Keep on Truckin'

Politics is the slow boring through thick boards.  I don’t know who said that first, but I try to remember that when I get discouraged, and lately I’m discouraged much of the time.  The climate change, the creep toward authoritarianism, the loss of community, the violence, the stupidity–it gets to you.

In our American studies classes at SJSU, we always pointed out that even in the worst of times voices were raised in protest.  Abolitionists, labor organizers, feminists, civil rights workers, Henry David Thoreau, Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, Eugene Debs, Fred Korematsu, Cesar Chavez, Wilma Mankiller, Linda Carol Brown–always voices speaking up.  

We are not in that rarified company, but all of us need to keep speaking up against bigotry, cruelty, selfishness, and just plain meanness.  Make that your resolution for 2019.

"Pro-life"

Another immigrant kid has died in captivity.  These kids are kept in conditions that rival our worst prisons.  

Here is what Thomas Friedman said about being “pro-life.”  

In my world, you don’t get to call yourself”pro-life” and be against common-sense gun control....  You don’t get to call yourself “pro-life” and want to shut down the Environmental Protection Agency....  You don’t get to call yourself “pro-life” and oppose programs like Head Start that provide basic education, health, and nutrition for the most disadvantaged children....  The term”pro-life” should be a shorthand for respect for the sanctity of life.  But I will not let that label apply to people for whom sanctity for life begins at conception and ends at birth.

I agree with Friedman.  I am tired of people who call themselves “pro-life” yet are willing to rip refugee children from their parents and hold them in for-profit prisons, supporting a president who has no empathy, no goal except to fan the flames of hatred for political advantage.  It is sickening.

Where we fight

The film director Frank Capra made a movie during World War II entitled “Why We Fight.”  It was a propaganda film for a good cause.

The latest issue of the Smithsonian Magazine includes a map with the title  “Where We Fight.”  It lists the countries that have U.S. military bases, training and assistance operations, U.S. military exercises, countries where U.S, has combat involvement, and countries where the U.S. has carried out air or drone strikes.  

The map is amazing.  For example, in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia is listed, but so are Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Oman, Djibouti, Syria (thought maybe not much longer), and Iraq.

We live in a so-called democracy, but I doubt if most Americans could find those nations on a map.  The number of countries in which U.S. service members were involved or took direct action on the ground against militants is impressive, including such places as Mauritania, Mali, Niger, the Central African Republic, Somalia, Yemen, Libya, and more.  

The Constitution gives Congress the right to declare war.  It has not done so in any of these countries.

The Reading Museum

Today we visited the Reading Museum to see an exhibition of “kinetic dinosaurs.”  They are made of metal, and you can move them with joy sticks or pulleys, and kids were loving it.  The dinosaurs, although made of scrap metal pieces, were representative of actual skeletons of real dinosaurs.  It was accurately billed a combination of art and science.

The Reading Museum also had quite a collection of European art, a good sample of Pennsylvania impressionists, and a nice display of native American artifacts.  Plus, the gift shop had earrings in the shape of small pretzels, so fitting for Berks County.

One section was devoted to Pennsylvania Dutch art and artifacts, but we skipped that one.  We see enough of that stuff at home.

To my Green Party friends

Today the New York Times ran a 12-page special section entitled “This is our reality now.”  It detailed the increases in air pollution and water pollution.  It looked at the weakening of rules on methane releases, on endangered species, on pesticides and chemical emissions.  On the last page it printed a list of 47 environmental rollbacks completed and 31 in process.

Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate for President, received more votes in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin than the margin by which Clinton lost to Trump.  Green Party voters thought Clinton wasn’t enough of an environmentalist.  

I am asking you:  How many of those rollbacks do you think would be happening if Clinton were President?  

Jill Stein was a spoiler.  Remember that she met with Russian officials before the election.  Do you think the Russians thought she would win?  She was a dupe who lent her name and her party to defeating Hillary Clinton, and now we, our children, and the planet are suffering the consequences. 

Rules for success

According to a Brookings Institution study, there are three rules you should follow to be successful in life, at least if “successful” is staying out of poverty.  The study found that if you follow all three, you have only a 3% chance of living in poverty.  If you don’t, the percentages are very high, approaching 50%.  

Here are the rules:

1.  graduate from high school.  It will be even better if you attend community college or college, but the important thing is to get a high school diploma.

2.  get a job.  It doesn’t have to be much of a job to begin with, but people who have jobs (and do them) will find it much easier to get better jobs and even better jobs after that.

3.  get married before you have children.  Do not do it the other way around.  It won’t work.  If you had only one variable to predict poverty, it wouldn’t be religion, or parents, or educational level, or race, or ethnicity.  It would be single parent family.  

There you have it.  I learned about this study in a book entitled Them by Sen. Ben Sasse, a Republican Senator from Nebraska.  I’m about half way through, but I recommend it highly.

Spaceship Earth

It’s been fifty years since three American astronauts took pictures of an “earthrise” as they circled the moon to check out landing sites.  The earth looked lovely, blue and white with swirling clouds.  The idea of “spaceship earth” became a reality.  We were living on such a small ball in such a large universe.

