Global climate change is causing the return of dengue fever painful viral infections

For a state whose government officially doesn’t believe climate change is real, Florida remains our nation’s busiest climate-change laboratory.

Echo report published in The Mercury News, by Mark Gongloff (San Jose, California)

The latest test for the Sunshine State is an outbreak of dengue fever, the largest in the U.S. since the 1940s. The numbers are relatively small: 485 cases as of the latest count from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), largely concentrated in Tampa’s home county. But any case of the disease — sometimes called “break-bone fever” because of how it makes sufferers’ bones feel — was rare in the U.S. not long ago.

It’s too soon to attribute this particular episode to climate change because Florida can certainly be hot enough for a dengue outbreak under any circumstances. But a warming planet is making broader swaths of the planet friendlier to disease-carrying mosquitoes, which spread dengue fever. Florida’s experience today will be an example for places at higher latitudes in the near future.

The Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes that spread dengue are most dangerous in sustained temperatures of 26 to 31 degrees Celsius (79 to 88 degrees Fahrenheit), according to a study published this week in the journal Science Advances by researchers from Monash University in Australia. 
These insects also love high humidity and rainfall (athough, they can also deal with drought because it means people keep more open containers of water).

Florida has always been hot and humid. And the U.S. struggled repeatedly with dengue-like outbreaks before World War II. 

Florida’s dengue fever outbreak is a national warning

But, a global effort to end yellow fever quashed many mosquito-borne illnesses here for generations. Dengue didn’t return to Florida until 2009, when a handful of people caught it in Key West.

Since then, the state has been the mainland’s runaway dengue leader, with 606 locally acquired cases and nearly 4,200 travel-associated cases between 2010, and 2025, according to the CDC. 

Second on the list is California, with nearly 2,600 mostly travel-related cases. None of them approach Puerto Rico, with more than 42,000 cases. But there’s plenty of time to start gaining ground.

As my Bloomberg Opinion colleague Lara Williams has documented many times, global heating has expanded the territory of the mosquitoes that carry dengue, malaria, chikungunya, Zika and other diseases. Dengue was endemic to just nine countries 50 years ago. Now it’s in 140. A hotter planet is also boosting the numbers and range of ticks that carry Lyme, encephalitis, anaplasmosis and other horrors. All of these are vectors by which climate change attacks human health and economic well-being beyond the usual floods, wildfires and heat waves.

And the hotter the planet gets, the more land these pests can conquer. Even under less-than-extreme greenhouse-gas emissions scenarios, the number of humans at risk of dengue will be 2.3 billion greater in 2080 than in 2015, according to the Monash study. That means 6.1 billion people, roughly the entire global population in 2000, will be regularly exposed to the disease by 2080.

Yet, human behavior and climate-change effects also reinforce each other. The steady rush of people into hot places like Florida and Texas helps explain the recent and expected future rise in dengue exposure, the Monash study noted. The (justified) end of widespread DDT spraying gave mosquitoes another tiny toehold.

That means people also have the means to fight back, as we learned with yellow fever. Decades of education and billions of dollars of investment in prevention and treatment have helped slow the scourge of malaria, the global incidence rate of which fell by more than a third between 2000, and 2016, while the death rate fell by 60% (though population growth means the number of malaria cases is still rising). Increasing urbanization and economic well-being also help curb that disease.

“Houston should be a malaria zone,” Columbia University professor Jeffrey Shaman, a climatologist and infectious-disease specialist who studies mosquito-borne diseases, told me. “It’s swampy, warm, and has lots of opportunities for mosquitoes to do their thing. But they don’t, and the reason is development.”

But the Aedes mosquitoes actually thrive in urban environments, Shaman and the Monash study pointed out. Fighting dengue will require different weapons.

Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Monash University’s World Mosquito Program and other groups have programs to infect and release mosquitoes with a bacteria called wolbachia, which can curb bug populations, at least temporarily. The Environmental Protection Agency has been sitting for months on a Google request to release infected mosquitoes in California and Florida. But Donald Trump last week ordered his government to speed up any efforts to rein in all the mosquito- and tick-borne diseases terrorizing boggy Washington, DC, and eventually the rest of the country, which could help.

Florida is already running its own experiments. Lee County, home of Fort Myers, has been releasing wolbachia-infected mosquitoes since 2017, the Miami Herald reported. It’s also using radiation to sterilize male bugs and delivering them to unsuspecting mates by plane and drone. The county currently has just 11 dengue cases, though it’s 120 miles south of Tampa.

Wolbachia isn’t a perfect solution and isn’t effective everywhere. People also tend to get weirded out by the idea of Frankensquitoes buzzing around, as the Florida Keys discovered when it proposed using genetically modified bugs to curb populations.

The best approach, then, is all of the above, as Williams has written. That starts with slowing down mosquito-friendly global heating. And it includes surveillance and warning systems to go along with bacteria, radiation, drones, (safe) pesticides, mosquito-eating fish and whatever else is handy. People need to get in the habit of drying out bird baths and other water containers where mosquitoes breed.

Anything that gives humans and mosquitoes fewer chances to interact is worth trying, Shaman said. “That’s the name of the game for controlling outbreaks.” And if it works in Florida, it’s worth trying anywhere.

Mark Gongloff is a Bloomberg Opinion editor and columnist covering climate change. He previously worked for Fortune.com, the Huffington Post and the Wall Street Journal.  Distributed by Tribune Content Agency.

Maine health harmed by H.R.1 "Big Beautiful Bill" causing patients and Medicaid beneficiaries to lose insurance coverage but gives tax cuts to the rich

Maine Writer note:  Senator Susan Collins voted to support H.r. 1

The cruelty of cutting MaineCare | Column
Maine families are already under incredible financial stress and do not need to further bear the costs of tax cuts for the wealthy.


