all along the watchtower...

New York Times Quotation of the Day
"There is an ambient prickliness.  We could end up picking fights with three-quarters of the world."


~~  Philip D. Zelikow, who served in both Bush administrations and now teaches at the University of Virginia, on Donald J. Trump's foreign policy


----------------------------------------


some of the headlines today


Trump:  US must expand nuclear arsenal
(BBC)






In Kansas, Where Republicans and Fiscal Woes Reign, Democrats Made Inroads
(the New York Times)




Michigan Governor Doesn't Expect to Be Charged Over Flint
-- Michigan Attorney General Announces Charges Against 4 More Officials in Flint Water Crisis.
(ABC News)




Bored, Broke and Armed:  Clues to Chicago's Gang Violence
(the New York Times)




Prince warns against religious persecution
-- Prince Charles says the threat to minority faiths has "disturbing echoes of the dark days" of the 1930s.
(BBC)




States Won by Trump Have Highest 'Obamacare' Enrollment
(ABC News)




Russian propaganda effort helped spread 'fake news' during election
(the Washington Post)




Google is profiting from Holocaust denial, says Jewish museum
(The Guardian, UK edition)




______________________


Reader Comments from the Guardian's UK edition


>>  Anyone who thinks the present situation is in any way comparable to the 1930s knows little of the 1930s.













>>  O I don't know, demagogues promising to make countries great again and scapegoating minorities, rising diplomatic tensions between nations, far-right politics, stagnating economies.  I don't know which history books you read !




>>  Really?  You think there are no parallels at all?


>>  Unless you are being disingenuous there are at least a couple of significant similarities.  Such as a massive financial incident followed a few years later by the rise of 'populist' politics.




a Reader Comment in the Washington Post:


>>  Reminds me of the...joke -- the Koch brothers, a tea partier and a teacher are sitting around a plate of a dozen cookies.  The Koch brothers take 11 cookies, then turn to the tea partier and say "I think that teacher wants to take your cookie." 





-30-