Rural and urban crime and drug use

The latest newsletter of the Center for Rural Pennsylvania compares drug use among rural and urban students.

Rural kids were much more likely to use cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products, and they start to experiment with these products at an earlier age.  Rural students are also slightly more likely to use electronic vapor products, although it was close–27% to 24%.

On the other hand, urban kids were more likely to smoke marijuana, although that was also fairly close.  

The newsletter also compared the rate of four types of violent crimes in rural and urban counties.  The urban areas were way ahead in aggravated assault and murder.  For example, rural areas had three murders per 100,000 residents; urban areas doubled that at six per 100,000.  What was not explained was that the rate of rape was 44 per 100,000 residents in rural areas, but 31 per 100,000 in urban areas.  

If you want the whole report, go to <www.rural.palegislature.us> and click on the July/Aug. newsletter.

Fair booth

Every year the Carbon County Democratic Party has a booth at the County Fair.  We try to register voters and publicize our candidates.  Since this is an important election year, we really need to reach out to the fairgoers.

We will have a 20-foot frontage on the midway.  That will give us space to display some large signs.  We will stick the signs or posters in bales of straw.

The question is:  What should the message be?  What should the signs or posters say?  Send your suggestions to <hiramc@ptd.net>.  I’m on the committee that will decide.  My only request is that none of the suggestions mention Trump.  You can say “administration” or “Republicans,” but I don’t want to even mention Trump for two reasons.  First, this county went from Trump with something like 65% of the vote.  Secondly, I am really tired of hearing the very word “Trump.”

Vote for Matt Cartwright (if you live in his district)

Our area, the Lehigh Valley, is represented by four members in the House of Representatives.  Three of them, including Lou Barletta who made his reputation bashing Hispanics, are Republican.  The other two Republicans are Fitzpatrick and Costello.  Cartwright is the lone Democrat.

Here is how they voted on three bills last week.

On the bill to allow debate on imposing economic sanctions on any country that interfered with a U.S. election in 2015 or later, Cartwright voted yes.  The three Republicans voted no, probably to protect Russia.

On the bill to allow “junk insurance” that would limit health care coverage and violate the terms of the ACA, Cartwright voted no.  The three Republicans voted yes.

On the bill to add $20 billion to the federal debt through fiscal 2028 by repealing a 2.3% excise tax levied by the ACA on medical device manufacturers, Cartwright voted no.  The three Republicans voted yes to repeal the tax.  

These are just a fraction of the really bad polices that are moving through the Republican House and the Republican Senate.  In the meantime Cartwright’s opponent this November is a far right multi-millionaire

who doesn’t live in the district.

Trump's tweets

Today columnist Bret Stephens listed five rules for beating Donald Trump.  His rule #4 was “Ignore Trump’s tweets.”  He pointed out that Trump uses tweets to control the political narrative, to change the subject, to goad his opponents, or inspire his followers.  

Stephens admitted that it was unrealistic to think the media would ignore the tweets completely, but he noted that the tweets could be reported less often with less emphasis and more bemusement.  It is great advice.  

And get this.  Approximately a million people have cancelled their Twitter accounts in the last three months.  The market noticed, and Twitter shares dropped yesterday.  There are times I wish I had a Twitter account just so I could cancel it.

Pennsylvania Lumber Museum

Today we drove up to Potter County at the top of Pennsylvania to see the Lumber Museum.  This whole part of the state is in the Lumber Heritage Area; in the late 1800s much of this portion of the state was completely denuded of trees.  A conservation movement supported by the Pennsylvania state government pushed for better forest management and massive tree plantings.

Gifford Pinchot, who later served as a Republican governor in Pennsylvania, was one of the prime movers in forest preservation.  Then, in the Thirties, the CCC had camps of young men all over the state working on public projects and reforestation.

We are spending the night in the historic Penn Wells hotel in Wellsboro.  This town also has an old movie theater where we just saw the latest Mission Impossible film.  Tomorrow we drive home by way of the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania.  There are parts of this state that are just lovely.

Doyle Heffley favors gerrymandering

The bill to establish a fair and reasonable way to draw state legislative districts is dead.  The Republican leadership and Republican lawmakers in the state House of Representatives killed it.  Since the 2020 census will be used to draw the new lines, and since a constitutional amendment must be passed by two sessions of the legislature and then passed in a referendum, this means we are stuck with the current system for another 10 years, until 2030.

