Tom's Guide: The clocks going back tonight [Nov. 2] means lighter mornings — here's why that will help you fall asleep faster
It would be best for us here in the USA to just stay with either Daylight Saving or Standard Time, not keep on switching back and forth. Stopping that traditional changeover now, after it has outlived its utility, apparently presents a challenge, or it would have happened already. So all of us here in DC and elsewhere, having had to "spring forward," now must "fall back."
During these turbulent political times, daughter Stephanie has come back once again to my DC
home from Hawaii.
Steph has never let the distance between Hawaii and DC keep us apart. Just a few months ago, above,
she came when my granddaughter Natasha, her niece, had also arrived here from Florida.
Now Stephanie is back visiting me once again.
She has put a rather grim-looking photo of me eating at a restaurant on her Facebook page.
Stephanie soon found my unmarked DC ballot, which I had not actually planned on submitting this time. In heavily Democratic DC, my one puny vote wouldn't make a difference--though if too many folks felt that way, the absence of our votes might have an impact. She talked me into filling out my ballot by asking how I'd feel if the first woman presidential candidate actually won and I had failed to support her? So I voted after all, thinking this might be my only chance to vote for a female president.
Steph walked over to the National Mall, several blocks from my home, on October 29 to hear an address by Kamala Harris, part of a record-breaking crowd supporting her that evening.
During her presidential campaign,
Harris's sister and her husband have been some of her closest advisers. 
Melania Trump, mostly absent from this year's campaign, made a surprise showing at a nationally televised Trump rally in NYC. Topline: Former President Donald Trump’s wife, Melania Trump—who has been largely absent from Trump’s campaign this election cycle—made a rare appearance at his campaign rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday to introduce her husband.
Business Insider, A Trump rally speaker insulted Puerto Rico.
Now its most powerful stars are backing Harris
The Hill, Washington Post loses more than 200,000 subscribers over endorsement outrage
Here's a friend's recent comment on Facebook on the Post's failure to endorse a candidate, which
triggered a boycott by subscribers (Jeff Bezos now owns the paper).
My two cents on the Washington Post non-endorsement
controversy boycott. If you want to hurt journalists, cancel your Washington Post subscription. If you
want to hurt Jeff Bezos, cancel your Amazon Prime subscription or just cut back from Amazon and
Whole Foods purchases.
That’s why we’re keeping our WaPo subscription.
Election day and that evening were spent in suspense watching and waiting. Every US election has crucial stakes, but none more so than this one. Donald Trump's candidacy had made the stakes particularly high for our country and for the entire world.
We all know now that winning a US election depends on the Electoral College, not necessarily on getting the most votes. Polls were showing Harris and Trump running neck-in-neck, tied at 48%, promising a nail-biter finish. Pundits had given Trump winning odds in most swing states. He had threatened rioting by his supporters if he lost. A close (male) family member reported having voted for Trump and is now very happy with his win. The fact that I am even displaying Trump's photo here shows the reach of his attention-getting capacity. The Senate also went Republican. The gender gap can be credited for this result.
Donald Trump has always been a very impulsive, erratic guy, easily manipulated. So I'd been worried about how our country and the world might survive 4 more years if he should be reelected. However, his own incompetence and impulsivity might provide something of a check, since even his most loyal advisers would avoid carrying out some of his most impractical and wacky ideas.
Mr. Trump stumbled getting into a garbage truck for a photo-op, but that's been the least of his stumbles.
LA Times, Former President Trump stands on the verge of a series of firsts that once would have seemed unthinkable. Winning a second term as president would make the Republican nominee the first occupant of the White House to be: a convicted felon, an adjudicated sexual offender, a twice-impeached federal office holder and a serial denier of election results that have been certified by the courts and Congress.
Until just now in this election, Mr. Trump had never won support from a plurality of American voters. He once won a presidential election only because of rare quirks in the Electoral College system, a calamity unlikely to ever be repeated. But just to make sure, that antiquated system needs to be replaced by the much fairer, more traditional one-person, one-vote now being used all over the world. The Electoral College may have seemed like a good idea back when only certain white men could vote. Now it's way past time to be moving on.
