1/7/2026

 Wednesday, January 7, 2026

1948 Harry Truman raised taxes for the Marshall Plan to assist in rebuilding Europe after WWII 

1953 Harry Truman announced the American development of the hydrogen bomb

1972 Lewis F. Powell Jr. became a US Supreme Court Justice

1980 Jimmy Carter signed legislation to bail out the Chrysler Corporation with a 1.5 billion dollar loan

1999 Bill Clinton's Senate impeachment trial began for lying about his affair with Monica Lewinsky

2021 Elon Musk, co-founder of Tesla, became the world's richest person, worth $186 billion, overtaking Amazon founder Jeff Bezos

2022 Three men were convicted of murdering black jogger Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia

2025  The body of former US President Jimmy Carter lay in state in the US Capitol

2025  President-elect Donald Trump refused to rule out using military force to take control of Greenland and the Panama Canal

In bed at 9:45, up at 5:25.  34/40/33, cloudy/partly cloudy.

Meds, etc.  Morning meds at 8 a.m.   

Thucydides, Machiavelli,  Stephen Miller and Donald Trump.

From this morning's New York Times: “We live in a world in which you can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else, but we live in a world, in the real world, Jake [Tapper], that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power,” Mr. Miller told Jake Tapper of CNN on Monday, during a combative appearance in which he was pressed on Mr. Trump’s long-held desire to control Greenland.  “These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time,” he said.  And he said that no one would fight back if the United States were to decide to use its military to annex Greenland.  “I just wanted to reset, Jake, by making clear that has been the formal position of the U.S. government since the beginning of this administration, frankly, going back into the previous Trump administration, that Greenland should be part of the United States,” Mr. Miller said on CNN on Monday evening. “The president has been very clear about that. That is the formal position of the U.S. government.”

“The president has been driving all policy and Stephen faithfully executes what the president wants,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said in a statement. “Whether it’s immigration, crime, trade, Greenland or Venezuela.”

Thucydides, in The Peloponesioan War: 

“For you know as well as we, that right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power; while the strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must.  We know that the gods everywhere are supposed to favor the stronger side; and of men, we know that by a necessary law of their nature, they rule wherever they can.”

Nicolo Machiavelli, in The Prince:

Since it has been my intention to write something of use to the understanding reader, it has seemed wiser to me to follow the real truth of the matter rather than what we imagine it to be.  Imagination has created many principalities and republics that have never been seen or known to have any real existence; for how we live is so far different from how we ought to live that he who studies what ought to be done rather than what is done will

learn the way to his downfall rather than to his preservation.  ch. XV.   “In seizing a state, the usurper ought to examine closely all those injuries which it is necessary for him to inflict, and to do them all at one stroke… benefits ought to be conferred little by little.” (ch. VIII)  “It is much safer to be feared than loved, if one must choose.  (ch. XVII)  “There are two ways of fighting: one with laws, the other with force. The first is proper to men; the second to beasts. But because the first is often insufficient, one must have recourse to the second.”

(ch. XVIII)

Are Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, Thucydides, and Machiavelli correct?  They weren't the only ones who shared the same or similar thoughts about the central role of force and power in life.  Thomas Hobbes wrote, "“Covenants, without the sword, are but words.”  (Leviathan, ch. XVII)  Baruch Spinoza ws no less blunt: "“Right is coextensive with power.”  Even the renowned Protestant theologian Reinhard Neibuhr, in his Moral Man and Immoral Society, recognized the dominance of strength, power, and force over morality when group behavior is involved:

“Individual men may be moral in the sense that they are able to consider interests other than their own in determining problems of conduct; but groups are more arrogant, hypocritical, self-centered and more ruthless in the pursuit of their ends.”

“The larger the group, the more difficult it is for reason to govern its collective impulses.” 

“Moral suasion is effective in dealing with the individual, but it is ineffective in dealing with social groups.”

“Relations between groups must therefore depend upon a measure of coercion.”

“Justice cannot be established by goodwill alone. It requires a balance of power.”

That last observation by Niebuhr copies Thucydides's statement the "right . . . is only in question between equals in power." 

Quaere whether our own domestic history illustrates Miller's and Thucydides's point.  Consider African slavery, the dispossession of Native Americans' lands, breaches of most of the treaties with Native tribes, Jim Crow, capitalist employers treatment of employees before unions and labor legislation,, the internment of Japanese Americans,  the invasion of Grenada, the CIA intervention in Guatemala, Panama, Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, Bolivia, Indonesia, Iran, etc.

Miller's statements should not be considered as referring only to foreign affairs; he and Donald Trump believe, and history confirms, that it applies in large measure to domestic affairs as well.  The strong do waht they will; the weak suffer what they must.   Sieg heil!

