Optimist. Link here. Apollo's rocks continue to reveal mysteries beyond the moon.
Notable dates in American history.
15 May 1972: While campaigning for president, George Wallace, governor of AL, was shot in Laurel, MD, and left paralyzed. He soldiered on in American politics, even casting aside most of his segregation-era views and capturing a majority of African American votes. 1948: Hours after declaring its independence (and being formaly recognized by President Truman), Israel was attacked by Transjordan (now Jordan), Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon.
16 May 1868: The US Senate fell one vote short of the required two-thirds needed to impeach President Andrew Johnson.
17 May 2004: The state of MA became the first in the nation to recognize same sex marriages.
20 May 1927: Charles Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field, NY, on his solo flight across the Atlantic. 1961: Freedom Riders were attacked in Montgomery, AL, and federal marshals were dispatched to restore order.
21 May 1927: Charles Lindbergh landed in Paris after a 33 1/2 hour flight across the Atlantic.
Iran and John Bolton. In a Guardian article, Ben Armburster wonders is John Bolton the most dangerous man in the world? "Donald Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton wants the United States to go to war with Iran. We know this because he has been saying it for nearly two decades."
PG&E in CA. The state's largest (and bankrupt) power company says it may have to consider cutting off power in its ultra-high voltage lines when there are high winds during fire season. How this would happen and its impact remain a mystery.
CO's ranking. Over all in the top 10 states -- but, lest we be too complacent, consider: education #11; health care #12; over all pollution #20; access to health care #29; environment #31; public safety #33; air and water quality #44 (so much for Coors' Rocky Mountain spring water).
Pope Francis. Trying to resurrect a troubled church, he has finally issued a set of guidelines that theoretically will no long protect pedophiles at any level of the church.
Mexican-Americans. You will undoubtedly never here this from the President, it flies in the face of nearly daily protestations and fear mongering. The Economist reports that America's established Mexican-American population is shrinking.
From the 1950s onwards, Mexican immigrants poured into Pilsen [in Chicago]. They replaced Poles, Czechs and Italians, filling pews in their brick churches and acquiring their businesses. Now they too are moving up and on....Andrew Selee of the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) in Washington points out that since 2007 a tidal wave of Mexicans going to America has slowed to a dribble as unauthorised migrants have been replaced by legal ones....Higher incomes, more jobs and an ageing population in Mexico have all shrunk its pool of potential migrants....That could be a boon to those already there. One lesson after previous decades of high migration ended (as when a 1924 law abruptly choked inflows of Asians and some Europeans) is that it can herald a period when existing migrants—and, importantly, their American-born children—integrate successfully.
Organ transplant rules. If you need an liver transplant, where you live might be the difference between life and death.
"Now the nation’s transplant system is aiming to make the wait for livers, and eventually all organs, less dependent on your ZIP code. New rules mandating wider sharing of donated livers went into effect Tuesday despite a fierce and ongoing hospital turf war in federal court....[M]ore than a dozen hospitals in parts of the Midwest and South sued to block the change, arguing it will endanger their patients, especially in rural areas, if livers must be shipped further to areas with fewer donations. Late Monday, a judge in Atlanta denied their request to put the rules on hold until the legal challenge is decided. The next day, those hospitals appealed, still seeking to halt the rules after they began.
US birth rate. The nation's birth rate continues to fall. The latest figures show that the economic upturn has not, as expected, resulted in more families having babies. Indeed, even the rate among young, unmarried women has continued to decline. "The fertility rate of 1.7 births per U.S. woman also
fell 2 percent, meaning the current generation isn’t making enough
babies to replace itself.
The fertility rate is a hypothetical estimate based on lifetime projections of age-specific birth rates."
Tariff pain. Yes, the president "loves" trade wars, believes in tariffs, but who in America is paying the bill? Senators and representatives are hearing from their constituents that they, the voters, think the cost is becoming increasingly burdensome at the local level, on their pocketbooks. Trump vows, if necessary, he will bail out farmers for the billions in lost exports; but, he neglects to mention who will then pay that bill, i.e. the farmer, his family, his neighbors, their children, grandchildren.
“I’m not sure if you talk to him face to face, he hears everything you say,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), who has emerged as one of Trump’s chief critics on trade..." Duh?
This presidential deafness is new news? This president has not been listening since Day One, when Trump tried to " 'splain away" the National Park Service's photos which gave lie to his claims of supposedly record-setting Inaugural crowds! This is far, far beyond what hearing specialists label "spousal deafness!"
Hong Kong. There is a new extradition law being considered that would allow virtually anyone living/working in Hong Kong to be extradited the the mainland. In January 2017, a Chinese Canadian (a billionaire) was extradited and not been heard from since. In 2015, seven Hong Kong publishers similarly disappeared.
Why take note?
