The terrible truth is
that the Electoral College could give Trump another victory even if he
loses the popular vote again by millions. Republican Senators, mindful of
needing the votes of Mr. Trump’s faithful base, will keep on obstructing further
witnesses and his removal from office. And because the Electoral College favors
Republicans and now gives them such an advantage, they are going to protect it
at all costs.
Nor does the
contentious Democratic primary process bode well for Democratic Party unity at
election time. If Hillary Clinton has actually said that no one likes
Bernie, that is a damaging statement that hurts her and the party more than
Bernie himself, though she may have intended it as payback for his damage to her
campaign in 2016. However, while he has garnered attention for his stated
vision for the country, including the popular Medicare for All, Bernie
has had few actual accomplishments to point to in his many years in the Senate
nor is he actually a member of the Democratic Party. However, his recent heart
attack does not seem to have presented an impediment.
Joe Biden is still probably safer as a presidential candidate than
either Bernie or Warren, although I do like Warren, but no time right now to
promote a woman candidate when the stakes are so high. Of course, if running
against Trump, I would vote for either Sanders or Warren in a heartbeat. But it
still looks like good old Biden is probably our best bet, which is why Trump
targeted him to begin with, but Biden does need to get out there to get more
traction.
While I’m not
particularly keen to see Mike Bloomberg become president, another
billionaire (probably even richer) confronting Trump would make for an
interesting matchup. Bloomberg is right that folks earning billions or even
millions yearly can afford to pay higher taxes, so it wouldn’t cramp their
lifestyle in the slightest. The same goes for estates in the several millions
and billions. Of course, I and many others would vote for Bloomberg over Trump and
their confrontation would take some of the wind out of Trump’s sails since
Bloomberg is probably much richer and certainly much smarter than the
self-described “stable genius.”
Since Trump’s lawyers
have complained about having senators vote on impeachment without any
witnesses, then, by all means, let’s bring on some witnesses! If Mr. Trump
was so concerned about corruption in Ukraine, what about corruption in other
foreign aid recipient nations? Hunter Biden and his father may rue the
day that Hunter accepted the lucrative board position in Ukraine, an obviously
unwise move, but hardly equivalent to what Trump has done, nor is the Trump
administration in a position to cry “nepotism” with Jared and Ivanka in the
White House.
Many Trump
administration officials seem to be in way over their heads and temperamentally
unsuited for their jobs: Pompeo, DeVos, and Carson, just to name
a few, not to mention “stable genius” Trump himself who lurches from one
thing to another, but revels in the perks and pride of office. For many members
of the voting public, who are equally uninformed, morally compromised, and
intellectually challenged, whatever Trump and company do may really seem just
“perfect.”
Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo, by lashing out at NPR reporter Mary Louise Kelly, then
barring NPR reporters from his trip to Ukraine, has shown himself to be as
vindictive and petty as his boss and certainly in way over his head, at least
in terms of emotional control.
I’ve never been a
particular fan of John Bolton, but he may yet save the day and enact revenge
for his firing. I suspect that he has taken careful notes and that Mr. Trump may
come to rue his firing. Republican senators are tying themselves into knots
trying to explain why he should not testify on live TV in full public
view, though some have agreed they should take a look at his book (which is not
sworn testimony). But now the Trump administration has even blocked publication
of the book, saying it contains classified information.
McConnell was out twisting arms to get the votes he needs to block
witnesses. Wishful thinking is envisioning him being defeated in the next
election. Bolton is certainly a better political strategist than Trump and Co.
ever will be.
While Trump’s
lawyers have not engaged in histrionics, as the man himself does, they have
not seemed particularly persuasive either, focusing repeatedly on the founders’
intent and the first impeachment of Andrew Johnson when the world has moved on.
The founders limited voting to white males. Some were slave-holders. And so the
US should now move on from the Electoral College, which has become a
dangerous anachronism, allowing the present anomaly of a president remaining in
office who has never enjoyed majority voter support. But the Republicans are
going to defend their advantage at all costs, especially since they now seem to
have become a minority party.
Of Trump’s legal
advocates, I found Dershowitz to be the least unconvincing, arguing that
maybe what Trump did was not quite correct, but that it did not rise to a level
requiring his removal from office. These lawyers’ hair-splitting arguments may also
be focused on Chief Justice Roberts in case the matter should go to the
Supreme Court.
Among the new countries
now included in Trump’s travel ban are Eritrea and Nigeria. My
current housemate is originally from Eritrea and I recently served as a reference
for a US visitor visa applicant from Nigeria who had once stayed at my house.
Now, I assume that his visa will be revoked.
The Saudi
government, and apparently the Egyptian government as well, have not
contested the very lopsided “peace plan” for Israel put forth by Jared
Kushner, just as the Trump administration has not contested their own abuses.
The Trump presidency
has aroused strong feelings among voters and increased tensions and political divisions
by deliberately taking controversial and even unpopular positions. Trump
himself seems to relish publicly insulting opponents, not on the merits of an
issue, but with schoolyard threats and childish name calling. While his base
may love his insults, his tactics do nothing to heal the political divide and have
put Republican lawmakers in a tight spot.
The Corona virus,
sparking an epidemic of a very contagious and sometimes deadly disease, may finally
put the damper on Hong Kong protests that have now continued for more
than 6 months. The appearance of virus is one of those unexpected events that
may throw a wrench into the Chinese, and certainly into the world, economy.
Nothing in life is totally predictable. Chairman Xi, a rational and
calculating long-term planner certainly did not plan for this, nor did Donald
Trump, who is not a planner at all. Such surprises keep life interesting
and challenging.
