It’s official, autumn has arrived, with leaves just now starting to turn. Today, is officially the second day of autumn and it's starting to feel a bit chill.
Breaking News: US House Passes Peace Corps Reauthorization Act
Peace Corps has
begun sending out volunteers once again and is having an annual conference tomorrow,
both in person and virtually.
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Join Peace Corps at the Kennedy Center on September 24th
Donald Trump is down but not out.
Rolling
Stone, Cult Vibes: Trump Ends Rally In Bizarre
Fashion, Leaving Crowd Mesmerized
Donald Trump may never become president again, but he can still remain a troublemaker. He ended a recent rally in Ohio with music associated with QAnon. The rally song is only the latest development in Trump’s apparent embrace of QAnon. Earlier this week, Trump posted to Truth Social a photo of himself wearing a Q lapel pin with the words “The Storm is Coming” — another phrase used by the Q movement — superimposed on the image. The “storm,” believers say, is a reference to Trump’s return to the presidency when he will punish his enemies in the Deep State.
NYTimes, Trump Support Remains Unmoved by Investigations, Poll
Finds
Overall, 44% of voters viewed Trump favorably,
and 53% viewed him unfavorably.
These percentages have remained remarkably stable over time and are not much different from when he won election in 2016 with a minority of the popular vote. And donors keep paying Trump’s legal bills. It’s scary that he might be able to occupy the presidency once again and, this time, he would be out for vengeance against enemies real and imagined.
NBC News, Cheney says GOP leaders are treating Trump like a
‘king’ by defending him in Mar-a-Lago probe
In a speech at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, Liz Cheney said she overheard a Republican Trump supporter signing a Congressional protest of the 2020 election results say under his breath, “The things we do for the orange Jesus.”
Four years later, in 2020, to make sure Trump would not triumph again, American voters gave Joe Biden a record 9 million vote plurality, although Biden himself was not a wildly popular candidate. Trump had been just an accidental president who’d enjoyed being top dog, giving orders right and left during 4 long tumultuous years. But he has done more than enough damage already. So now, for the good of our country, he should simply enjoy his retirement while continuing to play golf and get an occasional ego boost by giving a nonsensical speech to an adoring gullible crowd.
Another former president, Juan Orlando Hernández of Honduras, is in court in the US on drug charges, while his brother is already serving time in prison here on similar charges.
Wash. Post, All of Puerto Rico without power as
Hurricane Fiona slams island
Wash. Post, Biden says U.S. troops would defend
Taiwan in event of attack by China
Biden has been publicly
warning China.
But not everyone fleeing oppression is
so lucky. I just received this appeal from Amnesty International: Teresa was
forced to flee her home in Nicaragua after facing assault and threats because
of her opposition to policies of the Nicaraguan government. She came to the
U.S. seeking asylum... but instead, she’s been stuck in an ICE detention facility in
Pennsylvania for the last five months.
Miami Herald, 3-year-old kills mother in accidental shooting: SC cops Yes, it’s happened once again.
Covid is not over. We are all more than weary of Covid and its associated precautions. With not so many years of life left, I’d like to be able to enjoy them. I do feel fortunate to have traveled to Honduras recently and not become ill. But that trip was a gamble. I’ll just have to see if I should chance ever going there again.
Scientists Warn of Spike in Long COVID Cases
Across the United States
https://www.thedailybeast.com/scientists-warn-of-spike-in-long-covid-cases-across-the-united-states
Gloomy pundits are now predicting a worldwide economic recession. The war in Ukraine as well as Covid’s persistence are contributing factors, both driving inflation. Will this prediction become a self-fulfilling prophesy?
Interest Rates In an effort to tamp down inflation, the Federal Reserve has raised the federal-funds rate to over 3%. For old timers like me who recall paying almost 8% on a home mortgage, that doesn’t seem so draconian. Interest rates reached their highest point in modern history in 1981 when the annual average was 16.63%, according to Freddie Mac data. We certainly don’t want to return to those times, but even 3 or 4% interest seems high now compared to recent almost zero rates.
