6/16/2025

 Monday, June 16, 2025

D+201/134/1314

Sick Day #3

1873 President Ulysses Grant decreed a portion of Wallowa Valley, Oregon for the Native American tribe, the Nez Perce. The order was rescinded two years later, and the tribe was forcibly relocated to Oklahoma.

1904 Bloomsday, the date of the fictional events in James Joyce's novel "Ulysses"

1944 George Stinney, a 14-year-old African-American boy, was wrongfully executed for the murder of two white girls, becoming the youngest person ever executed in 20th-century America

1954 Ngô Đình Diệm was elected Prime Minister of South Vietnam

2015 TV personality and real estate mogul Donald Trump launched his campaign for the Republican nomination for President at Trump Tower

2023 Scientific teams in the UK and Israel claimed to have grown synthetic human embryos equivalent to those of a 14-day-old natural embryos, sparking controversy

2023 Robert Bowers was found guilty of the deadliest attack on Jews in the US, of shooting 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018

In bed at 9, up at 6:15 after a few false starts.    

Kevzara, day 6/14; Trulicity, day 4/7; morning meds at 10 a.m.; Blink pill at 10 a.m.; Eye wipes at 7 a.m. and   p.m.; Eye mask at  a.m. and p.m.;  Eye ointment at bedtime.  Dayquil at 7:15 a.m.. 1:30 p.m.,  and  p.m. Nyquil and Eye Ointment at bedtime.

VA video visit with Jill Hansen was cancelled, according to my computer.  Something went wrong.

As I write this, Geri is out at the SW corner of our lot wrestling with buckthorn removal, using Andy's special buckthorn tool.  She says it works well with young buckthorn but not with an older one.  She fell down wrestling with one of them.  She's as tough as a lumberjack, my Paula Bunyan. She is a true gardener.  Watching her reminds me of how important it can be for a person to have some patch of the earth as her or his own.  Sarah told me yesterday that Christian, Gerhard, and Olga were out at their plot in Geretsried tending their vegetables.  I compare this day here in Bayside with what it would be like if we were living in a high-rise condo, perhaps looking out at Lake Michigan, but utterly cooped up.  I dread the thought of moving away from here.

Facebook post today:  

It was 10 years ago today that Donald Trump followed Melania down the golden escalator to announce his candidacy for the presidency..  Most of us thought is was a self-promoting publicity stunt becsuse it was inconceivable that he could be elected.  He was a notorious conman, cheat, fraudster, liar, and immoral playboy.  He was a draft evader who escaped duty in Vietnam by claiming disabling "bone spurs" in his feet, bone spurs which have never impeded his abiltiy to play thousands of rounds of golf at his luxurious golf courses around the world.  Ever a playboy, he bragged that, instead of fighting communists in South-East Asia, he fought off sexually-transmitted diseases in Manhattan.    We had no idea ten years ago that we were witnessing the beginning of a new era  in American history, the era of Trump and Trumpism.  We had no idea that he would run for president three times, collecting more vote in his second run than in his first, and more votes in his third run than in his second.  We naively believed that our fellow citizens would never put in the White House a man with the morals of Donald Trump.  We naively believed that our fellow citizens would never put in the White House a man whose contempt for truthfulnesss was so blatant.  We naively believed that our fellow citizens would never put in the White House a man with such public disdain for rectitude, personal honor, and obedience to law.  It was beyond our wildest dreams that Trump would win in 2016, but our wildest dream has become our nightmare.  Let us hope or pray that the earnest patriotism shown by the millions of our fellow citizens who demonstrated and protested yesterday all across the nation will put some steel into the backs of congressmen, senators, judges, and justices who can impose real limits on Trump's vengeful lust for power and retribution.  Unless they do, this era of Trumpism will outlive Trump himself and will become America's Dark Ages.