DC and Around the World

On a recent evening, my doorbell sounded, but when I opened the front door, no one was out there, just 4 roses, 2 off-white, 2 yellow. I shouted “thanks”, but no one answered. The roses are now in water in a vase on my kitchen table, so I’m grateful to someone out there.

Fall colors have arrived in full, helped by colder than usual temperatures, especially at night. Here’s the view from down the street from my house. 

                    Halloween is coming up soon, as neighborhood decorations show. 

                                          

                                                                                     Pets are also on display.

Cats and dogs are getting lost  as well, including these dogs below.

                                            

                    Lost cats are even more numerous, according to our neighborhood website.

 

Below, both are lost. 

                                Kitty below has been found near DC's Navy Yard by a good Samaritan.

This just in from the Peace Corps:

Volunteers have just returned to Guyana, South Africa, and Mongolia. Later this month, the first Volunteers are expected to arrive in Viet Nam

October is Domestic Violence Awareness month, so be aware and ready to step in to help where appropriate—and not only in October. Washington Community Fellowship is hosting a workshop with an experiential simulation called "A Walk in Her Shoes.”

Daily Beast, Bizarre Reason People Detained With Guns Were at Capitol They were illegally parked on the grounds with illegal and unregistered guns in the vehicle and said they had come from Georgia to deliver documents to the Supreme Court. (That happened a few blocks from my house.)

Two new Covid variants are said to be circulating in the US. Will Covid ever be tamed?

Wash. Post, XBB, BQ.1.1, BA.2.75.2 — a variant swarm could fuel a winter surge

Today, Omicron subvariants reflect a ‘viral evolution on steroids’

With the virus evolving so quickly, it’s uncertain how much protection vaccinations can provide.

Wash. Post, Whites now more likely to die from covid than Blacks: Why the pandemic shifted Anti-vax Caucasians are now at greatest risk.

The Conversation, Why so many people have moved to Florida – and into harm's way [T]he havoc Ian wreaked will make it among the worst storms on record, along with Harvey and Maria in 2017] Katrina in 2005.

 But there is no snow there!

 

Over 22 million people currently live in Florida. That’s about 37% more than the 16 million who resided in the state in 2000. And demographers now project that the population will continue increasing to about 25 million within the next decade. [My older daughter, granddaughter, and great-grandson are among Florida’s recent arrivals; they’ve urged me to join them, but I’m not ready to leave my DC home of more than 50 years. They were just walloped there by Hurricane Ian, which hit particularly hard in their location on Florida’s west coast.]

ABC News, Hollywood trailblazer Anna May Wong to become 1st Asian American on US currency, Hollywood trailblazer Anna May Wong will be the first Asian American to be featured on some U.S. quarters. The U.S. Mint will begin shipping the fifth coin in the American Women Quarters Program on Monday, October 24. The coin will feature Wong, who rose to fame and became the first Chinese American film star in Hollywood. 

 

NPR, These families were adopting Ukrainian orphans. Now they have to wait out Russia's war

NY Times, Russian attacks on the energy supply have left Ukrainians bracing for a frigid winter

Ukrainska Pravda, Dogs in Kramatorsk queue to eat

In the centre of Kramatorsk (Donetsk Oblast), volunteers set up a feeding station for homeless dogs. The animals formed a queue to get some food.

In the UK, Liz Truss, Britain’s second ever female prime minister and the shortest serving, resigned under pressure after only 6 weeks in office.

In France, protesters against inflation and rising prices are still seeking a pay raise for themselves. Their pay raise certainly wouldn’t help tame inflation. 

In Iran, protesters have not given up after more than month of demonstrations with women ditching their hijabs.

Wash. Post, Iranian climber who competed without hijab welcomed by crowds in Tehran

Ethiopians in the US are now eligible for TPS (Temporary Protected Status) https://thehill.com/policy/international/3698809-amid-civil-war-biden-administration-grants-immigration-relief-to-ethiopians/

Wash. Post, U.S. urges Mexico not to buy Chinese scanners for the border

The U.S. is worried about China acquiring too much information from the scanners, but it looks like Mexico is going ahead anyway.

