Postnote January 11 & 12, 2023:  What rages on, beginning yesterday, are the papers found in Biden’s office which were immediately reported and produced to the National Archives.  There is much more to this story, and more to be told.

Personally, I support the established legal process of the Department of Justice.   One of the admittedly aggravating strengths of our justice system, generally, is that it is a slow and deliberative process of establishing fact, etc.  Such a process takes time, which is irritating to the ‘hang ’em high’ crowd and their cheerleaders.  It is easy to jump to conclusions.  In due time we will have more facts to go on.  And newspeople are not the ones who establish the facts or argue the cases….

Today’s mail brought the latest Letter from an American for Jan 10. on the Biden and Brazilian situations.  Civil Discourse by Joyce Vance was issued Jan. 11 also.  Letters from an American Jan. 11; Letters from an American Jan. 12

Postnote January 10:  for the time being, likely through January,  I’ll use the space to include items of interest relating to the 2023 U.S. Congress, and pending issues related to the ex-president.  Check back 0n occasion.

Letters from an American, Jan. 8; The Weekly Sift Jan. 9;  Verdict Justia Jan 9; Weekly Sift Jan 9 (new); The Status Kuo Jan. 10

So far, my choice for worst new committee, sponsored by Jim Jordan, is to include the words “Weaponization of the Federal Government” in its title.  Of course, no one knows what this will mean – the committee has not yet met – but the guess is that the intent is to tar and feather any individual or agency within the government that dares to challenge anything Mr. Jordan’s ‘side’ does.  This would include the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service among others.  Bullies like to take on disabled or weaker adversaries.

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Postnote January 9: Joyce Vance sent a good explanation of what’s ahead, beginning tomorrow, with procedures in the U.S. House of Representatives.  You can read it here.  It is worth your time.

Another from Joyce Vance.  I note an invitation to subscribe to this free service.  This is also true with Heather Cox Richardson, I’m going to subscribe to these, as I do to NYT and WaPo and StarTribune, in recognition of invaluable service.  I’d recommend the same to you, your choice of information, of course.  We need credible sources.

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Sunday, January 8, 2023: I am about as expert on the Rules of the U.S. House of Representatives as anyone, which means I know next to nothing about them – a lack of knowledge I share with virtually 100% of us.  They have been established by tradition and in other ways over our entire national history.  Each Congress starts over – every Congressperson is ‘new’ every two years.  One of the tasks tomorrow is to establish the rules….

We are all familiar with rules, petty to profound.  if you have a partner in any sense of that word, there are rules of engagement.

So it goes with society, any society, anywhere.  Some folks would like no rules whatsoever.  But anarchy doesn’t work very well.  ‘FREEdumb’ isn’t very free. shall I say.

Some folks would like to make the rules which everyone else must follow.  Dictators or aspirants are always lurking, but never last.

Most of us live in the in between zone.  We have to live with spouses, with teenagers, with annoying neighbors, on and on and on.

Last week I was in a post office line, a bit longer than usual.  In front of me was a woman who feared ‘dead air’ and was in a one-way conversation with another lady whose lot it had been to be polite, which was perceived as an opening to the person I’m describing.

The polite lady escaped when she had her opportunity to take care of her business, which left me, behind, as the next target for the loquacious person.  I didn’t take the bait – you can do this without being rude.  She tried….

We run into these kinds of dissonances frequently, and we learn to adapt.

I think rules of engagement are essential for any civil society.  There is a need for order.

What will happen in the U.S. House remains to be seen.  Each and every one of us has one member of that Congress.  I think the current ratio is about one Representative for every 700,000 or so citizens.

Best we can do, I think, is learn what we can about the House Rules, and keep close tabs on, and communicate with, our own Congressperson, whether or not of our party.

It is an easy task to identify this person, and easy to communicate to the person provided you live in his or her district (that’s a common rule, which makes sense in this day of mass communications of petitions etc.)

My Congressperson is Betty McCollum.  Who is yours?

Jan 5, 2022 8:45 p.m. – See postnote before Comments section.

Jan 5 10 a.m. CST – There are comments coming in, but no time to add a few of them.  See the end of post for others.  They’re worth reading.  Check back later this afternoon.

