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[Please excuse formatting anomalies, have been having trouble.]
Earlier this summer, Turkish authorities detained the director of Amnesty
International Turkey, Idil Eser, and nine other human
rights defenders.
All ten are still being held and are accused of “committing
a crime in the name
of a terrorist organization without being a member.”
Cambodia’s prime minister, Hun Sen, has asked for Peace Corps
volunteers to be withdrawn, accusing them and US officials of siding
with
his political opponent. Peace Corps bends over backwards not to be
involved
in politics in any way in countries where volunteers serve.
In other Peace Corps news, a former
volunteer is astronaut Joe Acaba
(Dominican Republic,1994-96), who
launched to the International Space Station
for a five-month mission on
September 12, 2017, his third trip to the ISS.
Meanwhile, former Peace Corps
Director Elaine Chao (under President HW
Bush) is being accused of
financial corruption, along with other members of the
Trump cabinet. It has
been speculated that Trump originally named Chao
Secretary of Transportation to
curry favor to Mitch McConnell, hoping that
McConnell might protect him from
his own corruption scandals.
After Irma, I’m especially worried about the many Caribbean
islands and communities in
my Amnesty International purview. Caibarién, a small coastal Cuban town that I remember well after visiting there
in 1997, was virtually wiped out. As recounted in my Confessions book, I stayed up all night talking
with two dissidents there scheduled to appear in court the next morning.
The
DR seems to have gotten it worse than Haiti, which really had no room to fall
further. I’ve spent interesting times on several Caribbean islands or island
nations, Puerto Rico, US and British Virgin Islands,
DR, Haiti, Cuba, and Jamaica. My granddaughter, great-grandson, brother,
nephew, and
great
(grand?) nephew living in South Florida all survived with no lasting damage. Many
friends there
are all right, too, including Sirley Avila, a Cuban dissident maimed in a government-inspired
incident,
though she is worried about her mother and son in Cuba. Trump and his
followers may blame hurricanes on gay marriage or simple coincidence, but there
has been an unending stream: Harvey, Irma,
Jose, Maria.
On
her trip to Florida, it looked like Melania
was wearing flats after criticism of her high heels during prior two Harvey
trips. From her rather stoic expression, it looks like she’s definitely
getting tired of these appearances, but Trump drags her along anyway. I do
think a librarian’s rejection of her donation of some Dr. Seuss books as being “retro” was over-the-top—after all, he
is still a beloved children’s author. Probably the librarian was motivated by
the more generalized rejection of the Trump presidency.
Trump
seemed to be enjoying basking in unusual public support with his apparent
agreement with Democrats on DACA
and a few other matters. But some on his base have complained vociferously, so he’s
starting to backtrack. Bannon has vowed revenge if he deviates from the
alt-right line.
Trump
is also vowing to veto single-payer healthcare should it ever cross his desk,
something unlikely,
but he needs to offer some red-meat outreach to his base. Tweeting a mock
video of himself
knocking down Hillary with a golf ball is childish, but again more red meat
for his base. He could
instead, because of the blind faith of many in the base, actually try to
educate them. He’s
in a bind, cannot please everybody and the electorate is strongly polarized. He’s
slowly learning
how tricky politics can be.
As Trump
once observed about healthcare, politics is really complicated! Imagine! He may
find that working with Democrats on DACA and other matters actually makes him
a deal-maker and that the majority
who didn’t vote for him may become less adamant on impeachment, so that would
be personally protective for him. His approval ratings went up when it looked
like he would support DACA
and if there is anything that is important to Trump, it’s public approval. But
now, that weasel Jeff Sessions is being vindictive by arresting undocumented
people without criminal records in sanctuary cities. I wish that Trump had
actually fired him, as it’s hard to imagine a worse AG.
Now,
under Trump, we’re seeing civil disobedience, actually sort of a civil war in
reverse, with northern states separating from the south and from the
authority of the presidency. He is not only fomenting war
with North Korea, but within our own borders. General Kelly, where is your control?
Meanwhile,
son-in-law and official adviser Jared Kushner
and First Daughter Ivanka as well as
others in the Trump administration have been found to be using private e-mail for sensitive
government communications! Where are the cries of “Lock ‘em up!”?
