LyrArc Article Gist
National Portrait Gallery exhibition on "America's Presidents," opens May 15 after a month long closure during which the writing about each president was changed to take out comments from the culture wars in the description of each President. The format includes extracts from farewell addresses, basic resume of life, education, accomplishments. For the recent presidents history's assessment is not known so that descriptions cannot be authoritative. For the presidents from an earlier period there is a sense of authority. For instance the presidency of James K. Polk- “The presidency of James K. Polk reflected his belief in Manifest Destiny,” begins one summary. Another is "Andrew Jackson campaigned for president as a self-made man." Previous descriptions were filled with controversial statements which have been corrected. “Andrew Jackson’s life was colored by struggle, conflict, and aggression.” The Washington Post says it now drops the omniscient judgment it is making which has caused controversy and quotes Jackson giving his own self-analysis: “’I was born for a storm, and a calm does not suit me,’ Andrew Jackson reportedly told a friend. This kind of omniscient judgement is seen at the National Portrait Gallery on Woodrow Wilson. It said- “Wilson is most often remembered as a champion of liberal values, but recent scrutiny has drawn attention to his regressive actions with regard to women’s voting rights and segregation in the government, as well as other violations of civil rights.” Is this fair to Woodrow Wilson who laid some of the basic foundations -for what was to come later with the efforts of Franklin Roosevelt -in setting up the fair conditions for working men and women in the industries of the day, the essentials of the modern economy? New wall text says Wilson supported the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote. But it could have said more as these presidents from George Washington and Jefferson,Lincoln to Teddy Roosevelt, Wilson, FDR, Truman, Kennedy/LBJ, laid the foundations of the modern society and economy we have today, and its democratic parliamentary process, industrial development, higher standard of living than the rest of the world. One such laggard is the entrance to the Smithsonian Exhibition in Washington DC where Benjamin Franklin's efforts and achievements do not receive the recognition and admiration of the Nation's future generations of young people, with statements of this kind including race relations. It is not stated that Ben Franklin was the President of the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery. And little is shown about the 6 difficult 6 week voyages across the Atlantic ocean to London and France that secured the support of France critical for Washington to win in the deciding battles of the War of Independence; and signing the peace settlement with Britain that set up this glorious experiment with democracy that is ours now for 250 years. The current zeal to see things only from today's lens puts everyone at risk from the founding fathers to the eminent writers of America. For instance the media tends to exalt contemporary writers and ignores the writers that set America apart for its uniqueness and being exceptional for much of its 250 years. Too much of this mistaken view only makes one miss the significance of 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and what it means to the people of the world on different continents Asia, Africa and Latin America. Whitman and Longfellow are forgotten and were it not for some brave schools and teachers in public schools left out of the curriculum. Whitman has this to say about Longfellow- "Longfellow brings what is always dearest as poetry to the general human heart and taste, and probably must be so in the nature of things. He is certainly the sort of bard and counteractant most needed for our materialistic, self-assertive, money-worshipping, Anglo-Saxon races, and especially for the present age in America- an age tyrannically regulated with reference to the manufacturer, the merchant, the financier, the politician and the day workman- for whom and among whom he comes as the poet of melody, courtesy, deference- poet of the mellow twilight of the past in Italy, Germany, Spain, and in Northern Europe- poet of all sympathetic gentleness- and universal poet of women and young people. I should have to think long if I were ask'd to name the man who has done more, and in more valuable directions, for America." ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Increasing college enrollment for women in the US shows no sign of changing. Women now make up 60% of college students for the 2020-21 college year, men 40%., according to National Student Clearinghouse. Another alarming piece of information is that there are 1.5 million fewer students at colleges and universities in the US, and men make up 71% of the decline. 3.8 million women filled college applications compared to 2.8 million men for 2021-2022 college year in the US, according to Common Application. The enrollment rates of poor and working class whites show alarming decline with rates of enrollment less than people from Black, Latino or Asian income backgrounds. Decline in male enrollment is highest for community colleges with family finances the main cause. The pandemic has accelerated this negative trend that is bad for America. 700,000 fewer students were enrolled in college in 2021 spring than 2019 spring, according to a WSJ analysis.  During the pandemic millions of women left jobs to stay at home with children. Many turned to sons for help, with some young men quitting school to work. Some examples shown in this report show parents having gone to college and sons deciding the skyrocketing costs of education make it too risky to take out loans that cannot be repaid. Many just feel lost, doing work landscaping for $500 a week or packing boxes at Amazon warehouses at $15.50 an hour. With so much going wrong in the way America is investing in its future generation, issues like wars in distant lands fade into insignificance, and president Biden's decision is surely "a wise decision." As is his effort to make community college at no cost given to young Americans. The $3.5 trillion investment in workers and families that Biden plans could not have been developed at a time of greater need than today. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Karishma Vaswani of the BBC points out that most of China's economic growth came with the shift to a market economy made by Deng Xiaoping in 1979, when he announced that China would follow a program of "socialism with Chinese characteristics." By comparison the 19th Party Congress is more about stabilization, preserving the gains made so far after Deng's opening up of the economy to foreign investment and technological collaboration. The placing of thought of Xi Jinping into the Chinese Constitution is more about setting a path of stable direction by the Communist Party than of major changes. The gains in the economy have come with some costs that will have to be addressed by an aging society. Particularly the problems of air and water pollution that other economies in Asia and Latin America following their own development paths would now strive to avoid. An anti-corruption drive was part of this effort for stable direction as the problems of debt to GDP ratio of close to 270% with an aging society remain to be tackled. There is still a large gap between the upper middle class and the rest of China as a result of the rapid growth. In this sense Jinping's effort at the 19th Party Congress is more about restoring the credibility of the Chinese Communist Party as China tackles the next stage of growth needed to catch up with Japan or South Korea. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
A new German envoy in Greece and efforts to mend strained relations.