"One person, one vote" had actually been upheld in previous Supreme Court rulings but then was backtracked by the present Court, whose majority was engineered by Mr. Trump himself. The anomaly of the rogue Trump minority-vote first presidency already has sufficiently disrupted our politics, leading to his seeking and winning of a second term, so time now to stop this crazy nonsense by getting back to regular majority-rule voting.
I well recall the day in 2016, when Donald Trump first became an accidental president, awarded a surprise Electoral College victory (surprising even to Trump himself), though falling almost 3 million votes short of his rival Hillary Clinton. I had been in Hillary's hometown of Chappaqua, NY, on the morning after that 2016 election. As reported on these pages at that time, I'd been invited to give a book talk there, anticipating a big celebration of the election of our first woman president. Instead, were townspeople wandering around, appearing confused and stunned. On that fateful "day after", Hillary was seen out walking very slowly, leaning heavily on husband Bill's arm.
Hillary Clinton 's home in Chappaqua.
Here's a headline showing how close our recent election really has been.
AFP, Harris, Trump barnstorm battlegrounds seeking to break deadlock
Polls show a dead heat in the race's final days, and with more than 35 million people nationwide
already casting early ballots, Americans are deciding whether to elect the country's first-ever woman
president, or its oldest commander in chief.
Joe Biden is still president today, recently apologizing to native Americans.
CBS News-- President Biden issued a formal presidential apology to Native American communities for the atrocities committed against Indigenous children and their families during a 150-year era of forced federal Indian boarding schools. The president chose to speak at the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona, although he apologized to all tribal nations for their generations of suffering.
AP, A century after Native Americans got the right to vote, they could put Trump or Harris
over the top
A friend up in Canada had this to say about indigenous rights in that country: Repatriation of the Indigenous people took place in recent years in Canada. There is now an annual week long celebration to recognise the importance of their culture across the country. A statuary holiday has also been designated in recognition of their history and to bring to light their plight and hardship which the Indian nation suffered by the hands of the 'white' man.
I trust the US will also bring to the fore such recognition. The early explorers to this continent stole the Native Indian land and murdered them in doing so.
Here's a case of delayed recognition of historical attacks against native people here in the US.
AP, US Navy apologizes for the 1882 obliteration of a Tlingit village in Alaska
A Native American celebration was held in the DC area on Nov. 3.
Wash, Post.
A friend living in eastern Canada thinks these labs are operated by Chinese nationals.
Here's the scoop:
CBS News: Canadian police dismantled what they said Thursday is the largest, most sophisticated
illicit drug "super lab" in the country, saying they had seized "a record number of illegal firearms,
synthetic drugs and precursor chemicals. "The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said they believe organized crime ran the
operation where there was mass-production and distribution of fentanyl and methamphetamine across Canada and
internationally.
Officers served search warrants last week on the drug lab in Falkland, British Columbia and associated
locations in Surrey, in Metro Vancouver. The RCMP released multiple photos of the Police said they
seized 54 kilograms of fentanyl, "massive" amounts of precursor chemicals, 390 kilograms of
methamphetamine, and smaller amounts of cocaine, MDMA and cannabis.
Neighbors react after toddler shoots herself in Prince George’s County
Again, keeping a personal firearm at home poses a much greater immediate risk to the
inhabitants than any hypothetical risk from an intruder.
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Recent Halloween displays have featured some rather spooky decorations.
Two examples came from my son in W. Va.
And here are some local Halloween decorations displayed right here in the DC area.
My daughter Stephanie and I had spent Halloween evening with a friend in Va., leaving a bowl of goodies outside for kids to take.
My visiting daughter thinks my first floor bathroom looks rather "spooky"; what do you think?
Día de los Muertos is celebrated in Mexico and also by US Hispanics on Nov. 1. By the time you read this, it will have already passed.
