Nothing Ever Stands Still

Rest and relaxation never last for long, as something always comes up. We are unlikely to ever get bored because, as was said when I worked at the occupational therapy association, humans always seek purposeful activity. Right now, my own purposeful activity is posting on this blog and yours is reading it.

 We’ll start out with Alexei Navalny’s untimely death, moving on to US news, then on to Gaza. After that is a brief look back at the life and legacy of former President Jimmy Carter, still with us at age 99.

President Biden has met with Navalny’s widow and daughter in California, where the daughter attends Stanford University. The family also includes a teenage son.

AP, Alexei Navalny, the fiercest foe of Russia's Putin, has died, Russian authorities say

 

Alexei Navalny, age 47, imprisoned in an arctic penal colony, was reportedly laughing, cracking jokes, and looking healthy when he appeared in court the day before his death. Navalny had narrowly survived a previous assassination poisoning, but Putin seems to have succeeded this time.

Telegraph, Alexei Navalny was poisoned by Putin, his widow claims

He was murdered by Putin is what many allege, including some Russians now memorializing Navalny. His mother arrived at the prison, asking for his body, but it has not yet been released pending “chemical analysis.” The widow claims he was poisoned by Novichok, saying that Russian authorities are waiting for any traces to dissipate before releasing his body.

A message in Spanish just now arrived from Armando in Florida, the kidney patient whom I rescued from Cuba decades ago. He recently was able to bring some friends out of Cuba, saying they are already learning to drive. I’d told him that my visiting daughter and I both had Covid, hence his reference to that.

Buenas noches Barbara cómo siguieron de Salud su hija Stephanie y Usted. Este año ha hecho mucho frío en Washington.

La pareja de amigos Cubanos que traje están muy bien, ya saben manejar y están trabajando en la misma compañía que yo trabajando pero en la Ciudad donde están viviendo en Fort Myers florida.

Yo estoy muy bien con deseos de verla en persona aunque sea una hora, no quiero quitarle mucho tiempo. Solamente la invitaría a comer o tomarnos un café en algún lugar Cerca de donde vive.

Pienso planearlo contando con Usted y según cómo este de salud, Armando

 

Flowers blooming all winter on my back porch always lift my spirits.

Fox, Without funding from border bill, ICE contemplates releasing thousands of detainees

Might that really happen? If so, the detainees will celebrate their lucky break.

 

Wash. Post, How much is a baby worth? A $75,000 bonus, this South Korean firm says.

Financial incentives may help increase the birthrate, though $75,000 hardly covers the cost of raising a child.

 

The Hill, 48 percent in new poll say they would support 16-week abortion ban

The birth of children, considered on either a personal or a societal level, often regards offspring in the abstract as a choice, when they will actually be real live people just like their parents, but simply at an earlier and essential stage of human development. For the first time in history, heterosexually partnered couples may have the option of becoming parents or not, while also exerting considerable control over how many children they may eventually have. That means that the prospect may be viewed not as an inevitability or a universal human fate but as a lifestyle choice to be undertaken or not, almost like embarking on a particular profession or buying a home. Of course, once a child is actually born, he or she becomes a unique person with all the problems and rewards entailed. Without parents, there will be no people, and without people, there are no future parents and no human society. So reproduction is important—absolutely crucial really —for the very continuance of human existence and of all human life on earth. Sometimes that elementary fact gets lost when having children is viewed only as a personal lifestyle choice. In fact, having and raising children is necessary for human life on earth to even continue to exist. That point seems obvious but may be overlooked when considered only from an individual perspective

A host of individual choices have added up to creating a serious baby bust in the far east, Europe, and right here in the USA, where women would have to produce an average of 2.1 children each to maintain current population. But the actual US average was only 1.6 in 2020, decreasing even further since. Young people do need to keep coming along to support an ever-growing older population in a reversal of the Malthusian threat, too few babies rather than too many. Japan has already experienced a substantial birthrate plunge and South Korea even more so with only 0.78 births per woman. Korean women seem to like the single life and children there are expected to be born only within a marriage. Nor does either Japan or South Korea welcome immigration. Niger has the world’s highest birthrate with more than 6.5 births per woman. Average life expectancy in Niger is 64 years compared to 77 in the US. Some Scandinavian countries have been offering generous incentives for producing children with only modest results so far. The US could easily offset its own population decline and lower birthrate by allowing more immigration but has rejected that option.

