Projected Images

There is so much politics in the air that my saying anything on the topic is akin to having a thoughtful chat while watching a chainsaw carving competition.  

I'd actually like to see some of the people now running for office turn up at such an event and try their hand....it might show their levels of talent and prudence!  This of course is the sort of Image that both Presidential campaigns are trying to project at the moment, and with variable levels of success.  

What follows is long, and perhaps only of interest to my overseas friends trying to understand the politics of the US.  But here goes....

Having earlier given my opinions of the "on paper" qualifications of the Trump-Vance and Harris-Walz tickets I guess its fair to also give my personal opinions of them.  Before doing so - and hold your fire Indignant Internet - I should state two sincere beliefs.

1. I believe that a healthy society needs the interchange between Progressive and Conservative philosophies.  I would not censor either.  Lopsided world views lead to stagnation or to launching off into poorly conceived nonsense.

2. Although I'm personally on the Conservative side of the political spectrum I have friends and family to the "left and right" of me.  None of them are Hateful.  We each see the world based on the places we come from and the paths we've followed.  Sometimes the view from the beginning, middle and latter parts of the path look different......

OK, now to it.  My opinions, or if you prefer, feelings, about the five figures in the Presidential race.  I'll run them from Most Favorable to, well, Least.  

J.D. Vance

A political newcomer but articulate, father of young children and somebody who absolutely beat the odds and made success out of a life that should have ended badly.  I read Hillbilly Elegy and found it authentic.  And probably not ghost written.  You actually want somebody who will care about those left behind by society?  How 'bout somebody who was, but rose above it.

Kamala Harris 

This might surprise you, but in second place for my "likeability" score.  True, it is primarily sympathy for somebody who is in way over her head.  In our system a Vice President is supposed to take a fair amount of criticism....its our way of expressing dissatisfaction with The Boss while not damaging the office of the Presidency in a troubled and hostile world.  Yes, Harris is a Diversity Hire.  But she did not create the times in which this is a possibility.  I'll save my more pointed criticism for a later and lower entrant on the list...

Donald Trump 

I've never liked the man.  He represents many things I find grating or even repellant.  Some of them are more a reflection on me.  I'm not fond of real estate developers, philanderers or frankly, boisterous New Yorkers.  The guy is a jerk.  After almost a decade of obsessive scrutiny it is unlikely that anything new - good or bad - will be revealed about him in the next few weeks.  He is a known quantity.  Bonus questions.  How many good men have been poor presidents?  How many bad men have been effective ones?

Tim Walz

We near the bottom of the barrel.  You may think I'm unfairly dumping on a guy whose entree to the national stage was just a few weeks ago.  But remember, I'm from Minnesota and live adjacent to it.  So I follow Minnesota politics closely.  In my opinion he's as bad a jerk as Trump.  His management of Covid and of the George Floyd riots was heavy handed in the first case and "What, me worry?" in the second.  He lies about all manner of things, which you can get away with when you have the local media in the bag for you.  My wife was puzzled when I mentioned his mug shot photo.  I don't respect a guy who makes political hay out of being "Coach" when he had to step down from that role when he was caught driving under the influence.  And then got the charges negotiated down to lesser ones.  Somehow.

I understand that people make mistakes and learn from them.  Evidently he has quit drinking in the wake of this, and good for him.  But the greatest sin in American Politics has always been hypocrisy.  And to be touted as "Coach Walz" and "America's Dad" just does not cut it with me.  He's a small time politician who has been allowed to skate by in his small time job.  Dad shouldn't drive drunk at 95 miles per hour.  And then make excuses.

Joe Biden

Well, here's what happens when a small time politician gets the Big Chair.  In our system when you are say, a Senator from Delaware, it is expected that you will reward your friends and punish your enemies.  It's how you get elected to seven 6 year terms as US Senator.  Usually, and this is very true in a single party state, your friends remember the favors and reciprocate.  And most of your enemies eventually shut up or sue for peace.  These learned habits do not serve you well when you are supposed to be the President of a polarized nation, nor when you have to deal with foreign leaders who don't give a damn.

Basically laughed off the political stage when he ran for President in 1988, he ran again in 2008 and dropped out early.  So he was probably as surprised as anyone when Barack Obama tapped him for the VP role.  But as per above, part of your job is to take the heat for The Boss and make him or her look good in the process.

Late in his tenure as Veep he probably figured his political life was done and that he and his family/friends might as well make a bit of cash.  Various dubious business arrangements later, Biden bank accounts prospered.

The 2020 election was one weird affair.  The shadow of Covid was over the land and campaigning from your basement was considered prudent and patriotic.  I think everyone was again surprised when Biden threw his hat in the ring; less surprised when he had a mediocre primary campaign.

Until....he announced that he'd only select a black woman as his VP choice.  And coincidentally, most of his rivals dropped out and he got critical endorsements that handed him the nomination.  

All this is just the "sausage making" of American politics.  But there was a huge problem nobody was supposed to talk about.  Biden was ageing rapidly.  It happens to us all in the end, and the Presidency ages people at an advanced rate.

I spent a career in medicine and was a darned good diagnostician.  I've also had two parents with dementia and physical ailments.  Biden's cognitive and physical decline during the course of his administration has been dramatic enough that desperate efforts to conceal it were to no avail.

