QUESTION: Will the 45th President, DJT, respond by November 14th to the Committee's subpoena extension he was able to receive to give his deposition and to provide requested documents?
DROUGHT UPDATE -- We actually received some rain showers last week where I live in SoCal.
Encouragingly we are being told to expect some hard rain, snow in the mountains for a couple days this week. Promises! Promises! Hopefully the moisture arrives here with snow in Northern California mountains plus more to come in the weeks and months ahead, normally our wet months for decades in past years.
VIRAL COMBAT -- I have my flu shot -- was given the high-dose version this year. In two weeks I'll seek the latest and final Covid vaccine. Continued wearing of the N95 mask when I'm in contact with most others will continue to be the order of the day for me.
I could still contract a virus but the severity of my illness would likely be minimal, might not even require hospitalization much less result in my death. I like those odds -- better than my winning the lottery.
MIDTERM ELECTION VOTING -- I chose to submit my ballot in a local drop box again this year. I will receive an email confirmation my ballot has been received and votes counted within the next few days.
What a tragedy with the suppressing effort to thwart this means as an an individual voter's right in some other states. There are those who promote proven deliberate lies discounting the trustworthiness of our election system.
DEMOCRACY PRESERVATION -- I continue to believe our democracy's preservation is the primary issue that needs to guide voters in their candidate selections. Candidates who are deniers of the legitimacy of the 2020 election results and conspiracy believers unable to discern fact from fiction pose a danger to our democratic constitutional republic's freedoms, true justice with genuine law and order.
DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME AGAIN!
Barbra Streisand -- Everything Must Change & I Didn't Know What Time It Was Performed at Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York on Saturday 6 May 2017
Barbra was 75 (!) when she sang these songs with a voice showing minimal age-related effects.
Barbra's dedications were tributes following recent deaths then of Sandy Gallin who was a talent manager adored and respected by many stars you can read about HERE
Virginia Kelley, is a nurse anesthetist and mother of former President Bill Clinton who came to be warmly regarded by many you can read about HERE. Coincidentally, a friend of mine described her baby's birth as being "midwifed" by Virginia.
DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME and OUR HEALTH -- Did you remember to "fall back" one hour effective Sunday, Nov.6th at 2 a.m.?
Once again in the U.S. we all must change our clocks for daylight savings time adjustment except for Arizona and Hawaii who did not adopt this DST change system years ago. I won't go into the whys and wherefores for all this but maybe this will be the last year we will be required to make this time change on our clocks.
You can read the DST history (not simply to accommodate farmers) in this succinct informative PBS News Hour transcript along with what has been learned about the effect of all this time manipulation on our health HERE
Seems research studies have shown these time changes may be having a more serious impact on our health than we ever knew beyond our own experiences considered merely anecdotal in official scientific 'worldom'.
Our U.S. Senate did finally act based on legislation passed in several states to end this change by establishing daylight savings time year 'round. That bill has stalled in the House of Representatives since some states, including my own California, desire returning to regular time, which I prefer, too. This difference must be resolved between both branches of government before officially being signed into law.
Meanwhile, I'm coping with my clock-radio purchased many years ago to automatically "spring forward" and "fall back". I was delighted to never have to bother with manually changing this clock twice each year -- just my wristwatch and other clocks in my house. At least one clock would have the correct time to begin the day if I hadn't noticed the time change was occurring.
Then, a few years ago officials altered the days DST would be in effect so my clock-radio's date for time change has been out of synchronicity ever since. For example, this past week my clock "fell back" an hour several days before official time changed. What an annoyance!
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I'll patiently await our Congress to finally act to establish the time system we will use, quite willing to accept whichever one they decide to use -- standard time or daylight savings time. Then I will determine what to do about my clock-radio. Maybe I can turn off the automatic date/time change feature as I like the device's size for my bedside table and the other functions. Otherwise, to dispense with adjusting my clock twice a year, I'll be shopping for a new clock-radio.
