6/20/2025

Friday, June 20, 2025

D+205/138/1310

Sick day #7   Summer Solstice

1919, The Treaty of Versailles was signed.

1945 Secretary of State Edward Stettinius Jr. approved the transfer of the German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun and his specialists to the US

1967, Mohammed Ali was sentenced to 5 years for refusing to be inducted into the armed forces during the Vietnam War

1977 Menachem Begin formed a new Israeli government

1979 Jimmy Carter unveiled 32 solar panels installed on the roof of the White House; his immediate successor had them removed

2018 US President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order ending family separation at the border for illegal immigrants

In bed at 10, after watching my esteemed columnist Catherine Rampel subbing for LOD.  

😱 I accidentally deleted everything I wrote this morning.  Rats!😡

"Subdued Mood"  Dr. Chatt referred me to the Mental Health Clinic because of my subdued mood due to declining health.  I received a call from a psychologist at the clinic asking if I were willing to come and I agreed, mostly (I think) out of curiosity.  What does a behavioral health specialist say to a guy in his mid-80s in declining health, chronic pain, and increasing disability?  I don't think I'm depressed, certainly not clinically so, though I confess to being 'subdued'.

06/17/2025 ADDENDUM STATUS: COMPLETED Dear PC MHCI, please work with the pt again whose mood has been subdued due to  his declining health issues.  Thanks.  /es/ KUMKUM CHATTOPADHYAY  PHYSICIAN

The letter to me from the psychologist confirming the appointment suggests that the precipitating concern is not merely a 'subdued mood" but a risk of suicide which is a towering concern at the VA.

Dear Charles Clausen,  I hope this letter finds you well. I am writing as a reminder of our upcoming  appointment on Monday, July 7th at 10:15am. This appointment should last  approximately 1 hour.   I am located in the main hospital 3rd floor. Please check in at the 3100 desk,  located on the 3rd floor next to Gold clinic. Please don't hesitate to call me at  414-384-2000, ext. 42086 with any questions or concerns in the  meantime!    In the event of a mental health emergency:  1) Call the Veterans Crisis Line 24/7 at 988 and press 1 for support. 2) Text the number 838255 to communicate with Crisis Line staff. 3) Chat confidentially online via www.veteranscrisisline.net 4) Come to the Milwaukee VA Immediate Mental Health Access Clinic (Room 1252  Mon-Fri: 8am-4pm) or contact at 414-384-2000 x45760 5) Mental health professionals are available in our Emergency Department all hours of the evening, early morning, weekends, and holidays. 

 Sincerely,   Kelly Bergstrom, PhD Primary Care - Mental Health 414-384-2000 ext. 42086   Kirsten Schmidt, PhD Primary Care - Mental Health 414-384-2000 ext. 41213  

Much food for much thought.  More later.

My anniversary thoughts from last year.:

Anniversaries.  First, the Treaty of Versailles, by which the Allies, their own nationalisms having contributed to causing World War I, contributed to the arguably inexorability of World War II.

Second, three weeks after my discharge from the Marines, a federal jury in Houston convicted Muhammed Ali of refusing to the drafted.  Having served in Vietnam two years earlier and having seen the devastating costs the war was imposing on the Vietnamese and the American people,  I supported Ali who argues: ""Man, I ain't got no quarrel with them Vietcong.  Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?"  The federal judge gave Ali the maximum sentence of 5 years imprisonment and a $10,000 fine.  By this time, public opinion in America was already turning against the war and Ali was accurately seen as a national security threat for encouraging draft resistance.  At the time of Ali’s conviction, media reports suggested that 1,000 Vietnamese noncombatants were being killed each week by U.S. forces, one hundred U.S. soldiers were dying every day, and the war was costing $2 billion a month. The Supreme Court later overturned Ali's conviction on technical grounds and Ali eventually came to be regarded as a hero by many Americans, including me.

Third, on this date in 1977, Menachem Begin became the first Likud prime minister of Israel, initiating a line of such PMs including Yitzhak Shamir, Ariel Sharon, and culminating in Benjamin Netanyahu.  Begin was a murderer and a terrorist in the Irgun, as related in Wikipedia:

Two of the operations for which the Irgun is best known are the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on 22 July 1946 and the Deir Yassin massacre that killed at least 107 Palestinian Arab villagers, including women and children, carried out together with Lehi on 9 April 1948.

