News from near and far

Where to start out today? So much is happening all the time--every second, every minute, every hour--all over the world and also right here where I live now in rural West Va. Where to start? 

Viewing my empty house back in DC on-line via a virtual tour of all 3 floors, I mused, "That looks like a really great house, quite historic, built in 1895, a house that I might actually like to own, though rather too large for me with its many rooms and bathrooms." In fact, I do still actually own that very house, but can no longer afford to live there given the cost of taxes, upkeep, utilities, and repairs. Now I live in a very much smaller, brandnew one-story home in W. Va. with 2 bathrooms, 2 bedrooms, and an office, a very compact little place now shared with my son Jon and his dog Willow. This new house is located on a small hill apart from other neighbors, far from those good neighbors I had on DC's Capitol Hill. Back there, I liked standing outside on my front porch to greet everyone going by. I don't know any neighbors here in W Va. Nor, at age 87, am I steady enough on my feet to walk down the hill to the nearest house to knock on the front door, confronting 2 fiercely barking dogs always guarding outside. 

Daughter Melanie sent this message: Good Morning Mom, I love you!  Please invite me one day to see you, altho I won't stay at your house, I will stay at a hotel and you can stay with me. Sally Wilson, 89, lived on 7th & A St SE...she passed away last week.  I'm very sad and have reached out to her son who cared for her for the past 12 yrs.  (We have been in touch now for years). She also had dementia, but old age was her cause of death. Andrew and I were friends with her son's, Kevin and Michael, I have a picture of them on our front porch when house was black and white.  Michael actually lost his house in the CA wildfires, he's a lawyer in California. Good Morning Mom, I love you!  Please invite me one day to see you, altho I won't stay at your house, I will stay at a hotel and you can stay with me.

Sally Wilson, 89, lived on 7th & A St SE...she passed away last week.  I'm very sad and have reached out to her son who cared for her for the past 12 yrs.  (We have been in touch for years). She also had dementia, but old age was her cause of death. Andrew and I were friends with her son's, Kevin and Michael, I have a picture of them on our front porch when house was black and white.  Michael actually lost his house in the CA wildfires, he's a lawyer in California.  

I love you!!! Please write me back. 

I told daughter Melanie: "I tried to get additional money

to help you and the other kids, but have been unable to do so because of buying a house in W V. before 

selling my DC house. I am not working anymore at age 87 and really don't have enough income to 

support even one house, muchless 2 !" 

So I had to take out a loan for the W Va. house, meaning there can be no more help from me this year.

Sister Steph sent you that small amount for your transportation from her own money, 

although her prospects for returning to federal service are still uncertain. We all need to economize in

 this recession--thanks or no thanks to Trump and Musk. 

My financial adviser at Merrill tells me:

We have utilized your RMD to cover your moving expenses, house expenses and settlement costs. So, there is no additional money for gifts to your 

family members currently. We indeed had to take out a short-term bridge loan to purchase your home in West VA. When your house sells in DC 

we will pay back your loan. We are not able to raise additional money now. 

Yes, I am paying 4% interest on that bridge loan.

Wash. Post, White House officials wanted to put federal workers ‘in trauma.’ It’s working.

I wish I coud still go out to work myself. Just look around now at all the Help Wanted ads in Washington, DC, 

and in all the towns between there and my new home in West Virginia. 

LOOKING FOR A JOB?

So we really do need the working age demographic mostly trying to enter our country now. Here in W. Va., whenever I go out with my son, I see only grey-haired folks like me out shopping while Help Wanted signs are posted everywhere. 

The answer is simply to relax border enforcement. Since the US government doesn't have the administrative capacity to process and evaluate each individual seeking entry to this country, the strict border closure has to stop. Let's just take our chances, welcoming the mostly good guys while also allowing the few bad ones to slip through. And who can accurately predict anyone's future actions anyway? Those coming in illegally will be especially careful not to call attention to themselves by committing offenses. Accepting more immgrants is a matter of odds and priorities. We are just not producing enough home-grown workers here--not nearly enough. We dare not open the floodgates, but simply need to let up on so obsessively guarding our borders. 

Elsewhere in the world:

Israel has been relentlessly killing women, children, and other civilians, as if to enact a genocide on Gaza, without any evident concern comimg from the US. Is this Israeli revenge for the Holocaust? Palestinians were not at fault then.

Wash. Post, Israel says ‘extensive’ ground operations underway in Gaza Strip as airstrikes kill about 100 The Israeli military said the new offensive would include dividing up the enclave and pushing the population out of areas in which it operates.

People, 2-Year-Old Boy Falls 15 Stories from Apartment Building, but Is 'Expected to Survive,' Police Say

Medical staff at a local hospital said the child sustained “a broken leg and multiple internal injuries. " [This happened in Maryland.]

Let's post this right away now, even though not much time has elasped since the last posting, as every time I open the draft blog, some parts have disappeared. Is there a nasty virus doing that or what?