Daily Beast, Cuban Defector Lands Soviet-Era Biplane in Florida

ONE-WAY TRIP

A Cuban pilot defected on Friday by flying a Soviet-era single-engine biplane to an airport in the Everglades. Rubén Martínez, 29, was alone in the Antonov AN-2 owned by a crop-dusting company when he announced he was low on fuel and was landing, Local 10 reported. “He told airport staff that he was a defector from Sancti Spiritus, Cuba,” said Greg Chin, a spokesperson for the Miami-Dade Aviation Department. CiberCuba, a website run by Cuban exiles, reported that Martínez’s mother and sister were detained in Cuba after he vanished with the plane.

Reuters, Biden administration to provide $2 mln to Cuba for Hurricane Ian relief This is unprecedented and may signal a thawing of relations. The Cuban government had asked for help and Biden came through.

 

The Guardian, The Venezuelans who left too late: migrants stranded by abrupt Biden policy change | US immigration | https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/oct/20/venezuela-migrants-us-title-42

 

Statement from National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Unanimous UN Security Council Vote Addressing the Situation in Haiti

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/10/21/statement-from-national-security-advisor-jake-sullivan-on-unanimous-un-security-council-vote-addressing-the-situation-in-haiti/

NY Times, For Women in China’s Communist Party, It’s Lonely at the Top

From photos, it looks like participants China’s party congress are mostly all middle-aged men wearing dark suits and red ties. Xi Jinping now seems hell-bent on moving China back toward Maoism. 

 

A vengeful Vladimir Putin appears to be seeking Ukraine’s complete destruction, trying to obliterate its entire infrastructure before winter by now unleashing maximum firepower with Iranian unmanned drones and missiles. Some 30% of Ukrainian power stations are already gone. Mr. Putin also has declared martial law in 4 recently annexed regions of Ukraine. Untold human suffering has resulted from his explosion of pure fury, resulting in an indiscriminate bombardment designed to force Ukrainians to surrender, but what will be left will hardly be a compliant vassal population.

Wash. Post, In Kupiansk, in northeast Ukraine, liberation came at a steep cost

Russian men of conscription age are fleeing to avoid risking their own lives and with having to kill others in the Ukraine war. Putin voluntarily undertook this war, provoked only by Ukraine’s announcement of possible plans to exit his political orbit, plans now considered to be even more urgent by most Ukrainians.

We might wish for new leadership in Moscow, but there would be no guarantee that it would be any improvement, so must be careful about what to wish for.

Wash. Post, How Ukraine’s Surrogate Mothers Have Survived the War

When Russia invaded, Ukraine’s once-booming industry seemed at risk of collapsing. But surrogate mothers have managed to bring pregnancies to term. Surrogacy is of special interest to me because, years ago, I was board chair of an adoption agency, now closed, involved with local surrogates, usually black women who regarded it as a job for which they were financially well rewarded. The cost and compensation in the US have even gone up since, so I would imagine that Ukrainian surrogates are or were available for considerably less. Here is what I found looking for US surrogacy on line.

Up to $93.5K in Compensation - Become A Surrogate: Contact Us

The price of US surrogacy ranges from $110,000 to $170,000 for most families.

Egg Donation

We are also proud to offer egg donation services.

At our now-closed adoption agency where I was board chair (though never directly involved day-to-day myself, as I was working elsewhere), we closely monitored our surrogates, all African American women carrying babies of various ethnicities. When they gave birth, the infants were then turned over to their biological parents. There were also cases of a woman giving birth to a baby resulting from an implanted ovum from a donor, but fertilized with her husband’s sperm, which the couple then represented as their biological offspring. And I know of at least one gay African American woman who gave birth to a baby boy, a child I actually held in my arms, conceived with anonymous donor sperm. So, what is parenthood? The definition seems to be in flux. And now, genetic testing is further muddying the waters. I doubt that egg or sperm donors regard the children being produced as “theirs,” even though some grownup children may seek the donors out. Our adoption agency was also involved in adoptions for some high-profile couples, but I dare not say any more. (Everything on this blog is true to the very best of my ability, but some things cannot be fully revealed.)

