Daily Entries for the week of
Sunday, August 14, 2022
through
Saturday, August 20, 2022
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It’s Saturday, August 20, 2022
Welcome to the 1,536th consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Barbizon, American School
George Inness' Summer Landscape, 1894.
George Inness - The Yorck Project (2002) 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei (DVD-ROM), distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. ISBN: 3936122202.
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Commentary
Of course Pence will testify before Jan 6 Committee.
He will drop bombs.
Inadvertently, for sure. Followed up with explanations, for certain, as in “That’s not what I meant to say.”
But they will be bombs, nonetheless.
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Op-Commentary
Per your post on Shays rebellion:
Just a few years ago, most people on the left were on the side of Shays Rebellion against an oppressive, slave supporting establishment, e.g., https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/shays-rebellion
Just most people on the left were opposed to the Espionage Act – which put Eugene Debbs in prision and was used to arrest students for reading the Declaration of Independence in public to protest WWI.
Hence just more and more proof of my claim that the function of Trump is to make it seem like the rest of government and the rest of history is benign and progressive.
Seems like I could have a regular column entitled “How Quickly We Forget!”
Love,
Anonymous old school lefty…
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Screen time
The first season of Extraordinary Attorney Woo just ended.
What a wonderful series: 16 episodes, one-hour each.
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Social Life
Very excited that daughter Kat will be here for the weekend.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
The idealists in politics lack a sense of reality. And a politician must be a realist above all. These people with ideals and principles, they’re all at sea, in my opinion. One has to be a lowbrow, a bit of a murderer, to be a politician, ready and willing to see people sacrificed, slaughtered, for the sake of an idea, whether a good one or a bad one. I mean, those are the ones who flourish.
~Henry Miller, Paris Review interview, 1962
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
Got an email re: the Opp Comm section.
We discussed some of my thoughts for the section.
Blog meister responds: I hope it draws some attention.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
I had ribs again.
While I was ripping the meat from the bone, I wondered why so many people like their ribs so well cooked that they brag about meat that just “fell off the bone,” or was that so soft (overcooked) they “hardly had to chew.”
What’s the point?
Ribs are invented for the rippers and chompers among us. Don’t like bones? Like soft meat? Make a stew.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Cortado from Thinking Cup
After the Pandemic, the experienced baristas disappeared and for months you couldn’t dependably get a quality Italian coffee. The scene has changed. I enjoyed this cup on Thursday afternoon.
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Short Essay*
The American Barbizon School was a group of painters and style partly influenced by the French Barbizon school, who were noted for their simple, pastoral scenes painted directly from nature. American Barbizon artists concentrated on painting rural landscapes often including peasants or farm animals.
William Morris Hunt was the first American to work in the Barbizon style as he directly trained with Jean-François Millet in 1851–1853. When he left France, Hunt established a studio in Boston and worked in the Barbizon manner, bringing the style to the United States of America.
The Barbizon approach was generally not accepted until the 1880s and reached its pinnacle of popularity in the 1890s.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Friday, August 19, 2022
Welcome to the 1,535th consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Shay’s Rebellion
An early 20th century portrayal of Daniel Shays' forces fleeing from Federal troops in after an attempt to lay siege to the Springfield Arsenal with only four killed and virtually no musket fire; they would regroup later in Amherst, Massachusetts
C. Kendrick - The people's history of the world, Edward Sylvester Ellis; vol. VI
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Commentary
A high level of the threat of violence as is the case now, is not unprecedented in the United States.
The nation was born by a stitching of free states and slave states fighting a powerful nation.
We dealt with Benedict Arnold. A loser.
Immediately after its birth, the US had Shay’s Rebellion.
The Civil War.
On January 6, 2022 we dealt with an insurrection. Thanks to a traitorous ex-President, we fumbled a bit, but we handled it. God bless the loves that were lost in the process, but we handled it.
We know how to handle crazies.
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Op-Commentary
A new section inviting different takes on issues raised in the Commentary section above.
Send in your thoughts.
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Screen time
Finished Outlaws. It is very good entertainment. Sorry to see it end.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
If I had to live my life again,
I'd make the same mistakes, only sooner.
