Scary stuff for Halloween

If you think that in this high tech era we no longer need to worry about metals like copper or iron, think again. Ed Conway has just published a book entitled “Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization.”  The first one he lists is sand.  That’s right, sand.  We are using world wide about 35 pounds of sand every day for every person on the planet.  In some parts of the world an illicit trade in sand has grown up.  Sand is used in building bridges, dams, overpasses, roadways and beaches in New Jersey.  Sand is the major ingredient in concrete.

The second on the list is salt, used in many chemical processes.  Then comes iron.  And oil.  And copper.  Finally there is lithium.  An electric car battery contains almost 20 pounds of lithium.  

Conway believes that we can do a better job of recycling.  I have a barrel full of copper wire in my shed that I will sell to a scrap dealer later this year.  You can’t recycle most of the oil we use, but we can reuse copper, lithium, and iron.  We just aren’t doing a good job of that.  

Salt we can get from the ocean.  Sand may be a problem.

Information for this post is from a review from Elizabeth Kolbert (a wonderful environmental writer) in the New Yorker, (Oct. 30, 2023), pp. 20-23.

Playa Lakes on the Panhandle

I’ve driven across the Texas Panhandle, but somehow I missed the nearly 20,000 ephemeral playa lakes.  They form when rainfall is high, then dry up.  When they dry up, their lake beds crack, so when it rains again water percolates down to help replenish the Ogallala Aquifer.  

According to the Nov. issue of Texas Highways, these lakes are incredibly important for the flora and fauna of the Panhandle.  And now, with global climate change, fewer of them are forming.  Others are being eliminated by development and agriculture.

Just once I would like to read some positive environmental news.  Just once.

Mail in your ballots–now!

I’m part of an effort to remind people who requested mail-in ballots to send them back.  The election is just over a week away, and under Postmaster DeJoy, the mail has been a bit iffy.  

I was provided with a list of names of people who requested mail-in ballots, and I simply phone them to remind them to send them in.  At least four said they would be mailing them tomorrow, and I’m thinking those might be voters who forgot.  A number said they already had confirmation that their ballots had been received.  One woman, now in Florida, had not gotten her ballot, had called the Registrar, and would be back on the 6th to vote in person if need be.  

There was also the guy who slammed the phone down.  I thought about calling him right back for a brief lecture on phone etiquette, but I didn’t.  Then there was the guy who said the person I was trying to reach didn’t live there, and he didn’t go into for that “Democratic Party stuff” (free and fair elections?  Social Security? tolerance? belief in a Constitutional order?), and then said “Trump” as though that explained it all.  Actually, I think it did.

Pence drops out; Phillips jumps in

Mike Pence did one remarkable thing in his life, and it was important.  He refused to go along with Trump’s scheme to overturn the election.  Unfortunately, after four years of sucking up to Trump, after he did his one remarkable thing, he was unwilling to do what Chris Christie did and break completely with his old hero.  As a consequence he was unable to attract either the anti-Trump voters or the MAGA crowd who will never forgive him.  So he prayed and then dropped out of the presidential race.  No need to pray.  It was foregone.

Dean Phillips, a Democratic Congressman from Minnesota, showed up in New Hampshire and announced he is running against Biden.  This was a gutsy move, since almost every Democratic politician has already endorsed Biden.  On the other hand, the average Democratic voter may have different ideas.  If Phillips is able to get on a number of state ballots (always iffy when the establishment doesn’t want you), I think his vote totals might come as a surprise, especially to President Biden.

Bride of Frankenstein

What a great movie.  It creates sympathy for the monster, it has more humor than the first “Frankenstein,” and Elsa Lanchester plays both Mary Shelley and the Bride.  Mel Brooks “Young Frankenstein” may have the better scene with the blind woodsman, but the original is also very good and quite moving.  

I think the previous time I saw it was in the 1950s when my sister and I would walk over to my grandmother’s house (we didn’t have a tv; Nana did) and watched it on “Creature Features.”  It was fun to see it again. 

