Wednesday, October 06, 2021
Grant Takes A Stand - October 4, 2021
Hmm… Trespasser on roof of local auto garage lecturing the cops at 12:40 a.m. This was about a block from my house. The cops seemed unpersuaded. The question is, how to end the standoff without getting the guy hurt?
Just as the cops were leaving - they decided they had higher priorities - I realized I know this guy. One of my newer Facebook friends. Talkative homeless guy in the neighborhood trying to fight off various conspiracies. I tossed him some water, a soda, and a bit of fried chicken, plus an old blanket.
Lola + Jasper BF
Ever since Ladybug moved out of the neighborhood, Jasper has needed a new girl friend. Now, Lola....
Thursday, September 30, 2021
Pretty Young To Be Looking For Asteroids!
Girl on a mission:
If her findings are certified, which may take several years, Oliveira will become the youngest person in the world to officially discover an asteroid, breaking the record of 18-year-old Italian Luigi Sannino.
"She really has an eye. She immediately spots points in the images that look like asteroids and often advises her classmates when they are not sure they have really found any", said Heliomarzio Rodrigues Moreira, Oliveira's astronomy teacher at a private school in the city of Fortaleza in northeastern Brazil, which she is attending thanks to a scholarship.
Monday, September 27, 2021
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Joe the Plumber wanted to see a movie, and we settled on Shang-Chi, because we didn't know anything about it.
We went to the IMAX theater in Elk Grove in mid-afternoon, and discovered we were the only people in the theater.
I was sad to learn it was a movie in the Marvel Universe. I hate the Marvel Universe. You have to know extraneous details about the Universe first in order to understand the movie, but it was already too late.
More or less OK movie. I liked Akwafina in her role - the girl sidekick, just like in Crazy Rich Asians.
Good special effects. The plot was so tired, though - the Empire Strikes Back again, and again, and again.
One thumb up.
Sunday, September 26, 2021
I Can't Wait For The Midterms
I agree with this assessment:
Remember way back when, say, in August, when Republicans were sure that the Afghanistan evacuation would be the top issue for them in the 2022 midterms? Sensible people knew that ending an unpopular 20-year war wasn’t going to stain Biden’s legacy for long—I just didn’t count on it happening so soon.
...Republicans are doing everything they can to downplay their march toward fascism by hyping phony concerns such as “cancel culture,” masks, and critical race theory. It hasn’t been working. Keep in mind that the huge margins we saw in 2018 were due to the extreme anger against what the GOP was doing to their fellow citizens. As a result, Democrats came out in droves, and an unprecedented number of women were elected to office—almost all of them Democrats. This year, the attack on women in Texas is far worse than anything that happened three years ago.
The GOP is counting on low Democratic turnout in the midterms, and if that fails, voter suppression and gerrymandering—which admittedly we need to do a much better job of fighting. ... Doom-and-gloom Democrats are dreading the upcoming midterms, but I am actually looking forward to them. There are many reasons to be optimistic, and I’ll point out a few of the races I’m anxious to help.
...As far as gerrymandering goes, Democrats are right to be pessimistic but likely blowing the effects way out of proportion. The fact is, the red states being gerrymandered have already been gerrymandered to their breaking points.
...States like Texas, which have been gerrymandered to death for the past 16 years, have to figure out what to do with all those new liberals moving into their cities. They have to go somewhere. However, a state like New York was last redistricted when the GOP was in control of the state Senate. This year, the Democrats are in firm control and could take five to seven seats from the Republicans. New York Governor Hochul has already said she has no problems with gerrymandering the hell out of the Empire State to make up for the GOP assaults elsewhere.
Ironically, the Republicans might have had more seats to play with if not for their blatant racism. The Commerce Department, which conducts the census, did the bidding of Trump’s white nationalists to undercount minority votes—especially with the Latinx population. The thinking here is that counting them would help the Democrats. Unfortunately, this racist strategy meant they undercounted in states like Florida, Arizona, and Texas. This means that these states aren’t getting the seats they deserve, and since the Republicans have the trifecta in these states, they aren’t available for the GOP to gerrymander. Oops.
...When the National Voter Registration Act—known as the “Motor Voter Act”—was signed into law in 1993, Republicans cried that it would kill their party. It didn’t. They won the majority the following year. If you make registration and voting more straightforward, all that happens is that the pool of less partisan people is more likely to vote, which cuts both ways.
