It's time for the stupid meme of the week. This one was taken off a favoured source of mine, a favourite mine to source for stupid memes, the personal site of our old friend and guitar master run amok, Ted Nugent. I follow his outrageously pro-Trump postings and occasionally comment on how dumb they are. I've had a little push-back from Trumpian/Nugian fans, but I don't dignify them, particularly on the hostile territory that is his personal site. But I thought this one was too stupid to let slide. I invite Nugists/Trumpists to challenge my logic on my home field. I doubt they will.
The KXL has had a rocky history. I've blogged about parts of that history here before. One major part of it we don't see on the map above is the fact that AFTER the "oil" gets to the coast, gets refined in the US refineries (we'll talk more about that later), it will be shipped to China. Obama rejected it in 2012 and vetoed the pipeline in 2015. Trump ran in 2016 on a pledge to approve the KXL, tried throughout his administration to speed up and/or stop the research on its environmental effects and thwart efforts by indigenous groups and environmentalists to stop it, then finally UN-vetoed it in 2020 just before leaving office.
Canada has been trying for years to build oil pipelines to get the oil from Canadian land, which is land Canadians pay taxes on; we all have contributed work to; our blood, sweat and tears nourish; and the resources thereof should be removed and distributed only with the approval of the Canadian citizens. Though they all claim it is, this is NOT a sentiment shared by our politicians, Conservative OR Liberal. This is best illustrated by Conservative Stephen I-Love-China-More-Than-Canada Harper's FIPA agreement that he signed knowingly in opposition to Canadians back in 2014. The most significant quote from his 9 years as PM: "We know this is really, really unpopular, but we're doing it anyway."
That agreement has the current Liberal PM, Justin Trudeau on his toes trying to look like an environmentalist, while still desperately trying to get oil to China to hold up our end of the FIPA. The alternative, in Trudeau's defense, would be China suing for billions of our tax dollars. So THAT wouldn't be good either. What WOULD be good, and I continuously say it on this blog, is if Canada just stopped dealing with the Chinese (not to say kissing their human rights violating asses), but it seems our government will never learn. Witness this recent example.
So, Teddy, in a way, being pro pipeline, whether you know it or not, means you are okay with the Chinese suing Americans and Canadians for our tax dollars.
Like most supporters of pipelines, I'm sure Ted Nugent would use the jobs and economy rebuttal to any argument I could offer him about the dangers of fossil fuels. Pipelines leak. Pipeline workers know it. The cartoon below is from a Trans Mountain Pipeline employee newsletter.
You may have wondered at my quotation marks around the word "oil" earlier in this post. The Alberta oil sands, sometimes called "tar" sands, yield a gucky substance known as bitumen. It's more like grease at room temp and it's fucking near impossible to clean up when it spills. MUCH harder than crude oil or refined oil. The media, most of which is owned by the same folks who own the governments, just say "oil" to inaccurately refer to spillage. And they say things like, "Pipelines are the safest way to transport oil." Well they want you to think that that means it's safe. It doesn't. It only means it's safer than this:
It will surprise absolutely no-one, I'm sure, that the cost for cleaning up the messes the fossil fuel industry makes is always subsidized and very often covered completely by taxpayer money. So when Trudeau comes out with a new carbon tax (that he calls something - ANYTHING but a carbon TAX) and immediately Canadians complain that it will raise the price of gas, well they're right, but not as right as they think they are. It's not the government directly raising the price of gas. It's the oil companies' knee-jerk reaction to raise the price of gas to more than offset the new carbon taxes. And to be honest, it's the Canadian citizens who are so browbeaten by taxes that they have become an accepted torture. We don't have to accept them. We don't have to buy the products big businesses keep raising the prices of. We don't have to accept governments who subsidize the fossil fuel industry either. It doesn't help to just gripe and still do what we're told by our owners. There are things we can do. Stop driving. I haven't bought a drop of gas in almost two decades. Drive less. Drive a smaller car. Drive a hybrid. It won't really make much of a difference, and it's really NOT our responsibility since private citizens make up a tiny fraction of the pollution in our countries. The majority is from, you guessed it, big business. And those big polluters are SUBSIDIZED by our governments, i.e. ENCOURAGED to pollute! But we don't have to take that shit. Here's a petition you can sign.
So, Teddy, get yourself an electric truck, or at least a hybrid. You are proudly admitting to destroying your own land, water and air with your ignorant meme.
Furthermore, Motor City Madman, you should know this if you truly deserve that nickname, a V8 engine at 2000 RPM's creates about 133 explosions per second in your truck. Maybe 40 per second while idling. These are explosions within the cylinders using spark and compressed, highly refined oil in the form of gasoline or diesel fuel. Your truck may occasionally leak oil, it happens.
Here's an unexpected kind of explosion at a Mexican pipeline caused by the soaring price of gas, which has lead to gas theft becoming a booming resource in Mexico, pardon the pun. At least 137 people were killed in this explosion. And here's a leak from the Keystone Pipeline, which I'm assuming you're supporting with your meme, that is slightly larger than an oil leak from your truck would be. 383,000 gallons of oil. That'll do some damage!10X the amount of damage than first reported. TC, the company that now owns the KXL, is the not so cleverly concealed new identity of Trans Canada Pipelines. They changed that name to remove the "Canada" after the government of Canada bought the company. Remember, the government of Canada can't BUY anything. They don't have any money. That's Canadian tax money. I don't know about any other Canadians, but I didn't give my permission to buy that pipeline. That's nothing short of misappropriation of Canadian tax money. It could easily be construed as about a dozen other crimes such as theft, fraud, maybe even treason. And to further astound you, Mr. Madman, I'm sure that deal had to be approved by the Chinese government in lieu of an outright cash payment as a result of a lawsuit against the government of Canada for not delivering that oil Harper promised them in that FIPA agreement. The US has a similar agreement and has been sued. But, once again, you can't sue a government because governments don't have any money. China has sued every taxpayer in Canada and the US. China has sued me, and China has sued you, Nugey. Give that a long hard think.
So, Teddy, your stupid post actually supports the Chinese in the lawsuit of China vs. Ted Nugent.
Look, I have friends and family who work directly or indirectly for the oil industry. I can't blame them for falsely or even genuinely supporting it and/or pipelines. I gotta be honest, I've seen and even considered lucrative offers from Saudi Arabia and other oil producing nations. Right now with Korea finally phasing out the good jobs here, those offers are looking more and more attractive. So I get it. But I'm pretty sure Ted Nugent hasn't had much if any involvement professionally with big oil.
So, Teddy, you don't have THAT excuse that might get you a pass regarding your idiotic meme.
I gotta think, and this applies to a LOT of Americans, and probably Canadians, Ted Nugent's love of pipelines just might be rooted in his support of a farcical political party and the financial gain (and conflict of interest) represented by their endorsement of the fossil fuel industry and pipelines. That and pure ignorance.
Oh and as promised, let's talk about refineries. The KXL will be piping diluted (and heated) bitumen to the US where it will be refined, then shipped to China. Those other pipelines mentioned would have sent the dilbit across parts of the naturally gorgeous country of Canada and all the way to China before being refined in Chinese refineries. So the purpose of all these pipelines from Alberta is to transport the oil in by far the most dangerous way across some beautiful land where it WILL be spilled and introduced into the land and waters in oil's most dangerous form. All because China and the US are two big bully countries who want to make more money than Canada off the Canadian oil by doing the refining outside of Canada, making it dangerous to the land and waters of the US and Canada, not to mention the oceans over which it travels to China in tankers.
So, Teddy, THAT'S what you are supporting when you say you support pipelines. You'd be smarter if you believed in fairies and unicorns.
Imagine if you will... that politics was a sport. And I'm talking about American/Canadian politics here. It's a sport with only two teams. Oh, sure, there ARE other teams, but they're pretty much perennial expansion teams. They don't ever compete, they have a much lower salary cap, there are fewer games in smaller stadia, blackouts are in effect across the country so most fans are forced to watch the same game every time between the top two teams. There is a great fan base and a lot of love for the fringe teams, but most folks know they'll never win, so they have their favourite team, which isn't one of the top two, and the team they vote for in the championship, which IS one of the top two. There were a couple seasons when the captain of a third team was traded to one of the top two teams. It wasn't expected for him to become the most popular player but he did! Why, he even became the captain of one of the top two teams! What happened the next two seasons was shameful! For the first season, he was stripped of the captaincy and just to punish the fans who were perceived as disloyal, his team purposely lost the championship game. The next season, even though the fans still favoured him for captain, the team chose someone else. They won the championship that year, but most agree they would have done even better with the captain the fans supported. He was given a good job as chief talent scout after he retired, but only as a kind of apology appointment. The fans will never know what a superstar he could have been.
