Utica and Rome

I have never liked the Thanksgiving holiday.  Too much food, too many people in a small space, too much football, just too much.  Add to that “Black Friday,” a travesty of greed. My answer is to get away from it all; to go somewhere far away.

This year we traveled to Utica and Rome.  No, not Greece and Italy, upstate New York.  Thanksgiving Day itself has light traffic, since almost everyone who is visiting relatives is already there.  We arrived in Utica in time to see “Knives Out,” a really good movie.

Friday we drove to Fort Stanwix in Rome.  This Revolutionary War fort is a reconstruction, but the interpretive Center was open at 9 a.m., and we got a personal tour of the Fort itself from a knowledgeable guide.  Then it was off to the Utica Art Museum, which has an wonderful collection, including a Franz Kline.  We still had time for a matinee of “Good Liars” with Helen Mirren, another great film.

While you were eating turkey, we were eating at a diner, Denny’s, a sandwich shop, an excellent Japanese restaurant, and a rib joint in Binghamton.  

My only regret was that neither I nor the desk clerk could figure out how to connect to the WiFi, so no posts for two days.  Sorry.

The kind of people we've become

An 8-year-old kid from Guatemala in the custody of the U.S. Border Patrol died from the flu last December.  Subsequently the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that the Border Patrol should conduct an immunization program.  The Border Patrol refused.  Hundreds of detainees and some Border Patrol personnel contracted the flu.  Two more kids have died.  

The Border Patrol still has no plans to vaccinate the migrants.  

Information for this post is from Robert Moore, “Border Patrol rejected flu shots for migrants,” Allentown Morning Call, (Nov. 27, 2019), p. 11.

Presidents are not kings

I think that says it all.  That was the most memorable line in a 120-page decision by Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia.  “Presidents are not kings.”

Judge Jackson also said  that White House officials owe their allegiance to the Constitution.  Presidents ”do not have subjects, bound by loyalty or blood, whose destiny they are entitled to control.”

The Justice Department, now a sycophant to Trump, will appeal this decision.  I would remind the Justice Department that our forefathers once fought a revolution on this ideal, and if need be, we can fight another.

Cisgender and Latinx

‘Cis” is Latin for “on this side of” as opposed to “trans,” which means roughly “on the other side of.”  I was born male, I identify as male, so I am “cisgender.”  Is this really necessary?  It simply shows how “woke” we are, which is another word I really really hate.

Latinx is another one of those neologisms that I will never use.  Latin, like German, is a “gendered” language.  Latino and Latina are fine; I as an Anglo am not about to tell Spanish speakers how they should speak.  How do you even pronounce “Latinx”? 

And please, do not say “Ok boomer.”  I am 77, older than the “boomers.”  I am old enough to appreciate English (and Spanish, for that matter).  

While we concentrate on using the latest terminology, the earth heats up, children are put in cages, the Kurds are betrayed, the President commits treason, and people die every day for lack of gun safety legislation and adequate health care.  Focus, people, focus.

Celebrating "the Founders"

No, not Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, and Adams.  According to information forwarded to me by my friend Tom, Trump calls the early European settlers “the Founders.”  

Beginning with George H. W. Bush in 1990, November has been designated National Native American Heritage Month.  Clinton, George W. Bush, and Obama continued that policy.  

Now we get Trump, who has changed the designation to “National American History and Founders Month.”  He had to add in white European settlers.  It goes with his installation of a portrait of Andrew Jackson in the Oval Office, the President who was responsible for the “Trail of Tears.”

You really have to wonder what is wrong with this man?

Encouraging suicide

Imyoung You is on trial in Massachusetts for involuntary manslaughter, a crime that carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.  Ms. You sent her boyfriend (?) text messages urging him to kill himself.  She and the boyfriend were students at Boston College, and they were in an 18-month relationship.  Evidently it was not a particularly healthy relationship.

