Trump
supporters are planning to storm the Capitol again on 4 March, lawmaker warns –says a recent headline. That lawmaker is the
Chair of the House Armed Services Committee, Adam Smith. Trump could stop any attempted assault on March 4
by admitting that the election is over and Biden is now president, like it or
not. He could stop all this if he wanted to but, apparently, he enjoys the manipulation
of and adulation by his minions.
From my cousin in California, I received a whole series of cartoons
designed to soothe our wounded sensibilities after Trump’s recent impeachment had
failed. One says, The only time Trump refuses to speak is under oath.
Right after the Senate impeachment vote that
failed to convict Mr. Trump, a national poll (conducted by Ipsos in partnership
with ABC News) showed 88% of Democrats and 64% of independents said the
former president should have been convicted for his role in the deadly assault
on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, while only 14% of Republicans agreed. A total of
58% of Americans polled said Trump should have been convicted, certainly a
majority, but primarily Democrats and independents, not Republicans. So senators’ votes on impeachment largely
reflected their own constituents’ views, demonstrating that the former
president still maintains a strong grip on the Republican Party and that they realize
they could face primary challengers of his choosing to run against them in 2022.
Trump also controls a pot of political money that can be used for or against an
incumbent, so he may continue to promote the narrative that his re-election was
“stolen,” as that helps his fundraising. A majority of Republican voters still
support him and also still accept his “stolen” claim. Jittery state Republican
leaders are even calling for censure of those who voted with Democrats to
convict Trump of impeachment. In
twisted logic, Republicans who won election at the same time that Trump was
defeated don’t fault the voting machines that granted them victory but which they
say caused Trump to lose. Mr. Trump will not be going away as soon as many
of us had hoped.
Mr. Trump, certainly no mental giant himself,
someone barely able to read and write, has raised such serious doubts among his
followers about the cognitive abilities of “Sleepy Joe” that many of
them actually believe that President Biden is senile, though he certainly has
not demonstrated that so far.
If a lie is repeated often enough, people may
come to believe it. My son living in W.Va., a registered
Independent, feels that some townspeople are judging
him, suspecting him of not voting for Trump. I won’t say how he actually voted.
It does seem that Trump’s supporters are taking his loss especially hard and
many still believe his repeated assertions that the election actually was stolen
from him--and from them--however that could possibly have happened. He also
seems to remain popular as a potential presidential candidate in 2024,
at least with registered Republicans. Do we really have to face the prospect of
having him run for president again? It would be nice to be able to finally turn
the page on Mr. Trump, as otherwise it will be hard to ever get back to
“normal.” If he follows through on his
idea of starting a “Patriots’ Party,” that will further splinter
Republicans, though Sen. Lindsey Graham is trying to prevent that by
papering over the recently expressed differences between Trump and McConnell.
Indeed, after working hand-in-glove with
Donald Trump for 4 years and voting against his impeachment, a vote he
publicly announced beforehand to bring along fellow Republicans, Senator Mitch
McConnell then laid down the gauntlet by describing Trump in negative
terms. That predictably evoked the ire of Mr. Trump, who, as indicated, still commands
strong support among a large segment of would-be Republican voters and also controls
a considerable political advertising war chest. But McConnell may now see Trump
as a drag on the party, signaling that he may try to sideline Trump and reclaim
the party before the mid-term elections. So, a civil war is brewing within the
Republican Party between Trump and traditional party members. On Trump’s side
are evangelical Christians, many of whom, along with their pastors, not
only believe that the election actually was stolen but also that Biden
and other Democrats are involved in pedophile cabals. They also have
been threatening violence against Mike Pence because he failed to stop
the election certification. Many may fear that traditional mores and the
religious landscape are changing before their eyes. In a new poll of Trump voters, nearly half
— 46 percent— say they’d ditch the GOP for another party if the twice impeached
Trump were at the helm. So Mr. Trump is definitely positioning himself for a
comeback or, at least, for becoming a spoiler, visiting retribution on
Republicans who have opposed him. But
the idea of Trump returning to national office is truly scary for a majority of
Americans, including me. If McConnell proves successful in neutralizing Trump,
can he be partially forgiven for supporting Mr. Trump up until now?
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/24/stephen-miller-maria-elvira-salazar-immigration-471410 Hope Republicans like Salazar will continue to
challenge Trump and his acolytes or their party will never be able to get out
of his grip.
Demolition of his former Atlantic City casino gave
outspoken satisfaction to many Trump critics, including Hillary Clinton, long
associated with pedophile conspiracies by Trump sycophants.
Meanwhile, President Biden and Democrats
seem prepared to go it alone with a relief package, even though it will add
considerably to the federal deficit in the short term. When Trump added to the
deficit, Republicans were on fully board.
On the last posting, I mentioned that US
birth rates have been falling, taking a real nosedive during the pandemic.
