France can do it–why can't we?

Last week a French law prohibiting unsolicited cold calls by businesses took effect.  I probably get ten of these calls a day, often four of five from the same scam artists.  Lately I’ve been getting solicited for an auto accident I might have been in that I can get money for.  

I do have a bit of fun.  First you get a robot, always female, who then switches you over to a “claims specialist.”  If I’m not too busy I see how long I can keep the scam artist on the line.  I also tell the scam artist outlandish things, like “I did have an accident, but it wasn’t my fault because I was drunk,” or “I only killed two pedestrians.”  Click.

Nonetheless, these calls are annoying.  Why can the French legislature act when our Congress can’t even publish the Epstein files?

We own Big Bend National Park

The closest I ever got to Big Bend was Fort Stockton on I-10, but this evening when I saw the film of the earth-moving equipment and the bulldozer uprooting trees in the Park, I felt so sad.  I heard that something like one percent of the people illegally crossing into the U.S. enter at Big Bend.  There is no reason to put a wall there other than to show that you can do it.

Like the White House and the Smithsonian, Big Bend National Park is owned by all of us, not some buffoon in the White House.  We–Congress, Texas politicians the population at large– really need to stop this madness.  And that is what it is.

 

The Timing of Medicare cuts

The Great Leader and the Republicans in Congress have cut subsidies for the Affordable Care Act insurance marketplaces.  So far this year approximately 3 million people have lost their medical insurance.

But wait.  The Republican Congress also enacted cuts in Medicaid.  Guess when those cuts take effect.  After the November midterms.  

Those wily Republicans.  Clever little buggers.

Working the Ukrainian Festival

Each year the Democratic Party has a booth at the Ukrainian Festival in Carbon County.  We give away small Ukrainian flags and plastic bracelets, have candidate literature available, collect money for a Ukrainian charity that helps bombing victims, and display four large posters with quotations by Trump and Vance praising Putin and criticizing Zelenskyy.

It is wonderful to bask in the warmth of the support of hundreds of people.  In the entire afternoon we had two negative passersby, including a MAGA supporter who claimed the Democratic Party was filled with Communists.  Everyone else gave us thumbs up, snapped pictures of the posters, took flags, and engaged in friendly discussions.  It was a great day.

The Republican Party did not have a booth.

Dayton, Ohio

“Would you like to come over for tea with the missus and me?  It’s a real nice way to spend the day in Dayton, Ohio, on a lazy Sunday afternoon in 1903.”

That’s from a wonderful Randy Newman song which you can hear on YouTube.  Dayton must still be a nice place.  It has immigrants from over 100 countries, including India, China, Vietnam, Haiti, and Rwanda.  

The City Council decided to remove all Flock cameras.  It was afraid ICE would use the data to harass immigrants.  I’ve never been to Dayton, but it sounds like my kind of town.

Rival conceptions of nationhood in the West

In an article entitled “Continental Drift” in the Aug. 17 issue of the New Yorker, Ian Buruma writes:

Since the nineteenth century, the Western world has been divided between two rival conceptions of nationhood:  the nation as a community of blood and faith, and the nation as a democratic state of citizens of equal rights.

That is one of the best summaries of the difference between the Republicans and the Democrats of today.  Listen to any speech by Trump or Hegseth or Vance, and you will hear the former.  Listen to any speech by any Democratic Senate candidate, and you will hear the latter.  

As the old labor song said, “Which side are you on, boys, which side are you on?”

 

Rounding up the "tonks"

I’ve heard that ICE agents are tired of being called “Gestapo.”  If that is the case, then they should quit acting like the Gestapo.  Agents are now referring to Mexican immigrants as “tonks.”  That is supposedly the sound made when one of those big flashlights is brought down on a Mexican immigrant’s head.  In light of that, Gestapo seems all too apt.

It is obvious that brown people are targets, whether American citizens or not.  And the rot starts at the top, where ICE administrators are issuing quotas of 3000 arrests a day.  And now our local municipalities are signing agreements to partner with ICE in return for funding.  

