Friday, October 20, 2023
In bed at 8:45, awake @ 1:00, onto the lzb till 1:30, and then up 'for the duration.' Let Lilly out, 51°, high of 57°, mostly cloudy morning and sunny afternoon ahead, windy morning. AQI=36, wind NW at 14 mph, 5-16/26, 0.05" of rain in last 24 hours (officially, not by my reckoning!). Sunrise at 7:11, sunset at 6:01, 10+49. Canada's wildfire season seems to be coming to a close, so perhaps it's time to stop thinking of the day's AQI. Or perhaps not?
Yesterday's journal and some additional thoughts. I added the last two paragraphs of yesterday's journal this morning after letting Lilly back in.
I was pretty apprehensive about yesterday's journey to Lyn's wake, mostly about how my body would hold up. I hadn't driven that far, that long, that far away from home, and my bathroom in several years. I was especially concerned about my chronic interstitial cystitis, or painful bladder syndrome and my chronic pelvic pain. I drank no coffee all day and minimized my intake of water. worrying about the effect on my kidneys because of the Jardiance med I take for my diabetes. I had a PB&J sandwich for breakfast before injecting myself with my weekly Trulicity which I'm not supposed to inject on an empty stomach. I stopped at the Lake Forest Oasis on the Illinois Tollway to empty my bladder which I did again at the funeral home, arriving and leaving, and made it through the day without a significant problem. Deo gratias. More guardian angels? I did have back pain or discomfort throughout much of the trip but I think it was attributable to the setting on the lumbar support of my car seat which I need to tend to. I told Geri after dinner last night that I was "wiped out" by the day and suspected I would be wiped out today. So far, so true - relying on my trusty wooden cane a lot this a.m.
Netanyahu and Trump, Israel and U.S., doppelgÓ“ngers? From The Economist, 3/30/2019, "Binyamin Netanyahu: a parable of modern populism."
The reign of King Bibi is thus a parable of modern politics: the rise of a talented politician and a long success based on a perplexing mixture of carrying out sound policy and cynically sowing division. As his power is threatened, he has turned to railing more loudly against the free press, the judiciary and shadowy forces. Now Bibi faces his greatest danger, in the form of criminal charges for corruption. In a different age he would have had to resign, and would now be defending himself as an ordinary citizen. But he is intent on remaining in office, and hopes that voters will yet save him from the policemen, prosecutors and judges. Israeli politics is turning into a contest between genuine achievement and demagoguery on one side and the rule of law on the other. All who care about democracy should watch closely.
In Bibi’s pessimistic view, Israel is surrounded by wolves in sheep’s clothing and wolves in wolves’ clothing. Israel can only manage conflicts, not solve them, he believes, so it must rely on an iron wall and the passage of time.
Such “anti-solutionism” risks storing trouble for the future. It increases the danger of war with Iran, or of its hardliners making a dash for nukes. The more Israel entrenches itself in the West Bank, the more its “temporary” military occupation looks like the permanent subjugation of Palestinians under a separate law, even apartheid. This is made worse by the absence of America’s restraining influence. Mr Netanyahu has warmly embraced Mr Trump, who in turn has showered him with gifts, most recently his endorsement of Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights. Might Mr Trump also back Israel’s annexation of bits of the West Bank, so denying Palestinians the hope of statehood? In the long run Bibi’s overt alignment with America’s Republicans and the evangelical right endangers the bipartisan pro-Israeli consensus in Washington that is the foundation of Israel’s security.
But the greatest threat from Bibi’s reign has been at home. He has kept power not just on the strength of his record but also by seeking political advantage at the cost of eroding Israel’s democratic norms. In claiming that no peace with Palestinians is possible (or desirable), members of his right-wing coalition outbid each other to pass measures asserting Jewish supremacy. Mr Netanyahu pushed for an electoral pact with the hitherto untouchable far-right Jewish Power group, which wants to annex all the occupied territories and “encourage” Arabs, including Israeli citizens, to leave. He has played us-and-them politics for so long that he has exacerbated the country’s many schisms—between Jews and Arabs, diaspora Jews and Israelis, western Ashkenazi and eastern Mizrahi Jews, and secular and religious ones. By casting himself as uniquely able to protect Israel against its enemies, he often treats those who say otherwise as wimps or traitors. . .
Yet precisely because of these pressures, Israel offers an important test of the resilience of democracy. On April 9th [2019], Israeli voters face a fateful choice. Re-elect Mr Netanyahu and reward him for subverting the independence of Israel’s institutions. Or turf him out in the hope of rebuilding trust in democracy—and aspiring to be “a light unto the nations”.
We know which way Israel turned on April 9, 2019, and what has resulted. Which way will America turn on November 5, 2024, and with what results?
