Grandsons, Capitol Proximity, Goodby Raccoons! Handgun Deaths, Individualism vs. Vaccination, Seeking the Promised Land, Afghanistan

My 18-year-old grandson Andrew, named by his father, my son Jon, in memory of his brother Andrew, looks nothing like my late son Andrew. My own Andrew was named, in turn, for my paternal grandfather who died in a freak small plane crash. My son’s gravestone is my backyard in front of the now-defunct maple tree and his birthday is coming up on Sept. 4. [As usual, please excuse odd spacing and font changes--I do my best.]

Grandson Kingston appears below.

I also have a 6-year-old grandson Kingston, who spent 5 months along with his mother and sister, with his father, son Jonathan, in W. Va. Young Kingston is now back in Hawaii, starting school. Things were pretty tight when they stayed in their father’s (my son’s) one-bedroom apartment in W Va. and my son’s wife, a native of Micronesia, did not find a job there. English is not her first language and everything was foreign to her. They all had trouble adjusting. So now the family connects only via Facebook Live, though we plan to visit them one day.

When our family moved to Capitol Hill more than a half century ago, I thought our proximity to the capitol would prove protective since we were within sight of the seat of government. We were also within walking distance of Smithsonian museums which my kids and I enjoyed visiting. But now the location seems to have become a liability. Not only did we witness the horrendous January 6 attack on the capitol by Trump supporters, but more recently, a man parked near the capitol threatened to denote a bomb but was arrested before any harm occurred.

Since the mulberry tree in my side yard was cut down and taken away, we’ve seen no more raccoons around our house that used to press up against our windows trying to get in. I once considered them cute, but no longer, as they’ve proved to be very aggressive and would wreak havoc if they ever got inside the house. They are actually kind of devilish, very clever scavengers that multiply rather quickly and have hand-like paws that can even open trash bins. Native to north America, they have now invaded Europe as some were introduced there in the mid-20^th century. A few have even crossed over to Britain, becoming a real nuisance in many cities around the world.

https://nypost.com/2021/08/21/raccoons-terrorize-bronx-nypd-tow-pound/

Washington Post, Study: Kids' firearms injuries jumped in 2020

I’ve often observed that possessing a personal handgun proves more risky than protective. Last time, I mentioned a toddler who’d found a loaded gun and killed her mother on screen in the view of horrified zoom-call associates. It’s exceedingly rare that a handgun actually proves a safeguard, though at a shooting at a Texas church last year, a parishioner was able to kill an active shooter with his personal handgun. Put that against the many more shootings like the one that just occurred in New Mexico, where a 13-year-old bent on revenge brought his father’s handgun to school to kill a boy his own age, ruining the lives of at least 2 families. What if no handgun had been available? The boys might still have had their differences, but both would have gone on to lead normal lives. Ever since my son Jonathan, at age 11, was shot in the foot by a handgun discovered in a parents’ bedroom and dropped by another boy his age, I am grateful that Jon was not killed. He literally dodged the bullet and does not complain about occasional pain in his foot.

At 60, Peace Corps plots return to world after virus hiatus https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-africa-health-education-coronavirus-pandemic-9ee58ea1d85868e5a94784fdb693abcf This news has me hankering to join the Peace Corps again.

BuzzFeedNews, A California Dad Allegedly Attacked A Teacher Because His Daughter Had To Wear A Mask To School

AP, Virus claims more young victims as deaths climb yet again

What can be said about the grim statistics? Are Republican office-holders on a suicide mission? The Republican governors of Florida and Texas, as well as Republican officials in other southern states, bear considerable blame for downplaying the virus threat, outlawing mask mandates, and touting phony treatments rather than supporting vaccination. Probably the governors have secretly gotten the jab themselves while loudly touting the virtues of individual resistance to vaccination. The virus doesn’t really care if someone believes it’s real or not. Mississippi’s Republican Governor, Tate Reeves, despite a surging spike in Covid cases, railed against mask wearing, reportedly saying “In Mississippi, we believe in freedom.” Freedom to risk death and threaten the lives of others? Meanwhile, a Republican state legislator in Maine, Chris Johansen, appeared at an anti-vax rally a week after his unvaccinated wife’s Covid death. In Missouri, Republican congressional candidate Sara Walsh announced that her husband had died of Covid after both had contracted the disease after choosing to remain unvaccinated.

 

Reuters, U.S. hits more than 1,000 COVID deaths in one day

 

Here’s a hopeful finding: fluvoxamine, an anti-depressant that has been prescribed chiefly by psychiatrists for patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder, has proved effective in reducing Covid symptoms in small trials.

