Respecting veterans

Many of the letters in our local newspapers are criticizing the NFL players for not “respecting our veterans.”  Is that why we play the national anthem?  To respect veterans?  When did that become the reason?

When I am at events where people say the “Pledge of Allegiance,” I never say the “under God” part.  I don’t believe in that whole god thing, and I refuse to say it.  That has nothing to do with respecting veterans, nor does sitting, taking a knee, or standing on one’s head when the national anthem is played.  

I really believe it is more important to respect the Constitution.  The 1st Amendment was written years before Francis Scott Key penned the his little ditty, which, by the way, is one of the least singable national anthems of all times.

I also don’t get the connection with money and standing for the national anthem.  Almost all the letters mention that the NFL players make a lot of money.  So what?  What does that have to do with the right to protest?

Finally, Donald Trump should never lecture anyone about patriotism.  That draft-dodging tax cheating clown should keep his mouth shut.

Sage Grouse

It’s the little things that go under the radar of the average American that are destroying this country, its environment, and its future.  

I, for one, am getting more aggressive with Trump supporters.  When someone asks me why I have an “impeach Trump” bumper sticker on my truck, I have a whole set of comebacks.

My latest one is “How does rolling back the protections for sage grouse Make American Great Again?”

Sage grouse protections were adopted after a decade of negotiations.  The plan involves ten states, and was adopted during the Obama administration.  The Interior Department, under the “leadership” of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, has filed a notice to amend the plan, scrap the Obama regulations, and allow for mineral leasing, grazing, and other commercial activities on sage grouse habitat.

]

In the meantime, Trump has us focus on the NFL and North Korea.

The Death Tax

That is what Republicans call the federal estate tax in one of the cleverest bits of “rebranding” ever seen.  

Everyone should support the federal estate tax for the following reasons:

• it is a small step to prevent the formation of an inherited aristocracy based on wealth.  That is one of the quickest ways to end democracy in this country.  It might end anyway, since the estate tax is not particularly onerous.

• the federal estate tax now applies only to estates larger than $5.49 million for an individual.  That applies to about one-fifth of one percent of Americans.  I doubt if any readers are in that group.

• even if you are in that one-fifth of one percent, your kids will still be rich.  You should welcome the opportunity to contribute your fair share.  Be like Bill Gates or Andrew Carnegie.  Spend your money on good works before you die.

The Trump tax proposals at least explain why people like Senator Toomey and the Koch Brothers and NFL owners have supported Trump though all of his blustering and misogyny and childishness and obvious lack of qualifications to be president.  This is their payoff.  It always seems to come down to the money.

Should the Colorado River have standing?

On Monday a lawsuit was filed in Federal District Court in Colorado naming the Colorado River ecosystem as a plaintiff.  The suit holds the state of Colorado liable for violating the river’s “right to exist, flourish, regenerate, be restored and naturally evolve.”

Since the River can’t appear in court, a group called Deep Green Resistance is filing the suit.  Before you laugh, remember that the U.S. Supreme Court said corporations were people in its “Citizens United” decision.  I also would point out that I have a book from the 70s entitled “Should Trees Have Standing?” that argues they should.

Legal experts say the case is a long shot, but I thought the idea of corporate citizenship was ridiculous.  Rivers are more living things than soulless corporations.

You can read the article at <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/26/us/does-the-colorado-river-have-rights-a-lawsuit-seeks-to-declare-it-a-person.html>.

And one more thing:  People often ask me how I find things to write about.  My problem is what NOT to write about.  Kurdish independence.  Catalonian independence.  Jeff Sessions lecturing college students about free speech rights but not his boss.  The EPA chief ordering a sound proof room.  The slap down of Trump in Alabama.  The fact that approximately 50% of Americans don’t know that Puerto Ricans are also Americans.  Trump calling for an end to the inheritance tax to ensure a hereditary aristocracy.  

This is a target rich environment.

John Fetterman

John Fetterman, Mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania, and former candidate for the U.S. Senate, visited Jim Thorpe earlier this evening to talk politics to a group of local residents.  

Fetterman had been a Bernie Sanders supporter who then worked in the Clinton campaign after she won the nomination.  He also campaigned for Katie McGinty, who had defeated him in the primary.  

He explained that Betsy DeVos would not be the Secretary of Education today had McGinty won.  Toomey provided the swing vote on that nomination.  

