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Saturday, April 5, 2025

Marco Rubio and his boss, Trump, fire Experienced U.S. AID workers while they arrived at Mandalay, Myanmar

Dept. of State workers on scene at Myanmar disaster

where 3,800 are dead and many trapped in earthquake

zone were fired by email while they just began to assess

how the U.S. could help with earthquake relief efforts. . .

nytimes.com/2025/04/05/us/politics/aid-workers-myanmar-fired.html

Trump skips dignified return of 4 troops who died in Lithuania : Reporter Haberman analyzes #DJT

POTUS Trump 2.0

Long ago he stopped caring about

certain optics; he's going to do

what he wants. . .not just playing

golf (Doral Golf Course he owns). . .

he has believed in Tariffs 40 years. . .

last time he was stymied by a bunch

of advisors who were more free-trade.

Defense Secy. Hegseth was sent to 

Dover AFB in Delaware while Trump

hosted a Saudi LIV Tournament in

Miami over three days.

HIV Field reels from US AID Grant cancellation (African nations left bereft)

United Nations AIDS joint programme

relies on U.S. funds to help track and

coordinate the global response -- 

South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia,

other hard-hit countries may soon run

out of anti-HIV drugs soon

science.org/content/article/bloodbath-hiv-

field-reeling-after-billions-u-s-funding-axed

Feb. 28, 2025

Washingtonpost dot-com reports that

PEPFAR cuts by Trump-Vance upends

lives of Kenyan families now in crisis

April 5, 2025

Ukrainians wary of Trump Rare earth-minerals "deal" -

 Kirovohrad, Central Ukraine

reactions to the Zelinskyy - Trump 2.0

proposed deal are a mix of wary_ hopefulness,

fatalism, and anger. . .

nytimes.com/2025/04/05/world/Europe/ukraine-russia-trump-minerals.html

Tony Wright, True Crime Author, 6-7:30 p.m. all ages

Things aren't right:

the disappearance of the

Yuba County Five

Books sold & autographed

by the Author at Niles (MICH)

Brewing Company, 206 E. Main,

Niles, MI 49120

details at nileslibrary.com/single-event/true-crime-event-

                               at-niles-brewing-company/

Spring Concert: April 6, 2025 4 p.m. 620 E. Main, Niles, Michigan

Michiana Chamber Orchestra

Spring 2025 Concert

April 6 (Sunday) 4 - 5 p.m.

Rotunda

Niles District Library

Niles, MI 49120

Free for all ages;

no need to pre-register or show your

library card.

Bring a non-perishable food donation

(canned good or staple) to support our

SPERO food pantry in Niles, Michigan.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald - 100th anniversary - Scribner's NY

The Great Gatsby

April 10, 1925

dedicated: once again

to Zelda

His 3rd book stands as

the supreme achievement of his

career: a quintessential novel

of the Jazz Age acclaimed by

generations of readers

simonandschuster.com/books/The-Great-Gatsby/

F-Scott-Fitzgerald/9781982146702

Trump-Vance administration covertly "paused" FEMA funding: Judge John McConnell

ABC News reported Friday 6:55 p.m.

that U.S. District Judge John McConnell, Jr.

announced that the Trump 2.0 administration

had covertly paused millions of dollars in

FEMA Funding;  he ordered the Executive

Branch to "immediately cease" its efforts to

impede the disbursement of federal funds,

finding the government directly violated his order.

April 4, 2025

Are Easter eggs uniformly colored or diverse in decorations?

from Francis X. Weiser's The Easter Book

(Harcourt Brace Co., 1954):

In most countries the eggs are stained in

plain vegetable dye colors.  Among the

Chaldeans, Syrians, and Greeks, the

faithful present each other with crimson

eggs in honor of the blood of Christ.  In

parts of Germany and Austria, green eggs

alone are used on Maundy Thursday, but

various colors are the vogue at Easter.

Some Slavic peoples make special patterns

of gold and silver.  In Austria artists design

striking patterns by fastening ferns and tiny

plants around the eggs, which show a white

pattern after the eggs are boiled.  The Poles

and Ukrainians decorate eggs with plain

colors or simple designs and call them

krasanki .  Also a number of their eggs

are made every year in a most distinctive

manner with unusual ornamentation.  These

eggs are called pysanki from pysac : to write/

design.  Each is a masterpiece of patient

labor, native skill, and exquisite workmanship.

