MAGA Republicans must put an end to the Trump and Hegseth lies about the Iranian Trumpian World War!

Republicans, wake up❗ ⏰ Senator Susan Collins❗

Echo opinion letter published in LandasterOnLine

How much longer can you keep accepting the lies 🤥from Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth❓

Why Iran❓ Why now❓ First it was Iran’s nuclear facilities, but wait, we obliterated them a year ago.

Then it was to change regimes. The defenseless Iranian people were presumably to rise up and overtake the well-armed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. How moronic is that❓

Finally, Trump and Hegseth said we had to destroy Iran’s missile factories, but wait, we obliterated those factories weeks ago.

What was the June 2025, attack on Iran about, anyway❓

So, why❓

Could it be that Iran was at its weakest❓

Or that Israel persuaded Trump to help out❓

Or, worse yet, was it a distraction from the Jeffrey Epstein files❓

So far, tens of 💲billions have been spent on an unnecessary war and, in my view, we are in no way any better.

Aside from the expenditures of war, Republicans are proposing to spend 💲1 billion of taxpayer money for Trump’s gaudy golden White House ballroom.

While the country is at war, Trump is running around showing a picture of his ugly ballroom. Trump appears to be an inhumane person. In my view, he shows no signs of humanity, compassion or decency.

While Trump and his family are reportedly making billions off the presidency, many U.S. citizens are having trouble with gas prices, putting food on the table and paying for healthcare for their families.


George Washington wrote in a 1778, letter: “No punishment, in my opinion, is too great for the Man, who can build ‘his greatness upon his Country’s ruin.’ ”

I believe that Donald Trump should be removed from office for not upholding or defending the Constitution.

From Donald Doolittle Sr. in  West Lampeter Township, Pennsylvania

Hantavirus status report: This virus will continue to mutate and the incubation period is too long to provide rapid response

Report published in the New York Magazine Intelligencer by Nia Prater and Chas Danner.

Julie note- Although I am not a virology expert, my experience preparing for viral epidemics in hospital planning sessions is that viruses mutate.  So, I am not convinced about some of what is reported about what is happening with the Hantavirus today, because, by tomorrow the virus could replicate. That is what viruses do. Nevertheless, the article is a good status report.

An outbreak of the rare and dangerous hantavirus aboard the Dutch-flagged cruise ship MV Hondius has left three passengers dead, forced the medical evacuation of several others, and triggered an international health scare. While the unsettling news has prompted concerns of another widespread virus outbreak akin to COVID-19 or avian flu, the World Health Organization has stressed that the overall public-health risk from the Hondius outbreak is low. Here’s what we know so far.

How did the outbreak start? In a bulletin on Monday, the WHO said that it was first contacted about a “cluster of severe acute respiratory illness” aboard the Hondius on May 2, including two deaths and one passenger who was critically ill. Per the organization, the ship left Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1 and made numerous stops including mainland Antarctica, Tristan da Cunha, Saint Helena, South Georgia, Nightingale Island, as well as Ascension Island in the South Atlantic Ocean.

In the days since, the number of deaths has risen to three. According to the WHO, the first case was a man presenting with a fever, mild diarrhea, and a headache on April 6; he died on April 11 after developing respiratory distress. The second was a woman who left the ship from Saint Helena on April 24 while reportedly experiencing gastrointestinal symptoms. Her condition worsened while traveling on an April 25 flight to Johannesburg, South Africa, and she passed away after arriving at a hospital on April 26. 

In the third case, a woman died on May 2 after presenting with symptoms on April 28.
The New York Times reports that the first two deaths from the outbreak were a couple, a 70-year-old man from the Netherlands and his 69-year old wife, and the pair had reportedly traveled in South America, specifically Argentina, prior to boarding the ship. PCR testing later confirmed hantavirus infection in the wife’s case. The third fatal case is reported to be a German woman.

According to the Associated Press, Argentina’s Ministry of Health has been tracing the travel of the Dutch couple, who had been on a South American road trip, and the authorities are investigating the possibility that the couple was exposed to hantavirus during a bird-watching trip to a landfill in the southern town of Ushuaia, which is also where they boarded the Hondius.

What is hantavirus? According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, hantaviruses are a family of viruses that humans can contract following contact with rodents, which frequently carry the virus, typically by breathing in particles from their dried saliva, urine, and droppings, like when sweeping a shed where rodents have been living.

Hantavirus infections are typically rare, with an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 cases per year globally, but they can result in severe illness and death. Hantaviruses found in the Americas, also known as New World hantaviruses, can cause hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, which presents with common symptoms like fever, fatigue, and muscle aches before progressing to more severe effects such as shortness of breath and fluid in the lungs. HPS has a fatality rate of 12 to 45 percent depending on the strain.

For variants more common in Europe and Asia, also known as Old World hantaviruses, patients can develop hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, which can cause kidney failure and has a fatality rate of one to 15 percent.