Danny Muller Giving Voice
On Thursday, Oct. 1, over 1,000 immigrants across the state lost their MaineCare (Medicaid) coverage due to H.R.1 — the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Those losing access to healthcare include victims of sex trafficking and abuse, and U.S. military veterans — all of whom are in the U.S. with permission from the federal government. People have already had medically necessary procedures like transplants canceled because they cannot pay for the necessary follow-up care. These draconian cuts to coverage for immigrants also prevent them from purchasing plans on the health insurance marketplace.

When health insurance is stripped away from high-needs populations, research repeatedly shows that they put off timely care, instead waiting until their condition becomes severe. This puts unnecessary and increasing pressure on Maine’s emergency services, where, as we all know, healthcare infrastructure is already under enormous strain. These healthcare cuts hurt our neighbors, our coworkers, and our friends, and they have the potential to hurt each of us, when we need access to care in an emergency.

Maine Equal Justice has been calling attention to these changes, and Alex Carter, MEJ’s senior policy advocate stated “I think one of the greatest myths about so many of these changes is that it’s about saving money, but when people go without necessary healthcare and treatment, the long-term effects of that are much higher, healthcare costs and a much higher burden on our healthcare system … There is no good rationale other than cruelty.”

These are only the first wave of cuts to health insurance coverage, with many cuts scheduled to take place after the midterm elections, at the beginning of 2027. Beginning in January, tens of thousands more Mainers will lose health insurance to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy, almost all of whom are U.S. citizens. The Maine Center for Economic Policy estimates around 29,000 Mainers will lose MaineCare in 2027. They estimate 5,966 people in Cumberland County, 4,088 in York County, 1,922 in Androscoggin County, and 441 in Sagadohoc County. Rural areas will be hit the hardest across the state. Thirty-four to 44% of all Mainers receiving MaineCare in our other 12 counties are estimated to lose coverage. The state of Maine’s own estimates are even higher, stating that over 31,000 people across the state will lose their health insurance in 2027.

The changes in H.R.1 that cut access to essential food and medical assistance also shift costs to the states. The state of Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services estimates that the increased cost to Maine for MaineCare will exceed

💲5 billion over the next 10 years.

Maine families are already under incredible financial stress from existing healthcare costs, and do not need to further bear the costs of tax cuts for the wealthy by paying higher taxes. According to Consumers for Affordable Health Care’s 2026, statewide survey:

• Two out of three Maine households reported adverse financial impacts because of medical bills, including struggling to pay for basic necessities such as food, heat, or housing, needing to take on additional debt, or having to rely upon savings.
• Six out of 10 households stated a major medical event would be a financial disaster.
• Four out of 10 households reported they have lost sleep worrying about medical costs.

The robber barons responsible for the Big Beautiful Bill are creating a future financial crisis for our state and they are burying working families, it is as simple and as cruel as that.

It can be incredibly maddening and frustrating to watch the intentional dismantling of systems designed to take care of those who are most vulnerable and most in need. Those who work in healthcare, or those who are sick, or are taking care of a sick loved one, must face these frustrations every day.

There are things that can be done by each of us. We need to take collective care of each other while holding those in power accountable. Before and after the upcoming elections, Oasis Free Clinics will continue to provide no-cost, patient-centered care to adults in Maine. We continue to need clinical and administrative volunteers. To meet the growing needs, we hope you can learn more about what we do at Oasis Free Clinics and why we do it: We believe healthcare is a human right. Support for Oasis, and for Maine’s other free safety net clinics, is increasingly needed. We hope you can consider adding your support at this critical moment.

You can find out about our Brunswick clinic, at 331 Maine St., by visiting oasisfreeclinics.org

Danny Muller is the executive director of Oasis Free Clinics.

Donald Trump turns up his racism rhetoric to bolster the maga cult base close to mid term elections

Boston Globe opinion by Renée Graham, opinion columnist, associate editor.

Trump makes racism his closing argument for the midterms
His hate-filled rhetoric will become more vile as Donald Trump becomes more desperate.

The federal agents who searched the home of Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota on Monday in Washington, D.C., were looking for one specific thing — a concrete reminder for Donald Trump’s disgruntled white supporters as to why they first fell in love with him more than a decade ago:

Racism.

Without question, Trump’s immigration policies already leave no doubt that in his administration, the “worst of the worst” primarily means Black and brown people. But as he tries to energize Republican voters weeks before the midterm elections, Trump has ramped up his racist attacks.


At his rally in Ohio on Monday, Trump claimed to know nothing about the search of Omar’s home conducted by Homeland Security agents. But, as usual, he disparaged the congresswoman, long a target of his ire, whom he called “a disaster.”

“She comes in from a country without laws, without police, without military. All they do is shoot each other,” Trump said. 

Omar was born in Somalia and became a US citizen in 2000. “And she comes into our country and she says, ‘I have a constitutional right.’ She’s got a constitutional right. She’s telling us about the Constitution. And she comes from one of the worst countries anywhere on the planet.”

His followers chanted “Deport, deport” — which did nothing to lower their gas and grocery prices or make health care more affordable but did boost the racist ideas they share with their president.

Once, the Department of Justice generally avoided such public investigations of candidates within 60 days of a primary or general election.

Hours after her home was searched, Omar, who has been an outspoken Trump critic, posted on social media, “I’m ok. Make no mistake: this is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement. For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation. I will not be silenced.”

Nor will Trump, even as support for his fellow Republican politicians sinks under the weight of his failing presidency.

Gutter racism has always been the tie that binds Trump to his followers. That’s been the case since his first day as a presidential contender in 2015 when he denigrated Mexican immigrants. As a candidate, he proposed a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States”; a week into his first White House term, he issued an executive order that banned travel from seven predominantly Muslim nations.

During the 2024, presidential campaign, Trump amplified disgusting lies out of the far-right cesspool that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating the pets of their neighbors.

Now Trump is making different, but no less vile, claims about Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate nominee in Michigan. At that same Ohio rally where he insulted Omar, he called El-Sayed “a jihadist,” only because the Michigan-born contender is Muslim.

