Who are these people?

Trump always stages his rallies so we see a large group of supporters cheering and clapping behind him.  I look at them, and I ask–don’t they care about the environment?  Are they ok with separating kids from their parents?  Do they not care about college debt, or vulgarity in the White House, or a President who routinely lies.  Do they not support equal rights for women?  Don’t they worry about our country supporting dictators?  Do they really think that global warming is a hoax?  

I’ve heard over and over again that we must try to understand Trump voters.  We must not insult them, because you don’t win converts by insulting people.  I get that, but I don’t see how I could ever win those people over.  It seems like we live in separate realities.  

I also think it is time some of those Trump voters try to understand me.

Good news for newspapers

Newspapers are in trouble.  People pretend they are getting the news on their phones, or they just don’t bother to read their local papers.  Fewer people subscribe to papers.  Trump, of course, hates the press and would like to see it go under.

In January, the cost of newsprint rose as the Trump administration imposed tariffs on imported Canadian newsprint.  Struggling smaller papers cut the number of pages and laid off reporters and other staff to try to stay afloat.

Yesterday the U.S. International Trade Commission, a U.S. Government agency that reviews unfair trade practices, issued a statement that “a U.S.. industry is not materially injured or threatened with material injury by reason of imports of uncoated ground wood paper from Canada.”  

In other words, the tariff was eliminated.  Unfortunately, damage has already been done by an unjust Trump policy.

Blood in the streets

Trump told a group of evangelical preachers yesterday that if the Republicans lost in November, violence would follow. 

Here is another take. An article by Niraj Chokshi entitled “Violence Increased When Cities Hosted Trump Rallies,” noted that a city that had a Trump rally saw an average of 2.3 more assaults reported on the day of the event compared to a typical day.  The lead researcher was Christopher Morrison, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania.  (The article was published in the New York Times, March 17, 2018.  The study was published in the journal Epidemiology.)

By the way , one of the evangelical preachers who spoke after Trump said, “”...we love you and we believe in you.”  I thought they were supposed to believe in Jesus, but these are strange times.

Twitter

Ellen Ullman, an early computer programmer, who happens to be a woman of color, has written about her experiences in the high tech world in Life in Code:  A Personal History of Technology (Farrrar, Straus& Giroux).  

In 1998 she had written, “I fear for the world the internet is creating.  Before the advent of the Web, if you wanted to sustain a belief in far-fetched ideas, you had to go out into the desert, or live on a compound in the mountains, or move from one badly furnished room to another in a series of safe houses.”  

She was prescient.  Today there are all kinds of weird groups and cults that find each other and flock together on the internet.  Evil spreads so easily.

I also love her description of Twitter.  She considers it a broadcaster of “thought farts.”

Over 5,500 Carbon County residents

That’s how many people in this country have health care insurance who did not have it prior to the Affordable Care Act.  Lou Barletta, candidate for the U.S. Senate, wants to end that.  He wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and he and the Trump administration are doing their best to dismantle it piece by piece.  

Now that the billionaire tax cut is increasing the deficit, guess what Barletta and the Administration are going after?  Medicare and Medicaid.

Barletta, of course, won’t talk about that.  He’ll try to shift the topic to IMMIGRANTS!  And some of those 5,500 people will be distracted, fearful, and uninformed, and they will vote for him.  When they lose their health insurance, they might be surprised, but it will be too late.

Tax cut benefits the GOP

What will it take for Republicans to repudiate Trump?  

They will never repudiate Trump.  The $1.5 trillion Trump tax cuts, as everyone knows, benefit the 1% overwhelmingly.  The 1% is appreciative.  Tens of millions of dollars are flowing into the coffers of GOP candidates from wealthy conservatives and corporate interests.  They are so grateful.

When you hear people say, “it’s all about the money,” they are correct.  It is about the money.  Not the environment, not the tweets, not the affairs, the payoffs, the lies, the undermining of our values.  It’s about the money.

Trump supporters in Congress

Rep. Chris Collins, first member of the House to support Trump:  Indicted for insider trading.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, second member of the House to support Trump:  Indicted for using campaign funds for personal expenses.  He then tried to blame his wife.  Hunter, by the way, rails against deficit spending, but overdrew his bank account over 1,100 times in the last seven years.

Rep. Scott DesJarlais, third member of the House to support Trump:  A right-to-life guy who opposed abortion until his mistress got pregnant.  Then he supported it.

Rep. Tom Marino, the fourth member of the House to support Trump:  Nominated to be the country’s drug czar until reporters uncovered his efforts to hinder the DEA’s war against the opioid crisis after he received a big campaign contribution from the pharmaceutical lobby.

