Monday, March 10, 2025
D+123
1971 Senate approved the amendment lowering voting age to 18
2012 At least 130 rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza
2014 German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Vladimir Putin that making Crimea part of Russia was illegal and in violation of Ukraine's constitution
2020 Russian lower house of Parliament passed legislation to allow Vladimir Putin to hold the office of President for life
2023 California's Silicon Valley Bank, the main bank for tech start-ups, collapses after a sudden bank run and credit crisis - largest US bank failure since 2008
In bed around 9:20, awake and up at 4:35 from a dream in which I was living in a residene that was a combination of our home in Bayside, the condo in the Knickerbocker, and my childhood basement apartment on Emerlald Avenue, sheltering during a tornado, schmoozing with neighbors, including a lady from Scotland and a young couple like our our downstairis neighbors in Doylestown, PA, who helped me when I almost fell down a well. False Spring weather today: high of 63°, bright, sunny skies.
Prednisone, day 323; 4 mg., day 6/21; Kevzara, day 6/14. 2 mg. of prednisone at 4:50 a.m. and at 5 p.m. Other meds at 3 p.m.
(2) Unlisted among today's anniversaries is 1980, the 45th anniversary of Willard Scott becoming the weatherman on the Today Show, which sends my mind scurrying back to June 1966 when I returned from Asia to Cleveland to pick up Anne for our move to Pennsylvania. We spent an evening with her friend from WJW-TV, an announcer named Mickey Firestone. What I remember of the evening was his answering his phone while we were together and doing so in his baritone announcer voice, very different from his natural, conversational voice, reminding me of Gary Owens, the announcer on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In show. Willard, Mickey, and Gary remind me of why I dislike news shows, especially local news shows and, more especially still, morning local news shows with all the phony ha-ha bantering and joviality. It's all wrapped up in the idea of "personality," as in so-and-so, a "TV personality." Affability is perhaps the most important part of the 'TV personality,' a phony friendliness, bonhomie, and cheerfulness. Willard Scott added an element of buffoonery to the weatherman personality, reminding me of George Carlin's Al Sleet, the hippy-dippy weatherman. 'Dark tonight, turning partly light towards morning.' There is something 1984-ish about these folks. The same is true of so many television commercials, showing actors deliriously happy, laughing, smiling, perhaps even dancing,, thoroughly enjoying life because of the expensive prescription medication they take to treat some disease I may never have heard of, even though, as the subscript informs us, it may kill you. The news is almost all bad (murders, weather disasters, political polarity, war news, etc.). Still, it's delivered through a medium that bombards us with images of other humans whose lives are so very happy because they buy consumer product A, B, and/or C from supplier X, Y, or Z. There's something ridiculous, even sick, about this. (Or is it me, Mr. Burke?)
(3) I tuned on the OAN channel while getting dressed this morning. Right-wing lunancy, including hawking "Republican Red" wine with names like "Drain the Swamp" and "4547," hawking home generators, brand name "Patriot," and my favorite, DJT, Jr., hawking patriotic pharmaceuticals, including invermectin (horse dewormer) and hydroxychloroquine. I'm surprised Junior didn't also offer bleach.
(4) Do wars ever end? I've often said that they don't end; they just continue in different forms. The American Civil War, or the War Between the States, is the greatest example. The Franco-Prussian War led to World War I, which led to World War II, which led to the Cold War. Consider the war between Russia and Ukraine. Russia's Catherine the Great conquered Crimea in 1783, and they are still fighting over it. The Catholics and the Protestants in Ulster? The Jews and the Arabs in Palestine? 2012, Hamas shelled Israel with 120 rockets. We wonder why the IDF is so ferocious against the Palestinians in Gaza today when there is so much history of death and destruction on both sides.Anger be now your song, immortal one,
Akhilleus' anger, doomed and ruinous,
that caused the Akhaians loss on bitter loss'
and crowded brave souls into the undergloom,
leaving so many dead men - carrion
for dogs and birds; and the will of Zeus was done.
Begin it when the two men first contending
broke with one another -- the Lord Marshall
Agamemnon, Atreus' son, and Prince Akhilleus.
Among the gods, who brought this quarrel on?
The son of Zeus by Leto. Agememnon
angered him, so he made a burning wind
of plague rise in the army: rank and file
sickended and died for the ill their chief had done
in despising a man of prayer.
Homer is thought to have written the Iliad in the early 7th century B.C. He attributed the cause of the Trojan War to personal enmities and to "the gods." How many of us still attribute wars to God (having moved away from belief in many pagan gods to the belief in one God)? How many priests and preachers, and those who listen to them, call wars 'punishment from God'? How many of us have prayed to God to intervene to make our side win a contest? How many think that God was on the side of the Allies and against the Axis in WWII? the Ukrainins of the Russians? the Chosen People in their land of milk and honey that was given to them by God or the Palestinians fighting for Allah and willing, even hoping to become His martyrs?
(5) The stock market is going to Hell in a handbasket. Geri got a voice mail call from Jake Bain this afternoon asking her to call to discuss her account and what's happening in the markets. We'll call him tomorrow. Trump has been unusually silent about the day-after-day tumbles in the markets. If tomorrow brings more big losses, I suspect he'll be on TV spouting some lies in an attempt to boost them. We'll call Jake tomorrow. He also wants to talk about Medicare premiums.
(6) I'm hearing lots of complaints on air about the effect of Trump's/Musk's personnel cuts on veterans. I'm concerned about the predicted cuts in the VA. I hear more people speaking what I think is true, i.e., that all these Republicans in the White House and the political appointees at the Department of Veteran Affairs are out to so impair the provision of medical services at VA facilities so that even the enrolled vets will favor privatization. Ultimate privatization is the goal, and it is to be obtained at the cost of effective medical care for vets enrolled in the system, i.e., watashi-wa. From yesterday's NYTimes, "Chaos at the V.A.: Inside the DOGE Cuts Disrupting the Veterans Agency: Clinical trials have been delayed, contracts canceled and support staff fired. With deeper cuts coming, some are warning of potential harms to veterans' by Roni Caryn Rabin and Nicholas Nehamas, excerpts:
While Trump administration officials have promised to preserve core patient services, initial cuts at the V.A. have nonetheless spawned chaotic ripple effects. They have disrupted studies involving patients awaiting experimental treatments, forced some facilities to fire support staff and created uncertainty amid the mass cancellation, and partial reinstatement, of hundreds of contracts targeted by Mr. Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
The changes have shaken the veterans department, which stands out in the labyrinth of agencies and offices under siege by Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk.
It is in many ways a natural target for reform — a bureaucratic behemoth with roughly 480,000 employees, some 90,000 contracts and a documented history of scandals and waste. But it also treats 9.1 million veterans, provides critical medical research and, according to some studies, offers care that is comparable to or better than many private health systems. Even Project 2025, the conservative governing blueprint assembled by Trump allies, said the V.A. had transformed into “one of the most respected U.S. agencies.”
The V.A. is also one of the most politically sensitive departments in the government, serving a constituency courted heavily by Republicans, including Mr. Trump, who has made overhauling the agency a talking point since his 2016 campaign.
Two years ago today, 8 or 9 inches of heavy, wet snow. today 68°, sunny, balmy.
No comments:
Post a Comment