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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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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