The Death of Reconstruction: Race, Labor, and Politics in the Post-Civil War North, 1865-1901, Heather Cox Richardson, 2001, 312 pages, Dewey 973.8, IThe Death of Reconstruction: Race, Labor, and Politics in the Post-Civil War North, 1865-1901, Heather Cox Richardson, 2001, 312 pages, Dewey 973.8, ISBN 9780674006379
Class and race conflict. (Three guesses which class will win.) The prosperous elite maintained that the interests of capital and labor are the same. Those at the bottom of the vertical playing field knew that capital and labor are in conflict. pp. 113, 119-120, 124-125, 129, 131.
Elites North and South, Republican, independent, and Democratic, (and black and white!) came to believe that if disaffected workers elected the government, it would support disadvantaged groups: America would no longer strive for the equality of opportunity that permitted excellence but would settle for the equality of condition that guaranteed mediocrity. pp. 183-184, 209.
"Shall we compel the Southern states to submit to the rule of ignorant field-hands?" p. 202.
In reality, the post-1880 low-wage industrial economy kept workers poor, owners rich. pp. 189-190, 206. Industrialization created an urban underclass p. 196.
Moreover, far from the laissez-faire policy elites demanded toward the working class, government at all levels lavished aid on business owners. p. 190.
In the 1880s in the South, mills hired white workers almost exclusively; large landowners pushed small farmers into tenantry and sharecropping. p. 190.
In 1890-1903, each Southern state, with Northern approval, adopted education, literacy, or property requirements for voting. pp. 209, 220. In 1894, a Democratic Congress repealed all federal elections laws. States would do as they pleased. p. 214.
In 1895 in /Debs/, the Supreme Court virtually outlawed labor strikes. p. 215. /Plessy v. Ferguson/, 1896, okayed discrimination in public facilities. p. 220. (The Supreme Court was Southerner-controlled.)
Lynchings increased dramatically beginning 1889. p. 218.
By 1880, 5 million Americans worked in factories; nonagricultural workers exceeded agricultural workers. p. 184. Between 1880 and 1900, 6.6 million workers participated in 23,000 labor strikes. pp. xiii, 185.
The South produced nearly 4.5 million bales of cotton in 1861; production would not return to that level until 1875. Cotton prices fell in 1867 to 14¢/pound, less than the cost of production. p. 28. Freed rural blacks provided 63% to 72% of the labor forced from them under slavery. p. 32.
Black people were still whipped and sold as punishment for crimes. p. 29.
The addition of 4 million freedpeople to the census would increase the South's representation in Congress dramatically. p. 42. U.S. post-Civil-War population was 35 million. p. 72.
There was a dramatic rift in the black community between the few with property and the many without, as of 1867. p. 52.
Southern whites worked to reimpose de facto slavery. p. 53.
Freedpeople wanted land, which could've been, but wasn't, confiscated from former enslavers. p. 53. White Southerners took care to make sure freedmen did not acquire land. p. 83.
Poor Southern whites were facing starvation by late 1866, after repeated crop failures. p. 55.
Black dockworkers successfully struck for higher wages in 1867 in Mobile and Charleston. pp. 55, 92.
Propertied Southern whites feared taxation and spending if blacks voted. pp. 59-60, 92, 95-96. Northern elites likewise were unhappy with the results of universal suffrage in New York City, including the spoils-based Tammany Hall city government. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamma... The Northern elite didn't want working-class immigrants to vote. pp. 78, 93-94. Elites of both sections opined that only those who owned the country should govern it, and feared for their property and position should the working class of both races unite. pp. 97-99.
The South Carolina legislature was majority black, 1867-1876. p. 89. It levied taxes. The minority of wealthy whites screamed, "taxation without representation!" pp. 112, 114, 117.
Fear of confiscatory government by have-nots realigned politics such that Democrats won a majority in Congress in 1874. p. 120.
In 1877, President Rutherford B. Hayes stopped using federal troops to protect freedmen--and used them instead to put down the Great Railroad Strike. p. 121
In 1879-1880, tens of thousands of blacks relocated from the South to Kansas. Chapter 5.
Heather Cox Richardson has read seemingly all the newspapers and magazines of 1865-1901, and distilled them for us in 250 pages of text.
She does the same with today's news on her blog, Letters from an American. It's a terrific summary (she's been posting at about 2am Chicago time every day; about once a week she takes a day off: "Today was an absolutely perfect July day and I'm not going to ruin it by looking at the news."--https://heathercoxrichardson.substack... ) at https://heathercoxrichardson.substack... Except, bizarrely, she doesn't know that (view spoiler)[the Clinton-Clinton-Obama-Biden-Harris party /always/ serves the investor class, to our cost. Biden forced Mexico to consume Monsanto genetically-modified corn: (English & Spanish: https://www.jornada.com.mx/notas/2023... ). Clinton quietly sent bankers to arrange world trade deals that race to the bottom in environmental and worker protections, to enrich bankers and multinationals. Clinton quietly exploded the prison population. Obama quietly took /no/ action on climate change, quietly rolled out a lobbyist-written medical-insurance plan that authorizes insurers to charge us 25% more than they pay providers: they're on cost-plus, for the first time ever. Obama quietly amplified the Asian wars, and vastly expanded drone warfare. Obama quietly bailed out Wall Street and left the rest of us to fend for ourselves. We can have Wall Street's left-hand puppet quietly serving up the world to the rich, saying, "yes we can!" or, "I'm the change agent!" Or we can have Wall Street's right-hand puppet doing the exact same things, loudly railing against "illegals," "socialists," "liberals", "Eurocrats." To read Heather Cox Richardson, that choice is enough. It is not. Democrats have proven they will do nothing to curb climate change, will not tax the rich, will continue to enact lobbyist-written laws they haven't read. Sure, Republicans are even worse. Democrats do not deserve the free pass Richardson gives them, merely for not being Republicans.
[image]
Even FDR, who did more than any other president to make the playing field between the rich and the rest of us less vertical, did so largely by using our Pacific fleet to prevent fuel from entering Japan, to force Japan to go to war with us, so U.S. corporations, not Japan, would control the former European Pacific and Southeast Asian colonies. (hide spoiler)]
This is about a serial rapist and murderer who gloats about his crimes.
LikeaBack to the Garden, Laurie R. King, 2022.
In every Eden there is a serpent.
This is about a serial rapist and murderer who gloats about his crimes.
Likeable characters otherwise.
Interesting flashbacks to a 1970s hippie commune.
This is not a Kate Martinelli mystery--it features a different San Francisco Police Department inspector whom SFPD Inspector Al Hawkin mentors.
Set in the palatial estate of a 19th-century California robber baron in San Mateo County, south of San Francisco. A fictitious one. But there is a real one: https://filoli.org/explore/the-garden/
This image: https://davidskernick.com/midwest-gal... makes it look like, "That place is amazing! Worth a trip!" But if you look at an ordinary picture of it, https://hangarkafe.com/ , you see that being there would not be as amazing as the photo makes it look. (For one thing, it's taken with a fisheye lens, which makes it look much larger than it is. And the lighting and camera angle are perfect.)
The photos are exceptional; the subject matter is worthy. I wouldn't want to own a copy, though.
Remarkably Bright Creatures, Shelby Van Pelt, 2022
Engaging story.
(view spoiler)[Alternates between settings: (1) at an aquarium in fictional Sowell BRemarkably Bright Creatures, Shelby Van Pelt, 2022
Engaging story.
(view spoiler)[Alternates between settings: (1) at an aquarium in fictional Sowell Bay, Washington, in the environs of actual Warm Beach, Snohomish County, Washington, and (2) in the Merced River valley near Modesto, California.
The Lantern's Dance (Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes #18), Laurie R. King (1952- ), 2024.
This is one of the best.
The eighteen books:
Sherlock Holmes The Lantern's Dance (Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes #18), Laurie R. King (1952- ), 2024.
This is one of the best.
The eighteen books:
Sherlock Holmes with his new partner, Mary Russell. Good stories. Likeable characters. More fun than the Arthur Conan Doyle stories that inspired them. Each book is distinct: set in many and varied physical, social, religious, linguistic, and literary environments. World War I, anti-colonial struggles, natural disasters; prominent real people, occasional fictional characters of other authors. Insightful and fun! Eighteen novels plus short stories, and they keep getting more compelling:
Later books build on, and have spoilers for, earlier ones. Read them in the following order (the Arthur Conan Doyle canon is completely optional, with the sole exception that "The Gloria Scott" should be read before Laurie R. King's novel #14, The Murder of Mary Russell). And you don't have to have previously met the other authors' fictional characters that appear in King's books. If you have, you'll enjoy remeeting them here.
1 background, optional. A Study in Scarlet (novel, 1887, introduces Sherlock Holmes and his friend Dr. John Watson), The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter (short story, 1893, introduces Mycroft Holmes), The Adventure of the Final Problem (short story, 1893, introduces Professor James Moriarty), The Adventure of the Empty House (short story, 1903, set in 1894, explains Holmes' doings 1891–1894), and The Adventure of the Lion's Mane (short story, 1926, Holmes has retired to Sussex), by Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930).
1. The Beekeeper's Apprentice (1994. Events 1915.04.08–1919.07, England, Wales, Palestine). Sherlock Holmes (b. early 1861), retired to the East Sussex Downs, meets young Mary Russell (b. 1900.01.02), who becomes his apprentice. Purported to have been written by Mary Russell in the late 1980s. Holmes on 1915.04.08 says he's 54, and on 1920.12.26 that he's 59. Holmes lives half a mile from the sea (book 9, The Language of Bees, chapters 1 & 8) near Birling Gap, in East Sussex, https://www.google.com/maps/@50.8,0.0... northeast of the mouth of the Cuckmere river: puts him about at the end of Crowlink Lane, southwest of Friston.
5. O Jerusalem (1999. Events 1918.12.30–1919.02, Palestine). Fifth-written and fifth-published Mary Russel/Sherlock Holmes novel, fleshes out an interlude in book one. It's also a prequel for book six. If you're reading the Kindle edition of /O Jerusalem/, start at the cover. Before the table of contents are: Map of Jerusalem and of Palestine; Arabic Words and Phrases; A Note about Chapter Headings; "Editor's Remarks," "Author's Prologue."
2. A Monstrous Regiment of Women (1995. Events 1920.12.26–1921.06, England.)
Mary Russel's War (2016. Events 1906–1925. Ten short stories. Stories #1–9 can be read after book 2, A Monstrous Regiment of Women. Story #10, Stately Holmes, should be read after book 12, Garment of Shadows.)
"The Marriage of Mary Russell" (2016. Events 1921.02), short story #4 of 10 in /Mary Russell's War/ (2016).
"Mary's Christmas" (2014), short story #1 of 10 in /Mary Russell's War/, (2016). Mary reminisces about her childhood (1906–1913.12)
Background for "Mary Russell's War," very optional. The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist (short story, 1903), and The Valley of Fear (novel, 1915), Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930); Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman (1899), E.W. Hornung (1866–1921) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...
"Mary Russell's War" or "My War Journal" (2015. Events of 1914.08.04–1915.04.08), short story #2 of 10 in the collection, /Mary Russell's War/ (2016). Includes spoilers for The Valley of Fear.
"Beekeeping for Beginners" (2011. Events 1915.04.08–1915.05), short story #3 of 10 in /Mary Russell's War/ (2016).
"Mrs. Hudson's Case" (1997. Events 1918.09–1918.10), short story #5 of 10 in /Mary Russell's War/ (2016).
"A Venomous Death" (2009. Set in October, in or after 1921), very short story #6 in /Mary Russell's War/ (2016).
"Birth of a Green Man" (2010. Set sometime between June 1917--see book 10, The God of the Hive, chapter 52--and September 1924), very short story #7 in /Mary Russell's War/ (2016).
"My Story, or, The Case of the Ravening Sherlockians" (2009, Events of 1989–2009--note that Sherlock Holmes, born early in 1861, is 148 years old in 2009, and still alive. He must still be alive, as his obituary hasn't appeared in The Times of London. Conan Doyle tried to kill him in 1891, and his fans wouldn't have it.), short story #8 in /Mary Russell's War/ (2016).
"A Case in Correspondence" (2010, Events of 1992.05.03–1992.05.19), short story #9 in /Mary Russell's War/ (2016).
