10/28/2025

 Tuesday, October 28, 2025

1956 Pope Pius XII published the encyclical Luctuosissimi Eventus

1958 Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was elected Pope, taking the name John XXIII

1965 Pope Paul VI proclaimed Jews were not collectively guilty of the Crucifixion

2022 An  intruder attacked Paul Pelosi, 82-year-old husband of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi

2024 UK recorded its lowest-ever fertility rate of 1.44 children per woman in 2023, with 591,072 births in England and Wales, the lowest in 172 years [1]

In bed before 10, awake at 3:30, and up at 4.  There was less pain around my left ankle as I stood making a cup of coffee, but the skin around it is red and warm; it turns white when touched. 51°, high 55°, cloudy.

Meds, etc.  Doxycycline at 5:30 a.m and  p.m.  Morning meds at 6:15 a.m.  I checked my inflammation markers from my ER visit last Friday.  They were both high.  Sed rate of 40 with a high of 20 c-reactive protein with a high of 5.  The leg is still inflamed today, 31 days after Geri drove me to the ER on 9/27.  

Excuse me?  Say what?  In this morning's New York Times:

Josh Hawley: No American Should Go to Bed Hungry  

The federal government has been shut down for 28 days and counting. That’s 28 days too long and already the second-longest federal shutdown ever. Saturday will be another grim milestone. That is the day about 42 million Americans will lose federal food assistance.

Congress must not let that happen. America is a great and wealthy nation, and our most important wealth is our generosity of spirit. We help those in need. We provide for the widow and the orphan. Love of neighbor is part of who we are. The Scripture’s injunction to “remember the poor” is a principle Americans have lived by. It’s time Congress does the same.

. . . .

But this isn’t about politics at all in the end. It’s about who we are. The character of a nation is revealed not in quarterly profits or C.E.O. pay, but in how it treats the small and forgotten — the last, the least, the lost. America is a great nation precisely because we have loved our neighbors as ourselves. Congress should live up to that legacy now. 

Josh Hawley, a good Republican and MAGA man that he is, voted for Donald Trump's One Big, Beautiful Bill, which included cuts and tighter rules for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The bill added new work requirements for SNAP beneficiaries,  shifted more costs and administrative burdens onto the states. and reduced federal nutrition funding by large amounts over the coming decade. About 620,000 Missourians (roughly 1 in 10 of the state’s residents) rely on SNAP.  What this means in practice is that Missouri’s state budget will likely face higher costs (via more state contributions) or will have to reduce benefit levels / tighten eligibility to offset the federal cuts.  Many SNAP-recipient households could face reduced benefits, increased complexity in eligibility or reporting, or even termination of benefits for some, especially if the state cannot fully offset federal cuts.  Rural areas and smaller service providers in Missouri are especially vulnerable: they rely heavily on SNAP and related services, and may have fewer resources to absorb changes.  For Missouri’s SNAP-reliant population (~620 k), these changes will most likely translate into increased food insecurity and pressure on local safety-net systems.

And, lest we forget, the OBBBA also contained massive cuts to Medicare and Medicaid.  So give us a break, Senator Hawley, you who reminds us of the "Scripture’s injunction to “remember the poor.”  Your op-ed makes a play for the votes of Missouri's SNAP beneficiaries, but you're peeing on their shoes and telling them it's raining out.

Some Headlines this morning:

UPS Cuts 48,000 Jobs in Management and Operations

Amazon Lays Off 14,000 Corporate Workers

The future in a world of Artificial Intelligence?

Visit to the VA this morning.  A few months ago, Dr. Chatt, my then-primary care doc, had the resident psychologist in the Gold Clinic call me and invite me in to talk about what Dr. Chatt called my "subdued mood."  I wasn't sure what she was referring to, or what about my last visit with her caused her to think my mood was "subdued," but I suspected she might think I was a suicide risk, or at least that perhaps I was depressed over my declining health.  The VA is super-sensitive to what is seen as a problem of military vets having a suicide rate that is higher than that of the general public.  In any case, I accepted the invitation to meet with the psychologist and eventually met her four times, not because I was in danger of killing myself, or because I wanted or needed an antidepressant, but because it was enjoyable chatting with her and sharing lots of thoughts with her about aging.  On the other hand, maybe I did need therapy and the needed therapy was simply conversation and socializing, leavening my largely isolated life.  In any event, she recommended that I participate in the "Aging From the Inside Out" group discussions led by Dr. Alison Jahn, which I did and reported on in earlier entries in this journal, including my missing the last of the program's five gatherings because I was hospitalized with cellulitis.  That program put me in contact with a resident psychiatrist, Dr. Patel, who also specializes in the challenges of old veterans. His job is also to assess me as a suicide risk and to determine whether I should be prescribed antidepressants (negative on both counts), but he recommended meeting with a resident clinical psychologist to discuss the challenges of dealing with old age and declining health, mobility, etc.  I met with both of them separately this morning and enjoyed each visit.  That these are not therapy sessions is clear from their scheduling: I see Dr. Patel again in 4 months and Dr. Gordon again in a couple of months.  They keep an eye on me, and probably on a lot of their patients, from afar, to see whether I'm /we're going downhill faster, struggling, and perhaps needing medication or therapy.  I'm not sure that I get much from these meetings therapeutically, but I do enjoy them.  The young docs are personable and pleasant to chat with and, as is always true when dealing with psychiatrists and clinical psychologists, the patient's life and thoughts and feelings are the focus of attention.  That is to say, the conversations are all about me, me, me, - the kind of self-centered conversation that would be considered ego-centric, boorish,  narcissistic, and unacceptable in most other settings.  For the past few years, my social life has grown ever more isolated, so I consider these encounters a blessing, just as I consider my adventitious encounters with other vets in the hallways, elevators, and waiting rooms at the VA to be a blessing.  I count my blessings and I thank my dear departed lifelong friend Ed Felsenthal for keeping at me to enroll in the VA health program.