Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Hawk Mountain

Lois and Ron are visiting from Long Island, and today I took them to Hawk Mountain in Schuylkill County.  It’s truly a wonderful place.  Great vistas, hiking trails, a visitor center with educational materials and fun items for kids.  

Lois noted that Hawk Mountain is not a state park, not a national park, but a private bird sanctuary, founded in 1934 by one woman, Rosalie Edge, who thought it was wrong to slaughter hawks for sport.  Hawk Mountain is a location where hawks congregate to take advantage of thermal updrafts to fly over the Blue Mountain on their journey south.  


Hawk Mountain is not only a sanctuary, but an international training center for scientists and volunteers from around the world.  It is a wonderful place, and for at least for a time today I didn’t think about Trump, nuclear war, or the administration’s attempt to gut our environmental protections.  If only I could live on Hawk Mountain.

Monday, October 30, 2017

Whitefish energy

I read mystery novels.  A cliche in those novels is that there are no coincidences.  If the suspect went to the same elementary school as the victim; if the bad guy and the murder victim were in the same unit in Vietnam–it matters. 

Now we get Whitefish Energy, a three-man company from Whitefish, Montana, awarded a $300 million contract to restore electricity to a large portion of Puerto Rico’s power grid.

Whitefish, Montana, is the hometown of the Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.  Coincidence?  I’m not buying that.  It matters.

On Sunday the Governor of Puerto Rico cancelled the contract.  


Question:  When will the swamp draining start?

Sunday, October 29, 2017

Lead Lou Barletta not into temptation, and deliver us from evil

Lou Barletta is running against Sen. Bob Casey to represent Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate.  Lou made his reputation for his racist policies when he was the mayor of Hazleton.  Now he has promised to serve only two terms (12 years) as a U.S. Senator.

Justin Simmons, a snot-nose from the Allentown area, made a similar pledge when he ran for the PA House of Representatives four years ago.  He promised he would only serve two terms.  He is now running for his third term.  The temptation was too much.


Suppose Lou wins?  Suppose he wins again?  Might he not be tempted to run for a third term.  Let’s save Lou from the temptation.  Let’s work very hard to make sure he never has to face the temptation of running for even a second term.  

Saturday, October 28, 2017

A letter to the Pennsylvania Grange

Dear Grange officials:

When I joined the Big Creek Grange in Carbon County some years ago, I assumed that it was an organization that would aid small farmers.  Today I read in the Lancaster Farming that the Grange is supporting legislation by the state House to “rein in” the Delaware River Basin Commission .  The Grange thinks Pennsylvania should decide what is best for the Commonwealth, according to the article, and the DRBC has no right to ban fracking.  

First of all, the DRBC is only banning fracking in the Delaware River Basin.  It’s a funny thing about river basins and watersheds.  What happens in New York can affect Pennsylvania.  What happens in Pennsylvania can affect New Jersey and Delaware.  I would think an organization of farmers would recognize that.

We own a small farm about to be bisected by the PennEast fracking gas pipeline.  We are in the blast zone.  The pipeline company has the rights of eminent domain, not for the benefit of the general public, but for stockholders and private profit.  


My hat is off to the DRBC, which evidently has my interests at heart far more than the Pennsylvania Grange.  In case you wonder why so few farmers are joining the Grange, and why so many members are in their sixties and seventies, I think I have found your answer.  If you purport to help farmers, you could start by opposing an industry that pollutes our water, fouls our air, and pays no severance tax while doing it.

Sincerely,
Roy Christman

Friday, October 27, 2017

O'Reilly coverage

Some pundits are making a big deal out of the fact that Fox News gave Harvey Weinstein 12 hours of coverage and O’Reilly 20 minutes.  


At a time when the U.S. Congress is about to pass a tax break for the richest Americans, when our closest allies the Kurds are being abandoned, when members of the Foreign Relations Committee didn’t even know we had troops in Niger, when the E.P.A. has been hijacked by the chemical industry, when Trump spouts off about opioids but provides no money, when over half of Puerto Ricans are still without power. I think 20 minutes devoted to that knuckle-head is about 19 too many.

