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An old work mate has cancer and I haven't seen him since late last year. I've been meaning to ring him for a while but didn't know what to expect considering how sick he looked last time I saw him. Anyway, he rang me yesterday and he sounded great, just like his old self. It was the chemo making him sick last time I saw him he told me. His wife has cancer as well and both have been on chemo and have had a lot of success with it. They're both doing well and are back to fairly normal lives, so good news.

With regard to the pressing immigration problem that's on everyone lips, and which PHON is making a killing out of, by promising to address it with an anti-immigration stance - I was quite surprised when surfing the 'net (looking for something completely different, of course), to come across this vicious American anti-immigration electoral poster from 1920 (link below). I knew the Americans were frightened of a Chinese invasion in the mid-1800's, and passed a law banning them from entering the country - specifically, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1892. This Act was as a result of enduring hostility towards the Chinese, and the Americans fear of cheap Chinese labour. So, little has changed in over 175 years. Key Aspects of the Anti-Chinese Movement & Legislation: Initial Acceptance Turns to Hostility: Chinese immigrants arrived in large numbers during the 1850s California Gold Rush and played a critical role in building the western portion of the transcontinental railroad in the 1860s. However, as numbers grew (exceeding 105,000 by 1880), they faced severe animosity. The "Invasion" Narrative & Violence: White workers, particularly in California, feared losing jobs to "cheap" Chinese labor. This led to organized violence, including the 1871 Los Angeles Chinese massacre, the 1877 San Francisco riot, and the 1885 Rock Springs massacre. The Page Act of 1875: Before the 1882 act, the Page Act was passed, which technically banned forced labor and prostitution but was broadly applied to restrict the immigration of Chinese women. The Chinese Exclusion Act (1882): Signed by President Chester A. Arthur, this act prohibited Chinese laborers from entering the country for 10 years and denied those already in the U.S. the ability to become citizens. It allowed exemptions for teachers, students, merchants, and diplomats, but these were difficult to obtain. Permanent Exclusion: The exclusion was extended in 1892 by the Geary Act and made permanent in 1902. These restrictions remained in place until 1943. The laws were justified by politicians who described the Chinese as undesirable, arguing they could not be assimilated, and threatened the "American Anglo-Saxon civilization". But by 1920, it was a different race that the Americans feared - it was the Japanese, this time. Anti-Japanese sentiment was riding high when James D. Phelan was up for election in 1920, and anti-Japanese posters abounded. Phelan wasn't elected, but continued his anti-Japanese immigration activities until the new Immigration Act of 1924 banned Japanese from entering America. So, the seeds of WW2 were planted early. The Immigration Act of 1924, also known as the Johnson-Reed Act, severely restricted U.S. immigration by establishing strict national origins quotas based on the 1890 census. It heavily favored Northern/Western Europeans, dramatically reduced immigration from Southern/Eastern Europe, and effectively banned immigration from Asia, setting an exclusionary policy that was in place for decades. https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/ss:19343554

He's a petty little man. Reckon he must have been a bully at school. This article sums up his (and his family's) profiting from his position. The extent of corruption and fraud is breathtaking. Any one thing he's done, if it had been any previous president doing it, would have led to impeachment and possibly jail. But he just does it so constantly that it's the new normal. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/14/trump-drain-the-swap-billionaires

He's had it in for Obama ever since he humiliated Trump at the Correspondents' Dinner in 2011.

Just another confirmation of how trump has no idea of what he is doing and never has. Obama was one of the better US presidents & that is the only reason Trump has to continually run him down and change everything he can that Obama had anything to do with.

By far the worst and most corrupt, personal greed move by Trump, will be carried out before May 20th. On that date, District Court Judge Kathleen Williams (note, not a U.S. Supreme Court Judge, and an appointee of Barack Obama) hands down her decision in Trumps lawsuit against the IRS. In that lawsuit, Trump is suing the IRS for $10B for releasing his tax records, when an IRS employee leaked information to the NY Times for a story. Note that Trump has resisted all and every attempt to release his tax records. But Judge Williams has indicated she must rule on whether there is a "case and consistency". This essentially means, because Trump controls the IRS, the Presidency, the DOJ and every other party involved in the lawsuit (including all the lawyers - because Trump essentially "owns" and "controls" all the IRS lawyers), Judge Williams is saying, there cannot be any viable case as there are no "opposing parties" (i.e., a defendant and plaintiff). So, in the best Trump fashion, Trump is now racing to reach an out-of-court settlement with the IRS, to beat Judge Williams decision being handed down on the 20th, where she will almost certainly declare there is no case to answer, and Trumps lawsuit is unsustainable and invalid. The IRS is being pressured (by Trumps administration, of course) to reach an out-of-court settlement. This has happened before, to prevent adverse findings where complainants lodging unsustainable lawsuits reached a mediated settlement, and received major payouts. It's a classic Clive Palmer modus operandi. Threaten to take someone to the cleaners over a spurious, dubious and legally unsustainable claim - then settle on the doorstep of the court. If Trump settles with the IRS before the 20th May (as is highly likely to happen), he will then be in line for a major monetary settlement, possibly running into hundreds of millions of dollars. The scumbbaggery will continue. https://newrepublic.com/article/210408/trump-irs-lawsuit-settlement-scandal

That's because the other nationalities were mainly European, or Americans who had come from the Californian gold fields.

Actually, Obama himself did not make the deal. That's the lie that Trump is telling. That deal was made by international cooperation with many countries. The Iranian nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was a landmark 2015 agreement between Iran and the P5+1 (the US, UK, France, China, Russia, and Germany) designed to curb Iran's nuclear program in exchange for economic sanctions relief. At the time, Obama was President, but I bet the deal had to be approved by Congress. In any case, as soon as Trump got into power in his first term, he pulled the USA out of it. That plan set a few end dates for the agreement and some of those dates came up in 2025. Therefore the plan is up for renegotiation. Because Trump pulled the USA out of the P5+1, the USA has no legitamate status in any future discussions. Here is another link I found that will provide you with information about the JCPOA. https://www.cfr.org/backgrounders/what-iran-nuclear-deal

We had similar animosity on the Australian goldfields. Reportedly 10,000 Chinese miners on each of several goldrushes. Oddly, I don't recall much fuss over the multitudes os other nationalities. Nothing new there.

The Bay of Pigs and Guantanamo Bay. OBAMA tried to fix the Cuban crisis so Naturally Trump will try his best to Wreck it . Obama made the deal with Iran as well. Denying a Place like CUBA, Fuel is going to cost Lives, and cause abject misery. Everything grinds to a Halt. It's inhuman, Nev

Another day, another consequence. Trump imposed an embargo on the delivery of fuel supplies to Cuba, and threatened to impose tariffs on any country supplying Cuba with fuel. Cuba has now run out of fuel. It has no power. It is a humanitarian disaster. But it's going to be OK. Trump said he was going to take over Cuba after he had finished with Iran. History has recycled to October 1962 - the Cuban Missile Crisis.

BRS, one person, claims he is innocent. Twenty soldiers who served with him and risked everything to bring these alleged atrocities to light. I support the 20 against the one.

Pot kettle black.

Nice pics, Octave. Looks like the view from my bedroom window