Every year

Every year I think–

This could be my breakthrough year.

This one is the one.

I’ll get to work;

Find discipline

To think, to write,

To finish something good.

Take pride in what I’ve done.

I think that every year.

It’s kind of a New Year’s poem, but I actually wrote it on Mar. 31, 2000.

Israel

In a recent essay in the New York Review of Books, Zadie Smith explained that racially homogeneous societies were no more peaceful than racially diverse societies.  She looked at Northern Ireland, “an area where people who look absolutely identical to each other, eat the same food, pray to the same God, read the same holy book, wear the same clothes, and celebrate the same holidays have yet spent four hundred years at war over a relatively minor doctrinal difference they later allowed to morph into an all-encompassing argument of land, government, and national identity.”

So we have Israel, a land where groups of people fight over the words of 800 to 2000 year-old tribal prophets, either Jewish or Muslim, who actually believed that some god spoke to them directly and laid down some rules for them to follow.  An atheist like me can only look at the dispute over the “holy city” of Jerusalem and be awestruck that groups could even concern themselves over who gets to rule it.  I mean, it’s not like we are talking about Paris, or even Los Angeles.

Let me point out something.  Since its inception, Israel has been a democratic Jewish state.  If there is no two-state solution and the fanatics keep building settlements in Palestinian territory, Israel will be either a Jewish state or a democratic state.  It cannot remain both.  Secretary of State Kerry gets this.  Prime Minister Netanyahu either doesn’t get it, or doesn’t care, or is putting his short term interests above the long term interests of his country.

Extreme Prey

I’m a big fan of “police procedurals.”  Those are crime novels in which dogged police work solves the mystery, as opposed to the kind of cerebral activity you find in Sherlock Holmes or Agatha Christie.

John Sandford is one of my favorite authors.  His novels feature Lucas Davenport, a Minnesota cop who works for the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, or BCA.  Davenport is intelligent with flashes of brilliant insight.

The most recent book in the series is Extreme Prey, copyrighted in 2016.  I haven’t finished it yet, but a political fanatic is plotting the assassination of a female candidate for the presidency.  Davenport is privy to a number of emails sent by the fanatic, and he gives them to Elle, a nun who is also a childhood friend and a psychologist, for her analysis.

Elle tells Davenport he should take the threat very seriously, since the woman appears consumed by hatred.  Then Elle says something that I had not thought about before.  She notes that in the 60s and 70s the country was torn apart by the Civil Rights Movement, the Anti-war Movement, and the Feminist Movement, but all of those protests and all of that activity was driven by optimism.  The people creating the ruckus were all hopeful.

Elle then says to Davenport that the current anger and protest comes from a completely different place.  It is driven not by hope, but by hatred. 

Rubbermaid

The Rubbermaid company began operations in the 1920s in Wooster, Ohio, a town of 24,000.  The company employed about 1600 people in the early 90s; it was the largest employer in Wooster.  In 1995 the company lost a contract with Walmart, which it had supplied with dozens of household items.  Walmart pushes its suppliers to charge the cheapest price possible.

Rubbermaid had already opened plants in Mexico, Korea, and Poland, but its products were still too expensive for Walmart, so it cut its workforce by 9% and closed nine of its facilities.  

In 1999 Rubbermaid was bought by Newell Corporation, a company noted for cost-cutting.  Newell shifted more manufacturing to Mexico and moved the corporate staff to Atlanta.  Employment in Wooster was cut to under 1000.

On December 10, 2003, Newell announced that the Wooster plant would be shuttered in a few months  

Wooster had other factories, but some of them moved production outside the U.S. as well.  The unemployment rate for Wayne County, home of Wooster, stood at 11.1% in 2010.

The U.S. in June 1979 had 19,553,000 jobs in manufacturing.  That was the peak.  By 2011 manufacturing jobs had dropped to 11.6 million.

I don’t know this for sure, but I will bet that many former Rubbermaid workers voted for Trump and shop at Walmart.  I will also bet that the Rubbermaid factory won’t be coming back to Wooster.

Information about Rubbermaid came from Donald L. Barlett and James B Steele, The Betrayal of the American Dream.

Large mammals

Here’s a quiz.  What large North American mammal regularly kills humans in the eastern part of the U.S.?

What other large mammal could lessen those deaths?

If you answered the first one “deer,” you are correct.  If you answered the second one “cougars,” you are also correct.

Earlier this year the on-line journal Conservation Letters published an analysis of returning eastern cougars to their historic range.  The authors determined the cougars could prevent 155 human deaths, 21,400 human injuries, and save 2.3 billion in accident costs in a 30-year-period.  Perhaps I wouldn’t have run into that deer on 209 if we had some cougars in the area. 

Bring ‘em back!

(The article can be found in <onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/conl.12280/full?....>)

Why Republican legislators love voter suppression

Because it works.  

In 2014 a Federal court said that over 300,000 registered voters in Wisconsin lacked the IDs that the Republican legislature required of voters.

Trump won Wisconsin by 27,000 votes.

Christmas Cheer

We had a number of firsts in this past election.  In Washington, Pramila Jayapal, was elected, the first Indian-American woman in the House of Representatives.

