Work-Arounds

There are few things more satisfying than finding a work-around for a seemingly insoluble problem. Work-arounds allow us to go on with life until we can actually solve the problem by fixing what’s broken or replacing it.

All of a sudden, my old smartphone (I won’t tell you how old), had a big black square with techie gibberish in a yellow font appear on the screen. I couldn’t get rid of it, even by factory-resetting the phone. After days of research online, I finally found a temporary solution, which made the ugly black thing go away, at least as long as the phone is powered up. No, the trusty old phone isn’t what you would really call fixed, not by a long shot, but I can use it until one of those spiffy new ones is on sale.

Even with this very commentary, I needed a work around. The text version, a separate blog, was on an unencrypted domain, so that readers clicking on it got a warning that said “not secure.” I tried to get my domain provider to secure it; they couldn’t do it easily and wanted to charge me a lot. I finally hit on obtaining a new secured domain from another provider at very low cost, and am now forwarding the old site to the new one. No more security warnings.

Still awake? Thank you. My work-around experiences have always been about keeping something that has served me well in a semblance of operating condition. These work-arounds have also taught me what qualities to look for in a replacement when that time comes.

Forgive this stretchy transition, but the impeachment drive has shown us that we’re in the middle of a huge work-around. The current inquiry has not been time wasted. It has reminded us how many really smart people work for us down in the engine room of this ship of state – people we usually never see, whose knowledge and dedication have been keeping things running so that the rest of us don’t have to worry too much. Their bravery in the middle of this crisis has brought them to the surface.

I’m actually grateful, not only for the quality of those folks down there in the engine room, but for the overall quality of the people we saw on that Atlanta debate stage who might be part of a new crew up here taking us forward. Whether we get where we need to go through a work-around or by what’s called the “regular channel” next November, I remain confident that we’re heading in the right direction.

It's Not Complicated

There’s considerable debate about whether the President has broken the law in connection with the apparent attempt to condition weapons support for  Ukraine on that country’s digging up negative information on Democratic political rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter. It would seem to take Constitutional scholars to sort it out, but in the end, it’s solely up to the Congress, where the open-hearing part of the impeachment inquiry has begun. 

The Democrats, as I have said before, are dead wrong if they put all their impeachment eggs into the Ukraine basket. Sad to say, perhaps, but many Americans probably don’t care that much about Ukraine. Even those willing to concede that the President’s actions were questionable may feel they were not impeachable. Maybe the open hearings will change such minds, maybe not. But if the Democrats think that’s going to happen quickly, like before Thanksgiving or Christmas, I have my doubts. That change will be necessary, though, to sway the voters, and by extension, Republican legislators who want to keep their jobs.

I don’t think coming up with articles of impeachment is brain surgery. Sure, there is the Ukraine thing, at the top of the list. But what about obstruction of justice, for which all the evidence seems in plain sight, or the violation of the emoluments clause in the Constitution? If it’s all about Ukraine, removal of this President, if that’s what the objective is, won’t happen. The other articles are necessary. You only need enough yes votes in the Senate on one of the articles to get there, but there has to be more than one choice.

The Constitution is, in simple terms, this country’s operating manual. Just as with one of those new tech devices, most of us don’t consult the manual unless we can’t get the device to work. If there’s a problem, we want the Quick Start Guide or the list of FAQs to help us solve it. If that doesn’t work, we contact Tech Support. There’s no high drama, the tools are there, and it’s just what we do so that we can put the manual away and get on with our lives. 

Anyone  trying to get something important into operating condition, especially after a breakdown learns that being in a hurry only adds to frustration. If this impeachment inquiry drags on into the election year, so what? As I have said before, the Democrats have only one shot at getting this process right.

I do want to say before closing that we can be proud of the patriotic career public servants who have been testifying at these hearings. If they represent the “deep state,” it’s that very depth that is helping to keep us secure and engaged in the world.

Tick-Tocking

We’ve done it twice a year for most of our lives, depending on our age and where we live: the switch to Daylight Saving Time and back again. We’ve probably forgotten the reasons, it’s just one of those things we do because we always have. While that itself is the most enduring reason, it’s no longer good enough for me. I’m not going to join the debate about school kids getting up in the dark or businesses staying open later. 

First of all, Daylight Saving Time is a misnomer. Whether you set clocks forward or back, you have exactly the same amount of daylight available for that part of the season. It’s just a question of how it’s spent. And in the dead of winter, kids will still get up in the dark in temperate latitudes and their parents will likely still drive home in it. Full-on daylight may cover only about a third of the 24 hours we allow in a day. I think we just have to pick one time standard and be done with it.

All this clock-fiddling used to be a question of whether folks arrived at church too early on the first Sunday or missed the service altogether. But there is enough data to show that there are more traffic accidents with the instant time shifts in the spring and fall. There’s something internally disturbing about the suddenness of it, rather than letting this aspect of seasons change naturally. 

There seems to be consensus building in the United States around making what we call Daylight Saving a year-round thing. I like that idea. We get our lovely long evenings in summer, and on Standard Time, the bird who wakes me up at 4:45 a.m. in late June would be doing so at 3:45 a.m. We all have our reasons. But whatever happens, I’ll get used to it. In Alaska, people are accustomed to drastic annual changes in sunlight and darkness. Habit always wins.

Currently, jurisdictions reserve the right to set the time standard for their area. Arizona and Hawaii don’t do DST. There are some places in the world where the locals set the time a half-hour off instead of an hour. Like Newfoundland. I’m sure they’ve been asked why they insist on it, and the answer is, they’re Newfies, and the rest of the world just has to deal with it, if they deal with Newfies, and of course, vice-versa. Who is “off,” after all, they our us? But hey, the time should be the time, not a political football.

The winter holidays are coming, as Costco reminded us months ago. All those holiday lights will be turned on in this hemisphere to deliver us all from the dark. But let’s not talk about darkness right now. I live in California.