Stephen from Nigeria just sent me this photo from late July of us on "graduation day" at GAO with the director there.
On Monday, Aug. 21, we saw a slight
afternoon darkening--whether from clouds or the eclipse or our imagination,
hard to tell, probably a little of each. My neighbor came out and we took a
selfie with the sun behind, but if there was any encroachment by the moon on
the sun here in Washington, DC, it was very slight—just a little nick. Later,
we read that even a selfie with the eclipse behind is dangerous to look at
because of radiation to your eyes from the screen, but we didn’t notice any
effect. Donald Trump said he looked right at it. I recall having been in a
bigger partial eclipse, but don’t recall when or where.
Under a directive from the Trump administration, Peace Corps is to cut 20 percent of its
workforce, mainly by not filling positions vacated when employees meet the
five-year employment limit. When asked about the
proposed cuts to the Peace Corps budget, Acting
Director Sheila Crowley focused on the positive. Peace Corps maintains
tremendous bipartisan support, she said, and while we’re facing a reduction,
she is confident that Peace Corps will not only maintain current numbers of
volunteers, but make small incremental increases. Crowley acknowledged, “We
won’t make 10,000 volunteers by 2018, but we can grow strategically.”
The following article
describes reverse culture shock and how to soften it by maintaining connections
with your ex-pat country, something I highlighted in my Honduras Peace Corps
book. I certainly maintain connections with my ex-pat country by returning yearly
to Honduras as a medical brigade volunteer, having Spanish-speaking friends,
and working part-time as a Spanish interpreter (and by writing books
and also articles for Huffington Post and giving talks about my Latin America and Peace
Corps experiences). Two of my kids live in Hawaii and I've thought
of moving there when we are in the depths of winter, but then I'd have to
give up my interpretation work and annual visits to Honduras, as it would
costly and impractical to continue that.
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I have been busy in my role as Amnesty Int’l USA in writing asylum support letters for both DR and Cuba asylum applicants, the
Angola has rejected the offer of Cuba to send 200 medical
personnel there, apparently because of the high price requested by the Cuban
government, which keeps most of the earnings of the medical staff it sends to
overseas missions.
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If there is gay marriage, inevitably there will also be gay divorce, as a close friend is
finding out, after 8 years f marriage and much longer in the relationship. But this
guy is getting his due in a property settlement, very good.
The worst thing Trump could have done regarding Venezuela was to threaten to take
military action—how and on what grounds, pray tell? Immediately, he gave
Maduro an excuse to jail opponents and alienated Latin American countries
opposed to Maduro who would have otherwise been our allies there. He keeps
putting his foot in his mouth while others in his administration, like poor
Pence traveling around the region, have had to try to do clean-up while not
antagonizing Trump himself.
Although
other Confederate symbols,
statues, and flags needed to be gone as they are hurtful, on this forum, I once
said I did not think it necessary to remove all of Robert E. Lee's statues, as he was an important historic figure,
and, from all accounts, a good leader, though on the wrong side of history
and also a slave owner. On the other hand, now that Lee’s statues have been shown
to be magnets for neo-Nazis, it may be best to get rid of them or else move
them to a museum. After Charlottesville,
it may be best to take them all out, especially Lee’ statue there that will,
inevitably, become a symbol. Of course, Trump, who concocted birtherism, has
railed against Muslims, and invited Bannon into his inner circle, has tried
hard to avoid denouncing his core supporters. (But he can get back into their
graces by pardoning racist former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio.) Trump finally,
two days later after Charlottesville, condemned neo-Nazis, probably under pressure
from his new chief of staff and maybe from Ivanka and Jerod as well—he read a
statement written out for him in a deadpanned voice. Then, after getting
backlash from white supremacists, he went back to saying “both sides” were at
fault and to blaming the “alt-left.” Trump lies so much and makes such
extreme pronouncements that if he ever told the truth or said something
sincere and normal, we wouldn’t believe it. It’s a bit late for him to reform
and if he did, we wouldn’t trust his word anyway. He’s already revealed
himself to be a liar through and through. He likes to pick public fights with
everybody outside his own family.
Richmond, capital of the Confederacy, has a whole
avenue of Confederate statues, so that poses an even bigger problem. A proposal
has been floated there to put up statues of opposing historical figures—John Brown,
Harriet Tubman, maybe even Abraham Lincoln, on the same plots—to give
balance. In Durham, NC, a
Confederate statue was toppled to the ground. In Maryland, most Confederate statues were summarily removed. We may
also have some in here in DC.
As the alt-right and neo-Nazis
have grown bolder under Trump, the opposition to them grows stronger too, leading
to inevitable clashes. The country becomes more divided than ever and
moderate and conciliatory voices are being drowned out. Bannon may be a casualty of this divide—if so, good riddance to
him. He’s already done enough damage. Trump’s speech on Afghanistan, because
he stuck to the script, was not too bad and shows the possible result of
Bannon’s exit, since, unlike Trump’s promises during the campaign to get out
of Afghanistan, now he is committing more troops, perhaps under the influence
of all the generals with whom he has surrounded himself, but without specifics.
It sounds now like an open-ended commitment. Will his reversal upset his
diehard supporters? Probably not most of them, who worship Trump, the man,
whatever he says or does.
There are speculations
that if the Mueller probe gets too
uncomfortable for Trump, he may quit the presidency, as he already seems to
be tired of it and not having any fun. He would rather quit—after declaring that
his was the most effective and awesome presidency ever—than be “fired,” that
is, impeached or censured. Then he can go around the country holding
lovefests with his supporters and playing golf along the way. Also appearing
on the network, Trump TV, that he
has reportedly launched.
A president elected by a
minority of voters, and whose support grows smaller every day, is bound to
engender resentment, especially when he supports policies that favor his minority.
For now, Trump’s handlers seem to have put something of a break on his
twitter account and convinced him to only give scripted speeches. That would help
dampen down calls for him to undergo a mental health check or to be
impeached. Fox News host Tucker Carlson praised Trump for looking at the sun
during the eclipse without protective glasses as "perhaps the most impressive thing any president has ever
done." Was that tongue-in-cheek?
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