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.