Optimist, 30 December. Link here.
Notable US dates:
27 December 1947: the original Howdy Doody show debuted on NBC. In the early 1980s I saw "Buffalo Bob" Smith, Howdy's real-life pal, in an entertaining one-man-show at the Warehouse cabaret in Denver.
30 December 1853: The US and Mexico signed the Gadsden Purchase transferring 45,000 square miles to the US finalizing the current southwestern border of US (AZ and NM) and Mexico. Soon to be defined by The Wall?
31 December 1879: Edison first demonstrated his incandescent light bulb in Menlo Park, NJ
Notable passings, 2018. One enjoyable source is the "Hail and Farewell" segment of CBS's Sunday Morning. Not mentioned were Milos Forman (flim director), Winnie Mandela (first lady terrible of South Africa), and V.S. Naipaul (writer, Nobel Laurette),
The shutdown. One example of a significant governmental source of information, used worldwide, that has been silenced is the USGS which supplies information/data on earthquakes and expected tsunami activity. The government has suggested that employees whose paychecks are in limbo bargain with their landlords and creditors. I do not imagine that the paycheck for President Trump, Vice President Pence, cabinet officers, or elected congressional branch members, or federal judges are much endangered.
Several other stories noted that large private equity firms have been quietly disposing of properties, declared bankruptcy, and left the former employee's pension funds in the lurch. Just hard-headed business as usual for the billionaires, financial disaster for the underlings. But, hey, that is what our current administration is all about: unfettered capitalism of which John D. Rockefeller and his kindred spirits would heartily approve.
On Friday, 28 December, the President froze federal wages for 2019. Congress might pressure a change, but then again..........
Christmas Eve and Day: I hope yours was spent among family/friends.
Sadly, it seems the most powerful man in the world was enjoying his alone in the nation's capital, one largely devoid of his high level staff, appointees and congressional friends. Did he realize/care about the thousands of government employees who got a lump of shutdown coal in their stockings, with no paycheck forthcoming. “It’s a sad and pathetic moment when on Christmas Eve the president of the United States is firing downer tweets in a petulant, loner mood,” said presidential historian Douglas Brinkley. “This is like Charles Dickens’s Scrooge on steroids.”
Even Richard Nixon was not as "alone" on Christmas eve, 1973, as the Watergate scandal was building towards its inevitable conclusion (9 August 1974.) Historic parallels?
December 2018: No Santa Claus/holiday bump this year. There has to be a reason and, of course, someone to blame for the worst December since the Really, Really Big Depression. Do not, however, blame President Trump, who can only stand to be congratulated when he is successful.
Dogs and politicians: Columnist Jennifer Rubin on the dogs of Capitol Hill. The herders (Rep. Pelosi, D, CA); hounds (reporters); working (Sens. Christopher A. Coons [D-DE] and Mark R. Warner [D-VA]); sporting (late SenMcCain, R, AZ); non-sporting (Fox news), toys (Parkland, FL, kids), terriers (Freedom Caucus).
Russia and Venezuela. President Theodore Roosevelt would have been appalled if this intrusion had occurred on his watch: the growing control Putin's Russia has acquired in Venezuela, not now exactly a friendly western hemisphere nation, which also happens to harbor the world's largest known oil reserves.
Vanishing invincibility. Conservative columnist Robert Samuelson discusses the degree to which America's vaunted military and technological superiority is abating, even as China and Russia increase their strength. The recent cyber intrusions clearly indicate their intentions. "Skeptics,...[should] read the recent report of the congressionally created National Defense Strategy Commission, a group of civilian experts and retired military officers"
Leaving aside Chinese and Russian intentions, "We can address..[the other] two...causes...the shifting nature of warfare [and our],unwise cuts in defense spending. President Trump's declarations to the contrary not withstanding.
2019, China. Apparently, in China, years ending in "9" must be watched closely. In 1989, there were looming, worrisome societal divisions. Now, 2019, looms equally febrile. March: 30th anniversary of martial law in Tibet. Also, 60th anniversary of Dali Lama's flight to flight to exile in India. May 4th: 100th anniversary of the student movements that led to the party's founding that also inspired Tiananmen Square and its subsequent massacres. October 1: 70th anniversary of founding of Communist China.
Military voters. This once a reliable Republican bastion seems to be changing. Though this story's headline speaks of feminine service personnel (60-36, Democrat - Republican split), data from VoteCast indicated a similar 58-39 split among military males. During his recent visit with troops in Iraq, the President's face-to-face, bald-faced misrepresentation of recent military pay raises probably did not boost his appeal. (Their two recent raises, nowhere near his stated 10%, when adjusted for inflation were indeed meager. Much like Scrooge at Christmas.)
JOURNALIST GROUP COUNTS 94 SLAYINGS OF MEDIA IN 2018. An international trade association says on-the-job slayings of journalists and news media staff rose again in 2018 following an overall decline during the past half-dozen years.
The International Federation of Journalists said
in an annual report set for release Monday that 94 journalists and media
workers died in targeted killings, bomb attacks and conflict crossfire
this year — 12 more than in 2017.
Before the declines seen in five of the past six
years, 121 people working for news organizations were slain in 2012.
Since the federation started its annual count in 1990, the year with the
most work-related killings, 155, was 2006.
The deadliest country for people who work in the news media this year was Afghanistan, where 16 of the killings occurred.
Designer babies. Among the ethics-related news stories in 2018 is one related to so-called designer babies. Want a boy or girl? You may turn to IVF to guarantee your wishes.
"The news sparked an uproar in Britain, where screening embryos for gender is prohibited at IVF clinics. Unruffled, [Danielle] Lloyd, 35, began checking out clinics in the few places on the planet where the service is readily available: Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates — and the United States."
The Wizard of OZ. The past weekend's news stories from Sen. Lindsay Graham (R, SC) and President Trump opined that perhaps the President was rethinking his Syrian withdrawal plans. Senator Graham's back-and-forth about the president's plans could not help but call to mind three characters in the "Wizard of Oz." At various times, Graham and Trump have resembled "Scarecrow, who wants a brain, the Tin Woodman, who desires a heart, and the Cowardly Lion, who needs courage." Ah, the Wonderland that is Washington!
Finding a real job. While this story focuses on Scott Pruitt, formerly of the EPA, it has innumerable parallels across Washington. How does one explain why he/she is no longer in the employ of the President? Dismissed by a Tweet or just gone. How to explain one's "deals" that went wrong? Were the ideas just poorly thought out or simply imbecilic, deserving of a Dinozzo head slap?
Thank you for reading. I sincerely hope your New Year has begun well, much better than Washington's.
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