Easter Greetings, Notre Dame, Rep. Omar Threatened, Mueller Report, Human Regression, IRV, 737 Max, Migration Tactics, Premature Births, Dreams

Best Easter wishes now with spring looking like it’s finally here. Out and about on this sunny Saturday, the morning before Easter, I was cheered by seeing a man wearing a t-shirt embossed with something like a Fox News logo, except its inscription was Faux News.

For those of us with the good fortune to have been inside the magnificent Notre Dame cathedral, it’s a terrible shock and tragedy to have seen images of it burning. Just because it had endured for centuries, we’d simply expected it to always be there.

Trump has certainly gone over the line in directly and continually attacking Rep. Ilhan Omar, including by falsely linking her to the attack on the twin towers and endangering her life. But few Democratic office-holders dare go boldly to her defense for fear of alienating Jewish and pro-Israel voters. Many of us, myself included, are not fans of Trump’s pal Netanyahu and his policies toward Palestinians. Is that expressing anti-Semitism?

While many Americans had been hoping that the Mueller report would definitively nail Donald Trump, allowing us to finally get rid of him once and for all, it now looks like we’ll have endure and just muddle along until the end of his term. While he is not revealed in very flattering terms in the report, his actions apparently could not be proven to have been criminal beyond a reasonable doubt. We already knew what kind of guy he is, so nothing was surprising there.

From the Mueller report, it looks like Trump had wanted to obstruct justice, he certainly tried, but was saved from a Nixonian fate by his own staff, who failed to carry out some of his orders. I agree with Pelosi’s strategy of not perusing impeachment, as it would only fire up Trump’s base and energize Senate Republicans, exacerbating the political clashes of the last two years. Better to let the Trump administration die of natural causes.

Meanwhile, as I work side-by-side, as an interpreter, with therapists treating children for impulsivity and lack of consideration for others, I can only wish that Donald Trump had been subjected to such interventions as a child. The role of a president should be to calm the flames of controversy, not stoke them, and to bring about cooperation, not conflict, but Trump goes deliberately in the opposite direction and seems to enjoy insulting and riling people up. It’s too late now for him to learn more socially acceptable behavior and he does get positive feedback for his tactics from the one-third of the electorate who seem to vicariously revel in his freedom to lie, denigrate, cheat, and exhibit cruelty to others without any apparent consequences.

Former Florida Republican Governor and now Senator Rick Scott is right, that Trump “is trying to make everybody crazy.” Trump has been doing that for too long now. He wants a bigger military budget, as he believes that gives him more control, allowing him to send more troops to the border without interference. Are rag-tag Central American migrant families the greatest military threat our country now faces? Unless more Republican office holders dare to step up, some of them are in danger of losing their seats in 2020 because the nation cannot continue on this self-destructive path. It’s disheartening that Donald Trump already has such a huge war chest, mostly from big donors, which he began soliciting the day he took office, and while he may be stingy about sharing it with other Republican lawmakers, he needs some of them at his side for his own protection. It’s good to see at least one declared Republican presidential candidate, former Mass. Governor William Weld.

Besides Trump himself, the major obstacle to political reform and renewal right now is Mitch McConnell, a shrewd, relentless, and villainous Trump partner. He has blocked Senate votes on Democratic measures and on a Supreme Court candidate and he himself is likely to be reelected in 2020. Because Senate turnover is only 1/3 every 2 years, it will be hard to get a Democratic majority in the Senate, as happened in the more representative House.

We’d like see progress in human development--that humankind, as a whole, can learn from past mistakes. But now, we are experiencing a regression, not only in our own country, but to an extent around the world. That’s very disheartening for someone like me who has lived so long with only a few years left, hoping for a better future for all our children and grandchildren.

