Here are this week's topics: a futuristic "walk;" CO's economy; an astronomer extraordinaire; looking far-far-far out; one city's economic livelihood.
An electrifying walk. I had seen an earlier reference to France's solar road in Tourouvre, (northwestern France). The roadway was scheduled to be dedicated last Thursday. Who knows what the future holds. Link here. Look closely at the picture, though, and you have to wonder why the workers are wearing respirators!
CO and the new economy. Even though things in the Mile High state are not so very dark, there is good and bad news: growth, development, and earnings. Though, like other areas/states, not everyone is prospering. Continuing education is increasingly important.
Working for $2.35/hour. In this story, Nic Smith relates what it is like to work in a fast food restaurant for low wages, relying on tips to scrape by. His town is 98% white, but he says that when he joined the "Fight for $15" movement, he discovered other allies. "White, black, brown —we’re all in this together — fighting for a better life for our families."
Carl Sagan. Science writer Joel Achenbach wrote an op-ed rememering one of America's most well known astronomers, who passed away December 20, 1996. In an era when science denial is an oft mentioned topic, Sagan's ability to explain complex idea/phenomena to the average reader is much missed. Amen.
He had many strong beliefs, none greater than his conviction that
science was a candle in the dark. There’s a lot of darkness these days —
science denialism [sic] in its various forms. It’s certainly not a novel
development, but it’s a bigger problem than
ever given the scale of our scientific and technological challenges...The list of scientifically mediated, politically divisive issues is a
long one, and Sagan would have been a busy man these last 20 years...The world still needs people who can explain stuff — and so it misses Carl Sagan.
Truly, Far Out stuff. This story appeared several times last week: a dispute between native Hawai‘ians and the astronomical community over the installation of yet another telescope atop 13,803 Mauna (Mona) Kea. Not only is Mona Kea the highest point in the state, it is above 40% of the earth's atmosphere and thought to be the perfect place for a new mammoth thirty meter telescope (TMT) which will "look" further than ever before "back" in time. The summit site, Maunakea, now has thirteen independent observatories.
Enough is enough, though, say native activists. This linked article, from no less than Scientific American, notes that other of earth's high points are similarly in the news: Mount Graham and Kitt Peak (both in AZ) and Cerro Paranal (in Chile's Atacama desert) are only three examples. The authors note....
The very qualities that make many sites valuable to science—remote
locations far from city lights, summits soaring above a good chunk of
the atmosphere and clear views that sweep from horizon to horizon—often
also draw native worshipers who value mountains as spiritual homes of
the gods as well as environmentalists aiming to protect the vulnerable
ecosystems of pristine regions.
Truly explosive economic news. The fireworks market in San Pablito, Mexico, was totally destroyed by the most recent explosion. Even though this is the third time the market has exploded in flames, residents want it rebuilt. Why? To paraphrase and emphasize a recent tagline, "It [the fireworks industry] is the [town's] economy, stupid."
“This was an accident, like many others, an oversight,” said Señior Cervantes, a 44-year veteran of the industry who fled to safety..." That is to say, bad stuff just happens.
During the high season [in San Pablito], which runs from August to the end of the year,
vendors at San Pablito will sell close to 100 tons of fireworks. During
those five months they can earn up to 150,000 pesos, or nearly $8,000,
the equivalent of a full year’s salary for a college-educated employee
and more than 17 times the minimum wage.
Indeed, "bad stuff' is something to ponder as America's aging infrastructure continues to deteriorate and available local revenue dries up. Does Flint, Michigan, and mercury-poisoned drinking water ring a bell?
Thank you for reading. A Happy New Year to one and all.
Tuesday, December 27, 2016
Wednesday, December 21, 2016
Here are this week's items: the "new" Russia; the looming ethics struggle; jobs; ballots; finally, the happiest Christmastime TV ad.
