Role model

An item in the May issue of the Ballot Access News noted that Iowa Representative Andy McKean said he is changing his registration from Republican to Democrat.  He is the longest-serving Republican in the Iowa legislature.  His reason–he cannot support President Trump for re-election.

Carbon County Representative Doyle Heffley–take a note.

Posting the Beatitudes?

My friend Bill from North Carolina sent me a quote from Kurt Vonnegut that I would like to share.  Here it is:

For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes (Matthew 5).  But, often with tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings.  ...  I haven’t heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere. “Blessed are the merciful” in a courtroom?  “Blessed are the peacemakers” in the Pentagon?  Give me a break.

Convention delegates

Today Carbon County Democratic Chair Billy O’Gurek and I attended a meeting to learn about the delegate selection rules for the Presidential nominating convention to be held in Milwaukee in 2020.

We learned that the Pennsylvania delegation will be cut back this year because the state voted for Trump in 2016.  States that supported Clinton get a higher proportion delegates than states that did not.

We also learned that the formula for Congressional districts is based on the vote for Clinton in 2016 and the vote for Governor Wolf in 2018.  The 9th, where Carbon is located, didn’t do too well on either of those votes, so our district will be given four delegates.  Some districts in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are allotted eight, but to me that seems fair because that’s where the Dems live. 

To run you need to pick a candidate, and you need 250 signatures of registered Democrats.  There is also a $25 filing fee.  The catch is that you have to pick the candidate you support by the middle of next February, but our primary isn’t held until June.  Let’s say you decide you want to be a delegate for Beto O’Rourke, but he drops out in April.  You’re out.

I was impressed by the state party’s attempt to get the word out and its efforts to make the delegates representative on the state’s Democrats.  The Democratic Party is so idealistic and tries to be so inclusive.  It makes me proud.

Earth Day Booth in Jim Thorpe

At the Earth Day celebration in Jim Thorpe the environmental group Save Carbon County managed to get over 300 signatures on a petition to the Delaware River Basin Commission asking them to ban the dumping of fracking water into the Delaware watershed.  The Commission has already banned fracking within the watershed, but has discussed allowing toxic wastewater from fracking operations to be discharged into the watershed.

The Delaware watershed covers portions of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, and the River Basin Commission is tasked with ensuring its good health.  Why it would even consider allowing polluted fracking waste to be dumped anywhere in that watershed is incomprehensible.  

We had no trouble getting people to sign once we explained the issue.

Letter to Rep. Mueser on Robocalls

Today I wrote to Rep. Mueser, my Republican member of Congress.  Here's what I said:

Dear Congressman Mueser:

I understand that Congress is divided, with a Democratic House and a Republican Senate, and I understand that partisanship is intense in both chambers, making it difficult for Congress to act on comprehensive health care reform, global climate change, or meaningful immigration reform.  I understand that some members have no interest in confronting a president who is, in my view, undermining the very values of our democracy.

Nonetheless, there are recognized and fairly non-controversial problems that I believe Congress could solve or at least alleviate.  One of them is robocalls.  Over half the calls I receive are unwanted, unnecessary, and incredibly annoying.  Is there not a bi-partisan solution to stopping this irritating misuse of our communication system?

I know unwanted phone calls are a small matter in the overall scheme of world problems, but it would improve the lives of millions of Americans if something were done to fix this.

I expect he will get right on it.

The Funeral of Lyra McKee

A week ago Lyra McKee, a reporter who covered Northern Ireland, was shot dead by the “New I.R.A.” while she was traveling in a police van.  She was 29, and she had been named by Forbes magazine as one of Europe’s most influential young journalists.  In 2014 she had written an essay about her experiences as a gay teenager in conservative Belfast society.

She died one day before the 21st anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, which brokered peace in Northern Ireland.

Her funeral was held in St. Anne’s in Belfast.  The leaders of the largest nationalist and unionist parties, Arlene Foster and Mary Lou McDonald, sat side by side.  British P.M. and leader of the opposition, Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn, also attended.  

