Saturday is the No Kings Mass Protest.  I have three locations within walking distance of my home, so I’m hoping enough people come that the three become one.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery, author of The Little Prince wrote that “there is no comradeship except through unity on the same rope, climbing towards the same peak”.  

May we meet in comradeship and climb together towards the same peak for unity, peace, community, protection, and connection in our country and the world.   

Heather Cox Richardson today:

 In April, John Phelan, the U.S. Secretary of the Navy under President Donald J. Trump, posted that he visited the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial “to pay my respects to the service members and civilians we lost at Pearl Harbor on the fateful day of June 7, 1941.”

The Secretary of the Navy is the civilian head of the U.S. Navy, overseeing the readiness and well-being of almost one million Navy personnel. Phelan never served in the military; he was nominated for his post because he was a large donor to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. He told the Senate his experience overseeing and running large companies made him an ideal candidate for leading the Navy.

We all know the day. Pearl Harbor was December 7, not June 7th.

Here’s a history of the American Revolution, thanks to Heather:

In the New York Times, I read an article by Molly Young on Finland topping the World’s Happiness Index.  What’s the measure since Bhutan, the country whose Gross National Happiness Index gave rise to the report, has been absent from the list since 2019, when it came in number 95?

After visiting saunas, Young goes to Helsinki’s main library called Oodi which is Finnish for Ode.  She writes that the library is “enchanting but it was a piece of signage that took my breath away. At home in Brooklyn, the library is papered with reminders to “Please keep your voice down.” In contradistinction, the signs at Oodi said, “Please let others work in peace!” The two commands are almost — but meaningfully not — synonymous. The Brooklyn version is a plea for self-control. The Finnish version is a request to acknowledge the existence of other people. You see the difference.“

“On the top floor were books, games and sheet music from composers like Edvard Grieg and Yanni. There was a second cafe (more salmon soup, pink-domed princess cakes) and glass jars of fresh flowers at every table. Bucida buceras trees grew indoors. Sunshine pressed gently through curved glass walls. Beyond the walls stood the House of Parliament with its mighty gray facade. The Oodi balcony was designed to rest at precisely the same level as the entrance to the House — “to symbolise democracy and dialogue,” according to a library brochure.“

“Children in stocking feet rolled down a sloping spruce floor as though it were a grassy hill. (Pause to contemplate the farfetchedness of a public library in a major U.S. city that is clean enough for floor-rolling.) Watching them frolic beneath a wavy egg of ceiling I became, once again, very sad. Here was a vision of human flourishing that was simultaneously simple and inconceivable. As a kid in San Francisco, I remember walking into a public library and overhearing a man crack the following joke: “For a homeless shelter, this place sure has a lot of books.”“

“It would be a mistake not to mention that Oodi performed a shelter function, too. There were people with an unusual volume of possessions using the space as a temperature-controlled sleeping enclosure. It was allowed.” 

She goes on but I’m struck by how each of us measures our own happiness, and how a country spends its money.  Trump wants to increase the defense budget to one trillion dollars for 2026 while cutting programs that benefit the people, and so sadly the happiness index of the U.S. is going down and we’re in 24th place.  

I bought a cookie at a bakery recently and paid an extra 50 cents because of the price of eggs.  That made sense because of what bird flu is doing to the industry.

But now I read this on SF Gate: 

A Mexican restaurant owner in the city – “I’ve had it with this f—king guy,” Hargrave told his employees via text. “… Piece of s—t has the entire world on tilt. It’s like a game.”

When Trump finally enacted the 25% tariffs on Tuesday, Hargrave sprung into action, posting a long letter to his customers declaring immediate changes to his menu, including the addition of a lower-cost guacamole made with garbanzo beans and avocado, as well as a $3 increase on the price of traditional guacamole. Accompanying lime wedges, which customers often discard with their taco plates, would be available by request only. 

The menus — printed on high-quality paper that costs $1,000 per run — were minutes from being printed on Thursday when Hargrave texted his team after seeing a CNBC article that the president had changed his mind. The tariffs are now paused for one month in compliance with the North American Free Trade Agreement. 

The article goes as to how Trump’s whims affect farmers and consumers.  

