READING: Various things on Czechoslovakia during WWI. Our friend John B. from church was born there and immigrated to the US...I am always fascinated with the memories he shares with me about his time there between the two wars, before he came to the US. I could listen endlessly to him speak of it all. He is kind enough to share it with me...anyway, reading about those times.
Photo: Nice Juicy Strawberries, who can resist them? Not me, that's for sure! These were destined for slicing and serving over a scoop of vanilla ice cream for dessert this evening. My favorite way to eat them, though, is just to stem and hull them and pop them into my mouth with them wearing nothing but a few drops of ice water. Can't top a strawberry for snacking.
FAV THING TODAY: Matt has been driving to and from school and swim practice now on his own with the new driver's license. He came in and said, "Well, I like this driving just fine, but Mom, I really miss you every day because it's kind of lonely just by myself with no one asking about my day and what I had for lunch and what homework I had and how all my friends are and stuff like that. I even miss your corny music." Big Smile! How sweet was this? I was waiting for the punch line, but there wasn't one. He didn't even ask for anything. Just a gift for me today. I've had several gifts like that today...it's been a lovely day.
FAV NEW FIND: Well, Mark's new car is nice...I like the color and it sits well...haven't driven it yet, but might do that this weekend after he has had it a few days. I never like to get anything new, so I have to ease into acquisitions around here. And...my sister Karen has a new house in CR...on a hill...she found just the one she liked and decided to go that route rather than rebuild after the flood, so hopefully I can get out there and help her get settled a bit as she gets possession October 3rd...nothing like Iowa in the fall. The house is really cute and just the right size for her.
GOING TO: It's football watching time! Last week: wins for Hoos, Hawks, CHS, but not for Guerin, although Ali and Harrison's school won that one, so that was nice as we are awfully fond of Ali and Harrison and their families.
PRAYING FOR: Katie and Rebecca who have both been down recovering this past week, one with knee surgery, one with pneumonia, and for Meredith as she discerns her vocational dreams of becoming a nun. Please join me.
Lovely bushes down by our pool with such fantastic color for this time of year.
READING: Le Cordon Bleu at Home cookbook...trying to work through some/most/all of the recipes and techniques that Shari has already started doing at Whisk Wednesdays by August...sort of a catching up to where she is so we are on the same track from that point onward.
POOLSIDE READING: T is for Trespass by Sue Grafton...love to read mysteries around the pool waiting for Matt to finish swim practices.
LISTENING TO: Steppenwolf, Born to Be Wild -- always makes me think of the National Lampoon's Vacation movie with Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold loading up the Winnebago and sliding this in his 8-track with his family in tow for their yearly summer vacation...usually worth a giggle. Second giggle in that movie is the Marty Moose song. Actually, you pretty much just giggle your way all through that movie. May have to dust the cobwebs off that one and have a "goofy movie" night soon. Let's see, better have Drop Dead, Fred also...my boys are way, way under-appreciative of DDF, however...they just don't see the humor in that one at all. It's probably an acquired taste...don't have any idea where I acquired it.
FAV NEW FIND: Artichokes...who knew?
FAV THING TODAY; Thursday morning swim practices are at an outdoor pool from 6:00-8:15 a.m., so I like to go a little early on the pick-up side of the run and watch the kids swim as usually there is a game or some sort of silly competition at the end. Just a nice way to start the day, watching all the swimmers having a good time together at practice. The girls always go nicely to the locker room afterward, wringing out their wet hair as they go, chatting quietly among themselves. The boys at this age are a different story...lots of horseplay and talking in loud voices, hollering in the locker rooms, etc. It's like chaos in there...I have no idea what they are doing, but it sounds like a big fraternity party on their side of the shower rooms. Things come flying out the door, goggles and suits are thrown all over the place, water bottles go scuttling across the floor...I am sure you get the picture. When they get into the car, however, I usually ask, "What was going on in there this morning?" Answer: "Oh, the usual." Me: "How was practice?" Answer: "Fine." Fairly quiet most of the way home until Matt thinks about where he might want to try to talk me into going out for lunch...Thursdays being our "lunch out day" and all. Guys...who can figure them out?
GOING TO: Everyone is going different directions this weekend, but I am staying home and really need to attend to my desk...let's just say I have a little pile here and there on it of things that don't seem all that important on the bright sunny days of summer, but that I really should file, tend to, and otherwise act upon. Other than that, I hope to swim, get caught up on some of the LCBAH cooking techniques that Shari is way ahead of me on, do some scrapbooking, knitting, and quilting. OOOHHH...I like the sounds of all of it.
PRAYING FOR: All the people in Iowa trying to put their lives back on track with the receding flood waters. Please join me. Maybe I should go out there and help instead of hanging around here...maybe I should do that. Might, just might.
Instead of my regular Thursday's Favorite Fare list this week, Shari tagged me on her blog, and since Shelley and others played along, I feel I must, too, as I am somewhat compulsive (okay, a lot) about doing things people would like me to do. That said, please know that I tried to do this type of thing once before when I was new to blogging and it was a TOTAL DISASTER, so it is with great trepidation that I do it now. If there is a way to do something badly and wrong, surely I will stumble upon it almost immediately and make the worst of it. (Don't ask.) I am going to modify the tag somewhat, and it is open to anyone who wants to play along without me naming anyone specifically.
Well, I know what I wasn't doing...it was the summer before the boys began swimming with a swim team, so I wasn't driving to swim practices twice a day year round. Who knew life would take such a surprising turn?
Mark, Matthew, Alex, and I had just returned from a family vacation to Williamsburg, Virginia where we had a fantastic time...the boys (5 years old, almost 6) loved every moment of it...the historical bits and the Busch Garden amusement park, etc. It was a wonderful time for all of us.
2. Volunteer work for a few hours.
3. Work on my quilting project.
5. Quilting class this evening.
6. I had to add a number 6 because my Le Cordon Bleu At Home book arrived and I am planning on reading that tonight after quilting class...I already took several peeks, however...very very nice.
1. Any kind of cheese, cut into little tiny cubes, at room temperature.
2. Any kind of fruit.
3. Greek, Italian, and Spanish Olives.
4. Pickles...any kind of pickle you can think of...any kind, any time.
1. Truly I would use most of it to help others. Truly, I would. I cannot think of anything I really need or want...I am a very lucky girl and feel guilty about that most of the time. It would be great to help others. But in the sense of playing along, see the rest of the list.
4. Never own a house...just live somewhere and then move whenever I felt like it to somewhere else...nothing to tie me down to one spot. This goes along with love of travel and wanting to stay in place just long enough to really get the feel of it, etc., and then move somewhere else and do it all over again.
And, because Thursdays are my days to ask for prayers, in your charity please join me and pray for the repose of the soul of our friend Chuck, pray for strength and guidance for his wife Jane, fortitude for their daughters Libby (17) and Tori (16). If you would like to know more about this amazing man and the wonderful legacies he leaves behind, please click here. Thank you.
READING: Quilting books for a little research on where I want to go with this quilting phase I am going through.
LISTENING TO: Bob Seger...gotta love Bob's music, don't you?
FAV NEW FIND; Quilting board (12" by 12" roughly) that has sandpaper on the front to hold the material steady while tracing a template...way easier than trying to hold the template, trace the pattern, hold the material down...way easier. You can make one or buy one...we are not a "having-sandpaper-around" type family, so I figured it would save gas and mileage, hassle, multiple purchases, etc., and just buy the one at the store. Good move, love this thing...absolutely love it.
SCRAPBOOK PAGES THIS WEEK; I worked on quilting and knitting, so nothing in the scrapbook realm until this weekend when I will have some time to do such and Matt and Alex will want to work on their 4-H scrapbooks to get those organized and on the way to completion for the fair.
GOING TO: Plans changed and we have a free weekend to hang around town and do some things around the house...going to be very hot, so probably a lot of time in the pool and yard; get organized for Matt and I to be on the road next week with swimming in Louisville.
PRAYING FOR: It's Ordination week here, please join me in praying for the men currently serving as priests, for those who are embarking upon their vocational calling this weekend, and for those discerning such in the seminaries.
My little dwarf Magnolia tree in the backyard that Mark planted for my birthday a few years ago is blooming! The last couple of years it had only a handful of flowers on it in the spring, but was nicely green all summer. This year: Surprise! A huge amount of flowers...isn't it exciting? Well, okay, maybe not for you...but I am very excited with all the blooms this year.
Here is a ten minute post as I have been out and back and out and back again already this morning and need to be back out and working by 10:00. A beautiful day here, absolutely beautiful, and lots to smile about. Have a great day!
READING: Still reading the Bismarck book from last week.
LISTENING TO: Neil Young's Harvest album...an oldie but goodie. Harvest Moon and Heart of Gold being my favorites from this album. The man is amazing...his list of songs is endless!
FAV NEW FIND: Chenille yarn...oh, this is so soft...I just love the feel of it on my fingertips when I am knitting with it...I am going to make a throw as I can just feel how wonderful it would be to have across my lap when I am reading by the fireplace in the winter. Love it.
FAV THING TODAY; Old friends...and I mean OLD...right, Jeff? Happy Birthday, Old Friend...talk to you at 9:00 p.m. tonight...really, hopefully by 9:00 p.m. and not 10:00 p.m. Mark will be back from golfing by then, too, so you get twice the hassle about your advancing age.
SCRAPBOOK PAGES THIS WEEK; Six events...don't know how many pages as I forgot to count, but at least 12 pages. Workshops are great for getting one's self organized and headed in the right direction.
GOING TO: Confirmation at SEAS, Water Safety Training Seminar, West Side Story at Guerin, CSC Banquet Brunch, swimming, choir, golfing, scouting trip for Alex, and whatever else we can fit in the tween (and yes, that is so a word, look it up if you don't believe me).
PRAYING FOR: The Confirmation candidates, please join me.