~Tallulah Bankhead
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
I had two plates of delicious turkey soup on Wednesday.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Marginal Way
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Short Essay*
Shays' Rebellion was an armed uprising in Western Massachusetts and Worcester in response to a debt crisis among the citizenry and in opposition to the state government's increased efforts to collect taxes both on individuals and their trades. The fight took place mostly in and around Springfield during 1786 and 1787. American Revolutionary War veteran Daniel Shays led four thousand rebels (called Shaysites) in a protest against economic and civil rights injustices. Shays was a farmhand from Massachusetts at the beginning of the Revolutionary War; he joined the Continental Army, saw action at the Battles of Lexington and Concord, Battle of Bunker Hill, and Battles of Saratoga, and was eventually wounded in action.
In 1787, Shays' rebels marched on the federal Springfield Armory in an unsuccessful attempt to seize its weaponry and overthrow the government. The confederal government found itself unable to finance troops to put down the rebellion, and it was consequently put down by the Massachusetts State militia and a privately funded local militia. The widely held view was that the Articles of Confederation needed to be reformed as the country's governing document, and the events of the rebellion served as a catalyst for the Constitutional Convention and the creation of the new government.
There is still debate among scholars concerning the rebellion's influence on the Constitution and its ratification.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Thursday, August 18, 2022
Welcome to the 1,534th consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
See Tucker J’s review below in the Short Essay section.
This is the cover art for Red Dead Redemption 2. The cover art copyright is believed to belong to Rockstar Games.
May be found at the following website: http://www.rockstargames.com/games/info/reddeadredemption2
Fair use
File:Red Dead Redemption II.jpg
Uploaded: 4 May 2018
About Media Viewer
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Lead Picture*
Red Dead Redemption II.
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Commentary
I spent time organizing my Japan trip. So much to do.
Called tour with a couple of questions. Response to phone call was speedy, polite, and knowledgeable.
Resolved issue of ground transportation from airport to hotel.
Bank called that $500.00 of yen had physically arrived. So fast! One day. They had told me 30 days.
Received a compatible charger for my cell phone.
Polished my Itinerary.
Good for one day.
Op-Commentary, Post Dated Monday, 8/16
Dom, I know you don’t want to go political, but I could not help but choke a bit at your endorsement of Liz Cheney. How quickly we all forget…
You say: “With Liz Cheney’s defeat a certainty, the question for the electorate is: “What is her next step?”
I sincerely hopes she stays in her party. The country needs strong Republicans. Perhaps a Presidential run?”
Mother Jones says: “Liz Cheney Wants to Make Torture Great Again” https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/01/liz-cheney-congress-donald-trump-torture/
Baudrillard the philosopher wrote that the function of Disneyland is to fool people into thinking the rest of society is real (natural). I think Trump’s function is to fool people into thinking the rest of the government (Democrats included) is honest and decent. 😊
If you do post this, and you don’t have to of course, my name is ‘Anonymous old-school lefty.’
Love you,
Anonymous old school lefty
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Social Life
I enjoyed a coffee with a friend this afternoon. Wed and Thurs I’m alone, and then my daughter comes in for three nights.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
I love deadlines.
I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.
~Douglas Adams
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
This from our beloved movie critic/gamer, Tucker J:
Hi Dom,
I spent a lot of time this weekend with a video game from 2018 called Red Dead Redemption 2. It’s one of my favorite games of all time and after spending 2 concentrated days revisiting it for the first time since its release I decided to do some writing about it.
I hope you enjoy what I’ve written.
Blog meister responds: Yippee! See Tucker’s review below under Short Essay
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Monday my cousin Lauren and I drove to Ogunquit for a walk along the Marginal Way and dinner at Clay Hill Farm. Dinner was more delicious than in the past. Far more.
Not least pleasing: a most delicious hot fudge sundae with homemade hot fudge and caramel sauces, their own salted, toasted pecans, and hand-beaten whipped cream. It was brilliant. I wish I had another right now.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Chinese Opera in Boston
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Short Essay*
“All of you venerate savagery, and you will die savagely.”
Red Dead Redemption 2 is Rockstar Games’ opus. Though the studio is still very much in existence and churning out hit game after hit game I fear and relish the fact that they will never produce a work as monumental as this. Red Dead 2 is exhaustively detailed and exhaustingly beautiful, a mammoth construction of which every nook and cranny has been polished to an unnerving shimmer. It is a stirring tribute to our world’s natural beauty, and a grim acknowledgment of our own starring role in its destruction. It tells a worthy and affecting story that weaves dozens of character-driven narrative threads into an epic tapestry across many miles and almost as many months. When the sun sets and the tale has been told, it leaves players with a virtual wild-west playground so convincingly rendered and filled with surprises that it seems boundless. It is defiantly slow-paced, exuberantly unfun, and wholly unconcerned with catering to the needs or wants of its players. It is also captivating, poignant, and at times shockingly entertaining.
