Birthday Present

Birthday Present

You may have noticed that my wife Marjorie celebrated her birthday this week on the 12^th of February. Yes, she shares her birthday with Abraham Lincoln and I have been forever grateful for her foresight in choosing that date; I would probably be in the doghouse most years, had it nor been for the coincidence of the two dates.

And before I forget, thanks to the multitude of you who saw fit to wish her a happy birthday on her big day. She looked at every wish that was offered and I think she did indeed have a happy birthday. I thought it most interesting how so many of you found novel ways to say ‘Happy Birthday” without really saying those rather mundane words.

I had a hard time for my contribution to her birthday. I spoke with her and other women about a suitable birthday gift. It didn’t help. As I recall I offered a diamond or diamonds, a precious stone-encrusted bracelet and other baubles. “No,” she said, “I don’t really need any new jewelry, but I would like something special this year, something I could really use.”

It sounded to me like a kiss of death. She was asking for something special – something I had no idea how to satisfy. I fell into a discussion with a lady friend that I knew to be a birthday present connoisseur. Her response was not at all helpful.

“I don’t really have birthdays,” she informed me. “I have birthday months. We generally visit Florida during my birthday month so I look for special things down there for my celebrations. It’s a treat.”

As far as I had been informed, we weren’t traveling to Florida any time even close to February. The selection of a suitable present seemed to be going nowhere fast. In fact, despite my subtle hints about the matter, I assumed the topic was of little interest to my beloved. Boy, was I wrong as I began to learn after her birthday came and went this week. Today, she seemed willing for some extended shopping to finally select a suitable present, despite the fact that we had already consumed her birthday dinner at a local emporium. On our shopping venture, I soon learned that she had not only selected a present that she wanted; she also knew the exact store where I could procure it, how much it would cost, and exactly where in the store it was located.

I was relieved. At this point in my desperate search for answers, I would have bid on the Brooklyn Bridge if that were the object of her desires. I went to the store, Rite Aid, purchased the gift, and returned home in the same afternoon with the gift in hand. I showed it to her and she verified the exactness of my selection. I asked if she wanted me to wrap the unusual gift. She looked at me quizzically. I took the look to mean that mine was a dumb suggestion. (Another win for me.) She said she wanted to use it today and would I please help set it up for her use. I practically fell over in searching for an electrical cord that was needed to operate the gadget.

Let me cut to the chase. The gift was a heating pad. Not just any heating pad that we already have two of; rather, this special heating pad provides warm, MOIST heat to soothe the treated body parts. Upon inspection, I learned that the moisture comes from a damp washrag that the user places inside the bag housing the heater.

She used the heater today and pronounced it exactly what she wanted.

I think my good luck in procuring the exact gift comes from our lengthy wedded bliss. After all, she is an old white woman and I am a doddering, old curmudgeon who has followed her along our winding pathway of life for more than 50 years. It makes birthday presents seem like a minor thing, although it is good to get the correct one on occasion. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARJORIE.

An Obituary

An Obituary

This year, shortly after all the Christmas cards had been opened, examined and discussed, another card arrived. This one, an orphan among all the others from friends and family, was noteworthy in both its late arrival and the return address that indicated a sender unknown to either Marjorie or me. It came from Hudson, Mi. We looked at each other quizzically. Marjorie opened and then passed it over to me with a two word explanation, “an obituary.”


I put the letter and card away only to retrieve it and re-read it again yesterday. This obituary and the related story is too good for a single reading, I thought. It deserves sharing among friends. Here it is:


Phyllis (Uhl) Bradford was born April 30, 1923 in Kendallville, Indiana. She had a single sister and brother, Dorothy and Robert Uhl. (For unexplained reasons), she spent her school years on her grandparent’s farm, near Hudson, Michigan.


Phyllis was a bright young girl. Her teachers noted how fast she learned and it soon became apparent that she was ahead of all her peers even at an early age. She was promoted from 1^st grade into the 3^rd, and then again from 5^th to 7^th. She graduated from Hudson High School at age 16 as the valedictorian. In later years when she didn’t know something that her husband thought she should have, he jokingly told her “You would have learned that in 6^th grade.”


After Phyllis graduated from high school, she moved from the farm and joined her mother who was living in Detroit. Phyllis found work with a company that did bookkeeping and taxes for small companies that needed help. The work was enjoyable for her and she stayed on as World War II began. The newspaper stories about the war made Phyllis think about serving her country. The Marine Corps created the Marine Corps Women's Reserve in 1943, allowing women to serve. A lady named Ruth Cheney Streeter was its first director. Under her leadership, over 20,000 women Marines served in World War II, in over 225 different specialties. The women marines filled 85 percent of the enlisted jobs at Marine Corps Headquarters and comprised one-half to two-thirds of the permanent personnel at major Marine Corps posts. However, it was not until after World War II, in 1948, that the Women's Armed Services Integration Act of 1948 gave women permanent status in the Regular and Reserve forces of the Marines.