Melted beeswax is applied with a stylus to

the fresh white eggs, which are then dipped

in successive baths of dye.  After each dipping,

wax is painted over the area where the preceding

color is to remain.  Gradually the whole complex

pattern of lines and colors emerges into something

fit for a jeweler's window.  No two pysanki are 

identical.  Symbols must used are the sun (good

fortune), rooster or hen (fulfillment of wishes),

stag or deer (good health), flowers (love or charity).

At Easter the pysanki are first blessed by the priest

and then distributed among relatives, friends, and

benefactors.  These special eggs are saved from

year to year like symbolic heirlooms, and can be

seen seasonally in Ukrainian settlements and shops

in the United States of America.

The "Alleluia" or "Hallelujah"

 Usage as noted by the Early Church writers,

bishops, teachers, translators:

As early as 3rd Century, the

Christian writer Tertullian wrote

in On Prayer, the faithful of his

time used to insert many alleluias

in their private devotions.  Jerome of Stridon

writing to Marcella, a patron, praised

the pious farmers and tradesmen who

used to sing it at their toil, and the

mothers who taught their babies to

pronounce alleluias before any other

word.  Even Roman soldiers fighting

against pagan barbarians used it as

a battle cry and war song.  Bede the

Venerable in his Ecclesiastical history

of England reported an "Alleluia

Victory" won by the Christian Bretons

over the Picts and Scots in 429.

Francis X. Weiser's The Easter Book

(Harcourt, Brace, Co., 1954)

Friday, April 4, 2025

Air Force General Timothy Haugh

Haugh had been NSA Director for one year

and was fired by Trump/Vance administration

on the recommendation of Laura Loomer during

an NSC meeting (National Security Council) this week.

details NPR.org/2025/04/04/g-s1-58247/

national-security-agency-chief-fired-trump-timoth-haugh

Friday online article April 4, 2025

He and his deputy, Wendy Noble, a civilian were both

removed from their posts.

Sean Duffy in a NY City Subway Car

Friday April 4, 2025

New York mayor Eric Adams took the

Trump-Vance Secy. of Transportation

on a subway trip -- where?

when? a bit of a mystery

nytimes.com/2025/04/04/nyregion/

sean-duffy-subway-adams.html

Gov. Kathy Hochul was not invited on

the train ride. . . Crime on the subway is

declining; only 4% of violent crime

citywide occurs in the subway. . .

Shambolic (adjective)

informal / British

definition:

chaotic, disorganized,

or mismanaged 

[word derivation from

shambles + symbolic  ]

the administration's shambolic

accounting

Bibliomancy : prediction of the future by pointing at random verse/sentence

Bibliomancy = (definition)

 ancient practice of using books as divinatory

tools:  one uses pages or passages to attain

spiritual knowledge or guidance in decision-making .

Example (from 2nd Century Common Era)

Publius Aelius Hadrianus (born 76 CE)

As a young military commander in the

Roman legions stationed in the Balkans,

Hadrian was still seeking out predictions for

the future. . .he sought the advice of the

famous Virgilian (poet and epic storyteller)

oracle.  This impressive-sounding process

consisted of simply of opening Virgil's

epic, the Aeneid, at random and reading a

message in the text; on this occasion it

provided him with a gratifying combination

of images: an olive wreath, a mighty realm,

a graying beard, and a regeneration of Rome.

[ p. 19 Following Hadrian: a 2nd Century

           Journey through the Roman Empire

by Elizabeth Speller.  Published 2003 by

Oxford University Press, London. ]

Kevin Young, museum director

Kevin Young, director since 2021

of the African American museum

(Smithsonian) in D.C.

has stepped down after 4 years in the 

role of the History and Culture institution.

nytimes.com/2025/04/04

arts/design/kevin-young-smithsonian-

african-american-museum-departs.html

Kristi Noem orders lie detector/polygraph for FEMA acting director

 Acting administrator

of FEMA Cameron

Hamilton was given a

polygraph test by DHS

(Dept. Homeland Security)

czar Kristi Noem (Senate

approved official)

to determine if he leaked

information from a recent

private meeting (March 2025).

at that meeting she discussed

drastically shrinking the agency

and then told a Televised Cabinet

meeting: "We're going to eliminate

FEMA" POLITICO.com/2025/04/04

fema-chief-given-lie-detector-test-after-leak

of-private-meeting-politico-00272302

Hamilton, a former SEAL, has no background

in emergency management.

