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. 

District elections for Hazleton

According to an A.P. report, the Justice Department has asked a federal judge to rule that at-large elections for Hazleton city council members violate the voting rights act.  Hazleton is about 2/3 Hispanic (mostly Dominican), although the voting age population is only about 43% Hispanic.  No Hispanic has ever been elected to the city council.

If the town is divided into districts, there is a good chance that at least one and maybe two of the districts would elect Hispanics.  

I was part if a campaign to divide San José into districts.  There were seven council members elected at large, none of them Latino.  I supported the district system for a different reason than ethnic fairness.  I wanted a council member who was mine.  Under the existing at-large system, who do you appeal to?

The campaign, run by Dr. Terry Christensen of the San José Pol. Sci. Department, was brilliant.  The maps were drawn before the measure was put on the ballot.  Potential candidates who lived in a district had an incentive to campaign for the measure.

It passed, and indeed Latinos were elected.  And I had my councilman, a guy named Tom McHenry.  Housewives were also elected from the smaller districts.  The elections became less partisan, depending more on face-to-face campaigning.  Candidates spent less money.  Instead of mailers to all of San José, you only needed to send your campaign mailers to 10% of the voters.  

So yeah, I like district elections.  The bigger the city, the more important they are.  As far as the Hispanics in Hazleton are concerned, however, if they wait a few years and register a few more voters, they could take all five seats.  Then the Anglos would be campaigning for districts.

Whitney Art Show Review

The Whitney Museum of American Art has a show of “Shifting Landscapes.”  I’m a big fan of landscapes, and I saw a sample from the show in the Whitney’s website.  Today I made the trip to see the show.  

Here is my two-word review.  SKIP IT.  I did see the painting of the landscape featured on the website, and it was great.  There were a few others I liked as well.  OK, to be precise, two of them.  Maya Lin has a installation that was thought-provoking, and there was a huge one of what looked like a prairie fire.  

The main problem was that the exhibits were not landscapes.  I’m a traditionalist.  I know a landscape when I see one.  I didn’t see many at the show.

Smugness doesn't become me, but I can't help it

I’ve never been on Facebook, now META.  I’m annoyingly smug about it, but I refuse to add my name to a social media activity which began as a way to rank the “hotness” of female students at Harvard.  Plus, I’ve always thought that Mark Zuckerberg was a snotnose.

I must say, however, that I have enjoyed hearing that people are posting items like “36-year-old convicted pedophile Mark Zuckerberg died today.”  As part of sucking up to Trump, Zuckhead announced that Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads were ending their fact checking and going to “free expression.”  So, all you Facebookers, take advantage of your newly found freedom and post whatever your little hearts desire.

Child of World War II

I was born in 1942, just about a year after Pearl Harbor.  I read two books by Ernie Pyle in elementary school.  As a high school kid I consumed World War II histories and novels by the score.  My 11th grade English teacher, Mrs. Kittleberger, allowed me to write book reports on war novels.  

A lesson learned was that we were the good guys.  Our GIs stopped aggressors.  We fought against tyranny.  We didn’t shoot the unarmed and never even considered torture.  We aided refugees.  We battled Hitler and Mussolini and Tojo.

Today I read that the U.S. has released 11 prisoners from Guantanamo that have been held for twenty years.  They were never tried.  They were never even changed with a crime.

I also heard that the President-elect talked about seizing Greenland and the Panama Canal.  What’s next–Sudetenland and eastern Poland?

I wonder what kids are reading these days.  

Headlines from the first Trump presidency

Trump was certified today.  No whining from Harris, no self-pity, no insurrection.  Just Republican congress members cheering their cult leader.  

I thought it might be fun to look at some headlines from the first Trump presidency.  They are in no particular order.  All were taken from the New York Times. 

E.P.A. Won’t Ban Popular Pesticide Seen as a Health Risk to Children, July 19, 2019.

Trump Reverses Navy’s Decision to Oust SEAL Accused of War Crimes, Nov. 22, 2019.