He fires NOAA workers who monitor climate change and warn of upcoming weather disasters. His method of firing makes the Up in the Air movie look kind. Where do we put it all? He ignores the courts. I read that democracy in this country is already gone. Tragic. And we must hope the country comes together to stop him, quickly, now, and I know people are working on this, and we must stay strong, soft power, strong.

When does cruelty become outright murder?  Did those who voted for Trump know or realize that he was going to destroy Ukraine and give it to Russia?  I believe many thought they were voting for an improvement in the economy which isn’t happening.

From The Guardian today: 

Russia has carried out massive strikes across Ukraine, using drones and ballistic missiles, a day after the US stopped sharing intelligence with Kyiv that had previously given advance warnings of attacks.

The strikes came early on Friday as a Ukrainian delegation prepared to meet with US counterparts in Saudi Arabia for talks about a possible end to the war.

The Kremlin sought to destroy Ukraine’s energy and gas infrastructure, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. It targeted facilities in several regions, including Odesa and Poltava, using nearly 70 cruise and ballistic missiles and almost 200 attack drones, the Ukrainian president said.

“All of this was directed against infrastructure that ensures normal life,” he wrote on social media. “Currently, repair and restoration work is ongoing.” He said several people were injured when a missile hit a private building in Kharkiv.

In addition, this comes from Heather Cox Richardson today:

This morning, Ted Hesson and Kristina Cooke of Reuters reported that the Trump administration is preparing to deport the 240,000 Ukrainians who fled Russia’s attacks on Ukraine and have temporary legal status in the United States. Foreign affairs journalist Olga Nesterova reminded Americans that “these people had to be completely financially independent, pay tax, pay all fees (around $2K) and have an affidavit from an American person to even come here.”

“This has nothing to do with strategic necessity or geopolitics,” Russia specialist Tom Nichols posted. “This is just cruelty to show [Russian president Vladimir] Putin he has a new American ally.”

Why would we ally with Putin?  What is to be gained except keeping Trump out of the jail cell he should be in?  I wish I understood.  I was on a call where we were asked to send postcards to the White House on March 15, and send letters to Zelensky apologizing but it’s too late.  Trump has made himself king, a very evil king.

There’s a saying that Annie Algae and Freddie Fungus took a “lichen” to each other, and so we have a symbiotic organism where algae provides food through photosynthesis and fungi provides structure, moisture, and nutrients. It’s not classified as a plant or animal.  It thrives in unpolluted areas and can slowly, slowly, break down rocks.  

I’m reminded of it when I read Heather Cox Richardson today – symbiosis and cooperation between differences, living and growing in harmony for the benefit of both. 

Trump revels in telling lies.  Most of us were raised to not tell lies but for him it is a game, a game he has won all these years.

We all know Russia invaded Ukraine. Putin thought he could walk in and own it in a few days but Ukraine has responded by uniting.  What I didn’t know was this:

Trump lied that the U.S. has provided $350 billion to Ukraine and that half the money is “missing.” In fact, the U.S. has provided about $100 billion, which is less than Europe has contributed, and the U.S. contributions have been mostly in the form of weapons from U.S. stockpiles that defense industries then replaced at home. None of that support is “missing.”

From Heather: On Google Maps, users changed the name of Trump’s Florida club Mar-a-Lago to “Kremlin Headquarters.”

When will the Republican party wake up and stop the madness?

I was just on a Zoom call with Russell Delman, founder of The Embodied Life.  There were people from Spain, France, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Ireland, and Switzerland on the call.

Russell emphasized the soft power of an Open Heart.  The theme was on how we can be moved by the power of a poem. A poem can build our immunity and give us strength to pull out of the rabbit hole of fear that a few are creating to disempower us.  In this, we connect.

The heart is about courage, and we good human beings will not be trapped in this web of fear they’re spinning. Kindness wins, and begins with us being kind to ourselves, and ripples out like rings from a rung bell.  

Read the Thich Nhat Hanh poem “The Good News” which begins:

The good news

they do not print.

The good news

we do print.

The poem concludes with:

Leave behind the world of sorrow,

of preoccupation,

and get free.

The latest good news

is that you can do it.