The organization committed acts of terrorism against Palestinian Arabs, as well as against the British authorities, who were regarded as illegal occupiers.  In particular the Irgun was described as a terrorist organization by the United Nations, British, and United States governments; in media such as The New York Times newspaper; as well as by the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, the 1946 Zionist Congress and the Jewish Agency.  Albert Einstein, in a letter to The New York Times in 1948, compared Irgun and its successor Herut party to "Nazi and Fascist parties" and described it as a "terrorist, right wing, chauvinist organization".

Yitzhak Shamir waa the leader of anoher terrorist group, Lehi, orr "The Stern Gang."  Again, Wikipedia:

The group referred to its members as terrorists and admitted to having carried out acts of terrorism.

Lehi split from the Irgun militant group in 1940 in order to continue fighting the British during World War II. It initially sought an alliance with Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.  Believing that Nazi Germany was a lesser enemy of the Jews than Britain, Lehi twice attempted to form an alliance with the Nazis, proposing a Jewish state based on "nationalist and totalitarian principles, and linked to the German Reich by an alliance".  After Stern's death in 1942, the new leadership of Lehi began to move towards support for Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union and the ideology of National Bolshevism, which was considered an amalgam of both right and left.  Regarding themselves as "revolutionary Socialists", the new Lehi developed a highly original ideology combining an "almost mystical" belief in Greater Israel with support for the Arab liberation struggle.  This sophisticated ideology failed to gain public support and Lehi fared poorly in the first Israeli elections.[25]

In April of 1948, Lehi and the Irgun were jointly responsible for the massacre in Deir Yassin of at least 107 Palestinian Arab villagers, including women and children. 

Ariel Sharon was the 11th prime minister of Israel.  Again, Wikipedia:

 As Minister of Defense, he directed the 1982 Lebanon War. An official enquiry found that he bore "personal responsibility" for the Sabra and Shatila massacre of Palestinian refugees, for which he became known as the "Butcher of Beirut" among Arabs. He was subsequently removed as defense minister.  From the 1970s through to the 1990s, Sharon championed construction of Israeli settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. He became the leader of the Likud in 1999, and in 2000, amid campaigning for the 2001 prime ministerial election, made a controversial visit to the Al-Aqsa complex on the Temple Mount, triggering the Second Intifada.  Sharon remains a highly polarizing figure in Middle Eastern history. Israelis almost universally revere Sharon as a war hero and statesman, whereas Palestinians and Human Rights Watch have criticized him as a war criminal,

This is the political provenance of Benjamin Netanyahu whose racist, right-wing, genocidal government is even worse than those of his Likud predecessors.Nonetheless, the United States Congress, including the Democrat-led Senate aitst's majority leader Chuck Schumer, have given Netanyahu the high privilege of addressing it in a joint session.

 

 

6/19/2025

 Thursday, June 19, 2025

D+204/137/1311

Sick day #6 (yecch)

1865 Union General Gordon Granger declared all slaves free in Texas, now the date the end of slavery is celebrated across the US as Juneteenth

1964 Civil Rights Act of 1964 passesd 73-27

In bed at 9:30 after watching LOD ranting about DJT's dementia and stupidity, up at 5:50 to rewash a load of laundry I forgot to put in the dryer last night, wondering whether DJT had gone to war with Iran.  63°, high of 77°, sunny day ahead.    

Kevzara, day 9/14; Trulicity, day 7/7; morning meds at 8 a.m.; Blink pill at 8 a.m.; Eye wipes at 6:15 a.m. and   p.m.; Eye mask at 7 a.m. and p.m.;  Eye ointment at bedtime.   

