8/31/24

 Saturday, August 31, 2024

1928 Bertolt Brecht & Kurt Weil's "The Threepenny Opera" premiered in Berlin

1941 "Great Gildersleeve," a spin-off of "Fibber McGee & Molly", debuted on radio

1946 Foghorn Leghorn, a Warner Bros. cartoon character first debuted

1997 Diana, Princess of Wales, dies in a car crash in a road tunnel in Paris

In bed at 9:50 p.m. after dozing for an hour on the recliner, woke up around 2:30, and out of bed at 3:10 to let Lilly out.   

Prednisone, day 111, 10 mg., day r16/28.  I applied diclofenac to my right knee at 3;30 a.m., thinking of my friend Roland Wright, long gone, with his Aspercreme and sharing G-tube duty with the nurse/nun at Convent Hill public housing, and my first eulogy, or was that Ray Aiken's?  And why didn't I save those eulogies, as I did Tom's?  And then there was Jessie's significant other, a real challenge.  Why did Tom lay that on me?  I took the 10 mg. of prednisone at 5 a.m. with All Bran and berries.  Morning meds at 5:30 a.m.

Polio in Gaza.  The State of Israel, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, Itamar Ben-Gvir, and Bezalel Smotrich, has destroyed Gaza's infrastructure, including its facilities to provide clean water and sanitary waste disposal.  Gaza has gone from being an open-air prison to being an open sewer, a breeding ground for diseases.  Six weeks ago, the World Health Organization found traces of poliovirus in Gaza's wastewater.  Two weeks ago, a toddler, not quite one year old, was diagnosed with polio, the first case in Gaza in 25 years.   Israel and Hamas have agreed to staggered ceasefires to permit mass polio vaccinations of 640,000 Gazan children.     

It is hard not to believe that the government of Israel is using disease, along with hunger, as weapons in its war against Hamas, or is it its war against Gaza.  Its bombing, artillery, and infantry attacks on varying sections of Gaza, accompanied by evacuation orders, have displaced most of the Gazan civilians from their homes, forcing overcrowding in displaced persons camps with no clean water, no plumbing, no toilets, no sanitary sewage systems, and grossly inadequate health care systems.  Cheek-by-jowl living conditions mean bacteria and viruses, air-borne and water-borne, are always and everywhere spreading from person to person.  It's not even possible for people to wash their hands with soap and clean water.  Raw sewage runs through the streets and even into the Mediterranean Sea, turning parts of the coastline brown instead of blue.  Dysentery and diarrheal diseases are common, as is jaundice presumably from hepatitis, pneumonia, and severe skin diseases, especially among children.  All of this is the predictable and therefore the presumably intended result of almost a year of unrelenting warfare in the very densely populated region.  There is fear of a cholera outbreak and now of course polio.  Israel is concerned not only about the spread of polio among the Palestinians but of its infecting the Israeli troops serving in Gaza and its spreading into Israel proper.  

How often have I posted this photograph I took almost 60 years ago, two skinny little Vietnamese boys, residents of the village across the road from the Marine side of the big airbase at Danang, carefully holding on to the barbed wire fencing that separated 'them' from 'us,' the Vietnamese villagers from the Americans.  It is hard to see in the photo, but the shorter of the two boys has his arm around the shoulders of the taller, who might have been his brother or a cousin, or simply a friend.  I took the photo from far away; this is a cropped and enlarged copy of the original.  I don't know what moved me to take it but I have held on to it for nearly 60 years and am haunted by it.  What happened to these boys?  How did the American War, as the Vietnamese call it, affect them?  Did they survive it?  Were they affected by the years of Agent Orange storage on the Marine side of the airbase, which became a "hot spot" requiring years of remediation?  Did they survive the takeover by North Vietnam and the communists?  Was their mother a 'moma-san' for the Marines living in tents on our side of the barbed wire?  How many hundreds of thousands of other skinny little Vietnamese boys and girls were affected by what we did in the war: how many killed, maimed, burned, poisoned, genetically corrupted?  How much thought did any of us Americans give to the effect of our actions there, on the ground and in the air, have on the children of Vietnam?  What difference did it make to us?  For most of us, it made no difference; we didn't hate them, we were simply indifferent.  Shame on us.  Shame on me.

This painting and the one below I did in the 1990s during the breakup of Yugoslavia and the wars between Serbs and their former countrymen: Croatians, Bosnians, Montenegrins.  I used news photographs as my subjects, each showing a child affected by the combat.

Why I have no reverence for the Constitution and our 'Founding Fathers.'  From this morning's NYTimes, an article by Jennifer Szalai titled "The Constitution is Sacred. Is It Also Dangerous? - One of the biggest threats to America’s politics might be the country’s founding document.

Trump owes his political ascent to the Constitution, making him a beneficiary of a document that is essentially antidemocratic and, in this day and age, increasingly dysfunctional.

After all, Trump became president in 2016 after losing the popular vote but winning the Electoral College (Article II). He appointed three justices to the Supreme Court (Article III), two of whom were confirmed by senators representing just 44 percent of the population (Article I). Those three justices helped overturn Roe v. Wade, a reversal with which most Americans disagreed. The eminent legal scholar Erwin Chemerinsky, worried about opinion polls showing “a dramatic loss of faith in democracy,” writes in his new book, “No Democracy Lasts Forever”: “It is important for Americans to see that these failures stem from the Constitution itself.”

Back in 2018, Chemerinsky, the dean of Berkeley’s law school, still seemed to place considerable faith in the Constitution, pleading with fellow progressives in his book “We the People” “not to turn their back on the Constitution and the courts.” By contrast, “No Democracy Lasts Forever” is markedly pessimistic. Asserting that the Constitution, which is famously difficult to amend, has put the country “in grave danger,” Chemerinsky lays out what would need to happen for a new constitutional convention — and, in the book’s more somber moments, he entertains the possibility of secession. West Coast states might form a nation called “Pacifica.” Red states might form their own country. He hopes that any divorce, if it comes, will be peaceful.

The damages of Constitution worship extend to the structure of the political system itself. National politics gets increasingly funneled through the judiciary, with control of the courts — especially the Supreme Court — becoming a way to consolidate power regardless of what the majority of people want. This disempowerment of majorities, combined with political gridlock and institutional paralysis outside the judiciary, fuels popular disaffection. The document that’s supposed to be a bulwark against authoritarianism can end up fostering the widespread cynicism that helps authoritarianism grow. 

Anniversaries thoughts.  I can't ignore Brecht and Weill, The Threepenny Opera, Mother Courage, and Brecht's poem  To Those Born Later:    Truly, I live in dark times! / The guileless word is folly. A smooth forehead / Suggests insensitivity. The man who laughs / Has simply not yet had / The terrible news.

Fibber McGee and the Great Gildersleeve, how warmly I remember listening to these and other popular radio shows in the 1940s and early 1950s.  Amos n' Andy, The Shadow, Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, George Burns and Gracie Allen.  The great sound effects

Foghorn Leghorn, one of my favorite cartoon characters, a Southern gasbag politician.  I sometimes think of him when I listen to Senator Kenndy of Louisiana.

Princess Diana's fateful day.  It just seems right to at least mention it since the whole world, at least the developed, capitalist Western world, seemed to stop in its tracks for her death and the grandiose funeral with all its drama.

8/30/24

 Friday, August 30, 2024

1956 Lake Pontchartrain Causeway opened in Louisiana, the longest continuous bridge in the world

2021 America ended its 20-year war in Afghanistan as the last military evacuation plane flew out of Kabul

In bed around 9:30 after giving Lilly her med, filling her water dish, her dinner completely uneaten, awake at 3:05 and out of bed by 3:25.    

Prednisone, day 110, 10 mg., day 15/28.  At 3:40, I applied diclofenac to my knee and thigh and again at 6 p.m.  Prednisone at 7:10 a.m. followed by All Bran & berries at 7:30.  Morning meds at 7:40.  Trulicity injection in mid-afternoon.

