Monday, August 27, 2018

Saturday, August 25, 2018

John McCain

He was a courageous and extraordinary man.

Sunday, August 19, 2018

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

Thursday, August 16, 2018

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

Sunday, August 12, 2018

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/