Impeaching Mayorkas

The House of Representatives impeached Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas by one vote some weeks ago, and now the Senate will have to deal with the issue.  This is embarrassing for a number of reasons.  First of all, the vote lacked any justification.  The Constitution makes the reason for impeachment reasonably clear.  The conditions weren’t met.  It was a policy disagreement and that is all.

Secondly, Mayorkas was impeached by one vote.  Of all the House Republicans, none were brave enough to defy Trump and their leadership.  The lack of integrity in that group astounds me.  

Third, almost all of the Senators except those cowed by Trump (actually a sizable number) or the stupid ones (also a sizable number–two from Alabama alone) don’t want to even deal with the issue.  Once again it is amazing how far our legislators  have sunk.

Demo HQ in Carbon County

Today we took in file cabinets, chairs, and other supplies to the Democratic headquarters opening in Jim Thorpe.  The desks and the art work will arrive in the next few days.  The headquarters will serve as the nerve center for a county-wide effort to elect Biden, Bob Casey to the U.S. Senate, and Susan Wild to the House.  

Jim Thorpe is centrally located in Carbon County, the HQ has a large parking lot, and we have WiFi available.  While we don’t have phone service, I may be the only person in Carbon County who doesn’t have a mobile phone, so that shouldn’t be a problem.  

Dems are clawing their way back in Carbon.  Biden did better than Clinton; Shapiro did better than Biden.  While Carbon may not turn bright blue, given the amazing low quality of Republican candidates, including the mentally deteriorating Trump, we will at least turn this county a dark purple. 

The State of the Union speech

Jefferson thought that he was a better writer than speaker, so he sent a written state of the union speech to Congress.  That began a tradition that lasted until Woodrow Wilson, who delivered his speech in person.  

I like Jefferson’s idea.  Just send down a report.  Most of the members of Congress can read and this standing in support or sitting in opposition would stop.

I assume members did that.  I didn’t watch it.  I’ll read it tomorrow.

Saving Yiddish books

Yeah, I know.  You want to read my take on “Super Tuesday.”  You wonder what I think of Nikki Haley dropping out.  

Instead I’m writing about Aaron Lansky who was a grad student in Montreal in the 1970s taking courses in Yiddish lit at McGill University.  He was having difficulty getting books in Yiddish.  He then discovered that many of the elderly Jews in Montreal whose ancestors emigrated from eastern Europe to escape pogroms, were throwing out books in Yiddish because no one could read them.

Lansky began to collect these books.  He took a two-year leave of absence from grad school and recruited zamlers who schlepped cardboard boxes of books to a factory loft in western Massachusetts.

Those books are now in the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Mass.  Mr. Lansky is 68.  His center has approximately 1.5 million volumes.  What a mensch.

Info about Mr. Lansky was found in Joseph Berger, “He Rescued 1.5 Million Books in Yiddish.  That’s Chutzpah!” New York Times, (Feb. 29, 2024), pp. A1, A11.  [That headline, by the way, misuses the word “chutzpah.”]  

And, by the way, Haley won Vermont.  She shouldn’t have dropped out.  As Vermont goes, so goes the nation, to misquote an old saying about Maine.

Super Tuesday?

Today’s New Yorker humor offering features a cartoon by Adam Douglas Thompson showing two people sitting at their desks.  One says “To be honest, nothing feels particularly super about this Tuesday.”

It’s not all that humorous, is it?

How well do you know the Supreme Court?

Last year the Supreme Court banned race-based affirmative action.  I had no problem with this ruling.  Many schools and colleges that desired a diverse student body then switched to income-based affirmative action.  Old Marxist that I am, I always thought we should have class-based affirmative action.  It just seemed the right thing to do.

An example of what could happen was provided by the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County, Virginia.  The district has a population that is 20% Asian 10% Black, 27% Hispanic and 37% white.  After the Supreme Court’s decision, the breakdown for the class of 2024 was 73% Asian, 1% Black, 3% Hispanic, and 18% White.

Then Thomas Jefferson H.S. switched to a class-based affirmative action admissions policy.  The breakdown fro the class of 2025 is 54% Asian, (ok, still high, but reasonable), 7% Black (a lot better than 1%), 11% Hispanic (again, better than 3%) and 22% White.

But wait.  Was this also discriminating on the basis of race?  A group of conservatives sued.  If the Supreme Court over-ruled Thomas Jefferson’s class-based affirmative action, we were back to a very skewed class breakdown.  The Supreme Court did not even agree to hear the case.  Class-based affirmative action, benefiting the kids from low income families, has been approved.  

However, two justices wanted to hear the case.  They obviously wanted to rule against giving low income students a leg up.  Guess which two Supreme Court Justices wanted to stop it.  I’ll give you a hint.  They were not Trump appointees.

No.  They were Alito and Thomas.  But you knew that didn’t you?

The statistics on Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology are from David Leonhardt, “What the Future of Admissions At Elite Schools Might Look Like,” New York Times, (March 3, 2024), p. 19.

Food Rules

I just finished Food Rules by Michael Pollan.  It’s a quick read.  The book is about 140 pages long but printed on every other page.  And some pages contain a single sentence.  

Pollan explains why Americans are obese, have much diabetes, have many health problems related to diet.  Some of the rules are funny; all seem reasonable.  Here are just a few. 

Don’t ingest foods made in places where everyone is required to wear a surgical cap.

If it came from a plants, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t 

It’s not food if it arrives through the window of your car.