Montana Democratic legislators should be ashamed

 In 2020 Montana Democrats, worried that the Green Party candidate would peel votes away from the Democratic candidate for Senate, visited people who had signed the Green Party candidate’s petition and got them to sign statements withdrawing their signatures.  Democrats also combed the petitions for variations in the names on the registration.  Let’s say I had signed the petition “Roy Christman,” but I was registered as “Roy B. Christman.”  My signature would be disqualified.

On April 12 the Montana legislature passed SB 350, which said that a signature is valid even if the signer used his or her middle name on the voter registration form but left it off on the petition (or vice versa).  It says that a voter who signs a petition and then wishes to withdraw the signature must do so by the March petition deadline.

That bill is eminently fair and right.  Every Republican in both houses voted “yes.”  Every Democrat voted “No.”  And no, I don’t think that is equivalent to what the Republicans are doing in Georgia, Texas, and many other states to suppress votes, but it is definitely wrong, and Montana Democrats need to be called out on it.

(By the way, even though the Democratic Party managed to get the Green Party candidate disqualified, the Democratic candidate lost anyway.)

I learned about this issue from “Ballot Access News,” May 1, 2021.

Rolling back Trump's rollbacks

 The anti-environmental executive orders can be rolled back with another executive order, and Biden has already done most of those.  For example, we have again rejoined the Paris climate accord.  

The rollbacks that went through a rule-making procedure take longer; there will have to be a public notice and opportunity for comments.  Regulations that were not finalized can be paused immediately.  Those that were finalized might take a year to overturn.  

The rollbacks of Trump’s clean car standards and methane standards are high on the list of priorities.  

Biden is the first president who ran explicitly on climate action.  Things will get better.

Some of this information is taken from  the Spring 2021 issue of “Solutions,” the newsletter of the Environmental Defense Fund.

Happy with Biden

Joe Biden was not my first choice last year.  That was Amy Klobuchar.  He wasn’t my second choice.  That was Andrew Yang.  In fact, he was probably my 5th or 6th choice when the primary season started.  

I now think Biden may have been the president we needed.  I am aware that he will have a tough time getting many of his proposals through Congress, but I can’t think of any particular thing in his speech tonight that I didn’t favor, and some of it, like the 16 years of schooling (two pre-school and two after High school graduation at a community college) struck me as incredibly wise.  And no bombast, no tweeting, no insults, no personal financial gain, no kowtowing to dictators; I like this president very much. 

Trump signs

When I drive out to Kresgeville, I pass a Trump sign on the Beltzville Inn and one on a woman’s lawn just before the Polk Township line.  If I go by Route 209 I pass one just before the convenience store where I buy the New York Times.  If I come back by way of the back road that runs along the Pohopoco, some guy has a large Trump banner in front of his house.

I look upon these signs as indicators of people (or businesses) that I want to avoid.  Most people who had Trump signs up took them down after the election.  Those are normal people; one if my neighbors is one of them.  The people who keep up their Trump signs are letting you know they are, as my mother used to say, “not quite right.”   

Running over protesters

 Both Iowa and Oklahoma have recently passed bills that would grant immunity to drivers who run over protestors on public right-of-ways.

That’s from an article in the Morning Call on April 24, page 9.  And yes, you read it right.  I wonder at whom those laws are directed.

Armenian genocide

The word “genocide” was not used before World War II, but what the Turks did to the Armenians in 1915 and 1916 certainly qualifies, and President Biden just declared it so.  For years American politicians did not want to insult our ally Turkey, so the U.S. refrained from talking about what Turkey had done.

What Turkey did was kill or drive out or scatter over a million Armenians, including women and children.  Turkey to this day continues to deny it happened.  I believe the first step to righting historic wrongs is to admit them.  To get past and begin to heal the Wounded Knee Massacre or the Tulsa Massacre of 1921, you first must admit to historical truths.  Turkey refuses to do this, and the issue of the Armenian genocide continues to fester.