A voting system called IRV (Instant Runoff Voting), which allows voters to designate a second choice if their preferred candidate does not get enough votes to win, would have spared us the debacle of Donald Trump (and perhaps, previously, the presidency of GW Bush) by allowing those who voted for third-party candidates or who were lukewarm on Hillary Clinton to designate her as a second choice. IRV is used now in Australia, Ireland, Papua New Guinea, and Maine's Congressional delegation. Other states could adopt it. It was also used in parts of North Carolina until 2013, so, it sounds like a workable idea, though campaigning, vote casting and counting, and announcing final results might be a bit more complicated and certainly different. There would be resistance, of course, but I wonder if any organization or political group or candidate is actually promoting it? And, while we are at it, let’s give full voting rights to us long-suffering citizens of the District of Columbia

It’s best that Boeing is delaying the return of the 737 Max, not only to protect the flying public but also for its own survival, since another crash would be nearly fatal for Boeing and a big blow to air travel overall.

Since the rumor in Honduras, just now when I was there, was that going to the US with a child increases the odds of getting in, it's no surprise that many men are traveling with just one child, though Hispanic fathers ordinarily don't have major child-care responsibilities. They may believe that their child will be their ticket to working in the US, where many employers are eager to hire them for construction and farm work. In fact, arriving with a minor child does seem to limit detention for both parent and child. The middle of the US, Trump country, is certainly not "full," as Trump alleges, and has a short supply of such workers.

Yet deportations continue, including raids on industries that employ mostly immigrant workers. I happened to tune into a segment of NPR’s “This American Life,” where an ICE raid on a small -town meatpacking plant both devastated and rallied the local residents, most of whom had voted for Trump. Later, in interviews, they said that they had voted for him because of his promises to get rid of rapists, criminals, and drug dealers, not local working family men.

Now, on the 20^th anniversary of the Columbine school shooting, it is past time to reconsider US gun laws, and the quirky and relatively recent Supreme Court decision enshrining the Second Amendment almost as the 11^th Commandment. The Founding Fathers actually never envisioned an armed citizenry attacking each other or impulsively committing suicide, or, as happened recently, a 4-year-old firing off a gun and killing his sister. Australia is a case example of how killings and suicides have plunged since the enactment of stricter gun laws after a 1996 gun massacre. New Zealand took only 6 days to enact stricter gun laws after its recent massacre. But now with a Trump and Republican top-heavy Supreme Court, any modification of US gun laws will be an uphill battle. No wonder there has been talk by Democrats of expanding Supreme Court ranks or even of limiting terms. (McConnell’s underhanded tactics to pack the Court may end up backfiring.)  Of course, with so many guns already in circulation in the US, it would take time for gun culture and ownership to dissipate.

After a Honduran friend just reported that her car had been stolen, I recalled many such thefts there. One woman I know had it hijacked by armed men in Teguc, but she wasn't physically harmed. Another woman had it disappear out of a church parking lot where armed guards were supposedly on duty. A couple I met had had their car hijacked in a rural area and had to walk to the nearest town. In all cases, the car was uninsured, so the owner simply lost it--a big loss because duties on imported cars are so high. Honduran car owners rarely insure their cars, because insurance is simply too costly, instead just taking their chances. In Honduras, you would never leave a car parked out on the street overnight. One man with a newish car was filling up in daylight at a gas station in the capital when armed men demanded his car and also asked for a specified amount of cash. They were not very smart, because when he said he needed to get the money at a bank, they stayed outside in the car while he went into the bank and asked employees there to summon the police, who captured the robbers. After that, he moved out of Tegucigalpa, where he worked, to Santa Lucia, about 25 miles away, and commuted daily to his job where he parked his car in a guarded lot, left work early, and never filled up again at a city gas station. (Honduras is also a living laboratory for the NRA contention that widespread firearm ownership among the citizenry is protective, as the gun death and injury rate there are through the roof despite widespread gun ownership.}

I’ve previously mentioned that a child I see as an interpreter was born after 26 weeks of pregnancy and is making good progress in therapy. Now I’ve seen one born after only 25 weeks who is doing even better and doesn’t even need any more intervention. So contact with these children, who may have been born with initial delays or minor deficits due to their very premature births, has made me less willing to support late-term abortion and to be concerned about how, exactly, an abortion at that stage would be carried out. Would it use a type of painless euthanasia? A woman recently revealed on-line that she had decided to have an abortion at 36 weeks because the unborn had an anomaly incompatible with life, but she did not mention how an abortion is actually done at that late stage, I hope humanely. Obviously, I am struggling with this issue as both an adoptive and a birth parent, because if abortion had been more readily available to their birth mothers, my adoptive kids might have never been born.  

