Questionable Politicians

For anyone who thinks I only pick on Republicans, I point out Robert Menendez. While his trial and questioning is still going on which makes any comment about his guilt or innocence difficult to defend, I want to clearly affirm that people who find public service serviceable to their bank accounts should all be locked up, and not in Club Fed.

When you vote, and I hope all my American readers are registered regardless of which party they favor, pay attention to where the money supporting your candidate comes from. Here in Utah we have a de facto one party system because of the dominant religion. They don't have to raise money for elections because they are guaranteed a win but nevertheless they take thousands of dollars from the Koch brothers and their various political PACs. Since Citizens United (thank you Justice Roberts), unlimited money flows to politicians without any names attached. But in Utah, Mormon Republicans win regardless of who they are or what they say. So why are they asking for money?
 
Crooked people are crooked people regardless of what party they represent.

What Qualifies As Normal?

It is Tuesday, August 29th. This past four days (and the entire summer) we have set records for high temperatures. Yesterday was 98F and today it's 97F. That's part of the problem with Hurricane Harvey. We have a high pressure zone far above us that is preventing what used to be considered the normal weather patterns preventing the wind from moving through and pushing Harvey further.

The further used to be out to sea to become a tropical storm, but now the tropical storm is just slugging its way to Louisiana. Unfortunately, Louisiana is already under sea level and sinking. That's partly because of the geography and partly because oil companies moved in.

Every day that Salt Lake City has temperatures far above normal, 10 degrees today, means another day that the Gulf Coast suffers.

Trump's EPA chief, Scott Pruitt, is still playing the ostrich game. 

Oh Hell No!

Arpaio finally realized that by accepting the pardon he was admitting guilt. So now his lawyers are asking that his conviction be expunged, claiming that the pardon shows that he wasn't guilty in the first place.

Ironically Funny

Trump pardoned Joe Arpaio on Friday, after his conviction for disobeying a court order. This was cause for finger pointing and scathing remarks from both sides of the aisle, not only that it happened, but that Trump waited until Hurricane Harvey was slamming into Texas to do so.

The more interesting question for me is whether Arpaio has accepted the pardon. It is a fairly long-standing and well-understood principle that if someone accepts a pardon, that person tacitly admits guilt. Since Arpaio always claimed that the law was wrong and the court rulings were wrong he also claimed that he couldn't possibly be guilty. By accepting Trump's pardon, that goes out the window.

"There is solid legal precedent that acceptance of a pardon is equivalent to confession of guilt. A U.S. Supreme Court case from 1915 called Burdick v. U.S. establishes that principle; it has never been overturned."

Everyone who listened to the news or read a newspaper since Friday night knows Trump pardoned Arpaio, but I haven't seen any reporting that Arpaio accepted yet.

Tomatoes and Stone Fruit

This time of year where I live we have abundant home-grown, heirloom tomatoes, and local stone fruit. A few years ago, I clipped a recipe from the Wall Street Journal for a panzanella with both tomatoes and stone fruit. While it sounds sort of odd, the results are delicious. The original recipe calls for burrata, which is good and traditional, but we like it with soft goat cheese for the extra tangy flavor. The other adaptation we made was to brown the bread in a pan on the stove rather than in the oven which heats up the house more.

2 cups cubed sourdough bread or ciabatta
6 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 large or 2 medium tomatoes cut into 1/2 inch wedges
1 large peach or nectarine cut into 1/2 wedges
1/4 cup thinly sliced basil
1 small shallot, very thinly sliced
1 tablespoon Sherry vinegar or similar vinegar
2 balls burrata (or fresh goat cheese)

Toss the bread cubes with 4 tablespoons of olive oil and some salt and pepper. Brown them in the oven at 375F or in a shallow pan on the stove then set aside.

In a large bowl toss the tomato, peach, and basil. Season with salt and pepper and let sit for 10 minutes (can be longer as well). Place the sliced shallot in some ice water for 8 minutes then drain and dry and add to the bowl.

