John McCain, unparalleled patriot. You have seen the remembrances. Here is his final message to America.
"My fellow Americans, whom I have gratefully served for sixty years, and especially my fellow Arizonans,
"Thank you for the privilege of serving you and for the rewarding life that service in uniform and in public office has allowed me to lead. I have tried to serve our country honorably. I have made mistakes, but I hope my love for America will be weighed favorably against them.
"I have often observed that I am the luckiest person on earth. I feel that way even now as I prepare for the end of my life. I have loved my life, all of it. I have had experiences, adventures and friendships enough for ten satisfying lives, and I am so thankful. Like most people, I have regrets. But I would not trade a day of my life, in good or bad times, for the best day of anyone else's.
"I owe that satisfaction to the love of my family. No man ever had a more loving wife or children he was prouder of than I am of mine. And I owe it to America. To be connected to America's causes – liberty, equal justice, respect for the dignity of all people – brings happiness more sublime than life's fleeting pleasures. Our identities and sense of worth are not circumscribed but enlarged by serving good causes bigger than ourselves.
"'Fellow Americans' – that association has meant more to me than any other. I lived and died a proud American. We are citizens of the world's greatest republic, a nation of ideals, not blood and soil. We are blessed and are a blessing to humanity when we uphold and advance those ideals at home and in the world. We have helped liberate more people from tyranny and poverty than ever before in history. We have acquired great wealth and power in the process.
"We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe. We weaken it when we hide behind walls, rather than tear them down, when we doubt the power of our ideals, rather than trust them to be the great force for change they have always been.
"We are three-hundred-and-twenty-five million opinionated, vociferous individuals. We argue and compete and sometimes even vilify each other in our raucous public debates. But we have always had so much more in common with each other than in disagreement. If only we remember that and give each other the benefit of the presumption that we all love our country we will get through these challenging times. We will come through them stronger than before. We always do.
"Ten years ago, I had the privilege to concede defeat in the election for president. I want to end my farewell to you with the heartfelt faith in Americans that I felt so powerfully that evening. 'I feel it powerfully still.'
"Do not despair of our present difficulties but believe always in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here. Americans never quit. We never surrender. We never hide from history. We make history.
"Farewell, fellow Americans. God bless you, and God bless America."A president who never served anything beyond his own interests obviously did not, could not comprehend that John McCain was a hero because he refused to bend, to take advantage of his family ties, to leave his fellow POWs behind. He served to end!
Neil Simon, playwright supreme. Having 4 well-received plays running simultaneously on Broad way was quite extraordinary, but Simon did it. His talent and "hit" list are the stuff of theatrical history.
Optimist, 26 Aug. Link to wonderful stories, including too-long delayed healing on the Korean peninsula, children's cancer treatments, Nabisco's "freed" animals, too many Barbie dolls, the healthful effects of wasting time, and more.
Safe guarding past Iraqi allies . This Foreign Policy article details immigration problems for Iraqis seeking to immigrate to America, to a safe haven. Many of these men/women face an a hazardous -- even life threatening -- future if they remain in Iraq. These people "worked for the U.S. government or American contractors, news media or non-governmental groups..."
A Nazi deported. Columnist David Von Drehle writes about Jakiw Palij, a 95 year-old Polish-Ukrainian, who was just deported by the US to Dusseldorf, Germany. Mr. Palij has admitted to lying on his immigration application almost 70 years ago; "everyone lied" he said. He did not say then that he'd been a SS guard at a Nazi concentration camp. Palij is among the last people living in the US thought to have been officially a part of the Nazi holocaust system.
Election meddlers. David Ignatius notes that nations other than just Russia have reason to worry about our upcoming midterm elections. North Korea, for one, has altered its view, now encouraging Mike Pompeo, our recently disparaged Secretary of State. The North Korean Worker's party newspaper said, “Congress is tackling the president’s feet, the judicial branch is grabbing him by the collar, and news media are bashing him. We see it as a higher priority to straighten out fragmented and messed-up U.S. politics than a quick improvement in North Korea-U.S. relations, which is [also] important.” Note: re. "to straighten out;" just how would North Korea do that?
Cyber warfare. In this regard, Steward Baker writes that "The U.S. needs to think about the unthinkable." On Wednesday morning (22 Aug), a CBS morning news segment explored a recent massive cyber attack on various international corporations. The experts noted how one business was "saved" from malware problems when it found one of its servers, in a small office in Ghana (Africa), that had been totally off line due to a local power outage.
