Sunday, June 2, 2024
Ed Felsenthat's 83rd birthday
1963, our MU graduation and commissioning
1967, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band released in the U.S. on my first uneasy day as a civilian again after 4 years as a Marine and 4 years prepping
1992, Timothy McVeigh was found guilty of the Oklahoma City bombing deaths of 168, including 19 children, the wounding of 680 people, the destruction or damage of 324 other buildings, and $652,000,000 of damage.
Prednisone, day 21. In an unwelcome reprise of nights past, I was unable to sleep in the bed and moved onto the LZB at 1:30, and then at 1:20 out to the recliner in the TV room. It was a dry cough and throat tickle that kept me from sleeping. I've been having recurrent difficulty swallowing lately, dry mouth with food hanging up at the top of my throat, requiring sips of water to aid its descent through the esophagus into my stomach. Should I be reporting this to Dr/ Chatt? Is it a side effect of prednisone, a temporary abnormality, or something else? My shoulders and other joints (other than my lower back) seem to be in good condition, I took my 20 mg. pill with my oatmeal at 4 a.m., waiting for first light around 4:40 and sunrise at 5:14. Or will I nod off with a belly full of oatmeal?
The frightening nexus between Timothy McVeigh and Donald Trump. It was 29 years ago, on April 19, 1995, that Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. It was the worst case of domestic terrorism in U.S. history, perpetrated by two radicalized former Army soldiers exacting revenge for the federal government's law enforcement actions in Waco, Texas (David Koresh and the Branch Davidian cult) and Ruby Ridge, Idaho (the Randy Weaver family, the White militia movement). It's important to remember that the bombing was revenge, i.e., retribution, for perceived wrongful actions by federal law enforcement activities, e.g., the FBI, DEA, ATF, U.S. Marshall's office, and others. Of the hundreds of casualties, McVeigh said "I didn't define the rules of engagement in this conflict. The rules, if not written down, are defined by the aggressor. It was brutal, no holds barred. Women and kids were killed at Waco and Ruby Ridge. You put back in [the government's] faces exactly what they're giving out." He later stated, "I wanted the government to hurt like the people of Waco and Ruby Ridge had."
Let us never forget what Donald Trump has stated, to us and the world, ipsis verbis, both before and since his recent felonies conviction:
March 4, 2023: "“In 2016, I declared, ‘I am your voice, Today, I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.” CPAC
Consider how Trump has characterized his opposition: Communists, Marxists, Socialists, fascists, human scum, vermin, thugs, animals, radicals, lunatics who want to destroy our country, an enemy of the people, . . . "The threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous, and grave than the threat from within” . . . Biden’s conduct on our border is by any definition a conspiracy to overthrow the United States of America. … Biden and his accomplices want to collapse the American system, nullify the will of the actual American voters and establish a new base of power that gives them control for generations” — Mar. 2, 2024. Re Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley: " “This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH! A war… could have been the result of this treasonous act.” — Sept. 22, 2023. Re political opponents: "Glenn Beck: “Do you regret not ‘locking her up.’ And if you’re president again, will you lock people up?”Donald Trump: “The answer is you have no choice because they’re doing it to us.” — Aug. 29, 2023.
Consider what he promotes: if he wins -"a unified Reich," if he loses -"a bloodbath."
