Please excuse the delay in this blog posting, which has gotten rather long as a result. I've been reluctant to post it, fearing that it might disappear once again. So, yes, it covers a wide range of topics. Hope you find something of interest here.
Several days ago, a friend had sent a link to a Reuters article, but when I posted that link on my blog, my last couple of posts just vanished--poof! That was quite a shock! She then asked: "have u given up on blogging? ! hope not." Actually, the link she had sent was the reason for my delay,
There are apps that automatically delete emails, so that may have been one of them. My friend was apparently not affected herself. So now I must start all over with a substantial gap in the news. Will that even matter? Probably not; the distance of time makes current headlines fade into insignificance. Nothing is as important as the here and now--inexorably moving right along whether or not we actually document it. But I am still hesitant now to even make this post. (If you see it here, then I took a very deep breath and finally successfully posted it.)
Here I am, munching on popcorn by the computer.
Below, I admire a gift of
tomatoes fresh from a neighbor's garden.
We always pass by this house when crossing over the nascent Potomac River on our way to a town in neighboring Maryland. That town is also named Potomac.
As midnight September 30 recently approached, the question was: would the government actually be shutting down? Neither side seemed willing to budge, so the shutdown actually did occur. Of course, eventually someone would have to yield, since nothing can operate in the modern day without funding. Ours is not a barter economy, though some bartering, some sort of quid pro quo, is always going on.
US government faces brain drain as 154,000 federal workers exit this week | Reuters https://www.reuters.com/legal/
One of my daughters, a federal worker in Hawaii, has been one of those not working right now.
==================
Here's an announcement from the Peace Corps, still in service today, despite many recent challenges.
My own Peace Corps experience not only proved meaningful in its own right, but gave me a lifelong commitment to Honduras, my assigned Peace Corps country, while also helping bring me out of a deep depression after the untimely consecutive deaths of my older son and Cuban foster son.
Here was Trump embracing Charlie Kirk's widow after her husband was assassinated. The couple had 2 children. The family had been featured in one of my lost postings. Trump seized on Kirk's death to propel his own agenda.
TIME: Trump Calls Climate Change ‘Con Job’ and ‘Scam’ in Speech to U.N. General Assembly
As Trump seeks death penalty in DC, Bondi says administration also wants it across the country
Wash. Post, In 2017, Trump asked for Comey’s loyalty. Comey said he would give him ‘honesty.’
Attorney General Bondi and prosecutors have reservations over charging James Comey,
sources say
Donald Trump has often asked publicly for a criminal prosecution of former FBI Director Comey as
payback for when Comey was investigating Russian election interference, possibly involving Trump.
President Trump now declares: "Comey is a bad person. He's a sick person. I think he's a sick guy,
actually. He did terrible things at the FBI."
News outlets and political commentators have characterized the current push to prosecute Comey as an
act of political retribution. They point to the timing of the indictment, the lack of prosecutorial support
for the case, and Trump's overt public demands for the prosecution. Additionally, the "terrible things"
that Comey is accused of doing have never been specified.
Trump Rails Against Another FBI Director
This one is Christopher Wray, whom he had named to replace Comey.
Wash. Post, 76 percent of Americans say Trump does not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize
I include myself among that 76%. Many of those polled actually had voted for Trump.
Silly dancing statues of Trump & Epstein holding hands are now gone from the DC mall, just one day after their surprise appearance. Trump probably demanded their immediate removal. (Donald, can't you take a joke?)
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren posted a video message to X, after the government shutdown, calling Republicans in Congress "spineless."
======================================================================
Wash. Post, Trump says he won’t allow Israel to annex the West Bank
Trump's support of Netanyahu apparently has limits.
In a speech, Israeli prime minister Netanyahu mentioned Israel's plans to annex the West Bank, but Trump declared that simply is not going to happen so let's hope he sticks with his word. At least on this, I would support Mr. Trump.
When Israel first took over Palestinian lands in 1948, I personally befriended and assisted a number of Palestinian exiles who had been displaced. The holocaust was not of their doing, but Palestinians have borne the brunt of punishing attacks from Israel ever since.
agree that he is definitely a war criminal.
