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05/09/25 01:58 PM #18198    

 

Jack Mallory

Joan, deep sympathies for you and your family. The concept of moral injury is something that so many people who have invested much of their lives, work, and commitment in order to do valuable things are facing, as this administration spits in their faces. 

You speak of the "anyones" who don't see and the "anyones" whose breath should be taken away. 

Would anyone on the Forum care to comment?
 


05/09/25 06:58 PM #18199    

 

Jay Shackford

“World’s Richest Man Kills

World’s Poorest Children”

 

By the Washington Post

May 9, 2025

 

The feud between billionaires Bill Gates and Elon Musk ramped up this week, with Gates accusing Musk of “killing the world’s poorest children” through massive cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development, one of the first targets of Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service under the Trump administration.

 

In an interview with the Financial Times on Thursday, Gates harshly criticized Musk — the chief executive of Tesla and the world’s richest man — for all but dismantling what had been the world’s largest provider of food assistance. Since President Donald Trump took office, Musk has baselessly accused USAID of being a “criminal organization” and declared it was “time for it to die.”

 

Gates said Musk’s cuts were born of ignorance, citing as one example the cancellation of grants to a hospital in Mozambique’s Gaza province that helped prevent women from transmitting HIV to their babies. Musk previously falsely claimed that the United States was spending $50 million to send condoms to Hamas in Gaza.

 

“I’d love for him to go in and meet the children that have now been infected with HIV because he cut that money,” Gates told the Financial Times.

 

According to the publication, Gates also noted that literal tons of food and medicines were going to waste because of the cuts to U.S. foreign aid, and he warned of the return of preventable diseases.

 

“The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one,” Gates told the Financial Times.

 

Gates, 69, is a co-founder of Microsoft and once held the title of world’s richest man. He broadly criticized the Trump administration’s cuts to U.S. foreign aid in interviews with the New York Times Magazine last month, warning that they could lead to 1 million more child deaths per year, and asserted that Musk was the one who put the USAID budget “in the wood chipper.”

 

Gates’s harsher words for Musk this week came shortly after Gates announced that he planned to wind down his charitable foundation and spend 99 percent of his wealth by the end of 2045.

 

In a blog post detailing his decision, Gates does not mention Musk or the Trump administration, but says “the wealthy have a responsibility to return their resources to society,” citing an 1889 Andrew Carnegie essay.

 

“People will say a lot of things about me when I die, but I am determined that ‘he died rich’ will not be one of them. There are too many urgent problems to solve for me to hold onto resources that could be used to help people,” Gates wrote. “That is why I have decided to give my money back to society much faster than I had originally planned.”

 

Hours after Gates’s interview with the Financial Times published, Musk reposted a clip from “The Joe Rogan Experience” in which the libertarian podcaster suggested that Gates did not want files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to be released, insinuating that Gates had something to hide.

 

Musk, 53, shared that clip early Friday morning with the addition of the bull’s eye emoji on X, the social media platform that he owns.

Representatives for the White House, Tesla, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday morning.

 

White House spokesman Harrison Fields told the New York Times on Thursday that Musk was a “patriot” who was working with Trump to “eliminate waste, fraud and abuse.”

 

“Backbenchers should celebrate the selfless efforts of America’s most innovative entrepreneur, who is dedicating time to support American taxpayers and hold Washington accountable to the people of this great nation,” Harrison said in the statement to the Times.

Gates and Musk have clashed in recent years over their divergent approaches to philanthropy, according to a 2023 biography of Musk by Walter Isaacson. The two billionaires reportedly met in 2022, and Gates tried to persuade Musk to spend some of his wealth on philanthropic initiatives. Musk, however, told Gates that he believed most philanthropy was “bulls---” and was angry with Gates for shorting Tesla stock, according to the Isaacson book.

