17 kids were shot dead in a Florida high school yesterday. So: another gunman joined the long list of mass murderers enabled by the National Rifle Association, loose gun laws, and the inaction of Congress in the United States.
Many, many Americans had hoped the December 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut would be a turning point. Below is a graphic from the New York Times that shows the accomplishments of our lawmakers since then. (Keep scrolling down to look for a colored square).
It was great to see the unified Korean team come into the Olympic stadium for the opening ceremony. One could argue that Korea is the only divided country that remains in the world. For example, there was North and South Vietnam (united in 1975), East and West Germany (united in 1990), and South North and South Yemen (also united in 1990). And yes, the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, but one cannot see it become one country again.
I read that support for Korean unification is fading, though. Some 50% of young South Koreans regard North Korea as an outright enemy, that they want nothing to do with. The harsh reality is that there is a yawning chasm between the economies of the countries. The per capita income difference between the South and North is 20 to 1. For West Germany and East Germany it was 3 to 1.
Here come the Koreans, the unified team entering the Olympic stadium during the opening ceremony. It is not a first: unified Korean teams marched in the opening ceremonies of the 2000, 2004, and 2006 Olympics as well. Real unification? Very hard and very real obstacles remain. [Picture from Vox.com]
‘Something is rotten in the state of Denmark’ – Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 4.
It was revealed last week that President Trump had pushed to have special investigator Robert Mueller fired in June 2017. Trump only stopped short when White House counsel Don McGahn threatened to resign. Trump and his White House staff now deny all of this (Trump: ‘fake news’), or refuse to comment – of course. They all lie, from the President on down, all the time, basically.
Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy. ‘State of the Union’ misspelled on the visitor’s gallery tickets.
Today FBI Deputy Director Andrew G. McCabe abruptly stepped down. His retirement in the next few months had been widely expected, but Trump attacked him and the FBI relentlessly over the last few months. Then there is the bizarre spectacle of the House Republicans (Trump stooge Devin Nunes chief among them), that join in attacking and undermining the FBI.
So I refuse to tune in Tuesday night to see Trump’s State of the Union speech. Something in the State of the Union is rotten, and he will surely not convince me otherwise.
Paul Rozenzweig writes in The Atlantic that the person to watch is Rod Rosenstein, Deputy Attorney-General at the Dept of Justice. Mueller effectively reports to him, and plays by the rules. So Mueller will not charge Trump with anything, or indict him. Rosenstein will decide if Mueller’s report (after the Russia investigation) will even be made public! Some speculate that Trump’s end goal is really to get Rosenstein fired and replaced. (Rosenstein’s boss, Attorney General Jeff Sessions is a Trump supporter and recused himself from the Russia investigation).
Trump’s arrival at the World Economic Forum in Davos caused a stir, but if I read reports correctly, he did not step on too many toes.
Per the NYT: He expressed regret for sharing anti-Muslim videos originally posted by an ultranationalist fringe group in Britain, but made no apology for calling African nations “sh**hole” countries.
The carry-bag on the left made the rounds at Davos. Its picture is from cartoonist Chappatte, and the bag is available at store.chappatte.com. I like the t-shirts from the website, as well (very ‘Davos’). The American Century t-shirt has a hamburger in there, the atom bomb, and (maybe?) a play on the money tree logo from investment funds management company American Century. The sausage in the next t-shirt is cervelas (also servelat or zervelat), a sausage produced in Switzerland, France and parts of Germany. Finally, a t-shirt that shows a future when snow may be rare, even at Davos.
I went marching again today (here is 2017), joining friends in the Seattle’s Women’s March (protesting the Trump Administration).
We were not as plentiful as last year’s 100,000+ marchers; the crowd size estimated to have been around 40,000. It was cold and rainy, and the weather might have been a factor. Some 300,000 people packed the streets in Chicago, and 120,000 in New York City. And in Austin and Dallas, Texas, the crowds were larger than last year.
In a way, it’s fitting that under the Republicans, the government shut down – on the eve of the dysfunctional Trump administration’s one-year anniversary. Since I don’t work for the government or the military, the shutdown does not affect me in a big way. I do feel sorry for American kids on CHIP* and immigrant kids on DACA*, who are impacted. It’s disheartening that politics and governing are so broken in the United States Congress.
