A good summer (any) time read

 

I've read several others of her books, and usually finish them rather fast. They flow along with amazingly strange characters that you tend to believe as normal. This book is no exception to that, but was a bit longer. Each chapter (if you would term them that) is about 2-4 pages long. And has a slightly different focus on a situation, usually looking at another of the characters involved in what's happening.  

And then there are divisions based on the 1940s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s. A lot changes in a small town, or even the governorship of Missouri, in those decades.

I hope you get a chance to sit back and read a couple of chapters a day, like I did. It took a month, and was full of chuckles and an occassional laugh out loud.

Today's quote:

I daresay anything can be made holy by being sincerely worshipped. -Iris Murdoch, writer (1919-1999) 

Switching out Coal for clean energy

Switching out Coal  for clean energy

by Katharine Heyhoe

Coal isn’t just an inefficient, expensive, carbon-belching, way to generate electricity – it’s also a huge source of pollution that directly impacts people’s health. Seven years ago, for example, a coal processing plant near Pittsburgh closed. This month, a new study finds that nearby residents’ ER visits for heart issues immediately fell by 42%; a huge drop that increased even further, to 61%, over the next few years.

That’s why it’s such great news that in South Africa, a coal plant that has been active for half a century is now retired — and being turned into a clean energy powerhouse! Instead of fossil fuels, the grounds of the Komati Power Station now generate solar and wind energy and serve as a battery storage system. 
 
This encouraging new role for the coal plant is the result of a partnership between South Africa, the E.U., and the U.S., which reached a deal at the COP26 climate summit in 2021 to deliver $8.5 billion in loans and grants to accelerate South Africa’s transition to renewable energy in a socially and economically just way. The country’s aging coal-fired power stations currently supply 86 percent of its electricity.
 
The South Africa agreement is the first of what’s called Just Energy Transition Partnerships, agreements that provide global financing for emerging economies that want to shift away from fossil fuels without leaving vulnerable communities behind. Since then, Indonesia and Vietnam have also signed JET agreements, and are currently developing their own plans.
 
This is the kind of creative climate solution I love to see, similar to the debt-for-nature deals I covered a few months ago in this edition of the newsletter. More please!

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Thanks to Katharine Heyhoe's newsletter...there's much more each edition!

About mining for coal and other minerals

A repost from 2015

I'd like to share something to do with the Mountain Top Removal in our Appalachian Mountains.  It's awful, to say the least, just to garner a few more tons of coal.

The effort by environmentalists, neighbors, health care workers, and anyone against using limited resources and leaving a wasteland, has been politicized for the last few years.  These efforts are beginning to make a difference.  But not before many mountains are ruined.

Appalachian Voices's photo

On Facebook last night (in 2015) I read this:

61% of North Carolina's electricity comes from coal, and half of that from mountaintop removal.  Today, state Rep. Pricey Harrison introduced legislation to phase out the use of mountaintop removal coal in N.C. Show your support for this important action!

NOTE from 2023...

 

I haven't kept up with the NC power plants, but I believe a lot (in 2023) are switching to natural gas. It's just another fossil fuel in my mind! The GOP which runs our state legislature wants more of those, and maybe some nuclear power plants, but isn't interested in wind or solar. They are looking at who elected them last and trying to keep those people's jobs secure, or perhaps they've received campaign funds from corporations which do the mining!

How we reached 8 Billion persons today

 and perhaps where we'll be at the end of this century.

Today's quote:

"We are Earth. We are the planet. We are the biosphere. We are not distinct from nature. Yet, at the same time, we are, as life — as living things: ourselves, the redwoods, the birds overhead — we are the pinnacle of complexity in the universe, from the Big Bang until now. It took 13.7 billion years for the atoms to come together to form this portal of self-awareness that is you. […] Given this ephemeral existence that we have, of self-awareness, what are you going to do with your moment? What are we, as a species, going to do with our moment? 

 Astronomer Natalie Batalha, who led the epoch-making discovery of more than 4,000 potential cradles for life by NASA’s Kepler mission and now continues her work on the search for life beyond our solar system with the astrobiology program at UC Santa Cruz.

Inspire me (from yesteryear)

Repost from 2012...and I had to see if the links were still good. Not for the article that seemed interesting, but the others are.