3 background, very optional. Almost any Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957) mystery.
3. A Letter of Mary (1996. Events of 1923.08.14–1923.09.08, England.)
4 background, optional. The Hound of the Baskervilles (novel, 1902), Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930).
4. The Moor (1998. Events of 1923.10–1923.11, Dartmoor, Devon, England.) Includes spoilers for The Hound of the Baskervilles. The moor is Dartmoor, in southwest England, setting of The Hound of the Baskervilles: (view spoiler)["a high, wide bowl of granite, some 350 square miles covered with a thin, peaty soil and scattered with outcrops of stone. ... The floor of the moor is a thousand feet above the surrounding Devonshire countryside, from which it rises abruptly." [p. 23 of 307, chapter 2.] Parts of Dartmoor get up to 80 inches (2 meters) of rain per year. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartmoor Here's a photo of Aune Mire: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartmoo... A map of Dartmoor is at the front of the print book, but at the back of the Kindle version, just before the "praise for other Mary Russell mysteries." Here's google maps: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Dar... Effects of acidic bog water: Holmes says few skeletons have been found in the bogs, and speculates that the acid dissolves them [21%, Chapter 5]. Could be. However: Acidic bog water destroys plants but preserves animal skin and leather, hair and wool, horn and fingernails. Alkaline lake mud destroys animal remains, but preserves plant material such as wood and flaxen thread. —Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years: Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times, Elizabeth Wayland Barber, pp. 86, 90. We learn that Holmes' friend Dr. John Watson is 5 years older than Holmes. (hide spoiler)]
6 background, very optional. The Purloined Letter (1844), Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)
6. Justice Hall. (2002. Events 1923.11.05–1923.12.26, England, France, Canada.) Includes spoilers for O Jerusalem. Introduces (view spoiler)[ William Maurice (Lord Marsh) Hughenfort, b. 1876, and Alistair Gordon St. John Hughenfort, b. 1881. (hide spoiler)]
7. The Game. (2004. Events 1924.01.01–1924.02, Northern India: Simla in Himchal Pradesh; Khalka in Haryana; Khanpur in Punjab.) The game is international espionage, called the Great Game by Kipling in Kim. Introduces Kimball O'Hara, b. 1875. (view spoiler)[The text tells us that our border kingdom is north of Pathankot, Punjab--which would put it in Jammu and Kashmir, maybe in the direction of Srinagar. But the map in the book shows it in the vicinity of Mingora, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan. https://www.google.com/maps/@33.4,74,...(hide spoiler)]
8 background, very optional. The Maltese Falcon (novel, 1930), Dashiell Hammett (1894–1961). Sam Spade short stories: "A Man Called Spade," 1932, "Too Many Have Lived," 1932, "They Can Only Hang you Once," 1932, all collected in A Man Called Spade and Other Stories, 1944, and in Nightmare Town, 1994; and "A Knife Will Cut for Anybody," published 2013. Continental Op stories: The Big Book of the Continental Op, 2017, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... 8 background, optional. Entry Denied: Exclusion and the Chinese Community in America, 1882–1943 (1994), Sucheng Chan (1941–). 8 background, entirely optional but well worth reading: Right Ho, Jeeves (novel, 1934), P.G. Wodehouse (1881–1975), online at: http://www.online-literature.com/pg-w... Or any similar Wodehouse--Right Ho, Jeeves, is particularly good.
8. Locked Rooms (2005. Events 1924.03–1924.05, San Francisco.) Eighteen years after the San Francisco earthquake and fires, April 18, 1906. (view spoiler)[The police feared riot and disorder so much, it was ordered that any person caught looting would be shot on sight--with no suggestion as to how the soldier or policeman might tell if the person in his sights was a looter or a rightful home-owner. (chapter 8.) (hide spoiler)]
9 background, optional. A Scandal in Bohemia (short story, 1891) and The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter (short story, 1893), Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930). 9 background, very optional. The Varieties of Religious Experience, 1902, William James (1842–1910).
11 background, optional. The Pirates of Penzance (comic opera, 1879), W.S. Gilbert (1836–1911)
11. Pirate King (2011. Events 1924.11.06–1924.11.30, Lisbon; Morocco.) Heath Robinson (a kind of British Rube Goldberg): https://www.pinterest.com/drumseddie5...
12. Garment of Shadows (2012. Events 1924.12–1925.01, Morocco.)
13. Dreaming Spies. (2015. Events 1925.03–1925.04, 1924.04, Japan & Oxfordshire). This one ends in confusion: it's unclear what happens. Thomas Carlyle: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
14 NECESSARY background for The Murder of Mary Russell: THE GLORIA SCOTT (1893): online here, in print and audio, https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/40/the-mem... 8400-word short story in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle. The story, its characters and events, are the foundation of the Mary Russell book, which gives a different perspective on them. Holmes says it's his first case. (In Conan Doyle's telling it's set in about 1885; yet he's been in Baker Street since about 1881. Conan Doyle is careless about dates. Laurie R. King takes trouble to make them as self-consistent as she can.) 14 background, optional. His Last Bow (1917), The Five Orange Pips (1891), A Scandal in Bohemia (1891), The Man with the Twisted Lip (1891), The Sign of the Four (1890), The Adventure of the Final Problem (1893), Arthur Conan Doyle. (Events and/or characters of these stories are mentioned in The Murder of Mary Russell.) 14 background, entirely optional, but good stories: the Horatio Hornblower stories by C. S. Forester: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio... 14 background, optional. Oliver Twist (1838 novel), Charles Dickens (1812–1870) 14 background, optional. The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841), Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)
14. The Murder of Mary Russell. (2016. Events 1925.05.13–1925.05.18 and backstory 1852–1915.04.08 Britain, Atlantic, Australia.) Has spoilers for The Gloria Scott and The Five Orange Pips by Conan Doyle, and for The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe. We find out more about Holmes' housekeeper, Clara Hudson, b. 1856.05.09 (chapter 39), and Billy Mudd, b. about 1872 (chapter 27: age 8 in October 1880), and (view spoiler)[Sam Hudson, b. 1879.08.20. (hide spoiler)] Clara Hudson meets Sherlock Holmes 1879.09.29 Sunday (chapter 19). Dr. John Watson comes to Baker Street, 1881.01. 1891.04 Holmes disappears at the Reichenbach Falls. 1894.04 Holmes reappears. 1901.01.22 Queen Victoria dies. 1903 Holmes relocates to East Sussex.
