Here are this week's notes: Denver's rain; reading, non-fiction; the GOP in Wonderland; weapons and watch lists; Brexit victory; the elites; Chinese expansionism; music second best.

The rain in Denver....... It can be a fickle thing here in the Mile Hi city. It can rain at my house, but remain bone dry at my friend's house less than one-half air mile away to the north and it seems as if the monsoon season arrives a bit earlier each summer. If you are planning an outdoor activity, mornings remain your best bet -- especially if the outing is important, like a wedding. The caterers and some of your guests may be a bit miffed, but, hey, it's your celebration! Clear mornings are the norm, with clouds building by 2pm with thunder rumbling in the distance. Of course, if my sprinkler runs in the morning, rain is almost guaranteed that afternoon.

Reading, non-fiction. Secondhand Times: The Last of the Soviets (An Oral History),  Svetlana Alexievich, Random House, 2016, originally 2013 in Russian. In 2015, Ms. Alexievich was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. She presents a frightening, detailed examination the present Russian psyche, the still homo sovieticus, someone eminently unknown to we non-Russians. Part I: The Consolation of Apocalypse; Part II: The Charm of Emptiness. This is a journey into a land you have never known.

The epigraph: Victim and executioner are equally ignoble; the lesson of the camps is brotherhood in abjection. —DAVID ROUSSET, THE DAYS OF OUR DEATH 
In any event, we must remember that it’s not the blinded wrongdoers who are primarily responsible for the triumph of evil in the world, but the spiritually sighted servants of the good. —FYODOR STEPUN, FOREGONE AND GONE FOREVER

We’re paying our respects to the Soviet era. Cutting ties with our old life. I’m trying to honestly hear out all the participants of the socialist drama… Communism had an insane plan: to remake the “old breed of man,” ancient Adam. And it really worked… Perhaps it was communism’s only achievement. Seventy-plus years in the Marxist-Leninist laboratory gave rise to a new man: Homo sovieticus....This was socialism, but it was also just everyday life. Back then, we didn’t talk about it very much. Now that the world has transformed irreversibly, everyone is suddenly interested in that old life of ours— whatever it may have been like, it was our life....Those who were born in the USSR and those born after its collapse do not share a common experience— it’s like they’re from different planets....Russians don’t understand freedom, they need the Cossack and the whip....On the eve of the 1917 Revolution, Alexander Grin wrote, “And the future seems to have stopped standing in its proper place.” Now, a hundred years later, the future is, once again, not where it ought to be. Our time comes to us secondhand. (Hence, Ms. Alexievich's title.) A Russian saying, probably not yet old enough to qualify as a proverb: "A communist is someone who's read Marx; an anti-communist is someone who's understood him."

Donald (Alice) Trump. Speaking of being from different planets. In his Tuesday column, Michael Gerson, an otherwise reasoned conservative, seemed to convey the near apoplectic  frenzy among the Republican establishment. Baring an outright delegate revolt, he said, the GOP is stuck with Trump. " 'Curiouser and curiouser!' Cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English"
     Or, Gerson on Trump's dilema: "The Trump campaign claims to be lean; in most of the country, including the battleground states, it is nonexistent. Trump offers his leadership as the solution to every problem yet presides over a campaign organization that is a squabbling, paralyzed amateur hour. Delegates know that even if Trump can boost his poll numbers, he cannot magically create a viable, national campaign structure."
     Seemingly, Trump's mantra, borrowed from England's Lord Beaverbrook, Benjamin Disraeli and others has become: Never apologize, never explain.
     Kathleen Parker: Did the concerns of UK's winning majority over "immigration, refugees, [and] underemployment" just propel Trump into the White House? One might add a current "anti-elitism" to the list.

Weapons and watch lists. Apparently, Ana Garcia, an Emmy award-winning TV journalist based in Los Angeles has the same name as another woman, a very bad person, so she found herself on the TSA's watch list. It took some work, but she has now be put on the TSA's lesser "selectee" list. She is not happy (it sucks) and it is a pain because it means an additional screening whenever she flies. Her thoughts are poignant and on point.
     
Still, in my view, the debate over whether it is unconstitutional to ban people on watch lists from buying guns is absurd. I have heard emotional arguments from conservatives who are worried innocent people wrongfully placed on watch lists will be denied their Second Amendment right to buy a gun.
All of a sudden, politicians not so worried about my status on a watch list are apparently paralyzed with fear that I might not have the freedom to buy a gun.[emphasis added]
That’s awfully thoughtful, but save the sympathy for the families of the victims in Orlando.

Brexit and sovereignty. In his Saturday Washington Post column, George Will presents a reasoned, right-leaning analysis of the vote results. Both Will and the vote numbers raise the question regarding the definition of sovereignty. Is it absolute or "pooled?" Is it the same for nations with federal or unitary systems? Is the "pooled" variety just a step above (national to multi-national) our own national-state variety?
     Prime Minister Cameron' Conservative party and the "remain" groups definitely underestimated the depth of the anti-elite, anti-immigration feelings. Looking into the EU, Will notes the rise in France of so-called  "Generation Identitaire, described as the 'hipster right.' It aims to rally 'young French and Europeans who are proud of their . . . heritage.' ” Other European populist groups may be similarly motivated. EU nations who feel "at risk" of Russian intervention (e.g. the three Baltic states) may feel the need to do something different.
     Veteran European watcher and author, Ann Appplebaum, thinks, 
"Britain's decision to leave the EU is a warning to America." That is, "The true impact of Brexit, on Britain and on Europe, will not be visible for many years. In a certain sense, it will not be visible at all, for the real damage will be done by the things that will now not happen....Opportunities will not be created. Leaders in Scotland and Northern Ireland promptly declared that independence are once again in play.
     Here at home, "[The Brexit vote] may mark the moment when Europe comes face to face with its own constitutional dysfunction, when the idea of the “West” finally ceases to be plausible and when the United States is confirmed in its sense that its interests lie more in Asia than in its traditional Atlantic sphere of influence." Then, too, these anti-s seem to be primary (primal ?) motivating forces in the success of the Trump campaign.
     Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson noted the "powerful, ethno-nationalist instincts" that are increasingly evident around the world.

A very "un-elite" weekend. From the Washington Times editors. One has to wonder to which group  do they consider themselves? Indeed, living at the supposed top of the heap can have its tedious moments. 

The elites across the world had a dreadful weekend. Britain’s historic goodbye to Europe — and it was indeed historic — reverberated in capitals on every continent. The elites, the people who run things (or think they do and who certainly think they should) were told, in language plain and unsparing: “You stink!....Slowly,” writes Tim Stanley in The Telegraph, 'the establishment consensus came to resemble not just a conspiracy, but worse, a confederacy of dunces.' ”

Chinese expansion. See this link for an examination of the PRC's (People's Republic of China) motivation/reasoning for its island building activities in the South China Sea. China's leaders, realists, hardliners, and moderates all share one extremely important area of agreement: "the necessity of island-building....Beijing must establish a presence in the South China Sea commensurate with its newfound power and status, especially since most other claimant states already have decades-old presences in the region....A new status quo demands China clarify its strategic intentions. Right now, not even the Chinese leadership has a clear answer to that question."

Ravel and Gershwin. Tidbit from an NPR segment about music. It was reported that George Gershwin once asked Maurice Ravel for composition lessons, to which Ravel replied, "No. Why would you want to be second-rate Ravel when you can be a first-class Gershwin. And, so we hear Gershwin's "An American in Paris."

Thank you for reading. Enjoy the 4th of July.