Edmund Schweppe

First day of early voting here in Massachusetts for the 2022 midterm elections, and I have duly cast my ballot. There was only one person in line when I got there; apparently today's weather was too nice.

If you're a Massachusetts citizen (and 18 years of age or older), then vote, dammit! Find your early voting place here: https://www.sec.state.ma.us/EarlyVotingWeb/EarlyVotingSearch.aspx

If you're not a citizen of Massachusetts but are a citizen of the United States, then vote, dammit! If you're not sure where, start here: https://www.usa.gov/election-office

If you're not a citizen of the United States, feel free to ignore my blathering. (But if you can vote, then do so.)

A redacted version of the affidavit supporting the Trump Mar-a-lago search warrant (executed on August 8) was released today. One thing not redacted in the affidavit: details of the classified information that Trump returned to the National Archives and Records Administration on January 18 of this year (which, one might note, was nearly a full year after Trump left office):

The NARA Referral stated that on January 18, 2022, in accordance with the Presidential Records Act (PRA), NARA received from the office of former President DONALD J. TRUMP, hereinafter "FPOTUS," via representatives, fifteen (15) boxes of records, hereinafter, the "FIFTEEN BOXES." The FIFTEEN BOXES, which had been transported from the FPOTUS property at 1100 S Ocean Blvd, Palm Beach, FL 33480, hereinafter, the "PREMISES," a residence and club known as "Mar-a-Lago," futther described in Attachment A, were reported by NARA to contain, among other things, highly classified documents intermingled with other records.

[ ... ]

47. From May 16-18, 2022, FBI agents conducted a preliminary review of the FIFTEEN BOXES provided to NARA and identified documents with classification markings in fourteen of the FIFTEEN BOXES. A prelin1ina1y triage of the documents with classification markings revealed the following approximate numbers: 184 unique documents bearing classification markings, including 67 documents marked as CONFIDENTIAL, 92 documents marked as SECRET, and 25 documents marked as TOP SECRET. Further, the FBI agents observed markings reflecting the following compa11ments/dissemination controls: HCS, FISA, ORCON, NOFORN, and SI. Based on my training and experience, I know that documents classified at these levels typically contain NDI. Several of the documents also contained what appears to be FPOTUS's handwritten notes.

I suppose the "good" news is that the affidavit doesn't reference the type of classified info I was most familiar with during my submarine days - "Restricted Data", as defined by the Atomic Energy Act (42 US Code section 2014):

(y) The term "Restricted Data" means all data concerning (1) design, manufacture, or utilization of atomic weapons; (2) the production of special nuclear material; or (3) the use of special nuclear material in the production of energy, but shall not include data declassified or removed from the Restricted Data category pursuant to section 2162 of this title.

Presumably, if the fifteen boxes returned to NARA on January 18 had included anything marked RESTRICTED DATA, the affidavit would have mentioned them as well.

Of course, this doesn't say anything about the materials seized on August 8. But at least it doesn't appear that Trump took nuclear information with him. The human and signals intelligence is bad enough ...

As promised - or threatened, depending on one's point of view - the Commonwealth of Massachusetts today announced that they're scrapping their current five-days-a-week COVID-19 data reporting, instead going to a once-per-week update:
( Official DPH Press Release )
Once a week is better than nothing, I suppose. On the other hand, Massachusetts has for the most part been much better at keeping their raw-data feeds synched with their public facing websites than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been. (CDC APIs are all too frequently either a day ahead or a day behind their website. For example, the most recent Community Transmission API is showing 2,809 counties with High transmission, while the COVID Data Tracker Community Transmission page is showing 2,836.)

I'd also feel a lot better about the state going to once-per-week updates if the deaths and cases counts weren't climbing again ... but that's a rant for today's update.

Just a reminder of why the USA celebrates this day.

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

(Transcript from https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript)

Sad news: Madeline Albright died today:
( Read more... )
Secretary Albright was part of the same Wellesley College class as my mother, and I had the honor to meet the Secretary at Mom's 50th reunion. (Alas, the linked photographic evidence seems to have suffered from link rot.)

My state representative, Dr. Tami Gouveia, announced today that she's running for Lieutenant Governor next year. If I'm reading this Boston Globe article correctly, she's the first Democrat to officially throw her hat into the ring for the number 2 spot:
( Read more... )
I've been impressed with her so far as my rep, and God knows this past year has proven the need for public health smarts on Beacon Hill.

