Saturday, September 2, 2023
In bed at 10:30, awake at 5:02, brr until 5:33. 63°, high of 85°, AQI=40, wind WSW at 10 mph, 7-12/27. DPs 57-63. Sunrise at 6:06, sunset at 7:25, 13+8.
On the dangerous reign of the octogenarians is the subtitle of an August 31, 2023 article by Susan Glasser in The Atlantic with the full title of "The Twilight of Mitch McConnell and the Spectre of 2024." Mitch McConnell is 6 months younger than I am. I have kept tabs on the effects of aging on him for the last couple of years, most noticeable in his gait. I have pain increasing attention to his condition since the trip and fall he experienced at a hotel in March of this year, a fall in which he suffered a concussion which kept him hospitalized for 5 days and in a rehab facility for several weeks, keeping him away from the Senate for 6 weeks. He has had 2 "freeze-up" episodes in the last 5 weeks, looking like TIAs (mini-strokes) or, more likely, seizures. Some excerpts from Glasser's article:
In six months, McConnell has gone from the G.O.P.’s feared power broker to a symbol of how quickly things can go wrong for America’s fragile gerontocracy: running the world one minute, frail and unable to parry questions the next.
When the pollsters asked an open-ended question about what word first springs to mind about Biden, the largest percentage of responses—twenty-six per cent—came under the heading of “Old/Outdated/Retire/Elderly/Aging/Senile Dementia.” Another fifteen per cent responded with “Slow/Confused/Idiot/Ignorant/Sleepy/Gaffe/Bumbling.” Trump’s years of taunting the President as Sleepy Joe have clearly had an effect. Yet Biden is a year younger than McConnell and, for now at least, notably more vigorous.
But what I keep coming back to is a different and likely even more consequential question: What if Biden has his own McConnell moment? Imagine it happening in the latter days of the 2024 campaign, with Trump as the Republican nominee and the fate of the free world itself on the line. This is hardly an implausible hypothetical. There are, sadly, a million possibilities—a health scare, a bad fall as McConnell experienced, just the accelerated condition of advanced old age. The reign of the octogenarians is a risky bet for a democracy. ♦
Both McConnell and Biden are younger than me so, not surprisingly, I see the references to “Old/Outdated/Retire/Elderly/Aging/Senile Dementia” and "Slow/Confused/Idiot/Ignorant/Sleepy /Gaffe /Bumbling.” having some application to Watashi wa. I learn of McConnell's stumbles, trips, and falls and I am reminded of my daily struggle with balance and gait. Ditto when I see Biden, 15 months younger than I am, pretending to be young and clear-headed; I'm reminded of my own muddled thoughts and emotions. I think of The Ballad of Narayama and, though I'm not prepared to suggest that oldsters be put out to die of hunger and exposure at age 70, I am ready to endorse age limitations for government service. 65 would be too young and 80 would be too old. Pick a number.
LTMW at 6:50, I see a female house finch perched on the suet holder in which Geri and I had paced nesting materials in the Spring. It's empty. Also, the 2 orange halves on the shepherd's crooks are gone. Did Geri tidy up the site yesterday? The male house finch was on the sunflower tube but it is 75% empty, down to the big sunflower seeds, peanuts, etc., not much left in the way of black oil sunflower seeds or millet. A task for today. I also see good neighbor John McGregor out for a walk with their fast-growing puppy Dorothy. She is very active and at times I wonder who is walking whom. The sun is about 30° above the horizon and is shining unusually brighter than normal. Am I imagining this? It also seems to have a very wide corona. Atmospheric conditions? Imagination? In any event, it shines brightly on the south end of the sofa where Geri will be sitting when she rises. Meanwhile, chickadees and a nuthatch are working on the sunflower and niger tubes.
With a wary eye on China, U.S. moves closer to former foe Vietnam:The two countries are boosting economic and tech ties as Beijing increases its assertiveness in the region. This is a story in this morning's WaPo by Ellen Nakashima and Rebecca Tan.
The United States and Vietnam are poised to significantly enhance their economic and technological ties, bringing the former foes closer at a time of increased Chinese assertiveness in the region. The deal, expected to be announced when President Biden makes a state visit to Vietnam next weekend, is the latest step by the Biden administration to deepen relations in Asia. For Hanoi, the closer relationship with Washington serves as a counterweight to Beijing’s influence.
No one will ever know how many millions of Vietnamese, Laotian, Cambodian, French, American, and Korean lives were sacrificed, in one way or another, in the pursuit of maintaining France's overseas empire and in stopping the spread of communism in Asia. I think of two who I served with, William F. "Moon" Mullen and J. Forrest Trembley. I wrote extensively about "Moon" in my memoir. Jay was my fellow midshipman in the Marquette NROTC unit, one year behind me. Both were pilots, "Moon" in the Marines and Jay in the Navy. Moon was shot down on April 29, 1966, in his A4 Skyhawk over Laos. Jay was shot down on August 21, 1967, in his A6 Intruder over Chinese territory after a bombing mission outside Hanoi. Jay was 26 years old. when he died; Moon was 31. Each was survived by a wife and children and by parents and siblings. In 1999, Jay's remains were identified by DNA in 1999. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery in 2005, 37 years after he died. Moon's burial details are officially "unknown."
