Best Pop Songs of 2021

 On Wednesday the New York Times published a list of the top 20.  I have not heard a single one.  Before you dismiss me as a completely out-of-touch old man (which I’ll admit to), it is a real problem that we no longer have a shared culture in this country.  At one time there were only three TV networks.  People saw the same movies.  The same songs were on the radio, and even out-of-touch old men knew “Yesterday” by the Beatles or “Where Did Our Love Go” by the Supremes.  Everybody knew who was playing in the World Series, whether you were a sports fan or not.  What teams were in the World Series this year?

Studies reveal that the top shows watched by Democrats differ completely from the top shows watched by Republicans.  AM radio is mostly talk show junk.  No one under thirty reads a newspaper, and newspapers are dying out.  Covid has made this worse with quarantines and social distancing.  

People no longer feel a responsibility to their fellow Americans; if they did everyone would be vaccinated.  Voters no longer see a need to be informed; if they did they wouldn’t elect Q-Anon candidates.  Many legislators no longer care about our country; if they did “ghost guns” and assault rifles would have been banned years ago.

But hey, maybe 2022 will be better. 

Rep. Heffley on the PennEast Pipeline

 Representative Doyle Heffley was quoted in today’s Times News as saying the now defunct PennEast pipeline might have helped to offset the rising gas prices this winter.  That is incorrect.  Gas price hikes are the result of European shortages.  The fracked gas in the PennEast pipeline would not have gone to residents of Carbon County.

Rep. Heffley either ignorant of that fact, or he is trying to curry favor with the fracking companies.  I do not think Rep. Heffley is ignorant.

Russia bans "critical gulag theory"

 The Russian Supreme Court, now firmly in Putin’s control, has ordered the disbanding of the Russian group “Memorial International,” formed to chronicle the horrors of the Stalin era and memorialize the millions of victims of the Russian government who died in camps in Siberia.  

Putin has long thought that Russia media and educational systems should not discuss the negative aspects of Russian history.  Nationalism demands that the glories of Russia need to be emphasized, and that past problems be downplayed or ignored.

Ok, I made up the title “Critical Gulag Theory.”  I did not make up the Russian policy or court decision.  See the front page of today’s New York Times.  This is what we are coming to–imitating Putin (and Stalin).

15 years is too long

 It is clear that Kim Potter, the cop who shot Dante Wright, had not intended to shoot him.  That is obvious from the film of her immediately after the shooting.  She certainly should be dismissed from the police force, she obviously wasn’t trained very well, but I have three reactions to the verdict.

First, one of the reasons police-civilian interactions are tension-filled events is because of the prevalence of guns in this country.  If a cop pulls over a driver in Sweden or France, that cop doesn’t presume that the driver has a gun in the car.  In this country you have to assume the driver does have a weapon.

Second, I thought the celebration by Mr. Wright’s family after the verdict was disgusting.  This was a tragedy for everybody, and you don’t celebrate tragedies.  This shooting was on a whole different level than the murder of George Floyd or Ahmaud Arbery.

Third, I can’t help wondering if the jury was influenced because the cop was female.  Did some jury members have some unspoken bias against the whole idea of a woman on the police force?  I think that is quite possible.

Flipping burgers

 A trial is currently underway to determine if unequal school funding violates the Pennsylvania Constitution. 

The attorney for Senate President Pro Tem Jake Corman kept asking why the Pennsylvania academic standards mattered for certain students.  “What use would a carpenter have for biology? What use would someone on the McDonald’s career track have for Algebra I?”  The lawyer said that Pennsylvania had many needs, and noted “There’s a need for retail workers, for people who know how to flip a pizza crust.”

Margie Wakelin, a lawyer arguing against the current system, had a good answer.  She said you couldn’t predict a student’s ultimate career.  As for the retail worker she said it might be good for that worker “...to understand basic biology of viruses due bing a global pandemic.”

Corman’s lawyer (and Corman) would probably argue that the carpenter can get his necessary information from Facebook or Dr. Oz.

Don't Look Up

 If you get the chance, see the film “Don’t Look Up.”  A meteor that can destroy life on earth is headed for a direct collision with our planet.  It will impact in approximately six months, and the film details the global response.  It is not pretty.  The movie satirizes social media, political stupidity, American culture, and economic greed.  If you want to know why our response to global warming is inadequate, the film will help you understand.  

The cast is amazing.  Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Mark Rylance, and Ariana Grande star.  

Learning to like David Brooks

 David Brooks has been the “conservative” columnist for the New York Times for many years.  I usually read his column, but I never liked him.  I’m a liberal, he’s a conservative, and we disagreed on just about every political issue.  

