In this new year, Trump is creating a governmental emergecy. He is actually the emergency. What can be done?

 

On January 1, 2026, on the first day of the new year, we woke up to our first snowfall here in Berkely Springs, just a very light dusting that mostly melted away. Our dog Willow seemed curious though hesitant to get her feet wet.

The main question now for voters: Is President Trump really OK? 

The Hill, Trump says he ‘aced’ third cognitive exam in defense of ‘perfect’ health

Why has Donald Trump been taking so many cognitive exams lately? Are there some questions there? Is he himself the main victim of what he likes to call "Trump derangement syndrome"? And was his most recent test just the very same dementia screening as before? It's hard to actuslly "fail" that Montreal dementia screening (MoCA) that Trunp says he has "aced", just a simple test I've taken myself--30 short questions requiring only 10 minutes to complete. 

Trump lauds his ‘PERFECT HEALTH’ after report reveals hearing difficulties, skin and vein conditions

Do you really believe Mr. Trump, when he says he's in "perfect" health, whatever that may mean? He also declared recently, "I have very good genetics." 

Although we may still have 3 more years to go, the next US president, even a Republican, cannot be worse than Trump, whose mind is obviously failing. And what has happened to Kamala? Maybe she has retired from the fray? 

Of course, I once considered GW Bush to be the very worst president ever imaginable. Indeed, GW might well be considered a bit goofy and not very smart, but never has he seemed as awful as Trump who, thankfully, is in a category all his own. We could not endure more than one Donald Trump! 

GW Bush is the same age as Donald Trump, 79, but GW has moved up a few notches in my estimation compared to Trump. Bush, in retirement in Texas these days, now seems relatively harmless. He paints portraits popular in some circles and has been staying out of politics. Hail to former president GW Bush! 

    Here are some portraits that Mr. Bush has painted. He has his own particular style.

‘Beyond a Reasonable Doubt’: Jack Smith Testifies to Congress Trump ‘Engaged in a Criminal Scheme’

So now a criminal is the US president. What can we do about that? 

A Happy MAGA New Year! Trump and allies party down at Mar-a-Lago as polls plummet and he wishes misery on Republican colleagues

Trump appeared on New Year's eve at Mar-a-Lago with wife Melania, with neither looking very happy to be there. In his remarks to the assembled crowd, Trump referred to a "Scumbag" [Republican] Governor and told a Republican lawmaker "to rot in Hell.' So he was not in a very good mood. 

 

Trump Denies Falling Asleep During White House Meetings: ‘They’ll Take a Picture of Me Blinking’

Or maybe, as he has said, he has just been resting his eyes?

  Terrible news has come from Switerland regarding folks gathered there, just out celebrating the new year. 

About 40 people dead and 115 injured in fire at Swiss Alpine bar during New Year's celebration

CNN, Plane carrying Maduro and wife arrives in New York

Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro and his wife have been captured. Why? What does Donald Trump plan to do with them? Can the US president just order the capture of another

 head-of-state without Congressional approval or a declaration of war? The answer would seem to be "no" but Trump went ahead and just did it anyway. 

Wash. Post, U.S. will run Venezuela during transition, Trump says

Maduro and his wife were brought to New York after capture in overnight raid.

Can Donald Trump simply order US forces into another country to do his personal bidding? Well, he actually has done so and they have obeyed his orders. It was a fait accompli before anyone even noticed. Might makes right. This is completely uncharted territory. Seldom do elected officials, especially presidents, act in such an arbitrary and capricious manner,

As long as he can get away with it, Trump will contiuue to issue erratic, odd, unprecented, and unpredictable orders because he seems to have no self-control or to be following any particular plan, So someone needs to step in to stop him right now, before he goes any further. He may even get us into World War III. 

Wash. Post, U.S. capture of Maduro may be illegal; that likely won’t help in court

The Nation, Members of Congress Decry Trump’s Act of War on Venezuela as “Illegal   Senators and House members accuse Trump and his aides of disregarding the Constitution and lying to Congress. 

Wash. Post, Venezuela move pushes the limits of ‘America First’

The legality of the U.S. operation was questioned by Democrats, including Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, who said he had seen no evidence justifying military action without approval from Congress and warned of the risk of instability in Venezuela.

So what can lawmakers do about it now and about Mr. Trump going forward? He doesn't seem to care what anyone else thinks, whether other lawmakers or experts or citizens. And how can the military refuse to carry out a presidential order? Now we have a US president who doesn't care about either the law or precedence or about any other branch of government. The only option seems to impeach him and if he then refuses to step down, to arrest him and lock him up, but who would dare to do that? Donald Trump has become a defacto dictator. He may be sleeping most of the time, but when he wakes up, he just starts giving orders that no one expects or approves. Even the Supreme Court might issue an order that he would choose to ignore. Is this going to go on for 3 more years? What person or body might have any influence over Mr, Trump? Who or whatever that might be needs to get to work right now. This is an emergency! 

