Optimist. Link here.
MD national guard.The entire command staff are women, a first in the nation; three are African Americans and all are mothers. It was only in the mid-1950's that women were even permitted to join.
New monument on the Washington Mall honoring Native American veterans will open in 2020.
Notable dates in American history.
27 March 1964: On this Good Friday evening (precisely, 5:36pm local time), in Alaska, a 9.2 earthquake and resulting tsunami killed 130 people across the Pacific basin. The quake was the second most powerful ever recorded to date. This USGS film and a companion piece examine the impact and scientific studies/innovations that resulted, changes with world-wide impacts. The Defense Department civil defense film, Though the Earth Be Moved, is black/white and shaky, but dramatic.
28 March 1979: America experienced its worst nuclear disaster, the partial meltdown of one of the reactors at the Three Mile Island nuclear power generating station (in south east PA).
29 March 1951: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage for the USSR. They were sentenced to death and executed on 19 June 1953.
1 April 1954: President Eisenhower signed legislation creating the US Air Force Academy, first located at Lowry AFB, Denver, while the Academy's permanent home was being constructed near Colorado Springs. 2003: American special forces troops entered a hospital in Nasiriyah, Iraq, and rescued Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch, who had been held prisoner since her unit was ambushed on March 23.
Tabor Amendment. For the readers who are unaware, CO's infamous Tabor Amendment sets limits on our taxes and debts. Brian Vande Krol, a former Tabor supporter, has written an op-ed expressing his regret for having so long been a Tabor-backer. Since Tabor's passage in 1992, CO has seen its ranking in various national rakings sink from among the highest towards the bottom.
Read closely, though, and you divine is that what Vande Krol really regrets is that Tabor has caused city, county, and state legislative bodies to make so many "end runs," the passage of numerous fees, effectively emboldening "the thievery." What the "captain meant to say," is that less money in the public coffers is always better. For example, there is no need to lament that CO's rankings in primary, secondary, and higher education have slumped toward the bottom of the charts.
End of the American century? In this London Review article Adam Tooze speculates on the impact of the Trump presidency on America's place in the world order. His is a rather darker picture than you might imagine.
Immigration. This HCN story is about the Cora, an indigenous Mexican tribe. Like so many immigrants to the US they have come north to escape violence, discrimination, and lack of opportunity at home. (Most Americans are unaware of the very real discrimination indigenous peoples face in their Mexican homeland.) They have returned precious money to their kinfolk still in Mexico and infused their American communities (several in CO) with their hope and hard work.
In response, "...towns in [CO's] Gunnison Valley have issued proclamations for 'International Migrants Day' in December, and have formerly acknowledged migrant contributions to the region’s economy."
Aging. The Economist reports that....
FOR THE first time in history, the Earth has more people over the age of 65 than under the age of five. In another two decades the ratio will be two-to-one, according to a recent analysis by Torsten Sløk of Deutsche Bank. The trend has economists worried about everything from soaring pension costs to “secular stagnation”—the chronically weak growth that comes from having too few investment opportunities to absorb available savings. The world’s greying is inevitable. But its negative effects on growth are not. If older societies grow more slowly, that may be because they prefer familiarity to dynamism.Bob Dylan said it, "The times they are a changin..."
Gerrymander. As the walrus said, "The time has come..." The Supreme Court, having heard two quite obvious cases of political gerrymandering (from MD and NC), may not be able to once again "dance around" dealing with obvious. In MD, the Democratically-controlled legislature sought to disadvantage the state's Republicans; in NC, it was the just the reverse.
The Court heard arguments for just over two hours, a rarity. The Court's second newest justice, Neil Gorsuch, wondered, “Why should we wade into this?” He noted that in 2015 the Court upheld the AZ legislature's decision to give the task of decennial redistricting to an independent commission. (As is the case in CO and four other states.) Indeed, the AP story noted that in the 2015 5-4 decision, "Chief Justice John Roberts...worried about the harm to the court’s reputation if it had to pick political winners in endless redistricting disputes, [and] suggested voters have a way of surprising people."
Stay tuned. We will know sometime before the close of this year's term ends on June 30th.
Mid-west flooding. The media has made very evident the extent of flooding along our mid-western waterways. What is not seen is the potential risk to the one million private wells that provide water.
"Drinking water comes from a variety of sources. Some public water supplies use rivers, streams, lakes or other bodies of water. Others use water from the ground. Either way, public water supplies are government-regulated and have safeguards to protect against contamination." Unless, of course, you have local contamination due to lead pipes.
Geothermal mayhem in NM. The use of geothermal energy to cut green house gas emissions is admirable, but only if done correctly. Incorrectly seems to be the case in NM, where problems resulted in contamination of a precious aquifer.
Tariff end run. A Chinese company producing various paper/plastic items for American restaurants faced increased prices due to President Trump's tariffs. The company avoided the tariffs by building a new plant ($4M investment) in Monterrey, Mexico, and shifting its business accordingly. Mexican workers surely did not object, either.
America's other "code talkers." Many are aware of the valued WW II service performed by the famed Navajo "code talkers." Turns out there was another group of indigenous Americans who worked to make communications "unknowable" to the Japanese. "Army veteran Richard Bean Sr. died without anyone knowing that he and four other long-deceased Alaska Natives had used their Tlingit language to outsmart the Japanese during World War II."