Inspire me

Good advice I've picked from blogs, periodicals (magazines), books, and other sources I run into - mainly about working in clay.  (I do enjoy other avenues of visual art and foods)

At San Jacinto Monument, the Battleship Texas behind my father and sis and myself. I'm the one with a bow in my hair!
A commenter said the dolls are Baby Bunting dolls, and she had made one herself. 

"There is no one so dangerous and powerful as those who receive empowerment from the wisdom of others and seek to prove its validity in their own lives... " 

Dr. Richard Jacobs, in letters to Christa Assad published in The Studio Potter, June 2004.   

(I got the hard copy of this magazine in a batch of free magazines on pottery from another blogger who was about to move to the west coast.  I had to go pick the magazines up in Bakersville, NC.  It was fun, and eventually I bought my wheel from that potter.)   http://shambhalapottery.blogspot.com/ 

NOTE 2023, this link is still working! And the ware cart that was sold to the Black Mountain Clay Studio is still in use there.

Look at the blogs being followed by someone's blog you haven't read before.  This is a great off-shoot activity which can take you anywhere.  It's better than a raw search, at least in my experience.  I'm sorry my blog isn't listed in many people's "blogs I follow."  But since I'm an introvert, I'm ok with my anonymity.

Note 2023: I still haven't put "following" gadget on my blogs!

Today I explored here: http://marianwilliamspottery.blogspot.com/

Thank you Miriam Williams.  I saw a few blogs that I already am following, and added a few new ones to my own long list.

Note 2023: This link is still working

Today I enjoyed reading this article also.  Lana Wilson's Advice on Developing Your Own Style   Would you do this, or did you ever do this exercise?  I'm awestruck that this is the way pinterest may well have started.  I do like the way brainstorming is taken into a three dimensional format by using clay.

Note 2023: that link doesn't work now.

I would love to share with you some pictures of pottery by other potters, or photos by industrious people with better eyes and equipment than I have, but don't have time to ask for permissions.  Just know that I do look, and my eyes feast upon the beauty that others create.  You'll have to go see them yourself.  I can give you links to their posts...just look at my list in the column to the right.  ( I have no idea why my blog list that's on "my profile" is so sparse...I follow about 100 blogs at least)

And back to Lana Wilson's most important piece of advice.  To go to work in the studio.  Yep.  Bye for now.

Note 2023: I gave up making pottery at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, 2020. So I had practiced that craft from 2008...12 years total.

I'm in high school and get to wear high heels for a piano recital. I'm the skinny girl on the right, wearing blue dress and fake shells necklace.

Sharing again with Sepia Saturday! 

Today's quote:

I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in. -George McGovern, senator and author (1922-2012)

A day to remember

 My 81st birthday was just sliding into a new number, my next trip around the sun.

But I was showered with good wishes, a bouquet, a gift card, calls and texts from almost all my family, lunch at my favorite restaurant, and lots of birthday cards. What unexpected fun.

Fortunately I've never looked like that...but the thought was...

So now I have to consider my sassy self. Not sure I've looked hard at her before!

The requesite selfie. See, no photos of Ole's Guacamole, where Suzanne treated me to a taco salad with grilled shrimp. Sorry, no photo even of those huge shrimps!

An unexpected treat was driving up to Montreat... 

And following directions as Suzanne drove...

...to a natural spring where she gets her drinking water every week. Ah, a good idea for when I don't use the Britta filters in a small pitcher. With all the water I've been drinking lately, I would like to try this. And actually I don't mind Black Mountain water, though it's been chlorinated and floride added.

I love the gift of flowers! They are so cheerful in my home, in my biggest vase (made by me)!!

On my Thursday excursion in the heat of noontime (what was I thinking? - that it would be hotter later) I passed by this interesting Roberta Flack mural. Though she was born here, she was raised elsewhere, so we're really stretching things to claim her!

I found street side parking, and reminded myself how to parallel park. Did pretty well I'd say. Then finally got to Kilwins for my birthday treat for myself. Fudge. I didn't want to try to eat ice cream outside in the heat, and they no longer have any tables inside. I had wanted dark chocolate walnut fudge...but they had either English Walnut or Dark Chocolate. So I got a piece of each. Then the clerk told me when you buy 2 you get one free. So I chose a turtle fudge, with pecans and caramel added.