 

Reuters, Children hospitalized with COVID-19 in U.S. hits record number

A vaccine for kids is urgently needed as well as mask mandates for schools. And with so many breakthrough infections, even some deaths, among fully vaccinate people, masking and precautions must continue. The Delta and other variants seem to be more infectious and better to overcome vaccination and are also now hitting younger patients.

 

The pandemic has also brought about a great increase in online shopping, so it seems that thieves now follow around delivery trucks to scoop up packages instantaneously. Unmarked police vehicles could also follow along to witness some of these thefts, which perhaps they already do, but cannot catch them all. 

 

While the pandemic rages and the Taliban have taken over Afghanistan, it seems like poor optics to have VP Harris visiting Vietnam, where another humiliating and chaotic American pullout took place years ago. Maybe the visit was planned beforehand, but could it have been postponed?  

 AP, UN chief says Afghanistan 'spinning out of control'

While I'm still glad that Joe Biden, not Donald Trump, is now president, Biden's gamble on pulling out so precipitously from Afghanistan has certainly backfired. It’s happened on Biden’s watch, so he owns the outcome. Afghan government forces simply folded and failed to protect their own citizens from the Taliban. Members of the Afghan army seemed to have immediately lost their nerve and self-confidence to go it alone, perhaps feeling too vulnerable without US air support. I fear dreadful repercussions for the US, as well as for the Afghan people, especially women. A friend of mine once worked with newly hopeful women in Afghanistan. She was a teacher who went to Afghanistan to teach women who wanted to become teachers of young girls bursting with brand new aspirations. Taliban spokesmen have promised to protect women’s rights “within Islamic law” as they define it. Many Afghans simply don’t trust the Taliban’s assurances. We have a feel of what the divisions in Afghan society might be like; we have such divisions right here after Trump supporters violently attacked the capitol and tried to overturn an election.

 

President Biden had expected the Afghan military to put up a much bigger fight, but they collapsed entirely and immediately. That’s not only terrible for the people of Afghanistan, but also ends up posing a threat to the USA and Europe.

 

As Americans, we do need to hold Biden and other lawmakers to their promise not only evacuate our citizens and allies safely, but also those Afghans who have stood with us, not necessarily guaranteeing them safe passage to our own country, but to somewhere beyond Afghanistan’s borders. 

Seeing so many passengers now being packed into cargo planes, I’m reminded of cargo plane flights I’d taken as a child from Central America and my later flights into and around south Sudan in 2006. You sit wherever you can find an empty place and often without any pressure protection for sensitive eardrums.  

Probably no countries are open to taking most of those who want to leave and vetting them properly in this emergency will prove difficult. My returned Peace Corps volunteer colleagues are now organizing to help with Afghan refugee resettlement in the US.

At 60, Peace Corps plots return to world after virus hiatus https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-africa-health-education-coronavirus-pandemic-9ee58ea1d85868e5a94784fdb693abcf This news has me hankering to join the Peace Corps again.

Meanwhile, the Taliban still receive regular support from other terrorist groups, also through the sale of opium and heroin. And they have taken possession of many military aircraft left behind. Donald Trump, who set the whole Afghanistan pull-out in motion, is now criticizing Biden for actually carrying it out.

 

Guardian, An Afghan woman in Kabul: ‘Now I have to burn everything I achieved’

Amnesty International

TAKE ACTION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, go to

CRISIS IN AFGHANISTAN – ACT NOW

 

President Biden may not even have alerted European allies before announcing the American pullout. However, China stepped up to immediately forge an alliance with the Taliban. In hindsight, it might have been better for the US to have kept a low-level force in Afghanistan indefinitely rather than spark this black mark against Biden, who had hoped to reap political benefits from the withdrawal. The stock market went down and Biden’s approval rating dipped to under 50% for the first time. Too late to backtrack now to unleash overwhelming air power against the Taliban to bring them back into negotiations with the elected government of Afghanistan, which, in any case, already had hastily departed.

 

Expressing immense shock and grief, Afghans gathered locally here in DC at the White House to protest loudly and beg for help for their country, for their families, for their fellow citizens. I sent a condolence message to my friend in California who had once trained women to become teachers in girls' schools in Afghanistan. This sad decision will cast a pall over the whole Biden agenda, which had been going along pretty smoothly beforehand. Biden laid low at Camp David as his poll numbers sank. What a further tragedy it would be if Trump squared off again against Biden in 2024 and then actually won! Now even the midterms are in jeopardy. Politics is a high risks game.

 

The Grio, Taliban reportedly shoots and kills Afghan woman for not wearing burqa

 

Business Insider, A month after Biden said there was no chance 'you see people being lifted off the roof' of a US embassy in Afghanistan, helicopters rushed to evacuate diplomats [Biden is now eating his words]

 

I wonder if Biden sometimes regrets getting back into the political fray? While he now struggles with the Afghan situation, GW Bush, who started the whole intervention, is happily retired, painting portraits of friends and strangers, even of himself in the bathtub. He has remained silent about Afghanistan, as has his mentor, Dick Cheney. And Afghanistan is not Biden’s only challenge, though news from that country has eclipsed attention on Haiti and Cuba.

