who now is actually the guy with a "derangement syndrome"? Does the president have nothing better to do than to make these ridiculous posts? He is engaged in these recent diversions instead of tending to the business of government.

But alas, Trump's own visage will never grace Mount Rushmore. There is nowhere left to put it, even though Trump considers himself the greatest US president ever, with only the possible exception of Abraham Lincoln.

Although Donald Trump did actually win election this last time by a rather small margin, \his citizen approval has been shrinking fast ever since.

Google says: Donald Trump’s overall job approval rating now sits between 37% and 40%, with net negative approval across most major national polls. His base remains highly loyal, but he has experienced notable declines in support among independent voters, suburban demographics, and some rural farming communities.

When the president's term ends in on January 20, 2029, he will be age 82, as the oldest chief executive ever in American history. However, he has hinted about then running as vice president on a future Republican ticket and how could any Republican presidential candidate ever refuse him? 

And you better believe that if their ticket should win, Trump would be looking right over the shoulder of that newly elected president, telling him just what to do and when. And yes, in the Republican Party, that winning president would most certainly be "him," not "her." Will I ever live to see the day when we actually have an American female president? My own time is soon running out. 

Hey Donald Trump, wouldn't you rather simply retire after your presidential term ends, then just hit the golf links whenever you feel like it? Why not take a break by then, giving our country and the world a much-needed break as well. And why not give someone else a chance! Give someone else not named Trump a chance to become our next president or vice president. 

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Trump's father Fred was the son of German immigrants. His mother Mary was actually an immigrant from Scotland, who first began working here as a domestic servant. 

Few folks in the US now have servants, only the very wealthy. However, in Latin America and elsewhere, live-in servants are still quite common, as are extremes of wealth and poverty. 

Mary and Fred had 5 children, with Donald being among them. Fred made big money in NYC real estate. He then helped young Donald escape the military draft by getting a doctor to write a bogus report about his son's "bone spurs"--a malady only affecting the elderly. Both parents are, of course, now deceased. 

Given Donald's own family history and his marriage to a woman from Slovenia whose visitor visa had already expired, we might have expected The Donald to show more compassion toward immigrants. But, no, now he even wants to take away birthright citizenship! Just pull up the drawbridge since the members of his own family are already here!

Hot and hotter

Dear readers, I made 3 separate posts yesterday, all on July 1, due to our very hot steamy weather, something obviously out of my control. Sorry about that. I wasn't able to combine everything together in just one post, as the blog dieties were simply not cooperating. Never mind the details. High tempertures are predicted to continue, so we'll just have to see what happens from now on. 

Today (Thu): 99°F. Sunny, very hot, and humid .

Tomorrow (Fri): 100°F. Mostly sunny and hot .================================================================

Wash. Post, Trump’s wealth grew on a scale without modern presidential precedent

President Trump’s income has increased in office on a scale not seen by any past president — not even Trump.

His annual income is now said to be $2.2 billlion. How can he even spend that much, especially when all of his family's living and travel expenses are being completely covered? 

            Trump now even proposes putting his own image on a new $250 bill. 

Soaring revenue at Mar-a-Lago shows how Trump’s business interests and politics intersect

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Meanwhile, Trump has job to do as president, a job where he is still doing his level best to make life even harder for so many people. Although he is the most powerful person on the planet, not all his many orders and wishes are being carrited out exactly according to his specifications. He is a nitpicker quick to lay blame on others and take all the credit for himself. He boldly places himself among our country's greatest presidents, saying, “With the exception of the late, great Abraham Lincoln, I can be more presidential than any president that’s ever held this office.” But he's had to give up his dream of having his visage carved on Mount Rushmore because there really isn't any more room. 

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US Postal Service cannot carry out Trump order on mail ballot delivery, judge rules

A federal judge has blocked the U.S. Postal Service from following President Donald Trump’s mail ballot executive order, which would have put new limits on vote-by-mail eligibility.

Judges strike down Trump administration student loan forgiveness overhaul

Trump is losing some battles that he certainly had expected to win. He is not a big fan of "separation of powers." He believes a president is like a king, possessing powers above and beyond, and always having the final say, especially when he himself is the president and obviously knows what is best, at least best for himself.

The Hill, ‘Birth tourism,’ though rare, prompts talk of barring pregnant women from entering US  https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5951451-trump-birthright-citizenship-outcry/ Would female visitors have to undergo a pregnancy test? Of course, some like Melania, come here just to actually get pregnant. She even picked the guy she wanted to be the father of her child. Apparently it wasn't very hard to get his cooperation and now, more than 20 years later, she is still here. 

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Catholic church

One breakaway Catholic group is the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX). On July 2, 2026, the Vatican excommunicated the group's members and priests after they defied Pope Leo XIV and consecrated four new bishops without papal consent. The SSPX rejects modern church reforms .

Wash. Post, ICE’s arrest of nun heading to church fuels bipartisan backlash

After Democratic and Republican lawmakers intervened, Sister Leticia “Letty” Ugboaja was released hours after her arrest in South Texas. 

Why was she arrested? Because someone decided she didn't belong?

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Wash. Post, They built the world’s most powerful AI. They’re facing a mystery they can’t explain.

Anthropic, Google and Meta have hired computer scientists, neuroscientists and philosophers to study what some in the industry think may become a moral crisis.

Fox, Florida toddler dies after father realizes child was left in SUV during daycare pickup

Plantation police are investigating the hot car death of a 23-month-old boy. 

These hot car deaths happen every summer but with only the father, never the mother, as the forgetful parent. Whatever is of such great concern to Dad that he cannot even remember such a simple thing? Mom has a great personal investment in her child, whom she would never leave to die in a hot vehicle. A simple remedy, whenever a distracted Dad is tasked with dropping off the child, is for Mom to contact him later to make sure the child was not carelessly left behind in the hot car. Or better yet, have Mom drop off the child herself as she would certainly never forget to do so. And passers-by should not hesitate to break a window if they notice a child languishing alone in a hot car.

NY Times,  Immigrant Arrests Surge to 10,000 in 5 Days as ICE Clamps Down

ICE has doubled its daily arrest numbers without the fanfare of last year’s large urban operations, sowing fear in immigrant communities. 

If we didin't need these folks, they wouldn't be coming here. But no practical way has ever been developed anywhere to screen newcomers.

‘Tip of the iceberg’: nearly 500,000 New Yorkers lose health insurance due to Trump cuts

How Congress became an afterthought in the war with Iran

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Google is being asked: Why do Cubans go to Guyana?

Guyanam is a fast-growing English-speaking petrostate, ripe with construction plans but short on workers. So the companies building roads, bridges, and other infrastructure there are turning to Cuban migrants as a new source of labor. Guyana is a nearby Caribbean country and no visa is needed by Cubans seeking to enter.

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Let's close here with images from ancient Egypt.

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