Eisenhower's message to Trump

I have come to appreciate Dwight Eisenhower.  At the time he was president I thought he was terrible on civil rights, and I was so angry about the whole Hungarian Revolution fiasco.  

I thought he was too careful, too plodding, too conservative.  Kennedy was an action-oriented guy, quick to move, energetic.  Later I read a telling comparison of the two men.  It was the difference between D-Day and the Bay of Pigs.  

Eisenhower was often seen as inarticulate, but anyone who thinks that has not read his Farewell Address, often referred to as the “Military Industrial Complex speech.”  On a night when Trump is proposing a vast increase in military spending for a country that spends as much on its military as the next six countries combined, I would like to quote two paragraphs of Ike’s speech.

Crises there will continue to be. In meeting them, whether foreign or domestic, great or small, there is a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties. A huge increase in newer elements of our defense; development of unrealistic programs to cure every ill in agriculture; a dramatic expansion in basic and applied research -- these and many other possibilities, each possibly promising in itself, may be suggested as the only way to the road we wish to travel.

But each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national programs -- balance between the private and the public economy, balance between cost and hoped for advantage -- balance between the clearly necessary and the comfortably desirable; balance between our essential requirements as a nation and the duties imposed by the nation upon the individual; balance between actions of the moment and the national welfare of the future. Good judgment seeks balance and progress; lack of it eventually finds imbalance and frustration.

Perez, Demo Chair

I didn’t care who the Democrats elected as Chair, as long as her or she understands the need to unite, to work together against what I regard as a real threat to American democracy and American values.

A few days ago Linda took a call from some “progressive” group that was critical of Nancy Pelosi.  Think about that.  At a time when our liberties are being eroded, when billionaires are taking over the government, when the EPA is being gutted, when our foreign policy is in a shambles, when immigrants are being deported, when women’s rights are under attack, when the President tells lies every day, these “progressives” were angry at Nancy Pelosi.

This is a time for the unity of rational and decent and reasonable people.  If we can’t unite against an enemy of democracy like Trump, we are doomed.

The Democratic Information Center

Of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties, only a handful have a permanent Democratic headquarters.  Philadelphia and Allegheny do, of course, and I believe Centre and Erie counties also have permanent office spaces.  And Carbon.

That’s right.  Carbon, with roughly 60,000 people.  Actually, the office is not officially a party headquarters; it is funded with private donations and run by a self-appointed group called the Community Outreach Association.  

The office is open not only to Democrats, but also to other progressive, labor, and environmental groups.  We also host social events like the party held there on Saturday morning where local candidates collected signatures on their nominating petitions and attendees were treated to a potluck.  

Hell or High Water v. La La Land

We live in a divided country.  We all knew that, but what I didn’t know until today was that we are also divided in the movies we see.  For example, “Hell and High Water,” the story of two outlaws who rob small town Texas banks, did very well in Texas, Oklahoma, Wyoming, New Mexico, and Arizona.  I loved that film.  In fact, I saw it twice.  

On the other hand, “Manchester by the Sea” did extremely well in all the New England states, New York, and Nebraska.  Nebraska?  That doesn’t fit.  

“Fences,” the Denzel Washington/Viola Davis film, delighted people in Allegheny County (it was set in Pittsburgh), and in a string of states from Louisiana and Arkansas thorough Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and the Carolinas.  

“La La Land” was really popular in Utah, the West Coast, and the Northern Midwest and Northeast.  I don’t get Utah.  Maybe Mormons like musicals.

The maps showing the popularity were based on how many active Facebook users in a given county “liked” the Academy Award nominees.  You can see it in today’s Times at <https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/02/24/movies/oscars-state-by-state-movie-popularity.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0>.

Of course, since the data depends on Facebook, my tickets for “Hell and High Water” won’t even count, either time.

Jeff Sessions and Master Squeers

In his novel Nicholas Nickleby, Charles Dickens described “Dotheboys Hall,” a for-profit home for orphaned boys located in Yorkshire.  The institution was run by a Mr. Squeers, who tried to squeeze out as much profit as he could by not heating the sleeping quarters and skimping on boys’ food.

I thought of that today when I read that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had rescinded the Obama plan to phase out federal for-profit prisons.  These prisons are more violent and save tax payers very little, if any, money.

Somebody, however, will be making a profit, and that is what the Trump kleptocracy seems to be about.  

