Apologies to readers for what appeared to be a very screwed-up previous blog with overlapping postings. I have no idea how or why that happened. Only the inscrutable blog deities really know.
I've checked again just now and it seems to be OK again, but will it stay that way? The blog apparently moves back and forth, sometimes with the usual linear display, other times with overlapping postings. Or is that just a fluke of my particular computer system? Apparently, the blog comes out just fine for most readers. I certainly hope so. The problem may be only with my computer.
Here below are some recent vistas of Berkeley Springs, where I live now with my son.
Berkeley Springs, formally named Bath, is a town in Morgan County, West Virginia, and is the county
seat. The population was 758 in the 2020 census.
After that, West Virginia actually lost more than 500 residents between 2023 and 2024 according to Census data, one of only three states to lose population. Vermont and Mississippi are the others – and of those, West Virginia lost the most.
After that, West Virginia actually lost more than 500 residents between 2023 and 2024 according to Census data, one of only three states to lose population. Vermont and Mississippi are the others – and of those, West Virginia lost the most.
So West Virginia might be glad that I've moved here now, though it actually doesn't need any more elderly single women like me, who are already a growing part of the state's population. Younger people are simply not moving to West Virginia, at least not very many. And even more young people born here have been moving away.
The other day, while having my hair washed and trimmed at a local beauty parlor, 10-year-old twin
girls, both able to actually sit on their own long beautiful hair, arrived for their very first haircut. It was cut to about to about shoulder blade length. Their mother told me that she had planned to have only 2 children, so when they'd been born together, then she decided she was finished.
Teisha, my granddaughter Natasha's step-sister, came here from northern Va. today for a visit. Here is Natasha herself with her son De'Andre, age 17, a high school senior.
And here is Donald J. Trump, now age 79.
At age 87 myself and facing 3 1/2 more years of living under a Trump presidency, I wonder if I will actually survive to see that man gone from office? I certainly hope so; then I can die happy. Trump may have had a difficult childhood, perhaps never getting enough love. Or maybe the Donald's erratic and seemingly vindictive behavior follows a regular family pattern of late-life decline. Whatever the reason, all of us are now being affected. It may hard for someone with dementia to even be aware of their own deficiencies. Trump himself may just consider his current pronouncements and erratic actions to actually be quite reasonable and totally correct. Or he may not actually remember what he just said or did. It's an unfortunate situation for him, for us, and, in fact, even for the whole world.
According to NIH: "As dementia progresses, the ability to recognize and understand one's condition can diminish. This is due to the disease affecting regions of the brain responsible for self-awareness and insight."
People, Donald Trump's Nephew Recalls Grandpa's Dementia Symptoms as He
Warns of Former President's 'Decline' (Exclusive) "I see it in parallel with the way my grandfather's decline was," Fred Trump says of Donald's recent behavior. "If anyone wants to believe that dementia did not run in the Trump family, it's just not true."
Meanwhile, whether he actually has dementia or not, Trump has been acting like a dictator. He is now trying to revive the death penalty in states where it has already been abolished. And he is pursuing vendettas against various identified or imagined enemies.
The Latest: FBI searches home of ex-Trump national security adviser John Bolton, AP source says
Was this early morning raid deliberate payback for former insider Bolton's book critical of Trump and
his current administration? It sure looks that way.
Why else would Bolton's home actually have been targeted now?
FBI agents carried boxes into Bolton's home to "collect evidence." (Evidence of what?)
The FBI director declared, "No one is above the law." Commenting on the raid, Trump called
Bolton "a lowlife." Bolton had written a book that Trump really didn't like. The book is now a
best-seller: The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir.
In an overnight social media post, Trump made further comments regarding Washington, DC,
saying that he is considering “a complete and total Federal takeover of the City!” Then he has
his sights set on taking over Chicago next.
Other Democratic-led cities may follow.
Unless there is strong push-back, a president who was never elected by a majority of American
voters will keep acting like a dictator.
The Latest: Trump plans crime crackdown in Chicago similar to DC
As dictator-in-chief, M. Trump apparently seeks to punish "Democrat" cities whose residents didn't
vote for him.
