We went by the Apple Butter festival today, past the various exhibits, when many people were out walking and the sun was shining brightly. But with no parking left, we couldn't get out of the car, though it was fun seeing the various booths as we passed by and watching everyone everywhere having such a good time.
When the sun went down this evening, we saw a dramatic pink sunset.
What else has been going on in the world?
If the current mideast peace continues to hold, Donald Trump may yet get his Nobel peace prize, despite having killed some Venezuelan boaters without any warning or just cause. But he won't get it this year, as a Venezuelan woman is actually this year's Nobel laureate, how's that for an ironic twist? She even offered to give him her commemoration although he had killed her fellow countrymen..
Today, Israelis loudly celebrated the Gaza peace agreement,
And Palestinians have started coming home.
Israeli bombardment punched large holes in Gaza City’s skyline by repeatedly demolishing high-rise buildings containing hundreds of homes and businesses.
What else has been happening just recently now in the Caribbean, not far from Venezuelan shores? Did Donald Trump really authorize the killing of Venezuelan boaters, perhaps completely innocent folks only out there fishing, not actually transporting illegal drugs to the US? Now they are dead, unable to give testimony from their watery graves. Did they deserve the death penalty just on the basis of an unproven suspicion? What does the law of the sea have to say about that?
According to Google: The law of the sea is a body of public international law that establishes the framework for how countries interact with the world's oceans. Its primary purpose is to maintain order, productivity, and peaceful relations at sea. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), adopted in 1982, is the main international agreement that defines maritime zones, sets out the rights and obligations of coastal and landlocked countries, and governs everything from navigation to resource exploitation.
The US has never actually ratified UNCLOS. So, does that mean our government is free to take any action whatsoever anywhere in the world's oceans? That Trump and his administration are allowed to continue to blow up civilian boats and their passengers at will near and around Venezuela without any warning or due process? No, Donald Trump shouldn't get that Peace Prize after all, not even next year!
The Boat Strikes Are Just the Beginning
Here is more breaking news and more commentary involving other Trump administration actions:
The Guardian, Chicago TV journalist pushed to ground and arrested during Ice raid, later released Witnesses call arrest of video editor Debbie Brockman, a US citizen, by masked federal agents, ‘absolutely horrifying’.
‘Page one of the authoritarian playbook’: how Trump and allies are exploiting Kirk’s killing | Charlie Kirk shooting | The Guardian
October 18 is the date for the next No Kings rally, with some events starting already on October 14. A No Kings rally was first held on June 25, on Donald Trump's birthday, including right here in Berkeley Springs. Here below was the rally held in Los Angeles back in June 25.
The slogan then was no dictators, no tyrants, no kings. So similar rallies and events are scheduled again now from October 14 through October 18.
Then something here from the Dominican Republic:
including the photo above and an article in Spanish, alleging that the only people being deported from that country are Haitians, so if you read Spanish: Política migratoria: Estrategia comunicacional podría volverse un bumerán internacional para el país y otros. Por Pedro Cuevas
The author makes a good point, that deportations there are selective, as only those considered undesirable are being deported, mainly people of Haitian descent. (Haiti and the DR share a Caribbean island,)
Likewise, deportations from the US focus on those whom the current administration wants to remove, not Europeans or Pacific Islanderrs or Canadians, but mostly Spanish speakers from south of the border. Elon Musk's white South Africans were given a warm welcome by Donald Trump (did they even have visas?) and several members of Trump's family have come from overseas, though not necessarily through proper channels, such as his wives, and all of them have remained here.
Melania Trump, originally from Slovenia, was one of them.
Melania first entered the U.S. in 1996 on a B-1/B-2 visitor visa, intended for tourism or short-term business.Blatantly violating the terms of her visa, which forbids any paid work, Melania then undertook
several modeling jobs, then after that had the good fortune to catch the eye of Donald Trump, whom she married and with whom
she had a son. And so the rest is history.
Then there is also the wife of Vice President JD Vance, the daughter of immigrants from India.
So why is the Trump administration so set on keeping immigrants out? Perhaps because Trump, Vance, and other Republicans think that's what their supporters are demanding. So now immigrants are being deported willy nilly and it's hard to even find anyone left willing to pick the crops, clean hotel rooms, or help care for elderly US-born citizens like me.
- Not only is there a worker shortage here in the US, but South Korea has already run out of workers, although is still able to import more, as people do want to go there. South Korea had the world's lowest fertility rate in 2024 at 0.75 births per woman, not even an average of one child per woman.
China is now dealing with the legacy of its former one-child policy and with its own authoritarian government, but cannot really import more workers, as it has no tradition of accepting immigrants nor would any want to go there.
Our own country also faces the challenges of an aging population, which will strain social security and our health care system, and will continue to have labor and economic impacts.
- Cyclists here ride past a fading promotion for China's former one-child policy. Now China is offering special benefits to couples who have 3 children.
- Taiwan also has a very low fertility rate, while other countries including Singapore and Ukraine have extremely low birthrates as well.
In the US, 2 children seems to be the favored family maximum, but is not an average. The average child
rate per woman here is acually 1.6, whichis below replacement, indicating that we would definitely benefit from allowing more
immigration.
Donald Trump, are you listening now to your own Labor Department? The problem is not really with
providing statistics proving thatimmigration provides our country with substantial benefits. The problem is that many Republican
voters still believe immigration to be harmfulby diluting the impact of the white race in our country and spreading non-traditional values. So
- Trump and his cohorts actually confront a serious public relations challenge above all.
Only some African countries are now helping keep worldwide fertility at about 2.2, which is close to overall replacement. Fertility rates depend on cultural norms as well as socio-economic factors.
- Niger currently has the world's highest average fertility of almost 7 children per woman. Other African countries also have high fertility. And there can also be twins, triplets, and other multiple births.
The world's only living nontuplets recently celebrated their 4th birthday at home in Mali, another African country.
- Valentina Vassilyeva (1707-1782), a Russian peasant woman, is said to have had 69 chilren, many in multiple births. (How could anyone even feed 69 children?)
- My own paternal great-grandparents, living out on a wheat farm in southern Alberta, had 12 children, which was hard enough, but all survived to adulthood, including my grandmother, Florence, the youngest of the 12. Without Florence, I wouldn't even be here today.
- Speaking for myself now as a single mother of 4, plus a Cuban foster son, it all actually works best if the whole family can be made to feel like a team, with everyone operating together and trying to support each another.
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