Constructing and Deconstructing Nations
We were shocked. Donald Trump allowed Turkey to attack the Kurdish militia that had created a mini state in the northeast of Syria.
Impeachment
This Letter was prepared a few days before Nancy Pelosi’s announcement of an impeachment process.
Len’s Letters #16 Boris Johnson and Brexit. Guest Letter by Mike Faulkner
Nothing in Johnson’s past career in journalism or as mayor of London provides any shred of evidence that he is fit for office as Prime Minister.
Len’s Letter #15 Evangelicals, Israel, and Jews.
Evangelical Christians, Jews, and Israel are an issue. Some Republicans, the President included, believe Evangelical support for Israel will wean American Jews from the Democratic Party. They shouldn’t count on it. We should understand, however, that Evangelical Christian support for Israel goes back a ways and is international.
Len’s Letters #13 Forget the Horse Race
Democrats are accused of a kind of elitism. Meritocratic elites. Members of a meritocratic elite who, perhaps, don’t quite deserve their place. Did they get a head start in the race?Did they get a head start because they were rich? Were their families members of a financial elite. Multi-millionaires. Billionaires. People who really give you a head start.
Len’s Letter #12 THE BARR SUMMARY OF THE MUELLER REPORT AS IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN
THE REPORT LEAVES OPEN THE POSSIBILITY OF IMPEACHMENT PROCEEDINGS BY CONGRESS OR INDICTMENTS AT A TIME WHEN PROSECUTORS ARE NOT CONSTRAINED BY JUSTICE DEPARTMENT POLICIES PROHIBITING INDICTMENTS OF A SITTING PRESIDENT.
Len’s Letter #11 Tara’s Terror, Tara Westover’s “Educated”
Depressed, Tara Westover, an escapee from her survivalist, evangelical parents, was reading John Stuart Mill. At Trinity College, Cambridge on a fellowship. He described women as having “been coaxed, cajoled, shoved, and squashed into a series of feminine contortions for so many centuries, that it is now quite impossible to define their natural abilities or aspirations.”
Len’s Letter #10 Amazon
About twenty-five years ago, ten years before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court approved same sex marriage, a group that looks very much like the current Family Diversity Projects (FDP) was encouraging Massachusetts schools to display some family photographs. The displays, the the FDP’s displays were called Love Makes a Family. The not legally married spouses in these large-scale photographs were of the same sex.
021319 Len’s Letter #9 The very worst Republicans
Last fall, the New York Metropolitan Republican Club, neighbors of ours, invited Gavin McInnis and the Proud Boys to put on a little play for them. The play recalled the murder of a Japanese socialist. The play was followed by a brawl as the Proud Boys attacked protesters. Along with a few other members of the East River Democratic Club, in extreme cold, we protested against the election of the man who invited the Proud Boys as President of the New York Metropolitan Republican Club.
Len’s Letter #8 The Women’s March
The Women’s March is important. A large number of women ran for office in 2018. Most were Democrats. Many attribute their decision to run for office to the inspiration of the 2016 Women’s March. A group of four women gained control of the Women’s March, women who had been invited to join the leadership of the 2016 Women’s March to ensure diversity in the leadership. One result of the dispute is that there were two Marches in New York. (Two in Philadelphia, too, but the dispute was not as contentious.) In New York, the dispute was intense during the period leading up to the marches. Two Women’s March leaders drew particular attention, drew accusations of anti-Semitism.