Flat Creek lunch

 

We dined "al fresco" at the original Ole's Guacamole on Sunday. Flat Creek is behaving itself gurgling by.

The little bridge survived the flood 17 months ago... so residents of the motel can easily arrive at the restaurant. (Or full patrons might retire for a siesta at the motel!) When I moved here 19 years ago the restaurant was a southern specialty place, with their hot dogs well known.

And look what I saw across the creek, but a bed of daffodils!

The remains from cleanup continue to float down stream...many trees were down from the winds, and landslides, as well as floods of Hurricane Helene.

Sharing with Tom's Tuesday Treasures

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WE'RE AT WAR WITH IRAN

-MARIANNE WILLIAMSON

It could be a quick devastating war, or it could be a prolonged devastating war with consequences none of us can even imagine.

As you’re probably aware, the United States and Israel have begun a war with Iran. Full scale. No holding back. Very much for real.

Forget the Constitutional demand that the President go through Congress before declaring war, by the way. There’s no more even pretending now. The Constitution is little more to them than an administrative hindrance. Congressional debate is like a joke to those guys.

And now we are where we are. We are at war with Iran. It could be a quick devastating war, or it could be a prolonged devastating war with consequences none of us can even imagine.

Thousands of mothers and fathers are grasping their children now, trying to reassure them. Soldiers are dying who have no idea why we’re doing this. People who don’t have a political bone in their body are rushing into bomb shelters, praying for safety. Among the leaders involved, there are no good guys in any of this - only various gradations of the spiritually blind.

The coming days will see many tears. On the other side of this - and that’s a huge theoretical - we must be willing to do things differently. And truly mean it. None of our hearts will be untouched by what is unfolding now. The drama of these days will either purify the human race, or it will end it.

In the words of John F. Kennedy, Jr., “Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.” We must learn to wage peace as effectively as we now wage war.

I saw, when I was running for President, how the pseudo-sophisticates in American politics and media treated the very idea of a Department of Peace. They treat such an idea with condescension and smirks, as though the merchants of war are the only grown-ups in the room. I saw widespread ignorance of the fact that peacebuilding is even a thing, much less with statistically proven results at preventing and reducing conflict. In truth, if we’d had a Department of Peace playing peace games over the last few years rather than just a Department of Defense playing war games, we would have a different world today.

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I’m thinking this morning about a quote from President Franklin Roosevelt called I Hate War, inscribed on the Roosevelt Memorial in Washington DC:

“I have seen war. I have seen war on land and sea. I have seen blood running from the wounded. I have seen men coughing out their gassed lungs. I have seen the dead in the mud. I have seen cities destroyed. I have seen 200 limping, exhausted men come out of line—the survivors of a regiment of 1,000 that went forward 48 hours before. I have seen children starving. I have seen the agony of mothers and wives. I hate war.”

From the United States supporting Israels’ continued war on Gaza, to war between Russia and Ukraine, to the madness in the Sudan - and now this: an actual war with Iran - humanity is testing the fate of the human race. We cannot continue this way. In the words of A Course in Miracles, there is a “limit beyond which we cannot miscreate.”

All of hits is happening, of course, at the same time that Trump seems to be revving up to rig the 2026 midterm elections. I will have much to say about that, of course. It’s genuinely overwhelming. But as tempting as it might be to put our heads in the sand, friends do not let friends sit this out. These indeed are extraordinary times. Let’s thank God that we are extraordinary people. We do not serve Him, or each other, by pretending we are anything less. May our prayers, our thoughts and our behavior now reflect the inner greatness that is God’s gift to us all. The times are dark, but we are filled with Light.

Source: FB Sat. Feb. 28, 2026

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“All war is a symptom of man's failure as a thinking animal.”

John Steinbeck

Marie Bashkirtseff - The Umbrella, 1883.

So angry

 

A heavy box was delivered.

Inside was another box which opened to show a nicely packed journal, vial of pills, various instructions and warnings.

 

It even included a lame little plastic pill counter to hang around the bottle…it fell apart when I tried to remove it from its packing housing.

So the new drug I'm about to try comes like this.

Why does it make me angry? Haven’t even started taking it yet.

I'm pissed at this expensive marketing presentation! The cost is exorbitant!  And thus the pharmaceutical industry has spent all this money to encourage me while taking the drug.

Remember the “methinks he doth protest too much” phrase?

Why?

There are phone calls every other day from representatives and pharmacists to give support and answer questions. I let them go to voice mail.

I haven’t started the drug because I’m currently on antibiotics. 

Will I?

Probably, since I'm paying for it.

