Hopeful Signs

Labor Day weekend traditionally marks the unofficial kickoff not only of the football season but the home stretch of political campaigns in an election year.

This, of course, is an election year.

It’s been an impressive summer for the Biden Administration and the Democratic Party, so much so that even Mitch McConnell now warns Republicans that their chances of gaining control of the Senate are dwindling.

Over the summer, the polling site 538 has tracked the slow rise of Democrats’ chances to retain a majority in the Senate from around 48% to 63% currently. Both 538 and McConnell blame a slate of relatively weak GOP candidates for this new political reality.

The GOP still has an overwhelming advantage to win the House (78%, according to 538) but it is noteworthy that that percentage is down from 83% just a few weeks ago.

So what is going on in American politics?

• The conservative Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade and the corollary attempt by Republicans to ban abortion is not playing well with most Americans.

• By contrast, Biden’s success at passing major legislation on climate change, taxes and health care is playing well. Biden’s approval rating has ticked back up from the low 30s to 40.7, according to 538.

• The Jan. 6 committee and various criminal probes are steadily eroding popular support for Trump.

• Election-denier Republican candidates backed by Trump are advancing through the primaries, which may not be good news for the GOP, as many may lose to Democrats in November.

• The net effect on the GOP is being still tied too closely to Trump may prove to be a negative factor electorally.

While it is way too soon to celebrate the decline of the demagogue, a Democratic victory in November would go a long way in preserving our collective chances at preserving the current tattered system of democracy we still possess. 

LATEST LINKS:

• Pro-Ukrainian saboteurs are behind blasts at Russian military sites, Ukrainian official says (NBC)

• Warnings of imminent attack on Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant; families flee area (WP)

• Zelenskyy warns world is on ‘verge of nuclear disaster’ (CNBC)

• Russian vehicles seen inside turbine hall at Ukraine nuclear plant (CNN)

• VIDEO: U.N. Chief Calls for Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant Demilitarization

  (Reuters)

• Ukraine and Russia Accuse Each Other of Plotting Attack on Nuclear Plant (NYT)

• Ukraine nuclear plant: How risky is stand-off over Zaporizhzhia? (BBC)

• Russia’s spies misread Ukraine and misled Kremlin as war loomed (WP)

• Ukraine’s Southern Forces Wage a Slow Campaign to Wear the Russians Down (WSJ)

• Ukraine's Crimean fightback having 'psychological impact' on Russia (BBC)

• Zelensky faces outpouring of criticism over failure to warn of war (WP)

• Former CIA director Michael Hayden, a Bush administration appointee, said today’s Republican Party is the most dangerous political force he’s ever seen. Hayden has recently been warning about the damage Trump is doing to the country. Despite being a Republican, he endorsed Joe Biden for president in 2020 and even cut a video for him. [HuffPost]

• McConnell says Republicans may not win Senate control, citing 'candidate quality' (NBC)

• How the Democrats Rallied (Atlantic)

• Donald Trump’s claim that he had a “standing order” automatically declassifying secret documents when he took them from the Oval Office to his White House residence has been refuted by 18 officials who worked in his administration, according to CNN. Meanwhile, embattled lawyer Rudy Giuliani cooked up an even more outrageous excuse. [HuffPost]

• This researcher sees a 'dangerous' & significant shift by right-wing militia groups (CNN)

• Europe’s Scorching Summer Puts Unexpected Strain on Energy Supply (NYT)

• What is 'quiet quitting,' and how it may be a misnomer for setting boundaries at work (NPR)

• ‘I Have Nothing Left’: Flooding Adds to Afghanistan’s Crises — Widespread flash floods have left more than 40 dead and 100 others injured in recent days, battering a country already reeling from an economic crisis, terrorist attacks and other natural disasters. (NYT)

• How Data Is Changing the College Experience (WSJ)

• The News Media and Bail (Copaganda)

• Finnish PM defends dancing, takes drug test to clear herself (AP)

• The Bible is among dozens of books removed from this Texas school district (NPR)

• Giant sharks once roamed the seas, feasting on huge meals (AP)

• Canada conservation officers seek runaway wolf days after zoo break-in (Guardian)

• Encouragement Of Family, Friends Motivating Man To Keep Struggling Indefinitely (The Onion)

 

As Hearts Break

 [NOTE: I first published this essay a year ago as the Taliban seized power. Nothing has happened in the interlude to cause me to revise it.]

The roots of Afghanistan's problems are inextricably linked historically to the Great Game that has been waged by Britain, Russia, India, America, China, Iran, Pakistan and countless other empires and neighbors for as long as the history of the region has been recorded.

One result of the endless conflicts and invasions of this windswept mountainous desert of a land is an Islamic society struggling to modernize. Afghanistan has been an Islamic nation the 7th century and historians tell us that that was completed by the 10th century with final mop-ups in the 19th century.

