Put on your reading glasses again for another rather long posting.
Stormy weather
Hurricane Helene cut a wide path of destruction through the Carolinas and beyond, leaving at least 200 dead. Here in the nation's capital, we had dark clouds and rain for days, with the sun only starting to come out sporadically on Oct. 4.
warnings for Florida's Gulf Coast
My own family--daughter, granddaughter, and great-grandson--living near Tampa on
Florida's Gulf coast were only able to send out texts lately, confirming that they were
still OK. They live right in the eye of Hurricane Milton. Climate change is definitely
already here! I worry about them all the time.
I told them to come to DC, but the roads were already clogged and they don't have
reliable vehicles or money for gas. It's also a very long drive. Here's a recent ominous
message received from my
daughter living there: They are telling everyone to evacuate, everyone. Hurricane will be
a direct hit.
This one is much worse than the last. My family is stuck here, so if it hits as they state,
we will not survive. Maybe it's our time.
NBC, Some Floridians struggle to evacuate as Milton bears down
abc News, Hurricane Milton intensifying as it heads toward Florida's west coast
Hurricane Milton rapidly intensified Monday morning, strengthening from a Category 4 to a dangerous
Category 5 hurricane with sustained winds of around 160 mph as it took aim at the Florida Gulf Coast;
On Tuesday, Oct. 8, when the hurricane was still pending. I advised my family to go
to a shelter, even if crowded, or to drive north and hang out there in their car until the
storm had passed, returning home afterward to help with the cleanup.
By Wed., I no longer was receiving any messages from them. Fortunately, it turns out,
they all survived the storm with only minor damage, such as to their vehicles.
I was looking forward to another daughter Stephanie coming from Hawaii on Thurs.
Oct. 10, to visit me in Washington, DC. She had been forwarding text messages from
our family in Florida, as I have no cell phone for doing that. She has filed an appeal
of a federal job layoff and has now arrived here with me for a few weeks to wait. She
is a biologist who is very artistic. Here I am holding a miniature scene she has created.
My daughter's work space for her tiny creations is now my own living
room.
Steph left her husband, also a biologist, behind in Hawaii.
Here below, I am seen with Stephanie and son Jonathan in W. Va.
at the hotel where he works. then of me sitting alone in the hotel dining area.
My son lives at a 2 1/2 hour drive from DC. Daughter Stephanie and I just visited him
for a few days there.
My son (adopted as a baby from Colombia) hates coming into the city and makes
his home out in the woods near Berkeley Springs, W, Va., living there alone with his
dog. He is separated from his wife and is helping support 3 kids. He calls me daily.
After losing my older son and a Cuban foster son, I am very protective of my kids and
grandkids, helping them as much as I can, which is not very much any more as I'm
retired now and no longer have a housemate sharing expenses. I only take housemates
referred by someone I know and none have shown up for the last 2 years.
AP, Dockworkers' union suspend strike until Jan. 15 to allow time to negotiate
new contract
The Biden administration had been closely involved in encouraging a strike suspension.
Part of the impetus for the strike was fear of being replaced by machines, actually becoming
more likely if workers had stayed out on strike for very long.
==============
International Health Service of MN is looking for medical, dental, vision and general
volunteers willing to share their compassion, knowledge and skills in Honduras
during our February, 14-28, 2025 trip.
This is a medical group that I have often worked with as a volunteer helper and
interpreter in Honduras, so if any of you, dear readers, can afford to join them, you
will have a very memorable and meaningful experience.
Here below is an interpretation request I received recently. I really miss doing that work,
but no longer feel comfortable traveling by public transportation. Hiring a car would wipe out
any profit.
Session(s) Details:
| Session number | 57102/1 |
| Date | Monday, October 14, 2024 |
| Time | 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM (EDT) |
| Language Pair | English to Spanish |
| Service | Onsite Consecutive Interpretation |
| Subject Matter | Special Education |
| Location | Alexandria, Virginia, United States, 22312 |
| Session Notes | Interpreter will meet speech therapist (Leah 518-928-8035) at the family's apartment for the speech therapy session |
NYTimes, The First Woman to Lead Mexico Takes Office
A climate scientist and a former mayor, Claudia Sheinbaum, age 62, was inaugurated
as the country’s first female president. Mexican women only won voting rights in 1953.
