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