Eternal Optimists Have to Stick Together

Don't miss the photo that accompanies this story. I listened on the radio and was spitting and cursing. We all handle utter disbelief and shock of the Trump presidency differently, though.

The gist of the article is that there is only so much damage that Trump can do. Thank God. That's still no reason that in 2018 every Republican available should be sent packing to K Street or Heritage or Betty Ford in the case of John Sweeney.

He can’t hold back the one true inevitability in demographic change: the replacement of older generations by newer ones. Underappreciated in November’s election was the continuing leftward lean of young voters, once again supporting the Democratic candidate by around 20 points — and with younger millennials, including both college-educated and noncollege whites, even more pro-Democratic than older ones. That is huge. And don’t expect these voters to shift right as they age. Political science research shows that early voting patterns tend to stick.

Another locus of disquiet, if not hysteria, on the left is the environment. But consider this: In 1969, the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland caught fire; in 1979, when Obama was attending college in Los Angeles and remembers constant smog, there were 234 days when the city exceeded federal ozone standards. Our water and air are now orders of magnitude cleaner than they were back then.

I know I'm feeling better. I read another article somewhere pointing out how the coal industry is shrinking. So, there's only going to be so much coal debris to go into those streams in West Virginia. 

The Biden Rule

Monica Hesse is concerned about the health of Ruth Ginsburg. And rightly so. If kale will keep her going that's all to the good. We all wish her well.

On Tuesday evening, President Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch for deceased Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s long-empty seat. On Wednesday morning, liberals woke up, did the math and realized it was time to be concerned about Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s fiber intake. Also bone density. Also exposure to airborne viruses (Madame Justice, what is your flu shot status?), and salmonella, and slippery ice, and also: Has anyone heard how scientists are coming along with a Zika vaccine? 

Fortunately, Mitch McConnell (or Mr. Chao as I like to refer to him) was in the Wash Po today too.

When our nation lost Scalia in the middle of a contentious presidential election, I looked to the precedent set forth by Democratic Vice President Joe Biden, who as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee declared that Supreme Court vacancies arising in the midst of a presidential election should not be considered until the campaign ended. It was, he said, “what history supports [and what] common sense dictates” and the only way to prevent the nomination process from being further “ racked by discord and bitterness.” It’s what we know today as the Biden Rule. 

Behold the mighty power of Joe Biden. So, if Ms. Ginsburg can hold off retirement until Februaryish of 2020 no replacement by Trump (or more likely Pence, maybe Bannon).

Congratulations Shaw

You guys are green.

At least we're gold and not brown or red.

A Little Good News for the Planet

Things could be better and always worse.

Scott Pruitt, the nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency, is just one man who, if confirmed by the Senate, will be steering a very, very large ship – one with more than 15,000 employees spread throughout the country.

That fact points to a reality facing the EPA and other federal agencies: The person at the top can do some steering, but the ship tends to have some persistent momentum of its own.

Thank God for bureaucrats. 

Overlooking a Lotta Muslims

Since they feel they've not been given enough notice, I am putting up a post to call attention to them. Fortunately, CSM did a piece or I wouldn't have known. Christmas being on the horizon and all.

Millions of Shiite Muslim worshippers converged on Iraq’s holy city of Karbala last week as part of the annual pilgrimage of Arbaeen, culminating a 40-day mourning period for the killing in AD 680 of Imam Hussein, grandson of the prophet Muhammed. 

I admire their courage and faith in making this journey.

Many choose to make the journey on foot, despite travelling near Isis-controlled areas in the country and the extremist group having made frequent deadly attacks on the pilgrimage. 

The march comes as nearly 80 people, many of them pilgrims returning from commemorating Arbaeen in Karbala, were killed in the latest Isis attack in the area.

Isis has declared Shia Muslims apostates and targeted them in its bloody campaign to establish a hardline caliphate across Iraq and Syria. 

We don't seem to take a lot of notice of the one and a half billion Muslims who aren't blowing shit up.

Sheryl Olitzky has noticed. 

When Sheryl Olitzky first broached the subject of a Jewish-Muslim women’s group, Atiya Aftab didn’t buy it.

The two women launched the Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom – then just a casual gathering of local Muslim and Jewish women talking about faith and family, and sharing their experiences as religious minorities in America. Today, the group has chapters in more than 50 cities.

Pinku Sensei pointed out a link awhile back indicating improved relations between the Semitic faiths because of Donald Trump. Maybe some good will come from his election after all. And may it outweigh the sheer horror. 

Ashes to Ashes

Because I'd rather think about death than Trump. It's so much happier.

