What goes around comes around

Although Google says this was posted Oct. 5, actually today is Oct. 8.  The last 4 posts all say Oct, 5, so there is some sort of bug here in my system. 

Death by any other means 

If Christa Pike's execution had been actually carried out, she would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in over 200 years. Whatever crimes Christa has now committed, she will not be executed in 2026 as the governor has suspended all executions for the rest of the year.

Here is a message from a reader: A medical doctor has said that the reason for their failure to execute Christa Pike was that they had injected tissue, and not a vein.

 Senator Marsha Blackburn, the Republican candidate for governor in next month's election, has said: "Bring back the electric chair."

Congressman Tim Burchett, posted on social media that he's already filed a bill to "bring back hanging". 

The guillotine, hanging, the electric chair, and even the firing squad are/were all more definitive execution methods than lethal injection.  But my question is: Why even have a death penalty at all?  As mentioned before, I support human life from conception to natural death, sometimes called "wholelife support."   Every person will die, but as long as any human beings are still live,  we should all endeavor to make our own and everyone else's life as meaningful, pain-free, and satisfying as possible.  So each of us should now do our own part by certainly never deliberately harming others, such as with punishing them by actually killing them, whatever it is that they might have done.

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The well-worn intruder story here once again

 Caleb Flynn called 911 early on Feb. 16 to report that his wife had just been shot by an intruder.  Who would still possibly believe that all-too-common tale any more--such a really old story, one that the police have so often heard before?  Here in the US,  do intruders typically enter private home to rob, rape, or kill the occupants?  That's something that almost never happens.  Of course, the police knew that Caleb Flynn was simply lying, so as a result, he has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for murdering his wife all by himself.  He was actually very fortunate to have avoided the death penalty in this case.  But he will never be with his sweetheart, the object of his previous obsession, nor will he be with any other woman for the duration of his natural life.  The only women he might ever see may be the wives and sweethearts now visiting other prisoners.  So eat your heart out Caleb Flynn!  

I'd really like to post a photo here of that hangdog, hapless, unhappy Caleb Flynn, but maybe that's too risky right now with AI searching though every nook and cranny of private blogs such as this one.  I am not selling anything here; I'd just like a photo illustration, but I don't dare to do that right now.  If you want to see what Flynn looks like when appearing in court in his prison jumpsuit, you will have to find his image on an authorized commercial site, usually one trying to get your attention to sell you something.  (That's probably why I am being blocked here right now, to force readers to go to sites where advertisers appear.)

Law enforcement certainly knows Caleb's story by heart.  In 99.99% of intruder cases being reported here in the US, there has been no intruder whatsoever and the husband has actually murdered his own wife all by himself.  The husband is always the first suspect.  If he had wanted to be with his lover or mistress, weren't there easier ways to have done that?  Now Caleb Flynn is likely to spend the rest of his life in prison and never be with his mistress after all.  (She has already moved on now.)

Not quite as many women will call the police to report that their husband has been killed by an intruder, but some will also make up that ridiculous tale.  In fact, in the probably more common case of a wife supposedly having been killed by an intruder, she has often considered her husband to be her faithful companion, as he may be very good at faking affection for his wife, despite his nefarious plans to actually do away with her to be with his lover.  

The husband should realize that the amazing attraction that he feels right now for his "other woman," prompting him to do away with his wife, would always wear off in time if they actually started living together, as usually 3 years together is the maximum duration for the honeymoon phase or the limerence effect, an obsessive state of mental addiction.  Nor does it occur only in men.  Women can experience it as well.  That feeling can be so strong that it leads a person to even kill their significant other to be with someone they idealize, which is what actually happened to Caleb Flynn.  This is an aberrant mental state that someone experiencing it may not recognize or be able to control.  We all know the phrase "madly in love," which is really an obsessive mental state, even leading someone to kill their partner to be with the object of their obsession. 