But I can attest that there were still at least some people who were not anything like Moslems as late as the late 20th century in an obscure part of the country made famous in Rudyard Kipling's "The Man Who Would Be King," also a 1975 movie.

They lived in Nuristan, which was previously known as Kafiristan, or "Land of the Nonbelievers," because of their ancient worship of idols.  That practice persisted at least into the 1970s when I made a visit to the town of Kamdesh (Pashto: کامدېش‎, Persian: کامدیش‎). 

What I witnessed was wild exotic dancing by men and unveiled women around campfires under the influence of  charas (hashish) and it was as far from devout Islamic behavior as could be imagined high in the mountains where foreigners rarely ventured.

***

In the 1980s, while the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, they mercilessly bombed the countryside into ruins, while they occupied Kabul and other cities. In response, the U.S. decided to covertly fund the fundamentalist mujahideen that had arisen in opposition. Soon the Taliban  emerged from the refugee camps where the victims of Russian aggression were clustered.

The Russians eventually lost that war, and by the mid-1990s the Taliban came to power. Though they reflected the general population's united opposition to foreigners, they were distrusted by the educated, urbanized people in Kabul and other cities.

Cut to 2001: After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Bush administration vowed to hunt down those responsible and hold them accountable. That meant going to Afghanistan where the terrorists had trained.

One immediate problem with the U.S. response is it was overly personalized -- the mission was to get Osama bin-Laden and also his Al-Qaeda cohort. Intelligence sources quickly determined that he was somewhere in the remote mountains of Afghanistan. 

Remarkably, the U.S. forces almost caught bin-Laden at Tora Bora but he escaped. As the search continued, it obscured the fact that Al-Qaeda was only one part of the problem in Afghanistan. The terrorists were primarily Saudis and Egyptians, while Afghanistan itself was split between the rural Taliban and the educated urban elite.

The U.S. seemed to conflate the Taliban with Al-Qaeda, lumping them together as radical extremists, which was partly true but obscured again what was going on among the Afghans internally.

It took many years and billions of dollars and thousands of innocent lives lost, but during the Obama administration, bin-Laden was finally hunted down and killed in Pakistan and the remnants of Al-Qaeda appeared to scatter to the winds.

But by then, the war in Afghanistan had become impossible to win; the opposition led by the Taliban was entrenched in the countryside, while the urban population did not want to fight wars at all, they wanted to live modern affluent, educated lives.

The U.S. and its allies did a good job in the cities, helping build modern infrastructure and educating millions of people, including women. As the years passed, however, the U.S.-built national Afghan "army" was rife with corruption, low morale and a lack of will to fight their countrymen in the form of the Taliban.

The Taliban by contrast had no problem attacking their brothers who sided with the national government, which was seen as a puppet of the U.S. 

In seeking to negotiate an end to the war, the Trump administration confirmed that status by excluding the national government officials from peace talks with the Taliban. To make matters worse, Trump's aide Stephen Miller implemented policies that would slow down special exit visas for Afghans when the Americans would eventually leave, setting up the current evacuation crisis.  

In the end, the Biden administration has simply done what Bush, Obama, and Trump wanted to do but couldn't by getting out of Afghanistan and putting an end to the endless war. 

But to the surprise of no one who has been paying attention all these years, the withdrawal instantly led to the collapse of the puppet government, and the home-grown resistance movement that had sheltered bin-Laden and Al-Qaeda leading up to 9/11 returned to power.

What is already clear is that the Taliban does not the ability to govern the country. Al Qaeda will be back as will the homegrown Haqqani Network, yet another faction of violent extremism.

Meanwhile ISIS, which is the enemy of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, is already on the scene.

So it appears that extreme instability will continue to reign in Afghanistan. The Americans may be gone but the problems remain and can only grow from here.

***

There is no part of the Taliban takeover more distressing for many of us than the danger it poses to the right of Afghan women.

The news on this topic is not good:

* The entire staff and student body of the country's only girls boarding school has fled to Rwanda.

* The women students at the American University of Afghanistan are in hiding with their fate unknown.

* The Taliban has warned women to stay of the streets because its soldiers are not "trained" to respect them.

* Throughout the country, women are staying out of sight, according to my sources and multiple news reports.

The status of women as extreme second-class citizens in Afghanistan has long angered many of us who have worked in the country and love its people. Many have done what they could to change that.

It is simply heart-breaking to think that decades of improvement in getting girls educated is now being threatened by men who either are so ignorant (due to lack of education themselves) or so cruel as to set women back to pre-modern status.

I don't know how, but the advanced countries of the world must find a way to prevent Afghan women from losing the precious rights they have won.

