Lawyer for imprisoned felon - convict
Ghislaine Maxwell
who posted on his own
"X" account that
I can confirm that we are in
discussions with the government
and that Ghislaine will always
testify truthfully
Tuesday, July 22, 2025
UNESCO
Trump withdrew unilaterally from the organization
today (July 22, 2025)
effective at the end of December 2026 (next year)
without even already receiving Senate approval for
a confirmed U.S. Ambassador to
the United Nations. His disgraced
National Security Adviser, Mike
Waltz, who resigned in the wake of
the "Signal-Gate" scandal & cover-up
(early this year) has been named and on
July 15, 2025 subjected to Senate committee
vote, but not yet full approval on the entire
100-vote body of the U.S. Senate
(see Constitution, Article I).
Ghislaine Maxwell -- associate for the late Jeffrey Epstein
Ghislaine Maxwell,
imprisoned for her own sex-trafficking
crimes and those of her boss
Jeffrey Epstein, now deceased,
will face questioning from
TODD BLANCHE, former
defense trial attorney for
Donald John Trump, convicted
felon, now POTUS 47, 1600
Pennsylvania Ave., D.C.
nytimes.com/live-2025/07/22/us/trump-news
Ukraine Defense Contact Group : HEGSETH didn't make June meeting while other allies Defense heads did
Another example of Pete Hegseth
former weekend Anchor on FOX & Friends
(Fox News network schedule),
NOT taking seriously his job
nytimes.com/2025/07/21/us/politics/ukraine-trump-hegseth-weapons.html
A never-approved Movie with the oddest cast
from Hollywood: The Oral History (2022)
Director John Schlesinger :
Some executive reading scripts
suggested Elvis Presley would
be good for Midnight Cowboy
if it was turned into a musical.
And someone at United Artists,
for whom I did the picture,
seriously said, "Make Ratzo
Sammy Davis, Jr. and you have
a hit." (page 532 top)
A.D. Murphy on Hollywood's tendency for repetition
From Hollywood: The Oral History (2022)
If somebody hits with
a certain type of film,
then everyone wants to
make one on the not
unlikely assumption that
"oh, I guess a lot of people
out there are interested in
seeing this. . ."
So everybody will make them.
And the public will go to see it,
until the public stops going
to see it. But one thing that
doesn't change is that the
top ten films at any one time
do half of the available business
and all the rest are fighting for
the other half.
That is always true.
The public gravitates toward
the hits. The hits are like
magnets.
Diahann Carroll
There was a period in which some
studio movies were made that were
supposed to be about Black people.
Hurry Sundown! I adore Otto
Preminger, the director, as a social
human being. He has a great sense
of humor, and he's a fantastic host. . .
if you go to his home to have dinner,
you're going to have a great time. . .
Those films -- Carmen Jones
Porgy and Bess
Hurry Sundown. . .
when I was in Carmen Jones, they
gathered together an array of Black
stars, Belafonte, Dandridge, Brock
Peters. . .We all wanted to be in moving
pictures, so we made it. We found out
things hadn't changed a great deal for us.
Then Porgy and Bess and we all came out
and made fools of ourselves again. . .I
don't even know what to say about Hurry
Sundown what I know is that there's
been a long, long time in Hollywood
where equity hasn't happened. Maybe
it will. Maybe.
[ from Hollywood: The Oral History (2022) ]
Carl Foreman remembers the 1952 era (the "Hollywood Blacklist" / 1st Amendment claimants)
Hollywood: The Oral History (2022)
From 1952, I found myself living
in England as a result of the
Hollywood blacklist, and I got
by in one way or another and I
was always looking, since I was
surveying and so forth, and writing
under assumed names, or whatever, to
avoid the blacklist. Because the
Blacklist followed people everywhere,
I felt inhibited about writing something
original. That was one of the penalties
of being blacklisted. . .Every blacklisted
Hollywood writer went through a severe
period, a period when he or she could
not write. Now some recovered from it,
and some never did recover from it. Once
I was working on a screenplay and it was
just no good. I had a conference with this
producer, very nice guy, very sympathetic,
and he said in a very terribly well-meaning
way "Look, why don't you forget all this
stuff? Why don't you make peace with those
people over there? Do what they want you
to do. Name a few names. Get yourself off
the blacklist, and get that weight off your
shoulder."
WHAT HE DIDN'T KNOW WAS. . .about
6 months before, they had pulled my passport.
And I wasn't telling that to anybody because
there was no point in spreading this around.
It was bad enough to have them (the State Dept.
in D.C.) do that, and I was suffering the
consequences of that, which meant that I
couldn't travel. When we parted that night and
I went upstairs to bed, I literally didn't sleep
all night long. I was awake constantly,
and I was scared. I knew fear, real fear.
And I hadn't written a good scripts, either.
George Folsey remembers Hepburn in STATE_OF_THE_Union
I had to make a (screen) test cold of
Katharine Hepburn when she replaced
Claudette Colbert in The State of the Union.
A very charming, delightful person. Just
wonderful. During the time I'm making
the test, she said, "Now make me fat.
Make me Fat!"
She didn't want to be gaunt and thin, she
wanted to be nice and round and fat, And
I said, "Miss Hepburn, I've been trying
to make myself fat for years."
She said, "Don't give a damn about you,
just make me fat!" Talked like a rubber
band at you. What a charming, delightful,
wonderful person she is. And, of course, she
was an excellent person to photograph as
long as you, as she says, "Don't show my
chicken neck!"
FROM Hollywood: The Oral History (2022)
Spencer Tracy
from Hollywood: The Oral History (2022)
fellow actor : Maximillian Schell (interviewed)
Spencer Tracy, was, for me, the
most professional actor I ever
met and the most human and
the best. It's just that simple.
Although he had his tricks, too.
He had his cliche's, too, but they
were just so good and not yet used
by others that he could use them
over and over again. He was aware
of them and he always had a certain
vanity, like every actor, but he was
so simple. His whole life he conducted
so beautfully and so dignified; he was
just a great human being. I think
the film camera captures the
personality of a human being and a
film actor much more than the theater.
. . . Katharine Hepburn gave up
years of her life just to be with him, and
he was just a great human being.
Frank Capra
from HOLLYWOOD: THE ORAL HISTORY (2022)
"Film is a funny thing. You can take
a series of five scenes, and there are
perhaps 25 ways you can put them
together. But there's probably only one
way that makes any sense, and you've
got to find that one way. It's almost
like music. If you put the notes of
a piece of music together, you get
something wonderful, but if you take
those same notes and alter them a little
bit, you get dreck. It's the same way
with scenes. You get a chance to
compose in the cutting room. A film
is made both on the set and in the
cutting room. But if I didn't want
a shot I made on the set in the film,
I wouldn't have let that shot get into
the cutting room. You can improve a film
in the cutting room, but you can't find
a great, great film on the table, because
you're only working with what you
brought in. Never bring in anything
someone else could use to ruin your
picture!
Monday, July 21, 2025
Charlton Heston
Who is a Hollywood producer? What do they do?
from Hollywood: the oral history (2022) p. 209
I think producers can do
their job in three general
ways. There is the producer
who is a logistician, who deals
with the logistics of film, and
whose expertise has to do with
scheduled and the mechanics of
making a picture. This, never
doubt it, is vital! Then there
are producers who are promoters.