 

1/6/2026

 Tuesday, January 6, 2026

5th Anniversary, Day of Infamy

1494 The first Mass in the New World was celebrated at La Isabela, Hispaniola

1946 Pope Pius XII published his encyclical Quemadmodum

2021 Trump rioters stormed the Capitol

In bed at 9:50, up at 6:10.  37/39/35 and rainy. Sleet early, unhealthy AQI  

Meds, etc.  Morning meds at  2 p.m.

Facebook posting today:

Back when Mark Kelly, Jason Crow, Elissa Slotkin, and other former military and intelligence personnel made a public service video about soldiers having a duty not to obey illegal orders from superiors, I wrote here, on November 25th, that what the speakers said was accurate, but I wished they hadn't said it. I wrote:

"I took the midshipman's oath as an 18-year-old and the officers' oath as a 21-year-old second lieutenant.   I took each "freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion."  That said, I don't pretend that I necessarily would have known the difference between a lawful order and an unlawful order.  It's not always clear, witness, for example, appellate court decisions, which often have judges differing on what the law is.  It's why moot court exercises in law schools have students prepared to argue "both sides" of legal questions.  Sometimes soldiers,  Marines, and others may face situations in which their only guide is not military law or the international law of warfare, but the Ten Commandments and their own consciences.  Our current Secretary of Defense (or as he prefers, 'of War') is infamous for defending the acts of American troopers who have committed clear war crimes.  It happens.  I truly wish Senator/Captain Kelly and the other legislators had never released their video.  The message may have been legally accurate, but it was in no way helpful to any soldier, sailor, airman, or Marine on the ground faced with a decision on an order whose legality, chances are, may not be known until a court has ruled on it, perhaps with dissenters, years after the order was given and obeyed, or not."

Consider the military performance our government just mounted in Venezuela.   About 150 Navy, Marine, and Air Force aircraft were involved with an unknown number of special operations personnel, and about 15,000 U.S. military personnel deployed in the region around the time of the operation.  Was this special military operation, as Vladimir Putin would call it, "legal"?  Did all the pilots, crewmen, and support personnel obey "legal" orders to attack a sovereign country, on the orders of one man, in a no-emergency/no self-defense situation, with utterly no Congressional involvement, no United Nations or international support, no support from allies, no coalition?  The UN Secretary General has called the operation a violation of the UN Charter, which has been a treaty obligation of the US since 1945.  Under Article VI of the US Constitution, treaty obligations are "the Supreme Law of the Land."  Among those obligations are the UN Charter's Article 2(4) – the prohibition on the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, and  Article 2(3) – the obligation to settle disputes peacefully.  The UN Security Council convened an emergency meeting on January 5, 2026, at the request of Venezuela to address the U.S. military operation that included airstrikes and the capture of de facto President Nicolás Maduro and his wife.  Venezuela, Russia, China, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Chili, Panama, Cuba, and other nations have condemned the American aggression.  Even France, Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom spoke of the violation of the UN Charter, and of the need to abide by it.  Despite strong criticisms and calls for condemnation from many member nations and international law experts,  the Security Council did not adopt a binding resolution condemning the U.S. action or imposing sanctions because the U.S. is a permanent member with veto power, meaning any punitive or formal Council action against Washington would be blocked by the US itself.  Nonetheless, the vastly preponderant view around the world has been that the U.S. acted illegally by violating the UN Charter, to which the US is a party.

So what was an individual American pilot or special operations soldier to think about whether the order to attack Venezuela was "legal"?  If he or she believed, like most international law scholars, that the order was illegal, did he or she have a duty to disobey it?  We all know what would happen to any soldier, Marine, sailor, or airman who refused an order in connection with the Venezuelan adventure: arrest, court-martial, conviction, and imprisonment.   Would Senator/Captain Kelly's video help him or her?  Of course not.  So what did all those virtue-signaling legislators accomplish with their sanctimonious message about not obeying illegal orders?  Their message may have been legally accurate, but so what?  What practical good did it do for anyone?  How have they helped one single serviceman serving in America's military under a Commander-in-Chief who is himself a flagrant domestic and international criminal?  

So forgive me for having just a smidgen of sympathy for Pete Hegseth's going after Mark Kelly's retirement rank and pension on the grounds of conduct unbecoming an officer and prejudicial to the good order and discipline of the armed forces.  Kelly and the others earned some political points for themselves with the video, but they did no good to the servicemen and women they purported to address.

Exceptionalism.  Both the United States and Israel consider themselves exempt from the rule that govern other nations.  Its exceptionalism is one of the reasons it has not joined the International Criminal Court.  Consider too that the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) has been ratified by every member of the United Nations, except for the United States.  It was signed by President Clinton in 1995, but has never been ratified by the Senate.  Ditto the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, signed in 1980, but never ratified.  The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea has been ratified by 170 nations, but not by the U.S.  The Ottawa Treaty (Anti-Personnel Landmines Convention) has been ratified by about 165 countries, but not the U.S.  The Convention on Cluster Munitions, banning cluster bombs, has been ratified by ~110 countries, but not by the U.S. 

