Pearl Harbor anniversary, and George H. W. Bush

Today, of course, is the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. In addition to remembering, and commemorating, what took place at Pearl Harbor in 1941, the anniversary can also, one thinks, provide an additional reminder of the World War Two military service, and heroism, of President Bush, whose funeral services took place this week. Mr. Bush was seventeen years old when Pearl Harbor was attacked; he enlisted in the Navy six months later, on his eighteenth birthday.

George H. W. Bush

"In Funeral of Pomp and Pageantry, Nation Bids Farewell to George Bush"

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/05/us/politics/bush-funeral-national-cathedral.html

The President vs. The Chief Justice

From New York Times: "Chief Justice Defends Judicial Independence After Trump Attacks ‘Obama Judge’"
 
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/21/us/politics/trump-chief-justice-roberts-rebuke.html

The President, once again, ignores the findings of U.S. intelligence

A very good editorial, below, from The Washington Post.

The President's statement on Tuesday, about Saudi Arabia, the Crown Prince, and the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi--in which the President, in short, let the Crown Prince off the hook--was beyond disgraceful.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/trumps-latest-statement-on-khashoggi-was-a-betrayal-of-american-values/2018/11/20/f4efdd80-ecef-11e8-baac-2a674e91502b_story.html?utm_term=.8c9c723530d4

CNN essay by Peter Bergen, Nov. 19th: "Trump's preposterous bin Laden comments"

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/19/opinions/trumps-preposterous-bin-laden-comments-bergen/index.html

Max Boot essay: "Donald Trump really is a genius — when it comes to second-guessing other people’s decisions"

From Max Boot's Nov. 19th essay, below, in The Washington Post:

"So convinced is President Second Guesser of his own superior virtue and perspicacity that he does not hesitate to cruelly mock those who have displayed actual heroism in real life. In 2015, he attacked John McCain for being captured by the North Vietnamese — an implicit second-guessing of the split-second decisions McCain made as a Navy pilot flying over some of the most heavily defended airspace in the world. A few months later Trump attacked the generals who had failed to defeat ISIS and suggested that he would do so with torture and indiscriminate bombing.

"And on Sunday, he attacked retired Adm. William H. McRaven, the Navy SEAL who supervised the raid that killed bin Laden and who now has the temerity to criticize Trump’s attacks on the media. “Wouldn’t it have been nice if we got Osama bin Laden a lot sooner than that, wouldn’t it have been nice?” the president said. Trump showed no awareness that it’s not the job of Navy SEALs to find wanted fugitives. That’s the responsibility of the intelligence community — and as soon as the spies had found bin Laden, McRaven’s men were spinning up for the mission."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2018/11/19/donald-trump-really-is-a-genius-when-it-comes-to-second-guessing-other-peoples-decisions

Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick

Making note--a little belatedly--of the October 2nd death of Geoff Emerick, the well-known recording engineer.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/03/obituaries/geoff-emerick-72-dies-recorded-the-beatles-in-their-prime.html

President Trump's Tuesday attack on Christine Blasey Ford

Am just sickened by President Trump's mocking attack against Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, during his campaign rally in Missisippi on Tuesday.

"The Many Faces of Brett Kavanaugh"

A very good column by Frank Bruni, in the New York Times:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/25/opinion/the-many-faces-of-brett-kavanaugh.html

From CNN.com: #WhyIDidntReport

On Friday, President Trump said this, on Twitter: "I have no doubt that, if the attack on Dr. Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with local Law Enforcement Authorities by either her or her loving parents. I ask that she bring those filings forward so that we can learn date, time, and place!"

The piece, below--also from Friday--is from CNN's website.  It concerns the many posts which have been appearing on Twitter--with the hashtag #WhyIDidntReport--written by victims of sexual assault. 

https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/21/health/why-i-didnt-report-tweets-trnd/index.html

A good editorial, from The New York Times

"G.O.P. Leaders Can’t Even Fake Respect for Christine Blasey Ford"

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/21/opinion/republicans-christine-blasey-ford-brett-kavanaugh.html   

A final statement, from Senator McCain

The statement was read on Monday at the Arizona State Capitol, by Rick Davis, a family spokesman.

http://www.joplinglobe.com/full-text-of-sen-john-mccain-s-final-statement/article_b53b86b2-aa37-11e8-bb6a-eb24a6d308bb.html

John McCain

He was a courageous and extraordinary man.

Thursday's Washington Post: "Revoke my security clearance, too, Mr. President"

The essay, below, from this past Thursday's Washington Post, has gotten a great deal of attention; it is by retired Navy admiral William H. McRaven. As the essay's accompanying biography notes, McRaven "was commander of the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command from 2011 to 2014. He oversaw the 2011 Navy SEAL raid in Pakistan that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/revoke-my-security-clearance-too-mr-president/2018/08/16/8b149b02-a178-11e8-93e3-24d1703d2a7a_story.html

The Boston Globe, and "the enemy of the people"

The piece below is from the Editorial Board of The Boston Globe.

