Apples to oranges comparisons aren't helpful

Here is a data point that I looked up yesterday while thinking about how I really feel about college debt forgiveness: the tuition for one semester at the University of Iowa in 1974 (my last full-time college enrollment) was $725.

That amount TODAY would be about $4,300 but would still seem like an incredible bargain.

Thinking about that led me to feel better than my initial reaction was to President Biden's plans, which was that the whole idea was a bit unfair. After all, I had to pay all my tuition and fees, even if if it was difficult (and it was). 

I also remembered that I received about $350 per month from GI Bill -- nearly three years in the Air Force qualified me for nearly three years of payments. Adjusted for inflation, that would NOW be about $2,100 per month.

Bottom line: when Boomers such as I start telling tales of working part-time and paying back loans over time and questioning the grit of current students, we are not talking apples and apples. College costs were so different 30, 40 or 50 years ago that they might as well be from the Middle Ages. 

I'm sure it's complicated. What isn't? But whatever the reasons for college tuition to have increased at least double the rest of the nation's inflation rate, people my age need to get over it. We never walked to school uphill, both ways, no matter how much we love to share our tales of woe. 

I was drafted in 1970 after losing my student deferment by being an idiot and just not attending most of my courses. That 1.6 GPA from freshman year was well-deserved. That led to my Air Force stint and a whole lot of angst. But just because I happened to get drafted (choosing enlistment instead), would it be OK if I insisted that young people today should also face a military draft? After all, I suffered, so why shouldn't everyone else?

Giant corporations have had billions in debt cancelled or otherwise modified several times in the nation's history. Some people get scholarships. Others don't. Some people are drop dead gorgeous. Others, not so much. Some people get a great mortgage rate while others missed the best rates and are hard-pressed to make payments. I get it. Life is unfair in particulars though I would argue that, over time, a lot of inequities sort themselves out.

Government often "chooses" to support certain groups or companies or occupations or ethnic groups or education levels. Every choice means some other group or occupation doesn't get the same support. But NOT to choose is its own choice, and usually unhelpful.

But the wider benefits of providing a boost to 43 million Americans -- the estimate of how many might be able to take advantage of the tuition forgiveness program -- are clear and likely to reveal themselves as important in the next decade.

No truck drivers or window washers are having money taken from them. And who says those truck drivers and window washers didn't go to some sort of tech school or traditional college? And those students saddled with overwhelming debt -- debt that colleges and the government encouraged them to take on -- are likely forcing parents and grandparents to provide help.

The Angry White People Party is predictably irate about injustice and the program, but their complaints about the "elite" getting extra money won't work. First, 43 million people can't be labeled as "the elite." Second, the rich won't get much from this program. After all, they are rich and they have lots of options to deal with debt (including not needing to borrow in the first place).

My bottom line: good for Biden and the Democrats for trying to do something to move a large, complex nation forward.

I wrote a blockbuster blog post...

And Google ate it. 

I spent 45 minutes constructing a careful argument about student debt forgiveness, concluding that the way Boomers talk about paying for college is irrelevant to current college costs.

But it's all gone, mysteriously.

I hit "publish" and something went haywire. Perhaps I will try again tomorrow, but I need to listen when technology hollers at me or frustrates me. 

Or maybe it's just fine, since my daily blogging is mostly for me to discover what I think by trying to write about current issues, classroom issues, and personal issues.

But tomorrow I will definitely copy my post to the clipboard before publishing.

Fool me once...

What happened to children being seen and not heard?

The majority of schools are back open bringing the excitement of new possibilities and new challenges and passion, worry, and surprises.

But there are plenty of "old" news stories and continuing stress on students and their ability to publish and to present their views on a wide range of issues. I don't know why the story was delayed about Northwest HS in Nebraska shutting down the school paper (the Viking Saga) on May 19, which is only getting attention now.

Not only is the Student Press Law Center involved (as we would expect) but coverage has reached the Washington Post and New York Times. The issue that prompted the school to simply shut down the paper? LGBTQIA+ rights, covered in two stories in that May issue. One story was on the history of Pride month and the second piece was an editorial opposing the Parental Rights in Education Law in Florida (known as "Don't Say Gay"). 

Administrators also deleted the journalism class, which makes sense. I mean, as long as we are silencing student voices, let's not allow any vestiges of journalism to remain. 

I'm sure someone will claim that budget limitations are at work here, and others will point out that Nebraska does not have any legal protections for student journalists... but, let's be honest, everyone understands that eliminating a media program is the ultimate form of censorship and punishment and exercising of power.

We can't let those kids challenge any of our Angry White People views on the world, after all. Why can't schools just stick to reading and writing (but only book reports on Dickens) and 'rithmetic? 

There will always be plenty of "self-censorship," which is sad but understandable. Part of living in a functioning society is developing the ability to NOT say something, just as much as learning to make your point clearly and persuasively is important. All publishers make choices and there is so much that could be published and shared, but we just can't cover it all and we don't have the time or energy to even make much of a dent.

I suppose it's good to occasionally see overt acts of censorship, much like it may turn out to be a net positive to have the U.S. Supreme Court just come right out and treat women as second class citizens.

Still, it's shocking to see power used so ruthlessly and so unnecessarily.

But welcome back to school, kids. 

Much ado about very little

An article in today's Washington Post focused on one 13-year-old transgender athlete banned from playing field hockey.. a sport she started at her middle school. 

It turns out that she is the ONLY transgender athlete in Kentucky and that the team never won a game... though they were spirited and enjoyed the activity.

Thanks goodness moral gatekeepers from the, you guessed it, Angry White People Party were on the case and got a law banning any transgender athletes from playing on school teams after three years of trying. The law trumps the school district's equity policy, which allowed her to play briefly.

The state will be OK now, thanks to Republicans who are deeply entrenched in culture wars and posturing, all while the state seems to be drowning, literally. The unrelenting series of recent downpours have killed dozens, upended the lives of thousands, and prompted an avalanche of giving to help people recover.

I don't know precisely how I feel about male to female transgender athletes (I do note that female to male transgender athletes don't seem to cause much of a to do). I can certainly see how there might be situations that end up unfair to "females from birth" athletes, and those should certainly be considered on a case-by-case basis.

But I would love to see state and national legislators focus on bigger issues, on how to help people who are suffering, often due to unkind fate or neglected families/communities. The fact that both parties, but mostly the Angry Party, focus on culture wars and emotional issues that get people fired up and angry (angry people hate it when other people are NOT angry), that is appalling.