*CHIP: Children’s Health Insurance Program. DACA: Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an executive directive from the Obama administration that halted deportation of immigrant children brought to the USA by their parents. Trump rescinded DACA.
Monday was a federal holiday in the United States, marking civil rights giant Martin Luther King’s birthday – 89 years ago to the day. King and Nelson Mandela were contemporaries, but never met.
The South African government refused to issue King a visa in 1966. Mandela was in jail by then – arrested in 1962 for ‘conspiring to overthrow the state’, and sentenced to life imprisonment. Mandela first visited the United States (he made three trips) in June 1990, four months after his release from prison. A ticker tape parade was organized for him in New York by New York City Mayor David Dinkins.
King’s widow Coretta Scott King, attended Mandela’s inauguration as South African president in 1994.
President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, daughters Sasha and Malia, and Marian Robinson tour the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial before the dedication ceremony in Washington, D.C., Sunday, Oct. 16, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy).
So this happened in the Oval Office on Thursday, when Trump discussed protecting immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries as part of a bipartisan immigration deal. Trump, per the Washington Post: ‘Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?’. On Friday morning, Senator Dick Durban confirmed that he used the word several times.
Early Friday morning, Trump denied in tweets that he used derogatory language, as the fall-out continued. The government of Botswana sent a letter inquiring if they are a sh** hole country as well. (And how about South Africa, President Trump?). The US ambassador to Panama announced his resignation.
‘The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.’ -Albert Einstein
A book by Michael Wolff called ‘Fire and Fury’ was published on Friday (the printed copies quickly selling out), adding fuel to the speculation about President Trump’s sanity and mental fitness for office.
And what does President My-Nuclear-Button-Is-Bigger-Than-Yours do? He claims he is ‘like, really smart’, and then corrects himself. No, he’s actually a ‘stable genius’. (Well, your tweets make you look like an unstable idiot). Looks like we’re in for another long year in politics here in the United States.
‘Bring an end to the Zuma era .. that is all I ask’, pleads a teary-eyed ‘South Africa’ in Santa’s lap, in this cartoon by Fred Mouton in Saturday’s newspaper Die Burger. (In the United States, a similar request from Santa would be to get President Trump impeached).
Top: The South African Rand’s exchange rate experienced a ‘Ramaphosa bump’ in the last week or two. The Rand strengthened to R12.56 to the dollar, but slipped to R12.78 early on Tuesday morning. Bottom: Top Six refers to the leadership of the ANC. Some analysts say Ramaphosa has his work cut out for him with some surprising and questionable candidates that got elected to the Top Six.
Early Monday evening, the results were in: Cyril Ramaphosa won the vote for ANC President, with 2440 votes to 2261. Hopefully this is a sign that the disastrous Zuma presidency and legacy will be coming to an end.
There was TV coverage all day, but none of the exhaustive and detailed analysis that come with elections on TV in the United States.
The 54th National Conference of the African National Congress (South Africa’s ruling political party) is set to start on Friday at an exhibition center near Johannesburg. The event is more or less the equivalent of the national party conventions we have in the United States before a presidential election. By Sunday, the ANC will have elected a new chairperson, and it is very likely that this person will become South Africa’s new president as an outcome of the 2019 national elections.
Even though Cyril Ramaphosa served as deputy president of South Africa under President Jacob Zuma since 2014, many (most?) South Africans hope that he will prevail over his rival Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, ex-wife of Jacob Zuma. It is time to pay serious attention to South Africa’s economic challenges and clean out the worst of the vast corruption and cronyism in the Zuma administration. Ramaphosa has tweeted that he wants to address infrastructure challenges, and wants to target a 5% growth rate for South Africa’s developing economy (currently at about 1% annual growth).
From the front page of the newspaper the Sowetan. There are high hopes that Cyril Ramaphosa (on the left) will vanquish ex-wife of President Jacob Zuma, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, and reduce corruption and help rebuild the economy. Zuma’s presidency (he took office in 2009) has badly tarnished his own reputation, and that of his party, the ANC.
Homepage of outdoor clothes maker Patagonia’s website today. Its billionaire owner is vowing to fight Trump’s executive order in court.
