This week we look at: Pompeii destroyed; the Wall; monuments; scouting friendships; feel good TV; piano man; Harvey.

Pompeii, August 24, 9AD. (Or, CE 9 if you prefer) Be that as it may, this was not a good day to have been on your late-summer Mediterranean vacation when the long-dormant Mt. Vesuvius erupted, burying an estimated 20,000 souls. The volcano was once again rumbling, smoking when I cruised past last year.
     On this same day in 1989, plain speaking, voluble MLB great, Pete Rose, was banned from baseball for life by commissioner, A. Bartlett Giamatti. Rose, who had gambled on baseball games, remains a controversial figure. Into Cooperstown's MLB Hall of Fame -- or not?

Trump's Wall. "Mexico will pay for it!" Or not? So will the government be shut down until someone ponies up the money? Stay tuned.

Whose monument? As this NYT article notes, monuments of all sorts abound all across our nation. The recent outcry over Confederacy-related monuments has broadened. For example, questions have been renewed about Columbus, and been newly opened about others: former Philadelphia "law and order" mayor, Frank Rizzo, Boston's historic Faneuil Hall (Mr. Faneuil was a slave owner/trader), even the MD state song. What the debate highlights is simple: future events and attitudes may render today's heroes, tomorrow's villains. One can only imagine the outcry that would have erupted around the then soon-to-be-out-of-favor communist witch-hunter, Senator Joseph McCarthy. Rather, civil debate and reasoned dialogue seem appropriate.
     Kathleen Parker's recent column began, "You know we’ve reached a point of — something — when [an ESPN] sports announcer named Robert Lee is reassigned from calling a University of Virginia football game because of his contemporaneously unfortunate name" So true.
     On the less troublesome side of the coin, Denver still has "Sports Authority Field at Mile High." The stadium remains "Mile High," but alas, the Sports Authority corporation has since "gone belly up." 

Scouting and Japanese internment friendships. In the aftermath of rage at Charlottesville, this Washington Post story recounts a near-lifelong friendship born in the dark WW II period between two strangers in Cody, WY: a young Japanese-American, Normal Mineta, and an equally youthful local, Alan Simpson, whose family had deep roots in Wyoming. They met at a Scouting jamboree, one held inside the internment camp's barbed wire compound and boycotted by all the nearby scouting Wyoming troops -- except Simpson's.
     Mineta went on to become a mayor, Democratic congressman and cabinet secretary for two presidents. Simpson served three terms as Republican senator from Wyoming. They served 16 years together in Congress. Recounting a recent meeting, "...their wives [just] shake their heads and roll their eyes. They’ve seen this show before. 'It’s like they’re 12 years old again,' says Deni Mineta. 'Look at the two of them.' " Scouts buddies to the end!
     Then there is this story of the aging All Saints Episcopal church in Smyrna, TN, that was saved from closing by the refugees from Myanmar, whom they had only recently welcomed. Would that every young American could meet and get to know someone so different.

Hallmark TV. In the midst of  the world-wide chaos and turmoil, the feel-good Hallmark channel is "the only non-news channel in the top 15 to see substantial viewership growth last year...and the Christmas movie marathon hasn't even started yet." A friend calls Hallmark "the cry-baby channel." Whatever. A mark of the times?

That "old" piano. Is the acoustical piano dead, slain by its current digital electronic keyboard-cousin? This article from the Economist discusses the current scene. "Those old piano roll blues."
Incidentally, for you nostalgia fans, vinyl records are making a comeback.

Harvey. For those old enough to remember, you may have quickly associated "Harvey" with that large "invisible rabbit," Jimmy Stewart's sidekick. Alas, this week's Harvey is a massive storm, a harbinger of the increasingly violent weather which may plague us in the future. See former Vice President Al Gore's sequel to his award winning film, "An Inconvenient Truth."

Thank you for reading. Please consider giving to your favorite rescue charity.

For this week: a 21st century man without a county; teenager in charge; CO visitors; monuments; "whataboutism;" Barcelona, Barcelona, and Phoenix.