And on top of all the junk they pushed into my home (it won’t fit in the recycle bins) I'm almost crying to have been sent a journal.

I can no longer write comfortably thanks to my essential tremors.

They didn’t know it, but when my Dr called to make sure I got the antibiotics I let him know that this disability looms large in my life these days.

Yet another invisible condition!

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People rarely win wars; governments rarely lose them. -

Arundhati Roy, author (b. 24 Nov 1961)

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More to be angry about!

"The UN Charter prohibits the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state in Article 2(4), which reads, “All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.” Launching attacks, like the U.S. strike on Iran, is generally illegal. There are exceptions for self-defense against an armed attack (Article 51) or an attack authorized by the Security Council, but neither of those is in play here.

Treaties ratified by the U.S. Senate, like the UN Charter, have the status of federal laws under Article VI, Section 3 of the Constitution, which reads, “This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land.” (emphasis added). Upholding them is part of a president’s duties and the oath of office he takes under the “take care” clause of the Constitution.

Of course, we all know that under the Constitution, Congress, not the president, has the power to declare war. We also know that for the past few decades, the executive branch has been assuming more of that power, adopting a “beg for forgiveness,” rather than an “ask for permission” stance. But no one has been as brazen about it as Donald Trump, who has bombed 7 different countries in just over a year in office and is at in a second time in Iran, after claiming, in June 2025, that he had “obliterated” their nuclear program. It’s not a good thing when the man with the nuclear codes is punch-drunk on the amount of power at his disposal, and it behooves us all to keep a close watch."

SOURCE: Civil Discourse by Joyce Vance

“The use of force by the United States and Israel against Iran, and the subsequent retaliation by Iran across the region, undermine international peace and security.”

UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemns military escalation in the Middle East.

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The ego is simply a way for us to understand and attend to ourselves, at the same time as we understand and attend to the world around us.

 

Chop Wood Carry Water

Celebrate this, as of Sunday 3.1.26

Jess Craven says:

"So please, take a break from doomscrolling and check out all the things that went RIGHT this week. There are a lot.

Treat this like medicine, folks. Dose yourselves with it thoroughly, maybe do it a second time, and then share this list with everyone else you know who’s not feeling so great.

We can get through this. We will get through it. Because of people just like you and through wins just like this.

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 Trump Media and Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, revealed that in 2025 it lost $712 million and brought in just $3.7 million in revenue.​

​Brandi Carlile raised $600K for immigrant legal aid in Minnesota with a livestream concert fundraiser. The singer’s “Be Human: A Concert for Minnesota” event benefited The Advocates For Human Rights, a nonprofit in Minneapolis that provides legal aid to people detained by ICE.​

Officials in Denver announced a moratorium on the construction of new data centers.

The Olympic gold medal-winning U.S. women’s hockey team declined the President’s invitation to attend his State of the Union address.

London police arrested former U.K. ambassador to the U.S. Peter Mandelson on suspicion of misconduct in public office, the country’s second recent arrest for ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

A planned protest outside National Development headquarters in Newton, MA was canceled after a meeting with the CEO resulted in banning ICE agents from parking their vehicles in National Development lots. [Submitted by subscriber Denise Y.]

After a failed grand jury indictment, Jeanine Pirro's office has decided to stop pursuing the case against six Democratic lawmakers who urged members of the military and intelligence communities in a social media video not to comply with unlawful orders.

A proposal to rename a portion of a highway in Texas after Charlie Kirk was dropped after local residents pushed back.

Thanks to a crackdown on illegal land clearing, Brazil has seen a record drop in deforestation this year in the Amazon.

CA Attorney General Rob Bonta promised to conduct a “vigorous” review of Paramount Skydance’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery and warned the companies not to get ahead of the regulatory process in their celebrations.

A federal judge in Boston ruled that the Trump administration’s policy of deporting undocumented immigrants to countries where they are not citizens is unconstitutional.

House Democrats, who hope to regain the majority in the November midterms, are already charting an aggressive strategy of investigating the Trump administration next year.

UNC-Chapel Hill will “scrap” a policy that would have allowed administrators to secretly record professors, Chancellor Lee Roberts said Friday. The move comes less than three weeks after the controversial rules were enacted. Roberts said at a Faculty Council meeting that he decided to reconsider the policy after it “created a lot of disquiet.” I’ll say!

Ukrainian forces have regained control of eight settlements and liberated 154 square miles of territory from Russian occupation since the end of January 2026.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune declared publicly for the first time that there’s no way for Senate Republicans to maintain the procedural unity required in order to pass the SAVE America Act via a “talking filibuster.”

A new Reuters-Ipsos poll finds 61% of Americans agreed that President Trump has “become erratic with age.” Just 45% say Trump is “mentally sharp and able to deal with challenges.”

TED is giving $1B to 10 nonprofits working to solve “humanity's biggest problems.”

North Carolina’s water infrastructure authority approved more than $472 million in funding for 145 water infrastructure projects across the state.

In a “hugely significant milestone,” 158 captive-bred juvenile giant tortoises were released on the Galápagos island of Floreana, making their return after over 180 years of absence.

St. Pete, FL lit up its sky with rainbow lasers for Winter Pride.​

The U.S. Forest Service is no longer issuing firefighters gear that contains PFAS. This happened after reporting by ProPublica exposed the danger. What a great news organization!

For the first time in league history, the WNBA generated enough revenue to trigger revenue sharing with players.

Anthropic is rejecting the Pentagon’s latest offer to change their contract, saying the changes do not satisfy the company’s concerns that AI could be used for mass surveillance or in fully autonomous weapons. If you’re using Chat GPT now’s the time to switch to Claude!

Joining fans outraged by Trump’s phone call with the U.S. men’s team, Flavor Flav invited the U.S. women’s hockey team to have “a real celebration” for their gold medal win in Las Vegas. He then expanded his invitation for the U.S. women’s hockey team to all American female medalists, both Olympians and Paralympians.

Zohran Mamdani secured the release of a Columbia University student detained by ICE.

Democrats in four states are seeking to bar ICE employees from future civil service jobs.

Paramount Skydance saws its 4th quarter losses widen amid its effort to acquire Warner.

Over 1000 activists, students, teachers, and community members braved the intense cold to pack the city hall in Romulus, Michigan to protest the proposed construction of an ICE detention center. They won! The project has been rejected.

Team USA won its most gold medals in a single Winter Olympics this year, with 12 total golds — and 8 of them were won by women.

New polling confirms that voters in Trump-carried states, including Trump’s own voters, widely support solar energy.

The proposed detention center in Merrimack NH has been canceled. Once again, the outcry of the people made the difference!

The voter enthusiasm gap is now a record 14 points in Democrats’ favor, the largest gap since the 2006 wave election.

One in five Americans who voted for Trump in 2024 now say they regret their vote (20%), a 6-point increase from earlier this month (and throughout Navigator’s tracking of Trump’s second term).

Ana Tiburcio of Alleghany County and Jennifer Mazzocco of Lehigh County were elected as Pennsylvania state representatives on Tuesday, securing a Democratic majority in the state legislature.

And in Maine, Scott Harriman defeated Republican Janet Beaudoin and further cemented Democrats’ hold on the state House.

FedEx sued the U.S. government, seeking a “full refund” of the money the shipping giant paid for Trump’s illegal tariffs.

The sheriff’s office in Alameda county, CA, home to Oakland and Berkeley, announced that it will no longer participate in a federal program that pays local law enforcement to share sensitive data on people they detain, exposing them to immigration authorities.

Borge Brende, the CEO of the World Economic Forum, quit his position after his Epstein ties were revealed.

The longevity influencer Peter Attia has resigned from his position as a contributor to CBS News, about three weeks after the revelation of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

Someone is paying for Leaving MAGA billboards to go up in red districts in Pennsylvania. No one is quite sure who.

In Utah, a federal appeals court rejected a Republican plea to block a new court-imposed congressional map that is likely to shift a seat toward Democrats.

Larry Summers announced his resignation from Harvard later this year due to his Epstein ties.

The Department of Homeland Security reversed course after saying that it would suspend TSA PreCheck because of the partial government shutdown.

One of New York’s largest health insurers is set to pay a multimillion-dollar fine for failing to fix a series of errors that made it harder for its customers to get mental health care.

Portland’s administrative branch published a temporary rule allowing the city to fine the owner of the South Portland ICE building at least $5,000 each time ICE officers shoot chemical munitions, like tear gas, from the property.

A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration can’t force states to supply food stamp data in exchange for SNAP funding.

One year after masked federal agents grabbed her off the street, Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk earned her PhD, and said she is still “hopeful that our world can become a gentler and more peaceful place.”

Stanley Tucci treated the U.S. Women’s Hockey Team to one of his favorite restaurants in Milan. (The men’s team got cold Big Macs at the White House.)

After a historically huge snowfall, Zohran Mamdani offered New Yorkers $30/hr to shovel snow with $45/hr overtime. The sidewalks were clear in hours.

A brand new Reuters/Ipsos poll finds only 27% of Americans approve of the military attacks in Iran. 43% disapprove.

US farmers are rejecting multimillion-dollar datacenter bids for their land.

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