Will Israel use its nuclear arms? What happens if Iran turns loose Hezbollah and its thousands of rockets on Israel's North and if Palestinians in the West Bank erupt more violently while Israel is focused on Gaza in its South? With the IDF stretched thin in a 3 front war, will Israel, feeling an existential threat, use one or more of its nuclear weapons? Is this why President Biden thought it was so necessary to travel to Tel Aviv, to give Netanyahu a warm hug for the world to see, even while most of the Arab and Muslim world blamed Israel and the U.S. for the attack on the El Ahli Arab Hospital? We have thought for the last year or so that the greatest threat of the use of 'tactical nuclear arms' came from the Russians in Ukraine. For years, a latent fear of nuclear warfare has loomed between India and Pakistan. But today that threat lies with our ally Israel and its heretofore cold war with Iran and Iran-backed Hamas, Hezbollah, and other proxies. As of now, Iran and its proxies are winning the political war with the Israeli-Saudi normalization process sidelined, the Arab street enraged, and the predictable horror of Israeli-inflicted mass death and destruction in Gaza looming and threatening to make Israel a pariah state. Will Biden and his administration use American naval and air forces in the Eastern Mediterranean rather than OK Israel's use of tactical nukes? Is this part of the reason the U.S. deployed two carrier strike forces there?
As far as I know, neither the Israeli nor the American government has ever admitted that Israel has a nuclear weapon stockpile and Biden has made no mention of the possibility of Israel's use of nuclear weaponry if its threat level increases. But the whole world, including Iran, knows that Israel has nukes and that it will use them if its government feels sufficiently imperiled. I have to believe that this realization lies behind Biden's hug of Netanyahu.
Jordan out in Speakership contest. We have dodged Jim Jordan's bullet for a 3rd time. He was defeated yet again, with 25 Republicans voting against him. Then the Republican caucus took a vote on whether he should continue his candidacy and he lost. There will be a 'candidate caucus' on Monday. So while war rages on the European continent and in the Middle East, our government functionally has no legislature for three weeks, and that's assuming their caucus can select and elect another candidate by next Tuesday, which seems unlikely.
Jordan's candidacy reminds me of an article in the current online edition of The Atlantic: :The Sociopaths Among Us—And How to Avoid Them" by Arthur C. Brooks. Excerpts:
Very likely, this person was a “Dark Triad” personality. The term was coined by the psychologists Delroy Paulhus and Kevin Williams in 2002 for people with three salient personality characteristics: narcissism, Machiavellianism, and a measurable level of psychopathy. These people confuse and hurt you, because they act in a way that doesn’t seem to make sense. As one scholar aptly described the ones whose behavior shades more obviously into psychopathy, these are “social predators who charm, manipulate, and ruthlessly plow their way through life, leaving a broad trail of broken hearts, shattered expectations, and empty wallets.”
[My add: "I couldn’t forgive [Tom] or like him, but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified. It was all very careless and confused. They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made."]
But at least these people are rare, right? Wrong. Dark Triads counted for about one in 14 people in an international population sample, a proportion that means all of us will meet them on a regular basis in love, in work, in politics, and—most obviously—on social media. For the sake of our happiness, well-being, and wallets, we need to understand them, learn how to identify them, and steer clear of them whenever we can—so that we can find better companions instead.
Narcissism is the egotistical admiration of oneself. Machiavellianism is a duplicitous interpersonal style and disregard for morality. These characteristics are bad enough, but the element of psychopathy adds in an absence of empathy and remorse to complete the Dark Triad: It’s all about me, I am willing to hurt you for my gain, and I don’t care how you feel.
Sometimes, a person like this will display a fourth trait to make a Dark Tetrad: sadism, or the enjoyment of others’ suffering. Some scholars have argued, in effect, that all triad types are really tetrads, because narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy are all expressions of a governing tendency toward sadism. But whether such personalities enjoy their predation or not is beside the point; with three traits or four, they make life miserable for the rest of us.
Dark Triads involved in politics create a lot of damage, because narcissists are motivated by self-aggrandizement over public service, and psychopaths are drawn to extreme positions in a radicalized society. So watch out for Dark Triad personalities on the fringes of political and social causes (of either the right-wing or left-wing variety).
Came to life around 1 p.m. when I awoke from a nap on the tvr . Went to Senkik's for some bread, a russet potato for the next batch of Geri's vegetable beef soup, and some cantalope, an apple, and a largely tastefree beefsteak tomato. Finally deposited Sarah's birthday gift in her Chase bank account. Working up the gumption to mount the treadmill.
Treadmill. Good news, I got on the treadmill. Bad news, 10.27 & 0.25. I had some pelvic pain but I'm not at all sure I didn't use that as an excuse to cut my walking time short. One rarely knows. I watched the first part of the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma. Frightening, not so much for me but for my grandchildren and all grandchildren.
No comments:
Post a Comment