Halloween, Berkeley Springs, Migrant Caravan, Midterms

 

 

Halloween gave us a respite from national and world news. Halloween evening in Washington, DC,  was balmy, with lots of kids out and 

 Daughter Melanie with son Jonathan in Berkeley Springs, W Va.


Below, yours truly, with Jon on same visit

 

Did the American civil war ever end? It often seems as though it’s still going on. Trump is reviving the Confederacy! His main lament as he continued with his pre-election rallies was that the bomb packages and Pittsburgh synagogue shooting were distracting from him and his message, which seems to be to vote Republican to save him from impeachment. And while he made a perfunctory call for unity, he undercut it by saying “Now, aren’t I being nice?” His only response to mass shootings has been more guns and the death penalty. Americans are becoming almost numb to mass shootings. Who’s next? Does “the right to bear arms” trump the “right to life”?

We are all sitting ducks if we gather now in groups. You’d better believe that       Trump’s rally crowds are screened for weapons beforehand.

As weary migrants walk with their kids through southern Mexico, Trump has sent troops to the border to stop them from entering. Isn’t that overkill? More troops than migrants—and are the troops supposed to shoot them? Trump has equivocated on that. The migrants are still weeks and months away. I suppose Trump has sent troops now because of the midterm elections, anything to fire up the base. And he declares that Democrats and George Soros are organizing and funding the caravan—why would they do that at this crucial time? Maybe Trump’s supporters are actually funding and encouraging them—Trump himself is not, because he never spends a dime of his own money if he can avoid it—but he needs an excuse to play Commander-in-Chief  Other such Trumpian efforts are promises to give an additional tax cut to the middle class and do away with birthright citizenship, neither of which the president can do by decree. He acts like a dictator or a king.

Here is a summary about the migrant caravan, which seems to be a pre-election gift to Trump, but which, indirectly and ironically, may have been inspired by his rhetoric. https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/04/americas/migrant-theori

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article220920255.html

As it has every year since 1992, the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly Thursday for a resolution that called for lifting the U.S. embargo against Cuba — despite a U.S. move to put the focus on Cuba’s human rights’ record. The vote was 189-2 in favor of the resolution with no abstentions. Only the United States and Israel voted against it.

Before the vote, there was debate on eight amendments proposed by the United States that criticized Cuba’s human rights record and lack of civil liberties on the island. The amendments were all defeated by wide margins with only three delegations — the United States, Israel, and Ukraine — consistently voting for them. The Marshall Islands also voted in favor of one amendment.

Now that the midterms are over, Trump is moving aggressively to protect himself from the Mueller probe. He can veto any proposal to continue the probe that the Democratic House puts forth. This promises to be open warfare.