From this morning's NYTimes: A ‘Life Review’ Can Be Powerful, at Any Age: Reflecting on the past, through writing or conversation, can help us better appreciate where we are — and where we’re going.  Excerpts:   

Life review arose in the 1960s to help people at the end of their lives articulate and make peace with their legacies. But new research suggests that the process of reflecting on previous experiences has value for people at all ages, including young adults and bereaved children.

In the 1950s, Erik Erikson, the influential child psychoanalyst, published his theory that each stage of life is associated with a specific psychic challenge. The work of toddlerhood, for example, is to gain autonomy. The goal of young adulthood is to develop intimacy with others. Old age, he posited, is the time to gather one’s life experiences into a coherent narrative — what Mr. Erikson called integration. Those who fail, he wrote, risk falling into despair. 

Dr. Robert Butler, the first director of the National Institute on Aging, built on Mr. Erikson’s concept. For older people who get stuck on regrets or disappointments, Dr. Butler proposed something called life review therapy.

You can D.I.Y. For a classic life review, Dr. Shellman suggested reading “The Handbook of Structured Life Review” by Barbara K. Haight and Barrett Haight, which explains how to be a therapeutic listener and provides questions for each life stage.

“Writing Your Legacy” by Dr. Svensson and Richard Campbell explores how to pursue a guided autobiography on your own and includes dozens of additional themes, including life values, food and drink, passions, friendships and cultural heritage.

Try including pictures or props. Keepsakes, photos or even poems can help spark recollections, said Bonnie Kellen, a New York City-based psychologist and life review therapist. And listening to music associated with an earlier time or returning to a location from your past can help, Dr. Shellman said.

Look out for difficult emotions. Deena Hitzke, a psychotherapist from Tucson, Ariz., uses life review to help people recover from trauma. She finds the format useful because so much of our ability to adapt and grow “depends upon the narrative that we’re telling ourselves about who we are,” she said. But not all life review facilitators have clinical training. If you find the process is stirring up difficult emotions, Dr. Shellman suggested consulting your doctor or nurse practitioner. 

I wonder whether this daily journal that I have maintained for longer than two years now is a form of 'life review' therapy?  Or was that the purpose, or at least the result, of my memoir?  There is a lot of self-reflection in both writing exercises, but the result seems to be the aggregating of regrets, self-disappointments, 'not a day but something is recalled, my judgment or my vanity appalled.'  I'm reminded of David Brooks' op-ed the other day about "core affects."   I've long thought that mine, and my sister's, has been depression, sadness, Yeats' 'abiding sense of tragedy' which accounts, I suppose, for my profound pessimism about the country, the world, the human species.

 Feeling low the last couple of days and wondering if it's a reaction to my fall on Tuesday night, or more precisely, my inability to get up from the fall, how close I was to having the EMTs here again.  Or is it Geri's knee surgery repeated, or good neighbor and fellow 83-year-old John's leukemia?   Brain-fogged or brain-dead?

Anniversaries thoughts.  First, the Lake PPontchartrainCausemway reminds me of the ridiculous trip Tom Devitt, Ed Felsentahl, Joe Daley, Harry Krasnick, Bill Hanrahan, and I to New OOrleansover the semester break in our sophomore year, 1960-61, and our stay at the Silver Dollar Hotal on Iberville Street, a gay hotel, where we barricaded the doors.  Tom, as our most reliable buddy, was charged with protecting the cash we had set aside for the homeward drive and he lost it, or perhaps it was stolen from him, who knows?  Pushing cars up the ice-covered hills (the 'knobs') in southern Illinois and Kentucky, spinning out and ending up in a ditch, nursing one drink all evening at Al Hirt's Jazz club with Joe Daley, Bourbon Street, . . .

Secondly, I've wondered why Afghanistan is called America's longest war rather than Vietnam.  We didn't have combat units fighting in Vietnam for more than the Afghanistan misadventure's 20 years, but our lethal involvement lasted more than 20 years.  We financed France's attempt to maintain its colonial empire in Indochina from at least 1950 when Harry Truman was president. mm

1950 First shipment of American military aid to the French colonial administration in Vietnam arrives

1955 President Eisenhower sends first military advisors to South Vietnam to train the South Vietnamese Army

1956 At the French exit the US Military Assistance Advisor Group (MAAG) assumes full responsibility for training South Vietnamese forces

1959 First two Americans were awerekilled during a Viet Minh guerillas strike at Bien Hoa

1961 President Kennedy sends 100 Special Forces troops to South Vietnam

1961 A U.S. aircraft carrier arrives in Saigon and Vice President Johnson visits Saigon

1962 U.S. Air Force begins using Agent Orange to defoliate trails used by Viet Cong forces

1963 U.S. military advisors and Special Forces increase to 21,000

1964 U.S. destroyers USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy are reported attacked by the North Vietnamese in the Gulf of Tonkin. U.S. Congress passes “Gulf of Tonkin” resolution authorizing President Johnson to wage all-out war against North Vietnam

1965 Retaliatory air strikes begin against North Vietnam. Operation “Rolling Thunder” lasts three years. First U.S. combat forces (2 Marine battalions) arrive in Danang, South Vietnam. The rapid escalation of force level ensues, which tops 200,000 by the end of the year. U.S. Congress provides $2.4 billion for war effort with little dissent

1966 U.S. B-52s bombed North Vietnam for the first time. The bombing of Haiphong and Hanoi begins

1967 Major ground operations continue, including Operation Cedar Falls. Troop level reaches 486,000

1968 Communist forces conduct the Tet Offensive with major attacks in almost all of South Vietnam’s 44 provinces. The Battle of Hue lasts 26 days. The Offensive is a huge military defeat for the Communists but a political and psychological victory. Johnson scales back the bombing of the North and commits the U.S. to a non-military solution to the war. U.S. troop level reaches 537,000.

1969 Secret bombing of Communist supply routes and base camps inside Cambodia begins. The “Vietnamization” program was initiated, shifting the burden of the war to the South Vietnamese Army and away from the U.S. First U.S. combat forces withdrawn.

1970 President Nixon orders more troops withdrawn reducing the total to 280,000 by the end of the year. Invasion of Communist sanctuaries inside Cambodia by U.S. and South Vietnam forces

1971 Continued troops withdrawn as combat operations wind down. Air strikes continue with heaviest attacks on North Vietnam since 1968

1972 A seventh withdrawal of forces reduces troop level to 69,000 by mid-year. North Vietnamese launched a major offensive across the DMZ into the South. In retaliation, President Nixon orders the renewed bombing of the Hanoi and Haiphong areas. Bombing above the 20th parallel continues. U.S. mines the North Vietnam harbors

1973 By March all U.S. combat forces had been withdrawn from Vietnam and all U.S. prisoners released

1974 Just before Saigon’s capture by North Vietnamese forces, the last remaining U.S. personnel are evacuated from Vietnam.

1982 Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated to the 58,183 Americans killed during the war

8/29/24

Thursday, August 29, 2024

Geri's second knee surgery

In bed around 9 and up and about at 5:40!😊  Let Lilly out around 6:15 as a doe and 2 fawns crossed the Pandl's property across the street, causing Lilly to give her half-hearted warning barks.  Woof, woof which caused the 3 deer to stop in their tracks, look at Lilly, and calmly walk on.  Life in a wildlife sanctuary.

Prednisone, day 109, qo mg., day 14/28.   I took the prednisone at 6:15 and applied diclofenac at 6:45.  Morning meds at 7:50.

Geri's second knee surgery appears to have gone well.  We picked up some meds at Walgreen's on the way home from the Orthopedic Hospital and she's resting in bed with her knee elevated on pillows and under an ice pack, having a toasted peanut butter sandwich for dinner.