I was so dedicated to my pursuit of fudge, I skipped going to the library. I didn't want the fudge to melt. And I'd forgotten to eat lunch also, so I made myself drink a protein drink before my first taste. Walnut fudge does not disappoint. 

Here's a sweet birthday card with bling, giving more decoration to the fudge box.

 

I am so grateful to have this little porch where geraniums and coleus, and basil and lavendar and mint and orchids have been happy all summer.

All in all, the first day of being 81 isn't so bad.

Today's quote:

And, "There is no reason why a great poet should be a wise and good man, or even a tolerable human being, but there is every reason why his reader should be improved in his humanity as a result of reading him."  Northrop Frye,

Memories of the ocean

A repost from 2015 

Taken on April 21, 1948
Galveston beach, TX
Top photos have Uncle Chauncey on the left, smallest sunbonnet is Mary Beth, and I'm the blond with bangs, then my dad, George Rogers.
You can see the water was barely getting our feet wet.

In the bottom 2 photos I'm on the left, Mary Beth in the middle, and Gummy, my grandmother Ada Rogers is wearing not only a dress as we sit on this driftwood, but hat and gloves!  What a lady!

Mother or Poppy must have been doing the camera work for this visit.

We spent about a month of that summer traveling to St. Louis, MO and Stevens Point, WI, going through the Smoky Mountains for my first view of mountains.  We then moved to St. Louis.  After I grew up my first job was in Miami...

All my adult life I've had to think whether I wanted to live near the beach or the mountains.

When I lived in Knoxville TN, I'd go visit the beach for vacations, but once a month would go hiking in the Smokies.

I would yo-yo between mountains and beach almost yearly.  If I lived in the vicinity of one, I'd go visit the other.

Then I moved back to Florida for about 12 years (in different cities).  I just recently found a post card which actually has the house in which we lived in St. Augustine, FL.  Sorry I didn't scan it, but just took a photo with my phone.

At the top of this photo is Anastasia State Park, which not only has a beach, but a campground.  In the middle you see the fishing pier. There is no entertainment.

Close-up view of Hampton Inn and our apartment

The four story red brick hotel (Hampton Inn) to the lower left was built while I lived there (1996-2000.)  The little street just above it going toward the ocean is 15th Street, and directly across that street is the small 2 story grey house with dark grey roof which was our apartment (ground floor). This photo even shows one of our cars in the parking lot.  We were the 4th house from the Atlantic Ocean.  As you might notice, we didn't exactly have a swimming beach unless it was low tide, as there was a pile of rocks making a sea-wall next to those waves.  I would walk up to the state park and wade in that water between the rocks, or drive to one of the beaches further south where you could drive a car and swim.

And the reverse side of the post card is as follows:

Thanks to John Nyberg for the great photo!

The apartment was empty and for sale when I last drove by the area a few years ago.  I hope the real estate market has improved and others are enjoying by now.

I have some really great memories from my living there.  But now I'm happily retired and living in the mountains of North Carolina.

I might like to visit a beach sometime soon, however. Nothing definite planned yet.

Today's quote: 

Beyond the obvious need for public officials to occasionally be held accountable for breaking the law, the culture of elite impunity for criminal acts that Trump has thrived in needs to end. Trump has shown over and over that he will continually push the envelope and engage in allegedly criminal behavior. Why shouldn’t he? Up to now, no one has forced him to suffer the consequences. Trump may not be that bright, but he’s not necessarily stupid either. If you constantly put your hand against a burning stove and never get burned, what’s the point of stopping? MSNBC Columnist Michael A. Cohen 

On turning 81

 It's a "no big deal" birth year. But still an accomplishment, if longevity is the ultimate prize. As my 90 year old friends have told me, they never expected this to happen, it just happened to them. 

The woman across the courtyard just had her 98th birthday last week.

So I feel a puny little 81.

It has been a year that I should mark for some of the good things that I experienced.

For my 80th birthday my 3 sons gathered with most of their kids (mostly adults now) and one of the three wives. We rented this huge cabin in nearby woods and just did things together!

