The minimum wage in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania borders six states:  New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, and Ohio.  The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, but every one of those six states mandates a higher minimum wage than the federal government.  That’s right, even West by God Virginia.  

Pennsylvania, however, sticks to the federal level.  Remember when Pennsylvania was one of the more progressive states?  Neither can I.

Scott Wagner discovers zero-based budgeting

In the 1980s a buzzword in government circles was “zero-based budgeting.”  It was said to be the answer to government red ink.  Instead of starting with last year’s budget and adding or subtracting, you began at a zero base and budgeted proposed funds as you felt they were needed.  Of course, any manager of any agency would look at what his or her department did last year and adjust up or down accordingly.  The idea was great in theory, but in practice not so much.

Now Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Wagner, not generally considered the sharpest knife in the drawer, says that the Pennsylvania legislature has “money lying around.”  He will fix it by zero-based budgeting.

This is the majority leader of the Republican Senate.  The Republicans also control the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.  Why is that money lying around?  

I’ll tell you who is “lying around.”  It is Scott Wagner  If you are a Republican, vote for Mango.

White House Correspondents' Dinner

The Dinner, held this evening, is an annual celebration of a free press in America.  

Unfortunately, the free press is under attack from various sides.  Our president says the press is an enemy of the people.  Fox “News” makes a mockery of reporting.  The Sinclair network pushes propaganda instead of news on hundreds of radio stations.  And newspapers have fewer and fewer readers.  As a consequence advertisers are abandoning papers, and reporters are being laid off across America.

Here’s some good news.  “Report for America,” a nonprofit organization, hopes to install 1000 journalists in depleted newsrooms by 2022.  The organization is in its beginning stages, but has already placed three reporters in Appalachia, and will have nine more in place by June.  

For the nine slots, 85 newsrooms applied.  There is a hunger for local news well-reported.  It is why I subscribe to the Times News and the Morning Call.  While I often don’t agree with the Times News editorial policy, it is the only paper that reports local government news in Carbon County.  I need that.

Information on “Report for America” was taken from Nellie Bowles, “A New Way Newsrooms Can Get Help,” New York Times, (April 16, 2018), p. B1, B32.

The Avengers: Infinity Wars

It’s a great title, since that’s about how long it seemed to last.  Some of these superhero movies are fun, like “Guardians of the Galaxy” or “Thor-Ragnarok.”  They have some wit, some intelligence.  This one consists mostly of guys throwing each other around, or shooting at each other, or giving pretentious speeches.  

I thought “Rampage,” which I saw last night, was more enjoyable.  Plus it only lasted 90 minutes.

Here be dragons

In medieval times a large portion of the world was unknown, so mapmakers would sometimes label those areas “Here be dragons.”

Evidently the same thing applies to the woodlands of Pennsylvania.  The Penn State Outing Club, founded in 1920, almost 100 years ago, announced that the University will no longer allow the Club to organize outdoor trips led by students.  The hiking and camping the Club did are just too risky, according the the offices of Student Affairs and Risk Management.

You must have heard the criticism that our kids are growing up coddled, watched over at all times, not allowed to be independent.  I believe it.

Mike Mulvaney, tool of crooked bankers

Mike Mulvaney, former congress member from South Carolina, hated the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and did his best to kill it.  That is the Bureau inspired by Elizabeth Warren that worked to protect us from businesses like payday lenders.  Trump put him in charge of the agency, where he has frozen all new investigations, restricted the Bureaus’s access to bank data, and scaled back efforts to go after payday lenders.  

Mulvaney was addressing 1300 bankers and lending industry officials at the American Bankers Association conference in Washington.  He explained how he behaved as a member of Congress:  “If you’re a lobbyist who never gave us money, I didn’t talk to you.  If you’re a lobbist who gave us money, I might talk to you.’  

Mulvaney received almost $63,000 in financial contributions from payday lenders.

When is the swamp draining going to start?

Information for this post came from Glenn Thrush, “Watchdog Bureau’s Leader Mounts Charge Against Agency,” New York Times, (Aug. 25, 2018), p. B-1.

