In the Virginia
governor’s race, the unfortunate and much rebroadcast statement by Democrat
McAuliffe that “I don’t think
parents should be telling schools what they should teach” was a key factor in
his loss, made worse when Youngkin seized on vowing to
outlaw "critical race theory," not even taught in Va. schools. Governor-elect Youngkin had walked a fine line between
Trump, who had endorsed but did not appear with him, and more moderate voters. Mike
Pence and other Republican hopefuls are trying to steer that same narrow course.
Virginia progressives are rejecting blame for McAuliffe’s loss, attributing it to not
having a more coherent platform. However, voters may actually be turning more
conservative, as long as Trump’s name is not on the ballot, though he still
remains the elephant in the room. As long as Trump dangles the possibility of
another campaign, Republican candidates cannot afford to alienate him and his
voters.
The Week, Trump is upset because people are saying Glenn Youngkin is
more popular than he is
Reuters, Report: Trump advisers illegally campaigned while in office [Apparently
it’s too late to do anything about that.]
HuffPost, California School District Disciplines Teacher For Telling
Students Trump Is Still President
AP, Defund
the police candidates stumble in liberal Seattle
AP, Spending $2,300, GOP newcomer Ed Durr
beats top NJ lawmaker
Fortune,
Oddsmakers: Republicans are now the clear favorite to win the House and Senate
Republicans don’t raise the specter of voter fraud when one
of their own wins. However, the crucial Va. governorship loss and others should
provide a wake-up call for Democratic candidates and office holders for the
midterms. Sorry, progressives, but the electorate seems now to be trending toward
“middle-of-the-road.” Most voters may want some police powers curbed, but not
to abolish the police. Nor do they want anything that may bear the taint of
“socialism.”
Best to get the major Democratic initiatives signed into
law now without delay, even modified, as public support seems to be waning
along with support of President Biden. He’s a likeable guy whose main
asset is not being Trump. In his speeches and press conferences, he seems fairly
engaged and forthright, willing to elaborate on policy, certainly no firebrand,
but still more substantive that Trump. So Joe
Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema need to get fully on board or the Democrats and the
American people are going to lose this moment.
Even if Biden remains healthy and physically vigorous, in
2024, he will be over 80 and agism is real. Already, a misstep on a flight ramp
and a momentary drooping of eyelids after jetlag have been highlighted and
multiplied on the internet.
Fortune, Oldest
U.S. president and Senate in history face growing calls for senility tests
Joe Biden, like
myself and others past age 65, is finding that agism is real and pervasive. Physical
and intellectual powers do decline with age, with dementia, some experts say,
starting at age 45, or at least by 60. Most of us acknowledge our physical
decline, but may be less aware of our cognitive glitches.
Of course, much
depends on how intellectual capacity is measured. I took a simple cognitive
test like the one that Trump said he “aced” at my Kaiser health center, but could
barely hear questions spoken through a mask worn by someone with a pronounced
foreign accent. It seemed like a pretty simple test, at least to the extent I
could tell. I was probably left with a low score on my record. If the test is
administered again under better circumstances, I suspect I will have surprisngly improved.
For those
over 85, overall dementia estimates can range from 18 to 38%. Other tabulations
put dementia for ages 90-94 at 13%, then at 21% for ages 95-100 and 41% at 100
and older. So, even for those living past 100, a majority reportedly do not
have dementia and, as indicated by the test I took, a person’s score may depend
a lot on how the test is administered and by whom.
The disappearance
and rescue of 4-year-old Chloe in Australia mesmerized the world. It’s rare
that an abducted child is actually found alive after so many days’ absence.
The deaths
resulting from the concert stampede and crush in Houston were highly lamentable, but young people anxious to be out
and about after being coopted up so long by the pandemic may have gotten too excited
by an event actually designed to rile them up.
Why not
allow a religious pastor to be present at an execution if the condemned prisoner wants it? I am not in favor of
capital punishment, but if it is allowed to take place, what harm is there in
allowing a pastor to be present? What are the arguments against it?
Though workers
may have religious objections to vaccination, surely regular testing would not breach their beliefs.
Widespread internet and cellphone use have allowed the mass exchange of information, but also of too much misinformation and rumors.
Fox News
personality Tucker Carlson may not actually believe whatever he says to rile up
listeners, but he keeps them listening, which is what sponsors care about.
NYTimes, COVID
Gets Even Redder
Wash.
Post, Capitol rioter applies for asylum in Belarus, says
state media
Evan
Neumann was presented by Belarusian state television as a someone who was
persecuted for questioning election results.
Cuban and
Venezuelan-born listeners to Spanish-language radio in south Florida are
being barraged by misinformation linking Democrats and their party to
socialism, linking socialism to the often extreme and distorted version
experienced in their home countries, as per some of the following reports from
Latin America.