 

Meanwhile, three months into Trump’s second term, DOGE’s cuts to U.S. foreign aid have left programs and their beneficiaries reeling. The Trump administration has axed more than 80 percent of programs funded through USAID, removed all but a handful of about 10,000 employees and folded the agency into the State Department. Much of what remains faces an uncertain future.

 

USAID and the State Department oversaw some 90 percent of the U.S. foreign aid budget as of 2023. Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio plan to cut State Department funding nearly in half. The full extent of the cuts has yet to be quantified as Trump’s budget takes shape.


05/09/25 07:30 PM #18200    

 

Jay Shackford

Cruel and unusual punishment 

What happened to Joan's daughter-in-law qualifies in my view as "cruel and unusual punishment" for someone who has served  our government faithfully for 10 years with nothing less than the highest annual performance reviews.  To take away her maternity benefits is shameful.   To make matters worse, that sort of  Nazi-like cruelty and indiscriminate firings are happening to federal workers across the country -- some of whom have spent 20 or even 30 years working for much less than they could have been making in private practice.   Two families on our 10 house cul de sac have lost their jobs or are iin danger of losing their jobs.  These folks have kids in school, mortgages to pay and food to put on the table. And Trump, Musk, "Big Balls" and his DOGE team as well as their cheerleaders on Fox and elsewhere are enjoying it. To trim government to make it more efficient is one thing; to do it this way is unAmerican and shameful.  Having fun yet, Nori?  


05/10/25 03:11 AM #18201    

 

Joan Ruggles (Young)

Jay sadly, I think the cruelty is the whole point. Cruelty and humiliation. Anyone who's ever been pregnant understands how vulnerable one feels in that situation. 


05/10/25 09:39 AM #18202    

 

Jack Mallory

The Commander in Chief and his policies spit in the eye of an American Navy Commander with nearly 20 years of service, 60 combat missions.

"On Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of President Donald Trump, clearing the path for the administration to move forward with its plan to ban transgender people from serving in the military. The plan would also remove current transgender service members as the lower courts continue to debate the legality of the ban.

"The Supreme Court order is not a final ruling on the issue, but will remain in place as litigation proceeds.

"Approximately how many service members will be impacted is unclear. Recent figures from the Defense Department reported 4,240 — or 0.2 percent — of about 2 million service members have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria. Data from previous years by advocacy groups has calculated the number to be much higher, at around 15,000.

"Among those transgender service members is Commander Emily Shilling, who has served in the Navy for almost two decades. A naval aviator with over 60 combat missions under her belt, she is the lead plaintiff suing the administration to overturn the ban. Shilling told Women Rule that it’s her duty not only to follow lawful orders but to challenge those she believes to be unlawful.

"Trump unveiled the plan in an executive order on inauguration day. The basis for the order, which Trump also enacted during his first term, is the argument that gender dysphoria is incompatible with military service.

"U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes — a Joe Biden appointee — blocked the move on March 18, but the ruling was subsequently paused by a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. A second judge, George W. Bush appointee U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle, also blocked the order 10 days later.

"The Supreme Court ruling was unveiled in a one-page order, with the three liberal judges dissenting. Neither side provided reasoning for their positions given it was an emergency appeal.

“'I’m heartbroken,' said Shilling, who is president of SPARTA Pride, a nonprofit advocacy group for transgender service members.

"Now, Shilling’s future, along with many other transgender service members, is riddled with uncertainty.

"Women Rule spoke with Shilling about the SCOTUS decision, its impacts and her experience serving as a high ranking official in the U.S. Navy. She stressed that her views do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of Defense or the Navy.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

"You’ve been fighting against Trump’s military ban since he signed the executive order. Now that the SCOTUS decision has been released, how do you feel?

"'My oath, as any military officer would tell you, is to the Constitution of the United States and to follow all lawful orders. And so right now, I’m following lawful orders. I’m being kicked out. I will follow what I’m being told. But it’s also my duty to challenge anything that I feel is an unlawful order. And the only way for me to do that is to sue, because I can’t go storm off. I have to use the legal system, which is why it’s there. So I am performing my duty. I am challenging something that I believe to be an unlawful order, and we’ll let the courts decide.'

