Optimist, 22 April. Full link here. Babies to the Senate floor? He is poor, but has a voice Juilliard wants and will provide for. And more.
The IRS calls late. At Sunday brunch, a friend asked why this year's tax filing deadline was the 17th. Alas, he's not a current or former runner. The third Monday in April marks the Patriot's Day holiday in MA (and also the date for the yearly Boston Marathon). In MA, banks, state, and local agencies are all shuttered. Well, what if IRS filing day, the 15th, falls on a Sunday and poor Joe Taxpayer in MA cannot get to his local bank on Monday the 16th? This is federalism at its finest. Because of MA and the calendar, everyone in the US got to file their taxes one day later! Did you use that day's extra interest wisely? Wikipedia link here.
The 2018 Boston Marathon. As sometimes happens on Marathon Monday in Boston, this year's weather was really "crappy!" Rain, wind, low temperatures, but, hey, at least there was no snow on the ground. Was it the weather? Or the marathon gods taking pity? Or some of the warm-weather East Africans opting out? Who can say. But, for the first time since 1985, an American woman won the women's elite race and eight of the top ten lady-finishers were also Americans. On the men's side, an amateur Japanese runner won the elite race and six of the top ten male finishers were also Americans. Pray for more another terrible weather day next year?
Starbuck's, loitering, and lynching. In an earlier era, the recent Starbuck's incident might have ended much differently. As the Starbuck's moment illustrates, even though the old loitering laws were long ago been struck down judicially, they are "still there." It is hard to believe that if two "white brothers" had entered Starbuck's to wait for their friends the police would have been called.
Back in the day, loitering laws were a mainstay of the racist Jim Crow system. Being black and in the wrong place at the wrong time (especially if you were male) would most probably result in a call to police, sometimes with lethal consequences. On April 26th, "America's first lynching memorial will open in the 'Cradle of the Confederacy," Montgomery, Alabama.
Columnist Fred Hiatt notes the different Montomerys portrayed (1) on the plaques in the city's Riverfront Park (traditional) and (2) the above noted National Memorial for Peace and Justice. He also notes, as have others, that West Germany and South Africa moved relatively quickly (though not painlessly) to confront the horrors of their past, here in the US "...we’ve hardly begun to grapple with ours — and so cannot yet get beyond it."
Locally, Colorado was not immune, either. Most lynchings were in the early mining era, before a formal, territorial court system had been established. One particularly appalling incident occurred, twenty-four years after statehood, in Limon, (eastern) CO, in 1900, when a young African American was publicly burned at the stake. Other CO lynching victims included Catholics (Irish-American), Chinese, and Native Americans.
Yellowstone. Yes, it is our first National Park and, yes, it is potentially earth's deadliest volcanic area, and, yes, this potential black swan that is Yellowstone is 44 miles wide. The linked article has some interesting and informative embedded links. In any event, the park is spectacular and we all owe a debt of gratitude to President U.S. Grant, the park's "founder."
Syria. Here is conservative columnist, Michael Gerson's thoughts on the president's Syrian raid and policy. "High explosives do not constitute a Syria policy, which has been lacking across two administrations. So it might be more useful to ask a narrower question: What principle is the United States trying to enforce?" The answer he discerns from Washington is not comforting.
There is...further inconsistency. The images of children after a chemical weapons attack seem to move the president. The images of 5 million refugee children — many out of school, many traumatized by violence and loss — seem to lack that power....Trump’s standard — that a dictator can indiscriminately kill his people as long as he doesn’t use chemical weapons — is nearly lost in the overarching lesson of the Syrian conflict.
2020, Candidate X. In last Wednesday's column, David Von Drehle opines about "who" might be on the long/short list in 2020 for the White House. They will, no doubt, ..."like Trump, promote themselves as personal brands, independent of party affiliation." He notes we often forget that both Obama and Trump rode to victory in spite of their party establishments. He continues,
It’s no mere coincidence that these are the first two presidents of the iPhone era. Introduced in 2007, the pocket supercomputer (and its competitors) placed the power of mass communication literally in the hands of millions of ordinary Americans, and the business of winning votes would never be the same. As different as Trump and Obama are, both candidates appreciated that the road to the presidency is now a communications autobahn, bypassing the antiquated Main Streets of the run-down political parties.
Run-down political parties? Back in the beginning, the Founding Fathers designed a "party-less" system where the president would "represent" everyone, senators their state, and representatives their immediate neighbors. As political parties became part of the system in those slower, bygone days, policies were largely hammered out in the nation's capital by party members in the legislature, amid ongoing consultation with the executive branch. The realities of today's communications have changed all that!
