Here are this week's topic: retreat to a good book; from across the pond; cosmic thanksgiving; refugees; your new weatherman; strict construction and the Electoral College; 5 myths about the alt-right; the President-elect meets reality.

Reading, non-fiction. Let the Trumpians and anti-s do their thing. I am retreating to the printed word, reading Lassoing the Sun: A Year in America's National Park. The author, Mark Woods, was the metro columnist at the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville. On a whim, having received two unsolicited emails, he submitted an entry for the Eugene C. Pullman Fellowship for Editorial Writing to be awarded to "enable mid-career editorial writer or columnist to break away from daily responsibilities to 'broaden his  or her horizons'."
     He was pleasantly surprised when he was awarded the year-long fellowship and decided to use the year to explore the National Park system. Rather than a "mass numbers assault," he decided to visit one NPS site each month. Appropriately, he elected to begin the journey in Acadia NP on January 1, 2015, at the summit of Maine's Cadillac Mountain, nominally held to be the site of the earliest sun rise in the continental US. Read on.

David Runciman: "Is this how democracy ends?" From the London Review of Books. Runciman's curious point: "[Those who voted for Trump] wanted change but they also had confidence in the basic durability and decency of America’s political institutions to protect them from the worst effects of that change. They wanted Trump to shake up a system that they also expected to shield them from the recklessness of a man like Trump. How else to explain that many people who reported themselves alarmed by the idea of a Trump presidency also voted for him?"

Home alone?  To turn the headline into a question: Is humanity cosmically special? Cosmologist and astrophysicist Howard A. Smith wonders, especially as modern technology expands our view into the visible universe . What has conspired/happened to put we humans on this earthly sphere? Are we alone? Are we alone in just one parallel universe? The present most probable conclusion, Jodi Foster and Contact notwithstanding: you and I will pass away long before these questions are answered.

Refugees. If you are wondering how many Americans are on either side of this topic, rest assured that 6-year-old Alex Myteberi of Scarsdale, NY, has no problem with helping others. Amy Wang wrote a piece about Alex's letter to President Obama. Alex simply asked the president to get the badly injured 5-year-old Omran Daqneesh to the US so he could become part of Alex's family. Obama read a portion of Alex's letter at the recent UN summit on refugees, saying

The humanity that a young child can display, who hasn’t learned to be cynical, or suspicious, or fearful of other people, because of where they’re from, or how they look, or how they pray. We can all learn from Alex.”

     Alex, who had wanted to visit the White House, met President Obama where the young man''s  attitude was applauded by one and all. Perhaps the president should leave a copy of Alex's letter on the Oval Office desk for president-elect Trump.

The new weatherman. Wondering what tomorrow's weather will be like?  This past week the US launched the world's most sophisticated weather satellite. You -- and your friends on the other side of the globe -- will also benefit from the gizmos on-board "Goes-R," the first in a series of weather satellites to operated by NOAA, NASA and the Department of Defense. There is a long, largely unmentioned, agreement among nations to share whatever weather data they amass.

The Electoral College decision. Here is Harvard law school's Lawrence Lessig's view of the possible, but very improbable outcome of the vote this coming December 19th. Link here to the EC timeline for the 2016 election.
     In closing, Professor Lessig leaves no doubt what he thinks should happen: "But the question today is which precedent should govern today — Tammany Hall [1881] and Bush v. Gore [2000], or one person, one vote? The framers left the electors free to choose. They should exercise that choice by leaving the election as the people decided it: in Clinton’s favor.

Alt-Right. You might want to use this 5-myth list as you read about the alt-right:

1. ...is different from regular neo-Nazism;
2. ...is a bunch of juvenile pranksters;
3. ...is rapidly gaining power and numbers;
4. ...is just an extension of European nationalist movements.
5. Trump does not agree with what the alt-right stands for.

Reality: TV and Washington. If you were among the Trump-supporters who really believed he would.................. Welcome to the world of political reality. To Michael Gerson's way of thinking. "Trump’s hypocrisy is [actually] good for America." Luminaries of the right like Limbaugh and Gingrich have admitted many of the candidate's pronouncements were simply good campaign hyperbole. Gerson writes, "Every time the Trump agenda is reshaped or refined to better fit reality, even Trump’s most dedicated critics have reason to applaud."
     Do you ever wonder/That to win, somebody's got to lose... And the Beat Goes On (the Whisperers, 1979)

Thank you for reading. Enjoy the week ahead.

