8/9/2025

 Saturday, August 9, 2025

D+274/202/1259

1253 Clare of Assisi's rules confirmed by Pope Innocent IV for Clare's Order of Poor Ladies

1854 American transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau published "Walden."

1945 Nagasaki

In bed around 10, awake at 5, up at 6, with a little meatal discomfort and some anxiety. 73°, high of 89°, mostly sunny.

Meds, etc.   Morning meds at 12:30 p.m.  At midday, I'm out of sorts so far today, coming from waking up with some anxiety and concern about the meatotomy.  I am wondering whether my mental/emotional status when I get up each morning tends to mark and carry through the day.  I have not wanted to write a word all morning and may take a pass today, eschewing anything that would make me think or reveal my muddled mind and emotional state.

"I think there comes a point in your life where you own your damage.  You don't necessarily get over it, you don't necessarily have it all figured out, you just say this is mine, these are the things I have to be aware of, take care of, work around."

Tracy Letts, NY Times Magazine, 3/23/2014 

A corrupt government in a broken society, a divided nation.  From today's Wall Street Journal:

America Is Fracturing Into Red and Blue Nations, Redistricting Fight Shows By Aaron Zitner

America’s identity as a unified nation is eroding, with Republican- and Democratic-led states dividing into separate spheres, each with its own policies governing the economic, social and political rules of life.

The bitter fight oIver redrawing U.S. House maps, triggered by President Trump’s effort to protect his party’s majority in the 2026 midterm elections, is the latest example of how the dominant party in many states is making extraordinary efforts to impose its will.

In 40 states, a single party controls the House, Senate and governor’s office—a so-called trifecta—or else has enough power to block vetoes from a governor of the other party. That leaves less than 20% of Americans living in a state where the minority party has a meaningful voice in governance.

The result has been a deepening of differences in red and blue America. Abortion is now banned or heavily restricted in about one-third of states, all of them controlled by Republicans, while abortion access is protected or allowed in every Democratic trifecta state. Every GOP trifecta state has passed bans or limits on gender-affirming care for minors.

Red and blue states have moved in sharply different directions on employment law, gun regulation, immigration enforcement and other policies. When Louisiana passed a law last year that required the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public schools, later struck down by courts, 18 GOP-trifecta states filed a legal brief in support. 

“You’re seeing this divide—trifecta blue states and trifecta red—and it’s creating this remarkable contrast in which you’ve got radically different policies from state to state,” said Jay Richards, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, who tracks legislation regarding gender, marriage and religious liberty.

Are we in a state of civil war now?  It depends, I suppose, on how we define 'civil war.' If civil war requires violent, armed conflict, we are not in a civil war.   If violent, armed conflict is necessary, our War Between the States didn't begin until April 12, 1861, when the South Carolina militia fired artillery at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor.  But how should we characterize American history on April 11, 1861, and the preceding years?  The years of Bleeding Kansas, John Brown, Harper's Ferry, the 1856 caning of Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner by South Carolina Representative Preston Brooks in the Senate chamber, and all the years between the 1820 Missouri Compromise and the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act.  In 1832, South Carolina adopted an Ordinance of Nullification that declared certain federal tariffs unconstitutional, null and void,  and unenforceable within the state.  In 2024, Texas's Republican Party adopted this resolution:

[F]ederally mandated legislation that infringes upon the 10th Amendment rights of Texas should be ignored, opposed, refused, and nullified. Texas retains the right to secede from the United States, and the Texas Legislature should be called upon to pass a referendum consistent thereto.

The movement in Texas supporting secession is called "Texit." There is also a secession movement called "Calexit," as well as small movements in Alaska, Hawaii, Vermont, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and some other Southern states.  Does "polarization" adequately describe the political temper of today's United States? How about "partisanship" or "hyperpartisanship"?  "Tribalism"?  Whatever shorthand term might best describe our situation, it is clear that America is coming apart at the seams, or perhaps I should say, has come apart at the seams. I suspect it will only grow worse over time.  What could reverse the deep divisiveness?  One way would be for more people to start approving of Trump.  I think that is virtually impossible with the perfect storm of national economic decline forming.  Another way would be for a lot of MAGA folks to start becoming more liberal, less hostile to Democrats.  I also doubt that that is likely.  Some, perhaps quite a few, may lose their devotion to Trump himself (say, e.g., he were exposed as Epstein's partner-in-crime), but that won't incline them towards Democrats or liberals; they would look for some other fascist to follow.  Beauty may only be skin deep, but fascism runs right to the bone.  I tend to think of the country being about 1/3rd hardcore MAGA/Republican/fascist types, another 1/3rd being liberal/Democrat/moderate types, and the other 1/3rd being the so-called "independents", or swing voters.  One can hope that the swing/independent middle will swing in large numbers away from Republicans and to Democrat/liberal/moderate candidates and policies, and that the MAGA types will become disheartened as Trump's charisma fades and disappears.  But as Father Matthew used to advise me when I'd say to him, "I've got to get organized,' 'Don't bet on it.'  We're on our way down with Trump and have a long way to go before we hit bottom.  He has another 1259 days holding the keys to the kingdom.  Descensus Averno facilis est.

This is a photo I took of myself and a mural I painted on the wall of the bedroom I used as a studio when we lived on Newton Avenue in Shorewood.  I took the photo after we put the house up for sale when Geri took a position in Seattle, and I moved into our condo in the Knickerbocker Hotel.  I copied it from the cover of a Time or Newsweek or U S News magazine during the Balkan wars.  I was struck by the power of the image, which depicted an American airman who was shot down and captured during the war.  I also had an urge to paint something big, on a big surface.  To sell the house, I had to paint over the image, though, if I could have, I would have had the plaster wall removed and saved, and a new wall installed.  Alas, not to be.  I was about 57 years old when I took the photo.