It is really hard to avoid doomscrolling at the moment as there is so much terrible news and ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing, but for my own and close family and friend sake  it seems necessary to only keep abreast of events to keep motivating oneself to continue to protest, write and support demonstrations and resistance movements. On the other hand it seems necessary to also focus on positive news and to try and live and enjoy the here and now. Without hope it is hard to stay personally optimistic or to encourage others to 'keep on trucking' to use the old Fabulous Freak brothers mantra.

So I have been encouraged by the return of a few different species of butterfly, a few more plaaces around us where the sound of daytime cicadas can be heard and even in early Summer a few frogs still crying out for mates in the basin of a friend's garden. 

While knowing that the Democrats can hardly be called socialist or radical at least they have a couple of candidates who are to the left of the party, offer improvement in the lives of ordinary Americans and hopefully see off the Trump MAGA racist neofascist wave. only can only hope that if they win then maybe just maybe they can bring an end to the genocide and  ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. In the mean time bit by bit the horror of Gaza is forcing some companies to stop their embrace and arming of the Israeli government and there is some hope that we and France will be forced to stop arming the IDF's offensive