What do you think?
Do you want to continue the system we have, "springing forward" an hour in early March and "falling back" an hour in early November?
Would you prefer to adopt standard time or daylight savings time year 'round?
Your response will have no known influence on how this government policy is decided but perhaps you'll feel better having expressed your point of view. We can see at least how our legislator's actions reflect our point of view on this one matter -- if and when they act and we live long enough to see the results.
QUESTION: Will DJT follow law and order in which he says he believes to tell the truth under oath to the U.S. Select House Committee on Jan. 6th Hearings?
FWIW I've been blogging on other sites less frequently recently, if you've noticed. This is due to personal issues but I want you to know I still care about each of you.
DEMOCRACY
A nation of freedom-loving people we have plenty about which to be concerned though in my eighty-plus years this is one of the most dangerous ones. I feel compelled to continue expressing my thoughts since critical U.S. midterm elections are still in process, so be forewarned. Should you prefer to avoid reading more about these issues, you may prefer to skip directly to AGING PERCEPTIONS below.
Democracy preservation for the United States is of the utmost priority when selecting candidates for whom to vote in this midterm election IMHO. Given the gravity of the situation I cannot avoid continuing to focus some attention on what is at stake for the survival of our nation as the constitutional republic and democracy with the freedoms our forefathers gave to us, "if you can keep it."
I wanted this blog to be politically nonpartisan when I began in 2006, but am dedicated to upholding our constitutional republic's democracy I have observed being under attack since 2016. I cannot remain silent since a once respectable political party became subverted into undermining our government by any means possible with lies regarding the results of our election process, even inciting violence in an effort to establish an autocratic system with a one-man ruler.
Obviously, by the actions of those aligned with the violent instigating political party and even the words of the leader they claim to follow, law and order is not observed or respected and won't be in the future for anyone whose views differ from theirs.
Individual rights and freedoms are being seriously threatened by that party. Unfortunately, many citizens have and still do take our rights and freedoms for granted, assuming we'll always have them or can easily regain them if taken from us no matter what we do or don't do. Nothing could be further from the truth as they can be whittled away little by little by various politicized government branches by far too many of that party's candidates such as those recent women's rights were taken away.
Government office appointments in the future and Congressional action by that party will jeopardize many citizen rights including healthcare, Medicare and Social Security in our richest of all nations -- our U.S. nation that already falls well below the offerings reported in the rankings of other nations in the democratic western world.
Federal, state, local elections, judges and appointees matter and we the people with our votes can determine what kind of country in which we and future generations live.
I know some of my words resonate with many in the U.S. and some others elsewhere in the world. I don't presume to know what if any meaningful impact occurs on any U.S. voter with what I write, but I must make the effort on my limited platform.
AGEING PERCEPTIONS OVER 90
We're fortunate whatever our older age to have individuals who have enriched our lives. The reality is that the older we become the fewer remain who are still living. That's certainly been true in my life as I've previously shared here. Celebrating my recent birthday many memories cross my mind.
I recall with loving thoughts the year my young teen son asked me to stay in the other room because he was going to undertake his first solo baking effort without supervision. He baked me a birthday cake from scratch which was quite successful when all was said and done -- probably the best cake, commercial or otherwise, I ever had made for me!
There have certainly been other significant family birthday occasions and some with co-workers as well as personal friends. Often lovely flowers my husband brought with memorable gifts, including unexpectedly unique ones from my daughter. Across the miles now I am not forgotten as grandchildren join my celebration. Far too many other family members and friends exist only in my memory.
This year, I unexpectedly was delighted to share some of my much younger neighbors delicious chocolaty chocolate October birthday cake.
Author, blogger, Katherine Esty recently celebrated her 88th birthday which caused her to think about what life might be like at 90 or older as she edges closer to that decade. She shares "What It's Like To Be Over 90" HEREin interviews with some she knows that age.
