Napping in America

It was just another normal day in the life of an elderly person. Repeated text messages had alerted me that two of my prescriptions were ready to be picked up at the local Safeway pharmacy. But when we arrived at the pick-up window the attractive young pharmacist informed me that her system indicated that I no longer qualified for Medicare. 

"Why is that?" my daughter piped up. "He certainly is isn't getting any younger."

I wished she had not put it exactly that way but I smiled at the attractive young pharmacist and asked her to try and figure out why. After a few more tries she said she just couldn't do that so she advised that I should call the 1-800 number on the back of my red, white and blue Medicare ID card.

But I've been carrying that red, white and blue ID card around in my wallet for so many years that the 1-800 number is so faint as to qualify as invisible ink, but using my superpowers as an investigative reporter I discerned it anyway.

It was roughly a good hour and half later and several dropped calls when the most recent actual human being to try to help me figured out that the Medicare system had determined that I no longer lived in an area that qualified for prescription benefits, which struck me as a far bigger story than my particular quandary.

I started to compose the headline: "San Francisco Bay Area No Longer Legally Part of the U.S. or its Possessions."

Since it's been a while since I broke a big story myself I was licking my chops when it dawned on me this whole mess was probably just a computer error somewhere along the winding road from AARP to Medicare to Plan D to me.

Well, to make a long story short enough to tell here, the most recent actual human being to try and help me came up with a creative solution. "Why don't I just enroll you in a new Medicare Plan D right now?"

That sounded fine to me. Out with the old, in with the new, as I allowed myself to be re-enrolled in that which I already was enrolled in with the same address I always use. Of course, it all will be deducted from my monthly social security check, assuming something doesn't happen to *that* on its way from the federal government to the same address that I always use.

As I carefully inserted the old red, white and blue ID card with the faded 1-800 number on the back into my wallet, I thought to myself how happy I am I paid into those great big entitlement programs for 55 years.

Even though that apparently landed me outside of the legal U.S. territory and its possessions.

***

Should prosecutors ever succeed in cornering Trump and charging him for even a few of his numerous crimes, I've no doubt he will be declared mentally unfit to stand trial. I know this because although I may technically qualify as an elderly person, he is a lot more elderly and demented than I will ever be.

Numerous reports this week reveal that the Joint Chiefs of Staff fought back against his plan to start a war with Iran in order to hold on to power after he lost the election to Biden. Drip by drip the enormity of this demagogue's machinations are emerging, and they make it crystal that he is completely mad.

The problem for those of us who care about democracy is that even if and when Trump himself goes away somehow someday, the forces that propelled him into power will remain. 

Millions of Americans, mainly white and mainly living outside our major metropolitan areas feel angry, left-out and resentful. What they have been left out of is not exactly clear to me, but I can tell they feel angry and resentful.

Now, unfortunately, they also will be getting sick, at least those who stubbornly refuse to be vaccinated against the virus that causes Covid-19. Since I carefully read the reports coming in every day, I know the data indicates that the U.S.-manufactured vaccines prevent the delta variant and other mutations from making us ill, but that leaves the unvaccinated extremely vulnerable to the virus, which will hone in on them as its new victims.

This is the modern insanity that grips our culture, and in no small measure it is Trump's fault, for dismissing the virus as "fake" and politicizing what should have been a unified stand against a common enemy.

But he did what he did; his followers won't do what they won't do, and not even an attractive young pharmacist or a red, white and blue Medicare card can fix the disease that grips this country, I'm afraid.

I feel bad about all of this but what can I do? After all, it's gotten to be time for a midsummer's nap.