Right person for the job -- Doc Holliday line: "I'm your huckleberry"

Feature film line :

I'm your huckleberry

TOMBSTONE (1993)

director George Cosmatos

screenwriter Kevin Jarre

CHARACTER : Doc Holliday

Mark Green (former GOP congressman) Director of Wilson Center foreign policy forced to leave

Center with more than 50 fellows / staff

130 employees summarily fired by Musk's DOGE

It was founded to honor President Woodrow Wilson

in 1968 ; the center sponsored scholarship in

foreign policy in all areas over the decades

nytimes.com April 3 online edition

us/politics/wilson-center-shutdown-musk.html

The Chosen - producer testifies at Texas legislature regarding Film project backing

Wednesday April 2, 2025 (Film Incentive Project

hearing)

Testifying at the State Capitol (Austin, TX) were

Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, and

Chad Gunderson

producer of the TV series / motion picture project

"THE CHOSEN" about increased help for

film location assistance and grants in future

usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/04/02

texas-mcconaughey-harrelson-film-industry

USA TODAY includes detail that the

series was filmed largely in Midlothian,

southwest of Dallas, TX

Measles cases spread throughout West & Central Texas (April 2025)

On Tuesday April 2025

22 new Measles cases were reported to Health Authorities

in offices located in both West and Central Texas, making

the total 422 across 19 counties.

Five states have active outbreaks of Measles among

infants, children, others unvaccinated for MMR.

Authorities are monitoring Kansas, Oklahoma, Ohio

regions.  Details AP News.com Health & Science Dept.

Flood Watch : St. Joseph River at Niles, MI (affecting 3 MI counties)

AFFECTED are Berrien, Cass, St. Joe (MI)

National Weather Service has

issued from 5 p.m. Friday thru

the next weekend (April 5 - 6,

2025) a RIVER FLOOD

Warning -- prelim. stage is

5.6 feet and Flood at 7.0 feet

will affect park land and park

roads along with some backyard;

as well impacts may be St. Joseph

River at South Bend, IN.

S. Korea's president removed from Presidential office (April 4, 2025)

 The top court upheld his impeachment

and Yoon Suk Yeol will be removed from office.

This clears the way for a new President to be 

elected.  

Four months ago, Yoon Suk Yeol attempted to

declare Martial Law but was prevented; only

on April 4, 2025 had a final ruling from the 

Constitutional Court upheld the impeachment

(ruling was 8 - 0).

Thursday, April 3, 2025

Proxy Voting in the House of Representatives (3 April 2025): POTUS Trump announced he favors it

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson

now has to deal with his main supporter, POTUS Trump 2.0,

having switched sides with Congress Repr. (Florida)

Anna Paulina Luna

to support her initiative to grant "Proxy Voting" for 

parents of newborns / both mothers & fathers.

nytimes.com/2025/04/03/trump-news-updates#

proxy-voting-trump-congress-luna

Thursday April 3, 2025 6 p.m. Eastern Time Zone

Druze (ethnic minority in Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Jordan) - 21st Century

The Druze numbered more than one million in the

early 21st century and are located mainly in Lebanon,

Syria, Israel, and Jordan, with a large diaspora (separated

family - extended relatives in other nations, far & near).

In Lebanon they have long lived intermingled with especially

the Maronite community in the Mountain area (Mt. Hermon). . .

In the rural areas occupied by Christians and Druze, holy

sites can be observed side by side in mixed villages like

'Abayh with its 8 churches, the famous Druze maqam of

Abdalla al-Tannukhi and a khilwa (community house for

religious leaders).