In addition to its own editorial, The Globe has assembled a coalition of more than 300 American newspapers to counter President Trump's claim that the press is the "enemy of the people."

The President, on Twitter, responded that The Globe was "in COLLUSION with other papers on free press."

The piece, below, includes links to the editorials written by the other papers across the country.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/editorials/2018/08/15/editorial/Kt0NFFonrxqBI6NqqennvL/story.html

Charlottesville

Like so many others, I have, during the past year, thought about Charlottesville, Virginia a great deal.  The events of August, 2017--a year ago today--were, are, heartrending. (I lived in Charlottesville--a vibrant and beautiful city--from the spring of 1995 until the start of 2001.)

Last week, PBS's Frontline program featured a very good documentary about Charlottesville--and about the neo-Nazis and white supremacists who descended upon the city.

The PBS report, a joint effort by Frontline and the journalistic organization ProPublica, was titled Documenting Hate: Charlottesville.  Unlike other Frontline programs I have seen, over time--programs presided over by an unseen narrator--the Charlottesville documentary featured an on-camera correspondent, ProPublica's A.C. Thompson.  Mr. Thompson also served as one of the program's producers.

The program can be seen at this link:

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/documenting-hate-charlottesville/

From The New York Times: ‘They Spit When I Walked in the Street’: The ‘New Anti-Semitism’ in France

From July 27th, online:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/27/world/europe/france-new-anti-semitism.html

Senator McCain, on the Trump-Putin press conference

The statement by Sen. John McCain, from the CNN article below:

"Today's press conference in Helsinki was one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory," McCain said. "The damage inflicted by President Trump's naiveté, egotism, false equivalence, and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate. But it is clear that the summit in Helsinki was a tragic mistake."

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/16/politics/john-mccain-statement-trump-putin-summit/index.html

Sen. McCain also said:

“No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant. Not only did President Trump fail to speak the truth about an adversary; but speaking for America to the world, our president failed to defend all that makes us who we are—a republic of free people dedicated to the cause of liberty at home and abroad."

Here is the full statement, from Mr. McCain's office:

https://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=press-releases&id=A99FDA26-673D-4560-B4EA-5AEDF0685EC5

Washington Post analysis, family separations

From the 6/20/18 Washington Post, online:  "The Trump administration changed its story on family separation no fewer than 14 times before ending the policy"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/06/20/the-trump-administration-changed-its-story-on-family-separation-no-fewer-than-14-times-before-ending-the-policy/

Essay by former First Lady Laura Bush, Washington Post:

The title of the essay:  "Separating children from their parents at the border ‘breaks my heart.’"

Mrs. Bush writes, in the essay, that "this zero-tolerance policy is cruel. It is immoral."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/laura-bush-separating-children-from-their-parents-at-the-border-breaks-my-heart/2018/06/17/f2df517a-7287-11e8-9780-b1dd6a09b549_story.html

Robert Kennedy, and Juan Romero,1968

After Robert Kennedy was shot, fifty years ago this week, a seventeen-year-old busboy who worked at Los Angeles's Ambassador Hotel, Juan Romero, knelt beside Kennedy, and attended to him, comforted him, briefly. Kennedy and Romero had shaken hands, a moment before the shooting.

"Is everybody OK?" Kennedy, who would die the next day, asked. Romero told him yes.  Kennedy then turned his head toward his right, Romero recalled, in a newspaper interview which appeared earlier this week. "Everything will be OK," Romero heard him say.

Shortly after, Romero placed a rosary, which he had in one of his pockets, around one of Kennedy's hands.

Here is a brief interview with Mr. Romero, now 67, which aired on National Public Radio last week.

https://www.npr.org/2018/06/01/615534723/the-busboy-who-cradled-a-dying-rfk-recalls-those-final-moments

Here, too, is a story from June 2nd's Daily News, in New York:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-news-busboy-rfk-assassination-20180602-story.html

Juan Romero, with Robert Kennedy (Photo: Boris Yaro/Los Angeles Times)

FBI Director Christopher Wray, on the Russia investigation

Senator Patrick Leahy, on Wednesday, questioning FBI Director Christopher Wray, from the story below:

Leahy: “You said at your confirmation hearing that the Russia investigation was not a witch hunt…Is that still your opinion?”

Wray: “Yes.”

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/fbi-head-christopher-wray-russia-probe-not-a-witch-hunt/

Commencement Address by Rex Tillerson

Rather startling comments, from former Secretary of State Tillerson, as reported by the New York Times.

Mr. Tillerson said, in part:

“If our leaders seek to conceal the truth, or we as people become accepting of alternative realities that are no longer grounded in facts, then we as American citizens are on a pathway to relinquishing our freedom.”