When you are almost ready to serve, add the croutons to the bowl  with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and the vinegar, and let sit for a few minutes while all the flavors blend and the bread absorbs some of the juice from the tomato and the peach or nectarine.

Serve on a plate with some burrata or goat cheese on the side.


The other peach recipe I have made recently is the peach and lime galette from Yotam Ottolenghi. You can find that recipe online or in The Guardian.

Experiment

I finished the newest block today and posted a photo. The experiment is to see if anyone comes to see it, including my new best friend, Anne Kirby. Chances are the non-political posts won't get much in the way of views. Chances are Anne Kirby won't look even though she questions whether I quilt at all.

Anyway, I hope you like the block. In the meantime, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, has recommended that Trump reduce the size of several national monuments, including Sequoia National Monument, Bears Ears, and The Grand Staircase. I name those three because they are emblematic of the politicization of the process and the product. Zinke was inundated by lumber companies that want to log the Sequoia monument, so he made a plan that literally protected individual trees rather than a space. That makes sense, right? Although I do not play the game it sounds rather like playing Pokemon, moving from place to place trying to find a sequoia. Good job, Zinke. Typical of this stupid administration.

The other two monuments I named are largely or entirely in Utah. They contain a variety of places, including ancient dwelling places and rock art, that are important to various native American tribes. These sites have been attacked by looters for decades, despite the complaints of the tribes. So the tribes requested that something be done to protect what remains. Five different tribes with ties to the Bears Ears asked for relief from the depredations of white men. On the other side was the entire Utah congressional delegation, Mormon Republicans, who want to open the land to extractive industries. These are federal lands, owned by all Americans. One would hope that the Native American tribes would at least have a voice in how they are treated.

Zinke was incredibly dismissive and incredibly rude when he was here in Utah. He shook his finger in a young Native American's face, chastising her for being rude. Really.

Rose Bouquet Completed

I finished the Rose Bouquet block today including the embroidery touches. There aren't many of those besides what are called rose hairs. Below is the photo.

I still haven't trimmed this block but I think it looks nice, with the contrast of light and dark greens and the two colors of roses.

Hurricanes

My old hometown is expected to be hit head on by Hurricane Harvey in the next two days. Corpus Christi, Texas, is in the middle of the bend of the Texas coast. There were two more or less direct hits when I was resident there, and a few other glancing blows since then. Our house was damaged both times but I still remember Hurricane Carla as being one of the most fun days I have ever spent.

We had just moved to Corpus from Monterey, California, and we were settling in, getting all four kids into the schools while also figuring out what house we would have and where it would be. In the meantime we were staying in temporary housing that felt like Army issue. When the hurricane hit, my brother and I and one of my sisters, went out into the front yard and experimented with the rain and the wind. We leaned into the wind to see what angle we could reach. We leaned backward into the wind as well to see if the wind could support us.

I also remembering finding a huge chunk of amethyst rock that had been revealed by the wind and the rain. I kept that chunk for several years. When the power went out, my mother made us come in where she had all the candles in the house lit. Since we still had excess energy from the fun we had just had, we were given the assignment of making game boards. My brother finished first, drawing and coloring a Parcheesi board, and we played Parcheesi until bedtime. 

Why Can't Hillary Clinton Just Shut Up?

Many of you are probably wondering why I am even talking about Mrs. Clinton let alone pleading that she close her mouth, retire, enjoy her grandchildren, etc.

Clinton was a terrible candidate. She was a terrible candidate for multiple reasons but all of them ultimately come home to Mrs. Clinton herself. Every time she had a debate, I was yelling at the screen that her entire performance, and those debates are performances, was skewed to attacking Trump rather than presenting her own ideas. She never excited a base or their ancillary friends and neighbors.

So now she is on television saying that Trump made her skin crawl when he walked behind her. Come on, give me a break. She's been married to the most creepy guy who ever was president so she obviously knows how to make that man back up and beg for forgiveness. Perhaps if she had done that, the results would have been different.

