For this week's blog: Optimist; notable dates in US history; Denver's mayoral race; Memorial Rock; fire season no more; impeach or censure?; tariff rebuke from the right; US House, November 2020; the "new" SAT; "thank you, but no"; the nation's "anti-" mood; tariffs; the department of climate denial; Hong Kong.

Optimist. Link here. Just step out. Three D-Day parachutists (1 American, 2 Englishmen) in their mid-90s did just that: they stepped out of their jump plane to re-live their harrowing jump of 1944. Another fortune from Montana. In 1988, rancher Cathy Winkle looked down and wondered just what it was she saw sticking out the sediment on a small island in the Fort Peck Reservoir. It was just the proverbial "tip of the iceberg," or, in the case, a very small part of one of the largest, in-tact T-rexs ever discovered. The so-called "Winkle T-rex" has been excavated and will now be a prominent feature at the Smithsonian's new dinosaur hall.  A "non-white" primary. One upcoming primary election race in VA's 87th district finds four Democrats vying for the ballot slot. None of them are white; three are Asian men, the woman is of Filipino descent. The area, which wraps around Dulles International Airport, is the epitome of the state’s, indeed, the  nation's, increasingly diverse population. The final race will be close, but the betting favors the Democratic candidate.

Notable dates in US history:
     5 June 1968: Senator Robert Kennedy was shot and killed in Los Angeles at a campaign rally. 2004: Former President Ronald Reagan died in Los Angels after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease.
     6 June 1945: The D-Day invasion of Europe began as allied troops landed on the French coast at Normandy.
     8 June 1968: James Earl Ray, the later-convicted assassin of MLK, Jr.,was arrested in London.  2017: Former FBI director, James Comey, testified before Congress, that he was fired by President Trump because he refused to interfere in the ongoing FBI investigation of Russia's ties to the Trump campaign.
     9 June 1954: Communist- witch hunter, Senator Joseph McCarthy (R,WI), was berated by US Army counsel Welch and asked, “Have you no sense of decency, Sir?” McCarthy was later censured by the Senate.  2017: After leaving the G-7 Summit, President Trump pulled out of a joint statement citing false statements by the host, Canada’s Prime Minister Trudeau.

Denver's re-elected mayor and homelessness. One of the most contentions points in Mayor Michael Hancock's re-election campaign was the city's growth and its increasingly expensive, inaccessible housing market. (Denver is not alone in this matter.) On the day after the run-off election and Hancock's win, the suburb of Englewood, just up-stream on the South Platte river from Denver, began removing long-standing homeless camps. With down-stream Denver already having banned outdoor camping, where the homeless will go is unknown.

Memorial Rock. This is now a new 8.5 million-ton mile marker on CO Rt. 145 between Cortez and Telluride. CDOT engineers have decided to re-route the road, to run it around the massive boulder that slid onto a flat spot on the highway.

A meaningless term. Vicki Christiansen, head of the US Forest Service, says "fire season" is no longer a viable term. For a whole host of reasons, it is now always fire season, with perhaps a billion acres of forest land vulnerable. “Ye reap what ye sow.” Years of fire suppression and overt grown forests are burning all to often.

Impeach or censure? In this CSM article, Linda Feldman explores if censuring President Trump might not be a viable, even more favorable, course of action for Congress.  “ 'It’s a symbolic gesture that would please no one, but it might be the best alternative,' says a Democratic strategist, speaking on background." Indeed, for someone who intensely dislikes criticism, censure might be worse. Impeachment you can fight; censure you can only Tweet about.
     The President may have inadvertently tipped the scales with his talk of tariffs on goods from Mexico -- an increasingly unpleasant prospect, one being decried by Republicans and Democrats alike.

Tariff push-back. In a most-infrequent rebuke to the President, Senator Corey Gardner (R, CO) pointedly said the proposed tariffs would hurt Colorado residents and businesses. Gardner is thought to be the most vulnerable senator fighting for re-election in 2020. Right on, Corey, for showing at least a glimmer of concern for your constituents!

Republican redux. Columnist Henry Olson, outlines the worst possible nightmare for Democrats: the Republican "re-capture" of the House. He ventures the task is not as improbable as it sounds.

