A lesson on Tulsa

 States have been passing laws mandating that public school teachers teach “patriotism” and downplay racist or disturbing events from the nation’s past.  As a former teacher, I find this truly unAmerican and the worst possible way to teach history.  How can we ever learn from our mistakes if we don’t acknowledge them?

Today I read about an amazing lesson teachers in Tulsa at the Mayo Demonstration School used to teach their students about the mob attack on the Black section of Tulsa 100 years ago.  The teachers assigned the third-, fourth-, and fifth grade students to research and build a model of the Greenwood section of the city, the part that was torched and where about 200 Blacks were murdered.  The kids toured the area, built model buildings, and labeled the stores and streets.  They planned a memorial celebration for the day after they finished and invited their parents to attend.

The night before the event, the teachers doused the model with lighter fluid and then set it on fire.  The students were distraught.  The teachers then asked the students to imagine real buildings, real schools, real people.  Many of those students said this was among the best lessons they had ever learned in school.

Heffely fights government intrusion

 My state representative, Doyle Heffley, has introduced a bill to outlaw the use of vaccine passports.  He points out that some people may not want to get the vaccine, and that is their right.  The government should not intrude on people’s health decisions.

You’d think a guy like that would be pro-choice, wouldn’t you?

Cute kids

 The front page of the New York Times today ran photos of kids killed in the latest round of fighting between Israel and Palestine.  There were over 80.  Some wanted to be doctors.  Some were babies.  All of them had their lives snuffed out by grownups who are fanatics, most of whom are still walking around congratulating themselves on “winning.”  Hamas scored points.  Israel scored points.  I’m not sure which side came out ahead, but I know who didn’t.

Lots of stupid things

 When one is an atheist, so many things seem stupid.  Saying “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, praying for rain, praying for anything, the bloody business in Northern Ireland, the Taliban, Evangelicals, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the angel Moroni, eternal damnation–you get the idea.  An amazing number of conflicts could be eliminated and an amazing amount of wasted effort could be saved if everyone were an atheist.

It might also improve our behavior if we didn’t think our sins will be forgiven or we can somehow earn God’s favor.  This is it.  What you do here and now is all you get, so get it right.

Pennsylvania's "pro-life" legislature

This week the Pennsylvania House “Health” Committee, controlled by Republicans, approved two anti-abortion bills.  One would make it illegal for parents to abort on the basis of a Down syndrome diagnosis.  The bill provides no money to help the parents care for the child.  The second bill would make it illegal to abort if a fetal heartbeat is detected.  The bill does not make it a crime to stop life support for patients whose heart continues to beat.

In the meantime the Republican House Judiciary Committee approved a bill to allow people to carry a loaded firearm, openly or concealed, without a permit.  

Truly a party of pro-lifers. 

Good news on the U.S.P.S.

 After a year in which the Post Office was almost destroyed by DeJoy, a Trump campaign donor, a bipartisan bill to fix that agency has been introduced and has a good chance of passage.  One of the main portions of the bill would eliminate the requirement that the U.S.P.S. pre-fund its health benefits for retirees, a requirement that no other agency has.  

The Post Office is supposed to be “self-sustaining.”  To me that is like asking the U.S. Military or the N.Y.P.D. to be self-sustaining.  It is a service provided to Americans.  It is not in the business to make money, but to deliver mail.  If it is ever privatized, you can say goodbye to rural delivery of mail.

This is a test

 I just bought a new IPad, and I’m trying to post on it.  If this works, I will be able to post from our locations as we drive across the country.

Maybe.

King Kong vs. Godzilla

Last night I saw the movie “King Kong vs. Godzilla,” or was it “Godzilla vs. King Kong”?  In any case, let me tell you about another movie first.  

Sometime in 1971 or ’72 when I was living in the Bay Area, I went to a showing in Berkeley of “The Hour of the Furnaces,” a left-wing film shot in Argentina.  The film was shown in a church basement, and the audience sat on hard folding chairs.  I had some serious dental work done earlier in the afternoon and was in quite a bit of pain.  The basement was cold.  The movie, in black and white, was in Spanish with subtitles.  Unlike its title, the film was at least three hours long.  I felt that it would be rude if I walked out, so I stayed for the whole thing.

That movie experience was better than “King Kong vs. Godzilla.”

Our declining birth rate

 Many are worried about our falling birth rate.  U.S. births fell 4% in 2020, which is the lowest rate since World War II.  The rise in the percentage of old people (I’m raising my hand here) will lead to lower productivity and economic stagnation.  Maybe.  

I believe the world has way too many people, not enough green space, not enough clean water and air.  At some point systems reach their carrying capacity.  The earth can only absorb so many humans, the species which is rapidly wrecking our planet.  

