Sunday, June 19, 2016

Sunday Indifference

I'm still apathetic about reading the Globe, sorry. I don't mean to be insensitive toward the suffering of others and I'm not pointing the finger of blame at anyone. I just don't want to hear it.

[Btw, Clinton is the candidate of Wall Street while Trump is not. He's calling for higher taxes on them (helped him win Oregon) and he favors a minimum-wage increase for which Warren knocked him. Round One to Trump. In Round Two they took a jab at him because Trump’s campaign pays women less than men, but then so does Clinton's and when you are grinding an axe against one candidate that's okay. You can front page it while leading the second section with this clownSadly, she is nothing but a party hack now (who is Pocahontas anyway?), ideologically closer to Sanders the iconoclast, but also a pragmatist (once was a Republican so there is some overlap). She must want the VP (unlikely) slot really bad (still auditioning) as the campaign message keeps evolving -- even though less than a week later the Globe says it is not!!

And you wonder why I'm lagging on blogging about the campaign coverage?

So “if you’re looking for a moderate Republican, Hillary is the candidate for you.” She is also the candidate of the neocon war hawks and she can’t start wooing Sanders supporters until he is out of the way -- if at all because some Sanders fans would rather back Trump than Clinton (here are four ways she could do it without calling it quits despite her prickliness). Next stop, the Twilight Zone: “He ought to be able to read the sign posts as well as anybody else, and if he did that, he would know that it’s all but over,” Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, said of Sanders." The signpost said election fraud plus superdelegates means denial of nomination, and in the light of history he looks like a longtime loner who is cantankerous, difficult to work with, and an ill humored insurgent (isn't that also Ted Cruz?). I'm sure he is not alone and they are in for a rude awakening despite the feeling of security as they pedal fear to distract from the economy.

Oh, yeah, and turns out Trump was right. You are a racist if you point out such things -- unless you are winning an award for reporting it.]

There is always a flip side to everything, and upon opening my Sunday Globe we are on the front lines where enemies have become friends and are now having a picnic together:

"Brexit vote highlights divisions in the EU" by Jim Yardley New York Times  June 18, 2016

ROME — Among the well-heeled bureaucrats of the European Union, it is an article of faith that the bloc always emerges stronger from a crisis. The idealistic founders who six decades ago dreamed of stitching warring nations into a peaceful whole knew the path would be bumpy. But always, the union wobbled forward.

Now the dream of an integrated and ever-stronger Europe could sink into the English Channel on Thursday, when British voters decide whether to abandon the bloc. To the pro-Europe establishment, this latest crisis is considered a peculiarly British affair, in which the villains are opportunistic politicians steering voters toward a delusional mistake.

That may be. But if Britain does leave, the European Union can also blame its own handling of the crises of the past decade — the tribulations of the euro, the debt standoff with Greece, and a flawed approach to migration. Each time, the bloc rammed through ugly, short-term fixes that only inflamed the angry nationalism now spreading across the Continent and Britain.

The result was almost a decade of ad hoc crisis management that even many admirers agree has left the European Union badly wounded and its reputation badly damaged. Idealism has given way to disillusionment. The bloc’s elite technocrats are often perceived as out of touch, while European institutions are not fully equipped to address problems like unemployment and economic stagnation. Political solidarity is dissolving into regional divisions.

The economic implications of a British exit, the so-called Brexit, are potentially staggering, but many experts agree that regardless of how the British vote, politics across Europe must change. The structure of the euro currency zone is still considered fragile. The bloc’s German-dominated economic policy has meant nearly a decade lost in much of debt-ridden southern Europe, which is still struggling to recover from the recent economic crisis.

“We cannot continue with the status quo,” said Enrico Letta, a former Italian prime minister.

Politics in Europe, as in the United States, have gotten ugly and mean. Far-right, anti-immigration parties are gaining strength in Poland, Hungary, Austria, France, and Germany. That same nasty tenor has infused the British campaign with hostility and xenophobia toward immigrants. The killing on Thursday of Jo Cox, a member of Parliament who had campaigned for remaining in the union, shocked all of Britain....

Related:

Accused killer of British lawmaker gives name as ‘death to traitors, freedom for Britain’

Yeah, who did that benefit

I know I'm out there for even questioning it, but....

--more--"

Those goods delivered by Air Amazon.

Fortunately for you, a rabbit delayed my arrival on the blog this morning and I also read this:

"2 US carriers sail in western Pacific in show of force" by Jane Perlez New York Times  June 18, 2016

BEIJING — China seeks to dominate the western Pacific Ocean as part of its long-term strategy, US strategists say.

The message of the exercise by the two carriers and their attendant warships was unmistakable, and the timing was deliberate, said a US official familiar with the planning of the operation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. It could have been conducted later, he said.

They sent it with air defense and sea surveillance operations that involved 12,000 sailors, 140 aircraft, and six smaller warships

The Philippines is challenging China’s claims to what has come to be known as the nine-dash line, an area that covers almost all of the South China Sea, including waters close to the Philippine coast.

The issue of the nine-dash line is delicate because China has claimed it since ancient times as its territory, and the South China Sea has become part of the increasingly nationalistic vocabulary of President Xi Jinping.

In the past two years, China has built artificial islands equipped with military runways in the Spratly archipelago, inside the line and not far from the Philippines.

The carrier John C. Stennis conducted exercises with Japanese and Indian naval forces in the western Pacific and the South China Sea earlier in the week, an operation that was shadowed by a Chinese surveillance vessel.

Early this month, Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, foreshadowed the dual-carrier exercise during a speech in Singapore, saying it was part of increased US vigilance in the Pacific.

Also last week, the United States dispatched four Navy electronic attack aircraft, known as Growlers, and 120 military personnel to Clark Air Base in the Philippines....

I'm told “any misunderstanding could lead to disaster.”

--more--"

And then my service was done and the soccer game started. I can't believe they play in the heat of day, so I dropped the kids off (another flawed computer software program) at the school, wondering whether the Globe should be promoting boxing for children, what with the worries regarding concussions in youth sport.  Seems deserving of a boo or two if nothing else. 

Then came a knock on the door of the garage and I turned in to answer it -- and nothing about Orlando in my Globe today. Nothing but silence, that is, despite the cool crop of Ideas and Opinions

As for me, I'm going to grab the Magazine and do the Crossword during the games.