Words To Live By

On this fourth of July:

“ASK NOT WHAT YOUR COUNTRY CAN DO FOR YOU – ASK WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR COUNTRY”

Who said those words?

Most Americans know three of them by heart. Scant phrases which, though spoken in the most ritualistic and formal of settings, commonly define an age, and a speaker. “With malice toward none” Lincoln said in his second inaugural address, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Nothing to fear but fear itself” in his first. John F. Kennedy, whose centenary is celebrated this month, uttered the third such phrase at his only inauguration and it is, in popular memory, recalled the most simply: “Ask not.” Of course, that is not the whole of the quotation, or the whole story, which is told here…

The seventeen most inspiring words in 20th century American history were spoken by John F. Kennedy, around mid-day, on January 20, 1961, in Washington, D.C. The occasion was his Presidential Inauguration, and came as he was concluding his Inaugural Address. Kennedy, the first President born in the 20th century, and 27 years younger than his predecessor, Dwight D. Eisenhower, had just declared that the torch had been passed to a new generation of Americans – “born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage” – and pledged to “pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” Then he spoke the seventeen words –

And so, my fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.

Those words, when first heard over a half-century ago, were positively electrifying. No president had ever challenged citizens, in peacetime, to sacrifice or commit to a larger vision. With that single sentence, Kennedy inspired people to new possibilities. He raised their expectations of themselves, and of their nation. In response, some joined the Peace Corps, others the Green Berets; thousands flocked to Washington to be part of the “New Frontier.” Students, thinking ahead to government service, went to law school or into programs with social benefit. All across the country, Kennedy’s words changed lives. “It was a special time,” a Senator remembered years later. “Lord, I’ve never had such a feeling before or since then. It was marvelous; without living it, you can’t express it. It gave the country a lift; it gave the world a lift. People cried in the dusty streets of Africa when he died.” All because of, really, seventeen simple words of inspiration.

My favorite words: “Give me liberty or give me death” and “Don’t tread on me” are my reasons for being an American.

Has Donald Trump or the previous recent presidents lived up to the JFK challenge? Sadly the answer is NO!

A Whale of a Good Time

It is rare that businesses do something that is really entertaining. This is what I call having fun with a new product.

(CNN) — Airbus is making a splash with the design for the latest version of its Beluga transport airplane.

The brand new BelugaXL (Airbus A330-700L) was unveiled in Toulouse, France, earlier this week with a very special paint job.

Its livery includes a whale-style nose cone, sparkling blue eyes and a smiling mouth.

Airbus tweeted an image of its super-sized transporter jet’s makeover along with the caption, “Whale hello there! Introducing the new BelugaXL dressed up in its livery for the first time”!

The smiling whale design was chosen by Airbus staff following a poll in which 20,000 employees were given six options and asked to choose their favorite. With 40% of the vote, it was the clear winner.

Is the American Democracy Doomed?

Democracy is under threat globally, a new report from the Economist Intelligence Unit warns.

 

Top 10 most democratic countries in the world:

  • 1 Norway
  • 2 Iceland
  • 3 Sweden
  • 4 New Zealand
  • 5 Denmark
  • =6 Canada
  • =6 Ireland
  • 8 Australia 
  • =9 Switzerland
  • =9 Finland

The United States remained in the ‘flawed democracy’ threshold, to which it dropped in 2016 after a serious decline in public trust, the Economist said.

Link to map showing the level of democracy of all countries in the world.

https://www.indy100.com/article/democracy-index-economist-intelligence-unit-map-data-report-norway-democratic-united-states-8191501

Half of Americans think the United States is in “real danger of becoming a nondemocratic, authoritarian country.” A majority, 55 percent, see democracy as “weak” – and 68 percent believe it is “getting weaker.” Eight in 10 Americans say they are either “very” or “somewhat” concerned about the condition of democracy here.  I am one of those people.

 

These are among the sobering results of a major bipartisan poll published Tuesday that was commissioned by the George W. Bush Institute, the University of Pennsylvania’s Biden Center and Freedom House, which tracks the vitality of democracies around the world. The three groups have partnered to create the Democracy Project, with the goal of monitoring the health of the American system.

 

“We hope this work can be a step toward restoring faith in democracy and democratic institutions,” Bush said in a statement.

 

The concern about the condition of democracy inside the United States transcends the tribal divide between Republicans and Democrats, with majorities across races, genders, age groups, levels of education and income brackets expressing fear.

