0922

September 22, 2022

Up late last night, watching all of Lawrence O'Donnell, sharing his schadenfreude over Trump's legal setbacks in the 11th Circuit and in New York State with Letitia James' $250,000,000 civil suit against him for fraud.  Got up at 7:30.  Mistakenly said yesterday was Autumnal Equinox; it's today.  Geri awakened at 7:40 by a phone call from David Hobbs; her car is ready.

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This morning's NYT carries a story headlined "Ukrainian Officials in Liberated Towns Are Grappling With the Issue of Identifying People They Believe Helped the Enemy."  It calls to mind Marcel Ophuls' 4 hour 1969 documentary streaming on OVID "The Sorrow and the Pity" about France's and the French people's collaboration with the Nazis during the Occupation and about those active in the Resistance.  The issue of how to behave while living under armed occupation by a powerful nation is not a simple one.  The occupying forces are in a very real sense 'the enemy,' but they are also the real government, for better or worse.  Some people treat the occupiers as evil, while others seek a modus vivendi because, as in John Mellencamp's 'Jack and Diane," oh yeah, life goes on, long after the thrill of living is gone.  Resistance may be noble, but perhaps it is also stupid, and self-defeating in terms of making the best of a bad situation.  One thing we know: history is written by the winners.  If the Russians were to prevail in eastern and southern Ukraine, the 'collaborators' will be treated as heroes, practical people; if Ukraine ousts the Russians, 'collaborators' are 'traitors.'

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Much talk on the news shows last night and today about the 11th Circuit smackdown of Judge Cannon's special master decision giving Donald Trump about everything he asked for.  But it's a bit like the 'collaborator' issue.  To Trump worshippers, Cannon is a hero.  To the rest of us, a disgrace to the robes she wears.  Ultimately, winners write the history.

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I have a 24" X 30" canvas downstairs waiting to be painted.  I'm going to try to do a knockoff of Kees van Donjon's 'Woman at the Balustrade.'  May be more than I can handle.