IT IS to know what United States President Donald Trump is doing with Russia and his “friend” Vladimir Putin. There are no obvious new tariffs on Russia despite them being imposed on most others, including a colony of penguins.
The latest threat is to sanction Russia if the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) stops buying their oil, rather than immediately because they invaded Ukraine and are working to either conquer it or destroy it.
Russia is unlikely to be worried by this and is showing its disinterest in solutions by flying drones across Poland, an act of political defiance when peace is the target.
When grown men, world leaders, fiddle around, too many children are caught up in the fire.
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Removing the truth?
It is worth reading the Whitehouse’s “Letter to the Smithsonian: Internal Review of Smithsonian Exhibitions and Materials” to think about what could happen and what shouldn’t.
The direction that “This initiative aims to ensure alignment with the President’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives…” suggest that there might be some tidying up of exhibits, and history itself.
Many historical events are divisive, someone wins, someone loses. The slaughter of native Americans, the decades of slavery and some recent ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) actions concerning immigration are going to be remembered long past the current presidency. They were evil events and must be remembered.
This attempt to change history or its remembrance might not be restricted to America if people do not stand up.
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Neighbors and friends
The latest world events make it difficult to see who is on whose team, and there is a potential for some great and deadly mistakes.
We have just seen Poland, a member of NATO, shooting down Russian drones that crossed Polish territory. These are the type of events that can lead to direct conflict so hopefully it was just a misguided Russian drone rather than a guided one.
The other incident, another potential war starter, was the Israeli attack on their enemies, the Hamas, who, however, were in Qatar, one of a number of countries working to resolve the Middle East conflicts. Bombing someone who is trying to help you will only lead to another quarrel that may last for decades.
There is a need for a great leader, a great negotiator but they are rare and some, including Henry Kissinger and Nelson Mandela, have left us already.
President Trump presumes to fill the role but lacks the skills, patience or honest intent and really only seeks to profit from his endeavors. He does not have an altruistic nature.
We need to look for that great inspiration or many will suffer and die.
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Family fun
Most families will have disputes about the distribution of the assets of deceased relations or probably soon-to-be-deceased relations and the Murdoch family is no different, just a bit wealthier.
Generally it is about who gets Aunt Mary’s jewelery, or who wants her cat! This case seems not to be about money but rather the political leanings of the business and especially the media outlets.
Giving a billion US dollars each to three people in order to maintain a specific direction seems extravagant but must be worth it. Time will tell how wise this investment or divestment was.
Like many letter writers, I have a range of political views on a number of topics that I hold true, but I can be bought off much more cheaply, and one million dollars would do.
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Working from home but not for free
It appears President Trump likes to do his personal business where he is comfortable, often sy Mar-a-Lago although he has taken official documents there too, so it could be said he is working from home at times.
He is now going to continue this work-from-home approach with the 2026 G20 summit at his Doral golf club. The participants will pay the normal costs of being there but it’s not normal that the place is owned by the host. This normal price would of course include a profit.
Is it wrong to profit from a government based job? Yes, and a number of people have been jailed for this but not President Trump, possibly because nothing is hidden, it’s all out there for everyone to see.
Everyone else uses a convention centrr of a government building except for this one example. Is it is wrong, maybe, but it certainly doesn’t look good./PN