Like the U.S., Israel has also declined to sign or ratify the international conventions on landmines and cluster weapons.  It also rejects the International Criminal Court and the compulsory jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice, along with the U.S., China, Russia, India, and others.  Israel recognizes the ICJ as a UN judicial organ, participates in its proceedings, and accepts its advisory role — but does not accept the Court’s authority to issue binding judgments against it.  That is not rejection, but highly conditional acceptance, similar to the U.S. position since the 1980s.  In any event, the most flagrant example of Israel's self-granted exceptionalism is seen in its historic treatment of Palestinians, not only in Gaza, but in the West Bank.  

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I'd like to think some more about this subject and try to develop it, but I'm semi-exhausted today (congestive heart failure?) and it's beyond me.

1/6/2026

 Monday, January 5, 2025

1531 Pope Clement VII forbade English King Henry VIII to remarry

1886 "Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson was published

1895 French Captain Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason

1957 US President Eisenhower asked Congress to send troops to the Middle East

1968 Dr Benjamin Spock was indicted for conspiring to violate draft law

In bed at 9:30, up at 5:50 from a dream of attending a Jewish movie gathering with friends, speaking with Jack Levine. 3-/23/37/29, cloudy

Meds, etc.  Morning meds at 11 a.m.   

Trump and Wall Street's world of pretexts.  Donald Trump has taught Vladimir Putin what a real "special military operation" looks like: short in duration, well-planned and militarily brilliant, and, most of all, successful.  He (which is to say, the American military and intelligence teams) succeeded in capturing or arresting or kidnapping (choose your word) Mr. and Mrs. Nickolas Maduro, and decapitating the Venezuelan government.  Most Americans, however, aren't sure of why this special military operation (that is and isn't a war) was conducted.  Trump's claim that he was seeking to stop "narco-terrorism" is, as we used to say in Vietnam, happy horseshit.  No knowledgeable person believes it.  Most of Venezuela's illegal drug exports consist of cocaine and go to Europe, not America.  Nor does anyone, except perhaps dyed-in-the-wool MAGA-types, believe that he was simply enforcing American law by arresting federally indicted 'fugitives from justice.'  Nor does anybody believe that this has anything to do with the welfare and freedom of the Venezuelan people, liberating them from oppression by a cruel, murderous dictator.  He has made it clear that he will not install the Nobel Peace Prize winner and winner of the last Venezuelan election as head of state now that Maduro is gone; rather, he is keeping the Maduro regime in place, without its hitherto leader, rather than replacing him with Maria Corina Machado.  It's like kidnapping Hitler, but leaving in place his Nazi government.  Trump makes no secret of his admiration for cruel, murderous dictators, witness his relationships with his 'friend' Vladimir Putin, his 'love letters' from Kim Jung Un, and his affection for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, prime minister of Saudi Arabia, who had the American, Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi tortured, killed, and dismembered with a bone saw in the Sauki consulate in Istanbul. Turkey, in 2018.  

No, Trump's 'special military operation' was about oil, maintenance of the petrodollar system and the American dollar as the 'reserve currency' for most of the world, and about demonstrating his willingness to use America's forces regardless of internartional and even American domestic law,  to other countries' leaders who resist his policies, e.g., Columbia, Mexico, Panama, and Greenland/Denmark.  Russia and China have been breaking away from the use of the dollar for their oil trade, and all the BRICS countries have been starting to do the same.  Venezuela has recently been using some cryptocurrency (stablecoins tethered to the dollar) to escape US sanctions, and has been trading with China, the world's largest importer of foreign oil,  using 'petroyuans.'  The Venezuelan adventure is all about oil, money, and power.  So it has been since 1859, when Edwin Drake drilled the first commercial oil well in Pennsylvania, the start of the Industrial Age, and the eventual use of oil rather than coal to power contending nations' navies and armies.  Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, converted the British Navy from coal to oil, around 1912, making the British Empire dependent on foreign oil suppliers.  He set the stage for oil's central role in the world economy and military planning.  So it was in the First World War era, so it goes today.

We ought not underestimate the role of our Cuban-American Secretary of State and National Security Advisor, Marco Rubio, in Trump's audacious attack on Venezuela's government.  Cuba and Venezuela are joined at the hip in terms of economies and national interests.  Venezuela provides cheap oil to Cuba to keep its fragile economy running and Cuba provides Venezuela with security forces and other assets intended to keep the Maduro government in power.  Rubio hates Maduro and his regime for the same reasons he hated the Castros and their Cuban regime, and the current Cuban regime.  They are anti-capitalist Leftists who drove the Rubios and thousands of other Cuban nationals into exile in America.  Like my former friend Elsa Lamelas, Rubio hates both the Cuban and the Venezuelan regimes.  Rubio is now in a position to try to topple the communist government in Cuba.  Seizing Maduro was a big step toward accomplishing that long-held goal.