In Florida, Stephanie Murphy defeated Republican incumbent John Mica to become the first Vietnamese-American woman in the House.

Kamala Harris won in California to become the first Indian/black U.S. Senator.

In Nevada, Catherine Cortez Masto was the first Latina elected to the Senate.  Incidentally, all of the above were Dems.

Four states (Arizona, Washington, Colorado, and Maine) raised their minimum wage.

Finally, medical use of marijuana was approved by voters in Arkansas, Florida, and North Dakota.  Recreational pot was approved in Massachusetts, Maine, Nevada, and what was that fourth one?  Oh yeah, California.

Marion Pritchard, 1920-2016

Marion Pritchard was riding her bicycle in Amsterdam in 1942 when she saw a group of soldiers raiding a Jewish children’s home.  They were “picking up the kids by an arm or a leg or by the hair” and throwing them into a truck for deportation.  Ms. Prichard reported that, “Two other women coming down on the street got so furious, they attacked the German soldiers, and they just picked the women up and threw them in the truck after the kids.”

“I just stood there.  I’m one of those people who sat there and watched it happen.”

Except she didn’t.  She went on to register Jewish infants as her own children and found safe homes for them.  She got Jews ration cards, secured false IDs, and found medical care through a friendly pediatrician.

By her estimate, she helped to rescue about 150 Jews.  She was also tough; at one point to save three kids she shot a Dutch collaborator to death and found a sympathetic undertaker to bury him in the same coffin as another body.

Ms. Pritchard received the Medal of Valor from the Simon Wiesenthal Center in May 2009.

On Christmas Eve, when millions of people are celebrating the birth of the Christ child, it is a good time to reflect how some children have been treated and are being treated at the present time, and how the world needs more Marion Pritchards.

Ms. Pritchard’s obituary appeared in today’s Times on page A17.

No room at this inn

Today I received a mailer from Amnesty International with a list of the top five countries that have accepted approximately 95% of the refugees from Syria.  According to Amnesty International they are:

Turkey 2,744,915

Lebanon 1,048,275

Jordan   655,217

Iraq   246,589

Egypt    120,491

So far the U.S. has accepted just over 10,000 Syrian refugees.  I assume after January any more refugees will be turned away.

Merry Christmas.

Boycott "Rogue One"

At least that is what some white supremacists are advocating.  I saw “Rogue One” last night, and it is true that the Empire seems to be run by old white guys, and the rebels, led by Jyn Erso, are truly a multi-cultural group.  In fact, the admiral of the rebel force looks rather amphibian.

My first impression, from a strictly esthetic viewpoint, was that this was the worst in the series of Star Wars movie since that one with the rather creepy Jar Jar Binks, but now that I know some Trump supporters are urging a boycott, I’m glad I saw it.

Plus, the climactic battle was shot on the Maldives, which will soon be underwater because of global warming.

U.S. life expectancy falls

Last year life expectancy in the U.S. slipped about a month.  The trend has been upward except for years when a major disease outbreak occurred.  For example, in 1993 it dipped during the AIDS epidemic.  In 1980 it dipped because of a major flu epidemic.  Last year, however, saw no major epidemic.

We weren’t doing all that well even before last year.  Quite a few countries, including Slovenia, Greece, Costa Rica, and Malta, do better than the U.S.

Maybe the upward trend will resume after Trump and Paul Ryan get rid of Obamacare.  

Do I have to explain I’m being sarcastic?  I suppose so, just in case any Trump voters are reading this.

Trump wins the presidency

The Electoral College has voted and Trump won.  I know that thousands of people tried to convince Trump electors to vote for Clinton.  Ironically, if I am reading the results correctly, more Clinton electors were “unfaithful” than were Trump electors.

Three comments:

First, the Electoral College no longer operates like Hamilton thought it would.  The electors don’t sit down and vote for the candidate they believe is best to run the country.  They vote for the candidate who won their state’s popular vote.  The Electoral College has been operating this way since 1800, and it is now part of the Constitutional order.  In political science terms, this is called “custom and usage.”  We expect that if Pennsylvania votes for Trump, his electors will vote for Trump.  I don’t particularly like that, but the problem is with the voters, not the Electoral College.

Second, the easiest reform of the Electoral College is to eliminate the actual people and assign the Electoral College votes to the candidate who wins the state.  Trump wins Pennsylvania, so he gets the 20 votes from Pennsylvania.  No need for actual people.  

Third, it is high time to scrap what is an antiquated system.  We got rid of the 3/5 clause.  We amended the Constitution to allow direct election of Senators.  We only allow the President two terms.  It is time to move to a direct election of the President.  When a candidate wins almost three million more votes than her opponent and loses the presidency, that is undemocratic and calls the legitimacy of the whole election into question.

Stupidity on stilts

Every now and then I read something that is absolutely breathtaking.  On Dec. 18 the Morning Call ran a letter by Ron Rickert of Moore Township.  I will quote an entire paragraph of that letter for your enjoyment.

