Travelling again!

The photo above is only one of the reasons we’re off again on peregrinations: a new grandson!  Here we see siblings meeting each other for the first time. So happy that Mama Dottie was able to take such a perfect picture of Lyle and new brother Louis Seely Boeck.

UPDATE:  I wrote that paragraph at the end of August, before we had left for our drive LA-Denver. It’s now the beginning of October, and we spent a month in Denver with the kiddos (and stayed at our friends the Redifers’ house–thanks for offering us a bit of space, Cyndy!). We were SO busy being grandparents that I never had time to get back to this writing.  To sum up our Denver stay:  baby has club feet, so we spent each Monday at the EXCELLENT Anschutz Center Children’s Hospital, where baby Louis had his casts changed, something he will have done for several weeks more, then a tiny surgical procedure, then years of bars and braces on his little feet.  The good news: this birth defect is entirely reparable, and Max & Dottie are very grateful that they have such good care available to them in their own town.  Meanwhile we also spent several rewarding if exhausting hours entertaining an extremely loquacious and active two-and-a-half-year old. Like all two-year-olds, it seems, he adores big machines, so finding a digger to watch was the highlight of his visit with Baba.

So where are we now?  We are once again on the road! (Well, actually in the air for this latest leg.) One month in Mexico, then back to stay in Oakhurst near Yosemite for several months at my sister’s house while they go travelling. What we’re doing after Christmas is still a bit up in the air–probably still in Oakhurst, with jaunts elsewhere in California.  Then two-three months in Europe, doing some research on my “Three German Women” book, thanks to the graciousness of our friends Wolfgang and Nora, and the amazing resources available on HomeAway and AirBnb.

For now:  we are briefly back in Ajijic, Mexico, where we spent many weeks last year. (See our fairly comprehensive blogs about Ajijic last year, archived in March & April 2017).  The weather is fine, G. is having problems with COPD at this altitude, we’re staying in a big rambling house that is–you guessed it, as always–right next door to a construction site!  More Americans than ever here–a result of the Trump factor in some cases, and a lot of romantic notions for people our age seeking a cheaper, less stressful lifestyle.  Everyone still seems to be over 55 or 80, and lots of gated communities. The hills behind are gloriously green, with yellow bushes interspersed, as they were not when we were last here.  So far I have seen very few birds worth mentioning but lots of gorgeous butterflies, and the Carretera–the main road into Guadalajara–is still treacherous to cross.  We will go on to Queretaro on Monday, and will finally meet my cousin and his family, and stay in a lovely casita in the historical district. Hopefully, we will also get to visit Guanajuato–where my cousin’s brilliant daughter is at the university–and even San Miguel de Allende.  Then we are off to Mexico City for two weeks–if G’s lungs can stand it. We are so looking forward to visiting Mexico’s magnificent museums, but unlike the last time I was in the city FIFTY YEARS AGO (!), we are now old enough to have to worry about things like air quality, altitude and noise.

Well, that’s a quick summary of what we’re up to now. Alas, so far I have only seen two cats in Ajijic, both of them while attending a meeting, so I couldn’t get a photo of them.  But word is our landlady in Queretaro has cats!  So I promise to conclude with a cat pic in our next entry!  Oh, there’s a gato in the graffiti:

 

How broken will our lives be?

As part of my “regimen” of reading to acquire some historical context for my “Three German Women” project, I am now reading Jarausch’s Broken Lives:  How Ordinary Germans Experienced the 20th Century.  While Jarausch focusses on the generation born in the 1920s and only one of my women (Maria) was born in 1920, the stories told by a cross-section of ordinary Germans who grew up in this era do provide some illuminating insights into a time that many of us have too quickly dumped into some “that was then and we know how it turned out for those Nazis” bin, giving little thought to what it was like to grow up in such a tumultuous atmosphere.  He depends on many memoirs and diaries, both published and unpublished, as well as interviews with those still living (their memories, of course, colored by time and hindsight). While I am still focussing on the Weimar years and through World War II, Jarausch is particularly interested in documenting how Germany and the German people, both East and West, overcame the total destruction of their cities and their society and rebuilt so successfully after the war. This fact is another aspect that we as “victors” sometimes gloss over: despite all of the help given by the Allies for reconstruction, it was not necessarily a given that Germany and Austria would become so prosperous, so functional that they are now major players in the global economy and culture.

For my purposes, the book’s greatest strength is in emphasizing what I want to highlight:  that while larger political upheavals were taking place, most ordinary people, and especially young people, were simply living their lives–falling in love, getting jobs, finding enough to eat, going to concerts–without much thought about–or participation in–the conquest of their culture by fascism or, later, by Soviet ideologies.  As one informant writes of being an adolescent in the 1930s,  “The years of my apprenticeship in Leipzig were on the whole quite happy. I hardly paid any attention to politics.” (p. 89)  Sound familiar?

As for the commonly-heard statement, “why didn’t everyone protest against Hitler?” Jarausch presents some harrowing first-hand accounts, and concludes : “The memoirs show that it took exceptional insight and courage to remain aloof, refuse to comply, or actively resist the twisted universe of the Third Reich, since the sanctions were lethal.” (p. 96) Even in those families that were politically aware, Jewish, and/or Communist, peer pressure, for example, to be part of Hitler Youth triumphed over any objections parents might have. The author also finds ample evidence in these memoirs of how EXCITING all of these new actions could be, especially for German youth from rural areas, who for the first time met–through country-wide sporting events and Nazi-organized activities–other young people, all sharing this idea of “making Germany great again” after the shame of losing the Great War and the humiliation of the punitive Versailles Treaty.

And in the beginning, Hitler’s policies DID greatly improve the lives of ordinary Germans: autobahns, free health care, sponsored outings in the fresh air, recognition for healthy living, and guaranteed employment for those who followed the rules.  But when sanctions grew against Jews, when trade unionists were arrested, when militaristic propaganda took over the schools’ curriculum, not having paid attention led to the realization that they were heading toward a war that very few had anticipated.

Much has been written about the fact that after the debacle of the Second World War, the deprivations of the post-War years, the efforts at “de-Nazification”, few Germans have been willing to, as Jarausch writes, “confront their personal responsibility and commit themselves to doing active penance.”  This fact, too, I see as a normal human reaction: one remembers the good stuff, and has a hard time owning up to one’s complicity in evil.  In the sections of the book on the post-War years, both in the GDR (East Germany) and the FRD (West Germany), the memoirists focus primarily on how hard they worked to gain economic stability and eventually, material prosperity. Ideology seldom plays a major role in everyday life, or at least not in an obvious way.