This goes beyond swamp drainage.  This involves pumping out the septic tank.

This sorry litany was contained in a column today by Gail Collins.  She is one of my favorites, although Trump does not like her, and one time called her a dog.  

The murder in Iowa

I have no way of knowing how the parents of a young woman killed in Iowa cope with that.  I do know that for Trump to use that woman’s death to make political points is despicable.  

Do you think he jus sympathetic?  Do you think he cares?  Come on, really, do you think he cares, or is he using that young woman’s death as a way to divert attention from his own legal troubles and whip up anti-immigrant hysteria?

I think every one of us ought to ask those questions.

Thomas Hofeller

Thomas Hofeller died a few days ago at age 75.  He was the man who perfected gerrymandering for the Republican Party.  For example, he drew new maps in North Carolina in 2010 that changed a 7-6 Democratic advantage into a 10-3 Republican advantage.  In Pennsylvania he advised the Republican Party on its gerrymandering efforts, and we know how that worked out.

His success can be seen in the 2012 House elections.  The Democratic candidates had 1.4 million more votes nationwide, but the Republicans elected a 33-seat majority.

I wonder about people like Mr. Hofeller.  Did he hold democracy in such contempt that he felt proud of what he had done?  Did he think Democrats were such a danger to the country that any tactic was justified to keep them out of power?  Did he think that the cynicism that gerrymandering creates and the increase in candidates running without opposition helped our country thrive?  

According the obituary in the New York Times, he was an Episcopalian?  Did he think of himself as a moral man?

He wasn’t.  People like Thomas Hofeller are the reason our republican form of government is failing. 

The interminable Mueller investigation

Actually, it’s not. 

Mueller investigation-15 months.

Watergate investigation-2 years

Iran-Contra investigation-7 years

Whitewater investigation, which morphed into the oral sex investigation-7 years.

As for the witch hunt charge, a number of witches have already been found guilty of crimes.  Not only Manafort.  Mr. Flynn and Mr. Papadopoulos have pleaded guilty to lying about their contacts with Russians.  Rick Gates, who worked with Manafort, has pleaded guilty to lying.  Mr. Cohen has pleaded guilty.  A dozen Russian military officials have been charged with hacking Clinton and the Democratic National Committee.  

The net tightens.

PETA goes crackers

First, a disclaimer.  I never liked the organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.  Instead of protesting real problems of animal cruelty and abuse, the organization is too often concerned with individual animals.  If red foxes need to be culled to protect the endangered salt marsh harvest mouse, PETA will spring to the defense of the red foxes, even though they imperil a species.

Today’s Morning Call contains a front page article about PETA’s protest of the animals on Animal Cracker boxes being shown behind bars.  In response, the company has changed the boxes to allow the animals to roam free.  Instead of fighting actual cruelty, PETA is going after logos.  

While we are on this, was Tony the Tiger abused in order to make him say “Grrrrreat!”? 

Coal is back!

We all know the omens.  Mass migrations.  Record heat.  Rising waters.  Desertification.  Extinctions.

If we could maintain our current level of emissions and pollutants, we would face a bleak future.  Maintaining would not be enough.  

So what does the Trump administration do?  Tells us we no longer need to conserve oil.  Allows coal companies to increase pollution. 

Commentators sometimes talk about “Trump rage” on the part of his opponents.  We are said to be unhinged.  Of course we are.

Israelis and American Jews

Israelis approve of Trump’s handling of U.S.-Israel relations by 77%.  You probably aren’t surprised.

According to a poll taken by the American Jewish Committee, 34% of American Jews approve of Trump’s handling of U.S.-Israel relations.  57% disapprove.  

How to explain that?

According to Steven R. Weisman, author of “The Chosen Wars:  How Judaism Became an American Religion,” American Jews see themselves as playing a “redemptive role.”  In 1885 a group of Reform rabbis wrote the Pittsburgh Platform that said it was the duty of Jews “to participate in the great task of modern times, to solve, on the basis of justice and righteousness, the problems presented by the contrasts and evils of the present organization of society.”

Most American Jews, according to a 2013 study, see working for justice and equality as part of their identity.  If only more religions did.

Don't tase me, man

87-year-old Martha Bishara of Chatsworth, Georgia, was out cutting dandelions for a salad when someone reported a woman with a knife.  Grandma Bishara is from Syria, has trouble walking, and speaks little English.  Three cops showed up and ordered her to drop the knife.  She didn’t.  She does have some trouble with English.  She was hit in the chest with a Taser, handcuffed behind her back, and taken to the police station.