A declining birth rate is something to celebrate.

Misremember the Alamo!

 I was 12 when the Walt Disney series “Davy Crockett” was on TV.  I watched every episode at my grandmother’s house. I was heartbroken when Crockett was killed fighting for freedom at the Alamo.  

Except I learned later that he wasn’t exactly fighting for freedom.  In fact, one of the main reasons immigrants from the U.S. were fighting against Mexico was because they wanted to bring their slaves into the state.  Mexico did not allow slavery.  The Underground Railroad in Texas went south, to Mexico and freedom.

Now the Texas legislature has mandated that Texas schools teach patriotism, downplaying both slavery and discrimination against Mexicans.  One bill will block exhibits at the Alamo from mentioning that many of the fighters at the Alamo were slave owners.  

Republicans also attached amendments to the bill requiring that teaching in Texas schools raise awareness of the state’s Christian heritage and its tradition of gun ownership.  

Since all schools in the state must adopt an official state textbook, the huge market in Texas means that many textbooks across the country could reflect the Texas policy.

I was pleased when the U.S. government recently called what Turkey did to the Armenians during World War I genocide, which is what it was.  Now Texas does this.  Whitewashing history doesn’t change history; it is like an infection that festers under the skin.  

See Simon Romero, “A Push in Texas To Polish Stains Of Race History,” New York Times, (May 21, 2021), pp. A1, A16, for the full story.

Lake Mead is drying up

A column in today’s Times by Timothy Egan noted that the average annual temperature in Las Vegas has risen more than four degrees since 1970.  Four degrees might not seem like much, but it will change whole ecosystems.  Lake Mead, the body of water behind Hoover Dam, has fallen by 100 feet.  The Southwest is in the middle of one of the worst droughts in 500 years.

Amazingly, there are still many people who think global warming is a hoax.  I’ve seen their letters in the Morning Call and the Times News.  Oh, and one was recently President of the United States. 

A ban on beef?

 Fox News and other crazy people have spread the false rumor that the Biden climate plan will ban the eating of beef.  It won’t.  That hasn’t been proposed.  It hasn’t been discussed.

However, it might not be a bad idea.  The way cattle are stuffed with artificial feeds and loaded up with antibiotics and crowded into feed lots indicate that beef might not be the best meat to eat if you eat meat.  If you don’t know how the steer you are eating was raised, maybe you shouldn’t be eating it.  Besides, steers produce methane.  Not as much as fracking wells, but still a significant amount.

Do I eat beef?  Yeah, an occasional hamburger, but I also find the plant-based ones quite tasty, although they have their own environmental problems.  Mostly I get my proteins from the eggs my chickens produce.  

Election day in Penna.

 It’s tomorrow, although I already cast my ballot a week ago.  What a stupid election.  I have never understood why the Clerk of Courts and the Register of Wills are elected positions  Or why we have an elected tax collector.  Those should be civil service jobs that go to qualified people.  

In my school district (Palmerton Area) four people are running for the school board.  I’ve heard that they aren’t very bright, and two are husband and wife, which is a terrible idea.  I wrote in a friend and former teacher.

The judges are another story.  Pennsylvania has an amazingly complicated judicial system, and all of the judges are elected, not appointed.  How many voters know anything about judicial candidates?

We vote on four ballot questions, two of which are spite amendments put on the ballot by Republican legislators to strip the governor of emergency powers.  I’ve gotten four mailers, some of which talk about local control, which has nothing to do with the proposed amendments.  Republicans must really hate Governor Wolf to spend that kind of money to get back at him for doing his best on the Covid 19 pandemic.

There’s a proposed amendment guaranteeing equal protection of the laws regardless of race or creed, which is already covered at both the state and federal level.  I’m getting the impression that our legislators are not serious people.  

Finally, there is a complicated ballot issue involving fire fighters and loans.  I’ve heard it would benefit large fire companies at the expense of volunteer fire companies.  Is that a bad thing? 

And what is this guy Trump running for?  I am seeing his signs around, but no office is listed.  That’s pretty weird.  I wrote him in for Clerk of Courts.

Time to end racing (and two quick items)

 Race fans are concerned that racing may end because the EPA has stepped up enforcement against car part makers whose products disable emissions systems.  Racers often modify those systems to give the car more power.  It has always amazed me that people can sit and watch cars go round and round while emitting greenhouse gasses in large quantities.

As for sports being eliminated, it’s happened before.  We no longer allow bear baiting, or bull fighting, or dog fighting, and when people are caught participating in those “sports,” they are punished.  

However, if people feel that strongly about seeing cars run around a track, race electric cars.  Maybe you can soup them up with more batteries.

