Items this week: travel hiatus; November 2014; space & time; Crimea; nation's poor; a great deal for parents; NCAA; March Madness; the Republican mind?

A short hiatus. I will be “on the road,” enjoying another European trip with Viking River Cruises, “Tulips and Windmills.” I'm hoping for good weather and the spectacular colors that come only with veritable “fields” of tulips! I have been treated to such scenes in the past, Holland (1965) and Washington, D.C. (1982).

     In 1965, I was stationed in (then) West Germany with the USAF.  The tulips that spring in Holland were sensational. In 1982, I was in Washington, D.C. with students on a government studies trip.  Happily, this trip was on the occasion of the 200^th anniversary of Holland's recognition of American independence. To celebrate this bi-centennial, Queen Beatrix, had had 500,000 tulip bulbs shipped to our nation's capital. You have to understand that is ½ million extra bulbs! (To commemorate our mutual, long-standing friendship, Netherlands ships ½ million tulip bulbs each year to Washington.) Even my high school government studies students, not easily impressed, were taken aback.

     That spring the blooms carpeted most of the open areas up and down the National Mall and quite literally filled the foyer in the National Gallery of Art, where Her Majesty was formerly received by President Reagan. Ever the showman, the president was clearly thrilled to be in the midst of such a glorious and historic display. Each year Holland's tulips provide a “show” second only to Japan's annual Cherry Blossoms around the Tidal Basin.

November 2014. Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico, deemed the “inter-mountain west” by Politico and other election-watchers, will certainly be in the advertising forefront as the Democratic party seeks to retain and increase its share of the growing Hispanic vote. Here in CO the ads, part of the Republican effort to unseat Democratic Senator Mark Udall, have already begun to blanket our airwaves. Ready your “mute” buttons.

     A look at the “Rothenberg Political Report” map in Roll Call can be disheartening, especially if you wonder about the possibility of any replacing any of the 435 current denizens in the House. The map shows varying shades of blue (Democratic) or red (Republican), with just four yellow seats rated as tossups. Congressional redistricting following the 2010 census have rendered “safe” the vast majority of seats. (4 of 435 amounts to 0.009%) So, whether you love or hate your current representative, barring some unforeseen scandal or untimely passing, you are likely to be “stuck” with whomever you now have.     
     Similarly, the current map for the Senate shows only LA (Louisiana) as a tossup, though the race here in CO is already heating up. Among the nation's governors up for re-election, there are only three now rated as tossups: MI(chigan), IL, and FL.

Wondering......? About who, why, where you are in the universe? Try Alan Lightman's newest book, The Accidental Universe. Where are Plato, Aristotle, and Newton when you need them, with their ordered world vs. the chaos of quantum mechanics. Even Einstein was uncomfortable with quantum's chaos. The reviewer of Lightman's book began with this 50 year-old quote from the eminent physicist, Richard Feynman, "I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics." The reviewer then plunges into Lightman's discussion of today's even stranger world of theoretical physics, where the idea of an ever expanding universe is just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. You are in for a strange, wondrous (unsettling?) trip, even if you are a follower of Sheldon and Leonard, those lovable, supposed theoretical theorists from the “Big Bang” TV program.
     For the layman, there is also an insightful article in National Geographic (March 2014), "Star Eaters," about so-called black holes.  "Mind-swallowing" to say the least; if that characterization makes no sense, read on.

Crimean secession. Crimea is now Russian territory, just as it was before Nikita Khrushchev (for whatever reason) "returned" it to Ukraine. However, the situation remains uncertain, to say the least. 
     Like him or not, Ron Paul, former congressman and three-time presidential candidate, has rightly observed there are other notable, less newsworthy areas with secessionist tendencies, e.g. Scotland, Catalonia (Spain), and Venice. Residents in these areas view their current national governments as insensitive to their special needs.

     Another article from the Wall Street Journal notes the presence of nationalistic groups of all sorts: “Behind their hands, the critics of resurgent nationalism murmur that it is nothing but xenophobia, authoritarianism or even fascism, in folkloric drag. They see Europe's rising nationalist parties as the preserve of bitter losers or those in the grip of nostalgia.”