That's sad for an individual, but more importantly means that jerks on the international level are emboldened to act with impunity.

He should have stepped aside mid term.  His party did well in the mid term elections and it would have given Harris a chance to show what she could do.  Or to let other Democrats step up and challenge.  But Biden hung on.  He presumably approved or allowed to happen, things that we have never seen in our political life.  An armed raid on the home of his chief rival.  Prosecutions of same by Federal and allied State offices, often on highly "creative" grounds and in front of very friendly juries.  There were even measures proposed to keep Trump off ballots, or to strip him of Secret Service protection.  

These are either the actions of a desperate regime clinging to power, or of a political party that truly believes what they say, that Donald Trump is a unique, singular existential threat to our nation such that anything is justified in stopping him.

The first option warrants rejection.  The second?  Well, once you normalize such measures you would have to have deep faith in the Democrats (or the Republicans ) that there would not be a similar hue and cry for whoever is brave enough to run next.  Do I have such faith in our politicians?

I do not.

I don't know what will happen, but what should happen is this.  Trump has a win large enough that we don't have to be scrutinizing ballots for a month.  Biden says: "I'm done", resigns and makes Harris President for a few months.  Let's get that Historic First stuff out of our system.  She and Trump sit down and make a list of people they feel were prosecuted/convicted on political grounds.  They make it public then split it up, Harris pardons the Republicans the day before she leaves, Trump the Democrats on his first day in office.  Our system is strengthened and Harris elevates her chances to become a serious contender next time around, instead of a political joke.

Hey,  all the rancor aside, it could happen.

Help Wanted President (and VP) 2024 Update

Well it has been an unusual Presidential election cycle.  Seems like just a few weeks ago I had a few things to say about it.  Time for an update.  As the players have changed it's time for me to give a revised scorecard.  I do this every four year, basically outlining what I think would be reasonable qualifications for being either Leader of the Free World/Commander in Chief, or to be the next in line for same.  To review, my point system still is:

Been President before: 5 points

Been Vice President once 3 points.  No bonus for being second banana more that once.

Been elected to US Senate.  2 points.  Served more than one term 3 points

Been a Congressperson 1 point.  Multiple terms 2 points

Governor of any reasonable state (sorry Alaska and Louisiana) 2 points. Elected more than once 3 points.

I give one point for military service, one for meaningful business career, one for being a significant cabinet officer, and in a somewhat discretionary fashion one point for unusual or unique life experiences.  That's it.

Now, this is not to say whether a candidate is likeable.  Or competent.  Joe Biden for instance would weigh in with 11 or 12 points.  This just means they've had various roles where they should have learned useful things if they were paying attention.  And I admit that some elected jobs are more suitable for the Oval Office.  I favor executive experience over legislative.  Running a mid sized, politically mixed state should prepare you better than some other options.

So here goes:

Donald Trump.  President, business career, I think its fair to say he's had some unique experiences: 7 points.

Kamala Harris.  VP, one term Senate, I'm feeling generous with the bonus point today.  6 points.

Tim Walz.  Multi term congressman, two term governor, military career, albeit in National Guard.  6 points.

JD Vance.  One term Senate, military experience, business experience.  If growing up dirt poor is not worth that life experience point I'll stop issuing them.  5 points.

So on paper the two tickets each tally 12 points.  

I guess there ya go.  Make your choices as seems good to you.  Oh, and I like silly signs.  Here's more in what I hope is a non partisan selection.....

Exploding Whale Day

  

At this point the majority of you are saying "What the heck?", while a few oddball savants are saying "A bit early, isn't it?".   For the second group I'll just say that given all the excitement in our political arena I'm not sure that one week after the election a story about putrid blubber raining down from the sky would stand out in the least.

So....

There is actually a considerable, er, corpus of data on dead, beached whales blowing up.  Sometimes just by the natural, if disgusting, process of decomposition.  But by far the most exciting example of the genre occurred back in 1970, and had the assistance of a poorly thought out half ton of dynamite.

A 45 ton sperm whale washed up on the beach at Florence Oregon on November 9th.  After three days in which the whale got stinkier, it was decided that the best course of action would be to blow the whale up with explosives.  The idea being that it would then be in smaller bits which would either be eaten by the converging mob of seagulls or be in small enough parts that hauling them away would be simpler.  Beaches were at that time under the jurisdiction of the Oregon Highway Department, an outfit who had a bit of experience in blowing up obstructions.  It did not go well.  No, not well at all.......

Delightfully this event has become part of local lore.  There is an Exploding Whale Memorial Park in downtown Florence.  Every November the locals hold Exploding Whale Days.  Delightfully, the cub reporter who appeared in the above video 54 years ago is still with us and will be in attendance!  I can't actually find out much more about the festival.  It seems to involve a funky art show and at 3:45, a public toast in memory of the whale.  I like that.

Florence Oregon is not too far from Eugene where they have a minor league baseball team.  It is somewhat in vogue - probably for extra merch sales - for teams to have special "alternate uniforms".  So last year the Eugene Emeralds played a few games as the "Exploding Whales".  