Lest there be doubts about Trump's wish to intimidate other national leaders who resist his wishes, consider this morning's New York Times report:

President Trump doubled down on his desire to take over Greenland just hours after the prime minister of Denmark urged him to “stop the threats” to annex the territory.

“We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security,” Mr. Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday. He added that he thought Denmark was not doing enough to safeguard Greenland, an island in the North Atlantic that is a semiautonomous territory of Denmark.

Mr. Trump made his comments as worries grew in Denmark and other countries about his international ambitions after the U.S. military raided Venezuela and seized Nicolás Maduro, its former authoritarian leader.

After the military operation in Venezuela, Mr. Trump reiterated his ambition to take over the Danish territory. “We do need Greenland, absolutely,” he told The Atlantic, claiming that the island was “surrounded by Russian and Chinese ships.”

On Sunday, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark addressed the United States “very directly” to reiterate that Washington had “no right to annex” Greenland. “I would therefore strongly urge the United States to stop the threats against a historically close ally,” she said in a statement, adding that Greenlanders “have said very clearly that they are not for sale.”

Ms. Frederiksen noted that Denmark was part of NATO and that a defense agreement with the United States gave Washington “wide access to Greenland” already.

Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen of Greenland also rejected Mr. Trump’s comments, writing on social media that the president’s rhetoric was “utterly unacceptable” and that his efforts to link Venezuela with Greenland were “wrong” and “disrespectful.”

The statements from the leaders of Denmark and Greenland followed another American provocation: a post on social media from Katie Miller, the wife of Stephen Miller, one of Mr. Trump’s top advisers. “SOON,” she wrote, with a map of Greenland shaded in by the American flag. 

Russia invaded Ukraine because it disapproved of its government and its aspirations.  We invaded Venezuela because we disapproved of its government and its aspirations.  Russia invaded Ukraine because of its national interests and national security.  We invaded Venezuela because of our national interests and national security.    

What I sort of admire about Donald Trump.  I daresay he's the worst liar in the history of the United States presidency, so prolific a liar that the Washington Post (before Bezos took personal control of it) kept a running count of his lies and misleading statements.  He was, as it is said, bald-faced about it, shameless.  Many of us, perhaps most of us, abhorred his mendacity.  But in matters like the use of the American military to gain control over Venezuela's vast oil reserves, the largest in the world so far as we know, he is painfully truthful.  He did it for the oil companies.  "“We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies … go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure … and start making money.”  On January 4–5, 2026, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he spoke with U.S. oil companies “before and after” the military operation that resulted in Nicolás Maduro’s capture. He said this was to gauge their interest in going into Venezuela and investing to rebuild the oil industry.  Trump said the companies “want to go in so badly” and would “do a great job.”  He has insisted he had communicated with “all” of the major U.S. oil firms about his plans regarding oil development there.  Perhaps not surprisingly, executives from major U.S. oil companies — Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, and Chevron — say they were not consulted before or after the operation, contradicting Trump’s claims. According to multiple industry sources,none of those companies had any conversations with the White House about operating in Venezuela before Maduro’s capture.   They also had no discussions with the administration about investing there afterward.  So Trump asserts he briefed the oil industry about his plans and that companies are eager to participate.   Oil industry executives explicitly deny having had those consultations, saying they were not contacted ahead of the operation or afterward about entering Venezuela to invest.  So, who to believe???  For a change, I believe Trump.

Getting back on the horse

1/4/2026

 Sunday, January 4, 2026

1965 LBJ's "Great Society" State of the Union Address

1974 Richard Nixon refused to hand over tapes subpoenaed by Watergate Committee

1975 Boston Bruins Dave Forbes became the 1st athlete indicted for criminal assault for excessive violence during play; stick butt-end the face of Minnesota North Star Henry Boucha caused permanent vision damage; court case ended in a hung jury, and a civil settlement was eventually reached

1995 Newt Gingrich became Speaker of the House of Representatives

2007 The 110th United States Congress elected Nancy Pelosi as the first female Speaker of the House

2010 The Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building at 829.8 m (2,722 ft), officially opened in Dubai, with exterior lighting provided by Sarah Clausen et al.

In bed at 9:20, up at 6:55.  16/30/18, clear but cloudy all day after 10.

Meds, etc.  Morning meds at 11 a.m.    

Quagmire, n. a soft wet area of land that gives way under the feet, or a difficult or precarious situation.

 Donald J. Trump, 2026: "We are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition."

George W. Bush, 2003: “The United States has no intention of occupying Iraq. Our aim is to remove a threat and restore control of that country to its own people.” . . .  “The day of your liberation is near… We will help you build a new Iraq that is prosperous and free.” . . . “The Iraqi people will choose their own government, and Iraq’s territorial integrity will be respected.”  In practice, the U.S. did run Iraq through the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) at least from May 2003 to June 2004, which exercised sweeping executive, legislative, and judicial power. 