LyrArc Article Gist
This WSJ report looks at the toll on mental health of men during the pandemic.

LyrArc Article Gist
Japan's 38 year old Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi sets himself up as a role model by taking two weeks off as paternity leave over 3 months after the birth of his first child.  Mr. Koizumi says in a country where paternity leave is not common: "I hope my child care leave will serve as a spur for everyone in the Environment Ministry to take child care leave without hesitation and advance a style of work in which that is easy." Japan's Shinzo Abe government encourages men to take childcare leave, as this is part of the campaign to get more working age mothers into the workplace. In Japan eligible employees can take upto 52 weeks off of parental leave at reduced pay, accordoing to OECD. The government hopes to get 13% of fathers to take paternity leave in 2020, compared to only 6% in 2019. One reason for the low rate is culture in the workplace- most employees fear bosses and colleagues do not think favorably of this. Making this culture change is the difficult part. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Extreme heat and dehydration affecting farming villages and fishing communities, and lack of clean drinking water, contamination of water supplies by chemicals, has led to kidney disease in 40 year olds in Sri Lanka. This also shows how important the clean drinking water Har Ghar Jal - clean water for all homes- of prime minister Narendra Modi is for 1.4 billion people in India. Sri Lanka (Ceyon) faced with decades of civil war, and mismanaged finances with corruption, is ill equipped to tackle the huge problems that it faces.

LyrArc Article Gist
A fragmented political landscape and slowing economic growth are two challenges facing the European Union in 2019.

LyrArc Article Gist
David Autor, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says he is quite worried about the steadily declining participation of men 16-64 in the labor force from 85% in the decade after World War II to less than 65% today. This is a blow to the men, their families , government revenues and the economy.