15 background, optional. The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax (1911), Arthur Conan Doyle. 15 background, optional. Ten Days in a Mad-House (1887), Nellie Bly (1864–1922) 15 background, optional. The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896), H.G. Wells (1866–1946)
15. The Island of the Mad. (2018. Events 1925.06 Venice, and backstory 1922–)
16 background, optional. The Purloined Letter (1844), Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)
16. Riviera Gold. (2020. Events 1925.05–1925.08; backstory 1877.04) Has spoilers for The Gloria Scott by Arthur Conan Doyle and The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allan Poe. Continues the story of Mrs. Hudson from novel 14, The Murder of Mary Russell.
17 background, optional. The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire (1924), Arthur Conan Doyle; Dracula (1897), Bram Stoker; The Monkey's Paw (1902), W.W. Jacobs, online here: https://www.kyrene.org/cms/lib/AZ0100... .
18 background, optional. A Study in Scarlet (novel, 1887, introduces Sherlock Holmes), A Scandal in Bohemia (1891, Introduces Irene Adler), The Man with the Twisted Lip (short story, 1891, introduces a Lascar), The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter (short story, 1893, introduces Mycroft Holmes), The Adventure of the Final Problem (short story, 1893), The Adventure of the Empty House (short story, 1903, set in 1894, explains Holmes' doings 1891–1894), and The Adventure of the Lion's Mane (short story, 1926, Holmes has retired to Sussex), by Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930); The Moonstone (1868), Wilkie Collins (1824-1889). 18. The Lantern's Dance. (2024. Events 1925.09.10- , France.) Has spoilers for 1. The Beekeeper's Apprentice, 5. O Jerusalem, The Marriage of Mary Russell, 9. The Language of Bees, 10. The God of the Hive, and for A Scandal in Bohemia.
Background for "Stately Holmes," optional. A Visit from St. Nicholas (1823), Clement Clark Moore (1779–1863): https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem... . A Christmas Carol (1843), Charles Dickens (1812–1870): http://www.gutenberg.org/files/46/46-... (control-+ to make it readable). A Scandal in Bohemia (1891); The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone (1921), Arthur Conan Doyle.
"Stately Holmes" (2016. Events 1925.12), short story #10 in /Mary Russell's War/ (2016). Includes spoilers for 6. Justice Hall, 9. The Language of Bees, 10. God of the Hive, and 12. Garment of Shadows, and for A Scandal in Bohemia (1891), Arthur Conan Doyle.
The Great Hanoi Rat Hunt: Empire, Disease, and Modernity in French Colonial Vietnam, Michael G. Vann (1967- ), author, and Liz Clarke (1982- ), illustThe Great Hanoi Rat Hunt: Empire, Disease, and Modernity in French Colonial Vietnam, Michael G. Vann (1967- ), author, and Liz Clarke (1982- ), illustrator, 2019, 263 pages, ISBN 9780190602697, Library-of-Congress DS559.93 .HV36 V38 2019 Memorial Library
This is a "microhistory." He uses the failed 1902 plague-carrying rat eradication to introduce imperialism, globalization, and pandemic disease. The first 122 pages are an engaging history of French imperial domination of Hanoi, in comic-book format. Then after a set of primary sources, mostly from the dawn of the 20th century, Vann gives us 33 pages of what he calls, "historical contexts." These introduce the world history leading to French control of Indochina. Accessible; suitable for kids.
The 1902 rat hunt itself is on pages 89-96. It was ineffective. The plague pandemic eventually subsided; cholera and other diseases became bigger problems.
Maps pp. ii, 21, 31-34, 37-40, 43, 49, 55, 66-67, 73, 75, 78-81, 93, 103, 108, 111, 121, 201, 220
Pages 1-122 history in comic-book format.
Pages 123-195 primary sources, 1887-1996. "Always ask yourself if you can trust these sources." p. 127.
Pages 197-231 historical contexts: The New Imperialism Western Industrial Capitalism The Third Republic (France, 1870-1940) Vietnamese Resistance: Nationalist, Communist, and Everyday The Third Bubonic Plague Pandemic, 1855-1959
Pages 233-243 "the making of this book."
Pages 247-250 discussion questions. If you were going to read this book as a student, you'd want to read these first, and write down their answers as you come to them in the book.
Pages 251-255 timeline of Vietnamese dynasties.
Pages 256-263 annotated bibliography.
541-767 First bubonic-plague pandemic: up to 50 million die. p. 73. 1096-1291 Crusades expose Europe to the riches of Asia. p. 32 1346-1835 Second bubonic-plague pandemic: up to 200 million die. p. 73. by 1820, Indian opium sold in China flows silver to Britain. p. 34. 1839-1842 First Opium War, begins China's century of humiliations. pp. 35, 253. 1855-1959 Third bubonic-plague pandemic: up to 15 million die. pp. xiv, 73, 227-231, 253. 1857-1860 Second Opium War: France enters Indochina. pp. 37, 253. 1869 Suez Canal open. p. 36. 1870-1940 French Third Republic. pp. 217-221. 1871 Germany takes Alsace and Lorraine from France; Germany unifies. p. 202. 1882 French seize Hanoi pp. 13, 39, 253 1901 Plague in Hanoi 1902.04.25-1902.07.10; 1903.04.03-1904.02.22 Bounty on rats in Hanoi. pp. 89-96, 104. 1929-1939 Great Depression disrupts colonial economy; mass unemployment. p. 110. 1930.10 Ho Chi Minh organizes Indochinese Communist Party. p. 110. 1940-1945 Japan captures Indochina and the Dutch East Indies. p. 111. 1941 Ho Chi Minh organizes Viet Minh to fight all foreign occupiers. p. 111. 1946-1954 First (French) Indochina War. p. 254. 1963-1973 Second (American) Indochina War. p. 254. 1995 Diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the U.S. established. p. 255. 1995 Vietnam joins ASEAN. p. 120. 1997, 2014 Michael G. Vann visits Hanoi. pp. 117-122.