When I taught environmental studies, I discussed these photos as one of the turning points in the environmental movement.  Finally we would realize the fragility of the planet.  Finally we would understand the need to care for it.

I was so hopeful, so optimistic, and so so naive.  

Luke 2, Verse 7

This evening a United Church of Christ minister said we were reading that verse wrong.  The emphasis should be on the word “them.”  Like this:  ...”there was no room for them in the inn.”  It sounds much more contemporary if you read it like that.

Still no room in the inn

Let me see if I got this.  Tomorrow night Christians around the world will be celebrating the birth of a child whose parents then fled their homeland because they feared the child would come to harm if they stayed.  Many of those same Christians in places like Hungary, Poland, Denmark, United States, France, Italy, Greece, Austria, and more are forming anti-immigrant parties, insulting and degrading refugees, and calling for the building of high walls.

Climate crisis solved

It is amazing what the Trump administration can do.  The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has merged its Climate and Health Program into a division that studies asthma.  When it did that, it expunged the word “climate” from the name of the new division.

This follows an earlier move by the Trump administration to eliminate the phrase “climate change” from the White House website.

Problem solved.  Case closed.

Info for this post was taken from Lisa Friedman and Sheila Kaplan, “C.D.C. Climate Team Drops the ‘Climate,’” New York Times, (Dec. 21, 2018), p. A 14.

Gratuitous meanness

I always thought of Denmark as a tolerant country.  I admire the way they managed to save almost every Danish Jew before the Nazis invaded Denmark, and I always thought they treated refugees well.

Now, in what seems to be a worldwide trend of creeping Trumpism, the Danes have passed a law requiring new citizens to shake hands.  Since some Muslim (and Jewish) groups discourage or even forbid their followers from touching people of the opposite sex who are not family members, this will mean those people cannot become Danish citizens.

While this new law probably won’t stop many people from achieving citizenship, it does send a message that Danes can be as assholish as anyone else.

Leaving Syria

The way it was done:  When a president makes a foreign policy decision with possible major ramifications, that president ordinarily consults with Congressional leaders, advisors in the White House, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and our allies.  Decisions like that are not made off the cuff.

Our allies:  If you were an ally of the U.S., would you continue to trust it?  One of our most steadfast allies has been the Kurds, a major factor in fighting ISIS.  The Kurds will now be left to twist in the wind.

Our opponents:  Putin has already praised Trump’s decision to pull out.  That should tell you something.

The international mix:  Any diplomatic issue involving the Middle East includes a variety of players and participants, in this case, to name a few, Turkey, Assad, ISIS, Israel, the Palestinians, the Iraqis, the Iranians, the Russians, the Kurds, the anti-Assad forces, Britain, France, and probably more that I am missing here.  This is complicated.  As Linda said to me today, “The world is playing chess, and Trump is playing checkers.”

New Jersey pipeline protest

Today we drove to Pennington, New Jersey, to participate in a protest against PennEast/UGI Pipeline.  We heard from a New Jersey state legislator, a U.S. Congress member, and a number of local officials who were worried about the destruction of water supplies, preserved farmland, and sensitive environmental areas.  The safety of hundreds of people who will be in the blast zone was also a concern.

I thought of how different it is here in Carbon, where our state legislator, Doyle Heffley, is in the cheering section for the pipeline.  I don’t know what our new U.S. Representative, millionaire Dan Meusser thinks about it, but I have a hunch.

The demonstration was at a woman’s house that will be bisected by the pipeline.  About 75 people attended the demonstration.  We were the only two from Carbon County.

short post on Michael Flynn

Lock him up!

Secretary Zinke (Lock him up)

Not only are many Trump appointees unqualified for the job, unable to perform their duties, or opposed to their responsibilities, but it also turns out they are crooks as well.  Secretary of the Interior Zinke, who rode a horse through Washington on his first day on the job, did not fulfill his responsibilities to protect our environment.  He also engineered a real estate deal to benefit his family in conjunction with David J. Lesar, Chair of Halliburton.  

He could face up to five years in prison if he is convicted of using his governmental position to benefit himself.  It’s called “conflict of interest.”

I just hope he and the horse he rode in on get their comeuppance.

On another topic, in a recent post I was very critical of some New Jersey Democratic legislators for proposing a law that would have almost guaranteed Democratic dominance for decades.  I am pleased to report that that proposal has been withdrawn.

Fred Greenstein, 88, and Nancy Wilson, 81, A goodbye

This is probably the only place you will ever read those two names together, but both were important to me, so indulge me.

Fred Greenstein was a political scientist who, in the Fifties, studied the attitudes of New Haven school children toward political authority.  He found that kids in the lower grades sometimes confused the President with god.  While they soon outgrew this, the idea that the President was more than mortal stayed with them.  When Kennedy was assassinated, people couldn’t sleep, felt bereft, were disoriented in a way that would not be the case if a U.S. Senator had died.

Greenstein, who wrote about the “benevolent leader,” was later criticized by political scientists who said he had only studied white middle-class students, and Latino and black students had a totally different view of authority, which they called the “malevolent leader.”  That doesn’t change his findings.