Nearly 20 percent of Kentucky is in poverty, ranking it as 47th in the country. Poverty likely connects with where the worst flooding has been and where the most deaths have occurred. The state is the 6th LEAST educated state in the nation and is ranked 44th in health care overall. In other words, Kentucky is not in good shape and hasn't been in, well, forever.

Is the Republican-dominated legislature doing anything to change that dynamic? You know the answer, of course.

The state that keeps sending McConnell back to plague the rest of the country and the world term after term is safe from that dangerous 5'6" middle school field hockey player.

So there's that.

People just can't handle the scope of some problems

It is amazing to me that some combination of popular will, private companies, and the federal and state governments are in such disarray over what to do about climate change. Of course, some wackos continue to argue that such change is not actually happening at all, but we can leave the willfully ignorant out of serious conversations.

I see the there have been FOUR once-in-thousand year flood events this summer in the U.S. alone. The odds of that happening are so small as to amount to "zero," but most Americans are unaware and/or fatalistic about the trends.

Again, there are some religious wackos who just shrug and say, "Why worry? The end of the world is night, so what's the point of long-range planning?" And, again, such people can be left out of our discussions.

Many homeowners are perfectly fine with a bit of long-range planning, like planting a new tree in the yard, knowing that it will be two decades until the added shade pays off. Most parents recognize that their investment in their children's education is another long-range project. Yet, when it comes to investing in reducing the effects of climate change, we all seem a bit brain dead.

Part of the problem may be the simple yet frustrating fact that baby boomers refuse to give up power. As a member of this group myself, I know that worrying about climate change is tough for people who will only be on the planet for another decade or two. "Let's let the next generation deal with this."

I contrast the lack of focus on this potentially catastrophic trend with a story I heard on CPR News the other day. It went into some depth on the issue of "packing out your poop" in many Colorado parks and wilderness areas. A program that gives out special bags that can be fully sealed and later disposed of in proper receptacles after the hike or camping trip is in effect and park rangers are now spending a chunk of their time simply educating campers and hikers.

The indignity of pooping in a bag and then being forced to carry it around with you is the sort of thing that people can immediately get excited about, for or against. I don't camp so I honestly don't give "a crap" about the new requirements. But any change brings disagreement -- after all, most campers were told for many years to dig a deep hole to bury poop, making sure it is away from water sources. What changed?

My connecting these two very different stories, both based in concern for the environment, is to point out that the more limited problem (and current solution) is more easily grasped by people... and more likely to eventually produce either new behaviors or new technology.

Let the poop bags multiply!

And don't bother me with reports of horrible rainstorms and floods when I am high and dry. Screw everyone else. I just want to be "free."

Ha!

Treating the symptom instead of the disease

Today's announcement by President Biden to forgive up to $10K for college grads earning less than $125K per year (and double that for PELL grant recipients) is a classic example of a compromise regarding a problem that likely won't go away... unless the government does something to reduce the constant increase of college tuition and fees.

The amount may be incredibly helpful to millions of young people but the amount is either too much or too little, depending on politics.

Here's what one analyst says: “Canceling student debt is expensive, inflationary, and unfair to those who paid their student loans and most likely illegal,” said Brian Riedl, a policy analyst at the Manhattan Institute, a center-right think-tank. “It does nothing to prevent universities from raising costs and students from borrowing more money in anticipation of future loan forgiveness."

This is a case where the basic Republican stance of opposing helping out people who overspent and who made questionable decisions is much more appealing than some of their more cruel positions (as with no exceptions regarding abortion or intentionally taking children from undocumented immigrants).

The cost IS expensive ($230 billion is one estimate). It MIGHT be inflationary, though even that large number is just a small sliver of the American economy. It IS, almost by definition, unfair to both people who found ways to pay back their loads, but also to students and their families who made more budget-conscious decisions about where to go to college. It is clearly problematic for many Americans who made the choice to NOT attend college. 

There are some compelling arguments in favor of making some student debt disappear, mostly based on long-term benefits for the economy (allowing more leeway for young people to buy a home, for instance, or move to take a new job). Those arguments will fall on deaf ears among the majority of Americans who don't go to college and feel they are "losing" to the educated class.

It's hard to argue against Mr. Riedl's position that this forgiveness program may actually INCREASE borrowing. After all, if the government forgave some debt once, why would it not do so again?

The root of the problem, left unaddressed by the loan forgiveness program, is the incredible inflation in college costs over the past couple decades. The estimate is about 180 percent increase in 20 years, which averages to about 9 percent per year. Overall inflation over the past 20 years is about 3 percent. 

Can there be any doubt that college costs are out of control? Is it likely that college education is WAY better than it was 20 years ago? As one of academia's serfs (adjunct professors), I can testify that my compensation for teaching those college students spending all that money has not risen very quickly. Educators cheer at 2 percent raises every couple years or so.

I teach a couple courses for CSU that are online-only, three hours of credit, and cost about $1,400. My pay comes to a bit over $250 per student. I'm sure there are some substantial costs of maintaining our Canvas course management system, but I am wondering about the $1,000 per student that doesn't go to my salary or to supporting a complex website. No one really knows, or no one is willing to be honest.

The pundits are in full argument mode today about whether this decision by the Biden administration will be good or bad politically. I would guess that it won't make much of a difference since most voters have already circled the wagons and are entrenched in their positions.

My major objection is that the debt forgiveness is not paired with anything that might rein in college costs. Yesterday it was announced that Alabama football coach Nick Saban will be paid $90 million over the next nine years. I know the money doesn't come directly from tuition and fees, but when university employees who have nothing to do with the essence of college are paid "funny money" amounts, holding down future college costs looks daunting.

Maybe a few more college grads will vote Democrat in the midterms, but I wouldn't take bets on that. Same with (maybe) a few more high school grads voting Republican in protest.

So much more needs to be done. Government seems incapable in this area.

We have just pushed any true progress into a hazy future.

When adults duck their responsibilities...

Because I will be the keynote speaker at the Sept. 12 Tennessee High School Press Conference in Nashville, I have been keeping an eye out for Tennessee news, particularly involving education, and here is something that caught my eye from the Washington Post today:

FRANKLIN, Tenn. — Sweating in the sun, two dozen teenagers spread themselves across picnic blankets in a grassy park and prepared to discuss the facts of life they never learned in school.