Putin's Russia, 2016. Anthony J. Bilken, Assistant Secretary of State, writes about a new America, one with much less power. The postwar order that America built now is facing acute challenges, including from old competitors. Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, is no Stalin and Russia is no Soviet Union. But Mr. Putin does seek to recreate a Russian sphere of influence while picking apart the liberal international order that prevailed in the Cold War. Nevertheless, might it not be that this analogy rings true? Trump : Make America Great Again :: Putin : Make Russia Great Again
Spheres of influence, a modern-day resurrection of Secretary of State Monroe's diplomatic past? How quaint. The president-elect has "argued that the United States should get out of the business of 'defending the world'. " Clearly Trump does not realize how much of his current globe-spanning wealth has been made possible by our post-WW II defense posture.
Trump : Make American Great Again
The "new ethics." In a recent column, right-leaning columnist Jennifer Rubin looks at the potential ethics concerns involving the in-coming Trump administration. In the more distant past such potential conflicts were largely hidden; they popped up later. (e.g., Tea Pot Dome). Not so in today's interconnected, instantaneous world. Most definitely, "unplowed ground" lies ahead.
Jobs. The loss of jobs was a important topic reiterated over and over by candidate Trump -- and too much ignored by candidate Clinton. The title of an article by Manufacturing jobs are returning to some places. But these jobs are different. The United States has lost millions of factory jobs, but in the last few years, some have come back. Can more return?" There is no doubt that education and re-training will be key to what follows.
Peter Morici, a University of Maryland business professor, economist and conservative commentator, has said. “Workers don’t have a right to these jobs. They have to train themselves. They have to earn these jobs by being productive.”
Ballots. Third-party candidate, Jill Stein, has demanded a recount in three closely contested states, MI, PA, and WI. Needless to say, all without any effect on the ultimate outcome. What has been highlighted, though, is the fragility, the vulnerability of our federally dictated electoral system.
Two very appropriate holiday TV ads . So voted by the Abell household. Here's the YouTube link to the happiest (who does not like at least one Hershey holiday kiss?) and the link to one about sharing (the priest and the imam).
Thank you for reading. A Joyous Christmas to one and all!
Putin's Russia, 2016. Anthony J. Bilken, Assistant Secretary of State, writes about a new America, one with much less power. The postwar order that America built now is facing acute challenges, including from old competitors. Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, is no Stalin and Russia is no Soviet Union. But Mr. Putin does seek to recreate a Russian sphere of influence while picking apart the liberal international order that prevailed in the Cold War. Nevertheless, might it not be that this analogy rings true? Trump : Make America Great Again :: Putin : Make Russia Great Again
Spheres of influence, a modern-day resurrection of Secretary of State Monroe's diplomatic past? How quaint. The president-elect has "argued that the United States should get out of the business of 'defending the world'. " Clearly Trump does not realize how much of his current globe-spanning wealth has been made possible by our post-WW II defense posture.
Trump : Make American Great Again
The "new ethics." In a recent column, right-leaning columnist Jennifer Rubin looks at the potential ethics concerns involving the in-coming Trump administration. In the more distant past such potential conflicts were largely hidden; they popped up later. (e.g., Tea Pot Dome). Not so in today's interconnected, instantaneous world. Most definitely, "unplowed ground" lies ahead.
Jobs. The loss of jobs was a important topic reiterated over and over by candidate Trump -- and too much ignored by candidate Clinton. The title of an article by Manufacturing jobs are returning to some places. But these jobs are different. The United States has lost millions of factory jobs, but in the last few years, some have come back. Can more return?" There is no doubt that education and re-training will be key to what follows.
With new, advanced manufacturing jobs arising in pocket
areas nationwide, a new kind of manufacturing worker, one with a college
degree as well as advanced technical skills, is needed.
Communities
that have landed these jobs often credit local job training programs,
in partnership with community colleges and other schools, with helping
build worker skills.
Peter Morici, a University of Maryland business professor, economist and conservative commentator, has said. “Workers don’t have a right to these jobs. They have to train themselves. They have to earn these jobs by being productive.”
