The Mountain Valley Pipeline deal has a putrid smell

I am so angry.  This deal to raise the debt ceiling was unbelievably rotten.  The Mountain Valley Pipeline, proposed to bring fracking gas from West Virginia to Virginia, was approved in the deal, and it was protected from any judicial review.  Congress can decide the jurisdiction of the courts.  So, Congress decided, with Biden’s approval, that the Mountain Valley Pipeline, running across nearly 1000 streams and rivers, can be built without any court review.

The pipeline is backed by the Joe Manchin.  The company that controls the pipeline, NextEra Energy, gives large donations to both Manchin and Sen. Schumer.  I understand why people lose faith in their government.  I am one of them.

Biden thinks that Manchin can win in West Virginia with its deep red electorate and needs his help.  I’d rather they elect a Republican.  At this point, I don’t care.

The sclerotic American government

The last time Congress passed and the states successfully ratified an amendment to the Constitution was in 1971.  The last time a new state was added was 1959.  The last time the House of Representatives was capped at 435 was 94 years ago.

The Founding Fathers, in their wisdom, put a process in the Constitution that would allow fixes to problems.  Constitutions were once considered fundamental and unchangeable, but I read that the Pennsylvania Constitution was the first written to allow an amending process.  Don’t know if that is true.)

In any case, this government cries out for amendments.  There are so many aspects that just don’t work well.  I’d start with the 2nd Amendment.  After all we repealed the 18th.   

The Biden/McCarthy budget deal

If I were in Congress, I’d vote for the deal, provided the Republicans also voted for it.  If they didn’t, then I’d abstain and urge all the Democrats to do likewise.  I’m tired of being in the responsible party.  

Kate Braverman's Wonders of the West

I am aware that loyal readers aren’t expecting book reports, but sometimes I have this urge to share.  Here is a quote from Wonders of the West, p. 59.  The narrator is discussing the kids who live in run-down subsidized housing in Los Angeles.

Our mothers take early morning buses to their jobs.  They wear makeup.  No one supervises our clothing, irons collars, braids hair, puts in ribbons.  No one cooks us breakfast.  We are allotted change and buy doughnuts and coffee.  We are allowed to cross streets and talk to strangers.  We can compute sweet rolls to quarters.  When we are young we wear our keys around our necks.  We don’t have to do homework.  We don’t have braces or Little League, piano or ballet lessons.  We are nothing like the children in the pastel ranch houses.  

Our clothing doesn’t fit right, shows our scraped knees.,  Fatigue seems to be coming off our skin, rising like elements that have been tarnished.  You don’t want to ask us about our dreams or hobbies.  You don’t want to know.  We look like we haven’t been eating right.  We look like we’re not college-bound.

Why isn’t Braverman well-known?  I think she is absolutely wonderful.  (OK, maybe not her novel about Frida Kahlo).  She was also an excellent poet and prize-winning short story writer.  She died in 2019. 

A lesson from the anti-abortion crowd

You know how the so-called “pro-life” demonstrators show up at rallies with pictures of aborted fetuses and sonograms.  I think it is time that gun safety advocates start showing up at gun shows with pictures of dead elementary school children.  I want these jerks to confront the horrors they are causing.

Supreme Court permits pollution of wetlands

So now five Supreme Court justices, all Republicans, all unelected, all unethical, have decided that the E.P.A. can’t regulate pollution in millions of acres of wetlands. 

Judicial review is not part of the Constitution.  You will not find it anywhere in the document.  Let’s go back to originalism that Clarence Thomas is always bleating about.  Let’s do what the original document said.  Let’s end this idea that one person (the vote was five to four) can decide policy for an entire nation.  You can call that what you want, but I call it tyranny.  And it is time it ends.  And there are ways to end it.

Ron DeSantis announces

Think about what passes for leadership in this country.  Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Bobert, Greg Abbot, Jim Jordan, Kevin McCarthy, Lindsay Graham, Rupert Murdock, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Donald Trump, and now, Ron DeSantis.  How did we come to this?  We’ve had bad leaders before, but I cannot think of a time in our history when we have had this many unethical people in this many positions of power and with millions of followers.

