A Blunt Warning for Israel

New York Times columnist Bret Stephens is a Zionist.  He has also been a reliable defender of Israel in the past.  Today Mr . Stephens’ column was entitled “A Blunt Warning for Israel.”  Stephens said that anyone who cares about Israel’s well-being, and that would include me, needs to speak up and condemn the anti-Palestinian settler terrorism on the West Bank.  He noted that it was not only harmful to the Palestinians and an affront to Jewish ethics, but it was also a threat to Israel’s statehood.

Stephens quoted a letter sent to President Trump by Matan Vilnai, a retired deputy chief of staff of the IDF, representing a group that includes hundreds of retired senior IDF officers.  Vilnai wrote:

     Whereas our security agencies excel in dealing with Hamas and other West Bank Palestinian terror groups they are severely constrained when it comes to Jewish terrorists.  

     It is no secret that certain members of our current government orchestrate much of this chaos including by shielding their followers–who are armed and driven by messianic impulses–from the law and its enforcement.

Will this have an effect on Netanyahu?  Probably not.  He is depending on the settler extremist supporters to stay in power.

You can read the full column in today’s Times, page A23.

Living in the U.S.A.

That’s the title of a book I found in the shed tonight.  I probably mentioned this in an earlier post, but I am “deaccessioning” my library.  I’m finding books on the shelves I didn’t even know I owned.  Tonight I came across Living in the U.S.A. by  Alison R. Lanier, first published in 1973 and revised by Charles William Gay for an edition published in 1996.

It is a guide for immigrants, and it has chapter such as “Some Dominant American Attitudes,” “Doing Business in the United States,” and “Manners and Courtesies in Social Life.”  The book is completely useless.

Today I had a conversation with the mother of an immigration lawyer.  He told her there was no path to citizenship at the present time.  An attorney can’t even bring a client along to court; he or she might get arrested.  

I suppose Living in the U.S.A. might have some historical value, like a repair guide for a ’57 Chevy or an etiquette book for teenagers in the 1920s.  

Maybe I’ll keep it.

Cotton Mather and Smallpox

Cotton Mather (1663-1728) was a Puritan minister in Massachusetts.  He read about experiments with smallpox inoculation in a publication from Britain in 1716.  That, and information from his slave who had been inoculated in West Africa, convinced him to advocate for inoculation.  

At that time it was a dangerous procedure; you were exposed to live infectious smallpox matter.  (I won’t describe the “matter.”)  Some of the inoculated people did die, but far fewer than the people who were not inoculated.

I have been unable to find any evidence that the inoculated Bostonians became autistic.

American Death Count Drops in Iran War

The Pentagon announced that the death toll of American service members in the Iran War had dropped from 18 to 14.  Four of these service members had died in action during one of the “cease fires,” so they don’t count as war dead, because we weren’t technically at war.

The injured count is over 100, but the Pentagon isn’t releasing those figures.  Pentagon spokespeople say they are obligated to release figures of deaths, but not injuries.

See Helene Cooper, Lara Jakes, and John Ismay, Pentagon Abruptly Lowers Online Tally of Service Members Killed in the Iran War,” New York Times, (25 July 2026), p. A-6.

Movie Night

I’m taking the night off.  First I watched “The Magnificent Seven” with my cousin’s family.  It was based on a Kurosawa film “The Seven SamuraI.”   Now I’d watching “Ran,” a Kurosawa film based sort of on “Macbeth.”  I needed a break.

Turning Point and Domestic Violence

Today I attended a meeting of the Carbon County Commissioners.  It was a fairly routine meeting; Item #4 on the agenda was correspondence.  This caught my eye:

A letter was received from Turning Point of Lehigh Valley informing the County Turning Point of Lehigh Valley, Inc. has been awarded the contract through the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence (PCADV) to provide comprehensive domestic violence services for Carbon County residents.

Turning Point is a right-wing organization.  It believes women should have lots of babies and be “trad wives.”  In a recent fundraising letter the American flag was contrasted with the “Pride Flag,” which was presented as unpatriotic.  The letter went on to decry the lack of American flags flying for the 250th anniversary.

And the reason...?

That’s because the Left worked hard to hijack Main Street American when they imported millions of illegal immigrants to “fundamentally change” [sic] our country.    

They worked even harder to hijack the minds of millions of young people.  

My question:  Are we paying public funds to this group?  This bigoted group that is right now trying to set up chapters in American high schools to preach the hateful ideology of Charlie Kirk?  This needs to be brought into the public spotlight. 

Who will take care of our dementia patients?

This was so predictable, and yes, it affects my own family.  Who takes care of our elderly?  Who staffs facilities for “memory care,” as it is euphemistically called?  Who serves the food in those facilities, cleans the bathrooms, and empties the bedpans?  And does all those tasks with kindness and for little money.

You know the answers.  Immigrants.  The people being deported.  

Check out the front page of today’s Times.  The article is by Miriam Jordan and is titled “Migrant Policy Creating Crisis for Elder Care.”  I hope you don’t have any relatives or friends who are affected.  I do.