Ballots. Third-party candidate, Jill Stein, has demanded a recount in three closely contested states, MI, PA, and WI. Needless to say, all without any effect on the ultimate outcome. What has been highlighted, though, is the fragility, the vulnerability of our federally dictated electoral system.
Two very appropriate holiday TV ads . So voted by the Abell household. Here's the YouTube link to the happiest (who does not like at least one Hershey holiday kiss?) and the link to one about sharing (the priest and the imam).
Thank you for reading. A Joyous Christmas to one and all!
Tuesday, December 13, 2016
Dec 13 Here are this week's thoughts: a presidential reading list; One China (?):Trump and Carrier; Rosa Parks : US :: Viola Desmond : _?_; Islam, religion or political movement; the death of Old Nashville, aka "Music City;" finally, John Glenn and David Grinspoon.
President-elect Trump's "should read" list. Conservative columnist Michael Gerson recommends these three: Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” Second, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms.” Last, George Washington’s “Letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island.”
One China? Columnist
The President-elect's Sunday morning tweets seemed to leave little doubt about his seriousness, that the phone call was well thought out, not an "off-the-cuff" incident.
President-elect Trump and Carrier. George Will takes a dim view of Trump's first foray to "undo" a company's move to Mexico. The end result: some jobs saved, some lost to Mexico, and a significant tax break from Vice President-elect Pence's home state. Will writes,
"This represents the dawn of bipartisanship: The Republican Party now shares one of progressivism’s defining aspirations — government industrial policy, with the political class picking winners and losers within, and between, economic sectors. This always involves the essence of socialism — capital allocation..."
Fallows on November 2016. The Atlantic's seasoned reporter, correspondent, and columnist, James Fallows, has written a thoughtful piece on the whys and wherefores that led to President-elect Trump's victory. Fallows and his have spent most of the last 5 years moving around America's small towns. He talks of the hope and determination he and his wife saw in Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Wyoming, Kansas, Minnesota, California, and others. He notes a recent study and the prophetic words of Walter Lippman.
PEW study in 2014 found that only 25 percent of respondents were satisfied with the direction of national policy, but 60 percent were satisfied with events in their own communities. According to a Heartland Monitor report in 2016, two in three Americans said that good ideas for dealing with national social and economic challenges were coming from their towns. Fewer than one in three felt that good ideas were coming from national institutions." One variation of Tip O'Neill's famous dictum: "All politics is local" ....Nearly a century ago, Walter Lippmann wrote that the challenge for democracies is that citizens necessarily base decisions on the “pictures in our heads,” the images of reality we construct for ourselves. The American public has just made a decision of the gravest consequence, largely based on distorted, frightening, and bigoted caricatures of reality that we all would recognize as caricature if applied to our own communities.
Rosa Parks' counterpart. Viola Desmond, "a black woman often described as Canada’s Rosa Parks for her 1946 decision to sit in a whites-only section of a Nova Scotia movie theater will be the first Canadian woman to be celebrated on the face of a Canadian [$CN 10.00] bank note." WOMAN TO APPEAR ON CANADIAN BILL
"Tweets and theater entertain, but Congress is main event." Columnist Charles Krauthammer is correct. The Constitution's separation of powers was meant to insure that no one branch could go too far. President Obama's many uses of executive orders/actions was meant as an end run around a Republican-controlled Congress. Once in office President-elect Trump may undo those with which he does not agree, maybe even issue a few of his own. However, as Krauthammer points out, all roads to legislation lead through Congress. Then, as Tip O'Neill famously said, "All politics is local." Between the Senate and House, that's 535 kinds of local.
The real Islam? General Michael Flynn is President-elect Trump's choice as his National Security Adviser, an appointment not requiring Senate approval. Jackson Diehl, deputy editorial page editor for the Washington Post writes, "Flynn has said [Islam] is a cancer, a political movement masquerading as a religion and the product of an inferior culture. 'I don’t believe that all cultures are morally equivalent, and I think the West, and especially America, is far more civilized, far more ethical and moral,' he argued in a book published this year."
