ChristineMDB

11,000 happy people at the No Kings rally in which we participated. AC Hotel Vancouver (waterfront) owners have instructed staff to decline future ICE group bookings: “…since the local protests began against ICE agents staying at the AC Hotel, the hotel has lost a significant amount of business…”.

Pacific northwest, thanks. I am online rarely but appreciate the welcome.

Per the Orange One at today's forced military team building: “We should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military.” A review of the Constitution and amendments will be informative to the Administration. (From Vancouver, WA, across the river from "war-ravaged Portland.")

Thanks!

Richard Goodwin: "Dissenters are sometimes accused of demeaning the presidency... Its dignity, however, flows not from the private right or title or the man who occupies it, but solely from the fact that its occupant is chosen by the people of the United States. It is their office..."

Dave, tried to text you. What phone number should I call please? Happy birthday!!!

Richard Goodwin: "It is not our privilege but our duty as patriots, to write, to speak, to organize, to oppose any President and any party and any policy at any time which we believe threatens the grandeur of this nation and the well-being of its people. This is such a time." (Unfinished Love Story)

Dave, just saw this message and sent a text to what I think is your correct number: 760-746-9188, right?

@rbreich.bsky.social today: “Trump paused his tariffs for most countries for the next 90 days...
The reversal prompted the S&P 500 stock index to climb over 7 percent in just minutes.
Traders with inside information —some of them, presumably, Trump family members and cronies — just made a fortune.”

This week’s main story is about trans athletes, where the conversation around them is coming from, the nuances around competition and safety, and where it looks like things might be going. Full segment at the link in our bio.

At the Hands Off rally Saturday: Wore my Hamilton “Raise a glass to freedom” tshirt. Two women saw it, sang the next line “Something they can never take away.” Elton and I joined in for the final “Raise a glass to the four of us, Tomorrow there’ll be more of us…” @lin-manuel-miranda.bsky.social

My husband and I joined the Hands Off protest at Esther Short park in downtown Vancouver, Washington. Apparently ~7K people! We listened to speeches, sang, chatted with like-minded folk, and felt optimism and hope for the future. As in my native Philippines, people power will triumph over oligarchy.

Opinion | What exactly does Trump think is in the Smithsonian? Following his most recent executive order, I went in search of some “corrosive ideology.”

What a moving essay about the Smithsonian museum, by the Washington Post's Monica Hesse. Take the time to read, not scan, it. wapo.st/4jzexz5

If the Christian "Do unto others as you would have them do to you" is right, then may Tom Hogan, Kristi Noem, et al someday go through what they have done to the people they carelessly and cruelly tossed to El Salvador's black hole of a prison. Those people's one life, treated without respect...

I suggest Trump/Vance have a sit-down with Puerto Ricans and ask them how they have been treated as a territory of the United States. Before touting such potential "benefits" to the Inuit people of Greenland. One can't forget Trump tossing paper towels as his gesture of 2017 post-hurricane relief.

What a sad little mental life that Watters guy has. Ugh.

'Putin is weak. We must use that' — Zelensky's Munich speech in 5 key quotes President Volodymyr Zelensky's speech on the second day of the Munich Security Conference on Feb. 15 was met with several rounds of applause. The Ukrainian president called for the creation of an "ar...

President Zelenskyy gives me twenty times as much hope as Trump gives me the creeps. "If it's not Brussels, then it's Moscow," he warned at the Munich Security Conference. kyivindependent.com/zelenskys-mu...

Analysis | Trump’s travel to Mar-a-Lago alone probably cost taxpayers more than $64 million That alone is more than twice the cost of the Mueller probe.

Here's a reminder of how much we (taxpayers) paid for Trump's travels to his Florida home in 2019: $64 million. Maybe DOGE will disallow such self-enriching wanderings this time around... www.washingtonpost.com/politics/201...

GAO looked into 4 trips to Mar-a-Lago by Trump and 3 international trips by his sons between January-March 2017. "We estimate that federal agencies spent about $13.6 million for the Mar-a-Lago trips... This excludes certain classified cost information." Think how many Fed salaries that would cover.

I have such pity for all Musk's children. We saw what he did to his daughter Vivian -- the lack of fatherly understanding, empathy, love.

WEIMAR+STATEMENT FRANCE, GERMANY, POLAND, ITALY, SPAIN, UNITED KINGDOM EU HIGH REPRESENTATIVE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND SECURITY POLICY We are ready to enhance our support for Ukraine. We commit to its independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of Russia's war of aggression. We share the goal to keep supporting Ukraine until a just, comprehensive and lasting peace is reached. A peace that guarantees the interest of Ukraine and our own. We are looking forward to discussing the way ahead together with our American allies. Our shared objectives should be to put Ukraine in a position of strength. Ukraine and Europe must be part of any negotiations. Ukraine should be provided with strong security guarantees. A just and lasting peace in Ukraine is a necessary condition for a strong transatlantic security. We recall that the security of the European continent is our common responsibility. We are therefore working together to strengthen our collective defense capabilities.

BREAKING: France, Germany, Poland, Italy, Spain & UK sign a joint statement vowing to protect Ukraine’s sovereignty & demanding a role in the peace talks.

This is leadership.

It’s also unprecedented.

A western alliance is having to form against a new, twin & united threat: Trump & Putin.

NCAA president says there are ‘less than 10’ transgender athletes in college sports NCAA President Charlie Baker told a Senate panel there are fewer than 10 transgender athletes he is aware of who currently compete in college sports, pouring cold water on an issue Republicans have…

I'm sad for the transgender fear that was promoted today in The Orange One's latest executive order, re school sports. Some relevant data from The Hill news site: thehill.com/homenews/lgb...

My greatest sadness is for my transgender grown-up child and LGBTQ+ family/friends. I thought we were past all this, and back in the biological science of the broad sex and gender spectrum. OK, back to spreading facts!

Packing up my Facebook presence and moving here. Getting through the next four years of oligarchic "carnage" and blows against the Rule of Law/American experiment. I've lived through one dictatorship (Marcos/Philippines, 1970s until the People Power revolution), and will get through this too.