He also noted that the Supreme Court is about to be dominated by extreme conservatives who, had they been in power, would have found the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional.  He pointed out that neither Sanders nor Clinton would have created the hatred and divisiveness now so common in this country.

All of this seems self-evident, but he said that many Clinton and Sanders people are still taking pot-shots at one another while Trump is threatening nuclear war and thinks that football players taking a knee is more important than helping millions of Americans in crisis in Puerto Rico.

I’m not sure if Mr. Fetterman will be running for an office higher than mayor, but if he should decide to, he has my vote.

In a sea of despondency, islands of hope

In the week during which the president of the United States, addressing a rally, was cheered by his “base” for using the term “son of a bitch,” I want to call your attention to the Muslim Day Parade down Madison Avenue in New York on Sunday.  Parade organizers chose Rabbi Marc Schneier as the Grand Marshall.  

A contingent of Muslim New York City police officers marched in the parade in formation.

Everyone was proud, and the parade showed what kind of country we are, even if our president is an international embarrassment.

Centralia

The Angela Theater in Coaldale screened a documentary tonight entitled “Centralia.”  Centralia was a small town in the anthracite belt where an underground fire started in a coal seam in the Sixties.  Because of fumes, subsidence, and underground heat (at one point the gas in the local service station reached dangerous temperatures), the residents were finally bought out, some by eminent domain.

It is clear that federal and state government did screw up and may not have known what they were doing.  On the other hand, the documentary also makes clear that if local officials had followed the state guidelines, the fire would never have started, although this point is not stressed.

Some residents of the town believe there was a conspiracy to move the town so that a coal company could mine the coal beneath the borough limits.  This was not my impression.  I am a firm believer in Occam’s Razor–the simplest explanation is usually the best.  Incompetence is always a good bet.

John McCain

John McCain gave good reasons to vote against the latest attempt to overturn the Affordable Care Act.  No hearings were held on the proposed bill.  It was not a bipartisan effort.  Its financial implications were not analyzed by the non-partisan Congressional Budgetary Office.

What amazes me is that out of 52 Republican Senators, only one has the guts to stand up for what is right.  I guess that after you survived torture in a North Vietnamese prison, threats from the blowhards Trump and McConnell don’t seem very scary.

I’m hoping that the Senator Collins and Senator Murkowski will oppose the bill, but why wait?  Why not announce opposition now?

And where is my Senator Toomey?  The proposed bill will hurt Pennsylvania residents, but he seems more interested in campaign contributions than in his constituents.  This is a sad time for our country.

What Happened

That’s the title of Hillary Clinton’s book on the 2016 election.  A recent column reviewing the book in the Times News was entitled “Hillary and Co. should chill.” 

Hillary Clinton won more votes for President than any white man in American history.  Her election was subject to interference by a foreign enemy.  The FBI director released a statement a week before the election saying she was under investigation.  Voter suppression tactics were used in key states.  She lost to a demagogue who whipped up (and is still whipping up) racist and misogynist attitudes.  

After an election, if it was fair, we say the winning candidate has “legitimacy.”  We might not like the outcome, but we can’t quarrel with the loss.  It is the same in a sporting event.  If our team lost, we are disappointed, but we don’t call the outcome into question.

Now suppose we find out that the other team cheated.  Maybe the coach stole signals, or deflated the ball.  Then we will always bring those victories into question.  We will never be satisfied.  The winner is “illegitimate.”

I can’t speak for Hillary Clinton, but I will not “chill.”  Trump is not a legitimate president.  He is an interloper who cheated his way into office, and, if the system works, will soon be impeached. 

Refugees

A few weeks ago my friend Joan from Saratoga, California, sent me a poem by Brian Bilston entitled “Refugees.”  Here is the poem.  First you read if from top to bottom.  Then read it from bottom to top.

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 another way

I like it from the bottom up.

Travel industry problems

If you were living in Belgium or Brazil and thinking about visiting the U.S. this year, might you be a bit hesitant?

A recent poll by the Pew Research Center found that 49% of foreigners surveyed in 37 nations held a positive view of the U.S.  That contrasts with a 64% positive view at the end of the Obama administration.

The decline in tourism amounted to about $1.7 billion for the U.S. tourism industry.  Heck, if I didn’t live here, I sure wouldn’t visit.  Not when I could go to Italy, or Australia, or Japan, or Namibia.  None of those countries are governed by racist idiots.