Jennifer Beman wants to spend her death where she made her life, in her adopted home town of Takoma Park. Like others who have their cremated remains unofficially scattered in the Maryland city’s back yards and public parks, the 54-year-old likes the ashes-to-ashes idea of lingering eternally in her local ecosystem.

But Beman and a group of like-minded neighbors are going a step further than the kind of DIY ash-tossing that has grown common as cremation rates in the United States have doubled over the past 15 years. They are asking their city to set up the country’s first municipal “scatter garden,” a patch of memorial commons where residents could commingle in the soil of their burg — and where families could return to remember.

I've always thought graves were a big waste of real estate. The Taoists say to leave a small footprint when you go. My desire has been to have the ashes spread on either the compost heap or the garden. 

According to U.S. Funerals Online, you can have your departed shot into the sky as a firework, made part of a coffee mug, incorporated into a tattoo or squeezed at super pressure into a fake diamond.

Authorities mostly hold a don’t-ask-don’t-tell attitude toward the widespread practice of depositing ashes in national parks, forests and other public places. The remains — three to five pounds of calcium phosphate that has been baked at nearly 2,000 degrees — isn’t considered a toxin.

Yes, the compost pile beats being a coffee mug. Can't imagine drinking coffee out of a cup made of someone's cremains even if it is only calcium phosphate. 

Link to a great post at Crazy Eddie's Motie News.

Let’s convert cemeteries into forests!

Absolutely!

Eugene Robinson Talking Us Down From the Ledge

In four days it'll be over and it'll be OK. Yes, I'm trying to convince myself.

In the swing states that will decide the election, Trump has never shown signs in the polls of coming close to the kind of clean sweep he would need to win an electoral majority. Clinton could lose both Ohio and Florida — which have gone back and forth — and still win comfortably. Moreover, she has put traditionally Republican states such as Arizona, North Carolina and perhaps even Georgia into play.

I feel better now.

On The Road to Shushan

I live in Balloon Country. Just wish I could afford one.

Part of the road to Shushan crosses Highway 61. 

It's good place to get a world war easily done with bleachers out in the sun. But, a better place to go see the Mettawee Players. 

God bless Ralph Lee and fill the hungry hats at the end of the performance. 

Not Just Eileen Boone Doing the Right Thing

Kudos to the Senators from Maine, too.

Collins and the junior senator from Maine, independent Angus King, who also co-sponsored the legislation, practice a pragmatism that caused a Democratic colleague to ask Sen. King: “Is there something in the water in Maine that gives people common sense?”

No, that's probably not it. I wish it was though. We could use a shipment here in the upstate NY region. 

This is classic Senator Collins, working her colleagues with calm persuasion, facts, and analysis, looking for common ground on one of the country’s most contentious issues. She is, say senators on both sides, a highly respected bridge-builder at a time when Washington is at a defining moment on divisive gun politics.

Take a look at her record, Elise. 

The NRA graded her at C+ in 2012. Similarly, the anti-tax group Club for Growth gave her a 37 percent lifetime score in 2013 – the lowest of any Republican senator. Yet in 2014, she soared to reelection for a fourth term, her constituents rewarding a conscientious legislator who last year cast her 6,000th consecutive vote.

With anti-endorsements like that, she's a Republican I might actually vote for. Maybe the only one in the country. 

Collins vows to keep working on this issue. “I never give up,” she said after coming off the Senate floor. The shortfall shows a Congress in need of more people like Collins, often described as one of the last Republican moderates on the Hill, says former Republican Sen. Richard Lugar, a storied bridge-builder himself.

“I hope [she’s] not a dying breed,” says the senator, who lost in the primaries to a tea party candidate in 2012.

I hope not, as well. I'm afraid that along with the dodo, the Northeast liberal Republican will fade into extinction or transform into independents a la James Jeffords. 

Today in Corporations Doing Good

Unbesmirching the image of corporations as evil, soulless behemoths is Eileen Howard Boone. How dare she?

The social responsibility part of corporate leadership started as a side job and blossomed into an entire career.

So, it pays the rent. Jokes aside, I just wanted to link to the story. I remember when CVS mad the decision to remove tobacco from their stores. Applauded it then and now. It was nice to see this article on the woman responsible. 

Earlier this year, the pharmacy chain launched “Be the First,” a $50 million joint venture with a number of other organizations aimed at driving down rates of smoking and tobacco use. The initiative follows the company’s decision to remove tobacco products from its shelves in 2014. 

Thanks Ms. Boone and CVS for doing the right thing despite the costs. Could you talk to the folks in Congress?

Still, shareholders took some convincing. “$2 billion isn’t something where you go, ‘Whew, OK,’ ” Howard Boone says, pitching her voice up and out in a vocal shrug. “But it helped pave the way with better alliances with our partners and providers.”