Probably not given that Wisconsin suppressed enough votes to give Trump those electoral college votes.

Strange Encounter

My husband and I walk our two dogs early in the morning. On weekdays it's usually just to a park three blocks away where our terrier can chase his glow ball and the hound can be a hound, but on the weekends we go the other direction up the canyon by our house. Most of the time it's just beginning to be light so by the time we get back to the salt storage amphitheater there is enough light for the terrier to work on his frisbee skills.

This morning, however, it was quite a bit earlier, very dark when we left the house at 5 and still dark when we were coming back down the hill. Now this canyon is partly wild and partly groomed and the creek that runs through it is a water source for the city so there are some weirs and some catchment ponds. There is a wide variety of animal life hanging in the woods and the ponds, and many of the city's less fortunate citizens camp out in the deeper sections of woods. We see deer very frequently, beaver occasionally, rabbits and hares, and a wide variety of birds from bank swallows to turkeys and kingfishers and ducks. More rarely we see foxes and coyotes, usually from a longer distance than the deer, but sometimes right in front of our house.

This morning, when it was still quite dark, we saw two canidae walking up the sidewalk coming toward us. This was on the way back home so we were out of the wilder area and in to the purely residential space--paved roads, sidewalks, automatic sprinklers. It was so dark and they were about half a block away so we couldn't even be sure what they were. They seemed too tall to be coyotes and too small to be wolves but they could be some sort of hybrid of the two. One of the two quickly stepped off the sidewalk and went behind a house but the other one stood there for a bit staring at us. Then it backed up and kept backing up down one of the side streets always keeping an eye on us. Chances are it had already eaten its fill of the feral cats in the area plus with two dogs on leashes and two humans, we presented as a stronger pack than he had. When it got to the next intersection, it turned up the street and disappeared from view.

It was such a strange encounter that the whole day seemed changed.

Dog Whistles

You know how a dog whistle works, right? The sound emitted from the whistle is too high pitched for human ears but every dog in the neighborhood is going nuts. Well Trump blew a dog whistle today with this comment, "Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart."

Taking down statues of Confederate generals from public spaces used by all or taking down Confederate flags from public spaces used by all is in no way ripping apart the history of the country. Trump needs some history and civics lessons but the dog whistle part is saying that the statues represent "the...culture of our great country." White supremacists everywhere always claim that anyone who isn't white is destroying the culture of the country. Besides the ridiculous notion that this nation even has a white culture of any kind, our famous melting pot is many cultures thrown together. It's more of a tossed salad or crazy quilt than a melting pot with a falafel place next to a sushi place next to your favorite Italian deli. But if we make an effort, we make it work.

The culture that the Confederacy embraced was built on the backs of enslaved men, women, and children who had no choices in their lives--no choices about anything. The culture that the Confederacy embraced depended on poor whites in the backwoods, too, especially when it came to rebelling against the United States itself. This is not a culture that deserves respect. And yes, I do have ancestors who fought for the "glorious cause". Of course they are still racists today which is just another reason not to preserve that culture.

Stand Up, Be Recognized

Trump is still belligerently defending his stance about the confrontation in Charlottesville. He keeps repeating that the counter-protesters had no permit, underscoring his ignorance of how permits work. All of the heads of service, Army, Marines, Navy, and Air Force, made firm denials of Trump's tacit acceptance of racial bigotry and cultural anger.

Why more people don't stand up to oppose Trump is beyond me. I call on John Kelly and Gary Cohn to stand up for what's right. I don't want to silence people, I want those who recognize the flaws to stand up. If we don't stand up, we tacitly acquiesce. Do you want to do that?

Completely Delusional

After the melee in Charlottesville Saturday, Trump blamed all sides. Then Monday, after nearly everyone in the White House and millions of people in the country and around the world expressed dismay and disgust at his statement, Trump read a statement written by Stephen Miller that seemed to agree that the KKK, neo-Nazis, and other members of far right white people's parties are despicable.Then today, Tuesday, Trump once again blamed all people in Charlottesville.

