Making sense of the U.S, midterm results

Here om Canada, nearly all of us are delighted with the results of the U.S, midterm election  We have renewed hope that end of the Trump reign of terror is on the horizon.  On Tuesday, November 3, 2026,  American voters overwhelmingly rejected Donald Trump's agenda.  They repudiated Trump's horribly repugnant polices.  They spurned his politics of division and chaos, his hatred and persecution of immigrants, women and people with disabilities.  American voters are tired of high prices and the loss of health care coverage,  They want an end to the illegal, unconstitutional and costly war with Iran.  They are aware of the damage that Trump's tariffs are doing to the world economy.  They refuse to believe Trump's lies that they are enjoying a golden age.  They see the truth whenever they buy food or bay their bills. Meanwhile, Trump prattles on about his vanity projects. 

Americans do not want to throw Ukraine to the wolves in favour of Russian dictator and war criminal Vladimir Putin.  They are disgusted with Trump's treatment of Canada and Greenland.  Americans want a president who cares about them, not a leader who is focused on enriching himself, and his family, as well as oil companies and billionaire tech CEOs  The wealthiest person in the world, Elon Musk, could not buy elections for Trump.  The people have spoken.  They desire a return to decency.  They want the age of bullying to be over.

Unfortunately, we are not out of the woods yet.  Donald Trump retains the office of the presidency until January 20, 2029.  He is a lame duck leader, but he still holds presidential powers.  He can still do a lot of damage.  It is definitely not a good sign that Trump has chosen the racist neo-Nazi Stephen Miller to be White House Chief of Staff.  Miller is the architect of the ICE raids that have caused so much horror and pain and suffering.

The Democrats have to put an end to this madness.  They have to make life more affordable for the American people.  They have to hold the Trump regime accountable for what it has done to the U/S. economy.  It's time to end Trump's culture of hate and discord.  Decency and empathy must return to America -- for the sake of humanity,  Thankfully, the midterm blue tsunami is a very good place to start,  Power to the people!

- Joanne

Can Canada lead the way?

Mark Carney

 Who will stand up for liberal democracy?  Who will defend our basic rights and freedoms against rampant authoritarianism. and fascism?  It's 2026 and there is no Churchill.  There is no Franklin Roosevelt.  Can Canada, under the leadership of Prime Minister Mark Carney, fill the void? 

This is Canada's best chance to shine since our 14th prime minister, Lester B, Pearson, won the 1957 Nobel Peace Prize for using the world's first large-scale United Nations peacekeeping force to help end the 1956 Suez  Canal crisis.  There is a lack of leadership and backing for democratic ideals around the world today.  Donald Trump's support for dictators such as Russia's Vladimir Putin and North Korea's Kim Jong Un has left a democratic leadership vacuum.  

Trump rolls out the red carpet for dictators.  Yet, he has insulted Canada and threatened our sovereignty.  His regime is morally bankrupt.  He can't be trusted because he changes his mind at the drop of a hat.  The democratic countries need some strong leadership, and I truly hope PM Carney is up to the task.  He is calm, cool and collected.  He doesn't rant and rave.

Although not perfect, and certainly not above criticism, Canada remains a beacon in a world of cruel dictatorships.  It is a stable democracy in a world that has grown dangerously unstable.  The remaining democracies should rally around Canada.  Unlike Trump, they should support the democratic spirit against the cruelty of war criminals such as Trump's pal, Putin.  They should strongly support Ukraine.  If Putin succeeds in overtaking Ukraine, other countries are in grave danger. Don't expect Putin's ambitions to end with Ukraine.

The U.S. midterm elections, set for tomorrow, are one of the most consequential elections in American history.  These midterms are not about ideology.  They are not about left and right.  They are about decency and the rule of law.  They are about sending a message to a corrupt administration run by billionaire oligarchs. There is no doubt that decency is on the ballot.  If Democrats win the House and possibly the Senate, they will try to make Donald Trump and his followers account for their actions.  The bottom line, however, is that Trump will be president until January 20, 2029.  The best that can be done is to reign him in.

That's why it's so vital that democracies unite to protect humanity against the forces of authoritarianism and corruption.  My fervent hope is that Canada will lead the way.  It's time to restore empathy.  It's time for the American people to rise up and say enough is enough.  It is time to reject a mentally disturbed president who doesn't care about his own people.  