The logo is actually a lot cooler than the uniforms.....

Well, food for thought.  This probably caught my eye based on our own experiences sighting a similar beached whale on our Florida trip in March.  The folks in charge of that situation appear to have been well aware of the Exploding Whale legend, and learned from it.

So a Happy Exploding Whale Day to you, one and all.  When the actual official day rolls around on November 12th lets hope the air is not filled with panic and a fine mist of rancid goo.

Help Wanted, President. Looking for a Qualified Applicant in 2024

Every four years, starting in 2011, I've posted my thoughts on politics under the title: Help Wanted, President.  I usually rank contenders on a point scale, giving them credit for various things that ought to help them govern wisely.  And Lord knows, it's a hard job and they'll need that help.  An ideal candidate might for instance have served in the military, had a career in business, and then gone into politics.  Again, in an ideal scenario, he or she would have started out small, perhaps as a State Assembly Person, and worked their way up to a responsible executive role.  Governor of a mid sized, politically diverse state would be very appealing.  I'm not into Historic Firsts as much as some, but I'll give a few bonus credits to a qualified candidate who brings unique perspectives into the Oval Office.  

Well, that's not the kind of election we're gonna have this time around.  There has been effectively no Primary process by which candidates are tested and the field winnowed.  Biden and Trump are both very well known, and each man is loathed by approximately 50% of the electorate.  

And its hard to look to the VP's as a tie breaker.  I believe Kamala Harris is considerably sharper than she is portrayed.  Some of this is the unenviable role of a Veep....don't show up The Boss.  If I were to apply my standard criteria to rating her she does come up a bit light.  She got her prior jobs as Attorney General and US Senator by political patronage in the One Party State that is California.  Her Presidential bid in 2020 was so lame that she had to bail before the first actual votes were cast.  You'd like to think that she's learned a few things in the last three and a half years.  But of course the question for her, and indeed for Biden and Trump, is whether she's learned the right lessons.

Trump's VP selection is not yet known, but will in the tradition of the day immediately be derided as some combination of evil and stupid, somehow even worse than he is, and that's sayin' something.  Who this person is, and what her (?) qualifications actually are will not be relevant.

So we have a classic Lesser of Two evils scenario.  I don't like these.  I've voted over the years for Democrats, Republicans and Independents.  I've had times when my choice won and disappointed me, and others when their opponent has won and turned out to be quite good.  Those who have been sworn in as President since my first rodeo in 1976 have varied wildly in both character and in competence.  The last genuinely good men I've seen in the White House were Ford and probably Carter.  The most effective politician was, despite his moral failings, Bill Clinton.  I'm leaving Obama aside for now....it takes a while for the perspective of history to come into focus.

When I posted Help Wanted in 2016 I described then longshot candidate Trump as "..a large angry man with orange hair."  He is without question an objectionable man with dubious morals and a tendency to bully.  His record is hard to judge due to the distortions of Covid and the continuous efforts of what is referred to as The Deep State to sabotage him.  He also made many poor choices in selecting people for his Administration.  He remains large, orange and angry, and he will want to get even with some people.  Some of whom, in my opinion, have it coming.  But pre-Covid the economy was good, we did not engage in many foreign misadventures and whether you liked it or not, we did have leadership.

President Biden on the other hand, is cognitively and perhaps physically impaired.  The clues have been abundant in the last couple of years.  Sheltered from demanding appearances, slurring and misspeaking, confusing the names of world leaders.  When the real villains of the world see the Commander in Chief stumbling and falling repeatedly they take notice and are emboldened to greater malicious actions.  The real time implosion of the myth of Biden Competence in the recent debate was shocking even as it was unsurprising.  It can't be unseen.  Softball taped and edited interviews with friendly journalists won't help.  Moderate ability to read off a teleprompter is not enough.  Every time he now appears wearing his Cool Dude aviator sunglasses the instinctive reaction is going to be that he is hiding weird, unblinking eyes.  I have a career in medicine and the experience of two parents with dementia, I've seen this movie.  It never has a happy ending.

We've had impaired presidents before, and it has gone badly.  Ronald Reagan was not well during the latter part of his second term.  We got Oliver North running an illegal, spooky foreign policy on the side.  Woodrow Wilson seriously botched the reorganization of the world in 1918-19.  We are still paying the price for that.  The parallels between Edith Wilson and the current First Lady are unsettling.

Oh, but we've always muddled through.  Yes, but in times that were less complex and in which the power of the Presidency was more constrained.

I think the current administration - and it is with difficulty I avoid the term regime - has seen this coming for a long time.  And like all desperate factions has been willing to do anything to stay in power.  We've never had a President send armed agents to raid the home of his main rival.  Professions of non-involvement aside, the efforts to keep Trump off the ballot, tied up in court, maybe actually in jail, are the stuff of  banana republics.  Once normalized by success they would be repeated.

So I'm hoping for the best.  As of now Biden vows to fight on.  It's about even money whether that will soon change and Vice President Harris gets to make her case.  Ideally she'd tap a running mate to reassure those of us whose votes can be swayed.  Trump could and should do the same.  He's sharper than Biden, but he's not young either.

