Tuesday, January 20, 2026
1905 The US began supervising the Dominican Republic's national and international debts, testing President Theodore Roosevelt's "Corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine
1942 Nazi officials held the notorious Wannsee Conference in Berlin to organize the "final solution", the extermination of Europe's Jews
1980 President Jimmy Carter announced the US boycott of the winter Olympics in Moscow after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
1993 Maya Angelou was the 1st African American and woman to recite a poem at an inauguration of a US President - "On the Pulse of Morning" for Bill Clinton
2001 President Bill Clinton issued 140 executive pardons on his last day in office; recipients include Marc Rich, Susan McDougall, Patty Hearst, and his brother Roger
2021 President Joe Biden signed 15 executive orders on his first day in office, including US re-joining the WHO, affirming the Paris Climate Agreement, revoking the Keystone XL Pipeline, mandating masks on federal properties, and halting construction of the southern border wall
2024 Large weekend protests began across Germany against the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), after the group's 'master plan' for mass deportation of migrants was revealed
In 2025 , Joe Biden issued preemptive pardons for his siblings, Dr. Anthony Fauci, General Mark Milley, and members of the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, prior to Donald Trump's inauguration.
2025 Donald Trump formally pardoned around 1,500 defendants who had been criminally charged with involvement in the January 6 United States Capitol attack.
In bed at 10, up at 6. -2/-14/15/-2. Winter Weather Advisory, 2 to 5 inches of snow tonight, mainly along I-94 corridor and south.
Meds, etc. Morning meds at 9:30 a.m. CHF diet: 3 scrambled eggs w/ herbes de Provence & no salt diced tomatoes, a Bosc pear.
The first anniversary of our Day of Woe. On his Inauguration Day, Trump not only pardoned all the January 6th insurrectionists, he also signed executive orders: on gender identification, withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization, re-naming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America for Alaska's Denali to return to Mount McKinley, creating DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency under Elon Musk, delaying enforcement of the law banning TikTok, revoking Biden's removal of Cuban from the US list of states sponsoring terrorism, and others.
LTMW I see that, as usual, even before sunup, a cardinal is the first bird to arrive at our feeders, just as the cardinals are the last to show up after sundown. A few snowbirds also arrive in the crepuscular light. A group of six deer of mixed ages has been arriving in the late afternoon. The older and taller deer are able to stretch high enough to allow their tongues to get seeds out of the tray feeders. The smaller ones feed on whatever seeds may be on the ground underneath. Yesterday I noticed what appeared to be purposeful scattering of the seeds in the tray feeders by some snowbirds, kicking seeds backwards and over the sides of the tray with their feet. Is it because they prefer to feed on the ground, or just instinctive foraging behavior?
Text to Micaela:
Hi, Sweetie. I know you don’t like surprises any more than I do, so I thought I should let you know I’ve been diagnosed with congestive heart failure and a couple of cardiac arrhythmias. I had a bunch of cardio tests over the last few weeks, so I was forewarned and expected it. For quite a while, I’ve had a problem with shortness of breath and even some exhaustion with any exertion, along with weight swings, and fluid retention, and those were the symptoms that led to the testing. I’m at Stage II (of III stages), so the main change in my life will be a low-salt diet, which I’m learning is a huge pain in the ass, and having to keep a daily record of my weight, blood pressure, pulse, and glucose, another pain in the ass. The VA clinic that monitors CHF patients is pretty demanding. I’ve been referred to a cardiac rhythm (and blues😎) specialist and will probably hear from him or her this week for scheduling. I’ve got mixed feelings about the diagnosis, but I wanted to let you know of it.❤️ [No pun intended with the heart emoji.]
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I just read up on c.h.d. and AI tells me that you can still have a good life if you follow all the rules. Oy. What a pain, but thank goodness. We are going to have to take walks together!
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💖 I just finished a scheduling call with a VA dietician, waiting for a call from the rhythm and blues doc's scheduler.
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Keep positive. You and I aren't great on that but it's important.
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Frankly, my dear (said Rhett Butler), the older I get and the more ferkrimpter I get, the challenge is trying to figure out what to be positive about, the odds of living longer, inevitably getting weaker, more disabled, and more dependent, or the odds of dying sooner. Eros or Thanatos. For some of us the choice is easy; for others, not so much.
Signs of the Times
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