The biggest target of the GOP’s war on democracy is getting rid of, or at least significantly curtailing, mail-in voting. Yet, a recent study conducted by a team at the Public Policy Institute of California found that while it increased turnout, it didn’t make electoral outcomes any better for the Democrats. Their models indicated that access to mail-in voting increased turnout for Republican candidates, who did quite well in 2020. It was pretty popular with rural populations, and especially the elderly. Older voters, which have historically trended Republican, used vote-by-mail ballots more than any other group. Gov. DeSantis even begged Trump to lay off attacking voting by mail in Florida, which the Republicans count on. Trump reversed himself, but only in Florida.
...If you thought the SCOTUS ruling on Texas’ abortion law was bad, wait until June. The justices will take on Roe v. Wade directly in late June of next year with a Mississippi law that seeks to overturn it. I can’t stress enough the pitfall for the Republicans here. Since no one in politics can see past the next few days, no one is talking about this now. Just wait. Right-wing media, like Fox, is still telling people that young voters are obsessed with Afghanistan. Oh, Fox.
In reality, there is no good way out for the Republicans here. SCOTUS may finally overthrow Roe v. Wade, as the right-wing conservatives are pushing. If they do, I promise you the backlash will be enormous. Younger voters have taken abortion for granted, and most want it legal in all circumstances. If you want every Democrat to come out for the midterms, this is how you do it.
On the flip side, if the conservative justices don’t overturn Roe v. Wade, the backlash from angry conservatives will be just as grave. They have been promised this action for decades, and I cannot stress the betrayal they would feel with a 6-3 majority. There won’t be that enthusiasm that Republican legislators are counting on from their base to overcome the voting obstacles they installed this year, but that certainly won’t be an issue on the Democratic side.
Schadenfreude
The California GOP had a meeting:
SAN DIEGO — California Republicans, stinging from their lopsided loss in this month’s recall election, sought to regroup and focus on the upcoming midterms at their party convention this weekend.
Typically a boisterous gathering, the three-day meeting in San Diego was among the grimmest in recent memory.
...Yet there appeared to be little public introspection. Republican leaders pointed to the Democrats’ overwhelming advantage in voter registration and fundraising.
...Critics noted that over one million fewer pro-recall voters turned out compared to the 6 million Californians who voted for President Trump in 2020.
“The million-dollar question is: How do you turn the ship around? Is it even worth it? Can you turn it around?” said Ray Perez, the vice chairman of the Yolo County GOP, who has been critical of state party leadership’s messaging and communications with voters. “We’re not going to win a gubernatorial seat overnight. Can we win things that are within reach, which is an assembly seat. … I honestly don’t know. I don’t think so, but I want to be wrong.”
A panel of GOP lawyers said conspiracy theories about mail-in ballots and rigged ballots suppressed the pro-recall vote.
“There are very good people who have surprisingly bought into that — my vote doesn’t count in California, so therefore I’m not going to vote,” said Fred Whitaker, chairman of the Orange County GOP, during a panel called “Jim Crow 2.0 or Common Sense: The National Debate Over Election Integrity Laws.” “In any sport, if you don’t go on the field, you will not win. And politics is a contact sport, it is a team sport and we have to have everybody voting.”
...Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, who was once largely viewed as the GOP’s best candidate for statewide office and received the support of 9% of voters, met privately with delegates.
He blamed the recall’s failure on the race ultimately becoming about “personalities,” an unnamed dig at Elder, rather than issues that are frustrating Californians on both sides of the aisle, such as homelessness, the cost of living and crime.
Saturday, September 25, 2021
Capital Dance Project - Behind the Barre - September 18, 2021
I want to review these dances at the Crest Theater in more detail, but I'm hampered at the moment by the absence of a physical program. I don't know where the virtual program is.
It was just wonderful seeing dancers perform again!
A Bit From Jack's 8th Birthday
As a special treat, Jack was treated to a video conference with one of Rachel's classmates, Chris Robinson, who is an anthropologist/paleontologist at CUNY. For color, I brought along some dinosaur bones from Dee-Na-Zin Wash. Chris' work is much more recent, however.
Skunk, From Afar
I went on a walk shortly after sunset, with Jasper and his friend Max. Jasper dragged Max over to visit one of his favorite places, the Feral Cat place. There's usually at least one or two grumpy cats there to bark at.
The ladies at the DMV maintain food and water for feral cats at the Feral Cat place. From time to time, one of the ladies also takes feral cats for spaying and neutering.
We arrived shortly after sunset. Lo, and behold! A skunk! 🦨 The dogs pleaded to be released from their leashes, but for some reason, I didn’t let go. Still, much barking!
A successful walk!
Appeasing Trump Doesn't Work
A tumbrel for Mark Zuckerberg:
When Trump complained about Zuckerberg at the rally, the crowd began chanting "lock him up."
"Well, they should be looking at that, Trump said.