Note that she did not provide him with opiods, a pistol, a rope, or any other means of committing suicide.  She did not threaten his family, coerce him or assist him.  She sent text messages.  Why didn’t he close his account?  Why didn’t he text back an insulting message?  Why didn’t he find another girlfriend?

I don’t see how the government can charge someone with manslaughter for sending text messages.  And yet, that is what Massachusetts is doing. 

They just keep coming

I’m referring to Trump’s lies, of course.  On Wednesday Trump toured an Apple computer manufacturing plant in Texas with Tim Cook.  He accepted a plate with the words “Assembled in America.”  Then he went on to take credit for the plant, saying it was evidence of his three-year success in bringing manufacturing back to America.

The plant was built in 2013.  Tim Cook did not correct him.  

I could make a snarky remark here and tell any Trump supporters who read this that 2019 minus 2013 is actually six years, but I’m more interested in how they justify this kind of bullshit.  I’m going to take a stab at it:

“It was just a slip of the tongue.”

He has a lot on his mind right now with the impeachment hearings and all.”

“That was Trump just being Trump.”

“Anybody can make a mistake, but he is getting Mexico to pay for the wall.”

“You’re just picking on him because you don’t like all of his successes.”

Pretty good, huh?  I believe I could be a Trumper.  All I need is a lobotomy.

Sen. John Yudichak

My state Senator John Yudichak announced that he was becoming an independent and caucusing with the Republicans in the Pennsylvania State Senate.  Since you can’t win an election in Pennsylvania as an Independent, I assume that Sen. Yudichak will soon make an official switch to the Republican Party.

Sen. Yudichak has been very supportive of coal-fired electrical plants.  He has supported payday lenders.  He has been sympathetic to pipelines and to fracking.  

I will find it much easier to oppose him than support him.  I guess he thinks that since this area is Trump country, he will get re-elected.  Unfortunately for him, Trump is about to go down big time. 

Please hold your applause

I turned 77 today.  So much for dying young and leaving a good-looking corpse.

Here’s how old I am.  I am older than baby boomers, since I was born during WWII.  FDR was president.  No black players were in the major leagues, and the American military was segregated.  Women had received the right to vote only 22 years previously.  The atom bomb had not been developed.  Nobody had a television set.

When I played in the high school band for Memorial Day, the ceremony featured a Spanish-American war vet.  I was forced to pray in school.  Lady Chatterly’s Lover was considered obscene.  

I put hay away loose, picked potatoes by hand, husked corn by hand, and helped to butcher pigs, chickens, and steers.  Everybody smoked.  Cars were air conditioned by opening little wing windows. Polio was a constant threat.  We sprayed DDT in the barn to kill the flies.  Relatives visited without calling first.  

In 1942 Trump had not yet been born.

Hazardous Sites Cleanup Act fund

I never heard of it either, but according to an article in today’s Pocono Record, it is known in Pennsylvania as the “state Superfund” program.  It will be out of money shortly unless the legislature acts.  

Under the act the PA Department of Environmental Protection monitors over 100 sites and does things like removal of toxic drums and soils, treatment of drinking water, and capping toxic sites.  

It also runs a hazardous household waste program and responds to emergency situations. 

Tax funds flowing into the program amounted to $40 million in 2017, $24 million in 2018, and nada in 2019. 

Perhaps when people die the legislature will act.  Maybe.

See Kyle Bagenstose, “PA’s ‘State Superfund’ programs goes broke cleaning up toxic sites,” Pocono Record, (Nov. 17, 2019), pp. 1, 2.  The snarky comments are mine.

Military justice thwarted

Only in a very few countries does the military punish its own troops for crimes against civilians or opposing forces.  I only know of two, although there may be more.  Israel in the past has punished its soldiers for causing civilian deaths.  The U.S. is the other.

War or armed conflict does not mean the absence of rules.  After the My Lai massacre, the U.S. army emphasized just what constituted an illegal order or an illegal action.  In the heat of battle, the rules may be bent or broken, but if you are a member of the U.S. armed forces and you are given an illegal order, you are supposed to disobey it on the spot.  