Thursday, October 26, 2017

I found my thrill

You have to be pretty darn old to know the next few words...”On Blueberry Hill.”  I was in 9th grade when Fats Domino’s version made the charts.  That was a new sound then, and it was exciting to teenagers everywhere.

Fats Domino (1928-2017) was one of the early rock and rollers.  He appeared in the movie “Shake, Rattle and Rock,” and he toured with Chuck Berry and Clyde McPhatter.  Fats also sang “”Ain’t It a Shame,” which Pat Boone later “covered” to the dismay of anyone who loves real music.  

A reporter once called Elvis Presley “the King.”  Elvis pointed to Fats Domino who was in the room.  According to the obit in today’s Times, Elvis said “There’s the real king of rock and roll.”


Enough of this.  I’m Walkin’

Wednesday, October 25, 2017

An Inconvenient Sequel

I saw Al Gore’s film “An Inconvenient Sequel” tonight at the Mahoning Valley Cinema.  Eleven years ago Gore’s first film, “An Inconvenient Truth,” achieved some popularity and a great deal of ridicule.

One of the most derided portions of that first movie was that as storms increased in size and strength and the oceans continued to rise, sea water could go inland in Manhattan as far as the site of the World Trade Center.  How silly.  Tonight’s film showed sea water pouring over that area during Hurricane Sandy.

The film also made clear the connection between warmer water and the increased intensity of storms.  It pointed out the Syrian crisis, including the refugee explosion, was connected to the worst drought in Syria’s history.  More crises of this sort will be coming.

A major part of the film revolved around the negotiations for the Paris Climate Accord.  The hopefulness, the sense that the world leaders were finally taking steps to solve a global problem, was a feel-good moment.


It didn’t last.  We had the 2016 election, with Perry, Pruitt, and Tillerson all pushing fossil fuels at the expense of renewables and the grand pooh bah himself so proud to pull out of the Paris accords, turning leadership on solar energy developments over to China.  

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Jeff Flake

My brother-in-law Tom gave me a copy of Conscience of a Conservative by Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona.  I’ve only read the first chapter, but I already know that Sen. Flake is not my kind of Senator.  Grew up on a ranch, devout Mormon, self-made man, conservative on just about every issue.
In other words, a typical conservative Republican.

Nevertheless, while he represents the type of Republican I would campaign against, if he won, I would not worry about the future of our country.  He’s a normal human being, with normal human instincts.  He was one of the “Gang of Eight” in the Senate who tried to work out a compromise on immigration.  He is well within the guidelines of normal political give and take.

Much of his book, I understand, is a call for Republicans to act like Republicans, not like obscene and vulgar tweet-monkeys who do not understand the importance of truth and integrity.  

Mr. Flake announced today that he is not running for re-election..


I understand why he might be reluctant to do that given the political climate today.  He would face an assault in the primary from a Bannon clone.  Nonetheless, I think American democracy will lose a supporter whose principles, although not exactly mine, are those I can live with.  I just wish more Republican members of the House and Senate, including my own Senator Toomey, felt the need to speak out as Jeff Flake has.

Monday, October 23, 2017

JFK documents release

Trump announced he will allow the release of documents relating to the JFK assassination.


While he is in the mood to release things, when can we expect the release of his tax returns?

Sunday, October 22, 2017

Dept. of Ag. drops rule to protect animal farmers

The Trump Administration has decided to kill the Farmer Fair Practice Rule, adopted by the Obama administration to protect farmers who raise chickens, cows, and hogs for large meat processors.  

In the past, large packers like Tyson Foods and Pilgrim’s Pride locked farmers into deals that compensated them at low levels.  The Obama rule made it easier for those farmers to sue.