Will, Cayenne, Audrey, Russ, Caroline, me, Tai, Marty and Michael...Kendra was on the camera. Michelle and Kate and Barbara B. couldn't attend!

And some friends also threw me a surprise lunch birthday party at Ole' Guacamoles! From front, Suzanne, with Helen behind her, then Linda, me, Cathy, and Teresa.

So that was an eventful birthday.

I started the year 2023 dealing with frequent fevers of unknown origin...which sometimes made my coughing frorm Bronchiectasis worse, and sometimes didn't. So again I took various medications in hope of cures. Basically I missed planned activities more and more, and felt separated even more from my family of friends in my church...more than just COVID had done. I was worried every time I attended anything, and wore my mask.

I was "fired" after not paying good attention to the meetings I was missing...from editing the monthly newsletter, Tidings. I had made some mistakes, but as all editors do, had corrected them the next month. I diligently published something each month from January 2019 to March 2023, many times taking photos myself, writing articles on a theme that either was suggested by others or I came up with myself. Because of my frequent sicknesses I never received any recognition for all these volunteer hours. One woman was shocked and thought I had been given a raw deal. She thought the job of those monthly newsletters must have been hard. I had to laugh, as I enjoyed the creativity which I had transferred from art to a newsletter.

Welll that sounded like a couple of negatives to start the year off.

Another group caught my attention - the Swannanoa Wateshed Action Network (SWAN). They met each week for at least 2 hours...and had lots of different interests related to ecology and environment, and the climate changes happening locally.  

I came originally to one of these meetings in Sept. 2022 with a friend who had made an art installation about how people react to climate crisis. My friend had also started a group called Climate Conversation.  I continued to attend the SWAN meetings whenever my health allowed. Sometimes I had to leave early. Here is a link to my post about Suzanne Ziglar's art installation "Consider Climate Change, a Conversation. "

I continued my interest in SWAN water because they were working with Kate Raworth's theory of Doughnut Economics, as it could be applied to a workshop. The SWAN members also demonstrated cicular and shared leadership in it's meetings, which appealed to m.

We even played a game from the New York Times called "Save the Earth" with various environmental choices for each team. And then when summer began, the networking group all had other interests to attend to, and the meetings stopped. I missed them, but had no way to see another gathering happening soon.

The Climate Conversation group (at the UU Church) has become a core group of women working in their own environments to do things for the earth. For me, I write articles in my blog "When I was 69" about climate chaos, and I buy books that are good resources about climate change, and read most of them. I  have shared about the Doughnut Economics model as I understood it. Ilike meeting with this core group monthly, where we share and laugh together.

I have decided my "When I was 69" blog would be where I could express my opinions...so I have. One post featured a 15 minute interview with Greta Thunberg, who is usually so serious about Climate Chaos, but here she had the giggles. 

Yes indeed, laughter, and playing are important parts of our balance in our lives.

But I had a hard time of the winter of 2022-23. I might have been depressed, perhaps from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) which is related to lack of sunlight. No longer having Tidings to compile monthly left a big hole in my writing.

Then in the spring I spent several months changing my eyesight by having my cataracts removed, first one and then two weeks later the other. It took a month before I could get a new glasses prescription. 

I enjoyed posting 31 women's photos and bios in Women's History Month, of March of this year. Not sure if I'll do it again though.

As spring came around, I rejoyced in seeing the beauty of flowers. I tried when I felt well enough to walk more, because I didn't like being so limited in my breath or muscles to no longer be able to walk a half mile. Still working on that!

The Climate Conversation group hosted an Earth Day event at Lake Tomahawk with lots of great displays about the environment. The weather was iffy, but we felt it was a good success.

Carlos, me, Heather and Robertson at the Earth Day SWAN display. Here are more photos of the event.

I took a couple of day trips with friends. These excursions are mileposts to me, providing completely new environments to visit and share on blogs.

The Vance museum and old buildings.

Us Three Non-muskateers visited Asheville for lunch and a movie, and earlier had a trip to Burnsville NC.

And in the last few weeks I've had major medical treatments to hopefully solve a couple of the recurring problems I've had physically. One suggests I may be reacting to mold in my environment. That means, as soon as I feel well enough, to put on a mask and get out bleach and rubber gloves to tackle what I can see (like the cracks around the windows). But I also am aware my bathroom may have mold within the walls. I wipe down the shower after I dry myself each time now. But I may soon move my bed into another room, further away from the bathroom. 