Behind them on a folding table, bouquets of pamphlets offered information teachers at school would never share — on the difference between medical and surgical abortions, and how to get them. Beside the pamphlets sat items adults at school would never give: pregnancy tests and six-packs of My Way Emergency Contraceptive.

Emma Rose Smith, 17, rose from the blankets, tucked her pale-blonde hair behind her ears and turned off the music on a small, black speaker. She faced the assembled high-schoolers, all members of her newfound group, Teens for Reproductive Rights, and began talking about the nonprofit Abortion Care Tennessee. Her words hitched at first, then tumbled in a rush.

“A little bit about them,” Emma Rose said, “is they’re an organization that funds people’s abortions if they can’t afford it. Also, by the way, there’s another organization that we can also talk about later, when we give you guys, like, resources, that actually does free mail-in abortion pills.”

Twelve days after the teens’ picnic, abortion would become illegal in Tennessee, a measure made possible by the Supreme Court’s June decision, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overturning Roe v. Wade. The students wouldn’t hear anything about it in school: State law does not require sex education, and it holds that schools in areas with high pregnancy rates must offer “family life education” focused on abstinence.

Post-Roe, the teens in the park had decided, this lack of education was no longer acceptable. They are part of a burgeoning movement of high-schoolers nationwide who, after Roe’s fall, are stepping up to demand more comprehensive lessons on reproduction, contraception and abortion — and who, if the adults refuse, are teaching each other instead.

The story goes on and I did not see all that much convincing evidence that the movement is "burgeoning," but maybe it is. We can hope.

Tennessee is not unique among states that have enacted legislation essentially favoring ignorance over information. In Tennessee's case, the law is particularly cruel, banning even abortions in the case of rape or incest, but that cruelty is not my focus today.

If the state educational system will not step up, it makes great sense for high school students themselves to help one another out with information on contraception and what to do if contraception fails or is not used. I can imagine a popular TikTok account being maintained by students (and I am not excluding college-age or older from contributing), sharing practical information in a no-nonsense way with young people who simply want to know what all their options are. 

What I will NOT be doing in Nashville in a few weeks is encouraging student journalists to make it a crusade to get sex education facts to readers. This is because Tennessee does not have a student freedom of expression law and instead allows each school and district to restrict or ban or edit student media. 

Some principals may be free speech advocates, of course, but it's tough on administrators to try to protect student speech when the surrounding community is not on board and without any specific legal backing. No one needs some guy coming from far away, with very different state laws, coming in to lecture and demand.

What I like most about the fledgling grass roots education the students in the story above are doing is first, not waiting for some hero -- nearly always male -- to save the day, and second, make use of the skills we teach in public education, particularly when it is working well.

A major goal of public education is to prepare young people to take on the challenges of living in a democracy. We want them to grow up as informed citizens. We want them to be able to advocate for themselves and for those who, for whatever reason, are not able to do that.

Go, girls!

Metaphors are never exact, but they can sure be fun

The latest Frank Bruni e-newsletter is full of great stuff, and I highly recommend subscribing to it so you see it every week. Here are a few rhetorical gems:

In The Washington Post, Sally Jenkins has been critiquing the Saudi-financed LIV Golf Invitational Series and its money-mad participants, some of whom are crying foul over their banishment from the rival PGA Tour. 

“These are not millworkers taking on U.S. Steel to champion freedom for the working guy, as their preposterous antitrust lawsuit would make them out to be,” Jenkins wrote. “They’re dealbreakers who do exactly as they please for profit.” She later added: “Norma Raes in gaberdine, they are not. And their legal arguments are spit bubbles blown by conceited airheads.” 

One teaching point is the use of examples that are NOT equal to the subject being criticized, creating contrast. By invoking two references to union workers (our students would not recognize "Norma Rae" without some help), we see the contrast between rich guys wanting more money and true labor leaders.

Also in The Post, Philip Bump skewered Trump’s shifting responses to the F.B.I.’s retrieval of documents from Mar-a-Lago by evoking Schrödinger’s cat: “This is Schrödinger’s declassification. Everything is both classified and declassified until Trump is asked about it, at which point it settles into whichever position is most useful for Trump.” 

This one needs more serious background for students to "get it." I'm not sure I completely follow the paradox, so I defer to Wikipedia for the following: 

In simple terms, Schrödinger stated that if you place a cat and something that could kill the cat (a radioactive atom) in a box and sealed it, you would not know if the cat was dead or alive until you opened the box, so that until the box was opened, the cat was (in a sense) both "dead and alive." This is used to represent how scientific theory works. No one knows if any scientific theory is right or wrong until said theory can be tested and proved.

For most readers, a deep knowledge of this 1936 thought experiment is not necessary. All most readers are expected to know is that a reference to Schrödinger's cat has to do with not being able to nail down the status of an observable phenomenon. This is a case where it takes so long to explain the "joke" that it doesn't seem worth the effort. Perhaps some other paradox might help?

Biting reviews depend on precise rhetoric

A truth for review writing is that it is so much more fun to be critical and (often) cutting when reviewing a product or movie or legislation or, well, anything.

In The New Yorker, Anthony Lane questioned the decision of the rapper known as Bad Bunny to appear alongside Brad Pitt in a new movie: “It seems that Mr. Bunny is using ‘Bullet Train’ to branch out into acting. He may want to branch back in.”

Nice twist on the idiom, particularly since we never say, "I'm going to branch IN to increase my efficiency (or whatever)."

In The Times, Alexandra Jacobs reviewed a new book about the life of the electronics retailer known as Crazy Eddie, noting that after he dropped out of high school, he “apprenticed for a young uncle at clip joints near 42nd Street in Manhattan before joining his father and cousin Ronnie in a TV and appliance enterprise on Kings Highway. And the rest is huckstory.”

That final word is the pay-off for the entire sentence, ending with a pun and with a punch.

A final review example is from a scathing book review of a memoir, from which we might choose any number of zingers.

Dwight Garner reviewed “Breaking History,” Jared Kushner’s new memoir: “This book is like a tour of a once majestic 18th-century wooden house, now burned to its foundations, that focuses solely on, and rejoices in, what’s left amid the ashes: the two singed bathtubs, the gravel driveway and the mailbox.” 

This is an extended simile, wrapped in a complex set of clauses and phrases... and the writer never loses control. Fun stuff.

Educators need to be quick on their feet

Today is my chance to complain, somewhat privately, about how bureaucracies work. It's never surprising to find that gigantic organizations allow details to fall through the cracks, or that simple human error (even best intentions) can cause trouble. Still, it's annoying.