Arthur Jacobs was one of those.
So was Sam Bronston. There are
many such. Sam Spiegel is such
a producer, really!
Then there are producers whose
primary instincts are for some
of the creative aspects of film-
making. Perhaps script, perhaps
cutting. I would say Hal Wallis
was an example of that, a man
who knows a great deal about
editing and who feels that his
prime creative contribution is
in the editing stage. There are
producers who, like David O.
Selznick, said the producer is the
conductor of the orchestra and the
director is merely the first
violinist!
Katharine Hepburn
On a studio head she liked and who liked her:
anecdote in
Hollywood: The Oral History (2022)
Louis B. Mayer happened to
like me and I liked him. We
were friends. When you went
to Mr. Mayer you got an answer
. . . and you didn't have to go
to five thousand people to do
it either. They are all a bunch
of nincompoops today compared
to him! (PAGE 142).
Alfred Hitchcock -- commenting on Chaplin's narrative THE_PILGRIM
transcribed by Jeanine Basinger & Sam Wasson
Hollywood: The Oral History (HarperCollins, 2022)
You can learn a lot from
watching Chaplin. He
once made a short film
titled The Pilgrim. The
opening shot was the
outside of a prison gate.
A guard comes out and
pastes up a "WANTED"
notice with a picture of
Chaplin in prison stripes.
NEXT, cut to a very tall,
thin man, coming out of
a river, having had a
swim, and he finds that
his clothes are missing;
all he can pick up is a
convict's uniform. Next,
cut to a railroad station,
and walking toward the
camera is Charlie Chaplin
dressed as a parson; his
pants are too long. Three
pieces of film, and look
at the amount of story they
told!
July 2025 blog statistics
faithfor2008.blogspot.com "Seeking Faith and Understanding"
Visitors to the WEBsite / GOOGLE Blog
July 1, 2025 4,682 visits / views
July 2 1684
July 3 2906 visits/views
Independence Day 625
July 5 3,443
July 6 4,564
July 7 2,424
July 8 1,402
July 9 750
July 10 941
July 11 488
July 12 463
July 13 424
July 14 414
July 15 577
July 16 245
July 17 331
July 18 455
July 19 643
July 20 430
July 21 2,123
July 22 1,615
Total for the Month of JULY 2025 (1st - 31st) -- 31,636 visits
thus far in the mid-year Summer Month
Black Holes and the early universe
from Leonard Mlodinow's memoir of
friendship and co-authoring popular works
on Science with
PHYSICIST Stephen Hawking :
Both black holes and the
early universe fascinated
Stephen, and he made the
physics of those systems
his main area of research.
His later discoveries regarding
the interplay between Einstein's
theory of general relativity
and quantum theory helped
launch the field now called
quantum gravity (pages 8 - 9).
Leonard Mlodinow
a septuagenarian born in Chicago, IL
a CalTech physicist (Pasadena, CA)
he has transitioned from teaching Physics
now writes for the general public
sometimes has co-authored books with
noted physicist Stephen Hawking [The Grand Design]
also a screenwriter for sci-fi TV series [Star Trek: Next Generation]
Mark Twain: It is better to keep your mouth closed
American humorist / best-selling author
It is better to keep your
mouth closed and let
people think you are a fool
than to open it
and remove all doubt!
Most massive black hole merger ever -- captured in LVK Collaboration telescopes
July 18, 2025 -- Earthsky dot-org reports that the
LVK Collaboration found the merger of massive
black holes each 100 - 140 times the sign of our
solar system's sun has created a
225-solar-mass black hole;
this phenomenon presents
a real challenge to our
understanding of black
hole formation.
earthsky.org/space/biggest-black-hole-merger-breaks-the-universes-rules
posted July 2025
the merger is 225 times the size of our sun.
Judge Allison Burroughs made 1st ruling one month ago -- Judge has 2nd chance in court to stay Trump attempt to throttle Harvard
FURTHER UPDATE -- July 21 -- Judge Burroughs in
her courtroom will hear from Harvard's lawyers that
the Trump team of lawyers is attempting to curb
the +388-year-old American institution's
rights to free speech.
NY TIMES.com/ 2025/07/21/us/trump-administration-harvard-hearing.html
Pamela Bondi, Trump's A.G. at the D.ofJ. argues that
the Trump-Vance administration has the clear authority
to halt research across the entire university departments.
After today's arguments, it is not clear when she will issue
her ruling.
_________________________________________
UPDATE: June 20 -- Yes, Judge Burroughs
rules in favor of Harvard's continuance to
admit international students.
NYTimes.com online BREAKING NEWS 4 p.m.
Friday June 20
______________________________________
Update: June 16, 2025
NPR is reporting that the Judge will delay until
Monday the 23rd of June.
NPR.org/2025/05/16/nx-s1-5432750/harvard-lawsuit-international-students-hearing
____________________________________________
Judge Allison Burroughs (Fed. District) -- insisted that
the Status Quo remain in place. . .
details on Kristi Noem revocation -- see ABC News.go.com
"Breaking News"
Thursday May 29, 2025
Harvard University attorneys will make their first in-person
arguments before a Boston, Mass. federal courtroom
Its strategy is to use the POTUS Trump's statements
as evidence that the government is on a political
crusade against the school.
At stake is the 70-year-old Harvard
tradition of admitting top students
from around the globe; a visa ban
would affect 7,000 students currently
enrolled and other incoming students
who had expected to enroll in summer
and fall.
_________________________________
On the Trump-Vance side,
Lawyers on the Dept. of Justice have not
yet submitted any written arguments on
the case.
_________________________________
Revoking a university's right to host
international students is an extraordinary
measure. In court papers, Harvard has
maintained that the Trump-Vance lawyers/
legal complainants bypassed detailed
procedures that might lead to a revocation.
Billy Joel 2025 health complications from normal pressure hydrocephalus
Sunday july 20th - he discussed his health
and troubles from balance on a famous podcast.
___________________________________________
Pray for the singer - songwriter who has canceled his
Tour (May 24, 2025) and will seek treatment for
normal pressure
hydrocephalus
which has led him to problems
with hearing, vision, & balance.
He is 76 and a mainstream music
mainstay since the 1970s.