The last BIG birthday had been when I turned 70...when everyone gathered in Jensen Beach where one daughter-in-law's parents had a condo, and the rest of us stayed in a nice nearby hotel. That was 2012!

From front to back on left, Will, Cayenne, Caroline, me, Russ, Michelle, Tai, Kendra and Kate...with Marty on camera.

Flashback to 2012...The first Mudbuddies group, making things at the Clay Studio and selling them at the Saturday Black Mountain Tailgate Market each week! I think 2016 was my last year as a Mud Buddy, but I was still active in other venues selling my pottery, often in a booth with Cathy! Ah memories!

Cathy Babula, Pat Levi, Elise Reed, Bette Potter Jones, Marsha Cozart and myself at 70.

So here I am being finished with 81 years, looking forward to each day as it comes. No big plans on my horizon at this time. I will have lunch at my favorite restaurant with a good friend. I do have a goal of better health! That's always a goal worth doing something for. But the other day I realized there's just one letter different between meditation and medication. I've been looking pretty heavily at medications lately, so started meditating again. My focus for the first attempt was the chant.

May the long time sun shine upon you,

All love surround you,

And the pure light within you,

Shine your way on. (I used "home")

I now spend evenings binge watching old TV series, and now am hooked on Dark Winds, which is only in it's 2nd season. Since Outlander has been on for years, I've gone back to the beginning to watch those. I love seeing fictional characters in history in this way!

Today's quote:

“We forget that nature itself is one vast miracle transcending the reality of night and nothingness,” “We forget that each one of us in his personal life repeats that miracle.”

 Loren Eiseley ( anthropologist and philosopher of science )  in his poetic meditation on life in 1960.

For Lauri Carleton

 Oh My Gooness!

John Pavlovitz has nailed it...see his blog "The Murder of Lauri Carleton and The Killing Words of Anti-LGBTQ Conservatives" (title is the link.)

He says:

"The 66-year old wife and mother of nine children was murdered outside her Southern California clothing store by a man who tore town her flag and shot her to death when she protested. As senseless and shocking as the assassination of Lauri Carleton is, it is not a surprise. It is the rotten, putrid fruit of MAGA America and all it stands for and aspires to.

Violence targeting the LGBTQ community and those who support them is not a random aberration, it is the logical progression."

As a friend and supporter of LGBTQ+ people, I can hardly believe this...but yet, it's makes a stupid kind of sense from congregations/crowds of radical Christians to another crazed man with an automatic weapon. It is sobering to me, friends!

I work to exhibit many displays supporting LGBTQ+ rights in our area, where we have a Pride March in Asheville. I am frightened by this.

Pavlovitz goes on to say:

"Lauri Carleton is the victim of two vicious hate crimes: of the person pulling the trigger and of those who made doing so for that person so easy.

There is no mystery here to be solved, no complex code to uncover, no hidden shooter motive we need to follow down endless rabbit trails to discern.
This is simple cause-and-affect.

It is the grotesque monster Republicans have made because they have lacked creative ideas or noble impulses or any desire to lead responsible for the common good.

By continually chasing the sensational, by relentlessly ratcheting up their rhetoric, by dragging their base to an ever-deepening bottom, and by using LGBTQ people as faceless, nameless political chips—they are nurturing the kind of wasteful violence that visited Lauri Carleton."

This sounds so much like the beginning events of Jan 6, 2021.

The last of his post follows:

"The dangerous words of the Conservative movement are getting people killed.

It’s time for allies of the LGBTQ community to explicitly speak words that love and bring life and declare what we will not abide here.

We often like to say hate has no home here

We need to move this from aspiration to incarnation.

To hell with this hatred."

Retired in 2007...but before that...

 From an older post, telling about my last job before retirement.

First, I had family with grandchildren living in Tampa FL. So this move was a no-brainer on that score. I had lived there before and just after my divorce, but that had been about 30 years prior.

In the years before I retired, I worked as an Activity Director in a 200 unit senior citizen apartment building.  That meant there were at least 200 people, and really many more because a lot of apartments had a couple living in them.