She was charged with trespassing and obstructing law enforcement.  

I don’t make this stuff up.  It was in Saturday’s Times, p. A16. 

OK, more weirdness.  Trump’s Commission on School Safety will not hear any testimony that involves gun safety regulations.  Really, I do not make this stuff up.

Religious wars

School children were recently targeted in Yemen.  University students were recently targeted in Afghanistan.  

I agree completely with what the comedian Richard Jeni said about religious wars:

“You’re basically killing each other to see who’s got the better imaginary friend.”

Loving Dictators

Victor Orban is the Prime Minister of Hungary.  He controls the newspapers.  He is anti-immigrant.  He has taken steps to eliminate an independent judiciary.  He has no respect for democratic values.

Last November the State Department announced a minor $700,000 grant program to nurture independent media outlets in rural Hungary, part of an attempt to foster free speech.  Finalists were identified.  Then, last month, the State Department announced that the money would be spent in other countries.  

Orban’s flacks are treating this as a victory.  The Hungarian ambassador to the U.S. said, “This sends a message that Hungary is O.K., that Hungary is a democracy.”

Orban, by the way, has cultivated close ties with Putin.  He has paid lobbyists $2.5 million to increase support among U.S. congressmen, and he seems to have been successful with the Tea Party caucus.  He is a would be dictator and Trump loves him.

I remember when we were on the side of freedom loving people.  That was so yesterday.

For the full story, see <https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/15/world/europe/hungary-us-orban-trump.html>.

Sean Hannity–Real Estate Mogul

Here’s a guy who roundly condemns federal giveaways, yet has benefited from federal housing subsidies while evicting tenants from his holdings.  No wonder he sucks up to Trump.  They are two peas in a pod.  

It is amazing how much money Hannity made during the housing crisis by manipulating federal tax rebates and write-offs.  This is not some left wing conspiracy theory.  It was reported in the L.A. Times, Business Insider, Vanity Fair, Washington Post, and the New York Times.  

If you search for “Sean Hannity’s Real Estate Holdings” you can find articles on what and how he has bilked the American taxpayers and made millions.  What a creep this guy is.  Fox “News” brags that Hannity has the highest rated cable show.  This is the America of 2018.

Infowars and free speech

Alex Jones heads Infowars, a site that claims that the Newton school massacre never happened.  Facebook and other social media platforms removed him from their platforms.  (I’m not sure I’m using the right term, but you know what I mean.)

I am a long time member of the American Civil Liberties Union, although I have had my differences with that organization.  (I quit for a time after our local chapter defended the rights of prostitutes to walk around in our San Jose neighborhood, but that’s another story.)  I really am a big defender of free speech and a free press.

I am also a believer that the owner of a media platform doesn’t have an obligation to accept whatever people would like to publish on his or her outlet.  For example, I have written letters to the Allentown Morning Call and the Times News that weren’t printed.  That is their prerogative.  They own that particular form of media.  A free press means you can start your own newspaper or distribute your own pamphlets, but it does not give you the right to dictate what somebody else’s newspaper or pamphlets must publish.

I know that Facebook or Twitter reach far more people than the Times News, but I think the comparison is valid.  If Alex Jones wants to claim that the Newton massacre never happened, let him start his own network.  Mark Zuckerman did.  Otherwise, he can always get a copy machine and run off some pamphlets.  It’s a free country.

Disincorporation

Pennsylvania has a procedure whereby an area, if it meets certain qualifications, may incorporate as a borough.  

Suppose, however, a borough loses population, can no longer afford the usual services provided by boroughs, and would like to merge with a bordering township, thereby increasing both the tax base and the population of the resulting entity.  Here’s an example.  The Borough of Parryville, located in Carbon County, has a small population and no reason to exist except it has existed.  It could join Franklin Township which almost completely surrounds it.

Residents of Parryville would no doubt point to its history and complain about the loss of identity.  On the other hand, Union Hill, a village in Frankin Township with roughly the same population has a history and identity but is part of Franklin. 

While I don’t think many boroughs would disincorporate because no one in Pennsylvania seems to want to do anything that hasn’t been done for the past two hundred years, our legislature should give the residents that option.  

Sorry.  I forgot.  It’s the Pennsylvania legislature, full of people like Jerry Knowles and Doyle Heffley and Scott Wagner.  Won’t happen.

The EPA jumps in bed with Monsanto

A lawsuit filed against the EPA. in 2017 produced evidence that the agency depended on Monsanto for guidance in label changes for the herbicide dicamba.  

Dicamba is the herbicide that in 2017 damaged more than 3.6 million acres of soybeans and other crops in 25 states, according to expert estimates.  Dozens of growers have sued Monsanto for the loss in crop revenue.  