Trump's comments came less than one week after a new report claimed the Facebook CEO cut a deal with Trump to avoid fact-checking political posts. In return, the Trump administration would not impose regulations on the social media behemoth.
"Facebook sold its soul and got a 'lock him up' chant in return. While doing its part to destroy democracy around the world," former Obama Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said.
"This speech is a real indictment of the entire strategy employed by the Facebook public policy team. Years of twisting themselves into a pretzel to appease Trump only to have him through Zuck into imaginary Gitmo," former White House senior advisor Dan Pfeiffer said.
"Guess those ass-kissing sessions at the White House and letting him break Facebook's rules didn't protect you Mark," former Obama spokesperson Tommy Vietor said.
Planetary Longwaves Looking Good
I'm liking how the planetary longwaves (typically five around the northern hemisphere) are setting up this next week. One of the longwave troughs looks like it will be parked off the U.S. West Coast - a favorable place for eventually bringing rain to desiccated California. In fact, that trough is the ONLY thing that will bring substantial rain to the Golden State! The trick will be keeping that trough in that place long enough to matter.
Covid-19, and El Paso
Interesting article on how El Paso is following a different Covid path than the rest of Texas:
But while delta raged through most of the state's 254 counties in July and August, breaking records and overwhelming hospitals in both rural conservative areas and sprawling liberal metros, El Paso — with one of the highest vaccination rates in the state — has been relatively unscathed by the most recent surge.
"We held our breath after July Fourth, but we didn't see the increase we thought we'd see in terms of hospitalizations," said Martinez, a local government employee.
While some other metro areas like Austin reported record high numbers of COVID-19 patients in their area hospitals just last month, and while statewide hospitalizations came close to eclipsing the January peak of 14,218, El Paso-area hospitals, which serve nearly a million West Texas residents, haven't come close to their previous highs.
...Helgesen and others say much of the credit can be attributed to the area's high vaccination rate, widespread compliance with masking and social distancing, and a strong partnership among local community and health care leaders.
"It is amazing," Helgesen said. "It is absolutely a credit to our community. I really think it was an all-out effort."
The share of COVID-19 tests in El Paso that come back positive is hovering around 6%, while the statewide positivity rate is three times that at 18%.
And while COVID-19 patients, most of whom are unvaccinated, took up more than 30% of hospital capacity in some areas and more than 20% statewide last week, in El Paso they accounted for only 7% of patients in local hospitals.
For a city with one of the state's highest per-capita COVID-19 death counts, the numbers present a rare glimmer of good news for the traumatized residents of this West Texas border city.
"Compared to the rest of Texas, we're in heaven," said Gabriel Ibarra-Mejia, assistant professor of public health at the University of Texas-El Paso. "That doesn't mean we are free from COVID, but we're doing much, much better than most of the rest of the state. The numbers don't lie."
Lost Wallet
Earlier today (Sept. 19), I didn't realize that I had dropped my wallet in a parking lot out in Rancho Cordova. A young man named Noah returned it. He had to be persistent; I didn't answer my door the first time he came to my house. I'm grateful he kept trying.
Obstacles
Jasper gets his way on the street by barking excitedly. That German Shepherd that had the audacity to pull his master down the street on a skateboard? Excited barking to him!
Then there are those obstacles that won't yield, no matter what....
Dolores Huerta and I Share Ancestors (As Do Many Thousand Others From Northern New Mexico
(Via NLL) I'm related to Luis Martin Serrano too (hopefully the same one). We're all one big happy family!:
Dolores Huerta helped found the United Farm Workers labor union in the 1960's and now shares her family history with NBC News' Simone Boyce.
Trona on the Edge
I was intrigued by this article about the state trying to corral water usage in Trona, an especially-dry place, against local opposition. At work in 1993 and 1994, I did Chemical Mass Balance analyses for suspended dust at the Trona playa, on behalf of North American Chemical Corporation. I've never been there, actually, but I'm otherwise familiar with the place:
Perched on the edge of a mostly dry salt lake, Trona has no source of clean water and for at least 70 years has relied on groundwater pumped from wells 30 miles away in the Indian Wells Valley.
Two pipelines snake through a dry-wash canyon delivering water to the town’s historic mineral plant, where it is used in the production of soda ash, boron and salt. Any surplus is then treated and sold for residential use.
That source of water, however, is in jeopardy due to legislation passed seven years ago in Sacramento to protect aquifers throughout the state.
Protection in the desert isn’t cheap, and a local water agency is ordering the mineral plant to help by contributing roughly $30 million over five years. Or stop pumping.
...As Ronnie sees it, if the mineral plant loses its water, so does Trona, and their home for 35 years would cease to exist.