Phyllis spent 25 months as an active duty soldier. Her duty was a payroll clerk at the large base in San Diego. Phyllis spent much of her free time playing on the base basketball and baseball teams. It was the beginning of a love affair with sports that she maintained her entire life. Phyllis said the uncertainty of the war made her two -year stint in San Diego the longest period of her life, although she enjoyed the camaraderie of the Corp and the sports.


After the war ended, Phyllis returned to Michigan and enrolled in Wayne State University under the provisions of the GI Bill. She earned her degree from Wayne, graduating as an accountant. She quickly found work in her field and began employment in the area. Over time, she worked at several small businesses, helping each firm with their payroll and taxes
.

Phyllis attended a Unitarian Church in Detroit. One Sunday she was in line for coffee when the person behind her said hello. It was the beginning of a love affair for the attractive, youngish woman who was just shy of her 40^th birthday. The man who captivated her interest was a school teacher, a man named Bradford who had left the farm in Ohio, but the farm had never left him. They married in 1963 just after Phyllis’ 40^th birthday. Don Bradford accepted a job teaching elementary school in the Clarkston School District.


Our paths converged while he taught at the Andersonville Elementary in 1967 when a newly-wed young lady, wife Marjorie, joined the school district and occupied a classroom near Don’s. Marjorie and I both worked during this period, and she found Don’s offer of a ride to school helpful since both the Tudor family and the Bradford family were close-by neighbors in the rural area of Davisburg, Michigan. Soon enough, the two couples became a foursome at occasional school functions or other events thus uniting the four of us in a lasting friendship.


Don’s farming-related hobbies enlarged to become Phyllis’s preoccupations as well. When he raised pigeons, Phyllis helped in preparing the birds for the dinner table. When he wrote and produced a family newspaper, “The Bradfordville News.” Phyllis was editor, printer and helpful distributor. The hobbies occupied their summertime’s as they temporarily moved from their Big Lake home to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula where they could raise sheep until the schoolyear began anew. Another newspaper ensued, “Sheep Tales” and Phyllis resumed her duties in the world of tiny newspapers.


Time intervened in their love affair as the senior Don began to show his age. He passed quietly at home. Although his funeral service was conducted by Unitarian lady minister, Phyllis took charge at the end, thanking those who attended, assuring mourners that she could handle things from now on, and was there anyone in the audience who wanted to take home one of the beautiful baskets of flowers? It seemed a fitting ending as the enterprising Phyllis went on with her life.


Don’s passing was only a temporary hurdle for Phyllis. She discarded the old hobbies from Don and renewed her devotion to sports. She began anew by playing basketball, volleyball, baseball, softball and bowling. Trophies began to pile up at the old house she and Don shared across the road from Big Lake. She was Senior Olympics free throw gold medalist for Michigan, and her volleyball team became National Senior Olympics Champions.


As her generation began to pass into obscurity and World War II vets began to die off, Phyllis began to wonder what she ought to do to assure a gradual transition into the cares of old age. The demands of living alone seemed to increase as time passed and she ultimately decided to take a step backwards in time by renewing her association with the United States Military.


The United States military has a checkered history when it comes to caring for its troops. Until late in the Civil War, troops who were injured on the field of battle were on their own. Only cursory care was given to those wounded, most were sent home to be cared for by their relatives, and stipends for their care were available only after many had already expired from their injuries.

The American troops who served in the 1845 Mexican-American War were among those who were subjected to such shabby and limited care until their commander, General Winfield Scott, began a campaign to change things for his men. After Scott’s army drubbed the Mexicans in a decisive battle, he sued for peace. His terms were onerous, the Mexicans had to pay a brutal war reparation or he threatened to lay siege to Mexico City. Scott demanded a payment of $150,000, a formidable fortune in those days. The Mexicans yielded and Scott left the city intact and returned home where he used part of the money to pay off his troops and purchase new supplies for the remainder of his army.


Scott returned to Washington and met with Congress. He told them he wanted to see to the well-being of his retiring troops, some of whom were injured and devoid of any means to earn a living and some who had no family to return to. “I want you to build an Old Soldiers Home for these deserving men with the balance of these funds,” Scott demanded from the Congress. He left unsaid what he might do with the money if Congress failed to meet his demands. In the end, Congress appropriated enough money to purchase a farm northwest of the city of Washington for Scott’s Old Soldiers Home. Housing began to take shape for the old troopers. One of the earliest residents of the property was President Abraham Lincoln who had a summer home built there. The Old Soldiers Home grew as vets from around the country began to learn of the facility for retired military.


The retired Marine Phyllis had never lost her patriotic fervor and she decided to leave her Michigan home forever and take up residence at the Old Soldiers Home in 2007. Some years after she moved, Marjorie and I went to see her. She arranged for us to stay at the home in their modest guest quarters. Our first hand inspection and three-day visit showed the wisdom of General Scott. The rooms were small, but adequate, and the buildings were old and somewhat out of date, as might be expected for an old facility. The dining area had the look of a college dining hall and everywhere there were volunteers from among the ‘old soldiers’ who lived there.