What the fans DO know is that this is one pungent hangover-lamb vindaloo-diarrhea SHIT sports league, but... it's better than nothing/at least it's sports/so hwak haeng/toxic positivity/don't drag your negativity into this blog post! If you don't keep your blind faith in the league, you start to realize that both of the major teams are owned by the same people and those people really don't care who wins the championship every year, so long as the fans keep supporting the league and believing it's genuine sport, not WWF wrestling.
Okay, analogy over. But why do I make this analogy? What is my topic for today? Just about the best illustration of how completely disingenuous politics and politicians can be. It's an example that would get you a lifetime ban from a sport like using steroids or fixing games to cover the spread you bet on. It's such a heinous example of political rhetoric that the people who secreted it can't possibly have any more respect for their participation in the politics of their country than a game of shinny at the local outdoor hockey rink or some pick-up hoops. After you hear it, you'll think of about a hundred other examples exactly the same. And those examples will not be confined to one or the other of the two parties either. And you may wonder why anybody would have as much interest in politics as they might have for the fake sport outlined above. It's a question I find myself asking almost every day. You know it's not real, you know your team can never really win, why do you keep buying tickets?
Okay, now I promise the analogy is over. Anyone ever heard of the Unitary Executive Theory? It's a theory of United States constitutional law that amounts to, "If the president does anything, it must be legal, because, why, he's the president!" (Incidentally if I were talking about VICE president, I would have typed "he's/she's" back there. But it'll happen...) And speaking of Vice, we're going to pause here. During the pause, please watch, or re-watch, the movie "Vice." I'll wait.
Let's all go to the looooobby, let's all go to the looooobby, let's all go to the looooobby to get ourselves a treat.
Dick Cheney may have been the greatest proponent of Unitary Executive Theory to ever kinda be, but still not be president. This was, as you will have noticed from watching the movie just now, Dick & Rummy's plan to take control of the U.S. way back in '76 during Ford's first term. Problem was, Ford lost to Carter. The Republican reaction was a familiar one: "This must be a mistake." "We need to re-count those votes." Eye roll. The team can do no wrong. Fight for the team right or wrong.
At any rate, the movie is mainly about how Cheney got to practice some of Dubyuh's executive powers FOR HIM. It's scary enough that the president could have such absolute executive control of the most powerful country in the world, but when someone else could practice it in proxy due to a president's weak-mindedness, ummmm wouldn't this qualify as one of those things that need to be changed? We've talked about this before. Why are there so many of these things, really fucking important things, that are "not clearly defined" in the presidency of the United States? Here's an article with statements made by some Whitehouse workers at the time of the 9/11 crisis about how scary that really was. Jack Goldsmith called it a theological commitment to executive power.
Not quite sure why that has pink behind it, but it's a powerful statement. It makes the president like a god or even like GOD! As Bruce Fein commented, the executive powers that were used after 9/11 unilaterally by the president (Cheney) weren't even applied to Hitler, Hirohito, Mussolini, and Stalin. Surely Osama Bin Laden was nowhere near the threat they were!
And now we arrive at a familiar Trumpian impasse: why in the name of Fucky McFuck is all of this a THEORY??? Shouldn't something like the power to, oh I dunno, vaporize entire cities and destroy the earth, have legislation that is absolutely clear? Not theoretical? But as gobsmackingly unintelligible as it may sound, it doesn't. It has Article II, Section 2 of the American Constitution. Evidently, people interpret this in wildly different ways.
One man having all that power! Surely that can't be good! But as Brad Berenson once observed, "There is only one thing more frightening than an American president who has such power in his sole command. And that is an American president who does not have that power."
I suppose he meant that if the nukes needed to be launched in a hurry, it would slow things down having to get multiple agreements, in writing, and from presumably members of both parties whose job it is to simply disagree with one another. Agreed, this wouldn't be the best way to have things. But surely there must be a better way! Put a think tank together, America! You wouldn't be just saving yourselves!
He knew about the Unitary Executive Theory. He probably recorded it and pleasured himself to his voice reading it. And we come to our point (finally) during impeachment number one, it was invoked. If you were like me, and at the time of the first impeachment, you read William Barr's full 19-page article about why Trump should not be impeached, you basically read the Unitary Executive Theory. It will come as no surprise to anyone that this oily hided mouthpiece stated the exact opposite at another time.
Whether this made much difference or not to the mindlessly loyal GOPers I can't claim to know, but they were all harumphing and echoing the gist of Barr's defense: You can't impeach Trump because he's president. And he didn't get impeached.
There they are, JF KKK and the Canadian Commando. But despite their grandstanding and time wasting, on Jan. 6 (or the 7th really), the election was confirmed. Shortly thereafter, on January 13, a second impeachment of Trump was passed. The opening arguments of the trial are set to begin on Feb. 9. But the GOP is raising a very interesting argument against them. I think possibly it was Rand Paul who was the brains behind this one:
I'm sure the two above, Rupaul, Bill Barr and probably even Dick Cheney are amongst the Pavlovian Repuglicans who are now harumphing and echoing the agreed upon slogan in regards to Trump's impeachment part deux, you guessed it, "You can't impeach Trump because he's no longer president.
This is not government, this is mockery. They're probably sipping expensive scotch and smoking fine Cuban cigars laughing at how stupid the public is.
Now, think back to when I said you can probably think of 100 more examples like this. I certainly can. This theater of the absurd has gone on long enough. It needs to end. If I didn't promise earlier to end my sport analogy, I'd say this league should be defunct.
HOWEVER, every so often, political bad guys get beat out of office restoring public faith in elections, politics, politicians and the broken system of government we continue to support. These heroes usually start out great. Biden/Harris have done some great things out of the gate. So did Carter, so did Clinton, so did Obama, but eventually all have succumbed to the true powers that own everything and everyone: the three comma class. And inexplicably, voters always seem to end up at that mysterious place where they say to themselves, "Self, this party isn't working out. I need a change. The other party was shit last time and the chances are very good they'll be shit again. But I'll take that chance because I don't want to vote for a fringe party even though their platform is what I want. I just don't like their team name."
And on and on goes the two-party political nightmare.
"Life is a liar, yeah life is a cheat. It'll lead you on and pull the rug from underneath your feet. No use complaining, don't you worry, don't you whine, cuz if you get it wrong, you'll get it right next time."
This is one of my favourite grooves of all time. One of those songs you want to have a cigarette in your mouth, not necessarily lit, but just to bounce up and down in the opposite direction your head is bobbing with the funky groove.
And it's a solid life philosophy! Something I've tried and failed again and again to do in so many areas, not the least of which is employment. I'm still waiting for the "next time." Haven't gotten it right yet. Maybe it's because I always worry and often whine. Or maybe it's the racket I sort of fell into.
The song is by Gerry Rafferty. You may know Baker Street or Right Down The Line. Both are spectacular songs! The guy is a legend! I bet he'd be a hoot to have a beer with. Or a joint. I heard a story told by Billy Connolly, you know the crazy, Scottish comedian? He used to play banjo in a band with Gerry Rafferty! And he said he's going to hell because one time he and Gerry wanted to smoke some hash, but they had not "skins" or papers as they're known to the uncool like you and me. They ended up using a few pages from a Bible instead. Connolly says he phoned Rafferty on his death bed and they reminisced about that time and had a chuckle.
Anyway, hang a smoke loosely between your lips, maybe put on some shades and relax before you play this song.
Whose gonna call me on my death bed and what stories will we reminisce about? How about you? Do I have a story like that I could call you up and talk to you about? Do you have a story like that you could call me about? If not, we gotta get living. Oh, I dunno, maybe it's the times and this specific year of staying in my apartment for more time than any year ever because of Covid. Maybe it's the fact that I HAD and currently HAVE a lot of time off, with pay, but CAN'T make memories by travelling, sightseeing, maybe visiting some folks. I had really good visits with my closest friends over the holidays here, but when you have two months off, you want to do some bigger, more memorable things. And now that I've lost this job, I have a sneaking suspicion it'll be the last Korean university gig I ever get with the long holidays. We'll see, but there are bad signs...
Demographic winter is coming! I guess the Korean population has been dropping for about 18 years and this year is expected to be the first year of the lowest number of university aged kids ever. It's expected to continue until they start having more kids. Why is the Korean population going down? Why are people less interested in having kids? What does the term "Hell Joseon" mean? Here's a very well done article/photo gallery. My guess is if you read it through, you'll find that Korea isn't a great deal different from whatever country you find yourself reading this post in right now. Like Canada and the U.S., here in Korea there is an older generation that felt if they worked hard or studied hard, they would succeed. And they believe this because it happened for them. They own their own homes and have money in the bank. Why can't the younger folks do what they did? It's just not the case any more, that's why. But these old timers would rather think of the younger generations as lazy or not as motivated as THEY were than believe their country just sucks for jobs.