Water wars are central to the history of the American West. Although the battle taking place in Trona and the Indian Wells Valley may not be as epic as the wrangling over the Colorado River, the outcome will have implications not just for the Tolberts but for the rest of California.
Once one of the state’s most dependable sources of water, groundwater can account for up to 60% of the state’s supply during a drought. 9But its reliability was abruptly checked nearly 10 years ago when California was in drought. As rivers dried and reservoirs emptied, more wells were dug, pumping continued, and land surfaces began to sink. Canals cracked, roads buckled, and sediments, once depressed, would no longer be able to store underground water.
In 2014, then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed three bills aimed to protect the state’s groundwater. Collectively they are known as SGMA (pronounced “sigma”) for the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.
The state Department of Water Resources was given the authority to oversee the new law. Of California’s 515 groundwater basins, it identified 21 that were “critically overdrafted.” The law required those basins to form local groundwater authorities and come up with plans by 2020 to preserve the underground supply by 2040.
Of those 21 basins, the Indian Wells Valley — about 600 square miles south of the Owens Valley — presents a unique challenge, both politically and technically. First, it has neither rivers nor streams nor lakes to draw on; to restore its groundwater, it will have to import water.
Second, the valley straddles three counties — Kern, Inyo and San Bernardino — each with competing interests. The largest city is Ridgecrest, population of 27,000, due largely to the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, a massive federal installation exempt from state laws.
And then there is Trona, which lies outside the valley but is dependent upon it.
...“We’re way behind the curve,” he said. “We have had at least three decades of a declining water table. At what point of time do we take ownership and solve this problem?”
Monday, September 20, 2021
Alexandra Denisova, Dancing
When I recently posted about Ballets Russes on Facebook (and on the blog here), I received comments from Maria Galian Meredith, who was a daughter of Patricia Denise Meyers Galian, a Canadian who danced in the Ballets Russes (together with my ballet teacher George Zoritch) as Alexandra Denisova (non-Russians were typically given Russian stage names in the Ballets Russes).
Here is a video of Alexandra Denisova dancing with Gene Kelly (available only on YouTube at the video link).
Saturday, September 18, 2021
Larry Elder is the Black Face of White Supremacy
Excellent article on the recent Recall Election:
I won’t lie. Few things infuriate me more than watching a Black person use willful blindness and cherry-picked facts to make overly simplistic arguments that whitewash the complex problems that come along with being Black in America.
And throughout his career — as a radio host, as a talking head for Fox News and now as a gubernatorial candidate — Elder has made a point of doing just that, usually with a lot of taunting and toddler-like name-calling of his ideological enemies in the process.
Like a lot of Black people, though, I’ve learned that it’s often best just to ignore people like Elder. People who are — as my dad used to say — “skinfolk” but not necessarily kinfolk.
...L.A. City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas: “My grandmother would say, ‘Use your talents and your gifts for good and not to bring other people down — particularly those who don’t deserve to be down.’ And that’s what Larry fails to understand. He’s throwing out all of that rhetoric about minimum wage, all that talk about ‘poverty pimps,’ all that anti-vaccine and all that anti-every-damn-thing. It’s not only politically but intellectually offensive.”
...Abdullah of Black Lives Matter: “Anytime you put a Black face on white supremacy, which is what Larry Elder is, there are people who will utilize that as an opportunity to deny white supremacy. They say, ‘How could this be white supremacy? This is a Black man.’ But everything that he’s pushing, everything that he stands for, he is advancing white supremacy.”
RIP, Jan Becker
Jan was part of my far-flung family. There will be a service October 23rd in Bremerton, WA. I'm thinking of attending. From her obituary:
Janice Marie (Swenson) Becker peacefully passed away Saturday, August 7, 2021. She was 83 years old.
Janice was born August 31, 1937, in Portland, OR to Allen and Rose (Martin) Swenson. She grew up on Martin Hill in Sherwood, living next door to grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. She graduated from Sherwood High School and went on to Willamette University, Oregon State College, and earned her Bachelor’s degree in Home Economics at University of Washington.
...Jan had a varied career. She worked for Washington Natural Gas Company as a home economist, Olympic College as a home and family life instructor, Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church as parish education coordinator, and Central Kitsap School District as human growth and development instructor. She had many interests and became proficient in many different arenas.
...Jan was an active member of Bremerton Sons of Norway, Oslo Lodge, serving in many capacities. Jan loved her Norwegian heritage and was adamant about passing on traditions and culture to her children and grandchildren. She also loved to travel. Along with many visits to Norway, she travelled to 6 continents (sorry Africa). Many of those trips included grandchildren. She was determined that they should see the world.
A memorial service will be held Saturday, October 23rd at 1:00 at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Bremerton, WA.