A friend who regularly travels to Puerta Vallarta, Mexico to offer English lessons there, just sent me some local Day of the Dead photos.
Daughter Stephanie left by train shortly before election day to visit my younger sister Betty, living with her husband and their son in Philadelphia. Steph tells me that my sister has started smoking once again after quitting a few years ago. Betty, who is 80, reasons that she is likely to die anyway in the foreseeable future, so why not enjoy smoking meanwhile? Our brother, only 15 months my junior, has already died. Betty's household remains blissfully unconnected to the internet, unbothered by spam, relying only on phone calls to their private number or old-fashioned letters, and face-to-face encounters. I advised my daughter to take her laptop to a library there to connect online.
American newborns are now in short supply.
Noah, Liam, and Oliver for boys and Olivia, Amelia, and Emma for girls have been among the most popular names for American babies in 2024, almost like being in a time warp.
My readers already know that as both a birth and an adoptive mother, I am not an abortion advocate. If their birth mothers had undergone abortions, my adopted children would simply not exist. Many famous people have resulted from accidental pregnancies, often being raised by grandparents alongside older "sisters" actually their birth mothers. Most of us were conceived by accident, not design. In fact, very few of us were deliberately conceived.
In Latin America, it's common for young single women giving birth to say they had been raped.
Male/female sex and procreation have existed ever since the first humans walked on planet earth. Otherwise, neither you nor I would exist today.
The "right to choose" includes the right to choose a sexual partner and also to decide whether to have sex or not. Abortion advocates sometimes cite cases of 12-year-olds raped by step-fathers, but very few abortions involve such a scenario.
And some women unable to obtain abortions, as cited previously on these pages, have gone on to give birth to healthy and cherished children. One young Texas woman had twin girls and married their father. There was also the case of a woman who adopted a 14-year-old who gave birth to triplets:
Because fewer babies are being born in the US now, our country actually needs even more immigrants. Donald Trump has been wrong on this. But he may be right that some folks still fear being outnumbered by immigrants. In this election year, US immigration has been way down. It needs to be increased again, even though Trump has won reelection, and forget about deportations as we really need the manpower now.
Newcomers don't stay immigrants for long. We are all descended from immigrants, even Mr. Trump himself.
US colleges have been enrolling far fewer freshmen, not only because there may actually be fewer young Americans now, but also because a college degree has lost some of its luster.
Now back to the mid-east, with war still raging there. Mr, Trump promises to stop it.
This gentle nudge is directed at war hawk Israeli leaders. A ceasefire before our election day would help boost Harris, as well as promote peace in the region. Secretary Blinken certainly deserves kudos for his very measured actions there as intermediary.
(The above comment, written some days ago, has resisted any updating. As mentioned before, this blog definitely has a mind of its own,)
For Palestinians, living amid bomb wreckage has become normal.
, US struggles to get answers on 'horrifying' Israeli strike in northern Gaza
|
DEADLINE SOON: HELP BLOCK NEXT ROUND OF WEAPONS SALES TO ISRAELI MILITARY |
The latest siege on northern Gaza is one of the most horrific moments of a series of atrocities by the Israeli government. Yet the U.S. government is continuing to fuel the very machinery of this violence: In the last year, the U.S. spent $17.9 billion on military assistance to Israel, by far the most sent to the country in one year. And now, President Biden intends on sending another $20 billion. We can help stop this: in just a couple of weeks, the Senate will be voting on several critical bills that if passed, could block these sales based on human rights and humanitarian concerns.
After our US elections, let's hope that immediate and firm US pressure will be applied to Israel at long last, leading to a ceasefire for the war in Gaza. Until that happens, too many people there will have been injured or killed. |
In another world hotspot,
North Korean troops have been congregating in Russia, 10,000 so far near the border with Ukraine. Why? What does that mean? It can't be good.
After my own humanitarian missions to some 39 or 40 countries (depending on how "country" is defined), any news regarding, say, Haiti, Nicaragua, Poland, Romania, South Sudan, or Thailand has special resonance for me today. I can well imagine being back there even now, as in the flood disaster in Valencia, Spain.
