The
Jack Johnson pardon, coming more than 100 years late, is a cheap
way for Trump to try to cater to African American voters. However, despite
hopes for a Democratic wave, polls reportedly show waning Democratic support. The
economy right now favors Republicans, though the national debt is looming
because of excessive tax cuts and little trickledown has occurred. There is
full employment, but wage growth has stagnated. Living here in disenfranchised
Washington, DC, I feel pretty frustrated! Voters seem to have become accustomed
to the Trump administration’s outlandish and unpredictable ways and are no
longer shocked.
Democrats do need to be more than anti-Trump
and must find a new spokesperson and a new inspirational vision. Americans are
almost at the point now of reviving the civil war thanks to Trump’s
divisiveness. Few folks remain in the middle. The problem is that though
Democrats (like me) feel strongly against Trump, they/we still have only one
vote per person, so it will be a matter of turnout in the midterms. Trump is
scary because he is so unpredictable, ignorant, and misinformed, along with
being full of self-importance and self-confidence. He may even have scared Kim Jong-Un into coming to the negotiating
table. Trump has his family, staff, and other world leaders holding their
breath and walking on egg shells. They know that fulsome faux praise works best
with him. I don’t know how long Trump can try to run a nation like that. As he
would say, we’ll see. Even Chinese leaders, who are pretty calculating and
savvy, may be puzzled about just how to deal with him. To some extent, being
totally unpredictable is a negotiating strength—scares everyone else silly as
no one knows what to expect. But, after a while, that tactic gets old, as
nothing much actually gets done. Only flattery helps with Trump. On the subject
of China, the leadership there is taking a risk by allowing most of its citizens
to travel. Those who return bring back new technical knowhow and ideas, but
they may also bring new political ideas and attitudes.
Okay, granted that in
a rare occurrence in Oklahoma
recently, an armed bystander did take down a gunman. It occasionally does happen.
Gun advocates are saying that the Second Amendment is “God-given” though
apparently God has spoken only to Americans. Divine or not, insurance companies
are balking or threatening to raise rates where teachers are armed because of the
risks. Can Donald Trump just decree that insurance companies ignore the odds?
He will try to do so, as with his other counter-factual efforts, expecting his
kingly pronouncements to alter objective reality, like when he decreed that climate
change is a hoax. Sooner or later, the facts will catch up with him, his followers,
and the more sober majority, but much damage will already have been done and
will take time to remedy. One remedy should be to get rid of the Electoral College once and for all, as
Hillary is advocating.
Unlike Obama, Donald
Trump avoids press conferences and does not go out in public in DC, except to
Trump Hotel or his golf course. And for good reason, since only 4% of DC
residents voted for him. He must have noted how Giuliani was roundly booed at a football game in NYC. Where will
Trump live after his stint as president? Maybe at Mar-a-Lago? There he can play golf to his heart’s content. However,
his net worth has shrunk since he became president as revenues from his
properties have diminished, probably the opposite of what he expected.
|
Valve Corporation was reportedly planning to launch
an active school shooter video game,
which sounded like a really dumb idea. Now, after protests, it has cancelled
the project.
|
In Nicaragua, one of my several old stomping grounds, most notably as
an election observer there in 1990 when Daniel
Ortega was defeated (as per my books), it now looks like Ortega’s more
recent power grab has caught up with him again, even though he played his cards
more subtly this time around. To his credit, he has allowed the Peace Corps to
operate in Nicaragua. But why do some guys want to be president-for-life? I
suppose it’s a cushy deal to be president, especially, as in Ortega’s case,
when he has named his wife as vice president. Now more than 83
people have been killed and more than 860 wounded in protests. Amnesty International has criticized the use of
lethal force against protestors. https://www.amnestyusa.org/reports/shoot-to-kill-nicaraguas-strategy-to-suppress-protest/
Heard about a US-directed effort in Ghana to have teachers experiment with
moving away from rote learning and corporal punishment. Children began loving going
to school under these new strategies of self-direction and encouragement, but
some parents objected and I’m not sure the effort has continued. Unfortunately,
in Honduras, too, teachers use rote learning and threaten kids with a ruler.
It’s a wonder that so many people around the world survive such tactics into
adulthood as well as they do.
Now a woman seeking advice in Mississippi’s only abortion clinic has
actually had a surprise live birth
there and was transported to a hospital with her baby. Fortunately for her
child, she gave birth before an abortion could take place. Contraception, egg
freezing, the abortion pill, and first-trimester abortions, most people have no
quibble about allowing those. But where to draw the line is always the
question, as mentioned before. Any line will always seem somewhat arbitrary.
For a while, as a Spanish interpreter, I was getting unaccompanied minor asylum legal cases. Though I am not allowed to
speak specifically about them, they were quite interesting. But now they have
stopped. I don't think it's because the cases here in DC have stopped, but I
got a hint that maybe I was considered to have become too involved with
clients, as females would usually embrace me after a session. These were not
court sessions, but interviews in pro bono legal offices. I did not initiate
these embraces, but they are common among females in Latin America, so I
responded as is customary. However, maybe the lawyers thought that was being
too familiar. In any case, the agency offering me those cases has not called me
again and that's all I can think of. Maybe they considered there might be some
taint of over familiarity if I appeared in court or if affidavits I translated
for clients were used? Interpretation agencies use us "on call"
interpreters as independent contractors and don't have to explain not calling any more.
They have complete discretion. The gig
economy provides little worker protection. Of course, we can always
refuse an assignment and leave the country whenever we want (as I do every
year). But if we are available, of course, we prefer to work, though not all of
our hourly “pay” actually goes to us.
Meanwhile, I'm still very involved as an interpreter in
evaluations and therapy sessions in children's own homes with another agency,
in work closely related to my prior experience as a social worker and at the
occupational therapy association. Here again, mothers often embrace me when I
leave, as also happened when I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras and
still occurs on my return visits there. Sometimes, instead of a hug, a woman
will just touch both my forearms with hers before departure, as is also
customary. I’m pleased that Latin Americans, especially women, accept me as one
of their own. While I first stumbled into interpretation as a stop-gap after
Peace Corps, it has turned out to be a satisfying and interesting
post-retirement part-time career.
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