Perhaps we'll see  Harris-Beshear vs. Trump-Stefanik.  Each team would have a fair bit of baggage to unload, but our Republic would be better served by this option than what is barreling down the road at us presently.

My previous Help Wanted posts....

For the 2012 election

For 2016....what happened???

2020 The Covid Election - with bonus Woodrow Wilson insights

Feckless and to No Effect

I try to be apolitical in what I write.  Most Screeds on the internet serve no purpose and are penned by folks who are simply looking to validate things they already believe.  Their time would be better spent studying how their beliefs actually work in the real world.

But I will say that the ability of our political leaders to actually get things done seems to have dropped precipitously in recent decades.  I'm old enough to remember when goals like "get to the moon in the next ten years" were taken seriously.  And accomplished.

No, what we have at present are feckless leaders.

Feckless is an odd, little used word.  I'm sure that is in part because it is to the careless ear a bit too much like a profanity that is so freely employed by the vocabulary challenged.  

Like so many of our guttural yet pithy words "feck" is of Scottish origin.  It dates back to the 15th century and means "value or vigor" being as it is a Caledonian shortening of "effect".  

And like so many of our refined and elegant words "Effect" goes back to Latin by way of French.  "Effectus" meaning "Accomplishment or Performance".  Feckless is simply a haggis flavored variation on ineffectual. 

So much goes back to the Romans.  We still have populism versus elitism, still have corruption and nepotism.  

To show how little new there is under the sun I put forward the term nepotism.  It comes from the Italian for "nephew" (originally of course the Latin "nepote") and reflects the practice of steering lucrative jobs to family members.  The subtext being that it was often the Pope's "nephew" , and that this was a universally acknowledged term for an unacknowledged child of said Pope!

Sigh.  Sweetheart deals going to sons, uncles and brothers.  Unacknowledged children.  How little things have changed.

Time Capsule - W

Cold weather means doing a bit of cleaning and discarding.  I was moving a file cabinet and found this bit of history behind it.

I can date it precisely.  Late Summer of 2004.

We had a German student staying with us for a month or so.  It was not an official Foreign Exchange situation, just providing a bit of US experience for a kid as a favor to a friend.  It  worked out although I recall our own kids being lukewarm to the concept.  I think its important for foreign travelers to see something of the US beyond what they see on TV and what they encounter in the usual destinations:  New York, Florida, Washington DC and, God help us, Vegas.  Germans also are, in my experience, infatuated with Texas.

So we took the lad to a Demolition Derby.  Car obsessed Germans have a hard time getting their minds around the concept of purposeful destruction of automobiles just for fun.  We sat close enough to get sprayed with mud.  He was impressed.

Not long after that we asked if he'd be interested in seeing the President.  "Really?" he asked.  Sure.  There was an election coming up and George W. Bush was coming to town for a rally.  A phone call or two got us tickets.  

It was held at a local factory that made cardboard products.  I don't remember it being especially remarkable.  Big crowd.  Helicopters overhead.  A brief speech that was pretty much a recitation of the usual stuff.

But for a German this was a unique event.  Given their troubled 20th century history political parties don't hold big rallies.  Too "Nuremburg" I guess.  But there we were.  We each got a big cardboard W to wave around.  Maybe he liked President Bush a bit more because of his Texas origins.

A few years later we did visit the student back in his home country.  Later still I understand he moved to the US and started a successful restaurant chain.

It was in Texas of course.

The Politics of Eating Bugs

Various Concerned People have said that we should all be eating bugs.  As a more ecologically friendly way to obtain protein in our diets.  It is sometimes put a bit more forcefully...

It's a tough sell.  Bugs are crunchy.  You can't make kids eat them.  In fact I wonder if the primary method of saving the planet would be depopulation as people avoided becoming parents just to avoid trying to get kids who won't eat asparagus to consume even nastier stuff.

Well there is still a covert effort going on.  It's just in a different aisle of the store.

How about a big ol' sack of meal worms.  In case your chickens are not getting along just fine thanks on table scraps.  What?  They want something more upscale?  Well....

I was hitherto fore unaware of the commercial production of Black Soldier Fly larvae.  Having done a bit of research I can say....just imagine the most disgusting process possible.  Yep, I'm pretty sure you nailed it.   

People of all political persuasions love their pets.  Maybe not in identical ways.  I see my fellow Conservatives being more dog people.  Progressives?  Cats or tiny micro canines.  But hey, we have snacks for everyone's dog.

Want some sorta hippy sounding yoghurt based vegan concoction?

Or are you a follower of the One True Faith, that being how delicious Bacon really is...

I've known some omnivorous dogs in my day.  One previous mutt of ours loved carrots.  But using the same image on each, with the implication that any dog would have equal happiness from these two products?  A Damnable Lie.

Well unless you really believe that "you are what you eat" there's probably no serious political point here.  Capitalism works, so some of these products will vanish unlamented.  

It likely does not pay to think too deeply on such matters.  In another aisle I'm reminded that there are two things you don't want to look into the details.  Politics and....

You could with the contents of a single shopping cart get to an interesting and dark place.

Beer Politics - Summer of 2022

A while back I posted on a politically inspired beer that I encountered in the cooler at the local outlet.