Sunday, July 20, 2025
Superman (Director James Gunn) - as of July 11 until July 20 = another $57 million
Jurassic World: Rebirth
opens July 2, 2025 (a Wednesday before Indep. Day USA)
$91.5 million opening on July 4-6, 2025; as of 7/11 $184.6 million
as of July 19 $259.3 million
Superman (2025) - DC comics
opens July 11, 2025 (Friday)
$122 million opening 48 hours (12:01 a.m. Friday
and all day Saturday sales in theaters)
on JULY 20, 2025 -- reported total box office in U.S. is $236 million
domestic and $406 million globally
Mission : Impossible - Final Reckoning
$122 million from May 23 - June 1, 2025
June 4: $125.1 million total reported to BOX OFFICE MOJO
Total up to $192.2 million by July 4, 2025
by July 13 $193.9 million; by July 19 $195.1
Thunderbolts
$189.8 million from May 2 - July 1, 2025
June 4: total reported to BOX OFFICE MOJO = $182.3 million
as of July 19 -- $189.9 million in box office
Lilo & Stitch
$ 183 million from May 23 - 25, 2025
$ 63 million more for weekend of May 30 - June 1, 2025
$ +38 million for week June 2 , 3 , 4 plus another $32 million June 7-8
totaling $417 million since release; globally $772 million
Karate Kid : Legends
$21 million initial release
June 4: $21.6 million reported (BOX OFFICE MOJO)
up to $52.5 million by July 19
A Minecraft Movie
$418 million from April 4 - 30, May 1-22, 2025
$423.9 million by July 19, 2025
___________________________
How to Train Your Dragon
opening weekend June 15 - 16 sold $83.7 million
total gross
$160.4 million by June 22, 2025
$186.3 million total by June 29 (Sunday reported #)
$215.8 million July 4 reported statistic
weekend from July 4 - 6 was additional $11 million
July 11 $239.8 million
Japan's Upper House election Ishiba Shigeru's Liberal Democratic Party lost majority
Reuters early return_ totals show
loss of seats for current P.M. (July 20, 2025)
__________________________
If Japan enters a period of political insecurity
for its ruling majority and P.M. then facing
off with Trump's negotiators for the August
1, 2025 deadline over Tariffs "levels" may
fall given that food / rice prices have more
than doubled since May 2024.
business/Japan-election-rice-koizumi.html
__________________________________
Between June 20 and July 20, the Japanese
voting electorate has observed campaign
speeches and rallies for the leading and
opposition parties in the Japanese Diet
or legislature : P.M. Ishiba Shigeru
may lose the majority that keeps him
as Leader of a political party over the
entire government. REUTERS reports
that there is a "Japan First" party that may
also threaten Ishiba Shigeru
reuters.com/ July 16, 2025
Popeye and Olive Oyl 5K -- North Webster, IN (lakeside course)
When: Saturday July 26, 2025
Theme of the 16th Annual Dixie Day is
Popeye and Olive Oyl so
wear your favorite costume
for prizes.
This race is professionally
timed and prizes will be given
Pre-registration until 7/25 is $25
Day of $30.
Cut-off for online registration is
Saturday July 19, 2025.
Registration and bib pick-up is
6:45 day of at North Webster IN
Community Center.
Race starts at 8 a.m. EASTERN
Berrien Life 5K -- morning event, Berrien Springs MI (7/27/2025)
9 a.m. July 27, 2025
at Berrien Springs, Michigan
Family Walk / Fun Run at 10:30 a.m.
run.signup.com/
Includes food, music, Fun Fest
Niles, Michigan BURN Run Fundraiser weekend (July 25 through Sunday 27th)
| Niles Burn Run 2025 | |
| Event Date/Time | Friday 7/25 Saturday, July 26 & Sunday 7/27/2025 |
| Host | Niles Burn Run Inc |
| Event Type | Benefit - Charity |
| Event Description | The Niles Burn run is a 2-day event to benefit the Great Lakes Burn Camp Saturday: Car / Bike Show Friday: Live Music featuring PT & the Cruisers, & Saturday live music by Katmandu (Bob Seger tribute band) Sunday: Escorted Ride, kick stands up at noon - 50-mile course |
| Location | Riverfront Park - Niles, Michigan |
| Address | |
| City | Niles |
| State | MICHIGAN |
| Zip | 49120 |
Where did Israel's envoy D. Barnea suggest to W. House 600K Palestinians be relocated? WITKOFF seeks partners
UPDATE: AXIOS is reporting that
Presidential envoy Steve Witkoff attempts
a multinational effort to take hundreds of
thousands of Gazans :
Ethiopia
Indonesia
Libya
Once U.S. incentives to those
countries' leadership are set
axios.com/2025/07/18/israel-send-palestinians-
gaza-indonesia-ethiopia
____________________________
Israel at the mediators' table
is proposing that much of Gaza's
600,000 / up to roughly 2 million
population be forced into a small
enclave is now overshadowing an
Truce that is NOT yet Signed, sealed,
fully agreed to by all parties.
The IDF (Israeli defense/army
forces) intends by plan
to force hundreds of thousands
into an area near the Israel-Egypt
border in the Sinai wilderness/desert.
No compromise on the Israel side
was offered by Netanyahu to Trump
during his week-long visit to D.C.
see further details of how the Israel -
Hamas mediation remains stuck
nytimes.com/2025/07/14/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-gaza-cease-fire.html
Soon Gazans will starve and the Arab-Muslim world will look on and stare
NBC News PLATFORM Posting
July 20, 2025
Sunday a.m. 9 a.m. Eastern
In the midst of evacuation orders by the IDF,
Palestinian families / widows / dependents
will die of malnutrition / starving to death /
shot in the crossfire at Gaza Humanitarian
Feeding _station_.
[ as many fatalities as 67 says REUTERS dot-com]
nbcnews.com/world/Gaza/israel-issues-new-evacuation-orders-
central-gaza-hunger-worsens-rcna219840
Special PELL GRANTs for 8 - 15 week schooling (Welding & Cosmetology)
USA TODAY uncovered
aspects of the Trump-Vance-McMahon
OMNIBUS bill that actually keep the
Federal DEPT. of EDUCATION doing such
tasks
as administering in 2026 a new federal
Pell Grant for
students in 8 - 15 week
school opportunities
to learn WELDING /
COSMETOLOGY
usatoday.com/story/news/education/2025/07/20/
education-trump-big-beautiful-bill- . . .
Tim Burchett, House of Repr. (GOP- Tenn.)
Told Martha Raddatz
he wants the Epstein
file documents released
and cautions against
releasing grand jury
testimony that would
expose victim identities.
This Week (July 20, 2025)
Was he ticked off
when Trump called it
a "hoax"?
We're playing in the
big leagues now. . .
_________________
abcnews.go.com/
burchett-doubles-call-
release-epstein
Alina Habba - her term as an Acting U.S. Attorney may end Tuesday July 22, 2025
update on U.S. Attorney (NJ) office
decline in morale and left many
prosecutors seeking a way out
NYTimes.com/2025/07/20/nyregion/alina-habba-us-attorney-new-jersey.html
______________________________________________________
Alina Habba,
a loyal law school graduate
who has carried out the wish
of Trump 2.0 to use the Federal
JUSTICE Dept. to target his
enemies -- to a podcast, Ms.
Habba said, "We could turn
New Jersey red. . ." Her charges
against the mayor of Newark,
arrested outside an immigrant
detention facility were dropped
and she faced a rare admonition
from a federal magistrate judge:
"Your job is NOT to secure
convictions at all costs, NOR
to satisfy public clamor, NOR
to advance political agendas".
Before 2025 she had overseen
a small civil litigation firm.
_________________________
her term as an acting U.S. attorney
may end Tuesday 7/22/2025
if the state's district Court judges
rule or do not rule to grant an extension
Melissa Hortman
POLITICO today
Sunday July 20, 2025
updates other Americans about the
other state Legislatures struggles with
the need to protect lawmakers from
those who might
Assassinate or Kidnap
political figures (like
Speaker of the Minn.