Today is also the last day of summer in CSU terms, with classes beginning Monday. But the university asks online instructors to "publish" their classes today, allowing students to begin browsing the courses, purchasing textbooks, etc.

Today I learned that the university has decided to buy a site license for LinkedIn Learning, which is a terrific resource for online instructors and a key part of one of the writing courses I am teaching this fall. Sounds great, right? 

But the problem is that the department of journalism and media communication previously paid for a license and the department had a point person who would send out the email invitations to students in selected courses so they could log in. Our point person evidently found out TODAY that this change is happening... and, of course, the details have not yet been worked out.

Hence a quick Announcement on Canvas that more information will be coming... with no clear timeline for resolution.

Look, I favor a university-wide license. It saves the department money and opens up LinkedIn Learning to over 30,000 students. But why the late notice and the start-of-term confusion? Ugh.

The other CSU online course I am teaching requires a connection with quizzes provided by the textbook publisher, but something is not working so students cannot yet access the link. The department coordinator has been scrambling to fix this but couldn't make contact with the Macmillan rep yesterday.

So I posted an Announcement to THAT course warning students that they will need to wait a bit until the proper links are provided.

I am a veteran of schools and districts and universities making decisions on a macro level that cause confusion and panic on the micro level. That doesn't mean I can't whine about it.

The start of a new school year is the sort of deadline that gets things moving, so perhaps all will be well by this time next week and the temporary confusion will be forgotten.

Until the next unexpected and unannounced change.

When 17-year-olds becomes celebrity spokespeople

Iowa has become the 15th state to OK NIL (name, image, likeness) for high school athletes.

I will simply repeat: HIGH SCHOOL.

Here what the Iowa High School Athletic Association released yesterday: 

“A student may earn compensation from the use of their Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) consistent with current IHSAA regulations and provided:

• The compensation is not contingent on specific athletic performance or achievement (e.g., financial incentives based on points scored).
• The compensation (or prospective compensation) is not provided as an inducement to attend a particular school (“undue influence”) or to remain enrolled at a particular school.
• The compensation is not provided by the school or an agent of the school (e.g., booster club, foundation, etc.)."

I'm all for freedom and choice and justice, but this could get interesting.

Can you imagine the court cases as judges, lawyers, and juries attempt to tease out whether some car dealership on the north side of Cedar Rapids unduly influenced a star basketball player to attend, say, Kennedy HS instead of Jefferson? 

And how in the world would a court discriminate between an NIL fee paid to the kid who just broke the season scoring record and whether that payment was directly connected to scoring lots of points?

And how long might it take for an enterprising star athlete to "demand" NIL money just to STAY at the school in which she is enrolled? What kind of evidence would be required to demonstrate guilt, and what penalties would apply?

When it comes to public high schools, how exactly do we define "agent of the school"? Is it OK if a "friend" of a booster club member issues the checks? How many degrees of separation are required to be safe?

And, most importantly, where does this NIL craze end? What about that gifted first chair violinist? Or a talented writer or class officer? 

As soon as money is involved, human nature is likely to lead to shady dealings, underhanded contracts and pay-offs, and general distrust.

I wonder how a hard-working student who is NOT an athlete starts to feel about classmates who are reaping financial gain from their social media following. Most students are a bit jealous of classmates who earn full ride scholarships just to play a sport.

I'm sure high school athletes have been taken advantage of and I sympathize with the argument that an individual should be able to share in the financial gain fame has made possible. 

For college athletes, the horse is out of the barn, so to speak, since top programs are closer to professional teams than amateur groups -- though we already see the chaos from college rule changes connected to being able to jump to another school without penalty. 

I am showing my age, I suppose, but it is sad to see even high school athletics lose all sense of innocence and simple love of a game and teammates. 

Everybody has to get paid.

It's America. What do we expect?

Anger and fear are powerful emotions and they are clearly driving a large number of voters, particularly among the Angry White People Party, formerly known as Republicans.

Republicans used to think of themselves as the freedom party. Don't tell me what to do! Now the AWPP wants to combine not being told what to do with telling everyone else exactly what to do. 

The midterm elections in November may place enough election deniers and anti-democracy types to affect elections for years to come. Of course, we may find there are enough Americans who are not overwhelmed by fear and anger to reject authoritarian nut cases, but that is a risky bet. 

As H.L. Mencken said over a century ago, "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the ignorance of the American people."

In a related development, Afghanistan is starving -- well, the poor and powerless are starving, which is true everywhere -- and the usual suspects (bleeding heart liberals) are up in arms and demanding that we do almost anything to feed those starving kids. The government is reluctant to provide large amounts of money due to lack of trust in the Taliban to use the aid effectively. 

In a second related development, there was so much fraud committed by so many people during the pandemic and the trillions in government aid that prosecutors can't catch up. My takeaway is that being skeptical about people's honesty is a reasonable choice. Most people need some sort of gentle or not-so-gentle nudge to do the right thing. 

Historians are pointing out that the levels of distrust and anger and fear are similar to conditions just prior to the Civil War, among other chaotic events in history. 

The Angry White People Party is willing to embrace this and are quite willing to hand over authority to the most macho, uneducated, boastful politicians available. I assume this was the attitude of all those "Good Germans" who somehow allowed Hitler and the Nazi's to reign over their country.

Maybe the U.S. is too segmented and mixed in views, too scattered and too ill-informed, to recreate Nazi Germany. Or is that just my typical progressive opinion, assuming that people are just not that bad and that common sense eventually prevails?

Liz Cheney got tossed yesterday by a few thousand Trump-worshiping Wyoming voters, but her concession speech captured the correct theme: she will do what it takes to make sure Trump never holds office again.

I support that goal and am a single-issue voter: I will vote against anyone supporting Trump, period. And I will, perhaps naively, keep hoping that millions of Americans will do likewise.

Time for the diverse interest groups who are so hard to herd if you are a Democrat to band together to thump the Angry White People Party at the polls. 

I realize that my recent blog posts have been quite political, and I don't apologize for that. But it's a new school year, and our two granddaughters are enjoying their first day of the new year today.

Time for me to do more thinking about what can be done to support our youth.

Rooting for the underdog

I didn't pay much attention to Liz Cheney prior to the Trump impeachments and the current special committee on Jan. 6. I consider Wyoming as sort of a lost cause politically, with its frontier mentality and heavy embrace of every reactionary idea that can be drummed up.