Given that I have been reading this during weeks when the news in the U.S., as well as in other countries around the world, is incomprehensibly terrifying, as we endure a mentally unhinged, probably traitorous, American president, and we watch in helplessness at the rise of autocratic leaders in previously democratic nations,  all of these stories give me pause.  I will not make the simplistic comparison of Hitler and Trump–too many differences, despite some alarming similarities.  But I am struck by reading of the consequences of not paying attention to what is happening on a grander scale as we live our daily, usually banal, lives, and certainly the consequences of not learning from the (very recent!) past.

As Jarausch writes at the end of his worthy book, “[h]eeding the lessons of experience and memory has transformed many Germans into sincere democrats and pacifists who want to prevent a recurrence of earlier horrors.” Will we–our children and grandchildren–be able to prevent more broken lives by learning from the past? So I conclude by once again posting the signs of fascism. The American trajectory may follow different paths determined by different banalities, but the end results may be the same.

 

 

Where have you been?

Several friends have written to me, wondering why I haven’t been writing on my blog for several months.  I had no idea that I had such ardent followers!  So let me just say that the last few months have been an arduous mix of surgical “procedures” (all of them relatively minor in execution, but requiring lots of recovery time), some work on the book I am purportedly writing (mostly now a translation of Irmgard Kern’s “Autobiografie einer jungen Frau”–Autobiography of a Young Woman– from 1934), and hours of utterly terrified despair at the political situation in this country.  The photo above encapsulates this mood:  the complete inhumanity of removing helpless, innocent children from their families in the name of a hateful, entirely unnecessary  “policy” and “crackdown” against illegal immigration at the U.S. southern border.

As a born and bred California Girl, I have grown up in a multicultural society from the very beginning. Our neighbors always included Mexicans, whether “legal” or not; it was never a question for children. I went every day to Nellie’s house to eat stacks of her flour tortillas, either hot from the griddle with butter dripping off the sides, or with a dollop of refritos. I have never found that taste again, in all the years of trying–except for a brief time in San Antonio, when the secretary of one of the university departments where I worked shared her lunch with me, including HER home-made flour tortillas.  Mexican food was like mother’s milk to me, as it is for so many Californians and other Southwesterners.

My father was the foreman and chief grower in a flower nursery. Almost all of his workers were Mexican–initially, those who came to California through the bracero program, which allowed them to stay for 6 months a year, then they went home to Mexico, and would come back the next year.  I remember getting post cards addressed to “Estimado Rudy” from some of these workers, who would want to return the next year. They ate at our house, and taught us Spanish words, and told us how much they missed their own children back home.  Later on, when the bracero program ended (in 1964), my father’s workers were either Latinos born in California, or illegals. When I worked in the greenhouses when I was in high school, we sang Mexican songs–I was learning Spanish in school by then–while we debudded chrysanthemums to get them ready for market.  These women were absolute whizzes at doing this job, and could complete a row of plants before I was halfway through.  When the Immigration people showed up unannounced, my father would whistle some signal, and the illegals would jump out the back door, while we played games of interference.

My first-grade class in Torrance, California, 1955.

Mexicans weren’t the only group of “others” that I grew up with. My father’s boss was Japanese, one of the many Japanese-American flower growers who had established the floral industry in California.  One of my dad’s assistants in the greenhouses was Takako, an issei woman who we loved to visit at her house in Gardena, because she gave us rice-paper-wrapped candies, and laughed when we told her our Norwegian grandmother served us rice with cinnamon and sugar on it, which she thought was the weirdest foodway she had ever heard of.  I took piano lessons with Irene Shinoda, my dad’s boss’s daughter, and I was good friends with Lynn and Linda Nakamura, twins in my 5th-grade class.  These families, all of whom had been in America longer than my family had been, had been sent to detention camps during World War II, and were housed for a time in the horse stables at Santa Anita racetrack.  I knew about this example of America’s treatment of “others” from a very early age.

Perhaps this early exposure to lots of different people is why so much of California (although not all)  is so resistant to these current atrocities.  I am constantly charmed today when going to any “ethnic” restaurant in LA that the clientele will almost always be a mix of all these cultures–Armenians eating Mexican food, Mexican-Americans eating Vietnamese, Afro-Americans eating Chinese.  America at its best is a happy melting pot, ethnically diverse and so mixed that racial categories become relatively irrelevant and hard to pin down.  The warm glow I feel when experiencing tolerance and acceptance just makes the hateful headlines we now read every day heart-wrenching and incomprehensible.  Why would anyone want to support such cruel and UNNECESSARY political actions?

So, my friends, that’s where I’ve been:  sitting on my butt recovering from minor surgeries and stewing in helplessness about the fate of this country because of an aberrant electoral technicality that is now leading us away from our “better angels” toward a surreal fascism that has no happy ending for anyone.  On that happy note, and in lieu of my usual cat photo, I submit this list of the signs of fascism:

 

 

Image-making

Bear with me as I try to make a point about the media’s construction of “Image” and its manipulation of the visual record–whether aesthetic or historical or both. Theory has never been my strong suit as a thinker or teacher, so I may be reinventing the hermeneutic wheel here in a flat-footed way; and it could be that my comparisons here are stretched beyond persuasiveness, but current events have contrived to bring these ideas together for me right now.

This is the article that began this rumination:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/04/17/mary-beard-cut-us-version-civilisations-fearing-slightly-creaky/

 

Mary Beard, posed for the article attached here.

A screen shot from Thomas Elsaesser’s “Sun Island,” showing a family member sitting in German uniform at a family gathering during WWII.

If she is to be believed, the eminent scholar Mary Beard, pictured above, was largely deleted from the American presentation of the ambitious new “Civilizations” series, because, according to her, PBS Boston thought her appearance wouldn’t appeal to an American audience. She tweeted: “Can’t help think that there is something about a creaky 63 year old grey haired lady that doesn’t quite fit the bill. But I am probably smelling a rat where there isn’t one!” Beard also indicated that the American edits veered the narration of the series much more directly toward Christian views, and turned the episodes into an “anodyne” version that critics have noted in a rebuke of the productions’ “value free” approach to the subject.

While Beard may indeed be placing blame for the cuts on the wrong culprit, that such edits were made at all is a dismaying indictment of U.S. media’s interpretation of what American audiences want or should be exposed to–as if we can’t deal with another culture’s approach to history and art. Such micromanagement of what the American public sees smacks of the most egregious kind of censorship:  insulting an entire culture’s intelligence. Personally, as a “creaky old lady” myself, I tend to believe that Mary Beard is right:  her physical appearance doesn’t fit the mold of female talking head in America.  As if anyone watching a series with as lofty a goal as explaining “civilization” would be put off by a female presence not as attractive as the weather girls on local television stations!