'Captain Bone Spurs' at Arlington.  He's done it again.  He visited Arlington National Cemetery at the invitation of the family of a Marine who is buried there and used the occasion to film a campaign video and photos at the gravesite.  This violates federal regulations against campaign and political activities at national cemeteries.  When a female staff member tried to enforce the rule, Trump's campaign workers pushed her aside and did the filming despite the regulation.  The staff member filed an "incident report" but declined to press charges because, she said, of fears of retribution by Trump supporters.  In response, the Trump campaign spokesman smeared her as "clearly suffering from a mental health episode" and "a despicable person."  On Wednesday, Representative Mikie Sherrill, Democrat of New Jersey and a former Navy helicopter pilot, called Mr. Trump’s actions in Arlington “an absolute disgrace.” Representative Jake Auchincloss, Democrat of Massachusetts and a former Marine went further, writing on social media that they were “part of a pattern” and that Mr. Trump was “a draft-dodger who called American war dead ‘suckers & losers’, attacked a Gold Star family & POW, & wants to cut veterans’ benefits.”  It amazes me that any military person, veteran, or family of a service person or veteran can support this guy. considering his long history of disrespect for those who served, including John McCain and the Marines who died at Belleau Wood.  I have a certain reverence for military cemeteries and I have never been entirely sure why that is.  It's why I drive through Wood National Cemetery on my way to the VA Medical Center.  I've written about this special feeling several times in this journal, usually wondering why I am so moved by the row after orderly row of headstones marking so many dead soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines.  Seeing Donald Trump standing among so many headstones at Arlington makes me want to puke.  Pass the basin, please.

Kamala Harris for the people or Choose Freedom.  Which is the better campaign slogan?  Is this even a close question?  What does "chose freedom" mean, denotatively or connotatively, explicitly or implicitly? With respect to one big issue, abortion or reproductive rights, the meaning seems clear enough, but what does it mean about any other big issue?  Immigration, inflation, the economy?  The slogan leaves me cold.  Indeed it's the same idea promoted by the Trumpies, i.e., that Trump and the MAGA bunch are the promoters of freedom, from an oppressive government, from 'the deep state,' from high taxes and burdensome regulations, from the administrative state, from oppression and discrimination against Whites  and Christians, etc.  Why in the world would anyone pick "Choose Freedom" as a slogan?  On the other hand, the lines in her acceptance speech at the DNC in Chicago, "Kamala Harris for the people" suggest defending the ordinary people against the rich and powerful, the oligarchs and plutocrats, the Donald Trumps and Elon Musks of the world.  They have a particular resonance with her background as a prosecutor in court, both as DA in San Francisco and as Attorney General for California.  They also suggest democracy rather than autocracy, the people vs. dictatorship or autocracy, a very big issue in this election.  

Fintan O'Toole on PBS Frontline re Biden.  Biden was considered a bit of a joke during the first years of Obama's presidency.  "Uncle Joe," a bit of a gasbag, a gaffemeister. long-winded.  "He does think of himself as a person of destiny, and the way in which he expressed that politically which was, what do I say if I'm a person who's going to change America, if I'm going to be a historic person?  I don't think he ever worked out what does a person of destiny sound like.  Obama knew what a person of destiny sounded like.  Whether you like Obama or didn't like Obama, there's a rhetoric; there's a grandeur which is historically rooted in classical speech, in biblical speech.  It has a high standing to it.  And Biden has always struggled to find a rhetoric or language which matches his sense of himself.  And this is where you get the long-windedness, the gaffe-prone Joe, because what is he actually expressing?  "I'm a really nice guy and you should like me and here's a few things I'd like to say.  So his speech is almost pitched at the level of a parish.  The priest gets to talk at length because nobody can interrrupt him up there on the pulpit. . .  but Biden has this rhetorical problem and its not accidental that he gets disrepected in an administration whose great strength is the rhetorical power of its leader. . . 

The only way to deal with the age issue is to be up front about i- stop the thing of trying to run when can't walk, as it were, trying to enact some sense that "I'm really not as old as I look."  Yes you are and that's who you are. . .  One way or the other, America is going to have a president in his 80s**. . . It also has consequences for how Americans see themselves. . l There's a great deal of generational resentment in America, because the American Dream has stopped.  The American Dream was this intergenerational machine where my kids' lives are going be a bit better than mine, and I have that expectation, and their kids' lives are going to be better than theirs. . . but that's stopped.  That is not what's happening in America right now.  You have a generation of people who are poorer than their parents, whose expectations are lower than their parents'.  And that's a very profound thing to have happen in America.  It's of historic consequence.

He looks like an elderly man because that's what he is.  There's nothing shameful about that.  That's just life. . . When you're towards the end of that human life cycle, everybody knows what the destination is. . . This election is one of the most important in American history.  It really matters very profoundly to America and to the world who's going to get elected.  With the stakes so high, it means that Biden is putting an enormous bet on his own instrincts for survival.  He sees himself as someone who comes through immense challenges.  And that's true, right? . . . Oddly, because havng been so vulverable of invulnerability- 'I've dealth with these things,; I know I can stand it, and and I know I can come out the other side.'  And the question for America is, has that led him into a certain kind of delusion? 

** The interview was taped before Biden withdrew from the presidential contest.

 Wednesday, August 29, 2024

1939 Chaim Weizmann informed England that Palestine Jews would fight in WW II

1944  Douglas MacGregor Cummings was born.

1945 General MacArthur was named Supreme Commander of Allied Powers in Japan

In bed after a fall tripping over the wheel of Judy, at 9:50 p.m., awake around 3:30 a.m., and up at 3:50.   I let Lilly out at 6:10. 

Prednisone, day 108, 10 mg., day 13/28.  I took my last 10 mg. pill at 5 a.m., leaving me with only the 2.5 mg. pills.  Breakfast at 6:40, two pieces of Dave's Bread with preserves, followed by morning meds.

Another fall, this one in the bedroom, tripped over my rollator's rear wheel.  I landed hard on my right knee which surprisingly seemed to absorb the shock pretty well, i.e., without pain, but I ended up lying on my right side and wasn't able to get up from the floor.  Geri was in her bedroom, heard me call that I had fallen, and came to my rescue.  Neither my AppleWatch nor the device I've worn around my neck detected my fall.  The aluminum walker was right next to me and I used it to get up on my knees and very slowly to inch toward the bedroom recliner which I eventually reached for support.  Geri tried to lift me up though I asked her not to because I was afraid (1) that she might hurt herself, especially her left knee which is to be operated on tomorrow, and (2) that we would both end up on the floor, injured or needing help.  I wasn't able to raise myself using just my left leg but I eventually got my right leg under me, i.e., foot flat on the floor, and then my left leg, and with Geri steadying me, got on my feet and over to the bed.  My last fall was in the TV room on June 18th, 2 months ago, when I fell over backward picking up some pens and pencils I had accidentally knocked off my end table, fell over backward, hit my head against the wooden bookshelf cabinet, cut my elbow (which still hasn't healed two months later (diabetes), and had to call in the North Shore Fire Department EMTS for help getting off the floor.  Last night's fall was the 5th fall since we've lived on Wakefield.  One on the slope to the ephemeral pond in the backyard, one on the front stoop wrestling with a big package, one on the street near the mailbox, rescued by Tom Mara and Susie Apple, the one in the TV room, and now this one.  

IG report on Gaza pier.  There's an article in this morning's WaPo titled "Biden approved Gaza Pier Despite Internal Pushback, Watchdog Finds."

President Joe Biden approved the plan for delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza via a floating military pier despite warnings from within the U.S. government that rough waves could pose significant challenges and objections from officials who feared the operation would detract from a diplomatic push to compel Israel to open additional land routes into the war zone, according to an inspector general report published Tuesday.

The watchdog for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which oversees Washington’s humanitarian work abroad, cited various “external factors” that it said impaired the agency’s effort to distribute food and other supplies brought to Gaza over the pier. Among them, according to the report, were the security requirements imposed by the Pentagon to protect U.S. mi- litary personnel working aboard the structure just offshore.

