This July 4th, I did not attend the fireworks on the mall, but heard them loud and clear from my house.
Congratulations to Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter on their 75th wedding anniversary, a couple I’m glad to have known ever since Carter’s presidency.
How could Bill Cosby, an avowed sexual predator if there ever was one, even reportedly using drugs to subdue his prey, possibly go free? Apparently, it was due to a legal fluke and though probably new legal charges could be brought because there have been so many accusers, maybe no one now has the will or energy to even try again after this totally unexpected setback.
More unmarked graves have been found on the grounds of a third Canadian indigenous residential school. The reckoning at such American schools has not yet begun.
When units are owned separately in a large condo building, like the one that crumbled in south Florida, it may be hard to pinpoint responsibility for the whole. Furthermore, many apartments seem to have belonged to absentee owners living in other countries, visiting only on vacations. Owners would have felt responsible for repairs to their own unit, selecting paint colors and trim, wall paper and floor coverings, but may have paid little attention to the building overall. That will no longer be the case.
In the case of a plane crash as well as with the recent condo collapse, survivors not only have to deal the sudden loss of an irreplaceable human being, but also with the knowledge that their loved one probably suffered fear and pain before dying. It’s very hard to accept that, especially for innocent children who never had a chance to live their full lives. And rescuers reported hearing a woman’s voice crying out for help, but couldn’t locate her, and the cries eventually died out. This has been a tragedy through and through.
Somehow the Florida condo collapse put me in mind of the earthquake that hit the DC area in August 2011. I was in my 3rd-floor office at my computer when the whole house started shaking, knocking heirloom glass and porcelain items off nearby shelves. It felt like a giant was lumbering up the stairs. It stopped, then started up again. I sat stock still, my heart beating wildly. Fortunately, the movements finally stopped altogether and I went downstairs to survey any damage to my more then 100-year-old house, but there was none except for the broken antique knickknacks. It’s a tribute to the builders of my house, where I’ve lived for more than 50 years, that it survived that earthquake intact while other area homes and buildings were damaged.
In a world of impermanence and uncertainty, probably the oldest living thing on earth is a bristlecone pine named Methuselah, with a verified age of 4,852 years, located in the Inyo National Forest in eastern California. Bristlecone pines survive for thousands of years in an environment with little rainfall, few nutrients, cold temperatures, and high elevations by shutting down all non-essential processes and focusing energy on long-term survival rather than growth.
Now that Xi has subdued Hong Kong, as well as Tibet and Xinjiang, his next target will be Taiwan.
Can I manage to make a blog posting that doesn’t mention Donald Trump? Not quite yet. How could he be so clueless as the bring up the simple cognitive test that he “aced” 3 years ago? Woohoo!! He reportedly said he got every question right! I’ve taken that dementia screening myself in a doctor’s office, not exactly an intellectual challenge.
Business Insider, Trump is still bragging about passing his cognitive test from 2018 The former president relived his success at the test in a roundtable event with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott where he brought up the test to criticize President Joe Biden. Although Trump has touted the three-year-old result as proof of his brilliance, it is in fact a basic screening process for evidence of cognitive problems. The vast majority of people would be expected to easily pass.
At the
event, Trump said: "Did I ace it? I aced it. And I'd like to see Biden ace
it. He won't ace it."
"He
will get the first two. There are 35 questions and the first two or three are
pretty easy. They are the animals. This is a lion, a giraffe. When he gets to
around 20, he's gonna have a little hard time. I think he's gonna have a hard
time with the first few, actually," Trump said.
And while we are on the subject of
Donald Trump, are his very evident intellectual
failings the result of aging or just part of his usual makeup, merely
something irremediable and sadly unfortunate both for
him and the rest of us? The problem is that
neither he nor his hardcore followers actually recognize or even try to
compensate for his confusion and mental deficits. Many
followers actually share his failings, proud to have one of their own in the
spotlight.
In a recent ranking of US presidents
by historians, surprisingly, Trump did not come out last. Historians placed Trump at 41st on the list, ahead of three other even worse
presidents: Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson, and, at the very bottom, James
Buchanan. Abraham Lincoln was ranked number one and Barack Obama was
number ten.
Republican office holders and candidates are treading cautiously, waiting to see which way the wind blows, steering a careful course between bolstering Mr. Trump and keeping a safe distance. Melania seems to have disappeared. Trump in Congress, something he has also hinted at, would be a disaster for Republicans since he’s never been a team player. He’d create chaos, just like in the White House. But at least in my observations in small-town West Va., the Trump base remains strong. And, if grassroots Republicans continue to support Trump and to deny the virus, refusing to get vaccinated, will fewer of them still be left? Too bad. Are Republicans on a suicide mission?