Today she is hoping that she MIGHT squeak out a victory in her Republican primary election by luring Wyoming Democrats to switch parties, at least for the primary itself. At this point, that's her remote and only hope. I suppose she could contemplate running as an Independent in the midterm, if there is time for her to make the ballot, but the speculation from national "pundits," most of whom have no clue though lots of things to say, is that she will regroup and look at either running for president in 2024 or head up a private group devoted to keeping Trump from every winning an election again.

Her core conservative beliefs have not changed. I would almost certainly oppose nearly everything she would propose in legislation. But I was wondering whether, if I lived in Wyoming, I would bring myself to switch parties to support her continuing as a representative.

It's a tough call. She would certainly lead the fight against election lies if she returned to Washington, but she probably will do that anyway, win or lose.

That she loses is an easy prediction. There were 200,579 registered Republicans in Wyoming as of July 1 compared to 43,285 Democrats, for a split of about 71 percent to 15 percent. Unaffiliated (34,925), Libertarian and Constitution Party (3,418) voters together make up the remaining amount.

My roughest calculation shows that were EVERY Democrat to switch parties, PLUS adding the unaffiliated, etc., the R advantage would still be immense. See why I think of the state as a lost cause?

BTW, that total registered voter number of 282,207 is so miniscule that it would be a blip in many states or even cities. That fact that Wyoming retains two Senators and one Representative is an affront to logic and justice. It is good to be reminded that California's two senators represent over 38 million people, while Wyoming's represent just 548,000. 

Of course, a small population can change opinions with relatively few new people. In some wacky fantasy, imagine 250,000 Democrats moving to Wyoming. In a country this big, that's not an impossible number to imagine. But what would they do once they got there? Other than elect Democrats, I mean? 

It's not fun to cast your vote for a candidate who loses, much less loses bad... like REALLY bad. There's a stubborn attitude necessary to continue to vote for a party or candidate who has no chance, and I'm not sure I have that level of fortitude.

I might have to hold my nose and switch parties were I a Wyoming resident, just to feel even a tiny bit relevant. 

But as a Dem from a neighboring state, I will cheer on Ms. Cheney and fervently hope that her opposition to our mob boss ex-president can help hold back his cult and himself. 

Live long enough and you will be surprised by all sorts of things. Imagining Liz Cheney as the key person protecting our democracy? That is still shocking.

Get the name of the dog

The Washington Post has a fun continuing focus called "Department of Data," and today's was particularly informative and, well, odd.

Someone on the staff noticed that there had been about 30,000 first name changes processed by Social Security over the past five years, and wondered what might be going on.

Here's a relevant graf from the story: 

Apparently, it’s hard to spell after you or your partner have just gone through labor: The two most-changed names are “Issac” and “Chole,” and the two most-adopted names, as you might expect, are “Isaac” and “Chloe.”

The article included a fun angle about a young woman who acquired the misspelled version of Chloe and who became "Chole" when a friend signed her up to vote as a class project... and created the typo. The real Chloe has filed for a name change (that matches her birth certificate). Her careless friend, BTW, was also named Chloe.

I found the entire piece fascinating, particularly at this time of year. I recall opening a new term with what I called "the ritual butchering of student names," asking each enrolled student to correct my first tries at calling the roll. It was always interesting to learn what name students preferred to be called, and I tried to honor their requests (though official school records could not change, of course).

For student reporters, getting the name right is the very first task for any interview. Never assume we know how to spell "Jane," for instance. As soon as you print that you will find that your source goes by "Jayne." It's good to discuss this with all reporters, and to remind them that no one likes to see their name misspelled (or mispronounced -- a true challenge for broadcast journalists). 

One of my favorite writing coaches -- Roy Peter Clark -- urges reporters to "get the name of the dog." To not just settle for some vague mention of a canine important to the coverage. To take the time to add one more important detail that helps make the scene vivid.

And we know that a dog or horse might end up being a key character in our reporting, though without any direct quotes. 

Clark's larger point is to gather an abundance of information to work from as a reporter. A few extra minutes asking those questions can produce much more effective scenes or moments. Those added details are what distinguish a "report" from a narrative.

And we all know how many blah reports we are inundated with in school. 

Life lesson we may have forgotten: we can't back down to bullies

He's the king of violent threats and the prince of slippery maneuvers... always skirting and breaking laws and somehow managing to avoid any sort of justice (unless losing to Biden counts as justice). Trump is dominating the news -- again -- and we are all glued to the TV to see what happens next.

The FBI search of his palace in Florida is the nexus of so much hate by the insurrectionist Republican party that no one can possibly be surprised to find violence rise rapidly. The attempted attack on an FBI office in Cincinnati is just the first of what will surely follow.

Most of us will go to great lengths to avoid violence, of course, but I am amazed at the number of political pundits who now advise caution in even pursuing the Trump lawbreaking. After all, it could all get so much worse!

But could it? Maybe, it's already quite bad. I read a column by David Brooks, who is a right-leaning centrist, that posed this: "Did the FBI raid guarantee Trump's reelection?" I sometimes find him persuasive, but this column is just him buckling under to the deluge of menace and threats and growing gun sales. 

I am fine with compromise and honestly believe there is value in multiple views being balanced and everyone finding some positives from legislation and regulations. Incremental change tends to be more long-lasting than sudden changes.

But there has to be a time when society has had enough. I know the Trump cult will not back down but I suspect the core radicals are relatively few in number. If a former president simply refuses to recognize lawful authority (this is Trump's appeal to many of our undereducated and ignorant citizens), are we to simply throw up our hands and claim "nothing can be done." 

At some point, ethics and justice must be tested. There may be unexpected complications, but are we really fine with different justice systems for the rich and powerful? 

There will be MAGA violence and threats as long as Trump lives. He wallows in the chaos and drains money from his sheeplike followers. Nothing can be done about that.

But we can make certain this gangster does not rise to any powerful political offices ever again. My hope is that one or more of the several criminal and civil cases involving Trump and his minions gets the job done.

Trump is a bully and bullies never can be overcome through patient compromise. Many in his cult are also petty bullies and they revel in the chaos of the moment. They can not be overcome by patient compromise. Many of them are willfully ignorant, unaware of most anything going on... just enjoying being able to throw in with a strong ruler who promises them worldly gain.

That willingness to bow to some authoritarian who promises them power and prestige is not new among humans. One thing we know is that if such authoritarians are not confronted, they can prevail.

