How Trump
has gotten control of the Bureau of Immigration Appeals:
Immigration Judges Accuse Trump
Administration of Muzzlung Them
'Suddenly they started gassing us': Cuban
migrants tell of shocking attack at Ice prison
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/02/cuban-migrants-detention-ice-facility-new-mexico
It feels like the world is now being stalked by the Four Horsemen named in Revelations, especially, pestilence and death. Donald Trump is the fifth horseman, responsible now for a growing number of virus deaths. His presidency has become a disaster, a national emergency. Trump remains a genuine international and national security threat, as well as a threat to each and every one of us as ordinary citizens. Some prognosticators still predict a Trump second term based on flukes in the Electoral College system. Could such a calamity really befall us once again?
It feels like the world is now being stalked by the Four Horsemen named in Revelations, especially, pestilence and death. Donald Trump is the fifth horseman, responsible now for a growing number of virus deaths. His presidency has become a disaster, a national emergency. Trump remains a genuine international and national security threat, as well as a threat to each and every one of us as ordinary citizens. Some prognosticators still predict a Trump second term based on flukes in the Electoral College system. Could such a calamity really befall us once again?
Now if people survive the virus, are they
then immune and no longer carriers? One of many questions awaiting answers. It’s
problematic that immunity after surviving the illness may not last very long,
which also has implications for effective vaccine development. In the US, we
have many survivors who may still not be immune and still capable of
transmitting the virus, but who knows? As the virus is surging, contrary to Mr.
Trump’s airy predictions, poor Dr. Fauci, now muzzled, has become
a handy scapegoat.
One heartening piece of news, almost lost in
the shuffle, is that Sudan is now outlawing female genital mutilation.
I hope other countries will follow suit, including recently independent South
Sudan, where I argued against the practice during my mission there in 2006,
as per my article about my visit. file:///C:/Users/melan/OneDrive/Desktop/Barbara%20Backup/Downloads/Sudan%20article.pdf
The Back Lives Matter movement has not only
triggered the reevaluation of historic legacies, but has spilled over into critiques
of modern-day icons, such as now against
Doctors without Borders, accusing
the organization of being elitist and insensitive to local practices.
Granted that doctors from more developed countries often work in places where
they are unfamiliar with local customs and languages and, yes, they sometimes
act condescending toward both local staff and patients, as doctors also do in
their home countries, with the attitude that “I am the doctor here and I am in
charge.” I’ve worked with members of the
organization in Latin America, helping them bridge the language and customs’ divide,
but often they are moving from place to place, not able to learn about local idiosyncrasies
and tending to emergencies that don’t allow for a lot of nuance and
explanation. So while more sensitivity training may be in order, in my
experience, the good they do outweighs any faults.
The Trump administration’s push against China
serves to highlight that nation as a rival political, economic, and social
power. This is one place where I find myself not totally at odds with the Trump
administration, though the effectiveness of its methods are always questionable,
especially with a wild card like Trump in the mix. Certainly, the excesses of Mao
and the Tiananmen Square
massacre deserve condemnation. Back then, China had just begun moving toward a
hybrid system, combining considerable economic freedom with continued political
control. A nation like Cuba and its citizens could benefit from similar
economic liberties, even under communist rule. But under Xi, who has
extended his term indefinitely, controls have been tightened against ordinary
citizens, the Uighurs, and now Hong Kong.
Will Taiwan be next, no longer able to rely on a United States weakened
by the Coronavirus and Trump’s disastrous presidency?
Donald Trump should be careful about calling
attention to Joe Biden’s supposed mental lapses contrasted with his own amazing
genius. A man so flawed and devoid of self-awareness, common knowledge, and
reasoning ability has probably never before held the office of the American
presidency. Almost any one of us could do a better job. You have to feel sorry
for the guy, but also sorry for all of us and for the families who have lost
loved ones because of his failure of leadership on the virus pandemic. So far,
Donald has not been able to lay a glove on Joe
As for Trump’s declaration that Lincoln
was a Republican, is that news to anyone? Maybe he just discovered it? And, with
3 ½ years of trying to move against DACA, after now being slapped down
by the Supreme Court, the guy has announced a watered-down DACA version in
a belated attempt to win over Hispanic voters. Most of us have some awareness
of our own limitations, but Mr. Trump seems blissfully unaware of his own.
Quite fittingly, a
documentary has been made about the life and legacy of MLKing associate Georgia
Congressman John Lewis, now age 80 and fighting cancer. Though I
normally pay little attention to accusations of “political correctness,” often applied
incorrectly in my view, sometimes the label is actually fitting.
People are often swayed by the opinions of their peers, and that certainly
happened with the Congressional Black Caucus’s wholesale embrace of Fidel
Castro, even to the point of visiting him to pay homage. However, bucking this
trend was John Lewis, the only caucus member who agreed to meet with afro-Cuban
human rights activist Jorge Luis García Pérez, popularly known as Antúnez, who visited the US after
spending 17 years as an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience. In
gratitude to Lewis for agreeing to that meeting, I mailed him a copy of my Confessions
book, where Antúnez is featured. Lewis then sent me a handwritten thank-you
note for the book, which he promised to read.
Much has been made lately about racial and
ethnic divides amid ongoing discussions about how best to bridge them. The
way we have done it in my own family is by marriage and adoption, as well as via
bilingualism, that is, by actually incorporating different ethnicities and the
Spanish language into our own immediate family.
In early July, I made a
trip to my son Jonathan’s place in Berkeley Springs, W.
Va., with him picking me up at home in DC and bringing me back again. Trains
to nearby Martinsburg are not running during the pandemic, as no one wants to
be traveling next to other passengers right now. It was a wonderful respite to
be there after weeks of lockdown due to a rising number of virus cases and of
deaths in the DC area. In contrast, Morgan County, where my son lives,
has had only 20 virus cases and no deaths. But we still wore facemasks outside
there and sat away from other viewers during the tra
ditional July 3rd
fireworks. It was wonderful taking a drive the next day up the mountain
to the headwaters of the Potomac where three states, Md., Va., and W
Va., converge.
We had to make plane reservations for Jon’s
family coming from Hawaii, but since the library was closed and my son has
no computer, a friend put her laptop outside on a picnic table for us to use.
Traveling for the first time east of Hawaii will be Jon’s estranged wife, a
native of the US territory of Micronesia, her daughters ages 13 and 15, and the
5-year-old son whom Jon has with his wife. Jon did visit the family in 2018,
but is not contemplating a full-scale reconciliation, rather a co-parenting
arrangement. It will be quite a change in climate from Hawaii, where most
people have neither home heating nor A/C. But, in case the family wants to go
back, relatives will be occupying their apartment outside of Honolulu.