That, in tandem with virus deaths, has reduced average life expectancy
even further. Since 2014, US average life expectancy has fallen, especially
over the last 3 years, so Covid is not the only cause. But paired with falling
birthrates, our rising death rates, especially among those still in the
workforce, mean America needs more immigration ASAP. Fortunately,
now that Biden has taken charge, the virus toll is finally on a downward trend,
though more contagious variants may still appear. Yet half a million people
living in this country have already been lost in just one year, a grim
milestone that is hardly “pro-life.”
Certainly, Mr. Biden must walk a tightrope
regarding immigration and migrants. Many are pressing now at our
southern border, but he cannot afford to open the flood gates while also giving
due consideration to those with legitimate asylum claims. His first
order should be to legalize the Dreamers, as they are already here and largely
productive and well-integrated. We do need them as workers. It will be a
delicate task to thread the immigration needle, to use another metaphor.
DC Mayor Muriel
Bowser has announced her sister’s death from Covid.
New deaths locally and nationally seem to be on the wane, but are still too
high. Covid viruses may keep on mutating, perhaps like seasonal flu.
Since Covid can be lethal and have long-term consequences, all the more reason
to get it under control worldwide. If vaccines are 95% effective (for how
long?), then will 5% of vaccine recipients still get sick? China is trying to
shift the blame for Covid’s initiation, suggesting that it might have started
elsewhere, then been brought into China, though according to the finding of the
UN team, all signs are that it actually did originate in Wuhan,
China.
I’ve heard from my Peace Corps dentist in
Honduras, whom I often consult on visits there, that she is back in
business in her clinic after putting many complicated safeguards in
place. Dentistry, which requires an open, breathing mouth, would seem to
present a particular challenge to virus spread. Her 2 daughters have returned
from Mexico and Spain where they were studying and are now doing university
classes online. She says she hopes to see me later this year. We'll see if
I can go back to Honduras again. Operation Smile there, which
relies mainly on practitioners from abroad, hopes to start up again by June,
which seems optimistic. Its directors want me to bring a child-size wheelchair
next time.
Having lived in
Texas (and many other places) as a child, I know folks there are not used to
cold temperatures. Some Republican
spokespersons are blaming Biden, not Governor Abbott, for the state’s
unpreparedness. While Texans are suffering now because of unusual cold and
insufficient electrical power, I cannot help thinking about people around the
world in both warm and cold climates who live without electricity and running
water all the time. There are some 800,000 to 900,000 households around the world
lacking electricity, mostly in Africa, but also in Asia and Latin America. I’ve
stayed in such utility-less places myself, relying on kerosene lamps and wood fires,
not only in Honduras, but in south Sudan (back in 2006, when not
yet a nation) and also in the snowy Peruvian mountains. Folks there don't live in cities, of course, rather
in villages and settlements, gathering wood for heating and cooking and for
heating water taken from snow, streams, ponds, or rain barrels, practices unsustainable
in more populous areas. When electricity comes to their town, the first
thing they buy is a TV
From friends in Nigeria,
heard about recent abductions of school students even before that hit the news
here. Such abductions are possible because high school students in these areas go,
not to daily classes, but to sex-segregated boarding schools which marauders
enter at night. Such secondary boarding schools are common in Africa for
students at an age able to be away from home.
With the ongoing war
in Yemen, I have been unable to reach a Yemini friend living there—no
email, no Facebook, no word. Is he still alive? His family includes 2 wives,
the first becoming very upset when he took the second. Who knows how they are doing
now, maybe surviving by all pulling together? Two wives per man is not uncommon
around the world, but I’ve never encountered a family with 2 husbands per wife.
In Honduras,
where men suffer excess casualties and murders, an overabundance of women allows
men to take two wives there too. The father and husband of a family I know well
and have often stayed with (only with the first wife) took on a second woman after
having 5 kids with the first, to whom he was legally married. In Honduras,
unlike in Yemen, there can be only one legal wife. This man then established a
second household with the new woman with whom he went on to father 2 children.
His first wife still refuses to sleep with him, but they run a business
together. He moves between the two homes, both of which he has to help maintain.
When I was in town in Feb. 2020, I missed seeing him as he was staying at the
other house.
Israel is reportedly donating Covid
vaccines to Honduras in appreciation for Honduras having moved its
embassy to Jerusalem.
AFP, Drugs on fire:
Cocaine seized from cartel incinerated in Honduras, February 16, 2021, Honduran authorities incinerate 1,426 kilos of cocaine seized
from cartel members, at a time when Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez
and armed forces officials are being investigated in the United States for drug
trafficking. Honduran authorities incinerate
1,426 kilos of cocaine seized from cartel
members, at a time when Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez and armed
forces officials are being investigated in the United States for drug
trafficking.
