Friday, July 11, 2025
Haiku Friday: What to do in July
Ah, July! If you live in the North, there is nothing else like it-- it is literally the only month that there hasn't been snow somewhere in Minnesota. Let's haiku about what you do in July. Here, I will go first:
Calm lake, a slow boat
There are fish down there, I know
But this is enough.
Now it is your turn! Just use the 5//7/5 syllable pattern and have some fun!
Thursday, July 10, 2025
PMT: Hidden treasures?
Like many people-- perhaps even most people-- I was disappointed with a lot of things in the "Big Beautiful Bill" passed last week. In terms of spending money, it pretty much went the complete opposite of my own priorities: Big tax breaks for the most wealthy, cuts in support to those with the least among us, and big money for the military and ICE. Sigh.
Still, I sifted through the huge bill looking for some kind of bright spot (for people who feel the way I do, anyways). Here is what I found:
-- $4.8 billion to the Bureau of Prisons for hiring, training, and facilities. The BOP has been a rolling disaster for a while, and a lot of it boils down to a lack of staffing and decrepit facilities. So long as these funds don't go to increasing capacity (which is unlikely, since crime is way down, as is incarceration), this is a good investment for those in prison. A lack of staff and poor training has led to real deprivations, including lockdowns caused by nothing other than a lack of staff.
-- Allowing Pell grants for shorter-term vocational training-- $300 million. This is a good thing, as good vocational training will follow people's ability to pay for it. The bill also allocates $11 billion to continue to fund regular Pell grants.
-- $6.8 billion to expand Medicaid to more people to fund in-home care. Those most of the news on Medicaid is bad, this is probably good.
-- $2 billion for something relating to tax breaks for bicycle commuters. Which, as a bike commuter, I did not know about.
-- Allowing health care savings accounts to be used to pay for primary care outside of insurance.
-- Extension of a tax credit (set to expire) for investing in low-income communities.
I'm sure there are more. And I'm kind of dreaming that it was a Small Beautiful Bill that contained only these provisions....
Wednesday, July 09, 2025
Haiku, uh, Monday results
Because I get easily confused in the summer, we did haiku on Monday, but it was great! I was especially moved by two of them--
This one from my mom:
On 4th of July
I read my dad's account of
World War II service
Made me sad to think
of our country's values now.
Was struggle in vain?
Will compassion rule?
Can all thrive in America?
It depends on us.
I read my dad's account of
World War II service
Made me sad to think
of our country's values now.
Was struggle in vain?
Will compassion rule?
Can all thrive in America?
It depends on us.
And this one from Craig:
Blue Fourth of July.
Hard to muster much
spirit with hateful MAGA.
CNN reports
only 39% of Dems
proud of America.
Imperfect history.
Aspirational values
no longer in play.
Corruption, greed,
selfishness, and red MAGA
hate of other: SAD.
Hard to muster much
spirit with hateful MAGA.
CNN reports
only 39% of Dems
proud of America.
Imperfect history.
Aspirational values
no longer in play.
Corruption, greed,
selfishness, and red MAGA
hate of other: SAD.
I also loved Desiree's:
My immigrant and
veteran-rich family loves
enjoying flag cake!
veteran-rich family loves
enjoying flag cake!
And this from Christine:
Fireworks above
Bursting colors paint the sky
Americana.
Bursting colors paint the sky
Americana.
Who also had a response to Craig (who, I think, was in MI):
MAGA hats absent
But patriotic t-shirts
And crosses adorn
Many attendees
Await the skyshow, pass time
With endless scrolling.
But patriotic t-shirts
And crosses adorn
Many attendees
Await the skyshow, pass time
With endless scrolling.
Tuesday, July 08, 2025
The Tragedy Continues
The death toll from the flooding in and around Kerr County, Texas is now over 100, with over a quarter of them being children. It's a terrible tragedy, and one that probably could have been avoided with a good warning system.
It's hard to explain the appeal of those rivers through the Hill Country of Texas, but there really is nothing quite like tubing down the Guadalupe on a hot summer day. There is a lot of Texas-- even on the coast and where there is elevation- that just isn't very pretty unless you have a thing for shades of brown or are fascinated with what industry can do to a landscape. But that part, along those rivers, was objectively pretty.
