Please excuse the glitches in this post. The blog deities are definitely being uncooperative. When I try to make corrections, that just makes matters worse. So just try to skim to get the gist. This is not a piece of literature, but I do try to be accurate. A white band that I cannot erase seems to be floating across the post, so I'm not sure where it will end up.
==============================
My passport has expired and I haven't gotten a new one yet. At age 88, I am not as limber or as adventurous as before. Also, I am no longer working and cannot afford traveling all over the world as I once did. Some of my previous journeys were partially financed by human rights organizations, but I am no longer able to carry out such missions any more. Yes, folks, age is more than just a number and I now have hit that senior age.
Someone else feeling his age these days is Donald J. Trump. Though never the shiniest button in the jar nor the brightest bulb in the socket, Donald Trump at age 80 seems to be fading even faster than I am right now.
"Senile man gives 40 minute speech at the UN" references a satirical humor piece published by Andy Borowitz in The Borowitz Report on September 25, 2026.
Donald Trump is making it rather easy to make fun of us older folks.
=============================================================
Storms are battering the US east coast. We've had quite a lot of rain here in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, but are on somewhat elevated ground, so no problem with too much water so far.
White House bars CNN from covering Trump on behalf of major TV networks as he travels to Tennessee
Donald Trump may have a short memory, but he holds a grudge,
========================================================
Netanyahu’s UN belligerence wins cheers at home as world walks out
This is an aarehid regime
==========================================================================
A friend and former work colleague living out west says the following, with no need to identify who she is talking about.
The craziness never ends:
Add his name to Kennedys Center. (if not, he may demolish it and I bet rebuild it as the dumb center)
He asked a couple of times to add his face to Mount Rushmore
Building a ballroom and Arch
Latest rumor is he wants his name added to the Ford Theatre.
===============================================================
About the only folks being welcomed into our country right now are those favored by Trump's close adviser and major donor, South African-born billionaire Elon Musk. Nearly all others are now being kept out.
The Trump Administration has set a refugee admission ceiling of 17,500 for the upcoming fiscal year, with officials stating that those slots will go primarily to Afrikaners (white South Africans), as reported by ABC7NY.
- Justification: The U.S. Department of State and President Donald Trump have asserted that white South Africans face persecution and uncompensated land seizures, citing those as humanitarian concerns.
- Cost: The projected cost of this specific resettlement effort is estimated at $500 million.
- South African Response: The government of South Africa, led by President Cyril Ramaphosa, has strongly disputed and rejected allegations of a "white genocide" or of systemic racial persecution against the Afrikaner minority.
===========================
Wash. Post, Florida counties declare emergency over ‘wildly unusual’ dengue outbreak
After living in Latin America. I am quite familiar with dengue. We always slept there with mosquito nets. There are 4 types of dengue and you have to have survived all 4 to be totally immune. Here is a dengue-transmitting mosquito
Trump urges Supreme Court to restart deportations to countries with poor human rights records
One of the places where President Trump is sending deportees, making it very hard for them to ever get out, is to South Sudan, where I once had a human rights mission. The following travel advisory recommends not even going there at all. Mr. Trump wants to make it very difficult if not impossible for deportees to ever get back home again, trying to punish those who just want to live in our country. He also is making it very hard for them to ever come here legally (unless they are white South Africans) and making it even harder for them to ever get out of wherever he decides to send. Many are being sent to places they've never actually heard of and don't know even where they are, such as Eswatini. Have you ever heard of that country? On what continent? Yes, now about the only folks being admitted here legally are white South African farmers once again.
Some deportees are also being sent to South Sudan, which the State Department advises is too dangerous a destination for American travelers. Times may have changed since I was last in that country some decades ago, as I always felt safe there.
AI Overview
Major international governments including the U.S. Department of State maintain a Level 4: Do Not Go Travel advisory for South Sudan due to ongoing armed conflict, violent crime, kidnapping risks, and landmines.
Here I was in South Sudan back in the day.
I never felt unsafe in South Sudan, though that was quite a few years ago. In fact, I felt quite protected, as a local woman was always holding my arm whenever I went out, accompanying me wherever I went. English was widely spoken then and probably still is. Folks there were always very friendly and kind to strangers--at least to me at that time.
However, times could have changed and South Sudan may now be unsafe for visitors. I really don't know. But I still doubt that deportees would be badly treated there. South Sudan does not have many visitors and those arriving there might actually be welcomed.
The State Department under Donald Trump could just be providing unreliable advice, as is so often the case. We may be able to trust the people of South Sudan more than we can trust our own government now.
=========================================================
Here's another that place that I know quite well is Quito, the capital of Ecuador.
I've been asked online, perhaps by a travel agency, if I have ever been to Quito in Ecuador? The answer is "yes," I certainly have been there. In fact, I've been to Quito quite a few times, but I am not sure just how many, as I had traveled back and forth there routinely from Ecuador's neighboring countries of Colombia and Peru when I lived in Colombia.
The elevation in Quito is 9,350 feet, not quite as high as La Paz, Bolivia, at 11,942 feet, where I have also been. Those unaccustomed to such lofty elevations might feel out-of-breath just walking around there. But I had already lived for some time in Bogotá, Colombia, and was somewhat acclimated. Bogotá has an altitude of 8,660 feet.
Denver, where I have also lived, known as the mile-high city, has an elevation of 5,280 feet. (A mile is
exactly 5280 feet.)
While we are on the subject of high altitude cities, I have also visited Machu Picchu in Peru and with my late younger brother climbed up to the top of the mountain overlooking that ancient Inca city. Back in those days, the only access there was by train; I don't know about that now.
Of course, travelers could always hike into Machu Picchu, as they did in Hiram Bingham's time. Bingham was an American explorer who had brought international recognition to the long abandoned city of Machu Picchu, already well known to local indigenous folks.
=================================================
While we are now on the subject of travel, I have been to every state in the US except Alaska and to some 40 countries in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia. I have visited nearly all the countries in the Americas and in the Caribbean, with the major exceptions of Brazil and Venezuela. I looked over the border between Colombia and Venezuela, but never actually crossed because that seemed too risky for an American to do at that time.
Being able to speak Spanish has allowed me to understand much of what's being said also in Romanian, Italian, Portuguese, and Catalan, but certainly not in either German or Russian.
See the previous post about this photo that has just popped up now on Facebook. It is of me and my friend Armando standing together in the surf near Havana years ago. Armando now lives in Florida after I brought him out of Cuba via Mexico years ago. Will I ever go back to Cuba after being ejected and told never to return? Probably not, though visitors from the US might be welcomed there now. I really wouldn't want to take the chance. In any case, at age 88, I see that my passport has already expired, so my international traveling days may be over. I could always get a new passport, but there's plenty for me to do right here in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, so I may never go abroad again.
No comments:
Post a Comment