At a rally in Syracuse, N.Y., last week, Trump targeted Letitia James, the New York attorney general. He called her “disgusting” and “a dog.” James was recently appointed by New York Governor Kathy Hochul as a special prosecutor to investigate a former Cornell University student’s allegation that she was gang raped by seven members of a since-banned fraternity in 2024.

James, who won a civil fraud case against Trump in 2024, is a Black woman, and Trump seems to have deep animosity for Black women, perhaps because no other group has voted as overwhelmingly against Trump — more than 90 percent — in his three presidential campaigns.

But Trump’s rhetoric doesn’t just generate the applause he so desperately craves from his followers. It also brings potentially dangerous ⚠ ramifications.

In January, as Omar held a town hall with constituents in Minneapolis, Anthony Kazmierczak, identified in published reports as a Trump supporter, ran toward the congresswoman and sprayed her with a syringe filled with what turned out to be apple cider vinegar.

At the time, Trump said Omar “probably had herself sprayed, knowing her.” Kazmierczak later pleaded guilty to assault and was sentenced to 14 months.

Often, when Trump supporters speak of their disappointment with the president, they’re talking about his bungling of an inherited economy that The Economist called “the envy of the world” in October 2024. But it’s Trump’s devotion to racism and white supremacy that seems to keep his already awful approval ratings from plummeting into single digits.

That’s why Trump keeps churning out the same hateful mendacity. It’s his siren song that steers the MAGA faithful away from facts and voting in their own best interest and straight toward continuing to support his worst-of-the-worst presidency.

Donald Trump continues the administration causes more cruel inhumane war against legal immigrants

Editorial echo published in The Sun Sentinel and the New York Daily News 

Donald Trump’s ever-cruel administration is wrongly trying to put up even more roadblocks to block legal immigrants from getting green cards.

A coalition of cities and state, led by New York Attorney General Tish James and Mayor Zohran Mamdani, is correctly fighting back. Cities and counties in Florida, where this cruel provision could lock tens of thousands of families into desperate poverty, should join their battle.

The change is to the so-called public charge rule, which expands a standing immigration law that was intended to restrict immigrants from getting permanent resident status if they have become reliant on public assistance programs like food stamps, Medicaid and housing assistance.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, part of the Department of Homeland Security, is proposing a rule that gives immigration officials much more latitude in determining what can be considered a “public charge,” including (potentially) public-school education and food assistance provided to American-born children and other American citizens living in their households.

Under the proposed rule, immigration authorities could use that information to deny permanent resident status to an otherwise deserving immigrant. A 2018, analysis shared by the Florida Policy Institute predicted that the state could lose as much as 💲400 million in federal money under the new rules.

In lawsuits filed in Manhattan federal court earlier this month, one by states and another by cities, New York State, New York City and their partners are asking judges to say no.

It is far too much of a stretch to expect Gov. Ron DeSantis to sign on, but Broward and Palm Beach counties and their related cities should consider joining it.

The use of public charge determinations is not a new phenomenon. In fact, it has been part of federal law since before the U.S. existed independently.

What’s different here is that the administration wants to expand this analysis beyond its original purpose as a tool to determine if someone was likely to become fully dependent on the government to whether they are subjectively likely, at some point in the future, to end up using the same public benefits that all Americans are entitled to anyway.

But, it’s an impossible standard that requires, in part, proving a negative.

James and Mamdani are right: This policy would cost taxpayers billions in lost federal revenue, which we would inevitably have to help make up.

Beyond the monetary cost, it will cost our communities dearly as fear drives people from programs that they need, whether or not the rule actually goes into effect in its current form.

As some public officials and commentators have noted, the change does not actually have to take effect to have widespread negative impact. Research has already established that Trump’s 2019, attempt at a similar rule kept people from using services they were legally entitled to, or from enrolling U.S. citizen children, whether or not it would actually have an effect on their status.

People will hear idle threats that “the government will deport you for using public benefits,” and they will act on that information, even if it’s wrong or incomplete or the benefits at issue are not germane.

Make no mistake that this is intentional fear-mongering, straight from the White House, which will keep people away from even our own state and local services.

It will be up to a federal judge whether Trump gets to enact policy by capricious decree like a king of yore. Fortunately, most judges, whomever they have been appointed by and however long they’ve served, still seem to have a concrete interest in upholding the law.

For now, everything is banking on the judges to do their job and strike down this rule down. Longer-term, it will be up to Congress to take this tool away from overzealous presidents.

This editorial was adapted from the New York Daily News. The Sun Sentinel sometimes publishes editorials that agree with our positions.

Peaceful protests in Florida against the corrupt Donald Trump administration

Echo opinion letter published in the South Florida Sun Sentinel newspaper: 

As a retired foreign service officer, I know what good staff work is. At the State Department, we made sure key leaders were never surprised.

But, Donald Trump suffers from its opposite: bad staff work.

He’s surrounded by yes-men and yes-women. No one has the courage to break through his delusional bubble and confront him with the hard facts. They tell him that the polls are lies, that everyone loves him, that he’s the best or smartest president and a shrewd dealmaker. It’s all lies, but he doesn’t know the truth.

They keep him in his bubble. It means his impulsive actions do not serve the national interest, but no one tells him that he’s destroying the very fabric of the nation.

We peacefully protest in Wilton Manors, Florida, every week. Sometimes, more than 300 show up. Trump may be in a bubble, but Americans pay the price for his mistakes. Another forever war. Inflation. Destroyed relations with allies. Deferring to Putin, Kim Jong Un, and China’s dictator.

The U.S. is a weak nation under Trump, viewed as the instigator of war, violence and chaos.

I have gone from being a loyal employee of the federal government to an anti-government activist. For any true patriot, there is no more worthwhile endeavor than challenging the lies of Trump and his corrupt cronies.