The Queen's body has been buried here. I forwarded the
following message to my friends in Bhutan:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-11226525/King-Queen-Bhutan-paid-respects-Queen.html King and Queen of
Bhutan dubbed the 'Prince William and Kate Middleton of the Himalayas' paid their
respects to Her Majesty and joined world leaders for the 'reception of the
century' at Buckingham Palace
Animal rights, especially of mammals, have kept gaining support and hunting is going out-of-style. There are still some avid hunters in rural America and other places around the world, but few now rely on hunting as a food source. In this country, guns are sought largely for self-defense, not for hunting. A senior living complex in suburban Virginia is called Hunter’s Woods, but probably not much actual hunting goes on around there. Some hunters donate the meat of slain wild animals to organizations that feed the hungry. Others just mount the heads to display as trophies. But since 1982, hunting in the US has been on the decline and so has fishing, thus threatening the finances of US Fish and Wildlife services that charge for licenses. Veganism and vegetarianism are growing in popularity and vegan “meat” is readily available in most grocery stores. Increasingly, its texture and taste mimic the real thing. Taco Bell is now collaborating with Beyond Meat to come up with a plant-based option there.
Abortion rights For example, is abortion actually a universal right? Obviously not. It’s not even considered a right all over our own country. From the perspective of an unhappily pregnant woman in the US today, it may be very hard for her to have to backtrack on what she had long considered her absolute “right” to terminate a pregnancy at will. Maybe she has engaged in sex and failed to use birth control, gambling on possibly having to actually exercise that abortion right. The baby who might be conceived and who otherwise might be born has no agency whatsoever in the woman’s mind. Then, suddenly, the US Supreme Court has decided that abortion is not actually a “Constitutional right”. So that infant might be born after all. Many women consider that a serious setback and an enormous betrayal. They are feeling angry and double-crossed. Mainstream media is on their side right now. TIME magazine, like other established outlets, refers only to “anti-abortion pregnancy centers,” not to “prolife services,” and women seeking abortions routinely are said to be seeking “abortion services” or “abortion care,” not just plain old abortions.
At what point does a developing human fetus deserve protection? That is the question. Of course, nursing a baby greatly reduces or may totally block female fertility. It’s a natural form of birth control rarely used by today’s busy American mothers who are loudly decrying the formula shortage, and who may even be unaware of nursing’s effects on fertility. Years ago, I found nursing very convenient, but women may get discouraged when starting out, though not so in the developing world where it is often the only baby feeding option.
The Hill, Graham
throws another wrench into GOP’s abortion messaging
With the midterms looming, Republicans wish that South Carolina’s Senator Linsey Graham would just shut up about his contentious proposal to enact a nationwide abortion policy, though it’s hardly a ban as it would allow the majority of abortions to still take place.
In a country like Honduras, where I’ve
just been this summer, a woman unhappily and unexpectedly pregnant usually goes
forward with the birth, not even considering abortion, which is illegal there.
But she then may arrange for a tubal ligation afterward if she wants no more children.
A Honduran woman who may become unhappily pregnant does not consider abortion
her “right” since abortion has never been legal there, though she may still want
to prevent future pregnancies. I met 2 such mothers on my recent trip, each of
whom had undergone successful sterilization after giving birth to a 3rd
child. Would their husbands ever have considered vasectomies? My absurd question
evoked giggles from them both.
When I was in Peace Corps service in
Honduras 2000-2003, average Honduran families had been larger with no
sterilization option and, even now, men often have 2 “wives” and 2 sets of
children. The young maid at a home where I stayed just now in Honduras, is the
youngest of 10. My own paternal great-grandmother living on a farm in Alberta
never considered either abortion or birth control because those were simply not
options then, nor did she apparently consider refusing her husband. As a
result, my great-grandmother gave birth to 12 children.