Ballets Russes
I did not realize this documentary was on YouTube! The entire thing!
The Ballets Russes brought ballet to the entire globe. It's history is epic. But it's also very personal. George Zoritch, who receives much attention here, was my first ballet teacher, at the University of Arizona, in 1982. I blogged about this movie when it came out in theaters, in 2005. I even met the filmmakers at a showing in San Francisco.
Best inspirational ballet movie ever!
Thursday, September 16, 2021
Blowout in California
Asking the obvious questions:
In the end, it wasn’t even remotely close. California voters rejected a GOP-led recall of Governor Gavin Newsom by a landslide margin of 64-36 — a 28-point shellacking.
Yes, this is what we should have expected from such a heavily Democratic state, but it might have been (much) closer if the vote had been a straight up-or-down referendum on Newsom himself. Instead, it became a referendum on “the abyss.”
The abyss, of course, was Trumpism.
...The California fiasco will probably not be enough to prompt the sort of introspection that Republicans so desperately need. But as 2024 looms, it provides one more reason for Republicans to ask themselves: Do they really want to do this again?
...As Clay Risen noted yesterday “Newsom and the Democrats seem to have persuasively argued that he was running not on his record or against a particular candidate, but against Trumpism. . . .”
“In a vacuum, there was a lot of discontentment with Newsom and ambivalence with him among Democrats,” said Rob Stutzman, a Republican political consultant in California.
That started to change once “the abyss” got a name.
The election also represented the ascendancy (and vulnerability) of the entertainment wing of the GOP. As Risen noted:
Mr. Elder isn’t a serious politician; he’s running not to win, but to raise his media profile. But that very fact says something about today’s Republican Party. Many of its highest-profile figures blur the line between politician and celebrity, and act accordingly, even if their success as the latter undermines what we expect out of the former. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Madison Cawthorn — and, yes, Larry Elder — are only nominally politicians. In substance, they’re entertainers.
They also put Donald Trump on the ballot. As Perry Bacon Jr. notes this morning: “The rise of [Larry] Elder, whom Democrats cast as a California Donald Trump, was ‘perfect,’ [Newsom senior adviser Addisu] Demissie said. ‘Couldn’t have been better. He made no effort to appeal to anyone outside of his base.’”
“Newsom’s victory,” writes Bacon, “suggests that running as the anti-Trumpism party still has real political value, even with Trump no longer in the White House.”
BONUS: The California results were a repudiation of anti-mask, anti-vax politics — a clear sign that Republican opposition to precautions against the pandemic is a colossal miscalculation. As the AP notes this morning: “The Republicans running to replace Newsom opposed mask and vaccine mandates, and the California governor was happy to highlight that. Newsom aired an ad calling the recall ‘a matter of life and death’ and accusing the top Republican candidate, talk radio host Larry Elder, of ‘peddling deadly conspiracy theories.’”
Wednesday, September 15, 2021
Marc Shark At The Zoo 5 - July 26, 2021
Delayed due to technical difficulties. Jack's initial narration and Larry's cinematic reinterpretation.
Flatter Than a Tortilla
I like Gustavo Arellano's take in today's LA Times:
If you’re looking for the best metaphor for how the California Republican Party blew the recall attempt against Gov. Gavin Newsom, look no further than the sight of mixed-martial-arts legend Tito Ortiz knocked out by Anderson Silva in the first round of a boxing match held on 9/11.
This time last year, Ortiz was a rising star for the GOP, the latest celebrity to make a political run as he campaigned for a seat on the Huntington Beach City Council. He ended up getting the most votes of any candidate in city history by espousing the MAGA school of politics — ridicule the libs, proclaim skepticism to coronavirus shutdowns and the pandemic itself and offer vague promises of freedom with little in actual, tangible plans.
But once it came time to actually duke it out in the octagon of democracy? Ortiz went down like a tree meeting a lumberjack. 9Instead of building a career as Surf City’s Trump-by-the-Sea, he left office in June after barely half a year, basically claiming the public was too mean to him and his family. Just three months later, Ortiz lay before Silva in the boxing ring, flatter than a tortilla. Why, even Trump was there to witness his acolyte’s demise.
Way to impress Papi Trump, Tito!
...For the last quarter-century, state Republicans have acted like the Black Knight in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” that poor soul who insisted on fighting even after all his limbs were cut off, describing the amputations as mere flesh wounds, and then left bragging that he earned a draw against King Arthur as His Royal Highness left the squawking stump by the side of the road.
Nearly every big move that the state GOP has done to wrest power from Democrats — term limits, bigoted propositions, selling its soul to Trump — has spectacularly blown up in their face. Back in April, I wrote: “I’ll wager a roll of pesos that the ultimate loser will, again, be the Republican Party. The house — in this case, history — is on my side.”
