Mueller's Knight to Q3

 While the brightest and best of the nation's  media are covering the great Get-Used-to -It flood of Texas, 2017, other stories are going barely or uncovered.  A blind frog could find great stories in Houston, it doesn't need all of the brightest and best, but there they are.
  Meanwhile, as the novelists say, a truly great drama is being enjoyed only by the fans of  intrigue and danger. Trump actually moved his queen in pardoning Sheriff Joe Arpaio. So now Robert Mueller has the queen in a knight's fork.
 We can chat about this after the break.

When will we figure it out?

Harvey has spawned the second 1-in-500 year rainfall in the same region in 17 years.  It cranked up from a tropical depression to a CAT4 in only 48 hours.  The Gulf temperatures were several degrees above normal and hurricanes and lesser storms are thermal engines.  Post-Harvey is

A Democratic Senator With Moxie

I like what I have read about Tammy Duckworth lately.  She certainly has the military creds to speak up against Trump's arbitrary pronouncements: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tammy-duckworth-trump-transgender-military-ban_us_599f56bce4b06d67e336a850
She is experienced and seasoned in government, and we've surely had a front row view of what inexperience looks like.  There is only one little problem:  she was born in Thailand, though her father was an American serviceman who was serving in a diplomatic capacity at the time. She has been a citizen all her life.  Does that count as "natural born"?  Sure didn't seem to matter when it was McCain or Cruz running for president.

Are We Having the Wrong Conversation About Race?

Lately we've heard a lot of terms such as "white privilege", "white fragility".
This was a good piece on white privilege:  http://www.patheos.com/blogs/shanephipps/2017/06/20/how-i-came-to-understand-my-white-priviledge/
Full disclosure:  I'm probably not the best person to speak about race, since I know very few African Americans. We do have a lot of diversity in our community because of people coming here to work in the meat packing plants in the area.  Most of them are Hispanics from Mexico or the Central American countries, also some Asians. The Black people here are mostly from Africa; Sudan, Ethiopia, and Nigeria.  There have been some racially or ethnically charged incidents, but for the most part people here live and let live.
In the articles I have read on white privilege, what strikes me is that what they are talking about really shouldn't be called privilege.  They should be the rights of all who live in a free society.  Things such as innocence until proven guilty; one shouldn't have to be afraid of a routine traffic stop. Or have a store employee follow you around a store because they suspect you of being a shoplifter based on your race.
Maybe we need to move the conversation forward, from what constitutes white privilege, to how we can ensure that everyone enjoys the right to live without fear.

Image at max occlusion in Stroudsburg, PA projected onto the back of a Quaker Oats box.  Set up in my driveway with folding chairs, my neighbors on both sides came over.  My mother was up (funeral mass for my aunt was on Saturday) and my neighbors on both sides came over.   Cindy brought over water, iced tea, and put together some nice deserts.  A nice little soiree.  The clouds cleared mostly as we approached maximum.  I noticed a slight change of lighting in the environment, a sort of muting.  Someday I hope to experience totality and will probably have to travel to do it.  I remember the last partial eclipse in 1979 west of Philadelphia.  So many unbelievable things, good and bad, have happened since then.

Hopefully the skies will be clear enough tomorrow for me to use this jury rig  to view the 72% eclipse here in Stroudsburg.  I happen to have a 30 power spotting telescope.  I cut out a hole in the Quaker Oats box, fit it over the telescope eyepiece.  By adjusting the focus, a three inch diameter image of the sun is focused on the back of the box.  By looking back through the oval hole, I can observe the sun.  Tried it out today and could resolve four sunspots on the disk of the sun.  So it should work tomorrow as long as the weather cooperates. My neighbor across the street is an amateur astronomer which makes him no less enthusiastic than a professional one.  He met his wife in an astronomy club.  His car is not in his driveway.  Gee, I wonder where he may have gone.  Hope it's clear wherever he went for totality.