A nice photo of Alan and Mark last evening before they headed out for golfing. (Alan is Mark's youngest brother, eleven years separate the two.) As you can see, we are still way late in the blooming of the greenery around here.
READING: Bismarck: Profiles in Power by Katharine Anne Lerman (My take on it: Prussian ANgst and ANticipation over ANcillary ANnexations...I am not even going to try to convince you all to read it.) Come on, you are so impressed that I hooked that all up to the "AN" theme, right? Okay, maybe not so much...but I tried!
LISTENING TO: America: A Horse With No Name is playing now.
FAV NEW FIND: I know, I promised I would lighten up about the knitting business...but at class this week, our instructor showed us this knitting needle kit and I thought, "Hmmm...this would be more economical than buying each size of needle, etc. It all fits NICELY AND NEATLY in one small case, and I do have a birthday coming up when my guys will be asking, 'Mom, please just think of SOMETHING that you would like to have for your birthday,' so this might just be my favorite new find...just might be."
FAV THING TODAY: Well, there are many many birthdays this month of those near and dear to me...it such fun to celebrate all the birthdays. I admit it, as old as I am, I still look forward to my birthday each year. And, to be honest, I love celebrating everyone else's birthdays as much as I do celebrating my own. It's just always a very good time. So, today is Megan's 15th birthday and Lora's 16th birthday. Happy Birthday, Girls! It's such fun to watch as you are growing up over these years.
SCRAPBOOK PAGES THIS WEEK; Today I am spiffing up THE AREA and going through the digital photos to see what I want to have printed for the scrapbook as Monday is a four-hour workshop that I am hoping to be able to attend to hopefully make a dent in the last couple of months' activities waiting to be put into the albums. I have an idea...why don't you come to the workshop with me!
GOING TO: Let's see...where will we all be...golfing; helping with the In-coming Freshman Retreat at Guerin all day Saturday; the CSC Splash, Flash, and Dash Triathlon on Sunday; IYC choir rehearsal....and various points between. Sounds like a fun weekend.
PRAYING FOR: My friend, Anne, as tomorrow marks the six-month anniversary of Rich's death, and these past six months have been heartbreakingly difficult for her. This week she sorted Rich's clothing to donate, etc. and each day brings some new realization that Rich is never coming home again. For all of us who knew him/them, not a day goes by that we don't think of them and feel the unreality of it all. We all stand in abject fear of what it would mean to each of us to lose our spouse. To have your loved one permanently out of reach, not able to chat and touch and hold...to have all that disappear with no warning. Praying for Anne, her family, and everyone suffering the loss of a dear loved one, please join me.
Photo is of a few of the daffodils blooming in our front flower beds. They are just beautiful this week.
READING: Knitting books...just trying to get a feel for what is out there these days. It is very different from when I was watching my grandmothers as they were knitting throws, scarves, mittens, slippers, sweaters, etc. There is a much greater variety, and much of it is more modern in style!
FAV THING TODAY: Spring Break!
GOING TO: Continue enjoying just moving where the wind blows us this week for Spring Break. No real plan...we just get up each morning and say, "Let's do this...." No golf today as it has started raining and promises to keep it up. Bowling...I think we are headed to the bowling alley when we round up some fellow bowlers...yep, that's where we are going...catch you later!
PRAYING FOR: Families struggling with the loss of jobs and the fervent search for new employment, please join me.
My friend, Jan, in knitting class this morning. Her scarf is going to be Carmel High School gold...I opted for a deep wine color as the thought of making something in Guerin purple really didn't seem very "me."
FAV NEW FIND: The Indiana University Hoosier men's basketball team now has a new head coach...all signed, sealed, and official like. (And, it is not Tony Bennett.) It is Tom Crean. Mark is just delighted, which is saying a lot, as Mark has not been delighted about the coaching at IU since BK left. All is right with the world. Okay, maybe not all, but it feels very good to have Tom Crean at the helm down in Bloomington.
FAV QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Maybe not so much a quote, but fun nonetheless. With the advent of Tom Crean as head Hoo coach, the IU team colors being Cream and Crimson, it was pretty much (sorry, Thurber), a given that at the formal announcement yesterday, there were already teeshirts saying "Crean and Crimson." It's worth a little giggle, right? Just a little?
FAV THING TODAY: Well, of course, my knitting class and then lunch at Keltie's with Jan. Can you even believe this? I'm actually the one doing it, and even I don't believe it: I learned how to knit the first type of stitch, something called a garter stitch. I might have something to post next week on Craft Day!
SCRAPBOOK PAGES THIS WEEK; Three...I lost something that I really really needed for one of those pages, so I am trying to track down another copy before moving on. What's that prayer we used to pray to St. Anthony when we were little, "Tony, Tony, look around, something's lost and must be found...." Hopefully, I will find it and be saying the last part of it soon...."Now it's found, and I've been blessed, Tony, Tony, you're the best!" Some things in life just never leave you, no matter how old you get. It's good to remember things like this once in awhile.
GOING TO: Enjoy Spring Break, which officially begins today after school! We went back and forth about going somewhere, and decided that what we really wanted to do was sleep late (which means 8:00 a.m. for me, probably slightly later for Matt, and probably around noon for Alex) every day (if you are a swimmer, you will appreciate the sleeping-in-later and realize that emphasis put on that can never been stressed enough), stay home once in awhile, and do things we love around our city...maybe a few day trips to check out some other cities. No one wanted to wait around in airports or get in the car and drive to Florida. No one wanted to stand in all the lines in Chicago, etc. So, we are going to just go where the wind takes us this week...I will post the results. I am SO LOOKING FORWARD to the swimming break...be still my heart...ah, the taste of freedom!
PRAYING FOR: Safety for our friends and relatives who are traveling for spring break, and for all travelers in general...please join me.
The pear tree in our front yard this morning. I am trying to be patient about this sort of thing, and to find beauty in it, but frankly, I am getting just a little tired of the cold gray days and am ready for spring. Anytime. Soon. Real soon.
READING: Still on a Shakespeare kick.
COOKING THROUGH: Meatless recipes for Lent.
FAV NEW FIND: A quick click site with a little news reel showcasing events happening on This Day in History. You can check it out by clicking here, or accessing it through the list on the left-hand sidebar of this blog.
GOING TO: Catch up on things around here as everyone is home together for the first weekend since the beginning of the year! Swimming, Choir, a trip up to Elwood to check on things up there, basketball watching, and hopefully a movie somewhere in there.
PRAYING FOR: Please pray for the repose of the soul of Lonna K, wife of Martin, mother to McKenna (11), Keegan (9), and Garren (8), who lost her battle with cancer...for all cancer sufferers everywhere and all young children suffering the loss of a parent from cancer, please join me.
READING: Shakespeare's Hamlet as I have not read it since college and am going to see it performed this coming week...a refresher is always nice...and even in drama, Shakespeare is always fun.
POOLSIDE READING: Finishing Donna Leon's third mystery book (1994) Dressed for Death; 13 more to go in that series...yahoo! What's not to love about reading a series of books set in Venice? It's hard not to fall in love with Guido...he is a nice family man, loves his wife and children, and isn't fussy like Poirot. He could come for dinner here anytime.
LISTENING TO: Dylan...it's been a Dylan kind of week around here...some Stones...a little Traveling Wilburys for whatever reason I was inspired to dig that out...and various classical pieces that will send you all yawning into the weekend because you all aren't very tolerant with me on those. What's playing there? Anything new I need to check out?
COOKING THROUGH: Autumn has arrived...I have lots of staples for autumn cooking involving squash and parsnips and brussels sprouts...oh my! (Helps to sing it to the tune of "Lions and Tigers and Bears" from the Wizard of Oz.) Seriously, hands down, one of our favorites: Peel and cut in large chunks one butternut squash, toss on a sheet pan with a little olive oil (little, mind you...not swimming in it), salt and pepper and bake at 425 degrees for 30 minutes (longer if you like it mushier or you have cut them in really big chunks). This is one of our absolute favorites, healthy, and so very easy!
FAV THING TODAY; Feeling really good today about all the nice reports on Matt's grades, etc. last night at the Parent/Teacher gig. As a homeschooling mom you hear it all...not all of it good, obviously, about how we are "harming" our kids by homeschooling them and how they will never "fit in," etc. Ad nauseam. We have never isolated the boys...they have always been out there participating in everything and then some, etc. and they are well-rounded young men who function very nicely in everything they do. It was so nice to have that validated by the teachers who were all saying how wonderful Matt was and how nice, polite, considerate, helpful, kind, etc. they found him to be each day. And the thing I loved hearing the most was how easily he was adjusting to school life, how well prepared he is for his classes each day, how he gets along with and makes friends easily, etc. Music to my ears. That and his grades are excellent! Homeschooling: Another option, not for everyone, but truly another schooling option. I'm so happy we did it all those years...I would not trade them for anything.
SCRAPBOOK PAGES THIS WEEK; Tomorrow...going to Anne's to scrapbook for a couple of hours in the afternoon and may find some time while watching the IU/Iowa football game this weekend to do a little also. Get to do the homecoming photos, etc. That should be fun.
GOING TO: Frankly, I have lost track of where everyone is going to be this weekend. Let's see: the opera, camping, swimming, IYC singing, church, Carmel Swim Club yearly hayride, and the Colts game on Sunday. I may have missed something, but if you are looking for us, check these places first. What's going on in your neck of the woods?
View of Guerin this morning at 7:30 looking out from the vacant farmstead and the bean field (and yes, I agree, those beans should have been walked early on in the season). Just lovely to pause a bit after dropping Matt off at school and appreciate the view...it takes me back and makes me smile.
READING: Still reading The Tree...way too much movie watching going on over here this week.
POOLSIDE READING: Finishing Donna Leon's second mystery book (1993) Death in a Strange Country; 14 more to go in that series...yahoo! What's not to love about reading a series of books set in Venice?