"'We were hoping that the Supreme Court would go to a shadow docket and make a decision that was kind of final. That way we can all just move on with our lives, either we’re banned and we can go get our new jobs, figure out where we’re going to live, figure out how to pick up the pieces, or we’re not banned, and we get to continue to serve and do what we love. Instead, we got kind of a non-answer, and we got the protections that we did have stripped away from us. We had this injunction in place that allowed people to stay deployed, allowed people to continue with their careers.'

"'I had individuals who were about to take over command of places, and then the ban happened, and they got pulled off of those things. And that person lost the opportunity to command, and their career is irrevocably damaged. Thousands of people will be kicked out of the military, and then if the lower courts decide 'Oops, that’s a mistake,' what are we going to do? Invite them all back?'

"What’s your plan these next few months?

"'This fight right now is purely legal. We hope that we will have a more favorable administration or Congress at some point, and then we can step up the advocacy side again, working on public opinion, working on congressional opinion, and hopefully get trans and so many other rights codified into law.'

'So for Emily Shilling, the next few months are going to continue to be this world of uncertainty: Do I have a job? Do I not? Am I going to continue with the Navy? Am I not? It’s a hard place to live in. I have the privilege and luck that my partner is, she’s an O-5 in the military too. She makes good pay, and we can live on her salary, and she’s not at threat of losing our job. But there are a lot of troops who aren’t in that situation, and they’re going to be hurting like so many Americans are right now.'

"Recent administrations have sort of flip-flopped on this issue. Trump instituted a ban in his first term, which Biden revoked, and now Trump’s bringing it back. How do you think that impacts young transgender people’s willingness to serve?

"'Well, I feel it’s devastating. It’s not only devastating to the trans individual, but to all their friends and their allies. Studies have shown that the mass majority of our youth support the LGBT community, and are they going to want to work or serve for an organization that doesn’t reflect those values? I got called to the Navy because the motto at the time when I joined was, “A global force for good,” and I truly believed that, and I’m very proud of the service that I’ve done. In my entire adult life I’ve encouraged my kids to go into the military. When I’ve talked to people, I’ve told them that they’ve given me so much, and I’m such a better person for having served. At this moment I can’t give that advice [in] good conscience, and I truly hope, and I choose to hope and believe that our military will prevail in the end, and we will show what honor and courage and commitment look like, and we will stay true to our values, and we will be a service worth serving for.'

"Why do you think the Trump administration continues to target transgender military members?

"'I don’t want to get ahead of the president, and I don’t want to really speak for him, because it’s not my place to make any kind of judgment on his character or on his policies; he’s my boss. But I think in the grander scheme, there’s always some population that is vilified, that has turned into the boogeyman. And the arguments are always the same. They were: 'Oh, it’s going to destroy morale in the units. Oh, it’s going to cost too much. Oh, it’ll be a distraction., And every single time, we have been shown that it’s just not the case.

"'I was in the service when 'don’t ask, don’t tell was repealed. I remember sitting on the fantail smoking cigars with my friends and them thinking it was just the end of the world if we let gay people serve in the military, that the military will just disintegrate, and it just isn’t the case. We’re here over a decade later, and the military is still strong. It’s going to be the same thing with trans individuals. It’s just going to take time for the world to catch up.'

"You’ve talked in the past about how transitioning helped you become a better leader and a stronger asset to the military.

"'In 2016 when I was a test pilot, I was at the peak of my career living my dream. And I didn’t come out when I could, because I wanted to keep flying, and I didn’t want to put my squadron down a person. So I waited. And by the time that I could come out, the ban was put in place the first time. And that left me distracted, it left me angry. It left me unable to connect with individuals because I was only bringing in 60, 70 percent of myself to work. The rest of that energy was dealing with putting a mask on and being somebody I’m not.'

