The topics for this week: holocaust information; the other 9/11 anniversary; notes on reading, non-fiction; that "Russian thing;" a child's view; Pete Domenici (R-NM); post-hurricane construction; a white giraffe; Victor Laszlo; the Cassini mission; US monuments; Green Mountain Reservoir; this week's "Optimist" section.

Holocaust, new data: From the Jerusalem Post, information that Argentina has given Israel a trove (5 terabytes) of holocaust-related documents. At the end of WW II, many high ranking Nazi officials fled Germany to Argentina, including Adolph Eichmann. 

9/11 at Guantanamo. There were many times during the Cold War when the US and its allies inveighed against the abuses heaped on dissidents throughout the USSR and its satellite nations. "Questionable" trials of all sorts -- if there were any -- resulted in guilty verdicts, followed by summary executions or time in the gulag of this or that nation. As deplorable as those times were, at least there were trials. At Guantanamo, the shoe is on the other foot, so to speak. Of 41 prisoners being held, only seven have been charged, all are still awaiting trial.

Notes on reading, non-fiction. 
     The Unwomanly [sic] Face of War: An Oral History of Women in World War II. Svetlana Alexievich, Random House, 2017. Nobel Prize winner in Literature, 2015. As in her earlier book, Voices from Chernobyl (1997), Ms. Alexievich has conducted an untold number of oral interviews; this time she interviewed women from Russia (and other former Soviet Republics) about their experiences during the Great Patriotic War (WW II). Sometimes she met with both male, occasionally even female, opposition to her efforts. ("Why talk to women?") In the beginning notes she recounts earlier opposition of  Soviet male censors to this work.
     In the "Great Patriotic War" women fought in virtually every imaginable position in the army, navy, and air force. Eye opening for most any reader and only serves to reinforce the tales of the nearly unimaginable Soviet exertions and losses among Soviet women.
     Notes of a Native Son. James Baldwin, Beacon Press, 2012, with a new introduction by Edward P. Jones. Many of Baldwin's prescient comments about the "Negro" condition ring  just as true today as they did when the book was first published in 1955. Interestingly, Baldwin is a favorite, oft-quoted of Suzy Hansen (Notes on a Foreign Country [Turkey]: An American Abroad in a Post American World). Baldwin, African American and gay, spent much time in Turkey, where he once said he felt more "at home" than he did even in Paris.

Russian software banned. No matter what President Trump may think, Elaine Duke, his Homeland Security Secretary, has banned all US agencies from using (directly or indirectly) software from the Russian firm Kaspersky Labs. “The department is concerned about the ties between certain Kaspersky officials and Russian intelligence and other [Russian] government agencies...”

The "Wall." The portrait of a child looks over an actual section of the border wall President Trump hopes to expand. "The boy appears to grip the barrier with his fingers, leaving the impression the entire thing could be toppled with a giggle...People on each side of the wall waved to each other." The 65 foot high cutout provided the backdrop for many pictures taken from both sides; the artist, JR, said it was "meant to prompt discussion of immigration."

A congressional life well spent. Former US Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM) passed away in Albuquerque this past weekend. The republic would be well served if there were more bi-partisan, "commensurate legislators" of his ilk.   

Post-Harvey and Irma. Elizabeth Kolbert cautions that with climate change deniers now in ascendancy, post-disaster construction may not pay heed to even the most recent past. "[T]he N.F.I.P. [National Flood Insurance Program] has had the perverse effect of encouraging rebuilding in areas where homes and businesses probably shouldn’t have been built in the first place." Indeed. Miami and other low laying coastal area will continue to be flooded by even short, sudden rainfalls of two to three inches and the FL keys are a true disaster area.
     One home in MS has been flooded/repaired 34 times with NFIP claims totaling $663,00.00. When is enough, enough?

White giraffes? Kenyan wildlife experts and tourist alike were delighted by the totally unexpected recent sightings of a white mother and child wandering among other normally colored giraffes. (Only the third known sighting.) Nature continues to spring the unusual.

