Thursday, June 30, 2016

Soil Conservation

As you drive across Kansas or Nebraska, you can’t help but notice the work of the Department of Agriculture in preventing erosion and saving soils.  Crops are planted on the contour, terraces are common on hillsides, and what at one time would have been gullies are now sod waterways. 


When someone shows up at your door and says, “I’m from the government and I am here to help you,” he or she could really be there to help you.  Thousands of midwest farmers who followed Department of Agriculture conservation guidelines can testify to that.

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

We're back!

We left on the day of the Orlando shooting.  We heard about it in a MacDonald’s in central Pennsylvania.  We knew immediately that the Senate would not do anything about ISIS terrorists buying assault rifles; 49 people would not be enough to spur action.

On our return trip we learned that the voters of Great Britain decided they wanted to leave the European Union, proving that the U.S. is not the only country with voters who sometimes make really really bad choices.

In California we stuck a Hillary Clinton bumper sticker on our car.  In the whole way back we only had one guy give us the finger.  It was in Nebraska by a tattooed guy in a pickup who roared past us on a rural highway.  Good news–no shots were fired.

On our return we learn that the U.S. Senate couldn’t pass a clean bill on the Zika virus because the Republicans put some anti-Planned Parenthood provisions into the bill.  I also see that the Pennsylvania legislature is continuing its “Profiles in Cowardice” on the budget.


Not posting for three weeks was as nice vacation.  I actually thought about quitting the blog, but hey, if I don’t do this, who will?

Friday, June 10, 2016

Stymied

As many of the readers of this blog are aware, my computer skills are minimal.  My friend Rene set up this blog so that all I would have to do each night is type in my message and hit publish.  The reason there are no pictures is because I don’t know how to add them.  The reason the posts are not linked to Facebook is because I am not on Facebook.

A few years ago I bought a Mac Airbook so I could continue to post from California.  That went well, and I was able to figure out how to do it.  Now, however, when I tried to use my Airbook, there is a little figure of a lock and a message that says my communications with Google are encrypted.  Really?  How the heck did that happen?  

I just spent an hour trying to decrypt (?) the blog, and I can’t do it.  This means that for the next three weeks “Dr. Roy Christman’s blog” will be dark.  Kaput.  On hiatus.  I’ll take the Airbook along to CA–perhaps my son-in-law Mark can figure things out, but in any case, you won’t be getting any new posts for at least the next week, and maybe not for the next 18 days.


Maybe I needed a break anyway.  I’m tired of writing about that thin-skinned fraud, and the PennEast/UGI thugs and Paul Ryan and Heffley’s screwups.

Thursday, June 9, 2016

Eldred Township defeats Nestle

Congratulations to the residents of Eldred Township in Monroe County for their victory over the Nestle company, which had proposed to withdraw up to 200,000 gallons of water daily from a township spring.  The water would have been loaded into tanker trucks and driven to a Nestle bottling plant for processing.

Someday a grad student will write a thesis on how Americans became obsessed with “hydration,” and when we began paying for water that is available free from any kitchen sink.  

Really people.  Buy a bottle of diet Coke, dump out the contents, and you can fill that plastic bottle with water from your tap.  When it is empty, refill it.  Total cost, pennies (if that.)  


In any case, it is good to see a rural community defeat a billion dollar corporation.  Now it is on to the PennEast/UGI pipeline.  Eldred Township is an inspiration.

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

A word to Bernie supporters

In the 1976 presidential race I was a Morris Udall supporter.  I was Udall’s campaign coordinator in the 10th congressional district in San Jose, and Linda and I and a number of San Jose State students worked very hard on Udall’s CA campaign.  I look back on that primary with a great deal of nostalgia–I brought in a large number of Filipinos to the delegate selection caucus, and for the first time ever Santa Clara County sent Filipinos to the Presidential nominating convention.

It was hard for me to accept that Jimmy Carter won the nomination.  Udall was experienced, smart, and funny.  It was Udall who said after he lost, “The people have spoken, the bastards.”

In 1980 I was a Jerry Brown supporter, again in Santa Clara County, for the Presidential race.  We lost badly, but in both cases I am proud that I supported men I still regard as the best candidate in each of those races.

Nonetheless, come November ’76 and November ’80, I voted for Carter.  Look at the alternatives in those years.  In ’76 it was Ford; in ’80 it was Reagan.  


The choice this year is not between a moderate Democrat and a reasonably moderate Republican.  The choice is between Clinton and Donald Trump, who is completely unqualified to hold the highest office in this nation and, if not a fascist, certainly has those tendencies.  So take advice from an old guy who has swallowed some bitter pills in his life.  Be proud of what you did, but this November, give Clinton your support.  It is important to America and those principles that we all stand for.

Tuesday, June 7, 2016

College grad unemployment quiz answer

Last night I asked you to guess the unemployment rate for 25-to-34 year-olds who graduated from a four-year college.  This question first appeared in the Times with four possible choices:  2.4%, 5.8%, 7.6%, or 9.5%.  For high school grads only the figure was 7.4%. 

Many people thought the unemployment rate for college grads was higher than for high school grads only.  Actually for college grads the rate is 2.4%.  If you want a reason to stay in college, there it is.

I can’t let tonight pass without congratulating Hillary Clinton on her victory.  
Way to go, Clinton!  I don’t know how CA will come out, but she’ll end the evening with enough elected delegates to win the nomination without any Superdelegates.


I saw no reason that a number of news organizations announced on the eve of the New Jersey and California primaries that Clinton had already won.  Why do that?  Why tell voters that they might as well stay home?

Monday, June 6, 2016

College grad unemployment rate

Last week the New York Times ran an item on the unemployment rate for 25-to-34-year-olds who had graduated from a four-year college.  Readers were asked to guess the rate.  The article noted that the unemployment rate for people in that age range who had only a high school degree was 7.4%.

