"CBS Sunday Morning" on 5 November 2017 does Ta-Nehisi Coates

CBS Sunday Morning on 5 November 2017 included an upbeat discussion of Ta-Nehisi Coates [See Ta-Nehisi Coates wants readers to be "haunted" by his work : "Critically-acclaimed author Ta-Nehisi Coates has earned a huge following, along with several prestigious awards, for his thought-provoking books dealing with race." AND The Essential Ta-Nehisi Coates : Teichner said, "There are probably people who read your books and get mad, and say, 'It sounds like he hates America.'"]

CBS Sunday Morning did not discuss Coates' involvement in the John Kelly "Civil War history" matter, an interesting discussion of which appears in the Federalist. Therein, John Davidson wrote:


Compromising on slavery had been part of how America stayed together, and staved off war, from the beginning. No historian disputes this. But for writers like Chait and The Atlantic’s Ta-Nehisi Coates, compromise was a bad thing because it preserved slavery. That such compromises limited slavery’s spread and put it on the path to extinction carries no weight with them.

In a widely shared thread on Twitter, Coates joined in lambasting Kelly’s remark about compromise, but managed to turn the question on its head. For Coates, each compromise that preserved the Union and prevented war prior to the Civil War was morally bankrupt. He also rails against the compromises struck after the war to restore the Union, as well as the compromises Lincoln offered during the war to bring rebellious southern states back into the fold.


Coates’ initial line of criticism—that Kelly should know about all these compromises because the relevant history is “easily accessible, not tucked away in archives somewhere”—gets to something deeper. For Coates and his ilk, the entire idea of America is indefensible.



[link: https://thefederalist.com/2017/11/02/shelby-footes-civil-war-history-defends-america-insatiable-haters-like-ta-nehisi-coates/]

See also the IPBiz post
John Kelly, compromise, the Dred Scott decision, and the Corwin Amendment

The Almanac feature of "Sunday Morning" on November 5 celebrated the birthday of Raymond Loewy (born November 5, 1893), with much discussion of his design of the Studebaker Avanti. CBS did not mention this was a team effort, also involving John Ebstein, Bob Andrews, and Tom Kellogg. Loewy is also known for the design of the Exxon logo and the 1964 Kennedy stamp. Four years prior to the CBS show, on November 5, 2013, Loewy was the subject of a Google Doodle. Of some relevance to intellectual property, note his 1951 book Never Leave Well Enough Alone . See more at wikipedia.

The "nature" feature on 5 Nov 2017 was pelicans in Marin County, continuing a trend of generic, puff nature pieces, and away from naming of more specific destinations one might want to enjoy.

**As a footnote to Davidson's reference to Lincoln's "House Divided" speech:


In his famous 1858 House Divided speech, Lincoln said the United States “cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.”


one recalls that in the gospel reference, Jesus was more negative as to DIVIDED KINGDOMS:




Matthew 12:22-28 New King James Version (NKJV)

A House Divided Cannot Stand

22 Then one was brought to Him who was demon-possessed, blind and mute; and He healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. 23 And all the multitudes were amazed and said, “Could this be the Son of David?”

24 Now when the Pharisees heard it they said, “This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.”

25 But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. 26 If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? 27 And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. 28 But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.