The attempted Newsom coup was the worst laugher yet — because it had the best chance of the many Hail Marys that California conservatives have thrown to actually work.
Voter Turnout Map
Intrigued by the voter turnout map at the CA SOS site.
The Recall Election was most popular in two discrete clusters - Northern and Central Sierra - and reasonably popular in the Bay Area and Orange County. Surprisingly, turnout was mediocre in the Central Valley, even in areas where the recall movement was popular. An enthusiasm gap there.
Larry Elder carried every county on Part 2, EXCEPT San Francisco County, which Kevin Paffrath carried.
A Shellacking
I love it when Republicans get their ass handed to them, like they did tonight in California!
Still, it was a peculiar campaign. In a highly-partisan era, in an election where Independents weren't particularly engaged, the results were completely predictable: 2 to 1 against the recall, just like the D to R party registration numbers. Given those numbers, I was puzzled why Republicans thought the recall was even worth trying. They apparently felt Democrats would barely notice the recall campaign was happening, and could slip anything past the electorate. Strange confidence there.
And why elevate Larry Elder, of all people? Why did he catch fire among Republicans? A shock jock on the radio - big ego, no experience. It was a discrete decision too - it didn't just happen. His own TV ads portrayed him as a humorless fanatic. Elder seemed to conduct his campaign in megachurches, endorsing every unpopular idea the GOP has ever had in the last 30 years.
With every campaign that the GOP loses, they further cement their status as losers, and highlight their irrelevance for the future. As California goes, so goes the nation.
Congratulations to Daniel Watts, who came in 9th with more than 113,000 votes, much better than his 2003 showing. Conditions were so much better for his campaign this year.
Monday, September 13, 2021
The Logic of Country Songs
I: "What does that even mean?":
… When you put two and two together
You figure out love's got four letters
I shoulda known that when I met her
But she had to spell it out for me
1971 - Best Pop Music Year Ever!
I'm pleased by the recent attention to 1971 as the best year for pop music ever (It must be the 50-year anniversary phenomenon - I remember 1972 seemed pretty threadbare in comparison.)
1971 was chockful of great songs. Like this one:
I Didn't Realize Harry Briley Was Working on a Memoir of Socorro Days
Rather a gold mine. Regarding the Mustard Seed:
We avoided external religious motifs topside (or signs of any kind) and only had an 8x11 paper sign on our stairwell door. The stairs allowed access after-hours. Otherwise, we walked from the basement post office to the hallway door that entered the stairwell.
The impact of the 1970 Asbury College Revival (Wilmore, Kentucky) spread westward while the California version of the Jesus Revolution spread eastward. Socorro was an isolated community that became an experimental closed-system to allow God’s Holy Spirit to mix multiple backgrounds without interference by external organizations.
The resulting crucible of standing for faith in a hostile academic environment spun off some graduates as pastors, Christian school principals, and persistent lay leaders.
Service of Holy Eucharist, Confirmation, Reception, and Reaffirmation - St. John's Episcopal Church, Roseville, CA - September 12, 2021
Presided over by the Rt. Rev. Megan Traquair, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern California. Rachel is now officially an Episcopalian.
Saturday, September 11, 2021
Transferring To Medicare on October 1st
Health insurance costs an insane amount, and I'll be glad to leave that world behind. Medicare for me, finally!
Late-Summer 2021 Jigsaw Puzzles
I assembled my Walter White jigsaw puzzle (purchased from Marq and Ed's Breaking Bad Store in Albuquerque). I had trouble finding the very last piece. Did it fall on the floor? Not obviously. On a hunch, I checked my dog’s stash of chew toys. Voila!
“The Tower of Babel” by Pieter Bruegel.
Socorro Magma Body
Cool (or I should say hot) video.
Plus this New Mexico volcano video, which describes the big "X" - the Jemez Lineament and the Rio Grande Rift.
"Flag Day" - Sean and Dylan Penn
Saw this with Joe the Plumber at the Tower Theater. Told from the daughter's perspective. I would have preferred the dad's perspective a bit more. Sean Penn tends to be a little inscrutable to me.
September 11th - Two Classmates
I took Dr. Loganbill's English class in the Spring of 1975. I was apprehensive about this class, having already heard stories about Loganbill's fascination with structuralism and postmodern linguistics. Freshmen technical students could see the value of an English class - good for writing better owners' manuals, after all - but this jargon-filled Long March into philosophy was intolerable.
The first classmate, Victor Saracini, was 24, a bit older than most. We shared small talk. What I remember was his smile, his humor, his calm demeanor, and unflappability under postmodern stress.