“Multiple USAID staff expressed concerns” that the Biden administration’s focus on the pier undercut the agency’s advocacy for opening more land crossings — an approach, the report said, deemed “more efficient and proven.”

The pier cost $230 million and was terminated last month but it was largely a failure from the beginning, partly because rough Mediterranean seas kept breaking the pier apart and partly because of security arrangements imposed to ensure that no American troops were killed in the Gaza operation.  What I am wondering is whether this is another instance of Obama's warning "Don't underestimate Joe's ability to fuck things up," the first being the precipitous withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan.  In each case, the goal was commendable, getting Americans out of Afghanistan after 20 years of a futile and losing war and getting food and other humanitarian aide into Gaza to prevent famine and disease, but in each case, the execution of the operation was SNAFU/FUBAR.  And in each case, the decision maker and prime mover was Joe Biden himself.  The hurried-up Afghanistan withdrawal many have cost the lives of 13 American soldiers and about 60 civilians and left behind hundreds, perhaps thousands of Afghans who had assisted the American efforts there.  The Gaza pier operation was operational for only 20 days before it was terminated on July 17th, i.e., $11.5M per day.   Was Biden imprudent or perhaps reckless in both operations?  What is very concerning about the Gaza pier is the fact that it illustrated Biden's apparent complete weakness in dealing with Benjamin Netanyahu in terms of persuading, leveraging, or forcing, Israel to open up more land routes from Israel for humanitarian aid into Gaza.  Shame on both of them.

Errands run to Grafton.  Geri and I drove to Grafton at 11 a.m. to get some necessities at Target and Costco, including filling up the gas tank.  Geri got new domes for her new hearing aids which have been causing some pain or irritation in her ear canals and I got my new eyeglasses adjusted, for the third time.

Not more complicity!😰  An op-ed in the NYTimes today describes "The Human Cost of Your Breakfast Banana."  It seems Chiquita Banana company has been financing a right-wing militia for decades in Columbia, in addition to forcing people out of their homes to get more land on which to grow bananas.  Is there any part of contemporary life that doesn't have the tendency to make us feel some guilt and shame?

Anniversaries thoughts.   First, the Jews (except for Lehi/Stern Gang terrorists) temporarily sided with England during the big war; the Arabs sided with Germany.  England played each group against the other and paid the price after the war..  We're still paying for the British Mandate and its double-dealing.

Second,  Dougie - 'Every night and every morn, some to misery are born, every morn and every night, some are born to sweet delight.  Some are born to sweet delight, some are born to endless night.'

Third, It was not out of character then that as the defeated Japanese government lay prostrate at the feet of the Americans at the end of the war, they handed over poor Okinawa as the principal ‘Japanese’ land to be occupied by the conquerors.  The military occupation of Japan proper lasted until 1952 but the military occupation of Okinawa continued for another 20 years, including the few months during which I lived there.  Indeed, although it is not legally an ‘occupation’ anymore, it continues to this day although some big changes are occurring.  When I arrived in 1966, Okinawa was very much under American legal control and physical occupation.  American bases, Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines, comprised 25% of the island.  The Marines had many bases on the island, principally Camps Hansen, Butler, and Courtney, and the Futenma air base in the south, and, much further north, Camp Schwab, my home for the next three months.

8/27/24

 Tuesday, August 27, 2024

1979 Lord Mountbatten was killed along with three companions, two of them children, by the IRA when his boat was blown up near Sligo, Ireland

2008 Barack Obama became the first African-American to be nominated by a major political party for President of the United States

In bed by 9:10, awake around 4;00 and up at 4:20 to let Lilly out.into the warm, windy morning.  Heat index above 105℉ yesterday, high temperature today around 90° with dew points between 71° and 78°, stifling.  I let Lilly out again at 5:30, emptied and reloaded the dishwasher, and cleaned up the kitchen.  

Prednisone, day 107, 10 mg., day 12.   I took the 10 mg. at 5:20 a.m., applied diclofenac to the knee at 7 a.m., and took morning meds at 7:05.  I applied more diclofenac at 11 a.m. along with two Lidocaine patches.

“It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.” —AP correspondent Peter Arnett quoting a U.S. major on the decision to bomb and shell Ben Tre on February 7, 1968 after Viet Cong forces overran the city in the Mekong Delta forty-five miles south of Saigon during the Tet Offensive.  I thought of this infamous quote as I read the story in this morning's NYTimes "In Eastern Ukraine, Terrifying Bombardment and Near Total Destruction: Powerful guided “glide bombs” have helped Russia raze entire towns with ever greater speed."  "Glide bombs" are old, Cold War, Soviet-era, free-fall bombs, 500 pounds to 6,000 pounds, retrofitted to become  guidable 'smart bombs.'  They are being used by the Russians throughout the Donetsk region to completely destroy cities and towns.  They are much more destructive than artillery.  "A 152-millimeter artillery shell — which Russia fires by the thousands every day — contains a bit more than 13 pounds of explosive material. A commonly deployed glide bomb, the FAB-1500,  is packed with more than 1,300 pounds of explosives."  I remembered the stories of the utter destruction of Donetsk's major port city of Mariupol by the Russian Army before its occupation of the city in May 2022.  The areas in the Donetsk Oblast that have been and are being utterly destroyed by the Russian and Ukrainian militaries are claimed by both countries, but mainly I think as a matter of national pride.  They are occupied by native Russian speakers, not Ukrainian speakers.  Before the war at least there was apparently considerable identification by the inhabitants with Russia.  Putin thinks of these people as Russians, perhaps understandably, but the region lies within the internationally recognized borders of Ukraine and the region is, or was, economically important to Ukraine, i.e., worth fighting for.  But the war in Donetsk has been raging for more than 2 years now and much of the region is devastated and depopulated, reminding me of Ben Tre.  The slaughterhouse aspect of the fighting reminds me also of Gaza of course and of the inherent stupidity of war.  I can't help but think of Vietnam and what my own government did there in the name of "defending democracy."  

“There may be a limit beyond which many Americans and much of the world will not permit the United States to go. The picture of the world’s greatest superpower killing or seriously injuring 1,000 non-combatants a week, while trying to pound a tiny, backward nation into submission on an issue whose merits are hotly disputed, is not a pretty one.” —Robert McNamara in a memo to President Lyndon Johnson on May 19, 1967.

“I have asked for this radio and television time tonight for the purpose of announcing that we today have concluded an agreement to end the war and bring peace with honor in Vietnam and in Southeast Asia.”—Richard Nixon informing the American public in a nationwide address on January 23, 1973 that the United States had reached agreement with North Vietnam on the Paris Peace Accords.

“Today, America can regain the sense of pride that existed before Vietnam. But it cannot be achieved by refighting a war that is finished as far as America is concerned. As I see it, the time has come to look forward to an agenda for the future, to unify, to bind up the Nation’s wounds, and to restore its health and its optimistic self-confidence…. We, of course, are saddened indeed by the events in Indochina. But these events, tragic as they are, portend neither the end of the world nor of America’s leadership in the world.” —President Gerald R. Ford in a speech at Tulane University on April 23, 1975.

“During the day on Monday, Washington time, the airport at Saigon came under persistent rocket as well as artillery fire and was effectively closed. The military situation in the area deteriorated rapidly. I therefore ordered the evacuation of all American personnel remaining in South Vietnam.” —President Gerald Ford’s statement announcing the evacuation of United States personnel from the Republic of Vietnam on April 29, 1975.

What fools we are.  Stupid, wicked, destructive fools.   Homo vastator, homo extinctor, homo perditor.

Notes: Norm Finkelstein.  I watched a very interesting 90-minute interview of Finkelstein this afternoon.  One of the points he made more than once was that he never wanted to be rich and the Jewish kids with whom he went to high school, James Madison H.S. in Brooklyn, didn't pursue riches but rather academic or intellectual achievement.  His high school valedictorian was Chuck Schumer ('a terrible human being, but very intelligent).  Bernie Sanders went to the same school as did Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Norm Coleman and a number of Nobel Prize winners.  Most of the Jewish students wanted to be doctors, not for the money, but rather because doctors represented the people who were smartest, most accomplished academically, and intellectually, especially in science and mathematics.  

