When the U.S. Guts the State Department
The new diminished Department of State showed this slide at a recent global conference, which misplaces every single African Country. Take a look. The Côte d’Ivoire, like it’s name, has a coast. The map shows it is landlocked. The nations are scattered. In Africa, right enough, but with no concern for their actual location. The Department of State took full responsibility and pointed the finger at a young person who OK’d an AI reprentation of the map, and who clearly had no idea where the nations really were.
State Department professionals were once educated. They were once conscientious about presentations. This map is more than inaccurate. It is disrespectful.
Please. Bring back professionalism. Please. Bring back real facts, data, and respectful behavior. Bring back a focus on creating and maintaining diplomatic relationships. Our current representation brings shame and disrespect upon our country.
We are neither feared nor respected “like never before.” The world looks in horror at our tasteless, ignorant, ill-mannered leader’s infatuation with trophies, gilt, flattery, and explosions, at the cost of dignified, peaceful relationships with our allies.
Life is so much smoother with friends, allies, and good will.
If nothing else, get the maps right.
How a Grown Up Ends a War and Wins
It is not my intention here to give our current president a strategy for a gracious exit from the War with Iran. I am writing this only because I believe he is incapable of adopting my solution.
Years ago, my very smart husband, AdventureMan and I played strategic board games. One time, I beat him in only six moves, at which point he stood up and stomped his foot (a very strong statement from a normally restrained man) and yelled “You can’t do that! It’s unorthodox!”
And that’s how wars are won. Yes, you can waste billions on sophisticated weaponry, and have a lot of fun with bombs and destruction. High T at work. You can also waste lives, and I believe that is a crime against your country. Our young people are not expendable.
We’ve all started fights we can’t win. It’s wired into us as human beings. What is the way out?
“I’ve made a big mistake. I take full responsibility. I’m sorry I got us into this mess, and now, I am going to do everything in my power to make it right.”
Those words, and the humility it takes to say them, save relationships, re-establish peace, and a firm foundation for moving forward.
It takes a grown-up to say them. It takes a grown-up to even think them. To continue on a losing path is wasteful and self-destructive.
We are not winning.
It’s time to own up, exit, and begin rebuilding our alliances.
New York’s Participation Trophy for Trump and his Iranian debacle. Everyone invited to contribute; no achievement too paltry to commemorate. The more gilt, the merrier.
CrisisGroup.Org
Because I follow – or try to follow – piracy in Somalia, I go down rabbit holes. Some rabbit holes lead you to the most amazing places, including a comprehensive update on an upsurge in Somalian piracy and root causes.
The rabbit holes led me to this fascinating group, Crisisgroup.org. I’m always curious who is behind these organizations – this organization, out of Brussels, seems to keep watch on some far-flung and, to U.S. readers, sometimes obscure potential events, which, when they explode, we wonder why we never heard of these fomenting conflicts.
And Then – A Miracle Happened
In the middle of the night, with no crowd to celebrate, with no acclaim, The Affordable Housing Bill became law.
During a time when Democrats and Republicans can hardly talk to one another without spitting, 85 Senators, Democrat and Republican, joined 358 Democrat and Republican Representatives to pass a bill to help strapped young Americans get back into the housing market.
The President refused to sign the bill. He called it a “Yawn.” He said he wouldn’t sign it until the Senate and House agreed to institute the SAVE Act. He is attempting to create issues in American elections that don’t exist, to limit voting, to limit who can vote, and to make it harder for American citizens to vote. To emphasize his point, he fired the last two remaining watchdogs on the Election Assistance Commission. He FIRED the people who are in place to make sure our elections are fair and ACCURATE.
I guess he hoped nobody was looking, and that no one would care.
The President did not, however, veto the bill. My guess is that he was facing a revolution in his own party if he vetoed Affordable Housing. So he just let it slide.
He let it slide, and this adorable little bill, The 21st Century ROAD to Housing, supported by members of both parties (who, admittedly, want to get re-elected) quietly became law because it was not vetoed.
In truth, if the president had vetoed, the bill, the numbers are so solid that it would have passed again and become law anyway, but to have foregone that extra struggle, where anything can happen, another distraction, another unnecessary way, it is a small, very welcome, miracle.
Didn’t you learn in your high school classes that laws are made by clasping hands across the aisle? There is so much we all have in common. I believe that most of us have intentions for the common good.
This is a small step in that direction, clearing a small path forward of create common solutions by joining together. Get out the brooms! Clear these cobwebs of hate and chaos! Bring back civility!
Celebrate small miracles!
Celebrate the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act.
“Thieves, Radicals and Lunatics”: The Nation Laughs
The leader of our country describes his own crowd of fundamental ideologists, corrupt nepotism, the severance of watchdogs protecting the public, and broken promises about releasing incriminating Epstein files. He points his fingers at others, blaming them for violations evident in his own administration. He lies, and he doesn’t even care.