LISTENING TO: Snow Patrol...am a huge U2 fan, Snow Patrol may be there someday and I can say that I have been listening to them for years...they are having a good run...those Irish boys do rock nicely, don't they?
COOKING THROUGH: Apple recipes...it is, after all, apple season...and, don'tyaknow...got one for homemade applesauce in the slow cooker going right now. The house smells divine...cinnamon and apples...how delicious!
FAV NEW FIND: When young men are transporting a date to Homecoming, they suddenly take a great interest in cleaning, vacuuming, dusting, windexing, armoraling, the transportation vehicle into pristine condition...Blue Bernice enjoyed her spa treatments and she and I are hoping that the next school dance is not too far off (the boys aren't actually allowed to "date" yet, but they can attend school dances with a girl this year). Blue Bernice looks as good as the day we brought her home from the new car lot...if she were a boat, she would be yare...okay, maybe not for "speed and agility," but she is definitely the "set for action and ready" part of yare!
FAV THING TODAY; Well, all week actually as AMC is running 7 days of Hitchcock movies...I love Hitchcock movies and have been wasting away each evening enjoying such with proper movie-watching style (alternating between chair and couch and popcorn with salt or without)...and staying up much too late! Tonight: The Man Who Knew Too Much. Trouble With Harry is slated for 8 p.m. Friday (tough one...Guerin second half or Hitchcock...hmmmm...oh, wait, it is also on at 3 p.m. Saturday...this can be our movie after our girls' lunch...we can just watch it here in the new Men's Den as they will all be gone for the day! I love it when I don't have to choose between two favorites and can have both...life seldom works out that way, however, so I will be very appreciative that in this case it does).
SCRAPBOOK PAGES THIS WEEK; Ha ha ha...too nice outside to do much in this regard, and there are those Hitchcock movies this week.
GOING TO: Friday: Swimming, Guerin football; Saturday: Guys going to Catholic Men's Conference, leaving me free for at the very least, swimming, a chick flick and lunch with girlfriends; and Sunday: Mass, singing, golf, swimming, and LifeTeen. Enough to keep anyone busy and happy.
PRAYING FOR: The Catholic Men's Conference and the Attendees, please join me.
READING: Still reading The Tree.
POOLSIDE READING: Finishing Donna Leon's first mystery book (1992) Death at La Fenice. La Fenice being the opera house in Venice...so that was fun in itself. 15 more to go in that series...yahoo! What's not to love about reading a series of books set in Venice?
LISTENING TO: John Mellencamp...he performed at the NFL kickoff show and I rummaged around and dusted off all my JCM fare and had Matt put it all on my iPod.
FAV NEW FIND: http://cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.com/ I just like looking at the photos on this site (and to my dear friend Jeff out there on Long Island, don't fear, my cupcakes are still the same since our college days, and yes, I will be bringing some when I arrive...all of them, just for you).
FAV THING TODAY; Volunteering at Guerin and getting to be part of the Homecoming Week Festivities there...actually I have been doing this all week, so I have been enjoying it all week!
SCRAPBOOK PAGES THIS WEEK; Three...weather is too nice yet to tuck into this much...winter will be here soon enough.
GOING TO: It's a swimming, football, dancing, singing, golfing kind of weekend...so no doubt we will be busy with all of those things.
PRAYING FOR: A friend who is searching for a new job to better support his family, please join me.
Our beautiful ash tree at the back of the yard...so far so good, but all the ash trees around are becoming infected. We are hoping that since it is a lone tree that somehow the little bugs won't find it and we will be able to keep it. It's grown so big in just six years. It would really be sad to part with a six-year old...I have become quite attached to it.
POOLSIDE READING: Yep, we are back to "easily picked up and put down again reading" while we wait around and by the pool for Matt to finish swim team practice and while at swim meets. As usual, with me it is mostly mysteries. Am trying a new author, Donna Leon, recommended by a blogging friend. Just got the first book today, so far so good...there are 16 titles all set in Venice, Italy...she is not as prolific as Ralph McInerny, who I read for an entire year poolside...and everyone should read Ralph for the vocabulary building alone...but Leon should see me through to the holidays.
LISTENING TO: Mozart's The Magic Flute opera as it is being performed at the end of the month here. (Of course, the Met in NYC did it last year and that would have been really wonderful, but I am Indy bound so maybe we will see a wonderful performance here as well.) What's not to love about a fairy tale opera with a prince rescuing a princess (although he falls in line with the captor, so is it really a rescue, or just some Enlightenment propaganda...oh, who knows...it was a piece of the period when all those symbolic acts and songs reflected heavily on the politics of the time and all those men trying to oust kings and queens in favor of rule by reason by the people...or at least that was the plan at the time) with the help of a magic flute, some silver bells, and one of the originals of a guy in a bird costume...the beloved Papageno with his lovely baritone voice...you have to love The Magic Flute, right? I think it was Mozart's last opera as he died shortly thereafter (and, no, I don't think that is what killed him...LOL).
COOKING THROUGH: Crockpot recipes...healthy, non-fake food, Crockpot recipes. I have been reading how economical it is to cook in a Crockpot vs. heating up the entire oven...amazing...it definitely doesn't work for cooking everything, but I am finding a few things that work nicely. The most difficult part? The timing...all these crazy recipes say to cook on low 8 hours or high for 4 hours...good golly, if it is cooking at 350 degrees...4 hours would pretty much render something inedible, right...which may be why Crockpots have a bad rep...that and the layers of goo the stuff is usually cooked in...like I say...I am adapting it all...trying to find something more than stews and soups (and heating the Wassail at Christmas time) to cook in it. I love the idea of something working while I am out rounding up the boys and having it ready to go when I walk in the door...almost as good as having a private chef (who am I kidding...I would drive a chef up the wall wanting him/her to tweak everything to my specifications...). Keep sending those recipes...I am determined to make this work two nights a week during the fall/winter/early spring...it can hibernate in the summer.
SCRAPBOOK PAGES THIS WEEK; None...was a holiday weekend (and catching up from such).
GOING TO: Watch a whole lot of football on TV and in person; read my Tree book; maybe scrapbook a little; supervise the homecoming week decorating at Guerin; make a requested apple pie for Mark and Matt; and swim as much as possible while the weather holds...it promises to be a relaxing and great weekend around here! What's going on at your place?
PRAYING FOR: Tom and Terri Hedlund and their family as Tom continues his recuperation at home. Jim and Diana and family as they welcome new baby Lily into their family, and for Lily herself as she undergoes multiple surgeries and medical treatments. Kelly as he continues his battle with ALS, and for Donna, Scott, Sarah, and Katie as they battle forth with him. Please join me.


text:
Madrid braces for partial lockdown as virus surges
By ralph September 21, 2020
Nearly a million Madrid residents were bracing Sunday for a partial lockdown with several hundred marching in protest as Spanish authorities seek to put a brake on a second wave of COVID-19.
The restrictions, which take effect Monday for two weeks, affect 850,000 people living mainly in densely-populated, low-income neighbourhoods in the south—or 13 percent of the 6.6 million people living in and around the capital.
Like many countries in Europe, Spain is battling a coronavirus surge and, once again, Madrid is the worst-hit region.
"We're concerned with the data we're seeing, because the number of cases is double that of the national average and the number of hospital admissions… is triple the national average," Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in a television interview Saturday.
But he stressed he was not contemplating a national lockdown.
Several districts of southern Madrid have counted more than 1,000 cases per 100,000 inhabitants—around five times the national average, which in itself is the highest in the European Union.
Residents will be banned from leaving their district other than for essential travel like work, medical care or taking children to school, Madrid's regional government said Friday.
They will be allowed to move around freely inside their zone but no one from outside will be allowed in unless absolutely essential.
Parks will be closed but shops, bars and restaurants will remain open at 50 percent capacity.
Meanwhile, gatherings of more than six people will be banned in the entire region, down from ten currently.
On Sunday, people took to the streets in some of the affected districts in protest against the new measures.
They sported placards reading "No to a class-based lockdown" or "They're destroying our district and now they're locking us up".
Hundreds gathered in the districts concerned and outside the regional parliament to shout their displeasure.
"The health centres having been working for years with minimum staffing, they don't have enough staff or nurses … and this crisis has made the situation worse," lamented Victoria, a 63-year-old civil servant.
"You get the impression they take us for fools. We shall be able to continue to go and work in other non-confined zones at the risk of ramping up transmission, and we shall also be able to infect ourselves within our own zone," Bethania Perez, a nurse aged 31, told AFP.
Madrid's regional president Isabel Diaz Ayuso, who has been slammed for her management of the crisis, is due to meet Sanchez on Monday.
The meeting is a sign of central government concern over the crisis in Madrid, as the management of public health issues is normally the responsibility of Spanish regional authorities.
Regional health officials say Madrid's healthcare system is under growing pressure, with one in five hospital beds occupied by COVID patients.
As such, experts fear a sharp increase in the regional mortality rate—which is currently much lower than in the spring—over the coming weeks.
Spain has so far recorded over 30,000 deaths—one of Europe's worst tolls—and 600,000 confirmed cases, according to official figures.
Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak
Madrid braces for partial lockdown as virus surges (2020, September 20)
retrieved 20 September 2020
from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-09-madrid-braces-partial-lockdown-virus.html
Yoga, Cardio, Energy Coaching, And Extra
These Wonder Woman Donuts Are Ready for You to Lasso Them Into Your Belly

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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You Are Here: Home » News and Photographs » Walks » MOUNT BUFFALO PLATEAU : December 6
MOUNT BUFFALO PLATEAU : December 6
Written on December 8, 2020 by webmaster in Walks
On Sunday December 6th, it was a glorious sunny 25 degrees, accompanied by a gentle breeze, and the makings of a great day for bushwalking. Unfortunately, this was happening somewhere else on the planet, and not at Mount Buffalo. Instead, sixteen foolhardy walkers braved the elements to walk the Mount Buffalo Plateau, taking in Mt Dunn and The Monolith.