Sen. Charles Grassley, a conservative Republican from Iowa, said of the Administration’s action:  “They’re just pandering to big corporations.  They aren’t interested in the family farm.”  He said the USDA is the Department of Agriculture, not the Department of Big Agribusiness.

The meat packing industry was delighted with the Administration’s action.


[Information for this post is from David Pitt, “USDA Withdraws Rule Aimed at Protecting Animal Farmers,” Lancaster Farming, (Oct. 21, 2017), p. A10.]

Saturday, October 21, 2017

Lehighton Halloween Parade

Being old and lazy, my role in the Lehighton Halloween Parade was to sit on the tailgate of the truck and hand filled containers of candy to the marchers.  These parades are always fun.  Kids love getting the candy, and their parents and grandparents have a good time watching the kids.

Of course, there were a few people along the route who yelled “Trump” or something equally obnoxious.  This in the week in which Trump’s painting which he claimed to be an original Renoir was exposed as a fake.  This in the week in which we find out he lied about contacting “Gold Star” families.  This in the week in which he gave himself a “ten” for his work in Puerto Rico.  This in the week where he tried to appoint a friend of the opioid pill industry as his “czar” to fight the opioid epidemic.

If I had been a Trump voter, I sure wouldn’t be yelling it out.  I’d be denying it vehemently.  I’d be so ashamed at what I had done that I would lie like a rug and tell people I was too sick on election day to vote.


After I wrote this, I showed it to a knowledgeable friend who explained that there is a certain level of stupid that achieves its own equilibrium, and that level tends to stay the same over time.  I like that.

Friday, October 20, 2017

Only the Brave

“Only the Brave,” a film about wildland firefighters in Arizona, was released in theaters today.  It details the methods of woodland firefighters and the dangers they face.  We saw it tonight; a number of local firefighter volunteers were also in the audience.

The film is well-acted, often funny, and even in this day of computer graphics, you will wonder how the director created the fires.


The film is based on a true story about an fatal incident in Arizona in 2013.  I won’t tell you the ending, but I will warn you that it is not happy.  Don’t let that stop you from seeing the movie.

Thursday, October 19, 2017

The Liberty Bell and North Carolina

Today we took our California visitors to Philadelphia to see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall.  I teared up watching the film in the Liberty Bell center.  

The woman who directed us from the parking garage was a Muslim; the guards were African-American and Latino; and at least half of the visitors were Asian.  I was so proud to be an American.

Then I got home and read how the North Carolina legislature has not only changed the state judicial selection system to a partisan election process, but also has gerrymandered the districts to ensure the election of Republican judges who will support voter suppression.  


Most of us are proud to be Americans, but not North Carolina legislators.  They are doing their best to undermine American values and change our system to a one-party oligarchy.  We will lose our democracy not by a coup or a rebellion, but by well-funded middle-aged white guys who can’t stand to share their power, supported by ignorant voters who have no idea what is in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights.  

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Michael Dourson, Lapdog of the Chemical Industry

Michael Dourson is a professor at the University of Cincinnati who consults for chemical company money and recommends approval of such toxins as 1,4-dioxane and the compound PFOA, made by DuPont.  

He is Trump’s pick to run the E.P.A. office in charge of reviewing chemicals.

His hearing is next week.  Republicans control the Senate and Environment and Public Works Committee, which will hold the hearings.  He will be approved.  


I’m not religious, but for those of you who are, please pray that this industry hack gets cancer.  After all, when he is approved and then allows carcinogenic chemicals to be used in consumer products, thousands of American citizens certainly will get cancer.

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Trump appoints idiots

No, not the shill for the opioid industry.  He withdrew.

I’m talking about Kathleen Hartnett White, former Texas environmental regulator who argues that carbon dioxide is a harmless gas.  She also says that renewable energy is “unreliable and parasitic.”  She will lead the Council on Environmental Quality.

This is about a week after Trump nominated Barry Lee Myers of AccuWeather, a private for-profit weather forecasting company, to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.  

