The Teamsters

I was once was a proud member of the Teamsters Union.  I worked as a warehouseman in Oakland, paid my dues for years, and was proud to be a Teamster.  I did have some differences with the union, though.  My co-worker Bart and I went to a meeting in Oakland about 1971 to ask our local to endorse an anti-war march in San Francisco.  We did not succeed, and our presentation was accompanied by shouts of “Peace of What?” and “Sit down, you damn hippies.”  Bart and I marched anyway; we made a banner that said “Teamsters against the war.”

When I finally left my warehouse job (I qualified for a pension and was paid well for a blue collar job), I took an honorable withdrawal from the union.  

Now I’m not so proud of my Teamster membership.  If the union can’t decide between Kamala Harris and the union-busting strike-breaking billionaire suck up Donald Trump, screw them.  I’m burning my “withdrawal card.”

Violence on the campaign trail

Trump and Vance are blaming Kamala Harris and Joe Biden for the recent attempts on Trump’s life.  For years Trump has been preaching violence against immigrants, the press, demonstrators, and his opponents.  If you want to know who to blame for threats of violence, consider this.

I have been distributing Harris signs around Carbon County.  Over 100 people have taken signs for their front yards or windows.  However, five people so far have turned down the offer of signs, even though they are strong supporters of Harris and Walz.  The reason:  They are afraid of being fire bombed, shot at, or harassed in other ways.  

I doubt if any Trump supporters in Carbon County have been afraid to take Trump signs because they worry that Harris supporters will attack them.  We don’t do that.  We don’t ride around in motorcycle gangs, threaten Trump supporters, or generally act like butt holes.  I think we all know where the talk of violence and retribution originates.

Eagles lose their tail feathers

As Linda said, “the defense is porous.”  While it was exciting to see Jalen Hurts on some long runs, Hurts should not NEED to do long runs.  He should be able to stay in the pocket and pass or hand off the ball to someone besides Barkley.  All those missed opportunities.  The “tush push” is fun, but it happens because the Eagles always seem just short of a first down.  

I am definitely not a happy camper tonight.  

I did get orders from seven more people for Harris yard signs, so the day wasn’t a complete bust. 

General Custer and Trump

My friend John from Santa Cruz recently sent me a note that I thought worth repeating.  Here’s what he wrote:

Why hasn’t anybody compared Trump with Custer?

George was a popular hero too, made famous by the media after a couple of charges in the Civil War.  He had a cult following continually fueled by the media; he was a narcissist he was demoted and sent out to pasture at least once; and he regularly ignored orders and advice, and he nurtured funny hair.

And finally, he ignored his “experts,” some of whom were Indians who had fought the 5,000 plus Sioux, Cheyenne and others in the camp Custer was eager to attack.

His Crow scouts told him,”don’t go down there.  There’s a whole shitload of Indians.”  Did he listen?  He went down there.  

Not a perfect parallel but amusing enough to mull.

Is crypto-currency a scam?

It is.  If you have had any doubts, this should convince you.  Trump’s sons Eric and Don Jr. are starting a crypto company.  Trump himself is very friendly to the crypto community ever since he started to rake in large contributions.  This is a system which puts a huge drain on the electrical grid and serves basically one purpose–to facilitate criminal activity.  Of course the Trump family would be involved. 

Friends flying to the rescue

Yesterday I got an email from a friend in the Bay Area whom I haven’t seen for at least 22 years.  She and I worked on local, state, and national campaigns, registered voters, and canvassed in San Jose, but we have not kept in touch.  Now she and her daughter are flying to Pennsylvania to help with the Harris campaign.  

She wondered where their skills could be used.  Is Carbon County the best place, or are there counties that are more critical?  I told her I wasn’t at the level in the campaign to answer that question, but I will check on Monday with the Harris organization.  Today everybody was too busy with the rally in Wilkes-Barre to give me an answer.

This level of mutual aid and enthusiasm has not happened since the first Obama campaign in 2008.  That year Linda and I hosted two people from New York for over a month.  You may remember that Obama won that election.  

The Road Home

Jim Harrison’s The Road Home, first published in 1998, is one of those books you want everyone to read.  I first encountered Harrison, who died in 2016, in a story entitled The Woman Lit by Fireflies, an amazing piece of feminist literature by an author who really doesn’t fit the profile.

In The Road Home the narrator, a half-Lakota, half-white ranch kid, is accepted at an art school in Chicago.  I think it was 1903 and the noise of Chicago was quite maddening for one used to the silence of the prairie where you could hear the heart of your horse over its breathing, a far-off meadowlark, a cow lowing in the creekbed a mile away, even a delicate breeze approaching across the sea of grass.

How I wish I could write like that.  My friend Marge has family in the southern Arizona town of Patagonia, where Harrison lived out the last years of his life.  I thought of visiting the town just hoping for a chance to talk to him for maybe 15 minutes.  I wish I had.

When listening to Trump

My friend Bill keeps me informed on some of the current relevant memes.  I don’t usually pass them along, but this one was so apropos to tonight’s Trump appearance that I must repeat it.

If you listen to this man (picture of Trump) without thinking, “What an idiot,” you are an idiot.

We place way too much emphasis on debates

I’ve read the transcript of the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates.  That was an amazing performance, allowing Lincoln to emerge as a front runner for the 1860 presidential campaign, although the Illinois legislature still chose Douglas to the U.S. Senator after the debates were over. That was the last great debate in American politics.

I heard the first Kennedy/Nixon debate on the radio.  I thought Nixon cleaned Kennedy’s clock.  The people who watched it thought Kennedy won because of the way Nixon sweated, not for what he said.  