Ron DeSantis is one of those leaders completely lacking in morals.  He will do whatever it takes to achieve power.  He has no interest in preserving democratic government, and he’s worse than Trump because he is smarter than Trump.   

Swans vs. geese

Over the past few weeks about a dozen Canadian geese have been landing near, and sometimes on, my garden.  They eat plants, and they do crap.  Goose crap is rather unpleasant.  So Linda bought two fake life-sized swans.  They are in resting in the garden, and we have not had a goose land since they have been up there.

Now, what to do about the deer?  Life-sized fake coyotes are available, some with legs that move in the wind.  We might try those.  I wish we had more real coyotes, or better yet, wolves.  Or mountain lions.  

Five questions for environmental groups

Tonight I attended a meeting of the environmental group “Save Carbon County.”  This is the group that successfully fought the PennEast Pipeline, that successfully campaigned for the bond issue to preserve open space and farmland in the county, and that is currently fighting the use of sewage sludge on county farm fields.  

The group has five questions it considers before taking an action:

1.  Are the facts and science on our side?

2.  Is there wide support within our membership?

3.  Is there support from the community of Carbon County?

4.  Do we have the necessary resources to make this fight?

5.  Can we make a difference?

Those are great questions to ask, and it is why I am a proud member of this group.

Tim Scott announces he is running for President

You know, Tim Scott.

Junior Senator from South Carolina...

Black guy...

Initially appointed by Nikki Haley...

That guy.  He’s announced he’s running for President. 

Thomas Jefferson on "originalism"

Some members of the Supreme Court have this cockamamie theory that they should decide cases on the basis of the Constitution exactly as written at the time it was written.  Of course, if they really believed this, there is no way they would approve of AR-15 guns, since the rifles in 1787 were muzzle-loaders.  In any case, here is what Thomas Jefferson said:

You moderns have a tendency to worship at the altar of the Fathers.  “The First Amendment is sacrosanct!”  “We will die to protect the Second Amendment!”  So dramatic.  Do you know why we called them amendments?  Because they amend!  They fix mistakes or correct omissions and they themselves can be changed.  If we had meant for the Constitution to be written in stone we would have written it in stone.  Most things were written in stone back then, you know.  I’m not trying to be difficult but it’s bothersome when you blame your own inflexibility and extremism on us.

OK, it’s not really Jefferson.  It is from the Foreword of the textbook entitled America: The Book written and edited by Jon Stewart, et. al.  (New York:  Warner Books, c. 2004), p. x.

Art with a View

Tonight I attended an art show at Blue Mountain Resort sponsored by the Carbon County Community Foundation.  I wore a shirt with a collar, clean blue jeans, and no baseball cap, so you know this was a fancy event.  A 102-year-old named Edith Roeder was given a lifetime achievement award, and I might have bought her wonderful “Self Portrait,” but it wasn’t for sale.  

I was drawn to the photography of Connie Reinhart of Palmerton, a truly excellent photographer.  I already have one of her photos hanging on our wall.  I also liked the realistic paintings of Jay Davenport, although they were out of my price range.

Electing Prothonotaries

Yesterday Pennsylvania held a primary election.  Students of government usually make a distinction between people who make policy (legislatures, council members, school boards), people who adjudicate issues (courts) and people who carry out policy (the bureaucracy).  

\After the Progressive reforms of a century ago, the people who carry out the policy were usually considered “civil servants” who got their jobs because of qualifications rather than political affiliations.  They took civil service exams.  They had expertise.  They weren’t fired when the policy-makers were defeated at the polls.

In Pennsylvania, however, we seemed to have ignored the changes that other states made decades ago.  We still elect local tax collectors, people who don’t make policy but collect local taxes.  (And yes, they get a cut.)  We elect a Clerk of Courts.  We elect a Recorder of Deeds.  A Sheriff.  A Register of Wills.  And, of course, a Prothonotary.  Probably only one in fifty Pennsylvanians even knows what a Prothonotary does, let alone can spell it.  Nonetheless, every four years, by god, we voters are asked to elect one.  