The home is located on beautiful property that features ball fields and a host of other recreational facilities. Phyllis was in her element. Her favorite memory was the time she was served her dinner by President Barack Obama and wife Michelle. Phyllis kept busy as a volunteer at the Home. She continued her sports career and served as the manager of the Home’s bowling alley and kept the books for the souvenir shop.


After our visit to the Home, we never saw Phyllis again although we exchanged letters in our Christmas cards every year. Phyllis’s card was always the first to arrive and she invariably recounted her athletic endeavors in her letter tucked inside the card. Although her hand writing became a test to decipher, her friendship and determination always showed through. This year, Phyllis’s card did not arrive in early December. Instead, we found a kind note from one of Phyllis’s nephews, dated several days after Christmas. The note was terse: “Phyllis passed away June 27, 2019 in Washington D. C. She was 96 years of age. She has been cremated and her ashes will be in the Memorial Garden at the Unitarian Universalist Church Flint Michigan.”


We will miss Phyllis. Her devotion to her husband and her country were inspiring and her friendship was enduring. Sometimes life is hard.

Welcome to the new year and this report of my recent activities.

From Curmudgeon to Fixin’ Problems

I wanted you to know that I have taken on a new hobby in addition to my regular work of overseeing my neighborhood. That, and keeping my coffee-drinkin’ buddies informed of neighborhood skullduggery used to be my sole occupation until I decided on new work that has the decidedly larger potential of saving the world.


My new pastime is needed because of ill-informed people like I us’ta be. You can see right off that this new hobby requires a lot of time and effort. It’s jus’ a good thing that retiree’s like me have the time, dedication, and experience to settin’ things right that youngsters nowadays jus’ don’t have. Of course, the problem is that youngsters are runnin’ things.


The problem that I have dedicated my time to is straws. Yes, straws. Did you know that straws are a world-wide problem? We use billions and billions of straws in the US not to mention the additional gazillions used world-wide. They are everywhere. And that is the problem: straws end up polluting our rivers, lakes and oceans.

California tried to solve the straw problem earlier this year by passing a bill that would have outlawed single-use plastics. “California proposes phaseout of single-use plastics by 2030” their headlines screamed. The bill that young legislators in California proposed would have outlawed plastic water bottles, plastic utensils, carry-out plastic bowls from fast food places, plastic bags and, importantly, straws.


You might know that California already has instituted a ban on plastic straws for restaurant use. This has provoked a resurgence of, can you guess? PAPER STRAWS. The very same that you and I used throughout our high school years at the soda shop after school. Whoever decided to replace paper straws with plastic really screwed up things. Why, I just watched a vet removing a plastic straw from the nose of a threatened sea turtle who had no use for the thing at all as blood streamed from the nostrils of the poor critter.


Some while ago, the world press and our ‘fake news’ became aware of a floating island of plastic trash between Hawaii and California. It was found swirling in the ocean currents, stuck in one place, hidden from all but a few intrepid sailors who happened upon a mess that was larger than the state of Texas. Texas, that is. Now there is not one of these gyres, but three. The aforementioned one and two others further south of more recent origin. All are expanding at a rapid rate, and ocean vessels are advised to steer clear of the trash that is killing ocean birds and fishes at an alarming rate. 

The mass of materials in the gyre includes plastics of all types, sizes, shapes and colors and all of it floats, either upon the surface of the ocean or slightly below. One of the shapes floating along serenely are our friendly straws, bobbing along happily, an emblematic representation of our practice involving use, toss, forget, then look the other way when a plastic mess ends up in the ocean.


The plastics industry in the US is alarmed by the California proposal of banning some small portion of their output. Their trade association has weighed into the controversy. Faced with the epic proportions of the problem, the American Chemistry Council (representing resin manufacturers) offered a solution that fooled no one. “We’d welcome the opportunity to work with [California] Senator Allen and all stakeholders on efforts to recycle and recover more plastic material so that it doesn’t become waste or ocean litter.” Sure, and we should all clean our plates at each meal.


Available data indicates that American consumers are lousy at recycling. We recycle plastics at a rate of about 10% depending upon the region of the country and that region’s aggressiveness in recycling. This disappointing rate of recycling has remained relatively constant since the beginnings of the plastic industry with 90% of the material that has ever been produced (millions and millions of pounds) being discarded, much of it being sent to landfills. Recycling is not the answer. Our current paltry efforts of recycling plastics have gotten worse not better, since a year or so ago the Chinese began refusing to accept any plastics for re-use from the US due to contamination.


The plastic industry has now confirmed that the plastics stored in our landfills is likely to last forever since the landfills are sealed after they become full; hence the plastics are not subject to weathering. The question is, when will all those discarded plastic straws, bottles and other doodads become too much for us? Since it is clear to me that the plastics industry is unwilling and unable to mount any solutions that might reduce their profit bonanza, I decided to step in with my own reasoned suggestions. I forwarded my solutions to the governing officials in the State of Michigan via a letter to their Director. Amazingly, the Director hasn’t yet found time to call me about my suggestions despite the brilliance of both the ideas and the epistle upon which the ideas were recorded. Will wonders never cease?


