Two-movie Weekend

Some days I can’t bear to read the news.  Selling out Ukraine, “disappearing” immigrants, speeding global warming, fake news from the White House–it’s all too much, too evil, too hateful, too everything.  

So yesterday I saw “Wicked 2,” or whatever it is called, and today I saw “Knives Out–3,” which I think is called “Wake Up Dead Man.”  Sequels are never as good as the originals, but I spent four hours not thinking about the cruel and ugly people running my country’s government and the awful things they are doing not just to the United States, but to the future of the planet.

I’ll be back at it tomorrow.  Promise.

The "top two" electoral system

Some years ago California voters adopted an initiative mandating that the top two voters in the primary, whatever their party affiliation, would be the only candidates on the ballot in the fall.  The immediate result was that Libertarian Party, Green Party, and other minor parties were kept off the fall ballot.

Another interesting result that no one anticipated occurred in districts with a  dominant party.  Two candidates from that party could receive so many votes that in the fall election voters occasionally had the choice of two Democrats or two Republicans.

And even weirder result might occur this fall.  The Dems have eight candidates for governor, the Republicans two.  If the Democratic candidates split the primary vote eight ways, it is quite possible that in the fall of 2026 voters will have a choice of two Republican candidates.  California fall ballots make no room for write-ins.

What an idiotic system.

I.C.E. pint glasses as a Republican fundraiser

Here's a letter I'm sending to Republican Senator McCormick:

Sen. Dave McCormick

SH-702 Hart Senate Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Senator McCormick:

Today’s New York Times had a two-page spread about how I.C.E. is separating families.  Deported parents are desperately trying to connect with their kids.

An article about deportees who never committed any type of crime and were sent off to foreign countries in which they had no connection appeared in the latest issue of the New Yorker magazine.

And how is the National Republican Senatorial Committee raising money in this holiday season?  By selling I.C.E. pint glasses, “the official drink of conservatives who want secure borders and frosty beverages.”

Really?  This is the level to which one of two major political parties in American has sunk.  The party is using this to raise money?  This abomination is connected to a celebration of the birth of Jesus, born in a foreign land because his parents were refugees fleeing oppression.  This is beyond pathetic.  It is also one more reason why this Republican Party and its candidates will be repudiated next November and in 2028, and deservedly so.

Sincerely,

Roy Christman 

Jimmy Cliff, 1944-2025

In the movie “High Fidelity,” John Cusack turns around at a funeral service and addresses the movie audience, listing the best songs for a funeral.  The first one he mentions is “Many River to Cross” by Jimmy Cliff.  I had already decided that I wanted that one played at my funeral service, if one was held.  I turned to Linda and said, “Now everyone will think I got the idea from the movie.”  

It is a great song.  Jimmy Cliff sang it better than anyone. 

Just in case you are curious, I am also requesting “Drive” by the Cars and “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”  I picked that last one just for the line, “As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free.”  In fact, I don’t think I want anyone to speak.  Just listen to some good music.

By the way, I’ll be off for at least the next two nights.  I’m spending Thanksgiving in Richmond, Virginia.  Looking forward to Chinese takeout.

Action on Ukraine

This is a guest post from "David," who comments regularly on the posts.   Here is what David sent:  

The United States does not have a formal defense treaty with Ukraine comparable to NATO’s Article 5. However, it has entered into significant agreements—most notably the 1994 Budapest Memorandum and the 2024 U.S.–Ukraine Bilateral Security Agreement—that commit Washington to supporting Ukraine’s sovereignty, security, and long‑term defense capacity.

 

We pledged to support Ukraine; its people are bravely defending their freedom, just as  we are. Failing to respond to aggression would undermine our credibility and self‑respect. The agreement "negotiated" between the US and Putin is extremely one sided, the Ukrainians didn’t take part, and they don't accept it.

 

The Senate approves treaties. Tell them to reject this one. Pass stronger sanctions, especially against Putin and his oligarchs. Write and/or our Senators today. If you're in Pennsylvania:

 

John Fetterman

https://www.fetterman.senate.gov/contact/   

(202)-224-4254

 

Dave McCormick

https://www.mccormick.senate.gov/share-your-opinion/

(202) 224-6324

 

If in another state, you can find your senator here: https://www.senate.gov/general/contacting.htm#:~:text=All%20questions%20and%20comments%20regarding,comment%20forms%20on%20their%20websites.

Thoughts on Marjorie Taylor Greene

I watched her eleven minute statement on why she was resigning.  It did take some courage to stand up to Trump, and I appreciate that.  

Unfortunately, she is also one of the dumbest people in Congress.  I’d like her to repudiate Q-Anon, the idea that Jewish lasers cause forest fires, the idea that a census should only include “Americans,” the shouting of “liar”during a presidential address, the opposition to vaccines, the concern with “unborn babies” while ignoring children born in poverty, and the whole “America First” silliness while endorsing foreign policies that will weaken our position in the world.  

Goodbye Marjorie.  Don’t let the screen door hit your butt on the way out. 

