Thursday, 7 May 2026

🧚‍♀️ TREE HOUSE NEWS 🏡

NEWS AGGREGATOR & COMMENTS

May Great Spirit bless 🙏

It's a reasonably good morn... "actually!" It's a good morning with "no nausea!" I just feel kind of tired out, like I've been dragging a dead body around the house with me all morning. Wonder who's body? Is it Orange? Nah! No such luck. But otherwise I feel OK. At least I can handle the more tolerable annoyances. They disappear in the background once the thought mill begins ta rollin' for the day. I'll limp along till I see the Doc.

Till then, it's Hop Along Cassidy time, eh? 𐚁 "Hey! ♪˚♬ Mr. Dillon, ♪♫ please wait for me! ♫♭｡♪ ~ ♪˚♬𝄞

Flash back to Gunsmoke circa 1955 and 1975

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J86eGuqjzCM

They most sointenly 🐰 knew how to make some good Western movies and TV shows back then, and also some great cartoons, like my friend Bugs Bunny up there. Country music was tops until Rock and Roll was introduced. Lots of good stuff from the sixties and seventies brings back special memories. Why can't people be like that today, warm, kind, caring, and be HAPPY?

🤣😂😆😅🍾💫💥*｡🌟˚👍

Dolly Parton was for all that good stuff.

REMEMBER!

The Coat Of Many Colors:

1971

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_-YbWHs6DE

Light of a Clear Blue Morning

Feb. 2026

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McaD2PG8jOE

TODAY'S DISCUSSION:

EMPATHY and COMPASSION

To care for yourself and those around you. You know what that's called? E-M-P-A-T-H-Y, which spells EMPATHY. It's like bacon and eggs without the salt. What happened with the caring? That's how my parents survived the Great Depression. Everyone helped one another in any way they could. No one had money, so barter was used whenever possible. Scarce resources, like tools or machinery, were shared. Give a meal and lodging in the barn to a hobo who just jumped off a freight train, yes, to work on the farm. Or trade your baked goods at the hardware store for a pound of nails. It was about people helping other people; you certainly couldn't depend on the government then either. We, the People, need to learn to have a platform to stand on when the waters begin to rise; we rise with it as well. But then, who listens to me, eh?

"If we want to be a truly free people, we need to RESIST ALL that doesn't serve us justly! The NAZI REPUBLICAN lawmakers and judges are the evil, demented psychopaths who should be the ones locked out of society." Today, some psychopaths are also sycophants, a person who acts obsequiously toward someone important to gain advantage, or maybe just plain sick in the pants. Better sick in their pants than mine, but they make our lives miserable by feeding the ego of the Orange Jabba the Hutt.

- Google Search -

Question: Empathy and Compassion

Empathy is the ability to understand and feel another person's emotional state ("feeling with"), while compassion is the desire to act and alleviate that suffering ("feeling for"). Empathy involves sharing emotions, which can lead to fatigue, whereas compassion is an action-oriented, prosocial emotion that promotes helping without overwhelming oneself.

Key Differences and Components Empathy:

Mentally stepping into another person's shoes to understand their perspective. It is the "heart's response". Compassion: A deeper level of engagement that adds action to understanding. It is the "heart's movement" to alleviate pain.

The Difference: Empathy can sometimes cause "empathic distress" (personal burnout), whereas compassion is generally positive and energizing.

Why Both Matter:

Read More - Google Search -

In my experience, burnout will occur only when the empathic pain level exceeds my personal pain threshold, so I need to back off and just be present to give care.*_

There you go, I got him twice in the butt in one sitting, not bad for an eighty-year-old, eh? "MUSH BRAINS!" That one is free; it's on my way out the door.

BREAKING NEWS:

Trump is trapped by his own strategy as he grapples for an exit in Iran

If words won wars, Donald Trump’s Iran conflict would have ended long ago. But the president still can’t find a way out of a war meant to last no more than a month and a half that is now grinding into its 10th week.