 

Sadly I see current president as the person who could bring an end to this republic.  His constant attacks on the media (the press), the courts, and the Republican Party’s willingness to support everything that Trump says and does should be a signal that our nation is in jeopardy.

 

Are Americans really willing to accept a dictatorship?  If the GOP retains control of the congress after the November election I expect even more attacks on the constitution and the laws that have governed this nation since 1789.

 

I will not live under a dictatorship.  Happily there are still some nations that do honor democratic principals.

Refugees

REFUGEES

June 21, 2018 503me

 

It’s easy for Americans to blithely say that people should not flee for refuge when in our lives, never has there been a need to flee for refuge. I would like to share the following written by Warsan Shire.

The writer is a British writer, poet, editor and teacher, who was born to Somali parents in Kenya. Her words “No one leaves home unless/home is the mouth of a shark”, from the poem “Conversations about Home (at a deportation center)”, have been called a rallying call for refugees and their advocates.

HOME
no one leaves home unless
home is the mouth of a shark
you only run for the border
when you see the whole city running as well

your neighbors running faster than you
breathe bloody in their throats
the boy you went to school with
who kissed you dizzy behind the old tin factory
is holding a gun bigger than his body
you only leave home
when home won’t let you stay.

no one leaves home unless home chases you
fire under feet
hot blood in your belly
it’s not something you ever thought of doing
until the blade burnt threats into
your neck
and even then you carried the anthem under
your breath
only tearing up your passport in an airport toilets
sobbing as each mouthful of paper
made it clear that you wouldn’t be going back.

you have to understand,
that no one puts their children in a boat
unless the water is safer than the land
no one burns their palms
under trains
beneath carriages
no one spends days and nights in the stomach of a truck
feeding on newspaper unless the miles travelled
means something more than journey.
no one crawls under fences
no one wants to be beaten
pitied

no one chooses refugee camps
or strip searches where your
body is left aching
or prison,
because prison is safer
than a city of fire
and one prison guard
in the night
is better than a truckload
of men who look like your father
no one could take it
no one could stomach it
no one skin would be tough enough

the
go home blacks
refugees
dirty immigrants
asylum seekers
sucking our country dry
niggers with their hands out
they smell strange
savage
messed up their country and now they want
to mess ours up
how do the words
the dirty looks
roll off your backs
maybe because the blow is softer
than a limb torn off

or the words are more tender
than fourteen men between
your legs
or the insults are easier
to swallow
than rubble
than bone
than your child body
in pieces.
I want to go home,
but home is the mouth of a shark
home is the barrel of the gun
and no one would leave home
unless home chased you to the shore
unless home told you
to quicken your legs
leave your clothes behind
crawl through the desert
wade through the oceans
drown
save
be hunger
beg
forget pride
your survival is more important

no one leaves home until home is a sweaty voice in your ear
saying-
leave,
run away from me now
I don’t know what I’ve become
but I know that anywhere
is safer than here.

~ Warsan Shire

Skyscraper Building Boom

When we visited Toronto Canada for the first time in 2009 we were astonished by the number of high rise buildings under construction throughout the city.  Walking on Yonge Street there were signs announcing plans for more sky scrapers to be built within the coming year or two.  When we visited Toronto again in 2017 the construction of new sky scrapers had not diminished.

Yonge Street Toronto

There is a high rise (skyscraper) construction boom under way in many major cities all over North America.

The Comcast Development Center in Philadelphia is adding a 1,121-foot-tall building to that city’s skyline.

Chicago is adding the Vista Tower. It is an 1,186-foot tall luxury hotel and condo tower. There is actually 50 high rises of 100 feet or more under construction in Chicago.

After 1992, when the California Plaza was built there were no new skyscrapers in Los Angeles until 2003. That new high-rise was just a 35 story building. Then starting in 2009 there has been a resurgence in high-rise construction throughout Los Angeles. The Wilshire Grand was just completed last year as the tallest building west of the Mississippi. It is about to be eclipsed by another high-rise at 1107 feet.

77-story planned Bunker Hill tower drawn into a photo of the area

The first phase of a massive redevelopment of the old Boston Garden site will ultimately add 1.87 million square feet of shops, restaurants, offices, hotel rooms, and residences and is set to finish sometime this year. Eventually, the joint project between developers Boston Properties and Delaware North will include a 38-story residential tower, 21-story office tower, as well as new transit connections and outdoor space.

There 14 high-rises under construction in San Francisco right now. The Salesforce Tower will be that city’s new tallest building beating the famous TransAmerica Tower.