From the park entrance, our approach up the mountain was welcomed by brief sunshine, and blue sky. Sadly, this was a last-minute tease in an effort to put our minds at ease. The Eurobin Lower Falls were at their best as we continued upwards. Reaching the top, we parked our vehicles near the Park Office at Reservoir Road.
We ventured out of the warmth, and dry car interiors, into the cold and wet that was mother nature. Scrambling for wet weather clothing was hurriedly undertaken, before the mandatory walk briefing and introductions. On this occasion we welcomed new walkers Allison and Maureen (Mauz).
Reservoir Road is a dirt road that follows alongside Crystal Brook, and passes the Mount McLeod turnoff, before reaching the Reservoir parking area, a little over 3km away. As the rain had stopped at this point, it was the optimum opportunity to have morning tea.
The length of morning tea is usually measured in what I call "apple time". Nothing to do with the hi-tech company, but simply how long it takes Pat to consume her apple before departing. And before long we were soon on our way towards Mount Dunn.
The showers had once again resumed, and it was around about this time that numerous walkers, including myself, began noticing the sensation of soggy socks. Mental note: it's time to waterproof the boots again. Wildflowers were still blooming, and though I am no expert, I did notice at least four yellow varieties, three purple kinds, and a pink one.
Birdlife was out in relative abundance today with Rosellas, a Black Cockatoo, something resembling a Raven and Kookaburras amongst those spotted. Walking along this track in rain and wind, I found it difficult not to take the laugh of the Kookaburra personally.
The Mount Dunn turnoff was a 500m return walk. Decisions needed to be made. At this point in time, rain now turned to something known as "sago snow" according to Adrian. I know many people use Google or Siri as a resource, but personally I prefer Adrian. Sago snow is something in between rain and hail. Most of us were in awe of being lightly covered in these slightly frozen white pellets.
Being group leader, I half-heartedly offered to take any interested walkers up to Mount Dunn for a higher view of grey clouds, more penetrating precipitation, wild wind-blown trees and the threat of tumbling on slippery rocks. Secretly I was hoping for no takers.
There was, however, a moment of almost sheer madness when a number of walkers seemed to think that this was an idea of merit. Not mentioning names, but Sandi, Sonia, Raelene, Lyn and Mauz needed their heads read. Thankfully something prevailed, possibly common sense, or making the national news in a tragic headline. So today, Mt Dunn would not be done. All walkers wisely opted for the continuation towards Lake Catani.
Past Mount Dunn we encountered a lovely section of the walk covered with bright green ferns, and large granite rocks. This section of the walk then becomes part of the Long Plain Walk that follows Eurobin Creek. In less than a couple of kilometres Lake Catani came into view, and Mount Buffalo Road was soon reached. Lake Catani, and the four picnic tables, presented the best option as a lunch spot, as the rain once again retreated while we rested.
The surface of Lake Catani had a mist blowing across the top at times. Brief patches of sunshine warmed us, and dried jackets and gloves. A local resident, some sort of obviously well-fed duck, accompanied me for my lunch at our groups table. The rain was about to resume once again, and so the obligatory group photo was hastily taken, and before you could say, Duck a L'Orange, with a side of herb roasted chat potatoes and greens, we were on our way again.
The next kilometre was walking alongside the lake towards the weir. Both the Reservoir and Lake are currently at capacity, with the plentiful recent rainfalls. This makes for all of the creeks being healthy with ample flows. Once past the weir, it was a turn towards the Chalet along one of the most popular short paths in the park.
One hundred metres off this track, a viewpoint provided an opportunity to take in the sights of the eastern side of Mt Buffalo. Today though, it was a view of grey clouds, more penetrating precipitation, wild wind-blown trees, and the threat of tumbling on slippery rocks.
We re-joined the track, and soon met our Monolith turn-off point. This section of today's walk had the greatest number of fallen trees to climb over, crawl under or hurdle, depending on your level of agility and flexibility.
At the base of the Monolith backpacks and poles were left behind, while the short ascent was made towards the top of the large granite boulder. This provided some of the best photo opportunities for the day. The fierce wind didn't allow for a more leisurely sojourn however, and once photos were taken it was time for the descent.
Once down, and backpacks back on, we retraced our steps back a little, and made the final few hundred metres towards the cars. As rain continued to fall, group members hastily said their farewells for the more inviting cars.
Today's walk was a total of 13.1km, and was completed in just under 5 hours. Thanks to all who participated, and fingers crossed we attempt this again in more favourable weather.
Michael Braendler


This great modern postcard features a photograph of a zebra crossing a pedestrian crosswalk on Fifth Avenue in NYC. In the background is the Empire State Building visible.
The postcard, titled "Zebrastreifen", (German for Zebra stripes), was published in Germany.


At Oscars International Dublin we like to let our students know what we think are the best things to see and do around Dublin in their free time. After a busy week of learning English we know it is important to wind down and relax. So here are three recommendations for this weekend. All of these places of interest are close to Malahide so if you're coming from town hop on the DART and get out to this wonderful seaside location.
Ireland is renowned for its numerous castles, some of which date back over 1,000 years. Parts of this extraordinary building are over 800 years old and it's still in pretty good nick. You can visit the castle itself but tickets are quite expensive. The good news is that there i lots to do on the grounds of the castle. There is a wonderful fairy trail and if you're looking after the kids at the weekend there is an amazing playground. There is also a really interesting butterfly house. In short you can spend nothing but hours in this place and still have money in your pocket.
Gibney's is very well-known, not just in the village itself, but throughout Dublin. It has both a wine bar and a sports bar but we think if you are looking for the more traditional feel you will want to settle in the lounge for a few cosy pints and a bit of a chat. It's a tough place to leave once you get in there.


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Q: How to know if the vibration system requires one degree of freedom or two? and how to pick the right coordinate to describe the movement? I want to know a trick that helps me understand oscillatory systems and how to pick the correct general coordinates that describe the movement, I tried everything but I still can't get the solution right, Like in this image which coordinate is a general coordinate is it ${\theta}\; or\;{\varphi}$? or both? "the disc is rolling without sliding"

A:
There is no trick.
If you take the linkage AC out the disk can rotate $~\theta~$ and move towards  $~x~$ ,independent of the rotation $~\varphi~$ . The kinematic equation form the "linkage" is
$$x=\frac l2\sin(\varphi)\approx \frac l2\varphi $$
The rolling condition is
$$x=R\,\theta$$
You obtained two constraint equations for the three degrees of freedom $~x,\theta,\varphi~$ , thus you have one generalized coordinate, you can choose x or $~\theta~$ or $~\varphi$ for this problem . In general the generalized coordinates must "covered " the space of motion without mathematical singularity

with the kinetic energy
$$T=\frac{I_d}{2}\,\dot\theta^2+\frac{I_r}{2}\,\dot\varphi^2+\frac{M}{2}\dot x^2$$
and the potential energy
$$U=-\frac{k}{2}\left(\frac{l\,\varphi}{2}\right)^2-F_d\,\varphi$$
where $~I_d~$ the inertia of the disk, , $~I_r~$ is the inertia of the rod and $~F_d~$ is the damper force.
with $~\varphi~$ the generalized coordinate you obtain the equation of motion
$$\ddot\varphi+\frac{R^2\,k\,l^2}{I_d\,l^2+I_r\,4\,R^2}\,\varphi+
\frac{4\,R^2\,k\,l^2}{I_d\,l^2+I_r\,4\,R^2}\,\dot \varphi=0$$

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Home /Commemorative Ornaments/
2012 Remember September 11, 2001 Commemorative Ornament
PRODUCT ID : 9-11WH
The White House Ornament Collection presents the Remember September 11, 2001 Commemorative Ornament.
9-11-2001 was a fateful day in American history and changed the way the world viewed terrorism forever. We are proud and humbled to present the Remember September 11, 2001 Commemorative Ornament.
The detail is such that you can see the nose of one of the color-guards in the foreground of the ornament. There are many facets and aspects to this beautiful 3-D ornament. Starting with Pentagon building in the background, the Twin Towers rise up and form the supporting structure for five military insignias.
Clockwise from bottom right they are: Department of the Navy, Department of the Army, Department of Defense, Department of the Air Force and Department of the Navy � United States Marine Corps. The Twin Towers are supported by a rendering of the Pentagon with a caption below the color guards which reads: "WE WILL REMEMBER � SEPTEMBER 11, 2001." To fully appreciate the intricacy of this ornament it needs to be seen in person.
This Christmas Gift Idea can serve as either a handsome Christmas display or a White House Christmas Tree Ornament. Whether you are looking for a holiday ornament, a tree ornament, or Christmas collectible, this gift will make any Christmas a White Christmas. Own a moment of White House history.
2016 U.S. House of Representatives Holiday Ornament
The official 2016 U.S. House of Representatives Holiday Ornament is round and features a 24 karat gold United States Capitol Dome with white enameled columns in the center surrounded by intricate filigree. There is an enameled midnight blue background with white stars.
2016 US Capitol Marble and Gold Ornament
The 2016 Christmas Ornament is made with marble removed from the United States Capitol Building during it renovation in 1995. The gold filigree design comes from the ceiling of the US Senate Chamber.
The White House North Portico Ornament
The North Portico of the White House is often referred to as "the President's entrance" to the White House. The portico was added in 1830 and was built in accordance of the Federal style of architecture in keeping with the original design.
The 2014 White House Christmas Ornament
The 2014 White House Christmas ornament celebrates Warren Gamaliel Harding, who was elected the 29th President of the United States of on his birthday, and served our country from 1921 to 1923.


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A report on a meeting with Dr. Schwartz, aide to Sen. Ben Cardin, dealing with a war with North Korea, nuclear weapons and the Saudi assault on Yemen.
