By Michael Woyton
Apologies for the scarcity of posts over the past week, but I decided to pull back and practice a little self care.
I decided to do that when I looked at the news and social media one morning and found that there was SO much happening that it became totally overwhelming to think about.
That and dealing with two — count ’em two — health concerns (note to those who don’t use sunblock on a regular basis: do so or you might be sorry) in the last few weeks made me think that all of y’all could stay informed on your own for a bit.
Besides when I retired from my day job I didn’t think I’d still feel anxious about not writing enough.
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So here are a few newsy bits that you may or may not have heard:
Should we be buying stock in child-size coffin companies? Or should we assume that none of our allies will be sharing intel with us any longer?
As hard as it is to believe, Russia’s sweetheart Tulsi Gabbard and Yogi Bear’s nemesis Robert F. Kennedy Jr. were both confirmed to be, respectively, director of national intelligence and secretary of Health and Human Services.
Both were party line votes in the Senate with only Kentucky’s Mitch “Turtle” McConnell voting no. I reckon that not running for re-election has enabled McConnell to grow a spine.
As many others on social media have pointed out, McConnell could have pushed for Trump’s second impeachment and avoided all this, but he didn’t.
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Only 17 days into his tenure as secretary of transportation, reality TV personality Sean Duffy is now in charge of yet another aircraft incident.
On Wednesday, a United Regional Jet operated by GoJet Airlines went off the taxiway arriving at St. Louis Lambert International Airport, according to First Alert 4. No injuries were reported, GoJet Airlines said in a statement.
So far, in 2025 — since the inauguration of the felon-in-chief — there have been four deadly plane crashes in the United States, with 85 people dying, Fox 4 News reported. Before this year, the most recent deadly plane crash of a U.S. airline was in 2009.
See the timeline in the Fox 4 News article here.
Remember that Duffy said he was reconsidering air traffic controller staffing rules and has spoken to Elon Musk about airspace reform issues, Reuters reported.
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Speaking of Musk, who in hell thinks it’s a good idea to pay him $400 million for a fleet of “armored” Tesla Cybertruck?
Is it because sales are down for the much-talked-about Muskmobile and he figure the adjudicated rapist would be more than happy to take them off his hands?
I assume Transportation Secretary Duffy is relieved that since the Cybertrucks are ground-based vehicles they won’t be falling out of the sky on his watch.
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And for grins, here from the Oval Office is Musk, his child and the “leader of the free world” — though it’s hard to make out which of the latter two is which:
I’m no body language expert but the mayor of Mar-a-Lago couldn’t lean any further away from the other two without falling out of his chair.
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Lead art: Screen shot from MSNBC
On Second Thought 
I’m glad you are back, Michael, as you are so on target and articulate in writing about what is concerning us the most (everything?). It is horribly overwhelming and also frightening. Wishing you good health, and thank you for your posts.
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