October 30

 It got cold enough last night for the furnace to come on so the temperature inside dipped below 68F.

This post came up today on the Tomdispatch site. It conjured up memories. Thirty five years ago or a bit more I read the Dower book (War Without Mercy). She provides a good short description of its description how we and the Japanese "dehumanized" the other side. (Note that same process of dehumanization occurred with respect to the American vs German side of WWII.) Another memories of about fifty years ago was an article in Psychology Today about the Argentine "Dirty War" conducted by the military junta against alleged "communists". I mentioned what I call the Chivington dictum several days ago: nits make lice. You don't make nice with lice or their young. You exterminate them. If you consider the humanoid enemy as the equivalent of lice, you stomp them. Unfortunately, we seem to be in a cycle of defining people, at home and abroad, with whom we are at odds as "inhuman", "subhuman", or not really human at all. Otherwise, we wouldn't have "demonstrations" where the rallying cry is "Kill the Jews" or "Jews will not replace us."

Robert Reich makes a number of very accurate comments on his Substack. In at least one point he could have gone further. He takes on the notion some, primarily, Republican politicians expressed that we can't "afford" to support both Israel and Ukraine. I am sure they are talking simply about the economic definition of the word and Reich addresses that meaning. A simple "thought experiment" would show a fuller notion of "afford." If we suspend aid to Ukraine we would basically abrogate our pledge to support Ukraine in its defense against and that would destroy our relationships in NATO and with Europe and other supporters we cajoled into the alliance against Russia. Many of those countries are already wary of the U.S. after the trump years and if how willing would they be to follow the U.S. lead in the next crisis (and there will be another crisis.) If we leave Israel twisting in the wind would Israel ever trust us again, if the country survives. The two major nations allied with the U.S. against Iran are (drum roll) Israel and Saudi Arabia. Commenters are consistently asking what will happen the day after if Israel manages to destroy Hamas. No one has any idea and circumstances we don't even foresee may make any such ideas unattainable.

Stray thought: I just finished reading another plea from a writer who recounted the experiences of various people, including family members, over a more than a century. From pogroms in Russia to a German who made repeated trips back to their villages to help others get out to the Sunday School teacher who showed the children the tattoo on his wrist. I would like to link but I discarded the post before I realized I wanted to keep it. Point is the writer makes a plea for a cease fire and asks people to contact their representatives to support one. He notes that sometime the cycle of violence has to stop if we want the killing to stop. I don't think it will because of a gut feeling that came out of a report this morning: Netanyahu is driving for a BIG win, that is the destruction of Hamas. I made a comment that he is cut from much the same cloth as The Former Guy and he hopes to retain power and short circuit the legal problems he has. He thinks such a "win" might do that. It would definitely shore up his base in the ultra conservative Jewish community and get him out of the power sharing that was forced on him. The U.S. and others has been urging restraint. It appears that Israel's operations have been somewhat restrained but one wonders for how long.

In any good, and most not so good, mystery stories the question usually is "cui bono"--to whose benefit. One interesting mystery novel, Under Pressure by Robert Pobi, starts out that way but finds the real answer is just the opposite, who gets hurt. That is a long winded way of introducing this article from Naked Capitalism. The author describes how American arms manufacturers are making a killing, in the financial sense, as Israel and its allies are making a killing (as in real physical deaths) in Gaza. That tells you who benefits (cui bono) but we don't really know yet who will lose the most in this. Nor do we have any idea of what kind the losses will be.

I tried to read this on the link from Naked Capitalism but the source was on the Fortune Magazine site and behind a pay wall. So I poked around and found this on Scientific American. I can't remember drug shortages until fairly recently. An interesting thought on the issue of generics: Mom has to take a particular drug for a permanent condition. The doctor prescribes a name brand and refuses to order the generic version. He told us the generic never tests accurately and he used to send his patients back for repeat tests. The pharmacists have tried to persuade her to get the doctor to prescribe the generics because of cost and are surprised when she tells them 1) she asked and 2) explains his reasoning. We have so often been told that the generics are just as good as the name brand just cheaper. Note in the story that an Indian company that makes generics stopped when a surprise USDA inspection revealed the company was not maintaining the standards expected for the medication. And how many drugs or drug ingredients are made in India? I don't know off the top of my head but it is a lot. Supply Chains are getting frayed.