Turn Around Bright Eyes ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️🌻

A Little Bit Nervous:   First a bridge fell down, then an earthquake in NY centered not far from Ivana’s burial site (!), and now an eclipse of the sun.  What’s next?  Frogs, pestilence, storms of hail and fire?  Or even worse, another Trump presidency?  To that end Trump reports that this weekend he raised $50 million for his campaign and to pay his legal bills at a Mar a Lago big donor fundraiser.   We won’t know for sure how much Trump really raised until his campaign makes its next official report so like most things related to Trump and money, we should take his braggadocio with a grain of salt.  That said, he probably did raise lots of money from the usual crowd of mega donors more concerned about their tax rates and rolling back curbs on fossil fuels than leaving an intact democracy to their children and grandchildren.  Naturally, Trump entertained attendees with a speech peppered with his usual amount of hate and anti-migrant rhetoric.  He again lamented that few were migrating here from “good”  (i.e. white) countries like Denmark and Switzerland while so many were coming from the places he previously referred to as sh-t holes (i.e. not white). He also warned his guests that if he wasn’t put back in charge, 93% white Palm Beach would soon become like neighboring West Palm Beach which is “only” 37.5% white. The shudders at Mar a Lago over the thought of that probably rivaled the NY quake’s tremors.  

A Little Bit Terrified:  While the specter of another Trump presidency is enough to keep many of us up at night, Trump who gets that abortion policy could be the thing that determines whether he spends the next four years in a jail cell or back in the Oval Office spent his night on Truth Social posting that he would be announcing his abortion policy this morning.  Don’t be fooled by anything he says, while he posted a word salad about facilitating care for rape and incest victims and for protecting the lives of mothers and hinted that he would support federal legislation that wouldn’t be as stringent as Florida’s soon to be implemented six-week ban, all he cares about is winning reelection to stay out of jail.  His words won’t mean squat.  We know that because he ended his post by saying “We must use common sense in realizing that we have an obligation to the salvation of our Nation, which is currently in serious DECLINE, TO WIN ELECTIONS, without which we will have nothing other than failure, death, and destruction.”  Any national legislation would limit abortion availability in states where it currently remains available along the lines previously determined by Roe, and if we’ve learned anything from Texas, that promise to protect the life of the mother does nothing when it matters most. It should go without saying but still must be said repeatedly: Trump is the one most responsible for the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe because not only did he appoint the three Justices who made that decision possible, but he continues to brag about doing so with “his” Justices.  As to the election, add Arizona to the list of states where an abortion referendum could be on the ballot.  Pro-choice organizers have already collected around 500,000 signatures, close to 120,000 more than the 383,000 they need to put a constitutional amendment on the state ballot in November.  In all 3.3 million Arizonans voted in the last presidential election, making that 500,000 number even more impressive, and the signature number is still growing since the petition isn’t due into the state until early July.   Trump has every reason to be nervous about the impact of the abortion issue on the election which is why his abortion rhetoric is going to go all in on ducking and weaving because if we’ve learned anything by now it’s that he’s the master of the Big Lie, and he’s about to add another one to his usual rinse and repeat mendacious mix tape.     

A Total Eclipse of the Sun:  On Friday I attended a lunch meeting with relatives of four of the families whose elderly parents, siblings, and/or children are still being held hostage by Hamas.  Some of them also saw their relatives killed on October 7 or have since received notice that one or more of the family members who they either knew or hoped were still alive are dead. As one of them pointed out, every six days they learn that one more of the hostages has either died or has been dead since October 7.   They were all remarkably stoic but also appeared wan and shattered, what you’d expect from people who’ve suffered the worst and are still suffering. Their recounting of the events of October 7 and how they learned and continue to learn about their relatives’ murder and suffering reminded me of 9.11, when we all hoped and prayed that our friends who’d called from their offices or from staircases would survive only to learn that so many hadn’t.  Remarkably given their pain, all of the hostage families expressed concern for the suffering in Gaza.  All they want and all they’re focused on is getting their relatives, and in some cases the bodies of their relatives, brought home.  They fear that they’re being left behind, stuck in a blame game maelstrom that’s out of their control.  Let’s not let that happen.  Let’s not forget them.   

#BringThemAllHomeNow