8/18/2025

 Monday, August 18, 2025

D+283/211/-1251

1963 James Meredith became the 1st Black graduate from the University of Mississippi

In bed I fell asleep on the recliner at some point, got up and went to bed around 9:15, awake at 3:35, and up at 3:55.  69°, high of 77°, rain today and tonight on top of saturated soil.😱

Meds, etc.  Morning meds at 3p.m.  Bad arthritis pain and stiffness in both hands and fingers.

At 6s and 7s in the predawn hours, thinking about the upcoming meeting at the White House, wondering what message Trump will give to Zelenskii and Europe, what positions they will take, whether something positive will result from the meeting, or will it be a bust?  From early reports, it appears that Trump is willing to offer some kind of American participation in a guarantee of Ukrainian security IF Ukraine gives up some land to Putin.  Quaere: how reliable is a security guarantee from Trump?  For that matter, America itself does not have a good record of keeping its promises or abiding by its treaties, at least from the time of all the treaties with Native American tribes, regularly made, regularly broken.  Consider also the Afghan interpreters and allies left behind during the semi-chaotic withdrawal from that country in 2021 and since, the Kurds in Syria in 2019, the South Vietnamese between 1973 and 1975, the Shah of Iran in 1979, and the Iraqi rebels against Saddam Hussein in 1991.

I can't think or write today.  I've watched CNN much of the day following the goings-on at the White House, but my brain is unfocused.  I've been in isolation for the last 4 and 1/2 days and I'm sick of my own company, brain-dead, muddled.  On the other hand, I just looked out the window at 5:50 p.m. and saw two turkey hens and 10 or so adolescent young ones strutting across our front lawn and County Line Road, where a car stopped and let them all pass.  Uplifting!

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