From: Michael Varga, Wilton Manors, Florida

Impeach Donald Trump: The Philadelphia Inquirer editorial gives Republicans evidence to impeach regardless of mid-term election outcomes

Echo opinion responses to The Philadelphia Inquirer's editorial position calling for the Republicans to impeach Donald Trump:

As the Sunday Inquirer section described, Donald Trump’s abuses are far worse than those that led to Nixon’s resignation, and it is long past time for Trump to be removed through the constitutional process.

From: Mark Zecca, in Philadelphia

In addition to all the reasons cited in Sunday’s Inquirer demonstrating that Donald Trump is not fit for office, another factor is also his lack of compassion. 

No man or woman should ever be elected to this land’s highest office if they have no interest in governing for all.

The Trump administration and an embarrassingly compliant Congress passed the “Big Beautiful Bill,” which continues to roll out the GOP’s disdain for the weakest and most underserved Americans. The legislation’s primary objective is to further humiliate our fellow citizens already leading lives defined by struggle.
Various obsessive incoherent rants are circulating about how those who support the work requirements for Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program think that we should stop giving handouts.

What many of the people with those feelings fail to acknowledge is that they themselves routinely slept in warm beds, were dressed in warm jackets, and were cared for with full stomachs before leaving for work.

The work requirements affect men and women who, in many instances, are caught in a cycle of generational poverty. For them, there has never been the money for continual, uninterrupted housing, food, or clothing. Some children may attend several different schools and are never quite able to create a path to a productive future.

So before fortunate Americans criticize those people in need of compassion, maybe advocate for the funds to help the least of our brothers instead of ignoring the taxpayer money continually spent to build monuments to honor the least trustworthy president in modern times.

From: Mary Kay Owen, in Downingtown, Pennsylvania

Donald Trump illegally offering to buy diesel from Putin is a crazy deal because it will ultimately cause harm to America's military

Trump guts diesel sanctions on Russia, helping Putin kill Ukrainians and aid Iran.

Echo opinion published in the Philadelphia Inquirer by Trudy Rubin

In trying to lower fuel prices, Donald Trump is helping fund a Kremlin terrorist who is not only out to destroy Kyiv but is helping Iran kill U.S. soldiers in the Middle East.

This weekend, Donald Trump publicly surrendered U.S. honor and security interests to Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

The U.S. president demanded that Ukraine “replace” President Volodymyr Zelensky with someone willing to make “a deal” with the Kremlin to (supposedly) end the war. Yet the “deal” that Trump envisions would not end Russia’s aggression but would reward it.

It would encourage the Kremlin’s unyielding demand that Kyiv surrender to Moscow’s over-lordship. And it would fuel Putin’s war chest, never mind that he has been attacking NATO members with drones, and is helping Iran destroy U.S. bases and kill American troops in the Middle East.

In a Friday phone call with Putin, the president arranged to suspend U.S. sanctions on Russian exports of diesel in the (false❗🤥) hope this will lower U.S. fuel prices before the November midterms. Even more shocking, POTUS threatened to stop sharing U.S. intelligence with Kyiv, unless Ukraine halts attacks on Russian refineries that are meant to finally drive Putin to the bargaining table.

This all happened just as a Ukrainian negotiating team arrived in Miami to discuss with their U.S. counterparts how to overcome Putin’s constant rejection of any ceasefire.

The Ukrainians were ready to discuss a two-way ceasefire over attacks on energy infrastructure, but were totally blindsided. 

Instead, Trump unilaterally declared such a ceasefire had been reached. But, it hadn’t.

Yet when Zelensky rejected the one-sided diesel deal, Trump went ballistic and called for his replacement, as if Ukraine were a banana republic whose president could be ousted overnight.

So much for the much hyped bipartisan legislation named after the late GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham that was supposed to tighten sanctions on Moscow in order to force Putin to accept a ceasefire. In effect, Trump spat on his late GOP colleague and loyal supporter.

Trump’s negotiators have already been talking with Putin’s team about big Russian business deals (that would benefit Trump’s circle of donors and supporters, of course) while demanding zero concessions from Moscow. Clearly, they just want Ukraine to bow so they can get down to moneymaking with Moscow.

And Trump’s desperation to lower diesel prices before the midterms supersedes any concerns about security for U.S. bases, NATO allies, or Ukraine.

The blinkered U.S. leader, however, has no grasp of basic economics. Lifting sanctions on Russian diesel exports will have a minimal effect at the pump; the only way to lower those prices is to negotiate an end to Trump’s misbegotten Iran war.

Meantime, Trump’s refusal to put any pressure on Moscow has killed any prospect of a genuine two-way energy ceasefire that would also halt Moscow’s destruction of civilian electricity grids and heating plants in Ukraine.

If Putin keeps getting freebies from his friend Donald, why make concessions❓

Lifting sanctions on Russian diesel exports, as Zelensky noted, not only gives Putin “more money to inflict suffering on us” but “gives him the ability to fight even more.” To add to this insanity, on the same day POTUS encouraged Putin’s aggression, he also found time to berate the Norwegian Nobel committee for not awarding him his coveted peace prize in 2026.

Few Americans are aware of the new horrors Putin has visited on Ukrainian civilians since early September. Even fewer seem aware of the Kremlin’s tight alliance with Tehran, which gave Russia its first Shahed strike drones, the same drones Iran now uses to destroy U.S. bases and kill U.S. troops in the Mideast.

Putin has returned Iran’s favor by sharing upgraded Shahed technology with Tehran; he is also helping the ayatollahs develop new supersonic missiles capable of striking U.S. warships in the Middle East theater.

To repeat, Trump’s gift to Putin will not only fund Putin’s war machine but will help Tehran kill more Americans, too.

State terror: I witnessed the beginning of Putin’s new blitz on Ukrainian civilians during a trip to Kyiv and Odesa last month and it has only gotten worse since then.

