Corporate America steps up

The Obama administration decided that paint strippers that contained the chemicals methylene chloride and NMP (N-Methylpyrrolidone) were too dangerous to use and moved to ban them.  The substances have been connected to dozens of accidental deaths.  If you have ever used Klean Strip, Goof Off, or Jasco, you’ve used them and know just how potent they can be.

Even though the ban has not yet gone into effect, Lowe’s says it will phase out the products that contain the chemicals.  This is during the same week that Starbucks committed to educating its employees about racial sensitivity.  

Last year Target announced that by 2020 it will no longer sell household cleaning and beauty products that contain a number of chemicals considered dangerous, even though there are no regulations preventing their sale.  

Maybe Monsanto will phase out Roundup.  

The Cabinet Secretaries

Recently a group of Carbon County activists were discussing who is the worst cabinet secretary.  Zinke was mentioned; his stand on Bear’s Ears and other Interior Department responsibilities has been abysmal.  Pruitt was mentioned for a host of reasons.  Betsy DeVos was mentioned for her support for predatory colleges that fleece lower and working class students, driving up debt with no jobs in sight.  Tillerson was mentioned; critiquing Trump, but only after serving for over a year and never resigning in protest.   There’s Mnuchin in Treasury.  Purdue in Agriculture.  Or the torturer now running the CIA.

What a gang of thieves and cutthroats.  In the meantime, loyal Trump supporters think he is “draining the swamp.” 

The Bee-Slayer Joins the Butterfly Killer

As the Friends of the Earth put it today,  “The Justice Department just announced that it has approved the merger of Bayer the Bee Slayer and Monsanto the Butterfly Killer.”

A week ago we learned that beekeepers lost almost 50% of their hives this year.   Bayer makes neonicotinoid pesticides, a major factor in bee declines.

Monsanto makes Roundup and sells it to agribusiness for use on crops genetically altered to be immune to the herbicide.

This is a marriage made in hell.

Remembering the dead

A former State Department official, J. Kael Weston, reminded us yesterday in a newspaper article that more than Americans have been killed in the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.  In the last 17 years hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans have also died.  While some were killed by American soldiers and American bombs, far more were killed by ISIS, the Taliban, or Al Qaeda.  

Many of those were people working with Americans to rebuild schools, homes, even mosques.  Others were soldiers trained by Americans, or translators, or teachers who taught girls, or police officers doing their duty.  Americans, even those serving more than one tour, know they will eventually be coming home.  The Iraqis and the Afghans who support democracy, or free speech, or educational progress, will continue living among people who, given the chance, will murder them.

Let’s not forget them either.

Ireland's abortion ban overturned

The voters of Ireland overturned a restrictive abortion ban by a landslide.  It is good to know that in an era of anti-feminist strong men, religious intolerance, and male dominated policy-making on reproductive rights, Irish voters were not intimidated.  

The church and the state have no place in Irish bedrooms or reproductive decisions.  Perhaps this is a beginning of a wave of good sense that will sweep across the world.  One can hope.

Along the Rio Grande

If you want to worry about something in the Rio Grande Valley, worry about the Rio Grande itself.  The pejorative slang term “mojado” will soon no longer apply; the Rio Grande is drying up.  The farms along both sides of the river that depend on its waters for irrigation are also drying up.  Right now the Pohopoco has more water in it than the Rio Grande.

Our environmental problems are also our political problems.  Syria suffered a terrible drought before the rebellion against Assad.  Rwanda was running out of land to farm before the genocide.  Coastal areas in Florida are inundated more and more every year.  Hurricanes grow in intensity.  We experience the spotted lantern fly, wasting disease in deer, zebra mussels, groundwater pollution from fracking, white nose syndrome in bats, colony collapse in honeybees, the emerald ash borer–I could fill the page.

Does Congress feel a sense of urgency?  Is the EPA aware?  Are the American people worried?

No, No, and No.

Mass shootings

A few days ago the New York Times ran a list of mass shootings month by month since the Sandy Hook elementary school murders in December 2102.  A mass shooting was defined as involving four or more people injured or killed at a single event at the same time and location.  

The lowest number in any month was in January 2016, when there were only 11 mass shootings.  In 2018 in the five months so far we have had 23, 14, 17, 25, and 22 mass shootings.  Of course, we still have a few days to go in this month, so I’m sure we will do better than 22.

Meanwhile the N.R.A. picks Oliver North as its chair, and it continues to buy off members of Congress and state legislatures.  And Congress sits on its hands.  It hasn't even taken a vote to ban “bump stocks.”