Wellness and disability issues are discussed coupled with a view revealing whatever one's physical condition an attitude exists of believing we're "Lucky To Be Alive" as younger old folks have said, too.
A probably 95 year old woman now I know is continuing to thrive living independently in her single family home following her husband's death some years ago. "C" as I'll refer to her continued her career as a hairdresser after she left the aerospace industry in an earlier decade until Covid caused the hair salon to close when she was age 93. Even then she often continued helping clients where they lived including shopping for them.
"C" had begun experiencing some challenges standing for long periods and began using a walker in some situations outside the beauty salon. She has some medical problems but continues to cope. She's always been in an upbeat mood in our occasional phone conversations to catch up on our lives, or when she stopped by the house a year or so ago.
Most recently, "C" speaks of selling her home and moving as one of her daughters may from her state to northern California where more of their immediate family is now living.
I appreciate learning about other individuals lives as they travel along the ageing highway, especially those living independently in their homes without benefit of community care facilities offerings. My situation presents challenges quite different from that provided in long term care even at the independent living level.
Having no family or even immediate close friends nearby can present additional complications as I experience which doesn't lessen the older one becomes. I have characterized my decision to choose this way of living my sunset years as "The Grand Experiment". Experiments outcomes can become unpredictable.
Perhaps you'll find Katherine Esty's blog at the link provided above of interest as she writes from her long term continuing care community. Certainly the views and attitudes of her fellow residents reflect the lives they lead and their experiences. I wonder if or how they might differ from those living in other than in long term continuing care settings?
Everyone living who survives many years with the obstacles they may have encountered in their path sprinkled among the joy and happiness they've had can consider themselves fortunate. Some of those obstacles may be of the person's own making caused by words said or unsaid, actions taken or lack of action. Then there are other complications that occur beyond the person's influence or control. Somehow the individual has bypassed the obstacle in some fashion, overcome, or found a way to live with the result.
Whatever the situation celebrating each birthday is well-deserved the older we become, especially when we consider the alternative.
"HERE'S TO LIFE" -- Shirley Horn with John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra, 1993
QUESTION: Has the U.S. Select House Committee on Jan. 6th Hearings shown evidence the ex-President Donald John Trump has violated his oath of office to support and defend the Constitution of the United States presenting a clear and present danger to democracy?
President's oath or affirmation "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
10/13/22 SELECT COMMITTEE HEARING
Ex- President Donald J. Trump has been subpoenaed to testify before the U.S. Select House Committee on the Jan. 6th Hearings. Will he be able to find the truth to speak amid his many prevarications?
BETRAYAL
We might well come away from viewing all these Hearing sessions appalled at how many people in our government have betrayed their oath of office and our democratic republic.
"History of the Oath. At the start of each new Congress, in January of every odd-numbered year, the entire House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate performs a solemn and festive constitutional rite that is as old as the Republic."
U.S. Govt. form sf61 for all employees: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God."
RAINDROPS KEEP FALLIN' ON MY HEAD by B. J. Thomas
Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote this song with uplifting lyrics for the 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Fall is teasing us with cool temperatures where I live in SoCal, but summer's heat will return for a few days before the coming week ends. Rain-promising dark clouds have been hiding the sun most days where I live only to release their much-needed moisture elsewhere. A sudden loud sharp clap of thunder as I write this has followed a finally left token amount of the wet stuff tonight for which I'm grateful in this drought-ridden state.
DEMOCRACY -- VOTING
November mid-term election voting has me reviewing my 5 page ballot that consists of federal, state, local municipal candidates and issues. Likely those of you in the U.S. are voting your own ballots or readying to do so on election day.
There is so much more at stake dwarfing the focus said to be primary such as inflation, immigration, environment to list a few issues. Those matters all become secondary to my voting only for those candidates dedicated to preserving our republic's democracy. They are the leaders I trust most to address our nation's problems with dedication to providing the highest degree of respect for truth and individual freedoms. Deniers of the 2020 presidential election legitimacy must themselves be denied my vote.