According to documents filed in the lawsuit, the EPA ignored state officials’ recommendations and allowed Monsanto to dictate the label’s terms and conditions.  

Information on this travesty is from Jonathan Hettinger, “EPA Emails:  Monsanto Guided Agency’s Herbicide Label Changes, Lancaster Farming (Aug. 11, 2018), p. A21.

We tower over the world...

America–with its decaying infrastructure, its third-world public transit, its shrinking labor market, its evaporating middle class, its expanding gulf between rich and poor, its heartless health insurance system, its mindless indifference to a dying economy, its predatory credit agencies, its looming Social Security collapse, its interminable war, its metastasizing national debt and all the social pathologies that gave it a degenerate imbecile and child-abducting sadist as its president–remains the only developed economy in the world that believes it wrong to use civic wealth for civic goods.  Its absurdly engorged military budget diverts hundreds of billions of dollars a year from the public weal to those who profit from the military-industrial complex.  Its plutocratic policies and libertarian ethos are immune to all appeals of human solidarity.  It towers over the world, but promises secure shelter only to the fortunate few.

That sounds about right.

The quotation was taken from an article by David Bentley Hart entitled “The New York Yankees Are the Worst.”  It appeared in the New York Times on July 15, 2018, p. SR5.  

Treaty with the Lenapes

The original inhabitants of this area were the Lenapes, called “Delawares” by the immigrants who came from Europe.  When William Penn landed in what is now Philadelphia, he signed a treaty with Chief Tamanend, and for a brief time immigrants and Indians lived in peace.

In the spirit of William Penn and Chief Tamanend, a new treaty was signed today on the banks of the Delaware River.  A group of Lenape Indians began a journey down the Delaware a few days ago, landing at Shawnee-on-the-Delaware late this afternoon.

Treaty signatories agreed on the following:  

We will support the Lenape people in one of more of the following ways:  hosting cultural/educational programs, partnering as caretakers of the Lenape homeland and Delaware River, assisting in Lenape language revival projects, assisting in displays/exhibits of Lenape culture, helping the Lenape people to obtain and/or protect sacred land sites, encouraging updated curriculum in public schools, attending Lenape functions, volunteer service and support, distributing information, and/or financial assistance.  We also recognize that this treaty is good for a term of four years, August 2018 until August 2022, at which time a new treaty may be entered into.

A number of local environmental and civic groups, including a local Catholic church, signed the treaty in a very moving ceremony.  Linda signed on as president of “Save Carbon County,” an environmental group fighting the PennEast/UGI pipeline.  I signed as a supporting individual.  

My plan is to devote effort to the clause “encouraging updated curriculum in public schools.”  I’m hoping the Lehighton “Indians” will be receptive.

Asylum Seekers

It is perfectly legal to ask for asylum at a border.  Countries around the world are familiar with the process, although the granting of asylum obviously varies.  To be granted asylum, the usual test is a “credible fear.”  People asking for asylum are not sneaking across the border; they present themselves to authorities and explain the reasons they are seeking asylum.

How about this for a reason?  “I can’t go back to my country.  They’ll kill me if I go back.”

Under the current Administration policy this is not good enough.  People are being rejected for asylum after only a quick review of their claims.  This policy was implemented by the proud Christian (as he proclaims at length) Jeff Sessions.

During the first six months of this year, under 15% of asylum seekers were granted asylum.  This is the kind of nation we have become.

Acquaintances of mine are Trump supporters.  I am still civil to them, but I do not see how people can support this man.  Some of these people I regarded as close friends.  I can no longer do that.  I will continue to be civil, but I will always be uneasy in their presence.  I will always be asking, “What kind of person is this.?”

U.S. policy changes on this began months ago.  See Miriam Jordan, “Big Jump in Rejections at the Border as Asylum Seekers Face New Hurdles,”

New York Times, (Aug. 8, 2018), p. 13.

Locking them up

Here are two travesties of justice, so bad that they might have occurred in Afghanistan or Turkey, but they happened in North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

#1

Keith Sellars, 44, a U.S. citizen and resident of Alamance County, North Carolina, was charged with voting illegally in the 2016 presidential election.  He was on probation at the time.  In Pennsylvania, as in most states, he would be eligible to vote.  In North Carolina, if you are on parole or probation, you can get up to two years in prison for voting.

Mr. Sellars, who is not up on the state’s election laws, assumed he could vote.  For this, he faces prosecution.  The Republican D.A. says that is the law.  