Learning lessons from its war on Ukraine, Russia now produces millions of drones and has upgraded Iran’s Shaheds with jet engines. Russia is also mass-producing cruise and ballistic missiles.

Trump facilitated Russia’s slaughter by ending almost all military aid to Ukraine and refusing to send Kyiv the Patriot interceptors that are the only weapons which destroy incoming ballistic missiles.

Yes, Patriots are in short supply since Trump wasted much of our arsenal in his illegal failing war on Iran. Yet by stiffing Ukraine, Donald Trump is aiding a Russian terrorist who is helping Iran — the very country that POTUS has labeled “the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism.” Untangle that bizarre contradiction, and you can reach only one conclusion: Trump is an open accessory to Russian terrorism that also threatens the United States.

Indeed, “Russian state terrorism” is the only adequate term to describe what Putin is raining down on Ukraine. In conversations with officials from Ukraine’s largest private electricity company, DTEK, I heard worries that attacks on the grid will cut off water supplies this winter and severely disrupt sewage systems.

Russia consistently uses terrorist methods ever since Moscow invaded its neighbor in 2022. I have witnessed shattered high-rise apartment buildings, hospitals, schools, cathedrals, libraries, and markets and heard horror stories about destroyed energy infrastructure that left Ukrainians freezing last winter.

Yet, Putin’s terror attacks this fall are dramatically worse than previous years, given Russian advances in weapons technology and production. and given Trump’s total second term toleration of Putin’s war crimes.

Last year, Russian strikes on cities occurred mostly at night, so Ukrainians could at least walk and work during the daytime. This year, strikes occur far more frequently and often in the daytime, meaning schools and many businesses can’t function because of the constant need to run to shelters.

I have kept the air alert notification app for Kyiv on my phone. It is designed so Ukrainians can punch in their city or town to get advance notice of imminent and critical air attacks. 

As I sit in Philadelphia, sometimes it dings every hour. Sometimes, in the evening, every 20 minutes.

When civilians rush to the shelters deep in Kyiv subway stations, they now have to descend and ascend stalled escalators, frozen due to Russian bombing of Kyiv’s electricity infrastructure. That means that the elderly and mothers with small kids are more likely to risk staying home.

In Kramatorsk, one of Ukraine’s “fortress cities” in Donbas that Russian troops have been unable to capture, the Kremlin strategy now is to make life unbearable. On Thursday, a guided Russian glide bomb targeted two buses in Kramatorsk during rush hour, incinerating 30 passengers.

Photos of the scorched bus made me recall the horrific Hamas bus bombings in Jerusalem I witnessed in the mid-1990s. Putin’s mentality is no different from that of fanatical Islamists who view civilian slaughter as a useful tool.

What is so shameful is that any patriotic president would be revulsed by such terrorist tactics. He or she would use whatever tools were available to force Putin to accept a ceasefire.

A few ways that Trump could exert pressure begin with tightening, not ripping up, sanctions against Russian oil exports as called for by the Graham Act. He could immediately green light joint U.S.-Ukrainian production of Patriot missiles, and in the meantime, encourage nervous allies to spare some of their stock with a promise of replacement from new U.S. production.

Trump could also demand that Elon Musk permit Kyiv to use Starlink connections over Russian territory so Ukraine can bring Russia to the table by more precisely targeting production sites of its drones and missiles — and its oil refineries.

I could go on, but as we know, Trump will never show Putin any backbone. The president decries Hamas but brags of his great relations with the global terrorist in the Kremlin. If this be not treason, then what is?

GOP legislators who fail to call Trump out are also complicit. For those Americans who truly oppose terrorism, the choice at the polls is clear.
In the city of Kherson, freed from Russian occupation, Russian soldiers across the Dnipro River play “human safari,” chasing desperate civilians on the street with drones that can now be targeted from longer distances. They then publish videos of the kills. Russia is now attacking cities that weren’t previously targeted, just to give civilians the feeling there is nowhere to hide. On Putin’s birthday, a Russian cruise missile hit a five-story apartment building, killing 22 civilians (including five children) as they slept in the city of Pryluky.

Such attacks are not collateral damage; they are part of a strategy designed to break the will of the population. “This is the kind of ‘gift’ Putin gave himself for his birthday,” Zelensky said Wednesday. “The killing of children, the killing of people.”

About such killings, Trump says not a word.

Republicans have a constitutional responsibility to impeach Donald Trump

THE CASE FOR IMPEACHMENT
A series of essays illuminating how Donald Trump — an out-of-control president focused on his own profiteering while ignoring and trampling the rule of law — is a clear and present danger to the republic.

Regardless of which party is in power during the next Congress, the Inquirer Editorial Board believes that impeachment should be a top priority.

In this collection of essays, The Inquirer Editorial Board is joined by experts from manifold disciplines, political affiliations and geographic locations, who write about how impeaching President Donald J. Trump is the only way to save the Constitution that gave rise to, and powers, our great nation.

What would the founders do❓ Impeachment is obviously not a matter to be taken lightly. But Donald Trump’s abuse of power combined with his erratic behavior must be confronted.

Donald Trump cut an illegal deal to buy diesel fuel with Russian President Putin but thankfully Ukrainian drones blew up the fuel depot

Echo opinion letters published in the English newspaper "Telegraph"

Donald Trump’s dealings with Russia confirm that he is unfit to lead.

This is a creepy photograph because the evil between these two demonic leaders was captured by the camera lens.

SIR – The squalid deal struck by Donald Trump with Russia’s marauding Vladimir Putin (report, October 11) is contemptible. By channeling funds to Russia in the vain hope that he can avert a mid-term electoral setback he has betrayed Ukraine and helped bolster Russia’s brutal war.

It is Donald Trump’s incompetent handling of Iran which has driven up oil prices. Sadly, it is not Ukraine which is in need of new leadership; it is the United States of America.