To the extent I can recall dreams right after awakening, I am puzzled by remembering my surprise, while still back in the dream, at something another person in the dream had said or done, or by my having been tricked or misled by someone else in dreamland when, actually, after awakening, I realize that I, and I alone, am the only source of all the drama and of everything that every character in the dream has said or done—that at all times, I have been the puppet master. So why, in my dream, did another personage (an alter ego?) say and do things that seemed to surprise or shock the “me” of the dream? Maybe a psychologist could explain that.

My Article on the Honduras Migrant Crisis, Authors’ Laments, Trump’s Appeal, Biden’s “Me-too Light,” Aid and Visa Cuts, Former Peace Corps Volunteers to the Border, Remembering Rwanda, Sudan, Cuban Baseball Agreement, Assange Arrest, New Catholic Archbishop, Abortion Again, Falling Out of Love with IT, Hindsight

Here is my recent article on the Honduras migrant situation. https://democraciaparticipativa.net/forum/estados-unidos-y-canada-united-states-canada/10186-from-the-other-side-of-the-wall.html#10933

Recently, I met with a group of a dozen other local authors, most self-published, a few not (but the latter, mostly published some years ago). In either case, since none of us had a known name before writing our books, it was not surprising that most authors have had to work hard to promote sales with only limited success. The advantage of commercially published authors was that libraries would accept their books, whereas that was rare with self-published works. Probably no more than 15 libraries carry my books, which, in some cases I have gifted them, often after a talk at their library. I once heard of an author whose one-line sales took off after a celebrity happened by chance to pass by the table where she was speaking and was photographed with her book in hand. I also know of people who have ghosted books for physicians and other credentialed authors that they could never have published under their own name. I have done my share of radio talk shows and other promotions, but after talking at the Chappaqua public library (in Hillary’s home town) the day after the 2016 election and two days later in New York City, I really have not had the spirit to promote my books or their arguments; Why promote Peace Corps service for older folks when the Peace Corps budget keeps getting cut? Why talk about US-Cuba relations when American foreign policy is so messed up? But if misery loves company, we non-fiction authors without any prior name recognition found out in our gathering that we are certainly not alone.  

Much of Trump’s appeal to his hardcore base may be due to a vicarious enjoyment of his complete freedom and the lack of restraints on his behavior. He is able to brazenly lie, cheat, threaten, enrich himself, mock and insult others, and change his mind without suffering any apparent consequences. He reminds me of some of the kids whose impulsive behavior the therapists and parents I work with as an interpreter are trying to curb. Too late now for Mr. Trump to grow up or to learn more socially acceptable behavior. He has been trying to run the country like he impulsively ran his own business, relying on tricks and using Fox News as he used his TV show, ”The Apprentice,” to boost business. If he runs and loses in 2020, he can always blame “fake news,” the Deep State, and the “witch hunt.”

Historians will try to figure out what happened to make Trump’s presidency possible. It was an accident, a mistake, a rare confluence of unusual factors. Yet enough voters supported him to make it possible. While I don’t know many of them, I’ve spoken to at least one, a man from the Midwest, who expressed a feeling common among Trump supporters that “Now, it’s our turn after being dominated by the coastal elites.” Is there any common ground to be found between them and us? I keep looking for it.

From Yahoo News, “Speaking to a group of Jewish Republicans Las Vegas over the weekend, President Trump referred to Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu as ‘your prime minister.’ The audience consisted of Americans.” Is it an expression of antisemitism to be critical of Israeli policies or, especially, of the those of Mr. Netanyahu? Can no Israeli or Jew ever be criticized? Unfortunately, it looks like Netanyahu has (barely) won reelection again.

For the public, whether friend or foe, Trump has been a subject of fascination, certainly providing fodder for journalists of all stripes, as well as for the sale of many knock-off products, such as a bona fide Trump mug for only $15! He is guarding his tax returns partly to keep up the suspense, but also so as not to reveal the questionable tricks he has used and also that his actual income is probably considerably less than his boasts.

So far, a reported 20 (and counting) potential Democratic presidential candidates have thrown their hat into the ring. Probably each believes that beating Trump is a slam-dunk, so why shouldn’t he or she be the lucky winner? (Hillary probably thought the same.) Many voters would support any Democrat who opposes Trump, myself included.