On Wednesday, October 25 at 3 PM, a delegation organized by Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility met in Washington, D.C. with Dr. Lowell Schwartz, senior professional staff member to the Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate, and Daniel Ricchetti, legislative aide to that committee. They work for Senator Ben Cardin.
The delegation decided to present to the Cardin staffers six asks. Dr. Gwen Dubois, of PSR, led the delegation and began after introductions to outline the horror and madness of using nuclear weapons. She then urged the staffers to inform Sen. Cardin to support the Markey legislation which was prepared prior to the election. The purpose of the legislation is to remove from the president the authority to launch a first strike nuclear attack. Such authority should be with the Congress. Trump's utterances has galvanized a movement to call for other senators to support S200.
Dick Ochs, a long-time peace and justice activist, sought Cardin's support for the agreement with Iran to prevent the development of a nuclear weapons arsenal. Max Obuszewski, with PSR, added that the senator should disavow any efforts such as the Corker-Cotton bill to contravene the agreement with Iran.
Charlie Cooper called for serious diplomacy with North Korea, including negotiations without pre-conditions, an end to US - South Korea war games and the signing of a peace treaty to finally end the Korean War. He emphasized that based on U.S. warmongering one can understand why the North Korean regime would want to possess a nuclear arsenal.
Dr. Art Milholland, with PSR, condemned the refurbishing of the U.S. nuclear arsenal which begin under President Obama and continues today. He explained that it will help convince military officials that they can use "smaller" nuclear weapons in combat. For example, the B61 nuclear bomb has a variable nuclear yield, and a commander could dial the nuclear kilo-tonnage up or down. This bomb makes it more likely a nuclear weapon would be used.
Art also presented Dr. Schwartz with a copy of Dan Zak's book "Almighty," which is about the history of the development of nuclear weapons and the disarmament action at the Y-12 plant in Oak Ridge, TN by the Transform Now Plowshares. He added that this is the best book he has read on this subject.
Sr. Megan Rice of the Transform Now Plowshares said that $10 trillion has been spent on nuclear weapons since 1943. She believes nuclear weapons are illegal under international law, and she reminded all of us that 122 countries voted at the United Nations on July 7 to ban nuclear weapons. On September 20, nations began to ratify the ban. Sr. Megan urged Cardin to speak out to support the ban. Dr. Gwen who lobbied in New York for the ban said our legislators must get on board.
Finally, Jean Athey with Peace Action described the horrific nature of the attack on Yemen by Saudi Arabia with the assistance of the United States. The group could not have a meeting with legislative aides without bringing up U.S. support for Saudi Arabia's destruction of Yemen. A bipartisan bill has been introduced in the House to remove US forces from unauthorized hostilities in Yemen. Ben Cardin should introduce companion legislation in the Senate.
Dr. Schwartz then proceeded to respond to our asks. We met in a room next door to the room where the Senate Foreign Relations Committee meets, and after the meeting we did a photo op in the room. On October 30 the Foreign Relations Committee will meet to discuss the Authorization to Use Military Force passed in 2001. The senator recognizes that Congress has abdicated its role in deciding when the U.S. can wage war. The president keeps accumulating more power.
Secretaries Mattis and Tillerson will testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the 2001 AUMF. Sen. Cardin wants a much more narrow AUMF to replace the current one. He may try to put in language limiting presidential authority to use force in North Korea.
As for Markey, we received an unsatisfactory answer. Regarding S. 200, procedural custom within the Foreign Relations Committee works against his co-sponsoring the bill. GOP dissatisfaction with Trump may create an opening for other related bills to be introduced on the topic of nuclear weapons. Cardin spoke at a gathering with former Sen. Nunn on October 24 about nuclear weapons. Schwartz indicated that there will be a flurry of bills introduced. Yesterday, for example, right outside our meeting room, Sen. Corker spoke out against Trump. Dr. Schwartz said that while Chairperson Corker has made statements about Trump's leadership style, he has not held the president accountable.
While the president decertified the Iran JCPOA, he has not taken any punitive action toward Iran. Cardin doesn't support trying to change the JCPOA. Senators Cotton and Corker have a bill to end the agreement with Iran, however it has yet to be introduced.
In regards to North Korea, Cardin is speaking out for diplomacy, and has written an article in Foreign Affairs calling for a "Surge in Diplomacy." It seems both North Korea and the USA want pre-conditions before engaging in negotiations. Again we were told that Cardin wants serous negotiations, but only if the rhetoric is chilled.
Dr. Schwartz and Sen. Cardin took a trip to South Korea. President Moon wants engagement with the North and doesn't want U. S. nuclear weapons in S. Korea. They found the North Koreans have their own intransigent pre-conditions for negotiations – namely to be recognized as a legitimate nuclear power. Dr. Schwartz feels the N. Korean government is not interested in suspending its nuclear program if the US and S. Korea suspend military exercises.
Max pointed out an opposition member of parliament in South Korea will hold a press conference on October 26 urging the US to re-install nuclear weapons in South Korea. However, Schwartz pointed out that the new president of South Korea is opposed, and the Trump administration is not interested in placing nuclear weapons in South Korea.
Dr. Terry Fitzgerald, an addictions specialist, said that we must be careful of nomenclature. Saying "Iran deal" connotes something derogatory. A deal is something done on a car lot. This is a treaty, not a deal. "Modernization" of nuclear weaponry is a lie. It is really about increasing the destructiveness of nuclear weapons.
Dick indicated that there is no Congressional support for the nuclear weapons ban. In 2018, the Democrats should take the high road and promote the ban. Schwartz will bring this to Cardin's attention. None of the nuclear countries were involved in the UN vote, thus another process is necessary.
The senator is opposed to nuclear weapons, and believes the best approach is to negotiate with Russia. Process is important to the liberal senator from Maryland, but current tensions with Russia have caused a pause in reducing arsenals.
Art added that he has a "new admiration" that Sen. Cardin can change his mind. We reminded the staffers that PSR is part of ICAN, which just won the Nobel Peace Prize. Janice Sevre-Duszynska, a Roman Catholic woman priest, felt Cardin was a senator with a conscience and hoped he will listen to us by promoting life-giving legislation. Mary Elieisar, a retired lawyer, also participated in the dialogue. Schwartz affirmed that we were welcome to stay in touch. We then entered the Foreign Relations Committee room for a photo op.
Gwen sent a thank you email to Dr. Schwartz. This was his response:
"Thanks very much for your note. I was very happy to meet with the group and pass on our concerns/views to Senator.
"I'm always honored to be associated with my Great Aunt, [Bella Abzug] whose picture hangs in my office. However, I would note (like my father who also worked in the Senate) she thought even in my youth I was too much a creature of the establishment.
"Regards, Lowell Schwartz"
Charlie read the Foreign Affairs article by Sen. Cardin and sent an email in response. We are awaiting a response.
"Dear Dr. Schwartz:
"We read Sen. Cardin's article in Foreign Policy as you recommended, and we are puzzled by this passage:
"The initial objective of such a diplomatic surge would be to begin a process where Pyongyang starts by verifiably halting its nuclear and ballistic missile testing. If North Korea does so, the United States and our allies can consider confidence-building measures to address tensions on the Korean peninsula.
"To us, this sounds like the pre-condition for talks that we are deeply concerned about: North Korea must verifiably halt weapons and missile testing before talks start. Are we reading this correctly?
"What would "confidence-building measures" include? Would Sen. Cardin support suspending military exercises or starting negotiations for a peace treaty?
"Again, thank you very much for your time and for your response to our crucial request for information.
"Charlie Cooper
"P. S. We were heartened to hear the CNN interview with Sen. Cardin in which he said he supports the Markey bill on First Use."
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to
http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
U.S. Troops are Conducting Secret Missions All Over Africa
https://news.vice.com/story/us-military-secret-missions-africa
U.S. troops are now conducting 3,500 exercises, programs, and engagements per year, an average of nearly 10 missions per day, on the African continent, according to the U.S. military's top commander for Africa, General Thomas Waldhauser. The latest numbers, which the Pentagon confirmed to VICE News, represent a dramatic increase in U.S. military activity throughout Africa in the past decade, and the latest signal of America's deepening and complicated ties on the continent.
With the White House and the Pentagon facing questions about an Oct. 4 ambush in Niger in which four U.S. Special Forces soldiers were killed, Secretary of Defense James Mattis reportedly indicated to two [1] senior members of the Senate Armed Services Committee Friday that these numbers are only likely to increase as the U.S. military shifts even greater attention to counterterrorism in Africa.
"The huge increase in U.S. military missions in Africa over the past few years represents nothing less than a shadow war being waged on the continent."
"You're going to see more actions in Africa, not less," said Sen. Lindsey Graham after the briefing. "You're going to see more aggression by the United States toward our enemies, not less; you're going to have decisions being made not in the White House but out in the field."
But the U.S. military has already seen significant action in Africa, where its growth has been sudden and explosive. When U.S. Africa Command, the umbrella organization for U.S. military operations on the continent, first became operational in 2008, it inherited 172 missions, activities, programs, and exercises from other combatant commands. Five years in, that number shot up to 546 [2].
Today's figure of 3,500 marks an astounding 1,900 percent increase since the command was activated less than a decade ago, and suggests a major expansion of U.S. military activities on the African continent. (VICE News requested 2016 numbers, but AFRICOM failed to answer phone calls or respond to email requests.)
"The huge increase in U.S. military missions in Africa over the past few years represents nothing less than a shadow war being waged on the continent," said William Hartung, the director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy.
These developments stand in stark contrast to early assurances that AFRICOM's efforts would be focused on diplomacy and aid. In the opening days of the command, the assistant secretary of defense for African affairs, Theresa Whelan, said [3] it would not "reflect a U.S. intent to engage kinetically in Africa." AFRICOM, she said, was not "about fighting wars."