House Hortman or
Michigan Gov. Gretchen
Whitmer).
politico.com/2025/07/19/minnesota-assassination-
spurs-wave-of-state-bills-to-protected-officials-
00463300
Berrien.Life 5K
Sunday July 27, 2025 starting 9 a.m. LIFE 5K
advance registering recommended online
5K registration $30 includes shirt
Family Fun Run starts only at 10:30 a.m.
see runsignup.com/Race/MI/BerrienSprings/BerrienLife5k
201 Sylvester Ave., Berrien Springs, MI
near athletic field and center -- Family Fun Fest all day
Song of the Happy Shepherd
Poem by William Butler Yeats
second stanza:
Then nowise worship dusty deeds,
Nor seek, for this is also sooth,
To hunger fiercely after truths,
Lest all thy toiling only breeds
New dreams, new dreams: there
is no truth
Saving in thine own heart. Seek, then,
No learning from the starry men,
Who follow with the optic glass
The whirring ways of stars that pass -
Seek, then, for this is also sooth,
No word of theirs - the cold star-bane
has cloven and rent their hearts in twain
And dead is all their human truth.
quoted in part in The Theory of Everything (2014) feature film
by the character Jane at the "Cambridge May Ball" at an outdoors
fireworks celebratory scene . . .
Justin Fulcher
At the center of two HEGSETH-unusual controversies
will be pushed out of the Pentagon - Hegseth D o D (Dept.
of Defense) - Cabinet Dept. of the Trump-Vance administration
Fulcher is the 6th top
aide of the former FOX NEWS
Weekend anchor, Pete Hegseth,
to be summarily forced out of
a job in the Pentagon/Trump
White House in the first 6 months
(since Inauguration 20/Jan./2025).
see WASHINGTON POST dot-com.
EPA has eliminated its SCIENCE research Arm -- 100s of scientists impacted
ABC News dot-go-dot-com update
on
Lee Zeldin
eliminates 23% of staffing
ABC News.go.com/US/WireStory/
epa-eliminates-research-development-office-begins-layoffs-
123878836
Friday 7/18/2025
BREAKING NEWS HEADLINE
Lee Zeldin, Head of the
Environmental Protection Agency
(staffed and programmed by the Executive
Branch of the Federal government (national,
state, local, cross-jurisdictional))
has eliminated its Scientific Research Arm.
50 - 75% of positions will be eliminated.
No formal notification to them only
the public statement of Lee Zeldin
(former Long Island, NY congressman
who has no experience in science or
govt. management of a major enterprise
regulatory group). He was picked in the
post-campaign (Trump-Vance election
win Nov. 5, 2024) and his name sent to
the Senate in mid-January ahead of the
2025 Inauguration in the Capitol Rotunda.
see WashingtonPOST dot-com
CBS News
July 18, 2025 11:30 p.m. Eastern Time Zone
Capacity crisis at federal immigration facilities
See indianacapitalchronicle.com
2025/07/18/
Defense letter confirms
Indiana's Camp Atterbury
to be used for immigrant
detention (40 miles
south of Indianapolis in
the center of the rural state).
Senator Todd Young has
"asked the Trump administration for more
information. . ."
Camp Atterbury -- to become with Hegseth supervision a "detention site for Immigrants"
A central Indiana site associated with the
National Guard and Military preparedness will
soon become, under the Trump-Vance administration,
a detention site for immigrants.
See July 2025 DoD (Pentagon) communications
press releases about this forthcoming
evolution into a branch of DHS (Dept. of
Homeland Security).
July 20, 2025
Lonesome Rhodes ("A Face in the Crowd")
Director Elia Kazan's film (1957)
about a manipulator who gets his
comeuppance : actor Andy Griffith
plays a pompous entertainer whose
appeal to plain folks garners him
tremendous power, for a while. . .
see Maureen Dowd -- July 20 column
MAGA's New Target is . . . Donald John Trump
nytimes.com/2025/07/19/opinion/trump-maga-epstein-deep-state.html
Saturday, July 19, 2025
Non-American notables Trump wanted: 2026 American Sculpture Garden (250 individual statues - granite, marble, bronze)
Ingrid Bergman
Christopher Columbus
Alfred Hitchcock
his images are under strict licensing -- LLC -- see alfredhitchcock.com/licensing
Nikola Tesla
Alex Trebek (Ontario, Canada)
Hannah Arendt (France)
Albert Einstein (Germany)
Junipero Serra
Marquis de LaFayette
_______________________
UPDATE: July 9 Washington
POST online article:
likely not ready / open until
2029 -- Trump-Vance Omnibus
Bill pushed forward $40 million
funding after Biden-era Nat.
Endowment for Humanities grants
were essentially zeroed by POTUS
Trump 2.0
newsweek.com/donald-trump-national-garden-american-heroes-
independence-day-4th-july-big-beautiful-bill-2094645
15 years of male bonding : Trump and a paedophile named Jeffrey Epstein (who died in Fed. detention 2019)
"Inside the Long Friendship between TRUMP &
EPSTEIN : for nearly 15 years the two men socialized
in Manhattan and Palm Beach, FL,
before a falling out that preceded
Epstein's first arrest for sex crimes
COVERAGE by Alan Feuer & Matthew
Goldstein
nytimes.com/2025/07/19/us/politics/inside-trump-epstein-friendship.html
Assassin (in pre-trial detention July 2025) bears crime of exploitation as well
By posing as a Minnesota Law Enforcement
Police officer,
the Assassin of the Hortman family
exploited the trust our uniforms are meant
to represent, said Commissioner Bob Jacobson.
That betrayal was deeply
disturbing to those of us
who wear the badge with
honor and respectability.
see further
nytimes.com/2025/06/16/us/police-impersonation.html
Candle Memorial Vigil of Hortman family : musicians in Minneapolis - no sign-carrying permitted
Rest in Strength
former House Speaker
Melissa Hortman
Mark Hortman (spouse)
Those leading the service were:
Brass Quintet : Minnesota Orchestra
Native American Drum Circle
Unison singing of "Amazing Grace"
Earlier Wed. 18 June 2025
U. of Minnesota President Rebecca
Cunningham spoke at a separate
outdoor memorial service;
the Hortmans were themselves alumna
and alumnus of the Big Ten
University.
Biography of right-wing MAGA conspiracy theorist Assassin (husband, father of 5)
Periods of religious zealotry,
unsettled professional careers
stops and starts in Food Service
and Funeral Home errand-running
[ his "hit list" included Democratic pol.
party officials, also health care staff,
public servants, all told 40 individuals ]
TEAM Coverage by
Dan Berry, Ernesto Londonyo,
and Ruth Graham (Religion writer)
2025/07/19/us/Minnesota/ _assassin First Name, Surname_
Do NOT remember the name of this Assassin
of Green Isle, [ who was apprehended there in the largest
Minnesota man-hunt ever the June evening / sunset
that ended Father's Day]
MN nor blame the children he and
his wife home-schooled
[ the night of his lethal rampage, he sent a message to them
via social media : "Dad went to war last night" ]
but instead memorialize the public servants he killed and
injured : John Hoffman and spouse;
Melissa Hortman, a gifted
and outgoing public servant
and her spouse.
The assassin's wife maintains
in her email response to such
journalistic background requests:
the bloodshed was a "betrayal."
His spray of automatic rifle
gunfire also injured some and
led to lethal injuries for the
Hortman's golden retriever.