With more “uncomfortable” women coming forward to report overly-affectionate greetings, in a sort of “Me-Too light,” by Joe Biden, his candidacy may be over before it officially has begun. Because of his age, he was already in trouble, even though he would appeal to Trump’s constituency of working-class white men. A man who feels entitled to greet women with overt affection is not only being overly friendly and familiar, but expressing a subtle sexism or condescension, since he is probably less affectionate with men, though apparently even there, Biden is a hugger. It’s also an expression of a generational divide, from a time when women were thought to need male protection. After Nancy Pelosi advised Biden to change his tactics, he announced a change, but it may be too late. There is also the unfortunate history of his aggressive role in the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas hearings. Of course, Trump himself has received much more serious accusations regarding women, but that is hardly the standard for the Democratic Party. Too bad, since Biden would be a centrist candidate with appeal to voters of both parties, including to some of Trump’s own supporters. Or maybe Biden can still pull it off by appealing to the wavering middle of the electorate, those who might otherwise vote for Trump if a more progressive Democrat were on the ballot. At the moment, before he is even an official candidate, Biden is polling better than the others.

If the US government has separated parents and children arriving at the border, it has a responsibility now to reunite them, which has not happened in many cases.

“Come here legally, with a visa,” the Trump administration advises, but try now to get a visa! One of my visitors from Bhutan had invited his sister to visit, but her visa was just denied. Last year, another Bhutan visitor had no apparent trouble inviting her boyfriend to come, so apparently the Trump administration is now cracking down even on visitors’ visas. After all, as Mr. Trump has said, our country is full.

Cutting aid to Central America seems pretty counterproductive if we really want to keep other folks out (although US construction and agriculture could certainly use their services right now). More than 30 Senate Dems ask Trump to reconsider Central American aid cuts | TheHill
https://thehill.com/policy/international/americas/437463-more-than-30-dem-sens-ask-trump-to-reconsider-cutting-foreign

The National Peace Corps Association has asked Spanish-speaking former volunteers to go to El Paso to help process asylum seekers. I wish I could go to help now to El Paso, a town where I once lived as a child, but prior commitments prevent me. https://www.peacecorpsconnect.org/articles/the-reality-in-el-paso-and-what-you-can-do?utm_source=National+Peace+Corps+Association+E-Newsletter&utm_campaign=6bdbc9bec8-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_01_12_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_be0534d

While I am no fan of the current Cuban government, as is obvious from my book Confessions and my Amnesty International volunteer position for the Caribbean, nonetheless, as I expressed in that book and repeat here, I do support non-politicized educational, cultural, and sports’ exchanges and so would oppose the Trump administration’s abrogation of the baseball agreement brokered by the Obama administration. Why make Cuban players take risks to defect and heat up hostilities, thereby reducing the chances of Cuba’s evolution toward a more democratic government? Dictatorships, like Mary Poppins’ young charges, respond better to honey than to gall.

Meanwhile, Cubans keep on coming here. Inspired by migrant caravans, new wave of Cubans seek U.S. asylum

by Reuters

Tuesday, 9 April 2019

http://news.trust.org/item/20190408225447-thm9n

Many Cubans are also fleeing to South American countries, which is easier. With the low Cuban birthrate and so many leaving, the Cuban population is shrinking fast. 

The 25^th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide takes me back to the days when I was a board member of the Rwanda Children’s Fund. We held public information sessions, sold Rwandan artifacts, and also sold RCF t-shirts (I still have one) to support teenage orphans in residential schools that became their only homes. One of our members is now an official in the Rwandan government.