We have to laugh. It is that or cry.
Education: Florida Ranks LAST in United States
My husband and I volunteer at a public elementary school. The teachers and administrators are heroes, battling a cynical Republican administration that increasingly limits public spending on education and local initiatives. This is a heartbreaking but accurate indictment. I ask myself why an administration would NOT want an educated population?
Florida schools rank last in new national report
ALAIJAH CROSS, TALLAHASSEE DEMOCRAT
Tue, June 23, 2026 at 4:06 AM CDT
Among other national education research institutions, the Network for Public Education ranked Florida last for its lack of commitment and support for public schools.
The network, a nonprofit advocacy group that promotes and researches policies supporting traditional public schools, has evaluated and held states accountable for how public education is managed and upheld.
With scores up to 100, each state was evaluated based on privatization, school finance, and student and teacher supports.
“The grades in this report are not merely academic assessments influenced by demographics or changing test standards. They are a measure of how seriously each statehouse takes its obligation to the children who attend public schools within its borders,” says the report, released through a press release.
Florida earned an F, with 14 out of 100 possible points earned.
“The states most aggressively redirecting public funds toward private alternatives were also the states most neglectful of their public schools, their teachers, and their students. Privatization and disinvestment, it turns out, go hand in hand,” the report adds.
Florida has steered billions in taxpayer funding to private school programs with limited oversight, a policy critics say disenfranchises public schools and the communities they serve.
Proponents contend that private school programs increase educational choice and competition, potentially improving outcomes for students and families seeking alternatives to traditional public schools.
A lawsuit filed by the Florida Education Association against the State Board of Education argues that traditional public schools must comply with a growing set of laws governing safety, staffing, student services, facilities and finances, while charter and private schools receiving public funds operate under significantly fewer requirements.
FEA President Andrew Spar said the last straw which prompted legal action was the 2026 legislative session.
“We saw bills that were going to address the massive teacher and staff shortage, address the pay and equity gaps that exist, address the funding inequities we have between public schools, charter schools and private schools; and lawmakers didn’t act on any of those,” Spar previously told the Tallahassee Democrat in May at a press conference.
Including Florida, 17 states received F grades, 13 states received B grades and 13 additional states earned a C grade. Seven states were scored a D and only two states earned an A, Nebraska and Vermont.
The report says: “States that most aggressively expand vouchers and charter schools are the same states that underfund their public schools, underpay their teachers, and provide the weakest protections for students. Our analysis found what statisticians consider a moderate/strong relationship with a probability of occurring well beyond chance between the expansion of irresponsible ‘choice policies.’ ”
Florida lawmakers reached an agreement May 29 on a $115 billion state budget, boasting a total of $21 billion in funding for education at a time when critics are calling out the state for chronically underfunding public schools.
For example the base student allocation, which is also considered “per student” funding, increased by $85, from roughly $8,900 to about $9,000.
After rising expenses, however, some say it isn’t an increase at all. With rising health insurance, supply costs and labor, advocates say the increase should be at least $1,000 per student.
Spar said the budget “ignores the needs of hurting communities.”
Florida has now ranked at the bottom of several national research reports on education, including the National Education Association’s listing on teacher pay, and the Education Scorecard’s state-by-state analysis on academic achievement.
“It’s no surprise that a failing woke institution would rank Florida, a national leader in education, last whenever possible,” a state education department spokesperson previously told the Tallahassee Democrat in response to its low ranking on the Education Scorecard in May.
Expendables: Illegal and Unconstitutional
I believe the sentiments of most American people towards Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi are that their firings are no great loss.
To give credit where credit is due, before becoming national public figures, both women had achieved notoriety in their own states. Like it or not, they are accomplished women, women achieving competently in the world of politics, Noem as governor and Bondi as attorney general.
Both are transactional types. Again, like it or not, each did her bounden duty to serve the will of the President, even when his demands were illegal and unconstitutional. Each, I believe, hoped for higher offices to come, in reward for executing acts and processes to eliminate the leaders “enemies,” whether enemy aliens or political opponents. Each stretched constitutional and societal mores beyond their limits in efforts to appease the endless greed of their leader, failing only because they wouldn’t go far enough. They broke laws. It wasn’t enough. They lied for the leader, they served his means.
I’m glad they are gone, and I feel sorry for them. They did everything the leader asked. They sacrificed personal integrity. They lied. They issued unconstitutional orders.
It didn’t pay. In the end, they took attention away from the man of endless genius they served. He found them to be expendable. They did what he wanted, but were not successful and exposed his means to public scorn. That was unforgivable. They’re pretty enough (and that matters to the leader) but just women.
“Off with their heads!” exclaims the Red Queen.
The one good thing, for them, that may come out of all this is to have escaped a morality-impaired regime before it collapses in ruins. This is just the beginning. Those who will not accept accountability must have scapegoats to carry the blame.
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Early Voting in Florida
Here There and Everywhere 