May 14, 2025
D+168/113
1948 David Ben-Gurion declared Israel independent from British administration, Golda Meir one of the signatories, and the US granted Israel de facto recognition
1955 Warsaw Pact was signed by the Soviet Union, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania
1975 "Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles," written and directed by Chantal Ackerman and starring Delphine Seyrig, premiered at Cannes
1995 Dalai Lama proclaimed 6-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima the 11th reincarnation of Panchen Lama, Tibet's 2nd most senior spiritual leader
Light out at 9:30, awake R 4:15, and up 4:45. 54°, high of 64°, fog all day yesterday and this morning.
Prednisone, day 364; 1 mg., day 6/32; Kevzara, day 2/14; CGM, day 11/15; Trulicity, day 6/7. Prednisone at 5:45 a.m. Other meds at 7 p.m. Eye drops at 5:30 a.m., 11 a.m., 3:30 p.m., and 9 p.m.
Visit to PM&R Clinic, where I saw Dr. Ceng, one of my favorite docs. Nothing came of the visit except for a prescription for menthol patches for my shoulders, some exercises to try with resistance bands, and an examination of my shoulder, but it was nice seeing him. On the way in from the parking lot, I chatted with an old Marine who served at NAS Atsugi during the Korean Era. We shared as many experiences as we could in the distance between the garage and the hospital check-in booths. On the way up the elevator to PM&R, I chatted a bit with another vet and with yet another in the PM&R waiting room. As is often the case, I felt better leaving the VA than I did going in, though, as Jane Kenyon wrote, 'someday it will be otherwise.' By the time I left, the outpatient clinics were largely shut down; there was no one to schmooze with.
Geri is off to an all-grades choir recital at Ellis' school this evening. She will do her grandmotherly duty and sit through two hours of recital to hear Ellis sing with her class for a few minutes. So it goes.
Geri moved a two-armed shepherd's crook from the back yard to the front this afternoon. We now have 6 hooks on which to hang feeders, with one yet empty, but Geri has her new hummingbird feeder up and full of sugar water.
“Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson’s account of Biden’s marked deterioration throughout his presidency, is littered with similar anecdotes. The result of more than 200 interviews, the book is a damning account of an elderly, egotistical president shielded from reality by a slavish coterie of loyalists and family members united by a shared, seemingly ironclad sense of denial and a determination to smear anyone who dared to question the president’s fitness for office as a threat to the republic covertly working on behalf of Trump. For years, they denied the president had any issues and kept him away from a public that had long since concluded that he was too old for the job. It worked for an astonishingly long time, until, very suddenly, it didn’t.
Of the many virtues of “Original Sin,” the greatest is its stubborn focus on Biden’s health as not just the most important factor in the 2024 election but the sole defining reason for Trump’s victory. . .
When Biden finally bowed to reality and announced he would no longer seek reelection, Harris was the only option and arguably the worst imaginable pick: Naturally cautious, she couldn’t break from the unpopular administration she belonged to. . . . “But for the most knowledgeable Democratic officials and donors, and for top members of the Harris campaign, there was no question about the father of this election calamity: It was Joe Biden.”
No comments:
Post a Comment