LATEST LINKS:

• The Bloody Uprising Against the Taliban Led by One of Their Own (NYT)

• Police: Death toll in Afghan capital mosque bombing now 21 (AP)

• The Fight Over Afghanistan’s Money (WSJ)

• Top DOJ official: Trump Mar-a-Lago investigation still in 'early stages' (Politico)

• Former CFO of Trump Organization pleads guilty for his role in tax fraud scheme and agrees to testify against company (CNN)

• Plea Deal Requires Weisselberg to Testify at Trump Organization Trial (NYT)

• VIDEO: Giuliani Arrives to Face Atlanta Grand Jury Investigating Trump

  (Reuters)

• Giuliani appears before Georgia grand jury for six hours in election probe (WP)

• How big are Donald Trump's legal problems? (BBC)

• Can We Expect Anything Other Than Biden vs. Trump In 2024? (538

• U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, has been dealing with the far-from-routine fallout of his decision to approve a search warrant for Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate. Reinhart’s home address was posted on right-wing sites, along with antisemitic slurs. Experts warn this, along with the uptick in threats against the judiciary, is dangerous for the rule of law and the country’s viability as a democracy. [AP]

• Pence Calls on Republicans to Stop Assailing the F.B.I. After Mar-a-Lago Search (NYT)

• Wisconsin school board votes in favor of pride flag ban (AP)

• US-Taiwan Trade Talks Kick Off in Long-Planned Counter to China (Bloomberg)

• US to hold trade talks with Taiwan, island drills military (AP)

• Crimea attacks point to new Ukrainian strategy of eroding Russia’s military capabilities from within, official says(WP)

• Ukrainian forces said they had beaten back a Russian attack in the southern region of Kherson, while the death toll from Russian shelling of Kharkiv city in Ukraine's northeast climbed as the nearly six-month war grinds on. (Reuters)

• Russia issues stark warning over the nuclear power plant it’s occupying; Kyiv urges inspection of damaged facility (CNBC)

• Behind Enemy Lines, Ukrainians Tell Russians ‘You Are Never Safe’ (NYT)

• NATO will increase its peacekeeping force in Kosovo if there is an escalation of tensions with neighboring Serbia, the alliance's chief said, ahead of EU-facilitated talks between the estranged western Balkan neighbors. (Reuters)

• Walgreens, CVS and Walmart ordered to pay $650 million in opioid lawsuit (WP)

• A key provision of the Inflation Reduction Act signed into law this week gives the secretary of Health and Human Services authority to negotiate the price of drugs in the Medicare program. If you want to understand why Democrats and their allies are so excited about the reforms, it helps to think about how long they have been trying to put those reforms on the books. Some of the most important work that went into the bill took place before Biden even became president. [HuffPost]

• Residents living near a tributary of the Yangtze river in the southwestern region of Chongqing clambered along the dry riverbed amid an unprecedented drought across the region that could last another month. In Europe, France's river Loire has set new lows as drought dries up its tributaries, rocky beaches are emerging from Italy's Lake Garda, and Serbs are wading across a vast stretch of the shrinking Danube. (Reuters)

• WHO: World coronavirus cases fall 24%; deaths rise in Asia (AP)

• Mosquitoes surprise researcher with their 'weird' sense of smell (NPR)

• Scientists discover a 5-mile wide undersea crater created as the dinosaurs disappeared (CNN)

• A "cannibal" solar ejection heading straight for Earth could bring northern lights as far south as Illinois and trigger power voltage issues (CBS)

• Glaciers in Europe are experiencing the most severe melting on record (WP)

• Kemp’s ridley sea turtle nests 1st in 75 years in Louisiana (AP)

• Brian Stelter to depart CNN as it cancels 'Reliable Sources' media show (NPR)

• 6 Songs You Didn’t Know George Harrison Wrote for Other Artists (American Songwriter)

• How a vacation to Hawaii can be relaxing for tourists -- and harmful to its residents (CNN)

• Area Man Considers Self Ally To Women Unless They Threaten His Status In Literally Any Way (The Onion)
  
  

Inside Old Boxes

 Among my possessions recently reclaimed from storage is an old cardboard box painted pastel green. It dates from the 1960s, when I went away to college. I guess my parents painted the box to make it stronger.

Inside were many copies of Rolling Stone containing articles of mine I’ve not read since I wrote them in the 1970s.

But there also was this (above), a piece in Life magazine about student protestors, including a picture of me being escorted out of an occupied building by the cops, under arrest.

We had been occupying the Washtenaw County Building in support of local “welfare moms,” mostly black, who were being denied a decent level of benefits at the time in our view.

It was 1968 and the campuses were erupting with similar protests, mainly over civil rights or anti-war issues. This was the only time I mixed my nascent role as a journalist with political activity, and wouldn’t you know, I ended up criminalized and photographed in Life magazine.