The strain of hantavirus linked to the cruise ship appears to be what’s known as the Andes strain, which, per the CDC, is common in South America and has been linked to human-to-human transmission. However, transmitting the hantavirus person-to-person is rare and typically requires close contact in an enclosed space. The Washington Post reports that Argentina, which appears to have a connection to this recent outbreak, has seen an increase of hantavirus cases in recent years and is frequently ranked by the WHO as the nation with the highest rate of the virus in Latin America.

Hantavirus also has a long incubation period with symptoms typically appearing a few weeks after infection but sometimes as many as eight weeks after. On Thursday, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO, said during a briefing that it is “possible” more cases could be reported down the line.
There is currently no cure nor widely available vaccine for hantavirus — surviving severe illness caused by the infection requires prompt medical intervention and ICU treatment.
One of the most prominent cases of hantavirus emerged last year after Betsy Arakawa, the wife of renowned actor Gene Hackman, was found to have contracted hantavirus pulmonary syndrome after the pair were found dead in their New Mexico home. Per the New York Times, it’s believed that Arakawa was likely infected from exposure to deer mice, which typically carry the virus in the state. In 2025, three people in Mammoth Lakes, California, died after contracting hantavirus.

For even more information about hantavirus, infectious-disease expert and doctor Céline Gounder has written an excellent explainer here.

On Thursday, Dutch officials confirmed that approximately 40 people from at least 12 different countries departed the ship at St. Helena to return home on April 24 without contract tracing, per the AP. Oceanwide Expeditions has put the figure at around 30 passengers, six of whom are Americans. Ghebreyesus said the organization has notified the 12 different nations, which, in addition to the U.S., are Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Turky, and the United Kingdom.

Public-health authorities have been working to track the passengers down and perform contact tracing. Two British citizens who left the ship beforehand and returned to the U.K. are self-isolating, as are a small number of their close contacts. Citing Dutch officials, the Dutch news outlet RTL reported that a flight attendant who was aboard the same Johannesburg flight as the cruise passenger who later died from hantavirus is currently experiencing mild symptoms and is being tested at a hospital. France24 reports that a French national is being monitored after traveling on the same flight.
U.S. health officials in Georgia, California, and Arizona confirmed that American passengers from the Hondius are being monitored in their states for infection since returning to the United States, per the New York Times. The Washington Post reports that passengers in Texas and Virginia are also being observed. So far, none of the passengers have shown any symptoms. In a statement, the CDC said it’s “closely monitoring the situation” and that the State Department is “leading a coordinated, whole-of-government response including direct contact with passengers, diplomatic coordination, and engagement with domestic and international health authorities.”
“At this time, the risk to the American public is extremely low,” the statement said.
What is the current status of the ship?
On Monday, Oceanwide Expeditions said there were 149 people onboard the Hondius representing 23 different nationalities. Of the three people who were medically evacuated Wednesday, two were crewmembers who presented with “acute respiratory symptoms” while the third is an asymptomatic individual with a connection to the passenger who passed away on May 2.
On Thursday, the operator shared updated figures regarding the number of passengers at the start of the voyage, saying 114 guests were on board on April 1 when the Hondius left Ushuaia, Argentina.

On April 15, six more guests boarded at Tristan da Cunha, bringing the total to 120 including the one deceased passenger.

As of Wednesday, the Hondius has departed Cape Verde, where it was moored off the coast following the detection of the outbreak, en route to Spain’s Canary Islands, which Oceanwide Expeditions estimates it will reach following three to four days of travel. On Thursday, the operator estimated that the Hondius would reach the port of Granadilla, Tenerife, early Sunday.
The remaining people aboard the ship are currently asymptomatic and are reportedly taking precautions like wearing masks and practicing social distancing.
The WHO confirmed Thursday that one of its experts boarded the ship in Cabo Verde and was later joined by two doctors from the Netherlands and an expert from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. The four will assess all the remaining people on board and will stay on board the vessel until it reaches the Canary Islands.
What are experts saying? On Wednesday, Ghebreyesus signaled that the outbreak doesn’t pose any wider risk so far. “At this stage, the overall public-health risk remains low,” he said.
Maria Van Kerkhove, a top infectious-disease epidemiologist at the WHO, echoed that sentiment on Tuesday. “This is not the next COVID, but it is a serious infectious disease,” she said, per the Associated Press. “Most people will never be exposed to this.”In an interview with STAT News, Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy, put it simply. “It’s not the next pandemic,” he said.
Osterholm continued, “This is one where everyone should just take a breath and know that we are going to bring this to resolution. With adequate respiratory protection, [they could] very well stop all transmission from this point forward.”
Stanford infectious-disease doctor and epidemiologist Abraar Karan also emphasized in an X thread that this poses nothing close to a COVID-like threat, though this particular hantavirus outbreak may be worse than others:
The hantavirus outbreak won’t be anything like COVID — I think that is the wrong comparison. But it can be worse (or at least more complicated) than the usual local outbreaks that occur in Argentina.
First, I suspect there could be a few more generations of infection. Those who left the ship before the outbreak was detected pose the key risk because they may have exposed others unknowingly via close contact. Case 2 who flew on the plane to Johannesburg and the Switzerland case seem to be the only reported ones thus far. Close contact is the key point here.
So it’s likely that more cases will be detected, but there is no reason for any kind of widespread panic. 