I never saw Victor again after Loganbill's class. After graduating from NM Tech, he became an airline pilot. He was the pilot of United Flight 175 on September 11, 2001 - the second airliner. The hijackers killed him and his copilot before flying into the South Tower of the World Trade Center, and into history.
The second classmate was Kathy McGrade, a student majoring in metallurgy. After 9/11, she toured the 9/11 Truther circuit. Apparently, debris from the World Trade Center contains metal microspheres. McGrade believed these microspheres were highly-significant, since they can't be generated at the lower temperatures characteristic of open fires. Conspiracy theories flowed from that observation.
I think McGrade was just wrong. It happens - highly-trained people can make mistakes. I think the microspheres came from high-temperature welding - metal ash from the building's original construction in the late 60s. No need to posit elaborate conspiracy theories. I'm just baffled. Why didn't she think of that simple explanation?
Two classmates. Diligence and error. My generation's collision with history:
Victor J. Saracini was born on August 29, 1950 in Atlantic City, New Jersey to parents Anne and Victor Saracini. He attended local grammar schools, Atlantic City High School, and was a graduate of the New Mexico School of Mining and Technology with a major in biology. He joined the United States Navy's Aviation Officer Candidate School, was commissioned as an ensign, and in 1976, received his Naval Flight Officer wings in Pensacola, FL. Victor attended graduate school at Louisiana Tech University.
Victor served in the Naval Reserve at Willow Grove, PA from 1980 to 1985 and was awarded the National Defense Service Medal, the Navy "E" Ribbon, and the Expert Marksmanship ribbon. Victor worked as a corporate pilot for Trenton based Johnson & Johnson, and Pennsylvania based Penn Commuter and the former Wings Airways. He joined United Airlines and was the pilot of the United Airlines Flight 175 when it was hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11, 2001.
Friday, September 10, 2021
The Growing Rage Against Anti-Vaxxers and Anti-Maskers
I'm all for white-hot rage, but also worried. My sister is an anti-vaxxer, not so much based on principle as based on a deep desire for autonomy. Still, if we are going to get back to normal, we have to get on it, now, before this winter's coming peak:
We were willing to debate the efficacy of masks.
We agreed there should be balance between lockdown measures and economic interests.
We patiently accumulated evidence that COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective.
We kept our cool through every quack remedy and grifter treatment.
We offered guidance to the confused and correctives to the misinformed.
We forbore ignorant assertions that the coronavirus was a hoax, bratty defiance of public health orders, puerile abuse of “freedom," looney vaccine conspiracies.
We did this all with fear, as we watched wave after wave of infections disrupt our lives and kill members of our families.
But now, as we suffer through a second summer of illness and death, we find ourselves confronted with a category of people whose behavior is despicable — the COVID obstructionists, the ones who not only refuse to protect themselves but actively prevent others from doing so.
There's no point trying to understand them, no reasoning with them. They deserve no patience, no forbearance. The only reasonable response to these miscreants is anger. White hot anger.
Looks Like a Failed Road Test To Me
Road testing Trump's stupid, failed approach:
“It’s probably rigged.” That was Donald Trump’s assessment of the effort to recall Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom, during an appearance on the dutifully sycophantic network Newsmax. “They’re sending out all ballots―the ballots are mail-out, mail-in ballots. I guess you even have a case where you can make your own ballot. When that happens, nobody’s going to win except these Democrats.”
...As with so many of the ideas that spill from Trump’s paranoiac imagination, the idea that Democrats have engineered a massive voter fraud conspiracy across dozens of states is now a key plank of the Republican Party platform; an operating premise of the party that’s done more to undermine democracy than any since the Reconstruction era.
...Fox Nation’s Tomi Lahren told her viewers that “the only thing that will save Gavin Newsom is voter fraud.” Baseless claims of fraud have trended on social media throughout the summer. Larry Elder, the Republican radio host most likely to become the state’s governor if Newsom is recalled, has also suggested that Dominion Voting Systems was working to rig the gubernatorial recall election.
...As The Washington Post’s Philip Bump argued on Wednesday, these tactics also provide “a way to undermine the credibility of elections in general, using a Democratic state preserving a Democratic governor as evidence that Democrats are somehow cheating.” This all bolsters the larger argument that will be the foundation of Trump’s 2024 run: that he was cheated out of reelection in 2020 by a vast conspiracy that is stealing elections from righteous Republicans.
So Now They Want To Blame Larry Elder
The 2021 Recall Election was winnable. A generic GOP candidate could have walked away with it. Now it looks like the election of a Republican isn't possible. Why?