So what I want to know is when did it become okay to be a Nazi? When did it become okay to join the KKK? How does anyone think that Nazis and the KKK are redeemable? Both sides are not in any way, shape, or form equal in either goals or culpability. Standing up against these hate groups is laudable.

Apparently Trump thinks that being thanked by David Duke is good. How crazy is that?

Block Complete Except for Trimming and Pressing

I finished the Album Bouquet block and put on the embroidery touches. It is pretty impressive in complexity. Check it out below. I tried to make the spine of the album look a little three-dimensional with the cross strips but not that successfully. I also used two different burgundy fabrics, one slightly darker but both and the tan parts with a pattern that in small pieces resembles leather. What do you think?

If you are quilters, you know to ignore the blue ink at this point.

Nearly Done

I finished most of the Album Bouquet today. All that is left is the few berries that didn't need to be applied before other elements. I think the album turned out well and once I post pictures I hope some of you make comments, even if you hate it.

People are upset that Trump has not specifically decried the alt-right gathering in Charlottesville. I don't know why they would expect him to disavow his supporters. I am still waiting for a statement about the mosque bombing in Minnesota, but so far Trump says he is waiting until he knows if it was a "fake" attack. By fake racists, perhaps?

I hope all you Trumpettes like the world you create.  

Abbondanza!

Now, in mid-August, our tomato season has started. We have been eating some of the Sungolds and some Early Girls but the real big boys, German Johnsons, Old Germans, and Comstock are ripening.

This is a Comstock with a marker next to it to give you some scale. It isn't the biggest tomato we have ever grown because it only weighs 1 pound 2.2 ounces, a little more than half a kilogram. We once grew a 3 pound tomato. The best part is that the Comstock seeds were the "gift" seeds to thank us for our order. We have eaten one already and it was absolutely delicious.

Progress On a Different Front

I have been chronicling our issues with the documents and ephemera that we recently got from my husband's late mother. Even though she died ten years ago, no one in Hawaii took any action to clear out and/or preserve anything from her house, leaving it to the elements in Hawaii.

Anyway, the calligraphy panels, the last shipment from Hawaii, have been translated and identified. All of them are from early 20th century political figures in Japan. Obviously at the time, Japan was stretching its militaristic power which is one reason we have had so much trouble finding a home for this stuff. But frankly, even if this is the Pacific theater equivalent of Hitler's diaries or Goehring's memoir, a true historian would still find original documents or ephemera interesting. We certainly aren't looking for money, having just spent a pile of money to send these calligraphy panels to a restorer in Tokyo.

Panel number one is written by Goto Shinpei (you can look all these guys up on Wikipedia):

"A great distance does not distract from the feeling (relationship) of endearment; feeling as though a dear one far away were living in one's close neighborhood."

Panel number two is written by Saito Makoto:

"Without the trust of the people, nothing is possible even if you have money or power. With the trust of the people, anything can be possible."

Panel number three is written by Tokugawa Iesato :

"Arrogance will bring you loss (on the other hand), Modesty will bring benefit. This is how a leader should be."

Even though we have no idea what we will do or can do with these panels, they are worth preserving even if it is only for their artistic presence.

The panels are now in Tokyo being evaluated for repair. Two are in reasonable shape and one is very fragile (Goto Shinpei)  although its fragility has exposed an accounting sheet behind it, a palimpsest, which is equally fascinating.

If anyone out there has a home for these goods, please let us know. We want them to go to a good home and we have already taken steps to preserve them.

Please pay attention to the language of these panels. Though Japan was very belligerent and militaristic, these panels still reflect the hopes that reasonable people have in the 21st century.

Halfway, More or Less

I really do enjoy applique. I like picking the patterns, and picking the fabrics, and making all the little pieces. I like learning techniques I haven't tried, and perfecting the ones I know already.