Donald Trum and maga Republicans like Senator Susan Collins support chaotic Iranian war and Americans pay the cost

Does anyone in America know what Donald Trump is doing in the Strait of Hormuz? Does Trump himself know❓

Reported in The Hill and Yahoo News by Max Burns

So Chief.....has Iran surrendered yet❓

On Sunday, he boldly announced “Project Freedom,” his scheme to escort commercial ships through the shuttered strait. He then swiftly reversed course just two days later, declaring that the strait would remain closed, even as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was selling Project Freedom to the press. 

While Hegseth touted a plan that no longer existed, Trump again changed his timeline for ending his increasingly unpopular war in Iran.

Trump’s impulsive and contradictory actions in Iran have confounded his generals, his Cabinet and the public since the war began 10 weeks ago. Trump is now so bogged down that he is confounding himself, too. It is time for Congress to exert some constitutional authority and wrap this debacle up before regular

Americans endure even more financial suffering.

Trump has clearly lost the plot of what has become a staggeringly expensive conflict without any clear strategic goal. In fact, the only measurable result of Trump’s Iran strikes has been a spike in the cost of gasoline by more than 50 percent since March. The cost of jet fuel rose so much so quickly that Spirit Airlines had no choice but to declare bankruptcy and liquidate 17,000 previously well-paying American jobs.

Great Depression bread lines😓😔😒😠😟

“For the first time in my life, I have no idea how to face what comes next,” former Spirit Airlines employee Jorge Luis Camacho lamented in a GoFundMe fundraiser, posted shortly after the company shuttered. “Bills have to be paid, and financially, I have nothing.”

Camacho and his former Spirit coworkers will have a hard time finding new work in an economy battered by the Iran war. A Goldman Sachs report published in March estimated that Trump’s war is costing the U.S. economy more than 10,000 jobs each month, with losses concentrated in the leisure and hospitality industries, retail and manufacturing. The economic uncertainty wrought by Trump’s war is now the most potent job-killer in the country.

Indeed, the Iran War may well be remembered for little else besides the rolling job losses and financial hardship it inflicted on working-class Americans who were already grappling with rising consumer prices. Bank of America reports that credit card spending has surged roughly 4.3 percent in March, the most in more than three years, as consumers pile on debt to pay for basic necessities like gasoline. Unsurprisingly, consumer confidence has collapsed to the lowest level ever recorded as most Americans prepare for the worst.

Then there’s the day-to-day expense of running a war without end. The conflict has drained more than $72 billion in taxpayer funds at a time when Republican leaders say there simply isn’t any cash available to extend healthcare subsidies for the 22 million Americans facing skyrocketing premiums. And that’s before Trump heads to Capitol Hill with hat in hand to ask for $80 billion to $100 billion more in war funding.

At some point, enough has to be enough, even for the spineless MAGA gophers currently clogging up the Congress.

It appears at least a few Republicans are beginning to realize how economically (and politically) disastrous Trump’s war is shaping up to be. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) recently pushed for a War Powers Act vote in the Senate; her moment of courage was dampened by Republican leader John Thune flatly ignoring the request. That hasn’t stopped Murkowski from building support for the vote from Republicans including Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), John Curtis (R-Utah) and Todd Young (R-Ind.).

If Murkowski and her colleagues are trying their best to steer their party away from an electoral disaster, they’ll still likely run headlong into House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) absolute resistance to anything that could be viewed as Trump criticism (But, wait❗ What happened to Johnson's pledge to govern according to the Bible❓) . Johnson has so far resisted calls to rein in Trump’s war powers, even as the most recent Ipsos poll found a growing majority of Americans souring on the war.

Republicans are currently caught in the trap of defending a war their own leader doesn’t seem to understand — and just like Hegseth this week, they increasingly finding themselves defending policies, only to discover that Trump has already abandoned them and reversed course.

Who is on first❓

Opinion from Hudson Wisconsin: Trump and his band of merry criminals

To the editor of the Pierce County Journal in Wisconsin,

I’m flabbergasted at the Republican claims about the alleged shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner a week ago Saturday. There is no merit to claims that violence was somehow caused by Trump’s critics.

I won’t get into the weeds on whether the event was an actual assassination attempt, but it’s odd that the entire line of succession–all the top U.S. government officials – were together in the same room, especially during a time of war.

They even remained together in the same room directly afterwards, ❗ and at the press conference shortly following the incident, where they spoke more of ballrooms than of an “assassination” attempt.

In truth, no one is happy with Trump’s performance. His approval rating is at a record low. Gas prices are astronomical, and we have spent over 💲25 billion on a war we have no business fighting. We have slashed funding to vital programs that serve our most vulnerable: veterans, children, healthcare-deficient, the poor, the homeless, etc. We are certainly NOT making America great.

In reality, the majority of violent rhetoric is coming directly from the White House. An inexhaustive list includes 

• condoning/applauding deaths of protesters and politicians in Minneapolis; 
• stating pleasure at Robert Mueller’s death; 
• mocking Rob Reiner and his wife’s tragic deaths; 
• mocking Nancy Pelosi’s husband’s violent attack; 
• calling for the execution of lawmakers who disagree with him; and 
• killing innocent school children for no discernible reason.

Donald J. Trump and his administration are the key proponents of violence, and his latest claim is most heinous and hypocritical. 

Trump wants his political enemy, James Comey, severely prosecuted for a benign post in which “8647,” is spelled out in sea shells on a beach. As inane as this charge is, Trump should tread lightly, lest they also issue an indictment for his posting “8646” while Biden was president.

The bottom line is, Trump and his band of merry criminals, podcasters, and minor television personalities are not only ill-equipped to run our government, they are the biggest purveyors of violence today in our country today.

From Laurie Harmon in Hudson Wisconsin

Speaker Mike Johnson, who has accomplished next to nothing as House leader

Letter echo published in The Columbian newspaper in Vancouver, Washington state:

Speaker sucks up to Trump by Don Howard, in CAMAS, Washington State.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has accomplished next to nothing as House leader, (although he promised to govern according to the Bible...his own edited for politics version) apparently decided on his own to give Donald Trump a special America First Award for what he ignorantly described as his “tireless work for the American people and fixing all of the country’s problems.”

To feed Trump’s inflated narcissistic ego and desperate self-glorification needs was the speaker’s only concern, commonly referred to these days as “sucking up.”

Speaker Johnson probably should have more appropriately substituted a golden calf image on the award instead of the golden eagle as witnessed by Trump’s sickening Easter morning profanity-laced attack on Iran, his posting of the disgusting picture depicting himself as Jesus, his desire to build the “arc de Trump” and the golden 90,000-square-foot ballroom in honor of himself, and his vile verbal assaults on the Pontiff for merely speaking God’s word instead of Trump’s word.

Lord, please help us, for some of us do not realize what we are actually up against.

Donald Trump forcing his signature on US currency while the dollar value is declining and expected to slide. Junk Trump money?

Good article🙏

How a weaker dollar is quietly making life more expensive.

"Travis Madeira, a fourth-generation lobsterman who founded the lobster-shipping business LobsterBoys with his brother, makes about 80% of his sales to Americans, unlike some competitors who primarily export."

Echo reporting by Matt Sedensky published by Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — A hidden force is quietly pushing up costs for everything from your summer vacation to your weekly grocery bills: a weaker U.S. dollar.

The dollar has fallen about 10 󠀥% against other major currencies since President Donald Trump returned to the White House, a pullback potentially playing a role in Americans’ concerns about affordability.

“It’s kind of a hidden tax,” says economist Thomas Savidge of the conservative-leaning American Institute for Economic Research. “What your dollar is going to be able to buy is going to shrink.”

Historic dollar decline:  The U.S. 💲Dollar Index, which measures the greenback against other major currencies, logged its steepest six-month drop in more than 50 years in the first half of 2025. Though the decline hasn’t deepened, the dollar index is still about 10% lower than the start of Trump’s term.

A strong dollar makes imports cheaper and can help keep inflation in check. A weak one can increase prices on foreign goods but boost American exports.

U.S. presidents have long voiced support for a strong dollar even as they pursued policies that, at times, pushed the currency lower. Trump has suggested a strong 💲dollar puts the U.S. at a disadvantage and that a weak dollar helps American industry. And as with most things with Trump, he’s been more blunt in his messaging.

“You make a hell of a lot more money with a weaker dollar,” he said last year, one of a number of public statements showing his preference for seeing the 💲dollar decline.

A look at where the 💲dollar stands and what it means for you:
Big multinationals benefit

Trump isn’t alone in seeing benefits of a weaker buck.

In recent months, corporate earnings calls have been peppered with talk of how a weaker dollar has helped companies from Philip Morris to Coca-Cola, with executives pulling out C-suite phrases like “favorable currency impact” to note how the dip brought tailwinds outside the U.S. that added to bottom lines.

“In many cases, we’ve got a weaker dollar, which is not unhelpful,” Elie Maalouf, the CEO of InterContinental Hotels, said on a February call as the company announced higher profits and revenues.

For big multinational companies that do business overseas, a weaker dollar can spur sales for products that suddenly become cheaper. 

Nevertheless, the vast majority of U.S. businesses are not operating beyond the border. For those catering to domestic customers, it’s a different story, particularly if they are reliant on importing goods.

