Locker Room Banter

I was a warehouseman in a TRW Auto Parts center in West Oakland for a number of years, including summers when I taught at San Jose State.  I get a pension from my days there.  I was a proud member of the Teamsters Union.  My co-workers were white guys, black guys, Asians, and Latinos.

In all the years I worked there, I heard some pretty raunchy stuff, but I must say, I never heard anything quite as crude as what I heard tonight on a recording of Donald Trump.  Than man is one sick little puke.

Oblivious Trump supporters

According to the Tax Foundation, a conservative group advocating tax cuts, Trump’s proposed tax cut, aimed mostly at the rich, would reduce revenue by $4.4 trillion to 5.9 trillion over ten years.  

Trump has also said he would double Clinton’s proposed spending on infrastructure by borrowing hundreds of billions of dollars.  

The deficit will soar sky high.  He could cut funding to other programs, but most of those have already been cut back.  He also proposes to increase military spending, which he had better do to pay for the wars he will get us into.

How do we explain that his supporters aren’t concerned.  Here are four possibilities.

1.  They don’t know about this, having gotten all their news from Hannity.

2.  When someone presents these facts, they put their hands over their ears and chant “la la la” as loud as they can.

3.  They don’t know what the words “infrastructure” and “deficit” mean and show no inclination to learn.

4.  Who cares about that stuff when he is going to build a wall and deport 11 million people and make America great again.

The "Great Migration"

I don’t want to insult my relatives in Alabama, but the state is not in the forefront of intellectual achievement, or many other achievements other than football.  One reason may be that in the past a large part of its population was not given the opportunity to participate in any meaningful way.  

In the “Great Migration” of blacks to the north, here are a few of the people whose forebears left Alabama and moved north:

Michelle Obama

Jesse Owens

Nat King Cole

Condoleeza Rice

Stevie Wonder

Smokey Robinson

LeBron James

Joe Lewis

Queen Latifah

Toni Morrison

I believe that one reason so many Middle Eastern countries are not producing scientists, political leaders, and economic advancement in general is because they ignore or tamp down half of their populations.  When societies or states or nations discriminate against large portions (or even small portions) of their populations, they pay a price.

Obit

I get angry when people make a false equivalence between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.  “They both lie,” or “Neither should be president.”  It drives me up a wall.  To compare an ignorant blow-hard narcissistic congenital liar and bully to Hillary Clinton, the actual adult in the race, is maddening.  

Having said that, I did think the following obituary was pretty funny.  It was for Mary Anne Noland of Richmond, Virginia.  Here’s what it said:

“Faced with the prospect of voting for either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, Mary Anne Noland of Richmond chose, instead, to pass into the eternal love of God on Sunday, May 15, 2016, at the age of 68.”  

Letter to Mayor Taylor

Mayor Ken Taylor

500 N. Gonzales Blvd.

Huachuca City, Arizona 85616

Dear Mr. Taylor:

Some weeks ago you were quoted in the New York Times as saying “One nation means one language, and I am insulted by the division caused by language.”  You then went on to refuse to attend a meeting of border mayors because the invitation was sent in both English and Spanish.

As a member of a minority group, the Pennsylvania Dutch, many of whom served in both the American Revolution and the American side in the Civil War, I found that statement very offensive.  The Pennsylvania Dutch, most of whose ancestors arrived before the Revolution, continued to speak and use Pennsylvania Dutch (a form of German) well into the 20th century.  

Being a good American has nothing to do with the language one speaks, whether it be Polish, Japanese, Navajo, or Pennsylvania Dutch.  

Sincerely,

Roy Christman

I mailed this out today.  Any guesses on whether or not he will reply?

The "Amish PAC"

The Lancaster Farming newspaper has been running ads for an “Amish PAC,” a group with a return address in Arlington, Virginia.  The ad says there are serious risks of Hillary Clinton winning the election, including “More on-demand abortion and more tiny baby bodies will be sold for profit.”  

The ad concludes:  “This November, your country needs your prayers and your vote.”

I called the phone number listed in the ad.  It was kind of odd; I thought Amish people were not tied into the grid.  A young man answered who had less of a Pennsylvania Dutch accent than I do.  I told him that Donald Trump was about as far from the teaching of Jesus as you could get.

I think the whole “Amish PAC” is fraudulent, and I doubt if it has a single bonafide Amish person in it.  Here’s the number to call in case you want to give them heck:  717-283-2150. 

Solitary confinement for 36 years

Government officials sometimes do things that defy belief.  In late September a federal judge ordered prison officials in Pennsylvania to end a convicted murderer’s solitary confinement after 36 years.  The officials said they were concerned he might try to escape, as he had before.

The judge ordered prison officials to develop a plan to monitor the inmate’s mental health and increase contact with other inmates.  For the past 25 years the prisoner lived in a 7x10 foot cell.  He did have a TV, radio, bed, desk, and toilet.  He also got one hour of exercise in a caged-in area of the prison five days a week, and he was allowed to shower, in handcuffs, three days a week.

For the past 25 years he was a model prisoner, although one wonders how he could have been much else.  He did receive one misconduct citation, for having a multivitamin in his cell.

Information for this post was taken from Mark Scolforo, “Inmate’s decades in solitary to end,” Pocono Record, (22 Sept. 2016), pp. 1, 2.