Notes and Essays -- John Brown

Immigrants aided the pandemic recovery and may be crucial to future needs. The challenge is processing newcomers and getting them where the jobs are.  Edgar Alayón, who came to the United States last year from Venezuela, at a construction safety training session organized by Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York.Credit...Mohamed Sadek for The New York Times By Lydia DePillis, The New York Times , Feb. 29, 2024 Updated 3:25 p.m. ET  [jb -- original article contains informative links and charts (one of which can be found below)]; see also Work permits are finally flowing for humanitarian migrants The number of employment authorization documents granted to immigrants seeking protection in the United States Note: Data includes permits granted to refugees, public interest parolees, as well as those with a pending asylum application, Temporary Protected Status and people who have been granted asylum. Source: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services  By The New Yor...

Russian leader has made similar threats before; this time the context makes them matter more  Putin’s speech was broadcast live at venues across Russia, including on Moscow’s streets.  PHOTO:  MAXIM SHIPENKOV/SHUTTERSTOCK By Georgi Kantchev and Ann M. Simmons, The Wall Street Journal, Updated Feb. 29, 2024 9:00 am ET [original article contains a video of Putin speaking d uring an annual parliamentary address.]   Russian President  Vladimir Putin  has raised the specter of a nuclear conflict if Ukraine’s allies step further into the war, a refrain the West had begun to tune out but that has gained resonance as collective security guarantees under NATO come under scrutiny.    While the Russian leader has repeatedly issued nuclear threats—and experts say the use of such weapons remains highly unlikely—the warnings come amid heightened anxiety in Europe about U.S. commitment to its security. Presidential candidate  Donald Trump  said ea...

image from image from "Some Jewish students [at Harvard] say they have given up their kipas, or skullcaps, for baseball hats." --From an article by :  Anemona Hartocollis , " Co-Chair of Harvard Antisemitism Task Force Resigns [:]  Professor Raffaella Sadun’s departure from the task force is a setback for a group set up to propose ways for Harvard to address antisemitism on campus," The New York Times , February 28

From: [ USA] National Archives Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) Enlarge Download Link Citation: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo [Exchange copy]; 2/2/1848; Perfected Treaties, 1778 - 1945; General Records of the United States Government, Record Group 11; National Archives Building, Washington, DC. This is the exchange copy of the treaty, written in both Spanish and English. This copy, given to the United States by Mexico, provides proof that the treaty was ratified by the Mexican government. View All Pages in the National Archives Catalog View Transcript This treaty, signed on February 2, 1848, ended the war between the United States and Mexico. By its terms, Mexico ceded 55 percent of its territory, including the present-day states California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, most of Arizona and Colorado, and parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Wyoming. Mexico also relinquished all claims to Texas, and recognized the Rio Grande as the southern boundary with the United States. The Treaty of Gua...

image (not from below quoted article) from " Greg Hazergian, 40, a cardiologist from Northville, Mich., said Trump 'is as much of a jerk as he is narcissist' — but he voted for him anyway, because he prefers Trump’s economic policies. Hazergian, who voted for Trump in 2020, said he has some good stuff that he does;   ' he just needs not to speak.' ”  Cited From:  Feb. 27, 2024, 7:31 p.m. ET 2 hours ago 2 hours ago Steve Friess, The New York Times,  [Feb 27]

"Ukraine’s war effort is precarious, as the rushed retreat from Avdiivka showed. Hundreds of Ukrainian solders [jb--sic; my underlined/highlighted typo letters]   were  reported captured or killed in the chaos ." solders image from From: The Washington Post , the logo of which states: "Democracy lies [jb--sorry! I too made a bad boo-boo typo: should be "dies"] in darkness."

Walt Whitman Earrings “Resist much. Obey little.” The poet's rallying cry for individual and collective liberty, from the 1860 edition of  Leaves of Grass,  is stamped on these sterling silver domed disc earrings, for pierced ears. They are handmade in the U.S.A. by artist Amy Volchok. from

With additional U.S. aid stalled and Ukraine struggling on the battlefield, Europe asks how far it would go to defend Kyiv By Stacy Meichtry, Bojan Pancevski and Noemie Bisserbe, The Wall Street Journal , Feb. 27, 2024 9:41 am ET  French President Emmanuel Macron’s remarks were a departure from the reticence Western allies have shown in even talking about sending soldiers to Ukraine.   PHOTO:  NATHAN LAINE/BLOOMBERG NEWS Paralysis in Washington over  additional military aid to Ukraine  is driving at least one European leader to push the boundaries of how far the continent is willing to go in supporting Ukraine—even the possibility, however remote, of deploying troops. That dynamic was cast into sharp relief at the end of a summit that French President Emmanuel Macron hastily organized late Monday in an attempt to show Russian President  Vladimir Putin  that  European capitals have no intention of backing down . Europe has struggled to ex...