And next time a sad soul tells you that Hillary Clinton won the actual vote count, tell him to look at the results map that shows how the entire U.S. voted, county by county, red and blue, and then honestly tell me she won the popular vote.

Wow.

Airport Delay

It is a truism that the worst trips make the best stories, so I have a great story.  Friday was the first sunny day we had in California, so we anticipated no problems flying out of the Sac airport.  Whoops.

The departure was delayed because of high winds in Las Vegas, our first stop.  Once we got on the plane, we sat on the runway for over an hour.  When we finally got to Las Vegas our connecting flight to Philadelphia had already departed.  They put us on a plane to Nashville, and from there to Philly, but the Nashville plane didn’t leave until Saturday morning.

That meant a night sleeping in the airport.  I know that many of you would have seized the opportunity to go into Las Vegas and catch a show or gamble, but we are rubes from the country.  The thought of trying to find our way to a hotel and get back in time for our plane’s departure was way too scary.  So we slept on the floor.  Of course our toothbrushes and everything else was in the suitcases, presumably on their way to Philadelphia.

The plane from Las Vegas to Nashville was late, but it didn’t matter, since we had a five hour layover in Nashville.  The plane leaving Nashville was two hours late anyway.  When we finally reached Philly, about 1 a.m., we still had to get the shuttle to long term parking and then drive home in the fog.  We got home at 4 a.m.

I decided not to post anything.  I hope you understand.

Re-shoring

I learned a new word today.  Re-shoring, or reshoring without the hyphen, is when American companies bring back operations from overseas.  They do this because the work is automated, and robots can work as cheaply in the U.S. as in China.  Unfortunately, while Chinese employees lose their jobs, American workers don't gain employment.  As automation grows (think driverless trucks), more and more Americans become superfluous.  This is already a problem, and it grows bigger each year.

It would be so nice to have a President for the next four years who understood such issues and did more than spout slogans and post tweets, but that ain't what we got.

Note:  Tomorrow evening I'll be flying back to Penna., arriving in Philadelphia about 11:30, so I won't be posting.  I might not even be awake.

Demonstration in Grass Valley

We passed a demonstration in downtown Grass Valley on behalf of the Standing Rock Sioux.  The number of demonstrators was comparable to our group in front of the Courthouse in Jim Thorpe, but this demonstration had an advantage.  It was in front of a Wells Fargo bank, one of the major investors in the North Dakota Access pipeline.

I gave the demonstrators the thumbs up.

Farewell Tour

I've billed my trip to California as my farewell tour.  In the past two days I've visited former students and old friends in Berkeley, El Cerrito, and Sacramento and relatives in Grass Valley and Chico.

Back in Pennsylvania people sometimes ask me, "Do you miss California?"  Well, yeah.

It is so nice to walk into a Burger King where the entire staff is speaking Spanish.  To be in a state where people know how to merge onto the freeway.  To be in a state where the hills are green in winter   before they turn golden in the spring.

The politics are corruption free, and most politicians are actually interested in solving problems, perhaps one reason why the state is so prosperous, running a budget surplus.  This is the state that for many years was represented in the U.S. Senate by two Jewish women and has for its governor Jerry Brown, the smartest governor in the U.S.

There are a few hoofties here, but not many.  Some of the Central Valley and foothill counties went for Trump, but the Bay Area and L.A. were overwhelmingly Clinton.  There are a large number of smart people in this state.

California secession

In the Spring of 2019, Californians will go to the polls in a historic vote to decide by referendum if California should exit the Union, a Calexit vote.

The Yes California Independence Campaign will qualify a citizen's initiative for the 2018 ballot that if passed would call for a special election for Californians to vote for or against the independence of the state from the rest of the U.S.

Yes, people are serious, although there are some funny aspects, like the call for Arizona and Nevada to pay for a wall.

California independence, of course, would require Congressional approval.  On the other hand, those yahoos in Mississippi and Texas might welcome the state's departure.  They are way too dumb to realize that the taxpayers of California are subsidizing them.

Incidentally, the independence movement started before the presidential election, but since then has really picked up steam.

Sixteen years after chads

Why are we unable to do simple things well?  How hard is it to run an election that is fair, honest, and open to a recount if any questions arise?  Evidently very hard, as Jill Stein is finding out.  

I'm not even talking about voter suppression or attempts to make registration or voting difficult.  I'm talking about the actual system that records the votes.  Machines that can be hacked, systems that provide no paper trail, obsolete machines-we have them all.  

Other countries are able to do this.  You might not always agree with the outcomes, but countries like Britain, Canada, or France don't have the technical problems we seem to encounter in just about every election.  Sixteen years after the Florida recount debacle, we still can't get it right. 

Rain in California

It's been raining in northern CA.  Today our daughter Rachael drove us through Bidwell Park in Chico to look at Big Chico Creek.  The water is overflowing the banks.  We weren't the only tourists who came down for a look.  It has been so long since people in this part of the state have seen real downpours that high creek levels are a cause for celebration.