This is also a week after he nominated Andrew Wheeler, a coal lobbyist, to be deputy administrator of the EPA.

Where are the Republican Senators?  Where is Toomey?  Why doesn’t Senator Flake, who wrote Conscience of a Conservative, speak out?  Why don’t we hear more about this on the evening news?  I can’t stand it.

The information for this post is fromLisa Friedman, “Carbon Dioxide is Harmless, Says Trump Pick for Environmental Advisor, New York Times, (Oct. 14, 29017), p. A9.


By the way, if you still think global warming is a hoax, today I saw people making hay in Towamensing Township in mid-October.  In mid-October!  This is nuts.  Get off your couch, turn off your computer and your I-Phone, and go outside.  Global warming is staring you in the face.

Monday, October 16, 2017

Visitors from California

My brother-and sister-in law are visiting from California.  I’m having some difficulty explaining Pennsylvania customs to them.  For example:

Why are there so many villages?  There seems to be one at just about every crossroads.  Trachsville, Klecknersville, New Mahoning, Little Gap, and thousands more.

Why are some boroughs, like East Side or Parryville, smaller in population than many townships like Penn Forest or Mahoning?

Why must you go to one store to buy rum, another to buy a case of beer, and a third to buy a six-pack?

Why hasn’t Pennsylvania imposed a severance tax on fracked gas when every other state in the country has done that?

How can a township supervisor run for office and then work for the township, being, in effect, his or her own boss?

Why do judges run in partisan elections?  Shouldn’t they be non-partisan?

Why hasn’t Pennsylvania formed a commission to draw legislative boundaries that make sense?

Why do we have partisan “row offices” for what should be civil service jobs?

Why are our parks so badly underfunded?  


I have an answer for them.  I just shrug and say, “It’s Pennsylvania.” 

Sunday, October 15, 2017

Palmerton Halloween Parade

“Save Carbon County,” an anti-PennEast/UGI pipeline group, participated in the Palmerton Halloween parade.  We had a Model A Ford, a 1942 jeep, and a contingent of ten people carrying anti-pipeline signs and a large banner.  

We received a good response from the people along the route, although that may have been in part because of the candy we distributed.  Our banner holders executed a complicated dance routine in front of the judges’ stand to wild applause.  


Overall, we got our message across.  The PennEast/UGI pipeline will harm Carbon County’s farms, parks, watersheds, wetlands, and forests.  It is a bad idea whose time has passed.

Saturday, October 14, 2017

Boy Scouts

Before you celebrate how wonderful it is that the Boy Scouts are now accepting Girl Scouts, you might want to consider that while the Boy Scouts have an official policy against atheists and agnostics participating in scouting, the Girl Scouts are a secular organization. 

An estimated 20% of the Boy Scouts are estimated to be Mormons; individual troops are usually associated with churches.  Girls Scouts focus on social justice.  Boy Scouts were founded as a quasi-military organization.


In the last few years some conservatives have called for a boycott of Girl Scout cookies because Girl Scouts are too liberal.  The “acceptance” of girls by the Boy Scouts seems more like a P.R. move than a real change.  I hope the Girl Scouts don’t fall for it.

Friday, October 13, 2017

Taking a knee

I’m passing along a tweet you might like.  (It was not from Trump.)

Eight million Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t salute the flag.

200,000 Amish don’t stand for the national anthem.

Some Quakers don’t recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

One black man kneels respectfully and all hell breaks loose.  


Now you know why he kneels.

Thursday, October 12, 2017

The Lehighton School Board

Small elementary schools have better learning results than large elementary schools.  Long bus rides for elementary students mean time wasted.  Local elementary schools encourage parent participation and “ownership.”  Local elementary schools often serve as community centers.

In spite of this, the Lehighton School Board voted to close down three local elementary schools and consolidate all the elementary students in Franklin, Parryville, Mahoning, East Penn, Weissport, and Lehighton into one large elementary school.  When a school board member who was an opponent of this policy unexpectedly died, his replacement was a supporter of the consolidation policy who had been defeated.