The Rev. Martin Magill, delivered the eulogy.  He said:  “Since Thursday night, we have seen the coming together of so many people in various places and the unifying of the community against violence.  ... I am, however, left with the question.  Why, in God’s name, does it take the death of a 29-year-old woman, with her whole life in front of her...”

At that point, according to the article in the New York Times, the 1000 mourners in the church and the hundreds standing outside in the cold, began to applaud.  Then those in the back stood.  Then those in the middle.  Then the politicians in the front.  

Finally Father Magill was able to finish his sentence.   “...the death of a 29-year-old woman, with her whole life in front of her to get us to this point.”

Why indeed?

For the complete story, see Patrick Kingsley, “Funeral Shows Northern Ireland’s Progress, and Its Regression,” New York Times, (Apr. 25, 2019), p. A8.

Eastern Hellbender

Pennsylvania now has an official amphibian.  Gov. Wolf signed the bill earlier this week naming the Eastern Hellbender, also know as the “snot otter” or Allegheny alligator, the state’s amphibian.  Ordinarily I think these kinds of acts are silly, but this one was sponsored by Sen. Gene Yaw, a Republican of moderate persuasion, who points out that the hellbender is very sensitive to polluted water and acts as a warning when water quality is bad.

The hellbender, which grows up to two feet, probably should be listed as an endangered species, although I doubt if this will happen under the Trump administration.

Goodbye to winter

First came the crocuses, then the forsythia, then the hyacinths, now the dandelions and the daffodils, the magnolias and the cherry trees. 

The redwing blackbirds and the grackles arrived, then the red-breasted grosbeaks, and today the Eastern bluebirds and the tree swallows.

The spring peepers started their chorus about two weeks ago, and they are singing every night.  

Today it was warm enough for sitting on the porch with a cold Corona and a bowl of pretzels.  Summer is on the way.

Glen Onoko Falls

Glen Onoko Falls is a natural wonder near Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania.  It is not a huge falls, but it is near the top of a mountain, which makes it interesting.  To reach the falls you need to climb a dangerous path.  Ten people have been killed and many more injured on the trail. 

I tried to hike up there one time.  I realized that the path was way too dangerous for my taste and turned around.  Now the Pennsylvania Game Commission, which owns the land, has closed the trail to further hiking.  

People cry, “They can’t do that.”  I will bet that none of the people who have signed on-line petitions have never taken an injured person down from the trail.  I’ll also bet that more than one person injured on the trail has sued the Game Commission.

Here is something you need to learn.  You don’t have a right to see every natural phenomenon.  It is not in the Constitution.  If you want to hike in the woods, try one of the trails in Beltzville or Hickory Run State Parks, both located in Carbon County.  And  volunteer for your local fire department so you can help extricate other hikers who have managed to hurt themselves hiking in places where they do not belong. 

Trump's Second Term

Half his term is over, and so far we have limped along.  However, as Paul Starr points out in the May issue of The Atlantic, if Trump wins a second term we will be in even deeper trouble, perhaps trouble that will change the very essence of our country.  Right now Trump has appointed two unqualified Supreme Court justices, has signed tax laws that benefit the rich, and rolled back environmental and economic protections.  Some of those actions could be undone by the next President.  It is the second term that will cause damage from which we won’t recover.

A second term, as Starr points out, could bring irreversible changes in three areas.  One is climate change.  Trump is not only failing to take action to lessen global warming, he is deliberately making things worse.  Another four years of this type of policy may take us over the tipping point.

The second area of concern is nuclear proliferation.  Our allies no longer think we will protect them.  We have pulled out of the Iran deal.  We seem to be encouraging North Korea.  We have scrapped the nuclear deal with Russia.  A nuclear arms race could result in a nuclear war.

Starr notes the third area of irreversible change involves Supreme Court rulings.  In the decision on the ACA, four justices took the view that the Commerce Clause did not apply.  This is the same philosophy that guided the Supreme Court at the beginning of the New Deal, and it would set U.S. policy-making back a hundred years.

If you think that Trump can’t possibly win a second term, think again.  If we have a good economy, continued voter suppression, and Democratic Party disarray, Trump could definitely win in 2020.

Redacted!