The year is 1899, a decade before the events of the first game. Our hero this time around is a weathered slab of handsome named Arthur Morgan a respected lieutenant in the notorious Van der Linde gang. Arthur was taken in by the gang as a kid and raised on violence, but is, of course, blessed with an antihero’s requisite softer, thoughtful side.
Things look grim from the start. The gang is hiding out in the mountains, on the run from the law after a botched bank robbery left them penniless, down a few men, and with a price on all their heads. After surviving a brutal early spring in the snow, Dutch, the gang’s leader, Arthur, and the rest of the crew set about rebuilding a new encampment in the green meadows near the town of Valentine. “Rebuilding” really means robbing and looting, of course, and things inevitably escalate. The gang’s antics eventually bring the law down on them, forcing them to relocate yet again. Thus, the narrative finds its structure, driven by the wearying rhythms of escalation, confrontation, and relocation. The caravan is driven east—yes, east—through grasslands and plantations, to swamps, cities, and beyond.
Each time they move, Dutch promises that things will be different. This time, they’ll find their peaceful paradise and settle down. If they can just get some money, of course. If they can just pull off one big score. You understand, don’t you? What would you have him do? His lies become increasingly transparent the more emphatically he tells them. Dutch is selling the dream of an “unspoiled paradise” without acknowledging that he and his gang spoil everything they touch. By the end, his hypocrisy has become sickening, and the many ways Arthur and his fellow gang members wrestle with and justify their continued allegiance to Dutch undergird some of Red Dead 2’s most striking and believable drama.
Arthur may be the story’s protagonist, but Red Dead Redemption 2 is an ensemble drama. The Van der Linde gang is more than just another Pekinpah-esque clutch of scoundrels on horseback; it’s a community, a mobile encampment consisting of about 20 men, women, and children, each with their own story, desires, and role. There are villains and psychopaths, drunks, and miscreants, dreamers, runaways, and lost souls just looking to survive. Each character has their own chances to shine, particularly for players who take the time to get to know them all. From the cook to the lay-about to the loan shark, each has become real to me in a way fictional characters rarely do.
These characters are all people, and they’re dealing with things people dealt with at the turn of the century in America. Their lives were hard, and most of their stories ended badly. That’s just how it went. Precious moments of kindness and generosity seem all the more precious against that dark backdrop, but even those are few and far between. What starts outside Valentine as a dreamy cowboy fantasy quickly becomes a weary parable about entropy, villainy, and the death of a lie.
Dutch’s gang lives at the fringes of society, out in the sort of untamed wilderness that is becoming harder and harder to find. Red Dead Redemption 2 contains the most bracingly beautiful depictions of nature I have ever seen in a video game and is happy to juxtapose that beauty with the ugly, violent human ambition that will eventually subjugate and destroy it.
There is something ironic about a technologically stunning piece of digital entertainment in which the characters constantly lament the relentless progress that will eventually lead to the development of the television and the microchip; the very progress that will allow video games like this one to exist. It reveals something deep and true about our conflicted consumer culture, that some of its finest art righteously castigates the very systems that brought it into being. Red Dead Redemption 2 may be ultimately—or even necessarily—unable to resolve that paradox, but it is more than willing to embrace and attempt to dismantle it.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is primarily a story about nature. Human nature, but also the natural world, and the catastrophic ways the two intersect. It is an often unbearably wistful homage to a long-lost era, not of human history, but of the Earth itself. It pines for a time when the wind carried only the scents of animals and cookfires, when the world was rich and its bounty seemed limitless, when the night sky was thick with stars and unmarred by light pollution. We do not live in that world if we ever did. Every year it gets hotter; every year the storms are worse; every year it gets harder to breathe. We are careening towards ruin and no one seems able to stop us. Those with the power to lead appear too blinkered and self-interested to care.