Greenstein later chaired the Political Science Department at Princeton.   His research compared presidential leadership, and his study of Eisenhower raised Ike’s standing among presidents, a conclusion I agree with.  Eisenhower was somewhat plodding, careful, and dull.  Kennedy was dashing and impulsive.  It was the difference between the D-Day invasion and the Bay of Pigs.

Now Nancy Wilson.  She was a “jazz singer,” but so much more.  I think I have every album she ever recorded.  I bought or was given–I can’t remember– a poster of her that I got at a record store in Lehighton [yes, there was a time when Lehighton had a record store] that I had above my bed when I was in grad school at Penn State.  I loved Nancy Wilson.

Linda and I saw her at a concert at Lehigh University.  She had lost much of the richness of her voice at that point, but she was still wonderful.  I continue to play her albums.  A part of who I am is gone.  

Making Wishes Come True

For the last nine years the Republicans have been trying to kill the Affordable Care Act.  In the last two years the Republican Senate has approved two U.S. Supreme Court justices who are “conservative.”

Now they get their wish.  A federal district court judge in Texas has declared the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional.  The case, of course, will be appealed.  The last time the Supreme Court ruled on this law, the vote was 5-4 to uphold the Act.  Justice Roberts, one of the five, approved it on the basis of the right to tax.  That “tax” provision, if I read the law correctly, has been taken away by the Republican Congress.  

That means that the rationale advanced by Roberts would no longer hold.  That means the five justices, including Trump appointees Gorsuch and Kavanaugh, will be voting to overturn the law.  That, in turn, means that millions of people will lose their health insurance and thousands will die.

This is what the Republicans wished for.  Santa Claus has come early for them, and I hope they are happy with the gift.

Power really does corrupt, at least in New Jersey

You’ve probably been reading about the Republican attempts to alter gubernatorial powers in Wisconsin and Michigan before the newly elected Democratic governors take office.  It is disgusting, unfair, and violates rules that we should have learned in kindergarten.

Now I read in the Times that in New Jersey Democratic legislators are trying to make the Republican Party a permanent minority by writing a Democratic gerrymander into to the state’s constitution.

There is a practical reason and an ethical reason why this is wrong.  The practical reason is that it allows Republicans in Michigan and Wisconsin (and North Carolina and Georgia) to say, “See, they do it.  Why shouldn’t we?”

The ethical reason is that it is undemocratic.  It is simply wrong.  I hate it when my side does things that I have to be ashamed of.  This is one of those things.  I hope that enough Democratic legislators in New Jersey will have the courage and the morals to say no to this power grab.

The full story can be found in Nick Corasaniti, “Democrats, Flush With Power, Try to Grab More,” New York Times, (Dec. 14, 2018), p. A1, A27.

Bad "News"

The U.S. has a network of broadcast services started during the Cold War that were supposed to broadcast “truth” to countries under Communist control.  Voice of America was one.  Radio Marti, which broadcast to Cuba, was another. 

Like the BBC during World War II, these were stations that broadcast real news that listeners could depend upon.  They were generally straight-forward, even discussing problems within the U.S.

No more.  Under Trump these broadcast services have become increasingly pure propaganda. They are moving from news organizations to propaganda outlets, sort of like Fox “News.”  It won’t take listeners long to figure out that the broadcasts can’t be trusted as news and to discount whatever comes over the airwaves.

There are times this Administration is so stupid, so wrong-headed, so goddam dumb it makes my head hurt.

Info for this post is from Elizabeth Williamson, “Troubled Vessel For U.S. Ideals Faces New Tilt, New York Times, (Dec. 13, 2018), pp. A1, A10.

Ricky Santorum says no

Ricky Santorum, former Senator from Pennsylvania and the man who told Florida students to learn CPR rather than try to change gun laws, has said he will not serve as Trump’s Chief of Staff.  

I thought Ricky was not very smart, but maybe is isn’t as dumb as I thought he was.  He mumbled something about being with his family, always a fall-back excuse.

We are not alone

At the UN Climate Talks, a resolution endorsing the recent UN report on climate change was derailed by a coalition of four countries:  Kuwait, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and the U.S.  

Your Tax Dollars Help Starve Children

That was the headline in yesterday’s Sunday Review of the Times for an article by Nicholas Kristof about the war in Yemen.  In the last three years, approximately 85,000 kids have died.  85,000.  That three-year-old war is mainly the responsibility of Saudi Arabia.  Which nation is the number one backer of Saudi Arabia?  Which nation supplies it with most of its weaponry?

I think you know.

And that is the problem with living in a “democracy.”  The government acts in our name.  If we lived in the Philippines, or in Turkey, or in Pakistan, we could sleep at night, knowing that our government did not represent us, and the evils it did were beyond our control.  Unless we wanted to make a public statement and then get arrested and jailed, and perhaps killed, government policy was unaffected by what we did.

But we live in a “democracy.”  Government acts in our name.  When kids are taken from their parents at the border, that is on us.  When Saudi Arabia fights with American weapons, that is on us.  When the U.S. pulls out of the Paris Climate agreement, the government is acting on our behalf.  