Kurt Vonnegut and Julian Assange. First there was Vonnegut's book (Man Without a Country); now Raffi Khatchadourian writes in the New Yorker about his multiple interviews with Mr. Assange who is now "holed up" (since June 2012) in the Ecuadorian embassy in London's posh Knightsbridge neighborhood. Assange is the "keeper," a complex man, one with many secrets, but no country. Assange remains an enigma who provokes diverse comments.

Teenage behavior. "You don't like me, so I'm taking my ball and going home." After numerous prominent members of two presidential business advisory councils criticized the president and resigned, President Trump simply disbanded both councils, "rather than putting [further] pressure on the business people" that made up those groups. Yes, of course!

FL "flatlanders" in CO.  My niece and her mountain bike-riding husband live in FL and just spent ten days in the Rockies. It is always refreshing to be reminded by "youngsters" about the beauty of our state. After Carlos competed in the infamously brutal Leadville 100 mountain bike race (9 hours, 28 minutes), they  climbed their first "Fourteener" (Grays Peak, 14,278 feet), rode RTVs in the Gore Range, and whitewater rafted on the Arkansas River. Like many other visitors, they will be back.

Robert E. Lee, et. al. Last week's horrid news from Charlottesville, reminds us yet again that our nation's history is profoundly complex, both uplifting and troubling. Lee's statue (and those of other famous Confederates in various locations) may be the least vexing. Startlingly, there is a little known (until now) Confederate memorial in a not-often visited back corner of the "hallowed ground" at Arlington National Cemetery. There are also Confederate dead buried here.
     It may be news to some Americans that our most famous national cemetery, final resting place of the Tomb of the Unknowns, JFK, RFK, and other famous Americans, is actually on the grounds of Robert E. Lee's confiscated, ancestral home; in fact, the house still stands atop the hill in Arlington. During the Civil War, more and more Union dead were purposely buried on Lee's land, a "thumb-in-the-eye," so to speak, to the Confederacy.
     In a column, "America's Second Civil War," conservative columnist Patrick Buchanan asks, in effect, why, two years ago, did VA's Democratic governor Terry McAullife say statues of Lee and Stonewall Jackson are "parts of our heritage," yet after Charlottesville declare them "flashpoints for hatred, division, and violence." Buchanan goes on to note that Lee statues are one thing, what of alleyways, streets, boulevards, highways, even interstate segments named for Lee and numerous other Confederate notables?

What about this or that? In Saturday's (8/19) Washington Post, Dan Zak wrote a column with the online title of "Whataboutism: The Cold War tactic, thawed by Putin, is brandished by Donald Trump." He wrote, "We’ve gotten very good at what-abouting. The president has led the way [using] a durable old Soviet propaganda tactic... [T]he practice of short-circuiting an argument by asserting moral equivalency between two things that aren’t necessarily comparable." The president ruminated about the removal of General Lee, a slave owner; would that lead to the removal of statues of Washington and Jefferson, Founding Fathers and slave owners?

Barcelona, Charlottesville, Phoenix. The city leaders in Phoenix are concerned that a Trump rally tentatively scheduled for sometime the week of 9-21 through 9-26 might turn violent. There is even a FoxNews report that the president might take this opportunity to pardon ex-sheriff Joe Arpaio, "found guilty two weeks ago of criminal contempt for defying a state judge’s order to stop traffic patrols targeting suspected undocumented immigrants."
     Representative Ruben Gallego (D, AZ, district includes downtown Phoenix) said, “I absolutely think it’s inappropriate to be holding a political rally a few days after an innocent woman was mowed down by a neo-Nazi [in Charlotesville]...It’s throwing tinder onto an ongoing fire" The story continued, Gallegos's "words echoed those of Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton (D), who earlier this week made an extraordinary request for Trump to stay away out of fear that the president’s appearance would “enflame (sic) emotions” and draw violent agitators from outside the state’s borders.
     During the height of the anti-Vietnam era, appearances by then-President Nixon was similarly dimly viewed by many US mayors; at best, he was an uncomfortable, unwelcome guest. US Senator Tim Scott (R, SC), the only African American Republican in the Senate, is rapidly becoming the voice of reason for his party, whose leaders seem to have been struck deaf and dumb in the wake of Charlottesville. Senator Scott suggested that the president sit down with Representative John Lewis (D,GA) and other Civil Rights leaders. The problem, of course, is that the president has to be #1 and meeting with universally respected leaders who might outshine him would be anathema.   