Travis Madeira, a fourth-generation lobsterman who founded the lobster-shipping business LobsterBoys with his brother, makes about 80% of his sales to Americans, unlike some competitors who primarily export.

“The exporters are gonna have the advantage when it comes to the dollar weakening,” says Madeira, who is paying more to import bait and buy Canadian lobsters. “These guys are gonna have a little bit of a lever on us.”

Smaller companies are hurt:  Even among companies that do have a presence outside the U.S., the dollar’s fall can have an impact. While many big companies hedge currency to try and insulate themselves or push more sales overseas, smaller businesses are often more susceptible to the turbulence.

David Navazio, CEO of Pennsylvania-based Gentell, which makes bandages and other medical supplies, operates plants in Brazil, Paraguay, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. In each location, the dollar has fallen, increasing Gentell’s costs.

Gentell has had to raise some prices to reflect the currency fluctuation, which stacks on top of other challenges, including tariffs and war-related spikes to fuel costs.

“A year ago, none of these were concerns,” he says. “And it always hurts the consumer.”

Other currencies rise:  For the American consumer, the reality of a declining dollar is most obvious during foreign travel or when making a purchase directly from an international seller.

Cross the border into Mexico, the top foreign destination of Americans, and your dollar is about 16% weaker versus the peso compared with early 2025. Declines of about 10% to 17% have been recorded elsewhere, including against the Swiss franc, South African rand, Danish krone, Swedish krona and the Euro.

As for goods imported to the U.S., there is an impact, but it’s harder to gauge. Many economists estimate that, in advanced countries like the U.S., only about 5% to 10% of a currency dip is passed on to consumers.

But, they are an added stress when prices are already affected by other factors, like inflation.

Take coffee, ❗one of the grocery items that has seen the biggest price hike in the past year. Brazil is the biggest source of coffee for the U.S. and the dollar has fallen around 13% versus its real. Currency fluctuations can hit harder in developing economies and, while only a fraction of the change may feed into coffee’s ballooning price, every bit can pile up. Coffee prices are up nearly 19% in the U.S. in the past year, according to government data.

Expect more movement:  Currency values are constantly moving and, while the dollar’s recent fall is notable, it has reached lower levels at points in the presidencies of each of Trump’s predecessors, back through the creation of the

💲Dollar Index in 1973, when Richard Nixon was at the helm.

Kenneth Rogoff, a Harvard University economist and former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, says while “a lot of policies that Trump is doing are something of a cancer for the dollar,” he believes that it was destined to fall no matter who was in charge.

“The dollar had been on a 15-year bull run,” he said. “I would argue the dollar is still wildly overvalued and over the next maybe five or six years, it might fall 15%.” ⚠️ (IOW....ouch❗💥 is seems like consumer prices will never "drop like a rock", described by Trump. But, wait 🤪, Trump is forcing his name on U.S. currency so it is a given that our dollar will soon be like junk paper.🤣)

What does that mean for American consumers❓ Rogoff says commodity prices are likely to rise, particularly with the impact of the Iran war on fuel prices.

“They’re just going to go up,” he says, “no matter what the dollar’s at.”

___
Matt Sedensky can be reached at msedensky@ap.org and https://x.com/sedensky

Recognizing and calling out antisemitism in dog whistles and euphemisms

Have you heard the anti-Jewish conspiracy theory about Maryland’s debate over congressional redistricting? 

Echo opinion published in the Baltimore Sun by Howard Libit:

Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore district 49) blocked redrawing the maps because he’s bought and paid for by Jewish donors.

Yes, you’re reading that correctly. During the recently concluded legislative session, emails landed in the president’s office making that antisemitic accusation.

A decade ago, we might have dismissed these kinds of letters and emails as conspiracy foolishness to be ignored, tossed right onto the crazy pile. But today, after years of surging antisemitism in all parts of American society, we don’t have the luxury of disregarding any hatred against Jews.  All accusations must receive pushback.

Whether it comes from the dog-whistle social media posts of elected officials and those who want to play a role in local and national politics, or podcasts filled with references to writings and ideas of antisemites, hatred against Jews is making its way into too many areas of our political discourse.

And the drive to say our elected officials are controlled by Jewish donors continues to infect our political debates. 

Frequently, this antisemitic talk is masked by linking Jewish donor donations to organizations that support Israel or other Jewish causes, such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the Democratic Majority for Israel.

Where did the specific antisemitism conspiracy about Ferguson originate from❓ It’s hard to say for sure, but a good place to start looking for answers is the Reddit posts from his primary election opponent. These posts talk about campaign contributions from a donor who also happens to be an AIPAC board member. He continues to target the evil AIPAC donations in literature he is distributing within the legislative district.

Across our political landscape in Maryland and across our country, we are seeing growing references to the supposedly evil intentions related to campaign donations coming from members of the Jewish community.

