Optimist, 27 May. A link to all this week's uplifting stories. The once immigrant interpreter who is repaying her debt, week after week. Four-legged lawn mowers, ones that will quietly eat noxious weeds? Denver, too, employs these eco-goats to mow the banks along the High Line Farmer's Canal, the South Platte River, and several city parks. My friend's young grandchildren loved the show; they still do! When was the last time you could, or felt like patting your lawnmower?
3 June. Link to all this week's stories: misdiagnosed pain; a much delayed high school diploma; teaching writing to lifers; this year's national spelling bee, and more.
Banana Republic North. As this column notes, an unknowing reader might be forgiven for assuming that the recent spate of stories from Washington might concern just another of those "banana republics," not a supposed top-tier developed nation.
Hungarian democracy. Hungarian Prime Minister Obran said, "Liberal democracy had failed to halt immigration, protect Christian culture or strengthen the traditional family of one man and one woman..." Is this yet another indicator of Hungary's slow slide towards authoritarianism? In wondering if the president is an instinctual demagogue or instinctual authoritarian, Michael Gerson notes:
There is an authoritarian playbook, used (with some variations) in Hungary, Turkey, Venezuela and Russia. Dismantle checks on executive power. Control the criminal-justice system. Scapegoat minority groups. Co-opt mainstream parties. Discredit the independent media. Call for opponents to be jailed. Question the legitimacy of elections. Claim to be the embodied soul of the people.Oil prices. Bloomberg reports that the Saudis and Russians are discussing scaling back production quotas, though probably not in time for the US's summer-driving season. More Russian oil would be welcomed throughout Europe. It remains problematical what effect this would have on domestic production in the US, especially for small producers.
Primal nature. This link (one of many) takes you back, gives you some idea of what it must have been like many eons ago in Earth's history, albeit without the luxurious greenery that is Hawaii today. The roiling fire, molten/flowing lava, the gas, the sounds as Earth was being born. Importantly, volcanologists worldwide are gaining insights into our long ago beginnings. "Scientists are studying these oozing fissures, explosive eruptions and magma flow patterns as they happen, a rare opportunity for many of them who, without the real thing, are often left to model volcano behavior in distant laboratories."
"Kilauea has been erupting almost continuously for the past 25 years, but not nearly to the extent of this spring’s activity. Scientists go back nearly a century to locate an eruption of Kilauea equal in severity to the current one...Every shiver of the ground, every exhalation of gas, every ripple of molten rock has been captured by an array of seismometers, tiltmeters, gas detectors and airborne sensors."
Another columnist's on-line piece was entitled "Kilauea sets eternity before our very eyes." Indeed, that oft produced schoolroom science volcano model has come to life for all to see. One much-seen still photo even shows golfers in action as smoke and ash billow behind them.
Robots. Here's a link to a segment from a favorite NPR radio program, "Science Friday." This segment is about robots, present and future. These machines are here, more and more used.
Marketing vs negotiating. It seems as if columnist Fareed Zackaria is on to something about President Trump's real talent: he is good at the former, bad at the latter.
Philip Roth. This world-renowned novelist passed away this past week. Here is a remembrance from Hermione Lee, a noted biographer
WW II, Alaska. Among the Memorial Day stories, I ran across the remembrance of the only WW II battle fought on North American soil, in late May 1943, when the US Army retook remote Attu Island, in the Aleutians. The largely hand-to-hand combat ended with the first war-time instance of gyokusai, mass suicide in the name of Emperor Hirohito.
North + South? With no memory of the Korean conflict, younger South Koreans are voicing concern about reunification. "Let's not....Many of them see little to gain from trying to bring together the capitalist, democratic South and the impoverished, totalitarian North....[Many see] North Korea as an ‘enemy’ or a ‘stranger'."
Women candidates. Earlier in the Memorial Day stories there was mention of the large number of former service men and women running for office in 2018. This link concerns the larger than usual number of women running in 2018. Numbers and diversity do matter. This blog being posted late, news reports indicate that women of both parties did very well.
Rural vs. urban gun violence. This is a link to one analysis of gun deaths nationwide. This is one possible explanation for how reactions to gun violence are so varied across geographic, political, and racial boundaries.
Above the law? Can a president obstruct justice? Pardon himself? Both great unknowns? Soon to be tested? Jennifer Rubin writes:
Any discussion of President Trump’s lawyers’ written claims and his current TV lawyer’s sweeping declarations must be premised on recognizing: 1. The lawyers change their minds; 2. The lawyers don’t necessarily speak for Trump; 3. The lawyers may not be lawyering at all, just putting out fodder for Trump’s base to keep spirits high and brains dulled. Nevertheless, let’s consider the various assertions recently made by Trump’s team.Even Richard Nixon realized that he was not above the law, though he seemed to have forgotten his role as national exemplar of moral leadership.
Reagan on Reagan. In this op-ed piece, Patti Davis, daughter of Ronald and Nancy Reagan, reflects on "What my father would say today." Though Ms. Davis often did not see eye-to-eye with her father, she talk about his love of country.
Reading, non-fiction. The Newcomers: Finding Refuge, Friendship, and Hope in an American Classroom. Helen Thorpe, 2017, Scribner. From Denver's South High School, Ms. Thorpe chronicles the struggle for immigrant teens thrust into today's rough and tumble America.
"Movin' on up." Stacey Abrams' is a success story no matter what happens this coming 6 November. Story from the Christian Science Monitor, May 23rd.
As a high-schooler, Stacey Abrams, who is African-American, was
initially refused entry to the Georgia Governor’s Mansion for an event
honoring top students. (A security guard, seeing her arrive by public
bus, seems to have thought she was in the wrong place.) Last night [May 22nd], she
saw the building in a different light: her possible future home. She won
the Democratic primary for governor, becoming the first
African-American woman in the country to win a major party’s
gubernatorial nod.
Ms. Abrams is accustomed to firsts: She was the
first African-American valedictorian at her high school and the first
woman to lead either party in the Georgia General Assembly. But, she told CNN
, she’s learned a tough lesson along the way: “The reality is,
having a right to be places does not always mean that you'll gain
admission."
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