From Sir Gerald Howarth, in Chelsworth, Suffolk

SIR – On August 1, 1943, the United States Army Air Forces carried out a low-level, daylight raid on the Romanian oil refinery at Ploesti. Approximately one third of the attacking aircraft were shot down and 500 or so airmen were lost. Now, Donald Trump is urging Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to desist: simply, it would seem, in order to bring down the cost of diesel fuel in America and thereby enhance Trump’s chances of success in the mid-term elections.

So, if oil was a legitimate target in 1943, why is Trump insulting the memory of those 500 men, by saying that it is not a legitimate target now❓

From Rodney Salter in Watford, Hertfordshire, England

Ukraine strikes major Russian oil hub hours after Trump's deal with Putin- By Brett Erickson in Newsweek

The loading terminal of Russia's Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery caught fire overnight following reports of a Ukrainian drone strike just hours after President Trump announced a deal to supply millions of tons of Russian diesel fuel to the global market.

The incident suggests Kyiv will continue targeting Russian energy infrastructure despite pressure from the United States, with the Trump administration hoping energy costs will come down ahead of the November midterm elections.

The Fire:  Overnight a large blaze broke out at the Novoshakhtinsk oil loading terminal in Rostov-on-Don with footage shared on social media showing intense smoke and flames emanating from the facility. 

High cost of heating oil caused by Donald Trump's illegal Iran war causes financial harm to Maine voters preparing for winter cold

Rising heating oil costs have become a central issue in Maine's 2026 Senate race, as reported by The New York Times journalist Tim Balk.
 Echo report published The New York Times from Bath Maine.
Spiking💰💰 Costs: Half of all homes in Maine rely on heating oil. The cost to fill a standard heating-oil tank reached approximately

💲1,650, which is up about 80% compared to the previous year. 

Causes: The New York Times reports that the price surge is driven by disruptions in a vital oil shipping corridor linked to the war in Iran under the Trump administration.

In the Maine Senate Race, Spiking Heating Oil Costs Put Susan Collins on Defensive:  Half of homes in Maine rely on heating oil. Rising costs driven up by President Trump’s war with Iran have become central to the state’s Senate race.

As the Senate race in Maine heats up, the state is getting cold.

And for many Maine voters, chilly weather could present a particular challenge this year: New England’s northernmost state is singularly reliant on heating oil, and the price of the product is surging because of Donald Trump’s war with Iran, which has clogged a vital oil shipping corridor.

The issue has started to move to the center of the race between Senator Susan Collins, a vulnerable fifth-term Republican, and her Democratic challenger, Troy Jackson, who has blamed Ms. Collins for the rising fuel oil costs. Their contest could be critical to determining which party controls the Senate.

For Ms. Collins, who initially supported the war but has opposed it for months, the rising fuel costs pose a significant headwind as she works to fend off Mr. Jackson, voters and strategists in both parties say.

“It’s a huge issue up here,” Lance Dutson, a Republican strategist in Maine, said on Tuesday night as temperatures in parts of the state dipped into the 40s. Ms. Collins can point to her work to bring federal heating assistance funds to the state, he added, but that might go only so far in assuaging an “emotional electorate” facing deep financial strain because of the price increases. (Also, this oil assistance is not fee, who will help to pay for the deliveries and how much will people who need help actually receive❓)

In Maine, the cost to fill a standard heating-oil tank as of Wednesday was $1,650, up roughly 80 percent from a year earlier, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, which represents state governments in securing federal money for heating bills.

Although sticker-shocked consumers across the country are feeling the economic impact of the Iran war — when they fill up their car’s gas tank, grab a six-pack of beer at a liquor store or buy some tomatoes at the supermarket — the spiking costs of heating oil are felt uniquely in the frosty northeast.

Just 3 percent of U.S. households use heating oil to warm their homes. But 50 percent of homes do in Maine, according to the state. (The price of natural gas, used to warm most American homes, has remained relatively flat.)

Speaking in the lodge-like hall of the Maine Maritime Museum in coastal Bath one night this week, Mr. Jackson told voters gathered for a town hall-style event that he did “not know how people are going to heat their homes” this winter.

He scoffed at the efforts of Ms. Collins to lobby the Trump administration for the emergency release of oil from strategic reserves, arguing that she was too close to Trump and had “turned her back” on working-class Mainers.

“No one’s going to just sit there and freeze to death — they’ll do things to try and heat their home,” Mr. Jackson said. Referring to the pride Ms. Collins has expressed in her efforts to secure federal funds for fire stations, Mr. Jackson added, “It’s a good thing that Susan Collins got all those fire stations, because we’re going to have a lot of fires.”

Some in the crowd laughed. One woman in the back muttered that the line was not funny.

Ms. Collins tried to get ahead of the issue.  For example, last month, in September, she joined Senator Angus King of Maine, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, in writing a letter to Donald Trump urging the administration to secure the emergency release of heating oil. And she pushed the federal government to increase its funding for heating assistance, joining a bipartisan letter from senators and backing a call by Gov. Janet Mills of Maine, a Democrat, for more federal support.

“I have repeatedly urged the Administration to use every tool available to increase supply and bring down energy costs,” Ms. Collins said in a statement last week.

But in recent years, federal heating assistance programs have not kept up with rising prices. Earlier this year, Donald Trump tried to eliminate a federal program to help poor Americans cover their heating and cooling bills, arguing that the United States needed to prioritize military needs.

Debbe Kelley, 70, an engineer in Windham, Maine, said she thought fuel oil costs, layered on top of broader inflation, had become the most pressing issue in the Senate race.

“The issue that’s going to affect most Mainers is how they’re going to afford to get by this winter,” Ms. Kelley, wearing a long coat, a woven teal alpaca scarf and a dark hat, said as she braced herself against the fall wind outside the town hall in Windham, the sort of politically divided town that could be critical to determining the Senate race.