Books:
Empires and Colonies in the Modern World: A Global Perspective, Heather E. Streets-Salter, Trevor R. Getz, 2015.
Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West, William Cronon, 1991. Shows that no city is an island. Chicago exists because of the Midwest, sending agricultural products to the city, and getting manufactured goods from it. p. 199.
[In that regard, The Penguin Atlas of Medieval History, 1961, shows that, when trade collapses, cities evaporate. Covers Europe, West Asia, and North Africa, 362 CE to 1478 CE. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ]
Hate Inc.: Why Today's Media Makes Us Despise One Another, Matt Taibbi, 2019, 294 pages, ISBN 9781949017250
This is a journalist reprising the sordid Hate Inc.: Why Today's Media Makes Us Despise One Another, Matt Taibbi, 2019, 294 pages, ISBN 9781949017250
This is a journalist reprising the sordid news about Trump, saying, "Don't listen to us journalists. We're just trying to get money by making you angry." He's right.
The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss, Claire Nouvian, 2007, 256 pages, 12.0625 x 10.25 x 1.125 inches (30.64 x 26.04 x 2.86 cm), ISBN 97The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss, Claire Nouvian, 2007, 256 pages, 12.0625 x 10.25 x 1.125 inches (30.64 x 26.04 x 2.86 cm), ISBN 9780226595665, Dewey 591.77
Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America, Heather Cox Richardson, 2023, 286 pages, ISBN 9780593652961, Dewey 320.473
Outstanding history of tDemocracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America, Heather Cox Richardson, 2023, 286 pages, ISBN 9780593652961, Dewey 320.473
Outstanding history of the past few decades of U.S. politics. Focuses on Trump and the danger of authoritarianism. Recaps U.S. history to show that authoritarianism isn't us.
In 1987, members of the Federal Communications Commission appointed by Reagan ended the Fairness Doctrine, which had protected public information since the earliest days of radio, in the 1920s. In order to get a public license, a radio station had to agree to present information honestly and fairly and to balance different points of view. Movement Conservatives demanded an end to the Fairness Doctrine. By 1988, talk radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh had gone national. Fox News began shortly thereafter. pp. 54-55. Republicans had created an underclass of Americans falling behind economically. They then gave that underclass someone to hate. p. 57.
Richardson sees Republicans in black hats, Democrats in white.
But, Democrats are also eager to take no meaningful action on climate change; to take military action provoking enmity; to serve concentrated wealth. [See Noam Chomsky, What Uncle Sam Really Wants, 1992, https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ]
Except on judicial appointments. The six Republican appointees on the Supreme Court are terrorists; the three Democratic appointees are comparatively reasonable. [See Justice on the Brink, Linda Greenhouse, 2021, https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ]
Authoritarians rise when members of a formerly powerful group feel they've been left behind. p. xii. [See Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1968, https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ]
Corporations, which should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law and servants of the people, are fast becoming the people's masters. --Grover Cleveland, 1889. p. 223, chapter 28. Wall Street owns the country. --Mary Elizabeth Lease, 1890. p. 224. Businessmen had bought and paid for politicians and the media to concentrate the nation's wealth in their own hands. p. 226. [See Origins of the Federal Reserve System: Money, Class, and Corporate Capitalism, 1890–1913, James Livingston, 1986: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ]
Heather Cox Richardson writes a wonderful summary of today's news (she's been posting at about 2am Chicago time every day; about once a week she takes a day off: "Today was an absolutely perfect July day and I'm not going to ruin it by looking at the news."--https://heathercoxrichardson.substack... ) at https://heathercoxrichardson.substack... Except, bizarrely, she doesn't know that (view spoiler)[the Clinton-Clinton-Obama-Biden-Harris party /always/ serves the investor class, to our cost. Biden forced Mexico to consume Monsanto genetically-modified corn: (English & Spanish: https://www.jornada.com.mx/notas/2023... ). Clinton quietly sent bankers to arrange world trade deals that race to the bottom in environmental and worker protections, to enrich bankers and multinationals. Clinton quietly exploded the prison population. Obama quietly took /no/ action on climate change, quietly rolled out a lobbyist-written medical-insurance plan that authorizes insurers to charge us 25% more than they pay providers: they're on cost-plus, for the first time ever. Obama quietly amplified the Asian wars, and vastly expanded drone warfare. Obama quietly bailed out Wall Street and left the rest of us to fend for ourselves. We can have Wall Street's left-hand puppet quietly serving up the world to the rich, saying, "yes we can!" or, "I'm the change agent!" Or we can have Wall Street's right-hand puppet doing the exact same things, loudly railing against "illegals," "socialists," "liberals", "Eurocrats." To read Heather Cox Richardson, that choice is enough. It is not. Democrats have proven they will do nothing to curb climate change, will not tax the rich, will continue to enact lobbyist-written laws they haven't read. Sure, Republicans are even worse. Democrats do not deserve the free pass Richardson gives them, merely for not being Republicans.
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Even FDR, who did more than any other president to make the playing field between the rich and the rest of us less vertical, did so largely by using our Pacific fleet to prevent fuel from entering Japan, to force Japan to go to war with us, so U.S. corporations, not Japan, would control the former European Pacific and Southeast Asian colonies. (hide spoiler)]
Chess Handbook: Book for Arbiters, Zoran Bojovic (1962-) and Branislav Suhartovic (1952-), 2017. Revised to include FIDE rule changes adopted 1 July 2Chess Handbook: Book for Arbiters, Zoran Bojovic (1962-) and Branislav Suhartovic (1952-), 2017. Revised to include FIDE rule changes adopted 1 July 2017. Translated from Serbian by GM Nikola Djukić, 292 pages. ISBN 9788691827311.
Five stars for pages 132-145, how to make the Berger round-robin pairing tables and Scheveningen pairing tables.
