Is Donald Trump really a king or actually just our public servant?

Readers may not care to hear about my troubles with this posting, It has become a nightmare. so has been scaled way back. I'd completed it. but left it overnight without posting it, then when I returned this morning, it was all garbled, so had to be discarded, Still, my original title for the post remained. But at age 88, memory does not serve me well, so I cannot fully resurrect what had been written and will certainly post this repeat effort now before the sun goes down. 

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FOX, Media

Trump storms off 'Meet the Press' interview, rips Welker, ABC, CBS, CNN as 'crooked'

The confrontation came after NBC's Kristen Welker pressed Trump on election fraud, California’s vote count, and his proposed 'anti-weaponization' fund.

 "Your elections are crooked and you're crooked, and 'Meet the Press' is crooked," Trump told Welker. "You're a one-sided, crooked network." 

Trump also called Welker "stupid" and walked out of the meeting. 

Is Trump just a poor loser? Or is he now losing his marbles to senile dementia? What is going on? 

Trump still displays some political saavy but seems to have lost his moxie as well as his marbles. Or perhaps we are all getting tired of him and his noxious political posturing. He's really been around much too long. 

Considerable on-line commentary has characterized Donald Trump as a narcissist, someone who ignores what others think because he considers himself superior and always right. He actually has often referred to himself as a king.

So Donald Trump has recently been described both as a narcissist and a man who considers himself a king. The 2 conditions often co-exist. Narcissists think they are superior to others and exaggerate their own abilities. Google offers this definition: "A narcissist is a person characterized by an excessive preoccupation with themselves, an inflated sense of self-importance, and a profound lack of empathy for others."

(That does seem to describe Donald Trump to a T..)

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Trump has now announced that he wants to "denaturalize" more US citizens, mainly those not actually born here, in a rarely used procedure., With the borders closed, there are fewer "illegals" coming in that he can actually deport, so this is an alternative.. 

Some are now being accused of comitting immigration fraud. Others are said to lack "good moral character." Still others have been accused of using false identities. Acting Attorney General Todd Blance has annouced there would be "zero tolerance" for "abuse of the naturalization process." Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin also declared the Justice Department would "continue to use every lawful avenue to dematuralize and remove aliens."

Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, has also threatened to send "more ICE agents then you've ever seen" to New York city." (The Guardian)

U.S. launches largest-ever effort to denaturalize citizens accused of fraud

The Trump administration has sought to vastly escalate denaturalization efforts as part of its larger crackdown on both illegal and legal immigration.

Yahoo News, Trump administration seeks to revoke citizenship for 17 people accused of fraud

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Trump & Netanyahu are at odds over war they started together. 

AP, Trump had publicly warned Israel not to strike Beirut in its war with Iran-backed Hezbollah militants. When it did, on Sunday, Iran responded by firing ballistic missiles at Israel for the first time since the April ceasefire. Israel then struck Iran, with which Trump has been engaged in weeks of high-stakes negotiations.The fighting has since died down, but the differences between the two leaders are likely to persist.

That’s because Trump, whose party faces elections later this year, wants to wind down an unpopular war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz to ease gas prices. Iran says a full ceasefire in Lebanon is key to any deal. Netanyahu, who also faces elections this year, is under pressure to stop Hezbollah’s attacks and prove that he is winning the war with Iran and its allies. 

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Trump approval stays near record low 

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This World Leader Took on Trump Over Iran — and It’s Paying Off

We're talking here about Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

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Part of the lost post featured sea creatures typically found off the California coast. I don't remember much at all, but here's one snippet. 

Whales & Dolphins: Gray whales, blue whales, and humpback whales regularly migrate past the California coast. Coastal waters are also home to pods of Pacific white-sided dolphins, harbor porpoises, and the easily identifiable Dall's porpoise.

And here was another item from the lost post. What is it? 

Now it's 7:30 pm here is West Virginia. so I need to post this now before night falls.

Abortion rights and wrongs; my life both as a birth and an adoptive parent

While I have always voted for Democratic candidates, I do disagree with one main issue usually favored by Democrats, namely, so-called "abortion rights." 

Representative Henry Cuellar of Texas was historically the last anti-abortion Democratic incumbent in the House of Representatives, but lost his primary election and subsequently retired from office. The Democraic Party was not always so openly supportive of so-called "abortion rights," but in recent years, that seems to have increasingly represented the party's stance. Outspoken pro-life Democrats are now quite few at any level of government. I do favor most Democratic Party positions, but abortion is an important exception. I don't just talk the talk but also walk the walk. I have children by both birth and adoption, raising them in part as a single parent. 

I don't oppose voluntary sterilization or contraception, but also don't consider abortion a "human right," as I believe each human life--yours and mine--began at conception, when our gender and all other characteristics had been decided and we were first set in motion to live and grow. If our birth mother had had an abortion, we never would have been born. We would have had no right to life. Our life would have ended right then and there. You might even say that we had been killed in utero. 