Various
anti-Trump organizations are having a field day, soliciting funds supposedly
to impeach Trump or otherwise oppose him, meanwhile taking their own cut. But
Trump's continuous outrages have left us kind of numb--they fail to shock us
anymore.
While
Bernie Sanders’ universal health care
proposal is a good start to get lawmakers and the public thinking about that
possibility, but right now, it’s an idea, a talking point, but something merely
aspirational. Republicans may decide that Obamacare is not so bad after all
compared to single-payer, which probably the majority of the electorate would
actually support. Single-payer would greatly simplify the system and
eliminate expensive layers of bureaucracy, layers destined to fight tooth and
nail to keep their jobs. There would also be less choice for patients, longer
waits, less personal contact with practitioners, and fewer procedures
performed, but at much lower cost to the government and to consumers. I
belong to the Kaiser health system,
much cheaper than other health insurance and which may be a model, with
salaried doctors who have no incentives to push for unneeded care—if
anything, they may pause before providing any care. Universal care would
certainly cost less per patient than our present system, but practitioners would
also earn less. As I have often commented here, doctors, nurses, and
therapists in other developed countries earn good salaries, but not the very
high incomes promoted under our own present system, much of it fueled by
campaign contributions and vigorous lobbying. However, I disagree with Bernie
that all services should be covered 100%. Kaiser, even Medicare and Medicaid,
do have copays. Those copays should
stay to prevent hypochondriac or lonely folks from overusing the system, also
just to give patients some agency and responsibility and to share costs.
Providing more health care to more Americans would increase population due to
people living longer and more babies surviving (as is already happening
around the world) and also increase age-related illnesses including dementia
for the same reason.
Heaven
help us, now we are learning about trans
people who regret their choice and want to go back to their original gender.
If it was hard to transition, it’s even harder to reverse it! Maybe folks now
have too many choices. If you are feeling that your psyche and physical gender
don’t match, it might be best to cross-dress for a few years. Even taking
hormones is tricky, because some changes might be permanent, i.e. breasts, facial
hair or the removal thereof, voice changes. Even the famous pioneering transitioner
and tennis champ Christine Jorgensen, according to an autobiography, went
from male to female and back to male, then back to female again. Whew, that
would put some serious strain on the health system if it were widespread. It
would be interesting to see how many “regrets” there are. Reportedly, a UK
researcher seeking fund to explore this question was denied. Was that report real
or fake news? The world is becoming very confusing in the Trump era!
The New Yorker Radio Hour recently aired a wide raging interview
with Hillary Clinton, where she acquitted
herself quite admirably in my opinion. Of course, I have always supported
her, disagreeing only on her siding with Planned Parenthood in apparently wanting
to exclude pro-life Democratic candidates from party support. (I do not oppose the 20-week abortion ban
which seems sensible to me—any serious birth defects or harm to the mother
would be discernable by then; in the rare case of life-threatening harm to
the woman arising later, exceptions could be made.) Clinton is right that a
perfect storm of events allowed Trump to gain the presidency, among them were
Assange’s WikiLeaks disclosures timed and selected to do maximum damage to
her campaign, perhaps guided by Russian operatives. Not for nothing did Trump declare, “I love WikiLeaks!” The
problem is, she asserts, that the Russians are still calling the shots and
manipulating Trump and his mostly inexperienced staff. I do believe the fact
that she is a woman worked against her, as men and even some women don’t like
uppity women. God forbid that a female candidate should have any hint of
marital infidelity, something many male lawmakers have overcome, including
Bill Clinton and Trump himself. Just calling her “Crooked Hillary” and urging
that she be lynched is not proof of any wrongdoing. Some right-wingers have
accused her of taking advantage of being married to a former president. Yes,
she did use that as a stepping stone, just as people in any field take
advantage of being the spouse, sibling, or parent of someone who has made it
to the top. Trump built upon his father’s business success, after all. More
than Trump, Hillary did serve her time politically, as a senator and
secretary of state.
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Later,
an article appeared in the NYorker (September
25, 2017) by editor David Remnick about a wide-ranging interview held with
Hillary Clinton about her new book, including about the day after the election,
when she was in a state of shock (she was not the only one). Quite touching is
the cover that was planned for the magazine if she had won.