So what do you think the unemployment rate is for 25-to-34-year-olds who have graduated from a four year-college?  
  1. 2.4% B.  5.8% C.  7.6% D.  9.5%
I just realized that if I put the answer in tonight, you’ll glance down and cheat, so I’ll put it in tomorrow night.  Incidentally, I myself picked the wrong answer.

On another note entirely, on this anniversary of D-Day, I think many Americans look back on that day and think that victory was inevitable, that Germany was pretty much finished by June 1944. If you think that, you are wrong. D-Day was by no means a pre-ordained victory.  Dwight Eisenhower, the Allied commander, had written out two messages that day.  One was to announce that Allied forces had successfully landed in Normandy and were moving inland.  The second one spoke of the heroism of the armed forces and said that the defeat on the beaches was not their fault but his alone. That second one remained in his pocket.  

Sunday, June 5, 2016

What people thought of FDR

According to one New Deal official, “Every house I visited...had a picture of the president.  These ranged from newspaper clippings to large colored prints, framed in gilt cardboard....  And the feeling of these people for the president is one of the most remarkable phenomena I have ever met.  He is at once God and their intimate friend; he knows them all by name, knows their little town and mill, their little lives and problems.  And though everything else fails, he is there, and will not let them down.”

This is a quote from James West Davidson’s A Little History of the United States.  (New Haven:  Yale University Press, c. 2015).  I have read many U.S. history books, but this is the best and fairest comprehensive history of our country I have ever read.  Even if you think you know American history, you will learn a great deal from this book–and you will actually enjoy it.

Saturday, June 4, 2016

Vegans attack "flesh eaters"

Matthew and Terces Englehart, who live on a farm in Vacaville, CA, formed the Cafe Gratitude restaurant chain.  The restaurants serve vegan meals.  Now vegans have learned that the Engleharts eat meat, including animals raised on their farm, and they are reacting rather badly, including leaving death threats at the couple’s farm.

The Engleharts were vegetarians for nearly 40 years, but they then ate some eggs and cheese and then meat.  In 2015 Terces Englehart wrote in a blog post that eating meat was an important part of the sustainability of their farm.  

They are being criticized as hypocrites and “flesh eaters” and threatened with boycotts.

All of this brought to mind the organizing convention of the California Green Party, at which I was a delegate.  The convention was held in Oakland, about a block from Flint’s Barbecue, which, in my opinion, had the best barbecue in the Bay Area.  When we broke for lunch, I walked down to Flint’s and bought a big plate of ribs.  I brought it back to one of the benches near the convention site and sat among the other delegates, who were eating their bean sprouts or arugula and endive salads.  People came by, looked at me with barbecue sauce running down my chin, and said, sneeringly, “Oh, you eat flesh.”  

I looked up and said, “And it is sooooo good.”


The information on the Engleharts came from “California Couple’s Return to Meat Sparks Vegan Uproar,” Lancaster Farming, (June 4, 2016), p. A-17.

Friday, June 3, 2016

Paul Ryan, weasel

Hillary Clinton was absolutely correct when she said Donald Trump should never be allowed near the nuclear trigger.  Imagine Trump as Commander-in-Chief.  We’ve had enough evidence of his behavior to realize the danger that we would face.

So why would Paul Ryan endorse him?  Why would Mitch McConnell support him?  Why won’t Sen. Toomey condemn him?  Because these are men who put ideology above country, party above patriotism, self-interest above the national interest.  


I should apologize to weasels.  Paul Ryan is far worse.

Thursday, June 2, 2016

Democratic delegate selection rigged

A number of people have claimed that the Democratic delegate selection rules are rigged, so Clinton is getting more delegates than Sanders.  Actually the rules are rigged this way.  The candidate who receives the most votes in primaries is awarded the most pledged delegates.  It’s called democracy.

Hillary Clinton has 54% of pledged delegates, which are awarded based on votes cast in primaries and caucuses.  In popular vote she actually leads 56% to 42% for Sanders, so if there is unfairness, it is that Sanders is getting more pledged delegates than he would seem to based on popular votes.  

For Sanders to win at this point, Clinton would have to get less than 1/3 of the votes in each of the remaining states.  That has only happened on one state thus far.  That was Vermont.


Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee.  The only question is, will Bernie Sanders realize the threat to this country and its values posed by Donald Trump.  Will his followers realize that while they may not like Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump has the potential to wreck this country.  We could have lived with a McCain victory or a Romney victory, but we now have an unqualified Republican candidate running for the most powerful office in the world.  

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Just how dumb are N.R.A. members?

Almost everyone has heard of Aesop’s fable about “the boy who cried wolf.”  He was bored with sheep herding, so he yelled “wolf,” and all the villagers came running.  No wolf.  He did it again with the same results.  The third time, when there really was a wolf, the villagers ignored him, and the flock was eaten.

The villagers did learn a lesson.  The kid lied too many times.  He couldn’t be trusted.  Now let’s pivot to N.R.A. members.  Wayne LaPierre, head of the N.R.A., said that photographing and finger-printing gun owners was a “gun control scheme” of Barack Obama, who, he predicted, would confiscate every gun in America before the end of his first term.  

The N.R.A. said something similar about Kerry, and before him, Gore.  Now the N.R.A. says that Hillary Clinton’s real goal is “gun confiscation.”  


If the N.R.A. members were the villagers in the story, the boy could have kept crying wolf every day, and every day they would come pouring out of their homes to fight off the non-existent wolf.  Of course, by now, if any N.R.A. members are reading this, they are nodding their heads and saying, “Yes, but this time there might really be a wolf.  We better all run out again, and again, and again.  This time the evil wolf Hillary really might confiscate our guns.”