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/texas-family-fights-supreme-court-keep-adopted-native-american-child-due-law-favors-tribes Here’s a genuine dilemma. Native tribes are favored in placing children for adoption after it was found that most native children were being adopted outside the tribe. However, overcompensation for that old policy may currently require a child now being cared for by a non-native family since infancy to go back to the tribe where her biological siblings reside in an adoptive home, though not with their birth parents. An exception should be made in this case to keep the girl with the only family she knows, but perhaps requiring regular visitation with her bio siblings to keep up that connection.

Reuters/Ipsos, Biden approval stuck at 40%, a dark sign for Democrats in midterms

NYTimes, Republicans Gain Edge as Voters Worry About Economy, Times/Siena Poll Finds The Biden administration’s appeal to women on abortion is apparently not working as well as intended, at least not among independent women voters now favoring Republicans, though not necessarily Donald Trump. Pro-life forces have become more vocal.

 The Biden administration has started downplaying abortion as the election approaches. The economy is everyone’s main concern these days, but despite all his successful efforts, Biden is not getting credit for the economy either. He unfortunately lacks the necessary charisma; his wife actually does better on that score. But we simply cannot risk another Trump presidency with “payback” sure to be meted out to anyone whom The Donald considers his enemy, so even another Republican would be preferable. I am not fond of other Republican wannabes, but they don’t demonstrate Trump’s uniquely scary combination of bravado, greed, blatant lying, intellectual disability, ignorance, just plain meanness, and racial/ethnic prejudice, along with a complete lack of self-deprecation, empathy, and sense of humor. Yet the guy still has a puzzling appeal for a loyal swath of voters. Maybe he cannot help himself, but we’ve already seen the damage he could do in 4 long years, not only here at home, but to the US reputation around the world.   

Insider, Federal judge finds that Trump lied under oath about voter fraud in Georgia while trying to overturn the 2020 election results

Business Insider, Former DOJ official says Trump's reaction to the January 6 panel is starting to look like the makings of an insanity defense 

The Hill, Trump narrowly leads Biden in hypothetical 2024 rematch: poll DeSantis is not a big improvement and might actually have a better chance of being elected. Biden is just not capturing enough public support.

Rolling Stone, Trump Says He Wants Marjorie Taylor Greene in His Next Administration  Sure, why not?

 

The Hill, Trump: ‘Very disloyal’ if Pence, other Cabinet members run in 2024

 

Recently asked if he would support Trump in 2025, Mike Pence is quoted as saying “there might somebody else I’d prefer more.”

Recently, I’ve been in touch remotely with a young Honduran woman met last summer. She is fluent in English after attending an English-language school, but has never been to an English-speaking country. She works for a call center for a US company, fielding calls for folks who have no idea she is located in another country. Likewise, I have a friend, a former fellow Honduras Peace Corps volunteer, now working for Peace Corps from her remote Pacific-island home. Meanwhile, my volunteer work for Amnesty International includes group meetings where we interact live on screen, both visually and audibly. Internet and related technologies make such remote work possible and I also keep in touch in real time via the internet with friends all over the world and with my own family members living far away. Maybe all this is second nature for today’s young people, but it’s still a marvel for someone like me, born in another age.

 Lauren Goode, in an article in Wired, says I Uncovered an Army of Fake Men on Hinge, They had gleaming teeth, perfect hair, and selfies with baby animals. But could they pass the Turing test?

The author shows the risky underside of internet connections, specifically in the dating game, where fake “persons” try to solicit real money from real people.

 NY Times, Inmate Stole $11 Million in Gold Coin Scheme While in Prison This was for a long time a very successful, very convoluted scheme that greatly enriched a prison inmate. He has now been discovered and charged, but where has all the money gone? 

Speaking of scams, I had to cancel my credit card because of some bogus charges. 

The Hill, Democrats focused on abortion rights worry they’re losing independent women

National Review, Independent Women Swing Hard Toward GOP Despite Democrats’ Abortion Pus

Most Democrats are still going all-out to characterize abortion as “reproductive care” and even as “reproductive justice,” but is that actually incentivizing women voters?

 

Elsewhere, floating barges out in international waters are reportedly giving out abortion pills near countries that ban abortion. However, could that clever precedent be extended beyond abortion to any act outlawed in a nearby country, including rape and murder?