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I
was in Chappaqua that day after,
as mentioned before, scheduled to give a talk on my Confessions book at the public library, where everyone was
downhearted and few were interested in Cuba policy. Again, here is the sign
that neighbors put on the entrance to her driveway. Everyone there was
devastated, including me. And it hasn’t gotten better. [Chappaqua photo an
sign.]
With
Trump making a fool of himself and a mockery of our country at the UN in his
appearance before that body, poor Hillary must be cringing more than ever
over his antics and her loss. Trump says the Iran deal is “an
embarrassment.” He and his UN speech
are the embarrassment (as Kelly’s expression during its delivery indicated).
And
while Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands were reeling under
the devastating effects of climate change, at least part of it manmade, Trump
was obsessed with slamming kneeling by players and others at football games,
simply increasing support for practice. Because of concerns about climate change,
I switched my electricity exclusively to wind and solar whether or not it
costs more.
Anthony Weiner fully deserves to shed tears bout his conviction and
prison sentence, which is scant punishment for the great harm his antics have
inflicted on this country, leading to the catastrophic presidency of Donald
Trump.
On another issue, under Trump,
the National
Institutes of Health is trying to
quietly end a program that funds research into gun violence and how to prevent it. (Maybe the more deaths and
injuries there are from guns, the more guns will be sold to folks trying to
protect themselves from guns? Is that the NRA’s tactic, more gun profits? It’s
a vicious circle.) There is also a bill in Congress to approve gun silencers.
So, another mass shooting has occurred but if guns are so protective,
where are the successful armed defenders in these cases? It’s not been happening.
Self-defense under the Second Amendment doesn’t encompass a personal arsenal
of assault weapons. If people want to have assault weapons for the thrill of
shooting them at gun ranges, why not have them kept under lock and key to be
used only there? Even if people survive a mass shooting, they suffer greatly,
may be permanently disabled, lose jobs and income, and use scarce medical
resources. After a horrorific shooting, “gun-rights” advocates invariably say
that “this is not the time to talk about gun control.” It is precisely the right time to talk about it and to act on it, just as after three
devastating hurricanes back-to-back is the right time to talk about climate
change. Why not? Because partisans want to avoid the obvious? Thoughts and
prayers are not enough! A moment of silence and flags at half-staff are not
enough! So do we just have to accept that these terrible events can strike
any of us at any time—is the “right to bear arms” of sufficient social
benefit that we all just have to bear the risk of being shot, unlike the
citizens of other developed countries where guns are restricted? And are
hurricanes the price we have to pay for the freedom of some people to use
fossil fuels? I have switched my own electricity to all non-fossil fuels. A
potential mass shooter has the “right to bear arms,” which can be a license
to kill as the La Vegas case demonstrates, but Americans have no right to
medical care and living wage?
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Whether the issue is gun violence or climate change or a
crime committed by an undocumented person or a rape or anything else, probabilities do matter. Nothing gives
us 100% certainty except death. While Trump might hold up a victim of a crime
committed by an undocumented or a Muslim immigrant as evidence that such people
are dangerous, in fact, immigrants have much lower crime rates than the rest of
the population. Of course, if you or your loved one is injured by an immigrant,
you don’t care about odds. Likewise, Betsy Devos may find one or two young men
falsely accused of rape, but she ignores the many more women rape victims who
never come forward or get justice. It’s fine to point cases that deviate from
the norm, but they do not negate the norm.
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Having a gun may be protective in a given case, but many more people
are injured or killed by gun violence, accidental or not. The mere possession
of a firearm greatly increases the chance of harm coming to its owner and to
close associates. A self-driving car will sooner or later be involved in an
accident, but will have fewer accidents than cars driven by fallible humans.
A surgeon with an enviable record, if he or she performs enough surgeries,
may have a failure eventually. A few planes or helicopters will crash—the
effort to make that happen less often has succeeded, but not each and every
accident will be eliminated. That’s why we feel relieved when we have arrived
safely; it’s not a given. Of course, efforts need to continue to reduce the
odds of accidents and very long odds can always come to pass. Lottery
winnings and Trump’s ascendence to the presidency are examples.
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