 

Wall Street Journal, Growing Share of Migrants From Outside Mexico, Central America Poses Challenge for Biden [More are coming from South America, even Europe, i.e. Roma people]

 

Politico, White House sticks with hardline approach to Cuba

 

Miami Herald, Coast Guard returns 19 people to Cuba

 

BBC, 'We felt free': Cubans remain defiant in face of protest crackdown

 

The Hill, Cuba issues social media laws banning posts critical of government

 

BBC News, Cuba tightens control of internet after protests

 

Reuters, Cuba dips toe in market economy with legalization of small businesses

 

Guardian, Cuba’s health system buckles under strain of overwhelming Covid surge

ABC News, Nearly 1,300 dead, hundreds missing after Haiti earthquake

Reuters, Major earthquake in Haiti felt across Caribbean, sparks tsunami warning [Haiti’s bad luck just doesn’t end. Haitians like to say, if not for bad luck, Haiti would have no luck at all.]

So in addition to a presidential assassination and Covid, Haiti has now undergone an earthquake and a severe tropical storm. The earthquake was centered in Les Cayes, the city where I was an election monitor in 1990 in the post-Duvalier era. The little houses there built by hand with blood, sweat, and tears, are now flattened into rubble. My last trip to Haiti was in 1994, but not a lot of progress has occurred there since.

Reuters, Nicaragua arrests manager of critical newspaper, UK slams Ortega

Miami Herald, Come to the defense of journalists in Nicaragua. Ortega continues to silence them | Opinion Lisa Konczal, Ph.D. is Nicaragua country specialist for Amnesty International, USA. She is professor of sociology and criminology at Barry University in Miami Shores.

A program aired in NPR about Cubans and Haitians making the arduous 60-mile trek, sometimes with small children in tow, across the Panamanian jungle area of the Darian Gap. Such is the magnetic pull of the promised land. Sadly, the vast majority of these exhausted would-be immigrants will never be allowed entry into the US and will either be moved far away from the border or back to their native countries. Some will stay in Mexico and others will try again. Meanwhile, across the ocean, people are perishing in sea crossings in their efforts to get to Europe, preferably to Germany, Denmark, or the Netherlands. Such energetic single-minded migrants, if they banded together, might be able to create more opportunities in their own native countries. However, the fact that a few do make it through continues to be an incentive for the rest.

[Continuing to post unsolicited ads and notices in Spanish as long as I keep getting them] 

Usted Puede Obtener Más Información Aquí

Old Friend Roland, Trump Folks Still Rewriting History, Afghanistan, Seeking Purpose, Baby Bust, Transgender or What? Covid Variants, Olympics, China, Latin America

Just ran across this photo, taken a few years ago when Pope Francis was in town. But no, we did not actually meet Francis; that was realistic cut-out on display at Catholic U.

Over 60 years after we first met when I was hitchhiking through Europe in 1958, Roland and I have reestablished a phone friendship. Roland is a widower a few years my senior living in California. Perhaps 25 years ago, I located him, but his wife urged him to cease contact, which was probably a wise idea from her standpoint. Chastened by that rebuff, I dared not try to find him again until last year. Then I learned that his wife had died more than 10 years before, just when they were getting ready to celebrate their 50^th wedding anniversary. As someone who made it only to my 24^th anniversary, I salute them for their long-lived union. Roland, who is a nudist, made a rafting trip through Grand Canyon not so long ago with his nudists buddies all of whom who had to wear clothing to avoid sunburn.

The following looks like good news.

CNBC, There are about 1 million more job openings than people looking for work

ABC News, Homeland Security warns of 'increasing but modest' threat of violence from Trump conspiracy 

Donald Trump and his diehard supporters have not given up on their dream of reinstating him in the presidency. August seems to be a month of special significance for them. Trump supporters have announced that they still expect him to return triumphantly to the presidency by mid-August. All Trump needs to do is tell them to save their energy and to get out the vote for him when he runs for president again in 2024. But so far, he seems to be enjoying the adulation. If Trump ever told the truth, would e believe him? 

And now Trump’s lackeys in the House and Senate are trying to rewrite history to lay the blame for January 6 on Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Either that, or to depict the mob invasion of the capitol as a normal peaceful and patriotic gathering. Although I never got up close on January 6, I saw and heard enough that day to convince me to keep my distance as it was obviously a dangerous situation.

CBS News, Some supporters of former President Donald Trump believe he will be reinstated as president

 

Since Trump is barred from Twitter and Facebook, his associates post items for him.

