1/10/2026

 Saturday, January 10, 2026

49 BC Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon, uttering "Alea iacta est" (the die is cast), signaling the start of civil war and his appointment as Roman dictator for life

1949 1st Jewish family show "The Goldbergs" premieres on CBS

1949 RCA introduced the 45 RPM record

1966 The Georgia House of Representatives voted 184-12 to deny Julian Bond his seat as a result of his opposition to the Vietnam War

1967 PBS began as a 70-station network

1994 Ukraine said it would give up the world's 3rd largest nuclear arsenal

1999 "The Sopranos", starring James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano, debuted on HBO

2025 Trump was given an 'unconditional discharge'/no penalty for his hush money conviction

In bed by 9, up at 4:20.  35/37/21, rain and wintry mix expected all morning, sleet early.

Meds, etc.  Morning meds at 7:30 a.m. iPhone yesterday:  "Very Low Walking Steadiness.  Your Walking Steadiness continues to be very low, and you may be at high risk of falling in the next 12 months.  This is an estimate of your stability while walking.  iPhone calculates Walking Steadiness using your walking speed, step length, double support time, and walking asymmetry data that's stored in Health.  This provides a sense of the way you walk.  As steadiness goes down, your risk of falling goes up."

An ICE supporter waved a U.S. flag amid tear gas, after clashes with demonstrators protesting the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, January 9, 2026.

Today is the anniversary of Caesar's crossing the Rubicon on the way to turning Rome into a dictatorship.   We're told that, after he had done so, he said "alea iacta est," or "the die is cast," meaning there's no turning back, or, what follows is determined, inevitable.  I have that feeling about the second election of Donald Trump.  We have passed a tipping point in American history on our road from capitalism through plutocratic oligarchy to at least temporary totalitarian autocracy. 

I spent much of the afternoon in the basement, mostly putting together a rolling cart that Geri found for me at the Container Store, continuing to make slow progress in organizing the post-flood disorder, and working on a painting.  I've just about given up hope for salvaging the painting.  I didn't have a clear idea of what I was doing from the get-go, but it was good to fool around with paints, brushes, and mediums again.