Ms. Kelley, a Democrat, said that she planned to vote for Mr. Jackson, and that she knew political independents who had voted Republican in the past but were being drawn toward Democrats by the economic conditions. She said it had cost her $1,982 to fill the tank of her house with fuel oil.

“A lot of people are struggling,” Ms. Kelley said. “It’s going to be a very tough year for Maine.”

Donald Trump is weirdly obsessed with Abraham Lincoln envy

Trump Is Locked in a Posthumous Feud With Abe Lincoln
A complete timeline of this shockingly active (and bizarre) rivalry.

Published in New York Magazine The Intelligencer by Margaret Hartmann. 

Donald Trump has serious beef with every living former president. While the Bidens, Bushes, Clintons, and Obamas have made a big show of their post–White House chumminess, Trump’s vicious smears and elaborate conspiracy theories against his predecessors have left him excluded from the ex-presidents club. 

This isn’t all that surprising; Trump’s not one to put aside a good vendetta for the sake of national unity. What is remarkable, though, is that throughout his presidency, Trump has also been actively feuding with Abraham Lincoln.

This rivalry is obviously one-sided, as the 16th president has been dead for 161 years and is better than Trump by just about every measure. That actually seems to be the root of it: In Trump’s mind, Lincoln remains the one obvious exception to his claims of being the greatest president of all time.

I’ve always said I can be more presidential than any president in history,” Trump said in 2019. “Except for Honest Abe Lincoln when he’s wearing the hat.”

Trump talks about Lincoln like he’s a Republican frenemy who might dare to challenge him in the next election, not a long-dead, widely revered historical figure. Though the current president often makes a show of paying homage to “Honest Abe,” Trump regularly lashes out at him too. Trump has disparaged Lincoln’s (nonexistent) poll numbers, downplayed the importance of the 13th Amendment, and blasted his predecessor for not using Art of the Deal tactics to prevent the Civil War.

Here’s a guide to all of Trump’s bizarre attempts to wrap himself in Lincoln’s glory while subtly taking down the “Great Unifier.”

I’ll ‘heal the divisions’ like Lincoln … starting by suing my accusers.

During a 2016, speech at what he called the “hallowed ground” of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, then-candidate Trump claimed that, if elected, he would look to unify the nation like the 16th president.

“President Lincoln served at a time of division like we’ve never seen before,” he said. “It is my hope that we can look to his example to heal the divisions we are living through right now. We are a very divided nation.”

Then, just like Honest Abe, Trump slammed the “totally rigged” political system, attacked the media for misreporting his crowd size, and said of his many sexual-assault accusers, “All of these liars will be sued after the election is over.”

January 2017: During a 2016, speech at what he called the “hallowed ground” of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, then-candidate Trump claimed that, if elected, he would look to unify the nation like the 16th president.

“President Lincoln served at a time of division like we’ve never seen before,” he said. “It is my hope that we can look to his example to heal the divisions we are living through right now. We are a very divided nation.”

Then, just like Honest Abe, Trump slammed the “totally rigged” political system, attacked the media for misreporting his crowd size, and said of his many sexual-assault accusers, “All of these liars will be sued after the election is over.”

‘I don’t know if it’s ever been done before.’

The night before his first inauguration, Trump held a concert at the Lincoln Memorial. He gave Abe a vigorous salute, then started bragging about his own historic achievements.

“This started out tonight being a small little concert, and then we had the idea, Maybe we will do it in front of the Lincoln Memorial,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s ever been done before, but if it has, very seldom. And the people came by the thousands and thousands.”

There have actually been a good number of historic musical performances at the national monument. But sure, no other president has serenaded Abe with the Rolling Stones’ “Heart of Stone.”

‘I can be more presidential than any president’ … except Lincoln.

July 2018: ‘I beat our Honest Abe’ in the polls.

In the summer of 2018, Trump started referring to a “new poll” that had him “over 90 percent,” making him “the most popular Republican in history of the Party.”

During a trip to the U.K., the president bragged about this to The Sun, saying, “You know, a poll just came out that I am the most popular person in the history of the Republican Party. Beating Lincoln. I beat our Honest Abe.”

A few weeks later, even Trump seemed doubtful — with good reason. There were no polls in the 1860s, and we never got to the bottom of what survey he was referencing. 

(See 🤥Trump's lie here.)

September 2018:  The Gettysburg Address was initially ‘ridiculed,’ just like ‘the weave.’
Trump noted, accurately, that some people panned Lincoln’s famous speech when he was alive. Trump suggested that someday people would recognize his oratory genius too.

“You know when Abraham Lincoln made the Gettysburg Address speech, the great speech, did you know he was ridiculed?” Trump said at a Montana rally. “Fifty years after his death, they said it may have been the greatest speech ever made in America … I have a feeling that’s going to happen with us. In different ways, that’s going to happen with us.”

October 2019:  Lincoln in ‘the hat’ is ‘a tough one to beat.’

“I’ve always said I could be more presidential than any president in history. Except for Honest Abe Lincoln when he’s wearing the hat,” Trump said at a rally in Texas. “That’s tough. That’s a tough one to beat.”

May 2020:  ‘I believe I am treated worse’ than Lincoln.

Lincoln is, famously, one of the few U.S. presidents who was killed in office. Yet, Trump has asserted on numerous occasions that he thinks he has it even worse.

Donald Trump made this claim on Twitter in 2019, citing Newt Gingrich. (Trump wasn’t alone in likening himself to Lincoln. Gingrich compared Trump to the “Great Emancipator” in his 2017 book, and Dinesh D’Souza made a whole movie about Trump’s ostensibly Lincoln-y qualities.)

The following year, Trump elaborated on this point during a socially distanced Fox (Fake❗)News interview at the Lincoln Memorial.

“I am greeted with a hostile press, the likes of which no president has ever seen. The closest would be that gentleman right up there,” Trump said, pointing to the marble statue of Lincoln behind him.