Republican Presidential candidates oppose free speech

Students on a number of campuses across the country have supported the actions by Hamas or, on the other side, the bombing of Gaza by Israel.  Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, Tim Scott, and Donald Trump have all declared that students issuing statement on behalf of Hamas should be kicked out of the country, and schools that didn’t halt this kind of speech should be denied funding.  Notice that the students have not been destroying property or physically attacking anyone.  They may be saying reprehensible things, but they are speaking.  

Vivek Ramaswamy, of all people, got it right.  He said, “Colleges are spaces for students to experiment with ideas & sometimes kids join clubs that endorse boneheadedly wrong ideas.”  

See Maggie Astor, “Crackdown Sought on Anti-Israel Speech,” New York Times, (Oct. 26, 2023), p. A15.

President Mike Johnson?

If President Biden dies tonight and Vice President Harris dies tomorrow morning, Mike Johnson would become president of the United States.  Isn’t that a fine kettle of fish.

Although I’m an atheist, I just might just say a prayer for the continued good health of Biden and Harris.

Counting ballots by hand

Right wing activists have been pressuring local governments to count ballots by hand.  They claim this will prevent fraud and make elections secure.  Hand counting, of course, will lead to errors, recounts, claims of cheating, and uncertainty in results.  

Think about our elections.  We not only elect the President, but we also elect members of Congress, state legislators, mayors, school board members, local supervisors, borough councils, and, in Pennsylvania, the Recorder of Deeds, the County Commissioners, and, I almost forgot, the Prothonotary.  

In Carbon County there are thousands of voters, and Carbon is a small county.  Did you ever see what humans do with repetitive tasks that are not only repetitive, but complicated?  Do you think two people counting those ballots will arrive at the same total?  Really?

This is another of those whacko conspiratorial ideas the MAGA people cook up that will lead to chaos.  I suspect that is what they want.

Rats with hooves

The PA state game land number 100 in Centre and Clearfield counties was decimated by gypsy moths (now called spongy moths) between 2006 and 2009.  The Game Commission cut down dead trees, used herbicides, and did prescribed fire burns on 2000 acres.  That was supposed to provide the conditions for a new forest.

Nothing grew above the ferns.  There are small red maples, but nothing grows higher than knee high.  The deer have eaten everything.  

PA has too damn many deer, and if you are feeding them, you are a bad person.

Information for this post is from the Sept. 2023 issue of the Pennsylvania Game News.  (I read everything.) 

Making judgments about Israel and Palestine

“A pox on both your houses” doesn’t really work.  What Hamas did to those hundreds of Israelis was murder, plain and simple.  Seizing hostages and holding them cannot be justified and is a crime.  There is no equivalence.  Hamas continues to deny Israel’s right to exist, more than 70 years after Israel became a sovereign nation.  Israel is justified in its efforts to stamp out Hamas, just as the U.S. was justified in attacking ISIS.

Having said that, there is no justification for Israel to cut off food and electricity to thousands of civilians who are not members of Hamas.  Nor is there any excuse for settlements on the West Bank in occupied territory, nor for Israel to take away Palestinian land or liberties.  In a conflict just because you condemn one side doesn’t mean you automatically favor everything the other side is doing. 

Evil acts should be condemned no matter who commits them.  I don’t know why that is so hard for people to accept.

Lehighton Halloween Parade

The Democrats had two entries.  One was for the candidate for County Controller; the other for the two candidates for County Commissioner and for County Coroner.  

The Republicans had five entries.  First in line was one for all of their candidates including the unqualified state judicial candidates and state Rep. Doyle Heffley, who isn’t even running this year.  A candidate for Congress had his own float.  I shook his hand and asked him what he thought about the contest for Speaker.  That was fun.  A third entry was for the Republican candidates for County Commissioner.  Then there was an entry for their candidate for Coroner, a guy with no qualifications except that he got enough signatures on the nominating petition.  Finally there was an entry for a District Judge, an office usually considered to be non-political, but I guess she thought since the Republicans are in the majority in her district she should emphasize her party affiliation.

Did any candidates win any votes at the parade?  That’s always the question.  We did give away a large pile of candy.  Unfortunately, most of that went to kids who can’t vote. 

Letter to an angry man

Tonight I wrote to a guy on Interchange Road.  I included my name and address.  If I get a reply, I'll print that.  If I get shot in the next few days, you know what to tell the police.