I’ve known several unmarried Honduran
women claiming to have been rape victims who have given birth to children who then
became regular family members. Or, secretly, a baby born in a hospital has then
been “given” to a couple who register their own names on the baby’s original birth
certificate. I know of such instances but am sworn to secrecy about such
transactions, justified because Honduran adoption laws are deemed too
complicated. In generations gone by, direct hospital transfers at birth without
formal adoptions also took place in the US, with their secrets only now coming
to light through genetic testing.
In Afghanistan today, a woman there would
have neither an abortion or a tubal ligation, nor would she if living in the
rural highlands of Nepal. A visitor from Nepal once told me about women there
who typically are married to several brothers in order to keep a piece of
farmland intact within a family, a rare example of a tradition of polyandry. A
woman there is never sure which brother may be the father of a given offspring.
So in the world today, there are many styles of families and many where
abortion is not even on the radar, much less considered a universal human right,
as is alleged by advocates in the US.
Of course, not all parents are
competent and not all children are loveable or easy to raise. And sometimes
personalities among family members simply don’t mesh. It’s a gamble to have and
raise kids. However, most parents and offspring do have a good-enough
relationship and so the human race endures.
Cultural expectations are crucial aspects
of life and such expectations can and do change. I predict that because of the
baby bust in this country, along with increased knowledge of fetal development
and greater and earlier preemie survival, abortion advocacy will cool off in the
coming years. Stay tuned, though I may not live long enough to see it.
Right now, while abortion advocacy is
still running strong in the US, preserving the life of an infant actually born alive
is also strong. Once a living baby actually exits the womb, little effort is
spared to maintain his or her survival. As an interpreter, I’ve been with
couples barely able to keep a roof over their heads who must invest in and
learn to operate the complex medical equipment needed to take a premature
infant home from the hospital. Not everyone who becomes a parent is up to the
job and while most parents would benefit from more financial and other support,
sufficient support is often unavailable, though Biden is now trying to increase
it. Republicans have dropped the ball, mainly advocating for babies only to the
point of birth.
I’ve also previously mentioned a woman
connected to my family who has been kept “alive” via a stomach feeding tube for
more than a year now, though she lies inert without any signs of awareness. She
is unlikely to ever regain consciousness and her quality of life is zero. Deciding
who actually counts as a “person” whose life deserves protection is culturally
determined. Economics is also a factor, as many locales don’t have the
resources to keep an unconscious person going indefinitely.
While abortion rights advocates have warned
that gay marriage is next in line for attack, that falls into a different
category, involving 2 consenting adults who can speak for themselves and can also
vote. Gay liaisons were definitely not permitted either legally or morally in
our country until recent years. In my own life, though I was never attracted to
another woman myself, early on, I knew female couples in so-called Boston
marriages who lived quietly together, representing themselves as long-time but just
very close friends, “like sisters,” one woman told me.
I also once knew a couple years ago with
several children where the husband had a habit of walking out alone after
dinner. One evening, during a police sting, he was arrested for engaging in a
homosexual act with someone met on a nighttime foray. His wife immediately
divorced him.
Gonorrhea and syphilis, as well as HIV, are on the rise now,
although young people are deemed to be less sexually active than those in
decades past. However, baby boomers may still be more so.
John Locke, the influential 17th century English
philosopher, never married or had a romantic partner, nor did he ever have any children
as far as is known. Perhaps he was totally absorbed with his philosophical
thoughts and writings. On the other hand, maybe he had secret yearnings that
were never fulfilled?
Decades ago, when I got married at age
21, female celibacy before marriage was the ideal. Gay tendencies back then were
considered a serious aberration, a mental illness requiring treatment. I once
attended a DSM review meeting where that was the professional consensus.
India has a long history of males called hijras who may
have been castrated and who dress and comport themselves as females. In 2014,
they were officially recognized as a “3rd gender.” In short, sexual expression
and gender identity may be partly innate but are also strongly influenced by
cultural factors.
endgadget, James
Webb Space Telescope captures the best image of Neptune's rings in decades
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Here’s a Facebook group suggestion for me: My Son In Heaven [It would be nice to think we have consciousness after death and will then reconnect with our deceased loved ones.]
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