The Wizard of Oz

The Hooker Oak Elementary School of Chico, California, presented a two-act musical production of "The Wizard of Oz" based on the story by Frank Baum.  The large cast (over 60 members) included Munchkins and Flying Monkeys.  The star of the show, however, was the Cowardly Lion, played by a ten-year-old 5th grader named Gavin Newkirk.  Young Newkirk stole the show with his acting and his singing.  At least one audience member felt this exposition of the Cowardly Lion was the best he had seen since Bert Lahr's performance in the original movie.

Professor Watchlist

A conservative youth group called Turning Point USA has put out a list of about 200 “dangerous professors” who “advance leftwing propaganda in the classroom.”  The list includes pictures.  

So, even though I’m not teaching any more, I feel bad that I’m not on the list.  Tonight I went on the website (You type in “liberal professor watch list”) and added my name.  I put in my telephone number as well.

I love doing stuff like that.

Tomorrow night I will be in transit until late in the evening and won’t post.  

Hamilton on the Electoral College

Trump supporters have become strong defenders the Electoral College.  Sure, Clinton won the popular election by two and a half million votes, but the Trumpians note that the Founding Fathers didn’t care about the popular vote.

If you want to know what the Founding Fathers, or at least Hamilton, thought about the Electoral College, read Federalist Paper #68.  Christopher Suprun, a Trump Elector from Texas, read #68 and decided that he had a responsibility to make sure the candidate for whom he cast his vote was qualified to be President.  He concluded that Trump was not, and he explained his decision in an op-ed essay in today’s Times.  It’s entitled “Why Electors Should Reject Trump.”

Thousands of people are sending letters to their electors urging them not to vote for Trump on the basis of Federalist Paper #68.  If a large number decided not to support Trump, I think we would have a Constitutional crisis.  On the other hand, we are about to officially elect a demagogue who doesn’t even understand the Bill of Rights, who for years propagated the fake news story that Obama was born in Kenya, and whose appointments like Michael Flynn are appalling.  We already have a Constitutional crisis.

Drain the pool

Sammy Lee, the first Asian-American man to earn Olympic gold, died at the age of 96.  Dr. Lee won his medal in platform diving 1948 and won another gold medal in 1952.  

Lee was a Korean-American who served as a medical officer in the Korean war.  In the late 1920s he was living in Highland Park, where he swam at Brookside Park in Pasadena.  He could only swim on Wednesdays, “International Day,” when Asian, black, and Latino kids were allowed in the pool.  After they had departed, the pool would be drained and refilled for the white kids.

Dr. Lee is survived by his wife, two children, and three grandchildren.

Information for this post was taken from Robert D. McFadden, “Sammy Lee, Olympic Trailblazer Who Stood Up to Prejudice, Dies at 96,” Times, (Dec. 5, 2016), p. B6.

Victory!

The Army Corps has announced it will begin a new Environmental Impact Study for alternative routes for the North Dakota Access pipeline.

I'm celebrating, but somewhat cautiously.  President-elect Trump supports the pipeline, and while the Corps has a major say, Trump could bring pressure to bear.  Personally, I don't think he will want to stir up this hornet's nest again.

The other issue is with the people who oppose any pipeline.  They see this as a sellout, since an alternative route is still a route.  There are people who don't understand the saying "Half a loaf is better than none."  These are the same people who voted for Jill Stein and gave us a president who does not even recognize global warming.

The Recount

Trump and his supporters have gone to court to block the vote recounts in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

Why?  Is there something to be afraid of?

The population center of Pennsylvania

Imagine Pennsylvania as a flat map, and that an identical weight has been placed at the residence of every person in Pennsylvania.  According to the latest newsletter of the Center for Rural Pennsylvania, that map would balance in Watts Township in Perry County.  (There aren’t any big cities in Perry County, but it’s to the north of Carlisle.)

From 1900 to 1950 the center was either in Juniata County, to the west of Perry or right on the border with Perry.  Then  the center began to move east.  From 1960 to 2010 the center shifted east about 13 miles.  It’s now close to the Susquehanna River, and by 2020 may cross it.

What’s happening is that the population in Western Pennsylvania is decreasing; the population in the Lehigh Valley and suburban Philadelphia is increasing.  

I’d like to tell you the political implications of this, but I’d be guessing.  

Rural PA for Hillary Clinton

Only it wasn’t.  

In September we drove up to the Democratic Headquarters in Bloomsburg to pick up 100 “Rural PA for Hillary Clinton” yard signs.  The signs were purchased by the rural caucus of the state Democratic Party; Carbon County is part of that caucus.  While residents of Lehighton or Jim Thorpe might not feel rural, Carbon County as a whole is considered “rural.”

All across the country rural areas were a disaster for Clinton.  In 2008 Carbon County voted for Obama as did the whole state of Iowa.  In 2012 Iowa again went for Obama.  Not this year.  In Pennsylvania rural counties are expected to vote Republican.  What was different this year was the margin by which they voted Republican.

As long as the Democratic Party fails to make inroads in the rural vote, the party will have a difficult time ever winning the Senate.  Remember, Wyoming, with fewer than 600,000 people, gets two Senators, same as New York or California.  The Democrats will also lose state legislative seats, and those Republican legislators will adopt gerrymandered districts and voter suppression laws.