(Information for this post is from Elaine Glusac, “Flow of Tourists to U.S. Declined in First Quarter,” nh (20 Sept. 2017), p. A18.)

Trump at the U.N.

I spent a month in the U.N.’s Secretariat Building as an unpaid intern in the summer of 1967.  I worked for Dr. Kenneth Dadzie of Ghana doing research and interviewing delegates for my Ph.D. thesis on the U.N.’s efforts to bring independence to European colonies.

I loved the U.N.  I loved what it stood for.  I was impressed with its peacekeeping missions, its efforts on behalf of women, its sheer idealism.

When people say the U.N. has no power, they are correct.  It cannot tax for revenue, it cannot draft soldiers, it cannot pass global legislation.  Nonetheless, it provides a forum for the countries of the world to meet, to discuss, and to negotiate.

Then comes the blowhard, talking about “Rocket Man,” talking about annihilation, talking trash about Iran, and generally behaving in ways we now expect him to behave--a boorish self-centered asshat.  It makes me cringe.

I’m sure “the base” loved it.

Turkey erases evolution

The government of Turkey is scrapping all references to Charles Darwin and evolution from school textbooks.  While evolutionary biology will still be taught in universities, the educational ministry has decided that those concepts were too advanced for high school students.

Thank goodness we don’t have the kind of religious fanatics in the United States that would take evolutionary biology out of textbooks and substitute “creation science.”  To teach that a god created the earth in six days, some few thousand years ago, would be ridiculous.

Turkey is so backward.

Trump's Sense of Humor

He lacks one.  I hadn’t really thought of this until today when I read an essay by David Litt, a former White House speech writer.  Litt pointed out that most Presidents have a self-deprecating sense of humor.  He quotes Ronald Reagan on his way to surgery after the assassination attempt, “Please tell me you’re all Republicans.”  The head surgeon, a Democrat, replied, “We’re all Republicans today.”

Trump lacks humor of any kind.  He can’t tell a joke.  He is ill at ease around anyone but his fervent followers.  Quoting Mr. Litt, “Surrounded by followers at rallies, he uses his well-honed sense of time as a cudgel.  He jeers.  He mocks.  His goal is to insult, rather than to entertain.”

When you think of Reagan, Clinton, Bush, or Obama, you think of them smiling or laughing.  When you think of Trump, you think of a sour face, a scowl.  Humorless people are nasty.  They are to be avoided.

If only we could.

Candidate endorsements

Should I endorse candidates?  I never know.  At least one reader of this blog is convinced I am a Marxist.  I know another reader who voted for Trump and occasionally sends me right-wing messages, although he also sends me birthday and Christmas cards.  

I always try to avoid being in pictures with candidates; I think it may hurt them.  I don’t even like to be in Facebook posts.  I have heard that I will no longer be allowed to appear on Channel 13, the local TV station, because the owner has declared me persona non grata. 

I support a number of candidates for the Lehighton School Board, although I don’t live in that school district.  There are candidates for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that I know are well-qualified.  If I identify those, would that help or hurt?

I will go out on a limb here with one candidate.  If Trump is still around in 2020 and if he somehow gets the nomination, vote for anyone who is running against him.  I don’t care who it is, support Trump’s opponent.  My Township Supervisors would make far better presidents than this racist idiot.

Wisconsin Bribes Foxconn

A few months ago Trump announced to great fanfare that the Taiwan-based Foxconn Company would build a facility in Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin legislature just sent Gov. Walker a bill to provide the electronics company with $3,000,000,000 (that’s 3 billion) worth of incentives and a $150 million sales tax exemption on construction equipment.

This is a typical Republican move.  Demand fiscal responsibility for the poor; give billions to corporations.  Trump voters must be so proud that America is great again.

Machiavelli and Single Payer

Here is advice to Democrats.  Read your Machiavelli.  He said people would fight much harder to retain a benefit they already had than people would fight to obtain a potential benefit in the future.  

You could see this play out with the Affordable Care Act.  Eight years ago we saw the rise of the Tea Party movement, largely over a bill that would benefit millions of people.  The benefits, however, were in the future, and millions more were worried about losing their health care or having to pay more for premiums.

Now a large majority of people would like to maintain the Affordable Care Act.  They benefit and know it.  They made their support vocal at Congressional town meetings all across the country.