He was a student, perhaps at the Ph.D. level, of Noam Chomsky, for whom he has great respect and affection.  He says he doesn't believe life has any purpose or meaning ("ashes to ashes, dust to dust"), perhaps because of his parents who were survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto and concentration camps, but he notes that Chomsky professes a great love of life, that he finds life "very rich and meaningful."

"What amazes me most about watching the scenes unfolding in Gaza is how cheap life is when it comes to those people.  15,000 children buried under rubble.  Life is so cheap.  I can't, as Oprah Winfrey might say, I can't wrap my head around that, that people could be so indifferent to the magnitude of that horror.  I couldn't be indifferent to it, even if I could be convinced that every one of those children was going to live as meaningless as my own.  I could never be indifferent to that.  I can't even fathom it.  I can't fathom 15,000 children buried under rubble because of this madman, because of this mad society . . . it's probably a lunatic country.

Anniversaries thoughts.  First, getting Mountbatten was worth 2 dead English children to the IRA.  Getting Hamas fighters is worth 15,000 dead Palestinian children to the Israelis?  Second, electing Obama was the good news.  The bad news?  The costs, Tim Geitner, the Tea Party, Donald Trump, etc.

8/26/24

 Monday, August 26, 2024

2018 Archbishop Carlo Vigano, former US Vatican Ambassador, claimed Pope Francis knew of and ignored sex abuse allegations against Cardinal Theodore McCarrick

2021 Two bomb blasts from suicide bombers at Kabul Airport, Afghanistan, killed at least 60 civilians and 13 US soldiers amid efforts to evacuate citizens out of the country

In bed at 9, awake at 2:30, up and out at 2:50.  I let Lilly out around 5 and half-dozed between 5:30 and 7ish when I cleaned the kitchen, loaded the dishwasher, etc.

Andy brought me this beautiful photo of his beautiful family yesterday as a birthday gift.

Prednisone, day 106, 10 mg., day 11/28.    I rook the 10 mg. at 7:20 and my 'morning' meds at 1:20 p.m.  I applied diclofenac to my knee and 2 Lidocaine patches at 10 this morning. 

In a somber, murky mood today for no particular reason.  My Volvo won't be ready until end of business tomorrow, which has my nose out of joint.  'End of business' sounds like I'll actually get it back Wednesday morning since I have no intention of fighting rush hour traffic on I-43 and I-94 to and from Waukesha to pick it up.  That's an entire week using the loaner which is brand new, very fancy, and pleasant to drive but I'd rather have ol' Blue back.  There is only one Volvo dealership in SE Wisconsin, no competition, prices too high, service too slow.    

What Shall I Do With This People?  I'm out of renewals though there are still large parts of this book that I want to read but haven't.  I'll return it to the library and reorder it.  It's a fair bet there isn't a waiting line for it.

Geri's second knee surgery is scheduled for Thursday at noon at the Orthopedic Hospital.

I need to get a birthday card for Anh's 46th birthday on 8/28, which is also Doug Cummings birthday, his 82nd.  Jimmy Cummings' birthday coming up on 9/5, his 85th, and Dad's on 9/9, his 104th.

Anniversaries thoughts.  Oh my goodness!  Where was "the Holy Ghostl over the bent World brood[ing]  with warm breast and with ah! bright wings!" when the Holy Mother Church and its pope neeeded Him?

Was the Kabul suicide bombing another case of Joe B. fucking things up?  What was his big hurry?  Did those soldiers and civilians have to die?  Did all those Afghan allies of the US troops have to be left behind to face the Taliban on thier own?  Biden, and now Harris, won't hear the end of these charges in the current presidential campaign.  The 30-year war in Vietnam ended with the desparate civilians being lifted off the roofs in Saigon by Marine helicopters in 1975.  The 20-year war ended with the 13 soldiers and 60 civilians being blown up at the Kabul airport.  Sad endings to two of America's misbegotten military misadventures.  USA, USA, USA!!!

  

8/25/24

 Sunday, August 25, 2024

1814 British forces destroyed the Library of Congress, containing 3,000 books

1916 US Department of Interior formed the National Park Service

1944 German commander Dietrich von Choltitz surrendered Paris to the Free French forces, disobeying Adolf Hitler's orders to destroy the city

1950 "Rashomon" Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa, starring Toshiro Mifune, was released

2017 President Donald Trump pardoned Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio who had been convicted of contempt of court for racial profiling

In bed at 9, up and about at 4:30, after sleeping through TV programs before 9, exhausted from the prior night's insomnia.  Lilly sleeps soundly beside her mattress in the TV room despite my moving about.   She got up at 5:10 and walked by me sitting in the recliner to the living room.  I'm not sure she was even aware of my presence.  I let her out at 6:45 when the sun was just rising above the treetops across the street.

Prednisone, day 105, 10 mg., day 12.  I applied diclofenac to my knee at about 5 a.m. and took 10 mg. of prednisone at 5:30.  Morning meds and 650 mg. of Tylenol at 8:50.  Around noon,  I applied more diclofenac and 2 Lidocaine 5% patches to the knee.

9 months without coffee, tea, alcoholic, or carbonated drink.   A journal entry on November 25, 2023:

 I woke up OK but the CPP started early on.  Last night's pain was pretty nasty right up to bedtime.  Intense pain this morning around 7:45, a 7 or 8, right kidney area, had me moaning and thinking about calling Andy to see if he or Anh or Peter could drive me to the VA emergency room since Geri is quarantined with COVID.  It got better after 10 minutes or so.  Where did that come from???  It came back @ 8:25.  I typed out a text message to Andy but didn't send it; again the pain went away.????  Pain worsened at about 2, sent the text to Andy, who picked me up and took me to the Zablocki ER.  Got there at 3, got home at 9.  UTI or a flare of my IC.  

How well I remember the day, the pain, and the hours in the ER with Dr. Uihlein and the nurses.  The pain was diagnosed as a flare of my interstitial cystitis and must have been from the lesions/ulcers in my bladder.  I was hoping for a UTI diagnosis, something that could be cured by antibiotics.  I had fulguration surgery on March 6th and have had no flares or unusual bladder pain since then.  I made a point of abstaining from known bladder irritants since 11/25, hence no coffee, tea, caffeine, soda, carbonated beverages, wine, beer, or liquor for the last 9 months.  Every now and then I think about having a cup of coffee, a glass of Zinfandel, or a cognac and I probably will one of these days, but so far, remembering that intense pain on 11/25, I have been getting along on water, an occasional cup of herbal tea, and milk with cereal.  I stopped taking 3 tabs of misoprostol after the fulguration surgery. Still, I'm wondering whether I should start taking it again, especially if I move away from complete abstinence from caffeine, carbonated, and alcoholic beverages.

Zeke Emanuel has an essay in today's The Atlantic: "The Worst Advice Parents Can Give First-Year Students" in which he discourages parents from advising their college students to pursue career-enhancing curricula rather than a core curriculum of classic studies.  At age 57, Zeke wrote another piece for The Atlantic in the October 2014 issue titled "Why I Hope to Die at 75" and subtitled "An argument that society and families—and you—will be better off if nature takes its course swiftly and promptly."  I printed a copy of it which I have read more than once in the ensuing years.

[H]ere is a simple truth that many of us seem to resist: living too long is also a loss. It renders many of us, if not disabled, then faltering and declining, a state that may not be worse than death but is nonetheless deprived. It robs us of our creativity and ability to contribute to work, society, the world. It transforms how people experience us, relate to us, and, most important, remember us. We are no longer remembered as vibrant and engaged but as feeble, ineffectual, even pathetic.