That is the trouble with living in a “democracy.”  We don’t really get to make the policy, but supposedly we do, and the government is acting in our name.  

So in the last three years 85,000 children have died in our name.  And I don’t have the slightest idea what to do about it.  Maybe go to the mall and buy something and watch Fox News and congratulate ourselves that we live in the best country on the planet.

New School Lunch Rules

More salt will be permitted.  Flavored sugared milk is ok.  Whole grain rich foods are cut back.  These are some of the new rules announced by Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue.  The changes were backed by the “School Nutrition Association,” a lobbying group that includes many of the country’s largest food companies.

Why was this done?  Because the standards that were replaced had been advocated by Michelle Obama.  If the Obama administration did something, the Trump administration will do its utmost to overturn it.  They really do hate Obama.

See Julia Jacobs, “Administration Rolling Back Rules for School Lunches,” New York Times (Dec. 9, 2018), p. 19.

Letter to our daughter in Chico

Dear Rachael,

     It must be incredibly depressing to know so many friends, co-workers, and clients who lost everything in the fire.  You obviously can’t help them all, but I know you would like to.

     I probably told you this, but just in case I didn’t…I read that a fire is in some ways worse than a death in the family.  After a death you grieve, but then you move on.  After a fire you lose your whole sense of who you are.  People always say, “Well, we’re alive.  Thank god for that.”  And that’s a good point.  You certainly would be worse off if your parents or your children had died.  Nonetheless, you have lost all those little things that made you who you are–your diaries, your poetry, your school records, your pictures, the records of your trips to Costa Rica and Spain, your address book, your stamp collection–and on and on.  These are things not only important to you, but they are also possessions you wanted to pass down to your kids.  I cannot imagine how hard it must be to lose all of that.

     I thought that the people of Chico might be getting tired of the disruption in their lives.  School closures, over-crowding, people living in tents, battles between long-term homeless and fire victims, and no end in sight.  You mentioned that people at work were behaving inappropriately.  I don’t know in what way, but I can believe that everyone is stressed out, nobody knows what the next few weeks, or months, or years will bring, and then the TV is constantly showing happy people doing holiday things.  

     I could write cliches, like take it one day at a time, or in a few months it will be better, but none of that helps.  I remember going with you and Mark and Gavin to that Christmas tree place you mentioned, and I assume it is all gone, trees, stand, house, and livelihood.  I wish there was some words I could say that would help, but I can’t think of anything.

     Love,

     Father

CCC Camp in Nesquehoning

The Pennsylvania Lumber Museum in Potter County has a fairly extensive display devoted to the New Deal Civilian Conservation Corps, one of the most successful programs launched during the Depression.  CCC members built picnic grounds, developed trails, planted trees, erected cabins, and so much more.  The sidewalks on 10th Street next to San Jose State were put there by a CCC company.

I asked one of the docents at the museum if she had any information on CCC camps in Carbon County, and she gave me the contact information for the leading CCC historian in the state.  I finally sent him an email earlier this week and received a reply yesterday.  Carbon County had two camps.  One was at Hickory Run State Park; I had known about that one. 

I did not know about a “colored” CCC camp located in Nesquehoning where the fire company building is located.  I now have the Roster of Company 3308 and a picture of the men.  It never had occurred to me that the CCC was segregated, but in retrospect, of course it would have been.  

Women who voted for Trump

When is the last time you changed someone’s mind about a political issue?  Think hard.  Perhaps your uncle at Thanksgiving?  Maybe a guy ahead of you in line at the market?  A discussion at a meeting?  I’ll bet you can’t come up with a single example.

In the December 7 issue of the Nation, Katha Pollitt addressed the idea of showing women who voted for Trump the error of their ways.  She writes:  “You may think their beliefs are bigoted and ill-informed and illogical–which they are.  You may marvel that women who think the polite and scandal-free Barack Obama is the Antichrist can believe that foul-mouthed, abusive Donald Trump is God’s instrument, like King David.  What you are not going to do is make them see it differently by reminding them that at least 15 women have accused Trump of a range of sexual offenses.”

Pollitt says, and I agree with her, that you will not change their minds, will not make them see the light, will not convert them into feminist liberals.  

She does point out that nearly 40% of eligible voters–many of them young, many of them rural, many of them blacks and Latinos–did not vote in 2016.  Those are the people we ought to be targeting. 

Bush, Flynn, and the EPA

If you are a blogger, the rule is never post about more than one item.  I generally follow that rule, but I have three topics today, so bear with me.

Bush:  Almost no one who lives a long life is all good or all bad.  I have done embarrassing, cruel, and illegal things in my life.  (I am not about to spell them out.)  I just hope I have offset them.  We do have a tendency when a person dies to ignore the bad things and speak only of the good. That seems to have been the case with George Bush today.  

On the other hand, there are people on the left end of the political spectrum who refuse to recognize good things Bush has done.  When Iraq invaded Kuwait, that was the first time since World War II that a country invaded and seized another independent state.  Bush put together the coalition to roll that back and then had the good sense not to invade Iraq.  