Trump administration supports "puppy mills"

The big changes from the Obama administration are publicized, but what is getting lost are the myriad small changes in government policy that come in under the radar.  Thanks to columnist Gail Collins for calling attention to one that is hard to believe.

The Department of Agriculture has taken down its list of violators to the Animal Welfare Act, including “puppy mills” that feature unsanitary and even dangerous conditions.  

The justification for this new policy, according to Collins, was that the list violated the privacy of people who are cruel to little dogs.

Collins suggests that the next time you go to a Town Hall meeting held by a Republican congress member, you shout out, “What about the puppies?”

I’d go a step further.  If you have friends who voted for Trump, ask them about this.  I’m curious how they will defend it.

Drivers' licenses

Columnist David Brooks thinks Americans are becoming less adventurous, less innovative, less entrepreneurial.  The number of Americans who move across state lines has dropped by half since the 50s and 60s.  Statistics show Americans change jobs less than they used to as late as the 1990s.

Here’s a measure that amazed me.  in 1983 69% of 17-year-olds had a driver’s license.  Now only half of Americans get a driver’s license by age 18.  I remember in high school in the 50s kids couldn’t wait to get a license.  Maybe their are using Uber now, or sitting home playing with their phones.

It'd also just occurred to me that an 18-year-old eligible to vote may not have the picture ID necessary in some states to cast a ballot.  These Republican legislators are pretty damn smart.

Milo Yiannopoulos

The Conservative Political Action Conference has disinvited Milo Yiannopoulos from speaking after he defended pedophilia in a video.

Mr. Yiannopoulos made his reputation testing the limits of free speech by attacking Muslims, immigrants, transgender people, and women’s rights.  He is an editor for Breitbart News, one of Trump’s favorite “news” sources.  Yiannopoulos had no original thoughts or theories, and he is certainly not a reasonable conservative.  

My question is this.  Has the Conservative Political Action Conference become so desperate that it needs to invite a rude little snotnose to address it?  This shows just how degraded conservatives in this country have become.

Chickens in Missouri

People rave about our eggs.  The yolks are so dark, the shells are so thick, the eggs are so tasty.  We only have 14 chickens, and six of those no longer lay, but we think it would be heartless to kill the non-layers after they rendered good service.  They live in a chicken house, and we allow them to roam outside except on really cold windy days.

In 2008 the voters of California approved an initiative that required that egg-laying hens in the state spend most of their day with enough space to allow them to lie down, stand up, turn around, and fully extend their limbs.  The requirement was extended to chickens producing eggs sold in California. 

Now Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley, who evidently does not care much about chickens, is appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the California law.  He says it will drive up food costs.  He says the California regulations would burden Missouri citizens, who evidently also don’t care much for chickens.

I’m always amazed when some of these state officials that bleat about states’ rights are so willing to use the federal court system to overturn other states’ rights.

(In November the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Missouri and five other states, saying that the states failed to show how the California law would affect them.  I wonder what Trump’s proposed Supreme Court nominee thinks about chickens.)

Information for this post is taken from Lancaster Farming (Feb. 18, 2017), p. A23.

Florida doctors now free to speak

In 2011 the Florida legislature passed a law that if doctors talked to their patients about gun safety and gun storage, they could be fined up to $10,000 and lose their medical licenses.

The N.R.A. pushed this law, claiming doctors discussing gun safety violated a patient’s constitutional rights.  I am not making this up.

Last week the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit struck down key parts of the law as violating the free speech clause of the First Amendment.  

(In Pennsylvania the Legislature is busily at work trying to tell doctors when and how they can perform abortions.  This will also be unconstitutional when it gets to the courts, but why do we have such stupid legislation in the first place?)

Say goodbye to the Rusty Patched Bumblebee

On Jan. 11 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service adopted a rule extending federal protection to the rusty patched bumblebee, a bee that plays a role in pollinating crops and wild plants.  The bee has been in decline since the 1990s.

The addition of the bee to the endangered species list was scheduled for Feb. 10, thirty days from the proposal.  On Jan. 20 the Trump administration imposed a 60-day freeze on all regulations that had been published but had not yet taken effect.

What is happening here is that while Trump distracts us with his tweets and bullshit, terrible things are happening under the radar.

By the way, the American Farm Bureau Federation said that declaring the bee endangered could lead to limits on chemical use.  The American Farm Bureau Federation represents American corporate farms.