A quiet story from the Washington state. Hopefully this article from High Country News will slow and brighten your day, as it did mine.
PDRK. U.S. relations with Pyongyang are not going well. Next week's visit by Secretary of State Pompeo will test the administration's assertions that progress on nuclear disarmament is possible. President Trump has already backed away from his earlier assertions of "immediately," "wonderful," "beautiful," etc.
"In anticipation of Pompeo’s trip, Trump sent a letter to Kim. Officials briefed on the letter said it implored Kim to take steps to advance diplomacy while also urging him not to take any more negative steps that might jeopardize this opportunity — what officials called a carrot-and-stick message."
Pompeo, unlike his boss, with "few tools to induce more concessions," has to deal with the real world.
The Roman Catholic Church, PA and beyond. As Marc Thiessen notes, this was the major second scandal in the recent news. "The episcopacy as an institution has been corrupted. A culture of silence allowed a culture of abuse to flourish. Bishops consumed with what the pope called “the thirst for power” have through both action and inaction allowed evil to spread through the church. That evil must be rooted out." Criticism of the Church's stand continued throughout the week.
The Pope's upcoming trip to historically, steadfastly Catholic Ireland may prove a telling visit. Here at home, the Attorney General of PA, has suggested that his 49 compatriots should begin similar investigations in their own states. The Pope's public pronouncements in Dublin struck many as largely "empty," with no mention of any actual Church actions. The story noted that the last time a pope visited Ireland homosexuality was a crime, but now the Irish prime minister is gay and called for “new relationship between church and state in Ireland...”
Judge Kavanaugh. Here are George Will's thoughts on what questions should be asked of the Supreme Court nominee, with an eye toward past decisions. For example, re congressional taxation vs executive mandated tariffs. "Should the court protect the separation of powers by enforcing on Congress a non-delegation doctrine?" Or, Lochner vs. NY on workers' and employers' relations re contracts. Or, NAACP vs. Patterson on the publication of an organization's membership lists. Or, Regents of the U of CA vs. Bakke on racial preferences in college admissions. Or, Miranda rights. Or, Kelo vs. New London [CT] on property rights viewed against government's expropriation right. Or U.S. Term Limits, Inc. vs Thornton on a state's right to term limit U.S. representatives. Or, re a healthy life style vs health care costs, does the commerce clause allow Congress require people to eat broccoli?
The pulpit and the truth. Colbert King wonders why so many religious leaders continue to stand by a president with such a bad track record in truth-telling. "How can they turn a blind eye to a chief executive who treats the rule of law as a quaint idea observed by the stupid? One who considers rules and values to be only what he arbitrarily and unilaterally determines them to be?....Trump, for instance, denounced President Richard M. Nixon’s White House counsel, John Dean, calling him a “RAT” for cooperating with Watergate prosecutors and telling the truth."
White crime -- i.e. crimes of the rich. The guilty verdicts in the Manafort and Cohen cases have served to refocus the spotlight on crimes of the well-to-do and the successful efforts to reduce the government's funds to investigate and prosecute same.
Among the might, so small. If you do not look closely and he were not Anglo and dressed in green, you might miss the very small man contemplating nature's giants.
Truckers Against Trafficking. Conrad Hoke is a long-haul trucker on the lookout. He always has two missions: deliver his goods and be on the lookout for human traffickers. The nation's truckers know the highways and byways of America and they outnumber police 3 : 1. "[T]he majority of victims in the United States are domestic. And sex trafficking is more prevalent than labor trafficking...Eight states, including Washington and Colorado, require the training for driver certification, and parts of the program are implemented in nearly 40 states. Truckers have made more than 2,000 calls to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, and the cases generated by these calls have identified more than 1,000 trafficking victims, according to hotline reports."
"Oh, give me a home.... America's once immense prairie lands are shrinking (1 million acres each year) and the environmental impact of that loss is very much unknown. The loss of urban America's open spaces (nature's sponges) is less a mystery. The Army Corps of Engineers, among others, has said that Hurricane Harvey's impact on Houston was dramatically worsened by the city's long-time loss of open space to development's buildings and pavement.
A CBS Sunday Morning segment highlighted the debate over the future of the western prairie between environmentalists and the state's multi-generational ranchers, many of whom are true guardians of the land. Many, but not all; which only helps to fuel to the continuing debate.
Thank you for reading.