Hey Dumbass

It’s not your House.  We own it.  You rent it, and your lease expires on Jan. 20, 2028.  We will be inspecting for damages, and you will not only lose your deposit, but there will be additional charges for damage the damage to the East Wing and all that gold crap you put everywhere.

The Court of Appeals finally spelled it out for you, but we always knew it. Many of us have been tenants; some of us still are.  Any renter can tell you; there’s a lease with rules.  You have broken the rental agreement.  You will will be required to pay for all that damage.  Dumbass.

Intelligent parents

When I was looking through some old family records this morning, I found a smallpox vaccination certification dated June 21, 1947.  It was given by Dr. Kenneth G. Reinheimer, who had an office in Weissport, PA.  I was 4, and I don’t remember it, but I’m sure I cried.

We don’t need those any more because parents all over the globe had their kids vaccinated.  Smallpox has been eradicated.

I also found my sister’s and my polio vaccination records.  They were in 1956.  I was 13, and I remember that.  I didn’t cry.  The vaccine was made by Eli Lilly & Co.  Evidently there were three doses; at least that is what the certification says. 

In any case, I didn’t get polio.  I remember seeing those pictures of kids in iron lungs–the ones who didn’t die.  That was scary.

I did get measles.  We didn’t have a vaccine for measles in the 50s.  Or mumps.  Or whooping cough.  The medicine has advanced.  The parents have gotten dumber.

A question for any Republican running for the U. S. House or Senate

I saw an ad for Rep. Bresnahan tonight.  Some constituent was testifying about how Rep.Bresnahan cares.  Not he doesn’t.  He spent the last yer and a half supporting Trump’s every move.  Hold his feet to the fire.  

If you are ever at a campaign event with Bresnahan or any other candidate for the House or the Senate and have a chance to ask questions, just ask:

When Trump was tearing down the East Wing for a ballroom, why didn’t you speak up?

Or, when Trump was appointing people like Hegseth and Robert Kennedy Jr., why didn’t you speak up?

Or, when Trump was gutting the Endangered Species Act, why didn’t you speak up?

Notice that you can do this with literally hundreds of things Trump did or did not do.  Greenland, the war in Iran, the tariffs, the tax cuts for the rich, the pardoning of criminals, the claims of voter fraud, and on, and on.  Literally hundreds of bad things, and each one ends with this question:  WHY DIDN’T YOU SPEAK UP?

Watch the cowards squirm.

ICE agents and masks

Judges have now blocked state laws in both California and New York that would have prohibited ICE agents from wearing masks.  In both cases the courts ruled that immigration polices were federal, and that the feds could decide how to conduct their operations.

The question is why ICE agents should wear masks at all.  The claim is that people will harass the agents if they know their identities.  This, of course, is bullshit.  Our local cops don’t wear masks, and many of us know them, know where they live, know their families.  We do not harass our local police officers.  We support them.

There are a number of reasons why ICE agents wear masks:

*  They are harder to identify when they shoot people down in the street or 

conduct illegal search and seizure operations.

*  They look more intimidating when they are hiding their identities.

*  Some of them are actually embarrassed to be in an organization that is frequently compared to the Gestapo.

Our local police should not enter into partnerships with these thugs, no matter how much money ICE dangles in front of our local municipalities.

Our income tax penalties

We’ve been filing a joint income tax return since 1973, the year we got married.  Every year.  I fill out the return.  I don’t know much about tax policies, so we usually end up paying.  One year in the Seventies we had to sell our car to pay the tax.  We also don’t file quarterly.  Sometimes we get a penalty, but the paying the penalty is worth more than going through the rigamarole of filing four times a year.

A week ago I got a penalty of $160.05.  Not too bad.  The letter was addressed just to me.  Linda also received the exact same letter with a penalty of $160.05.  Since we filed a joint return that doesn’t seem right.  And since we don’t have a tax consultant, I must now attempt to call the I.R.S. to find out if a mistake was made.  