Here is the Album Bouquet Block from the current project. It is about halfway done although some of the heavy lifting got done very early on. The background fabric is pretty crumpled, as it gets when you hand sew and if that bottom piece is as crooked in real life as it looks in this photo (I don't think it is because I lined it up with the cross woven threads of the fabrics), then I will fix it. So far so good.

Trump and Kim Jong Un are trading threats like WWF wrestlers. As long as that's all they trade we will be okay but neither one of these madmen has a clue what he is doing.

Good Books

Having been a reader since the age of two I am somewhat indiscriminate in my tastes. While I would never read a Mary Higgins Clark (I made that mistake once), I do like a good mystery. I recently discovered the works of Adrian McKinty. Unfortunately our local library only has two of his many books so I have been doing the Amazon bit.

Another recent good read was Trajectory, by Richard Russo. I have written about some of his novels before but this new book is four short stories. The language is enthralling. Anyone who appreciates good writing would like this book even if that person doesn't ordinarily like short stories.

Bucket Lists (Do You Have One?)

Several years ago, my previous primary care doctor said that in her experience, men don't have bucket lists. I don't agree or disagree with that statement as a rule, but certainly the men in my life don't have bucket lists. I told my husband a long time ago that I didn't want to die without .... So my list had items such as walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, seeing the Cliffs of Moher, seeing Hagia Sofia. I have lived a pretty charmed life so the items that require trips have been moving forward. My husband, whose undergraduate degree was called Architectural Science (that involved no science as far as I can tell and precious little architecture), enjoys going with me to see famous buildings or bridges, a particular favorite of mine. I mean some of those bridges are still used nearly 1000 years later. We walked across the oldest bridge in France that is still in daily use a few years ago and the engineering of the original bridge is a marvel. Even some of my tutees, after I described bridges and flooding engineering in Toulouse and showed them the photos we had, were amazed and delighted.

Anyway, what's on your bucket list? My husband always tells people that I have plans and he follows me. That's demonstrably untrue, but he certainly follows my wanderlust now that he is retired.

Progress On Block

I have finished part of the Album Bouquet block. The vase with all its reverse applique and curlicue handles is done. Several of the flowers around the edges of the bouquet are complete including a few of the pleated thistles. The colors are bright pinks and purples so far, though there are some red roses to come and some flowers that the pattern calls to be blue but I am still thinking about that. I like yellow flowers-tulips, roses, zinnias, sunflowers--and the designer didn't allow for many yellow flowers but each individual sewer gets to pick her own colors.

I like doing reverse applique. I know some people find it difficult or irritating but with freezer paper templates it really is easy. I still have three full blocks and three full borders to sew so I won't be finishing this any time soon. And that's just the applique and dogtooth sashing. Then comes the quilting.

I have that big old Renaissance Revival bed for when the quilt finished. Right now we have the Indiana Bullseye quilt on the bed. Most of the other quilts in the house are buried in our upstairs TV room since the bedroom where they usually reside is the room attached to the continuing bathroom project is located. The tile floor went in today, not the grout but the tile--yippee!

Now if we can avoid war with North Korea. Given two completely mental leaders, that may not be possible.  

Viewpoint

My comments over the last couple of days have reflected my own experiences working with high school students. With few exceptions the students who come to me are born in the US and citizens from birth but a large percentage of them are born to parents who would not gain entry to the country under the proposed new guidelines. Their parents tend to be poor and are non-English speaking. The languages these students speak at home are French, Russian, Spanish, Arabic, Farsi, Korean, German, Vietnamese, and Chinese.

Because I have been offering my services for so long, I even have perspective and data on what happens next. The students gain admission to colleges and universities such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Harvey Mudd, Princeton, Wesleyan, Berkeley, USC, and UCLA among others. They are challenged by their educations and rise to meet those challenges. They become scientists, doctors, investment advisors, economists, etc.