The second image (which I don’t seem to be able to edit into place, so will have to place it  at the bottom of this discourse) is a screen shot from the scholar Thomas Elsaesser’s film about his family, “Sonneninsel”, “Sun Island” in English.

http://www.3sat.de/mediathek/?mode=play&obj=72067

As I have written before (https://esauboeck.wordpress.com/2018/01/16/a-book-proposal/), Elsaesser serendipitously discovered my blog about Irmgard Rexroth-Kern, one of my “Three German Women”, and contacted me because Kern and her husband H.G. Rexroth figure in his film! (An indication of what a godsend Google can be for researchers!) He quite graciously sent me photos of Fr. Kern, as she appeared in the 1940s, and we have been sharing information ever since.  I was thrilled that he brought his film to USC this week, where we were able to see it yesterday and to meet the man himself.  “Sun Island” is a fascinating documentary based on home movies that tells a complex story of family, but brings up many other intellectual strands, having to do with architecture, the birth of the Green movement, memory, and revelations about everyday German life before, during, and after World War II.

After the film’s presentation and insightful discussion by extremely clued-in film students (they are, after all, at one of the most renowned film schools in the world), one of the faculty members wanted Elsaesser to address the “dilemma” raised by the film showing images of family members in Nazi uniform. The argument seemed to center on the fact that American audiences would not be able to read these images as anything but meaning that Elsaesser’s family were indeed Nazis, and that while Elsaesser does mention the appearance of people in uniforms, he doesn’t explain clearly enough what these depictions “mean”.  There was much back and forth about whether such images should be deleted for an American audience that wouldn’t understand.

Such concerns, to my mind, are exactly why such images of Germans in the 1930s and 1940s should be shown–to give a realistic presentation of what living in Germany at this tumultuous time meant.  Everyday life went on, people continued to make gardens, have friends over for tea, went for strolls in the gardens or swims in the lake.  Just like today, most Germans were, if not apolitical, neither Nazis nor leftists. As the war proceeded, men were drafted and sent off to the front. There wasn’t much they could do about it no matter how they felt about the military forces in charge of the country, unless they were immensely courageous and refused to go. Americans should also try to remember that Germans were not receiving the same kind of news that the Allies received; as far as most Germans knew, they were winning victories, they were fighting for the Fatherland, and life went on.  By the mid-40s, having a family member in uniform was as normal as seeing an American in uniform during the Vietnam war, and the feelings about their presence were as complex and emotional as were ours during that time.

But for the media,  what IMAGE is presented and how it will be interpreted is of utmost importance.  The awareness by professional documentarians and filmmakers of the inevitable self-censorship that happens with any film-making must always, I think,  be informed by film’s educational possibilities, even when dealing with “the market”, as the film-watching public is considered to be. Too often, however, those market forces seem to take precedence over the opportunity to educate.  That Elsaesser has such access to this amazing vernacular footage provides a brilliant opportunity to expand the interpretation of German life, to broaden the expected image of GERMAN that the world has created. As the people in this film reveal, they embraced neither one ideology nor the other; their visualized story presents a much more mundane picture of human beings going about the living of their lives, unaware that they were experiencing what has now become history.  Elsaesser’s desire to eradicate some stereotypes and misinterpretations of this past is the main reason I’m writing my book, too:  each of my German Women had to deal with the exigencies of this miserable history as it was happening, and none of them fit neatly into any of these black-and-white models of politics or ideology.  The concern about “accepted” presentation–whether of the supposedly desired female image for TV or the assumed meaning of a Nazi uniform–is not what is important to me or, I would hope, to most intelligent viewers or readers.  This “creaky old lady” just wants these stories to be told as factually yet evocatively as possible.

 

A screen shot from Thomas Elsaesser’s “Sun Island,” showing a family member sitting in German uniform at a family gathering during WWII.

Book proposal accepted!

So my book proposal, Three German Women:  Personal Histories from the Twentieth Century, has been accepted by the press to whom I sent the proposal!  EEEK!  Now I really have write it!  I am excited, and not yet daunted.

Here’s the blog I wrote about the topic:  https://esauboeck.wordpress.com/2018/01/16/a-book-proposal/

I have changed the deadline to September 2019, just to be safe, but I hope I will have it finished by next Spring at the latest.

And here’s the “blurb”, as the publishers call it, that I just sent back with the contract:

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

THREE GERMAN WOMEN:  PERSONAL HISTORIES FROM THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

 

This book presents the life stories of three women of the German-speaking realm whose lives inspired the author directly: mathematician Maria Weber Steinberg (1920-2013);  journalist Irmgard Rexroth-Kern (1907-1983) ; and Viennese art historian Fr. Dr. Anna von Spitzmüller (1903-2001).  The lives of these three women serve as emotional mirrors to the cultural transformations and tumultuous history of the 20th century. Their stories tell of the hardships, struggles, and victories of intellectual European women in this era. Each was related to men who played a role in European cultural life, men who received some prominence in history books; these women, in contrast, received very few public accolades for their important achievements. Placing them in the cultural context of the times in Germany and Austria, the author  highlights the traumatic choices imposed on ordinary people by political and social circumstances over which they had no control. Along with the women’s individual stories, the chapters focus on overarching themes: intellectual women’s roles in European society , the fate of Jewish culture in Germany and Austria, and specific historical background describing the incidents affecting their life trajectories (e.g., Irmgard Kern’s involvement in Berlin’s literary world,  Dr. Spitzmüller’s work with the Monuments Men, and Maria Steinberg’s father’s position in the Reichstag of the Weimar era).

As you can see, I simply cobbled together aspects of my original proposal.

And now I put out the call:  anyone who has any information about any of these women and their families–photographs, too!–please contact me, either here in the comments or through email at esauboeck@gmail.com.

Now back to work!  Right now I’m converting Fr. Kern’s “Autobiografie einer jungen Frau,” published in 1932 in a German newspaper in Fraktur, into readable text; then I will translate it.

 

 

 

 

 

Drizzle or sprinkle?

As we sat inside on one of the RARE-and-getting-rarer Southern Californian days when it rained, George and I got into a discussion about which KIND of rain was falling at that moment, and which was the correct term for which kind of rain. I maintained that “sprinkle” is heavier rain than “drizzle,” which I understand as a misty kind that doesn’t cause drops to fall (as in the two photos above). If you can see drops on the ground–as in the third picture above–then it’s a “sprinkle,” but not yet a full-on rain, and it may pass by quickly. G. thought (and still does) that “drizzle” refers to a greater amount of rain over a longer period of time.