 

Children when they grow up are needed to support elders. So, for a senior cohort now growing in numbers and surviving to older ages despite the pandemic, more children would need to be coming along to support them. Right now, not enough are being born, so incentives may be required to help young women accept the task of becoming mothers. Covid has not only delayed childbearing in the US, but has led to more complications and even deaths among expectant mothers. No longer does the risk to society involve having too many children, as Malthus had warned, but too few.

 

Ideally, both our own national and overall world population would neither increase or decrease, but remain steady at about current levels. That would require women of child bearing age to have an average of 2.1 or 2.2 children to account for inevitable deaths. Most American women now stop after giving birth to only one or 2, if any. And most women are now also working. It is hard to be working full time and caring for more than 2 kids, as I know only too well, having done it myself as a single mother of 4, actually 5, if including my Cuban foster son who arrived via Mariel as a young teen.

 

Fox News, Texas couple who donated frozen embryos 20 years ago meets biological teen triplets What is parenthood? The Texas couple who created the frozen embryos have done their duty to support US population.

Between Spanish and English, I’ve noted certain grammatical differences in writing and in pronunciation between them, though there are also many similarities, especially for words in both languages based on Latin. Republicans in Spanish are Republicanos and Democrats are Demócratas. Spanish pronunciation is consistent, making it easier for children to learn to read phonetically. Spanish also has some idiosyncrasies, such as the use of an upside-down exclamation point or question mark at the beginning of an exclamatory or interrogatory sentence: ¡ ¿ and also rules for accent marks. In Spanish, h is silent. There are also more letters in the alphabet: ch, ll, ñ, rr, and ü.  And while most letters are pronounced much like their sounds in English, Spanish vowels are much clearer and more rounded and consonants are softer and some, like r and rr, sound distinctly different, with the letters b and v pronounced virtually the same. In Spanish, nouns also have a gender, as with la taza, the cup, feminine, and el plato, the plate, masculine. Usually, an object whose name ends in a is feminine and in o is masculine, as in the examples just cited, requiring their articles to reflect their gender, but, like in any language, there are exceptions to the usual rules. El día, the day, is masculine, as is el sofá, the sofa, even though both end in a, so their articles and adjectives must coincide with their gender. Sometimes, a word will change gender between singular and plural, as in el arte, art, masculine, and las artes, the arts, feminine. Spanish words ending in o that are feminine include la mano, la radio, and la foto (the hand, the radio, and the photo). Yes, every spoken language develops eccentricities and inconsistencies, but that’s enough now about Spanish.

 

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Job suggestion for me:

New Job Openings at FedEx

News and Notes

 

Just got an e-mail message Feliz Mes de la Herencia Latinx, Happy Latinx Heritage Month! Of course, that month just ended on Oct. 15, a rare commemoration spanning 2 calendar months. The organization sending out the email was just touting its accomplishments during that bifurcated month and asking for donations. But it would have a better chance of getting a donation from me if didn’t use the term Latinx. Somehow, that usage grates on my ear. It’s not really popular among actual Latinos and would be hard to pronounce in Spanish. I realize that word “latino" may be considered masculine, since words ending in “o” in Spanish are typically masculine, while those ending in “a” are feminine and, in Spanish, everything is gendered, including the cup (feminine) and the plate (masculine), but nothing ever ends in “x”.

 

The world oldest dog is now officially TobyKeith, a chihuahua age 21, with his 22^nd birthday coming up soon. USA Today, TobyKeith, the chihuahua, is 'back on his throne' as the world's oldest living dog 

Both dogs and cats, lost or otherwise, are often featured on our neighborhood website.

I’ve always had a serious cat allergy myself, but now Kathrine Wu writes

I was Allergic to Cats, Until Suddenly I wasn’t https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2022/10/cat-allergy-disappeared-tolerance/671662/?utm_source=apple_news

Apparently, allergies can come and go, so how do you know if an allergy has gone away and that exposure to the former trigger is safe? People have actually died of anaphylaxis from accidently consuming food to which they are allergic, often peanuts or shellfish. In the food category, I seem to have developed a peanut allergy late in life, though not in a lethal form, but still enough that I threw away my last jar of peanut butter.