[O]ver recent decades, increases in longevity seem to have been accompanied by increases in disability—not decreases... [B]etween 1998 and 2006, the loss of functional mobility in the elderly increased. In 1998, about 28 percent of American men 80 and older had a functional limitation; by 2006, that figure was nearly 42 percent. And for women the result was even worse: more than half of women 80 and older had a functional limitation. ;C]onclusion: There was an “increase in the life expectancy with disease and a decrease in the years without disease.  The same is true for functioning loss, an increase in expected years unable to function.” . . .  [O]ver the past 50 years, health care hasn’t slowed the aging process so much as it has slowed the dying process.

Take the example of stroke. The good news is that we have made major strides in reducing mortality from strokes. Between 2000 and 2010, the number of deaths from stroke declined by more than 20 percent. The bad news is that many of the roughly 6.8 million Americans who have survived a stroke suffer from paralysis or an inability to speak. And many of the estimated 13 million more Americans who have survived a “silent” stroke suffer from more-subtle brain dysfunction such as aberrations in thought processes, mood regulation, and cognitive functioning. Worse, it is projected that over the next 15 years there will be a 50 percent increase in the number of Americans suffering from stroke-induced disabilities. Unfortunately, the same phenomenon is repeated with many other diseases.

The situation becomes of even greater concern when we confront the most dreadful of all possibilities: living with dementia and other acquired mental disabilities.  . . Instead of predicting a cure in the foreseeable future, many are warning of a tsunami of dementia—a nearly 300 percent increase in the number of older Americans with dementia by 2050.  Half of people 80 and older with functional limitations. A third of people 85 and older with Alzheimer’s. 

Emanuel goes on to list and defend other reasons to want to die at age 75, including economic, familial, and social reasons in addition to the biological and health reasons already mentioned.  Then he writes that he hopes to accomplish his goal by refusing medical tests and treatments:

At 75 and beyond, I will need a good reason to even visit the doctor and take any medical test or treatment, no matter how routine and painless. And that good reason is not “It will prolong your life.” I will stop getting any regular preventive tests, screenings, or interventions. I will accept only palliative—not curative—treatments if I am suffering pain or other disability. . . 

After 75, if I develop cancer, I will refuse treatment. Similarly, no cardiac stress test. No pacemaker and certainly no implantable defibrillator. No heart-valve replacement or bypass surgery. If I develop emphysema or some similar disease that involves frequent exacerbations that would, normally, land me in the hospital, I will accept treatment to ameliorate the discomfort caused by the feeling of suffocation, but will refuse to be hauled off. . . What about simple stuff? Flu shots are out. . .  [N]o to antibiotics. . . 

He puts a lot of disclaimers in the article, statements of what he is not proposing (euthanasia, for example), but one wonders exactly why he did the research and expended the effort to write the article.  There is certainly something creepy about it and about the fact that he wrote it 18 years before what would be his 75th birthday.  He would deny any connection to the two Japanese movies that come to mind: The Ballad of Narayama 1983) and Plan 75 (2022).  In the former, residents of a poor village are expected to leave the village at age 70 when they no longer can contribute to the welfare of the community i.e., when they become "takers" and no longer "makers," and to climb or be taken to a mountain where they will die of starvation.  In Plan 75, the Japanese government is portrayed as having adopted a program in which it offers free euthanasia and a cash incentive to persons who are 75 or older.  In each of the movies' scenarios, there are great social and psychological pressures on the elderly to go along with the custom (Narayama) or program (Plan 75).  Basically, however, it comes down to the uselessness of the elderly and the burden they place on the younger persons who must support them.  In other words, it's the Paul Ryan "takers" vs. "makers" argument.  The Narayama custom and the Plan 75 program are very rational; they are sensible responses to social and economic problems.  The same can be said of Zeke Emanuel's article: rational, sensible, objective.  In Peter Freuchen's book Eskimo, he describes the practice of Eskimo families who build an igloo around their elderly who can no longer keep up with the hunt for food and leave them to die.  The alternative is for the family, the adults and children, to starve and otherwise suffer because of their inability to follow seals, whales, caribou, or other sources of food.  Emanuel's argument is not based on existential necessity, as in the case of the Eskimos and the residents of Narayama, but rather on his judgment of what constitutes a good life, a life well-lived. 

 "What I am trying to do is delineate my views for a good life and make my friends and others think about how they want to live as they grow older. I want them to think of an alternative to succumbing to that slow constriction of activities and aspirations imperceptibly imposed by aging."

One wonders whether Emanuel favors VSED, or voluntarily stopping eating and drinking as a method of avoiding the 'ravages' of life after age 75, or is that too rational, too directly a form of suicide, unlike mere refusal to allow medical tests, screening, vaccines, antibiotics, or any treatment to prolong life after age 75.

One wonders too about how firm that number 75 is.  Why not 74 or 76?  Might age 75 be a moving target, depending on how he feels at 73 or 77?  Is the article itself just an academic exercise, a "thought experiment", as J. D. Vance described his proposal to give parents more voting power than non-parents?

I am now 8 years past my 75th birthday.  During those 8 years, I have lived through the COVID-19 pandemic, often wearing a mask, frequently washing my hands, avoiding crowds, and getting vaccinated 6 times.  I have gotten a flu vaccine each of those 8 years plus pneumonia and shingles vaccines I have endured some long-lasting and intense chronic pain experiences and loss of physical functionality.  I have also experienced short-term memory loss, mild cognitive decline, and executive function challenges.  Am I just prolonging my dying?  Should I stop regularly seeing Dr. Chatt at the VA, stop the regular blood and urine tests, eschew the upcoming 7th COVID booster and flu shots, and stop taking my daily aspirin, blood pressure meds, and diabetes meds?  I know only too well that the future looks grim.  I think about it often, whether I want to or not.  god knows I've thought about suicide often enough during periods of severe pain and disabilities, but I've never been able to ignore the effect suicide has on survivors.

Intimations of Mortality.  I had some heart palpitations this afternoon which made me think, like Redd Foxx in Sanford and Son, maybe 'This is the big one!' i.e., a heart attack.  It wasn't of course, just a normal palpitation, but it reminded me of how one could happen, anytime and anywhere.  It happened while I was listening to Emmylou Harris singing "When They Ring Those Golden Bells:"

 There’s a land beyond the river,
That we call the sweet forever,
And we only reach that shore by faith’s decree;
One by one we’ll gain the portals,
There to dwell with the immortals,
When they ring the golden bells for you and me.
Chorus:
Don’t you hear the bells now ringing.
Don’t you hear the angels singing?
’Tis the glory hallelujah
Jubilee.
In that far off sweet forever,
Just beyond the shining river,

When they ring the golden bells for you and me.

Anniversaries thoughts: First, it's interesting that the British commander in the War of 1812 ordered the burning of the Library of Congress, hardly a military target, and the German commander in Paris defied Hitler's order to burn Paris when the Germans withdrew.  A reminder of individual responsibility in warfare.

Second, I include the founding of the National Park Service simply because I have had such good experiences in Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Glacier, Smoky Mountain, Teddy Roosevelt, Mount Rushmore, Little Bighorn, Everglades, etc.  I'm grateful.

Third, Roshomon, what a great film.  I'm also thinking of so very many fine Japanese films made in the years following WWII.  Amazing.

Fourth, Joe Arpaio and Donald Trump, birds of a feather, past masters at denigrating human beings.

  

8/24/24

   Saturday, August 24, 2024

1941 I was born.

In bed at 9, awake by 1;30, unable to sleep, thoughts of death, dream of visiting George Winzenbergrer's grave with Janine & Mike, thoughts of Lilly, Kitty, parents, TSJ, DSB, RHF, WSR, WBG, . . .I lay awake and involuntarily thinking until about 2:45 when I got up and let Lilly out.  Psalm 30: "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."  Lilly nervously paced once she was back inside.

