Wednesday, December 14, 2016

News of the Administration and Hummingbirds

An excellent article from the New Yorker was referenced in Steve Reed's blog this morning, and I thank him for bringing it to our attention. The article addresses the impact of Trump's victory on Mr. Obama's legacy.  It's extremely well written.  Below is a small excerpt.
Still, his triumph, or the idea of it, was not beyond prediction. The fissures and frustrations in the American electorate were nothing new, and some commentators were notably alert to them. Before and after the election, a passage from Richard Rorty’s 1998 book, “Achieving Our Country,” circulated on social media. Rorty, a left-leaning philosopher, who died in 2007, predicted that the neglected working class would not tolerate its marginalization for long.
“Something will crack,” he wrote:  The nonsuburban electorate will decide that the system has failed and start looking around for a strongman to vote for—someone willing to assure them that, once he is elected, the smug bureaucrats, tricky lawyers, overpaid bond salesmen, and postmodernist professors will no longer be calling the shots. . . . One thing that is very likely to happen is that the gains made in the past forty years by black and brown Americans, and by homosexuals, will be wiped out. Jocular contempt for women will come back into fashion. . . . All the resentment which badly educated Americans feel about having their manners dictated to them by college graduates will find an outlet.
So, I get why Trump carried non-college educated white males, but I still am at a loss as to why so many women voted for him.

In other news of the administration, Rick Perry (former Texas governor and Dancing With the Stars contestant)  has been named director of the Department of Energy.  As you no doubt recall, the DOE was one of the three departments Perry promised to get rid of if elected.  It was also the department whose name he could not remember during the debates.  The two directors of the DOE under Mr. Obama were both physicists.  One has a Nobel prize, and the other taught at MIT.  Perry has a bachelor's in animal science.  DOE is responsible for many very technical and complicated things, not the least of which is the maintenance of the nuclear arsenal.  They also develop technologies to detect and deter nuclear testing and smuggling, and to support international nonproliferation treaties.  One wonders how on earth the people reporting to Perry will be able to communicate with him.  He doesn't have the vocabulary or the knowledge to follow the technical details.  This appointment is just astonishing to me.

In weather news, tomorrow is the last good climate day for awhile in Tucson.  Tomorrow will bring record breaking warm temperatures, followed by rain on Friday and then highs in the 60s.   Pity us as we suffer through the colder temperatures.  Kidding, just kidding.  I am so happy not to be in the northern tier states right now!

We'll end with hummingbirds because they still make me happy.





6 comments:

  1. Thank goodness for the hummingbirds...we need nature to keep us sane in these crazy times!

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  2. What's even more amazing to me are the college educated women who voted for Trump.
    You are getting some great hummingbird photos!

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  3. "the other worked at MIT". I'm presuming you are referring to Mr.Moniz. His chief claim to fame within the Dept. of Energy was to help with negotiation of the Iran nuclear "deal". How did that work out for us?

    Give me a break. Others who have successfully run DOE were also politicians, some of whom also called for getting rid of the Department. Perry ran a huge bureaucracy called Texas. He'll do fine. At least as well as those over-educated academic left-leaning elitists. But I do love your hummingbird photos.

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    1. Well, so far Iran does not have nukes, so that's a plus.
      I personally think calling for the disbanding of the DOE without a plan for taking care of the bombs is just stupid policy.
      Do you really think that all educated people are elitists? Can one even be over educated, for that matter.
      You're welcome to your opinions Ed, but spare me the vitriol in the comments.

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    2. No vitriol on my part. Just keeping it fair & balanced. All educated people are not elitists. I'm one...and I'm not. Just those "over"-educated ones in the current administration, as evidenced by their track record. The proof is in the pudding, as they say. Regardless, I still like hummingbirds.

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  4. I've not been reading here lately. I think I've missed quite a bit. Hope you are well.

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