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We’re in the third day of paralysis in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul area.  Not that it’s too bad, compared to the recent catastrophe in Buffalo NY area, for instance.  But even in relatively nice winter weather, no wind, near 32 degrees, a foot of snow is a foot of snow – pretty to look at, but for most of us, old-timers in particular, paralysis.  (Our neighbor across the street opened her window for a brief lament yesterday; her mother had a stroke about the time the snow began; her dad was home alone (and doing okay); but she and family couldn’t get to the hospital to see their Mom.  I’n certain there are many similar stories.)

This was the kind of day it was.  We’re due to go to the Orchestra later this morning, if the long driveway is open…stay tuned on that.  Snow removal is one of those businesses where it’s ‘feast or famine’.  We’re not the only driveway in this town of over 3 million….

The paper guy did make it, this morning:

Jan 5, 2022

Two headlines ‘above the fold’ in today’s paper: the first one is easily read.  The second “Rebellion in GOP paralyzes House“.

It happens that the days of the big snow coincided with the still unfinished process to select a Speaker of the House of Representatives, the third most powerful government official in the United States of America.  The last to ascend to President from Speaker of the House was Gerald R. Ford, then speaker, who became vice-president after Spiro Agnew resigned, then president after Richard Nixon resigned in 1974….

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I suppose my interest in watching two days of a political gang fight makes me a political junkie.  So be it.  We, the people, elected all 434 of the combatants, and we, the people, will be stuck with the results of what we’re witnessing in Washington D.C.

For those who didn’t watch, or don’t know the rules, the House elects its own Speaker, who is always (but doesn’t have to be) a member of the House.

There are two main political parties in our country; the majority party ordinarily selects someone of its own to lead.  The Speaker has an immense amount of procedural power.  The founders built a three-legged stool at the beginning of the U.S.: President, House of Representatives, Senate, moderated by a Supreme Court.

Generally, the process has mostly worked reasonably well.  It has always been subject to manipulation; in these fevered days, it can seem out of sight.

In the first six ballots Tuesday and Wednesday, the largest vote getter was the Democrat Hakeem Jeffries of New York; but the winner needs to get one more than half of the total House membership of 434 – 218 votes, spoken in person by each Representative.  This makes for a long time period.

Each time Jeffries received 212 votes.  On the last vote before adjournment yesterday, challenger Kevin McCarthy had 201 votes; someone I’d never heard of, had 20 votes, and one person voted “present”.   For all intents and purposes, there was no change, up or down.

So, when they do the 7th vote today, from ground zero again, the last vote was 212-201-20-1.  I have bold-faced the 20 on purpose.  That’s about 5%.  They most certainly won’t vote for Jeffries, but apparently they don’t trust McCarthy….

I will spare you any prediction.  Your guess is as good as mine.  If you want the 20 to win, I suggest being very careful about what you pray for….

If all of this is not too confusing, enter the fact that the House of Representatives does not officially exist at this moment.  The temporary chair is a clerk, along with other clerks attempting to keep order among a group of prima donnas.

My understanding, the new Congress will not exist until the members are sworn in, which will not happen until a leader has been selected with at least 218 of the members agreeing on who that leader will be.

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The goings on remind me of a somewhat civilized Jan 6, 2021.  All that is missing is the riot.

On each ballot, the candidates have to be nominated, and towards the end yesterday the nominating ‘speeches’ were clearly oriented to getting a 10 second sound bite on someone’s evening “news”.

I have my favorite ‘cheap shot’ against the Democrats from a Republican who was nominating one of her own, but I’ll spare you what she said.  No question some news media reported it as news somewhere last night.  It represented what U.S. politics has devolved to, and probably the spectacle I’m watching is a fitting end, at least for the time being.

USA Today seems to be keeping track of this food fight in suits fairly well.  Here is its reporting.

This is your United States, and mine.  Pay close attention.

MINNESOTA ORCHESTRA:  POSTNOTE 8:45 p.m. Jan. 5: I watched little of today’s business in the House of Representatives.  We had tickets to the morning concert of the Minnesota Orchestra, and it was a magnificent performance of pieces by Samuel Coleridge Taylor, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Maurice Ravel.  This concert will be broadcast live at 8 p.m. Friday on Minnesota Public Radio 99.5; on Twin Cities PBS (TPT-2) and available for streaming at minnesotaorchestra.org and on the orchestra’s social media channels.  View the program notes here pages 20-25.