High cost of living and limited job prospects has lead to the "sampo" generation here. Sampo translates to "three give up." This doesn't mean three kids, it means two parents and one kid. People are not having traditionally large families because even for those who manage to find the good, stable jobs, it still isn't financially feasible. Sound familiar?
The term I like the best from the above article is "social cartel." Here in Korea it is most likely worse than things back home, but we still have the same thing. It's not what you know, it's who you know. Can anyone reading this NOT think of a handful of people who are dumb as hammer sacks, yet SOMEHOW managed to land a fantastic job and SOMEHOW manage to keep it? Can anyone not think of a world leader like that? (although the one I'm thinking of didn't manage to keep his job) As often as a person hears in Korea, "Please understand our unique situation," it ain't that unique. It may be more extreme in certain areas, but "hell Joseon" is not unique.
The last term I like, which fits in with our song at the beginning, is "so hwak haeng." Here's another article about it. To me, this is depressing. And when you couple this little bit of self-delusion with the growing suicide rate in Korea, I don't think it's working. It equates to what I've called the "Well-at-least" mentality in this blog and all it is is people ignoring the deterioration of their society by over-accentuating the micro-positive and whipping themselves into submission to toxic positivity instead of acknowledging and doing the hard work of changing their countries.
I remember pretty regular protests, I mean almost every week, in Korea for one thing or another when I first came here. I'm sure not all of the protests were for good things, but I think they might have had some success in that the government may not have been so cavalier about implementing unfair policies knowing that the people were not afraid to protest. And I can't claim to know much of anything about Korean politics, but it always seemed to me that the good stuff in this country was not so highly concentrated at the very top. Average people had good lives. But the competition is increasing the article says. The country isn't getting poorer and the population isn't going up. So what's happening? Same as everywhere, the middle class is being obliterated and all the money is being concentrated in fewer and fewer bank accounts.
I see a LOT of advantages to Korea having a declining birthrate and population, but when I mention any of them to Koreans, the media mentality ensues. Despite obvious bias in local news producers, which are owned by large corporations that do stuff like the above, Koreans are still convinced it is their duty to crank out customers. They are like Zerg spawning pools (Starcraft language they can relate better to) whose only purpose is to crank out zerglings fast. They even have government programs that reward Koreans for having kids. A sort of baby bonus system. More kids is what the country is crying for at a time when it's harder than ever for them to have good lives. The logic is similar to this thought provoking scientific study from The Onion.
But before I get too deep into that, the baby bust (opposite of a baby boom is a baby bust, right?) could affect me. The universities are expecting all time lows in enrollment. Certainly Covid 19 leading to online classes hasn't helped this at all, but it appears that the post secondary education atmosphere in Korea is nervous. Schools are forecasting job cuts. This is expected to create a pile of out-of-work teachers and more competition for the good university positions. Of course when jobs are at a premium, this leads to employers raising expectations. As if this hadn't been already happening! The qualifications have been going up, the paperwork has been going up, the cost of documentation has been going up, the cost of visa runs has gone up, the class sizes have ballooned and the weekly hours have been jacked up almost across the board. There are two things that haven't gone up: salary and vacation time.
Somebody forgot to factor in China, Arab countries, even Vietnam or other places around the world where ESL teachers can actually make MORE than they can here in Korea. Teachers are going to be leaving Korea so I don't think it'll be such an employers' market. Also, there's a thriving online teaching market and we're all getting used to teaching online. Schools like mine who are shooting for the stars right now and adding hours to the contract and holding out for advanced degree holders only, just might be settling for "lesser" teachers like me again come mid February. We'll see...
There's another place teachers can go, and it's not even a different country. Some people teach on the U.S. military bases here in Korea. In fact, to give you an idea of how competitive and nasty things are getting, I heard a story today about a friend of mine who has been teaching on base for 6.5 years, he's been unceremoniously turfed for no kind of reason. Here is a go fund me page to help him uproot and go home. The description of what happened is quite vague. "Ordinarily" resident of Korea? That smacks of bullcrap foreign fuckery to me! And I have a bit of inside info.
Evidently, what happened was a teacher was "poached" from a Korean university and went to work on base. A rep from that university contacted the higher ups in Korean government education and told them they didn't want their teachers going to teach on base. So, in true Korean fashion, they hastily implemented a rule or law or policy without really thinking of consequences to people like Joel, and, voila, now he's going home too. As hastily as that policy was implemented.
This sort of thing is happening more, not less, the longer I stay here. I have been seriously thinking about what I'll do if I don't manage to land a new job here in the spring. My visa is good until April. If I don't have a job by then, I can always teach online. But, I'll need to pay for my own health insurance. That's a new law. Time was, a guy could stay here on a 6-month visitor's visa and if you did some online work or picked up a camp or some sub hours here or there, nobody needed to know. I'm not sure that's possible any more either.
Even moving stuff out of the country could soon be a big hassle. Korea is still accepting passport numbers for foreigners who ship things or receive things. But I've heard we will soon need a personal customs code. I tried to get one and, as expected, couldn't. All of these government webpages require your name and your alien card number. But for the life of me I can't imagine what messed up combination of letters in (or not even in) my name SOMEbody input when first associating my name with my alien number, but it's in all the sites. I try the name as it appears on the card (now you'd think it'd be just that easy wouldn't you?) and it doesn't work. I have tried so many variations of my name, I'm about ready to change my name to something Korean! But nothing has worked yet. Who knows, maybe they got the number wrong.
I am worrying and whining here but the last two apartments I've been in have also overcharged me. It's something they do that has to be swallowed as just part of the Korean experience. It's just not worth fighting it. I'm not 100% sure it's because of my non-Korean status, but in both places I see people walking around their houses in swimsuits, carrying loofahs and sweating while my apartment is a steady 15-17 degrees. I like it cold in winter. It's so cold that I can't even wash dishes in hot water. It gets warm at best. I wear a sweater at all times or a jacket. I skip showers and take short ones when I take them at all. My apartment is so cold here that now I have to keep my bathroom door closed for a few minutes after the shower or the hot air creates so much steam in the cold apartment that my smoke alarm goes off. I'm not kidding. Yet at both places I paid more than anyone else for gas. I checked everybody's bills at gas bill time. They're just hanging out of their mail boxes. Again, I see stuff like this happening more instead of less.
And with my new friend, diabetes, Korea is just not the best place to find the best food choices or medical care. I'm seriously considering clearing outta here too. It seems like it might be the right time. Who knows, diabetes might even turn out to be just another hindrance to my job hunt here.
However, now that I've completely abandoned the theme I'd started out with, what do you say we get back to it? The job with Gongju University? I got it wrong again, but since I got it wrong, maybe I'll get it right next time. I've put together an updated resume, a solid cover letter and a video of my teaching style. Maybe with these things going for me, I'll be able to get another year of employment here. I really don't want to leave until I've reached my savings goal. For that I need a couple more years. So I'm going to literally give it the old college try and see what I can get. But if I'm still unemployed by the end of February, there might be another move in MY future too. I'm lucky I don't have a big family like Joel though. And I have more time to plan too.
Maybe I won't get it wrong, I'll get it right next time.
I'd like to talk today about an American president who was not voted into office with a majority of his countryman's votes. He was a one-term president who was impeached. He sympathized with white supremacists and liked to hold rallies during which public frenzy, hatred and violence against his opponents was incited. He refused to go to the inauguration of his successor. He sought to systematically "make America great again" by sabotaging his county's efforts to put an end to black disenfranchisement. His every utterance and act seemed to undermine the constitution he'd sworn to uphold. He was paranoid about preserving his post, removing opponents from government and replacing them with loyal minions. He believed that equality discriminated against white people and had an open hostility to democratic ideals.
Who's that you say? Donald who? No, I'm not talking about that assclown, I'm talking about Andrew Johnson.
He became president in 1865 because he was Lincoln's vice, and we know what happened to Honest Abe. From what I've read, Andrew Johnson got the vice presidency largely on his (fake) concern for the suffering of black people in America at the time. He hadn't been honest with old Honest Abe to be sure! But he wasn't the first and certainly not the last scumbag to lie his way right into office.
Lincoln was barely in the ground when Johnson began implementing his plans to reconstruct the defeated south by granting almost total immunity to ex-confederates and instituting "Black Codes," which basically preserved slavery in every way but name. He also started stacking his cabinet and governmental bureaucracies with people who were of the same mind.
Congress recognized his chicanery and in 1867 passed the Tenure of Office Act, which prevented the prez from removing officials confirmed by the senate and replacing them with his own flunkies. Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton was replaced by Ulysses S. Grant immediately, as if to test the act, but Grant returned the office to Stanton after the senate passed a measure in protest.