Washington Post, International Criminal Court opens probe into alleged crimes against humanity in Venezuela
Reuters, Dominican Republic to limit immigrants' hospital access amid tensions with Haiti
Miami Herald, Fleeing gangs, multiple crises, Haitian migrants are increasingly turning to Puerto Rico
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/honduras-corruption-prosecutor/ A
prosecutor made gains against graft in Honduras. As probes got ever closer to
President Juan Orlando Hernández, though, the government fought back. Reuters
looks at the corruption and impunity leading record numbers of Hondurans to
migrate north.
Certainly
the outgoing Honduran president and his whole family are corrupt, but the next
guy isn't likely to be much better. Also, while the indirect effects of
corruption are factors in migration, migrants themselves may not recognize
that.
BBC News, Nicaragua vote: Ortega tightens grip on power in 'pantomime
election'
I’d
warned members of the political class back in 1990, as an election observer in
Nicaragua when Ortega was defeated then, that he would try to make a comeback.
In 2006, voters let him back in with just 38% of the vote, as under Nicaragua's
electoral system, he’d won because he had more votes than any of the 4 other
candidates. When first reelected, he started out benignly enough, even
welcoming Peace Corps volunteers. But with each successive election, this now
being his 4th this time around, his grip has tightened.
Daniel Ortega and his wife, the vice president, are now celebrating
their recent reelection, after jailing or exiling all of the opposition. Ortega
has now frankly aligned his country with Russia and is no longer hiding his
authoritarianism. Independent journalists were even barred from entering Nicaragua
to observe the election.
Reuters, U.S.
prepares sanctions pressure on Nicaragua after
election -officials
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/11/07/statement-by-president-joseph-r-biden-jr-on-nicaraguas-sham-elections/ What Nicaraguan President Daniel
Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, orchestrated today was a
pantomime election that was neither free nor fair, and most certainly not
democratic. The arbitrary imprisonment of nearly 40 opposition
figures since May, including seven potential presidential candidates, and the
blocking of political parties from participation rigged the outcome well before
election day. They shuttered independent media, locked up journalists and
members of the private sector, and bullied civil society organizations into
closing their doors. Long unpopular and now without a democratic mandate, the
Ortega and Murillo family now rule Nicaragua as autocrats, no different from the
Somoza family that Ortega and the Sandinistas fought four decades ago.
Before the 1990 election, I recall receiving
a letter announcing that a Nicaraguan visa already stamped in my passport had
been revoked, warning that I’d be turned back immediately at the Managua airport.
So instead, I entered Nicaragua from neighboring Costa Rica at an obscure
jungle crossing where the word to bar me had not been communicated. However,
now, in the digital age, that sort of work-around would have been more
difficult. Right after this recent election, Nicaragua experienced a 6.2 earthquake.
Was that nature’s signal of disapproval?
Ortega’s recent presidential victory has revived memories of the several visits I made to Nicaragua before and after his 1990 defeat, including when I was bathing in an outdoor shower activated by a pull chain from a rain-filled tank above, and jumped out naked when a giant hairy tarantula appeared on the shower wall, a creature as big as my hand. Tarantulas can bite if disturbed, but their bite, while temporarily painful, usually has no lasting effects.
“Pregnant
people” seems now to be
the favored term for those who are expecting, since a transgender person
identifying as male, but born female, could possibly become pregnant and
sometimes actually has done so.
Some
advocates for “abortion rights” seem to want to equalize the playing field on
unprotected sex between those born male and those born female in terms of
long-term consequences for each participant --that is, by not producing a
baby—so they advocate “abortion rights” for all “pregnant people.”
Words
do matter: “abortion care,” “constitutional right,” “anti-pro-choice.” The same
folks who oppose executions of those credibly convicted of murder often oppose
any restrictions on abortion. Abortions may be characterized in politically
correct speech simply as “medical care” or “medical procedures,” but at some
point during a pregnancy, harm to the unborn can become “manslaughter” as per
the following.
Orlando
Sentinel,
A 53-year-old man is facing a charge of manslaughter after attacking a
pregnant nurse at a Longwood hospital on Saturday, causing the death of her
unborn baby, according to an arrest affidavit. Joseph Wuerz, of Casselberry,
allegedly shoved the nurse, who was 32 weeks pregnant, into a wall and tried to
repeatedly kick her, the report said.
A
Mississippi law preventing abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy doesn’t seem
so draconian to me or probably to many Americans, since their support for
abortion applies mainly to the first 3 months (12 or 13 weeks). By then, the
expectant person should be well aware of the pregnancy. Since a few babies born
at 21 weeks have survived, it might be best to put any cutoff at 20 weeks, as
preemie care has advanced since Roe.