Trump is not being persecuted. He is being prosecuted. He's danced around various laws for many years and it is shameful that legal authorities have shied away from confronting him most of the time, up to now.

I say let's opt for seeking truth and justice. If the guy turns out to simply be a troll and a bully who hasn't actually broken any laws, fine.

At least we will know.

Sorting through the lies

A lot of the media's time is spent on covering instances of lying, getting caught, getting away with lying, and arguments about whether certain statements are lies at all.

And, of course, the former Liar in Chief of the country, who lied over 30,000 times in public just in four years as president, managed to "lie through omission" during his testimony in New York yesterday.

Below are the leads to three stories found on today's Washington Post front page:

NEW YORK — Donald Trump spent hours in a deposition Wednesday with the New York attorney general and repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to answer questions, the latest in a series of ominous legal developments that would have once been considered devastating for a former president considering another run for the White House.

Trump emerged from the question-and-non-answer session with praise for the “very professional” way Attorney General Letitia James’s team handled the meeting, in which he refused more than 400 times to answer questions about his businesses, property valuations and loans, according to a person with knowledge of the discussion. This person, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe the closed session, said Trump stated his name, formally declared his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself, and from the on replied to many questions with two words: “Same answer.”

Even MSNBC pundits agreed that "taking the Fifth" was Trump's smartest strategy, since any of his answers would likely have caught him committing perjury. His cult, of course, is outraged and sputtering with rage and threatening everything from firing Justice Department officials to civil war.

The next story is a minor one, but a classic example of how humans are predisposed to believe one another, which makes lying to get ahead such a popular pastime.

As authorities tell it, convicted burglar Bryan Betancur made what seemed to be a reasonable request to Maryland probation officials a few days before the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Prohibited from leaving the state without permission, he asked to travel to the District on Jan. 6, 2021, so that he could hand out Bibles on behalf of the Christian group The Gideons International.

Maryland’s division of parole and probation said okay.

“Betancur provided [his] probation officer with updates throughout the day and communicated that he would not be home by the normal curfew time,” a federal prosecutor said in a court filing.

In a recent plea deal, Betancur acknowledged that his story about distributing the Good Book was a ruse.

The fact that this insurrectionist used the Bible as his cover is so on-brand for White Christian Nationalists that I found myself simply thinking, "of course."

The third example today comes from North Korea, a fifth world country, so to speak, whose leaders are as brazen as Trump, but without any press or law enforcement to put up even token resistance to the torrent of lies.

SEOUL — North Korea, which has one of the poorest health-care infrastructures in the world, now claims it has done what few other countries have accomplished: eradicate the coronavirus.

For days, state propaganda outlets reported zero cases of “fever,” which North Korea, with its limited testing capacity, apparently uses as a euphemism for potential covid-19. On Wednesday, leader Kim Jong Un gave a speech in which he “solemnly declared a victory” over the virus, state media said Thursday.

But there are plenty of holes in North Korea’s miraculous comeback story. For one, it lacks the capacity to do widespread PCR testing. North Korea and Eritrea are the only two countries without a coronavirus vaccine program. And North Korea’s hospitals are also so poorly equipped that there is barely reliable electricity.

Today was a great reminder that one of the media's most vital jobs is to take on the lies and communicate the truth, if either of those can be supported with evidence.

Unfortunately, many people prefer the lies to the truth.

The wheels of justice grind slowly

Many politicians and not a few radical broadcasters express "knee jerk" reactions to almost anything that happens in this vast country.

The FBI "raiding" Trump's Florida palace in search of missing documents from his presidency has produced over-the-top calls for war and vengeance and "can't you see they are coming for YOU?!" from the usual suspects on FOX and subversive blogs.

I have no evidence for this, but can't help but wonder about Trump's plan for how those purloined documents can be turned into cash. With him, there is a never-ending battle between his love of fame, his inability to admit error, and his insatiable desire for money.

I assume Trump taking the Fifth Amendment during his testimony in New York today will elicit knee jerk responses from progressive pundits, claiming that he MUST be covering up something. He might be. Or he might just be doing what he always does: stir up the mud and obscure the truth... along with some solid trolling of accepted morals and ethics. 

Or he may just not understand the questions. He's not a normal person.

I continue to believe that the Trump takeover of the Republican Party depends largely on Trump's personality, and that there are no successors who can continue his unique blend of nastiness, show business, and name recognition. 

The nation would be far better off with his sudden death. from natural causes, of course. 

Many people prefer vengeance, and I sympathize. The guy completed the dismantling of a major political party (not alone) and has undermined so many traditional mores and standards that it's hard not to wish for some payback. And everyone would be entertained by his fall, even if it's just schadenfreude. Yes, even his supporters could not turn away.

I just want him off the stage. 

Let the next villain take a turn.

Looking for some compromises

Here are some results from a recent poll concerning abortion: Only 10 percent of Americans support abortion rights up to nine months. Only 28 percent of Americans would permit abortion up to 23 weeks. The most popular polled position is a 15-week ban, which garners a collective 72 percent support.

In other words, the extremes (and this includes those who would ban ALL abortions, no matter what) may be loud and passionate, but they don't represent the vast majority of people in the country. 

I was not surprised by headlines basically describing just how much Democrats had to trim from the original multi-trillion dollar Build Back Better bill, often featured above the actual passing of a still-giant version of the bill. But I can't help but be bothered by this "bad news bias."

There are STILL politicians campaigning on promises to revisit the 2020 election, now 19 months in the past. Plenty of voters will continue to cast a ballot for such wackos, but it's just a game of "owning the libs" and showing fealty to their god: Trump. 

Most Americans, however, are well beyond caring about bizarre claims and are more interested in droughts and floods and inflation and monkeypox and school starting up for the kids...

Lies, damn lies, and statistics

Here's the lead to a New York Times post today about the disconnect between reality and emotions concerning violence in America.

Crime, murder and mass shootings have dominated headlines this year. Just over the weekend, a shooting in Cincinnati wounded nine people, and another in Detroit killed one and wounded four.

But the full crime data tells a different story. Nationwide, shootings are down 4 percent this year compared to the same time last year. In big cities, murders are down 3 percent. If the decrease in murders continues for the rest of 2022, it will be the first year since 2018 in which they fell in the U.S.

Much of the discrepancy between what the general public "feels" and what is true can be blamed on what I often emphasize: most news is bad news. A casual TV viewer might think most of eastern Kentucky is under water right now, for instance, though the reality is that the affected areas are not that extensive. They are bad, don't get me wrong, but narrow valleys, poor infrastructure, and historically high amounts of rain have combined to create disaster for a small percentage of the population.