Does the President-elect agree with Flynn's view? If so, what does this portend for Muslims in America? Suspect, second class citizenship? Worse? Internationally? Civilizational war? Strengthened backing for Middle Eastern dictators?
Music City, here today gone tomorrow. It's developers vs preservation, money vs history. In Nashville, are the "House of David," and similar well known, long time music studios n the way out? Jeffrey Brown's PBS segment reviews the continual tension between past, present, and future in Nashville. Designation as a "National Historical Landmark" can save a site -- or be condemned as an impediment to development.
On this earth, the last of the "Mercury 7" and David Grinspoon. The passing of John Glen was duly noted in multiple venues. Glen was 95 and could rightfully claim to have seen earth, big and small. First, about Glen and the view of Earth from above.
Most readers, my self included, were unaware of Ms. Glen's problems with a severe stuttering problem. Once as the press crowded around him, Glen watched his wife, who was among the handicapped in the audience, and commented, “That’s what you should be covering."
On 11 December, CBS's Sunday Morning program had a segment that noted the largely unknown cooperation during WW II between Glen, a Marine fighter pilot, and Charles Lindbergh. "Lucky Lindey" had gone from American darling to pariah because of his opposition to our entry into WW II. Lindbergh was, in short, then portrayed as pro-Nazi; no military branch would accept him. Glen's and Lindbergh's volunteer unit devised, tested, and used the latter's system for early in-flight refueling on long range bombing missions.
Now, about Earth from another point of view. In a recent essay, astrobiologist David Grinspoon notes with wonder,
We suddenly find ourselves sort of running a planet — a role we never anticipated or sought — without knowing how it should be done.We’re at the controls on planet Earth, but we’re not in control....A planet with brains? Fancy that. Not only brains, but limbs with which to build and manipulate tools. We are just beginning to come to grips with this strange new development. Like an infant staring at its hands, we are becoming aware of our powers but have not yet gained control over them.
"Running a planet." A heavy responsibility and as flyer and astronaut Glen might have said in an earlier era, "It's time for someone to grab the stick."
Thank you for reading. Enjoy the week ahead.
President-elect Trump's "should read" list. Conservative columnist Michael Gerson recommends these three: Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” Second, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms.” Last, George Washington’s “Letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island.”
One China? Columnist
The President-elect's Sunday morning tweets seemed to leave little doubt about his seriousness, that the phone call was well thought out, not an "off-the-cuff" incident.
President-elect Trump and Carrier. George Will takes a dim view of Trump's first foray to "undo" a company's move to Mexico. The end result: some jobs saved, some lost to Mexico, and a significant tax break from Vice President-elect Pence's home state. Will writes,
"This represents the dawn of bipartisanship: The Republican Party now shares one of progressivism’s defining aspirations — government industrial policy, with the political class picking winners and losers within, and between, economic sectors. This always involves the essence of socialism — capital allocation..."
Fallows on November 2016. The Atlantic's seasoned reporter, correspondent, and columnist, James Fallows, has written a thoughtful piece on the whys and wherefores that led to President-elect Trump's victory. Fallows and his have spent most of the last 5 years moving around America's small towns. He talks of the hope and determination he and his wife saw in Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Wyoming, Kansas, Minnesota, California, and others. He notes a recent study and the prophetic words of Walter Lippman.
PEW study in 2014 found that only 25 percent of respondents were satisfied with the direction of national policy, but 60 percent were satisfied with events in their own communities. According to a Heartland Monitor report in 2016, two in three Americans said that good ideas for dealing with national social and economic challenges were coming from their towns. Fewer than one in three felt that good ideas were coming from national institutions." One variation of Tip O'Neill's famous dictum: "All politics is local" ....Nearly a century ago, Walter Lippmann wrote that the challenge for democracies is that citizens necessarily base decisions on the “pictures in our heads,” the images of reality we construct for ourselves. The American public has just made a decision of the gravest consequence, largely based on distorted, frightening, and bigoted caricatures of reality that we all would recognize as caricature if applied to our own communities.
