Index: November 22, 1973, remembered; winter's arrival; a non-classical concert; this year's “late” Thanksgiving, I'll be in FL; Christmas 2013; ACA; the “new” US Senate; NSA news; ACA, still; social media; a suggested site;

power, security, and foreign policy. Late, poorly edited posting. -:(  Hope your Thanksgiving went well, good food and friends!

November 22, 1973. By the accounts of most reporters/observers/pundits, the US was forever changed on that fateful day. Many of us would concur. Indeed, not until September 11, 2001, would one day produce such profound national changes. News outlets gave extensive coverage to JFK's assassination, running the gamut from tasteful and contemplative to the development and continual replay of the many conspiracy theories. Many can relate exactly where they heard the news: in school, on the job, driving somewhere, on the radio/TV..... It was somehow fitting that I was in the business lobby of a hospital in Erie, PA. I then worked for the US Public Health Service and was waiting to see a doctor about a case I was investigating.

It is all remembered, all very clear, all very sad. On November 22^nd, the nation had seemed to slow, to proceed in slow motion through the next tumultuous days until after the slain president's funeral. In contrast , on 9/11, the nation seemed to speed up, kicked into “warp speed” to deal with the actual and perceived crisis.

Winter's arrival. Denver's first snowfall. One local prognosticator set the commencement time at 2am, but, after getting to bed later than usual, I did not set an alarm. When I rose and looked out at 7:30, Thursday morning, there was a 2” accumulation, so winter has officially begun here in southeast Denver. As is typical, the predictions of 40° on Friday missed the mark – we did not break 30°. The snow tires are mounted on the 4x4 for motoring to/from the condo in Breckenridge and windshield washer reservoir is full.

Thursday morning I saw a second sign of winter – overnight the backyard lilly pond turned “slushy,” not a good sign for the many large and small birds who frequent the neighborhood watering hole.

The Michael Boublé concert. Our first visit to “The Can” (Denver Pepsi Center). All in all, an enjoyable evening. My wife and I had not been to a non-classical concert in ages, but the audience received Mr. B warmly. Being old folks and all, we had forgotten that the concert would begin an hour “late,” what with the warm-up act, followed by the necessary stage set up. “Warm up” seems a misnomer for any warming effect is long gone when the stage is finally set – there having been ample time for the audience to go to the ladies'/gents', buy another round of food and liquid refreshment, schmooze with friends, take pictures, etc. Mr. Boublé shows promise, but is not yet a showman in the same class as Tony Bennet or the late Frank Sinatra. Too much homey “chit-chat” with the audience, too little singing. And, as is invariably true today, the show's electronic/lighting effects far outclassed the singing.

A late Thanksgiving. As one might expect, merchants are unhappy with the shortened holiday shopping season. In a Denver Post column, Greg Dobbs, a former TV network journalist now retired in metro Denver, gently asked readers to boycott all of the money-hungry, big box stores who have elected to oblige their employees to forego their own families' Thanksgiving day activities. Mr. Dobbs assured readers that what you want to buy will be available on Black Friday and, as several consumer reporters have suggested, perhaps at an even lower price.

It has been noted that some Walmart employees have put out holiday food boxes – not for the homeless, but, sadly, for their fellow employees who are feeling the pinch of the latest round of cuts in the SNAP (food stamp) program.

This year my wife and I will be spending this longest-running national holiday (1789) beach-side on FL's east coast just south of Daytona. We will have our dinner with two of my wife's cousins, one a USAF 2^nd Lt stationed in GA (soon to be deployed), the other a junior at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. Everyone hopes for warm weather, even though the Atlantic will be too chilly for swimming; well, maybe the “kids” will go in!

Christmas, 2013. As a friend noted in his blog, Christmas is coming far too early and, for my tastes, much too commercialized. I can appreciate putting up the town's holiday decorations when it is warmer and I truly enjoy holiday music, but TV sales pitches before Thanksgiving?
Classical music @ McDonalds. One of the national networks reported that in an effort to deter loiters some McDonalds restaurants were resorting to playing classical music in their outside speakers. This was an old story here in Denver: the McDonalds on the 16^th Street pedestrian mall has successfully employed that tactic for many years. Alas, if only there were a few outside seats for those of us who enjoy the classics!