I assume many politicians will campaign on fear-based platforms, using old stats and inflated stats and random anecdotes to motivate voters to choose them. Most voters are not really paying attention to daily news and most certainly don't understand broader trends. This ignorance (and I include myself as among the ignorant in terms of many trends) is at the very heart of politics.

On a related note, today is the first day of school in Douglas County, and most parents rate the schools their children attend quite high. At the same time, they rate all other schools quite low. After all, they have experience with their own schools and the learning and fun their own kids are having. But they read about the rare tragedy or poor teacher or corrupt school board member and come away with negative thoughts about education generally. 

Were I a politician who was working hard to better society, I would quickly become depressed and frustrated by just how difficult it is to communicate the truth to voters. 

There will be no headlines about a slight drop in the percentage of shootings nationwide. 

There are no headlines about the 378 Americans dying from Covid each day, adding to the over 1 million deaths previously... just in the U.S. 

There were (officially) four mass shootings in America yesterday, with three total deaths among the 21 total victims. One of those was that Cincinnati shooting mentioned above. The others were in Pittsburgh, Birmingham, and Atlanta. I did not see even a news brief on any of those.

You would have to label those shootings as "bad news," but we now need our news to be REALLY bad to even make a dent in the zeitgeist. 

This past weekend, two local high school students about to enter their senior year were killed by a driver under the influence... senselessly, tragically. Their parents' lives are forever altered, and the first day of the school year at their high school becomes a day of mourning more than one of celebration of a new year.

But the other 2,300 students at Castle View HS are in the building. They survived the weekend. Everyone must quickly move on.

Until the next senseless tragedy or natural disaster or political outrage (these are not equal, I know). 

Last week was a great week for President Biden, for Democrats, and for progress. 

Biden's approval numbers will likely drop, much like gas prices. 

The bias of the media toward "bad news" is tough to overcome.

How can a writing student be more like an art student?

I saw a post today with some advice from Chip Scanlon's weekly e-newsletter, arguing for more use of imitation to learn to be a better writer.

He is not talking about plagiarism, but about finding great models that can help us develop our own writing "voices" by analyzing some successful voices. 

Here are some relevant grafs from Scanlon:

This practice horrifies some respected writers and teachers; write your own darn stories, they say. But if we were visual artists, would anyone look askance at visiting a museum to try and copy the paintings to see how accomplished artists used color and shadow and contrast?

I’m not talking about plagiarism. Rather, modeling is copying stories to gain a more intimate understanding of the variety of decisions that writers make to organize material, select language, and shape sentences.

Now’s a good time for my one caveat about modeling lessons: Always copy the writer’s byline at the top of the story in case you get deluded and confuse someone else’s writing with your own.

Properly credited, I start typing.

Scanlon types annotations after particularly good sentences, digging into technique, questioning rhetoric, noting tactics, etc. I must admit that I have not used the idea of copying out key paragraphs or dialog or leads from great writing in my own classroom, but I have used the modeling idea when teaching design. 

In the high school journalism lab, I would give each student learning Adobe InDesign a letter-size magazine page -- from Time magazine, for instance -- and the assignment was to copy the page on the computer screen. Copy the grid. Copy where the art goes. Copy the size of the type (best approximation). Copy the lines (strokes) and boxes. Copy the leading. 

THAT idea came from reading about art students who sit in museums painstakingly trying to copy the work of past masters, right down to the brush strokes, as a way to understand how experts produce their art. 

When I was a kid, I experimented with dozens of baseball batting stances, hoping for one that would feel comfortable and powerful and under control. I copied my favorites, like Ernie Banks and Mickey Mantle. I figured that if I swung the bat like a pro, I had a better chance of being a good hitter. It turned out that eyesight and reflexes and wrist strength and hip rotation and bat length and weight were all important factors... maybe more important than how I looked in the batter's box. But at least I had somewhere to start.

Unless you want to be an art forger, settling for perfectly copying master works is not a good long-term plan, and copying down lines from other writers is certainly not a good strategy when it's time to write that report or news story. 

But trying to reproduce great work reveals some of the HOW in writing or painting or designing or hitting a baseball.

It turns out that some very old education models, and copying qualifies, were based on solid thinking. 

If I were dropped back into a high school journalism classroom, some copying of favorite grafs would become part of my teaching strategy.

Why did the teacher shortage take this long to arrive?

Here is the lead from a Washington Post story on the meltdown in finding enough teachers for K-12 public schools:

Rural school districts in Texas are switching to four-day weeks this fall due to lack of staff. Florida is asking veterans with no teaching background to enter classrooms. Arizona is allowing college students to step in and instruct children.

The teacher shortage in America has hit crisis levels — and school officials everywhere are scrambling to ensure that, as students return to classrooms, someone will be there to educate them.

One thought here is about the structure of the writing in that first graf, with the three examples from varied places in the country (though all are currently dominated politically by radical Republicans). The promise is that each of those three examples (plus more) will be explained in more detail later in the piece.

The second graf functions as the "explainer" that shows readers why this story is being run right now, while also highlighting the importance of the situation. Some would call this the "nut graf," or the kernel of information that prompted the reporting which follows.

A second thought is that the teacher shortage is a direct result of right wing Americans and wacky left winger Americans to disparage teaching and teachers for many years. The culture wars and angry politics have combined to drive many teachers out of the profession while warning potential replacements that they are looking at a hazy future.

There are only so many people willing to take on a poorly paid job, with kids who are having trouble readjusting to life post-pandemic and parents who tend to think they know MORE than the teachers. After all, they went to school, and that makes them experts.

The nation has always had a streak of anti-intellectualism, but now one political party seems intent on crippling our public school system. "How dare those uppity educators try to teach MY kids to think logically?"

No one trusts anyone at this point in American life, and institutions are fair game for everyone to doubt and criticize and torment. 

It's a minor miracle that the public schools have survived all the turmoil, I suppose. Educated Americans tend to reject backwards thinking Republican ideas, so to win elections a logical strategy is to weaken public education and create more ignorant potential voters.

The less education people have, at least among whites, the more rabid people are for Trump and the cult.

A flimsy story got me thinking

Here's the lead from a story in today's Washington Post:

Miranda Dockett felt certain she was about to lose another friend.

After all, she had been watching them fall away over the past few months, as she became more vocal about her views against abortion. Then, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade last month, Dockett, 31, readied herself for a worrisome confrontation with her childhood best friend.