Among the saints revered by the Druze are a few from

different religions such as the "Prophet" Job (Arabic 

Ayyub)  and the "Prophet" Seth (Arabic Nabi Shayt).

from _Druze Reincarnation Narratives_ (Peter Lang

publisher, 2021) Essay by Nour Farra Haddad "Devotions 

to a Druze Saint" pages 145-6

Amer Ghlaib

Mayor of Hamtramck, MI

nominee of Trump-Vance admin.

to be Ambassador to Kuwait

/ / / Laura Loomer has called for

his dismissal / / /

Ralph Goff, his nomination within CIA withdrawn

A vocal supporter of Ukraine within the Central

Intelligence Agency, Ralph Goff, will

no longer be the nominee for

Chief of Clandestine Operations;

he is an agency veteran and had been well-

received at Langley but since leaving the

CIA he had spoken in support of Ukraine.

details at Politico.com

cia-drops-agency-veteran-clandestine-operations

Caroline Kennedy to present 2025 "Profile in Courage" award May 4 to Mike Pence

jfklibrary.org

"Pence's decision to preside over the

certification of the 2020 Presidential election

even as then POTUS 45 Trump 1.0 's

supporters waged an angry attack/insurrection

on the U.S. Capitol where the Electoral College

results were being counted and accepted"

As far as publicity from relatives in

the Kennedy officials (Caroline Kennedy

Schlossberg and her son Jack Schlossberg),

the former Vice-President (2017-2020) accepted the

award and will give an address at the

Ceremony May 4, 2025 at the JFK Library,

Boston, Massachusetts.


HHS to shutter Freedom of Info. offices as part of 10,000 staff cuts

Details at NPR.org

shots-health-news

hhs-fda-rfk-foia-public-records

Secy. RFK, Jr. shuttered Freedom

of Information Access help offices in

HHS branches such as CDC (Center for

Disease Control & Prevention);

POLITICO dot-com has details

on that impact on departmental

transparency news/2025/04/03

kennedy-shutters-several-foia-

offices-at-hhs

National Security Council members fired by Trump not by Musk

Brian Walsh, Sr. director Intelligence

Thomas Boodry, Sr. director Legisl.Affairs

David Geuth, Sr. director Technology

Maggie Dougherty,Sr. director Intl.Organizations

more staff will be announced as to

firings later

Trump omits N. Korea, Russia, Cuba, Belarus from administration universal Tariff proclamation

UPDATE: April 4, 2025

China replies to POTUS Trump 2.0

54% tariff with its own 34% tariff on

U.S. goods imported // Canada will 

impose counter-tariffs on U.S. - made vehicles

Omitted from the list of nations receiving

10 - 20% Tariffs on goods imported into

the U.S. economy were

Cuba, Belarus,  North Korea &

Russia.

Defense Dept. IG (Inspector General) Steven Stebbins

The Pentagon's chief Counsel / Inspector

will investigate the use by Pete Hegseth

of the messaging APP "Signal" and consider

whether he has used the group chat to discuss

details of an air strikes against Houthi rebels

in Yemen last month.  The watchdog opened

the probe after request from leaders of the

Senate Armed Services committee.

Senators Roger Wicker, Jack Reed

Hayden Haynes, age 35, faces DUI charges and will be prosecuted

Haynes is the Chief of Staff of Speaker Michael

Johnson (Louisiana) who was arrested in the 

Capitol parking area following the Address

to Congress by POTUS Trump 2.0 the night

of March 4, 2025.

More details at THE HILL dot-com

April 3 / court-battles / 

mike Johnson chief of staff pleads not

guilty DUI charges. html

Jason Wesaw_ , artist-educator Pokagon Potawatomi Nation

 Presenting to the 2025 Notre Dame

Student Peace Conference, April 11-12, 2025

sites.nd.edu/peacecon/keynote

Begins Friday April 11, 2025 at 10:30 a.m. - 9 p.m.

all day Saturday April 12, 2025

8 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Book Purge (381) in Naval Academy, Annapolis

Naval Academy library (source: Military Times)

Librarians were told from top officials to remove

books supporting Diversity, Equality, Inclusion --

military.com/ daily-news April 2025

381 books pulled before Hegseth visit this week

on 1st April 2025.

A list of the titles 

these-are-the-381-books-removed

from-the-Naval-Academy-Library

I know why the caged bird sings by Maya Angelou

books on Holocaust, anti-racism, history of lynching

in America.

Firings at HHS (April 2025)

Cabinet department Health & Human Services

has fired:

veterinarians working on

bird influenza outbreaks,

pet food safety measures

source: Washington Post online article

April 3, 2025

UPDATE:
CBS News

FDA food lab eliminated in Illinois

leads to suspension of FDA exercise

to detect Avian Flu virus transmitted

in Dairy milk

/news/fda-bird-flu-testing-efforts-disrupted-rfk-jr-layoffs

Lonnie Bunch III

Secretary of the Smithsonian

Museum director, educator, historian

age 72 (has served 6 terms as Secy.).

