This week we note: Optimist; a truly American day; "The" Caravan; environmental case; Chinese century; individual wealth; the new (?) China.

Optimist, 28 October. Link here. Seeing America while he still can. Josh Bangert's bucket list has a deadline: what he can see in the short time remaining before he goes blind. Sweden's "King Arthur" is a young 8 year-old girl who found what experts think may be 1,500 year-old Viking-era sword. Swedish archaeologists also found a brooch from the same era and are not sure what else may lurk in the lake's waters. As for "Queen Saga," she wants to be a veterinarian, maybe an actor in Paris. 

On this date. 24 October 1861: The first transcontinental telegraph message was sent by Chief Justice Stephen J. Field of California from San Francisco to President Abraham Lincoln in Washington, D.C., over a line built by the Western Union Telegraph Co.
     24 October 1945: The United Nations officially came into existence as its charter took effect.
     28 October 1886: The Statue of Liberty was dedicated.
     28 October 1962: Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, told the UN he was dismantling the missile bases in Cuba.
     29 October 1929: Stock market crash on Black Tuesday.

Caravan. Central Americans, yes, but just migrants, or terrorists, and violent gang members? The one very clear point: President Trump will try to stage manage the issue to his advantage, both for this year's upcoming midterm elections and 2020.

Environmental case. Can the federal government be sued for failing to provide a plan, a blueprint for limiting the continuing increases in carbon dioxide pollution? In Juliana v. the United States, twenty-one young Oregonians (ages 8 to 19) and an environmental watch-dog organization have sued the feds, charging that the lack of such a federal plan means the youths' life, liberty, and property rights are being violated. A similar suit in Washington state was recently dismissed because, the judge said, the matter was political, not legal.

China. This article from the Economist discusses the impact of China on the world's economy. Population, 2018, UN estimates: world population 7,7B; China 1,415,045,928 (18%); U.S. 327,482,993 (4%)

"China has already replaced it [America] as the driver of global change....[O]n a purchasing-power-parity (PPP) basis, which adjusts currencies so that a basket of goods and services is worth the same amount in different countries, the Chinese economy became the world’s largest in 2013...Since the start of the financial crisis in 2008, for example, China has accounted for 45% of the gain in world GDP. In 1990 some 750m Chinese people lived in extreme poverty; today fewer than 10m do. That represents two-thirds of the world’s decline in poverty during that time.

The world's 1%. This second Economist article ("The wealth of the 1op 1% may have peaked") examines the plight (?) of the world's richest people.

Voter access. With the midterm elections fast approaching groups in several states are challenging what they view as attempts to keep minority voters from casting ballots. In ND, "Tribes unite to combat new North Dakota voter ID law." ND has been the site of the recent Dakota pipeline controversy.
      In GA, "Deadlocked Georgia governor race tests power of voter restrictions." Interestingly one of the candidates for governor is GA's secretary of state, a Republican, who is in charge of voter registration. Also, the challenger, Stacey Abrams is an African American woman, a former state legislator, who undoubtedly stands to gain/lose the most from the African American votes.
     Vox notes that, "Ohio, Missouri, Kansas, and New Hampshire, among other states, are facing restrictive voter ID laws and purges of voter names from the rolls." In OH, Governor Kasich has been a vocal critic of the purges to the state's voter rolls. Other area, even New York City, suffer from problems that may be more related to antiquated system hardware than any ill intent. 

Renewable energy. While large wind and solar get most of the billing, it has long been said that even major energy producers of coal are investing their profits in renewables, not their own mines. In the very rural, conservative area around Delta and Montrose in CO, the citizens have voted to allow the Delta-Montrose Electric Association (their rural electric co-op) to sell stocks in order to sever their contract with their current coal-based provider. "DMEA is one of 43 rural utilities across four states that have contracts with Tri-State but would be only the second to break with the provider. In 2016 the Kit Carson Electric Cooperative in Taos, New Mexico, paid $37 million to sever its own contract."

China, 1969 & 2018. China's past, horrendous cultural revolution seems to be re-playing itself in the nation's immense western expanses as the Communist Party of China (CPC) rounds up and detains perhaps as many as one million of non-Hans and interns them in "re-education" camps. Even though the Han number just over 90%, the immensity of these round-ups is vivid proof of the CPC's fear of being displaced -- something that seems most improbable in the near term.

Thank you for reading.