A reader recently forwarded me a link to a Washington Post article that featured the views of Agricultural Secretary Vilsack.  You may want to check it out.  <https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/vilsacks-tough-message-for-fellow-democrats-stop-writing-off-rural-america/2016/11/27/6751f8b8-b31d-11e6-be1c-8cec35b1ad25_story.html?postshare=1371480431760218&tid=ss_tw>.

"Alt-Right"

Recently I listened to a course from the Teaching Company on the subject of English in America.  The professor emphasized that new words enter the language constantly.  Every year a group of linguists votes on a “word of the year.”  It would not surprise me if the word of the year for 2016 was “alt-right.”

Fortunately, some new words don’t last.  “Alt-right” is short for “alternative right,” and it is used to describe people like Trump’s White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon.  

Here’s is what Rich Lowry, editor of the National Review, a conservative magazine, said about the term.  He explained he was not opposed to using it as long as it was applied to a specific group.  In Lowry’s words, quoted in the New York Times, the term should be reserved for “people who are obsessed with race and, in one form or another, are white supremacists.”

In this blog I will not use the term “alt-right.”  I will use terms like “white supremacist” or “racist” or “neo-Nazi.”  Let’s call them what they are.

A right to be scared

Last night at a meeting of the Executive Board of the Palmerton Area Historical Society, I was handed a picture of the White House with a big Trump sign on top in shiny gold letters.  I think everyone on the board knows my politics, and they assured me it was all in good fun.

I said I was sure it was, but nonetheless I was very frightened.  I said some of my former students and my friends could be deported, and many of the remarks Trump made during the campaign scared me.  A couple of the members scoffed.  “It was just campaign rhetoric,” and “It won’t be that bad.”

Let me quote three front page headlines in the Times today.

“Trump’s Threat to Close Door Reopens Old Wounds in Cuba”

“Fierce Crtitic of Health Care Law Said to Be Pick for Health Dept.”

“Plan to Revive Waterboarding Faces Obstacles:  A Trump Campaign Vow”

Yeah, I’m scared.  I have a right to be scared, as any reasonable person should be.

Hunting with semi-automatics

Gov. Wolf signed HB 263, a new law to allow the use of semi-automatic rifles for hunting.  The law gives the Game Commission the power to regulate “sporting rifles” for various game species.

Some hunters say this will allow them to take a quick follow-up shot to finish off a wounded animal.

Wouldn’t it make even more sense to use fully automatics?  You just hold down the trigger and the weapon keeps firing.  Wouldn’t hunters be much more effective?  Why isn’t the NRA pushing for this?  

RPGs would be even more effective.  You could really blast a deer with a rocket-propelled grenade.  The Second Amendment says you have the right to bear arms.  It doesn’t forbid RPGs, does it?  

Go Back To Your Own Country

On Friday evening my neighbors and their two girls went to see “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” at the Mahoning Valley Cinema.  The kids in the row behind them kept crinkling their candy wrappers, and my neighbors asked them politely to stop doing that.  

They did, but after the movie the mother of the kids confronted my neighbors and said, “That was very rude of you.  My kids eat candy at the movies, and they can make noise if they want to.”

My neighbor, an immigrant from India, said, “No, that’s why there is an announcement to turn off your cell phones before the movie starts.”

At this the woman said in a very loud voice, “Why don’t you go back to your own country.”  I think she was expecting support from the people around her.

Now, here is the good part.  A woman behind her said, “That is unacceptable.  We are a small community here, and that is not the way to behave.”  Other people stated agreement and apologized to my neighbors for the woman’s behavior.  She left the theater in a hurry.  The manager heard about the incident and offered my neighbor free tickets to another movie.  A local clergyman added his apology.  

All right, Lehighton.  My neighbor said he was quite surprised by the support, and quite touched.  So am I.

Schadenfreude

According to the Times today, quite a few Trump supporters are now worried that they will lose their medical insurance.

If you don’t know what “schadenfreude” means, look it up.  I’m feeling it.

A grant for Weatherly from Heffley and Yudichak

According to today’s Times News, “State Sen. John Yudichak, D-Luzerne/Carbon, and State Rep. Doyle Heffley, R-Carbon, announced today that the borough of Weatherly will receive $1 million in state grant funding.”

Did they get that money personally?  Does that state grant funding come out of their own pockets?  That’s the impression I get.  

Why Weatherly?  Why would some Carbon County boroughs deserve a grant more than others?  The whole grant process is shot through with arbitrary favoritism and incumbency protection.  Does Pennsylvania have that much money that it can dole out a million bucks to Weatherly?

I personally think Weatherly is an interesting town, but so is Summit Hill, or Lansford, or Nesquehoning, all towns in Carbon County that could use a boost. 

Sore winners

My friend Rene coined a new term.  He called this evening and noted that Trump supporters are still angry.  They are angry that Clinton supporters aren’t happy.  They are angry that everyone isn’t praising Donald Trump.  They are angry that Clinton won a plurality of the vote, approximately 2 million more American voters than Trump.  They are angry that Trump is being questioned about his taxes, or his businesses, or his so-called university, or his connections to neo-Nazis.