- Joanne

The Acting President of the USA

"Harp has become a main conduit between the president and the outside world, passing along messages from allies and setting up meetings, tapping out Truth Social posts and toting printouts of laudatory articles, all while staying in close physical proximity at all hours of the day."

- Kristen Holmes, Adam Cancryn. CNN

The acting president of the United States is a 35-year-old Fox blonde named Natalie Harp.  As Jeet Heer wrote in The Nation, "It's long been known that Harp is obsessed with Trump to the point of creepiness and that the president is all too happy to bask in the glow of her fawning gaze."  Trump has many sycophants, but Natalie is undoubtedly the most influential.  It can be argued that no one, not even his wife Melania or his daughter Ivanka, wields such influence on him.  Natalie Harp has political power, but holds no elected office. There has never been a female American president, but Harp is the first de facto female president.

Trump's right-hand woman rarely leaves his side.  She is unwavering in her loyalty to him.  In letters to Trump, she has referred to him as her "Guardian and Protector."  She has written that he is "all that matters" to her.  Former White House, press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that Natalie is "one of the most loyal and hardest-working aides on President Trump's team."

Natalie Harp is Donald Trump's executive assistant, but she is much more than that.  She has made herself indispensable to him.  She has become the adult babysitter of an extremely ill 80-year old man.  On January 6, 2001, the day of the attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters, Harp posted scores of pro-Trump comments on X (formerly Twitter until Elon Musk ruined it).  

Let's delve further into Natalie Harp's background.  Harp was born in 1991 and raised in Carmel Valley, San Diego, California.  Natalie's mother, Jill, homeschooled Natalie and her older brother, Preston Harp.  Preston, 38, has said that he and his sister were taught American exceptionalism at home.  According to Vanity Fair, Natalie went on to graduate from Point Loma University in 2012, a Christian liberal arts college in San Diego, and she received an MBA from Liberty University, a private Christian evangelical university in Lynchburg, Virginia in 2015. She is a devout evangelical of the Christian nationalist persuasion.  

Natalie's father, Robert "Bob" Harp, was a real estate broker who founded a consultancy for travel companies.  He also served as a business professor at Biola University, a Christian school in Southern California.  On July 17, 2020, during the pandemic, Bob Harp died at the age of 61.  He took his own life at the family home in Irvine California.  An Orange County coroner ruled his death a suicide.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Preston described how the family became torn apart by political differences and how their father's suicide further divided them.  It pushed Natalie closer to MAGA,  In Trump, she found a new father figure. Meanwhile, Preston moved in the opposite direction, further to the left.

Preston told the Post that Natalie and Jill wished to keep the cause of Bob's death private.  According to Preston, they "wanted to say he died in his sleep."  Preston, however refused to do so, stating that he couldn't keep that kind of a secret.  Thus, he informed his extended family of the true circumstances surrounding his father's death.

Natalie and her brother are estranged and their political beliefs are at polar ends of the spectrum.  While Natalie is an extreme right wing Trump loyalist, Preston moved to Nicaragua in 2023 and is an ardent supporter of the Sandinistas, a Marxist revolutionary group in the central American country.  He says he is prepared to die for the Sandinista cause.

The siblings could not be more different.  While Natalie wears designer dresses and high heels aboard Air Force one, her long-haired brother wears T-shirts and baseball caps.  He has been living in a $60-a-moth room the Nicaraguan capital of Managua.  In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, Preston called Trump "a national embarrassment."  He described his sister's relationship with Donald Trump as "very unhealthy."  "She's just like his fan club," he declared.

In 2019, Natalie Harp published a post on Linkedin crediting Donald Trump with helping to save her life during her battle with stage II bone cancer.  She claimed that his 2028 signing of the Right to Try Act, giving her access to lifesaving treatment.  That post led to an appearance on Fox News, after which Trump phoned in and described her as an "incredible, unbelievable young woman."  He rewarded her with a speaking slot at the August 2020 Republican National convention

In 2020, Harp became an anchor for the far-right One America News Network (OANN), where she promoted the false claim that the 2020 presidential election was rigged.  Harp left her job at OANN in April of 2022.  In October 2023, Donald Trump was due at a New York City courthouse .to deal with his latest legal troubles.  There wasn't room for Natalie in the Trump's motorcade.  Determined to accompany him, Harp jumped into an SUV trunk.  This incident has been confirmed by two sources and a CNN photo.

