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.