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The last blog came out all topsy-turvy, very hard to straighten out, so here's hoping things go more smoothly this time. My visceral distress over Trump's election victory probably has affected me, even when posting here, but I've now finally come to accept that he is going to be our next president, supported by an actual majority of voters this time, not a big majority, like Hillary had in losing, but majority nonetheless. Americans have voted for Donald Trump, so we all must live with the consequences, which may actually have some beneficial aspects, at least at first.
But I always count on this venue for expressing my thoughts at a particular point in time, later looking back to see whether my viewpoint became altered by what happened next.
I spent the holiday in Berkeley Springs, W. Va., with my son. On the road on the Monday before Thanksgiving, we experienced a long delay because of an accident involving a car turned up side down with ambulances and tow trucks in evidence.
Rather than stay alone out at his house in the woods, where deer coming up on the porch and my son's pet dog were my only companions, I often went with my son to the main CoolFont lodge when he was on duty there. I enjoyed chatting with people at the lodge entry. I often sat there warming my hands next to a glass-enclosed fire. Many guests stopped by the fire that brightened the area. I saw the resort's owner frequently come in to play on his own slot machines. Several times, I chatted with a hotel guest carrying around his 5 1/2 month old daughter, a very responsive and alert baby, smiling and cooing for strangers even at her young age. A friend from the DC area also met us for dinner on Thanksgiving Day
Back home again, neighborhood foliage has already begun changing colors.
Are tree colors in our DC neighborhood for real? Yes, apparently so.
Cuban-born Jose, who lived with me when he first came to DC, now works at the Library of Congress. We exchanged greetings in Spanish.
And here is a photo from friends in Honduras. Sometimes I really wish I were back there right now.
Holidays greetings came from some other friends I met in Honduras who are now living in Massachusetts with their 2 daughters. The husband was
a Peace Corps volunteer with me and his wife was a local doctor there. Now she works as a medical assistant in New Hampshire and Massachusetts,
Thanks to the influence of Elon Musk, Bitcoin has been soaring.
Opinion
New Republic, Trump Is Pissed at True Reports His Victory Wasn’t Exactly a Landslide
It’s no surprise that Trump and his team are fuming: Since November 5, Trump’s margin of victory has narrowed
considerably..
Trump only won against Vice President Kamala Harris by 1.6 points, and failed to secure
more than 50 percent of the popular vote. Hillary Clinton managed to beat Trump by a larger margin in
2016 when she supposedly lost than Trump did over Harris in 2024.
Wash. Post, Gaetz withdraws as attorney general nominee
Neither he nor Trump wanted any more dirty laundry being aired.
New Republic, Opinion
It’s Official: Trump Gets Off Scot-Free Despite 34 Felony Convictions
Trump team warns Republicans to support Cabinet picks or face primary funded by Musk
A few more of my comments on current news items are in order.
Donald Trump. even this time when he actually got a few more votes than Kamala Harris, didn't quite get the landslide election that he has claimed, not even reaching 50%. Hillary got that and more in 2017, but thanks to the quirks of the Electoral College, she was declared the loser. Of course, her final vote tally was also a repudiation of Mr. Trump.
In our country's early days, ordinary communication and transportation were slow and uncertain, so relying on the Electoral College--a tedious tally state-by-state--may have made sense. But more than 200 years later, these days with instant communication and reporting, it's time to move on to one-person, one-vote. How to do that when Republicans are so tightly clinging to their advantage now to stay in command is the challenge. Republicans control all the major branches of government, but are not actually representing the will of the majority of the electorate. Is this the proper way to run the world's reputably biggest democracy? It's very hard to get out of the box created by the old outdated system.
Slashing the bureaucracy, reducing taxes, and cutting federal spending, as Trump has announced, all sound great until your own job and benefits are cut. Effects of any massive budget cuts would be felt all the way down to the local level. There would great resistance, even from folks in red states. As for deportations, what about families with foreign-born members like, for example, Trump's own family? And what about Elon Musk, who wasn't even born here? A family member who had voted for Trump was surprised to hear that Musk was not native-born.
A woman carrying a child boards a deportation flight. The US economy is a huge intricate, interlocking system that has evolved slowly over generations. Incremental tweaks are possible but not a complete overhaul in just 4 years without risking a major catastrophe. Let's see what happens at the mid-terms, only 2 years away, and whether the enthusiasm for Trumpism will have cooled down by then.
A number of American women are angry now about Kamala Harris's defeat and the ascendance of misogynist Donald Trump. Some are joining the 4B movement, which has gained popularity in South Korea, urging women to abstain from sex, dating, marriage, and having children with men.
There has been a definite gender divide in the recent US vote, with Harris actually having an advantage among women, winning their support 53% to Trump’s 46%.
And let's not forget that Vice President-elect Vance's wife is the daughter of immigrants.
Adults are still out touting their childfree lifestyle, forgetting that they themselves were once actually fetuses, newborns, babies, and young kids, while also failing to acknowledge that they will probably rely on other people's children in old age.
Now, after a pause or two, the mid-east war rages on..
Wash. Post, Israel, U.S. condemn ICC arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant; other nations signal support
I've considered Netanyahu to be a war criminal for more than a year now. A ceasefire sign has been displayed in my front yard all that time.
North Korea's leader is supported by his allies.
Spain, like many countries, welcomes migrants to help support an aging population. If folks don't want to have babies, they should be admitting more migrants.
What would we do without problems and obstacles? Even royalty with servants at every their beck and call need challenges. There was an old adage I learned to appreciate when working at the Occupational Therapy Association, namely that humans (and many animals) seek out "purposeful activity," those tasks required to achieve desired goals; that is, desired subjectivity speaking. Primates in zoos are given challenges to keep them from getting bored, for example, figuring out how to get tasty treats out of hollow tubes. (And that's why your dog likes to fetch a tossed ball.)
But we also need to take time out to relax and just smell the flowers.
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