But Bernie Sanders is pushing the Single Payer Plan.  About 140 million people get their health coverage through their employer.  I’m one of them.  My Medicare is supplemented by California Blue Cross through my former employer.  

Yes, I know that the concept of the Single Payer plan is supposed to be wonderful, and in Finland people get great medical care, but do you really expect me and 140 million fellow citizens, including millions who are quite satisfied with their insurance under the Affordable Care Act, to take a leap of faith into the unknown?

This will be another disaster for the Democratic Party and its rather few remaining legislators.  It’s ideological thinking versus practical thinking.  Please, read some Machiavelli.

The Penna. House Republican Caucus

Wow.  What a bunch of incompetents.  They just just can’t pass a budget.

Actually, I take that back.  They are not all incompetent, which is the reason the proposed budget has not advanced.  The leadership’s proposal would take funds from the farmland preservation program, from transportation, from hazardous waste and industrial cleanups, from recycling programs, from volunteer fire companies, from job training, from substance abuse programs, but would not add a severance tax to natural gas production.

This is a disaster in the making, and thank goodness there are enough Republicans with common sense to reject such a budget.  

I have not called his office yet, but I wonder if my representative, Doyle Heffley, is one of the Republicans with common sense.

Anti-gerrymandering rally at the State Capitol Rotunda

This morning Linda and I took part in a rally in Harrisburg on behalf of “Fair Districts PA,” a group supporting efforts to end partisan gerrymandering in Pennsylvania.  About 100 people filled the steps inside the Rotunda, where we heard speeches from Democrats and Republicans explaining why gerrymandering leads to voter cynicism, splits communities of interest, increases partisanship in legislatures, and undermines democracy.

We took our big poster of the map of the congressional district in the Philadelphia which has been labeled “Goofy Kicking Donald Duck,” because that is what it looks like.  

The rally was in support of HB 722 and SB 22.  Both bills would set up a non-partisan commission to draw the legislative district lines, both have Democratic and Republican co-sponsors, and both are languishing in committee because the committee chairs refuse to hold hearings.  

Pennsylvania is among the worst gerrymandered states in the Union.  The legislature also can’t pass a budget.  This legislature is way beyond dysfunctional, and yet people keep sending their incumbents back to Harrisburg because they show up at Eagle Scout award ceremonies and are “nice guys.”

The Pennsylvania Lottery

I had this nifty chart I put on the board when my American government class discussed taxing and spending.  It was a way to compare various revenue sources used by governments.

The chart included such items as:

•  Is it good source of revenue?

•  Is it based on ability to pay?

•  Is it easy to collect?

•   Does it promote beneficial social goals?

Since the main source of revenue for the feds is the income tax, for many states the sales tax, and for local governments the property tax, you can do a quick comparison.

All three types of taxes raise a lot of money, but the income tax, although supposed to be graduated, has so many exceptions that it is not really based on ability to pay.  The sales tax and property tax certainly are not based on ability to pay.

The income tax is easy to collect if you work for a company that automatically deducts it.  Otherwise, not so much.  The sales tax is generally easy to pay, unless you are buying a big ticket item like a car.  The property tax is often paid in a lump and is very difficult for many people to pay.

The income tax could be redistributive, which I think is a good thing over all.  The sales tax and property tax have very little, if any, beneficial social goals.

Let us now look at the Pennsylvania lottery.  It is a good source of revenue.  People line up to buy tickets when the Powerball reaches hundreds of millions. 

It is definitely not based on ability to pay.  Poor people play the lottery.  How many rich people do you see buying lottery tickets?  None.  I have never won the lottery because I don’t play it.  That means I have almost as much chance of winning the big one as people who do play it, which is zero.

It is easy to collect.  The poor benighted saps actually fork over their hard earned money to take a chance, sometimes foregoing necessities.

It certainly does not promote beneficial social goals.  What happened to save your money, invest your money?  That is so old-fashioned.  Take a chance.  Buy a ticket.

Our legislators know that the lottery is a ripoff.  In a recent study quoted in the Times News, the average return on $1 spent on a lottery ticket is 52¢.  You would be far better off putting your money in a Christmas cookie tin and hiding it under your bed.  

Perhaps the biggest charade is the announcement at the end of some lottery ads giving people who have a gambling problem a number to call.  If you are a Pennsylvania legislator, you do not want people to call that number.  You want them to be stupid.  You want them to be gullible.  You want them to blow their money and scratch their tickets.  What an immoral system to raise revenue.