"'So when I finally did come out, I’m now showing up to work completely authentic. I’m showing up at 100 percent and I’m able to actually meet people where they are with a little bit of empathy.'

"'Before I came out, I was a 36-year-old white man, married, three kids, two cars, a dog, a house, and I didn’t think racism existed. I didn’t think sexism existed. I didn’t see any of them because I never experienced them. And when I got put into one of the most despised groups in the country right now or vilified groups, the transgender community, I’m hearing this bigotry and this transphobia, and it really opened my eyes that maybe I didn’t have it all right, and just because I hadn’t seen or experienced it myself, maybe I was wrong. I learned so much that I had never seen or been willing to see. I’m able to connect with my people in a way that I’ve never been able to. And that is true leadership.'

"You’ve served for almost two decades now. Why was it important for you to serve in the first place? And how has service impacted you?

'People always say, 'Thank you for your service,' and all I can ever say back is 'No, thank you to the service for letting me serve.' I graduated college, I started working as an engineer, and I wanted some adventure. I wanted to do something that I felt meant something. When we were in Afghanistan, the thing that drove me was women’s rights. And I was very proud of what we were doing.'

"'I’m heartbroken. I’ve watched something that I’ve dedicated so much energy and so much time to and so much love to. It was the honor of a lifetime to serve in the U.S. Navy, and I just hope that they live up to the sacrifice that we’ve made.'"

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-weekend


05/10/25 10:05 AM #18203    

 

Nora Skinker (Morton)

     Of course I am not happy for Joan, Jay. I am profoundly sad for ALL who have lost jobs, regardless of the circumstances. Suffering is not what anybody wants but in our society the majority voted-in a leader, knowing full well that funds would be cut, people would lose jobs, agencies would shut down, illegals would be deported & a myriad of other difficult changes would be made. I am grateful that Joan's family is there to lend support & pray that new doors open where past doors have closed. In my many years of living, I've seen stranger things.
    We are all so different! At 8 months preggers, I would have actually enjoyed getting canned. Any rest before a baby comes, is well worth it after. 
     Joanie, you are not the first to point out my sick sense of (potty?) humor & irreverence. Again, we are deliciously & happily different! 
    


05/10/25 02:41 PM #18204    

 

Jack Mallory

Nori is "sad" that Bone Spurs has fired a career Naval officer who put her life on the line flying 60 combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, winning numerous medals. After putting nearly 20 years into service, just short of being able to retire with her full benefits, Commander Shilling is being kicked out of our military because her life's path has been deemed unsuitable by a man convicted of multiple felonies and described by a judge as guilty of what is commonly called rape--a rapist.
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.543790/gov.uscourts.nysd.543790.200.0.pdf

Shame on Trump, and shame on anyone who can just shrug their shoulders and say, "That's sad."

I'm not sad about this grotesque violation of what's just and decent. I'm furious. 


05/10/25 10:26 PM #18205    

 

Joanie Bender (Grosfeld)

Nori, even if Trump told us he was going to deport like crazy and cut out governemnt, etc. it doesn't mean since we were told, we have to accept what we have gotten. Also, Trump lied in what he told people saying he would cut prices on day one. Prices are going up because of Trump. The majority of people are not happy with what he is doing. The suffering that he is causing is horrific and there isn't a silver lining in what's going on. He has committed along with his sycophants untold cruelty as even a 4 year old American citizen with advanced cancer was thrown out of the country in the middle of treatment...this child now faces a death sentence most likely. . Its really a question of do we want to live in a country where ice raids restaurants and takes out immigrants who are working hard there, or peope are arrested for excersing free speech that Trump disagrees with...or attacking law firms that have taken positions Trump doesns't like or Universities that teach diversity and inclusion...well, I think these things are either important to people or not. I think we are in a real crisis as we can become a dictatorship without we the people standing up and saying no, this is not who we are. Love, Joanie   by the way Happy Mother's Day to everyone. Nori, you are an actress and I'm sure free expression is something you value. We need to even allow those who speak about things we abhor to have the right to free speech.