WITHOUT any pre-announcement or notification

yesterday (April 2, 2025)

Trump 2.0 signed an executive proclamation

declaring, those exhibitions & programs which

degrade American Values, divide Americans by

race, or promote ideologies inconsistent with

federal law, need to end spending / their place

in the government's budget.

Will Secy. Bunch

accede to the POTUS Trump's demands,

resign in protest,

resist,

be helplessly be forced out of his job/career?

The Smithsonian is NOT controlled by a President

of the United States since it is directed by a 

Board of Regents that includes both Democrats

and Republicans and is overseen by Congress.

DETAILS: NYTimes.com/2025/04/03/arts/design/

smithsonian-trump-executive-order.html

Wednesday, April 2, 2025

Mette Frederiksen -- her visit to Greenland (3-day itinerary) April 2025

The Danish Prime Minister will visit the

territory of Greenland from Wed. April 2 - Friday

April 4, 2025 for a trip aimed at building trust

and cooperation with Greenlandic officials

at a time when the Trump-Vance administration

is seeking control / grabbing control of the

vast Arctic territory.

apnews.com/

denmark-greenland-us-visit-prime-minister

Update : ABC News.go.com April 4

danish-leader-tells-us-annex-country-visits-greenland

America's lame response to Myanmar's city Mandalay 7.7 Earthquake disaster : six U.S. Senators

Criticizing

Secy. of State Marco Rubio

Secy. of Treasury Scott Bessent

are:

Elizabeth Warren, Chris Coons,

Tim Kaine, Tammy Duckworth,

Chris Van Hollen, Jeff Merkley

Purpose in life / Accomplishments

I went to the woods because I

wished to live deliberately, to

front only the essential facts of

life, and see what it had to teach,

and not, when I came to die,

discover that I had not lived. . .

I wanted to live deep and suck

out all the marrow of life. . .Our

life is frittered away by detail.

An honest man has hardly need

to count more than his ten

fingers, or in extreme cases he

may add his ten toes, and lump

the rest.  Simplicity, simplicity,

simplicity! . . .Let us spend one

day as deliberately as Nature,

and not be thrown off the track

by every nutshell and mosquito's

wing that falls on the rails! . . .

Time is but the stream I go

a-fishin' in!

Chapter 2, Thoreau's Walden (1854)

Near the end of March 1845

 Yes, Henry David Thoreau wrote this in the 

first chapter ("Economy") of Walden (1854)

The mass of men lead lives

of quiet desperation. . .

It is never too late to give up

our prejudices. . .

What everybody echoes or in

silence passes by as true today

may turn out to be falsehood 

tomorrow, mere smoke of opinion. . .

We might try our lives by a thousand

simple tests; as, for instance, that

the same sun which ripens my beans

illumines at once a system of earths

like ours. . .Nature is as well adapted

to our weakness as to our strength.

My purpose in going to Walden Pond

was not to live cheaply nor to live

dearly there, but to transact some

private business with the fewest 

obstacles. . .Near the end of March

1845 I borrowed [from Emerson /

Alcott / Channing] an axe and went

down to the woods by Walden Pond,

nearest to where I intended to build

my house. . . I heard the lark and pewee

and other birds already come to

commence another year with us.  They

were pleasant spring days, in which

the winter of man's discontent 

[Richard III, Act I, Scene i] was thawing

as well as the earth, and the life

that had laid torpid began to stretch

itself.


A Mass of Thawing Clay

Chapter 17 "Spring" paragraph 8

Henry David Thoreau in his Walden (1854)

What is man but a mass of thawing clay?

The ball of the human finger is but a drop

congealed.  The fingers and toes flow to

their extent from the thawing mass of the

body.  Who knows what the human body

would expand and flow out to under a 

more genial heaven?  Is not the hand a 

spreading palm leaf with its lobes and veins?

The ear may be regarded, fancifully, as a

lichen, umbilicaria [Latin], on the side of

the head, with its lobe or drop.  The lip --

labium [Latin] -- laps or lapses from the

sides of the cavernous mouth.   The nose is

a manifest congealed drop or stalactite.

