Jack's Cache

My dad, Jack, was part of the Greatest Generation, aka the O.G. Antifa. 

Jack was drafted into the Army Air Corps in 1943. He was finally accepted after being denied a couple times over a minor medical issue.  He served in the 351st Bomb Group of the Mighty Eighth Army Air Force through the end of World War II. 

A dozen years ago I came into the possession of Jack's cache of letters home to his mother and his older sister. They've sat on my closet shelf, waiting for me to share them, and I decided now is the time. I hope that my activity on this blog project, Little Sister Resister, will diminish come January 20, 2021, and I can devote more time to this project.

One of my major regrets in life was not recording or writing down Jack's stories about being a ball-turret gunner on the belly of a B-17 over Germany. He didn't speak of his experiences for many years, and then a fountain of stories spilled forth. He died in 2002, and his stories died with him. But his letters home remain, and though he was not able to tell about his air attack missions in his letters, they give us a snapshot into the life of an airman. 

My idea for this blog is to share his actual letters, along with giving some context with regard to his and his family's life as well as to the war itself. 

We'll start with his letters in 1942, when 19-year-old Jack was working as a welder in the shipyards of Bremerton, Washington. From there, Jack will get his basic training at a few bases in the western United States before shipping overseas for combat. 

One note about the letters: the letters are still in their envelopes, and I've arranged them in chronological order according to their postmark. It may not always be in chronological order as to when he wrote them, but most likely in the order that my grandma and Auntie Bo would've received them. I'm transcribing every letter, as Jack's handwriting is really hard to read. I'll transcribe him with his spelling and punctuation. 

Thanks for taking this journey with me!  

May I introduce Jack's Cache. Here are his first letters home. 

2020 is here!

**************Happy New Year 2020**************

Clay Jones

As I begin my fourth year of blogging these weird, weird, times, I surrender to the tradition of an end-of-the-year recap. Today share my top five most-viewed posts, not of the last year but of the last three years.

#5. December 7, 2017. God Bless the United Shashe. It was an early look at his disordered speech.

#4. July 30, 2017. Tongue-Lashing: SCROTUSese Part 2. I examined the way his discourse is changing our very use of language.

#3. December 4, 2017. "O, that way madness lies; let me shun that; No more of that." -- King Lear. I sounded a warning about the new normal that we must reject.

#2. January 19, 2018. Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself. I looked at 45's physical exam, including the cognitive screening. I explained why I didn't think the screening results were valid.

...and my most-read post, by far:

#1. October 14, 2018. A feminist is anyone who recognizes the equality and full humanity of women and men. I took a look at the right's claims of harm to men from false accusation of rape in the wake of Kavenaugh. I looked at the real societal harms that men face, as well as the common false accusations that are a far bigger problem.


I've really enjoyed writing each of my 154 posts over the last three years. It has made me think and kept me sane. I thank you, my readers.

Now, let's get 2020 going!! We’ve got an election to do!

A Case For Dementia

"No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar." -- Abraham Lincoln

Earlier in this blog I outlined that SCROTUS may be suffering (well, we are all suffering...) from Malignant Narcissism.  There is also a body of thought that he may be suffering from dementia.

A fellow blogger has floated the theory, and I have to say it is quite possible! The blog post is a good analysis of his discourse, comparing SCROTUS and the last President with known dementia, Reagan, and also compares SCROTUS and his younger self, in video interviews on talk shows. I would love to see follow-up research and analysis on his hypothesis.

SCROTUS does look very much like many of my patients with dementia. If I were evaluating him, my notes would indicate that his language is often disorganized and non-specific. He uses a lot of "empty" words like "thing."  His utterances are often non-sensical. He becomes confabulatory. He becomes tangential. He is paranoid. He has trouble reading. His wandering the Whitewash House late at night and his 3am tweets that happen often might be because he is sundowning. He may also have some motor difficulties.

For the motor difficulties part, there isn't a lot of evidence, but there have been reports that SCROTUS is afraid of stairs and falling, and that he clutched Theresa May's hand for support due to fear.  Not great evidence.  But then again, motor symptoms can be more subtle than language symptoms.  I'll keep my eye out for more evidence.

As for verbal evidence, well, we have a veritable plethora! Besides the above-mentioned blog post, there have been a couple of recent interviews that show his bizarre discourse.  The transcripts were released in whole.  It is astounding how unintelligible and bizarre his language is!