Jewish Center Towers is a well maintained building, and I greatly enjoyed providing programs daily, including publishing a calendar which I posted on each of the 16 floors weekly. (Tampa also had Baptist Towers and Methodist Village all built about the same time.)

Warning...the volume is very high on the following video, so you might want to turn down your own volume, or be ready to put the volume on the video lower quickly.

 

I haven't tried posting a video before, and this one just jumped out of my files.  

That was many ago.  And my life has changed so drastically it's hard to remember how it used to be.

Five days a week I was in that office at 8 am until 5 pm...except the days when I provided an evening program which included anything from catered dinners with an entertainer to I theme parties.  I was also responsible for cleaning up the kitchen and dining room following those programs so the lunch people would have a tidy and clean area the next day, and some of the senior residents also helped.  There was a Kosher lunch provided which was cooked off site and brought in each day.

I did such fun things as arrange Tai Chi for elders, including Chi Gong, and daily sit-er-cise videos.   I taught folks how to paint a watercolor tree like the one on my wall in my office. 

We had some celebrations of various holidays, Thanksgiving, Valentines, St. Patricks Day, etc.  We had weekly Bingo, which I led as well as being responsible for the prize money from the purchased cards.  All the money was divided between the 20 games we played...and these were serious Bingo playing people, and the house didn't get anything left over!

I arranged a lot of volunteer visits by some of the "well known groups" in Tampa.  We had a "Pirate Krewe" of lovely ladies visit who are part of the parade and doings at the annual festival called Gasparilla.  We had some students who were in competition for Irish Step Dancing perform for us.

I also had a weekly Coffee and Cuban Bread group, which sometimes had bagels instead.  It was an interesting mix of people at J C Towers, because perhaps a third of the residents were Jewish, and a third were Hispanic.  Did I mention this is in Tampa, FL?  Almost everyone was over 65.  The rent was subsidized for many of the occupants.  What a fun group of people!

People didn't move away very often.  This was an independent living situation, so everyone was on their own.  Occasionally there would be an emergency medical team called for a few folks who had accidental falls or other problems.  And every once in a while there would be a fire drill.  That was not much fun, because you couldn't use the elevators, and those folks from way up on 16 had a long way to come down.

Tampa is in the path of hurricanes every once in a while...so the residents all learned what they could do when and if the electricity was off.  Again, no elevators.  And sometimes no water.  The windows could be opened in the apartments, and when you opened your doorway to the hall, you could get some cross ventilation...as well as more light besides the emergency lights.  Tampa is certainly hot during much of the year.

I made up my mind never to live in a tower when I retired!

I was certainly ready to move to the mountains of NC and to not be any place on a daily schedule, and so I slumped into retirement with a lovely period of depressed adjustment.  I'm glad I got involved in a lot of things after a few months.  But that's the "after retirement story."  This is the "before" story.

I just tried looking on line for pictures of the apartment building, and the only one I found is the one above.  It is kind of hard to take a picture there without any people in it.  I spent lots of time taking pictures of the people at parties, then posting them for their enjoyment and to share with friends.

Today's quote:

World news

 Fellow blogger Weaver of Grass (age 90) pointed out the other day how many news stories just disappear when new crisis appear.  

I'm glad that Heather Cox Richardson in her newsletter "Letters from An American" posted this yesterday.

Following are excerpts:

