7/1/2025

 Tuesday, July 1, 2025

D+216/148 /-1298 

1937 Rev Martin Niemöller was arrested in Nazi Germany for activities against the State

1968 The CIA's Phoenix Program was officially established.

1971 Twenty-sixth Amendment, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18, was ratified

1974 General Augusto Pinochet became the president and dictator of Chile

1987 President Ronald Reagan nominated Robert Bork for a seat on the Supreme Court, rejected by US Senate in October

2002 The International Criminal Court was established to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression

2019 Japan resumed commercial whaling after a break of more than 30 years

2024  Supreme Court ruled that presidents have criminal  immunity for all official acts,

In bed at 9:10, up at 5:45.  63°, high of 80°, sunny day ahead.    

Medication tracking.  Kevzara, day 614; Trulicity, day 3/7; morning meds and Blink pill at 11:20 a.m.; Eye wipes at 7:45 a.m. and  p.m.; Eye mask at p.m. and   p.m.; Ketoconazole wash and cream at a.m. and  p.m.  Eye ointment at bedtime.  Zyrtec at .     Keeping track of all the stuff I'm supposed to ingest or do with or to my body is driving me a little nuts.  From the time I get up in the morning until I go to bed each night, I have medical instructions to attend to.  I take a dozen or more pills and capsules each morning.  I apply creams or ointments to various parts of my body.  I've long been advised to engage in one physical therapy exercise or another. BP + 153/88

A wren sighting.  The Merling app has been telling me since I installed and started using it that we have wrens in the neighborhood. Around 7 last night, I spotted one on the tray feeder.  It was a good sighting, small, plump body and upright tail feathers.  Tah dah.

Starting to think about the Semiquicentennial.   Or is it the Bisequicentennial or the Sestercentennial?  Whatever we call it, 2026 will be the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.  I am thinking back on 1976 and the big-deal Bicentennial.  Jerry Ford was president on July 4, but was voted out of office on November 2nd.   Fourteen months before the big anniversary, North Vietnamese troops captured Saigon, renamed it as Ho Chi Minh City, and occasioned the iconic images of Marine helicopters lifting fleeing Vietnamese off of Saigon rooftops.  Less than 2 years earlier, Richard Nixon became the only US president to resign from office.  In March of that year, Patty Hearst had been found guilty of bank robbery in California. And in New Jersey, the Supreme Court allowed Karen Ann Quinlan, in a persistent vegetative state, to be disconnected from her ventilator.  She remained comatose but alive until 1985.  Reagan took on Ford in the Republican primaries.  On July 2, North and South Vietnam were officially united into one country.  On July, the first class of women was inducted into the U. S. Naval Academy. Later that month, the Son of Sam killings started in New York City.  On August 19, Gerald Ford narrowly defeated Ronald Reagan for the Republican nomination for the presidency.  November 2 election results: Carter 50.1, Reagan 48%

Carter became the first non-incumbent president representing a Southern state to be elected since Zachary Taylor in 1848. As of 2024, this is the last election in which the Democratic ticket won the majority of states in the South or the states of Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas (mainly due to Carter's southern roots), as well as the most recent election in which the losing candidate carried more states than the winning candidate.

January 27 – The United States vetoes a United Nations resolution that calls for an independent Palestinian state.   I need to think some more about 1976.  What I remember best is Richard Pryor's Bicentennial Pastor moaning about "200 years of White folk kickin' ass and wondering how long, Lord, must this bullshit go on?"

Facebook exchange with JJA:

Janice Jenkins Anderson 

The “Big Beautiful Bill” is an immoral disgusting piece of legislation. It proposes the largest transfer of wealth to the rich, the largest cut to Medicaid (17 million people) and the largest cut to food assistance in American history. Rural hospitals and nursing homes will be shut down, electricity costs could go up by 30% and millions of jobs could disappear. A staggering $4 trillion will be added to the national debt. The most vulnerable will suffer, some will die. All in order to give more money to the rich. Are we winning, now???

 Charles D. Clausen

I read an essay a million years ago by one of those famous 19th century English essayists whose name I can't remember. I also can't remember exactly what the essay was about, but in it the writer described a purported work of art as "the most perfectly ill-done thing" he had ever seen. That phrase has stuck with me and I think of it now, wondering if Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" is the most perfectly ill-done piece of legislation we have ever seen. Raises the debt by trillions while cutting taxes for those who have more money than they can keep track of while cutting health care coverage and food stamps for the nation's neediest. It takes a deeply perverse and malevolent soul to come up with that combo. Make that souls, plural: Trump, a pagan, and Russell Vought, a hardline Chrisian Nationalist. Throw in Stephen Miller, a Jew, and J. D. Vance, a Catholic. Is this what Judeo-Christian culture has come to mean in terms of political policy? I keep thinking that things can't get much worse and these guys keep proving me wrong.

 

 My Facebook posting yesterday:   

I was watching the news this afternoon when I was impinged by this commercial:

Keytruda  . . . known to treat cancer

(Subscript crawl)  Keytruda is not right for everyone.  If you have advanced urothelial cancer, KEYTRUDA may be used with the medicine enfortumab vedoten  in adults when your bladder or urinary tract cancer has spread or cannot be removed by surgery.  KEYTRUDA can cause your immune system to attack healthy parts of your body during or after treatment.  This may be severe and lead to death.  See your doctor right away if you have a cough, shortness of breath, chest pain, diarrhea, severe stomach pain, nausea, or vomiting, headsache, light sensitivity, eye problems, irregualr heartbeat, extreme tiredness, consipation, dizziness, or fainting, changes in appetite, thirst, or urine, confusion, memory problems, persistent or severe muscle pain or weakness, muscle cramps, fever, rash, itching, or flushing.  There may be other side effects.

Can anyone tell me what I am to think of this?  Why do MERCK and other pharmaceutical giants spend lots of money putting out ads like this?  The EU forbids direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising; why do we permit it?  [I know; it's America's Golden Rule.  He who has the gold makes the rules.]