And it lent CVS more credibility as a health-care company. “It’s a business function,” she continues. “We’re trying to support our long-term growth, and when we’re doing it in a socially responsible way, it really benefits the company and stakeholders.”

Quote of the Day: Boston Magazine

A former Red Sox pitcher is running for elected office, and thankfully, it isn’t Curt Schilling.

Of course, since this is about Bill Lee.

“The suppression of the 98 percent really bothers me. I believe the rich should make $110,000 a year and the poor should make $103,000.”

He might top Bernie for the most interesting politician in Vermont this year. 

Spaceman just wants to bring the Expos back.

And if that isn't enough.

“When the Expos come back, the Red Sox will come [to Montreal], and we can go up for 75 cents on the dollar, get some good beer and watch the Red Sox play,”

Spaceman economics!

And the Spaceman philosophy on life!

You Think You Got Shit to Protest

How about these guys. I realize the angry folks in the Trump and Sanders and maybe Clinton and Cruz camps have issues. But:

Iraqi protesters delivered a visceral wake-up call to politicians they accuse of corruption and dysfunctional government by breaching the walls of Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone and storming the parliament building on Saturday. 

You may not believe it, but this is a look on the bright side post.

Loyalists of the maverick Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr – whose speech Saturday morning called for a “great popular uprising … to stop the march of corrupt officials” – had largely left the area by Sunday. The event, however, profoundly shook Iraqi politicians, some of whom were reportedly chased from the chamber.

First, I'm kind of glad to see Sadr back. Secondly, any time corrupt politicians get chased from "the chamber" it has to be a good thing. But wait, there's more:

Few who know Iraq are predicting political collapse. Iraqis, who have suffered far worse in recent decades than political gridlock, have shown themselves to be expert survivors.

“Some say this is the end of Iraq, but Iraqis have already seen the worst days,” says Luay al-Khatteeb, a London-based fellow of Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy. “It is behind them, the years of sanctions and wars, years of sectarian and civil unrest and uprising, and the fight against IS and the number of times the Iraqi Army has collapsed since 2003.

“Iraq is moving toward a recovery phase, but how long it will take? It could take some time,” he says. “As we approach to a very hot summer, the situation could become more complicated.” 

It's nice to hear that they've downgraded from the total clusterfuck we imposed upon them to whatever level of depravity it's at now. 

Even Republicans Don't Like Republicans

Very much anyway.

About 68 percent of GOP members view their party favorably, according to Pew. Last fall, the comparable number was 79 percent.

Oh my! Overall, the GOP has a 33% favorable versus 45% for the Dems. And 22% are Greens or, in other words, too insane to even be Republicans. 

Good News Monday

First, you got your local good news from Saratoga.

Saratoga Springs on Tuesday became the seventh municipality in New York to enact a law that requires gun owners to secure their weapons or risk criminal charges.

The Saratoga Springs City Council unanimously passed the law, which was named in honor of Nicholas Naumkin, a 12-year-old who died in 2010 when a schoolmate who was playing with a handgun accidentally shot him in the friend's Wilton home. The gun and ammunition had been left in an unlocked dresser.

The law requires that owners keep firearms locked in either a secure cabinet or with a trigger lock when not in their possession, and the use of an unsecured gun in a shooting could result in a criminal charge for the owner. The cities of Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, New York City, Buffalo and Westchester County have all passed similar laws.

Sorry, that should have read great news. The bad news is that the state senate in New York are assholes. 

Bills introduced in the state Legislature to enact a similar law statewide have passed the Assembly but not the Senate. New Yorkers Against Gun Violence said it will pursue laws in other municipalities if the Senate does not pass a statewide bill.

Hope springs eternal, though. 

Voters on Long island will soon pick a replacement for a convicted former top lawmaker in a contest that could help give Democrats complete control over New York state government.

Democrat Todd Kaminsky faces Republican Chris McGrath in the April 19 Senate election for the seat long held by ex-Senate Leader Dean Skelos, a Republican convicted last year of using his position to obtain payments and jobs for his son.

In good news from the rest of God's creation:

Worldwide, in fact, inequality is actually going down.

Humanity, it seems, is not leaving its poorest behind.

This conclusion comes from the work of an eminent expert on inequality, Branko Milanovic. He spent decades studying data at the World Bank and now works at City University in New York. In a new book, “Global Inequality: A New Approach for the Age of Globalization,” he makes a case that the rapid growth of poorer countries since 1988 has brought the first decline in inequality since the Industrial Revolution.

Not so much in the US, but we takes what we can gets.