When I put this question to my ultimate source of authority–my Facebook friends–the discussion was lively, with arguments on both sides. In the end, the “drizzlers” outweighed the “sprinklers,” but I think only because I framed the question in terms of which kind of rain brought more water. We were particularly swayed by the experts: our friends who live in Oregon and Washington. Here’s what one of them said:  “After 30 plus years in Oregon I have a hundred different words for moisture in the air a sprinkle is light rain for a brief time. A drizzle is a light rain that lasts for hours. Drizzle is the answer!”  And another friend:  ” It’s the weather pattern here in the southern Willamette Valley that I call low hung mung. The sodden blanket of grey that spits a fine mist of wet continuously for days on end.”  So in terms of the AMOUNT of wet, “drizzle” seems to be the correct answer.  

Not wanting to concede defeat, I turned to those other sources of authoritative information, the internet and Youtube. First is another blog entry on terms for rain in that soggy region, the Pacific Northwest:

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/10-words-rain

This one seems to substantiate my feelings about the term “sprinkle”, as does this little video:

Being the diplomat that I am (!), I’m going to declare a tie:  in terms of wetness, “drizzle” implies more water over a longer time, while “sprinkle”  refers to sudden droplets that clear up quickly.

In any case, rain of any sort is becoming an increasingly infrequent, and therefore welcome, phenomenon in SoCal. We’re just thankful that we’ve had some this week, whether “sprinkles,” “drizzle” or steady rain!

Rad Lib Aggregator

[No doubt many of you will recognize that this entry comes not from me, Erika, but from George, the other half of ESAUBOECK! He’s so sweet and earnest to have taken on this experimental project. –Erika.]

 

Just after the start of the year, I became impatient with the bland news reported in Google News and Huffington Post, the two aggregators I follow.  I decided to aggregate news from left-leaning publications, then added a few “from the other side of the aisle”.  A daily task undertaken at about 4:00 in the afternoon, it was really pretty interesting and only took a little more than an hour each day.

After a six week trial, it seems to me that RealClearPolitics.com does just about as good a job as I can with way better graphics, though being less selective.  The conclusions:  it is much easier to find positive, forward-looking articles in liberal publications than in conservative ones.  National Review is particularly noted for preferring attacks on opposition figures over descriptions of efforts by conservatives.  Selecting the appropriate publication from which to take popular stories was often a challenge.

Technically, finding current postings of classical music on YouTube is time consuming due to the incredible number of dippy “classical music for relaxed studying which will also put your baby to sleep”; they generally don’t give proper attribution.  WordPress’s free blog function works pretty well, despite some odd layout editing, the most frustrating being an inclination to automatically run paragraphs together.

I have no idea if anyone found the blog.

Here is the list of the not particularly Rad publications I looked through for this post followed by a few weeks of the post itself, enough for you to get an idea of the coverage.

The Atlantic.
Center for American Progress
Dead Spin 
Foreign Affairs
Gizmodo
Guardian
Huffington Post
Jezebel
Los Angeles Times
The Monthly Today
The Nation
New Republic
New York Book Review
New York Times
The New Yorker
Politico
Salon
Splinter
Washington Post
YouTube
From the other side of the aisle:
The Hill
Fiscal Times.
National Review
Reason.Com.
Washington Examiner

Feb 15, 2018.  On this day in 2001, the first draft of the  human genome is published in Nature

Why Can’t the U.S. Treat Gun Violence as a Public-Health Problem? A 1996 bill has had a chilling effect on the CDC’s ability to research the problem.  Sarah Zhang. The Atlantic.

Why Drones Are Still the Future of War. Troops Will Learn to Trust Them. Paul Scharre; Jacquelyn Schneider and Julia Macdonald.  Foreign Affairs.

119,000 Passports and Photo IDs of FedEx Customers Found on Unsecured Amazon Server.Dell Cameron.  Gizmodo.

What Happens When A Journalist Gets Beat Up? Too Often, Not Much.  Bernie Lunzer. Huffington Post.

Bipartisan Senate effort to protect Dreamers collapses after Trump threatens veto.  Brian Bennett and Lisa Mascaro.  Los Angeles Times.

Cry me a river. The Murray-Darling Basin Plan is key to the PM’s legacy. He must save it.   Paddy Manning.  The Monthly Today.

Amazon Doesn’t Just Want to Dominate the Market—It Wants to Become the Market. The company is a radically new kind of monopoly with ambitions that dwarf those of earlier empires.  Stacy Mitchell.  The Nation.

What Congress Has Accomplished Since the Sandy Hook Massacre. More than 1,600 mass shootings have taken place in America since then.  New York Times.

The Sad Reality of Trying to Keep Guns Away from Mentally Ill People.  Michael Luo.  The New Yorker.

Trump struggles with consoler-in-chief role. The president gave remarks that were appropriate to the moment following the Parkland school shooting, but failed to convey the sorrow Americans expect from their leader. Edward-Isaac Dovere.  Politico.On social media, Parkland students subvert the news cycle. A generational culture of real-time social media empowered witnesses to redirect the national conversation. Nicole Karlis.  Salon.The AR-15: ‘America’s rifle’ or illegitimate killing machine?  Most Americans back a ban on the weapon used in many school shootings. But the rifles and their cousins are among the nation’s most popular and profitable guns.  Marc Fisher.  Washington Post.

Giselle – Act II pas de deux (The Royal Ballet).  YouTube.

Feb. 14, 2018.  On this day in 1920, the League of Women Voters is founded in Chicago.

The Out Olympics .  Adam Rippon and Gus Kenworthy show the entertainment value, and political power, of gay people embracing full visibility.   Spencer Kornhaber. The Atlantic.

Cracking the Shell. Trump and the Corrupting Potential of Furtive Russian Money.   Diana Pilipenko.  Center for American Progress.

The China Reckoning. How Beijing Defied American Expectations.  Kurt M. Campbell and Ely Ratner.  Foreign Affairs.

We’re Averaging One School Shooting Every 60 Hours In 2018. Wednesday’s shooting at a Florida high school is the 18th school shooting of the year. Lydia O’Connor. Huffington Post.

ICE launches new immigration sweeps in L.A. area; at least 100 detained so far. Cindy Carcamo. Los Angeles Times.

Big business tax cuts a non-starter. You can’t cut tax for companies paying zero.  Paddy Manning.  The Monthly Today.

With His Assault on PBS and NPR, Trump Seeks to Eliminate Real News.  John Nichols.  The Nation.

South Africa’s Zuma Leaves Behind a Broken Democracy. Can the party of Nelson Mandela cleanse and revive itself?  New York Times.

“America’s Harvest Box” Captures the Trumpian Attitude Toward Poverty.  Sasha Abramsky.  The New Yorker.