42 Psalmus David. Judica me, Deus, et discerne causam meam de gente non sancta: ab homine iniquo et doloso erue me.

2 Quia tu es, Deus, fortitudo mea: quare me repulisti? et quare tristis incedo, dum affligit me inimicus?

3 Emitte lucem tuam et veritatem tuam: ipsa me deduxerunt, et adduxerunt in montem sanctum tuum, et in tabernacula tua.

4 Et introibo ad altare Dei, ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam. Confitebor tibi in cithara, Deus, Deus meus.

5 Quare tristis es, anima mea? et quare conturbas me? Spera in Deo, quoniam adhuc confitebor illi, salutare vultus mei, et Deus meus.

You can take the boy out of the Church, but you can't take the Church out of the boy.

Prednisone, day 104, 10 mg., day 11.  I applied diclofenac to my knee at 3:05 and took the 10 mg. at 6:15.  Morning meds at 11 a.m.  More diclofenac at noon.  Two Lidocaine patches at 1 p.m.

The ninth decade.  80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89.

RFK, Jr. has endorsed Trump.  He must never have learned from his father, who stood atop a flatbed truck in a Black neighborhood in Indianapolis the night Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis and said:

We can move in that direction as a country, in greater polarization … black people amongst blacks, and white amongst whites, filled with hatred toward one another or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand, and to comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand, compassion, and love.

What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love, and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black.

A shanda fur die Kennedys.

Video call from Sarah and Christian, email from Gerhard, text from Kovacs family gathering.  

gk1302@freenet.de <gk1302@freenet.de>

To: charlesclausen2003@yahoo.com

Hallo Lieber Charles...

Wir Wünschen Dir Einen schönen Festtag im Kreise Deiner Familie und Freunde.  Zufriedenheit und Glück auf Erden sind das Rezept Uralt zu werden.  Das Wünschen Dir von Herzen  Gerhard und Olga.Schöne Grüße an Deiner Lieben Frau Geri....     

Lieber Gerhard,

Vielen Dank für die lieben Grüße zu meinem 83. Geburtstag. Ich habe vor Kurzem einen Videoanruf von Sarah und Christian erhalten und wie immer viel Freude daran gehabt, mit ihnen zu sprechen. Soweit ich weiß, werden sie diesen Tag mit dir, Olga und dem Rest der Familie verbringen und Peters und Birgits Geburtstage feiern. Bitte richte der ganzen Familie unsere besten Wünsche aus. Ich wünschte, wir könnten bei euch sein!

The wonders of Google Translate!

In my birthday chat with Sarah and Christian, she asked what I would do on my birthday and I mentioned that in my senescence I have two persistent delights: driving through the rural countryside and shopping at Senkik's, both of which I did this afternoon.  I drove to West Bend intending to look at chambray workshirts at Mills' Fleet Farm only to discover the store is no longer there.  I doublechecked on the internet and, sure enough, it's gone.  I enjoyed the ride to West Bend in any case and even more enjoyed the ride back through the Paradise Drive rustic road and other country roads before stopping at Sendik's to engage in my other favorite activity.

Debbie McGregor called to tell us about John.  His leukemia is treatable and he is on oral chemotherapy and is about to start physical therapy.  He's got a rollator but hasn't started to use it yet.  I asked her to please call if there is any way we can be of help, including making runs to the store or whatever.

8/23/24

Friday, August 23, 2024

In bed at 10:30 after Harris' Acceptance Speech, awake at 4:30, and up at about 5.  I let Lilly out at 5:45.  

Prednisone, day 103, 10. mg., day 10/28.  10 mg. at 5:10 + diclofenac on my knee, All Bran, berries, and banana. Morning meds plus 850 mg. Tylenol at 7:30.  Trulicity 3.0 + 0.75 + 0.75 mg. around 11 a.m.

Comments by David von Drehle on highlights of DNC: "I was impressed that Biden bravely delivered a speech so bad that he took off the table any possible thought that pushing him out was a mistake." and "That moment about Gaza was when I realized how much better she has gotten since her debut on the presidential campaign stage five years ago. And, indeed, one theme of this convention for me is that people can learn to be better speakers. . . A few people are born with that confidence, but several speakers this week have shown that it can be acquired through hard work and practice."  One thing that I have never understood about Joe Biden is how he could spend more than half a century on the public stage and never ever improve his public speaking ability.  Indeed, perhaps he got worse with age, culminating with his convention valedictory that Michelle Goldman called a "shouted speech."  Admission: I didn't watch it and perhaps I should but it's always painful for me to listen to Biden speak.

Will I come to appreciate Biden more as time moves on, as I have with LBJ?  I'm embarrassed now about how much I despised LBJ when I succeeded JFK as president in 1963.  Was it because I was bedazzled by Kennedy and Camelot and stunned by his assassination?  Was it because of a latent antipathy to LBJ as a Texan and a Southerner?  How could I have been so naive, so unwise, so addled that I voted for Goldwater in 1964?  Eventually, I came to loathe him (too strong a term?) because of Vietnam but slowly I came to appreciate all that he did in terms of domestic legislation, from the Civil Rights Acts to Medicare and Medicaid, the Head Start Program, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the War on Poverty, etc.  Biden has had some terrific accomplishments during his one term of office also, not the least of which is his Infrastructure Act.  Will my assessment of him improve with time?   How much time do I have left?

Lilly.  Geri picked up some meds for Lilly at the vet's this morning and brought home a printout of the charges for euthanizing and cremating her.  I have my normal defense mechanism reaction: emotional numbing.  Geri says she doesn't want to have to deal with an emergency with Lilly's health or her hind legs collapsing under her. I know she is not eager by any means to put her down, but she is more proactive and responsible than I am in dealing with this sad situation.  I need to think about this despite wanting to do anything but.  She is about 6 weeks away from her 15th birthday, very old and failing.  She has outlived her sister Olive by more than a year and I wonder about her other litter mates.  She's been such a presence in our home and in our lives for all these years it is hard to imagine life without her.  She is principally bonded with Geri which is no surprise since Geri has always been so caring with her, but she also has her special relationship with me, including wanting to climb on my lap when she gets frightened, wanting only me to open the door to let her out, and coming to me for her shoulder massages and her neck, ears, and head rubs.

The Stern Gang -> Likud -> Netanyahu, Smotrich, Gen-Gvir.  I watched an informative documentary on Avraham Stern and the Stern Gang on YouTube today.  Actually, I watched it twice.  The Stern Gang, a/k/a Lehi, was a fascist terrorist organization that tried, unsuccessfully, to establish an alliance with Mussolini's Italy and Hitler's Germany, to defeat the English, drive them out of the Palestine Mandate, and drive diaspora Jews to settle in Palestine.  It seems noteworthy to me that in 1977 Menahem Begin, past leader of Irgun, another terrorist group, was elected prime minister of Israel and that twice in the 1980s Yitzhak Shamir, a past leader of Lehi, was elected prime minister, both men becoming leaders of Likud, the party of Benjamin Netanyahu.

On December 4, 1948, the New York Times published this letter from Albert Einstein, Hannah Arendt, and several other prominent Jews:

Among the most disturbing political phenomena of our times is the emergence in the newly created state of Israel of the "Freedom Party" (Tnuat Haherut), a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties. It was formed out of the membership and following of the former Irgun Zvai Leumi, a terrorist, right-wing, chauvinist organization in Palestine.

The current visit of Menachem Begin, leader of this party, to the United States is obviously calculated to give the impression of American support for his party in the coming Israeli elections, and to cement political ties with conservative Zionist elements in the United States. Several Americans of national repute have lent their names to welcome his visit. It is inconceivable that those who oppose fascism throughout the world, if correctly informed as to Mr. Begin's political record and perspectives, could add their names and support to the movement he represents.

Before irreparable damage is done by way of financial contributions, public manifestations in Begin's behalf, and the creation in Palestine of the impression that a large segment of America supports Fascist elements in Israel, the American public must be informed as to the record and objectives of Mr. Begin and his movement.

