Mr. Trump said he needed to stay in the US because of Hurricane Dorian, so he sent Mike Pence to Poland instead, while he stayed home and played golf all weekend. Trump probably was glad for the excuse and with Pence, the Poles got a more coherent visitor. So much for my friend living in Nassau in the Bahamas sent me a message that where he lives did not take a direct hit, though it had lots of wind, rain, and heavy flooding.

Discussions of a possible future economic downturn may help make that prognostication to actually come true. However, if it has to happen soon anyway, let’s hope it happens before the next election, as Donald Trump and company would have no plan to deal with it, except to increase the already humongous federal budget deficit, just as they have no real plan for anything else beyond the immediate horizon, only for mouthing off empty slogans.

Trump’s most significant economic threat to our nation and to the world is the trade war that he launched without consulting with allies, but if it brings about a world recession, everyone will be affected.

Xi has the upper hand in the trade war that the Donald started because Xi doesn’t face election soon or ever. Furthermore, Trump’s negotiating style, marked by frequent changes of position, lacks the trust that a final “deal” requires. A “win-win” solution is not something Trump can ever imagine. Instead, he thinks he needs to vanquish trading partners to show that he is top dog.

After Trump’s attacks on Rep. Omar, it was amazing to hear a radio interview with some of her constituents, Somali refugees in Minnesota, some of whom had first learned English at ages 10, 12, or later, and are so much more coherent and articulate than the president who has dissed them.

Should Justice Ginsberg be flattered when Trump wishes her a speedy recovery when he would love nothing better than to replace her with another conservative on the Supreme Court, giving him something to brag about later? And calling Democratic Jews “disloyal” is not the greatest way to turn them into Republicans. Nor is cancelling his trip to Denmark because that nation won’t sell him Greenland likely to win him European allies. It’s like one of the temper tantrums he might have thrown when trying to bully his way into a real estate deal. No wonder Melania seems to have given up her anti-bullying campaign since the irony simply has become too great. Trump is just a big fat baby in an old man’s form, but not as cute, affectionate, or lovable.

Yet Trump himself yields to bullying from the right sources. A single warning call from NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre was enough for Trump to back off his promise of universal background checks, at least for assault weapons, and to reverse his initial agreement about red-flag laws, falling back instead on the tired “mental health” excuse for gun violence. If every shooter is labeled “mentally ill” after-the-fact, then that’s a handy retroactive excuse. It’s true that few guns go off by themselves, except when a child drops one, as happened to my son at age 11, injured in the foot, an injury that still plagues him, though he thankfully survived. However, even pulling a trigger intending to kill would not occur so often if there were fewer guns in circulation, as the experience of other countries with stricter gun laws and fewer guns has shown overwhelmingly. Your right to bear arms should not supersede my right to life.

Then again, Trump may support background checks after all. It’s uncertain. as he has waffled on this and many other issues, probably driving his staff crazy. He also has a very short attention span. The man is getting more erratic. Would he be labeled “mentally ill”? His Greenland caper and “King of Israel” remarks are just some of the latest. He does manage to make himself the center of attention during every news cycle. Trending now: Denmark Offered to Buy the Senate from the NRA.

Meanwhile, a second mass shooting occurred in August in Texas (an open-carry state). Where again was the NRA’s “good guy with a gun” taking down the shooter? Not only are people being killed at random, but many others are being injured for life. I know a young man here in DC who was shot at age 17 and has been quadriplegic ever since, needing constant help with feeding, bathing, dressing, and other routine activities. We are all at risk.

A woman who got out on the wrong floor of an apartment building and killed a man she thought was in her apartment, when he was really in his own, shows the folly of having a gun always at the ready. How many road rage killings, accidents, mistaken shootings of family members sneaking into a house a night, impulsive suicides, and children’s accidents are due to the instant ease of pulling a trigger?

While Mr. Trump continues to have his fervid supporters among both ordinary people and Republican operatives, it’s hard to imagine a human being so devoid of the qualities that most people in our country and around the world would associate with leadership. He is physically unattractive, impolite, arrogant, mentally challenged, inarticulate, mean, greedy, a compulsive liar, and a sexual predator. Did an unfortunate combination of nature and nurture end up producing him? If he weren’t so widely destructive, it would not matter so much.