Meanwhile Toronto Canada is trying its very best to be second to New York City with traffic, subways and over 60 high rises over 500 feet. Most of them are jammed into their downtown area. The tallest is 978 feet. A 1,043 foot tall 85 floor building is under construction now an even taller 98 story building is awaiting approval of their city council.

 

Artist conception – Tallest building tower “Yonge Street Living” is proposed for downtown Toronto

Most of these projects are a combination of offices, hotels, stores, and residences.  Living closer to the center of the city means less commuting.  That translates to less traffic on our congested roads and easier access to museums, entertainment centers, and hospitals.  Add to that is we like living in busy cosmopolitan cities.  The proof is the tourism to NYC, Las Vegas, and downtown San Francisco.

A Madman in the White House

We have reached a Code Red period in American history. Thomas Friedman, New York Times columnist defined this situation in his May 29, 2018 column. Yes his column is long but is worth your time if you care about America’s future.

Everyone reading this should be very afraid of the direction of the United States. Most Republicans appear to support the words and behavior of Donald Trump. Trump’s admiration of dictators and his attacks on the courts, America’s closest allies, the press and everything that have made the America the envy of the world should cause even those ardent loyal Republicans concern for this republic. Many dictators gained their positions through the ballot box and then convinced the public that they should remain in power indefinitely. If re-elected in 2020 I anticipate Trump will attempt to convince America that he should continue to be president for the rest of his life.

Sadly many Americans DO NOT understand or are even slightly aware of the details of the Constitution. The exception is the 2nd amendment. That thanks to the NRA. I would be willing to bet most people have not even read that amendment.

If you dream of a Russian or North Korean style government in America just shut your eyes and stay away from the ballot box in November or any other time there is an election.

If you believe it is OK to treat human beings like animals than Donald Trump is your man.

Fortunately there are thousands of people voicing their opposition to Donald Trump.  This is not Nazi Germany!

Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times columnist FEB. 18, 2018

Our democracy is in serious danger.

President Trump is either totally compromised by the Russians or is a towering fool, or both, but either way he has shown himself unwilling or unable to defend America against a Russian campaign to divide and undermine our democracy.

That is, either Trump’s real estate empire has taken large amounts of money from shady oligarchs linked to the Kremlin — so much that they literally own him; or rumors are true that he engaged in sexual misbehavior while he was in Moscow running the Miss Universe contest, which Russian intelligence has on tape and he doesn’t want released; or Trump actually believes Russian President Vladimir Putin when he says he is innocent of intervening in our elections — over the explicit findings of Trump’s own C.I.A., N.S.A. and F.B.I. chiefs.

In sum, Trump is either hiding something so threatening to himself, or he’s criminally incompetent to be commander-in-chief. It is impossible yet to say which explanation for his behavior is true, but it seems highly likely that one of these scenarios explains Trump’s refusal to respond to Russia’s direct attack on our system — a quiescence that is simply unprecedented for any U.S. president in history. Russia is not our friend. It has acted in a hostile manner. And Trump keeps ignoring it all.

Up to now, Trump has been flouting the norms of the presidency. Now Trump’s behavior amounts to a refusal to carry out his oath of office — to protect and defend the Constitution. Here’s an imperfect but close analogy: It’s as if George W. Bush had said after 9/11: “No big deal. I am going golfing over the weekend in Florida and blogging about how it’s all the Democrats’ fault — no need to hold a National Security Council meeting.”

At a time when the special prosecutor Robert Mueller — leveraging several years of intelligence gathering by the F.B.I., C.I.A. and N.S.A. — has brought indictments against 13 Russian nationals and three Russian groups — all linked in some way to the Kremlin — for interfering with the 2016 U.S. elections, America needs a president who will lead our nation’s defense against this attack on the integrity of our electoral democracy.

What would that look like? He would educate the public on the scale of the problem; he would bring together all the stakeholders — state and local election authorities, the federal government, both parties and all the owners of social networks that the Russians used to carry out their interference — to mount an effective defense; and he would bring together our intelligence and military experts to mount an effective offense against Putin — the best defense of all.

What we have instead is a president vulgarly tweeting that the Russians are “laughing their asses off in Moscow” for how we’ve been investigating their interventions — and exploiting the terrible school shooting in Florida — and the failure of the F.B.I. to properly forward to its Miami field office a tip on the killer — to throw the entire F.B.I. under the bus and create a new excuse to shut down the Mueller investigation.