[ in court room comments and in exchanges with
the press / media, he has never confirmed nor denied
that he is responsible for his actions - plotting - gunfire ]
Swiss Days, Berne, Indiana
Details at findarace.com/us/events/first-bank-of-berne-swiss-days-race
For 2025 the
First Bank of Berne
Swiss Days 5k Race
will be
July 26, 2025
as part of a three-day "Willkommen"
event that is part of a 50-year
celebration of Swiss Heritage.
Food Crafts Authentic Swiss costumes
8:15 a.m. Eastern
choose between 5k and 1-mile
(those age 11 and under)
$22.20
Friday, July 18, 2025
Trump vs. Bob Woodward : judge rules interviewee has no "copyright" to book's support audio
2020 Book of famed journalist
Bob Woodward of the
Washington Post
is not part of case law
where what Trump (then
POTUS 45) said in phone
conversations would be
claimable to his part of
19 interviews granted to
Mr. Woodward.
Rage is the 2020 book
which concerned the
year of COVID-19 and
the scramble for the
White House that led
to the attempted insurrection
January 6 -- attack on Capitol
where the Election results were
being cast and finalized.
the Hill dot-com/ July 18, 2025
trumps-long-stalled-suit-against-
woodward-dismissed
Netanyahu's report to POPE Leo XIV that he had bombed a church, killing 3
ABC NEWS online
reports that the Vatican
received a phone call from the
Prime Minister of Israel,
Benjamin Netanyahu, currently
on trial at Tel Aviv on Corruption Charges,
confirming that he had bombed a church,
killing a church janitor as well as 84-yr.-old
and 71-yr.-old senior citizens in the vicinity.
The readout / report from the call to the
American/Peruvian Papal offices (now on
Summer vacation) omitted whether
the secular leader also promised an offer
to treat the injured Parish Priest of Holy
Family Church (R. Catholic) Gabriel
Romanelli or other injured Roman Catholic
parishioners. The ABC coverage also
didn't contain whether Leo threatened to
be harsher next time if the local Priest or
other church officials were hurt in more
severe injuries.
__________________________________
J Post dot-com is reporting that Netanyahu
is out for food poisoning -- three days
recovery needed while he rests at home.
jpost.com/ Sunday July 20, 2025
After-school program (Federally Funded) to receive formerly "frozen" funding
$1.3 billion in frozen fund
for Federal after-school programming
was thawed today July 18 (Friday), 2025.
Twenty-four states had objected in a lawsuit
for the Trump-Vance withholding of already
appropriated budgeted funds for such
after-school and other services in educational
institutions.
The funds were authorized by vote of Congress
in March but frozen by Trump-Vance as of June 1.
Gen Z stare to elder generations : NBC News piece on the vacant stare
THEORY: because they fear anything they
say or do could end up being mocked online
-or-
they fear being "cringe" a term used to
describe other older generations that came before them. . .
DUE to: being online and constantly using
social media platforms / staring at their phones . . .
nbcnews.com/
pop-culture/pop-culture-news/gen-z-stare-explainer-
rcna219262
Happy Birthday - signed Donald John Trump
pbs.org/News hour/politics/trump-mired-in-epstein-controversy-as-
wall-street-journal-reports-on-2003-letter
Thursday's disclosure - coupled with Trump-allies on Capitol
Hill - pushed POTUS 47 Trump 2.0 to reverse course and
direct his Cabinet official / A.G. at his Dept. of Justice
to make documents in the Epstein Grand jury court "file"
public.
Friday July 18, 2025
NODE outdoor music Thursday First Night music act / duo also Friday, Saturday (Niles, Michigan)
NODE
Niles, Michigan 49120 -- 2nd Street at Main
downtown area for bands / outdoor gathering/socializing
Music acts Thursday July 17 2025
DREW STOLZ & Priscilla Sab
Friday July 18th :
The Erly
6 - 9p.m.
Saturday line-up :
Urban Co. Market 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Hank Nelson 5 - 6:15 PM.
Touch of Texas 6:30 - 7:45 p.m.
Hey Annie (local band) starts
8 p.m. Eastern - - Sat. 19th July
____________________________
July 11 - 13, 2025 at
Riverfront Park, 1st and Front Streets
Niles MI 49120 nilesjesusfest.com
Niles Jesus Fest dot-com
PROGRAM includes
PScott & the Prairie Dogs
David Wall Band
Apostle Dre Love and the I Care Band
DJ John Bon Jovia
The Hillsiders (Gospel music)
Char Villa
Backwater Revival
Bowker Vow Renewal
Ain't No Blues
Fresh Cut Bluegrass (Bluegrass music)
Billy Shelton and the Golden Tones
(Sunday night 6 - 8 p.m. Closing of entire
four-day JESUS FEST).
Ephesians 5:30
Textual witnesses vary and as a result Renaissance-Reformation
era translations and modern revision of such (NKJV) include the
entire version of Paul's sentence in the Greek language (glossed):
We are members of His Body
and of His Flesh and of His Bones
Trump & the Unabomber
Without corroborating evidence,
Trump in a moment of utter fiction
claims to reporters that his uncle, an MIT
professor of electrical engineering [ who had 1
Ph.D. ] taught the Unabomber.
Unfortunately for fans of Trump and his
"stable genius" characterization,
Ted Kaczynski never attended MIT.
He was a math prodigy who earned
degrees at Harvard & U. of Michigan
before becoming a recluse and
who went uncaptured for 17 years.
see further
abcnews.go.com
A kind of pagan or heathen figure
TODAY (July 19, Saturday)
Ross Douthat : Julie K. Brown interview "What remains
to be revealed about Epstein's 2nd arrest in 2019 for sex
crimes, about what the govt. COULD release but hasn't,
and how the story is bigger than Epstein.
NYTimes.com/2025/07/19/opinion/interesting-times-julie-k-brown-epstein.html
______________________________________________
Ross Douthat focused on Faith / Religion / Conservative Politics /
Philosophy / Political movements & 21st Century / History
NY TIMES columnist / acclaimed author
OPINION PAGE:
. . .I think of Trump as, persistently,
a kind of pagan or heathen figure,
much more than he is a Christian
figure. Not withstanding the attempts
to claim him as a kind of King David
or Emperor Constantine. . . The
bargain for religious conservatives
with Trump is for protection and support.
A transactional bargain. . .Particular
steps Trump-Vance administration has
taken are anti-Christian. . .the way in
which the foreign aid programs were
reshuffled and cut off was a failure of
Christian duty. . .
April 25 column / op-ed / 2025
Columbia University mid-July 2025 breaking news NY City
UPDATE (Friday July 18)
NYTimes.com/2025/07/17/nyregion/Columbia-trump-near-deal.html
_______________________________
Administrators at a major Ivy League
school, New York City, have negotiate a
fine payoff of $200 million
the Executive Branch that is holding their
grants and federal aid (FAFSA) and more
under threat and red-tape tie-up.
Columbia University.
It is rumored at the NY TIMES dot-com
that the settlement with Pam Bondi's
D of Justice will cost them millions but
assure that they will remain eligible for Grants
and Federal OKs as far as future school
policies, avoiding damaging suits from
Trump Cabinet officials/departments.
