Monday, February 11, 2019
No! on Klobuchar
I have taken a vow to vote for any candidate the Democrats nominate for President, but I have to amend that. I will not vote for Senator Klobuchar. She did her best to take wolves off the endangered species list and trap and kill them instead.
Wolves are not everyone's issue, but some facts might help. Wolves are the original dogs, the first useful animal our ancestors tamed. Wolves and domestic dogs still breed and produce viable young. In the written history of the United States, there is not a single human death attributed to wild wolves. Wolves are part of the balance in the natural world.
I'm not afraid of wolves, but I am afraid of a leader like Klobuchar, who is either stone ignorant or, more likely, one more sell-out.
Netflix Hacker
My granddaughter informed me yesterday that my Netflix account had been hacked. I suspect now that someone had gotten hold of many Network passwords, including mine, and sold them or something.
That left me at a considerable disadvantage, because I didn't remember my Netflix password.
After a long struggle I managed to reach a smart foreigner several continents away and asked him to cancel my subscription. Instead he led me through a hundred maneuvers over a two-hour period, and we managed to get me a new password and to delete three of the four strangers from my account. I could not delete the fourth stranger, but I did change his name to Poop and his language to Portuguese.
Be alert out there!
That left me at a considerable disadvantage, because I didn't remember my Netflix password.
After a long struggle I managed to reach a smart foreigner several continents away and asked him to cancel my subscription. Instead he led me through a hundred maneuvers over a two-hour period, and we managed to get me a new password and to delete three of the four strangers from my account. I could not delete the fourth stranger, but I did change his name to Poop and his language to Portuguese.
Be alert out there!
Sunday, February 10, 2019
The Black Voters of Virginia
When it became obvious that Governor Northam of Virginia had a racist past, I suggested to my friends in the bay area that we should now listen to the black voters of Virginia.
It wasn't that I believed Northam's excuses--I think he's been lying and evasive.
I predicted that black voters, unlike black political leaders on television, would support Northam. This claim met without much agreement, but today the first poll came out. About 60 % of black voters in Virginia want Northam to remain in office and finish his term.
My reasoning went like this. (1) Northam had been elected by black voters, who preferred him to openly racist party of Trump. (2) Black voters understood all along that Northam was an elite white Virginian who likely had a racist past, so his blackface photo surprised almost no one. (3) My sense (from afar and unreliable) of the black voters of Virginia was that they tend to be pragmatic in their view of politics. It makes sense to be pragmatic in some situations.
It seems likely that Northam, more than some others, will now work for racial justice.
It wasn't that I believed Northam's excuses--I think he's been lying and evasive.
I predicted that black voters, unlike black political leaders on television, would support Northam. This claim met without much agreement, but today the first poll came out. About 60 % of black voters in Virginia want Northam to remain in office and finish his term.
My reasoning went like this. (1) Northam had been elected by black voters, who preferred him to openly racist party of Trump. (2) Black voters understood all along that Northam was an elite white Virginian who likely had a racist past, so his blackface photo surprised almost no one. (3) My sense (from afar and unreliable) of the black voters of Virginia was that they tend to be pragmatic in their view of politics. It makes sense to be pragmatic in some situations.
It seems likely that Northam, more than some others, will now work for racial justice.
Friday, February 8, 2019
Thursday, February 7, 2019
Blackface
Events in Virginia have led me to call for a Constitutional amendment that forbids any person who has worn blackface from seeking public office. I write this reluctantly because my younger sister wore blackface in elementary school more than 60 years ago and sang "Mammy." At the time her goal had been to enter politics and become a senator; the teacher told her no, she could not be a senator but she could marry one. Things change. Today she could become a senator, except for my amendment.
Blackface is often a deliberate mocking of people of color, who are portrayed as dark beings with rhythm who can sing well and love their mothers despite being dumber than people with lighter skin.
I don't know what has twisted medical education, empathy and the ability to reason for centuries in Virginia. Some historians have suggested a devotion to states rights, which seems unlikely.
The situation now is that the top three offices in Virginia are held by progressives who may well be the usual suspects. If all three can be shamed into resigning, the next governor will be a scoundrel from the Trump party. That would violate the key rule in my political thinking, which is that you support your own damned scoundrels, not some Trump bad guy, but we'll see what happens next.
Blackface is often a deliberate mocking of people of color, who are portrayed as dark beings with rhythm who can sing well and love their mothers despite being dumber than people with lighter skin.