A few days after these letters arrived, I read this headline in the New York Times:  “Republicans Let Trump Keep an Unparalleled Benefit: I.R.S. Immunity.”  The article was by Andrew Duehren in the Aug. 6 issue on page A15.  And I find it very irritating.  I’m thinking of simply photocopying it and sending it along with a note that says, “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander” and see what happens.

Congressman Rob Bresnahan donates his salary back

I heard that on a political ad this evening.  And I thought, Wow!  I am very impressed.  He bought himself a congressional seat, and that must have set him back.  His net worth is only a little over #40 million. 

What a sacrifice he is making in donating back his Congressional salary.  His family is probably forced to go to food banks.  I’ll bet he’s wearing clothes he buys at Goodwill.  What a guy.  The main is practically a saint.

Agents Provocateurs and Congressman Ryan Mackenzie

A number of thugs follow 7th PA Congressional District Democratic candidate Bob Brooks to his various campaign events, including his appearance at the Carbon County fair.  They were also at the Democratic candidate debate in Carbon County.  They are “agents provocateurs.”  That is French for “inciting agent.”  Those tactics have an old history, often used in the past by extremist parties like the German Nazi party.  The idea is to stir up trouble and then use the trouble to discredit your opponents.

It is too bad that Republican candidates have resorted to this kind of authoritarian behavior, but it isn’t surprising.  The racial gerrymandering, the dark money, the attempts to subvert mail-in ballots, the constant whining about stolen elections only when they lose, false claims about illegal voting–what has happened to free and fair elections?

Could Ryan Mackenzie, Brooks’s opponent, call off these thugs?  No doubt, but I don’t think he will.

When I searched for “Agent Provocateur” to make sure I spelled it right, I learned it is also a brand of women’s lingerie.  It’s an expression of “confidence, sensuality, and style.”  Could the thugs be wearing it under their clothes?  Something to consider.

Chat GPT Uploads "The Terminator," Begins Hunt for Sarah Connor

This can not be good. 

Jeanine Pirro gives me Schadenfreude

Trump used Fox as a recruiting pool, and now one of his picks has had a problem with a different kind of pool and Trump is angry.  Trump appointed  former Fox “News” legal analyst Jeanine Pirro as federal prosecutor for D.C.  Yesterday she dropped the case against the man accused of vandalizing the reflecting pool.  The evidence was non-existent and the charge was ridiculous.  Pirro really had no choice.

Except that Trump hates–hates–to be contradicted.  Pirro might just be fired.  I hope so.  I love internal squabbles in the Administration.  

Hey, whatever happened to Kristi Noem? 

Blissfully ignorant

The owner of the Four Winds Craft Guild, an upscale artisan craft and antique shop on Nantucket, put up a sign that said “No Influencers,” and his friend posted it on Instagram.  An “influencer” named Paige Paul, who has over a million followers, said the sign was the same as a sign barring women.

When I read this, I realized I have never seen an “influencer.”  They don’t pop up on my emails, and you can’t get them on a landline, which is the only phone I own.  This is one of the reasons when Charlie Kirk was shot, my reaction was “Who?”

My second takeaway was: A MILLION FOLLOWERS!  Wow.  I usually get between 15 and 20 people reading these posts.  I once got a hundred.

My third takeaway was:  Why would anyone take the time to read people like Joseph Rogan or that asswipe who runs the Proud Boys?  Really?  Don’t people have anything better to do?  Get a library card.

Lastly, I thought:  I’ve got to figure out how to become an “influencer.”  This could be a whole new career.

Some info for this post is from an article by Madison Malone Kircher entitled “Two Words Cause Many on Nantucket to Weigh In” in today’s N.Y.T., p. 3st.

Presidential primaries in 2028

In many past elections the presidential nomination process began with caucuses in Iowa followed by a primary in New Hampshire.  Candidates with good organizations could win in both those states.  Both states had relatively small populations which lent themselves to personalized campaigning.

