Growing Our Own (Weekend Resistance Journal)

There’s a new report out that gardening is a good way for older people to keep their brains sharp, and given all the crap Trump is shoveling our way, I’m thinking that we definitely need to be staying as sharp as possible. 

So, if you are able to grow something — anything — now’s the time to start planning for it. Maybe start with a flower in a pot on your windowsill. A garden box of herbs. If you’ve got the space and the inclination, a few rows of vegetables.

You might plant a fruit tree. Or a berry bush. Hell, even a banana tree (we’ve got a couple.)

The point is that one way to counter Trump’s poison is to help something new grow and thrive.

Trump equals death. Death of ideals, hope, dreams, decency and kindness. The polite term for him is manure.

To start fighting back, we have to be about life. So I suggest using his manure to create some new life.

HEADLINES:

• Trump puts new limits on Elon Musk's authority amid backlash to DOGE cuts (NBC)

• DOGE attempts to enter an agency building led to physical standoff that spilled into court (CNN)

• Is Trump preparing to invoke the Insurrection Act? Signs are pointing that way (SFC)

• Inside U.S. spy agencies, workers fear cataclysmic Trump job cuts (WP)

• Musk calls social security a ‘Ponzi scheme’. The real con is what Trump’s peddling (Guardian)

• War heroes and military firsts are among 26,000 images flagged for removal in Pentagon’s DEI purge (AP)

• President expands retribution campaign against law firms that aided his foes (WP)

• ‘It’s like a whipsaw’: Donald Trump’s tariff U-turns unnerve businesses and investors (Financial Times)

• Tariffs by Whim Keep Allies Off Balance, but Do the Same to Markets (NYT)

• Trump Pares Back Canada, Mexico Tariffs in Latest Whipsaw on Trade (WSJ)

• ‘I’m Heartbroken’: California Scientists Left Adrift by Mass Federal Layoffs at NOAA (KQED)

• Army Corps knew Trump order would waste California water, memo shows (WP)

• 'A pig in lipstick': Trump's strategic Bitcoin reserve criticised (BBC)

• Newsom Splits With Democrats on Transgender Athletes: ‘It’s Deeply Unfair’ (NYT)

• The US is directly talking to Hamas for the first time. So what does the Palestinian militant group want? (CNN)

• Russia bombards Ukraine’s energy grid after Zelenskyy says his team will hold talks with the US (AP)

• Trump threatens ‘large scale’ sanctions on Russia after its major attack on Ukraine (WP)

• EU leaders agree on a surge in defense spending (Reuters)

• New study uncovers unexpected activity that may keep brain sharp later in life: 'Use it or lose it' (Yahoo)

• The White House’s favored new reporter, the one who scolded Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for not wearing a suit, was the primary voice at a “news” outlet that has taken $192,000 from President Donald Trump, HuffPost's S.V. Date reports. [HuffPost]

• Trump is fast dismantling the free press. We all have to stop him. (WP)

• ‘People Are Going Silent’: Fearing Retribution, Trump Critics Muzzle Themselves (NYT)

• Dolly Parton posts 'love note' after husband Carl Dean's death (ABC) 

• Google co-founder Larry Page reportedly has a new AI startup (TechCrunch)

• Lockheed Martin Develops Giant Tactical Rubber Spider (The Onion)

NEW MUSIC: 

Dolly Parton - If You Hadn’t Been There (Official Audio)