Ward on Words

Valentine's day was yesterday and JD Vance, Trump's VP, and Pete Hegesth, Trump's Secretary of Defense, were at the Munich Security conference, and both shared their views on the ills of Europe and the values of Russia.  German Chancellor Olaf Scholz later rebuked Vance for his open alignment with a far-right party that supports Nazi actions at Dachau, among other reprehensible things.  “'A commitment to ‘never again’ is not reconcilable with support for the AfD,' Mr. Scholz said at the conference on Saturday morning, in an address opening the gathering’s second day. At the same conference,  Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who was confirmed despite widespread allegations of alcoholism and sexual harassment (even his mother talked about his flaws in an email to her son!), expressed open support for Russia's goals for Ukraine. He invited far right political activist Jack Posobiec on this trip , prompting fears that a Trump nominee would politicize the military....

Wednesday, Sept. 27 was a bit misty. I knew rain was predicted for later in the day and the rest of the week, so in the morning, I took the dog for a walk at the local greenway. It was pretty and the leaves were just beginning to turn. The rain was soft and despite the damp in the air, my dog and I enjoyed the walk. Later in the day, the rains turned heavy, but Wednesday morning, the rain was a soft patter - no cause for alarm until later in the day.                                              Wednesday, Sept. 25 – the calm before Helene Perhaps the tornado that touched down later that afternoon in a nearby town should have been more alarming sign of the devastation to come. But I grew up in tornado territory in Illinois, and though tornadoes are extremely rare in the Southern Appalachians, THIS tornado was small and did n...

Since taking office on Jan. 20, 2025, the new president has issued hundreds of executive orders attacking the role of Congress and taking a big ax to the Constitution itself. Through his EOs, he has prevented NIH from communicating with the public; halted previously approved research funding, heavily impacting university research programs; froze previously approved federal spending from being disbursed at all; banned birthright citizenship - and much more. Some of these actions are in the courts. With regard to the EO banning birthright citizenship, a judge, appointed by Reagan, said this was the most unconstitutional order he'd ever seen . We'll see how the Federalist Society ideologues on SCOTUS approach this issue.  On Inauguration Day,  pressure from Elon Musk sparked the resignation of the head of the FAA . The first fatal plane accident in 16 years happened less than two weeks later. An American Airlines plane, carrying competitive ice skaters, collided with a military ...