Watching and Seeing

When I go for a relatively long period not commenting on the horror show that is Donald Trump’s reign of terror, it doesn’t mean that I’m not paying attention. Im just focusing on the little things closer to home for a while.

Things like pickling cucumbers, harvesting this year’s crop of undersized cherry tomatoes, or telling stories to my grandchildren. Although not all is idyllic for me these days.

All the time I can see Trump is hard at work with his usual obsession — how to steal the next election. The situation in Texas is in the same vein as Trump’s notorious call to Georgia in 2020, instructing Republican election officials to “find” him votes.

In Texas he wants them to steal seats for next year’s midterms.

In D.C. he’s planning a military takeover, using another of his fake emergency declarations. There is no actual violent crime wave in D.C. or any other city with Democratic mayors, but Trump is never one to let inconvenient facts stand in the way of his never-ending grab for complete power.

Meanwhile, the ongoing nationwide roundup of immigrants to feed his deportation machine is reaching industrial proportions. This is the most shameful of all his acts, though Trump of course is incapable of shame.

I see what is happening and it sickens me. And with that, alas, I must end this post, as my tremors are making it too difficult to continue. They are my all-too frequent companion these difficult days.

(Thank you to my subscribers for sticking with me. You mean the world to me.)

HEADLINES:

• Israel’s military targeted an Al Jazeera correspondent with an airstrike Sunday, killing him, another network journalist and at least six other people, all of whom were sheltering outside a Gaza City hospital complex. Both Israel and hospital officials in Gaza City confirmed the deaths, which press advocates described as retribution against those documenting the war in Gaza. (AP)

• Trump orders homeless he passed en route to golf course to leave Washington DC (Guardian)

• The nation’s capital waits for Trump’s next move as a federal takeover threat looms (AP)

• FBI moves to dispatch agents to D.C. streets as Trump vows crackdown on crime (WP)

• Texas redistricting feud escalates as Democrats face bomb and FBI threats (BBC)

• European leaders rally behind Ukraine ahead of Trump-Putin meeting (AP)

• Trump Rattles Latin America by Weighing Using Military Force (Bloomberg)

• ICE’s Spectacle of Intimidation (New Yorker)

• Newsom calls Trump's $1 billion UCLA settlement offer extortion, says California won't bow (Reuters)

• This Federal Judge Is the ‘Tip of the Spear’ of Trump-Era Conservatism (NYT)

• The world’s longest marine heat wave upended ocean life across the Pacific (The Conversation)

• RFK Jr.'s vaccine pullback stokes fears of lost medical breakthroughs (Axios)

• CDC union says vaccine misinformation put staff at risk after Atlanta shooting (Guardian)

• Can we just have one day when no one mentions AI? (FT)

• New chatbot on Trump’s Truth Social platform keeps contradicting him (WP)

• What It’s Like to Brainstorm with a Bot (New Yorker)

• Alexa Got an A.I. Brain Transplant. How Smart Is It Now? (NYT)

• Report: It's Not Okay To Just Start Talking To People You Don’t Know (The Onion)