Thank you for reading.

This week's topics: Russia; inequality; North Korea; life on Titan?; knowing America; women's lib Saudi-style; Charlottesville; reading, non-fiction.

Russia. Very much in the news after its meddling in Election 2016. Interestingly a supposed Republican president has been a mostly outspoken friend, while the Democratic-left has been more on the anti-side. The right-leaning National Review writes,

The fact that Russia is the sole country in the world that always could destroy the United States has, since 1949, proved an incentive to U.S. administrations, particularly Democratic ones, to find some sort of wary realist accommodation with the Russians....Its worries that its border regions were being populated with nuclear powers — China, India, North Korea, Pakistan — might have made it interested in triangulating against nearby Iran, a would-be nuclear nation. Russia distrusts China as much as we do—as China and the U.S. in turn distrust Russia, as Russia and China distrust us. The idea that a nuclear North Korea could prompt nearby Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan to become nuclear should be worrisome to the Russians.

Inequality. In a recent New York Times article, David Leonhardt discusses how the equality curve has changed from 1980 through 2014. He notes, "Many Americans can’t remember anything other than an economy with skyrocketing inequality, in which living standards for most Americans are stagnating and the rich are pulling away. It feels inevitable." He also examines the probable effect of the administration's tax reform plans.

North Korea. In 19949, the USA was shaken when the USSR exploded its first atomic bomb. The intelligence and scientific communities were all atwitter with "How did they do it so quickly and how soon would they be able to threaten the continental USA? Meanwhile, the politicians were busily hunting for the spies who made the "reds' bomb" possible; the McCarthy witch hunt era began. 
     For those too young to remember the world-wide uncertainty of1962 Cuban missile crisis, now North Korea (DPRK, Democratic People's Republic of Korea) has the bomb and is rapidly pursuing a bomb deliverable by ICBM. David Ignatius' recent column, "This is the moment of truth on North Korea," examines the available options, especially for the USA and China. He writes,

     The North Korean nuclear threat is a “hinge” moment for the United States and China, and for the new international order both nations say they want.

If Washington and Beijing manage to stay together in dealing with Pyongyang, the door opens on a new era in which China will play a larger and more responsible role in global affairs, commensurate with its economic power. If the great powers can’t cooperate, the door will slam shut — possibly triggering a catastrophic military conflict on the Korean Peninsula.
     Changes in our Chinese relationship would necessitate corresponding changes in our relationships with Russia, Japan, and South Korea. One wonders if the Trump administration understands how much it must change its rhetoric and deal seriously with this looming threat. There is little question of the USA's ability to wreak havoc on the DPRK; however, American forces in Guam and the populace of South Korea are unwitting hostages. Military estimates include 10,000 DPRK artillery pieces that could, within minutes, decimate the South Korean capital of Seoul.    
     John Cassidy asks, "Is it time to Accept the Reality of a Nuclear-Armed North Korea?" He notes a brief written by Terence Roehrig for the Naval War College. “[D]eterrence on the Korean Peninsula is likely to have a new dimension—North Korea with nuclear weapons. Whether this reality is recognized by the international community or not, all countries will need to figure out how to deal with a nuclear North Korea while maintaining peace and security in the region.”
     Columnist Robin Wright asks, "[Is there a] Way Out of Trump’s Ad-Lib War with North Korea?" In October 2000, Wright accompanied President Clinton's Secretary of,State, Madeline Albright to North Korea, the first (and only) high level bi-lateral meetings since the Korean War days. Despite impressive public displays and pronouncements, nothing came of her visit. Wright noted that Wendy Sherman, formerly in the State Department, says the operative North Korean paradigm is simply regime survival. Without nuclear weapons and a constant state of tension, the North Korean elites believe they cannot survive. Also in the calculus is the fact that China wants desperately to avoid any inevitable massive immigration influx pouring over its isolated, porous 880 mile North Korean border.

Climate change. This piece from The Hill lists 5 items of note. (1) scientists are afraid of possible [information] suppression by Trump; (2) The publicity calls attention to any changes the administration might make; (3) the report directly contradicts Trump officials’ arguments; (4) the study repeats past calls for huge emissions cuts; and (5) Climate change is already affecting people.