A good friend and former neighbor with whom I'd worked on Honduras projects, Eileen Blumenthal, has died in California at age 95. We shared the all too common experience of being left behind by our husbands after decades of marriage and children, and after having helped our husbands achieve considerable success. Despite these personal setbacks, we then both launched fruitful new independent ventures and closely collaborated with each other. I sometimes joined fundraising events at Eileen's home and once even traveled with her to Honduras, using my Spanish fluency and familiarity with the country to promote projects there. I remember her fondly and salute her many post-
divorce accomplishments. Her 3 daughters can be rightly proud of her legacy.
High-profile divorces may take place after many years of marriage. Melinda and Bill Gates divorced after 27 years. For Jeff and Mackenzie Bezos, it was after 25 years. In my case, after 24 years, my late ex-husband went to Las Vegas to divorce me and marry his much younger girlfriend, with both events being held
on Mother's Day. My older daughter had been invited to tag along, so she missed spending that special day with me.
A major difference between my experience and that of other wives abandoned by their husbands after many years of marriage is that my own husband was totally blind, so my vital practical assistance was a daily endeavor, going far beyond the moral support that many wives offer their husbands. My ex had never held a job before we married. I helped him get his first job.
During all the years we were together, I did all the driving, all the shopping, dropping the kids off at school, and even taking my husband to work, while also holding down a part-time job myself. I even chose my husband's daily wardrobe. He would never have gotten where he did without me, that's simply a fact. His second wife took up where I left off, some 24 years later, after I had already done the groundwork that had helped propel him to prominence. She then reaped the financial rewards, including from a MacArthur Fellowship, while I had to go to court to even get child support. But when he divorced me, I absolutely refused to accept any alimony whatsoever. I didn't want to be beholden to my ex in any way. He spoke with me only once after leaving, making a surprise phone call about a Washington Post article regarding my volunteer work with Cuban former political prisoners. After that, he never spoke with me again. My late ex was very smart and creative, but being blind was obviously a serious handicap. I've already mentioned that his second wife omitted any reference to me in his obituary and looked shocked when I showed up uninvited to his funeral, together with our kids.
More news and notes
First for a bit of trivia, the largest known prime number is 2 136,279,841 -1, having 41,024,320 decimal digits.
May we all live to a ripe old age, leaving this world a little better than when we entered it.
Notably, despite the rigors of child-bearing and child-rearing, and the pervasive discrimination against
women, super-agers are typically female. Elizabeth Francis is another long-lived American who
left us just recently.
GMA, Elizabeth Francis, oldest living person in US, dies at 115
Apnews.com, Naomi Whitehead becomes oldest living person in US after previous record-holder dies at 115.
Whitehead, age 114, meets with her grandson.
France's Jeanne Calment lived to age 122, a record not yet broken, shown here at a much younger age.
The world's oldest man, Japan' Jiroemon Kimura, died at 116 in 2013.
Here's someone who never made it to old age.
Italian Giulia Manfriri died in Indonesia while out surfing after a swordfish pierced her in the chest. What are the odds? The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art has announced “An Epic of Kings: The Great Mongol Shahnama,” an exhibition of the first imperial copy of Iran’s national epic, Firdawsi’s “Book of Kings", a manuscript nearly 700 years old, on view now until Jan. 12, 2025. 
Sister parrots that had escaped a London zoo were found together some 60 miles away.
And then in Egypt--
It's too soon to plant a vegetable garden here in DC, but the growing season starts earlier every year.
My home is filled with colorful Haitian art, but few Haitians are still making art these days.
Sin vergüenza. Sin culpa. Un solo objetivo.
This notice is one of many I've received in Spanish. Can you guess what it refers to?
Hint: it involves diabetes management.
St. Jude, Tu generosidad da a niños la esperanza de un futuro mejor.
Comencemos.¿Qué dispositivo traerás? (This ad is from Verizon.)
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