Friday, August 22, 2025
D+287/215/-1247
1953 Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi returned to Tehran
1964 Fannie Lou Hamer spoke at the Democratic National Convention about her terrifying experiences with voter registration as a Black woman in Mississippi
2024 Vice President Kamala Harris acceptsed the Democratic nomination for U.S. President
In bed at 9, and up at 6:10, after a night in which I was up to empty my bladder every 45 minutes, like the night before, which has me wondering whether the coffee I have resumed drinking for the last few weeks is irritating my bladder. Nonetheless, I made another cup once I was up. High of 78°, mostly sunny.
Meds, etc. Morning meds at midmorning. Trulicity injection around noon.
LTMW at a a blue jay working very hard to extract seeds or nuts from the tube feeder at 6:20 a.m. The tube has only about one inch of fodder in it, mostly seeds and nuts too large for the smaller birds to have extracted them yesterday I neglected to fill it last night and woke up feeling guilty about it, wondering whether I should put on a bathrobe and fill it now, and deciding against it out of laziness and fear of falling while Geri's asleep and no traffic yet on Wakefield, Courtlqnd, or County Line. Gahson and Athena walk by, as usual, at 6:40 and chat briefly with another walker coming down from Courtland. Athena seemed to recognize him, wagging her tail, and accepting petting. A group of 5 male wild turkeys stop briefly at our feeders before heading south down Wakefield . . . Duty and guilt led me to fill the feeders at 7:45. I filled the suet cake holder later.
Lead headlines on this morning's New York Times, or, why to worry. (1) Trump’s Attacks on Institutions Threaten a Bulwark of Economic Strength, (2) Taking on the Fed, Trump Combines Retribution Tactics With a Power Play, (3) How Long Can This Uncanny Stock Market Prosper?, and (4) Trump’s Attacks on Fed Overshadow a Critical Moment for the Central Bank.
Today's Facebook rant: I know that it is not good for my mental health to wonder repetitively whether Donald Trump's actions and policies could possibly be worse for " form(ing) a more perfect Union, establish(ing) Justice, insur(ing domestic Tranquility, provid(ing) for the common defence, promot(ing) the general Welfare, and secur(ing)the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity," yet I do it anyway. If Trump wanted to hurt the American economy, would it not be a good idea to undermine the independence of the Federal Reserve Bank and to destroy confidence in the economic data gathered and published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics? If he wanted to destroy whatever good will America may have enjoyed around the world, would it not be a good idea to destroy aid programs that prevented or cured deadly diseases, fed the hungry, and otherwise assisted the world's most needful people, while also imposing punitive tariffs on their nation's businesses? If he wanted to make us vulnerable to harmful intrusions by hostile actors, would it not be a good idea to place unqualified, inexpert, and pernicious people in charge of the nation's intelligence and counterintelligence assets and to cause them to fire or drive out of sensitive positions the most experienced, dedicated career public servants? If he wanted to imperil the health and well-being of our children and their children, would he not purposefully stop all American efforts to combat climate change and its terrible effects on our species? If he wanted to destroy any sense of fellowship, common purpose and common interests in the American people, would he not every day and in every way belittle, insult, humiliate, shame, and otherwise target anyone who disagreed with or opposed him? If he wanted to increase anti-semitism, would he not make anti-semitism the official reason to take hundreds of millions of dollars away from America's premier educational and research institutions? If he wanted to make all of us more vulnerable to the next pandemic, would he not severely reduce the funding of the CDC, the NIH, their subordinate institutions, and severely curtail research funding for the most promising vaccine technology? The list goes on and on. I have often wondered whether Donald Trump isn't simply a Russian asset, a 'useful idiot,' but rather a Russian agent, knowingly and willingly working to weaken the US on the world stage and to advance Russia. I consider that an unanswered questionn. Perhaps some day when I am long gone, historians will provide the answer. In the meantime, we watch this miscreant take a wrecking ball to American institutions and to what we had long considered to be Amercan strengths and values. It's painful to watch and to consider what additional harm he will do in the next 1247 days, but we can, alas, be assured that he is not done. There is worse to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment