Tried above to get images of Clinton and Trump, but may have only gotten Trump or else a jumble of letters and numbers. We shall soon see. I don't seem to have the knack to copy stock images. Anyway, we've all seen them already.
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Dreams may
be a form of wish-fulfillment. Certainly, I have dreamed of being reunited both
with my late son Andrew and foster son Alex, also with my late ex-husband and
parents, all long dead. Lately, I’ve been having dreams about being in Peace Corps Response, a short-term
service usually for former volunteers. I recently attended an award ceremony
for Bob Arias, a man my own age, who was a Response volunteer in Panama,
Colombia, and Paraguay and now has his sights set on Vietnam. In my dreams, I
always go to Latin America, such as last night when I did service in Honduras,
Costa Rica, Panama, and Guatemala successively and lived in very rural outlying
areas, similar to those where I’ve volunteered with Peace Corps and with medical
brigades. Of course, in real life, Peace Corps is no longer in Honduras. Will I
ever actually do it again? It’s very hard for me to disentangle from my current
life and I’m not getting any younger. However, I do keep in mind the volunteer
who served in Morocco at age 86.
My son Jon, as I’ve mentioned before, was
accidentally shot in the foot at age 11 by another boy playing with loaded gun
kept in parents’ bedroom. Fortunately, no bones were hit and he seemed to have
healed well, even passing an army physical and basic training without a
problem. But now when he is over 40, he is having pain with that foot in the
area of the injury, but wore a caste for a while and is getting physical
therapy, which is proving helpful. Having lost both my older son and my Cuban
foster son (though from causes unrelated to guns), I am very grateful that
Jonathan was spared. I once had a friend whose 2 sisters were murdered and who
considered herself invulnerable, because, she reasoned, God would not take her
mother’s last surviving child. I have no such confidence, considering my
remaining kids as vulnerable as anyone else. I note in TIME (Oct. 14, 2016) a
chart on gun violence, which is thankfully going down, but whose caption says
that more people die from guns than from
car accidents. So far in 2016, according to TIME, there have 1,622
accidental shootings, with 515 of the victims children.
At a recent
dinner party, I met a man who works with a church group in South Sudan and what he told me is even more discouraging that what
we see in the news. He thinks both the president and vice president are at
fault for keeping the civil war there going, two men out to feather their own
nest and more interested in furthering their rivalry than in protecting
citizens, some of whom are now actually starving. How did a brand new nation
with nearly 100% citizen support and unbridled hopes fall into this man-made
crisis (made primarily by just these 2 men) and what is the way out?
South Sudan’s second largest city,
Malakal, a
commercial and oil hub, has reportedly been reduced to rubble and its
inhabitants have fled. I feel so helpless, after having spent time in that hopeful
fledgling country, now watching this spectacle from afar. http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/south-sudans-city-scorched-renewed-fighting-42878145
Zika’s devastation
of the unborn has been uneven, with the greatest concentration of severe
microcephaly in northeastern Brazil.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/world/the_americas/scientists-are-bewildered-by-zikas-path-across-latin-america/2016/10/25/5e3a992c-9614-11e6-9cae-2a3574e296a6_story.html
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega came back into office with
one-third of the vote (the winner being the candidate with the largest number
of votes, not a majority) after decades and has since has packed the supreme
court and changed the constitution to allow himself consecutive terms, ad
infinitum, so it seems. For the upcoming election Nov. 6, he has now agreed to
allow outside election observers. Of course, this puts me in mind of being
election observer myself in Nicaragua in 1990, when he went down to an
unexpected defeat. Since then, he has been trying to get back into office and,
through persistence and good organization, finally barely made it again and has
since pressed on to succeed himself. However, he is not the fiery Sandinista of
old, though still allied with Cuba and Venezuela, the latter giving him ever
shrinking quantities of low-cost oil. To his credit, he still allows Peace Corps volunteers to serve there.
Honduras is
receiving one or two planeloads a day of Honduran
deportees, not surprising to me, as every time I am at the Tegucigalpa
airport, I see a US deportation flight discharging dispirited passengers: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article108754167.html
Feb. 10-24, 2017, medical brigade volunteers—nurses,
doctors, dentists, pharmacists, short-wave radio operators, interpreters needed
for ihsmn.org.
Trump vows to reverse
diplomatic relations with Cuba
http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/24/politics/trump-miami-interview-cuba-relations-trade-embargo/index.html
Democratic VP
candidate Kaine begs to differ: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2016/10/23/kaine-says-progress-made-with-cuba-will-go-forward-never-backwards/
For the first time, the US (and Israel) abstained this year on the UN resolution calling
for an end to the US embargo against Cuba.
Tania Bruguera, a Cuban performance artist who may have dual nationality (?) has announced her candidacy for the Cuban presidency when Raul Castro steps down in 2018. She can always say she’s a revolutionary, a socialist, or whatever is required—she’s probably as much a socialist as any other candidate might be. Tania Bruguera se postula para la presidencia de Cuba
“Aprovechemos las elecciones del 2018 para cambiar la cultura del miedo”
Domingo, octubre 16,
2016 | CubaNet
MEXICO CITY – The
Inter American Press Association, or IAPA, called on the Cuban government
Monday to end its strict controls over Internet access and digital platforms.