We need to make some major changes, and soon.

Trump-Pence???

Did you ever see someone do something so stupid that you want to just pat him on the hand and say, “It’s ok.  Really, it’s ok.”

Tonight I was taking down campaign signs that we had put up at various polling locations, and some MAGA guy–had to be a guy– had put up a Trump-Pence sign at the Franklin Township Firehouse location.

Has this guy not read the paper or listened to the news, even Fox “News,” since 2020?  Does he not realize that Trump supporters want to hang Mike Pence?  Doesn’t he know that Trump blames Pence for not holding up the electoral vote count?

If anyone knows this guy, give him a pat and tell him, “It’s ok.  Really, it’s ok.”  Don’t make fun of him.  That would not be very nice.

Poor babies

In his review in the Sunday Times of two novels geared to middle school students, John Schwartz had this to say about “The Storyteller,” a book based on Cherokee folklore.  “My recommendation:  Grab this one before the anti-diversity, only-history-we like zealots try to yank it from library shelves.”  

The book discusses some aspects of the Trail of Tears when the Cherokees were removed from the South and forced to march to Oklahoma in the wintertime.  This book might be pulled under newly passed laws in some states because it might hurt the feelings of white kids or make them feel guilty.

Did you ever think that you would be warned that you might not be able to read a book because it made some kid feel bad?  Welcome to America in 2023.

Mother's Day Tribute

On Sunday afternoons when my Dad took my sister and me on walks (we never called them hikes), my Mother never went along.  It occurs to me that she probably hiked enough when she was young.  One of 15 children, she walked at least two miles to the Stemlersville one-room school and at least four miles to Palmerton High School.  I must drive those routes one of these days and find out just how far they are.

I am proud of my mother.  She could be out in the truck patch picking strawberries, come in fifteen minutes before noon, and have a substantial dinner (we didn’t call it lunch; that was something city folks ate) by 12 o’clock that fed the hired hands as well as the family.

She was the first woman elected to the Palmerton Area School District, and she did it from rural Towamensing Township with a small population at that time.  She accomplished it by getting votes in the West End of Palmerton where the Zinc Company workers lived. 

She was a longtime Democratic Committeewoman, taught me to be tolerant of all races and religions, and stayed active until her death.  She would have hated Trump, and it is good she isn’t here to see how American politics has deteriorated.  

I know I sometimes disappointed her (she hated that I was an atheist), but I know she was also proud of me.  I never received a letter from her that wasn’t addressed to Dr. Roy Christman.  She died in 1991, and I still miss her.

Pennsylvania's Hispanic population increasing

According to the latest issue of the Center for Rural Pennsylvania newsletter, every county in Pennsylvania saw an increase in its Hispanic population in the last decade.  Carbon County’s Hispanic population in 2021 was 55 per 1000 inhabitants, or roughly five percent of the county’s population.  Lehigh County had the highest percentage of Hispanics, followed by Berks.  The newsletter did not detail the country of origin of the population, although I wish I had posted this on Cinco de Mayo.  

That’s the 5th of May, gringo. 

Elon Musk or what?

Charles Francis Adams was one of the founding members of the Free Soil Party and later served as ambassador to Britain during the Civil War.  I’d say what he wrote about robber barons holds up rather well.

I am more than a little puzzled to account for the instances I have seen of business success–money-getting.  It comes from a rather low instinct.  Certainly, so far as my observation goes, it is rarely met with in combination with the finer or more interesting traits of character.  I have known, and known tolerably well, a good many “successful” men–“big” financially–men famous during the last half-century; and a less interesting crowd I do not care to encounter.  Not one that I have ever known would I care to meet again, either in this world or the next; nor is one of them associated in my mind with the idea of humor, thought, or refinement.

Dems meet at the Batter's Box

Tonight a group of about 20 Carbon County Democratic activists met at the Batter’s Box, a restaurant in Summit Hill, to eat dinner, drink beer, and talk about political issues.  Some of the topics included should Biden run again, how could we reform the property tax in PA, and what weapons should the U.S. supply to Ukraine.  (Consensus on that last one:  everything except nukes, although I was pushing nukes.)  