Of course, at the time, I was proud of what I’d done. I wrote about it in the college paper. The charges of trespassing on public property, to which I pled, carried no actual penalty beyond a day’s labor in a local park.

But once there, I and my fellow convicts refused to cut down the trees as we were instructed to do, as an environmental protest. Thinking back on it, we must have been a royal pain in the behind for the authorities.

They chose to ignore the fact we didn’t serve our sentence, trying turning instead to more pressing matters, such as the bombing of the local CIA office, which led to the indictment of John Sinclair, and that brought John Lennon to Ann Arbor to sing in his support.

One thing led to another for me and within a few years I was editing pieces Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono produced for SunDance magazine out in San Francisco.

A few more years and I was at Rolling Stone.

At the bottom of the files in the old box was my FBI file, which I obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. The Bureau kept track of me starting with that arrest in college and my work for an underground paper. It tracked me as I relocated to San Francisco to work at SunDance and through the years at Rolling Stone.

Much of the information in that file is blacked out in the classic way the FBI edited files prior to releasing them under the FOIA. 

There’s also non-FBI notes I saved such as a note from Jann Wenner thanking me for sharing some of the information with him after I’d left Rolling Stone in 1977.

Many other letters, clippings, files and memories pored forth out of that old cardboard box painted pastel green. I’m pretty sure my parents never imagined that that box would end up with the stuff it did. 

Or that my life would turn out the way it did.

LATEST LINKS:

• Liz Cheney vows to carry on fight against Trump after conceding defeat in Wyoming primary (CNN)

• Cheney says she is considering a White House run after drubbing in Wyo. primary (WP)

• In a defeat that many of her supporters expected, Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, one of former President Donald Trump’s fiercest GOP critics, lost her primary to Trump-endorsed Harriet Hageman. Trump and his allies took revenge after Cheney voted to impeach Trump for his role in Jan. 6, and she rose to the fight as the top Republican on the House select committee investigating the insurrection. In a fiery concession speech condemning Trump, Cheney hinted at the next chapter in her political future. [HuffPost]

• The country needs more Liz Cheneys (Edit Bd/WP)

• 2024 preview? Cheney telegraphs her next, direct shot at Trump (Politico)

• Dems have improved their chances of controlling the Senate to 63-37% (538)

• FBI Sought Documents Trump Hoarded for Years, Including about Russiagate (Newsweek)

• Weeks before Mar-a-Lago search, ex-Trump DOD official vowed to publish classified documents from National Archives (ABC)

• Pence tells GOP to stop lashing out at FBI over Trump search (AP)

• Pence: ‘I would consider’ testifying to Jan. 6 committee (Politico)

• The FBI has interviewed Trump's former White House counsel, Pat Cipollone, and his deputy in its investigation into sensitive documents stored at Mar-a-Lago, a source familiar with the situation said. (Reuters)

• Giuliani faces grand jury in Georgia 2020 election probe (AP)

• Ukraine Strikes Again in Crimea, Challenging Russian Hold on Peninsula (NYT)

• Blasts in Crimea underscore Russian forces’ vulnerability (AP)

• Security situation in Crimea deteriorates for Moscow (CNBC)

• Russia blamed saboteurs for explosions at one of its military bases in Moscow-annexed Crimea while Ukraine hinted it was responsible as its officials said their strategy was to destroy supply lines supporting Russia's invasion. We look at how action to isolate Russia is waning at the United Nations almost six months into the war. (Reuters)

• 10 Years After Disappearing in Syria, Freedom Is Elusive for U.S. Journalist (NYT)

• Journalist found dead in northern Mexico in bloody year for media (Guardian)

• Free Speech Can’t Survive As an Abstraction (Atlantic)

• Dueling views remain a year after Afghan pullout (AP)

• Many feared dead, including prominent cleric, after bombing at mosque in Kabul (CBS)

• Federal officials  announced the first-ever “Tier 2” water shortage for the lower Colorado River Basin — a designation that triggers new water use reductions for Arizona, Nevada and neighboring Mexico next year. Researchers have concluded that the U.S. Southwest is experiencing its driest spell in at least 1,200 years. [HuffPost]

• China is seeding clouds to replenish its shrinking Yangtze River (CNN)

• Scientists warn of dire effects as Mediterranean heats up (AP)

• Tasmanian tiger: Scientists hope to revive marsupial from extinction (BBC)

• After 16 Months, Some Glimmers of Optimism About Iran Nuclear Deal (NYT)

• Apple will require its corporate employees to return to the tech company’s Cupertino offices three days a week by Labor Day. (San Francisco Chronicle)

• Impact crater may be dinosaur killer's baby cousin (BBC)

• How lipstick and underwear can predict the economy (WP)

• Japan’s latest alcohol advice: please drink more (Financial Times)

• Smirnoff Unveils New Vodka Infused With Agricultural Runoff (The Onion)

Dreaming the Future

“I'll let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours.” — Bob Dylan

A while back, a friend of mine told me she had been having vivid dreams that she was in a relationship with one of her work colleagues. When I asked if she had ever told him about her dreams, she said no. She wasn’t sure it would be appropriate to do so.

