Fudge and McGuire

Supervisor Shirlee Zane, a strong, progressive Democrat, yesterday endorsed Deb Fudge, who is running for an open supervisorial seat. I noticed that Deb Fudge has endorsed Mike McGuire for the second district of the state senate, another move helpful to the working people in the area.

The oddest news came out of the state senate on Tuesday. Apparently the state senate leader, Democrat Darrell Steinberg, had decided in Sacramento to get Chris Lehman elected in the second district. Steinberg has the right to decide which person would represent those of us living in Marin and Sonoma counties because Steinberg was recently been named King of California. (I guess.)

Lehman is a big money raiser for the Democrats, and no doubt he is a fine person, although I have never heard of him. Our retiring state senator in the district, Noreen Evans, had refused the leader's request that she endorse his pal Lehman, so the leader, much like a New Jersey Dictator, punished Evens by demoting her from her key committee chair in the senate.

Meanwhile our local supervisor, Mike McGuire, had been running for the same seat and had built up a big lead without the support of Evans or the King of California. But McGuire does have the support of Deb Fudge, and now he has the endorsement of Chris Lehman, who has read the polls and dropped out.  McGuire is the sort of vigorous young candidate who will campaign door to door until he drops. Fudge and McGuire, once rivals, are proven community leaders. They have earned support for higher office. If people pitch in, both will win. 

Hordes of Redwoods Crowd Out Native Species

The Sonoma County Transportation Authority has been using our tax money to cut down redwood trees and for an excellent reason. According to a SCTA deputy director, redwoods are not native to the 101 corridor, which has existed for almost 150 years.  Yes, it's true that the trees have been in the local landscape since the Jurassic, a mere 180 million years, but the deputy director knows that humans have been here for at least 14,000 years.  The deputy director plans to replace the trees with genuine native vegetation.

Redwoods grow within 50 miles of the coast, and the 101 corridor, in this case, is within 50 miles of the coast, but the redwoods the deputy director has cut down were planted by people. Anything planted by people is not native by definition. The deputy director intends to plant only native items. Meanwhile Supervisor Mike McGuire is arguing that residents took the cutting down of  so many redwoods hard and that we should replant some of them. Or we could just leave 101 lined with huge red stumps--they might be a tourist attraction.

The Big Eaters

According to THE NEW YORKER, the ordinary pigeon (rock pigeon), which we sometimes call a feathered rat, is numerous in the United States but not native. The domesticated pigeon was brought here from Europe. There are many rock pigeons in the world, about 260,000,000. If you multiply correctly that figure by eight, you will get the number of native passenger pigeons that darkened the sky in the eastern half of North America until we ate them. When pigeons flew overhead, women ran indoors. They roamed in flocks of several million. Meanwhile the Maori of New Zealand dined on the flightless moa, Pacific Islanders munched about 1,000 species out of existence, and, by the way, what happened to the American mammoth? (Ans: it was eaten by paleo-Indians.)

We like squabs. To be honest, we did not eat the last passenger pigeon. By some oversight it died in a zoo on September 1, 1914. That was 100 years ago if you need a party theme.

Gov. Christie's Morning

After two sleepless nights, Gov. Christie did not feel on top of his game, but he rose from bed, showered, brushed his teeth and went down to share breakfast with his wife. It was his usual breakfast: eggs, bacon. pancakes, raisin bran, prunes, corned beef hash, toast, oatmeal, home fries, and two modest pork chops. He said hello to his wife. "Good morning," she lied to his face.

When he got into his car, he asked his driver if his sister had called. "Nope," the driver lied.

At the state house, as he was entering his office, the governor realized he'd forgotten what day it was. "Is today Wednesday?" he asked his secretary. "It is," she lied to him. He asked her to get Bob, his campaign manager, on the phone. "Bob," the governor said, "how you doing, guy?"

"Never better," Bob lied.

"What's this stuff about Fort Lee? Do we have a fort? And Lee, what kind of name is that, Chinese?"

"From Taiwan," Bob said. "It's in the news. Why don't I look into it, sir?  I'll get right back to you," he lied. "Also, the money I borrowed? The check is in the mail."

ObamaCare

For the first time since the 1990s, total U.S. healthcare spending grew at a slower rate than the U.S. economy at the beginning of the current decade. That is because of ObamaCare, but is anyone listening?


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Semi-Slavery

There are more African-American men in prisons today than were enslaved in 1850, someone wrote.  It's hard to admit what happened after the Civil War. What happened is that black people were semi-enslaved in the South, as the price for reunification of the country. A slave-whipping losing general became a symbol of  brilliance, nobility and gravitas. Nazi punks, his intellectual heirs, now drive down the main street of my California town with Confederate flags waving from their pickups.

High On David Brooks

The Press Democrat reprinted a David Brooks' column on Sunday in which Brooks discussed his use of marijuana while young. I'm glad I wasn't present. Soon Brooks gave up weed in favor of what he called "higher pleasures," by which I guess he meant licking the boots of billionaires. His argument was that giving up weed helped him "become more integrated, coherent and responsible." He opposed the sale of weed on moral grounds and now wants government to "discourage lesser pleasures." All this from a man who admits to violating the law repeatedly as a college student but avoided jail because he is white. (While black people and white people use marijuana at the same rate, black people are jailed for possession at twice the rate of white people and, I would guess, at about 100 times the rate of students like Brooks at prestigious colleges and universities).

Let me pause to note that the last three Presidents have stated openly that they smoked weed when young. 

"In legalizing weed, citizens of Colorado are, indeed, enhancing individual freedom. But they are also nurturing a moral ecology in which it is a bit harder to be the sort of person most of us want to be" Brooks concluded. That is a weird thought--I certainly don't want to be the sort of person Brooks is, a fatuous, pampered, smirking defender of undeserved privileges. But I was most struck by his wish to "discourage lesser pleasures" like weed (and maybe milkshakes and masturbation?) by throwing millions of Americans in prison. 

When I talk about how it is possible to be an intellectual or a dentist and be really bad at the job, Brooks immediately comes to mind.



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Best Film of the Year

I did not see most of the films critics have been choosing. I did see and enjoy THE BUTLER and AMERICAN HUSTLE, but I wouldn't rate them as excellent. I wish I had seen HANNAH ARENDT, but I never heard of it. The best movie I did see (and found remarkable) was STORIES WE TELL, which made the lists of only two critics, Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post and Moira Macdonald of the Seattle Times. Quite a thought-provoking movie.  I also saw on TV a movie that is about eight years old, A GOOD WOMAN, which was excellent (based loosely on LADY WINDEMERE'S FAN  by Oscar Wilde).

Reclassification

Without voter suppression, the American elite can't bring its reclassification of the poor to a successful conclusion. The shape of this struggle can be seen in the reconstruction era after the Civil War. Robert E. Lee and other elitists in the South were determined to recreate the old plantation social order. If they could not have pure slavery, they could build a system of near-slavery. Big Business in the North soon agreed. The country united. Black people and some poor white people were disenfranchised. That effort has been revived in recent years, but it might not work this time around.