Henry’s Detritus is hereby on sabbatical until further notice. Thank you for your kind attention.

2017 Aug 29^th

Here is the detritus from an earlier Aug 29^th As yo can see not much has changed.

If Ronald Reagan was ‘The great Communicator” then Donald Trump will be remembered as “The Great Exaggerator.” He is, after all, a salesman and he has admitted in his book, ”The Art of the Deal,” that if you need to paint an exaggerated picture to entice the client, well, so be it. The result is that almost every word that comes out of Trump’s mouth is an exaggeration designed to diminish his opponents or enhance his own appeal.

A few days ago he was working over Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, two of his very favorite whipping boys. He was talking about the mentoring relationship Bush had with Rubio and how Rubio had responded by challenging Jeb for the nomination. Oh, but now they are friends again, he said, “I saw them hugging and kissing…” I saw that meeting because it was televised and his description was pure hokum.

He also overdoes the, “nobody else permits birthright citizenship.” He claims that, “Mexico doesn’t do it. Other places don’t do it….We’re the only place, just about, that is stupid enough to do it,” It is being phased out in many countries that once had it, but Mexico does in fact still have it; in somewhat different form but it is essentially the same thing. Then there is the awful danger he claims he faced when he went to Laredo, Texas, to confer with border guards about the porous border.  When the border guards union told them inviting Trump was a no-no because the union was officially politically neutral, Trump claimed the guards were not allowed to tell him the real story.

He told his pilot not to fly too close to the border because of the danger, (Could he have known about the remarkable Mexican air defense missile system?) and made much of the presumed risk he was taking by going to the border. (The Washington Post pointed out that he was statistically safer in Laredo than in New York City.) Trump said, “People are saying ‘It’s so dangerous Mr. Trump’ but I have to do it.” He also said that he “Would proceed with the visit despite of the grave danger.” What bravery, what spunk; you wouldn’t believe that this was the same guy who got multiple student deferments to avoid serving in Vet Nam.

You recall the press conference where Jorge Ramos was “escorted” from the room for asking questions when he was not called on? The man doing the escorting was a very large fellow with a near bald haircut. Later when Trump was asked about this interesting example of media control, Trump said repeatedly that Ramos was “screaming” questions at him and that he was “ranting and raving like a mad man.” He was doing no such thing. He raised his voice so that he could be heard because he, unlike Trump, had no microphone. Of course Trump must claim that Ramos was screaming and raving to provide more justification for ejecting him. Then Trump was asked about the near seven foot tall man who escorted Ramos from the hall. Trump pleaded ignorance but the same guy is always close to Trump and scanning the crowds. I guess he’s just a fan.

2017 Aug 28^th

Sometimes communication is very difficult. Here is an example:

Mother

“Hi Mom; how are you today?”

“I’m just so disappointed and distressed I don’t know what to do.”

“What’s wrong Mom?”

“You know that I never got a Christmas card from you.”

“But Mom I called you Christmas day to wish you Merry Christmas and to see if you got those books and the records of Christmas carols you wanted. Don’t you remember? We talked for nearly an hour Christmas morning.”

“But I have these other Christmas cards on the mantle above the fireplace but there is nothing there from you…(sigh)… I guess you just forgot. Well that’s alright I’m sure you’re too busy to remember something like that.”

“Actually Mom I have been busy; I’ve met a girl I really like and I want you to meet her.”

“That’s fine son. Where does she live?”

“She lives with her folks over in Homewood.”

“She lives in Homewood? We don’t know anyone who lives in Homewood. That is a terrible neighborhood.”

“Mom, her folks have a very nice house.”

“She lives with her parents does she?”

“Yes, she lives with her folks.”

“Why does she live at home? Can’t she find a job?”

“She has a job; she works in a drugstore over on East Eighth Street.

“Oh my Lord; you aren’t getting mixed up with drugs now. Please tell me you aren’t into drugs!”

“Mother, she works in a drugstore. She is a druggist, a pharmacist. That means she has a doctor of 
pharmacy degree. She has more college than I do.”

‘Well, that education won’t make a bit of difference if she is into drugs. You know those people can get all the drugs they want. You be careful because once she gets you hooked on drugs…

“Mom she only sells drugs to people who have prescriptions from their doctors.”

“You can get a doctor to provide a prescription for whatever you want. Don’t you see those TV ads that say ‘Get your doctor to provide a trial of …’ and she can also use those drugs herself or she can give them to you!”

“Mom they have to account for every narcotic pill they dispense. The State controls all that.”

“And aren’t you an accountant? What will happen when that bank you work for finds out about this?”

 “Mom, her drugstore does all their banking right here. And they have an excellent credit rating.”

“Well, you weren’t brought up this way; first you date a woman who sells drugs for a living and then you work for a bank that does money-laundering for drug dealers. I’m so ashamed!”

“MOTHER!”