Because
of more widely available and effective birth control, surprise pregnancies are
actually becoming relatively less common. However, like other Democrats who may
not expound their views, I tend to shy away from expressing my own misgivings
and the nuances I’d like to see in both abortion policy and practice. It may be
easier for someone to just say that they are unequivocally either “pro-life” or
“pro-choice.”
In
Latin America, where abortions are usually unavailable, women there may undergo
tubal ligations after giving birth to 2 or 3 children. (In Latin America, men often
reject vasectomy, but even vasectomies are growing more frequent there.)
According to an article in the New Republic, There’s
Nothing Moderate About a Ban on Abortions at 15 Weeks, arguing that
abortion is simply a routine “medical” procedure and that the 15-week ban is “an
anti-abortion rationale couched as pragmatism that proposes that it’s perfectly
fine to take a shiv to abortion rights.” That particular wording is perhaps unintentionally
graphic, as it conjures up the specter of taking a shiv to an actual fetus
already showing individual human characteristics. Is that a potential person’s
life worth living? Should others have the right to decide for them?
Columbus
Dispatch, Opinion: Pregnancy centers not 'fake,' they serve women
exploited by Planned Parenthood
Pregnancy
centers do help women during and right after a birth, but, unless a baby is
given up for adoption, parenting is often a lifetime commitment. While there
are fewer abortions now than when Roe first went into effect, the body politic still
remains divided, with most Democrats supportive of “abortion rights” and
Republicans opposed, so I’m probably an outlier among Democrats by having
misgivings. I’ve really tried to intuit to mindset behind abortion, realizing that
a woman could be distressed, even distraught, by the prospect of giving birth
to a brand new live human being.
“Abortion rights” supporters often allege that abortion
has majority support in the US, but such support, according to recent polls,
only applies to the first 3 months of pregnancy, up to 12 or 13 weeks, so
Mississippi’s proposed law does not seem so draconian, provided there are
exceptions for severe conditions in either mother or fetus. The fact that support
for abortion has remained divided all these years after Roe, while gay marriage
has won 80% approval in fairly short order, shows that while most Americans do
support decisions by 2 consenting adults to marry, they waiver over supporting
a decision to end the existence of a developing individual human being.
After
Peace Corps, I never intended to become a Spanish interpreter; I just started
doing it as a stopgap while looking for another job and also tending to my late
mother. To qualify, I had to take a fairly rigorous recorded oral test involving
simultaneous, as well as consecutive, interpretation. At the time, I was
already considerably past 60 and other employers were not welcoming. Then I found
I actually enjoyed interpreting, which allowed me as an independent contractor
to take time off at will, including for my annual volunteer missions to
Honduras and a month-long humanitarian assignment to south Sudan.
Have
been recalling experiences as a Spanish interpreter that afforded me unusual
access to the personal lives of others. Interpreters are supposed to act like
machines, just deciphering words without nuance or emotion. When interpreting
in court or for any legal proceeding, we are recorded for possible later
review, so must avoid giving any hint to the speaker or spin to their words. But
if I had repeat assignments with a particular client or patient, it was hard
not to develop a relationship. Time has now passed, so without giving details,
I don’t feel I’m breaching confidentiality to recall some memorable assignments.
There was a pregnant woman in a coma being kept physically alive until her baby
could be born while her distraught husband sat faithfully by her bedside. A
young man paralyzed from the neck down after a fall off a roof sipped water
from straw held by his pregnant wife while we discussed the feasibility of
transporting him back to his native Mexico. A young deaf woman using only
English sign language conversed awkwardly with her Spanish-speaking mother with
my assistance and that of a sign-language interpreter. I helped a 14-year-old
cancer patient explain her treatment to her non-English-speaking mother. In
Spanish, I repeated a therapist’s request to a 4-year-old girl to point out on
a drawing of a naked child just where her step-father had touched her. With
evident distress, a Spanish-speaking man recounted his robbery and sodomy by a stranger.
I was by their side every step of the way, always without
expressing a personal opinion. Still, clients/patients seemed to derive solace
from my presence and if we had repeat appearances together, they seemed genuinely
glad to see me again, regarding me as an ally in the English-speaking world. A
teenage boy in juvenile detention embraced me after his deportation appeal had failed.
A nonverbal young woman in a wheelchair who understood Spanish and used
gestures came always with her mother. She accepted a small gift from me at our
last scheduled session, a gift I offered her in a breach of protocol. The
therapist for whom I was interpreting on that last day had not shown up, so we
just spent our allotted hour together as friends bidding farewell.
[Some of the following
seem to have come directly from Latin American websites; how did that happen?]
VIVE LA VIDA QUE SUEÑAS
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