Midway through the story, Arthur and Dutch arrive at the city of Saint Denis. “There she is, a real city,” spits Dutch. “The future.” The camera cuts away for our first look at this much-talked-about metropolis. The men have not been greeted with bright lights or theater marquees; they have been met with smokestacks, soot, and the deep groans of industry. An ominous, keening tone dominates the soundtrack. After hours spent freely riding in the open air, it is shocking.
Several hours later, I departed Saint Denis and made my return to camp. As Arthur rode, the city outskirts gradually gave way to thickening underbrush. I began to see fewer buildings, and more trees. Before long Arthur and I were once again enfolded by the forest. It was twilight, and the wind was shushing through the trees. A thick fog rolled in, and emerald leaves swirled across the path ahead. I heard rumbles through my headphones; a storm was brewing. Alone in my office, I took a deep breath. I wondered if I would ever taste air as clean as the air Arthur was breathing at that moment.
It is human nature to pursue greatness, even when that pursuit brings destruction. It is also human nature to pursue achievement as an end unto itself. Red Dead Redemption 2 is in some ways emblematic of those pursuits, and of their hollowness. The game is saying that progress is a cancer and that humanity poisons all that it touches, but it was forged at the apex of human progress. Its gee-whiz technical virtuosity has a built-in expiration date, and in ten years’ time, the cracks in its facades will be much more apparent. At unimaginable cost and with unsustainable effort, it establishes a new high-water mark that will perpetuate the entertainment industry’s relentless pursuit of more, accelerating a technological arms race that can only end at an inevitable, unfathomable breaking point.
But there is a pulse pumping through this techno-artistic marvel. This game has heart; the kind of heart that is difficult to pin down but impossible to deny. It is a wonderful story about terrible people, and a vivacious, tremendously sad tribute to nature itself. There is so much beauty and joy in this expensive, exhausting thing. Somehow that makes it even more perfect—a breathtaking eulogy for a ruined world, created by, about, and for a society that ruined it.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Wednesday, August 17, 2022
Welcome to the 1,533rd consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Anne Heche
Actress Anne Heche at NBCUniversal's 2014 Summer TCA Tour on July 14, 2014
Mingle Media TV - https://www.flickr.com/photos/minglemediatv/14674159662
CC BY 2.0
File:Anne Heche July 14, 2014 (cropped).jpg
Created: 14 July 2014
About Media Viewer
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Commentary
With Liz Cheney’s defeat a certainty, the question for the electorate is: “What is her next step?”
I sincerely hopes she stays in her party. The country needs strong Republicans. Perhaps a Presidential run?
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Reading
I am 80% done with Shogun. I’m greatly enjoying it.
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Writing
I’m focusing on my trip to Japan, now just two months away. I’ve started a day-by-day calendar.
There is an awful lot to sort out.
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Wellness
I’m feeling very well.
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Understanding aging
On Monday, my cousin Lauren got worried when I took too long to return her text.
On Saturday past, when participating in a game of Pickleball which requires players to bend over to retrieve thrown bean bags, my niece Stephanie urged me not to pick up the bean bags. “I’ll do the bending, “ she said.
People close to me responding to my age.
I love it.
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Social Life
Monday morning cousin Lauren emailed me. I hadn’t answered her text. The result?
Her girlfriend and two small children joined Lauren at my pool. When they went home, Lauren and I drove to Ogunquit.
Both expeditions totally spontaneous.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
Originality is the fine art of remembering what you hear but
forgetting where you heard it.
Laurence J. Peter
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
Got several emails from my nephews and nieces: all loved the Annual Barbecue event this past Saturday.
Blog meister responds: I loved it as well.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
On Sunday I returned to Ga Ga in Chinatown.
I ate their large Shrimp in Lobster Sauce and their Fried Chinese Vegetables.
Neither were new to me.
Both we are delicious as I remembered and hoped for.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Chinese Celebration in Boston's Chinatown August 14 2022
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Short Essay*
Anne Celeste Heche (May 25, 1969 – August 12, 2022) was an American actress. She first came to recognition portraying twins Vicky Hudson and Marley Love on the soap opera Another World (1987–1991), winning her a Daytime Emmy Award and two Soap Opera Digest Awards. She achieved greater prominence in the late 1990s with roles in the crime drama film Donnie Brasco (1997), the disaster film Volcano (1997), the slasher film I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), the political satire film Wag the Dog (1997), the action comedy film Six Days, Seven Nights (1998), and the drama-thriller film Return to Paradise (1998).