Consider what he says of the Supreme Law of the Land: “A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude [referring to the 2020 election] allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.” — Dec. 3, 2022
Consider what he says about law enforcement agencies and the judiciary: RE the FBI - ""BREAKING FROM TRUMP: BIDEN’S DOJ WAS AUTHORIZED TO SHOOT ME!" read an all-caps subject line on an email from Trump’s campaign. "It’s just been revealed that Biden’s DOJ was authorized to use DEADLY FORCE for their DESPICABLE raid in Mar-a-Lago. You know they’re just itching to do the unthinkable…Joe Biden was locked & loaded ready to take me out & put my family in danger." RE NY judge Juan Merchan in the 'hush money case': "crooked," "corrupt," "deeply conflicted," "a devil," and "a Trump hater." Judge Gonzalo Curiel in the Trump University case: "biased" and "a hater" because, though he was an American citizen born and raised in Indiana, he was "Mexican" and "Hispanic." RE Judge Tanya Chutkan in 'the January 6th case': ""Deranged Jack Smith is going before his number one draft pick, the Judge of his 'dreams' (WHO MUST BE RECUSED!), in an attempt to take away my FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS . . ." U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan "obviously wants me behind bars. VERY BIASED & UNFAIR!" Trump said in a Truth Social post on August 14, 2023. RE NY judge Arthur Engoron in the NY civil fraud case: "The N.Y. State Wacko Judge who fined me almost 500 Million Dollars (UNDER APPEAL) for DOING NOTHING WRONG, used a Statute that has never been used before, gave me NO JURY." RE federal judge Lewis Kaplan in the E. Jean Carroll sexual assault case: "a "seething and hostile Clinton-appointed Judge" . . . "He is abusive, rude, and obviously not impartial but, that’s the way this crooked system works!" "Kaplan "should be sanctioned for his abuse of power — No wonder our Country is going to Hell!" He told reporters after court: "That's a nasty man. He's a nasty judge. He's a Trump-hating guy." RE Judge Scott McAfee in Atlanta Trump has taken it rather easy, but he did complain about him when he denied Trump's motions to dismiss and his effort to oust DA Fani Willis and his supporters posted on social media and otherwise delivered mulitiple threats against McAfee. The only judge who escapes Trump's rancor, contempt, and libels is his appointee in Florida in the classified documents case, Aileen Cannon, who is widely thought to be in his pocket.
Lists like this could go on forever, loaded with verbatim epithets and outrageous, provocative, incendiary threats and menaces by Trump (and by many of his supporters, in and out of the government) against his political opponents and especially against government officials seeking to enforce criminal and civil laws against him. By now, his many targeted victims have received probably thousands of threats to their safety, security, and lives.
Now reconsider the history of Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols, and the Oklahoma City bombing and ask yourself what we may expect now that Trump has been convicted and faces punishment for multiple felonies in what is generally considered the weakest case against him, faces 3 other much stronger cases against him, and may (please God) lose the November election and incur more convictions. America has become a more dangerous place under the ascendency of Donald Trump and grows only more dangerous each time he opens his mouth and incites the next McVeigh or Nichols.
LTMW I watch a female downy woodpecker working away at what remains of a suet cake while a chickadee uncharacteristically takes his time selecting a seed from the tube feeder before flying away to eat the kernel and a chipmunk climbs up the staff of the shepherd's crook before he is blocked by the squirrel baffle. G is unhappy about the reappearance of the chipmunks after she had the exterminator get rid of their predecessors. . . . By 8 o'clock, the family of house finches with the hungry fledgling have shown up again, with the youngun' flipping his tail feathers up and down and ruffling his wings waiting to be fed. . . At 1 p.m., I finally cut a big naval orange in half and mounted the half-globes on the crooks.
Two feather’d guests from Alabama, two together,And their nest, and four light-green eggs spotted with brown,And every day the he-bird to and fro near at hand,And every day the she-bird crouch’d on her nest, silent, with bright eyes,And every day I, a curious boy, never too close, never disturbing them,Cautiously peering, absorbing, translating.
But perhaps what I enjoyed most about the anonymous review of Whitman's poetry was the acknowledgment that even with truly great art, some parts may be a lot less great than others, perhaps even coarse, gross, absurd, and tedious. It makes me feel better about my own efforts at painting which are decidedly not great or even amateurly good. As Winston Churchill wrote in Painting as a Pastime:
But if, on the contrary, you are inclined - late in life though it be - to reconnoitre a foreign sphere of limitless extent, then be persuaded that the first quality that is needed is Audacity. We cannot aspire to masterpieces. We may content ourselves with a joy ride in a paint-box. And for this Audacity is the only ticket.
Painting is a companion with whom one may walk a great part of life's journey. When I get to heaven I mean to spend a considerable portion of my first million years in painting, and so get to the bottom of the subject.
I am never going to have anything more to do with politics or politicians. When this war is over I shall confine myself entirely to writing and painting.
and my favorite comment
. . . painting is a friend who makes no undue demands, excites to no exhausting pursuits, keeps faithful pace even with feeble steps, and hold her course as a screen between us and the envious eyes of Time or the surly advance of Decrepitude.
Major accomplishments: (1) I called Ed, wished him a happy birthday, and had a nice chat. Mary Fran is with him. (2) I strolled with Rachel down to and around the cul-de-sac, returning pretty exhausted.
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