My common-sense proposals centered on legislative action to enforce return and reuse of plastics. I pointed to the success of Michigan’s bottle deposit law and how simple it would be to update and extend the bottle return law to other plastic containers and increase the size of the deposit from its current measly 10 cents to an inflation-adjusted 38 cents per bottle. “Michigan should reclaim its mantle of environmental leadership across the nation!” I exclaimed with what I hoped who be interpreted as a shout out.


My exclamations apparently didn’t move the Director to action. Accordingly, I decided on a new tack, this one exclusively in my control. Effective immediately, my betrothed and I have sworn off the use of plastic straws and plastic lids at our neighborhood McDonalds and Subway, the only options available to us. No more of our debris from this source will be going to a local landfill. I am expecting that my leadership will catch on and we’ll soon see the end of plastic straws and similar useless containers.


So, think of me if you happen to see someone spilling his drink because it is lidless and strawless. Further, if he has a stain on his shirt from previous spilled drinks like I do, you’ll know my idea is finally catching on. Feel free to join in and be a stained shirt kind of guy like me.


Bill

A Warning

A Warning

In September of 2018, a highly-placed source working in the west wing of the White House submitted an article to the New York Times about the presidency of Donald Trump. The Op-Ed piece was critical of the President, revealing many of his questionable job practices that stemmed from his deeply ingrained personality characteristics.


The author of the piece asked to be anonymous. The reason was simple; the source was a close confidant, working on the Presidents’ staff and dealing with him on a regular basis, helping with the most sensitive matters of his presidency. Were he (or she) to be unmasked would be the end of his employment and the end of his ongoing effort to help the President and the Republican party avoid some of the most disastrous decisions the inexperienced President often tried to implement.

The anonymous author now has a book on the same subject. This piece is a review of that book. I am providing this book report in the belief that American voters should be informed about the current occupant of the White House and candidate for re-election to the highest office in the land before they cast their votes less than a year from now.


The anonymous author is a patriot. He explained that he went to work in the White House full of hope and enthusiasm for Republican policies that he supported along with the new President. He found that some wheels began to fall off the train before the transition team had completed their work and the new Administration was in place. The source soon learned that the reason for many of the problems was the boss – the inexperienced politician who had never before held office and who knew virtually nothing about the government and how it functioned.

So, enough about the author and his motivation, sit back and take in this view of the President of the United States, he who was elected to the highest office in the nation despite losing the popular vote of the people.

A Warning

The book begins with a recitation of Donald Trump’s character traits that became apparent to the senior staff early in his new Administration. The most important character flaws that were quickly apparent were Trump’s inattentiveness and impulsiveness. Despite their care in explaining how government agencies worked, it seemed that Trump intentionally didn’t listen and/or didn’t understand his aides who were trying to help. Over and over he proposed policies that were unlawful or impossible to implement. His intent to overturn all the executive orders that former President Obama had implemented was his announced policy and aides scurried to prepare new orders that the President needed to sign to overturn Obama policies. The support staff soon found that any decision by the President was never actualized until the deed was done in front of television cameras. Before that step, the President’s incessant Tweeting often overturned decisions that might have been taken just hours earlier. The office was in chaos. That was the beginning and it has continued until the present due to the President’s inability to set a course and keep it for more than a few hours or days at most. “I always second guess things,” he says.


Communication with the President was always problematical since the President didn’t listen very well. His favorite means of obtaining input came from watching television, specifically Fox News and other extreme right-wing media. Government agencies with their highly-trained, skilled and educated personnel seemed to matter to him not at all. The staff soon learned that the President’s impulses and sometimes wrong information was all he needed to make important decisions. Often these sudden decisions obviated months of work by the military and other agencies.

Staff agencies like the CIA, State Department and others were advised to dispense with planning and briefing books for the President. He didn’t read them. Oval Office, face to face briefings were requested instead. Initially the officers of agency staffs brought their briefing books with them. The President often became angry at the affront of the mere sight of their books. “They don’t mean anything,“ the President fumed.


The senior staff swung into action. “Bring pictures,” they told the agency heads, “he likes pictures. And don’t bring up too many points to discuss or he’ll get confused and angry.” Before the briefings were cancelled altogether, the President’s staff suggested to agency heads that they should bring but one picture and plan to discuss only a single issue at each visit. That worked better for awhile until some visitor happened to stop by the President’s office with a different point of view. Often that would become the new policy especially if the President seemed to like the latest visitor. Senior staff were forced to explain the latest policy decision and hope that it could be implemented at lower levels of government despite the flip flop in direction.


Trump does not have a set of Conservative policy positions. He flip-flops from liberal views to conservative depending upon the last visitor to his office or what he sees on television. Surprisingly, (to many readers) he has been ‘pro choice’ (allowing women to decide if they want an abortion) for much of his career. He suddenly changed his view when he decided to run for president, becoming “so deeply pro-life [against abortions] that he believed there has to be some form of punishment for women who have abortions.” Of course, there was a political angle to his sudden flip flop. Complicating his new policy position were the rumors that some of his previous lovers had used the abortion card at his expense.