If an elected official or a candidate for office makes a commitment or takes an action that we don’t like, it must be because they’re controlled by Jewish money. We’re seeing that implication being raised in congressional primaries here in Maryland — much like we did two years ago — and we’re sure to see more of it as Election Day approaches. One primary congressional challenger here in Baltimore seems to be centering much of his campaign around calling out the incumbent for having been backed by donors who support a strong U.S.-Israel relationship.

It’s antisemitism, pure and simple.

When leaders in the Catholic community (or pick your faith of choice) make campaign contributions to a particular candidate, no one accuses that candidate of being controlled by that faith group. We only see that smear being made when Jewish campaign donors are involved.

The Jewish community is being held to a different standard than others, and this creates an atmosphere ripe for the antisemitism pervasive in today’s society. And it isn’t much of a stretch to see words get translated into action.

Consider the vandalism this year of Shaare Tefila Congregation in Olney. Or the murders last May of two staff members of the Israeli embassy outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. Or the arson attack on a peaceful march for the hostages being held in Gaza in Boulder, Colorado, over the summer that left a Holocaust survivor fatally burned. And, most recently, the attack on a synagogue and its preschool in Michigan.

Of course, our leaders who create this atmosphere through their not-so-subtle social media posts and coded language insist they’re not responsible for the threats, vandalism and violence against Jews. They say they’re just exercising their free speech and that they can’t be held responsible for what their statements and actions ultimately encourage their supporters to do.

This isn’t partisan. It’s coming from the left and the right. This must stop💥❗ The dog whistles. The wink-and-nod statements about Jewish money. We must tell our elected officials and those who want to get elected that there’s no place in our public discourse for antisemitism and hate against Jews.

And getting back to the Jewish donors who supposedly manipulated Ferguson’s efforts to block mid-cycle congressional districting. As best as I can tell, many of those Jewish donors gave campaign contributions to Gov. Wes Moore and lots of other Democrats — including many who were champions of the effort to redraw Maryland’s congressional districts. Hmm. Somehow, the Jewish donors don’t control them, only Ferguson.

It’s essential for all of us to disinfect antisemitism from our politics — locally, in Maryland, and nationally.

Howard Libit (hlibit@baltjc.org) is the executive director of the Baltimore Jewish Council.

Donald Trump is illegally using naval blockades without cause but he cannot find an exit out of the Iran War

Blockades Don’t Work the Way Trump Thinks

Echo opinion essay published in The New York Times by 
By Jennifer Kavanagh,  director of military analysis at Defense Priorities.

It shouldn’t have been surprising when Donald Trump announced on April 12 that the United States would begin a blockade of Iranian ports to force Tehran to accept a peace deal.

Trump prides himself on being unpredictable. But he is a creature of habit, and blockades have quickly emerged as one of his preferred military tactics since his return to the White House. 

Unfortunately, he already used them against Venezuela and Cuba. Now his administration has expanded the Iran embargo, and started to seize Iran-linked ships on the high seas.

But, Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz was not the reason the United States started this war. Before the conflict, traffic passed freely through the narrow waterway. But Tehran’s effective closure of the strait since the United States and Israel attacked two months ago has emerged as the war’s most bedeviling problem and one Trump is desperate to fix. He hopes that by instituting a blockade of his own, he can choke Iran’s economy and force the country’s leaders to reopen the strait and accept Washington’s terms of surrender.

This is unlikely to work for the same reasons the United States finds itself facing strategic defeat by a weaker adversary: a mismatch of stakes and time horizons. While Iran has gained the upper hand in this conflict by extending and surviving what it considers an existential war, Trump wants a fast and decisive victory, something a blockade cannot deliver. A blockade may impose costs on Iran’s economy and population, but it will not deal the quick knockout blow the Trump administration seeks.


Blockades are designed to work slowly, with pressure accumulating over time. At the beginning of the American Civil War, for example, President Abraham Lincoln ordered a blockade of ports across the Confederacy, targeting some 3,500 miles of coastline. It had the desired effect, eventually cutting Southern cotton exports by as much as 90 percent and severely damaging the Southern economy. But it did not result in a rapid end to the war: Fighting between North and South continued for four years.

A similar story played out during the British naval blockade of Germany in World War I. Instituted almost immediately after the war began in 1914, it aimed to limit Germany’s access to essentials like food, medicine and materials that might support the war effort. 

The blockade imposed severe hardship on the German people, contributing to hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths, and hampered military operations. But Germany did not immediately surrender. The war endured until the end of 1918.

That blockades often fail to quickly change an adversary’s behavior is something Trump and his advisers should know. 

Earlier this year, the United States started interdicting oil shipments to Cuba in an effort to force Havana to make political and economic concessions. The island is now on the brink of humanitarian collapse, but the Cuban regime has yet to yield. The U.S. blockade of Venezuela’s oil exports was similarly ineffective: Trump announced it in December 2025, part of a monthslong pressure campaign to force President Nicolás Maduro to step down. When a few weeks of blockade failed to elicit any compromise, Mr. Trump had to escalate further, seizing Mr. Maduro and his wife in a dangerous military raid.

