A Thought for the Day
From conception’s hopefully joyous miracle through youth’s florid flower, we can pray for the fortune and search for the grit to lay the basis for the power of a prime from which will spring whatever propagation that we have to proffer, thereby preparing, with a modicum of luck, a smiling decline into dotage, and eventual exit to where all our achievements are finally and eternally beyond either our ken or control, which is why our choices while conscious determine whatever memorial that we merit.
This Day in History
On this date every year, Cuba celebrates a Day of the National Rebellion to commemorate the launching of the 26th of July Movement under the aegis of Fidel Castro; on the Arabian Peninsula, meanwhile, a thousand three hundred and sixty years ago, the factional and fractious fighting of the early post-Prophet period of Islam continued with the Battle of the Siffin, where the forces of so-called “Rightly-Guided,” or Rashidun Caliphs clashed with the supporters of the ‘Sons of Umayya,’ or nascent Umayyad Caliphs; a thousand ninety-seven years ahead of today, in the Islamic incursions into Europe via the Iberian Peninsula, an utter rout of Christian forces occurred at Pamplona, laying the basis for nearly complete Muslim dominion over what is now Spain; MORE HERE
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Interesting People Places Things of Note
A Facing South post that looks at the ongoing good work of the Highlander Center: “Seventy years ago, a group of cigar factory workers from Charleston, South Carolina, traveled almost 500 miles to the Highlander Folk School, a leadership training school founded in East Tennessee in 1932. There, the workers introduced the school’s musical director to a gospel song that had boosted their spirits during a protracted strike the previous year. Highlander staff taught the song to thousands of labor and civil rights movement activists over the years and, as its popularity spread, “We Shall Overcome” became an anthem for human rights causes worldwide. It has been sung by left-wing college students in India, anti-apartheid protesters in South Africa, and civil rights supporters from Birmingham, Alabama, to Belfast, Northern Ireland.
In the footsteps of the tobacco workers, three Charleston food and hospitality industry workers attended an educational and organizing workshop at Highlander earlier this month sponsored by Raise Up for $15. Since the summer of 2013, Raise Up has been the Southern expression of the national “Fight for $15″ — the Service Employees International Union-backed movement for a livable wage and union rights for low-wage workers.”
Writers Tools Issues
Jung’s Association Method Lecture
An All-About-Psychology piece that shares fascinating psychological and cognitive properties to all scribes and readers: “Before the experiment begins the test person receives the following instruction: “Answer as quickly as possible with the first word that occurs to your mind.” This instruction is so simple that it can easily be followed. The work itself, moreover, appears extremely easy, so that it might be expected any one could accomplish it with the greatest facility and promptitude. But, contrary to expectation, the behavior is quite otherwise.”
Recent Events
Another Falling Empire Prognostication
A Popular Resistance look at another fall-of-empire assessment, from the lens of the G -20 summit: ““The G-20 summit highlighted a transition in geopolitical power that has been developing for years. The process has escalated in recent months since President Trump took office, but its roots go much deeper than Trump. Europe is tired of the US spying on its leaders and creating a massive refugee crisis from its chaos creating wars. Russia and China are being pulled together as the US threatens both with missiles and bases on their borders. Now Trump seeks more money from everyone to reduce the US trade deficit and holds the world back on the climate crisis. The United States is losing power, a multi-polar world is taking shape and people power is on the rise “
General Past & Present Issues
Alperovitz on Atomic Intimidation
An aged but still timely piece from Washington Post looking at the realities of nukes today: “Once the new weapon had been proven, the military leaders went along with the president’s decision to use it. But this fact has often led subsequent observers to confuse approval with the question of whether, as Eisenhower put it, the weapon was still deemed “mandatory as a measure to save American lives.” Strategy for the bomb was in any event largely handled outside the normal chain of command by the president and his advisers.
Did the president understand the possibility that the atomic bomb was not required to prevent an invasion? On this question there is much dispute. However, the documents now available make it very difficult to believe he did not.”