The chin is a still larger drop, the confluent

dripping of the face.  The cheeks are a slide

from the brows into the valley of the face,

opposed and diffused by the cheekbones.

Each rounded lobe of the vegetable leaf,

too is a thick and now loitering drop, larger

or smaller; the lobes are the fingers of the leaf;

and as many as lobes as it has, in so many

directions it tends to flow, and  more heat or

other genial influences would have caused it

to flow yet farther.

Erode / Erosion

Subject Matter for LIBRARY BOOK CLUB

discussion -- April 8, 2025 from 6:30 - 7:30 p.m.

Niles District Library, Niles, Michigan 49120

further details at

nileslibrary.com/single-event/subject-matter-book-club-5-2-2/2025-04-08

Erode

Is Walden Pond a tourist attraction?

BOSTON Globe online article July 2024

Park statistics show that nearly 600,000 people visit

the National Historic Landmark every year since 1962.

Torrential rains that hit in spring and early summer in 

2023 and 2024 submerged the beach right up to the

pond's stone retaining wall.  Between Memorial Day and

Labor Day, Walden's beach is typically teeming, Coney

Island-style, with visitors.

Walden and the nearby Minute Man National Historical

Site are on the National Trust for Historical Preservation's

list of 11 most endangered sites.  It is threatened by an

expansion of Hanscom Field Airport, which could

significantly increase the private jet traffic, leading to

increased noise, vehicular traffic, along with negative 

environmental and climate impacts.  Walden Pond is a

462 - acre park established in 1970s is more forested in

2024 than it was in 1854.  Its famously crystalline waters

are stocked with trout and contain trophy bass. . .

Erosion has become such a problem, wire fencing now

keeps hikers from straying off the main road leading to

around the pond.

Walden's great depth - 102 feet is keeping it keep at bay

the 2 centuries' worth of nutrient-rich sediment now locked

on its bottom . . . Climate change is going to complicate

everything that's happening there; the pond is at risk.

bostonglobe.com/2024/07/22/magazine/at-walden-pond-tensions-can-overtake-tranquility

Rural high-speed internet extension : Program frozen

Trump-Vance planners and tech expanders

plan to freeze the already Rural Internet

expansion as StarLink (Elon Musk-owned)

and other ongoing next-step technologies

are being offered for the entire 50 states.

Washingtonpost online (2 April 2025)

Members of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, Medicine

 April 2025

Over 1,900 researchers describe the efforts of

the Trump 2.0 - Vance administration to fire

and shut down the funding of research and

continued employment of scientists, engineers,

medical experts as an "assault on science."

If our country's research and technology

sectors are shut down, we will lose our

scientific edge. . .

abcnews.go.com/Health/2000-scientists-call-

Trump-administration-stop-assault-on-science

Druze Militias

Dateline = Sweida SW of Damascus

In southwest Syria -- an area bordering Jordan.

Druze Militias refuse to join Syria's new army

following the toppling of the Bashar al-Assad

regime that despotically ruled Syria over 50 years.

They are part of the "Mountain Brigade."

nytimes (4/1/2025 article)

world/middleeast/Syria-Israel-border.html

Susan Crawford, justice for Wisconsin Supreme Court seat

On the first Tuesday of a new month,

a Dane County (Wisconsin) judge in

a statewide race that set records for a

State Supreme Court race between

judge-candidates; high voter turnout.

Susan Crawford was elected

newest associate justice of the 9-member

Supreme Court of Wisconsin,

giving the liberal party a 5 to

4 majority over the GOP - MAGA.

Election results are still being 

counted overnight April 1-2, 2025.

Her website was

CrawfordForWI.com

Tuesday, April 1, 2025

Shakespeare's Birthday (the Bard of Avon)

Annually, fans of the Bard of Avon observe

April 23rd

as the expected day William Shakespeare was born

at Stratford-on-Avon; his record of church

baptism was

26 April 1564. 

Here beginneth the Book of the Tales of Canterbury

Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote,

The drohte of March hath perced to the roote_,

And bathed every veyne in swich_ licour

Of which vertu in engendred is the flour;

Whan Zephirus eek with his swete_ breeth

Inspired hath in every Holt and heeth

The tendre_ croppes, and the young sonne

Hath in the Ram his half cours y-ronne,

And small foweles maken melodye,

That slepen al the night with open ye,

So priketh hem Nature in hir corages,

Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,

And palmeres for to seken strange strondes,

To ferne halwes, kowthe_ in sondry londes;

And specially, from every shires ende

Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they Wende,

The hooly_ blisful martir for to seke_,

That them hath holpen whan that they were seeke!