Rosa Parks' counterpart. Viola Desmond, "a black woman often described as Canada’s Rosa Parks for her 1946 decision to sit in a whites-only section of a Nova Scotia movie theater will be the first Canadian woman to be celebrated on the face of a Canadian [$CN 10.00] bank note." WOMAN TO APPEAR ON CANADIAN BILL
"Tweets and theater entertain, but Congress is main event." Columnist Charles Krauthammer is correct. The Constitution's separation of powers was meant to insure that no one branch could go too far. President Obama's many uses of executive orders/actions was meant as an end run around a Republican-controlled Congress. Once in office President-elect Trump may undo those with which he does not agree, maybe even issue a few of his own. However, as Krauthammer points out, all roads to legislation lead through Congress. Then, as Tip O'Neill famously said, "All politics is local." Between the Senate and House, that's 535 kinds of local.
The real Islam? General Michael Flynn is President-elect Trump's choice as his National Security Adviser, an appointment not requiring Senate approval. Jackson Diehl, deputy editorial page editor for the Washington Post writes, "Flynn has said [Islam] is a cancer, a political movement masquerading as a religion and the product of an inferior culture. 'I don’t believe that all cultures are morally equivalent, and I think the West, and especially America, is far more civilized, far more ethical and moral,' he argued in a book published this year."
Does the President-elect agree with Flynn's view? If so, what does this portend for Muslims in America? Suspect, second class citizenship? Worse? Internationally? Civilizational war? Strengthened backing for Middle Eastern dictators?
Music City, here today gone tomorrow. It's developers vs preservation, money vs history. In Nashville, are the "House of David," and similar well known, long time music studios n the way out? Jeffrey Brown's PBS segment reviews the continual tension between past, present, and future in Nashville. Designation as a "National Historical Landmark" can save a site -- or be condemned as an impediment to development.
On this earth, the last of the "Mercury 7" and David Grinspoon. The passing of John Glen was duly noted in multiple venues. Glen was 95 and could rightfully claim to have seen earth, big and small. First, about Glen and the view of Earth from above.
Most readers, my self included, were unaware of Ms. Glen's problems with a severe stuttering problem. Once as the press crowded around him, Glen watched his wife, who was among the handicapped in the audience, and commented, “That’s what you should be covering."
On 11 December, CBS's Sunday Morning program had a segment that noted the largely unknown cooperation during WW II between Glen, a Marine fighter pilot, and Charles Lindbergh. "Lucky Lindey" had gone from American darling to pariah because of his opposition to our entry into WW II. Lindbergh was, in short, then portrayed as pro-Nazi; no military branch would accept him. Glen's and Lindbergh's volunteer unit devised, tested, and used the latter's system for early in-flight refueling on long range bombing missions.
Now, about Earth from another point of view. In a recent essay, astrobiologist David Grinspoon notes with wonder,
We suddenly find ourselves sort of running a planet — a role we never anticipated or sought — without knowing how it should be done.We’re at the controls on planet Earth, but we’re not in control....A planet with brains? Fancy that. Not only brains, but limbs with which to build and manipulate tools. We are just beginning to come to grips with this strange new development. Like an infant staring at its hands, we are becoming aware of our powers but have not yet gained control over them.
"Running a planet." A heavy responsibility and as flyer and astronaut Glen might have said in an earlier era, "It's time for someone to grab the stick."
Thank you for reading. Enjoy the week ahead.
Tuesday, December 6, 2016
Here are this week's thoughts: 7 December 1941; Goldwater revisited; tragedy and sportsmanship; Keillor on Trump; US election mess; one party government?; the end of US dominance; Prime Minister Theresa May (UK); Dakota Access Pipeline; the "post-truth" world; a post-nature world. I close with the Kingston Trio's "Merry Minuet."