AP, 8 dead, including prison director, after Haiti jail break, https://www.yahoo.com/news/7-dead-1-injured-prison-204149755.html (Gone are the days when I could freely walk the streets and ride buses all alone in Haiti.)
On NPR,
I heard a chilling report about Abdul Latif Nasir, a citizen
of Morocco being held in administrative detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention
camp. Analysts report he was born on March 4, 1965 in Casablanca, Morocco. He was approved for
release in the waning days of the Obama administration, but did not make it out
before Trump took office and halted all releases. Nasir and his
lawyer tried to file emergency requests to be transferred from Guantanamo
in the final days of Barack Obama's Presidency, but it didn’t happen in time.
Some notable non-Covid deaths have occurred recently.
Once again, a mother was killed by one of her children who found a loaded gun in her purse, this time in North Carolina. Having a gun in a purse or in the home is a greater risk for a family than the prospect of an outside attack.
I had asked a resident of La
Esperanza, Honduras, where I reported last time that a nurse had died in
custody after being arrested for violating a Covid curfew, about her case. He
said, in effect, that apart from the grief of her family, others are now exploiting
her death for their own ends, which raises more questions than it answers.
Sister Dianna
Ortiz died in Washington, DC, at age 62. Sister Dianna was
an American nun working Guatemala in 1989 when she was abducted, raped, and
tortured, as recounted in her book The Blindfold's Eyes: My Journey from Torture to Truth.
I visited her in 1996 when
she was on a hunger strike seeking the release of CIA reports on her abduction,
staying in a tent outside the White House. In a soft voice, she recounted her
entire Guatemala rape and torture story to me, as she must have done often. She
was quite pretty and seemed so very young. I’ve heard many such personal
stories not only as a Spanish interpreter at asylum hearings, but also as a
member of Amnesty International ever since joining the organization in 1981. I
wonder whether such repetition is actually helpful to the individual? When I
talked with Sister Dianna on that spring evening in 1996, I also wondered
whether everything she said about what had happened to her was true, as some
details didn’t quite seem to jibe. Could aspects have become distorted in her
memory given all that had occurred? I had no way of knowing, but she seemed so
innocent and guileless—almost childlike—that I chose to believe what she told
me.
Another recent
death was that of Angela Hill, age 58, who lived
for at least 10 years under a nearby freeway and was found dead, perhaps frozen
to death, by a Capitol Hill resident,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/angela-hill-dc-death/2021/02/19/e4c2f24a-7248-11eb-a4eb-44012a612cf9_story.html
Still another
death was that of someone I’ve known for years, Ángel Cuadra, at age 89, one of the long-term Cuban political prisoners
who, like so many others, had been living and working on behalf of his native
country in Miami. I only have the notice in Spanish, Muere en Miami el poeta y exprisionero político
cubano Ángel Cuadra, https://www.swissinfo.ch/spa/eeuu-cuba_muere-en-miami-el-poeta-y-exprisionero-pol%C3%ADtico-cubano-%C3%A1ngel-cuadra/46370626
More Cuba News
Last time, I
mentioned that the great niece of a former Cuban political prisoner of 22 years
was still in immigration custody in Louisiana after more than 2 years while her
husband has been free now for almost a year. She had Covid in detention, but has
recovered. I was able to get the current phone number of her husband, who told
me that there is no movement on her case. She is being detained due to some
sort of technicality, it wasn’t clear to me, maybe that she had signed something
that her husband did not? Because of her relation to her uncle, someone non-grata
in Cuba, her life there was that of a pariah.
An intriguing article appeared about Cuban surfers,
suspect because any activity in the ocean is seen as a possible effort to
escape. Fortunately, the surfers featured here were traveling in a
relatively unpopulated area, away from more heavily policed cities. But the
average Cuban does not have a vehicle to travel to such places, especially while
carrying a homemade surfboard. I do miss being able to travel to Cuba
myself now. Somehow the daily subterfuge practiced by most Cubans makes life
there that more exciting.
https://www.thedaily
beast.com/the-dangerous-lives-of-cuban-surfers-fighting-for-freedom
Good Morning America
Makeshift vessel found
off Florida coast as search goes on for 10 Cuban migrants, February
15, 2021,
U.S. Coast Guard officials said there were no signs of 10 Cuban
migrants believed to be on a rickety homemade boat last seen floating in the
water off the Florida Keys.
As the search for the missing migrants continued on Monday, the
Coast Guard announced that it has suspended a second ocean rescue effort for
six people who also vanished over the weekend off the Florida coast.
Both searches began on Friday.
From the Center for a Free Cuba “The Center is extremely concerned for the safety of Yandier
García Labrada, Keilylli de la Mora Valle, Josiel Guía Piloto, and Virgilio
Mantilla Arango, but recognizes there are many more who are unjustly
jailed. The International Committee of the Red Cross has not been able to visit
Cuba’s prisons in decades, despite repeated requests. We fear for
the lives of these political prisoners, and that tragically another prisoner of
conscience may perish due to the unduly cruel and harsh prison
conditions,” said John Suarez, executive director of CFC.