Following her portrayal of Marion Crane in Gus Van Sant's horror remake film Psycho (1998), which earned her a Saturn Award nomination, Heche went on to have roles in many well-received independent films, such as the drama film Birth (2004), the sex comedy film Spread (2009), Cedar Rapids (2011), the drama film Rampart (2011), and the black comedy film Catfight (2016). She received acclaim for her role in the television film Gracie's Choice, which earned her a Primetime Emmy Award nomination, and for her work on Broadway, particularly in a restaging of the play Twentieth Century, for which she received a Tony Award nomination.
In addition to her film roles, Heche starred in the comedy drama television series Men in Trees (2006–2008), Hung (2009–2011), Save Me (2013), Aftermath (2016), and the military drama television series The Brave (2017).[4] She lent her voice to the animated television series The Legend of Korra (2014), where she voiced Suyin Beifong, and appeared as a contestant in the 29th season of Dancing with the Stars (2020).
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Tuesday, August 16, 2022
Welcome to the 1,532nd consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Christopher Walken
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Commentary
Must everything be politicized?
So many people expressing so many unfounded ideas without knowing the facts.
So quick to ascribe evil to government agencies.
Tries your patience.
In this case, the Republican clamor may cause DOJ to reveal things damaging to Trump’s public image.
The party will certainly lose traction the Law and Order party.
Important to remember that in America we have a presumption of innocence.
Trump has been proven guilty of nothing yet.
There is this is a squirmy question, “Why have docs at Mar a Lago?”
Kind of shifts the burden to Trump to answer that question satisfactorily.
The raid implies that Trump is a suspect.
That he is possibly dangerous, false.
That he is a loser.
Because he comes out of this a loser.
Despite having stirred up the hornets’ nest of crazies, Donald comes out a loser.
Jan 6 and now a raided home with complete justification for the raid, Donald loses lots of Law and Order people, especially among law enforcement.
I believe that s number of specific charges will be filed from this raid, many of them having enough weight to make a number of prima facie cases that will each cancel his presumptions of innocence.
So what’s in store?
The crazies will strut around with the armament their respective states permit. They will parade in front of the FBI offices. There may be sporadic and unconnected attacks leading to injuries and deaths. Maybe.
But in the end, the big “L” on Donald’s forehead will grow like Pinocchio’s nose.
Even if the crazies threaten judges and jurors.
L L L Losers, all of them.
Perhaps the DOJ will isolate the cases most certain to be proven beyond a reasonable and expedite their filings. That will have the effect of restricting Donald’s ability to leave the country.
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Screen time
I am watching The Outlaws. It is well-done. This is what standard television fare should look and feel like.
I am enjoying it.
The only sadness is to see my favorite Christopher Walken in an acceptable role giving an acceptable performance.
Walken fans, and there are many and we are rabid, realize this comment as damning with faint praise. Walken displays none of that strangeness the is the hallmark of so many of his roles.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
Between two evils,
I always pick the one I never tried before.
~Mae West
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Saturday dinner at our family’s annual barbecue provided me with my son’s Lasagna and meatballs, a culinary standard, a delicious burger made to my order with love by my niece, Cammie, scrumptious chicken drumsticks, steak tips, grilled shrimp w special sauce, hot dogs, a cake from Modern pastry, and more that I cannot remember.
We ate all day. And relished everything.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Latin music in the Boston Common
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Short Essay*
Christopher Walken (born Ronald Walken; March 31, 1943) is an American actor. Prolific in films, television and on stage, Walken is the recipient of numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, as well as nominations for two Primetime Emmy Awards and two Tony Awards. His films have grossed more than $1.6 billion in the United States alone.
Walken has appeared in supporting roles in films such as The Anderson Tapes (1971), Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976), Roseland (1977) and Annie Hall (1977) before coming to wider attention as the troubled Vietnam War veteran Nick Chevotarevich in The Deer Hunter (1978). His performance earned him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He was nominated for the same award for portraying con artist Frank Abagnale's father in Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can (2002).