Political Junkies Anonymous

Trump and all his works and pomps are despicable, no doubt about it. Yet.....what is more tempting than another round of stories that detail WEEK 13: HIS WORST WEEK EVER! Even worse, if you have been following WEEK 13:  you have already read all of this once--even twice.

Now that Steve Bannon has departed, there will be an upsurge in BannonTrumpNews and twice or three times as much effort will go into reporting the pincer movement that the two wing nuts will maneuver into place and that journalists will follow with grim-faced but happy determination.

I am planning to swear off. Can I make it? Will keep you posted.

In the meantime, I can not help observe that Bannon was /or perhaps still is  one of ours. No story that sets out his history fails to mention "Catholic": Catholic school, Catholic parents, probably even Catholic grandparents.  I recall boys like this in grammar school, but smaller of course and without the fount of archaic knowledge Bannon spouts. Is this one of those Catholic things...searching out arcane pieces of history to promote a current interest--and bullying your way into a conversation about it?  In the old days Sister would put a stop to the woebegone history and the bullying, and the Junior Catholic Reactionary would slither back to his seat grinning at the class. He'd get even!! Bring back Sister Bridget.

So instead of the Trump-obsessed NYTimes, I am turning to the Economist  (with its boring abundance) and sticking to stories about the rest of the world. Let's see if that works.

Dysfunction Junction

No, this isn't going to be a post about politics, at least not in the usual sense.  The article which is prompting my thoughts is The Queen Bee in the Corner Office in the current issue of Atlantic Magazine:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/the-queen-bee-in-the-corner-office/534213/
It discusses whether women are worse bosses than men, or whether they are only perceived this way because of stereotypes. The subheading of the article is "Research suggests that conditions in the workplace might be to blame."  To me that is the problem in a nutshell.  Oddly, however, the article only delves into that in passing.  It seems to be mainly about how women tear down other women in the workplace.
In my opinion there are toxic people and toxic workplaces.  Which came first is a chicken-and-the-egg kind of question.  A workplace is toxic if it tolerates, or actively rewards, bullying or abusive behavior. Consider this passage:

Look Out for the Liberal Label

 This started as a comment on Crystal’s post aimed not at changing the subject but at getting back to it.  But then it wandered out of control, and it seems more like a separate post.

  My point was to be that this country has never had ideological parties, and when we talk as if we do – as, for example, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have been lately – we are playing right into the hands of people who know what they are doing and who are neither left nor right, just greedy.

  European party ideologues will see a wall and march right into it if their ideology tells them the wall isn’t there, or shouldn’t be. We never had parties like that -- before now. They aren’t a good idea for a country with our kind of sprawl.

Elizabeth Warren - let's move left

For those who might be interested, I have a longer post at my blog about Elizabeth Warren's recent speech in which she urges the Democratic party to move to the left, not to the center ... Amid 2020 buzz, Warren urges Democrats to reject centrist policies and move leftward. And here's a link to a supporting article: To Win, Democrats Don’t Need Trump Voters. This is in the wake of the pro-life effort to gain a foothold in the DNC. I think Warren is right.

Two old movies on addiction

Thinking more about the recent posts here on the opioid problem. Some of the comments to those posts brought up the way we feel about addiction and addicts. My own feeling about addiction is that it is not a moral failure but instead a tragedy, an illness, and one that could happen to any of us given the right circumstances (Surgeon General Vivek Murthy: Addiction Is A Chronic Brain Disease, Not A Moral Failing).

I haven't personally known a seriously addicted person unless you count my mother's addiction to cigarettes, so what probably helped to form my belief about addiction was the movies. There are a lot of movies on this subject, but I particularly remember two terribly sad films from when I was young: Days of Wine and Roses and The Panic in Needle Park. Perhaps it's not just written fiction which can teach us empathy.

1) Days of Wine and Roses ...

is a 1962 drama film directed by Blake Edwards with a screenplay by JP Miller adapted from his own 1958 Playhouse 90 teleplay of the same name. The movie was produced by Martin Manulis, with music by Henry Mancini, and features Jack Lemmon, Lee Remick, Charles Bickford and Jack Klugman. The film depicts the downward spiral of two average Americans who succumb to alcoholism and attempt to deal with their problems.