The Trump/Kim coin

The coin commemorating the Trump/Kim Summit is evidently still on sale, even though the summit seems to be a non-event.  I’m not a coin collector, but I have got to get one of those.  I think at some point it will be comparable to the inverted Jenny stamp, the 1943 zinc penny, and the 1948 “Dewey Wins” headline.

Linda is on-line now trying to buy one, but there was a website crash four hours ago.  Evidently quite a few people have the same idea.

Gag rule on abortion

President Trump has proposed a new rule, posted at the Department of Health and Human Services website, that wold bar clinics or programs that receive federal family planning funds from referring women to places that provide abortions.

Doctors would be forbidden from even discussing abortions with their patients.  

Margaret Atwood wrote a book about this type of society entitled “The Handmaid’s Tale.”  In the book women are used solely as “breeders.”  

Trump praised the new gag rule in a speech to an anti-abortion group.  He used the event to campaign, saying, “This November, vote for family, vote for love, vote for faith and values, vote for country and vote for life.”

For more on this, see Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Michael D. Shear, “Trump Abortion Rule Would Limit Where Doctors Could Direct Women,” New York Times, (May 23, 2018), p. A16.

Professors in Sweden

My friend and former colleague from the American Studies Department at San Jose State paid us a visit today.  She recently returned from a trip to Sweden; she speaks Swedish and knows the country well.  She said that when the government encounters a problem, it is the usual practice to call upon university professors to conduct research and propose solutions.

What a concept.  Using academic experts to help solve problems.  

Doyle Heffley to the rescue?

Just before election day a number of area voters received a letter highlighting their voting history along with that of some of their neighbors.  

This created an uproar among some people, worried that their privacy had been invaded.  My own state representative, Doyle Heffley, seeing a way to get some favorable publicity, asked the state attorney general to investigate if any laws were broken.

Presumably a state representative should know the answer, but evidently he needs to be told.  The answer is:  No, Mr. Heffley, no laws were broken.

As for the rest of you who were so upset, don’t you people have recycle bins?  How hard is it to walk from the mailbox to the trashcan? 

trumpstore.com

That’s a Trump-owned website, probably selling MAGA hats and maybe Trump toilet paper.  The website collects sales taxes for three states.

Trump, in the meantime, has been criticizing Amazon for not paying sales tax.  Amazon collects sales tax for 45 states.  

Some of this stuff is just difficult to believe.

I found the sales tax information in Sendhil Mullainathan, “If the President Takes On Amazon, Nobody Wins,” New York Times, (May 20, 2018), p. 4BU.

Coincidence or Racism? You make the call

The Michigan state senate has passed proposed legislation that would require to work in exchange for Medicaid, housing aid, and food assistance.  

If you live in a county where the unemployment exceeds 8.5%, you are exempt from the requirement.  This means that poor rural counties would be exempt, but the cities of Detroit and Flint, located in counties with a low suburban unemployment, would be included.

Similar conditions are found in other states that are considering work requirements, including Kentucky, Virginia, and Ohio.  In all of these states, the counties that would qualify for the exemptions are overwhelmingly white.

See Emily Badger and Margot Sanger-Katz, “Which Poor People Shouldn’t Have to Work for Aid? New York Times, (May 19, 2018), p. B3.

Weissport Renaissance

Weissport is a small borough across the Lehigh River from Lehighton. 

Urban planners and students of urban government know that one house on a block can change the composition of that block over time.  A house with a littered yard or broken windows or drug dealing will bring that entire block down.  People will move out, houses will be abandoned, decay will set in.

By the same token, one house or one business can also lift an entire neighborhood.  People respond to improvements with their own improvements.

That is what is happening in Weissport.  The park has been improved.  A hotel known as a disreputable hangout has shut down.  Mario’s Pizza opened up.  Central Lunch is still going strong.  Then, two years ago, Chantilly, an ice cream and candy store, opened its doors.  The Antique Mall anchors the other end of the block.  Other businesses are moving in.  Earlier this month an excellent art gallery had its grand opening.  That’s right, an art gallery in Weissport.

At one time Weissport had a bank, a furniture store, a railroad stop, a canal boat repair business, and quite a few other businesses.  All of that collapsed and the town went into decline.  It is now coming back.  Although the annual “Redneck Festival” still gives it a bad name (confederate flags, assault rifle giveaways), I believe the town can get past that.

Tomorrow, Saturday, we are having a Miller-Keystone blood drive at Jacobs UCC across from the Weissport park.  The Lehighton Area Democratic Club is the sponsor.  Stop by, give blood, and take a stroll around the park.  Bring an umbrella.