“They always said, ‘Lincoln, nobody got treated worse than Lincoln,’” Trump continued. “I believe I am treated worse.”

June 2020: ‘I’ve done more for the Black community than any president,’ except (possibly) Lincoln.

Up to this point, Trump’s comparisons to Lincoln were largely silly and subjective. Then, in June 2020, he got into a one-sided fight with Abe over which of them had done more for Black Americans.

Initially, Trump exempted Lincoln from comments suggesting his policies, such as the First Step Act, were more significant than enforcing Brown v. Board of Education or passing the Civil Rights Act.

But, ultimately, he landed at Trump’s contributions to the Black community: great; Lincoln’s: “questionable.”

“So I think I’ve done more for the Black community than any other president, and let’s take a pass on Abraham Lincoln ’cause he did good, although it’s always questionable,” he told Fox News’ Harris Faulkner. “You know, in other words, the end result.”

Faulkner, who is Black, pushed back, noting, “Well, we are free, Mr. President. He did pretty well.”

Trump replied, “But we are free. You understand what I mean. So I’m gonna take a pass on Abe — Honest Abe, as we call him.”

Trump, who repeatedly defended the Confederacy, says he's done more for black community than any president with possible exception of Abraham Lincoln but then adds of Lincoln: "He did good although it's always questionable, you know, in other words, the end result."

July 2020:  People didn’t know Lincoln was a Republican ‘until I came along.’ A few months into his presidency, Trump said of Lincoln, “Most people don’t even know he was a Republican.”

Three years later, Trump gave himself credit for preserving this arcane bit of Lincoln lore.

“People don’t remember, nobody ever heard of it until I came along, nobody remembered it for a long time, or they didn’t use it, at least. 

I use it all the time: Abraham Lincoln was a Republican,” Trump said in July 2020. “You know, you say that and people say, ‘I didn’t know that,’ but he was Republican. So we’re doing a great job.”

October 2020:  I’ve ‘always competed against’ Lincoln.

During a rally in Pennsylvania, Trump dropped a greatest-hits album of his Lincoln commentary with a new bonus track.

“You know we’re the party of Abraham Lincoln, a lot of people don’t know that,” Trump said. “The great Abraham Lincoln, a man that I’ve always competed against. I said, ‘I can be more presidential than any president ever, except for the possible exception of Abraham Lincoln when he’s wearing the hat.’”

July 2021:  A Washington-Lincoln ticket would struggle to ‘beat me.’  Shortly after losing the 2020, election, Trump talked to Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker for their book I Alone Can Fix It. 

During the interview, he bragged that if it weren’t for the pandemic, even two of our greatest presidents couldn’t have defeated him.

“I think it would be hard if George Washington came back from the dead and he chose Abraham Lincoln as his vice-president, I think it would have been very hard for them to beat me,” Trump said.

December 2022:  ‘This is Donald Trump, hopefully your favorite president of all time, better than Lincoln, better than Washington.’

This is how Trump kicked off a video announcing he was dropping a collection of NFT trading cards.

January 2024:  Lincoln ‘could have negotiated’ to prevent the Civil War.  In his most pointed Lincoln criticism to date, Trump suggested at an Iowa rally that if Abe were truly a great president, there wouldn’t have been a Civil War.

“So many mistakes were made” ahead of the war, Trump said. “See, there was something I think could have been negotiated, to be honest with you. I think you could have negotiated that. All the people died. So many people died.”

Did Lincoln willfully ignore the lessons of The Art of the Deal because he wanted to secure his legacy❓ Well, Trump insinuates, you decide❗

“Abraham Lincoln, of course, if he negotiated it, you probably wouldn’t even know who Abraham Lincoln was,” Trump said. “He would’ve been president, but he would’ve been president, and he would have been — he wouldn’t have been the Abraham Lincoln.”

April 2024:  ‘Never fight uphill, me boys.’

During a rally in Pennsylvania, Trump called Gettysburg, the bloodiest battle of the Civil War, “vicious and horrible” yet “beautiful in so many ways.” 🙄


Then he lamented that Confederate General Robert E. Lee is “no longer in favor” and recalled his famous directive “Never fight uphill, me boys” — which Lee never said.

This wasn’t directly about Lincoln, but it does feel like Trump was trying to one-up the former president by including a (IMO, cheap) pirate impression in his Gettysburg Address.

October 2024:  I’m ‘tougher on the border’ than Lincoln.

While bragging about receiving the endorsement of a Border Patrol union at a North Carolina rally, Trump claimed a group official told him he’s the “greatest president there’s ever been,” even better than Washington or Lincoln.

“He said I’m tougher on the border than Abraham Lincoln, right, than Honest Abe,” Trump added.

October 2025:  A gaudy marble bathroom is ‘appropriate for the time of Abraham Lincoln.’

Trump gutted the White House’s Lincoln Bathroom, then claimed the floor-to-ceiling marble was accurate to the 1860s. But the real Lincoln used an outhouse before he came to Washington. And he was furious when his wife overspent on White House renovations, saying she’d wasted money on “flub dubs for this damned old house.”

Trump’s AI seance with Abe:  Trump posts a lot of weird AI-generated art on Truth Social (the image of him escorting a swole, handcuffed alien around a military base comes to mind). 

During the summer, he repeatedly shared this shot of himself hanging with (imaginary) rivals Washington and Lincoln with no commentary.

September 2026:  ‘Donald J. Trump is six times more popular than Abraham Lincoln.’  In more highly dubious polling news, Trump claimed he is now more popular than “any other President”. But, it turns out Trump misunderstood a report from CNN’s Harry Enten that said when Republicans were asked which president they most admire, 53 percent answered Trump, 18 percent said Ronald Reagan, and 8 percent said Lincoln. Trump did, actually, come out ahead of Honest Abe, but that does not mean he’s “six times more popular” than “any other president.”

In the media’s defense, Trump has given us some reason to think his perspective on Honest Abe is a tad odd.