     
The nation's poor.  Who are they? Congressman Ryan (R, WI) conveys the feeling -- that the poor are largely in the cities and mostly African American. However, census statistics say differently. From Cynthia Tucker's recent column: "As American Prospect writer Paul Waldman noted recently, 41 percent of the nation’s poor people are white [a plurality and not concentrated in the cities]....Waldman pointed out that blacks make up 23 percent of the nation’s poor, while Latinos account for 28 percent." She goes on to say that anti-poverty programs must be honestly discussed and tailored accordingly.  

Heard on National Public Radio.  Here is a important monetary note for parents of students at the University of Baltimore, where fewer than 20% of students graduate "on time," i.e. in four years. But, wait! Now, if Suzy and Johnny puts their noses to the grindstone and finish in four years, the last semester is free. Such a deal! Take that extra class and by all means consider summer school.

"March Madness" So you didn't win $1B from Warren Buffet. Consider that in a perfect world there would be no NCAA; students would go to university (as the Brits say) to be educated, not to be mere student-athletes. NO chance, you say? Well, then in an only slightly less than perfect world, the NCAA would exist, but no sports coach would be paid more than the institution's most highly paid professor. Wrong again! 
     Legend has it that President Theodore Roosevelt once called in a some of the most prominent university presidents and suggested that they simply pay the best players in the nation to wear their schools's jerseys -- and be done with it. We wonder what is wrong with American education today? Time out, please! 

Republicans wonder?  In their "other world," Republicans are puzzled about what is so troubling about their party?  They might want to look no further than Jim Brown. No, not the Jim Brown of football fame. This Jim Brown is the white guy in AZ's 2nd congressional district, who, on his Facebook page devoted to federal spending, opined that modern day entitlement programs are much like slavery and, anyway, slave owners did not treat their slaves all that badly. Duh?

Thank you for reading and I hope your coming week is good.

Three independent branches? In a National Review article (March 13), Kevin Williamson opines that,

In theory, only Congress can make a law. But Congress of late has eroded its own legislative monopoly. The Affordable Care Act, to take one example, is not so much a legislative program as an enabling act, a vast collection of “the secretary shall”s that amounts to the legislative branch’s asking the executive branch to come up with a law so that Congress does not have to. Congress sometimes delegates its legislative powers intentionally, and sometimes it sits quietly while the executive branch simply arrogates congressional powers to itself, as the Environmental Protection Agency has done under the Clean Air Act. This happens in part because Congress is timid and lazy, disinclined to do the hard work of legislating — especially when there is no political incentive to do so.

The elements of truth in Williamson's observations are not easily dismissed and, sadly, point to a slowly emerging change in our national governance; an unhealthy change, methinks. Williamson's entire article is worth a read. http://www.nationalreview.com/article/373231/congress-time-its-personal-kevin-d-williamson

Denver's “15 minutes” of fame (a la Andy Warhol). On occasion a community become part of the national “breaking news” scene. This winter there have been the seemingly endless pictures of “those poor Chicagoans,” buried by yet another snow storm. (Remember when in years past Buffalo seemed to be the inevitable target?)

     Denver's turn in the national spotlight came last Wednesday morning due to an hour-long, drug-induced (?) serial car jacking sequence, given live TV coverage courtesy of two local news stations's helicopters. This proved a  happy instance when technology was able to provide police with visual images that helped end the incident with only one major casualty. (Hopefully, the badly injured state trooper will fully recover.) Alas, we locals endured the inevitable endless re-runs of our 15 minutes on all the local stations.

And from the Congress's “deplorable” pigeon hole: Well-paid GOP Rep. Paul Ryan (WI) had this to say about school lunches. “What they’re offering people is a full stomach and an empty soul.” In other words, mothers, no matter how harried with child rearing and multiple jobs, by a lack in food in the house, etc., are supposed to lovingly hand pack their children's lunches, thus assuring the children “they are loved” – in a way the school cafeteria worker cannot.

