Etiquette: The Complete Modern Guide

In my continuing effort to declutter, I came across a book entitled  Etiquette:  The Complete Modern Guide for Day-To-Day Living the Correct Way by Frances Benton published in 1956.  The book has chapters on children’s manners, manners in specific places like churches and synagogues and the theater, and how to greet people and how to say goodby.  There are chapters on setting tables, dinner parties, and women’s political, civic, and service clubs.

My first reaction was how silly all this was.  Do we really need to worry about table settings?  I am also aware that the Fifties were a time when the girls in my high school class basically had three vocational choices–nurse, teacher, or secretary.  Racial segregation was still legal and homosexual acts still illegal.

On the other hand, there were certain rules to follow.  We did not have a boor in the White House.  We did not have “road rage.”  A riot at the Capitol egged on by a former president would have been unthinkable.  The idea that a man who talked about “grabbing pussy” could get elected president–twice–unthinkable.  Television anchors were trusted and trustworthy.  Most people knew some standards on how to behave politely.

It is common for old people to think that life in their youth was better.  In some ways it was.

Changing employment patterns in Carbon County, PA

A recent article by Ron Gower of the Times News listed the top ten employers in Carbon County in 1990, 2000, and 2024.  Industry was doing fairly well in 1990.  Five of the top ten, including two clothing factories, manufactured items.  In 2000 seven of the top ten were manufacturers.  

By 2024 the number of employers producing a product had dropped of the top ten.  Three of the top ten were governments–Carbon County ranked 2nd, the state government was 8th, and the Palmerton Area School District was 10th.  Three of the top ten were health-related, and one was recreational (Blue Mountain Resort).  One top ten employer was agricultural–Little Leaf PA.  It grows lettuce in huge greenhouses in the northern part of the county.

Manufacturing has either gone to “right to work for less” states or to other countries.

Not watching the news. Nope. Not doing that.

On Monday I drove to Newport News, VA, to visit my Uncle Gene, now in his 90s.  I spent most of yesterday with him and came home today.  He is sharp, a hardcore Democrat, and reads probably a book a week.  What he no longer does is watch the news.  Neither do I.  Nor do lots of people I know.  I have quit MSNBC and CNN; Fox was always off-limits.  

I do read the New York Times, but I find I’m skimming the headlines more.  I don’t feel like I can do much about what is happening to this country.  I no longer understand my fellow citizens.  Many of them seem cruel, selfish, and not very bright.  I find what Trump is doing is often petty, destructive of American values, supportive of billionaires, and rewarding to his boot lickers and ass kissers like Musk, Zuckerberg, and Bezos.  

Maybe I’ll run for the Chairmanship of the Carbon County Democrats.  It might be fun to have a platform.  But right now I am going to read myself to sleep by reading a Michael Connelly novel.

Barn owls

According to an article by naturalist Barry Reed in the Times News, there are currently only 45 known pairs of breeding barn owls in the whole state of Pennsylvania.  At one time these owls were common, living in wooden barns and helping the farmers by eating mice, rats, and voles.

Now, as corporate agriculture increases and wooden bank barns are being torn down, the owls have fewer and fewer nesting sites.  Fortunately, you can build your own barn owl nesting box, and if you aren’t very handy, barn owl birdhouses are available on the internet.  Worth the investment.

Note:  I am traveling the next three days.  If everything goes as it usually  does, my posting ability may be limited.  If it does go south, I should be able to post again on Wednesday evening.

The real Gulf of America

It isn’t a body of water.  It is the distance between our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution with its assumption of checks and balances, our Bill of Rights and our 14th Amendment, the ideals we fought for at Bunker Hill and Gettysburg and Omaha Beach, and our belief that Americans would pay attention and be smart enough to govern themselves

and the current government and its policies and the support of its followers.  

That is the real Gulf of America.

Schadenfreude

It’s a German word.  Of course it is.  How many other cultures do you think would have a specific word that means the “emotional experience of pleasure in response to another’s misfortune.”

In any case, I think I will be experiencing a lot of schadenfreude as various groups of Trump voters begin to experience the pain of Trump’s policies that affect them.  I know it is wrong, even petty, but I can’t help it.  

Teaching Democracy to Polish students

Thirty-five years ago (January 25, 1990), the New York Times published an article by Susan Chira entitled “Americans’ Challenge: Teaching Democracy.”   The article noted how the American Federation of Teachers was working with educators in Eastern Europe to revise the curriculum and eliminate authoritarian methods of teaching.  

The Americans were planning to offer seminars in Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia on teaching methods that would encourage democracy.  

Poland, after a rough patch, seems to be on the right track again.  Whatever the Americans did in Hungary, it failed.  As for Czechoslovakia, it split and is now the Czech Republic and Slovakia. 

It might have been better if the teachers had stayed home.  That’s where their biggest failure is located.