The fair districts bill, HB722, had the support of a majority of legislators.  Amazingly, House Speaker Turzai, who refused to hold hearings on the bill or allow it to be discussed, now blames the Democrats for the bill going down.  

He was aided and abetted by a number of Republicans, some from our area.  In the Senate, Dave Argall, who always pretends to be reasonable and moderate, was not a co-sponsor.  In the House my own Representative Doyle Heffley never signed on as a co-sponsor.  

I’m not surprised at Heffley.  Even though a clear majority of his constituents favor districts that are fairly drawn, Heffley himself has benefited from the Republican gerrymander.  If there is a bill to improve Pennsylvania, Heffley will invariably oppose its passage, although he will always have some lame excuse to explain his vote.

$12 Billion for Agriculture

Some thoughts and questions:

How much will go to corporate farms and how much to family farms?

Was any of this considered before the tariffs were imposed?

Do all people hurt by the tariffs, like auto workers, get a similar handout?

Does this aid go mostly to red state ag?

Does Congress need to approve this appropriation?

Won’t this increase an already blooming deficit?

May we call this welfare?

Do the recipients need to show they are looking for work?

The Endangered Species Act

The Endangered Species Act, the one that has been credited with the comeback of the American alligator, the grey whale, and the bald eagle, is under attack.  Former California congressman Richard Pombo, now a lobbyist for mining and and water companies, says “It’s probably the best chance that we have had in 25 years to actually make any substantial changes.”

The changes he is talking about would weaken the law to make it ineffective.  Groups who favor the changes include oil companies, ranchers, and real-estate developers.  

At one time the environmental movement was bipartisan.  Remember?  The E.P.A. was formed during the Nixon Administration.  

Now the Republicans in Congress are interested in in short term payoffs and in campaign contributions.  And they want to accomplish the gutting of the Endangered Species Act before the November elections.

Hopeful sign for November

Big headline in today’s Morning Call:  Pa. tops in young voter registrations.  The article pointed out that 61% of new registrants were under the age of 30.  Lou Barletta, you are in deep trouble.  So is the Republican running for governor.  I never can remember his name.

Good year, bad year

This has been a year for fireflies.

At dusk the yard is full of flash.

The bluebirds also did quite well.

And catbirds eat the jelly we put out.

I’ve caught at least five squirrels, 

Releasing them four miles from here

In woods by Pohopoco Creek.

The year wasn’t all that great 

For strawberries or currants.

Black raspberries were small, 

Though I got enough for jam,

And gooseberries sufficient

To bake a tasty pie.

Mulberries and cherries, though...

I don’t know what happened.

And I haven’t seen one snake 

In this entire summer.

Also Trump is President;

Our free land is in peril.

Presidential quotes

They say that we can and should become the friends and even the partners of the Axis powers.  Some of them even suggest that we should imitate the methods of dictatorships.  Americans never can and never will do that.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Ich bin ein Berliner.

John F. Kennedy

Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.

Ronald Reagan

I hold both countries responsible.  I think that the United States has been foolish.

I think we’re all to blame.

There was no collusion at all.  Everybody knows it.

My people came to me.  Dan Coats came to me and some others, they said they think it’s Russia.  I have President Putin; he said it’s not Russia.  I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be.  

I say it all the time–there was no collusion.

Donald Trump

Worse than Fox news?

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is still broadcasting, although most of us thought the “Cold War” was pretty much over.  The agency that runs the media network is still paid for by our taxes.  By a 1948 law it is banned from disseminating its content inside the U.S.

Now we find out, thanks to an alert researcher from Syracuse University, that Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has been buying ads on Facebook.  The ads feature human interest stories about Russia along with an ad, which ran after Trump criticized NATO, that discussed how unpopular NATO was.

I guess it is not enough to have a whole network devoted to praising Trump.  Now we have tax-supported ads as well.

Will anyone lose his or her job over this?  Not likely.

See Kevin Roose, “U.S.-Funded Broadcaster Directed Ads At Americans,” New York Times (20 July 2018), p. B-1, B6.