The best photo we have of the Trump White House is Colbie Holderness and her black eye. The photo of Rob Porter’s wife with a black eye is a picture of hate and violence. Lucian K. Truscott IV.  Salon.

South African president resigns amid corruption allegations.  The African National Congress had pressured Jacob Zuma to step down. Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, who replaced Zuma as ANC leader in December, is expected to become acting president.  Kevin Sieff and Krista Mahr.  Washington Post.

“The Song of Trees” by Keiko Abe. Performed by Felix Reyes.  YouTube.

From the other side of the aisle:

Under pressure, Trump says he’s ‘totally opposed to domestic violence’.   Jordan Fabian.  The Hill.

How Trump’s Budget Would Cut the Social Safety Net. As a candidate, President Trump said he would not cut Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security. But his 2019 budget proposal seeks to reduce spending on all three programs.  Yuval Rosenberg. Fiscal Times.

Success Academy Charter Schools Are a Big Success. Kids who attend New York City’s Success Academy charter schools do remarkably well. John Stossell.  Reason.Com.

VA Secretary David Shulkin regrets misusing taxpayer funds for European trip, reimburses government.   Naomi Lim.  Washington Examiner.

Feb. 13, 2018.   On this day in 1914,  the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) was established to protect the copyrighted musical compositions of its members.

Trump’s Top Intelligence Officials Contradict Him on Russian Meddling.  The intelligence community has a stark warning about Russia’s intentions to interfere in the 2018 elections—but no public plan to prevent it.  Natasha Bertrand. The Atlantic.

A Bad Budget for America’s Place in the World.   John Norris.  Center for American Progress.

Benjamin Netanyahu: Israeli police recommend indicting prime minister. Attorney general will examine evidence and decide whether to indict after police investigation of the prime minister in two cases.  Oliver Holmes. Guardian.

Trump’s Plan To Screw Over Your Bartender. The Restaurant Owner-In-Chief Wants To Give Employers More Control Over Tips.  Dave Jamieson.  Huffington Post.

As foreign hackers plot next attack, Washington struggles to shore up vulnerable voting systems.  Evan Halper and Chris Megerian.  Los Angeles Times.

Why Does the Pentagon Always Tell Us the End Is Right Around the Corner?  What they should say is how many times they’ve been wrong about that.  Tom Engelhardt.  The Nation.

Information Wants to Be Chinese.  How investment from the People’s Republic is dividing Washington and Silicon Valley.  Moira Weigel. New Republic.

The Hidden Political Message of Michelle Obama’s Portrait Dress. From the pattern to the designer, the dress is the most revealing part.  Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell.  Politico.

Chopin Waltz Op.69 no 2 played by Thu Le, Classical Guitar. Arranged by Roland Dyens.  YouTube.

From the other side of the aisle:

Schiff: We’re not going to revise Democratic memo.  Brett Samuel.  The Hill.

Democracy in Chains Author Nancy MacLean Calls Autism a Leading Cause of Libertarianism.  “It’s striking to me how many of the architects of this cause seem to be on the autism spectrum: people who don’t feel solidarity or empathy with others.”  Robby Soave.  Reason.Com.

Greece is the word: Fiscal recklessness portends a crash.  Quin Hillyer.  Washington Examiner.

[Second Circuit] Court orders full restoration of DACA program. Judge uses Trump’s Twitter post to undercut DHS phaseout.  Stephen Dinan. Washington Times.

Feb. 12, 2018.  On this day in 1817, Frederick Douglas was born into slavery in Maryland.

The Fetishization of Kim Yo Jong.  Krishnadev Calamur. The Atlantic.

Election Security in All 50 States. Defending America’s Elections. Danielle Root, Liz Kennedy, Michael Sozan, and Jerry Parshall.  Center for American Progress.

U.S. Soccer Blew It.  Billy Haisley. Dead Spin.

Frustrations at the White House and the Pentagon. Why They Can’t Seem to See Eye to Eye on North Korea. Julianne Smith and Loren DeJonge Schulman.  Foreign Affairs.

Why Purebred Dogs Are Sick, Miserable, and Ugly.  George Dvorsky.  Gizmodo.

Barack and Michelle Obama’s official portraits expand beyond usual format. The pictures, painted by Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald, are vivid depictions by African American artists and will hang at the Smithsonian.  David Smith. Guardian.

Do You Like Paying Tolls? You’re Gonna Love Trump’s Infrastructure Plan. The proposal would allow more states to toll interstate highways. Igor Bobic. Huffington Post.

Jeff Sessions, Not Trying to Hide It, Praises ‘Anglo-American Heritage of Law Enforcement’. Ellie Shechet.  Jezebel.

Minding the gap. For once, really important targets are making a difference. Paddy Manning.  The Monthly Today.

Randy Bryce’s Campaign Is Not Just Pro-Union—It’s Unionized.  The Campaign Workers Guild has negotiated its first collectively bargained contract, with the Democratic candidate challenging Paul Ryan.  John Nichols.  The Nation.

Trump Budget Ignores Deficit With Increases for Military.  The plan also includes large increases for the military, envisioning deficits totaling at least $7.1 trillion over the next decade.  Julie Hirschfeld Davis.  The Nation.

Trump’s Words Will Leave a Lasting Mark.  History proves that presidential rhetoric impacts policy, sometimes long after the president himself has left office.  Jeet Heer.  New Republic.

God’s Own Music.  The Anglican choral tradition is one of the great successes of English cultural diffusion.  Ian Bostridge.  New York Book Review.

Trump Budget Ignores Deficit With Increases for Military.  The plan also includes large increases for the military, envisioning deficits totaling at least $7.1 trillion over the next decade.  Julie Hirschfeld Davis. New York Times.

The Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony: People Are Awesome. The Games feel like a testament to human pleasure: let us gather, and do these pure and ridiculous things for fun.  Amanda Petrusich.  The New Yorker.

McConnell’s immigration gamble. The Senate majority leader is unleashing a free-for-all debate over Dreamers — and his endgame is a mystery.  Seung Min Kim and Burgess Everett.  Politico.

Jeff Sessions Let His Racism Peek Through a Little More Than He May Have Intended To.  Emma Roller. Splinter.

Trump wants to overhaul America’s safety net with cuts to health care, food stamps and housing. The budget proposal presumes lawmakers will change entitlement programs for the poor in ways beyond what Congress so far has been willing to do.   Tracy Jan, Caitlin Dewey, Amy Goldstein and Jeff Stein. Washington Post.

Gregorian chant.Early Music Sources.YouTube.

From the other side of the aisle:

Trump fires first salvo on drug prices. Peter Sullivan.  The Hill.

The Trump Budget’s $7.1 Trillion Hole. Yuval Rosenberg.  Fiscal Times.