Information for this post was taken from John Flesher, “White House Delays Listing Bumblebee As Endangered,” Lancaster Farming (Feb. 18, 2017), p. A10.  I don’t think there was anything about it on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CSNBC, or CNN, although I may have missed something.

Scott Pruitt and Pat Toomey

Some years ago Sen Pat Toomey spoke at Penn’s Peak.  You might remember me; I was the one sitting in the audience with my back to the podium.

Toomey talked of the fun he had rafting on the Lehigh, a major tourist draw in Carbon County.  My Dad and I also rafted on the Lehigh in the 50s.  We put in at the Jim Thorpe Market.  As we went past the Railroad Station, an outflow pipe was dumping raw sewage into the river.  It was not pleasant.

Now we have an EPA chief whose main goal is to try and eliminate the EPA.  Nixon did a lot of bad things, but ever since his administration, the EPA has worked, not always successfully, to protect us against air and water pollution and examine the environmental impacts of projects and developments.  It is hard to imagine the type of environmental degradation that will result when the EPA is defanged.

Toomey, so-called Republican moderate and Lehigh River rafter, voted to confirm Scott Pruitt.

What Trump supporters want

If you read this blog a few times, you know that I care about many issues–perhaps too many.  I worry about climate change, mass extinctions, deforestation.  Gerrymandering, voter suppression, and campaign finance are concerns.  Tax reform, school reform, and prison reform.  Minimum wage.  Employees’ right to organize.  Nuclear war.  Just yesterday Congress passed a bill to allow the mentally ill access to guns.  Perhaps a small issue, but I worry about it.  

What do Trump supporters worry about?  Even Republican members of Congress don’t seem to care about the E.P.A. or the ignorance of Betsy DeVos or illegal contacts with the Russians.  Eight committees to investigate Benghazi; none to investigate foreign influence on a presidential election.

Recent articles about Trump supporters report they are quite happy with the first month.   The happy people fall into four rough groups.  

The anti-immigrant crowd and the racists are pleased.  These are the people who think that Muslims are devils, Mexicans are drug dealers, and people without papers are voting by the millions.  They are happy with the restrictions, happy with the wall.  Better build a wall than a new spillway on the Oroville Dam.

Many businessmen are happy.  Build the pipelines, even if they go through Indian lands.  Eliminate environmental protections so we don’t have to worry about useless bog turtles.  Who cares if we wipe out endangered species.  Remove the Dodd-Frank protections.  Eliminate labor unions.  What is important is the bottom line.

Evangelical Christians are delighted.  These are the people who don’t care how many Syrian children die in refugee camps, or how many American children are shot up in gang violence.  What is important is the “unborn.”

The yahoos are satisfied.  Trump was elected to “shake things up.”  He’s “shaking things up.”  I don’t know what that even means.

Chris Rock explains Trump

“Big Traders Bask In Trump’s Victory” read a headline in today’s Business section of the Times.

The article noted that Carl C. Icahn, a billionaire investor, said he made a billion dollars worth of bets in the stock market the morning after Trump won the election.  Other investors are looking forward for big tax cuts and the rollback of environmental and financial protections.

In his latest comedy show, Chris Rock explains that Trump is not the anomaly.  Rather Trump is a return to business as usual, in which rich white guys run the show and reap the benefits.  President Obama was the anomaly.  

Switzerland rejects Islamophobia

For immigrants to Switzerland, the process of becoming a citizen was rather onerous.  Foreigners had to live in the country 12 years before applying; they then had to go through a series of tests and interviews.  Even more confusing, the requirements differed from canton to canton.  

The Swiss have nothing like our 14th Amendment, which states that if you are born here, you are one of us.  (I’ll point out that President Andrew Johnson opposed the 14th, noting that even Chinese would be citizens.)

Last week the Swiss opened the door just a bit.  If you are under 25 and your parents and grandparents have permanent residency status, the process has been simplified and streamlined.

A right-wing party campaigned against the measure, using posters of a woman in a burqa with the slogan “No to uncontrolled naturalization.”  The Trump tactics did not work; the measure passed with over 60 percent of the vote.

Information on the Swiss vote is from Nick Cumming-Bruce, “Switzerland Eases Path To Become A Citizen,” New York Times, (13 Feb. 2017), p. A4.