In fact, through much of his life, Trump identified as a liberal. During his real estate career, Trump changed his political party affiliation five times.

“Over the last three decades, Trump has changed his political party registration five times. He has been a member of the Independence Party, the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, a registered independent, and then decided he was a Republican again. In 2004, Trump confessed to CNN, I probably identify more as a Democrat. In 2007. He praised Hillary Clinton and said ‘I think Hillary would do a good job [as President]’.” 


Of course, Mr. Trump disavows these statements now and continues to disparage Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama despite the fact that Hillary was cleared of all legal missteps and Trump’s vilification of Barack Obama’s birth was also disproved several years ago. {Mr. Trump’s most obvious lies like the Obama birthplace seem to have little influence on his supporters]. Mr. Obama seems an especial thorn in Trump’s side as he continues to disparage the former President for no apparent reason. Perhaps it is because Obama had more success in achieving Republican goals than has Mr. Trump as noted below.


One of the touchstones of Republican policy has been the size of government and its seeming largess in handling our money. To assure that I characterize this story correctly, I decided to quote this passage directly.


“The US federal budget deficit was actually declining under the Obama Administration, from $1.4 trillion when Obama took office, to $587 bIllion in 2016, just before he left office. Credit for the downward trend goes to Congressional Republicans who forced a stand-off with the White House in 2011. They demanded a budget deal that would bring the deficit under control. The result was the Budget Control Act, a law that would slash federal spending, … and place a cap on [federal spending.]”

“Donald Trump was not interested in penny pinching. He may try to project the image of a man trying to save taxpayer dollars, and its true he can be talked out of stupid ideas if they cost too much. But that’s not because he is trying to save money that can go back to the American taxpayers. He still wants to spend the money, just on things in which he’s personally interested such as bombs and border security. Today he is sparing no expense on the executive branch, spending so freely it makes the money burning days of the Trump organization look like the five-dollar tables at a Vegas casino. Trump recoils at ‘people who are cheap.’ As a result, the budget deficit has increased every year since Donald Trump took office, returning to dangerous levels. The president is on track to spend nearly a trillion dollars above what the government takes in annually. Just look at 2019. The President proposed a record breaking 4.7 trillion-dollar budget.”


Since Trump took office, the US debt has grown to $22 trillion. Each of us taxpayers would owe the equivalent of $400,000, an amount that only a tiny minority of rich Americans could manage and those who are least likely to pay their fair share. Donald Trump has America back on the road to bankruptcy. This, despite the fact that he promised to eliminate the entire American debt during his first term in office. It seems he didn’t really mean it when he was campaigning or he was too ignorant of the magnitude of the task.


Trump has also reneged on other Republican Party principles. While Reince Priebus was head of the National Republican Party the top staff released a report indicating the steps needed for the party to regain dominance in American political life. The report urged conservatives to broaden their base by being more inclusive of “Hispanic, Black, Asian, and gay Americans, and especially women.” Trump seems to have no loyalty to the Republican Party as he harps against minorities and immigrants despite its effect on party membership.


Lack of loyalty is a part of Trump’s personality as must be concluded from his martial history: a man who paid hush money to a porn star he’d been sleeping with while married to his third wife who had recently given birth to their son. This followed the failure of his two previous marriages due to infidelity on his part and the claims of sexual attacks on scores of other women. Not much of a loyalty record you would want for one who has promised to do the bidding of the electorate.

Trump’s ignorance of how the US government works is topped only by his apparent disregard and or ignorance of the law. He has confessed multiple times to instances that most pundits think are examples of law-breaking such as his televised remark that he would take foreign intelligence about his political rivals anytime. When told it was against the law, he becomes angry. His practice is to force his lawyers to say that such violations are acceptable. He browbeats, then presses them to get to yes on his behalf. Many are reluctant to face his withering attacks. “We can tell when Trump is preparing to ask his lawyers to do something unethical because that’s when he starts scanning the room for notetakers.”


“What the f**k are you doing?” he screamed at an aide who was scribbling in a note book. The room went silent as the aide seemed confused at what was taking place. “Are you f**king taking notes?” Trump continued, glaring at the aide as another low in interpersonal relations was reached.

Trump’s disdain for the law extends to judges and the lawsuits that he loses. When Trump was found guilty of fraud in the case of his Trump University scam, he screamed his vitriol at the judge who ruled on the case. Trump said the judge was biased because of his Mexican heritage. It’s in the record since the exchange was captured on live TV. By the way, the judge came from Indiana.


