"As Recent Events Have Borne Out, the Federal Government Often Underreacts to Perceived Security Threats From the Right and Overreacts to Those Coming From the Left"

"Fifty years on, it seems remarkable how fast the 1971 attack faded from collective memory, even as it exercised a profound effect on the end of an era of political activism that would be unrivaled until the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020. The bombing supercharged Nixon's paranoia, leading the president and his aides to ramp up their crackdown on the New Left. They ordered the biggest, and most unconstitutional, mass arrests in U.S. history during the Mayday protests, rounding up more than 12,000 people. And then weeks later, the White House launched illegal measures to discredit Daniel Ellsberg, leaker of the Pentagon Papers. On Labor Day weekend, Krogh dispatched operatives to break into the office of Ellsberg's former psychiatrist in Beverly Hills, searching for compromising material. Nixon's men were field-testing the tactics they'd soon be caught using against their political opponents in the 1972 election. Thus, you can draw a line, if a dotted one, from the bombing to the demise of Richard Nixon in 1974. Donald Trump, meanwhile, still awaits the consequences of the Jan. 6 attack."

Lawrence Roberts at Politico tells the story of the bombing of the U.S. Capitol by the Weather Underground.

Trump's Bonus

"The early 1930s resembled the present moment in some striking ways. The nation's economy was in free fall, connected to a global economic downturn, with no clear end in sight. Previous years of national prosperity had badly deepened economic inequality, making the crisis all the more severe for those left behind during the boom times. At home and abroad, authoritarian movements were on the march, demonizing ethnic and racial minorities and trashing liberal democratic values. Dissatisfaction was rampant, but it remained unclear who or what would replace the status quo."

Sean Wilentz at Rolling Stone compares Donald Trump to Herbert Hoover.

"Faced With This, America's Military Establishment Chose a Side"

"Now, as 50 years ago, the national guard were called out to face down the demonstrators, although this time it was also to stand guard over the violent dispersal of a legal and peaceful protest to provide a photo op for Trump. Now, as then, the president accused 'outside agitators'–Trump called them terrorists–of stirring up trouble.
"But this time, voices from the American establishment spoke up in support of those demands, and warned that the US is at an inflection point."

Chris McGreal at The Observer depicts the "week that shook a nation."

"When I Was in High School, I Faced My Own Brett Kavanaugh"

Caitlin Flanagan at The Atlantic reacts to the controversy around the Supreme Court nominee.

Albert Burneko at The Concourse writes that conservativism "lacks absolutely any moral or ideological underpinning beyond the reactionary protection of moneyed white men—of their station, their wealth and power, and their egos."

And Noreen Malone at The Cut calls Kavanaugh, "Such a Brett."

"Library Of Congress Completes Destruction Of 70 Million Works Deemed Culturally Insignificant"

"'In some cases, such as our vast troves of military march sheet music and photographic negatives of rural Americans quilting, works were selected for destruction based on their lack of artistic merit, while others, like Styx's The Serpent Is Rising and the movie sequel Grease 2, represent the nadir of a particular historical era. Wiping out these terrible pieces is vitally important to maintaining our proud, rich cultural heritage.'"

From The Onion, 2016.

"A Repudiation of Its Stuffy, Neo-Liberal Past"

"Some might say that post-Peretz, the magazine simply reverted to type. Once again (as it did under Harrison), the magazine is more often following rather than leading the trends in Democratic and liberal thought. Meanwhile, its love letters to the Bernie Bro and Millennial Marxist movements and its attacks on Hillary and the Democratic establishment from the left, instead of from the right, bring back memories of its decidedly radical days in the '30s and '40s. But Peretz, Kinsley, and Sullivan so totally defined and redefined The New Republic—and an entire generation of journalists and politicians influenced by it—that it is their legacy that still remains the definitive one for the magazine. From 1975 to 2014 (not coincidentally the era that historians Sean Wilentz and Gil Troy christened the twin 'Ages' of Reagan and the Clintons), The New Republic was as indispensable an idea factory for 'New Democrats' as the Heritage Foundation and Fox News were for Republicans. And as science itself teaches us, for every action, there will always be an equal, and opposite, reaction."