After knowing folks who have worked on the ground in Afghanistan, including with women’s groups, it’s sad to see such efforts now being erased as that country backslides into Taliban control. The Afghan army seems to have retreated. Twenty years of sacrifice of American blood and treasure did not turn the situation around, so maybe was it time to give up and to even stop trying. Would 20 more years have accomplished anything? Support from the US and its allies may have planted some seeds to help those living there to find their own solutions. However, about half the population is thought to still support the Taliban and public support for the current government is weak. After all, Taliban recruitment is taking place right now among Afghan citizens. And the Taliban has considerable support within neighboring Pakistan, which harbored Osama Bin Laden for so many years, also from some Arabic countries. The group derives revenue as well from opium poppy cultivation, drug trafficking, extortion of local businesses, and kidnapping. US efforts in Afghanistan will go down as an abject failure, as all the sacrifices were, at best, only maintaining a fragile peace. The goal of transforming Afghanistan into a modern, more democratic nation, seems to have proved unattainable. And President Biden ordered a too-hasty withdrawal

Purposeful activity is a theme mentioned before on these pages. The American purpose for military action in Afghanistan was not realized, so the effort has been abandoned. Every human—even every primate—seeks purposeful activity. In the wake of the Afghanistan pullout, the Trump presidency, and the pandemic, people are looking for a new sense of purpose as individuals, families, groups, and nations—even as world citizens—because many feel they have lost it. 

The whole trans issue has become rather muddled since an individual apparently may arbitrarily decide what gender to identify with, despite actual physical attributes. In the old days, trans folks just cross-dressed and kept a low profile, but now they may take hormones and even have surgery. Yet some do neither and may be taking self-autonomy to extremes by adopting a gender identity regardless of biological sex. Apparently in July, a biological male who “identified” as a woman walked naked into the female section of a Los Angeles spa to great controversy and outrage. Spa staff argued that it could not discriminate based on “sexual orientation.” Is this rather a case of voyeurism, creating havoc, or what? Attempts to change the mores on this issue may be moving along a bit too quickly. The spa must have lost a lot of [biologically] female customers.

 

Chris Chan is a flamboyant on-line personality who claims to be a woman but has apparently neither taken hormones nor undergone surgery, so is thought to have all the usual male parts. Chan bragged recently about engaging in incest regularly with his/her demented 79-year-old mother and has now been arrested. There seems to have been some controversy about whether Chan should be held in a women's or men's prison, though I doubt he/she would be safe in either and should probably be housed separately from other inmates. It's all been rather confusing for me as someone who grew up in another era. From press reports, sounds like Chan is just a man who cross-dresses, not a woman, also someone who has admitted—even boasted about--engaging in sex with his elderly deranged mother, someone unable to give proper consent. In an initial court appearance, Chan, looking disheveled and with scraggly beard growth, reportedly crowed, “I’m famous on the internet.” Has Chris Chan deliberately tarnished the reputation of transgenderism or what?

New York Post, Vlogger Chris Chan arrested for alleged incest with mom suffering from dementia

Insider, After her arrest on an incest charge, Chris Chan is being categorized as male in jail despite being a trans woman

 

Japan deserves kudos for carrying out the Olympics successfully under very trying circumstances. And Japan did fairly well in terms of medals too. As usual, the US won the total number of medals, though barely besting China in gold medals. Next year, China will have another chance at dominance with the winter Olympics being held in Beijing. 

A 62-year-old Australian, Andrew Hoy, the oldest Olympian, won silver and bronze in equestrian. The youngest medalist, a 12-year-old girl from Japan, Kokona Hiraki, won silver in skateboarding. Japan managed to host the Olympics without onsite spectators.

Kamala Harris, like most vice presidents, does not get a lot of credit for her work nor does she seem to inching toward the presidency, at least not yet. Being female does not help her either. And having a thankless task related to immigration is not likely to bolster her fortunes.

And Covid is still raging. Now in addition to the more threatening delta variant, there is the even fiercer lambda, not only more contagious but also more resistant to vaccines. Just as we were feeling greater freedom to go out and about, we are back again to wearing masks. So has the human race now run its course on our humble planet earth? Just as we’ve tentatively begun emerging from the pandemic, new, more lethal virus variants are surging worldwide just as climate change also assaults humankind. The Trump administration really set us back both on the virus and climate fronts.

 

This is perhaps not the time to call attention to the fact, mentioned before on these pages, that American doctors, nurses, and other medical/health care practitioners, earn far more than their counterparts in other developed countries, one reason that nurses from the Philippines and even neighboring Canada, have sought jobs in the US. Medical staff are now mounting a heroic effort in the wake of the pandemic, so deserve every penny they earn. We cannot turn back the clock on their pay, but it may be time to put on the brakes on further increases. Especially, there should be no incentives for payment for treatment that is not absolutely necessary. I know from my 16 years at the occupational therapy association that all health professions engage in continuous lobbying for pay increases and for touting the value of their services.