It is interesting to think about Trump.  If he died today, I cannot think of a single good thing to say about him.

Flynn:  He said if he had done one/tenth of what Hillary Clinton did, he would be in jail.  He led chants at Trump rallies: “LOCK HER UP.”  Since Hillary Clinton was not found guilty of any crimes and Flynn was, I feel like doing a one-person protest, standing in downtown Jim Thorpe with a sign “LOCK HIM UP.”  

On the other hand, he seems to have provided major information on the illegalities of the Trump administration and that, in turn, encouraged others to testify.  I understand the need for “flipping” witnesses.  I just hope this bastard has learned some humility.

EPA:  But here is the big news for today, in case you missed it.  It is far more important for the globe than either Bush or Flynn.  The EPA is rolling back climate change regulations on coal-fired plants, making it easier to build new power plants..  This not only affects the U.S., but it will encourage other countries to proceed with coal burning plants.  

You probably did miss it.  It was on page B-3 of the New York Times.

Puritan tiger beetles

The Puritan tiger beetle now only exists in small numbers in three spots–two in Connecticut along the Connecticut River and one in the Chesapeake Bay area.  The beetle is New England’s most endangered species.  The beetles are part of a healthy river; if the beetles disappear, the river is not healthy.  

A group of entomologists have been growing beetle larva in a lab.  They placed 436 of the immature beetles in trenches along the Connecticut River in October.  If everything goes right, they will emerge as adults sometime next summer.  

They aren’t as cute as pandas or as visible as polar bears, but they are part of the web of life on our planet.  I am glad that someone cares about them.

For more info, see “A Colony of Puritans” by Karen Weintraub, New York Times, (Dec., 4, 2018), pp. D1, D3.

Women, Saving the Country

This is the change in women’s vote, by party, from 2016 (the Trump election) to the 2018 congressional elections.  The figures are the shift toward Democrats.

All women:   +6%

White unmarried women:   +10%

White women with a college degree:   +13%

White working class women:   +13%

It isn’t all good news.  While white working-class women shifted toward Dems by 13%, they still gave a majority of their votes to Republicans.  On the other hand, Democrats cut the Republicans’ margin in rural areas by 13%, according to an exit poll for CNN and by 7% according to a poll by Catalist.  Yes, Democrats lost rural America, and that hurt them in the Senate, but Democrats did make progress in rural areas.

Info for this post is from Stanley B. Greenberg, “Trump Is Losing His Grip,”  New York Times, (Nov. 18, 2018), p. SR6.

Solving the Christmas decoration problem

People often asked, with kind of an accusatory voice, “So, you don’t decorate for Christmas?  It was especially bad because our two closest neighbors go all out with blow-up holiday figures covering their yards and lights around their houses.

We now put a lighted menorah in the window.  Nobody asks anymore about Christmas decorations.  Problem solved.

Letter to Sen.Scott

I don’t usually praise Republican Senators, but I sent the following letter to Tim Scott:

Dear Sen. Scott:

Thank you for opposing the nomination of Thomas Farr to a federal court position.  I know this could not have been an easy vote for you, but it was the right vote.  I wish more Republican Senators had your courage.

The Dunning-Kruger effect

According to Wikipedia, the Dunning-Kruger effect was first described by the social psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger in 1999 in a study entitled “Unskilled and Unaware of It:  How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments.”

Dunning and Kruger posit that people who are incompetent at a task are prone to see themselves as quite competent.  In other words, they are too stupid to recognize that they are stupid.  They are actually convinced they are doing great.  

Until today I never knew that an actual label existed for that behavior.  That explains so much.

The Fifth Risk

Michael Lewis has written a book about the Trump administration that hardly mentions Trump.  Lewis, as you may know, wrote Moneyball and The Big Short.  Both would seem to be about rather boring subjects (the inner workings of the Oakland A’s front office and the causes of the last recession), and both were made into exciting movies.  

In The Fifth Risk Lewis discusses how the Trump administration is dismantling the federal government while Trump himself continues to dominate the conversation by being outrageous.  He goes out of his way to insult people, and the press focuses on that behavior, missing major developments in the actual administration of the government.

One example:  Trump still has not nominated anyone for the position of undersecretary for food, nutrition, and consumer services in the Department of Agriculture.  This is a position that runs the food stamp program depended upon by millions of Americans.  This undersecretary supervises nutrition assistance programs, including school meals and the SNAP program. 

On the other hand, the USDA has seen patronage appointments of “a long-haul truck driver, a clerk at AT&T, a gas company meter-reader, a country-club cabana attendant, a Republican National Committee intern, and the owner of a scented-candle company.”

This is an Administration of neglect, of appointing the worst people to the top positions, many of whom opposed the policies of the very departments to which they were appointed.

In the meantime, we focus on Stormy Daniels and Trump’s latest tweet on the Saudis.  

I think we owe Michael Lewis our gratitude for calling attention to this.  I also think MSNBC and CNN could send a few reporters out to cover this on-going attempt to wreck programs that benefit Americans. 

More good election news

First of all, if you thought Mississippi would elect a black man over a racist white candidate, you obviously don’t know much about Mississippi.  But now the good news.