Natalie became an aide for Trump's 2024 campaign.  In January of 2025. she was named Trump's executive assistant.  She frequently accompanies him when he plays golf, bringing with her a laptop and printer to show him stories that are positive toward him.  She has been called "the human printer."

Trump and Harp travelling to watch the 2025 US Open Men's singles

In August of 2026, Senator Jon Ossoff (Democrat, Georgia) mentioned Natalie Harp by name in a speech attacking Trump.  Ossoff took aim at the president's "travels with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar."  The senator was referring to Natalie joining Trump, with a very select group as Trump secretly boarded a smaller aircraft to leave Turkey following a threat from Iran in July.  He and the others were  transferred from Air Force One to the other aircraft via a catering truck.  Top officials such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House Deputy Chief of Starr Stephen Miller remained on the decoy plane.

In September of 2026, the White House denied CNN, MS Now and Poltico access to its facilities.  CNN's Kaitlan Collins reported that Natalie showed him negative media coverage on those outlets, leading to the ban.

The bond between Donald Trump and Natalie Harp is clearly unhealthy.  On October 5, 2026, during a campaign rally in Grand Island, Nebraska, Trump lavished praise on his executive aide.  He compared Harp to a Price is Right model and then described her as "this perfect person."

SOURCES:  

Radar Online, Natalie Harp's Estranged Brother Exposes Family Rift Over Her 'Obsession' With Donald Trump and Their Father's Suicide," by Olivia Salamone, October 11, 2026;  CNN "Meet Natalie Harp, the aide so close to Trump she once rode in an SUV trunk to accompany him,"  by Kristen Holmes, Adam Canryn, August 19, 2026;  Newsweek. "CNN's Kaitlan Collins Reports Natalie Harp to Blame for White House Ban," by Gabe Whisnant, Hannah Parrry and Joshua Rhett Miller, September 21,2026; Wikipedia

- Joanne

Keeping Up with Nancy Sinatra

So what was it like to be the daughter of famed crooner Frank Sinatra?  Here's what his daughter, Nancy, told The Guardian in 2008: "He wasn't quite on the map when I was a baby.  He was on the road all the time with the band.  We were living in a flat in New Jersey when I was born. They didn't have any money.  But once he hit, he really hit.  Later, we move to Hasbrouck Heights (New Jersey) and had a lovely little house there, but you could get to the windows from the street there, they would come to get a glimpse, which worried my mother because I was a tiny little toddler, and she didn't want anybody stealing me the the front yard." 

Nancy Sandra Sinatra was born in Jersey City, New Jersey on June 8, 1940.  She the eldest of the three children of singer/actor Frank Sinatra (1915-1998) and his first wife Nancy Barbato Sinatra (1917-2018).  Her brother, singer Frank Sinatra Jr., was born in 1944 and died in 2016.  The youngest Sinatra, sibling, Tina, was born in 1948.  Tina is a businesswoman, producer, actress and singer. 

Below is a portrait of the Sinatra family in 1949.

The family eventually moved to Toluca Lake, California to accommodate Frank's Hollywood career.  From the age of six, Nancy studied music. She spent many years learning  piano, dance and drama, as well as undertaking voice lessons.  In June of 1958, she graduated from University High School in Los Angeles. She  studied music, dancing and voice at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCL A), but dropped out after one year.

Sinatra's affair with Ava Gardner led to the divorce of Nancy's parents in 1951.  Nancy Barbato Sinatra never remarried.  She died in 2018 at the age of 101.

Nancy launched her career as a singer in 1957, when she appeared on her father's ABC television series, The Frank Sinatra Show. At first she only received popularity in Europe and Japan.  However, in early 1966, she enjoyed a transatlantic number one hit with what was to become her signature song, "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'."  The song was a refection of the Swinging Sixties, the age of go-go girls in high boats.  It was written by Lee Hazelwood, who wrote and produced most of her hit songs.  Hazelwood also joined her in several duets.  Nancy and Lee collaborated on such hits such as"Sugar Town" (1966), "Jackson" (1967), "Summer Wine" (1967) and "Some Velvet Morning".(1967).  