Resident
7395 Interchange Road

Lehighton, PA 18235

Dear Sir,

I am 80 years old and was born and raised in Towamensing Township.  I remember when our local Democrats and Republicans engaged in competition in races for Township supervisor and even in Presidential races.  We considered ourselves a community.

It is with dismay that I saw the sign you have in front of your house that says “F... Biden.”  It is distressing to me to see such a crude sign on a public highway in our township.  I believe you can express your disappointment or even your anger at the President of the U.S. without resorting to this kind of language.

The benevolent leader

In the 1950s Yale political science professor Fred Greenstein studied New Haven school children to learn about their political attitudes.  He found that very young students often confused the President with God.  The President was, in their eyes, superhuman.  The article detailing the findings was titled “The Benevolent Leader.”

In 1959 I was a delegate to the national 4-H conference in Washington, D.C.  I was 16.  We all went down to the White House lawn and President Eisenhower came out to talk to us.  I didn’t like Eisenhower very much.  I was angry that the U.S. did nothing to help Hungary in ’56, and my mom worked very hard for Stevenson in both 1952 and 1956.  Nonetheless, when Eisenhower came out of the White House, I was in awe.

While I didn’t care for Ike, I positively loathed Richard Nixon.  However, when my daughter came home from her Oakland first grade class talking about “pig Nixon,” I explained that Nixon was President of the United States, and we should never call him pig.

Now I hear that there is a local pumpkin farm with a scarecrow with a Biden face.  Kids are invited to throw things at him.  There’s a yard sign on 209 that says “Fuck Biden.”  Cursing at Biden seems to be routine.  Even members of Congress yell at him during the State of the Union message.   How far we have fallen.

Electoral College disaster

Quick reminder on how the Electoral College works.  Each state gets the number of Electoral College votes as it has Senators (always two) plus House members (varies by population–PA has 17 House members) so it has 19 Electoral College votes.  There are 435 House members and 100 Senators.  Throw in 3 for Washington D.C.  That makes 538.  Half of that is 269.  You need a majority to win, so you need 270.  

OK, say Robert Kennedy, Jr., runs and wins Alaska with 3 votes.  Say that Biden’s total is 269 and Trump’s is 266.  Nobody has 270.  The election then goes to the House.  Each state gets one vote, which means Wyoming, with fewer people than Boston, gets the same vote as Texas or California.  

Here is the kicker.  Each state will probably vote according to its majority in the House.  PA right now has 9 Democratic House members and 8 Republican House members.  PA will probably cast its one vote for Biden.  BUT, right now Republicans control 26 state delegations and Democrats 22.  (Two are tied.)  Trump wins.  

That whirring sound

Do you realize that if Jim Jordan is elected Speaker of the House and if Biden and Harris die, Jim Jordan will be president of the United States?  That whirring sound you hear is James Madison spinning in his grave.

Imagine

“Imagine” by John Lennon is one of my favorite songs.  I am thinking of having it sung at my memorial service, which, by the way, will not be called a “celebration of life” because I’ll be dead.

Imagine there’s no countries

It isn’t hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too.  

The problem is that it is hard to imagine, but it is something I often think about.

Halloween parade in Palmerton

Look for me accompanying the Carbon County Democratic Party entry.  I’ll be the guy in the blonde wig.  Lucky this parade isn’t in Nashville.  They’d probably arrest me for being in drag. 

Door hangers in Weissport

The borough of Weissport was once a canal port on the Delaware and Lehigh Canal network connecting the anthracite coal fields to Philadelphia.  It contained banks, furniture stories, a canal boat repair facility, and was a thriving little town.  Ben Franklin was in charge of building a fort there (Fort Allen) during the French and Indian Wars.  

Now it has Mario’s Pizza and Central Lunch (both recommended by me), a beer distributor, a really good ice cream shop, and a number of older houses that have been converted into small apartments.  It is not a wealthy town.  