It was, and I assume still is, produced by a brewery on the other side of the state.  Said brewery is run by people with strong progressive beliefs and I say more power to 'em.  

On a recent trip to the same store I did not see Biden Beer on display.  But a few racks over there was a product from a different brewery......

The Big Guy.  Reading the back of the far left can (wait a minute.....shouldn't the Biden beer be on the left?) I see that it is a reference to the father of the brew master.  But can a subtle reference to matters political also be implied here?  And if so, more power to them too.

I am a true centrist in this debate.  Neither Kolsch nor IPA being to my taste.

Lizard Beer

I'm fairly easy going about my politics.  And if I'm enjoying a beer I become even more so.  Over pints I have had many enjoyable chats about the state of the world with those who see it differently.  So please don't take what follows as a partisan screed.

There is a microbrewery over on the other side of the state that is run by people with very outspoken progressive views.  That's fine although I do see them taking a few chances by actually insulting conservatives, many of whom enjoy their beer.  But it is their business to run.  I think they went a bit too far when they started their own PAC and in its name sued school districts around the state that did not "follow CDC guidelines".   It is a free country, they broke no laws, and on some level I respect people who are so passionate about their beliefs that they take actual risks.

As it happens I think they were wrong, and their actions just made a bad situation worse, so I don't think I'll support them by buying their products.  Free country for me also.

But that is beside the point.  The other day I ran across their wares on one of my essential supply runs.  Since I won't be sampling the taste I can only judge a can by its cover.  This is important in the modern beer marketplace.  Have a catchy name and a visually pleasing container and it might set you apart from others on the crowded shelf.  This is a golden age for beer and there are lots of great options.  So what to make of this:

Something struck me as odd right away.  It took me a while to process it.  Let's see....black bulbous eyes.  No visible nose.  Fixed grinning expression.  Where have I seen that before?

Is President Biden a Lizard Person?  I'll admit the odds are small, but it would explain much.

Best of luck to the brewery involved anyway.  The world needs more good beer and more people willing to put their money on the line for what they believe in.  Cheers.  Also Hissssssssss!

Extremely Unctuous

Sometimes when I start comparing two words and wondering about an etymological connection I don't actually need to hear either of them.  In this case I was simply looking at a picture of the White House Press Secretary.

I would not want this job.  You have to stand up in front of a bunch of reporters and, well, shade the truth to make your boss look good.  In a Republican administration most of the press corps will be your antagonists.  Challenging but straightforward.  In the current administration you expect them to be your friends and when the relationship is not one of happy, mutual back scratchery things devolve quickly to Mean Girl Middle School levels.  Hey, its the job and it ain't no easy one.    

You can't really do it unless you are a bit unctuous.  The primary meaning of this is "excessive flattery", but a secondary meaning is oily as in slippery and evasive.

The counter phrase that got me thinking was the Roman Catholic ceremony of Extreme Unction, the last minute confession and absolution in which one assumes a very high degree of candor would be in order.  A Press Sec given to same would have a short career.  So how do these disparate concepts link together?

Back we go to Latin where "unctus" was the act of anointing, such as in a coronation.  This was done with fancy, expensive oils.  Elected officials and their lackeys often feel as if they are the anointed ones of the modern age.  From there it is just a couple of linguistic hops and skips to a new definition as "oily" or "greasy".  The Catholic church preserves much of the Latin world for us and Extreme Unction is a call back to the ceremonial anointing.  It is actually supposed to be done on a non-emergent basis in which case a special oleum infirmum or "oil of the sick" is employed.  This is only one of the elements of what is referred to as Last Rites, and to discourage its use as literally a last gasp measure it was rebranded in 1972 as Anointing of the Sick.

There. It's never a good day unless you learn something new.  And your odds of that are greater at Detritus of Empire than at your average White House Press Conference.

A Hack Politician Packing His/Her bag and Leaving?

An odd spray painted message on a chunk of cement.  The message is muddled.  The blue figure with the brief case seems to have horns, so I suppose this is a warning about the evils of Big Business.  But the definition of "Existence" is harder to fathom.

I did a bit of looking about and it seems to be a slogan that turned up at one of the big protests right after Donald Trump was inaugurated.  So I guess you could interpret it as something along the lines of "Don't ignore the voice of the people or there's gonna be consequences".

I don't generally do much political stuff on Detritus of Empire.  Its often rather tawdry and it is not as if the marketplace of ideas is not full of it 24-7.  But I do have to observe that last week's elections would seem to bear up the general concept of this if not the specific original meaning.

A New Jersey truck driver with a minimal budget unseated the leader of the State Senate.  And a moderately unpleasant political hack - oh, there are worse out there - found out just how deeply parents feel that, yes indeed they should have a say in what public schools teach.

Interesting times.  Whatever your political frame of reference it is good to see that even in an age where information can be massaged, suppressed or just plain made up, it is still possible to Throw the Rascals Out via the ballot box.

A prophetic bit of political history

Things drift in and our of our awareness and possession all the time.  Lots end up in the recycling.  A few end up in a junk drawer but in nine cases out of ten that is just delaying things.  Only a tiny fraction have any potential to be significant in the future.  To believe otherwise is the Path to Hoarderville.

