Waiting for snow in Havana

Waiting for snow in Havana is actually the title of a memoir.  Cuba's last known snowfall was recorded at higher elevations way back in February 1900. So it might be a while before more snow falls there again. 

Let's hope that Donald Trump's retirement from the American presidency occurs long before it snows in Havana, though his retirement won't occur for some 18 more months. That's too long to wait! Not soon enough! How did such a weird, crazy, mixed-up guy ever become our president? He is in a category all of his own. He may even need mental health treatment, but he didn't need to become our president! It was really just a fluke.

Yes, Trump became our US president just through a fluke and a series of freak accidents, along with a few lucky breaks, perhaps lucky for him, but not for the rest of us. It happened only as the result of a very unfortunate accident of the Electoral College system. In most countries, the election winner is whoever gets the most votes, but here in the US, that isn't necessarily the case. Even Trump was surprised by his first Electoral College presidential win. 

He had actually fallen thousands of votes short of Hillary Clinton's vote total, so she seemed right on track to become our first woman president. If Trump had not actually been declarded the winner back then, that might well have ended his entire political career.

Here is Fortuna, the Roman goddess of fickle fate. She seems to have really favored Donald J. Trump. And so he became the US president, not just once, but even now once again. 

Donald Trump appeared recently at the re-scheduled Correspondents' dinner, wearing a red hat saying Trump 2028.  What was that about? An unprecedented 3rd term? A Republican vice presidential candidacy? Trump has been keeping everyone guessing. And pity the poor president stuck with Trump as vice president.

Now Donald Trump hopes to leave a lasting legacy. He has indicated wanting to be remembered as a really great president. Is that even possible? 

Will Penn Station be named after Trump? Here's what to know.

Please no! The fewer reminders there are of the travesty of Donald J.Trump, and of the unfortunate accident of his presidency, then so much the better for everyone, both for those now still living and for those not yet born. 

What will be the verdict of history? Will Trump be remembered as perhaps actually the very worst president ever? As someone who evaded the draft by declaring he had bone spurs, a malady just of the elderly? A guy who can hardly read and write? Someone who barely escaped being charged with rape! A man who is a compulsive liar? He is scarcely on a par with Abraham Lincoln, with whom he often compares himself. Rather he is more like Ulysses S. Grant, the very worst president, or even just a tad below Grant. Why some Americans ever voted for Donald Trump remains a real mystery. What were they actually thinking? Were they even thinking at all? Many now regret their vote. Some even wish they could take back their vote, but it's really too late now!

Trump administration admits grants for clean energy were canceled based on politics

States where a majority of voters had chosen Harris just had their grants canceled. Serves them right for not voting for Trump. 

Measles cases hit highest level in 35 years

Donald J. Trump and RFK Jr. really hate vaccines--with that sharp nasty needle piercing the skin, making little children cry. They also link vaccines with autism, advising avoidance of vaccines altogether. Now, without vaccinations, many youngsters are getting quite sick, with a few even dying, and others being left with lifelong disabilities. What is the trade-off? What is the benefit? You will see that autism still continues, even without vaccinations. Nor will autism become even less common. Probably vaccines have nothing whatsoever to do with autism.

RFK Jr. also dislikes anti-depressants, though many consider them a lifeline. He does have a point in observing that Americans often seek "overmedicalization". The solution to a problem or to life's many challenges may not require just taking a pill. So RFK Jr. may be right sometimes, but is too often quite wrong. Folks should just use their own judgment about whether to follow his advice. 

Trump escalates Smithsonian attack with order for signs outside history museum

 Donald Trump has ordered his administration to install signs at the Smithsonian's U.S. history museum saying some exhibuis are inaccurate. 

What is history? What is truth? What actually has happened in the past? 