The organizations released the entire transcripts, no doubt because how do you edit such bizarro stuff into meaningful, intelligible quotes?  You just can't.  Here, see for yourself: 

Here is the transcript from Time Magazine on March 22, 2017.  The interview was about his lies, and without a trace of irony he keeps on a-lyin' (or, in the dementia world, confabulating). ...when he isn't spouting nonsense, that is. Here is the transcript from an Associated Press interview this week. It is equally as non-sensical and kooky.  Go ahead, read them if you can stomach it.  I'll wait here. 

...

Bizarre, isn't it?

There's so much "huh?" in them, but here are a couple of my favorites.  From the AP interview:

TЯUMP:  But President Xi, from the time I took office, he has not, they have not been currency manipulators. Because there's a certain respect because he knew I would do something or whatever. But more importantly than him not being a currency manipulator the bigger picture, bigger than even currency manipulation, if he's helping us with North Korea, with nuclear and all of the things that go along with it, who would call, what am I going to do, say, "By the way, would you help us with North Korea? And also, you're a currency manipulator." It doesn't work that way.
AP: Right.

And one from the Time interview:

Time: But isn’t there, it strikes me there is still an issue of credibility. If the intelligence community came out and said, we have determined that so and so is the leaker here, but you are saying to me now, that you don’t believe the intelligence community when they say your tweet was wrong.
TЯUMP: I’m not saying—no, I’m not blaming. First of all, I put Mike Pompeo in. I put Senator Dan Coats in. These are great people. I think they are great people and they are going to, I have a lot of confidence in them. So hopefully things will straighten out. But I inherited a mess, I inherited a mess in so many ways. I inherited a mess in the Middle East, and a mess with North Korea, I inherited a mess with jobs, despite the statistics, you know, my statistics are even better, but they are not the real statistics because you have millions of people that can’t get a job, ok. And I inherited a mess on trade. I mean we have many, you can go up and down the ladder. But that’s the story. Hey look, in the mean time, I guess, I can’t be doing so badly, because I’m president, and you’re not. You know. Say hello to everybody OK?
Time: Thank you very much, Mr. President.

huh??

And just this morning he spoke to Dr. Peggy Annette Whitson, the NASA astronaut who holds the record for most cumulative time in space for a woman.  She was on the space station, and he sat in the Oval Office with NASA astronaut Dr. Kate Rubins, who looked like she would rather be at the dentist, and Ivanka, who was there to hold his leash.  It was painful to watch!  He could barely read the notes that were in front of him. He sounded like a third grader (apologies to third graders everywhere).  His ad-libs are just about as painful.

You can watch it here.


Others have noted Trump's difficulty reading, most hilariously by Samantha Bee:




His own doctor is no help.  In a medical exam wacky in its own right, a gastroenterologist (again, Huh??) noted that the Lump of Foul Deformity who occupies the Whitewash House “will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.”  Read The Atlantic's excellent analysis of the obviously SCROTUS-ghost-written medical exam report.

If SCROTUS's bizarre behavior is due to Malignant Narcissism, Dementia, or something else (neurosyphilis, anyone?), it is all very alarming. We should be concerned that a man so unhinged is running the country and making dangerous foreign leaders angry.

Thank you for reading! ...and keep up the Resistance! 

"The history of liberty is a history of resistance." - Woodrow Wilson

Welcome to my Little Corner of the Resistance!

I am a Citizen, Mother, Daughter, Little Sister, Resister, and a Woman Ready to Act.

Since the election on November 8, 2016, my emotions have been overwhelmed. I've been scared, disgusted, worried, angered, saddened, and overall outraged, as so many of us have. I have felt overwhelmed and anxious, not knowing what I can do to help the Resistance. I have felt adrift, floating among so many important, pressing issues. I didn't know where to start or how to help. It felt devastating. It still does. We're 10 days into the new era of the White House Travesty.  It's going to be a long 4 years. 

I miss writing. Years ago, for several years, I wrote a blog, mostly to share family news with my family. Facebook overtook that, but I miss writing and posting photographs.

Now, with the shit show that is the new administration and a brand new keyboard, I decided I wanted to write again. The purpose of Little Sister Resister is firstly, to chronicle this moment in American History, from my Little Ol' Eyes. Secondly, to express myself fully, where I can't or don't want to on Facebook. That platform is so clogged, and people reading there have short attention spans. But mostly, this serves is to clarify my own political and resistance thoughts. I think better when I write, so I shall write and think and formulate plans. This process will perhaps shape my journey.

I don't really expect an audience, though readers will be welcome. This is for me. If you are here sharing the journey, thank you for coming along. This is a big moment in America.

My first act of resistance was on January 21, 2017. I took part in the Women's March in Los Angeles the day after the inauguration.  It energized me and gave me hope. I shall start there with my memories in the first Real Post of my new blog.

Thank you for reading Little Sister Resister.