Odd exceptions do exist.  Otherwise they'd not be exceptional.  Consider a playing card, presumably once part of a deck that came from an Atlantic City casino that was owned by a colorful boor....

Sustainable Food

Of late I've become acquainted with a California Person who usually does not eat meat.  Out of concern for the environment.  I consider that philosophically consistent, raising cows, pigs and assorted kine does require a lot of cropland for feed.  We could be growing People Food on that land.

This goes in parallel with various nonsense out of Washington DC which similarly suggests that for "sustainability" we should eat red meat only infrequently.  With a subtext of "if at all" from what one assumes is a think tank populated by wan, underweight, humor bereft vegans.

Diets change over time.  My peasant forebears in Germany were farmers and so likely had a bit of wurst with regularity but I'd say they rarely had anything like steak.  Even the menu of my childhood, as I imperfectly recall it, was different.  With much less in the way of air freight and no microwaves whatsoever we ate more stuff out of cans.  Spinach came out as a disgusting green glop.  Salmon was pink, seemed to have a bunch of small bits of bone and fins in it, and was equally disgusting.  Only the passage of time and the advent of higher quality versions has enabled me to overcome my early aversion to these foods.

An interesting sidebar here.  California Person having recently become acquainted with the blaze orange, red plaid, bearded aspects of Wisconsin life was asked about eating venison.  This was deemed to be OK because, well, its as sustainable as you can get.  Deer live on acorns and roadside weeds and I'm seeing big herds of them near our Up North place.

So, to the presumed horror of various inside the Beltway think tanks I have concluded that the only appropriate thing for me to do in this regard is to purchase more deer tags and ammunition in the fall.  

I'm doing my part to save the planet.

 

Election Day - The Morning After

Writing about the near future is hard.  I'm at the keyboard on 25 October.  I of course have no foreknowledge of who will win the Presidential election.  Indeed, auto-posting at 12:30 am perhaps nobody yet knows.  But here's a rare promise that in an election season will be kept, I won't go back and edit.  

My default setting is optimism.  I have faith in the people and institutions of our country.  The leaders of various political factions....ah, not so much.  We'll be OK, but a look ahead suggests there will be a rough patch.

The best case scenario is that somebody wins with enough margin that this mess does not swirl into, and taint, the judicial system.  But perhaps if we are really going for ideal, not by so big a margin that it is considered a Mandate to just go do any damned thing.  We have two badly flawed men running.  One of them will be President.  He's not going to have an easy nor a pleasant time of it.  

I've been around for what my UK friends call "Donkey Years".  My memories of politics stretch back so far they lightly touch upon the Kennedy era.  I can't recall any election that has featured such a bleak tone, although Reagan versus Carter came close.  This "Dark Winter" that is foretold....not something I am excited about after a half a year of semi-lockdown and moderate disruption of my life.  (With of course due sympathy and respect to those who have suffered more, and there are many such).

The undertone of course is caused by Covid-19.  Absent that we'd presumably be looking at an ongoing strong economy, at least nominal peace in assorted foreign trouble spots and a much needed re-assessment on the part of both political parties.  Instead we stay huddled in our bunkers, wearing DIY biohazard masks, wondering if a slightly scratchy throat is something ominous not only for ourselves but for an extended group of people we care about.  It's horrid.  But one advantage to being a grizzled veteran is perspective.  The world is always about to End.

1957 - I'm born.  The "Asian Flu" kills 1-2 million world wide.*   By comparison Covid-19 has killed roughly 1.15 million world wide.  And counting.  But also in a population that is almost three times larger and considerably older than 1957. 

1962 - My parents having packed me off to kindergarten at age 4, I'm now in First Grade at Lowell Elementary school.  I remember civil defense drills in the school basement concurrent with the Cuban missile crisis where we came fairly close to nuclear Armageddon. 

1963 - I remember - oddly it was in the same school basement - lining up for one of the first doses of oral polio vaccine.  It was pink and tasted good.  It came in a little white paper cup.  For a parent/grandparent polio is scarier than Covid.  It hit young children and potentially crippled them for life.  Covid usually only makes them mildly ill.  It's worse for us grown ups of course, but given a choice we'd all prefer that we be the ones at risk.

1968 - I'm 11 years old.  There was enough weird stuff going on in a mixed up world, and plenty in a mixed up family, that I have no memory of the "Hong Kong Flu" that killed 1-4 million world wide.

1976 - I'm in college.  There was great alarm regards a revival of the 1918 "Spanish Influenza".  A crash program to find a vaccine was undertaken and must be considered a success.  But for reasons inscrutable the "Swine Flu" never took off.  And Gerald Ford, perhaps our last truly admirable President, was pilloried for getting us worked up over nothing.  And for the possible side effects of the vaccine.  I got the vaccine in the Student Commons.  I did fine.

1981 - First reports of AIDS.  I was in Med school but by that point mostly on clinical rotations.  So it was not until Residency a year or two later when anything like a clear picture started to emerge from the bewildering wave of odd infections and cancers that had been puzzling my instructors.  Death toll world wide: 25 million and counting.