When Border Searches Become Unreasonable. Allowing warrantless searches everywhere within 100 miles of the border leads to much abuse.  Kyle Sammin.  National Review.

Trump’s New Budget Plan Is a Fiscal Disaster. The administration’s spending blueprint continues the fiscal decline that began during the Bush era.  Marc. Joffe.  Reason.Com.

Feb. 11, 2018.  On this day in 1937, General Motors recognized the United Auto Workers’ Union following a sit-down strike lasting 44 days.

A Better Way to Look at Most Every Political Issue. Americans would be less alienated from one another and solve problems more easily if they recognized one little-noticed distinction in policy debates.  Conor Friedersdorf. The Atlantic.

Cryptojackers Strike Again, Hitting Thousands of Sites Including US and UK Government Pages.  Tom McKay. Gizmodo.

The Guardian view on childhood obesity: forget small steps, tackle big food. Guardian.Heartbreaking Video Shows Black Parents Teaching Their Kids About Police Encounters. “Do everything that you can to get back to me.” Taylor Pittman.  Huffington Post.

Weinstein Company Sale Delayed by New York State Lawsuit.  New York’s attorney general filed a suit alleging the studio and its founders repeatedly violated state and city laws barring gender discrimination, sexual harassment, sexual abuse and coercion. It appeared timed to at least temporarily stop a sale.  Brooks Barnes and William Neuman. New York Times.

 A Reckoning with Women Awaits Trump. Even Steve Bannon recognizes that female voters will punish the President for his cavalier dismissal of assault and abuse allegations.  David Remnick.  The New Yorker.

Progressives storm Democratic primaries. Veteran blue-state incumbents are hitting unexpected turbulence this year.  Laura Nahmias and Lauren Dezensky.  Politico.

White House wants to turn space station into commercially run venture. The administration plans to stop funding for the station after 2024, ending direct federal support of the orbiting laboratory. But it does not intend to abandon the station altogether, according to an internal NASA document obtained by The Post. Christian Davenport. Washington Post.

Paganini Violin Concerto no. 1 arrangement for reduced orchestra by Rechtman. Israel Camerata Orchestra.YouTube.

From the other side of the aisle:

Trump officials do damage control after staff turmoil. Julia Manchester. The Hill.

Trump touts Lou Barletta as a ‘Great Republican’ running against Sen. Bob Casey. Steven Nelson.  Washington Examiner.

Feb. 11, 2018.  On this day in 1937, General Motors recognized the United Auto Workers’ Union following a sit-down strike lasting 44 days.

A Better Way to Look at Most Every Political Issue. Americans would be less alienated from one another and solve problems more easily if they recognized one little-noticed distinction in policy debates.  Conor Friedersdorf. The Atlantic.

Cryptojackers Strike Again, Hitting Thousands of Sites Including US and UK Government Pages.  Tom McKay. Gizmodo.

The Guardian view on childhood obesity: forget small steps, tackle big food. Guardian.Heartbreaking Video Shows Black Parents Teaching Their Kids About Police Encounters. “Do everything that you can to get back to me.” Taylor Pittman.  Huffington Post.

Weinstein Company Sale Delayed by New York State Lawsuit.  New York’s attorney general filed a suit alleging the studio and its founders repeatedly violated state and city laws barring gender discrimination, sexual harassment, sexual abuse and coercion. It appeared timed to at least temporarily stop a sale.  Brooks Barnes and William Neuman. New York Times.

  A Reckoning with Women Awaits Trump. Even Steve Bannon recognizes that female voters will punish the President for his cavalier dismissal of assault and abuse allegations.  David Remnick.  The New Yorker.

Progressives storm Democratic primaries. Veteran blue-state incumbents are hitting unexpected turbulence this year.  Laura Nahmias and Lauren Dezensky.  Politico.

White House wants to turn space station into commercially run venture.  The administration plans to stop funding for the station after 2024, ending direct federal support of the orbiting laboratory. But it does not intend to abandon the station altogether, according to an internal NASA document obtained by The Post

Christian Davenport. Washington Post.

Paganini Violin Concerto no. 1 arrangement for reduced orchestra by Rechtman. Israel Camerata Orchestra.  YouTube.

From the other side of the aisle:

Trump officials do damage control after staff turmoil.   Julia Manchester.  The Hill.

Trump touts Lou Barletta as a ‘Great Republican’ running against Sen. Bob Casey.   Steven Nelson.  Washington Examiner.

Feb. 10, 2018.

How WeWork Has Perfectly Captured the Millennial Id.  The company sells a somewhat uneasy combination of capitalist ambition and cooperative warmth.  Laura Bliss. The Atlantic.

Purdue Pharmaceuticals Says It Will Stop the Aggressive Opioid Marketing That Made It Billions.   Tom McKay.  Gizmodo.

Corporations Won’t Fix American Health Care. They Already Run It.  Neil J. Young. Huffington Post.

White House floats an offer to keep legal immigration at 1 million per year instead of cutting it.  Brian Bennett.  Los Angeles Times.

Can Germany’s Social Democrats Get Their Groove Back?  The turn to neoliberalism demoralized the party—and helped fuel the rise of the extreme right.  Jordan Stancil.  The Nation.

The Heart of Conrad. (Review of The Dawn Watch: Joseph Conrad in a Global World by May Jasanoff).  Colm Tóibín.  New York Book Review.

G.O.P. Squirms as Trump Veers Off Script With Abuse Remarks.  Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns.  New York Times.

class=”River__hed___re6RP”>Sports Illustrated’s Spectacularly Silly #MeToo Swimsuit Issue.You may have heard that women everywhere are sick of being sexually harassed; Sports Illustrated has, too.  Alexandra Schwartz.  The New Yorker.

The Democrats’ secret weapon to take back statehouses. The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee is pumping money and infrastructure into an array of legislative races. Special election results suggest it’s paying off.  Edward-Isaac Dovere. Politico.

Catching a glimpse of “the black tech renaissance”. I went down to BlackTech Week in Miami with a group from Maryland to see the future of cybersecurity.  D. Watkins.  Salon.

Danish folk song by Bon Voyage Music Project. YouTube.

From the other side of the aisle:

EPA chief’s questions about climate science draw new scrutiny.   Timothy Cama.  The Hill.

In Memoriam: The GOP Pretending to Care About Fiscal Restraint.  The new two-year budget deal will result in a $1 trillion deficit.   Austin Bragg & Meredith Bragg.  Reason.Com.

Feb. 9, 2018.  On this day in 1950,  U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy (R. Wisc.) said that the U.S. Dept. of State was full of communists which he considered a bad thing.