The Trump presidency changed that.  Brooks is still a conservative; I’m still a liberal, but we both love our country.  In an article in the most recent issue of The Atlantic, Brooks discusses how conservatives value long-term institutions and respect tradition.  The following quotation is from that article.

Trumpian Republicanism plunders, degrades, and erodes institutions for the sake of personal aggrandizement.  The Trumpian cause is held together by hatred of the Other.  Because Trumpians live in a state of perpetual war, they need to continually invent existential foes–critical race theory, nongendered bathrooms, out-of control immigration.  They need to treat half the country, metropolitan America, as a moral cancer, and view the cultural and demographic changes of the past 50 years as an alien invasion.  Yet pluralism is one of America’s oldest traditions; to conserve America, you have to love pluralism.  As long as the warrior ethos dominates the GOP, brutality will be admired over benevolence, propaganda over discourse, confrontation over conservatism, dehumanization over dignity.

Santa Claus is coming!

 A student who knew I was an atheist asked me if I celebrated Christmas.  I told him that I celebrated all holidays.  It’s one of the nice things about being an atheist.  You can celebrate Christian, Jewish, Hindu, and Muslim holidays, but only the good parts.  You don’t need to fast for a month or observe dietary restrictions or go to confession.  You just do the fun part.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, there’s a bunch of deer on the roof and I’m afraid they will break the slate.  I’m going out to chase them off.

Happy Holidays!

Mexican women come to the rescue

 “Medication abortions” are performed with the use of pills.  The drug used is misoprostol, and it gives women a safe and often cheap method of ending a pregnancy in private.  In Latin America networks of activists help women obtain the pills and often provide medical counseling and support.  

In Mexico abortion is now legal.  Mexican women are helping American women, especially in Texas, gain access to this medication.  On December 16 the FDA said that abortion drugs can be delivered by mail, although several states, including Texas, ban the delivery of pills by mail.  

Fortunately for the women involved, the pills are hard to detect.  

See Natalie Kitroeff’s article in the New York Times, Dec. 21, or the reprint in the Morning Call (Dec. 23, 2021), p. 10.

Changes in our natural world

 Early this week I saw a red-winged blackbird.  They usually show up in March.  Three days ago I saw blossoms on our forsythia bush.  Forsythias bloom in April.  Yesterday, the first day of winter, I found a dandelion flower in our front yard.  They usually bloom in April.  

If the people who watch Fox News and read about the global warming “hoax” on Facebook ever got off their fat asses and went outside, they might learn just how quickly our world is changing.  It should frighten them.  It certainly frightens me.

The answers to last night's quiz

 1.  Paul Gosar said the insurrectionists were “peaceful patriots.”  He did post an animated video, but it was him killing AOC.  The Republican Congress never disciplined him.  The person who said Mexicans were “built close to the ground” was a California Senator named George Murphy.

2.  HIndu fanatics banned the sale of eggs.  Most of the vendors affected were themselves Hindus.

3.  Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett claimed the Supreme Court Justices were not political hacks.  Unfortunately, that is exactly what the three Trump appointees are.

4.  Facebook has rebranded as Meta.  It is still a corrupt institution and you ought to quit it.

5.  The self-driving car did not recognize a semi.  This was not funny–a person died in the accident.

6.  The Penna. Republican legislature passed a bill that teachers should post their reading lists.  This is the most do-nothing legislature we’ve ever had.  Unable to solve real problems, they dabble in silly symbolic crap.

7.  Ivermectin is a horse worming medicine.  While Trump is getting his booster, his followers are taking Ivermectin.  Incidentally, it does work...if you are a horse with worms.

I hope you got a hundred.

the holiday quiz

1.  Representative Paul Gosar, Republican Congressman from Arizona:

     A.  posted an animated video of him killing Nancy Pelosi.

     B.  tried to ban Kwanzaa because it was a pagan holiday.

     C.  said the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrectionists were “peaceful patriots.”

     D.  claimed Mexicans were better at field work because they were “built 

close to the ground.”

2.  Earlier this month in Ahmedabad, India, government officials cracked down on street vendors selling:

     A.  meth.

     B.  eggs.

     C.  pirated Bollywood tapes.

     D.  copies of the New Testament.

3.  Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett said Supreme Court justices were not:

     A.  political hacks.

     B.  fans of judicial restraint.

     C.  aware that race played a role in voting restrictions.

     D.  opposed to birth control as long as it involved abstinence.

4.  Facebook is reframing itself as:

     A.  Meta.     B.  Zuck.

     C.  Edsel.     D.  Pinocchio.

5.  In a test of self-driving Tesla cars, a bad accident occurred when the car didn’t recognize:

     A.  a red light.     B.  a semi truck.

     C.  a detour sign.     D.  a patch of ice.

6.  The Pennsylvania Republican legislature recently passed a bill to:

     B.  help rural areas obtain access to broadband.

     A.  equalize funding between rich and poor districts.

     C.  allocate funds for personal computers for students.

     D.  require teachers to post their reading lists on the internet.

7.  Ivermectin is a drug manufactured for:

     A.  worming horses.

     B.  erectile dysfunction.

     C.  restless leg syndrome.

     D.  alleviating late stage Covid symptoms. 

Soak the rich

 According to an article in a recent issue of Time magazine, the richest one percent of the American population saw its wealth increase by $7 trillion dollars in 2020, the first year of the pandemic.

