A disquisition on the 14th Amendment, Section 1

In Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), considered by many Constitutional law scholars to be the Supreme Court’s worst decision, Chief Justice Roger Taney wrote that slaves were not citizens even if they were taken to a free state.  He then went on to say that black people in the U.S. could never be American citizens because they were black.  Their children also could not be citizens.  There would always be an underclass of non-citizens.

In 1868, after the Civil War, the 14th Amendment was adopted.  The first line in that amendment is clear and easy to understand.  “All persons born or naturalized in the United Stares and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

The president at that time was Andrew Johnson.  He opposed adoption of the Amendment.  He is reputed to have said, “This would mean that even Chinese could become citizens.”  Or, as I told generations of American government sudents, “If you are born here, you are one of us.”  You are an American.  End of story. 

When Americans decided they had enough of Prohibition, did the President issue an executive order ending it?  No, he did not.  Presidents have no power to change an Amendment.  Did Congress pass a law ending Prohibition?  No, it did not.  Congress can’t change an Amendment.  Did the Supreme Court declare Prohibition unconstitutional?  No, it did not.  The Supreme Court cannot declare part of the Constitution unconstitutional.  

The only way you can change an Amendment is to adopt another Amendment.  Today three Supreme Court justices did not understand that basic fact that my American government students understood.  This is how far this Supreme Court has sunk.

Democratic Party registration drops to all time low

The latest issue of the “Ballot Access News” arrived today.  Major party registration has dropped below 65% for the first time in at least 90 years.  The Democratic Party registration now stands at 34.96% of American voters.  In Feb. 1992 it stood at 47.76%.  Republican registration is at 29.80%.  Interestingly, Republican registration was lowest during Covid.  In December 2021 it stood at 29.38%.

It is not that voters are flocking to the Working People’s Party or the Greens or the Libertarians.  They are becoming Independents.  I have no idea why, although I think it is because they are living in their own little bubbles and lack the information to see the difference.  I’ll bet you have heard more than one person say, “Politicians are all alike.”  

Yeah, Barack Obama and Donald Trump are alike.  Even Fetterman, for all his shenanigans, is not like Sen. McCormick.  It makes me sad how little the average American voter knows.  Or cares.

The Walkway of Absolute Bullshit

The Walkway from the West Wing to the White House residence has 47 gold-lettered plaques summarizing each of the presidential terms.  The messages were written by Trump.  In the Times today a panel of eight historians commented on the wording on the plaques and found them to be full of lies and downright silliness.  You don’t need to be a historian to figure that out, of course. 

Trump’s plaque, for example, says he announced the “Golden Age of America,” and “he delivered, ending eight wars in his first eight months, securing the Border, deporting gang members and migrant criminals, making our Cities safer, helping our Farmers, defeating Inflation, reducing Energy costs and drawing Trillions of Dollars of new Investment, a RECORD, into the United States.”  It goes on like that.

The Joe Biden plaque starts off “Sleepy Joe Biden was, by far, the worst President in American History.  Taking office as a result of the most corrupt Election ever seen in the United States....” etc., etc.

I’m not sure what’s with the capitalization.

Running the numbers on Elon Musk

Musk’s net worth as a trillionaire has been calculated as worth five million times as large as the average American family.

If the trillion dollars were converted into $100 bills, how high would the stack be?  679 miles high.

Musk’s stated goal:  To be worth $10 trillion.

How many children does Musk have?  14

How many women had those children?  Four different women.

If Jalen Brunson of the New York Knicks, making $39 million a year, were to equal a trillion dollars, how many seasons would he have to play?  More than 25,000 seasons.

How many people are estimated to have died as a result of Musk’s DOGE cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development?  600,000, many of them children.  (Musk’s 14 children were not affected.)

Some of these statistics are from David Lay Williams, “Musk Confirms Ancient Concerns About the Superrich,” New York Times, (21 June 2026),  p. SR 5.

 

"Forever Chemicals" in North Carolina

The chemical company Chemours reported $1.4 billion in net sales in the first quarter.  The Trump Administration’s E.P.A. reached a settlement with the company, which has been dumping PFAS into North Carolina waterways, to pay a fine of $480 million.  The company should be able to afford that rather easily.

Chemours will not be asked to clean up the PFAS.  The Company also does not need to make public its “plans” to clean up future contamination. 

The E.P.A. is also repealing some of the Biden Administration limits on PFAS in drinking water.  And so it goes.

Some of the information in this post is from Hiroko Tabuchi, “Officials in North Carolina Assail U.S. Plan to Settle ‘Forever Chemicals’ Case,”  New York Times, (June 26, 2026), p. A16. 

Why are we blockading Cuba?

Cuba has ended the school year early and scrapped its college entrance exams.  Buses can’t run because of the American oil boycott.  Students are up at night and are exhausted because of lack of air conditioning, and school meals can’t be served because of electrical power failures.  