Joseph Biden has been inaugurated as the President of the United States, and Kamala Harris as the Vice-President.

Clearly, this is cause for celebration. And what better way to celebrate the return of hope than the Doubleclicks' cover of Electric Light Orchestra's "Mr. Blue Sky", complete with cello and cat keyboards?

Because a deadly pandemic isn't enough of a set of problems to go around, we got this shit earlier today: A pro-Trump mob stormed the US Capitol building today while the Congress was conducting the formal counting of the electoral votes (as required by 3 U.S.C. 15):

WASHINGTON (AP) — A violent mob loyal to President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday and forced lawmakers into hiding, in a stunning attempt to overturn America's presidential election, undercut the nation's democracy and keep Democrat Joe Biden from replacing Trump in the White House.

The nation's elected representatives scrambled to crouch under desks and don gas marks, while police futilely tried to barricade the building, one of the most jarring scenes ever to unfold in a seat of American political power. A woman was shot and killed inside the Capitol, and Washington's mayor instituted an evening curfew in an attempt to contain the violence.

The rioters were egged on by Trump, who has spent weeks falsely attacking the integrity of the election and had urged his supporters to descend on Washington to protest Congress' formal approval of Biden's victory. Some Republican lawmakers were in the midst of raising objections to the results on his behalf when the proceedings were abruptly halted by the mob.

[ ... ]

The president gave his supporters a boost into action Wednesday morning at a rally outside the White House, where he urged them to march to the Capitol. He spent much of the afternoon in his private dining room off the Oval Office watching scenes of the violence on television. At the urging of his staff, he reluctantly issued a pair of tweets and a taped video telling his supporters it was time to "go home in peace" — yet he still said he backed their cause.

[ ... ]

Hours later, Twitter for the first time time locked Trump's account, demanded that he remove tweets excusing violence and threatened "permanent suspension."

Jesus H Fucking Christ.

Now the Joint Session of Congress is back underway (after the House and Senate finished rejecting the objections to Arizona's votes). A Georgia representative tried to object to his state's votes, but didn't get anyone from the Senate to play along.

More new functionality in the extract software: the page 2 "key metrics", including the date of the lowest observed value, which the state has chosen not to actually display.

As of 5PM today, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is reporting 13 newly reported confirmed deaths (7 less than yesterday - down 35.0%) for a total of 9,936 and 1,184 newly reported confirmed cases (625 less than yesterday - down 34.5%) for a total of 167,929. The seven day average positivity rate is 2.35%, compared to 2.33% yesterday, while the number of estimated active cases was 22,815 (792 more than yesterday - up 3.6%). The state also reported 1 newly reported probable death (1 more than yesterday) for a total of 227 and 144 newly reported confirmed cases (130 more than yesterday - up 928.6%) for a total of 4,798. Combining the confirmed and probable numbers gives 14 new deaths for a total of 10,163 and 1,328 new cases for a total of 172,727. There were 588 COVID-19 patients in hospital (20 more than yesterday - up 3.5%), 143 COVID-19 patients in ICUs (1 less than yesterday - down 0.7%) and 66 COVID-19 patients on ventilators (intubated) (4 more than yesterday - up 6.5%).

Of the Commonwealth's four "key metrics" listed on page 2 of the report, the 7-day average of newly confirmed cases is 1,377, 777% above the lowest observed value of 157 on July 4. The 7-day weighted average of positive molecular test rate is 2.3%, 203% above the lowest observed value of 0.8% on September 21. The 7-day average number of COVID-19 patients in hospital is 527, 239% above the lowest observed value of 155 on August 26. The 7-day average number of COVID-19 deaths is 18, 70% above the lowest observed value of 11 on September 9.

Big drops in day-to-day cases and deaths, which is great; but we're coming off the weekend, which typically has less reporting, so take those numbers with a grain or several of salt. The continued increases in hospitalization and intubation counts are both scary (although yay for a net drop in folks in the ICU!), and the state's seven-day "key metric" averages are all still way, way the hell higher than the summertime lows.

Good news: President-elect Joe Biden clearly knows that his first big challenge is going to be dealing with the pandemic; he showed this today by announcing his coronavirus task force:
( Read more... )
Good for Biden getting a jump on this. On the other hand, he won't actually get to take the federal reins for another two months, and there's no guarantee at all that the Republicans won't do everything in their power (legitimate or not) to block anything and everything Biden does.