American armed forces do not kill unarmed civilians. 

Trump has now pardoned three members of the armed services who have been convicted or accused of war crimes.  One was serving a 19-year sentence for murdering two civilians.  One killed an unarmed Afghan because he said he believed the man was making bombs.  One was a Navy SEAL who was acquitted of a murder charge but convicted of a lesser offense.

I know what some readers will say.  But Christman, you were never in the army.  You don’t know what it is like.  I have two answers for this.  First, neither was President Trump.  Second, the juries that convicted those men were in the military and did know what it was like.

Defense Department officials argued that the pardons would undermine the military code of justice.  Do you think our President cares?

Deval Patrick, Presidential candidate

Do we really need another one?  Deval Patrick, governor of Massachusetts, has begun a long-shot bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.  He has likened his effort to a “Hail Mary” pass.  I have never seen a Hail Mary pass play work.

Evidently Patrick thinks we need a more moderate candidate as opposed to Warren and Sanders on the left.  We already have some quite reasonable moderate candidates, including Amy Klobuchar, Mayor Pete, and Steve Bullock.  I have no idea what Gov. Patrick expects he will accomplish.

A simple explanation for impeachment

McClatchy newspapers will now be skipping the Saturday editions.  In the meantime more and more people are getting their “news” from Facebook.  They are also getting dumber.  My state representative, Doyle Heffley, told me yesterday that he is answering phone calls and emails either praising or criticizing him for his impeachment vote.  The only problem is that STATE representatives have nothing to do with impeachment.

If you do read newspapers, I will apologize in advance for the long quote from Nicholas Kristof that follows.  It was in today’s Times.

Suppose that a low-ranking government official, the head of a Social Security branch office, intervened to halt a widow’s long-approved Social Security payments.  The widow, alarmed that without that income she might lose her home, would call the branch director to ask for help.

“I’d like you to do me a favor, though,” the director might respond.  He would suggest that her Social Security payments could resume, but he like the widow to give him her late husband’s collection of rare coins.  

If the director said later that payments were resumed, or said the widow’s son had done some questionable things, do you think that would save him from being fired?

It’s that simple.

NOTE:  WOULD ONE OF THE PEOPLE WHO ARE LISTED AS "FOLLOWERS" PLEASE EMAIL ME AT <hiramc@ptd.net> AND TELL ME HOW TO GET LISTED AS A "FOLLOWER."  I have a friend who wants to comment on my posts, probably in a very negative way.  Yeah, I know I should know, but I don't. (It's a real friend, not a Facebook" friend.)

Impeachment hearings

It certainly didn’t take long to establish that Trump is guilty of extortion and soliciting a bribe.  Forget the Latin.  Think Gambino and Luciano and Gotti.

Unfortunately the jury is already paid off.  This perp will walk, but only until next November.  

Trump's subsidized presidential campaign

In October Trump traveled to Florida on Air Force One to tout an executive order that is supposed to improve private Medicare plans.  At his appearance he ripped into “Elizabeth ‘Pocahontas’ Warren” and “Sleepy Joe Biden.”

At a shale conference in Pittsburgh Trump basically turned the meeting into a campaign rally.  He does it all the time.

The hourly rate for flying Air Force One is between $142,000 and $272,000 an hour.  We pay for this.  I am helping to pay for this.  Every time he does this kind of campaigning at public expense he is violating the Hatch Act.  And no, other Presidents did not do that.

Everything he touches

Bama had not lost a home game in four years.  If I’m correct, it was 31 victories in a row.  Then Trump shows up.

Coincidence?  I think not.

High School Football

Largely because of fear of concussions and the resultant health issues, fewer students are coming out for football.  In some states, including West Virginia and Ohio, the reduction in student athletes playing football has been dramatic.

In fact, only three states have seen an increase in participation rates since 2009.  They are Alabama, Mississippi, and Pennsylvania.

Football remains the number one high school sport, followed by track, basketball, baseball, and soccer in that order.  Football had the highest rate of injuries of the top five sports and was at the top in head injuries.