Rene’s new term is “sore winner.”  We’ve all heard about sore losers, but this election has brought us sore winners.  Sad.

Note:  I won’t post tomorrow night.  It’s a holiday.  I need a break.

Water cannons in winter weather

What kind of people would soak demonstrators with water cannons in freezing weather?  

I understand that Amnesty International has sent observers to North Dakota to monitor the treatment of Indians, over a hundred of whom have required medical treatment in the last few days.  

Tonight we met Gene Stilp, an attorney from Dauphin County, who is leaving for North Dakota on Thursday along with other lawyers to offer legal services to the Indians.  Tonight the Carbon County Democrats for Progress collected winter coats for the demonstrators.  

These are small gestures in the face of multibillion dollar oil companies, banks, and a new administration that approves of pipeline construction.  We keep on fighting.

Give the guy a chance

I’ve noticed a spate of articles and op-ed essays urging Clinton supporters to give Trump a chance.  They criticize Clinton voters for being poor sports.  They give us lectures on democracy and how it works.

OK, point taken.  I will give Trump the same treatment that the Republicans gave to President Obama when he was elected.  Surely you can remember that.  It was only eight years ago.

Old age

I turned 74 on Nov. 18.  Do not send presents.  

Here’s what Leon Trotsky said:  “Old age is the most unexpected of all the things that happen to a man.”  

It’s true.  One minute you are 17, mooning over the girl in the next row in typing class, and the next minute you need a few steps for your joints to move when you get out of the car.  How did that happen so fast?

Impeach Trump

That’s a bumper sticker I put on the tailgate of my truck yesterday.  I’m hoping some Trump supporters tell me that I should give him a chance.  That will give me the opportunity to explain that Mitch McConnell and other members of Congress met the night Obama won in 2008 and plotted how they could derail his proposals.

I thought I was ahead of the curve, but I just checked, and similar bumper stickers are already available on the internet.

Order yours today!

Becoming a Muslim

Christian X, King of Denmark during World War II, noted the inhumane treatment of Jews in German-occupied countries.  He wrote in his personal diary that Danish Jews would need to be protected, and if they were singled out, “...we would best meet it by all wearing the Star of David.”

On Wednesday evening Trump surrogate Carl Higbie told Fox reporter Megyn Kelly that the U.S. might need a national registry of all Muslims.  He said there was precedent for such a list in the World War II Japanese internment, which the Supreme Court has never declared unconstitutional.  

When Kelly questioned this, Higbie said, “I’m just saying there’s a precedent for it.”  

If the Trump administration does compile a national registry of Muslims, I will become a Muslim.  I won’t go through the whole conversion process, but I once attended a service in a mosque in Allentown.  I think that is enough to put my name on the registry.

I’m hoping millions of Americans would do the same.

Good Neighbors?

Good Neighbors:  The Democracy of Everyday Life in America was published earlier this year.  Written by Harvard Political Science professor Nancy Rosenblum, the book discusses two types of democracy.  There is the political one, where we function as citizens, and a “democracy of everyday life,” in which we operate as neighbors.

Rosenblum believes the political democracy functions in the abstract, with words like conservative or progressive or libertarian.  Our day-to-day interactions with neighbors, however, hinge on concrete acts.  Will they collect our mail when we aren’t home?  Does our barking dog disturb the people upstairs?

In the day-to-day world we ignore much that we might not ordinarily like in the political world.  Thus, when I was working the polls at the Palmerton Rod and Gun Club, I got on quite well with my Republican counterparts Roger, Kenny, and Robert.  We were civil to each other and found we had quite a bit in common.

Given that, why do I feel such hostility to my neighbors who had Trump signs in their lawns?  Why can’t we all get along?

It is because this election was different.  When I saw thousands of people at rallies chanting “Lock her up,” that was my candidate they were chanting about.  When I saw Trump calling for mass deportations, some of my former students who have lived in the U.S. since childhood will be rounded up and sent to a country they can’t remember.  When I saw Trump call for punishing women who get abortions, that affects my friends.  When I saw Trump proudly accepting support from racists, I can’t forgive that.

I will, of course, continue to talk to my relatives and neighbors who supported Trump.  What I cannot do is look upon them in the same way.  To me politics is not something I do on election day.  I try to live my politics, and I assume that Trump supporters do as well.  I can’t get past that.

Rising above principle

Bernie Hennessy, a professor of Political Science when I was in grad school and later a good friend, said a good citizen occasionally had to “rise above principle.”  It took me a while to understand what he meant, but I will give you an example.  

Let’s say you are committed environmentalist.  You understand that global warming is an existential threat to the planet, you are fully cognizant that we are in the middle of a human-caused Sixth Extinction, and you realize that unless we turn this around fast, we will live in an overcrowded polluted planet, if we live at all.

You are a member of the Green Party.  You know that the Democratic Party is full of people like Sen. Yudichak, who favors the PennEast/UGI pipeline, and Hillary Clinton, who is unwilling to call for a total ban on fracking.  