I know I’m doing too many posts based on New York Times articles, but none of this appears on MSNBC or CNN, both of which seem fixated on Mueller’s investigation or Helsinki.  Did they run stories about the Interior Department changing the rules on endangered species?  How about the attempt to sue unions to force them to pay back service dues, which will bankrupt the unions?  What about the Sinclair Broadcasting efforts to dominate media outlets?  Or the 9th Circuit Court nominee who was rejected?

I don’t think MSNBC and CNN are “fake news.”  I just think they are incomplete news.

If you can't win, cheat

Maria Palacios, 28, was born in Mexico.  She lived in Georgia since she was four.  She became a legal Georgia resident in 2009 and a U.S. citizen in June 2017. 

She is a candidate for the Georgia State House of Representatives.  I should say was a candidate.  The Secretary of State, Brian Kemp, has thrown her off the ballot under the guise that she could not be a citizen of Georgia until she became a citizen of the U.S.  This is a new interpretation of the Georgia Constitution, but it does have the effect of leaving her Republican opponent as the only candidate on the November ballot.

Ms. Palacios is appealing to the Georgia Supreme Court with the help of ACLU.  

Mr. Kemp, the Secretary of State, is in a run-off for the Republican nomination for governor.  He is running ads showing him with a shotgun and bragging that he might use his pickup truck to round “illegal aliens” and “take ‘em home myself.”  He has been endorsed by Trump.

Info for this post is from Richard Fausset, “Narrow Reading of State Citizenship Keeps Georgia Woman Off a Ballot, New York Times, (19 July 2018), p. A11.

Sorry, not on Facebook

I have many reasons for not having a Facebook account

1.  I don’t think many people are interested in what my grandson is doing.
2.  I don’t have a phone that can take pictures.
3.  If I did, I wouldn’t know how to post them on Facebook.
4.  I understand you have “friends” on Facebook.  There’s another problem.
5.  The founder of Facebook seems like an arrogant little puke.
6.  What does the word Facebook mean, anyway?
7.  I  think it tells you when other people’s birthdays occur.  Why would I want to know that?
8.  Don’t they sell your data, or was that Twitter?

9.  Billions of people around the world are on it.  I generally try not to do what billions of people are doing.

And here is reason #10.  Guess who is the single biggest political advertiser on Facebook?  Donald Trump’s political action committee.  Putin and he are going for a second term.  Those are ads I’ll never have to see.

Civil forfeiture laws

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case on civil forfeiture laws.  Here is how civil forfeiture laws work–actual case.  Tyson Timbs, an Indiana resident, was a drug addict.  He received about $73,000 from a life insurance policy when his father died, bought a Land Rover for $42,000, and blew the rest on drugs.  

He was caught in a drug sale in which $225 had changed hands.  He pleaded guilty, was sentenced to a year of house arrest, and had to pay fees and fines of about $1200.  Indiana also took the Land Rover.

Here is what Justice Clarence Thomas has said about civil forfeiture laws.  “Forfeiture has in recent decades become widespread and highly profitable.  And because the law enforcement entity responsible for seeing the property often keeps it, these entities have strong incentives to pursue forfeiture.  This system–where police can seize property with limited judicial oversight and retain it for their own use–has led to egregious and well-chronicled abuses.”  

Headline in today’s Morning Call:  “Northampton County rakes in drug forfeitures.”  The D.A., John Morganelli, a man with no scruples, announced that the County had seized a record $280,907 in cash, plus 10 vehicles to auction off just this year.  This is a bad system that has nothing to do with justice.

By the way, the coalition that is suing to stop civil forfeiture includes the ACLU and Americans for Prosperity, the Koch Brothers organization.  Now there is a coalition. 

Letter to Barletta

Dear Congressman Barletta:

I received campaign material in which you said the Democrats were plotting to impeach President Trump.  You mentioned their drumbeat was “Impeach, Impeach, Impeach.”

I am curious if you think there might come a time when impeachment was justified.  For example, suppose President Trump lied about receiving oral sex?  Would that qualify as grounds for impeachment?  Suppose he lied to the American people?  Would that be grounds?  Suppose he used his office to enrich himself?  Then?  How about if he was working on behalf of Vladimir Putin in opposition to our security agencies and American interests?

