Got a surprise call; a youthful voice
on the other end said “Hello, Grandma.” I haven’t spoken with my
17-year-old grandson for years now because his mother cut off our communication.
I was excited at the prospect of heating from him again. “Where are you?” I asked.
He said he was in jail after a car wreck. He needed money for bail. I wanted to
know the name of the jail so I could check, as it was sounding suspicious. “Here
in Oregon,” he said. “Why are you in Oregon?”
“No. I’m in here New York.” At that
point, I hung up, as it was obviously a scam. My grandson does not live in either
place. If we had gone on any further, I would have asked his name and birth date.
Apologies, I see from the last
posting that shorter blog postings are better, as the reader had to click on “read
more” to get see the whole thing last time. Will try to be less wordy and post
more often and perhaps not write
down everything that pops into my
head.
Will be leaving soon for my annual
volunteer medical brigade/humanitarian trip to Honduras. Have been
checking the weather there. The south already has had days in Feb. where the
high temperature has exceeded 100 F. It was rather brutal living there in
the Peace Corps during the dry season and not much fun either during the rainy
season when roads turned to mud and bridges washed out. But many people on the
planet live full time under such conditions, which seem to be getting more
extreme due to climate change. After not having any luck with Honduran friends in
finding wheelchairs for sale at the Tegucigalpa WalMart (though
some were there when I checked last year) and hearing about factories halting production
in China due to the Corona virus, I panicked and ordered 2 wheelchairs
from WalMart here. Let’s see how I manage to get them there, along with everything
else.
Ken Starr gave a dramatic performance
in defense of Donald Trump, followed by well-prepared White House
lawyers, who had done their homework, unlike their boss. They repeated the arguments
that an election is coming up and that Ukraine officials have denied
feeling any pressure. What do you expect Ukraine officials, who are being shaken
down, to say?
Rep. Adam Schiff gave a very
impassioned and convincing speech before the final impeachment vote. He was
right to say that history will not be kind to this president. I suspect many
Republicans know that to be true, but won’t switch their vote. I could
absolutely fall in love with Schiff, despite the disgustingly childish nickname
that a Trump has affixed to him. Maybe Schiff will run for president one day.
Trump is taking his victory lap after
the Senate voted against impeachment. He and his supporters seem to feel
emboldened now. Senator Mitt Romney will go down in history for his
honest vote. We still need to hear from John Bolton whose book
publication is being blocked by the rump administration on allegations it
contains classified information, which Bolton demies. But a court fight could
delay it until after the election.
As for the caucuses, privileged voters
with the power to choose presidential candidates need to represent not only their
own personal preferences, but to anticipate the preferences of moderate and
swing voters. Because the stakes are so high to beat Trump, since he has shown
that he can win while losing millions of votes in our skewed system, there
needs to be a huge landslide—bigger than in 2016—to defeat him. It would be great
to take down some Republican senators in the process as well.
So I wouldn’t want to take a chance on
a “Democratic Socialist” like Sanders, a woman like Warren, although
I like her, nor an outsider like Yang, though I do agree with his
guaranteed income plan. No, maybe we need to go instead with good old Biden,
the guy Trump fears the most, but who didn’t come out on top in Iowa, where the
Democratic Party failed big time with vote counting, a fiasco that tarnishes
the party image. We simply cannot afford 4 more years of Trump. Of course, I would
vote for any of the above, or anyone else the Democrats might choose. But I
would disagree with those who insist only on voting for the candidate with whom
they most agree. Those who voted in the past for a third-party candidate on the
basis of principle have sometimes lost elections for a Democrat.
Trump against Bloomberg, a contest between billionaires,
would make for a stark and interesting spectacle. No longer could Trump tout
his business credentials, since Bloomberg is the more successful businessman
despite his so-called short stature of 5’ 8”, something which Trump likes to
point out while bristling at mention of his own small hands and possible other small
body parts.
Apparently Mr Trump needs reading
glasses, but avoids being seen wearing glasses, so his teleprompter font must
be pretty large and he needs pay attention to it and not deviate. But unless he
goes off script and says something outrageous, his base won’t be energized. Because
of the huge and growing financial deficit, thanks to Trump’s big tax cuts, he would
certainly slash social programs if re-elected. In fact, he’s already started.
His State of the Union address was a campaign rally.
Trump continued the next day at the
prayer breakfast and another meeting to crow about his “victory” over
impeachment and to excoriate his opponents. Lots of lies, fake facts, name
calling with everyone applauding. It’s really sick. He wasn’t “exonerated” by
the Senate, they merely failed to impeach him under dire political threats, both
open and implied.
Good that China is being more transparent
and aggressive about the Coronavirus than it was with SARS. This Corona
virus seems to be less lethal, but much more contagious. The spread of the virus
and how it is being handled is not only threat to the global economy, but to
Chinese internal political control.
I’d already mentioned in the last
posting that the Peace Corps was closing its China program, something for which
Xi might well have advocated. The Peace Corps Association posted this diplomatically
worded notice:
On February 5, Peace Corps announced that
due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak and related school closures and
travel constraints, all Peace Corps China Volunteers were safely evacuated
out of the country. The 139 Volunteers will close their service. The
evacuation of current Volunteers follows a recent decision by the Peace Corps
to graduate its China program.
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t’s not surprising that many deported Salvadorans have been killed after being returned to their home country. (Doubtless the same in Honduras.)
Folks who carry guns may feel safer, but except in rare instances are actually less safe because of accidents and being unprepared to draw their weapon, or if they do, they may make a mistake and hit an innocent person, sometimes their own family member. In the Texas church where recently armed parishioners brought down a gunman, the armed men there were actually on duty as trained guards always on alert. That’s different from ordinary random citizens carrying guns.
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