And so it goes.  Our leaders and many of those they would presume to lead are not as resolute as we were a generation or two back.... and never you mind comparing them with further back still.  My great grandparents had a whole batch of kids.  Only two survived a diptheria epidemic in the late 1800s.  They sent those two off to live with relatives while the others died one after another at home. That's how things were.

And this morning, hopefully with some clarity, we have put the 2020 election campaign with its diseased undertones behind us.  We have a new reality.  And that's how things are.**

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* I'm calling things by their historic names.  I'm more concerned about the editing of history than I am about offending random geographic areas.

** I'll say in advance that I accept the results of the election.  You should too, whatever the outcome.  If you are among those unhappy with how things turned out, get back to work electing better people next time around.  But could you, please, just take a break for a couple of months?  I don't want the 2024 election campaign to begin until - Lord help us all - sometime in 2021.

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With much searching about I found a picture of Lowell Elementary school in 1963.  It nudged other memories that I'll bore you with some day...

Good Versus Evil on a Tuesday Night

It certainly has been a long campaign.  It has had ups and downs.  And now it comes down to this...on Tuesday the first of three crucial meetings.  Most people say that the first one is the most important of all, because a disaster there would be hard to overcome later.  Emotions are running hot, as this is a high stakes situation and one of the participants is widely held to have shamelessly cheated a few years ago.  Nobody likes cheaters.

I am of course talking about the baseball playoffs where "my" team the Minnesota Twins is facing off in a best of three series with the sign stealin', cheatin' Houston Astros.

What?  You thought I was referring to something else happening on Tuesday night?

Well I suppose I'll have to watch the debate instead.  If I can figure out how to watch it later and enjoy the game live I'll do so.  But lacking new technology (TiVo) or functional old tech (VCR!) I'm not sure if that's possible.

It has been an odd year in so many ways.  Both in baseball and in politics.  But there is one big difference.  Soon the baseball season will be over and I'll miss it.  Soon the 2020 election season will be over and I won't.

* To be clear I don't actually see the world of politics as being neatly divided into good and evil. Nor do I see the world of baseball that way with the obvious exception of the clearly evil New York Yankees.

Billy Possum and Supreme Court Politics

Although everyone of course knows what a Teddy Bear is, knowledge of it's "origin story" is a bit less universal.  The Teddy involved was Teddy Roosevelt.  It seems that on a hunting trip in 1902 he declined to shoot a bear.  It's a nice story and one that fits with T.R.'s worthy commitment to the environment.  In actuality the story did end badly for the bear but legends can get messy if you insist on attention to such details.  

A stuffed animal was created to play off this story, and became a huge success.  The Teddy Bear.

Everyone loved stuffed animals.  Most people loved bears and Teddy Roosevelt.  The popularity of stuffed bears and the name connecting them to our 26th President have endured for generations.  And like all surprising and original successes, there were attempts to copy it.  Which brings us to Billy Possum. 

Roosevelt considered William Taft to be his logical successor.  Although they fell out later in life there seems to have been considerable mutual respect during the time when Taft was campaigning and ultimately winning the 1908 election.  

In January of 1909 Taft as President Elect supposedly attended a dinner in Atlanta Georgia.  On the menu was a local delicacy "possum and taters".  When the famously overweight Taft had indulged his appetite by consuming, unaided, an entire opossum stuffed with sweet potatoes the event organizers then presented him with a cute little stuffed opossum to commemorate the occasion.

A brief craze ensued in which cartoons, stuffed animals, campaign buttons etc were all marketed with the name "Billy Possum".  This was an obvious homage to the Teddy Bear so popular in the previous administration.

It was a marketing flop, one that was essentially over and done by Christmas.  Perhaps the legend of a bear being spared - although it was false - just resonated more than a fried up marsupial being consumed entire by an obese man.

Taft is considered an average president.  He suffered from being very much in the shadow of his mentor turned adversary the flamboyant Teddy Roosevelt.  It is also said that he was never all that keen on being President.  No, he really wanted to be Supreme Court Chief Justice.

Eventually in 1921 he got his wish, becoming the only man ever to occupy both the highest executive and highest judicial posts in America. 

In a story that resonates with the news of the day, Taft stayed on the court even in the face of declining health.  When he administered the oath of office to incoming President Hoover in 1929 he botched some of the words.  He continued to decline over the course of the year but refused to resign, out of concern over who the Democrat Hoover might nominate in his stead.  In a letter to his brother Horace, Taft wrote:

"I am older and slower and less acute and more confused. However, as long as things continue as they are, and I am able to answer to my place, I must stay on the court in order to prevent the Bolsheviki from getting control"

Eventually he was able to secure a promise from Hoover regards the next nominee to the Supreme Court.  Taft died, presumably at peace, on March 8th, 1930.

Reflecting on Supreme Court politics 90 years ago it appears that things were much the same...and also much different.  Yes, it was a time just as now, when a Justice might linger on long past the point where they could be expected to make sober, well reasoned decisions.  But it was also a time when in the face of a turbulent world, one with economic upheaval and the rise of authoritarian governments everywhere, that political rivals would sit down, reason together and compromise for the common good.