Families in Waco sent their kids to Camp Mystic and the others in that area. I remember seeing some get ready, with carefully painted trunks full of stuff and ready to go. The parents would post pictures they got from the camps of kids in the water or playing games or in a play. It was a part of the cycle of life there for many people.
I suspect that may change for good.
Monday, July 07, 2025
Haiku Monday: How was the 4th?
So, yeah, I messed up!
In the summer, I often lose track of what day it is, and somehow a holiday on a Friday just confused me all the more. Which means that I skipped right over haiku Friday-- but we will make up for it today!
I hope everyone had a great 4th-- and let's haiku about that today. Here, I will go first:
I took a bike ride
To see the beauty of this
Place that we call home.
Now it is your turn (finally)! Just use the 5/7/5 syllable pattern and have some fun!
Sunday, July 06, 2025
Sunday Reflection: God and/or Country?
It's a big week for patriotism, of course, but also a good time to think through what that means.
For me, the source of my values is my faith, and that is often in tension with the path of my country. I don't pretend that I can honor God through patriotism-- while I love my country, I do not worship it. They are different, and one is just more important than the other. If one pulls me one way and the other pulls me in the other direction, I will go the way of my faith.
That leaves me feeling a little down these days.
And yet this is and always will be my country. I love being an American. And I hope that going forward, that love of country is not seen as incompatible with the fact it is not what I love the most.
Saturday, July 05, 2025
Flooding in TX
The flash flood on the Guadalupe River in Texas hit one of the prettiest parts of that state, and an area full of summer camps for kids. Lots of Waco people sent their kids there, including friends who are now in Kerrville waiting to evacuate their child. As I write this there are at least 20 children still missing.
The river's rise was remarkable and fast, and it happened in the middle of the night. It is good that so many children got to safety.
It has happened before, in 1987, when 10 children were carried away in a flash flood on the same part of that river. I'm sure people there are wondering about was and wasn't learned from that earlier tragedy.
Friday, July 04, 2025
Some pretty good attack ads...
Thursday, July 03, 2025
PMT: It might not be beautiful, but it is happening
The "Big Beautiful Bill" is knocking around the House again as Republicans try to get everyone in line to buy into the Senate version.
There is a LOT going on in that bill, much of which may end up being a surprise even to the people who vote for it. In the broad sweep of things, it does three important things:
-- It gives tax breaks which by dollar value will overwhelmingly go to the relatively wealthy.
-- It will cut safety net provisions, primarily Medicaid and what used to be called food stamps (now it is usually referred to as SNAP).
-- Because the tax breaks will be so much more than the savings scraped from the poor and the working class, the deficit will rise by $3-4 trillion, depending on the estimate.
So, basically, it has one positive aspect (at least to some)-- tax breaks-- but even those will go mostly to the people who need it the least.
If we are to avoid raising the debt even further in the future, hard choices have to be made. Basically, we can (1) cut entitlements, (2) cut military spending (though this is less money to work with than entitlements), and/or raise taxes.
Which would you choose?
Wednesday, July 02, 2025
Alex Delvecchio
When I was a little kid in Detroit-- a little kid who played hockey-- we all had to pick our favorite Red Wing. The most popular choice, of course, was Gordie Howe, the remarkable wing who was one of the best players in NHL history (and who owned a rink in the town north of us where sometime he would come out of the office to yell at people goofing off during free skating).
My choice, though, was Alex Delvecchio, the talented but often ignored center on the line with Howe and Ted Lindsay who just died at age 93. He was a team player who wasn't flashy; he was even known for playing with a stick with no curve to the blade so that he could shoot backhand as well as forehand.
I never met him or knew a lot about him other than how he played. But that was enough-- that is how I wanted to play, making others better. In the end, I wasn't great at that, at least on the rink, but the lesson was an important one....
Tuesday, July 01, 2025
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present... Wisconsin
Above is a map of America's drunkest counties, and you can't help but notice that it is basically a map of Wisconsin. Being in Minnesota, there is a tendency by people here to consider Wisconsin to be that one drunk neighbor who is pretty loud and when you invite him over he always brings beer, all of which he drinks himself.