Will Trump pardon me

I'm sending a letter to President Trump.  It will be in the mail tomorrow.  Here is a copy: 

President Donald Trump

1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW

Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear President Trump:

I am fairly sure the November 2024 election was rigged.  It is difficult for me to believe that a smart and personable woman like Kamala Harris could lose.  I would like to protest the results.

If I go to the Capitol and threaten the Speaker of the House, break windows, and smear feces on the walls, will you pardon me?  Must I wait until January 6 of next year to do it?  

I am willing to wear a MAGA hat if that will help with my pardon.  

Please let me know.

Sincerely,

     Roy Christman

Leonard Peltier

I signed petitions to free Leonard Peltier at least 30 years ago.  Peltier was an American Indian Movement activist who was accused of killing two FBI agents, although the evidence was always rather sketchy.  Peltier, who was born in 1944, has been in poor health for years, and had attracted international support for his pardon.  

Biden competed Peltier’s sentence to house arrest, and Peltier will be freed in February, provided he lives that long.  Thank you, President Biden.

Oseola McCarty and Elon Musk

Oseola McCarty (1908-1999) was born in Shubuta, Mississippi.  She was a black woman who made her living doing laundry.  She was paid mostly in dollar bills.  She never had a driver’s license.  She was noted for her frugality.  When she was eight years old she opened a savings account in a local bank.  

She probably couldn’t spell the word “philanthropy,” but she set up an account to give financial aid to poor students at the University of Southern Mississippi.  That was a college that up until the Sixties was whites only. The amount she donated was $150,000, although when other people heard about what she had done, they added funds to the account.  Harvard gave her an honorary degree, and President Clinton honored her with a Presidential Citizens Medal.

Oh, and Elon Musk.  Fuck Elon Musk.

Let's bring back dueling

There is speculation that the billionaire segment of Trump supporters and the “uinwashed” rally-going MAGA types are destined for a clash.  We already know that Steve Bannon hates Elon Musk.  He said so.

I thought of political people who disagreed in the past, like Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton or Andrew Jackson and his rival.  One of them would challenge the other to a duel to settle the dispute.  

Wouldn’t it be great if Steve Bannon could challenge Elon Musk to a duel?  They both are really macho tough guys, and they might go for it.  I’d even volunteer to referee the event.  

Hegseth was asked the wrong questions

I don’t know many countries that punished their own troops for violating wartime laws.  Israel once punished soldiers for permitting a massacre of unarmed people in Lebanon.  Given what is occurring in the West Bank and Gaza, I doubt if it would today.  The U.S. punished a number of troops for slaughtering unarmed civilians at My Lai and gave medals to a helicopter crew that ignored orders and saved some Vietnamese children, but even at the time many Americans tried to justify the killing of the children.

Now we get a Secretary of Defense who has publicly stated that a Navy Seal accused by his fellow Seals of murder should not have been charged.  He evidently knows nothing about the Uniform Code of Military Justice or has decided to ignore it.

He was a Fox commentator.  He knows nothing about America’s strategic place in the world.  He is “religious.”  Sen. Cramer used his question time to praise Hegseth for using the words “Jesus Christ.”  

This is a complete abdication of Senate responsibility.  I don’t give a damn that Hegseth was a drunk.  So was General Grant, supposedly.  I don’t care that Hegseth fooled around.  So did John Kennedy and Dwight Eisenhower.  What I care about is that we get someone to run the Department of Defense that knows something about military preparedness, about global strategy, about who are our allies, about how NATO works, how nuclear deterrence can prevent wars, how to fight an insurgency.  

And we get this asswipe.

Amazing.

The Death of a Great Newspaper, Stabbed by Jeff Bezos

At one time I thought the billionaire Jeff Bezos was the savior of the Washington Post.  With that kind of money he could keep the paper going as a hobby, and he didn’t need to fear financial pressure from advertisers.  I had not reckoned with his craven sucking up to Trump, refusing to endorse in the presidential race, spiking a cartoon critical of Trump, giving a huge sum of money to the Trump inauguration.  

But it just got much worse.  Their old slogan, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is no longer part of the Post.  Darkness has arrived.  The new slogan is “Riveting Storytelling for All of America.”  

The L.A. Times is a shadow of its former glory.  I’m not sure the San Jose Mercury is even printed any more.  Murdoch owns the Wall Street Journal.  And now the once-proud Washington Post is into “story telling.”  That’s what you do with the pre-schoolers in the kids’ room at the library.

This really is a sign that our democracy is in deep deep trouble.  A newspaper isn’t supposed to tell stories.  It is supposed to tell the truth.

Advice for the inauguration

1.  On January 20 when Trump is sworn in, be sure you have your television tuned in to a different channel.  Don’t just turn it off.  That will make the inauguration come out on top in the ratings.  Turn it to the Food Channel or the Weather Channel or the one that is always running “Ridiculousness.”

