Optimist. Link here. Unneeded immigrants. You may remember President Trump's odious remarks about countries from which we did not need immigrants: Haiti, El Salvador, Africa. (The latter, of course, is an entire continent, but that is but a small matter for a geographically-challenged President.) The Washington Post Magazine sent a team to visit and report.
The Temptations. The musical story of another rock and roll group hits Broadway.
The Washington Wizard's dance group. You are never to old to dance, but you do have to be 50 or over to dance for the crowd.
The joy and benefits of a company's happy hour.
Notable dates in US history:
20 March 1976: Kidnapped heiress, Patty Hearst, was convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to 7 years in prison. She served 22 months and was pardoned in 2001 by President Clinton.
21 March 1981: Michael McDonald was abducted, tortured, and killed by the KKK in in Mobile, AL. His mother's subsequent law suit bankrupted the Klan and she was given possession of their sole position, the Headquarters. 2006: Jack Dorsey, created and sent his first Tweet.
22 March 1765: The British parliament passed the Stamp Act. 1990: In the Exon Valdez oil spill case, the captain was found innocent on three charges and guilty on a minor charge of negligent discharge of oil.
23 March 1933: The German Reichstag passed the Enabling Act, insuring Hitler's dictatorial power and Americ's eventual involvement in WW II. 1942: One of the US's most shameful acts began as the first Japanese-Americans, the majority of whom were US citizens, were taken to an internment camp in Manzanar, CA. Later, Camp Amache would be opened one mile west of Granada, CO. At Heart Mountain, in Wyoming, one of the bright spots was the lifelong friendship forged between two Boy Scouts, internee Norman Mineta and WY resident, Alan Simpson. Mineta (D) would later represent CA in the House and serve as two presidents as Secretary of Transportation; Simpson (R) would be a US senator.
24 March 1989: The Exxon Valdez ran aground in Alaska's Prince William Sound releasing an estimated 11M gallons of oil. 1999: NATO, with US assistance, launched air attacks on Yugoslavia, the first time in the organization's fifty year history that it had attacked a sovereign nation.
25 March 1931: The case of the "Scottsboro Boys" began as nine young African Americans were taken into custody and charged with raping two white women. The nine were imprisoned, sentenced to death, and eventually vindicated.
26 March 1979: The White House was the site of the peace treaty signed by Israel's Manachem Begin and Egypt's Anwar Sadat, witnessed by President Carter and the world. The peace treaty would later be key element in Sadat's assassination in 1981.
Chinese cheating scandal. Foreign Policy reports that parents in China see their child's education in the US as a big plus. Hence, they are not above following the recently exposed model of some US parents. "If you know where to look, ... [$90,000] can also help buy your way into a U.S. college—by any means necessary."
New Zealand. African American columnist, Leonard Pitts, writes about the massacre "down under." "...[T]he road goes where the road goes. Meaning that this butchery is the predictable result of rising international intolerance, of singling out this group or that and declaring that these people are the source of our misery, the monster in the dark, that they are not like us, do not share our humanity and are undeserving of our compassion," No nation is any longer alone.
The New Zealand parliament quickly passed a law banning military-style automatic assault rifles, high capacity magazines, and any device which would convert a still-legal rifle to an automatic weapon.There will also be a buy-back program put in place.
A Foreign Policy article looks a just what white supremacy is/is not. "It is reasonable that we would want to cast such an attack outside the realm of rationality, to tell ourselves that expressions of evil are random and unpredictable..."
Hitler, early on. In this Atlantic article, Adam Server discusses how the astute New York Times assured its readers that Adolph's Nazis were using their anti-Semitic rants to simply build the base for the time when his followers could assume control legitimately. The Times said, “there is no present basis for assuming that the Nazis will attempt to make anti-Semitism [sic] a militant issue in their legislative program.”
However, in January 1942, the Wannsee Conference was held near Berlin where planning began for the "Final Solution," the Holocaust.
First Amendment. The Great Tweeter signed an executive order dictating freedom of speech in all colleges that receive federal research funding. Me thinks that "what the captain meant to say" was that he was responding to claims that conservative views are being suppressed/denegrated on college campuses. For example, here at home, is Colorado University (often said to be in the Republic of Boulder) too liberal, too Democratic, too hostile to conservative students/groups/views?