Did I mention that Mr. Sellars is black?  The D.A. says race has nothing to do with the prosecution.  The Alamance courthouse has a confederate monument outside the courthouse.

#2

Ellen Gerhart, age 63, was arrested after Sunoco accused her of interfering with the Mariner East 2 pipeline, which will go through her land under eminent domain.  The pipeline is owned by Energy Transfer Partners, the same company that trampled on Indian rights with the Dakota Access pipeline.

Sunoco said Ms. Gerhart was attracting mountain lions and bears on her property to attack the pipeline workers.  Mountain lions have been extinct in Pennsylvania for over 100 years.  The bears are Pennsylvania black bears, which have been in our back yard to eat our bird food and run when we turn on the lights.  The charge, of course, was bogus.

Ms. Gerhart was sentenced to 2-6 months in the Centre County Correctional Facility.

A total lack of irony

The Carbon County Fair officials always put the Democrats and the Republicans directly across from one another.  We are usually friendly to each other, exchanging pleasantries.  I told one fair goer to come back at 9 p.m. when we threw rotten tomatoes at each other, but that was obviously in jest.

What struck me today, however, was one of the Republican volunteers was wearing a shirt that had a huge word “liar” on the back.  The dot over the “i” was a picture of Hillary Clinton.  I think the Washington Post is keeping track of Trump lies, and he is well over a thousand, which more added almost every day.

Really?  You wear a shirt with”liar” referring to Hillary Clinton.  Are you that out of it?  That tone deaf? 

Oh, wait.  You are a Trump supporter.  I think you’ve answered those questions.

Lou Barletta's grandfather

Lou Barletta, the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania, made his reputation attacking “illegal aliens:” in his hometown of Hazleton.  

I have now heard from two separate sources that his own grandfather came from Italy illegally.  I have no way of knowing if this is true, or if he has faked his grandfather’s birth or immigration records.  Personally I doubt it.  On the other hand, this is what people are saying.  

Hopefully someone would be able to research this and find out if the rumor is true or false.  Perhaps if this were put out on social media we would get an answer we could all trust.

Tough guys?

This afternoon I had to wait at a stop sign at Pohopoco and Trachsville Hill Road while about 20 motorcycles drove past.  They were followed by a pickup pulling a trailer filled with flags with NRA logos, a “Don’t Tread on Me” snake flag, some American flags, and a few others I didn’t catch.  (I was back about four cars.) 

I think I was supposed to be intimidated, or perhaps impressed.  My reaction was annoyance that I had to wait.  The whole thing was rather pathetic.  Grown men forming a gang?.  Let’s drive around town and scare people?

You silly boys.  

The Carbon County Fair

This is a very busy time for us.  The Fair starts on Monday, and we are involved in two ways.  First, we are entering some of our vegetables and preserves.  That includes jams and jellies, eggs (brown and white), onions (three kinds), horseradishes and peppers and tomatoes and cukes).

Then there is the Democratic Party booth.  Rocky is bringing his giant wooden donkey, but we have posters, decorations, and all kinds of equipment–straw bales, tables, chairs, lights, extension cords and zip strips, petitions, registration forms, handouts attacking Barletta, posters praising the Democrats,  All of that stuff has to be collected, loaded on the truck and car, and taken to the fairgrounds tomorrow.  

And we are ready.  The instructions to the volunteers say that they should not be goaded into arguments, but if they are goaded into arguments, they should not get physical.  We are also not to argue with Trump supporters.  It is like trying to teach a pig to dance.  It annoys the pig and wastes your time.

Denny Wolff delivers a calf

The Carbon County Democrats held their annual summer picnic tonight in Jim Thorpe.  Their candidate for Congress in the 9th District, dairy farmer Denny Wolff, attended and gave a brief talk.  We learned from a staff member that the first thing Mr. Wolff did this morning was help to deliver a calf.

In the meantime his opponent, a multi-millionaire named Musser, who doesn’t even live in our district and shopped around to find a district in which he could buy a congressional seat, is attending a Trump rally.

I know who I am voting for.

Doing God's work

Two dozen nuns of the Dominican Order in Patzcuaro, Mexico, are caring for a colony of approximately 300 achoques, salamanders that live only in a small area of Mexico.  The salamander, which spends its entire life under water, is endangered, as are many other salamanders around the world.  The nuns have the largest colony of these huge salamanders, which can be up to a foot in length.

One of the nuns, Sister Ofelia said, “Being part of a religious order like ours is not an obstacle for scientific progress.”

If you want the whole story, with pictures of the achoques, see Geoffrey Giller, “Finding Refuge,” New York Times, (July 31, 2018), D1, D6.