‘I have a bone to pick with your President Trump’ said my friend from South Africa on the phone today. (She is an enthusiastic outdoors person). Yes, I said: I think I know what you mean.
From the New York Times: Trump sharply reduced the size of two national monuments* in Utah on Monday by some two million acres, the largest rollback of federal land protection in the nation’s history. The administration shrank Bears Ears National Monument, a sprawling region of red rock canyons, by 85 percent, and cut another monument, Grand Staircase-Escalante, to about half its current size.
*National monuments are lands that are protected from development by law. They are roughly analogous to national parks, but while national parks are created by Congress, national monuments are created by presidents through the Antiquities Act.
Observers say this order by Trump will precipitate a legal battle that could have far-reaching implications for the course of American land conservation, and for national monuments.
That’s me and my 1996 Toyota Camry, in the left corner. The spectacular rock formation is in Monument Valley in the south of Utah, and the picture is from a road trip with my friend Marlien, in 1999. We had overnighted in a little town nearby, with the charming name of Mexican Hat.
Today, Michael Flynn* pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in January (about meeting with the Russians). Doesn’t sound like a big deal? It’s a very big deal: a felony, a serious crime that can send the offender to jail for 5 years. Flynn will be a convicted felon, after all is said and done. Harry Litman writes in an opinion piece in the New York Times that Flynn will testify as a witness for special investigator Mueller, and that this ‘portends the likelihood of impeachable charges being brought against the president of the United States’.
*Former Director of the Defence Intelligence Agency (2012-2014), former National Security Advisor to President Trump, resigned after just 26 days in this role on February 13.
From Harry Litman’s opinion column in the New York times. ‘ .. indicating abuses of power arguably well beyond those in the Watergate and Iran-contra affairs’.
Here we are again, watching the Senate Republicans doing their best to press into law, as quick as they can, without proper debate and hearings, an immoral law that will touch every American. (The Republican House had done their part already). The monstrous tax-cut bill that takes money away from students, teachers, hard-working middle-class people – and healthcare from sick people – is about to get voted into law. At the 11th hour on Thursday night, a few Republicans balked at the $1 trillion (at least) that it will add to the budget deficit, but it will probably pass on Friday.
As Republican strategist Steve Schmidt says in his tweets (below): if you are a generation X-er, you should be aghast at what the Republican septuagenarians and octogenarians in Congress are doing in the name of politics. They are beggars for donations from corporations and billionaires, and they are making all of us pay for it.
Let’s see. The United States is $20 trillion in debt. Another $10 trillion will be added the next 10 years. Oh, and let’s add another $1.5 trillion on top of that by REDUCING high income earner taxes, and INCREASING liabilities for students, teachers, middle-class workers. [Graphic from the New York Times]
Never mind the myriad scandals of the Trump Administration. This one is at the top of the list, in my opinion : the mythical tax bill that Republicans are working on. (Boost the economy to 4% growth, raise wages, pay for the deficit .. the delusions are many). The House of Representatives will vote on their proposition of a massive tax-cut bill tomorrow. The losses in revenue will add some $1.5 trillion to the national debt, and slash taxes for corporations and the rich, with little benefit to middle-class working people. In fact, it will raise taxes for many. But that’s not all: to pay for part of it, the law will take health-care benefits away from an estimated 13 million Americans.
In other news today, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin showed off the first dollar bills with his signature on. Yay.
With words that I borrowed from ABBA’s ‘Money Money Money (1976)’. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s wife, Louise Linton, showing off the first $1 bills bearing the signatures of both Mnuchin and US Treasurer Jovita Carranza today. Hey, I love printed money, too, and it’s not a sin to be rich. But with the controversial tax-cut bill in the news, maybe this is not the best time for Mnuchin to brandish newly minted sheets of money.
The Sum Of Us, 1994. (Yes, that’s Russell Crowe, with his ‘dad’ in the movie, Jack Thompson). I loved this movie when I saw it back then. It is set in Sydney, Australia. From IMDb: A (heterosexual) father and his gay son are trying to find Ms/Mr Right respectively. The film shows their relationships with one another and the objects of their affection as tragedy strikes. There is no overt ‘message’ in the film, just a very natural, entertaining story-telling.