But an increasing number of AFRICOM's missions have the appearance of just that. The command has launched [4] 500 airstrikes [5] in Libya in the last year alone, and U.S. forces have regularly [6] carried out [7] drone attacks and commando raids in Somalia.
"This military-heavy policy," said Hartung, "risks drawing the United States more deeply into local and regional conflicts in Africa and generating a backlash that could actually aid terrorist organizations in their recruitment."
Officially, the Pentagon says the 3,500 missions consist primarily of training and advisory efforts to build the "defense capabilities" of local partner forces, including the use of counterterrorism assistance efforts such as the Combating Terrorism Fellowship Program and Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership, according to spokesperson Maj. Audricia Harris. (Harris also confirmed that Waldhauser's figures were accurate).
These programs are aimed at a plethora of terror groups that have sprung up across the continent since the 2000s, including 19 "active militant Islamist groups," — such as al Shabaab in Somalia, Boko Haram in the Lake Chad Basin region, and the Islamic State group in the Greater Sahara — in AFRICOM's area of operations, according to the Pentagon's Africa Center for Strategic Studies. The ultimate aim, according to AFRICOM, is to defeat "transnational threats in order to advance U.S. national interests and promote regional security, stability, and prosperity."
But AFRICOM uses extremely broad language to describe training missions, including those in which troops [8]are killed in action. Missions carried out under the rubric of "security assistance," "security cooperation," "train-and-equip" or "building partner capacity" — can be indistinguishable from actual combat.
"There is a notion,, in some circles at least, that training missions are 'safe,' and that U.S. troops are not exposed to the same level of risk as if they were engaged in direct combat," said Hartung. "There may be an element of truth in this, but when push comes to shove, training missions can easily cross the line into combat operations."
In May, for example, a Navy SEAL was killed [9] by al Shabaab militants in Somalia while "assisting partner forces," according to AFRICOM. Earlier this month, four Special Forces soldiers were killed [10] in an ambush while providing "advice and assistance" to local forces in Niger.
A U.S. special forces soldier trains Nigerian soldiers in first aid during Flintlock 2016, a U.S.-led international training exercise with African militaries in Thies, Senegal, February 11, 2016.REUTERS/Sylvain Cherkaoui
U.S. troop deaths or scandals are frequently the only mechanism by which Americans come to know about military deployments to African nations like Niger, which according to Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Audricia Harris is home to more than 800 U.S. military personnel.
But Niger is hardly exceptional. Every day, 5,000 to 6,000 U.S. personnel are deployed [11] across the African continent.
These near-constant [12] training [13] exercises [14], missions, and activities with troops from Benin and Burkina Faso, Cameroon [15] and Chad, Gabon and Guinea Bissau, not to mention Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, the Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Togo and Uganda [16], among other nations, remain largely unknown to most Americans. So is the string of U.S. bases and outposts stretching from Djibouti [17] to Tunisia [18], Cameroon [17] to Kenya [17], Ghana [17] to Niger [19].
"We've seen a significant increase in U.S. military training to the African continent in recent years," Colby Goodman, the director of the Security Assistance Monitor, which tracks U.S. spending on foreign militaries, told VICE News. The number of African troops trained by U.S. military personnel jumped 89 percent, Goodman notes, from 22,825 trained in 2014 to at least 42,815 individuals a year later.
Even before Mattis informed Sen. Graham and Sen. John McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, there were indications that the counterterror missions would expand. This month, Donald Yamamoto, the acting assistant secretary of state for African Affairs, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that the Trump administration's proposed $5.2 billion African aid budget would address "key priorities" such as "assist[ing] partner nations to defeat ISIS branches and affiliates and other terrorist organization threats and networks in Mali and the Sahel, Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin, Somalia and the Horn of Africa, and elsewhere."
Recently, the acting U.S. Army Africa commander, Brig. Gen. Gene LeBoeuf, noted [20] that so-called "theater security cooperation" activities — missions designed [21] to "build relationships that promote specified U.S. interests" — are set to rise from 186 this year to 271 in 2018, with about 80 percent taking place in the Lake Chad Basin nations of Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria, and Niger. The recent attack on U.S. forces in Niger, believed to have been carried out by the Mali-based Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, suggest these missions pose increasing risks.
Experts warn this surge in U.S. military activities lacks strategic planning, and that providing training and equipment to such poor nations with fragile governments can result in greater instability.
"First, it's very easy for our activities to overwhelm a country's absorptive capacity for aid, which tends to result in elevated levels of corruption," said Rebecca Zimmerman, a national security and foreign policy researcher at the RAND Corporation. "Next, by disproportionately funding the military and security apparatuses of these governments, we run the risk of militarizing or securitizing the country — elevating the militaries to a place of increased power relative to civilian government."
Zimmerman warned this is particularly risky "in countries where there is inadequate civilian control of the military." In 2012, for example, a U.S.-trained Army captain, Amadou Sanogo, overthrew [22] Mali's elected government. Two years later, Lt. Col. Isaac Zida, another U.S.-trained officer, seized power [22] in Burkina Faso.
"With all of this," Zimmerman said, "I think we run the risk of working ourselves in more deeply — building dependence rather than independence — which will make it hard for our forces to eventually conclude their mission."
Spokespersons for Africa Command would not comment about the missions or such concerns, ignoring multiple emails from, and even hanging up on, this reporter.
"The U.S. government would do well to do serious risk assessments about its military activities in Africa," Goodman warned. "These risk assessments must include the risks of U.S. military activities contributing to terrorist recruitment, especially in the Sahel, through increased U.S. military presence and by supporting corrupt military forces."
Hartung shared similar concerns and said it was critical for the public to stay informed of the military's often quiet expansion. "Congress and the public need to pay more attention to far-flung U.S. military train-and-equip missions, both in Africa and globally. They can too often sow the seeds of greater U.S. military involvement," he said.
Nick Turse is an award-winning investigative journalist who has written for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and The Nation, and is a contributing writer for the Intercept. His latest book is "Next Time They'll Come to Count the Dead: War and Survival in South Sudan."
Source URL: https://portside.org/2017-10-28/us-troops-are-conducting-secret-missions-all-over-africa
[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/defense-secretary-mattis-to-meet-with-sen-mccain-after-subpoena-threat-over-niger-attack/2017/10/20/7a4a12de-b5bf-11e7-9e58-e6288544af98_story.html?utm_term=.7530509c461b
[2] http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175823/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_america%27s_non-stop_ops_in_africa
[3] https://www.voanews.com/a/a-13-2007-02-06-voa31-66767047/564148.html
[4] http://www.africom.mil/media-room/pressrelease/28564/africom-concludes-operation-odyssey-lightning
[5] http://www.africom.mil/media-room/pressrelease/29924/u-s-conducts-precision-strikes-in-libya
[6] https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/drone-war/data/somalia-reported-us-covert-actions-2017
[7] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/05/08/a-navy-seal-was-killed-in-somalia-heres-what-you-need-to-know-about-u-s-operations-there/?utm_term=.3ff8f2e98591
[8] https://twitter.com/usafricacommand/status/915715990327107585
[9] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-somalia-security-usa/u-s-navy-seal-killed-in-somalia-raid-on-militant-compound-idUSKBN1811DV
[10] https://twitter.com/usafricacommand/status/915902720145596421
[11] http://allafrica.com/stories/201709140684.html
[12] http://www.africom.mil/media-room/pressrelease/28593/plans-set-for-flintlock-2017-exercise
[13] https://www.africom.mil/media-room/article/28939/united-accord-2017-enhances-readiness-from-private-to-general
[14] https://www.africom.mil/media-room/article/28751/exercise-cutlass-express-2017-comes-to-an-end
[15] https://www.africom.mil/media-room/article/28628/multinational-planners-put-final-touches-on-exercise-unified-focus-2017-in-cameroon
[16] https://www.africom.mil/media-room/photo/28782/jrtc-rotation-strengthens-u-s-uganda-partnership
[17] http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176272/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_the_u.s._military_moves_deeper_into_africa/
[18] https://www.stripes.com/news/air-force-lieutenant-colonel-dismissed-from-service-over-downrange-relationship-1.484708#.WbvbF9FrzIV
[19] https://theintercept.com/2016/09/29/u-s-military-is-building-a-100-million-drone-base-in-africa/
[20] https://www.defensenews.com/news/your-army/2017/10/09/us-army-africa-turns-its-focus-to-lake-chad-basin-increases-exercises-to-deter-emerging-extremist-groups/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=New%20Campaign&utm_term=%2ASituation%20Report
[21] http://www.acq.osd.mil/dpap/pacc/cc/security_assistance_efforts.html
[22] https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/coup-leader-in-burkina-faso-received-us-military-training/2014/11/03/3e9acaf8-6392-11e4-836c-83bc4f26eb67_story.html?utm_term=.0d10c8c5d7a8
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
Who Ordered Killing of Honduran Activist? Evidence of Broad Plot Is Found
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/10/28/world/americas/honduras-berta-caceres-desa.html
Elisabeth Malkin
MEXICO CITY — It was just before midnight when two men kicked in the door to Berta Cáceres's house in the small Honduran mountain town of La Esperanza. Moving past the kitchen, one of them opened the door to her bedroom and fired six shots. She died moments later.
In a country where the fight to protect land rights provokes violent retaliation, the murder in March 2016 of another environmental defender might simply have receded into a grim tally of regrettable losses.
But Ms. Cáceres, 44, had won international acclaim for leading her indigenous Lenca community against a dam planned on their land. Her prominence transformed her killing into an emblematic crime — and turned the investigation that followed into a challenge to the entrenched impunity of the powerful in Honduras.
Now, 20 months after the killing, a team of five international lawyers has warned that the people who ordered it may never face justice.
The evidence, the lawyers said, points to a plot against Ms. Cáceres that was months in the making and reached up to senior executives of Desarrollos Energéticos, known as Desa, the Honduran company holding the dam concession.