The Ken Burns series on the American Revolution

I’ve been watching it on and off all week.  Unfortunately these specials aren’t as important as they once were.  When “Roots” was shown in 1977, it ran for eight consecutive evenings, and everybody watched it.  You’d watch an episode and then discuss it the next day.  

I was thinking that the series on the Revolution might inspire some patriotism, some understanding of what this country went through to gain its independence.  The series does not flinch from the issue of slavery in a war for “liberty” in which all men are created equal, nor does it turn away from discussing the irony of a population that wanted independence in part so the Indians would no longer be protected by British soldiers.  

The series also emphasizes that this new government really was a new thing.  Nothing like it had been tried.  It was truly an experiment.  Could we pull this off?  How long would it last?  Would freedoms and participation and citizenship be extended to all inhabitants?  Can a people retain the ability to govern themselves?

I must tell you–the main emotion I am left with after watching the series is overwhelming sadness.

Merch for Sale in the West Wing

A small study off the Oval Office in the White House was once used by Presidents as an actual study.  President Reagan was pictured working on his 1985 inaugural address there.  George Bush directed the invasion of Panama from there.  The study has now been reconfigured.

You can buy tumblers, water bottles, towels, and a gold tray, all with Trump’s name on them.  You can also buy hats that say “Trump 2028” and “4 More Years.”

And that’s not all!  

We have mugs with the presidential seal, books about Trump, a keepsake gold “presidential bill,” and matchbooks with the president’s signature.  You can even buy Trump fragrances.  

You might want to forego that last item. 

See Doug Mills and Ashley Wu, “West Wing Witness to History Now Has Whiff of a Gift Shop,”  New York Times, (Nov. 21, 2025), p. A14.   

Protests in Charlotte

My friend Bill sent me a photo of students protesting ICE raids in Charlotte.  Those ICE guys are so cute.  They called their raids “Charlotte’s Web.”  

The important point here is that an estimated 30,000 people, most of them students from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School system (along with many of their parents) filled athletic fields and public areas with signs denouncing ICE raids and activities.  The resistance grows.

85% of wetlands

That is the amount of wetlands that will be stripped of protection once the new Trump EPA policies take effect.

I do not remember any of the MAGA people at Trump rallies last fall complaining about wetlands protection.  I know that some developers think the rules on what constitutes a wetland are too extensive, but most developers have learned to live with the rules.  I don’t see a mass movement of thousands of people pushing for withdrawing protection for wetlands.

So why now?  Why this?

Unfortunately, even if a president with some sense of the importance of wetlands to the climate, to aquifers, to endangered species, to the health of the nation is elected in 2028, it will be too late for the wetlands that have been drained, degraded, or starved of their water supply.

I don’t get this.  It is the mentality of a small boy throwing rocks at a bird’s nest.

Information for this post is from Maxine Joselow, “E.P.A. Rule Would Strip Protections for Wetlands,” New York Times, (Nov. 18., 2025), p. A15.

83rd birthday

Yeah, I’m old.  I have two thoughts about it.  Our daughter sent me a card that shows a guy standing on his hands with two guys holding him up.  The caption is:  “Don’t worry about getting older.  You’re still going to do dumb stuff, only slower.”  She knows me well.

My second thought is about something Studs Terkel said when somebody asked him who would want to live to be 80.  Terkel replied, “Everybody I know who is 79.”

At least one student in the class was uncomfortable...

Jessica Adams, a professor at Indiana University, showed a graphic that labeled the slogan “Make America Great Again” as covert racism.  A student in the class then wrote to U.S. Senator Jim Banks, a MAGA supporter, to tell the Senator that Professor Adams made him “uncomfortable.”  

Sen. Banks then complained to the college administration, which then removed Adams from teaching the course.

Really.  Uncomfortable?  Remember when “trigger warnings” and “snowflakes” were a thing?  Evidently those terms can now describe Trump-supporting college students.  Poor babies.

And what is wrong with Senator Banks?  And what is wrong with the Indiana University administrators?  How did we get here?

Info for this post is from Stephanie Saul, “Professor Barred From Teaching a Class,” New York Times (10 Nov. 2025), p. 19. 

In the dark

 Evidently the high winds knocked down some wires, and we had no electricity for about two hours.  No computer, no heat, no water pump, no heat pump, no Eagles game, no email, no refrigerator or freezer. 

We have some emergency lights, but all they do is make you realize how much you miss the electric lights.  

I was about to go to bed when the power was restored about 8:45.  It would be interesting if a giant solar storm knocked out the grid.  I wonder how long it would take to descend into total chaos.  I’m guessing about 24 hours.

Teaching American government today

I taught a variety of classes at San José State–Introduction to American Government, Parties and Elections, Public Opinion, U.S. Environmental Policy, Controversial Legal Issues, Political Philosophy, American Studies, even a course in Political Film.  My favorite course was the Intro to American Government.  Most of the students were not political science majors, and I believed it was so important to give them a good grounding in both the Constitutional order and the need for responsible citizenship.