Good for Biden for breaking the American silence. 

First movie of 2021

 Linda and I went to our first movie this year.  It was a Denzel Washington film entitled “The Little Things,” and we saw it at the Mahoning Theater, which has opened under new management.  It was fairly easy to social distance–there was only one other person in the theater.

In the film Denzel Washington plays a detective with almost Sherlock Holmes -like abilities.  Jared Leto plays a very bad man, and the ending has a real twist.  In any case, it was wonderful to go to the movies again.  The popcorn tasted good.

Income tax completed

I do our own income tax, and I finished it today.  I completed the federal income tax yesterday and the Pennsylvania income tax today.  We pay more taxes than Amazon.  I figure that anyone who has a college education–Ph.D. for god’s sake– should be able to do his own taxes. 

Every year I am proved wrong.

I am supposed to submit my taxes quarterly, but I don’t do that.  I know I will pay a penalty, but the penalty is worth not having to go through this crap four times a year.

I also find that the Pennsylvania tax instructions are actually more obtuse than the Federal tax code.  Why can’t our legislature, which seems to have time to pass constitutional amendments to get back at the governor and can’t find the time to fix the disparities in school funding, make a simplified tax structure?  I’ll have to ask Heffley about that.

In any case, I’m finished.  Now I’ll wait for the penalty letter.

Vaccine "hesitancy"

 That’s what it’s called when people don’t want to take the vaccine to protect themselves against Covid.  Today the Times had two illustrations, one of the Trump Biden vote and one of the rate of vaccine hesitancy.  The correlation was amazing.  States that had the highest percentage of Trump voters also have the highest rate of people who are refusing to be vaccinated.

It is hard not to come to the conclusion that Trump voters are not particularly bright.  That is the kind of statement that Trump voters really resent; a Democrat looking down on them and calling them stupid.  Still, which voters are more likely to deny global warming?  Which voters seem to know only the Second Amendment?  Which voters deny that Trump lost the election?  Which voters are more likely to believe in Q-Anon and other conspiracy theories, such as Bill Gates wants to inject you with tracking devices?  And which voters would rather not get the vaccine or wear masks because they believe that a disease that has killed over 550,000 Americans is not all that serious?

I and almost all my friends and relatives have already gotten the vaccine or have plans to get it.  If people refuse to get protection and then get sick and die, we know where the fault lies.  

Poetry reading at the Palmerton Library

 Tonight I spoke about publishing poems for a Zoom meeting sponsored by the Palmerton Library.  As part of the program I read a number of my poems, including one entitled “Delaware Avenue, Palmerton,” which actually mentions the library.

For those of you who don’t know me, I should explain that I graduated from Palmerton High in 1960, lived for 32 years in California, moved back here in 2002, and was walking down Delaware Avenue, the main street in Palmerton, one winter evening.  That’s the background of the poem.

The park looks much the same.

The bank façade’s the same.

It’s the town library now.

The Admin building looks just like it did

When the Zinc was going full steam.

It serves now as the Office for the Aging.

I see the same Blue Mountain

Looming in the moonlight, 

Though most trees are gone:

(Cadmium and lead.)

I am still the same as I was in 1960

Walking in the cold down Delaware.

More or less the same.

Zoom presentation on poetry

 Tomorrow evening at 7 p.m. I’ll be the “featured poet” on a Zoom program sponsored by the Palmerton Library.  I’ll be talking about how to get poems published, and I’ll read a few of my poems.  Some other participants will also read poems.  The event is in honor of National Poetry Month.

If you want to join the meeting, call the Palmerton Library.  You have to get a code to join.  (I have no idea how it is done–I’m a poet, not a tech guy.)

Tired of "holier than thou" liberal bullshit

 In some districts there is a move afoot to strip Lincoln’s name off schools.  Lincoln’s detractors point out that he said at the beginning of the Civil War that he was would accept the South if slavery were not expanded and that he was not an abolitionist when the war began.  All of that, of course, ignores his change of heart.  If Frederick Douglass thought he was a good guy, that is enough for me.