Then on Feb. 21, 1868, Johnson appointed General Lorenzo Thomas, a guy who Stanton absolutely hated, to the position of Secretary of War, and this is what precipitated his impeachment.
A political cartoon of the day shows Stanton pointing the cannon of congress at Johnson and Thomas. The cannon had been loaded, then tamped with a rammer marked, "Tenure of Office Bill." The cannonballs have the word "justice" on them and one of the men to the left of Stanton is Ulysses S. Grant.
Interestingly, articles of impeachment were PASSED only three days later on Feb. 24th.
From March 13 to May 26 the impeachment trial was held in the senate and largely due to passionate pleas by Thomas in defense of Johnson, the impeachment fell one vote short of conviction. They had a large majority, but not the two thirds needed. So, like Trump (the first time), Johnson was impeached, but not removed from office.
Would anybody really be shocked if Trump mounted a campaign under the same slogan? Really? But a 2/3 majority in favour of his second impeachment would result in a conviction that precludes him from ever running again. I think. And this brings me to my next point: why the hell are so many things in the U.S. government "not clearly defined?"
Remember at the beginning of "THE GREATEST FIRST TERM EVER" when Trump didn't divest himself of all business interests that could cause conflict of interest? Remember talk of "emoluments clauses" and the like? Well that just went away and his presidency has been his best business ever! Probably his only successful one! He makes money golfing at his own courses while his entourage also stays there; foreign dignitaries stay in the penthouse at Trump Towers if they are in economic negotiations with the U.S.; China offers billion-dollar perfume or fashion contracts to Ivanka and huge loans to Don Jr.; hell, the fraudulent fleecing of Trumpies to support his ludicrous campaign to change the election results will probably be used to pay lawyers to postpone trials indefinitely once he is no longer in office and once again becomes prosecutable. There are countless examples of conflict of interest that have been ignored over the past 4 years! Why? "Well, this was never really clearly defined..."
Remember Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett being fast-tracked into place after Ruth Bader Ginsberg died? Obama had 11 months left in his term and his nomination of Merrick Garland was not accepted by the Republican heavy senate. Yet, with the election 45 days away, that same hypocritical, Republican senate rammed Amy Coney Barrett down America's throats. That's TWO lifetime appointments Republicans "won." Why? Well the rules on that were never really clearly defined.."
It is expected that the current ReTrumplican government is going to launch into a veritable orgy of pardoning of the guilty Trump family, of guilty Trump enablers and of Trump himself. The word "pardon" implies guilt. Why the fuck any president has the ability to just wipe away guilt is anyone's guess. But it's never been clearly defined... For the Thanksgiving turkey, okay, but anyone else, your laws are undermining themselves FFS!
And the piece de resistance, the "self-pardon," which may be Trump's final act, what possible scenario could exist in which an innocent person could require and/or use a self-pardon? If my Mother came at me with a wooden spoon and I said, "Wait a minute, Mom... I invoke my self-pardon rights," I'd get it WORSE because then she'd be absolutely SURE I deserved it, if she wasn't already. But, as this horseshit is being considered, we're coming to that familiar Trumpian impasse: "Well the laws and rules on this have never really been clearly defined..."
You can probably think of many holes in American law, security and culture that have been exposed by Trump as well. These are but a few. How about Capitol security? Eh?
Folks, it's time to impeach this shit stain because when January 20th rolls around and the insurrection is not quite as nice, and much more ARMED, it'll be too late to do so. Impeach his fucking ass and plug the holes he's exposed. It's the only possible way you can salvage anything positive from his presidency.
Well, I made it outta 2020 reasonably intact, but I certainly wouldn't sign up for THAT again! 2021 has started off on the world politics and employment fronts by saying, "Oh yeah, 2020? Hold my beer!"
I think you know what's coming on the political side, so let's begin with work. As I blogged before, I have lost my job. In true 2020 mind-blowing fashion, I lost my teaching job without ever teaching a class. Well, not in person anyway. I spent a total of about 15 minutes in a classroom at Gongju University where I no longer work, and that was my demo lesson during my interview. I have never had to go through more bureaucratic, logistic and immigration SHIT, not to mention expense, to get a job, including coming perilously close to being stranded in Guam, if you recall, only to acquire a year of work. The reason I lost the job I busted my arse and underwent so much stress to acquire has exactly nothing to do with job performance and I have a letter of recommendation to that effect.
Perhaps the most frustrating thing about this year of work has been the long sought after long vacation periods that come with the uni gig, being wasted by Covid. During the break between the first and second semesters, I had July and August off and I was not allowed to travel outside Korea. Even inside Korea, travel was limited and required annoying restrictions like mask wearing. So I used it as a money saving opportunity, since I had spent so much money acquiring this job. It was tough not to at least skip over to Thailand for a little golf outing, but I was pretty sure Covid would be done by the winter break. Covid said, "Oh yeah? Hold my beer!"
Now it's the winter break. Kinda. I've been "off" work for weeks now, but I've been kept busy finalizing grades, attendance and such with the unnecessarily added difficulties of insanely tedious rules, outdated and impossibly complicated school portal and LMS, and management that can be most positively described as a hindrance. Let me give one example: I was told there had been an email sent to the other teachers describing some of the login processes and rules and such, that we would need to know about to ease the end of semester paperwork. I had inexplicably not received such an email. So I emailed the supervisor. She said, "Oh, sorry. I'll send it to you," then proceeded NOT to. This is an apt illustration of her contribution to the holidays.
The holidays, despite all of the above, were great, but let's continue to mine this current vein. My biggest problem with the whole process has been the school portal and the fact that my computer is too good to use it. I'll repeat that: the portal is so outdated that only an old and shitty computer, like we have in the office at the school, can be used to access it. I'm exaggerating a bit. I suppose I could download programs that enable me to access my work computer from home, so long as it is on. One of the other teachers does that and is always asking us to turn on his computer. But I just don't see that as productive use of my computer. I actually downloaded the program and it was quite invasive and a bit of a RAM hog. For crying out loud, the site requires us to Internet Explorer! We can't use modern browsers. So the three other teachers and I met with the Continuous Quality Improvement rep and begged for better computers and improvement in the online platforms. About a week later I went in to the office. Only one "improvement" had been implemented: our office printer had been removed.
At any rate, I calculated my grades, which takes hours, then went in to the office to input them, which shouldn't, but with the dependable computer problems, I knew would take hours too. I couldn't do it on the work computer, tried it at home and couldn't do it there either. I was ready to go to my friends' place in another town to start the holidays without doing it. Honestly. It's that frustrating! But I went back to work and by taking pics with my phone and sending them to the manager via Kakao, and having her read the Korean messages and tell me what steps to take, I managed to get onto the portal and input my grades and attendance. Now this came only after the requisite accusations of doing it all wrong that I get EVERY time I have computer problems, but the problem was not something I was doing wrong, just a problem with the system. The shitty system. It doesn't make it any easier when the problems occur entirely in Korean. I guess we can't have English Windows on the computers at work. Probably wouldn't work on the crappy portal or website or LMS. I'm not expecting the school to change to English, but for the English department, it is a common courtesy. And, of course, it was also made more difficult (since we need to print out, sign, then submit copies of our grades to management and the portal grades, due to security overprotection, can't be copied onto a zip drive and printed, only printed on the office printer) by not having the office printer any more. Another common courtesy denied.
So I get to Pyeongtaek for Christmas. It isn't long before I'm contacted about my attendance. I left dashes ( - ) instead of oh's (O) for every hour that was attended by every student. It's the symbol that is given. Now there IS a way to change more than one dash to an oh at a time, it is just kept secret around here. Maybe it was some of the information included in the email I didn't get... twice. Who can say? So I left the dashes. So the manager tells me I have to change that. I ask her if I have to travel back to Cheonan just to change dashes to ohs during the pandemic, during the holidays, because the fucking system is too shitty to allow me to do it from my computer, which I have in Pyeongtaek with me, and she says yes. No mention of a way to change them more than one at a time. I have 200 students and 2 hour classes. That's almost 400 dashes to change. And it isn't just a click or two. You click on the hour twice, click on the dash, scroll down to the oh, click on that, scroll to the top of the page and click on the yes answer to something like, "Are you sure?" Almost 400 times.
So I said, "Does it matter? It's only the absents that make a difference. The presents are assumed otherwise. Only absents can cause a failure. Presents cannot affect the grade." All of this is true, but I was countered with, "We could get into trouble with the government." So I replied, "If the government causes you any grief, well I don't work there any more, do I?" This got me a phone call during which I was asked if I have any responsibility at all, sworn at and hung up on.