05/11/25 05:24 AM #18206    

 

Jack Mallory

Terrific post by Joanie! 

********

HCR, apolitically for Mothers Day:

May 10, 2025 

Those of us who are truly lucky have more than one mother. They are the cool aunts, the elderly ladies, the family friends, even the mentors who whip us into shape. By my count, I’ve had at least eight mothers. One of the most important was Sally Adams Bascom Augenstern.

Mrs. A., a widow who had played cutthroat bridge with my grandmother in the 1950s, lived near my family in Maine in the summer. I began vacuuming and weeding and painting for her when I was about 12, but it wasn't long before my time at her house stopped being a job. She was bossy, demanding, sharp as a tack...and funny and thoughtful, and she remembered most of the century. She would sit in her rocking chair by the sunny window in the kitchen, shelling peas and telling me stories while I washed the floor with a hand sponge to spin out the time.

Sally (not Sarah) Bascom was born on December 25, 1903. (For folks in Maine keeping score, that made her almost a full year older than Millard Robinson, a fact she loathed.) She was the oldest of six children and spent her youth taking care of the younger ones. When I once asked her what was the most important historical event in her lifetime, this woman who had lived through the Depression and both world wars answered without hesitation: "the washing machine." It had freed her and her mother from constant laundry. She could finally have some leisure time, which she spent listening to the radio and driving in cars with boys. Because her mother always needed her at home, it was not she, but all her younger siblings, who went to college. By the time Mrs. A. was an adult, she was certain she wanted no part of motherhood.

Mrs. A. never forgave her sister for driving her Model T through a field. She saved aluminum foil not because of WWII, but because of WWI. She supported herself and refused to marry until she met an older man who offered to take her traveling; they had a quick wedding and set off for Banff, where they looked at mountains and watched the bears pilfer trash.

She destroyed her knees playing tennis, so she would weed the garden by staggering to a lawn chair set up there. She loved snapdragons and nicotiana, veronica and irises and wild roses. After Mr. Augenstern died, she drove herself to and from Florida once a year in a giant old Cadillac with "Arrive Alive" on the license plate holder; she drove like a bat out of hell. She played bridge with terrifying intensity. And she always refused to be seen in public unless she was in a dress with her hair pinned up and her pearls on.

Mrs. A. laughed at me when I fell in love with history and tried to tell her that people changed the world because of their beliefs. "Follow the money, Heather," said the woman whose income depended on her knowledge of the stock market. "Don't pay attention to what they say; pay attention to who's getting the money." I listened. And then I learned as I watched her lose my grandmother's generation and then work to make friends with my mother's generation. And when they, too, died, she set out, in her eighties, to make friends with my generation. Every day was a new day.

Mrs. A. left me her linens, her gardening coat, and this photo of her and her siblings: Frances (who died young), Phyllis, Carlton, Guy, and Nathan. She also left me ideas about how to approach both history and life. I've never met a woman more determined never to be a mother, but I'm pretty sure that plan was one of the few things at which she failed.

Thinking of her, and all the wonderful women like her who mother without the title, on Mother's Day 2025.

   

 

 


05/11/25 09:56 AM #18207    

 

Jay Shackford

Don’t Crush New Borns

 

Nori, I’m glad to hear that you are “sad” about Joan’s daughter-in-law being fired from the Consumer Product Safety Commission without cause or even a day’s notice.  I never thought you were a mean or vengeful person.  But now you need to do “something” about it or those words are just empty, worthless words to be dumped in the trash heap of history. 