But she insisted that she had never had such vivid dreams before, so they simply could not be false visions. “I’m already with him in my dreams. It’s so real! How could that be if it’s not going to come true?” 

It must be a vision of her future, she insisted.

That conversation got me thinking. Most of my dreams seem to be set in the past, often the distant past. I’m often starting college all over again or showing up at a new job. Those dreams are usually anxious ones because I can’t find my classes or where the office is — things like that.

Often people I know or have known are in my dreams, including those long gone, like my parents, which is confusing. But at least when I wake up I can shake them off.

Also, I realize that our dreams often reflect actual changes in our lives, things we may be anxious about. Carl Jung said that we process our subconscious in our dreams, so that’s how any underlying anxieties are likely to surface when we sleep.

My eight-year-old granddaughter’s dreams are a case in point. She says she often relives her most embarrassing moments in dreams. “If I did or said something embarrassing in front of somebody, it happens again in my dreams. I see them and suddenly I can’t help but do it again.”

That makes all kinds of sense to me. But I keep wondering about that other kind of dream, the one where we maybe, just maybe, we actually do see the future. I’ve been having some of those myself lately.

So I checked into the topic and according to the Sleep Foundation, some of us (roughly 18-38%) can and do see the future in what are known as precognitive dreams. Also, Healthline reports that Carl Jung himself had some precognitive dreams, though they were of a negative variety — foreseeing his mother’s death and world war in Europe.

But back to my friend who dreamt of a relationship with her colleague. Some months after our conversation, the two of them did hook up and become a couple.

So for them it's been happily ever after.

These days, whenever I wish somebody “happy dreams,” what I’m really saying is that I hope any positive precognitive visions you might have come true.

And I hope mine do as well.

LATEST LINKS:

• Biden signs sweeping bill to tackle climate change, lower health-care costs (WP)

• Federal prosecutors urged a judge to keep secret details about witnesses and investigative techniques in its criminal investigation of former President Donald Trump’s mishandling of “highly classified materials” that led to its raid of his Mar-a-Lago home last week. Prosecutors warned releasing the affidavit that provided the legal basis for the search would “cause significant and irreparable damage to this ongoing criminal investigation.” Meanwhile, Trump accused FBI investigators of stealing his three passports during the raid. [HuffPost]

• Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg is expected to plead guilty as soon as Thursday in a tax evasion case that is the only criminal prosecution to arise from a long-running investigation into Trump's real estate business. Trump has not been charged in the criminal probe, but prosecutors have noted that he signed some of the checks at the center of the case. [AP]

• A former FBI assistant director for counterintelligence predicted that criminal charges against Rudy Giuliani are “imminent” in the Georgia investigation into Trump’s potential interference in the 2020 election. Giuliani, who has already been informed he is under criminal investigation, is scheduled to testify in Atlanta on Wednesday. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) also has been ordered to testify in the probe, but he's likely to appeal. [HuffPost]

• Steep water cuts are coming for the Southwest as Colorado River shrinks and Lake Mead's level plummets (CNN)

• Drastic water cuts expected as ‘megadrought’ grips western US states (Guardian)

• Colorado River cuts set to disrupt farming in American West (AP)

• California outlines water plan as predictions say state could lose 10% of supply in next 2 decades (CNN)

• Water may have been brought to Earth by asteroids, "precious samples" from recent space mission show (CBS)

• America Is Going to Have a ‘Heat Belt’ (Atlantic)

• How can we help humans thrive trillions of years from now? This philosopher has a plan. William MacAskill's book, What We Owe the Future, urges today's humans to protect future humans — an idea he calls longtermism. Here are a few of his hardly modest proposals. (NPR)

• Dark Plasma Eruption From Sun Headed Towards Earth (Newsweek)

• U.S. struggled to convince allies, and Zelensky, of risk of invasion (WP)

• Explosions rocked an ammunition depot and disrupted trains in Russian-annexed Crimea, the latest such incident in a region Moscow uses as a supply line for its war in Ukraine. (Reuters)

• Russia blames sabotage for new Crimea blasts (BBC)

• Man accused of declaring ‘open season’ on FBI agents is arrested (WP)

• Pro-Trump FBI protest cancelled after not one demonstrator showed up (Independent)

• The Georgia investigation is heating up, and it’s ominous for Trump (WP)

• In Alaska, Sarah Palin’s Political Comeback Stirs Debate Among Voters (NYT)

• Dow rises for fifth day, jumping 200 points after strong Walmart and Home Depot results (CNBC)