What is really going on?  We don't know.  What we don't even know what to call what happened.  Was it an act of war?  Are we at war?  Are we at war with "narco-terrorists," a non-state actor?  or actors?  Is it with the State of Venezuela, or only with its government?  Or only with its head of state?  Were we simply executing an arrest warrant for an accused criminal indicted five years ago, though with the "assistance" of an American armada assembled off Venezuela's shores?  Did we remove Maduro because he was a cruel dictator?  Since when have we given a shit about cruel dictators?  Indeed, don't we prefer cruel dictators so long as they play ball with us?  Because he put down the results of the 2024 democratic election, which ousted him from office and power?  Are we attempting to re-establish democracy in Venezuela?  Since when has Trump or his minions given a shit about democracy?  Do we care in the slightest about democracy in Venezuela, or are we simply interested in a government we can do business with, and, when we say we, do "we" primarily mean ExxonMobil, CoocoPhillips, Phillips 66, Occidental Petroleum, and Marathon Petroleum?  Is our main concern petrodollars, maintaining the U.S. dominance as the main currency for the buying and selling of oil around the world, and the dollars' position as the World's reserve currency?  Maintaining the 'rigged' market for U.S. Treasuries, low interest rates, and low inflation in the U.S.?

A progressive advocacy report estimated that Big Oil and related fossil fuel interests spent roughly $445 million in the 2024 election cycle to influence outcomes — including direct and indirect contributions, advertising, and lobbying — with about $96 million going directly to Trump’s campaign and affiliated PACs. 

Individual oil industry executives also made large political contributions:

Harold Hamm (Continental Resources) contributed tens of millions via PACs tied to Trump’s campaign (one piece of reporting cites ~$4.3 million tied to the White House ballroom list). 

Yahoo

Kelcy Warren (Energy Transfer Partners) has been a significant Trump supporter and adviser, donating large sums to Trump-aligned causes.

The Guardian

Bryan Sheffield, founder of Parsley Energy, reportedly donated over $1 million to Trump’s 2024 campaign. 

Wikipedia

Note: Trump’s campaign and affiliated Super PACs (like Make America Great Again Inc.) have not disclosed all individual contributors by industry, but energy sector donors feature prominently among top backers.

 

.Contributions to the Inauguration (January 2025)

The Donald J. Trump Presidential Inaugural Committee — which raised event funds (separate from campaign funds) — received significant contributions from fossil fuel companies:

Oil company donations (reported)

Chevron: ~$2 million

ExxonMobil: ~$1 million

ConocoPhillips: ~$1 million

Occidental Petroleum: ~$1 million

Together, fossil fuel industry donations to Trump’s inaugural fund totaled more than $19 million according to an analysis of FEC itemized contributions. 

Contributions Toward Trump’s Presidential Library and White House Ballroom

There are no official public disclosures that specifically break out Trump’s presidential library fundraising by donor name or industry that are legally required to disclose. However:

Inaugural funds potentially repurposed

A Senate report highlighted that leftover funds from the inaugural committee — which include corporate donations — may be funneled toward Trump’s future presidential library. Corporations that gave at least $1 million to the inaugural fund are listed, but oil companies beyond the ones above are not prominently reported.

A published donor list for the Trump White House ballroom project does not list any major oil companies as top donors. Instead, it is dominated by tech firms, manufacturing, finance, and other indust

While lobbying firms and corporate representatives (including those hired by energy firms) attended events related to this fundraising, the public list does not show major fossil fuel corporations or executives as primary donors for the ballroom project. 

 

Lobbying and Influence

While not direct contributions to Trump’s campaign or committees, oil companies spend heavily on lobbying to influence policy:

The oil and gas industry spent hundreds of millions on federal lobbying around energy policy and tax issues during the election cycle and afterward. One analysis estimated around $243 million just on lobbying activities separate from campaign spending. 

Truthout

Lobbyists often meet with administration officials and policymakers, but lobbying expenditures are tracked separately from political campaign or fundraising contributions.

Caveat

Corporate political contributions (to federal campaigns, parties, and PACs) are legally restricted under U.S. campaign finance law; corporations can only give small amounts directly. Much of the money from corporate-related interests comes via employee contributions, political action committees (PACs), Super PACs, and dark money groups. 

Dark money groups and 501(c)(4) nonprofits are not required to disclose full donor identities, meaning the true total from oil-linked interests could be significantly higher than the numbers that are publicly reported. 

1/3/2026

 Saturday, January 3, 2026

Andrew Charles Clausen, January 3, 1972

2012  Interstim installed

In bed at 10:30, up at 4:50, aching hips overnight, bad back.  15/9/23/14.

Meds, etc.  Morning meds at ? a.m.   

We woke up this morning to news that the United States had invaded Venezuela, seized its president and his wife, and announced that "we will run the country," take over its oil assets, turn them over to American oil companies, and reimburse the oil companies for the losses they experienced from Venezuela's nationalization of its oil resources.     