Titan. Saturn's largest moon has ingredients essential to life: carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, liquid water underground, and liquid lakes of methane on its surface. The authors continue, "Researchers have now detected two more potentially important ingredients for making aliens: a compound that can form a membrane like the kind that envelops cells, and long chains of carbon atoms that may be 'universal drivers' for the chemistry that precedes life....All those ingredients may add up to nothing. Or, 'You might be like, holy s---, this is an amazing souffle!' Sarah Hörst, a professor of planetary science at Johns Hopkins University, laughed."

Knowing America. As she lived and traveled in the Middle East, college-educated journalist, Susie Hansen, wonders how it was that she knew so little about post-WW II America. In this book, Notes on a Foreign Country: An American Abroad in a Post-American World,  she sets out to discover why.

Women's lib in Saudi Arabia. Daring to Drive is Manal Sharif’s story about the myriad of obstacles faced by Saudi women in their lives. Driving a car is but one such obstacle, but perhaps it is the most widely well known to outsiders. 

Charlottesville. Regrettably, there has been a violent, deadly clash of interests, one with undeniable racial overtones. In his column, E.J. Dionne notes the statement by Senator Orin Hatch (R, UT), who made his disagreement with President Trump very person, when he declared, “My brother didn’t give his life fighting Hitler for Nazi ideas to go unchallenged here at home." Peter Wehner, a long-time Republican operative said, “I can’t tell you how sick & tired I am of the ‘privately wincing’ Republicans...It’s a self-incriminating silence.” Indeed.
     Hatch and Wehner were pointing to President Trump's unwillingness to quickly, candidly condemn white, racist violence. Only after an avalanche of negative condemnations poured in did an anonymous White House source say that, of course, the president decried all racially motivated violence. This about a man who cried foul at what he perceived as President Obama's unwillingness to call out "radical Islamic extremism."
     Charlottesville is yet another violent outburst highlighting the profound fear and sense of "loss" felt by a shrinking portion of white America. If you are well-off, gainfully employed, and white, you may well not sense the fear that is slowly becoming felt by some white Americans as they slowly become just one of the many minorities in America. However, if you are poor, less educated, and marginally employed, finding yourself to be one of these many minorities is fearful.
     Conservative columnist, George Will, called Charlottesville yet one more example of  the "'grotesque'...[that is] becoming the new normal for the Republican Party." Columnist Catherine Rampell sadly notes that the racists of the older generation may not be "replaced by generations of younger, more racially enlightened Americans. "Rather, the bigotry and hatred may just be passed on, the older generation's bigotry is regenerating in today’s youths." Jennifer Rubin wrote a column, "Why Trump had to be badgered to condemn neo-Nazis." Belatedly, and under pressure, he finally called out the right-wing and/or pro-Nazi groups and, later with any eye toward his base, also condemned the anarchists left. Here, the president has a point: there are far-left/anarchist groups who are prone to violence.

Reading, non-fiction. Voices from Chernobyl., Svetlana Alexievich, 1995, Dalkey Archive Press. Ms. Alexievich, who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2015, presents an oral history of the diverse people involved with the world's worst nuclear disaster.

• Remembrances of the wife of a too-soon deceased first responder, as she fights the system to bring final peace to her husband. 
• Tales of ex-Soviets fleeing their various war-torn former Soviet republics -- escaping to the perhaps deadly "forbidden" zone around Chernobyl. Here they can at least find some peace. 
• Tales of those expelled who now find they have lost two homes: theirs in the forbidden Zone and also a vanished USSR.

     Very sobering reading, to say the least. There have been numerous recent studies of the forbidden Zone. Here are two diverse examples: more scientific from the UN; wildlife oriented from National Geographic.

Thank you for reading. Watch out for the kids who are beginning to return to school -- can you believe it?

This week's offerings: conservatives on Trump; American education; capitalism; summer monsoon; sexism and technology.

