Wednesday, November 20, 2024
D+15
1945 The Nuremberg war trials began as 24 Nazi leaders were put on trial before judges representing the victorious Allied powers
1947 Pope Pius XII published the encyclical Mediator Dei
1949 Jewish population of Israel reaches 1,000,000
1958 American puppeteers Jim and Jane Henson established Muppets, Inc. (now known as The Jim Henson Company)
Prednisone day 190, 7.5 mg., day 7. Prednisone at 4:45 followed by cinnamon loaf. Both shoulders are sore but not too much. The right side mid-back pain persists. Morning meds at 5:35.
Life in the computer/digital/cyber age. I'm growing to hate it. The older I get, the more helpless I become, the more dependent on machines and algorithms, user names and passcodes. I watch more interviews of and talks by Yuval Noah Harari about Artificial Intelligence, read about Putin loosening Russia's nuclear weapons policy, and learn of Trump's plans to dismantle or emasculate the federal government and realize this is no world for old men pace Joel and Ethan Coen. Overnight my iPhone received an update. It started before I got in bed and rendered my phone unusable. I don't know how low or how much data was downloaded and installed, but the text that I have to read to get back on the phone seems substantial and tells me about "Apple Intelligence" and "Siri, Dictation, and Privacy" and Apple will process and store my information (or not.) Big Brother stuff, all designed stores "help" and service me. I fantasize about escaping to the North Woods, Clam Lake or Medicine Lake, a Walden Pond, with books and music, maybe art supplies but no computers, smartphones, or smart TVs. It's all a pipe dream. As long as I am alive, I am tethered to computers and AI, on my lap, on my wrist, on my phone in my pocket. “When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’ ’The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’ ’The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.” Which is to be master, our tools or us? Increasingly, it's not me. Which is to be master, the Putins, Netanyahus, and Trumps of the world, or 'the people'? How true is it that America is governed by 'We, the people," that we live in a democracy and are masters of our own fate? Or are we rather subjects of The Power Elite, as C. Wright Mills argued in the 1950s, subjects of multi-billionaire oligarchs who control our government with their wealth? Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, hedge fund managers, 'masters of the universe.' To what extent are we subjects of our 235-year-old Constitution and of inexorable historical trends? Then I read Lydia Polgreen's column in this morning's Times:
Yet as I’ve tried to summon that sanguine self over the past two weeks, she has stubbornly refused to show up. I have a sense that many other people are feeling similarly abandoned by their more resilient selves, instead finding a new, excruciating sense of vulnerability. The sensation has only deepened as Trump’s preposterous cabinet announcements have rolled out and his cruel policy plans for grotesque campaigns of deportation, vengeful prosecution and heedless budget slashing come into view. Despite myself, I am panicking.
Looking now at [my elderly mother's] situation, indeed around my neighborhood and city, our country, this world, I can see that we are clearly on the wrong track.
Those 76% of Americans who thought the country "was on the wrong track" during the Biden administration, I wonder if they think we are now on the right track with the pending nominations of Gaetz, Gabbard, Hegseth, Kennedy, Oz, and McMahon.
Random thoughts: (1) How is it that a guy who spends more time on golf courses than a lot of golf pros needs bronzer makeup?
(2) I don't believe in the God of the Bible, New Testament or Old. I don't believe in the God of Thomas Aquinas and Summa Theological. I don't believe in the God of the Roman Catholic Catechism. I don't believe in the God of the Pentecostals and Evangelicals, the snake handlers and speakers in tongues. I don't believe in the God of Spinoza or of Thomas Jefferson. Does this make me an atheist or an agnostic, or does it demonstrate the futility of the question "Do you believe in God?" Whose God? Which one?
(3) Joe Biden has approved shipping antipersonnel land mines to Ukraine. Some time ago, he approved of shipping cluster munitions to Ukraine. Both types of weapons have been outlawed by international treaties as unavoidably hazardous to civilian populations (especially children) over many years. The U.S. and Russia, both traditionally "Christian" nations, have not joined those treaties. Ukraine is a signatory. (The United States had a stockpile of about 3 million antipersonnel land mines as of 2022.) Yesterday, with one foot out the door of the White House and the other on a banana peel, he gave his OK for the Ukrainians to shoot long range American supplied missiles deep into Russia, after denying such permission for the last 1,000 days, since February 24, 2022. What is Biden's strategy? What has been his strategy for the last 1,000 days? Is it foolish to think that Biden has ever had a strategy?
(4) The Marquette Alumni Magazine arrived today, not to be confused with the Marquette Law School Magazine. At what age does one first go to the In Memoriam listings in the back of these magazines? 50s, 60s? It's de rigeur in one's 70s and 80s. I see in today's arrival that my good and admired friend Jim Auer has died, as has my other NROTC contemporary and fellow Marine Chuck Mulherin. My law school classmates Pete Ottmer and Bob Roth and my former student and friend Bill Wiseman and former student José Olivieri, Jim was a star in our NROTC unit, the executive officer of the midshipmen battalion. He was a mensch and a brilliant student. The Navy sent him for an advanced degree in East Asian Studies from Tufts University where he studied, at least for a time, under the great diplomat Edwin Reischauer. Chuck Mulherin was also a good guy but very gung ho. I remember him getting upset about what he called 'the ChiComs.' Bill Wiseman married my first research assistant at the law school, Christine Wiseman. I sent her a very personal, handwritten letter when I learned of Bill's death and was surprised and disappointed that I didn't hear back from her.
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