Since his breakthrough, Walken has appeared in films in various genres, both in lead and supporting roles, including The Dogs of War (1980), The Dead Zone (1983), A View to a Kill (1985), At Close Range (1986), Biloxi Blues (1988), King of New York (1990), The Comfort of Strangers (1990), Batman Returns (1992), True Romance (1993), Pulp Fiction (1994), Suicide Kings (1997), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Man on Fire (2004), Wedding Crashers (2005), Hairspray (2007), Seven Psychopaths (2012), A Late Quartet (2012), the first three Prophecy films and Percy (2020). He has also provided voice work in Antz (1998) and The Jungle Book (2016)
On television, Walken has appeared in television films such as Who Am I This Time? (1982) and Sarah, Plain and Tall (1991), for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. More recently, he has starred in television series The Outlaws (2021-) and Severance (2022-), the latter of which earned him a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series nomination. He is a popular guest-host of Saturday Night Live, hosting seven times. His most notable roles on the show include record producer Bruce Dickinson in the "More Cowbell" sketch; the disgraced Confederate officer Colonel Angus; and multiple appearances in the Continental sketch.
As a stage actor, Walken has played the lead in the Shakespeare plays Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet and Coriolanus. His performance in the original rendition of James Joyce's The Dead (2000) earned him a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical nomination. He was nominated for Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his role in Martin McDonagh's A Behanding in Spokane (2010). He also wrote and played the lead role in the 1995 play Him about his idol Elvis Presley.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Monday, August 15, 2022
Welcome to the 1,531st consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Joe Biden
U.S. President Joe Biden's official portrait, 2021
Adam Schultz - https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/president-biden/ (direct download link)
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Commentary
Despite current polls, counting the wins in the last ten days, Joe Biden has had a terrific first two years as President. More amazing considering the acts of God thrown in his way, not the least of which was the two-year pandemic. Hopefully, his successes will percolate through the electorate.
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Reading
I finished reading “Japan, customs and culture,” and finished entering notes from the reading into my itinerary for Japan.
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Wellness
I asked my medical team: Given the discovery of the polio virus in NY and given that I never got vaccinated for polio, should I get vaccinated now? I’m waiting a reply.
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Social Life
Friday I had an excellent cup of coffee with my friend Tommy. He’s doing well.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
People who think they know everything are
a great annoyance to those of us who do.
~Isaac Asimov
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
After two years of the pandemic and shunning restaurants, I find myself reluctant to prepare meals. Have been enjoying Ga Ga in Boston’s Chinatown, Mr. Bartley’s Burger’s in Harvard Sq, Douzo in Copley Square, Abe and Louie’s in Boston, and La Voile on Newbury St.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
moon rising on public garden
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Short Essay*
Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (/ˈbaɪdən/ BY-dən; born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who is the 46th and current president of the United States since 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 47th vice president from 2009 to 2017 under President Barack Obama and represented Delaware in the United States Senate from 1973 to 2009.
Biden was born and raised in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and moved with his family to New Castle County, Delaware, in 1953 when he was ten years old. He studied at the University of Delaware before earning his law degree from Syracuse University in 1968. He was elected to the New Castle County Council in 1970 and became the sixth-youngest senator in U.S. history after he was elected to the United States Senate from Delaware in 1972, at age 29. Biden was the chair or ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for 12 years. He also chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee from 1987 to 1995, dealing with drug policy, crime prevention, and civil liberties issues; led the effort to pass the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act and the Violence Against Women Act; and oversaw six U.S. Supreme Court confirmation hearings, including the contentious hearings for Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas. He ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988 and 2008. Biden served seven Senate terms, and was the fourth-most senior sitting senator at the time when he became Obama's vice president after they won the 2008 presidential election, defeating John McCain and Sarah Palin. Obama and Biden were reelected in 2012, defeating the Republican ticket of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.
During his two terms as vice president under Barack Obama, Biden leaned on his Senate experience and frequently represented the administration in negotiations with congressional Republicans, including on the Budget Control Act of 2011, which resolved a debt ceiling crisis, and the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, which addressed the impending "fiscal cliff". He also oversaw infrastructure spending in 2009 to counteract the Great Recession. On foreign policy, Biden was a close counselor to the president and took a leading role in designing the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq in 2011. In 2017, Obama awarded Biden the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction.
Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris defeated incumbent president Donald Trump and vice president Mike Pence in the 2020 presidential election. He is the oldest president and the first to have a female vice president. Biden proposed, lobbied for and signed into law the American Rescue Plan Act to help the United States recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent recession. He proposed the American Jobs Plan, aspects of which were incorporated into the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which was also signed into law. He nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. Biden proposed an expansion of the social safety net, but those efforts, along with voting rights legislation, failed in Congress in 2021. In 2022, elements of Biden's plan were incorporated into the Inflation Reduction Act, which accomplished several long-sought Democratic policy goals. Biden also signed other bipartisan pieces of legislature including the PACT Act (veterans health care), the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (gun reform) and the CHIPS and Science Act (industrial policy). In foreign policy, Biden restored the U.S. into the Paris Agreement on climate change. He completed the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and responded to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 by imposing sanctions on Russia and authorizing foreign aid and weapons shipments to Ukraine.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Sunday, August 14, 2022
Welcome to the 1,530th consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Merrick Garland
Official Portrait of Attorney General Merrick Garland
United States Department of Justice - https://www.justice.gov/ag/bio/attorney-general-merrick-b-garland
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Commentary
Young people should begin their careers and their adult lives full of optimism and energy. Instead, societal failures cause many youngsters start their adult lives in a deep hole that may negatively impact the first ten years of their lives, and beyond.
College is a necessity for a large segment of our population and should not cost the first ten years of someone’s adult life.
Let’s figure some acceptable way to alleviate the crushing burden of existing student debt.
Let’s provide public college education at less than an annual tuition of $10,000.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
I can resist everything except temptation.
~Oscar Wilde
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Wellness
I may be allergic to something. I’ve had a cold for three years running.
I sent this to my medical team on Friday.
Doctor says if it’s only a nuisance live with it.
I agree with him.
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Social Life
Friday, coffee with a dear friend.
Saturday: barbecue with nephews and nieces.
Monday: Coffee with a friend.
Friday, the 19th, three days with my daughter and some with niece and family.
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
This from a dear friend and a wonderful human being who has strong feelings re: Christopher Columbus. His views are well-stated:
Hi Dom,
I thought I would share this article on Columbus that I wrote and was published in Primo magazine.I don't know if you were aware of a bill that was pending to eliminate Columbus Day as a State Holiday, but, we killed it. Never got out for a vote.
See you later at 1.
Tommy
PRIMO Magazine
For and About Italian Americans
By: Tom Damigella
VP Italian American Alliance
No one can deny Columbus' discovery of the New World had a long-term impact on the Indigenous People of North and South America. It was Columbus's life-long mission to discover a shorter sea route to the Far East, not only for new trade, but, also, to find an unobstructed path to Jerusalem, then occupied by the Muslims. Not only was Columbus an incredible navigator who brought his crew safely to an unknown world, he was a pious Christian whose devotion was to spread the word of God.
It was never in this man's heart to brutalize, rape, or, as some people have accused him of, creating purposeful genocide. Columbus was a noble man who was nothing like the villainous exploiter as attributed to him by Howard Zinn in “A People’s History of the United States.” This character assassination has unfortunately been repeated unwittingly by those who use just eight pages of Zinn's book to teach the life and times of Columbus.
That's right. Zinn wrote only eight pages of unmerciful lies and misinformation about Columbus to set the stage for a smear campaign against the United States. He wanted people to believe that the United States, along with the whole Western World, were nothing more than executioners of all minority people. In order to defame America, Zinn had to first defame Columbus.
Tragically, some 90 percent of the native population died of diseases brought here by explorers and settlers from Europe. The Indigenous People lacked the natural immunity to withstand such epidemics as Small Pox and Malaria. There was no intent on the part of Columbus, not to mention other explorers and settlers, to purposely inflict these diseases upon the natives. This cannot be called an act of genocide, but, rather another example of the Tragedy of History. The Black Death of 1345 to 1347 was transmitted from China to eventually kill up to one third of the European population. (Sound familiar?) It was estimated that 25 million people died in a five year period! This was horrific, but should we blame China or accuse Chinese historical figures of genocide? Of course not. It was due to microbes, not people.
These facts are not meant to excuse the many broken treaties and wars against Native Americans by the United States government. Rather, my point is to bring intellectual precision to this historical discussion of Columbus.