I saw this on tv as a kid. Here's a trailer which also has Jack Lemmon speaking to us about the film. Ironic that as he's doing that, he's smoking ...

2) The Panic In Needle Park ...

is a 1971 American romantic drama film directed by Jerry Schatzberg and starring Al Pacino, in his second film appearance. The screenplay was written by Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne, adapted from the 1966 novel by James Mills. The film portrays life among a group of heroin addicts who hang out in "Needle Park" (then-nickname for Sherman Square on Manhattan's Upper West Side near 72nd Street and Broadway). The film is a love story between Bobby (Pacino), a young addict and small-time hustler, and Helen (Kitty Winn), a restless woman who finds Bobby charismatic. She becomes an addict, and life goes downhill for them both as their addictions worsen, eventually leading to a series of betrayals.

I saw this at the theater as a teen. Here's a trailer ...

Film critic Roger Ebert gave this movie 3.5 stars in his review of it.

BTW, Ebert understood addiction from the inside - My Name is Roger, and I'm an alcoholic

The Opioid Epidemic and Lake County Ohio

Rising Morbidity and Mortality Rates in Midlife Among Non-Hispanic Whites

is the original research article which I read in April. Angus Deaton, one of the co-authors is a Noble prize winner so it was unlikely to have many flaws. Anne Case and he are both at Princeton which now has an easy read version here.

The findings are pretty well summarized by the abstract which I have abridged as follows:

1) A marked increase in the all-cause mortality of middle-aged white non-Hispanic men and women in the United States between 1999 and 2013. This change was unique to the United States; no other rich country saw a similar turnaround. It reversed decades of progress in mortality.

2) This midlife mortality reversal was confined to white non-Hispanics. Black non-Hispanics and Hispanics at midlife, as well as those aged 65 and above in every racial and ethnic group, continued to see mortality rates fall.

3) This increase for middle aged whites was largely accounted for by increasing death rates from drug and alcohol poisonings, suicide, and chronic liver diseases and cirrhosis. Those with less education saw the most marked increases.

4) Rising midlife mortality rates of white non-Hispanics were paralleled by increases in midlife morbidity. Self-reported declines in health, mental health, and ability  to conduct activities of daily living, and increases in chronic pain and inability to work, as well as clinically measured deteriorations in liver function, all point to growing distress in this population.

The authors comment that the epidemic began with an increase in prescription drug use, that migrated to heroin use, augmented recently by stronger drugs. It is possible the increased drug use followed the increased morbidity and distress, however all these preceded the financial crisis. Nevertheless, it might be related to increasing despair of the economic future. The distress includes physiological (joint pain and sciatica) and psychological aspects, e.g. greater number of suicides. There are an increasing number of people on social security disability for these issues. In the paper, the authors write that "a serious concern is that those currently in midlife will age into Medicare in worse health than the elderly of today."

On June 24th there was an expert panel presentation on what is going on in Lake County. Below the break is my summary and comments on that meeting.What is going on in your part of the country, both in terms of the problem and the response?

“Heroin, Fentanyl, and Carfentanil: The Triple Threat on Our Doorstep”

The Opioid Crisis: How the Hype Can Hurt

The bandwagon has been making the rounds noisily, with trumpets and tubas, raising consciousness about the Opioid Crisis.  It's just my nature; I tend to take bandwagons with a grain of salt. Not to mention pendulums swinging.  Don't get me wrong, the Opioid Crisis is real, and I'm glad it's getting attention.    However my fear is that pain sufferers, particularly those with severe or chronic pain, are going to be thrown under the bandwagon.
This article https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/8/3/16079772/opioid-epidemic-drug-overdoses states that "... the problem in part on the opioid epidemic began in the 1990s, when doctors became increasingly aware of the burdens of chronic pain. Pharmaceutical companies saw an opportunity, and pushed doctors — with misleading marketing about the safety and efficacy of the drugs — to prescribe opioids to treat all sorts of pain."  Pain was spoken of as the "5th vital sign" and patients were asked to assign a numerical value to it (for instance on a scale of 1 to 10).  Research indicated that chronic pain actually changed the way the brain worked. Now this is being called into question.  However nowhere have I seen studies indicating that the research was wrong.