Gauguin self portrait knock off in progress, easily ruinable

LTMW this morning, my mind is on Washington, Teheran, and Tel Aviv, but my eyes have been focused on a beautful little chipmunk climbing up the two shepherd's crooks supporting our bird feeders.  She knows somehow that there is a vast hoard of nourishing seeds hanging from the tops of those crooks, but she is stymied in her attempt to reach them by the squirrel baffles intended to block the squirrels also trying to feed.   I like to think of these little creatures who gather around our feeding station as females with little ones to support, that they are not "just" feeding themselves to stay alive but also supporting a family, and not just a family but the continuation of their species, that is, that I am watching a small but intrinsic part of the creative process of evolution.  Some think of it as Nature's creative evolutionary process; others think of it as all part of God's plan; some think they're both the same thing.  Whatever.  I'm on the cusp of the midpoint of my 9th decade on this earth and I'm further away from knowing the answer to puzzles like that than I was when I was a child.  Then God was in His Heaven, the Devil was in Hell, each contending for my immortal soul.  God created the world in seven days, including the chipmunks, the white-tail deer, and the birds, and his crowning creation was Man, me.  Life was simpler then; it's more mysterious now.  As I write this, a white-tail is nibbling on the lillies of the valley and vinca under the tall spruce and short pine trees on the corner of our lot, doing her part in preserving her species.  I did my part in begetting and nourished chldren to self-sustaining maturity; ever since, I've been evolutionally useless, wondering whether I should get out of the way, à la The Ballad of Narayama and Plan 75.  While I ponder, I enjoy watching the deer scratch an itch with his hind hoof.  A little later, I feel a thrill -isn't that the right word? - watching a goldfinch gather as much cotton from our hanging cotton ball as he can manage to stuff into his little beak to take back to the nest he is building with his mate.  Each time I watch this process, I wonder how the birds manage to fly with so much cotton seemingly blocking their vision.  How do they manage to make it back to the nesting place and to land on a dime with such a large wad of cotton in their beaks?  I wonder what the pair of finches do with the cotton once it has been transported back to the nesting spot.  Does the cotton carrier 'spit' out the wad and leave it to its partner to place pieces of it into the interstices of the nest, or do they work as a team?  How is it even possible that these descendents of dinosaurs are able to construct something as intricate and as sturdy as a birdnest starting with a single twig or tuft of grass?  Hamlet pondered "What a piece of work is man!"  I no less ponder what a piece of work is a bird! a chipmunk! a deer!  Then I think again of Washington, Tel Aviv, and Teheran. . . 

It's hard for me to think clearly about Iran, Israel, the U.S., and atom bombs.  I used to tell the law clerks working at our law firm "Nothing's simple, nothing's cheap."  It was a truism I learned through experience when I left law teaching for law practice.  Lay-down winners and losers rarely turn out to be lay-downs (1) when there is someone on the other side of an issue with an interest in contesting the issue, (2) with the money to hire a good advocate, and (3) the result depends on the vagaries of a third-party decisonmaker.  Another thing I've learned with age and experience is that wars are never "over."  Their effects ripple through time and space.  My favorite example of course is the American War Between the States, which was allegedly "over" when Confedeerate General Robert E.  Lee surrended his Army of Northern Virginia to the Union's Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865, 160 years ago.  The battle between the North and the South, or rather the interests represented by each side, is still being fought today, but instead of the Blue and the Gray, we have the Blue States (largely Democratic) and the Red States (largely Republican.)  The First World War led inexorably to the Second World War.  It's like the so-called butterfly effect in meteorology that posits that even a very minor perturbation in weather somewhere at sometime can lead to very major effects in other places at other times.  It is reported that there are those in the Trump administration who believe that destroying Iran's abillity to make a nuclear bomb would be a "one and done" situation, i.e., drop one or two bunker buster bombs on the Fordo uranium enrihment underground facility and that would be it.  Fait accompli.  Fini.  It assumes no retaliation by Iran.  No activation of terrorists in America and its allies.  No attacks on American bases in the Middle East.  No mining or attacks on shipping in the Gulf of Hormuz or from Yemen.  No drone attacks from God knows where on God knows what targts.  The West is still suffering the baleful effects of George W. Bush's invasion on Iraq in 2003.  There is no reason to think that we woulnn't have longterm harmful effects from bombing Iran in 2025.