How did you do?

Drawing new district lines

 The new Pennsylvania maps are out.  One of the cardinal rules of good redistricting is that municipalities should not be split unless absolutely necessary.  Obviously some municipalities must be divided–Philadelphia is a good example.  Allentown also has more people than a state House district would allow.  Bethlehem is already split; some of it is in Lehigh County but most of it is in Northampton County.

How municipalities are divided for redistricting purposes is another matter.  Allentown could be divided in such a way that a district would be majority Latino, or Latinos could be split into a number of districts in order to ensure that no district would have a majority of Latino voters.

When California legislative seats were redrawn in California in the early 80s, many San Jose Latinos wanted the East Side to have its own representative.  If the districts were drawn that way, the result would have most likely been one Latino district and two Anglo Republican districts in San Jose.  I argued that Latino interests would be better served by three Anglo Democrats than one Latino Democrat and two Anglo Republicans.  The East Side was split, and we ended up with the three Anglo Dems.  (Not that my advice had any influence.)

Was I right?  I have no idea.  Maybe that Latino Assembly member would have been a better voice.  Even when lines are drawn to be contiguous, equal in population, with an effort not to split municipalities, and with map makers who are non-partisan and do their best to be fair, it is still a tough job.

In Pennsylvania, of course, map makers are partisan, gerrymandering the state for their own political purposes.  They turn an already tough job into a political farce, and they do it every ten years.

It ain't broke

 Once again Pennsylvania Republican legislators are trying to fix a problem that isn’t a problem.  State Representative Natalie Mihalek wants to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot to get rid of the Liquor Control Board, because “Private industry will do better.”  

The Liquor Control Board reported sales of $2.3 billion in the fiscal year 2021.  It is making money for the state.  Mihalek said she was a working mother of three who had trouble with the “ever-changing rules on the locations and limits for buying alcohol.”  Maybe she gets drunk and forgets where the State Store is located; I don’t have any problems remembering where mine is.

She also said “I am a grown adult.  I can make decisions for myself.”  I assume her next bill will be to legalize heroin and meth.

I’ll let you in on a secret.  Pennsylvania Republicans are planning to put more and more items on the ballot as constitutional amendments.  It is relatively easy to pass an amendment–all it takes is money and misleading ads.  The dismantling of state stores is an easy one–money will roll in from the liquor lobby and it will pass.  The results will be a cut in state revenue, liquor stores on every corner like New Jersey, an increase in teen drinking, and more alcoholism.

The quotes from Rep. Mihalek are found in Ford Turner,  “Proposal would end strate control of liquor sales,” Morning Call, (Dec. 17, 2021`), p. 7.

Traitorous members of Congress

 I’m not surprised that young men in groups like the “Proud Boys” or yahoos and thugs tried to overthrow the government.  In every society you can find evil men, people who torture animals, people who enjoy overturning norms.  

What does surprise me is that members of Congress were doing their best to subvert American democracy.  Rep. Paul Gosar called the Jan. 6 insurrectionists “peaceful patriots.”  Rep. Scott Perry of PA said he had compiled a list of voter fraud allegations that needed investigation.  Rep. Louie Gomert sued Mike Pence for not interfering in the electoral college vote count.  Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio had a theory on how Trump could retain office.  These were men who took an oath to support the Constitution.  

When the violence erupted in the chamber, Jim Jordan tried to help Liz Cheney.  She smacked his hand away and said, “Get away from me.  You fucking did this.”

I love Liz Cheney.

Info for this post is from today’s New York Times, “Trump Loyalists Turned Election Lies Into Action,” pp. A1, A20.

PA legislature acts on reading lists

 The Republican Pennsylvania legislature has 

• not equalized the amount of school funding for rich and poor districts.  

• not solved the problem of reduced enrollment at state colleges.  

• not stopped pouring money into charter schools at the expense of public schools. 

• not allocated funds for personal computers for students during 

the pandemic

• not helped rural areas obtain access to broadband.

• not adequately funded community colleges.