In Colorado voters passed Measure Y by 71% to 29%.  It sets up a commission of four Dems, four Reeps, and four members who are neither to draw U.S. House district boundaries.  

In Michigan voters passed Measure 18-2 with 61% of the vote.  It creates a commission of four Democrats, four Reeps, and five members who are neither.  It will draw districts for by the House and the state legislature.

In Missouri voters passed Amendment One, providing for a demographer to draw state legislative districts in a manner fair to both major parties.  

We are going to make elections fair one state at a time.  Every state that moves to fair districting helps to level the playing field.

The information for this post was from the December 1 issue of Ballot Access News.  

Weissport, Pennsylvania, turns blue

Tonight I attended a meeting of the Carbon County Democrats for Progress, a local group of activists.  The speaker was Billy O’Gurek, Chair of the County Democratic Party.  Mr. O’Gurek analyzed the results of the recent election in Pennsylvania and in the County.  The Democrats did very well statewide, winning elections for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and U.S. Senator, and picking up seats in both state houses.  Unfortunately, in Carbon County we were slammed.  

Carbon County is rural and somewhat depressed, with high opioid use and few job prospects.  In other words, Trump country.  However, O’Gurek noted that one municipality in the County voted Democratic in the Governor’s race, the U.S. Senate race, and the U.S. House race.  It was the tiny borough of Weissport, famous for the annual Redneck Festival.  

I am not kidding.  Every September the borough holds a “Redneck Festival.”  Nonetheless, out of the municipalities in the County, Weissport was the only one to go Democratic in all of those races.  Now we have to figure out why and duplicate that.

The wonderful thing about science

The Trump administration tried to bury the climate report by releasing it on a holiday weekend, but that doesn’t seem to have worked.  The report, over a thousand pages long, details the economic costs of climate change, and it is getting lots of attention.

When Trump was asked about it, he said he didn’t believe it.

I have a tee shirt with a quote from Neil deGrasse Tyson:  “Science is true whether you believe it or not.”

If you see something, say something

We ate lunch in a Denny’s on Thanksgiving Day.  I think it was in Indiana, but Indiana and Illinois kind of run together, so I’m not sure.  Anyway, there on the huge tv screen was Fox “News.”  I didn’t walk out, but I told the woman who was taking the payments that I thought a restaurant like Denny’s could run a non-political channel that would not insult its customers.

I am very polite when I do this, recognizing that often the employees are powerless to change the policy.  That seemed to be the case in this particular Denny’s; the woman told me they didn’t like it either, but it was what “Corporate” wanted.  She said when the “big boss” wasn’t there, they often changed it.  

Now I will have to write to Denny’s Corporation and tell them of my displeasure.  Just think if hundreds, or thousands, or hundreds of thousands of customers did that.  How long do you think Fox “News” would play?

Incidentally, I don’t ask that they play MSNBC or CNN.  The Weather Channel is not offensive, and it is actually helpful to travelers.  ESPN will do.  The old movie channel will do.  Telemundo will do.  Anything but Fox.

Weather and climate

We were in St. Louis on Thanksgiving Day.  The temp there was in the Fifties, but according to the
Weather Channel, in eastern Pennsylvania it was in the low teens.

I thought to myself, some idiot will no doubt try to use the low temperature to deny global climate change.

Sure enough, some idiot actually did tweet that.  Amazing, but predictable.  And sad.

Missing Jimmy Carter

Remember when Jimmy Carter stressed human rights.  OK, some of you weren't born yet when Mr. Carter was President, so let me explain.  The U.S. under his administration supported human rights around the world.  The idea may have been naive, but for four years this nation tried to do the right thing.

Now we are willing to sell out the whole idea of a moral foreign policy for what I believe is monetary gain for the President and his family.  Just when you think things couldn't get worse, they get worse.  There is no bottom.

I should explain that we are now in Ohio on our way to St. Louis to visit relatives.  If the posts are irregular over the next few days, you will know I was out of WiFi range.

Straight ticket voting

In Pennsylvania voters are allowed to vote a “straight ticket.”  For example, a Democrat can go in and vote “Democratic,” thereby voting for every Democratic candidate on the ballot.

It makes voting fast and easy.  Some reformers believe that if voters were forced to vote for each individual office, the voters would cast more thoughtful ballots.  Other observers feel that getting rid of straight ticket voting is actually a way to disenfranchise voters, many of whom would fail to vote in down ballot races.  

In Carbon County far more Republicans voted straight ticket than Democratic voters.  This is in keeping with the idea that Republican voters are more ideological and more likely to reject the idea that opponents would have any candidate worth voting for.

I personally like straight ticket voting.  I liked it even better when we used the machines with levers.  You’d go in, pull the curtain, pull the big lever for the big D, and all the little levers would clang into place.  It gave me a warm feeling.

Nancy Pelosi

It was her idea to push health care in the midterms and not talk about impeachment or even discuss Trump.

It was her wisdom to support Democratic candidates running in red districts who said if elected they would not vote for her.

It was her fundraising ability that allowed many Democratic candidates to outspend their Republican opponents.