• States Expand Sales-Tax Holidays as Americans Feel Price Increases (WSJ)

• Why AI hasn’t lived up to the hype in health care (Politico)

• My Dad and Kurt Cobain (New Yorker)

• Repro Nation — A collection of stories, analysis, and resources on the global struggle for reproductive freedom. (The Nation)

• To encourage fans to vote, the NBA won't hold games on Election Day (NBA)

• Japan beachgoers warned to steer clear of dolphins after spate of attacks (Guardian)

• Study Finds You Should Talk More, People Want To Hear What You Think (The Onion)

Work the System

 Here’s an update on my Social Security mini-drama. On Monday I decided to bypass the national phone number and call the nearest local office, which happens to be in Berkeley.

(You can reach your closest SS office by dialing 1-877-531-4696.)

There, a nice lady named Laurie said she could see no reason why my payment had been suspended and she would fix it right away. I thanked her but got her direct extension in case I need to call back. (Always a critical thing to do in these matters.)

Twelve hours later, the SSA website stopped listing my account as suspended. That was due to a lag in how the agency updates its website. 

The key to whether this matter is actually resolved comes on Wednesday, when the check should show up in my checking account. (Always keep an eye on your bank balances online.)

Meanwhile, you might wonder why I bother writing about this kind of thing, when there are so many more urgent news issues to consider.

My reason is simple. This whole experience angers me and as far as I’m concerned never should have happened.

But let’s consider the circumstances. I’m in complete possession of my faculties, or at least as much as I’ve ever been. Plus I’m a journalist, quite used to dealing with the inefficiencies of government agencies. Plus, I’m probably more comfortable with talking to strangers than the average person. Plus I don’t easily take no as an answer. I’m stubborn and persistent, and usually polite.

Also I speak English.

But what about somebody else? Somebody who is older, sicker, less alert mentally, perhaps alone and without anyone to turn to for help in a situation like this?

I know that even in my case, a few years ago when I was very ill, no one ever got to opening my mail for many weeks at a time. Six weeks could have gone by before the type of notice I received on Saturday became known to me or my family.

That’s a long time and there are millions of people much more vulnerable than I am out there who are dependent on that monthly Social Security check to get by. They could face eviction, the inability to get food, keep the lights on, or buy gas for their car in an instant. 

It’s on behalf of them that I am writing about this incident. They need to know what to do should this happen to them.

And this is an example of what journalists call a service piece, as well as a personal essay. It’s one of the things we routinely do, and why we do them. Please keep this column or forward to anyone who might benefit.

LATEST LINKS:

• Mar-a-Lago -- and its owner -- have long caused concerns for US intelligence (CNN)

• Trump warns ‘terrible things are going to happen’ as he’s blamed for anti-FBI violence (Independent)

• Weisselberg to plead guilty in Trump tax case: report (The Hill)

• A Narrow Pardon for Trump? (Politico)

• Trump wrote on his social media site that he would please like the FBI to return documents they seized in a raid on his Florida resort last week, claiming the trove includes confidential attorney-client communications. Trump is under investigation for a possible violation of the Espionage Act, obstruction of justice, and removing and destroying official documents, according to the FBI’s search warrant. [HuffPost]

• Republicans stepped up calls for the release of an FBI affidavit showing the justification for its seizure of documents at former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home amid reports of heightened threats against federal law enforcement personnel. (Reuters)

• Michigan plot to breach voting machines points to a national pattern (WP)

• Giuliani is target in Georgia criminal probe of possible interference in 2020 election, lawyer says (WP)

• Federal authorities are warning of a spike in threats to law enforcement following the FBI search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago home. The threats are primarily occurring online and call for the “targeted killing of judicial, law enforcement, and government officials associated with the Palm Beach search," including the federal judge who approved the search warrant, a memo states. [HuffPost]

• Election deniers march toward power in key 2024 battlegrounds (WP)

• Afghanistan marks 1 year since Taliban seizure as woes mount (AP)

• For Biden, the chaotic withdrawal from Kabul was a turning point in his presidency (NPR)

• U.S. Rules Out Releasing Billions in Afghan Funds After Strike (WSJ)

• The Albanese government must save those left behind in the Taliban’s Afghanistan (Guardian)

• A year after Kabul fell to the Taliban, Afghan girls stay unsinkable (WP)

• Humaira Zafari didn’t think she’d make it out of the chaos of Aug. 27, 2021, when she was in one of seven buses packed with female students hoping to reach Kabul airport and board a flight out. Now she's enrolled at Arizona State University and and continuing her education, despite the sadness and trauma. [HuffPost]

• A year on, the Taliban savor victory, while other Afghans pay the price (NPR)

• World must not forget plight of Afghan women and girls - UN (BBC)