To say the least, this amounts to unadulterated balderdash, pandering to those much vaunted Republican “family values.” Does Rep. Ryan feel unloved when his wife doesn't send him off each day with a hand-packed lunch sack (love-note folded inside) and he's forced to eat in his sumptuous office with food catered by, delivered from the Capitol cafeteria? http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/13/opinion/collins-lunch-on-the-barricades.html?_r=0

Crimean sovereignty. It appears that this past Sunday voters in Crimea chose to secede from Ukraine and join Russia. The vote, needless to say, is causing great consternation in diplomatic channels. A comment by US Secretary of State, John Kerry, rings spectacularly hollow! “You just don’t in the 21st century behave in a 19th-century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped-up pretext...” he said shortly after tens of thousands of Russian troops invaded Crimea under the auspices of protecting their Russian compatriots in the region. Amazing! This from the official spokesperson for the nation that invaded Iraq using bogus data claiming the existence of non-existent weapons of mass destruction. Has the Secretary no memory of America's similar past transgressions? Very strange, indeed!  And President Obama's statements on Monday were in much the same strange vein, ignoring America's past actions.

Repercussions in Ukraine. Dmitry Yarosh, leader of ultranationalist group, Right Sector, has threatened to destroy Russian pipelines on Ukrainian territory if a diplomatic solution is not reached with Moscow. Senator John McCain (R, AZ) commented on the not so cherry future: “The United States must look beyond Mr. Putin. His regime may appear imposing, but it is rotting inside. His Russia is not a great power on par with America. It is a gas station run by a corrupt, autocratic regime...[a]nd eventually, Russians will come for Mr. Putin in the same way and for the same reasons that Ukrainians came for Viktor F. Yanukovych.” Perhaps.

McCain did speak one kernel of truth: Russia's economy does hinge in large part on its energy exports. Nations and consumers are not banging on the doors for other Russian exports. Unfortunately, Russia's energy reserves do put Mr. Putin in the driver's seat vis-a-vis Europe's energy short term needs.

Thank you for reading and I hope your coming week is good.

Spring-like weather. This past Thursday and Friday we have had light snowfalls of big, fat, water-filled flakes. Good for the lawns, trees, and shrubs. There has been so much water in the snow that rather than let it melt and runoff, we usually shovel it onto the lawn. On Saturday morning, while sitting at the computer adding to this blog, I watched the trees dripping their sparkling snow and ice in the early morning sun. The backyard lilly pond is slowly melting, not quite sure of whether it is spring or still winter. Spring has yet to fully arrived in Denver.

Tulips and Windmills. Christine and I have decided to take another Viking River cruise in very early April, appropriately called, “Tulips and Windmills.” I last visited Holland during tulip-time when I was in the Air Force stationed in (then) West Germany. The colors were unbelievable and we are hoping this year's spring weather will accord us similar colorful displays.

The Million Dollar Quartet. This past week we went to see the MDQ at the Denver Center. If you like the rock-and-roll of the mid-1950s, you will enjoy your evening. The story line is about the actual, one-time only, impromptu get together in December 1956 at the Sun Record studio of four rock-and-roll legends: Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash. On stage the four musicians/actors, plus a “girl singer in the band,” slap base player, and drummer provided all the music; there is no lip synching, no pre-recorded music. It was wonderfully live!

Word Play. This Sunday's "Perspective" section in the Denver Post had two stories with interesting headlines. In one, Lisa Wirthman wrote about the growing income disparity in the US. She was familiar with the ubiquitous warnings in the London Tube about the subway trains and platforms, so her headline read, "Mind the Gap." Cute! 

     In the second story, Claudia Rosett obviously wanted to be upfront about her dislike for and distrust of the Iranian government; hence, her headline, "Iran's nuke thug was given a hero's welcome by DU." [emphasis added] Iran's thug is the foreign minister, who earned both an MA and PdD from Denver University. The word "thug" is enjoying something of a comeback largely due to stories about certain Ukrainian opposition groups led by what are being characterized as right wing, Nazi-leaning "thugs."