 

Reduction in fertility in many countries, including our own, is due to partnered women with more control over reproduction now choosing to have fewer children, enabling them to enter the workforce more easily. Women in the US and elsewhere are also starting families later, reducing their lifelong fertility. But might the renewed interest in fertility and fetal rights in some parts of the US also reflect a societal need or pressure to produce more babies now, since not enough are being born? The Alabama Supreme Court has opened a Pandora’s box by defining stored frozen embryos as humans, but as long as they remain in storage and are not implanted, they will never develop into anything.

 

If Donald Trump should happen to win the US presidency again, he has promised to further reduce US population through both wholesale deportations and further limits on immigration. Mr. Trump has threatened to create a fortress America by pulling back on all overseas involvements, levying big import taxes, and controlling crime by employing the military here at home. He has also vowed to go after Joe Biden and his family and associates for unspecified offenses. Trump’s diehard fans have been loudly cheering his remarks and are already contributing to his legal fees and fines. If Trump is reelected, do I really want to live in the America he envisions? That may be the right time for me to move back to Honduras.

 

Business Insider, A California man was found with 1 million rounds of ammo and 248 illegally owned guns in his house, state authorities say

This guy made sure he was more than ready to confront any surprise intruder.

 

CNN, 2 men charged with murder in Kansas City Chiefs rally shooting

What otherwise might have been a shouting match or a fistfight ended up killing an innocent bystander and injuring scores of others just because some hotheaded folks were carrying guns.

 

AP, The widow and aides of assassinated Haitian President Jovenel Moïse are indicted in his killing

 

This is certainly a bombshell accusation! The widow’s Florida-based lawyer claims not to know her current whereabouts, but she had been in Florida at last report.

 

The rules of war, like all human constructs, keep evolving. What are they now? 

Wash. Post, Nasser Hospital no longer functional as Israeli raid continues, WHO says

 

CNN, Israeli minister says ground offensive in Rafah will begin by Ramadan if hostages aren’t returned ,,,war cabinet minister Benny Gantz has warned.

 

BBC, Israel sets March deadline for Gaza ground offensive in Rafah

 

March 10 is Israel’s stated deadline. OK, President Biden, who is financing this war  and who’s in charge here?

 

Fox, Biden to go to UN Security Council to force temporary cease-fire on Israel, halt Rafah offensive

 

President Biden has finally begun standing up publicly to countermand Israeli officials who have been calling all the shots so far. Biden has also stated support of a 2-state solution, which Netanyahu has repeatedly and resoundingly rejected.  

 

 

Telegraph, ‘Shameful’ Brazilian president is trivialising the Holocaust, says Israel

Lula is not the only world leader or common citizen comparing Israel’s current offensive in Gaza to the Holocaust, something which must be especially galling for Israelis. He has said, this “isn’t a war, it’s a genocide. It’s not a war of soldiers against soldiers. It’s a war between a highly prepared army and women and children. What’s happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people hasn’t happened at any other moment in history. Actually, it has happened: when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.” Lula then reiterated his call for a two-state solution to the conflict, with Palestine “definitively recognised as a full and sovereign state”.  Netanyahu has now accused Lula of being an “antisemite.”

An appeal from Amnesty International has appeared on Facebook:

https://www.amnestyusa.org/press-releases/israel-must-end-its-occupation-of-palestine-to-stop-fueling-apartheid-and-systematic-human-rights-violations/

However, the US, so far, has not called for an immediate ceasefire.

Wash. Post, U.S. isolated at G-20 as Gaza crisis worsens

The U.S. opposition to an immediate cease-fire came under repeated criticism during a two-day meeting of the chief diplomats of the world’s 20 largest economies.

Israel has continued losing moral, and sometimes financial, support worldwide. The US government is also facing increasing criticism for its continuing support of Israel.