• One Year Later, Life Under Taliban Rule is Brutal (Politico)

• Engagement with Afghanistan will promote broader US strategic goals (Financial Times)

• I Smuggled My Laptop Past the Taliban So I Could Write This Story

  My escape from Afghanistan (Atlantic)

• Threat to Ukraine Nuclear Plant Increases as Fighting Rages (NYT)

• Inside Ukraine’s captured nuclear plant, explosions and constant fear (WP)

• China conducts fresh military drills around Taiwan as US congressional delegation visits (CNN)

• Iran denies involvement but justifies Salman Rushdie attack (AP)

• An "Extreme Heat Belt" will soon emerge in the U.S., study warns (Axios)

• Drought is driving elephants closer to people. The consequences can be deadly (NPR)

• Discovery of small armoured dinosaur in Argentina is first of its kind (Guardian)

• The Rise of the Worker Productivity Score (NYT)

• Biden’s student loan waiting game drags on (Politico)

• Spiders might be capable of dreaming. A species of jumping spider may enter rapid eye movement (REM) sleep — a phase of rest when humans have our most vivid dreams, a new study found. (WP)

• When Little Leaguers Set the Example for Adults (WSJ)

• From W-2s to nudes, here’s how to hide sensitive photos (WP)

• Climate Bill Allocates $3 Billion To Paint Snowy Peaks Onto Mountains (The Onion)

LYRICS (Barefoot):

“Love, Love, Love”

Song by Of Monsters and Men

Well, maybe I'm a crook for stealing your heart away
Yeah, maybe I'm a crook for not caring for it
Yeah, maybe I'm a bad, bad, bad, bad person
Well, baby I know

And these fingertips
Will never run through your skin
And those bright blue eyes
Can only meet mine across a room
Filled with people that are less important than you

Oh, 'cause you love, love, love
When you know I can't love
You love, love, love
When you know I can't love
You love, love, love
When you know I can't love you

So I think it's best
We both forget
Before we dwell on it

The way you held me so tight
All through the night
'Til it was near morning

'Cause you love, love, love
When you know I can't love
You love, love, love
When you know I can't love
You love, love, love
When you know I can't love you

Songwriter: Nanna Bryndis Hilmarsdottir

How Governments Make Enemies

There’s nothing that disrupts the serenity of a retired person’s existence quite like the arrival of a form letter from the Social Security Administration saying that your monthly allotment has been suspended.

Particularly when the notice arrives on a weekend, when any sort of help line or office visit is not an option.

No, all you can do is stew about it until Monday, assuming Monday isn’t some sort of federal holiday.

What complicates this experience is the constant drumbeat you get about fraud and how you cannot trust anyone impersonating the Social Security Administration personnel should they contact you.

So what about if you contact them?

Such was the less-than-delightful news on my Saturday morning that my monthly check, due next Wednesday, has been suspended because either my banking information or my address is incorrect.

But my banking information and address have not changed in years and I went on the SSA site, where I verified that they are correct.

The site also verified that my payment has been suspended.

I’m starting to feel like Yossarian in Catch 22.

So I “updated” my information on the site, basically just to confirm it, in the hope that would make a difference.

No luck.

There was nothing else to do until Monday, but stew, which I did all weekend. The SSA ruined my weekend. How can I put a price on that?

And oh, BTW, my bank reports that the Medicare payment has already been deducted from my account this month despite the suspension of the income needed to cover it.

So thanks, Uncle Sam. By the way, you suck. Didn’t anyone teach you to respect the people you serve? You might have at least called. But your call would have been a scam.

LATEST LINKS:

• More U.S. lawmakers visiting Taiwan 12 days after Pelosi trip (Politico)

• As Right-Wing Rhetoric Escalates, So Do Threats and Violence (NYT)

• Mar-a-Lago search shows how records dispute became a national security probe (WP)

• Trump’s Final Days Draw Scrutiny as Handling of Documents Investigated (WSJ)

• Defamation Suit About Election Falsehoods Puts Fox on Its Heels (NYT)

• Michigan plot to breach voting machines points to a national trend (WP)

• Salman Rushdie's 'road to recovery has begun,' author's agent says, as stabbing suspect pleads not guilty (CNN)

• What happens when unprecedented heat settles over a town that isn’t ready for it? (WP)

• Major wildfire in Spain forces the evacuation of 1,500 (AP)

• The Coming California Megastorm (NYT)

• DA Candidate John Hamasaki Hires Chesa Boudin’s Former Campaign Manager (SF Standard)

• Ukraine targets Russian soldiers accused of threatening nuclear plant (Reuters)

• With New Weaponry, Ukraine Is Subtly Shifting Its War Strategy (NYT)

• At least six explosions hit Crimea air base in nearly an hour (WP)

• A year on, ex-Afghan leader defends role in Taliban takeover (AP)

