Brrr, early on the morning of Feb. 19, 2025, our temperature here in DC fell below 20 F. I can't recall when it ever got that cold, certainly not in recent memory,. Reportedly, this is the coldest it's been in more than 50 years. Fortunately, a few days later it was back to normal.
Unfortunately, since most Americans are as ignorant as Trump, much of what he says may seem to make perfect sense. He is a president who truly represents many US voters.
Marco Rubio has now been confirmed as US Secretary of State. Not so long ago, I'd intended to post something about my conversation with him back when we sat across the aisle from each other on a plane flight from southern Florida to Washington, DC. But I cannot find that post, so here it goes again. Based on our very cordial interaction back then, I am mildly hopeful now that Rubio may help put the brakes on the worst ideas of Trump/Musk.
On that earlier plane flight, as Rubio and I chatted together in English and Spanish, I told him I was surprised to see him on a commercial flight. He said he usually traveled back weekly to his family and constituents in Florida, returning to DC every Monday morning, just as he was doing on that very day. After we'd landed, he kindly helped me get my suitcase down from the overhead wrack. Thanks very much, muchísimas gracias, Mr./Sr. Rubio. (I'm counting on you now to do the right thing.)
It looks at the moment as though the joke is actually on us. Mr. Trump is flying high (metaphorically speaking) thanks to very generous bankrolling by Elon Musk. Musk wants all his competitors cut out of government largesse. He is buying his way into greater influence.
[Apologies for many oddities in this postings. It has been out of my control.]
Trump press conferences are a combination of lies, half-truths, and perhaps some truths. Laid-off workers don't spend much money, thus contributing little to the economy so any savings there are not great. Unemployment claims are also way up. The economy is a dynamic system that keeps on churning in a circular fashion, but is now being disrupted. Federal budget cuts, if desired, should only be made slowly and gradually. Trump seems unaware of the downsides of abruptly cutting back on major government expenditures. He has been keeping everyone on edge, trying to guess what he might do next and what the repercussions will be.
Based on what he calls his "unprecedented" and overwhelming mandate, Trump has even been talking about an unconstitutional 3rd term. Perish the thought! Musk would certainly be glad to help him on doing that. (Don't buy a Tesla!)
But maybe we, the voters, just need to become much more pro-active right now to stop this nonsense.
President Trump Hosts First Cabinet Meeting, Feb. 26, 2025
Trump's Health Secretary RFK, Jr., has not yet announced any Medicare cuts, but he has been very vociferous about the dangers of vaccines. Skipping vaccinations has already resulted in serious illness. RFK now even has a child's death on his ledger, but has made no comment.
Wash. Post, Federal vaccine meeting to prepare for coming winter’s flu season canceled
Trump-Zelensky meeting cut short after contentious Oval Office exchange
The Ukrainian leader came to Washington to prevent Trump from abandoning Kyiv in favor of Moscow three years into Russia’s war on his country, but was met with vocal anger from the American president.
Here’s the real threat to ‘personal liberties and free markets’
The rapidly spreading authoritarianism coming from this administration threatens all of our freedoms.
Turnabout is fair play:
Wash. Post, Mexico extradites 29 drug suspects to U.S., including Rafael Caro Quintero
What Deportations Mean for Central America
Deporting migrants to Central American countries removes many political and legal hurdles for the Trump administration. How far can the practice go before these nations reach a breaking point? Many Asian migrants, speaking no Spanish, have found themselves ending up there.
There's an old adage I came to appreciate when working at the Occupational Therapy Association: namely that we humans (and many animals) engage in "purposeful activity" to achieve desired goals, desired, that is, subjectivity speaking. Primates in zoos are given challenges to keep them from getting bored, for example, figuring out how to get tasty treats out of narrow hollow tubes. (And that's also why your dog likes to fetch a tossed ball.) So now Trump and Musk have confronted Americans and especially federal employees with the urgent and purposeful task of pushing back, something many citizens are already energetically carrying forward right now.
My daughter Stephanie just returned to Hawaii to report back to her federal job. We'll see what happens there. She gas not been fired so far during the first few days.
Political commentator James Carville is making a prediction. “In the immortal words of Dalton in ‘Road House,’ be nice until it’s time not to be nice,” Carville said. “And that time is coming shortly.”
Let's hope Carville is right, but can we afford to wait even until Nov.?
Meanwhile, in Cuba, women are no longer in a waiting mood either.
I've already mentioned that my son Andrew died after a work accident. Not long after that, Cuban foster son Alex, who was gay and had been imprisoned in Cuba, died of AIDS. I only began to come out of mourning for them both when I joined the Peace Corps in Honduras in 2000 at age 62.
Peace Corps service in another country confronted me with living in a different environment with many brand new challenges. As per that tried-and-true occupational therapy maxim, I again became engaged daily in purposeful activity. Speaking another language--in this case Spanish, where I was already fluent--was also helpful, as my whole cultural perspective changed.
A gravestone remains here in my back yard in DC and dear son Andrew is certainly not forgotten. But I no longer cry for him every day. I try to appreciate his life for the 27 years that we had him with us here on earth.
To round out another bit of information that may have been incomplete, I've heard Pope Francis on the radio speaking in both Spanish and Latin--and he presumably also speaks Italian. Now quite ill and hospitalized, with daily news updates, he has served us well, in my opinion.
As for myself, as has been mentioned before, besides speaking Spanish (and English!), I can largely understand but not speak related languages, including Portuguese, Italian, Catalán, and Romanian. So I've felt pretty much at home in southern Europe.
And why do I even write this blog, which may have only a modest readership, as I do very little promotion? Again, like everyone else, I want to feel engaged in "purposeful activity." This blog has also been quite helpful for looking back to see how my initial reporting of events coincides with my memories since which can become a bit fuzzy.
This version, honduraspeacecorps2.blogspot.com, was started when the first version
Everything on blogspot is done by trial and error because we bloggers are completely on our own, not charged anything for these postings nor are we given any guidance. There have been a lot of errors in this posting but attempts to correct them have only gummed things up further, so let's just make this posting now and start fresh next time.
Putting this problematic posting to bed now. Let's end now with this image. Why not?