On the other hand, Iran is the worst kind of autocracy, a theocratic one.  It's a government believing itself installed and blessed by God to deal 'death to infidels,' death to Israel, and death to the Great Satan, America.  It is the major sponsor of terrorism in the world.  It has acted through proxies in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, and Gaza for years.  If it acquires a nuclear arsenal, those weapons become its insurance policy against attacks on it, just as Russia's arsenal protects it from attacks from the West in defense of Ukraine.  Iran now is in large measure unable to defend itself against aerial attack.  It is only now possible to set its malign nuclear plans back, perhaps by years,l without unacceptable short term costs.  If this opportunity is not taken, and Iran does develop its nuclear arsenal, its hand will be strengtened in its goal of dominating the oil rich Middle East and America (Trump) will be blamed for permitting Iran to gain its nuclear deterrent.  It will be said that Obama acted to keep Iran from gettng atom bombs and Trumps let them do it.  Will Trump's ego and his hatred for Obama (who mocked him brutally at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in 2011) permit this?  I think not.  Right now we are engaged in a game of "chicken" between the religous badman who runs Iraq in the name of God and the secular badman who long ago sold his soul to the Devil  and runs America.  One or the other will have to chicken out or perhaps there will be some deus ex machina third party intervention.  The Eu? Who knows?  What do I think Trump should do?  Probably what he appears to be doing now, hitting the pause button and looking for a negotiated offramp.  Mr. Art of the Deal. who so far has not been so great at dealmaking with Russia in Ukraine, with Israel in Gaza, with Congress on his "big, beautfiul budget bill", or with Iran.  Big impediment: Iran knows that a treaty with Trump is meaningless.  He breaks them at will and with impunity.

Further along, unsure what to do with the face

Scattered thought;  Under Netanyahu's leadership, and that of his racist, fascist government, Israel has mostly destroyed Hamas in Gaza and the West Bank, Hexbollah in Lebanon, and most of Iran's air defense capabiities.  Also, Iranian backed millitieas in Syrias have been largely neutered due to the collapse of the Assad regime.   It's getting hard to imagine him being convicted of corruption and, even if he is, to imagine him being removed from office, much less imprisoned.

6/18/2025

 Wednesday, June 18, 2025

D+203/136/1312

Sick day #5 (last?)  

1815 Napoleon Bonaparte and France were defeated at Waterloo

1963 3,000 blacks boycotted Boston public schools to protest de facto segregation

1968 Supreme Court banned racial discrimination in the sale and rental of housing

1982 Voting Rights Act of 1965 was extended by the US Senate by an 85-8 vote

2020 US Supreme Court ruled that the Obama-era Dreamers Program (DACA), enabling undocumented migrant children to study and work, can stay

In bed at 8, up at 7:45, 7 pit stops.   68°, high of 71°, drizzle, cloudy

Kevzara, day 8/14; Trulicity, day 6/7; morning meds at 12:30 p.m.; Blink pill at 12:30 p.m.; Eye wipes at 9 a.m. and   p.m.; Eye mask at 1:30 p.m. and p.m.;  Eye ointment at bedtime.   

Janice Jenkins Anderson's FB post

Janice Jenkins Anderson shared

Benjamin Cremer 

One of the most commonly misused and harmful terms I see in conversations around immigration is the word “illegal.” It gets applied to people as a label: “illegal immigrant,” “illegal alien,” or even just “illegals.” But here's the truth—both legally and theologically—people are not illegal. Actions can be unlawful. Statuses can be undocumented. But a human being, made in the image of God, cannot be illegal.

First, let’s look at the facts. U.S. immigration law is enormously complex, inconsistent, and often inaccessible. People may fall out of legal status for many reasons: bureaucratic backlogs, visa expirations, changes in law, or fleeing violence seeking to apply for asylum.

For just one example, the backlog in immigration court is over 3 million cases (per TRAC at Syracuse University), but this is due to under-resourced courts, not because all those people are “breaking the law.” Many are waiting years for legal hearings. (Link to source in comments).

These are civil, not criminal, violations. Entering the U.S. without documentation or overstaying a visa is not a felony—it’s a civil matter, not unlike a traffic violation in many cases. To reduce the fullness of someone’s story down to “illegal” not only distorts the legal reality, it dehumanizes the person.

But even more important for us as followers of Christ is this: what does Scripture call us to?

Throughout the Bible, God repeatedly calls His people to see and care for the sojourner—the foreigner, the refugee, the stranger—not with suspicion, but with compassion. Leviticus 19:33–34 says: "When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt."

That’s not a call to categorize or criminalize. That’s a call to remember. To empathize. To love.