The Democrats woke up! What woke them up? Several things. The Delta Variant rampage. The Texas Abortion Case. Dodging a bullet aimed straight at them - the Caldor Fire didn't burn down South Lake Tahoe, despite all the destruction wrought by that fire, the Dixie Fire, the Tamarack Fire, the Lava Fire, etc., etc.
What really helped too was finally getting a favored Republican candidate, Larry Elder, a shock DJ who came across on his TV ads as a humorless true fanatic. Democrats woke up! Right now it looks like Independents aren't fired up, so it all boils down to a nakedly-partisan skirmish. And Democrats have the advantage!
Now, why did support coalesce around Elder in the first place? That's the real mystery to me. Way too extreme for California. Trumpers on the national scene running things when Trump is hated almost everywhere in California. It's not really Elder's fault, although he will get blamed. Professional politicians weren't in charge, that's for sure!
Kicking ass and taking names. Love it!:
Gov. Gavin Newsom is on track to survive a recall election in deep-blue California after initially causing Democrats severe heartburn, with veteran Republican insiders blaming GOP front-runner Larry Elder.
The conservative talk-radio host motivated previously complacent rank-and-file Democrats — which neutralized Newsom’s biggest challenge of voter apathy — by catering to the Republican base with polarizing rhetoric and adamantly opposing mask and vaccine mandates amid a resurgence of the coronavirus. In a state where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 2–1, Elder made himself the perfect foil for Newsom — enabling the Democratic incumbent to make the campaign about the GOP rather than his embattled leadership.
“Newsom has successfully framed the race as him versus Elder, and Democratic voters are responding by voting,” said Rob Stutzman, a GOP operative in Sacramento who advised former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Republican who succeeded Gray Davis after the Democrat was recalled from office in 2003. “Elder has no appeal outside of GOP voters.”
...“Before Elder, the race was all about Gavin, and our polls were looking very good,” said a Republican consultant in California. “If the election had been four or more weeks ago, we would have won.”
Elder has received some support outside of the traditional conservative circles.
Democrat Gloria Romero, who served as her party’s majority leader in the California Senate, even cut a television advertisement for the Republican.
“Yes, I’m a Democrat. But the recall of Newsom is not about political party,” she said in the spot. Meanwhile, Elder’s Republican critics concede the GOP faced several hurdles in this special election campaign that have nothing to do with Elder, as is true for the party in every statewide contest.
The Democratic Party enjoys a 22.4 percentage point advantage over Republicans among registered voters, and Newsom and the anti-recall forces vastly outspent the pro-recall groups and the handful of Republicans seeking to replace the governor. Additionally, former President Donald Trump, broadly viewed as the leader of the Republican Party, is disliked in California. In contrast, top Democrats — President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and former President Barack Obama — are popular.
Despite all of that, some Republicans claim Elder squandered opportunities to hobble Newsom when he was on the ropes. Voters were upset with the governor for infamously ignoring his own pandemic, and they tired of his coronavirus regulatory regime. There was frustration over closed public schools, rising crime, and a homelessness epidemic. The state unemployment agency overseen by Newsom’s administration was beset by fraud and mismanagement.
...“This is over,” added Garry South, the Democratic operative who was Davis’s chief political adviser in 2003. “Newsom beats it by double digits.”
Enter The Skunk
Suddenly the house reeked of skunk. Overpowering! The skunk must have released its scent really close by too - various burnt overtones were present in different rooms of the house. I was so alarmed by the odor that I checked the house for smoldering plastic.
Satisfied there was no immediate fire danger, I went downstairs into the basement and checked on two rather hi-tech mouse traps I have there. It would be really terrible if I caught a skunk instead. But the traps were unmolested. The only creature I’ve successfully caught with them so far is me (my fingertip).
I went into the back yard and got Jasper ready for his nightly walk. I heard the thud of an animal. Could it be? Yes, a skunk was in the back yard, hiding behind a bush just 15 feet away, making noise and otherwise trying to be as scary as possible. Scared, we left the yard for our walk. I left the yard’s gate open, to facilitate the skunk’s departure, should it choose to depart.
Only then did I stoop to smell Jasper. Sure enough, the skunk had got him, probably earlier in the yard. I guess the skunk came to Jasper rather than the usual opposite.
We took an abbreviated walk and returned home.
To Jasper’s great surprise, at 1:30 a.m., I gave him a bath, using dog shampoo on him, plus non-chlorine bleach usually used for clothes. The hydrogen peroxide in the bleach is really good for eliminating skunk odor.
At 2 a.m., after toweling off Jasper, I went out and locked the back yard gate. The skunk had apparently departed. Safe once more! I need to start using my lapsed methods to keep skunks out of the yard.
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