A notable memoir. In All the Gallant Men, Donald Stratton writes about being on the battleship Arizona when it exploded and sank at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. Stratton's is the first-ever memoir by a survivor from the Arizona. His entire extended family (great grandchildren included) are visiting the memorial on the upcoming 75th anniversary.
Note: The WW II veterans of Tom Brokaw's "Greatest Generation" are fading rapidly, an average of 600 pass away each day.
Barry Goldwater, 1964. Inigo Thomas writes from across the pond about how improbable Goldwater looked in November 1963 as the probable Republican candidate. (21 November London Review of Books) Interesting, now that November 2016 has produced an equally (?) improbable, but successful, Republican (?) president-elect.
Eerily, Thomas writes that 1963, "No one thought he [Goldwater] had a chance of winning, but he appealed to large numbers of white voters opposed to the Civil Rights Movement." How very much like Trump's 2016 appeal to voters who thought their economic plight had been too-long ignored by the political elites, left and right. An interesting read, especially Thomas' remembrance of noted historian Richard Hofstadter’s 1962 lecture, ‘The Paranoid Style in American Politics’ (published in Harper’s a year later).
It seems appropriate to note, "Ye reap what ye sow." (Galatians 6:7)
Sportsmanship in South America. Last week all but six members of a Brazilian soccer team were killed in a plane crash in Colombia. Their opponents have offered to concede the game and have asked that South American soccer officials insure that the Brazilian team be made eligible for the next three years as it rebuilds.
Keillor on Trump. Sit back and enjoy the tongue in cheek report from the Minnesota cornfields about Garrison's reaction to his recent columns.
US elections. In her op-ed, Katrina vanden Heuvel says that it was not Putin's Russia and any other foreign power that messed up our election. We did it through a series of laws and decisions that changed our election system for the worse. Her argument is simple: if you are a legal citizen of the United States, the state in which you reside should make it easy for you to register and then vote. That, she say, it not what has been happening around the country. Some states have consciously been making it harder to vote. Fellow columnist Dana Milbank agrees.
GOP dominance. Unintended consequences. At the national level the GOP now controls the presidency and Congress, plus governorships and state legislatures to a degree not seen since the 1920s. Governorships: 31 Republican, 18 Democrat, 1 Independent. Legislatures: 25 Republican, 16 Democrat, 8 split, and Nebraska's bipartisan unicameral. As usual and most importantly, the 2018 elections will determine which party will have the dominant role at the state level in re-drawing the nation's 435 congressional districts.
America and the post-Cold War world. Columnist Charles Krauthammer thinks the less fearful world that we hoped for with the demise of the USSR and the end of the Cold War is no longer possible. In effect, he maintains that the world needs to always be steered and we have abdicated our role at the helm.
Ms. Prime Minister, after Brexit..... What comes next? Anne Applebaum, seasoned European watcher, is not sure the new PM really knows, and "that's dangerous....Nature abhors a vacuum, and so does government. If no one knows what to do, if there is chaos and indecision, then the person with the clearest vision — for good or for ill — wins the argument. That’s the lesson of the Russian Revolution, of Weimar Germany, and, without meaning to overdramatize [sic] — we are not talking about events on that scale — that’s also the lesson of Brexit Britain.
With his paucity of experience in foreign affairs, it is probably a safe bet that President-elect Trump has no clue either.
The twisted economics of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The High Country News story headline continues, "It’s not about energy independence or even climate change. It’s all about profit." (estimated cost of one barrel: $8 by pipline, $15 by rail)
As a former USAF colleague used to say, "It seems intuitively obvious to the most casual observer" that oil from the tar sands will be produced and processed -- the questions are "where" and "how will it be transported?" The two alternatives are by pipeline or railroad and both have their drawbacks and problems. A visit to the NTSB website finds more than a few railroad derailments involving crude oil trains. There are also accident reports involving pipelines.