Many Americans are unaware that Japanese forces did in fact invade the US, occuping Attu and Kiska, two islands in Alaska's Aleutian chain. "The service of the indigenous service personnel was made known with the passage of the Code Talkers Recognition Act of 2008 and this month, [AK] legislators passed a formal citation honoring the Tlingit Code Talkers."
San Francisco, "GoFundMe." Those living in one of San Francisco's trendiest neighborhoods has set up a "GoFundMe" account to raise money to fight against building a homeless shelter in their neighborhood. A rival account was quickly set up. The median price of a home in San Francisco is $1.36M and a recent study found that an average family would have to earn $340,000+ more just to afford housing.
Venezuela. Events of the recent past in Venezuela seem to have pitted President Trump against his "good friend, President Putin. Russia landed a military transport plane and 100 troops at a Venezuelan airbase. President Trump has declared that Nicolás Maduro has to go, declaring US support for Juan Guaidó, who finished a close second in a very tarnished election. Trump, having loudly and repeatedly chided President Obama for disregarding his own "red line" in Syria, seems honor bound to contest Putin's actions. Trump called for the immediate removal of the Russian troops. Even as Russian involvement increases, especially a tanker ship loaded with the thinners needed for Venezuela's sludgy crude oil.
Re Putin and Trump. In a recent column, conservative Michael Gerson opines that while the President is not a Russian agent, he is certainly a Russian stooge. Suppose, Gerson wonders what if "...on March 24 — the day Attorney General William P. Barr publicly summarized the Mueller report — all of the results of the special counsel’s probe that have dribbled out over the past two years had been revealed at once." Certainly the public reaction, even among Republicans, would have been different.
After Exxon Valdez. Last week's notable dates included the dramatic oil spill in AK's Prince Edward Sound. This story from the HCN notes the consequences that continue to haunt AK's fragile coastline.
Experts at the time said a comeback would take decades, but that the spectacular biological wealth of these waters would return if given the chance, without another oil spill to knock it down. What they didn’t anticipate was a much larger, more diffuse threat. Changes brought by human emissions of carbon dioxide — warming and acidifying ocean waters — have proved as destructive as the spill, and they will not disperse, as the oil eventually did....The climate crisis is too large, too diffuse, and is hitting too many places at once — everywhere, really — to produce the outrage that exploded when lovely animals choked on Exxon’s oil.The lessons of Golan. This article from the CSM investigates what President Trump's decision might mean in several other of the world's potential powder kegs. Namely, how America's allies feel about Russia/Ukraine/Crimea and India/Pakistan/Kashmir. Also unmentioned by the media is the role (if any) played by the President's designated Middle East point man, son-on-law Jared Kushner.
“If the liberal hegemon says we’re no longer going to use our moral power to prevent some things from happening, and in fact we’re going to disregard the rule of law that we have led and protected since World War II, it sanctions others to do the same,” says Edward Goldberg, an assistant professor at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs.
Former Ambassador [to Russia William] Burns said. “This kind of decision is going to get used by the Vladimir Putins of the world to say ‘What’s wrong with the annexation of Crimea if the Israelis’ unilateral annexation of the Golan can be recognized?’”Fossil fuels out. This article from Britain's Guardian repeats on yet more findings that fossil fuels are "on the way out" simply because they are pricier that solar, wind, and/or natural gas. "Renewables now account for around 17% of US electricity generation, with coal’s share declining. However, the power of coal’s incumbency, bolstered by a sympathetic Trump administration, means it isn’t on track to be eliminated in the US as it is in the UK and Germany."
King Trump. Primary season is not far off. The Democratic contests will fill volumes. However, on the Republican side, the Guardian reports that President Trump would very much like to have no opponents, no primaries would be even lovelier. Reportedly South Carolinian Republicans are considering cancelling their state's Republican primary. King Trump, candidate by proclamation.
College admissions problems. Surely you have read the news stories. Now, the Guardian reports on anonymous comments from college professors about the toll on the college and well prepared students once an increasing number of unqualified students are admitted. “Students who can’t get into elite schools through the front door based on academic merit don’t change once they’re in class. They can’t do the work, and are generally uninterested in gaining the skills they need in order to do well.” Indeed, in the social media of one such student she admitted her primary interest was in going to sports contests and partying.
A professor at San Francisco State wrote, "...the real untold story [is of the many unprepared students and a lack of adequate funding] . Focusing on the elite schools seems more like a distraction." In the UK, a college administrator lamented students who are "woefully under prepared to pursue independent study." Another US professor opined that perhaps teaching rigorous STEM classes tended to weed out the lazy and ill-prepared. After all, "Why would wealthy parents pay big bucks just to have their child flunk out of tough engineering, science and math courses?"
Ancient trauma. A huge archaeological dig in present day ND has found massive evidence of a traumatic, quick-acting tsunami that swept over the then extant Western Interior Seaway. This climactic event likely resulted from the tsunami triggered when the huge asteroid struck 66M years ago in modern Mexico, extinguishing 75% of Earth's animal and plant species. The ND find has yielded “a mother lode of exquisitely preserved animal and fish fossils." Plants and animals killed in an instant, not over the more usual, longer geologic time period.
Re 9 November 2020. Columnist Charles Lane opines that, for better or worse, all these intervening months/days may make no difference. That voters have already made up their minds, for or against the president's re-election. If so billions will be spend in vein.
Thank you for reading.
In memory everything seems to happen to music. Tennessee Williams
You're never too old to see the Grand Canyon. Rose Torphy, the park's "new" 103 year-old junior park ranger
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