Nancy and Lee

In 1967, Nancy had a hit song with her father.  The song was "Somethin' Stupid," written by American singer/songwriter Carson Parks.  Parks had recorded it with his wife, Gaile Foote.  However, their version was not released as a single.  It was Frank Sinatra who thought the song would be great for his daughter to record.  He took the song to Lee Hazelwood.  According to Hazelwood, "Frank called me to his office and told me he had found the song, but Nancy wouldn't work with any producer but me.  He played me the demo of "Somethin' Stupid" and said 'Do you like it?'  I said ' love it, and if you don't do it with Nancy, I will.  He said, "We're gonna do it.  Book a studio.'"

The 1967 Sinatra version of "Somethin' Stupid" became a major international hit.  It reached number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart.  It was the first and only time a father-duet had a number one song in America.  Nancy was quoted as remarking sarcastically, "Some people call {"Somethin' Stupid"}, the Incest Song, which I think is, well, very sweet.

In 2001,a  cover version of "Somethin' Stupid" by British vocalist Robbie Williams and Australian actor Nicole Kidman was released.  It reached number one on the UK Singles Chart.  However, the Sinatra version remains the most successful.

Below is a photo of Lee and Nancy at the Hollywood Palace in 1968.

Between 1964 and 1968, Nancy appeared on screen in feature films.  She co-starred with Peter Fonda in Roger Corman's 1966 biker gang movie The Wild Angels.  She also starred alongside Elvis Presley in the 1968 musical drama Speedway.  Nancy and Frank portrayed a fictional father and daughter in the 1965 comedy Marriage on the Rocks.

Nancy Sinatra has been a vocal critic of Donald Trump.  In 2017, after learning that her father's classic :"My Way" might be played at Trump's inauguration, she wrote on Twitter, "Just remember the first line 

of the song."  (The song begins with the lyric: "And now, the end is near"}.

In December of 2025, a MAGA supporter commented on social media that Frank would have loved Trump.  Nancy retorted. "Do some homework before you make a fool of yourself.  My dad LOATHED Trump."  Reacting to a video purporting to show ICE officer harassing Latinos, Nancy wrote on X. "This is not my father's America.  He would be devastated.  Trump is so wrong in so many ways."

Nancy Sinatra has been married twice.  On September 11, 1960, Nancy married singer/actor and teen  idol Tommy Sands.  Nancy regrets the marriage.  In her 2008 interview with the Guardian, she said,  "I wanted to continue my classical education in college, but instead I  got married like a fool."  The couple divorced in 1965.  Below is a photo of Nancy with Tommy Sands on the set of The Longest Day in 1962.

On December 12, 1970, Nancy wed Hugh Lambert, a producer, dancer and choreographer.  The couple wed in Cathedral City, California.  They had two daughters.  Angela Jennifer "AJ" Lambert was born on May 22, 1974.  Her younger sister, Amanda Kate Lambert, was born on March 17, 1976.  Hugh Lambert died of cancer on August 18,1985.  He was 55 at the time of his death.

Hugh and Nancy

More recent photo of Nancy

END NOTES

* On August 4, 2007, Lee Hazelwood died of renal cancer in Henderson, Nevada.  He was 78 years old at the time of his passing.

* On March 16, 2016, Frank Sinatra Jr. passed away suddenly of cardiac arrect at the age of 72.  He had been on tour in Daytona Beach, Florida.  In 1963, 18-year-old Frank Jr. was kidnapped from a Lake Tahoe casino.  He was released two days later after his father paid a $250,000 ransom.

* Nancy played Cary in a 1963 episode of The Virginian.  She also portrayed secretary Jill Stacy in a 1963 episode of Burke's Law.

* Nancy made three guest appearances on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, (two in 1969 and one in 1970).

*In 2007, Nancy appeared as herself in an episode of The Sopranos.

* Nancy was the first American singer to perform the title song for a James Bond film - "You Only Live Twice" (1967).  That same year she performed "Somethin' Stupid" with her brother, Frank Jr., on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.

* Nancy became a grandmother for the first time when her daughter AJ. gave birth to a daughter, Miranda Vega.

* On May 11, 2006, Nancy received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording.

SOURCES: American Songwriter, "On This Day in 1967, Frank and Nancy Sinatra Made Father-Daughter Chart History With a Song That Nicole Kidman Took to No. 1 Decades Later," by Clayton Edwards, April 13, 2026; The Guardian, "'I wish I'd been a bad girl," by John Patterson, June 2, 2008; Independent, "Frank Sinatra 'loathed' Trump, singer's daughter Nancy tells MAGA supporter," by Tom Murray, December 7, 2025; IMDb. Wikipedia

- Joanne