As it wrapped up its 72nd General
Assembly in Mexico City, the IAPA urged Havana to "no longer make Cuba one
of the most repressive countries in the world when it comes to the Internet and
online media, and that it cease to resist the wave of change in communications
and technology."
The Cuban government and its
agencies have "stepped up their criticism and threats ... in response to
the growth of journalism that is independent of the government, especially in
new online platforms," the regional press group said.
This has resulted in "arbitrary
arrests, citations by police, threatening interrogations and seizures of work
equipment," the IAPA said.
New technologies are giving a voice
to dissenting opinions, but large obstacles still remain in the use of the
Internet, the regional press group said.
"A large number of journalists,
most of them independent, were arrested during the visit of U.S. President
Barack Obama to Cuba" earlier this year, the IAPA said.
US specialists on Zika, Chikingunya, and Dengue were dispatched to
Cuba;
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/obama-administration-sends-top-disease-specialists-to-cuba/2016/10/19/18ee6df0-961c-11e6-9cae-2a3574e296a6_story.html
Rotary
International is also returning to Cuba to help out rural communities for the
first time since 1959. Can the Peace Corps be far behind?
Some Cuban authorities have railed
against friendlier US policies toward Cuba as a sort of “wolf in sheep’s
clothing” or Trojan horse designed to undermine “the Revolution.” http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/article109101637.html
And the US has yielded on yet another
issue, no longer requiring US enterprises to work only with the Cuban private
sector, instead allowing cooperation with the government near-monopoly.
Following a visit by U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker in October of 2015,
Cuban authorities announced that all exports to Cuba would follow “established
channels” and that no changes were planned for the state monopoly on imports.
A “wait and see” strategy appears to
have generated some progress. Cleber LLC, for example, announced during a
recent Miami conference on doing business with the island that it had obtained
a U.S. license to sell agricultural and construction equipment to state
enterprises. That suggested that the U.S. government has accepted that doing
business directly with the state sector in Cuba is inevitable.
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/article109101637.html#storylink=cpy
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/article109101637.html#storylink=cpy
My long-ago
housemate and former Cuban librarian rafter Jose Varela was interviewed on Fox News, saying how much he
appreciated being able to vote after coming from a country where that is not
possible. He appears in my Confessions book
and also in this Huffington Post
article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barbara-e-joe/former-cuban-rafter-cheri_b_11032072.html
Are we
still having fun with this election? Hardly. Trump’s antics are no longer the
stuff of parody. Seems that election fatigue is greater than ever before and we
will all be very glad when it’s over (assuming Hillary wins). A professor who
has called all past elections correctly is still predicting a Trump victory.
Hillary’s lead now seems to be shrinking. What if we should actually wake up to
a Trump presidency on Nov. 9? So scary!
“Just thinking to myself
right now, we should just cancel the election and give it to Trump," the
real-estate mogul said while campaigning in Toledo, Ohio. Can you imagine enduring 4 years of surprise,
off-the-cuff remarks like that from a president? At least Duterte had a
conversation with God and promised to stop swearing.
In the
US, pre-election polls are bouncing all over the place, depending, it seems, on
who is conducting them. A recent Investor’s
Business Daily poll found the top two candidates deadlocked
at 41 percent, followed by Libertarian Gary Johnson at 8 percent and Green
Party nominee Jill Stein at 4 percent. That’s about the only poll these days in
Donald’s favor. (He says he’s actually winning.) Or maybe the bouncing polls
are being reported just to keep the news cycle going? Although Donald Trump seems on a downward
spiral, if he should actually win, will he then claim the election was rigged? While
he did better in the third and last debate, exercising more apparent
self-control, especially at first, he still refused to pledge to accept
election results if he loses. In fact, the next day, he said, “Ladies and gentlemen…I would like to
promise and pledge to all of my voters and supporters and to all of the people
of the United States that I will totally accept the results of this great and
historic presidential election — if I win.” Is that a self-deprecating
joke—Trump seems incapable of self-reflection—or is he serious? Mike
Pence has been saying all along that the election count will be fair and
also that the Russians are behind the WikiLeaks hacks, contradicting Trump. Is
he trying to be a voice of reason to counteract Trump and make himself and the
Republican Party seem more credible? Obviously those two do not have a well-coordinated
campaign. Pence is wisely keeping his
distance. Can he even deliver Indiana for Trump? According to one senior Trump official: "We have three major voter
suppression operations under way."
Libertarian VP candidate Bill Weld says to vote Clinton: https://thinkprogress.org/bill-weld-donald-trump-hillary-clinton-statement-d4be687787c2#.ucvw666mp
Getting off the bus after a recent interpretation
assignment, I ran into a labor dispute on view outside Trump's new hotel here,
on my way to the metro at Federal Triangle--it was a small demonstration with a
big sign and police nearby. There was also someone talking for a TV camera.
I've heard that contrary to what Trump might have hoped for by entering the
presidential race, his properties may actually be losing money. Right after the
day I passed by, he formally opened his new hotel. It’s occupying the beautiful
Old Post Office Building, but, so rumor has it, he has had to lower room rates
to get customers.