Here are this week's topics: the new unknown; the missing votes; CO's voter turnout; CO's Rhodes Scholar; distrust; past lessons; Thomas Friedman and change; social media; competing voices; oil, gas, energy policy; "The Crossing;" kids on their president; trusted news; the Puritans and Thanksgiving; the Hamilton brouhaha.

The new Unknown. In 1789, we embarked on our maiden voyage as a republic under a new Constitution. It was all so new, there was so much we did not know, no contemporary examples to follow. Now we are about to embark on another maiden voyage of sorts: a government led by a man who has never before stood for, let alone won, an election, never served in public office, nor in the military.

CO's Voting turnout. According to a Denver Post story, CO ranked third in the nation with a 71.3% voter turnout. At this point it is uncertain what effect our mail-ballot system had; every registered CO voter received a ballot in the mail. There was also an online system for tracking your ballot's trip from the your county registrar to you and back.

CO's Rhodes Scholar. Hannah Carrese, a former high school student from Colorado Springs and Yale graduate, is the recipient of a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship. She wants to study the political and social effects of today's mass migrations resulting from turmoil. If well done, her resulting dissertation could be very illuminating. While in high school, she worked with refugees from Bhutan and later went to Mexico to work with those fleeing violence in Central America.

Missing Votes. Or, why did HRC lose? An article in "The Hill," November 15, provides some answers, beyond the obvious. Few grasped the dispaire that was afoot among the low and middle class and their willingness to cast aside their past allegiances in the search for something better. Even more than 2008, 2016-elections were about change, something too few recognized. The PE's (President-Elect) headlight was so bright that the looming train was unseen.

Deep distrust. The anti-Trump rallies and disturbances are the natural result of the fear now being felt by those who feel threatened by a Trump presidency. Facts: (1) The global world is not going away. (2) America will continue to grow, inevitably becoming more diverse. (3) For those whites who fell threatened, left behind, there is little they can do without getting the education needed to cope with an ever changing world. Do

A lesson from the past. It was in the 1980s as the steel mills in the Pittsburgh area were slowly being shuttered. A nursing supervisor, whose husband was soon to be unemployed, looked at the growing pool of unemployed males and the very few male nurses in her hospital, wondered....... The immediate problems, of course, were social, psychological and educational. How to convince manly former steel workers to go back to school, to be nurses???? There were, after all, two traditionally feminine dominated occupations: teaching and nursing.
     Facing no income and no job prospects, she convinced her husband and a few others to make a leap of faith. It is took a while, but the pool slowly grew and, besides, these "new" nurses were filling a community need and sustaining both their families and egos. Big burly men could be both helpful and gentle. The Pittsburgh example spread. One wonders about present day coal miners and other former wrench-turners.

Thomas Friedman. From his latest book, Thank You for Being Late, "The three largest forces on the planet  -- technology, globalization, and  climate change  -- are all accelerating at once...The greatest inflection point since Gutenberg." I would agree with Secretary of State, John Kerry and I that climate change offers no "do-overs."

Facebook, et. al. It is nice to know about your friends, but then there is the other reality: social media has been easily co-opted by the "dark side" and used to advance evil. Combined with modern search techniques, it dispenses falsehoods and places social critics in jeopardy, often life threatening.

Trump's Ear. A Washington Post story by Philip Rucker and Robert Costa said DT was choosing an array of advisers, not all of whom would agree. A dispertate group is good; dispertate AND knowledgeable is better. Lord knows DT's knowledge is limited in so many areas that he needs knowledgeable people. His intimates, the Washington operators, and Vice President-elect Pense. The nation will greatly benefit if he surprises us.

The Senate's role. Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute wrote,  "The hopes for governance hewing closer to the center, and respecting all those living in the United States, rests with the Senate, and with the behavior and outlook of senators in both parties....For Senate Republicans, this is a critical moment to heed a call their colleague Lindsey Graham (S.C.) made earlier in the campaign — there is a time to put country ahead of party."

Energy policy. In HIGH COUNTRY NEWS, Jonathan Thompson notes that however much his supporters wish, President- Elect Trump can do very little to increase the demand for coal energy. However much he may "dig coal," cheap natural gas will be more attractive to energy producers and investors. A PBS Newshour segment  (11-17-2016) amplified this point.