But by God it has passed legislation that reading lists used in classes must be available on the internet.  When there is an irrelevant policy that will generate publicity and make an issue out of nothing, the Republican Pennsylvania legislature will jump in with both feet.

In a doctor's waiting room in Lehighton

 This morning I spent two hours in a doctor’s waiting room in Lehighton.  I took a legal thriller along to read, but nearby a woman was telling a second woman about high school libraries and how they contained pornographic books in special sections only available to children if their parents consented.  I butted into the conversation to ask where this was; she said in the Lehighton School library, and she heard it from a school board member.  She also said a website from Florida said the same thing.  I then calmly yet firmly told her that any group could put anything on a website, and I didn’t believe high school librarians shelved porn.  She said they did and some of it involved bestiality.  I don’t think I made much headway, but the second woman listened to me, so I may have prevented some misinformation from spreading.

About five minutes after the porno lady left, another couple came in.  The woman was wearing a “Let’s Go Brandon” T-shirt.  I put the book down, looked at the shirt, and politely asked, “What does your shirt mean?”  She told me, kind of sheepishly, that it meant, as she phrased it, “F-word Joe Biden.”  I said, somewhat incredulously, “So you are wearing a shirt that means “Fuck Joe Biden?”  I will say she seemed somewhat embarrassed.  Then the guy proceeded to tell me all about a NASCAR race with a whole background story.  I went back to reading, and neither of them said another word.

Later, the television station was playing “The View.”  I could hear Whoopi Goldberg talking about the insurrection.  At this point another woman got up and asked that the channel be changed.  I don’t know what channel she picked; I didn’t even turn around.  

I let that one go without comment, since even I find “The View” somewhat annoying.  However, my new policy seems to be working.  I will confront people who do or say things I find rude or simply wrong.  So far it seems to be working ok.

Why Democrats lose elections

 Jennifer L. Hochschild, a professor of government at Harvard, wrote about the problems Democrats are having in winning elections.  Here’s her message:

The Democratic Party over the past few decades has gotten into the position of appearing to oppose and scorn widely cherished institutions–conventional nuclear family, religion, patriotism, capitalism, wealth, norms of masculinity and femininity, then saying “vote for me.”  Doesn’t sound like a winning strategy to me, especially given the evident failure to find a solution to growing inequality and the hollowing out of a lot of rural and small-town communities.  I endorse most or all of those Democratic positions, but the combination of cultural superiority and economic fecklessness is really problematic.

Taken from Thomas B. Edsall, “Trump Won’t Let America Go,” New York Times, (Dec. 12, 2021), p. SR5.

850 books

 A state representative in Texas sent a list of 850 books to school superintendents in Texas, demanding to know if they had any of the books on their shelves.  Some of the books were “Young Adult,” while others were by novelists like William Styron or Margaret Atwood.  I recently read Moxie, a young adult book about a girl in a Texas high school who organizes the girls in the school to fight sexual bullying by members of the football team.  I’ll bet it is on the list.

The list, of course, is to intimidate librarians and teachers.  Some teachers have already quit; others have been labeled Marxist by parents.

I would like to get my hands on the list.  The representative’s name is Matt Krause.  I am planning to write to Rep. Krause and ask him for the list.  I’ll pretend to be a concerned anti-critical race theory parent.  Don’t tell.

P.S.  We lost electricity again last night.  It was off from about 9:30 to midnight.  

The party's over

 We are back from the party in Brooklyn sponsored by Dissent magazine.  I’ve been a subscriber for at least the last 40 years, and I occasionally make an extra donation, since a socialist magazine doesn’t attract too many advertisers.  I was hoping they would give out a prize for the person who came the greatest distance, but no such luck.

We were expecting a bunch of really old lefties and thought we would fit right in.  What a surprise.  The house, a brownstone close to Prospect Park, was filled with 20 and 30-year-olds, stylish and healthy.  I was probably the oldest person at the party

So Linda and I mingled, talked politics, ate some finger food, and had a good time.  The drive in was a bit of a hassle, but we are pleased we had the experience.

Incidentally, a woman at the door checked all the guests as we entered to make sure we had our Covid vaccination cards.  When you are in a crowded room with everybody talking, that was a good idea.

Holiday Party in Brooklyn

Tomorrow evening we are driving to Brooklyn for a Holiday Party sponsored by Dissent magazine.  Dissent is a quarterly of serious intent with erudite and thoughtful articles on political, cultural, and economic topics.  The orientation is democratic socialist, and I have been a subscriber since the 1970s.  

The editorial staff is New York lefties.  Every year they put on a holiday party, and this year we are attending.  The party starts at 6 and ends at 8, an indication that many of the staff and probably most of the guests are elderly (I’m raising my hand) and need to get home.