From what I have seen of the Mueller Report reprinted in today’s New York Times, I am firmly convinced that President Trump should be #########.  His attempts to bully his subordinates into giving false testimony and his contacts with the Russians give proof that he is a lying sack of ####.  This country has never in its history experienced a president so willing to ####-## the country while lining his own pockets.  The sooner he is #########, the better off the world will be.  

What an #######.

I want to apologize to my readers.  I gave an advance copy of tonight’s post to William Barr.

Deporting Children

Ashley Mantilla, age 15, is a student at Escuela Secundria Tecnica Numero 26 in central Mexico.  She had been a student in South Carolina where she ate turkey on Thanksgiving and was sometimes bullied by her classmates, who told her to go back to Mexico.  She would say, “I don’t know Mexico.  I’m from here.”

Then, in 2012, Nikki Haley, governor of South Carolina, signed a “show me your papers” law.  The parents, undocumented, remembered when a poultry plant was raided and many of the workers were deported without their children.  Not willing to take that chance, they decided to move back to Mexico, even though their three kids had been born here and were American citizens.  

Ashley is one of about 600,000 American-born children who are enrolled in K-12 across Mexico.  Since the parents often lack proper documentation, the kids may miss months of schooling.  They must learn Spanish and try to forget their past life.  In Ashley’s school fellow students come from Virginia, Oklahoma, Tennessee, California, and New York.

How in God’s name is this kind of thing making America great again? Trumpists say people like me are unfair to their hero.  They say that Trump is doing good things.  I don’t see it.

I read about Ashley Mantilla in The Week, April 19, 2019, pp. 36-37.

Demo money race

The Times today had a list of 16 Democratic presidential candidates, the money they raised, and what percent of that money came from donors giving $200 or less.  The top seven, in order, are Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Beto O’Rourke, Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, and Cory Booker.  

There is a considerable range.  Sanders has raised $18.2 million from donors; Booker $5 million.  In the top seven, Elizabeth Warren has spent the most–$5.3 million.  Sanders raised the most from donors giving

$200 or less–84%.  Elizabeth Warren raised 70.3% of her funds from small donors, while Mayor Pete raised 64% from small donors.  

John Delaney, who is a former Congress member from Maryland, has $10.6 million on hand, but he raised only $1.7 million from individual donors.  He must be independently wealthy.  He’s already spent $7.8 million, and I never heard of him.  

Another sign of America's decline

The M.T.A. in New York has found that almost 22 percent of riders, more than a fifth of all bus riders in the city, board the buses without paying the fare.  The cheaters cost the city $225 million in lost revenue last year.

When people obey the law only when they think they will be punished, civil society breaks down.  When 1/5 of the bus riders cheat the system, that means more than lost fares.  It means that people no longer feel any obligation to their fellow citizens.  They evidently feel no shame.  If you think that this is a minor problem, think again.  It indicates a decline of civic virtue, and it is indicative of far deeper problems.

Notre Dame

Few things unite the world in joy.  Most people in the U.S. were happy yesterday that Tiger Woods won the Masters, but I doubt if people in Britain or Japan or India felt much.  

Tragedies, on the other hand, can unite the world in grief.  We are experiencing such a moment right now.  Notre Dame, like the Egyptian pyramids, the Taj Mahal, the Forbidden Palace, Stonehenge, or the Kremlin was recognized by people everywhere.  

Those sites are part of our heritage and belong to all of us.  To see one destroyed or damaged hurts all of us as well.

Mayor Pete announces

I watched Mayor Pete’s announcement.  I’m in.  Sorry Klobachar and Harris.  I’m going with Mayor Pete.  (At least for now.)

Registration Drive

It should have worked.  On Thursday I put up posters at the entrances to the apartment buildings at the old Franklin Avenue and Delaware Schools in Palmerton explaining that today we would be holding a non-partisan registration drive today from 11-1 p.m.  

We had four volunteers go door-to-door.  We had the forms and absentee ballot applications.  We had a brochures touting reasons to vote, and we had free pens that said “I vote.”  We were friendly.  We were polite.  

We registered a total of zero.  We did hand applications to a young couple on the way out, and we did talk to a number of people who were already registered who were happy to receive the “I vote” pens.  We also ran into a number of people who were not interested in voting, and we refrained from calling them stupid or unpatriotic.