The public avowals of Begin's party are no guide whatever to its actual character. Today they speak of freedom, democracy and anti-imperialism, whereas until recently they openly preached the doctrine of the Fascist state. It is in its actions that the terrorist party betrays its real character; from its past actions we can judge what it may be expected to do in the future.

Attack on Arab Village

A shocking example was their behavior in the Arab village of Deir Yassin. This village, off the main roads and surrounded by Jewish lands, had taken no part in the war, and had even fought off Arab bands who wanted to use the village as their base. On April 9 (THE NEW YORK TIMES), terrorist bands attacked this peaceful village, which was not a military objective in the fighting, killed most of its inhabitants (240 men, women, and children) and kept a few of them alive to parade as captives through the streets of Jerusalem. Most of the Jewish community was horrified at the deed, and the Jewish Agency sent a telegram of apology to King Abdullah of Trans-Jordan. But the terrorists, far from being ashamed of their act, were proud of this massacre, publicized it widely, and invited all the foreign correspondents present in the country to view the heaped corpses and the general havoc at Deir Yassin.

The Deir Yassin incident exemplifies the character and actions of the Freedom Party.

Within the Jewish community they have preached an admixture of ultranationalism, religious mysticism, and racial superiority. Like other Fascist parties they have been used to break strikes, and have themselves pressed for the destruction of free trade unions. In their stead they have proposed corporate unions on the Italian Fascist model.

During the last years of sporadic anti-British violence, the IZL and Stern groups [Lehi] inaugurated a reign of terror in the Palestine Jewish community. Teachers were beaten up for speaking against them, adults were shot for not letting their children join them. By gangster methods, beatings, window-smashing, and wide-spread robberies, the terrorists intimidated the population and exacted a heavy tribute.

The people of the Freedom Party have had no part in the constructive achievements in Palestine. They have reclaimed no land, built no settlements, and only detracted from the Jewish defense activity. Their much-publicized immigration endeavors were minute, and devoted mainly to bringing in Fascist compatriots.

Discrepancies Seen

The discrepancies between the bold claims now being made by Begin and his party, and their record of past performance in Palestine bear the imprint of no ordinary political party. This is the unmistakable stamp of a Fascist party for whom terrorism (against Jews, Arabs, and British alike), and misrepresentation are means, and a "Leader State" is the goal.

In the light of the foregoing considerations, it is imperative that the truth about Mr. Begin and his movement be made known in this country. It is all the more tragic that the top leadership of American Zionism has refused to campaign against Begin's efforts, or even to expose to its own constituents the dangers to Israel from support to Begin.

The undersigned therefore take this means of publicly presenting a few salient facts concerning Begin and his party; and of urging all concerned not to support this latest manifestation of fascism.

/s/

Nonetheless, less than 30 years later Begin would be elected prime minister of Israel.  Shamir would be so elected twice.  The State of Israel has a long history of supporting terrorism and oppression against those it views as enemies, both Jews and non-Jews.  Netanyahu, Smotrich, and Ben-Gvir are heirs to that history.  Yet Netanyahu has been invited to address joint sessions of the U. S. Congress 4 times.

Geri's left knee.  She saw Dr. Graf this afternoon: another tear in the meniscus, another surgery necessary, additional weeks of physical therapy, icing, etc.  The entire summer and autumn shot in terms of gardening, biking, walking Lilly, virtually all outdoor and indoor activity that requires bending the knee.  Very bad news.  All three of us with bad knees.

8/22/24

Thursday, August 22, 2024 

1953 Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi returns to Tehran

1964 Fannie Lou Hamer speaks at the Democratic National Convention about her terrifying experiences with voter registration as a Black woman in Mississippi

In bed at 9:40, awake at 2:30, and up and about at 3 a.m.  Lilly sleeping soundly next to her mattress, got up and moved to living room after I came into tv room.  I let Lilly out at 3:35 as the train was passing through Bayside, blowing its horn.  I wonder what it is hauling, whether its cargo is hazardous, thinking of derailings in other communities.  Mostly I wonder why it blows its warning horn at this hour of the morning in this bedroom community.  I also wonder about the crew on the train, when they boarded, where they boarded, how they handle the logistics of their work schedules over distances. . . I let Lilly out again around 5:30 and nodded off at some point till 7:10. 

Prednisone, day 102, 10 mg., day 9./28  I took the 10 mg. at 4:15 a.m.  followed by a bowl of All Bran with berries and my morning meds and 650 mg. of Tylenol at 7:15 a.m.

Back to McKay Coppins and America's Religion.   In Coppins' article in The Atlantic, he writes of 14 years old Joseph Smith's "first vision" in which, he asserted, God apppeared to him, in 1820, on the family farm in Palmyra, NY, along with Jesus, and said to Joseph "This is my Beloved Son.  Hear Him."

The power of his story was in its implausibility. No reasonable person would accept such an outlandish claim on its face—to believe it required faith, a willingness to follow young Joseph’s example. This was how our teacher framed the story, as much object lesson as historical event. Don’t believe in this because your parents do, we were told. Go ask God for yourself.  (Coppins' italics.) . . .

My own testimony didn’t come in a blaze of revelation, but in living the faith day to day. The church was where I felt most like myself. The green hymnals we sang from on Sundays, the sacramental Wonder Bread we passed down the pews, the corny youth dances in the sweaty church gym where we’d jump around to DJ Kool before closing with a prayer—these were more than just quirks of my parents’ religion. They were emblems of an identity, one I could never fully reveal to my non-Mormon friends.

But "living the faith day to day" is another way of saying 'being indoctrinated', literally having the doctrines infused in you.  When you are "living the faith day to day" from your childhood, led by your parents, aren't you doing precisely what Coppins' teacher warned against, i.e., believing because your parents believe?  Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.: 

"We are all tattooed in our cradles with the beliefs of our tribe; the record may seem superficial, but it is indelible. You cannot educate a man wholly out of the superstitious fears which were early implanted in his imagination; no matter how utterly his reason may reject them; he will still feel as the famous woman did about ghosts, Je n'y crois pas, mais je les crains,—"I don't believe in them, but I am afraid of them, nevertheless".

Coppins' description of the early history of the Mormons and its leader Joseph Smith reads like a description of what most of us would call a "cult" led by a manipulative though charismatic, narcissistic, megalomaniac with delusions of grandeur, i.e., that he is a Prophet to whom and through whom God speaks to the world.  In other words, a crackpot.  How does it come to be believed as representing great Truths?

It’s hard to overstate just how deeply this history is woven into modern Mormon life. As little kids, we sing songs about pioneer children who “walked and walked and walked and walked”; when we get older, we read about pioneers burying their children in shallow graves on the brutal westward trek. The stories I grew up hearing in church—about Missouri and martyrdom and Martin Van Buren—were often sanitized for devotional effect. But the scars they’ve left on the Mormon psyche are real.

Isn't this the process that Oliver Wendell Holmes described?  Tattooing, indoctrination, brainwashing?  Isn't this the same process that Kitty and I went through with Catholicism and most people go through with the 'Faith of our Fathers', tattooed in our cradles?

Faith of our fathers, living still,

In spite of dungeon, fire, and sword;

Oh, how our hearts beat high with joy

Whene’er we hear that glorious Word! 

Refrain:

Faith of our fathers, holy faith!

We will be true to thee till death.

Faith of our fathers, we will strive

To win all nations unto thee;

And through the truth that comes from God,

We all shall then be truly free.

Through the truth that comes from God - just as Coppins' Mormon teacher said, not from your parents, but from God! Ir seems God makes Himself known to some, and not to others.

Anniversaries thoughts.  First, the Iranians haven't forgot who overthrew their government and reinstalled the tyrannical Shah to rule over them and to benefit BP and other Western oil companies.

Second, at the DNC 60 years ago, when I was 23, the Democrats refused to seat Hamer's Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party but seated the segregationist Dixiecrats.  All was changed with the 1964 and 1965 Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts which turned the South solidly Republican and still racist.