There are about 85,000 U.S. citizens living or working in Hong Kong, which for decades has been their safe harbor for those operating in greater China — teachers and preachers, as well as executives of 1,300 U.S. companies in Hong Kong, including financial services firms and technology giants such as Google....Beijing could extradite Americans in Hong Kong on trumped-up charges as a way to extract company trade secrets, software and other intellectual property. Americans either residing in Hong Kong or visiting Hong Kong could end up jailed in China.Given all of CO's high tech and space-related businesses there may well be concern.
Thin ice. According to one study some of Antarctic's ice sheets have thined at record rates, some by 300 meters (984 feet) since the early 1950s.
A predictable wage. The Economist reports that "One study of 7,000 households, by Pew, found in 2015 that 92% of them would opt for lower average incomes, if earnings were predictable. Follow-up research late last year suggested the same trends are still present." With unemployment unbelievably low in many areas, workers are showing more willingness to just walk away from an exploitative employer (e.g. one demanding additional hours without added pay) and go two doors down the street to the next "help wanted" sign.
Abortion. Controversial, certainly noteworthy given the recent spate of actions by various state legislatures. Link here to the most recent story from the Christian Science Monitor. And this from Leonard Pitts, African American, columnist at the Miami Herald.
When the right wing, evangelist, Pat Roberts, says on the "700 Club" that a state's action to limit abortion is "extreme," you know there are deep divisions in public opinion. From Pitts: "That's like Dracula sending his steak back because it's too bloody. It tells you how far over the line Alabama has gone." The chart in the story is illustrative of American opinions over the years.
This past week, "...Alabama lawmakers [passed and the governor signed] a near-total abortion ban. Most of these legislative efforts are expected to face court challenges." Indeed both sides expect these cases to pose direct challenges to Roe v. Wade that will have to be decided by the Supreme Court.
Conservative columnist, EJ Dionne, weighs in about needing a "different" abortion dialogue. He notes, for example, that "...House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) [a staunch conservative]...opposes the Alabama law because it 'goes further than I believe' by failing to include exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape or incest.'
Americans moving to Mexico. Experts believe that the true overall numbers indicate that there are more American citizens moving south of the border, than Mexican citizens moving northward. Question: "Who is moving?" Digital workers ("I can work from anywhere there is a computer connection), retirees (sun-seekers and those wanting a cheaper standard of living), US-born kids ("dreamers," unsure of their status in America who can find easy higher education or emploment). Among those moving south, the vast majority include "the best and brightest" and will not constitute a drain on the Mexican economy.
The "new" NV legislature. Alone among our 50 states, NV's legislature is "...part of the wave of women elected by both parties in November, many of them younger than 40. Today, women hold the majority with 23 seats in the Assembly and 10 in the Senate, or a combined 52 percent... No other legislature has achieved that milestone in U.S. history." Only Colorado comes close, with women constituting 47 percent of its legislators." Brings to mind the call in the '60s: Power to the people!
Grandchildren of a different sort. Some retirees at the Glen Meadows Retirement Community visit the close by Northcliff Farm to visit the retired thoroughbred horses who live there. A benefit for all.
Your auto. A saving grace, a ball-and-chain, both? America's dependence on its autos is a complicated story. If you live/work in a "public transportation desert," an auto may be the difference between earning a living wage and being unemployed. Then, too, "...a recent Vanderbilt University graduate who moved to Boston last year, found that the costs of car ownership in Boston outweighed the benefits." Friends who live in NYC, own no car; they rent when they travel, even inquire if I or their relatives could drive in the mountains.
Higher education. Two stories of note, one well publicized, another little noted. In the former, a Denver billionaire gave the commencement address at Moorehouse College, the noted African American institution. He closed by announcing that he was paying off all the student loans for the 2019 graduating class. Of the latter story, the "...new poll by Magellan Strategies found 83 percent of a sample of Colorado registered voters surveyed favored increasing opportunities for vocational education in high school. The idea was popular across subgroups, with at least 80 percent support from men, women, Democrats, Republicans, unaffiliated voters and people in a range of geographic areas and income groups."
Iran. Amid reciprocal threats and counter-threats and concerns over Iran's nuclear program, it was revealed Iran had quadrupled "...the production is of uranium enriched only to the 3.67 percent limit set by the 2015 nuclear deal that Tehran reached with world powers, it means that Iran soon will go beyond the stockpile limitations established by the accord."
Thank you for reading."What would your good do if evil didn't exist, and what would the earth look like is all the shadows disappeared." Mikhail Bulgakov (1891-1940; Russian writer, playwright, medical doctor, who, surprisingly, did not fall victim to Stalin's purges) "The reputation of a man is like his shadow, gigantic when it precedes him, and pygmy in its proportions when it follows." Talleyrand
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