ACA. Some harsh realities of the poorly designed, inadequately tested website continue unabated. At a photo-op, the system “crashed” just as HHS Secretary Sebelius attempted to help someone log on and join. To quote Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now: “Oh, the horror!” One unfortunate crucial truth was highlighted in a recent Politico article: “....young people will have to pay so older people don’t face sky-high premiums.” Without young enrollees the system is doomed to failure and, unfortunately, early figures indicate that the young and healthy are, indeed, opting “out.” Nor is there any likelihood that Congress can rewrite the act and increase the penalties on non-signers. Technology aside, the root problems remain the increasing costs of our high tech health care technology and pharmacology, plus the profit-driven nature of our health care system.
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/11/obamacare-tradeoffs-now-they-tell-us-100170.html#ixzz2lJT16QnN

US Senate. This past week, the US Senate changed its filibuster rules, lowing to 51 the number of votes necessary to approve executive nominees. In 1975, the minimum had been lowered to 60 from the previous 2/3rds present and voting. Should the Senate “change hands” in November 2014, the shoe will be on the other foot and Democrats may rue this change.


NSA news. Here is Senator Patrick Leahy (I, VT) on whether or not to shut the “back door”, the “maybe” provision, used by the NSA to sweep up all of your phone/email communications.
The NSA says because we can collect every one of your phone calls and imprints and everything else, we need to be able to do it in case someday we need it. Well, you can imagine if the local police department said, 'We're just going to break into your house, steal everything out of your files, everything out of your records, because someday we may need it,' everybody would be in an uproar. But if they can do the same thing electronically, we ought to say wait a minute.
The heart of this ongoing controversy might well be titled “The 4^th Amendment Meets the 21^st Century.”
In the debate over the Feinstein vs. Leahy versions of the proposed bill, here is what my senior CO senator, Mark Udall (D), now admits.
The significant reforms in this bill are especially important in light of declassified reports that show what Sen. Wyden [R, OR] and I [as members of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee] have known for years. The National Security Agency has been unable to properly manage existing surveillance programs. This has led to the abuse of Americans' privacy and misleading statements made to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, and we've only seen the tip of the iceberg.
http://www.creators.com/opinion/robert-scheer/be-thankful-for-the-people-struggling-to-limit-nsa-spying.html


ACA. George Will on President Obama's recent “apology.”
After Obama’s semi-demi-apology for millions of canceled insurance policies — an intended and predictable consequence of his crusade to liberate Americans from their childish choices of “substandard” policies sold by “bad apple” insurers — [ Representative Scalise (R,LA)] said Obama is like someone who burns down your house. Then shows up with an empty water bucket. Then lectures you about how defective the house was....But even this [current predicament] is a crisis only if Congress makes it so by supine acquiescence. Congressional Democrats are White House poodles. They also are progressives and therefore disposed to favor unfettered executive power. Republicans are supposed to be different.


Social Media. An interesting article from an unlikely source, The Federalist magazine, about the impact and usefulness of the various social media platforms available today. I wonder how many of my blog readers use social media and to what extent? “It seems unfortunate that social media services have bestowed miniature soap boxes on all of us, just at a time when society... is so deeply polarized by serious political and moral disagreements.” Nevertheless, there are the positive aspects. http://thefederalist.com/2013/11/22/facebook-etiquette-quitting-social-media-losing-proposition/

Suggested site. A quick check of the index for the daily blog, realclearpolitics.com, will reveal a wide range of offerings from the right, center, and left.

American power, national security, and foreign policy. The following comes from The Nation, December 16, 2013. In his article, “When success is failure, why it's hard to make sense of US foreign policy,” Eric Alterman, notes...
The dramatic extension of America’s overseas involvement and commitments in the past hundred years has reflected a growth of power rather the decline of security. Yet the full and effective deployment of that power has required from the American people disciplines and sacrifices that they are prepared to sustain only if they are persuaded the nation’s safety is directly at stake.” This has resulted in the expansion of national security to include the upholding of American values and the maintenance of world order... [and] the recurrent tendency to exaggerate the country’s vulnerability to attack.

In fact, one might push the date back to the Spanish – American, perhaps even to the Mexican – American conflicts. Both were portrayed by the government and national press as necessary to guard America's frontiers and secure our place in the world. WW I, of course, saw the US gain the preeminent position that it has only lately come to see as slipping away. We surely developed, and continue to possess, the world's most formidable military machine, but, as was evident in Iraq and now in Afghanistan, we find our power is becoming prohibitively costly, difficult to employ, and faces increasing domestic oppositon.