6 Things to Watch for in Trump’s Infrastructure Scam.   Kevin DeGood, Alison Cassady, Allison Preiss, and Rejane Frederick.  Center for American Progress.

How to Win a Great-Power Competition. Alliances, Aid, and Diplomacy in the Last Struggle for Global Influence.   Benn Steil.  Foreign Affairs.

Trump’s America will be saddled with debt – just like his bankrupted hotels.  Richard Wolffe. Guardian.

Dow rises 330 points Friday, but stocks still have worst week in two years.   Associated Press.  Los Angeles Times.A New Housing-Rights Movement Has the Real-Estate Industry Running Scared.  In cities across the country, tenants are demanding robust regulations to keep rents affordable and stop unjust evictions.  Jimmy Tobias.  The Nation.

Could This Madman Accidentally Bring Peace to the Korean Peninsula?  The Trump administration’s extreme rhetoric on North Korea is forcing South Korea to seek a new solution for its longterm security.  Jeet Heer. New Republic.

Welcome to the Post-Text Future.  The internet was born in text. Now, video and audio are ascendant, writing is being left behind, and everything will be different.  Fahrad Manjoo.  New York Times.

Trump Gives Wife Beater Praise He Usually Reserves for Child Molesters and Nazis.  Andy Borowitz.  The New Yorker.

Justice Department’s No. 3 official plans to step down.  Rachel Brand will take a private-sector job after nine months as associate attorney general, said a person familiar with the decision.Sari Horwitz and Josh Dawsey.  Washington Post.

Brahms – Piano Concerto No.2 (recording of the Century : Emil Gilels/Reiner, 1958, Chicago).YouTube.

From the other side of the aisle:

Pence did not stand for Korean delegation at Olympics opening ceremonies: report.By Avery Anapol.  The Hill.

Trump declines to release Democratic memo.   Kelly Cohen.  Washington Examiner.

Feb. 8, 2018.  On this day in 1575, Leiden University was founded; its motto, Praesidium Libertatis or bastion of liberty, while appropriate from the start, was coined in 1839.

The Weirdest—and Possibly Best—Proposal to Resolve the North Korea Crisis. The administration is nowhere near out of peaceful options. Peter Beinart. The Atlantic.

10 Faith Leaders to Watch in 2018. Gwen Calais-Haase and LaShawn Y. Warren.  Center for American Progress.

ICE Wants to Be an Intelligence Agency Under Trump. Immigration enforcers have tried for years to get access to spy agency secrets. Civil libertarians call the prospect ‘frankly terrifying’—and a lot more realistic under Trump.  Betsy Woodruff.  The Daily Beast.

Muslim Voters and the European Left. When Inclusion Leads to Populism. Rafaela M. Dancygier.  Foreign Affairs.

Google Will Soon Start Shaming All Sites That Don’t Use HTTPS as ‘Not Secure’.  Sam Rutherford. Gizmodo.

As Vladimir Putin steals the Russian election, our leaders are shamefully silent.  Simon Tisdall. Guardian.

U.S. Gun Companies Manufactured A Record 11 Million Firearms In 2016. The gun industry’s output doubled over the Obama era — and it appears likely to keep growing. Nick Wing. Huffington Post.

George W. Bush says Russia meddled in 2016 U.S. election.  Curtis Lee. Los Angeles Times.

Sex, Lies, and Human Resources. If you think the #MeToo reckoning is over because the Weinsteins of the world have been toppled, you’ve missed the point.  Marie Claire and Esquire came together to ask some of the smartest people we know 21 questions to cut through popular opinion, diagnose how we really got here, and debate where we go next. Edited by Kayla Webley Adler And Eric Sullivan.  Marie Claire and Esquire.

Am I bothered? Big bank regulatory risks are being priced in comfortably. Paddy Manning .  The Monthly Today.

John Kelly Has Got to Go.  His awful response to domestic-abuse charges involving a top aide is just the latest in a series of toxic blunders.  John Nichols.  The Nation.

We All Have Stake in Stock Market, Right? Guess Again.Wall Street’s up and downs have little impact on the income or wealth of most Americans, despite the bromides of politicians on both sides of the aisle. Patricia Cohen. New York Times.

North Korea’s Mesmerizing “Army of Beauties”. The allure of the country’s cheerleading squad is connected with the degree to which its members appear to be under complete control.  Jia Tolentino.  The New Yorker.

Rand’s latest stand puts government on brink of shutdown.  Get ready for a long night.  Burgess Everett. Politico.

Mike Pence Is Having a Full-Blown Meltdown Over Being Called Out for His Homophobia.  Isha Aran. Splinter.

With 1,000-point loss, Dow drops into correction territory for first time in years.  Thomas Heath. Washington Post.

Saint-Saëns: The Swan (The Carnival of the Animals) – Sarah Joy. YouTube.From the other side of the aisle:

If a School Cop Threatens Your 13-Year-Old with Child Porn Charges for Sexting, Get a Lawyer.  Families should never consent to have school resource officers search kids’ phones.  Robby Soave.  Reason.Com.

Prison reform, the time is now.  Cal Thomas.  Washington Times.

Feb. 7, 2018.  On this day in 1898,   1889 Emile Zola was brought to trial for libel for publishing J’accuse,  a letter accusing the government of France of anti-semitism in the Dreyfus affair.

How Humans Sank New Orleans. Engineering put the Crescent City below sea level. Now, its future is at risk. Richard Campanella.  The Atlantic.

Hard Brexit would cost public finances £80bn, says secret analysis. Leave-voting heartlands of north-east and West Midlands would be worst hit, report finds.  Jessica Elgot, Heather Stewart and Peter Walker.  Guardian.

Nancy Pelosi Holds The Floor More Than 8 Hours To Demand Immigration Promise. The Democrat says she won’t support a budget deal until the House speaker commits to holding a vote for Dreamers.  Elise Foley and Igor Bobic. Huffington Post.“403,000 jobs in a row”. The PM should be careful grandstanding on the economy. Paddy Manning.  The Monthly Today.

35 and Counting! Democrats Flip Another Republican Legislative Seat.  A pro-union Democrat just won a seat in Missouri that Trump won by a landslide.  John Nichols. The Nation.

Also from The Nation:

When Harassment Is the Price of a Job. As decades of activism meet the #MeToo moment, could the food-service industry be poised for sweeping change?  Bryce Covert.

Trump Is Trapped by the Democrats’ Memo.  He could approve its release or block it. Either outcome will sting him.  Matt Ford.  New Republic.

A Glimpse of North Korea’s Isolated Athletes.  We’ve gathered insights from the country’s state news media, analysts, defectors and athletes who have competed alongside North Koreans.  Motoko Rich.  New York Times.

