April 5

 What initially struck me at Saturday's "Hands Off" protest was the amount of old people participating, particularly, senior women.  These were women of no style that came to speak up about the state of our country under this regime.  They are the "what the fuck are you gonna do to me" crowd.  Have to be proud of these women.  I was inspired standing amongst them. 

I wrote to my cousin Bela in Debecen Hungary about the event and sent him so photos from the Ferndale rally.  He replied today.  This is what he said in reply:.

Hi Jerry, I’m proud of you! We’ve been living in this autocracy for a decade and nothing seems to be strong enough to stop it. Our PM owns the media, feeding undereducated people’s minds with propaganda. If you go to the streets, there’s a law created the following day to ban such demonstration. Freedom of assembly, freedom of speech are seriously confined. I hope you show other nations what democracy is about.

I felt compelled to talk about this today.  Hungary has been living under the oppressive thumb of Viktor Orban for some time.  He came into power after he moved the Russians out in the sixties.  Trump emulates this guy. We need to stand up and save our Republic. 

thats it

Good Trouble

When Cory says "Lets get into some good trouble". paraphrasing a quote from John Lewis, civil rights fighter, it is the heralding call for all of us to stand up to the tyranny that presents itself in this administration.  This statement was made in his 25+ hour speech on the Senate floor a few days ago.  He presented stories of citizens from his state of New Jersey on how they were affected by the policies of the president and of DOGE.  They were delivered in heart wrenching details about people that had committed their lives to public service and their personal devastation.  As the speech wore on, you could feel the emotion in his voice, the commitment in his words.  Wiping the sweat from his brow, he continued to present these very personal stories.  This is just a guy trying to tell the truth.

All that being said, our government needs to start working for us.  In its current state, it is not.  We are less protected and financially poorer.  I care not about the Gulf of America nor the acquisition of a sovereign nation in Greenland and wouldn't want to visit Windsor any more for Italian food.  Where is the dough from the salaries of the laid off and fired federal workers? 

The imposed tariffs are now coming into effect.  I am not buying a car or a house or new electronic equipment or even sneakers from Viet Nam.  But, we have to eat at our own kitchen tables, breakfasting on blueberries from Peru and strawberries from another country in South America.  These costs will rise.  Our Social Security income will not.  We have been paying into this fund for all of our lives.  Don't you dare call it an entitlement! 

What will be his next whim?  

thats it.