AI Overview: Yes, some women also have reported that an intruder has killed their husband, and in some cases, investigations later revealed that the wife had fabricated the story and was then charged with the murder.  So women too can be obsessively "in love," sometimes even to the point of killing their mate. 

Google says: Strong sexual attraction and the intense honeymoon phase usually peak and begin to transition into a stable attachment within 1.5 to 3 years, while limerence (obsessive attraction) can occur in both men and women.  

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Saying Good Bye to the Peace Corps

John Coyne

Coyne remembers how the Peace Corps first got started and envisions what its fate is now in the Trump era. 

 It's not just a matter of the attitude of Trump himself, but of the fact that so many people had voted for him and still 

support him.  So the idea of volunteer Peace Corps service in another country, the idea of altruism, without your fellow 

Americans even knowing what you are doing, that's something that fewer folks may want to sign up for anymore.  .

Those of us of a certain age will remember JFK and Camelot, a time of hope and confidence in the future.. 

Can I still post an old photo of JFK's family?  Or will the AI police come after me again, although JFK is long gone?  We'll soon find out.

The Peace Corps 

was John F. Kennedy's vision and a service that I (Barbara) am proud to have joined, even at age 62, which was not actually too late. 

 But the Peace Corps is not compatible with the mindset of those citizens who have 

voted for Donald Trump as their (our) president right now.  So maybe John Coyne is right, that the perspective of Camelot that JFK inspired is sadly fading and perhaps is no more.

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Then who is the greatest US president these days?   We've had this discussion before.  Much of greatness lies in the eye of the beholder and not all eyes see things the same way. 

YouGov has grouped Trump, Biden, and Nixon among the country's most negatively rated presidents.

Rather than viewing Trump as one of the nation's greatest presidents, 48% of respondents rated him a "failure," the highest share of any president measured in the survey, meaning that Trump was actually  rated as our very worst president ever.  Biden was next at 35%, followed by Nixon at 28%.  Trump was even ranked lower than Tricky-Dick Nixon! 

Trump's own ranking has placed Lincoln, Washington, and Franklin Roosevelt in the tier just below his own self-designated top spot as "The Greatest."  

In the YouGov survey, however, Lincoln topped the list of "consensus greats," with 57% rating him as great.  Washington followed at 52%, while Kennedy ranked third at 37%.  Donald Trump is not actually considered "great" by anyone except himself.  Almost everyone else ranked him as one of our very worst presidents.   Certainly, I myself would rank him as the absolute worst during my own 88 years of life so far.  But Trump is still hoping for a Nobel Prize, at least, according to his recent remarks.  He is self-confident, considering himself to be so wonderful, so very great that it almost takes his breath away. 

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Fox, Mamdani’s $30M plan to fight antisemitism includes increased funding for anti-Israel group

The Arab American Association of New York partners with a city-funded hate crimes initiative amid Jewish skepticism

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Drag queen racers are getting all ready to go.

                                                Let's see if this photo can stay here right now. 

            A photo may be worth 1,000 words, but what if photos are now forbidden?  I am really upset by

AI's policing of photo use.  My grandmother blog is really a sort of newsletter just for family and friends, not any sort of commercial enterprise. 

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Put on your reading glasses now for the next item from Amnesty International, this is the best I can do.

Hello Friends and fellow activists!

This week will mark three years of the ongoing genocide in Gaza. I'm working with some folks to put a message of solidarity together to end the genocide that we can share across our social media platforms. If you're interested in being part of the project, please send me a short clip of yourself saying, “End the genocide”. That's it. We'll do all the work and put it together.  Since time is short, we won't have an opportunity to share individual messages or highlight where people are from, but we encourage you to add in some subtle hints. By this I mean, if you would like to wear a T-shirt that has a message of solidarity, please put it on. Wear a t-shirt from an organization you would like to highlight. Have a flag in your message. If you speak multiple languages, say “end the genocide” in as many languages as you would like and send me the clips. You can send a clip of yourself or you with friends, family and colleagues…..even pets. Send the message from your car. Send it from your home. Send it from your workplace. Send it from your place of worship. We'll take care of everything.