The Wall

Everybody thinks THE WALL that Trump wants to build is to keep out those pesky Mexicans.

I don’t want to get all conspiratorial here, but did you ever consider that maybe the purpose is to keep Americans in?  

Think about it.

Mini-reunion

In 1974 in The American Condition, Richard Goodwin wrote that the last true community many Americans experienced was their high school class.  

Today about 25 members of the Palmerton High School, class of 1960, got together at the Palmerton Hotel for a mini-reunion.  Nothing formal, no big deal, just show up and socialize.

We did spend time talking about our health problems and our operations.  We are old.  On the other hand, it was obvious that we like each other.  In 1960, when we graduated, we were divided into business, industrial arts, college prep, and general.  There were some cliques.  There were some rich and poor.

In 1960 boys and girls weren’t friends.  They “went steady.”  If you were gay, you faked heterosexuality, or you didn’t even admit it to yourself.  Now nobody cares about those things.  

We not only get along, we enjoy each other’s company.  We like being together.  We don’t have too many years left, and we are aware of that, and we like to spend some of the time we have left with people who knew us when we were young and had our lives ahead of us.  We were and are a community.

Should the Federal Government help victims of Harvey?

Of course it should.  

Nonetheless, I think it is important to remember that when Congress voted to help the victims of Hurricane Sandy in January 2013, Texas Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz voted no.  Cruz said recently the bill had unrelated “pork” items.  That is, to put it bluntly, a lie.

Twenty-three of 24 Texas House members also voted no on the Sandy bill.  Some complained the money was being used for the Head Start program.  Some was.  It was to be used to aid Head Start facilities in N.Y. and N.J. damaged by Hurricane Sandy.

If I were in the House now, I would vote for the bill, but I would attach a rider that said, “In light of the growing intensity of hurricanes due to the increase in Gulf of Mexico water temperature, we hereby urge President Trump to rescind his order pulling out of the Paris Climate Pact.”

As for the Texas and Oklahoma and Louisiana delegations, you could accept the amendment or go pound sand.

Republicans against gerrymandering

On October 3 the Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case “Gill v. Whitford.”  The Court will decide whether a Republican-drawn gerrymander in Wisconsin violates the Constitution.  

The National Republican Congressional Committee takes the view that the gerrymander, which gives Republicans far more seats than their votes would warrant, is legal.  Of course it would.

On the other hand, a number of prominent Republicans, including Sen. McCain, Gov. Kasich, Bob Dole, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and former senators John Danforth of Missouri, Richard Lugar of Indiana, and Alan Simpson of Wyoming have all filed amicus briefs against gerrymandering.  

McCain’s brief reads in part, “Partisan gerrymandering has become a tool for powerful interests to distort the democratic process.”

I don’t hold out much hope that the Court will rule in favor of fair districts, but I do admire the Republicans who actually believe elections should be fair.

Information for this post came from Adam Liptak, “Some of G.O.P.’s Stars Break Ranks in Urging Justices to End Gerrymandering, New York Times (Sept. 7, 2017), p. A18.

DACA letters

In contacting a member of Congress, not all messages are equal.  Signing a petition is almost useless.  All it takes is a few clicks on a form.  In fact, if you do lots of them, you can do an automatic fill with one click.

Emails and phone calls are slightly better, but they also take very little effort.  Members of Congress do like them because they are so easy to respond to.

Letters are best.  You have to buy a stamp.  You must print the letter.  You need an envelope.  You must walk to the post box.  

So today I sent letters to Casey, Toomey, Cartwright, Bartletta, McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Orrin Hatch on Trump’s actions on the “Dreamers.”  Here’s an example of what I said:

Dear Senator McCain:

Our nation has done some terrible things in the past.  Trail of Tears.  Slavery.  Jim Crow.  Treatment of Chinese immigrants.  Japanese internment.  We could extend the list.

Now our nation is about to add another chapter to that sad history by eliminating DACA.  Not only are the affected young people not guilty of any crime, but they are also contributing to the United States well-being in so many ways.

We cannot allow the President to succeed in his cruel and immoral policies toward immigrants, documented or not.  His actions are unconscionable.  Congress must act, and it should act on this particular issue, irrespective of border walls, sanctuary cities, debt ceilings, or tax code changes.