In three weeks the Lehighton Area School District will hold an election for the board.  Far fewer than half of the eligible voters will bother to go to the polls.  Fewer than half of the Trump supporters in that district who brayed about “Making America Great Again” will bother to go to their polling place and cast a vote.  A large percentage of the people who do vote will not know the candidates.  


It does get discouraging.

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Steve Bannon the optimist

Steve Bannon told a Vanity Fair reporter that he thinks Trump has a 30% chance of finishing his term.  

Really Steve.  30%?  


No way.

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

EPA announces repeal of greenhouse gas rules

That headline is important.  The UN estimates that on average 21 million refugees are created each year because of climate change.  Oceans rising, desertification increasing, droughts– all play a role.  Global warming is not some Chinese hoax or Al Gore conspiracy, it is here, now.  Today is October 10, and Carbon County still has not had a frost.  In the 50s we had a killing frost by mid-September, and no, I am not confusing climate and weather.

So what is the big news; that a movie producer is a sexist pig?  He is, but let’s keep things in perspective.  After all, our president is a sexist pig.  


While I am happy to see Mr. Weinstein fired, the news media needs to pay more attention to Puerto Rico, DACA, or China’s push to replace the internal combustion engine with electric cars.  People, we need to focus.

Monday, October 9, 2017

The leading facts of American history

It's Indigenous Peoples' Day (that's what I celebrate when other people are celebrating Columbus Day), and I thought I'd share a bit of history.

The Leading Facts of American History by D. H. Montgomery (1890) was a school book published just 25 years after the Civil War.  You can buy a reprint on Abebooks, a site for old and rare books.  The paper copy I had was falling apart, with pages missing, pictures removed, no title page, and lots of scribbles, probably put there by bored pupils.  

The last page, however, was intact.  It was a summary, and I'll quote a paragraph.  Keep in mind that this was written in the “gilded age” when “breaker boys” were picking slate out of the coal, there was no minimum wage, no unemployment insurance, racist violence in the South, and anti-Chinese riots.  1890 was the year of the massacre of Indians at Wounded Knee.  Nonetheless, the portion on the military seems to be accurate.

Here every advantage is open.  Education is absolutely free; millions of acres of Western land are free.  Here, and here only, among the leading civilized nations, no immense standing-army eats up the daily earnings of the people.  Here every law springs directly from the will of the majority.


These facts prove the truth of the motto chosen for this book.  They show that America means Opportunity.  

The bold font was in the original.  In the last 127 years some things have definitely improved.  Unfortunately, some have gotten worse.

Sunday, October 8, 2017

Pence leaves the game

I see where V.P. Pence left a 49ers game after the players took a knee during the opening ceremonies.  Perhaps I missed it, but I haven’t heard that Pence condemned the Salt Lake City police for shooting an unarmed black man who was running away.  They have been exonerated.  They felt their lives were endangered.  By a guy running away.

Saturday, October 7, 2017

Idiocracy

I’m getting really tired of my fellow citizens.  Letter after letter in the Morning Call decrying NFL players for protesting racism, and not one letter discussing the reason for the protests.

Letter after letter defending a song played at games and not one letter protesting the reduction of national monuments, the gutting of the EPA, the militarization of police, the failure to get help to Americans in Puerto Rico.

Letter after letter talking about the wealthy football players, and not one letter decrying a tax proposal that will benefit the top 1% and Trump’s family.

We seize on the least important issues.


If democracy is always an experiment, this experiment is rapidly failing.  I don’t know exactly how we got here, but rampant stupidity is becoming the norm, from the White House on down.