"The existing proof is conclusive regarding the participation of numerous state agents, high-ranking executives and employees of Desa in the planning, execution and cover-up of the assassination," the lawyers wrote.
Desa has repeatedly denied any involvement in Ms. Cáceres' death or any connection to "acts of violence and intimidation."
Eight suspects are in custody [1], including Sergio Rodríguez Orellana, the social and environment manager for the company, and Douglas Geovanny Bustillo, a retired Honduran Army lieutenant who was Desa's director of security until mid-2015.
"What the public ministry has yet to do is indict the people who hired Bustillo to plan the operation," said Miguel Ángel Urbina Martínez, one of the lawyers reviewing the case at the request of Ms. Cáceres's family. The lawyers' report, which The New York Times has obtained, will be released Tuesday.
The government's investigation, by an elite unit in the Honduran attorney general's office, remains open, although the lawyers' group said there was no sign that it had progressed beyond the eight suspects.
Two American advisers, a retired homicide detective and a former federal prosecutor, have been working with Honduran authorities since the first days of the inquiry, part of an effort by the United States Embassy to push [2] the government of President Juan Orlando Hernández to solve high-profile criminal cases.
Many of those cases involve powerful groups that critics say operate beyond the law. "The great challenge for Honduras is to dismantle these parallel forces," said Mr. Urbina, a criminal justice expert from Guatemala and an adviser on judicial reform.
To prepare the report, Mr. Urbina's group examined some 40,000 pages of text messages, which were retrieved by Honduran government investigators from three cellphones, one seized at Desa's offices and two used by Mr. Rodríguez and Mr. Bustillo.
The messages, according to the report, show that the two men remained in frequent contact with three high-ranking Desa executives as they tracked the movements of Ms. Cáceres and other members of her organization, the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras, known as Copinh.
The conversations reveal, the lawyers said, that the orders to threaten Copinh and sabotage its protests came from Desa executives who were exercising control over security forces in the area, issuing instructions and paying for police units' food, lodging and radio equipment.
"There was this criminal structure comprised of company executives and employees, state agents and criminal gangs that used violence, threats and intimidation," said Roxanna Altholz, the associate director of the Human Rights Law Clinic at the University of California, Berkeley, and a member of the lawyers' group.
The other members of the legal team are a former war crimes prosecutor, Dan Saxon, and two Colombian prosecutors who have tried human rights cases, Jorge E. Molano Rodríguez and Liliana María Uribe Tirado. They have been working on the case for a year, traveling to Honduras to conduct interviews and review case material.
The lawyers were chosen by Bertha Zúñiga, Ms. Cáceres's daughter, with recommendations from the Center for Justice and International Law, a Latin American human rights organization.
The text messages were handed over to Ms. Cáceres's family this May on the orders of a judge after Honduran prosecutors canceled four appointments to share their findings.
The question, Ms. Altholz said, was why the prosecutor's office, which seized the phones in April and May last year, had failed to act on "the quality and the amount of information" that "it has had in its possession for the last year and a half."
A spokesman for the attorney general's office said he could not comment immediately.
For Ms. Cáceres's daughter, the content of the messages only reinforces the sense that Desa's executives felt untouchable. "They were so confident of impunity that they talked openly," Ms. Zúñiga said.
The company has come to the defense of its employee, Mr. Rodríguez, the environmental manager. He is "a family man, honest and hard-working, who is unjustly deprived of his freedom," Desa's dam division, Agua Zarca Hydroelectric, said in an unsigned email. The company "completely trusts in the innocence of Mr. Rodríguez."
Desa obtained a concession to build a dam on the Gualcarque River in western Honduras in 2009. By law the company was required to consult with the Lenca community, but Copinh opposed the project from the beginning, arguing that the dam would jeopardize the community's water resources and livelihood.
From the start, Desa was an odd creation, said Juan Jiménez Mayor, the head of an anti-corruption commission [3] backed by the Organization of American States. It had only $1,200 in equity when it won the dam concession, along with operating permits, water rights and a contract to sell power to the state electricity company.
In 2011, members of the Atala family, one of the most influential in Honduras, injected millions of dollars into the company and joined the board. Mr. Jiménez' commission has begun to investigate Desa's contracts, a move that drew an angry response from Honduran business groups.
Copinh fought the dam on several fronts. It filed legal challenges, led community meetings and brought a case before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which ordered the Honduran government to provide protective measures for Ms. Cáceres. She had been receiving death threats and knew they were serious. Four members of Copinh were killed in 2013 and 2014.
In 2015, she won the Goldman Environmental Prize, which is awarded to grass-roots environmental leaders. But it was not enough to protect her.
In November 2015, according to the lawyers' report, the former security chief Mr. Bustillo met with a high-ranking Desa executive. In January, he visited La Esperanza and later obtained a gun through Mariano Díaz Chávez, a former Honduran special forces officer who is accused of organizing the hit squad that assassinated Ms. Cáceres.
An attempt to kill Ms. Cáceres was planned for early February but called off, the lawyers said. "Mission aborted today," Mr. Bustillo wrote to a Desa executive. "Yesterday, we couldn't."
The report did not name the Desa executives because they have not been charged by Honduran authorities.
Mr. Bustillo returned to La Esperanza for several days at the end of February and arranged to meet with the same executive on March 2. Early on March 3, after Ms. Cáceres was killed, Mr. Bustillo called him again.
After the killing, Mr. Rodríguez, the environment manager, forwarded details of the crime scene report that police had provided to one of the company's executives.
"Sergio, relax," another executive wrote through WhatsApp, a few days later.
"Everything will come out O.K. you'll see. Don't panic and pass that on to other people."
Source URL: https://portside.org/2017-10-30/who-ordered-killing-honduran-activist-evidence-broad-plot-found
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/03/world/americas/honduras-arrests-4-men-in-killing-of-berta-caceres.html
[2] https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/265808.pdf
[3] http://www.oas.org/en/spa/dsdsm/maccih/new/default.asp
Trump's Nuclear Dreams: Nightmares Past and Present
By Rebecca Gordon, TomDispatch | Op-Ed
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/42382-trump-s-nuclear-dreams-nightmares-past-and-present
Donald Trump is escorted by a protocol official as he prepares to take the lectern to address the United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters, September 19, 2017, in New York City. (Photo: Drew Angerer / Getty Images)
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Preventing a nuclear war between the United States and North Korea may be the most pressing challenge facing the world right now.
Our childish, ignorant, and incompetent president is shoving all of us -- especially the people of Asia -- ever nearer to catastrophe. While North Korea probably hasn't yet developed the missiles to deliver a nuclear warhead to the US mainland, it certainly has the capacity to reach closer targets, including South Korea and Japan.
But what can ordinary people do about it? Our fingers are far removed from the levers of power, while the tiny digits of the man occupying the "adult day care center" we call the White House hover dangerously close to what people my age used to call "the Button." Nevertheless, I think there may still be time to put our collective foot on the brakes, beginning with the promise of a bill currently languishing in Congress.
Meanwhile, many of us who were born in the post-World War II years are re-experiencing nightmares we thought we'd left safely in the past.
I was born seven years after the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Like the rest of my generation of Americans, I grew up in the shadow -- or perhaps more accurately, the glow -- of "the Bomb" (which, in those days, we did indeed capitalize). I remember the elementary school ritual of joining a line of neat, obedient second-graders crouching on knees and elbows against a protective concrete hallway wall, hands covering the backs of our necks. I remember coming home from school, recounting that day's activities to my mother and watching as she rushed to the bathroom to vomit -- her all-too-literal gut reaction to a world in which her children were being prepared in school for global annihilation.
In class, we saw civil defense films produced by the government, like the one that encouraged us to "set aside a small supply of canned goods" in makeshift basement shelters. "They're safe from radioactivity," the narrator assured us, as a lovely, young, white mother confidently placed the last can firmly on the cupboard shelf. (The film was far less enlightening about what to do once that "small supply" ran out.) Other movies reminded us that we should always be aware of the location of the nearest fallout shelter or taught us how to duck and cover.
By 1961, my family had moved from rural New York State to Washington, DC, where my mother got a job with the brand new Peace Corps. Everywhere in my new city I saw the distinctive black-and-yellow signs indicating fallout shelter locations. The student body at Alice Deal Junior High School was too big for hallway drills. Instead, at the appointed time, we would all be herded into the auditorium, where a solemn-faced principal would describe the secret underground shelter where we would all be safe, should the Soviets actually launch a nuclear attack on our country. I remember bursting out laughing, while my homeroom teacher fixed me with an angry stare. Who was the principal kidding? We lived in Washington, the number one political target of any potential Soviet nuclear strike. Even then, I was aware enough to know that, whether above ground or under it, we would either fry immediately or die of radioactive poisoning thereafter.
In my family, we joked about bomb shelters. We knew they wouldn't save us. So I remember being shocked when, in the early 1960s, we visited the family of a friend of my mother's named Yarmolinsky. We kids were all sent out to play behind their suburban Virginia home, where my brother and I stumbled upon a large dome in the middle of the woods. "What's that?" we asked our new friends.
"Oh, that's our fallout shelter," one of them replied.
I was stunned. The Yarmolinskys lived just a few miles from Washington and yet they had their own fallout shelter! What I didn't know then was that the father, Adam Yarmolinsky, at the time a special assistant to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and one of his "whiz kids," was the architect of a "complicated domestic [program] to expand the construction of fallout shelters in American homes."
Indeed, "shelter morality" became one of the favorite ethical issues of the day. The question was: What responsibility would people who had the sense to build such shelters before an attack have for people who failed to do the same? In 1962, Life magazine published a cover story urging the government to build mass shelters in order to avoid just such a future division between "haves" and "have-nots." It quoted a Mrs. Florence Ergang who said, "I am dismayed at shelter morality. It is natural to protect one's family, but my ethics dictate that my neighbors be protected too."