Think for a moment how demented was Trump’s Saturday night tweet: “Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign — there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!”

To the contrary. Our F.B.I., C.I.A. and N.S.A., working with the special counsel, have done us amazingly proud. They’ve uncovered a Russian program to divide Americans and tilt our last election toward Trump — i.e., to undermine the very core of our democracy — and Trump is telling them to get back to important things like tracking would-be school shooters. Yes, the F.B.I. made a mistake in Florida. But it acted heroically on Russia. What is more basic than protecting American democracy?

It is so obvious what Trump is up to: Again, he is either a total sucker for Putin or, more likely, he is hiding something that he knows the Russians have on him, and he knows that the longer Mueller’s investigation goes on, the more likely he will be to find and expose it.

Donald, if you are so innocent, why do you go to such extraordinary lengths to try to shut Mueller down? And if you are really the president — not still head of the Trump Organization, who moonlights as president, which is how you so often behave — why don’t you actually lead — lead not only a proper cyber defense of our elections, but also an offense against Putin.

Putin used cyber warfare to poison American politics, to spread fake news, to help elect a chaos candidate, all in order to weaken our democracy. We should be using our cyber-capabilities to spread the truth about Putin — just how much money he has stolen, just how many lies he has spread, just how many rivals he has jailed or made disappear — all to weaken his autocracy. That is what a real president would be doing right now.

My guess is what Trump is hiding has to do with money. It’s something about his financial ties to business elites tied to the Kremlin. They may own a big stake in him. Who can forget that quote from his son Donald Trump Jr. from back in 2008: “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross section of a lot of our assets.” They may own our president.

But whatever it is, Trump is either trying so hard to hide it or is so naïve about Russia that he is ready to not only resist mounting a proper defense of our democracy, he’s actually ready to undermine some of our most important institutions, the F.B.I. and Justice Department, to keep his compromised status hidden.

That must not be tolerated. This is code red. The biggest threat to the integrity of our democracy today is in the Oval Office.

Trump wants to be Treated as North Koreans Treats Kim Jong Un

Trump says he wants the US to treat him like North Korea treats Kim Jong Un

Donald Trump’s admiration of dictators is frightening.  It appears he too dreams of being such a dictator or perhaps king with absolute power.

Posted by Alex Lockie of Business Insider and appearing on AOL.COM on Friday June 15,2018.  The Los Angeles Times posted a similar article on Saturday June 16, 2018. You can’t make this stuff up.  Time magazine’s cover of Trump as king of the United States really does appear to be the thinking of Trump.  Just two days ago Trump said that the press is America’s enemy.  Grading media loyalty would be a first step to deterring any media outlet that dares to write anything that counters the Trump narrative.  Erdogan and Putin do not permit any disloyal media.  Sadly too many Americans are not standing up for American democracy and the constitution.

President Donald Trump returned from his Singapore summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un with an apparent new respect for the dictator’s control over his people.

“He is the strong head,” Trump said of Kim during a surprise appearance on Fox News. “Don’t let anyone think anything different. He speaks and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same.”

Trump later told a reporter he was being sarcastic.

“I’m kidding. You don’t understand sarcasm,” he said.

Trump’s comment on Fox followed other musings during the Singapore trip while watching a bit of North Korean television.

North Korea’s news anchor, Ri Chun Hee, delivers propaganda on behalf of Kim’s regime. North Korean news, which is entirely state-run, solely consists of statements that shine a positive light on Kim and the country. As Trump watched, according to The Washington Post, he remarked about her praise of Kim and suggested she could work for Fox News.

North Korea’s news doesn’t just give its citizens state-approved information. It also tells them how to they’re expected to think about that news, too. Any deviation from the state-approved script can land a North Korean citizen in a political prison camp, where the treatment is reportedly on par with Nazi German death camps.

In the US, Fox News is routinely criticized for its coverage of Trump. Fox News has gotten greater access to Trump than any other news outlet throughout his campaign and presidency.

Under Trump, a senior advisor to the State Department started monitoring the social media feeds of career diplomats and American employees of international institutions to grade their loyalty to Trump.

Kim Jong Un Wins

In his speech on September 30, 1938, Neville Chamberlain famously declared “My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honor. I believe it is peace for our time…” The “peace for our time” was a reference to Benjamin Disraeli’s address after returning from the Congress of Berlin in 1878.

Winston Churchill in the British parliament said “Chamberlain had the choice between war and shame. Now he has chosen shame – he’ll get war later.”