Today I hung Democratic Party literature on all the doors where fellow Democrats live.  In a few cases I couldn’t get into the apartment buildings, but overall it went well, and I covered the whole town.  When you are distributing door hangers you don’t talk to many people, but everyone with whom I did interact was friendly and pleasant.  I like Weissport.  I feel at home there.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

You have to wonder what happens to people.  Last night I posted about Mr. Hurd, a reasonable Republican candidate for the presidency who dropped out for lack of money and support.  What a contrast with Robert Kennedy, Jr., a candidate for the presidency who should drop out, who has been denounced by his own brothers and sisters, and who is trying to capitalize on his father’s good name.

What did happen to him?  He was a respected environmental lawyer.  At one time he did good work.  Now he is right up there with Alex Jones and other conspiracy whackjobs, opposing vaccinations for children and questioning basic science.  He also thinks Biden controls the Democratic Party.  Well, yeah.  That’s the way it works.  The president is the head of his or her party.  Duh!

Will Hurd drops out

Very few of the current crop of Republican presidential candidates are upstanding and decent people.  One of them was Will Hurd, a former Republican member of Congress from Texas.  Hurd was anti-Trump and said Trump was running for president “to stay out of prison.”  He criticized book banning and attacks on the LGBTQ community.

He never passed one percent in the polls and had no national reputation.  Even if he had caught on, he wouldn’t have been allowed in the debates since he refused to say he would support any eventual Republican nominee.

Hurd threw what little support he has to Nikki Haley.  I guess she and Christie are the best of what is out there, but that is a low bar.

Growing peppers

Tired of violence and brutality in the Middle East, irritated by the Republicans in the House, depressed by the idiocy of Donald Trump and his supporters, I decided to ignore everything and just list the peppers I picked today from my garden. 

Poblamos

Bell

Cherry

Jalapeño

Scotch Bonnet

Hungarian Wax

Serrano

Cayenne

I might also have some ghost peppers, but I didn’t get to that part of the garden.  Tomorrow I’ll can some crazy hot salsa.  I won’t even think about politics.

Hostages in Gaza

When a Barbary pirate named Raisuli took an American citizen named Perdicaris hostage in 1904, U.S. Secretary of State John Hay sent a telegram to Moroccan officials with a fairly short notice.  It began with this warning:  “Perdicaris alive or Raisuli Dead.”  

I don’t doubt, given what they have already done, that the Hamas operatives who took Israeli hostages will have no compunction murdering them.  I also have no doubt that those operatives are dead men walking, and that’s ok with me.

The attack on Israel

Unfortunately for both Palestinians and Israelis, Palestinian leadership has been lacking in both morals and common sense.  Instead of helping its followers, it commits war crimes and causes misery on both sides.

There is a reason Gandhi practiced non-violence.  There is a reason Martin Luther King didn’t gather 30 or 40 armed followers and launch an attack on the armory in Montgomery.  Yes, people get hurt in non-violent protests.  Civil rights workers were killed.  Nonetheless, you and I know that an armed insurrection by civil rights activists would have been crushed and set the movement back by decades.

Suppose instead of killing innocent civilians in horribly brutal ways, Hamas had punched holes in the barriers and sent in men, women, and children holding signs that said, “Peace,” or “Freedom.”  Suppose instead of launching missiles at civilian targets, they had launched thousands of drones trailing signs that said “Rights for Palestinians” or “We demand justice.”

What they did instead was not only evil and criminal, it was unbelievably stupid and irreparably harmed the cause of the Palestinian people, earning the disgust of the civilized world.

The Attack on Israel

Hundreds of Israelis have been killed in the attack by Hamas, the Palestinian force centered in Gaza.  Israel, of course, is retaliating, and hundreds of Palestinians have already been killed.  Before this is over, hundreds, perhaps thousands, more will die.  

The Palestinian forces must know this was a suicidal attack.  They know the Israel has superior weaponry, trained soldiers, and powerful allies.  Why would they make such a desperation move?

It is the kind of action undertaken by people without hope.  Given the collapse of the whole idea of a “two state solution,” given the harsh policies of the right-wing Netanyahu government toward Palestinian rights, given the continued settler incursions into what was designated as Palestinian territory and the destruction of Palestinian homes and property, what options are left to the Palestinian people?  Of course this was an act of desperation.