Sunday, January 12, 2025
D+68
1962 Operation Ranch Hand began, a US Air Force operation to spray South Vietnamese forests with defoliants such as Agent Orange
1966 LBJ said the US should stay in South Vietnam until communist aggression ends
1967 Louisville, Kentucky draft board refused exemption for boxer Muhammad Ali
1971 US grand jury indicted Rev Philip Berrigan & 5 others, including a nun & 2 priests, on charges of plotting to kidnap Henry Kissinger
1991 US Congress gave George H. W. Bush authority to wage war against Iraq
1995 The murder trial against O.J. Simpson, began in LA
2010 Earthquake devastated Haiti, killing approximately 160,000 and destroying most of the capital Port-au-Prince
In bed at 9, awake and up at 3:30.
Prednisone, day 243, 5 + 2.5 mg., day 5. 5 mg. of prednisone at 5 a,m. My right shoulder was more painful than usual at 1:30 a.m. Almost no pain in each shoulder at 5 a.m. Other meds around 8:30. 2.5 mg. prednisone at 4:30 p.m.
LTMW yesterday afternoon at 4 p.m. I saw this stately whitetail buck. I took the photo through the open Venetian blind and a screen which makes for a pretty lousy photograph. Then I compounded the problem by using my iPhone camera's "clean up" feature to remove the venetian blind slat that ran through the buck's neck. In doing this, I removed a part of the deer's neck, decapitating him. I need to go to school to learn when and how to use "clean up."
Is Donald Trump the Worst Man in the World? Just wondering. What is admirable about him? He did succeed in building a real estate empire: office buildings, hotels, condos, and country clubs. He did so with prodigious help from his sociopathic but wealthy father and by stiffing his creditors, filing multiple bankruptcies, colluding with corrupt unions, etc. Is that admirable? He has attained - twice - the highest elective office in the most powerful nation in the world. He did so by shamelessly spreading lies about people, places, conditions, and events, vilifying anyone whose vilification advanced his ambitions, disparaging immigrants, mocking the handicapped, increasing social divisiveness and political polarization, etc. Is that admirable? He has a stick-to-it-ivness, a fixed determination to achieve his goals. In 2016, he ran against the Republican governors of Ohio, Florida, Virginia, New York, New Jersey, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Texas, and Arkansas, senators from Florida, Texas, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina prevailed against all of them. He then prevailed against the former First Lady and Secretary of State and then-Senator Hillary Clinton. In 2020, when he lost his reelection bid, he engaged in a nationwide conspiracy to steal the election, culminating in an insurrection. In 2024, despite a record of 2 impeachments, indictments for multiple felonies, and convictions of tax fraud and sexual abuse, i.e., digital rape, he prevailed again. He has avoided expulsion from public office, imprisonment, and public condemnation and shunning. Indeed, after his convincing reelection in 2024, the rich and powerful, the high and mightly, have flocked to Mar-a-Lago to pledge their fealty and seek his favor. But to what end has he sought and achieved political power? Not to advance "the common good," but to avoid imprisonment, increase his own obscene wealth, serve his own emotional needs, and punish his opponents. Is that admirable? Is there anything admirable about Donald J. Trump? Can I think of any human being more deceitful, vain, selfish, vindictive, hurtful, dangerous, malignantly narcissistic, despicable or hateful than Donald J. Trump? I'm struggling.
Is Vladimir Putin worse? Is Benjamin Netanyahu, Itamar ben Gvir or Bezalel Smotrich or ws Yahya Sinwar? Was Hitler? Stalin? These actors all have much blood on their hands, for some of them the blood of millions of innocent victims. It can be argued however that none of them was out solely for himself in the way that Trump is. Stalin and Putin were believers in Mother Russia, Hitler in das Vaterland, Netanyahu, ben Gvir, and Smotrick in Zionism, Was or is any of them just out for himself in the same way or to the same extent as Trump is? I doubt it. Maybe Bashar al-Assad, M.D. of Syria could beat Trump for the title of Worst Human Being
Anniversary thoughts. First, the start of Operation Ranch Hand ended up getting me a disability rating from the VA 55 years later.
Second, LBJ talked tough to us military folks and to the civilian public, but privately he admitted he didn't see a way to 'win' in Vietnam. Of course, he was right. It cost him a second term of office and 58,220 other Americans their lives.
Third, would Ali have prevailed if he had kept the name Cassius Clay, or if he were White, or anything other than a Black Muslim?
Fourth, from the April 5, 1972 NYTimes:
The conspiracy case against the Rev. Philip F. Berrigan and six other antiwar activists ended in mistrial late today. After 59 hours of deliberation, the Federal jury reported itself hopelessly deadlocked and was excused without reaching a verdict on the Government's charge that the seven conspired to kidnap Henry A. Kissinger, assistant to President Nixon for national and security affairs.
Father Berrigan and Sister Elizabeth McAlister, a New York City nun, were convicted of smuggling contraband letters at the Federal prison in Lewisburg, Pa. Father Berrigan faces a total maximum sentence of 40 years on four counts of sending contraband letters out of the prison in 1970, and Sister Elizabeth faces a maximum total sentence of 30 years on three counts of sending illegal letters to Father Berrigan.
The government declined to retry the case. Father Berrigan and Sister McAlister were later married, and remained staunch antiwar activists in the following decades, with both serving significant prison time for their actions over the years.
It's heartening to remember that there was a time in this country when the FBI (J. Edgar Hoover), the Justice Department (John Mitchell), and the White House (Richard Nixon) feared the Catholic Left.
Fifth, the invasion of Iraq - a catastrophe on so many counts.
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