COMMENTS (more at end of post):

from Lois: Found this, from Thomas Jefferson to Henry Lee, 10 August 1824, interesting after reading about the House Speaker voting. Here is another view on political parties.

from Chuck:  Wish we had more concerned citizens.

Here’s my spin on listening to the first day of the new Congress.

On Jan 3, 2023, the first day of the new 118^th Congress, the needed quorumof the House of Representatives started the day with a prayer and the pledge of alliance.

Highlights of the Chaplain’s prayer the new congress heard:  “ETERNAL GOD, YOU SPOKE AND THE EARTH BROUGHT FORTH LIFE. WITH A WORD YOUR SPIRIT BREATHED INTO HUMANITY THE ESSENCE AND PURPOSE OF OUR VERY BEING. … BREATHE INTO THE BODY OF THE 118th CONGRESS YOUR WORD OF TRUTH AND JUSTICE, COMPASSION AND WISDOM. GIVE EACH MEMBER THE GUIDANCE TO BE FAITHFUL STEWARDS OF THIS DIVINE TASKING AND TO WIELD THIS PRIVILEGE CAREFULLY. … REMIND US THAT AMIDST ALL THE DEBATE, YOU WILL ALWAYS HAVE THE FINAL WORD. …. LAY ON THE SHOULDERS OF THESE MEN AND WOMEN THE MANTLE OF BOTH RESPONSIBILITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY….  CALL THESE WHO REPRESENT THE HOPES AND DREAMS OF THE AMERICANS WHO HAVE VOTED THEM INTO OFFICE TO HEED FIRST YOUR VOICE AND THEN AS THEY UPHOLD AND DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS MORAL PRINCIPLES, GRANT THEM STRENGTH AND REASON, PURPOSE AND INSIGHT. … GIVE US EYES TO SEE YOUR GUIDING HAND, EARS TO HEAR YOUR WISE TRUTH, AND HEARTS TO HOLD FIRMLY TO THE FAITH WE PROFESS IN YOU. WE PRAY THIS IN YOUR MOST SOVEREIGN NAME. AMEN.”

The intent of Pledge they all made:  “Liberty and Justice for all”.

What they did next:  Debated who should be elected Speaker of the House.  A vote that has only needed one round of voting for the last 100 years.  Then spend ____ days using precious time, taking ____roll call votes with no focus on any of the urgent issues facing God’s earthly creations.

If these elected officials could abide by the prayer they all heard and keep their pledge of allegiance to our nation that each made, our democratic republic would finally be on the right track.  But the first task of the new congress was to elect a new Speaker of the House.  There can only be one.  But it could be anyone.  Not even an elected member from either party.  But the republican majority is divided. The MAGAs vs the old school John McCain Republicans.  And in their inner party debate to elect Kevin McCarthy into that position was started with a truthful statement a leading republican who is opposed to McCarthy becoming chair.  He said that congress has been the last to know the truth – that our government is broken.

And…

But their first task of the new congress was to elect a new Speaker of the House.  There can only be one.  But it could be anyone.  Not even an elected member from either party.  But the republican majority is divided. The MAGAs vs the old school John McCain Republicans.  And in their inner party debate to elect Kevin McCarthy to that position was started with a truthful statement a leading republican who is opposed to McCarthy becoming chair.  He said that congress has been the last to know the truth – that our government is broken.

But the first task of the new congress was to elect a new Speaker of the House.  There can only be one.  But it could be anyone.  Not even an elected member from either party.  But the republican majority is divided. The MAGAs vs the old school John McCain Republicans.  And in their inner party debate to elect Kevin McCarthy to that position was started with a truthful statement a leading republican who is opposed to McCarthy becoming chair.  He said that congress has been the last to know the truth – that our government is broken.

“Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule–and both commonly succeed, and are right.”  – H.L. Mencken

from Kathy: I am watching most all the f it too. Nancy seems relaxed and totally engaged. The 20 or so Republicans interested in obstructing.

from Len: You are a patient man.  Dems will lose again as none of the 20 will support the Democrat candidate and no matter-McCarthy or Scalise, it is bad for the Dems.

All best for a good New Year in 2023.  Today, I think most about the empty chairs I learn of each year, with increasing frequency.  They are the people I knew who passed on in the preceding twelve months, some who I learn of in notes from their survivor.  I’m not alone in this ritual, of course.  We all are.  My personal status report at end of this post, but today, a visit down memory lane from 1958.

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I had just graduated from high school in May, 1958.  There were eight of us in the class.  (We moved frequently.  The previous year, at another school, there were two seniors….)

In 1958, our parents had surprised us by purchase of a brand new car – a 1958 Chevy – V8, the works.  This was something special.  We’d had a 1951 Plymouth Suburban before that; and earlier a 1930s era car with suicide doors.

The new ’58 Chevy, photo by Dick Bernard at the Sykeston Dam.

I was the kid with the drivers license, and I had just graduated, and for some unremembered reason I got to take the car, solo, to visit a couple of friends from 8th grade at Ross ND.

Using the car was not a usual routine in my family.  And while this was only a day trip, it was not a short distance.  Here’s the map of the route, out and back.  It was not a short day, but at 18, a “piece of cake”.

I don’t recall our doing anything of particular significance.  We were just out for a ride.  The end of our route was New Town, ND, which had been founded due to the filling of the Garrison Dam reservoir in the 1950s which made the towns of Sanish and Van Hook uninhabitable.  A wikipedia article is here.

When we went there, there was no particular agenda other than to see New Town – as least I don’t recall any other intention.

I’ve done a quick review of the books I have about North Dakota – all from the 1950s and 60s – and none make any mention of the damage done to the lands of the native Americans who had occupied this land far longer than the settlers.  The only government interest in Garrison seems to have been storage of water for future irrigation…at least so seems the narrative in the three books I have.  The irrigation prospects seem not to have worked out; there is some power generation from the dammed up reservoir.

For we kids, in the spring of 1958, it was just a fun ride.  I dropped my friends off, then I drove home to Sykeston.

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The post came to mind, today, because of an e-mail received from a long-time friend yesterday.  I reprint the note with his permission: “Your closing comment about the strange things you remember [from the past] brings an unhappy experience to mind. On my first day in school, I was running out of the schoolhouse and tripped on the edge of the entrance concrete slab and fell face down into the gravel.  This little girl came running over to see if I was okay.  That little girl was [a classmate], the first time I had ever seen her.  That image of her bending over to see how I was remains with me to this day.  She was such a special person, and our relationship lasted for ever and ever.  Each summer when I made my trips back to North Dakota, I would swing by their farm and visit with her and her husband.   Last August I learned that my so special friend that I have known for 76 years is no longer with us.  It is hard for me to comprehend what [her husband]  is going through after their 62-year relationship.  One of the toughest aspects of life is the constant loss of loved ones, but I guess it is what it is. 

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Many of you know me only through this blog.

Personally, those who know me and see me frequently know I’m basically as usual.  It was last year, this week, the day after Christmas, when the diagnosis of colon cancer visited me.  And December, 2018, when I had my encounter with heart valve replacement.

I’ve written about both here, and I seem to have done pretty well.  This week, as usual, I did daily 2 1/2 mile brisk walks indoors.  I try to act my age; hopefully I’ll be reminded if I don’t….

I feel normal, which does not mean the same as last year, 10 or 20 years ago.  We all know this is true, from our own experience!  We march on, best we can.

Down in the garage is my Dad’s typewriter, on which he wrote probably thousands of letters to people over the years.  On the cover he pasted a portion of a placemat from his retirement residence at Our Lady of the Snows in Belleville IL.  The advice there is very simple and makes lots of sense, here:

Live for Today
Dream for Tomorrow
Learn from Yesterday

COMMENTS (more at the end of the page)

from Beth: Good for you to keep writing Dick.  I’m still slowing inching through two legal size drawers with 70 lbs of letters 1930-1952 from my mom, her parents, my father.  They are a treasure to me.  I have a plethora of letters I wrote to my parents, a friend I wrote to in England (friend from Ireland 1983-`1985)  She was English moved back there and I wrote her voraciously until she died.  Her daughter mailed me all the letters I had sent her mom.  They are a part of my history I couldn’t have recreated from memory.

from Emmett: And I have a comment about the Garrison Dam.  It robbed North Dakota of some of its most productive farmland, and hence statements of future irrigation were all political.  The real purpose of the dam was to hold back waters to minimize downstream flooding of the Missouri/Mississippi Rivers.  Those southern states had much greater political power than us North Dakota folks.