The Bible itself was largely written by immigrants, refugees, and those living under occupied rule. Abraham left his homeland in obedience to God’s call. Joseph was trafficked into Egypt and rose to power as a foreigner. Moses fled his home as a fugitive, then returned to lead a people in exile. Ruth was a Moabite migrant who crossed borders for survival and family. Much of the Old Testament was written in exile—during or after the Babylonian captivity. And the New Testament was written under Roman occupation by people who knew the pain of being conquered, displaced, and oppressed. These aren’t footnotes—they are the core context of our faith story.

When we label someone “illegal,” we strip them of that dignity. We reduce their image-bearing identity to a legal infraction. And that’s something we are never called to do.

And it’s not just inaccurate—it’s dangerous. History has shown us over and over again that when those in power begin to apply dehumanizing terms to entire groups of people—be it immigrants, refugees, or communities of color—it paves the way for mistreatment, exclusion, violence, and even atrocity.

When a human being becomes “an illegal,” or “a problem,” or “an invasion,” it becomes easier to justify policies that separate families, detain children, deny asylum, or look away from abuse. It becomes easier to ignore the cries of the oppressed, because we’ve convinced ourselves they are somehow less deserving of compassion.

And here’s the deep hypocrisy: Many of the same people who loudly label vulnerable immigrants as “illegals” have no problem excusing or even celebrating political leaders who have been credibly accused, indicted, or convicted of serious crimes. We must ask: Why is the language of “law and order” only weaponized against the powerless, while the powerful are treated as above the law? That kind of selective moral outrage isn’t rooted in justice—it’s rooted in fear, bias, and often idolatry.

The gospel of Jesus calls us in the exact opposite direction.

Laws matter. But Scripture also teaches that not all laws are just, and justice always involves more than rigid rule enforcement. The religious leaders of Jesus’ time were also obsessed with legal definitions— while Jesus reminded them that "mercy, not sacrifice" is the heart of God's law (Matthew 9:13).

Throwing around phrases like "illegal is illegal" without context only fuels fear and misinformation. A just society must enforce laws fairly, compassionately, and truthfully-not by dehumanizing people or distorting reality.

As a pastor, I want us to reclaim our words and reflect the heart of Christ. Let us speak truthfully and humanely. Instead of “illegal,” let’s say “undocumented.” Let’s speak of “asylum seekers,” “refugees,” “immigrants,” “neighbors,” “families.” Because that’s who they are.

And ultimately, may our language always be shaped not by fear or politics, but by the One who called blessed not the powerful, but the poor… not the insiders, but the strangers.

Let us never forget: God is always on the side of the displaced, the disowned, and the dismissed. And if our words don’t reflect that truth, then they do not reflect the heart of the gospel.

. . . . . . 

Charles D. Clausen

Thank you for sharing Pastor Cremers' reminder of the most basic teachings of both the Old and the New Testament. We could add Matt. 25; 31-46 where Jesus told his followers precisely how to get to Heaven, including "I was a stranger and you invited me in." etc. Reinhold Niebuhr published "An Interpretation of Christian Ethics" in 1935 and acknowledged that in Man's fallen state, the Christian ethical ideal (preferential love of others including enemies, forgiveness, judge not, turn the other cheek, etc.) is impossible to fulfill but is relevant aspirationally as guideposts for imperfect conduct. "The real crux of the issue between essential Christianity and modern culture lies at this point. The conflict is between those who have a confidence in human virtue which human nature cannot suppprt and those who have looked too deeply into life and their own souls to place their trust in so broken a reed." The problem seems to be not that we can't satisfy Jesus' standards, but that so often we don't even try.

. . . . . . 

Looking through An Interpretation of Christian Ethics again, I wonder when, where, and especially why I bought the book.  Why did I spend so much time reading it, and thinking about it?  That I did so is clear from all my marginal notes, highlighting, underlining, and circling.  Where was I in my religous wanderings in those days?  Was I attending church at St. Francis then?  Where was I in living with myself, in my life of examining my conscience?  ' . . . not a day / But something is recalled,  / My conscience or my vanity appalled.'

 

Who Shall Deliver Me?

God strengthen me to bear myself;
That heaviest weight of all to bear,
Inalienable weight of care.

All others are outside myself;
I lock my door and bar them out,
The turmoil, tedium, gad-about.

I lock my door upon myself,
And bar them out; but who shall wall
Self from myself, most loathed of all?

If I could once lay down myself,
And start self-purged upon the race
That all must run! Death runs apace.

If I could set aside myself,
And start with lightened heart upon
The road by all men overgone!