AP, 6 migrants from Egypt, Peru and Honduras die near Guatemalan border
after Mexican soldiers open fire
AP, Dominican Republic will deport up to 10,000 Haitians a week, citing an 'excess'
of immigrants
Haiti is still in upheaval, controlled by gangs and almost without visitors. Haiti shares
the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic. I have traveled to both countries
numerous times on human rights and election monitoring missions. Unique Haitian art
fills my home, along with mementos from the DR.
Most of the world had forgotten all about Haiti until Donald Trump's accused Haitian
migrants in Springfield, Ohio, of eating people's pets. He urged deporting them all back
to Haiti, vowing to do so just as soon as he takes office again.
Independent, Trump vows to deport legal Haitian migrants from Ohio in middle of
Jack Smith rant
Fox, Texas authorities arrest dozens of illegal immigrants, including 25 unaccompanied children
Mr. Trump has also made references to poor misunderstood Hannibal Lecter. What was
that all about?
Voters must make sure that Mr. Trump actually never becomes president again. It was just
a fluke that he even once won a presidential term, though never winning the popular vote.
His mental lapses are only getting worse.
Sorry to say, I have a family member still planning to vote for Trump next time.
Planned Parenthood is mostly involved in planned non-parenthood. Does the organization actually
assist people planning to become parents?
Granted that many embryos are already lost in spontaneous miscarriages, often for being
non-viable, but those on track for normal development should be given a chance to go on
living in my opinion, just like any other humans, even those adults who may have
committed crimes.
Every person living now on earth, including you and me, started out as a simple zygote.
You might say that's not a human being yet, so killing it is OK, maybe even arguing as
Planned Parenthood does, that ending such a nascent life, is actually your "right." That
could have snuffed out the life any of us at that very early crucial stage.
If a premature birth occurs, every effort will be made to save that infant though the same
effort is not necessarily made at the at same point of gestation before an actual birth.
I contend as both a birth and an adoptive mother that being "wanted" by the gestational
parent is not what should determine the continued existence of anyone. Someone else
may want to care for a child, as China found out when baby girls there were being offered
for adoption, with would-be parents seeking them from all over the world. I even have
known single women adopting some of those babies, including a friend whose
Chinese-born adopted daughter now teaches at a school near me.
AP, Oklahoma death row inmate had three 'last meals.' He's back at Supreme Court
in new bid for freedom Littlejohn was convicted in the 1992 shooting death of a convenience store
owner during a robbery.
While Littlejohn does admit to his role in the robbery, he maintains that he did not fire the fatal shot.
Fox, Life expectancy in humans not likely to increase much more, study suggests
While enormous gains in life expectancy have been made since 1800, the rate of such
gains has now slowed considerably, with almost none occurring for the last 30 years.
Age 100 seems to be a de facto limit, with only 5% of American women and 2% of men
reaching that age.
Most of us, despite medical gains and improvements in nutrition, air quality, and
reductions in traffic accidents, will not to live to age 100, probably not even close.
Former President Carter is an outlier in that respect.
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Presidential candidates Harris and Trump have been running neck and neck, with Harris
enjoying a slight edge, possibly growing stronger. Of course, I'd rather see Harris win,
though not quite enough to actually vote for her, but certainly not voting for Trump either.
So I'm still planning to sit out the vote.
Here in DC, my vote won't be missed, as Harris will carry our city anyway. I cannot vote
for Trump, but still disagree with Harris after her announcement that she keeps a gun at
home for self-defense, as well as with her vocal advocacy for "abortion rights," along
with her apparently rock solid support for the Israeli government, and now with her efforts
to close the southern border, which may be what most Americans think they want, but is
still bad policy.
I cannot vote for someone espousing those positions.
Husband Doug Emhoff has had quite a checkered past, mostly involving his activities
before meeting and marrying Harris.
It is now less than a month until Election Day. Former President Jimmy Carter, age 100,
reportedly has already cast his vote for Harris.