Since allergies can appear but also disappear, dare I now pet a cat? There are reportedly lots of lost cats wandering around my Capitol Hill neighborhood. Here are some.

                            Cat above shown with his owner before being lost.

                                                    And here is an apparently lost dog.

The neighborhood website also displays used furniture or clothing for sale, but I suspect few sellers get the prices being asked, although buyers would pay more in a store, even at Goodwill or another secondhand store. Even items offered for free are probably also hard to unload. In this country, we simply have too darn much stuff! Over the years, I certainly have accumulated way too much. When I was in Honduras this past summer, I bought some refrigerator magnets as small gifts and have not found many takers.

A pumpkin, weighing 2,554 lbs., was declared the largest of the season until another slightly heavier one suddenly tipped the scales. 

I’m getting online ads for funeral homes and burial sites. One offers tips on How to Plan a Great Funeral. Someone out there knows that I’m now closer to the end of life than the beginning. Of course, owning my house for more than half a century provides a clue.

I’ve listened to some of the hearings of the House committee investigating the January 6 assault on the Capitol, an assault I witnessed myself, albeit from a few blocks away, so don’t try to tell me that it never happened! Donald Trump is certainly a danger to our country because so many blindly follow his dictates. It’s good to hear that Mr. Trump himself will be subpoenaed to testify. But whatever his current political plans may be, his presidential prospects do seem to be fading. Whatever he eventually decides about 2024, he will insist it’s always what he had intended all along.

Keeping the economic system in the US and around the world coordinated and working well has proved quite challenging for policy makers, who must consider international, national, and local repercussions. Not only will people everywhere suffer if a global recession cannot be headed off, but the fortunes of the entire Democratic Party are also in play. What’s frustrating is that actual productive capacity won’t diminish, only people’s ability to put it to use—too many folks will find themselves unemployed despite their willingness and ability to work and the need for their services. Not being an economist myself, I’m not quite sure why this happens or how to remedy it. Mortgage rates are already back to where they were when I was still paying off my mortgage many years ago. Will putting the brakes on the economy in this way actually help to reduce inflation? We certainly hope the benefits outweigh the risks.  

AP, Suspect arrested after 5 killed in North Carolina shooting, police say News reports are not naming the reported teenage suspect. Though I would agree with the jury’s decision not to give the death penalty to youthful mass murderer Nikolas Cruz, I do wonder if that decision somehow influenced this other juvenile mass murderer? In both cases, the easy acquisition of firearms by volatile young men has had lethal consequences for innocent victims, victims who could have been any of us just going about everyday activities

Insider, Two fathers started shooting at each other from their cars in a road rage chase. Both their daughters ended up getting shot, police said. Fortunately, the daughters were not fatally injured after their fathers grabbed firearms after trying to run each other off the road.

Blavity News, Trump Supporter Pleads Guilty To Setting His Home On Fire And Blaming BLM

When all the evidence pointed to him, he apparently confessed. Now this Minnesota man is awaiting sentencing.

Modern DNA test yields arrest in 1989 Vermont double murder WATERBURY, Vt. (AP) — A drop of blood subjected to modern DNA testing enabled Vermont State Police detectives to make an arrest in the 1989 murder of a Danby couple found stabbed to death in their home, police said. Michael Anthony Louise, 79, was arrested Thursday in Syracuse, New York.

‘The Cash Monster Was Insatiable’: How Insurers Exploited Medicare for Billions https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/08/upshot/medicare-advantage-fraud-allegations.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare The health system Kaiser Permanente called doctors in during lunch and after work and urged them to add additional illnesses to the medical records of patients they hadn’t seen in weeks. Doctors who found enough new diagnoses could earn bottles of Champagne, or a bonus in their paycheck.

That opening paragraph of an article on Medicare fraud certainly stings for me, since I’m a Kaiser enrollee. I joined Kaiser thinking that practitioners there would be discouraged from finding excuses for unnecessary treatment because they are salaried. What is actually the case? Our local Kaiser doesn’t seem to try to provide any extra treatment; in fact, it’s hard to even get an appointment!

Pro-Trump Rally-Goers Blame Mysterious Bogeymen for Latest Event Flop https://www.thedailybeast.com/pro-trump-rally-goers-blame-mysterious-bogeymen-for-latest-event-flop They blamed “paid agitators” and the federal government, among others.

