After noting some odd aspects of the previous post, like variations in font size and spacing, I then attempted to make corrections to no avail. Sorry about that. This is a blog, not a typescript, not a manuscript, not a book, so nothing tangible happens here. and, as always, the blog deities have the final say.
Wash. Post, The president badly wants a Nobel Peace Prize. Most on the committee oppose him.
Wash. Post, Pentagon plans military deployment in Chicago as Trump eyes crackdown
After taking over DC, Trump is also reportedly considering a deployment in Baltimore, as well
as in 19 other jurisdictions, all presumably under Democratic control. Did voters choose a president
or a dictator? (And does a dictator actually deserve a Nobel prize?)
Hundreds of items just got a lot more expensive to import into the US because of Trump’s
tariffs | CNN Business
"Celeb Chef Blasts ‘Confused’ Trump, 79, for Restaurant Claim" https://www.thedailybeast.com/
Juan Andres says people are still going out, though feeling somewhat intimidated by all the troops on DC streets.
Daily Beast, Fuming Trump Lashes Out at Embarrassing Polls in Bonkers Rant ALTERNATE REALITY
Despite being seriously underwater on key issues, Trump claims his approval ratings are in the 60s and 70s. He recently declared, "I'm not a dictator. I'm a man with great common sense, and a smart person."
The president badly wants a Nobel Peace Prize. Most on the committee oppose him.
Has Trump really promoted peace in Gaza? (You know the answer.)
‘It’s like one day everyone left’
The LA chefs and shops delivering food to immigrants scared to go out: ‘I know how to feed people’ | Los Angeles | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/
Court throws out lawsuit by Trump administration against all Maryland federal judges.
Los Angeles Times
Kilmar was previously to be deported to South Sudan, now to Uganda. He would have been better off
in El Salvador, where he was sent first. That is actually his native country, which is not only closer to the US, so his family could visit, and where Spanish is spoken, but where he already has many friends. What is his crime? That he came here without a visa!
How, pray tell, does someone get a visa?
South African white farmer friends of Elon Musk found it pretty easy.
Following an August 2025 federal crime crackdown in Washington D.C., ABC News and its local affiliate, ABC 7 WJLA, reported on bystander protests. Protests broke out after federal law enforcement officers, including agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), were seen conducting checkpoints and making arrest
‘I would not feel safe’: Americans on the sorrow – and relief – of leaving Trump’s US for Europe | US news | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/
Yes, I've even seriously considered leaving the US myself. But at age 87, I feel the need to stay near family now, as I may not actually live until the end of Trump's presidency. It's not that I have a particularly concerning health condition, but at my age, anything could happen.
NY Times, Trump Repeatedly Praises North Korea’s Dictator in Meeting With South’s President
Is Kim Jong Un someone Trump is trying to emulate?
NY Times, Four Journalists Among Those Killed in Israeli Strikes in Gaza, Local Officials Say
Once again, ordinary civilians were killed. In trying to capture Gaza to possibly annex the territory, Israeli forces continue to commit blatant war crimes. The holocaust does not exonerate Israel. Yet Donald Trump continues to support Israel 100%, right or wrong.
Wash. Post, Live broadcast captures dual Israeli strikes on Gaza hospital as medics tried to save lives
Wash. Post, Israeli strikes kill 22, including 5 journalists, in a Gaza hospital
Now the number of journalists found to have been killed has risen from 4 to 5. They had been trying to inform the world about the war and Israeli atrocities.
ABC News, Netanyahu calls killing of journalists in Gaza 'tragic mishap'
I became very active once again in Latin America after the 1993 departure of my late ex-husband, who suddenly left our family to divorce me after 24 years of marriage. Because he was blind and didn't know Spanish, I had limited my own involvement in the region while we were still together, though I did travel there on several human rights missions. Before my husband had left abruptly to marry his young office assistant in Las Vegas, I'd also held a part-time job assisting a psychiatrist, as well as caring for our 4 children. After my husband had departed, speaking to me only once three years later
(in a surprise phone call he made), I mostly grieved alone the untimely deaths of my older son and Cuban foster son.
I then joined the Peace Corps in Honduras in 2000 and have volunteered on humanitarian missions there ever since, also becoming a regular election monitor in Central America and the Caribbean.
I subsequently embarked on a late-life career as a Spanish medical interpreter, something I only gave up with the advent of the pandemic. Now at age 87, I live in West Virginia among very few Spanish speakers. Even my son, adopted from Colombia, with whom I am currently living, has never really mastered Spanish, though I'd tried to teach it to him and my other kids.
I also had been quite active in Eastern Europe, even before my husband's surprise departure. I've been reminiscing lately about my secret efforts during the Cold War, especially my visits to Romania, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany before the Iron Curtain fell in 1989, an event marked by the destruction of the Berlin Wall. People on both sides began attacking that hated physical barrier with sledgehammers and pick axes.
The wall had actually been built back in 1961, serving as a physical barrier between East and West for 28 years. I remember traveling by underground train from West to East Berlin accompanied by a West Berliner while the wall was still in place, but I don't recall the year. In a movie theater in East Berlin, we saw a newsreel of Chairman Walter Ulbricht spouting propaganda. Why am I even mentioning this now? Because somehow it has come to mind. I've been reminiscing lately about my really remarkable and unusual life, with some of its highlights described in my books.
Now in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, I often feel like a fish out of water when chatting with local folks living in this small town ever since their birth. I try to be empathetic, but we don't have very much in common. While I had many good friends back in DC who shared my interests and concerns, now I really don't have any close friends right around here.
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