Friday, June 6, 2025

Thanks, dear friends, for your many heartwarming messages


Here is a message I just sent to friends around the world: Thanks to all those who have written to me here in W Va. That has really helped me in this recent transition, which I never expected to be so hard. At age 87, I've traveled to 40 countries and lived all over the world. Spanish is my second language and I understand other romance languages. But I've never felt lonely until I moved to W Va., so far away from other people, and then began staying home all day alone with the dog, while my son is away at work. 

I also said, This is the last time I will alert you to a new blog posting. After this, check it out on your own or just send me an email. 

How I wish we could back in time to the days before 
Donald Trump became president and before Coolfont in Berkeley Springs had burned down. I used to enjoy sitting there by the fire while my son was on duty.

Some folks have recently sent new messages, which are still most welcome. 
Here's one that I just received: 

Dear Barbara.  You are missed!! I was talking with a neighbor last Friday and she asked about you. Please continue to write about your new surroundings and life... That may be an important documentary for those of us of a "certain age." Your observations will be interesting.

Another former neighbor said, .good to hear that you are settling in well.  it’s an adjustment for sure w/ multiple dimensions that were not in play when you traveled the world:  you knew that when you’d leave a place what you’d come back to. this time you closed the door when you left.  it’s also a time when you are reflecting on your mortality as we all do in our ‘senior years.’  so it’s like a double whammy; one door closes and another one opens. 

I told another friend who has promised to visit: Jon and I look forward to seeing you. It's hard to make new friends here in W Va. as we live out in the country with no neighbors living nearby. I could probably walk over to the nearest neighbors, but am afraid of their barking dogs always standing guard outside. I don't have any friends here yet. 

To still another friend, who specifically asked, I said, "At age 87, yes, I can still ride a bike, but no longer have one. I left my last bike in Hondurras and don't plan to get another." 



This came in from a former Honduras Peace Corps volunteer: Next week a volunteer for Peace Corps 1985-1987, the years I served, is coming to Honduras for volunteer work and to see me after 38 years. I am looking forward to seeing her. We hope to go to Copan. I know how much you love Copan. I will send you pictures. 
Please be well and stay active!
Fondly,
Art

So my having admitted to feeling lonely now in W Va. while my son is away at work has brought forth a whole raft of very welcome and heartwarming messages. Thank you again so much, my dearest friends, ¡muchísimas gracias! 

Here's what I told another friend asking about my command of other languages. 

Spanish is the only other language in which I'm really fluent, almost on a par with English. I can read and write, as well as speak Spanish. I first learned Spanish before age 2, when just learning to talk. I'm  told I don't have a gringo accent, but it's really hard to ditch an accent when a language is acquired later in life, especially after adolescence. When I was in the Peace Corps speaking Spanish every day, I even dreamed in Spanish. Spanish has also allowed me to largely understand but not speak related Romance languages including Portuguese, Italian, and Romanian. 

                        Here's a guy who barely even speaks English in any logical or grammatical fashion. 



Donald Trump is probably unhappy about a popular name now being applied to him: TACO, for "Trump Always Chickens Out."
                            VP Vance has been trying to defend Trump, with only limited success. 

President Trump recently refused to answer a question from a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, 
saying that the paper “has truly gone to hell … a rotten newspaper. You hear me? What I said … it’s a rotten newspaper.” The president then said he would not answer a question from a reporter for the 
Journal “because it would be wasting my time.”


Trump asks US Supreme Court to allow mass federal layoffs

US citizens and officials are constantly on edge, never sure quite what to expect next 
from the Trump administration. 
"Will I keep my job?" "Will my social security stay the same?" "Will our family be deported?" 

Gerard Baker, Wall Street Journal editor-at-large, said in an opinion piece: 
"The problem with trying to identify a Trump Doctrine is that, as with so much about this most unique of 
American leaders, there's no guarantee of consistency from one day to the next—either rhetorically or 
empirically."


Federal staff and employees are not given any warnings or reasons, never consulted, 
regarding staff cuts that often appear arbitrary and capricious, even harmful. Donald Trump seems to be 
acting in an almost deliberately vengeful fashion, but no one knows exactly why. Even his loyalists are 
uneasy, fearing they could be targeted next. 