I think Moon Mullen was for us emblematic of the ambiguous character of the war itself. He was neither alive nor dead, just ‘missing.’ He went down in a country (of sorts) where our government wouldn’t even admit we were fighting, though every Tom, Dick and Harry knew we were. The terrain he was bombing was not land that we would ever in any sense ‘take’ or ‘capture’ or ‘seize’ or ‘hold.’ It would be used for years as a principal line of communication and logistics between North Vietnam and forces in the south and for years pilots would fly missions trying to slow the flow of men and materials southward and for years pilots would be shot down over that land. Indeed, when Nixon’s so-called ‘peace with honor’ was negotiated in Paris in 1973, there was no written agreement for the identification and repatriation or return of the bodies of pilots shot down over Laos. The treaty only bound “the parties hereof and the signatories hereto,” which did not include the government of Laos which was not ‘officially’ involved in the war. What happened to Moon Mullen and his family, the long, inconclusive waiting, the deceptions, the ultimate loss, was a microcosm of what was happening to American, and to Vietnam. I believe we knew that as we poisoned ourselves at the club each night and as we looked on those infantry Marines so intensely preparing for what awaited them in Vietnam. More Danny Boys, more Moons.
GOING AFTER CACCIATOTim O’BrienThey did not know even the simple things: a sense of victory, or satisfaction, or necessary sacrifice. They did not know the feeling of taking a place and keeping it, securing a village and then raising the flag and calling it a victory. No sense of order or momentum. No front, no rear, no trenches laid out in neat parallels. No Patton rushing for the Rhine, no beachheads to storm and win and hold for the duration. They did not have targets. They did not have a cause. They did not know if it was a war of ideology or economics or hegemony or spite. On a given day, they did not know where they were in Quang Ngai, or how being there might influence larger outcomes. They did not know the names of most villages. They did not know what villages were critical. They did not know strategies. They did not know the terms of the war, its architecture, the rules of fair play. When they took prisoners, which was rare, they did not know the questions to ask, whether to release a suspect or beat on him. They did not know how to feel. Whether, when seeing a dead Vietnamese, to be happy or sad or relieved; whether, in times of quiet, to be apprehensive or content; whether to engage the enemy or elude him. They did not know how to feel when they saw villages burning. Revenge? Loss? Peace of mind or anguish? They did not know. They knew the old myths about Quang Ngai – tales passed down from old timer to newcomer – but they did not know which stories to believe. Magic, mystery, ghosts and incense, whispers in the dark, strange tongues and strange smells, uncertainties never articulated in war stories, emotion squandered on ignorance. They did not know good from evil.g
More thoughts on Summer Stock, Judy Garland, and Get Happy. For some reason, I got to thinking again about Judy Garland, her role in Summer Stock, and especially the big production number "Get Happy" filmed a couple of months after all the other scenes in the film had been completed. That scene, indeed the whole movie, but pointedly Judy Garland's participation in it, strikes me as representative of what drives me nuts virtually every time I turn on the televison, i.e., seeing all the profesionally-happy people in televiion commercials (and on local news). Same problem with print ads: all those smiling faces of people whose lives are fulfilled because of their purchase of Crest toothpaste or their acquistion of a Ford motor vehicle or any of a myriad of consumer products available in America's wonderland - the consumer marketplace. These avatars of Happiness, Fulfillment, and Satisfaction are all bought and paid for, paid actors trying to persuade us that we too can be Happy, Fulfilled, and Satisfied, like them, if only we spend our money to buy the goods (or services) that they pretend to be the cause of Happiness, Fulfillment, and Satishfaction. Judy Garland was only 26 when the movie was made and she was already a mess because of her dependence on amphetimines, barbiturates, and alcohol. Her behavior during the filming was so problematic that MGM fired her after the film was done; it was her swan song at MGM. In the memoir Judy and I: My Life with Judy Garland, Judy’s third husband (of 5) Sid Luft detailed her crippling anxiety, body image issues, her unhealthy coping mechanism by way of self-medication, and suicide attempts. Judy’s deep insecurities also affected all her relationships, including hers with Sid. Yet there she is on the silver screen at age 26 dressed up by MGM in the black tuxedo, black fedora, black shoes and stockings. encouraging moviegoers to 'forget your troubles, come on get happy, you better chase all your cares away, . . ." Madison Avenue tells us that the way to do this is simply to buy the goods and services they promote, for a lot of money. Politicians tell us we live in the greatest country the world has ever known. BUT it's in great danger UNLESS we vote for them WHICH WILL make all the problems go away! Priests and ministers tell us that God loves us and will protect us, or, as MGM has Judy sing it "The sun is shining, come on get happy / The Lord is waiting to take your hand / Shout Hallelujah, come on get happy / We're gonna be going to the Promised Land." What a culture we live in, full of mass murders, gun violence, widespead political hatreds, looming catastropic climate change and thousands of Big Brothers telling us 'come on, get happy!"
Nu, Jake, so you would prefer to see a bunch of Mickey the Mopes like you everywhere you turn? No, I suppose it's a Mission Impossible situation in a market economy based mainly on consumer economic activity. The only remedy is to minimize exposure. My own responsibility, not Madison Avenue's.
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