Trump is ensnared by two traps of his own making — one geopolitical and the other domestic. Iran’s leverage over the Strait of Hormuz and refusal to fold mean he can’t definitively end the war at an acceptable military price.

The new US operation that lasted only hours:
How a military operation failed to yield a strategic success:
How the US negotiating position has eroded:

Read More:

PUBLISHED May 7, 2026, 12:00 AM ET - 10 hr ago

- CNN -

Judge releases purported Jeffrey Epstein suicide note

A federal judge unsealed a purported suicide note from Jeffrey Epstein on Wednesday.

The unverified and undated document was placed on the court docket in the case of a former cellmate of the late convicted sex offender who said he had found the note.

The note — which is not signed — reads, in part:

“They investigated me for month – found NOTHING!!!:

“It is a treat to be able to chose ones time to say goodbye.”

NO FUN – NOT WORTH IT!!

VIEW | Handwritten notes:

Read More:

Updated May 5, 2026 - 13 hr ago

- CNN -

Kash Patel’s personally branded liquor bottles create new challenge for FBI director

The beleaguered director didn’t need another alcohol-related controversy. He has one anyway.

Kash Patel’s tenure as FBI director has featured a lengthy stream of failures and controversies, but a brutal report in The Atlantic last month was among the lowest of the low points. The report, relying on more than two dozen sources, alleged that FBI personnel have expressed concerns about the director’s unexplained absences and excessive drinking, which have reportedly alarmed colleagues and potentially created a security risk.

Patel denied the allegations, accused The Atlantic of being part of an elaborate journalistic conspiracy he equated with organized crime, and filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit against the magazine soon after the article’s publication. But the reporter who wrote the piece, Sarah Fitzpatrick, not only stood by her work, she also said the article had generated fresh outreach from new sources within the FBI about the director’s work.

President Trump’s FBI director has a great deal of affection for swag. Merchandise for sale on a website he co-founded — still operating, nearly 15 months into his term — includes beanies ($35), T-shirts ($35), orange camo hoodies ($65), trucker caps ($25), “government gangsters” playing cards (on sale for $10), and a Fight With Kash Punisher scarf ($25).

One thing not for sale is liquor, because liquor is something Patel gives away for free.

Read More:

May. 7, 2026, 8:52 AM EDT

- MS NOW -

Contact tracing underway for dozens who got off cruise ship amid hantavirus outbreak

Many passengers disembarked in St. Helena before first case reported, ship's operator says

Countries worldwide scrambled on Thursday to trace people who had left the ‌cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak before it was anchored off the coast of Cape Verde to prevent further spread of the disease, which has so far killed three people.

The ship's operator, Oceanwide Expeditions, said Thursday that 30 people disembarked the MV Hondius in St. Helena, a British territory where the ship made a stop on its way to Cape Verde on April 24, before the outbreak was reported. Those 30 passengers included two Canadians and the body of a man who died on board on April 11, the company said...

WATCH | What is known about outbreak and the ship's timeline:

GLOBE MAP | Hantavirus Outbreak Deaths on MV Hondius

3 dead, 3 hospitalized:

WATCH | Hantavirus rare in Canada:

Posted: May 07, 2026 7:08 AM EDT | Last Updated: 41 minutes ago

- CBC -

The drone war comes home: Canada scrambles to shield military bases in legal grey zone

Military grappling with how to stop airborne threats without disrupting civilian life or breaking the law

The Canadian military has quietly started deploying counter-drone systems around its major ports and air bases as it grapples with both the technology and the legalities of shooting down uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs), CBC News has learned.

The idea is to prevent the kind of grey-zone warfare incidents that have recently paralyzed parts of northern Europe, and to avert the kinds of surprise attacks which have characterized the war between Russia and Ukraine. The effort has largely gone on behind the scenes and is still a work in progress in some cases, mostly because of rapid advances in drone tactics and technology...

WATCH | Canada taking lessons from Ukraine's counter-drone success:

WATCH | Canada's military has a 'number of projects underway,' says vice-admiral: