5/20/2025

 Tuesday, May 20, 2025

D+174/119

325  First ecumenical council of Christian bishops at Nicaea, Asia Minor

1969 US troop captured Hill 937/Hamburger Hill in Vietnam

1970 100,000 marched in NY supporting US policies in Vietnam

1980 710 families in Love Canal area of Niagara Falls, New York were evacuated due to the lingering effects of prior use as chemical waste disposal site

2017 President Donald Trump began his 1st foreign trip  to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

In bed at 10, and up at 4:15.  46°, wind chill 30°, high of 48°, wind gusts up to 38 mph.  Brr!

Prednisone, day 370; 1 mg., 12/21; Kevzara, day 8/14; CGM, day 3/15; Trulicity, day 4/7.  Prednisone at 4:35 a.m.  Other meds at 6:05 a.m.  I applied Triamcinolone to my leg at 6:45 a.m.  Eye drops at 6 a.m.,  3:45 p.m., and 9 p.m.   I suspect I will run out of one or both eye drops before I complete the post-op regimen.  I frequently miss my eye when squeezing the tiny, rather rigid bottles that contain the anti-biotic and the steroid. Pathetic.  I better send a message to Dr. Saladi to inquire whether I should get refills.  

O, happy day!  Yesterday, I retrieved my gouache paints and watercolor brushes from my basement 'studio' where I took them a year ago or more, thinking I would do all my painting down there instead of doing my gouache work on the desk in my bedroom.  Now I resist going into the basement becasue it's been so cold (dry, thank goodness, but cold) because it's so far from my bathroom (ICE, in case of emergency), and because the stairs are always a challenge.  In any case, I did my first gouache painting yesterday and today, a copy of the self-portrait by Charlotte Salomon that is the cover art on her magnum opus, Charlotte, Life? or Theater?  I used my lightbox to trace the outlines of the portrait on a piece of watercolor paper so my artwork is as sophisticated as a kid drawing between the lines in his coloring book, but I enjoyed drawing between the lines in coloring books when I was a little kid and clearly I still do and, O, it feels good to play around again with paints and brushes in my room.  The child is father to the man, and all that.

Big world, small wold.  Sarah is on a work assignment in Seoul, South Korea, on her way to Tokyo, 2 cities in China, Los Angenes, Las Vegas, and Austin, TX, before returning to Bavaria, having circumflown the globe.  Christian is working in Talinn, Estonia.  On Thursday, Geri leaves for 4 days in Champaign-Urbana, IL to visit with her college pals.  I have purchased another cushion for my recliner so I sit even higher  on it than before and have an easier time getting up from it, though I don't often do that. 

CBS News seems about to settle with Trump.   Wendy McMahon, the president of CBS News, has resigned in a disagreement between her and the corporate management of Paramount Global and its controlling shareholder, Sharai Redstone, which owns CBS News.  It appears Paramount is about to settle Donald Trump's $20 billion bogus lawsuit against CBS News for editing its  60 Minutes interview of Kamala Harris during the 2020 presidential campaigns.  The suit is widely believed to be frivolous and vexatious, designed to instill fear into television news programs that cover Trump and everything related to Trump.  ABC has already settled another frivolous lawsuit from Trump for $15 million.  The executive producer of 60 Minutes resigned last month, citing unacceptable corporate interference with editorial decisions about Trump.  Paramount Global is attempting to complete a corporate merger that must be approved by Trump's government in order to be effected. The proposed merger with Skydance Media would pay Redstone $1.5 billion for her controlling shares.  'nuff said.  One more nail in the coffin of constitutional democracy.  He  is very clearly working toward total social and political domination - the Republican Party, the Congress, the courts, the mass media, the legal profession, the major universities.  His weapon is the combination of money and political power.  Money and control of the MAGA base to primary Republicans who don't toe the line.  Money and governmental power to bring the law firms, mass media, Big Tech, and universities to their knees.  Also business corporations seeking exemptions from tariffs.  So much for institutional guardrails.  So much for checks and balances.  And he has only begun his 4 year term.  Can the courts save us?  Don't count on it.

Am I crazy as I think that Trump is like the blinded Samson, bringing down the temple around him in his deep-seated rage to get even with every person, company, and institution that has hurt him in his long life?  His niece, Mary Trump, has called him 'the most dangerous person in the world' and warned that he would 'burn down the house' if he thought he was losing relevance or not the center of attention.  I suspect however that he is most dangerous when he can employ all the powers of the presidency and the federal government to exact revenge on those he considers his enemies.  When asked in a radio interview during the 2016 presidential campaign for his favorite bible verse, he said "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," but that's not good enough for him.  "Anyone who hits me, we're going to hit them 10 times harder," he said to Sean Hannity during the 2024 campaign.  He has a lust for vengeance.  I suspect that he is even willing to hurt himself so long as he can hurt his perceived enemy worse.  He has already done more damage to the United States of american and its people than I could have imagined.  How much more will he do over the next 3 and 1/2 years?  God help us (but we know He won't.)