After the Holocaust, much of the world had heralded Israel for providing a safe homeland for beleaguered and often threatened Jews. More than 80 years later, a whole lifetime since, Israel is being judged much like any other nation, with the tide of world opinion now shifting against Israel. Hamas may well have started the current hostilities, arousing initial sympathy for Israel. Yet, Israel’s relentless bombardment of Gaza has started to negatively affect attitudes toward Jews worldwide, given that Israeli attacks have fallen most heavily not on combatants but on Palestinian civilians of all ages, even on those living in the West Bank. Under Netanyahu, so much goodwill once extended to Israel has now been lost.

While the US is still supporting Israel financially, President Biden has started daring to openly voice warnings about Israel’s war conduct in Gaza. Americans have also become increasingly divided on the war, with many openly turning against Israel. Is Biden now trying to influence Israeli officials by expressing his concerns as Israel’s only remaining friend and key financial supporter, while also urging alternative strategies? Biden’s aims seem somewhat murky, perhaps intentionally so. Bringing home the hostages is a bargaining chip that he has highlighted benefitting the Israeli side. A face-saving way needs to be found for Netanyahu and Israel to step back from attacking the crowded civilian bastion of southern Gaza, as has been repeatedly threatened. Such an attack has not yet occurred, so chalk that up to US pressure. The US probably has very little influence over Hamas and Gazans.

Israel has also been losing support among diaspora Jews, some of whom I know. There are at least 2 anti-Zionist, anti-Netanyahu Jewish organizations now active in the US: J Street and Jews of Conscience. 

Israel has begun recruiting workers from as far away as India to replace Palestinian laborers. 

NY Times, Prominent Black Church Leaders Call for End of U.S. Aid to Israel

The African Methodist Episcopal Church Bishops Council leaders said U.S. financial assistance to help Israel fight in Gaza has supported “mass genocide.”

AP, MIT suspends student group that protested against Israel's military campaign in Gaza 

Reuters, Israel tones down criticism of Vatican's Gaza remarks Israel on Thursday toned down its criticism of the Vatican, saying that remarks by Pope Francis' deputy on the killings in Gaza were "regrettable" rather than "deplorable". Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin had said on Tuesday that Israel's military response to the Hamas militant group was disproportionate and caused "carnage"

Telegraph, Anti-Semitism hits all-time high in ‘explosion of hatred’ against British Jews

Reuters, France's Macron opens door to recognising Palestinian state

Wash. Post, A new effort to punish South Africa is a terrible look for Democrats

AP, 5 patients die as oxygen runs out in Gaza hospital seized by Israeli forces, health officials say

USA Today, 'Massive incursion': Israeli gunfire, shelling bring chaos to Gaza hospital. Live updates

Telegraph, Israel could face war crimes charges if it goes ahead with Rafah invasion Karim Khan, a British lawyer and chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court warned Israel it could face war crimes charges if it pushes ahead with an invasion of Rafah.

 

CNN, Blinken offers condolences on reported killings of two Americans in West Bank and calls for investigation

 

Reuters, Biden blocks deportation of Palestinians in US, citing conditions in Gaza

 

Deportations of Palestinians from the US are paused for at least the next 18 months.

Protesters in Michigan reacted to the President’s appearance there. Wash. Post, Biden faces major challenge on Gaza in next week’s Michigan primary

 Politico, Arab States Are Giving Palestinians the Cold Shoulder. Here’s Why.

 

Arab states are not eager to take in Palestinian refugees. No one wants Palestinians, it seems. I have been friends with several Palestinian refugees in the US, people really without a country.

Going back in time now with someone who is still with us, former President  Jimmy Carter, now a widower at age 99.

President Carter met with my family at the White House in 1979. Mr. Carter, in my opinion, was quite underappreciated during his presidency. He then went on to directly to perform many good works in the company of his wife whom I also knew.

Then we met again in Nicaragua in 1990 as election observers there.

 These photos appear in my Confessions book. Above the one of me on the lower left with Carter is a photo of  champion swimmer Costa Rican president Oscar Arias; then comes former Nicaraguan President Violeta Chamorro; and finally, a supporter of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide is carrying a symbolic rooster on his head.

 

A final question now: Why did men once wear wigs? In fact, wigs were often used to cover up syphilis sores or hair loss. Wigs then actually became fashionable when King Louis XIV of France began to lose his hair. The monarch wore long, elaborately curled wigs, sparking a popular trend.