Milanovic’s findings are reinforced by new research from Tomáš Hellebrandt and Paolo Mauro of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. They find global inequality fell between 2003 and 2013. And they project the number of people in poverty will fall from 12.3 percent of the total population to 3.6 percent by 2035.

It's a Beautiful Spring Day

I have a "Look on the Bright Side" and love to use it. I've put this sort of Pollyannaish link up from time to time and will probably continue to.

Today, Vietnam, while still under one-party rule, is a friendly trading partner and tourist destination. Latin America is mostly at peace. Rwanda, if not exactly democratic, is the economic success story of East Africa. The Balkans are mostly calm and until recently were giving care and comfort to the migrants flooding into Europe. Another update from the past: Colombia – once ripped apart by drug cartels, rebel movements, and paramilitaries – has rebuilt itself as a Latin American success story.

And then there are eccentric planets. 

It's Not the Tangible That's Important

I really just want to link to this commentary at CSM. I do think that materialism (and lack of spiritualism) is the biggest problem in the world. You can take whatever will get you through the night or whatever path you want to the mountaintop. Any spiritual practice or religion, practiced with compassion and faith, is the Way.

The true nature of man is wholly good, the very likeness of Spirit, of the one God who is Love.

I may be a Pollyanna, but I choose to believe that. 

To focus less on physical personality day by day, and more on man’s timeless, God-derived individuality, can play a modest but significant role in helping to lift off humanity the impositions of materialism that undermine people’s well-being. The deeply felt desire to look beyond the material and to nurture within ourselves our God-given spirituality is a key to increasing freedom and happiness.

Seeing and appreciating your own half-full glass is better than coveting the half-full glass of your neighbor.

"Sunny Ways, My Friends, Sunny Ways"

I don't have any idea if Justin Trudeau will be successful as prime minister of Canada. He's led an interesting life up until now, though. I certainly wish him bon chance in his efforts there and bon appetit in dining with President Obama.

Trudeau tends to surprise his opponents. His carefree waltz into the boxing ring came after three months of quiet but intensive training. Similarly, he plotted his recent elevation to the prime ministership of Canada years in advance, vaulting the Liberal Party from a dismal third place to a majority government. 

Go. Enjoy. Anyone who can provide that post title deserves a "look on the bright side" post label.

Why can't we have nice things?

Letters Written and Never Sent

     This is in response to writers to the Post Star who see things, that I see as good, bad. Not the best sentence I've written. To try to make it clearer, they see progressivism as a bad thing. A definition of progress from Merriam Webster is, "gradual betterment; especially: the progressive development of mankind. I realize the dictionary, and possibly the English language, has a liberal bias. In any case, regress turns out to mean, "a movement backward to a previous and especially worse or more primitive state or condition."
     Moving on to the word socialism which I would characterize as less evil than it is normally portrayed in the Post Star letters opinion forum. In MW, we can find various definitions for social. Possibly not even the most optimistic is, "tending to form cooperative and interdependent relationships with others of one's kind." That sounds like a good attribute to have. Antisocial? Not so much, "hostile or harmful to organized society; especially: being marked by behavior deviating sharply from the social norm." Why must right-wingers insist on being antisocial?
     There was a tech sergeant in the service that suggested to a friend of mine that he have an operation to disconnect his optic nerve from a certain bodily orifice to improve his outlook. I'll clean that up all the way and just ask, why do conservatives look at the world through muck-colored glasses? It's gloom and doom everywhere while we liberals are singing "Happy Days Are Here Again" along with Mitch Miller ( on youtube for you kids). "Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun. Even those who live many years should rejoice in them all."

Something You Won't Hear at a Republican Debate

Because there are no dick jokes.

The insurgent presidential bids of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have roused Americans who are angry and anxious about an economy they feel has left them behind.

Most economists have a brighter view. They say that while many people haven't benefited much since the recession ended, a stronger economy lies ahead.

An Associated Press survey this month of nearly three dozen economists found that a majority thinks the United States remains resilient enough to defy a global slump and the sinking stock markets that have raised fears of a new U.S. recession. With job growth solid, higher wages and spending should offset global threats and support growth, they say.

That may be overstating it a bit, but I'm trying to bring the song back for the Democrats. Where have ye gone, FDR!

Cops Against Guns

I'm surprised that police agencies around the country haven't been more vocal in calling for sensible gun legislation.

Aware of the influence of the gun lobby, and inaction in Congress, police chiefs from across the United States are demanding universal background checks for firearms purchases, citing support from the majority of American people in opinion polls.

Senior law enforcement officials at the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in Chicago link access to firearms to an uptick in homicide rates across urban areas in the US this year.

What? Isn't that enough?