The Root, Finally, Republicans admit they don't care about Herschel Walker's lies No, it’s now all abt winning control of the Senate. Walker, if he wins election, will vote as he’s told to do.

In theou debate between Walker and Warnock, maybe Walker’s goofiness proved endearing to some viewers.

Yahoo Life, Golf influencer Paige Spiranac says she feels 'this immense pressure to look perfect, all the time' When a star or champion in any field takes his or her own life, as several have done recently, is it perhaps because of secret doubts and failings amid intense pressures to always maintain an “image” of perfection and capability? I can imagine that fame has many drawbacks. I’ve always sought privacy myself, despite authoring 2 books and writing on this blog. A certain distance is involved in writing and not appearing in person, a selectivity about what is said about one’s private life.

Desperate people now trying to better their circumstances by migrating are facing new challenges.

Migrants targeted in Canadian immigration scam on Facebook, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/oct/14/facebook-whatsapp-migrants-targeted-canadian-immigration-scam

DeSantis Stunt Backfires: Martha’s Vineyard Migrants to Get ‘Victims of Crime’ Visas
https://www.thedailybeast.com/texas-sheriff-says-migrants-flown-by-ron-desantis-to-marthas-vineyard-qualify-for-victims-of-crime-visas

DHS expands Trump-era policy to Venezuelans while opening new pathway to US https://thehill.com/latino/3685595-dhs-expands-trump-era-policy-to-venezuelans-while-opening-new-pathway-to-us/ Instead of just coming across the border, as they have been allowed to do, Venezuelans must now have a sponsor inside the US before being admitted. This change will create a major hardship for those already en route, those exhausted folks who have already made the arduous journey through the Darien Gap and all of Central America and are now arriving at the Mexican border, though they will still be admitted if they’d crossed the Mexican border by last Wed.

Fox News, https://www.foxnews.com/us/venezuelan-migrants-surprised-learn-will-returned-mexico-new-biden-admin-policy

Fox News, https://www.foxnews.com/politics/aclu-legal-groups-suing-biden-admin-denying-legal-representation-detained-migrants

NY Post, https://nypost.com/2022/10/13/mexico-refused-to-accept-venezuelans-under-bidens-new-deal/

Do Cubans' hunger strikes matter? /¿Importan las huelgas de hambre de cubanos? Cuba Archive info@cubaarchive.org

Reuters, Inflation, blackouts and collapsing peso pile pressure on Cuban govt https://www.reuters.com/article/cuba-economy/inflation-blackouts-and-collapsing-peso-pile-pressure-on-cuban-govt-idINL1N31C2T7 Havana cafeteria owner Claudia Ramirez likens the Cuban peso to a piece of chocolate in hand on a hot day. “It has melted, faster and faster and now is almost worthless, making running my business nearly impossible,” she said. The peso, worth roughly four U.S. cents in July, is now officially valued at less than a penny. The unofficial rate has soared since then to 200 to 1, a historical low that has slashed Cubans’ savings and buying power.

AP, US, Canada send armored vehicles to bolster Haiti's police

 

Violent gangs in Haiti could pose similar threat to US as MS-13, Sen. Cassidy says: 'Might be a rhythm there' | Fox News

Wash. Post, British crown blocks Bermuda’s cannabis bill, straining ties

Ukraine Pravda, Renowned conductor Yurii Kerpatenko killed by Russians

 

Russia launched a widespread assault on Ukraine, including its first strikes on Kyiv in months, after Putin accused the country of attacking a critical bridge to Crimea. THE WALL STREET JOURNAL  Destruction of a bridge between Ukraine and Russia, however that might have happened, unleashed swift and deadly retaliation from an angry and apparently embarrassed Vladimir Putin resulting in wholesale, indiscriminate bombardment of Ukrainian civilians and infrastructure, including of the vital energy sector as winter approaches. Russian missiles have rained down on over 40 Ukrainian cities in a scorched earth expression of Putin’s rage. If an infuriated Putin cannot fully control Ukraine, he may simply want to wipe that country off the map. Of course, the Ukraine war is also having a negative impact on the entire world economy, including here in the US, which has created the need to find a face-saving way for both sides to exit the conflict. Even the bread supply in Lebanon has shrunk because of reduced grain shipments from Ukraine.