2.  When you meet a Trump supporter, don’t argue or get angry.  Just say very calmly, “Yes, I can see why a guy like you would support Trump.”

He will immediately bristle, and say something like “What’s that supposed to mean?”  

Again, calmly, “It’s just that I understand why a guy like you would like Trump.”

3.  Be Michelle Obama, not John Fetterman.

4.  January 20 is Martin Luther King day.  King’s family has recommended that on that day we do something to make our communities better.  While the clown show takes place in D.C., do something to make your community a better place.  

I missed Biden's Farewell Address

Tonight I was attending a Palmerton Area Democratic Club meeting and missed Biden’s speech.  He was a good president, did more to combat global warming than any other president, was a friend of labor unions, brought down the price of drugs, kept Russia from swallowing Ukraine, and appointed intelligent and caring cabinet members.  

I could list more accomplishments, but his presidency will be forever tainted by his inability to recognize two large issues–inflation and illegal immigration.  I know that the economy is somewhat independent of what an administration does, but any administration needs to recognize when people are hurting.  It felt like Hoover saying “prosperity is just around the corner” when it obviously wasn’t.  He needed to  empathize with the American public and acknowledge the problem.

The same with illegal immigration.  Recognize it as a problem.  Don’t downplay it.  

The worst sin of the Biden presidency, however, was not abiding by his promise that his would be a one-term presidency and not allowing the Democratic Party to pick a successor to run.  Harris did not have enough time to campaign and did not have the freedom to criticize Biden’s shortcomings.  Whatever else Biden did well, and he did many things well, he left us with Donald Trump as his successor.  That will forever tarnish his record.

Letter to Congressmember Meuser

Dan Meuser is a right-wing extremist member of Congress.  He is a big time Trump supporter.  Last week the Lehighton Times News ran a letter from Rep. Meuser extolling the new administration.  I had to set him straight on a few points.  Here is my letter:

Dear Congressman Meuser,

Recently you wrote in a column in the Times News that “The American people voted for President Trump’s plan to cut waste, and restore fiscal sanity.”  I’m sure they did.  What the American people did NOT vote for was blustering about Panama and Greenland and completely unqualified cabinet appointees.

Restoring “fiscal sanity” is interesting.  I don’t think you do that by giving tax breaks to multi-millionaires like yourself or eliminating the inheritance tax so those same multi-millionaires can pass their money down to their kids.

And then we get to the old Republican trope of “embracing domestic energy production,” another phrase for “let’s really ramp up global warming.”

I am so tired of wealthy Congress members who move around until they find a seat they can buy lecturing us on economic matters.  According to the web site “Open Secrets,” your net worth in 2018 was over $30 million.  I’m sure with the Trump tax cuts, it has jumped.  In the meantime, thank you so much for the commentary on how great we are all going to have it.

Sincerely,

Roy Christman

Advice for foreign Musalim college students

Get your butts back here before Jan. 20.  When Trump was last inaugurated he restricted entry from many countries with Muslim populations, including Nigeria, Sudan, Syria, and Somalia.  The list could get long this time, since there are more counties that Trump evidently doesn’t like.  

Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, and MIT have all notified their foreign students to get back to the U.S. if they traveled home for the holidays.  Four years ago thousands of students were stranded at home when the travel ban was imposed.

"Refugees" by Brian Bilston

I don’t have permission to use this poem, but I don’t think Mr. Bilston will mind.  The name, but the way, is a pseudonym.  When you reach the end of the poem, read it again backwards.  Start with the last line and read up.  It is amazing. Try it.

They have no need of our help

So do not tell me

These haggard faces could belong to you or me

Should life have dealt a different hand

We need to see them for who they really are

Chancers and scroungers

Layabouts and loungers

With bombs up their sleeves

Cut-throats and thieves

They are not

Welcome here

We should make them 

Go back to where they came from

They cannot 

Share our food

Share our homes

Share our countries

Instead let us 

Build a wall to keep them out

It is not okay to say

These are people just like us

A place should only belong to those who are born there

Do not be so stupid to think that

The world can be looked at in another way.

Forced expatriation

In 1992 the term “ethnic cleansing” was first used by Bosnian-Serb  paramilitaries against rival ethnic groups in the former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina.  Their idea was to create “racial homogeneity” in areas with diverse ethnic groups.  Basically it was genocide, although to be clear, you can have ethnic cleansing by other means such as forced expatriation.  

Forced expatriation is not new in the U.S.  The “Trail of Tears” is one of the better known examples.  I suppose we could call the relocation camps for Japanese-Americans during World War II “internal expatriation.” although I’ve never heard that label.

The mass deportation proposed for immigrants after Trump assumes the presidency is not exactly “ethnic cleansing,” and I don’t think it would qualify as genocide.  I’m not sure what we should call it.  I am sure it is not a cause for celebration.