What really matters about next week’s G20 is that Putin and Merkel will pressure Trump to approve Nord Steam 2, an agreement that goes against the stated goals of the EU to diversify its energy supply and move towards renewables and away from fossils. 

Merkel needs Trump to approve because NS2 is detested by the rest of Europe. Europeans see her efforts to ram it down their throats as even more proof that Merkel sees herself as the ruler of the Union. A recent US Senate bill opposes NS2 because it would represent an enormous reward for Putin and his oligarchs and serve as an unwarranted and harsh punishment to Ukraine. 

This is the real story and not the idiotic “Germany made a statement that they don’t want to be friends with us because we are so mean” that I keep seeing in the press. Merkel is trying, in her signature clumsy manner, to pressure the US massively to enrich Russian oil oligarchs. The question now is whether Trump will flout his own Senate and bend over for Putin and his close ally Merkel. 

This fellow seems to have an important message about anti-semitism. But he chose to deliver it in the weirdest of formats that makes it unreadable and strips him of all credibility. Even Instagram would work better. 

I have no idea if people who try so hard to deliver long texts through Twitter are mentally unbalanced or liars who use the deranged format to preclude any criticism or response. 

Today is my first non-spending day of the challenge and I have already discovered that I need to make an effort not to accidentally buy something on the Amazon app. 

If there were emotions or emotional expressions that were barred to you in childhood, as an adult you will play the game of emotional substitution with these forbidden or “bad” feelings. 

For instance, if you weren’t allowed to protest, your rebellious feelings in adulthood will manifest as tardiness, incapacity to stick to a deadline, laziness, forgetfulness. You will do everything- from work obligations to daily chores – a lot more slowly than you would otherwise. 

If you weren’t allowed to express anger, whenever you feel angry in adulthood, you’ll displace the anger into self-sabotage, self-harm, start having minor household accidents, bumping into things, etc. 

Happy 4th of July, everybody!

We have massive plans for celebrating here. There will be a mini-parade in my street, followed by a neighborhood party. The only other holiday on my block that gets a parade and a party is Halloween because people leave town for other holidays. 

Then we have our own family celebration at home. I’m not sure we’ll get to see fireworks because Klara falls asleep by 8 pm, and it’s still very light at that time. 

Good times.  .  .

This had a practical purpose, too. It’s how we used to rewind the tapes. 

Facebook is scary. I just discovered a real Spanish fascist on my feed. Real like in he is posting love letters to Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, the founder of Spanish fascism and, according to this Facebooker, “an innocent victim of red hordes.” 

He asked me to friend him last week and I mistook him for a colleague with a similar name and agreed. But the question is, why did he choose me? I never publish anything in Spanish on FB. I do leave likes under the posts by writer Andres Trapiello. Does this mark me as an FB Spanish fascist? 

A few good, long pieces. 

A great article on feminism. 

A nostalgic piece on diners. 

How the left lost its mind. It’s not just the left, though. It’s everybody. 

And yes, dumb Jews do exist. Unbelievable but true. Here is one. 

I got almost no sleep tonight so I decided to make some borscht to reward myself. I went to the store, bought the ingredients, and sat there staring at them for 15 minutes because I had no idea what I was supposed to do with them.

I forgot about borscht! It’s worse than forgetting my own name (which happens every once in a while.) 

The Indian editor wrote me an email berating me for not responding to his previous message. That he sent on Saturday evening. The due date for the proofs is July 9, so it’s not like I’m behind on anything. Are there no weekends in India, or something? I don’t respond to non-urgent work emails on weekends because I don’t see the need. I have never in my life not honored a deadline or asked for an extension. Never, no matter what was going on in my life. So why the drama?