We ate outside on the deck.  The food was great, and I was impressed with the efficiency of the wait staff.  I am not a sociable person (that’s an understatement), but even I had a good time.

The Hillsdale 1776 Curriculum

Angry at the publication of “The 1619 Project,” a series of articles in the New York Times Magazine eventually made into a set of lessons for schools, Hillsdale College published its own lesson plans for teaching American history.  Its version is known as the “1776 Curriculum”

While some aspects of the “The 1619 Project” have been criticized (I’m one of the critics), the Project does elevate slavery to an important position in American history, often downplayed in the past.  My own education was sadly lacking in this regard.  

However, the Hillsdale College lesson plan is a whitewash.  (Yes, I intended that.)  Hillsdale College is a conservative Christian college with a huge endowment funded by rightists.  Its ideas on American history are in the process of being adopted in Florida.  

Here’s an example of the slant.  Teachers are told to consider with students the significance of the Constitution not using the word “slave” and instead using “person.”  Refusing to use the word “slave” avoided giving legal legitimacy to slavery....The use of the word “person” forced even slaveholders to recognize the humanity of the slave.

If you know anything about the way slaves were treated and denied their humanity, that statement alone calls into question the whole “1776 curriculum.”   It’s junk history.  

For a review of both the Hillsdale program and the 1619 Project, see Adam Hochschild, “History Bright and Dark,” The New York Review of Books, (May 25, 2023), pp. 25-27.  I took the quote above from that review. 

Becoming Nicole

This book, published in 2015 and written by Amy Ellis Nutt, is not only informative about transgender issues, but it is also the record of a family dealing with a transgender kid.  Luckily the family was from Maine and not Mississippi or Idaho.  

Nicole’s legal victory in the Maine courts was the first that said transgender students had the right to be treated as the gender with which they identified.  I now understand why it is important to start medical treatment before a transgender kid hits puberty, but also why the surgery shouldn’t be done (if you are having surgery) before about 18 years of age.

This is not some dry medical tome, but the story of a real family grappling with both interpersonal relationship issues and the problems created by bigots and Christians. Unfortunately the bigots in this case were mostly “Christians.” 

End of an era?

Since the mid-‘60s I’ve been buying the Sunday New York Times.  First on College Avenue in State College, later at DeLauer’s bookstore in Oakland (my daughter and I had a weekly ritual buying the Times and Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups), then as we moved, in San Jose, Danville, and San Anselmo.  For over fifty years the Times and Sundays were intertwined.

When I retired to PA I quickly found an outlet in Kresgeville at Jeker’s Store.  Eventually I ended up at Sonny’s Express Mart.  I had a good system with the Bob, the owner.  When we went on vacation a pile of Times would be waiting for me when we returned.

Lately Bob has been having trouble with the distributor.  Delivery has been spotty.  The distributor decided that we could do without the Monday paper.  I wrote to the New York Times three times and to the distributor.  Not one letter was answered.

Today I learned that the paper will no longer be delivered.  I suppose I could drive to Stroudsburg, but that is about 25 miles.  Then I tried the gas station near the Mahoning Interchange, and they had two copies.  Yes!

But will they save them for me?

Please don’t comment that I can read the paper on line.  I know that.  I have an on-line subscription.  IT IS NOT THE SAME. 

The King and the Prime Minster

The British have a great system.  They have a head of government (the prime minister) and a head of state (the King).  You can dislike the prime minister, vote against him or her, and demonstrate against the government’s programs.  At the same time you can venerate the King and honor him as the head of state.

In the U.S. it is the same person.  You want to respect the President of the United States, but you want to see him go to jail for various crimes.  It makes you nuts.

Britain, of course, is not the only country that separates the two.  Japan has the prime minister and the Emperor.  Germany has the chancellor and the President.  Israel has the Prime Minster and the President.  Belgium has the premier and the King.  The Founding Fathers messed up on this.