***

* What makes humans unique? Just 7% of our DNA is unique to modern humans, study shows -- The researchers also found that an even smaller fraction of our genome — just 1.5% — is both unique to our species and shared among all people alive today. Those slivers of DNA may hold the most significant clues as to what truly distinguishes modern human beings. (AP)

* Hundreds Missing and Scores Dead as Raging Floods Strike Western Europe -- Strong rains caused rivers to burst their banks and wash away buildings in Belgium and Germany, where at least 1,300 remained missing. Homes and streets in the Netherlands and Switzerland also flooded. (NYT)

* Rescuers race to prevent more death from European floods (AP)

* Democrats push sweeping climate legislation amid a scorching summer (WP)

* Greenland suspends oil exploration because of climate change (AP)

* Drought and Heat Fuel Dozens of Wildfires -- Over 60 active fires are burning across the Western United States, displacing hundreds of people and burning over 900,000 acres, with hot, dry conditions expected to continue. (Reuters)

* Authorities in southeastern Oregon ordered a new round of evacuations amid worries that the Bootleg Fire could merge with another blaze that's spreading miles a day in windy conditions. The Bootleg Fire has now torched an area larger than New York City and has stymied firefighters for nearly a week. [AP]

* The Amazon rainforest is the world’s carbon sink. Parts of it now release more carbon than can be absorbed. (WP)

* Biden to Restore Protections for Tongass National Forest in Alaska -- Trump invited mining and logging to a vast wilderness of bald eagles, black bears and 800-year-old trees. President Biden is reversing course. (NYT)

*The Key to Avoiding Future Climate Disasters? Adapting-- Wildfires, floods and other crises are influenced by climate change, but we can do much more to save lives and property by focusing on urgent practical changes on the ground. (WSJ)

* The health and climate consequences of the American food system cost three times as much as the food itself (WP)

* Los Angeles County said residents will be required to wear masks indoors once more, regardless of vaccination status, amid the spread of the highly contagious delta variant of COVID-19. The new ordinance comes about a month after California dropped most restrictions for vaccinated people. Los Angeles County is averaging more than 1,000 new cases a day, a sharp increase from the average of 173 cases per day when the state was still under virus restrictions in mid-June. [HuffPost]

* American democracy survived its Reichstag fire on Jan. 6. But the threat has not subsided. (WP)

* Texas Should Be a Warning to Democrats Everywhere -- America should pay attention to what has gone awfully wrong in the Lone Star State. (NYT)

* Trump Lawyers Who Spread False Election Claims Are Now Defending Themselves In Court (NPR)

* Two men charged in alleged plot to firebomb California Democratic Party headquarters (WP)

* Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) was detained by U.S. Capitol Police while protesting for voting rights alongside other Black women at a Senate office building in Washington. Beatty tweeted a photo of herself being zip-tied by police with the message: “Let the people vote. Fight for justice.” [HuffPost]

* Apple Has a Growing Homeless Encampment on Its Property in San Jose (Vice)

* White House says Facebook's steps to stop vaccine misinformation are inadequate (Reuters)

* Young Cuban activists carry on the fight for freedom started by their parents and grandparents (WP)

* Pulitzer Prize-winning Reuters journalist Danish Siddiqui was killed on Friday while covering a clash between Afghan security forces and Taliban fighters near a border crossing with Pakistan, an Afghan commander said. (Reuters, NPR)

*  “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged),” debuting this summer at the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival in Incline Village. With a cast of just three actors, the comedy will compress the playwright’s works into the time frame of a typical play — about two hours. (Sacramento Bee)

* Why is K-pop so popular? The genre’s catchy songs, savvy use of social media and dedicated fans are a formula for global success. (WP)

* So much for Donald Trump’s quest for “perfect” hair. The Biden administration is reversing a Trump-era ruleapproved after the former president complained he wasn’t getting wet enough because of limits on water flow from showerheads. (AP)

* Wreckage from TWA Flight 800 to be destroyed 25 years after crash (WP)

* Why Crash Weight Loss Programs Don't Work: Clues From Hunter-Gatherer Societies (NPR)

* Baby Has Sinking Feeling He Left Home Without Oversize Multicolor Plastic Keys (The Onion)

***

"I Don't Need Your Rockin' Chair"