The Crossing. Crossing comes to mind with many different contexts, most frequently, I would imagine, in "coming to America." This human interest story from this past Sunday's Washington Post's "Optimist" section has a very different story line: a county medical examiner in Laredo, TX, who is seeking to identify bodies found in the desert, anonymous souls who died trying to reach what they undoubtedly saw as their promised land. Migrants whom, had they been successful, harbored the hope of a new life in America.

Laredo was where [Corinne] Stern had arrived a decade before to become the county’s medical examiner, and where her offices were located at the end of a dusty, unmarked road. Once a month, she gathered her staff for a meeting to discuss the issue that took up more than a third of their time: identifying the people who died trying to cross the border into the United States and sending their remains home. It was her belief that burial was the way to honor that a person had existed. “That he had walked on this Earth,” she sometimes said. Burial was the acknowledgment of universal human dignity, she believed, and the physical location of a family’s grief.

"Kids say the darnedest things." Back in the day, this was a favorite segment of Art Linkletter's TV program and it was amazing what kids did say! Amy Wang wrote a piece about one Seattle mother's attempt "[to] have children write letters to President-elect Donald Trump “about the importance of being kind to other people, even if they’re different than you are.." Lord knows, Mr. Trump does see himself as somewhat unique, so he might profit from reading his mail.

Two notable passings.

     Gwen Ifill, Condolences were heard from around the globe at the death of PBS's pioneering correspondent and news anchor. Her level-headed determination to seek the truth will be missed.

     Ruth Gruber. She was an American foreign correspondent who became a part of US/world history when she was sent by the FDR administration to accompany 1,000 Holocaust survivors as they sailed from Europe to the US on the ship Henry Gibbons. That trip became the basis for Leon Uris's book Exodus, the fictional classic about the founding of Israel. As she began the trip, Ms. Gruber correctly foresaw that henceforth her life would be all about survivors and freedom. A few years later, she was the first female correspondent to travel to the Soviet Arctic and report on the Siberian Gulags, another story of human determination and survival.

Unity. The town of Kent, OH, home of Kent State University, certainly knows a thing or two about the effects of controversy. Before this season's opening game, a senior on the basketball team, Deon Edwin, proposed to his coach that each team member go into the stands and invite a fan of a different race to join him on the floor for the singing of the national anthem. A school spokesman said, "It was cool because I don’t think anyone in the crowd knew what was going on. None of the fans knew about it beforehand.” Kudos for Deon and the team.

Reliable media? Columnist Kathleen Parker worries about a public which seems to increasingly distrust usual news sources. It is a new world, one with thousands of media sources, far right to far left, well informed to clueless, real to fake. She writes, "[D]istrust of legitimate journalism is no joking matter. What happens to democracy when an uninformed, misinformed or disinformed populace tries to make sound decisions? The simple and terrible answer is, democracy fails."
     She might have also mentioned that Americans generally have little ability or inclination to look at their world and then critically "read between the lines. During the Cold War, it was often noted that over the years Soviet citizens in the now defunct USSR had learned to "read between Prava's lines," to discern what was and was very probably not true. Incidentally, Russians wryly appreciated that pravda is Russian for truth.

Puritan myths. It is that time of the year and in a Washington Post op-ed, Lori Stokes writes of the five myths about the Puritans. That they....

1. Established a theocracy
2. Had a special hatred of American Indians
3. Hated sex
4. Came to America to establish religious freedom
5. Were relentless witch hunters

To learn more about Ms. Stokes' research, follow the link.

Alexander Hamilton. Consider how AH might have viewed the brouhaha that has ensured after this past Friday evening's performance. In a prescient column, Marc A. Thiessen wrote 
 
The Democratic Party’s alienation from the rest of America was on full display at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on Friday night. And the left seems completely oblivious to how ridiculous it looks to the rest of the United States....People in the American heartland see all this, and they shake their heads in disgust. Today’s Democrats have become a party of coastal elites completely disconnected from the rest of America. Doubt it? Take a look at a county-by-county map of the 2016 presidential election...As a result [of the election], Republicans now control the House, the Senate, the White House, and (after President Trump picks a new justice to replace Antonin Scalia) there will be a restored conservative majority on the Supreme Court.

Thank you for reading. Have a very Happy Thanksgiving.

