2024
Helped my octogenarian mom pick up her absentee ballot so she can fill it out at home in her own good time and avoid the crowds on Nov. 5. I’m glad this accommodation is available in NH.
Am thinking Deborah Cohen’s Last Call at the Hotel Imperial: The Reporters Who Took On a World at War (Random House 2022) will make for a good read in these dangerous times. 📚
Late afternoon sun on trees behind the condo.
Joseph Cox, “Inside the U.S. Government-Bought Tool That Can Track Phones at Abortion Clinics,” 404 Media, Oct. 23, 2024.
Managed to get out today, if just for a short walk to Diana's Baths.
We no longer live in a world where the very wealthy can do business with autocratic regimes, sometimes promoting the foreign policy goals of those regimes, while at the same time doing business with the American government, or with European governments, and enjoying the status and privileges of citizenship and legal protection in the free markets of the democratic world. It’s time to make them choose.
Anne Applebaum, Autocracy, Inc. (Doubleday 2024), Epilogue, “Decouple, De-Risk, Rebuild”
Here are some of the fall colors people came to the region for.
Photos taken in North Conway Village.
Beautiful weather and fall foliage brought lots of visitors to the valley today. I couldn’t resist taking this snapshot of Mount Washington while stopped in traffic.
Overheard a snippet today from a conversation about the weather: “According to the almanac…” #FarmersAlmanac #NewHampshire #Throwback
“Ku Klux Klan Rallies in Worcester” – 100 years ago saw the biggest Klan rally in New England for a mass induction of new members. Immigrants and the sons of immigrants weren’t having it, and a riot ensued that night, putting an end to this mass Klan activity in the region. (HT @JimWald)
"[American] conservatives hyped anti-Ukraine videos created by a TV producer who also worked for Russian media" – AP News, Oct. 18, 2018. #DefendFreedom #VoteBlue #RussiaIsATerroristState
“Autocracy in America” – a podcast by Anne Applebaum and Peter Pomerantsev
There are authoritarian tactics already at work in the United States. To root them out, you have to know where to look.
This is a fascinating and deeply unsettling listen by the authors of books indispensable for understanding the current moment: Anne Applebaum, Autocracy, Inc. (Doubleday, 2024); and Peter Pomerantsev, This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War against Reality (PublicAffairs, 2019). 📚
A remarkable indictment: “We Created a Monster: Trump Was a TV Fantasy Invented for ‘The Apprentice’" by John D Miller (head of marketing at NBC and NBCUniversal for some 25 years), U.S. News, Oct. 16, 2024.
Thoughtful, informative, even fun reporting by Kerry Howley: “Code Red: Watching the Tim Walz Magic Trick Up Close”, Intelligencer, Oct. 17, 2024.
My brother and a friend of his took a short trip from L.A. to the White Mountains. They did his usual beating about the lake and woods where we grew up. I did a little chauffeuring, and our mom got to visit with them.
Old Man of the Mountain postcard written in 1906. The Old Man, located in Franconia Notch, collapsed in 2003, but he remains a symbol of the state.
Postcard by the Detroit Photographic Co. Digital image from The New York Public Library, Image ID 62116. To learn more, see the history, images, and links at Wikipedia.
Two snapshots from a walk in Madison, New Hampshire, last Friday morning
My 86-year-old mother went with us to Madison Boulder today. The 0.6-mile round trip gave her and her rollator quite the workout. “Us” today means my granddaughter, her parents, and both sets of her grandparents.