Party members are no longer beholden to the same groups of voters. Policy- making has been irreversibly splintered and the long term systemic consequences remain cloudy. President Trump fumbles with his "base," which he finds is shifting as his rapidly evolving/changing policies differently impact various groups/localities. Similarly, congressional party members deal with their own diverse/shifting bases. All of which are only a @ or # away. Von Drahle writes, "New media aren’t intended to grab and hold our entire attention, as the ratings-obsessed Trump [and others wish]..."
The liberal "world order." Jonathan Capehart's column discusses Robert Kagan's speech at the German Marshall Fund's recent meeting, where he spoke about the devolution of "the U.S.-led liberal democratic order" which Kagan says "is not only in danger — it’s also a historical aberration."
New Republican party. This article from the Economist examines how Donald Trump's Republican party is organized around him and is all about loyalty to him. Congress is merely an often unavoidable, inconvenient outlier. They point to a concern for "...Mr Trump’s temperament and style of government. Submissive loyalty to one man and the rage he both feeds off and incites is a threat to the shining democracy that the world has often taken as its example...At the heart of his system of power is his contempt for the truth."
First, policymaking suffers as, instead of a coherent programme, America undergoes government by impulse—anger, nativism, mercantilism—beyond the reach of empirical argument....Second, the conventions that buttress the constitution’s limits on the president have fallen victim to Mr Trump’s careless selfishness....[T]hird, Mr Trump paints those who stand in his way not as opponents, but as wicked or corrupt or traitors....Mindful of their party’s future, [Republican leaders] should remember that America’s growing racial diversity means that [Trump's] nativism will eventually lead to the electoral wilderness.
Reflecting on the recent golfing-cum state visit by the Japanese premier, it might also be remembered that over the years allied foreign leaders would have been pleased to be invited to the White House, perhaps even to the more private, secluded presidential retreat at Camp David. (Either/both all made for good TV back home.) However, President Trump obviously wants foreign visitors to be enthralled with him, not the nation, and so he prefers his private golf-estate, Mar-a-lago -- where it is very obviously all about him and his wealth.
Poland, 2018. Who would have thought that the heretofore much maligned Soviet communist domination of Poland during the Cold War would come in handy for the current Polish government? This from the Economist. Poland's Law and Justice (PiS) party (newly elected, populist, revisionist, and blatantly nativist) finds it convenient to label its current, more democratic-leaning detractors, as "treacherous crypto-communists." That seismic tremor you might have felt may well be Lech Walesa thundering towards the podium.
More about last week's note on the "new work model." Artificial-intelligence experts have goten a robot to assemble an IKEA flatpack—for the first time uniting the worlds of Allen keys and Alan Turing. As well as being able to relax in a nice new chair, the scientists have highlighted a profound truth about automation.
| One late night TV comedian joked that the two robots, like many couples. did get into an argument about the process. |
| Foreign Policy? Columnist Eugene Robinson suggests that what emanates from Washington today might be better termed "international lurchings." He goes on, "Allies and adversaries alike are having to learn which pronouncements to
take seriously, which to ignore and which are likely to be
countermanded by presidential tweet....If the aim of foreign policy were to keep everybody guessing, Trump would be a smashing success." The world needs to acquaint itself with the useful Spanish phrase, "Quien sabe¿" Who knows? And, perhaps, forget the usual, polite, "With all due respect..." Surely, in today's nuclear-armed world, uncertainty may not be a good thing. North Korea. The headline from a recent Washington Post story, read,"North Korea says it will suspend nuclear and missile tests, shut down test site." Let us hope that the upcoming meetings between the North and South and then Kim Jong Un and President Trump prove fruitful. |
Welfare reform in Wisconsin. What happens when your old car, badly in need of repair, is supposedly worth more than $20,000.00? You may no longer qualify for welfare. Gotcha! Of course, you might try contacting to the Speaker of the US House, who lives in Janesville, WI.
Your car may harbor a potential hazard. This Washington Post article points to one potential hazard in the auto parked at your house -- the safety air bags which may have been manufactured by Takata. You can use this link, from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, to check for ANY/ALL recalls affecting your car(s). The vehicle identification number (VIN) number is displayed on the driver's side of dashboard and is visible through the windshield. You can also use the NHTSA site to check the published safety ratings for a vehicle you may be considering.
Reading, non-fiction. On Grand Strategy, John Lewis Gaddis, Penguin, 2018. (Pulitzer prize recipient, biography, 2012, George Kennan: An American Life.) Professor Gaddis taught a grand strategy course at Yale with colleagues Charles Hill and Paul Kennedy. I was particularly drawn to Chapter 8, "The Greatest President," where he discusses John Quincy Adams and Abraham Lincoln. A chapter well worth the read.
Thank you for reading.
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