If you don't want to participate but you want to help get the message out, that's OK. Once the video is complete, I will send it to everyone on this list so you'll have it and you can share it out with your network of activists. We want to have it ready to go Wednesday morning. 

Thank you all for everything you do!!

PEACE!!

Alicia Koutsoulieris

Amnesty International USA

Country Specialist - Israel/OPT/Palestinian Authority

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Sorry, the following just cannot be moved over to better fit into the space. (I'm getting

way too much resistance from the blog deities right about now.)

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Here is a posting from my daughter Steph. Sorry that some of it is cut off.

My fathers work was somewhat opaque to me growing up and since his death in 2000 I still have questions. So, did the obvious and asked ChatGPT.

I was a bit staggered

by what I learned. Never was it mentioned he was disabled himself, being blind since the age of 5. Anyone who knew

him could understand why, he was just so- forceful, capable - it never seemed relevant . Here's what I learned "Thomas C. “Tom” Joe, was a consequential figure in U.S.

social-policy development, particularly in welfare reform, disability policy, and programs for low-income families.

Most importantly, the Center for the Study of Social Policy itself identifies him as its co-founder. CSSP says he and Harold Richman established the organization in

1978–79, with Tom envisioning a policy center that combined rigorous analysis with a practical understanding of how government programs actually operate. He then

directed the Washington organization for roughly two decades.

Several accomplishments stand out:

1. Supplemental Security Income (SSI): The MacArthur Foundation says he was “instrumental in developing” the federal SSI system for elderly and disabled people.

An oral history from Lewis Butler, a senior Nixon-era HEW official, goes even further: Butler recalled that Tom was the principal intellectual author of SSI, describing

him as the person behind the idea of federalizing assistance for aged, blind, and disabled people. Decades later Butler described him as the "resident genius” of the California Assembly staff and said, "there were many very smart people there but none smarter than Tom Joe."

2. Nixon’s Family Assistance Plan: He was one of the principal policy architects working inside the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare on Nixon’s proposed overhaul of welfare. Butler’s oral history specifically names Tom Joe among the people who devised the plan with the White House Domestic Council and Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

3. Earned Income Tax Credit: In his obituary the Washington Post states he was influential in shaping both SSI and the Earned Income Tax Credit, the latter becoming one of the federal government’s largest income-support programs for lower-income working families.

4. Carter administration: He subsequently served as a consultant to the White House Domestic Policy Council from 1975–79 and worked on another major effort at

national welfare reform. President Carter appointed him to the original National Council on the Handicapped, the predecessor of today’s National Council on

Disability. The Senate confirmed him in September 1980. The MacArthur Foundation specifically notes that he helped two presidential administrations draft family-welfare reform plans.

6. KIDS COUNT: He was part of the CSSP group that originally developed what became the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT project—the annual

state-by-state measurement of children’s well-being that is still widely used today.

7. Research and advocacy: Under his direction, CSSP conducted influential empirical work on poverty, welfare, disability, child welfare and services for frail older adults. Congressional records show him submitting testimony on federalism and welfare policy, and his work appeared in scholarly journals as well as national press.

And then there is perhaps the clearest indication of how highly his peers regarded him: in 1986 he received a MacArthur Fellowship—the award popularly called a

“genius grant.” The MacArthur Foundation’s surviving profile says that he “initiated and critiqued government policies that affect the disadvantaged” and specifically

credits him with SSI, welfare reform, and helping state and local governments design and implement these reforms.

Another California legislative figure, Leland Nichols, recalled him as the most distinguished person to come through a Ford Foundation internship

program and called him “one of the most brilliant men in America,” one of the reasons I (Barbara) had married him.