We've never actually met them because their fiercely barking dogs are always guarding out front, so we dare not even knock on their front door.
What sort of flower is this one, which we saw early this morning?
Below are 2 others that we didn't recognize.
This common wild flower is called "scotch broom."
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White House Easter Egg Roll
Donald Trump led a chant of "Four More Years" at the White House Easter Egg Roll.
Afterwards, Trump held a news conference. Apparently his remaining term is not "Four more years!" but actually less than three.
Yes, I do hope to live to see the day when Donald Trump is gone from office, the sooner, the better. If Americans had elected Kamala, none of this would have happened. Turmp has senile dementia and his condition is getting worse by the day. He needs to be locked up right now on an emergency basis, however, of course, without his phone.
Trump Calls Biden the R-Word—Twice
President Donald Trump crassly referred to former president Joe Biden as “mentally re---ded” twice on Monday.
Who is the president with more mental challenges, Biden or Trump?
Trump widens threat to all of Iran's power plants and bridges as his deadline for a deal approaches
Are threats the best way to incentivize another country's leaders to enter into peace negotiations? It
does seem that to be effective, a carrot must be offered as well a stick.
What can be done on an emergency basis to control Donald Trump? He cannot be impeached instantaneously. He needs to be locked up.
Trump ally Sen. Ron Johnson breaks with president over Iran threats
“I am hoping and praying that President Trump … [that] this really is bluster. I do not want to see us start blowing up civilian infrastructure. I do not want to see that,” conservative Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson said on an episode of the John Solomon Reports podcast released Monday. “We are not at war with the Iranian people. We are trying to liberate them.”
Pentagon Pete Accused of Lying to Trump in Damning White House Leak
WAR WHISPERER
Pete Hegseth is feeding Donald Trump’s belief that the U.S. is on the verge of a decisive victory in Iran, according to a report.
Hegseth. a Secretary of War without any military experience, already has shown himself to be a war criminal by ordering atttacks on surrendering Caribbean boaters.
Trump warns Iran its 'whole civilization will die tonight' without a deal. How we got here, and what could happen next.
Texas Republican Rep. Nathaniel Moran said in a post on X that he does not support "the destruction of a 'whole civilization'" -- a reference to Trump's social media post on Tuesday in which he threatened that a "whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again" although he said "I don't want that to happen."
"That is not who we are, and it is not consistent with the principles that have long guided America," Moran wrote.
And Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska, also rejected Trump's threat in a post on X, calling his rhetoric "an affront to the ideals our nation" that "undermines our long-standing role as a global beacon of freedom and directly endangers Americans both abroad and at home."
Their reactions came after Trump has threatened to bomb bridges and power plants, which would be devastating for Iranian civilians. Some experts have warned that such actions could violate international law; many Democrats are saying it amounts to a war crime.
Asked on Monday if he is worried attacking civilian infrastructure would break international law, Trump said "No, no I'm not."
Earlier this year, amid an investigation into a U.S. military strike in an area where an elementary school was hit and dozens of children were killed, War Secretary Pete Hegseth said that "we, of course, never target civilian targets."
Trump has said that he will target those bridges and power plants in Iran if they don't open up the critical Strait of Hormuz -- giving Iran a deadline of 8 p.m. ET Tuesday to act.
If ordered to strike, US military officers should refuse to carry out Trump's orders. The world will certainly thank them. Then both Trump and Hegseth should both be arrested and locked up untilthe end of Trump's term.
Can JD Vance do anything? Vance has been strangely quiet through all of this. Surely he knows that Trump is wrong and is behaving erratically.
Then as Tuesday's deadline approached, the White House said the president was considering a two-week extension proposed by Pakistan.
Bravo for Pakistan! Pakistan's leaders deserve a Nobel Prize!
The message below just came from my friend Sonam in Bhutan.
Hi aunty,
Good to hear from you, my mum, 89 years old, passed away a week back. We are performing her burial rituals.
I think you should stay with your kids. At this age someone should be there for you.
Thank you aunty, wish I could meet you once again
Fondly, Sonam Yangchen
I sent her my condolences. Her mother was only one year older than I am now.
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I don't recall what this piece of furniture seen below is used for, but apparently it is on display in a DAR Museum and was made by slaves. 
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I am not sure that his final conclusion is merited by his arguments, namely that " 'The Jews' did not con Trump into it." It does seem that Israelis and Jews do have an outside influence on US foreign policy, far beyond their actual numbers, including indeed in this particular instance, at least according to the evidence this author himself cites. Did any American advisers urge a first strike on Iran? Apparently none actually did. According to reports, Netanyahu urged Trump to strike Iran and kill the Ayatolla despite no provocations from Iran and to keep it a secret--and Trump did just that, starting the war with Iran for no reason at all.