The failures of the current Administration in diplomacy have been dramatic. Trump has exploded the long-standing US policy of refusing to meet with dictators who have long records of human-rights abuse. His apparent adoration of Vladimir Putin, Saudi Arabia’s Prince who arranged the murder of journalist Khashoggi, and the dictator he fell in love with, Kim Jong Un, are instances where Trump’s meetings and visits have yielded no good results. Trump’s Intelligence Chiefs and Staff aides all warned him of the hazards of meetings with these villains, but Trump ignored their advice, preferring instead to do as he wished, including inviting emissaries of these leaders into the Oval Office. Adding insult to expected injury, Trump invited Russian journalists into the office while excluding American journalists. No one has ever given an explanation for this extraordinary behavior, although one top national security aide offered his explanation, “The President sees in these guys [Putin, etc.] what he wishes he had: total power, no term limits, enforced popularity, and the ability to silence critics for good.”


Our national security experts are worried about Trump’s lack of a foreign policy beyond his love affairs with dictators. China is of ongoing concern. The current US policy toward China it totally focused on tariffs and trade, a topic that the President doesn’t understand and is unwilling to learn. The view held by our foreign policy experts is that skilled diplomats from many other nations recognize the President is a simplistic pushover, easily swayed by outsized flattery putting the US at risk.


Perhaps the most serious concern about Mr. Trump is his proclivity to demonize anyone who differs with him on any issue. Using crude language, he encourages his supporters toward mob behavior. Watch any Trump rally and you’ll hear crude language delivered to cheering crowds who want to “lock her up” or “send her back” or dozens of other aggressive taunts. The consequence of this mob mentality can be frightening. Trump optimizes these occasions and invariably the truth becomes the first casualty. At an event in Florida, Trump was in high gear, egging on the crowd about the so-called risks of immigration. “How do you stop these people?” he asked rhetorically. Someone shouted, “shoot them.” The President smiled his encouragement.


This type of behavior was not new. During the 2016 campaign, candidate Trump displayed some of the same type behavior during the debates. Several Republican competitors and leaders in the party found the courage to comment calling Trump a “race-baiting xenophobic.” Nothing about his attitude has changed, he is still the same racist as before except that his Republican associates are now afraid to label his offenses for what they are.


The book comes to a close with a lengthy warning concerning the possibility of Trump being re-elected in 2020, again with Russian help as in 2016. The “senior official in the Trump Administration” warns that after his re-election, Trump will feel empowered to give rise to his worst impulses as he interprets his re-election as a mandate from the masses for doing whatever he chooses. The warning is that our democracy may not be able to survive eight years of Trump as he works to devolve our nation from a free, representative form of government depending upon the assent of the governed to a dictatorship where the President is all-powerful, free from oversite by the Congress or the Courts. The President has said as much publicly. He will not exit quietly or easily. He is already commenting that ’coups’ are afoot and ‘civil war’ is in the offing if he is forced to leave his office. He is setting the narrative for his followers to justify some action that would end tragically for us and our children.


Will we let him continue his shenanigans past the next election?

Shoveling Snow

There aren’t too many things that I know a lot about. Sadly, one of the things that I do know about is shoveling snow. After several years of practicing the fine art of advanced shoveling, I have finally awarded myself the coveted title of Super Snow Shoveler [not to be confused with the slightly lower-ranked skill of Expert Snow Shoveler]. I just awarded myself this esteemed title today after finishing the second third fourth consecutive snow removal in two three four days from my sidewalks and driveway, since it has been snowing here more or less continuously since Halloween.



One of the requirements for achieving this esteemed title is ‘shoveling a lot of snow’. Since I developed the new title and the requirements for achieving it, I can communicate the various requirements: Expert Snow Shoveler can be awarded to those men who have spent at least 10 years using hand tools to shovel a medium-sized driveway and sidewalk; Super Snow Shovelers must meet the more severe requirement of ‘shoveling a whole shit load of snow.’ Since I qualified for the latter category earlier this fall, I awarded myself the new title. I expect my trophy will arrive shortly after I decide what it will be.


As a celebration of my new title and the requisite hard-won expertise, I am devoting this blog to a description of the finer points of snow shoveling. This will be useful for you men in the unlikely event that you are interested in becoming a snow-shoveling super star, one who can justifiably list himself as a Super Snow Shoveler, worthy of extraordinary praise and respect from a spouse for this rare expertise.


The first thing you need to know is that snow shovels come in different sizes and styles. I have a variety of styles among my five shovels. I position one at each doorway. The aim in my distribution of shovels is based on the premise that if my spouse happens to exit any particular door, she’ll see the shovel and begin work on the adjacent snowy surface. I should tell you that this is one of my least successful snow shoveling strategies, although I must hasten to add that my cooperative spouse took over the shoveling duties last year while I was laid up with hip replacement surgery. Looking back at the experience teaches how effective my tutelage was and also how long I was able to milk my recovery.


The types of shovels I have include the pushers, (toys foisted on beginning shovelers), the honest-to-God shovels that you must bend over, lift and toss to empty, including those with and without a metal flange to slam against, God forbid, a build-up of ice beneath the snow. Early last year I purchased a chipper, now also a required tool for Super Snow Shovelers. This is a long-handled tool with a steel blade at the business end for scraping the dreaded ice from concrete surfaces. It is a necessary accessory to keep your driveways and sidewalks clean when the snow inexplicably turns to ice due to a peculiarity in the upper atmosphere.