 

Texas Judge Says No ICU Beds For Kids: ‘Your Child Will Wait For Another Child To Die'

 

Anti-Vax Radio Host Who Called Fauci a ‘Power Tripping Lying Freak’ Dies of COVID

Dick Farrell, anti-vax rightwing Florida radio host, died after 3 weeks in the hospital. Other prominent anti-vaxxers have also died of Covid. Excessive individualism has led to excessive Covid deaths in the US. Podcaster Joe Rogan warned that Covid vaccine passports are merely a step to “dictatorship.” Name calling, a practice favored by Trump, has replaced arguments and medical facts. “Give me liberty and give me Covid,” an epidemiologist commented about a Texas law that prohibits schools from mandating facemasks and doing contact tracing. A Texas GOP Leader, H. Scott Apley, hospitalized for Covid, died days after mocking vaccines.

 

People, Republican Lawmaker Suing Nancy Pelosi Over Mask Mandate Tests Positive for COVID [South Carolina Republican Rep. Ralph Norman]

 

Xi Jinping has been relentless in exerting control over Hong Kong, as well as for some time now in Tibet and Xinjiang. Next year, China hosts the winter Olympics, another chance for China to shine. And Xi has done pretty well with deflecting major blame for Covid away from China, as well as in expanding his command over his growing domain and tightening daily controls on ordinary Chinese citizens. At age 68, he has only a few years left to enlarge and further consolidate his empire and his authority. His actions so far have evoked only verbal criticism from other parts of the world, but what if democratically governed Taiwan is next in his sights? Would the US and other powers dare to challenge him militarily to defend Taiwan? It’s a worrisome prospect.

The Chinese regime now realizes it went too far in limiting births, sometimes by draconian means. A young Chinese student staying at my house some years ago told me that he and his wife had a daughter, all allowed under the one-child policy, though they would have liked to try for a sibling, preferably a son. Even now, if couples have 2 children, that is not replacement.

Instead of a baby boom, the pandemic lockdown has resulted in a baby bust. Currently, the US birthrate has been fluctuating between 1.7 and 1.8 children per woman, not good demographic news unless immigration starts picking up again.

Young people of my acquaintance either want no kids, or one or 2 at most. And those already with children all seem to have stopped at 2. Now that women can better control their fertility and are more active in the workforce, some have said that being pregnant and going through childbirth twice, then changing diapers twice, was enough. Therefore, in the US, it is not so surprising that overall fertility has fallen below replacement and that average life expectancy has also gone down in the wake of the pandemic.

 

Reuters, Knife attacker on Tokyo commuter train wanted to kill 'happy women'- NHK [If guns were as readily available in Japan as in the US, his victims would all have been killed, not just seriously wounded.]

 

Washington Post, Florida toddler accidentally shoots and kills mother while she is on a Zoom work call, police say [No comment]

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro is imitating Donald Trump, taking lessons from his playbook and downplaying the virus, but doesn’t Bolsonaro see that that the virus surged in the US and that Trump was not reelected? Or does he believe that Trump actually won?

Reuters, Major earthquake in Haiti felt across Caribbean, sparks tsunami warning [Haiti’s bad luck just doesn’t end.]

Biden authorizes US response to Haiti following fatal 7.2-magnitude earthquake

Reuters, Haiti elections to replace slain president postponed to Nov. 7 -media

 

Miami Herald, Haiti judge charged with overseeing presidential murder probe quits over safety concerns

 

Miami Herald, Amid tangled Haiti assassination plot, a mysterious figure emerges from the shadows

[The situation in Haiti is getting pretty hard to follow. Back in the day, when I made missions there, I had trouble trying to predict and figure things out, but usually failed to get a clear picture. Therefore, the current mysteries are not so surprising to me.]

Reuters, One month after Haitian president slain, painful confusion prevails

Reuters, Haiti requests U.N. commission to probe president's killing

 

Mexican President Andrés López Obrador has proposed that Cuba be declared a “World Heritage Site” for serving as an “example of resistance” against U.S. aggression, as he characterizes the trade embargo. Does he really think that what most Cubans are actually yearning for is an end to the US embargo? The embargo merely means that the Cuban government must pay in cash, not with credit, for the large quantities of food and medicine it imports from the US, something some other countries also demand because Cuba has a reputation for not paying its debts.

 

López Obrador has long praised Cuba for its medical expertise and supports a Nobel Peace Prize for Cuba for its sending of doctors to missions abroad, something that has been paused during the pandemic.