It’s a little
advertised fact that the Peace Corps program in China, there since 1993,
was quietly terminated by the most recent US-China trade agreement, probably at
Xi’s request. The action had nothing to do with the Corona outbreak, as it was
in the works beforehand. Now it would be hard to reinstate China, even if a
Democrat wins the White House next time.
The New York Times recently published an opinion piece by French journalist and essayist
Jean François Fogel alleging that Cuba under the Castro
regime is "a segregated society: 70 percent of black and mixed-race Cubans
said they didn’t have access to the internet, compared with 25 percent of white
Cubans. The racial wealth gap was also vast: While 50 percent of white Cubans
had a banking account, only 11 percent of black Cubans said they had one.
Moreover, white Cubans received 78 percent of remittances to Cuba, and they
controlled 98 percent of private companies."
Five men from south Asia are on hunger strike
in US immigration detention, www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/30/asylum-seekers-hunger-strike-louisiana-ice-detention
Poetic justice, high winds have reportedly toppled a new
section of Trump’s border wall over into Mexico.
In Egypt, 12-year-old girl dies after
genital mutilation, AP, January 31, 2020,, https://www.yahoo.com/news/egypt-12-old-girl-dies-125836798.html
I mentioned FMG in my article
published after my 2006 mission to South Sudan, file:///C:/Users/melan/OneDrive/Desktop/Barbara%20Backup/Downloads/Sudan%20article.pdf I tried while there, though handicapped by my outsider status
and lack of local language skills, to talk local medical practitioners into
abandoning the practice, but without success.
I’ve now decided to go ahead with my
annual volunteer medical brigade/humanitarian trip to Honduras, my
former Peace Corps country (2000-2003), but which the Peace Corps left several
years ago because of security concerns. I’d been waiting to see if my daughter
in Hawaii would be all right after her December auto accident. She is now back
at work, but is continuing to make her biology-themed sewing gifts which serve
as therapy for her. Here’s one of her latest efforts.
I’ve now hit a major snag regarding my upcoming volunteer
trip to Honduras. Last year, after I had lugged a wheelchair
again on the plane along with much other luggage, all to give away (leaving the
actual suitcases behind), I had discovered a new WalMart in the capital
of Tegucigalpa that sells wheelchairs for only about $60 more than in
the US. For that money, I would gladly avoid the hassle of taking a wheelchair on
the plane. In fact, I’d even be willing to buy two. But, of course, I did not carry
enough cash with me at the time to buy that display wheelchair.
In Honduras, without credit and with
credit not so commonly used for purchases there, I must always deal with all
cash. When one US dollar translates into 25 lempiras, the local currency,
that means carrying around a pretty big wad of cash, not really safe.
So this year, anticipating a possible
wheelchair shortage at the Honduras WalMart, I dispatched a local friend
with deep pockets, asking him to buy one or two wheelchairs if available,
promising to pay him back when I got there but lo, no wheelchairs were in
stock. Of course, no one at the local store knew if they were even on order. I
am panicking now, thinking I must again buy and bring at least one wheelchair
from here, as at the small rehab center in my former town of El Triunfo someone
is probably already waiting for it now. Just because the smallish WalMart in
the Honduran capital is laid out like our local WalMarts doesn’t mean that it actually
functions like one. Appearances can deceive.
As the accusations against Harvey
Weinstein pile up, I recall attending a private showing of his 2013 film
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, where both he and Hillary Clinton
spoke. The film, much of it shot on location in South Africa, seemed to hone
pretty much to the facts and there was certainly no hint in that public space
of Weinstein’s sexual proclivities. Perhaps men of power, money, and influence often
feel they can do whatever they want, including with women—certainly that has
seems to have been the case with others, including Donald Trump and Bill Cosby,
even the late Kobe Bryant, as well as with Bill Clinton, Jack Kennedy, and
Martin Luther King, though in the latter cases, it may well have been
consensual, as some women may engage in sex with an influential man as an
ego-booster and a stepping stone to success.
The viral controversy, whether
accidental or contrived, over the novel American Dirt,
authored by a non-Latina and apparently about the undocumented immigrant experience,
has nonetheless catapulted the book onto the best seller list. Are authors required
by political correctness to write fiction only in line with their own ethnic
identity and personal experience? The question is of particular interest to me,
a US-born non-Latina, as I have written two non-fiction books—memoirs really—about
my own life in Latin America, mainly in Honduras and Cuba. My books don’t pretend
to depict those experiences except through my own eyes as a US-born gringa. But
because of my years living and traveling in Latin America and because, (reportedly)
I speak unaccented Spanish, in conversations during my travels, I am not
immediately identified as an American nor do I so identify myself except to
close friends I try to blend in and usually seem to be able to do so. That ability
has helped me penetrate beyond the surface in Spanish-speaking countries. Also,
in all modesty, my written Spanish is more correct that that of many native
speakers. In summary, while I may be a stereotypical Caucasian “little old lady”
in the eye of the beholder, I am actually bilingual and bicultural.
In moments of reverie or when I
cannot fall asleep at night, I have conjured up a novel, never with one word actually
written down, Its main protagonist is the daughter of undocumented Hondurans, a
subject I know quite a lot about, not only due to having lived in Honduras and
traveled there annually for the last 16 years, but because of my years of Spanish
interpretation and translation work, some related to immigration and asylum
claims. So, if I were to put my mental narrative down on paper, would I then be
considered to be indulging in cultural and ethnic misappropriation? Would I be
thought unable to credibly depict the experiences of my main character? To add
insult to injury, another character in my purely imaginary novel is biracial, Caucasian/African
American, as are members of my own immediate family. If I should ever write
down this virtual novel and try to publish it, would I be criticized for being “inauthentic”?
If my novel were to sell as many copies as American Dirt, I would hardly
complain.
--
No comments:
Post a Comment