I was going to do a thanksgiving post, and didn’t. I’m still thankful to have food to eat, a place to live, clothes to wear, a vehicle, the ability to communicate, a family, and health that isn’t too bad, and myriad other things. Compared to other people, and even compared to myself in years past, things are pretty good in my life.
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I’m still thankful that Hillary Clinton wasn’t elected President, although there are efforts to force her election anyway, with pressure on electoral college voters and attempts to force recounts in states that were close. What was that about Trump not being willing to accept the results if he didn’t win? I can’t hear past the howling hypocrisy.
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So Fidel Castro is finally dead. No fawning eulogies from me. I’m not quite old enough to remember the Cuban Missile Crisis, but I had school teachers who lived through it. I do remember lots of Cuban exiles, fleeing this Socialist “paradise”. The Cuban people still aren’t free, but this is one big step closer.
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I’ve been watching President-elect Trump’s filling his cabinet. Mostly, he seems to be surrounding himself with good people. I don’t have many comments, but I’ll keep watching.
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In the knowledge base, I got to the point of of realigning Northeast European peoples. I had been wondering whether I hadn’t made a mistake in not grouping the Slavic peoples in one group, but if it is, the cultural geography in Eastern Europe is so complex that it’s not a big one. Northeast Europe has the Eastern Slavs of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, and the Western Slavs of Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. I also have Hungary, but the Hungarian peoples moved to their current location in the middle Ages. Balkan peoples include what I am calling the East Romance people of Romania and Moldova, the Southern Slavs of Bulgaria and the former Yugoslavia, Greek peoples, and Albanians. The Southern Slavs moved southwestward in post-Roman times, overrunning or displacing previous inhabitants and becoming separated by Hungary and the East Romance peoples from the other Slavic peoples. What I have seems to be a workable compromise reflecting current realities. I am working on getting finer subdivisions of history to use this rearrangement.
I have also been adding other nations and cities. I am getting into small island countries, such as those of the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean. A few more subdivisions will be coming. The next update will have these changes.