I'm curating and hope its useful.

I'm going to post summaries of articles that I have read recently so that you may decide if you want to read as well.  Let's talk about the President first then some good news and then some predicting the future.


I think most damning is by Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal. In her words, "He hasn't been equal to the crises. He never makes anything better. And everyone kind of knows."   The Week It Went South for Trump.

Next is by Maureen Dowd of the New York Times:   Republicans have a history of playing on the fears of white people by labeling people with dark skin as invaders:  Trump: Not So Statuesque  Things are looking down for the Donald.

• Nixon's Southern strategy.
• Willy Horton ads by George HW Bush.
• W and Cheney playing on the fear of Al-Queda terrorists.
• Trumps reaction to Black Lives Matter protesters as agitators and anarchists; defending Confederate statues; promising a wall to protect us from Mexican criminals, drug dealers and rapists; recent immigration policy changes banning visas.

And, on that note, let's turn to Nicholas Kristof today for an uplifting piece of good news: 

Now is a Time to Learn from Hispanic Americans

• He describes the Hispanic paradox of how poverty and discrimination do not lower the life expectancy of Hispanics. They have a life expectancy of 81.8 years vs 78.5 years for whites and 74.9 years for blacks. 
• He describes a strong social fabric and how Hispanics take care of those within their communities.   

I thought Ross Douthat was insightful in that he posits that the viral pandemic will cause an acceleration of changes already in progress in the US. So much so that by the time we exit the pandemic in 2022, the country will take on changes that without the pandemic would not have evolved until 2030.  Waking Up in 2030 The suspended time of the pandemic has put history on fast-forward.

• There will be an acceleration of the demise of midsize daily newspapers and the national news media will have even more advantages.
• Higher education will evolve further with online education. in addition, foreign enrollment will decline and the marginal state universities and many small liberal arts colleges will financially collapse.
• Church attendance will decay faster and many small churches will go away. In addition, parochial schools and parishes will consolidate even faster.
• The political shift to the Democrats is being accelerated by the Trump administration disaster and more states will shift from Red to Blue maybe even for the current election.