MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
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In the News
Op-ed by David Ignatius @ WashingtonPost.com, Nov. 5
Since the investigation began into President Trump’s machinations in Ukraine, one of the most disturbing questions has been: Where is Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, who’s supposed to shield his diplomats from political interference?
And now we have the answer: Pompeo, in recent months, has essentially been in hiding, protecting himself while his subordinates took the hit — evidently hoping to preserve his influence with Trump. Sometimes his deflections and denials have been outright misleading.
Pompeo has badly tarnished his reputation in accommodating Trump. He joins the long list of those damaged by their service to this president [....]
The author, identified only as “a senior official in the Trump administration,” is set to release a tell-all book this month.
By Reis Thebault @ WashingtonPost.com, Nov. 4, 9:36 pm
The Justice Department is looking for identifying details about the anonymous Trump administration official who excoriated the president’s “amorality” in an unsigned New York Times opinion column last year, according to a letter the agency sent Monday.
The author of the column, whose identity has remained a secret for more than a year, has also written a tell-all book that will publish this month — and Assistant Attorney General Joseph H. Hunt wants proof that the writer is not bound by a government nondisclosure agreement.
Either that, Hunt wrote in the letter, or the book’s publisher and the author’s agents should turn over the official’s employment information: where in the government the person worked, and when he or she worked there. If the official had access to classified information, Hunt warned, the book should be “submitted for pre-publication review.” [....]
By David Matthews @ NYDailyNews.com, Nov. 5, with embedded local video report
It’s a sandwich so good, someone died trying to buy one.A man online hoping to buy a Popeyes chicken sandwich in Maryland was stabbed to death on Monday, said news reports,
The fight began around 7 p.m. when someone tried to cut into the line at a Popeyes in Oxon Hill, Md., sources told Fox 5 DC. The battle spilled into the restaurant’s parking lot, said cops. When cops arrived, they found a man, 28, with multiple stab wounds [....]
By Zoe Kleinman, Technology reporter, BBC News, Nov. 4
Microsoft Japan said sales had been boosted by nearly 40% during an experiment in which staff worked a four-day week on full pay.
Offices were closed on every Friday of August 2019 and full-time staff were given "special leave", which was paid. Meetings were restricted to a maximum of 30 minutes and online discussions were encouraged as an alternative to face-to-face.
Japan has some of the longest working hours in the world.
'Rest smartly' [....]
Statement from prime minister Thursday that Iran is growing bolder given lack of US response was public hint at growing unease expressed privately, according to Channel 13 news
And they don’t have to give up their principles to do it.
Op-ed by Thomas B. Edsall @ NYTimes.com, Nov. 1
President Trump is unpopular, but that doesn’t mean defeating him is going to be easy. Democrats will have to tackle issues that may alienate — and even give offense to — progressives, women, Latinos and African-Americans.
Putting together a broad enough coalition to finish the job — to win 270 Electoral College votes — will require navigating fraught cultural arenas: race, immigration and women’s rights — while dodging the broadly loathed set of prohibitions that many voters, including many Democrats, file under the phrase “political correctness.”
In September, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Cook Report released a study of 2,402 adults designed to identify the swing electorate. They found that 16 percent of all voters “are truly persuadable.”
Who are they? “They’re younger, more moderate, and less engaged in national politics. At least a quarter say they didn’t vote in 2016 or 2018.” Their views of Trump are less extreme than those of more partisan voters, with the overwhelming majority saying they “somewhat” approve or disapprove of the president, rather than “strongly” approve or disapprove.
Last year, Matt Grossmann, a political scientist at Michigan State, “reviewed nearly every academic article containing the name ‘Donald Trump’,” and concluded that “attitudes about race, gender, and cultural change played outsized roles” in Trump’s victory. Trump’s adamant “aversion to political correctness,” Grossmann argued, was a crucial factor in the outcome in 2016: [....]