An AZ conservative's view. Jeff Flake (R), the state's junior senator, has written a book that is far from complimentary of President Trump. At one point, writing about the presidential campaign, he says, “ 'These are the spasms of a dying party,' [while] surveying the anger that has consumed conservatism in recent years." Other Republicans are looking more critically at the path and progress of Special Prosecutor Muller's investigation, wondering, among other things, why President Trump is drawing "red lines" for the investigation over which he has little, if any, control. As Richard Nixon found out, firing Archibald Cox did not help his cause.
     As Muller's investigation continues, I have begun reading Washington Journal, Elizabeth Drew's excellent journal written as the Watergate investigation progressed. The parallels to the current situation are sobering, to say the least. In the end, President Nixon's actions (firing the special prosecutor, the attorney general and his assistant) led not to vindication, but to resignation.

Poor schools. As a retired teacher, this story's headline was, to say the least, troubling. "What should America do about its worst public schools? States still don’t seem to know." The article noted, “We don’t know what to do about chronically low-performing schools. Nothing has worked consistently and at scale,” said Michael Petrilli, president of the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute. “I suspect we’ll see most states and districts just go through the motions.” Sadly, no one saw much hope for public schools.

Capitalism. Last evening our local PBS station showed Michael Moore's documentary, "Capitalism: A Love Story." (released October 2009, link here)  That was "yesterday." Is all well today? After an impressive string nine stock market "highs," the Economist wonders about the lack of creative disruption. Yes, profits are up, but that "could [also] be a sign that things have been going profoundly wrong with the way the system is working." Higher profits should begat more investment which, in turn, should begat more competition, holding profits down. That is clearly not happening. "Creative destruction may not be happening any more. And that may explain why economic growth and productivity improvements have been sluggish in recent years."
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August monsoons. The CO mountains are getting their yearly late-summer drenching as the shifting wind patterns draw moisture from the Gulf of Mexico into the high country. Of course, this has brought two hurricanes ashore in Mexico, where Franklin just hit the Yucatan peninsula. National Hurricane Center link

Google's tech culture. An anonymous memo "hit the wires" at Google, suggesting that it may be the biology of women that holds them back. The author also lamented what he perceived as Silicon Valley's increasing willingness to discriminate in order to achieve equal representation. The author was found out and summarily fired, bringing comments about freedom of speech. No crying "Sexism in a crowded workplace?" Will we hear a presidential Tweet on this one?
     Paraphrasing of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.'s opinion in the United States Supreme Court case Schenck v. United States in 1919, which held that the defendant's speech in opposition to the draft during World War I was not protected free speech under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. 

Thank you for reading and enjoy the "dog days of August."

The past ten days' reflections: Life on the Rhône.
     The Abells have just returned from a 7-day cruise on France's Rhône river, south from Lyon to Avignon. We flew into Paris' Charles DeGaulle airport for the short flight to Lyon. France is roughly 80% the size of Texas, the 3rd largest European nation behind Russia [west of the Urals] and Ukraine.) Lyon is about halfway across and the flight from CDG to LYS reminded me of just how large -- and agricultural -- the country is. The farm fields, while not huge, are definitely larger than in most other western European countries. 
      Lyon is France's second (or third) largest city -- depending on whether you are considering just the city or the entire metropolitan area. (Metropolitan Marseilles is larger.) Either way, Lyon is a very livable city. Neighborhoods abound and public transportation is readily available: bus, trolley, and subway. As in most European cities, grocery shopping is largely a daily routine, though the populace does make use of their weekly farmers' markets for vegetables, always fresh and fairly priced.
     Once on the Rhône the sights are very much like those of other rivers in western Europe. I quickly noted, though, there were far fewer private houses actually along the river; houses tended to be in/very near the villages/small towns. When the valley narrowed, the vineyards dominated the view, some very steep on the hillsides. No river trip is complete without a visit to at least one vineyard to sample the local wines and cheeses. Cheese is a very important French product. No French meal is complete without several cheeses and their specific complimentary wine.
     In France, grape vines are not irrigated; rather, the watering is "left to God." Vine roots are "forced" down to find their own water, sometimes 30 to 40 feet, firmly anchoring the soil. Some French vines may be one hundred years old. If a vineyard is not too hilly, some French farmers choose to leave a bit of grass growing between their rows.
     Life in France outside Paris is much more "laid-back," more slowly paced, less bustled. A smile and "bonjour" was unfailingly returned, as was the case most everywhere I have traveled.
     Now back to live in southeast Denver. Au Revoir!