It was her leadership skills that brought a majority to vote for the Affordable Care Act.

Now some Democrats, in the usual behavior of Democrats, want to divide the House and run a candidate for Speaker against Ms. Pelosi.  When the nation is watching to see what all of these new Democrats will do, a group of them want to behave like Democrats usually behave–form a circular firing squad.  

While I am on gun metaphors, I would take a bullet for Nancy Pelosi.  

Note:  Some of you may be wondering if I really sent that letter to President Trump that I posted yesterday.  I did.

a proposal for Trump

In the last 48 hours our president has said he wants to have a “great climate,” he noted that Finland didn’t have fires like California because the Finns take better care of their forests, and he discussed the need to clean up the forest floor.

Here is my idea.  All those troops deployed along the Mexican border could be redeployed to Truckee and equipped with rakes and large leaf bags.  They could rake toward Auburn, picking up pinecones and dead branches along with the leaves.  When they get to Auburn, they could turn north and rake to Grass Valley and Nevada City.  This would be a major step forward.

I will send this idea to President Trump tomorrow. 

Can't he do anything right?

Presidents have different levels of competence, but some duties seem to come naturally.  They comfort survivors when disaster strikes.  They honor the troops.  They award Medals of Freedom.  

Not this one.  When the fire struck California, he said California wasn’t taking care of its forests.

His behavior in France celebrating the end of World War I was a disgrace.

And he awarded a Medal of Freedom to a campaign donor.  A campaign donor!

In the meantime the Taliban is winning in Afghanistan, but we send troops to the Texas border.  

If you are losing the game, change the rules

In Pennsylvania Democrats won 54% of the state-wide vote for the state House of Representatives, but received only 45%, or 92 seats, out of 203 House seats.  That’s because of gerrymandering

In Michigan, Democrats won a clear majority of the statewide vote but received 52 of the 110 seats.  That’s because of gerrymandering.

In North Carolina Democrats won the popular vote by 79,000 votes but won only 54 of the 120 seats.  That’s because of gerrymandering.

In Maine the Republican candidate lost under the new system of preferential voting adopted by the voters.  He is suing to overturn the law, although he had no problem with it before he lost.

In North Carolina, when a Democratic governor was elected, the state legislature passed laws to reduce his power.

In Georgia the current Republican candidate for Governor made it more difficult for minority voters to cast ballots.

In North Dakota the Republican state legislature, to hurt Heide Heitkamp, passed a bill to disenfranchise American Indians who did not have a house number address.

I saw a sign held up by an opposing fan at one of the New England Patriots games.  The sign said, “The Patriots Cheat.”  Perhaps we should stand outside the polling places at the next election with a similar sign:  “Republicans cheat.”

PennEast/UGI pipeline people lie

Today we attended a Carbon County Commissioners meeting to urge the Commissioners to use their influence to pressure PennEast to negotiate in good faith with the landowners who are impacted by the proposed pipeline.  In all of their propaganda, PennEast/UGI says it wants to work closely with landowners.

They lie.  

They change the route without telling anyone.  They don’t publish up-to-date maps.  They have no one able to discuss changes in a meaningful way.  

A couple whose geothermal system will be wrecked attended the meeting.  If the pipeline were moved a few feet they would at least be able to keep the system.  It isn’t happening.  Albertine Anthony, 93, was also at the meeting.  The owner of a preserved farm, she is worried that the pipeline will disrupt her spring and water supply.  PennEast/UGI told her they would move it if she paid for the move, about $70,000.

I made a poster for the meeting.  It said:  “The three biggest lies:  1.  The check is in the mail.  2.  I gave at the office.  3.  PennEast wants to work with landowners.”

The Commissioners were amazed at how badly the property owners were treated, and they promised to contact PennEast and get some answers.  

Socialism for the rich, free enterprise for the poor

Hundreds of cities competed to get Amazon’s second (and now third) expansion site.  Millions of dollars were promised in tax breaks, kickbacks, and (let’s be honest here) bribes.  This was a scam.  So one of the largest corporations in America run by perhaps the richest man in the world gets subsidies from the taxpayers.  

There are some costs, of course.  Amazon has caused the death of hundreds of brick and mortar stores.  It dictates conditions to its subsidiary businesses.  It treats its employees badly.  It is a bully, and it grows larger and more powerful each year.

I have “Never shopped at Walmart” engraved on my tombstone.  I’d like to add “Never bought a damn thing from Amazon either,” but it costs so much to incise that in granite.

Diversity and unity

David Brooks recently wrote that the U.S. is undergoing major demographic changes, and we need to think of what binds us together as a nation.  Here’s what he said:

Here’s the central challenge of our age  Over the next few decades, America will become a majority-minority country.  It is hard to think of other major nations, down through history, that have managed such a transition and still held together.  

It seems that the Democratic Party is going to lead us through this transition.  The Republicans have decided to pretend it’s not happening.  Trump had a chance to build a pan-ethnic nationalist coalition but went with white identity politics instead.  Republicans have rendered themselves irrelevant to the great generational challenge before us.  

