Here are this week's topics: Trump & national security; federalism; words that matter; Olympic doping and ideals; two troubling harbingers of the future: youth and robots; weary of commuting?; dog sniffers; safer after 9/11?

Trump, a national security liability? Last week fifty major figures previously involved with national security matters signed an open letter saying they believed that as president Donald would be untrustworthy, a national security liability. One signer, former CIA official, Mike Morell, sat down with Charlie Rose to present his views. Near the end of the interview, Morell veered from the topic at hand to say that he had three major concerns, problems that had to be addressed nationally.
     First, income inequality, second political gridlock, and third the "browning" of America. Morell said one and two were unarguable facts. Specifically,  (1) Middle class income has stagnated and (2) 65% of the votes cast in the recent presidential primaries were for anti-establishment candidates, Sanders and Trump.
     As to (3), while he lamented the fact, he thinks a portion of the electorate, primarily less-educated white males, were becoming increasingly fearful of their dwindling role/status in America. Left unsaid was his conclusion that a large portion of Trump's support comes from this disaffected group. This interview is well worth watching.

Federalism. As I used to tell my students, "The good news is we have federalism; the bad news is we have federalism!" The question, the mere, outside prospect of replacing a previously designated presidential candidate illustrates this point, as this Roll Call article points out. Replacing Clinton or Trump would be a laborious, uncertain, state-by-state process or, as our English cousins put it, "a very sticky wicket, indeed!"

Words matter. In a Washington Post op-ed, William Kennedy Smith and Jean Kennedy Smith looked back and remembered the words from Bobby Kennedy's speech, delivered in Indianapolis on April 4, 1968. After hearing the whispered news from an aide, RFK told those gathered, largely African Americans, that Martin Luther King, Jr. had just been shot and killed. Kennedy closed by pleading with the audience to go home and say a prayer for America in this hour when "love, wisdom, and compassion" were so necessary." The Smiths also poignantly noted that, "While there were riots in cities across the nation that night, Indianapolis did not burn." (emphasis added)
     They also look at the words uttered during the presidential campaign of 2016. They emind us that "[in] the white-hot cauldron of a presidential campaign, it is still the words delivered extemporaneously, off the cuff, in the raw pressure of the moment that matter most....[These words] say most directly what is in a candidate’s heart."

Athletic doping in the modern era. As the Olympic TV coverage saturates the airwaves, perhaps a humorous note is in order. To paraphrase Rogers and Hammerstein from "Carousel," [Honesty] is breaking out all over....." Olympic officials are discovering why the Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, was noticeably dismayed when he shut off some inconvenient nastiness (a sit-in by members of the House) being broadcast from the House floor on C-Span, only to find out that, alas, the disruption was being "broadcast" by the same representatives using the internet. "Oh, darn! Shall we ban smartphones?" Ergo.......
      Apparently, some athletes in Rio have decided to take action, using scheduled TV coverage (on-air "finger wagging"), then the internet to challenge the "soothing words, excuses, and outright denials" about doping from the IOC and national officials. Several American competitors openly took their own officials to task for securing the hasty, problematic re-reinstatement of two male US sprinters earlier banned for doping. After all, "What's good for the goose is good for the gander."
     In 1976, US swimmer Shirley Babashoff (unofficially dubbed, "Surly Shirley") was not so quietly shushed by the US IOC for openly hinting that the East German government had a doping regime. Rio is now light years beyond. It seems that few of those involved (athletes, national officials, international sports organizations) have yet come to grips with the changed circumstances of our interconnected world. Hiding anything is no longer easy, perhaps even impossible. Correspondence, records, tests, results......all have to be kept and are, therefore, hack-able.

Olympic spirit. David Clay Large maintains that, contrary to its stated ideal, "The [Olympic] Games succeed because they indulge precisely what they claim to transcend – the world's basest instinct for tribalism" Still, there were great moments. Clay's review, which goes back through history, makes for interesting reading. There are even some environmental parallels to Rio -- he recalls the "stinking Seine river of the 1900 games in Paris.
     Columnist Jennifer Rubin, who has a child as old as some Olympians, recounts her love -- hate relationship with the Games.  In 2016, America's diversity shines: an African American swimmer being joyfully hugged by a Jewish American teammate; an medal-winning African American gymnast; an appropriately clad Muslim American sabre victor (who had come in second to Michael Phelps in the vote among the American athletes as to who should carry the flag in the opening ceremony). All young women, by the way.
     Some Rio events were riotously and happily boisterous (take your pick), some quite quiet (e.g. archery); some momentous harbingers of things to come (see above); finally, there was the team that was the mark of our troubled world, the IOC-sanctioned Refugee Olympic Team.

Troubled youngsters. Kristin Lord notes, "In the coming years, the population of people under the age of 30 in some of the most fragile and unstable countries is going to skyrocket. And the world is not ready for them." Indeed, today in Iran an estimated 60% of the population is less than 30 years-old.

Robots. David Ignatius writes that "economists warn that much bigger job losses are ahead in the United States — driven not by foreign competition but by advancing technology....The 'automation bomb' could destroy 45 percent of the work activities currently performed in the United States, representing about $2 trillion in annual wages..." (Note last week's comments on worker retraining.)
     As with the world's troubled youngsters, Ignatius says that no one is talking about this looming problem. "[How] to provide meaningful work and good wages for the tens of millions of truck drivers, accountants, factory workers and office clerks whose jobs will disappear in coming years because of robots, driverless vehicles and “machine learning” systems." In time, similar economic dislocations will be world wide.

That terrible daily commute. Here is Rollin Stanley on congested city traffic. Mr. Stanley, now general manager of urban planning for Calgary, Alberta, was Montgomery County (MD) planning director from 2008 to 2012.

A headline I like to show in my public presentations — “Will 23 lanes be enough?” — references Atlanta’s proposed expansion of Interstate 75, making it wider than an aircraft carrier is long. The answer to the question in that headline is “no.” There will never be enough lanes. The billions they cost will be fruitless, as you can’t build your way out of congestion.

That great sniffer. Turns out that Fido "may be our best bet for staying safe." He/she has an amazing sense of smell that will find that "illegal" pineapple in the returning tourist's luggage or that terrorist bomb. Good dog!

Post- 9/11. A lengthy article from The Atlantic by Stephen Brill concludes there are some "yes-s," but more than a few "no-s." Certainly there have been important pluses at the airports and borders, but, as is often the case in emergency situations, there have also been petty, money-grubbing boondoggles, public and private.

Thank you for reading. Enjoy the week.