Another country makes call to cancel all visas for Americans

 

After Donald Trump at furst barred visitors from at least 39 countries from traveling to the US, many have now retaliated by preventing Americans from traveling to their countries.. 

Folks from South Sudan have been prohibited from even visiting here by the Trump administration, one of 39 countries blacklisted so far. Why? Mr. Trump has never been to South Sudan himself and is unlikely to ever go there. I cannot imagine why people from there can no longer visit us, even though very few could actually afford to do so. Apparently, South Sudanese and those from many other countries just seem to rub Donald Trump the wrong way. 

In fact, very few folks from anywhere are allowed to even visit here, and all immigrants are barred, unless, of course, Donald Trump considers them his personal friends. As the US president, he regards himself king of the world and master of all he conveys, so he and he alone gets to decide everything and anything. Unless he is challenged, he will continue to act like the entire world's dictator. (And he needs to forget about the Nobel Peace Prize--he was never going to get it anyway,) 

I certainly hope to live to see the day when Donald Trump is no longer in office, so I can die in peace. I cannot imagine a worse president. I've been racking my brain to think of even one good deed he might have done as president. But so far, I haven't been able to come up with even one single thing. So I simply try to avoid thinking about him as all. 

But whenever I log onto the computer, for example just now to write something here, there he is again, just staring me in the face. Or else I find myself staring at his face while he snoozes in a meeting (or, as he says, while just resting his eyes?). The guy does seems to make news, even when apparently fast asleep, completely dead to the world. 

Every year for me now is a bonus, which I'd like to be able to enjoy, but that's very hard to do with Donald Trump as the US president.  

Especially now at age 87, I simply want to fully live each day as if it were my last, as well it might be. I've already exceeded the current average lifepan of an American woman. Female average life expectancy in the US is now around 81, plus or minus a year or so, depending on how the measure is calculated. The average for males is closer to 76. The male-female age gap grows with each passing birthday, so that by age 100, there are only 30 men left for every 100 women (and not very many of either). 

My mothe died at age 92; Dad was 82. Mother's age at death is only 5 years away from my age right now, so I might even make it that far. But beyond that point, who knows? None of us wants to live too long if that means spending years being seriously disabled or ill, especially if in pain. So we might even prefer to just drop dead one fine day rather than go through something like that. But do we actually have a choice? 

It's pretty hard these days for a woman my age (87) to ever find a new male partner, provided she really even wants one. Most American men who are my contemporaries already have a female partner, but if a husband should sadly lose his wife, then single women will flock to his door en masse, bringing homebaked pies and even offering to spend the night so he won't feel lonely. The few older widowers I've known don't seem very attractive to me nor are women my age, including me, particularly attractive to them. Taking on a new relationship with an older man would probably mean that a woman, already challenged by her own aging process, will then end up caring for a dying husband. 

Living now with my son, I feel I have enough male companionship already. My son will probably bury me right here in Berkeley Springs, or just scatter my ashes in the areas we usually frequent. 

Every life tells a story. I've told this next story before, but some time ago, so will tell it once again. My father, born in Stavely, in Alberta, Canada, then met my mother in architectural school in Minnesota. Of their 3 children, I am the eldest. My younger sister lives with her husband and son in Philadelphia and our only brother has died. 

But let's backtrack even further to the wheat farm in southern Alberta where my paternal grandmother grew up. Without her, I wouldn't exist today.  

My grandmother Florence, sometimes called Flossy, was the yougest of 12 children. Having seen large families in Honduras living without running wanter or electricity, I can only imagine how my family out in rural Alberta coped, thoguh with a much more challenging climate. I can envision the mother of the family heating up hot water on the wood stove so everyone could take a weekly bath, all being immersed in the very same water. 

More now about my Alberta forebears. One day when no one else was home, my great-grandparents rode into town to go shopping in their horse-drawn buggy, returning only to find their house, just recently filled with mail-order Sears furniture, burned down to the ground, apparently due to a stray fireplace coal. That terrible loss reportedly affected my great-grandmother even more than all the hardships she had endured during her entire previous life.

The yougest child of my Alberta famaily, my paternal grandmother Florence, had gotten married by then and moved with her 2 young boys (one my father, Leonard) to California, where her husband Andrew was experimenting with building and flying early airplanes. She had already experienced the death of her only daughter. But more tragedy was yet to come.

Sadly, her husband was killed on a California beach in the crash of his own small plane, built by himself and uninsured. The accident occurred after a student my grandfather was teaching to fly suddenly froze at the wheel, thus causing the plane to plunge, as the student reported after surviving, although Grandad himself was killed. My widowed grandmother then found a job in a California department store as a seamstress adjusting clothes for customers there. Her boys, Robert and Leonard, mostly took care of themselves. 

Widow Florence was rather good looking, so she didn't lack for suitors. She finally married a man who was rather well-off who needed daily care due to failing health. She inherited his house and property, so her final years were spent in relative financial comfort at last. 

RIP, dear Grandmother Florence.