An Angle on the News, May 31-June 3

--"Obama did not like persuading people to do what they didn’t want to do. And that is the definition of politics. He wanted them simply to do what he had ascertained to be right." Maureen Dowd, New York Times (June 2)

-- On her writing she [Alka Panden -- "scholar, academician, art historian and curator in her western trousers teamed with a vibrantly Indian silk coat was unapologetic of her views and unpretentious in her expression…just like her books" -- ] says, “I apply experience and thought to it. I write about Indic wisdom as a contemporary person. When I looked at Arthanareeswar, I saw synchronism between shaivaites and devi bhakts, brought androgyny to the present, I have looked at transgender, transsexual, concept of same-sex, looked at the inclusion of homosexuality in ancient texts, which is there even in Kamasutra.”
-- thehansindia.com (June 3)

Alka Pande image from above-cited article 

 --People who felt they had little time to read are now listening [to audiobooks] while they commute, exercise or do chores. Consumers bought nearly 90 million audiobooks in 2016, up from 42 million in 2012, driving audiobook sales up to $2.1 billion, according to the Audio Publishers Association." Comment: Back to the great oral tradition? As we all know, Plato was against the written word -- but because (take important note), like audiobooks, it don't allow for face-to-face dialog ... --New York Times (June 2)

 "'No question this is speed dating,' said Christopher R. Hill" re Trump's warm public display toward "Kim Yong Chol — a former spy chief accused of masterminding the sinking of a South Korean navy vessel in 2010 that killed 46 sailors — [who] presented him with a cartoonishly oversize envelope containing a letter from Kim Jong Un, the nation’s current dictator." -- Washington Post (June 2)

image from

 --"From the beginning, the CIA’s armed drones have been used primarily to kill specific individuals. ... Under President Barack Obama ... The use of drones expanded 10-fold ... [W]hile campaigning, the president [Trump] told Fox News that the U.S. should actually be targeting certain civilians. 'The other thing with the terrorists,' he said, 'is you have to take out their families, when you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families. They care about their lives, don’t kid yourself. When they say they don’t care about their lives, you have to take out their families.'” LobeLog (June 3)

 --"tradwives" (traditional wives); "trad thots” (women alt-right commentators deem disingenuous in their support ) -- New York Times (June 1) Below image from article

--"In a global population of 15 million people each worth more than $1 million in net assets, nearly 100,000 changed their country of residence last year. ... the drive to protect one’s assets often trumps [pun intended?] patriotism." -- New York Times (June 1)

 --"[l]t’s noteworthy that only 51 percent [of teens] now say they use Facebook. That’s a dramatic drop from 2015, when 71 percent said the same. Even sharper has been the dropoff in those who identify Facebook as their most-used social platform: from 41 percent in 2015 to just 10 percent today. ... Mark Zuckerberg last year announced a shift in focus from 'passive consumption' of news and media to “meaningful interactions” between friends and family." -- slate.comm (May 31)

 --"[S]he’s living in a different context." Former President Bill Clinton responding for the first time to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s (D-NY) assertion that he should have resigned over the Lewinsky affair. Comment: In the age of Trump, isn't that what many aspire to?-- thedailybeast.com (May 31). 

--“'What if we were wrong?' he asked aides riding with him in the armored presidential limousine. 

He [former President Obama] had read a column asserting that liberals had forgotten how important identity was to people and had promoted an empty cosmopolitan globalism that made many feel left behind. 'Maybe we pushed too far,' Mr. Obama said. 'Maybe people just want to fall back into their tribe.'” --  www.msn.com (May 31) [see also]

Image from, under the title "America 2.0: The Threat of Neotribalism"

--"[C]hronic stress — when adrenaline and cortisol levels are persistently elevated, as they are for children growing up in neglectful or abusive circumstances — can lead to health problems like obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure, while also impairing cognitive abilities. A brief pulse of cortisol can enhance the growth of neurons in the hippocampus, which is critical to learning and memory." Comment: Where to send your kids to college? Try the hippocampus -- New York Times (June 1)