NYTimes, Judge Unseals New Evidence in Federal Election Case Against Trump
A brief from the special counsel provided new details of how Donald Trump lost the 2020 election
but attempted nonetheless to cling to power
On Jan, 6, 2021, standing at a safe distance out on East Capitol St., I well remember
seeing a mob of Trump supporters, all shouting excitedly, climbing up to break into
the capitol building. Mr. Trump had urged his supporters to storm the capitol where
the Electoral College votes were being counted, urging them to "stop the steal."
Now US special counsel Jack Smith has addressed reporters after a grand jury returned
a 165-page indictment against Trump for his efforts to overturn his election defeat.
Trump and his lawyers have claimed presidential immunity, but that applies only to
official acts. Trying to overturn a bona fide election cannot be considered an official act.
If Trump is elected in Nov., he will certainly throw out the case. Otherwise, he and his
lawyers will drag out the proceedings with ongoing appeals.
Meanwhile, the former President has been busy filling up his personal coffers, selling
$100K watches, also Bibles (reportedly printed in China) signed by Mr. Trump himself.
Oklahoma is said to have ordered 55,000 of those pricey Bibles for its public schools.
Distressing about Mr. Trump are not only his outlandish conduct and wild statements,
but that so many Americans trust his every word and even buy his merchandize.
The recent debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz seemed fairly cordial, even
demonstrating a certain rapport, with Vance making a somewhat better overall impression
in my opinion. Donald Trump, the unseen elephant in the room, was referred to only
indirectly. Vance carefully avoided admitting that Trump had lost in 2020. But more
recently, Vance has been saying that Trump did not actually lose in 2020 after all.
USA Today, Vance was a better advocate for Trump than Trump himself
NBC News, Vance says a future Trump administration would defund Planned
Parenthood.
I agree with Vance's efforts to curb abortion and also to provide incentives to boost the
US birth rate, as has been done in Sweden and other European countries, though with only
modest success there so far.
Soon after Vance had urged increasing the child tax credit, Harris chimed in with her own
credit for parents of newborns. Let's see if that actually helps reverse the US baby bust.
Due to the easing of abortion restrictions and better contraception, as well as with more
women entering the workforce, along with later marriages in our own country and
elsewhere, only now in my own lifetime, have fears of overpopulation given way to
concerns about too few babies. Such concerns are especially acute in Asia and Europe
where incentives to produce more births have been only partially successful. In China,
government agents are reportedly going door-to-door, encouraging more women
to become mothers. The one-child policy and forced abortions are now long gone there.
Chinese couples can now even have 3 offspring, though few are actually doing so.
Wash. Post, Biden expands asylum restrictions that sharply curbed border crossings
The Biden administration said Friday it would allow temporary legal permission for
migrants from Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti, and Nicaragua to lapse, but not immediately.
That would force hundreds of thousands of people to find other methods to stay in the
country or face deportation. (This measure seems an effort by the Biden administration to appeal to voters' misguided opposition to immigration, which is still needed to offset the baby
shortfall.)
=====================================================
AP, Pope Francis suggests Israel's actions in
Gaza and Lebanon are disproportionate
and immoral
AFP, Israel-UN relations sink to new depths
Business Insider, Israel's airstrikes and incursion against Hezbollah show limits in
Biden's ability to influence Netanyahu, foreign policy experts say
Couldn't President Biden already have pulled the plug on financial aid to Israel? Or might
he have been waiting until after our Nov. elections? Netanyahu has deliberately prolonged
the war to save himself. Now, it's actually almost too late to stop it; the war that the US
had wanted to limit has now engulfed the entire region.
AP, After pressing an Israel-Hezbollah cease-fire, the Biden administration shifts its message
Residents have been fleeing from southern Lebanon.
Israel's attack on Beruit has caused
much death and devastation.
The World, More than 2,000 people have been killed in the past two weeks amid Israel
and Hezbollah’s war. One million people have also been internally displaced in the
past two weeks alone.
abc News, American killed in Israeli airstrike in Lebanon, family says
Israel is now being accused of genocide, not by the US government, which is still funding
Israel's war, though certainly by many Americans as well as by people from all over the
world..
