Much of my next two months will be focused on travel.  Tomorrow we leave on our around the world adventure.  Will include plane and ship.  Interspersed will be Tulips through the Netherlands, Mediterranean from Barcelona to Istanbul to Athens, and the Queen Mary II from Southampton to New York City. Today, I look ahead at what will follow, our half-way global journey in the Fall of this year.  Some of our friends might want join us, so following a couple of news item, some details to help you plan. So first, guess what?  In case you missed it,  Vladimir Putin won another six years as dictator of Russia , matching the record of Josef Stalin.  Got 87% of the votes, with a 74% turnout.  26% protested by not showing up?  Well, in  2020 the turnout for Biden vs Trump was 66% .  Hawaii is historically about the worst, under 60%.  Putin's buddy, The  Donald, on Saturday predicted that American democracy will end if he does not beat Joe Biden in November .  Huh?  Oh, Donald, American democ

Well....Donald Trump is not the Devil, as depicted in  The Bible .  However, the results of recent court judgements show that he is, indeed, everything you thought he was, and worse. Key issues and resultant fallouts now become more relevant: Is the Republican Party in mortal danger? Now we know why Nikki Haley continues to run against Trump.  All those lies and cons about losing his 2020 presidential election and weaponization of the Justice Department should be ignored.  Okay, few of his supporters will, but the case is building. He is a judged fraud.  He revealed that and worse when he was once president.  And he will almost surely become the Republican selection to run against Biden. The Supreme Court will probably rule that he will be eligible to do so. However, all that has happened, and more--say, dealing with the matter of democracy--will surely convince that body to indicate that he will not be immune to prosecution in a criminal case.  And, I think, by this summer, if not soo

Yesterday was maybe Donald Trump's last best day, save for that announcement about his New York Hush Money criminal trial, which was confirmed to start on March 25.  Today, however, was a lot worse.  Several key late-breaking news stories occurred just about when I this morning sat before my computer. Just as I'm typing this,  Judge Arthur Engoron ruled that Donald Trump must pay $355 million in penalties , is banned from doing business in New York for 3 years and will get an independent monitor and compliance director to oversee Trump's businesses. Each of his two sons, Don Jr. and Eric, were ordered to pay $4 million each, so the judgement is $363 million.  To quote: "Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological," Engoron wrote. "Instead, they adopt a 'See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil' posture that the evidence belies." The  Fani Willis disqualification hearing Atlanta provided two strong witnesses to back Willi

The Middle East is getting scarier with more   American bombings, this latest joined by the UK of Houthi rebels in Yemen .  They're the ones attacking ships in the Red Sea shipping lanes.  So far, Iran has been untouched.    Republicans in Congress  criticized President Joe Biden for his anemic response, and   some went to far as to condemn him   for not striking Iran.    Trump said   Biden is to blame for the U.S. deaths. I've been posting too much about Donald Trump, on  29January 2023  and  30January2024 , and a more recent one a couple of days ago  comparing him with Barack Obama .  I had one more difference which I did not include, and on reflection, so horrified me, that I thought I'd share this startling revelation. So to continue, Barack Obama won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 and Donald Trump has a sexual abuse conviction where he had to pay off his victim $5 million, which was recently upped to a total of $88.3 million. Then, of course. All that aside, what dismays