(view spoiler)[BERGER ROUND-ROBIN PAIRINGS AND COLORS: For an even number N of players (if an odd number of players, player #N is the bye): Assign player-numbers at random, #1 through the number of players. Pairs NOT involving the largest-numbered player #N, player p vs. opponent o, p < N, o < N: For (p + o) <= N, they meet in round number (p + o - 1). For (p + o) > N, they meet in round number (p + o - N). For (p + o) odd, the larger-numbered player has black. For (p + o) even, the larger-numbered player has white. Pairs involving the largest numbered player (#N of N): The largest-numbered player (#N of N) plays black against opponents o, o <= N/2, in (odd-numbered) rounds (2*o - 1). The largest-numbered player (#N of N) plays white against opponents o, o > N/2, in (even-numbered) rounds (2*o - N).
If there is an even number of players, players in the first half of the crosstable have an extra white and players in the last half of the crosstable have an extra black.
If it's a double round-robin, two players have the same color three times in a row: in the last round of the first cycle and the first two rounds of the second cycle. (hide spoiler)]
For /everything/ else, see instead the current FIDE Arbiters' Manual: google for it with site:fide.com , pick the most recent one: https://www.google.com/search?q=%22FI...
Also, the 2015-2018 FIDE Arbiters' Magazine, online at https://arbiters.fide.com/news/catego... , shows contentious situations from competitions, with FIDE rulings.
Described in their book, Bojovic and Suhartovic bravely direct a 13-player 9-round Swiss-system tournament, then explain in detail why the player in clear second place after round 8 must receive the (full-point) last-round bye to make the black/white assignments come out right.
Later FIDE rules changes and clarifications render some of this book's interpretations incorrect.
FIDE also shuffled the table of contents of its rules for its 2017 revision. This book, originally written in 2014, largely retains the 2014 FIDE-rules section- and subsection-designations, now obsolete.
Below the Edge of Darkness, Edith Widder (1951-), 2021, 329 pages, Dewey 551.46092, ISBN 9780525509240. 9.5" x 6.25" x 1.25".
Autobiographical account Below the Edge of Darkness, Edith Widder (1951-), 2021, 329 pages, Dewey 551.46092, ISBN 9780525509240. 9.5" x 6.25" x 1.25".
Autobiographical account of seeking bioluminescent deep-sea creatures.
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The edge of darkness, the ocean depth at which a tiny bit of light can just be detected looking straight up--a bit of dark gray surrounded by black--may be at less than 300 to more than 2000 feet deep on a sunny day, depending on biomass density. pp. 259, 278. The edge of darkness rises as the sun sets. And with it, an entire population of ocean animals rises toward the surface for the night.
Plants can exist only in the upper strata of the ocean, where there's enough sunlight for photosynthesis: roughly the top 650 feet. p. 217. Whether you eat plants, or you eat planteaters, or you eat planteater-eaters, you need to go up to feed. Do it at night, so you won't be seen and eaten.
Bioluminescence is everywhere in the deep ocean. Ocean animals have sophisticated variable-illumination lighting on their undersides, so that their shadows aren't visible from below, against the dim sunlight.
"Before any of the funding agencies would consider financial support, they wanted to know what, exactly, I would discover." p. 184.
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The author's team made videorecordings of live giant squids in the wild. Eyes the size of basketballs. (2012, south of Japan; 2019, Gulf of Mexico.) pp. 245-246, 265-267, 271, 14th-15th photo pages. Here's her TED talk about it: https://www.npr.org/2015/01/09/373978...
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In Humboldt squid fights, size largely determines who's the diner and who's the dinner. p. 281.
The Georges Bank, off the New England coast, was fished out by 1994, when fishing was banned: too late. What came back was not fish but a sea of jellyfish--which eat fish larvae, and which better tolerate sewage and acidic oceans. pp. 288-290.
There are five stages of seasickness: 1 denial 2 nausea 3 feeding the fish 4 you're afraid you're going to die 5 you're afraid you're not going to die. People have had to be physically restrained to keep them from jumping overboard to end their misery. p. 186.
"Many may claim that getting a Ph.D. is as easy as riding a bike … through a desert, with no sleep, while people in black robes try to distract you by setting your hair on fire." Widder, by contrast, loved grad school. p. 64. "According to the rules of credit and blame in research, success is attributed to the supervisory brilliance of the adviser, and failure to the utter incompetence of the grad student or postdoc." p. 127.
"Success in life depends on how well you handle Plan B. Anyone can handle Plan A." --Jim Sullivan. "If you're not failing occasionally, I'll think you aren't reaching far enough." --David Packard. p. 193.
/Justice on the Brink: The death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Rise of Amy Coney Barrett, and Twelve Months that Transformed the Supreme Court/, Linda G/Justice on the Brink: The death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Rise of Amy Coney Barrett, and Twelve Months that Transformed the Supreme Court/, Linda Greenhouse, 2021, 300 pages, Dewey 347.7326090512, ISBN 9780593447932
Clear, engaging, eye-opening. A year in the Supreme Court, 2020.06.30 through 2021.07.01. And, lots about the legal and political background. A good introduction to the major changes in many laws the Roberts court has made and is making: Require girls and women to bear children against their will. Require the government to give money to churches. Exempt anyone who professes a government-recognized religion from laws everyone must obey. Permit people in power who profess religion, to deny other people's rights, in ways that would be impermissible if the boss, owner, or official did not profess religion. Roll back voting rights, civil rights, and the rights of the accused. Erase restrictions on armed people roaming at large (but not in the Supreme Court building). Roll back environmental protections. Enshrine property rights. Slash government's power to regulate. Further curtail labor rights. Greenhouse gives us some glimpses behind the scenes, the justices' arguments among themselves that they don't share with the public. pp. 128-129.
With Ginsburg alive, the court was 5 justices who always want to privilege the privileged and oppress the oppressed (wrongly termed "conservative," including by Greenhouse) to 4 who only sometimes wanted to do so (wrongly termed "liberal.") With Barrett having succeeded Ginsburg, it's 6 to 3. So the outcomes are largely the same. The difference is that Chief Justice John Roberts can no longer insist on a pretense of following precedent. He's now outvoted by 5 extremists openly contemptuous of any principle other than remaking the world as they choose. Roberts is acting to create the same Catholic plutocracy the rest of them are: he just would prefer to do it in a way that he thinks makes him look judicial. pp. 219-220, 233. The 2022 succession of Stephen Breyer by Ketanji Brown Jackson doesn't change the typical 6-3 split. The court was divided 5-4 from the late 1970s until 2020. All the "swing" justices were Republican-appointed, each farther toward "all-for-the-billionaire, nothing-for-the-rest" than the last. p. 234.