Web Site Relaunches Continue!!!

First it was America, then Commonweal, lately it has been the National Catholic Reporter and PrayTellBlog

All of them have made finding what is on the website more difficult, and in general the overall appearance of the website less appealing.

For the National Catholic Reporter one has to scroll way down the page to find articles. I don't like to do that. I like to quickly size up what is there, see what I have read, pick what I want to read, and ignore the rest.

PrayTellBlog has the worst new web design of all.  As a regular reader, I would always read the articles back until where I had stopped reading the last time. How do your figure out what were the last (e.g. five) articles? If you find the way to do that, please let me know.

PrayTellBlog has made finding the comments a lot more difficult. Little respect for commenters. As someone who now gets to post and comment, I still enjoy commenting, and look forward to comments on my own posts.

I did find one redeeming feature at PrayTell. As someone who posted there about a dozen times, I checked to see if my posts were still there. Low and behold they are not only there but they are more  readable and interesting! 

I always like my post on Television, Time Use, Lent and the Divine Office
when I wrote it, but never liked it when I read the post. There is a lot of data that has to be absorbed by the reader. The new web design makes that easier. Of course it might all be easier if I could have edited my own post. The post now looks much more like my original Word document.

Maybe the new web designs generally increase readably of articles. Is this what is driving all this changing that is going on across websites? It is a lot harder to find anything, but maybe everything is more readable and enjoyable when you find something?

Kenya Election Update

It appears that the incumbent, Uhuru Kenyatta, has won provisional results with about a ten point lead over his opponent Raila Odinga. 97% of the polling districts have reported. https://www.yahoo.com/news/kenya-opposition-leader-rejects-poll-results-showing-presidential-010225221.html
Before the election people were stockpiling food and drinking water, in anticipation that services might be interrupted.
It is a good news, bad news scenario.  So far there hasn't been the violence which happened after the 2007 election, which left over 1000 people dead, and hundreds of thousands displaced.  However, there has been sporadic and regional violence, and four people are dead.  Odinga is crying fraud and saying that he won't accept the results.  He has run three times, but has never won.
Tribalism is blamed for the violence. However that is an oversimplification.  Among the issues are unemployment, inequality, and corruption.  Kenyatta won points for his infrastructure programs. But people say that government jobs are disproportionately awarded to members of his ethnic group. There is high unemployment.  However Kenyatta is perceived to be better for economic stability, and has made some progress in rooting out corruption.
Prior to the election, former US President Obama, whose father was Kenyan, made a plea for peaceful polling, and urged respect for the outcome of the election. http://www.thepremiernews.com/2017/08/08/un-obamas-plea-polls-kenya/

Wildlife

While we worry about getting nuked by North Korea, life goes on for the possum, who has dropped by for a snack . Eeeeek - he's got people hands! :) ...

A Transfiguration Day Story? or Joke?

Joel and Victoria Osteen Announce Their Resignation from Church to Focus On New Initiative

This must be an April Fool's Joke in August!

 

(PEOPLE) - Victoria Osteen and Joel Osteen appeared on Oprah's TV show today to announce their resignation as pastors of Lakewood Church. Their televised sermons are seen by over 7 million viewers weekly and over 20 million monthly in over 100 countries. The Osteens announced they invested $10.5 million and have been working closely with the new company for over 2 years on development of an all-natural skin care line.

Joel and Victoria explained their decision to stop working on the TV series was tough but they truly believe that their work with their skin care product will make a bigger difference in the world.

This story is dated today, the feast of the Transfiguration. Is this serious? I guess this is one of the magazines with the weird stores that I pass in the grocery lane. 