One of the other teachers uploaded a video of how to change multiple attendance symbols at a time and even offered to do it for me. None of this is his job, but that's how things are around here. However, the manager apologized to me and offered to change my attendance for me. I guess she felt bad about the phone call. So I thought I was done. Nope.
I was contacted about several students who were whining about their grades. That's to be expected. I just told them I couldn't change their grades and gave them the break-down of how I arrived at their grades. 4 assignments, 2 exams, attendance and participation. Most gave up quickly. But there was one guy who was absent 28 hours. He had gotten a job. Well evidently, this excuses those absences. So I was told to change his grade to a pass even though the computer automatically gave him an F. I even went back to Cheonan to get on the crappy office computer. But I was not allowed to change the grade. I altered a couple other grades, but couldn't change his. Well, I got ANOTHER message saying that I MUST change his grade immediately. I needed to fake the attendance. I was ready for another big fight, but the manager offered to do this for me. So since I was already back in Pyeongtaek, I said, "Sure."
Next was conflicting grades and attendance. 6 students had more than 8 hours absent and had been given grades. Well I guess more than 8 hours absent is an automatic fail. Unfortunately, unlike the above student, for whom the automatic failure had been given, the computer had not automatically failed these 6 students. So I was expected to do it manually. Again, this would involve another trip home because my computer is too modern to do it from Pyeongtaek. I told the manager what I wanted to do with each student, but said that since "attendance" is really not an accurate word when you're teaching online classes, I'd be inclined to overrule the automatic fail for all of them. I don't know why the computer didn't do it automatically, the way it is supposed to. I guess maybe THAT was something I had missed in the email I hadn't been sent too. Twice. I was told by the manager that there WAS a way to check attendance on Zoom, but I just did nothing because I know students can get around the Zoom attendance. Anyway, I was told by the manager that the portal was closed, so I thought I was done once and for all. Not yet.
Unbelievably, all four of the teachers here, three of whom had been told we will not be re-hired because we don't have master's degrees, were asked if we'd be available to observe the interviews and/or sample lessons, ostensibly of our replacements! In person, during a pandemic, for a school that had fired us, during our vacations, we've been asked to evaluate the demo lessons of prospective teachers for next semester.
I didn't even answer that email indicating that I would NOT be available. But got a new one just yesterday (Saturday) saying, "Sorry about the late notice, but could you do this Tuesday?" That's two days from now. 4 hours of watching and evaluating sample lessons IN PERSON from people who want the job I am far better qualified for. I COULD mention that this very manager had previously told me not to contact HER on weekends, but I'm not quite that petty. I COULD mention that she really doesn't want anyone as "irresponsible" as I am doing these observations, but I'm not the feckin' deck you need to be if you're a manager of an English program at a Korean university I guess. I could mention that Covid cases in Korea are at the highest ever right now. We're in what they call lockdown level 2.5. It's been determined that there is a new, more highly contagious strain of Covid here and that any strain is more contagious than previously thought. I had to cut my visit short with my friends because the USDOD has implemented a strict "no gatherings of more than 4" policy. I COULD also mention that long before things got this serious in Korea, this very manager who wants me to expose myself to Covid 19 and help them fill the job I have been forced to vacate for no good reason, ORDERED me to get tested for Covid because she was so panicked over it. I can't even go to a restaurant or coffee shop normally, but I'm gonna go into a classroom with a bunch of strangers to help a university that has unceremoniously turfed me? Please refer to the facial expression above.
No, I'll probably just wait till Monday, so as not to contact her on the weekend, ( hee hee) and just say, "This will be online, no?" I know it's not.
And in further news on the employment front, I still have to do the CQI that I mentioned above. Not sure why they'd want any advice on continuous quality improvement from me, or any of the teachers they are removing to replace them with teachers who don't know the school, complicated rules, messed up websites or the curriculum here. They're lowering the quality of the program by getting rid of us, so why would we say anything in our CQI forms other than WTF? Again, refer to the facial expression above.
I actually think those were supposed to have been done by now, but I was told that the portal was closed by the manager I've been talking about (it's ALL been the same manager) and the CQI forms are on the portal, so I'm not sure how I was supposed to have done one. Other teachers have told me that the portal IS open for CQI, but I've also heard that only one of them received instructions on them... in Korean. He ran the instructions through Google translate and found that there are some changes. I haven't received anything about the CQI's. Maybe it was included in that email I didn't get... twice, or maybe not.
So, you can see why I say I'm on holidays... kinda. I won't be travelling anywhere again, so the best part of this job has been screwed up by Covid, the vacation time. I will be spending my "vacation" not golfing or exploring the beautiful and fun parts of Asia, but updating my resume, doing online interviews, staying home and probably battling management a little more before I have closure on my latest job loss.
I think I'll use a fresh, new post for the auspicious political start to 2021.
Post script: The day after the request to observe demo classes, I received an email saying, "You are going to do..." and what followed was the time on Tuesday I was "going to" be working. Not the place. I was told that I would be informed of the location on the Monday. The school I work has three locations. Why do you suppose they'd wait to tell me the location? Because it probably wasn't going to be the campus I live ON, but one of the other campii I'd have to travel to. By Covid bus, train or taxi.
It's important to understand that I'm on vacation. If not for Covid and the messed up school portal, I'd be in another country by now. I don't HAVE TO do anything else for this school. But the manager (still the same one) thought she'd power trip a little.
My response was that "going to do" sounded like this is mandatory work and no longer voluntary. Since I had volunteered for nothing, I can't imagine how I'd be expected to think otherwise. I also said that "I will give you the location later," sounded like this wasn't going to be online work. During the worst Covid spike in Korea. I gently reminded the manager of a time when Covid numbers were MUCH lower and she had ordered me to be tested for it immediately. As I recall, she played the old, "I'm just the messenger" card back then too. "I'm not forcing you to be tested, the school directors are. Do you really want me to inform them of your refusal?" I told her to go ahead and inform them. Which pissed her off. This was at like 9:30 at night when I couldn't have been tested anywhere in the city I'm in anyway. Also, when I checked the next day, they told me they wouldn't test me because I had no symptoms. The point I was making was that they really seemed concerned back then, not to say panicked, about the pandemic, but now they're just planning interviews, gatherings of more than four people, as it were, all willy-nilly. I made my position clear saying that it's online or nothing for me. Then said sorry. I added that I don't believe any employer has the right to require me to endanger my health/life.
Her absolutely poetic rebuttal I will post verbatim:
Hello,
I am sorry if you felt like that.
And please don't be sarcastic.
This is a face-to-face demo class examination.
I did not plan for this. I am just a messenger.
If you can not do it, you can just say you can not do it.
Thank you.
Best,
And then her name.
I told you there'd be further battles with management.
It's the most wonderful time of the year! Here's a very good summary of the World Jr. Team Canada this year and it might be a dominant one. Because of Covid and the NHL not starting in October as usual, there are some players available that wouldn't be on the team in a normal year. More for Canada than the other squads. This team will have 20 first round picks! That's staggering! Only 2 guys on the team were not chosen in the first round!
Here's a written summary of the team from which I will borrow a lot of my insight. I will leave out a few guys, like Suzuki (who almost lost sight in one eye and although his bro is an NHLer, he might not get to play much) and the goalies, who are the only question mark for team Canada. Any of them should be good enough to backstop this team to gold though. But it doesn't look like there's a star amongst them.
We'll start with my predictions for forward lines. You saw the line combinations projected in the above video. I'll give you the ones I hope for. They're a bit diff. Line one is the same.
McMichael Cozens Dach
I like McMike and Cozens on LW and C respectively cuz they both did well last year and have earned top line status. Put them with the probable point-leader in the tournament on their right wing (Dach) and you're solid.
Krebs Byfield Quinn
This is different. The vid thinks Tomasino should be on the right wing, but I favour the mighty Quinn.
Holloway Newhook Mercer
Why not keep the Holloway/Newhook chemistry and add ANOTHER Newfy? Has Canada ever had a pair of Newfies on a line before?
Perfetti Tomasino Zary/Pelletier
Perfetti shouldn't be a fourth liner, but that's how good this team is gonna be! He got 111 pts. and is the top scorer on the squad! But he is 18. Tomasino looks NHL-ready, particularly his skating, and although Zary and Pelletier may not score the way they do on their WHL and QMJHL clubs respectively, let's see...
But we'll start the individual player descriptions with the D.
Justin Barron. 25th (Colorado) - RH shot. That's valuable on the blue line for one-timers. Missed time last season with blood clots so he should have been chosen higher in the draft than 25th. He showed that in Canada's 4 scrimmages during which he scored 3 times. He's the captain of the Halifax Mooseheads and known for leadership and strong defense, but I'm not so sure that's his best role on this team.
