It is agreed that "everyone" is "unhappy" with this year's presumptive presidential nominees: Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. The vast majority of Democrats polled on the question would like to see President Obama serve a third term. Hold that thought.
Likewise, "everyone" in Britain seems to be upset with the Brexit vote (even some of those who voted for Brexit), and would like to hold another referendum on the exit.
This morning, Jamie Dimon says the "Brexit decision could be reversed." [It should be noted that US and UK banks will feel the brunt of the Brexit decision.]
It seems that not a lot of things make sense these days to those of us whose "coming of age" years were during the Vietnam War. The millennials appear to be coping with change quite well.
Now, back to those thoughts that were put on hold.
One wonders if there might be a way to interpret the US Constitution to allow President Obama to serve another term. One way to do it would be to "argue" that his first four-year term was so bad that he deserves a "do-over." He was young and inexperienced when he entered office, and he pretty much spent the first four years "learning on the job." It really wasn't fair to him or the nation. President Obama's first term should really not count as one of his two terms.
He deserves another chance. Based on current popularity polls, one could make the case that at least 80% of the population would gladly give President Obama a "do-over" if that prevented either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump from becoming the nation's 45th president.
Just don't "count" his first four years as his first term. Time to move on.
Another possibility would be to simply "put on hold" the end of this term, or "extend" President Obama's second term until two new candidates are selected.
The GOP "rules committee" is in the process of re-writing the rules to raise the number of delegates needed for a nomination, a number that would preclude Donald Trump from winning on the first ballot. And if he doesn't win on the first ballot, it's going to be a long, long, interesting night.
But if Jamie Dimon says there is a way to "do-over" the Brexit vote and if the FBI director was unable to see any "intent" on Hillary Clinton's part to violate any laws, I think there's a way for President Obama to set yet another milestone in American politics.
Remember, for many, the Constitution is a living document. For them, nothing is outside the realm of possibility. Certainly, the Supreme Court would not object. The court probably wouldn't even take the case.
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The Gay 20s
More from The New York Times story this morning on the June (2016) jobs report:
More important, economists said that if the longer-term employment picture were significantly darkening, the stress would show up in other crucial areas. It is not.
New claims for unemployment benefits have stayed at rock-bottom levels, consumer spending is strong, the manufacturing and service industry indexes have jumped, and the number of unfilled jobs, 5.8 million in April, is at record levels.
“During an economic downturn, the first place employers look to cut are unfilled jobs,” said Andrew Chamberlain, chief economist at Glassdoor Economic Research, adding that he had seen little evidence that hiring was being scaled back.
“When I look through all the data, there is no smoking gun that the U.S. economy is pulling into a recession now.” Given that the jobless rate has consistently been at 5 percent or less since last fall, Mr. Chamberlain and other analysts argue it is time to lower the benchmarks for what is labeled a good or bad report.
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Shakespeare And Dalloway
Updates
July 10, 2016: from The Los Angeles Times, another individual who re-types novels, but as "performance art":
I’d also read somewhere that Hunter S. Thompson, when he decided to be a writer, he typed [F. Scott Fitzgerald’s] “The Great Gatsby” and [Hemingway’s] “The Sun Also Rises” out on a typewriter. And so I went and bought an IBM Selectric and I did Hunter S. Thompson’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.” I proceeded to put all of the words on one page, with a second page behind it.
I did one and I thought, “This is interesting. I’m going to explore it a bit more.” As it evolved, I realized that I wanted to do more than just a few — it could be an idiosyncratic literary pilgrimage, in places that relate to the writer and the novel’s life. For me, it was about how I can become a better reader as I walk through this thing.
Original Post
First, a review of Measure for Measure being produced at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival; the review by Terry Teachout. Review at this link.
Second, this interview with Mark Haddon on Virginia Woolf, also in the WSJ. Interview at this link. Haddon "considers Virginia Woolf 'a genius at sentence-making.'" I agree. I wonder if he uses the word "poetic" or "prose-poem" in his interview. Let's check. Some data points from his interview:
- Haddon considers Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse his favorite novel
- read it slowly, if that's possible
- strangely, she seems to understand exactly what it means to be a mother -- and an aging man, as well. If you didn't know, I think it would be a shock to understand that she'd never had children
- she's interested, I think to a great extent than any other writer, in what it means to be a human being from minute to minute. The way the mind really works -- not ideas, but the experience of being a human being in real time
- sometimes in a sentence she can more from the interior of one character to another, which is also something I'm not sure any other writers have done or at least done with the same adroitness
I was so fascinated by Virginia Woolf that I typed the entirety of two of her novels: The Waves (1931) and Mrs Dalloway (1925). It is quite amazing. In addition to typing it out, I have read Mrs Dalloway several times. It is amazing how timeless, how relevant it remains.
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