Blooming apricots

I hire my neighbor Richard Graver, the most knowledgeable orchardist I know, to prune my quince, apricot, mulberry, and apple trees each spring.  I have no idea how to prune fruit trees, and please don’t tell me I can get a tutorial on that on the internet.

Anyway, I asked Richard why we never get any apricots.  He said it was very hard to grow them in this part of Pennsylvania because they bloomed early, often before a killing frost.  Today I noticed how pretty the apricot tree looked with its blossoms.  It is now April 24.  

Any bets on whether or not we will have at least one more killing frost.

The main reason we didn't annex Mexico

I always thought the main reason the U.S. did not annex all of Mexico after the Mexican War was because of Northern opposition to creating more slave states.  That's why Henry David Thoreau went to jail–he thought the war was being fought to expand slavery.  He was right, of course, but that is not the whole story.

According to Peter Guardino (The Dead March, Harvard U. Press, 2017), Americans were fearful of incorporating Mexico into the U.S. because Mexicans were Catholic and of an inferior race.  California, Arizona, and New Mexico, which were annexed, contained relatively few Mexican nationals.  Mexico proper, on the other hand, contained millions of people then regarded in the U.S. as racially inferior.  This was also a period of intense anti-Catholic opinion.  The Mexican War occurred along with the rise of the Know Nothings, a political party based on opposing Catholic immigration.

Much of Trump's anti-Mexican rants and prejudices against Mexicans would have been right at home in 1846-48.  Bigotry doesn't change all that much.

Earth Day in Jim Thorpe

At the Earth Day celebration in downtown Jim Thorpe yesterday I worked a table for “Save Carbon County,” an environmental group that is opposing the PennEast pipeline.  We had people sign postcards to the Delaware River Basin Commission asking that agency to prevent early tree cutting before the pipeline was actually approved.  In the past the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, a.k.a. lapdog of the pipeline companies, has approved tree cutting along a route that was never used for a pipeline.  We are hoping the DRBC, a much more environmentally sensitive agency, can make sure that doesn’t happen.

The day went well.  We collected over 200 postcards.

One thing that did bother me was that the event organizers did not have any recycle bins.  I pulled some aluminum cans and plastic water bottles out of the trash, but I’ll have to talk to the organizers to see this doesn’t happen again.

Take Action

I write this blog for all kinds of reasons: to educate, to amuse, to inform, or even out of vanity.  Tonight, however, I am asking you to take action.  I want you to write to your members of Congress, both House and Senate, and ask them to change a U.S. government policy.  Actual letters are better than emails, but emails are ok.  Even a phone call can help.  I'll reprint my letter to Senators Toomey and Casey and Representative Cartwright.  It may help you get started, but don't copy it.  Use your own words.  If you want to look up the original article referred to in the letter, it is in the April 21 issue of the New York Times, page 1.

Dear Sen. Casey:

A United States. government policy is deliberately separating parents from their children.  This is not only happening with raids by I.C.E., but we are also taking children away from their parents who have done nothing wrong, are not here illegally, but have come to our border requesting asylum.

In an article in today’s New York Times by Caitlin Dickerson (“Over 700 Children Taken From Parents at Border,” p. 1, 8), we learn this has happened over 700 times.  Over 100 of those children were under four years of age.  Ms. Dickerson’s data was verified by government officials.  

Note again that these families were not here illegally.  They were requesting asylum.  What kind of people are we?  When did we become so cruel, so heartless? 

I know that Pennsylvania voters supported Trump.  I know that Trump promised to crack down on immigration.  I also know that some officials see this separation policy as a deterrent to more asylum seekers.  None of that matters.  This policy needs to be stopped.  Our government has to be better than this.

Do something, please.

Sincerely,

Roy Christman

Burdensome regulations

Southwest Airlines opposed inspections that could have discovered flaws in the engine that came apart.  Of course it did.  Federal regulations and safety checkups are burdensome, cost money, take time. 