He said:  “When we as people, a free people, go wobbly on the truth even on what may seem the most trivial matters, we go wobbly on America.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/16/us/politics/tillerson-truth-lies-american-democracy-trump.html

Joe Biden, on John McCain, and the White House

A statement from former Vice President Joe Biden, from the story below, in Friday's Washington Post:

“People have wondered when decency would hit rock bottom with this administration. It happened yesterday,” Biden said. “John McCain is a genuine hero — a man of valor whose sacrifices for his country are immeasurable. As he fights for his life, he deserves better — so much better. Given this White House’s trail of disrespect toward John and others, this [White House] staffer is not the exception to the rule; she is the epitome of it.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2018/05/11/meghan-mccain-dismisses-nothingburgers-attacking-her-ailing-father-john-mccain/

Senators Sanders and Graham, on the silence from the White House

From the story, below:  On Sunday's State of the Union, on CNN, Senator Bernie Sanders discussed the recent ugly insult about John McCain, made by a White House aide--and the inability of the White House to apologize for it.

“It is beyond my comprehension. It is one thing in the White House for somebody to say something crude and stupid and disrespectful about an American hero. It is another thing for them not to apologize,” Sanders said. “So it is beyond my comprehension. And I just don’t know what goes on in that White House mentality for there not being an apology for that terrible remark.”

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said this, on CBS's Face the Nation:

“It’s a pretty disgusting thing to say. If it was a joke, it was a terrible joke. I just wish somebody from the White House would tell the country that was inappropriate [and] that’s not who we are in the Trump administration.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/sanders-graham-think-white-house-apologize-john-mccain-insult-161910305.html

From New Yorker humorist Andy Borowitz

"Trump Considering Pulling U.S. Out of Constitution"

https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/trump-considering-pulling-us-out-of-constitution

Recommended Reading

The amazon link, below, is for an excellent book: The Great Work of Your Life: A Guide for the Journey to Your True Calling. It is by Stephen Cope.

https://www.amazon.com/Great-Work-Your-Life-Journey/dp/0553386077/

N.Y. Times: "Journalists Suffer Deadliest Day in Afghanistan Since at Least 2002"

"A branch of the Islamic State later claimed responsibility for the attacks, which came just eight days after the group took responsibility for another explosion that killed 57 people lining up to register to vote."

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/30/world/asia/kabul-bombing-photographer.html

From CNN: "Waffle House shooting hero James Shaw Jr. raises $165,000 for victims"

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/26/us/waffle-house-james-shaw-gofundme/index.html

CNN: "Hero customer rushes Waffle House killer and rips away his assault-style rifle"

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/22/us/waffle-house-shooting-hero-tennessee/index.html

New York Times: "Trump Scraps New Sanctions Against Russia, Overruling Advisers"

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/16/us/politics/trump-rejects-sanctions-russia-syria.html

Five years ago today: terrorism at the Boston Marathon

As The Boston Globe reported, today:

"On the fifth anniversary of the day bombs placed near the Boston Marathon finish line left three dead and more than 260 wounded, Governor Charlie Baker reflected on the resilience of survivors, both those injured in the terror attack and those who lost loved ones on that indelible day."

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/04/15/boston-marathon-bombings-remembered-somber-events/bU7o2QoxCNVIirHe1tdCWI/story.html

 

On Sunday, the Globe's weekly magazine carried an essay by Denise Richard.  Her son Martin died in the bombing; he was eight years old.  Her daughter Jane, at the time six years old, lost a leg.  Her husband Bill was injured; she was blinded in one eye. 

In the Globe essay, Mrs. Richard writes  "Five years ago, our own City of Boston was the recipient of the world’s love, compassion, and generosity when two bombs exploded at the Boston Marathon in 2013, killing my son, Martin, along with Lingzi Lu and Krystle Campbell and injuring our family as well as hundreds of others. In turn, we, the families of the deceased and injured, were treated with the utmost care and empathy. Our families were embraced by the spirit of goodness and the determination of a community willing to help." 

She writes, in the essay, about the work of the Martin Richard Foundation; she is the Foundation's acting Executive Director. As noted on its website, the Foundation "helps young people to learn, grow and lead through volunteerism and community engagement. We look to advance sportsmanship, inclusion, kindness and peace." 

http://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2018/04/14/paying-kindness-forward/SYCwS5K0CKUV0ONgI1ve8I/story.html
 

 Here, too, is a 2014 story from The Globe about the Richard family; it appeared a year after the Marathon catastrophe: 

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/04/12/loss-and-love/a19pcWz6WF5nNozPPItwYI/story.html

Dr. King's last speech

This is a film of the very powerful (and haunting) conclusion of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s last speech, delivered on April 3, 1968. He was, of course, killed the next day, at age 39. It is hard to fathom that it has been fifty years since his death.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcJWWBIro00