Julian Assange suffered a major setback in his vindictive
e-mail dump against Hillary when the Ecuadorian Embassy, where he has taken refuge
now for several years, curbed his internet access. That the embassy would do
that is instructive, just another indication that Latin America is turning away
from knee-jerk anti-Americanism. Is this a legacy of Obama’s diplomatic
outreach to Cuba? Or is Ecuador hedging its bets after developments in Venezuela,
Brazil, and Argentina? Assange, who sought asylum in the embassy to prevent
being extradited and tried by the US and possibly imprisoned, finds himself
imprisoned now in the UK’s Ecuadorian Embassy without his customary internet
access, though the embassy has vowed to continue to offer him asylum. His stay
there must, at least, have become uncomfortable on both sides.
Trump’s
diehard supporters are vicariously and gleefully enjoying the Donald’s license
to behave like a big spoiled brat, breaking his teleprompter, tweeting at 3 am,
calling Hillary silly names, demanding that she undergo a drug test, and
threatening to inspire havoc if he loses the election. Even Melania in an
interview compared her husband to her 10-year-old son. Trump (and to a lesser
extent, also Sanders, Johnson, and Stein) has played into many people’s
conspiracy-theory fears—that unproven and unprovable statements are more
credible than those of the “establishment.” But, it’s hard to prove something
merely by saying it’s true or attributing it, as Trump likes to do, only to
what “people are saying.” What people are saying apparently is whatever Trump
has alleged and do these supposed people have anything to back up whatever is supposedly
being said? “People are saying that climate change is a government hoax, but
the establishment doesn’t want you to know that.” “People are saying that
illegal aliens are pouring across the border.” Who exactly are these people
saying these things? And are they true? Established data sources are denigrated
as conspiracies, and cover-up and truth don’t matter, only what Stephen Colbert
has called “truthiness,” something that’s sounds right to many people, or is what
they would like to be true. Since a substantial portion of the population
believes the world was created in 7 days, what do you expect? The internet
makes it easy to spread any sort of statement without verification or filter.
Is vote
“rigging” actually possible? Certainly, isolated examples of fraud are
imaginable, perhaps a twin using his deceased brother’s ID? It’s also true that
having a paper backup is essential for a recount, as electronic voting makes an
accurate recount nearly impossible and might also enable more substantial fraud
since an electronic system might be “hacked,” though voting machines are not
inter-connected, so it would have to be done one-by-one. While more
time-consuming, a recount with paper ballots offers a more reliable system.
When I was an election observer in Chile (1998), Nicaragua (1990), Haiti
(1990), and the Dominican Republic (1996), all voting was with paper ballots.
Again, in Honduras, while in Peace Corps, I informally observed the voting
process, again using paper ballots. Typically, these paper ballots not only
have the candidates’ names, but also a face-shot of each next to the flag or
symbol of their party. This helps voters with possible literacy problems. During
the 2000, contested presidential race in Honduras, I had requested a mail-in
ballot, but never received it.
Donald
has opened himself up to scrutiny and has been revealed to be a complete fraud
and a phony at every turn, not just now, but throughout his career: the
millionaire who loses money and doesn’t pay taxes or meet contract obligations,
who lends (sells) his name to products he doesn’t actually make, whose
charitable donations are actually made by others, who runs an unauthorized
charity that commissions full-length portraits of himself, and whose for-profit
so-called university doesn’t give out valid degrees. He calls Hillary “crooked”
to deflect that label from himself. About a dozen women so far have come out
with charges of unwanted sexual advances against Trump. His supporters have
countered with a Facebook post and a hashtag calling for the repeal of the 19th
amendment giving women the right to vote.
Many of
us women identify with Hillary, seeing her bearing the brunt of Donald’s
insults and name-calling as he seemed to stalk her from behind at debates. And
while I am not a big fan of abortion, being an adoptive as well as a birth
parent, I doubt that many viable babies are being “ripped” from the womb. I suspect
that late-term abortions close to the due date are quite rare and performed
only under excruciating circumstances. There have been a few well-publicized
exceptions by unscrupulous medical practitioners who, in the name of abortion,
have actually killed babies born alive, but those people have been sanctioned.
So that’s not a legitimate or common problem.
Can this
election cycle get any crazier? We thought Huey
Long was flamboyant, but he had nothing on Donald Trump. Fiction could not
have made up a character like Trump. It will be a relief when it’s all over and
we can then settle down to a more normal national political life. Let's hope Trump never runs for office again.
I understand his family is trying to set him up with another reality TV show,
which is more his style and will give him a platform on which to bloviate. Unfortunately, such a show, with a built-in
audience of his supporters, will keep Trumpism going, maybe even give him a
chance to rail again against “crooked Hillary” and continue to promote “the
wall,” as he evidently enjoys being famous. His businesses have apparently
suffered due to the revelations in the campaign. The Republican Party will
certainly not take him back, but they won’t be able to control his public
outbursts. We may not get rid of him completely after the election, though I’m
just as glad that I don’t have TV.
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