Some of our “woke” brethren will give him that, but they point out that Lincoln approved the hanging of 38 Sioux men after an uprising in Minnesota in 1862 that left about 400 white settlers dead.  This may have been the largest military mass execution in American history.  

What these critics don’t mention is that the military commission in charge had sentenced 303 Sioux to death.  Lincoln was under pressure to sign the order.  He instead halted the executions and examined each case.  (This was in the middle of the Civil War.)  He singled out those Sioux who were convicted of rape (on good evidence) and those who had participated in massacres of civilians as opposed to those who were captured in battles.

He commuted the sentences of 265 men, which was the greatest executive clemency decision in American history.  This damaged his re-election chances in the northwest, and he did lose votes.  When he was told about this, Lincoln reportedly said, “I could not afford to hang men for votes.”  He also vowed to reform government policy toward Indians, “if we get through this war and I live.”  

We ought to be naming more schools for Lincoln.

Some of the information for this post came from an essay by Sean Wilentz in The New York Review of Books, (April 29, 2021), p. 25.

Mississippi Abortion Ban

 Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant recently signed a 15-week abortion ban.  He as quoted as saying he wants Mississippi to be the “...safest place in America for an unborn child.”

According to CDC statistics, Mississippi ranks first in infant mortality.

I want to thank my friend Bill for alerting me to this.

The Little Gap Covered Bridge trash haul

 Linda and I were part of a group that picked up trash along the road by the Little Gap Covered Bridge in Lower Towamensing Township this morning.  Our two-member team got three tires, construction debris, lots of bottles and cans, and a wide-screen tv, among other items.  

The event was sponsored by the Aquashicola-Pohopoco Watershed Conservancy.  It never ceases to amaze me how people are willing to ruin what would have been lovely areas.  

Traffic enforcement made easy

 When I drive on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, I no longer pay an attendant at the booth.  I couldn’t even if I wanted to; my E-Z Pass is recorded as I drive under some kind of scanner.  (Unfortunately, I forgot to hold it up the scanner thing to the windshield the last time I got off at the “slip ramp,” so although I only drove from Mahoning to Albrightsville, I think I will be charged for the entire length of the Turnpike.)

Anyway, my point is that police don’t have to pull people over to cite them.  Obviously we need enforcement for speeding, expired plates, and dangerous driving, but we have the technology to deal with that type of infraction without pulling someone over on the shoulder.  A technological method would also eliminate the problem of a DWB.  

Nobody would get shot, and nobody would get run over.

I would like to say this idea is original with me, but I read about it in an op-ed piece by Sara A. See, a professor at Columbia Law School, in today’s New York Times.

Ending the War in Afghanistan

 It is difficult to save people who don’t want to be saved.  It is fairly obvious that many Afghans did not want the U.S. forces to remain in the country and actively opposed our presence there.  On the other hand, many Afghans do support democratic government, are not religious fanatics, and believe that women should be educated and participate in government.

When American and NATO forces leave that country, women, religious minorities, scientists, teachers, and liberals who believe in non-sectarian government will either be killed or have to go underground.  These allies who stood by us will be abandoned, much like the Kurds and the Vietnamese who also were our allies.  

What should we do?  We should take them in.  Could we take a million?  Of course we could.  That would be one Afghan for about every 330 people.  That does not seem that great a sacrifice to save the lives of our friends and our allies.

Will we do that?  Of course we won’t.  We will abandon them to the Taliban.  

Malcolm Kenyatta

Last evening I met Pennsylvania Representative Malcolm Kenyatta, now running for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Pat Toomey.  (OK, I didn’t meet him in person, but on a Zoom meeting.  Nonetheless, I think I got a good sense of who he is.)  Ordinarily I would say that Mr. Kenyatta would have little chance of winning.  He’s gay, liberal, black, and from Philadelphia.  