Eight women

Today the Morning Call ran a front page article about the success of women in Pennsylvania congressional elections.  Eight were nominated in yesterday’s primary; seven Democrats and one Republican.

Before you break out the champagne, think about this.  Pennsylvania has 18 congressional districts.  Assume one Democrat and one Republican run in each.  That’s a total of 36.  Eight of those candidates are women.  That is fewer than one-fourth.

On the other hand, I live in Carbon County where no woman in history has been elected County Commissioner, so maybe eight is a pretty big deal.

Denny Wolff it is

We had three Democratic congressional candidates in the 9th district yesterday.  Denny Wolff, an excellent choice, won.  His opponent, Gary Wegman and Laura Quick, were both well-qualified, intelligent, and reasonable people.

As is usual in Democratic primaries, we had a surfeit of good candidates, making the choice difficult.

The Republicans also had three candidates, vying to see which one could suck up to Trump the most.  As usual with Republican primaries, every candidate was terrible, making the choice difficult.

The New York Times lists the Pennsylvania 9th as “safe Republican.”  I don’t think so.

By the way, I was elected Democratic Party Committeeman from Towamensing North.  The voters have spoken.

The embassy in Jerusalem

Machiavelli said it was better for a ruler to take someone’s son than to take someone’s land.  You can get over deaths.  You can forgive your enemy.  The pain goes away over time.

On the other hand, if you take land from someone, that land is always there.  It remains visible, a constant reminder and irritant.

The Palestinians have long ago come to terms with the people who died in the 1948 war.  What they have not come to terms with, and they won’t come to terms with, is seeing Israeli settlers taking their former land and refusing to recognize their legitimate grievances.  

Trump, of course, could have continued the U.S.role as “honest broker.”  He has decided otherwise.  The American delegation celebrating the new embassy included an American preacher who has denigrated Jews, Mormons, and Muslims, and a megachurch evangelist who has claimed Hitler was descended from “half-breed Jews.”  The Israeli government went along with this travesty because Netanyahu gains politically.

While Americans and Israelis celebrated the new embassy, over 50 Palestinians were killed at the fence.  Thousands have been wounded.  Inhabitants in Gaza are kept in continual poverty.  They have no hope of establishing a two-state solution.  Many feel they may as well die.

Like many Americans, I was once a proud supporter of Israel.  I thought it was an island of democracy and liberalism in a sea of dictatorships.  Now I think of it as just one more middle east country full of religious fanatics, willing to commit atrocities in the name of a tribal culture.

Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, Music by Leonard Bernstein, Failure by Donald Trump

In the movie musical “West Side Story” the song “America” is sung by Rita Moreno. Part of the song is a kind of call and response.  For example, “I’ll drive a Buick through San Juan.”  (“If there’s a road you can drive on.”)  

I was struck by the 4th verse:  “I’ll bring a T.V. to San Juan.”  (“If there’s a current to turn on.”)  In the 1957 stage version and the 1962 movie it was kind of cute.  Now it is just pathetic.  Thousands of people in Puerto Rico are still either without power or only have it available intermittently.  

How can we be so bad at basic infrastructure?  Make America Great Again?  When?

Junior officers at fault in Niger

Remember that action in the African nation of Niger that resulted in the deaths of four American soldiers last fall?  Of course you do.  It was in a country you aren’t exactly sure how to pronounce and you couldn't identify on a blank map of African countries.

The Defense Department completed a study earlier this month on how this happened.  It focused in particular on the mistakes of junior officers.  

Did junior officers send troops to Niger?  Did they make the decision to involve U.S. forces in that country?  If that’s the case, just what kind of outfit are we running here?

Info for this post, though not the snarky tone, was taken from an article by Helene Cooper, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, and Eric Schmitt, “In Niger Study, Junior Officers Are the Focus,” New York Times, (May 11, 2018), pp. A1, A12.

I voted for John McCain

It was in the 2000 California primary.  Al Gore had the Democratic nomination sewed up.  California had a closed primary, which meant you had to be a party member to vote in that party’s primary.  Since the big race was on the Republican side with George Bush vs. John McCain, I switched parties to vote for McCain.  A day after the election I switched back (to Green, incidentally, although I did campaign for Gore in the fall.)

There were many things McCain did that I didn’t like, and quite a few that I admired.  Yesterday a senior administration official said of McCain’s opposition to the CIA nominee, “It doesn’t matter, he’s dying anyway.”  Once again we are exposed to the tawdry behavior of the Bone Spur Trump administration.  

