Not dead yet

 My son Jonathan, who once suffered a serious head injury from which he has never fully recovered, finds soaking in the hot springs baths in our town improves both his mental and physical health. My older son and Cuban foster both died young, so now I don't allow any other younger family member to die before me, requiring you all to take very good care of yourselves. At present, none of my kids or grandkids smokes or drinks alcohol and son Jon is making a valiant effort to lose weight. So folks, just keep on observing all those healthy habits and may you all live a long and happy life.

I have no idea how many years I myself might still have left, but I'm still here right now, not dead yet. US average female life expectancy is 78, so I'm already past that point now at age 87. Dad died at 82, Mom was 92, so I could die tomorrow or even last for several more years. No one really knows how long each will live or how long they might remain in moderate good health. So my son Jon, with whom I live now, needs to take very good care of himself and is benefiting from an almost daily plunge in our town's own hot springs baths. 

Wash. Post, Historic peace vigil partially dismantled after Trump orders: ‘Take it down’

Law enforcement officials on Sunday dismantled a peace vigil that had stood in front of the White House for more than four decades, after orders had been issued by Donald Trump two days earlier.

Wash. Post, ICE launches ‘Operation Midway Blitz’ targeting immigrants in Chicago

The Department of Homeland Security said it launched the operation as part of the administration’s effort to target “sanctuary cities.” Immigrant advocates said several people in heavily Hispanic communities have already been detained.

"CNN Data Guru Says Trump Is Underwater on All Major Issues" https://www.thedailybeast.com//cnn-data-guru-harry-enten-shows-trump-is-polling-negatively-on-all-major-issues/?via=ios

E. Jean Carroll is back in court, but Donald Trump still wants to shut her up. 

Wash. Post, Appeals court denies Trump effort to toss $83 million judgment in E. Jean Carroll case 

The writer had accused Donald Trump in 2019 of sexually assaulting her two decades earlier. The judges also dismissed Trump’s efforts to appeal the case by invoking presidential immunity.

                    Trump denies making the following drawing which bears his signature. 

            Wash. Post, Outrage, confusion in South Korea after Georgia immigration raid

                                        South Korea is a major US ally.

Supreme Court upholds 'roving patrols' for immigration arrests in Los Angeles

(A very unfortunate decision.) 

Wash. Post. Supreme Court lifts limits on immigration raids in the Los Angeles area

The raids sparked major protests in Southern California. President Donald Trump deployed troops from the California National Guard and Marines in response.

(Another major victory here for Trump. Of course, he had named three of the court's justices.)

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A teenage computer whiz who died at age 15 was declared as the Catholic church’s first millennial saint during an open-air mass in a packed St Peter’s Square. He was Carlo Acutis, a London-born Italian teenager who died of leukemia in 2006 and was named a saint by Pope Leo XIV in a mass in St. Peter's Square on September 7, 2025, Young Carlo often used digital media to promote Catholic devotion.

Is Israel now committing genocide in Gaza? Here's a discussion of that question by Communitas, a liberal  Catholic group whose services I used to attend on Capitol Hill back in Washington,  DC, communitasdc@googlegroups.com

The posting below is the reaction of one Communitas member to a position previously expressed by another member: 

Edward McCarthy <ecmccar@gmail.com>: Sep 07 
Here is my reaction to an apologia in defense of charges of genocide against
Israel. 

Peter Beinart, Orthodox Jew and a Mensch among Menschen, has made
the point that for some Jews, especially apologists in Jewish Establishment
groups, Israel and Jews must ever be the victims, never the perpetrators.
Beinart's view is relevant here.
In retrospect, I might have emphasized more the problem the writer has in
arguing for the Israelis conducting a defensive war. All one has to do is
look at the total devastation in Gaza to see what a difficult case that is
to make.
 
 
THE FORWARD is a storied American Jewish newspaper, today on line, but with
a history going back more than a century. It publishes a range of stories
and opinions concerning the Jewish community including, of course, regular
features about Israel and Palestine.
 
On September 3, I noted three items in particular. One was about
starvation in Gaza, written by a columnist agonized by what he had seen and
read about. Another was by an Israeli scholar of genocide who had,
reluctantly, concluded that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza. A third
was by Sara E. Brown, Ph.D, a Holocaust and Genocide Studies scholar and
Director of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) office in San Diego. She
is also a member of the International Society of Genocide Scholars, but
takes vigorous exception to the finding by more than 100 Members of that
500-member body that Israel’s actions in Gaza fit the legal definition of genocide. 

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Speaking here now as myself, Barbara, as with so many other issues, thus there is no consensus about Israel's possible participitation a genocide. My own position [as Barbara] is that Israel had a right to retaliate against the initial Oct. attack and to defend against another. But I would question the right of Euorpean Jews to have moved into the area in the first place and to have taken over Palestinian lands to create a Jewish state. The Holocaust was a horror created by German Nazis, not by Palestinians. I have befriended and supported many Palestinain refugees in the US, ever since Israel first came into being in 1948. Mine has has never been a popular stance here in our own country, which has always favored Israel and the Israelis. 

Here was a sign I'd posted in my front yard in DC right after October 7, 2023, but there is still no full ceasefire. 

 

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Featured below is a senior dwelling that can be plunked down as-is right on a property. Then when Grandma passes away, it might be taken elsewhere for another senior to occupy. However, Google (here below) states that the little house may also be assembled on a permanent foundation, though the one pictured here doesn't look like it has or even needs a foundation.

According to Google: Modular homes are houses built in sections, or "modules," in a climate-controlled factory before being transported to a building site and assembled on a permanent foundation. They are a cost-effective, environmentally friendly, and customizable alternative to traditional construction.

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Remember the story of the scorpion stinging the frog carrying it to the other side of the river, so then they both drowned? Is that what's happening now with Trump's deportations? All sides are losing.