Whether it is "true" or not, it sure is funny seeing it on this day. Maybe it is how the Osteens view transfiguration? Maybe it is better for consumers for them to make their living by selling this product than by what they are selling now.


I celebrated Transfiguration with the local Orthodox Church. I always liked this feast and usually celebrate with them when it is on a weekday.

Governor Jerry Brown on Meet the Press

My governor, Jerry Brown, on Meet the Press today ...

I'm glad he stood up for Nancy Pelosi. I think he's been a good governor, both times. He doesn't see a conflict between being Catholic and being a defender of LGBT rights, pro-choice rights, and patient's rights (California Gov. Signs Four LGBT-Supportive Bills ... Brown signs bill targeting crisis pregnancy centers ... California Governor Signs Physician-Assisted-Suicide Bill Into Law). Given this and his environmental policies (Gov. Brown signs sweeping legislation to combat climate change), I think he's a good example of what the Democratic party stands for.

The Election in Kenya and Why it Matters

It's hard to believe how all things Trump have consumed the American media, to the extent that it is difficult to find out what is going on in the rest of the world.  However, this article https://epeak.in/2017/07/31/why-kenyas-presidential-election-on-august-8-matters-kenya/
discusses the upcoming presidential election in Kenya, and how it is important to the region and the rest of the world.  It is the 6th presidential election since the country embraced a democratic system in 1996. The ethnic violence which followed the 2007 election is not that far in the rear-view mirror; the International Criminal Court in the Hague is following things closely.  Uhuru Kenyatta, the present president, defended himself and a deputy from criminal charges in the matter.  The charges were later dropped. He is opposed by Raila Odinga.
Kenya is home to several UN and humanitarian aid agencies, and the 2007 violence hampered efforts in neighboring war zones.  The country is also home to the world's largest refugee camp, most of whose residents are from Somalia. Since 2011, Kenya has sent more than 3600 soldiers into Somalia to fight the group Al-Shahab.
Nairobi is East Africa's economic hub, and Kenya is the second largest economy in this area. South Sudan will pay the heaviest price if the Kenyan elections are not trouble-free, in terms of its banking and imports.
So a great deal depends on peaceful elections on August 8, of course for east Africa, but also through the ripple effect, for the rest of the world.

D's theme song: 'Seems Like Old Times'

Periodically in this space someone proffers a thought or two over what the Democrats must do to become sentient again. I suffer from extreme skepticism while reading such musings. Must be because I have watched Democrats for a long time.

Fortunately, I do not have to explain my thinking at length. Charles P. Pierce (Marquette -- '75,  I think) has neatly summed up why I don't think that party can get out of its grave. Money quote (one of several):

 Right at the moment, the main issues within the Democratic Party seem to be,  in no particular order: 1) Kamala Harris: Threat or Menace?; Cory Booker: Sure, Legal Weed But Wall Street?; and, that evergreen squabble, Bernie Or Hillary; Why 2016 Will Never End.

If the internal link doesn't work, here it is for pasting: http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a56823/democrats-fighting/

A serious question

I'm going to ask a serious question and I hope some of you will answer it. What is the Catholic argument against physician assisted suicide? No, don't go away, because this is a serious topic, not just practically but also theologically, and I have yet to see any Catholic argument against it. I have, of course, seen arguments that are said to be against it, but really all the arguments I've seen against it are actually against something else other than physician assisted suicide - usually euthanasia.

There was a recent post at America magazine that illustrates this ... How Catholic health care is fighting against the campaign for physician-assisted suicide. The article has a scary photo at the top of an anesthesia mask .... no anesthesia masks are associated with PA suicide. It goes downhill from there. Some quotes ...

[P]alliative care is becoming increasingly important as technology allows people with serious chronic conditions to live longer than ever before. The dilemma is that reliance on such technology can result in a greatly diminished quality of life for patients. For some, ending one’s life early with a cocktail of prescription drugs may seem more appealing than living attached to tubes or in intense pain.

PA suicide isn't for people with chronic conditions, it's only for people who are terminally ill and who have less than six months to live.