Proxy Voting -- April 1 -- Speaker of House Johnson (Louisiana) fails to defeat bipartisan Rule Change (if absent, still can vote)

Wed. April 1, 2025

The MAGA Speaker of the House Mike Johnson

failed to kill a bipartisan effort to change rules

allowing proxy voting (members not present could

convey to those counting votes) for those who

have given birth or welcomed newborns into their

households.

Vote results was 222 - 206

To deny this measure was

Anti-woman and Anti-family!

Wide swaths of job eliminations at CDC

Atlanta, GA

the Atlanta - Journal Constitution

reports that a wide swath of job eliminations

begin today 1 April 2025

Tens of millions cut by Trump-Vance-Musk for contraception, STI testing, health services

POLITICO today reports that

Nine Planned Parenthood affiliates that receive

Title X grants will be cut tens of millions of dollars

for potential parents, young and middle adults

in need of STI testing, health services for

the poorest Americans.

politico.com/2025/03/31/trump-admin-cuts-tens

of millions from Planned Parenthood 00261763

Monday March 31, 2025

False claim that Trump-Pence admin. in 2021 left Biden a $50 billion trade surplus

Records and data that can be found and

researched show that the USDA (Agriculture Dept.)

of incoming POTUS 46 (Biden) was left by outgoing

Trump POTUS 45 a 

deficit.

Secy. Rollins simply has her numbers wrong -

April 2025 will get this matter of research

straightened out.

Thoreau "Book of the Seasons" April

from Henry David Thoreau - Early Essays

and Miscellanies (Princeton Univ. Press, 1975)

page 30 bottom.

April is so called from the

Latin, Aprilis, which is

derived from Aperire,

to open.  The allusion is

obvious,

"April showers

Bring forth May-flowers,"

is one of those old sayings

which possess no intrinsic

merit of their own, but derive

all their interest from the

association of ideas, as Stewart

would say.

edited by Joseph J. Moldenhauer, Edwin Moser,

with Alexander C. Kern

Niles (Michigan) High School

givebloodnow.com

SBMF blood - S. Bend, IN

at Niles High School, Niles, MI 49120

1441 Eagle St., Niles

8:00 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.

Call Center for further details

Lt. General Dan Caine, nominee to become Chmn. of Joint Chiefs of Staff

He is a 35-year military veteran with a

polished record // needs to stay

true to ethical and military norms. . .

an F-16 pilot with 150 combat hours. . .

Senate hearing today at Capitol, D.C.

April 1, 2025

the nation's highest military position

"We have to determine whether he has

the professional skills to do the job;

but we also need to know whether he will

stand up to POTUS and say if something is

not lawful"

Democrats on the Senate committee

are expected to ask Caine whether he considers

the information shared on SIGNAL was

classified or if it was no big deal to share

what went out on the App (March 15, 11:44 a.m.)

that have been aired to the world by Atlantic

Monthly magazine editor Jeffrey Goldberg, who

Waltz had invited into the group. . .

UPDATE: Mid-morning April 1, 2025

Caine has denied the veracity of

POTUS Trump 2.0 campaign anecdote that

Caine put on while on duty a "MAGA" red

baseball cap handed to him by visitor Trump.


April 2025 Blog statistics

Visits to this GOOGLE  Blog

faithfor2008.blogspot.com/ 

during month day-by-day

April 1 = 413

April 2 = 406

April 3 = 403

April 4 = 188

April 5 = 165

5th Sunday of Lent =

April 7

April 8

April 9

April 10

April 11

April 12

Palm Sunday

Monday 4/14

Tuesday 4/15

Wed. 4/16

Maundy Thursday

Good Friday

Holy Saturday

Easter

Dyngus Monday (Polish post-Easter)

4/22 Earth Day

4/23 Shakespeare's B'day

4/24

4/25

4/26

Sunday April 27

April 28

April 29

April 30

Running total of visits over days of April = 1575

Total Entries / posted journal items for month of April 2025 = 60