Bowen Byram. 4th (Colorado) - Colorado didn't win the cup last year even though I thought they would. With the addition of Barron and Byram to Makar and Girard, they should have a better chance in the upcoming season. Byram only got 2 assists in 7 games in last year's World Jr. Tournament, but he was young and the older guys got the #1 positions. This year he and Drysdale will be a legendary blueline pairing! Assistant captain for his leadership too.
Jamie Drysdale. 6th (Anaheim) - Same story as Byram. He was young and not played nearly as much as I thought he should have been last year. He got 2 points. Another righty on the blueline, he'll complement Byram's left hand shot hopefully blasting one-timers on the power play on their reverse sides. I bet he'll score a point per game if he gets the power play time I'm expecting. There were times last year when he was the best defenseman on the whole team. This year, he'll get lots of ice and I predict he'll be just as good or better than Byram.
Kaiden Guhle. 16th (Habs) - A big, burly, PHYSICAL D-man. Possibly paired with Barron, but although I'm expecting some bone-crunching hits from this dude, I am not so sure they will be the "shut-down" pairing, or that they'll need to be.
Thomas Harley. 18th (Dallas) - Did't make the team last year. Should be in the 2nd D pairing, but that could change if Guhle/Barron start scoring. He played 11 minutes in the playoffs in 2020 for the Stars.
Braiden Schneider. 19th (NYR) - Big RH shot. Canada has THREE righties on the blueline this year. What a luxury! Some nice hits from this dude hopefully. Probably paired with Harley, who can also hit.
Jordan Spence. 95th (LAK) One of two non-first rounders. I don't think he'll play a lot, but he's interesting. Born in Australia and raised in Japan, so he probably speaks both of those other languages (ar ar) he has dual Japanese/Canadian citizenship.
And now for the best looking team in recent memory and their strongest area: the forwards.
Quinton Byfield. 2nd (LAK) He will probably be the 2nd line center, but if things work out the way I think/hope they will, he could be battling Kirby Dach for the scoring lead all tournament long. He was not played the way he should have been played last year, partly, in my opinion, to get Lafreniere more hype than he deserved, and partly (not just my opinion) because he was only 18. No facemask and no limit to his ice time this year. He'll be lighting it up, especially if he gets the linemates I think he should. This will surprise some people who are saying he was a disappointment in last years tourney. But when you get almost no minutes and a lot of it is garbage time, on a team where you are just as good as the guys getting all the good ice time, you don't play to your capacity. Nobody does! But he showed patience and this year I hope it is rewarded. 6'4, 224 and still growing, he'll rival Dach in looking like a man amongst boys. I hope.
Dylan Cozens. 7th (Buffalo) Generally expected to be playing with Dach and McMichael, two centers on his wings. He SHOULD score a lot, but sometimes when you get these lines with centers playing wings, they don't perform as well as when they're playing their natural positions. This is a common problem for Team Canada. I hope it doesn't happen this year. He got 9 points last year, which tied him for 7th in tournament scoring, so he earned the top line center position even though Byfield might be better. He's NHL-ready and if he does what is expected, he'll be shuffling off to Buffalo after claiming the gold in the Edmonton bubble.
Kirby Dach. 3rd (Chi) - Didn't play in the World Jrs. last year cuz he was in the NHL. This'll be his NHL training camp! He's probably ahead of every player who will be out there as far as his career development and I think that will show. He already showed it in inter-squad games in the Canadian World Jr. camp during which he scored 7 pts. in 4 games. That's against the toughest opposition he's likely to face. Captain Canada this year and is likely to be their (and the tourney's) leading scorer. NO INJURIES PLEASE! I have a habit of jinxing guys like this.
Dylan Holloway. 14th (Oilers) - Will be playing on his future home rink. Showing a great deal of offensive chemistry with Alex Newhook, but may be resigned to a checking role.
Peyton Krebs. 17th (Vegas) - Has looked awesome so far! Would have gone higher than 17th but had an Achilles tendon injury at draft time. Score for Vegas! He's a highly skilled scorer, 60 pts. in 38 games in WHL. He will be playing alongside Byfield and if they can replace Tomasino with Quinn, they have a shot at stealing the top line thunder from McMike/Cousins/Dach. Either could put up Mogilney/Fedorov/Bure stats I think. Or hope.
Jack Quinn. 8th (Buffalo) - A combination of the Hughes brothers in name, he doesn't play like them at all. He's not a center. He's not a playmaker. He's a pure goal scorer. Canada has a problem of overloading its squads with centers because they are the highest point getters and they ignore goal scorers like Quinn that EVERY great center NEEDS. This is why I think with Quinn on line two, they could outscore the first line, which is composed of three centers. He got, are you ready for this?, 52 goals in 62 games in the OHL in '19/'20. That's a goal scorer. That's Hull/Bure/Ovechkin type scoring and he'll be a fan and team favourite if he doesn't end up riding the pine. Insanely, that is a possibility! But since he's a right hander who plays the right wing, I'm gonna predict right now that he replaces Tomasino or Pelletier at some point during the tournament. I bet he'd be deadly on the left side on the powerplay. Much like Ovechkin/Bure/Hull. Hope the coach doesn't waste this guy.
Connor McMichael. 25th - (Caps) Marchand-esque peskiness and scoring ability. Should be on the top line. 3rd in OHL scoring last season. Had 5 goals and 7 points in last year's gold medal performance for Canada. A worthy top liner.
Dawson Mercer. 18th (NJD) - Newfy jack of all trades. He gives 100% every shift and when you combine that with the personality and humour of Eastern Canada, teammates and fans just love this guy.
Alex Newhook. 16th (Colorado) - Missed the cut with the team last year (most likely because he's small). Another Newfy. I'd love to see a Holloway/Newhook/Mercer line, but we'll see...
Jakob Pelletier. 26th (Calg) - Another small guy, but he is a scoring machine in the QMJHL. I have noticed that the QMJHL is a higher scoring league and guys who outscore OHL and WHL players in the QMJHL are not always better. I guess we'll see if he's overrated or not.
Cole Perfetti. 10th (Winterpeg) - Great stick handler! Only 18 so he may get the Byfield treatment on this older than usual squad. But he's the highest scoring player on Team Canada (111 pts. in the OHL) so I can't see him being wasted like Byfield was last year. Let's hope he can bust into a spot on a good line.
Philip Tomasino. 24th (Nash) - May be Canada's fastest skater. 18G, 43pts in 26GP in the Ontario Hockey League. Says he's NHL-ready. We may see...
Connor Zary. Member of the top scoring line in the Wester Hockey League. Will he have linemates as good?
SOOOO there is a lot of interest in Team Canada this year! I'm even more excited than usual! The pre-tournament games are set to begin in a couple of days, although some have already be cancelled and more might be, due to Covid. I just hope this whole tournament can be played. Friggin' Corona 19 has shut down the QMJHL, OHL and WHL and it's postponed the NHL already. Let's hope this year's World Jrs. can be played without any complications!
Max Planck, the father of quantum physics, once commented, "A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that are familiar with it."
Later, and by no coincidence, in the early 60's, Thomas Kuhn's book, "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" came out. In it, he explains that science progresses through paradigm shifts, not linearly. The notion of scientific truth cannot be established by objective criteria, but is defined by the consensus of a scientific community. Competing paradigms are "incommensurable," that is, they have irreconcilable accounts of reality. Not unlike my blog fixation of late, the absolute contradiction between seemingly everything in party platforms of the Democrats and Republicans in the U.S.
As far back as 1961, a dude named Leon Lederman was doing experiments with neutrinos. The neutrino is highly theoretical. No mass, no real properties, no charge, no radius, it almost doesn't exist at all. Highly "elusive." But Lederman's research provided the cornerstone for what became known in the 70's as the standard model for particle physics. Those efforts were recognized 27 years later with a Nobel Prize. What had taken so long? Nothing had changed the science, it was the scientific community that had changed. The paradigm change, not the science, is what won him the Nobel Prize. We'll come back to Lederman.
The Standard Model describes 3 of Nature's 4 forces: electromagnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces. In electromagnetism, particles react with photons, which are bits of electromagnetic radiation. Science has long considered electromagnetism to be quite well understood, but back in the days when it was not, there was controversy. My favourite part of this controversy was the Tesla vs. Einstein battle. You see, the general theory of relativity is essential to electromagnetism's neat fit into the Standard Model, which could be viewed as the modern scientific paradigm. It is all explained in the beginning of this article.