From the Cuba Archive: The Cuban regime propagates the myth that it is a medical power and seeks by all means to neutralize claims of its exploitation of Cuban medical workers abroad, from whom it derives its main source of income. To this end, its diplomatic corps and propaganda-influence apparatus, aided by its international allies, have unleashed a gigantic global campaign to support the nomination of Cuba's Henry Reeve Emergency Medical Brigade for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize.

Cuba does train its doctors well, but their use at home on the island is limited. And now Cuban is being hit hard by the pandemic. 

 

The Cuban flag mirrors the Puerto Rican flag, but with colors reversed.  

(The Puerto Rican flag has red stripes and a blue triangle.) Lots of Cuban flags have been seen lately at demonstrations in front of the White House and the Cuban Embassy.

 

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/us-treasury-sanctions-cuban-officials-military-unit-over-violence-2021-08-13/

 

Miami Herald, Coast Guard returns 29 migrants to Cuba after spotting vessels off the Florida Keys

 

Miami Herald, Hundreds of Cuban protesters are still detained, including prominent dissidents

 Miami Herald, Republicans bask in their Miami platform, as pressure mounts for Biden on Cuba

 

The Hill, Blinken to diplomats: 'I wish we had more answers' on Havana syndrome

Miami Herald, COVID pushes Cuba’s health system near collapse. U.S. wants to send vaccines [Cuba said, “No thanks.”]

AP, More Cubans try dangerous trip to US across Florida Straits

 

AFP, Cuba legalizes small and medium enterprises in boost for private sector

 

BBC, St Vincent and the Grenadines leader hit during anti-vaccine mandate protest https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-58110684

 

AP, Nicaraguan police raid storied opposition newspaper [La Prensa]

 

Deadline, ‘Riverdale’ Boss Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa Pleads For Information On Missing Father In Nicaragua

.... State Department spokesman Ned Price said ... that in the past two months, the regime had arrested 32 political opponents and pro-democracy figures, “including seven presidential candidates, a vice-presidential candidate, student activists, private sector leaders, defense attorneys, and others.” [Father is activist named Francisco Aguirre-Sacasa.]

BBC, Nicaragua opposition party barred from elections ... The electoral council, which is tied to the ruling party, also revoked the citizenship of CXL's leader Carmella Rogers Amburn, also known as Kitty Monterrey, leaving her at risk of deportation...

 

AP, EU says Ortega crushed prospect of fair Nicaraguan elections

 

A baby in Singapore delivered at 25 weeks and weighing only 7.5 ounces went home after a year in the hospital. As an interpreter, I’ve seen children born at about that same stage, though with a little higher birthweight and, yes, with some development problems, but still able to do a lot of “catching up.”

 

Apropos of nothing in particular, I found this to be a charming story about a couple of young men who rescued what they thought was a young dog drowning in a frozen lake. It turned out to be a wolf that was eventually returned to the wild. But what happened gives us glimpse of what might have led to the evolution of present-day pet dogs.

I’ve learned a few useful lessons during my long, often difficult and painful, even tragic, but always interesting and eventful, life. I took the road less traveled in marriage, friendships, parenting, work, and volunteering. Much of both the triumph and tragedy I’ve experienced personally is due to my propensity to take a chance, to go out on a limb, to go beyond what is normally expected of or considered usual by a woman of my ethnicity, background, and upbringing. I may look like a rather cookie cutter little old white bread lady (to mix metaphors), though I’ve had very different experiences than most neighbors and age peers. Now I don’t have many years left to actually benefit from or put into practice all I’ve learned during my lifelong journey. 

 

Que el futuro será caluroso, es una certeza. Cuánto, depende de nosotros

Virus Updates, No W in Spanish, Trump’s War Chest, Transgender Athletes, Cuba and Haiti

 

Just as we vaccinated folks were beginning to feel a little freer to venture out again, new virus variants emerged, putting us right back at home, especially those of us in more vulnerable age groups. But the virus is still in control; we are not. Yet red-state governors, like Florida’s Ron DeSantis, decry lockdowns, vaccine mandates, and masks as if the virus really cares about politics. For DeSantis, the virus, now killing Floridians at an alarming rate, is apparently a joke, as in his coining of the term “Faucian dystopia.” His followers may no longer survive to vote for him.

 

Both the governors of Texas and Florida seem to consider it a matter of individual rights to ban mask mandates in public schools, prohibiting localities from enacting them, though, of course, individual parents and students may choose mask wearing. The virus really doesn’t care about individual rights. Those same governors have also loudly prohibited school districts from expressing local rights through mask mandates for schools. The result is a surge of infections in both Florida and Texas.

 

My son’s friend Bryan, who was unvaccinated and had some pre-existing conditions, has just died of Covid. Here he is with my son Jon in May.

