Snow Squalls Approaching
Between me and the tree line and the snow squalls in New York State lies Lake Champlain
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listener
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1:00:00 AM
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Well, campers, yours truly managed to accidentally delete Friday's thread! [THANK YOU puddle for emailing me!!!]
ReplyDeleteI made an attempt to recreate it, so please go back and check that out and see if you can add anything to what I recalled. Hmmm, think I'm a bit stretched at the moment? I have posted through Monday, and hopefully by Monday the renovation project here will be pretty much complete (she said hopefully). Sincerest apologies!!! ♡
All will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of thing will be well.
~ Julian of Norwich
If that is the worst thing that happens to us, we will be just fine, listener. Not to worry.
ReplyDeleteAlan
Absolutely! I've done such things and, though it's terribly upsetting at the time, one soon recovers. So, don't sweat it, Listener. *hug*
DeleteI posted what I could recover at the end of yesterday's thread, listener. I had part in my text editor, and by sheer luck, I had merely idled my laptop rather than shut it down--so I could recover (I think) most of the rest. --Alan
ReplyDeletelistener—here is a source of inexpensive fountain pens to pass along to your contacts:
ReplyDeleteFountain Pen Revolution[Click] I bought one of their house brand “Guru” pens with a semi-flex nib for sketching, and it is dandy! I should recommend the piston fillers (like the Guru) rather than the cartridge/converter or eyedropper pens. I think all of them have ebonite (hard rubber) feeds, which seem to be just as good as they are cracked up to be—definitely better than plastic, if perhaps less long-lasting. They have frequent specials, like two for the price of one and (today) 40% off. If one has any problems, the company has numerous help videos covering maintenance and repair, and they don’t hesitate to replace the occasional defective pen. Don’t like the nib? Exchange it—they have several choices. Mine had a base sale price of $6; today the next model up (Indus—normally $17) is 40% off. Special nibs like stub and flex are $3 extra, and shipping is economical. Made to order in India for a US importer; evidently there has been improvement in quality control and finish since they started. The nib units are friction-fit rather than threaded, so can sometimes need a bit of tightening; no big deal.
—Alan
When I said exchange the nib you don't like it, I should have said buy another and swap it out.
Delete--Alan
And I see that today's 40% off pen has a plastic feed rather than an ebonite one. Less good, but for the price can one complain?
DeleteAlan
While fiddling with the pen, I realized that it is dandy for shading! (That's not easy with a fountian pen maximized for writing.)
Delete--Alan
The Saturday Quartz Daily Briefing typically has a long lead article analyzing an important issue. I think today's article is worth reposting:
ReplyDeleteDonald Trump’s meeting with Kim Jong-un is a greater concession than he likely understands—and a bigger risk. But why should the presence of two humans in a room have such high stakes?
The reason a US president has never met a North Korean leader is that the US and North Korea have been, and continue to be, at war. Since 1953, a ceasefire has made that conflict largely symbolic, with suffering limited to South Koreans killed in provocative strikes, and the North Koreans who suffer in a gulag state or die fleeing it.
In international diplomacy, the leader-to-leader meeting is the highest level of commitment available. No prior White House would send the president into a summit that has not been pre-scripted with guaranteed results. Should there be no agreement, there is no face-saving blame to be put on negotiators, and little room left for diplomacy. And while the White House says this meeting is not a negotiation, that only raises the question of what the president is even doing there.
To entice Trump, North Korea said it would suspend the nuclear and missile tests it uses to protest military exercises between the US and South Korea. For his part, Trump is likely to demand an end to the North’s nuclear program. Kim won’t surrender it without concessions, such as reductions in sanctions and an increase in aid. Ironically, this is the framework of the nuclear agreement with Iran that Trump has lambasted.
That Trump would contemplate offering compromises after years of criticizing them suggests that he has not contemplated much at all, a suspicion that accounts of his decision confirm (paywall). Meanwhile, South Korea’s dovish president, Moon Jae-in, is the prime mover behind the Trump-Kim connection. Putting his two spoiled, self-obsessed counterparts together is an extraordinary wager, motivated by impatience at decades of failure. The question is whether Trump will sit still long enough to learn what the US can offer in such talks, and what it shouldn’t.
True, it took Richard Nixon to go to China. But he only went after the groundwork had been laid.—Tim Fernholz
People may wonder why Kim has suddenly done a 180-degree pivot. One hypothetical explanation is that, although he may appear to be an absolute dictator, there is a cadre of senior officials, mostly military, who could oust him if they saw the need. To date, he has felt the need for aggressive posturing to maintain their approval. But it's not hard to imagine that there has been a power shift that now leaves those who want an end to sanctions in the lead. This could also be related to China leaning harder on the nuclear issue.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Kim has done a volte-face; he continues to play Trump like a violin, and Trump gladly plays his assigned role. Kim gains stature by making the President of the United States dance to his tune. If Kim makes an offer that is generous on its face--suspending nuclear and missile testing while talks are ongoing, and agreeing to work toward denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, Trump agrees to talk, then refuses or insists on preconditions such as Mr. Kim did not, then the US, and Mr. Trump in particular, are shown to be acting in bad faith; the US loses more credibility while North Korea gains. And then there is the little matter of the armistice. Remember that the "Korean War" was not technically a war, but a "police action" under the auspices of the United Nations. If the US signs a unilateral peace treaty with North Korea, that drives a wedge between the US and the UN. Indeed, the US probably does not have legal standing to sign such a peace treaty. Of course many of Trump's supporters would be gleeful about kicking the UN in the teeth, and Trump would probably see it as an assertion of US sovereignty. What a mess. What an unspeakable incompetent.
DeleteIt is my understanding that the one thing North Korea lacks to perfect a credible missile deterrent is a nuclear warhead that can survive re-entry into the atmosphere. Among the Soviet engineers who helped him to quickly make a copy of a Soviet ICBM there must be some who know how to do the job, and testing ins not required. A ceramic heat shield comes immediately to mind, and Korea has a history of ceramic technology that was ancient when Charlemagne was born.
--Alan
Sen. Elizabeth Warren told CNN that she isn’t running for president in 2020.
ReplyDeleteSaid Warren: “For the people of Massachusetts, and for the people across this country. This government is working better and better and better for a thinner and thinner slice at the top. I am in these fights, and I am in this fight to retain my Senate seat in 2018. That’s where I’m focused. That’s where I’m going to stay focused. I’m not running for president.”
--Alan (Who is cool with that; she fills a valuable role in the Senate, for her state and the country.)