In Sudan, Bashir is finally out, very good news. As for South Sudan, where I went on a mission in 2006, before independence, it’s good to hear about a truce in the civil war in that nascent, very undeveloped country. Formerly warring President Salva Kiir and vice presidents Riek Machar and Rebecca Nyandeng de Mabior all went to the Vatican to participate in a retreat and to meet Pope Francis, whereupon, he knelt down (hard at his age of 83) and kissed their feet. https://edition.cnn.com/2019/04/12/europe/vatican-pope-francis-kisses-feet-south-sudan-leaders-scli-intl/index.html   

Here is my own article on my visit to South Sudan: file:///C:/Users/melan/OneDrive/Desktop/Barbara%20Backup/Downloads/Sudan%20article.pdf

Julian Assange’s arrest seems overdue to me. While some hail him as a hero of secret information disclosure, I think he disclosed too much information and perhaps did so selectively in an effort to damage one side and without regard to the consequences. Thanks partly to him and to former Sgt. Manning, we now have Donald Trump in the presidency

Good to hear that Archbishop Wilton Gregory is taking over the helm of the Catholic church here in DC. He has not only been at the forefront of the effort to tackle child sexual abuse, but he is also African American in a city where at least half of Catholics are black.

As both a birth and an adoptive mother myself, as well as someone fairly liberal on most issues, including gay marriage, I’ve struggled to understand the case for abortion, especially after the first trimester. Therefore, I was interested to hear about Barbara Bush’s notion that a baby’s soul doesn’t enter the body until he or she is actually born, therefore doing away with the unborn at any stage is not the killing of a human person. That’s an argument perhaps appealing to some evangelicals, but not one I would subscribe to myself, though, up until an exit from the womb and the severance of the umbilical cord, the unborn could be considered a dependent parasite of sorts. Yet some that exit early turn out to be viable, including a child I see in my interpretation work who was born after 26 weeks of gestation. He has some behavioral issues that a therapist is working on with the mother, but is certainly a fully functioning human being. Yet some abortions take place after that time, including one recently reported at 36 weeks because of serious detectable anomalies. One of my concerns, and something rarely if ever discussed, is how a late term abortion is actually carried out when the fetus is able to move independently, has sensation, and is able to feel pain. Some gruesome stories have circulated, but I’m not sure what is true. From surveys, it appears that while probably a majority of Americans support the right to a first-trimester abortion, support reverses after that.

In lab experiments, a fertilized ovum is destroyed after 14 days, presumably because then individual characteristics begin to develop. Of course, countless fertilized ova are kept on ice for years. The new anti-abortion fetal heartbeat bills would make most abortions illegal, since a heartbeat can first be detected at only 6 weeks. A fetal heartbeat heard by an expectant woman would make a powerful impression. Technological and medical advances in the last century in contraception, pregnancy detection, and neonatal survival have changed and expanded the boundaries of pregnancy knowledge and opinion. In times gone by, pregnancy was often only acknowledged and protected after “quickening,” that is, when fetal movements began being felt.    

The world, including me, is now experiencing the downsides of IT after so enthusiastically embracing it. It seemed like magic! It’s rare or perhaps impossible to identify any development that is 100% beneficial to humankind, however those benefits are defined. Both my sister and a long-time friend, as well as a few other folks I’ve met, refuse to engage whatsoever with the internet and e-mail, preferring to make all interactions in person, by phone, and by snail mail. Of course, phone and snail mail were once innovations and viewed with suspicion by some.

Back when I was in my early 40's, as a rejected former wife with 4 kids and a Cuban foster son, I was not only economically challenged, but also devastated emotionally after being divorced by my husband of 24 years. He was a man of Korean descent (hence my unusual last name, shared with my kids), someone whom I had married at age 21, defying my family, and who was also blind and who had relied on me as well as his own political talents to advance in his successful career. So, I entered post-divorce dating life with some trepidation and this was well before the internet and internet dating were a “thing.” My first new boyfriend had been born in Japan and had been out of his marriage for some years already. He accepted my kids and even my dog and wanted to us to marry. But I was new to all this and, had just come out of a long marriage, so I was hesitant to commit again and when inevitable concerns between us arose, I decided to explore who else might be out there, thinking I might possibly do better. He died several years later and I had regrets, imagining that I might have even saved his life. In retrospect, I decided that he would really have made a reliable husband, a much better fit than later prospects, and wished I could have taken back my decision to move on, but, of course, we can never go back in time (whatever Einstein has said). I was talking about this on the phone with my sister (no internet for her!), who wisely observed that I was who I was at the time and always would have made exactly the same decision based on who and where I was right then. We don’t have the gift of foresight any more than of hindsight. I don’t know if that makes any sense. Of course, after my son and, later, my foster son both died, the trauma of my divorce and any marriage regrets paled in comparison. The value of a long life is that it moves on inexorably and the perspective is always changing. 