Toomey's inadequate reply

About two weeks ago I wrote to Senator Pat Toomey asking him to intervene to halt the practice of separating young children from their parents who were seeking asylum.  These separations were sometimes for months.  This is an incredibly cruel policy unworthy of this nation and its ideals.

Today I received a reply.  The reply was over a page long, and made me think that if you can’t convince them with truth, overwhelm them with bullshit.  Almost the entire letter was about DACA issues, although it included self-praise for Toomey’s efforts to reform immigration and a gratuitous attack on sanctuary cities.  There was nothing about children being separated from their parents.

I was a Field Representative for State Senator Jerry Smith in California.  I know how it works.  We had a template to help us answer different constituent letters.  For example, we had a tax letter template or an abortion letter template.  What we did not do was simply reprint the same letter.  Each letter was individualized to address the constituent’s specific concerns.

Before you say but wasn’t a state senator’s district much smaller than Pennsylvania, I’ll point out that first, a California State Senate district is larger than a U.S. Congressional district, and second, a U.S. Senator has a huge staff compared to state senators and representatives.

What this tells me is that Senator Toomey and his staff do not give a moment’s thought to people Toomey disagrees with.  Well, maybe he does if they give him large campaign contributions.

Spring Fling

The Carbon County Democrats held their annual fundraiser tonight in Penn Forest Township.  All three congressional candidates for the 9th District attended and spoke to us.

Denny Wolff was Secretary of Agriculture in Ed Rendell’s cabinet.  He currently owns a dairy farm in Columbia County.

Laura Quick is a U.P.S. package delivery person, a Teamsters Union member, and a former French teacher.

Gary Wegman is a vintner in Berks County who also is a dentist and has extensive experience on governmental commissions.

All three candidates are intelligent, rational, reasonable people.  Each of them stands in marked contrast to the Republican candidates running in this district.  

The Republicans are trying to whip up hysteria about immigrants and attempting to cling to Trump’s coattails in the hope that he remains popular in this district.  They are still talking about draining the swamp.  I will agree that the current Washington scene is full of corruption, scandal, and misuse of funds, but ourg Republican candidates will just add to the mess.

Eating dog meat

Today’s New York Times has a full page ad by a group that is trying to ban the eating of dog meat.   I know there are many more important issues–Pruitt, Iran, North Korea, the torturer who may head the CIA–but this one made me angry.

I have read that about one in six children on this globe goes to bed hungry.  If their hunger can be alleviated by eating dog meat, that is fine with me.

I do not expect Muslims and Jews to tell me I can’t eat pork.  I do not expect Hindus to tell me I can’t eat beef.  I do not expect Jains to tell me I can’t eat fired grasshoppers.  I do not expect vegans to tell me I can’t eat eggs.  And I am certainly not about to tell people they can’t eat dogs.

Answer these questions:

Are dogs endangered?

Are dogs an integral part of the ecosystem?

Are dogs more intelligent than monkeys or apes or pigs?

The answers to those questions are No, and No, and No.  

Final question:  Do they taste good?  I don’t know; I’ve never eaten one, but I certainly am willing to try.

Calling Pro-Life advocates

About two weeks ago I asked readers to write to their members of Congress to protest the separation of children from their parents when people came to our borders asking for asylum.  At that time it wasn’t clear whether this was by design or simply bad policy implementation.

It’s by design.  

Attorney General Sessions announced yesterday a “zero-tolerance” procedure for undocumented immigrants, including separating children from their parents for months or longer.  

I would hope that people who worry about the unborn also have concern about little kids ripped from their parents and kept apart from them–kids who have no idea where they are or if and when they will see their parents again.  

Time to step up to the plate, folks.  Time to demand that such inhumane policies end.  

Christ said, “suffer the little children to come unto me (Matthew 19: 14).  He never said, “Make the little children suffer.”

Donald Trump, Christ figure

Some strange stuff is happening in American politics, but this is truly amazing.  Today the Times News ran a column by Michael Reagan entitled “Who to crucify? Trump or Barabbas?”

For those of you who don’t know the Christian New Testament, the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate gave the mob a choice on which prisoner to crucify, Jesus or a murderer named Barabbas?  The crowd is reported to have demanded that Jesus be crucified and Barabbas go free.

Now, according to Michael Reagan, the crowd would yell for Barabbas to go free and Trump be crucified.  

Do I need to spell this out?  Michael Reagan is saying that Trump is the equivalent of Jesus Christ.  I may be an atheist, but I think that is way over the top.  I think Christians might even consider it blasphemy.