He was a faithful and wry friend survived by twin sons now in their 20s. Jon said while Bryan was in hospice last week, they speculated together in a phone conversation about what he might experience after death. Bryan said he would soon find out. He is only the second person I have known who has actually died of Covid. The first was Haruna, a man from Nigeria, who had once stayed with me and had a visa for a return visit, but then the virus halted all travel and he died 2 weeks after falling ill. 

Miami Herald, Judge rules ex-Castro prisoner Ana Rodriguez can be evicted from her Miami home

[I’ve met Ana Rodríguez, as chronicled in my Confessions book. She was a medical student imprisoned for 19 years by the Castro regime. A photo I took of her appears on p.188. She is close to my own age. Like my sister, Ana told me she refused any internet connection in part to guard her privacy. Now her situation is no longer private, which may ultimately help her stay in her home.]

Unless words or names are taken from other languages, Spanish does not use the letter w. In fact, in my Spanish-English dictionary, there is no entry for words starting with w in the Spanish section. And the Spanish word for swastika is svástika. But Spanish does have other letters we don’t use in English, such as ll and ñ, which do have sections for words starting with those letters in my bilingual dictionary. In Spanish, h is always silent. Double r, as in rr, has a longer and more guttural sound than a single r and the letter r is also stronger as the first letter of a word. There is a Spanish tongue twister based a strong r sounds, rápido ruedan las ruedas del ferrocarril (fast roll the railroad wheels).

Reuters, Trump raises big money in early 2021, but doesn't spend much Apparently, Trump’s appeals for donations from the faithful are having a big impact, as he’s raked in quite a lot of money during the first half of 2021, but he’s not spending it or sharing it with other Republican candidates. The guy is typically hoarding it all for himself. Trump has never been generous, always miserly, so that’s no big surprise.

 

Yahoo News, Poll: Two-thirds of Republicans still think the 2020 election was rigged These are folks who continue to put their trust in the words of a serial liar like Trump and certainly would vote for him again. Thank goodness that’s not enough to put him back in office. If he runs and loses again, they can continue griping ad nauseum about election rigging.

 

I must admit, as mentioned in my Confessions book, that prior to the advent of Donald Trump, I couldn’t imagine a worse president than GW Bush. Put that down to a failure of imagination. Now, in comparison to Trump, he has moved up a notch. GW himself has acknowledged wryly, “I don’t look so bad anymore.” His current avocation of painting seems pretty harmless.

Here’s another hot button issue. USA Today, Roe v. Wade was a lousy decision. The Supreme Court should take the opportunity to overturn it. [The main argument here is that there is no constitutional right to abortion.]

What about transgender athletes, an issue highlighted by the Olympics?

If a male has gone through puberty and has already grown taller and stronger than most females, with heavier bones and bigger muscles, that advantage would last even after taking female hormones. New Zealand’s Laurel Hubbard, who apparently was a male weightlifter and had already developed large-muscle strength, may have decided instead to start taking female hormones and compete as a female weightlifter.

Despite taking female hormones, Hubbard’s testosterone levels are said to be 5 times higher than the average female’s. Hubbard, who “transitioned” at age 35, still looks a lot like a man in weightlifting photos.  

Hubbard is not the only athlete who has gone from male into female sports, only one of the most prominent. However, after all the publicity and controversy, Hubbard failed to score a win at the Olympics. Years ago, before hormones and surgery were available, transgender folks just had to make do with cross-dressing. Some winning Olympic female track athletes look distinctly masculine in photos, but that may be their natural state without necessarily implying any gender change. And Olympic athletes as young as 12 have appeared this year, some not yet fully developed to their adult potential. 

The following headlines tell the story of a growing virus threat in the US, as well as of capitol rioters’ reckoning, deportations, and ongoing developments in Cuba and Haiti, which fall under my Caribbean volunteer responsibility for Amnesty Int’l USA.

LA Times, Editorial: Bring on the crackdown. The unvaccinated must be held accountable

 

H Scott Apley died five days after publishing an anti-vaccine post on Facebook.

 

Washington Post, New DHS plan will offer J&J vaccine to migrants

 

Buzz Feed, A Judge Questioned If Capitol Rioters Are Getting Off Too Easy For “Terrorizing Members Of Congress”

https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/565732-biden-administration-restarts-fast-track-deportation-flights

 

Miami Herald, /U.S. barriers to Cuban, Haitian asylum seekers violate our humanitarian obliga obligation | Opinion

Miami Herald, For the first time, Cuba approves Cuban-owned Miami company to do business on the island   The Cuban government has authorized a company owned by Miami businessman Hugo Cancio to operate on the island, an unusual ruling on a request that Cancio submitted more than a year ago that was initially rejected. A decree signed by Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment Rodrigo Malmierca allows Cancio’s Miami-based Fuego Enterprises to sell food as well as artisanal and other consumer goods in Cuba. It was published July 28 in the island’s Official Gazette.