I took care of some errands this afternoon: a trip to Walmart unsuccessfully looking for replacement seedcakes, struck out also at Meijer's, but found a birthday card for Andy there, which I mailed at the downtown post office later, after which I picked up American Catholic by Charles R. Morris at the Whitefish Bay Library, after which I was exhausted and returned home.  I have no energy reserves.

Text exchange with Andy:

Good morning, Son, and Happy Birthday.  I wasn’t thinking properly when I picked up all the Christmas cards; I failed to get your birthday card, for which I apologize.  I will try to get it today and put your birthday present in it.  FYI, I’m wearing a Holter monitor over the weekend to get more information about some arrhythmia and other problems I’ve been experiencing, and it’s looking like I’ve developed congestive heart failure, but I should know more about that on the 15th when I have an appointment at the VA Cardiac Clinic.  I guess it’s not surprising that my heart muscle is growing weaker, since it’s been true of all my other muscles.  In any event, I’ll keep you informed as I learn more.  I’m having many thoughts of you today, how you have grown up to be such an admirable man and great father.  I hope your birthday and the coming year will be super for you, and,  if I can help in any way, let me know.❤️

Take it easy and don’t do anything you have to. My birthday is relatively unimportant. So unimportant I’m spending all day redoing our powder room.

Thanks.  I’m impressed with your DIY skills, as usual.  I know what you mean about adult birthdays not being very noteworthy, but I think that the older you get, the more significant your children’s birthdays become because they trigger so many memories.  And, in any event, I did get your card, and it’s in the mail.  Good luck with the powder room and happy birthday, again.❤️ 

Lt. Gen. Smedley D. Butler, USMC:

I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested. 

If only more of today's military personnel would realize that they are being used by the owning elite as a publicly subsidized capitalist goon squad.

I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long... Looking back on it, I feel I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three city districts. We Marines operated on three continents. 

 

1/2/2026

 Friday, January 2, 2026

1845 US President James K. Polk announced to Congress that the United States should aggressively expand into the West, a widely held belief termed "manifest destiny"

1942 The World’s 1st self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction occured in the world's 1st nuclear reactor at the University of Chicago, overseen by Enrico Fermi and Leó Szilárd

1954 US Senate censured Joseph McCarthy for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor & disrepute

1968 US President Richard Nixon named Henry Kissinger as the security advisor

2014 Stephen Hawking claimed that Artificial Intelligence could be a "threat to mankind" and spell the end of the human race

2018 Israeli police recommended that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife be charged with fraud and bribery

2020 US Attorney General William Barr said there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, despite claims by Trump

Music to my ears, delight to my eyes, solace to my soul

In bed around 9, awake a little after 3, moved to LZB until 4:10, when I got up & made some coffee.  Thinking of Emmylou Harris singing Precious Memories and this morning's visits with Cardiology, Urology, and the Gold Clinic for my long-delayed Covid vaccination.  13/+1/20/12.

Meds, etc.  Morning meds at 1 p.m.   

As I travel down life's pathway

Know not what the years may hold

As I ponder, hope grows fonder

Precious memories flood my soul

 

Precious father, loving mother

Glide across the lonely years

And old home's scenes of my childhood

In fond memories appears

 

Precious memories, how they linger

How they ever flood my soul

In the stillness of the midnight

Precious sacred scenes unfold

Our historically bad times.  I started out the day, as usual, reading (some of) the New York Times, focusing on the lead editorial, Donald Trump is the January 6 President, a powerful condemnation of Trump's time in power.  It is also an indictment of Mitch McConnell, Republican politicians, especially those in the House and Senate, Merrick Garland, business leaders, conservative media, the Supreme Court, and the political thugs Trump has appointed and Senate Republicans have confirmed to powerful leadership positions in his second administration.  Despite the powerfulness of the damning truths related in the body of the editorial, it ends weakly:

The Jan. 6 era turns five years old on Tuesday. The anniversary will always be a mournful one for America. The nation’s challenge now is to ensure that the day is ultimately viewed as it initially was: as an aberration. Americans must summon the collective will to bring this era to an end and make certain that the violence, lawlessness and injustice of Jan. 6 do not endure.

Huh?  How?  Trump has three more years in office.  If he dies or leaves early, we have J.D. Vance to look forward to, younger, smarter, perhaps not as thoroughly wicked as DJT, but still politically pernicious.  Thus, even an impeachment or a series of impeachments by the next Congress, probably likely, and a conviction by the Senate, very unlikely, will not bring this era to an end.  