The problem I have with your letter was that you seem to imply President Trump should be above the law.  American philosophy on that goes all the way back to the Glorious Revolution in England.  The King is not above the law. 

Neither is Trump.  Neither are you, for that matter.

Roy Christman

Manzanar

We lived in San Jose for 12 years, two blocks from Japantown.  It was a real Japantown, not a tourist area like the one in San Francisco.  We went to the Obon festival every year, patronized the Aki bakery and at least four restaurants, and kept my old cars running because of the expertise of or neighborhood mechanics George Hanada and Fred Kido.  Our neighborhood bar was the Bamboo Club.  I loved it and was sorry when we moved.

Living there, of course, I knew people whose parents were in the camps.  I had friends who were in the camps.  Norman Mineta, my congressman, was himself incarcerated in the Heart Mountain camp in Wyoming when he was a kid.

We have visited Manzanar in the Sierras.  It’s an incredibly bleak place, cold and dry.  U.S. citizens of Japanese descent were kept there for years.  We visited the Topaz Relocation Center museum in Delta, Utah, which has a replica of one of the barracks rooms.  Believe me, it is very small, more like a cell than an apartment.

I always thought that as terrible as that experience was for the Japanese, it meant that something like that would never happen again.  Something that terrible would never be repeated.  

But it has been.  In the case last month when the Supreme Court upheld Trump’s travel ban on Muslim countries, Justice Sotomayor pointed out the close parallels between the ban and Executive Order 9066.  Nonetheless, the ruling was 5-4 to uphold the ban.

And when the Japanese families were put into the camps, families were kept together.  Now we don’t even do that.  We separate children from their parents and evidently don’t even keep a record of where the children are.  

Christian charity

The following statistics are from the latest “Harper’s Index.”

Percentage of religiously unaffiliated Americans who think the U.S. has a responsibility to accept refugees:  65%.

Percentage of white evangelical Americans who think that:  25%.

I think I know what the problem is.  The evangelicals are reading Matthew 19:14, where Jesus said  “Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me:  for of such is the Kingdom of heaven,” but they think it means that little children should suffer.  

Hey, it’s a theory.  It’s the best I can do.

It's who you know

Last night I posted about Tump’s pardon of the ranchers who set fires on federal lands.  What I didn’t know is that the pardon seems to have been the result of request from a rich guy named Forrest Lucas, a personal friend and campaign donor of Mike Pence.  Mr. Lucas is an anti-regulation, pro-rancher, screw-the-environement guy who had known Pence for years.  

Others who supported the pardon were Interior Secretary Zinke and a Republican Representative from Oregon, Greg Walden. 

Meanwhile about 10,000 applications for clemency are sitting on a stack in the Justice Department.  

The layers of corruption in this administration are amazing.  Certain past administrations are often listed as examples of corruption.  The Grant administration and the Harding administration are often cited.  Now we have the Trump administration.  This one will definitely eclipse anything that came before.

Oh yeah, the “base” doesn’t care one little bit.  It has been compromised and corrupted along with its hero.

If you would like to read the whole sorry account of the pardon, see Julie Turkewitz, “Behind Ranchers’ Pardons:  Tycoons With Ties to Pence,” New York Times, (July 13, 2018), p. A13.  And if you wonder why I always credit my sources, it is because I went to Palmerton High School, where Mrs. Kittleberger taught us that one must always cite one’s sources.

Trump uses the pardon power

Most presidents use their pardon power to correct obvious injustices.  Not this one.. First he pardons Joe Arpaio, the racist sheriff who was responsible for a number of prisoner deaths.  Now he has pardoned two men guilty of arson in their attack on U.S. government officials.  They were ranchers who thought they could take over public lands. 

They are part of a group of right-wing fanatics who occupied federal property and believe that the federal government has only a limited right to own land within a state.  That’s just nuts, of course, but Trump pardoned them.

Do you think Trump will pardon himself if he is charged with a crime?  I think it is clear what he will do.

Fox News Flash: Trump saves boys from cave in Thailand

Today Donald Trump single-handedly saved 13 boys trapped in a cave in Thailand.  He swam down to get them, pulling them out while breathing through a rubber garden hose.  As he acknowledged the cheers of the crowd, he told them he was able to overcome the pain resulting from his bone spurs.  In his words, “I blocked that out.  I had to save those boys.  It was great.  Also, wasn’t that something the way I beat Hillary?”