Dick, the reason that nothing ever happened in the way of future irrigation is because it was never intended,  and you can read all the books in the world, and it won’t change the facts.  As a long-time scientist, I tend to be leery of much that I read because I cannot always determine the true objectives of the authors.  Are they trying to influence their readers for political purposes, or are they just parroting something they have heard or read, or … who knows what????  I recall a situation where the Air Force Research Lab in Dayton, OH spent about $3 million to disprove a position paper that was written by a Stanford University professor for the purpose of promoting their university.  So read, but beware of what you believe.

Response from Dick: We have nothing to disagree about.  The below photo from Rich sort of says it all.  It must have been the then-Governor of ND signing the paper (Fred Aandahl?).  What seems to be the definitive history of North Dakota (Elwyn Robinson 1966 pp 461-66) seems to agree with your political conclusion.

You and I worked in different arenas with different criteria.  My job for virtually my whole career was to try to sort out some reasonable facsimile of fact among assorted opinions on matters  from petty to pretty profound; from individual differences to organizational and larger political controversies.  There is always truth in there somewhere, even if only fragments!

I once heard a talk on the concept of “power” which I felt was pretty profound. The speaker talked about various sources of power, such as who controls your job, or your money or what have you.  The greatest power, he said, was what he called ‘referent power’ – the likability factor.  It made sense to me, in the context that I was then-working.  More recently that has been turned on its head, too.  The previous President (whose name I will not use) is like a pied piper to his reverent flock, the powerless.  Makes no difference that he gives not a damn about them; they still revere him….  So, back to the drawing board.   I actually did a blog about this once.  Here’s the link, from 2011.

from Rich:

George Gillette, second from left, chairman of Three Affiliated Tribes of North Dakota, and other tribal officials at the 1948 signing of the Garrison Dam agreement.
Dick,
As a North Dakota native, when I think of Garrison Dam relocation this photograph is most poignant.
Rich

About noon my time, today, Dec. 19, 2022, the Jan. 6 Select Committee convenes in Washington D.C.  I will watch, as I have watched every one of the public hearings of the committee thus far. (The official website of the committee does not show any scheduled hearing; most public channels will carry the proceedings live.)

As regular readers know by now, it is my habit to write on such things before they happen, rather than after.  I also hesitate to predict outcomes before the fact.

I will order the full report of the Jan. 6 committee.  The final report will  truly be an historical document.  There will be numerous sources – just search “January 6 final report”.

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For this morning,  I choose to replay a portion of an earlier post I published on July 24, 2019, still available on line if you wish to access it.  Just go to ARCHIVES at right on this page, and call up the July 2019 calendar.

July 24, 2019 was almost 3 1/2 years ago.  It was 1 1/2 years before Jan. 6, 2021.

7/24/19 I wrote a particularly exasperated post, at the time the Mueller Report on the 2016 election was issued.

I said, then: “My opinion: the [then] President is as close to a common criminal as we have ever had in the highest office in the land.  It is his hope – and that of his fervent supporters – that he will beat the rap by running out the clock and then be reelected under patently false pretenses in 2020.  Others can – and have already – gone to prison.  Not him.  Yet.”

A reader responded: “Well Common criminal he may be, but he is the best thing this country has seen since Reagan” and threw in that “Obama and Clinton should be in jail.”

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I leave it at that.  What do you think?

Each of us are our government at every level.  Period.

COMMENTS (more at end of post)

from Fred: Another excellent summation by the committee. It is now on the record that a US chief executive has been charged by the legislative branch with insurrection against the America and its citizens. It is recognition very much deserved, the shame of which will stain that former president and his memory as long as there is a United States of America.