Optimist: Link here. A last Mother's Day. Remembering mom's last special day with her granddaughter, and my memories. Jeopardy champ and sports analytics: the ruination of, or just another approach to, sports.
Notable dates:
8 May1987: CO Senator Gary Hart (D) withdrew from the presidential race over the "monkey business" scandal.
9 May 1980: A freighter rammed the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa, FL, killing 35. 1987: Gary Hart formally withdrew from the presidential race. 2017: President Trump fired fired FBI Director, James Comey.
10 May 1869: The "Golden Spike" was driven home at Promontory Point, UT Territory, completing the first transcontinental railroad in the US. In 2019, on the 150th anniversary, the president and CEO of the Union Pacific celebrated with Margaret Yee, whose ancestors helped build the railroad. 1924: J. Edgar Hoover was named acting director of the Bureau of Investigation (later the FBI).
11 May 1953: A tornado killed 114 in Waco, TX. In earlier days, the Native Americans in the area held that the basin in which Waco sat was were "the dancing devil [a tornado] could not dance." 2006: Lawmakers demanded answers after USA Today reported that the National Security Agency was secretly collecting records of millions of phone calls by ordinary Americans; President George W. Bush sought to assure Americans their civil liberties were being “fiercely protected.” Assuredly, not everyone was assured.
12 May 1949: The USSR lifted its blockade of West Berlin, largely due to America's Berlin Airlift which provided a continuous supply of goods/services to the city.
14 May 1961: Freedom Riders were attacked by violent mobs in Anniston and Birmingham, AL.
A signature. Inevitably, there popped up yet another picture of President Trump holding up a document he had just signed. I do not know why it had not crossed my mind before, but I found myself suddenly imagining a young kindergartner bursting in the front door yelling, "Look, mommy, I just learned to write my name!" Wonders never cease.
Broken Capitalism. This Guardian article by Darrick Hamilton examines the thoughts of eight experts on how to deal with capitalism in the 21st century. Today is not the bygone days of Adam Smith. For example, after succinctly stating the argument for CEO compensation packages, he wonders, "What’s curious, however, is how infrequently the same logic is used when talking about the pay of frontline employees who actually produce the goods and services sold by their companies." Most every Democratic challenger in 2020 will be noting the plight of the CEO's workers.
Past federal prosecutors on DJT. More than 750 past federal prosecutors have now weighed in regarding whether or not DJT would have been charged with obstruction were he not president. A close look at the still-expanding list reveals that many worked during both Democratic and Republican administrations and many are "bristl[ing] at the suggestion that they are motivated by anti-Trump bias." The list includes some involved in the Nixon and Clinton dust-ups.
Shooting at the Highlands Ranch STEM school. While I have not watched all of the local and national coverage, as I watched the story unfold, there was one important take away. Amidst all the immediate live-coverage statements by the Douglas County sheriff, no one in the media asked about the sex of the alleged shooters. Seemingly, the assumption was that the shooters had to be male. The sheriff later revealed that the one adult suspect (a student) apprehended was male, but the second (a juvenile student) was a transgender female who now identified as male. Just as the shooting itself, this latest incident speaks volumes about where we are in America.
He's Archie, aka "Number 7." While the US pondered yet another tragic school shooting, the ever-attentive "royal watchers" in England, celebrated the birth of another heir to the throne, "a boy, number 7 in line." The Brits love to bet, so there were immediate winners and losers and, of course, the betting windows then shifted to consider, "What's in a name." It was Wednesday, 8 May, 12 noon MDST, so I paused with them as the Queen mom, the linage charts, perhaps even the astrological stars are considered......Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, "he is, he is."
Royals and pandas. Given the recent excitement over Britian's "Master Archie" (aka "Number Seven,") Hilary Mantel writes in the London Review:
"Quite so, say what?"I used to think that the interesting issue was whether we should have a monarchy or not. But now I think that question is rather like, should we have pandas or not? Our current royal family doesn’t have the difficulties in breeding that pandas do, but pandas and royal persons alike are expensive to conserve and ill-adapted to any modern environment. But aren’t they interesting? Aren’t they nice to look at? Some people find them endearing; some pity them for their precarious situation; everybody stares at them, and however airy the enclosure they inhabit, it’s still a cage.
The US Senate and Stacy Abrams. Ms. Abrams very narrowly missed being elected governor of GA. It is not often that a losing candidate is then selected for an important assignment, but she was chosen to give (and later praised for) the Democratic response to President Trump's State of the Union message. The Democratic powers that be would dearly love to have her run for the Senate in November 2020. (There has even been talk about a presidential candidacy.)
However, as reported in Mother Jones, her most recent statement said, in part, "...the fights to be waged require a deep commitment to the job and I do not see the U.S. Senate as the best role for me in this battle for our nation’s future.” A probable hint she will try again for the governorship in 2022.
Surprise medical bills. President Trump asked Congress to pass legislation regulating these noxious kinds of medical charges.
Rural vs. urban development and national service. In his recent commencement address at Ohio State University, Fareed Zakaria assured the audience that the economy was on a solid footing, that most of those seeking jobs would find them -- probably in a city. He noted these troubling statistics from Mark Muro of the Brookings Institution, who "...has calculated that over the past decade, the 53 largest American metro areas have accounted for 71 percent of all population growth, two-thirds of all employment growth and a staggering three-quarters of all economic growth. In fact, half of all job growth in the United States took place in just 20 cities." Indeed, only the oil industry's fracking was providing jobs in rural areas.
This does not bode well for all of America. Fareed went on to talk about how a national service program might bring these two Americas together.
Young geeks. There you are in a Buffalo, NY, classroom. You are not an old "fuddy-duddy," just a bit "behind the times," a bit befuddled by what you cannot get your computer to do. So "Who do you call?" The Geek Squad, of course and in walks this 11 year-old from down the hall wearing a bright yellow "Tech Squad" T-shirt who lays her/his healing hands on your computer and viloá, problem solved. "Thank you very much."
The Breckenridge Troll. This larger than life figure now has a new home. He (?) was moved a bit further away from the hustle and bustle of the crowded downtown to an area behind the ice arena.
The next authoritarian visitor to the White House is Prime Minister Oban of Hungary. Yet another Putin-like figure for President Trump to cozy up to. Oban follows the recent visit by Poland's President Jaroslaw Kaczynski, another less-than nominal lover of democracy.
Thanks for reading. "Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance." Will Durant "Just because a man lacks the use of his eyes, doesn't mean he lacks vision." Stevie Wonder
No comments:
Post a Comment