Here are the topics for this first post-election blog: America, in a new place; anti-Trump protests; two peas in a pod?; changing times; Max Weber; Brexit; alt-right, et. al.;

"A prayer for America." That was the headline for Ruth Marcus's post-election op-ed column in the Washington Post. The nation is surely entering a new place and, as she notes, the prayer recited every Saturday in her Jewish synagogue now seems terribly appropriate.

     Our God and God of our ancestors: We ask Your blessings for our country — for its government, for its leaders and advisers, and for all who exercise just and rightful authority. Teach then insights from Your Torah that they may administer all affairs of state fairly, that peace and security, happiness and prosperity, justice and freedom may forever abide in our midst.
     Creator of all flesh, bless all the inhabitants of our country with Your spirit. May citizens of all races and creeds forge a common bond in true harmony, to banish hatred and bigotry and to safeguard the ideals and free institutions that are the pride and glory of our country. 
     May this land, under Your providence be an influence for good throughout the world, uniting all people in peace and freedom — helping them to fulfill the vision of Your prophet: “Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they experience war any more.”

Anti-Trump protests. Just as the pundits were beginning to explain why they had not foreseen Hillary's loss and Donald's victory, protesters took to the streets in many cities (including Denver) to express their outrage. Streets, interstate highways, and bridges were shut down. 
     Not surprisingly, students often led off by taking to the streets before school on Wednesday morning. These protests are just one more indication of the depth of disrepair felt all across the social divide.

Trump and Putin.  From this morning's brief in Foreign Policy: "In his victory speech, Trump said that he would be willing to work with any country willing to work with the United States. “America,” he said, “will no longer settle for anything less than the best … We must reclaim our country’s destiny.” This last phrase essentially captures the thrust of Putin's continuing foreign and domestic policies. Both leaders feel their country unfairly wounded.

Changing times. The title of a Thursday column by David Marinass, perhaps says it best. "The Clintons were  undone by the middle-American voters they once knew so well." How ironic that their forgetfulness, this misreading of the public would put a non-politician and billionaire in the White House.

Max Weber. In his Thursday column, Charles Lane examines the way President-elect Trump won and finds an apt application of Max Weber's thoughts on "charismatic authority." Weber is not often remembered or quoted, even by the Post's eminent wordsmith, George Will.
     Mixing 19th century and more modern lexicon, Lane writes, "[A]s Max Weber famously defined it, “charismatic authority” stems from a kind of political mojo 'resting on devotion to the exceptional sanctity, heroism or exemplary character of an individual person, and of the normative patterns or order revealed or ordained by him.'....Anyone who has witnessed a Trump rally, and the energy generated by the mutually reinforcing rule-breaking carried out by both candidate and crowd, can confirm that Weber’s concept applies.

London Review of Books. It is unclear how much of a debt, acknowledged or not, that Trump owes to the British public's Brexit example. Neal Ascherson's piece is titled, "Britain prepares to leave the world." Two nations striking out on very unfamiliar courses. Mutual best wishes may well be in order. Are both Ms. May and Mr. Trump sailing off through a " black cloud of unknowing" hoping to build a "better yesterday" as they seek the solace of the Wizard? 

Aschrson: I never thought I would see this opera again. ‘Rule Britannia!’ peals, the curtain parts, and there is a mad queen poling her island raft away into the Atlantic. Her shrieks grow slowly fainter, as the mainland falls behind. The first performance was in the 1980s. Who could forget Margaret Thatcher’s ear-splitting arias? But she never took the raft to the horizon, and never finally cast off the cross-Channel hawser mooring her to Europe. This revival is different. Theresa May says she’s bound for the ocean, and she means it.

Alt-right. Now President-Elect (PE) Trump reacts as his boisterous, demanding public dsemands action, action that has to take place within our system of checks and balances. They will find out that the wheels of democracy grind slowly, deliberately. Hopefullythe  PE's desire to be well remembered, which seems to be a fundamental character trait, will lead him to reasonable decisions that further American interests. His "Britebart" may be his conduit to his more radical followers, who want what is clearly not possible.
     This is where Mssrs. Connell, Ryan, et. al. may serve the nation well. Hope springs eternal!

Thank you for reading.

This "Election Day" post was delayed until Wednesday morning, November 9th. No self-respecting, retired teacher of US history, government, and international relations could write without the latest post-election news. Other than the obvious, these are this week's topics: student views; real Americans; last minute election machinations; early voting; an economist's fitting summation; earworms; traffic nightmares; lost something important?; late snow.