(CNN) — A growing number of countries are pledging to recognize a Palestinian state, with more
than 145 nations now joining the call for international recognition.
New Zealand says it will not recognise Palestinian state at this time
NY Times, A Flotilla of Aid and Activists Is Approaching Gaza
Will it actually arrive and be able to dispense aid?
Repeated below is a long post from Communitas, a lay Catholic website, so make of it what you will, You may have to put on your reading glasses, as the font size has been reduced to save space.
The 21-point plan, concerning which no Palestinian had anything to say.
That is not new, and maybe that is a significant reason why there has never
been Israeli-Palestinian peace. Except that a greater reason is that
successive Israeli Governments have never been interested in any settlement
by which they did not have total control over the Palestinians in
perpetuity, or had seen the buik of Palestinians off into exile.
What has motivated this plan, which in many respects is not all that novel,
since it has several elements from Biden-era peace efforts? One factor
certainly is our Dear Leader’s lust after a Nobel Peace Prize which I would
gladly give him if it ended the horrors we have witnessed, and even though
his grotesque behavior surely must make the Nobel committee members shudder
at the thought of going near the man.
With regard to Mr. Netanyahu and his thuggish Cabinet, I find significance
in the view of Daniel Pipes, founder and head of the Middle East Forum, a
pro-Israeli think tank and advocacy group whose usual emphasis is
Islamophobic assaults on pro-Palestinian academics, Iran or other groups
not unambiguously convinced of Israel’s legitimacy and moral probity.
During an interview with a fawning journalist, Pipes said that Israel needs
to abandon its Gaza campaign no matter what the failures to achieve its
goals might be. The cost to Israel’s international reputation is simply
too high. In this, Pipes echoes the assessment of former right wing
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who has called his Country a “Leper
State,” i.e., a pariah on the world stage, and with polls even in the US
showing sympathy for the Palestinians greater than for Israel. With
characters like Pipes and Bennett jumping ship, Bibi for all his bluster
needs out.
Hamas, which certainly is homicidal but not demonstrably suicidal, may of
course leave Netanyahu without an out, at least in the short run, by
rejecting the 21-point deal on any number of grounds which would be seen as
reasonable except that Hamas having been adjudged to be a terrorist
organization and menace to all of Civilization, any Hamas rebuff will be
seen as unjustified, in which case the IDF will go on with making a desert
of Gaza City and calling it…Peace?
How dismal. How familiar. But there is more going on. To read about the
speechifying by Trump and Hegseth at Quantico is to wonder from what planet
they and their gang descended. In our day and age, the spectacle of Our
Foremost Military Malingerer, Commander-in-Chief Bonespur, delivering his
opinions to men of better character is in a chutzpah category all its own
Did the assembled (at outlandish expense) 1 to 4 Stars need to be told to
stay in shape and be reminded that they have been hired on to fight wars?
I suppose the Leaders were lucky the SecDef didn’t command them to get down
and give him 50 or so pushups on the spot.
Nor did I know that beards in the Military were a problem, let alone one
that could not be dealt with by other than face to face communication.
This particular obsession also seems a bit at odds with the core Trumplican
fantasy nostalgic for the late 19th century of Robber Barons, an emergent
American Empire, gunboat diplomacy, no unions or meddling bureaucrats–and
lots of beards, in and out of the Military. Can’t beat US Grant for
warfighting and bloodletting, and neither he nor Bobby Lee were clean
shaven.
I tell you what: Don and Pete may like to call DOD the Department of War
(which by the way I think is historically bassackwards; it was until 1947
the War Department) but Congress would have to formally approve the
change. Maybe not right after this diatribe, but soon, I will urge my
Senators to gin up a filibuster to thwart the change. Please join me in
throwing the monkey wrench.
And then there is tne plan to save the coal industry, the theme being
“Mine, Baby, Mine” and the planet be damned. And tonight the shutdown,
meaning I suppose my son gets to stay home and not get paid for a while,
but keeps his job, an assumption I am making because he has more than 40
years with the Department of the Army, and the War departments being
presumably immune from the layoffs threatened by the fanatic who heads OMB.