He added, “Obama never could have done that.”

Seam Hannity has proposed that Trump be beatified.  He has already contacted the Pope, who remains noncommittal.

The McConnell Rule

I don’t know much about this guy that Trump picked for the Supreme Court, but my feeling is that we should follow the McConnell rule, first enunciated by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell when President Obama nominated Mr. Garland for the Supreme Court.  The Senate should not vote on a Supreme Court confirmation in an election year.  If it was good enough then, it is good enough now.

I’m all depressed.  I just made 10 jars of currant jelly, and I am pretty sure it won’t jell.  That means I’ll have to dump it out into a saucepan, add more pectin, reboil the whole thing, and try again.  

Also, France beat Belgium.  

And the U.S. is wrecking NATO.  Nothing is going right.

Trump administration opposes breast feeding

That is not a misleading headline.  Actually, it is worse than that.  The delegates to the World Health Assembly in Geneva were surprised when American officials threatened Ecuador, the sponsor of a resolution to encourage breast feeding, with trade sanctions if it did not drop its sponsorship.

Breast feeding instead of formula use would save hundreds of thousands of babies, since the water used to mix the formula is often bacteria-laden or the formula isn't used right.  Breast feeding also helps with immunity to certain diseases.

On the other hand, American companies that make the formulas would lose millions of dollars.  And wee know what is important here, don't we?

Some Trump policies are stupid.  Some are misguided.  Some like this breast feeding policy are just immoral, even criminal.  I think this is a far bigger story than which right-wing toady was picked for the Supreme Court.

[If you want to read the whole sorry story, see Andrew Jacobs, "U.S. Delegation Disrupts Accord on Breast Milk, New York Times, (July 9, 2018), pp. A1, A7.]

The tarnished U.S. Supreme Court

We expect Congress to divide along party lines, although we like it when at least some members try to put the national interest above partisan politics, especially in foreign policy.  Today that is very rare.

We expect the President to be a little less partisan, and we hope he speaks on behalf of the nation.  It’s the kind of thing Bush did after 9-11; or Obama did after mass shootings.  He was considered to be President of all the people, a unifying force in a crisis.  With Trump those days are past.  He does his best to provoke fear and divide us.

The Supreme Court was the one branch that people thought did not vote along party lines.  Earl Warren, for example, was a Republican.  Presidents usually appointed justices from their own party, but not always.  

Now the Court is just as partisan as the rest of the government.  On rare occasions Justice Kennedy cast an unexpected vote, and Justice Roberts actually voted to uphold most of the Affordable Care Act, but you can predict with accuracy how the Court will decide.  The five Republican judges will vote as a bloc, as will the four Democratic judges.  Trump, in fact, tweeted that the Republicans “must ALWAYS hold the Supreme Court.”

It is just another of the branches of government now in disrepute.  Approximately half of Americans believe the Court is driven by partisanship.  I have no idea what the other half is thinking.  

Wrong Way to Protest

Let’s say you are a family from Fairfax, California.  Father, Mother, Billy, 9, and Ashley, 7.  You have been planning a trip the the east coast for months.  You fly into New York, where the high point of the trip will be a boat ride to the Statue of Liberty on Independence Day.  You’ve been telling Billy and Ashley that according to family lore, your great great grandfather wept when he saw the Statue of Liberty from his ship.

Then you get there, and you find the Statue of Liberty is closed because some ass “on the spur of the moment” (her words) has taken it upon herself to climb up the Statue as a protest.

Whatever was she protesting?  Tourism?  Patriotism?  The National Park Service?

Whatever she was protesting, did she attract adherents to her cause?

I am fully aware that sometimes in a protest you have to shut things down.  You have to put your body into the gears of the machinery.  I am aware that July 4th protests are an American tradition. (Read Frederick Douglass’s July 4th oration.)

I also believe that you should act only after careful thought and planning.  The Statue of Liberty was beyond annoying.  It was dumb.