Telly Davidson at The American Conservative discusses the rise of a new New Republic.

"Our Stories Have Shaped Every Corner of Our Culture"

"Scripture promised that if we lift up the oppressed, that our light will rise in the darkness, and our night will become like the noonday. And the story contained in this museum makes those words prophecy. And that’s what this day is about, that's what this museum's about.
"I, too, am America. It is a glorious story, the one that’s told here. It is complicated, and it is messy, and it is full of contradictions, as all great stories are, as Shakespeare is, as Scripture is. And it's a story that perhaps needs to be told now more than ever."

Time provides a transcript of President Obama's speech at the opening of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

"One of Those Fantastic, Only-in-Washington Characters"

"When Williams is described as Carson's 'business manager,' it sounds like a euphemism, but it's literally true. The two became friendly about 22 years ago, after Carson appeared on Williams's television show. Soon Williams says that he realized his friend's business could be managed better. As Williams tells it, Carson 'was looking to sell some property and minimize his tas, so I turned him onto the 1031 exchanges'—a financial strategy that's used to shield investors from capital gains tas. Before long, Williams wasn't handling just Carson’s business affairs, he was employing Carson's sons through his production company and helping Carson's wife, Candy, import 300 pounds of Egyptian marble for the renovation of the Carson family home. When Carson turned his attentions toward politics, it was only natural that he’d turn to Williams for assistance."

Jason Zengerle in GQ profiles Ben Carson's Svengali, Armstrong Williams.

Who's Afraid of Children of Men

The New York Times posts obits for movie director Mike Nichols, D.C. politician Marion Barry, mobster Francis Fraser, writer P. D. James, movie-studio executive Frank Yablans, and comedian Roberto Gómez Bolaños.

"Journalists Still Don’t Know How to React"

"Given all of this, Tracy feels the Onion wasn’t out of line. 'Satire has to be allowed to push these buttons and replicate that which it condemns—that’s literally its definition,' he writes. 'The Onion’s missteps tend to come not when it’s overly offensive but when its offensiveness doesn’t serve any redeeming social value. By cleverly casting the racist name of the Washington team in a new light, it did provide a great service to its readers, who hopefully include Daniel Snyder.'"

Prachi Gupta in Salon discusses a controversial article from The Onion.

"A Bronze, Bearded Figure with a Determined Gaze Perched atop a Three-Foot Marble Pedestal"

"Douglass is the fourth African American to have a statue or bust in the halls of Congress, following the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and Sojourner Truth. Reflecting the nation’s complicated past, Statuary Hall also includes Confederate heroes Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee."

Ben Pershing in The Washington Post reports on the debut of a statue of Frederick Douglass at the U.S. Capitol.

"The Troubling Question Is Why She Has Become What the Education-Reform Movement Is Looking for in a Standard Bearer"

"Surely one reason that the education-reform movement comports itself in this strident and limited manner is that it depends so heavily on the largesse of people who are used to getting their way and to whom the movement’s core arguments have a powerful face validity. Only a tiny percentage of American children attend the kind of expensive, non-sectarian private schools where many of the elite send their children. It is worth noting that these schools generally avoid giving their students the standardized achievement tests that state education departments require, making the results public, and paying teachers on the basis of the scores, and that they almost never claim to be creating hyper-competitive, commercial-skills-purveying environments for their students. Sidwell Friends, of presidential-daughter fame, says it offers 'a rich and rigorous interdisciplinary curriculum designed to stimulate creative inquiry, intellectual achievement and independent thinking in a world increasingly without borders.' That doesn’t sound like it would cut much ice with Michelle Rhee."

Nicholas Lemann in The New Republic discusses Michelle Rhee.

Jobs and Freedom

"Freed approached the march as a day in its entirety, from early morning preparations on the periphery, to stacks of picket signs, to wide angles of the National Mall evolving into swelling masses framing the reflecting pool anchored by the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. He embedded himself in the crowd, zooming in on children clapping and marchers straining to hear the speeches. He then shot the aftermath with stragglers lingering among discarded fliers strewn about the grounds."

