Gaza for Israel, a Trump dictatorship for the US?

Regarding the recent blog posting for Aug. 31, an annoying vertical column appeared there on the left of my screen. If you saw that, then my sincere apologies. But from what some readers have reported, not all the quirks visible here actually show up elsewhere. So some oddities that appear for me may be due to anomalies of my system, attributable to the always meddlesome blog deities who may not be meddling quite as much with some others. As for the s above, why is it there? I have been unable to erase it. 

Speaking of meddling, Donald Trump is still meddling in DC affairs and now wants to intervene in other cities. s

Deploy National Guard to Chicago? Trump Says He Has ‘The Right to Do Anything I want to Do'

President Trump declared on last Tuesday that he has unlimited power as president to deploy the National Guard in any state, after musing that people might call him a dictator. He did not quite receive 50% of votes cast last time, so he cannot say that a majority of Americans have ever supported him and his support has been plummeting ever since the last election. 

Fox News, Chicago police will not collaborate with National Guard, federal agents if Trump moves on deployment: mayor

The following message came in from Amnesty International, showing that the rest of the world is not going along passively with Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, who apparently want to give Israel free rein to continue committing war crimes and possibly expanding its territory. Netanyahu hopes to save himself, but what is Trump's motivation? He has been spending a lot of time out on the golf course, acting unconcerned.

On September 18, the one-year deadline set by the UN General Assembly for Israel to comply with the World Court or face UN action. As a result, UN member states have both the numbers and the power to override the U.S. veto and take action now by:

•⁠  ⁠Deploying a multinational protection force to deliver food, medicine, and civilian safety.

•⁠  ⁠Imposing sanctions and a full military embargo on Israel.

•⁠  ⁠Suspending Israel’s UN credentials, establishing a war crimes tribunal, and more.

UN News, Gaza death and destruction ‘without parallel in recent times’: Guterres

Wash. Post, Netanyahu vows more attacks after Israeli strike kills Houthi prime minister

Wash. Post, Gaza postwar plan envisions ‘voluntary’ relocation of entire population

NY Times, Opinion | Israel Must Let the Media Into Gaza 

US would control Gaza, displace all its people under new plan: report

Displace or relocate Gazans to where? And then give the land to Israel? Is that the plan?

Houthis storm UN buildings in Yemeni capital after Israel killed PM and other ministers

Wash. Post, Administration moves to deport Guatemalan children despite judge’s order

A federal judge rushed an emergency hearing in an effort to get the government to comply with her order to halt the deportation proceedings.

Trump is ignoring the judge's order and continuing with his deportation plans for Guatemalan youngsters. What can be done? It's not feasible to arrest the president and he knows that. He seems to really enjoy wielding dictatorial authority, approving deportations, as well visiting death and destruction on Gaza, while he relaxes out on the golf course. Ancient kings did not possess such far-reaching powers.  

Judge blocks Guatemalan minors' deportation after questioning government's argument

A judge got up in the middle of the night on a holiday weekend to block Trump's efforts to deport

minors but it is uncertain if her orders were obeyed, as  Mr. Trump has said he can do "anything I want."

                        Trump was off to his golf course in Virginia over the holiday weekend. 

Yahoo News, The Trump family has amassed a $3.4 billion fortune since the president took office in 2017

The midterms are still about a year away, with varying dates among the states. Trump's approval on a national basis continues to be underwater. The average reported by Yahoo News is 38% approve, 44% disapprove.

• Average: 38–44% in most major polls

Even though Trump got more votes than Harris in the last election, the margin was thin and he never quite reached 50% of the total votes cast. Was that Trump's "mandate" for taking over Democratic cities with the National Guard, driving Palestinians out of their traditional lands so Israel can expand there, and simply ignoring court orders? In the most recent polls, just since the Yahoo News results above came out only a few day ago, now only 37% of registered voters approve of the president's job performance while 55% disapprove, so Trump's approval rate appears to be sinking fast. Voters don't like the tariffs that are increasing their costs, and many object to his wholesale support of Israel, including with ample US funding. He has pondered aloud whether people might consider him "a dictator," but seems to find that amusing. It's not funny, as his decisions have real world consequences, often negative, both for Americans and many others around the world. 

Pope Leo, speaking in his native English, offered “prayers for the victims of the tragic shooting during a school mass in the American state of Minnesota” and the “countless children” who are killed and injured every day by guns.

 

Pope Leo calls for end to ‘pandemic of arms’ after Minneapolis school shooting

I think this narrative needs to be posted now, because strange things are happening, so here goes. 

Is the past prologue?

OK, folks, several readers have asked me to please continue with the blog, so here we go once again. I have very politely asked the wildly unpredictable blog deities to kindly leave us alone now-- to just stop with their meddling and interference. 

Dear gods and goddesses, how about letting us continue here without any more intrusions? Thanking you in advance. 

Let's see now whether they actually got the message. 

The main question being asked here is: Can anything be learned from the past? And the answer is rather ambiguous: yes and no. So where does that leave us?  It leaves us right now with uncertainty about making the right choice, because we never know what the right choice is or exactly what the outcome will be beforehand. There are expected and unexpected consequences, but we only find out which after they've already happened. So in a sense, we are always flying blind throughout life, trying to accomplish something or end up in a certain place, but not knowing beforehand if that will actually happen. Sometimes, what happens is not what we were aiming for, but sometimes we do reach our goal, and when we don't, we may still end up OK with that. Based on my own experience, the odds are often about 50-50 of achieving a certain goal. That leaves us with uncertainty. Is that any better than chance? Are odds and probabilities the same thing?