Now, under Trump, we Americans get an idea of what it feels like to be governed, thwarted, harassed, bullied, embarrassed, exploited for personal gain, and deliberately attacked by the leader of our own government, much as happens to people living under dictatorships around the world. Mr. Trump bad-mouths other countries, then wonders why they pay him no respect. He has aroused the heads of once-friendly nations to turn against him and our country, and has attacked US states, the media, and Democrats, acting affronted whenever they oppose or criticize him. He seems offended when allies try to stick with the original Iran deal. He’s super sensitive to criticism, reacting defensively, doubling down on his offensive behavior. The Alabama hurricane Sharpie-gate caper is a case in point, where others rushed in to take the rap.

The “capitalism with a human face” being advocated by some enterprises is a refreshing notion that challenges Trump and company’s “us-first” and maximum greed scenario. Let’s hope there is a public opinion shift toward more equitable sharing of the wealth that we all help produce. Some companies are aiming for a combination of shareholder, employee, and social benefit As someone taking IRA distributions from stock market investments, I’m willing to receive reduced benefits if I know that is benefiting others. We are all in this life together.

I especially like presidential candidate Andrew Young’s guaranteed income proposal. As Mr. Young points, a guaranteed income doesn’t seem to have sapped the energy and drive of red-state Alaskans. It’s not outright socialism or communism to combine capitalist production with a more equitable distribution of the wealth that we all create together. Some European countries are already doing that successfully. The uber rich cannot even spend or account for their all money.

Thanks to Trump’s lack of world leadership, the American dollar is starting to lose credibility, because a currency has value based only on trust and that is ebbing in the age of Trump. (Low interest rates now may be a warning sign.) For one thing, the Trump administration has allowed the US to accumulate too much debt. This may spur movement into digital or crypto currencies and lead to the dollar’s decline as the world’s currency. China, whose leaders have a longer-term vision, are launching a crypto currency. However, crypto currency may also be subject to manipulation, sabotage, and invasion of privacy.

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - A Honduran court convicted the wife of former President Porfirio Lobo on graft charges, including siphoning funds from programs designed to help poor children, a judicial official said on Tuesday. https://www.yahoo.com/news/wife-ex-president-honduras-convicted-013800534.html

Here she is reported convicted and sentenced. She was first lady during my volunteer trips to Honduras. I recall hearing her on the radio. https://www.yahoo.com/news/former-first-lady-honduras-sentenced-001727098.html

nicaragua-guilty-gross-rights-violations-un-145854509.html

Here’s a warning to first-world do-gooders to make sure their interventions in developing countries do more good than harm. Beware of unintended consequences! Such a warning should also be applied to the Peace Corps, where, at least, volunteers are not salaried, spend 2+ years actually living in a country at a very modest level, and regard their stay as a 2-way exchange, not first-world largess. https://brightthemag.com/the-reductive-seduction-of-other-people-s-problems-3c07b307732d

Haiti is another country where I’ve gone to try to make a difference. Haitian president [Jovenel Moise] pledges to outlast troubles

https://www.yahoo.com/news/ap-interview-haitian-president-pledges-041109112.html

I’ve also been following the fate of Sudan’s former strongman Omar al-Bashir ever since I was in South Sudan in 2006, before it became an independent nation, back when he was a boogeyman for everyone in the south. There must some satisfaction in the south that he is gone now, even as South Sudan struggles with its own political divisions. Here is the article I wrote about my south Sudan visit: file:///C:/Users/melan/OneDrive/Desktop/Barbara%20Backup/Downloads/Sudan%20article.pdf

We who championed South Sudan’s independence from the north in 2011 have been sorely disappointed regarding the many human rights violations occurring in the south and the continued friction between the country’s president and vice president and their tribal followers. However, I would like to highlight one Amnesty International (AI) case, that of 17-year-old Magal Matioy Ngong, who is scheduled for execution om South Sudan.

When on 19 April 2018, Miguel Díaz Canel became the new president of Cuba, the change of leadership was seen as an opportunity to promote human rights changes in the country. Unfortunately, the first year of the Díaz Canel administration has not confirmed such expectations, as still today, in Cuba, freely expressing opinions and beliefs can put one’s freedom at risk. Freedom of assembly and expression has not improved much since my regular visits to Cuba, chronicled in my book Confessions of a Secret Latina: How I fell Out of Love with Castro & In Love with the Cuban People.

