Search Results for: So, Where to Now, America

It’s Time for a Free for All Friday

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Enjoy a Grab Bag of Interesting Articles and Notes Found Around the Internet. Trick or Treat!

Every so often in this space, we round up short, interesting articles to share. Today is such a day. This collection deals with science, medicine, society, and a dash of humor. There are links provided for each article mentioned.

I hope you enjoy these as much as I did.

Just When You Thought You Had Heard All the Amazing Things About Nature

A wonderful article in the Atlantic details how spiders can fly hundreds of miles using electricity.

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Do You Hear What I Hear?

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In the Middle of All the Political News This week, I hear a Christmas Carol in My Head

 

The last few days have been dizzying in the speed and complexity of revelations about the Trump administration. To say anything less would be the Mother of All Understatements. It is coming fast and furious now, from all directions. More – much more – to follow, and at an increasing pace, I would wager.

I was trying to sort through the latest batch of all this a couple of days ago. Suddenly, in the back of my head (kind of an echo chamber effect – apparently,

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This is What Betrayal Looks Like on a Grand Scale

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The Kurds Suffered Over 11,000 deaths in Our Shared Fight against ISIS.                    Trump Thrashed That Sacrifice as an Afterthought

 

Let’s be clear about two things up front. First, the Kurds fought hard – are still fighting – for their own, valid reasons. They were not just helping us. Second, there are ties between the Syrian Kurds and the PKK, a shadowy group of Turkish Kurds fairly described often as Marxist terrorist. All of that is true. None of it justifies what Trump has done.

Trump’s precipitous decision (Whim? Reaction?

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The Business Roundtable: Is This the Future of Capitalism?

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We May Have Been Offered the Right Question at Just the Right Time

 

A New Vision of Economics in America

The Business Roundtable is a visible powerhouse in the American business community. It represents an important level of leadership within that community. It represents a significant amount of economic power.

The Roundtable pronounced last August that the purpose of a corporation is to promote “An economy that serves all Americans.” People took note; a different dialogue began.

This statement of purpose is a dramatic change from those that preceded it since the first such statement in 1978.

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Guns and Health Care: Touchstones or Third Rails?

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Yes, They Are

Some interesting currents are afoot as we approach a presidential election year. The Democrats have choices to make on two defining issues. Guns and health care are at once rewarding and dangerous for Democrats

Whether one agrees with her positions on these two issues, Elizabeth Warren has done an admirable job of defining the question. Will her party go bold or go home?

There are plenty of nuances at work, of course. But in general, there are two Democratic approaches. Some lean toward modest positions. They do so,

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With Friends Like Us, Who Needs Enemies?

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Let’s review a few of the specifics.

EUROPE

  • President Trump has trash talked NATO from the beginning. The only time NATO activated its “attack on one is an attack on all” clause was when we are attacked on 9/11. Our allies responded, including with many deployments to Afghanistan at our request. Now our allies wonder if we would answer when called. Border states in Eastern Europe certainly wonder. So too the Russians. We are now the weak link in NATO. That was unthinkable for over 50 years.
  • Trump more than once tried to insert himself into the British elections.

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Funny Thing About Church Services…

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People Come Together on Sunday (or Friday, or Saturday…) for Very Different Reasons

First, an acknowledgment. I am likely the least religious person you will ever encounter. Still, I maintain an active membership in the Unitarian Universalist community. I attend services and other activities with some measure of regularity. I support the organization with time, talent, and treasure in a conscious manner.

I attended a service this past Sunday (and a fine one it was). I reflected, as I often do during a service, on why I was there. What was it that made me decide that this was where I wished to be?

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The Fortune 500 List is Out. You Should Care About That

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Some Really Interesting Trends Merit Our Attention, America

The Times, They Are A-Changing

Every year, Fortune magazine comes out with a list of the world’s top 500 corporations, with accompanying analysis and articles.

I don’t know the detailed history, but I would feel safe in betting that for many, many years, that list was about 90% American companies. More on why that is important later. For now, just note that there is a lot more diversity on the list – and another giant.

It was inevitable that American dominance of that list would decline.

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Immigration, Refugees, & The Human Condition – Who Are “The Others?”

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We have Learned – or Relearned – Some Hard and Important Lessons

First, a Correction

A few days ago, I mentioned three areas in this subject domain that are especially egregious. One of these became known the day I published the blog. This was denying automatic citizenship to children born of US parents serving overseas.

Two days later, the policy was clarified. While still reprehensible and immoral, it is much more narrowly focused than originally thought. Read more about it here: https://www.npr.org/2019/08/29/755506286/what-do-new-citizenship-rules-for-kids-of-u-s-military-workers-abroad-mean  

Now, on to today’s discussion.

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It Has Come to This – And They Are Not Done Yet

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If What You Are About to Read Doesn’t Enrage You, Relook Who You Are

Immigration – Big Scale, Human Scale

We will be talking in the coming days about immigration writ large. Not just current issues, but the broader and deeper nature of this part of humanity and how we might think about it. That should be a conversation that is balanced and reflective.

But before we get to that, we need to call out the worst of what is going on now in our name. There is not a lot of room for balance and reason for what we will discuss today.

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