What isn't explained, or very well known, was an experiment that is easily replicable, shows that light going against and with the earth's rotation travels at noticeably different rates, seeming to show that the speed of light is absolutely NOT independent of the direction of its source, which was what Einstein's theory posited. There are stories of Tesla demonstrating this experiment to Einstein, even stories of Einstein speaking about the incident and declaring that his theory was in doubt, but neither gets a lot of publicity. Why? They don't fit the popular paradigm.
The explanation, or theory as to why the speeds of light beams differed in speed when travelling in opposite directions, involved the Ether. What was the Ether? Well, read this definition carefully. Remember it. There's a video coming soon that will sound awfully familiar.
Ether, also spelled aether, also called luminiferous ether, in physics, a theoretical universal substance believed during the 19th century to act as the medium for transmission of electromagnetic waves (e.g., light and X-rays), much as sound waves are transmitted by elastic media such as air. The ether was assumed to be weightless, transparent, frictionless, undetectable chemically or physically, and literally permeating all matter and space. The theory met with increasing difficulties as the nature of light and the structure of matter became better understood. It was seriously weakened (1887) by the Michelson-Morley experiment, which was designed specifically to detect the motion of Earth through the ether and which showed that there was no such effect.
The Michelson-Morley experiment didn't measure light going in opposite directions, but perpendicular directions, therefore, the motion of the earth did not come into effect. This supported Einstein's theory of relativity, it supported the Standard Model and it fit into the popular paradigm of the time.
Here's a big however, however, as recently as 2012, the experiment that Tesla had shown Einstein, was replicated by a guy named Doug Marett. Guess what he found. Normally you would have to guess because I dare say nobody has ever heard of Doug Marett. His work received little publicity being outside the popular paradigm. So, although "Nature" magazine is quoted, I'm not giving you an article from any well respected sciency publication, but Forbes Magazine. Here you go. Good thing for Forbes or I probably wouldn't be able to produce any replication of that study.
As pointed out in the article, this may not disprove the special theory of relativity, but I think if we were objective and unbiased, we'd have to agree that this bears further investigation and experimentation. But it won't get it because... you guessed it, it doesn't fit the current paradigm. Back in his day, Tesla was ignored and dismissed by some as a whackjob who wasn't smart enough to understand modern science. But who was smarter than Tesla? Nobody! The difference between him and others in the scientific community that questioned him may have come from the fact he'd only had 2 years of formal university education, which allowed him to think outside the paradigm, or, think creatively at all. His comment in an interview when he was, I think, 79 years old, was poignant.
"The theory wraps all these errors and fallacies and clothes them in a magnificent mathematical garb which fascinates, dazzles, and makes people blind to the underlying errors. The theory is like a beggar clothed in purple whom ignorant people take for a king. Its exponents are very brilliant men, but they are metaphysacists rather than scientists. Not a single one of the relativity propositions have been proved."
As mentioned in last post, Tesla believed that if science were to investigate the non-physical, like the Ether, it would advance in a decade further than all the centuries before. But at the very heart of the modern paradigm is the secularization of science, an absolute dismissal, denial, even fear of the abstract, spiritual, infinite, etc. that is associated with faith in a divine or theological entity. As we'll see, a lot of theory that requires identical faith, though not in a god, but in highly theoretical, highly jargonized, highly complex explanations of simple things, is roundly accepted by the current scientific paradigm. Tesla, and I believe this has detracted from science. I mentioned that a couple of posts back as well, but let's get into some forinstances.
In a similar way to particles interacting with photons in electromagnetism, weak force describes how W and Z particles interact with electrons, quarks, neutrinos etc. We are told that photons have no mass, whereas W and Z have huge masses. They are some of the most massive particles known. The concept of mass raises inconsistencies with the Standard Model. To address these inconsistencies, physicists postulated that the Standard Model was incomplete.
Let me back up a bit so that I can explain this more bluntly. Elementary particles, such as those listed above, are the building blocks of the world around us. The Standard Model is based on the interactions of these particles, and also fields and symmetries that explain all things. Nicely and neatly. With just one problem: the math behind this model forbids elementary particles from having any mass. "Incomplete" was the scientific euphemism used to explain the situation whereby something the scientific community wanted (desperately needed) to be scientific, had been scientifically proven to be UNscientific. WRONG to the layman. In 1964 some decidedly unscientific science began to happen.
I remember reading an article online about the mathematician who first calculated this equation that was the potential demise of so many years of work for so many scientists. Would people have to give back Nobel Prizes? How could everything their research was based on be wr - wr-wr - wro ...? They couldn't even say it. But math is the king of all science. Math is at the base of the scientific pyramid outlined in Leon Lederman's book about the God Particle. He says it's because all scientists defer to mathematicians. In his words, "physicists defer only to the mathematicians, and the mathematicians defer only to God (though you may be hard pressed to find a mathematician that modest)
I wish I could tell you his name. Or even show you that article. But, the day after I had read it, the article disappeared and I have never been able to find it since. Once again, it doesn't fit into the current scientific paradigm, so it's as elusive as God or the God particle. It mighta been Godel with the two dots over the o, or one of the members of the French Bourbeki group. I'm not sure, but we can be sure that in 1964, because of this disastrous news in the scientific community, some bass ackwards science started becoming a very useful part of the paradigm.
Any experimental scientist worth his weight in primordial sludge could tell you that the most important rule of science, the highest of all considerations is objectivity. Remove bias at all costs. If you start any experimentation with an ultimate goal in mind, you are defeated before you begin. Clear bias is established and objectivity is lost. Start at the beginning, not the end. Well, scientists all over the world had been told about the mathematical doomsday equation and were given personal homework assignments. Not in scientific experimentation, but in creativity. They had to come up with a believable way to explain how something without mass, could have mass. Literally, start at the end and work your way to the beginning. The reverse of good science.
Three groups of physicists almost simultaneously released papers on "spontaneous symmetry breaking." The totally theoretical concept of the "Higgs mechanism." In short, a way for something without mass to gain mass. Yes, they were told to make science where science did not exist, make something from nothing, this was both the assignment and the science. The exact concept they had been rejecting when the concept of God arose, "wrap it in purple clothes, call it science and ram it down the throats of a new generation of scientists until it is no longer questioned."
I believe the scientific community made a huge mistake that will someday be exposed by people more influential than I. That mistake being the recruitment of scientists for a job much better suited to science fiction writers. I feel almost certain that Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury could have come up with something infinitely more plausible, and probably more scientific than the eventual winners of the contest, Higgs and Bose. But before we get to them, and how most people know of them, and accept their Nobel Prize winning ideas, (I contend that most wouldn't if they looked a little closer) there are a few scientific Easter Eggs in their work that almost make me think they WANT to be exposed. But first, before you think I'm creating a conspiracy here, I have another article for you.
Here's a dandy by Charlie Wood, fittingly published in Quanta Magazine. "How Mathematical Hocus Pocus Saved Particle Physics." It's an article about something called "renormalization," which is a "hopes and prayers" technique that carefully concealed infinite quantities in order to deal with the change in physics from the study of particles to the study of fields. Richard Feynman called renormalization "a dippy process." "During renormalization, complicated submicroscopic capers tend to just disappear. They may be real, but they don’t affect the big picture. “Simplicity is a virtue,” Fendley said. “There is a god in this.”
If you think back to a couple of posts ago once again, there was a point in the sciency panel conversation at which I said that Neil deGrasse Tyson blundered his way out of submitting to an infinite number of smaller and smaller particles stating that we just don't have the ability to see them or photograph them. That'd be yer renormalization right there. Still being practiced.
Another example is at the atomic level where motion of atoms has been observed, many, including (believe it or not) Darwin have believed in a higher entity that set the universe and its laws into motion. This entity (being the capital letter N you almost always see when he uses the term "Nature" or "Natural Selection" in his "Origin.") saves his term, "Natural Selection" from being an oxymoron, but that has been ignored, suppressed or misunderstood by the majority of science. As for the motion of atoms, well, as Lederman says, "Motion was simply a given." Richard Dawkins once asked where the matter that swirled into the Big Bang came from. For that matter, where did the swirling come from? His response was a dismissive, "We're working on that." This rather than the Ether, or God, or a Prime Mover. An indelicate choice if you ask me. But maybe Higgs and Bose can come to the rescue.
Let's start with Bose. Not Jaydish Chandra Bose, whose face is featured on the 50 pound note of England and who was besides a large contributor to the scientific community in India, a WRITER of science fiction. Hence, I think he would have been a better choice, along with Asimov and Bradbury. But, no, not him.