Targeting your enemy's mom

A favorite tactic of dictators is to threaten the families of dissidents.  You yourself might be brave and even willing to die for the cause, but are you willing to sacrifice your mom and dad or your children?

So, when the New York Times reporters wrote about leaks in the security system, the federal government did not immediately question federal employees to find the whistleblowers, which is what the feds usually do, but they went after the reporters.  That is wrong on many levels.  We have a free press.  Well, we once had a free press.  

And they did more.  They went after a reporter’s mom and another relative.  And it was the FBI that was sent to investigate.  With guns on hips.  

This is where we live now.

ERRATA.  Last night I posted a blurb on an article about the decline of reading in the United States.  I said the article was in the latest issue of Harpers.   It was in the latest issue of The Atlantic.

Nobody reads

According to an article by Rose Horowitch in the latest Harper’s entitled “The Age of Reading is Over,” fewer than half of Americans read a book last year.  Not one book.  Most teenagers no longer read any books for enjoyment.  People don’t read newspapers.  Our President doesn’t even read position papers, and I will bet he has never read a single book.

Do you know what I would like to read?  Something that is good news.  Spain winning the World Cup was good news, but it is too fleeting, and it was on TV anyway.  In the meantime I’m almost finished with David Sedaris’ Theft by Finding:  Diaries 1977-2002.  And like everything David Sedaris writes, it is very good.

I’ll be happy to take other suggestions.  No rom coms, historical fiction, fantasy, or religious stuff.  I never got Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter if that helps.

The Annual Bat Count

Every summer I count our bats for the Pennsylvania Game Commission.  We have a bat house on the east end of our shed, and last year’s count was 42.  

Tonight I only counted 31.  It was a relatively cool evening, with the temp about 63 degrees, but they still should be coming out to catch insects.  According to a bat expert from the Game Commission who stopped by earlier this summer, Pennsylvania’s bats have been slowly increasing since the low point some years ago from a disease known as “white nose syndrome.”  The expert, Robyn, is coming back in September with a crew to put up a better bat house on a pole, so that may help our population.

I am supposed to count on two separate nights, so I’ll probably try again tomorrow.  We like our bats; I hope I just missed something.

Fact checkers examine Trump's speech

My friend Bill sent me an item from columnist Andy Borowitz, who said that fact checkers on Trump’s speech could find none.

Not ready for prime time

Did anyone watch Trump’s speech last night?  I understand two networks didn’t bother to carry it.  I didn’t see it–we haven’t had a tv for at least ten days.  Plus I listened to a talk and demonstration of medieval string instruments, which actually sound ethereal and amazingly better than a blowhard babbling on about election integrity.  

I really think we have reached to point where people are saying “Oh, him again.  What’s he spouting off about this time?”  He’s become a bore.

Children and the President

In a study of children’s attitude toward the President completed in the 1950s, Yale political scientist Fred Greenstein found that children had a benevolent attitude toward the President of the United States, sometimes conflating the President with God.  Keep in mind he was doing his study in the 1950s, when the President was Eisenhower, organizer of D-Day and a man who often seemed to be above politics.  Greenstein’s work was criticized, since his study focused on New Haven school children, few of whom were black or hispanic.  Given those limitations I think the study was fairly accurate.  

When Kennedy was assassinated people were depressed for months.  People couldn’t sleep, felt bereft.  You don’t feel like that when your U.S. Representative dies.  A group of my friends and I drove to Washington to attend Kennedy’s funeral.  It was a major event in my life.

I believe that most parents and teachers taught their children or pupils that the president was to be respected and revered.  When our daughter came home from her elementary school in Oakland in the Seventies talking about “Pig Nixon,” I was shocked.   This was at a time when I loathed Nixon and loathed his Vietnam War policies and demonstrated against him.  In spite of that, I remember telling her, “He is the President of the United States.  We do not call the President a pig.” 

I would have said the same thing for Ford, or Reagan, or either of the Bushes.  The President was a figure to be respected.

No more.  There is no way our current President is a person to be respected.  Unlike previous presidents, even those whom historians rank at the bottom like Buchanan or Harding or Johnson, I cannot think of any redeeming qualities of the current occupant of the White House.  Not one.  None.

Members of the House of Representatives pass a bill!

Yes, the House members passed a bill to make Daylight Savings Time permanent.  Can they do something about the Trump arch and the East Wing?  What about the war in Iran?  What about Red Flag laws or gun restrictions?  Can they rein in Pete Hegseth, or Robert Kennedy, Jr., or Kash Patel?  Can they stop ICE from its cruelty?  Can they regulate AI?  Can they do something as simple as shoring up the Post Office, let alone shoring up Social Security?

No, by God, they can’t.  But they can pat themselves on the back for passing such an IMPORTANT BILL as making Daylight Savings Time permanent.  We should be proud of them. 

Bad year, good year, happy day

 It is really a bad year for raspberries.  I looked in the usual spots and I can’t find any.  Not even the plants.  Lots of invasives but no raspberries.  The mulberries are tiny and few; the quince tree has no fruit whatsoever. The currents were tiny, and I had to buy four quarts from my friend Tom to make jelly.  Not a good year.