Casablanca. You might have been reminded of the movie by Donald Trump's comments about Pittsburgh and the late night comedians who resurrected and changed that famous line from the film "Casablanca." American ex-pat Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) persuades his former lover, Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman), to escape to Lisbon with her husband, Victor Laszlo, an important underground leader. He reminds her, "We'll always have Paris."  Here is the New Yorker tongue-in-cheek link to "Victor Laszlo's" blog.

Cassini and Saturn. This past Friday, the hugely, over successful Cassini space mission came to fiery end as mission control directed the space craft to take a final, fatal dive into Saturn's atmosphere. This choice of a fiery end was meant to avoid any possible earthly contamination should the craft have crashed into one of Saturn's numerous moons.

The spacecraft is running out of fuel, and mission planners didn’t want to let it keep flying right down to its last kilogram of propellant. That would risk having it crash on Titan or Enceladus and contaminate a potentially life-bearing world...But, for many scientists, the end of the mission is far from the end of Cassini’s ability to convey knowledge. 'Now we have this mountain of data that we need to start working our way through' But, for many scientists, the end of the mission is far from the end of Cassini’s ability to convey knowledge... (Christian Science Monitor story)

     This unexpectedly long mission told earth-based scientists much more than they ever envisioned about life in our outer solar system. Links abound with hauntingly spectral photographs of Saturn, its rings, and moons.  Here the link to NPR At the end of the NPR story there are other links including one to NASA  This link to the CSM
     These words, from the Washington Post's "Optimist" story,  are about Cassini's final moments.  "But because Saturn is so distant, Cassini's final heartbeat won't reach Earth until 83 minutes after it's gone. When [mission specialist] Spilker and her colleagues hear the last of their pioneering probe, it will be a whisper from a ghost: one final piece of insight from an alien planet, beckoning to whoever comes next."

Myanmar violence. One has to wonder, how can a country, whose spiritual leader, the Nobel Peace Prize Laurette Aung San Suu Kyi, suddenly find itself embroiled in -- accused of -- violent, ethnic cleansing? Even worse, her nation is being derided by the United Nations and Muslims across the globe.  This story is from the Christian Science Monitor.  "In short, the state-driven violence in Myanmar (Burma), which reportedly has killed more than 1,000 people and driven 370,000 Muslim Rohingya into neighboring Bangladesh [90% Muslim], has caught the attention of the Arab world, promoting a rare outpouring of support, solidarity, and activism." The response, however, has been uneven. "[W]hile Arab publics have been moved to action by the Myanmar crisis, the response from Arab governments has been 'underwhelming' at best, observers and pundits say." Social media and a lack of sectarian infighting, though, can quickly change that situation.

Shrink national monuments? Why? A good question. The yet to be released report of Interior Secretary Zinke cites "the need to adjust the proclamations to address concerns of local officials or affected industries, saying the administration should permit 'traditional uses' now restricted within the monuments’ boundaries, such as grazing, logging, coal mining and commercial fishing." States' rights which will only fuel more demand for increased commercial use. "More people, more scars upon the land." John Denver, "Rocky Mountain High"

Lucky number. A US lottery problem?  "In 2014, annual sales reached over $70 billion, and Americans spent more on lottery tickets per year than they spent on books, sports tickets, music, video games and movie tickets combined." Hope springs eternal.

Green Mountain Reservoir. A best friend has a large cabin on this reservoir located near Heeney, CO. The relative silence there is noticeable for we city slickers. The aspens are turning golden and there is even been a dusting of snow on the higher peaks. This Sunday morning, the cabin deck and railing had a thin sheen of ice. John allows as how it is not cold enough yet in the cabin to light the wood stove, but to be spreadablenthe butter did have to be thinly sliced.  As you watch the deer munching in the horse pasture across the driveway, the lowing of the beef cattle drifts down from their higher pastures up the road. It will soon be time for neighbor Jim to "mount up" and herd those "doggies" down to their lower winter quarters. Time, too, for him to bring his horses, Frosty and Winchester, back up from their lower summer pasture along Blue River. Their hay bales, sacks of oats, and heated water trough have been made ready for the winter.

The Washington Post "Optimist" section. Stories of help and sacrifice amid the chaos of Irma, including that now famous "chain saw-wielding" nun and Cassini stories/pictures. Link here

Thank you for reading. Enjoy these early fall days/nights.