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON AUG 18 Philip Stephens of Financial Times today pointed out how much global politics has changed since 2016. That was the year of Brexit and Trump, when those calling for national sovereignty and iron-bound borders seemed to have the upper hand, and it seemed we were entering a new era in which nations would hunker down and international cooperation was a thing of the past. But now, just seven years later, international cooperation is evident everywhere. Stephens pointed out that a series of crises have shown that nations cannot work alone. Migrants fleeing the war in Syria in 2015 made it clear that countries must cooperate to manage national borders. Then Covid showed that we must manage health across political boundaries, and then Russia’s invasion of Ukraine proved that European nations—and other countries on other continents—must stand together militarily in their common defense.  That embrace of cooperation is in no small part thanks to President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who have focused on bringing together international coalitions. The new global stance is on display in the U.S. right now as President Biden hosts the first-ever trilateral summit with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan and President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea.  Secretary Blinken noted for reporters on Tuesday that the world is currently being tested by geopolitical competition, climate change, Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, and nuclear aggressions. “Our heightened engagement is part of our broader efforts to revitalize, to strengthen, to knit together our alliances and partnerships—and in this case, to help realize a shared vision of an Indo-Pacific that is free and open, prosperous, secure, resilient, and connected,” he said. “And what we mean by that is a region where countries are free to chart their own path and to find their own partners, where problems are dealt with openly, where rules are reached transparently and applied fairly, and where goods, ideas, and people can flow lawfully and freely.” Blinken addressed Ukraine’s resistance to the Russian invasion, backed by an international coalition, and reiterated that Ukrainians are upholding “the basic principles—sovereignty, territorial integrity, independence—that are vital to maintaining international peace and security.” In squeezing Russia, international cooperation has again been vital. The Swiss corporation Société Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautiqes (SITA), which is responsible for booking, flight messaging, baggage tracking, and other airline applications, announced in May that it will leave Russia this autumn. Russian carriers are scrambling.  Blinken also confirmed that the Biden administration last week achieved a deal with Iran over U.S. prisoners. Iran moved four dual citizens from the infamous Evin Prison to house arrest, and the U.S. is working to get them, along with one more who was already under house arrest, home. In exchange, the U.S. will release several Iranian prisoners along with $6 billion of Iranian oil revenue currently held in South Korea. "...In an op-ed on the national security website Defense One, Ryan Costello, the policy director for the National Iranian American Council, called the deal a win-win. The Iranian money will be released to Qatar, which will release it for purchases of food and medicine, which are not sanctioned. Medicine is desperately needed in Iran, and as Biden said in 2020: “Whatever our profound differences with the Iranian government, we should support the Iranian people.” In his remarks to reporters on Tuesday, Blinken defended the administration's withdrawal from Afghanistan almost exactly two years ago, saying the decision to withdraw was “incredibly difficult” but correct. “We ended America’s longest war,” he said. “For the first time in 20 years, we don’t have another generation of young Americans going to fight and die in Afghanistan. And in turn, that has enabled us to even more effectively meet the many challenges of our time, from great power competition to the many transnational issues that we’re dealing with that are affecting the lives of our people and people around the world.” He noted that the U.S. continues to be the leading donor of humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, contributing about $1.9 billion since 2021, and that the U.S. continues to work to hold the Taliban accountable for the rights of women and girls.  In Niger, a key U.S. ally in Africa against terrorism, military forces took power from the democratically elected president on July 26, and now the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a regional union of fifteen countries, has said it will intervene militarily if diplomatic efforts to restore President Mohamed Bazoum to power fail. Army chiefs met today in Ghana to discuss creating a standby force. Nigeria’s chief of defense staff, General Christopher Gwabin Musa, told the meeting: “The focus of our gathering is not simply to react to events, but to proactively chart a course that results in peace and promote[s] stability."  Blinken said Tuesday that the U.S. strongly supports the efforts of ECOWAS to restore Niger’s constitutional order, but the African Union apparently opposes intervention out of concern that such intervention might trigger a civil war. Meanwhile, in Sudan, where the Biden administration hoped working with two rival generals would pressure them to restore civilian democracy, the country has been torn apart as those two generals now vie for power. Days ago, the U.S. government warned of corruption and human rights violations in South Sudan, with one of the rival military forces, the Rapid Support Forces, apparently engaging in widespread targeted killing and sexual violence in the western Sudan region of Darfur. Yesterday, the State Department called for the two factions to stop fighting. “Every day this senseless conflict continues, more innocent civilians are killed, wounded, and left without homes, food, or livelihoods. The parties must end the bloodshed. There is no acceptable military solution to this conflict,” it said."  Dymaxion Map of the world showing correct sizes of continents.

The Marion County Record and a judge in KS

I've been following the news about this raid and seizure...

Part of my interest was that the mother of the editor, a 90 year old woman, died the day after the seizure in her home, as well as the newspaper office.

Here's an NPR report giving some more background, that the judge who signed the order for the seizure had been under journalistic investigation by that very paper. Judge who signed order had 2 DUIs

"The extraordinary Aug. 11 raid drew national and international headlines because it seemed to run counter to long-established press freedoms and guarantees. Such actions are nearly unheard of in the U.S.
"It's very rare because it's illegal," First Amendment attorney Lynn Oberlander told NPR. "It doesn't happen very often because most organizations understand that it's illegal."