History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. (Wikipedia)                           

Much of the evidence helping to reconstruct the past relies on artifacts, sculptures, drawings and paintings, as well as on written records, whenever available. Any such items are all examined and interpreted using the tools we have today. Being unable to now enter the mindset of those who had once made or had written about such items and who had observed or participated in associated events, we can only try to infer their thinking and actual motivations. So our present-day analysis is a summary, an approximation, and not quite the same as actually being there. Consequently, it is entirely possible that the interpretation of past events may vary according to the perspectives of and methods used by historians, who may not always agree.  

And it is also true that evaluations and analyses of past events will always be influenced by the attitudes and perspectives of the analysts. Thus, analysts who are avid Trump supporters may consciously or even inadvertantlys skew their findings to support what they consider to be Trump's own perspective. That is what may be actually happening now at the Smithsonian museums, deviating from what has been previously considered accepted history to now align more with Trump's own thinking and preferences. Take one example: slavery. Some slaves were well-treated by their masters and some were even freed to go their own way, while others may have been beaten, raped, or even killed by their owners. Trump and his advocates would like to emphasize the more benign aspects of slavery and to ignore the many cruelties that had also occurred. Those who support the Trump perspective are actually a rather small minority of the entire American population and there-in lies the problem for a nation dedicated to majority rule. It would take a whole book to properly analyze this matter, including an analysis of Trump's own perspective and influence, with some such books already being written. 

Here we see the Vances, including their new baby, in a nice family photo. JD Vance is still aligned with Trump, which does nothing for his own reputation.

========================================================================

Actor Johnny Depp now appears as Ebenezer Scrooge out in San Diego, where the snow there is obviously fake. 

Locals were quite excited to see him, busily taking photos for their blogs and albums, 

=================================================================

The Iran war is not over yet. Mr. Trump had found it quite easy to start this war, but now 

doesn't seem to know how to end it.

============================================================

My good friend Sonam in Bhutan is seen here with her younger daughter.

She also has an older daughter and a son.

Sonam has been out watering her flowers.
She tends a big garden, with flowers to give away and sell.

Sonam considers me her honorary "Auntie", which is how she always addresses me.

I have several friends in Bhutan. They were once anxious to come to our country, but since Donald Trump became president, that is no longer the case. 

===========================================================================

With no radio, TV, or internet, ancient royals often ordered up live entertainment during their waking hours.

Maybe I've already mentioned this on the blog, but cannot actually remember. So my readers may not remember either. In any case, I woke up in the night sweating because the heat was turned up full blast now in mid-summer. We have barely used air conditioning so far this summer, because it's really not been hot, though actual indoor heating has certainly not been needed either. I got up to turn off the heat and to look for my son to scold him for turning on the heat, but he wasn't in his bed. I finally found him sleeping out on the screened porch with the dog, having gone there to escape the heat that he had turned on inside. All this seems to have happened while he was still half-asleep.

================================

My son often takes our dog Willow out on a leash into grocery stores, public bathrooms, and restaurants. He tells people that she is his therapy dog. She has been good therapy for him after his separation from his wife, as well as a good companion for me while he is away at work. 

============================================================

If you like a manual shift car, a few are still being made. Here is one for sale used. 

                                                    And here is a brand new one.

I first learned to drive on a manual shift car, as that's all we had back in the day. 

Add Yahoo 

Birds of a feather

 So, what's new now? Unfortunately, not very much is new, as Donald Trump is still the US president.

Certainly, the fact that Trump is again making war-crimes threats is nothing new. He's not afraid of being prosecuted for actually carrying out any such threats, because he considers himself untouchable, invulneable, even safe after having just survived actually raping E. Jean Carroll, a violent crime with no statute of limitations, yet he is still not in jail, He just paid a $5 million judgment for merely having "defamed" Carroll. For him, that was a minor setback, but one he can easily afford to cover. He is not in prison after all and remains the US president, still admiring himself online and on air, touting his abilities, now judging himself to be one of our nation's very greatest presidents of all time. 

Here's what Google, that universal authority, has to say about Trump's inflated self-assessment: 

A person who considers themselves more talented than they actually are is often experiencing the Dunning–Kruger effect. This cognitive bias causes individuals with limited skill in a specific area to overestimate their competence, largely because they lack the self-awareness to recognize their own mistakes. 