That offends your principles.  You can’t compromise with that, so you go into the voting booth and vote for Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate for president.  You have remained true to your personal principles.  You have also helped to elect a man who will abrogate climate treaties, who favors the Keystone XL pipeline, who is said to be considering Sarah Palin as Secretary of the Interior, and who will undo much of the work of the E.P.A.

That’s what Bernie Hennessy meant.  There are times you need to rise above principle.

Vigil in Jim Thorpe

Approximately 25 people participated in a silent vigil in support of the Standing Rock Sioux this morning at the Carbon County Court House.  The tribe is trying to stop the North Dakota Access Pipeline, which carries oil from the fracking fields, from crossing their Reservation land polluting their water supply.

The Army Corps of Engineers has the power to stop the pipeline, but so far the request of the Indians to either stop or move the pipeline has been unsuccessful.  Other demonstrations and vigils were held around the country today.  I’m hoping that enough public pressure will have an effect.  

Irony abounds

First example:  I’m picking up political signs from the election.  I came across one in the Lehigh Gap, commercially printed, that said “We are lead by fools.”  We are also at the mercy of sign writers who don’t know the difference between led and lead.

Second example:  Sen. Lisa Baker (R, Wayne County) has filed a motion to overturn a moratorium on fracking by the Delaware River Basin Commission.  She said,”This is a property rights issue.”  She said nothing about the property rights of farmers subject to eminent domain when fracking gas pipelines cross their land, nor is she evidently concerned about the property rights of residents who live next to the noise, water and air pollution, and disruptions caused by the fracking process.

Third example:  After months of saying that they might not accept the results if Trump lost, Trump supporters are now giving lectures on democracy to Clinton supporters demonstrating against the election results.  Perhaps the Clinton supporters, who supported a candidate who received two million more popular votes than Trump, think the election was rigged.

Greg Abbott and Pam Bondi

Before his election as of Texas, Greg Abbott had been the state’s Attorney General; Pam Bondi is the current AG for Florida.  Each of them cancelled fraud investigations of Trump University.  Shortly afterward, their campaign accounts received five-figure checks from Donald Trump or his foundation.  

Abbott and Bondi say the checks had nothing to do with canceling their investigations.

Meanwhile, Kathleen Kane goes to jail. 

In case you are suspicious at a time of fake news, this info came from the Sept. 2016 issue of Governing Magazine, a very reputable publication.

Standing with Standing Rock

A national day of protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline is scheduled for Tuesday, November 15.  This is the pipeline that was moved from a location near Bismarck, North Dakota, because of concerns over the water supply, to a location across American Indian ancestral and treaty lands.  You probably have read or seen the demonstrations at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota.  

In Carbon County our demonstration in solidarity with the Indians will be held at the Courthouse in Jim Thorpe on Nov. 15 at 10:00 a.m.  This will be a silent vigil lasting approximately one hour.  It is fitting to hold this protest in a town named after one of America’s Indian heroes.  It is also fitting because once again the American government is failing to honor its treaty obligations with an Indian tribe.  

The Safety Pin Project

After the Brexit vote in June, hate crimes and anti-immigrant violence rose in Britain.  To counteract the idea that all Brits were anti-immigrant, people began wearing safety pins on their clothing.  The safety pins sent a signal that immigrants and other minorities were safe with them.

I am now wearing my safety pin.  It is a quiet way to let minority groups, LGBT people, legal and undocumented immigrants, yes, in Trump’s America, women, know that they are safe with me.  I don’t know how long I will wear the pin, but I assume at least for the next four years.

Fixing a rigged system

My friend Tom sent me five suggestions for fixing our system of electing presidents.  Here are what he wrote, with a few small changes to fit the format of the blog:

This presidential election result is more strong evidence that we need to

1.  amend the Constitution to replace the state-based electoral college system with a nationwide direct popular-majority-vote method; and 

2.  guarantee access to ballots and public debates for all political parties having several thousand active registered members (such as the Green Party); and 

3.  mandate purple thumb inking for all voters; and 

4.  provide paper ballots instead of electronic machines that leave no paper trail; and 

5.  insure full transparency, free and easy public access to all rules and records, of

all aspects of the election process.  

Of course in the primary election process parties would still continue to act, as parties do, according to their own rules, to select their nominees for the general election.  

Had the first suggestion been adopted, of course, Clinton would be our president-elect.  I would amend the second one to suggest that a party recognized in at least ten states would be included in the debates.  As for the third suggestion, to ink thumbs for voters to prevent fraud, I was ridiculed at a California legislative hearing when I suggested this, but I still like the idea.

The fourth suggestion is also important, especially if we go to a direct popular vote system.  Incidentally, the Carbon County Commissioners have publicly agreed to this in principle when they purchase new voting machines.  The fifth suggestions of full transparency, is a no-brainer.

Two years

In 2008 President Obama was elected by a healthy majority of votes.  Democrats were a majority in the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives.  

Two years later the “Tea Party” movement erupted, and the Republicans won a majority in the House.  