Song by George Jones

Songwriters: Kerry Kurt Phillips / Frank Dycus / Billy Yates

… I don't need your rockin' chair
Your Geritol or your Medicare
Well I still got Neon in my veins
This grey hair don't mean a thing
I do my rockin' on the stage
You can't put this possum in a cage
My body's old but it ain't impaired
I don't need your rockin' chair

… I ain't ready for the junkyard yet
'Cause I still feel like a new corvette
It might take a little longer but I'll get there
Well I don't need your rockin' chair

-30-

The Dreams of Their Fathers

Many things in life are much more important than sports, of course, but not necessarily in the minds of  children of a certain age. All six of my kids competed in one sport or another, some of them in multiple sports, and a few of them at relatively elite levels.

So it was that ten years ago this week one of my sons was in Denmark celebrating with his soccer teammates after they'd won a championship in their division in the Dana Cup.

It's one of the world's largest futbol tournaments and it has been hosted in the North Jutland town of Hjørring ever since 1982.

For a kid playing soccer, it feels sort of like a junior World Cup.

It also was my 16-year-old's first trip to Europe and his longest time away from home at that time. I tried to follow his team's progress from afar, which proved to be difficult due to the time difference and the inconsistent communications we received from the kids and their coaches while they were traveling.

But the results of each match were to be posted on a page of the tournament website soon after a game was completed, as well as information about the time of the team's next game.

Most nights I was up at 2 pm, 3 pm, 4 pm, checking on the scores and then emailing a list of other parents information about how our boys were doing on the other side of the world. When they finally won the championship I screamed with joy into the night in my otherwise empty apartment.

I hope I didn't disturb my neighbors.

My son was living out one of his dreams, it's true, but he was living out one of mine as well. I never got very far in sports as a kid thanks to rheumatic fever and a heart murmur. But that didn't stop my childhood dreams from recurring decades later in the form of rooting for my kids. 

None of them went on to careers in sports; very few young people do. And they are all grown up now, some of them with kids of their own who play sports and compete for championships.

So these days my role is to be there on the sidelines cheering for my grandchildren. It's a simple proposition -- if they win we are happy, if they lose we are sad. At these games I see the dads of kids pacing on the sidelines nervously. I see moms wearing the team colors and screaming their support. Younger siblings race around the stands, oblivious that for some of the adults this is about something more than fun.

Hearts get broken out there when dreams don't come true. But the games go on, win or lose, the kids keep growing, and eventually just about all of them will leave these youthful pursuits behind as they adjust their sights on more achievable goals.

Hearts get broken in life too -- pretty much all the time. That's the way it goes and nobody is keeping score. For now, however, these childish dreams are alive. Therefore, so are some of mine.

***

THE HEADLINES: 

* Moon wobble and climate change could cause ‘double whammy’ of U.S. flooding in 2030s, NASA warns (WP) 

* How Artificial Intelligence Is Fighting Wildfires (California Today)

* A team of UCSF scientists was able to translate the unspoken words of a completely paralyzed man into written speech, a transformative step toward developing implantable brain devices that could allow people no longer able to speak to communicate fluently. (SF Chronicle)

* Vaccine deliveries rising as delta virus variant slams Asia (AP)

* ‘Vaccine hesitancy’ grows into hostility as conservatives attack efforts (WP)

* Delta Variant Widens Gulf Between ‘Two Americas’: Vaccinated and Unvaccinated (NYT)

* Dutch crime reporter De Vries dies after Amsterdam shooting (AP)

* Biden sees U.S. child tax credit as 'giant step' to counter poverty (Reuters)

* Families Are Receiving A Child Tax Credit. Janet Yellen Says It Should Be Permanent (NPR)

* Joint Chiefs head feared potential ‘Reichstag moment’ from Trump (WP)

* Authoritarianism advances as world battles the pandemic (AP)

* The Journalist Iran Allegedly Sought To Kidnap Says She Would Have Been Killed (NPR)