After next week it will be too late to register for the primary.  After the May primary we will do it again at different apartments.  Nobody said it would be easy.

The most annoying Bernie Sanders

Let me say that if Bernie Sanders is nominated in 2020 to run against Donald Trump, I will not only vote for Sanders, but I will go door-to-door, give money, and, if it would help, donate blood.

The same is true for Joe Biden, Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren, and every other Democratic candidate who has announced or may announce.

Nonetheless, I find Sanders incredibly irritating.  Nancy Pelosi wants to reform the Affordable Health Act.  With any major policy change, unexpected problems arise.  In California after a comprehensive piece of legislation, the legislature routinely passed what was called “the clean-up bill.”  It fixed the problems.  The ACA needs a clean-up bill.

Sanders opposes the clean-up bill.  He wants perfection rather than adjustment.  Millions of people would get health care under the proposed reforms.  Millions of lives would be better, but Sanders argues that will lessen the demand for “Medicare for all.”

If you want an analogy, many Marxists (though not Marx himself) opposed worker reforms like the eight-hour day or worker safety legislation.  They thought those reforms might postpone The Revolution.  It is called making perfection the enemy of the good.  It was stupid then; it is stupid now.  

Trump moves to fast-track oil and gas pipelines

That was the headline on page B4 of the Times.  Trump did it by executive order, since he has no legislative program.  One order directs the EPA to make it more difficult for states to stop pipelines by invoking the provisions of the Clean Water Act.  

The other order would transfer authority for the construction of international pipelines from the Secretary of State to the President, eliminating the review process.  Trump is determined to build the Keystone XL line though Indian reservations.  

Trump said that pipelines were being held up by “special-interest groups, entrenched bureaucracies and radical activists.”

I guess Linda and I and the members of Save Carbon County, the group opposing the PennEast Pipeline, would fit in that last category.  And still we persist.

Another country loses its way

We are seeing nation after nation that once had democratic and tolerant governments slip into racism, kleptocracy, and hatred.  The United States, the Philippines, Hungary, Poland, Egypt, Turkey, Brazil, Italy, and India are moving away from liberal democratic values.  It is a sad and disturbing development.  

Now we must add Israel to that list.  In all of these countries, the move away from democratic values is abetted by millions of people willing to abandon democracy.  

I had always assumed that the Israelis were above that kind of behavior.  That racist parties would fail.  That leaders who preached hatred would never win an election.  

I am so disheartened.

Presidential candidate contest!

If you can name all 18 Democratic candidates for President (as of today), I will send you a check for $5.00.  Send your entries to <hiramc@ptd.net>.

The amazing thing is that any one of the 18 is so much better than the presumptive Republican nominee. 

Fear of opioids

A recent review of the book Ten Drugs by Thomas Hager included this factoid.  The United States has 4.4 percent of the world’s population and consumes 80% of all opioids.  That is amazing.

Twice in the past two years I was prescribed opioids for pain, once for a hip replacement, once for dental work.  I am so afraid of getting addicted that I didn’t even take one.  

I know of other people who did the same thing.  You hear these stories of how people get addicted in just a few days.  I’d rather endure a few days of pain than take a chance.

Antibiotics

I was on them two weeks ago for a tooth problem.  We’ve all taken them.  Perhaps too many.  Diseases are becoming more and more resistant to treatment.  Now there is a fungus, called Candida auris, that is spreading across the globe and that is almost impossible to kill, although it is extremely effective at killing humans.

Could we at least agree that we don’t need to add antibiotics to beef, chicken, and pork feed?  Why are some of these obvious policies so hard to enact? 

You want to read something scary, read Matt Richtel and Andrew Jacobs, “Fungus Immune to Drugs Secretly Sweeps the Globe” in today’s Times.  This is a monster fungus, and one theory is that it is so hard to kill because of overuse of fungicides in agricultural production.  

Shazam!

Don’t bother seeing it.  Some of it was mildly amusing, and it had a nice message about families, but when will directors learn that 15 minutes of superheroes and villains tossing each other around really does not make an interesting movie?  I could have easily edited out 20 minutes and made a much better film.