When Gerald Ford debated Jimmy Carter, Ford got tangled up in the relationship of the satellite nations like Poland to the Soviet Union.  Of course Ford knew the relationship, but he never recovered.

Trump said remarkably stupid things in his debates with Hillary Clinton, but he “appeared” dominant on the debate stage.  People don’t listen.

I’ll admit that Biden’s performance earlier this year rightly caused people to question Biden’s mental acuity, but nobody I knew, (almost all the people I know are intelligent) said “OK, now I’m voting for Trump.”

If you have not made up your mind at this point who you will be voting for in November, you are not a good citizen and you have not done your due diligence.  The debate is important only to people who are either not paying attention or are like the dogs in the movie “Up” who lose their train of thought whenever someone yells “squirrel!”  I’m not watching it.  

Take Trump at his word

“WHEN I WIN those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, which will include long term prison sentences....”

“Please be aware that this legal exposure extends to lawyers, political operatives, donors, illegal voters and corrupt election officials.”

Oh, that’s just Trump, his supporters say.  He won’t really be a dictator, his supporters say.  The only reason he didn’t use federal troops against peaceful demonstrators in his first term was because military officials would not cooperate.  His appointees would not cooperate when he talked about shooting migrants.  He learned from that.  This time he will pick appointees who will do his bidding.  Take him at his word.  I certainly do. 

Is J. D. Vance dumber than Trump?

Today Vance was asked to comment on the latest school shooting.  He replied that some states had strict gun laws and some had lax gun laws, but school shootings occurred in both types of states.  He said there were psychos in every state.  What we needed was to strengthen the security of schools, making it harder for gunmen to act.

First of all, no state can outlaw assault rifles.  The Supreme Court, the NRA, and Republican legislators have seen to that.  Secondly, how would you make a school impregnable to gun violence?  In Georgia it was a student who killed fellow students.  What about the playground, the football field, the field trip?  Who would pay for the cops in every classroom?  I could go on, but this is just stupid.  Unbelievably stupid.  Trump-level stupid.  Maybe worse.

The Hoover Commission and the Musk Commission

In 1947 Harry Truman appointed former President Herbert Hoover to head a commission to recommend administrative changes in the Federal government.  Truman felt the government had expanded rapidly during the Depression and World War II, and there might be ways to consolidate or reorganize some departments and agencies.  Hoover, who may have failed as a President, had previously won acclaim for his European relief work after the First World War.  A number of the Commission’s recommendations were later adopted.

Now Trump said if he is elected he will appoint Elon Musk to head up a commission on Federal efficiency.  This is the same Elon Musk who is blowing up rockets, wrecked Twitter, came up with a self-driving car that crashes, developed the ugliest truck ever seen, and had technical trouble broadcasting an interview with Trump in which both participants made notably stupid statements.  I probably should mention that Musk is incredibly rich, since he doesn’t need to pay his fair share of taxes.

That should be some commission.  Thank goodness Trump won’t be elected.

Great Joy in the Land

I delivered Harris yard signs today in Towamensing and Lower Towamensing Townships and in Palmerton.  What struck me was how happy people were to get the signs, how they wanted to talk about how happy they were, and the general sense of optimism.  Nobody said, “We have this in the bag,” but you could just feel the combination of hope and optimism.

In another development, I take back the various nasty things I said about Pat Toomey, and I’m sorry I sat with my back toward him at a speaking engagement at Penn’s Peak.  On second thought, while I am glad he endorsed Harris, I wish he had been a better person years ago.

Harris yard signs

We picked up 50 Harris/Walz signs in Bethlehem today, and we distributed eight of them in Palmerton before we got home.  I’m taking another nine down there tomorrow.  We gave them to people who ordered signs from me over the last two weeks.  I already have over 70 sign orders from all over Carbon County from Tresckow to Lower Towamensing Township, and I haven’t even started to call people.

The voters we reached today were so happy to get them.  Carbon County has been overrun with Trump signs, and now people will start seeing Harris signs in people’s yards all across the County.  And don’t worry, I have a lot more than 50–the state party sent us another 50, and more are coming.  I have never been involved in a campaign where so many people were so pleased to show their support for a candidate.  

I’m also planning to make some homemade signs like the old Burma Shave signs where the first one will say, “He’s too old.”  The second one: “He’s too senile.”  The third: “He’s too weird.”  I don’t need to put Trump’s name on them.  Everyone will know exactly who I mean, and it will really troll the MAGA nitwits.

P.S.  If you want a sign, call me.  I’m in the book.  No really–I’m actually in the old phone book and the number hasn’t changed.

Sewage sludge makes the front page

On Sunday the New York Times ran a long article discussing the dangers and drawbacks of using sewage sludge on farm fields and pastures.  The article detailed the issue of PFAS and noted that some farm fields have been taken out of production because of the high PFAS levels in the farm products.  (PFAS are sometimes called “forever chemicals,” and they are found in many consumer goods.)

The group Save Carbon County, of which I am a member, has been trying to alert local farmers and consumers about this issue.  Approximately 10 farmers in the county use it.  (They like to call it biosolids, but it really is human poop and everything else that is flushed down the toilet, along with industrial waste, often minimally treated and given to the farmers free.)

Cities, of course, love that it is dumped on fields.  It is a cheap and easy way to get rid of a problem.  The fact that it is harmful seems not to be an issue.  Farmers who use it also like it; they get it free of charge instead of needing to use high priced fertilizers.  It always amazes me how greedy and irresponsible people can be.

Greatest prank ever

The people in the space station will be up there for another six months.  That gives eight billion people time to manufacture chimpanzee and ape costumes to wear when those space station personnel return to earth.  

The look on their faces would be priceless.