Other good news: Pfizer and BioNTech announced today that their COVID-19 candidate vaccine has shown itself to be better than 90% effective in early returns from their Phase 3 study:
( Read more... )
Also worth remembering: this is all based on a press release, not a peer-reviewed study. So it's good news, but the next few months will still suck.

The town of Acton has yet to post an update today. As of the most recent report at 8:30PM on November 4, the town of Acton reported 240 cumulative cases of COVID-19 in town with 16 individuals in isolation, 203 recovered and 21 fatalities.

I suspect, at this point, there aren't many (if any) folks reading this who are both (a) US citizens and (b) unaware of just how essential it is that all US citizens take the time to vote in today's elections.

But, just in case, I suggest you take Samuel L. Jackson's advice:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yJa3b6lrdA

VOTE, DAMMIT! VOTE!

I'm sorry.

I tried, I really did.

I tried to watch that hot mess/dumpster fire/train wreck/shitshow labeled a Presidential Debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden last night.

I gave up after half an hour.

Nicole Wallace of MSNBC described it perfectly: "Donald Trump did not act like a debater. Donald Trump was the abuser".

I feel sorry for anyone not a Trump cultist who sat through that entire perambulating clusterfuck.

As of 4PM today, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is reporting 23 newly reported confirmed COVID-19 deaths (for a total of 7,490 confirmed deaths), 58 newly reported confirmed cases (for a total of 101,334) and 4,492 new patients tested by molecular tests (for a total of 712,875), with a total of 894,616 molecular tests administered to date. The ratio of newly confirmed cases to individuals tested by molecular test is 1.3%. The state also reported no newly reported probable deaths (for a total of 157), 29 newly reported probable cases (for a total of 4,356), and 304 patients tested by antibody tests (for a total of 57,886). In total, the state reported 23 new deaths (for a total of 7,647) and 87 new cases (for a total of 105,690).

Newly reported deaths and cases were both down, which is fantastic. However, the number of molecular tests was way down. I really, really hope that's an artifact of relatively wonky weekend reporting.

Today, for the first time, the state provided a separate count of the total number of molecular tests administered to date.

Governor Baker's press conference included some hints that he may be announcing the second step of the second phase of the reopening plan by the end of the week:
( Read more... )

The town of Acton has not posted an update today; the most recent report, as of 8:30AM on June 13, reported 171 cumulative cases with 2 individuals in isolation, 148 persons recovered and 21 fatalities. The warrant for the Town Meeting on June 29 was posted today; in order to keep people at least six feet apart to prevent coronavirus infection, the plan is to use both the high school gymnasium and the adjacent parking lot for seating. (Usually, Town Meeting happens in the school auditorium; not this time, though, for tolerably obvious reasons.)

I've got a new Congresscritter, Lori Trahan. (Niki Tsongas retired.)
I've got a new state rep, Tami Gouvela. (Cory Atkins retired.)
Question 3 passed, meaning that discriminating on the basis of gender identification remains illegal.

Oh, and the 116th Congress will have a House of Representatives with a Democratic majority. Which will at least provide some oversight on the antics of the Executive Branch.

(Edit to add: The preliminary town-wide results are up, and turnout was 72%!)

These words are now two hundred forty two years old. But these truths remain self-evident.

Once before, I pledged my own life, fortune and sacred honor to defend these truths, and this my nation. While my enlistment contract has long since expired, that pledge of mine never will.

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

(Transcript from http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html)

http://www.dw.com/en/berlin-wall-now-gone-for-as-long-as-it-stood/a-42418154

Today is not the anniversary of the East Germans closing the border between East Germany (that chunk of Germany that the USSR occupied following WWII) and West Germany (that chunk occupied by the USA, UK and France). That was August 13, 1961.

It's not the anniversary of the East Germans reopening that border, either. That was November 9, 1989, a few months after I'd gotten out of the US Navy. I remember watching people dancing atop the Berlin Wall on TV and thinking to myself that my time in the Navy was truly worth while; we'd managed to bring down the Wall (and soon thereafter, the Soviet Union) without a shooting war between NATO and the Warsaw Pact.

But today is the day when the Berlin Wall has been down as long as it was up. A good reminder that hope sometimes does pay off.