As of mid-2019, Cuban Prisoners Defenders, a coalition of dissident political activists, claim that at least 87 people are being detained on politically motivated grounds. Having reviewed a selection of those cases at AI, where I serve as volunteer Caribbean Coordinator, we have been able to name five new prisoners of conscience (POCs). This list of prisoners of conscience includes members of political and pro-democracy groups not recognized by the state, all of whom have been imprisoned for crimes that are either inconsistent with international law or used for decades in Cuba to silence critical voices. It is incredibly hard for us to verify information without being able to go to Cuba. As per my book, I am now persona non grata there. https://amnesty.app.box.com/s/bmmmcm839hafbn7qmrd8ctcudnpm9wgj

[From a Canadian newspaper]

https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/politics-news-pmn/amnesty-international-names-five-new-political-prisoners-in-cuba/

[Same from Yahoo News]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/amnesty-international-names-five-political-002717482.html

Here below is an introduction to the Cuban Amnesty prisoners in both English and Spanish.

https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/AMR2509362019ENGLISH.pdf

https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/AMR2509362019SPANISH.pdf

More Cuba news below.

How Cuba Taught Venezuela How to Quash Military Dissent

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-cuba-military-specialreport/special-report-how-cuba-taught-venezuela-to-quash-military-dissent-idUSKCN1VC1BX

More Cubans seek asylum in Mexico amid clampdown on legal path to US. The Guardian, Sept. 3. 2019 https://www.yahoo.com/news/more-cubans-seek-asylum-mexico-080049975.html

As has been mentioned before, the Me-Too era has left some men of a certain age, including politicians, retroactively being held accountable for what was considered acceptable behavior in the past. And the rules of flirting, the delicate back-and-forth of romance, still are evolving, but unless there is some acceptable and generally accepted method of getting to know each other, romantic partners will never get together.

An article in the Aug, 14 edition of the Economist discusses the US abortion issue at length. Reportedly, American abortion laws are the least restrictive on the planet. Many countries do not allow abortions at all and most completely restrict 3^rd trimester abortions, which are approved by only 13% of Americans as well and make up only a little more than 1% of all US abortions. Before extraction, the late-term fetus is euthanized with an injection, so feels no pain thereafter. I had been concerned about pain at that late stage of development. Certainly, in the 3^rd trimester, the expectant mother feels the movements of the unborn and knows that an independent “someone” is in there, as I can attest.

Without a cell phone and with an unlisted landline number, I still get my share of random-dialed calls warning me that my social security number or bank account have been compromised, but if I ask for identification of either, that is not forthcoming. However, I was recently non-plussed when a woman identifying herself as a real estate consultant, addressed me very familiarly as “Barbara.” How did she know to connect my private number to my first name? Probably nothing is private in the digital age. In all cases, when I realize the nature of a call I never asked for, I simply say, “No thanks” and hang up.

[Many apologies for erratic spacing hereafter, but cannot correct it.]

Household troubles afflict us all, especially in a 124-year-old house. I found the first-floor half-bath toilet running, the same toilet that was there when we moved into the house 50 years ago. Then a courtesy call came in from the water company about excessive water usage. While trying to stop the flow, I noticed the tank had cracked around the handle

and a piece was dangling.

Had I somehow banged the handle or the tank? I did manage to stop most of
the flow with a combination of foil, rubber, and a stone. My repairman said he thought we should replace the entire toilet and he had a spare toilet that he had been saving for just such an occasion. But loading it onto his truck, his helper dropped the toilet and it broke. Talk about adding insult to injury! So, a brand- new toilet had to be purchased. Meanwhile, further calamity on top of calamity, hundreds of dollars’ worth of tools were taken from my workman’s open pickup. Here is the new toilet after his all-day work:

When the toilet problem first surfaced, a woman from Eritrea had come to my place for a temporary stay. I’d vowed to host no more visitors, but this young lady was highly recommended by a former housemate. In the kitchen, she immediately smelled gas. It was not so noticeable to me, as perhaps I’d gotten used to it. When she pointed it out, I did smell it, but only faintly. I called the gas company, which promised to send someone out. However, we somehow missed connections and he ended up disconnecting the gas into the whole house. It took 4 days over the long weekend for another gas company rep to come back and turn it on and find the leak. But then he turned

it off again, until I could get the pipe fixed on my own. Meanwhile, no gas stove, cold showers, and no gas clothes dryer. Finally, someone came to turn the gas back on and re-light all the pilots, but we missed the oven pilot the first time around. Finally, all that has been fixed. One of the agents also changed out my old gas meter, which seemed to be giving us very low gas bills.

September 4 was the birthday of my dearly departed son Andrew, who would have been 52. We still miss him, but no longer with our initial raw grief. Still, his death was a reminder that that the problems of robberies, gas leaks, and broken toilets can be fixed.