The editorial made me think of other historically bad times I've lived through in this country: the McCarthy witch-hunts in the 50s; JFK's assassination, the urban riots and violent acts against the Vietnam War in the 60s; Watergate in the 70s; the War on Terror with its renditions, secret prisons, and torture, and disastrous invasion of Iraq in the 00s; the financial crisis in 08 and the election of Obama leading to the creation of the Tea Party in 2010, and ultimately the Trump-led creation of the MAGA movement into fascism and autocracy.  I'm reminded of an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal by William A. Galston, on December 30th, "America's 25 Years of Decline," in which he points out, inter alia, 

At the conclusion of the 20th century, America’s leadership was uncontested. We had the world’s strongest economy and most powerful military, bolstered by an unequaled system of alliances. Americans from the bottom to the top enjoyed rising real incomes. The federal budget ran a surplus for four consecutive years, from 1998 to 2001. Despite their differences, the political parties were able to reach agreement on important issues, including on fiscal policy, education, welfare, the environment and protecting Americans with disabilities.  . . . 

In January of 2001, the Congressional Budget Office projected that the budget surpluses of President Bill Clinton’s second term would continue throughout the next decade, totaling $5.6 trillion and erasing the national debt. Nineteen months later, the CBO predicted that big tax cuts, higher spending and lower economic projections would eliminate the surplus for 2002 and several years thereafter. As it turned out, fiscal 2001 was the last time the federal government ran a budget surplus, and the chance that the debt will ever be erased is slim.

Only a 'cock-eyed optimist' can fail to see that America has been on a long downhill slide, dropping us at last into this Era of Trump, from which we will not recover in my lifetime, perhaps not in the lifetimes of my children.  Woe, alas.

Busy morning at the VA, first an entire hour with the Holter monitor specialist from 8 till 9, then the urology nurse had me pee into a big funnel and then lie down for an ultrasound on my bladder to see how much urine I retained.  Then a half-hour with "Dr. P" (😀) to discuss my fulguration, meatontomy, buried schwantz, etc.  Finally, off to the Gold Clinic and Amy Janusz for my Covid vaccination.  On the way home, I stopped at Blick's to pick up a square pre-stretched canvas, 24" X 24".

Driving through the old 3rd Ward, I experienced again the new love I have developed in the last few years for Milwaukee, its architecture, and its history.  The east side of downtown Milwaukee, downtown proper that is, toney, upper crust.  It lies between the Milwaukee River and Lake Michigan, in old Juneau Town.  It's where many of the "swells" lived and where the most important financial, commercial, and legal institutions were or are located - the First Wisconsin National Bank, Marshall & Ilsley Bank, Northwestern Mutual Insurance Company, Foley & Lardner, Quarles & Brady, Alexander Mitchell's building, and the Milwaukee Grain Exchange.  Just south of this silk stocking district lies the old 3rd Ward, where Milwaukee's historic ethnic neighborhoods, Commission Row, warehouses, port activities, and blue-collar life are still visible.  When it was Little Italy, Our Lady of Pompeii Church was the center of social, religious, and civic life for the bustling neighborhood.  The church was sacrificed for the building of I-794 and is now remembered on a plaque attached to a boulder under the freeway.  The freeway, fully completed only in 1977, itself is being considered for demolition. South of the freeway, there are still many old buildings standing as evidence of Milwaukee's past as well as newer buildings giving witness to the area's current popularity both as a place of residence and as an entertainment and shopping center.  Blick Art Supplies is located there, across from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, the successor of Milwaukee's Layton School of Art,  occupying a large former manufacturing (?) building.  A short distance east of MIAD's home is the almost new Baumgartner Center for Dance, home of the Milwaukee Ballet Company, of the foundation board of which I was formerly a director, treasurer, and briefly, president, but that's another story.  I love this old neighborhood, even more than I did when I was practicing law and often eating at the wonderful Broadway Bar and Grill in the heart of the neighborhood.

I started a painting after many months of inactivity, and I promptly made a careless mistake.  I was hoping to find a 16" X 16" canvas at Blick, but no luck, so I bought a 24" X 24".  I'm scaling up from an 8" X 8" print of a Christlike (?) image, and I'm starting out using grid lines, as usual.  I should have spaced my grid lines on the canvas 3 inches apart, but spaced them 2" apart, wasting a lot of time, but no permanent damage.

 

 

 

1/1/2026

 January 1, 2026

From last year's 1/1/25 journal

A thing of beauty is a joy forever.  I start this new year - perhaps my last, perhaps not - reflecting on how much beauty surrounds me, beauty in nature, beauty in things, beauty in people.  In searching for this photo of an exquisite mushroom that I espied serendipitously in our front yard one day, at one moment, I passed hundreds of other photos of things and people of beauty, of Geri, or Geri and Lilly, of Andy and his children, of Sarah and Christian, of Ed Felsenthal, of birds, of trees, and so much more.  As I type this, I also watch a gray squirrel with his beautiful white belly and ear tufts performing an acrobatics show for me on a suet cake holder.  Extraordinary! and common!  I think of Mary Oliver's When Death Comes: "I think of each life as a flower, as common / as a field daisy, and as singular."  My hope is that, despite my cynicism, pessimism, and dejection at the wrongs and miseries of the world, I remember that, as I've told my children and still believe, we are surrounded by saints and miracles.  We just have to open our eyes wide enough to see them.