Just slashing positions, agencies, and budgets willy nilly has proved disruptive and often does not 
bring about the desired results for either Trump or US taxpayers. 



Too many people got fired. Before coming to Washington, Elon Musk had promised to deliver 
of that and has left a legacy, according to the New York Times’s Michelle Goldberg, of 
“disease, starvation, and death.”

Nor has Musk still been rooting for his former boss after leaving the government. 




Trump's newest budget proposal would substantially balloon the deficit in what he has described as his 
"big beautiful bill." The bill is over 1,000 pages long. Does Mr. Trump even know what's in it?

















Sorry folks, the rest of the previous line--still stubbornly resisting editing or removal--is something 
we all already know, namely that without Musk, Trump would have lost the election. The accompanying 
photo above of Trump berating Musk cannot be removed either.
(Haven't I already observed that this blog has a mind of its own?) 

What Musk actually had said was, "Without me, Trump would have lost the election...such ingratitude." 

Elon has also claimed that Trump is named in the Epstein Files, which is why they haven't been released.

                                                Here's another photo of Trump berating Musk.  
Tesla stock plunges 14% as 'disappointed' Trump threatens subsidies, contracts for Musk's 
businesses
The Hill,Bannon: Musk should be ‘deported from the country immediately’ 
The Hill, Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ losing momentum in Senate

Fox, Schumer unveils resistance plan to fight Trump's 'ugly' bill


As for one-time ally Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kenucky, who also has expressed reservations 
about the president's "big beautiful bill", Trump declared that Paul "never has any practical or 
constructive ideas."

The fine print: 5 things that even some Republicans didn't realize were buried in Trump's 
'big, beautiful' budget bill

Key allies of the president suddenly seem to have second thoughts about the sprawling legislation.


Trump's big bill could actually fail. 
President Trump is also still trying to "claw back" some budget items already approved, a rather
hard sell. A spokesperson for the White House Office of Management and Budget, speaking on 
condition of anonymity, previewed several items proposed to lose funding, such as $8.3 billion to be 
cut from the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development. And popular 
programs like NPR and PBS would also lose federal funding.
Max Boot

So who are Trump's remaining loyalists and can he still rely on their support? Maybe. 
Yet he continues badmouthing several Supreme Court justices whom he had originally nominated 
himself, accusing them of  “not allowing me to do what I was elected to do.”

Wash. Post, Trump administration returns Guatemalan man it erroneously deported

The man, who had been deported to Mexico, is the first known deportee to be returned by the Trump 

administration after a judicial order.

The woman pictured above had alleged "reverse discrimination" and actually won her case at the 
Supreme Court. 
Jobs are inevitably limited in terms of numbers, so if certain minority groups are being accommodated, 
then fewer jobs will be left for straight white males or even females. 


Yahoo News, Joe Walsh, a former Republican member of Congress, said on Tuesday he is now 
becoming a Democrat, marking the end of his streak as a political independent after leaving the GOP in 
2020. Walsh then announced his formal affiliation with the Democratic Party,
calling the Republican Party a threat to democracy, alleging that 
defeating the GOP requires “a broad coalition of moderates, progressives, and, 
yes, even conservatives.”
Who, then, are Donald Trump's current supporters? Many folks have remained loyal, with those who 
disapprove only slightly outnumbering those who still approve of his performance. 

Nonetheless, on the road not yet taken, some Trump voters may come to regret their choice and 
will be voting differently next time.
Will their numbers grow? 



It was the second such shooting in three days near a food distribution center, part of a contentious

new Israeli and American-backed initiative.



Why is the US still supporting Israel both economically and politically? 
Our president needs to explain the reasons why.


. 


It is sometimes hard to distinguish between attacks on Israel and attacks on Jews.



A manhunt is underway for a Washington [state] father suspected of killing his 3 young daughters. 

Police think he might be surviving in the wilderness.

“Travis, if you're out there seeing us, we'd like you to turn yourself in,” Chelan County Sheriff 
Mike Morrison said.  

I still oppose the death penalty, but would be willing to make an exception in this case. And this man 
should die just as--one by one--he murdered his daughters, using zipties on their wrists and placing
plastic bags over their heads. 



USA Today, Police say father suspected of killing his 3 daughters could be hiding in the wilderness

Or he could already be in Canada. 



Quirks in blog postings are often very difficult to remedy, as has been said before. 

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