March 3, 2014

Our relatives from Sweden have returned home after a two-week CO ski vacation. A good time was had by all and the two young Swedes (13 and 10) were a special joy. Sofia, the younger sister, took great delight in quietly preparing my birthday gift: unwrapping Hershey kisses and replacing the paper “tags” with her own little printed strips of birthday good wishes. Like her mother, Sofia is definitely a “free spirit.” The girls decided that next year they would rather return to Colorado than go skiing in Sweden.

Joe Biden and the presidency. The vice president can alternately make the public smile and wince. Here is a vignette from an email sent by a friend as Biden was “gearing up” for the coming presidential campaign in 2012. The passage (circa 1945) came from the soon-to-be Pope John XXIII and was meant as a reminder that Biden, on the brink of another four-year term, was reaching an age for reflection and reckoning. Of course, John XXIII went on to hold the papacy until his death in 1963.

[John XXIII reflected,] I must not disguise myself from the truth,” the quote began. “I am definitely approaching old age. My mind resents this and almost rebels, for I still feel so young, eager, agile and alert. But one look in the mirror disillusions me. This is the season of maturity.

     Now it is February 2014, with November 2016 not that far away, and the VP is mulling over his chances for gaining the Democratic party's nomination. Would Biden be a continual breath of fresh air or just a too-old white-guy with too many ties to the past?
     Biden has been described as still the happy warrior, but the past couple years have been a struggle for both relevance and leverage—a fight largely hidden from public view, between the presidential dreams he can’t quite relinquish and the shrinking parameters of a job he described as derivative, borrowed and “totally reflective of the president’s power.”
Ah, Joe, I fear you were born a bit too long ago. Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/02/joe-biden-profile-103667.html#ixzz2uXCIsMf9


Human (gay) rights and AZ. Governor Jan Brewer's veto of SB 1062 will, no doubt, raise the hackles of the religious right, while pleasing the GLBT electorate. Whether or not the Governor and her backers care to admit it, business interests clearly triumphed. The money to be lost in convention and other business might well have been considerable and, most certainly, the state did not want to risk losing the money that will flow into the state when it hosts the 2015 Super Bowl game.


Admiring winter trees. Last Wednesday a friend in NC commented that there was only a little time left to admire the architecture of winter trees. Then last Thursday afternoon, as I drove up from Denver through the foothills into the mountains, the light was just right and the aspens shone a ghostly white amid the surrounding evergreens. Here in the mountains it will be a while, though, before spring arrives and the aspens begin to bud out, changing and softening the scenery.