The Trump administration is committed to decreasing these burdensome regs.  Business must be freed from controls.  Emission standards, truck driver safety regs, pesticide limitations, gun safety regs, building codes, OSHA requirements–dump them all.  Profits will soar.  The economy will boom.

People will die.

Partisan school boards?

Infighting among local school board members in Pennsylvania can be serious, as anyone who follows board activities is well aware.  Nonetheless, disagreements among board members, while heated and occasionally downright nasty, are seldom partisan.  Even if we know all of our school board members, and most of us don’t, we generally don’t know their party affiliations.

Now Justin Simmons, a dishonest representative from Lehigh County, has introduced a bill to make school boards even more dysfunctional.

Under present Pennsylvania law, school board members are allowed to cross-file.  That means they can run on the ballots of both parties, and many of them do.  When you cross-file, the votes from both parties are added to your total.  The hope is that school board issues don’t lend themselves to partisan politics.

Interestingly, Simmons’s bill doesn’t make provisions for Independents, Greens, or Libertarians to run in school board elections.

Simmons is the youngster who promised, if elected, to serve only two terms.  He lied; he’s running for his third.  I guess the salary and perks were just too good.  Or maybe he isn’t qualified for anything else.  You may have also know him for his absentee record, which is one of the worst in the legislature. 

Supply your own comment; I'm not going there

The state House of Representatives yesterday debated a bill to force doctors to become inquisitors of pregnant women to determine whether they wish to terminate their pregnancy because the child might have Down syndrome.  The bill would say that those pregnancies would have to be carried to term.  The bill makes no mention of help for those families with increased medical bills and other difficulties often encountered.  

In Pennsylvania abortion is now permitted up to 24 weeks for any reason except to choose the gender of the child, although there is no way to enforce that prohibition either.

In the debate Republican Speaker Mike Turzai, a prime sponsor of the bill, said “I think sometimes, ‘Oh my goodness, what if my parents for some reason, didn’t think I was good enough as an unborn child?’”

My Facebook account hacked?

Last week when I heard about Cambridge Analytica gathering information on millions of Facebook users I was really worried.  

Then I remembered.  I don’t have a Facebook account. 

Graveyard of democracy

I attended the Fair Districts PA rally in the Capitol Rotunda in Harrisburg this afternoon.  My poster said “House State Government Committee:  Graveyard of Democracy.”  That Committee took the bill that would have turned redistricting over to a non-partisan committee, gutted it, and then made the process even more partisan than it is now.  

It was a middle finger extended to Pennsylvania voters and to the over 100 co-sponsors, both Republican and Democratic, of the original bill.  It proves once again that many Pennsylvania legislators have no respect for democratic government or for their constituents.  Their one goal is re-election.  

Incidentally, one of the representatives whose middle finger was metaphorically extended was Jerry Knowles of Schuylkill County.  Unfortunately, Knowles has no opposition this election year.  Of course, why would he?  He would win anyway in the rigged system that passes for representative government in this state.

Incidentally, the Rotunda was packed.  This is an issue that is not going away.  As your state Senators and Representatives if they support SB22 or the original version of AB722 (not the gutted version).  If they don’t, vote for their opponents.  

Hannah Arendt on lying governments

A new collection of the writings of political philosopher Hannah Arendt has just been published.  Arendt, who had first-hand experience with German fascism, wrote in 1973 about the effects of governments that lie.  “What really makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule is that the people are not informed.  If everyone always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but that no one believes anything at all anymore–and rightly so, because lies, by their very nature, have to be changed, to be ‘re-lied,’ so to speak.”

She said that governments that lie must rewrite their own histories.  People under such governments will lose “their capacity to think and to judge.  And with such a people you can then do what you please.”

The book is Hannah Arendt, Thinking without a Banister:  Essays in Understanding, 1953-1975, Jerome Kohn, ed.  Schocken Books, 2018.

The prison that is Gaza

Palestinians in Gaza are holding protests every Friday along the fence separating Gaza from Israel.  The protests started on March 30 and will last until May 15, when thousands of unarmed Palestinians plan to rush the fence.

