Notes and Essays -- John Brown

January 31, 2024 AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File FILE – Former President Donald J. Trump watches the NCAA Wrestling Championships, Saturday, March 18, 2023, in Tulsa, Okla.  (image  from ) Sir, with all due respect to a [an?] honorable multi-divorced "family man"/fan among mani [sp?]  yr achivements  [sp?]: 1. First, Sir, and a fundamental question for mass media TV, could you/did you see a barber to get a simple/decent /presentable haircut? (those anti-media Trump misinformations should stop dying/dyeing [ see]  for your nonxeistent [spelliong?] head hair, you, my admired Mr. Ex-pres.)  2. And, Sir, with all due respect, due  [oops - is this a spelling err0or?] something  about your neck? It looks as if you're more than a 100 years old ... Pls Look at at your neck, if it doesn't look like 2 much exerhise  (sp?) for You to do so ... 3. Master/ Mr. admired Ex-president: Trump  == Pls permit the question: Should you follow on-line lose-weight s...

Grammer question: Should "came" be "come"? January 31, 2024   6:46 Example Sentences with To Come It's your go. Select the correct version of "to come": "The Pentagon on Monday raised the injured toll to at least 40, with a warning that the list would probably grow as additional troops  came  forward with symptoms of brain trauma from the blast." image from From "come," see  The New York Times

His isolationist views and erratic thinking and style would post even greater risks in a second term. By John Bolton, The Wall Street Journal , Jan. 31, 2024 12:44 pm ET image from article: Donald Trump leaves a press conference after a summit of heads of state at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, July 12, 2018.   PHOTO:  OLIVIER MATTHYS/ASSOCIATED PRESS When I became President Trump’s national security adviser in 2018, I assumed the gravity of his responsibilities would discipline even him. I was wrong. His erratic approach to governance and his dangerous ideas gravely threaten American security. Republican primary voters should take note. Mr. Trump’s only consistent focus is on himself. He invariably equated good personal relations with foreign leaders to good relations between countries. Personal relations are important, but the notion that they sway Vladimir Putin , Xi Jinping and their ilk is perilously wrong. Mr. Trump’s most dangerous legacy is the spread of the i...

Sources of noise during helicopter flights. (GAO) Noise from helicopter flights primarily is generated from the main rotor, engine, and tail rotor, according to the report. The FAA recommends pilots follow its “Fly Neighborly” program which has noise mitigation practices for takeoff and landing, altitudes, routing, and speed and maneuvers. Examples of these practices include minimizing rotor and engine operation while on the ground and flying over major roads, rail lines, or waterways, according to the report. D.C.’s airspace is particularly complex because of its airspace restrictions. The FAA has 25 fixed helicopter routes in the area which follow the recommendations of their Fly Neighborly program,  JB comment: All day long (yours truly, a 75-year old retiree from the State Department, pretends to work as a writer at home), I hear helicopters flying over my modest apt. in NW Washington incessantly during the working day. Thus far, I've not been able to determine precisely where...

Appearing in scores of stage productions, she dazzled audiences for nearly six decades, most memorably starring as Anita in “West Side Story” and Velma Kelly in “Chicago.” Chita Rivera, an original cast member in the Broadway production of “West Side Story,” was a hard-working perfectionist who rarely missed a beat, let alone a performance. Credit... Associated Press By Robert D. McFadden, The New York Times , Jan. 30, 2024 Updated 3:11 p.m. ET [...]; see  also image from article Ms. Rivera receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in 2009 at the White House. She was showered with honors during her career.  Credit... Pool photo by Fabiano

Rampant speculation that President Volodymyr Zelensky will fire his top military commander has consumed Ukraine’s capital at a precarious moment in the war. image from article: Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhny has been seen by analysts as a plausible rival to President Volodymyr Zelensky if Ukraine were to resume elections, which are suspended during wartime. Credit... Efrem Lukatsky/Associated Press By Andrew E. Kramer and Marc Santora, Reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine, The New York Times , Jan. 30, 2024 Updated 10:50 a.m. ET; see  also As Ukraine fights against a fierce Russian offensive and its leaders wait to see whether the West will approve more than $100 billion in much-needed assistance, the government in Kyiv is dealing with a festering distraction: tumult in its top ranks centered on the fate of the top military commander. Speculation raged on Monday in political and military circles, the news media and online that President Volodymyr Zelensky had fired the commander, Gen. Valeriy Zaluz...

1,000 Words Members of the military police battalion in Soure, Brazil, set out to patrol on buffaloes. The sight alone is enough to keep small-time crooks at bay, say locals. PHOTO: SAMANTHA PEARSON/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Meet the Brazilian crime fighters that weigh 1,800 pounds. Some military police personnel on Marajó Island saddle up and patrol on horned buffalo, which have an unusually robust presence on the island. The animals can chase suspects across soggy mud flats and through thick swamps during the rainy season, police say. The buffaloes’ presence seems to deter criminals. From Zlati Meyer What's News, via email; see also 

Analysis by Ishaan Tharoor, Columnist, The Washington Post , January 29, 2024 at 12:00 a.m. EST   A member of a Ukrainian air defense unit in the woods north of Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Tuesday. (Alice Martins for The Washington Post) It’s hard to ignore the sense of desperation in Ukraine’s corridors of power.  Nearing two years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion, authorities in Kyiv maintain their long-standing entreaty to partners in the West: Deliver us more arms, more aid, more political commitments. President Volodymyr Zelensky toured Western capitals at the end of last year, pleading for support amid growing international fatigue with the conflict and paralysis in U.S. Congress over new supplemental funding for Kyiv. Around the same time, his top general, Valery Zaluzhny,  bemoaned  the “stalemate” that had set into place after the much-anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive in 2023  failed to make strategic headway  against Russia’s deep de...