Depending on the exact nature of their behavior, both psychology and everyday language use several different terms to describe this type of overconfidence:

Superiority Complex: A defense mechanism often rooted in deep insecurity where an individual acts or claims to be superior to others to overcompensate for real or imagined inadequacies. 
Hubris: Extreme pride, self-confidence, or arrogance that often leads a person to believe they are invincible, exceptionally talented, or above the rules. 
Delusions of Grandeur: A psychiatric term for when an individual holds an unshakable belief in their own exaggerated greatness, power, or special abilities. 
Narcissism: A personality trait characterized by an inflated sense of self-importance, a deep need for excessive attention and admiration, and a lack of empathy. 

All that definitely describes Donald Trump to a T, as someone totally lacking in self-awareness with no notion of his own inadequcies or how others might actually regard him. His late father certainly was successful in bolstering young Donald's ego, making him always feel superior to others even when that was hardly the case. His dad's notion of son Donald's superiority has stayed with him thoughout his life,  even though Dad is long gone. And the father's exaggerated sense of his son's capabilities probably propelled Donald to seek the US presidency, as he never had experienced any doubts about his own ability to handle the job nor did he have any worries about the scandals he may have been involved in. Future greatness was always his destiny. So Donald Trump even considers himself actually on a par with Abraham Lincoln, whom he acknowledges as our greatest president. Trump and Lincoln, the 2 greatest American presidents, standing above all others. Those who fail to see that reality are sadly mistaken. So never any self-doubts or regrets for Donald Trump since he is always right. But it was really rather annoying and a bit concerning that he had to pay that $5 million to Carroll, though he could easily afford it. He wanted to appeal to the Supreme Court, several of whose justices he had actually named himself, thus likely to rule in his favor, but when they failed to respond, he had to let it go and just pay that $5 million.

Trump has moved on now, focusing instead on Iran, saying in a post on Truth Social: "From this point forward, any time the Islamic Republic of Iran shoots at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, whether it be by Missile, Rocket, Drone, or any other device or weapon, the United States will bomb and destroy ONE BRIDGE OR POWER PLANT, including those located next to, or in, the Capital City of Tehran.” 

Targeting civilian infrastructure could well be deemed a war crime. In fact, under international law, it actually is a war crime to target civilian areas that are not military objectives. But, so what? If he decides to actually do it, Trump will deal with the consequences later.  After one of his missiles had hit an Iranian girls' school, killing all the little girls and teachers inside, Trump admitted that was a mistake, as the school was not in the intended target. Did that then make it OK? Still sounds like a war crime, 

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Nor are some Trump appointees doing any better than he is, like

US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., whose father and uncle I had once admired.

Our country had already officially removed measles as a threat to American children. Aftr all, measles had been declared eliminated from the United States back in 2000 by the World Health Organization (WHO), based on the success of routine vaccinations. But thanks--or "no thanks"-- to Donald Trump and his Health Secretary RFK Jr., the deliberate undermining of trust in vaccinations, has meant that measles is surging once again.  As of July 16, 2026, 2,260 confirmed measles cases were reported in the US. 

Measles can be deadly or have life-long health consequences. RFK Jr.,Trump's designated  "health czar.," now tasked with protecting and improving Americans' health, has publicly eroded faith in childhoodvaccinations by linking them without any clear evidence to autism. The result has been abandonment by parents of once routine childhood vaccinations, leading to unnecessary deaths and to lifelong disability for many American children whom vaccines would actually have protected. So what about a Health Secretary who simply undermines health and increases the incidence of illness, disability, and death? Maybe he deserves to actually be called the Sickness Secretary. 

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

A printed newsletter, Amigos de Honduras, for former Peace Corps volunteers who had served in that country, arrived recently by postal mail. It includes a report of Trump's recent pardon of former Honduran president Juan Orando Hernandez. Mr. Hernandez was the Honduran president who had received a 45-year sentence for drug trafficking after having moved over 500 tons of cocaine to the US, but Trump still completely pardoned him, releasing him from prison. The newsletter report calls this "an incredible travesty." Trump has said about Hernandez, "I like him." As has been mentioned before, Trump and his criminal pals all over the world are often described as "birds of a feather." Natanyahu is another such criminal bird. 