Stephen Colbert contract to expire May 2026 - CBS-Paramount will end the "LATE SHOW" most-watched talk show hour
HIS Next talk show is 11:35 p.m. Eastern time
MONDAY 7/21/2025
Surprise announcement
Thursday July 17, 2025
11:35 p.m. Eastern Time Zone
details:
nytimes.com/2025/07/17/business/stephen-colbert-late-show-ending.html
afterthought -- Trump as quoted in the WASHINGTON POST dot-com
says : I absolutely love that Colbert got fired
Friday evening 18 July 2025
Happy Birthday message
Trump has "in common" with Epstein
rolling stone.com/politics/politics/news/Trump-denies-birthday-letter-drawing-1235388615
__________________________________
Louis DeJoy
the former Logistics / Transportation magnate
who served the Trump-Pence administration
appointed June 20, 2020 (height of COVID-19)
and then continued in office during Biden-Harris
four years has announced his resignation
March 24, 2025.
The Post Office will soon be subject to lay-offs
and firings as well as budget cuts and program
cessation.
Farewell POSTMASTER #75 since before
1776 and the independent founding of the
Constitutional republic that is the USA.
(First postmaster in 1775 was Ben Franklin
of Philadelphia, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania).
House of Reprs. vote on "Epstein Client List" / files from Pamela Jo Bondi
07/17/us/politics/epstein-files-house-republicans-vote.html
________________________________________________
AXIOS is reporting that the Jeffrey Epstein inquest documents
July 7 (after federal holiday 2025 - Monday at month's start)
now "pushed" by Kash Patel (currently FBI Director) and Dan
Bongino (podcaster but now Deputy Director of FBI)
declare that no one
will be charged in the Epstein sex activity/crimes and his
death in a Manhattan, NY Prison.
Ghislaine Maxwell is serving a 20-year-prison term
for child-sex-trafficking and related offenses.
Investigators and those pushing for a full investigation
(such as DoJ Pam Bondi, attorney general of the U.S.)
found no "client list" and no evidence that could
predicate further charges against uncharged third parties.
axios.com/ July 7, 2025
jeffrey-epstein-suicide-client-list-trump-administration
Thursday, July 17, 2025
Iran
UPDATE: July 18
Iran's Fordo Nuclear site was badly
damaged and potentially destroyed by
the 12 bunker-buster bombs the U.S.
military dropped on it June 2025 --
details in article (David Sanger, Julian
Barnes, Eric Schmitt)
NYTimes.com/2025/07/17/us/politics/iran-nuclear-sites.html
_________July 12, 2025__
Iran's foreign minister
Abbas Araghchi
said that his country would accept a resumption
of the nuclear talks as long as the U.S. agreed
it would not again use B-2 Stealth bombers with
megabombs and Cruise Missiles on nuclear
and missile sites.
See FURTHER: apnews.com/article/iran-us-nuclear-talks-
araghchi- . . .
Tehran, Iran 10:45 a.m. US. EASTERN time zone.
Do female Israelis serve in IDF / Army? What do they endure / experience?
Yes -- here's a
Jerusalem Post feature
about two typical
women finding their
place in a fighting unit:
jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-860602
An IDF tank hit with a shell the Holy Family R. Catholic church -- no one denies this happened
POLITICO.com
"Israel apologizes for Deadly Attack"
that killed 3 including church janitor
July 17, 2025
reporting is Seb Starcevic
6 p.m. Eastern USA Time
Roman Catholic parish priest, Gaza City, Gabriel Romanelli - injured also 3 deaths at church grounds
July 17, 2025
Three killed in Israeli missile strike
on Roman Catholic church,
Holy Family, Thursday July 17,
2025: Janitor Saad Salameh; 84-yr.-old
woman Fumayya Ayyad.
Also confirmed dead was 71-yr.old
Najwa Aba Daoud.
The Vatican confirmed to media that:
Local priest and several others
injured in strike by IDF.
ABC .com posted photography of him
receiving treatment for leg injuries;
the Holy Father Pope Leo XIV
prays for the consolation of those
fatally injured and renews his call
for an immediate cease-fire.
Tim Walberg - holding House Education Cmte. hearings on Antisemitism - grilling College administrators
What is the House Committee
on Education & the Workforce?
it demands that colleges & universities
testify before them at hearings --
grilling administrators on how
antisemitism flares on progressive
campus culture across the USA
Chair is a Michigan GOP longtime
representative from the Jackson, MI
area:
Tim Walberg
details at
NY Times dot-com/ 2025 /07/17/
what is the house committee that is questioning
college leaders.html
Trump Cabinet officials visited long-shuttered Alcatraz Prison - July 17, 2025
UPDATE: Doug Burglum (former North Dakota Gov.
and billionaire) now Trump's Secy. of Interior
was on a tour to explore how to transform the
historic prison - island in San Francisco bay
into a detention site following Trump's social
media musings.
NYTimes/com/2025/07/17/us/Alcatraz-prison-trump-bondi-burgum-visit.html
____________________________
Attorney General Pamela Jo Bondi
Trump's Dept. of Justice liaison
will visit
July 17, 2025
see reports from ABC News dot-go dot-com
____________________
Border czar Tom Homan
has no idea
what it would cost to re-open
Alcatraz. At D.C.
press conference
5/5/2025
Riverfest 2025 (Niles, Michigan)
July 31 - August 3, 2025
Four days of free live music
Riverfront Park, Front street, Niles, MI Downtown near main streets
uncoverniles.com/
Free Admission :
Carnival and booths are open Thursday 4 p.m. Eastern
until Sunday Aug. 3 at 3:30 p.m.
Arts & Crafts
TV Drama given "Default" Cancellation
From the Fall 2024 - Spring 2025 season
line-up of ABC dramas, the nautical soap opera
Doctor Odyssey
that starred Joshua Jackson &
Don Johnson
has sunk. It will not return for
a 2nd season as the cast's contracts
expired
June 30, 2025
without the network starting
to pay the cast or crew July 1
forward. It was a Ryan Murphy
"procedural" featuring medical
surgeries / interventions weekly.
Speaker Mike Johnson puts "pause" on voting for 8+ hours -- setting rules for vote on CRYPTO legislation
see THE HILL
coverage of the more than 8 hour pause on the floor of the
House of Representatives
apparently needed to clear procedural hurdle
at last getting
217 - 212 victory for House Republican MAGA forces
as instructed by White House whips and legislative liaisons
thehill.com/homenews/house/5404233-house-gop-crypto-bills-rule/
Wed. July 17, 2025
another History-making day for the Legislative Branch of our
Constitutional government (see Article I of U.S. Constitution,
dating back to 1789).
Coca-Cola apparently in discussion with Trump about sugar source (July 16, 2025)
On Thursday, Donald John Trump, POTUS 47
announced on social media that the major soft drink
company
Coca-Cola
would begin to use, as he put it
REAL cane sugar in Coke. . .
Mr. Trump's announcement did
NOT mention high-fructose
corn syrup which his HHS Secy.
RFK, Jr. has blamed in part for
the obesity epidemic among
Americans of all ages and stations.
____________________________
New York TIMES
Reporter-correspondent Ashley
Ahn has more on this at
nytimes.com/2025/07/16/us/politics/trump-coca-cola-cane-sugar.html
a spokeswoman for the major food-beverage
corporation would neither confirm nor deny
that Coke actually/formally agreed to make
the addition to its "formula."
Syria steps back from war over Druze community and Israel's missile strikes Wed.