A song asks Cubans to drop Castro’s chant ‘Homeland or Death.’ The government is on edge. https://www.yahoo.com/news/song-asks-cubans-drop-castro-233349294.html “Patria y Vida” (Homeland and Life) is the suggested replacement.
Cuban American group
advises Biden to re-engage with Cuba, build support in Miami, https://www.yahoo.com/news/cuban-american-group-advises-biden-110000949.html
Los Angeles Times, Biden to resume remittances, travel to Cuba,
but other Obama-era overtures will take a while, Feb. 12, 2021
BBC NewsHour Soberana-2: How Cuba
Created its very own Covid-19 vaccine https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0977gcs
Cuba plans to use the
vaccine internally and to export it to Latin America.
Cuba does
have well-trained medical professionals and, in the past, the government has
earned money by sending them to other countries. I've met many working in
Honduras, after abandoning Cuba to stay on there. Now, during the pandemic,
Cuba is branching out into vaccinations which, no doubt, it will sell to other
countries, especially in Latin America, where Cuba's medical expertise is
valued.
Valentine’s Day, celebrated earlier this month, owes its name to a Roman
priest, according to the History website. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/st-valentine-beheaded?cmpid=email-hist-tdih-2021-0214-02142021&om_rid=de1b56490f06638e12a57d0cc618a7cc593d1467c81fe1a766a14d37a4b6863e&~campaign=hist-tdih-2021-0214
On February 14, around the year 270 A.D., Valentine, a holy
priest in Rome in the days of Emperor Claudius II, was executed. Under the rule
of Claudius the Cruel, Rome was involved in many unpopular and bloody
campaigns. The emperor had to maintain a strong army, but was having a
difficult time getting soldiers to join his military leagues. Claudius believed
that Roman men were unwilling to join the army because of their strong
attachment to their wives and families. To get rid of the problem, Claudius
banned all marriages and engagements in Rome. Valentine, realizing the
injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for
young lovers in secret.
When Valentine’s actions were
discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death. Valentine was arrested and
dragged before the Prefect of Rome, who condemned him to be beaten to death
with clubs and to have his head cut off. The sentence was carried out on
February 14, on or about the year 270. Legend also has it that while in jail,
St. Valentine left a farewell note for the jailer’s daughter, who had become
his friend, and signed it “From Your Valentine.”
Folks in New Orleans, prevented
from staging their usual Mardi Gras festivities and parades, have
adapted by decorating their houses.
Why are old baseball cards
and comic books so valuable? After all, they were produced in quantity,
not as unique works of art. It’s the same logic that applies to any valuable
item, including paper money and bitcoin, something is valuable because enough people
value it, circular reasoning, but it’s that simple.
My cousin sent me a list of things no longer in vogue and the following are some that I certainly remember. I suppose I don’t have TV now because I never had it as a child.
You weren't neglected, but parents were glad you played outside by yourselves until dark,
Polio was still a crippler.
INTERNET' and 'GOOGLE' did not exist.
Typewriters were driven by pounding fingers, throwing the carriage & changing the ribbon.
On
Saturday, movies gave you newsreels sandwiched between westerns and
cartoons.
Telephones were one to a house, often shared (party lines) & hung on the kitche
Ration books were for everything from gas to sugar to shoes.
You saw cars up on blocks because tires weren't available.
Milk was delivered to your house early in the morning in the "milk box" on the porch.
You saw gold stars in the front windows of grieving neighbors whose sons died in the war.
You are the last of a childhood without television; imagining what you heard on the radio.
A bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks has been introduced in the Montana state legislature. A similar measure has been introduced in SC. Although this has evoked a hue and cry from abortion rights advocates, if a woman has already gone 20 weeks invested in her unborn child, unless there is some serious known problem, is a cutoff at that point such an affront to her rights? “Pro-choice” advocates may stress her “right” to have an abortion up to any point until the actual birth. On this platform, I’ve already mentioned my encounters as a Spanish interpreter with responsive, charming and lively children born after 21 and 22 weeks’ gestation, so 20 weeks, while still very early in a normal pregnancy, does not seem so draconian as an abortion cutoff to me. The woman has already invested something of herself in the unborn child. Also, at the point where the fetus can experience pain, that should be taken into account if ending its existence. We do as much in pet euthanasia. Now that more is known about abortion than in the early days of Roe, public opinion toward “abortion rights” seems to have become more nuanced, even within the Democratic Party, at least according to recent polls. But this is such an incendiary topic that any focus on it now would be unwise. Many people, myself included, accept same-sex marriage as an agreement between consenting adults, but we are still uneasy about abortion after all these years.
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