Push to Weaken Law Protecting At-Risk Wildlife, July 23, 2018.

Trump Moves to Speed Up Weapons Sales and Expand Market for Armed Drones, Apr. 20, 2018.

White House Weighs Separating Families to Deter Migrants, Dec. 22, 2018.

Only the Most Wealthy, Including Trump, Gain From Estate Tax’s Repeal.  (no date on that one.)

Trump Moving to Impede Consumer Lawsuits Against Nursing Homes, Aug. 18, 2017.

U.S. Overturns Limits on Big-Game Trophies,  Mar. 7,  2018.

U.S. Closes Door on Christians Who Fled Iran,  Mar. 2, 2018.

Door Opens for Predatory Colleges, June 1, 2017.

I have more, but you are no doubt depressed enough.

I'm thinking of running for office

Counties in Pennsylvania are divided into classes by population.  Carbon County, where I reside, is a 6th Class County.  6th class counties have “row offices” such as Treasurer, Prothonotary, Clerk of Courts, and more.  Although these office holders do not make policy or set their own salaries, they are still elected by the voters.  Any registered voter can run for these offices.  

On the other hand, counties in Pennsylvania are allowed to adopt a home rule charter.  Two counties that border Carbon County, Northampton and Lehigh, have done that.  In Lehigh County, for example, the charter divides the county into districts.  Commissioners are elected from those districts, and the Commissioners appoint a County Executive.  The County Executive is in charge of the bureaucracy.  

Government is simplified.  It is less expensive.  It is staffed by civil servants who take tests before they can hold their positions.  It makes so much sense.

So, I am thinking of running for an office for which I am completely unqualified.  Perhaps Treasurer.  I will then run campaign ads and do interviews explaining that I am completely unqualified and thereby draw attention to the need for a home rule charter.  I obviously won’t win, but I may draw attention to some much needed reforms.  

I’m still mulling this over.

Presidential role model

After the 1946 congressional election President Truman sent a civil rights message to Congress, the first time a president did that.  He also issued an executive order to desegregate the American armed forces.  

Warned by Southern Democrats that his civil rights program could cost him the 1948 election, Truman responded that if he lost because of civil rights, his loss would be for a good cause.

They don’t make them like that any more.

Buying Pennsylvania Elections

In an analysis of eight races–three for row offices and five for state House seats, Spotlight PA found that thousands of individuals and PACs donated about $60 million dollars for and against the candidates.  $38.3 million of that, or 63%, came from nine PACs.  The two top PAC donors were sponsored by one guy, Jeffrey Yass, an opponent of public schools.  He has in the past donated to successful (and, in my view, whacko) Lehighton Area school board candidates.

I should explain that Spotlight PA is an independent news-gathering organization funded by foundations and readers.  Row offices are elected state-wide offices like the Treasurer and Attorney General.  They don’t include the Governor and Lt. Governor.

What's wrong with the kids today?

 Here are two headlines from the New York Times in the year 1999:

August 4, 1999, p. 1A;

Pediatricians Urge Limiting TV Watching:  Say Influence of Media Is Public Health Issue.

Dec. 6, 1999, p. C18:

Where Is Today’s Child?  Probably Watching TV.

Today we’d substitute phones for TV in those headlines.  The problem would be the same, except in 2025 kids are spending more time on their phones than kids were spending in front of the TV in 1999.

The kids born between 1981 and 1996 are “millennials.”  They were the ones watching all that TV, and they turned out OK.  Didn’t they?

Renewing my passport

American kids of undocumented immigrants have been applying for passports at a high rate since Trump was elected.  Many are afraid that they will not be able to visit their parents if the parents are deported.

I decided I should also renew my passport, which expired two years ago.  Staples, the office supply store in Allentown, will take your passport picture for about $18.  You can download the necessary form on-line.  Tomorrow I take the completed form with attached photo to the Carbon County  Prothonotary and apply.

I think at this point in time, it is good to have one.  As my friend René has pointed out to me a number of times, the people who panic early are usually the ones who get out in time.

Not that I’m worried....