CNN Reports (Friday July 18, 2025)
that Israel and Syria have agreed to a Cease-Fire
_____________________________________
BBC continues this story
Syrian Leader al-Sharaa vows to protect Druze
after sectarian violence prompts Israeli strikes. . .
BBC.com/news/article/cg5z3jqe73o
_____________________________________
Thursday July 17 Middle East Time Zone
reported in NBC NEWS Platform 4:35 a.m.
Eastern U.S. Time
Ahmed al-Sharaa, interim President
of Syria after his dissident / armed
group overthrew the vicious Russia-
backed Bashar al-Assad dynasty-regime
earlier this year said that
he promised to protect the rights and freedom of Syria's
Druze community -- and avoid an open war with Israel
middle-east/syria-sharaa-vows-protect-druze-israeli-strikes-sectarian-violence
Only 2
Women GOP hold-out votes (2) were the only
defections for the Senate Majority leadership
jamming through the Rescission bill depriving
NPR - PBS of its already appropriated earlier
$1.1 billion of funds promised to CPB
as well as Foreign Aid of $8 billion.
The last such RESCISSION bill was in 1999,
during the Clinton-Gore second term.
In order to gain near unanimity, the leadership
(John Thune of South Dakota) agreed to
strip out a line item of $400 million for
PEPFAR (a Bush-Cheney era program to stop
Global AIDS spread) -- it is unclear for how many
Republican U.S. Senators this mattered.
Also shielded were massive funding for Jordan
and Egypt, allies of Israel, another major concern
of the Trump-Vance administration, in these days
of bombing strikes that returned to Damascus, Syria
as well as early summer massive devastation to
Teheran, Iran and other Iranian military and nuclear
sites.
IN FURTHER UPDATES: members of both
parties must meet a Sept. 30, 2025 shutdown
deadline or else the entire government will
lack funds for basic services such as the National
Parks and civilian workers in Federal branch
offices both in D.C. and in satellite locations.
This is the first "Shutdown" test that the
bipartisan appropriations funding will face
since the Capitol Rotunda inauguration swearing-in
of Donald John Trump and VP JD Vance on
Jan. 20, 2025.
Wednesday, July 16, 2025
Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota -- announces filing date for Dist. 34B seat (assassinated former Speaker) : Minnesota Public Radio
MPR News dot-org
special-election-for-melissa-hortmans-seat
July 11, 2025
see mprnews.org/ for ongoing updates
Potential candidates could have initially filed
July 15 and that will close July 22 -- results
as far as Primary / Run-offs will be determined
at end of FILING Period.
Netanyahu -- on trial, facing charges
NETANYAHU, "Bibi"
to nominate a FOX News interviewer for
their Philadelphia, PA
private boarding High School's "Wall of Fame"
Cheltenham (near Philly)
The Fox News Staff/on-air celebrity is
Mark Levin
________________________________
On Trial for
corruption charges;
present was Ambassador Mike Huckabee
see
axios.com/2025/07/16/netanyahu-trial-trump-mike-huckabee
Wed. July 16, 2025
at federal courtroom
in
Tel Aviv, Israel.
Far-right conspiracy theory MN shooter faces 6 murder charges (July 15, 2025)
Tuesday July 15, 2025
Assassin appears before judge
in Minnesota courtroom (Minnesota Public Radio)
mprnews.org/story/2025/07/16/man-charged-with-killing-
minnesota-lawmaker-plans-to-plead-not-guilty
______________________________________
Wed. June 18, 2025
news from NPR affiliate
Minnesota News Public Radio
Law enforcement vehicles
formed a procession to
honor and memorialize
lawmaker Melissa Hortman
and her husband who were
assassinated by far-right
conspiracy-theory shooter
who had stalked other
public figures and health
care staff. He will have court
appearances in the days and
weeks to come (for now: charges
of 2nd degree murder).
mprnews.org/story/2025/06/17/
formal-procession-for-rep-melissa-
hortman-and-husband-mark
Woodie Guthrie estate has new songs along with "This Land is Your Land" (newly re-mastered tapes)
August 14, 2025
a collection of never-released songs
and spoken word interludes will be
published :
Woody at Home, volume I
and Volume II
The American folk artist/
singer-songwriter wrote
lyrics for more than 3,000
songs. The 2025 release
comes from Woodie Guthrie
publications in Mt. Kisco, NY.
nytimes.com/2025/07/14/arts/music/woody-guthrie-
tapes-woody-at-home.html
the recordings include the sounds of children, cars,
notebook pages being turned, and guitar parts still
being roughed out.
Katherine Hepburn -- was named "Woman of the Year"
McCall's magazine in 1970
honored as a woman not an actress. . .
Their tribute mentioned her appeal. . .
we should have more like her.
In TORONTO FILM SOCIETY
review of 1942 George Stevens'
directed Academy Award winning
Woman of the Year
the reviewer concludes:
"once again, the confusion
between actors and their
roles is complete."
torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/woman-of-the-year-1942/
She was not only cast in roles but she developed concepts /
stories into full-blown Screenplays as well as major
Productions !
Vaccine for Yersinia Pestis (bubonic plague) - MRNA
July 16 posted at Jerusalem POST online platform
Israeli Researchers develop world's
first M RNA vaccine against
BACTERIUM
specifically Yersinia Pestis
Tel Aviv University and Israeli Institute for
Biological Research. The vaccine focuses on
the pneumonic plague variant.
_______________________________________
Bubonic Plague has been found as cause of death
for a
Flagstaff, AZ man
Friday July 12, 2025;
authorities have not identified
and released his hometown but
he came to the Flagstaff E.R. and
no cause of the plague transmission
is yet known.
PHOENIX, AZ Fox TV affiliate reporting
fox10phoenix.com (details forthcoming)
First recorded death from pneumonic
plague since 2007.
Mark Twain : It's always easier to fool people, than to convince them that they've been fooled
"It's easier to fool people,
than to convince them that they've been fooled"
"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble.
It's what you know for sure
that just ain't so !"
Vote to claw back NPR, PBS funds / Foreign Aid - sent to Trump 50 - 50 - tie break by VP
Rescission measure
passed Tuesday night - Wed. overnight
Not all GOP Senators approved
this action by Senate leadership but
VP Vance cast the vote to break the
50 - 50 tie result.
Historic day
July 16, 2025
Kumagaya, Japan
Last air raid of World War II over Japan
August 14 - 15, 1945
Kumagaya & Isesaki
cities bombed after Hiroshima - Nagasaki
A-bomb drops
details on 80th anniversary
of the B-29 bombing runs (90 planes)
/ death - destruction of homes, 75% in ruins
CNN.com/travel/last-us-fire-raid-kumagaya-japan-world-war-ii-intl-hnk.ml
INFORMATION for travellers who
are visitors to the cities (major and minor)
devastated at 80 years ago violent end of Pacific War
period of hostilities (1941 - 1945)
Tuesday, July 15, 2025
WMU Archaeology Niles, MI lecture : (Arch. evidence of Fur Trading in Fort St. Joseph) - Mark Schurr of Notre Dame
July 23 (4th Wednesday) -- mid-summer schedule
ahead of "Archaeology Days" at Ft. St. Joseph
Colonial era fort held by French & English then U.S.
held at Niles District Library
620 E. Main
Niles, MI 49120
phone 269-683-8545
Free to all ages: no library card required
7 - 8:30 p.m.
lead-in academic lectures before
Ft. St. Joseph annual "Archaeology Days"
Niles, Michigan -- site of 400-yr.-old French
then Colonial Fort.