I would not enjoy teaching today.  Laws and policies that I thought were enshrined and accepted are going by the boards.  I don’t know how you’d begin to discuss what Trump is doing.

For example, Congress has the “power of the purse.”  Of the three branches, Congress is mentioned first in the Constitution, and its powers and responsibilities are spelled out in detail.  The President is not allowed to allocate funds.  The President has no “item veto.”  He cannot decide to not spend money that Congress has allocated.  Nor can he spend money that Congress has not allocated.  He can’t launch attacks on foreign citizens.  He must faithfully execute the laws.

And yet Trump has spent money never allocated by Congress.  He has refused to spend money that Congress has allocated.  He has killed foreign nationals with no declaration of war and bragged about it.  He has ignored rights spelled out in the Bill of Rights.  I could go on, but every reader of this blog knows that the America Constitution is no longer revered by the Congress, the President, the Supreme Court, nor the members of the Cabinet and heads of Executive agencies.  

How do political science professors even begin to deal with that? 

Pam Bondi–idiot or moron? You decide.

The Justice Department sued to block the new congressional districts approved by CA voters last week.

In an email Bondi said, “California’s redistricting scheme is a brazen power grab that tramples on civil rights and mocks the democratic process.  Governor Newsom’s attempt to entrench one-party rule and silence millions of Californians will not stand.”

The email said nothing about the earlier gerrymander in Texas.

Saying goodbye to the penny

The last pennies were minted yesterday in Philadelphia.  I understand the rationale.  I know about the cost of making them vs. the value of the coin.  Nonetheless, I feel sad.  All those sayings:  “A penny saved is a penny earned,” “A penny for your thoughts,”  “Find a penny, pick it up....”  

Pennies are part of our culture.  “Every time it rains, it rains pennies from heaven.”  There was penny candy, penny loafers, “penny dreadfuls.”  Things cost a pretty penny, and people were penny pinchers.

I know, I know.  I’m old.  I dislike change.  Unless it is in pennies.

Sending Iranians to their deaths

The right of political asylum is in the Declaration of Human Rights and other international treaties.  If you are fleeing for your life from your country because of your political beliefs or your religion, you are guaranteed the right to asylum.

Under Trump’s deportation proceedings, the  U.S. is now sending Iranian refugees who fled Iran to escape persecution back to Iran and certain imprisonment and probably death.  I am so angry and so ashamed of my country right now.

And why is this bone spur chicken shit giving speeches on Veterans’ Day?  Just shut up for one damn day, please.

The fall of nearly everything

Revolutions in technology don’t necessarily lead to better lives for the people involved.  For example, it is well accepted that the shift from hunter-gatherers to agriculture led to shorter lives, social hierarchy, armies, and taxation.

Dr. Luke Kemp, aka “Dr. Doom,” has just published a book entitled “Goliath’s Curse:  The History and Future of Societal Collapse.”  Kemp says, “We live in a uniquely dangerous time.”  To quote a review of the book, (which I have not read and am not sure I want to), we are in “...an age of pandemics, global heating, inequality, the rise of authoritarianism, the development of potentially dangerous artificial intelligence technologies and the ever-present nuclear sword of Damocles.”  

Dr. Kemp says, “The future of collapse looks far grimmer than the past.”

Don't get your knickers in a twist

Let’s abandon all this talk about “We’ll get you in the primary,” or “those eight Dems were traitors,” or “we were winning, and they caved.”

How many people went hungry tonight because they couldn’t get their food stamps?  How many people couldn’t fly home to see a dying relative because their flight was cancelled?  How many people faced eviction because they couldn’t pay the rent?

When elephants fight, it is the grass that gets trampled.  Yes, the Dems were winning the public relations battle, but is that the kind of battle the Dems want to win.  If the Republicans refuse to extend the medical payments, people will suffer, but at least then we will know who caused the suffering, and the voters can punish them, which they will.  

Those eight Democrats, I’m sure, did not take that step lightly.  I’m know they agonized over what they did and came to the conclusion that their vote was the right thing to do.

OK, maybe not Fetterman.

The Not So Great Gatsby

My American Studies students really liked F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, but that may have been because it was relatively short compared to Uncle Tom’s Cabin or The Grapes of Wrath, which we also read.  

I’m fairly certain Trump never took American Studies and never read The Great Gatsby, although he may have seen the movie.  The tone-deaf Trump threw a lavish Halloween “Gatsby” party, rumored to have cost over $3 million in taxpayer funds.  

The book was published 100 years ago in 1925 during the “Jazz Age.”  Wall Street was jumping.  Morals were in flux.  Jay Gatsby made some of his fortune working with the gambler who fixed the “Black Sox” World Series.  

Just today I heard that two major league pitchers have been accused of fixing games.  Gambling is rampant.  Morals are in decline.  We are in repeat mode.  As Karl Marx wrote:  “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.”  We are in the farce stage.

Let me end the way the book ends.  Gatsby’s friend Nick Carraway, after finding Gatsby dead and floating in his pool, states:  “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy–they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”