• What's the largest ocean that ever existed on Earth? (LiveScience)

• Book bans are threatening American democracy. Here’s how to fight back. (WP)

• New Molecule Discovered That Strongly Stimulates Hair Growth (SciTechDaily)

• How I trained myself to remember my dreams (WP)

• Scholars confirm what itsy bitsy babies around the world already know (NPR)

• Generation Z Doesn’t Remember When America Worked — Young Americans face a dire economy—and steep odds against political change. (Atlantic)

• In 1835, people were duped into believing we discovered bat-men on the moon (WP)

• Woman Had No Idea Participating In 5K Walk Could Be So Unrewarding (The Onion)

 

"They Kick Us Like Soccer Balls" (AFGHAN CONVERSATION 39)

 NOTE: For the past year, since the Taliban assumed power, I have been publishing the letters and conversations I am having with a friend in Helmand Province, 39 to date. He is a young, well-educated Hazara man whose English has been improving rapidly through the process of working with me. I edit his words lightly for publication. His identity must remain secret to protect his safety and that of his family. His dream is to publish in English in the West. Please contact me if you can help.

Dear David:

One year has passed since we have fallen under the rule of an illiterate, totalitarian, religious extremist group.

For me, the past year has felt like a century of being thirsty in a remote desert, waiting for a caravan. I ran for every exit, trying to escape this nightmare, but each path was only a mirage.

All over Afghanistan, insecurity has increased, poverty is rampant now, many have lost their jobs, one hundred thousand became immigrants, women have been imprisoned at home, the price of food doubled, and the rate of suicide became higher. 

These are all according to reports from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the United Nations. 

Many bad things have happened in our family, and to my friends. My younger brother, 16, tried three times to be smuggled to Iran, but each time he was arrested, tortured by the Iranian police, and returned. 

Four months ago, my older brother, 30, wanted to illegally cross the Iran-Turkey border and go to Turkey and then to Europe. He walked over the mountains and plains for weeks. Then, after crossing the Iranian border and reaching Turkey. he was arrested by the Turkish police who kicked him like a soccer ball back to Iran, where he was handed over to the Iranian police. They kicked him back to Afghanistan. 

When the Taliban came, they took all the key jobs. As a result, thousands of people lost their income, including five of my friends. Now they are doing hard labor in Iran to provide food for their families. Musa, a friend of mine, is a case in point. He was a professor in one of the colleges. Two weeks ago, Musa was fired on the pretext that he was incompetent, even though he was the only one who had a master's degree among his thirty colleagues on the faculty, and was highly competent. 

But because he is Hazara and defenseless, they easily booted him aside.

That is what has become of us in Afghanistan.

LATEST LINKS:

• The Taliban’s Dangerous Collision Course With the West (NYT Mag)

• These photos show who is (and isn't) included in the Taliban's Afghanistan (NPR)

• Afghan Women Reflect on the Anniversary of the U.S. Withdrawal (NYT)

• Female protesters beaten by Taliban fighters during rare Kabul rally (Guardian)

• One Year Later, Afghanistan Is a Land of Shrugs and Sadness (FP)

• Afghanistan’s Recognition Problem (CIR)

• A year after Kabul escape, family remains apart (Reuters)

• The Taliban Are Letting These Girls Go to School in Afghanistan (WSJ)

• FBI took 11 sets of classified material from Trump's Mar-a-Lago home while investigating possible Espionage Act violations (CNN)

• The Secrets of Mar-a-Lago (WSJ)

• Read the Search Warrant for Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Home (NYT)

• The far right is calling for civil war after the FBI raid on Trump's home. Experts say that fight wouldn't look like the last one. (Insider)

• Gunman in FBI attack was Navy veteran who had served on submarine (WP)

• An attempted attack on an FBI office raises concerns about violent far-right rhetoric (NPR)

• Salman Rushdie on ventilator after stabbing, may lose an eye (AP)

• Salman Rushdie stabbing suspect faces attempted murder charge as author remains hospitalized with "serious" wounds (CBS)

• All Because Salman Rushdie Wrote a Book (Atlantic)

• Democrats pass major health, climate and tax bill along party lines; Biden signing next week (ABC)

• Shelling of Ukraine Nuclear Plant Raising Fears and Outrage (NYT)

• Inside the Ukraine power plant raising the specter of nuclear disaster in Europe (CNN)

• Ukraine on offensive to retake south (NHK)

• A New Theory in Physics Claims to Solve the Mystery of Consciousness (Neuroscience News)

• What killed tons of fish in European river? Mystery deepens (AP)

• Flying is painful. Climate change will make it even worse. (Politico)

• Anne Heche's most memorable TV and movie roles (EW)

• Maid Of Honor Specifically Selected For Ability To Take Emotional Beating (The Onion)