Brooks went on to say that if the Democrats are going to lead this transition, they need to do more than celebrate diversity.  They also need something that draws us together, that creates unity.  Right now we are an uneasy coalition of all kinds of groups, but we could splinter if we allow ourselves to be defined by our tribal identities.  We need something more, something to draw us together as one nation.  Self-interest or group identity won’t be enough.  

Perhaps economic well-being together with a livable environment for all of us might be that unifying force.  That’s the best I could come up with.

Commitment to vote

In Wisconsin an 83-year-old man on his way to vote hit a deer and totaled his car.  He then walked a mile to his polling place to cast his vote.

I hope he voted against Scott Walker, or he must have been very disappointed.

Chico, California

Our daughter Rachael, her husband Mark, and grandson Gavin packed up their dearest possessions (photos, letters, poems, guinea pig) into their car and truck.  Evacuation wasn’t mandatory, but Rachael thought the fire might spread to Chico, much like it had burned portions of Santa Rosa last year and Malibu this year.

Yesterday they couldn’t see the sun.  Rachael works for a social service agency, and a number of her clients and co-workers lost everything to the “Camp Fire,” as it has been named.  One of her co-workers who lived in Paradise came to work on the first day of the fire.  Rachael told her she should go home, but by the time she got back, the road was blocked and she lost her house, including her dog.  

You know those pictures of burned cars along the roadway?  I couldn’t figure out why so many cars were parked along the road, burt Rachael explained that people who were evacuating often had their way out blocked by fallen trees or electric poles and had to walk out.  

Honey Run Bridge, California’s oldest covered bridge which Linda and I visited a number of times, has burned, gone.

Rachael said the smoke was especially bad.  It is not only from the trees and leaves, but from the plastics and chemicals in the houses, the rubber from the car tires, the gas from the tanks.

Rachael got a call from an evacuation center that had people who were severely handicapped, including some  people who were unable to speak or were on respirators.  They needed wrist bands so the nurses would know how to treat them.  Rachael and Gavin went to Collier’s Hardware and got painters’ tape to use as wrist bands, and that worked.

Chico is full of refugees from Paradise and other small towns to the east of Chico, and the fire is now headed toward Oroville.  California’s fire fighting resources are stretched thin because of the fire that is also raging by Malibu.

Our president says this is because California doesn’t properly take care of its forests.  In the two years of his presidency this is one of the dumbest, most insulting, most insensitive things he has said.  

Stupid farmers

The 9th Congressional District had a farmer running for Congress.  Denny Wolff was a dairy farmer.  He knew statewide ag issues.  He had been Secretary of Agriculture in Pennsylvania.  He was an expert on selling Pennsylvania agricultural products abroad.  He had an A rating from the NRA (which I didn’t particularly like), he was kind of soft on pipelines (which I also didn’t like), and he was even kind of moderate on abortion issues (which I hated).  Nonetheless, when compared to his Republican opponent, a carpet bagger and one percenter who never did honest work in his life, Denny Wolff was the obvious choice for farmers.

But he was a Democrat.  So farmers in the 9th District, and I know some of them, went in and pulled the lever for the Republican.  They couldn’t get past their party affiliation.  They couldn’t even vote their self-interest or that of fellow farmers.

Am I bitter?  Of course I’m bitter.  Why wouldn’t I be?

And if they don’t like being called stupid, my advice is to quit being politically correct.  Stupid is the right word.

Turning 76, and more

Late yesterday afternoon I participated in a rally in Jim Thorpe in front of the Courthouse annex on behalf of Bob Mueller.  About 25 people showed up, Channel 13 covered the rally, and we were one of hundreds of rallies across the country.  My sign said, “No one is above the law–Magna Carta, 1215.”

Second, I am amazed that the acting Attorney General thinks that Marbury v. Madison (1803) was a bad decision.  For those of you who have forgotten your political science, that was the first case in which the Supreme Court decided that it had the power to declare a law unconstitutional.  Some branch had to do that, of course, if the Constitution was to be a meaningful document.  Now we have an acting A.G. who doesn’t get that fundamental fact.  

Finally, I have a birthday later this month.  I’ll be 76.  However, my friend Tom sent me an article about a Dutch guy who has brought a lawsuit to lower his age by 20 years from 69 to 49.  He says that if people can change their gender, he can change his age.  Evidently he is not getting many dating prospects at 69, but he thinks he will do better at 49.  Great idea!  I’ll be 56.  Please don’t send cards.

Making America Great

There are times this country makes my heart swell.  Two Muslim women elected to the House.  Two Native American women, one a lesbian, elected to the House.  First Korean-American woman elected to the House.  Over 100 women elected to the House!   First openly gay man elected as Governor.

Anti-union vote suppressor Scott Walker defeated.  Democratic governor elected in Kansas.  In Kansas!  Scott Wagner, the golf spike guy, defeated in Pennsylvania. Jon Tester wins in Montana.  

And tonight, on less than 24 hours notice, approximately 25 people showed up in Jim Thorpe to support the Bob Mueller investigation in a public rally at the Carbon County Court House.  

The political climate is changing.  The President is unhinged.  We are emerging from our national nightmare.