Gaza is a small strip of desert holding two million desperate people.  They are objecting to an 11-year-old Israeli blockade, and they are trying to bring the world’s attention to their situation.  

Israeli soldiers have been shooting at anyone who gets too close to the wire.  

The overall death toll for the protesting Palestinians is 35, including a journalist and a man kneeling in prayer.  Over 3000 have been injured, including more than 1000 hit by bullets.  Nearly 1000 have inhaled tear gas.  Some of the protestors do have crude weaponry, including slingshots, Molotov cocktails, and pipe bombs.  Others are peaceful and unarmed.  Most Gazans are Palestinian refugees or their descendants.

Advise and Consent

We know that the Trump administration consists of hacks, charlatans, and toadies.  Almost any agency you can think of–Education, Housing, Interior, State, Chief of Staff, CIA, and so many more are headed by people who are incompetent, dishonest, or a combination of both.

Now we are getting another.  The Senate just confirmed Andrew Wheeler as the EPA’s second-in-command.  Wheeler is a climate denier and coal industry lobbyist.  

I understand that Trump is bent on destroying the environment, and, I believe, American values.  What I don’t understand is why the Senate is aiding and abetting this destruction.  If you look at the Constitution, there are three branches.  The Congress is mentioned first, but all are co-equal.  If you read the Federalist Papers, this was done deliberately by the Founding Fathers.  It’s called Checks and Balances, and it is supposed to prevent tyranny.

So, Sen. Toomey and the rest of you Senators (the vote on Wheeler was 53-45), start doing your constitutional duty.  There is more to the U.S. Constitution than the Second goddam Amendment.

Power Corrupts

People in power generally want to retain that power and will bend the rules to ensure that happens.  In 1798 most immigrants were supporting the Democratic-Republican group headed by Thomas Jefferson.  The Federalists, who had a majority in Congress, then increased the time required to become an American citizen from five to 14 years.  The president was also allowed to arrest and deport non-citizens who were considered dangerous or had immigrated from a hostile nation.

The Federalists also went after the press.  Under the Sedition Act of 1798 people who made false statements critical of the government could be arrested.  Over 20 newspaper publishers (all from papers supporting the Democratic-Republicans) were jailed.

Thus way back in 1798, a decade after the Founding, we had anti-immigrant laws, deportations, voter suppression, and attacks on the press.  Good to know our traditions continue.

Trump voters

David Brooks yesterday wrote about “The Failures of Anti-Trumpism.”  He pointed out that after a year of columns, letters, books, and reporting exposing the harm Trump is doing, his support holds steady at approximately 40%.

Brooks questions our strategy.  He notes that many Republicans refuse to criticize the President.  Many of them proudly tout their support.  He notes that the anti-Trumpers make fun of Trump supporters, calling them closed-minded, bigoted, the kind of people who think professional wrestling is real.  

Brooks says we need to focus not on Trump, but on the issues that gave rise to him.  Focus on the social problems that agitated the voters and caused them to vote for Trump.

My own take is that this works both ways.  I am supposed to treat Trump voters with respect and find out what bothers them.  They should also be asking me why I dislike the man so much.  What issues are important to me?  

I’m really willing to listen to a reasonable Trump supporter explain what kind of health care he wants, why tariffs are good, why we don’t need to worry about global warming, why it is good to remove environmental protections, why it isn’t important to set an example for the rest of the world.  

Instead I get “Build the Wall!”  “You want to take away my guns!”  “Obama was a Muslim.”  I simply don’t find many Trump supporters with whom I can have a calm and reasonable discussion.

Lesson from the Nixon era

After the House Judiciary Committee voted to send the impeachment articles against Nixon to the full House but before Nixon resigned, Secretary of Defense James Schleisinger called in the Joint Chiefs.  He told them he wanted to know about any order that came down outside the normal chain of command.  

