In my mid-eighties now and not yet totally recovered from Covid (prior vaccination notwithstanding), I’m very glad to still be alive. Maybe I’ll never recover completely. Those early days of my illness between Christmas and New Year’s Eve have mostly vanished from memory.
Though I still remain a bit unsteady on my feet, I do like to stand out on the front porch just to breathe in fresh air and greet neighbors passing by. Fortunately, our recent weather has been mild. Spring is in the air. In fact, winter has barely appeared at all. After putting out trash or recycling in the evening, I may sit out for a bit on a neighboring brick wall but have barely walked beyond my own block since first falling ill.
I’m not doing anything particularly exciting these days, just following my daily routine. That includes connecting regularly with family and friends, including by phone with a 93-year-old friend now residing in a nursing home near San Diego who does not do email whom I’ve not seen in person for several years now.
A few days ago, when I went outside and tried to come back in, my front door key simply wasn’t working. Something may have slipped inside the lock. The problem now has been remedied with a brand new key with sharper edges, as the old key had been worn down. Also, it helps not to jam the key all the way into the keyhole, rather to insert it more gently.
A painful infection suddenly erupted under the cuticle of my right index finger late on Friday evening. So I sent an image of the finger to my primary care doctor at the Kaiser clinic located about a mile away, but it only got worse, so I hoped not to have to wait until Monday for relief. By Sunday evening, I was able to get a ride to Kaiser to pick up a prescription, so the finger is now on the mend.
Before
going any further, I’d like to share a few images from Sony’s World Photography Awards for 2024. You can easily find
the rest of the photos, all intriguing.
This year, 2024, is a Leap Year, one that comes every 4 years with an extra day added at the end, Feb. 29.
Now in March, we celebrate another commemoration, Women’s History Month, whose 2024 theme is “Women Who Advocate for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.”
While women do need to keep on advocating for themselves, they should also advocate for reducing the number of guns in circulation. The percentage of females in the US murdered by an intimate partner has been 5 times higher than for males. Some 70 American women are shot and killed very month by an intimate partner, according to the CDC.
We all would be much safer if fewer firearms were being produced. However, the gun industry, though its constituency is shrinking, has convinced way too many Americans that having a gun at home really makes occupants safer. They would actually be far safer without it, as their gun is much more likely to be used within the home than against an intruder. Guns are the main killers of those under age 18 in the US. As mentioned before, my (then) 11-year-old son was shot by a handgun found in a bedside drawer dropped by another curious boy. Fortunately--if being shot accidentally can be considered fortunate--the bullet only entered his foot.
Wash. Post, D.C. police arrest 15-year-old in killing
of Lyft driver on Capitol Hill
This killing happened recently right here in my own neighborhood.
I’ve also been shocked to see images of local porch pirates sending young kids to steal packages as the parents wait out on the sidewalk.
Whew! Donald Trump’s creative spin on our booming US economy is that it expresses voters’ eager anticipation of his own victorious return to the US presidency!
Nikki Haley needed to have a better showing in South Carolina, but didn’t do too badly either. And now she has won her first Republican presidential primary right here in Washington, DC. I’d take any president next time around except for Trump. I don’t want to have to move back to Honduras!
Most Republicans consider illegal immigration a top issue, blaming immigrants for a plethora of problems. Yet, our country actually could use more working-age immigrants since not enough workers are being produced here to support longer-lived retired Americans like myself. President Biden certainly knows this, but in an election year, is yielding to anti-immigrant sentiment in his public pronouncements.
Readers already know that as both an adoptive and a birth mother, I do not support “abortion rights,” rather, the right of unborn humans to go on living just like everyone else. And our country now needs more babies! Biden has switched his position in this issue over the course of his political career.
CNN, Exclusive: Texts reveal shadowy role witness played in defense attorney’s push to disqualify Willis from Trump case
From this distance, I don’t know who might be considered an acceptable, credible prosecutor in the Georgia case against Trump. But because questions have now been raised in public—mostly by Trump’s people—why not name a different prosecutor to allow the case to go forward in a timely fashion? The effort to disqualify Willis is an unfortunate sideshow designed to move attention away from Trump. Donald Trump’s strategy all along has been to keep on throwing in monkey wrenches to delay the many legal cases against him until he can finally get back into office and enact revenge on his detractors.
https://www.foxnews.com/world/armed-gangs-jailbreak-4000-inmates-haiti-days-long-gun-battle-police
CNN, Gangs rule Haiti’s capital.