Ought I to disquisite about Portland and Chicago as “training grounds” for
the troops? No, I don’t think so. All we can hope is that what Don and
Petey have in mind is more and better policing up of the streets and
parks. Nothing about fields of fire or bayonets, thank you.
successive Israeli Governments have never been interested in any settlement
by which they did not have total control over the Palestinians in
perpetuity, or had seen the buik of Palestinians off into exile.
What has motivated this plan, which in many respects is not all that novel,
since it has several elements from Biden-era peace efforts? One factor
certainly is our Dear Leader’s lust after a Nobel Peace Prize which I would
gladly give him if it ended the horrors we have witnessed, and even though
his grotesque behavior surely must make the Nobel committee members shudder
at the thought of going near the man.
With regard to Mr. Netanyahu and his thuggish Cabinet, I find significance
in the view of Daniel Pipes, founder and head of the Middle East Forum, a
pro-Israeli think tank and advocacy group whose usual emphasis is
Islamophobic assaults on pro-Palestinian academics, Iran or other groups
not unambiguously convinced of Israel’s legitimacy and moral probity.
During an interview with a fawning journalist, Pipes said that Israel needs
to abandon its Gaza campaign no matter what the failures to achieve its
goals might be. The cost to Israel’s international reputation is simply
too high. In this, Pipes echoes the assessment of former right wing
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who has called his Country a “Leper
State,” i.e., a pariah on the world stage, and with polls even in the US
showing sympathy for the Palestinians greater than for Israel. With
characters like Pipes and Bennett jumping ship, Bibi for all his bluster
needs out.
Hamas, which certainly is homicidal but not demonstrably suicidal, may of
course leave Netanyahu without an out, at least in the short run, by
rejecting the 21-point deal on any number of grounds which would be seen as
reasonable except that Hamas having been adjudged to be a terrorist
organization and menace to all of Civilization, any Hamas rebuff will be
seen as unjustified, in which case the IDF will go on with making a desert
of Gaza City and calling it…Peace?
How dismal. How familiar. But there is more going on. To read about the
speechifying by Trump and Hegseth at Quantico is to wonder from what planet
they and their gang descended. In our day and age, the spectacle of Our
Foremost Military Malingerer, Commander-in-Chief Bonespur, delivering his
opinions to men of better character is in a chutzpah category all its own
Did the assembled (at outlandish expense) 1 to 4 Stars need to be told to
stay in shape and be reminded that they have been hired on to fight wars?
I suppose the Leaders were lucky the SecDef didn’t command them to get down
and give him 50 or so pushups on the spot.
Nor did I know that beards in the Military were a problem, let alone one
that could not be dealt with by other than face to face communication.
This particular obsession also seems a bit at odds with the core Trumplican
fantasy nostalgic for the late 19th century of Robber Barons, an emergent
American Empire, gunboat diplomacy, no unions or meddling bureaucrats–and
lots of beards, in and out of the Military. Can’t beat US Grant for
warfighting and bloodletting, and neither he nor Bobby Lee were clean
shaven.
I tell you what: Don and Pete may like to call DOD the Department of War
(which by the way I think is historically bassackwards; it was until 1947
the War Department) but Congress would have to formally approve the
change. Maybe not right after this diatribe, but soon, I will urge my
Senators to gin up a filibuster to thwart the change. Please join me in
throwing the monkey wrench.
And then there is tne plan to save the coal industry, the theme being
“Mine, Baby, Mine” and the planet be damned. And tonight the shutdown,
meaning I suppose my son gets to stay home and not get paid for a while,
but keeps his job, an assumption I am making because he has more than 40
years with the Department of the Army, and the War departments being
presumably immune from the layoffs threatened by the fanatic who heads OMB.
Ought I to disquisite about Portland and Chicago as “training grounds” for
the troops? No, I don’t think so. All we can hope is that what Don and
Petey have in mind is more and better policing up of the streets and
parks. Nothing about fields of fire or bayonets, thank you.
Then moving on now to another side of the world:
NY Times, Search Teams Scour Rubble for Survivors of Deadly Philippine Quake
And is there actually a worldwide baby bust?
South Sudan may be an exception in terms of current fertility, especially for an area experiencing conflict, but new research from the United Nations shows that the number of children born to the average woman worldwide has reached the lowest point ever recorded. Now in nearly every country and every culture, women are having fewer children. The world over, the number of children born to each woman has dropped from 5 in 1960 to an average of 2.2 today in the latest UN report, so now is even approaching the 2.1 births per woman needed just to maintain a steady world population.