Satyendra Nath Bose worked with Einstein in studying a class of particles that obey certain statistics. They were named after him. Bosons. What statistics did they obey you ask? Well the most interesting is probably "spin." Spin, doesn't mean spin as we might understand it. I'd like to say here that the more modern definition of spin applies, as in politics when one knowingly provides a biased interpretation of something, but I don't want to colour your reading with my opinion. Oh dear me! Look what I've done! I've been all scientific and already done that! Tsk tsk tsk. Here's a video that won't make the meaning of "spin" in the boson sense, much clearer at all:
Sooooo... if you didn't watch the vid, brace yourself. Spin is what makes particles act like magnets. Relativity, standard method, and science demands its existence, but we don't know what the hell it is. That's right, that's what the conclusion of this video was. The young narrator goes on to say, "Maybe there are some properties of physics that we can never understand and maybe spin is one of them." Note that in the beginning of the video, the young narrator says she will explain how we KNOW spin exists, but we can't explain it. She didn't explain how we know it exists at all but I think that's one thing (maybe the only thing) about spin I understand. Let me refer you back to the quotes at the very beginning of this blog post. She's the younger generation who has been told something that will eventually be accepted not because it's known, but because its challengers are all dead.
Another of the characteristics of the boson is that, unlike a fermion, there is no limit to the number of bosons that can occupy the same quantum state or place in space. This, I believe to be, the most literary characteristic of it. And a good addition to its story. Obviously, if it has no mass, an infinite amount of these particles could fill an infinitely small amount of space. A lot of the oft avoided infinity talk in this one tiny particle...
For this little bit of science fiction, the wrong Nobel Prize was awarded to be sure. It's not science, it's literature and I'm sure many could do better than its authors. He got the Nobel Prize because his boson fit the prevailing paradigm, in fact was absolutely necessary for it. So I'm sure Bose won't be returning his Nobel Prize or the million bucks it came with. And his was the less important LESS theoretical of the two-part explanation as to how something with no mass can have mass. Let's move on to our second savior of the scientific community in 1964, Pete Higgs.
Like the boson, symmetry breaking is a process we "know" exists, but we can't explain. An auspicious place to start! Electro Weak Symmetry Breaking, EWSB, is considered proven and believed responsible for the mass of fundamental particles, but ask even Peter Higgs to explain it and you'll get analogies and story telling. Not quite as good as Lederman's alien soccer, but we'll get to that at the climax. Here's another video to explain the Higgs Field. Think back to that description of the Ether I gave you, maybe re-read it before you watch.
Oh look at that! Another scientific CONTEST. Explain the Higgs field. Anybody else picturing a couple of tailors trying to sell us a suit of highly fashionable invisible clothes here? If we don't believe these non-explanations, why, we're just not up on our physics. Possibly not smart enough. Tell me how smart this sounds: The Higgs field is everywhere. It's infinite! What the hell, bro? Weren't we just trying to avoid infinity a few seconds ago? Yeah I know but you just have to trust me on this, it's infinite. So what happens, see, is the boson has no mass, it doesn't exist, but it's moving through space and as it passes through the Higgs field it pops into existence, gains mass for about 9 one hundred thousandths of a second, then pops out of existence again. But it leaves residual matter that we can't identify, but assume is remnants of the Higgs field that was the result of the explosion created by smashing two theoretical particles together at high speed.
Now do you see why we needed Asimov and Bradbury? Or maybe just the other Bose. First of all, how do you know the boson is there if it has no mass? It exists but it doesn't exist. Trust me. Okay, how do you know it's moving? Same answer. Trust me. Okay, how did it start moving? Motion is a given. Trust me. Okay, if the Higgs field is infinite and everywhere, how can it be passed through? Uh, we're certain of that because of the boson popping into existence? You don't sound too sure. Okay, uh, it's a lattice. Okay, one more question - but in several parts: 1. A particle has no mass, and no energy - without motion, it would not exist, correct? So while you're somehow measuring the motion of a non-existent God particle (and remember, no measure of a non-existent God has ever been allowed by science) is it the passing into existence or the passing back out of existence that you feel will necessarily, even though you have a highly theoretical particle and a highly theoretical field, leave a telltale remnant that can be assumed to be evidence of the Higgs field? Part two: How do you not know that the new particle you assumed to be evidence of the Higgs field is not actually a new stage in the infinitely reducible nature of all particles. Part three: Isn't the smashing of a particle into other particles more likely to result in a smaller particle and not evidence of some infinite field that that particle must inhabit constantly? And since God doesn't exist scientifically because of His lack of mass, how can you be certain that the new particle you have discovered isn't evidence of the mass of God, or, indeed, God Himself, something you desperately don't want? Why is it assumed to be the evidence of the Higgs field, something you desperately NEED?
I didn't make any of that up. Yet people will try to tell you with a straight face that the Higgs Boson has been discovered. They'll take offense when you call it the God particle, but shouldn't because it is just as, or more, highly elusive to prove. They'll tell you it was discovered in 2012, but it wasn't. They'll tell you it was confirmed in March of 2013, but it wasn't. Not the way science is supposed to confirm things anyway. But this is the new science. The current paradigm chooses theories that they wish to express as facts and then just goes ahead and does so without rigorous testing or evidence. Then they create stories for the public to convince us. Perhaps the best of which was Leon Lederman's alien soccer game. I think the Higgs boson will eventually fall out of fashion by the method outlined in Lederman's book. He wrote, "A new particle is predicted when a synthesis of existing data by a perceptive theorist SEEMS to demand its existence. More often than not, it doesn't exist, and that particular theory suffers. Whether it succumbs or not depends on the resilience of the theorist."
The resilience of the God particle theorists is admirable. Thomas Huxley once said that "The great tragedy of science is the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by and ugly fact." The God particle theorists have kept those ugly facts from surfacing and have placated the masses with "proof" of its existence like the following:
Imagine an intelligent race of being from the planet Twilo. They're basically like us except for one thing: they are unable to see black or white. A contingent of Twiloans comes to Earth on a goodwill mission and are taken to the most popular social even on Earth, a World Cup Soccer match. They watch with polite, but confused looks on their faces. They can't see the ball so they are perplexed by the motions of the players, referee, and fans. They study the players and their motions, make charts, graphs, and rules. They deduce symmetry in that there are mirror players for each player on a team. Then one Twiloan postulates the existence of an invisible ball. His postulation was formed upon noticing a hemispherical bulge in the net moments before the referee declared each new score. The supposition of a ball fits with all of their observations, rules and theories. They conclude there MUST be a ball.
If you consider all of the observations, rules and theories of science and nature, I think this is a gym dandy analogy for God! For something so highly theoretical as the Higgs boson, not so much. But I certainly wouldn't consider it PROOF or declare that the soccer ball or God was discovered absent any concrete data. And that, for both, I am fairly certain we don't have. What's more, I doubt we ever will. But I'm okay with that. I don't need to believe that I understand everything.
I find it fascinating and endlessly entertaining conversation to philosophize and theorize about this sort of thing, as well as other folks' theories about this sort of thing! Why, for instance, is it so easy for people to accept the Higgs field hypothesis, for which there is virtually no experimental data, awarding it prizes, honours and money, yet reject the earlier hypothesis of the Ether and give it no credence even though there is at least one legitimate experiment that makes it seem more plausible than the Higgs field?
I won't even mention the concept of strong bonds, the 3rd part of the standard model we didn't get into. But I know someone, a guy who is an incredibly productive writer for the science department of Forbes Magazine, Ethan Siegel, who will! It's about string theory, something a little more current. Read this article if it's the only one on this post you read. The first paragraph tells you that it requires a lot of assumptions that are not supported by one iota of scientific evidence. Again, don't trust me if you think (and you'd be right if you did) that I'm a conspiracy theorist, trust people who know more about this stuff than I ever will.
The good old Yang-Mills Theory! I recall getting into it, perhaps on this blog, many moons ago. I didn't support it then when it was en vogue, and I don't support it now. Super symmetry. Again, it sounds more like science fiction than science. Each particle has a similar, but more super, superpartner particle? Please! Am I at all surprised that exactly zero have been discovered?
Compactification seems to be another "hand-waving" idea that compels scientists to ignore certain difficult parts of science, much like renormalization.
Why is string theory so attractive? Do I need to say it again? It is the perfect fit for the current paradigm.
So for any of you who read my post a couple posts ago in which I talked about a drunken conversation with a co-worker after both losing our jobs, I got into this a little bit. But, as always, I felt it behooved me to elabourate on the scant details. This'll give even the most intellectual of my readers food for thought. I can't see how this current paradigm can survive much longer. It seems to be losing support, and conversely, a more spiritual, non-physical paradigm might be evolving. We can only hope. I think it would be great for the world!
Updating my scientific view of the world and including some of the info I've availed myself of over the year, is something I tend to do around this time. One other thing I tend to do is talk about the World Jr. Hockey Championships, mostly because it is a decidedly lighter topic than the heavily intellectual science and philosophy you see in this post, and it's more fun. That'll likely be my next post. See you then!