Yahoo News, American veteran dies while fighting in Ukraine, family says

This was a man from Idaho, the father of 5. Some 4000 Americans have joined the fight in Ukraine and at least 5 have died.

Across the world, Kim Jung Un in North Korea wants to make sure that the war in Ukraine doesn’t deflect attention away from himself, so he’s again flexing his country’s nuclear muscles.  

A rare protest took place in China just before the Communist Party Congress that's starting today. Protestors carried a banner calling Xi Jinping a “dictator and a traitor of the country” and demanded his removal. Their voices were soon quelled and they are probably in prison. Xi did not want his bid to win an unprecedented 3^rd 5-year term disrupted. A million people were reported to have been arrested prior to the congress.

Wash. Post, ‘New tank man’: Rare protest in Beijing mars Xi Jinping’s moment

Amazingly, protests have continued in Iran for a month now despite fierce official efforts at control.

Here in the US, voters are feeling pessimistic, which doesn’t bode well for Democratic candidates. There may be other registered Democrats who, like me, are uneasy about the party’s all-out touting of “abortion rights,” a campaign designed to incentivize voters. We outliers will still vote for party candidates because voting for a Republican is not in our DNA, especially when so many Republicans have become Trump extremists.

So, while I didn’t plan to comment again on abortion, it’s a topic that won’t go away, becoming even more salient now as the Nov. elections approach. As said before, I confess to not really understanding the rationale for abortion—at least not on a gut level. I realize that women can and do become pregnant unexpectedly and also unhappily or may even decide sometime during a pregnancy that they just don’t want to go through with it. If having the option of abortion is regarded as progress, then it’s hard to go back. Abortion rights advocates repeatedly stress that it’s just a matter of a woman’s “choice.”

I doubt that my adopted kids, whom I love dearly, would have ever been born if abortion had been available to their birth mothers. Actor Jack Nicholson discovered later in life that his “older sister” was actually his birth mother and, likewise, he well may never have been born if abortion had been an option back then. In Honduras, where abortion is still illegal, I know of children secretly adopted informally, that is, taken right from the hospital with the new parents’ names inscribed on the original and only birth certificate. There will be some explaining to do if those children ever seek genetic testing, as has happened here in the US, revealing so many secrets.   

Being pregnant and giving birth are not necessarily fun—interesting and exciting perhaps, but something most women may not want to go through more than once or twice, if at all. And it’s not just a matter of 9 months of pregnancy, then childbirth, but also of raising an infant all the way to adulthood. Many of those tiny helpless infants grow up to make their mothers proud, but there are always a few bad apples among them, including a miniscule number who even end up murdering the woman who gave them birth.

Now partnered woman have ways to stop producing babies and many of them are stopping. I won’t get into a discussion about the exact point of conception, whether it happens when the sperm penetrates the ovum or when the fertilized ovum implants in the uterus. In any case, by the time a woman misses her period and starts feeling somehow different, she then is pregnant. A few younger couples of my acquaintance and even some folks related to me have decided to remain childfree, but more often have had one or 2 kids, then stopped right there because that’s more than enough for them to handle, as the women are usually working. In days gone by, women didn’t work outside the home, but now they do and juggling work and family life gets harder the more kids there are.

No one in my immediate family or friendship circle has more than 2 kids. I suspect that’s pretty typical and why the US population as a whole is not achieving replacement. Only immigration is making up some of the shortfall, though possibly at a loss for countries sending immigrants. The proportion of people in the US growing fastest are over age 65, myself included.

Observer, The U.S.’s Low Birth Rate Means the Nation is Headed For a Demographic Crisis While the number of babies born in the U.S. increased in 2021, it's still too low to prevent an aging society. https://observer.com/2022/05/the-u-s-s-low-birth-rate-means-the-nation-is-headed-for-a-demographic-crisis/20CDC%20statistics.

Econofact, The Mystery of the Declining U.S. Birth Rate, https://econofact.org/the-mystery-of-the-declining-u-s-birth-rate The U.S. birth rate has fallen by 20% since 2007. This decline cannot be explained by demographic, economic, or policy changes.