 

If I may, here’s what you need to do — call the offices of  your U.S. Congressman/woman and two U.S. Senators and explain the situation:

 

  • A high school classmate’s daughter in law was fired from the Consumer Product Safety Commission las week without cause, without even one day’s notice and having nothing but the highest performance reviews for the past nearly 10 years. She’s receiving zero severance pay or even compensation for unused vacation and health care days.  She was literally locked out of her office, unable to pick up her personal belongings.  
  • Besides that, she is eight months pregnant.  Her pregnancy benefits and health benefits were immediately cancelled.  Do you know how much it costs to have a  baby these days?— tens of thousands of dollars.
  • To  make matters worse, she went to work for the federal government 10 years ago under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program despite having more lucrative offers in the private sector.  The PSLF is where her law school debts that can easily total hundreds of thousands of dollars are cancelled once you complete 10 years of government service.  Her 10 year anniversary is July — which means she falls short by a couple of months of meeting that date and consequently will be personally responsible for repaying all of her law school debts.  
  • As a die-hard Republican and supporter of Donald Trump, I’m outraged by her dismissal without cause.  Now I’m a supporter of trimming the fat and waste from government programs but it should be done with a scalpel rather than a chainsaw. To have a 25-year-old called “Big Balls” who can make indiscriminate cuts from federal agencies using a computer program rather than the thoughtful reorganization of an agency, then we are in big trouble.  Look, the Consumer Products Safety Commission makes sure that the products we buy are  safe and meet certain standards.  And these products aren’t cheap.  Walking through Nordstrom's the other day I was looking a baby strollers in the $500-$900 range, more than the price of my first car.  After Trump’s tariffs, the price will probably double because all of them were made in China.  I want to make sure those strollers don’t fold up accidentally and crush new borns.  

 

 

 


05/11/25 03:17 PM #18208    

 

Jack Mallory


Nori, we shouldn't be sad about this should we? Putting books in libraries is just another Marxist plot, right? After all, The Communist Manifesto is a book, and I'll bet there's a copy in the Library of Congress and you could read it for free 'cuz the libs spent our tax dollars on it! Knowledge, information, facts, opinions, just more of that WOKE propaganda MAGA is fighting! 

Why spend the taxpayers money on libraries when we can just all watch Fox News for free?


05/11/25 05:25 PM #18209    

 

Jack Mallory



"'Never again wars' . . ."

". . . pledged to align himself with 'ordinary people'. . ."

"a focus on caring for marginalized people"

". . . a plea for . . . humanitarian aid . . . "

". . . listen to others, know how to build bridges, know how to listen in order not to judge, not to close doors . . . "
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/11/world/europe/pope-leo-xiv-address-peace.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
 

Another one of them woke libs. 
 


05/12/25 11:18 AM #18210    

 

Joanie Bender (Grosfeld)

Jack this Pope sounds very caring for the poor and not hesitant to speak out to defend the less fortunate. He has a world of experience and speaks many languages so he can relate to so many in a personal way. So far I'm like this Pope. Love, Joanie❤️


05/12/25 04:28 PM #18211    

 

Joanie Bender (Grosfeld)

Trump is welcoming WHITE Afrikaner's to the US. Hmm sounds discriminatory but then Trump is anti diversity and inclusion.  Love, Joanie


05/13/25 03:43 AM #18212    

 

Joan Ruggles (Young)

Well, I'm speechless! Jay said everything and more than I was thinking. Good for you Jay. You have a better way with words than I do. BTW I have already written to one of my senators (Adam Schiff) which is a bit of preaching to the choir. Nevertheless, he too needs to hear the real stories. I will write to the rest of my representatives. 

Meanwhile Nori (I would have loved being laid off with no maternity leave when I was pregnant) your lack of compassion shows the same bounds as the felon's. Limitless.


05/13/25 05:43 PM #18213    

 

Jack Mallory

This from five years ago. The more things change . . . 

*********

Today on Grafton Pond:

 

From a distance . . . 35 mm, human eye perspective--what it looked like without the camera. Just about dead center of the photo.