Even today, students in college political science or business ethics classes sometimes wrestle with the "fallout shelter exercise" (although the quandary it lays out undoubtedly seems to them like a scene from ancient history). In that exercise, students are asked to decide which individuals -- a Latina sex worker and her infant son, a white male biologist, and so on -- should be allowed to remain in a fallout shelter with limited space and supplies. There's even a fallout shelter game for your cell phone where the characters are a bit more multicultural than in the civil defense films of the 1950s -- although all three women pictured on the home screen still wear little-girl skirts.
As an adolescent, I knew all the words to satirist Tom Lehrer's "Who's Next." ("First we got the bomb, and that was good/'cause we love peace and motherhood...") I read the nuclear thriller Failsafe, the grim, end-of-everything novel On the Beach, and that peculiar mixture of racism and nuclear terror, Robert Heinlein's Farnham's Freehold, in which a nuclear blast sends the author's self-reliant, libertarian hero into a dystopic future "America." There, Black people oppress the white population -- to the point of regarding young white women as culinary delicacies. Yes, the science fiction writer who gave the world Stranger in a Strange Land and taught hippies how to "grok" (to understand something deeply and intuitively) also created that perfect fictional confection of the fears of comfortable white people of the 1960s.
It's hard to explain, especially to those who were born after the Soviet Union imploded in 1991, taking with it the immediate fear of nuclear holocaust, what it was like to grow up in the knowledge that such a war was coming within your lifetime. It's hard to describe what it was like to lie awake at night waiting for the sound of the sirens that would let us all know it was happening. During those long nights, I hid a transistor radio under my pillow, turning it on repeatedly to reassure myself that the pop-rock station I disdained during the daytime was still transmitting top 40 hits, not duck-and-cover instructions.
My morbid preoccupations weren't unusual in that era. The constant threat of nuclear war formed the background radiation for the childhood of a whole generation. All my friends, many of whose parents worked for the federal government, shared my fears. When we said good night on the phone, my high school boyfriend and I sometimes wondered aloud if we'd see each other the next day. Our adolescent reckoning with our own mortality became a confrontation with the mortality of our species. We lived with a curious wartime consciousness, in which we planned for our futures while knowing that there might be none to plan for.
A Dose of Reality
So much for the never-realized fears of the baby boomers. How likely is Donald Trump not just to revive them, but to start a nuclear war with North Korea in 2017? Several indicators suggest that the danger isn't as great as some of us may fear.
Trump has yet to follow through on his August 9th threat to rain "fire and fury like the world has never seen" on North Korea, should it again threaten to attack the United States. Nor has he implemented his breathtaking guarantee at the United Nations that, should North Korea "force" us "to defend ourselves or our allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy" it. In both cases, as political scientist Steven Brams has pointed out, Trump's rhetoric left the location of his nuclear tripwire so vague that even he may not know where it is or when it might be crossed. As recently as October 13th , according to the New York Times, North Korean officials "renewed their threat to launch ballistic missiles near Guam, an American territory in the western Pacific." There has been no response from Trump, so we can only assume that, whatever he means by a North Korean threat, that isn't it. Fortunately for the world, it seems that he's treating such promises the way he treats all his utterances -- as infinitely subject to reinterpretation or even retraction.
The president's threats to use nuclear weapons may well be another instance of his well-documented "negotiating" tactics, in which he launches a bargaining process with a preposterous starting position in order to make the merely outrageous appear like a reasonable compromise.
Even in the case of another US adversary that may have sought nuclear weapons in the past -- Iran -- Trump has not been as decisively destructive as he could have been. Although he has railed endlessly against the six-nation nuclear agreement with Iran, negotiated in large part by President Obama, he didn't tear it up recently (as he has often promised to do). Rather, he punted the problem to Congress, simply refusing to certify that Iran is abiding by the agreement, in spite of International Atomic Energy Agency assurances that it is. For a man who has an obvious urge to wield autocratic power, Trump is surprisingly willing to dilute it to get credit with his base while avoiding genuine action.
Those are modestly hopeful signs -- although it's hardly a hopeful sign of anything that the world is reduced to reading an American president's words as if they were so many throws of the I Ching. Unfortunately, we must also consider ways in which Trump's presence in the White House makes nuclear war more likely.
He has repeatedly expressed a personal fascination with nuclear weapons, although he seems to have little idea of what their actual use might mean. In March 2016, for instance, he told The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News that he might even consider using nuclear weapons in Europe, which he called "a big place," as if some parts of it might be legitimate nuclear targets. And he added, "I'm not going to take cards off the table." At an MSNBC town hall that same month, he proposed using nuclear weapons against the "caliphate" of the Islamic State. Nuclear weapons directed against guerrilla fighters? That makes so much sense!
When Chris Matthews suggested that Japanese citizens might be nervous on hearing a presidential candidate bring up the use of nuclear weapons, Trump responded by asking, "Then why are we making them? Why do we make them?" It might be a reasonable question, if someone other than Donald Trump had been asking it.
When word first surfaced that his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had called him a "moron," some of us wondered which of Trump's many displays of ignorance had occasioned the label. Now we know. It seems to have been the president's suggestion, at a July 2017 national security briefing, that the United States should increase its current nuclear arsenal of around 4,000 warheads by a factor of 10.
The advisers Trump seems to respect the most at the moment are generals or former generals, including his chief of staff John Kelly, Secretary of Defense James Mattis, and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster. Commentators (including some on the liberal end of the spectrum) like to think of this coterie of military men as the "grown-ups" in the Trumpian room. I'm not convinced, but even if they are more temperamentally suited to governing than this president, they have a tendency, not surprisingly, to reach first for military solutions to diplomatic problems.
Mattis, for example, has warned of "a massive military response" to any North Korean threat to the US or its allies. "We are not looking to the total annihilation of a country, namely North Korea," he told the reporters in September, "but as I said, we have many options to do so." Similarly, when ABC's George Stephanopoulos asked McMaster, "[J]ust to be clear, threats alone will not provoke a US military response, will they?" the general replied, "Well, it depends on the nature of the threat, right?" McMaster then essentially argued that, because Kim Jong-un has had family members killed and is cruel to the North Korean people, he must be too unstable to understand how mutually assured destruction (a Cold War nuclear strategy with the apt acronym MAD) is supposed to work. Oddly enough, another communist dictator, Joseph Stalin, who presided over party purges and the deaths of millions of Soviet citizens, seemed to comprehend the concept well enough, but those inscrutable Asians are apparently altogether different.
Even retired General Kelly has recently said that North Korea simply cannot be allowed to have "the ability to reach the homeland" with nuclear-armed missiles, "cryptically telling reporters," according to CNN, that "if the threat grows 'beyond where it is today, well, let's hope that diplomacy works.'"
* Trump's civilian advisors aren't much better. In September, UN Ambassador Nikki Haley told CNN's State of the Union that the administration "wanted to be responsible and go through all diplomatic means to get [the North Koreans'] attention first." But, she warned, "if that doesn't work, General Mattis will take care of it." Lest listeners should be confused about how he'd "take care" of that country, she explained as bluntly as the president had: "If North Korea keeps on with this reckless behavior, if the United States has to defend itself or defend its allies in any way, North Korea will be destroyed."
Certainly, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has repeatedly brought up the need to keep communication channels open to North Korea, even in the face of Trump's tweeted advice "that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man." Nevertheless, he seems to expect diplomacy to "fail." On October 15th, Tillerson explained to CNN that "those diplomatic efforts will continue until the first bomb drops." Until? Why does he assume bombs will fall? And exactly who does he expect to drop the first one? Is he talking about a possible US first strike?
It's as if the entire administration has accepted the inevitability of an otherwise optional war. If you want an analogy, consider the way George W. Bush's administration maintained the pretext of being open to negotiations with Iraqi autocrat Saddam Hussein until it launched its preordained invasion and the first bombs and cruise missiles began to hit Baghdad on March 20, 2003.
Trump wants to rule by command. The niceties of the Constitution, the law, and the doctrine of the separation of powers have made this harder than he thought. So far, his attempts to run the country by executive order have largely failed, with his "third one's the charm" Muslim ban once again stalled in the courts. Even his latest move to dismantle Obamacare by ending federal premium subsidies won't take immediate effect. Indeed, it already faces legal challenges from at least 18 states.
He's frustrated. Why can't he just wave a hand, like Jean-Luc Picard, commander of the Starship Enterprise, and order his underlings to "make it so"?
As it happens, there is one realm in which the Constitution, the legal system, and Congress make no difference, one realm where he can do exactly that. He, and he alone, has the power to order a nuclear strike. The more that what remains of law and custom can still prevent him from ruling by fiat elsewhere, the more likely he may be, as Senator Bob Corker has warned us, to put the world "on the path to World War III" and to the first use of such weapons since August 9, 1945.
Pull His Fingers Off the Button
Congress would still have time to stop this madness, if it had the courage to do so. There are a number of actions it could take, including passing a law that would require a unanimous decision by a specified group of people. (For example, officials like the secretaries of state and defense together with the congressional leadership for a nuclear first strike.
Better yet, Congress could reassert its long-abdicated constitutional right to declare war. It could, for example, approve a simple piece of legislation introduced in January by Representative Ted Lieu of California. According to the Congressional Research Service, his bill, House Resolution 669, the Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act of 2017, "prohibits the president from using the Armed Forces to conduct a first-use nuclear strike unless such strike is conducted pursuant to a congressional declaration of war expressly authorizing such strike."
Congress should act while there is still time. Removing Trump's ability to unilaterally launch a nuclear attack might ease some fears in Pyongyang. And the rest of us might once again be able to sleep at night.
REBECCA GORDON
Rebecca Gordon is the author of Mainstreaming Torture, which has been hailed as a "morally challenging" and "courageous work" that reveals how torture has been "sanitized" in the US. She teaches philosophy at the University of San Francisco. Prior to her academic career, Gordon spent decades working as an activist in peace and justice movements in Central America, South Africa and the United States.
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