Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
JUNE 17, 2021 – On Tuesday, FoxNews “personalities” excoriated Biden for being “weak on Russia.” Huh? Rewind the tape and watch You-Know-Who reveal his weakness. If ever there was a time to cringe, all bells rang when the Dolt-in-Chief said (in so many words) in Helsinki, “My people tell me Russia did bad things, so …
JUNE 10, 2021 – Lately, extreme heat has descended upon our part of the world. My wife habitually announces that “It’s so hot” to remind me so. I’d adapted to warming trends. After all, I figured, isn’t adaptation a hallmark of evolutionary success? I used to hate the heat, but that was back when I …
JUNE 2, 2021 – I watched most of President Biden’s speech delivered yesterday in Tulsa. If we can debate the details of how to diminish racial economic disparity in America, all responsible citizens must acknowledge the fact of that disparity. All of us must also give Biden credit for—acknowledging formally, officially, openly, and in Tulsa, …
MAY 24, 2021 – One of my made-up maxims (page 47 of my imaginary book, Eric’s Adages) is this: To give a statistic meaning, you need to give it company. Whether the context is economics, demographics, or scientific research, to understand a figure, a number, a data point, you need to have a reference point—often …
MAY 22, 2021 – Yesterday, I heard a report that cash is becoming obsolete. Not surprisingly, the pandemic accelerated the trend. The report mentioned that many retail businesses already don’t accept . . . cash. I wondered about the illicit gun and drug business, not to mention “cash” in exchange for that handyman working out …
MAY 21, 2021 – If you’ve been following even sporadically the Republican election “audit” in Maricopa County, Arizona or the Republican Congressional denial of the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol, you’ve been following nonsense. Any human experienced in reality knows that the foregoing examples of unreality are just that—nonsense. But behind the nonsense lies …
MAY 16, 2021 – Yesterday I spent hours outside—trail cutting on the “back 40,” inspecting the budding pine in the “tree garden,” hikes along the shore path, and working on our granddaughter’s treehouse. When surrounded by nature for days running, you begin to notice how everything is connected. And that’s before you don a scientist’s …
MAY 13, 2021 – The notion of a citizen-army or a citizen-government seems so right, so Norman Rockwellian. Why shouldn’t the gentleman farmer become a general, then president? Why shouldn’t a self-educated log-splitter become president—without first being a general? . . . And why shouldn’t a 29-year-old wait person from Queens—or a Q-Anon kook from …
APRIL 29, 2021 – In his first 100 days as president, Biden’s proving to be more than a caretaker just bidin’ time. He’s an activist president with an ambitious policy agenda. So far, the wind’s been at his back, but given the clown act he follows, “looking good”—or at least “normal”—is a low threshold. I …
APRIL 27, 2021 – Hardly a day goes by, it seems, when we’re not confronted by some confounding denial of truth—that you-know-who, for example, lost his bid for re-election as president; or the January 6 attack on the capitol was led by anti-you-know-who forces to discredit you-know-who. Within that explanation you realize it carries a …
APRIL 26, 2021 – Besides “fixing” the electoral system, Republicans want to “fix” school curricula critical of American history. Both initiatives are inherently racist—the former because its intended effect is suppression of Democratic Black voters; the latter because it seeks to downplay our record of racial injustice. Republicans say it’s “unpatriotic” to criticize our history—a …
APRIL 21, 2021 – We Twin Citians are relieved by The Verdict. Many call it “accountability,” not “justice.” It can’t bring back George Floyd, Jr. It can’t expunge generations of evil. But it marks a new beginning. Just ahead of The Verdict, I drove to George Floyd Square, 15 minutes from our house. Mostly journalists …
APRIL 17, 2021 – Yesterday, as my wife and I headed out of town for the Red Cabin, she read aloud from her newsfeed. This fueled an intense discussion about The Trial and The Latest Shooting. We speculated about reaction to next week’s verdict in The Trial. Will Minneapolis—the central part of which is already …
APRIL 16, 2021 – Yesterday I watched the clip of Dr. Fauci’s exchange with Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH). My skepticism about our national beliefs crystalized into acute fear. After centuries in the making, our country has come down to this—a debate between crass wrestling coach vs. erudite science teacher. The wrestling coach is no stranger …
APRIL 15, 2021 – Recently, I watched the Netflix documentary, Sérgio, about Sérgio Vieira de Mello, Brazilian UN diplomat extraordinaire. The film is as inspirational as it is heart-breaking. A UN staff member remarks how unusual it was by organizational convention that such a high-ranking official would be known exclusively by his first name. That …
APRIL 14, 2021 – During last year’s protests following the death of George Floyd, Jr., Mike Max, the popular sportscaster on local CBS affiliate WCCO, assumed double-duty as street-beat reporter. He did a fine job—reporting objectively, asking hard questions, not flinching in the face of approaching tear gas. Last night he appeared in the police …
APRIL 13, 2021 – The “Minnesota Nice” of my (white) privileged youth, is now, “Minnesota News,” and not in a nice way. Yesterday, I spoke with a lawyer whose office is a block from The Trial. He mentioned that plywood was being installed over all ground floor windows. “The memo came out last week,” he …
APRIL 8, 2021 – According to a report by The New York Times, soon after the death of Floyd George, Jr., Officer Knee-on-the-Neck offered to plead guilty to a third-degree murder charge and accept a 10-year prison sentence—if (a) the time could be served in a federal prison; and (b) federal civil rights charges would …
APRIL 7, 2021 – Yesterday morning I resolved to do something about my pandemic hair. With the advent of spring I wanted to drive with the (tinted) windows down without fear of being ticketed for “distracting other motorists.” It’d been 15 months since I’d had a haircut. In my 7/11/2019 post, I introduced readers to …
APRIL 1, 2021 – As The Trial continued yesterday, the jury—the one in the courtroom and the one of public opinion—saw a cogent, composed eye-witness fall apart emotionally as he relived the traumatic scene; as he watched the replay of George Floyd, Jr. in distress. The witness happened to be an older Black man—his thick, …
MARCH 31, 2021 – On cross-ex during day two of The Trial, the defense focused on the “unruly mob.” If I were Eric Nelson instead of Eric Nilsson, I wouldn’t have gone there. To establish “reasonable doubt”— Chauvin’s sine qua non—your assertions have to be reasonable. What’s not a reasonable assertion is that a few …
MARCH 30, 2021 – Yesterday I watched in the entirety, both opening statements in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer charged with three counts of felonious homicide in the death of George Floyd, Jr. I saw the now infamous video that was shown by the prosecution. That evidence alone produces reasonable doubt …
MARCH 19, 2021 – The up-coming trial of the Minneapolis cop charged with killing George Floyd, Jr. will be another boxing match, racial injustice class. In Corner #1: One set of facts—the video that all the world has seen; white cop pressing his knee against the neck of helpless black man until black man dies; …
MARCH 14, 2021 – Yesterday I lay low, wrapped in a blanket, watching Disney movies with my wife (to educate ourselves about our grand-daughter’s world), and just waiting it out. I was side-lined by the side-effects from my second vaccination the day before. Mind you, at no time did I regret the vaccination. (Get yours …
MARCH 13, 2021 – Yesterday marked an anniversary—the last time I rode a bus; my last day at my downtown office; the day I sat for 20 minutes across a table from a voluble guy, who experienced severe symptoms the following day, winding up on a hospital ventilator and nearly succumbing to The Plague. I …