Leaving aside the questions about more air pollution, the location of this pipeline, which crosses Native American sacred lands and water sources adds a further layer to this controversy.
Post-truth world. Columnist Ruth Marcos wonders what are we to make of the news that "Oxford Dictionaries last month selected post-truth — “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief” — as the international word of the year." Even Alice in her wonderland might be doing some head scratching.
A post-nature world -- man, science, and the Great Spirit? In his High Country News article, "Hope in a post-nature society," Peter Friederici notes the difference between the past nature-driven disasters (e.g. the1890s droughts) and the current drought that has so drained Lake Powell. Here, he says, "[W]e have to wrestle with the knowledge that we are not only in a tough spot where practical action is needed, but that we have to understand our own complicity....[T]his mess is our new terrain. This is our new task." Indeed!
Friederici notes that the Hopi have another, more spiritual, view. "Yes, they have heard what the scientists say about fossil fuel emissions and the greenhouse effect. But the real reason for climate change? It begins, not ends, with human behavior. The climate is changing, according to some Hopi people, because of a failure of prayer, of humility. That is the ultimate reason for the physical changes."
"The Merry Minuet." Unfortunately, as I ready today's world news, this 1959 Kingston Trio ditty about world affairs keeps running through my head. The situations changed, but the overall message remains one of uncertainty and chaos in a very troubled world.
Thank you for reading. Tomorrow remember those who died 75 year ago tomorrow, that "day that will live in infamy."
A notable memoir. In All the Gallant Men, Donald Stratton writes about being on the battleship Arizona when it exploded and sank at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. Stratton's is the first-ever memoir by a survivor from the Arizona. His entire extended family (great grandchildren included) are visiting the memorial on the upcoming 75th anniversary.
Note: The WW II veterans of Tom Brokaw's "Greatest Generation" are fading rapidly, an average of 600 pass away each day.
Barry Goldwater, 1964. Inigo Thomas writes from across the pond about how improbable Goldwater looked in November 1963 as the probable Republican candidate. (21 November London Review of Books) Interesting, now that November 2016 has produced an equally (?) improbable, but successful, Republican (?) president-elect.
Eerily, Thomas writes that 1963, "No one thought he [Goldwater] had a chance of winning, but he appealed to large numbers of white voters opposed to the Civil Rights Movement." How very much like Trump's 2016 appeal to voters who thought their economic plight had been too-long ignored by the political elites, left and right. An interesting read, especially Thomas' remembrance of noted historian Richard Hofstadter’s 1962 lecture, ‘The Paranoid Style in American Politics’ (published in Harper’s a year later).
It seems appropriate to note, "Ye reap what ye sow." (Galatians 6:7)
Sportsmanship in South America. Last week all but six members of a Brazilian soccer team were killed in a plane crash in Colombia. Their opponents have offered to concede the game and have asked that South American soccer officials insure that the Brazilian team be made eligible for the next three years as it rebuilds.
Keillor on Trump. Sit back and enjoy the tongue in cheek report from the Minnesota cornfields about Garrison's reaction to his recent columns.
US elections. In her op-ed, Katrina vanden Heuvel says that it was not Putin's Russia and any other foreign power that messed up our election. We did it through a series of laws and decisions that changed our election system for the worse. Her argument is simple: if you are a legal citizen of the United States, the state in which you reside should make it easy for you to register and then vote. That, she say, it not what has been happening around the country. Some states have consciously been making it harder to vote. Fellow columnist Dana Milbank agrees.
GOP dominance. Unintended consequences. At the national level the GOP now controls the presidency and Congress, plus governorships and state legislatures to a degree not seen since the 1920s. Governorships: 31 Republican, 18 Democrat, 1 Independent. Legislatures: 25 Republican, 16 Democrat, 8 split, and Nebraska's bipartisan unicameral. As usual and most importantly, the 2018 elections will determine which party will have the dominant role at the state level in re-drawing the nation's 435 congressional districts.