Friday, October 6, 2017

Letter to the Palmerton Rod and Gun Club

Dear Rod and Gun Club members:

I am hereby resigning my lifetime membership in the Palmerton Rod and Gun Club.  I have noticed in the past that the Club is associated quite closely with the National Rifle Association.  While I support the right of Americans to own guns, I also support reasonable restrictions on those guns.  For example, I do not believe Americans have a right to own RPGs, ground-to-air missiles, tanks, automatic weapons, or weapons that can be converted into automatic.

The National Rifle Association takes pride in buying members of Congress, in preventing a bill from passing that would have studied gun violence, in supporting gun show purchases with no background checks, in supporting “cop-killer” bullets, in supporting the legalization of  silencers, and in opposing any efforts to license gun owners the way drivers are licensed–after passing a test to show they are competent.


It is with some sadness that I am resigning.  My father was a member of this organization, and I have been a member for years.  The Rod and Gun Club does some good work with kids and in the community.  If it ever severs its relationship with the N.R.A., I would reconsider my decision.

Thursday, October 5, 2017

The Worst Cabinet Secretary

Much of the time we don’t know who are the President’s cabinet secretaries.  Who was Bush’s Energy Secretary?  Who was Obama’s head of the E.P.A.?  You know you are in trouble when you can actually name these people.

So we have Ricky Perry as the head of the Energy Department, giving loans to nuclear and coal-fired plans.  We have Betsy DeVos, head of the Education Department, who would like to end public education.  We have Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, whom I like, if only because he called Trump a moron.  We have Mr. Zinke in Interior who is downsizing National Monuments except in his home state of Montana.  We have Tom Price of the expensive airline flights–no wait, he’s gone.

The title for the absolute worst has to go to Scott Pruitt, the EPA head who has fired scientists, thinks global warming is a hoax, has been meeting with top executives of companies that emit pollutants that produce global warming and speaking almost daily with lobbyists of companies that the EPA is supposed to regulate while holding almost no meetings with environmentalists, consumer groups, or public health advocates.


So, Trump supporters, tell me how all this makes America great again?  Really, tell me.

Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Imagine

Try to imagine what Trump would be tweeting if the terrorist in Las Vegas had been a Muslim.  Or a black guy.  Or a Latino immigrant.

Try to imagine a Republican member of congress calling for limits on ammo, or on assault rifles that could be converted into automatic.

Try to imagine a life-time member of the Palmerton Area Rod and Gun Club resigning his membership because of the ties between the N.R.A. and the Club.


Ok, the last one you don’t have to imagine.  I’m sending in my letter of resignation tomorrow.

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Originalism

Some members of the U.S. Supreme Court are “originalists.”  Scalia was a major proponent of this philosophy, but Gorsuch and Thomas are also in this group.  

Originalists try to fathom what the Founding Fathers meant when they wrote the Constitution and the first ten amendments and then apply those thoughts to the modern day.  Although “originalists” use modern medicine and drive cars, they harken back to the late 1700s for guidance in their court decisions.


Well, let’s do it.  When the 2nd Amendment talks about the right to bear arms and a “well-regulated militia,” that means that if you want to own a gun, you better be down on the village green once a month for bayonet practice and close order drill.  In addition, the weapon you own better be a muzzle loader with powder and shot.  With practice you might be able to get off two shots a minute.

Monday, October 2, 2017

Script for mass shootings

Act 1:  A crazy guy gets his hands on automatic weapons (easy in the U.S.) and shoots a large number of people he didn’t know.

Act 2:  Police and emergency personnel respond bravely; individuals also engage in heroic acts.

Act 3:  The press reports on human interest stories of the victims.  Some are parents, children, husbands, wives, close friends.  People weep.

Act 4:  Various editorials and people with common sense call for increased restrictions on the ability to buy weaponry on-line, at gun shows, and in private sales.

Act 5:  Nothing happens because the legislators soil their pants at the thought of taking on the N.R.A.


Repeat the sequence.

Sunday, October 1, 2017

O.J. released

In Nevada today O.J. Simpson was released from prison.  This is wonderful news.  It means he can resume his search for Nicole’s killer.