| Edward McCarthy <ecmccar@gmail.com>: A correspondent wonders whether the fact that Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff are Jewish contributed to the decision to launch the assault on Iran. They were negotiating with the Iranians when the attack occurred, and apparently told the President that things were not going well. We can probably assume that like most American Jews past a certain age, Witkoff and Kushner feel an affinity for and commitment to the State of Israel. But that this amounts to participation in some deep-laid Jewish plot goes well beyond the provable. The criticism of their role has to do with something else. It is that the negotiations they engaged in lacked, as former key diplomat Nicholas Burns has suggested, adequate participation by suitably experienced career State Department personnel. As Burns said, no one in the negotiations even spoke or understood Farsi, the Iranians’ language. Perhaps, after all, the two real estate dealers did not have all that was needed for a sound basis on which to arrive at their conclusions. This is not to say that Jewish influence played no part in Trump’s decision to join with Israel in going after Iran. It’s a safe bet that Bibi Netanyahu and the Israeli Military made substantial input. It is not necessary to conjure up a broad Jewish conspiracy to conclude that Netanyahu, who is as much a fanatic as are the right wing members of his Government, got his heart’s desire when the US joined with Israel to destroy Iran’s missile and other offensive capabilities. That however does not mean that Donald Trump was conned by Bibi into engaging in the war. The suggestion that Trump saw the chance for a swift and easy victory, with great credit gained for bringing down an indeed evil regime had more to do with his decision to go to war than did anyone else’s input. With Trump, it’s all about The Donald. He and other Republicans may also have seen a possibility of winning over Jewish votes and money but that, again, does not lead to Jewish influence as a primary factor. More broadly, our historical entanglement with Israel, the work of both Parties, cannot be dismissed as irrelevant. In a recent NY Times column, Michelle Goldberg wrote that Jews and Israel did not cause George W. Bush to enter into the Iraq War on the false ground that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. True enough. But was it entirely irrelevant that at the time Richard Perle was head of a Defense Policy Board in the Pentagon, and that Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith and Elliott Abrams were in other high positions in DoD? Feith in particular was accused as a principal architect of the false narrative of Saddam Hussein’s supposed weapons of mass destruction. All of these Jewish “Neo-Conservaties” had substantial ties to the Israeli Government at the time. Let’s say maybe their high placement could not have hurt, even if it did not amount to a broad Jewish conspiracy manipulating the American Government. The last is well beyond the evidence, and it would be well to recognize that John Bolton and other non-Jewish “Neocons” were, and still are, enthusiastic about going after Iran militarily. We do not know all that goes into decisions to go to war but they are more complex than would allow attributing them to a conspiracy theory, Jewish or other. Boneheaded the current war choice may be, but the Jews did not con Trump into it. A correspondent wonders whether the fact that Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff are Jewish contributed to the decision to launch the assault on Iran. They were negotiating with the Iranians when the attack occurred, and apparently told the President that things were not going well. We can probably assume that like most American Jews past a certain age, they feel an affinity for and commitment to the State of Israel. But that this amounts to participation in some deep-laid Jewish plot goes well beyond the provable. The criticism of their role has to do with something else. It is that the negotiations they apparently concluded were not productive, lacked, as former key diplomat Nicholas Burns has suggested, adequate participation by suitably experienced career State Department personnel. As Burns said, no one in the negotiations even spoke or understood Farsi, the Iranians’ language. Perhaps, after all, the two real estate dealers did not have all that was needed for a sound basis on which to arrive at their conclusions. This is not to say that Jewish influence played no part in Trump’s decision to join with Israel in going after Iran. It’s a safe bet that Bibi Netanyahu and the Israeli Military made substantial input. It is not necessary to conjure up a broad Jewish conspiracy to conclude that Netanyahu, who is as much a fanatic as are the right wing members of his Government, got his heart’s desire when the US joined with Israel to destroy Iran’s missile and other offensive capabilities. That however does not mean that Donald Trump was conned by Bibi into engaging in the war. The suggestion that Trump saw the chance for a swift and easy victory, with great credit gained for bringing down an indeed evil regime had more to do with his decision to go to war than did anyone else’s input. With Trump, it’s all about The Donald. He and other Republicans may also have seen a possibility of winning over Jewish votes and money but that, again, does not lead to Jewish influence as a primary factor. More broadly, our historical entanglement with Israel, the work of both Parties, cannot be dismissed as irrelevant. In a recent NY Times column, Michelle Goldberg wrote that Jews and Israel did not cause George W. Bush to enter into the Iraq War on the false ground that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. True enough. But was it entirely irrelevant that at the time Richard Perle was head of a Defense Policy Board in the Pentagon, and that Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith and Elliott Abrams were in other high positions in DoD? Feith in particular was accused as a principal architect of the false narrative of Saddam Hussein’s supposed weapons of mass destruction. All of these Jewish “Neo-Conservaties” had substantial ties to the Israeli Government at the time. Let’s say maybe their high placement could not have hurt, even if it did not amount to a broad Jewish conspiracy manipulating the American Government. The last is well beyond the evidence, and it would be well to recognize that John Bolton and other non-Jewish “Neocons” were, and still are, enthusiastic about going after Iran militarily. We do not know all that goes into decisions to go to war but they are more complex than would allow attributing them to a conspiracy theory, Jewish or other. Boneheaded the current war choice may be, and Israel may be the only party clearly benefiting from it, but "The Jews" did not con Trump into it. |
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