In 2012, physician-assisted suicide advocates tried unsuccessfully to bring an Oregon-style law to Massachusetts by means of a ballot referendum. During the campaign, the archdiocese partnered with several other groups, including disability rights organizations, who were afraid that the law would put the elderly, the disabled and other vulnerable populations at risk by pressing them to request lethal doses of medication.

This red herring is often brought up in arguments against PA suicide - the idea that somehow the government or doctors or people's families are going to start euthanizing disabled people. PA suicide has nothing to do with people being disabled. It is only for people who are terminally ill with less than six months to live. And PA suicide cannot be chosen by one person for another or forced on someone by another.

One side argues that patients who have these fears should be able to avoid the suffering by ending their lives early. But given the church’s rich history of finding meaning in suffering, especially in death, end-of-life care infused with Catholic values may be uniquely situated to provide an insight into the fears and concerns that accompany dying.

I cannot express how awful I think it is that the church would try to impose its questionable views of suffering on everyone else, including non-Catholics.

Another argument I've often seen raised is that doctors should not kill patients. Docs don't kill PA suicide patients, they give patients some pills which they usually take later at home. And, let's be honest - doctors already kill patients. I've personally known 3 people whose families and doctors decided to end their lives (often without their consent) by depriving them of water until they died of thirst. If the church doesn't want docs killing people, why doesn't it jump on this creepy practice?

So, I'm hoping someone here will tell me what the actual argument against PA suicide is, keeping in mind that PA suicide is only for people who are terminally ill with less than six months to live, who are of sound mind and who decide of their own free will to do this.

Please tell me that the real reason isn't that God owns our lives and thus we don't have the right to end them (No One Should Have The Right To Die Until God Is Done Toying With Them ). As this article in Christianity Today mentions, there are only six examples of suicide in the bible, and none of them show the person being condemned by God for taking their lives. Jesus never mentions it in the gospels, either, so I'm unaware of any biblical back-up for the belief that God is against suicide. And even if he was, why would believers have the right to take away the option of PA suicide from people who aren't believers?

But enough of this airy persiflage

Yah, the Repubs are a wreck and the Dems may not be a lot better. See below.

But here's my immediate problem.

I have to attend a seven-hour orientation meeting (mandatory) led by professional educationists (most of my lit classes fall under the purview of the school of education) who DO NOT EVEN HAVE AN AGENDA set yet. They asked everybody today what should be on the agenda. For tomorrow. They called the meeting, and they don't know what it's about.

All's I know is that there will be Power Point and lots of it!

I am not a well woman, and at my age, I do not suffer this kind of time-wasting gladly. Not even with their free lunch, which will probably be bagels and schmeer. And not enough coffee.

ISTM that the business of American business (and other organizations) is endless meetings. Anyone else feel that meetings are longer and more unproductive than ever before in our history?

Am I the only one whom sees the ironic insanity here?

Will this change when the Millennials and their short attention spans rule the world? Let's hope so.

Meantime, please put your meeting horror stories on here so I can pretend to take notes while reading them tomorrow! Maybe I will live blog the meeting in the comments section just to keep myself entertained.

Repubs are OK, Democrats still screwed up

Republicans do not have a problem.  They're doing what they were designed for, advancing oligarchy and the concentration of wealth, suppressing the wages and rights of workers, acting as a repository for all the anger and self righteousness of old white scrotes, etc..  But what of the Democrats?  Are the Democrats loyal to their New Deal principles?  Or are they corrupted  as well and who are their corruptors?  My favorite rogue economist Dean Baker critiques the "Better Deal" put forth this last week by the senator from Wall Street, Chuck Schumer in

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/better-deal-than-what_us_598051b8e4b0d187a5969002

As far as I can tell, the Democratic leadership is still handling the peasants without addressing the real transfer of wealth problems.  But the peasants are tired of being handled.

'Talk to God and listen to the casual reply'

With all the Trump news ... the latest being that he concocted the 'Russian adoptions' lie for Don Jr. ... I need a musical mental health break ...