The People have spoken. Obviously, the pundits and general public did not grasp the depth to which so many Americans were disgusted with what was NOT being accomplished by their national government. How else to you explain the election results: victory of a much disliked non-politician, who will govern with a Republican-controlled Congress?
     Personally, the impending situation calls to mind a phrase from the Catholic liturgy: "Lord, have mercy."

The students' views. After the ballots have been counted, you might want to consider this link to CBS's Monday morning program about how one teacher's 7th grade students viewed the election campaign. It should be required viewing for each of our so-called pundits who were part of Tuesday's post-election parade. Charade?

The real America.  Fred Hiatt, the Washington Post's editorial page editor, writes eloquently about "The America that Donald Trump doesn't get." It's worth a read because we all know and deeply appreciate these kinds of Americans.

Down to the wire. As the clock ticked down, the news stories abounded about last minute campaign  machinations and celebrity-studded appearances in the so called battle-ground, must-win states. For election coverage, I guess "pick your poison" is the best admonition. With two such unpopular candidates, it seems outrageous to say, "may the best person win."

Vote early? I, for one, will be watching the analyses that focus on the probable effect(s) of early voting. The first presidential contest I followed was 1952, Eisenhower vx. Stevenson,  even though I was far too young to vote. In that bygone era, voters gathered at the polls where voting was a community, as well as a political, event. Pleasantries and family/community news were exchanged; no doubt there was also a modicum of quiet, illegal electioneering.
     Now, on November 8, 2016, an astoundingly high percentage of those eligible have already voted. In some states well over 50% of those eligible have already voted. Here in CO, every registered voter received a mail-in ballot; if you want to vote in person, you have to take your mail-in ballot to have it appropriately cancelled before you can vote. In some areas, more than 50% have voted. Many votes were cast before FBI Director Comey issued his latest (final ?) pronouncement on HRC's email controversy.  

An economist's overall summation. The headline for Washington Post economic columnist, Robert Samuelson,  perhaps said it best: "The real national embarrassment." Samuelson opened, However this election turns out, the 2016 campaign for the White House will undoubtedly be remembered for its vulgarity, mean-spiritedness and mendacity. It has been a national embarrassment. But a parallel failing is less noticed: the unwillingness of both candidates — Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump — to come to grips with national problems that are staring them in the face but involve unpopular political choices. I refer, of course, to an aging society and immigration.
     His election-day column continues the same theme. No one wants to confront these twin problems, nor talk about where will all of the required money come from? As for a national embarrassment, the students perhaps said it best.

Earworms. These peaky things are not from the ground, but from the air! You know that song that keeps going through your mind, over-and-over. If you have ever wondered, read  this article about research from Durham University music psychologist Kelly Jakubowski and her colleagues. "After conducting a statistical analysis of thousands of earworm submissions from an online survey, [they] found that songs that are up-tempo, with a familiar melody set apart by a catchy, unique interval pattern, are especially persistent."

Traffic, the south FL and NJ approaches. A novel, mostly unspoken approach. One that could "catch on" elsewhere? An official in Miami, "One way to ease traffic: Let it get so bad that motorists give up." Think about the next time you are sitting, steaming in traffic.
     In a Monday morning interview with Charlie Rose, NJ Governor Chris Christie vehemently denied any involvement in, or knowledge of, the so-called bridge-gate events. Like Hillary's numb skull decision to use a private email server, it appears the Governor's hirelings were simply poorly chosen or suffered some sort of political breakdown.

Found: the lost nuc, you have never heard about. Now the Canadian navy is searching for what a diver says he has found: a long lost US nuclear bomb. While stationed in West Germany in 1966, I played a very small role in arranging support for the search off the Spanish coast for a nuc that had been lost when a B-52 and its refueling plane collided.

Snow anyone? At 6:15am, election-day morning, the TV banner announced that Independence Pass and Trail Ridge Road remain open and will not be closed until the first snowfall. Independence Pass (12,095-feet) is the highest paved through-road in CO, one of the highest in the nation. Trail Ridge Road is the highest continuous through-road in the nation. Traditionally, Independence Pass, Trail Ridge Road, and the Mt. Evans and Pike's Peak highways are closed on/about November 1st. However, this year's lack of snow means that only Mt. Evans and Pike's Peak are inaccessible. The front range ski areas are most definitely already lacking. Snow dances are in order!