In its ongoing efforts to target foes, Israel has killed far too many civilians, including
children, dismissing their deaths as mere "collateral damage." Residential apartment
buildings seem to have been deliberately targeted. Are children living there being killed
to prevent them from becoming future militants?
Wash. Post, ‘Why Us?’: A Tide of Grief in Lebanon Mourners kneeled over lost loved ones
after an Israeli strike on an apartment building killed at least 45 people.
A child is buried in Lebanon.
Wash. Post, Israel has bombed much of Gaza to rubble
Here’s what will it take to rebuild. Gaza’s road to reconstruction, will be a monumental process
experts say will involve humanitarian needs, clearing rubble and rebuilding.
Reconstruction cannot even begin until the Gaza war comes to a halt, so the focus first
must be on stopping all hostilities. Is the US actually engaged in trying to do that now
d during this interim period before our own Nov. elections? Our government now appears
t to be stalling. We're not even quite who is actually in charge here any more. And
anti-Semitism seems to be on the rise again all over the world.
This message appears aimed squarely at the US.
The ceasefire sign in my front yard for a year is now
looking rather forlorn.
Kifir Bibas, the youngest Israeli being held hostage, has had a
first birthday and is apparently still alive, although his death had been reported earlier.
What actually has been happening to him won't be fully known until this war is over, but he
looks quite well in this photo.
I' I've now added my name and signature to an Amnesty International Boycott
and Divestment Resolution regarding Israel.
\ Amnesty is calling on us all to ask our lawmakers to support the following:
o
A permanent and immediate ceasefire to prevent further loss of lives, secure the safe
r release of remaining hostages, and bring a desperately needed end to the engineered
humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.
An immediate suspension of U.S. weapons sales and transfers for as long as the Israeli
government is using them to violate international law.
Wash. Post, U.S. warns Israel that arms transfers could halt unless humanitarian
situation in Gaza improves
The US has finally issued a rather gentle non-specific warning to Israel. After the pending election, I
do hope we will come down much harder on Israel, Many of the founders of Israel
made that nation a refuge for victims of genocide.
Pressure must continue to stop killings by all sides.
---------------------------------------------
At age 96, Ethel Kennedy, widow of Robert, family matriarch and mother of 11 has died.
Just having and raising 11 children, even with the means to support them, would have been quite a task
for Ethel, especially after losing her husband by violent means. President Biden delivered a eulogy at
her funeral. Two former presidents were also in attendance, Clinton and Obama.
=============================================
I regret being unable to attend a Nov. 15 event at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., celebrating past
donations made by me and my family for scholarships there, including for female architectural students.
I am glad that our endowment is still providing support.
Here now are a few recent Wildlife Photography winners.
I can empathize with the wives, actual or former, of famous men, such as Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and
Jeff Bezos. I know what it is to advise a successful husband, who then abandons his first
wife, though in my case and after 24 years of marriage, my husband was totally blind. A younger
woman took over after I'd helped propel him to success. He took all our joint funds with him when he
left, presumably with the help of his second wife, whom he married in Las Vegas soon after. My kids
and I then began delivering phone books just to put food on the table.
I do feel I deserve extra credit for my late ex-husband's MacArthur Award, made after he had
departed. Though by then he was earning a high salary, he did not even provide child support until I
took him to court. I rejected any efforts by my lawyer to obtain spousal support as I refused to be
beholden to him in any way. My lawyer had to wait to be paid until we won our case.
My ex only spoke with me once after he left, when he called me after an article of mine about my
volunteer work with Cuban refuges appeared in the local press. When he died in 1999, my
name did not appear in his obituary, though our children were listed, nor was I invited to his funeral,
but I attended anyway, to the apparent shock of his widow. He had been a chain smoker of unfiltered
Camels since adolescence and died of lung cancer at age 64.
I keep on getting notices and ads in Spanish, which is fine with me, though I wonder who evenknows to do that? Here's a recent announcement about low US unemployment:La tasa de desempleo en Estados Unidos continúa con tendencia a la baja.
For the record, this blog is being written and assembled by a human, not a bot. Books may be written
by bots; bots may even answer the phone. But this blog is definitely not produced by a bot.
Signing off now with a painting called "The Promise" from East City Art.
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