He also cares about connecting with rural areas like Carbon County, he has a history of being able to work with reasonable Republicans, and his proposals are eminently reasonable, at least to me.  I was impressed.  Could he win?  We live in a fluid world.  I think he could.

Pepper Spray

 A segment on tonight’s news showed a traffic stop of a lieutenant in the army in uniform pulled over in a traffic stop.  It was another case of driving while Black, since the excuse for the stop was the license plate, although the temporary plate you get when you buy a new car was clearly visible.  

The cop was confrontational from the first, and ended up pepper spraying the driver directly for no reason whatsoever.

My question is, do these local cops get any training at all?  Are they given lessons on defusing situations, or are they taught to make things worse?  Do they take courses, or are they just handed guns and handcuffs and pepper spray?  Do they take psychological tests?  Do they have to graduate from the 8th grade?  This is nuts.  And yes, Black Lives Matter.

Children at the border

 Recently my Republican Congressman Dan Meuser took a trip to Texas.  Evidently he is concerned about the way the Biden administration is treating children.  Here is something else he might be concerned about.

In the U.S. on average, one child is shot every hour.  Over the past decade approximately 30,000 children and teenagers have been killed by gunfire, now the second leading cause of death, passing cancer.  

And we have local municipalities in Carbon County passing resolutions declaring themselves Second Amendment sanctuaries.

Is a fetus a person under the 14th Amendment?

 Short answer, no.  The very first line of the 14th amendment says:  “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”  Note the word BORN.  

Even Mississippi defeated a referendum on fetal “personhood” in 20ll.  Nonetheless, many anti-abortion supporters are pushing for this.  Remember that if Roe v. Wade is overturned, individual states may still provide for legal abortions.  If you think the anti-abortion activists will be satisfied with legal abortions in a number of U.S. states, think again.

(I just realized that last night I took on the gun crazies and tonight the anti-abortion fanatics.  I think tomorrow I’ll defend euthanizing feral cats.)

The Second Amendment Sanctuary Ordinance

 Biden has signed an executive order banning so-called “ghost guns.”  These are weapons made from kits that don’t have serial numbers.  If  you are a crook or a mass murderer, you don’t need to make the effort to file off the serial number; the gun doesn’t have one.

A gun fanatic is visiting municipalities in Carbon County urging them to pass what is called a “Second Amendment Sanctuary Ordinance.”  I read a copy of the ordinance tonight, and if I am reading it correctly (and I will admit it is somewhat difficult to comprehend), it would call upon these municipalities to stop enforcement of laws banning “ghost guns.”

The resolution also would prohibit regulation of bump stocks or clip capacity or flash suppressors.  Note that none of those items are used by hunters.  They are used by criminals and whack jobs.

Bowmanstown, Palmerton, Lansford, and Penn Forest Townships have passed this resolution.  Did they hold public hearings?  Did they take testimony?  Did they even read what they were passing?

I am not on Facebook or Twitter or whatever, but if you are a reader of this post, feel free to repost this.  The guy who is pushing this has some real problems, and so do the municipalities that have adopted it.

Muons wobble

 The big news today on the front page of the New York Times was that the subatomic particles called muons wobble in unexpected ways.  Over 700 scientists from seven countries have been working on experiments involving muons, and the findings have caused excitement in the scientific world because they were unexpected.  

One of the labs that worked on the problem was at Brookhaven.  I have a friend who worked there for a number of years.  I called him tonight, and he was quite pleased.  He was planning to explain it to me, but I stopped him.

While I have no idea what this means or why it is important, I love that fact that scientific endeavor still crosses national lines, that smart people still work on things that may not have a monetary payoff, and that science is still discovering how the universe works.  So much better than reading about voter suppression, mass shooting, and Q-Anon.

God's will?

 I read today that many evangelicals are saying they won’t take the vaccine for Covid because if they die, that is God’s will.  I suppose it is also God’s will if they get Covid and spread it to elderly relatives who then die.  