As of 2022, there are four women on the court: three who compose the typical voice-of-reason dissent (Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan), and one among the radical-right majority (Amy Coney Barrett).
All six radical-right justices were appointed by Republican presidents; the three moderates are Democratic appointees. (Among the predecessors of the 2022-current nine also, six were appointed by Republicans and three by Democrats.)
1981-2021 Reagan and all subsequent Republican presidents plege to appoint federal judges who would overturn the abortion rights of Roe v Wade. Meaning Catholic. p. 19.
1981-1982 John Roberts, then a lawyer in the Reagan administration, tries to end the Voting Rights Act. p. 5, 162, 234.
1988.02 The Senate confirms President Reagan's nominee, Anthony Kennedy, to the Supreme Court. p. xiii.
1991.10.23 Clarence Thomas, appointed by G.H.W. Bush, succeeds Thurgood Marshall.
1996.06.26 Ginsburg, Stevens, O'Connor, Kennedy, Souter, Breyer, Rehnquist decide United States v Virginia: Virginia Military Institute must admit qualified women. Scalia dissents. Thomas, whose son attended the school, recuses himself. pp. 43-44.
2002.06.27 Rehnquist, O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas decide Zelman: public funds can be used for religious schools. Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg, Breyer dissent. p. 17.
2005.09.29. John Roberts becomes chief justice, appointed by George W. Bush, succeeding Rehnquist. In the Roberts court, nearly 90 percent of religious claims prevail, vs. about half in the previous 52 years. Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Kavanaugh, Barrett, all Catholic, and Gorsuch, Episcopalian raised Catholic, all favor the religious side in more than 90% of such cases. p. 19-20.
2006.01.31 Sandra Day O'Connor, the "swing" justice of her time, retires; Samuel Alito, appointed by George W. Bush, succeeds her, wrenching the court to the right on abortion, race, religion, and women's rights. p. 90. O'Connor was the only justice then or later, to have held elective office. p. 238. Before she announced her retirement, she wrote, "When we see around the world the violent consequences of the assumption of religious authority by government, Americans may count themselves fortunate: Our regard for the constitutional boundaries has protected us from similar travails while allowing private religious exercise to flourish. Those who would renegotiate the boundaries between church and state must answer: Why would we trade a system that has served us so well for one that has served others so poorly?" No current Republican appointee would say any such thing. They are all busily enshrining religion in law. p. 238.
2007.06.28 Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, Alito decide Parents Involved in favor of white parents: integrating schools violated their Constitutional right to equal protection. Stevens, Breyer, Souter, Ginsburg dissent. pp. 5-6, 130-131.
2008.06.26 Scalia, Roberts, Kennedy, Thomas, Alito decide District of Columbia v Heller, creating an individual right to bear arms, where the Constitution grants the right only for state militias. Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg, Breyer dissent. pp. 170-175.
2009.08.08 Sonia Sotomayor, appointed by Obama, succeeds David Souter. She is the only one on the court to have ever presided over an actual trial. She was a Manhattan assistant district attorney five years, six years as a trial judge in federal district court in New York, and eleven years on the Second Circuit. p. 123.
2010.08.07 Elena Kagan, appointed by Obama, succeeds John Paul Stevens. She had been dean of Harvard Law School (where she hired "conservative" and "liberal" professors), then Obama's solicitor general. p. 228.
2013.06.25 Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, Alito decide Shelby County [Alabama] v [Obama's Attorney General Eric] Holder, nullifying part of the Voting Rights Act. In dissent, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, joined by Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan, says that the majority is throwing away our umbrella in a rainstorm because they haven't been getting wet. States rush to impose voting restrictions. pp. 13, 158-164, 224-229, 234.
2014.06.30 Alito, Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas decide Hobby Lobby: corporations don't have to provide legally-mandated healthcare coverage if the owner professes religion. Ginsburg, Sotomayor, Breyer, Kagan dissent. p. 23.
2015.06.26 Kennedy, Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, Kagan decide Obergefell: states must grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, Alito dissent. pp. 56-58.
2016.02 Justice Antonin Scalia dies. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell immediately announces he won't permit President Obama to fill the vacancy. Nor to fill numerous other vacant federal judgeships. pp. xiii, xxi.
2016.06.27 Breyer, Ginsburg, Kennedy, Sotomayor, Kagan decide Whole Womens' Health: Texas may not impose undue burdens on abortion providers that would require closing half the abortion clinics in Texas. Roberts, Thomas, Alito dissent. p. 27, 189-191.
2016.11 Hillary Clinton loses to Donald Trump. With appointments by a Democratic president, the court would've upheld the right of the unborn to remain unborn to mothers who don't want and can't care for them; would've upheld voting rights, civil rights, and sometimes the rights of the accused. With a democratic socialist president, the appointed justices would also not have granted personhood rights to concentrations of wealth. p. 4, 89.
2017.01 Trump nominates Neil Gorsuch to fill the Scalia vacancy. Senate Republicans abolish the filibuster for Supreme Court appointments, so Democrats can't stop it. Gorsuch joins the court 2017.04.10. pp. xiii-xiv.
2017.05.08 Trump nominates Amy Barrett to a federal judgeship. p. xxi.
2017.06.26 Roberts, Kennedy, Alito, Kagan, Thomas, Gorsuch, Breyer decide Trinity Lutheran v Comer, requiring the state of Missouri to give money to a church. Only Sotomayor and Ginsburg object. pp. 15-16, 217-221.
2017-2020 Trump picks, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell installs, more than 200 federal judges. p. xi.
2018.10.06 Brett Kavanaugh, appointed by Trump, succeeds Anthony Kennedy. pp. xii-xiii.
2020.05.25 Minneapolis police murder unarmed black man George Floyd. The Roberts court will wait until fall to continue undoing civil rights. p. 4.
2020.06.05 Indiana University professor Winnifred Fallers Sullivan publishes a book, /Church State Corporation/, pointing out that the Roberts court has in numerous decisions privileged "the church," and corporations with power to deny legal rights to individuals. Even though "church" nowhere appears in the Constitution. Instead, the First Amendment grants religious rights to /individuals/ not to be required by the government to participate in a particular religion, nor to be prevented by the government from doing so. p. 21.