Here's what Google says and isn't Google the ultimate authority? 

Probability

• Definition: The ratio of favorable events to all possible events. 
• Range: A value between 0 and 1 (or 0% and 100%). 
Example: The probability of getting tails when flipping a coin is 1/2 or 50%, as there is one favorable outcome (tails) out of two total possible outcomes (heads or tails). 

Odds

Definition: The ratio of favorable outcomes to unfavorable outcomes. 
Range: Can be any positive value, with no upper limit. 
Example: The odds of getting tails on a coin flip are 1 to 1, meaning there is one favorable outcome (heads) for every one unfavorable outcome (tails). 

What are the odds or probabilities that Donald Trump will seek an unprecedented 3rd term? I'd like to think they are zero in either case. 

Wash. Post, Trump tries to wrest spending power from Congress as government shutdown looms.

The administration says it can cancel nearly $5 billion in international aid with or without approval from lawmakers under a little-tested theory called a “pocket rescission.”

DC flags are out on display as never before. 


The repatriation of Guatemalan children in US government custody was expected to begin Sunday

{Aug. 31), according to a notice sent to attorneys, prompting a scramble among lawyers who say kids were woken up in the middle of the night and will be at risk if returned to their home country. Initially, 

600 children will be returned to Guatemala, but more may follow. Many of these minors are teens or preteens who had been able to cross the border unaccompanied by an adult. 

Wash. Post, Israeli strike killed Houthi prime minister, rebel group says

NY Times, This Summer, a Hostile Reception for Many Israelis Abroad

,,

Israelis, once admired for their pluck and courage in establishing a new nation in a hostile environment, are now finding themselves becoming pariahs worldwide. 

Wash. Post, Editorial Board

Israel blocking outside journalists from Gaza doesn’t help its cause

Israel has suffered a precipitous loss of world support and national prestige over its conduct in the Gaza war. Yet Donald Trump is holding on tight to support the Israeli leadership. .

                            Why are Palestinians fleeing Gaza city? Where can they go now? 

                            This is the exodus story in reverse, Palestinians being exiled by Jews.


        

        

         An orange shark was discovered in Costa Rica. Apparently, its coloring is a rare form of albinism.

                          

     Nature is an artist without parallel. So what's in your garden? What do you see? 

            

 

                                  Butterflies, like flowers, come in many shapes and colors.  

OK dear readers, until next time.

'Wake up' America

                     Mourners visit the graves of victims of the recent Minneapolis school shooting. 

'Wake up' America, Gavin Newsom says, warning that Donald Trump wants third term in office

Gov. Gavin Newsom of California revealed on Wednesday that President Donald Trump won’t stop 

sending him merchandise. Specifically, ‘Trump 2028′ hats.
In an interview with Politico’s Christopher Cadelago...Newsom expressed concern that Trump wants 

another term. The proof? “I have two dozen Trump 2028 hats his folks keep sending me.”

I certainly cannot survive a third Trump term. I may not even survive his current term. Newsom sounds as though he might want to be president himself. That sounds certainly preferable to a 3rd Trump term. 

Trump says he has raised $1.5B since 2024 election

If so that's a record for an incumbent president, especially one not expected to run again--or will Trump try for a 3rd

term after all? 

 

Border Patrol arrests 2 firefighters for being in the country illegally as they battled
Washington’s biggest wildfire

This happened in Washington State near the Canadian border. 

What polling shows about Trump's pivot from immigration to crime

Crime is now a bigger concern among US voters than immigration. 

Trump escalates spending fight with Congress, says he will cancel $5 billion

Trump says he is going to withhold spending of 2025 funds until his efforts outrun the fiscal clock. 

He doesn't want shared power; he is determined to seize dictatorial power. Newsome may be right that

Trump is laying the groundwork for unprecedented 3rd term. The man may have dementia; he may 

forget what he was saying in mid-sentence, but his more canny advisers behind the scenes are

guiding him every step of the way. It's a scenario worthy of the Wizard of Oz. 

Wash. Post, Trump tries to wrest spending power from Congress as government shutdown looms

The administration says it can cancel nearly $5 billion in international aid with or without approval from lawmakers under

 a little-tested theory called a "pocket cession."

Reuters, India's powerful Hindu group chief urges three-child families as fertility rates falls.

Did we ever expect to see a leader in India urging larger families? Even 3 children per woman is 

more than the average there these days. In fact, the rate in India has even fallen slightly below 2. 

The baby bust is now moving from China to India, moving all around the world, 

where 2 children has often become a limit, not even an average. 

Partnered women everywhere are entering the workforce and they now know how to prevent having 

any more children. They love their kids, but are finding that 2 are quite enough. Generous childbirth 

incentives have had little effect even in Scandinavia, where they have been widely offered. 

Worldwide, the average birthrate per woman was 2.2 in 2023, and just 1.6 here in the US, which is 

now below replacement, with its own unfortunate effects. This is Malthus in reverse, creating a

society top-heavy with elders like me. 

Only a few African counties are now bucking the trend. Niger, Chad, and Somalia are currently 

high fertility countries; so is south Sudan, where I once had a mission. There, the rate was 5.3 children 

per woman in 2024.

I need to post this right now, as the blog gods keep on interfering, no matter what I try to do.