Oroville Dam

Our daughter, son-in-law, and grandson Gavin live in Chico, the largest city in Butte County.  That’s the county in which the Oroville Dam is located.  Oroville is the county seat.  Let me quickly say that Chico is not in any immediate danger, since it is about 15 miles upstream from Oroville.

The problem is that south of Oroville, the Sacramento Valley is very flat; flat enough to flood hundreds of thousands of acres every year to grow rice.  That means that a one to two foot wave of water will damage homes, fields, and roads, and if the emergency spillway erodes and the main spillway erodes, we could have a disaster of Biblical proportions.  Sacramento itself is in that floodplain.  

Supposedly Sacramento is protected by the Yolo Bypass.  When the Sacramento River gets too high, gates are opened up at Knights Landing, the water flows south between Davis and Sacramento, and returns to the river at Rio Vista.  The Bypass has worked well in the past, and I have been on I-80 when it was running.  That system, however, was designed for “normal” floods, not a catastrophic reservoir collapse.  

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the next storm system is a mild one.

Abetting Voter Fraud

I keep reading letters to the Morning Call about voter fraud.  It seems that quite a few people have knowledge of fraud at the polls and share that fact with us in a letter.  Really?

On Friday, for example, Mr. Alfred Gruenke of Lower Macungie Township said “Not having a government ID to vote enables voter fraud,nothing more.”  How does he know?  Does he have evidence?

I am starting a list of all these letter writers.  In a few months I will turn in the list to the Pennsylvania Secretary of State.  If those people who know all of this voter fraud have not come forward to the proper authorities, they are abetting that fraud.  I’m pretty sure they are committing a felony, but I’ll let the Secretary of State make that call.

Pat Toomey and Anne Frank

If Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey had been living in Amsterdam next door to Anne Frank and somehow heard about her hiding, he would immediately have run to Gestapo headquarters to turn her in.  

You know that I am right.

Personal note:  I’m back home.  As you can see, I have lost none of my anger, but I am walking much better.  I have nothing but praise for the nurses and doctors at the Lehighton Hospital.  I even liked the food.  Now I will go through rehab for a number of weeks, and I should soon be able to run the triathlon.

Trump's mitigation measures

Sometimes when a pipeline company or a developer plans to wipe out a wetland, it will propose “mitigation" measures.  The mitigation may involve creating a new wetland in a nearby area, for example, flooding a field and planting semi-aquatic plants.

It turns out that President Trump, whom I never figured was much of an environmentalist, understands mitigation.  He was elected on a promise to “drain the swamp.”  He is now creating his very own swamp.  His proposed Secretary of Education is a complete incompetent.  His proposed EPA head is determined to increase pollution.  His proposed Health and Welfare Secretary benefited from drug company legislation he supported.  His Secretary of State, now approved, benefited from deals with Russia.

This swamp is so big, so extensive, so filled with muck, that it rivals the Everglades.

Note:  I am scheduled for a hip replacement operation tomorrow morning at 5 a.m.  That means this blog will be going dark for a few days, provided all goes well.  (I love that phrase, “going dark.”)  I have no idea how long I will be in the hospital; usually it is about three days, unless there are (and I hate this word) complications.

A map of Indian removal

My friend Tom sent me a link to a year-by-year mapping of Indian removal in the U.S.  The map brings home how Indian lands were taken by treaty or conquest, and how pitifully small (and often uninhabitable) those Indian lands are today.  

Here’s the link:  <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJxrTzfG2bo>.  The film only lasts about a minute.

I’ve wondered why President Trump decided to expedite the Dakota Access Pipeline.  Perhaps he was irritated that the lowest percentage of his vote anywhere in America was a county on an Indian reservation in the Dakotas.

Do the Patriots cheat?

It’s halftime, but this is not about tonight’s game.  It is about the fact that if you are a fan of the Patriots, you not only do not believe the football was deflated, you think the League was picking on Tom Brady.  If you are almost anyone else, you believe Bill Belichick is an evil man who will stop at nothing to win and there is no way an experienced quarterback can’t tell if a football was deflated.

In an article in the Sports section of today’s Times, Juliet Macur points out that supporters of a team, or by implication, a candidate, will refuse to believe bad things about that team or candidate.  She examines the findings of Dr. David DeSteno, a professor of psychology at Northeastern University, who studies group dynamics and group morality.  Here is what Dr. DeSteno found:

Just being part of a group, any group, is enough to excuse moral transgressions because in some way, you’re benefiting from it.  Your moral compass shifts.