The results of Australia’s postal survey vote regarding marriage equality are in, and it’s a ‘Yes’ (61.6% yes, 38.4 no%). Yes! Good news. All states and territories recorded a majority ‘Yes’ response. (It still has to make it into law by Australia’s parliament. 12/7/2017: It’s official. Australian Parliament Approves Same-Sex Marriage).
As New York Times notes, the record of subjecting same-sex marriage to a public vote remains mixed, though.
‘.. In 2015, Ireland was the first country to legalize same-sex marriage by referendum, but the same year, voters in Slovenia rejected a law legalizing such unions. In the United States, numerous states outlawed same-sex marriage in referendums; in 2012, Maine, Maryland and Washington became the first states to legalize such unions by referendum. The United States Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage across the nation in 2015. The survey in Australia was controversial, not only because it placed such a thorny issue at the whims of direct democracy but also because of its cost (about US$ 97 million). As the deadline approached for citizens to mail in their ballots, passions were inflamed by heartfelt pleas and vitriolic attacks’.
I took this picture in Perth in December 2015. Getting to this point where law-makers seem ready to finally change the law, has been a long and hard-won battle by all of the marriage-equality coalitions and groups.
Roy Moore (age 70) is a Republican candidate for Senator, in a special election on December 12 in Alabama. He is facing allegations of sexual assault on young girls (one was 14) when he was 32. The Washington Post today detailed the testimony of four women; the reporters obtained corroborating information from interviews with 30 people in total, for the four women.
Republican Senators, and President Trump (the pot calling the kettle black a little, but OK), called for him to quit today. It’s too late to lawfully remove Moore from the ballot. ‘He will absolutely not quit the race’, predicts a reporter that knows Alabama politics and has followed Moore’s tarnished career as Chief Justice* for 20 years. So: time will tell what happens. Will even more women come forward? This is now post-Harvey Weinstein, post-Kevin Spacey, and several other public figures that are paying the price for their misconduct of decades ago.
*Moore was Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in 2001, but was removed from his position in November 2003 by the Alabama Court of the Judiciary for refusing to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments commissioned by him, from the Alabama Judicial Building, despite orders to do so by a federal court. Again elected Chief Justice in 2013 (why, Alabama voters?), he was again suspended in May 2016, for directing probate judges to continue to enforce Alabama’s ban on same-sex marriage despite the fact that this had been ruled unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court.
Reporting from the Washington Post, and the four women that have come forward.
Trump trying to distance himself from Ed Gillespie’s loss. (Nice try, but .. no. Ed Gillespie absolutely embraced Trump, and he lost big).
It’s been a year since the Trump cataclysm happened (how time flies). Today, voters in some states went to the polls to select new governors, and other state representatives. The race for governor of Virginia was especially closely watched, and the pre-election polls had the candidates neck-and-neck. Republican Ed Gillespie tried some Trump tactics (anti-immigrant, support for Confederate statues), but Democrat Ralph Northam had won by 9% when all was said and done.
Democrats elsewhere did well, too. Soo .. looks like there is hope for the 2018 House and Senate mid-term elections, for the Democrats to find some of their footing back. If Democrats will just get out and bother to go vote, it will make a huge difference. In the city of Charlottesville (site of the white supremacist march in August), votes cast were up 31 percent over the 2013 election. Northam the Democrat, took 84 percent of the vote there.
Election results from the New York Times. Virginia borders on Washington DC in the northeast. As always, the blue counties (Democratic Party) are heavily populated urban and suburban ones. But out of the city, people are Republican.
I have only stayed in two Ritz-Carltons ever: the one in Cancun, Mexico, and the one in Gangzhou, China (where I took this picture in 2011. It was the cover of the trash can, for a file folder. Everything in the room was made into a work of art).
There’s something big going down in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Saturday night saw the arrest of dozens of people, at least 11 of whom were princes, including the billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, as part of a ‘corruption crackdown’.
Observers see the crackdown as a consolidation of power by the country’s young crown prince (age 32), Mohammed bin Salman. And the New York Times notes that the six-year old Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh is used as a ‘gilded cage’ to confine former government ministers, prominent businessmen and members of the royal family. Surely it is the world’s most luxurious jail. (Can I be locked up there for a week? .. and with room service and an internet connection, of course. Right now the hotel’s website says all telephone lines and internet access are temporarily suspended).
