Children and the President

In a study of children’s attitude toward the President completed in the 1950s, Yale political scientist Fred Greenstein found that children had a benevolent attitude toward the President of the United States, sometimes conflating the President with God.  Keep in mind he was doing his study in the 1950s, when the President was Eisenhower, organizer of D-Day and a man who often seemed to be above politics.  Greenstein’s work was criticized, since his study focused on New Haven school children, few of whom were black or hispanic.  Given those limitations I think the study was fairly accurate.  

When Kennedy was assassinated people were depressed for months.  People couldn’t sleep, felt bereft.  You don’t feel like that when your U.S. Representative dies.  A group of my friends and I drove to Washington to attend Kennedy’s funeral.  It was a major event in my life.

I believe that most parents and teachers taught their children or pupils that the president was to be respected and revered.  When our daughter came home from her elementary school in Oakland in the Seventies talking about “Pig Nixon,” I was shocked.   This was at a time when I loathed Nixon and loathed his Vietnam War policies and demonstrated against him.  In spite of that, I remember telling her, “He is the President of the United States.  We do not call the President a pig.” 

I would have said the same thing for Ford, or Reagan, or either of the Bushes.  The President was a figure to be respected.

No more.  There is no way our current President is a person to be respected.  Unlike previous presidents, even those whom historians rank at the bottom like Buchanan or Harding or Johnson, I cannot think of any redeeming qualities of the current occupant of the White House.  Not one.  None.

Members of the House of Representatives pass a bill!

Yes, the House members passed a bill to make Daylight Savings Time permanent.  Can they do something about the Trump arch and the East Wing?  What about the war in Iran?  What about Red Flag laws or gun restrictions?  Can they rein in Pete Hegseth, or Robert Kennedy, Jr., or Kash Patel?  Can they stop ICE from its cruelty?  Can they regulate AI?  Can they do something as simple as shoring up the Post Office, let alone shoring up Social Security?

No, by God, they can’t.  But they can pat themselves on the back for passing such an IMPORTANT BILL as making Daylight Savings Time permanent.  We should be proud of them. 

Bad year, good year, happy day

 It is really a bad year for raspberries.  I looked in the usual spots and I can’t find any.  Not even the plants.  Lots of invasives but no raspberries.  The mulberries are tiny and few; the quince tree has no fruit whatsoever. The currents were tiny, and I had to buy four quarts from my friend Tom to make jelly.  Not a good year.

On the other hand it’s a good year for E. Jean Carroll.  She got her $5.6 million legal settlement from Trump today.  Finally.  That rapist had to cough up, not that he will notice with all the money he is stealing from the American public.

Happy Bastille Day.  Vive la France!

Should we celebrate when someone dies?

I actually heard about this.  Somebody said:  “Lindsey Graham just died.  Good.  I’m glad he died.  He can no longer hurt innocent people.”

Isn’t that a terrible thing to say?

OH, WAIT....

It wasn’t Lindsey Graham.  It was Robert Mueller.  And it was Trump who said that.  That was Trump’s message just after Mueller died. 

Lindsey Graham's good deed

There’s that old belief that even the worst people do some good at some point in their lives.  Lindsey Graham’s good deed was that he supported Ukraine in its war against the Russian aggressor Putin.  He had just returned from Ukraine before he died.

My friend, no conspiracy theorist, thinks the Russians may have had something to do with his death.  They are, after all, experts at surreptitious assassinations. 

I will say that it is too bad he did not have the courage to call out Trump.  After the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Graham said he had enough of Trump.  But, like so many of his colleagues, he caved and fell into line.  Too bad.  He wrecked his reputation and will go down in history as a toady, which he was. 

"Harming" endangered species

Suppose you had an endangered bird, say a whooping crane, that wintered in a certain very limited area in Texas.  Every year in the spring the birds migrated to Canada.  In the summer there are no whooping cranes in their winter home.  You discovered a deposit of bauxite in the area, bought the land, and commenced a huge mining operation.  

The cranes returned, flew around looking for their winter home, couldn’t find it, and all died.  

Under a new rule promulgated by the Interior Department and the Commerce Department, that is now legal.  You didn’t actually “‘harm” the birds.  You didn’t shoot them, poison them, or catch and strangle them.  You just took their habitat they need to live, so you didn’t actually harm the birds.  No more need to do environmental impact statements.  

Grown men and women backed by the American Petroleum Institute and other mining and commercial interests came up with this.  And yes, it is as idiotic as it sounds.  But hey, we can make some money.  Of what use is a bog turtle or a desert pup fish or a whippoorwill if it gets in the way of profit?

Bonnie Tyler, 1951-2026

Skip all the meanness and stupidity that happened today and play the official version of “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”  The video is a just a wee bit silly, shot in a former asylum in England and featuring men in tights and altar boys with glowing eyes.  Concentrate on the lyrics and that voice.  That voice.  

I remember the first time I heard this song on the radio.  Amazing.  I couldn’t hear it enough.  I still can’t hear it enough.  

P.S.  You might also listen to “Holding Out for a Hero,” featured in the Kevin Bacon movie “Footloose.”  Again somewhat silly video, but listen.