* 

India internet law adds to fears over online speech, privacy (AP)

* Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was deeply worried that then-President Donald Trump would refuse to leave the White House and warned colleagues he feared Trump would try to use the military to stay in office, according to excerpts from a new book. Milley, the nation’s top military officer, also compared Trump’s actions to the rise of Adolf Hitler. [HuffPost]

* Man who dangled from Senate balcony pleads guilty in Capitol riots, will cooperate against others (WP)

* Europe Unveils Plan to Shift From Fossil Fuels, Setting Up Potential Trade Spats (NYT)

* U.S. military once trained Colombians implicated in Haiti assassination plot, Pentagon says (WP)

* Evacuations for Afghans Who Helped U.S. Troops Will Begin This Month (NYT)

* Afghanistan’s neighbors wary as US seeks nearby staging area (AP)

* Democrats are readying a massive $3.5 trillion infrastructure package stuffed full of money for housing, nutrition, climate, health care, immigration, child care, and more. But passing a bill of a magnitude not seen since the Great Depression will require holding a fractious party together and could blow up at any moment. [HuffPost] 

* Schumer Proposes Federal Decriminalization of Marijuana (NYT)

* U.S. seeks to speed rooftop solar growth with instant permits (Reuters)

* At local minimum-wage rates, a worker would have to put in 79 hours a week to afford a modest one-bedroom rental, according to a new report. “One full-time job should be enough,” the report says, urging the federal government to raise the minimum wage. [HuffPost]

* The Battle Over State Voting Rights Is About the Future of Texas --The current skirmish is the latest in a tug of war being waged between the state’s increasingly Democratic cities and its deeply conservative rural areas. (NYT)

* WHO chief says it was ‘premature’ to rule out COVID lab leak (AP)

* Americans Who Still Haven’t Made Up Their Mind Gather In Massive Demonstration To Express Ambivalence (The Onion)

***

"Dreaming My Dreams"

Sung by Waylon Jennings and many others

Written by Allen Reynolds

I hope that I won't be that wrong anymore
And maybe I've learned this time
I hope that I find what I'm reaching for
The way that it is in my mind

Someday I'll get over you
I'll live to see it all through
But I'll always miss
Dreaming my dreams with you

But I won't let it change me
Not if I can
I'd rather believe in love
And give it away as much as I can
To those that I'm fondest of

Someday I'll get over you
I'll live to see it all through
But I'll always miss
Dreaming my dreams with you

Someday I'll get over you
I'll live to see it all through
But I'll always miss
Dreaming my dreams with you

-30-

Belong to Your Dreams

To survive as an investigative journalist you have to nurture your hunter instinct. At first all you may have is a whiff of a possible story, nothing at all concrete.

But as you follow that scent, something deep inside takes over and you can tell when you are the trail of your prey, when the trail has gone cold, and how you can pick it up again.

It's great exercise for your brain, which is hard-wired for this kind of work from millennia of hunting as the means of survival.

Once you get pretty good at the hunt, you will eventually bag enough trophies to fill a display case, if that suits your sensibilities. If not, they'll make great playthings for your young grandchildren.

During my career in journalism, many people told me they considered me a mentor, somebody they could approach for advise about the hunt, especially about which tactics to use and how to find the trail when it goes missing.

Of course, by asking, they became my mentor, whether they realized that or not. But I happily play the mentor role with people to this day. And I also know that's something missing in the process -- both for them and for me. Because succeeding in one more hunt is not necessarily going to satisfy the hunter in the long run.

All it achieves in the end is the realization that you are a hired gun, maybe for good and righteous purposes, but hired nonetheless and who in their right mind wants to be a gun?

What I'm talking about is the damage you do to yourself along the way, and this goes way beyond journalism to anybody who pursues a career that involves even a smidgen of ambition.

Put simply, we want and we need more than that kind of success when inevitably we confront our mortality.

