The last blog posting did not come out as intended. Will it be better this time? Blogspot is all trial and error, a totally free platform for experimenting, so results are mixed.
Do his posture and demeanor indicate that Trump is enjoying being president? Wouldn't he rather be out playing golf?
NY Times, Why Elon Musk Hasn’t Come Close to Finding $1 Trillion in Cuts
It's not for lack of trying.
"They were getting a little bit yippy, a little bit afraid."
The man exaggerates, touting his "landslide" electoral victory when it was actually pretty small. Kamala
came quite close. Trump also claims to have "aced" an IQ test, really a dementia screening showing showing him to be free of dementia, though that is questionable.
What is behind this relentless anti-immigrant fervor? Immigrants have become handy scapegoats, blamed for every social ill under the sun. Yet we still need those eager young workers, otherwise they wouldn't be here, nor is there any realistic way for them to actually enter legally. (Same goes for immigrants to Europe.) Deportation threats just make their lives more uncertain and worrisome. We should set up a system to welcome and legalize them, but that won't actually happen. Trump and Musk like to blame them for all sorts of ills, even though Musk himself is an immigrant. My son is also an immigrant from Colombia who voted for Trump. I adopted him and brought him from Colombia when he was still a baby. Now he's forgotten where he came from.
I emailed Victoria, an Ecuadorian-born friend, about the worrisome situation there. (I've spent many happy days in Ecuador in years past.) Here is her reply.
Hi Barbara,I happen to be in Ecuador at the moment for spring break! All my relatives are hoping for the best here! 
The state of the world is so sad.
I will give you a call to chat when I get back.
Good luck with the sale of your house.
Take care and happy Easter!
According to Google: Ecuador is in a state of “internal armed conflict.” There is an increased presence of security forces to contain gang violence across the country, including in Guayaquil and Quito. If you are in Ecuador: expect an increased police and military presence, especially near prisons.
Today, I'm mourning the apparent theft of a precious black and white photo of the original owner of my DC home way back in 1895, EJ Bernhardt, an attorney, His photo disappeared while folks had been streaming in to see my vintage house, which is now for sale. That photo had been securely posted next to Bernhardt's own sign, but now it's gone missing. Why? I once possessed the glass negative from which that photo was printed, but can no longer find that either. Of the many losses in my life, such as my unwanted and unexpected divorce after 24 years of marriage and the tragic premature deaths of my son and Cuban foster son, the apparent theft of that photo is really rather minor, but it still hurts, especially since someone deliberately snatched it after I had invited folks inside to see my house. If anyone touring the premises that day had actually agreed to buy my house, I'd have been more than happy to have given them that photo.
Migratory birds are all on the wing these days, so be out looking for them.
Here I was being welcomed in Honduras back in 2021, when Covid was still rampant and everyone was wearing masks. After my most recent Honduras trip in June 2024, I will definitely miss all my Honduran friends after making annual trips there ever since leaving the Peace Corps in 2003. At age 87 and after a bout with Covid and with my passport having expired, the time has come for me to say "adios Honduras."
I sent this message to my granddaughter, living in Florida with her teenage son, who had wrecked their only car. Her mother, my daughter, lost her apartment and is sleeping on their living room couch. I've edited their names out of this message.
Thanks, I really wish I could help you both, but am underwater financially myself right now, overdrawn from my bank account (I don't know what will happen there) and Donald Trump (along with Musk) is just making things worse. I want to sell my DC house and move to a house I want to buy in W Va., but don't know if that will be possible, as Trump and Musk have totally tanked the US economy, which had been doing just fine. They've started a worldwide recession. I'm glad you still have a job--I wish I still had one (though I'm 87) and that I hadn't given away so much money (in US cash dollars) when I visited Honduras last June. Another grandson just asked me today for money and I had to refuse. Also, I wanted to send you something for your birthday, but don't see how I can possibly do that. My other daughter handling my finances is also broke after lending me money, after she returned to her federal job again, where they are under very strict surveillance. She has to go outside to call me, as all phone calls inside her workplace are being monitored.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland) said Kilmar Abrego García, the Maryland man wrongly