See Roy Furchgott, “For Small-Time Racers, Big Gripe With E.P.A.,” New York Times, (May 14, 2021), p. B6.

Now, two quick items:

You no longer need to wear a mask, but you don’t want people to think you are a Trump supporter.  What can you do?  Answer:  Carry a book.

How do you tell people who are vaccinated from those who aren’t?  Answer:  Ask them who won the election.

A thank you to my friend Bill for those two.

The U.S. in decline

 Approximately 40% of U.S. voters think the 2020 presidential election was “stolen.”

Some businesses are not allowing pregnant women in because they read on the internet that vaccinated people can harm a fetus.

At least three members of Congress have publicly stated that the insurrectionists were either patriots or antifa.  One said it looked like they were ordinary tourists.

We have a few weeks of cold weather in Pennsylvania in May, and people are actually saying it proves there is no global warming.

Chinese leadership is of the opinion that America is in a decline and losing its status as a great power.  Given the level of political discourse, the lack of rational thought, and the belief in the most outlandish conspiracy theories among our population along with the anti-democratic actions of one of our two major political parties, I believe the Chinese are on to something.

When experts change their minds

 I read an article soon after the pandemic started advising people to trust the medical experts even when they sometimes were inconsistent.  The article said many people found it hard to put faith in experts who said one thing one month but had different advice the following month.  People threw up their hands and wondered why they should believe anything these so-called experts said.

The article pointed out that scientists and medical professionals cannot know everything immediately.  The important thing is to use rigorous observation and experimentation, correct errors, and adjust conclusions.  When the pandemic started far more patients were put on ventilators than later; physicians found that ventilators often made conditions worse.  We obviously didn’t know about “long-haulers” or “brain fog” when the pandemic started.  Doctors didn’t have a clear idea of how the droplets spread outside; now we have found that people who are outside are relatively safe.  

We do know that masks work and that vaccines work.  That has not changed.  The polio and smallpox vaccines also worked.  Thank goodness when we were eliminating smallpox and polio, we didn’t have as many stupid people as we do now.

Investing in pistachio farms

 When Pennsylvania makes the business section of the New York Times, you can bet the news won’t be good.  It turns out that the Pennsylvania Teachers’ Retirement Fund was putting its assets into all kinds of risky investments, including trailer park chains, pistachio farms, oil-backed loans to Kurds seeking independence in northern Iraq, and my favorite, pay phone systems for inmates.  

We are talking about a $62 billion fund.  Now the FBI is investigating.  Why wasn’t the legislature overseeing this?  Probably too busy trying to make voting harder and attacking Wolf.

See the lead article in today’s Times Business section by Mary William Walsh, pp. B1, B4.

Ethnic Cleansing in Israel

It is always painful when a country you’ve admired in the past adopts policies that are reprehensible.  The removal of Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem is nothing less than “ethnic cleansing,” and the young-right-wing fanatics demonstrating to expel the Palestinians bear an uncomfortable resemblance to Trumpists.  

When our enemies do things like that we speak out.  We need to speak out when our friends do it as well. 

Stuck in Dallas

 Our daughter left for California early this afternoon from the Philly Airport on American Airlines.  She was supposed to fly to Dallas and then to Sacramento.  She called this evening from Dallas.  All flights are delayed from Dallas; the next flight out that would get her near Sacramento will not be available until Wednesday evening.  No hotels rooms are provided.  Thousands are stranded.  She’s a little worried, since it is Texas and some of those people no doubt have guns, even in an airport.  

It never ends

 First came the 15th Amendment guaranteeing the right to vote without regard to race or color.  Then, after almost 100 years of Jim Crow laws, lynching, and violence, we had court cases and civil rights laws to put the 15th into practice.  Now we get one state after another (including my own state of Pennsylvania) doing their best to undermine the rights of voters, specifically the poor, the old, racial minorities, American Indians, and, let’s face it, Democrats.  

All of this is based on a lie that Biden didn’t really win, a lie endorsed by Republican legislators both at the state and the federal level.  I am just so tired of fighting this.

The Carlisle Indian Industrial School

 On June 14 the Department of the Army will begin to disinter the remains of 10 Indian children from the Carlisle Indian Industrial School and return the bones to their families.  The School was in operation from 1879 to 1918.  Kids were taken from Indian families and sent to Carlisle, where they were supposed to be taught English, Christianity, and a trade.

Some of the children died at the school and were buried there.  When Linda and I visited the Military Museum in Carlisle two years ago, we drove past the sad little cemetery.  Nine of the children to be returned were Sioux; one was from the Aleut Nation.  

Some of the information for this post was taken from an article by Joseph Cress of the Carlisle Sentinel, reprinted in the Morning Call, (April 38, 2021), p. 9.