Starting with the basics, even hunters need a home to come back to at the end of the day and they need someone to be there for them. If this sounds like a typical marriage with a hunter husband and a nurturing wife, it could be that for some, or the roles could be reversed, or it might be that there are two hunters or two nurturers or maybe the whole thing is all mixed up and nobody plays any conventional role, gender or otherwise.

When it comes to our private needs, a hunter is not going to find what she needs by following her brain. Logical ability, pattern-recognition skill, the discipline to close the deal -- none of that will bring her happiness or peace.

To attain those, you have to listen to your heart, as the lyrics of today's song remind me over and over again. The heart seems to generate an intuitive empathy that may directly contradict everything your hunter career has been made of as you merge at last with the hunted.

And once you confront this dilemma, you know longer can belong to your career or even the life you have built around it. You have to venture somewhere deeper, scarier, someplace that may feel like uncharted territory.

You have to belong to your dreams.

***

Binge Report: 

Four more movies. Romance as a kid ("Flipped"); a youth ("After"); and an adult ("Getting to Know You"). And then there is "Home Again" with the always lovable Reese Witherspoon. That one confuses me. Is a movie about how life is like a movie that is about how a movie is like life about life or the movies?

Or does it even matter. After all, the trouble with an actor is you never know whether she is acting or not. And the trouble with both movies and life is they have to end sometime and that is not a take. That's a hard cut.

***

As part of my mission to get everyone to interview their parents, grandparents and old friends before it's too late, one of my radio friends says that the easiest and best app comes right with your iPhone -- the "voice memo app."

Use it.

THE HEADLINES:

* EU launches big climate plan for "our children and grandchildren" (Reuters)

* Yet another major heat wave is set to roast the western U.S. and Canada by the weekend (WP)

* Drought Hits the Southwest, and New Mexico’s Canals Run Dry -- Acequias, the fabled irrigation ditches that are a cornerstone of New Mexican culture, have endured centuries of challenges. Can they survive the Southwest’s megadrought? (NYT)

* Smoke from the River fire burning north of Fresno has been visible to satellites and has prompted a health caution to San Joaquin Valley residents. (Fresno Bee)

* Hundreds of millions of marine animals were killed by the combination of intense heat and drought that hit the Western United States and Canada over the past two weeks. (NYT)

* Wildfires in US West threaten parched Native American lands (AP)

* Over 10,000 species risk extinction in Amazon, says landmark report (Reuters)

* Investigation shows scale of big food corporations' market dominance and political power --A handful of powerful companies control the majority market share of almost 80% of dozens of grocery items bought regularly by ordinary Americans, a new analysis reveals. (The Guardian)

* Iranian Agents Are Facing Charges For Their Role In A Plot To Kidnap A U.S. Journalist (NPR)

* Taliban press advances, take key border post with Pakistan (AP)

* Twitter sees jump in government demands to remove content of reporters, news outlets (Reuters)

* In Cuba, Covid-19 Stress Pushes Unrest to the Edge --The damage brought by the pandemic has inflicted deep economic adversity, as the island’s healthcare system buckles and tourism and remittances evaporate. (WSJ)

* U.S. overdose deaths hit record 93,000 in pandemic last year -- 

Overdose deaths soared to a record 93,000 last year in the midst of the COVID- 19 pandemic, the U.S. government reported Wednesday. 

That estimate far eclipses the high of about 72,000 drug overdose deaths reached the previous year and amounts to a 29% increase. (AP)

* DEMS EYE BIG EXPANSION OF MEDICARE Senate Democrats pitched a $3.5 trillion “human” infrastructure bill they intend to pass under special budget reconciliation rules that will allow them to avoid a Republican filibuster. Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of senators is drafting a separate bill that would invest about $1.1 trillion into traditional infrastructure projects. If both are passed, it will come "very, very close" to what President Joe Biden asked Democrats for, according to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. [HuffPost]

* The COVID-19 curve in the U.S. is rising again after months of decline, driven by the fast-spreading delta variant, lagging vaccination rates and Fourth of July gatherings. As parts of the country run up against deep vaccine resistance, all but two states — Maine and South Dakota — reported that case numbers have gone up over the past two weeks. 