He wasn’t worried about Nixon trying a military coup.  He was worried that Nixon might create an international incident, one which necessitated American involvement.  Nixon would then go on television and say something like “My fellow Americans, tonight the security, the very existence of our country is at stake.  This is no time to be discussing petty partisan issues.  I am ordering a ninety-day period of martial law,” etc., etc.  

Schleisinger and the Joint Chiefs were prepared to countermand any illegal orders.  Remember that military personnel are obligated to refuse illegal orders.  They would put the Constitution above President Nixon.  That is how it is supposed to work.

Here is what worries me.  Trump orders a full scale military action against Syria and Iran on the same day he fires Mueller.  He then goes on TV and talks about no time for witch hunts, for partisan politics, for petty vendettas.  American security is at stake.  American lives are at stake, etc. etc.

I hope I’m wrong about this, but we no longer have Schleisinger as Secretary of Defense, nor do we have the same Chiefs of Staff, nor do we have a Congress with either backbone or integrity.  At the same time we have a large claque of Presidential cheerleaders in the media ready to support any action Trump takes.  These are really scary times.

An open letter to Times News columnist Jim Zbick

I actually agree with much of your opinion piece today. As you said, Barron and Melania should be off-limits.  The type of sarcasm or name-calling you write about has become quite prevalent.  Unfortunately the invective against the Obamas has been far worse.  In almost any bar in Franklin Township you don’t have to wait long to hear vile things about Michelle Obama.  I would also remind you of the “controversy” about Obama being born in Kenya, fanned for years by Trump.  Even today a majority of Republicans don’t believe Obama is a Christian.

Unfortunately, the type of behavior you decry starts at the top.  Remember “Li’l Marco,” “shit hole countries,” “rapists from Mexico,” “bleeding Megan Kelly” “low energy Jeb,” “Lyin’ Ted,” and, of course, the all-time hit favorite, “Crooked Hillary.”

Our president has removed the constraints.  Even his harping about “chain migration” brings Melania into the dialog, since her immigration was then followed by both her parents.

I think it is wonderful that Melania is taking on bullying as a cause, but she doesn’t have far to look for a true bully.  Unfortunately, the level of discourse in this country has descended into the gutter, and her husband is one of the main causes.

You really need to evaluate what you write with some humility and certainly some sense of fairness.  You owe that to your readers.

Sincerely,

Roy Christman

Chaos

In an article about Trump’s Chief of Staff John Kelly (“Chief of staff gets short end of stick” in today’s Morning Call, p. 21), the following paragraph appears:

As Kelly’s public profile and behind-the-scenes influence has faded, speculation has risen that chaos could return.

Wait.  Will return?  Seriously?

Buying our gravestone

Yesterday we visited a “monument” company in Summit Hill and purchased a gravestone.  It’s a granite stone quarried in Barre, Vermont.  We found out that the epitaphs are no longer billed by the letter–a computer program now automatically incises the words.

My epitaph will read “Never shopped at Walmart.”  Our salesman was amused by that.  We have a few weeks before we see the final design, and Linda is still mulling over her message.  Right now she is leaning toward “Died while saving her shipmates.”  

Fox "News" and Paul Revere

Somehow “The refugees from El Salvador and Honduras are coming!  The refugees from El Salvador and Honduras are coming!” just doesn’t carry the same weight as “The British are coming!  The British are coming!”

Poor Sean Hannity.  He’s no Paul Revere.  More of a Chicken Little.

Frogs rebound

Time for some good news!  A number of frog species, once thought to be extinct, are still around.  An aggressive skin fungus had spread from continent to continent, devastating frog populations.  Now scientists have discovered that either the frogs themselves are evolving to combat the fungus, or they are secreting a substance that may be fighting the fungus.

The answer may be a combination of factors, or it may vary from frog species to frog species.  In any case the numbers are still bad and populations are down, but at least there is a glimmer of hope.  In these days a glimmer of hope is worth celebrating.

About a week ago the spring peepers began their hollering from the pond below the road.  Every year I worry that they won’t be coming back with that sound of approaching spring.  It is so good to hear them, although tonight with the temperature down in the twenties, they are quiet.