On the other hand it’s a good year for E. Jean Carroll.  She got her $5.6 million legal settlement from Trump today.  Finally.  That rapist had to cough up, not that he will notice with all the money he is stealing from the American public.

Happy Bastille Day.  Vive la France!

Should we celebrate when someone dies?

I actually heard about this.  Somebody said:  “Lindsey Graham just died.  Good.  I’m glad he died.  He can no longer hurt innocent people.”

Isn’t that a terrible thing to say?

OH, WAIT....

It wasn’t Lindsey Graham.  It was Robert Mueller.  And it was Trump who said that.  That was Trump’s message just after Mueller died. 

Lindsey Graham's good deed

There’s that old belief that even the worst people do some good at some point in their lives.  Lindsey Graham’s good deed was that he supported Ukraine in its war against the Russian aggressor Putin.  He had just returned from Ukraine before he died.

My friend, no conspiracy theorist, thinks the Russians may have had something to do with his death.  They are, after all, experts at surreptitious assassinations. 

I will say that it is too bad he did not have the courage to call out Trump.  After the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Graham said he had enough of Trump.  But, like so many of his colleagues, he caved and fell into line.  Too bad.  He wrecked his reputation and will go down in history as a toady, which he was. 

"Harming" endangered species

Suppose you had an endangered bird, say a whooping crane, that wintered in a certain very limited area in Texas.  Every year in the spring the birds migrated to Canada.  In the summer there are no whooping cranes in their winter home.  You discovered a deposit of bauxite in the area, bought the land, and commenced a huge mining operation.  

The cranes returned, flew around looking for their winter home, couldn’t find it, and all died.  

Under a new rule promulgated by the Interior Department and the Commerce Department, that is now legal.  You didn’t actually “‘harm” the birds.  You didn’t shoot them, poison them, or catch and strangle them.  You just took their habitat they need to live, so you didn’t actually harm the birds.  No more need to do environmental impact statements.  

Grown men and women backed by the American Petroleum Institute and other mining and commercial interests came up with this.  And yes, it is as idiotic as it sounds.  But hey, we can make some money.  Of what use is a bog turtle or a desert pup fish or a whippoorwill if it gets in the way of profit?

Bonnie Tyler, 1951-2026

Skip all the meanness and stupidity that happened today and play the official version of “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”  The video is a just a wee bit silly, shot in a former asylum in England and featuring men in tights and altar boys with glowing eyes.  Concentrate on the lyrics and that voice.  That voice.  

I remember the first time I heard this song on the radio.  Amazing.  I couldn’t hear it enough.  I still can’t hear it enough.  

P.S.  You might also listen to “Holding Out for a Hero,” featured in the Kevin Bacon movie “Footloose.”  Again somewhat silly video, but listen.

Losing the War of the Future

That’s the title of the lead article in the latest edition of Foreign Affairs magazine.  The author is Paul Scharre, who served in the DOD in the George W. Bush and Obama administrations.  The article points out that our weaponry is not geared to future wars and it contains some rather sobering examples.

In the meantime our Commander-in-Chief, Private Bonespurs, is still harping about the need for Greenland.  

Speeding into tyranny

We aren’t drifting into tyranny or slow-walking into tyranny.  We are hurtling down that highway.  Here are a few headlines I gathered from the New York Times on July 7.  There were more, but here is a sampling.  

“Trump Remaking Judiciary System”  [Trump personal attorney Emil Joseph Bove III was appointed to the appeals court of the middle Atlantic states.  Approximately 1/3 of appellate court justices now are Trump appointees.]

“U.S. Defends Move to Drop Bribery Case of Billionaire”  [The accused agreed to invest billions in the U.S. to get the case dropped.]

“Lawsuit Alleges a Threat to Free Speech by Agents”  [That would be ICE agents.  I posted about that yesterday.]

“White House Accuses Smithsonian of Negative Portrayal of U.S.”

“Court Allows The Removal Of Exhibits At U.S. Parks”

“Trump Reverses Dozens of Gun Rules, Alarming Public Safety Advocates”

Since then Trump’s been weakening NATO, making noises about seizing Greenland, and bashing Spain.  I can’t keep up.  Tomorrow I plan to post about making currant jelly and the birds at my feeder and trying to chase away the deer eating the soybeans in our fields. 

A message from Belgium

Our friend Anne from Brussels sent us a message that she was so happy the Belgium team beat the U.S., but she knew we must be sad.  Actually, we are not sad at all.  Once Trump bullied the head of FIFA into overturning an official’s call, a victory by the U.S. would have been tainted in any case.

Sportswriter Rick Reilly published a book in 2019 explaining how Trump cheated in golf and how that said everything you need to know about his lack of integrity.  Overturning an official’s call is just the kind of behavior one should expect from a liar and a cheat.  He cheats his investors, his wives, and the American voters who actually believed his bullshit.

So, no, I was not sad that the U.S. lost.  Once Trump got involved, I had a feeling the U.S. team would lose.  Every thing he touches turns to–I think you can fill in the rest.