This week's topics include: reading, non-fiction; better weather forecasts; Chicago violence; electoral vs. popular victory; modern retailing; Houses in disorder; obstacles to The Wall; the "new" America First foreign policy; science reporting; the lonely whale; still tallest?; disorderly government. Finally, after all the dour news of the week, do not miss this final entry, London's "high heels" debate.

Reading, non-fiction. April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King, Jr's Death and How It Changed America,  Michael Eric Dyson, Basic Civitas Books.2008. Dyson is a professor of sociology at Georgetown University and writes movingly about the continued plight of African Americans.

Weather reporting. The recently launched advanced weather satellite will bring substantial improvements in both imagery resolution and time sequencing. Better pictures, updated more rapidly will make it possible faster local, pin-point warnings. NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) says the satellite will be fully programmed and functioning by November 2017.   

Chicago vs. Los Angeles or Detroit or NYC. Once upon a time, these latter three cities were usually thought of as America's most dangerous cities; no longer. The current homicide rate in Chicago leaves little doubt that it is our most dangerous city. President Trump vows to "send in the feds" if the city cannot deal with its problems. Sounds despotic? Sales of George Orwell's dystopic classic, 1984, have shot up. His "Ministry of Truth" seems to be blossoming as the White House presents "alternative facts" and officially censors science reporting by various governmental websites.

President, yes, but....  President Trump seems determined to "prove" that he is more than a so-called "electoral college" president. If there were, as he now asserts, 5 million fraudulent votes, then he would also be the "popular vote president."  Few officials outside very his inner circle think he is correct.

Job destruction. In this column, George Will asserts that President Trump seems not to note that American jobs are being lost because of forces here at home, not just "overseas." Mr. Bezos' Amazon home deliveries (ordered online, not in-store) are the 21st century's equivalent of those many mail order catalogs of a bygone era.  Factoid from Will: "3 million [Sears] catalogues were distributed in 1907, when the nation’s population was [merely] 87 million."

When the president speaks of closed factories scattered like “tombstones” across America, has he noticed the shuttered stores in shopping centers, and entire malls reduced to rubble? He promises “protection” to prevent foreigners from “destroying” manufacturing jobs by exporting to America things that Americans want to import. Does he know that one American company might be “destroying” more American jobs than China is? And that this supposed destruction is beneficial?

The company is Amazon...Macy’s, after announcing in August that it would close 100 more of its remaining 730 [brick and mortar] stores, now says it will shed 10,000 jobs. Sears, which is 13 decades old and still has 1,600 stores, has lost $9 billion in five years, has closed 500 stores and is closing 150 more (including some Kmarts). 

Market analyst, Rex Nutting, notes in MarketWatch: "The [NY] Times reports that 'the typical online retailer generates $1,267,000 in sales per employee versus $279,000 at bricks-and-mortar stores.' ” 

London's Westminster. A "CBS Morning News" segment (Thursday, 1/26), "Houses in disorder," toured London's Westminster, home to Britain's two Houses of Parliament. A telling comment, words to the effect, that age and neglect might accomplish what Hitler's bombs failed do. In the recent past here in America, you may have seen the US Capitol building encased in scaffolding (since removed) as we, hopefully, dodged England's looming problem.

Trump's Wall. In theory it is doable: walls have been built before, but, in the end, a few have failed. Notably, China's Great Wall and Khrushchev's Berlin Wall. Trump's Wall faces obstacles. (I have added two concerns, a 6th concern, implicit in 1, 2, and 3) and a 7th stated by Mexico's President Nieto.

1. Rough terrain.
2. Most of the TX border is privately owned.Very important point: who will be compensated (and how much) for their "lost" property?
3. Most of the border in TX is the Rio Grande River, a natural, but sometimes, moving boundary; the river's movement that has caused past border disputes between the US and Mexico.
4. Surveillance will make the wall effective.
5. Migrants are often determined and have few options
6. Some of the border is on a very real flood plain. (For example, on January 26, 2017, Homeland Security reported that the Rio Grande is running at 23 feet -- far, far above its normal level. So, where is the border now?)
7. Mexico's president: "I am not coming." "We will not pay for the wall."

A new "America First" foreign policy. Here are some thoughts by right-leaning columnist Charles Krauthammer from his 26 January column -- given in the order they appeared in his column.

Trump outlined a world in which foreign relations are collapsed into a zero-sum game. They gain, we lose...Trump makes no distinction between friend and foe (and no reference to liberty)....A free world marked by open trade and mutual defense was President Truman’s vision, shared by every president since....[His assertion of America first] is just another unmoored entry on a ledger of confusion....Trump’s vision misunderstands the logic underlying the far larger, far-reaching view of Truman. The Marshall Plan surely took wealth away from the American middle class and distributed it abroad. But for a reason. Altruism, in part. But mostly to stabilize Western Europe as a bulwark against an existential global enemy....We are embarking upon insularity and smallness. Nor is this just theory.