* Schools Are Receiving $129 Billion in Stimulus Aid. Where Is It Going?

There’s money for summer schools, tutors and field trips, but other urgent needs will not be addressed. (NYT) 

* Trump Justice Dept. effort to learn source of leaks for Post stories came at end of Barr’s tenure, court documents show (WP)

* Here’s Who Will Be Left Behind in the Housing Boom -- During the pandemic, many remote workers relocated to cheaper cities, pricing out locals in the process. (NYT)

* Hope and Disappointment for the Homeless in Oakland (California Today)

* Three leading Senate Democrats are set to unveil an early version of their plans to legalize marijuana, setting up a crucial test of how far the party is willing to go to end and unwind the “war on drugs.” But there's seemingly little chance of the proposal becoming law in the immediate future, as Biden opposes legalization and many lawmakers think it's a fringe cause. [HuffPost]

* Hong Kong exodus gathers pace as thousands vote with their feet (WP)

* Russia’s most aggressive ransomware group disappeared. It’s unclear who disabled them. -- REvil, blamed for some of the most audacious attacks on the United States, suddenly cannot be found — even their negotiations with victims stopped. It is unclear if Russia or America disabled them. (NYT)

* Democratic tensions surface as House incumbents plan defense against far-left primary challengers (WP)

* Doug Jensen, a QAnon conspiracy theorist who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 in support of former Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, was ordered released on home incarceration by a federal judge. Jensen believed he was at the White House, not the Capitol, and the judge cited Jensen's lack of a grade-school level understanding of the U.S. government in the decision to release him. [HuffPost]

* The rise of Tucker Carlson as the preeminent voice of angry White America -- With the defeat of Trump and the death of Rush Limbaugh, the Fox News host has emerged as a dominant force shaping a Republican Party energized by racial resentment. (WP)

* Why Jane Goodall Still Has Hope For Us Humans (NYT Mag)

* Study Finds Majority Of Non-Shark-Related Fears Completely Unjustified (The Onion)

***

Listen to Your Heart

Roxette

Songwriters: Per Hakan Gessle / Mats Arne Persson

I know there's something in the wake of your smile
I get a notion from the look in your eyes, yeah
You've built a love but that love falls apart
Your little piece of Heaven turns too dark

Listen to your heart when he's calling for you
Listen to your heart, there's nothing else you can do
I don't know where you're going and I don't know why
But listen to your heart before you tell him goodbye

Sometimes you wonder if this fight is worthwhile
The precious moments are all lost in the tide, yeah
They're swept away and nothing is what is seems
The feeling of belonging to your dreams

Listen to your heart when he's calling for you
Listen to your heart, there's nothing else you can do
I don't know where you're going and I don't know why
But listen to your heart before you tell him goodbye

And there are voices that want to be heard
So much to mention but you can't find the words
The scent of magic, the beauty that's been (beauty that's been)
When love was wilder than the wind

Listen to your heart (take a listen to it) when he's calling for you
Listen to your heart (take a listen to it) there's nothing else you can do
I don't know where you're going and I don't know why
But listen to your heart before, oh

Listen to your heart (take a listen to it) when he's calling for you
Listen to your heart (take a listen to it) there's nothing else you can do
I don't know where you're going and I don't know why
But listen to your heart before
You tell him goodbye

Listen to your heart
Listen to your heart (take a listen to it)
Listen to your heart
Listen to your heart (take a, take a listen to it)
Listen to your heart
Listen to your heart (oh, oh)
Listen to your heart (oh, ooh, oh)
Listen to your heart (oh, oh, oh)
Listen to your heart (oh, oh)
Listen to your heart (oh, oh, oh)
Listen to your heart (oh, oh)
Listen to your heart (oh, yeah, yeah, yeah)
Listen to your heart (oh, oh)

-30-