Of course, Donald Trump is like Teflon in never expressing remorse, regret, responsibility, nor admitting to a mistake. Whenever he changes his mind, he denies it. A no more outlandish fictional character could ever be invented.  

Spring, Old Friends, Mueller Report, Lock Them Up, Climate Change, Migrant Labor, Nordic Model, Anti-Vaxxer, Gun Accidents, Me-Too, Cuba, Peace Corps Budget Cut, Spanish Spelling, Neo-Nazis Too Close to Home

Spring must finally be here. Here is the first day of spring as seen from my bedroom windows and again, a few days later.

A surprise visitor from 20 years ago, Matt, rang my doorbell, someone who had stayed at my house before I joined the Peace Corps. This time, he came from his home in Delaware with his two sons. 

Another visitor, who used to live in the DC area and was always active in promoting human rights, is now retired to Minnesota. She is Sister Alice, who recently celebrated her 93^rd birthday at Communitas, a local Catholic community gathering. 

Here’s an article about a woman living in Vermont whom I have known all my life, Wanda Johnson, now age 104! I always send chewable goodies for her to share at her birthday party. Wanda is fortunate that, at her age, her three children are all still living. (My late son Andrew is alive and well only in my dreams.) http://www.montpelierbridge.com/2019/03/from-egypt-to-vermont-wanda-johnsons-transoceanic-love-story/

While we are on the subject of old friends, I am an older person, a friend of readers of this blog, who recently had a birthday, but I won’t say which one, shown being celebrated here with daughter Melanie.

Meanwhile, another good friend, Bill Jones, with whom I worked side-by-side, both of us as longtime volunteers with Amnesty International USA, has died. Bill was in charge of Turkey and often picked me up in his car to drive us to regional conferences. Our lives had intersected at various junctures around the world, including in the former Yugoslavia. He lived in SW DC and his memorial service will be held at a church here on Capitol Hill.  

As board president, I just received a notice from DC government that the tax exemption for our adoption agency, Children’s Adoption Support Services, was expiring. Our agency actually expired long ago. We founded that agency with the late Hope Marindin, herself the single adoptive mother of three children, including one from Vietnam. I once wrote an article about Hope, a single adoption pioneer, and her kids that appeared in the Washington Post. Alas, adoption, especially international adoption, has been caught up in politics (remember Don Jr.’s meeting with the Russians?) and excessive red tape originally intended to protect children, also has been eclipsed by international surrogacy.  

Robert Mueller has submitted his final report, which apparently neither exonerates nor indicts Trump, though few have actually seen it. There is apparently neither a smoking gun nor a clean bill of presidential conduct. It looks like we will have to endure having Trump in office for two more years and simply keep on trying to mitigate the damage. We got through the last two years despite considerable harm done to so many people and we will have to continue to do the same now. As much as a majority of Americans would dearly love to see Mr. Trump gone, gone, gone, it may be hard to prove that he actually committed a criminal offense, especially as he is protected as president and refuses to answer questions orally under oath. His has been a destructive and deliberately cruel presidency, mitigated, to some extent by the inexperience of his staff and his own stupidity. Right-wing websites and messages are now gleefully declaring that Trump has been “vindicated “and “fully exonerated,” hardly the case. Sarah Sanders has labeled the whole investigation “treason.” Trump also has alleged “treason” and “evil” acts, vowing to investigate. But a conclusion that may not meet the high bar for proving criminal intent “beyond a reasonable doubt” hardly proves innocence. His son and others seem to have tried to collude with Russia, but were unsuccessful.

Now, for a specified donation, right-wing websites are offering a chance to win a dinner with a triumphant Trump! (I cannot imagine anything less appealing!) Trump’s adversaries are being described as “radical leftists” bent on obstruction to advance their nefarious “socialist” agenda.