We have two years in which the Republicans will be in control of all three branches of government, and not just any Republicans, but Republicans of the far right.  It will be difficult for Democrats to win the House in 2018, since Republican state legislatures have gerrymandered congressional districts and over thirty states have made it more difficult for citizens to vote.

On the other hand, the Republicans now own this government.  They will be in charge when the economy goes sour, when the wall is not built, when coal remains too expensive, when trade wars erupt, when the Middle East remains a war zone.  

So buckle up.  We have two years to turn this thing around.

What has happened to America?

Even if Hillary Clinton wins, and right now, at 10 p.m., it looks doubtful, Trump will still have received approximately half the votes of my fellow Americans.

This means that half of my fellow Americans voted for a man who stiffs creditors, mistreats women, thinks global warming is a Chinese hoax, would put doctors who perform abortions in jail, and ran a phony university that cheated thousands.  This is a guy who never reads, does not know history, and has encouraged white supremacists and racists.  Any reader of this blog can add much more.

ONE HALF OF AMERICAN VOTERS VOTED FOR THIS CLOWN.  Trump once said he loved the uneducated, and they obviously love him back.

Here is my prediction.  If he wins, this country will suffer in all kinds of ways.  Unfortunately, the voters who brought this on will not take responsibility.  It will be the fault of blacks, or Jews, or Latinos, or feminists, or environmentalists.

Finally, here is my advice to liberals, socialists, Marxists, and left-wingers in general.  Buy a gun.  Take a firearms course.  Get ready for the apocalypse.  It will be upon us before you know it.

A sad thing about this election

My friend Rene noted that come Wednesday, half of America will be very disappointed.  I’m hoping it is the Trump half, but I think it is important to note that this election has scarred America like no other in my life time.

I have lost friends over this election.  I will not patronize businesses that supported Trump.  I have lost respect for approximately half of my fellow Americans.  In the past, I didn’t like certain Republican candidates, but I certainly didn’t think that Romney or McCain or Bush would ruin our country.  This election is different.  

This is an election in which the other side has systematically removed our yard signs.  They put up signs that call for the imprisonment of my candidate.  Many of the people I talked to were afraid to put out Clinton signs because they thought the other side might retaliate.  Here, in America, they were afraid to put out political signs.

Both sides think the election is rigged. Over thirty states have increased restrictions on voting to reduce minority voting, the campaign finance system aids people like the Koch Brothers, and gerrymandering helps to ensure Republican dominance of the House.  I think it’s rigged.

The other side thinks the rigging takes place in the voting, although they can never seem to find actual examples.

In this election season, hate crimes against Muslims have increased.  High school kids shout insults at fellow students.  Women who were abused in the past are experiencing stress.  A former Latina student sent me an email telling me how worried she was.  

Do you think Trump will accept the results if he loses?  Of course not.  If Trump wins, do you think I will shrug and say, “Oh well, the people have spoken.”  Of course not.  I will be calling for his impeachment before he is even inaugurated.  

Democracy is always under attack.  You can never take it as a given.  I don’t know how resilient this country is, but it will take years, perhaps decades, for us to return to the kind of civil society I once took for granted.

Veterans' Day parade

The Carbon County Democrats entered the Veterans’ Day parade, held this year in Palmerton.  The Republicans also entered, with campaign signs and a paper mache elephant.

We thought the parade was about veterans, so we had a banner that read “Be An American Voter” and a second banner telling who we were.  We also had a pickup truck with posters thanking American veterans and detailing some of the landmark expansions of the suffrage, such as absentee ballots for Union soldiers (1864) and women’s right to vote, the 19th Amendment, passed in 1920.

As we went by, a bunch of Trump supporters shouted out that Clinton should be in jail.  Rene, who was holding the banner with me, shouted back, “Today is about honoring veterans.”  Their response was somewhat incoherent.  

Indian wars

The American Civil Liberties Union sent its members a message about the Standing Rock protest.  Here is what ACLU said:

On a North Dakota prairie, nonviolent protesters are being confronted by police in riot gear with armored military vehicles, automatic rifles, sonic weapons, concussion grenades, attack dogs, pepper spray, and beanbag bullets.

The NoDAPL water protectors at Standing Rock are being treated like prisoners of war simply for protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline.  Some are being strip-searched and detained in structures resembling dog kennels.  Police are even hooding detainees and forcing them to remain in jail cells.

I’ve read that the reason the pipeline was routed through Sioux land in the first place was to protect the water supply of Bismarck.

Will this country will ever stop mistreating its indigenous people?

11 Million Refugees

What I can’t get past in this election is that almost half of my fellow Americans are voting for a man who will create more refugees than the entire war in Syria.  Many of the 11 million undocumented Mexican and Central American residents in this country have no homes to go when they are deported.  Many don’t even speak Spanish.

The effort will require a national identification cards, roundups, people herded into relocation centers, perhaps convoys of buses, or railroad cars, thousands of agents to enforce the policy.

I have heard Trump supporters tell me, when I bring up this issue, he won’t really do that.  He’s just saying that.  Really?  We have historical examples of candidates promising to “deal with” minority groups.  They were not taken seriously until it was too late. 

I take Trump seriously.