Help Wanted - President. 2020 Edition

In times long past the official beginning of the Presidential campaign season was Labor Day.  That is, Labor Day of the year the election was being held.  Now the 2020 campaign has been underway for almost four years, and probably sub rosa the 2024 campaign is already up and running.  As always when I venture into the "Just Politics" tag I must preface the post with the observation that I'm writing simply as an observer of the American Scene.  My own politics are my own business.  Yours likewise.  Everyone's upbringing, life experiences, dreams and fears are just a bit different and are worthy of respect.  If you are insistent on such matters I can say that I am an independent voter in a swing state, hence one of the perhaps 10% of the electorate that in theory will decide the upcoming election.  Political trolls and hacks, badger me at your own peril!  For the record I have not to date voted for either Mr. Trump or Mr. Biden.

So.  A good starting point would be my every four years "Want Ad"  Help Wanted, President.  It is partly written to help my UK friends understand the odd ways of US politics.  Not that they themselves have become more sensible since my last edition.   My point system for ranking politicians regards qualifications was and remains as follows:

Qualifications to be President of the United States of America

Have already been President once.  5 points.  Nothing like doing a job to show that you can.

Vice President.  Held the office once 3 points.  Twice 4 points.  In theory, but not always in practice, VPs are being trained for the possibility of taking over.

US Senator. Elected once 2 points.  More than once 3 points.  First timers don't generally get assigned to the real power committees.  And for good or ill, the longer you are in Washington the more connections you make to useful people.

US Congressperson.  Elected once 1 point.  More than once 2 points.  Same rationale.  But our Congressional districts are so strangely drawn that it is possible to be a frequently elected office holder that the majority of people even in your home state regard as a loony.

Governor. Elected once 2 points.  Elected more than once 3 points.  This has traditionally been the training ground for Executive experience in the US. I should really go with 3 and 4 here but to be fair some states are less impressive to run than others.  By that I mean no disrespect to tiny states. A bigger issue are states that are atypical (Alaska, Utah, California) or that are political monocultures where you never have to negotiate with other viewpoints (too many examples to list).

Military Experience.  1 point.  I used to think it would require a high rank to get a point.  But the guy or gal who is Commander in Chief has to consider sending our troops into action.  Having once been a grunt would be a solid point in my book.

Significant Business Experience.  1 point. Often maligned but I think unfairly so.

Significant Cabinet Office.  1 point. Setting aside the question of whether they were any good at their job of course.

Other. 1 point.  My place to reward those with varied life experience.  I prefer being positive when possible.  An alternative view would be penalty deductions for various things.

I think the system holds up reasonably well, although in an era when traditional political parties are marching to extinction we'll likely see every serious candidate - and all the Sillies - getting this point for something or other.  Whether this is good or bad is a debatable point.

Since the 2016 election Donald Trump has of course increased his on-paper qualifications.  Last time around he was a Silly candidate who got one point for his highly varied past.  I described him as "A large angry man with orange hair".   2020 - 7 Points

Joe Biden is the only one of the candidates to whom I can't grant a bonus point for varied life experiences.  He is very much a creature of party politics and has done little else besides hold office.  Still, VP twice and many years in the Senate.  2020 - 7 Points

I feel I should include Vice Presidential candidates this time around.  The odds of one taking over from an older than usual President look significant. Oddly the most on-paper qualified person here is the low key Mike Pence.  VP once, Governor of very middle America state of Indiana, a couple of terms in the House, and assorted other private sector experience.  2020 - 8 Points

Kamala Harris represents the new breed of politician.  Part of a US Senate Term.  A bonus point for various interesting life experiences.  But here difficulty relating to voters outside the very Blue ramparts of California does tend to show quite a bit.  2020 - 3 Points.  Maybe 2.5 if you pro-rate the 2/3 Senate term.

I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that none of these will end up as the next face on Mount Rushmore.  If in fact we ever deign to commemorate leaders with graven images in the future.  As to where the political world is going.....I'll keep my opinions mostly to myself.  But let's hear a brief comment on the issues of 2020 from the generally acknowledged Great Presidents up on the Mountain.

George Washington on Political Parties:

“However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”

Thomas Jefferson on the media:  (At a time when the internet did not exist outside of fevered hallucinations)

“The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.”

Teddy Roosevelt on Civil Disorder:

“When compared with the suppression of anarchy every other question sinks into insignificance. The anarchist is the enemy of humanity, the enemy of all mankind, and his is a deeper degree of criminality than any other."

Abraham Lincoln on.....Well there's a reason Lincoln is considered the Greatest President.  He was a very thoughtful man and our most honest speaker.  He had many things to say on matters of racial justice, preservation of the Union, the nature of mankind.  But they were deeper and franker truths than the internet age can process.  No wonder the anarchists who Teddy Roosevelt rightly condemned have come surging to the base of the statues where Lincoln calmly and I  think, sadly, surveys their angry torch lit faces.

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Footnote.  I searched high and low for any comment by the Four on the Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918/19.  Of course only the Roosevelts were around in that era.  Both had it and got quite ill, as did then President Wilson.  None of them said anything public about a disease that killed more than covid-19 and by devastating a younger demographic in a smaller population, had far more implications for America. Whether the weakened state of Woodrow Wilson, who caught it while trying to negotiate the Treaty of Versailles, contributed to the later carnage of World War Two is an interesting pub discussion.