Unfortunately, neither Iowa nor New Hampshire are particularly representative of members of the Democratic Party in 2028.  Both states have mostly white voters, and neither state is a Democratic stronghold.  Since political parties can determine their own nominating process, the national Democratic organization decided the first six states will vote in this order:  South Carolina (in January) followed by Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Michigan, and Virginia.  

That’s a nice cross-county mixture of urban and rural.  Black voters, Latino voters, union members, and big city residents are all represented.  It should be an interesting contest.

Wiping the phone with a duress passcode

When airline passenger Samuel Tunick from Atlanta was stopped at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the authorities seized his phone.  He was not a spy or anything like that, but he had made a reputation as an opponent of the plan to build a police and fire training center in an urban woodland in Atlanta.  

Anyway, the authorities wanted the passcode to get into Mr Tunick’s call history.  The code he gave them is called a “duress” passcode, and it wipes the entire contents of the phone.  How cool is that?

The Feds were not amused.  They have now charged him with a felony for destroying evidence.  What evidence?  He made phone calls.  And what were the grounds for seizing the phone in the first place?  They didn’t have a warrant.  No crime was suspected. 

I think Mr. Tunick will win this case.  Even if he doesn’t, that is one of the best weapons against technology I’ve heard.  If I ever get a cell phone, I’ve got to get one of those duress passcodes. 

American Concentration Camps

Let’s be honest about this.  That’s the accurate name for where we are keeping our ICE detainees.  Some of detention warehouses are run by private for-profit firms.  Those warehouses are not usually required to comply with the Freedom of Information Act.  That means if you have a parent or a child in one of them, you may not be able to obtain information.

Wormy food, lack of health care, brown water–all problems.  More than 65,000 people are in these concentration camps right now.  Now ICE wants to put people in county jails.  I don’t even know if my county is cooperating with ICE.  I will be attending a meeting of the County Commissioners to try to answer that question.

Is Congress doing anything about this?  Do pigs fly?

A Blunt Warning for Israel

New York Times columnist Bret Stephens is a Zionist.  He has also been a reliable defender of Israel in the past.  Today Mr . Stephens’ column was entitled “A Blunt Warning for Israel.”  Stephens said that anyone who cares about Israel’s well-being, and that would include me, needs to speak up and condemn the anti-Palestinian settler terrorism on the West Bank.  He noted that it was not only harmful to the Palestinians and an affront to Jewish ethics, but it was also a threat to Israel’s statehood.

Stephens quoted a letter sent to President Trump by Matan Vilnai, a retired deputy chief of staff of the IDF, representing a group that includes hundreds of retired senior IDF officers.  Vilnai wrote:

     Whereas our security agencies excel in dealing with Hamas and other West Bank Palestinian terror groups they are severely constrained when it comes to Jewish terrorists.  

     It is no secret that certain members of our current government orchestrate much of this chaos including by shielding their followers–who are armed and driven by messianic impulses–from the law and its enforcement.

Will this have an effect on Netanyahu?  Probably not.  He is depending on the settler extremist supporters to stay in power.

You can read the full column in today’s Times, page A23.

Living in the U.S.A.

That’s the title of a book I found in the shed tonight.  I probably mentioned this in an earlier post, but I am “deaccessioning” my library.  I’m finding books on the shelves I didn’t even know I owned.  Tonight I came across Living in the U.S.A. by  Alison R. Lanier, first published in 1973 and revised by Charles William Gay for an edition published in 1996.

It is a guide for immigrants, and it has chapter such as “Some Dominant American Attitudes,” “Doing Business in the United States,” and “Manners and Courtesies in Social Life.”  The book is completely useless.

Today I had a conversation with the mother of an immigration lawyer.  He told her there was no path to citizenship at the present time.  An attorney can’t even bring a client along to court; he or she might get arrested.  

I suppose Living in the U.S.A. might have some historical value, like a repair guide for a ’57 Chevy or an etiquette book for teenagers in the 1920s.  

Maybe I’ll keep it.