I don't know what has twisted medical education, empathy and the ability to reason for centuries in Virginia. Some historians have suggested a devotion to states rights, which seems unlikely.
The situation now is that the top three offices in Virginia are held by progressives who may well be the usual suspects. If all three can be shamed into resigning, the next governor will be a scoundrel from the Trump party. That would violate the key rule in my political thinking, which is that you support your own damned scoundrels, not some Trump bad guy, but we'll see what happens next.
Wednesday, February 6, 2019
The President's Teleprompter
The prose below was accidentally left on the teleprompter used by our President during his state of the union speech.
. . . (Chin up!) HORDES OF WOMEN DRESSED IN WHITE (pause. then chin higher for emphasis) IN CARAVANS (keep chin up!) ARE APPROACHING OUR SOUTHERN BORDER. (raise chin higher, stretching all sagging facial skin) THEY ARE GETTING THEIR PUSSIES GRABBED (jut your jaw, stare at ceiling) BY MEN WHO ARE NOT FAMOUS (keep chin higher! sound as if you had a pair!) (more chin!) MAGA! (chin higher, you fool!) . . . .
. . . (Chin up!) HORDES OF WOMEN DRESSED IN WHITE (pause. then chin higher for emphasis) IN CARAVANS (keep chin up!) ARE APPROACHING OUR SOUTHERN BORDER. (raise chin higher, stretching all sagging facial skin) THEY ARE GETTING THEIR PUSSIES GRABBED (jut your jaw, stare at ceiling) BY MEN WHO ARE NOT FAMOUS (keep chin higher! sound as if you had a pair!) (more chin!) MAGA! (chin higher, you fool!) . . . .
Monday, February 4, 2019
One Hour a Day
According to the news this morning, President Spanklyn T. Borderline spends approximately one hour each day at work, followed by around seven hours of watching Fox News, texting, phone calls to yes-men, etc. The remainder of his awake time is devoted to eating franchise food and sitting on a gold toilet.
One hour of work a week is a heavy load for a man born as rich as Spanklyn. When he was younger, he needed lots of leisure time, of course, to chase the kinds of sexual mechanics who find $100,000 a night makes any oil change attractive. Once, when he was young, there weren't enough oil changers in the known universe to drain that wide Germanic crankcase. You needed special wrenches. Things weren't measured in inches. But all that ended years back. The man's gone dry. Now he can afford a Presidential hour a day to run the world.
One hour of work a week is a heavy load for a man born as rich as Spanklyn. When he was younger, he needed lots of leisure time, of course, to chase the kinds of sexual mechanics who find $100,000 a night makes any oil change attractive. Once, when he was young, there weren't enough oil changers in the known universe to drain that wide Germanic crankcase. You needed special wrenches. Things weren't measured in inches. But all that ended years back. The man's gone dry. Now he can afford a Presidential hour a day to run the world.
Friday, February 1, 2019
Cockroach
We were looking at Trump's orange pumpkin face on TV, and it occurred to us that there was no longer anything rational going on behind those glassy blue eyes. Trump has dwindled down into a bug. When you enter the room and switch on a light, he scurries in panic, looking for a safe place, on automatic, furiously afraid he has an appointment with the sole of a shoe.
A Whiter Shade of Pale
In 1911 Brazil participated in the First International Congress of Races in London. The delegate that Brazil sent, Joao Batista de Lacerda, was a brilliant scientist who headed their National Museum in Rio. He presented a paper in which he argued that by the year 2,000, Brazil would be entirely white. Black people and mestizos, then about 90% of the population, would disappear.
When word of this paper reached Brazil, the country's leaders were upset by Joao's claim that achieving total whiteness would take as long as ninety years.
Why people believed in a coming whiteness isn't clear to me. Joao Batista de Lacerda is considered the father of pharmacology in Brazil--perhaps that explains it. According to the Internet, the man lived for 171 years, dying in 2017, so he did have a chance to see how his prediction turned out. Supposedly.
When word of this paper reached Brazil, the country's leaders were upset by Joao's claim that achieving total whiteness would take as long as ninety years.
Why people believed in a coming whiteness isn't clear to me. Joao Batista de Lacerda is considered the father of pharmacology in Brazil--perhaps that explains it. According to the Internet, the man lived for 171 years, dying in 2017, so he did have a chance to see how his prediction turned out. Supposedly.
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