5/23/2025

 Friday, May 23, 2025

D+177/122

1958 Mao Zedong started the "Great Leap Forward" movement in China, killed between 23 and 55 million Chinese citizens due to famine and forced labor

2022 President Joe Biden said for the first time he would be willing to use force to defend Taiwan against a Chinese invasion

2023 451 Illinois Catholic clergy sexually abused nearly 2,000 children over 70 years, according to the state's attorney general’s office 

In bed at  9:35, awake and up at 5:45.  41°, wind chill=35°, high of 55°. 

Prednisone, day 373; 1 mg.,  day 15/21; Kevzara, day 11/14; CGM, day 6/15; Trulicity, day 7/7.  Prednisone at 6 a.m.  Other meds at 6:15  a.m.  Eye drops at 6 a.m., 1:30 p.m.,  and 9 p.m., Triamcinolone at 6:30 a.m.  Trulicity injection at 11:30 a.m.

The day started with a white-tail deer slowly walking past the bird feeders outside my window.  I was surprised he didn't stop for a nibble of the safflower seeds I accidentally spilled on the ground yesterday.  Ghasson and Athena walked by at 6:40.  Later in the morning, a bit of a thrill when I had a pair of Gray Catbirds appear at our feeding station, concentrating on the suet cakes.  They are the first I've seen since we lived on Newton Avenue in Shorewood.  I've also been enjoying watching the house finches working on the oranges I put out, hoping to attract more orioles.  At noon, a double header: the oriole returned to enjoy the orange, and the catbird came back to the suet cake.  The red-bellied woodpecker likes the pulp of the oranges.  Tremendous bird traffic today.  I've discovered that the catbirds have bright red rumps.  Who knew?  I'm seeing many paired couples today: the cardinals, of course, but also the catbirds, house finches, and goldfinches.  The house finches remind me of the pair who used to visit our kitchen windowsill at the Knickerbocker.  What I am not seeing today are the squirrels.  Wazupdidat?

Sarah's odyssey.  On FB this morning, "Thank you, C&C Lightway for the hospitality this week in Seoul! Onward to Hong Kong, Dongguan, and Guangzhou…"

How to promote anti-semitism.  (1) Identify all Jews with Benjamin Netanyahu, Bezalel Smotrich, Itamar Ben-Gvir, violent settlers in the West Bank, and the State of Israel. (2) Use the protection of Jews as a pretext for destroying America's major research universities.

I have been fixated on the image of Trump as a modern Samson, with his thugishness, his weakness for women, his cruelty and violence, his blindness, his vengefulness, but mostly with the idea of his bringing down the temple and destroying himself and all around him.  The story is told in the Book of Judges, chapters 13 to 16, and is kind of a hoot to read, like something written by Woody Allen. 

14 Samson went down to Timnah and saw there a young Philistine woman. 2 When he returned, he said to his father and mother, “I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife.”

3 His father and mother replied, “Isn’t there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among all our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife?”

But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me. She’s the right one for me.

and

16 One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute. He went in to spend the night with her. 2 The people of Gaza were told, “Samson is here!” So they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They made no move during the night, saying, “At dawn we’ll kill him.” 

Samson seemed to be pissed off at everybody; everybody 'done him wrong,' like his wife who betrayed him, and Delilalh, who betrayed him, and mostly those damned Philistines who "seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding grain in the prison."  But Samson was resolved to get even and then some.  "Then Samson prayed to the Lord, 'Sovereign Lord, remember me. Please, God, strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.”  And of course, we know that he did.

Trump reminds me of Samson.  He loves the ladies.  

I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.

He knows what he wants, and he insists on getting it.  And when he gets screwed, he gets even and then some.  The wife who betrayed him got tossed aside and given to his best man.  As to the Philistines:

28 Then Samson prayed to the Lord, “Sovereign Lord, remember me. Please, God, strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.” 29 Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood. Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other, 30 Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived.

Trump is wreaking vengeance on everybody who opposed him - or who he thought wronged him in any way - in a way that makes Samson look like a pisher:  the members and staff of the January 6th committee, DOJ people who investigated the coup and the purloined documents, the New York authorities who investigated and prosecuted him, ABC, CBS, NBC, Big Law, Harvard, Columbia, James Comey, Andrew Cuomo, the list is endless.  In the process, he is bringing down the temple, i.e., the American democratic republic..