Iran may prove even more resilient. The blockade has reduced the country’s oil revenues to a fraction of their prewar levels, but it is likely to be some time before the consequences become untenable for Iran’s regime. In the near term, Tehran will continue to receive oil revenue from shipments that left its ports weeks ago, and at least 34 tankers with links to Iran appear to have slipped through the blockade. These and any future successful exports can be sold at higher prices, which may continue to rise as the war drags on.

To prevent this, the administration has said that the U.S. military will pursue any ship helping Iran, anywhere in the world, a move that is of ambiguous legality under international law. 

To meet the legal standard, any blockade must be deemed “effective,” meaning it is carried out with enough military power to be consistently and impartially enforced; has clearly defined geographic limits; and includes provisions for humanitarian relief. The expanded U.S. blockade meets none of these requirements. It has no geographic boundaries or humanitarian provisions, and the U.S. Navy’s limited capacity to interdict container ships and tankers means it will have to choose which cargoes to intercept or focus on specific regions. It cannot, therefore, be “effective.” 

In the end, most Iranian oil shipments that are already at sea will almost certainly make it to their destinations.

At home, Iran has other ways to mitigate the effects of the blockade. Recent estimates suggest Iran has about 90 million barrels of available oil storage capacity, enough for at least two months of production, before it must make production cuts that risk permanent damage to its oil infrastructure. 

Tehran also has reserves of food and other essentials, and land-based trade routes that it can fall back on if needed for imports of some commodities and even some oil exports. Iran can likely endure the U.S. blockade for months without facing economic collapse. Even then, its leaders might choose to fight on rather than agree to American terms they perceive as a compromise of Iranian sovereignty.

For Trump, this timeline is likely to be unacceptable. His impatience with the war is evident in his increasingly erratic Truth Social posts and near-constant crazy assertions that the war is already over.

His sense of urgency is understandable. Not only is the war deeply unpopular in the United States, but its effects on the American and global economies are real — and likely to grow. The longer the impasse lasts, the more severe fuel and fertilizer shortages will become across East Asia and Europe, and the more Gulf state oil exporters will suffer. A prolonged blockade will also push global oil prices higher, increasing U.S. inflation and torpedoing Trump’s affordability pitch in the upcoming midterm elections.

Instead of stripping Iran of its most important source of leverage — control of the Strait of Hormuz — Trump’s blockade may play into the Islamic republic’s hands. The blockade harms Iran’s economic future, but may lead to a longer, costlier war for the United States, severe and lasting damage to U.S. and global markets and further domestic political damage for Trump.

In a test of wills, Tehran has the advantage and a higher pain tolerance. With their survival on the line, Iran’s leaders can afford to be patient.

"Vaccinate your children against measles. The shots work and are safe and nobody needs to die from this disease," Dr. Paul Offit

"To some extent, vaccines have been a victim of their own success. They made many disease outbreaks a thing of the past, and people have forgotten how terrible those outbreaks were. We are at growing risk of experiencing that misery again." 

New York Times Editorial Board

Measles Is Back❗

The resurgence of measles — a terrible disease that can swell the brain and cause permanent disabilities or death — is alarming enough on its own. There have been more than 1,700 cases reported in the United States already this year, up from about 70 per year in the early 2000s. Three children died last year.

The rise of measles may also be a harbinger of something even worse, public officials say.

 “Measles is basically a canary in the coal mine for our entire system,” says Dr. Scott Harris, the state health officer in Alabama’s Department of Public Health. “When it surges like this, it signals that our vaccination programs are starting to fail, and that other diseases won’t be far behind.” Already, cases of whooping cough have surged, too. And after two Florida children died of Hib, a bacterial infection, epidemiologists worry that disease is resurgent.

The most maddening aspect of this situation is that it was almost certainly avoidable. It stems in large part from a yearslong scare campaign by vaccine conspiracists including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who now serves as President Trump’s secretary of health and human services. Since taking office, Mr. Kennedy has turned his damaging ideas into federal policy. He has downplayed the seriousness of measles outbreaks; promoted dubious treatments and prevention strategies; replaced an expert panel that shaped federal vaccine recommendations with people who share his views but, for the most part, lack relevant experience or expertise; and made substantial changes to the childhood vaccine schedule without even convening that same group.

There is some reason to hope that the political climate is shifting against RFKjr, the vaccine conspiracy theorist with no medical experience who is the Secretary of Health and Human Services. 

In March, a federal judge blocked his changes to the childhood vaccine schedule, calling them arbitrary, capricious and most likely illegal, and the Trump administration has not yet appealed. Last week, Donald Trump announced the nomination of Dr. Erica Schwartz, a well-qualified Navy officer who supports vaccines, to run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Kennedy, appearing at several congressional hearings over the past week, tried to soft-pedal his views at times and even acknowledged that his department “has advised every child” to get the measles shot.