I have yet to hear a good explanation of why we are doing this to the Cuban people.  Did Congress authorize this?  Are we at war with Cuba?  Are we planning to invade or just being cruel for the sake of cruelty?

I hate to say “we,” since “we” are supposed to be running our government.  Right?  It acts in our name. 

Notes on the hearing on the proposed solar "farm" located in Kidder Township, Carbon County, PA

The hearing was held at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, June 23, 2026, in the Jim Thorpe High School.

The site

If an environmental scientist were given an assignment to locate the one place in Carbon County where a a 390 acre solar installation would do the most damage to flora and fauna, that scientist might well pick the proposed site in Kidder Township for the Mora solar installation.  The installation will impact cold water trout streams, the headwaters of the Lehigh River, acres of wetlands, a mature forest, and wildlife habitat.  It will necessitate extensive earth moving, require an upgrade on the electrical grid, and when removed in 30 years leave a scar on the land.  

This project should not have proposed, let alone seriously considered.  We can assume some real estate agents and some investors looked at a map, saw a large parcel devoid of homes or businesses, nodded their heads, and said, “Hey, I’ll bet we could make a profit here.”

The optics of the hearing

The D.E.P. is misnamed.  It stands for the Department of Environmental Protection.  It should be the Department of Expedited Permits.  The preliminary application has already been approved.  At the hearing the two representatives from D.E.P. sat on a stage looking down while the supplicants opposing the project stated their case.  On the stage with the D.E.P., also looking down, were two representatives from the investors of the project.  They said nothing other than their names.  It reminded me of a a group of medieval peasants appearing before their lord to beg a favor.

My impression

In Fen, Bog and Swamp (2022) Annie Proulx wrote about the importance of wetlands to the global environment.  She detailed their continuing disappearance and the effect on climate and hydrology.  And yet, here we are, ignoring science, common sense, and the future of our children.  

What is Mora Solar?  

Do they provide campaign contributions?  Are they concerned about the bottom line?  Do they ever take a walk in the woods?  Have they read Walden?  Do they care?

Finding a treatment for measles

I keep asking myself,”How did we get this dumb?”  We have a vaccine that prevents kids from getting measles.  It has been proven safe, but if you are an anti-vaxxer, you are already saying,” No it’s not.  It causes autism, and cancer, and probably Ebola.”

But there are enough stupid people out there who believe stuff like that, plus we have vaccine denier Robert Kennedy as the head of our Department of Health and Human Services, so we have the most measles cases in the U.S. since 1991.  Biotech companies, seeing a money-maker in the works, are now attempting to produce a medicine that will be helpful for children who catch measles because their parents didn’t have the sense to get their children vaccinated.  And there are enough of those parents to make such a medicine potentially very profitable.  

How did we get this dumb? 

By the way, how do we know that medicine won't cause autism?

Was this election rigged?

Flatland County has only two towns within its boundary.  Smallville has 400 voters, 100 of whom are Democrats and 300 whom are Republicans .  Bigville has 500 voters, 400 of whom are Democrats and 100 are Republicans.  Every voter votes a straight party ticket for his or her party.  The election this year is for county commissioner.

It’s election day. Smallville votes by machines and the votes are tabulated within one hour of the closing of the polls.  Results as of 10 p.m. on election day:

Dem county commissioner candidate–100 votes

Rep. county commissioner candidate–300 votes

Bigville voters vote by mail.  All the votes are mailed in a timely fashion and are received by election day.  The 500 ballots are then opened and counted.  The counting is complete at noon on the day following the election with these results:

Dem. county commissioner candidate–400 votes

Rep. county commissioner candidate–100 votes

The Democratic candidate now pulls ahead.  She has 500 total votes in Flatland County.  The Republican candidate has 400 votes.  

If this is like the mayoral election in Los Angeles or any election which involves Trump, Trump followers, MAGA candidates, or any other observer who lacks rudimentary knowledge of arithmetic, you will hear the cry “the election was rigged.”  They are that stupid. 

Trump Channels Neville Chamberlain

On September 27, 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain said of  Hitler’s designs on Czechoslovakia that it was “A quarrel in a faraway country between people of whom we know nothing.”  That policy became known as appeasement.

On June 16, 2026, U.S. President  Donald Trump said of Putin’s designs on Ukraine, “Look, we have nothing to do with it.  It has no impact on us, other than we sell weapons.  We’re thousands of miles away.”  That policy is known as moral blindness.

The Trump quote is from Eric Green and Zolan Kanno-Youngs, “Trump Rebuffs Ukraine:  ‘Nothing to Do With It,’” New York Times, (17 June 2026), p. A-8.