Ah Ha! There was some legal shenanigans happening which now have been brought to light.

"Several press freedom watchdogs condemned the Marion Police Department’s actions as a blatant violation of the U.S. Constitution’s protection for a free press. The Marion County Record’s editor and publisher, Eric Meyer, worked with his staff Sunday to reconstruct stories, ads and other materials for its next edition Wednesday, even as he took time in the afternoon to provide a local funeral home with information about his mother, Joan, the paper’s co-owner.

A search warrant tied Friday morning raids, led by Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody, to a dispute between the newspaper and a local restaurant owner, Kari Newell. She is accusing the newspaper of invading her privacy and illegally accessing information about her and her driving record and suggested that the newspaper targeted her after she threw Meyer and a reporter out of restaurant during a political event.

It wasn't the restaurant owner after all...unless she's also the judge who signed the search warrents.

Nope the judge is  Magistrate Judge Laura Viar,  And the driving record sounds vaguely familiar to the Judge's background.

There's something fishy, and it smells, in Kansas!

Today's quote:

Edgar Degas said, “If painting weren’t so difficult, it wouldn’t be so much fun.”

There's thinking you know about your future and...

From a post Oct. 6. 2016

 Reading "Being Mortal" which has more information than I expected.

Ah, having worked with elder people doesn't give me any extra insight into how to be one.

This is one book that I think everyone should read, young and old.  It points out a huge hole in our culture, one where every one of us will eventually slide.  That of the final infirmities and lack of good models of care for us.  The current treatment is once you have infirmities of the body, you need to be in a regimented nursing home, where you suddenly lose all your independence and become just one more cog to be given treatments like scheduled medication, bathing, toileting, and feeding.  There may be some better options for those who have a lot of funds.  There is still a dirth of  good care for all the rest of us.

(me then)

And yes, the author gives great examples of how geriatric care is different than regular medical treatment.  Do you know how? (I hate to say it, read the book!)

(Me 2023)

Not enough geriatricians are being developed...physicians who specialize in care for the elderly and dying.  There isn't any incentive.  They are paid less, have fewer courses of study, and don't have any incentive to work with the population which will be increasing exponentially in the next decade.

The author of "Being Mortal," Atul Gawade, quotes Chad Boult, the geriatrics professor... 

"In a year, fewer than three hundred doctors will complete geriatrics training in the United States, not nearly enough to replace the geriatricians going into retirement, let alone meet the needs of the next decade.  Geriatric psychiatrists, nurses, and social workers are equally needed, and in no better supply.  The situation in countries outside the United States appears to be little different.  In many, it is worse.

He goes on to say

"another strategy: he (Boult) would direct geriatricians toward training all primary care doctors and nurses in caring for the very old, instead of providing the care themselves.  Even this is a tall order - 97 percent of medical students take no course in geriatrics, and the strategy requires that the nation pay geriatric specialists to teach rather than to provide patient care.

Boult concludes

"We've got to do something, Life for older people can be better than it is today."

There is a very thorough bibliography, and I think the quotes above come from
University of Minnesota; C. Boult et al., "A Randomized Clinical Trial of outpatient Geriatric Evaluation and Management," Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (2001)
as well as
The American board of Medical Specialties, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology; L.E. Garcez-Leme et al., "Geriatrics in Brazil: A Big Country with Big Opportunities," Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (2005)

Norma made a fairy house in clay

I enjoyed reading about Driving Miss Norma on Facebook recently.  A dying 91 year old woman spent her last year with her son and daughter-in-law driving in an RV around the country, where she experienced everything she wanted to.  She took her last breath September 30, 2016. I didn't discover her posts until after she was gone, but it is interesting to look at what her family posted.  This is a use of social media that I like.  And again, this is a woman who had resources with which to have such a wonderful experience in her last months.


TODAY'S QUOTE:

In being with dying, we arrive at a natural crucible of what it means to love and be loved. And we can ask ourselves this: Knowing that death is inevitable, what is most precious today? ROSHI JOAN HALIFAX