Trump administration is reviewing 55 million people with US visas for violations | AP News https://apnews.com/article/
This will give Trump's people something to keep them busy. Of course, if someone is looking for trouble, they are likely to find it.
Trump administration for now can end deportation protections for thousands from Honduras, Nepal and Nicaragua, court says - CBS News https://www.cbsnews.com/news/
The Trump administration will now try to deport folks doing jobs that our country really needs to get done, even though no one else is available to do those jobs. This is particularly true in agriculture. Why do you think those people are even here now, working daily in heat and rain right out there in the open fields?
Pentagon asks civilian employees to join ‘volunteer force’ to aid Ice deportations
Some folks may enjoy being cruel and feeling superior to others. They can always tell
themselves that they
are simply doing their duty, just doing what our president has called on them to do.
NY Times, Immigrant Population in U.S. Drops for the First Time in Decades
Nothing is particularly surprising here, as moving people out of the country is the exact purpose of deportations. Even in a nation established by immigrants, it looks like those already here don't want any more immigrants coming in. No workable system for screening and admitting immigrants has ever been established, not in the US, and not in Europe either.
My own son, adopted from Colombia as a baby, like some other immigrants, opposes admitting any more folks from other countries. He also tells me that he voted for Trump.
Parents of missing 7-month-old baby Emmanuel Haro are arrested on suspicion of murder
The child's mother stopped cooperating with investigators earlier this week and the father has a past child cruelty conviction.
Children can certainly become burdensome for their parents, especially when they are still
infants needing constant care. Elders may also become a burden for their children or others after
losing their ability to care for themselves. None of us is ever completely independent, not even a
hermit living alone inside a cave.
Readers already know that I've never been a supporter of "abortion rights," as I consider the rights of
2 persons to be involved.
I have always supported the right to go on living for any human at any stage of development
from conception to natural death, even of a fetus in the womb, even of someone who may have
actually killed someone else. Caring for a small child can certainly prove inconvenient or burdensome,
especially for folks who've conceived a child they never really wanted. They had engaged in sex for
pleasure, not to have a child, although sexual pleasure has evolved for procreative purposes. Still,
parents are not allowed to kill an inconvenient or unwanted child, though sometimes they do.
Baby Emmanuel may not have been actually been killed by a parent, though that appears quite likely.
If so, he lost his right to go on living. I would feel the same way if he had been killed in the womb.
In either case, I would support his right to life. Taking away his life a few months earlier would not
have exonerated his parents in my opinion. So, yes, I do oppose abortion, which many consider a
"right," at least for a woman who finds herself unhappily pregnant, whereas I consider the rights
of 2 individuals to actually be involved.
And now, unlike perhaps in some earlier times, the world actually needs to keep more human beings
alive and thriving, yes all the way from conception to final death.
Even animals are not allowed to be treated in ways actually considered cruel, although that
depends on the animal and the situation. The hunting and killing of wild animals is allowed, the
same goes for killing rodents and insects.
Nonetheless, Wash. Post, Wyoming man accused of parading injured wolf at bar charged
So where is the line? That line is always changing, always subject to debate.
For many Israelis killing, injuring, and starving Palestinian civilians--including
non-combatant women, children, and the elderly-- then driving them off their own ancestral lands,
is a God-given right, as didn't God actually promise that Judea was for Jews?
Just look at the Old Testament.
Israel's defense minister says Gaza City could be destroyed as Israeli strikes kill 17
Palestinians
Wash. Post, Famine confirmed in Gaza City region, global hunger monitor says
Subjecting civilians to famine is now considered a war crime. Israel should be sanctioned immediately,
despite whatever the Bible once said about Judea.
Now living here in West Virginia, I often walk outside when home alone while my son is working
late at CoolFont Resort, sometimes even going after dusk with our dog to explore what's
happening out in nature.
Just beyond our screened-in porch, deer, wild geese, ducks, and rabbits often appear, driving the dog
crazy if she is outside with me. Of course, whenever she chases any wild creature, it quickly
disappears. When I go out alone, I just sit quietly to look and listen.
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