LyrArc Article Gist
Unacceptable is that American men in their 20's and 30's are falling behind women in their 20's and 30's, in education and in economic prospects, says this report in WSJ. More young men are living with their parents than young women. As this report shows men are more dependent on manufacturing, women are more dependent on remote work, one more reason manufacturing is so important for our economy. In ways economists with specialized macroeconomic knowledge and statistical approach don't get what requires an overall knowledge and understanding of how the economy works when it works well for the People and the Nation. As a result what is not true for young women is true for young men, that this generation of young men see fewer opportunities than their parents did. This is a central task of a Harris administration- to address this, one of the unacceptables including fentanyl and for orderly immigration, loss of manufacturing. For building US manufacturing that also plays right into opportunities for young people, and getting more young people into apprenticeships, one of the key pieces of Harris's economic platform. Simply lowering taxes won't do it- this generation is all about investing and doing this well and with the full power of America's resources. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Peters and Wessel provide profiles of middle aged American men in 2014- as tech workers out of jobs as technology shifts and worker skills fall behind, younger men with masters degrees in fields such as public administration where it is hard to find jobs and workers lack retraining, and other men who lost jobs from globalization or the 2009 economic crisis. About one in 6 working age American men 25-54 are without jobs- about 10.4 million. Of this group two thirds are not looking for work either because they cannot find decent paying jobs or are too discouraged looking for work, and are not counted in the unemployment rate calculated by the Labor Department. About three quarters of the working age men not working have only a high school education compared to 55% with jobs. Wages for highschool dropouts have declined by 25% since the 1970's, and 15% for those without a college degree but having a high school diploma- some of these men are going back to school, others lacking retraining are too discouraged to look for work and depending on a spouse or government benefits. It is these people U.S. Fed chairpersons Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen have in mind as they shape Fed policies since 2009 to not leave them behind....

LyrArc Article Gist
Sweden is one of the first countries providing men with greater opportunities for raising children- both through laws for parental leave, and through a cultural transformation that gives fathers an accepted role in caring for children. Laws reserve at least 2 months of well paid 13 month parental leave for fathers. 85% of Swedish fathers take parental leave and its cool for fathers to be doing work inside and outside the home to care for children.

LyrArc Article Gist
This piece in the Economist says the men involved in sexual harassment in Cologne identifed so far were Moroccans and Algerians, not Syrians. The police in Cologne are seen as failing to identify sexual attackers and apprehend them on the spot. Tensions will exist because of the different values in the Middle East, and as in America, the Economist says the refugees must be required to adopt the values and norms of the new country. Because most of the refugees are men, this could skew the men to women ratio in some places which welcome refugees, and for this reason the men should be allowed to bring their spouses. So far German chancellor Merkel has acted firmly, calling the sexual attacks "disgusting," passing laws that would make it possible to quickly deport those migrants and refugees who break the law in Germany. This is the right way to tackle the problem. In the long run the immigration will help countries such as Germany tackle the problem of aging of the labor force, yet in the short run stronger action is needed to prevent any abuses to the humanitarian welcome offered refugees. The problem of economically motivated migrants remains- Britain, Germany and France all agree that these migrants should go back to their home countries, as prime minister Cameron and chancellor Merkel have already affirmed....

LyrArc Article Gist
US beat Slovakia 6-2 and Canada come from 0-2 to win 3-2 against Finland in men's hockey at the Milan Olympics. US play Canada for the gold medal. US has won gold 3 times, Canada 10 times in Men's Olympic hockey. US already beat Canada in women's ice hockey for gold yesterday by scoring in overtime.

LyrArc Article Gist
The major part of 4.5 million deaths have been saved in the US just by the decline in smoking. About 4.5 times the losses during Covid pandemic 4.5 million American saved lives just from the efforts to cut smoking of the last 2 decades, and better cancer screening and treatments. Stopping cigarette advertising saved millions of lives. It means letting processed food companies advertise freely, the FDA not doing its job by letting  companies use Red Dyes in food, and lobbyists for plastics companies not stopping PFAS contamination are all costing American lives in the hundreds of thousands. Cancer rate for women keeps increasing as men cancer rate drops. Men took up smoking in large numbers and the decline in smoking had a bigger impact for men's cancer rate. The overall cancer rate has dropped by 34% since 1991 largely because of the decline in smoking. Men's cancer is now almost even with women in 2021 compared to men having 1.6 times the rate of women in 1992. For women increase in breast feeding and having children at a younger age reduced some kinds of breast cancers, as women had children later, and higher use of alcohol, physical inactivity, obesity added to increase in cancer rates. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Jacket potatoes as part of food scene in England.  Jacket potatoes form part of the menu at pubs all over Britain, and are shown with their long history for street vendors in the nineteenth century.

LyrArc Article Gist
Women 16-24 years make 10% more than men in 2025 in both blue collar and white collar jobs, says a report titled Lost Boys from the Center for Social Justice in the UK. Young men face a social crisis in both the UK and the US. More men are dropping out after high school and not going to college as college becomes less and less affordable in the US and in the UK.