Here's an article from TIME that may help explain conspiracy theories and Trump’s followers’ adherence to them. https://www.yahoo.com/news/why-does-qanon-conspiracy-thrive-110001316.html?.tsrc=fp_deeplink
Ever since turning 60, I myself have felt the sting of “ageism,” alternatively spelled “agism;” likewise, there is both “ageing” and “aging.” I wouldn’t wat to tar Trump with that brush, as I think his problems go deeper. Most of my own late life challenges have been in employment, also, to an extent, in the dating world, as increasingly scarce men (since men, on average, die earlier) tend to seek out increasingly younger women to date. Only in Honduras, as an American, am I a sought-after commodity. USA TODAY: Not a joke: Ageism, age discrimination is dangerous to your health
Speaking of age, the world's oldest man is 112 years old and
lives in Puerto Rico. (From NBC News) He is Emilio "Don Millo" Flores
Márquez, born on Aug. 8, 1908, while the oldest living person is a
woman, Kane Tanaka, born in Japan on January 2, 1903.
Here
is a topic of interest to me as my son Jonathan was adopted from Colombia, but fortunately I knew to have him go through the
citizenship process. Many adoptive parents think their children automatically
derive citizenship from them, not so. Bills pending in Congress hope to remedy the situation.
‘You love this country, and it’s taken from you’: Adoption doesn’t guarantee US citizenship
Adopted Abroad as Infants, Raised in US, and Now — They May Face Deportation
Drone strikes are a 2-way street, as was evident recently in Iraq and Syria. Will future wars be fought only virtually? That might actually be an improvement.
Amnesty International Cuban prisoner of conscience Luis Manuel Otero, a member of the San Isidro Movement, was released without any charges being presented against him nor conditions required for his release. But we are still working on behalf of Cuban artists. #TheEternalFlame is still live, and see https://lallamaeterna.org
Miami Herald, Biden does the right thing by taking
a step away from Obama’s Cuba policy | Opinion
AP, 15 killed in Haiti's capital amid spike in violence
Miami Herald, St. Vincent, plagued by volcano, murder, loses Gold Cup opener 6-1 to Haiti
Reuters, Migrant boy abandoned in Mexico left Honduras with his father, consul says [boy age 2]
In Nicaragua, President Daniel Ortega’s
government has detained about 20 opposition figures, including five
presidential candidates, as part of a wider crackdown on
his critics ahead of the November presidential elections.
Last week, several of the most influential critics of Ortega,
including journalists, opposition leaders and activists, fled the country,
the Washington Post reported. What
they're saying: “The Ortega regime is carrying out a widespread
crackdown aimed at demolishing hopes for free and fair elections in November
and consolidating a third dictatorship in the Americas,” Sens. Marco Rubio
(R-Fla.) and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) wrote in a recent letter asking U.S.
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to put diplomatic pressure on Ortega.
BBC News, Vicky Hernández: Court says Honduras to blame for
trans woman's murder A regional human rights court has ruled that Honduras was
responsible for the murder of a transgender woman in 2009. In its landmark
ruling, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered the government to pay
reparations to the family of Vicky Hernández, 26, who was fatally shot in
northern Honduras.
Sex and sexual orientation are hot topics of much online commentary and personal confession these days. Because I am of a more private generation, such public discussion, amplified by the internet, appears almost unseemly to me. In my life as first a single, then a long married, and, finally, a divorced woman, also as a mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, as well as a world traveler, social worker, and probation officer, later on also as a Spanish interpreter, I’ve known or met a pretty wide range of people from everywhere on earth. To the extent I’ve come to know them and their sexual habits, variety has been the watchword.
I’ve met a few people who claim to have been
celibate and uninterested in physical sex during their entire lifetime, mostly
single women, though also a married couple who adopted a child. Does a marriage
have to be physically “consummated” to be valid? That used to be the case and
marriages were annulled after allegations that it just hadn’t happened. Most of
us probably have also known couples married for years where it is an open
secret that that one partner indulges in affairs, either gay or straight, and
we keep silent on the matter since both seem content with their situation. Whether
or not the faithful partner seems aware that their spouse is straying, we don’t
see the point of informing them. And some heterosexual couples, reportedly
passionate early on, admit to having lost sexual interest later in life, but
still continue to be emotionally committed to each other. (I’ve heard about this
especially when serving as a Spanish interpreter in medical settings.) I’ve also
known individuals of both genders who claim to have switched from gay to
straight partnerships, especially among women, though the reverse is also true.
And some married mothers have secretly indulged in gay sex with likeminded
mothers.
So, based on my own observations and experiences, as well as that of many others both in the US and abroad, I would not consider sexual orientation and gender identity something quite as solid and inborn as is now popularly believed, rather often more fluid. For some people who identify as either gay, trans, or bi, it may truly be firmly fixed from an early age and continue unchanged throughout their lifetime; those are the folks speaking the loudest now and currently getting the most attention. On the other side, speaking for myself and probably for the silent majority, I admit to loving and liking numerous women, including my 2 daughters, granddaughter, and women friends. My best friends have all been female. But I’ve never felt romantically or sexually attracted to women and don’t expect to change now. Is that because of my innate orientation or because I came of age before alternatives became socially acceptable? In any case, whatever people do in the bedroom is a private matter, though increasingly, some seem eager to reveal it in public.
Again, did I ask
for the following? The subject is soccer in Latin America, hardly of particular
interest to me, but it suddenly popped up anyway. Antes de comenzar el
partido, del que México salió triunfante 3-0, Memo Ochoa se dirigió a la
afición para pedir respeto.
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