Elon Musk, who holds no official cabinet position in the administration, wrote on social media that he agrees that the United States should leave NATO and the United Nations. – That’s just great. Ignore the rest of the world. What the other countries do can’t have any affect on us, can it?
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A Washington Post-Ipsos poll found that “About 7 in 10 Americans think tariffs generally increase the price of products in the United States.” – So, we are finally learning that exporting countries do not pay the tariffs?
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From MSNBC: “After the Trump administration fired employees at the Federal Aviation Administration and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he would allow Musk’s DOGE team to “plug in” to the agency’s aviation system, Bloomberg reported that the billionaire approved the shipment of 4,000 of his company’s Starlink internet consoles to the FAA. An FAA spokesperson later confirmed the report. That’s not just a conflict of interest, that’s helping yourself to taxpayer money.” – Yeah, and it is only just starting.
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More than 73 million people, including 56 million seniors, rely on the Social Security Admin. – If Musk fires enough people, benefits might well be affected. Too bad they can’t stop them just for people who voted for Trump!
And: Democrats have long said the agency needs more administrative funding, which currently amounts to just half a percent of its total cost.
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Sign I saw a picture of:
My wife and I decided we don’t want kids.
We’re telling them tonight.
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His (Trump’s) cryptocurrency “reserve” scheme could spend billions of taxpayer dollars to boost the holdings of the “crypto bros” who spent millions getting him elected.
And: Trump and his family joined in to profit off it.
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The U.S. Senate voted to confirm Linda McMahon as the next secretary of education, even though she has expressed support for President Donald Trump’s goal of abolishing the Education Department. – This, somehow, reminds me of what the war mongers used to say during Vietnam – “We had to destroy the village to save it.” (Two good books about that war: A Bright Shining Lie, and Kill Anything That Moves).
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“What’s the weather like outside?” To a layman, this seems like a dumb question – look out the window, or open the door and see! But to a sailor on a ship getting ready to undock and proceed at sea, it means “What’s the weather like outside the (protection of) harbor?”
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Comparing the success rate of public schools and private ones is one of those “apples and oranges” things. I have been a teacher in both types of schools and I know. One thing is this: Terminating the Education Department (as Trump wants to do) could also accelerate the devolution of public education into state voucher programs for private schools, which are not legally required to accept disabled students. The private school I taught at did not; they also tested incoming students and did not accept anyone academically below average. Gee, that might jack up your graduation and college acceptance numbers! In retirement, I worked PT in Special Ed for two years.
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Australia has lost an heroic man: An Australian man hailed as the “world’s most prolific blood and plasma donor” has died at age 88, the Australian Red Cross branch Lifeblood announced over the weekend. James Harrison, whose blood contained a rare antibody used to make lifesaving medication, is credited with saving the lives of more than 2 million babies with his nearly 1,200 donations. Harrison started donating when he was just 18 years old and never missed his biweekly donation appointment, Lifeblood said. He continued to donate until he was 81, when he was medically advised to stop. That’s sad news, but how great was it that he realized what he could do and did it!
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“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin — I have long had a version of this: When you are prepared for things to go wrong, they don’t go wrong. When you are not prepared, that’s when crap happens.
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Didja know there was such a thing as dill pickle humus? I am having some now, with crackers.
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Dateline 3-04: Just back from a one-month follow up with our eye doc. I am 20-25 in both eyes and no longer need glasses! (cataract surgery both eyes) I will give all my old prescription ones to charity – the Lions Club collects them. I think they have volunteer optometrists who will label them. I played baseball for the Lions club when in school, and I have known about this ever since. Our ophthalmologist collects them. I did buy a pair of non-prescrip sunglasses, and some more eye drops – they recommended that as I look at screens a lot; prevents dry eye. And when I lived in AZ, the eye docs there would say that everyone in AZ has dry eye.
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When I was a kid in CT, there was a bowling alley that had human pinsetters; yeah, kids, mainly teens, up above the alley and they manually reset the pins!
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Trump in one word: Fraud
In two words: Complete fraud.
In three words: Complete ##$@!!*** fraud!
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There is a nest of two eagles at Big Bear Lake in Ca., high up in a pine tree. They are Jackie and Shadow and they have three eggs this year. Two of them just hatched. There is a camera on them 24/7, run by a non-profit org. (Friends of Big Bear Valley):
p.s. I looked it up and the light you can see at night is infrared, and the eagles do not see it. It is raining now (Wed afternoon) and Mom (I assume) has them covered up. Cool stuff. Update: It is snowing now and the mom is still on the job. Another update: The third chick has hatched!
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Trump’s lies about social security: “A lot of money is paid out to people because it just keeps getting paid and paid and nobody ― it really hurts Social Security and hurts our country,” Trump said. “1.3 million people from ages 150 to 159 and over 130,000 people, according to the Social Security databases, are over 160 years old. We have a healthier country than I thought.” — All lies. Meant to get you to think SS is somehow bad or corrupt (gee, projection?).
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Another note on the “eagle cam” — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4-L2nfGcuE
Today, 3-6, Jackie is getting snowed on but has not left the chicks. Shadow doesn’t seem to be around much, although I know his “job” is to go get food (he has brought back fish). Maybe he stops off at a bar; my Dad used to do that, to drink with his WWII buddies, and leave us kids in the car . . . I hated that, especially since his favorite hangout was within walking distance of home and I could have just walked home.
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Let’s all remember this: Congress appropriates the money. It’s not in the President’s power to rewrite the appropriations from Congress. Period. The biggest danger to me is if/when Trump loses in the Supreme Court, and ignores them.
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Just noticed that tomorrow I will do my 1,000th Wordle puzzle!
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And FYI, my latest book, Murder on the Rocks, is now an audio book, in Apple Books.
All Take Care,
Kevin
Blog: If I understand this 
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