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It’s always hard to come back to reality after a nice weekend! I thought I’d share a drawing I did in Ireland a few years ago. A chef collecting herbs. Can’t wait to go back to Ireland.
Trump certainly had a bad week last week, so… a good week for us. He is being forced to take his name off the Kennedy Center, his slush fund idea is frozen for now (frozen slush), and musical artists are bailing on his 250th celebration. He has suggested in a social post that he is giving up control (that he never officially really had) of the Kennedy Center, and wants to call off the muscial event and do a rally with just him.
Iran and the US traded attacks, testing the cease-fire. One might say that kind of behavior ENDS the cease fire, no? The US has been quietly guiding commercial ships throught the Strait of Hormuz, following routes closer to Oman and away from the Iran coast. Before the war, well over 100 commercial ships passed through the strait, so this movement of perhaps 3 a day is very small, and risky.
Trump of course wants everyone to shut up about it, so he can do his social media negotiations without any criticism. So he can spread lies, and deceive as a dictator might.
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Meanwhile, Netanyahu is continuing offensive operations in Lebanon. Iran says it will not continue any negotiations until Bibi stops. What a mess.
Trump keeps attacking boats. Friday and Saturday, six more men were killed in these lawless attacks. Altogether, he has killed 200 people in these strikes on alleged drug smuggling boats.
Things are escalating at a Delaney Hall detention center in Newark, NJ. Protesters have gathered for days outside the privately owned, 1,000-bed facility where inhumane conditions have been alleged for months. There was a curfew last night that protesters didn’t heed. This is a developing story that I don’t see any coverage about in the NY Times right now. CNN.com reports that some of the detainees’ lawyers said tensions first escalated over Memorial Day weekend when hundreds of detainees went on a hunger strike to protest spoiled food and wretched conditions. The Department of Homeland Security has denied that there was a hunger strike.
A lot of media is talking about elections, i.e. who is going to run for president in 2028. As for the midterms, I am very concerned with the Democrat running to unseat Senator Collins in Maine, Graham Platner. It’s a very complicated situation, and he calls it “gossip,” but he has admitted to sending sexual texts to 6 or 12 women (depending on who you talk to) during his marriage, and apologized, and to having made “inflammatory statements online about women and having a tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol that he has covered up.”
On ABC News yesterday, Senator Booker said, “Yeah, I have concerns,” Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey said on ABC’s “This Week,” when asked if he was worried that Mr. Platner’s messy personal history could hurt Democrats in the midterms. “That guy has questions to answer. And that’s what campaigns are for.”
Senator Chris Murphy said on CBS yesterday: “He has certainly admitted that he has made mistakes. But I think this is going to be a pretty clear contrast in Maine between somebody who has spent his life protecting us versus somebody who seems to be protecting Donald Trump’s corruption.”
Platner, a veteran, has suffered from PTSD, and says he’s changed. I believe people can change. But I keep wondering why we have candidates— and seated politicians— who are not the best of the best. Platner’s statement:
“Amy [his wife] and I went through something hard — because of me. We did the work, and I’m grateful for her every hour of every day. Our opponents want politics to be empty of content and empty of actual change — and beating that is exactly what our movement is about.”
I am so tired of this kind of thing.
Have a good Monday! Thanks for being here. I leave you with a spring cartoon.
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