4/21/2025

Monday, April 21, 2025

D+166/92

1954 The USAF flew a French battalion to Vietnam

1956 Elvis Presley's first hit record, "Heartbreak Hotel," reaches #1

1975 Last South Vietnam President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu resigned after 10 years in power

1989 Thousands of Chinese crowded into Beijing's Tiananmen Square, cheering for students demanding greater political freedom

In bed at 9, awake and up at 5.  48°, high of 52°.  

Prednisone, day 365; 2 mg., day 4/21; Kevzara, day 7/14; CGM, day 6/15; Trulicity, day 4/7.  Prednisone at 5:15 a.m.   Other meds at 7 a.m.

Text to Steve yesterday.   

Hi, Steve.  It was wonderful spending time with you and Nikki this weekend.  I watched "Come and See" on the Criterion Channel this afternoon.  It has the whole film plus a number of  e xtras some of which are as horrifying as the film.  I was born in 1941 and grew up as the atrocities of the Nazis (and to a much lesser extent, the Japanese) were being exposed.  I vaguely remember the first time I read some material on and really had some comprehension of the realities of the Nazi concentration camps.  Much later, I learned of their atrocities in the countries they invaded in Eastern Europe.  At some point, the Einsatzgruppen (sp?) were very concerned about not "wasting" bullets shooting Jews and that was a big part of the reason for crowding them into structures and burning them alive.  One of the things that struck me about the movie was its tremendous underemphasis on the Jewishness of most of the victims of the Nazis.  There were a couple of references to "Yids" but otherwise, a viewer might think that the Nazis were indiscriminate in their selection of villages to burn with their inhabitants, which was not true.  Jewsih shtetls were the principal targets. This was clearly a result of Russian & communist deemphasis of the separateness of the Jewish victims of Nazism.  The same thing happened after the war when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union.  There was official resistance to erecting any memorial to the incredible massacre of Jews at the Babi Yar ravine in Kiev and when a memorial was finally erected, the Soviets referred to the approximately 36,000 victims simply as Ukrainians, not as Jews.  Thanks for recommending the movie.  Your're right; it's well worth watching - once.

Peter Navarro, Steve Bannon, and me.  The first two are kooks, whackos, and dingbats.  How about me?  Navarro, Bannon, and I share a deep antipathy to NAFTA and the World Trade Organization because of what they have done to American factory workers and cities like Milwaukee.  Ultimately of course it was simply Capitalism and capitalists, in their relentless pursuit of cheap labor costs, that have led to globalization and the deindustrialization of America. 

"One of the eternal conflicts out of which life is made up is that between the effort of every man to get the most he can for his services, and that of society, disguised under the name of capital, to get his services for the least possible return."  Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., in Vegelahn v. Guntner, 167 Mass. 92, 44 N.E. 1077, 1081.

When nations compete on labor costs, there is no way the U.S. can win against nations with significantly lower standards of living and much fewer labor and environmental protection laws.  A factory worker at A. O. Smith, Allen Bradley, or Harnishfeger Corporation in Milwaukee could not support himself/herself and a family on what a Mexican worker n a maquiladora or a worker in China or Vietnams is paid.  Thus, it was entirely predictable, predicted, and well known when China was granted 'most favored nation' status, when it was admitted to the WTO, and when NAFTA was negotiated by Republicans, signed by Bill Clinton, and ratified by the Senate, that American factory employment would plummet and that places like Milwaukee, Racine, and Kenosha would pay the price, socially and economically, for corporate management's access to cheap foreign labor.  And so it went.  Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon believe American workers were screwed by those agreements,  and so do I.  Maybe Donald Trump does too, but who knows what he believes or cares about?  In any event, Navarro, Bannon, and maybe even Trump are True Believers that high tariffs are the way to re-industrialize America.  

I started out this note writing that Navarro and Bannon are kooks, whackos, and dingbats but I need to withdraw those charges against Bannon.  I don't really believe he fits into any of those categories.  He is clearly tremendously intelligent, with a wealth of experience and learning.  I count it to his credit that he spent 5 or 6 years in the U. S. Navy.  He earned a bachelor's degree in urban planning from Virginia Tech, a master's degree in national security from Georgetown, and an MBA from Harvard.  He worked at Goldman Sachs, produced several Hollywood films, and managed Breitbard Media.  He is extremely articulate with an agile and facile mind.  He is a right-wing conservative, but I don't think of him as a fascist, though he is certainly a nationalist.  I don't think he is evil, wicked, or malicious, though his second wife accused him of spousal abuse, and he has had many unfriendly encounters with criminal law enforcement agencies.  I suppose I don't think Navarro is evil, wicked, or malicious either.  Like Bannon, he has advanced degrees from prestigious universities.  He and Bannon are just True Believers in economic nationalism and in the necessity of building high tariff walls around America.  They both share with Trump deep-seated grievances, the sense of having been and getting 'screwed' by China, Europe, and others.  They believe that "free trade" is a sham that only hurts the U.S.  They believe it's naïve to consider as "allies" countries that are out to 'screw us' economically. (They both have served time in jail for contempt of Congress.)  In sum, they are natural fits for Donald Trump who shares their beliefs.  None of them seems ever to have taken to heart Oliver Cromwell's admonition: "I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible that you may be mistaken.  I find myself wondering, however, to what extent they may be right about tariffs.  On the other hand, as I write these words, the securities markets close today down about another  2.5% on top of big losses following Trump's April 2 "Liberation Day" speech.  

 Cheri visited Geri today, Geri visited Dr. Grap today, and I visited Dr. Ryzka today.

Race to the Outhouse, by Willie Makeit.