Ranked Choice Voting

I keep wanting to ask various people in Maine what they think of "Ranked Choice Voting," but it is somewhat difficult to bring up in casual conversation in a seafood restaurant or checking into a motel or  at a park overlook.

Maybe tomorrow when we visit the Portland Museum.

Acadia, by the way, was just lovely.  And so so many people.  Our national parks really need increased funding.  More visitors, fewer staff, deferred maintenance.  Just like Pennsylvania's state parks, they are always at the back of the line for funding.

Zuckerberg supports Trump

I heard that Mark Zuckerberg will not remove Trump campaign ads on Facebook that contain outright lies.

Now I understand why.  Zuckerberg has endorsed Trump.  How do I know that?  It was on Facebook.

And now some advice.  If you are in Maine, it is probably best not to eat at a Mexican restaurant where the cooks and staff are young Anglos who seem very concerned with gluten and spinach tortillas.  Just so you know.

North of Boston

We are on our way to Acadia National Park in Maine.  Unlike our last big trip to the Everglades, this one will be through blue states.   It isn't all wonderful, however.  We ate at a restaurant near Andover and the place was crawling with Patriot fans.  Our waiter was wearing a Gronkowski jersey, and a framed Tom Brady's jersey was hanging on the wall.

The fall foliage up here is spectacular.  Jim Thorpe, eat your heart out.

The news follows us, of course.  ISIS prisoners escaping, Turks invading the Kurds, U.S. troops possibly caught between opposing forces, and Trump still in office.

Lock Him Up!

During the 2016 presidential campaign our friend Rene stayed with us for a two weeks to help out with the Clinton campaign.  Rene was one of the few people I knew who thought Trump had a chance to win.  He pointed out that all of the “Lock Her Up” and other homemade anti-Clinton signs were evidence that people really supported Trump.  His theory was that you had to care to make your own homemade signs.

Taking a lesson from Rene’s analysis, I made my own sign and put it out yesterday morning on Pohopoco Drive.  It was a simple sign that said “Lock Him Up!”  It lasted a full day before some Trumpist stole it.  

I believe the word for people easily offended is “snowflake.”  Trumpists can dish it out, but they can’t take it.  But don’t worry.  All I need is a Sharpie and old yard signs, and I will make more.  My future signs will get right to the point, although I’m not sure if they will say “Impeach Trump” or “Impeach the Fake President.”  Probably “Impeach Trump” because they don’t take as much effort to make. 

My “Impeach Trump” bumper sticker has been on my truck tailgate since Trump’s inauguration.  My other stickers that say “Deer Creek Archery” and “No Farms, No Beer” probably have protected it from getting torn off.  I have more “Impeach Trump” stickers.  Let me know if you want one.  It is amazing how many people wave approval.  At least I think they are waving approval.

A New Abraham Lincoln Brigade?

In the 1930s hundreds of Americans volunteered to fight on the side of the Republicans against the Fascist leader Franco in Spain.  These members of the “Abraham Lincoln brigade” were vilified at the time, but today we (or at least many of us) consider them heroes.

Now I read about Michael Maldonado, 31, a former Marine lance corporal from California in Syria to help the Kurds.  He is staying on to fight the Turks.  Maldonado said it didn’t matter to him that Turkey was a NATO ally. 

“Ally or not, we are going to fight.  We see a strong country coming to massacre people who are just trying to live their lives, and we are going to try [to] stop this.  We feel we have no choice.”

See Ben Hubbard and Carlotta Gall, “Turkey Attacks U.S. Ally in Syria," New York Times, (Oct. 10, 2019), pp. A1, A8.  

DCNR Report on State Parks

The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources released a report on the results of a two-year effort to find out what the public wants from its parks.  Since 1970 Pennsylvania has created 36 state parks (one of them is Beltzville) with an additional 81,000 acres.  Also since 1970 the number of state park staff has actually decreased.

The parks need about an additional $500 million to fix visitor centers, dams, and recreational facilities.  Right now state parks receive less than 2% of the state’s general fund budget.  

Groups of volunteers like the Friends of Beltzville State Park try to make up for the staffing shortfall, but it isn’t enough.  A common solution bandied about in this area is to charge visitors, which has the effect of driving away the low income visitors who are the most in need of open space and contact with nature.

You might explain to your local representative what Pennsylvania needs is increased funding for our parks.

If your representative is Doyle Heffley or Jerry Knowles, good luck with that.

Statistics for this post are from Kayla Dwyer, "Here's how Pennsylvanians want to help state parks," Morning Call, (Oct. 9, 2019), p. 6.

Get Big or Get Out

That phrase was the mantra of the U.S. Department of Agriculture for decades.  It was a message of support for corporate farms and a middle finger to family farms and small agriculture everywhere.

In the Obama Administration this philosophy seemed to be in abeyance, but now it is back in full force.  U.S. Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue recently said about small dairy farmers at the World Dairy Expo “In America, the big get bigger and the small get out.”  He was not saying this in a critical way.

The president of the Wisconsin Farmers Union, Darin Von Ruden, whose family runs a 50-cow organic diary farm, said of Perdue’s speech:  “The mindset that has been pushed on farmers to continually grow is ultimately pushing them out of business as overproduction forces market prices down.”

I also have a statement in response to Secretary Perdue.  If all the milk that I have milked by hand were put in a swimming pool, it would be enough for you to swim in, or even drown.