The SAT's adversity index. Columnist George Will ponders the reasons for -- and possible results -- should this change take place. He  begins by noting "...Abraham Maslow’s law of the instrument. In 1966, Maslow, a psychologist, said essentially this: If the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. The College Board wants to solve a complex social problem that it and its test are unsuited to solve."
     While the colleges' concern is legitimate, how to diversity their student bodies, its achievement, measuring a student's "environmental context," is hazy at best. Sober reflection says the goal of "...finding young people who do a great deal with what they’ve been given..." is complex. Will wonders if this label is not an attempt to lend "...a social-science patina to the obverse of a category (and political accusation) currently in vogue, that of 'privilege."
     To play the devil's advocate: Might it not be as worthy a goal for higher education to in someway measure how each student "born with a silver spoon in mouth" has risen above her/his familial entitlement and eliminate those who do not somehow "measure up," have not made something of, [for] themselves? Is it not, as Will asserts, merely "identity politics, assigning applicants to groups and categories, and another step away from evaluating individuals individually." 

A gift returned. Hugh F. Culvershouse, Jr., an AL native, long-time supporter of the state's flagship university, and philanthropist, gave his almamater $26.5 million dollars. Then, he wrote disapprovingly of the AL legislature's recently passed abortion statute, saying it "trampled over the Constitution." The result when he spoke his mind to power: the University returned his gift and removed his name from the law school. Which, of course, was their right, but he said, "It has been painful to witness administrators at the university choose zealotry over the well-being of its own students, but it’s another example of the damage this attack on abortion rights will do to Alabama."

The "anti-" era. From the White House to city hall, there is an increasingly "anti-" mood afoot-- we will have our way, come what may --afoot in nation. For example, the President does "ends around" Congress; some (but not all) state sheriffs (CO's included) are/are threatening to defy their states' new gun control measures regarding assault weapons, magazine size, or so-called "red flag" statues (the short-term disarming certain citizens pending open hearings). Now two current state prosecutors and one federal retiree, all women, have written an op-ed declaring their intent/desire to also selectively enforce what they see as problematic state abortion statutes for various moral, ethical, and/or constitutional reasons. In a word, this is most definitely not what the Founding Fathers had in mind.

Tariffs, Mexico, China. Yet again, on tariffs the President expounds, blusters, and gives in. Of course, Trump will never admit to not "having done the deal," h aging been bested his opponent -- and many of his unthinking supporters will believe him. But, the smiling, silver-haired, Mexican President, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, well knows what truly drives Donald Trump, so his government pointed to the existing Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), earnestly reiterated their desire to do their best and, poof, the tariff issue is again magically on hold! Now if those wily Chinese can "do the same deal!"
     Of course, in trying mightily to explain why the latest job figures were less than stellar, the administration steered clear of any notion that the trade war might be at fault. Indeed, employers may be unwilling to hire if they foresee declining prospects on the horizon.

Please, no science! The White House is trying to insure that no one, not even its own State Department's intelligence analysts, present evidence of climate change. Orwell's world had its Ministry of Truth. We now have ours, too.

Hong Kong. This city's "life" has long been influenced by it location: in the shadow of mainland China, especially after the British relinquished "ownership," i.e. the British lease ended. The city is now a part of the People's Republic of China, but has an unusual/convoluted independence, something much valued by most of its citizens. I was in Hong Kong on 1 October 1969, the 20th anniversary of the formal founding of the PRC and before the British had relinquished control. The city was quite literally draped in RED. Even then residents knew "which side of their bread was buttered."
     The city's quasi-independent administration is now debating a new proposed law which would allow for the extradition of suspected criminals to mainland China. Last weekend there was a massive demonstration against the law. Crowd estimates varied from 240,000 (official) to as many as 1 million (organizers). The Economist reported "The mass show of discontent has not swayed the government. Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, refuses to bow to demands that she step down and has reiterated her commitment to the bill." Life there remains unsettled.

Thank you for reading. The next blog will be in two weeks with reflections on a trip to New Harbor, Maine and a short reunion with a former USAF colleague.
 
"Words ought to be a little wild, for they are the assault on the thoughts of the unthinking."  John Maynard Keynes