Trump and Republicans seized the advantage that Barr gave them and were quick to spin the Mueller report as an issue that’s now over and done with, the end, finis, a final and complete vindication of Trump, thanks to Barr’s carefully worded initial summary, leaving that impression with the voting public before the full report is actually released, if ever. McConnell is already vowing to block release of the full report. If and when it is released and Democrats delve into the details, that PR impression will have already been cemented in the weary public’s mind. Democrats may then be accused of knit-picking and ganging up on Trump after Barr already had seemed to have declared him innocent.

Lock ‘em up! Jared and Ivanka apparently have used personal e-mail for government business and persist in doing so. Donald has not even publicly scolded them so far.

The Conways’ family feud has given us a little comic relief. I can imagine the two of them laughing at home together at having fooled both the public and Donald Trump with their show. Meanwhile, Kellyanne is bringing home the bacon to support the family and there is always the prospect of her own future tell-all book.

Catastrophic climate change seems to be happening all around the country and the world, but Trump appears not to have noticed. He does make perfunctory trips to the scenes of environmental catastrophe, along with a stone-faced and seldom seen Melania (almost her only recent public appearances), whenever red states are afflicted. Are continuing weather extremes merely unlucky twists of fate that Mr. Trump is helpless to confront? Most of us already know the answer, even if he does not. Tough luck, Puerto Rico; blind fate simply assaulted you folks who are not really Americans anyway and President Trump is apparently helpless to confront climate change. And as the man continues to rail against dead war hero Senator John McCain, it’s time for the public to tell Trump, “Just shut up for a change!”

Migrant labor shortages have contributed to the woes of agriculture and dairy producing states already taking a big hit from Trump’s tariffs, also affecting shortages in child and elder care. Only recently, because of press scrutiny (“fake news”?), have Trump properties actually fired undocumented workers.

https://nypost.com/2019/03/29/mexico-warns-mother-of-all-caravans-headed-toward-us/

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/436459-trump-threatens-to-close-mexican-border-next-week

While labor shortages abound in agriculture and construction, where the lack of foreign workers are being felt most acutely right now, eventually, as machines and self-driving vehicles become more efficient and reliable, human labor will then be less in demand. Autopilots will largely replace human pilots as Boeing and other manufacturers figure that out. It’s even happening in my own current sphere with computer translation. Health and service jobs will still exist, but everyone should have more free time. Then it will make sense to move ever closer to the Nordic model of levying substantial taxes and providing basic benefits universally. Republicans and Mr. Trump (trying to mimic aspects of historic socialism by curbing free press and speech) can call the Nordic model “socialism” if they like, but it won’t be a governmental dictatorship, as in the former USSR or even contemporary China, or in Cuba and Venezuela where free speech, free press, and free voting are not allowed. Instead, Nordic nations have shown the way by allowing considerable freedom for economic development and free expression, but a more equitable distribution of income from taxes, demonstrating that such a system is do-able in the modern world. We would no longer need to have the big gap that now exists between the uber-wealthy and the have-nots. There will still be enough challenges to fulfill what my old occupational therapy colleagues call “meaningful activity.”

Although it is a smaller and less prosperous country than the US, Colombia, unlike the US, is doing its best to accommodate Venezuelans streaming across its borders to escape the Maduro regime, no walls, no threats to shut down the border, no sending people back.  

Anti-vax Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin boasted that he deliberately exposed his children to chickenpox to avoid vaccinations. He was lucky, as they all apparently survived unscathed. Chicken pox is a childhood disease that’s usually less serious as some others, such measles, which can have more dire or even fatal consequences. However, even chickenpox is not totally benign. During my 3 1/2-year tenure as a Peace Corps health volunteer in Honduras, I saw cases of kids who suffered lasting injury from chicken pox, including a formerly healthy teenage girl who became permanently paraplegic. I helped fit her for a wheelchair. Besides the risks that anti-vaxxers may inflict on their own offspring, they are also preventing the development of the herd immunity that protects those unable to be vaccinated because of serious health problems.

Country singer Justin Carter was killed by the accidental firing of a gun used as a prop in a music video, another example of how an accidental gun death can so easily occur. A little girl playing in her back yard in Tennessee is also near death after being hit in the head by a stray bullet. New Zealand’s swift action on gun control has been an example to other nations. We literally dodged a bullet in my family when son Jon was only shot in the foot, not killed instantly at age 11 by an unsecured bedside handgun dropped by another boy. (It’s more than enough that I’ve endured the deaths of my older son and my Cuban foster son). Two apparent suicides by survivors have resulted from the Parkland, Florida, school shooting, becoming further casualties of that attack, and another suicide was reported by the father of a Sandy Hook victim. Vigilance is required to assure that this suicide contagion does not spread further. The New Zealand mass shooting has aroused such fears again.

