(1) The Talarico Town Hall. We just finished watching the CNN Town Hall with Texas Senate candidate James Talarico. I know that the race is still very close, but gee, how could anyone have handled himself better than Talarico did this evening He answered questions from the audience (okay, the questions were preset, but I don’t think he saw them before he heard them live) and then he actually debated (four minutes) with a number of audience members who wanted to challenge him. Talarico seemed totally in control, not at all like someone who might have been released from a mental institution a week ago. By the way, that rumor was not raised by anyone.

One of the “debators” challenged him on the authenticity of his Christian beliefs, and another on his position on abortion. He responded to the abortion related question of how can a pro-life Catholic possibly vote for him, by suggesting that there are two different debates – one theological and one political. He separated the two, saying that while they might have different positions theologically (he offered to discuss that with her separately), but they both had the same goal of limiting abortions and limiting unwanted pregnancy, so that from a policy perspective they were pretty well aligned. He also hoped that her support of life was not limited to the life of the unborn, but extended to issues like war and capital punishment. As to the woman who suggested that his definitions of Christianity were inauthentic, he responded with a lesson of the earliest followers of Jesus and how much they disagreed and argued about specific, saying Christians should welcome these types of disagreements as ways to deepen one’s understanding of their faith, not condemn them. She also asked him something about whether he believed that Christianity was the only true religion, and he responded that he believed that the Cross was the way. I did not know what that meant, but it satisfied her, or so it appeared.

Digression: At the end of those two discussions, I suggested to Edie that we just saw why I could never run for office in Texas. End of digression.

Interestingly, Talarico later said, in another discussion, that he was a firm opponent of religious discrimination and a firm opponent of Christian Nationalism, which he said that he thought was not at all Christian. And in speaking with a rabbi, who was one of his challengers, he described his study of the Jewish bible with a rabbi as his teacher (as part of he seminary education), his respect of and admiration for the Jewish people, his support for security for Israel, his support for an eventual two state solution, and his utter contempt for Benjamin Netanyahu. The rabbi agreed with him on his last point, by the way.

Digression #2: I was looking at a Facebook chain this morning which started as an anti-Muslim screed and then went into people also denouncing Christian Nationalism. From many of the comments, I learned that for a lot of people (I know, small sample) do not know what the term Christian Nationalism means and think it simply means relying on your Christian faith as you make your individual decisions, including political decisions, and not that it means squeezing members of other religions out of the political process. We who might think that this is a well understood term, or that we know what someone might mean when they use the term, might think again.

There were certain topics not covered, and Donald Trump’s name was never mentioned. Talarico only spoke about his opponent, Ken Paxton, in his closing statement. AI did not come up until the end, and the question was about data centers, not whether or not AI was going to end the human race.

When asked about voter ID, he said that he favored it, along as it was fair, but then he talked about all of the unfair ways voter ID was being handled in Texas, how minority area polling places were being closed and so forth, saying that Texas had become the second hardest state in the country to vote in.

I don’t know how many votes in Texas were changed by the Town Hall, but it was clearly a successful night for Talarico.

(2) Elon Musk. I was thinking about the dangers of AI today, and then I read about Musk’s Starlink today limiting assistance to Ukraine’s drone warfare, a crucial event since Starlink is so important for locating targets. The initial articles quoted Zelensky saying that “Musk” limited the assistance, but later Musk said that it wasn’t him, it was the American military’s orders. In other words, presumably Trump’s.

With Trump’s decision to purchase diesel fuel from Putin, giving funds to Putin to support his war, it would make sense if Trump was doubling down on his assistance to Russia to help paralyze Ukraine on the battle field. If this is true, the Democrats better pounce on it, because it would be a disastrous turn of events for the future of the Western civilization that Trump loves so much. By the way, it doesn’t appear that either Putin or Zelensky were involved in Trump’s statement that both Putin and Zelensky had agreed not to strike the other’s energy facilities. Just another bit of Trump make-believe.

If it wasn’t Trump, but Musk,who decided to limit Starlink, by the way, it shows the extent to which the richest man in the world can personally make his own foreign policy decisions that could effect the future of millions of people. And of course, it has never been clear who originally made Starlink’s satellite network available to Ukraine (and, I think, at no cost).

(3) I finished reading Christopher Isherwood’s The Berlin Stories this afternoon. A half dozen related stories, semi-autobiographical, set in Berlin between 1930-1933, after the Weimar Republic had seen its better days, and Hitler was about to assume German leadership. Isherwood (he uses his own name) is a young Englishmen working in Berlin so that he can learn German, tutoring young Germans who want to learn English. He stays in a boarding house with several interesting tenants, one of whom is named Sally Bowles (and she become the central figure in the musical “Caberet”). She is a 19 year old English runaway who sings in a cafe and entertains a lot of gentleman callers. Isherwood then spends several months on a beach in northern Germany where he spends his time with two companions, and he later lives in the very poor, and very disruptive, home of one of his companions and hsi parents for a period of time, and finally he meets the Lindauers, a very wealthy Jewish family who owns a big Berlin department store and who guess that their lives as very wealthy German Jews is about to end. So well written, such evocative writing.

(4) Finally, I watched two presentations. One is a Haberman Institute presentation, by Professor Jonathan Ray of Georgetown. His topic was the “Golden Age” of Spanish Jewry before the final expulsion of 1942, and it was a very interesting talk because Ray was out to change some minds as to how golden the Golden Age really was. Not really golden, but very mixed, as it turns out. This program should be on YouTube within a day or two, and is worth watching.

I also watched Professor Hasia Diner give the 11th lecture in the Brandeis U. series on the United States and Jews. She is such a good presenter, but this particular talk didn’t have enough substance, in my opinion, to warrant watching for an hour. The topic was the American reaction to the Holocaust in the decade or two after the end of the Second World War. Basically, he showed that all of the Jewish organizations in the country decided against building statues and memorials, and instead raised a lot of money to send to Europe to help survivors. Okay…..I have told you everything she said, and I did it two sentences.

(4) I stayed in the house all day, seeing only Edie and Albert, our Terminix service agent, who brought us some new sticky mouse traps. I did have a telephone conversation with my six year old grandson, and I spent some time with my new assistant, MUSE, who is so willing to do whatever I ask. But I don’t want to waste her time (I have decided that MUSE is a she – but that is just for convenience. Like God, MUSE has no gender), so I have been looking for something for her to do. And I found it.

MUSE is helping me decide what to do about Medicare in this open period (between tomorrow and Dec 7). Today, she analyzed what would be the best Part D prescription coverage for us (our insurer is doubling its price) and she analyzed a number of insurers (based on the prescription medicines that each of us use), and made some tentative recommendations. She also is looking to see if there is some better Medigap coverage for us (this time based on zip code and age, as well as medicines), and also whether we should consider a Medicare Advantage plan (based on all of the above, but whether are doctors are covered under the various plans). She is looking at cost, coverage, service ratings, and other program or bureaucratic aspects of each possible program. So far, it looks like we should keep our Medigap coverage, but change our pharmaceutical insurance. But more to come. She and I both know that there is no immediate need to decide, as long as we do it before the open period closes.