2017 Aug 27^th

Many people who came here illegally brought their children with them. In some cases that was many years ago. Those children, now grown in many cases, had hoped to become citizens, or at least have a legal right to live here. Technically, of course they are here illegally and so Donald Trump wants them deported. This is simply another example of Trump’s inhumanity, there are many other examples.

Where does such a human being come from? That he is not part of the usual run of humans is obvious. Lying comes as naturally to the man as breathing. His lies about Muslims go back at least to the twin towers destruction when he claimed they celebrated that destruction by dancing in New Jersey streets.

He has desperately tried to delegitimize Barack Obama’s presidency by claiming without any evidence that he is not a native-born citizen. He has taken out ads insisting that the central park five, who had been exonerated from the crime they had been convicted of, be executed anyway. Is this a member of thje human race?

Now as president he has attacked his own senior party members, few have escaped his ire, He had a shouting match with the leader of the Senate without whom he can accomplish nothing legislatively. He has picked more fights with Republican senators than he has with Democrats. Perhaps he expects a loyalty from Republicans that he does not expect from Democrats and when he doesn’t get it he explodes.

Now with the pardoning of Arpaio he tests the waters for pardoning members of his inner circle, his family and perhaps even himself. Finally, Donald Trump may have put himself beyond any legal accountability. Go figure.

2017 Aug 26^th

So Alice, you say there is a hurricane of stupendous proportions ripping apart the coastal areas of Texas? Tell us, where did it come from? Like all hurricanes it came from the Gulf of Mexico. But we have storms come in from the Gulf all the time; what makes this one special? Usually there are weather conditions that will blow apart the gathering storm; this time those conditions are absent and this storm can continues to feed from the super-warm Gulf of Mexico water.

Is it at all possible that global warming, if it existed of course, could have had anything to do with an event like Hurricane Harvey? We do have the enormous heat buildup in the gulf that feeds energy to this hurricane. There are other factors as well but the heat of the gulf water is a necessary condition, without which there would be no hurricane.

We know that former governor Perry (You remember Perry. He is the presidential candidate who planned to abolish three government departments. Remembering all three was more than poor Perry could handle so now courtesy of President Trump, he is secretary of one of the departments, Energy, he had hoped to abolish.) was adamant that global warming was, “one confused phony mess.” What elase could he say and stay in business as governor given the importance of Texas off shore oil and gas business. Harvey has temporarily eliminated that business and the losses will be considerable.

Trump, Perry’s boss, is also a climate change denier. He wants the votes of West Virginia coal miners so his position is necessary. This is just another Trumpian scam. Coal is not coming back because natural gas is cleaner and cheaper. (But mentioning that will not corral those West Virginia and Kentucky votes.)

Naturally there are other events this weekend. Sheriff Arpaio has been pardoned to no one’s surprise and everyone’s disgust. The premier Nazi in the Trump advisory group, Mr. Gorka, has left the building although whether he was kicked out or resigned is up in the air. Then Trump acted to eliminate Transgender people from the military services. That will be tricky because many of them have served the military honorably.

What will this oaf do next?

2017 Aug 25^th

Today comes yet more speculation regarding the president’s sanity. We have already pointed out that the constitution does not require that our president be literate. Either the founders felt no need for a president who could read and write or they assumed anyone aspiring to the office would have these abilities; surely the latter is the case.

There were mental asylums in 1775 but the symptoms requiring incarceration were far from subtle. There is no evidence that the founders thought a sanity test an appropriate requirement for the presidency.

The mental competence of our presidents has been an issue before. Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke while in office and his wife simply stepped in and assumed many of his responsibilities. She even controlled his visitors so that she was the de facto president. There are rumors that Ronald Reagan’s dementia began before he left office and that his devoted wife and staff covered for him. When Senator Goldwater ran for the presidency some psychiatrists speculated about his soundness of mind based on his comments. This was obviously inappropriate and led to the “Goldwater Rule” which declares that physicians cannot diagnose a person whom they have not personally examined. 

We do have the 25^th amendment which specifies how an incompetent president can be removed. The requirements involved make it useless in all but the most extreme cases.

There is an election in 2018 and that election is the best chance of ridding ourselves of Donald Trump. At this rate he will have no accomplishments as president unless we credit him with a right wing SCOTUS appointee. The odds are good that nothing will change. Trump lives in a world of his own making. No one who keeps track of Trump’s remarks, tweets, rallies or other appearances can conclude the man is totally rational. Unfortunately we will have to endure him until the next election. Let us fervently hope that we needn’t endure him beyond that.

2017 Aug 24th

All right, enough of our accidental president, our national embarrassment, Here is a more cheerful piece abut a camp for crippled children during WW @.

Many years ago, during World War II, I was a counselor in a summer camp for crippled children. Of course no one calls them crippled children anymore. Now the preferred term is physically challenged, or handicapped. The camp depended heavily on charity for its existence, and I would guess that “crippled” brought in far more money than “handicapped.”

