Reading the book "Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art". I've some reservations about the level of detail and the rather literary preludes to each chapter, but the gist is eye-opening. Science has learned so much more about Neanderthals than I realized. Modern technology has enabled very detailed reconstructions.
The bottom line is the species knew what they were doing.
That doesn't mean that Gov. Abbott knows what he's doing.
Crocus blooming along Reston parkway, school buses on the roads, hints of buds on trees, onion sets planted in garden. Sun streaming into my windows (which are really patio doors used as windows.
Right about unnecessary government regulations, that is.
My wife and I had to set up a new account with our bank this week. The number of questions one has to answer has gone up (like are you closely related to any corrupt foreign leader?) and the number of pages of legalese which one has to ignore has expanded. No doubt this keeps a number of lawyers in full employment, but it seems foolish. It seems as though there should be an easier way.
Having vented my frustration, I realize what we have here is an arms war between competing sets of attorneys--both sets aiming to obtain the most money they can for themselves and their clients, with one set on the side of right and the public interest and the other set on the side of enterprise.
And no, Trump wasn't right. He represents the extreme of one side of the arms war.
Thanks to someone (on the right but I forget the name) I looked up the Carter-Baker Federal election commission.
A blast from the past is this paragraph on the commission's homepage:
Full Report PDF (7.6MB) or Text Only
(Download will take approximately 20 minutes on a dial-up connection, 4 minutes on a cable or dsl connection, and under 30 seconds on a LAN.)
Apparently the report failed to attract support, perhaps for reasons indicated by the dissent. Personally I like the idea of standard photo ID for voting, but that's my nerd/bureaucrat coming out. I'd spend a few billion to get those IDs into the hands of everyone (including the majority of Native Americans (or possibly only Navaho members) who don't have individual mail service.)) and the very old, and then phase in use of the requirement. I know liberals don't like this, and it's reasonable to say it's not cost-effective: the amount of electoral fraud due to identity fraud is small.
But, and it's a big but, many on the right don't trust the system. Republicans have lost the popular vote in seven of the last eight elections, and that trend is likely to continue, meaning the distrust will only increase.
So my grand bargain (which I've posted about before) is phase in photo-id of everyone, along with basic data (i.e., citizen/non citizen, age) to be used for election verification and for employment verification (E=Verify). The right get assurance about election validity and strong immigration enforcement; the left gets voting eligibility for everyone in national elections. I think it's a reasonable deal but I'm not optimistic.
Kevin Drum posted concerning Republican belief in democracy, taking the position that Republicans believe in democracy, just that many do not believe in the integrity of the election process.
I commented on it, but didn't mention that it triggered a memory of a government course in my freshman year (I think--it was taught by a professor who later became head of Johns Hopkins--Steven Muller--I did not know he had a movie career.)
Professor Muller taught a course in political thought, which included Rousseau's theory of the "general will", with his rather vague, IMO, ideas on how society determines the general will. I didn't know Muller's background (Jewish refugee from prewar Germany) before today, so I don't really know whether I'm stating my own conclusions or was influenced by his take on Rousseau.
There's the contrast between the European take on democracy, following Rousseau, and the Anglo-Saxon (that's probably not a politically correct term these days) take of Locke et.al. who emphasize process and the protection of individual rights by means of institutional arrangements.
It seems that Republicans now are drifting away from the Lockean position, losing faith in institutions, and relying more on the comforting idea that they are the party of the real America.
I read "Skunk Works" recently. For those who don't remember, it was a unit of Lockheed Aircraft which developed innovative planes, particularly the U-2, the stealth fighter, and the RB-71. By having good people dedicated to the job led by someone who could navigate the bureaucracy and still inspire, it did damn well.
They were not involved in the F-111 program, known to geezers as McNamara's TFX. It seems from the wikipedia article for it that it turned out okay, but back in the day it was heavily criticized for being over-complicates and too expensive as a result of McNamara's pet idea--have one plane which could serve both the Navy and Air Force.
My initial reaction when reading this Salon piece on the F-35 was to remember the TFX.
Been doing a little research re: Pigford suits and came across this listing of relevant legal documents.
The last ones relate to "cy pres". It seems to refer to a legal proceeding allowing a judge to apply some judgment when needed. In the case of Pigford, apparently there was some money left over because approved Pigford II claimants failed to cash their check or follow through--$12 million+ to be exact.
So in 2018 Judge Friedman approved the distribution of the money, splitting it among many different organizations.
Been in the garden yesterday and today. The long range forecast is for temps above freezing, the snow is gone, and the soil is in good shape.
So aching muscles but the satisfaction of doing something physical.
Zach Ducheneaux is from South Dakota and a Native American, the first for FSA. USDA announcement.
Gloria Montano Greene is nominated to be Deputy Undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation. She has been state executive director for Arizona in the Obama administration, while Ducheneaux isn't shown as having any FSA experience.
I wonder--the Trump Administration reorganized USDA--IIRC they moved NRCS and FSA into the same undersecretary's remit, where it had been FAS and FSA together? Wonder if Vilsack will go back to the old organization or keep the new. The establishment of the FPAC Business Center to serve admin functions of NRCS and FSA would argue for keeping the new, but I've no idea of how well that is working nor whether there could be any advantage politically to reorganizing.