But, unfortunately Kennedy does not appear to have changed his actual views, and the threat to vaccines remains substantial. 

The military recently eliminated its flu vaccine requirement, for example. And the C.D.C. disingenuously canceled the publication of a study documenting large, continuing benefits from the Covid-19 vaccines.

Reversing vaccine skepticism will require a dedicated effort. State officials and members of Congress, especially Republicans, should speak up. So should doctors, nurses, religious leaders and corporate leaders. Protecting Americans from deadly, preventable diseases should not be a partisan issue, despite the attempts by opportunists like Kennedy to make it one.

Studies have suggested that only a small share of parents are hardened anti-vaxxers who refuse all shots. Many more are merely anxious and looking for trusted guides or good information. The key is to meet these families where they are. Health workers can listen empathetically and provide easily understandable information. They can be careful to avoid using too many statistics and jargon and instead tell human stories. Hearing about even one child who died from a preventable disease can sometimes be persuasive.

Skepticism about vaccinations began to grow in the early 2000s, in both the United States and some other wealthy countries. It sprang partly from a 1998, study that linked vaccines to autism and has since been discredited. 

In fact, the unfounded worries have been part of a broader rise in conspiratorial politics, fueled by a combination of partisan polarization, social media and other factors.

The Covid pandemic once seemed as if it might reinstall confidence. The virus was a new and terrifying pathogen for which scientists developed a safe, highly effective vaccine in record time. It offered a case study in the power of vaccination. But sadly Covid, too, soon became subject to political polarization.

Many conservatives questioned the vaccine in irrational and self-defeating ways. Liberals rightly embraced the vaccine but sometimes went so far as to be alienating — insisting that children needed annual boosters (which most countries did not), calling for the firing of unvaccinated people and more. The combination played into many Americans’ pre-existing uncertainty about how much to trust public health experts. In the years since, vaccination rates for other diseases have slipped further.

A vast majority of American children — more than 90 percent by most estimates — are still vaccinated for measles. 

Nevertheless, it takes a threshold of 95 percent to stop the illness from spreading, and in too many communities, the rates are lower than that already, or falling fast. In Idaho, just 78.5 percent of kindergartners were vaccinated for measles last school year. Nationwide vaccination rates for several other diseases, including flu, hepatitis B, rotavirus, Hib, polio and whooping cough, are also down.

A policy known as “shared clinical decision making,” which Mr. Kennedy put in place for some shots in January and remains in effect, has proved pernicious. The practice sounds innocuous. It involves doctors discussing options with their patients and then allowing the patients to decide which course to pursue. But doctors normally reserve it for cases in which a treatment’s benefits are unclear, which is not the case with standard childhood vaccines. “It implies that either decision, to take it or not to take it, is equally OK, and that’s not the case with vaccines,” Dr. Harris said.

Doctors now must spend more time rebutting misinformation and making the case for vaccines. Doctors report that hesitancy is spreading from vaccines to other medical staples. Last year, for instance, at least three infants died after their parents opted out of a routine vitamin K injection meant to prevent internal bleeding.

The fallout from declining vaccination rates will not be confined to those who choose not to get vaccinated. For one thing, newborns cannot be vaccinated against most diseases and rely on the rest of society to provide herd immunity. For another thing, no vaccine is perfect: About 3 percent of people vaccinated against measles remain vulnerable to infection, often without realizing it.

Immunocompromised people, like those on chemotherapy, can also be vulnerable. They, too, rely on herd immunity. A return of vaccine-preventable diseases would also strain hospitals and doctors’ offices and require quarantines, school closures and other disruptive safety protocols.

What can be done? So long as Kennedy remains health secretary and insists on making up his own facts, the options will be limited. The country needs vaccine policies based on scientific consensus and federal investments in both vaccine distribution and disease treatment.

Nonetheless, other leaders can step forward to mitigate the damage. Governors and members of Congress from both parties can issue clear messages about the benefits of vaccines. As Dr. Paul Offit of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia puts it: “Vaccinate your children against measles. The shots work, and are safe and nobody needs to die from this disease.”

States and local governments can also adopt helpful policies that counteract the RFKjr's pseudoscience. 

One tangible step would be to make vaccines easier to obtain by opening more pop-up clinics in schools and community centers. It would also be useful to tighten the requirements for vaccine exemptions. Several states require families to receive information about vaccines before they can receive nonmedical exemptions, and more should follow. Families should also have to apply individually for any exemption, rather than being able to receive a blanket exemption covering all shots.

The arguments against vaccines have been circulating for more than a century, even if social media has allowed them to spread more easily. The claims can seem compelling but can be debunked. Vaccines prevent three million to five million deaths globally each year. They are not toxic and they do not cause autism, full stop.

To some extent, vaccines have been a victim of their own success. They made many disease outbreaks a thing of the past, and people have forgotten how terrible those outbreaks were. We are at growing risk of experiencing that misery again.