 

Closer up . . . 175 mm


Portrait shot 650 mm

 


05/13/25 06:21 PM #18214    

 

Joanie Bender (Grosfeld)

Wow, such a beautiful animal. Thanks for the pics Jack. Love, Joanie


05/14/25 12:57 PM #18215    

 

Jay Shackford

Short Cuts

By Dead Center Shacks

 

To change the pace a bit (yes, even I get tired of writing about “Two Dolls Donny”), I want to reflect on my days in high school at BCC.  In those days, I was mostly focused on playing ball (football, basketball and baseball) and raising hell in my sort of juvenile ways that fell short of criminal activity.   

 

Anything having to do with scholarship was way down on my list of priorities,  although I did read Sports Illustrated cover-to-cover every week and the sports section of the Post every day along with a few novels of my choosing — the Adventures of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer being two of my favorites. (By the way, there is a new book on Mark Twain that I’m just starting to read and highly recommend.) 

 

As a painful reminder of my very loose connection with academia,  I was rummaging through a big box of old photos the other day and came across my 1st semester report car from 11th grade.  I’m  almost certain that my late Mom must have buried my report card  in that box with the belief I might come across it later in my life and find it useful in raising my own children.  Thanks Mom!

 

My grades were: English C; US History C; Geometry D; Spanish 1 B (more on Spanish later);  Wood Shop D; Physical Education A.  How did I get a “D” in wood shop?  My home room teacher was Mr. Hendricks — the only typed name on the report card. The other signatures I can’t make out.   I was tardy 5 days and absent 3, with 93 days present.  So at least I showed up.  

 

My journey in Spanish is worth recounting. I procrastinated until my junior year to take a language when most of my classmates had taken Spanish 1 in 10th grade or even 9th grade at Leland.  Remember, you had to have two years of a foreign language to qualify for admissions to most colleges and a college prep diploma.   

 

Thankfully, I had a good friend — Walter Ailes — whose Dad was Secretary of the Army under the JFK Administration.  He later was CEO of the American Railroad Association and his son and my friend, Walter, became headmaster at Georgetown Prep School after college and years of teaching.  (I might add that Walter transferred to a private school after 11th grade once his dad found out who he was hanging out with. So he didn’t graduate with our class.)  

 

I think it was third or fourth period on the first day of class in September 1962 when I showed up at my Spanish class.   Our teacher was a lady in her late 30s  who had recently fled Cuba after JFK’s disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion — which JFK reportedly called his biggest mistake of his short Administration and felt betrayed by the CIA which designed and promoted the invasion. 

 

 In any event, the U.S. received a flood of Cuban immigrants who had supported the invasion — including many intellectuals, civil servants and teachers — one of whom was my 11th grade Spanish teacher standing in front of my Spanish 1 class and speaking in broken English.   After the “Bay of Pigs” disaster, JFK spread the word to his cabinet to do anything to help these Cuban refugees resettle in the U.S. and get jobs.  

 

Walter’s dad who was Secretary of the Army at that time helped my Spanish teacher and her family rent a house or apartment in Chevy Chase and get a teaching job at BCC. I sure that many members of the  JFK Administration helped hundreds of other Cuban refugees as well resettle in the U.S.  

 

Interestingly,  “Little Marco’s” parents also fled Castro’s Cuba and settled in Florida illegally, although at a much later date.   As we now know, our Secretary of State has become a vocal supporter of rounding up and exporting without any “due process” of law what he describes as the “worst of the worst” so-called gang member refugees to Black Sites and Death Camps in El Salvador, Libya and elsewhere.   That’s what you call “turning your back” on your own personal history.  

 

To get back to my story, Walter assured me on the very first day of class that we had Spanish 1 nailed.  He introduced me to our Cuban teacher as a “very good friend” and I got, as Walter predicted, A’s and B’s throughout the year without doing much work at all. (I can’t remember her name and for security reasons her picture was not included in our year book. Even the report card was signed by another teacher). 

