Monday, March 24, 2025
D+137/64
2019 Attorney General William Barr summarized the report submitted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller (The Mueller Report) in a letter to Congress stating that the "investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities" and "Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and I have concluded that the evidence developed during the Special Counsel's investigation is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense"
In bed at 9:10, awake at 4:17, and up at 4:37. 31° outside with a wind chill of 12°, high of 41° It seems like it's been a very windy Spring, cold and damp.
Prednisone, day 337; 4 mg., day 19/21; Kevzara, day 6/14; CGM, day 6/15; Trulicity, day 3/7. 2 mg. of prednisone at 4:55 a.m. and at 4:45 p.m. Other meds at 9:45.
From A conversation with Werner Herzog, Roger Ebert, December 14, 2012:
Regarding German film historian and critic Lotte Eisner:
Eight years later, she must have been 90 years, nobody knows exactly how old she was because she started to cheat from 75 on, I think she celebrated her 75th birthday a couple of times. And very casually, we were having tea, and she said to me, nibbling on a cookie, she said to me, “Listen, listen to me, I’m almost blind, I cannot read any more, I cannot see any more films, I cannot walk any more, I’m tired of life” — she actually even said it “sucked” and she was saturated of life, and she said to me, “but there’s still this spell on me, that I must not die” and I said to her very casually “The spell is lifted” and two weeks later she died. And she died at the right time then, it was good, it was good to die then.
Heerzog was 70 years old when this interview occurred. He is now 82. I wonder what his thoughts were then - and what they are now -- about "the right time" to die, when it would be "good to die."
I watched both Aguirre and Fitzcarroldo over the weekend and don't quite know what I think of either, Klaus Kinski stars in and dominates both of them. In both, he is monomaniacal, in Aguirre to find El Dorado and in Fitzcarraldo, to build an opera house in a Peruvian rain forest and to have Enrico Caruso perform in it. He is impossible to warm up to in Aguirre and hard to relate with in Fitzcarraldo. His character's compulsive or monomaniacal behavior in each seems to mimic Herzog's compulsive behavior in filming in an Amazonian rain forest and especially in risking lives by primitively transporting a 360-ton steamboat over a tall hill in Fitzcarral. Kinski was ever crazier, odious, and even criminal offscreen than he was onscreen. He was notorious for raising hell with his directors and other cast and crew members and was accused of sexual assault by his older daughter, and inappropriate fondling by his younger daughter. Neither daughter attended his funeral after he died of a heart attack at age 65.
Roger Ebert was a big fan of Herzog. So are many other critics and cinephiles. I've ordered Stroszek from the library and may try to obtain and watch others of his works, but I wonder about the guy.
VA layoffs: From this morning's JSOnline:
A disabled veteran who was fired from a VA facility in Wisconsin, then reinstated and placed on paid administrative leave this week, said he hasn't been given a date of when he can return to work.
The worker, who asked not to be identified because of fears of retaliation, questioned whether the VA is actually complying with the order, citing the judge's comments that workers were supposed to return to their jobs, not just be placed on administrative leave. Such a move “would not restore the services the preliminary injunction intends to restore,” wrote Judge William Alsup in his brief order.
As the veteran waits for answers, he said he is being "thrifty" and looking for work, but is nervous about the current economy — and the future of the VA.
"My biggest concern is the diminishing quality, or accessibility to care, at the VA," he said.
He said he relies on the VA for all of his medical care, including counseling and medications, and there would be serious health consequences for him if that were to stop abruptly.
"If the VA goes under, that's a frightening possibility," he said.
One Year Ago: A first: I slept in the recliner all night In bed Last night I realized it was foolhardy to get into bed around 10 knowing I would be at best very uncomfortable and unable to sleep with my shoulder(s) pain and other pains so I slept on the BarcaLounger in the TV room until 3 a.m. when I woke, lit my Kitty cadle, let Lilly out, loaded the dishwasher and made a cup of strong herbal tea.
Two Years Ago:
More Gilead: "There have been heroes here, and saints and martyrs, too, and I want you to know that. Because that is the truth, even if no one remembers it. To look at the place, it's just a cluster of houses strung out along a few roads, and a little row of brick buildings with stores in them, and a grain elevator and a water tower with Gilead written on its side, and the post office and the schools and the playing fields and the old train station which has pretty much gone to weeds now. But what must Galilee have looked like? You can't tell much from the appearance of a place."
I have long believed, and said, that we are surrounded by saints and heroes and miracles if only we have the eyes to see them. The saints and heroes that I have seen up close and personal are mainly my mother, my sister, and my wife. Their saintliness and their heroism is of the type referred to explicitly in Mt. 25: 31-46 - my mother caring for her father and her brother James, and nourishing and protecting Kitty and me, and even standing by my father in his long years of need, though both Kitty and I wished during our childhoods that she would leave him. Kitty and Geri both for their taking in my father in his old age, and caring for him when he would otherwise be so alone and lonely. For Geri becoming his best friend and confidante in his last years and for her loving care of her brother Jim during Nancy's long last illness and when Jim was widowed, like my father alone and lonely. And for the love she gives me and her sons and Lilly. And her visits to Elise, suffering from advancing Parkinson's disease. I have been so blessed by such good, loving, strong women in my life. Domine, non sum dignus . . . As for miracles, they are all around us, as John Ames [Gilead] realizes. He focuses on light, air, even gravity but more broadly on all Nature including other humans. I tend to focus on birds and trees, forests and farm fields, barns and farmhouses, so much else. Even in the dumps, beset with pain or general gloominess, I can't forget all the saints, heroes, and miracles throughout my life. For some reason, I am recalling Wally Halperin who employed me as a stock boy at his food and liquor store at 74th and Halsted during my senior year in high school. When I was awarded the NROTC scholarship and was accepted at Marquette, Wally moved me from part-time to full-time at the store to let me earn some cash before moving to Milwaukee. I worked the checkout counter as well as stocking shelves and coolers and the fruit and vegetable stands. I was 17 years old and illegally checking out customers buying alcohol. Each week a Chicago cop would come to the store for a payoff from Wally for overlooking the underaged clerk. Wally never told me this; I learned of it from other adult employees. Wally was kind to me, solicitous, when he didn't have to be. He was my first Jewish friend, but far from the last.
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