The camp, Camp Daddy Allen, was named for a Philadelphia benefactor; it was located in the Pocono Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania in a federal recreation area. This was 1943 and the war had taken its toll on the supply of able-bodied males available to be counselors. Therefore, at sixteen, and with two years experience as a junior counselor, I became a senior counselor in the older boys’ unit. We had about twenty-four campers in each of four units, older boys, younger boys, older girls, and younger girls. The campers had various handicaps; most were from the effects of polio. Many were from cities and most had never seen another kid with the kind of handicap they had. For the first time they discovered that some other kids were worse off than they were. A fair number were in body braces. They propelled themselves along the trails on their crutches, buoyed somewhat by the knowledge that the President of the United States had the same problem.

All of the campers had to be able to benefit from a normal camping program such as might be found in a Boy Scout camp, or a YMCA camp. There were obvious limitations. We had sleep outs, but they were very close to camp. Most of these were city kids who were not very comfortable in the woods where they assumed that spiders, snakes, bears, and wolves were lurking. We managed to get all of them to have at least one night sleeping on the ground by a campfire. Maybe sleeping isn’t the right word.

We had softball games, but we needed about fifteen players on a side. A kid with the hugely muscled arms from years on crutches might bat, and another kid with withered arms would run the bases for him (or her). In the field the same pairing would have the kid with the withered arms chase down the ball, bend to the ground grabbing the ball under his chin, and then running to his buddy who would throw the ball in. They were unflappable.

We had one unusual activity for the kids. This was advertised well in advance. We had a Bandersnatch hunt. These kids had never heard of Lewis Carroll so there was nothing to give us away. Our Bandersnatch were not described as frumious, as were Carroll’s. They were described as very shy, with an affinity for wet wood. Indeed the way to catch one, which was the purpose of a Bandersnatch hunt, was to drag a fair size piece of wet wood through the forest on a string, thus tempting a Bandersnatch to jump from its hiding place and grab the bait. When you felt the wood catch on something this might be a Bandersnatch. If it was a Bandersnatch, it would not let go of the bait and you could put it in a sack you carried for that purpose. You had to be very careful though, because Bandersnatch can easily have their very short legs fall off. This is of no concern because they grow back very quickly. When you have a Bandersnatch in your sack, you were to return with it to the dining hall, which was the base of operations for the hunt. Prizes were offered for the largest, the prettiest and the smallest Bandersnatch. (There is some debate about whether Bandersnatch is both singular and plural, like aspirin, or only singular. Number aside, the Bandersnatch is certainly singular.)

The hunt was over when the bugle blew calling everyone back to base. Many Bandersnatch were seen and many were almost caught. It amazing how dragging a piece of wet wood through the woods can fool you into thinking something has grabbed it when it was just temporarily snagged. The program director claimed to have caught one. He reached in his bag and pulled out an eighteen inch long garter snake which had been decorated with water colors. He held it up for all to see saying that its legs had fallen off when it was captured. Then he topped himself. He also had a large newt in another bag. It had all of its legs and it had also been decorated with water colors. The youngest campers were in awe; the oldest campers were suspicious, but a few, “Don’t give Santa Claus away,” comments handled that problem.

 Speaking of Santa, that reminds me that in our search for activities we decided on a camp Christmas. Naturally we picked July 25^th. We got a Christmas tree, a huge spruce specially cut for us by the few remaining caretakers of the Park Service property. The kids trimmed the tree. We had all of the traditional decorations, lights, tinsel, shiny glass balls and a star for the very top. The dining hall was designed so that the big stone fireplace was about in the middle. Naturally we had a fire in it and we had the kids scour the woods for a Yule log. (Nights in the Poconos were chilly so the fire was not without some comfort.) We sang Christmas carols after lunch and after dinner. About a week before the natal day we had a drawing. Each kid got the name of someone for whom they were to make a present. The craft shop hummed. Lanyard material flew off the spools. Painted pine cones were big. Of course there was Christmas themed wrapping paper. The counselors saw to it that there was a gift for everyone. Christmas Eve saw Santa arrive in the person of a well padded camp director who did a little curtain chewing with his Ho, Ho, Hos; nobody minded. Christmas Day we had turkey with all the trimmings. Some of the older kids came back in later years as counselors. They often told me that camp Christmas was the best Christmas they had ever had.

I was a counselor at Daddy Allen every summer beginning when I was fourteen and ending when I was seventeen in 1944. That was the summer I enlisted in the Army Air Force reserve. I left for service after I graduated from high school in 1945. In 1947 the Easter Seal Society opened another camp in central Pennsylvania. I was the head counselor of the older boys’ unit. That year the University of Pittsburgh recruited Jonas Salk to develop a polio vaccine. He accomplished that by 1955 and soon afterward, when Sabin’s vaccine also proved effective, there was no longer much need for camps like Daddy Allen.

Excerpted from “More of the Same” © by Henry E. Klugh