Total world population may have already peaked. Now the task is to maintain it at current levels, neither growing nor shrinking. Some European countries already have started offering
baby bonuses, with Denmark and France seeing some very modest success in that regard. But in
Asia, sharp declines in birth rates have not responded to financial incentives.
2024, meaning the average woman there is not having even one child. South Korea is employing a multi-faceted effort, from monetary incentives, like cash hand-outs for new mothers and subsidies for fertility treatment, to policy shifts like improved parental leave and housing support. These, all together, may have kept the birthrate from falling even further.
In any case, when women anywhere in the world have a choice, they often stop after having 2 children; but, of course, many others may have only one child or none, so the average birth rate in some places may still be much lower.
Americans as well are having fewer children because of
increased costs, greater access to contraception, and shifting societal priorities like career focus over family, also due to delayed marriage and the increasing demands of parenting. The perceived financial and time commitment of raising children has grown, often making it a less appealing or feasible option for many. African birth rates are also declining, but still remain the highest in the world, with sub-Saharan Africa having a total fertility rate (TFR) of around 4.3 births per woman, considerably above the global average. While birth rates there are falling rapidly as well, the region's high fertility has already contributed significantly to total global population.
Back in 1766, the English economist Thomas Malthus, had warned that the human population grows geometrically while food production increases only arithmetically, leading to disease and famine, which then act as natural checks on overpopulation. (That was long before the widespread use of contraception or of surgical methods to halt reproduction.)
At least in the US today, even with concerns about a possible population decline, there are no immediate worries here about a total population collapse, despite Donald Trump's short-sighted efforts to halt all immigration. Since Americans are now having fewer babies, immigrants could help fill-in the population gap, but perhaps not until after Trump has finally left office.
Our country has always welcomed immigrants, something long symbolized by the Statue of Liberty. So after Trump is gone from office, rather modest though still useful levels of immigration will probably be resumed. Immigration has brought many benefits to our country, starting with populating the land more fully in colonial times. Immigrants not only bring new energy and fresh ideas, but until recently had helped fill in the demographic gap left by our current anemic national birthrate. Our country would not exist as it does today without immigration.
According to most reports, the U.S. population has not actually started shrinking yet, despite fertility below the replacement level of 2.1 children per woman, since births still outnumber deaths. The U.S. population is expected to grow by about 22.6 million by 2050 and by 27.5 million by 2100, with immigration once again playing an important role after Trump is no longer in office. As the father of numerous children by different wives often born elsewhere, Trump himself, despite his rhetoric and policies, has set an example by welcoming immigrants into his own immediate family.
=====================
Now, let's go way, way back, to the very beginning of human history:
Million-year-old skull could rewrite human evolution timeline
===================
Then only a few centuries ago, in 1566:
A Washington Post columnist asks:
"It’s clearly a masterpiece. But did Bruegel approve of the party he painted?
Another prolific European painter was Michaelina Naurier, born in Belgium in 1604, the only daughter in a family with 9 children. Since women were not considered to be artistic, her paintings were often attributed to a man. Here below is her self-portrait, painted in 1649.
=========================
Many old friends have gotten in touch with me again just now. Several became concerned when I had failed to respond to recent emails, probably because of my computer problems, so their messages had never even reached me. It's been wonderful now to know that they are still with us, right here on Mother Earth, and they too expressed relief that I have not yet departed this mortal coil. So thanks to everyone--it's been really great that all of us are now hearing from each other once again.
Penny, a longtime friend and former co-worker, wrote:
"Glad to get your blog. I’m with my niece in Charleston SC getting an education on slavery and the role South Carolina played. Such a sad, sad part of our history that the idiot in the White House wants to try and erase."
And here was my good friend Kilof (below in the hat), reuniting recently with family members in NYC. I have known his whole family for many years now.
Another friend recently told me about his encounter decades ago with RFK Jr., Trump's current health secretary and an outspoken anti-vaxxer. I do recall once shaking hands with his father, RFK Sr., campaigning then in northern California before being shot by assassin Sirhan Sirhan on June 5, 1968, soon after winning the California primary.