Raining on Trump’s Parade. The reason to oppose the President’s desired military showcase is simply that it is not—in the old-fashioned sense—the American way.   Adam Gopnik. The New Yorker.

Trump’s military parade draws bipartisan rebuke.  Bryan Bender.   Politico.

Trump’s big parade turns military tradition and honor on its head.  Toy soldiers and toy tanks on Pennsylvania Avenue will make him look like a tin pot dictator. Lucian K. Truscott IV.  Salon.

Extreme Homophobe Mike Pence Doesn’t Seem to Get Why a Gay Person Won’t Talk to Him.  Kinsha Aran. Splinter.

In Conversation: Quincy Jones. The music legend on the secret Michael Jackson, his relationship with the Trumps, and the problem with modern pop.  David Marchese.  Vulture.

Republicans are doing a complete reversal on the deficit.   The debt binge, which is projected to push the annual gap between spending and revenue past $1.1 trillion in 2019, caps off a major shift for the Republican Party, which has been swept up by President Trump’s demands for more spending and tax cuts.  Damian Paletta and Erica Werner. Washington Post.

Quincy Jones – The Best Quincy Jones – (full album) HQ.  YouTube.

From the other side of the aisle:

Right revolts on budget deal.   Scott Wong and Melanie Zanona.  The Hill.

Big Jump in Corporate Buybacks.  Critics of the GOP tax overhaul argue that businesses will use their tax cut windfall not for domestic investment but to boost buybacks and enrich shareholders.  Fiscal Times.

Jeff Sessions Says Opioid Addiction Starts With Marijuana. Here Are 6 Studies That Say Otherwise.  Sessions: “We think a lot of this is starting with marijuana and other drugs, too.”  J. Ciaramella.  Reason.Com

Feb. 6, 2018.  On this day in 1959,  Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments filed the first patent for an integrated circuit.

On the Proper Name for the Trump Era: ‘Democracide’, ‘Ochlocracy’, or Something Else.  James Fallows.  The Atlantic.

Falcon Heavy Now Officially the Most Powerful Rocket in the World.  George Dvorsky.  Gizmodo.

A stock market correction? Such groupthink is alarming. Nils Pratley.  Guardian.

Billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong close to deal to buy the L.A. Times and San Diego Union-Tribune.  Meg James and James Rufus Koren. Los Angeles Times.

A Serious Push for Free College in California.  A ballot initiative campaign to restore tuition-free college in California is gaining momentum for the November election, a model other states could follow.  Chuck Collins.  The Nation.

Suddenly, It Sinks In: Era of Easy Money Is Finally Ending.  Investors’ sudden shift from euphoria to anxiety followed a realization: Interest rates and borrowing costs may increase quickly.   Peter S. Goodman. New York Times.

America’s ISIS Jihadists Were Largely Duds. A study shows that the vast majority of people who left the U.S. to become jihadists in Iraq and Syria never saw combat and worked in menial positions.  Robin Wright.  The New Yorker.

The Gilded Age” reflects upon our divisions then, and now. “American Experience” examines another point in history when the wealthy few trampled upon the will of the many. Melanie McFarland.  Salon.

Chicago-based Tronc Inc. will sell the Los Angeles Times.  The newspaper and its parent company have long engaged in a cross-country feud, but the last few months have been particularly chaotic, with rapid turnover in the newsroom’s top ranks.  Paul Farhi.  Washington Post.

Daniel Barenboim. Beethoven Piano Concerto # 5 – Jansons / Bavarian Radio S.O.  YouTube.

From the other side of the aisle:

Pentagon planning grand military parade for Trump. Avery Anapol.  The Hill.

Trump’s NAFTA Antics Will Drive America’s Auto Industry Into a Ditch.  Daniel Griswold.  Reason.Com..

Feb. 5, 2018.  On this day in 1994,  Byron De La Beckwith was convicted of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers.

Boycott the Republican Party. If conservatives want to save the GOP from itself, they need to vote mindlessly and mechanically against its nominees. Jonathan Rauch and Benjamin Wittes. The Atlantic.

Fertile Ground. Using the 2018 Farm Bill To Grow Investment in Private Lands Conservation. Ryan Richards, Mary Ellen Kustin, William Murray, and Caroline Kitchens.  Center for American Progress.

Why Spanish Nationalism Is on the Rise. And What It Means for the Country’s Politics. Omar G. EncarnaciónForeign Affairs.

Apple Music Was Always Going to Win.  Adam Clark Estes. Gizmodo.
Australian and Japanese stock markets slide after Dow suffers biggest one-day points fall.   Claire Phipps, Graeme Wearden and Nick Fletcher.

Guardian.

Trump:  Dems Who Didn’t Clap at SOTU “Treasonous”. President Attacks Democrats Not Clapping At State Of The Union As ‘Un-American’. Marina Fang. Huffington Post.

Millennials Are Keeping Unions Alive. Jobs are precarious, health-care costs are skyrocketing, and wages aren’t keeping up with the cost of living—no wonder young people are organizing.
Michelle Chen.  The Nation.

The Elizabeth Warren Model of Political Leadership. As her campaign against Wells Fargo shows, success on Capitol Hill can’t always be measured through a legislative scorecard.   David Dayen.  New Republic.

Stocks Plunge as Sell-Off Enters 2nd Week. The Dow and S.&P. Lose About 4% as Investors Grow Wary.  Matt Phillips.  New York Times.

Trump Goes Quiet as the Stock Market Slumps. Having boasted as the Dow Jones was rising, the President can hardly complain if people now associate him with it as it falls.  John Cassidy.  The New Yorker.

From the other side of the aisle:

Apple Music on Track to Overtake Spotify in U.S. Subscribers. 
Apple’s U.S. subscriber-account base has been growing about 5% a month, versus No. 1 Spotify’s 2% clip.  Anne Steele.  Wall Street Journal.

Feb. 4, 2018. On this day in 2004, Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook.

China’s Surveillance State Should Scare Everyone. The country is perfecting a vast network of digital espionage as a means of social control—with implications for democracies worldwide. Anna Mitchell and Larry Diamond. The Atlantic.

After Credibility. American Foreign Policy in the Trump Era. Keren Yarhi-Milo. Foreign Affairs.

No 10 rules out customs union with EU. Statement comes after ministers contradict each other and reports of a challenge to Theresa May’s leadership over issue. Rajeev Syal. Guardian.

JR. Gives Away the Game. Trump Jr. Says The Memo His Dad Declassified Is ‘A Little Bit Of Sweet Revenge’. Ryan J. Reilly. Huffington Post.

For another month’s posts see Esauboeck.com/impertinent.