The exchange lasted hours, she said, as the pair traded messages and news articles on Facebook days after the ruling. Dockett, a stay-at-home mom in Lansing, Mich., wanted her friend to understand that she believes life begins at conception and should be protected. Meanwhile her friend, who declined to be interviewed for this story, argued that abortion bans infringe on women’s right to health care and bodily autonomy.

“I suspect this will be the end of our friendship,” Dockett wrote in a Twitter thread recapping the conversation. “Heartbroken BUT it took me forever to find my voice & I will not be silenced even if that means losing every friend I have/had.”

So much to think about here.

First of all, the story later reveals that the whole disagreement rather quickly blew over and the two long-time friends have resumed their friendship, albeit agreeing to simply not talk about abortion. So one of my thoughts is this: "meh." Nothing to see here and no actual news. The conflict was fleeting and all the worries and angst ended up being wasted time and energy.

This is the sort of "journalism" I despise... manufacturing added conflict just to entice a few more readers. 

A second thought is about HOW they argued: over texts and emails and Facebook posts. It takes a special friend to not bother to pick up a phone and talk person-to-person. 

A third thought is that Miranda is one of those "single issue" voters, I assume, and now she just can't stay quiet any more about abortion. Her focus (likely) wanders when it comes to finding ways to support young families and abandoned children and childcare... I also assume that she expects women who do not agree with her to maintain their silence. It's so much easier that way.

My fourth thought is that all this was shared publicly on Twitter, the dark zone of social media and the perfect place to argue in random bursts of emotion without embarrassing yourself at King Soopers in the produce aisle. 

My final thought, not contained in this story but part of today's headlines, was about the landslide vote against removing abortion rights in Kansas. If even Kansans feel draconian abortion bans are going too far, that is eye-opening. There may not have been much polling going on for this, but the overwhelming vote seemed to surprise political "experts." Miranda is probably sad today.

I thought, once again, that all those pundits who are so certain of, well, everything, are often clueless. They are, like weather forecasters, often completely wrong, but viewers return to hear from them anyway. And believe them. 

Women can be the key to almost any election, when they so choose. 

It really IS a matter of choice.

We will be the grandparents watching 'Minions' today

It's been a while since Kathleen and I have accompanied young kids to the movies -- Grace and Anna prefer their friends, shockingly -- but we are off to see "Minions, the r\Rise of Gru" this afternoon. Good day to do it, with highs in the mid-90s. 

I wouldn't normally pay to see a "kids" movie, preferring to stream such flicks if needed, but it's a nice way to establish some connections with the young guys (they are 11 and 9). We have hit the pool for an hour the last two mornings and they enjoy that for a while... until they have had enough of that and are on to the next experience.

One nice thing we have been experimenting with is extending their bedtime to 10 or even 10:30. They tell me that their normal bedtime is 8:30, which seems quite early for summer and which seems to necessitate a lot of reading prior to turning in.

At our house they each get their own bedroom, which is not what they are used to. But they seem to be enjoying that tiny bit of extra freedom. Maybe Max (the elder) more than Jack. And they are sleeping until past 7 a.m., which is late for them.

It's good to be reminded that kids don't change all that much, despite the 61-year gap between me and Max. They love games, but now they are mostly Roblox versions on an iPad. They are constantly on the go, until they collapse. They are constantly hungry. They want to try a lot of things. 

I am inclined to pace myself in terms of, well, almost anything. I find it tough to eat even two meals per day (besides half a muffin at breakfast). And "new things" need some serious thought from me before any attempts are made.

Grace and Anna (17 and 15) dropped by yesterday afternoon for a few hours, which was a nice surprise. The boys have always worshipped them -- the cool older cousins. I'm not sure the girls are quite so enamored of the boys, but they are very nice to them.

In two weeks, Grace will begin her senior year of high school, and that is a fact that I can't quite get my head around. I guess she will always be a girl to me, much as her mom and aunt and uncle are, despite them all being in their 40s. 

I tend to think of former students in much the same way. My oldest ex-students must be about 63 at this point (yikes!) but they are frozen in time in my memories. Always 18. Always at the start of the journey. Always young and healthy and vibrant.

Like the grandchildren.

And fall semester for CSU and Metro begins three weeks from yesterday. That will always be my "new year" celebration.

It's good to be back home

Back on the grid, so to speak, after a quasi-family reunion in Carlsbad, California last week. Six of the eight siblings made it for at least part of the time, which feels like a victory when there are so many of us and we are scattered from Iowa to Washington to California.

The age range was from me (72) to six months, so there was a lot of somewhat controlled chaos. 

Masking appears to be over, by and large, even in the LA area, though you never know how many are fully vaccinated, boosted, etc. 

I see Mr. Biden has tested positive again, but has no symptoms at all. I guess that is news, mostly due to the virus still being "new." I can't recall reading any stories like "President Bush had a mild sore throat and a slight fever yesterday." Colds are old news.

I can't imagine how many times I might have had some version of some illness (colds, coughs, etc.) over the years, and no one ever cared. Sometimes, I likely had something but just shrugged it off. Heck, I couldn't be 100 percent certain I haven't had Covid already, in some mild form. I have had the occasional runny nose in the past year but nothing rose to the level of "I need to test." 

It's not entirely clear what Americans are supposed to do if and when they DO test positive for the virus. That makes all the CDC data a bit suspect, IMHO. If most people are not reporting their virus status, whether negative or positive, it all seems like a series of guesses.

Only one measure is valid -- hospitalization rate -- and even that may be suspect, since some states either have stopped reporting or are allowing late reports. 

I see some parents have decided to become one-issue voters over the whole mandatory vaccines and school closings issue. Cool. They can hang with the other one-issue voters: on abortion (yea or nay), on gun safety, on Hillary Clinton (still a favorite of so many to hate/love).

Meanwhile, there is a chance that the supposedly unpopular Joe Biden has somehow shepherded some critical legislation through a dysfunctional Congress, inflation is moderating, the stock market is slowing rebuilding, and Trump is in peril of several criminal charges.

The "experts" have already decided the midterm elections, it appears, making it seem silly to even hold the election. Let's just declare it "rigged" right now and let Clarence Thomas decide?

But Americans have the attention span of goldfish, so there are solid chances that something dramatic will occur before November and that white nationalist radicals will go so far as to appall voters and prompt a backlash to their bigotry and fascism.

So, masks or no, August is looking up.