I never will understand this type of thinking.  Why isn’t it God’s will that scientists at Moderna and Pfizer came up with a vaccine for us to take.

This reminds me of a story of a man in a flood who climbed up on his roof while the flood waters raged.  A boat came by to pick him up, but he refused to climb in, saying “God will save me.”  

The waters kept rising and the current grew swift, and a helicopter came by and dropped a sling.  The man shouted up over the roar of the rotors, “God will save me.”  

Soon the flood waters knocked the house down, and the man was drowning.  He looked at the heavens and shouted, “God, why didn’t you save me?”  God shouted, “I already sent a boat and a helicopter.  Now drown, you dumb shit.”

Build the Wall?

Bret Stephens, the “conservative” columnist for the New York Times, headlined his op-ed piece today “Biden Should Complete The Wall.”

Do you know why Central American states and Mexico have so many drug cartels and criminals and so much violence?  Who do you think is buying those drugs?  I get so angry when I hear people say that drug addiction is a victimless crime.  Bullshit.  Whole countries are victims.  The person selling cocaine or meth or for that matter, the person using it, is helping to wreck the lives of thousands of people.

Do you know that the refugees are a small percentage of our population compared to the refugees taken in by Germany or Italy or Greece in the last few years?  They number in the thousands, not millions.  

Do you know that climate change is playing a role in the refugee explosion?  Two hurricanes in 2020 devastated much of Central America, wrecking homes and crops.

Nevertheless, Stephens points out something important in his column.  Nobody cares about our drug addicts, or the relatively small numbers, or climate change.  The German, French, and Italian right-wing nationalist parties are largely the result of refugees.  Brexit is largely the result of refugees.  Biden and the Democrats will lose big in 2022 if the problem isn’t fixed, and in that regard it is a crisis.

Of course, if the Republicans were humanitarians, they would be trying to solve the problem.  They aren’t.  They will use the issue (see Ted Cruz, now worried about children at the border) to beat the Dems over the head.

Unfortunately, the Administration will have to turn people away.  There’s no room in this inn.

 

Quote of the week

 The quote of the week is from Congressman Matt Gaetz, the only member of congress to vote against a bill in 2017 to give the federal government more money to to fight human trafficking, and now accused of sex with an underage girl, among other sex crimes.  

Mr. Gaetz said “I have a suspicion that someone is trying to recategorize my generosity to ex-girlfriends as something more untoward.”  

“Untoward” is a word you seldom hear.  You also don’t often hear of prostitutes referred to as “ex-girlfriends.”  It’s kind of endearing.

Trump, Campaign Donations

 A front page article in today’s Times detailed how the Trump campaign, desperate for money, used a donation form that fooled contributors who thought they were making a one-time donation into automatic donations in subsequent weeks, in some cases bankrupting them.  Some donors were elderly or on fixed incomes, and a number of the donations ran into the thousands of dollars.

Yeah, well, tough cookies.  If those donors didn’t know after four years that they were contributing funds to a cheat and a grifter, that’s just too damn bad. 

An Easter message from George Carlin

 Religion has actually convinced people that there’s an invisible man--living in the sky--who watches everything you do, every minute of every day.  And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do....  And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever ’til the end of time.  But he loves you.

Trump issues apology

In a surprising development today, 45th President Donald Trump appeared on the Tucker Carlson show to issue an apology to the American people for his term in office.  The former president told Carlson, “I am so sorry for what I did to the American people in the last four years.  I don’t know if they will ever forgive me, but I was a complete ass.”  Mr. Trump went on for 45 minutes, detailing what he said were “just a few” of the ways in which he had “messed up the country.”  

At the end of the interview, Carlson turned to the camera and said, “ That was even weirder than the interview with Gaetz.”  Gaetz, a Republican congressman from Florida, is under investigation for “dating” a 17-year-old girl.