Until abortion had been declared a “constitutional right,” also described as a matter of “reproductive justice,” “choice,” or simply as “healthcare” and “routine medical care,” partnered women couldn’t do much about becoming pregnant and didn’t think there was much to be done about it anyway. Relatively few actually felt desperate enough pre-Roe to bring out a clothes hanger. Instead, they just accepted this as normal and then gave birth, considering it part of being in a partnered life, usually raising the child or, in rare cases, giving a baby up for adoption. I had an unmarried friend, now deceased, who gave birth to an infant many years ago relinquished for adoption. She herself never married or had another child, but she connected later with her offspring, getting along better with that woman’s son than with the woman herself. My own great-grandmother who gave birth to 12 babies just considered that her destiny. After all, pregnancy is not an illness but a natural process, an essential part of human existence ever since humans first walked on earth. That’s how it was in the US before Roe. And of course, I came of age long before Roe was decided. 

Then, suddenly, years ago, the US Supreme Court made abortion a legal option and many American women now understandably don’t want to give up that option even though the current Supreme Court has now overruled the Roe decision. Attitudes and practices regarding pregnancy have also changed on the meantime. But abortion laws elsewhere, even in Western Europe, are still more limited than here in the US. American movies and TV shows have now started depicting abortion as the best option. “Choice” is the key concept and one that is often repeated. Taking away or reducing a “right” or a “choice” is going to get pushback. Yet I still cannot wrap my head around completely disregarding the life of a helpless unborn human, a life that is obviously already underway. What about his or her “choice”? Didn’t that (potential) person have a right to go on living? Frankly, though a registered lifelong Democrat, I cannot approve of the killing of that unborn life, of obliterating that unborn human—and calling that exercise a “human right.” There are many ways now to prevent that human from ever coming into existence in the first place.  

If someone wants to use birth control, become sterilized, be celibate, or even choose euthanasia, that’s their decision. No one else is being directly harmed. And perhaps morning-after pills act swiftly enough to actually prevent a pregnancy, though the line gets fuzzy there. I have no problem with that nor do I “feel” much for early clusters of cells wiped out before sensation starts to develop. But it’s different to end an unborn life that is already well underway, that is growing daily, can feel pain, and which will otherwise continue to exist, just like you or me or anyone else until we meet our natural death. (My concern also extends to death row inmates awaiting execution.) Our time-limited, everyday life, with its alternating mix of joys and travails, its daily challenges, is all any of us ever has. Shouldn’t someone barely starting out in that life, in the very same way that we all have necessarily started out in the womb, be allowed to continue to go on living just like all the rest of us? I feel even more strongly that the answer is “yes” after having been pregnant myself and having felt independent internal kicks and movements. No doubt, I’m also influenced by caring for adopted children and a foster son whose birth parents were unable to care for them.

Yet, at the same time, I do recognize that African American women are statistically more likely to seek abortions because they don’t have access to birth control or lack the financial means to raise a child, problems that could be better addressed if pro-life folks put their money where their mouth is. Financial need is one of the many disadvantages that disproportionately affect black people raising children, including some in my own family. 

 

While being hard to gauge, could it be argued that women now denied abortions after expecting them to be available will end up resenting their offspring, leading to their kids’ experiencing unhappiness in childhood and maybe in adulthood? Happiness, of course, is a very subjective quality and no one has a perfect childhood or a perfect life, though some do better than others. As occupational therapists would say, everyone seeks purposeful activity and often that activity involves overcoming obstacles, which most lives have in abundance.

 

USA Today, The real story behind America's population bomb: Adults want their independence

 

Yahoo Finance, America is facing a diaper crisis, and the anti-abortion movement may not be helping

Many organizations that solicit money ostensibly to help needy mothers have been shown to spend it on staff, overhead, and putting out an anti-abortion message rather than providing concrete practical assistance for pregnant women and new mothers.

After striking down Roe, Supreme Court DECLINES to hear case on whether fetuses are entitled to constitutional rights | Daily Mail Online
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11303273/U-S-Supreme-Court-rebuffs-fetal-personhood-appeal.html

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