God harden me against myself,
This coward with pathetic voice
Who craves for ease and rest and joys:

Myself, arch-traitor to myself;
My hollowest friend, my deadliest foe,
My clog whatever road I go.

Yet One there is can curb myself,
Can roll the strangling load from me.
Break off the yoke and set me free.

Christina Rossetti

"I may do it.  I may not do it."  Trump responding to a reporter asking whether he is close to a decision on whether to drop a bunker buster, 30,000-pound bomb on Iran's underground uranium enrichment facility, which is to say, whether he is about to commit an act of war against another sovereign nation.  I, I, I.  No mention of Congress.  No mention of the gravity of such a decision.  I, I, I.  Iran's foreign minister says that if such an act occurs, Iran would be 'obliged' to retaliate 'wherever we find the targets.'.  Imagine that Iran has drones already secreted in the continental United States, like Ukraine had in Russia before destroying much of Russia's strategic air force, or like Israel had in Iran, before last week's attacks destroyed vital strategic targets.  Imagine those drones are targeted at the White House, the Capitol, the Pentagon, the CIA headquarters, etc.  Impossible?  Does Mr. I, I, I think so?

6/17/2025

 Tuesday, June 17, 2025

D++202/135/1313

Sick Day #4  (on the mend)

q2w

w3e

w3e

In bed by 9, up at 5:40 with intestinal woes. 67°, high of 83°, sunny    

Kevzara, day 7/14; Trulicity, day 5/7; morning meds at 9 a.m.; Blink pill at 9 a.m.; Eye wipes at 8 a.m. and   p.m.; Eye mask at  a.m. and p.m.;  Eye ointment at bedtime.  Nyquil and Eye Ointment at bedtime.

How often have we heard Trump call immigrants "animals"?

Different in kind.  Perhaps the main characteristic that distinguishes Donald Trump from his Republican predecessors, indeed all his predecessors, is cruelty, malevolence, intentionally inflicting pain and suffering on various others in order to advance his own interests or simply to punish them for some supposed wrong.  We saw it most vividly during his first term with his child separation policy for immigrants at the southern border.  According to figures released by the Department of Homeland Security, 3,881 children were separated from their families from 2017 to 2021. About 74% of those have been reunited with their families.  As of October 2023, approximately 1,000 children remain separated from their parents.  To many of us, and I hope most of us, intentionally orphaning children would be unthinkable; to Trump, it was a sign of strength.

Caitlin Dickerson tells the story of how family separation became official United States policy in the August 7, 2022, issue of The Atlantic in a very lengthy article titled "We Need to Take Away Children."  Its origin goes back to the attacks on 9/11/01, which caused a heightened sense of jeopardy from foreigners in the U.S.  At the southern border, unauthorized border crossings that had long been treated as civil offenses began to be treated as crimes, a misdemeanor for the first offense, a felony for subsequent offenses.  This policy was called Operation Streamline.  In 2018, the policy was expanded to include families crossing the border illegally or even seeking asylum.  The policy was first proposed, however, back in the summer of 2014 when Jeh Johnson was Obama's Secretary of Homeland Security.  Dickinson reports that Johnson

 convened a meeting in Washington with his top border-enforcement officials to discuss ideas. Among those present were Kevin McAleenan, who was then the deputy commissioner of Customs and Border Protection; Ron Vitiello, the deputy chief of the Border Patrol; and Tom Homan, the executive associate director of enforcement and removal for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. All three would subsequently be promoted, and become integral to implementing family separations four years later.

Of those in the room, Homan was the most strident. He had spent decades in immigration enforcement, beginning in his early 20s as a Border Patrol agent. Homan said he wanted to apply the perceived lessons of Operation Streamline to migrant families, by prosecuting parents who crossed the border illegally with their children. Though many of these families came to the U.S. seeking asylum, under this new model they would be treated as criminals. Homan explained that the parents would be taken into federal criminal custody, just like with Operation Streamline—only this time the process would trigger an automatic family separation.

This is the earliest instance I’ve discovered of family separation being proposed as a way to deter migration to the United States. This makes Tom Homan the father of what might be the Trump administration’s most controversial policy.

USAID- PREDICTED DEATHS. . . .  DOGE, UNEMPOYMENT  MEDICAID

I'm not up to completing these thoughts.  Still under the weather. 