 Trump may actually have been snoozing less often lately, as he has had some visitors.

One recent visitor was Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Wash. Post, U.S. signs nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia that gives it path to enriching fuel

The agreement with the kingdom, now signaling it wants a nuclear weapon, has sparked alarm among nonproliferation experts. Congress has 90 days to act on the deal.

The Hill, 6 in 10 Americans disapprove of Trump’s job performance: Survey

Trump often looks confused, seems at a loss for words, and completely garbles his speech

"Just more fake news!" Trump would simply say about such observations. In any case, there are still 18 months left to go in his term and the guy could do a whole lot of damage in that time. He could do a lot of damage tomorrow, even just today. 

===============================================================

Daily Beast, Trump, 80, Unravels With String of Mental Slips on World Stage

SAY WHAT?

The gaffes are reminiscent of the flubs Trump once used to highlight the cognitive decline of President Joe Biden.

The Daily Beast points out multiple verbal gaffes and memory lapses by Donald Trump, widely noted as being similar to the flubs once used to mock the cognitive decline of his predecessor, Joe Biden.

Recent incidents cited by the Daily Beast include:

Volodymyr Zelensky: Trump repeatedly referred to the Ukrainian president as "President Putin" during a bilateral meeting at the NATO summit.
Mixed-Up Nations: He mistakenly confused the Islamic Republic of Iran with the "Islamic Republic of Japan".
Nuclear Accronyms: He mixed up Obama's JCPOA nuclear deal with the "JCPOC".
Fictional Apps: He bragged about his popularity on a social media app that does not actually exist.

At age 80, Donald Trump is not the only one with memory problems. It happens to us all--our memory begins to fail. We simply forget things! We mix up names, dates, places. It has happened to me at age 88. If it hasn't happened to you yet, just wait. 

On this blog, I've mentioned several elected representatives who seemed to be "losing it." This had inspired a national discussion of having upper age limits for public servants and elected officials, as well as lower age limits for both. Of course, some older elected representatives defy the odds, maintaining fairly clear thinking and speaking abilities even into their 90's, just as some younger folks show abilities well beyond their tender years. But we have to go with the averages, just as with driver's licences, marriages, and voting. So what should be the upper age limit for elected representatives, 80, 85, 90? Senator Strom Thermond (R-South Carolina) lived to age 100 while still in office, but died soon after that birthday. Still, I don't think we actually want to go there, as age 100 seems a bridge too far. Give someone else a chance! What about 90, at least as the limit for running for reelection? Of course, something like 24 current members of the House are 80 or older and more than half are now running for reelecttion. That seems like rather too many. Maybe 85 should be the limit to run. Of course, people differ. The late California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein in her late 80s and early 90s, faced significant public scrutiny regarding her mental fitness and her failing memory,

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), at age 92, is now the oldest currently serving member of  Congress, saying that he has not yet decided whether he will run for reelection. At age 86,  Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-California), the mother of 5 adult offspring, has announced that she is retiring after 40 years and won't be runiing for reelectiom in 2026. She needs to keep tabs  on her husband of the same age back in California, as he seems to be having trouble with driving and probably should simply give it up. 

With Donald Trump, age 80, now making so many gaffes, he should definitely retire at the end of his current term. I'd even say he should retire right now because he could even get our nation and the world into pretty big trouble meanwhile. But then JD Vance would take over and, at his age, he could stay in office for quite a while longer. We certainly don't want that. So, come on Democrats, who do we have now? Who is an up-and-coming younger Democrat ready to inspire the Party? It's hard to actually identify anyone at all. 

We need an FDR, a Harry Truman, even a Jimmy Carter, somone with personality and drive, but preferably a woman this time--can Kamala possibly make a comeback? She has been awfully quiet lately.