Scott Miller

At today’s session, one of the participants mentioned The Paranoid Style in American Politics as an essay that he though resonated (at least with him) in today’s environment as much as it might have in 1964, when it was first published (in Harper’s Magazine).

At any rate, here’s a link to a PDF copy of the essay.

On Monday, October 31, we’re going to tackle two topics (assuming there’s time and continued interest):

Did Jack Welch “break” capitalism (or General Electric)?

Once revered by some as a “guru” amongst corporate CEOs, Welch’s legacy leaves something to be desired. Since his retirement, General Electric has fallen on relatively hard times. Are these problems the result of his management style? Were they caused by GE’s inability to find any replacement as effective as he was? Or just bad luck for GE?

Here are two articles from someone who seems to blame Welch:

• How Jack Welch Revolutionized the American Economy (NYT Book Review of “The Man Who Broke Capitalism”)
• Boeing’s 737 Max Is a Saga of Capitalism Gone Awry (NYT [by David Geller, author of the above book])

What should we make of the decline in “the nation’s report card?”

The National Assessment of Educational Progress was released last Monday, and showed declines in student proficiency in both disciplines tested (math and reading) and student ages (fourth and eighth grades). But a close look at the results suggests that some of the partisan (both sides) explanations aren’t really supported by the data. So what’s going on?

There have been a lot of articles over the past week on this subject. Here are two (and article and an Editorial Board opinion) from the Washington Post to get us started:

• Scores fall coast to coast, especially in math, under pandemic’s toll (WaPo)
• Learning loss is a generational emergency. Here is how to fix it. (WaPo editorial)

See (some of) you tomorrow.

There will be no Beyond Labels meeting on October 10; the Blue Hill Public Library will be closed in observance of Indigenous People’s Day.

On October 17, we’ll consider whether the current administration should pursue criminal charges against former president Trump. While it’s easy to say ‘yes’ and ‘no one is above the law,’ it gets more complicated if you’re in Merrick Garland’s seat.

• How significant a crime would it need to be to justify prosecution?
• How strong a case would the Justice Department need to assemble before seeking an indictment?
• Conversely, how much of a risk of an acquittal should the Justice Department run?
• Should they treat this like any other case, or are there special circumstances for this one? If so, which ones resonate with you?

Attached are two articles supplied by one of our participants.

• Trump situation shows why we should have held Nixon accountable for Watergate
• Why seeking justice for Trump could backfire