 

6/16/2025

 Monday, June 16, 2025

D+201/134/1314

Sick Day #3

1873 President Ulysses Grant decreed a portion of Wallowa Valley, Oregon for the Native American tribe, the Nez Perce. The order was rescinded two years later, and the tribe was forcibly relocated to Oklahoma.

1904 Bloomsday, the date of the fictional events in James Joyce's novel "Ulysses"

1944 George Stinney, a 14-year-old African-American boy, was wrongfully executed for the murder of two white girls, becoming the youngest person ever executed in 20th-century America

1954 Ngô Đình Diệm was elected Prime Minister of South Vietnam

2015 TV personality and real estate mogul Donald Trump launched his campaign for the Republican nomination for President at Trump Tower

2023 Scientific teams in the UK and Israel claimed to have grown synthetic human embryos equivalent to those of a 14-day-old natural embryos, sparking controversy

2023 Robert Bowers was found guilty of the deadliest attack on Jews in the US, of shooting 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018

In bed at 9, up at 6:15 after a few false starts.    

Kevzara, day 6/14; Trulicity, day 4/7; morning meds at 10 a.m.; Blink pill at 10 a.m.; Eye wipes at 7 a.m. and   p.m.; Eye mask at  a.m. and p.m.;  Eye ointment at bedtime.  Dayquil at 7:15 a.m.. 1:30 p.m.,  and  p.m. Nyquil and Eye Ointment at bedtime.

VA video visit with Jill Hansen was cancelled, according to my computer.  Something went wrong.

As I write this, Geri is out at the SW corner of our lot wrestling with buckthorn removal, using Andy's special buckthorn tool.  She says it works well with young buckthorn but not with an older one.  She fell down wrestling with one of them.  She's as tough as a lumberjack, my Paula Bunyan. She is a true gardener.  Watching her reminds me of how important it can be for a person to have some patch of the earth as her or his own.  Sarah told me yesterday that Christian, Gerhard, and Olga were out at their plot in Geretsried tending their vegetables.  I compare this day here in Bayside with what it would be like if we were living in a high-rise condo, perhaps looking out at Lake Michigan, but utterly cooped up.  I dread the thought of moving away from here.

Facebook post today:  

It was 10 years ago today that Donald Trump followed Melania down the golden escalator to announce his candidacy for the presidency..  Most of us thought is was a self-promoting publicity stunt becsuse it was inconceivable that he could be elected.  He was a notorious conman, cheat, fraudster, liar, and immoral playboy.  He was a draft evader who escaped duty in Vietnam by claiming disabling "bone spurs" in his feet, bone spurs which have never impeded his abiltiy to play thousands of rounds of golf at his luxurious golf courses around the world.  Ever a playboy, he bragged that, instead of fighting communists in South-East Asia, he fought off sexually-transmitted diseases in Manhattan.    We had no idea ten years ago that we were witnessing the beginning of a new era  in American history, the era of Trump and Trumpism.  We had no idea that he would run for president three times, collecting more vote in his second run than in his first, and more votes in his third run than in his second.  We naively believed that our fellow citizens would never put in the White House a man with the morals of Donald Trump.  We naively believed that our fellow citizens would never put in the White House a man whose contempt for truthfulnesss was so blatant.  We naively believed that our fellow citizens would never put in the White House a man with such public disdain for rectitude, personal honor, and obedience to law.  It was beyond our wildest dreams that Trump would win in 2016, but our wildest dream has become our nightmare.  Let us hope or pray that the earnest patriotism shown by the millions of our fellow citizens who demonstrated and protested yesterday all across the nation will put some steel into the backs of congressmen, senators, judges, and justices who can impose real limits on Trump's vengeful lust for power and retribution.  Unless they do, this era of Trumpism will outlive Trump himself and will become America's Dark Ages.

 

6/15/2025

Sunday, June 15, 2025

D+200/133/1315

Sick Day #2

1955 The Eisenhower administration staged the first annual "Operation Alert" (OPAL) exercise, an attempt to assess the USA's preparations for a nuclear attack

1967 Governor Reagan signed a liberalized California abortion bill

In bed at 9, up at 8 (thank you, Nyquil!). 60°, high of 68°, cloudy. Sarah was here until 112:10 when she left for brunch with her mother, Andy, and his family.  I slept from about 1 until about 4 p.m.  Geri spent the afternoon gardening on the patio.