The United Kingdom, along with most of its Dominions and Crown colonies declared war on Nazi Germany in September 1939.

Sadly, Donald Trump has not read and is not a fan of any history.

Thus Trump signs a document that says we agree to talk.  It is better than war.  Prior agreements with North Korea have not resulted in any change by North Korea in its effort to threaten the world.  Under the current leader Kim Jong Un the threat of a nuclear war has become even greater.  There is nothing in this agreement that that takes the world one step closer to denuclearization. Just today Trump has announced that the United States will discontinue joint military exercises in South Korea.  The exercises have been a sore point for North Korea for decades.  They obtained that concession without giving one thing in return. Where was the tough talk of Secretary State Mike Pompeo?

Donald Trump is the 21st century version of Neville Chamberlin.

 

Joint Statement of President Donald J. Trump of the United States of America and Chairman Kim Jong Un of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea at the Singapore Summit

President Donald J. Trump of the United States of America and Chairman Kim Jong Un of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) held a first, historic summit in Singapore on June 12, 2018.

President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un conducted a comprehensive, in-depth and sincere exchange of opinions on the issues related to the establishment of new US-DPRK relations and the building of a lasting and robust peace regime on the Korean Peninsula. President Trump committed to provide security guarantees to the DPRK, and Chairman Kim Jong Un reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Convinced that the establishment of new US-DPRK relations will contribute to the peace and prosperity of the Korean Peninsula and of the world, and recognizing that mutual confidence building can promote the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un state the following:

1.    The United States and the DPRK commit to establish new US-DPRK relations in accordance with the desire of the peoples of the two countries for peace and prosperity.

2.    The United States and DPRK will join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.

3.    Reaffirming the April 27, 2018 Panmunjom Declaration, the DPRK commits to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula

4.    The United States and the DPRK commit to recovering POW/MIA remains, including the immediate repatriation of those already identified.

Suicide in America

The CDC has reported that suicides in the United States have risen by 25% since 1999.  It has been an act taken by both the rich and famous and the rest of us.  Depression and anxiety are the apparent causes.  In 2016, nearly 45,000 Americans age 10 or older died by suicide. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death and is one of just three leading causes that are on the rise.

Robin Williams, a most famous movie and television actor, comes to mind as an unexpected act that shocked Americans. He died in August 2014. The apparent cause of death was suicide by asphyxiation, authorities said. According to his publicist, Williams had been battling severe depression and spent time in rehab as recently as July of that year.

And now in just a week Kate Spade, a famous fashion designer, and Anthony Bourdain, famed chef and world traveler, both ended their lives.  No one except perhaps their closest friends knew of their pain.

When news broke that celebrity chef and author Anthony Bourdain took his own life just three days after fashion icon Kate Spade killed herself, mental health experts raised concerns about the extensive news coverage that was sure to follow and how that might impact others struggling with thoughts of suicide.

“When I heard about Bourdain, I was sad for him and for all the people who were going to hear about it, and I am also sad for people who might be influenced by it,” said Madelyn Gould, a professor of epidemiology in child psychiatry at Columbia University.

According to the CDC researchers found that more than half of people who died by suicide did not have a known diagnosed mental health condition at the time of death. Relationship problems or loss, substance misuse; physical health problems; and job, money, legal or housing stress often contributed to risk for suicide. Firearms were the most common method of suicide used by those with and without a known diagnosed mental health condition.

My own personal pain has been growing for years.  I should probably see a doctor.  My logic is that I do not see any way that any doctor can offer a cure.  That is probably the reason so many people do not seek help.

The suicide prevention line is 1-800-273-8255.

President Trump Dressed as a King

The latest Time magazine cover features an illustration of President Donald Trump gazing at a reflection of himself in which he’s dressed up as a monarch, complete with jeweled crown and fur cape.

The Time cover gets Trump just right!

I have a file of Donald Trump photos and Donald Trump cartoons.  The file is titled King Trump.  Naturally I was delighted to see Time Magazine’s latest cover page. I look forward to reading “Visions of Absolute Power” and “Trump vs the Constitution.”  This cover was just released this morning.

The wonder to me is that the G.O.P. is in support of someone who clearly defies the constitution and the functions of government that has made America the place everyone wants to live.  Migration to America has been a hallmark of the United States.  Supporting those nations that try to emulate American ideals has been a historic reality throughout the 20th century.

One man wants to tear it all apart.  When will our congress act to stop the destruction of our constitution and our ideals?