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1946 Emperor Hirohito of Japan announced he was not a god

1950 Ho Chi Minh began the offensive against French troops in Indo-China

1951 Chicago broadcaster Paul Harvey began his national radio program "Paul Harvey News and Comment" from WENR-AM for the ABC network

1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect

2925  A 42-year-old American army veteran, Shamsud-Din Jabbar,  plowed through a New Year's Eve celebration on Bourbon Street in New Orleans in a rented pick-up truck; with an ISIS flag attached and IEDs on board; 14 people died, dozens were injured, and the driver was killed in a shoot-out with police.

In bed on New Year's Eve by 10, up at 7:20 after several pit stops from too much cheesecake.  9/-2/15/8,  Brrr.    

Meds. etc.  Morning meds at  11:30 a.m.

On New Year's Eve, Geri prepared a delicious meal of lamb chops, roasted potatoes, and green beans, topped off with a Costco cheesecake, of which I ate far too much, leading, I think, to intestinal woes during the night.  Reckless behavior for which I'm still paying.  We watched a 'double feature,' Maggie's Plan and The Savages.  Maggie's Plan was a frothy comedy with Greta Gerwig, Ethan Hawke, Julianne Moore, Bill Hader, and Maya Rudolf.  There was nothing frothy about The Savages, which was a bit painful to watch.  It told the story of two emotionally stunted, semi-estranged siblings, Laura Linney as Wendy and Philip Seymour Hoffman as Jon, putting their nasty, demented father, Phillip Bosco as Lenny, into a nursing home.  Each of the principal characters is an unhappy person.  Wendy and Jon were abandoned as children by their mother and raised and physically and emotionally abused by Lenny.  She is a struggling playwright,  working on a play about their terrible childhood.  Jon is a theater professor, working on a book about Bertolt Brecht.  I thought the movie was really well written, acted, and directed.  Laura Linney was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role, and Philip Seymour Hoffman won a Golden Globe as Best Actor.  It was painful to watch because it depicted the father's falling apart and losing agency in his old age, not a lighthearted subject for viewers in their 80s, and because it inescapably reminded me of my sister Kitty and me growing up with my Dad after WWII.  He was never physically abusive to Kitty or me, but he was, on at least one occasion, with my mother, and he was unloving, almost hostile with Kitty and me.  I've written about it many times in this journal and in my memoir, and discussed it frequently with Kitty in the last several years of her life; I needn't reflect on it here, although I did while watching the film.  Painful.

She Spent a Night in the Anne Frank House. And Met Ghosts is a piece in this morning's NY Times about author Lola Lafon's book, "When You Listen to This Song."  I don't want to write about the subject of the article, though it prompts memories of Geri's and my late-night visit to the Anne Frank House in August of 2016, after Sarah and Christian's wedding.  It was too late to gain admission, but I recall standing outside and needing to touch the building, to feel the solid reality of the building and to feel the reality of happened there, just a few doors down the street from a Christian church.  I read the readers' comments to the article, which included references to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Wannsee Museum in Berlin.  It reminded me that the Holocaust Museum is in our national capital only about a quarter-mile from the National Museum of African American History and Culture and that both institutions contain vivid records of our species'  history of atrocity.    Homo hominis lupus.  They are only a few minutes' walk across the Mall from the White House and half an hour's walk from the Capitol.

Mayor Mamdani.  I watched the tail end of his inaugural speech this afternoon, in which he promised much. I hope not too much.  For an old, former Democratic Socialist like me, it was pretty thrilling.  I wondered whether he will be able to get near to fulfilling his promises with so many forces arrayed against him.  He is merely a mayor, not a president or even a governor.  Will he have the resources he needs to provide free child care, and bus and subway fares ( or is he promising only no increases during his term of office?)?  Is it credible that Trump and his allies will not seek to crush him and his agenda?  Fingers crossed.

Favorite opening line of the young year is by Susan Glasser in her December 30th New Yorker article "Donald Trump’s Golden Age of Awful: A damage assessment of the President’s first year back in the White House."  "No matter how low one’s expectations were for 2025, the most striking thing about the year when Donald Trump became President again is how much worse it turned out to be.

I watched and listened to an old favorite, Verdi's Messa da Requiem, while Geri was a good neighbor picking up Shirley and Tom at the airport.  The LaScala Orchestra and Chorus, Daniel Barenboim.  It was thrilling both to watch and to hear.  It's been years since I listened to it, and I'm pleasantly surprised at how much of it I remember, having listened to it so many times in years past. There was a period in my life when I listened to it as bedtime music which, I suppose, is why I remember mainly the early movements. the Introit, Kyrie, Dies Irae, and Tuba Mirum, but also the Recordare, Jesu pie, and the gorgeous, pleading Agnus Dei, and finally, the stunning, startling Libera me.  So beautiful, I'm grateful to Verdi, to all the performers, and to modern recording technology that makes the work so available.