Kevzara, day 6/14; Trulicity, day 3/7; morning meds at 10 a.m.; Blink pill at 10  a.m.; Eye wipes at 6 a.m. and 8  p.m.; Eye mask at 10:30 a.m. and p.m.;  Eye ointment at bedtime.  Dayquil at 8:15 a.m.. 12:30 p.m.,  and 5 p.m. Nyquil at bedtime.

ee

    

6/14/2025

 Saturday, June 14, 2025

D+199/132/1316

1919 John Alcock and Arthur Brown left Newfoundland in the first non-stop air crossing of the Atlantic

1942 Anne Frank began writing her diary two days after her 13th birthday [

°1946 Donald John Trump was born, and the world became a worse place

1949 French-allied State of Vietnam was officially was formed during the First Indochina War, Bảo Đại was installed as Emperor

1954 President Eisenhower signed an order adding the words "under God" to the Pledge

1993 Ruth Bader Ginsburg was introduced by Bill Clinton as his nominee to the United States Supreme Court in a Rose Garden ceremony at the White House

The Alcock and Brown Hotel in Clifden, Ireland, County Galway, where Geri and I stayed one night on our honeymoon and where Geri played the tambourine as a backup girl with the local band

In bed at 9, awake and up at 5:05, with a sore throat and head congestion, mimicking Geri's symptoms on Monday night at Steve's. 56°, high of 67°, cloudy morning, sunny afternoon.

Kevzara, day 5/14; Trulicity, day 2/7; morning meds at 8 a.m.; Blink pill at 9 a.m.; Eye wipes at 6 a.m. and   p.m.; Eye mask at 11 a.m. and p.m.;  Eye ointment at bedtime.   I succeeded in getting the eye ointment in place last night.  It appears that I have caught whatever it is that has knocked Geri out this week.  I, like my dearly-deceased brother-in-law Jim Reck, am not a stalwart soul when it comes to head colds, or whatever this may be.  Each of us has consdiered a head cold an injustice visited upon us, an injustice of cosmic dimension, entitling us to feel sorry for ourselves, to bitch and moan, and to consider ourselves exempt from engaging in the most ordinary tasks of daily living.  He was a wimp about it, making life miserable for my dear sister Kitty and for whoever else was living with them at the time. I have also been a wimp whenever I was laid low by a head cold.  Today, it's an even greater cosmic injustice that I have a cold because Fate has visited it upon me when Sarah is here,  and when I am under a solemn obligation to pick up Geri and Helen Sampson after the "No Kings" rally at Cathedral Square.  Woe is me!   

War is entertainment.  Come to us for the best seats!  I turned on the TV at 6 to learn when and where the Trump Birthday Parade will be televised.  I need to watch and to be outraged, to be able to say to myself, I can't believe this is happening in America, but, oh, yes, of course I can believe it, vere dignum et iustum est under Trump.  We get television through YouTubeTV, and the first screen that pops up when we turn on the TV is a YouTube menu, including this morning a panel that says "See moment projectile strikes near key military facility in Tel Aviv, CNN, 3 hours ago."   It reminds me that for telecasters, war is entertainment, a fireworks show.  They claim they are providing a public service, and, of course, in a sense, they are, but they are in the business of providing viewers to advertisers.  They provide entertainment to viewers in order to provide viewers to the advertisers who pay them money in proportion to the number of viewers provided.  The higher the ratings, the more money they charge the advertisers.  Hence, promos and headlines like "See moment projectile strikes near key military facility in Tel Aviv,"  Ooh, aah!

I spent much of the day schmoozing with Sarah about her trip to Korea, Japan, and China, about life in general, the political situation in Germany and in the U.S., etc.  She got me a package of DayQuil/NyQuil to relieve my cold symptoms, and got us lunch at Kopps.  Later, after Geri left for the "No Kings" rally, Sarah went to Kipps and got up a couple of cheeseburgers for lunch.  At 3:30 or so, Gri texted me that she and Helen were ready to be picked up on the NE corner of Jackson and Klbourn.  I picked Joshua and them up and enjoyed a nice chat with Helen on the way to her house. where I dropped them all off (Geri's car was there) and enjoyed another nostalgic ride home through my old neighborhoods.