For charts on each state, see Joe Drape and Ken Belson, “America’s Game Makes Its Case,” New York Times, (Nov. 10, 2019), pp. SP1, 6-7.

Sen. Toomey predicts Democratic presidential win

Toomey has introduced a bill in the Senate that would prevent a president from banning fracking.  Since Trump would never even think about banning fracking, it is obvious that Toomey is convinced a Democrat will win the presidency.  

Good to know.

Why can't Johnny read?

The National Assessment of Educational Progress, a test administered by the National Center for Education Statistics, a part of the U.S. Department of Education, found that two out of three children did not meet the standards for reading proficiency.,

The Assessment test was given to about 600,000 students.  The average eighth grade reading score declined in more than half of the states compared to 2017.  

Betsy DeVos, our beloved Secretary of the Department of Education, was alarmed.  She blamed the parents.  Her solution is more charter schools.

Information for this post was plagiarized from Erica L. Green and Dana Goldstein, “DeVos Calls Slump in Reading Scores a ‘Student Achievement Crisis,’” New York Times, (Oct. 31, 2019), p. A17.

Greatest defeat?

At his rally in support of Bevin in Kentucky, Trump said of Bevin, “If you lose, they’re going to say, ‘Trump suffered the greatest defeat in the history of the world.  This was the greatest.’  You can’t let that happen to me!”

But it did happen.  Greater than the Germans losing at Stalingrad.  Greater than the Confederates losing at Gettysburg.  Greater than the British losing at Yorktown.  Greater than Hastings, or Troy, or Waterloo.

Of course that is silly, but I will say this.  It was a really great defeat for Trump.  One of the best defeats ever.  A bigly defeat.  A perfect defeat.

Carbon County goes "Red"

Yesterday’s election in Carbon County, PA, was a disaster for the Democrats.  We have now joined Carbon counties in Utah, Montana, and Wyoming as centers of retrograde politics.  All of our county office races were won by Republicans, although the Democrats fielded a good slate of candidates with years of experience and excellent work histories.  It didn’t matter.  A large number of Republican voters voted straight ticket, unable to see past the R next to the candidates’ names.

Once again I am reminded of presidential candidate Morris Udall’s comment when he lost a close race in Wisconsin.  “The people have spoken, the bastards.”

Trump's plans for National Parks

Like many Americans, I think our National Parks are jewels to be treasured and preserved.  This year we visited the Everglades and Acadia in Maine.  Both were wonderful, with excellent staff and interpretative information.  Both could have used more funding.

My brother-in-law Tom from Grass Valley sent me an article from the L.A. Times detailing suggested “improvements" proposed by the “Made in America” Outdoor Recreation Advisory Committee.  The committee, consisting of Trump appointees, proposes to allow Amazon deliveries at campsites and an end to senior discounts.

Three of the people on the Committee have potential conflicts of interest.  One is the head of concessions in Yosemite who donated $167,700 to Trump’s campaigns.  One is the president of Aramark, which runs a $2 billion contract to operate hotels, eateries, and campgrounds at Yosemite.  The committee also includes the former president of Kampgrounds of America and Brad Franklin, government relations manager of Yamaha Motors, the U.S.A. producer of electric-powered bicycles that recently were allowed on federal trails in national wildlife refuges.  

The Committee has recommended digital services, flushable toilets, hot and cold showers, equipment rentals, mobile camp stores, food trucks, kayaks, and overnight tent rentals.  All of this would be privatized.  The Committee is using the Park Service maintenance backlog to scare the public into accepting these recommendations as a way to fund the parks.

There are times I would like to just grab Trump supporters and shake them and yell “Do you not understand what is happening?  Do you not get what this administration is doing?  Is this making America great again?”  

The report of the “Made in America” committee recommendations can be found in Louis Sahagun, “Trump Team Has a Plan for Nationwide Parks:  Amazon, Food Trucks, and No Senior Discounts,” Los Angeles Times, (Nov. 4, 2019).  Thank you Tom for bringing this to my attentional.