For larger driveways you’ll need a snow-blower that I include in the catch-all category of snow shoveling tools. The two-stage variety is recommended. The extra blade in the two-stage type that throws the snow toward distant parts of your lawn often adds extra excitement during the snow removal work. You will undoubtedly be throwing rocks and other debris from the frozen surface using the two stage machine. The Expert Snow Shovelers get extra credit toward their Super status if they successfully avoid broken windows or dented panels on their cars that are parked in the driveway. I learned this skill the hard way.


The final requirement for Super Snow Shovelers is a men-only, highly developed vocabulary of both rare and everyday curse words. Yes, ladies, out-loud cursing is a requirement for those seemingly frequent times the snow plow drivers choose to plow the road leading to your driveway, filling your newly shoveled driveway with someone else’s snow. As bad as the practice of cursing is, sometimes it’s the only way to relieve man-stress after shoveling.


Good luck, men. I ‘ll be rooting for those of you who want to give a try toward the new, manly skill of Super Snow Shoveling. I can give first-hand advice in developing this skill if you want to stop by my driveway and help shovel. No appointments needed. Any time will work for me.

What's Happening Now?

What’s Happening Now?

The top news in Washington these days is all about the impeachment of President Trump. Democrats seem to have settled on Trump’s ‘abuse of power’ as the principal reason for their impending impeachment vote. Although there are any number of reasons they could site as justification for his removal, Democrats claim they need to simplify his numerous mis-steps into something simple that the electorate can understand. “Besides,” some of the pundits argue, “we need to avoid arguments about whether this or that rises to the level of impeachment and is truly criminal or not.” These arguments and the Republican effort to disrupt the impeachment proceedings has the effect of sucking all the air from the news rooms around the nation.



One of the most egregious things happening ‘behind the scenes’ in national politics is the failure of the Trump Administration to follow the rules of law that have been established to protect our environment. The bulwark of much of our law for environmental protection lies in the requirements of the Clean Air Act. The Act was first passed in 1970 to set requirements intended to help prevent air pollution. The Act was amended by President Bush in 1989 to update requirements as our technology changed. This 1990 amendment to the Act was overwhelmingly passed by a bi-partisan majority in both houses of Congress. Since that time, the Act has been effective in helping clean our air by requiring that polluters initiate a variety of controls to minimize and control the poisons that were previously released in our atmosphere without compunction.



The Trump administration has implemented a strategy of pretending that neither science nor climate change exist. Mr. Trump therefore cancelled America’s engagement in the world-wide agreement concerning air pollution known as the Paris Accords. Not surprisingly, Mr. Trump was intimately aware that the Paris Accords were contrary to effective political fund-raising contributed by the fossil fuel industry. As a consequence, Trump has ordered his bureaucracy to walk away from its statutory obligation to curb greenhouse gas emissions that are causing climate change. For the past two years, the administration has pursued a strategy of avoiding implementation and enforcement of air pollution regulations that affect climate change. It is no surprise that relaxing regulations or ignoring them totally is of great value to many of our nation’s wealthiest individuals and the companies they own or manage. These are those who show their gratitude by providing money for politicians and their political parties. Of course, this particular quid pro quo is largely kept hidden and is therefore unknown by most hard-working Americans who have little time for investigating foolishness such as this.



These actions by the government have real-life effects on average people. A detailed study concludes that “By not addressing methane leakage from both new and existing oil and gas operations, the toxic soup released during oil and gas operations -- including methane, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and hazardous pollutants such as benzene -- will generate dangerous, localized pollution that will annually cause 1,900 premature deaths, 1.1 million asthma attacks, and 3,600 emergency room visits by 2030.”



Fortunately, we have *State government agencies that are aware of these failures and have taken action. State attorneys general have stepped in, challenged the legality of these delay tactics, and obtained court victories over a recalcitrant administration. Backed into a corner, the Trump administration has finally come forward with proposed rules of its own. Rather than reducing greenhouse gas emissions as required by the Clean Air Act, however; its proposals would roll back the reductions embedded in current rules and sanction a return to pre-existing greenhouse gas emissions levels. In some cases, climate damaging greenhouse gas emissions would actually increase further under the administration’s proposed rules.

The causality between health and pollution is undisputed. To ignore the means of preventing harm to innocent Americans seems to me to be criminal and worthy of impeachment. Surely, we can do better.

In the last 200 years, we’ve burned enough fossil fuel to raise the concentration of CO2 from its historic level of 275 parts per million to 400 ppm. Each year we burn more and more fuel for energy; experts believe we are on track to reach 700 ppm unless major changes are made. We earthlings are now pushing about 40 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere annually. “The extra heat we trap on the surface of the planet from this expenditure of carbon is equivalent to the heat from 400,000 Hiroshima-sized bombs every day.”

