Things On My Mind, Saturday, October 8, 2022

1. My father, Jeronimo Diaz-Granados, would have been 103 years old tomorrow. Even if he had not died 57 years ago (20 days before my second birthday, at that), I doubt that he would have lived to be 103. Still, if the air freight company – AESA – that he flew for had exercised due diligence with the maintenance and loading procedures necessary for the safe operation of its sole Curtiss C-46 Commando, I wonder how long he might have lived
2. My mother, Beatriz Diaz-Granados, outlived my father by 50 years, 5 months, and 6 days
3. Conservatives prefer mythology and half-truths to real history. That’s why so many of them, who are mostly white, wealthy, and in positions of power, are so up in arms about keeping certain topics out of the classroom, including America’s immigration policies, race relations (including the history of slavery in the U.S.), the near extermination of Native Americans, and the shameful treatment of European Jews who tried to come to these shores in the early years of the Nazi era
4. Donald J. Trump is likely to go down in history as the worst President in U.S. history. At best, he can hope to be remembered as the second worst, with the totally useless James Buchanan (1857-1861) holding on grimly to the top spot only because he did nothing to prevent the American Civil War
5. To Republicans who, six years after the 2016 election, still doubt that Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian regime in Russia interfered in that year’s election in favor of Donald Trump, here’s a thought. Apply the legal concept of Cui bono (Latin for “to whom is it a benefit?”): Why would Putin – or any Russian official, for that matter – want a man like Trump in the Oval Office? There are various reasons, but the most obvious one is that Putin (who was a KGB intelligence officer during the Cold War) was aware that Trump’s abrasiveness, divisiveness, and inexperience with how government works would weaken, not strengthen, the U.S. at a time when Russia most needed a weak and vacillating Western response to Putin’s attempts to conquer Ukraine. I doubt that Putin likes Trump personally, but he does like Trump’s proven incompetence and maladroitness. With America looking inward and preoccupied with Trump-related chaos, its foreign policy hamstrung by Trump’s antipathy to the various commitments the U.S. has in Europe and elsewhere, NATO and the European Union could not deter Russia from its “special military operation” in Ukraine
6. I think Ken Burns is a national treasure. I have not seen all his documentaries, but the ones I have watched (and the ones I own on home media) are a testament to his dedication to go beyond the vanilla, white-centric, romanticized version of American history that conservatives cling to so desperately. If you have never seen a Ken Burns documentary, these are the titles I most recommend: The Civil War (1990), The Central Park Five (2012), Baseball (1994-2010), The War (2007), Jazz (2001), The Roosevelts: An Intimate History (2014), The Vietnam War (2017), Prohibition (2011), and Hemingway (2021).
7. Depression suppresses the creative impulse   
8. Even though I have a fascination with blondes, I’ve never slept with a blonde