Raya and the Last Dragon

 Tonight Linda, daughter Rachael, and I saw “Raya and the Last Dragon” at the Mahoning Theater.  We were the only three people in the large theater.  The movie, an animated feature with a message on the importance of trust, was excellent.  Awkwafina provides the voice of the dragon, Kelly Marie Tran is Raya, and Gemma Chan is Namaari.  The writers, cast, and crew may have been the most ethnically diverse group of people I have ever encountered in a movie.  

The entire audience gave it two thumbs up.

Facebook bans Trump, again

 I probably should not comment on the Facebook decision to continue to ban Trump, since I am not on Facebook and know very little about it.  On the other hand, lack of knowledge about a subject never stopped me from commenting before.

If I write a letter to the Morning Call calling for the overthrow of the government or containing obvious lies, the Morning Call doesn’t have to print it.  That paper is privately owned.  I don’t have a right to publication.  In fact, if you comment on this post, and I don’t like what you post, I can remove your comment.

I do have certain rights of a free press, of course.  I can take a circular down to West End Printing, have them print 40,000 copies, and send a copy to every voter in Carbon County.  I can stand next to the courthouse with a sign opposing the PennEast pipeline.  I can start my own newspaper, provided I have the funds.  What I don’t have is the right to decide that I can post anything I want (porn, libelous charges, instructions on how to build a nuclear bomb) on Facebook.

Trumpists do not understand that  They don’t seem to get the rights of private ownership. 

Liz Cheney

 Here is a test.  To whom would you lend money, Kevin McCarthy or Liz Cheney?  

Would you trust McCarthy, who wants so badly to be Speaker of the House that he was willing to sell his soul to the devil, or Cheney, who recognizes what every rational person in the United States and around the world knows to be a fact?  That fact is that Trump lost the November election, both in popular vote and in the Electoral College.  Badly.  Overwhelmingly.

For stating the truth–Trump is a loser and implicated in the attack on the Capitol–Cheney will be stripped of her party leadership position.  Q-Anon supporters Green and Bobert and sex trafficker Gaetz will be voting to punish Rep. Cheney.

I know it is hard for some people to change parties, but if you are a Republican who can’t quite bring yourself to switch to Democrat, consider Independent or Decline to State or Libertarian.  If a deeply conservative Republican like Liz Cheney can be punished for refusing to lie, it is time to abandon that party.

On another note entirely, our daughter Rachael is visiting from CA.  She flew in last night; it is the first time we have seen her in two years because of the Covid restrictions.  I am so glad we are getting this pandemic under control.  Happy Cinco de Mayo.

Mail-in ballots

 Today’s Morning Call ran a front-page article about how many more Dems than Republicans are using mail-in ballots.  In the 2020 Pennsylvania election almost 65% of the 2.6 million mail-in ballots were cast by Dems, although they make up less than 47% of the state’s voters.

Why is this?  Did it occur to those of you who are Pennsylvania Democrats that you might get hassled by Trumpists if you voted in person?  Did you think you might be challenged, or yelled at, or cursed if you voted in person?  

On Sunday a front-page article in the New York Times was headlined, “Republicans Aim to Expand Power of Poll Watchers.”  Republicans sin Texas want to  send an “Election Integrity Brigade” into Black, Latino, and Asian neighborhoods in Houston to challenge voters.  The “Brigade” would not operate in white suburbs.

If you were a Black, Latino, or Asian voter in Houston, and you had the opportunity to vote by mail, wouldn’t you?  In Pennsylvania Republican legislators are attempting to make vote-by-mail more difficult.  I’m sure the same kind of legislation as Texas is pushing will be proposed here.  I am not being paranoid; I’m basing this belief on past Republican efforts to suppress Democratic votes.

Affinity Fraud

“Affinity frauds” are “...scams that prey upon people by exploiting a sense of shared identity.”  That is a quote from Paul Krugman, and his example was Bernie Madoff, who Krugman says defrauded wealthy Jews by convincing them he was just like them.

Republicans do this all the time.  They represent the interests of the wealthy and the biggest corporations, but they pretend to be just “regular guys,” the kind of people you’d want to have a beer with.  They try to convince you that Democrats are elitists who don’t care about you and eat avocado toast for breakfast.

A perfect example of affinity fraud is my state Representative Doyle Heffley, who runs under the slogan “he's one of us,” but once in office represents big oil, big business, big agriculture, and Republican interests generally, while giving the impression that he is just a “good ole boy.”  And he is getting away with it. 

(I didn't post last night because it was May 1st, a traditional holiday among left-wingers and radicals around the world.  Also I was really tired from working in the truck patch.)