For info on the frog comeback, see Carl Zimmer, “Frog Species on the Rebound, “  New York Times, (April 3, 2018,), p. D-3.

Letter to President Trump

I wrote two letters to Richard Nixon urging him to resign.  Some time after he received the second one, he did resign.  I thought, hey, it might work again.  So here is a letter that is going out tomorrow to President Trump:

Dear President Trump:

You have been in office for over a year.  It is obvious that you don’t understand the American constitutional order, you have hurt our relationship with our allies, you have harmed American Indians and DACA kids, you are wrecking the economy, our environment, and our standing in the world.  Your appointees have been a disaster, and you suck up to dictators and authoritarians, no doubt because you aspire to be one yourself.

Vice President Pence certainly would do a better job than you are doing.

I respectfully urge you to resign.  I’m sure you can find other jobs.  Perhaps you could run teenage beauty pageants.

Sincerely,

Roy Christman

Medical marijuana

Albrightsville resident Jeremy Haloskie and his daughter Cora were pictured on the front page of today’s Times News.  The accompanying story detailed how medical marijuana has alleviated his daughter’s daily meltdowns and repetitive behavior.  He had to drive all the way to Lancaster to pick up the prescription, but he said the results were certainly worth the trip.

It is heartbreaking that anti-drug fanatics have been able to deny marijuana to people suffering from all kinds of medical problems because of some misplaced fear that they might get high.  What cruelty.

In any case, how bad it would be if you were a cancer patient on chemo and you did get high on your medical marijuana?  I see nothing wrong there.

Going to the candidates' debate

Linda and I drove to Kutztown University tonight to hear three candidates running for the Democratic nomination in the 9th Congressional District.  One of the wonderful things about the new Congressional Districts is the increase in competition.  Districts that formerly had only one candidate from one party are now competitive.  

The debate, sponsored by the Kutztown Democratic Club and the League of Women Voters, featured Denny Wolff, Gary Wegman, and Laura Quick.  Audience members wrote out questions, and the candidates had two minutes each to answer.

Questions covered what you would expect–health care, immigration, fracking, education, gun safety legislation, and environmental issues.  The audience, mostly older, was respectful.  While the candidates occasionally disagreed, they were also civil and respectful.  It was an evening of old-fashioned politics.  I don’t think President Spanky was mentioned one time.

Some people who heard we were going asked us to report on who did the best.  Here is my take.  Laura Quick of Lebanon County is a U.P.S. package delivery worker.  She has taught French, is a single-mom, and the least experienced, although perhaps the most passionate.  Denny Wolff, a dairy farmer in Columbia County, served as Gov. Rendell’s Secretary of Agriculture and knows a great deal about agricultural issues.  Gary Wegman, from Berks County, is a dentist who also is a vintner.  He is probably the most personable and understands the issues involved with health care.  

You know those annoying people who say they are undecided before an election.  That’s me.  On the other hand, I already know for whom I’ll vote in November.  Either Quick or Wolff or Wegman.  

Immigrants and crime

President Spanky has been repeating for over a year now that immigrants drive up crime and sanctuary cities are havens for drug dealers and rapists.

He’s convinced almost half of the American public. 

Professors from four universities, led by Robert Adelman, a sociologist at the State University of New York at Buffalo, studied crime rates for 200 metropolitan areas.

In 136 of those areas, almost 70% of those studied, the immigrant population increased between 1980 and 2016, but the crime rate stayed the same or fell.

The ten areas with the largest increases in immigrants all had lower crime rates in 2016 than in 1980.

When I told Linda that I planned to post about this, she pointed out that it wouldn’t do any good.  People who believe immigrants cause crime will continue to believe that no matter what the evidence.  This whole post will be considered either an April Fool’s joke or fake news.  That this post is neither won’t matter.

If you are a rational person who understands that careful scientific research can uncover truth and want to read the full article, see Anna Flagg, “Immigration and Crime:  What Link Is There?  New York Times, (March 31, 2018), p. A10.