Skunks and whippoorwills

About 8:30 this evening I set a “have a heart” trap to catch a squirrel that has been eating the sunflower seeds from our bird feeder.  I then walked to the garden to pull some weeds.  When I came back at 9 a skunk, almost pure white, was in the trap.  I got an old plastic table cloth, covered the trap and the skunk, and put him in the back of the truck.  Our daughter, visiting from California, and I then drove to the upper end of the Wild Creek Reservoir.  She stayed in the cab while I, speaking softly to the skunk, opened the tailgate and the door to the trap.  The plan was if the skunk sprayed me, I would ride in the back and Rachael would drive us home.  The skunk calmly walked out of the trap, hopped down, and ran into the woods.  No smell whatsoever.

And here was the best thing.  I don’t think I have heard a whippoorwill for 20 or 30 years.  Growing up I would hear them every night, but loss of habitat has reduced these shy birds to the point where they are now considered a threatened species, and soon may be endangered, if we still do that.  And there one was, calling and calling.  Rachael and I just sat there listening.  It is such a wonderful sound.

It was a good evening.

The Amish/Muslim connection

In Mohnton, PA, an Amish Halal Butcher caters to Muslims.  For a major Muslim holiday like Eid al-Adha, up to 500 Muslim families may visit the Amish farm to purchase halal meat.  The farm also caters to Hindus, primarily from Nepal, and some Africans and some Jews.  The farm employs two full-time Muslims, one from Syria and one from Ghana.  

Visitors from Philly and Harrisburg often picnic at the farm.  Ephraim Stoltzfus, the owner, has become quite knowledgeable about Muslim religious traditions.  

It makes me proud to be an American.

Info for this post is from Dan Sullivan, “Amish Halal Butchery Caters to Muslim Market,”  Lancaster Farming, (June 6, 2026), pp. A1, A7. 

Bread and circuses

We are imitating the last days of the Roman empire when the Roman citizens were given bread and circuses.  The circus was on Trump’s birthday when the “cage fighters” did an imitation of the gladiators in the arena.  I do not know if Trump, AKA Nero, gave thumbs up or down, or if anyone was actually put to the sword.  Probably not–we can’t do anything right.

My issue is this:  We have had the circus, but where the heck is the bread?  Or does that just go to the Emperor and his cronies? 

A letter to Pres. Trump on assigning blame

I've written to the President a number of times, although thus far he seems to have ignored my letters.  Nonetheless, I keep trying to help him out.  Here is the one that I'm mailing tomorrow:

President Donald J. Trump

The White House

Office of the President

1600 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear President Trump:

There is an old rule in politics that after an office holder is sworn in, he or she can blame his or her predecessor for problems and miscues for a period of six months.  After that, the new office holder owns the problems.

I notice that you have been blaming President Obama for some of the problems and issues faced by our country.  Since President Obama left office in January of 2017, his tenure is well past the “blame date.”  Under the six months rule, even President Biden would be past the time where he can be blamed for problems.  

Your advisors should have told you this.  In any case, it is something for you to keep in mind.

All the best,

Roy Christman

Was the Klan an inspiration for Turning Point?

In the 1920s the Ku Klux Klan organized Klan Klubs in high schools.  Some yearbooks featured the Klubs along with Glee Clubs and Debate Societies.  The high school Klubs were big especially big in Indiana.  

Now Turning Point has proudly announced that it has over 1000 chapters in high schools around the nation.  Was the Klan the inspiration for this?  Inquiring minds want to know. 

Restoration has started

It will take years. maybe decades, to bring sanity and normality to the U.S., but it has already started.  Trump’s name has been removed from the Kennedy Center (and a rainbow decorated the sky while it was happening).  

A judge just ordered exhibits taken down by the Trump Administration in National Park sites to be restored.  U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley in Massachusetts wrote that the Trump efforts were meant “to rewrite the Nation’s history with a white-out pen.”

In Philadelphia an exhibit discussing the lives of nine slaves of George Washington that had earlier been removed from the Independence National Historical Park was reinstalled in February.  (By the way, is there anyone left on the U.S. who did not know Washington owned slaves?)  

Calls are starting to restore the White House to its configuration before Trump starting messing it up.  We will eventually cleanse this mess.

Jeff Corle's "Empty Barn"

According to an article in the June 13 edition of Lancaster Farming, when Jeff Corle’s dairy farm went under, he thought about his loaded shotgun but instead picked up his guitar and wrote the song “Empty Barn.”  Now he travels around singing it solo and raising money for mental health awareness among farmers.

It’s available on YouTube.  I don’t think it will make the top 40, but it isn’t terrible, and I liked the photos of the cows.

Bags of sugar

Today I made a batch of strawberry jam.  You need lots of sugar for homemade jellies and jams, and Linda bought two bags.  She pointed out that the bags, which I assumed were five pound bags, were actually only four pounds.  They look the same as the five pound bags, but it’s there on the bag–four pounds.

It really is dishonest.  Of course it is legal, but it is wrong.  It is pulling a fast one on the consumer.  It is irritating.  The word for it is “shrinkflation,” but it is simply another form of inflation, and it is not only happening to sugar.  

I blame Trump.