Sincerely,

Roy Christman (whose ancestors did not have papers when they arrived)

John Ashbery, poet, 1927-2017

In 1976 John Ashbery won the National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and the National Book Critics Circle Award in the same year, and I’ll bet you never read one poem by him.

In my opinion, Ashbury is unreadable.  I take that back.  You can read the words–they are written in English–but they make no sense.  

Emily Dickinson once said, “If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.”

With Ashbery, all you get is a headache. The English poet James Fenton said in a review of Ashbery’s poetry, there were times “when I actually thought I was going to burst into tears of boredom.”  

Ashbery put down protest poetry, saying “Poetry is poetry.  Protest is protest.”  Not so, but I do hold that dreck is dreck.

Ashbery’s poetry is often called “enigmatic.”  That’s another word for “incomprehensible.”

Celebrate Labor Day

Quite a number of blue collar workers voted for Trump.  Here’s is some of what they got.

In June the Trump administration reversed the governments’s position on class action lawsuits by workers.  Under Obama administration rules, workers had the right to bring such suits.  Now the federal government argues that employers can force workers to forfeit those rights.

The Trump administration has proposed a 40% cut for the agency that conducts research into workplace hazards.

The Trump administration has sought to eliminate a $10.5 million program (and that is chicken feed) to help unions and nonprofit organizations to educate workers on how to avoid injury and illness.

The Trump administration is opposing increases in the minimum wage.  

The Trump administration is proposing to eliminate health care insurance for millions of American workers.

Trump loves people he calls “entrepreneurs.”  He has no respect for people we call “workers.”

I’ll say this.  If you are a worker and you voted Republican, you should never complain that you are getting a raw deal.  If you bought into Republican rhetoric, you deserve what you get.

Bail–an aristocratic hangover

In 1831-32 Alexis de Tocqueville, a young Frenchman, toured the United States, met politicians, Indians, slaves, a President, and common ordinary folk and wrote a book about his experiences.  The book, entitled Democracy in America, discusses the unique features of life in the United States and is still read for its insights.

Tocqueville noted just how democratic America was, although he was distressed at the treatment of Indians and slaves.  He did say that some holdovers from aristocratic England were still around, and one of them he singled out was the use of bail  He said that bail was a system that freed aristocrats, who could afford it, while the poor languished in jail until their trial.

Here we are, almost two centuries later, and the bail system is still in place.  It is time we get rid of it.

Raging Waters

I don’t care how many photo ops we get of Trump and his wife passing out supplies to flood victims.  What I remember is that two weeks ago this man revoked President Obama’s order that federal agencies account for sea level rises and storms when they are looking at infrastructure projects.  

I am also aware that the Gulf temperature was exceptionally warm this year.  The warmer the water, the more moisture the hurricane absorbs.  I am well aware that this President pulled out of the Paris accords.

Now he goes to Houston and passes out supplies.  I am not impressed.

Cluster bombs

Cluster bombs are big bombs that break apart and release “bomblets” full of small shrapnel that won’t penetrate cement blocks or bricks but will penetrate flesh.  The shrapnel is generally not round, like BBs, which would enter in a straight path, but is misshapen, so it skewers into the flesh and amplifies the wound.  Even worse, some cluster bombs use plastic shrapnel that can’t be located with X-ray machines.

Cluster bombs are not good for knocking down buildings or immobilizing tanks.  They are useful only for killing or wounding people.

On August 1, 2010, a Convention on Cluster Munitions to prohibit such weapons entered into force.  To date 119 countries have agreed to the treaty’s provisions.  

Among the countries that have not signed the agreement are the U.S., Russia, China, and most of the counties in the Middle East.

A disarmament group, Cluster Munitions Coalition, monitors the use of these bombs  The group noted that In 2016 cluster bomb casualties doubled from the previous year.  Most of the victims were in Syria, but Laos and Yemen also reported casualties.

[Information for this post came from an article by Rick Gladstone, “Cluster-Bomb Casualties Doubled in 2016), New York Times, (Sept. 1, 2017), p. A-5.]

P.S.:  Yesterday Linda and I visited the Yale Art Museum, which, by the way, is truly amazing.  We spent the night in Fishkill, N.Y.  I took along my Airbook to post, but even thought the motel had free wi-fi, I couldn’t figure out how to connect.  After about ten minutes I gave up in frustration.