The movie was shot in Philly.  In the course of the action the head of Billy Penn is toppled off City Hall and falls unto the Love Sculpture.  That really bothered me.  You don’t knock the head off Billy Penn.  What is wrong with these people?

Note:  You may have noticed a decline in posts about Trump.  That is deliberate.  If you continue to be a Trump supporter in the face of stupid statements, a foreign policy that weakens our country, the continuous litany of insults, incompetent and venal appointees, and a President who puts personal wealth above country, then I am not going to change your mind. 

If you are a Trump opponent, you probably don’t want to read any more about him.  Why waste your time?

Mormon Same-Sex Couples

From 2015 until yesterday, married same-sex Mormon couples were apostates, subject to excommunication.  Their children were not allowed to be baptized.  Then yesterday the Mormon president said that the kids could be baptized.  

Isn’t that amazing, how God changed his mind?  Same-sex attraction is still a sin, but give it a few years.  Maybe there will be another revelation.

Flipping the Penna. Senate

The Democrats just won a special election in western Pennsylvania for a Senate seat in a district that Trump won in 2016.  The Senate is now 24D, 26R, with two more elections scheduled before November.  All the Democrats need is one of those, because the Lt. Gov. votes in a tie, and Lt. Gov. Fetterman is a Democrat.

Go Team!

Me Too

Joe Biden is an old guy.  Cut him some slack.  Guys in his generation (and mine) grew up with different standards, different ideas of what was proper, permitted, and even expected.  That doesn’t mean I support him or even want him to be the Democratic nominee.  In fact, he’s pretty far down my list, but nothing I’ve heard would disqualify him from the presidency.

Having said that, I understand the women who felt uncomfortable when their space was invaded.  I hate being hugged.  In California it was even worse; people kissed each other.  I didn’t do that.  When I was in the Fairfax-San Anselmo Green Party, our meetings opened with a group hug.  I would stand on the porch until the hug was over and was known as “the Green Party guy who doesn’t hug.”  

Sal Mineo once starred in a film in which he stated forcefully, “Don’t touch me, man.”  That is exactly how I feel.  And if you think that is weird, so be it.  It is my space you are invading, so back off.  Please.  And yes, I am quite serious.

The Internet: Good or Bad?

A few days ago my cousin Carol asked me if I thought the internet had been a positive or a negative development.  We discussed this about 20 minutes, and I have been thinking about it ever since.  

First of all, for me to discuss the internet is like a Catholic priest giving advice on marriage.  He may give good advice, but he certainly won’t have personal experience with the topic.  There are vast areas with which I have no experience.  Never been on Facebook, never tweeted, never was in a chat room (do they still have those?), never sent a text, never heard a podcast, never Skyped (do they still Skype?).

Nonetheless, like so many topics, I may not know much, but that doesn’t stop me from having opinions.  So I would break it down.  I think those developments under the broad heading of “social media” have been a bad thing on balance.

Certainly our President’s use of Twitter is harming our country.  I believe Facebook has actually reduced community ties, although it has allowed all kinds of evil people to find each other who never would have been able to 20 years ago.  People form attachments, but in many cases the attachments are thin.  They may be your “friends,” but you can’t borrow money from them.  

On the other hand, today I looked up the homepage of a poetry review to determine if it might publish some of my poems.  I looked up Rex Parker’s solution to the New York Times crossword puzzle.  Almost every day I look something up on Wikipedia.  I’m reaching an audience with this post.  All of those are things I would not wish to lose.

So, I’m straddling the fence, always a painful place to be.

Rock and roll is here to stay

David White, 79, died on March 16.  He was one of the original organizers of the doo-wop quartet Danny and the Juniors.  They,were out of Philly (of course), got their big break on American Bandstand, and were more than a one-hit wonder; they had two.  The big one was “At the Hop,” but “Rock and Roll Is Here To Stay” also did well.

After the group broke up, White continued to write songs, including “You Don’t Own Me” for Leslie Gore and “1-2-3” for Len Barry.

If you are 60 or younger, you won’t know any of this.  Your loss.