Some say they’re ready to overthrow the government too
This and other events
in Latin America have been reported on NPR by Nicaraguan-born Eyder Peralta,
now based in Mexico City. (He of course speaks Spanish, but I’m not sure about
his French or Haitian creole.)
NY Times, Cocaine and Consequences: A Honduran President’s Trial in New York
Juan Orlando Hernández, the former 2-term Honduran president, is going in trial in NYC on drug charges after being expedited to the US in 2022.
My good friend Stephen, a former
visitor now living back home in Nigeria, recently sent me a message: “Hello madam Barbs. Compliments of the day. Regarding the current protests by
civil society groups over our economic hardship, no strike as yet, although the
National Labour Congress had threatened to go on strike if certain actions are
not taken. The government says they are putting measures in place to bring about
holistic interventions that will address both public servants and the self-employed.
So let’s hope that works.” He is being rather cautious in his comments, as he
is actually a government employee himself. Apparently, Nigeria’s fuel subsidies
were removed suddenly after almost 50 years as part of the government’s efforts
to tamp down rampant inflation. However, as a result, Nigerians are not only
paying more for gas, but also for food, so many are now going hungry. “The
government is asking citizens for patience during this period of temporary adjustment,”
Stephen declares. He and his wife have 4 kids, but he doesn’t say how the economic
situation is affecting his own family.
Wash. Post, Russians turn out to bury Navalny as
police try to keep them away
A sign in my front yard since Christmas says Full Cease Fire Now! referring to the Israel/Hamas war. Many thousands of deaths and countless injuries later, the sign remains, with its message more urgent than ever. Why has Joe Biden become such an adamant supporter of Israel? It is an irony that Israel, founded to save Jews from genocide is now perpetrating a genocide against Palestinians. Biden has been complicit in enabling this genocide, since the war in Gaza could not forward without major US financial and moral support of Israel as well as of Netanyahu, who could well be considered a war criminal. All Biden has had to do is to turn off the spigot.
Indeed, the US been a champion and major financial supporter of Israel, right or wrong, ever since the very beginning of that nation’s existence. Even when other locations for a Jewish homeland, including in South America, were being considered, the US had sided firmly with Zionists seeking a homeland in the ancient land of Judea since even before the Holocaust. And the displacement of long-time residents was directly abetted and enabled by the USA.
Admittedly, Palestinian operatives loyal to Hamas initiated the current hostilities and remain embedded within a civilian population that considers them defenders and protectors. And for years, Palestinians have been exiled and dispersed all over the world, many yearning to return to their homeland just as Jews did before Israel’s existence. Ironically, Jews as an ethnic/religiously affiliated people have displaced another such group, Palestinians, thanks only to the initial and continuing help and support of the USA.
On a Saturday morning, March 2, when just waking up, I tuned into NPR’s weekly program “On the Media” about coverage of the current Israel/Hamas war. Headlines and statistics cited there showed that such coverage has been strongly biased against Hamas and Palestinians, including in major newspapers, the BBC, and even NPR itself. The Israeli side has been humanized (examples are cited), while Palestinians have largely become statistics. Because of my age, I do remember 1948 and my friendships with Palestinian students at that time, but most Americans do not share those experiences.
More recent articles have begun showing the ongoing toll on Palestinians.
Reuters, Israel carries out biggest Ramallah raid in years
AP, 'They wanted to humiliate us.' Palestinian women detained
by Israel allege abuse in Israeli custody
CNN, Children starve to death in Gaza, Palestinian officials
say, as Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal sticking points remain
NY Times, Middle East Crisis As
Hungry Gazans Crowd a Convoy, a Crush of Bodies, Israeli Gunshots and a Deadly
Toll
CNN, Israeli forces fired at Palestinians waiting for aid in northern Gaza, eyewitnesses say
AP, US says Israel has agreed to the framework for a Gaza cease-fire. Hamas now must decide
AP, Israel escalates its criticism of a UN agency in Gaza.
It says 450 of its workers are militants
Just when Israel seems to have agreed to a ceasefire, Israel
is now stepping up its criticism of the UN agency assisting beleaguered Gazans.
Meanwhile, Benny Gantz, a top member of Israel’s
wartime Cabinet, met with U.S. officials in Washington while talks have been underway
in Egypt to broker a cease-fire in Gaza before the Muslim holy month of
Ramadan begins.
Reuters, In blunt remarks, US VP Harris calls out Israel over
"catastrophe" in Gaza
LA Times, Thousands of protesters march in downtown Los Angeles
calling for cease-fire in Gaza
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