Happy Birthday, Karl Marx

When Linda and I visited Germany, I insisted we stop at Karl Marx’s birthplace in Trier.  Trier hadn’t done much to recognize their native son; a small plaque noted the location.  The only other people there were a few Chinese tourists. 

Since then the city mothers and fathers have decided to make more of a deal about Marx.  The city now has a museum dedicated to him along with a fairly large statue.   Marx was born 200 years ago this month.  

(I also visited Marx’s grave in London.  All your suspicions are now confirmed.)

John Morganelli

Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli is the kind of politician who gives politicians a bad name.  He seems to be always running for higher office, he has no fixed principles, and now he wants to be a member of Congress representing the 7th District of Pennsylvania.

In 2014, according to today’s Morning Call, he said to a Tea Party group, “the Democratic Party, that I’ve been a member of since I could vote, has become the de facto party for illegal immigration.”  

I have yet to hear a Democratic member of Congress, a Democratic office holder, or Democratic official advocate illegal immigration.  They may ask for humane treatment, for a path to citizenship, for support for the DACA kids, for increased quotas on refugees, but illegal immigration?  That is just pandering to the Tea Party.

The Morning Call also noted that Morganelli tweeted at President-elect Trump suggesting himself for an government appointment.

So now he wants to be the Democratic nominee in the 7th.  I was about to type “What an ass,” but you can figure that out for yourself.

P.S.:  Happy Cinco de Mayo.  

Why are we involved in Yemen?

Seriously, why are we involved in Yemen?  The U.S. now has Green Berets on the border with Yemen to aid Saudi Arabia in its conflict with the Houthi rebels.  

How does this affect American security?  Who authorized this?  Has war been declared?  What is the end game?

Perhaps there are good reasons why U.S. troops are involved in Yemen, or Niger, or Afghanistan, but it would be good to have a discussion in Congress on these matters.  We hear over and over that we need to support our “heroes,” but we also need to understand why those soldiers are put in harm’s way in the first place.  We’re supposed to be a democracy where those issues are at least discussed in public.

The Caravan Arrives

Getting more dangerous.  Caravans’ coming.

That was a tweet from Trump, including the grammatical error.

Last Saturday at a rally in Michigan he whipped up the crowd, saying, “Are you watching that mess that’s going on right now with the caravan coming up?”

I get so tired of the constant crap coming out of this administration.  Under international law and U.S. law, when people apply for asylum, we are obliged to allow them entry.  They then undergo a process to see whether they have a legitimate fear.  Most of the asylum seekers from Central America have actually been rejected.  Most of the present group, of about 200, are children.  

We do our best to discourage asylum seekers.  We separate children from families, and we delay them by saying that the port of entry has reached capacity.  According to the Times, however, Jeff Sessions is sending more Justice Department lawyers to San Ysidro to process the applicants.  Good for him.

In the meantime, Trump continues to whip up hysteria.  What a jerk.

Removing the savior?

A letter writer to the Times News is upset because scholars are changing BC in dates to BCE (before the common era) and AD to CE (common era).

He says ”Christians must fight this latest dastardly attempt to remove the savior of the universe from the pages of history.”

Actually, the change is long overdue.  First of all, BC and AD are asymmetrical.  BC is in English (before Christ) and AD is from the Latin Anno Domini, or “the year of our lord.”  Some people try to read it as “after death,” but that would leave a gap between BC and AD.

BCE and CE make things easier.  We are in llyar 5778 of the Hebrew calendar, if I read the Wikipedia article correctly.  The Muslim calendar puts us in 1439.  The Mayan calendar is actually three separate corresponding overlapping calendars.  No wonder they died out.  I didn’t look up the Chinese, Buddhist, or Coptic calendars because I was getting a headache.  Let’s stick with CE and BCE.  

The House of Representatives chaplain

There was a small dustup last week when Speaker Paul Ryan fired the chaplain for the House of Representatives.  The chaplain was a Roman Catholic, as is Ryan, but evidently Ryan was irritated when one of the prayers asked that the tax “reform” be fair.

There is also a belief that some of the evangelical “Christians” in the House wanted one of their own, and one member even said he thought the chaplain should have a wife and children.  That’s rather transparent.  

I have a different question.  Why does the House of Representatives even have an official chaplain?  Why are prayers part of the House business?  In fact, why do the Carbon County Commissioners begin their meetings with a prayer?  

No, I don’t get up and walk out.  I’m respectful, but I think religion should not be part of governmental meetings.  I want Jefferson’s wall between church and state.  There’s a wall I can support.