Happy Juneteenth, now a federal holiday, a beautiful day, a beautiful weekend, here. Officially, Juneteenth marks June 19, 1865, when General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation and declare all enslaved people there free. Over two and half years had passed since the Emancipation Proclamation.
Today, June 21 is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year.
Fireflies are out again, suddenly seen flickering around on a warm summer evening. Where were they hiding until now?
According to the Farmers’ Almanac, fireflies are actually a type of beetle, beginning as larvae living underground in winter, maturing in spring, then emerging in early summer.
Alexander from Costa Rica has come to stay with me for the summer. He will be working with a good friend of mine at HHS while earning a PhD from a Spanish university. We mostly speak in English, because improving his English is one reason for his visit here.
My books are
still selling as e-books on Kindle, but I don’t know which ones because I just
get notices of small deposits into my checking account. Of course, while I’m
happy that my books are still being read, Amazon is the major beneficiary.
At least 5 American children have died after being left in a hot car so far this year. How can parents forget about their child? They always take their cell phone with them, their purse or wallet, and promptly unload their groceries or other purchases, but simply forget their baby or toddler is in the car?
The Guardian, Trump brought US ‘dangerously close to catastrophe’, January 6 panel says “Approximately 40 feet – that’s all there was – 40 feet between the vice-president and the mob,” said California congressman Pete Aguilar, a Democrat who led the panel’s third hearing. “Make no mistake about the fact that the vice-president’s life was in danger.”
For diehard Trump supporters, the hearings regarding Jan. 6 have had absolutely no effect, simply being dismissed as part of the conspiracy against him. Some say the attack on the capitol, which I and many others witnessed with our own eyes and ears, never actually took place or that the photos were staged.
NY Times, President Biden Takes a Tumble During Bike Ride in Delaware
Donald Trump would never be caught riding a bike—he just rides around on motorized golf carts driven by others.
HuffPost, Trump
Posts Fake Video Of Him Hitting Biden In The Head With Golf Ball
Trump’s fake video, posted Saturday on his Truth Social account, shows footage of Trump hitting a golf ball spliced together with doctored footage of Biden’s bike mishap, with a golf ball flying into his head.
How does Trump survive politically given his childish antics and absurd pronouncements? Granted, he does manage to capture attention. Even my faraway Nigerian friend admires him. [Do you doubt that Mr. Trump really loves our country?]
If Donald Trump should happen to win office again, though some folks would celebrate, the result would most certainly be catastrophic for our country and for the whole world, especially as he seems to be in a very aggrieved, vindictive mood, itching to inflict payback against all enemies, real or imagined. Democrats may need to find a new presidential candidate, not Biden or Harris, someone who can ride a bike without incident and can challenge whoever the Republicans put up, even Trump.
ABC News, 6 in 10 Americans say Trump should be charged for Jan. 6 riot: POLL While that’s a majority, only 19% of Republicans think he should be charged.
Republican Governor Greg Abbott's plot to bus
migrants to D.C. cost Texas taxpayers $2.9 million https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10931805/Republican-Governor-Greg-Abbotts-plot-bus-migrants-D-C-cost-Texas-taxpayers-2-9-million.html
Abbott's program has helped many migrants move away from the border, where they’d never planned to stay anyway.
Nat’l
Review, Texas GOP Approves Resolution Declaring Biden’s Election
Illegitimate
They can make all the declarations they want, but Biden is still president.
ABC News, At least 6 dead, 42
injured in weekend mass shootings across US
Fox News, Texas drive-by shooting at family BBQ leaves 2 dead, 5 wounded: police
AP,
Alabama church shooting kills 2, wounds 1; suspect detained
Actually, all
3 ended up dead, though it would have been more except for the following.
Insider, A churchgoer in his 70s saved lives by hitting the Alabama gunman with a chair to stop his attack
Gun killings of folks simply attending ordinary local events continue almost daily. Is this the new normal? Do we just have to accept the risk? What’s the take-away? To simply barricade at home and never go out?
Insider, GOP Sen. John Cornyn was loudly booed
at Texas Republican convention amid his push for bipartisan gun legislation
Republicans seem to love their guns more than
human life.
Texas Tribune: New details on the Uvalde shooting: Records show that officers on the scene were equipped with rifles, shields, and a door-unlocking tool, but still waited outside classrooms for over an hour while the gunman fired shots.
The Hill, House Democrat calls for Clarence
Thomas to resign following report of wife’s email with Eastman
Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) called on Supreme Court Justice
Clarence Thomas to resign on Thursday after news that his wife, Virginia
“Ginni” Thomas, emailed with conservative lawyer John Eastman, who was central
in former President Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
In a statement on Thursday, Pascrell said Thomas “cannot possibly be seen as a
neutral actor,” labeling him “a corrupt jurist.” [Don’t
hold your breath waiting for Clarence Thomas to resign.]
Regarding the baby formula crisis, bottle-feeding has become so
common that many mothers may not even realize that nursing delays the return of
menstruation as well as of fertility, though it’s not totally reliable
as birth control. Still, in the days before contraception, nursing not only
provided babies with nourishment, but delayed the birth of a sibling. Nature
has also made nursing a sensory experience for mothers.
It seems counter-productive and even counter-intuitive
for abortion advocates such as “Jane’s Revenge” to attack pregnancy help centers
and demonstrate at the homes of Supreme Court justices using dolls to represent
aborted fetuses. Doesn’t “abortion rights” try to depict abortion as routine “medical
care,” so why call attention to the human qualities of a fetus by using dolls?
The
Guardian, Republican states trying to ban abortion expand health benefits
for new mothers
This is step in the right direction, which
if offered earlier, might have prevented some abortions.
The term “abortion rights” expresses the American
emphasis on personal freedom and autonomy: freedom to have sex with a partner
of any gender (age 18 and over) without consequences, as well as to carry a
firearm in public and to represent oneself “authentically” by quirky personal dress,
hairstyle, and other means. It’s the reverse of what happens in traditionalist
societies where manners, dress, and relationships are carefully circumscribed. Personal
clashes may arise in our system where individuals may act in a more freewheeling
and unpredictable manner. Commonly recognized rights and obligations can and do change over
time. I sometimes listen to Dragnet, a true-crime radio series based in 1940s
and ‘50s’ LA, where guilty parties are often executed, which would not happen now
in California.
Wash. Post, Second American is reported killed in Ukraine fighting
https://www.foxnews.com/us/coa
A
fellow Amnesty Int’l volunteer reports that the “US Postal Service has
suspended delivery of letters to Russia as of March 11, 2022. Three such
letters have been returned to our Amnesty group.”
AP, Witnesses
say more than 200 killed in Ethiopia ethnic attack
I’ve asked
my former housemate from Eritrea about this, as she also has lived in Ethiopia.
She sees no solution there.
//////////////////////////////////////////
Coalición por la Libertad de Asociación
No comments:
Post a Comment