10/5/24

 Saturday, October 5, 2024

1947 Harry Truman delivered the first presidential address televised from the White House

1951 Jackie Gleason debuted the character of bus driver Ralph Kramden in 1st "The Honeymooners" skit (Cavalcade of Stars)

1988 Chile voted in a referendum 56-44 against extending Augusto Pinochet's regime by 8 years, thus ending the dictator's 16½ years in power

2015 Governor of California Jerry Brown signed a bill giving terminally ill patients the "right to die"

In bed around 10 and up at 5:47 with a painful lower back and a slight headache.  I let Lilly out around 7. 

Prednisone, day 144, 7.5 mg., day 23.   Prednisone at 6:00 and morning meds at 9:00.

Dinner last night at Caela's with her and Saul, Jack and Nikki Levine, and Liz and Larry Brauer(?) was delightful, with much good conversation and a chef-prepared meal of brisket and chicken, an autumn vegetable medley or compote, and green salad, dessert of a honey walnut cake baked by Nikki and a chocolate babka from Friendship Circle, and poached pears.   There was an ongoing discussion of Israel and the Middle East when we arrived but with no sympathy expressed for Netanyahu's right-wing government, Ben-Gvir, or Smotrich.  We mostly stayed out of the discussion.  At the dinner table, we learned from Liz that she and Larry had been neighbors and friends with the last owner of our Bayside house, Brooks Ott, an aged gay man and dog lover with muscular dystrophy who died in our house, probably in my bedroom.  He had been hospitalized but left the hospital early, perhaps AMA?, to go home and take care of his Labrador.  We've been in the house for 13 years now and still occasionally but rarely receive mail for Brooks.  We learned that Caela is leaving Thursday for a 3 and 1/2 week trip to South Africa and Zambia with fellow board members of the Crane Foundation in Baraboo.  I was touched when Caela said as we were finishing dinner how good it was to be together with family and her oldest friends, realizing how she was privileging us by having us at her table to celebrate Rosh Hashana.  I was even more touched by Jack's accompanying me from the house to our car, knowing I had difficulty negotiating the front steps and flagstone walkway.  It was kind and thoughtful of him and I appreciated it.  I texted her this morning:

Good morning, Sweetie.   We very much appreciated the privilege of being included at your wonderful dinner last night.  It was heartwarming sharing the evening and so much good conversation with you and Saul, Jack and Nikki, Liz and Larry.  I was very touched by Jack's kindness and thoughtfulness carefully walking me from the house to our car.  One of the challenges of being an old man, increasingly arthritic, and increasingly housebound, and of outliving too many friends and family members is some loneliness.  Geri's wonderful company saves me from the worst aspects of it, but I do miss the friends. notably Tom of course, and family members, especially my sister Kitty, who were such big parts of my life.   Ed Felsenthal, my high school friend, college roommate, and lifelong friend died this past year, another big loss.  I mention all this simply to let you know how much sharing last night with you and Saul, Jack and Nikki, and Liz and Larry, meant to me.  As I sat at the table, I thought of all the dinners and all the parties over so many years I've been welcomed to in your home.  I thought of how I had my own key to Funkytown.  I thought of when we first met, so many years ago, and of having lunch with you and Tom at Someplace Else on Water Street.  Many thoughts, warm thoughts, and I want to thank you for all of them.   (Also, did I hear you say that your friend Dick is another Vietnam vet and that he was twice wounded?  If so, and if it's copacetic with your relationship, I'd like to meet him sometime.)  We'll be thinking of you on your adventure to South Africa and Zambia, wishing you a safe and productive journey with your Crane Foundation fellow board members.  I suspect, and hope, you'll have some pretty great experiences.  Stay safe and stay healthy!

Nicholas Kristof: Netanyahu Ran Rings Around Biden For a Year. What a Failure.  In this morning's NYTimes.  Excerpts:

. . . Biden keeps getting rolled by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. As the political scientist Ian Bremmer said of Biden’s words on the invasion: “Impact: zero.”Biden restricted and conditioned U.S. arms transfers to Ukraine but worried that doing the same to Israel might tempt Hezbollah to attack it. So Biden kept the arms flowing (with the exception of at least one shipment of 2,000-pound bombs) and never imposed serious restrictions on their use. This impunity emboldened Netanyahu to ignore Biden, and the upshot is that Biden has nurtured not a regional peace but, it seems, a regional war — with America at risk of being sucked in.

Instead of midwifing the landmark Middle East peace that he hoped for, Biden became the arms supplier for the leveling of Gaza — a war that killed more women and children in a single year than any other war in the last two decades, according to Oxfam.

I’ve previously argued that Gaza has become the albatross around Biden’s neck, staining his legacy, but it keeps getting worse.

Biden kept up the arms transfers to Israel even as he acknowledged that the result was sometimes “over the top” and “indiscriminate bombing” and even as his administration found that Israel’s use of American arms most likely violated international humanitarian law.

The Biden administration may also have broken United States law, which requires a halt to weapons shipments to countries that block American humanitarian aid. ProPublica and Devex obtained a memo written by the U.S. Agency for International Development concluding that Israel was obstructing aid, but Biden brushed those concerns aside. 

 The metaphor that always arises in diplomatic conversations is of Joe Biden as Charlie Brown trying to kick the football, and each time Netanyahu pulls it away (sometimes, Hamas pulls it away as well).

Biden’s failure to apply enough leverage — or perhaps even uphold American law — has damaged other interests the White House cares about, including support for Ukraine. Hypocrisy alerts go off in foreign capitals when American diplomats hail the “rules-based international order” and simultaneously provide the bombs that destroy Gazan civilian infrastructure and induce starvation. 

In Gaza, more than 10,000 children have been killed and about 2,000 have had limbs amputated, according to a forthcoming report by Theirworld, a British charity that works on children’s issues. It adds that 40 percent of Gaza families are now taking care of a child who is not their own, and that 85 percent of Gazan children have gone a full day without food. . . 

Meanwhile, Biden has ensured that American weapons continue to shatter lives without clearly advancing American, Israeli or Arab interests.

More ammunition for Trump and Vance, but it's hard to argue with the points he made.

Widespread power outage today.  For about 2 hours, affected traffic signals up to Donges Bay Raod.

Time in the basement this afternoon.  I went downstairs to reset the wifi router, which worked.  I spent all of 5 minutes on the treadmill at the slowest speed and applied some paint to the painting's eyes and hair.

Work in progress

Anniversaries.  First, we didn't see HST's first televised Oval Office speech.  We didn't have a television yet and wouldn't for several years.  Also, we were still in shock and PTSD from James Hartman's rape of my mother just 5 days before, on September 30, 1967, and from the ubiquitous news coverage throughout Chicagoland.

Second, I was 10 years old when Jackie Gleason's Cavalcade of Stars show came on TV, with his great character sketches: Ralph Kramdon, Joe the Bartender, the Poor Soul, Reginald van Gleason III, Charlie Brattan the LOudmouth.  We never missed Gleason's shows, of Bishop Sheen's Life is Worth Living, or Milton Berle, or I Remember Mama.

Third, Pinochet was put in power by the U.S.'s CIA, the hypocritical nation that pretends to respect the rule of law and democracy so long as Law and Democracy serve American corporate business interests.

Fourth, the right to die seems to me to be the most fundamental right of all.