Fall back

This past weekend was the time to "fall back" one hour to standard time in much of the US, including here in West Virigina. This change, now made twice a year, is a disruption responsible for a number of accidents and errors, making it preferable to stick with the same clock all year round. Keeping with standard time has been deemed to be the best option. The original rationale for the change-over, first made more than 100 years ago, was to keep energy use low because of less need for artifical light in the evening. Several states have enacted "no change" laws that are yet to be approved by Congress. 

For over a month now, autumn or "fall" has been officially declared here in Berkeley Spings, where the leaves have already  been changing color for a while. 

"Age is just a number," Trump supporters might argue. But number or not, the President is not very popular.

Wash. Post, Voters broadly disapprove of Trump, poll finds

A Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos finds that a majority of Americans say the president has gone too far in exercising his powers. But there is little evidence that those negative impressions have accrued to the benefit of the Democratic Party. 

Wash. Post, Uncertainty hits after vulnerable Americans wake up to a SNAP freeze

Political squabbling has left 42 million Americans — most of whom are children, elderly or disabled — wondering how they will get food with no SNAP funds to start November.

However, White Hiuse renovations are continuing without pause. 
In photos, some of the renovations being made inside the White House look rather "tacky" to me, but apparently appeal to Donald Trump and his family, as tastes certainly can vary. I would have preferred to see something more subdued and utilitarian rather than marble walls and gold-plated fixtures that shout "I am rich!" 

Here now is the Lincoln bathroom completely renovated. Would Abraham Lincoln have felt 

comfortable bathing here? Apparently, Mr. Trump really likes the new decore, since he has specifically 

chosen it. He has also hinted that he'd like to stay on living in the White House for quite a few more years, so why not renovate it according to his taste?

Mr. Trump is not stinting on White House renovations now, using mostly taxpayer money. 

Trump Marks Full Month Of Government Shutdown With $3.4 Million Golf Trip To Florida

The Air Force One trip is his 13th visit to his Palm Beach country club since he returned to office and brings his taxpayer funded golf total to $60.7 million--no pinching pennies there.

Trump also held a Halloween-themed party for friends and donors at Mar-a-Lago. 

Mr. Trump blames Democrats for the government shutdown: "It’s their fault. Everything is their fault."

 Former President Obama says he plans to campaign with Democratic candidates because he                         considers Trump an "existential threat."

                                                            

                                     Kalama Harris says she's willing to take on Trump once again, declaring

                                                                                    `'I am not done'. 

Prince Andrew has been stripped of his royal title and asked to move out of the castle where he has 

been living with his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, presumably both living there separately. Members of 

the US Congress are now seeking his testimony.

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New Mexico Becomes First U.S. State To Offer Free Child Care To All

To encourage women to have more children while also allowing them to work, New Mexico provides free child care, as is done in many European countries.

It is now in the common interest of society here in the US and elsewhere to incentivize women to have more babies to prevent the population from shrinking and becoming even more top-heavy with elders. No longer is overpopulation of particular concern. Worldwide, the number of total births is approaching that of total deaths, a desirable balance that may not be so easy to maintain.     

  

Wash. Post, The nation’s largest employers are putting their workers on notice

Amazon and Walmart are among firms warning employees of layoffs or disruption from AI as leaders across corporate America talk of increasing efficiency.

If, as Fed Chair Jerome Powell has said, job creation in the US is down "next to zero," then we may no longer need some of the immigrants being shut out right now by the Trump administration. However, many jobs being lost, especially to AI, are actually office jobs not primarily being filled by immigrants. 

Farm labor and child care, which require real live people, are tasks still being done by immigrants. Most native-born US residents don't know how to pick crops, nor do they especially want to learn, and many really don't care to provide child care either. So we still need immigrants, whether admitted legally or not. Farmers have lamented losing their harvest because no one could be found to help pick or gather it. 

Atlantic, America’s Impending Population Collapse

According to this article, reducing immigration to the US, as is being done right now, whether immigrants actually come here legally or not, will have dire consequences for the nation and local communities.

Nonetheless, contrary to the lessons of history, the impetus still has been to keep people out, as perhaps in popular thinking: the fewer people we actually have here, the more that will be available for those of us who remain. In fact, that is not true and never has been. The actual result has been the opposite.

You and I would not even be here today without immigration. We are all the descendants of immigrants. Some members of my own family came from Scotland, arriving first to Canada, while others came here from Germany and Switzerland. Most of us don't have to look back very far to find we are 

all actually descendants of immigrants.

At age 87, it has been hard for me to adapt now to spending so much time alone while my son is away at 

work and when I am no longer working myself. 

Until I moved here to rural West Virginia, I almost never went without daily human companionship. In 

Washington, DC, while none of my adult kids lived nearby, trusty neighbors and workers with keys 

came in to find and greet me in my venerable3-story house on DC's Capitol Hill, originally built 

back in 1895. 

The historic Eastern Market and other shops were all within easy walking distance there, even when I 

became a rather slow, elderly walker. So why did I ever leave? The reason was because I could no longer 

afford the rising property taxes and upkeep required for a lovely very old, very large house with 

numerous bedrooms and bathrooms. I really loved that house--if one can actually be said to love a 

building--with its 4 original working fireplaces, pocket doors, and a generous outdoor deck off the rear 

of the 3rd floor.

 It is a wonderful house that I owned for more than 50 years, raising my kids and grandkids there and a 

Cuban foster son, mostly as a single mother while also going out to work. Metro and bus lines were 

conveniently located nearby, as much of  the time I had no car and traveled to work by public 

transportation. 

Now out here in rural West Virginia, when my son goes out to work in his own car, a 2006 Lincoln 

Town car, I'm left home alone with the dog, a faithful companion, but not a human one. 

I sent this message to a friend back in DC: Most of the time, I am alone here in the house just with the dog,

unable to walk even to the nearest neighbors down the hill, not only because I walk very slowly and have 

poor balance on irregular ground (at age 87), but because their barking dogs are always outside. They 

never come out when the dogs are barking and I start getting close. So we've never even met each other. 

And no kids came by on Halloween. 

It seemed like the right thing to move here with my son, so I sold my DC house and then bought 

this one here, but my son is rarely home during the day, though on his days off, he takes me out to go 

grocery shopping and to the state park with the dog, which for me is a big outing. Before I came, my 

son had free lodging in a cabin near Coolfont, the hotel and pool complex where he works. Of course, 

the hotel itself burned down--another calamity--and is now being rebuilt by some of the same staff 

displaced by the fire. 

Thank goodness for the internet, where I post my blog and am writing to you now and which keeps me 

in touch with friends all around the world.   

A former neighbor still living on Capitol Hill sent me a photo of some dog biscuits she'd just made, but 

can no longer share with me. No doubt, our dog would really love them.

                            She also made some biscuits for human consumption which actuallylook quite tasty. 

                      I do miss living in Washington DC, in so many ways, and not only for the food. 

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As noted before, almost always, older women are depicted online with a male partner, though most 

of us no longer actually have one any more, since men do tend to die sooner than women. The few single 

men my own age of my acquaintence don't seem to be particularly interested in women except perhaps 

as platonic friends. 

And as soon as the wife of an older man dies, single women are rushing to bring him home-baked pies 

and inviting him to spend the night, so the competition is fierce. 

And most of those guys actually don't look quite as good as the man shown in this photo.