America and the post-Cold War world. Columnist Charles Krauthammer thinks the less fearful world that we hoped for with the demise of the USSR and the end of the Cold War is no longer possible. In effect, he maintains that the world needs to always be steered and we have abdicated our role at the helm.
Ms. Prime Minister, after Brexit..... What comes next? Anne Applebaum, seasoned European watcher, is not sure the new PM really knows, and "that's dangerous....Nature abhors a vacuum, and so does government. If no one knows what to do, if there is chaos and indecision, then the person with the clearest vision — for good or for ill — wins the argument. That’s the lesson of the Russian Revolution, of Weimar Germany, and, without meaning to overdramatize [sic] — we are not talking about events on that scale — that’s also the lesson of Brexit Britain.
With his paucity of experience in foreign affairs, it is probably a safe bet that President-elect Trump has no clue either.
The twisted economics of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The High Country News story headline continues, "It’s not about energy independence or even climate change. It’s all about profit." (estimated cost of one barrel: $8 by pipline, $15 by rail)
As a former USAF colleague used to say, "It seems intuitively obvious to the most casual observer" that oil from the tar sands will be produced and processed -- the questions are "where" and "how will it be transported?" The two alternatives are by pipeline or railroad and both have their drawbacks and problems. A visit to the NTSB website finds more than a few railroad derailments involving crude oil trains. There are also accident reports involving pipelines.
Leaving aside the questions about more air pollution, the location of this pipeline, which crosses Native American sacred lands and water sources adds a further layer to this controversy.
Post-truth world. Columnist Ruth Marcos wonders what are we to make of the news that "Oxford Dictionaries last month selected post-truth — “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief” — as the international word of the year." Even Alice in her wonderland might be doing some head scratching.
A post-nature world -- man, science, and the Great Spirit? In his High Country News article, "Hope in a post-nature society," Peter Friederici notes the difference between the past nature-driven disasters (e.g. the1890s droughts) and the current drought that has so drained Lake Powell. Here, he says, "[W]e have to wrestle with the knowledge that we are not only in a tough spot where practical action is needed, but that we have to understand our own complicity....[T]his mess is our new terrain. This is our new task." Indeed!
Friederici notes that the Hopi have another, more spiritual, view. "Yes, they have heard what the scientists say about fossil fuel emissions and the greenhouse effect. But the real reason for climate change? It begins, not ends, with human behavior. The climate is changing, according to some Hopi people, because of a failure of prayer, of humility. That is the ultimate reason for the physical changes."
"The Merry Minuet." Unfortunately, as I ready today's world news, this 1959 Kingston Trio ditty about world affairs keeps running through my head. The situations changed, but the overall message remains one of uncertainty and chaos in a very troubled world.
They're rioting in Africa
They're starving in Spain
There's hurricanes in Florida
And Texas needs rain
The whole world is festering with unhappy souls
The French hate the Germans, the Germans hate the Poles
Italians hate Yugoslavs, South Africans hate the Dutch
And I don't like anybody very much!!
They're starving in Spain
There's hurricanes in Florida
And Texas needs rain
The whole world is festering with unhappy souls
The French hate the Germans, the Germans hate the Poles
Italians hate Yugoslavs, South Africans hate the Dutch
And I don't like anybody very much!!
But we can be tranquil and thankful and proud
For man's been endowed with a mushroom-shaped cloud
And we know for certain that some lovely day
Someone will set the spark off
And we will all be blown away!!
For man's been endowed with a mushroom-shaped cloud
And we know for certain that some lovely day
Someone will set the spark off
And we will all be blown away!!
They're rioting in Africa
There's strife in Iran
What nature doesn't so to us
Will be done by our fellow man
Songwriter: Sheldon Harnick
There's strife in Iran
What nature doesn't so to us
Will be done by our fellow man
Songwriter: Sheldon Harnick
Thank you for reading. Tomorrow remember those who died 75 year ago tomorrow, that "day that will live in infamy."
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