Law, Power, and Justice

NEWS NOTES FROM A CHILDLESS OVER EDUCATED CAT LADY WORKING AWAY IN ONE OF THE SUB-BASEMENTS OF THE MINISTRY OF SNARK.

It’s raining, thank goodness.  We lost at least 120 houses in the past drought, and I suspect that won’t be the end of it.  Human beings don’t deserve their thumbs.  I actually stole that line from my cats.  They are deeply resentful of the advantages granted by a humble digit.

It’s 11 AM and I finally got up and found some clothes to put on.  Mike got up  earlier and went to try to clean up one of his condos so a tenant can move in.  It’s lonely around here when he’s not here.  I find it difficult to organize my life.  It’s like when Hiram Bernard (our youngest cat) was alive.  He was always here with me, by my side and even though he was minding his own business, he was there, near me and it made all the difference.



This (in case you didn’t already know) is Hiram Bernard, looking beautiful, intelligent, and guarding his staircase.  Hiram owned, or thought he owned the second floor.  Nobody was allowed to come up without a lot of temper.  Even when he was very ill, he jumped on Sam for daring to break the ban.  We will never forget him or stop grieving him.

 

NEWS NOTES:

·      In Southern California, they are trying to prevent a chemical tank from exploding.  Great, just great.  50,000 residens have been evacuated.  The company that owns the tank agreed in 2025 to pay state regulators “more than $900,000 to settle violations involving recordkeeping, permitting issues and nitrogen oxide emissions” (AP, 5/25/26).

·      In the Democratic Republic of Congo workers are struggling to contain an Ebola outbreak, suspected of killing more than 200 people.  Over 900 cases have been registered but it is suspected that the number of cases is much higher.  Panic among the population has not helped, nor has the massive gutting of funding perpetuated by the US.  Fires have been set in medical tents and residents have attacked health clinics.  (Note: Some families have become violent trying to take their dead relatives back to their villages to bury them.)  “Delays in identifying the Ebola outbreak were caused I part by the rarer species of the virus that is circulating.  The latest outbreak has no vaccine.  (NPR, 5/25/26).

·      Article: “Putin Can No Longer Hide His Catastrophie,” by Phillips Payson O’Brien. (5/23/26).  Even though more than 1 million Russians have been killed in the criminal invasion of Ukraine, Putin has worked strenuously to hide the effects of the war.  The government has avoided enlisting too many men fron Moscow or St Petersburg, preferring to take the cannon fodder from faraway “Russian imperial possessions.”  But, the annual parade commemorating the defeat of Germany in WWII, revealed that Putin was terrified of a drone strike.  The internet has been restricted to keep residents from finding out how bad the situation is.  But, the main Moscow airport had to be shut down temporarily.  (Book by O’Brian: The Strategists: Churchhill, Stalin, Roosevent, Mussolini, and Hitler – How War Made them and How They Made War.”)

·      (Note: Marianas Islands, article about the losing of a war.)

·      (Note: The Electricicity of the words “Lymphoma” and “Metasticize.” 

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·      USAID was one of the first agencies DOGE targeted.  “USAID spent billions of dollars on food aid, public health, and emergency relief for some of the world’s most vulnerable populations.  (Mother Jones, 5/20/26).  As usual, Trump is trying to destroy the agency completely.  Journalists from Mother Jones found that in South Sudan, former recipients believed that their own people in the agencies were lying to them than that the US had cut off aid.  Were I now so GD cynical about the US I would find this heart breaking.