Miami Herald, There’s no either-or in Cuba. U.S. can both strengthen the people and weaken the regime | Opinion Carlos Saladrigas The July 11 protests in Cuba proved that people are frustrated with an unresponsive and arrogant government. Their courage has become a beacon of hope seen around the world. Yet, while nationwide uprisings may have caught Cuban authorities by surprise, the outpouring of anger and frustration was entirely foreseeable. The Cuban people have lived inside a pressure cooker for far too long. Something had to give. Despite the government’s distortions, the protests were overwhelmingly peaceful, genuine and leaderless. The majority of demonstrators were young and racially diverse. And though certainly responding in part to Cuba’s worst economic and humanitarian crisis in three decades, protesters called for liberty and political transition, not just solutions to food shortages and other material grievances...

The Conversation, 5 ways Americans often misunderstand Cuba, from Fidel Castro's rise to the Cuban American vote

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/03/why-the-internet-in-cuba-has-become-a-us-political-hot-potato

 

NED, Singing Cuba’s political story: Tired regime, fresh opposition

 

NED, Democracy Digest, How to maintain Cuba’s protest momentum

 

Reuters, Cuba receives food, medicine donations from allies to ease crisis

Reuters, Mexican Sealift Ships Arrive In Cuba

Cuba Archive, Contrarestando la campaña por el Nobel de la Paz para el régimen Cubano [Allies of the Cuban government are promoting the Nobel Peace Prize for Cuba]

 

Reuters, Analysis-Street protests could pressure Cuba to speed up economic reforms

 

Reuters, EU urges Cuba to free 'arbitrarily detained' protesters

BBC, Petrol bombs thrown at Cuban embassy in Paris

 

https://thehill.com/latino/565705-us-expands-sanctions-in-cuba-eyes-restoring-diplomatic-presence-internet-access

The Hill, Only the Cuban people can bring about real change in Cuba — but the US can help [I agree—and it's not going to happen overnight. After more than 50 years, those benefitting by their status it the Cuban Communist Party are going to hang on as long as possible.] 

BBC, Cuba protests: Frustration at government runs deep

Cuba's communist rulers and state-controlled media are alleging that anti-government protests that swept across the island on Sunday were "organised and financed" from the United States, and egged on by a "perverse" and co-ordinated communications campaign on social media.

"There was no social uprising," Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez was quoted by the Communist Party daily Granma as saying.

 

AP, Hotels become hospitals as Cuba battles soaring COVID cases

 

AP, Aid group closes emergency clinic in Haiti amid violence [Doctors without Borders]

 

Miami Herald, Suspects in murder of Haiti president sent to prison amid concerns of rights violations

 

Reuters, In Haiti, COVID pandemic rages amid political crisis

 

AP, Haiti arrests another officer in president's murder

 

Miami Herald, Number in custody in Haiti over President Moïse’s assassination climbs to 44

 

NY Times, ‘They Thought I Was Dead': Haitian President's Widow Recounts Assassination

 

NY Times, Daily Beast, Haitians Involved in Moïse Murder Probe Got Death Threats for Not Tampering With Evidence

 

AP, EU slaps sanctions on Nicaraguan first lady, 7 others

 

AP, Nicaragua arrests ex-beauty queen candidate

MANAGUA, Nicaragua — Nicaraguan police have arrested a former beauty queen two days after she registered as an antigovernment candidate in the Nov. 7 elections...She was the eighth contender in the election to be arrested since May.

 

Vice, Hitmen Dressed Up in COVID PPE to Murder This Politician [Honduras]
https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkbv4m/hitmen-dressed-up-in-covid-ppe-to-murder-this-politician

 

For those who’ve inquired about my books, mentioned last time, they’re available in print and on Kindle at Amazon with my photos both inside and on the covers. The Honduras book is Triumph & Hope: Golden Years with the Peace Corps in Honduras, named for the 2 towns, El Triunfo and La Esperanza, where I served an extended term as a health volunteer, also including a chapter on a visit to neighboring Nicaragua. The Cuba book, written after multiple trips and travels from one end of the island to the other, is Confessions of a Secret Latina: How I Fell Out of Love with Castro & In Love with the Cuban People. “Secret Latina” was a nickname given me by a Honduran woman. I cannot go back to Cuba now, but have continued making annual trips to Honduras since Peace Corps to volunteer as an interpreter and helper for medical brigades, which stopped going to Honduras after the pandemic. Vaccination has been very slow in Honduras. My last trip there was in Feb./March 2020, as per this blog. Primero Dios, God willing, I will be able to return.

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