Krauthammer noted that Trump was probably unaware of the clouded background of Lindbergh's "America First" movement, one which dissolved with Pearl Harbor. Regrettably, one has to wonder what sort of crisis would dissolve President Trump's America First program.

Left unsaid is this presumptive analogy.  The existential threat of the USSR and communism :  post WW II :: ISIS and radical Islam : today. The latter portion has been loudly proclaimed by President Trump, unless, of course, this was just another "unmoored entry on [his] ledger of confusion."

Science reporting. The Trump administration has admonished governmental departments/agencies about reporting on climate news. Is the ostrich's head in the sand?  “We asked some environmental employees and one said, 'We're in the clown car to crazy town,'" said Jeff Ruch, the executive director of the group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.
     Re this week's second entry on NOAA's better/faster weather reporting satellite. What will happen if the accumulating satellite data tends to confirm that the climate is changing and man seems to be part of the problem? Do you turn off the pesky nay-saying satellite and not warn, say Oklahoma City, of an impending storm embedded with multiple Level 5 tornadoes?

The "Hertz 52" whale. Here is a link to an interesting article about an as yet unseen whale that seems to be cruising the world's oceans and has been heard for years by those interested in "whale sounds."  You know the old saw, "If a tree falls in the forest...." Well, what about a whale sounding off but seeming to get no responses? Further, we know that human voices tend to deepen with age and, interestingly, this whale is aging and is now heard around Hertz 46.

Everest, still the highest? Yes, it still stands very tall, but has it been "shrunk," by a recent earthquake? You may be surprised to know that "[t]he last time the mountain was measured was more than six decades ago, also by the Survey of India." In other words, today's GPS technology has not "measured" the world's highest peak. "This time around, scientists will measure Everest’s height using GPS equipment and triangulation techniques." 

Disorder at home. We Americans are inured of disorderly government, but somewhere else, not here at home. But, when the Senate's consent on President Trump's cabinet choices lags and he fires the Acting Attorney General, disorder creeps closer to home. The President's plaintive tweet, "Where's our cabinet," reflects his ignorance of the Senate's role and the separation of powers concept. He can "fire" the Acting Attorney General, but he cannot fire the Senate. The following quote from Lincoln leads one to wonder what can be said for a leader, a self-confessed non-reader, who seems to have little interest in broadening his knowledge of the past.

“[No man has the] right to mislead others, who have less access to history, and less leisure to study it. . . . Thus substituting falsehood and deception for truthful evidence and fair argument.” 
Abraham Lincoln, “Cooper Union Address,” 1860 

Finally, Parliament's "high heels" debate. For those not familiar with the ways of the British parliament, signatures on citizen petitions can literally force a national parliamentary debate on a given issue.  "After [[Nicola] Thorp, 27, started a petition against compulsory high heels [and dress codes] on parliament's website that garnered 152,420 signatures, her rebellion became a national talking-point and led to an inquiry by lawmakers into workplace dress codes in Britain." Reportedly, the issue will be openly debated in early March.
     Again, for the uninitiated, debates in Britain's House of Commons are far more interesting than watching our staid House of Representatives or Senate on C-Span. Their floor debates are far from dull, dry and boring; rather, they are loud, raucous, and boisterous, with much (not always good humored) debate. Really, how could a debate noted on a website called "Pink News" not be entertaining.
     Pink reports that the preliminary report urges “the Government to take urgent action to improve the effectiveness of the Equality Act. It recommends that the Government reviews this area of the law and, if necessary, asks Parliament to amend it. It also calls for “more effective remedies—such as increased financial penalties—for employment tribunals to award against employers who breach the law, in order to provide an effective deterrent.”
     Neither do British parliamentarians hide behind euphemisms such as "the gentleman/gentle lady from State X." Rather, they are wont to loudly call out their opponents, verbally and with pointed gestures.
    If you have not yet imbibed in a Commons debate, I urge you to tune in and enjoy. As you watch, imagine how US House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell might fare in Commons. Ryan, the young lion, "bring it on;" the staid, sourpuss McConnell, not at all!
     On CBS' Friday Morning show, Gayle King could not help but wonder about a 6"3" Charlie Rose in 2" (or higher) heels. Charlie is, of course, known for only wearing sensible tennis shoes, albeit good looking, trendy brands.

Thank you for reading. Enjoy the week ahead.