Yes, there were atrocities committed against the Taino people, but not by Columbus. Indeed, he went so far as to ally himself with the tribes of Hispaniola against their historical enemies, the Caribs. Columbus sought only to befriend and treat fairly the Taino. He made efforts to baptize the Taino into the Christian faith to make illegal their enslavement. He never threatened to cut off their hands or forced them to dig gold. These are lies and myths. Columbus never owned any slaves, although at that time, human bondage was acceptable in every corner of the world. Columbus never raped or condoned the raping of Taino women. He punished his own men who rebelled against his authority to commit such felonies. This is all recorded and documented by Bartolomé de las Casas, a Spanish priest who lived in the 16th century to publish a personal account of the Indies. Father de las Casas attributed most crimes to the conquistadors who followed Columbus to the New World.
An extensive list of scholarly sources are available today that support my viewpoint. For instance, the eight page defamation of Columbus by Howard Zinn is thoroughly disproved by such works as “Debunking Howard Zinn Fake History,” by Mary Grabar, “Columbus Hero,” by Rafael Ortiz, “Columbus and His Quest for Jerusalem” by Carol Delaney and “Admiral of the Sea” by Samuel Morrison, just to name a few.
To solely lay the blame on Columbus for the inhumane acts, wars and conflicts to occur after his death because of mass migration, the clash of cultures and the introduction of diseases is absurd on its face and libelous in its action.
Columbus is a legitimate historical figure who helped change the world for the better. The positive contributions to humankind far outweigh the unfortunate tragedies that came with development and discovery of the New World.
Yes, Native Americans deserve to have their day of special recognition for us to proudly celebrate their culture, history and heritage. They remain a significant part of the United States. Such recognition can and must be formalized, but not at the expense and insult to Italian American communities who have so proudly associated themselves with Columbus for more than 130 years.
It is unfortunate that some people do not understand the historical connection of Columbus to our grandparent’s generation who endured incredible oppression and bigotry. This emotional connection of pride to Columbus cannot be ignored if one is to truly understand why we defend Columbus against uninformed and misguided critics.
Since our nation's founding, we have honored Columbus by naming cities, buildings and statues for his discovery of the New World. Because of Columbus, the United States has existed to do more for the betterment of all people than any society or nation in the history of the world. The world is a far better place because of America, regardless of Zinn's poisonous telling of our country’s history.
The efforts made by those, today, who use Columbus as their scapegoat to push a political agenda is unnecessary and unwarranted.
We are all better than that. The time is now for a more sensible effort of intellectual precision to convey the greater truth of Columbus.
Editor’s Note: The author was a key leader in the successful effort to stop the most recent attempt in Massachusetts to change Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day. The Italian American Alliance web site is https://www.theitalianamericanalliance.com
Blog meister responds: Well thought out, my friend. Thank you for sharing.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
I had really looked forward to a roasted prime rib dinner with the bone.
The bone is a critical piece to this.
Abe and Louie’s is one of the few restaurants in Boston that offers a Prime Rib roast, and only on Thursday dinner, They do not offer a slice with a bone.
They must buy their Rib Roast boneless.
The food was very good but without the bone the meal is not traditional and not as wonderful
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Community Photos**
walkin in the woods
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Short Essay*
Merrick Brian Garland (born November 13, 1952) is an American lawyer and jurist serving as the 86th United States attorney general beginning in March 2021. He served as a circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1997 to 2021.
A native of the Chicago area, Garland attended Harvard University for his undergraduate and legal education. After serving as a law clerk to Judge Henry J. Friendly of the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr., he practiced corporate litigation at Arnold & Porter and worked as a federal prosecutor in the Department of Justice, where he played a leading role in the investigation and prosecution of the Oklahoma City bombers. Garland was appointed to the D.C. Circuit in March 1997 by President Bill Clinton, and served as its chief judge from 2013 to 2020.
President Barack Obama, a Democrat, nominated Garland to serve as an associate justice of the Supreme Court in March 2016 to fill the vacancy created by the death of Antonin Scalia. However, the Republican Senate majority refused to hold a hearing or vote on his nomination. The unprecedented refusal of a Senate majority to consider the nomination was highly controversial. Garland's nomination lasted 293 days (the longest to date by far), and it expired on January 3, 2017, at the end of the 114th Congress. Eventually, President Donald Trump, a Republican, nominated Neil Gorsuch to the vacant seat and the Republican Senate majority confirmed him.
President Joe Biden nominated Garland as attorney general in January 2021. He was confirmed by the Senate and took office in March.
*The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Community Pictures with Captions are sent in by our followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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