 

But short cuts have a way of coming back to haunt you later in life. The very next year (my senior year) I was placed in an advanced Spanish 2 class with the best and toughest Spanish teacher in school — Juanita Jenkins who was using tapes to teach  most of the students who were juniors or sophomores and very good language students worthy of an advanced class.   

 

Well, we worked out a trade with our counselor, Mr. Al Sadusky, who was the former head football coach at BCC for decades before moving up the ranks into an administrative role.   Big Al had a soft spot for jocks, and got me transferred to Helen Day’s advanced English class.  

 

Mrs. Day took me on without hesitation, mainly because my older brother was one of her favorite students from five years ago.  She also got my mother to subscribe to the weekly Sports Illustrated magazine,  which had some great sports writers back in those days.  She didn’t care what you read — just read good stuff that interests you and it will pay off in the long run.  She was right.  Trigger a passion in her students and everything else will take care of itself.  Little did she know that I would become a sports writer for UPI in Pittsburgh later in life.  

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 


05/15/25 09:34 AM #18216    

 

Jack Mallory

Sra. Jenkins discovered/developed my affinity for Spanish, set me up for Spanish 3 when I went to Washington U. And for selection for Special Warfare school, assignment to the 8th Special Forces in Panama. And to be able to live and work in Mexico and Honduras as an archaeologist. And to teach bilingual US History to immigrant students in California. MIL GRACIAS SEÑORA JENKINS! 


05/15/25 10:28 AM #18217    

 

Jack Mallory

A major success for Trump. Damage L.G.B.T.Q. folks and immigrants at the same time. And the military, too!  Sad, or angry?

"Fearing the loss of federal funding, the nation’s largest anti-sexual-violence organization has barred its crisis hotline staff from pointing people to resources that might violate President Trump’s executive orders to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

"The organization, RAINN (the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network) has removed more than two dozen resources for L.G.B.T.Q. people, immigrants and other marginalized groups from its list of permissible referrals, according to documents obtained by The New York Times. The employees who answer phone calls, and the volunteers who answer online and text chats, are instructed not to deviate from that list, a policy that predates the Trump administration.

"For more than three months, they have been prohibited from suggesting specialized mental health hotlines for gay and transgender people, referring immigrants to the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, directing students to a group that educates them about sex-based discrimination, recommending books about male-on-male or female-on-female sexual violence, and more. Jennifer Simmons Kaleba, a spokeswoman for RAINN, confirmed that these resources had been removed.

"RAINN and local affiliates operate the National Sexual Assault Hotline, which reported serving 460,000 people last year and is one of the country’s largest crisis lines for sexual violence survivors. RAINN also runs a federally funded help line for members of the military."

More at: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/15/well/rainn-dei-trump-executive-orders.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

 


05/16/25 06:14 AM #18218    

 

Jack Mallory

Anybody else live in black fly country? This is a bit like telling me to celebrate MAGA because it's a sign of "a vibrant, healthy" democracy. 

https://www.nhpr.org/show/something-wild/2025-05-15/something-wild-celebrate-the-swarms-of-black-flies
 


05/17/25 08:16 AM #18219    

 

Joanie Bender (Grosfeld)

I don't look forward to the flies coming! 

Good news that the unpredictable Supreme Court voted that Trump can't use the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezualans like he likes to do and that they are entitled to realy due process. I hope that Birthright citizneship enshrined in the Constitution will be strongly supported by the court. Trump cares nothing about the Constitution. I think its a beautiful thing that a baby born here is an American. Love, Joanie


05/17/25 02:46 PM #18220    

 

Jack Mallory

More mosquitoes than flies on this walk, but the first heron of spring as well, finally!


 


 


05/17/25 06:27 PM #18221    

 

Joanie Bender (Grosfeld)

Jack, I love seeing the heron.  Joanie❤️


05/18/25 07:14 AM #18222    

 

Joanie Bender (Grosfeld)

Hi friends, Please check out this Saturday Night Live link that was on last night. Love to all, Joanie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK83sAPd_fc


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