More heat means drought. Drought means fires. The fire season in the American West is 78 days longer than it was in 1970. Since year 2000, more than a dozen US states have reported the largest wildfires in their recorded history. In Alberta Canada, a fire burned over 1,500,000 acres causing 88,000 people to flee. The large fires cannot be suppressed by any means known to man.

When there are fires there are also floods. The rule of thumb is that dry places get drier and wet places get wetter leading to flooding. Flooding has risks beyond the loss of homes and household goods and the inconvenience of leaving one’s home until the flood waters subside; a survey has shown that 2,500 toxic sites in America lie in flood-prone locales.

None of this is news to Exxon, Shell and other global oil companies in the last generation. The unusual property of CO2 in allowing visible light to be transmitted but preventing the passage of infrared energy had been known for a long while. One of those who warned of this effect was the famous physicist Edward Teller, who announced this effect in 1959 and its impact on our atmosphere. The oil industry has long understood the effect of carbon in the atmosphere. In 1977, one of Exxon’s senior research executives warned his company of the rapidly developing problem in warming the earth. His secret warning soon became public knowledge as another researcher also made public the data that was beginning to come in.



In 1988, a man named James Hansen gave testimony to the United States Senate about the impending doom being caused by carbon pollution. By this time, the executives at Exxon and other oil companies had put together their strategy of misinformation and hired many of the same public relations experts who had defended the tobacco companies. The big lie to the public began even while oil company executives raised the height of their offshore drilling platforms because of rising oceans. They just didn’t tell us. It was also a simple matter for the oil executives to arrange for Vice President Dick Cheney from the oil company Halliburton to convince others in his political party to ignore the problem and do nothing about the rapidly escalating issue.

And now here we are today with a dire problem that is being made worse by a lawless President who pursues the same old policies of earlier Administrations. The question now is, what are we going to do about it? I say impeachment is the only reasonable answer.







*For a full report on the work of the State Attorneys General see: https://www.law.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/State%20Attorneys%20General%20—%20Empowering%20the%20Clean%20Energy%20Future

Climate Strike,

Friday Sept 20, 2019

We have just lived through a remarkable event that is likely the first and only world-wide undertaking inspired by a child. The event was organized and attended by millions of activists around the world. I know because I was one of them. Just in case you missed news of the event, here is my report.

The event was a one-day Friday Strike and demonstration, organized to promote and provoke action on behalf of our planet that is in dire peril. Climate experts around the world agree that our planet and all life thereupon are in great danger as a consequence of man-made air pollution. The first and most recent Climate Strike occurred on Friday, September 20 to reflect the rising tide of public opinion that our climate is changing and temperatures are warming as a result of the huge increase in carbon dioxide that is poisoning our atmosphere from burning fossil fuels.


The Friday event was inspired by Greta Thunberg, a sixteen-year-old child from Sweden who left her school to sit alone on the doorstep of the Swedish Parliament with a hand lettered sign concerning climate change. Her message and determination were so compelling that she was invited inside to address the parliamentarians. The resulting publicity from her speech created a ripple across her nation that ultimately became a tidal wave of public opinion around the world. Her initial single-person demonstration became known as The Climate Strike, sending citizens to the streets of most major cities in the United States and around the world. The US hosted 1000 Climate Strike events. Similar events were held in 137 nations in all seven continents. The events attracted huge crowds everywhere. The New York City event drew 220,000 marchers and photos from the Dublin, Ireland event hint at a crowd as least as large. The Sierra Club estimated that as many as 4 million people attended events around the world.


The event in Montreal was as large as any, hosting an estimated ½ million demonstrators. Events in South America, Europe and other nations were equally impressive with movies of the events showing parading masses of humans striking for change.

Montreal Climate Change Demonstration

 I attended the Sept. 20 Climate Strike held in Traverse City Michigan. Our event was not so large as those in any of the large cities, but it seemed to have just as much enthusiasm among the 200 plus citizens who attended, including a number of school-age youngsters scattered among those of us from the senior set. Ours was a demonstration with marchers congregating next to a busy street, hoisting hand-made signs for passing motorists to see. Most motorists signaled their sympathy with our efforts by honking their horns, waving, and shouting their agreement as they passed by.


Marching with others of a similar persuasion was a heady experience. I appreciated the sentiments offered by the hand-lettered signs and the solidarity of marching with a wide swath of local citizenry; mothers with children and grandparents with canes, youngsters absent from school (as was Gretta who remained in New York) a host of ‘ordinary Joe’s and Josettes.’ Here are a few of them who showed that they care passionately about convincing our political leaders of the need for change to improve our atmosphere.

Public opinion polls now show that most people are supporters of the need to implement laws that will protect our atmosphere. Depending upon the nation polled and the survey questions, supporters’ number in the realm of 80% and higher. Among climate scientists, the number of supporters is a whopping 97%. These trends are world-wide. In fact, the United States stands alone as the only major industrialized nation with a leader who refuses to recognize climate change and a political party that follows his lead. Fortunately, that is of little consequence since the support for climate change action in the US is strong and cities and state governments are proceeding to implement climate changes steps despite the ignorance of our President.