My friend told me regarding the son, RFK Jr.:
When we boarded in Sioux Falls I recognized RFK Jr. and spoke to him... Bobby had boarded in Baltimore and was wasted. Drugs and alcohol. Shortly before we arrived in Rapid City, the flight attendant asked us to help with Kennedy when we changed planes in Rapid City. We helped him find a family friend, a young priest, a friend of the Kennedys. The attendant had told us his luggage had been flagged in Baltimore as containing heroine and other drugs. The priest and Senator McGovern facilitated the release of RFK Jr. to medical personnel... He has now impacted the lives of millions of people, thanks to Trump, who has been worse than we thought he would be. And, as you know, if the Supreme Court continues to rewrite the US Constitution, it is going to get even worse. In many ways, the Roberts' Court is a greater disappointment even than Trump himself.
(Time now to remind folks that many years ago, I once headed up the board of an agency that had approved adoptions being made by John Roberts and his wife, long before his membership on the Supreme Court. So, yes, back then, I did meet Roberts, also his wife.)
Four vaccines are currently being recommended by the CDC for women likely to become pregnant: flu, shingles, RSV (for respiratory viruses), and Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, whooping cough). (Of course, those vaccines are not necessarily being recommended by the current health secretary RFK Jr., an outspoken vaccine skeptic.)
Back in the 1940's, before most vaccines were available, kids like us often just got sick and many even died. I remember my mother holding my baby sister, ill with whooping cough, upside down by her feet while she coughed into a basin. My brother and I miraculously escaped that illness. However, our whole family was quarantined later when all 3 of us kids came down with measles, with a big warning sign posted on our front window. It's a wonder that we all actually survived, as measles can be really deadly (so don't listen now to RFK Jr.).
My siblings and I lived long enough to all become senior citizens. My brother died at age 79. Now my sister, age 81, and myself, age 87, still remain among the living. Who will go next? If by chronology, it should be me, but my sister has more chronic health conditions. So we shall see who will remain as the last one standing.
Tropical Panama, where I've often visited (once even sailing on a ship through the Panama Canal), is now being touted as a retirement destination for ex-pats, edging out Costa Rica. I'd be happy to reside in either place or even in Honduras, my former Peace Corps country. But I've already bought a house in West Virginia where I'm currently living with my son Jon, so am not sure whether or when I might actually be going back to Latin America, perhaps just remaining right here from now on. =======================
On-line ads promising "big savings" often require big spending.
Advertisers must realize that we have a dog, as they keep pitching us items for dogs.
Some advertisers also know I am a senior citizen.
My sister and her husband living in Philadelphia are unconnected to the internet, so are free from the usual barrage of ads.
Here's a brand new ad that just popped up:
"Women over 45 are rushing to try this new 'Anti-Aging Mask' before it sells out." Yes indeed, youth being provided by a face mask! How long might it have to be worn before that happens? What do you think? 
Google says: The popular phrase "There's a sucker born every minute" is most famously attributed to the 19th-century showman P.T. Barnum.
====================================
Here are several recent on-line notices in Spanish, so someone out there knows I speak Spanish
(maybe that's only a noisy bot?).
Para estas pequeñas empresas hispanas, pertenecer a una comunidad solidaria lo es todo.
Empecemos a cocinar en la cocina de tus sueños
CNN en Español @CNNEE
análisis noticioso
A pesar del reconocimiento, un Estado palestino parece más remoto que nunca
Below are a few more images that have just come in now, so make of them what you will. All feature couples of a certain age, though many women my age (87) are actually living alone, no longer partnered with a man because many men don't survive to our age. (My own former husband died years ago, then after that, a serious boyfriend died.) Now among Americans age 86, 16% are women, 11% are men. Yet worldwide at birth, there are 105 males for every 100 females. Despite being child-bearers and the so-called weaker sex, women still tend to live longer than men. Yahoo says: "Of Americans who live to age 100,78% are women and 22%, men."
We never see images of older women living alone or with their kids, as I am doing now, instead shown only with a male partner, something not actually that common.
Here are additional images that have just popped up, often trying to sell something or remind us that Halloween is just around the corner.
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