Last evening lecture July 23, 2025
Archaeological Evidence for Fur Trading in Ft. St. Joseph
Prof. Mark Schurr, Univ. of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN
see nileslibrary.com WEBSITE
also on ZOOM
Did First or Second Thessalonians get sent and received first?
from DICTIONARY OF Paul
and his Letters (Second Edition : 2023)
Article by N.K. Gupta Page 1054 :
Because I Thessalonians was longer
by words/size, not necessarily number
of chapters, the canonical ordering and
grouping is by pairing of the letters of
the same church together.
Argument in favor of placing 2 Thess.
as the earlier letter are:
mention of past persecution in First
Thess. could fit with the "present
persecution" mentioned in 2 Thess.
1:4 - 7.
problem of idle troublemaking is
explained in more detail in 2 Thess.
3:11 - 15 but almost taken for
granted in First Thess 4: 10 - 12.
The mention of Apostle Paul's
authenticating signature in all his
letters 2 Thess. 3:17 makes sense
as a future warning, with First Thess.
coming later.
when Paul mentions that the Thessalonians
need no further teaching (I Thess. 5:1),
this could be taken as a reference to his
instruction in 2 Thess. 2:1 - 12.
the teachings in I Thess. 4:9,13 and 5:1
("now about. . .") could be interpreted
as a reference to earlier instructions given
in 2 Thessalonians.
Thessalonika
Ancient city in Macedonia.
Macedonian general and later King
Cassander named this port city after
his wife. . .It held importance as a city
stop along the Via Egnatia a roadway
that ran east to west connecting the
Adriatic and Aegean Seas. By the
time Apostle Paul visited Roman
Thessalonica it was a prosperous,
cosmopolitan, "the mother of all
Macedonia" (Antipate of Thessalonica,
Palatine Anthology IV. 228).
David Richardson, acting FEMA director -- met with state director Nim Kidd, according to photos (June 15 social media)
His trip Saturday July 12, 2025
[in blue jeans, white straw planters hat, cowboy boots]
to Kerr County, Texas (site of the flash flooding disaster)
was neither announced nor promoted beyond
five govt. photos on
social media
POLITICO.com/2025/07/15/FEMA-chief-texas-public-appearance-00452293
_____________________________________
POLITICO dot-com Thursday 10 July 2025
Since his appointment May 8 -- a no-show
POLITICO.com/2025/07/10/fema-leader-texas-flooding
He told staff at the Federal Emergency
Management Agency in comments
Monday June 2, 2025 that he was previously
unaware the United States has a hurricane
season (it had begun Sunday June 1).
Before his appointment as "acting"
administrator, Richardson has no experience
managing natural disasters. REUTERS
press agency / platform reported the comments
shared at Monday staff check-in.
He is a Kristi Noem, DHS Secretary appointee
a Marine Combat veteran and martial arts
instructor, after she fired the first acting FEMA
chief of the Trump 2.0 administration (after
Jan. 20, 2025).
DHS has installed more than a half-dozen of its
officials into key roles at FEMA to
effectively run the agency. Most of them,
like Richardson have no or very little experience
handling regional and state disasters. The updated
disaster plan for 2025 is a default one from 2024
but with a dramatically smaller workforce. Estimates
are that 10% of staff have left since last season
and by the end of 2025, 30% will be retired or
transferred. CNN.com reporting
Aspen Conference (annual security forum in Colorado) -- Hegseth unilaterally pulls plug - one day ahead
The Pentagon (under Secy. Pete Hegseth,
former FOX NEWS weekend Anchor,
"Fox & Friends") has without advance
Monday July 14, 2025
notice denied the participation of
Navy Secy. Phelan
and the head of the
INDO-PACIFIC Command
(Admiral Samuel Paparo)
from participating in the
event for civilian and
military officers (over
4-days at July annually).
details at: NYTimes.com/2025/07/14/us/politics/
pentagon-military-aspen-forum.html
The Security Forum replied to the Press Liaison
e-mail cancellations by replying Tuesday
For more than a decade, The Aspen Forum has
welcomed senior officials - Republican & Democratic,
civilian & military, as well as senior foreign officials
and experts . . .
End of W.W. II in Pacific -- NATIONAL Museum of the Pacific War observance (Sept. 2, 205)
V-J day will be commemorated
at the Frederickburg, TX museum
of the Pacific War (1941 - 1945)
with a special program marking
even the specific Minutes and hours
when the preliminary end to
hostilities between the Empire of
Japan and The Allied forces (U.S., Free
Europe, Canada, Australia) took place
7:12 p.m. Central Standard Time
pacificwarmuseum.org/event/
FREE admission
v-j-day-commemoration
September 2, 2025
80 years ago
Monday, July 14, 2025
A multi-color crown on the eikon (ICON) upon his head
Life of Pachomious, chapter 73
[ this Egyptian monastic work documents
the very practical aspects of his construction
of community. . .around marginal farming &
manufacture. . .community prayer of the
Eucharist and the Daily Office. ]
Pachomious's foundations were established
close to the farmlands of the Niles, composed
346 C.E. - 5th Century
Here is the revelation that our father
Pachomious saw while he was praying:
He was looking at the east wall of the
sanctuary and the wall became all golden,
and on this wall there was a great icon
(eikon ) in the manner of a great panel
painting of someone with a great crown
on his head. This crown was of
immeasurable glory and around his crown
were images of different colors like
Precious Stones,
which are indeed the fruits
of the Holy Spirit, namely
faith,
uprightness,
fear,
compassion,
purity,
humility,
justice,
long-suffering,
kindness,
sweetness,
temperance,
joy,
hope, and
perfect charity!
page 137 of The Dawn of
Christian Art in Panel Paintings
and Icons (2016: J. Paul Getty
Museum publisher)
Chapter 4 "Icon Stories & Visions"
Be a good painter - - Acts of John chapter 29
Apostle John instructs the new disciple
Lykomedes
But you be a good painter for me,
Lycomedes. You have colors which
he gives you through me, that is, JESUS,
who paints us all for himself, who
knows the shapes and forms and figures
and dispositions and types of our souls.
And these are the colors which I tell
you to paint with:
faith in God,
knowledge,
reverence,
kindness,
fellowship,
mildness,
goodness,
brotherly love,
purity,
sincerity,
tranquility,
fearlessness,
cheerfulness,
dignity,
and the whole band
of colors which portray
your soul
and already raise up your members
that were cast down and level those that
were lifted up, which cure your bruises
and heal your wounds and arrange your
tangled hair and wash your face and
instruct your eyes and cleanse your
heart and purge your belly and cut off
that which is below it; in brief when a
full blend and mixture of such colors
has come together in your soul it will
present it to our Lord JESUS CHRIST
indelible, well-polished and firmly
shaped. . .
page 133 : The Dawn of Christian Art in Panel
Paintings and Christian Icons -- published by the
Getty Museum, 2016, Los Angeles, CA
printed in Italy [beautiful reproductions of
paintings, sculpture, archaeological recoveries]
from Chapter 4: Icon Stories and Visions
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