4/12/2025

 Saturday, April 12, 2025

D+157/83

1861 Fort Sumter in South Carolina was attacked by the Confederacy beginning the American Civil War

1955 Polio vaccine tested by Jonas Salk was announced to be 'safe and effective' and was given full approval by the US Food and Drug Administration

1963 The police in Birmingham, Alabama, used dogs & cattle prods on peaceful demonstrators

1966 1st B-52 bombing on North Vietnam

1999 President Bill Clinton was cited for contempt of court for giving "intentionally false statements" in a sexual harassment civil lawsuit.

2015 Hillary Clinton announced she would run for the President for the 2nd time

In bed at 9, awake at 4:50, and up at 5:00, thinking of my Mom's upcoming birthday and my trip to Taconite, MN, and my visit to the Itasca County Clerk's office for her birth record and perhaps a death certificate or other record of her mother's death.   

Prednisone, day 357; 3 mg., day 16/21; Kevzara, day 11/14; CGM, day 10/15; Trulicity, day 1/7.  2 mg. of prednisone at 5:30 a.m. and 1 mg. at 3:30  p.m.  Other meds at 650 a.m.  

Incalculable.    Two years ago today, I wrote:

"An Incalculable Crime"  I subscribed to Yair Rosenberg's The Atlantic newsletter Deep Shtetl" this morning after reading his informative article "The Three Biggest Misconceptions About Israel's Upheaval and How to Better Understand the Protests There."  In scanning earlier newsletters I saw one from January 27, 2023 on "What to Read on Holocaust Remembrance Day: A Few Selections on the human, statistical, and moral dimensions of an incalculable crime." That term "an incalculable crime" caught me eye as not only descriptive of the Holocaust but also of chattel slavery in America.  For some time I have thought about the magnitude, the enormity of the crime against Blacks that was America's slave-based economy and slave-owning culture, how its effects are so visible, so tangible from the time of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment 158 years ago through today.  The word "incalculable" at least hints at the element of persistent effects, the continuation of the criminal effects through history.  We are reminded of it every time we see on our TV screens the images of young Black men arrested or convicted of dreadful crimes, usually against other Black men, or Black women, or increasingly Black children, victims of stray bullets.  Continuing results of race-based chattel slavery, of Jim Crow and segregation, of invidious  racial discrimination, of continuing unwillingness to share the wealth ('income redistribution=socialism/communism"), to share electoral and governmental power ("voter fraud"), to share neighborhoods and schools and real economic opportunity in our "Christian nation."   

Today, two years later, I fear and wonder about the incalculable damage being done to our nation, our people, our international friendships and alliances, by Donald Trump and the gang of scoundrels he has installed in positions of power in our government.  The damage will be incalculable.  We will never be able to calculate the depth, breadth, or persistence of the damage, nor will we ever know the number of people hurt by his and their malevolence and indifference.  I thought of this the other day as I watched the televised cabinet meeting, listening to each cabinet member (plus Elon Musk) report to Trump on the progress their departments have made in firing employees, cancelling grants and contracts, and rooting out 'waste, fraud, and abuse.'  How many people have they hurt so far?  How many more are on the chopping block?  How many slimy actions have been and will be done behind closed doors?  Much of the harm, the damage will be irremediable.  The individual human beings affected by it and the nation will never recover from it.  The reaction of most people will probably be indifference.  If we dodge the bullets, we count our blessings and move on.  So it goes.  No foreign nation will be willing or able to count on the U.S. for years, perhaps decades, knowing that no foreign or economic policy can be relied upon for more than the remaining term of office of the incumbent president/administration.  Incalculable damage.

Trump's vulnerabilities in his trade war.  (1) America's huge debt.  As of Jan. 23, 2025, the government's total debt was $36.22 trillion.  The foreign countries that hold the most U.S. debt are Japan, China, the U.K., the Cayman Islands, and Luxembourg, as of the latest information from November 2024.  China owns $786 billion in U.S. treasuries, second only to Japan's $1.1 trillion.  Private foreign investors own about 52% of the total US debt owned by foreign investors. We saw what happened when foreign investors started selling off their US treasuries Tuesday night.  (2) The value of the dollar and its status as the world's reserve currency. (3) A surge in domestic and international inflation. (4) Lack of support in Congress via Republican resistance and/or changes in leadership/control. (5)  Threats of military action against Taiwan and in the South China Sea. (6) Lack of support among his MAGA base.

Trump keeps acting as if he/we were invulnerable and invincible in his tariff wars, including the one against China.  He also thought he would succeed in the 2020 election against Joe Biden, his Atlantic City casinos, Trump University, Trump Airlines, Trump Vodka, Trump the Game, Trump Magazine, Trump Steaks, Trump Mortgage, the Plaza Hotel, his attempt to become an NFL owner and the demise of the USFL, the E. Jean Carroll lawsuit, the real estate valuation fraud lawshit, and the Stormy Daniels hush money lawsuit.  In May 2022, Trump filed with the SEC an "S-r" disclosure before taking his Truth Social platform public . It disclosed:

"The Trump Organization recently paid $750,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by the District of Columbia accusing the organization of misusing nonprofit funds from the 58th Presidential Inaugural Committee."

. . . .

The S-4 cites a USA Today article from 2016 finding that "over the previous three decades President Trump and his businesses had been involved in 3,500 legal cases in U.S. federal and state courts. ... In the 1,300 cases where the record establishes the outcome, President Trump settled 175 times, lost 38, won 450, and had another 137 cases end with some other outcome. In the other 500 cases, judges dismissed plaintiffs’ claims against President Trump." 

Xi Jinpinf has said there are no winners in trade wars.  I suspect he is correct.  Trump has been a big winner on some of his ventures and a big losers on many others. The big question is how much ordinary Americans will suffer before Trump cries 'uncle' and claims victory in his war against most of the rest f the world on tariffs, and especially on China.

Notable quotes:  We are living in a world where heroes are being trgeted and scoundrels are in a position to target them."  David Axelrod.

I am working onf this work-in-progress this up from a photo of a painted portrait but I don't know of whom or by whom.  In any case, as usual, I made a number of big mistakes in the initial drawing from my profound lack of drawing ability and my failure to proceed more slowly, i.e., my lack of patience.  Nonetheless, I have enjoyed working on the piece and will continue to work on it.

Our day at the dump.  Today was a village Clean-up Day, a welcome Bayside tradition.  We took some old electronic stuff including some cables that we had no idea what they once connected to, a wrought iron garden  bench with a bent leg, and (sadly) three of Lilly's dog beds/mattresses.  Geri noted as we waited in the long line to get into the collection area that she had Lilly's dog hair on her jeans from schlepping the mattresses.  We both miss her badly.  I am reminded of her every time I go through my collections of photos on the laptop looking for one to insert in a journal entry.  Photos of Lilly are spread throughbout the other photos.

I baked a loaf of banana bread this afternoon

Pesach seder at Caela's table tonight.