Liesl Bradner in the Los Angeles Times discusses This Is the Day: The March on Washington, a new book of photographs by Leonard Freed.

"The Dynasty’s Forgotten Kick-Starter"

"With little money and needing work (and lacking a college degree), Romney saw an ad for a stenography job with the address of the Senate Office Building. He managed to score an interview with Walsh and land the position. But there was a problem: He wasn’t a stenographer.
"It took Walsh all of two days to discover his new aide couldn’t take dictation. But rather than dismiss Romney, Walsh allowed him to swap roles with another man in the office."

John R. Bohrer in New York discusses Sen. David I. Walsh, who gave George Romney a big break in 1929.

And in an article at Buzzfeed, Bohrer portrays George Romney's political career in the 1960s.

Michael Barbaro in The New York Times reports on criticism of Mitt Romney by a longtime George Romney associate.

The Wah Gringo Expedition Go Girl

The Los Angeles Times reports the deaths of guitarist Charles "Skip" Pitts, novelist Carlos Fuentes, banjo player Doug Dillard, musician Chuck Brown, and singer Donna Summer.

"It's a Much Bigger Deal Up Here"

"Britain doesn't seem to be planning much, probably because the War of 1812 was viewed as a distraction for a country focused on defeating Napoleon, historians said. Some Canadians worry that if they make too big a deal about repelling the American invaders, it could offend their southern neighbor.
"Then again, Americans may not notice."

Richard Simon in the Los Angeles Times reports on upcoming commemorations for the bicentennial of the War of 1812.

Hail Victory?

"In 1945, the team again played for the league title, losing to the Cleveland Rams. That was the last championship game the Marshall-owned Redskins would reach. In fact, from 1946 until the early 1960s, when Marshall’s deteriorating health prevented him from overseeing day-to-day operations, the team amassed just three winning seasons. There were many reasons, but prominent among them was the virulent racism of the owner."

In The New York Review of Books, Michael Tomasky reviews Thomas G. Smith's Showdown: JFK and the Integration of the Washington Redskins.

Ike's Site

"'I wanted something to be very elegant and very respectful and long-lasting and dignified,' he said, not 'casual' or 'cheap looking.'"

Jessica Gresko in The Los Angeles Times reports on the unveiling of plans for the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial in Washington, D.C.

The Nattering Nabob

"There were columns on blogosphere blargon, tarnation-heck euphamisms, dastardly subjunctives and even Barack and Michelle Obama’s fist bumps. And there were Safire 'rules for writers': Remember to never split an infinitive. Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors. Proofread carefully to see if you words out. Avoid cliches like the plague. And don’t overuse exclamation marks!!"

In The New York Times, Robert D. McFadden reports the death of William Safire.

Low Rent, High-Rise, Y'all

"Once in office, Weaver presided over a great expansion of public housing. More affordable housing was built under the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968 than at any other time in the nation's history, and Weaver's proposals were the ones the administration followed. A national fair-housing law was finally passed in 1968, with Weaver lobbying Congress to support it. Yet these were also the years of the riots in cities like Detroit, of deepening poverty and deindustrialization. Black radicals criticized the housing projects that Weaver helped to build as simply reconstituting the ghetto in new ways. They rejected his quest for a race-blind meritocracy; in a July 1967 column, Jimmy Breslin quoted one such activist: 'You know what everybody says about Weaver? They say, "He's light and bright and damn near white."' Weaver was deeply troubled by the riots, which he argued represented a deepening 'community despair and hopelessness' that could only be undone by concerted government action. But the Great Society lasted just a few years, razed by the politics of backlash as white city dwellers reacted to the housing projects rising in their neighborhoods by fleeing the cities in a panic about living next door to blacks. The public housing projects that Weaver had once viewed as the beachhead of a better society came instead to more closely resemble holding pens for the poorest of the poor, people left out of any social compact whatsoever. The projects became exactly what Weaver had once wanted above all to avoid: a second ghetto. Not only the vision of public housing but the buildings themselves seemed to have failed."

In The Nation, Kim Phillips-Fein reviews Wendell Pritchett's Robert Clifton Weaver and the American City.