All persons spring from 2 birth parents, which does not give those parents the right to eliminate them, either in the womb or after birth. None of us ever asked to be conceived and born, but once our life had started, as it alwasy does in the womb, we had the right to go on living, just like anyone else. Nor do I support the death penalty. Let nature take its course. Nature has given us pleasure via sex so that humans would continue to be conceived and to be born. We can always kill each other at any stage of development, but we should never facilitate nor condone doing that. So, yes, I do oppose both abortion and the death penalty--supporting "Life from womb to tomb." 

No longer is a birth to an unmarried woman stigmatized. It is not so easy to be a single parent or even a married parent, I would say, after having been both during my lifetime. But I am grateful for my all children by either birth or adoption, having already lost an adoptive son and a Cuban foster son. Every life, every living person, at any stage of development, should be encouraged and helped to go on living. Death will come to us all soon enough, but all of us. even those whose birth parents didn't want them, have a right to life.

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It had occurred to me after that last post on the blog, when I was unable to erase the 3 round black objects that had shown up there since they did not appear on my draft, that I could then have copied and pasted that whole draft onto a word document. Then pasted that word document back on the blog to see if the 3 black objects still showed up again. I don't know how they ever got there to begin with. It's like interference I had once before from the blog gods and goddesses, who seemed quite blind, deaf, and immune to any appeal. 

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Here I was with my late former husband with our first child, Andrew, who also is no longer with us either.

My late former husband was blind, but went on to win a MacArthur Award. He won that award about 2 or 3 years after he divorced me to marry his younger office sweetheart. But the award was based on his lifetime of work, to which I had long contributed. I always had wanted him to get all the credit, so had stayed completely in the background. 

Here again, our family was with President Jimmy Carter before my husbnad had left us. My son Jon with whom I live now us the little boy I am holding onto there. He was hyperactive as a child.

The MacArthur Fellow: Thomas C. (Tom) Joe won a prestigious MacArthur Fellows Award (often called a "genius grant") in 1986. He was an influential social policy expert who helped develop the nation's Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program and the earned-income tax credit. 

And who had helped him develop those programs? It was Yours Truly, although we were no longer together when he actually was granted the award. I suspect that many wives, like me, who had been divorced by their husbands after more than 2 decades of marriage, had contributed to their former husbands' success, only in my case, all the more so, because my husband was totally blind and had never held a job before our marriage. I married him at age 21 with no members of my family in attendance at our wedding. But just when my extended family was finally starting to accept my husband, he eloped to Las Vegas with a young woman in his office to divorce me and marry her all in a single day, And she had helped him to completely empty our joint bank accounts, leaving me with zero dollars for my own family. 

The kids and I at first had started deliverng phone books from a wagon just to earn cash for groceries. I did eventually receive child support but rejected any offers of spousal support, because I did not want to feel beholden to my ex-spouse, even after all the sacrifices I had made to support his career. I did have a subsequent serious marriage proposal, but hesitated to marry again. Readers already know that when my ex died in 1999, I was not mentioned in his obituary nor invited to his funeral, but showed up anyway much to the apparent surprise of his then-widow. 

After my ex-husband's death, I joined the Peace Corps as a medical volunteer in Honduras in 2000 and went on to write 2 books whose titles appear above. At age 88, I now live in West Virginia, with my son Jon, adopted as a baby from Colombia. My last humanitarian trip to Honduras was in June 2024, as reported on this blog. Now my passport has expired and I don't know about ever going back. 

I recently attended my great-grandson's high school graduation in Florida, as was reported here. So what's next? I don't really know. Now I just take each day as it comes, with no particular plan in mind. I am just glad to still be alive.

Ranking our presidents

 

Donald J. Trump may not be the very worst US president ever in our history. Though certainly not on a par of excellence with George Washington and Ahraham Lincoln, is he actually worse than Ulysses S. Grant? Worse than Richard M. Nixon? At one time, American voters of their eras rallied behind both Grant and Nixon, though Nixon resigned in disgrace. Grant supported voting rights for African Americans (men only) but did not understand much about politics and the presidency. 

Google says: "President Ulysses S. Grant did not fully understand politics and lacked political training, which hindered his effectiveness as president." 

Acknowledging his limitations, ''Grant admitted that being elected Chief Executive was his 'misfortune.' He came to the White House disdaining party politics. While he had a coherent moral and political philosophy—firmly supporting the Radical Republicans' Reconstruction efforts, African American civil rights, and the 15th Amendment—he struggled to navigate the legislative process and often deferred to Congress. His lack of political savvy led to a high turnover in his cabinet. Furthermore, his fierce loyalty to associates led to several political scandals. While Grant was never personally implicated in these crimes, his inability to read the political motivations of others allowed corruption to fester during his two terms."