But none of them could achieve these goals if the proposal becomes the guidelines. We are not better off as a nation if we exclude these students. If we need to restrict entry then restrict the numbers not the candidates. If we stop being the country of dreams, we will be broken. 

What Does Country Mean?

A lovely woman named Sherry attached a comment to my H2B Visas Revisited post pointing out that Canada already has immigration rules that mirror those proposed by Trump. Well, duh? Even the Trump administration said that they had checked the rules for Canada and Australia and then added special rules for the United States. Then Sherry added that her grandparents only spoke Italian when they arrived in the US but learned English to survive.

Guess what, Sherry, your grandparents would not have been admitted to the US under the current rules because they didn't speak English when they arrived. They probably wouldn't have been admitted under other parts of the new proposed point system because they probably didn't have jobs already (even if they had skills), and they probably didn't have money in the bank already. So dear Sherry, you would not be a US citizen under the new proposed point system. Feel better now?  

Lovely Sherry also added that it was very expensive to teach people English when they came to the country without the language. Dear Sherry, how do you think your grandparents, who would be so proud of you now, learned the language? Are you saying that they shouldn't have been allowed in?

As I have written before, my husband and I visited the Tenement Museum in NYC some time ago. Sherry should go, although my guess is she couldn't be bothered. The building went from being in what was called Little Germany in 1863 when it opened as a tenement (at that time it only meant a multi-person dwelling), to being the home of Italian speaking immigrants in 1923, the last time it was a private dwelling. My grandfather may have even lived in the building since in 1888, when he was 13 years old, he was apprenticed to the Brewster Carriage Company, which building is now fancy condos ($1M base price for a studio) around the corner from the Tenement Museum, and in 1888 the predominant language was still German.

Sherry, and all her ilk, would have us protected from foreign influences, that she believes destroy America. She believes that teaching people English is too expensive for any  community to bear. I might just go Anthony Scaramucci on Sherry but what I want to ask her is, "E lei, parlei l'Italiano?"

H2B Visas Revisited

Now that White House aide Stephen Miller has introduced Trump's new immigration plan that cuts by 50% the number of immigrants allowed in to the country and requires that they speak English, have a job,  and bring money with them, his Mar a Lago request for 30 H2B visa workers makes more sense. The idea that it creates deliberately a permanent underclass of workers seems not to have occurred to those in the White House.  It is appalling that Trump's proposal might even be taken seriously but even more appalling was Miller's attitude and performance. That was capped by Sarah Huckabee Sanders saying, "That was fun!" when she took the microphone back.

Most of us have forebears not even that far back who came here with no English language skills and nothing but hope for a future including Trump's own grandfather. There are plenty of places in the United States where German is still the dominant language. My grandfather was born in Binghamton, NY, but he was the first in his family to be born in the United States. He ended up speaking three languages, the German and Yiddish that he spoke at home and in his community, and the English he learned at school. He also ended up a multimillionaire, starting a factory that is still producing goods in the US and moving from an apprentice to a carriage maker to owning a factory that made parts for NASA.  Everyone in the United States is enriched by those who only come with dreams.

As Any Father Would

Sarah Huckabee Sanders undermined Trump's lawyer yesterday by admitting that Trump had helped formulate the initial statement about Jr.'s meeting with the Russians at Trump Tower. Jay Sekulow had repeatedly stated that Trump had nothing whatsoever to do with the entire affair and besides it was inconsequential. But Sanders told the press that Trump had helped his son "...as any father would."

That got me thinking about what that really means. Jr. is 38 years old, the father of five children, and he took the meeting with the Russians at Trump Tower because he thought he would get "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. Then, of course, he got caught with his pants down and his father stepped in "...as any father would". That's obviously what's wrong with this whole crew. Responsible fathers would not lie for their adult children to prevent them from getting in trouble. Responsible fathers would make even their minor children admit fault in order to teach a valuable lesson. As I know all too well that isn't the current model for parents who are more than willing to lie and cheat for their children, but widespread unethical behavior doesn't change it into ethical behavior.