Tomorrow is election day in Carbon County

I have been working on election campaigns since 1960, and I still don’t know what works.  Tomorrow I will be standing at a polling place at the Palmerton Rod and Gun Club passing out slate cards.  The cards list all the Democratic candidates in Carbon County, and I will be urging people to vote the slate.  Slate cards are almost useless, affecting perhaps one percent of the voters.

But...think about how many elections are won by one percent.  

If you had to predict how a voter will vote and you could know only one variable, it would not be gender, income, race, religion, or educational level.  It would be party.  Most Republicans vote Republican; most Democrats vote for Democratic candidates. What about independents?  Most of them are not truly independent; they lean toward one party or another.  Since Carbon County has a majority of Republican registrants, Democratic candidates are at a definite disadvantage, although this year the Carbon County Republican Party is split down the middle, so Democrats have a better chance.

Most campaigning is playing with the margins.  Yard signs, newspaper ads, tv ads, direct mail, billboards–you try them all.  The best tactic for the candidate to go door-to-door and engage voters, but even that doesn’t work if the candidate is not personable.  You also will have a tough time meeting more than four or five candidates an hour.  

A consultant at a candidate school once explained that the worst elections are those you lose by one or two percentage points.  You lay awake at night thinking of all the ways you could have gotten that one or two percent.  He told us that you do everything possible; that way if you lose a close election, you tell yourself there was nothing else you could have done.  You will be able to fall asleep knowing that.

Britain Bans Fracking

Pennsylvania, take a lesson.  The United Kingdom announced that it would halt fracking because of “unacceptable risks,” including pollution risks and earthquakes.  In the Netherlands hundreds of earthquakes have been linked to fracking, and France and Germany have both banned the process.

Thus far Pennsylvania has taken no action.

Information for this post is from Elian Peltier, “U.K. Halts Fracking, Citing ‘Unacceptable’ Risks,”

New York Times, (3 Oct. 2019), p. 4.

The New Terminator Movie

First, the movie takes up where the second Terminator move left off.  All the crappy sequels have been ignored.  Don't let that bother you.

Second, Linda Hamilton is great.  So is Arnold.

Third, the first 20% or more of the movie centers on three strong women, and they continue to dominate the film.

Fourth, one of the heroines is a Mexican woman.  Seriously.  I won't spoil the ending for you, but she is just amazing.

Finally, at one point the three women must cross the border into the U.S. illegally.  Linda and I watched this in a theater in Lehighton, and here was a whole group of anglo Carbon County residents identifying with the women and hoping they will be able to cross into the U.S. without getting caught by the Border Patrol.

I give it two thumbs up.

Why Trump should be impeached

On October 30 the New York Times printed up-to-date maps of the latest projections of sea level rise by 2050.  The old projections were bad enough.  For example, the old projections showed the rising sea level covering about a third of Bangkok a bit of shoreline along Mumbai, and a portion of Egypt around Alexandria.  With the increase in global warming, almost all of Bangkok, Mumbai, and Alexandria will be submerged. 

Linda and I will be dead by 2050, but our grandson, now 13, will be only 45 years old.  

A day later, on Oct. 31, the New York Times business section printed an article about how the Trump administration pressured General Motors, Toyota, and other automakers to join the administration in its fight to overturn California’s Clean Air regulations.  The car companies felt they might be hurt by tariffs or trade restrictions if they didn’t follow the Trump administration policies.

Today, Nov. 1, the New York Times had a front page article explaining how the E.P.A. plans to ease up on the 2015 regulations that would have cracked down on pollution from coal-fired electric plants.  This is being done in an effort to help the coal industry.

This is insane.  Perhaps we are worried too much about the Constitution as a justification for impeachment.  We need to worry about policy as well.  Those three articles in conjunction illustrate a level of incompetence, or irrationality, or stupidity that cannot be tolerated.  This cannot continue.