This past two week's items: Washington Post "Optimist" links; non-fiction reading; infamous buildings; foreign policy; politicians; DPRK questions; NYC; the hurricane-torn Caribbean; planet Earth.

The Optimist section. For Oct 29, link here. For Nov 12, link here.

Israel, and Balfour, 100 years on.  As the opening sentence says, "Many British people will not know of Sir Arthur James Balfour, an early 20th century foreign secretary. For 12 million Palestinians, his name is all too familiar." Perhaps President Wilson and the other allied leaders at the end of WW I knew not what the infamous Balfour Declaration would bring to the Middle East. They probably could not have imagined that 100 years later it would be increasingly troublesome. Not an instrument of peace at all.

Reading, non-fiction. Forged in Crisis: The Power of Courageous Leadership in Turbulent Times, Nancy Koehn, 2017, Scribner. Much in the vein of JFK's Profiles in Courage, Ms. Koehn looks at the lives of five famous people and how they dealt their various crises: Earnest Shackleton, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Rachel Carson. For many readers, Bonhoeffer may be the least "well known." He was a respected theologian, who left, then returned to Nazi Germany and worked diligently against Hitler's regime, and was executed for his efforts.
     Churchill & Orwell: The Fight for Freedom, Thomas E. Ricks, Penguin, 2017. Ricks is a long-time writer on defense issues. Churchill, the elder of the two, saw military service in South Africa (Boer War) and Afghanistan. Orwell, nee Eric Blair, fought in the trenches, one of the many multi-national volunteers who fought in the Spanish Civil War. Churchill wrote prolifically about the conduct of WW II. Orwell's major non-fiction works are The Road to Wigan Pier and Homage to Catalonia; he is most noted, though, for Animal Farm and 1984, both of which inveigh against authoritarianism and dictatorship.

Infamous buildings. Readers maybe familiar with Lubyanka, the feared headquarters over the years of succeeding Soviet, now Russian secret police organs. But few will have heard of Russia's "House of Shadows, the House on the Embankment." This gigantic, blocky complex, built in the blocky, utilitarian, Soviet-era, Stalinist style, was home of many of Moscow's communist elite, VIPs who often checked in and only checked out when they were arrested, inevitably to fade into the Gulag or one of Lubyanka's many execution basement chambers. These apartments are now scheduled for demolition, to be replaced by modern high rises, an unpopular move given the skyrocketing rents in Moscow.
    Lubyanka, though only four stories tall (above the feared basements), was jokingly called the tallest building in Moscow  —  because from its basement the prisoner could see all the way to Siberia. Built in 1898, it was originally the headquarters of the far more benign All-Russia Insurance company.

Trump's Department of State. Yes, there is one, Secretary Tillerson is in charge, but what are the nation's policies? David Ignatius writes, "Trump seems weirdly pleased at the many vacant policy positions — evidently not understanding that the vacancies prevent effective action. 'I’m generally not going to make a lot of the appointments that would normally be — because you don’t need them,' Trump boasted in an interview with Forbes published Tuesday.
     That, of course, is the truly scary "sticky wicket!"

Politicians. A quote from Stacey Abrams, the female, African American candidate for governor in GA: "Look, politicians are like 15-year-old girls. We respond to money, peer pressure and attention.” It's a good thing candidate Abrams in a woman! Imagine the storm of protests otherwise.

DACA. As this column says, there may be little/no empathy remaining in the president's DACA (dreamers) proposals. Trump's base does not seem to realize that he views himself as a "deal maker," where he must come out on top. Never mind what may serve the country better. And forget about your druthers!

As a New Yorker, Trump surely understands the economic boost that newcomers represent. His home is an economic and cultural dynamo in large part because New York City attracts bright and ambitious young people from across the nation and around the world....Healthy economies are magnets, not fortresses; their futures are bathed in the bright glow of headlights, not the red dim of taillights.

Says the head deal maker: "Want a DACA compromise? Then fund my wall!"

North Korea. From an article in Foreign Policy: Six straight forward questions. The answers, of course, are far more complicated. Even more critical, though: given President Trump's adversity to detail have these points been thoroughly considered by the president and his foreign policy advisors? The devil, as they say, is in the details!

1. Does the United States believe that Kim Jong Un can make rational judgments and decisions? 
2. What is the minimum change in behavior from North Korea that the United States requires to begin serious negotiations?  
3. What is the exact change in North Korea’s behavior that the United States seeks? 
4. What is the exact change in military capability that the United States seeks from North Korea?  
5. What are the minimum incentives that Kim Jong Un must receive to agree to do this?
6. What is the Trump administration’s approximate deadline for achieving its goals?

NYC. Once again, the Big Apple is much in the news. The horrible: the premeditated mass killing of pedestrians on a Manhattan bike path. The good: Shalane Flanagan's victory in last Sunday's NYC marathon. I have completed two marathons and was amazed by the margin of Flagan's victory. There is much to be said for the "home town" advantage. Ms. Flanagan's margin of victory, 1 minute, 1 second, is simply staggering, especially since the race included previous, proven, world-class winners. (It was not much noted that the women's third place finisher was also an American, Mamitu Daska, an Ethiopian now living in New Mexico.  In contrast, the wining margin in the men's race was more normal, a mere 3 seconds.

The Caribbean after the recent hurricanes. A recent cruise was re-routed to avoid three of the destinations that were too badly damaged to receive visitors. New building codes have made it more likely that there only roofs may be damaged. The cruise ended in Puerto Rick and the tremendous damage there seemed to bear this out. Inland from the modern downtown area, the older towns were devastated. The population outflow to the mainland is large and growing daily. Every flight out was filled and wheel chairs from the elderly were in short supply, both in San Juan and all mainland destinations.

Planet Earth.  Is it becoming too late so save our planet? In the Journal BioScience, on the 25th anniversary of the initial "warning to humanity," a second group of scientists have issued an updated  warning: “...many of our current practices put at serious risk the future that we wish for human society and the plant and animal kingdoms, and may so alter the living world that it will be unable to sustain life in the manner that we know.” Our livable habitat has a beginning and there is no reason to believe that with an every growing population and without competent stewardship the planet's livability will not end at some point. How distant a point is the question! 

Thank you for reading. Enjoy the week ahead.