In reality, it cannot be doubted that there are more than enough wrong-headed views bandied about on all sides; reasoned, civil discourse too often falls victim to shouted absurdities, left and right, conservative and liberal.
Trump on the Golan Heights. With one Tweet, President Trump reversed US policy by endorsing Israel's take over and subsequent occupation of the Golan Heights. Can President Putin expect a similar declaration regarding Crimea?
Brexit. A note from the Economist that in an unusual move, the normally non-political Speaker of Britain's House of Commons, "...intervened in the Brexit process, ruling out a third vote on the withdrawal deal unless it changes in substance. The European Union granted Britain a short reprieve to avoid a no-deal exit, postponing the March 29th deadline by a couple of months, but only if Britain’s Parliament approves the withdrawal deal next week."
Birth tourism. Seems that if you are a pregnant Russian woman of above average wealth, there is a high degree of probability you will visit the US.
Every year, hundreds of pregnant Russian women travel to the United States to give birth so that their child can acquire all the privileges of American citizenship.For all his bluster on Twitter regarding all that is wrong with the notion of birthright citizenship, the President has not yet weighed in on this particular niche!
They pay from $20,000 to more than $50,000 to brokers who arrange their travel documents, accommodations and hospital stays, often in Florida.While the cost is high, their children will be rewarded with opportunities and travel advantages not available to their Russian countrymen. The parents themselves may benefit someday as well.
The reminder from Watergate. Senator Patrick Leahy (D, VT) examines the handling of Watergate to suggest parallels as to how the Mueller report should be handled. Full disclosure, he suggests, is the best course of action. I would add that unless a series of statements reveal actual classified information, sources or methods, the public should have the right to read the report.
The late President Nixon has no luck suppressing information about Watergate and, besides, there may be another Chelsea (Bradley) Manning lurking in the brush.
Mueller and cybersecurity. Columnist David Ignatius writes that in the long run what is most important about the Mueller investigation is not Trump's shenanigans, but, rather, the need for greater cybersecurity.
Even after all the uproar that has surrounded Mueller’s inquiry, the U.S. government can’t do much to protect most private citizens or organizations against attacks. There’s better security now for election systems and critical infrastructure, but that doesn’t help the banks, hedge funds, law firms and other companies with sensitive data — which are basically on their own...U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency have already gone on the offensive against Moscow. Last fall, their joint Russia Small Group secretly “hacked back,” in effect, against Russia’s Internet Research Agency, briefly shutting down some of its computers. The aim was to deter the Russians from meddling in the 2018 midterm elections, and it seems to have worked.Ignatius goes on to note that in our formative years, America had a very weak navy, so Congress granted "letters of marque and reprisal" to privateers to capture foreign vessels. Michael Chertoff, former head of Homeland Security, suggests that Congress could do much the same with "letters of cyber-marque."As for you, dear reader, you are on your own!
Mueller Report. Take your pick of articles and/or news or pod casts. The report will be long debated.
CA and disasters elsewhere. New studies of climate change indicate what might be experienced along the CA coast in the coming years as weather disturbances become more severe and sea levels rise. The projections are alarming. Yet, the general literature says nothing about one aspect of the problem that will surely be felt not just in CA but nationwide: the catastrophic levels of payouts necessitated by insurance bills yet to be submitted as disasters worsen. Rising payouts will necessitate higher insurance bills which customers may/may not be able to afford.
Israel's election. Very bad: The Russians meddle in our 2016 election. Oh, ho hum: President Trump inserts himself into Israel's upcoming election by hosting a visit by Benjamin Netanyahu and issuing an official proclamation recognizing the legitimacy of Israel's claim to the Golan Heights, captured in the 1967 War and annexed in 1981. In Israel, Netanyahu has been indicted on charges of corruption.
"Trump in a recent interview denied the connection to [pleaded ignorance of] Netanyahu’s electoral prospects. 'I wouldn’t even know about that. … I have no idea. I hear he’s doing okay,' he said." Astute observers may well take the ever abominably out of touch man at his word. After all, he may well have missed it in the often unread Daily Brief!
Thank you for reading. I hope your spring has begun in good order. Be certain to check on your friends in the flooded mid-west. Love is a fire. But whether it is going to warm your hearth or burn down your house, you can never tell. Joan Crawford
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