0806

August 6, 2022

 Down at 10, up at 6, a shot of cognac before bed.  The temperature at 6 is 70 degrees, the dew point is 69, humidity is 94%.  God help those w/o air conditioning. 

    I received from the VA in yesterday's mail my "Liberty Honor Alert," a device to be worn around the neck to alert 911 when I may be in distress.  Dr. Chatt ordered it when I advised her that I'm "a fall waiting to happen."

    The jury in the Alex Jones trial returned a verdict of $45.2 million in punitive damages yesterday on top of $4 million in compensatory damages.  Query: how much of that will they ever get their hands on?  How 'deterred' will  Jones and his ilk be when it is so clear there is so much money to be made from exploiting the misfortunes of others?  Some people go out of their way to avoid running over a turtle crossing a road; some go out of their way to hit it.

       Donald Trump starred at a rally yesterday in Waukesha for Wisconsin governor candidate and latent Nazi Tim Michel.  It looked like a pretty modest crowd of crazy people in attendance.  Lunatics.

    The big news yesterday was that AZ. senator Kyrsten Sinema agreed to vote for the tightened 'Build Back Better' bill ONLY if the "retained interest" tax break for hedge fund and private equity fund managers were preserved.  For this 'people's representative', letting hedge fund and private equity managers, multimillionaires and billionaires, get wealthier and more powerful, was more important than effective measures to slow climate change, providing assistance to poor Obamacare participants, and getting a handle on the cost of prescription drugs for millions of her 'fellow citizens,' including probably tens of millions of elderly with chronic health problems.  What can I say?  Bought and paid for.  Best government money can buy. 

     I saw an article online on British artist Annie Morris, great painted styrofoam sculptures, and lovely drawings.  Muse!  I did a painting of 4 different-sized circles today(yellow, red, blue, and green) inspired by the sculptures of Annie Morris.  I wanted them to be contiguous but they ended up slightly separated.  I enjoy these paintings of simple circles.

    Watched the second half of "Arguing the World" documentary about the CCNY "New York Intellectuals": Daniel Bell, Irving Howe, Nathan Glazer, and Irving Kristol.  Lip synch was horrifically off, but the film itself (from 1997) is very interesting, especially in terms of the beginnings of so-called 'neoconservatism', and its big change from its initial skepticism about the efficacy of LBJ's Great Society programs, which failed to accomplish big social goals, to the highly militaristic aggressive foreign policy juggernaut under the George W. Bush regime.

    Jimmy was here for dinner.  The wallet and ID card and credit card that Geri brought him this week to replace the one that went missing last week has gone missing too, probably hidden somewhere by Jim to protect it from some miscreant burglar/thief at Newcastle.  G&J left at 6:30 to search for his wallet and his medical alert pendant which is also missing.  The visit was very pleasant, good conversations, watched the CNN documentary on Patagonia.  When Geri returned, she said Jim found BOTH missing wallets.  When she asked him "Where?", he said, "I don't know."  Also, his missing medical alert was sitting on top of his dresser but it was upside down, so he didn't recognize it for what it was.  

    Watched an interesting character study at night, "The Private Lives of Pippa Lees."