Cleanup at Beltzville State Park

Independence Day is always a busy day at Beltzville State Park.  The park is overcrowded with families from the Lehigh Valley and even Philadelphia.  The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources has undertaken a study of overcrowded state parks, and Beltzville is included in that study.  I agree that the Park could do better, but I don’t like any suggestions that involve restricting access to what is a public park, paid for by all of us.

Some of the “locals,” of course, regard Beltzville State Park as their park.  They don’t like “outsiders” (you can read that as Puerto Ricans and African Americans) using their park.  The fact that Beltzville Lake was a federal project paid for by taxpayers in Needles, California, and Boise, Idaho, among other places, doesn’t seem to register with them.  

There is a group of people who not only appreciate the park, but try to help it thrive.  The Friends of Beltzville State Park volunteer for park programs and park cleanups.  I’m a member, and this morning I helped pick up litter in the picnic area.  I was given a grabber, a bucket, and trash bags.  The most common piece of litter was caps from plastic water bottles.  I did find 67¢ on a picnic table, which I kept.  

Representative Heffley is one of the people who panders to the locals.  He seems to favor a fee as a way to keep poor people from using the park.  What he should do is come down and get a grabber and a bucket.  

Trump and Stein voters

You must have wondered why many Trump voters, in the face of eroding American values, racist tweets, tariff wars, the fomenting of hatreds against immigrants, cabinet official scandals, and constant lying by the President, still refuse to say, “I messed up.  I made a bad choice.”

You may have also wondered why Jill Stein voters, in the face of eroding American values, racist tweets, tariff wars, the fomenting of hatreds against immigrants, cabinet official scandals, and constant lying by the President, still refuse to say, “I messed up.  I made a bad choice.”

It’s called “cognitive dissonance.”  It is very difficult for anyone to admit, “I screwed up.”  

The Trump voters will say things like “We needed to shake up the establishment.  The economy is doing well.  Clinton might have been worse.”

The Stein  voters will say things like “The Democrats are to blame.  They should have nominated Bernie.  Clinton was a terrible candidate.  I voted my principles.”

Do you know what the major difference is between those Trump voters and those Stein voters?

Neither do I.

I hope you had a happy Fourth.  I hope you waved flags, set off fireworks, had a picnic, and watched what once was the most respected nation of earth continue its rapid decline into decay and chaos.  

Kids at the border

I sent the following letter to the Morning Call this evening.

Dear Editor,

Some of the recent letters concerning the separation of kids from their parents at the border are both heartfelt and angry.  A few points should be addressed to clarify some of the issues raised.

It is true that American servicemen and women are separated from their children for long periods of time, but the parents know where their children are, can talk to them by phone or on-line, and have the expectation of returning when their tour of duty is completed.

It is true that criminals are put in jail without their children, but again, they know where those children are, and almost all prisoners in the U.S. are allowed visits by family members. 

It is true that the foster programs in the U.S. have problems, but the men and women who run those programs are doing their best to ensure that the children’s interests are the first priority.  

It is true that parents are bringing their children to the border, but most of them are petitioning for asylum.  It is not illegal to petition for asylum.  Fear of physical harm is a reason to grant asylum.  While the U.S. has denied asylum to must applicants in the past year, there is a regular process.  These are not people wading across the Rio Grande.

Finally, a number of letter writers seem to think that if asylum is granted to some people, it means that the border is open to all who desire to enter the U.S.  I fail to see where that follows. 

Capitalism in America, 2018

As you may know, Toys “R” Us has declared bankruptcy.  Employees with more than 30 years of service are now out of work.  They weren’t too worried when the company was sold to investment firms KKR, Bain Capital and Vornado Realty Trust in 2005.  The company seemed to be doing well overall.  Unfortunately last Christmas sales were disappointing and the company is no more.

The thousands of Toys “R” Us workers are owed about $75 million in severance pay.

The company’s bankruptcy lawyers and advisors are expected to be paid as much as $348 million in fees.  

Remember Mitt Romney, who will be elected a U.S. Senator from Utah in November?  He was with Bain Capital.  

I must add that some of my readers may have helped this process along.  Did you buy toys from Amazon?  Are you ignoring the brick and mortar stores because it is soooo easy to buy on line, and you might not even have to pay sales tax?   

The dollar amounts were from an article by Michael Corkery in today’s Times, pp. BU1, 5.