And then, after he tells you about his weird politics, he goes on and on about the "Packers" and almost dares you to say something about the Vikings. I usually shrug and say that I am a Lions fan, which confuses them. (Wisconsinites are often that way, it seems).
Monday, June 30, 2025
On the long days
Only three poems this week, but fortunately they were good!
We had this anonymous entry:
Walking in sunshine
Is better than in darkness
I can see my path.
Is better than in darkness
I can see my path.
And this from our winner, Christine:
Late in the eve'ning
Distant fireworks explode
With the setting sun.
Distant fireworks explode
With the setting sun.
And another anonymous:
I embrace the green
One with leaves,blades of grass,I
Inhale sweetness,peace.
One with leaves,blades of grass,I
Inhale sweetness,peace.
Sunday, June 29, 2025
Sunday Reflection: Among the Chosen
On this past Friday, I walked from work down LaSalle to the Plymouth Congregational church for a meeting of the Justice for All Coalition that I co-founded a few years ago. It's a big urban church that I didn't know, so I wasn't sure how to get in for the meeting. I tried four doors, and they were all locked.
Eventually I spotted people going into a basement doorway, and others coming out with food. Happy to have finally found a portal into the building, I headed in the door.
A friendly guy at the door asked what I needed, and I tried to explain my predicament. He nodded and happily brought me to the end of a line nearby. I figured, at first, that it was a line to get into the church, perhaps through metal detectors (this was so soon after the political murders here, and state legislators were coming to the meeting).
I started to talk to the others in line, and it became clear that I was in the food shelf line-- the church hosts the Groveland Food Shelf for people in need-- rather than some line to get into the church.
Luckily I had (uncharacteristically) arrived a little early so I stayed in the line, long enough to see the food that was being distributed. I enjoyed the company and was really impressed with the food, which included lots of the things I buy for myself, which it should. The people in line were friendlier than the people in other parts of my life.
After a while, I headed off to the meeting (without taking food). It was such a worthwhile diversion. I was tempted to write here that I was "mistaken for someone in need," but the truth is that I was, I am, someone in need-- and that moment fed my soul.
Saturday, June 28, 2025
A great song
I always liked this song-- but not until recently did I know that Prince wrote it and gave it to the Bangles:
Friday, June 27, 2025
Haiku Friday: The Long Days
It's that time of year when the days are the longest, something that is especially significant if you live here in the North. So let's haiku about that this week. Here, I will go first:
The long long twilight
I love the subtle colors
Pink red purple black.
Now it is your turn! Just use the 5/7/5 syllable formula and have some fun!
Thursday, June 26, 2025
PMT: New York tea leaves
On Tuesday, New York voters in the Democratic primary for mayor delivered a surprising victory to NYC State Representative Zohran Momdani, who won by a surprising margin over former Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Momdani was little known before the campaign, and is only 33 years old-- about half the age of Cuomo. He ran a vigorous campaign that emphasized get out on the streets, while Cuomo stuck mainly to staged appearances in the usual places.
The outsider beat the establishment candidate, and some are signaling this as a sign that perhaps Democrats are no longer going to listen so closely to the old heads who told them to support Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, as it was their turn. I sure hope so. I agree with Karen Tumulty at the Washington Post, who suspects that the result is connected to a "Biden hangover."
It was about a decade ago that IPLawGuy looked around at Biden and Trump and Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and said "these people are old." I think you can throw in Netanyahu and Putin, too. Anyways, they are all ten years older than that now, and the desire for generational change after the painful Trump-Biden campaign is growing. Of course, in 2024 that desire for generational change did not get Kamala Harris over the hump... but I sense the mood has changed since then, even in these short months.
It might be that the 2026 elections are a bloodbath for incumbents. I jus hope they leave the good ones!
Wednesday, June 25, 2025
It's the off-season for mascots
Football season is a few months off. Basketball season is in the rear view mirror. It's the off-season for mascots, but that is kind of my favorite time to spot them-- like Goldy Gopher crashing a wedding, pictured above. Or making music videos:
The one Big Ten mascot who genuinely gives me the creeps, though, is the Purdue Boiler-head guy, who apparently spends his summer at the Jersey Shore. I'm ok with the Big Ten expansion, at least in part because now we get more of the wacky antics of Donald Duck knockoff, the Oregon Duck:
Hurry, football season!