Majority sentiment in the US favors stricter gun control, but a quirky modern Supreme Court reading of the Second Amendment, contrary to what had been the prior understanding, has led us to this unfortunate point. But nothing is set in stone. Political winds do change. Supreme Court justices are not immortal nor is the idea of a lifetime appointment and/or having nine justices necessarily sacrosanct. Likewise, abolishing the Electoral College and the congressional enfranchisement of us citizens of the District of Columbia will both eventually come about, though probably not in my lifetime. What’s fair is fair, after all. Majority rule may be imperfect and seem oppressive to the minority, but minority rule, as we have now, is even worse. The Democratic Party and candidate Hillary Clinton obviously failed to appreciate the appeal and strategy of Donald Trump. Democrats should have learned their lesson. They failed to take such a ridiculous candidate seriously and even Trump was caught by surprise by his victory. Now we are all living with the consequences.     

Has the “Me-too” movement gone too far in targeting Joe Biden for kissing a woman’s hair? What about a man embracing a woman and kissing her on both cheeks, as is common in Latin countries? Is it always wrong if the woman decides she doesn’t like it? How is assent discerned in such ambiguous cases? There may be a generational divide, with men of Biden’s age greeting women affectionately, whereas younger men just shake hands. What if a woman spontaneously hugs a man without his consent? We are in a grey zone of changing mores. Nancy Pelosi has advised Biden and other men to “straight-arm” women, no more hugs.

In late March, the case of our Amnesty International Cuban prisoner of conscience, Dr. Eduardo Cardet, was presented in Geneva at the Summit for Human Rights and Democracy. Also in March, Mexico deported 66 Cuban migrants back to Havana, apparently the only migrants being deported by Mexico.  

For the third year in a row, Trump is recommending a cut in the Peace Corps budget, which comprises only a minuscule part of the total federal budget. This time the proposed cut is $14 million, which would have a considerable negative impact. Probably few Trump voters have any connection with Peace Corps, the only thing that counts for him. And, yes, most voters do like tax cuts, but cuts for what? Many of us would like to see cuts in military spending, in aid to Israel and Egypt, and in “wall” funding. But we’d also like to see more taxes levied on wealthy individuals and corporations and even on ourselves to fund universal health care, rebuild Puerto Rico, increase food stamps, add more early childhood education, and also to expand the Peace Corps. Most Republican voters and office holders, if confronted with someone drowning or bleeding, would rush to their aid. However, in the abstract or the aggregate, with Trump as their leader, they refuse to help anyone, only to punish or hurt them and to create havoc.  

Closer to my everyday life, a reader has made a good suggestion for parents of children with developmental delays or behavior issues now being seen by a therapist (with me as interpreter), namely reinforcing individualized treatment sessions with access to video lessons. I know that sometimes groups of parents have gathered together to watch such videos, but it would be helpful for them to also have personal access. Necessarily, those videos would not be specific to their own child.  

When writing in Spanish or reading aloud from a text, I always appreciate the phonetic quality of the written language compared to English. There are a few tricky areas, such as the silent “h” and, in Latin America, the often inter-changeable sounds of c, s, and z, also of y and ll. Sometimes x and j can sound the same, as in México. Given those relatively few exceptions, why do so many Spanish-speakers, even some well-educated ones, misspell some common Spanish words? Probably because their schools never taught them spelling. Accents present another sort of challenge.

Furthermore, while English pronunciation stresses consonants, Spanish gives more emphasis to vowels. Reading aloud can highlight the differences. When I’ve asked the adult child of an older patient who’d never learned to read to read a medical consent form aloud to their parent, they cannot do it, leaving that task to me. They say they learned to speak Spanish at home, but never to read and write in Spanish, which looks to them on the printed page like a foreign language!  

Neo-Nazi flyers have reportedly been distributed in my own Capitol Hill neighborhood.