Here is Google's current ranking of superior US presidents, starting with the best:

1. Abraham Lincoln: Widely regarded as the greatest. He successfully navigated the American Civil War, preserved the Union, and issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

2. Franklin D. Roosevelt: Led the nation through the Great Depression and World War II. His "New Deal" policies permanently expanded the role of the federal government in the economy and established Social Security. 

3. George Washington: Set the foundational precedents for the presidency, including the peaceful transfer of power and the establishment of a functional executive branch. 

4. Theodore Roosevelt: Championed the progressive movement, broke up corporate monopolies, and established the National Park Service..

Here now is how Googls ranks the worst US presidents, starting with the very worst. 

1. James Buchanan (1857–1861)

• The Record: Ranked consistently as the worst president by scholars.

2. Andrew Johnson (1865–1869)

• The Record: Widely viewed as one of the most destructive leaders in office.
• The Flaws: Assuming office after Abraham Lincoln's assassination, Johnso systematically undermined Reconstruction. 

3. Franklin Pierce (1853–1857)

• The Record: Consistently ranked in the bottom across presidential surveys.
• The Flaws: He signed the controversial Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which repealed the Missouri Compromise and directly triggered bloody localized violence over the expansion of slavery.

4. Warren G. Harding (1921–1923)

• The Record: The lowest-ranked 20th-century president in many historical polls.
• The Flaws: His administration is defined by widespread cronyism and massive corruption, most notably the Teapot Dome bribery scandal. While he was personally liked, his poor appointments caused lasting damage to the integrity of the presidency.

Modern Perspectives

• Donald Trump: In contemporary rankings by historians and organizations—such as the C-SPAN Presidential Historians Survey and the U.S. News Worst Presidents Rankings—Donald Trump often polls in the bottom tier. Scholars frequently cite his challenges to democratic institutions, flouting of political norms, and his role in the January 6th Capitol riot as foundational reasons for his low placement.

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Of course, so far, all US presidents have been men. Hillary and Kamala did not shatter the glass ceiling but came close. Even Honduras, my Peace Corps country, has had a female president. Now at age 88, I do hope to see an American woman president before I finally exit this mortal coil. 

Now well into his second term, Donald Trump does not seem overly concrned about his presidential rankimg: "Fake news!" He is the oldest person to ever serve as President of the United States and as he approaches his 80th birthday, he has speculated about serving as vice president on a Republican ticket (pity his unfortunate running mate!).

 

                                            Donald Trump answered questions aboard Air Force One on Friday.  

Wash. Post, Trump defiant in face of rare resistance from congressional Republicans

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Wash. Post, Three fathers killed their families this week as domestic violence deaths remain high

The homicide rate is falling, but domestic killings are not. For those who track this kind of violence, the deaths are both predictable and preventable.

The "right to bear arms," a so-called "right" invented by the NRA, is largely to blame for domestic violence deaths, Family members always get into squabbles. Having a fireaem in the home just escalates the risks. Over half of US gun deaths are suicides, If a firearm were not so readily available, the impulse might soon pass. 

Those born male have always been the gun killers of their own family membes, whether or not they have "transitoned" to being presented as female. Those born female have never in history committed mass murders of their families or others. Testosterone may help men protect their families, but is often fatal to those same families if those men turn against family members. At least 95% of murderers of family members are male. 

But if firearms were not so readily available, many unneceesary premature deaths would be prevented, Why do other modern countrie have so much lower homicide rates than US? Partly because firearms are not so easily available, Right here in little Berkeley Springs, there is a shop selling many types of firarms. If you are age 21, you can probably buy any one you like. If you are 18, you can even buy several types of firearms. Having a firearm in the home is associated with a greater chance of a firearm death within the family--it is not at all protective! 

                        Thieves do not enter homes these days to rob them.

The vast majority of thefts now occur on-line--as happened to me a few years ago, my bank account was decimated by a female thief who apparently worked in banking. 

Here in Berkeley Springs, we never lock our doors when we go out. If a thief should enter, what would that person steal? Pots and pans? Pillow cases and sheets? Maybe this computer? Yes, the computer is the only thing of possible value. Computers are for sale at prices starting at $150. Wouldn't it be easier just to buy a computer? 

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Israeli soldiers open fire on car in West Bank, killing 7-month-old baby

While Israel may not have started this war, that nation has gone from attracting almost universal sympathy after the initial attack to now becoming a worldwide villain, with Bibi Netanyahu only hanging on now because Donald Trump has come to his rescue.  

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                                    In Alaska's wildlife refuge, a caribou chases birds,  

Three very large round black objects appear on my screen in a preview of the post. I don't know how they got there or how to remove them as when I open up my screen, they are simply not there, just in a preview. If they show up for you, please just ignore them.