Tuesday, June 24, 2025
Maybe he'll be great!
One thing history has shown us is that when the US participates actively in Middle East wars, we become a target of terrorism. That means that over the next several years we will have to be especially vigilant to prevent another 9/11.
Speaking of which, Pro Publica (always a good read) has a fascinating piece up about the current head of the Department of Homeland Security's Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships, which leads nationwide efforts to fight terrorism and targeted violence. That would be Thomas Fugate, pictured above in the Pro Publica article.
Mr. Fugate graduated from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2024, worked on the Trump campaign and had an internship at the Heritage Foundation. Which, um, well, he did do Model UN! But give him time-- he is only 22.
The anti-terrorism unit doesn't have so many people to supervise anymore, it turns out. It's gone from about 80 employees to less than 20 in this administration, consistent with a lot of other agencies and divisions that would seem to be pretty important.
Of course, this is just one of many governmental units (including the FBI) which are tasked with fighting terrorism. Still, it does seem that its main job-- nurturing partnerships to detect and fight terrorism-- would be pretty important right now.
But then again... maybe he'll be great!
Monday, June 23, 2025
On dissent!
Wonderful work this week! There were two from Christine. This came in on Friday:
At local rally
I am not alone; No KINGS
Community strength
(My sign said NOPE (the E a crown))
I am not alone; No KINGS
Community strength
(My sign said NOPE (the E a crown))
And this one on Sunday:
My No Kings signage
Is not sufficient for my
Anger this morning.
Is not sufficient for my
Anger this morning.
I loved this anonymous one:
Sign I carried read
“We have a constitution,
Not a king.” Amen.
“We have a constitution,
Not a king.” Amen.
And this:
They’re coming for us
In black with covered faces
Please don’t look away.
In black with covered faces
Please don’t look away.
Des went to the memory bank:
We came with signs, hats.
Women’s March made history.
A fam’ly affair!
Women’s March made history.
A fam’ly affair!
And I agree with Tim:
That's not the right way
With your guns and knives and hate
Peaceful protest wins.
With your guns and knives and hate
Peaceful protest wins.
And this anonymous one:
Defended clinics.
Now, existential danger
Requires action.
Now, existential danger
Requires action.
And another:
The fingers of fear
Clutch hearts, still we march,knowing
No other way: Fight!
Clutch hearts, still we march,knowing
No other way: Fight!
Sunday, June 22, 2025
Sunday Reflection: And what of the Gaserenes?
I have always loved this passage from Luke 8:
26Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. 27As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. 28When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me”— 29for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) 30Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” He said, “Legion”; for many demons had entered him. 31They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss. 32Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. 33Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned. 34
There is so much going on here! First of all, you have a guy who is so tormented that he is living naked in "the tombs," and then he thinks that Jesus is not there to help him, but to torment him. And then-- and I have thought about this a lot over the years-- he says that his name is "Legion," because so many demons were inside of him.
Ok, here is the twist: the demons, not wanting to go back to the "abyss," ask Jesus to send them into some nearby pigs-- and Jesus does it! Why is Jesus granting this grace to, you know, demons? And then the new hosts of the demons plunge to their deaths in the lake.
The Gerasenes, a mixed population of Jews and Gentiles, were the real losers in all of this as their herd was destroyed. They are one of several bystanders who end up the loser in the Bible (most prominently, I remember the multitudes who followed Moses through the Red Sea but were swallowed up).
I'd like to think that Jesus then somehow made the Gerasenes whole, but it could be that there is an inherent judgment of them in all this, as they had not taken care of the man with the demons.
Whenever I read a story about Jesus, I think about which character I am. Too often, we make ourselves Jesus-- but that just is not who we are, right? So in this story I think we are Gerasenes (or Gaderenes in some other Gospels)-- the people who did not take the man out of the tombs, clothe him, and tend to his needs.
That is the reading that is consistent with the rest of what Jesus taught, where over and over we are told to care for those in need....