2020.06.30 Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Kavanaugh, all Catholics, and Gorsuch, Episcopalian raised Catholic, decide Espinoza v Montana: the state is REQUIRED to give money to religious schools. Ginsburg, Kagan, Breyer (three Jews), and Sotomayor (nonpracticing Catholic) dissent. pp. 16-18, 218-221, 233.
2020.07.08 Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Kagan, Breyer decide Our Lady of Guadalupe: Religious schools are allowed to discriminate widely and with impunity for reasons wholly divorced from religious beliefs. Sotomayor and Ginsburg dissent. pp. 21-22, 218-219.
2020.07.08 Thomas, Roberts, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanagh, Kagan, Breyer decide Little Sisters of the Poor: Employers which are religious may deny their employees healthcare coverage. This permits such employers to deny coverage to their 2.9 million employees. Ginsburg and Sotomayor dissent. pp. 26, 88, 126-127.
2020.09.18 Ruth Bader Ginsburg dies. p. xv.
2020.09.26 Trump nominates Amy Coney Barrett. The Senate confirms her 2020.10.26; she joins the court 2020.10.27. pp. xii, 65.
2020.07-2021.01 Trump puts thirteen condemned prisoners to death. Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, Barrett (2020.11- ) deny all appeals, consistently rejecting inmates' credible claims for relief. They refuse to consider reasons for a stay of execution, nor to give their reasons for denying a stay, or even vacating an existing stay. This is not justice, say Sotomayor and Ginsburg (2020.07), in dissent. Kagan usually dissents; Breyer often dissents. pp. 90-95, 111-112, 118-123, 144-148, 179-182, 198-201.
2020.11.25 Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett decide Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v Cuomo: Whatever anyone gets, religion must get too. If people are allowed to shop for groceries, there must be no limit on the number of congregants at a religious service, at whatever cost to public health, in a pandemic, with deaths at record levels, while the Supreme Court itself is meeting by phone. Roberts, Breyer, Kagan, Sotomayor dissent. pp. 96-99, 105, 106, 175-179, 255.
2021.01.06 Donald Trump incites a riot in the U.S. capitol in which several people die. p. 116.
2021.02.05 Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett decide South Bay United Pentecostal: California must weaken restrictions on public gatherings by making a special exemption for worship services. Kagan, Breyer, Sotomayor dissent. pp. 141-144.
2021.06.17 Roberts, Thomas, Breyer, Alito, Sotomayor, Kagan, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett (9-0) decide Fulton v Philadelphia: An agency that finds foster parents has a religious right to deny same-sex couples consideration as potential foster parents, in violation of the city's antidiscrimination law. The city cannot refuse to contract with the agency. The government is now no longer neutral on religion. Religious claims now trump all others. "God hates fags" has the force of law. pp. 58, 75, 77-83, 207-221.
2021.06.23 Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett decide Cedar Point Nursery v Hassid: Any entry of a labor-union representative into a workplace is a categorical "taking" of the owner's property that the government cannot mandate without paying the owner. Breyer, Sotomayor, Kagan dissent. pp. 221-224.
2021.07.01 Alito, Roberts, Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett decide Brnovich v Democratic National Committee: Governments are free to make voting as inconvenient as they choose for racial minorities, Native Americans, people who live in non-affluent neighborhoods, students, anyone likely to vote Democratic. All that the Constitution now requires is that voting be theoretically possible. Kagan, Breyer, Sotomayor dissent. pp. 224-229, 234.
2021.08.13 This book's manuscript finished.
2021.11.09 This book's publication date.
2022.06.23 Thomas, Roberts, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett decide New York State Rifle & Pistol v Bruen: to carry a pistol in public (but not in the Supreme Court building) is a constitutional right. The state must not ask why the person wants to. Breyer, Sotomayor, Kagan dissent. pp. 170-175.
2022.06.24 Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett, Roberts decide Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health: Roe v Wade and Casey are invalidated. Government officials may now compel a girl or woman to bring an unwanted child into the world against her will, however early in pregnancy she seeks to end it. Breyer, Sotomayor, Kagan dissent. pp. 185-198.
2022.06.30 Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett decide West Virginia v Environmental Protection Agency: EPA must not require power companies to shift to solar or wind. Breyer, Sotomayor, Kagan dissent.
2022.06.30 Stephen Breyer retires; Ketanji Brown Jackson, appointed by Biden, joins the court. She's the first justice raised Protestant to be appointed since G.H.W. Bush picked Souter (Episcopalian) in 1990. There are now five practicing Catholics (Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Kavanaugh, Barrett), one Episcopalian raised Catholic (Gorsuch), one nonpracticing Catholic (Sotomayor) and one Jew (Kagan).
Too bad we couldn't've had a Justice Linda Greenhouse.
"I had nine months to write this book. It took every one of those months, plus the previous four decades of immersion in the life of the Supreme Court as a journalist, writer, and teacher."
Updates:
2022.09.06 Trump's radical-right judges dance to his tune:
Trump-appointed judge Aileen Cannon granted Trump’s request for a special master to review the government documents the FBI recovered from Mar-a-Lago … which could delay the FBI investigation indefinitely ... an appeal would go to the 11th circuit, where Trump appointed 6 of the 11 judges who, if they wished, could further delay the case, and then agree with Cannon. The Department of Justice could then appeal to the Supreme Court: which now has a 6 to 3 Republican majority, three of whom Trump himself appointed. --Heather Cox Richardson https://heathercoxrichardson.substack...
2023.06.01: Court erodes workers' right to strike, in Glacier Northwest v. Teamsters, 8-1: only Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented. Pp. 22-48 of the pdf is her dissent: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions...
Workers are not indentured servants, bound to continue laboring until any planned work stoppage would be as painless as possible for their master. They are employees whose collective and peaceful decision to withhold their labor is protected by the NLRA even if economic injury results. pdf p. 47 of 48.
2023.06.30 The Court reversed the secretary of education's provision of debt relief to student-loan borrowers during COVID. Pages 48-77 of the pdf are Justice Elena Kagan's dissent, joined by Sotomayor and Jackson: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions... Heather Cox Richardson's blog on it: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack...
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