DeSteno said that the closer you feel affiliated with a group, the more moral leniency you are willing to allow.  And while the article is about fans of sports teams, I think we all can make the leap to politics, and I’ll bet you can come up with some recent examples.

Jackie

Tonight Linda and I saw the film “Jackie,” starring Natalie Portman as Jackie Kennedy.  I am one of those people who remembers where I was when I heard the news that the President had been shot.  (On the steps of the Ursinus College Library.)  I remember calling my mom that night.  She was crying and wondering what would become of our country.

You learn from the film the appreciation Jackie Kennedy had for our country’s history and the role of the White House in that history.  Her efforts to redecorate the White House, criticized at the time for being too extravagant, were made with the recognition that the White House was our house.

The film also gets across the shock and the horror of those days.  We may not remember that when Kennedy went to Dallas, people had put up posters with his picture that said “Wanted.”  (I’ll bet if you think about it, you can come up with a recent echo of that kind of evil.)

I joined a carload of guys from Ursinus who drove down for the funeral.  I was in the crowd that watched the procession.  I didn’t recognize many world leaders, but I do remember Haile Selassie from Ethiopia (the only black guy in the front row of dignitaries) and Charles DeGaulle, who towered above the rest.

Becoming California

We tend to look at California as a post-racial state.  Less than half the population is white, and the whole state is a rich stew of Asians, Latinos, African-Americans, and whites.  The Asians include Vietnamese, Indians, Chinese, Japanese, and Hmong, among many others.  Buddhists, Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims are all represented.  This population generally lives in harmony, and Trump’s message of nationalistic bombast and prejudice fell on deaf ears.

It wasn’t always like that.  California had probably the worst record of any state when it came to treatment of Native Americans; an early governor talked about exterminating them.  The Workingmen’s Party in San Francisco had as its slogan, “The Chinese Must Go,” and anti-Chinese mobs killed hundreds.  Okies and Arkies were mistreated in the 30s.  Most Californians supported the internment of the Japanese.  You probably remember the Rodney King riots.  As late as 1994 Californians voted for Prop 187, denying health care and education to undocumented residents.

In 2017 that history feels so yesterday.  What we need to remember is that many areas of the country are just now experiencing what California experienced for 150 years.  Many white communities are seeing an influx of Spanish-speaking people.  Towns in Minnesota and Michigan are home to growing Muslim minorities.  While the rest of the country is gaining the diversity Californians take for granted, it is also experiencing some of the same prejudicial behavior and minority bashing California experienced in years past.

Eventually, we should come through it.  It helps if you have lots of minorities rather than a majority and a minority.  It helps if you have a diversity of kids in school sitting in the same classrooms and playing on the same teams.  It helps if you have religious leaders who preach tolerance.  And most of all, it helps if you have political leaders who emphasize common interests and goals as opposed to political leaders who ride to office by whipping up xenophobia and hatred.  

Frederick Douglass

The black abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass had met President Lincoln at least twice before he tried to get into Lincoln’s Second Inauguration celebration in March 1865.  A large crowd was in the White House, and Douglass was informed by the police that he could not enter.  He managed to get in, but another police officer than moved him to a window that was being used as an exit.

Douglass told a man passing by that he should tell Lincoln that Frederick Douglass was at the door and was refused admission.  Douglass was then invited to the East Room, where Lincoln’s loud voice was heard, “And here comes my friend, Frederick Douglass.”

Lincoln asked Douglass what he thought of the speech.  Douglass told him he thought it was a “sacred effort.”

Lincoln was dead a few weeks later.  Douglass died in 1895.

On Wednesday Trump praised Douglass.  He called him, “an example of somebody who has done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more, I notice.”  Does he think Douglass is still alive?  Really?

Why conservatives fear gay marriage

I never got why conservatives feared that gay marriage would undermine traditional marriage until I read an essay by Rebecca Solnit in her book Men Explain Things to Me.  

Same-sex marriages are generally marriages between equals.  They are non-hierarchical.  Both members of the marriage unit often keep their own names.  

Before you tell me that your marriage is a union of equals, I have a couple of questions.  Did the wife take the husband’s name?  Whose name did the kids take?  When you sign your income tax statement, who signs first, and who is the “spouse”?  Who does most of the housework?

Traditional marriage still results in a male-dominated relationship in almost all cases.  Same-sex unions avoid that trap, and, as a result, threaten old hierarchies.