Rothschild conspiracy theories

A March 21st Washington Post piece by Yair Rosenberg, about the subject of Rothschild conspiracy theories (below). The piece grew out of a recent story in Washington; the story concerns a D.C. Council member who claimed that the Rothschild family had been involved in controlling the weather--and had, as a Post reporter noted in a prior story, "also contended that the Rothschilds — a European business dynasty and frequent subject of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories — control the World Bank and the federal government." The council member has apologized for his remarks.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2018/03/21/conspiracy-theories-about-the-rothschilds-are-a-symptom-the-problem-is-deeper/

Here, too, is the previous Post story referred to above:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/dc-lawmaker-who-said-rothschilds-control-the-climate-also-said-they-the-control-federal-government/2018/03/19/a51307c6-2b9b-11e8-8688-e053ba58f1e4_story.html

John Brennan's tweet, about President Trump

Former CIA Director John Brennan's tweet, directed at Mr. Trump: "When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history. You may scapegoat Andy McCabe, but you will not destroy America...America will triumph over you."

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/17/politics/john-brennan-donald-trump-mccabe-firing/index.html

Washington Post: "In fundraising speech, Trump says he made up trade claims in meeting with Justin Trudeau"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2018/03/14/in-fundraising-speech-trump-says-he-made-up-facts-in-meeting-with-justin-trudeau/

New York Times op-ed column, by Nicholas Kristof: "Dictators Love Trump, and He Loves Them"

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/14/opinion/trump-dictators-human-rights.html

President Trump: "King of Chaos"

A good essay, from last week (March 4th), by New York Times columnist Charles Blow:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/04/opinion/trump-king-of-chaos.html

"7 Questions You’ll Be Asked By the Heavenly Tribunal," from Rabbi John Rosove

From the website ReformJudaism.org:

https://reformjudaism.org/practice/lifecycle-and-rituals/death-mourning/7-questions-youll-be-asked-heavenly-tribunal?utm

New York Times op-ed piece: "Whatever Trump Is Hiding Is Hurting All of Us Now"

A good column by Thomas Friedman, who writes: "This is code red. The biggest threat to the integrity of our democracy today is in the Oval Office." 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/18/opinion/trump-russia-putin.html

New York Times: "Trump Falsely Claims, ‘I Never Said Russia Did Not Meddle’ "

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/18/us/politics/fact-check-trump-russian-meddling-election.html

Trump: 'I'm totally opposed to domestic violence'

It certainly took him long enough to say so.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2018/02/14/amid-rob-porter-controversy-trump-declares-hes-totally-opposed-to-domestic-violence/

Sen. McCain, on the Nunes memo

Senator McCain's comments were made on Friday, before the release of the memo:

He said, in part: “The American people deserve to know all the facts surrounding Russia’s ongoing efforts to subvert our democracy, which is why Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation must proceed unimpeded. Our nation’s elected officials, including the president, must stop looking at this investigation through the lens of politics and manufacturing political sideshows. If we continue to undermine our own rule of law, we are doing Putin’s job for him.”

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sen-john-mccain-nunes-memo-putin_us_5a749987e4b06ee97af24494

Rodney Dangerfield

Interesting piece, in this past Sunday's New York Times Magazine, about Rodney Dangerfield:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/26/magazine/letter-of-recommendation-rodney-dangerfield.html

The FBI Director vs. The GOP Memo

"FBI chief has 'grave concerns,' clashes with Trump over GOP memo"

https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/31/politics/nunes-memo-law-enforcement/index.html

New York Times editorial: "Poland’s Holocaust Blame Bill"

A good editorial, in the Times, which says, at the outset:

"It is baffling why Poland’s nationalist-controlled Parliament would mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day — the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi concentration camp on Polish soil — with a needless, foolish and insulting draft bill that would penalize any suggestion of complicity by the Polish state or the Polish nation in the Nazi death machine."

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/29/opinion/poland-holocaust-bill-parliament.html

Senatior Flake's Wednesday speech, on the floor of the Senate

Senator Flake's remarks, today, included the following: "For without truth, and a principled fidelity to truth and to shared facts... our democracy will not last."

From CNN.com, analysis of the speech by Chris Cillizza ("Jeff Flake's 20 most damning lines about Donald Trump's assault on the press"):

http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/17/politics/jeff-flake-trump-press-speech-analysis/index.html

And from The Washington Post, Senator Flake's full speech, with annotation by Amber Phillips:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/01/17/our-democracy-will-not-last-jeff-flakes-speech-comparing-trump-to-stalin-annotated/

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. King was a great and remarkable man.

Here is a story about him, from Time magazine, which recalls a 1966 appearance he made in Chicago--during which he was attacked.

http://time.com/5096937/martin-luther-king-jr-picture-chicago/