Ukraine and the Crimea region. A story from the Washington Post:
Simferopol, Ukraine — The revolutionary upheaval in Ukraine’s faraway capital has awakened the separatist dreams of ethnic Russians living...on the Crimean Peninsula, where on Thursday pro-Russia gunmen who occupied the regional parliament building were met with an outpouring of support.
The situation is exacerbated by the fact that Russia has a huge, vital naval base at Sevastopol on southern Ukraine's Crimea peninsula and a special treaty governing the base's use. The Crimea and the warm-water naval base have been key outposts since the long-ago days of Imperial Russia. 
     Ukrainians with cultural ties/leanings toward Russia and their associated militia forces began by demonstrating for closer ties with Russia, whose government has initiated unplanned military exercises close to the Crimean border. Indeed, the regional capitol building in Simferopol was occupied last Thursday by self-defense militiamen, who proclaimed themselves to be Russian and calling for the return of the Crimea to Russia. The Cold War is not as finished as might have appeared just weeks ago. 
     Columnist Charles Krauthammer notes that American neutrality only creates a vacuum which Russian president Putin is all too eager to fill. http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/pro-russia-separatists-flex-muscle-in-ukraines-crimean-peninsula/2014/02/27/dac10d54-9ff0-11e3-878c-65222df220eb_story.html?hpid=z2
     It also seems worthwhile to quote the first two paragraphs from David Ignatius's column of March 3. (Washington Post)
Napoleon is said to have cautioned during an 1805 battle: “When the enemy is making a false movement we must take good care not to interrupt him.” The citation is also sometimes rendered as “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” Whatever the precise wording, the admonition is a useful starting point for thinking about the Ukraine situation.
Vladimir Putin has made a mistake invading Crimea, escalating a crisis for Russia that has been brewing for many months. It might have been beneficial if President Obama could have dissuaded him from this error. But Putin’s move into Crimea appeared to spring from a deeper misjudgment about the reversibility of the process that led to the breakup of Soviet Union in 1991. The further Russia wades into this revanchist strategy, the worse its troubles will become.
There are, no doubt, a significant number of powerful, high-profile Russians who hold steadfastly to the belief that the dissolution of the USSR could have – should have – been prevented. Especially, among the most “important” near-European republics.
     Eugene Robinson, Washington Post columnist, captures my thoughts.
Let’s be real. It’s one thing to say that Russia’s takeover of the Crimean Peninsula “cannot be allowed to stand,” as many foreign policy sages have proclaimed. It’s quite another to do something about it.
   Is it just me, or does the rhetoric about the crisis in Ukraine sound as if all of Washington is suffering from amnesia? We’re supposed to be shocked — shocked! — that a great military power would cook up a pretext to invade a smaller, weaker nation? I’m sorry, but has everyone forgotten the unfortunate events in Iraq a few years ago?
     Zbigniew Brzezinski, president Jimmy Carter's national security adviser (1977-1981), writes that one factor will be the response by the Ukrainians themselves, by “...[their] ...reactions to any further repetition of Putin’s Crimean aggression and by whether the nation believes that the United States and NATO are truly supportive.” 
    Of necessity, all this recalls America's non-response to the heroic actions of Hungarians (1956) and Czechoslovakians (1968) who tried valiantly, but vainly, to throw out their Soviet occupiers. Can the Ukrainians expect more forthright, meaningful assistance from America, NATO, and the UN? I fear they should not count on anything more than platitudes.
     You will not find much mention of the following scenario in the main stream press, but there are an increasing number of stories circulating in alternative sources that the US made it own present thorny bed. How? By supporting under-the-table/behind-the-scenes efforts led by the CIA to unseat duly elected, but Russian-leaning president, Yanukovych.
     Nothing new here; it has happened before. The dissolution of the USSR and subsequent freeing of its eastern European satellites opened the archives of all their intelligence services. The newly found material shone a light on decades-long CIA efforts to encourage rebellion in these satellite nations – only to have our government back away from any substantive assistance when revolts did indeed break out in East Germany, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Only in Poland did the massive home-grown, labor-led revolt have any success. This was partly due to massive support from America's very large, demonstrative Polish-American population, the Polish Roman Catholic church, and a Polish Pope.


Obama's presidency. Gary Younge is a reporter for the Guardian based in the US, who also write a monthly column in the Nation. His recent story is headlined, “What the hell is Barack Obama's presidency for.” He begins by contrasting the major reform programs announced by LBJ in his first months as “unexpected president” with Obama's time in office. Reflecting on recent events, domestic and foreign, Younge say, “If there was a plot, [Obama has] lost it. If there was a point, few can remember it. If he had a big idea, he shrank it. If there's a moral compass powerful enough to guide such contradictions to more consistent waters, it is in urgent need of being reset.” Younge continues,
Given the [current] barriers to democratic engagement and progressive change in America – gerrymandering, big money and Senate vetoes – we should always be wary of expecting too much from a system designed to deliver precious little to the poor. We should also challenge the illusion that any individual can single-handedly produce progressive change in the absence of a mass movement that can both drive and sustain it.....If you're going to be president, then I guess you obviously want to be in the history books," said Susan Aylward, a frustrated Obama supporter in Akron, Ohio, shortly before the last election. "So what does he want to be in the history books for? I don't quite know the answer to that yet." Sadly, it seems, neither does [Younge].
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/23/what-is-barack-obama-presidency-for


The nation's changed capital. The link below will take you to a sobering piece outlining why a respected, long-time Washington Post employee (from summer intern in 1963 to managing editor, 1991-1998) has abandoned Washington, sadly disillusioned by the state of governance in America.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-republicans-lost-their-mind-democrats-lost-their-soul-and-washington-lost-its-appeal/2014/02/28/2ef5429c-9d89-11e3-9ba6-800d1192d08b_story.html?hpid=z3

Thank you for reading.  I hope you have a good week without too much snow and cold.